Gears Of War 2: Half Horde

posted by Jaitu at 17:34

When TechMaster and I finished playing the Halo3 Campaign we agreed that Gears Of War 2 would be our next co-op endeavour. He has been taking his own sweet time finishing up his first lonesome play through though. So in the meantime we have been enjoying the Horde variant of the GOW2 multiplayer options. Horde supports up to five players working together to hold of wave after wave of Locusts. We've been battling it out with just the two of us and it has proven extremely good fun. Simply choose a map (any of the available multiplayer arenas) set your starting wave (anything up to your highest achievement to date) and off you go. Spawning into the map you have a few seconds to choose your battleground and get dug in before the opposition start to appear. There is no time limit per wave and so long as one of you can survive to the finish anyone who fell and wasn't revived will spawn back in before the next wave starts. We played the majority of the first 18 or so waves on the 'Day One' map which is essentially a single city crossroads with each of the four streets blocked with an enormous and un-navigable crater in the middle. This forces you to take the long way around whenever it is necessary to cross the map. Fortunately two opposing corner buildings have balconies accessible via street level staircases and make useful nests that are relatively easy to defend. As we tackled waves in the high-teens these corners became more difficult to defend so we began to explore some other map options. We ended up in 'Jacinto' hiding at the end of a short stone outcropping with a helipad at the end. The entrance to the pier makes for a serviceable killing floor and the mortar that respawns a short dash from cover provides welcome heavy support options. We called an end to the last session having just defeated wave twenty-five of fifty.
Since then TechMaster has finished his first run through the story so our next meeting will be centred around the commencement of an Insane level co-op campaign run.

Gears Of War 2

posted by Jaitu at 08:12

Looking for a new co-op title to follow Halo3 I bought Gears Of War 2 last week. It's very much more of the same only bigger. Aside from a couple of vehicle based distractions the game does an excellent job of taking you from one shooting gallery firefight to the next with copious cut scenes and 'plot progression'. Compared to Gears One there is certainly more story in evidence although it is still possible to completely ignore and not lose anything from the experience.
I completed the game on Casual last night having managed to garner 28 of the 50 achievements along the way. A second play through is guaranteed as, just like Dead Space, the hardest difficulty of 'Insane' does not become available until the game has been completed for the first time. Further achievements are available for completion at the remaining three difficulty levels but these 'stack' so beating Insane means picking up any below it. The easiest way to beat Insane will be to team up and co-op with someone else so this will become the next gaming mission for myself and TechMaster to tackle.

HALO 3: Leg-END-ary

posted by Jaitu at 21:37

Finally the fight is finished. Earlier this week TechMaster and I put in around five hours to finish up the Legendary Halo3 Campaign. From an achievement point of view there are only five points between us (I have one extra achievement). Aside from the remaining 'Skulls' there are very few left to get that do not involve the online multiplayer modes. I intend to go back in on a casual setting to try and pick up the skulls but for now my attention has wandered elsewhere.

Game Swapping, Bully and PS3s

posted by Jaitu at 12:03

With only five achievements remaining to be had from Dead Space I decided to give it a rest and embark on something different. To that end TechMaster and I swapped a of couple titles. He had recently completed Bully so I took that and he took Dead Space.
Bully is essentially Grand Theft Auto set in a private school. Amazingly I've never actually spent any time playing a Grand Theft Auto game since the very first top-down title, which I loved. Bully puts you in the role of Jimmy Hopkins an unloved kid with a string of expulsions who is dumped into Bullworth Academy by his Mother and Step-Father. The game follows the GTA open world format with new areas opening up as you progress. There are a number of missions that must be completed before moving on through the school years as well as side errands that can be taken. Missions range from finding and returning lost or stolen objects, picking lockers, fighting school bullys, defending the nerds (for cash) and putting burning bags of dog feces outside the staff room. I've just completed sophomore year and according to the game stats am about 5% through the game.

On another note entirely I'd like to welcome WorthyBoy to the blog. As a PS3 owner he brings the Sony side of the story. Funnily enough though, despite our many good natured 'discussions' over the relative merits of the Microsoft and Sony platforms, WorthyBoy has recently been contemplating the purchase of an Xbox360 and TechMaster has just had Santa deliver a PS3 into his arsenal.

A Weekend Of Restarts And Do-Overs: Halo3, Dead Space, Pinball FX

posted by Jaitu at 07:49

This weekend had a definite feeling of 'again-ness' to it. Quite apart from spending a sizable chunk of it putting glass back into places the previous owners of our house had removed it from; re-painting a wall that has seen four different colours in the few years we've been living here; climbing a ladder in the conservatory to tidy paint work (something I have done too many times to count recently); and, finally, scratching myself to pieces while constructing our artificial Christmas Tree for the fourth or fifth time in about as many years. The last couple of days gaming has also been of an 'again' nature.

Dead Space.
In the last post I discovered that the Dead Space achievement for completing the game on the hardest difficulty could not be gained by simply choosing the hardest difficulty and piling in. The truly hardest difficulty is not available as an option until you complete the game for the first time. So having struggled my way to chapter five of twelve I decided to give up on the campaign and begin again on easy. My aim now is to play through to the end, picking up as many achievements as I can along the way. I'm already not far from where I left off. Once I'm given the option for the 'Impossible Mode' I'll start a game of it and save a checkpoint so that I can return later. Then, I'll go back to the last save of the Easy campaign and finish it again. The reason for that is you can then begin the campaign on easy a second time but with all the resources you have collected on the first play through. This is in order to tidy up the other achievements which cannot be done on a single play through. The Impossible mission can wait for a time in the future when I wish to torture myself - a time that may never come.

Halo 3.
Techmaster and I continued our Legendary Halo 3 campaign yesterday. We managed to tick off 'The Ark' but in truth we could probably have completed another chapter as well if we had made better decisions and not suffered some poor luck. Firstly we should not have spent way more than half an hour trying fruitlessly to grab the Famine Skull. Secondly had the game not stuttered to a halt before throwing us out two thirds into the chapter and requiring us restart from the beginning (after more than two hours of play) we would likely have gotten further.

Pinball FX.
Lastly, I've been playing Pinball FX again. I like it because it's a game that allows you to come and go as you please. There are no long scripted missions that you can't walk away from until you reach an arbitrary check point or save location. It's simply an excellently put together pinball game. I say it allows you to walk away, in truth it doesn't. It is so packed to the bumpers with the magic of just-one-more-go that a new ball is being fired into the table as soon as the last of the previous game has disappeared from view.

Catching Up: GRID, HALO3, Penny Arcade, Dead Space

posted by Jaitu at 18:31

It's been a little while so here's a quick run down of what's been played in the meantime.
In no particular order.

Penny Arcade Adventures : On The Rain-Slick Precipice Of Darkness - Episode Two.
The adventure continues with Tycho and Gabe. Some (very) small tweaks to the controls improve the environment investigation. The story continues on a pace and the humour remains top PA fayre. I had a system crash during the final boss battle but other than that I enjoyed the second installment even more than the first.

Race Driver: GRID.
I haven't actually played this since almost the last post. I think I'm at the top tier of competition now. My only gripe, and it's a pathetic one that I have with all racing games of this nature, is that the rounds become increasingly long and include more races. This makes it harder to pick up and play for a quick gaming hit. I'm at the stage now where to complete a round involves maybe four races that each take ten minutes or more to finish.

HALO 3.
Techmaster and I managed to hook up online long enough to complete another two chapters on Legendary. I'm still peeved that you must complete the whole chapter in one sitting for it to count. We'll have to go back and run one again as despite having gone more than half-way through when we picked it up again from a checkpoint only about a third in the chapter wasn't marked as done when we finished it.

Dead Space.
I picked this up a month or so ago but found it almost impossible to play at the time. I was suffering from flu and the third person viewpoint gave me terrible motion sickness so I put it to one side (and played through Penny Arcade Adventures instead). Returning later I hit a bit of a choke point - I had decided to tackle it on the hardest setting from the get go - but once past that the game picked up some momentum and I've really been enjoying it.

Halo3: A Legendary Coalition On A Legendary Campaign

posted by Jaitu at 12:30

With the Locust hordes of Gears Of War conclusively defeated, at least
until GOW2 in November, TechMaster and Myself have move on to dealing
with the Covenant threat.
Playing the Halo3 campaign with a friend fighting alongside me changes
the dynamic of the game somewhat. My natural tendency towards cautious
progress sees me fall in to a supporting role which has so far gelled
nicely with the willingness of TechMaster to act as the pathfinder. In
this instance the role of pathfinder is almost exactly the same as that
of cannon fodder but he seems happy and his numerous and spectacular
deaths allow me to identify and hopefully dispatch the offending
Covenant aggressor.
We have agreed that we'll run through the campaign on the Legendary
difficulty and pickup the hidden Skulls as and when the game allows it.
Any that we miss or prove too much of a chore at this level we will
return for at a later date and with the resistance turned down again.

Gears Of War: War Is Over If You Want It

posted by Jaitu at 11:33

Finally.
The Insane campaign is complete. TechMaster and I put in a final push
over the weekend and can now lay another title to rest. We have
completed the campaign on all three difficulty levels and garnered as
many achievement points as either of us can be bothered to. Almost all
the remaining achievements are to be had from online multiplayer and it
just doesn't tempt me. A couple are for things like killing multiple
enemies multiple times but I think I'd rather move on to something else.

GOW: Beginning Of The End Of The Line

posted by Jaitu at 12:27

While Wife and Wife's Mother were away for the night I managed to hook
up with TechMaster online to continue our Insane Gears Of War campaign.
TechMaster had taken the bold but sensible decision to complete the
short section that had caused us so much hardship without me, playing
through with three expendable NPCs making for a far easier route. We
picked up from just after the courtyard battle and continued onwards
toward the family home. There were a couple of sections that were in
fact much harder to complete on the easier levels although this may well
be down to knowing what was coming. In all it took us about a hour and
three quarters of play to complete Act IV and arrive at the train
station. It was there that we decided to call time and leave the final
Act V and the fight with Raam for another day.

Gears Of War: Quite Hard

posted by Jaitu at 20:38

TechMaster and I resumed our co-op campaign through Gears Of War on Insane difficulty today. It's been some months since either of us played any GOW and it took a while to re-familiarise ourselves with the controls. I found myself constantly clicking a stick to run a la Bad Company instead of simply pressing the A button. Even after we were back into the swing of things the Insane difficulty level seemed harder than either of us could recall. After spending what seemed like an age trying to complete the split path section in Act 3's Belly Of The Beast we finally picked up a little momentum and made some reasonable progress picking up the final COG Tag to complete another achievement. Then almost immediately reaching the next split path section where one of us battles through courtyards while the other negotiates the first floor hallways of the surrounding buildings and together take on a Seeder. After somewhere in the region of four hours playing and replaying this level we decided to call it a day.