Posts Tagged fail
Haiku of the Day: Admitting Failure
Admitting Failure
No inspiration
No motivation to write
Better luck next time!
——
Unfortunately I must deem this year’s ‘Haiku of the Day’ experiment a failure. Somehow I just didn’t have the same drive as last year to actually complete the 30 days. I suppose this is the risk that you take when you take on a creative project like this. Oh well, there’s always next year…
The 8 Stages of VR 18 (Metal Gear Rising)
Posted by marcsart in Misc, Video Games on March 28, 2013
First Attempt
You may not even realize that this is a “one-hit KO” challenge at first. You take out the first wave easily by baiting the Gekko’s bum-rush and countering, the same technique you’ve been using the majority of the game. It’s not until you get killed by the Mastiff’s drop kick that you realize what you are in for.
“One-hit KO? This is going to be tough.”
Stage 1: Denial
After a couple hours of failed attempts, you start to blame the mission for being too difficult and unfair.
“The stupid camera keeps getting me killed!”
Stage 2: More Denial
By this point you’ve mastered perfect parrying the Mastiffs only to subject yourself to the horror of wave 3.
“That laser attack is so unfair!”
Stage 3: Anger
You’re seeing red. Your gameplay is starting to suffer due to your lack of focus. You start to spout expletives in a vain attempt to vent your frustration. Sadly for many, the game disc itself does not survive this stage.
“[EXPLETIVE DELETED] [EXPLETIVE DELETED] [EXPLETIVE DELETED]!!!”
Stage 4: Bargaining
You start to realize that success in this mission is highly dependant on the actions of the enemy AI. You beg the game for mercy.
“If only the enemy AI would just do what I want it to do!”
Stage 5: Acceptance
After hours and hours of failed attempts, you finally accept your defeat. Your eyes are getting heavy, your reflexes are slowed and your drive has been all but squashed.
“Forget this, it’s not worth it.”
Stage 6: Research
You start to watch YouTube videos and read forum threads about the mission, hoping to discover some kind of tactic or exploit to make the mission more manageable.
“This guy on YouTube makes it look so easy…”
Stage 7: Revengeance!
You’ve gotten a good night’s sleep and return to the game with a clear head and renewed motivation. You’re parrying and dodging like a pro, Raiden on the screen looks like poetry in motion. You embarrass the Mastiffs and trick the Fenrir into killing his own entourage. You obliterate the Grad using the tactial Sai stun lock trick you saw on YouTube.
“Holy crap, I actually did it!!”
Stage 8: All That Heavenly Glory
You are elated now. You triumphantly proclaim “I beat VR mission 18!!!” on your Facebook status. No one knows what you’re talking about.
“I wonder what VR 19 is like?”
Assassin’s Creed II Platinum
Posted by marcsart in Video Games on February 28, 2011
Last week I got the platinum trophy for Assassin’s Creed II! I really enjoyed this game, even though I found it to be a tad on the easy side (more on that later). I particularly enjoyed getting the platinum for this game because they don’t require you to waste a bunch of time replaying the game on multiple difficulty settings (looking at you, Bayonetta). I was worried that it would be a pain to get 100 feathers, but it really wasn’t. I had a little more than half by the time I had finished the game and rounding up the remaining ones was easy using this guide from gamesradar.com.
Actually, the most annoying trophy was Fly Swatter: Kick a guard while using the flying machine. This trophy is insanely easy to get if you know about it, but if you don’t it’s a missable trophy. If you miss it your choices are to play through the game again (the ability to replay chapters is not possible and the flying machine segment occurs a little more than halfway through the game) or buy the Battle of Forli DLC for $3.99 which has a flying machine available for you to use whenever you wish. I chose to buy the DLC pack as I didn’t have the patience to replay the game. The DLC pack (which, to add insult to injury, does not have any trophies of its own) is entirely a waste of $3.99 unless you need to use the flying machine to get your platinum like I did. Boy, did it piss me off when I realized how crappy the DLC pack was, but I was happy to finally have my platinum even though I basically had to buy it.
Trophies aside, I really liked this game a lot. The ending was very interesting and well done, the gameplay and graphics are top notch and you really feel like an assassin sneaking around the cities. My one major gripe with the game is that it is just entirely too easy. The game offers little to no challenge, if you can power on your PS3 then most likely you can beat this game. This would not be so detrimental except for the fact the game puts so much emphasis on stealth but in reality your character is so awesome at fighting that you can just annihilate anyone in the game that happens to see you, thereby completely nullifying the need for stealth. The developers attempted to balance this by having certain missions automatically fail if you are seen by anyone, which was just annoying. That being said, this game is a really fun experience. I had the most fun just exploring the cities, running around on the rooftops and looking for treasure.
So now that I’ve completed this game I’m going to give Brotherhood a go, most likely when it comes down in price a little bit more. I hear the online aspect of that game is really awesome and I’m interested to see where the creators go with the story.
marcsart 