Elemental - The First Hour

The world was in chaos.  Mobs began pillaging and protesting across the street.  They decried the world that was made for them.  Yet this is the world we live in, a world in cataclysm.  Monsters, men and fools roam the land.  They seek power and wish to rule the world that has formed.  This was a world of magic - channelers could harness the very elements of the world.

I started noting the events of the world.  There was one who seek power not with the finesse of magic but with the raw power of the club.  My channeler, my first to rule was a brute.  He called himself Massel for his bulging tough body.  Unlike most people in the world, he had a greenish pigment for his skin.  You could call him a channeler cause he knows he has some ability but I prefer to call him a brigand.  He started out with unbelievable strength, dexterity and an unbelievably hardy frame.  He wasn't wise nor smart though and the only spellbook  he had was on enchantment.  He used to be a warrior but he was cast out by his former tribe because of his green skin.  The day he was cast out was the day his rage brought him to kill his entire tribe and show the world his raw power.

He swore allegiance to a neighboring empire - the empire of Ummer.  Massel formed a small village surrounded by rocks - a barren wasteland.  He came across a scribe - Janusk who willingly joined him though Massel found the scribe's way of giving information to be disorganized.  In anger, he came across a farmer and smashed his skull with a club just to show how angry he was with the kingdom interface.  News spread across the land that Massel murdered someone in cold blood and began branding him as no better than a brigand - but that what he is  - a brutish brigand.

He came across the spider empire ruler.  He tried to demand money but it seems there was no way to that.  Either that or he was simply too dumb to actually demand such a thing.  So doing what he does best, he raised his gigantic club and smacked the ruler on the head.  The spider king falls mumbling nonsense.  Before the fatal blow could be dealt, the spider king teleports away.  In rage, Massel charges for the city where the spider king ruled.

Massel raced across the dusty streets where he saw the spider king.  The spider empire wasn't really much of a threat this early in time.  They had no armies but their king and in single combat - no one outmatches Massel in power.  This time there was no escape.  Massel beat up the spider king in front of the whole village and thus they people of the empire decided to follow the strongest - Massel.

Well, that's about it.  A few turns later, another empire declared war on our muscle bound antihero.  Their army was huge and well Massel - though really strong 1v1, was no match against an group of soldiers armed with staffs and so I will chronicle a new journey later once I start a new one.

I'm playing with Elemental 1.07 – it does slow down after a certain number of turns and I have no real idea what I'm doing in my kingdom.  Elemental is definitely flawed but with a certain amount of polish, I think this will be my go to game for quite a sometime.

Beat Hazard

I remember a year back when I got Audiosurf to play while listening to my music.  Now, there's a new indie game (XBLA port) over in the PC called Beat Hazard.  It's basically a Geometry Wars clone.  Waves of enemies pour through the screen while you dodge and shoot them.

The difference between this and other clones is that your music plays a part in determining the level.  Fast and exciting music gets hordes of enemies and your ship shoots a stream of bullets.  Slow and simple music requires you to make more accurate shots as you won't be firing as much.

It's still on sale for just around $7 over at Steam til April 22.

Just to show off...

Chaos Rising First Impressions

I only really got into the single player of Dawn of War 2: Chaos Rising recently as I got really frustrated with my Bad Company 2 crashing.  I've played several missions and realized that this game is definitely for veterans of the original DoW2.  Tough missions will test your skill and tactical prowess.  New players will probably have a difficult time.  I haven't encountered the old mission formula of destroy several things then go fight the big bad boss.  Missions tend to be more dynamic and try to push the story more.  You'll get a taste of this early on the second mission.  I thought it would follow the big boss formula but no, this mission forces you to attack the enemy encampment then run back to your starting point to defend one of your companions.

I haven't used the corruption mechanic in the game.  Corruption basically is the alteration of your character skills and can be increased by doing (or failing to do) certain objectives.  Your squads gain different skills like Thaddeus gain the raptor jump in replacement for the assault jump.    I have yet to use the skill but based on the description, it looks really powerful than your normal jump.  For instance, one mission you'll have a choice to either destroy a gate to get to your enemy or use jump packs to open the gate.  Destroying the gate will make you reach your target faster but will leave the guardsmen more vulnerable.  I believe that being corrupt will lead to a different ending and I do not yet want to see that.  Another way to increase your corruption is to equip corrupt items.  I've noticed that corrupt items deal far more damage than the regular ones maybe this is why I find the game difficult.  I'm not playing evil.

I should definitely go... for Chaos!

Bad Company 2 Crash

RAGE!!!!

(This will be a very incoherent post - more than the usual)

EA/DICE - your game, Bad Company 2 has some real crash issues.  Before the patch, you have connection problems to your servers.  After the patch, my game crashes every 15 minutes!  Fifteen!

I can't play and finish any game, all I seem to do is run to the frontlines, get killed then crash.  The patch seems to have erased my single player save so I have to redo the first 3 missions and slog through the crashing.

I've tried updating and downgrading video card and sound card drivers, disabling on board sound, over clocking and under clocking my video card and cpu but nothing changes anything!

I won't be playing this for now until you fix this EA / DICE!  (well maybe until ATI catalyst 10.3 pops up)

Bad Company Hardcore

Are you a tough soldier?  Do you like realism?  Or do you simply just like being killed without knowing where it came from?  Hardcore mode in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 shows off how a realistic the game can get.  You don't get any crosshairs in hardcore mode thus firing from the hip relies that you make sure your target is at the center of your screen.  I probably spend most of my time finding a good position and aiming my gun against enemy targets.  Players who run and gun will find this strategy nullified in hardcore mode.  I can't stand people who go lone wolf in hardcore, they're just going to get themselves killed.

Another thing one would notice is the lack of a HUD.  You can't see how much ammo you have nor do you have a minimap to pinpoint enemy positions.  The "reload" message pops up when you're running low but you won't know how many total rounds you have left.  Without the minimap, spotting and the motion sensor are rendered useless.  Sure, you could pull up the large map that blocks you're view but that's of no use in a firefight.  If you relied on the little orange arrow to spot on enemies then you will have a problem now as the only names and symbols you can see are you're own team.  I prefer using pistols at short range in hardcore as you can  aim and move around at the same time.

Vehicles also do not display their hit points.  You have to rely on the vehicle alarm when you're about to be blown up.  I love the feeling of being in a tank and just spotting enemies.  I'd go "Enemy target - 10 o clock, in the house, 50 meters".  The tank driver would then aim and fire. We'd have a cup of tea in the vehicle as we watch the house crumble before our might.

Players need more medic kits and ammo boxes in hardcore as they can't heal themselves nor know how much ammo you have left.  Using the spot button, players will still call out for enemy infantry and tanks but without the arrow or minimap, spotting becomes useless.  A player with a mic can call out the same thing at greater accuracy.

I've enjoyed being a sniper in hardcore mode as snipers always do 1 hit kills.  Conversely, I can't stand enemy snipers hitting me and I can barely see where they came from.  With my sniper phobia, I sometimes take pot shots at shrubs thinking they're snipers.  I like the strategic feel of hardcore where at long range, I'd specifically set my load out to have a 4x zoom and an increased rifle accuracy.  At shorter ranges, I'd take out the zoom for more grenades and body armor instead of the accuracy bonus.  I probably switch to more classes depending on the situation in hardcore rather than sticking to one class and loadout in the normal mode.

Rush mode is far better than conquest in hardcore as each side has a definite side.  Defenders are on one end and attackers are at the opposite.  I feel I get surrounded in conquest mode often.

Bad Company 2 Issues

Yesterday, I probably had the worst experience with Bad Company 2.  It has nothing to do with the gameplay but merely with the servers.  It took me maybe half an hour to search for servers only to get the failure to connect to EA online error.  I then tried joining games people in my friend's list were in.   I have unbelievably bad ping in their games so I quit out.  It then took me another half hour to search for another game to connect.  I failed to connect on several servers and accidentally clicked a hardcore server.  Annoyingly, I connected to that server.  I decided to play there thinking I don't want to waste another half hour trying to connect online.  The great thing there is that I had a definitely good score.  I also had a decent squad where we would hide in some area and ambush enemy squads then hide in some other area.  Yet, all good things end when you lose your EA online connection.  I then had to wait another few minutes to connect to another game (a decent one at last) which I played for an hour and realized I should get to bed or else I'd be sleepy on the next day.

I think they're doing server maintenance to fix things up.  Go EA, don't be like Activision or Ubisoft..get this problem fixed!