Monday, September 27, 2010

A. Wake. I see what you did there.

Alan Wake
I loved this game: the story, the atmosphere, the flashlight combat system. It's just a very different game. I haven't played survival-horror games in a while but this is one of the few games I actually found scary. Well, maybe not scary, but creepy. The fact that I have a fear of the dark didn't hurt either. I'm not as bad as Alice though. When enemies are coming up the game starts to get blurry, the music changes, but you don't see anything yet. Then they jump out at you. It really gave me a sense of peril. Even worse are the poltergeists. Having a truck flung at you and being unable to dodge it easily adds to the "Holy Crap I Don't Want To Die" feeling.

Having to reload while surrounded by enemies in cramped spaces balanced out the abundance of ammo, a thing some people frown upon in the survival-horror genre.Who cares that you have a chest of unlimited bullets if you're getting hit to much to shoot.

I've got a funny story. During Episode 4, after the car crash you and Barry are separated. He is armed with a flare and he gets attacked. When he kills a Taken an achievement popped up for me.
-Collateral Carnage: 20 Taken have been drowned, electrocuted, or dispatched by some other indirect means.
I guess Barry counts as indirect means. But the fact that he gave me the achievement was hilarious to me.

With a game like this where I'm trying to follow a story I just like to play through it and immerse myself. I don't go through and try to get achievements. I really only went out of my way to get...
-Carny: You have heartlessly knocked over five defenseless can pyramids.
,which I did.

There are collectibles. I HATE collectibles. As mentioned above I didn't really try to get all of the collectibles. If I saw a thermos I picked it up. And who are all of these people leaving their thermoses everywhere. The manuscripts I tried to collect because I wanted to read them to get more of the story. And the hidden chests were just useful but I guess I didn't get them all.

I played on hard knowing I wouldn't go back on nightmare. So getting all of the manuscripts wasn't going to happen. Some of the manuscripts are only found on nightmare difficulty.

Stats:
Kills with revolver: 260/100
Kills with flare gun: 19/50
Kills with shotgun: 88/50
Kills with hunting rife: 32/50
Kills with flash bangs: 61/50
Kills with vehicles: 23/15
Indirect kills: 72/20
Poltergeist objects destroyed: 87/20
Birds Killed: 646/1000

Batteries used: 193/100
Manuscript pages found: 86/106
Coffee thermoses found: 81/100
Can pyramids knocked over: 5/12
Chests found: 27/30
Radio shows found: 10/11
TV shows found: 13/14
Signs found: 15/25

35/50 a
560/1000 g
0/2 dlc - aside from the price these actually look pretty interesting. If I owned the game I might have bought them. Well one comes free with the purchase of the game.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Blood of the Gods

Sangria Señorial
I finally tried Mountain Dew Throwback. I love that little hillbilly. Then I found out that all Mexican sodas have cane sugar rather than High Fructose Corn Syrup. So I go down to my local supermarket to buy a MexiCoke which I actually had a few weeks before. While I'm in the "ethnic" aisle buying ramen because I'm as broke as an HP laptop, I see bottles of Jarritos Mandarina and this Sangria flavored soda.

I drink the Jarritos and it's just ok. I actually think Orange Crush is better. Then I drink the Sangria Señorial. This stuff is awesome. It tastes a lot like my favorite carbonated beverage of all time, Black Cherry Faygo (reppin' the D). In fact it might taste even better. It is more expensive unless you count the cost of shipping it takes to get to Colorado.

Monday, September 6, 2010

Sam Fisher: Not So Stealth Assassin

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction
Despite what people have been saying I liked this game. It allows you to be as stealthy or as run-and-gunny as you want. My poor memory is keeping me from remembering why this game sucks compared to previous installments.

It wasn't that long but I didn't expect it to be. Deniable Ops is really fun. I found the level design of Deniable Ops better than the campaign.

It definitely needs more suppressors. Half of the pistols aren't even silenced. I would like to have a suppressor on every gun. Hell, give me silenced grenades.

Weapons unlocked through Coop? When will these companies learn that I don't like multiplayer and start catering to me instead of the millions of people who do.

*Update*
So I cheated and played through the multiplayer game by myself. Unlocked and upgraded all of the weapons and beat all of the levels by myself. Take that social interaction. Let it be known that Nic is very good at playing with himself.

*Update 2*
I finally beat all of the P.E.C. Challenges. It took longer than the game did.

35/54 a
700/1000 g