Bioshock Infinite - Lady Comstock 1999 mode

I'm playing through Bioshock Infinite at the moment and trying it on the hardest difficulty setting 1999'
s mode.

It's not been too bad until I reached Lady Comstock, oh boy.

The graveyard encounter was okay thanks to the numerous medkits around. The bank encounter was made easier by staying behind a thick vault door. But outside the house was a major pain in the proverbial.

I checked various sites, watched videos and so many went with the run and hide technique that proved dicey. It was the bank encounter that provided me with the clue to a method that allowed me to win without once needing health.

Lady Comstock is restricted to her movements, she cannot step beyond the carts at the bottom of the steps. Except the dead soldiers she revives can. Ah but she can only revive and re-revive soldiers within her range. Getting the idea?

Head to the area with the machines and use the range boosted vigour "Undertow" to grab soldiers then kill them. If you run out of salts stay put and you only need to deal with the few melee soldiers before Elizabeth will throw you some.  Use the Mosquito to whittle things down.

Once all the soldiers are piled up at your feet just let the Mosquito take her out.

Job done

Video game expiry dates and the second hand market

The new XBone will tie your game to your account so that if you lend the disc or (bom bom bah) actually want to sell it on; the person on the receiving end may have to pay full price once they stick into their system. It appears to be Microsoft's answer to both a) piracy and b) the scourge of the second-hand market.

If they can't force you to buy everything from their digital store where they can charge what they like and keep it at that price in perpetuity they can damn well stop the physical used market dead in it's tracks.

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ICO and the waterfall

My previous dealt with why ICO as an escort mission works, although the order is out this started out about one particular mission - the Waterfall. I don't think anyone playing through ICO for the first time has ever 'got' the waterfall section the first time around and what doesn't help is that nearly ever walkthrough gets this wrong.

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ICO and the escort mission

I've finally got around to playing the remastered version of ICO; does it hold up after all this time... yes. Emphatically yes; sure some of the wall textures are a little blurry at times and the controls are reminiscent of Resident Evil, but the core of the game remains pure - that of an escort mission.

Don't run away I know what you're thinking "But the escort mission in games is the part that sucks the most; a whole game that's an escort mission - no way!" Let me explain why escort missions suck and why oddly enough Ico doesn't.

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FeministFrequency vs Thunderf00t

As part of my viewing schedule I was pointed to the first video in FeministFrequency's new series Tropes vs Women in Video Games entitled "Damsel in Distress" this prompted a response from the blogger Thunderf00t called "Feminism versus Facts". Oh me oh my this is the "Understanding is a three edged sword" type of conflict. Both can be accused of viewing things through their own belief systems and drawing the conclusions they want, but is one more 'right' than the other?

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Borderlands 2 still playing

I've already done a review of Borderlands 2 I played through as a single character and got to the end with the expectation of popping the disc and slotting in one of two games I've yet to play before slowly returning to a few of my older games such as Kingdoms of Amalur (huh I've done a full review but it's still draft, better look at that sometime) or even the first Borderlands.

I'm still playing Borderlands 2.

No I've not picked up the extra content; I'm also not playing through with my original character at the next challenge level. I've started again with a brand-new character. I'm doing all the same missions as before and yet somehow it's not boring. Being set-up with different weapons, different skill trees and a damn fine story makes this seem a different game. Sure I know what's coming and can anticipate, but with a different character I have to approach these things in a different way.

Annoyingly I now have the urge to experience the game through the eyes of the other characters too.

Borderlands 2 PS3 review

Other than catching up with telly I spent a vast majority of my time playing Borderlands 2 on the PS3, so is it really any good or just a useful time-sink?

The "2" at the end of the title should give the subtle hint that this is a sequel to the 2009 game Borderlands; for those unfamiliar with that title it's a first person shooter with role-playing elements set on the planet of Pandora and features a choice of four playable characters called Vault Hunters as they roam the planet in search of the fabled Vault which is rumoured to contain a fabulous treasure.

This sequel follows on from the opening of the vault, the rumours of another, and the arrival of yet another set of four Vault Hunters.

The first reaction from some may well be "Oh no yet another Shooter than tries to have 'customisable' role-playing elements" that's not Borderlands. This game really is a nigh-perfect marriage between FPS and RPG; in fact I'd say some of these elements are better than in some full-on RPG games.

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Dishonored endings - how they could have been

I'll be discussing the endings of Dishonored here and how they could have been better woven into the gameplay; therefore spoilers duh!

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Dishonored PS3 review

I'll start give Dishonored the highest praise I can offer - it reminds me of Thief. Sadly though it's not as good, but then again what is?

You play Corvo another mute protagonist from a long line of mute protagonists, wrongly convicted of the murder of the empress, imprisoned, escaped, and seeking to restore the rightful heir to the throne. All set against a steampunkish victoriana industrial setting with magic. It's a little Thief 2 ish with camera-type  sentries and roving guards some encased in stilt-walkers all the while sneaking around to get to the goal; knocking out guards, hiding bodies, and picking up loot. That's if you want to, nothing wrong per se in killing all the guards and charging through. Well nothing overtly wrong but doing so will result in the 'bad' chaos ending.

The influences are clear mostly Thief 2, a dash of Bioshock 2 and a light brush with Assassin's Creed. So inevitably I'm going to be comparing this to Thief 2 so if you haven't played this game - what the hell is wrong with you! Go, buy it now it's dirt cheap and play it, then play it again on the hardest setting now come back after the week it's taken you.

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Game Over 'bug' in Dishonored - the Pendletons

So after Doom 3 I've been playing Dishonored, definitely a Thief vibe to it, but still not as good. Anyway I was on the second main mission to kill two brothers and was offered a non-lethal method to do so - acquire a safe combination for Slackjaw the Gang Chief and he'll take care of them quietly.

One combination retrieved and I hand it over to him; up pops the 'targets eliminated' info and I head back to my pickup point. I get halfway across the yard when it jumps to a game over screen informing me that apparently I have "made an enemy of the one person who can eliminate the Pendletons" and offering to load up the last save.

This is bad for two reasons - firstly how have I made an enemy here? Secondly the game autosaves when I enter a new district  and then when I've 'completed' the quest which means I don't have a save that will take me back to the location where I can kill them myself.

Roaming around after my quest 'completed' autosave some of his gang attacked were attacked by members of his own gang who had the plague; what's that got to do with me? Turns out you make that enemy if one of the gang gets killed and when the two groups attacked each other I got the blame for the outcome.

This is seriously bad as after I first acquired the non-lethal option the gate where the plague victims are being kept opens by itself so someone is likely to get killed while you're present. So in theory it's possible to get a game open when I first returned to the district with the combination before even reaching the leader.


Through total skill (okay with some major luck) I managed to circumvent this bug. Using the Blink ability I can travel long distances. Blinking multiple times back to the district entrance I exited before anyone died. As this freezes and resets the district no-one got killed so no game over.

Doom 3 BFG review PS3

Doom 3 was released some time ago for the XBox and PC, but this is the first time for the PS3 and is part of a wider re-mastered anniversary collection that adds in the the new game along with the two expansions and, nicely enough, the original Doom and Doom II campaigns. Is it any good though?

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Family Fluxx review

I watched a recent episode of Tabletop in which they played a game of Star Fluxx. It seemed an easy and fun game so I checked out the price on Amazon. It seems there are many different 'flavours' available and after checking reviews I decided that the Family version with its bright cards, 6-Adult age-range and quick play would probably best suit my needs. I ended up playing it with the Bratii - Minor (10) and Major (16) and that's all we ended up playing.

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Consistency error in the Horus Heresy books

Okay this isn't anything of a big deal; only of interest to the nerds who like the Warhammer 40k universe and the Horus Heresy books in particular, so if that doesn't include you you might as well stop reading now.

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Let the Wookie win

I took the Bratii down to the riverside a couple of weekends ago (before the deluge) and we ended up on one of the crazy golf courses. I won as usual, but they drew with each other and more importantly were only 2 points behind me - damn close. Why bother to mention this? Well they were both quite chuffed at getting that close and I think some might consider this a bit odd; surely they'd only be happy if they'd won?

I look around at the other adult/child relationships with games and I watch children's strokes ignored, I watch the adults 'accidentally' fluff easy shots and I see the kids winning a lot more than they should and I just don't understand it. I don't do that - with board games, cards and the fairground type things I play to win.

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100 missions Android game review

Having come to the current end of 100 rooms (room 42) the game advertised its own 100 Missions. Difficult to believe but the interface is even worse particularly on a mobile screen. Now when you jab at something that doesn't do anything it pops up with a message box stating nothing can be done here; in theory a good thing, but due to the smaller movement arrows it kept popping up as I tried to move overlaying the arrow so I had to deliberately jab elsewhere to clear it.

That said they've altered some of the game mechanics for the better. Combining items means dragging them onto each other and this new drag mechanic allows picture puzzles to be integrated into the game.

Sadly the logic still seems Monkey Island click everywhere, combine everything and despite the 'can't do anything here' messages it can still be difficult to determine if something is accessible. In this case consistency is a problem, jabbing the down movement arrow takes you out of a zoomed in view... except on occasion when it will take you a zoomed in view of the lower part of the object.

I'm also guessing English isn't the first language of the programmer; the description of objects are a little stilted and need some polish so for example describing a locked dresser as "ornate" and then finding a "fancy key" would tie the two together better than simply describing it as a dresser and a key obviously not for a door.  Oh and the intro screen speech bubbles are arranged top to bottom.

Despite being essentially the same game at times I want to say it's better than 100 rooms; other times it's worse. As with the previous it might simply be better on a tablet.

I think kudos does need to be made that it catered for the deaf/hard-of hearing by having a Morse code message blink as well as bleep; however that's countered by a red/green colour puzzle which will stimmy the colour-blind.

Keep the new dragging mechanic, make the direction keys a little larger; and ditch the pop-up 'nothing to do here', but keep the 'I can't do anything with that' pop-ups so at least there's an indication that something could be done there.

100 Rooms Android Game review

I'll start with a warning - this is not a walkthrough, but believe me I can understand why you'd need one.

100 rooms is a free ad-supported game that is available on the Android Marketplace; the basic premise is simple - you are trapped in a room and need to use the items around you to open the door and leave.

You use the arrows at the edges of the screen to move around a room (or even two at times) and then jab to put something in the 16 slot inventory that sits at the bottom of the screen. Jab an inventory item to select it so it can be used with another on-screen item; or jab twice to get a larger view of the item which you can then combine with other items in your inventory.

As a small brain-straining/teasing game this would be quite fun; sadly after a few rooms it devolves into Monkey Island style item collection, and trial and error. You simply end up poking at everything on screen and trying to combine everything with everything else due to the contrived logic that applies. Oft-times I was left stranded because I was missing one component tucked somewhere I hadn't specifically targeted.

The interface isn't brilliant either. The initial hub room has an arcade machine that gives you points to spend on hints. There's a map next to that that allows you to replay any room. But nothing tells you this, you have to discover them for yourself. Oh and cleverly the FaceBook icon on the hub page is in exactly the same place as the "Return to Hub button" in each room so clicking to leave will trigger a "do you want to visit Facebook dialogue" box every time.

In all fairness this may be a better game on a tablet with a larger screen so you can spot the minor clues that indicate an actionable item. On a 4" HD screen - it's trying. Needs more polish.

Killzone 3 review

I've finished the campaign mode of Killzone 3 last night which was a little surprising as I'd only started it on Tuesday. So that's maybe 6 hours of gameplay.

I've been with the franchise since the beginning and slowly despaired at the turns they were taking. In the very first game you got to choose your player type at the start of each mission which in turn determined your style of play. In the second they dropped all that and just plonked you in the body of whomever they wanted and handed you the weapons they thought you'd need. In this the third (and I hope) last of the series they've done exactly the same thing.

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Yet more proof that Bethesda didn't really test Skyrim

Oh dear this is one that really should have been picked up. Within Skyrim are seven special stealable items called "larceny targets". Pick them up and sell them to a thief called Delvin for money and to decorate the Guild Master's desk.
Trouble is once you acquire the seventh the quest marks itself as complete and the option to sell to Delvin is removed.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 - PS3 age restriction take 2

It's been a month since I contacted EA regarding the disparity between selling Battlefield Bad Company 2 as a 15 certificate game while internally restricting it as an 18 (level 9) and with no response to my email I gave them another call.

They've changed the support options Star Wars is option 1, FIFA option 2 and problems with the online password is option 3... and? Nope that's it. Neat.

Anyway I got through to Richard who read the case details and then asked for the PSN id.
"You don't need that. It's simple you're selling a game for 16 year olds but internally restricting it to 18 year olds. Now has my cousin managed to buy an illegal game of Amazon or have you messed up?"
"I just want to check the age the PSN account is set under"
"That has nothing to so with this. It's an internal restriction for the PS3 he's playing the single player game and it's stopping him from doing so as soon as he tries to start. The level is set to 7 and the game is set to 9"
"Can I put you on hold for a moment?"
"Sure"
He came straight back
"This is going to take a little longer"
"Okay can you call me back"
"Okay here's my number"

A short while later

"We think it might be a printing error. Our copies show 18 on the box. Are you sure it's a region 2 game"
"Well I sent you photos of the box and disc as well as the BLES number that should tell you"
"Ah yes I can see those now. I see the disc says 18 on it"
"Yes but that's in Blue it's the German rating, and we're not in Germany"
"Ah yes"

So it may be a printing error, which given the age of this game - no-one has spotted before now!

Skyrim - Riften House/Thane/Thieves

I mentioned the Skooma Quest bug in Skyrim and how that was preventing me from buying property which was also preventing me being a Thane and (I believe) preventing me becoming the head of the Thieves Guild. Well while starting the Dark Brotherhood Quests I was taken near to the Cavern causing the problem and popped in to check if the one person had respawned. He had and I took him out.

Imagine my surprise when it told me I'd finished the Skooma Quest and should talk to the Jarl of Riften. Yay! Over to there and due to the time she was heading off to her, locked, chambers for rest. I managed to get a word and was told that I couldn't be a Thane until I owned property. No problem. I found the steward and bought some property. In the meantime the Jarl had retired. So with nothing to do until the morning and while I was there I upgraded my property with the steward and paid it a visit. Not bad.

I returned to the Jarl and hung around for a bit. When she finally reappeared I conversed with her. Nope didn't know who I was and I most certainly got no Thane options. What the hell?

Checked online and oh yeah another known bug - upgrade your property before talking to the Jarl and she won't acknowledge it.

Oh yeah I need to reload a previous save - oh hell that's not going to be good. See I saved as I left the Dark Brotherhood sanctuary on the first contract. As I could fast travel it was a case of travel, kill; travel, kill; travel, kill; return, turn in; do internal quest, get another quest. Travel, kill, travel, kill, return. Get Quest, travel, get stuff, return, get sent to Riften. Hence me passing by the cavern. All in all about two hour's worth of play. Luckily there's the autosaves all four of them.... yeah:

Enter Jarl's palace. Autosave in palace.
Buy propery upgrade (bad thing)
Leave Jarl's palace. Autosave
Enter my new property Autosave
Leave my new property Autosave.
Enter palace overwrite the first autosave before I did the bad thing.... oh crap.

So yeah the only save I had was from the start of my session that night. Once again it seems no-one considered that while talking to the steward that can sell you property, players might decide to upgrade that property while they're still in conversation with the very same steward who handles that.

Now this is why I normally keep two different well spaced saves. Awesome.

Awesome.