As with any FPS, one of the major rules of Killzone is that -if you die, game over, you must restart the level and try to fail less. At least, this is the case for the story mode. There are several non-story modes where, if you die, you respawn in just a few seconds and are ready to go at it again.
In the non-story modes, such as Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, the player has a lot of control over some of the in-game rules and properties for the upcoming battle. You can:
Select the amount of NPCs on your side
Select the amount of NPCs on the enemy's side
Determine the AI difficulty (easy, normal, hard)
Select if you want friendly fire on or off
Select which of several maps you'll be playing in
Determine how a match ends (either a time limit, first to 100, 200 kills...)
Choose whether or not NPC names will be under them when in a certain range.
In Killzone, as in many an FPS, the character(s) have health and armor. When you or anyone is hit, their armor decreases, if they have no armor, their health decreases, when they have no health, they are dead. Some weapons, or hits are enough to kill someone with one blow even when they have max armor and health, say from a rocket from a rocket launcher. An important to know feature in Killzone is that you can kill yourself if you aren't careful (or any number of reasons) and do something such as shooting a rocket into a wall 4 feet away from you. You will die, and if in the story mode, must restart the level from start, or if in the Battlegrounds missions, will respawn, but your awesome rocket launcher will be gone.
When the PS2 and XBox came out, there was an altering in interaction. At least in FPS's, and maybe not all, but certainly the ones I play. They make use of the shoulder buttons -- L1, L2, R1, R2. In Killzone, R1 and R2 are your weapon fire/use buttons, and most weapons have 2 fire modes, a primary and a secondary. Some examples:
ISA standard assault rifle- Primary:machine gun-ish. Secondary:Grendae laucher(holds 1 until used)
Helghast assault rifle- Primary:machine gun. Secondary:shot gun shell (holds 1 until used)
Shotgun- Primary:shoot one shell. Secondary:shoot two shells. The shotgun is interesting, as the player can hit R1 and R2 at the same time and manage to shoot 3 shells from the gun at once when theres only two barrel holes. Shooting 3 shells at once is essentially guaranteed to kill you target if they all hit, but the shotgun only holds 8 shells before needing to be reloaded, so thats nearly half your ammo used. (You can store more ammo on you though, this is the case with all the weapons, save a select few, such as the knives.)
ISA rocket launcher- Primary: Shoot a rocket. Secondary: Shoot a laser guided rocket.
Helghast rocket launcher- Primary:Shoot a rocet. Secondary: Shoot ALL THREE rockets!!!
There is an interesting mechanic in the game... In the story mode, you can play as one of four characters, three being humans and one being half-human, half-helghast. The humans can use their weapons just fine, but when they pick up a Helghast assault weapon from a fallen foe and start using it, they will experience significat recoil. When Hakha (the half n' half guy) uses this weapon, he gets very little recoil, but when using the other weapons, experiences more recoil than the others. Missions can be rather long, so you are bound to run out of ammo.. you would be forced to pick up the dead enemies' weapons and use them, but there tends to be a few deposits of ISA weaponry and ammo on the various maps/missions, often next to dead comrades. So, for the most part, the player can choose which weapon will be their primary weapon- the ISA or the Helghast machine guns, or the chaingun or semi-silent half-sniper rifle gun... until those two run out of ammo, and they have significantly less pickups than the assault rifles.
The characters each have their own strengths and weaknesses creating a good game balance.
Jan- the every-guy. He can run a decent amount of time, climb ladders, crawl through vents and some other tight spots.
Luger- the small, flexible assassin- can run the longest, climb ladders and rope (while holding a gun..), fit into the smallest spots.
Rico- he is the slowest of them all. he can not climb ladders, and certainly not rope or wires. He can not even crouch down and go through some vents or any small openings. But he can hold a lot more ammo than the others and is the best at using the heavy artillery, such as his chain/rocket gun.
Hahka- also a middle road kinda guy. He's the best at using Helghast weaponry but is slightly worse with human weapons. He can also bypass Helghast security thingies, such as trip-lasers rigged to bombs that will kill anyone who sets them off. He also regenerates his health faster than the others, while in down-time (not running around shooting up the place)
The story is a 1player mode. The battlegrounds is 1-2players, locally. If you have your PS2 connected to the interwebs, you can play with / against other people online, something I have never done with this game. 2 Player mode splits the screen, making it semi-harder to tell what is going on in your section, as is the way with nearly all FPSs.
One of my favorite things to do in the Battles mode is to grab me up the Sniper rifle and head up several stories of the biggest building on a particular map- I come out on a little balcony like area and can see something like 60-70% of the entire map from one position. Zoom in with the sniper rifle and you can see very, very far, with great detail. Sniping is fun.. foes have no idea where you are (if they are NPCs) and die with a single hit. Now, since this would be too easy, they made the sniper rifle one of the hardest guns to use. Its actually a Helghan weapon in this game, and therefore has an orange tint on the scope that matches their little goggles. Aiming is very difficult to do, especially at first, and I'm not even sure how to describe it. ...The crosshairs lag.. and you won't move them for a little bit, and then all of a sudden you've overshot your target, aiming at one side of them to the other. It takes a bit getting used to, but once you are, is oh so lethal. You can shoot 6 bullets before needing to reload and can only hold about 18 on you, so it can go rather fast, luckily, there is a sniper rifle bullet pickup mere feet from the location I like to use.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Killzone: Characters. That's the best I could come up with.
There are 4 main characters in the story and 3 lesser main ones.. and they all make their contributions.
Playables (main) -- (Jan's Crew)
-----
Captain Jan Templar - the leader of the pack. He is essentially asked to save the world and along his trip runs into an old friend and they continue on the mission (the friend is Luger who is now playable) Jan is given orders to rescue a spy with Luger and while on their way to the captive's location run across a tank and several soldiers, the two hide realizng their weapons are useless against tanks and all of a sudden some guy starts yelling and shooting at the Helghans. He blows up the tank, and shortly thereafter joins Jan and Luger, Rico is now a playable character. The three go on to rescue the spy who turns out to be the half-human, half-helghast Hakha much to their surprise and displeasure. Jan tries to keep things smooth between Rico and Hakha (he doesn't hate Hakha and knows that this group is going to have to work together if they are to succeed.) When it is revealed that one of the human generals is a traitor, Jan fears for his friend, the general who sent him on his mission as well as a good friend.) Jan decides what his crew is going to do and how, for the most part, and after realizing his friend is dead, heads up into space to stop the traitor.
Shadow Marshal Luger - a cold and calculating female assassin / spy. It is revealed that Jan and her once had a semi-romantic relationship, but that ended awhile ago when she went for her training and lost many of the more human emotions. Rico notices tension between Luger and Jan, and Hakha explains what most likely happened - she was "trained to act, not feel." There does not seem to be much chance of rekindling a relationship between her and Janm but they do work well together on the battlefield.
Sergeant Rico Velasquez - the big "tough" one, he carries a large chain gun capable of destroying tanks.. He hates the Helghast more than anyone (on the crew at least). For this reason, he dislikes and distrusts Hakha, often threatening to kill or maim him, and the two constantly exchange insults throughout the game. However, as the game continues, the hatred/distrust between the two fades a little, but not entirely- they are both valuable and essential components in the team, it is only 4 people after all.
Colonel Hakha - Half human and half Helghast and a spy; for these reasons, but mainly the first, the rest of the team does not entirely trust or like him, especially Rico. Over the course of the game he proves his loyalty, from shooting a Helghast soldier when the other 3 playables find him, to figureing out who the traitor in the Human military is, and eventually killing a major Helghan general after he (the general) reveals that he personally killedHakha's brother for his pro-human ideals.
Non-playables
-----
General Bradley Vaughton - A human and friend of Jan Templar. Vaughton orders Templar and Luger to find and rescue an important person(who turns out to be Hakha.) He is betrayed by General Adams and then executed.
General Stuart Adams - Another human general, he turns out to be a traitor and hands the human's space-based weapons platform over to Helghast control and gives the order to execute General Vaughton. This of course causes some tension and overall hatred between Jan and his crew, but especially Jan.
At the end of the game, whichever of the characters you are playing will be the one to have a part in his death(although, the player doesn't kill Adams, falling debris does.)
General Joseph Lente - A general and Commander-in-chief of the Helghan army under direct command of the Helghast leader. He loathes humans and Earth and leads many of the major assaults on Vetka. After he is defeated by Jan's crew, he reveals to them (mostly Hakha) how he killed Hakha's brother. When Hakha puts a bullet in his head, his loyalties seem pretty clear to the others.
Shapes
---
There is no character triangle for romantic relationships, just a line that is faded between Jan and Luger. As there are 4 main characters, there would be mostly character squares.
One triangle would/could be Hakha-Hakha's brother(we never see)-Lente.
Hakha is a half-human half-Helghast individual, so he could belong to either side.
His brother was a pro-human idealist.
Lente, a Helghan with major human-hating qualities personally kills Hakha's brother.
Hakha now (even more so) hates Lente and the Helghast, sides with the humans, and eventually kills his brother's killer.
Jan-Vaughton-Adams
Jan and General Vaughton were friends
General Vaughton and General Adams were friends
General Adams betrays the humans and has Vaugthon murdered
Jan does not like General Adams, and goes on a mission to stop / kill the traitor.
Some of the major character developments included Hakha proving his loyalty and value to the pure humans as the game went on and Rico's hatred for Hakha lessening as Hakha proved himself, and Hakha's dislike of Rico lessening as Rico's dislike for him lessened.
The relationship between Jan and Luger is revealed a bit more as the story moves foward, as is how/why it eneded and how the two changed since then (particularly Luger).
Each of the playable characters has their own distinct weapon(s).
Jan uses a standard ISA machine gun
Luger uses a silent semi-automatic-ish semi-sniper rifle.. it is very quiet, has a good scope, shoots single rounds or can shoot several (becoming louder). She also wields a knife.
Rico uses a chain gun that holds something like 8,000 bullets as well as rockets. It is loud and big and can overheat after too much use (stopping the player from just shooting all 8,000 bullets in a minute)
Hahka uses the standard Helghast machine gun, its a little slower than Jan's gun but hits harder and holds more bullets. Like Luger, he also has a knife, though his looks more Helghany.
Playables (main) -- (Jan's Crew)
-----
Captain Jan Templar - the leader of the pack. He is essentially asked to save the world and along his trip runs into an old friend and they continue on the mission (the friend is Luger who is now playable) Jan is given orders to rescue a spy with Luger and while on their way to the captive's location run across a tank and several soldiers, the two hide realizng their weapons are useless against tanks and all of a sudden some guy starts yelling and shooting at the Helghans. He blows up the tank, and shortly thereafter joins Jan and Luger, Rico is now a playable character. The three go on to rescue the spy who turns out to be the half-human, half-helghast Hakha much to their surprise and displeasure. Jan tries to keep things smooth between Rico and Hakha (he doesn't hate Hakha and knows that this group is going to have to work together if they are to succeed.) When it is revealed that one of the human generals is a traitor, Jan fears for his friend, the general who sent him on his mission as well as a good friend.) Jan decides what his crew is going to do and how, for the most part, and after realizing his friend is dead, heads up into space to stop the traitor.
Shadow Marshal Luger - a cold and calculating female assassin / spy. It is revealed that Jan and her once had a semi-romantic relationship, but that ended awhile ago when she went for her training and lost many of the more human emotions. Rico notices tension between Luger and Jan, and Hakha explains what most likely happened - she was "trained to act, not feel." There does not seem to be much chance of rekindling a relationship between her and Janm but they do work well together on the battlefield.
Sergeant Rico Velasquez - the big "tough" one, he carries a large chain gun capable of destroying tanks.. He hates the Helghast more than anyone (on the crew at least). For this reason, he dislikes and distrusts Hakha, often threatening to kill or maim him, and the two constantly exchange insults throughout the game. However, as the game continues, the hatred/distrust between the two fades a little, but not entirely- they are both valuable and essential components in the team, it is only 4 people after all.
Colonel Hakha - Half human and half Helghast and a spy; for these reasons, but mainly the first, the rest of the team does not entirely trust or like him, especially Rico. Over the course of the game he proves his loyalty, from shooting a Helghast soldier when the other 3 playables find him, to figureing out who the traitor in the Human military is, and eventually killing a major Helghan general after he (the general) reveals that he personally killedHakha's brother for his pro-human ideals.
Non-playables
-----
General Bradley Vaughton - A human and friend of Jan Templar. Vaughton orders Templar and Luger to find and rescue an important person(who turns out to be Hakha.) He is betrayed by General Adams and then executed.
General Stuart Adams - Another human general, he turns out to be a traitor and hands the human's space-based weapons platform over to Helghast control and gives the order to execute General Vaughton. This of course causes some tension and overall hatred between Jan and his crew, but especially Jan.
At the end of the game, whichever of the characters you are playing will be the one to have a part in his death(although, the player doesn't kill Adams, falling debris does.)
General Joseph Lente - A general and Commander-in-chief of the Helghan army under direct command of the Helghast leader. He loathes humans and Earth and leads many of the major assaults on Vetka. After he is defeated by Jan's crew, he reveals to them (mostly Hakha) how he killed Hakha's brother. When Hakha puts a bullet in his head, his loyalties seem pretty clear to the others.
Shapes
---
There is no character triangle for romantic relationships, just a line that is faded between Jan and Luger. As there are 4 main characters, there would be mostly character squares.
One triangle would/could be Hakha-Hakha's brother(we never see)-Lente.
Hakha is a half-human half-Helghast individual, so he could belong to either side.
His brother was a pro-human idealist.
Lente, a Helghan with major human-hating qualities personally kills Hakha's brother.
Hakha now (even more so) hates Lente and the Helghast, sides with the humans, and eventually kills his brother's killer.
Jan-Vaughton-Adams
Jan and General Vaughton were friends
General Vaughton and General Adams were friends
General Adams betrays the humans and has Vaugthon murdered
Jan does not like General Adams, and goes on a mission to stop / kill the traitor.
Some of the major character developments included Hakha proving his loyalty and value to the pure humans as the game went on and Rico's hatred for Hakha lessening as Hakha proved himself, and Hakha's dislike of Rico lessening as Rico's dislike for him lessened.
The relationship between Jan and Luger is revealed a bit more as the story moves foward, as is how/why it eneded and how the two changed since then (particularly Luger).
Each of the playable characters has their own distinct weapon(s).
Jan uses a standard ISA machine gun
Luger uses a silent semi-automatic-ish semi-sniper rifle.. it is very quiet, has a good scope, shoots single rounds or can shoot several (becoming louder). She also wields a knife.
Rico uses a chain gun that holds something like 8,000 bullets as well as rockets. It is loud and big and can overheat after too much use (stopping the player from just shooting all 8,000 bullets in a minute)
Hahka uses the standard Helghast machine gun, its a little slower than Jan's gun but hits harder and holds more bullets. Like Luger, he also has a knife, though his looks more Helghany.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Killzone: A Story of Shooting Everything in Sight.
As it's been requested I ~not~ do everything about Guild Wars, I shall go back in time, for now, until I can achieve more time on other such things as new games on the new consoles... Though I continue to wait for the release of the PS4...
-----------------------
Killzone is a first person shooter that takes place pretty far in the future, the year not exactly known, but humans have begun space colonization. And that little bit of info is what feeds the game. Humans had colonized the planet Helghan, which features very harsh conditions, and the people living there had to adapt and evolve in order to survive on such a planet. They eventually became the Helghast, a human-like race with better stats and abilities. This is all well and good, except for their deep hatred towards humanity...
The humans and the Helghast are at war, and after recovering from their defeat in the First Helghan War, the Helghast launch an attack on Vetka, a human colony-planet. Jan Templar is a captain in the ISA, a human military organization and it is his task to stop this invasion and prevent the Helghast from taking over Vetka and eventually Earth. This is a pretty big job for one man, so help is working in along the way. Jan meets a former lover, Luger, now turned deadly Shadow-Marshal assassin and Rico Velasquez, a big, heavy-gun toating soldier whose entire platoon was killed. Together they kill off many a Helghast in the quest to rescue a spy, who turns out to be a half-human, half-helghast colonel with no love of the Helghast. Rico harbors a deep hatred off the Helghast, only made worse by the fact that they had just recently killed his company, so this leads to a lot of tension between the two.
Almost every game has a plot-twist or a whatchacallit, and this one is no different. To defend the Earth colonies, the military makes use of a spaced-based weapons platform. This platform requires that two human generals work together to activate it (think Goldeneye in the movie, Goldeneye). Turns out, one of the generals is a traitor, who, as soon as the controls for the weapoons platform become operational, kills the other general, a good friend of Jan Templar, and turns the weapons towards Vetka and the fleet of Earth spaceships. It is then up to Jan and his crew to get onboard the platform and put an end to General Adams (the murderous traitor) and destroy the weapons platform (or at least get it to stop killing the humans).
-----------------------
Killzone is a first person shooter that takes place pretty far in the future, the year not exactly known, but humans have begun space colonization. And that little bit of info is what feeds the game. Humans had colonized the planet Helghan, which features very harsh conditions, and the people living there had to adapt and evolve in order to survive on such a planet. They eventually became the Helghast, a human-like race with better stats and abilities. This is all well and good, except for their deep hatred towards humanity...
The humans and the Helghast are at war, and after recovering from their defeat in the First Helghan War, the Helghast launch an attack on Vetka, a human colony-planet. Jan Templar is a captain in the ISA, a human military organization and it is his task to stop this invasion and prevent the Helghast from taking over Vetka and eventually Earth. This is a pretty big job for one man, so help is working in along the way. Jan meets a former lover, Luger, now turned deadly Shadow-Marshal assassin and Rico Velasquez, a big, heavy-gun toating soldier whose entire platoon was killed. Together they kill off many a Helghast in the quest to rescue a spy, who turns out to be a half-human, half-helghast colonel with no love of the Helghast. Rico harbors a deep hatred off the Helghast, only made worse by the fact that they had just recently killed his company, so this leads to a lot of tension between the two.
Almost every game has a plot-twist or a whatchacallit, and this one is no different. To defend the Earth colonies, the military makes use of a spaced-based weapons platform. This platform requires that two human generals work together to activate it (think Goldeneye in the movie, Goldeneye). Turns out, one of the generals is a traitor, who, as soon as the controls for the weapoons platform become operational, kills the other general, a good friend of Jan Templar, and turns the weapons towards Vetka and the fleet of Earth spaceships. It is then up to Jan and his crew to get onboard the platform and put an end to General Adams (the murderous traitor) and destroy the weapons platform (or at least get it to stop killing the humans).
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Ninjas and Pirates
Wait, was it pirates or warriors?
1. Ninjas. They are good at two things. Killing and stealth. Well, killing generally implies fighting, so it will have to be stealth that we focus on.
Use your incredible shadow arts to go from place to place stealing whatever pleases you and causing mayhem. You can accept missions to steal certain things for someone or try your hand at freelance, selling things on the blackmarket.
2. You're a scout in the King's Army. Forces are invading from the South, or any direction... It has been raining heavily for the last week, so your pyre is soaked. There is no lighting the beacons tonight. But they must be warned! Get moving. -In this action/adventure game, you have no weapons (got drunk and lost a bet) so you are forced to retreat back into your territory unarmed, avoiding the enemy and getting to the King's Palace safely and hastily. Try to mount an attack or defensive by yourself and you will surely be slaughtered.
3. You are the captain of The Arr. You and your bang of scally-wags are some of the last remaining pirates. True pirates - not those modern day wankers. However, seeing as how military powers and overall authority has grown greatly, assaulting other vessels and making off with their loot isn't the greatest idea. (They will send jets to bomb you.) Instead, you and the crew have contented yourselves with merely looking for treasure. So now you sail the seas, searching for tiny deserted islands and shoveling it over a few feet. You'd be amazed at just how much treasure is hidden on these deserted islands. It's probably all from other pirates who buried it there, forgot about it and then died. If you score enough swag, you can retire from your life of piracy and move to a tropical island with a tiny hut. ..hmm.. maybe you'll move to a congested city with too much to do.
4. Napstar. Combining the qualities of Napster and Rock Band, players will make and share music illegally. -The newer version of modern day pirates. P2P piracy.. Get caught by the feds and pay a fine. Fighting them may result in getting shot.
5. A young man has spent years searching for the fabled temple. He wants to crush his enemies with the way of the assassin - leet ninja skills. He has found the ancient temple! Oh, but it took too long. The ninjas have gotten old. Fighting is no longer their hobby. At least, not what the young man was looking for. Board games. They spend their days playing board games. And they have offered you a spot in their monthly tournament! Will you accept? -See if you can defeat the old, wise ninjas in a variety of board games. Watch them closely though... you never know when one will make a chess piece shadow step across the board. If you manage to defeat them, they will reward you with an outfit and a katana. You may not have the incredibly uber skills, but you have their items. And isn't that really what you wanted anyways?
1. Ninjas. They are good at two things. Killing and stealth. Well, killing generally implies fighting, so it will have to be stealth that we focus on.
Use your incredible shadow arts to go from place to place stealing whatever pleases you and causing mayhem. You can accept missions to steal certain things for someone or try your hand at freelance, selling things on the blackmarket.
2. You're a scout in the King's Army. Forces are invading from the South, or any direction... It has been raining heavily for the last week, so your pyre is soaked. There is no lighting the beacons tonight. But they must be warned! Get moving. -In this action/adventure game, you have no weapons (got drunk and lost a bet) so you are forced to retreat back into your territory unarmed, avoiding the enemy and getting to the King's Palace safely and hastily. Try to mount an attack or defensive by yourself and you will surely be slaughtered.
3. You are the captain of The Arr. You and your bang of scally-wags are some of the last remaining pirates. True pirates - not those modern day wankers. However, seeing as how military powers and overall authority has grown greatly, assaulting other vessels and making off with their loot isn't the greatest idea. (They will send jets to bomb you.) Instead, you and the crew have contented yourselves with merely looking for treasure. So now you sail the seas, searching for tiny deserted islands and shoveling it over a few feet. You'd be amazed at just how much treasure is hidden on these deserted islands. It's probably all from other pirates who buried it there, forgot about it and then died. If you score enough swag, you can retire from your life of piracy and move to a tropical island with a tiny hut. ..hmm.. maybe you'll move to a congested city with too much to do.
4. Napstar. Combining the qualities of Napster and Rock Band, players will make and share music illegally. -The newer version of modern day pirates. P2P piracy.. Get caught by the feds and pay a fine. Fighting them may result in getting shot.
5. A young man has spent years searching for the fabled temple. He wants to crush his enemies with the way of the assassin - leet ninja skills. He has found the ancient temple! Oh, but it took too long. The ninjas have gotten old. Fighting is no longer their hobby. At least, not what the young man was looking for. Board games. They spend their days playing board games. And they have offered you a spot in their monthly tournament! Will you accept? -See if you can defeat the old, wise ninjas in a variety of board games. Watch them closely though... you never know when one will make a chess piece shadow step across the board. If you manage to defeat them, they will reward you with an outfit and a katana. You may not have the incredibly uber skills, but you have their items. And isn't that really what you wanted anyways?
Guild Wars turns Three!
This week / weekend marks the 3rd anniversary of the release of Guild Wars: Prophecies; the 2nd of Factions, and 1.5th of Nightfall.
To celebrate, ANet did one of their typical event weekends, with extras and what not.
For awhile now, there have been "mini-pets" in the game. They helped ruin the economy. Oh but also, they make a small version of some type of creature to follow your character around. (It is completely useless; but some are very very rare --people like to show off their "l33tn3ss" in online games, so they pay ungodly amounts of money for the rarest ones - see: ruined the economy.
There are a few ways to obtain a mini pet. On a character's birthday (works just like human ones) a little blue box will appear in its inventory. Double-clicking this box will open it up and a small icon of one of the game's creatures will appear in its place. Double-clicking on this icon will summon that thing at your feet, at a scale of oh 1/4 to 1/20 the size of the actual thing it is a mini of. (think Minime or is it Mini-me?)
There are other ways to get one.. such as buying a certain issue of a magazine, or defeating many many others in a GvG or what have you. (Guild vs. Guild)
Each year has its own set, (that might not make sense, or maybe what I next say won't) A green, 2 golds, 3 purples, and then 8 whites. The color determines the rarity and how much you can sell one for if you opt to do that.
Some mini pets cost about 500g to buy. That is .5 k. Then there are a few that go around oh, 8 mil. which is 8,000 k. Thanks for destroying the economy ANet. They also want ectos.
After seeing this year's list of mini-pets, I can't say I am all that pleased. Some are just basic re-skins of already existent ones. Others are just lame things to begin with, but ANet seems to find it so incredibly hilarious.
Seriously, get the damn Ooze out of LA, Kamadan, and KC. That thing is bloody annoying.
-They decided to make a mini Ooze. And its not even one of the whites- its a fricken purple! Omg, why!?
The Black Beast of Arrgh, is basically the rollerbeetle mini, with just the slightest change to the skin. Eh, c'mon guys. really? And its gold.
Now the nornbear, that one is pretty cool, its a purple and I'm bound to buy one if one of my characters doesn't get lucky enough for that.
-More to come. I think.
To celebrate, ANet did one of their typical event weekends, with extras and what not.
For awhile now, there have been "mini-pets" in the game. They helped ruin the economy. Oh but also, they make a small version of some type of creature to follow your character around. (It is completely useless; but some are very very rare --people like to show off their "l33tn3ss" in online games, so they pay ungodly amounts of money for the rarest ones - see: ruined the economy.
There are a few ways to obtain a mini pet. On a character's birthday (works just like human ones) a little blue box will appear in its inventory. Double-clicking this box will open it up and a small icon of one of the game's creatures will appear in its place. Double-clicking on this icon will summon that thing at your feet, at a scale of oh 1/4 to 1/20 the size of the actual thing it is a mini of. (think Minime or is it Mini-me?)
There are other ways to get one.. such as buying a certain issue of a magazine, or defeating many many others in a GvG or what have you. (Guild vs. Guild)
Each year has its own set, (that might not make sense, or maybe what I next say won't) A green, 2 golds, 3 purples, and then 8 whites. The color determines the rarity and how much you can sell one for if you opt to do that.
Some mini pets cost about 500g to buy. That is .5 k. Then there are a few that go around oh, 8 mil. which is 8,000 k. Thanks for destroying the economy ANet. They also want ectos.
After seeing this year's list of mini-pets, I can't say I am all that pleased. Some are just basic re-skins of already existent ones. Others are just lame things to begin with, but ANet seems to find it so incredibly hilarious.
Seriously, get the damn Ooze out of LA, Kamadan, and KC. That thing is bloody annoying.
-They decided to make a mini Ooze. And its not even one of the whites- its a fricken purple! Omg, why!?
The Black Beast of Arrgh, is basically the rollerbeetle mini, with just the slightest change to the skin. Eh, c'mon guys. really? And its gold.
Now the nornbear, that one is pretty cool, its a purple and I'm bound to buy one if one of my characters doesn't get lucky enough for that.
-More to come. I think.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Hedge playing
They will be posted in the next few hours as they are finalized and the last ones materialize in my mind.
The problem is that, materializing things in one's mind as I do, tends to fill it up pretty fast. My head is only 18 inches around, so all these ideas are just kind of trying to blow my head up. Mischievous little things.
----
1. Hedge-sim. Using your Wii controllers, players will act out the motions of laying hedges. It would be as realistic as possible, with the game being very critical. The game is meant as an exercise for people who want to get into the business of laying hedges. They've done the same for flying-planes. When you perform well enough, the game's on-line store will open up, where you can then purchase the items to really lay hedges in the dreaded outside.
2. You are a renowned hedge-layer. The annual Hedgefest is approaching. Lay your hedges in a most beautiful and practical way. And watch out for those neighbors... They leave miles away and you have no idea what they're scheming. All you know is that for the last 10 years, you have bested them in the hedge competition and their furor continues to grow. You have heard someone plans to ruin your hedges sometime in the week before the festival. Now you must defend your hedges from those pesky, un-skilled scamps. By any means necessary. If someone manages to destroy your hedges, you will have to quickly get a new hedge up and growing. Only once it is done and you have won Hedgefest can you exact revenge on the fools who messed with your hedge.
3. The government-council of New Orleans has hired you to protect their city from future floods due to hurricanes and the like. You don't think its the best idea in the world, but you're going to do your best anyways!
4. A simple game meant for young children whose parents want them to grow up to be hedgelayers. The game will display an image on the screen, and the player will have a certain amount of time to select which style it is. The game will get harder by taking the images off the screen sooner and reducing the time you have to make your choice.
The game will feature an encyclopedia-type area with information on all the various styles and general information on the topic of hedge-laying. (It worked in Dynasty Warriors).
5. You are a sheep. And you really really like your white locks of hair or whatever it is sheep have. Your cruel masters are barricading the entire area with hedges. You know that they're planning on shearing you soon... and also, you're a bit of a curious sheep who wants to see more than just this endless green field. Find a way out, or create one, and make it to the ocean before the masters realize 1/1000 of their herd is missing. Or, you could try to lead a massive revolt and convince the other sheep to do what you are going to do. They are sheep, after all.
Players will have to navigate their way through the field and then the treacherous hedges. You will have to be quick about it or someone will spot you.
The problem is that, materializing things in one's mind as I do, tends to fill it up pretty fast. My head is only 18 inches around, so all these ideas are just kind of trying to blow my head up. Mischievous little things.
----
1. Hedge-sim. Using your Wii controllers, players will act out the motions of laying hedges. It would be as realistic as possible, with the game being very critical. The game is meant as an exercise for people who want to get into the business of laying hedges. They've done the same for flying-planes. When you perform well enough, the game's on-line store will open up, where you can then purchase the items to really lay hedges in the dreaded outside.
2. You are a renowned hedge-layer. The annual Hedgefest is approaching. Lay your hedges in a most beautiful and practical way. And watch out for those neighbors... They leave miles away and you have no idea what they're scheming. All you know is that for the last 10 years, you have bested them in the hedge competition and their furor continues to grow. You have heard someone plans to ruin your hedges sometime in the week before the festival. Now you must defend your hedges from those pesky, un-skilled scamps. By any means necessary. If someone manages to destroy your hedges, you will have to quickly get a new hedge up and growing. Only once it is done and you have won Hedgefest can you exact revenge on the fools who messed with your hedge.
3. The government-council of New Orleans has hired you to protect their city from future floods due to hurricanes and the like. You don't think its the best idea in the world, but you're going to do your best anyways!
4. A simple game meant for young children whose parents want them to grow up to be hedgelayers. The game will display an image on the screen, and the player will have a certain amount of time to select which style it is. The game will get harder by taking the images off the screen sooner and reducing the time you have to make your choice.
The game will feature an encyclopedia-type area with information on all the various styles and general information on the topic of hedge-laying. (It worked in Dynasty Warriors).
5. You are a sheep. And you really really like your white locks of hair or whatever it is sheep have. Your cruel masters are barricading the entire area with hedges. You know that they're planning on shearing you soon... and also, you're a bit of a curious sheep who wants to see more than just this endless green field. Find a way out, or create one, and make it to the ocean before the masters realize 1/1000 of their herd is missing. Or, you could try to lead a massive revolt and convince the other sheep to do what you are going to do. They are sheep, after all.
Players will have to navigate their way through the field and then the treacherous hedges. You will have to be quick about it or someone will spot you.
Guild Wars. Running: A lost art
Back in the day, the only campaign of Guild Wars was Prophecies. It was the first and only component of the GW universe and both developers and players had not completely found what GW was destined to be nor realized what exactly they would do with it. Pardon me if that makes no sense, I often tend not to make sense to people who are not me. Please bear with me for a moment. This whole thing has been a build up to, well, just take a look at the title of this post if you have not already. Chances are you have, did you take a second look? I probably would have, so as to make sure I didn't miss something. No, the title really is that short. And by short I mean it is longer than most of the other ones (titles) but still not as long as your typical sentence. Certainly not as long as this, but Grenth knows this should have ended a bit ago. Anyways, without further ado..,
Running: A Lost Art.
The land of Tyria is a vast open one. There are many regions, such as Ascalon, Kryta, The Magumma Jungle, The Crystal Desert, The Fire Islands, and The Shiverpeak Mountains.
Traveling from place to place is rather easy.. whether it be outpost to outpost or region to region. Now, travel is made beyond easy by the use of map-travel. By clicking on your map, you can automatically teleport to any city or outpost in the world!! However, there is one catch... You must have visited that outpost before you are able to insta-travel to it. And well, that makes slightly more sense. Wouldn't you agree? You can't go right off to Colorado if you've never traveled there before; you must look at the maps and chart your route. In many areas, a player can simply walk out the gateway of an outpost and head towards their destination. But, it GW is a MMORPG and this game type is designed to handle all sorts of skill level and well, levels. The high-end areas can not be reached by low-level nubs. The high-end areas are where you can craft the best weapons and earn the most experience, as well as get the best loot. Well, the low level characters of people who have already played the game a bit will have non of that. And neither will the incredibly lazy people, or the people who don't feel like playing the game they bought. The solution - runners!
A runner is a character, typically at level 20, and one of the more durable classes who takes people in his or her group, goes out into the wilderness and runs runs runs to the desired outpost. (If one character in the group zones, the entire party zones - this is what really makes this possible) The reward-- plat's. Or so we hope... Scammers have been known to be ******* jerks who deserve death. They go with a runner who takes them where they want and then they don't pay. We don't need these types..
Standard running classes:
Originally it was Warriors and Rangers. Then monks gave it a shot (with their protective and healing prayers, and using ranger stances for the speed boost)
With Guild Wars Factions, some Assassins did a bit of running using their own skills and often a few of a different class (monk or ranger)
Nightfall got Dervishes into the running game and they are very good at it, as the class allows for some unusual / non-standard builds. (A build being the 8 skills on the skill bar and the distribution of attribute points)
Perhaps the most popular run of all Guild Wars time was the Droks run. This run went from either Ascalon City, or more often, Beacons Perch. The destination: Droknar's Forge. The main city in the Southern Shiverpeaks, one of the hardest areas in Guild Wars Prophecies, and the first place you can craft MAX ARMOR. The path to Droknar's Forge is a perilous one, claiming many noobs and idiots unprepared or less-than-skilled for the adventure.
Prices for a Droks run have varied, ranging from 2 to 6 platinum normally. One of the main causes of this fluctuation... the nerfbat. ArenaNet smacked runners in the face constantly with the changes to Lornar's Pass and AI scripts. There was a time that it seemed every month they made it harder and harder to successfully complete a Droks run. Sometimes it was hard even getting 1/10 of the way into the run. Some even say that it is near impossible for a warrior to do this run (when originally they were the only ones that could) However, the Dervish rose as the new Droks runner. They could do the run with near-ease. Unfortunately for them, they came with Nightfall. And by then Factions was out so there was already more locations to get max level armor. And getting to KC from Tyria is simply too easy. As an added blow to this run, Consulate Docks is the first place to get max armor in Nightfall. It is literally connected to Kamadan, the starting city of Nightfall, and a person can get a ferry from Kamadan to docks for 500 gold in anywheres between 5 minutes and an hour depending on what time it is and what district they are in.
In Factions, ArenaNet made running all but impossible. Gates cover the entrances to almost every single outpost in the campaign, and they will only open if everyone in the part has completed the storyline up to that point. I hate it. Both as a runner and a person with 8 PvE characters.
In Nightfall, some outposts are blocked off until the character reaches a certain point, but most are not. However, they found another way to stop people from moving too far along in that game. Mission requirements. They are ftl - the reverse of ftw, which in case you don't know is "for the win."
The glory days of running are long gone. However some runs do still exist. They are either hard to find a runner for or hard to find someone who wants the run, and they don't usually cost over 2k, if that... 500g to 1k is now the standard rate on most of the runs still done.
I'm glad I ran when I did. I made a lot of money, got to see interesting places, and the routes of many those runs still lie within my deteriorating brain. I may not be able to remember where I put my socks 10 minutes ago, but the path from LA to Sanctum Cay couldn't be clearer, and I haven't done that run in over a year and it is 3:30 in the morning.
Running: A Lost Art.
The land of Tyria is a vast open one. There are many regions, such as Ascalon, Kryta, The Magumma Jungle, The Crystal Desert, The Fire Islands, and The Shiverpeak Mountains.
Traveling from place to place is rather easy.. whether it be outpost to outpost or region to region. Now, travel is made beyond easy by the use of map-travel. By clicking on your map, you can automatically teleport to any city or outpost in the world!! However, there is one catch... You must have visited that outpost before you are able to insta-travel to it. And well, that makes slightly more sense. Wouldn't you agree? You can't go right off to Colorado if you've never traveled there before; you must look at the maps and chart your route. In many areas, a player can simply walk out the gateway of an outpost and head towards their destination. But, it GW is a MMORPG and this game type is designed to handle all sorts of skill level and well, levels. The high-end areas can not be reached by low-level nubs. The high-end areas are where you can craft the best weapons and earn the most experience, as well as get the best loot. Well, the low level characters of people who have already played the game a bit will have non of that. And neither will the incredibly lazy people, or the people who don't feel like playing the game they bought. The solution - runners!
A runner is a character, typically at level 20, and one of the more durable classes who takes people in his or her group, goes out into the wilderness and runs runs runs to the desired outpost. (If one character in the group zones, the entire party zones - this is what really makes this possible) The reward-- plat's. Or so we hope... Scammers have been known to be ******* jerks who deserve death. They go with a runner who takes them where they want and then they don't pay. We don't need these types..
Standard running classes:
Originally it was Warriors and Rangers. Then monks gave it a shot (with their protective and healing prayers, and using ranger stances for the speed boost)
With Guild Wars Factions, some Assassins did a bit of running using their own skills and often a few of a different class (monk or ranger)
Nightfall got Dervishes into the running game and they are very good at it, as the class allows for some unusual / non-standard builds. (A build being the 8 skills on the skill bar and the distribution of attribute points)
Perhaps the most popular run of all Guild Wars time was the Droks run. This run went from either Ascalon City, or more often, Beacons Perch. The destination: Droknar's Forge. The main city in the Southern Shiverpeaks, one of the hardest areas in Guild Wars Prophecies, and the first place you can craft MAX ARMOR. The path to Droknar's Forge is a perilous one, claiming many noobs and idiots unprepared or less-than-skilled for the adventure.
Prices for a Droks run have varied, ranging from 2 to 6 platinum normally. One of the main causes of this fluctuation... the nerfbat. ArenaNet smacked runners in the face constantly with the changes to Lornar's Pass and AI scripts. There was a time that it seemed every month they made it harder and harder to successfully complete a Droks run. Sometimes it was hard even getting 1/10 of the way into the run. Some even say that it is near impossible for a warrior to do this run (when originally they were the only ones that could) However, the Dervish rose as the new Droks runner. They could do the run with near-ease. Unfortunately for them, they came with Nightfall. And by then Factions was out so there was already more locations to get max level armor. And getting to KC from Tyria is simply too easy. As an added blow to this run, Consulate Docks is the first place to get max armor in Nightfall. It is literally connected to Kamadan, the starting city of Nightfall, and a person can get a ferry from Kamadan to docks for 500 gold in anywheres between 5 minutes and an hour depending on what time it is and what district they are in.
In Factions, ArenaNet made running all but impossible. Gates cover the entrances to almost every single outpost in the campaign, and they will only open if everyone in the part has completed the storyline up to that point. I hate it. Both as a runner and a person with 8 PvE characters.
In Nightfall, some outposts are blocked off until the character reaches a certain point, but most are not. However, they found another way to stop people from moving too far along in that game. Mission requirements. They are ftl - the reverse of ftw, which in case you don't know is "for the win."
The glory days of running are long gone. However some runs do still exist. They are either hard to find a runner for or hard to find someone who wants the run, and they don't usually cost over 2k, if that... 500g to 1k is now the standard rate on most of the runs still done.
I'm glad I ran when I did. I made a lot of money, got to see interesting places, and the routes of many those runs still lie within my deteriorating brain. I may not be able to remember where I put my socks 10 minutes ago, but the path from LA to Sanctum Cay couldn't be clearer, and I haven't done that run in over a year and it is 3:30 in the morning.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)