GRID: Team Building

posted by Jaitu at 15:44

The success of the British based RTDL2 Racing outfit continues. Team
owner/driver Jaitu acquired Class B Licenses in both Europe and Asia and
as a direct result of the step up RTDL2 Racing has now expanded to a two
car team. Jaitu continues to drive the number 75 car and Japanese
Pro-Tuned specialist Eiji Matsuke has been brought in to partner.
With the addition of a second entry and some new sponsors the team funds
are also looking healthy. Successes in the Nissan Cup events and the
Skyline Versus Viper Touge were significant highpoints. Unfortunately
Jaitu's guest drive at Le Mans in a Corvette ended in disappointment
after contact with Tomas Enge's Aston Martin while leading the group
left the car damaged and off the pace. Jaitu ultimately brought the car
home last in group and only second from last overall. Rumours of a
potential RTDL2 team entry in the next Le Mans 24 Hours are yet to be
confirmed and could well depend on the results of the forthcoming
season.

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.

Geometry Wars Evolved 2

posted by Jaitu at 11:43

I remember playing the original Geometry Wars when it was an arcade
machine in the Project Gotham Racing virtual garage. Back then it was a
simple, though visually arresting, twin-stick shooter that went on for
as long as you could survive.
I played the trial version of the XBLA Geometry Wars Evolved but never
felt compelled to purchase the full game. I had already bought Mutant
Storm from PomPom Software which uses the same twin stick mechanic and
has proven to be inexplicably hard when I'm in control.
Geometry Wars Evolved 2 is now out and I have heard nothing but high
praise for it so yesterday I decided to just go ahead and buy it.
The game has kept the same neon vectors, fragments and particles aesthetic and ramped up the on screen business to a dizzying degree. Building on the original simple mechanic the game has been expanded and
now contains 6 distinct game modes.

Deadline: Played against a strict time limit and with infinite lives.
Just keep going and score as much as possible.

King: There are three circular safe zones randomly positioned on screen.
The enemy shapes cannot enter these zones and you can only fire when
you're inside one. The trouble is that as soon as you enter a safe zone
you have only a few seconds before it diminishes to nothing leaving you
defenceless until you get to the next. As one disappears a new one
spawns elsewhere on screen.

Evolve: Score points to earn extra lives and bombs. Each successive life
requires ten times the points of the previous.

Pacifism: You can move but you cannot fire. As time passes slowly
spinning gates will appear on screen. When you fly through a gate any
enemy shapes nearby will be destroyed.

Waves: Lines of enemy shapes will appear and sweep backwards and
forwards across or up and down the screen. You have to shoot gaps in the
waves as they approach.

Sequence: Twenty timed challenges with thirty seconds to clear each
screen. Success or failure will move you to the next challenge until you
have either completed them all or run out of lives.

Each successive mode is unlocked by playing the previous one three or
four times (your progress towards the next is shown at the game select
screen). The achievements are based around particular challenges within
the game modes. For instance the Wax On achievement requires you to rub
along each wall of the screen during one game of Pacifism. Once you have
rubbed a certain amount the edge begins to light up in segments so you
can see where you need to go and your percentage progress is displayed
at the foot of the screen. The Wax Off achievement requires you to do
this twice in one game. There are also achievements for simply unlocking
all the six game modes and another for scoring at least 1,000,000 points
in each.
I managed to get five of the twelve achievements in a couple of hours
playing. It's an incredibly addictive game with at least the last half
hour of my play session taken up by successive one-more-goes. I'm not
sure how often I'm likely to return to it once all the achievements have
been attained but as a quick blast of fun it will be hard to beat.

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.

Burnout Paradise: Cagney

posted by Jaitu at 09:40

The Cagney update for Burnout Paradise finally made it out of
certification limbo and to the Xbox360 community at large last night. I
haven't played Paradise for a little while but thought I might as well
get the update while I had some time. Upon booting the game I was
informed that an update was indeed available and chose to download it.
The process completed in approximately four seconds which didn't strike
me as a likely success. In fact when I started the game again there was
a minor cosmetic change only. Trying to view the news feed or start an
online Freeburn session just resulted in a message telling me that I
couldn't go online until I'd taken the latest update. There was no way
to get the update from within the game and I had to drop back to the
dashboard and line up the download through the Marketplace. Once
completed I restarted the game and was welcomed by the new front page
which shows the latest news from Criterion Games along with time and
date information, world ranking, weather info from major cities around
the World and a calendar with special event days highlighted. Within the
game proper the effects are less immediately obvious. There are a number
of new online challenges and game modes and three new vehicles and
liveries. The sound mix has been tweaked such that the soundtrack and
engine noise is noticeably different between the bumper and chase cam
views. It is also now possible to click the left stick when driving the
police cruiser and turn on the blues and two's.
The Davis update is due in around a month and will deliver even more
radical changes.