The Energon Pub

[SlyTF1]

Fallout New Vegas:

SPOILERS!

Got it 2 days ago and its much better than FO3! I didnt even like Fallout 3 that much, but this one is great! I'm past the part where you find New Vegas, I killed Benny (the guy that shoots you at the beginning of the game.) I killed Caesar (hardest part of a video game ever in my life.) I lost so many times on every section of that quest! But I eventually killed every one in that damn camp! I went back to New Vegas and met the Yes Man (Benny's robot) and assasinated Mr. House (Hes a creepy old guy with machines attatched to him thats in sort of a cryo freezer in the basement of a casino that runs the whole New Vegas area.) So, I killed him ,the robot took control, and now I have to look for various factions to control New Vegas. Now, I'm bored. I cant find any one, Some guy gave me some bombs to blow somthing up in one of the casinos, and I have no idea where to go now. I've been on this part all day day and I've only had the game for 3.

[Shadowman]

Man, you burned through that game, Shadowdude!

Well it uses the same compartmentalized freeroam system as Metroid, and I've always been able to burn through Metroid games really fast...

...Ooh, suddenly I have a craving for Castlevania. Circle of the Moon sounds pretty good right about now...

[The Happy Locust]

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Took my power bombs for a trip to areas previously innacessible. Netted 2 power bomb expansions, 2 missile expansions, an energy tank, and a little something called the Sunburst.
The beacom went off and pointed me to a new luminoth technology. Went there, burst through a cracked glass, took an elevator, and met Dark Samus for the 3rd time. Battled her improved form but still managed to come out on top (with 46 health only remaining). For my troubles, got the Echo visor.

[Shadowman]

Final Fantasy XIII:
FINALLY got around to continuing this. managed to FINALLY kill Barthandelus, netting me the last of the Crystallarium, I also got everyone's Full ATB Limit, except for Vanille because I hadn't been building her as a Ravager.

Got back to Cocoon, then a big damn invasion by Pulse began. It doesn't help that one side is a bunch of psychotic monsters who attack everything they see, and the other side has me targeted Kill On Sight.

[1337W422102]

Any GTA fans up in here? Then you will want to check this out: http://store.steampowered.com/sub/605/

Batman: Arkham Asylum GOTY [PC]:
Man, I really have to get started on my end-of-term assignments...
Made it out to the surface.

[The Happy Locust]

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Short summary, more random exploring, solved some surprisingly intricate puzzles and obtained the Screw attack. Using this, worked my way over to the final Ing Hive Temple key.

[Jelze Bunnycat]

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Short summary, more random exploring, solved some surprisingly intricate puzzles and obtained the Screw attack. Using this, worked my way over to the final Ing Hive Temple key.

Let me know what you think of the Temple Guardian. One warning though: have you been scanning bosses a lot? This one has no less than 5 separate entries in the log book!

[SlyTF1]

Fallout 3
Beat it yesterday! But I restarted from a point that I saved very close to the end, just to explore some more. Because I never found the dog, or encountered any death claws.

[Shadowman]

I also got everyone's Full ATB Limit, except for Vanille because I hadn't been building her as a Ravager.

And also because her Full ATB Limit is in her Saboteur section, which is what I meant to say. I hadn't been building her up as that either.

Final Fantasy XIII:
Question: How can you tell you're nearing the endgame of Final Fantasy?

Answer: You're faced with an army of monsters who all have the ability to one-shot you, or at least pepper you with absurdly powerful attacks.

Case-in-point, the Behemoth family of monsters. When you whittle them down to about 50% health, they'll stand up, typically fully heal themselves, and change up their attack pattern. One of their favorites is Sunder, which hits for massive damage...several times in one hit. And it can only be avoided by sheer chance of him attacking at the exact same moment the character moves. (That is, pure luck) Another interesting fact is that if the party leader dies, it's game over, with no chance of reviving them.

Final Fantasy can be tough if you're not vigilant, and nearly impossible if you're lazy about it, but I've never had one that was so blatantly unfair.

[The Happy Locust]

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Short summary, more random exploring, solved some surprisingly intricate puzzles and obtained the Screw attack. Using this, worked my way over to the final Ing Hive Temple key.

Let me know what you think of the Temple Guardian. One warning though: have you been scanning bosses a lot? This one has no less than 5 separate entries in the log book!

You act as if I haven't played this before. I'm RE-playing it (on hard mode) out of nostalgia brought on by finishing Other M some time back. And yes, Quadraxis is awesome! And I only counted 4: whole, damaged body, damaged head, and final head module.

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
If the above didn't clue you in, fought and defeated Quadraxis. Earned the Annihilator beam (best weapon name evah!), collected the dark temple energy and returned it to the light temple. For my troubles, was given the Light suit (my personal favorite Samus suit).

[Shadowman]

Borderlands:
Okay, so on Wednesday, the game was patched to increase the level cap by 8. 58 if you own the base game, 69 (giggity) if you own Secret Armory. Crawmerax was rebalanced to start at level 65 and then level up as you do, capping off at level 73. I was at level 61, and decided to test my might against his rebalancedness.

Instead, a friend of mine decided to join in on the fun. he started with the GOTY edition, and somehow, in less than a month, (Compared to my five months) managed to surpass me in every way possible. Level 65, with a large number of pearlescents and knowledge of game mechanics I didn't even know existed.

I killed Crawmerax FOUR TIMES in one night with his help. He's definitely designed for co-op, especially co-op with some kind of Pandoran God.

[Prime Riblet]

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Short summary, more random exploring, solved some surprisingly intricate puzzles and obtained the Screw attack. Using this, worked my way over to the final Ing Hive Temple key.

Let me know what you think of the Temple Guardian. One warning though: have you been scanning bosses a lot? This one has no less than 5 separate entries in the log book!

You act as if I haven't played this before. I'm RE-playing it (on hard mode) out of nostalgia brought on by finishing Other M some time back. And yes, Quadraxis is awesome! And I only counted 4: whole, damaged body, damaged head, and final head module.

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
If the above didn't clue you in, fought and defeated Quadraxis. Earned the Annihilator beam (best weapon name evah!), collected the dark temple energy and returned it to the light temple. For my troubles, was given the Light suit (my personal favorite Samus suit).

Are you playing on Cube or Wii? For some reason, Quadraxis is giving me a ton of trouble. I have the Wii trilogy. Not sure why, but I keep messing up shooting the knees at the beginning of the fight and it is annoying. I know it is something stupid that I must be doing wrong, but it should be easier than what I am experiencing.

[Jelze Bunnycat]

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Short summary, more random exploring, solved some surprisingly intricate puzzles and obtained the Screw attack. Using this, worked my way over to the final Ing Hive Temple key.

Let me know what you think of the Temple Guardian. One warning though: have you been scanning bosses a lot? This one has no less than 5 separate entries in the log book!

You act as if I haven't played this before. I'm RE-playing it (on hard mode) out of nostalgia brought on by finishing Other M some time back. And yes, Quadraxis is awesome! And I only counted 4: whole, damaged body, damaged head, and final head module.

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
If the above didn't clue you in, fought and defeated Quadraxis. Earned the Annihilator beam (best weapon name evah!), collected the dark temple energy and returned it to the light temple. For my troubles, was given the Light suit (my personal favorite Samus suit).

Locust, you're missing the Shielded Head Module then, that one comes with the damaged body module before you shoot down the transmitter. In the Cube version at least, you can actually see the percentage of scans collected for all groups in the log book.

[The Happy Locust]

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Short summary, more random exploring, solved some surprisingly intricate puzzles and obtained the Screw attack. Using this, worked my way over to the final Ing Hive Temple key.

Let me know what you think of the Temple Guardian. One warning though: have you been scanning bosses a lot? This one has no less than 5 separate entries in the log book!

You act as if I haven't played this before. I'm RE-playing it (on hard mode) out of nostalgia brought on by finishing Other M some time back. And yes, Quadraxis is awesome! And I only counted 4: whole, damaged body, damaged head, and final head module.

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
If the above didn't clue you in, fought and defeated Quadraxis. Earned the Annihilator beam (best weapon name evah!), collected the dark temple energy and returned it to the light temple. For my troubles, was given the Light suit (my personal favorite Samus suit).

Locust, you're missing the Shielded Head Module then, that one comes with the damaged body module before you shoot down the transmitter. In the Cube version at least, you can actually see the percentage of scans collected for all groups in the log book.

AARGH! You're right. I forgot about the 'stunned head module'. I scanned it the first time, but died and re-fought it and now I can't remember if I re-scanned it.

[The Happy Locust]

Only 2 days, but accomplished enough to warrant another post.

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
GAME.OVER!
After a fetch quest to collect the 9 sky temple keys and finishing up on beam expansions, went to the sky temple. There, I faced the Emperor Ing, and damn was he a pain. First form likes to use random tentacle attack on my female lead (ah Japanese cliche). 2nd form was nothing much, but 3rd form had a temporary weak point with a variable weakness and the ability to regain lost health, not to mention having far more health than I had ammo. Got lucky on my last attempt and somehow whittled him down to 20% health in one shot. Even then, only beat him with 3 health left (counting energy tanks, my full health was 1300).
After that, collected the remaining Dark Aether energy and high-tailed it only to be blocked by Dark Samus. Not as hard but with a time limit. Took her out and escaped as Dark Aether callapsed out of existence. PHew... Pulled about 85% with 19:56 hours of play... on HARD mode.

That game actually did damage. My left thumb is in an ice pack from using the analog all day. Guess the Wii's left me slightly out of practice with gamepads.

[b]Mass Effect 2[b/]
Recruited Jack and destroyed a prison station while doing it. tried to recruit a Krogan warlord but his boss had other ideas. His boss is dead, but so is he. Instead, I recruited a genetically engineered Krogan named Grunt. From there, was told to visit a quaint remote colony called Horizon and defend it from the colectors. Managed to save 1/2-2/3 of the colony (conflicting in-game notes) and met up with former Squadmate Kaiden. He was not happy that I was with cerberus. Oh well, familiar faces, right?

[Shadowman]

After that, you get to meet Bitch Liara. She's like regular Liara, but also a bitch.

Also, protip for the best ending: Do all the loyalty missions and get all the ship upgrades before you get the IFF, you'll know what I mean by that when the time comes. You'll have one more, do that, then immediately go through the Omega 4 relay, do not stall, go for it first chance you get.

Overlord II:
Conquered Everlight Town because it was there and I felt like conquering things. Next up: Imperial City and the Blue Minions.

[Jelze Bunnycat]

Only 2 days, but accomplished enough to warrant another post.

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
GAME.OVER!
After a fetch quest to collect the 9 sky temple keys and finishing up on beam expansions, went to the sky temple. There, I faced the Emperor Ing, and damn was he a pain. First form likes to use random tentacle attack on my female lead (ah Japanese cliche). 2nd form was nothing much, but 3rd form had a temporary weak point with a variable weakness and the ability to regain lost health, not to mention having far more health than I had ammo. Got lucky on my last attempt and somehow whittled him down to 20% health in one shot. Even then, only beat him with 3 health left (counting energy tanks, my full health was 1300).
After that, collected the remaining Dark Aether energy and high-tailed it only to be blocked by Dark Samus. Not as hard but with a time limit. Took her out and escaped as Dark Aether callapsed out of existence. PHew... Pulled about 85% with 19:56 hours of play... on HARD mode.

That game actually did damage. My left thumb is in an ice pack from using the analog all day. Guess the Wii's left me slightly out of practice with gamepads.

That's way more than I could ever do, I've yet to start on any hard mode, except for Metroid: Zero Mission. So close to finishing it, I can defeat Mecha Ridley, but those two hard-to-kill Pirates in front of the Shuttle Bay door keep frustrating me, not to mention the frickin' time limit!

[Shadowman]

Pokemon Emerald:
Don't ask, even I'm not sure why I'm playing this.

6 badges down. I think somewhere down the line I accidentally got really, really good (Or just overleveled way too much, perhaps both, probably just overleveling) because I curbstomped the Fortree City Gym with only my Blaziken. Mind you, Fortree Gym uses flying types, and I should have been the one to eat pavement. In fact, the only two Pokemon I've been using are Blaziken and Gardevoir. (Everyone loves Gardevoir. Science proven)

But also I'm putting a preorder in for...let's say Pokemon White when I get the money.

[SlyTF1]

The Sly Collection:
My favorite game series on 1 disk mo fo! I finally got past the second level in Sly 1 horay for me. I started the first level in Sly 2, and I'm on the last mission of the first level in Sly 3! The graphics look amazing after they remade them. They look like true next gen games.

[Shadowman]

They look like true next gen games.

Correction: The look like current gen games. "Next gen" would mean the generation after this one, which I assume would include the PlayStation 4. Wii/360/PS3 would have been Next Gen in, say, 2005 or 2006.

To put things in perspective, we're currently in the Seventh generation of video games.

[SlyTF1]

They look like true next gen games.

Correction: The look like current gen games. "Next gen" would mean the generation after this one, which I assume would include the PlayStation 4. Wii/360/PS3 would have been Next Gen in, say, 2005 or 2006.

To put things in perspective, we're currently in the Seventh generation of video games.

Ok then, it looks like a current gen game.

PS: All of you who said this collection isn't a sign for Sly 4, (as the GOW collection was for GOW3) the description of the platinum trophy for this game is pretty much confirmation!!!

[1337W422102]

Cold Fear [PC]:
Was lurkin' on GiantBomb and stumbled upon a thread that mentioned Cold Fear. I forgot all about that game. Well, I have it now and it's pretty enjoyable. The environmental effects and motion of the boat are well done and make for a frantic time. Plus, it boggles my mind why Ubisoft would make this game control and run like a PC title but half-ass Resident Evil 4's PC version so badly.

Cold Fear isn't an RE game, but it might as well be. It really feels like an oldschool RE game, and when I hit the RMB and start shooting, I forget that I'm NOT playing RE4 and forget that you can move while aiming in Cold Fear.

It might just be me, but I can't help but be reminded of Resident Evil Gaiden, the underrated and non-canon RE game for Game Boy Color which featured my favourite RE character, Barry "Bad Enough Dude" Burton on a mission on an infected and infested cruise ship. It even managed to feel suspenseful and creepy - not bad for a GBC game! It was largely forgotten and Barry, as usual got the short end of the stick (until RE-appearing [see what I did there?] in that RE5 content that I can't even play because it's not in the PC version), but I've been hoping for full-fledged version of Gaiden for years now. Cold Fear is the closest we've got, and the character's red vest reminds me of Barry's costume, too.

Oh right, progress. I just reached the second save point. I'm really not sure how saving works in this game. It seems to be a "get prompted to save when you walk through a certain story-specific door once" model. Which isn't as annoying as RE1, but not nearly as convenient as RE4. But at least it's more plausible than a buncha friggin' typewriters lying around.

Vin Diesel WHEELMAN [PC]:
Okay, okay, let me explain.

So I was in a walmart, buying a WFC Soundwave on sale. As usual, I swing by the PC game section and find some copies of Wheelman with a price sticker of $9.97 under a price sticker of $4.97. So I pick it up, and it scans at $0.98. I guess you could say...

...I'd buy that for a dollar. YEEEAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!

The PC version is very lazy. Controls are bad and non-redefinable. I had to write an AutoHotKey script to play it decently. Graphics menu consists of JUST the resolution. Nothing else. Which is crap, because if I could turn off crap I don't need, it would run better. The game itself is ridiculous and over the top in a hilarious way. I burst out laughing when reading the manual. Just Cause is the most action movie experience I have ever had while playing a game, but this one feels like a BAD action movie. So bad that it has Vin Diesel in it. And man, does it run like a tard. There's just something oddly satisfying about making Vin Diesel run into traffic or eat it really hard on a superbike.

Missions are uneven. The tutorials are much harder than they should be. The "evade the police while jacking that Pontiac G8" mission took me at least 5 tries because I couldn't escape the cops AND get the car back in the time limit. And that "chase down 2 cars before they reach the casino" one was hard, too. They're the effing tutorial missions - cut us some slack!

[The Happy Locust]

Mass Effect 2
Summary of accomplishments. Finished Jacob's loyalty mission then went to Illium. Met Liara who pointed me in the direction of other missions. Followed an assassin's trail. Found a minor character from ME 1 before she got aced by said assassin. Talked the Assassin into joining my crew.
Took a break from story to hit side missions. Fixed no less than 6 problems (including getting an Asari to agree to be with a Krogan poet) on Illium before doing Miranda's loyalty mission. Rescued her sister and earned her loyalty. After that, all my other crew members had issues that needed addressing. Took a trip to Tuchanka. There, met Wrex who is now the ruler of the dominant Krogan clan. Took a side job blasting monkeys with rockets before going after a lab assistant of MOrdin's. Went to rescue him from a Krogan clan and made Mordin deal with the moral repercussions of sterilizing an entire species. Found his lab assistant but he wasn't happy to see us. Shut him down but let him leave while I kept the data he collected.
Have upgraded my class from Infiltrator to Assassin and found a sniper rifle that can do more than one shot per clip (finally).

[SlyTF1]

Mass Effect 2
Summary of accomplishments. Finished Jacob's loyalty mission then went to Illium. Met Liara who pointed me in the direction of other missions. Followed an assassin's trail. Found a minor character from ME 1 before she got aced by said assassin. Talked the Assassin into joining my crew.
Took a break from story to hit side missions. Fixed no less than 6 problems (including getting an Asari to agree to be with a Krogan poet) on Illium before doing Miranda's loyalty mission. Rescued her sister and earned her loyalty. After that, all my other crew members had issues that needed addressing. Took a trip to Tuchanka. There, met Wrex who is now the ruler of the dominant Krogan clan. Took a side job blasting monkeys with rockets before going after a lab assistant of MOrdin's. Went to rescue him from a Krogan clan and made Mordin deal with the moral repercussions of sterilizing an entire species. Found his lab assistant but he wasn't happy to see us. Shut him down but let him leave while I kept the data he collected.
Have upgraded my class from Infiltrator to Assassin and found a sniper rifle that can do more than one shot per clip (finally).

Spoiler...sort of. Just wait until you get that super sniper! It's freaking awesome. You'll know what I'm talking about once you get it.

[Shadowman]

Cold Fear isn't an RE game, but it might as well be. It really feels like an oldschool RE game, and when I hit the RMB and start shooting, I forget that I'm NOT playing RE4 and forget that you can move while aiming in Cold Fear.

Dead Space is the same. It even manages to retain that creepy atmosphere than RE4 and 5 seemed to lack.

"Oh God, what was that noise? Do I still have health kits? Where's the next save point? Why is that voice in the background singing "twinkle twinkle little star?" Should I see a doctor about this rash?"