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After holding Farm on the Laguna Alta map for the majority of a conquest round, the opposition sent 6 players and 1 tank and captured the base. Thanks to a lucky respawn on a still standing squad member, I managed to get two RPG shots off on the tank…

…both missed by a mile, BUT, managed to take out the remaining two walls of the farm building causing it to collapse, killing the 6 opposition players in one glorious demolition kill!

Incredible game. More to follow soon.

Clocked the Alien missions last night.

Turns out I was almost at the end when I last saved it. All I had to do was weaken the Elite Predator and harvest him to create a new species. The last cutscene for the Aliens shows the Queen dying (Part of the Marine campaign), then Number Six is captured and taken offworld. I wont spoil the full ending, but I enjoyed it and it set the game up for a sequel (please let there be a sequel!). Just the Marine campaign to finish off now.

Although the individual campaigns feel a little short, together they make up a lengthy story told from various different viewpoints. Each species has different goals and visits different areas, with the occasional crossover “Heey, I was just there as the Marine!” moments. The game is getting a lot of flak for its length but I think it works very well in this case. I can run through Portal in no time at all but it’s still one of the best games of the last decade. Likewise, Team Fortress 2 does not even have a single player mode and still has a large following.

The three AvP campaigns added up, clock in at more time than Dante’s Inferno does. People need to really think about what they say in reviews imo. Metacritic shows some low scores for the game and has reviewers claiming all sorts of guff, ranging from bad graphics (lol), to short singleplayer (see above). How 1UP can give it a D (D=Bad / F= Don’t play) I’ll never know.. They rated Dante’s Inferno higher which is 100% a God of War clone and has a shorter campaign than AvP. Go figure. Anyway, I’ll store up my bile towards “professional reviewers” for another post as I have a lot to say on this matter.

I also spent some time on the multiplayer last night. After playing the Alien campaign I had learnt a few tricks I was confident in using during the match. When I first played the demo I kept to the floor and only used right trigger to transition to walls. The way to do it is to hold left trigger, point at the surface you want to be on and hit jump. The Aliens maneuverability is unmatched by the other two species and should be taken advantage of when possible. Keeping to the ceiling gives you an edge on other aliens who will have to transition surfaces to get in range of you, whereas you can hold left trigger and range attack them from above, plus, you can catch out a lot of players who have not adjusted to checking above them yet. Ranged attacks work well to close the distance on your prey but make sure you follow with a few weak attacks. I tried ranging from roof to target and following with a heavy attack but it’s too slow to wind up and leaves you open, following with a weak attack keeps them staggered to a degree.

Still a lot to learn and get used to, but really enjoying the game so far. More to follow after I complete the Marine campaign.

Wow!

Kinda blown away by this! I had already come to terms with the fact the series was moving to the Wii, and after playing the Wii version I have been suitably impressed enough to not worry too much about it and just appreciate that we are getting the third game over here after all.

For years though, Monster Hunter Frontier has been a thorn in my side. Due to lack of access I largely put up with other subscription titles, all the while commenting how great this or that MMO would be with Rath’s flying around, how amazing MH would be in an MMO setting… all the while watching enviously as new monster after new monster was added to MH: Frontier, the Monster Hunter MMO of choice if you live in Japan or Korea.

Finally, FINALLY I can let go of the jealousy (that’s assuming this thing gets a western release – PLEEEASE let this get a western release!) and look forward to hunting Rathalos online over Xbox live!

According to the article the subscription fee for playing will be around $15 for 30 days access… and that includes the Gold Live subscription! Not a bad deal really and should help bring in gamers that would normally stay away from subscription games.

Expect to hear a lot about this as I do… either here or over at our Monster Hunter fan site www.wyvernhunt.info

Playing through the third campaign (Swamp Fever) on L4D2 last night with two other friends on Normal difficulty and all is going well… till the plantation house finale.

Starts off well. Ends with two tanks, at the same time, in the same crowded corridor, delivering swift merciless death to our team.

Next attempt. Get to the house OK again. Prime the area with gas cans this time and stock up on Boomer Bile to slow the inevitable Tank down. Tank comes and we down him. Before his pink behind can even hit the floor, yet another Tank spawns and this time a Jockey helps him ruin our attempt.

Third attempt. Much smoother. We actually hold out till the rescue arrives. Suddenly two Tanks show up again and proceed to do a tap number on our spines.

One party member leaves due to time issues and we slog on. Next attempt, we last till rescue then a really badly timed Tank/Special Infected spawn combo makes short work of us thanks partially to shit AI controlling the remaining two team mates. Next attempt we swallow our pride and take a vote to drop to Easy and complete it first try. This sticks in my throat like un-buttered crackers.

It’s ironic really. I had a post almost ready to publish about gaming losing some of the challenge  simply to attract a wider audience. How difficulty levels have been toned down and games for children now hold your hand a lot more than games in the 80’s when as a result of game design we had no saves, no continues, and in some cases only one life. When almost everything on the map could and would kill you (see Dizzy franchise). Based on last nights experience I’m not sure I can publish it now without some editing!

L4D2 (to paraphrase a favourite movie of mine) will “cook up a story and drop the four of you in a meatgrinder!”

How you get out is based on teamwork, luck, and largely how sadistic the AI Director is feeling at that point. Its a challenge that has been sorely missing from most modern games. I don’t see CoD’s endless spawn mechanic the same way. I can beat that mechanic simply by pushing forward past the spawn point cutting the event short. It might be hard to make it past that point, but once past it, the game will not decide to hammer you flat for doing so.

L4D2 will punish you. And the better you get, the more the AI Director will punish you. That is its raison d’être. Its single purpose is to destroy groups, and it does so with exceeding efficiency.

..and I love it!

How to avoid the pirating of the PC version of Modern Warfare in four easy steps:

1. Increase the price
2. Remove dedicated servers
3. Cap your servers at 9v9
4. Remove ability to kick people playing music down the mic/cheaters

This is a prime example of how to screw your community in the ass with as little effort as possible. When the PC sales tank, lets see how fast IW/Activision pull out the piracy card as the reason the game failed on PC.

I’d already decided long ago to vote on this with my wallet and wait for it to pop up in the pre-owned bin for the 360. Every day my decision gets validated more and more.

Had to talk about this a little..

Clarvalon is working on a plugin that:

prepares AGS game files in a way that is suitable for conversion to the Xna Adventure Game Engine(XAGE), in order to play them on the Xbox360 or via a web browser.  It is designed to be as straightforward as possible, so the instructions should hopefully be self-explanatory.  After copying AGS.Plugin.ExportToXAGE.dll to the AGS Editor executable directory, a new option should appear on the toolbar, ‘Export -> Prepare game for XAGE‘:

You can read more about this at the AGS forum thread, or at Clarvons blog.

As you can imagine with me starting my own AGS project, I’m very interested to see how this progresses.

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Cant help but be a little surprised by this. According to google analytics I get quite a bit of traffic looking for information on the inverted takedown move Batman can perform in Batman: Arkham Asylum

I’m assuming people want to know how to do it etc.. firstly, it’s an upgrade you can unlock with points from XP/level ups so get that sorted. To pull off the move, move Batman up to a gargoyle and wait for a henchman to walk underneath. Aim the camera down and at the target, then press Y (yellow) on the Xbox pad, and I would assume TRIANGLE on the PS3 pad (Not played the PS3 version so cant confirm this. Given the pad/button layouts on other games I see no reason why it wouldn’t be mapped to triangle though).

Have fun stringing the bad guys up, and don’t forget.. if you do an inverted takedown, swing away to another gargoyle and batarang the rope when his henchmen mates are standing under him for an achievement on the Xbox 360. (Again, cant say if there is one for this action on the PS3 but I would imagine its the same. Give it a try and find out)

I have given a name to my pain, and it is Trials HD!

This almost slipped past my radar. Almost.

After an hour of trying to load Left4Dead (Xbox drive has died again), I grew bored and went browsing the Marketplace to see what was new. Came across Trials HD, recognised it as something I had seen played by a few people on my Friends List, and grabbed the demo. 10 minutes in I was adding some MS points to unlock the full game.

At it’s core, it is a simple concept. Controls are minimal, Gas (R-Trigger), Brake (L-Trigger), Lean (L-Stick).. the aim is to get from start to finish with as little checkpoint restarts as possible, in as fast a time as you can, while pulling off some crazy stunts. Sounds easy? It is at first, deceptively so in fact.

Beginner & Easy modes sucker you in with fast, fun courses that are fairly easy to Gold medal.. Intermediate ramps up the difficulty like a slap to the face, and Hard/Extreme modes will make you want to congratulate RedLynx for riding the line between fun and frustration so well, whilst crushing your controller into a fine white powder.  Trials HD balances on a tightrope of excellence and morale breaking gameplay that will keep you coming back again, and again, and again.

The checkpoint system works so well for this game, restarts are instant.. no loading, no menu’s to navigate.. B will restart from the last checkpoint you passed whilst select will restart the whole level. And when I say instant I mean instant, no pause, no interruption, just right back to the action. I cant stress how integral to the game this system is. The amount of restarts you will be doing on the harder levels, even a few seconds load time could mean the difference between continuing and throwing the pad at a wall. The game is set up to give plenty of checkpoints and you will normally find them right after tough obstacles, acting as the ‘virtual carrot’ to keep you trying. This system is partly what makes the game so damn addictive. It’s so easy to restart a checkpoint/level you will find yourself almost drawn to do it without thinking.

The levels are 2d technically but all the visuals are in stunning 3d, in fact I’m somewhat surprised to see an Xbox Arcade title look so damn good for such a small download. With something like 50+ levels spread across the different difficulty levels/mini-games/tournaments, there is more than enough content to give great value for money. At 1200 MS points it may seem a little steep at first, but give the demo a whirl and see how you feel 10 minutes later. For me, it was worth every penny.

I’m yet to try the level editor but as far as I’m aware it’s the exact same set of tools that RedLynx used to create the games many courses, so its entirely possible to make levels of equivalent quality or even better if you spend enough time. Yet more value for money. The user generated content is unfortunately limited to the people on your friends list for some reason which is a shame if you have no friends playing the game. Perhaps this will change in the future.

All in all, I would highly recommend this game to anyone thinking of splashing out on an Arcade title. It’s worth every penny and is packed with fun and challenge, plus the ability to generate your own content will keep you coming back for more long after you have cleared all the existing content.

I rented Left4Dead this week.

After playing the demo a while back I was going to buy it but somehow I all but forgot about it. With the sequel coming out next month I figured I’d give the original a go.

First off, let me say.. I LOVE this game! I was a big Dead Rising fan back in the day – any game that lets you run through crowds of zombies with a baseball bat gets my vote all day every day – and L4D taps into that Zombie Apocalypse lover in the majority of us, puts ammo and guns in your hands and kicks you out into a target rich environment! Could it get any better?

In a word, YES! If I have to endure one more death because my teammates were busy scratching their asses, RIGHT NEXT TO ME, while a hunter pins me down and the horde rapes me.. I might lose it! After a few hours gameplay, I could probably count the amount of times it happened on one hand, with fingers spare.. but when it does happen be prepared to get pissed off.

My own rage rises based on a scale of one to ten.. one being my teammates are being smacked around by a tank at the time I need them, ten being my teammates are standing on my body having a smoke break and a cup of tea while infected proceed to rip parts from me like a cowboy mechanic in a scrapyard.

After a few level 10 rage attacks I pulled in human support from my girlfriend and set up a cover system. I used the hunting rifle for some juicy headshots whilst she covered us with an automatic rifle. Co-op is where this game shines which lets be fair, is what this game is all about. Jump online, system link a few consoles up, or just split screen it with some friends and slay some zombies masses for the ultimate experience!

Still got one campaign to clear tonight but so far I’d give L4D a solid two thumbsup.. any game that has me saying the phrase “shit, its all gone night of the living dead” is an automatic win in my book!

Will definitely be picking the sequel up next month..

Left 4 Dead – Game Of The Year Edition (Xbox 360)
Price: GBP 19.41

14 used & new available from GBP 14.55

Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360)
Price: GBP 23.97

34 used & new available from GBP 19.90

Great game. Completed it over the weekend and working on challenege maps now. Could well be the first game I actually go out of my way to 100% the achievements too.

I cant really say much that has not been said already. Good story, great voice overs (all familiar from the 90’s cartoons), nice mix of gameplay from action, to exploration, to puzzle solving… Batman has a little of everything for everyone and it never feels stretched thin.

I’m really hoping we see at least one follow up game from Rocksteady as they obviously respect the source material a great deal.

Batman: Arkham Asylum (Xbox 360)
Price: GBP 17.99

40 used & new available from GBP 13.30