tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-148236992024-03-12T17:12:22.481-07:00THE ROLE-PLAYING GRINDEllusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262226148390947423noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14823699.post-39609112716332496032013-08-25T04:02:00.000-07:002013-08-25T04:02:07.798-07:00Gamehelp: Mars War Logs Completionist Achievement<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Continuing the gamehelp for Mars: War Logs, Completionist is probably the second most problematic achievement people struggle with. Finish all of the secondary quests? Where you have divergent paths and one quest cancelling the other, come on.<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.trueachievements.com/a178078/completionist-achievement.htm">Completionist</a></b> (50)<br />
<i>Finish all of the secondary quests in Mars: War Logs</i><br />
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<br />This is going to be a long haul. I didn't feel it would be appropriate to just list the quests needed, without also explaining in what order, and how to complete them correctly. Secondly, if I were to give solutions to some side quests, but not others, what help would that be. Thus, this is a walk-through of the games entire side quest offering. Skip to what you need or follow it closely, and know that this will contain a lot of spoilers.<br /><br />Also note that many players have trouble finishing this even with a majority of the side quests done. There also seem to be a distinction between completing a side quest the 'easy way' or the 'correct' way according to game mechanics. Seeing as the description say to complete ALL, and this is not possible, be sure to at least complete them the 'right way'. You do not have to complete every single one, but do so to be safe. For me, the achievement popped before the last two side quests in Chapter 3, on difficulty Easy.<br />
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<b>Chapter 1</b></h2>
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<b>Handyman’s Assistant - Part 1</b><br />The first side quest you can encounter is right outside the shower area where the intro plays out. Talk with the mechanic banging away at the wall and offer to help. He needs 6 parts to fix various shortcomings around the makeshift prison camp.<br /><br /><b>Part 1 of 6:</b> After the fight with Fatso and after you get the Cracked Tube, turn around and into the area where you can leave for the Cistern later. The part is in one of two boxes on your left.<br /><b>Part 2 of 6:</b> Heading back out you'll notice a guard and a dog to your left. The part is in a pile of rubble straight ahead.<br /><b>Part 3 of 6:</b> Enter the Mess door, up the ramp. Third part is behind you in a corner.<br /><b>Part 4 of 6:</b> Turn around and look at the mess hall open entrance. There is a passage to the right, and the part is just around a wall.<br /><b>Part 5 of 6:</b> Continue along this path and jump down when prompted. Careful of the prisoners here who will attack you. Continue along the wall and around to another climbable wall.<br /><b>Part 6 of 6:</b> Down the stairs from part 5, hug the wall right around to the exit. You do not want to trigger the scene in this area, when you approach Bob, yet. Enter the prisoners lodging area and look behind some dark crates where prisoners are exercising for the last part.<br /><br />Back to the mechanic to complete part 1 of this quest.<br /><br />
<b>Handyman’s Assistant - Part 2</b><br />
Once you complete the first part of the mechanic’s quest, the log will say to check in with him later, and he will disappear from the shower area. After you have sent Innocence off to work in the Power Plant, but before going into the well to hunt for Moles, he can be found to the left of the recruitment office in Camp: Crater Zone. Again, he needs five spare parts to fix what he is working on.<br />
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Note that if you go too close to the entrance to the Mole caves and trigger the foreman Jack’s conversation, you have to finish that part of the main quest line before you can continue with the side quests.<br /><br />
<b>Part 1/5:</b> Go behind him and along the wall. A box between some searchable piles will have the first part.<br />
<b>Part 2/5:</b> Next to Part 1 is a pile of thrash with the second part.<br />
<b>Part 3/5:</b> Northern centre part of the map, behind some small tents is a searchable pile with the third part.<br />
<b>Part 4/5:</b> Is found to the left of the entrance to the Mole caves, behind a large container. You can grab this after you finish with the main quest relating to the moles.<br />
<b>Part 5/5:</b> Is found inside the shack of the Kennel Master, through a door next to the Recruitment Office. Take special care here; if you have already started the Mean Dogs side quest, entering the Kennel will throw you into a fight with a rabid dog and set events in motion for the Mean Dogs side quest that you cannot stop. Best done before talking to Bob.<br />
<br />When you finish the second part the mechanic will be available as a merchant.<br />
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<b>An Explosive Plan</b><br />
After you come back from the Mole Caves, after the main quest Mole Queen, and after you have rejoined with Innocence in the Mess, go back to Camp: Crater Zone. You should have previously heard on the speakers about a mutant hitting a guard that everyone is looking for.<br />
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In the Crater Zone, it is a good idea to pick up Part 2 of Handyman’s Assistant, and pick up part 5 of this before continuing. In the vegetable garden opposite the Recruitment Office you’ll encounter some prisoners harassing a mutant. You will automatically interrupt them and be given a choice of dialogue. Choose only #2 “You sure it’s a good idea?”. Any other choice will void this side quest and #3 is defaulted and appears similar, so be careful.<br />
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The three men will scurry off, but one Prowess will wait behind, just left around a corner, in from of the tent and three men. Speak to Prowess to start this side quest.<br /><br />Prowess wants you to loot a shipment to Joe (by the mine entrance) while he keeps Joe occupied. Just follow the conversation until you have several boxes in front of you, and open and loot them as quickly as you can. Open everything as you have plenty of time and you will get a ton of resources and other good stuff in addition to the bomb plans Prowess needs. The next part is to gather 3 sets of components to make the explosives. They are all located close by:<br />
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<b>Part 1/3:</b> Head into the Dog Master’s area again. It’s inside his shack, in a box.<br />
<b>Part 2/3:</b> Inside the Recruitment Office, in a box to your left.<br />
<b>Part 3/3:</b> Inside the tent behind Prowess, in a box.<br />
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Return to Prowess for Serum, a grenade and a trap. Prowess also becomes a merchant.<br />
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<b>Mean Dogs</b><br />
A prisoner in the living quarters will tell you in passing that Bob is looking for you. When you go through the nearby door to see him, a scene with a rabid dog will play. Defeat the dog to have this side quest show up in your log. It will say to “Deal with the dog attacks” but hold on with this for a good time yet as we have to gather up a couple other side quests first that will void if you get too far in this quest.<br />
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The next part of Mean Dogs is to go see the Kennel Master. When you enter his enclosed space next to the Recruitment office, a large dog will attack him. Put it down and talk with him. Next head into the Recruitment Office and mention the sick docs. You will be sent to find a doctor, found in the shower area where you start. When you are talking with the doctor you will have the option to kill all the dogs to be safe, but advocate finding a cure. The log will change to "find a veterinarian". Go to the Mess and either talk with Jey first, or head straight for the cook who used to be a veterinarian. To make a cure he needs 3 samples:<br /><br /><b>Sample 1/3:</b> Kill a rabid dog in the prisoners lodging area next to Bob.<br /><b>Sample 2/3:</b> In the Crater Zone area, to the left of the mine entrance. You'll see two dogs and you have to kill both.<br /><b>Sample 3/3:</b> In the Mutant (Dust) area off Crater Zone.<br /><br />With all three samples you can head back to the Mess and the cook will start making the cure. He will not finish it while you talk to him, and no amount of waiting will make him. You have to head back to the Crater Zone and trigger a scene where the dog attacks the guard outside the recruitment office. This event will void another side quest, Another Face, if you haven't taken care of that yet.<br /><br />Once the last dog is dead, head back and pick up the cure. Bring this to the Kennel Master to complete the side quest.<br />
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<b>The Blues</b><br />
Talk to Bob after the dog attack – marked on the map. When you first arrive in his area and approach Bob, a dog will attack and start the Mean Dogs side quest, but leave that for now. You will get The Blues side quest by pointing out that Bob doesn't look too good. He will not elaborate further now, but you will get the side quest in your log which says “Persuade Bob to speak”.<br />
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Head to the Mess and talk to Jey about the guards. Jey will mention that Bob is one of the good guys. You can also talk to Jey again, and to Doc in the sand showers, for more background, but it isn't required to get Bob to talk. Back to Bob. Continue down this dialogue playing a nice guy, and you will eventually get 3 pieces of information about Bob and why he’s got the blues, completing the side quest. This opens the possibility for Bob to join your Escape Plan, so get him to come along. He wants to go home to his wife, and is very bored of being a guard.<br />
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When Bob finally starts to talk there is no stopping him, and you can easily finish The Blues, start Escape Together (below) and convince Bob to join in one segment of dialogue. This is OK, and the ‘right’ way to do this, do not worry. Check out of Escape Together for additional info. <br />
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<b>The Lucky Charm</b><br />
It can be a little bit tricky to complete. The reason for that is that the side quest Mean Dogs will interfere with the completion of this quest. Here is the proper way to trigger and complete these:<br />
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Complete the side quest Handyman’s Assistant part 1 and part 2, as well as An Explosive Plan before even approaching Bob and thus starting Mean Dogs. When you go to see the Kennel Master next to the Recruitment Office, you can pick up the fifth item for Handyman’s Assistant Part 2, and Part 3 for Handyman’s Assistant, thus completing those before talking to Bob. Complete the main quests First Steps in Prison, The Mole Queen, A Diversion, Water for the Trip, and Water for the Battle. This will start the main quest The Great Escape, where you can go to Jey and start the escape. You can now ask “Problem? You don’t look so good.” which will start this side quest.<br />
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Jey mentions an Abundance guard who stole his trinket. The guard in question is the Abundance army sergeant standing with his dog outside the Recruitment Office. If the events of Mean Dogs have played out where his dog attacked him, you can no longer talk to him.<br />
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After his refusal to give up the Lucky Charm try to reach an arrangement. Turns out the sergeant is looking to feast his eyes on something other than the Technomancer’s apprentice, which will trigger another side quest; Another Face. When you complete Another Face, return to Jey with the trinket who turns out to be a picture of his wife to complete The Lucky Charm.<br />
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<b>Another Face</b><br />
Gotten from Abundance army sergeant, during the side quest The Lucky Charm, only if his dog hasn’t attacked him yet. The sergeant wants a picture of a girl, all of her, and preferably without too much clothes on.<br />
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Head back to Jey and tell him what the sergeant wants. He’ll tell you about a person who has a whole bunch of pictures, namely Fatso. Fatso can be found with his gang in the closed off area after the Camp: Crater Zone entrance. Be careful though - talking to him will start a fight with Fatso and four of his ‘brothers’, a challenging fight no matter the difficulty level. If you win, the picture is yours. Return to the army sergeant to get the Lucky Charm and complete Another Face.<br />
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<b>Escape Together</b><br />
Once Bob joins your team of escapees, this side quest will show up in your log with the first part checked off, “Convince Bob to join the group”. The next part is to find Bob in the Power Plant which happens after you complete everything in the main quests.<br />
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Bob will join you in the fight at the train station, but at a point he will die. There is nothing you can do about this. The quest will complete at this point.<br />
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NOTE: There is another side quest here called <b>Indigestible Meal</b> where you poison Bob and send him to the sick bay as means of saving him from the ensuing fight. Several players have posted doing this instead of Escape Together, and that the achievement didn't unlock. To be safe, always do Escape Together instead of Indigestible Meal.<br />
<h2>
<b>Chapter 2</b></h2>
Immediately beginning Chapter 2 you will run into some guards. If you play the following scene any other way than described below you will miss out on a side quest that happens much later during Chapter 2. When asked, answer “I just escaped from prison” and when the guard mentions Prowess (from the An Explosive Plan side quest in the camp during Chapter 1) say yes. Follow up with that you think Prowess is okay.<br />
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<b>Requiem for Dreamers</b><br />
After you go to your old place and evict the squatters in the main quest “An out-of-the-way place”, a person named Frugality will show up on your map. It is not possible to pass him without triggering a scene. Agree to help him get rid of the junkies at his workshop.<br />
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Go past Frugality down the tunnel and to your left. Stop in front of the door and listen to a conversation between Providence, Chance, and a junkie. Your goal here is to help Providence find a solution. Chance and the Junkie turns out to be her sons. Do not instigate a fight and offer to find the dealer below. Once he is taken care of, you have to talk with Providence again to complete this side quest.<br />
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<b>The Dealer</b><br />
Follow the good solution in Requiem for Dreamers to start this. Be sure to talk to Tranquility before going to The Slums. When you reach Shadowlair: Slums, look at your map to find the location of the dealer, named Serenity. You have no option but to start a fight with Serenity and his 3 thugs here so be prepared. If you manage to drop Serenity first, you do not have to fight his gang. Serenity will see things your way and The Dealer will complete.<br />
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<b>False Identification</b> & <b>A Bartender with no ID</b><br />
Before leaving Shadowlair: The Sand to pursue other quests, head for the north-east part where a man called Tranquility is marked on your map (triggered by visiting Charity, and your old home, completing these main quests). Talk with him about the checkpoints and lastly ask “That guy who does papers you were talking about…” and answer “Deal.” to also get A Bartender with no ID. Both side quests are found in The Slums where you are already headed for The Dealer.<br />
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The Slums consist of two areas, the second dubbed “North neighbourhood” where you will find the forger Probity in the upper north-east corner. You can always check by the first map marker in this area, but the army is raiding the place, looking for Probity.<br />
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After talking to Probity it is apparent you have to help him get rid of the army. You have two ways of going about this. One, you can just head back and insult the army guys to start a fight, but this will both fail the part goal of “averting suspicion” and if you play on a higher difficulty, put you in a dangerous fight. The better way of handling this is to look at your map for another quest marker down in the lower middle part of the map. Head there and look for a crate where you can hide some misleading evidence. Now you can go back to Probity’s workshop and tell the army “I figure you’ve got the wrong target”. This way you will not have to pay 10 Serum for Tranquility’s papers.<br />
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False identification is complete and when you head back to Shadowlair: The Sand and talk with Tranquility, so is A Bartender with No ID.<br />
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<b>Smuggling</b><br />
After entering Tierville, you will happen upon the same guards you met in the beginning of the chapter. If you answered as described, the officer in charge, Integrity, will have a job for you. You have to find two pieces of evidence of a smuggling operation going on in Tierville. Once you get your hands on Smuggling, you can run back and finish this before continuing.<br />
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<b>Part 1/2:</b> Is found marked on the map right here in Tierville. In a room with two smugglers.<br />
<b>Part 2/2:</b> You have to go back to Shadowlair: The Slums (North Neighbourhood) for this one, but it is also marked on your map.<br />
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<b>Working for Charity Part 1</b><br />
When you get back to Charity after resolving the main quest Find Faith, the information you were promised will have to wait for a bit longer. Talk with Charity again and offer to do some work while you wait. This will start this side quest, which revolves around completing two other side quests that will also add to your log; The Bad Payer & The Exhibitionist.<br />
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Once both those side quests are complete, return to Charity. For the Bad Payer, be sure to give Charity all the Serum back, “Squeezed him till the last drop” - 50 Serum, be sure to not spend it before turning in this side quest - and not keep it as this will again unlock a further side quest.<br />
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<b>The Bad Payer</b><br />
Charity wants you to find Morality and make him pay what he owes. He can be found north-west in an alley in Tierville, so head there first. Morality and his three gang members won’t give you much of a choice other than to fight him, but after he falls, you get a choice to kill him off or spare him. When you are aiming for Completionist it is very important that you actually kill him off as this will unlock another side quest down the line. Head back to The Slums and look up Humility.<br />
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<b> The Exhibitionist</b><br />
Charity wants you to take care of Humilty, a flasher bothering the working girls. He can be found opposite of Tranquility and you can either intimidate or beat him up to solve this easy task.<br />
<br /><b>Working for Charity Part 2</b><br />
Completing the first two side quests in Working for Charity in the way that is suggested will now unlock two more side quests. The Transporter & The Mafia’s Threats. When you go back to Charity with both these done, Working for Charity is complete.<br />
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<b>The Transporter</b><br />
Talk with Honesty down at the bar next to Charity.You can start this now or later, but get things rolling by telling Honesty “Let’s go now”. Now you have to meet up with him at the far side of the entrance to Tierville.<br />
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You will be escorting Honesty with lots of money to a banker. Follow his instruction, beat down any opposition, and head for the marker in the upper right corner of Tierville. Honesty will die along the way, but fulfil the trip to the banker yourself honestly. The banker will give you a receipt you can take back to Charity for completion of this mission.<br />
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<b>The Mafia’s Threats</b><br />
The Mafia is threatening Charity and you have to alleviate that threat. You will find the Mafioso in question north of the market square in Tierville, but beware. There are six guys total here you have to fight - not an easy task if you are ill-equipped or playing at the higher difficulties.<br />
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Otherwise it’s a good idea to mop up this quest too when you are doing The Transporter as the goals and completion of both are close together.<br />
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<b>The Coin Killer</b><br />
Talk with Faith next to Charity before or after completing part 2 of Working for Charity. The Coin Killer is rather vague in it’s description, but you are to look for clues. This side quest ties in with Fidelity Lost, so head to The Slums and get that started first (below).<br />
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After Fidelity Lost is complete, you are on your way to talk with Serenity from The Dealer. Get a description from the two men suspected of murdering the working girls and then head south to North Neighbourhood to speak with the forger Probity about the coin. He will tell you the coin is made in a workshop, and we know of only one such close by. Back to The Sand and Frugality. You can speak to Providence in the nearby shack to learn a little more about the coin, close to Frugality, but he will give you your next clue; an address in Tierville.<br />
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Head there and towards the quest marker on your map. Talk to a man named Chastity first. Do not kill him - question and bluff him first. Turns out he only re-sells the drug, or so he says. Just around the corner is a man called Gallantry. Have a chat with him and you get a similar story. You can also talk with the army man close by (from Smuggling) but no one has any useful information. Go back and pick a fight with Gallantry. After a fight you get the option to kill him or not, and the side quest will update indicating you have the right man. Do NOT kill Gallantry. Spare him to unlock a new side quest in Chapter 3. Head back to Faith to complete this and the last available side quest in Chapter 2.<br />
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<b>Fidelity Lost</b><br />
Head off for The Slums aiming for the next main quest Meet with the Resistance and you will find a forlorn looking man by the name of Fortitude - marked on your map after you finish Working for Charity.He’s looking for his wife that has been lost for 10 days, named Fidelity. If you agree to look for her you will get a picture and a clue to head to the market in Tierville to inquire further.<br />
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In the market look up Valiance, the merchant guard, and show him the picture you got from Fortitude.You have to continue through the east alley towards the entrances to Undercity and The Slums.There is a big fight coming up and after a cut-scene of the dead wife and a talk with Providence (the mother from The Dealer) who suggests the girl was drugged then killed. This will update your side quest The Coin Killer.<br />
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You have to search the body to find a coin and complete Fidelity Lost, and if you exhausted Providence’s dialogue, you will have to go back to Serenity (The Dealer) in The Slums to learn more about the drug. Talk with Fortitude on the way there to complete Fidelity Lost.<br />
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<b>NOTE: </b>Before Chapter 3<br />
After you save Mary and she wake up in your old shack, she will want to sleep with you. Refuse her once, and then twice to open up a ‘romance’ side quest in Chapter 3. This is not needed for the achievement.<br />
<h2>
<b>Chapter 3</b></h2>
Right off the bat, starting Chapter 3, you will have two side quests in your log, one relating to the side you chose. These are both ‘romance’ quests revolving around Mary, Judy, or Devotion. Note that none of the romance quests are required for the Completionist achievement. If you complete one, the others will fail. The romance quests are A Passionate Woman (Resistance), Electrical Relationship (Mary), and The Spy Who Loved Me (Devotion).<br />
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<b>The Coin Killer Strikes Again</b><br />
Enter the Farming Village and talk with the first NPC you come upon, Equity, and he will tell you about a girl murdered. This will only happen if you did not kill Gallantry in Chapter 2.<br />
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After you talk with the resistance, or go back to your starting location, you will again happen upon Gallantry attacking a young lady Patience. Kill him and the quest will complete.<br />
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<b>Theft from the Stores</b><br />
In the Farming Village, speak with Impartiality to get involved with a mutant vs. people issue. Impartiality tells you about a gang of mutants who stole the farmers food. If you offer to help, he wants you to teach them a lesson, but not kill them.<br />
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Head into the Industrial Complex to the left and you will find the mutants. Talk to Garbage first and hear what he has to say. Try to help the mutants and when Garbage is stalling, say “Out with it!” to unlock another side quest, A Helping Hand for the Mutants. Go back and talk with Impartiality to complete the quest.<br />
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<b>A Helping Hand for the Mutants</b><br />
Offering to lie about the food the mutants stole will have Garbage asking you to also find some medicine. The medicine can be found in the Farming Village, in the south-west corner by some clearly marked boxes. Give the medicine to Garbage to complete the quest.<br />
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<b>Sympathy for the Farmer</b><br />
In the Farming Village, head up towards the Hydroponic Fields on the right side and talk with Tolerance. Moles are destroying the crops and you have to destroy moles. Be very careful when heading out for this task. Exit behind Tolerance climb a ladder where you will immediately be thrown into a fight with a Mole Queen and several lesser moles. Return to Tolerance to complete the side quest.<br />
<br />Ellusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262226148390947423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14823699.post-15583073562372422332013-08-23T06:17:00.000-07:002013-08-23T06:23:01.993-07:00Gamehelp: Mars War Logs: Mentor Achievement<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A Sci-fi RPG set on Mars with strong influences from Fallout, Metro and other apocalypse oriented games? You can sell me on any one of those.<br />
<a name='more'></a>First out in my dip into this Arcade game is an achievement guide for:<br />
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<b>Mentor</b> (30)<br />
<i>The way you treated Innocence forged his character. How would have he turned out without you?</i><br />
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This is a long and tricky achievement with little hand holding along the way. What you have to do is either treat your first companion, Innocence, bad or good through conversations or responses to events unfolding. To not make this too long a complicated, know that being a bad guy in Mars War Logs will put you at a serious disadvantage. The following is the good-guy path to unlocking Mentor.<br />
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You will usually get three responses to choose from, and for the most part. A good, a bad, and a neutral response. Seldom do they mix it up a little bit and give you only two responses, or two neutral. Note that this will contain some spoilers.<br />
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<b>Chapter 1</b><br />
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<b>Opening sequence, right after the intro</b><br />
Good: I couldn’t just stand there and do nothing<br />
Good: It’s nothing. Let’s get out of here.<br />
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<b>After beating up Fatso</b><br />
Good: Let’s go to the Mess Hall. We need to talk.<br />
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<b>Mess hall first conversation</b><br />
Good: Yeah, but it’s not going to be easy.<br />
Good: Want me to go with you to recruitment?<br />
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<b>Optional conversation in Camp 19 </b>(Talk with Innocence, Y, after the Mess scene)<br />
“Where do you come from?” Good: Nothing exeptional.<br />
“What battles did you fight in?” Good: I kept my head down.<br />
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<b>After you come back up from the Mole Caves and go to the Mess again</b><br />
Good?: Alright<br />
Good: That’ll do. You’re coming with me now.<br />
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<b>When asking Jey about the picture during the Another Face side quest.</b><br />
Good: Don’t worry.I’ll be there.<br />
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<b>Chapter 2<br /></b><br />
<b>Talking with Innocence after opening scene.</b><br />
“You know Shadowlair Well?” Good: I’ll have to show you the slums.<br />
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<b>After you reach Innocence's parents shop for the scene, talk to him again.</b><br />
“You said your parents were in the militia?” Good: A noble intention…<br />
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<b>Talk to Innocence again right after the above.</b><br />
“You holding up?” Good: “You know you can count on me.”<br />
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There are plenty other conversations, but they don't lead to you making a response. After the above, you have influenced him as much as you can do, and the achievement will unlock when Chapter 2 ends by you picking a side.Ellusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262226148390947423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14823699.post-75677276397262216672013-07-29T07:45:00.001-07:002013-08-03T04:01:36.021-07:00Gamehelp: Dark Souls: Beginners Guide 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOmFhBwBwQn_4hO8oSg5MrpwtqPeAk6xd4uvJWfCY911QpRJS86bGDLiEHxq5t6r-eDOStCYuS_7ZOhxrM8q6NibI_mh_TsF1kOqKfIPORF3gfjINeaPEc3ETj15yFmVUmaNULKA/s1600/ds-header.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOmFhBwBwQn_4hO8oSg5MrpwtqPeAk6xd4uvJWfCY911QpRJS86bGDLiEHxq5t6r-eDOStCYuS_7ZOhxrM8q6NibI_mh_TsF1kOqKfIPORF3gfjINeaPEc3ETj15yFmVUmaNULKA/s1600/ds-header.jpg" /></a></div>
Prepare to Doh! Edition. Don't know why I waited so long to get into this. Maybe it was the horror stories of how hard this game is? Well, I finally get to take some big bites out of it and a hundred "Dohs!" later realize I probably have some pointers to share for other potential grinders out there.<br />
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And before I forget, hello again! Been a while. Travelled the world, met a girl, married and so on. On to the good stuff. I will most likely write up a review later, but feel I need to get some tips and pointers out of the way first. Not only did I start this up on the 360, but a day later I picked it up for PC too, for that extra sense of self-torture. Why? It's one helluva good experience and I'm loving it most of the time. Now I'm playing both versions at the same time, but the tips & pointers works for both versions.<br />
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I think I spent about one week reading up on everything I could find before even levelling up once. I had to know everything and find out everything, and creating a maximized character that would rule the world with zero deaths. I was wrong. Very wrong. You cannot start there. You have to learn the game, the world, and the mechanics by playing. Look up the technical stuff later. I learnt that after 9 characters level 1-40 still not getting more than maybe 20% into the game, and a multitude of different strategies. There are some key concepts I learned and would love to have known before I started though. So, from a traditional RPGer's point of view:<br />
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<h2>
<b>Weapons!</b></h2>
You are going to use something effective to bash some skulls in whether you prefer to or not. I learnt this by trying to make a Sorcerer (Magic caster) or a Cleric (Faith build) time and time again - mostly because the spells are tied to many harder to get achievements. It simply doesn't work so forget about it. Save tens of hours by making a test character and put some points in Strength and Dexterity and try out different weapons. When you find something you like, note the STR and/or DEX requirements to wield. This is important for your next play. For the advanced users, see if you can find other type weapons that fit the same requirements.<br /><br />As an example, I settled for 14 STR and 14 DEX. This let's me use the <a href="http://darksouls.wikia.com/wiki/Balder_Side_Sword" target="_blank">Balder Side Sword</a> (Straight), the <a href="http://darksouls.wikia.com/wiki/Uchigatana" target="_blank">Uchigatana</a> (Katana), the <a href="http://darksouls.wikia.com/wiki/Great_Scythe" target="_blank">Great Scythe</a>, and the<a href="http://darksouls.wikia.com/wiki/Longbow" target="_blank"> Longbow</a>. This self-imposed upper limit also lets me use several of the available weapons in the beginning, like the Longsword, Hand Axe, Spear, Short Bow and so on. Meaning I use the weapons as they drop and appear, until I find the weapons I plan to use the rest of the game.<br /><br />Once you have your upper limit decided, stick to it and never waste more souls on STR or DEX points again. The reasons are many and we will get to them shortly. Now, a seasoned DS player might chime in with "What about strength or dexterity builds?" and to them I say "No soup for you!" and "Yes, for PvP later on as these are 'advanced' tactics".<br /><br />When you have your upper limit STR and DEX decided, and a good idea what weapons you like, it's time to decide what magic you want; for Achievement purposes. Yes, we will be using spells, but as a compliment to our skull-bashing character, and not as a primary means of survival. I cannot stress this enough - you have to learn to fight and can not survive using spells alone. This attitude will save you tons of frustration.<br /><br />In the next part we will weigh up the different spell venues available, how they affect your play style in PvE, how we modify the strict STR/DEX limit to play in our favour, and what you have to do for the spell related achievements.Ellusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262226148390947423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14823699.post-77774571467172030582011-12-13T10:18:00.000-08:002011-12-13T10:18:46.092-08:00Ramblings: Status update Des 11Life happens as it usually does, and sadly I have barely had time to actually play RPG's in between everything, much less write about them. Still alive, and still want to so let's see what December and January brings.<br /><br />I want to do a grind on Skyrim, which I loved tremendously, despite thinking otherwise based on Oblivion, all up until I finished the tutorial and was hooked. Also want to do another upcoming RPG's for the first quarter (legen....wait for it....dary!) of 2012. Until that, Merry Juletid, a Happy New Year, and all that!Ellusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262226148390947423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14823699.post-2164652110116850572011-08-01T02:26:00.000-07:002011-08-01T02:26:04.605-07:00The Role-Playing Grind: Dungeon Siege 3<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQjx_yHn27TVQJlr1AIr59s0s60_JBsj8uafKp6yW4W_eZUrhyphenhyphenEWC3DUt05tY1eSA2BA8LO0g6_cX4sFr1MRcxkIOSXZ-WAyMtMtzJKz948yG7xMHLADgw1em7OoONepnwOSm47Q/s1600/ds3-header.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQjx_yHn27TVQJlr1AIr59s0s60_JBsj8uafKp6yW4W_eZUrhyphenhyphenEWC3DUt05tY1eSA2BA8LO0g6_cX4sFr1MRcxkIOSXZ-WAyMtMtzJKz948yG7xMHLADgw1em7OoONepnwOSm47Q/s1600/ds3-header.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Dungeon Siege III. For many this will be a nostalgia trip that needs no introduction. Albeit a poor one. For the younger ones, Dungeon Siege first appeared on the PC nearly 10 years ago, from famed developer Chris Taylor of Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander fame.<br />
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Dungeon Siege set out to deliver a seamless hack n’ slash dungeon crawler in the wake of Diablo’s popularity and were one of only two titles I can remember that managed to rival just that. A minimal story and a huge world full of monsters to kill, lewt to be grabbed, and beautiful environments to explore while carefully building your character into a powerhouse of ass-kickery.<br />
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Finished the game to 1000 GS in roughly 30 hours, with every achievement boosting shortcut possible, and sanity still barely intact after 4 hours spent on the Jeyna battle. On Hardcore, in co-op, no less.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Good</b></span><br />
Fast forward to 2011 and several gaming generations later, does the third installment succeed? Sadly no - not by a longshot, but it does have some redeeming areas. At first I did not recognize even a hint of Dungeon Siege, but slowly I remembered what it was like to play the original, and although my memories probably paint it in a far more positive light now, I did eventually get the sort of restricted dungeon crawler feel. My initial mistake was damning the game for being so utterly restrictive and boxed in like most American RPG’s are these days, but then I remembered this was the same case with Dungeon Siege, only much better masked back then. So what’s good about that? I finally got my nostalgia pill for one.<br />
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The next good thing about DS3 is that despite being developed by Obsidian, it is thankfully free of bugs and game-destroying faults. Perhaps Chris Taylor overseeing the games production helped some. Then again, being almost shooter-like in it’s restricted progression, any such bugs left in the game, you would have to be blind, deaf, and retarded not to discover them before shipping. Still, it’s goes on my good list.<br />
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Finally, Dungeon Siege as a brand reawakened, with solid publishers Square Enix at the helm, can only mean they intend to develop it further. I’m guessing another developer will make the next, and they will also hopefully learn from the mistakes of the first one. More of these types of RPGs are welcomed with open arms.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Bad</b></span><br />
Both the original (I’ll try to limit the comparisons, I promise) and follow-up had co-op multiplayer, and it was sweet. That Dungeon Siege III manages to fuck up this aspect in the worst possible way, on a console and on a system with such a thriving community where finding co-op partners is the easiest thing in the world, is totally and inexplicably insane. That was basically half my expectations for this game, gracefully shot to death roughly a week before release when it became apparent how broken the multiplayer portion actually is.<br />
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When joining another player’s game, 2-4 players over Live, only the host is actually ‘playing’ and progressing. All connected players take on the role of henchmen akin to Fable’s stunted co-op. Nothing you do as a henchman matters - you won’t get any experience, forget about items, and where in Fable you could actually make a few redundant gold coins for your local character, in DS3 you get exactly nothing. Thanks for that. The only reason - from a completionist/achievement view - you would play this multiplayer is for the achievements connected to it. More on that ugly feature in the appropriate section.And that’s really such a bad thing as I feel it could be a much better game with a solid useful co-op.<br />
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As far as my ideal RPG goes, this falls short in most areas. Extreme linearity, virtually no customization; you pick from four characters and each have two styles of play you mix and match, and a loot system that gives you the illusion of endless possibilites but in reality just continues to spew out worthless items for the class you don’t play, with all the wrong skills, or the usual vendor-food.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Ugly</b></span><br />
You won’t realize it until you scratch the surface, but there are some horribly bad mechanics in place to punish you as a gamer. It’s even so subtle I think it’s clearly intended. Why a developer would intentionally program it this way is beyond me since the only result is a sour feeling of wanting to slap someone on the wrist saying “bad developer!”. We are of course talking about Hardcore mode. I like a challenge as much as the next gamer. Even more so in RPGs since they always offer you multiple options of tweaking your way to success. Yes it’s hard, but here is the tools to get you through it.<br />
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For DS3, this is far from the case. Everything Hardcore borders on boring for tens of hours and never putting up even a hint of challenge. That is, until almost the end where you’ll get to fight your nemesis for the first time. Suddenly the difficulty curve shoots through the roof and present you with what seems an impossible challenge at first. After hours of infuriating frustration you will think you did something wrong, chose some bad skills or should maybe have taken a bit more time to level up or get better gear. But hold on; this isn’t the case. Even with the best possible gear the enemies in this battle will easily hit you for half your total hit-points. You might think you need another level or two, but that is where the really bad design kicks in. To prevent you from having a fighting chance, there is a mechanic in place that will stop giving you experience from monsters at a certain level. So, all that grinding and meticulously trying to squeeze every bit of juice out for your character and spending hours and hours more than you intended, is worth nothing more than a developer-chuckle. This should really be a good example from the book of ugly game design thought in schools. Yes, this is the third battle with Jeyna and you do wise to fear it as a game-breaking fault if you cannot invest the hours of low-brow button-mashing.<br />
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And last but not least, another ugly thing about this game. There is no mule in Dungeon Siege III.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Achievements</b></span><br />
Achievements in DS3 is a mixed bag for sure. Some funny, some intelligent and creative ones, and some just terrible. The unmissable story related ones are there for sure, and spread out in measured doses. Boss fights also sometimes have extra parameters that can be challenging and fun, like beating a boss in nothing but your starter gear. Next is a ton of co-op achievements that comes off as terrible, but are thankfully doable with a little effort and boosting. They aren’t fun or interesting, just tolerable. Be absolutely sure you have a partner for this as you each have to do your part of the work of playing certain characters and then exchange achievements for these in co-op.<br />
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Last you have the trap a lot of developers fall for to try and extend their games longevity; reaching certain levels and completing certain tasks with the other predefined characters you had no wish to play in the first place. I really loathe these and it needs to stop. Unless you make the most fun characters gamers have ever seen, and the most fun game in ages, these forced achievements are only degrading the overall experience.<br />
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Summed up there are 44 achievements for 1000 GS, which will take you around 30-40 hours with a good coop partner. The cooperation lies more in setting up savegames to help unlock each others achievements so you won’t have to play the boring characters. Two friends with two controllers each can unlock all the 4-player achievements with relative ease. If you are going for max possible GS mostly by yourself you’re looking at a minimum of 60-80 hours playing through the game with all four characters.<br />
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Comments are open for everyone.Ellusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262226148390947423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14823699.post-10170920679820723332011-07-18T07:37:00.000-07:002013-08-23T05:57:27.334-07:00Gamehelp: Venetica: High Esteem Achievement<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXGqlDbVbJEZTJQ0F90_ZZ93PAVdzUgre77xPbQFgqbE7UstqcIxqN47pTfRPl-Blxf2D6G_A5kyEdSqT_SPfaJP9GQGIOKVcQ6D6Kx-2Rtees2s42DvqrB6jvPLIR95SRv-G3nA/s1600/gameheaders-venetica.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXGqlDbVbJEZTJQ0F90_ZZ93PAVdzUgre77xPbQFgqbE7UstqcIxqN47pTfRPl-Blxf2D6G_A5kyEdSqT_SPfaJP9GQGIOKVcQ6D6Kx-2Rtees2s42DvqrB6jvPLIR95SRv-G3nA/s1600/gameheaders-venetica.jpg" /></a><br />
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Having trouble reaching more than 2000 reputation in Venetica? Well, try this guide on for size. Full listing of every quest and action that gives you reputation.<br />
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Reputation is earned by completing quests and doing certain tasks, but not always and more often than not you can screw this up royally early in the game by completing quest goals before having the quest in your log and thus voiding the reputation gain.<br />
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<b>High Esteem</b> (20)<br />
<i>Earn 2000 reputation points</i><br />
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These are all the quests I got my achievement from and I double checked everyone so they always gave the listed amount of reputation. Also keep in mind that some of these are from completing quests for the Order, a faction you need to join for one play-through anyway. It might be that you get a similar gain from the other factions, but I can’t confirm that.<br />
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Be aware that you can loose reputation by stealing and refusing to leave houses when you are caught. Always keep continual saves at hand as you can see you have virtually no extra reputation to go on if you want to hit 2000.<br />
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If you notice anything else giving reputation, let me know and I’ll add it. Also notice that I don’t list the quests that doesn’t give reputation and that there are many more quests around. Once you aquire a quest from this list, save and make sure you get the reputation gain.<br />
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<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 510px;"><tbody>
<tr> <td align="left" bgcolor="#000000" valign="top" width="210"><b><span style="color: white;">Outside Venice</span></b></td> <td align="right" bgcolor="#000000" valign="top" width="40"><b><span style="color: white;">Gain</span></b></td> <td align="left" bgcolor="#000000" valign="top" width="260"></td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="left" valign="top">An Adequate Smithy</td> <td align="right" valign="top">50</td> <td align="left" valign="top"> With the papers</td></tr>
<tr> <td align="left" bgcolor="#000000" valign="top" width="210"><b><span style="color: white;">Outer City</span></b></td> <td align="right" bgcolor="#000000" valign="top" width="40"></td> <td align="left" bgcolor="#000000" valign="top" width="260"></td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="left" valign="top" width="210">The Order of the Holy Seal</td> <td align="right" valign="top" width="40">30</td> <td align="left" valign="top" width="260"> Become a member and get the shield</td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="left" valign="top" width="210">Damage Underground</td> <td align="right" valign="top" width="40">100</td> <td align="left" valign="top" width="260"></td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="left" valign="top" width="210">The Gripper Queen</td> <td align="right" valign="top" width="40">100</td> <td align="left" valign="top" width="260"></td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="left" valign="top">A Gardener's Nightmare</td> <td align="right" valign="top">50</td> <td align="left" valign="top"></td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="left" valign="top">Clear Sky in the Outer City</td> <td align="right" valign="top">50</td> <td align="left" valign="top"> From Crow</td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="left" valign="top">Chasing Bandits in the Outer City</td> <td align="right" valign="top">100</td> <td align="left" valign="top"></td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="left" valign="top">False Accusations</td> <td align="right" valign="top">30</td> <td align="left" valign="top"> Threaten, accept 300 gold, or duel</td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="left" bgcolor="#000000" valign="top" width="210"><b><span style="color: white;">Inner City</span></b></td> <td align="right" bgcolor="#000000" valign="top"></td> <td align="left" bgcolor="#000000" valign="top"></td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="left" valign="top">Chasing Bandits in the Inner City</td> <td align="right" valign="top">100</td> <td align="left" valign="top"></td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="left" valign="top">The Gripper Queen</td> <td align="right" valign="top">100</td> <td align="left" valign="top"> Another one in the Inner City</td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="left" valign="top">Clear Sky in the Inner City</td> <td align="right" valign="top">50</td> <td align="left" valign="top"></td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="left" valign="top">The Sword of St. Anthony</td> <td align="right" valign="top">30</td> <td align="left" valign="top"></td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="left" valign="top">"Half-Brother" Encounter</td> <td align="right" valign="top">60</td> <td align="left" valign="top"> Pay for the service six times</td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="left" valign="top">Medicine</td> <td align="right" valign="top">50</td> <td align="left" valign="top"></td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="left" valign="top">Captured Citizen</td> <td align="right" valign="top">80</td> <td align="left" valign="top"></td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="left" valign="top">Heir to the Mansion</td> <td align="right" valign="top">100</td> <td align="left" valign="top"></td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="left" bgcolor="#000000" valign="top" width="210"><b><span style="color: white;">Arsenal</span></b></td> <td align="right" bgcolor="#000000" valign="top"></td> <td align="left" bgcolor="#000000" valign="top"></td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="left" valign="top">On Holy Mission</td> <td align="right" valign="top">900</td> <td align="left" valign="top"> Don't miss this</td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="left" valign="top">Lesser Evil</td> <td align="right" valign="top">100</td> <td align="left" valign="top"></td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="left" valign="top"></td> <td align="right" valign="top"></td> <td align="left" valign="top"></td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="left" valign="top"></td> <td align="right" valign="top"><b><br />
2030</b></td> <td align="left" valign="top"><b> <br />
Total Reputation</b></td> </tr>
</tbody></table>
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Also posted on <a href="http://www.trueachievements.com/a40875/high-esteem-achievement.htm">trueachievements.com</a><br />
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---Ellusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262226148390947423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14823699.post-30126330917448821872011-07-14T05:17:00.000-07:002011-07-14T05:17:56.890-07:00Ramblings: Upcoming RPGs July 2011More RPG goodness to come. I’m always looking for RPG games and so I keep track of what is out there. Thought I update with some new discoveries as my watch-list grows.<br />
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<tr> <td align="left" colspan="2" valign="top"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Upcoming Retail</span></b></td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="left" valign="top" width="110">7. October<br />
11. November<br />
Q4<br />
Q4<br />
Q1-2012<br />
Q1-2012<br />
Q1-2012</td> <td align="left" valign="top" width="340">Dark Souls<br />
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim<br />
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings<br />
Reckoning: Kingdoms of Amalur<br />
Risen 2: Dark Waters<br />
Final Fantasy XIII-2<br />
Mass Effect 3</td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="left" colspan="2" valign="top"><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Upcoming Arcade</span></b></td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="left" valign="top" width="110">20. July<br />
7. September</td> <td align="left" valign="top" width="340">Bastion<br />
Crimson Alliance</td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="left" colspan="2" valign="top"><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Upcoming DLC</span></b></td> </tr>
<tr> <td align="left" valign="top" width="110">19. July<br />
26. July<br />
September</td> <td align="left" valign="top" width="340">Old World Blues for Fallout New Vegas<br />
Legacy for Dragon Age 2<br />
Pirates of the Flying Fortress for Two Worlds 2</td> </tr>
</tbody></table><br />
Plenty to look forward to! Know of anything else that is coming within a year, work on anything exciting the RPG addicts aren’t aware of? Give me a yell and I’ll add it to the watch-list.<br />
<br />
---Ellusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262226148390947423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14823699.post-43807659469437548612011-07-10T10:14:00.000-07:002013-08-14T11:56:05.747-07:00Gamehelp: Two Worlds 2 Village Mode Guide<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I thoroughly enjoy Two Worlds 2 despite the multiplayer that kept me off initially. In fact, Village Mode as a base of operations for what you do in multiplayer is a pure stroke of genius. Now that I have exhausted this I only crave more. Much more.<br />
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Sadly there isn’t a whole lot of info on Village Mode out there, and while some are close, others are way off mark on the inner workings. Building, rebuilding and testing out every little facet while having spent more than one million gold, I think I have the solution.<br /><br />August 2013: Spreadsheet is now updated and working again. Sorry for the inconvenience!<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Why Village Mode?</b></span><br />
Many might skip this all together and just jump right into Deathmatch, but know that your online and offline characters are two separate entities. Whatever you do in the singleplayer campaign won’t matter online. While online you get 5 character slots you can fill with various builds, and they all share the single Village available to you. What you do in both Village Mode and Adventure Mode carries on to the character you use in Deathmatch, Duel and Capture the Crystals.<br />
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Simply put, you need to make that armor, weapon and potions so you have a better chance of surviving multiplayer or Adventure Mode. And you get two achievements for building structures in Village Mode, one at 5 and one at 15.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Starting your village</b></span><br />
To begin Village Mode you need to create a multiplayer character and amass 10.000 gold. This is to afford building what the short tutorial tells you to. Easiest way to do this is to hit up a chum for some cash if available. Barring that, you need to earn it yourself. The first leg of Adventure Mode; The Way to Vokar, is a good way to get started. Simply play through that first part as many times as needed, saving all gear you find and selling it off instead of breaking it down. Once you have 10k coin on any one character Village Mode will unlock in the lobby. Once the tutorial is done we get down to the dirty work.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Building your village</b></span><br />
There are a total of 26 ‘common’ building spots spread around the Town Hall where you can put whatever you like. In addition there are 3 spots around your village for specialty buildings; the Ore Mine, Sulphur Mine and Crystal Mine. In those last 3 spots only those buildings can be built. That makes your village up of 29 building total, or 30 if you count your mansion in the middle.<br />
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Finding the right ‘build’ for your village is all about your needs. Buildings can be dismantled whenever you wish, but you will only get a 2000 coin refund no matter what the building’s initial cost. To make a proper village suited to your needs, you need to understand how it all works in relation. It can seem very complex at start, but I think I finally cracked the code to what’s really going on behind the scenes. Based on all the research and tinkering that have gone into this, I’ve made a spreadsheet you can find linked below. It covers almost all factors that goes on in your village, and all you have to do is enter what buildings you build as well as have an understanding of why things go wrong or why the numbers are off, since they will. The spreadsheet will hopefully show you everything else alongside this guide.<br />
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<b><a href="http://pastelink.me/dl/6e8626" target="_blank">GET THE SPREADSHEAT HERE</a></b> (MS Excel)<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Key Concepts</b></span><br />
I’m guessing the most important thing to start with is “show me the money!” and that is not entirely untrue. Getting your village up and running perfectly is going to cost you. A lot.Some things you need to understand first:<br />
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<b style="color: white;">Transactions:</b> Money or income is made from Transactions and Transactions happen whenever a villager buys something that is produced. Produced items are Meat, Bread, Arms, Potions and basically anything you can output. Not all products will be bought though, and not every Transaction will happen regularly. Each Transaction being made each turn will net you an income of +100 coin.<br />
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<b><span style="color: white;">Turns:</span></b> Village Mode separates between in-game and offline time. Online being you present in your village, mucking about and offline meaning you are off playing another mode, another game, or your box is turned off. A turn is 6 minutes on the internal clock in-game, or 6 hours off-line, meaning this is where your villagers will buy the things they need for that period and you will get paid accordingly. While you’re in-game playing in the village, you’ll get a turn every 6 minutes of play. When your Box is turned off, you still get turns every 6 hours so your Sims...err, villagers lives on when you sleep. Creepy.<br />
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<b style="color: white;">Village Chronicle:</b> This is your overview of the village, a scroll you can read from your inventory. The tutorial will show you this - take note and familiarize yourself with it’s contents. Mapping the Chronicle to a hot-key will save you some time as you’ll be looking at it all the time.<br />
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<b style="color: white;">Demands:</b> At the bottom of your Village Chronicle you can sometimes see what your villagers demand you build. These are based on their needs and will trigger on set conditions. If you don’t have certain buildings, they will be demanded either straight away or when the population reaches a certain number. If you don’t comply with demands you will suffer a morale hit until the demand is resolved.<br />
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Not all demands give a negative morale and are considered suggestions. Demand for Shops is one such instance. If your transactions reach their max potential the entry in your Chronicle will turn red and a demand to build another Shop will appear. You don’t have to follow these suggestions if you are within your limits, like having equal food production to consumption, or your shops having 60/60 possible transactions.<br />
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- If you build a Guardhouse, the guards will demand a Forge, but without penalty<br />
- If you build a Windmill the villagers will demand a Farm, with -10% penalty until you do.<br />
- If you reach max or above possible transactions, a shop is demanded without penalty.<br />
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<b style="color: white;">Morale & Safety:</b> Your village’s standing morale simply shows you what your production level is at. It’s a bit intimidating to see it turn yellow or red, but don’t fret. If your regular production of Meat is 10 units and you have an overall Morale of 90%, it means you are producing 9 units every turn. That is nothing to worry about. What you need to worry about is having a low morale over several turns and depleting your stocks. Without stock there will be no transactions, and that is when your profit suffers greatly. Keep this in mind when growing your village as the villagers will put forth demands at set points that affects your morale.<br />
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<b style="color: white;">Stock:</b> Once you are producing your first items, let’s say Meat, open the Chronicle and scroll down to the latter half. Each item you produce will be listed here. The first number is your current stock, and the second number in parenthesis is the adjustment happening next turn. The adjustment is hugely affected by morale, especially when an event happens in your village. What you need to always watch for is that your stock never depletes. Negative numbers in parathesis means you are consuming more than you produce, but unless this number is high compared to your stock of that item, don’t worry about it just yet.<br />
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<b style="color: white;">Max Auras:</b> How much coin your village coffer can contain before the bald so called Village Leader starts skimming off the top. You start off with a 10K capacity and this is in turn increased by 500 for each villager. If you have 20 villagers the Max Auras amount you can store is 20K.<br />
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<b style="color: white;">Population:</b> Every single building you build will come with one villager performing the job for that building. When you upgrade a building, two villagers will occupy the upgraded building. The speciality buildings cannot be upgraded, so that leaves a total of 26 upgraded buildings possible, plus 3 possible specialty buildings, or 55 max possible villagers. The ideal town however, usually has around 48-52 villagers.<br />
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<b style="color: white;">Upkeep:</b> Some buildings have running costs each turn, like the Guardhouse and specialty buildings. It’s advisable to put down these buildings once you have a steady income to support it, otherwise you’ll be in the red rather quick. The upkeep on the specialty buildings are rather steep so it’s reccomended to save these for last and generally wait until you’ve stored away quite a bit of money. Producing the best items and earning good money is mutually exclusive.<br />
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<b style="color: white;">Placing:</b> Has zero effect on anything. The only thing to keep in mind here is that it is convenient to group all the Shops and maybe a Tavern together. Saves you from running all over the place when it’s time for a shopping spree.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Buildings</b></span><br />
This is what you will be building, from the simplest to the most advanced building and what they do in detail.<br />
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<b>Basic production</b><br />
All my village builds usually consists of 5 Industrial Ranches, 5 Industrial Farms, and 1 Industrial Windmill, taking up 11 of the 26 building spots, and negating other factors will give you a base +4400 income.<br />
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<b>Basic: Ranch & Industrial Ranch</b><br />
This is most likely your starter building. It’s the simplest of buildings, comes with one villager at the cost of 2000, and produces 7 units of Meat each turn. The villager working there will consume one of the produced meats, so your excess output is 6 units. The Ranch can be upgraded to an Industrial Ranch for 6000 with two villagers and a production output of 8, minus the two pieces of Meat consumed by the workers.<br />
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The production value of a Ranch is that every single one of your villagers, no matter if they work in the Tavern or on the Farm, will consume a piece of Meat each turn so keep that in mind. Again, every piece of Meat bought constitutes a Transaction earning you 100 coin.<br />
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Also note that every Rancher villagers will buy bows & arrows every turn if you build a Quartermaster. The more Ranches you have, less bows & arrows will be available to you from stock. See the Quartermaster building for more info. When the other buildings are in place, the max possible income from an Industrial Ranch is 600. The two villagers in an Industrial Ranch will buy 2 pieces of Meat, 2 pieces of Bread, and 2 bows & arrows each and every turn.<br />
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<b>Basic: Farm & Industrial Farm</b><br />
The second or third building you’re likely to build, but hold on a sec first and read up on Windmills. Farms are a step more advanced than the Ranch, in that they produce an unfinished product called Wheat. Other than that the numbers are pretty similar to a Ranch. Each Farm comes with one villager, costs 3000 to build, and produces 5 units of Wheat. Upgraded for 9000, the Industrial Farm will have two villagers and produce 14 units of Wheat.<br />
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Farmers will also buy Arms from the Forge similar to the Ranchers and each Industrial Farm have a possible 600 coin income.<br />
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<b>Basic: Windmill & Industrial Windmill</b><br />
A Windmill will come with one worker, cost 5000 and produces Bread from the Wheat your Farms are producing in the ratio of 1:1. A single Windmill can produce 35 units of Bread each turn, but only if you produce that much Wheat. Thus a single Windmill can support up to 5 single Farms.<br />
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With several Farms and a Windmill in place you will see your first spike in income as every single villager no matter where they work, will also consume one piece of Bread every turn.<br />
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Industrial Windmills cost 15000, comes with two villagers and can produce and support twice as much, delivering up to 70 Bread a turn. Be sure to also upgrade your Farms when you have upgraded your Windmill as you need to match the Wheat output to the production capabilities of the Windmill. An Industrial Windmill makes a lot of income, but not directly. The two villagers working there will net you +400 coin no matter the production.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Intermediate Production</b></span><br />
Note that you will not build the buildings in the order they are described here. Other buildings will have to be built in between, like the Guardhouse, Tavern, etc. Se Morale & Safety buildings. It’s a good idea to get to know the Basic Production buildings, Safety & Morale buildings, and your Economy buildings before moving onto Intermediate, Advanced and Specialty buildings.<br />
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<b>Intermediate: Forge & Industrial Forge</b><br />
The Forge is a step up in complexity. It will cost you 5000 to build and comes with a 1000 coin upkeep cost every turn. If you don’t have the economy to support it, don’t build it. The one villager working the Forge will only make you 200 coin if you have Meat and Bread available, so unless you have villagers that will buy the items the Forge produces, you are looking at a -800 cost every turn.<br />
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The Forge will produce 10 units of Arms (Armor, Weapons & Traps) every turn. Farmers and Guardsmen will buy these products every turn, one for each villager working your Farms and Guardhouses. If you skip back to the section on Basic Production, you’ll see I normally build 5 Industrial Farms. Those Farmers (2 pr. building) alone will consume the entire production of the forge, creating a +1000 coin profit, but also create a greater demand than supply. It’s important to remember to expand carefully.<br />
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You can upgrade the Forge to an Industrial Forge for 15000 coin, but in the process you will incur another 1000 coin upkeep cost. Production will thankfully double, to 20 units pr. turn, and in most cases this will be enough to supply all your Farms and Guardhouses as well as adding a couple items to your stock (available to your character when you visit the shops).<br />
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A fully upgraded Forge, with Farmers and Guardsmen consuming all 20 items every turn, will make your Industrial Forge profit by +400 every turn, from the food the workers eat. The -2000 upkeep is covered by the items sold.<br />
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<b>Intermediate: Quartermaster Workshop & Quartermaster Mill</b><br />
Like the Forge the Quartermaster Workshop will cost you 5000 and upgrades to a Quartermaster Mill for 15000. Production here is Bows & Arrows (quivers) and that is what will show up in your shops with excess production. In all terms but the product, the Quarternaster is identical to the Forge in how it works. Ranchers and Guardsmen will buy these products and the max profit is +400 if all 20 units are sold each turn.<br />
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<b>Intermediate: Temple & High Temple</b><br />
The base version will set you back 10000 coin and the upgraded High Temple will cost you a whopping 30000. Both versions have a 1000 coin upkeep for a total of 2000 with one High Temple<br />
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The production here is basic potions; the lowest entry versions you find in the campaign and Adventure mode. How these are produced and sold works a bit different from the Forge and Quartermaster. Potion output is 10 for Temple and 20 for High Temple, but the transactions that happens does not come from specific professions, but rather how many villagers you have living there. For every 3 villagers you have, one of them will buy a potion each turn. This is rounded down so 3-5 villagers will still buy a single potion, but when you hit 6-8 villagers they will consume two potions. To consume all the made potions you would have to have 60 villagers in your town and that’s not possible. There will always be some over-production of potions.<br />
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If you break the numbers down for the Temple, a High Temple will never really make you any profit and you should only consider this if you are in need of basic potions for your character. If you are working on Adventure Mode chances are your character is already churning out potions so you really should have no need for a High Temple.<br />
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A basic Temple will produce and sell their 10 potions each turn if you have 30 or more villagers, and the monk working there will buy two pieces of food turning a +200 profit. There are no complaints or negative effects if not all of your villagers have access to basic potions.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Advanced Production</b></span><br />
These are the buildings you only build when you want something for yourself as these only incur profit loss. The buildings inner workings can also be hard to figure out.<br />
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<b>Advanced: Mage Tower & Arcane Mage Tower</b><br />
In it’s basic form, the Mage Tower will set you back 15000 and seem utterly useless at first. It produces 20 units of explosives - the exploding, direct-damage traps - each turn. How Explosives work will put most trying to figure this out off, as they neither show up as stored in your Village Chronicle, or add anything obvious to the economy. They do get stored in one of your shops and at the Tavern, but I’m guessing it’s either a bug or the thinking behind it is that it’s not that smart to store a load of bombs in one place. Instead, new Explosives will be produced each turn and made available, but not stored.<br />
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Explosives will also affect your economy in a not so obvious way. Each time you build a new building, no matter what it is, 2 Explosives will be used from that turns production, but only once. This is probably what throws many off as your number of transactions will increase by 2 and show a +200 coin profit, but then next turn return to normal. I’m guessing this makes sense, but the validity of introducing a Mage Tower just for Explosives doesn’t do squat to your continuous economy as long as the Mage Tower has a -1000 upkeep each turn. In essence, you would have to build 5 buildings each turn just to break even.<br />
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An Arcane Mage Tower will set you back a further 30000, produce 40 Explosives each turn, and cost you -2000 upkeep. Don’t dismiss the Mage Tower just yet though. As well when we are at Advanced Production, the Mage Tower is a required part of producing crystals. More on this under the Crystal Mine. Just know that crystal production is very expensive and the only thing the Arcane Mage Tower does should you shell out the coin, is double production at a higher cost. If you don’t plan on producing crystal(s) yet, hold off on the Tower until much later.<br />
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<b>Advanced: Hazel Grove</b><br />
The Hazel Grove requires a empty common building spot unlike the specialty buildings, and requires a Quartermaster Workshop or Mill to function properly. The Grove will set you back 15000 coin, comes with a hefty 3000 upkeep and cannot be upgraded.<br />
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Hazel Groves will enable your Quartermaster Workshop or Mill to produce advanced Bows & Arrows (meaning higher level ones) at the tune of 5 units pr. turn.<br />
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Now here’s the kicker - Guardsmen will buy one advanced bow every turn as well as a regular bow from the Quartermaster. What this means to your economy is that at the population level where you are likely to support a Haze Grove, most likely requires 6-8 Guardsmen. To be able to produce any advanced bows for yourself you need two Hazel Groves and now we’re talking -6000 upkeep a turn.<br />
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In conclusion, only try to produce advanced bows for your Ranger-type character when you are at a point in your village building where you have a maximum of four Guardsmen, or in your finished village made for creating stuff for your Ranger character. Everything else will kill your economy.<br />
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<b>Advanced: Herb Plantation</b><br />
The Herb Plantation will enable production of Advanced Potions from the Temple or High Temple. On it’s own it will produce 10 potions of medium and high quality, and as with the basic potion production, your total amount of villagers decide how many are consumed. In this case, one advanced potion will be bought for every 10 villagers you have while the excess goes to stock. Since the max possible villagers you can have is 55, you will always have at least 5 advanced potions put into stock each turn.<br />
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The Herb Plantation comes with one villager, costs 15000 to build, have a -3000 upkeep and cannot be upgraded.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Specialty Production</b></span><br />
These are the three predefined locations on your map where only the following buildings can be built.<br />
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<b>Specialty: Ore Mine</b><br />
Located to your far left, next to to the Sulphur Mine, the Ore Mine require a Forge or Industrial Forge to function, will set you back 15000, have an upkeep of -3000 and cannot be upgraded. This is the add-on that enables production of advanced Armor, Weapons, and Traps. It will produce 10 units each turn, and Guardsmen are the only ones buying these each turn so your stock will increase with whatever is left over.<br />
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<b>Specialty: Crystal Mine</b><br />
Located at the opposite side of the map from the Ore Mine, the Crystal Mine is what will finally make your Mage Tower useful. The Crystal Mine costs 15000, have an upkeep of -3000 and cannot be upgraded. It will require a Mage Tower present and then it will produce one crystal of varying quality each turn. None of your villagers will buy this so it’s all yours for the taking. If you can support both a Mage Tower and Crystal Mine, go for it. An alternative is to <br />
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<b>Specialty: Sulfur Mine</b><br />
You can find this next to the Ore Mine and like the other specialty buildings the cost is 15000, upkeep -3000, and it cannot be upgraded. The Sulfur Mine connects to a Mage Tower and will produce advanced Explosives, or the higher level bombs of the Trap category. As with the regular Explosives and Mage Tower production, these doesn’t add anything worthwhile to your village.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Safety & Morale Buildings</b></span><br />
Only two buildings fall in this category and they affect morale. It’s advisable to read up on Safety & Morale under the ‘Key Concepts’ part at the beginning.<br />
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<b>Tavern & Brewery</b><br />
The Tavern in itself is fairly expensive at 5000, bthat doesn’t produce or buy anything at first. It thankfully has no upkeep. Once upgraded to a Brewery for 15000, it will add Lock-Picks to your list of products and add a Thieves Guild trader in the back area where you can buy lock-picks and other sneaky stuff. No one but players will buy these so it doesn’t add anything to your economy other than a second villager. There is another reason for having a Tavern or Brewery though. At set amount of total villagers they will put forth a demand that you build a Tavern, and unless you do your overall production will drop by 10%.<br />
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- At 18 total villagers, they will demand a Tavern built.<br />
- At 37 total villagers, they will demand a second Tavern, or a single Brewery.<br />
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<b>Guardhouse & Sentry Post</b><br />
The Guardhouse will be one of the first buildings you build. They cost 2000 and upgrades to Sentry Posts for 6000. One guard will show up in it’s basic form and another when you upgrade. Each guard buys both basic Arms from the Forge and a Bow from the Quartermaster each turn if available. If you have the advanced versions the guards will also buy those in addition, so beware your production levels with many guards around.<br />
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If you have all of these products available, each guard will account for up to 6 Transactions (2 foodstuffs, up to 4 Arms & Bows) and offset the -300 Aura upkeep so you end up earning +300 instead. Upgraded to a Sentry Post, another guard shows up, doubling the upkeep but also up to 6 more transactions so you end up earning +600 each turn for each Sentry Post all the while paying the upkeep. For a fully developed village it’s not uncommon to have as many as 4 upgraded Sentry Posts, so keep that in mind when planning ahead.<br />
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As to filling the safety needs, the villagers will demand you expand your guard operation at set intervals and if you don’t meet the demand your production will suffer. These demands for protection are thankfully very specific so you can plan for it. <br />
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- 4 villagers total will demand one Guard. Build a Guardhouse.<br />
- 12 villagers total demands another Guard. Build another Guardhouse.<br />
- 20 villagers needs a third guard. Build another Guardhouse or upgrade existing.<br />
- 27 villagers needs a fourth guard. Build another Guardhouse or upgrade existing.<br />
- 36 villagers demands a fifth guard. Upgrade.<br />
- 44 villagers needs the sixth guard. Upgrade<br />
- 52 villagers gives the final demand for the seventh guard. Ignoring the demand, adjusting your total population down to 51 works, or simply build a fourth Guardhouse if production allows.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Economy Buildings</b></span><br />
All production buildings will of course affect your economy, but what ties it all together are the Shops or Commissaries.<br />
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<b>Economy: Shop & Commissary</b><br />
A Shop will set you back 3500 and upgrading to a Commissary will cost you an additional 10500. Shops have no upkeep. What these buildings do is allow for the very transactions to happen that will give you your income as well as being able to buy the excess items you produce.<br />
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Each shop-worker will allow for 15 transactions to happen, and are able to store up to to 10 items. These two stats are found in your Village Chronicle and reads as current Transactions out of how many possible. You won’t see Max Stock other than when the stock is full; represented by the first number on all wares available at the shops. Bread and Meat will quickly give you a pointer what your Max Stock is.<br />
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Be prepared to build a lot of Shops or you won’t get any income. Since each villager will buy 2 foodstuffs at bare minimum, a single Shop will in theory support 7,5 villagers. Keep checking the Village Chronicle and the amount of Transactions going on and be ready to expand at a moments notice. For comparison, my production village has 6 Commissaries and 175/180 Transactions each turn.<br />
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Note that sometimes the Shops can be slightly buggy where the tradesmen will get stuck in the scenery and you won’t be able to trade with them. If that happens, try to build in another location, or tear it down, exit, and rebuild.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdl8rWRAut1ZQQXxmuDad1215dQl51ENaxJE4O56_mx5o6w20e5yNCwKZ_4-MDxI3DpeAqixSAvbgxykpAwRmMwg2jyB-PJfaLs9ZBM1gA2Cl9nlQg2wdNIbLMnmZBPFv_H4JrWg/s1600/2W2-villagemap.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdl8rWRAut1ZQQXxmuDad1215dQl51ENaxJE4O56_mx5o6w20e5yNCwKZ_4-MDxI3DpeAqixSAvbgxykpAwRmMwg2jyB-PJfaLs9ZBM1gA2Cl9nlQg2wdNIbLMnmZBPFv_H4JrWg/s1600/2W2-villagemap.jpg" /><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Village Build: Earner</b></span><br />
Starting out, you will want to build up a good cash balance, both for continuous expansion of your village, and to gear up for Adventure Mode. For this I found that a village focusing on income serves you well. For the ‘Earner’ village try this:<br />
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1 Industrial Windmill<br />
5 Industrial Farms<br />
12 Industrial Ranches<br />
3 Sentry Posts<br />
1 Brewery<br />
4 Commissaries<br />
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This will net you a 8600 profit each turn and should have you rolling in coin in no time.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Deviations to the formulas</b></span><br />
If you sell an item from your inventory to a shop that one of your villagers needs (try to sell a potion that your guards use), a transaction will be added temporarily and will show up on your Village Chronicle. Look for negative entries in the second number in parenthesis for products you know you don’t produce. If something like Advanced Potions show up as 0 (-1) for the turn, it only means one of your villagers bought the potion you sold to a shop. The numbers will return to normal next turn or when you put down a new building.<br />
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Sometimes the actual production will deviate, but turn back to it’s correct number the following turn. If morals are at 100% you might experience a boom in production when you enter your village from the menu. The actual mechanics behind this I haven’t figured out, but I am leaning towards a random boost.<br />
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Below 100% Moral will produce less goods naturally. Events in the village, like any attack will temporarily lower production. If you resolve the matter before the next tick, it will normalize. Otherwise a negative effect will linger on until the next tick again.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Events</b></span><br />
Regularly your villagers will come under attack from monsters tailored to the visiting characters level. The Village Leader will summon you and explain where and what is going on (with varying degrees of reliable intel mind you). Whenever that happens, your production will take a major hit until the matter is resolved. If you are actively playing in your village, resolving the situation before the next turn happens will leave a minimal impact on your economy.<br />
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The Events happening is also a good source of experience and potion ingredients, as well as a measure of how you are going to fare in Adventure Mode.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Secret Chests</b></span><br />
Spread around the village map are 11 hidden chests that can supply you with several advantages. First, they can supply that hard to find gear as well as higher level gear than the shops in Adventure Mode will have on offer. Second, these are the most convenient chests to practice lock-picking on. Third and last, when starting out, there will be some generic monsters to kill around the chests for experience. Beware though - sometimes the chests will spawn guardians that are most likely going to be a challenge until level 15+. Check the map for the locations of all chests.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Notes on the Spreadsheet<span style="font-size: small;"> - </span></b></span><b><a href="http://pastelink.me/dl/6e8626" target="_blank">GET THE SPREADSHEAT HERE</a></b> (MS Excel)<br />
First column is used for entering how many buildings of the type you have and is the basis for figuring out how many villagers you have and what they consume. If you have one Farm, put 1 in the field before the Farm entry. If you upgrade to an Industrial Farm keep the 1 and add a 1 to the Industrial Farm entry below.<br />
<br />
If you had 4 Guardhouses but only 3 of them were Sentry Posts you would put 4 ahead of Guardhouses and 3 ahead of Sentry Posts, getting a correct 7 Guardsmen and their consumption levels.<br />
<br />
<br />
And there you go, a cool feature in an RPG that will help you greatly with Adventure Mode if you take the time to get into it.<br />
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Comments are open for everyone so be sure to chip in if you have anything to add, have questions or anything else on your mind.<br />
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---Ellusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262226148390947423noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14823699.post-60877845691387163852011-07-02T10:30:00.000-07:002011-07-10T04:17:00.082-07:00Gamehelp: Dungeon Siege 3 - Enduring Champion achievement<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQjx_yHn27TVQJlr1AIr59s0s60_JBsj8uafKp6yW4W_eZUrhyphenhyphenEWC3DUt05tY1eSA2BA8LO0g6_cX4sFr1MRcxkIOSXZ-WAyMtMtzJKz948yG7xMHLADgw1em7OoONepnwOSm47Q/s1600/ds3-header.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQjx_yHn27TVQJlr1AIr59s0s60_JBsj8uafKp6yW4W_eZUrhyphenhyphenEWC3DUt05tY1eSA2BA8LO0g6_cX4sFr1MRcxkIOSXZ-WAyMtMtzJKz948yG7xMHLADgw1em7OoONepnwOSm47Q/s1600/ds3-header.jpg" /></a></div><br />
100.000 damage taken is quite a bit, especially in one session. Meaning in one go. If you save and reload, the internal counter is reset.<br />
<a name='more'></a> I was doing this on my Hardcore play-through and was really aiming to get all the deed modifiers to help me out. Sustaining 100k damage will net you the Enduring Champion deed which gains you +2 stamina, or +20 hit-points.<br />
<table><tbody>
<tr><td><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://media.trueachievements.com/imagestore/0000556800/556859.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://media.trueachievements.com/imagestore/0000556800/556859.jpg" /></a></div></td> <td><br />
<b>Enduring Champion</b> (10)<br />
<i>Survive 100,000 points of damage in one adventure - but ideally not in one hit.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>The easiest place I found for this is in Stonebridge, more specifically the Crypts of the Sacred Blood. A few minutes in, you’ll come across a second automatic bridge that has to be extended, right after a convenient save-point. When you close in on this bridge it will show you a short sequence of giant pendulum blades lowering from the ceiling. Clear the bridge of enemies and note the locked door at the end; this will ensure peace and quiet while you die some 100-150 times. Position yourself close enough to one of the blades so you take damage, but not as close that you fall over beneath it. Make sure your follower is behind you and not off to the side.<br />
<br />
The blades did about 150-160 damage each swing, roughly every second. My character had 1500 hit-points and was resurrected on the money every time, with 750 hit-points. This was the perfect set-up and I just left the game alone and went on to do something else in the meantime.Ellusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262226148390947423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14823699.post-67835188273477089472011-06-12T06:57:00.000-07:002011-07-10T04:13:16.598-07:00Ramblings: The RPG Year 2011I'm following most RPGs with great interest, and with the addition of E3 over with and GamesCom coming, the year is shaping up great. Sadly, there wasn't much in the way of RPGs from E3 though, but the usual standard fare on-rails shooter for the ADD crowd. Except one huge announcement; The Witcher 2 for the Box. Happy Happy Joy Joy as Ren would have put it.<br />
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<a name='more'></a><br />
That's three absolutely must-have RPGs this year - the kind I'll happily sacrifice vacations days for, for that 'odd' vacation to strange lands none but addicts understands. They are:<br />
<br />
<b>Risen 2: Dark Waters</b><br />
Say what you will, but this is my perfect recipe for the most filling RPGs. Large, open world, challenging, all about exploration, excellent level and skill mechanics for a lot of possibilities and unknown "tricks", 'European old-school' and last but not least, a type of composition that doesn't make hundreds of hours spent feel like a grind. Arrr Matey! Bring on the pirates, Pirahna Bytes.<br />
<br />
<b>The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings</b><br />
Polish CD projekt turned the horrible generic Neverwinter Nights engine around and infused it with soul, story and charm for a fantastic RPG that felt fresh and innovative. They did it again with the Witcher 2 to tremendous review scores. Finally that piece of excellence is making its way to the Box. Candidate for all-time best RPG on the Box in the making?<br />
<br />
<b>Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim</b><br />
Morrowind is one of my favorite western RPGs. Oblivion I felt did most things wrong, and even though I spent probably 300-400 hours on both the PC and Box version over several years, it still left a sour taste. Luckily it seems Bethesda IS listening and from the videos and Q&A it appears they have addressed many of the issues. My gripe is still the gruesome level & skill system, and sadly that seems ever present in the new Skyrim. To think they are so close to "perfection", one can only dream. Thankfully, this is not enough to ruin a huge experience and I will pay it the required hours no doubt.<br />
<br />
Not a must, but pre-ordered and awaiting:<br />
<br />
<b>Dungeon Siege III</b><br />
Nostalgia alert. This should have been on the absolutely must-have list, but DS is sadly not longer developed by Chris Taylor or Gas Powered Games. Obsidian have the reins this time around and as sad as it is, they really lost all respect I had with Fallout New Vegas. Picking it up in a couple of days anyway and will let you know what I think.<br />
<br />
<b>Final Fantasy XIII-2</b><br />
Nothing to say here really - I will grind it out no matter how much I miss the FF of old.<br />
<br />
<b>Kingdoms of Amalur</b><br />
I do like R.A. Salvatore, and that is really what this game has going for it. From what I have seen it does look very simple and action-like though. Judgement reserved until it shows up.<br />
<br />
<br />
Know of anything else showing up on the Xbox360 I should keep an eye on? Do comment.<br />
<br />
---Ellusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262226148390947423noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14823699.post-19907201551343076582011-06-04T23:12:00.000-07:002011-07-10T04:17:50.680-07:00The Role-Playing Grind: Honest Hearts for Fallout New Vegas<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgInaT5irK7FH7L16CSw6yi2lQcovHlKZGYCSbe6zP5qsa6LZuTcto7DgJXCVvzeRnoq4qbMsABntQ0MQcoZojN3ljc4JV74XP1tm3fx26GlOYoZNYcZXLBT7Hs54kHvzk1HBKPxg/s1600/honesthearts01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgInaT5irK7FH7L16CSw6yi2lQcovHlKZGYCSbe6zP5qsa6LZuTcto7DgJXCVvzeRnoq4qbMsABntQ0MQcoZojN3ljc4JV74XP1tm3fx26GlOYoZNYcZXLBT7Hs54kHvzk1HBKPxg/s320/honesthearts01.jpg" width="181" /></a></div>Might as well shed some light on the various DLC on offer in the RPG genre, though I normally review a game as a whole. Not that easy with big western RPG’s that thrives on carefully doled out DLC to maximize profits.<br />
<br />
I really, really want to like Fallout New Vegas as a whole, despite all the things it had going against it and still have to some degree.<br />
<br />
<b>The Good</b><br />
There’s not a whole lot to commend here, other than possibly that the game is patching up a little bit better for each installment. Going from my original 120+ hour main game that is broken in several places, into the DLC area and completing it, I only had the box freeze completely on me a couple times. That’s good right?<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
The whole DLC is a separate area as usual, and even an aging engine manages to portray the environments as enticing and beautiful. The addition of weather is a nice visual bonus for atmosphere that works on more than one level. The skies will grow dark when it begins to rain and your visibility is hampered more often than not. Some might say it’s way to dark to play as you can’t see squat, but I did feel it added something of value and consequently found myself looking for shelter and rest to advance the time to sunny days.<br />
<br />
<b>The Bad</b><br />
Oh, where to start? Well, at the very start then. As per usual your pip-boy will light up and give you GPS directions to where you begin the DLC. After a brief but unnecessary intro you’re on your way to the land of cowboys and Indians (feathery, not curry). The native kind. Or in this case, raiders, hoodlums and scum that after the great war have mysteriously reverted back to mimicking the real native Americans. Don’t try to wrap your head around this, just go with it.<br />
<br />
You’ve probably picked up a few things about the Burning Man during your main game endeavours, and have possibly even thought “hey, that sounds like a setup for a good DLC story”. True, but sadly what is delivered is a monumental squandering of a good setup. The Burning Man himself, the story and background, as well the characters portrayed in this DLC is just flat as a roadkill.<br />
<br />
So what’s left in this type of game is to gather up all the ‘uniques’ - the new weapons, armor, and items so you can haul them back to your stash. Just admit it, you’re a hoarder. Maybe do a few interesting side-quests. Here is where Honest Hearts does something out of the ordinary. As to remove the need for any sort of playability left and to say “We know, we screwed up. Sorry, but here’s some free stuff!”, the game simply drops a chest with ALL the new items in front of your feet once the story missions are over. I half expected the chest to contain 800 MSP and a letter of apology.<br />
<br />
<b>The Ugly</b><br />
As soon as the opening story feed is done with and control is back in your hands, you’re thrown head-first into the first rookie mistake; the classical “death trap”. This is where you are dumped in a scenario that is already decided for you, but still given the impression that you can change the outcome. A big no-no in all genres. I’m guessing the intern that made this was fast asleep during that bit of class.<br />
<br />
So just give the opening a rest. You can’t win. People will die around you by invisible bullets fired by enemies you have already killed. Do keep your eyes open though, as you’re seconds away from the next ugly bit of game that passed QA. In the scripted event above, developers decided to throw in some key personnel; also native looking, impossible to tell apart and very easy to kill during the slight chaos.If you did like me, within the first five minutes you’ll come out of a scenario feeling cheated and be greeted with an on-screen pop-up saying you broke the game. Swell.<br />
<br />
<b>The Achievements</b><br />
All main-story based and effortlessly unmissable, expect one. Save before the final mission (you’ll be told) and choose one of two sides to ally with. An achievement is waiting for you at the end for each side, so load up that very save again and be sure to grab both.<br />
<br />
...Ellusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262226148390947423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14823699.post-11525791512545760062011-06-01T14:31:00.000-07:002011-06-01T15:42:41.751-07:00The Role-Playing Grind: D&D DaggerdaleWe need more RPG in Arcade. It’s the perfect medium for delivering short(er) and sweet content in carefully measured doses. Just what the doctor ordered. D&D Daggerdale does just that and though it doesn’t appear to be the greatest success yet, here’s me crossing fingers for Bedlam Games to churn out more content in the future.<br />
<br />
Completed it to 100% and 200GS, in roughly 30 hours.<br />
<br />
<b>The Good</b><br />
It’s Dungeons & Dragons! Nostalgia will kick in if you’re old enough, then dissipate somewhat as soon as you understand what type of game this is; a dungeon-romp hack n’ slash in the vein of Diablo or recent Torchlight. That is a good thing.<br />
<br />
Easy to get into and fairly easy to understand. Hit the green button to advance. After a few hours more layers reveal themselves and skills, feats and spells are available to you. The game even offers up a bit of a challenge for you, should you race ahead too quickly with your Ring of Haste +2.<br />
<br />
Some scream very loudly about bugs and glitches, but I have to say, I never experienced anything of the sort, outside a few graphical errors like details coming into view a second after you are standing on it (smaller rocks, clutter, pots and pans etc., that adds detail to the environment). Then again, I never used the various tricks of duplicating items, force freezing the enemies or similar. It goes in my Good section.<br />
<br />
<b>The Bad</b><br />
It’s Dungeon & Dragons! But it doesn’t need to be. It looks, feels, and plays like any other dungeon hacker, and outside the name, nothing is fundamentally D&D about it. The multitude of combinations of class, race, specialties and builds you know are all gone in favour of four predefined setups; A Human Fighter, an Elf Rogue, a Halfling Mage, and a Dwarven Cleric.These all have the same skills unlocked through level progression and you only have room for three out of six, four if you’re macho enough to remap the button for healing potions.<br />
<br />
Further with the Dungeons & Dragons - and I might be the one who left D&D behind four rules revisions ago - the rules and frame of play feels very simplified and restricted. Nowhere are any of this explained very well either, so you are left with choosing what you think makes sense. To further complicate things, what I understand of the new D&D rule set feels detrimental to good video game mechanics. Leveling up you are handed skill-points, stat-points, and feat-points on the odd and even levels. Then the rules will tell you what you cannot do with these points, and hand you a very limited selection that appears to be very similar. For an example, playing a Hafling Mage at low level, you have to rely on your weapons and not spells. So you pick up a sword. Out of the 10 levels possible, you receive a total of 5 feat points, one every odd levels. If you want to use a sword, 3 of the possible points go towards this, first so you can use a sword, then to be proficient in it, and then an expert. 60% of your points put into this makes practically no difference at all.<br />
<br />
<b>The Ugly</b><br />
Daggerdale’s ugly bits sadly revolves around a few of the achievements. You get one for playing a total of 24 hours, which is quite useless as the next achievement is for playing all four character classes up to level 10, and this will take you roughly 25-30 hours. That last one is the really ugly one. Daggerdale would have been a sweet little experience if I could walk away having played and enjoyed what I wanted to play. To finish off the RPG meal with a forced desert in the form of 1-3 classes you have no wish to play, is just a sad way to make us play the game for longer than we want to. Mind you, we WILL do it for the achievement, but we won’t like it.<br />
<br />
<b>The Achievements</b><br />
Half of them is story related, and the other half is a mix of situation-based feats you have to do, like scoring a 75 dmg hit, collecting all the weapon types, gather 100k gold, or beat the end boss with a coop friend. And then there’s the two mentioned under Ugly. All in all, a nice addition to the genre and a midly challenging 200 GS in the genre.<br />
<br />
<br />
During my play, I put up several solutions on Trueachievements. They link directly, so drop by and spot me a vote if found useful.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; width: 390px;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: left;" valign="top"><a href="http://www.trueachievements.com/a151398/solid-gold-achievement.htm" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img alt="Four of a Kind" border="0" hspace="5" src="http://www.trueachievements.com/imagestore/0000548700/548771.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.trueachievements.com/a151398/solid-gold-achievement.htm" target="_blank"><img alt="Solid Gold" border="0" hspace="5" src="http://www.trueachievements.com/imagestore/0000547400/547446.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.trueachievements.com/a151399/man-at-arms-achievement.htm" target="_blank"><img alt="Man at Arms" border="0" hspace="5" src="http://www.trueachievements.com/imagestore/0000547100/547160.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.trueachievements.com/a151396/goblin-hunter-achievement.htm" target="_blank"><img alt="Goblin Hunter" border="0" hspace="5" src="http://www.trueachievements.com/imagestore/0000547100/547159.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.trueachievements.com/a151391/welcome-to-tethyamar-achievement.htm" target="_blank"><img alt="Welcome to Tethyamar" border="0" hspace="5" src="http://www.trueachievements.com/imagestore/0000546400/546481.jpg" /></a></td> </tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://jennawynn.wordpress.com/">Jennawyn</a> wrote up a great guide for the final fight too, a good read for those that struggle. <a href="http://jennawynn.wordpress.com/2011/05/28/spoilers-dd-daggerdale/">Check it out.</a><br />
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---Ellusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262226148390947423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14823699.post-35232366495997463442011-06-01T12:36:00.000-07:002011-06-01T14:33:09.575-07:00Gamehelp: D&D Daggerdale - Four of a Kind achievement<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.trueachievements.com/imagestore/0000548700/548771.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.trueachievements.com/imagestore/0000548700/548771.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Four of a Kind</b><i><br />
</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Just put up a guide for this. You have to reach level 10 with all character classes, and it's probably the last achievement you'll do for Daggerdale.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.trueachievements.com/a151401/four-of-a-kind-achievement.htm">Four of a Kind</a> at <a href="http://www.trueachievements.com/">Trueachievements.com</a><br />
<br />
---Ellusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262226148390947423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14823699.post-31961705352547440292011-05-30T08:20:00.000-07:002011-06-01T14:33:25.597-07:00Gamehelp: D&D Daggerdale - Man at Arms achievementJust posted a detailed list of weapons needed for this seemingly daunting task over at Trueachievements.com<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.trueachievements.com/a151399/man-at-arms-achievement.htm">Man at Arms</a> Achievement in <a href="http://www.trueachievements.com/DD-Daggerdale-xbox-360.htm?gamerid=49579">Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale</a> - <i>Collect 1 of every weapon in the game.</i><br />
<br />
Hop on over and have a read if you're struggling with this, and spot me a vote or comment if found helpful.<br />
<br />
---Ellusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262226148390947423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14823699.post-17360290437163537432011-05-21T03:35:00.000-07:002011-05-21T03:37:30.684-07:00The Role-Playing Grind: Dragon Age 2<i>This was first published over on Ttrueachievements.org on March 17, 2011</i><br />
<br />
First let me start off by saying that this was written while playing the game, and both the positive and negative impressions had time to develop into love & hate relationships. Once something negative popped up, not once did it abide or grew on me, but was continuously reinforced.<br />
<br />
I have a distinct feeling DA2 was made for reviewers; a feeling strengthened by the simplifications made all around, the corners cut, the re-use of so much content, the needless plethora of delivery-boy side-quests, and knowing Bioware is putting out two big-name games in a year if you discount the litle MMO game they are also working on. With ‘made for reviewers’ I mean the game has an immediate polish and it’s easy to be vowed by the trailers, the demo, and the solid opening. This I think is were the reviewers failed, but the players soon discovered. It’s when you scratch at the surface or invest serious time into it - what we core gamers and achievement hunters do - that the deep cracks show. I suspect the overall reviews paid a big part in how financially viable Dragon Age 2 was and heavily dependant on review scores.<br />
<br />
I’m not sure I even thrust the reviews at all - they seem to have been playing a wildly different game than me, and with probably some 40-50 hours sunk into it including a vacation day off work, I have doubts a reviewer put that much time into the game and managed to have the review out the day it was released. What should really concern Bioware and EA I think, is not the 8’s given by reviewers, but what the players think of it. At the time of this writing, about 2-3 days after release, over 2000 registered members at Metacritic took the time out of gaming to share their thoughts and reactions, and to score DA2. Between the 360, PS3 and PC, the average player score is hovering around 4 out of 10.<br />
<br />
Add in the fact that Bioware was on the issue of reviews the day after launch defending everything in the game in interviews to any gaming site that would listen, it is a rather unique situation and tells us the obvious; they know what DA2 is and hope to get away with it without a dent. The player rating still stands when I finish up and post this a week later, but the amount of players who chime in their opinions have doubled. Not even Bioware’s own employees voting for DA2 as a perfect 10/10 game seems to help. Funny stuff: <a href="http://www.destructoid.com/bioware-man-caught-reviewing-dragon-age-2-196513.phtml" rel="external nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.destructoid.com/bioware-man-caught-reviewing-drag...</a><br />
<br />
I’m not one of the detractors however and dive into DA2 with zero prejudice. My intention with these blog posts have always been to write something like a causerie highlighting the good and the bad, first as a die-hard RPG fan that has been around since the early D&D games on the C64, and second from the perspective of an incurable completionist and gamerscore addict. That won’t change, and addicts like us have a different perspective on the matter.<br />
<br />
Let me just finish the lengthy intro by saying that I’m really beginning to fear a yearly Dragon Age and Mass Effect akin to EA’s sports games, and I don’t like it one bit.<br />
<br />
<u><b>The Good Stuff</b></u><br />
<br />
<b>Isabela</b>. What a wonderful game persona. Very well written, animated, and just interesting all around. I freely admit I’m smitten by her charms, the voiceacting, her values and outlook on life, and really wanted to know more as the game progressed. A first in my 25 continuous years of gaming, and an accomplishment I feel deserves the first mention. A heartfelt thank you, and much respect to whoever wrote Isabela. Without her at my side from start to finish I seriously doubt I could keep motivation up to complete DA2. Bring on Isabela’s Story as DLC! I’ll buy it knowing full well it could be utterly broken.<br />
<br />
<b>The writing</b>. Is seriously good all through the game. Not the overall story or plot specifically; that is probably the weakest and most mundane Bioware have managed to put out so far. No, the dialogue between characters, the rich background story that is so under-utilized, the personalities for all the characters, pc and non-pc, really shines. This is from where I got most of my entertainment fix, and I cannot help to think that with the below impressions Bioware should really consider switching to adventure games instead.<br />
<br />
Do try different combinations of followers when you trek back and forth through Kirkwall on your fetch assignments. Their interaction is seriously good, funny, and really builds their personalities. As I always had Isabela with me obviously, her exchanges with Varric, or with Anders or Merril as innocent bystanders was ‘laugh out loud’ moments more often than not. Do yourself a favour; stop and listen. DA2 will be a better game for it.<br />
<br />
<u><b>The Bad Stuff</b></u><br />
<br />
<b>Load times</b>. I do get a sense that DA2 is trying to be a speedier, more streamlined experience. Battle is quick and a powerhouse of button mashing, and you move about always running. Hell, even the rattling skeletons could compete in and win a 100 meter dash. Jumping in and out of houses or crossing a section of town is usually done in a few seconds, while every transition you are greeted by a 15-20 seconds loading screen. After a while it becomes so disruptive to play that you dread going in to new places only to find that you have been there several times before, or that they are mostly empty and you have another date with the loading screen. Installing the game have little to no effect on this.<br />
<br />
<b>Combat</b>. I understand Bioware wanting to try and repeat Mass Effect 2 which players loved as a whole. What I don’t understand is why everything has to be so quick and void of the need for tactics, skills, equipment and character development - very important ingredients in any good RPGs in my book. It’s a button-mashing contest before you exit the tutorial, a style that carries on to the very end of the story. Or your controller.<br />
<br />
Why, oh why, Bioware, didn’t you just consult with Snowblind Studios? They made Dragon Age 2 10 years ago with Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance and scored well enough with both reviewers and players alike.<br />
<br />
<b>Nowhere near Extreme Makeover and the life of a Garbageman</b>. On the surface it looks like you have plenty of choice to put your own spin on things with a seemingly robust character editor, tons of weapons, armor; basically stuff we expect to play with in an RPG and it’s all good. Bit by bit you realize you’ve been had. None of your companions can wear any of all the armor you find, and a few of them even come with pre-defined weapons you cannot change. As for you own character, after a few levels you will only have use for your class’ armor due to requirements. What this means is that beside some different colored boots, and gloves, your appearance is extremely limited to what few different armors you can find for your class. I didn’t pay this too much mind at first, but on the second play-through I realized how similar my new character was to the old despite another hair color, different class, and somewhat different facial features. Once the crew was recruited and on the road again, I simply couldn’t differentiate the experience much from what I did previously.<br />
<br />
A result of the limited use of what you find is that you basically sell maybe 90% of every item you pick up. Opening a locked chest or finding a somewhat hidden pile of rubble is as exciting as finding lint in your bellybutton. Bioware seems to be aware of this, and have conveniently named all items you pick up that cannot possibly be used for anything “Junk”. They even make a mockery of it on several occasions where our hero finds nigh but dirty underwear in the garbage, as well as a sidequest tasking you with collecting dirty trousers.<br />
<br />
Any Junk you pick up is automatically moved to a separate list in your inventory that can be sold with a single click. For me, the result of simplifying and removing the whole ‘loot’ portion of an RPG is bordering on the absurd. Picking up shiny things and wonder at their possible use is a rather unique RPG aspect in my opinion, one that is utterly destroyed in Dragon Age 2.<br />
<br />
<u><b>The downright ugly and scary stuff</b></u><br />
<br />
<b>Recycling</b>. I don’t mind some effective use of styles and interiors, but what Bioware does here is just embarrassing. You have an achievement for visiting as many as 10 caves in the vicinity of Kirkwall, and as much as I like spelunking in the dark, the charm of that is quickly crushed under the heel of a ‘copy/paste’ regime. First cave I visit, fine, something to see and explore. Second cave; also neat. Third cave gives me a sense of deja-vu stepping in, but is soon revealed to be the exact same cave I visited initially. And no, my lackluster sense of direction did not lead me back to the first cave. This was a whole other quest, filled with other inhabitants, and even a barrel and a chest was switched around. Minor disappointment aside, I keep pushing the green button to advance and shortly find myself merrily on my way to the next grand adventure, in a cave. If my blond little Rogue could swear she would probably have uttered “What the hell! Weren’t we just here guys?” Isabela would throw me some snide but funny remark. You might think my navigational skills or lack thereof was at fault again, but sadly no. The jolly band of adventurers stumbled into cave after identical cave until finally something else; a repeat of the second cave. Five out of the six first caves/dungeons I experienced were identical. Not the best first impression. Once this trend settled it was not just limited to caves, but basically all of Kirkwall’s internal and surrounding areas wherever a quest or encounter happened. There is only one mansion, backstreet, dwarven ruin, etc. and they are all reused indefinitely. Talk about environment-friendly recycling!<br />
<br />
<b>First day DLC</b>. The Exiled Prince DLC was a special edition offer you paid for initially, but contrary to usual pre-order gifts and offers, it’s a full DLC with achievements. Microsoft have even included it in the base game if you check your games overview on the Box. 1000/1000 GS will not show a complete game whether you bought the DLC or not. The base game is counted as 1130 total GS, Exiled Prince included.<br />
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Releasing a game with buyable DLC already on the marketplace is just bad form. Releasing a game with buyable DLC on release, that is broken, were just Pinpoint Strikes to the crotch. None of the DLC achievements will unlock and if you bought and played it, prepare to do it all over again and recover your gametag or other hassles. Seriously Bioware? Scary. Over a week later nothing has been done.<br />
<br />
<u><b>The Achievements</b></u><br />
<br />
Nothing even semi-challenging here, just frustrating. Most of them are story-related and non-missable, with a few thrown in to force replay. A few collectibles also make an appearance here, and these are the biggest detractors to good achievement design. For the collectibles you have to play through everything, meet everyone, and play with all your puppets. It’s possible to get away with one thorough play-trough, and then mop up the remaining couple achievements in a speed-run, but that requires a lot of planning and that you know exactly what to do and when.<br />
<br />
The biggest hurdle is probably Supplier to which Foxfire49 made a tremendeusly useful guide with a ton of effort.<br />
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<div class="friendfeeditem"><a href="http://www.trueachievements.com/achievement.aspx?achievementid=147880" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Supplier" class="smallicon" src="http://www.trueachievements.com/imagestore/thumbs/0000524800/524883.jpg" title="Supplier" /></a><span class="green withdesc">The <a href="http://www.trueachievements.com/achievement.aspx?achievementid=147880">Supplier</a> achievement in <a href="http://www.trueachievements.com/Dragon-Age-II-xbox-360.htm">Dragon Age II</a> worth 76 points<span class="achdesc">Find every variety of crafting resources.</span></span> </div><br />
<br />
The Rival achievement I have serious trouble doing in any speedy fashion on a second play-through, as I also try for Supplier with a minimum of time spent. I will try and write up a solution for this once I crack it (without using one of many many glitches, this from the broken first-day DLC).<br />
<br />
<div class="friendfeeditem"><a href="http://www.trueachievements.com/achievement.aspx?achievementid=147885" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Rival" class="smallicon" src="http://www.trueachievements.com/imagestore/thumbs/0000524100/524106.jpg" title="Rival" /></a><a href="http://www.trueachievements.com/Dragon-Age-II-xbox-360.htm"></a><span class="green withdesc">The <a href="http://www.trueachievements.com/achievement.aspx?achievementid=147885">Rival</a> achievement in <a href="http://www.trueachievements.com/Dragon-Age-II-xbox-360.htm">Dragon Age II</a> worth 50 points<span class="achdesc">Earn the rivalry of one of your party members.</span></span> </div><br />
UPDATE: Finally got around to finishing Rival, and made a detailed guide in the process. Check the Rival achievement.Ellusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262226148390947423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14823699.post-57533234359017300962011-05-16T04:50:00.000-07:002011-05-17T04:56:05.404-07:00The Role-Playing Grind: Alpha Protocol<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><i>First published October 27, 2010, over at Trueachievements.org</i><br />
<br />
RPG or Action, Good or Bad, the jury is still out. I did finally complete it though and here are some observations, but mostly banter.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.trueachievements.com/game.aspx?gameid=2356">Alpha Protocol</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">The first original work from Obsidian, the highly debated masters of IP continuation, with titles like Knights of the Old Republic 2 for the good ole Xbox, Neverwinter Nights 2, and current Fallout New Vegas everyone is buried in. Not a bad lineup, so why did it fail commercially? I don’t know. Personally I liked large parts of it:</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><b style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The Good:</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">It’s not-a-fantasy-rpg. Alpha Protocol draws its obvious inspiration from popular ‘modern warfare’ and political thrillers alike. You’ll be thrown into gunfights with Strykers, popping heads with your assault rifle, skulking, and trespassing in places you shouldn’t be while breaking necks you shouldn’t have.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">An aging unreal engine with various limitations delivers okay graphics. The settings are varied and believable. The dialogue system works once you get into it, and the whole thing does come off as at least an A-title.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Variation is probably the games strongest point here, and what really makes or breaks an RPG in my mind. Nowhere will you feel you made stupid choices on character customization, and nowhere will you feel the little RPG-features are just tacked on and pointless. Gaining a level gives you skill points and distributing those makes a semi-notable difference on what you can and cannot do.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Last but not least, hairy-face-fans will be thrilled to know that in character customization your limited selection of appearances will include the ‘lumberjack’ in the category facial hair, a rich jungle of hairy goodness almost putting the new Medal of Honor marketing to shame. Why was this not an essential key selling point?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><b style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The Bad:</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Checkpoints. Combined with the inability to save anywhere, and combined with the dialogue system that warrant some further explanation, makes for unnecessary and unwanted ‘replay-value’. You see, there are a lot of people to met and chat up, and every time you do so you are force-fed a timed response system akin to button mashing sequences like those in Tomb Raider, or the dialogue system in Mass Effect, only with a timer, and consequences. You can choose to come off as the ‘Suave’, the ‘Professional’, the ‘Aggressive’ nut, the Veteran, or mix and match any of those all the time to come off as a total batshit-crazy psycho clown from hell. The last option shouldn’t really be listed under Bad as it provides some comic relief.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">The dialogue system could equally be a good thing. For me however, it introduced just another level of uncertainty, something I had to figure out and master, and as achievements go (which for a completionist is alpha pro…omega), made everything infinitively more complex and time consuming to navigate.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><b style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The Ugly:</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Sadly, the only really ugly thing about Alpha Protocol for my part, were the achievements, so let’s cut to it.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><b style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The Achievements:</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Are interesting at first, then a chore, then madness. I could be lazy, but missing out on one achievement that virtually requires you to play through the game for a third or fourth time…is not that interesting anymore. Sounds insane right? We all know and slightly loathe the ‘play through on hard/insane/batshit-crazy psycho clown’ difficulty settings, and although Alpha Protocol have such an achievement, the ugly comes when working towards one or more multi-part achievement requiring several ‘choices’ over several missions, and doing so will make sure you cannot get the ‘opposing achievement’ which is the exact opposite of what you are doing.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Several interesting achievements alleviates this somewhat, like having your way with every female agent/contact in one game, which is not an easy task at all, wooing and catering to their every whim and preference. Similarly, and even more of a challenge, getting through the whole game without being seduced by the same female agents, gives a good idea of the many mutually exclusive achievements you have to tackle. Once the interesting parts wear off it’s just downright ugly.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">On the upside, Alpha Protocol added another 1000 in the RPG genre, gave an okay experience, and put me on the list of top 100 RPG players. Now to fight for that position with 5 more RPG’s out before Christmas.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">I also took the time to write up a solution for the most difficult achievement encountered; give it a vote if found useful.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><br />
<div class="friendfeeditem" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 700px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.trueachievements.com/achievement.aspx?achievementid=62326" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="http://www.trueachievements.com/imagestore/thumbs/0000307400/307456.jpg" /></a>The <a href="http://www.trueachievements.com/achievement.aspx?achievementid=62326">Ready For Anything</a> achievement in <a href="http://www.trueachievements.com/game.aspx?gameid=2356">Alpha Protocol</a> worth 12 points. Acquire the vast majority of Intel available in the game.</div><div class="friendfeeditem" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 700px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div class="friendfeeditem" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 700px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><br />
</div>Ellusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262226148390947423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14823699.post-20695146531479648392011-05-15T19:56:00.000-07:002011-05-17T04:45:49.729-07:00The Role-Playing Grind: MagnaCarta 2<div><i>First published at Trueachievements.org October 07, 2o10</i><br />
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The RPG grind continues. Picked up this new for about 15€ and shelled out for the DLC before starting play. 400msp for 240 extra GS and a huge in-game advantage up front. More on that below.</div><div><br />
</div><div><a href="http://www.trueachievements.com/game.aspx?gameid=2091">MagnaCarta 2 (EU Ver)</a></div><div><br />
</div><div>Not technically a JRPG, but the term fails on modern games anyhow. Believe it or not, but there are other countries besides Japan making RPGs with pointy-haired girly-men. Korea is the culprit in this case, so Asian would be more fitting. I now coin you ARPGs, or simply ARGs (Roleplaying is one word no?), and come to think of it, that's the perfect feeling one has when grinding out Trapezohedrons, Unobtanium or similar for that hateful last achievement in a 150 hour game that refuse to end.</div><div><br />
</div><div>So, this ARG have it's ups and aaarghs. I'll break it down in the good, the bad and the ugly:</div><div><br />
</div><div><b>The good:</b></div><div>- It's not 100+ hours! Even with the DLC and ekstra achievements, the total of 1240 GS is done in roughly 35-40 hours depending on much guidance you choose to use.</div><div>- There is practically no grind. None of the bosses or battles offer any type of challenge even when you fly through. If you do take the time to grind some ekstra gold or levels towards skillpoints and items, you'll be overpowered in no time.</div><div>- Graphic-wise it's on par with everything else.</div><div><br />
</div><div><b>The bad:</b></div><div>- It's so generic it hurts. From the story to every little twist, to the awkward dialogue of sighs and moans, the settings and characters, it's very hard to resist just skipping what can be skipped.</div><div>- I did just that I admit, after the first few minutes I skipped my first dialogue and was hooked on the timesaver. 40 hours of skipping every dialogue bit, and I still felt I didn't miss out anything storyrelated. That says something about filling up an RPG with hours and hours of spoken dialogue when the story is so predictable and generic you CAN skip it.</div><div>- The reason for skipping all that I'm afraid, is that the whole of MagnaCarta 2 is sadly so boring, that I don't think I could have completed it without taking some shortcuts, and using the few video sequences as bathroom breaks and coffee refills.</div><div>- Downloading the DLC before you start play will give every character an uberweapon-of-doom that is twice better than the last weapons you find without the DLC, ready for use in the tutorial and onwards. Meaning you'll one-hit-kill EVERYTHING from the tutorials and then on for 20 hours at least. The result is total apathy when it comes to combat, and when you reach the end and are forced to use the combat tricks and combos you learned several days ago, prepare to make irritated googles on tutorial questions.</div><div><br />
</div><div><b>The ugly:</b></div><div>- Nothing about Magnacarta 2 is really so ugly that it stands out. Then again, nothing ever shines either. The only thing could be that the lower middle screen is filled with your battle meter, of wich you need to keep a very close eye on unless you "overcharge" and go into a cooldown period. I know I can turn it off, but instead I suffered through - whenever a friend logged on, the notice placed itself neatly over the battlemeter to screw your timing and go into cooldown. Another great way to refill the coffee cup. </div><div><br />
</div><div><b>The Achievements:</b></div><div>- Nothing to it, but with the DLC you are looking at some serious collecting and tracking of stuff. Complete all missions, find all weapons for all characters, and some other easier collectables. Nothing bad, but unless you track everything throughout, you are likely to miss one thing and screw everything. The rest is either story related achievements, and some skill allocation ones. For an ARG this bland, I actually commend it for a good achievement setup. Any misteps here would simply rocket the whole experience into oblivion.</div><div><br />
</div><div>To sum up, easy on the ride, easy on the eyes, easy on the challenge, easy on the time, and easily boring.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Updated: A few spelling oddities and a mention of the now amusing battlemeter / friend logged on clash.<br />
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</div>Ellusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262226148390947423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14823699.post-87477256275082279202011-05-15T16:10:00.001-07:002011-05-17T04:46:40.466-07:00The Role-Playing Grind: Divinity II Ego Draconis<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><i>This was first published over at Trueachievements.org on Sept 27, 2010</i><br />
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Just finnished this up and with the new blog functionality, felt like sharing some thoughts for fellow RPG'ers.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.trueachievements.com/game.aspx?gameid=2092" style="font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial !important; outline-style: none !important; outline-width: initial !important; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Divinity II: Ego Draconis (EU Ver)</span></a><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Simply put, wow! What a great game. Truly a "hidden" gem. Hidden in a sense that it wasn't easy to come by (bought used), recieved mixed and below average reviews. As much as I try to figure out the reason why that is, I cannot:</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">- For an RPG it's beautiful, with detailed sharp graphics and vibrant colours. Compared to say DA, it's simply stunning. Compared to Oblivion/F3, it's quite on par, but feels more 'handcrafted'. Every area in the world feels unique and although some resources (like bridges, castles, towers etc.) are used several times, nothing feels 'generated' but rather lovingly crafted.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">- It's an open world sandbox with restrictions. You'll be traversing 3 large areas, where completing a step in the main story will open up and close areas. Nowhere will you feel a clammy hand holding you and pushing you along a linear path.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">- It has 3 base classes (Priest, Warrior, Hunter) plus a general class, and the great positive is that you can do whatever you want here with mixing classkills whatever way you like. Skills use points, wich you get by levelling up or as rewards for completing tasks or finding 'secrets' - just the way I love it; where putting in the extra effort can really make a difference. In addition you have stat points for the usual attributes like strength, dexterity, vitality etc. that you get in a similar way, by level or tasks.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">- Experience is limited. Meaning there is no grind. Your end level and the ease of the game is relative to how much time you invest, and how thorough you are, not how many hours you can kill the same thing over and over. Once killed a creature will not respawn. Couple this with the above class system and you have my ideal mix.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">- Tons of weapons, armors, jewelry, and ways to modify and change your setup. Enchanting and charming equipment to suit your needs is satisfying - the next improvement is never far way, and more importantly the decisions you make matter - 'every point counts', unlike say, ME/F3/OB and similar where points invested have a severly limited effect.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">- Story is cool, nothing groundbreaking, nothing too odd. The developer actually had the balls to do something different for the ending too. This will not be what you expect, and looking at some comments around the interwebs, many are ticked off that they didn't get their hollywood-ending. This has zero impact on the gameplay itself.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">- Beyond the character you get your own base of operations, that can then be upgraded via quests, and provide you not only with cool new stuff, but a sense of accomplishment unlike such aspects in similar games.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">- You will be able to polymorph into a dragon at will, take to the skies and soar all over the world you were previously earthbound in. All the while breathing fire and mayhem. 'Nuff said.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Convinced yet? I have to admit my taste in RPG's are somewhat non-commercial and may differ from your cookiecutter hold-your-hand American stuff. Other than that, I'm torn if this is the best game in the entire roleplaying genre or not.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">This year, Divinity II will recieve an expansion, Flames of Vengeance. This was too big for Live, and the developer has instead opted to repackage the game and the expansion into a new game - The Dragonknight Saga - due out this year. A completely overhauled gameengine is also included, and I hope this will make Divinity II - TDKS a separate new instance on Live. Looking forward to playing through the whole thing and more again!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Update:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Noticed Divivinty II were missing some guides, probably due to the unfortunate crash. If noone is trying to recover or restore these, I'll put up some new ones.<br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span">Do check out </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; line-height: 19px;">The </span><a href="http://www.trueachievements.com/achievement.aspx?achievementid=37345" style="font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial !important; outline-style: none !important; outline-width: initial !important; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Divinity</a><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"> achievement in </span></span><a href="http://www.trueachievements.com/game.aspx?gameid=2092" style="font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial !important; outline-style: none !important; outline-width: initial !important; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Divinity II: Ego Draconis (EU Ver)</a><br />
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</span></span></span>Ellusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262226148390947423noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14823699.post-72634326004598909312011-05-15T16:00:00.001-07:002011-06-01T16:16:55.598-07:00Gamehelp: Tales of Vesperia - Hardcore Gamer titleWhen doing the Hardcore Gamer title for Raven late in the game, you have to play the Tales of Draspi game 30 times. For the title to pop you don't actually have to play the game, but you do have to pay to play 30 times. Just a quick tip: pay, enter the title screen, exit out. Repeat 29 times for the title.<br />
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---Ellusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07262226148390947423noreply@blogger.com0