Powers of the Protoype

I finally finished Prototype today. I've trying to beat the end boss, but wasn't succeeding very well. I started playing some other games, because this was too frustrating. But there is nothing more frustrating then an unfinished game. This morning I had some time left and started to try out some new strategies. Including the use ofthe Critical Mass powers. I'm a player that just sticks to the things he knows and doesn't try the new things if the old things work well. It may take more time finishing some part, but eventually it gets me where I need to be. Not in this case, the end boss was really pissing me off, so I needed tried to use new techniques. This got me closer to finishing the game, in one try I just needed one hit to finish him off. I started running towards him to give him the final blow, but then he throws his Tendril Barrage and I got stuck in the tendrils. Instant death and back to square one. I didn't take long after that to finialy finish the story line and be the end boss myself. Now for all the collectables...

Readable Cutscenes

Currenlty i'm reading the Killzone: Ascendency novel. It's great to relive the moments i personally played during Killzone 3. What i like more about the book is the fact that you get a more in depth view of the story. Generally a book is always better than the movie, but I won't say that this book is better than the game. Books and movies are more alike than games and books. The books gives extra details about the characters of the game, details that aren't easily told during a the actions in the game and it's cutscenes. Therefore i vote that every game comes with a novel. It will get the story better across and give a richer experience. I hope more games will follow this example and i don't mean stories based on the game or what what also happened between part 1 and 2 books. I like a book that tells the same story of the game along with the game to get more into the story. Are they already writing the Killzone 4 book? If so, send me a copy.

Beta Assassinations

A month ago i got an invitation to join the Assassin's Creed: Revelation beta trail. At the same time i was already playing the Resistance 3 Open Beta and i was enjoying it. Because i haven't played AC: Brotherhood and it's multiplayer i put R3 aside and jumped into the other beta. Because my assassin's skills were a bit rusty i needed to get the flow going again. After a few games my assassin was running like normal and could get into the objective of the game. I was suprised by playing AC online. After playing a lot of shooters online i got used to the capture the flag, team deathmatch, rush and conquest kind of multiplayer games. AC brings the team deathmatch to a whole new dimension and it was fun. I think i can really enjoy AC's multiplayer. Last week i got AC: Broterhood, so i can start playing that to get up to speed on the storyline and then dive into the upcoming haystack called Revelations.

Not Resisting Platinum #4

After completing the game on Superhuman difficulty, the next best thing to do was hunting for trophies. I tried to go online but i had a hard time finding players on the War Games, so i decided to try that later. A few evenings hunting for trophies, i was left with the jugling and coop trophies. Jugling kept me busy a bit, but i could finally get it working in the Pit. The coop was nothing more than going to Central Park. With the second controller i started to attack the Chimera dropping in without killing and then leaving him standing behind the wall. I would let my partner die a few times to revive him with player 1 before running in killing the Chimera to get the Silent Partner counter up. After grinding this level a few times by dying from the Auger fire i got the last remaining Silver trophy, which unlocked my fourth platinum.

Superhuman

Today i can finally call myself a Superhuman, because i beat Resistance 3 on that difficulty. My first playthrough was on Hard difficulty. I don't start on an easier difficulty because then R3 would be a walk in the park. I'm not frightened of trail and error gameplay, i grew up with it. Playing the game on Hard difficulty made the Superhuman difficulty a little easier. You know already what you get into and the weapon upgrades cross over to the new difficulty and these upgrades are really useful on this setting. I died more than usual on the first few levels, because i overestimated the difficulty setting. I needed to use a little more tactics to win from the Chimera. Because of the problems in the first few levels i got scared of the Brewpub, Post Office Brawler and the Washington Square base. Not to speak about the Grim and Leecher levels. The Grim and Leecher levels are actually farely easy, the best thing to do is RUN! Try to move as fast as possible through the level and you will only sustain minimal damage. On the grim levels use the Rossmore or the Atomizer to cut a path thorugh upcoming Grims. The Post Office Brawler was even easier than on Hard difficulty, an upgraded Bullseye will help a lot. For the Brewpup and Washington Square levels don't forget your secondary fire. The Marksman and the Atomizer have a great secondary fire that can stop enemies from entering. And the Wildfire also cleans up nicely. And eventually you'll be a Superhuman just like me.

Resist the Global War

As every device you have at home becomes connected to every other device in the world, console games don't stay on consoles alone. They can now be enjoyed on a different level and on a global scale. At first we could only check our statistics of our online involvement in games. Check how many kills you made, how many medals you earned and how far you are towards the next medal. Today you can receive extra content for your console game by playing a social media game. I'm currently playing Global Resistance to fight the Chimeran invasion. It's a massive online strategy game based on Insomniac's Resistance universe. With just a few clicks you help out to stop the Chimeran invasion. That is if you chose the side of the humans, else you want to run over the humans. It's a nice fun game to get into the mood voor the upcoming Resistance 3 release and to unlock some extra skins for online play. I hope to see more of this kind of interaction and the Vita will probably fit right into this concept.

Platinum Helghast

During busy work weeks i can't find the energy to play complicated mind challenging games. In those cases i need some mindless shooter fun. In this case i chose Killzone 3. I still had some trophies left to collect, so last week i've been collecting the last of them. The longest one to collect were the coop trophies. I didn't have any friends to play the coop with, so i braved it alone with two controllers. Luckily i could leave my partner standing in the back and still advance like if i was alone. During this fight i even got the 1500 Helghast kills as a bonus, so i didn't have to do that one separately. The hardest one still to collect was the 5 WASP kill trophy. First i tried it in the wrong spot with no luck, but after finding the location with the dropship i got it on the third try.

This left me with two more trophies to collect. The Multiplayer Jetpack kill and the platinum trophy. Getting the first trophy will automatically unlock the second one. One thing i don't like to use in Killzone is the Jetpack, somehow i always fumble with the controls. I feel more like a clay pigeon used for target practice when flying, instead of a deadly F16 wrecking havoc on the enemy. After playing a few multiplayer games i was finally dropped into the Turbine Concourse, one of the Jetpack maps. Luckily for me nobody on my team was using the jetpack, so i had direct acces after respawning. After fumbling myself myself into the air, i could finally try shooting some Helghast. Only to find out that i was wounding Helghast and my colleagues making the kill shot. Winners don't give up and i finally saw the words 150 points coming my way. The only thing to do now was get rid of the Jetpack and wait for the two pop-ups. Ping ... Ping ... Platinum Trophy number 3 in the pocket.

[Title]

Due to some imbeciles in this world the PSN is down. So there is no change for me to fight in the Vietnam war or on Helghan. Instead of complaining a lot on various forums i went to take a look at the stack of games in the corner. The gamer with no time i am, this stack is ever growing. Lately i heard some positive comments about one of the games that was almost at the bottom, namely [Prototype]. It's a nice change to play something in third person instead of playing in first person. In the begin of the game the controls feel really clumsy and i wouldn't think it would be a wonderful game. But after a few missions you receive some nice upgrades and you're flying over the roofs of the city in no time. Gradually you become stronger and the web of intrigue begins to feel and you're really emerged into the story. With the varying gameplay using normal weapons, vehicles and shape shifting abilities, it's a good way to keep playing offline. Hell, even if the PSN comes back online, i'll still be playing [Prototype] to get to the end of the story.

Vietnam is a classic

In February Dice finally had their stat update issues under control and i got into playing BFBC2 again. Off course the thing to play at that moment was the Vietnam DLC. After losing some quality online game time i could finally get my game on in Vietnam. And it was a blast. It took some time to get to know the weapons and the maps, but with the experience from the original it didn't take long. Due to high quality of the game you won't be missing the scopes and high-tec equipment. It makes the game even more intens. Playing the Vietnam DLC it became clear it really is worth the money. This package is an instant classic. New maps and new goals andnew weapons equals new fun. Too bad they didn't have a good start, then I would have played it many hours more, but our national shooter was released in February, so my attention shifted. But by the end of the year i will absolutely return for the third Battlefield.

Vietnam is a failure

The first few games in the new Bad Company 2 downloadable content Vietnam were great. But then came the problems with the stat updates. Levels are reset to 1, all unlockables, and awards disappear. The cause of this is that the game can't get this information from the server. This is not a real big problem because eventually these values will return when a succesful update has been done. The main problem is that your skill level goes to zero. This causes the games to be unbalanced, because players with completely different skill levels get thrown into the game with you. Nine out of ten times one of the two forces is way overpowered. Altough Dice claims no stats are lost when playing at level 1 i experencied differently. I've got some stars on weapons that are not registered. For me this killed all the fun, so i decided to put Vietnam aside and play a game from the big stack of games i still haven't played.