Elites Getting on Your Nerves?

I don't know about you, but my experiences with the Elites (Sangheili) from the Halo Universe has been the cause for a large majority of deaths my spartan had.

And so I wrote everyone a tiny guide on how to deal with Elites on Halo: Reach.

If anyone wants to read this useful article on how to kill Elites, click here. If anyone simply wants to improve their gaming skills, visit Decent Gamer, my blog on improving gaming skill and tactics.

And I just got a chance to play Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary tonight, and I'm happy to say that it's going quite well for me. The Grunt Funeral Skull's been helping me a bit, and the overpowered pistol is always fun to knock Covenant off.

NPC Allies are Funny

Have you ever noticed that NPC allies in first-person shooter games are almost never helpful?

Like I said, I kinda started out with Halo 3. I noticed that in comparison with Master Chief's large stature, the small little Marines really couldn't compare with a Spartan's strength, which I respect. What really bothered me was how even the Marines couldn't hold themselves together when engaging weak enemies like Grunts. After taking few shots they just die without actually giving any useful help.

Then came the Call of Duty craze. In the jungles of Japan, my American soldiers and I attacked. A squadron of Japanese troops ambushed us, and I dived to the nearest cover I could find. Bullets flew everywhere, and I remained in cover waiting for reinforcements. More American soldiers came. Just when I was about to go over the top, all my new buddies got shot down while running into the battlefield. So I waited even longer. More came and more fell without even firing a single shot.

A few weeks ago, I started to get into Gears of War. Other than Baird who got lucky with a few frag grenades, my NPC allies did utterly nothing. Any Stranded or COG Gears were popped in the head the moment they entered the firefight. My ally heroes did some damage I suppose, but not enough to really help me in any way.

Playing Halo: Reach one time, Jun and his apparently pin-point accuracy skimmed my Spartan in the middle of a firefight, resulting in the death of Noble Six.

I'm just wondering if any first-person shooter game has an effective NPC support system. Honestly, team-mates who just run up to be shot at are pretty much useless other than being an ineffective bullet-soaker. Then again, I guess that if the NPCs could do something to help, it'd kinda take off too much of the challenge needed to beat a game.

Not that I'm complaining. I still get the job done, but it's funny to watch my professional ally soldiers get torn apart by Grunts.

Excited for Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversery

So, it's the twelfth today, and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary will be released in three days. I'm pretty much freaking out right now.

If you don't already know, I'm a huge Halo fan. I have really vague recollections of playing Halo 2 at a friend's place, but Halo 3 is really where I began. In fact, with Fable 2, Halo 3 was the first game that came with my Xbox 360.

My Halo 3 stats.
Screenshot taken from Bungie's site.

Its graphics stunned me since I upgraded from a Playstation 2 to an Xbox 360 very late, so I was somewhat unfamiliar with Xbox 360 video games. Just looking at the graphics in Halo 3 made me say wow. And since I never get to, I just want to flash my solid stats out there.

I never really got into playing Halo 3: ODST and Halo Wars, but Halo: Reach was the next big thing to happen to me in the Halo universe. I excelled at that too by the way.

My Halo: Reach stats.
Screenshot taken from Bungie's site.

I've spent countless nights just reading random and pointless trivia of the Halo universe on the Halo Wiki, and at some time I got sucked into the whole story.

In this time, I've become a pretty big Halo nerd. As a rule, I always play the first game in a trilogy before playing the next, and I've never even seen Halo: Combat Evolved game-play before. I consider that a taboo for myself. Halo: Combat Anniversary will definitely be a mind blower for my understanding of Halo.

This is going to be great. I'll post my review on Why It's Awesome! after it is released and some experience.

Back to Neopia

Just for complete laughs, I made myself a new account on Neopets. I used to be on this site whenever I had free time when I was a child, and I really wanted to see what they've added in my absence.

For one, I truly appreciate the much dimmed down sign up form. It used to to require addresses and phone numbers and a truckload of other personal information. Now, all it wants is an email address and a username. So many congratulations!

Swift604, my new Eyrie Neopet.

Let's see if I remember, start bank account, play Meerca Chase, and get rich.

I see that they've updated their banking screen very nice. I don't see Meerca Chase anymore. I guess it's in the game graveyard isn't it? How unfortunate. Well at least they've replaced it with Meerca Chase II.

And now to get rich.

Runescape's Bot Nuke Brings Peace

One day after Runescape's big macro nuke, all the bots in Runescape have been banned. I don't remember seeing such nice views without my screen full of bots anymore. It truly is a nice view of the game. Here's a sight I've never seen before.

I don't ever remember seeing a sight like this. Wondering what's missing? People. Don't believe me? Check out my mini-map when I was at the wilderness.

My goodness. Even the green dragons' respawn rate has greatly increased, though I think this is only because of the bot nuke celebration. Although empty now, I highly doubt it will stay this way for long.

As I was traveling to other parts of Runescape that used to be inhabited by bots, I traveled to Feldip Hills, where the red chinchompas spawn. Check this out.

Empty! Not a single bot to be seen. Before the update, the land was littered with bots and their traps hoping to get one ore two catches every minute. Without them, the green grass of Feldip Hills look much more cleaner.

Then I traveled to the most spam-filled, bot infested area in Runescape. And guess what I found.

The Grand Exchange's center fountain.

Peace and quiet.

On a side note, Runed Games will likely be filled with a plethora of more money-making guides. I hope you guys enjoy the new bot-free Runescape!

10000 Gamerscore Milestone

After about a year and a half now, I've finally broken my 10000th Gamerscore! After playing wide variety of games, especially from Halo games, I've finally accumulated enough to have five digits in my Gamerscore.

Amusingly, my latest achievement to bring me this high is Castle Crasher's Traditional achievement for beating the game with any character. I'd always thought that my 10000th Gamerscore would be from something from Halo, Call of Duty, or even Gears of War, but as it turns out my final achievement was an achievement from an arcade game made by Newgrounds.

Well, it'll probably be a while until I hit six digits, but I am determined to get there one day.

Gears of War 3, I'm Just Getting Started

After spending a day at a friend's house, I decided to get Gears of War 3 since it made a good impression on me. I haven't played any other game since.

Gears of War 3 was a very pleasent surprise for me. I've only ever played Gears of War 2 for a few hours, and I've never seen the original Gears of War. After learning a bit about the Gears of War 3 (that intro video is very nice), I've found that the plot and history is well developed and is going somewhere, unlike some other very average video games.

It surprises myself when I think that Gears of War 3 might even be able to combat Halo: Reach. In gameplay anyways, nothing really can beat Halo's long and sophisticated plot.

I greatly enjoy playing on Gears of War 3's Horde and Beast game modes. Horde reminds me of Call of Duty's Nazi Zombies where you would survive waves of waves of enemies. It's great that horde mode shares many similarities with Nazi Zombies, as well as having fun characteristics of it's own.

Horde mode, like Nazi Zombies, has a currency that is awarded when you slaughter enemies. The money earned can go toward buying weapons (on the floor, not wall), or even fortifications to defend yourself from Locust and Lambent invaders. This adds a whole other level of gameplay and planning, and planning is only in games that are well made. There's even a boss wave every ten waves to spice things up a bit. In my opinion, that kinda beats Nazi Zombies by about a mile and a half.

Beast mode is also very entertaining. Instead of playing as desperate human survivors, Beast mode allows me to play as a Locusts themselves and try to rid twelve waves of humans. Beast mode is almost like Horde mode, except flipped.Stranded and COG Gears would set up fortifications and defences, while arming themselves with weapons as well to try to fend off you and your team of Locusts. With a variety of Locusts to choose from, you can choose any character to reflect your personal tastes.

I've also forgot to mention that Horde and Beast mode allows up to five players to be on a co-operative team, upping Nazi Zombies four players. Just saying.

Online matchmaking is truly difficult. I find that whoever is proficient in using the two shotguns in the game generally win each game, though I guess skill will eventually come with experience. Online multiplayer is very balanced. You team levels are usually split as even as possible, and NPC allies come play with you when real matchmakers can't connect to your game.

Occasionally, I'd have to wait several minutes before joining a game of any sorts. I have noted that all my games so far are not affected by lag. All my games have run smoothly so far, and I believe that to be well worth the wait.

I truly am excited to own and play Gears of War 3. It might be a bit hard for me right now, but hey, I'm just getting started.

Playing The Sims Social on Facebook

My Sim blogging on the net.

I never thought it would happen, but apparently at some point of time, it did. It is possible to play The Sims on Facebook! This really was a pleasent surprise for me, even though it shares several similarities with the Zynga games out on the net.

Rest assured, this is not a fan-made game. It's relatively decent with many of traditional Sims features. This particular version is cleverly named The Sims Social. You can gain skills, have personalities, visit friends, and use the toilet.

Within my first 10 minutes of playing The Sims Social, I've become friends with Bella, I've learned how to play some scales on a guitar, and I earned Simoleans from blogging on the net. Irony is funny.

I have a lot of hope towards this game being unique and fun. I'll keep posting my Sims' experiences. In the meantime, I need to fill my 30 neighbor slots, so if you're up to it, friend up with me and we'll rock out together!