ScampLAN

Instead of going to Multiplay’s messed up i43, we’ve gone for a smaller, friends-only LAN at home.. in our newly decorated lounge 😀

So far we’ve mostly played singleplayer games, with the guys nagging me to complete Crysis 2.. which I’ve now done, though I was shown up by Ali completing both Bulletstorm and Red Faction: Armageddon in two days!

The demo for Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine made an appearance too..

Yay for lots of dead Orks!  I found the first level harder than the second, with many retries of the last room.. the big Orks were a bit painful.  The second level was much easier as the Jump Pack meant that for quite a way, all I needed to do was land on enemies to kill them 🙂

This game is now on the wanted list.. along with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Gears of War 3..

I’ve also tried out DC Universe Online, but I’m not going to rush to buy it.  Although what I played was quite fun, I think the appeal may run out after a while.. from what I’ve heard, there isn’t a lot to do at max level, and unless I had friends playing too, I can’t see that I’d want to run around doing the same thing too many times.  Maybe if the game turns up cheap..

We’ve also picked up the DLC for Borderlands, as it was cheap on Steam.. though we now have to get on with our game sometime!

Oblivion Kitteh

I’ve started another playthrough of Oblivion, this time as a Khajiit.

This is in part because I want to be a sneaky, sneaky thief.. I want to see the Grey Fox questline.. and in part because Khajiit, along with Argonians, were often slaves in the previous game, and I expect to come across some different dialogue if not outright hatred from some people.

The unlimited night-vision “Eye of Night” will probably see a lot of use while sneaking around stealing stuff.. in the meantime it just looks good to have something different!  I’m also a fan of Kitteh’s acrobatics, though I levelled this fairly quickly in the past due to my short-cuts across rough ground.

On my first playthrough I decided to go my own way rather than rush to find Martin.
This meant that when I got to the first Oblivion gate, I was far higher level than I should have been, and the NPCs were slaughtered rather than providing me with a nice little group to go into battle with.  This time round I’m pretty much aiming to do more of the main story before heading out to wreak havok 🙂

I’m only hoping to get this done before the release of Skyrim, in November, as I suspect there’ll be little time for other games once I have that 😉

Age of Empires Online

I used to play a lot of Age of Empires with Tim, years and years ago, mostly co-op against the AI as neither of us wanted to kill each other.  My dad also played, though lacking the internet, we weren’t able to play together.

I tried multiplayer when I first got the internet, via some Microsoft service.. and was almost immediately yelled at by randoms who determined any new player to be unworthy of joining a game.  Eventually I found a game, only to realise there was some cheating going on when my opponents appeared with cars.  Yeah.. right.  Back to the AI, then 😉

Age of Empires Online is free to play, although there is “premium content” available, adding new civilizations as well as less useful decorative items.

Each player starts off with their own Capital City, to which buildings can be added to gain new technologies and units.  You can also pick up new quests here, the first of which are all about teaching the basics of killing enemies, gathering food and building units.. this all works the same as the original Age of Empires gameplay.

The “online” part of the game consists of co-operative questing and PvP.. you can team up with other players to complete quests, though it isn’t required.

I think that it’ll be fairly difficult for people to cheat, though I don’t know what advantages the premium content will give people.. I guess we’ll have to see whether multiplayer with randoms will be worth playing.

3 Million Dwarfs!?

It’s over 3 million!

Hopefully now the end of my obsession.. though my work PC won’t handle much more.. so now maybe I’ll get on with the challenges instead 😉

Trying out Holy

I’ve been trying out a Holy spec in the last few weeks, partly due to being pestered to try it, and partly due to the lack of AOE healing as Disc.. if I’m ever to get into the Rise of the Zandalari dungeons then I’ll need to be able to do it..

I’m having mixed results though.

At first I found it fun to be trying something new, and when dungeons run smoothly I like that I’m able to handle it without my usual spells.. but at other times I’m running out of mana so much faster than I should be, or being faced with wipes which may or may not be my fault.  Today’s long wipe-fest dungeon made me want to give it up again as I kept thinking if I’d been Disc I’d have been hitting the right spells and maybe pulled it back when things went wrong..

Apparently, as Holy, I should have better mana regen than I do as Disc.. yet I’m finding that I run out of mana towards the end of most fights.  Possible solutions include giving DPS less proper heals, only Renew.. but then if something else hits them and they die, I’ll be in the firing line for not healing them enough.  Otherwise, it’s a long, boring read through the forums to see whether I’m using the right (read: most efficient) spells.. but with all the maths which I don’t fully understand, that feels more like work than gaming.

Maybe this is why more people play DPS.. get that wrong and nothing much happens..

Obsession..

There’s something obsessive in me that always wants to get a higher score in Tower Defense games..

Dwarfs!? Base Defense mode has turned out to be something I keep coming back to, and despite so far being unable to really improve on my score, I keep.. on.. trying..

I usually always get up to Armageddon Wave 1 or 2.. but I’ve seen much higher scores than the sub 2 million scores I’ve been getting, which just makes me want to keep trying.. not too healthy..

Duke Nukem Forever

After trying out the Duke Nukem Forever demo a while ago, I wasn’t going to pick up the full game.. however, we have a Love Film subscription which includes games, and we decided to rent it for the 360.

I’m rather glad we did, because it’s really not such a bad game.  Simple, maybe.. still limited to two guns, but in the game itself it doesn’t feel so much of a limitation as it did in the demo, as you frequently come across more weapons that you can switch between.. and for the most part there’s a decent number of enemies and plenty of ammo.

The game started off like the demo, at the urinal, passing through the toilets and shower, with EGO boosts for interacting with certain things.. including throwing poo.  There was also an achievement for this, which means anyone looking over my Xbox Gamercard will now know my shame!  Following the Cycloid boss fight, you go for an interview on TV.. of course I explored the building on the way down, microwaving popcorn, signing an autograph for a little boy (badly, with the game pad!) and sticking my fingers in wall sockets.. Zap!  My TV show was cancelled.. so on I went.. no aliens yet, but a rather annoying guy mouthing off in the next room.  I was going to walk past him, but noticed a prompt as I got close which let me punch him.. that gave me an achievement and shut the guy up 😉

This was the sort of silly humour I’d expected from Duke..

The next level, the Duke Cave, had more random things to interact with, aliens to fight, and a nice puzzle involving a remote-controlled car.  After this, the aliens attacked properly, and I got to fire on the mothership itself!  Plenty of variation, which continued as I was then shrunk, and had to hitch a ride in a child’s toy car..

As the place was under attack there were plenty of aliens to avoid, and obstacles which I jumped over thanks to turbo speed and ramps created from conveniently fallen posters.. sadly the car didn’t make it further than this level as the final jump over a chasm ended with it wrecked.

Here was another boss fight, and the annoying twins’ abduction by aliens.  There was also a golden Shotgun here, which Tim tells me (now I’ve swapped it out) gives an achievement if you keep hold of it till the end of the game.  D’oh!

Duke doesn’t like his women being taken.. so he goes after the aliens, heading to the Duke Dome.  Highlights here included an ugly, floating boss who fired rockets from his undercarriage.. a good few waves of enemies and plenty of big guns and turrets, and a huge boss which had me laughing out loud at the end as the finishing move included drumming on his nuts, then him keeling over, cupping them!

The alien Hive was the next level.. creepy, with crying women moaning about being pregnant.. well.. fair enough, as the babies inside them were rather more like chest-bursters..  the twins exploded as I got to them, after a bit of dialogue which was more annoying than funny.  Creepy, with organic-looking textures, fast-moving bugs which reminded me of headcrabs, spindly arms which poked out of walls and hurt, and pods ready to explode.. there were also some bizarre wall-boobs, which Duke enjoyed slapping, and very dodgy sphincter-doors which Duke had to tickle to open..

Eventually, I found the Alien Queen..

She shields herself with her claws, so to hurt her you have to throw pipes onto the bouncy pads at the sides, and detonate them when they reach her.. this makes her drop her guard and allows time to fire a rocket or two at her, before she fires more Pregnators at you.  As well as damaging you, these squirt ‘juice’ into your face!

I haven’t managed to beat the Queen yet, as when I get her to low health she destroys the useful jump pads and brings along an “octobrain” which so far has put me down straight away.

Short break from the game, then.. but I will have to finish this soon so that we can return it! 🙂

Dwarfs!? Base Defense

Dwarfs!? has a Tower Defense mode called Base Defense.  This mode starts off with the diggers, who actually dig out the paths the monsters will use, and with a little direction and coin, you can have them create a reasonable maze.

However, you also need to reserve enough money to build towers.. there are eight types to choose from, from the simplest, the Stone Tower, to the powerful but expensive Lightning Tower.  Once the first wave of monsters have been dealt with, a second gate opens, with a second digger.. and the same with the third and fourth gates.

Rather than build a second maze, I made him cut a path to the start of the first, so the monsters pass by the towers I’ve already built.

After all the gates have been opened, the next waves allow for banking up some money.. and you should, as you want the Missile Tower or the Lightning Tower for dealing with the Titan 🙂

Later on there’s a level with many of these swarming in, and as they end up arriving in pairs, my defenses are proving inadequate.. I can take one down, but that leaves the next free to run to the middle and destroy it!  I may have to check out what others have done, as there are some seriously amazing scores on the leaderboard! 🙂

Attempts on Occu’thar’s Life

With the release of the Firelands patch, a new boss, Occu’thar, was added to Baradin Hold.

Occu’thar is a demon dog, who basically ate all the others in his prison, and is now too fat to get out.  Priceless 🙂

We’ve set out to kill him a few times, but so far haven’t been able to.. in the groups we’ve been in so far, we’ve all taken a lot of damage from the horrible Eyes of Occu’thar, which is then quickly followed by fire which again.. people don’t always get out of.

However, we did meet a few nice people on one of the attempts.. so it’s not all bad 🙂

Trouble in Terrorist Town

Trouble in Terrorist Town is a mod for Garry’s Mod, with Traitor terrorists hiding amongst Innocent terrorists.  Yes, a mod within a mod, and “innocent” terrorists.. x)

A friend invited me along last night, and I found that while the idea is simple, actually figuring out who is who, and knowing quite what to do, isn’t so easy.. though it is rather exciting when playing as a Traitor! 🙂

Roles are set by the game at the beginning of each round, with a few players being assigned to the Traitor team and the rest to the Innocent team. Traitors can see each other and plot against the Innocent team; their job is to kill off the Innocent team without being caught.  Innocent players don’t know which players are Traitors, and have to rely on what information they can find on corpses.. such as that player’s last words, or the weapon used to kill them.  There are also Detectives amongst the Innocent team.. they have additional information-gathering abilities, though beyond that, I didn’t quite make out.

The first few minutes were just confusing.. I managed to land a Traitor role, but erring on the side of caution I waited a while before attempting to kill anyone, hiding up in a tower where I tried to push somebody off the side of the building, fluffed it, but somehow managed to avoid suspicion.. that time.

Once dead, you can’t communicate, which would have come in handy as I was killed in a tunnel just after calling out who I was with.  Player deaths aren’t announced until somebody discovers the body, so a possibly useful clue.. the name of the player I was with.. went unused that time.