Prototype 2 in Review

   I picked up Prototype 2 on the recommendation of a friend, having never played Prototype 1 before. One of my main concerns with picking up a sequel without having first played the original is coming into a story without knowing the background of what is going on. Fortunately, in Prototype 2, there is a video that will give a synopsis of the first game, and it brought me up to speed.

   Prototype 2 takes cues from a host of other games. Basically, there was a viral outbreak that infected a whole city. Most people that get infected generally become zombie-like in nature, although some exhibit super-human abilities.

   The virus has been developed by Gentek, in conjunction with the paramilitary group Blackwatch. In the story leading up to Prototype 2, Alex Mercer has been blamed for the release of the virus. In the second game, you play as Sergeant James Heller, a soldier who blames Mercer for the loss of his wife and daughter to the virus. In the opening sequences, you confront Mercer only to be infected yourself and develop some rudimentary powers.

   Throughout gameplay, you gather new powers from enemies by “consuming” them. You also get the chance to upgrade your existing powers the same way. Upon completion of certain objectives you can gain new mutations, which help you to travel, hunt down enemies, or make some encounters easier.

   This game is very reminiscent of Spiderman 2 in its gameplay. Being able to jump very high (extremely high later on), being able to run along and up walls, and being able to glide for a while make the free roaming sections feel almost the exact same as Spiderman 2 with better graphics and in a different setting. Traveling the city is actually fun in and of itself, and can be rewarding with collectibles that will upgrade your powers.

   Missions throughout the game get a tad bit repetitive, but since you are having fun you don’t notice so much. Missions basically fall into a few categories: sneak into a facility to kill someone, hunt someone down, clear out an instance, or gather boxes dropped from helicopters before they can be recovered by Gentek or Blackwatch.

   Along the way, it becomes unclear who the “bad guys” are. There are several twists in the story that keep you guessing as to who is really trying to save the city, who is trying to pull a political maneuver, who is trying to create an “evolved” army, or if everyone is just self serving. Because of a betrayal, you are constantly on your guard from anyone who tries to aid you in the game.

   The game deals pretty well graphically. You aren’t blown away by amazing scenery as you spend all your time in a war-torn, zombie-infected city. But the attention to detail is there and you’ll notice is subconsciously. There are a host of different character models for all the different infected humans roaming around, and at times I estimated that there were at least 50 on my screen at once.

   The enemies that you actually fight do get a bit repetitive as well, but again you are having fun so you don’t notice it too much. The killing animations are pretty varied, so even though you are fighting the same enemies time and again, each fight has its own feel to it.

   The sound in the game is decent. Nothing stands out, but then again nothing feels out of place. The voice acting is pretty good, and I didn’t notice any lip-syncing being off. But then again, most of the time someone is talking they have a helmet on. But even in the times when they didn’t have something covering their face, it was spot on.

          The controls are natural feeling. It is easy to get the hang of running up a building, jumping as high as you can, and then gliding. You even get the knack of when to “air dash” to renew your glide time, and you can’t simply fly forever. Combat flows naturally, and is often a hectic time as you are fighting infected and Blackwatch at the same time. It is not uncommon to have a dozen or so Blackwatch shooting at you, while having a helicopter or two overhead, and still fighting a half a dozen infected. Even with all this, it still flows naturally. I really have to tip my hat to the designers on that one.

   The game overall is a blast to play. I found myself playing for hours on end and not even realizing how long I’d been playing. I am now longing for a third release, and am contemplating going back and playing the first.

   - Woody

Gears of War 3 Horde Mode Boss Guide

    Seeing as some of the traffic to my website was being generated by people googling “Gears of War 3 Horde Mode” or variations of it, I figured I’d better post this sooner, rather than later.

   We will be discussing how to beat all the bosses in GoW3 Horde Mode, and handling each boss specifically. But first, a little overall advice: clear out the wave first if you can. The bosses all become very easy to kill if you can clear out all the “little” guys. The word “little” is in apostrophes, because more often than not, bosses are accompanied by the big hitters: boomers, maulers, grinders, and kantus. I will be posting another guide on all the “little” guys, but as a rule of thumb, kill them all first.

   You will need to learn how to kite, if you don’t already know. You can read about how to kite here. Also, this guide will be how to kill these bosses by yourself. If you have friends, this whole process becomes even easier.

   Now, on to the bosses!

   Berserkers: Berserkers can be tough. However, they are very dumb, and only utilize melee. The easiest strategy to beating a berserker is to use a scorcher (flame thrower) on him. He will cover his face and stumble around for a few seconds while on fire, and becomes more vulnerable to bullets while in this state. Once he goes back to normal, simply use the scorcher on him again. Rinse, repeat.

   Always keep an obstacle between you and the berserker if possible. This makes his charges easy to avoid, as he’ll charge right into the obstacle. If you can’t keep an obstacle between you, it’s still pretty simple to just roll out of the way when he charges.

   Lambent Berserkers: The lambent berserkers are easily the hardest enemy to beat. This is because they are only susceptible to weapons when they are about to charge or jump, or right after charging or jumping. They also only utilize melee, and so the kiting tactic works with them.

   They have a yellow/gold area on their chest that is their only weak spot. Unfortunately, this is covered by bone unless they are attacking, as I said above. The best way to beat them is to have quick reflexes. Let them get close enough to charge, and that spot will open up for a second. Do enough damage and it will stop their charge, making them stagger for a few seconds while still vulnerable in their chest.

   If you don’t do enough damage to stop their charge (or just want to play it safer), then roll out of the way while they charge, and then shoot the open area while they recover from the charge. This same tactic will work if they are jumping.

   Savage Corpsers: Savage corpsers take a while to beat, but are pretty easy. Their legs are impervious to weapons, but their head and abdomen are soft spots. They will walk straight towards you, and you can shoot them in the head. When you do this, they will cover their face with their legs, and can’t be hurt in their head (they can still be hurt by shooting their abdomen during this time.

   If you do enough damage by repeating this cycle, they will eventually rear up and scream in pain. You can take this time to unload on them. For this reason, reload anytime they cover their heads, so you’ll have a full magazine to unload into their soft belly.

   If they get too close, simply roll out of the way, and run. They can’t keep up with your sprinting.

   Eventually, they will burrow under the ground. An arm will come up and chop at you, but is easily avoided through rolling and running. After that attack, they will burrow towards you, and rise up suddenly. Dodge this, and the cycle starts over.

   Brumak: This guy’s difficulty depends on the map you are playing. There are some doorways that he can’t get through on some maps, so the strategy is obvious: hide in there.

   For other maps, you’ll have to make sure that you are behind cover. He has two attacks: machine guns mounted on both of his arms, and a rocket launcher mounted on his back that fires multiple rockets in a barrage.

   You will want to pop out of cover in between bursts of machine gun fire and shoot at the guns on his wrists. Eventually they will be destroyed, and he won’t be able to shoot them anymore, and will only have his rocket launcher.

   When he fires a rocket barrage, sometimes simply ducking for cover will work. But about 1/3 of the time, a stray rocket will miss the cover, and hit behind you. This will down you, and possibly kill you outright. The best idea is to have cover in which you can roll left or right, and dodge the rockets altogether.

   Once his machine guns are down, you can pretty much shoot him wherever. Some guides say to shoot his rocket launcher next. But in my experience, once you down the launcher, he is dead anyway. So just kill him.

   Reavers: When my friends as I see reavers, we get excited, as this is arguably the easiest boss in the game. They have two attacks: machine gun fire and a single rocket attack. The easiest way to beat them is simply to hide behind cover and shoot them. They are basically a mix between grinders and boomers. Their height does give them some advantage, as they can shoot over some lower obstacles, so beware of that.

   Also, the designers knew these guys were easy to kill. This means that if they show up as a boss, you can expect to fight 2-3 of them at a time, and about 5-6 total on that wave.

   They are also an exception to the rule about killings adds first. They are so easy, that you can include them in your killing plan.

   Gunkers: Gunkers can shoot at you from across the map. While not the toughest enemies, they can be the hardest, depending on the map and your base setup. When in close, they can also shoot out an arm that will down or possible outright kill you.

   If you are in an open area, you’ll have to do a lot of rolling around to avoid their ranges attack, which does splash damage. If you are in an area that that has an enclosed structure, sometimes you can get them stuck on an obstacle where they can’t get close enough to you to melee, and they ranged attack hits the ceiling before getting to you.

   If you can’t do this however, you’ll need to shoot and dodge, like stated above. This enemy is annoying, but not necessarily hard. It gets really tedious if you have two of them on the map at the same time. Hopefully you can get them to fire simultaneously, and so avoid both shots at once. The good news is, their shots have a high arc, so you can see it coming from pretty far away, and have time to dodge.

   Well, get out there and beat some bosses!

   - Woody

Another Milestone!

Well, to see where I was on google's imprtance list, I googled the word "Sapper". Imagine my surprise when about halfway down, where it shows "images for sapper", I found that the first 4 pics to be of my run with my hunter through Molten Core! So, I hit the "images" button, and the first row are more pics of my run.

Now, google might just know that I put those pics there, and so it is showing me my pics. But I'd like to think that I am moving up in the world.

   - Woody

The Art of Kiting

   To people who play World of Warcraft, especially hunters, the term “kiting” is no stranger. However, I have found in many games (especially RPGs) that kiting can be used to great effect. I have recently used it in Lord of the Rings: War in the North; Dragons Age: Origins; Skyrim; and even in Gears of War 3 (horde mode).

   While the concept of kiting is simple, it can take a bit of practice to master. Also, different classes in different games make it easier or harder to kite. For instance, a pure melee character will find it extremely difficult to kite. Possibly even impossible. However, a class focused on ranged will kite with ease.

   Kiting, at its core concept, is simply hitting an enemy while staying out of range of its attacks. Simple, right? Well, like I said, it’s a simple concept. But in my experience, people think it’s too simple and don’t execute very well. Obviously, we are assuming that the enemy is either pure melee, or its strongest attacks come from melee, and is weaker at range. Kiting doesn’t work very well against ranged. That’s when you get into LOS (Line of Sight) pulling. But that’s another strategy.

   There are a few considerations to kiting. First, is obstacles. The easiest way to kite an enemy is to play “ring around the rosy” with an obstacle. If the enemy is on the other side of the obstacle, he can’t hit you. So, if there’s an obstacle between you, simply hit him with ranged and keep running around the obstacle. This method is not used very much surprisingly, but is the easiest to implement. Even a melee focused character can usually pull out a ranged weapon and use it here. It just takes longer to beat the enemy that way.

   The second thing to consider is the movement speed of the enemy. In WoW, the hunter has traps he can place to freeze or slow the enemy. He also has a pet that can take agro off of him. In other games, you might have abilities that slow the enemy. In an area without obstacles, slowing effects are the way to go. Sometimes you can literally run circles around the enemy while pelting him with ranged abilities. I had to do this on the first ogre in the beacon tower of Dragons Age: Origins. My party had all died, and my mage was all that was left. So I simply ran around the outer perimeter of the circle and hit him with the DoT (Damage over Time) that I had any time it was off cooldown.

   Along with the movement speed of the enemy, is your ability to dodge the enemy. In wave 30 in Gears of War 3 (Horde mode) on hardcore difficulty, I found myself to be the only person left against the final creature, a savage corpser. It was pretty easy to shoot at him, roll out of the way, and run. (I will be posting strategies for beating all the Gears of War 3 (Horde Mode) bosses later on, so see the full strategy there.)

  Last thing to consider while kiting is adds (any little enemies running around). If you can successfully kite them, too, then go ahead. However, there are two strategies to beating them depending on which type of adds they are.

   The three types of adds are infinite, wave, and finite. On finite adds, the easiest thing to do is to get the adds out of the way before focusing on the boss. On infinite adds, focus on the boss, only killing enough adds to stay alive. On waves, if you have time between each wave, kill the adds then focus on the boss between waves. If you don’t have enough time, it’s a race against the clock to beat the boss before the adds overwhelm you.

   Hopefully these little tips will help you in your kiting efforts. If you have a specific boss in a game that you’d like help with, you can shoot me a comment below, and I’ll see what I can do. Of course, with all the tips and tricks out there, it’d be quicker to just google it. But, give me a chance. Who else offers personalized strategies?

   - Woody

Weird Links to My Site

So, I was doing some research on the sites that bring people to my blog. Most people who come here (over 25%, actually) come to visit my Skyrim Death Knight page. In fact, if you google "Skyrim Death Knight", my blog is on the first page of google now! I have received almost 20% of my total pageviews since posting that page.

What was interesting to me though, is that sometimes I get refers from websites that are totally unrelated to my blog. My latest was from babybackpack.com. Interestingly (thought unsurprisingly) enough, there are no links to my site on that webpage. I am pretty sure it is some type of linking campaign through automated programming. But, if it brings me visitors and gets my website higher on the google rankings, I'm fine with it. It's just odd sometimes. I've even had links from weightlifting websites.

Well, I'm working on a new strategy guide, the art of "kiting". Seems to be a lost art, although very effective when used correctly. Look for it later this week, or even later on today.

   - Woody

Saint's Row: The Third Review

   I just beat Saint's Row: The Third, and boy was it a wild ride. This game review will be solely about the gameplay. This game is not a game for children, and is not "family friendly" in any way. There is intense language, and while there is no actual nudity, there is blurred out nudity.
   The game follows the leader of the gang "Third Street Saints" on a journey through a new city. The Saints start off on top of the world, with movie deals and sponsorships. But, when they run into an international gang called "The Syndicate", they lose everything and have to start from the bottom and work their way up. Along the way there is a lot of gang-on-gang violence, rescues, flying helicopters, and even some zombies.
   The graphhics aren't all that great, but there is a comic "over the top" feel throughout the game. The voice acting is ok, again staying with the comic theme.
   If you've ver played any of the Grand Theft Auto games, you've played this game. While playing this game, I had about 4 people ask me if I was playing GTA. I ended up putting about 35 hours into this game, and got an 87% completion rate. I could easily keep playing and get 100% (especially since I hit max level and am now impervious to all forms of damage), but I had no interest in repeating the same activities over and over again.
   At first, having enough cash to buy items was a problem. But once I took over most of the town, it became irrelevent. In fact, when I finished the game, I had $1.2 million. Eventually, you no longer need to worry about cash, and just need to worry about buying upgrades as they become available.
   The game plays as a FPS for most of the game, with the rest basically being a driving game. Aiming is easy, and fairly accurate. I found myself hardly ever actually "aiming" with the left trigger, and just firing. The driving controls are easy, and it was fun to zip around on a motorcycle trying to see how far I could jump or ride a wheelie.
   All in all, the game is a blast to play; just keep in mind that it is NOT a family friendly game at all.

   - Woody

Gears of War 3 Horde Mode

   I bought Gears of War 3 about a month ago. I hadn't played GOW or GOW2, but it came highly recommended, so I decided to pick it up. I have yet to play very much of the campaign, but I got sucked into the Horde Mode pretty quickly.
   Horde mode is a survival type mode in which you fight waves upon waves of enemies. Each wave is a little harder than the last.
   This mode consists of 50 waves of enemies, with basically 5 sections consisting of 9 waves then a boss wave. After you beat the first boss (wave 10) the enemies get a boost of 2x health. After the second boss (wave 20) they get a boost of 2x accuracy, in addition to the 2x health. After the third boss (wave 30 (get the pattern?)) your party begins to take 2x damage, in addition to the other handicaps. After the fourth boss, all three of those handicaps bump up to 2.5x.
   Once you start the game, you have to decide where to build your command post. The great thing about this game is that there are different fortifications that you can build, and later upgrade. At first you can only build caltrops (little spikes that slow enemies down and hurt them as they pass through), but eventually you can build auto-sentries, manned turrets, decoys, and finally buy the coveted Silverback (which we've found to not be worth the amount of money you spend on it; it's better to buy other fortifications and leave the Silverback alone). You can eventually upgrade all of these fortifications to be stronger, more accurate, etc.
   After working on "normal" difficulty for a couple weeks, me and 3 others finally beat wave 50. We started on Hardcore difficulty tonight, but only made it to wave 10 after about 2 hours of play. We'll continue trying tomorrow. I hope to get another player, as you can have a total of five people playing cooperatively on this mode.

   - Woody