Etrian Odyssey 1 & 2

I’m not gonna lie to you. If you want a challenge, if you want a serious RPG, then this is the game for you. There aren’t flashy graphics, there are only stats, items, monsters and a very cool map-making system. You and your party of adventurers goes down into a dungeon few go into to find the treasure. You can pick classes, have as many members as you want. but can only carry a few around. The monsters get viciously difficult to kill very quickly. The battle system is your standard turns based on speed/surprise factor. Lots of fun, but I’m warning you now: Almost as addictive as an MMO(but so much cheaper!). I thoroughly enjoyed them, even if the god damn F.O.E.s obliterated me for days.

Persona 3 (FES), 4

If you like jRPGs at all, I’m sure you’ve heard about these. I honestly haven’t played the first two, but I do know that they were changed pretty drastically to appeal to Western audiences. These weren’t.

These game is broken up into two different parts: Dungeons and Towns.  In dungeons, you fight. Turn-based battles involving your party members and you either attacking with your weapon or summoning your Persona, a representation of your soul, to preform magic that uses HP(Physical magic) or SP(Special magic). In towns, you can socialize and make social links, one of the big parts of making strong Personas, buy stuff and increase your social attributes, allowing you to make more social links.

There is a really really really big difference between these two games, however.

In P3, you only directly control the Main Character in battle, and in P4, you can, if you choose, to control your entire party manually.  This was a big step for me, and a bit of a sad one. If you choose to play these games, play Persona 3 before you play Persona 4, because you will NEVER be able to play 3 again.

Despite Aegis being the most fuckable robot ever.

The World Ends With You

I’m pretty sure I’ve said I don’t like SquareEnix. If I didn’t, then here it is.

I really hate SquareEnix.

But they still make some good games sometimes. This one proves that.

TWEWY is a very interesting DS game. You play as Neku, as well as Shiki, Joshua and Beat. The three characters that change change with the scenario in game, but Neku is playable the entire time. The battle system is very VERY interesting. Neku is on the bottom screen, and one of the other three is on the top screen. Neku is controlled with the stylus by tapping, slashing and making circles. The top screen is controlled with the control pad or face buttons. The enemies on either screen are the same and share HP. When you kill something on the top or bottom screen, it dies on the other. Thankfully, you don’t HAVE to control both of the screens at once, the top screen goes to auto play(or not) after 6 – .5 seconds. Pick this game up, or you’ll be so Zetta sorry!

Fallout 3

I’m sure if you’ve head my first “Play These Games” you’d have seen I pissed a good week away on this game… and I’m still putting time into it.  In this game, you play as a custom young man/woman from Vault 101. The setting for this game is bleak at best: 2277 is post apocalyptic Washington D.C. Everything has been destroyed and new stuff has popped up.

First thing you come across is giant mutated mole things that, while not difficult to subdue, look rather scary. Your part in this game is simple: Be good, be bad, or be someone no one cares about. The game is so damn open-ended it isn’t even funny. You get awesome weapons, from the plasma pistol to the Fatman, a mini-nuke slingshot and you can even make your own weapons with schematics you find. The big thing in this game, though, is the main story.

It’s compelling, depressing, hilarious and infuriating. The one thing I found angry about the game is the ending does not allow you to continue after you finish the main quest. Now, this is a very open ended game, a damn good one… Now why is there an ending with no continuation? Why is there no alternative because you can bring a character to the ending that could complete the task as easy as you and live!

Sometimes, I wonder if developers do shit like that to games just to get reactions like mine from the players.

Last one for today:

Pokemon (Series)

Like you didn’t see that one coming eventually.

That’s right. A whole damn series. You need to play ALL of them. You’re a kid starting off in a little backwoods town and you wanna be the very best like no one ever was. You can start with any one of three Pokemon, and go on your journey. It’s hard, it’s long, it’s fun, and it never ever ends. There are nearly 500 Pokemon to catch today, and more to come soon. There are tournaments, the newest versions support wifi battles and trades, and there’s a new version coming out in mid-March to screw over everyone who bought one of the other two versions released last year.

Oh, Nintendo… I love giving you my money.

Alright, I think I gave you enough to chew on this time. Think about it!

Don’t forget my good ‘ol radio up there under “Live Streams”!

Till next time!

Jumpluff~

Written for GIANT ENEMY BLOG

The Survivors (from left: Francis, Bill, Zoey, Louis)

So Left 4 Dead has been out for a while now and I’ve noticed that there’s a severe lack of teamwork and skill amongst the XBOX LIVE! community. Every game I have entered I have won. It’s a good feeling to win constantly but sometimes I just feel bad for the other team. Therefore this article will be about all the dos and don’ts of Left 4 Dead’s versus mode.

Let’s start by learning about versus mode. Versus mode is essentially a campaign with a few modified details in the maps and human players taking the roles of the boss infected. The goal of versus is not which team kills the most zombies, but rather which team makes it farther in each campaign map. The score is tallied as such: Average Distance % + Health Bonus x Survival Multiplier x Difficulty Modifier. Average distance % is determined by taking the distances of each individual survivor, adding them up, and dividing by four. For example: Bill traveled with the team 24% of the way and died, so his avg. distance % is 24; Zoey made it 56% of the way; but Louis and Francis reached the safe house so they both get 100%. The team’s average would be 70%. Health bonus is determined by the the team’s collected health at the end of the round divided by two. For example a perfect health bonus would be 200 with each member having 100% health. Survival multiplier is on a scale of 0-4 and is determined by how many survivors made it to the safe house. The difficulty modifier changes depending on the level; starting at x1 on the first chapter and ending at x2 on chapter five. If your team doesn’t reach the safe house then your score would be calculated as such: Average Distance %  x Difficulty Modifier. Whether you make or not you will still be scored.

So without further ado, here are my tips on being a better survivor:

• Always have a mic and always have a team full of mic users. Communication is the key to survival, a silent team will always be a dead team.
• Be willing to listen to what your fellow teammates tell you. If you cooperate you WILL have a better chance of survival
• ALWAYS watch each others’ backs. There’s no I in team but there is in meat pie, which is what you’ll become without them. It’s also very helpful to have someone walk backwards occasionally to make sure there aren’t any rear ambushes.
• Try to make it through the level as fast as you can, but always stick together. If you find a slow spot in the map it is OK to take a rest and heal there since you might not have another chance.
• Start with at least two people with the Uzi and two with the shotgun, that way you can clear out close zombies with the shotgun and the more spread out ones with the Uzi without wasting a lot ammo.
• Heal other teammates when they need it. Your team will live longer the healthier they are.
• Try not to look everywhere for supplies, this just slows down the team and gives the enemy more time to prepare and respawn.
• Always melee in big crowds to conserve ammo. There’s a little trick where if you press the left trigger and Y really fast you will melee faster. The only downside to fast melee is there won’t be any reloading. If you need to reload when you’re being crowded then melee as you reload; since melee doesn’t stop your reloading you can protect yourself while doing it. Also, if one of your teammates is being pounced or smoked ALWAYS MELEE THEM. Melee has a no risk of friendly fire and it will knock the Hunter off and let the strangled loose. Two against a Hunter or Smoker is always better than one.
• DO NOT GO CHASING AFTER THE BOSS INFECTED ALONE. DO NOT ENCOUNTER THE WITCH WITHOUT TEAMMATES NEARBY TO KILL HER IF YOU MESS UP. DO NOT BE ALONE FOR ANY REASON.
• When there’s a Tank I find the best weapon is the auto-shotty. About a clip and a half from one person can take it down up close. With four people pumping a Tank with it, he should go down no problem.
• Know your weapon and what it does: an Assault Rifle takes down a crowd of zombies with more headshots; an Automatic Shotgun will take out a close crowd of zombies no problem; and a Hunting Rifle’s bullets do not stop until they hit a wall, ideal for taking out very close zombies since it kills the zombie behind the zombie you shoot. Even though the Hunting Rifle has a scope, it is by no means a sniper rifle; so do your team a favor and don’t pretend you’re a sniper, you’re only gonna get pounced or smoked.
• Always shove a Boomer before you shoot it, and if you still get vomited on then run to a corner and MELEE. If you try to shoot you run the risk of friendly fire. If one of your teammates has been vomited on then stick close, the other team will take this opportunity to attack whoever is farthest from the blinded.
• Try to be in a team of your friends. This improves things a whole lot and you WILL stand more of a chance at victory than you would with strangers.
• Always remember that you ONLY HAVE ONE LIFE. So try to keep yourself and your team alive no matter what, and if you make it to the safe house then heal before you close the door for extra points.
• One more thing, BE CAREFUL! If you see a boss infected standing in front of a Witch or car, you know what they’re trying to make you do. They tend to not move until you shoot at them so try your best to move around them and ignore it.

My my, that is a lot for the survivors to take in, and I’m still not done yet. Stay tuned if you want to know what makes a good infected player.

• Communication is just as important as infected. Try to have a mic and be in a team consisting of mic users. Being in a team of friends is bonus points as well.
• Your goal as infected is to prevent the survivors from going as far as you did or plan to. If you can stop the other team from getting to the safe house then you’ll have it easier.
• Always try to slow them down no matter what. Unlike the survivors, the infected can respawn. So it’s OK to die as long as you get a few good hits in.
• Try to make the survivors waste their med kits as fast as you can. This assures you that they will go down faster if they can’t heal themselves later on.
• Confusing the survivors and making them panic is the best thing you can do, it’ll raise the chance of friendly fire and if you’re good enough you could pounce or grab one without the others noticing.
• Always target survivors in the red since they will go down faster.
• If you see a Witch or car that’s not immediately in their way then try to stand behind or on top of it. There’s always a high chance that a survivor will shoot you without giving it a thought, alerting the Witch or a horde. Try to protect the Witch while she kills her victim since you only get one shot at using her. If a horde is alerted then try to separate the survivors so they’ll have a lower chance of killing zombies alone than together.

A Boomer

• As a Boomer you should try to ambush the survivors as soon as the game starts. This prevents them from getting a head start on your team and gives you a HUGE chance at causing some big damage. Don’t be scared to die as a Boomer either, if you see that the survivors are close together then try to get in the middle of them and either vomit on them or die in the middle of them. This way you can get more of them blinded and delay their advance. There are also some good hiding places around the maps if you want to hit & run. This can be anywhere that there’s a hole or a rooftop that you can vomit from.

• 

  A Hunter

  As a Hunter, try to ambush the person who’s farthest ahead or behind. This will give you a lot of time to do damage and possibly incap the player. If the survivors are sticking close together then do not wait for them to split; instead you should pounce on them while they’re close together. If you can coordinate with your team then you can confuse them with another Hunter pouncing or a Smoker grabbing someone else. As long as you can get some damage in then you did a good job. Always remember that if you pounce a survivor from high up then you will immediately do damage to them upon landing. If there’s an area that the survivors cannot get back to then pounce the survivor farthest back from their team so that they cannot be rescued. NEVER pounce the person that the Smoker has grabbed, this will only increase the number of guns pointed at your team and the charge time for the Smoker’s tongue. Try to pounce targets that aren’t being attacked by other team members. Try to pounce on survivors that are surrounded by normal infected, this will give you a body shield and more damage will be done to the survivor.

• 

  A Smoker

  As a Smoker, try to drag the person furthest ahead FORWARD into the zombies. Since the survivors probably cleared the area behind them you will be a sitting duck from behind, but ahead you will receive backup in the form of normal infected. If you’re behind the survivors then drag one of them as far back as possible. Make the survivors back track as much as you can so that you can have more time to kill them. If the map you are playing on has areas that the survivors can fall from then try to drag them off those areas. A survivor that’s hanging cannot fight back and there’s a high chance that the person who tries to help them will fall off as well. If there’s an area that the survivors cannot get back to then drag the survivor farthest back away from their team so that they cannot be rescued. Try to spawn in areas higher than where the survivors are, this will give you more time to hide and charge as well as choose a target that’s far ahead or behind. Always hide if you’re not immediately attacking somebody.

• 

  A Tank

  As a Tank you should ALWAYS hit the survivors with objects. Cars, broken trees, and dumpsters are some of the things that you can punch and send flying towards the survivors. If you hit a survivor with one of the objects it is an instant incap. NEVER let the survivors run circles around you, try to intercept their path and punch them. If they’re too far away then throw a rock at the survivors. Always target one survivor at a time since you can take out the whole team faster one by one than by switching targets mid-run. NEVER target a survivor pinned by a Hunter or choked by a Smoker, go for the ones trying to help their friends. If the area you’re in has places where the survivors can fall off then try to hit the survivors off. Remember, if you don’t do anything as a Tank then you will lose your turn and he’ll be passed to the next player.

That about does it for the infected side of things. A few more in general tips and we’ll be about done.

• Always vote-kick a trouble maker no matter what.
• ALWAYS HAVE A MIC (you really cannot stress that enough).
• Try to always play with friends.
• Always be willing to cooperate and listen.
• Don’t be selfish, alone, or a jerk.

I hope this guide helps you do better on Left 4 Dead. Who knows, maybe we’ll run into each other online and have a fair fight.

I’m going to take a look at Left 4 Dead for the PC, but it’s also available for the 360.

The Good (or, what I liked)

• Multi player is a blast, which is the entire focus of the game, so it’d be pretty pointless if the multi player was bad. Most people complain about the “matchmaking” the game does for you, which is what consoles use – it will search for servers based on your specifications, and then put you in a game automatically that fits what you looked for, not allowing you to pick the server on your own. I don’t understand what’s bad about this – it works without a problem, it puts you in the game and it never sticks you in the wrong server. If it can’t find one with your exact specifications (level, scenario, difficulty), it will open one for you. It’s a fantastic system and it works great. Of course, there’s  the chance you’ll get a douche player that will intentionally sabotage the team, but that’s a risk you take with any game that allows friendly fire.
• Director AI (on scenario mode) is a beautiful system that adds unbelievable amounts of replay value to the game. Anything can change each time you play each level. The terrain never changes – buildings will always be in the same place, along with cars, safe houses, and so on. But everything else can, like the location of weapons, location of enemies, what enemies you’ll face, how many… all of it. Two games will NEVER be exactly the same, which keeps you on your toes no matter how many times you blast zombies on each level.
• Versus mode is fantastic for those that get bored of playing as the survivors. It isn’t without it’s faults, of course, which you can see down below under The Bad. In Versus mode, there are two teams of players. Four people playing the survivors and four playing the “special” zombies (smoker, hunter, boomer and occasionally the tank, if it spawns). The survivors, naturally, must survive and make it to the safe house, like any other scenario, while the zombie players must stop them. Players are awarded points based on three things: Average distance (percentage), health bonus (one point for every two health, total of 200) and survivor multiplier (a whopping x1 multiplier for each survivor in the safe room at the end). Once one team makes it to the end (or dies horribly, of course), the teams switch, and the players that were playing as the zombies now much fight off the infected to get to the end. Players with the most points after all five levels win.
• Expert difficulty really holds up to it’s name. It is hard. Very hard. You and your team will die a lot, and that’s what makes it fun. Normal zombies do about 20 damage a hit (out of 100 of your health), hunters will incapacitate you in about five seconds from full health, and smokers will actually wait until you’re separated to attack instead of pulling suicide runs like on lower difficulties. Tanks will knock you down in one hit and kill you off fully in two more. Witches are automatic death in one hit. Don’t expect to just play through the game without problems, you WILL die and restart levels many times.

The Bad (or, what I didn’t like)

• Director AI (on versus mode) unbalances the game. The point of versus mode is that you’re supposed to be playing the same level on the same scenario and encounter the same things as your opponents (with the exception of the special zombies which are controlled by the players), so it’s a fair match. The Director makes this entirely unfair. Medkits can spawn anywhere or not at all, giving the team that gets them a HUGE advantage. It’s also possible on some levels for one team to get the tier two weapons earlier, which is another pretty big advantage. Even more so when the zombie team may get a Tank to use against the other team, but when it’s their turn… nothing gets sent against them. Director is awesome for Scenario, when it isn’t a competition, but in versus, it gives teams huge advantages unfairly and really can kill the game for the losing team.
• Survivor AI is retarded. It is just about impossible to play the game if you have even one player being controlled by AI. They stand in the way of enemies and get knocked down, don’t move when things are coming right at them, and will run right in front of your line of fire. It’s usually better to just kill them yourself so they don’t get in the way. The survivor AI is completely and fully incompetent at everything. This shouldn’t really be a problem, since it’s very easy to find four players at any given time to fill up all the characters, but it can be a real hassle when someone leaves in the middle of a scenario, sticking you in the middle of a level with an AI player that you know is going to die, and soon. But, if you intend to play single player for the whole game… this isn’t the game for you.
• There is no sense of survival and rationing equipment and ammo. As I mentioned above, the game is difficult, sometimes brutally so, but if you can shoot straight you’ve got a pretty good chance of getting decently far into any given level. Ammo is never scarce like it should be in the post-apocalypse world, neither are medkits, pain pills, and home-made pipebombs that seem to just be lying around anywhere and all built exactly the same way. You can spray bullets around everywhere and almost never run out, because turn the corner and – boom – there’s an ammo stash just lying around.

The Ugly (or, aesthetic problems)

• The way you get new weapons and load up on ammo is stupid. It isn’t a game play problem, because I don’t care where the weapons are in the level, just how they’re displayed. On every single level (except one time in the Dead Air campaign and once in the No Mercy campaign), your new weapons and ammo will be just lying on a table, perfectly set up, just waiting for you to come grab them. Why? This is the post apocalypse world. People aren’t going to just leave weapons – high quality, expensive weapons – just lying on tables in the middle of zombie hordes, along with ammo for every gun imaginable. Medkits are (sometimes) held in first aid cabinets, so why can’t weapons be the same way? Maybe military caches that were dropped and not picked up, or, hell, even just lying on the ground next to bodies would be awesome, accomplish the same goals (get the players new weapons in the middle of the level and look realistic) and I wouldn’t need to complain about it, then.
• About four or five months before the game’s release, Valve redid the characters. This was dumb. Before, all the survivors looked like they had been fighting for their lives. They were dirty, they were visibly injured, they were covered in grime and blood and all sorts of nasty stuff that you’d get on you during the zombie apocalypse. Now they’re all clean and well taken care of. Louis is literally wearing a button up white shirt, and a TIE. A TIE! In the zombie apocalypse! What the hell? These people don’t look like they’ve been fighting ANYTHING, let alone surviving for as long as the story says they have. It’s purely cosmetic, since the characters themselves haven’t changed, just their clothing.
• Pipe bombs should look different depending on the location. This is a really small and stupid point to make, I’m sure you’re thinking. But again, it’s the atmosphere. In this game, pipebombs don’t simply explode. They beep and flash a light to get the zombies attention (how this pulls them away from you I don’t understand, but I get the concept) which is cool. Now, do you know how to build one? No? Well, apparently you’re in the minority. No matter where you go, in any location on any scenario, there will be masterfully constructed beeping, flashing, exploding pipebombs all built exactly the same way, just lying around built by someone else. This is retarded. How does everyone in this damn city know how to build pipebombs? My suggestion? Make them all look different but do the same thing. I get that people would learn how to distract them, that’s fine, and it’s cool. But not everyone will build identical pipe bombs on their own. It’s a minor point, but one that nags at me every time I find a pipebomb.

Left 4 Dead is an absolutely fantastic game for everyone at any experience level of gaming. It has amazingly fun game play and multi player is completely top-notch. You will not regret buying this game in any way, especially once they get some DLC rolling out. I had a few negative points, but the good completely outweighs them. If you don’t have this game, that’s terrible and you should feel terrible because you are missing out on a very good candidate for game of the year.

Overall, I’d give Left 4 Dead a 9 out of 10. It’s absolutely amazing, but there are a few negative points that take away from the game.