Crazy is part of a very friendly albeit boisterous clan called the GONKS, we're not the best clan in the world but we always have some good laughs, unless we have a crap game (not uncommon) then "rage quitting" tends to be the desired behaviour. This game just about qualified for a rage quit, it was awful, if you want to know how not to play, check this video out!!
Better late than never "Crazy" finally figures out the choke points on Nuketown to get a decent amount of kills!! This video is for the GONKS, a great bunch of lads, the fighting might not be up to scratch but the conversation is always entertaining, here is some highlights of a more successful  There are not many games that I have played the single player part to death, in fact there have only been two, the first was Ace Combat 6 which I completed all the degrees of difficulty (but didn't get all the achievements) and the second was Mass Effect 3.
To me Mass Effect 3 is the best game of all time on the Xbox, having played all three games, the first was good, the second just drew me so far into the plot I couldn't wait for the 3rd and last in the series to be released. I certainly was not disappointed, I would encourage anybody who has not given it a go to do so, you don't need to play all three games, but with the ability to import your character's progress from the previous game it is worth doiing as the decisions you make in one game will affect what happens in the next. This week I completed the last achievement to make Mass Effect 3 the first game I have completed in it's entirety, to do this I played it through to the end a couple of times and with various characters, the first was imported the later, was not. This is a great idea as there are a myriad of cut scenes and conversations that come up that I did not see the first time around (when Tali committed suicide I was close to tears!!), but that's the beauty of this game - it's depth. The second time I completed the game (on insanity) I down loaded the extended cut scenes for the end of the game, I am glad the team at Bioware did this as the original end scenario left an awful lot of questions unanswered, but the upgrade I have to say was more comprehensive and well worth the hours invested in trying to get through on "insanity" (many times the control almost got launched out of the window in frustration!!). I'm not finished with Mass Effect 3 yet, with the 4th map pack just been released for the multiplayer component I reckkon there are still a few hours of time to be iinvested yet. Well done Bioware for what is truly and epic gaming experience!!  Having always been a Star Wars fan I was waiting for the Kinect version with a large element of expectation and a fair dose of excitement. As every child (at least male child) since the 70's has probably imagined them being a Jedi Knight (whether good or evil), the Kinect experience promises to deliver on that imagination more than any PC or typical console game could.
Typically when I receive a new game, I like to give my self at least 2-3hrs of uninterrupted game time, to really immerse myself with the game and it's experience, the time I laid aside for this game was no different ....... a major problem this was going to be in the following days!! The opening scene of C3P0 and R2D2 arguing in the halls of some archives is entertaining the first time round, C3P0 introduces himself to you and gives you some choices about which archives you want to investigate, you choose an archive and then you play out the story within the archive. There are a number of options here, I personally liked the Jedi story (over course) and the Pod Racing but for the dancing divas amongst you there is a dance option too (my two left feet would not allow me to pick this option!!). I have read mixed reviews about this game, all I am going to say about the more negative ones is this, these reviewers very clearly must love the sound of their own drivilous rantings and very clearly have no imagination, I would challenge every gamer who has a Kinect to get this game (or hire it at your local video store) and tell me there was nothing great about it. As a Jedi Knight the first thing you have to do is pick up your Light Saber using the force (oh, I could feel the power flow through me!!) and then you have to tackle a series of little battle drones and practice duelling with some class mates, all fairly harmless stuff. The next scene, you are flying to the home world of Chewbacca where you continue your training on how to run, jump, pick objects up using the force, use the force to blow shit up (oh yeah!!) and finish off by using the force to deflect objects coming at you, all under the watchful eye of Yoda!! At the end of the training (the sweat is starting to show by now) the Empire decide they are going to launch a full on assault on the planet ... convenient, lucky us Padwans are there to help out. Once you are in the fight, you are slashing and jumping and slashing and jumping some more, riding speeders through forests, oh more slashing and jumping (heart rate starts climbing, the breath is getting shorter) and eventually you get back to Chewbacca's ship (effectively a Millennium Falcon) where you get to jump in the gunners seat (tell me your not salivating with excitement know). After shooting down a crap load of Tie Fighters Chewy does some heroic flying to land on one of the destroyers where you end up doing lots more slashing ad jumping and kicking, by now the sweat is free flowing, the shoulders are screaming for you to stop and there is almost know way you could have a conversation with someone standing next to you, but I found myself continuing on because the universe was relying on me!! Fortunately throughout all this there are a regular cut scenes to catch your breath and suck you deeper into the story, periodically a warning comes up reminding you to take a break (Like the Sith Lord would give you time to have a cup of tea!!). Having played for just over 2 hours I can safely say I was knackered, far more effective than a gym workout and immensely more enjoyable. I had a friend come round later that day to try it out, so I played another hour or so doing two player and then I played the following day for another 2-3 hours, by the end of the weekend I was finished (my body that is, not the game) and I was sore in the calves, thighs, shoulders, chest and back for about 3 days afterwards ............ awesome!! I now have a new found respect for the real Jedi's (yes of course they exist!) and their fitness levels, the day after my wife says to me in her infinite wisdom "Stretch before gaming you did, no?" need I say any more .........!! Being an ex Call of Duty player where the emphasis is on getting the kill, points for someone like Crazy,was always a hard earned chore, namely because his kill count was usually pathetic!! This cannot be said for Battlefield 3, where the emphasis has been removed from the killing to the objective in most games with the exception of Team Death Match. This video has been put together to help those ex COD gamers and those who struggle to get copious amounts of kills per game to gather more points to help them level up. One detail during the narration on the video, Crazy talks about the amount of kills, resupplies and spawns to get ribbons in the narration he says you need 10 to get the ribbons this is incorrect you need 7 but you'll get the idea when you watch the video. Please leave a comment if you found any of the information helpful!! Every so often even the worst Xbox 360 player gets it right from time to time, with so many ways to take out your enemy, even the worst players get a chance to do something. Here is a little video of some of the better things Cray has managed to pull off!! Being one of the worst online players that he knows, Crazy has put together a short film of exactly why he is just not that good whilst playing Battlefield 3. Captured and edited the video using Roxio Game Capture product. this is his first attempt at adding narration, the volume levels aren't quite right (work in progress) but you'll get the idea. Feel free to leave your comments, especially if the same happens to you!! The latest map pack to be released for Black Ops is annihilation, being a zombie killing maniac, I thought I would talk a bit about the new zombie map. First off, thank christ it's in day light, as much as dark, badly lit maps set the mood for zombies, it is refreshing to be able to kill them in broad daylight!! The map is a cross between ancient Aztec still ruins mixed with an element of Indiana Jones with lots of stand on this slab, press this button, turn that dial, etc to get things to happen. In our early games we came across a new weapon from the crate that shrinks the zombies so you can run through them or in Crazy's case stab them in the head, but be careful using this gun, all is not as it seems (check out the video below to find out more!!) The map has two or three creative ways to use water to get you from one place to another which is a great touch, something different from the teleporters or transporters in previous maps, again, the new modes of transport remind you of Indiana Jones!! The video below will give you an idea of what the map looks like, we use some of the water transporting methods, and I was going to show you how to open up pack a punch but my video recording device ran out of battery power, aaargh!! That will come in my next video along with how to create an eclipse!! Hope you enjoy the video ;-_ It was a bit of a momentous night on Wednesday this week, after exactly 4 months of slaving away at the Ascension map, the Gonk Clan Zombinators, aka, Crazy, MIB and Dino finally managed to break Level 20!! The continued frustration this map has caused us, has been no secret (see previous blog) up until the last couple of weeks we were unable to get past level 14, we rarely managed to open up the entire map to 'pack a punch' our weapons and we, almost always, were taken out by the zombies on the stair wells. In the last couple of weeks we have started to find a rhythm, we are consistently opening up the entire map, we now have a plan to 'pack a punch' our weapons and we have a plan to use the transporter, regularly. Wednesday night, the second game we played, the crate was kind to us, we had been through two attacks of monkeys, our weapons were upgraded, it was Level 16 and Crazy became the first victim, falling off a walkway to the level bellow, the fight to get back up the stairs was too much, he was out for the rest of the level. Dino & MIB did the business and finished the level. Our plan of action was to start up on the top level at the back of the map, one of us (the one with the biggest fire power) covers the zombies coming up the stairs, the other two cover one of two windows near the transporter. On arriving in the area the first thing we do is call the transporter in, then we make ready for the onslaught. When things get to hard and the zombies are threatening to overwhelm us we take the transporter out, once it has landed we run upstairs, open up the door and turn left and head off to the transporter landing site and call in the transporter. From here we can take out the zombies as they stream into the area. This area also has a window on the left and right, once these breach and we are about to be overwhelmed we take the transporter out of the area, once landed we head back to the top level, repair the windows and wait for them to come at us and the cycle begins all over again. On level 21, Crazy was covering the stair, as he was being pushed back towards the transporter, he didn't warn MIB & DINO in time (according to them - Crazy thinks it's more like a case of selective deafness ... and may that be a lesson to them both :-)), they both went down but Crazy escaped, the video footage below follows what happens next ....... |