The Energon Pub

[The Happy Locust]

4 days with no posts. You'd think people would get more done on games over the holidays.

Super Mario Galaxy 2
Got all the green stars up through world 6. Just a dozen more in the special world to open up the final challenge.

Assassins creed 2
After a quick detour in reality as Desmond, watched through Altair's eyes as he passed his bloodline to a female templar (genetic memory just got creepy). Returned to Ezio's world.
Currently in Venice working with the thieves guild. Completely renovated Monterrigioni and got the full metal armor and 4 of the 6 seals for Altair's tomb.

Final Fantasy 4: The After years
GAME.OVER!
After recovering Bahamut, worked my way through a host of Maenad's from a cloning center and encounter a clone that wasn't fully grown. Left her where I found her. Moved on down to the moon's core where I met the Creator, a being who was obsessed with evolution and had sent crystals to various worlds to detail their evolutionary paths (and explaining why other FF world enemies were in my path). Destroyed his outer core, which had the unfortunate effect of unbalancing his mind and powers and turned him into a genetic mish-mash. Managed to take him down but his death destabilized the moon. Escaped with the help of the remaining Maenad's and took the young one home. The moon drifted away and the world was saved.
I played this game for an embarassingly long time but I'm very happy with my purchase/download of it. Classic final fantasy (the 'true' style) never grows old.

[Shadowman]

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion:
Joined the Thieves Guild. Did my first mission of stealing tax money taken from the peasants despite the fact that the City doesn't usually collect from them and also it was a very small amount.

Got contracted to kill a Vampire. Okay, sure, I can do that, that's like my normal Wednesday night. I was sent to inspect a Vampire's house, stole nearly everything of value, then learned he was at a cabin in the woods. After hitting that up I learned--he's not a Vampire? The guy who contracted me is?! What kind of world is this when you can't trust a Vampire anymore. Killed the real Vampire, the rest of the hunters didn't even know he WAS one. Yay me.

[1337W422102]

GTA IV [PC]:
Finished Jacob's delivery missions, earning me an Achievement. Unlocked his gun sale ability, earning another Achievement. Thing is, I find my weapons and armour for free (see my Easy Weapon Pickups videos for details), essentially making Jacob's ability useless to me. I'll probably call him in case of emergencies or if I'm on a mission or something.

The next mission: Logging On, in which I meet that alpha male winner, BRUCIE, BABY! BE GENETICALLY DIFFERENT!

[The Happy Locust]

GTA IV [PC]:
Finished Jacob's delivery missions, earning me an Achievement. Unlocked his gun sale ability, earning another Achievement. Thing is, I find my weapons and armour for free (see my Easy Weapon Pickups videos for details), essentially making Jacob's ability useless to me. I'll probably call him in case of emergencies or if I'm on a mission or something.

The next mission: Logging On, in which I meet that alpha male winner, BRUCIE, BABY! BE GENETICALLY DIFFERENT!

I never really found a use for the call an ally feature. Thanks to the 'social' aspect of the game I preferred to avoid spending any time with the non-female supporting cast.

Super Mario Galaxy 2
So close to being done. Got 241 stars and all the comet medals but the final challenge hasn't appeared. I'm guessing I need to collect 9999 star bits for the banktoad but don't have time for that tonight.

[Shadowman]

Team Fortress 2:
Ah, the Engineer Update is once upon us, it's a long time coming. Due to easier achievements and a very well-thought-out Achievement Map (personal rooms and everything, it was kind of like a Resort in it's design), the rush went very easy for me.

I only got two of the milestones, but the weapon for the third one I was ABSURDLY lucky to get through random drop. The weapons are:

The Frontier Justice: A Monster of a shotgun. When your sentry is destroyed, it will have two crits for every kill your sentry had.

The Wrangler: Deploys a shield around your sentry and allows you to take control. Fire rate is diminished but you don't have to worry about range or blind spots.

The Gunslinger: A robotic arm. Sentries deployed with it can't be upgraded and are slightly weaker, but deploy faster and have a much faster rate of fire. Also, it's a robot arm, so you punch harder.

Also of note is a new ability for Engineer, to pick up his sentry and redeploy it elsewhere, without having to rebuild it. It can't fire while being carried and it slows you down, but after being redeployed, it will upgrade itself to whatever level it was before you moved it.

[Shadowman]

Okay, well, 24 hours at least, I don't feel too bad about this.

Final Fantasy XIII:
Well that happened.

**** went down, everyone got branded as subhuman monsters with a goal that if they fail, they're turned into zombies, and if they succeed they're frozen as crystal for all eternity. Helluva deal.

Got the Shiva Twins for Snow (I see what they did there), after realizing that what I thought was the number Zero was in fact a prompt to push the Square button. (My TV is messed up) The Shiva Twins then combined into their Motorcycle form by locking legs with each other oh my God that is the best Transformer ever.

[The Happy Locust]

Super Mario Galaxy 2
Got the 9999 star bits I needed in the bank. This unlocked the final star in the grandmaster galaxy.
BY the way, the final star is a challenge course with no checkpoints and only a single hit point. But very well designed. Every failure so far has not made me frustrated, only more determined.

[Shadowman]

Final Fantasy XIII:
Got Hope back to his dad, who is not as bad as Hope had previously claimed. In other news, Snow is sorry about things, Vanille is guilty about things, Sazh has a son who is a l'Cie, and Lightning and Fang are both hot.

[The Happy Locust]

Final Fantasy XIII:
Got Hope back to his dad, who is not as bad as Hope had previously claimed. In other news, Snow is sorry about things, Vanille is guilty about things, Sazh has a son who is a l'Cie, and Lightning and Fang are both hot.

Hope, snow, lighting, and Fang? I can't tell if that's badass naming or just lazy.

Super Mario Galaxy 2
GAME.COMPLETED!
Okay, got the final star in the grandmaster galaxy, bringing up to 242 stars, adding a cameo appearance character to my ship, and adding a deathcounter to my savegames. BTW, played for 29 1/2 hours total with 492 deaths.

With that and FF4:taY out of the way, picked up Boy and his blob and Silent Hill:Shattered memories for the Wii. Haven't started on either yet because of...

Assassins creed 2
With the Thieves at my side, prepared to invade the Palazza of the Doge to save his life from an assassination attempt by the Templars. To this end, Used Leonardo's flying machine to get inside the palace. Failed to save the Doge but killed his assassin, though I've been blamed for the murder. Whoops.
Side-quest wise, got the last assassin's seal and unlocked Altair's armor (which looks nothing like what he wore in the first game and doesn't allow me to color it hot pink like my other suits).

[1337W422102]

Final Fantasy XIII:
Got Hope back to his dad, who is not as bad as Hope had previously claimed. In other news, Snow is sorry about things, Vanille is guilty about things, Sazh has a son who is a l'Cie, and Lightning and Fang are both hot.

Hope, snow, lighting, and Fang? I can't tell if that's badass naming or just lazy.

Definitely the latter. Also, Delicious Vanille.

[Shadowman]

Final Fantasy XIII:
Got Hope back to his dad, who is not as bad as Hope had previously claimed. In other news, Snow is sorry about things, Vanille is guilty about things, Sazh has a son who is a l'Cie, and Lightning and Fang are both hot.

Hope, snow, lighting, and Fang? I can't tell if that's badass naming or just lazy.

Definitely the latter. Also, Delicious Vanille.

Pretty much. At least in Lightning's case they mention that isn't her real name, and only her sister actually knows it. (And Serah hasn't been so talkative since she was, you know, turned into Crystal) Though she usually has most people just call her Light.

Final Fantasy XIII:
Seems the Government everyone was trying to topple is really evil...! Well, okay, they knew that when they set out to topple them. But they didn't know it was "Blow up the whole damn world ourselves included" logic-free evil.

Got the gang back together, escaped, and wound up in a l'Cie training facility. Found the game's resident Cid in there, and well, it's not often you have to kill a Cid, but it happens sometimes.

[The Happy Locust]

Assassin's creed 2
After my failure to save the previous Doge, was given an opportunity to make up for it by taking down the new puppet Doge. To this end, played Carnival games to win a Golden Mask that would allow me to enter the Doge's personal party. From there, it was a matter of hiding with the Courtesans ans firing my pistol at the Doge during the speech. One tyrant down...

A boy and His blob
Started the game and met the blob. Got through 4 stages plus 4 bonus challenges. Still in world 1.

[1337W422102]

War for Cybertron [PC]:
Played some Escalation and got 2005 points. I chuckled.

[Shadowman]

Final Fantasy XIII:
Got Fang's personal summon, frikken Bahamut, and left Cocoon. We're now on Gran Pulse and...

And...

Oh my.

Up until now, the game was extremely linear, literally just a straight line. Any divergence was a short path to a dead end, or reconnected to the main path. They did that just so they could see the look on your face when they show you Gran Pulse.

It's big. It's Shadow of the Colossus big. And then you realize that it's only one section of Gran Pulse. And also the Adamantoises the size of a mansion.

[The Happy Locust]

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
Started the game and crashed my car, losing my daughter. Searched through the empty town for her, eventually meeting a helpful cop. The cop suggested I go home since my daughter probably did the same. When I got there, found other people living in my home. A disturbance occurred and the cop took me for a ride. Left the cop car and roamed the woods for a while, getting lost but eventually finding my way out and ending up in the local high school.
Liking this game so far. Can't speak for the psychoanalization aspect yet, but the atmosphere works very well.

[Skullgrin140]

Just bought myself the Metal Slug Anthology and I havent stopped playing it, Its one of those games that Micheal Bay would probably get a kick out of. But seriously that series has actually helped me get back into retro gaming again.

[Shadowman]

Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness:
I got Disgaea, dood.

Completed Episode 1. I loved Etna's anime-style "on the next episode" preview wherein Laharl dies and she becomes Queen of Everything. She's like Starscream, but loli.

In the real episode 2, I met Flonne, an assassin who is not an assassin in any way, shape or form. It was both the most jarring and most hilarious assassination attempt I've ever seen. Also the intended victim was dead long before she got there, again, funny.

[1337W422102]

GTA IV [PC]:
Met BRUCIE, BABY! Working on getting him the cars he wants.

BioShock [PC]:
Took the research photos for Peach, or whatever his name is, and rather than fighting the crazy female SPLOYCER that stalked me for pretty much the entire area, I let Rosie handle it. Gotta love the additional downloaded content, eh?

Currently melting crap with Incinerate! since that guy took all my weapons. Might be a good time to equip Wrench Jockey again.

[Shadowman]

Borderlands:
Finished up The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned and The Secret Armory of General Knoxx. Now I'm just running the last few side-missions, then finall get around to doing Mad Moxxi's Underdome.

And, what's this? General Knoxx resumed posting on his Twitter account? But the last time he did that it was to promote upcoming DLC...hmmm...

"jelly is for girls and also armless smaller girls."

[1337W422102]

... Mad Moxxi...

Giggity.

Team Fortress 2 [PC]:
Tried out some of that new content. Got 4 Achievements and 3 items in 2 hours. It's a new personal best!

[Shadowman]

Team Fortress 2 [PC]:
Tried out some of that new content. Got 4 Achievements and 3 items in 2 hours. It's a new personal best!

Oh that is so not fair. 3 items in 2 hours? Did you pay off Valve or something? Most people would kill to get drops that fast. (Though since you don't get the items until you respawn, most people would also BE killed to get drops that fast) I consider myself lucky just to get ONE item in that time frame.

At least the new drop system is better than the old one. Before, it would roll every so often to see IF you got an item, now it rolls to see WHEN you get an item. Now it's based less on luck and more on patience.

[1337W422102]

Team Fortress 2 [PC]:
Tried out some of that new content. Got 4 Achievements and 3 items in 2 hours. It's a new personal best!

Oh that is so not fair. 3 items in 2 hours? Did you pay off Valve or something? Most people would kill to get drops that fast. (Though since you don't get the items until you respawn, most people would also BE killed to get drops that fast) I consider myself lucky just to get ONE item in that time frame.

At least the new drop system is better than the old one. Before, it would roll every so often to see IF you got an item, now it rolls to see WHEN you get an item. Now it's based less on luck and more on patience.

Dude, I'm surprised as hell! I hadn't played since... well, the last update when I crafted some doubles of items I had into... well, a pile of junk.

The stuff I earned is pretty cool. I got the Gunslinger, the Engineer's robot arm that, while badass and gives more health, nerfs the Sentry. I really don't like the mini-Sentry because it's weak and can't be upgraded/repaired.

I got the pickaxe for the Soldier which replaces the Shovel. It's pretty sweet. When you take damage while using it, your move/attack speed and damage increases. Real handy for evading Sentries and Heavies. But, you can't be healed while using it, so it's pretty much a suicide weapon. Much like its taunt. And yes, blowing someone up gets you an Achievement.

Also got the Demoman's upgraded stickybomb gun. It can deploy more bombs, having it gives your secondary gun more ammo, and it can destroy enemy stickybombs. BUT, you have to aim at your bombs to detonate them (does not require line of sight as you can just aim at their outlines) and they take slightly longer before exploding.

[The Happy Locust]

Assassin's creed 2
With two evil Doge's down, an assassin-friendly Doge has been installed as ruler of Venice. In the meantime, needed to take down the local templar mastermind. Tracked him down and took out both him and his lackey before they could escape.
2 years later, the boat returns carrying a special prize. Replaced the courier and snuck up on teh Templar leader. During the battle, all the supporting cast showed up turning out to be assassin's themselves. he escapes but I get the prize.
So, after having me do all the work for them over 8 years, they decide to officially induct me into their club.
Anyway, got dropped into the DLC storylines with little fanfare. completed the Battle of Forli and just reached Bonfire of the vanities.

[Shadowman]

Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness:
Got to Episode 4. I lost the fight with VyersMid-boss, only to be treated to the single most unfair game over screen ever--the entire credits sequence, totally unskippable. Apparently it also counts as an ending to the game because I can do New Game + if I so desire.

[1337W422102]

If you guys want to get Alien Swarm, Steam's new free game made by the guys who made the Alien Swarm UT2004 mod and got hired by Valve, it's now available for free: http://store.steampowered.com/app/630/

Only, I can't download it because the Steam servers are overloaded with guys like me trying to get it. I should have figured.