Let’s recap. Everyones dead. They’re all dead. They’re dead. NO ones alive, they’re all dead Dave. I mean Steph. If you want the full tale of how we ended up in this sorry predicament, I kindly advise you to read these posts.
An Abduction mission pops up and I load Steph, alone, into the VTOL to face her destiny.
I had high hopes for this game. There was something in the way it was covered that made me think that this high-concept game would be something special, a singularity almost on the indie scene. On paper, the concept is an intriguing one: a virtual social media game, set in a faux Star Treks sci-fi universe where your destiny is largely out of your hands. There was a commentary there on modern life and social media that I found pleasing, plus it had Star Trek jokes, what’s not to love.
To recap from part two… Steph is on the floor of a railcar bleeding out. Jordan has a hole in his chest, slightly dead, and Chris has also bought the farm. Which is a shame as he was due to get a promotion soon…This leaves Nick, a 25% chance shot, 2 rather unhappy Thin men and two turns to save Steph.
Does Steph survive? Can Nick score with the 25% shot? Hit the break to find out.
This is part two of my adventures with XCOM: Enemy Within. You can see the first part here.
Ok, so Ed’s dead, but otherwise I’m in good shape for mission six, First things first though; I start all the researching I think I’ll need in later missions – alien materials are the first order of business. Without better armour my squad won’t live to level up.
You sit there, watching Prime Minister’s Question time and you think, why the Dickens did he say that? I mean you know he’s opposed to that sort of policy and he’s strongly connected to this other group, so why throw a bone towards this marginal seat on a marginal issue?
Play Positech’s Democracy 3 for even ten minutes, and you’ll start to appreciate why. Politics. Politics is why, and it’s even more of a moral and intellectual quagmire than you ever feared…
Given that XCOM is pretty much nothing more than a fantastic story-generator tagged on to a superlative game, I decided not to ‘review’ the title.
Rather I’m going to play the expansion, Enemy Within, using The Reticule writers as cannonfod… I mean as my heroic squaddies. I’ll detail each mission and their heroic (yet probably pointless) deaths. Apart from commonly known features such as mechs and genetics, I’m going into Enemy Within virtually blind. My tales are sure to be hilarious, even if only to witness tales of the team getting wiped out. I’ll be playing in Classic-Ironman mode and once I run out of writers, I’ll consider the game a ‘wipe’.
There’s a lesson here to all budding writers (not that I class myself as a good writer or hell, even a competent one, but we’ll gloss over that..) and it is this: don’t use a potentially great review opener on a weekly games update….
It’s odd. A monster truck is a hulking piece of machinery. Tonnes of supercharged destruction guided by the deft control of an ace driver. Driving one must feel like you have the keys to controlling a giant. Unfortunately Monster Truck Destruction never quite captures that sense of awesome power. It’s a shame too, as there are moments that it proves to be quite an enjoyable game, if only for short lived periods.
Grind. Any person who’s played an MMO, perhaps barring Guild Wars 2, will be intimately familiar with the concept. Some see it as a necessary mechanic to allow the learning of game mechanics and to give a reason to explore the usually huge open-world environments. Others see it as a way of padding and prolonging the experience. In truth, it depends on the game and in some cases it is entirely necessary, in others it is less so. The common denominator though is that the grind is a means to an end and not the driving force of the experience.
I wish I could say the same about Heroes of Camelot.
I’ve recently been scampering around the hunting grounds in the upcoming PC game; Sir, You are Being Hunted. The game is currently in early-alpha and I’ve had chance to sink a few hours into it to give you lucky people my initial impressions.
Everything about this game is quintessentially English. From the predominantly fen-like rural setting, to the fact that a flask of tea will almost fully heal you. It instantly feels comfortable, like a pair of old slippers. In front of a fire. With a border collie.