The Energon Pub

[1337W422102]

Beat the Secert of monkey island. I hope they remake curse of monkey island before I die of old age.

Until they do, you should check out the newschool ones by Telltale Games. These guys are awesome.

[Shadowman]

Beat the Secert of monkey island. I hope they remake curse of monkey island before I die of old age.

I've heard that they're doing LeChuck's Revenge, so Curse of Monkey Island is probably going to be made.

[Shadowman]

Seriously? No responses in five days? Am I alone in here?

Mass Effect:
BEATEN! And replaying. Now I'm just default Shepard, Soldier class, etc. Bought Pinnacle Station, got a sweet apartment after doing the simulator missions.

[1337W422102]

Seriously? No responses in five days? Am I alone in here?

Sorry, I've meant to post, but each of my progress reports would come with TL;DR backstories that I was too lazy to write, so I figured I'd post later. Here goes.

Lunia [PC]:
Some of the free-to-play games I play are run by this site called ijji. To them, "free to play" means "not worth paying for." Frequent errors and terrible service test my patience, but like a crackhead on payday, I keep coming back to them.

Anyway, they usually have some kind of summer event. Last year's one involved getting free RL$$$ points (which they scammed us out of) if you logged in every day and met certain level requirements in 4 of their selected games. I met the requirements for 3, so to meet the fourth, I started playing their game called Lunia. Basically, it's like Double Dragon as an RPG. Instead of clicking on crap to move your character around the open-ended fantasy world, you travelled through stages fighting goons and bosses, moving with the arrow keys and using your attack buttons and skill hotkeys to make various combo attacks. Like Drift City, it was fun as hell, until the novelty wears off.

My first day of Lunia was pretty rad. I chose my character, the half-Elf, half-naked bouncy-chested dual-dagger-wielding purple-haired tomboy ninja elf thief chick. (Don't worry, that link's pretty much worksafe.) In my first day, I pretty much made the level requirement I needed for the summer event, made a few friends in-game, and got recruited into a Guild which was harassed by the game-people because we called it the "Loliance" and our icon was the Pedobear. (It was shut down about twice, so we just made another one under a different name with a non-lulzy icon.) I rose through the ranks and was going to the next Guild Master. Things were good.

Then December came along and my rig got royally butt-messed, and my laptop couldn't run the game. I was cut off from my guilddudes and didn't know their email addresses or names on the message boards. I got a new laptop for Christmas, but I didn't reinstall Lunia. I had put a lot of time into the game (it's still my #1 game on Xfire in terms of hours) and it was starting to feel more like something I ran in the background rather than a game I actively played. So, time passed, and I made no attempt to get back into it.

March comes around and there's an in-game event and a free new character, the black magic version of the rather stacked innocent jailbait healer princess. So I figured, what the hell, and started playing again. I was surprised to find out that the Guild leader was so convinced that I'd come back that he didn't even kick me out despite months of inactivity. That felt pretty cool.

Anyway, so I'm back now, and I recently killed a freakin' goddess and got equipment so powerful that I can't even use it in regular stages. Currently playing as my Bounty Hunter with spike-tipped rifle/Rail Gun and arm-mounted gatling gun/grenade launcher for this month's event.

Told ya it was TL;DR.

[Skullgrin140]

Been playing Kessen III, needed a break from that so I've been playing Darksiders. Just finished that today So now I'm going back to Kessen III

[The Happy Locust]

Seriously? No responses in five days? Am I alone in here?

Hey, I've been without internet for nearly a month. Cut me some slack.

Let's see what I've been up to...

Just Cause 2
GAME.OVER!
Finished the game... well, the story mode. Even after endless hours of playing I still netted only 45% completion. Wow.

Red Steel 2
GAME.OVER!
Very fun game but I was ready for it to be over by the ending. The controls worked great for the most part, but I would find the wiimote unresponsive at times making special moves difficult to pull off.

Super Mario Galaxy 2
Started the game. Just reached world 3.

Stubbs the Zombie
Decided to re-install this. Woke up, wreaked havoc, zombified the science division, invaded the police station and won a dance-off against the chief. Currently wreaking havoc in the mall and just got attacked by the redneck Militia.

[1337W422102]

Holy crap. I did it. I actually managed to do it. Took me since September, the help of two friends, my desktop, my laptop, my buddy's 360, and some careful planning, but I am proud to say that I successfully accomplished the task.

Ladies and gentlemen (spysappinmahsentry), I present to you my gamercard:


You read that correctly. I now have 1337 Gamerscore! Thanks to the 47G I got from playing that movie Watchmen game, I was able to get the 7 points I needed to make it happen. Booyah!

Now, because if this, I retired that account, made a new one, and started over. Not aiming for 1337 this time, just playing and having fun.

GTA IV [PC]:
Strange, there was an update last night, but it didn't say what it was for. Anyway, I configured some settings to give me even higher framerates. Feels good, man.

Started a new game due to the new gamertag, met "Michelle," chilled with Brian twice, did the first job for Vlad, working on getting some Unique Jumps.

[The Happy Locust]

Super Mario Galaxy 2
Cleared 3 more Galaxy's for 5 more stars, causing prankster comets to appear. Cleared the first one in the fluffy bluff galaxy.

Final Fantasy 4: The After years
Returned to this game after a major delay. Took out four bosses (this time from FFIII) which included Ahriman, Cerberus, Echidna, and TwinDragon. Ahriman's was a punk who casts doom followed by haste on the entire party and Cerberus liked to attack 3 times in a row.
As always, the bosses are nothing compared to the random encounters I hit. Makes me wonder if the bosses level dynamically and the enemies don't.

[1337W422102]

GTA IV [PC]:
Got the darts Achievement, the Coffee one, and 2 more Jumps.

[The Happy Locust]

Super Mario Galaxy 2
Still in World 3, but making progress. The prankster comets are appearing rapidly and I'm spending my time going back to the cometed levels instead of moving forward. And loving every moment of it. Up to 47 stars.

[1337W422102]

Drift City [PC]:
Yeah, yeah, I know.

Using my secondary character, I bought a new car. The BMW got replaced by Porsche, but I still can't beat the damn "street race on the bridge" mission.

[Shadowman]

Resident Evil 5:
So, I had multiple weapons fully upgraded, infinite ammo for several, (RPG included) all characters for Mercenaries, all the costumes, all BSAA emblems, hell I could have called myself "done."

Then I had to reformat my computer. So, hey, guess who has to start from Square 1?

The upside is that it solved my "GfWL not giving me achievements" problem. Currently on chapter 3-1. (Just after that sweet cutscene with Wesker where he becomes the bastard child of Agent Smith and the Terminator)

[The Happy Locust]

Super Mario GAlaxy 2
Reached world 4. Just shy of 60 stars.

Stubbs the Zombie
The Punchbowl Mall is now a wasteland, though I had to leave dozens of inbred militia men in an undead state to get there. An unexpected travel arrangement (I got ran over by a truck) left me at the Militia's farm-slash-HQ. BTW, the truck had a license plate of "NO GBMNT". Classic.
Infiltrated their base, drove a tractor over most of them, and even got to watch Stubbs stand in front of a bloody American flag and give a Patton-esque speech using only the word "Brains!".
Reached Otis Monday's estate and found him holed up with lots of TNT. Blew him up before he could blow me up and rode away heroically on the back of a sheep.
Miles away, ended up at the Punchbowl dam where my "loyal steed" immediately dropped dead. Oh well...

Final Fantasy 4: The after years
No progress other than 2 hours spent grinding to raise my levels. The speed difference is still astonishing and making this game more difficult than it has to be. For example, ran into a Random battle with a Chimera which surprised my team. The Chimera gets to attack 3 times in a row. The Chimera is also twice as fast as my team, meaning it gets to attack 6 times before I get my first turn. Then, if it gets a surprise attack, my team is unprepared and the Chimera gets another round, giving it a chance to attack me nearly a dozen times before I can even select a move. Death for my team is very quick.

[1337W422102]

Resident Evil 5:
So, I had multiple weapons fully upgraded, infinite ammo for several, (RPG included) all characters for Mercenaries, all the costumes, all BSAA emblems, hell I could have called myself "done."

Then I had to reformat my computer. So, hey, guess who has to start from Square 1?

The upside is that it solved my "GfWL not giving me achievements" problem. Currently on chapter 3-1. (Just after that sweet cutscene with Wesker where he becomes the bastard child of Agent Smith and the Terminator)

Glad to hear it's working out, man! I just sent you a friend invite from my new account. I stopped using my old account because I got 1337 Gamerscore.

GTA IV [PC]:
Did a few more Jumps. The next one I have my eyes on is impossible to get right now due to police presence, so I'll do some more story stuff. Working on doing all the activities with Roman. Met Jakob, got me a nine from him. Now I can do that laundry job for Vlad easier. Why chase down the guy when I can shoot up his van/out his tires?

[Shadowman]

Resident Evil 5:
Completed Chapter 4-1, one of my favorites, since, if you know where to look, you can easily get somewhere to the tune of $40,000 each time.

[Shadowman]

So, I got the FEAR pack off of Steam, $10 I get FEAR 1, Extraction Point, and Perseus Mandate.

"But wait, Shadowman, you glorious man-god," you're asking, "Didn't you already own that?"

Yes I did, everyone. But the Disc A: Didn't have Perseus Mandate B: Had stupid DRM that wouldn't even let me have my virus protection running and C: Barely ran at all. (I couldn't just use the auto-run program on the disc, I actually had to go into My Computer and run it from there)

So I began with Perseus Mandate, the one I haven't played.

F.E.A.R.: Perseus Mandate:
I think something may be wrong with my shaders, the game isn't nearly as dark as the rest of the series. Or maybe that's on purpose, I dunno, normal shadows are perfectly fine, the game is just not dark enough. Some of the textures seem kind of flat as well.

Running through what I guess is a water treatment plant, perhaps the one from the first game.

For a while, facing off against mainly Replicas, I thought the game wasn't going to be as scary as the rest; I had heard Fettel and Alma don't have very big roles, for example. Then I went down a ladder and saw someone duck behind a corner. This being FEAR, I knew he wouldn't be there when I checked. I was right, but I picked up a med kit and then...

You're never prepared to see Jankowski standing behind you. I freaked, I screamed a little, I put a couple bullets in his chest, and yeah, he disappeared in a cloud of ash as usual. Okay, Perseus Mandate, I accept you now.

[The Happy Locust]

Super Mario Galaxy 2
Up to world 5 and making major progress on all worlds behind it. World 1 and 2 are 100% done and only missing a comet on world 3 to finish that off.
Some of the later challenges are devilishly difficult but never unfair as long as you don't get a case of vertigo.

[Shadowman]

Super Mario Galaxy 2
Up to world 5 and making major progress on all worlds behind it. World 1 and 2 are 100% done and only missing a comet on world 3 to finish that off.
Some of the later challenges are devilishly difficult but never unfair as long as you don't get a case of vertigo.

That's Mario for you. Cute and kid-friendly it may be, but it makes you work for that 100% completion.

F.E.A.R.: Perseus Mandate:
Passed through a couple ATC facilities. Remember how I said Fettel and Alma weren't a big part of the show? Well, I was half right, I haven't encountered Fettel and at this point I probably won't.

It amazes me how much your knowledge of the series can effect how you feel about this. For example, I saw a couple Replicas, standing still, heads lowered. I realized that means the Point Man killed Fettel, and I realized what's supposed to happen next.

And then the city was nuked! Shock and horror! I was passing through some underground area (Very similar to an area from Extraction Point) and my teammate was killed in a manner very similar to a vision I had earlier. (The location and everything leading up to the event was different, but hey, Observer Effect I guess)

And now I'm stuck, with no radio, in a series of dark underground tunnels, with my only company being Alma. Oh joy of joys.

[The Happy Locust]

Super Mario Galaxy 2
Up to world 5 and making major progress on all worlds behind it. World 1 and 2 are 100% done and only missing a comet on world 3 to finish that off.
Some of the later challenges are devilishly difficult but never unfair as long as you don't get a case of vertigo.

That's Mario for you. Cute and kid-friendly it may be, but it makes you work for that 100% completion.

Damn straight. now for something on the other end of the spectrum.

Stubbs the Zombie
Needing a place to wee, stubbs decides to invade the local hydro-electric damn. After devouring many scientists, reached the main reservoir and let Stubbs do his business. Something is very wrong with a game where the 'boss' event is your main character befouling a civic water supply. Oh well.
From there, went back into the damn and overcharged the power systems, using my zombies as fuses to complete the current. With such a high level of power, the dam couldn't stay in one peace and collapses, dousing the city of Punchbowl in zombie-virus infected waves.
With the city in ruins, the army has been called in. Ate them too and found my way to the Punchbowl labs build where I'm heading upstairs to fight the lead scientists. By the way, did I mention this session included fights against a barber shop quartet wearing jetpacks?
Defeated the lead scientist, taking away Punchbowl's last defense. All that's left is to track down the mayor and his glamorous (read: HOT!) mom who Stubbs apparently has a thing for.

[Shadowman]

F.E.A.R.: Perseus Mandate:
Passed through a couple ATC facilities. Remember how I said Fettel and Alma weren't a big part of the show? Well, I was half right, I haven't encountered Fettel and at this point I probably won't.

Correction, 100% wrong.

F.E.A.R.: Perseus Mandate:
BEATEN! Got Alma's DNA sample (Which will be used for nothing since this game is non-canon) and got the hell away. Though one of my squadmates died, his ghost appeared during evac, as if to say "hey, good job." Also, I appear to be up for promotion.

Meaning this is the one happy ending in all of FEAR.

[The Happy Locust]

F.E.A.R.: Perseus Mandate:
Passed through a couple ATC facilities. Remember how I said Fettel and Alma weren't a big part of the show? Well, I was half right, I haven't encountered Fettel and at this point I probably won't.

Correction, 100% wrong.

F.E.A.R.: Perseus Mandate:
BEATEN! Got Alma's DNA sample (Which will be used for nothing since this game is non-canon) and got the hell away. Though one of my squadmates died, his ghost appeared during evac, as if to say "hey, good job." Also, I appear to be up for promotion.

Meaning this is the one happy ending in all of FEAR.

Depends on your take. Fear 2 ended with hints at a happy domestic family life with white picket fences, telepathic newborns, and simulated apocalypse holograms. That seems happy to me.

[1337W422102]

Wasn't interested in Perseus Mandate, but Extraction Point was just too 1990s-EXTREEEEM for me. An excuse to blow crap up, mess with the story, and kill off everyone. I'm just REAL glad that it's not canon. It was a fun ride, and some parts were memorable, like the large outdoor areas and the Max Payne-esque nightmare (fuel) areas.

[Shadowman]

Wasn't interested in Perseus Mandate, but Extraction Point was just too 1990s-EXTREEEEM for me. An excuse to blow crap up, mess with the story, and kill off everyone. I'm just REAL glad that it's not canon. It was a fun ride, and some parts were memorable, like the large outdoor areas and the Max Payne-esque nightmare (fuel) areas.

It's not like EP is 100% non-canon; one could argue that after FEAR Reborn, Fettel went over to continue messing with his big brother. Though there's a lot in FEAR 2 and Reborn that contradicts it, like how after Alma not only didn't lift a finger to help him, but actually tried to prevent Fettel's resurrection, they're no longer on the same team. (Hence why FEAR 3 features the Super Wade Bros. teaming up to kill Mom and Baby Sister) Or that Synchronicity Event that I'm still not sure what it was. (Alma fused minds with herself?)

On the other hand, Perseus Mandate features Steve Blum, and he's worth the $10 by himself. (He gets out alive thanks to his Steve Blum Superpowers)

[1337W422102]

On the other hand, Perseus Mandate features Steve Blum, and he's worth the $10 by himself. (He gets out alive thanks to his Steve Blum Superpowers)

Needs more Crispin Freeman!

Time for another TL;DR gaming story!

A few years ago, I was in a bookstore perusing a PC gaming magazine, reading about this third-person MMO shooter that sounded kind of cool, despite the awful working title of "CrimeCraft." There was literally nothing at their website other than a logo and, presumably, some kind of email newsletter signup.

I signed up, and two years ago, I got into the closed beta. The game was fun, the environment of post-war ruined cities was cool, and there seemed to be some depth to it, what with the different quests, game modes, crafting system, auction house, etc. I didn't (and still don't) like the 'urban street gang' element of it. Why the hell would these post-war survivors care about designer clothing? Why'd they jump into a firefight with limited-edition shoes and t-shirts? Wouldn't they try to wear some kind of armour, or at least belts with pouches and stuff? I know the whole 'gang' thing is just to market it to players, but it feels really forced to me.

The closed beta ended, the game became subscription based, and I lost interest. When it not surprisingly went free-to-play, my interest was still gone. Flash forward to last month. They sent me a 'I want you back' email, letting me know of new features and, even better, giving me a week's worth of paid subscription for free.

I hummed some Jackson 5 and downloaded the client.

CrimeCraft [PC]:
Paid subscribers get it easy. Free users get three times less XP and $, which royally blows. I got my main character, a saucy redhead, to level 12. Did a lot of side missions, but now it's time to continue with the quests.

Got my secondary character, a guy with a blue shirt, brown pants, and a shotgun who I called "AshWilliams," to level 6, and promptly bought and modified a sidearm for him.

[The Happy Locust]

Bioshock2
Finally got this game (and at half price, too) so decided to install and start it.
Intro scene seems slightly forced. Delta takes a shot to the brain and then naps for 10 years? Um... Okay... o_0 Once awake, found the actual gameplay to be enjoyable and the game definitely wins on atmosphere, but Delta as a character still isn't really doing anything for me. STill, only an hour in so the game has plenty of time to win me over. Just got the incinerate plasmid after rescuing my first little sister and took the train through the formerly iced up road.

Will probably not get back to this for a few days. Nearly done with Stubbs the Zombie so that's going to be my priority for the moment.