I bit the bullet yesterday and bought a mechanical keyboard. I didn’t need one because the Logitech G15 I’ve been using is still working perfectly. But I’ve been curious since I first heard about mechanical keyboards so I figured that I should get one while the funds are still flexible. I also thought that getting one fits as sort of an acknowledgment for the blog for having an interesting year.
So there it is, a Razer Blackwidow, one of the cheaper models out there because I didn’t want to gamble too much. The material I found on it said it’s a solid model and so far it has yet to disappoint. Not that I’m hoping for that to happen, mind you, but like I said it’s a gamble. I like the old school feel, from the texture of the individual keys to the sound they make. Naturally, I’ve had some thoughts about using this in the office and came to the conclusion that it won’t be a good idea. First, the noise will likely drive my co-workers crazy. Second, anyone in the nearby vicinity will be able to tell if you’re typing or not, giving them a clear indication about your productivity. Or, more importantly, the lack of it.
While it’s certainly a lot of fun to type with, I’m still holding off on whether it will actually help my gaming. I don’t really think so, but we’ll see. It’s probably too early to tell, but I like it so far.
Okay, this one of those “I’m late to the party” posts but here it is anyway. Last week I managed to get my hands on Bastion, an action RPG by Supergiant Games. It turned out to be so much fun to play the said hands refused to let go until it was over.
Like most indie titles Bastion is a short game. It took me less than a day total to finish it. But don’t let the length stop you. It has so much depth that I think it deserves to be played through more than once. What I like about it is that it allows quite a bit of customization. You can choose which weapons to bring, tweak them accordingly (for example, do you want a shotgun with more range or a wider spread?) and even make the game tougher but also more rewarding.
The clip shows me playing it on New Game Plus, using the Dueling Pistols and Scrap Musket. “Who Knows Where” is the game’s equivalent of a non-randomly generated, gauntlet dungeon.
The following is both a guide and a narrative on the learning points that I went through as a mage in Skyrim. Most of it is informative, but I have to admit that some of my realizations are so obvious I wanted to slap myself silly for not seeing them earlier.
Introduction
Playing a mage in Skyrim is a different experience compared to previous TES titles because of two things:
·Custom spell creation is currently not supported.
·There is no spellcasting equivalent for stacking Fortify Smithing.
Both Oblivion and Morrowind supported custom spell creation, allowing players to make their own spells. This led to the discovery of spell combinations that were beyond what the game could handle. It was possible, for example, to craft a single spell that caused Fire damage and Weakness to Fire at the same time. The two effects complemented each other, boosting the damage output so much that most foes died from a single hit. This, along with the discovery of other combinations, made most fights trivial.
I finished Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception today after spending a two-day marathon on it. And by marathon I mean I played it for hours until I was too sleepy to continue. From what I can remember, I spent roughly an hour and twenty minutes total behind cover, trying not to get shot.
The first game I played in the series was Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. From my experience with it I knew that frustration will eventually kick in if I played a sequence over and over, like those fights that had five enemies shooting at you and one of them had a rocket launcher. It got worse near the end, when I had to fight the Guardians. They were fast and incredibly durable, requiring almost a full clip from an automatic weapon each to take down. And that was on Normal difficulty.
Knowing that made me think twice about selecting Hard when I started Uncharted 3, but pride took over reason so I went ahead and chose that anyway. Things were great until I got to the ship graveyard level.
Skyrim. I’ve been playing it for about three weeks now and I’m having difficulty finding a place to start from when I try to write about it. I guess I’ll start with how the character I’m playing now turned out.
I originally intended to turn her into a dual-wielding warrior. Dual-wielding was only possible through mods in Oblivion so seeing it available in Skyrim’s introduction sequence was refreshing and, I have to admit, a bit exciting to see. This was how I played the game until I was around level 20.
Things took a different turn when I found a few exploits online. I was able to get Sneak up to around 80 by attacking the Greybeards, then I maxed Speech by repeatedly selecting the correct dialog options in Riften, going as far as creating a macro using my G15 keyboard to automate the process. Predictably, doing this bit me in the ass later on. The monsters scaled beyond my ability to fight them and I found myself scrambling for a solution when the first elite dragon showed up.
Witcher 2 allows you to modify Geralt according to your liking. Modding his stats and abilities is a simple task thanks to an easy-to-read XML file. By the end of this guide you should become comfortable with editing Geralt to mold him to the witcher you want him to be.
Getting Started
1. Download this file. Name it as geralt_basic.xml.
2. Open it using a text or XML editor.
3. Lines in brackets like <this> are entries you can look for in the file.
4. What you’re looking at is my modified file. If you have a mod already installed it might have its own version of geralt_basic (check \<witcher 2 install folder>\CookedPC\abilities\). I recommend you edit that instead.
5. If you’re editing an existing geralt_basic then the min/max values are likely going to be different. That shouldn’t be a problem.
The first Deus Ex was a remarkable game because of one thing: choices. Whenever it presented a problem it always offered more than one solution. Need to get inside a building? You can pick the lock on the door, get the key from a guard, convince the guard to open the door for you or just blow up the damn door. If you don’t mind doing a bit of exploring you might find a backdoor or a ladder that leads to a vent or an open window. The abundance of choices in the game was unprecedented at the time and has become a hallmark of the series.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is no different. The game allows multiple paths, solutions and approaches like its predecessor. Personally, one quest in the game stands out. It involves getting inside a police station.
Welcome to Zeroinitiate.com. Here you’ll find gaming news, previews, reviews along with the occasional guide/walkthrough. This site is what you get when you mix writing and gaming. Aside from informing you about the latest news and updates, we’ll throw in our thoughts as well. Of course, feel free to add your own via the comments section.
