Why did I start doign Games Computer Games ? I used to blog about gaming on Giantbomb, I wanted to reach a broader audience with Games Computer Games than I thought Giantbomb would allow me.
Where is Games Computer Games going now? Well to be honest I don't know, as an aging veteran gamer, I don't have the sort of gaming time I expected to have when I started Games Computer Games. In reality having two young children has somewhat hampered my time to write on Games Computer Games.
One thing I have decided is come what may, Games Computer Games will not be abandoned. Games Computer Games may become a refuge or otehr mid-thirties gamers who need somewhere to moan about how they don't have time to game any more.
Certainly I think the Left 4 Dead advice I've provided here on Games Computer Games is pretty good. I don't suppose Games Computer Games is a good name for a site if it's just about Left 4 Dead though?
I will broaden the horizon of Games Computer Games - Smokemare will ride again! I don't know what Christmas will bring - traditionally I get at least one game - even if I don't get time to play it. I still have to plough through LA Noire when I get time.... And that's from June!
The trouble is - as I've said before on Games Computer Games, I'm finding ahcievement hunting on Left 4 Dead games more fun... As I said in my Duke Nukem Games Computer Games post - volunteering for anaethetic-free pile surgery would probably be more fun than playing Duke Forever...
I still can't believe how it destroyed my joy of gaming!
My advice, the official 'Games Computer Games' advice for any long suffering wives out there who have lost their huspands to the XBOX - get him Duke Nukem Forever...
Friday 25 November 2011
Friday 18 November 2011
Left 4 Dead : What Are You Trying to Prove?
Well, I decided to take a break from Left 4 Dead 2, namely to go back and mop up some achievements on Left 4 Dead.
One which has been eluding me is 'What Are You Trying to Prove?' I got No Mercy a long long time ago - using the Jesus Room, then recently I mopped up the last few. The hardest one was Blood Harvest - in the end I had to resort to a trick.
For anyone stuck on this here are my tips.
General Tips:-
--------------
1. Find out all the tricks for the level you are trying to do - You Tube isn't a bad source. Try several of them.
2. If you aren't using a trick - closet camp for the horde, then rush out into the open for the tanks.
3. Try to have pipe bombs and molotovs spare for the dash to the rescue vehicle.
4. When going through the normal campaigns - have the person with an Auto Shotgun take out the witches - Expert dumps several of them right in your path. The trick is to not start shooting while she is invulnerable - then shoot as fast as possible point blank to the head as she becomes vulnerable. It's easy on easy, but witch killing on Expert takes some practice.
5. When dealing with tanks, campaign or finale, either kite or light - never both. The tank is faster when it's on fire - as is the witch. If you set him on fire you start to bleed his health and you don't need to shoot - you can run slightly faster running forwards if he's not on fire and you are healthy you should be able to kite him if you can dodge the thrown rocks.
6. Keep your bots alive - bots are very good at killing specials, if they DO get pounced - then rescue them straight away as on Expert the specials do incredible damage.
7. Save First Aid Kits - try to survive on pills, you should ideally only be using FA in safe rooms and at the finale.
8. The tricks:-
1. No Mercy [The Jesus Room].
On this one - in the centre of the roof top is a little square room with stairs going up to a door. It does NOT open in Survival Mode, ONLY campaign. (The door I mean) What you need to do is get on top above the door and survive until the infect break the door. Only infected can break the door - once it's broken - get inside and stand back from the door - make sure you don't go Idle.
When the chopper is ready - throw a pipe bomb and run.
2. Death Toll [The Jesus Rock].
Ideally have everyone grab sniper rifles or Assault Rifles. Try to have everyone grab a grenade of some sort - at least two of you should have a pipe bomb. There is no ammo on the jesus rock - so load up - try to have doubvle pistols and use them on the infected as much as possible.
Now leave the boathouse and walk along the shore past where you catch the boat - there is a little flat rock at the end of the beach. To get on take a running leap from about 2 metres aaway - and as you hit the rock hit jump again. Once four of you are up there - whoever is mos confident about getting up should go back and alert the hoarde, then try to rush back and jump on. Once all four of you are up there have two people use double pistols and melee to keep the infected from climbing onto the rock the same way you came - the other two should watch the water where most Smokers appear and can drag you off the rock. You can shoot the tank, save your rifle ammo for it - but be more concerned about shooting the rocks he throws at you. Be ready to get hunters off people.
When the boat turns up - throw your pipe bombs and run.
3. Dead Air. [The Jesus Plane]
I didn't use this - I had a good team, but I'll explain how it works in case you need it.
From the nose of the rescue plane there is a truck straight ahead, facing the truck, to the right of the truck is luggage trolley. Get gas cans or petrol cans and go behind the luggage trolley - then throw them at it and run into them - you are trying to knock it over! Eventually it'll go and you can push it so it's in between the truck and the nose of the plane. Then keep moving it a bit - then trying it - it's a tricky jump - has to be done like the Jesus Rock jump, but you jump off the truck onto the luggage trolley, then off the trolley onto the nose of the plane. Once you are all up - let the most confident jumper go alert the hoarde. Then crouch in the centre between the wings and melee each other (Smokers can get you - this provides protection) When the ramp opens - throw your pipe bombs, drop down and rush in.
Alternatively you can hold up on the hill - you have to be able to defend against the horde here - but tanks are easy, they tend to get stuck behind the plane and you can shoot their legs underneath. If this happens rush close to the plane so he can't find a way around.
4. Blood Harvest.
Easily the hardest finale, if you get to the farmhouse intact - load up on pipe bombs, molotovs, weapons, first aid and ammo. If you have a decent team and want to play it straight then either hold up in the barn, or the upstairs washroom. When the tank comes - get out in the open and kite him around the house.
If you need to use the trick , follow the fence outside the front of the house to the left. Eventually you find a broken up bit that is impassible with corrugated iron and barbed wire, and a couple of tree stumps. This is where the secret invisible walkway is. You jump as high as you can - not as if you are trying to land on the closest stump - but BEFORE the stup - you should end up suspended in the air. Then walk parallel to the fence towards the bankside and jump to get up. Once up, follow the ledge around to the lone tree on the edge of the map. Crouch, don't go idle - and send the most confident one to alert the hoarde.
When the vehicle arrives, throw your bombs and leg it towards the barn. Be aware a hunter and smoker might be waiting for you.
So what next?
My final achievements are all doable on easy - safety first, nothing special and untouchables. So I'll be taking a break from Expert mode - which I'll miss, it forces you to play in a different way - it's very unforgiving, but it's also very exciting.
After I've S-ranked Left 4 Dead I'm going to Left 4 Dead 2 to mop up some of those. The last one I got was ' The Real Deal ' but I still need to get 'Still got something top prove?' and some of the other little ones. I also need the zombie genocide achievement and red mist, but I'll get those just by playing.
After that I guess I'll play multiplayer exclusively apart from helping others. The campaigns are great - but they take a while and it's good to have a goal in mind when you are working through them.
Reflections and shout outs.
Playing Left 4 Dead and the sequel, on Expert for quite a while now has given me a new appreciation for the game. I have to give credit for an XBOX Live player - Unworthy Leopard who helped me with Blood Harvest immensely and sacrificed himself to the waiting Hunter so I could escape. Originally I was going to try to do ' The Real Deal ' with my wifes cousings teenage daughter Heather Harding and my Gaming Journalist estranged buddy Neil Ginx who is a presenter for a video gaming tv channel called Ginx.
But the thing is, no disrespect - Heather and Neil aren't really playing at the same level. To that end they are playing the same game. In Neil's case it's probably down to the fact that he's got to play the latest releases so he can talk about them - he isn't going to be able to spend time playing an ancient game even if he wanted to - his very spread out 36,000 gamer points are good indicator of his playing habits.
In Heather's case, she just isn't really a game, a paltry 3000 gamer points, fairly spread out... I don't think she's playing anything at the moment. At the time they just happened to be the only two people on my friends list who had Left 4 Dead 2.
You can have a lot of fun playing a game like Left 4 Dead, most people probably finish the campaigns on normal, get some achievements, play a smattering of multiplayer - then move on. But in some respects these people are missing out. The dynamics and inticacies of the game change as you get past the casual player barrier.
In many respects, playing either game on Expert, particularly Expert Realism on part 2 is NOT fun, it is incredibly challenging. I'd put it up there with all any gaming challenge to get 'The Real Deal'. 'You got something to prove' is though - only 3% of Giantbombs 17000 players who own the game have it. The equivalent in the sequel is even less got - only 2%. The Real Deal only involves one campaign - but less than 3.5% have it?
Changing from Normal to Expert Realism is like changing games, it forces you to change the way you play. On Normal, the horde are a bit of a hinderance that tries to wear you down or pin you while a special gets on top of you. In Expert they are a serious threat. A Normal infected does 1% of damage per hit, so 5 infected charging up and whacking you drops you to 95% from healthy? An Expert infected deals 20% with a hit to the front or 10% to the back - so the same 5 running up and hitting you in the face will incap you. Suddenly stopping the infected getting a hit in is critical - whereas before it didn't really matter.
They are also far harder to kill. A shot with any gun anywhere on a normal infected will probably drop it - most guns take several hits on Expert, on Realism, the hits should really be to the head for them to be effective. Tanks, incap in one hit from 100% health too - and kill in about three... The witch insta-kills. If you are on Realism there are no hero closets, you only respawn at the next safe room.
The general picture is that the game can quickly become frustratingly difficult, the slightest thing going wrong at the wrong time can ruin it for even an excellent team.
It can be very frustrating... But very exciting too!
I wonder how many people play, how many games past the 'casual point' ? I know I enjoyed Gears of War 1 & 2 but I never played them to death, I enjoyed the story more than the game mechanics... I played Street Fighter 2 to a silly level past Casual... Some games are meant to be played until they've run dry... And some games just don't have that level of play within them... I'm talkig about the Super Mario ' Lost Levels' Level, the bit that isn't really designed for the casual player. It strikes me that the developers who write in the 'challenge' level of gameplay must be very optimistic about the popularity of their title.
I don't think it's good commercial sense either. People pay £40 for a game, if that game suddenly absorbs a player completely and they don't bother buying or playing anything else - then that's one down for the gaming market? I think the high challenge sections of games are written in by developers because they know games, they love games and they write them not for profit - but to create something, to create an experience that the people love and hate to drag themselves away from. They want to create difficult challenges that people want to attempt to beat, because they enjoy the challenge.
I suppose a casual gamer probably can't understand this - getting wiped within 10 seconds of stating a campaign isn't fun... But for some of us, we recognise that it can be done - and as soon as we do, we have to do it, we have to find out how we can do it... And we do it..
One which has been eluding me is 'What Are You Trying to Prove?' I got No Mercy a long long time ago - using the Jesus Room, then recently I mopped up the last few. The hardest one was Blood Harvest - in the end I had to resort to a trick.
For anyone stuck on this here are my tips.
General Tips:-
--------------
1. Find out all the tricks for the level you are trying to do - You Tube isn't a bad source. Try several of them.
2. If you aren't using a trick - closet camp for the horde, then rush out into the open for the tanks.
3. Try to have pipe bombs and molotovs spare for the dash to the rescue vehicle.
4. When going through the normal campaigns - have the person with an Auto Shotgun take out the witches - Expert dumps several of them right in your path. The trick is to not start shooting while she is invulnerable - then shoot as fast as possible point blank to the head as she becomes vulnerable. It's easy on easy, but witch killing on Expert takes some practice.
5. When dealing with tanks, campaign or finale, either kite or light - never both. The tank is faster when it's on fire - as is the witch. If you set him on fire you start to bleed his health and you don't need to shoot - you can run slightly faster running forwards if he's not on fire and you are healthy you should be able to kite him if you can dodge the thrown rocks.
6. Keep your bots alive - bots are very good at killing specials, if they DO get pounced - then rescue them straight away as on Expert the specials do incredible damage.
7. Save First Aid Kits - try to survive on pills, you should ideally only be using FA in safe rooms and at the finale.
8. The tricks:-
1. No Mercy [The Jesus Room].
On this one - in the centre of the roof top is a little square room with stairs going up to a door. It does NOT open in Survival Mode, ONLY campaign. (The door I mean) What you need to do is get on top above the door and survive until the infect break the door. Only infected can break the door - once it's broken - get inside and stand back from the door - make sure you don't go Idle.
When the chopper is ready - throw a pipe bomb and run.
2. Death Toll [The Jesus Rock].
Ideally have everyone grab sniper rifles or Assault Rifles. Try to have everyone grab a grenade of some sort - at least two of you should have a pipe bomb. There is no ammo on the jesus rock - so load up - try to have doubvle pistols and use them on the infected as much as possible.
Now leave the boathouse and walk along the shore past where you catch the boat - there is a little flat rock at the end of the beach. To get on take a running leap from about 2 metres aaway - and as you hit the rock hit jump again. Once four of you are up there - whoever is mos confident about getting up should go back and alert the hoarde, then try to rush back and jump on. Once all four of you are up there have two people use double pistols and melee to keep the infected from climbing onto the rock the same way you came - the other two should watch the water where most Smokers appear and can drag you off the rock. You can shoot the tank, save your rifle ammo for it - but be more concerned about shooting the rocks he throws at you. Be ready to get hunters off people.
When the boat turns up - throw your pipe bombs and run.
3. Dead Air. [The Jesus Plane]
I didn't use this - I had a good team, but I'll explain how it works in case you need it.
From the nose of the rescue plane there is a truck straight ahead, facing the truck, to the right of the truck is luggage trolley. Get gas cans or petrol cans and go behind the luggage trolley - then throw them at it and run into them - you are trying to knock it over! Eventually it'll go and you can push it so it's in between the truck and the nose of the plane. Then keep moving it a bit - then trying it - it's a tricky jump - has to be done like the Jesus Rock jump, but you jump off the truck onto the luggage trolley, then off the trolley onto the nose of the plane. Once you are all up - let the most confident jumper go alert the hoarde. Then crouch in the centre between the wings and melee each other (Smokers can get you - this provides protection) When the ramp opens - throw your pipe bombs, drop down and rush in.
Alternatively you can hold up on the hill - you have to be able to defend against the horde here - but tanks are easy, they tend to get stuck behind the plane and you can shoot their legs underneath. If this happens rush close to the plane so he can't find a way around.
4. Blood Harvest.
Easily the hardest finale, if you get to the farmhouse intact - load up on pipe bombs, molotovs, weapons, first aid and ammo. If you have a decent team and want to play it straight then either hold up in the barn, or the upstairs washroom. When the tank comes - get out in the open and kite him around the house.
If you need to use the trick , follow the fence outside the front of the house to the left. Eventually you find a broken up bit that is impassible with corrugated iron and barbed wire, and a couple of tree stumps. This is where the secret invisible walkway is. You jump as high as you can - not as if you are trying to land on the closest stump - but BEFORE the stup - you should end up suspended in the air. Then walk parallel to the fence towards the bankside and jump to get up. Once up, follow the ledge around to the lone tree on the edge of the map. Crouch, don't go idle - and send the most confident one to alert the hoarde.
When the vehicle arrives, throw your bombs and leg it towards the barn. Be aware a hunter and smoker might be waiting for you.
So what next?
My final achievements are all doable on easy - safety first, nothing special and untouchables. So I'll be taking a break from Expert mode - which I'll miss, it forces you to play in a different way - it's very unforgiving, but it's also very exciting.
After I've S-ranked Left 4 Dead I'm going to Left 4 Dead 2 to mop up some of those. The last one I got was ' The Real Deal ' but I still need to get 'Still got something top prove?' and some of the other little ones. I also need the zombie genocide achievement and red mist, but I'll get those just by playing.
After that I guess I'll play multiplayer exclusively apart from helping others. The campaigns are great - but they take a while and it's good to have a goal in mind when you are working through them.
Reflections and shout outs.
Playing Left 4 Dead and the sequel, on Expert for quite a while now has given me a new appreciation for the game. I have to give credit for an XBOX Live player - Unworthy Leopard who helped me with Blood Harvest immensely and sacrificed himself to the waiting Hunter so I could escape. Originally I was going to try to do ' The Real Deal ' with my wifes cousings teenage daughter Heather Harding and my Gaming Journalist estranged buddy Neil Ginx who is a presenter for a video gaming tv channel called Ginx.
But the thing is, no disrespect - Heather and Neil aren't really playing at the same level. To that end they are playing the same game. In Neil's case it's probably down to the fact that he's got to play the latest releases so he can talk about them - he isn't going to be able to spend time playing an ancient game even if he wanted to - his very spread out 36,000 gamer points are good indicator of his playing habits.
In Heather's case, she just isn't really a game, a paltry 3000 gamer points, fairly spread out... I don't think she's playing anything at the moment. At the time they just happened to be the only two people on my friends list who had Left 4 Dead 2.
You can have a lot of fun playing a game like Left 4 Dead, most people probably finish the campaigns on normal, get some achievements, play a smattering of multiplayer - then move on. But in some respects these people are missing out. The dynamics and inticacies of the game change as you get past the casual player barrier.
In many respects, playing either game on Expert, particularly Expert Realism on part 2 is NOT fun, it is incredibly challenging. I'd put it up there with all any gaming challenge to get 'The Real Deal'. 'You got something to prove' is though - only 3% of Giantbombs 17000 players who own the game have it. The equivalent in the sequel is even less got - only 2%. The Real Deal only involves one campaign - but less than 3.5% have it?
Changing from Normal to Expert Realism is like changing games, it forces you to change the way you play. On Normal, the horde are a bit of a hinderance that tries to wear you down or pin you while a special gets on top of you. In Expert they are a serious threat. A Normal infected does 1% of damage per hit, so 5 infected charging up and whacking you drops you to 95% from healthy? An Expert infected deals 20% with a hit to the front or 10% to the back - so the same 5 running up and hitting you in the face will incap you. Suddenly stopping the infected getting a hit in is critical - whereas before it didn't really matter.
They are also far harder to kill. A shot with any gun anywhere on a normal infected will probably drop it - most guns take several hits on Expert, on Realism, the hits should really be to the head for them to be effective. Tanks, incap in one hit from 100% health too - and kill in about three... The witch insta-kills. If you are on Realism there are no hero closets, you only respawn at the next safe room.
The general picture is that the game can quickly become frustratingly difficult, the slightest thing going wrong at the wrong time can ruin it for even an excellent team.
It can be very frustrating... But very exciting too!
I wonder how many people play, how many games past the 'casual point' ? I know I enjoyed Gears of War 1 & 2 but I never played them to death, I enjoyed the story more than the game mechanics... I played Street Fighter 2 to a silly level past Casual... Some games are meant to be played until they've run dry... And some games just don't have that level of play within them... I'm talkig about the Super Mario ' Lost Levels' Level, the bit that isn't really designed for the casual player. It strikes me that the developers who write in the 'challenge' level of gameplay must be very optimistic about the popularity of their title.
I don't think it's good commercial sense either. People pay £40 for a game, if that game suddenly absorbs a player completely and they don't bother buying or playing anything else - then that's one down for the gaming market? I think the high challenge sections of games are written in by developers because they know games, they love games and they write them not for profit - but to create something, to create an experience that the people love and hate to drag themselves away from. They want to create difficult challenges that people want to attempt to beat, because they enjoy the challenge.
I suppose a casual gamer probably can't understand this - getting wiped within 10 seconds of stating a campaign isn't fun... But for some of us, we recognise that it can be done - and as soon as we do, we have to do it, we have to find out how we can do it... And we do it..
Monday 14 November 2011
Left 4 Dead 3 : The Griefer Solution.
Okay,
So I was trying to finally finish 'You got something to prove?' on Left 4 Dead last night, on the XBOX360. Everything was going okay, I only had a reasonably good team - and with dropouts there tended to always be one bot on side.
We got through though... Until the final part, the bit with the finale in. Now one of our team had had to leave, two folks joined... And proceeded to kill the survivors. Not cool - unusually they were seperate XBOX Live accounts - not two griefers on split-screen on one XBOX.
This persisted for quite some time, in the end I ran out of time and couldn't finish the level. It posed something of a problem - originally I thought the solution to the griefer situation was to only allow one vote per XBOX, so two split screen players would only get one vote.
In this case that would NOT have worked.
I was thinking about an alternative, and I think it could be weight of vote. The way this works is it rewards good play with weight of vote, and griefing with a reduction in weight of vote.
So I would suggest a system something like:-
1. Started the lobby : + 300 weight of vote.
2. Joined at the lobby stage : + 200 weight of vote.
3. Completed the a section part of a campaign : + (100 x Sections have completed) WOV. So it you if go from lobby to end of section 2, you got 100 WOV for the first part, then 200 for the second part - total 300 WOV. If you joined in the second but stay until the end you get 100 WOV. If you joined in the first then stay to the last part you get 100 + 200 + 300 + 400 WOV (1100 total) This represents an investment you made in the play session.
4. Damaged the tank : + (damage dealt to tank/100)
5. Damaged the witch : + (damage dealt to witch/100)
6. Killed an infect : + 1 WOV
7. Healed a survivor : + 10 WOV
8. Revived a survivor : + 5 WOV
9. Gave pills to a survivor : + 2 WOV
10. Dealt friendly fire : - 100 WOV per incident.
11. Incapped a survivor : - 1000 WOV per incident.
12. Killed a survivor : - 1000 WOV per incident.
13. Got kicked from this session : - 1000 WOV.
So what does this do? It means anyone griefing basically has to do it in the first couple of sections of a campaign - and if you play well, they'll struggle to do this. Say you and a friend make it to part 3 of a campaign. You might acrue the following:-
You:-
-------
1. Started the lobby : + 300 weight of vote.
2. Completed one section : + 100 WOV
3. Complete the second section : + 200 WOV
4. Killed 120 infected : + 120 WOV
5. Dealt 2100 Damage to the tank : + 210 WOV
6. Revived 4 survivors: + 20 WOV
7. Gave pills once : + 2 WOV
Total = 952 WOV.
Your friend:-
1. Joined at the lobby stage : + 200 weight of vote.
2. Completed one section : + 100 WOV
3. Complete the second section : + 200 WOV
4. Killed 117 infected : + 117 WOV
5. Dealt 1150 Damage to the tank : + 115 WOV
6. Revived 2 survivors: + 10 WOV
7. Gave pills twice : + 4 WOV
Total = 746 WOV.
Now Johhny griefer and his friend join the game, play through one campaign section and then proceed to start griefing.
They might get 100 for the camapaign section they do, and maybe 100 infected and 100 tank dam WOV each. Maybe a bit more? That means they will acquire 400 or so WOV each if they play properly and help out a bit - 0r 800 in total?
Now as it stands you and your buddy have much more time invested in the game, so it's right that you should be able to vote them off. Which you could do as you would have at least another 400 WOV at the the of that campaign section each.
At the same time, so long as they're half decent, they'd be be better than bots? So you let them stay! Now they decide to grief you - one of them shoots you, incaps you and kills you - straight away they are in the negative, they can be voted off immediately.
They come back? Well they need to find another game, because you can vote them straight off again!
Now if the reverse happened and the two who joined first were griefers, yes they could vote joiners out easily - but then the joiners can start their own campaign and have the protection that gives them. If the griefers decide to start killing the joiners - then very quickly the joiners will usurp them as the ones with the authority over the campaign as they are playing the game as intended.
I think a system like this would not only be beneficial, but is needed - if it can't be patched into Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, then it should be in Left 4 Dead 3. In extreme scenarios - as the system is now, you can be 90% through a campaign, have some assholes join and grief so much your buddy gets frustrated and leaves, then vote you out and quit - losing all your time invested with very little defence about it apart from the rather limited XBX Live Feedback system.
So I was trying to finally finish 'You got something to prove?' on Left 4 Dead last night, on the XBOX360. Everything was going okay, I only had a reasonably good team - and with dropouts there tended to always be one bot on side.
We got through though... Until the final part, the bit with the finale in. Now one of our team had had to leave, two folks joined... And proceeded to kill the survivors. Not cool - unusually they were seperate XBOX Live accounts - not two griefers on split-screen on one XBOX.
This persisted for quite some time, in the end I ran out of time and couldn't finish the level. It posed something of a problem - originally I thought the solution to the griefer situation was to only allow one vote per XBOX, so two split screen players would only get one vote.
In this case that would NOT have worked.
I was thinking about an alternative, and I think it could be weight of vote. The way this works is it rewards good play with weight of vote, and griefing with a reduction in weight of vote.
So I would suggest a system something like:-
1. Started the lobby : + 300 weight of vote.
2. Joined at the lobby stage : + 200 weight of vote.
3. Completed the a section part of a campaign : + (100 x Sections have completed) WOV. So it you if go from lobby to end of section 2, you got 100 WOV for the first part, then 200 for the second part - total 300 WOV. If you joined in the second but stay until the end you get 100 WOV. If you joined in the first then stay to the last part you get 100 + 200 + 300 + 400 WOV (1100 total) This represents an investment you made in the play session.
4. Damaged the tank : + (damage dealt to tank/100)
5. Damaged the witch : + (damage dealt to witch/100)
6. Killed an infect : + 1 WOV
7. Healed a survivor : + 10 WOV
8. Revived a survivor : + 5 WOV
9. Gave pills to a survivor : + 2 WOV
10. Dealt friendly fire : - 100 WOV per incident.
11. Incapped a survivor : - 1000 WOV per incident.
12. Killed a survivor : - 1000 WOV per incident.
13. Got kicked from this session : - 1000 WOV.
So what does this do? It means anyone griefing basically has to do it in the first couple of sections of a campaign - and if you play well, they'll struggle to do this. Say you and a friend make it to part 3 of a campaign. You might acrue the following:-
You:-
-------
1. Started the lobby : + 300 weight of vote.
2. Completed one section : + 100 WOV
3. Complete the second section : + 200 WOV
4. Killed 120 infected : + 120 WOV
5. Dealt 2100 Damage to the tank : + 210 WOV
6. Revived 4 survivors: + 20 WOV
7. Gave pills once : + 2 WOV
Total = 952 WOV.
Your friend:-
1. Joined at the lobby stage : + 200 weight of vote.
2. Completed one section : + 100 WOV
3. Complete the second section : + 200 WOV
4. Killed 117 infected : + 117 WOV
5. Dealt 1150 Damage to the tank : + 115 WOV
6. Revived 2 survivors: + 10 WOV
7. Gave pills twice : + 4 WOV
Total = 746 WOV.
Now Johhny griefer and his friend join the game, play through one campaign section and then proceed to start griefing.
They might get 100 for the camapaign section they do, and maybe 100 infected and 100 tank dam WOV each. Maybe a bit more? That means they will acquire 400 or so WOV each if they play properly and help out a bit - 0r 800 in total?
Now as it stands you and your buddy have much more time invested in the game, so it's right that you should be able to vote them off. Which you could do as you would have at least another 400 WOV at the the of that campaign section each.
At the same time, so long as they're half decent, they'd be be better than bots? So you let them stay! Now they decide to grief you - one of them shoots you, incaps you and kills you - straight away they are in the negative, they can be voted off immediately.
They come back? Well they need to find another game, because you can vote them straight off again!
Now if the reverse happened and the two who joined first were griefers, yes they could vote joiners out easily - but then the joiners can start their own campaign and have the protection that gives them. If the griefers decide to start killing the joiners - then very quickly the joiners will usurp them as the ones with the authority over the campaign as they are playing the game as intended.
I think a system like this would not only be beneficial, but is needed - if it can't be patched into Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, then it should be in Left 4 Dead 3. In extreme scenarios - as the system is now, you can be 90% through a campaign, have some assholes join and grief so much your buddy gets frustrated and leaves, then vote you out and quit - losing all your time invested with very little defence about it apart from the rather limited XBX Live Feedback system.
Friday 21 October 2011
A Continued disillusionment with games...
I was really, really excited about Batman: Arkham City. I loved the Arkham Asylum game and used to consider it not only the best Batman game of all time but possibly the best super hero game too.
Since having my soul destroyed by playing Duke Nukem Forever, I've found it increasingly difficult to garner any enthusiasm for games. Admittedly part of this might be that I just don't have the personal time required to get into games in the way that I used to - spending 36 hours over a weekend, surviving on crisps, chocolate bars, pop and beer is not an option now I have a wife, and a family - yet I do long for days like that again, there's something magical about getting completely absorbed in a game so that your eyes are bleeding, your brain is melting and you feel like you are really, really there...
The things I liked about Batman was the polished feel of the game, the creativity you could express in defeating the enemies - there was always so many ways you could choose to tackle a situation. I liked the huge cast of super villains, the dark setting of Arkham Asylum and the wierd dream sequences...
I suppose part of me would love to get into Arkham City, but maybe part of me wants to hate it because I know I won't have the time to invest to get the most out of it.
Another game I was really excited about - and might have even pre-ordered was Gears of War 3. Gears of War 1 & 2 were really my introduction to the XBOX 360, and my introduction to the concept of 'cover shooters' I loved the stories, the settings, the combat - although it took me a while to get my head around 'how to succeed' I still think Gears is a hard game, at least on above normal difficulty setting.
Yet here we are, it's on the shelf and I don't bother picking it up - why? Because I won't get time to play it, it'll just mean more and more frustration as I want to put more hours into it which I simply don't have. I'll probably pick it up used around christmas time and hop I can snatch a few hours here and there... Instead I'm putting all my gaming time into S-ranking Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, sad porbably but I can't motivate myself into playing anything else - apart from a bit of Rome: Total War when the mood takes me...
Sometimes I envy the guys over at the video games tv channel afterall - I have to divide my time work / jobs at home / Open University / Family / Wife / Kids / Games. A huge portion of that time - 8 hours a day is dedicated to work! If I could incorporate some games playing into that time, it would be easier to fit everything in - but it's hard to get paid to play games. Not many jobs pay you to effectively have fun.
I suppose the unfortunate reality is that sometimes you probably have to play games you don't want to play and you then have to spend time writing script about games you didn't like - that sound remotely positive, because otherwise the publishers won't send you more games and the games are your content. That could be soul destroying at times too.
I mean if there was a programme based on my gaming habits over the last month it would be pretty damn boring - just me carrying on about Left 4 Dead 2 and not much else... No - in some respects I think Gaming is a nice thing to keep as a hobby, it's just a pity I can't spend more time on it.
Thursday 20 October 2011
Left 4 Dead 2 : Achievement Hunting
I have recently decided to start mopping up achievements since I claimed 'The Real Deal' my overall goal is to 100% or S-rank Left 4 Dead 2, then I might even go back and do the same for Left 4 Dead!
The thing is, there are ways to make this incredible easy at times - elusive achievements can become very easy and quick to get. How? Easy, look at the weekly Mutation and look at your list of ' still working on ' and see if there's anything that the mutation will make super easy. An example - this week (20/10/2011) we are on Gib Fest, the unlimited M60 game mode. Which makes not only the campaign super easy - but the achievement, 'Till it goes click' super easy too. Normally you have to play 'The Passing' to get the M60 and even, there's no guaruntee it will spawn, if it does spawn you need to throw a bile bomb ideally when there's a hoarde rush and get the other survivors to hold off.
In 'Gib Fest' you just run around with your finger held down on the trigger - the infinite ammo deals with the rest.
Another example - 'Tank Burger' getting a group together who are happy to try for this can be tricky. However - if the mutation becomes 'Four Swordsmen of the Apocalypse' then you are easily going to get it.
There are various other easy tactics for getting achievements - watch this space I'll be reporting on them soon.
Thursday 13 October 2011
Bridge over Trebled Slaughter
Well, I managed to bag another achievement today which had been eluding me.
It's not an easy one to get - perhaps one that you would think would be easy - however it's worth 30 points, and for a reason.
However if you're pretty good at the game - I think I can give you a few tips to get you this one fairly easily. First of all the rules - the timer starts when the bridge goes down, I'm 99% sure of this. It certainly does NOT start until the saferoom door has opened.
Now some other points about this one:-
1. You can get it on easy mode.
2. You can't rely on the computer - it will hang around fighting the tank while you are trying for a quick time.
3. You can't rely on other people - they'll probably slow you down or aren't trying for the achievement.
So what do you do about this?
Firstly - use single player - you can skip to the Bridge and there's no chance of griefers spoiling it for you.
Second - start on Expert - kill all the other survivors - this sounds counter-intuitive, you can leave one alive if you like - but it's probably safer to wipe them out.
Now once they're dead grab a melee weapon, and the combat shotgun, if that's not there get an assault rifle - the magnum would be good if it was there too. Also grab a pipebomb.
Now go through the saferoom door - and get the bridge going down. Once it's down, don't head down the centre as you usually do - hug the left hand edge of the bridge and run like mad - eventually you'll get infected charging you - run and shoot don't stop. The computer tends to throw a lot of infected at you near the start - doing this you'll probably bypass them.
As you get near to the bit where you climb up to the second level where the hummer and the supplies are - use your shot, grab another shot from the jeep - if there isn't one - there will be one in the lorries - keep running and shooting, when you're not shooting make sure you are loading.
As you get near the tank part - keep running, don't fight the tank, run around him. As you are about to clear the lopsided bit and make the final run for the chopper - throw your pipebomb and use the next shot - you can get specials attack you near the end or a second tank - so be on your guard, it's not easy - but that's the easiest way of doing it.
It's not an easy one to get - perhaps one that you would think would be easy - however it's worth 30 points, and for a reason.
However if you're pretty good at the game - I think I can give you a few tips to get you this one fairly easily. First of all the rules - the timer starts when the bridge goes down, I'm 99% sure of this. It certainly does NOT start until the saferoom door has opened.
Now some other points about this one:-
1. You can get it on easy mode.
2. You can't rely on the computer - it will hang around fighting the tank while you are trying for a quick time.
3. You can't rely on other people - they'll probably slow you down or aren't trying for the achievement.
So what do you do about this?
Firstly - use single player - you can skip to the Bridge and there's no chance of griefers spoiling it for you.
Second - start on Expert - kill all the other survivors - this sounds counter-intuitive, you can leave one alive if you like - but it's probably safer to wipe them out.
Now once they're dead grab a melee weapon, and the combat shotgun, if that's not there get an assault rifle - the magnum would be good if it was there too. Also grab a pipebomb.
Now go through the saferoom door - and get the bridge going down. Once it's down, don't head down the centre as you usually do - hug the left hand edge of the bridge and run like mad - eventually you'll get infected charging you - run and shoot don't stop. The computer tends to throw a lot of infected at you near the start - doing this you'll probably bypass them.
As you get near to the bit where you climb up to the second level where the hummer and the supplies are - use your shot, grab another shot from the jeep - if there isn't one - there will be one in the lorries - keep running and shooting, when you're not shooting make sure you are loading.
As you get near the tank part - keep running, don't fight the tank, run around him. As you are about to clear the lopsided bit and make the final run for the chopper - throw your pipebomb and use the next shot - you can get specials attack you near the end or a second tank - so be on your guard, it's not easy - but that's the easiest way of doing it.
Saturday 8 October 2011
Expert Realism Defeated : 'The Read Deal' Achievement claimed.
Well, I did it, I finally managed to scrap my way through Left 4 Dead 2 on Expert Difficulty, Realism mode - earning the achievement. A rare achievement actually - according the Giantbomb's stats page only 3.3% of the 12,000 odd players of Left 4 Dead 2 or about 360 players.
Now first of all - I have to say, the success was down to getting into a really good team. Normally when I play - I'm pretty strong, I tend to feel like I'm usually at least equal strongest in the team. I'm often the guy handing out pills, helping people up and limping to the safe room when everyone else bitten the bullet...
However in this particular team, I was more the dude bringing up the rear, watching peoples backs and being helped up and given pills! The honour roll of the folk I did it with:-
ALEX DE RUE
Rabbid Sloth
Le Picard
If anyone wants to do Expert Realism, hit these guys up for a game, considering so many others I've been teamed up with - have failed so often - we made it look pretty easy - nobody got killed, there were very few incaps and rarely were all the first aid kits in the safe room actually used.
I did make another observation about Dead Center which makes it a particuarly easy campaign to beat - it's the haz-mat guys. Every time you kill one there's a chance they will drop a boomer bile jar. These are incredibly useful and when there are a lot of zombies piling in - with the haz-mat guys - you can sometimes end up with an almost endless supply.
So apart from that - what's the secret to beating Expert Realism?
Okay here's my quick list for how to do it.
1. Be good, be VERY good, you should be able to clear the first part of Dead Center with the crappy computer AI only for help.
2. Choose Dead Center - for loads of reasons it's an easier campaign.
3. Be in as good a team as you can - if there's one idiot, or person who isn't very good - then you may as well play Scavenge and try another time.
4. Save your pipe bombs and boomer biles for hoard rushes.
5. Take extreme care not to hit each other with friendly fire - but never avoid taking a shot, the damage you deal with a firearm is less then the infected.
6. If a hunter, charger or smoker grabs someone - save them quick, there's no time to pause.
7. If you meet a tank heal or take pills - yo need to be able to manouvre.
8. If a witch blocks your path - use the combat shotgun, disturb her when your gun is full and don't start shooting until she is vulnerable - go for the head at point blank range.
9. Try to keep the whole team healthy and alive. If you get to the safe room and everyone is limping along in the red - the healthiest person should kill the others before you close the door- that way everyone gets 50% health
10. Remember the choke points and pick your spots to hold out, be patient, but move quickly when you're not fighting.
Finally - make sure you check every spot where health and weapons spawn - to keep yourself healthy and well armed.
Weapons wise - at the gun store get the Magnum and put your laser sight on the magnum, it's a must gun for Expert Realism, infinite ammo and one shot will more or less stop a zombie almost anywhere you hit it. Well, that's not strictly true - go for the head of course, or a limb - particularly if you're on the floor shoot at the legs. It will blow the arms off infected but that won't stop them - taking the legs out will!
Don't forget to take your time, the best strategy is to be patient, fight hard and move fast when you are moving.
All in all, if everyone plays a good game, it can be easier than you think, certainly eaiser than 99% of people who attempt it make it.
Monday 3 October 2011
Left 4 Dead 2: The Expert Realism Challenge.
I'm still fixated on beating this. I'm not entirely sure, I'm not normally a die hard 'challenge gamer' and don't mind leaving beating games on the hardest setting.
However for Left 4 Dead 2 I somehow feel I really want to, I even came really close on Friday night - I got in a great little team, with a Frenchman called Alex de Rue and erm... Another dude. I can't remember their name. For some reason they started the campaign by killing the remaining AI survivor (Rochelle) what the purpose of this is I don't know - but I can't complain we made it through. I got killed by the tank in part two, on the way to the gun store. It was silly really, I was trying to climb the container and simply wasn't able to climb up in time - I'd already done over 3000 damage with a grenade launcher - but I should have stopped fighting back earlier and focused on clearing the container betweeen the two highways - I didn't leave myself enough time.
Otherwise we had a really smooth run through the campaign with no real tight spots at all. The trouble was - at the finale, while trying to fuel up Jimmy Gibbs junior - I got killed again... But very promising - I think Dead Center is probably the easiest Campaign now.
The other nights I tried to re-create this success, but the trouble is with Left 4 Dead 2 you are slave to the quality of people who join your game. I had one bunch join who just mucked about killing each other before the campaign started - another lot doing some wierd glitch to get on the roof, but there was nowhere to go once there... I did better with the Computer AI tagging along!
On the easier settings you can muddle through the campaigns without much thought. However on Expert Realism, the damage all of the infected do increases exponentially. Normal infected do 20% of your health in a hit, so if two sneak up behind you and simultaneously hit you - you are down to 60% health and haven't even had a chance to retalliate! Special infected not only do more damage, but take more damage to kill. Used to seeing a Smoker grab you and taking them out with one shot? Won't work now with most weapons at most distances. You might get a couple of shots in, but unless you have a powerful weapon at the right range you won't have time to kill him.
Witches also, I've noticed seem to get placed in the way - removing the option to sneak around them. Normal infected also have to be shot in the right place - head shots are good and leg shots, torso shots are not effective and you can blow an arm off them - but they still keep coming.
So how do you deal with the various infected, what's the best tactic for the various infected?
1. Normal infected:- When they are milling about try to keep your distance, shoot for the head or the knees. If they start attacking as a horde - the whole team should try to shelter in a spot where everyone can face forwards without fear of being attacked from behind. The trucks at the start of Dark Carnival are an example. If you are in a corridor like the hotel of Dead Center - have one person cover the rear attack. Usually most of the hoard comes from one direction, but a few will often come in from behind.
2. Smokers :- In normal mode your safest bet is to shoot the Smoker the instant he grabs you, that won't work now, unless you have a very powerful gun and are at the right range at least. Instead shoot the tongue, or if you have a melee equiped - chop the tongue. You have to be accurate, but you have more chance of this than being able to kill the Smoker before he pulls you in.
3. Witch :- On the Normal difficulty setting you can usually move around her if she does get you - you just get incapped, on Expert Non-realism, you'll be rescued from a closet. Those are now no longer the case and she will be placed so you cannot move around her. Option 1 for dealing with her is throw a molotov and back up quickly - let the other survivors shoot her while you run like the wind - have the person with most health do this as they can run faster. Option 2 is to kill her with a gun. The most realistic proposal is the combat shotgun. To do it disturb her and wait until she stands up - she can't be hurt during the standing animation. Before you do it make sure you have reloaded. As soon as she is standig and out of the standing animation - pump as many shots as you can into her adn go for the head.
4. Tank :- The tank takes massive damage to kill - the trick to beating him is to try to get out of enclosed spaces so you can manouver. If you have pain pills or a shot - and are low on health - use it! Being able to run is the key to beating the tank. Keep your distance, but avoid the thrown debris it's one hit one incap. A good tactic is to have the survivors split into two pairs and for the pair who the tank isn't chasing to do all the shooting - then change, he seems to take over 7000 damage at least so you can't assume he's nearly dead at any time.
The normal tactics apply to all the infected - but avoiding taking a hit becomes more important than ever. And you need to make sure you stick together - sometimes losing sight of a wandering survivor can kill the group. Friendly fire is far more damaging in Expert Realism too - you really need to avoid this, one close up shot from the right weapon will incap a survivor who was on 80% health. Make sure you stick together even when looking for pills and health packs, and do check the usual spots - you'll need everything you can find.
I haven't spent my allotted agreed time on Scavenger Mode, at the moment I'm really focused on firstly claiming 'The Real Deal' Achievement for beating a campaign on Expert Realism. I'm enjoying the challenge, and playing on this setting has definately upped my game.
However for Left 4 Dead 2 I somehow feel I really want to, I even came really close on Friday night - I got in a great little team, with a Frenchman called Alex de Rue and erm... Another dude. I can't remember their name. For some reason they started the campaign by killing the remaining AI survivor (Rochelle) what the purpose of this is I don't know - but I can't complain we made it through. I got killed by the tank in part two, on the way to the gun store. It was silly really, I was trying to climb the container and simply wasn't able to climb up in time - I'd already done over 3000 damage with a grenade launcher - but I should have stopped fighting back earlier and focused on clearing the container betweeen the two highways - I didn't leave myself enough time.
Otherwise we had a really smooth run through the campaign with no real tight spots at all. The trouble was - at the finale, while trying to fuel up Jimmy Gibbs junior - I got killed again... But very promising - I think Dead Center is probably the easiest Campaign now.
The other nights I tried to re-create this success, but the trouble is with Left 4 Dead 2 you are slave to the quality of people who join your game. I had one bunch join who just mucked about killing each other before the campaign started - another lot doing some wierd glitch to get on the roof, but there was nowhere to go once there... I did better with the Computer AI tagging along!
On the easier settings you can muddle through the campaigns without much thought. However on Expert Realism, the damage all of the infected do increases exponentially. Normal infected do 20% of your health in a hit, so if two sneak up behind you and simultaneously hit you - you are down to 60% health and haven't even had a chance to retalliate! Special infected not only do more damage, but take more damage to kill. Used to seeing a Smoker grab you and taking them out with one shot? Won't work now with most weapons at most distances. You might get a couple of shots in, but unless you have a powerful weapon at the right range you won't have time to kill him.
Witches also, I've noticed seem to get placed in the way - removing the option to sneak around them. Normal infected also have to be shot in the right place - head shots are good and leg shots, torso shots are not effective and you can blow an arm off them - but they still keep coming.
So how do you deal with the various infected, what's the best tactic for the various infected?
1. Normal infected:- When they are milling about try to keep your distance, shoot for the head or the knees. If they start attacking as a horde - the whole team should try to shelter in a spot where everyone can face forwards without fear of being attacked from behind. The trucks at the start of Dark Carnival are an example. If you are in a corridor like the hotel of Dead Center - have one person cover the rear attack. Usually most of the hoard comes from one direction, but a few will often come in from behind.
2. Smokers :- In normal mode your safest bet is to shoot the Smoker the instant he grabs you, that won't work now, unless you have a very powerful gun and are at the right range at least. Instead shoot the tongue, or if you have a melee equiped - chop the tongue. You have to be accurate, but you have more chance of this than being able to kill the Smoker before he pulls you in.
3. Witch :- On the Normal difficulty setting you can usually move around her if she does get you - you just get incapped, on Expert Non-realism, you'll be rescued from a closet. Those are now no longer the case and she will be placed so you cannot move around her. Option 1 for dealing with her is throw a molotov and back up quickly - let the other survivors shoot her while you run like the wind - have the person with most health do this as they can run faster. Option 2 is to kill her with a gun. The most realistic proposal is the combat shotgun. To do it disturb her and wait until she stands up - she can't be hurt during the standing animation. Before you do it make sure you have reloaded. As soon as she is standig and out of the standing animation - pump as many shots as you can into her adn go for the head.
4. Tank :- The tank takes massive damage to kill - the trick to beating him is to try to get out of enclosed spaces so you can manouver. If you have pain pills or a shot - and are low on health - use it! Being able to run is the key to beating the tank. Keep your distance, but avoid the thrown debris it's one hit one incap. A good tactic is to have the survivors split into two pairs and for the pair who the tank isn't chasing to do all the shooting - then change, he seems to take over 7000 damage at least so you can't assume he's nearly dead at any time.
The normal tactics apply to all the infected - but avoiding taking a hit becomes more important than ever. And you need to make sure you stick together - sometimes losing sight of a wandering survivor can kill the group. Friendly fire is far more damaging in Expert Realism too - you really need to avoid this, one close up shot from the right weapon will incap a survivor who was on 80% health. Make sure you stick together even when looking for pills and health packs, and do check the usual spots - you'll need everything you can find.
I haven't spent my allotted agreed time on Scavenger Mode, at the moment I'm really focused on firstly claiming 'The Real Deal' Achievement for beating a campaign on Expert Realism. I'm enjoying the challenge, and playing on this setting has definately upped my game.
Friday 30 September 2011
Rome : Total War & More Left 4 Dead 2
Well, there wasn't a post on the Friday night Scavenger match last week because I was in Rome. So apologies for that...
Rome is a fantastic place, it's like a city that was built around an archeological dig. You can wander around the frankly amazing coloseum, marvel at the Pantheon... Even see the chariot racing course that used to be the circus maximus - though there's no stonework left.
I found the short break quite inspiring and I decided to crack open a golden oldie upon my return - Rome : Total War.
Now most people who play RTS games have a familiar system, you build your resources up - make troops and attack. These games tend to be won very much on who can control the resources and deploy a bigger force. I'm talking about all the derivitives of the early Dune 2 : Battle for Arakis, throught the Warcraft games, Command and Conquer, and Lord of the Rings Battle for Middle Earth.
If for example you are playing Saruman on Lord of the Rings, the strategy is to upgrade all your troops at the earliest stage and build a strong enough army with a decent balance of troop types and send them in. These games are more about managing resources.
Rome is too - to a certain degree but in a very different way. It's a hard game to play - people familiar with RTS might feel lost in the see of men you see on the battlefield the first time you play fielding a large army. There is resource management, but it's seperate from the battles. The battles themselves are far mroe realistic than the traditional resource gathering RTS. You have various troops types of course - with their own strengths and weaknesses, but you also have morale to consider, fatigue, the general who is commanding an army. If you field a six star general your troops are far less likely to route and will fight better than if you field an army led by a 1 star general.
With Rome, using the terrain to your advantage it is very possible to defeat a much larger army with good tactics.
I could write pages and pages on Rome tactics, but you might as well read 'The Art of War' because it works more or less how ancient battles did work! There are some things which don't apply realistically - historically the Romans would have sent light troops like the Velites in to soften up enemy infantry - in Rome the computer will auto-deply your troops in a formation which facilitates this (You can change it thankfully before the battle starts.) but a more effective tactic is to field any missile troops behind the infantry - and get them to shoot over the heads of their comrades. If you are enganged in this sort of encounter and you can hit the block of enemy troops from both sides at the same time with a cavalry charge - it's an instant route. You have to be careful though - if you pen the enemy troops in, they will fight to the death. You do want to kill all the enemy troops - but they are easier to kill when they are fleeing for their lives than when they are surrounded and in full fight mode.
March your men too far they get fatigued, they don't fight as well, morale goes down - if they see your general fleeing, morale goes down, seeing enemies routing morale goes up. You can swing the tide of a battle immensely by killing the enemy general.
Off the battle field it's a matter of managing towns all over your empire. The further from your capital a settlement is = the harder it is to keep them from rebelling. Governs with good management skills will help but a large empire is incredibly hard to run anyway. If you take a settlement you can either occupy, enslave or pillage. Occupying keeps the settlement runnning smoothly - but they will revolt soon, unless you can do something to stop them. Enslaving boosts the population of other settlements with the slaves you export and pillaging give you a big gain in denari but the population goes right down as most of the settlement is killed. Keeping your empires economy running optimally is critical but challenging.
Tuesday night I finally managed to take Rome from the Senate. Wary of my faction leaders popularity the Senate had ordered he take his own life or our faction was an enemy of Rome - seeing as I already had all of western europe and Russia, it was a no-brainer, I now have 100 years to take 14 territories in order to claim victory.
Rome is a fantastic game, that's detailed, fun and educational - historical information about all the troops and buildings is given to you as you play the game. Overall I would say Rome:Total War is possibly the best strategy game I have ever played. The only criticism I could give it - is that it takes a long, long time to play. You could spend entire days playing it, I've been working on the single player campaign for literally years now... But I've enjoyed every minute.
I did manage to have a quick go of Expert Realism the other night on Left 4 Dead 2, and I managed to get through to the second part of 'Dead Centre' on my own - it's not that hard a campaign if you think about what you are doing. We got very close to beating the second part too, but time was not on my side.
I did get a quick go of Scavenger - we played No Mercy:The Hospital Roof, which I'm finding a very popular Scavenger Map. I think I know why too - the multiple layers, the risk of being knocked off or falling off the building and the high number of canisters available make it an interesting map. Particularly as it takes teamwork to a new level - there are times when a friend can throw canisters up to you and you can catch them -speeding up the collecting process, but also tying up two people from the fight.
It was a fantastic match actually - the first round, the other team played first and scored 13 canisters and we fought tooth and nail to get 14 winning the first round. The second round, our opponents got 21, we simply couldn't lock them out - but when we took survivors we managed to nail 21 in less than 4 and a half minutes, winning the round and the match.
All in all, it's worth downloading 'The Sacrifice' just so you can play the No Mercy Scavenger map.
Rome is a fantastic place, it's like a city that was built around an archeological dig. You can wander around the frankly amazing coloseum, marvel at the Pantheon... Even see the chariot racing course that used to be the circus maximus - though there's no stonework left.
I found the short break quite inspiring and I decided to crack open a golden oldie upon my return - Rome : Total War.
Now most people who play RTS games have a familiar system, you build your resources up - make troops and attack. These games tend to be won very much on who can control the resources and deploy a bigger force. I'm talking about all the derivitives of the early Dune 2 : Battle for Arakis, throught the Warcraft games, Command and Conquer, and Lord of the Rings Battle for Middle Earth.
If for example you are playing Saruman on Lord of the Rings, the strategy is to upgrade all your troops at the earliest stage and build a strong enough army with a decent balance of troop types and send them in. These games are more about managing resources.
Rome is too - to a certain degree but in a very different way. It's a hard game to play - people familiar with RTS might feel lost in the see of men you see on the battlefield the first time you play fielding a large army. There is resource management, but it's seperate from the battles. The battles themselves are far mroe realistic than the traditional resource gathering RTS. You have various troops types of course - with their own strengths and weaknesses, but you also have morale to consider, fatigue, the general who is commanding an army. If you field a six star general your troops are far less likely to route and will fight better than if you field an army led by a 1 star general.
With Rome, using the terrain to your advantage it is very possible to defeat a much larger army with good tactics.
I could write pages and pages on Rome tactics, but you might as well read 'The Art of War' because it works more or less how ancient battles did work! There are some things which don't apply realistically - historically the Romans would have sent light troops like the Velites in to soften up enemy infantry - in Rome the computer will auto-deply your troops in a formation which facilitates this (You can change it thankfully before the battle starts.) but a more effective tactic is to field any missile troops behind the infantry - and get them to shoot over the heads of their comrades. If you are enganged in this sort of encounter and you can hit the block of enemy troops from both sides at the same time with a cavalry charge - it's an instant route. You have to be careful though - if you pen the enemy troops in, they will fight to the death. You do want to kill all the enemy troops - but they are easier to kill when they are fleeing for their lives than when they are surrounded and in full fight mode.
March your men too far they get fatigued, they don't fight as well, morale goes down - if they see your general fleeing, morale goes down, seeing enemies routing morale goes up. You can swing the tide of a battle immensely by killing the enemy general.
Off the battle field it's a matter of managing towns all over your empire. The further from your capital a settlement is = the harder it is to keep them from rebelling. Governs with good management skills will help but a large empire is incredibly hard to run anyway. If you take a settlement you can either occupy, enslave or pillage. Occupying keeps the settlement runnning smoothly - but they will revolt soon, unless you can do something to stop them. Enslaving boosts the population of other settlements with the slaves you export and pillaging give you a big gain in denari but the population goes right down as most of the settlement is killed. Keeping your empires economy running optimally is critical but challenging.
Tuesday night I finally managed to take Rome from the Senate. Wary of my faction leaders popularity the Senate had ordered he take his own life or our faction was an enemy of Rome - seeing as I already had all of western europe and Russia, it was a no-brainer, I now have 100 years to take 14 territories in order to claim victory.
Rome is a fantastic game, that's detailed, fun and educational - historical information about all the troops and buildings is given to you as you play the game. Overall I would say Rome:Total War is possibly the best strategy game I have ever played. The only criticism I could give it - is that it takes a long, long time to play. You could spend entire days playing it, I've been working on the single player campaign for literally years now... But I've enjoyed every minute.
I did manage to have a quick go of Expert Realism the other night on Left 4 Dead 2, and I managed to get through to the second part of 'Dead Centre' on my own - it's not that hard a campaign if you think about what you are doing. We got very close to beating the second part too, but time was not on my side.
I did get a quick go of Scavenger - we played No Mercy:The Hospital Roof, which I'm finding a very popular Scavenger Map. I think I know why too - the multiple layers, the risk of being knocked off or falling off the building and the high number of canisters available make it an interesting map. Particularly as it takes teamwork to a new level - there are times when a friend can throw canisters up to you and you can catch them -speeding up the collecting process, but also tying up two people from the fight.
It was a fantastic match actually - the first round, the other team played first and scored 13 canisters and we fought tooth and nail to get 14 winning the first round. The second round, our opponents got 21, we simply couldn't lock them out - but when we took survivors we managed to nail 21 in less than 4 and a half minutes, winning the round and the match.
All in all, it's worth downloading 'The Sacrifice' just so you can play the No Mercy Scavenger map.
Monday 19 September 2011
Left 4 Dead 2 : Defeating Expert Realism Mode.
I didn't play scavenger last night, I committed to doing that on a Friday, and I won't be able to next Friday because I will be out for the evening.
Instead last night I have another concerted attempt at tackling Expert Realism. It was an interesting night actually - I didn't get particularly far, but that's not the point - I did pick up enough information to make what can seem impossible difficulty do-able.
I think counter-intuitively all of the Left 4 Dead 2 campaigns start with a very challenging section. Large open areas, lots of infected and little useful cover. In the normal play-mode it works well, becuse they hit the survivors hard, and it makes the little skirmishes that occur later on more effective because the survivors are in a weakened state. If it started easy and built up - it'd probably be too easy.
Last night I focused on 'Dark Carnival' now I've seen numerous teams not even make it off the road - falling to the hoard of zombies before they've even climbed over the cars. I've seen better teams limping along, wounded and missing a member by the time they get to the under-pass just before the hotel.
The point here is that although before I said you need good 4 way comms and 4 good players, there's something else you need too! That is solid tactics. The infected on Expert Realism will take an immense amount of firepower to drop them unless you hit the head - when a hoard is charging you from every angle, it's impossible to snipe with an analog stick and head-shot them. On Expert Realism, this initial high-challenge works a bit differently, rather than weakening the survivors - it wipes them out.
On Normal and Easy - especially non-realism, it's pretty easy to get complacent - a few shoves, a few well placed shots and you can get through these sections with very little effort - only the specials offering any serious threat. When you up the difficulty and go realism - you need to start looking for better tactics.
Here's some ideas on how through the Dark Carnival Motel with your health kits intact and your health in the green/amber.
1. At the start, after the talk about Jimmy Gibbs Junior's car - grab your weapons and health kits, and I strongly suggest choosing the sub-machine gun. You'll need to be able to shoot accurately and you'll be in close quarters to your team mates so the shotgun is dangerous and not as effective - you'll mainly be trying to keeop the infected at range.
2. Once you're tooled up, the entire team should run and jump past the infected until the road is blocked, at that point there is an open Luton Van or Lorry to the left of the road - pile in quick, then turn to face the entrance, front two crouch the back two stand - keep killing until the infected stop coming. The risk here is that a Spitter will gob into the van - if that happens, and you're at the middle, try moving back - the spit might not have made it to the back wall. If not you're going to have to get out. If someone feels like playing 'fall guy' he can stay out of the van, let the team in the van cover him and specifically try to take out the special infected, particularly Spitters. You need someone good to do this job - they might get hunters, smokers, chargers and jockeys coming at them and quick reflexes will help them not lose so much damage. If a boomer barfs on the team - everyone get in the van, maintain formation and keep shooting.
3. Once you're through the first encounter where you hole up in the first van, make your way around the blocked road, instead of heading down the slip-road to the hummer stay on the road, there should be a thrown weapon and another weapon at the campsite. Still, don't go down to the slip-road, to the left is an over-turned lorry and some bushes, it's possible to jump on the bushes and then onto the over-turned lorry cab, avoiding going under the under-pass. If it's very busy when you go around the corner from the first van there is another van you can use the same tactic in - usually you can move straight through though and climb over.
4. Once over the lorry, you are on top of the under-pass that you normally go under. There's another van that tends to have pills or similar in it -if it gets busy you can hole up in that van as before.
5. You should now have a clear run to the sign above the Motel, which you often climb over to get on top of the Motel roof. Once there try to pick up the sniper rifle. Then jump onto the Motel roof from the sign.
6. Once on the Motel roof make your way on top of the roof to the top floor of motel rooms. At some point you'll trigger a hoard attack and a tank can come. Don't be tempted to hole up in a room - that should be the last resort. A better bet is to stay on the balcony near the centre of the line of rooms that leads from the Motel to the swimming pool and the way out. Two face forwards, two face back, at this point - a Tank often appears. Try to keep your distance, use the sniper rifles on it as much as possible, molatov it if possible - if you're not going to take it down and it's charging you - try to get around it and make a run for the exit, or try to back up to where you've got more room to manouver - staying on the balcony is a bad idea at this point.
7. Once you're through the Motel and sludging through the river at the bottom of the hill, look out for a little wooden shack. I don't think it's big enough for four, but if two go in, one can crouch and one stand, and they can cover the backs of the two exposed survivors - at that point, you can just try adn run the gauntlet and get to the safe room - but that's an alternative tactic that can work well.
Conclusion, if you're playing any campaign and having trouble, try going back to easy mode, kill everything - and spend a long time looking for choke points and places you can hole up.
I hope this helps!
Instead last night I have another concerted attempt at tackling Expert Realism. It was an interesting night actually - I didn't get particularly far, but that's not the point - I did pick up enough information to make what can seem impossible difficulty do-able.
I think counter-intuitively all of the Left 4 Dead 2 campaigns start with a very challenging section. Large open areas, lots of infected and little useful cover. In the normal play-mode it works well, becuse they hit the survivors hard, and it makes the little skirmishes that occur later on more effective because the survivors are in a weakened state. If it started easy and built up - it'd probably be too easy.
Last night I focused on 'Dark Carnival' now I've seen numerous teams not even make it off the road - falling to the hoard of zombies before they've even climbed over the cars. I've seen better teams limping along, wounded and missing a member by the time they get to the under-pass just before the hotel.
The point here is that although before I said you need good 4 way comms and 4 good players, there's something else you need too! That is solid tactics. The infected on Expert Realism will take an immense amount of firepower to drop them unless you hit the head - when a hoard is charging you from every angle, it's impossible to snipe with an analog stick and head-shot them. On Expert Realism, this initial high-challenge works a bit differently, rather than weakening the survivors - it wipes them out.
On Normal and Easy - especially non-realism, it's pretty easy to get complacent - a few shoves, a few well placed shots and you can get through these sections with very little effort - only the specials offering any serious threat. When you up the difficulty and go realism - you need to start looking for better tactics.
Here's some ideas on how through the Dark Carnival Motel with your health kits intact and your health in the green/amber.
1. At the start, after the talk about Jimmy Gibbs Junior's car - grab your weapons and health kits, and I strongly suggest choosing the sub-machine gun. You'll need to be able to shoot accurately and you'll be in close quarters to your team mates so the shotgun is dangerous and not as effective - you'll mainly be trying to keeop the infected at range.
2. Once you're tooled up, the entire team should run and jump past the infected until the road is blocked, at that point there is an open Luton Van or Lorry to the left of the road - pile in quick, then turn to face the entrance, front two crouch the back two stand - keep killing until the infected stop coming. The risk here is that a Spitter will gob into the van - if that happens, and you're at the middle, try moving back - the spit might not have made it to the back wall. If not you're going to have to get out. If someone feels like playing 'fall guy' he can stay out of the van, let the team in the van cover him and specifically try to take out the special infected, particularly Spitters. You need someone good to do this job - they might get hunters, smokers, chargers and jockeys coming at them and quick reflexes will help them not lose so much damage. If a boomer barfs on the team - everyone get in the van, maintain formation and keep shooting.
3. Once you're through the first encounter where you hole up in the first van, make your way around the blocked road, instead of heading down the slip-road to the hummer stay on the road, there should be a thrown weapon and another weapon at the campsite. Still, don't go down to the slip-road, to the left is an over-turned lorry and some bushes, it's possible to jump on the bushes and then onto the over-turned lorry cab, avoiding going under the under-pass. If it's very busy when you go around the corner from the first van there is another van you can use the same tactic in - usually you can move straight through though and climb over.
4. Once over the lorry, you are on top of the under-pass that you normally go under. There's another van that tends to have pills or similar in it -if it gets busy you can hole up in that van as before.
5. You should now have a clear run to the sign above the Motel, which you often climb over to get on top of the Motel roof. Once there try to pick up the sniper rifle. Then jump onto the Motel roof from the sign.
6. Once on the Motel roof make your way on top of the roof to the top floor of motel rooms. At some point you'll trigger a hoard attack and a tank can come. Don't be tempted to hole up in a room - that should be the last resort. A better bet is to stay on the balcony near the centre of the line of rooms that leads from the Motel to the swimming pool and the way out. Two face forwards, two face back, at this point - a Tank often appears. Try to keep your distance, use the sniper rifles on it as much as possible, molatov it if possible - if you're not going to take it down and it's charging you - try to get around it and make a run for the exit, or try to back up to where you've got more room to manouver - staying on the balcony is a bad idea at this point.
7. Once you're through the Motel and sludging through the river at the bottom of the hill, look out for a little wooden shack. I don't think it's big enough for four, but if two go in, one can crouch and one stand, and they can cover the backs of the two exposed survivors - at that point, you can just try adn run the gauntlet and get to the safe room - but that's an alternative tactic that can work well.
Conclusion, if you're playing any campaign and having trouble, try going back to easy mode, kill everything - and spend a long time looking for choke points and places you can hole up.
I hope this helps!
Sunday 18 September 2011
Day 3 of the Experiment.
I managed to resist the urge to get drunk while playing last night, I did I admit down a couple of 'Corona's' over the two hour slot. The thing is, when you are staring at a screen of character with a rifle in your hand facing down zombies - there's an urge to drink... I guess it stems from a mis-spent young-adulthood where I'd spend nights sitting up late watching horror films...
Funny really, but in some respects, if I ever DID have to survive a zombie infestation on the one hand I'd probably fare well because of my hours of 'Training' on the Left 4 Dead games... The urge to have a beer before going zombie killing could be a bad thing. Given my fairly lack-lustre performance with a shotgun while sober - failing to hit more or less all of the clay pidgeons - I suspect trying to wield a shotgun while drunk would be plain dangerous...
Anyway - DID have a more satisfying night of gaming all in all. I started the night by warming up with an epic fail attempt at getting through realism expert mode... The more I play realism expert, the more convinced I am that actually to succeed at this mode you need a team of four good players and 4 way mic communication, or 4 amazing players... I've gotten through most of Dark Carnival before without mic but really it's so much easier if you are able to communicate what you are doing and what you want the others to do... Unfortunately I've misplaced my mic at the moment.
Playing Expert realism does hone your basic skills though, after a couple of false starts we were storming ahead and go to the stage where we were preventing the opposing team even getting one canister. It struck me as well, that as the infected a key strategy is to not spawn until you are close - you move so much faster before spawning and obviously can't be hurt... The number of times when you can't find a spot to spawn are very infrequent. Using this tactic you can home in on a straggler - or a survivor rushing to help a straggler who has been trapped by one of your team.
In some ways, it's very satisfying to focus on one game. Perhaps one of the reasons I've been a bit disillusioned with games lately is the lack of getting deep, deep into a game. Duke Nukem Forever was just annoying to play... The final battle wasn't bad and the first bit in the Casino was sort of okay - but overall it seemed clunky shallow, ill thought out and generally seemed to rely too much on low rent humor - so low rent at times it was cringeworthy...
My favourite, most memorable gaming experiences have when I've gotten deep, deep into a game - examples being Final Fantasy 7, Badurs Gate Grand Theft Auto 3, games where I've ended up with a long term emotional stake in the plot and story.
Left 4 Dead really doesn't quite fit into these categories, but there's another deep, deep gaming experience that equates better. The deep mechanics of a game, whereby playing it wouldn't be a blind experience, playing it with a clear idea of the strategies and the way game actually works, and being able to play it well because of that. Street Fighter 2 is a good example, I was in this state playing Unreal Tournement online actually...
I suppose in some respects Left 4 Dead has elements of both of these themes, the story is great for a survival horror lover like me. Anyone who has enjoyed the George Romero Living Dead series will understand... But then you have these really interesting and well developed game mechanics that govern the multi-player versus modes...
I ought to try to play some more LA Noire really at some point, it's a different experience, it's a cup of coffee and a biscuit game, less hectic, less skill driven, it's more of a puzzly thinker... I think part of the problem is I'm a bit rubbish at it - I can never spot the lies consistently and I always pick the wrong evidence to support the fact that they are lying...
I like the concept - but I think it's flawed, I hate how if you have any doubt - your man starts having a heroic go at people - and putting them off.
I think games are an interesting blend of two media - on the one hand they can be a bit like films, there's a plot, characters, special effects... But there's also that interraction, the challenge, the magic circle and so on... Games can NEVER be like sports - because they will always be superseded by new technology and the film-like element of games means there'll always be interest in playing new games.
Like films as well, we have big budget flops and little independent gems like minecraft and Limbo... Of course Left 4 Dead is game by the giant Valve, but the difference I think is that Valve started with a solid concept and built a game around it within the context of a story. With Duke Nukem, they started with a character, and built a game around that character - and that is probably partly why it failed. The concept was based around 'fun' the game was at the heart of it - the story and characters were chosen to fit.
My conclusions, fun should be at the heart of every game concept. Certainly not a character, would Duke have turned out differently if the core concept had been, 'It's fun to play a comedically invicible, hot headed cheese loaded hero' In some respects the old Duke 3D probably was built around this concept - that's probably why it worked.
Funny really, but in some respects, if I ever DID have to survive a zombie infestation on the one hand I'd probably fare well because of my hours of 'Training' on the Left 4 Dead games... The urge to have a beer before going zombie killing could be a bad thing. Given my fairly lack-lustre performance with a shotgun while sober - failing to hit more or less all of the clay pidgeons - I suspect trying to wield a shotgun while drunk would be plain dangerous...
Anyway - DID have a more satisfying night of gaming all in all. I started the night by warming up with an epic fail attempt at getting through realism expert mode... The more I play realism expert, the more convinced I am that actually to succeed at this mode you need a team of four good players and 4 way mic communication, or 4 amazing players... I've gotten through most of Dark Carnival before without mic but really it's so much easier if you are able to communicate what you are doing and what you want the others to do... Unfortunately I've misplaced my mic at the moment.
Playing Expert realism does hone your basic skills though, after a couple of false starts we were storming ahead and go to the stage where we were preventing the opposing team even getting one canister. It struck me as well, that as the infected a key strategy is to not spawn until you are close - you move so much faster before spawning and obviously can't be hurt... The number of times when you can't find a spot to spawn are very infrequent. Using this tactic you can home in on a straggler - or a survivor rushing to help a straggler who has been trapped by one of your team.
In some ways, it's very satisfying to focus on one game. Perhaps one of the reasons I've been a bit disillusioned with games lately is the lack of getting deep, deep into a game. Duke Nukem Forever was just annoying to play... The final battle wasn't bad and the first bit in the Casino was sort of okay - but overall it seemed clunky shallow, ill thought out and generally seemed to rely too much on low rent humor - so low rent at times it was cringeworthy...
My favourite, most memorable gaming experiences have when I've gotten deep, deep into a game - examples being Final Fantasy 7, Badurs Gate Grand Theft Auto 3, games where I've ended up with a long term emotional stake in the plot and story.
Left 4 Dead really doesn't quite fit into these categories, but there's another deep, deep gaming experience that equates better. The deep mechanics of a game, whereby playing it wouldn't be a blind experience, playing it with a clear idea of the strategies and the way game actually works, and being able to play it well because of that. Street Fighter 2 is a good example, I was in this state playing Unreal Tournement online actually...
I suppose in some respects Left 4 Dead has elements of both of these themes, the story is great for a survival horror lover like me. Anyone who has enjoyed the George Romero Living Dead series will understand... But then you have these really interesting and well developed game mechanics that govern the multi-player versus modes...
I ought to try to play some more LA Noire really at some point, it's a different experience, it's a cup of coffee and a biscuit game, less hectic, less skill driven, it's more of a puzzly thinker... I think part of the problem is I'm a bit rubbish at it - I can never spot the lies consistently and I always pick the wrong evidence to support the fact that they are lying...
I like the concept - but I think it's flawed, I hate how if you have any doubt - your man starts having a heroic go at people - and putting them off.
I think games are an interesting blend of two media - on the one hand they can be a bit like films, there's a plot, characters, special effects... But there's also that interraction, the challenge, the magic circle and so on... Games can NEVER be like sports - because they will always be superseded by new technology and the film-like element of games means there'll always be interest in playing new games.
Like films as well, we have big budget flops and little independent gems like minecraft and Limbo... Of course Left 4 Dead is game by the giant Valve, but the difference I think is that Valve started with a solid concept and built a game around it within the context of a story. With Duke Nukem, they started with a character, and built a game around that character - and that is probably partly why it failed. The concept was based around 'fun' the game was at the heart of it - the story and characters were chosen to fit.
My conclusions, fun should be at the heart of every game concept. Certainly not a character, would Duke have turned out differently if the core concept had been, 'It's fun to play a comedically invicible, hot headed cheese loaded hero' In some respects the old Duke 3D probably was built around this concept - that's probably why it worked.
Saturday 17 September 2011
Gaming as a 'sport' week 2 Reportage.
Last post, I said I was going to treat Friday night as 'Scavenger night' and play Left 4 Dead 2 Scavenger mode with the mindset that it was my 'weekly sport'. Well I played last night with that mindset...
Does it work?
Um, well sort of... Firstly there's the issue of getting client disconnects at inappropriate times. Which is sort of annoying, and I don't really know what the 'sporting' equivalent of this would be - maybe a sudden downpour whilst playing 5 a side football? Maybe your squash racket snapping in two and not having a spare? I suppose it would have to be seen as something like that.
Secondly I didn't really have what I perceived as being as successful a night, the previous week I was storming - I felt unstoppable. You get those moments in sport of course - you're good days. I recall years and years ago competing in a boxing ring fight taekwondo match and on one occasion really trouncing someone who was actually much better than me - I just had a night when everything went right... I felt unstoppable then too!
The thing is - I also drank 3 cans of Abbot Ale last night - the previous week I only had two, the questions is did poor game performance encourage me to drink 3 cans of strong ale, or did drinking 3 cans of strong ale impede my game performance? Maybe a mixture of both?
The sporting equivalent for this scenario is hard to pin down, I've rarely got drunk then tried to compete at sport. I remember a night years ago when I was going training in Buxton, Taekwondo, and because of time-constraints instead of the usual 'after training pint' my friend Joe and I decided we would go for a 'pre-training pint' of Guiness.... It was actually squad training that night and involved a fitness test... Not fun...
Then I recall gatting heroically drunk and wandering off to the park to play football in the middle of summers evening... Again, sort of fun, but hmmm.... Alcohol and sport don't seem to mix.
The trouble is, Left 4 Dead 2 is a game which sort of feels right with pint in your hand - more so than say, Forza Motorsport or somethign serious...
I think my next experiment should be to try and treat it as a more serious competitive event and abstain from drinking alcohol pre and during playing and see how effects the experience...
Does it work?
Um, well sort of... Firstly there's the issue of getting client disconnects at inappropriate times. Which is sort of annoying, and I don't really know what the 'sporting' equivalent of this would be - maybe a sudden downpour whilst playing 5 a side football? Maybe your squash racket snapping in two and not having a spare? I suppose it would have to be seen as something like that.
Secondly I didn't really have what I perceived as being as successful a night, the previous week I was storming - I felt unstoppable. You get those moments in sport of course - you're good days. I recall years and years ago competing in a boxing ring fight taekwondo match and on one occasion really trouncing someone who was actually much better than me - I just had a night when everything went right... I felt unstoppable then too!
The thing is - I also drank 3 cans of Abbot Ale last night - the previous week I only had two, the questions is did poor game performance encourage me to drink 3 cans of strong ale, or did drinking 3 cans of strong ale impede my game performance? Maybe a mixture of both?
The sporting equivalent for this scenario is hard to pin down, I've rarely got drunk then tried to compete at sport. I remember a night years ago when I was going training in Buxton, Taekwondo, and because of time-constraints instead of the usual 'after training pint' my friend Joe and I decided we would go for a 'pre-training pint' of Guiness.... It was actually squad training that night and involved a fitness test... Not fun...
Then I recall gatting heroically drunk and wandering off to the park to play football in the middle of summers evening... Again, sort of fun, but hmmm.... Alcohol and sport don't seem to mix.
The trouble is, Left 4 Dead 2 is a game which sort of feels right with pint in your hand - more so than say, Forza Motorsport or somethign serious...
I think my next experiment should be to try and treat it as a more serious competitive event and abstain from drinking alcohol pre and during playing and see how effects the experience...
Monday 12 September 2011
The Migration of a Video Games Blog - getting my gaming back.
First of all, why start this blog? Particularly as I've been writing a video games blgo on GiantBomb for what seems like an eternity? Well to lay it straight, on GiantBomb, soooooooo many times I make a blog post - puclish it to the forum - and get lots of folks whining about how it's more than two paragraphs and they can't be bothered to read it. So - I will write my thoughts on a topic here, then summarize on my GiantBomb Blog
That should keep the fickled 'GiantBomb Users' happy and allow me to ramble on in my usual way without people getting irrate at me.
Lately I've been complaining of losing my love of gaming a little. I've had a bit of a break from the hobby, been trying other things. I have discovered Lego Design by Me and constructed several large virtual Lego sets, one of which I even ordered and built... I'm writing about that experience on me Lego Design by Me Blog I've been getting more into the Star Wars Roleplaying Board a bit more and had some great fun doing collaborative writing.
There's always been something missing though. I like a game, I've always liked a game since I was six.
Sometimes it's surprising where you can find your enjoyment, but I had the most fun in recent memory gaming on Friday night. Wife had gone to bed tired, I cracked open a couple of beers and had a dig through my collection for something 'nostalgic' to play.
After some deliberation I blew the dust off my copy of Left 4 Dead 2 and threw it in the drive. I didn't really feel like a long game, so I decided to play a bit of scavenge. Scavenge is a versus mode whereby the two teams take it in turns to collect gas cans as the survivors - while the other team tries to stop them as the infected.
It's a manic game mode, but the game is so slick, despite being a bit long in the tooth it really embarresses Duke Nukem Forever, I think it embarresses many games for the sheer fun factor. I 100% had 100% of gaming joy back and genuinely could've stayed up all night if not for the fact that my wife would stop speaking to me.
On Saturday night I had another crack at Expert Realism, and got in a great team. We got through most of Dark Carnival, but I was running out of time. It was great fun again, but more time consuming, we had three restarts in the tunnel of love after each time the last man getting incapped at the point where you switch the roller coaster off.
It got me thinking anyway - why do we all plug away trying to buy the latest game and play it? Some of us don't I suppose, but part of being ' a gamer ' is about being up to date with current games and the direction the platform and technology is moving. You can watch 'The Blurb' on a Saturday night, Challenge TV if you like, a short programme made be Ginx, a Uk gaming based tv channel (To my friends at Ginx - I'm still with you in spirit, even if my participation is down at the moment - maybe this explains why?) but that only leaves you with the desire to 'try' more games? Buy the latest games?
It struck me, playing Left 4 Dead 2 multiplayer, that in some respects games are a bit like armchair sports. Most of us though, are essentially changing sport every six months or less! If you decided to play sports like people play games, you'd never really get anywhere with anything, 3 months you're playing football like a nutter, then rugby, six months later La Cross, then Tennis, Badminton, Squash, Cricket...
You'd get very good at playing general sports in general but you'd be a master of none - although very fit!
We don't do this as gamers though? Is it because Video Games don't have the depth? Is it because they are seen as a hobby which should involve constantly changing games?
As something of a psychological experiment I'm going to test this out. At the moment I expect to get around 3 gaming sessions per week in. I will always dedicate one of these sessions to Left 4 Dead versus Multiplayer. And report back on the experience. Friday night I think will be the night, and come what may - I will play Left 4 Dead 2 versus Multiplayer in some form or other EVERY Friday night, as if it was my regular chosen 'sport'. I used to Tae Kwon Do, even have a website about Taekwondo tul and I went once a week at least for years. I won't get fit playing Left 4 Dead 2, but will I be content to treat it like the regular sport and dedicate Friday nights session to it?
Time will tell, progress and thoughts will be posted here.
That should keep the fickled 'GiantBomb Users' happy and allow me to ramble on in my usual way without people getting irrate at me.
Lately I've been complaining of losing my love of gaming a little. I've had a bit of a break from the hobby, been trying other things. I have discovered Lego Design by Me and constructed several large virtual Lego sets, one of which I even ordered and built... I'm writing about that experience on me Lego Design by Me Blog I've been getting more into the Star Wars Roleplaying Board a bit more and had some great fun doing collaborative writing.
There's always been something missing though. I like a game, I've always liked a game since I was six.
Sometimes it's surprising where you can find your enjoyment, but I had the most fun in recent memory gaming on Friday night. Wife had gone to bed tired, I cracked open a couple of beers and had a dig through my collection for something 'nostalgic' to play.
After some deliberation I blew the dust off my copy of Left 4 Dead 2 and threw it in the drive. I didn't really feel like a long game, so I decided to play a bit of scavenge. Scavenge is a versus mode whereby the two teams take it in turns to collect gas cans as the survivors - while the other team tries to stop them as the infected.
It's a manic game mode, but the game is so slick, despite being a bit long in the tooth it really embarresses Duke Nukem Forever, I think it embarresses many games for the sheer fun factor. I 100% had 100% of gaming joy back and genuinely could've stayed up all night if not for the fact that my wife would stop speaking to me.
On Saturday night I had another crack at Expert Realism, and got in a great team. We got through most of Dark Carnival, but I was running out of time. It was great fun again, but more time consuming, we had three restarts in the tunnel of love after each time the last man getting incapped at the point where you switch the roller coaster off.
It got me thinking anyway - why do we all plug away trying to buy the latest game and play it? Some of us don't I suppose, but part of being ' a gamer ' is about being up to date with current games and the direction the platform and technology is moving. You can watch 'The Blurb' on a Saturday night, Challenge TV if you like, a short programme made be Ginx, a Uk gaming based tv channel (To my friends at Ginx - I'm still with you in spirit, even if my participation is down at the moment - maybe this explains why?) but that only leaves you with the desire to 'try' more games? Buy the latest games?
It struck me, playing Left 4 Dead 2 multiplayer, that in some respects games are a bit like armchair sports. Most of us though, are essentially changing sport every six months or less! If you decided to play sports like people play games, you'd never really get anywhere with anything, 3 months you're playing football like a nutter, then rugby, six months later La Cross, then Tennis, Badminton, Squash, Cricket...
You'd get very good at playing general sports in general but you'd be a master of none - although very fit!
We don't do this as gamers though? Is it because Video Games don't have the depth? Is it because they are seen as a hobby which should involve constantly changing games?
As something of a psychological experiment I'm going to test this out. At the moment I expect to get around 3 gaming sessions per week in. I will always dedicate one of these sessions to Left 4 Dead versus Multiplayer. And report back on the experience. Friday night I think will be the night, and come what may - I will play Left 4 Dead 2 versus Multiplayer in some form or other EVERY Friday night, as if it was my regular chosen 'sport'. I used to Tae Kwon Do, even have a website about Taekwondo tul and I went once a week at least for years. I won't get fit playing Left 4 Dead 2, but will I be content to treat it like the regular sport and dedicate Friday nights session to it?
Time will tell, progress and thoughts will be posted here.
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