Game Release Dates

Games that should be on your radar

I asked the guy at gamestop why no games come out in the summer. He said they all come out right before the holiday season cause they sell more that way. He was right. Here’s the games that are coming out before the end of the year.

9/6	Dead Island – A multiplayer zombie game! Can’t really go wrong with it unless you don’t allow any upgrades of any kind and only 4 weapons (I’m lookin at you left 4 dead)
9/20	Resident Evil 4 HD – If you haven’t played 2005’s game of the year, now is your chance
	Gears of War 3 – another installment in the alien shooter
9/27	Resident Evil: Code Veronica HD – might not be on everyone’s list, but certainly on mine, classic RE
10/4	Rage – sounds a bit like fallout and a bit like borderlands. The guys at gamestop will be your friend just for preordering.
	Dark Souls – heard this game is gonna be great
11/8	COD:MW3 – the FPS that you know and love, now with 50% more noob tube
11/11	Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – I’m not sure which game is more anticipated between this and Rage. Free roam adventure, but with swords and spells instead of guns.
11/15	Assassin’s Creed: revolutions – Climbing up buildings and stabbing people with hidden weapons is always fun.

Game Comparison

I've played these games recently and I was constantly comparing them in my head. So i figured I would do written detailed analysis. They've all had a game in their series named Game of the Year. Add on your own review of game that can be compared. (MGS?, DeadSpace?)

Bioshock (FPS)

Pros- load times are great. play for an hour between loading

Able to hack or convert turrets/cameras to your team.

Research camera makes it fun to fight same enemies over and over. The research camera is probably the best idea in the whole game. You become so cocky that you take the guy’s picture before you kill him. The rewards given by it are very useful. The bonuses give you damage increases against that type of enemy. One of the bonuses actually makes your guy faster, which is helpful in any game ever made.

Able to see enemy’s health, which makes it easy to tell what is effective against them.

Can save anywhere, anytime.

You can use weapons and special elemental powers to cause damage.

Cons- weapon upgrades are limited (only 1 per category per weapon - damage, capacity, etc.) and power upgrades are not quantified

Money can’t be used for weapon upgrades and wallet can be maxed out.

Can’t look through sights on weapons

Can’t control inventory (can hold specific amounts of each type of ammo, but can’t discard 1 type to focus on collecting preferred types. Can hold predetermined amount of first aid kits. Can’t sell extra stuff. Many items are left scattered around the floor because you don't have room.)

Not a lot of weapons – just 1 of each type

No bonus games after you finish the game, or incentive to play it again.

Not very much customization on your character. My best end game character will be very similar to anyone else’s (same weapons and abilities). At the end of the game you’ll have a very good all around character. I prefer to have a character that excels at my play style. (ie. I don’t need that drill hand, I’m not gonna melee when I have full ammo for every gun)

Other – Some extra areas to explore, but certainly not free roam. Have to follow a certain path to complete the game, but can make choices for multiple endings.

An area is never completely clear of enemies, 1 or 2 always come back when you leave the room, but you can hear them talking so you are aware of them.

No teammates that fight with you, but no escort missions either.

What makes the game unique - right hand uses weapons, left hand uses special powers like lightning, fire, ice, or telekinesis. You also get passive abilities that you can change, although most of them are mediocre.

Research Camera is cool.

The little girls you find are so creepy and you can sort of kill children in this game, though it’s not shown on screen. You will have a moral dilemma each time you have to choose whether to save or harvest them. If you try to get the evil ending in this game, you will feel evil when you finish it.

RE4 (over the shoulder camera)

Pros - Load times are good. Decent size areas between loading

No hacking or lock picking, but there are puzzle minigames for you to solve and shooting ranges during the game that give you money.

Quicktime button press events give a good change of pace from shooting guys.

Enemies react differently to where you shoot them. After hitting certain spots, the enemy stumbles and you’re able to do a knockdown move that can hit anyone nearby. Including a suplex that explodes their head.

Good selection of weapons even within their class(handgun, rifle, shotgun, magnum) with different advantages for each.

Money can be used to upgrade weapons.

Weapon upgrades are very detailed. Multiple upgrades per weapon per category and bonuses for upgrading a weapon in all categories completely.

Can sell items that you don’t want and completely control your inventory based on total space taken up by items. No max amount of any items. Can even have multiple guns of the same type (ie. 2 magnums).

Bonus games, new guns with infinite ammo and costume changes unlocked after finishing the game, also can replay the game with everything you finished the game holding. Bonus game completion adds more guns to the normal game.

Areas can be completely cleared of enemies for easy searching.

The story is pretty good, good enough that my wife watched me play the whole game. The main character has a personality and actually speaks, from hitting on girls to being cocky as hell to bad guys.

Cons – would be nice to see enemy’s health, especially on bosses

The camera can be a little tough to get used to, your character’s head blocks your view sometimes.

There are parts of the story where you have to escort helpless NPCs.

Only 1 ending and you have to go through the story in order. No free roam.

You can control your weapons very well, but the defensive gear is lacking.

Other – Can only save at typewriters and at the end of sections, but they are frequently found and you can save at them more than once.

Some of the death scenes are pretty gruesome. You can be completely decapitated by a chainsaw, or have your face burned down to the skull by acid.

What makes the game unique – It does everything so well, nothing really disappoints. Even the difficulty scales the entire game, so that it’s pretty challenging throughout. Many times there is a smarter solution to fights that make them easier. Upgrading your weapons is very fun and starting the game with your nearly fully upgraded weapons is a great reward. This game begs to be played through a second time.

You can’t move while shooting. This is a staple of the series and adds to the tension. The enemies aren’t fast, if you could move it would be too easy.

It’s the only zombie game where you can hit a backflip on a jetski, and be called a pervert for looking up a girl’s skirt. This game's got everything.

Fallout 3/New Vegas (3^rd person/ 1^st person)

Pros – multiple endings that are nearly opposites of each other. You can be the good guys or bad guys or someone in between. You have complete free roam to walk anywhere you want. Literally miles to explore in any order you want.

Extreme customization of your character that allows you to play to your strengths.

Can save anywhere, anytime.

Can see enemy’s health.

Radar for detecting enemies.

Able to hack/lockpick/repair weapons/ talk people into things /make ammo based on your attributes.

VATS targeting system for turn based fighting or use your own fps skills using the sights.

Can choose teammates who all give different advantages

Complete control of your inventory based on total weight of items being carried. Can sell items you don’t want.

Besides the near infinite types of weapons, you can also equip tons of different armor for your head and body to increase defense.

You can switch between 3rd person or first person view with a button push.

Cons – Frequent loading; pretty much every time you go into a building and sometimes multiple times in a building. Loading times seem to get worse with each DLC.

Difficulty doesn’t really change. Your character can become extremely over leveled and able to kill bosses in 1 or 2 hits. Maybe not a bad thing, but the game isn’t as challenging at the end as it is in the beginning.

Story isn’t great, it’s easy to lose track of with the dozens of side quests you can do. Although they do get some good voice acting. (Liam Neeson)

No rewards for finishing the game. Nothing to entice you to play through again. Why would you want to start over with base stats when your character is unstoppable. It’s like when superman wanted to become human.

Other - guns don’t have many upgrades, but can be repaired to better working condition for max damage. In New Vegas you can add a scope or silencer to some guns.

Enemies don’t rush in behind you after a cutscene. If you clear a building to reach a switch that is critical to the mission, the building is still clear after you press the switch.

What makes the game unique – Character customization is fantastic and free roam gives you complete independence. This game has options on top of options.

The targeting system is a great idea for FPS games. you can target specific areas on an enemy to lock onto. It can almost play like an RPG with turn based attacks.

Depending on what choices you make and how your character is created, 2 playthroughs of this game could have totally different experiences.

You haven’t exploded a guy until you’ve played this game. Shooting an enemy's head clean off in slow motion is satisfying and sometimes humorous.

Funny Game Questions

I like to read through questions that people ask about games just to see what other players have trouble with. Some of them are so funny that they're worth sharing. I'll put my comments below the question.

Resident Evil
Does anyone know how a huge snake got into the mansion?

First of all, that's what she said. Second, Resident Evil isn't a detective game. Your job isn't to figure out whether the snake was breaking and entering. Your job is to survive.

Resident Evil 4
How to get passed the second balder near swamp?

Think you mean "past" and "boulder". Getting past the boulder is a very simple quicktime event where you follow the buttons displayed on the screen. You press "A" repeatedly, then press "L&R" when prompted. It shows it right on the screen what to do.

Fallout: New Vegas
Hey I need help boomer people gang keep killing me how to pass and take out their place for vengence for killing my dog?

I don't even know what this question means. They wouldn't kill your dog unless provoked. the boomers are supposed to get on your team. Still, if you were leveled up and not retarded you could probably wipe them out. Something tells me this kid wouldn't be able to wipe them out though.

Borderlands
I think i sold my first sdu?

The SDU gives you extra slots in your inventory, you can't sell it. Also this isn't even a question.

TOP 5 Games

I've been thinking about putting together a list of the greatest games i've played, i think we've all debated it at some point.  i decided to make a list of top 5 games of all time, but then i decided to separate them by multiplayer or single player type games because they offer a different experience.  i based the games on fun, innovation, replay value, and thinkability (this is a category i just made up and i'm sure there is a better word for it, but essentially it means how much do you think about going home and playing a game or thinking about how you are going to plan out your character or mission)
side note: this list is probably missing some stuff or has some games listed very highly because i remember it being great at the time.  also i made it in about 5 minutes while eating lunch.

TOP 5 (single player)
5.  Resident evil 2
4. Final Fantasy 7
3. Megaman 2
2. Skies of Arcadia
1. Fallout 3

TOP 5 (multiplayer)
5.  007 Goldeneye
4.  COD (all the ones from mod war to blackops, they are basically the same game when it comes to mp)
3.  Borderlands
2. NFL 2k4
1. Monster Hunter

i'd be interested to see your guys lists as well, or top 5 in another category. like top 5 friday the 13th movies, top 5 dumps taken at work, whatever you got

Oblivion Guide

Character Creation

Alright here we go. For leveling understand these statements, although they may be confusing.

Your 7 major skills are the only things that count toward your overall leveling up.

All 21 skills reflect the kind of bonuses that you can put into strength, agility, intelligence, etc. Ex, use your blade a lot and you may have a +2,3,4 or 5 next to strength when you level up.

Always pick the stuff that gives you the biggest + unless its something you know you want to get up. Ex agility, intelligence, wisdom might all have +3’s and Strength has a plus 2 well pick strength since you know you are gonna use that more. Never pick anything that is only gonna give you +1 that is just dumb.

There are 3 skills that are taken into consideration for each of the 7 stats.

Ex: Blade, Blunt and hand to hand are all associated with Strength.

At the same time you aren’t going to make all those major skills cause you are only going to primarily use one of them.

All skills have bonuses, no matter if they are major or minor.

Ex journeyman of heavy armor encumbers 50% less weight. Everything goes by Novice, Apprentice, Journeyman, Expert, Master.

Useful spells (Shit I use most)

I thought I was going to be a straight up wizard, but I have come to liking a mix of spells and run in and slash your face off.

Your unlock spells: (Alteration): From Open very easy to Open Hard these spells are key(Literally), Once you have the hard one it’s the only one you need, you can buy any spell that is for sale as long as you have enough money, but you have to be the correct level to use it. This is a spell that can be continually cast on any door or chest this is locked or unlocked and will continue to level up.

Protect: (Alteration): Gives you a extra percentage of shield for defense for a certain amount of time. The best being 50% for 60 sec, name is Aegis. But get one as soon as you can and use it before and during all fights, trust me it helps.

Ease burden: (Alteration): Helps you carry more for a certain amount of time also makes you a bit fast. Great for when you are picking up shit in dungeons and its too heavy, this give you a little more. But them when you see them as you can use them, there are one for each skill level.

Sea Stride: (Alteration): Water Walking… Enough said there is only one

Water Breathing: (Alteration): Breathe Under water.. Duh

Bound Gauntlets: (Conjuration): Buy this to call on yourself over and over unless you pick Conjuration as one of your major skills in which case you start with summon skeleton, continually cast anywhere to level up as it will not attack unless someone is attacking you.

Summon Daedroth: (Conjuration): He works well, basically I started with the skeleton and played a lot of defense as he beat on people, when you can buy higher ones just buy the highest that the guy has. I felt Daedroth Attacks really well when you are high enough, then I bought later Xivilai.

Destruction spells suck cause there are none that you can call on yourself to help level up, so do not pick this as a major skill!!!!!! They are good if you have an enchanted weapon with lets say fire, buy a Weakness to fire spell and cast it then pound them easily with your fire sword.

Illusion has invisibility spells and chameleon spells that help you hide and stuff, not great for melee characters but they are fun. Also just get any low level charm spell and you can continually cast these on towns people over and over to level up. There are some paralyze spells that I’m working on now on getting which would be a huge advantage for melee characters, cause they’ll fall to the ground and you can just pound on them. The lowest level for that is journeyman and its for 3 secs, the best being a master and it lasts for 10.

Mysticism has soul trap and that is really the only thing I use from there. It traps souls in your soul gems which can be used to repower your enchanted weapons and what not.

Just get minor life detection to continually cast so you can level up to get the soul trap spells.

Restoration is your healing spells. I just realized there is a fortify fatigue spell that is low level that you can cast on yourself over and over to help get this up. Urgh, would have gotten that thing immediately. So get it and cast away so you can get your level up to be able to use stronger heal spells. The heal spells don’t count toward your level unless you are actually hurt. So get that fortify fatigue spell and cast away!! Cure disease is also key when you are high enough to use it. Get that cause you start running into diseases that stop your magic from coming back, which SuckS!!!!!!!! Also get fortify luck, that way when you cast that and you use lock picks on very hard locks, you can actually get it to work after a few tries. It definitely helps!!!!!

So that’s that on spells also I recommend on getting anything you think you will like obviously.

Alright some tips: Soul gems, keep at all time, never sell, these are the main way to recharge your magical items. For someone to do it, it literally costs a ridiculous amount of money.

Join the guilds! Find the mage guild and fighters guild and do those quests. They unlock achievements and they pay, also you can find a lot of stuff the place you go to sell and they will give you items to use upon completion of certain quests. Dark brotherhood will only become available when you murder a nonplayable character for no reason. Then they will come to you after you wake up. I recommend doing the thieves guild last, its just easier that way.

Staffs are pretty much useless I haven’t found a need for them I generally sell them if I get one, they don’t count toward any of your skills or anything so they aren’t helping much.

If you chose a 2 handed weapon, and you come across a shield, you can still equip it, you wont use it but if it has any kind of enchantment it still counts!!!!!!!

Take time to cast your shit that you can cast as you are walking around or like I did when I had the unlock spell if I was walking towards a door in the town I was casting non stop.

Horses are fucking useless and the controls are terrible, you can fast jump everywhere that you find and you can immediately fast jump to any town.

I generally find the guy that has a lot of money that he can spend and sell my shit to him over and over.

I guess that’s it, I’m online a lot so any questions ask me. I’m sure there are plenty of things I left out, oh and don’t be afraid to save.

off the top of your head game guides

Brad invented giving a short writeup on a game when he first lent me fallout 3. It was great cause it answered questions that I wouldn't have been able to answer until probably my 2nd playthrough. So I thought, any quick tips on a game that someone else might play would be nice. I've had these tips in my head for a while and just thought I would write them even if nobody uses it. I just wrote this from memory to see how much I could remember. Go ahead and write your own if you think someone can learn from your experience. mine is probably too long, but that's what happens when you beat a game more than 10 times.

RE4 General tips

If you are not using a guide, buy the treasure maps, they will definitely point out treasures you missed. Obviously combine treasures if possible before selling. They’re worth more combined than separate.

Reload takes no time in the inventory screen.

Be efficient in killing. Shoot into a regular enemy’s face to stumble him, then use the prompt to roundhouse him. This can hit multiple enemies. Then stab him on the ground if you have time. (on gamecube holding down on both analog sticks will make you aim down with the knife faster.)

Save your flash grenades. They don’t do much on regular enemies, but kill the strong plagas that pop out of their heads instantly. You can sell other grenades though if you need space.

Always upgrade the size of your case, its key.

Don’t kill the chickens. They drop infinite eggs which can heal you or be sold. The gold eggs are worth a lot.

Don’t waste ammo on the bear traps, you can hit them with your knife.

Birds give out money almost every time. Flash grenades will kill them. also bird’s nests have small treasures.

You can shoot dynamite when a guy throws it, or wait until he lights it and shoot his leg and let him lay on the ground until it explodes. If the enemy holding dynamite is killed, the dynamite explodes immediately no matter how much fuse is left.

You can use doors as a weapon by kicking it open into enemies. Especially useful if they have shields cause it will break their shield in a few hits.

Guns:

When you upgrade ammo capacity, the ammo in the gun is automatically filled. Keep your gun empty before you upgrade for free ammo. Very nice for free magnum bullets.

Keep the first handgun (upgrade power if you want) until the merchant gives you the punisher for free. If you hit all 15 blue medallions (probably need a guide) before you get the free punisher, you can get a free power upgrade on it. Then buy the Red 9, it has the most power of any handgun.

Don’t even think about buying the TMP, just sell any ammo you find for it. it’ll make money and save space.

Don’t buy the old rifle, it takes so long to reload that it sucks completely. The semi auto rifle is super nice though. def get that.

The striker is easily the best shotgun, but you don’t get it until late. It also has a very useful glitch of making you super speed. So stick with the regular shotgun for most of the game. Upgrade the power and maybe the capacity until you can get striker.

There is a free magnum in chapter 4-1 that requires you to backtrack after you rescue Ashley in the castle, don’t miss it. That magnum is good especially after upgrading the power.

The rocket launcher can be a great boss killing tool, kind of expensive but will save you tons of ammo and health. If you find one, you can just sell it but don’t feel bad if you decide to use it on a boss.

Key situations in the game:

-In the first town, you’ll get attacked by a lot of people. Don’t pick up the shotgun until they all leave or they will send a strong chainsaw guy after you.

-After escaping from the church with Ashley the first time you meet her, go back in the front door of the church and kill the 2 archers. They give good muns.

-Defending the house with Luis is tough. Stay on the stairs and blast them as they try to get up. Be ready with those flash grenades for the enemies with plagas coming out of their heads. Eventually they try to get in the 2^nd floor, so keep pushing their ladders off.

-When you get to choose, left or right path, go right. You can outrun the gigante without killing him by sniping the chains off the door to give you a headstart. You still need to get the key from one of the huts though. You can also fight him if you want more money.

-Hit the bell, shoot the wine. You don’t have to shoot anything else. When you get stuck in the cage with the claw guy, blast the hell out of the lock on the door with the strongest gun you’ve got. Get out of that cage asap. You can skip the cutscene of the cage coming down to give you a few more seconds to escape.

-In the big hall where the archers shoot at you, snipe one then leave the room. Come back in to kill another one. Repeat as many times as you want to thin the enemies out. Make your way to the back of the room and down the steps. Guard this room for a while, cause there’s a lot of enemies. 2 enemies will drop down in the room behind you, so be ready for that. Use that door to smash the enemies with shields.

-At the part where 3 knights come out of the wall at once, use the shotgun to knock their helmets off. make sure all 3 helmets are off before using a flash grenade. You'll have to do it 2 times. Leaving Ashley outside the door makes it easier.

-When you fight the 2 gigantes in the same room, you can only insta kill one with the lava. Kill 1 and get his money. Then go out the back door and come back in. the other one’s money will be sitting on the floor.

-When fighting krauser in his final form (giant sword hand) use the knife on him. For some reason the knife power is drastically increased.