Non-Lethal Takedowns

This was actually going to be a post on the Stealth Action genre but I decided to talk about the game I squeal whenever I think about. METAL-Fucking-GEAR. Yes I am one of those fan boys who will gush at the thought of Solid Snake, yes I realize that there is a huge penis joke in all their names and I don't give a shit they could bone me all they wanted to. *AHEM* Back to the topic on hand (lulz penis goes in hand... no more penises sorry) I love MGS like nobodies business what I like the most is non-lethal takedowns when I first started playing I would mow everyone down and take absolutely no prisoners. Just whole-sale slaughter man.

But one day I decided to just sneak around for shits and giggles. I am so glad I took that chance that day it was like a completely different game at first I enjoy slitting their throats (MGS3: Snake Eater... yep penises) and watching the the blood gush out from their necks like a tiny crimson fountain. But as I got used to sneaking around I grew attached to the guards patrolling around especially when I would revisit areas for secrets or loot or just because it was part of my mission. And I gave them names like Steve or Frank and Henry and I would imagine that they were so excited to be done soon and get back home to their families. And that is the point where every time I killed a guard I will feel sad because they had a life all that they were doing was trying to provide for their families.

So I stopped killing and became a pacifist. Every time I needed a guard to disappear I would take him down by choking him until he passed out, or shooting a tranq round to the base of his skull, or more recently stun him with the handy dandy stun knife. And I would reload any time that I would kill one in accident if he fell over the side of a rail or if he tripped his own trap, it didn't matter he was going to live damnit. My mission was not going to compromise the lives of innocent guards who were merely pawns, no they were all going to live happily ever after. And I never felt more proud than when they brought a pawn from MGS1: The Twin Snakes (since I played the GameCube version) and put him in MGS4: Guns of the Patriots and gave him a pretty happily ever after ending.

I do however still like killing people just not the innocents in any game for that matter. And I just wish more games gave you the option to spare someone and have it affect the out come, I'm looking at you CoD. Anyways that's all I have for today.

I'm no hero,
                  toodlekittens

Skyrim: a fanboy's attempt at giving light to the TES series.

Ok, so this week I'm once again obsessing over the newest Elder Scrolls installment: Skyrim. For those of you who are not familiar with this series (How dare you?? Why don't you just log off and go play some more Madden?) It is a very expansive, open-world, fantasy RPG. This game seems like it will mimic the jump that Oblivion made from Morrowind. I do regret to inform you that there are no added playable races; we are stuck with Altmer, Argonian, Bosmer, Breton, Dunmer, Imperial (btw...who really plays Imperials?), Khajiit, Nord, Orc, and Redguard. That being said, according to www.elderscrolls.com all of the character models have been revamped and are way more distinct than before. One of the features of TESV that made me most excited is the ability to dual-wield weapons. Can you say sneak attack with two daggers?? You can also pull a dualy with spells if you're a mage-type like I usually am. And as for spells, they are more logical to their elemental typing: frost spells drain stamina from opponents as well as slow their movement, and fire spells have a DOT effect and can ignite the environment (YESSS!). On a different note, for those of you who think that the previous marksman scheme was a little lacking, arrows are now hard to come by and do massive amounts of damage (this may or may not be an improvement). Generally, I never use shields but with the new, Skyrim bash function they are adding, I just may.

Did I mention that you can make your own weapons at a forge? Well don’t get too excited…along with that, they have integrated a professions aspect to the game; players can now preform cooking, woodcutting, mining, and other such rubbish that sucks many pointless hours out of you (thank WoW again for driving these tedious mini-games). On a more positive note, players can now use stamina to sprint as well as jump, which will allow for charge attacks and the ability to better flee your enemy. I think that this will greatly add to the realism of the game.

Do you ever create a new Oblivion character just to play the dungeon portion in the beginning again? I almost liked the idea that I didn't have to subscribe to a class and suffer the punishments later for picking something that I thought was fun at the time. The entirety of Skyrim is like that; skills increase as you use them (they are easier to level as they increase). This means that the character's "class" will be a reflection on you, and not vice versa. The creators have instilled a ‘Perks’ feature like the one we know and love from the Fallout games. All of these should help to smooth out the gameplay of Skyrim.

Why, oh faithful reader, should you drop $60 on Skyrim on November 11^th? The entire main story is based around fighting dragons! And If that weren’t enough (greedy little buggers!), you learn that you are essentially infused with dragon’s blood. Slaying a dragon will grant you skills like dragon shouts, the ability to manipulate time, and even summon your dragon brethren. If you liked the other Elder Scrolls, then you’ll probably enjoy this one as well. All I know is that I’m just as excited as some eleven year old girl with a backstage pass to a Bieber concert and I can’t wait to donate another three hundred or so hours into the series. Until next time folks, and remember: a life AFK is a life wasted.

-G

P.S. I should probably give some sources so I don’t wind up getting sued (hey, it could happen)… all information was gathered primarily from various visits towww.elderscrolls.com and some general info is fromhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyrim (Wikipedia is a legitimate source, dagnabbit!). Go to either of these places for more info on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Medal of Honor (2010) Part I

Back in summer of 2010 I had to seriously debate about which new game I wanted more. Call of Duty: Black Ops, or the new Medal of Honor game. I turned to my good friend, toodlekittens, and asked his opinion. He told me that if I was looking for another CoD game, I should just get Black Ops. If I wanted a difficult, tactical fps that boasts a more accurate physics engine, then I should consider MoH. I thought I had only one option, so I went with Blops because it was something I knew I’d be familiar and comfortable with. Plus the trailers looked badass. Luckily enough, I was able to pick up MoH on sale after Christmas as well.

Was it a good choice? Absolutely. I don’t regret purchasing it. It is definitely not the standard Call of Duty game, though. It was produced by Danger Close, and the setting is the war in the Middle East. The weirdest thing about this game is that the single player campaign runs off of the Unreal Engine 3, but the online multiplayer runs off of the Frostbite engine. I still am not entirely sure of what I should think of this. I like the overall feel of the campaign’s engine, but it can be lacking sometimes. I also like the feel of the multiplayer engine as well, but I will delve into that more later.

Overall, I really enjoyed the game. The campaign might have been a little on the short side, but it was still substantial enough to keep me focused and in the game. I did my first run through on Medium difficulty. For the some of the missions, I felt like I was on recruit difficulty on CoD. I would hate to see easy difficulty. I ran around with my pistol and knife for the majority of some missions (turns out they’re achievements, so I can’t complain) and had no problems. Then I got to some other missions. There is one mission where you have to pilot an attack helicopter. That was quite difficult to do. The game was not always clear on your objectives, but it was fairly straightforward otherwise.

When I first did a mission that had a sniper rifle, I was very disappointed after looking down the sights. There wasn’t much of a zoom, and it gave the impression of walleye. Which was a little disorienting. Also, being used to CoD, there was no idle sway. As it turns out, that wasn’t really sniping. That was just using a scoped battle rifle. In a later mission, you get to use a scoped Barrett .50 cal. For those of you who think that it wouldn’t be all that special never tried using it. This…this was sniping. The idle sway was ridiculous, and there was no way to steady it. You had to time it properly in order to get that kill, and you had to deal with wind (not a huge factor) and bullet flight paths. Want that head shot? Better aim up. But after getting used to it, getting kills was extremely satisfying. After completing that part of the mission, I was disappointed that there wasn’t more, and wanted to go back and do it over. Rest assured, you get to snipe more in other missions. But I feel that was probably the best part of the campaign.

Overall, I enjoyed the campaign. It was captivating and seemed…well, somewhat realistic.

Keep posted for a follow up, in which I dive into the multiplayer, and Tier One game modes.

Omissions And Updates

Hi all,

Darth Marth again with some omissions and updates (like the title says. I wouldn't lie to you now good people). I would first like to mention my favorites in the music category. I am somewhat your typical metal head. I enjoy many forms of rock to metal and can school many in the many genres of those categories. (ESPECIALLY Scream-o [or however it's spelled] it does NOT exist!) Ok now that I got that off my chest, some of my favorite bands! First and foremost I love Metallica. Always have, and always will. And they are pretty much my #1 band. Next up (and in no particular order) I love me some Avenged Sevenfold, Bullet For My Valentine, Atreyu, August Burns Red, Amon Amarth, Demon Hunter, Disturbed, Godsmack, Kamelot, Korn, (old) Linkin Park, Mudvayne, Rage Against The Machine, Rise Against, System Of A Down, Tool, Sonic Syndicate, Trivium, plus many others that I'm not going to name off. My favorite new(ish) band would have to be Hail The Villain. Seriously check them out excellent hard rock. And last but definitely not least, Coheed and Cambria has to be my #2 favorite band and current music binge. (Thanks in large part to Gibmaster over there). Seriously people. Everything about this band is fucking epic. The story behind the music, the talent of the members, the music itself is so amazing and unheard of by any (semi) mainstream bands I know of. I fully recommend you fellow nerds check that shit out. 'Tis GLORIOUS.

Ok now on to the other half, more on Dragon Age: Origins. This game is very well done and never ceases to amaze me. I mean at first I was pissed at the game (especially humans in general. Chicken Fuckers.) The human origin story absolutely drove me mad when everybody had to go and be a douche and to make it worse as the game progressed humans didn't get any better! If I was in my original human character's position I probably would have killed myself out of sheer depression for being associated with such douchebaggery. So instead I subjected my wonderful elf warrior, (yes he's like Legolas so shut it,) to the disease that is human greed. Oh well he seems no more worse for the wear. One thing I absolutely love about the game is the character interaction. Relationships with different characters affect who you use and each scenario is different. Phenomenal!! I will say one thing about romances in the game, 1 why on earth can't my character bang the old chick?! I mean really??? Maybe my guy is into that sort of thing? And 2 why the hell can't my Elvish boy find a cute Elvish girl to romance? What's with all the white human chicks?? Hmmm perhaps my guy will just be an emotionless cyborg. Or like Spock. Just made myself seem nerdier..... C'est la vie.

Until then my fellow nerdlings,

Marth

Introduction Part IV: The reckoning

My name is Melek, and I'm a level 85 Orc Warlock...or maybe just a run-of-the-mill geek with too much time on his hands lol. Hello everyone, Josh here. I'm 21 and a nursing major at Ferris State University (Hey... I'm all man I swear.) I'm a beer snob and enjoy a fine glass of ale; to me liquor is just nasty. Music is huge part of my life, whether it is listening to some of my favorite bands and composers (gasp classical???), or struggling to shred on my Les Paul. Also, I am "That Guy” when it comes to The Simpsons... recite a quote and I can tell you who said it and probably the episode/ what season it came from. I’ll pretty much eat anything I can get my hands on (a fifth payday? Don't mind if I do) and am a chronic gamer. I enjoy mostly Fantasy RPG and FPS, but hey... Sometimes you gotta pop in some FORZA II.

Aside from the 360, I also have fallen into the bottomless pit that is MMORPGs. As you could probably tell, WoW has claimed many, many hours of my life, and I might just complain about the warping blizzard has subjected it to since vanilla. Other favorites would be The Elder Scrolls series, in which I have easily over 300 hours into, and Fallout 3. I swear Bethesda is on a mission to steal my time and money. As far as the FPS go, I'm Halo series all the way. CoD has a better point system and all that jazz, but at the end of the day, I just want to teabag some stupid 11 year-old douche I just killed who was previously talking crap and dancing around as an elite. I’m currently playing Morrowind and Fallout New Vegas (thanks Marth). I don’t know about you kiddies, but every time I hear something new about TESV: Skyrim I have to refrain from taking all my clothes off; it will be such an epic game. That’s all for now, thanks for taking 2 mins out of your day to read whatever nonsense I decided to post. See you all later, and remember: A life AFK is a life wasted. -G

A Bit of An Obsession

So there I was standing in front of the porch, blood splattered on the door and the frail body of an elderly woman crumple into a heap on the front step, a tomahawk protruding grotesquely out from her skull. And I took a minute to recall all the events that had brought me to this grizzly scene; my uncle was dead, I had just buried my mother, and my dad died so that I could escape, and the man responsible was going to pay dearly. I was going to slaughter everything he held dear and then and only then I would kill him.

There are very few games that I can say moved me so, and Red Dead Redemption was one of them. When I finished it the thoughts racing through my brain were, "That was epic," and "I need more." And after almost 3 days(72 hours of gameplay) of playing this western saga I felt like my gullet had barely been whetted  and I needed more it was tremendous amounts of fun riding a horse through the landscape, the gun play was superb, and although the story was predictable it was delivered exceptionally well.

I still remember my first duel standing there with sweaty palms waiting for the bell to toll, and pulling the R stick back and flicking in it into position as fast as I could was a true thrill. The only complaint I have is that after of hours of questing I would frequently forget how to duel and would have to sink or swim if someone challenged me. Or running into a gang hideout guns a-blazing with a sheriff and his two deputies never gets out. The gameplay was not without faults to be sure, like an auto targeting system that made it exceedingly easy to drop baddies but that is a small complaint. And out in the frontier west you didn't have to play nice either you could go rogue and drop every by stander you see, or you could eschew gunplay all together and play poker, or blackjack, or my favorite liars dice until you had enough money to buy entire towns, really whatever suited your fancy. Hell for those who wanted to kill without the targets shooting back you could go hunt any animal you saw.

Another favorite past time of mine was getting on a horse and just riding. I loved watching the landscape pass me by and listening to the time appropriate soundtrack, I enjoyed riding from dawn 'til dusk and watching the sun rise and the color palette changes that it impacted on the landscape. Before I forget to mention it one of my favorite things was the random encounters, from hunting and gathering challenges from strangers to the asshats who enjoyed stealing your horse, or helping an injured pinkerton captured escaped convicts on their way to hang. Although I hated those assholes who wanted to steal my horse I throughly enjoyed dealing with them, I would shoot them in the leg and damage them enough to get them of my horse I would then lasso them and drag them behind my speeding steed until the expired more often than not through towns to show them I mean business. Really anything is possible on this turn of the century Grand Theft Horse game.

Many things can be said of R* some nice some others not so much, but what I will say is that they out did themselves with this one, and I highly recommend it to any fans of the genre who have played games such as GUN or the Call of Juarez series. The fabled GTA maker has done a lot of things to help innovate the industry and even if you are not a fan of the franchise this is one game no one should ever pass up. I suggest you go pick this up right now from your local game provider, or if you're a PC person you know what to do(*cough*PIRATE*cough*). Also being a fan of R* I would also advise you to check out their up coming game LA Noire which I have already pre-ordered because I love me some old timey games, anyways I think that's all for me tonight...

safety and peace,
                           toodlekittens