Yeah, various details like the two steps forward and one step back, are things I've noticed contributing to my disinterest. I noticed it before my last break, but it's certainly more noticeable now.
Died twice to the pirate spam at the control tower. It's 3 ground, then 2 aero, then 3 aero. You have to stunlock the ground troops one at a time while playing cover olympics with the others. Pretty much the only way not to die to the aeros is to super missile the first one and stunlock the other, then hope enough shit has blown up along the way to refill your missiles and super missile the first of the 3 aeros that show up next. The cover game with the remaining two is difficult, but you can take one down before your cover dries up.
Since they don't lock the door on the way back though, you can just shoot the door from across the tower then boost ball through it without fighting anything ^_^
Died once to each of the two rooms with the sentry bot pairs on the way out of the Thermal Visor run. At 99 health on Hypermode, either one can waste you in a single machine gun attack. Super missile one and then finish it with a half-charged wave beam, then stunlock the second. You may or may not die in the time it takes to switch weapons and finish off the first.
Two deaths to the very last room of the pirate base before escaping. It's four stealth pirates and a turret, they all aggro at once, you can only see one or the other at a time, and the far door doesn't always open quickly enough to just boost past them all without getting shot in the back. I tried to super missile the turret on the way in, but a pirate kept dropping in the way to eat it instead (it wasn't enough to kill him). The winning strategy was to boost ball past the pirates and missile-cancel the turret to death (which is faster than a super missile if you can't pre-charge it safely).
Died twice to Thardus. Most of the fight is easy as long as you don't get carpal tunnel easily, but on the last phase the homing rocks are in groups of 5-7, and on Hypermode you can't kill them nearly as quickly as they spawn. It becomes very important to drop thermal when shooting down homing rocks, because they overload your visor when they burst -- the first one lets you get hit by all of them, and the last one keeps you blinded long enough to get frozen. He'll also randomly ball up and run over you on the last phase, sometimes with homing rocks still out. It's a very, very messy phase, and if he chains several rock salvos you're almost just plain fucked because the salvo lasts through his recovery time and you have no opening to do any damage. Pretty much all you can do is hope for a missile reload, an opening to throw it, and enough health along the way to break even.
Took a shot at FTL bumped down to easy for the first time. Got all the way to the boss, but died on the second round. 4 shields are nothing against drone spam.
Took a shot at FTL bumped down to easy for the first time. Got all the way to the boss, but died on the second round. 4 shields are nothing against drone spam.
Defense 1 > Defense 2 in a lot of cases, not that I wouldn't use the DD1 if I had to (I just wouldn't always have it powered). The DD2 tries to shoot down everything, and can in the process miss the more important missiles, never mind how costly it is. The Heavy Lasers suck, but the Triple Artemis is what is going to really put you behind the 8-ball, generally. Two DD1s, or a DD1 plus an Anti-Drone Drone (although it's trash), or a DD1 plus a Combat I, are more bang for your buck overall.
All good weapons in themselves (assuming you're playing the Kestrel), but don't exactly have the best synergy. It would also been a good idea to have something alongside that, like a Burst 1 (no BL2 but it is functional), or a BL2 if you lucked into one (very expensive but one of the best weapons in the game), or perhaps even an Ion Charger. The Heavy 2 and BL2 don't sync up the best, and the former is better when paired with multiple Ion weapons since it hits like a tank while being best in bursts. The Artemis is also a solid weapon, though it is replaceable if you can get yourself a decent laser or Ion weapon. Unless you had the Defense Scrambler, there's no guarantee all of your missiles during the second phase would have gotten through, making it relatively unreliable.
L4 Shields is the way to go, although I tend to stop at L5/6 Engines, and put some extra padding into other places, before going hard on Engines. extra layer of Piloting to L3 since L2 is functionally necessary), extra Doors for the boarders... whatever my weakness(es) are.
I've won a couple times, and most of them involved cloak (to dodge missile spam) and ion bomb. Ion bomb is probably the best weapon in the game because you can disable shields right out of the gate.
If you ever see someone selling a weapon igniter, get it. Immediately. Even if you have to sell some of your current weapons.
Cloaking isn't strictly necessary, but it is a massive help for the missiles in each stage.
The Ion Bomb is great, though it has a long reload time and requires a missile, so I consider it more circumstantial than other weapons. Charge Ion or Burst Laser 2 are better, far as I care.
I also consider the Weapon Preigniter to be somewhat overrated. It is a strong help, and can cleanly get you through the game with the right setup (or not, because getting the first attacks off are great); but it's not exactly worth 120 scrap, to me.
Two deaths leaving through Magmoor after Thardus -- one to the 3-aero room right outside the elevator, and one to the burrowers shortly afterward. Burrowers are surprisingly dangerous on this run. They hit very hard, have a tiny window to kill them, and it's difficult to ignore them safely.
Died once to the ghosts at the Sunchamber artifact. I guess I could/should have waited until I had X-ray and a better suit, but I cleaned them up easily enough the next time. Really, the hardest part is just getting up the Sun Tower, because you have to blow two cordite murals to open the path, and that means farming the wasps in the room until they refill you for the second super missile.
I died once more under very embarrassing circumstances. See, after the ice beam, I was going to go through Tallon, to Magmoor, to Thardus's room to start the trek for the Gravity Suit. What I didn't count on was that after jumping down the one-way cliff at the crash site, your only exits are into the frigate that you can't clear yet, or through a missile door toward your ship. And I was out of missiles. None of the pirates, boxes, or beetles outside the crash dropped any, so I had to poke into the ship to try and get even just one more. I died after two forays in and out of the frigate, fighting a pair of turrets inside and a pair of aeros outside each time, getting zero missiles in the process.
Also, the path from the ruins to the crash side goes through a morph ball path with a missile expansion in the middle. The ceiling is low enough to cause problems jumping over it, so your best chance is to ball jump over it. It's a lot easier with the wiimote jumpball, but I still whiffed it three times and had to restart. The good news is I can just use the other elevator now that the great tree path around the frigate is open.
Total deaths: 13
Accidental upgrade restarts: 3
So, next up is punching most of the way into Phazon Mines for the power bombs. This is probably the one part of the run that terrifies me the most, because those wave and power troopers can fuck you really fast. I remember it was hard enough on Hypermode when I had everything, and even though Omega Pirate might be harder at least he has a save room right outside.
the general reception to The Beginner's Guide (the new game from The Stanley Parable guy, which I'm sure he's sick of being referred to as by now) is that it's not as good as the latter.
I haven't played it, and indeed, I won't, but the reasons being given kind of bother me? It's apparently not as "clever". What does that mean?
I am tempted to read in narratives here about a guy making something deeply meta and sarcastic and occasionally cruel gets praised for it and then gets slammed when he tries to make something genuine and honest, but, well, I'm not sure that that's the case.
idk
I watched a Let's Play and I think it's great and one of these days I'll buy it.
i think Pokémon and exploration go together very well, in that there could stand to be a lot more exploration in the games, and when it is diminished (as in Colosseum) its absence is extremely conspicuous
so basically seconding the neatness of Pokémon open world game idea
+ social stuff could be even better if implemented right
kinda apprehensive about GO tho cuz iirc Game Freak aren't actually involved?
well it's the people who made Ingress and there seem to be a lot of people into that?
Prime minimalist Hypermode run: I have the power bombs, grapple beam, x-ray, and the artifact from the phazon elite, so I can use the water tunnel to skip most of it now. Fuck Phazon Mines, oh my God. Almost everything can kill you almost instantly.
Three deaths to the first room of Wave Troopers, because they aggro three on you at once, shoot through the obstacles, and there's lots of shit behind you to keep you from backing up. Two to the pair of power troopers shortly afterward, because there's no cover in the room. Once to the ice troopers right after the first elite. Once to that fuckawful room of 2x wave and 3x power because I accidentally strafed off the catwalk and into the middle of the room.
I died once to the rotating electric bars because I was a dumbass and tried to rush it. Apparently they do at least a full tank of damage on hypermode because I died instantly.
I died once to the cloaked sentry in the power bomb room, because he kept fucking reflecting my shots which I had no idea he could even DO, and then shooting straight through the dynamo which isn't supposed to be possible. The second time I lured him to the entrance and shot him through the metal grating. Bastard. I have no regrets cheesing you.
I had the plasma beam for a few seconds, then promptly died to the 3x aero room again on the way to Phendrana for artifacts. Fuck it, I'll do it later.
More people have said that and been killed than there are thorium decay products.
Hotline Miami is such a great game. Yes. It is influenced by Drive, Cocaine Cowboys, Miami Vice, postmodern literature, and the 1980s, and it is really fun. Crystal introduced me to it. There is also a sequel that I haven't explored fully yet.
In a similar vein, I've recently introduced Crystal to the Metal Gear Solid series, and she has been enjoying it quite a bit.
i have basically zero interest in transformers but devastation looks kind of neat tbh. in retrospect letting platinum do a transformers game makes a whole lot of sense, its exactly the kind of absurd premise they thrive on
I might have said this before but tossing 173 mods into Minecraft won't actually make it more fun if you don't have any creative or aesthetic sense whatsoever
I might have said this before but tossing 173 mods into Minecraft won't actually make it more fun if you don't have any creative or aesthetic sense whatsoever
I might have said this before but tossing 173 mods into Minecraft won't actually make it more fun if you don't have any creative or aesthetic sense whatsoever
I don't necessarily subscribe to this logic. because some mods add monsters / events / items.
The basic tenant is that yes, adding 173 mods to minecraft usually will result in something that grabs at the imagination more than vanilla minecraft.
Child of Light has surprisingly fun combat. It's turn-based, but there's a rather neat "interrupt" mechanic - if you are hit while you're casting a spell or attacking, you're knocked back on the timeline. There's also a slow-down mechanic that the player can use, to slow down enemies on the timeline. You don't always want to slow down enemies, since interrupting them is to your advantage, but it gets tricky with multiple enemies with different base speeds to do that.
When you have two in your party, you can also get a sort of stun-lock going by interrupting the enemy repeatedly. You can only do this for so long, however, as the slow-down mechanic has limited power. You can't use it indiscriminately, though it does have quite a long lifespan.
That sounds like what Penny Arcade 3&4 did. You could interrupt to push them back at any time, but it was only really effective right before they moved.
Comments
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Defense 1 > Defense 2 in a lot of cases, not that I wouldn't use the DD1 if I had to (I just wouldn't always have it powered). The DD2 tries to shoot down everything, and can in the process miss the more important missiles, never mind how costly it is. The Heavy Lasers suck, but the Triple Artemis is what is going to really put you behind the 8-ball, generally. Two DD1s, or a DD1 plus an Anti-Drone Drone (although it's trash), or a DD1 plus a Combat I, are more bang for your buck overall.
(Source)
The most tedious was the item achieves.
And the funnest was the time/no items run, Pure Shovelry
Plague Knight still requires a speed run, destroying all the check points, and new game.
But in general Plague Knight is a bit harder to play, since a lot of the game is balanced around Shovels.
In a similar vein, I've recently introduced Crystal to the Metal Gear Solid series, and she has been enjoying it quite a bit.