Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Achievement Hunting - Aliens Vs Predator (XBOX 360)

Well I have finally begun my Nightmare runs in AVP and it is turning out to be way harder than I imagined at least on the Marine missions. For anyone who hasn't played AVP the Nightmare setting is the hardest mode where you don't get any checkpoints in the level, so if you die you have to restart the entire mission.

Walking through the colony and having the motion tracker pick up several signals creates a very tense situation. Last night I finished the first level of the Marine missions (took about 45mins) and the last bit has you holding out in a long hallway vs a ton of Xenos. My pulse rifle chewed through the first bit before they even got off the roof, the second wave well they got closer forcing me to melee the first one in the face and then sprint in the direction they were coming from so I could kite them some more. It sounds easier than it actually is, the Xenos have a tendency to jump around and are very good at flanking you, the key is to have a path in mind when backpedaling away from the Xeno and then when you have no more room to back up run like a mad man then rinse and repeat; Worked pretty well for the first level, hoping I can have more success with the second level and hopefully by the end of the week I will have completed Nightmare on at least the Marine side.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Bargain Bin Bio - Mercenaries 2: World in Flames(XBOX 360)

Up this week from the Bargain Bin is Mercenaries 2: World in Flames for the XBOX 360.





This has been out for awhile, and I actually owned it when it first came out however I was lacking something my first go around, and that was having a co-op partner to enough non-stop mayhem with.

Graphics:

For being an older open world game the graphics are really not that bad, add on top of that everything can be pretty much leveled and its actually a marvel that the game runs as good as it does. There are some texture issues as well as some graphics disappearing all together.

Sound: 

The sound effects are pretty solid ranging from the gunfire, to the sound of an artillery strike dropping onto your target. The only compliant I have with the sound is a weird glitch I encountered while playing co-op, when me and my buddy were raiding an enemy location I would get a weird echo effect when the AI would try and alert their boss, it also kept playing even when killing the caller it was kind of annoying but really doesn't detract from the overall game.


Gameplay:

Very few games come close to the fun I have had while playing Mercs 2. I know most of it is mindless running around and blowing stuff up, but what makes Mercs 2 unique (well for its time) was being able to approach a mission in a variety of different ways and still be able to have fun doing it. What is also fun is coming up with new attacks using a co-op friend my personal favorite being the jihad jeep (c4+jeep+speeding to the enemy building or tank) which by the way created alot of laughs, and pulling off a dramatic escape while one person flies a chopper and the other calls in a bunker buster on the oil platform racing to grapple the chopper as the structure crumbles into the ocean. Some of the missions can get repetitive and some get down right frustrating (I am looking at you cargo missions) but if you look past that and have a buddy to play with you will have a ton more fun with it.

 
 
I give Mercenaries 2: World in Flames a solid 3/5. Overall it is a blast to play despite the glitches and come on its like dirt cheap right now so go ahead add it to your game library.


 
















Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Fallout New Vegas Caravan Master Achievement Guide

Decided to make this guide since I seemed to avoid playing Caravan like the plague because the concept seemed so confusing and time consuming.

So here we go, you can do this without any in depth  deck building, you will merely need to eliminate the Queens, Aces, and Jokers from your deck as they are pretty much useless (at least in my experience) you will only need to do it once so after you do that you are set for 30 games.  What you need to do is travel to Novac and find No-Bark since after he loses all his money he will just play for free so this is just easier.

Now for the rules of Caravan. The object of the game is to get your stacks as close to 26 as possible without letting your opponent do the same. I usually start my stacks as a each different suites starting with a low number card if possible.

Break down of cards:
Number Cards - Self explanatory they add up as your would expect

Kings - Double the card you place it on. So for example you have a 10 card placed down putting the king on it will bump it up to 20. This can work in your favor in two ways one giving you a high number for your stacks, and two using the King on the opponent stack to make him bust.

Jacks- Remove the card it is placed on, great for messing up the enemy caravan  or removing a king your opponent has placed to make you go bust.

Hopefully my guide helps as I was able to tackle the achievement in about an hour of gameplay, I also highly recommend saving after a few wins just in case the game decides to lock up on you. If you have any more questions or need more tips please let me know this is my second attempt at writing a guide and any and all feedback is appreciated.

Honest Brink Review

Well it certainly has been awhile since I have updated the blog and I feel the time is right to get it going again.

For those of you who don't know my Wife and I are expecting are 2nd child in January so things have been hectic getting things squared away at home.

So since it has been awhile I am going to start off with my honest take on Brink for the XBOX360. Now I know there are alot of mixed emotions about this game it's really a love it or hate it game which is fine, but what you have to know going in is Brink in no way was attempting to be the COD killer labeled it as. Brink goes back to what made games fun and that is having the ability to play with friends against Bots, I know what your thinking Bots are no where near the challenge as a Human player and you may be right, but for me as I  get older I have lost that competitive gaming edge  and would rather hang out with friends online and stomp some computers down.

Graphics - Brink has some pretty cool visuals but at the same time suffers from some texture loading which to be honest in no way takes away from the game play and usually happens right when a match is starting. I actually like the cartoony style of the character models as it lends itself better to the experience.

Sound - This is one of the places that Brink shines, the gun sounds are nothing short of awesome and if the SMG sound effects annoy my wife they have to be good. The music is sub standard but if you are playing Brink to listen to the background music there is something wrong.

Gameplay - This is where Brink shines having the ability to play as 4 different classes each bringing something unique to the mix  able to support their  teammates whether through either buffs, heals, ammo drops, or just spotting enemy locations and marking mines. My only complaint with the gameplay has to do with the body types, for the life of me I can't see any reason to play as the heavy or medium body types yes they get access to different weapons but currently as it stands I can do as much damage with an SMG as I can with a rifle using a medium or heavy body and this really takes away from the point of even having them. Another thing that can get a tad frustrating is the friendly AI sometimes forgets that there is a primary objective and leave you and your human friends to do all the work, while the enemy AI is focused on the main objective and work as a single unit to make your life a living hell.

Brink is an amazing games despite the flaws it has that I am sure can be fixed with some patches. Also the devs are releasing free DLC for a two week period this month so be sure to keep a eye out for it on the dashboard.

Overall I give Brink a 4/5. If your looking for a solid shooter to play with friends vs AI this is your game, also if you liked TF2 you will fit right into the Brink world.