Mass Effect 2. Looks nice, but after so many over-hyped disappointments in the past by various game companies (C&C3, Spore) I'm reserving my judgement till after its release.
Saints don't grow on trees? Depends on where you are.
Money don't grow on trees? Depends on what you are.
Trees don't grow on trees? That's a lie.
I have to admit, L4D2 loses its appeal after a week or so. It's not scary and never will be, not even with your lights off and mirrors around you. Its replay value is sub-par, though its concept and graphics are great.
Overall I really have to compare it with Borderlands, the other recently released over-hyped game. Both have excellent packaging and great publicity; both fall short of excellent after some actual gameplay.
I don't know what it lacks exactly, but I can't see it being interesting even after a few runs with friends. The replay value is the one element that drags the score down.
Machine guns? Cool! The AK47 really packs a punch and provides semi-decent accuracy at a distance. The problem is that they all feel the same after some time.
Shotguns? Makes you feel godly! One shot, one kill. Nothing can stop you at close range! Until you learn to use a katana, that is. Then shotguns become inconvenient versions of the melee weapon because of the need to reload.
Sniper rifles? One shot, one kill. No rapid fire but you can kill anything with a single round, be it close or far. With some skill and experience, it becomes the weapon of the game. Combine with a good melee weapon and you turn into a force of nature. But godhood gets boring eventually. Where's the challenge in the game if nothing hurts you?
Grenade launchers? You don't know power till you fire one. When you wield one, you're holding the right to laugh at "god-like" snipers. One shot, one kill? I can kill 10+ per shot! Those puny peashooters can lick my balls! Problem is that you cannot refill its ammo and the friendly fire is outrageous. You can, of course, turn off the friendly fire via console commands but it is cheating no matter how you try to justify it.
So I'm finally done with Fallout 3. I've gone through the main plotline thrice, twice with the Broken Steel expansion, found every single place worth finding, encountered all the characters that I can possibly meet and completed all the quests.
There is nothing left to explore in the Capital Wasteland now.
http://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/story/2009/12/23/dad-accused-of-forcing-son-14-into-sex-with-hooker/
An Australian father forces his teenage son to have sex with a hooker. Now he is going to be charged with rape.
Not sure why the son is complaining. Maybe it was the condom.
The most high-profile cosplayer ever.Yet another mysterious stranger says "Hi" to me on Windows Live. Not on Messenger, but through those profile pages that I don't remember setting up.
My mum told me not to talk to strangers. They may turn out to be Nigerian princes looking desperately for a way to transfer money from their private bank accounts.
I wonder if I'm going to go insane someday. It wouldn't be very surprising, given that I am me. Maybe someday I'll start to believe that everyone's insane and I'm the only sane one left. Of course that statement wouldn't sound very sane, but that's only because you're insane.
I AM THE ONLY SANE PERSON LEFT! All you crazy fuckers reading this are mad! MAD, I tell you!
I was going to type more, but I can't come up with anything. This doesn't sound very complete though.
OMG Just discovered this thing called the induction cooktop. It's like an electric stove except it works with magic.
An electric stove generates heat in a very primitive way similar to a the tungsten filament in an incandescent light bulb. It has a coil which conducts electricity to generate heat (in the case of the filament, it generates so much heat that it glows).
The induction cooker works like a transformer. It usually appears to be a trendy motor vehicle until it encounters an enemy, at which point it transforms into a gigantic talking robot. This robot is so frickin amazing your food is heated by the pure awesomeness radiating from its presence.
Ok seriously, this cooker works like a transformer used by your city's power grid. It uses AC to induce DC in your pot, causing it to work like the tungsten filament in the light bulb ( electric current + high resistance = heat). The constant change of direction of magnetic field induced by the AC in the cooker generates even more heat in your pot.
To someone who doesn't know about electromagnetic induction, this should definitely look like magic.
EC returns our colony, KD, to us unconditionally. No fine prints at the bottom, no strings attached. Their explanation was that they were trying to fight the GD, probably meaning that they were taking over KD to provoke a response from the LED and FDC. Apparently this failed and they didn't want to appear to be the biggest asshole of a faction in the game.
Now with our home back, another setback appears. FoM is entering the retail phase after who knows how long in the beta phase. In the retail phase, players can still play for free but with several penalties. These appear to be the sort that would force serious FoM players to spend pay 10USD/month.
The benefits of Premium Accounts are as follows:
- 3x the storage space (3000 items per world)
- More than double the inventory space
- Promotion to the highest ranks possible
- Work off your penalty points 2-3x faster
- See other players on the minimap
- Carry more weapons
- Have an extra quickslot to use items more easily
- 200% Cloning speed
- Buy up to 200 clones
- Produce the highest quality of items
- No limit to selling items on the markets
- Own apartments
- Create your own department (if appropriate rank)
- Wear civilian clothing
Which would mean that my character is going to get my clones reduced to 10, be unable to produce High Quality items and lose my apartment. I'm not irritated by any of the downgrades to my account except for the inability to produce High Quality (aka QL3) goods. Totally sucks since I will have to find a way to get QL3 weapons and armour instead of just making them.
Been replaying Supreme Commander campaign on Hard mode throughout. Noticed that the original campaign was tougher than those in the expansion. The main difference was that in the expansion, almost the entire arsenal was readily available from the beginning of every round. A few units/structures were introduced later but they were pointless since none of them were at the Experimental level, the highest. What need would I have for Tech 3 warships if I was already spamming Experimental Mobile Factories aka Fatboys that have 20k shield, could built Tech 1-3 land units, amphibious, and have anti-air and anti-land weapons and torpedoes?
The most epic thread I have ever seen. The lesson here is simple:
The drama in FoM continues...
EC, suddenly allied with the BoS, declared war on the Global Dominion Senate. Basically the biggest corporation teamed up with the drug cartel to fight the government. Chaos!
Their reason, officially, is that they are unsatisfied with the current system in the Assembly. At the moment, it employs the Party system in which players can form political parties similar to real democracies. These parties have a say in matters regarding laws and stuff.
EC and BoS wants the Colonial Senate back (it was apparently used in the past). In this system, each faction gets a vote in the matters instead of the parties. One advantage is that since few players actually give a damn about the parties, most of us would become more involved in the bills being passed if we have the Colonial Assembly instead. The disadvantage is that all factions get 1 vote each regardless of their sizes, so it really isn't equal.
Hence the war. EC/BoS vs FDC/LED, it looks almost like a World War except it is technically an insurgency instead of an actual war. The reason is that everyone in this game is a Global Dominion citizen, and citizens don't declare war on their own government just to change a law.
From what I've seen so far, the LED and FDC are barely able to hold back the zerg swarms of the EC/BoS alliance. Just today in DMC, my first time logging in after several days, I witnessed the complete domination of the LED/FDC wardens in the prison, leading to the release of many prisoners who weren't there willingly (some go there to work off Penalty Points so that they won't accumulate 5000 PP, which would make them Arrest-On-Sight by any LED members).
I joined them after a while to see how far they went, and it turned out that they went all the way. In fact the whole place was cleared of LED/FDC members till the EC/BoS groups started to dwindle due to boredom. I believe they went in to hack the nodes to accelerate the countdown timer and eventually initiate a Final Battle in the prison. What a joke the police faction will turn out to be if their "heavily guarded" prison gets taken over by a corporation.
According to what I've heard, similar raids are happening in other colonies controlled by the LED/FDC, ie Tokyo, NYC and Paris. It is funny how the government military gets pwned by a mere company and the drug cartel.
In response, the GD Senate has resorted to what they do best - make/change laws. In the most recent announcement, they have stated that several colonies will be handed over to the more law-abiding factions.
My company finally gets Tokyo, which contains both our HQ and the HQ of the FDC. The current home colony of EC (Pegasi 51), together with Paris, is to be passed to the Colonization and Mining Guild (CMG).
What this means is that legally speaking, EC will become homeless while CMG becomes the wealthiest faction just from the royalties from THREE colonies. No other faction will have more than 2 colonies when these changes are implemented.
With EC being so powerful, it's hard to imagine it homeless. More likely, it'll negotiate something to the effect of controlling a colony at the end of this conflict so that it can get a home. Maybe the GD will give it Necar's Field. That would be hilarious.
No one wants NF because it's poorly designed. It is huge, which makes it hard to navigate in this colony because this game doesn't have a map feature, only a minimap. People often get lost there and everything is so far from everything else. At the moment it is under the control of the CMG.
No comments:
Post a Comment