Benie's General Blog

Here we go again… thinking of getting back into the STALKER series again. It’s been months since I last played and my computer specs have really improved.

But anyway, I’m thinking of getting the next installment of the STALKER series; Call of Pripyat. Everywhere I look I see that it starts a few years after the ending of Shadow of Chernobyl. And this time there IS freeplay after the MQ, but you have to choose if you want to stay in The Zone or leave.

So, I have to decide once again if I should get CoP through Steam or Retail. This time the Steam version is the same price as the Retail version. A couple of days ago after I typed this entry, Amazon.com dropped the price by $10.
I asked cheathappens if I would need to find a trainer that works with Steam, and they told me any version for Retail would work just fine for Steam.
Also, I found this topic that has pretty much everyone sucking cheathappens massive dick.

Sorry, where was I? .. Oh yes. The reason why the Retail version was more expensive is because in the USA they released only one version; this “Collector’s Edition” that includes more than just the DVD inside. It includes an area map, tech-tree poster, stickers, and more. I personally don’t care for all the bells and whistles. All I want is the game.

If you’ve seen my debate on SoC if I should get it through Steam or Retail, it pretty much follows that. Just I would have to wait longer for the retail, and I still don’t know. I may just do the same thing I did before. Get CoP through Retail and Steam and see which one is more modifiable.

If you’ve seen the news, Notch is slowly pulling Minecraft out of Alpha, and into Beta. With this, he’s combined /indev/ and /infdev/ into what is known as Minecraft Alpha.
It’s unknown what changes will be done to Creative mode. But soon Minecraft Alpha will have multiplayer support.

There’s also one other thing. To ‘celebrate’ this change, he has released a standalone client that you can play Minecraft Alpha without a browser. This is a big step in the right direction for him…and for me.
It gives me a chance to finally really get into this thing and see what I can do in it.

Already I now know how to make my first ever Pickaxe, thanks to this helpful site which I call “/infdev/ Crafting for Dummies”. I go to it alot now just to verify if what I’m doing is correct. Because there’s alot to learn.

I found a huge, deep hole near my small house leading to a mine. Nothing real valuable down there, but I’m going to claim it as my own. I even made an alternate entrance for it. Was alot of work. I had to deal with several pickaxes breaking, and constant flooding of my mine. Thankfully the water flows instead of multiplies, or I would have a real issue on my hands.

Today I’m going to take the time to explore the huge landmass I saw just NE of my house. May have to move if I find a better mine. But to be honest, I got plenty of resources already. I just don’t know what to do with them. Plenty of coal and cobblestone.

So I finally completed my first playthrough of Borderlands. I had Cory helping me. The very ending seemed weird though.
From what I saw the game seemed to also have a mixture of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. As in the Guardian Angel (the woman you see when you get off the bus) tells you that you HAVE to get to the vault before you lose the chance to open it.
Both games have this.. thing said to give you anything you ever wanted in life. Both games have you having to battle hard to get there.
And then at the end, having to face a superboss that takes an insane amount of punishment before it eventually dies. Then you get to the thing and it’s pretty much Game Over.
But unlike S.T.A.L.K.E.R, there IS freeplay after the MQ. Three DLC’s await you.

Now I only know two of them. This “fort knox”, and Zombie Island. The ‘fort knox’ one seems to be more fun, but it requires you to be at least Level 30 (35 is the prime level). Once you get a ride going, you can travel the ‘highways’, connected by transition portals.
That’s pretty much all I know about it.
Zombie Island is also fun. Has a Scooby Doo reference as well. Basically, there’s this evil scientist (but you’re not supposed to know he’s evil) named Dr. Ned. He’s no where in relation of Dr. Zed.

What do you get when you take a FPS game like Fallout 3, add a shipload of weapon choices, make a comic book world, and ultimately make it fuck an MMORPG like World of Warcraft? You get Borderlands.

And I got it. Didn’t even have to pay $30 through Steam. But why did I get it when I swore I would never get it? A walkthrough done by the same person cracking jokes in the face of all that is scary in Dead Space; Major Slack.
He also made a walkthrough for Far Cry 2, Crysis, and BioShock 2. Now if only he made one for Dragon Age: Origins.
He showed me that the Single Player campaign is awesome and fun. Quite different from the hellhole that is Dead Space, and I thought about getting it.

So I torrented it, only to play in Single Player. And the rest is what’s part of this blog entry. I have been leveling with a Tavern member named Nick, having all sorts of fun and working as a team…. (if you believe this you’re an idiot)
Actually, my first playthough of this game has been nothing but irritating. Nick you see is a speedrunner. Now I’m sure all of you know what a speedrunner is so I don’t have to tell you.
He rushes enemy camps, and I constantly have to save his ass, putting myself in the line of fire (we’re both playing as Hunters), and all he says is “sorry” and says he’ll stop. But he never does.

His true colors showed up today as another Tavern member (named Cory) who has been hearing what I did wants to join us. He’s completed the game three times. But since this is his first time playing on the PC version (and it’s been awhile since he’s played and forgot most of what he knows), we had to make new chars to level him up.
Before I realized what was happening, Nick was already doing his speedrunning, taking Cory with him who never complained about what was going on. Soon those two were just going through quest after quest instead of just grinding on the enemies to raise their levels better, and not giving me any time to upgrade my weapons. So I left.

He says he’s sorry, so I’m hoping THIS time he means it, and come back.
‘Round 2’ is even worse. Both are in Skag Gully as Level 8’s, and I’m still a 6. Nick begins to do a Hard quest. I’m like “We shouldn’t even BE here!!” when I realized where we were in the gully. A Badass Skag shows up. Nick’s running through the valley here with Skags chasing him. Cory with me are trying to kill this Badass. I accidentally drop down and find myself being chased. Then I stop and I’m all “fuck it. Kill me already” because I’m getting SICK of Nick doing this.
Nick comes back, gets killed. Cory is next.

And Cory’s all “wow, that’s good XP!”, and I’m “I rather survive than get XP”, “Why?” asks Nick.
That was my breaking point there. What’s so good about XP if you’re going to die?!?!
I pretty much let them have it and left. This time never coming back. I had it. I have fucking HAD IT with him.

I thought about just fucking the game all together. But I got to remind myself that Borderlands can also be soloed. It has a Single Player mode for a reason. Not to mention enemies are weaker compared to co-op.
Still, playing by yourself isn’t as fun as co-op with a friend.

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Extending this blog post, I really don’t know if I’m going to continue playing this game. I’m Level 28 now but I feel like I don’t deserve it; because I haven’t learned a thing about how to handle this game on my own.
I still have no idea how to compare guns to know what I need and don’t, let alone what to fucking sell after a long round of questing. And I feel Nick is getting tired of my whining that I only want a Healing Shield, except just accepting what he wants to give me.
Also, the guns he gives me. Again, I feel I don’t deserve them. See my reason above about not knowing how to compare. I feel Nick’s doing all the work and I’m taking the credit. And that’s not right.

Just yesterday I agreed that me and Nick do one of the DLC’s, called Zombie Island. It’s got some nice guns there. But Nick’s computer is pretty unstable and I get D/C’d alot. Especially during what he thought was the final mission of this DLC. We jump onto this building to avoid the zombies, and Nick freezes up again.
By this time it’s getting late. So Nick asks if he can go on and do the rest of the DLC. I should had said “no. We have to do it together” but I didn’t. So he went on and did the entire thing. Now I have no idea if I can do it since I never went this far in the walkthrough. And to be honest I really don’t feel like playing anything today.

Hello and welcome to my attempt to put down a review of Dead Space on paper.
I appoligise if it seems fragmented in places. Just this game has more than just a few things to talk about. And I tend to jump ahead of myself. And I’m attempting to fix my first attempt.

Anyway, for the past two days (and the lack of sleep) I’ve been playing it. Getting into the story. And learning in detail about the story, the characters, and other shit.

The story starts off as you, Engineer Isaac Clarke as a part of a search and rescue team, heading to the massive asteroid/planet mining ship; the USG Ishimura. It lost contact with Earth and your team is sent out to investigate. You’ve been brought on this mission due to your expertize in making ships work again.
You also have a girlfriend, Nicole, who is stationed on the ship. She mentions something terrible has happened but won’t go into details.
As you approach, you notice something very strange with the ship. It’s lifeless, and not responding to anyone. Of course though, shit goes wrong and the pod crash-lands in the ship. After the impact, everyone manages to survive.

So you follow your team into the ship and attempt to continue the mission of figuring out why the ship lost contact. Soon your team is attacked by what are known as Slashers, and you’re forced to run for your life while the freaks of nature chase you.

So, now you have a conveniently-placed gun (what looks like a gun anyway) sitting ontop of a control panel. You pick it up and notice it’s called the Plasma Cutter.
You’ll also notice something else. Aiming for the body or the head isn’t logical. You actually have to cut off the limbs of every freak you see to kill it. And if you somehow forget, it gets repeated four more times to aim for the limbs.
Tell me that isn’t stupid. Yet it’s also ingenious at the same time since in normal shooter games, aiming for the head is the best way to kill something. This is the first game I know that doesn’t follow this rule.

So now you realize this is a TPS(Third-Person Shooter). You also will realize why these freaks are onboard and why they kinda look like humans. Something about a ‘Marker’ that was brought onboard the ship after really opening up the planet below and making a nice crater on the planet surface.

So anyway, that’s pretty much the story. Now, me just tell you about the combat. For starters, you can only have a maximum of four weapons at anytime. Ammo can by found from lockers, killing freaks, and the Stores. Along with other stuff like med packs, Credits, and Stasis rechargers.
Your suit can be upgraded all the way to Level 5, but you have to find the schematics of it, and then take it to a Store to be purchased.
You can sell your unneeded crap, or store your valuable items (such as large med packs) for later use to clear your inventory.

Ok. Now we talk Stasis. Still early in the game infront of a malfunctioning door is the Stasis Module. This can be used to temporary freeze enemies in place, as you cut off their limbs. As well as getting by obstacles such as the door I mentioned.
On Level 2 when you step out of the tram, you’re given the Kinesis Module. This can move objects out of your way. As well as a ‘Gravity Gun’ against enemies. Just pick up something, then throw it by pressing the primary mouse button. Very useful in the later levels.
To use any kind of power, you have to hold your aim key at the target with your weapons crosshair, then tap (by default) C for Stasis, and K for Kinesis.
You can recharge your Stasis bar by stopping at any Stasis Recharging unit. Or use a Stasis Pack.

You can also upgrade your weapons, your RIG(armor), and other stuff by finding or buying Power Nodes, and taking them to a bench. You use the nodes to unlock circuits to boost your Damage, your damage duration, your Air, your Hit Points, and all sorts of other things.

Now I just mentioned a tram. Yes, there is a tram. It gets you to each level and section of the ship. But you have to repair it first. This can be done on the first level, while learning how Stasis works by slowing down stuff.

Now that is out of the way, time to tear this game apart and find things I hate about it. And there’s only three.
1. The stupid “Save Stations” scattered about each level. I remember another game that had this dumb feature. I think I stopped playing it.
2. The way the story is playing so far. It almost reminds me of Fallout 3. “Hey, you fixed it! Wait.. NO! Shit! This is broken now! You have to go through a shit scary area and fix it! Oh BTW, I saw something BIG down there!”, and the cycle keeps repeating.
3. Forced WASD keys. It completely ignores if you want to use arrow keys to move.

Anyway, that’s pretty much all I need to say without giving out spoilers. All I do know is there’s going to be a big boss battle at the end of this.
OHH! One last thing. Try not to save frequently in only one save slot like I did on my first playthrough. There might be a time where the game will bug out on you, and you will be fucked and have to restart the game all over again. This is why there’s 12 save slots.

During the ‘EA Week’ Steam sale, Dead Space was on sale for $9.99. I’ve heard of Dead Space, and think I’ve seen a few previews of it.
From what I’ve seen, it seems to be a horror FPS. Though I know nothing about the story or the characters that play their parts in it. I did keep reading something about being on a ship, and going deeper and deeper in it.
Pictures show zombies and horrified creatures. Could this be another DOOM clone?

Anyway.. I asked Facepunch if it was worth the money. The answer was something like “fuck yes it is. GET IT NOW, FAG!!”. Though I didn’t see it until late this morning, and bought it before they switched to the next day-only sale, then went to bed.

The next day (today), I spent half the fucking day waiting for it to download. Horrible…horrible download speeds. I was getting on average around <100 kb/s to 150 kb/s. But it finally finished. Yet I didn’t immediately jump in and start playing it, since I know very little about this game.

I decided to do what would be a sin in most players eyes; look for cheats. The words “why buy the game if you’re just going to cheat in it?!” do fit in this instance. But from what little I knew I wanted not to pee in my pants. Just god mode. All I wanted until I understand more about the game.
My search was swift, and correct. I had to dodge Xbox 360 and PS3 cheats to look for the PC version. Unfortunately on every page, I seemed to have made a typo when it was telling me to use my invisible Xbox 360 controller IN the PC version. What the FUCK!?
Later I found out Dead Space was originally made for the Xbox 360, and EA was too lazy to make cheats for the PC.

So that leaves me to find a trainer. Awesome. I found some. Hey, there’s even one for the Steam version! SWEET! .. WHAT?! PROMO VERSION?!?
The thoughts of what happened when it came to looking for a trainer for Mirror’s Edge raced at me and hit like a wall of bricks. The last time I saw that was when.. oh god. That means cha-chinghappens.com has the trainer!!
And I was right.. cheathappens.com did have the only trainer that works for the Steam version. And it was the same scenario with the Mirror’s Edge trainer; only available to Unlimited members. D:<

Do I dare pay $30 again, but this time to get a trainer for a game I know little about? In this day and age, that is alot of money. I asked around in the Tavern; the Skype group angry created so me and his friends can chat without needing Steam. One of them searched around and told me the only way I may be able to possibly bypass cheathappens.com’s tracking code is to torrent the trailer. But he doesn’t guarantee it’ll work with the Steam version.

So I have five options here;
1. Take my chances with the torrent.
2. Pay the $30 for Unlimited Membership and get cheathappens.com’s trainer, that I know will work with the Steam version.
3. Play the game as it is.
4. Uninstall the damn thing and forget I bought it.
5. Buy the game retail and download the free trainer from cheathappens.com.

I think this is going to be my final rewrite of this blog entry. Since I see no need to create one everytime I rage or find something cool.

It’s been half a week since I bought the game and started driving around the huge game world. I’m not going to say ‘massive’ because IMO, you would think the time they took to develop this game, they could do the entire fucking USA! Now that would be epic. 🙂

Anyway, I’ve pretty much explored the entire map. So far the coolest stretch of road has to be.. drumroll please…
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US 395. Not for the epic interchange in Reno, but for the times of feeling like you’re driving out in the wild west. It’s even cooler without the shitty AI to deal with. And I like the small towns that dot the highway.

But like I said, I do have to discuss the AI. The 35MPH-going, crazy lane changing, stopping infront of you(ing), shitty AI.
Let me just say I believe I’ve seen worse though, when it came to the 18 WoS series. Primary there’s no way to just turn them off in it. Also, they don’t honk at you when you’re stopped.

First off, the behavior of AI drivers, and the police. How they seem to stop right infront of you with no warning. No traffic infront of it for miles.
And if you hit the driver due to this, guess what? The cops blame, you. They go after, you. Not the driver that caused you to hit him! D:
1C Company promised that the police would go after AI drivers that also don’t follow the rules of the road; as well as the player. But apparently they watch you more than them.
I’m surprised I haven’t lost my license yet.

Second thing, the speed. .. Oh god the speed.
I expect truckers and cars to go somewhere around 65MPH on interstates. Instead, most of them will go a mind-numbing 35MPH. This is worse on two-lane roads where you cannot pass the guy infront of you due to fear of being arrested by the police. Since the middle is a solid yellow line ALL the way from Town A to Town B.
I swear it takes me back to the days of 18WoS: Convoy, of the pathetic excuse they did by turning I-80 into a two-way street. Bad memories…

Another thing about the AIs. According to the site a few years ago in the Tips section, it says not to honk your horn at people, because you may cause them to road rage. The AIs don’t even know what a horn is. Fucking braindead bastards!!
And did I mention that if you get close to an AI driver, there is no driver! The car is moving by itself.

Going past the AI’s, let’s move on to the numerous blocked off roads. Their purpose is to prohibit trucks from going into areas they’re not allowed. This includes the AIs. But probably the worst of this is US 101 in San Francisco. Every road that connects to the highway is blocked off to prevent traffic from turning.
This is worse with the AIs. They often get stuck while waiting for an invisible car infront of them to turn. This often leads to me having to pass them via a sidewalk. Fortunately there’s no pedestrians. I hate to see what LA looks like if San Francisco is like this.
Also, San Francisco isn’t even on the map. As in, there’s no marker. It’s just a drive-through city. Sucks..

Ok. I’ve discussed the AI’s, and the annoying blocked off roads. Now we go to how to play this game, and which mode is which.

First, there’s this Single Mission mode. Where you can pick any warehouse on the map, your truck, set the weather and all of the other shit. Then when you start, you got to choose which trailer you wanna haul and where to. So you picked your trailer and pull out, then see this message “YOU ARE SECOND” or something like that, with a black shark next to it.
This is your Black Shark communicator. Comes free in the game. It’s what shows the HUD and all of that other neat stuff.
Anyway.. 1C Company mentioned that they were going to implement a cargo race feature. Well, this is it. Not only should you drive defensively, you also HAVE to be first or you will fail.. horribly. Actually, you won’t fail, you just won’t get as much money.
And if you manage to get the trailer to it’s destination warehouse (I actually LOST mine the second I tried to get in), you’ll get money and then Game Over. This is pretty much a way to get used to the game. Know how to control the truck. How to use the map. How to read road signs. … How to avoid getting pulled over by the cops.

Story mode is pretty much the main game. It includes a story with freeplay at the end, plus cargo racing and side missions. You also can drive anywhere you want in the game world, that isn’t blocked off by those god damn barriers.
When I first started playing, I wasn’t really seeing a ‘story’.
Of course the only thing that was on my mind, was “Gotta get to I-80!! EEEEEE!!! :D”

But actually this story is pretty much what they’ve been saying when the game was announced: a young trucker named Nick Armstrong wants to start a new life in America, and comes to California to start his own trucking business. With the help of his friend Matthew, he gets that wish.

You start off in Oxnard. Right next to US 101S. You’re given a shitty Euro’ish starter truck (no offense to people that like them. But that’s what I called them in the 18 WoS series).

After he leaves, you can pretty much do whatever you want. Do the story, or just drive around. There’s no real way (that I know of) that actually triggers the story. But if you drive around without hauling trailers, eventually you will start getting calls on your CB from people you’ve never seen nor heard of, asking you if you would haul this trailer from Here to There and telling you they’ll pay you, and you’ll have the option to accept or decline the offer.
There are also people you see standing on the side of the road. Sometimes with a trailer next to them. This is another form of a side quest. To interact with them, you have to be 10MPH or less around them and hit your Enter key by default.

But with all quests, story or not, there is an unrealistic time limit. For trailer delivery missions, if you don’t make it before time is up, you will pay a hefty fine.

Money is the way the game works. With money, you got power. Power to really kick off your transportation service by hiring drivers, buying trucks, and buying new HQs to extend your chances to land a contract in cities and towns you couldn’t before (just like real trucking).
Now I don’t know if this is possible, and it kinda scares and at the same time, makes me rage, but when you go to your main HQ in Oxnard and login to your computer, there’s a way to view the other transportation companies.
I kinda fear that if one of them gets to the top before you do, the game is over and you’ll have to do a new game.

I really, really want to get up there, but without money I can’t do shit. Sure, they give you $200,000 to start off with. But that’s not enough for me. 😛
Since I’m a cheater… heh. Sadly, this is one game I’ll never have that freedom.
1C Company removed the cheats. And there’s no trainers either. This is mentioned in an interview with Igor Belego, the head developer of this game that was done a month after the release of the Russian version, that cheats would not be added.
And to also not use memory-editing software such as Cheat Engine. Something about ‘game malfunctions detected’ of people trying to edit the money value, as what I’ve been attempting to do but have failed to get it working.

Moving on. Back to bashing the hell out of this game. 🙂

They overdo it on the road signs. Unnecessary. There’s like a “I-80W Town here” sign every.. 1000 FT. Guessing that’s what California highways are like. But I expected more of the lines of just a simple sign on the side of the road that has like “I-80 WEST” on it, like around here IRL. The only thing that seems to represent what I mean is the signs on US 101 in Northern CA.
Yet, they don’t overdo it when it comes to “TO: Interstate here” signs, like when approaching I-5 when on I-80. Before you know it, you’re already told “GO HERE to merge!”
Also I noticed of a screenshot as you approach I-80 from US 101 N, it shows;
|101 NORTH | 80 NORTH |
|…………………..|………………….|
| G G Bridge | Bay Bridge |
Seriously. How could they let this typo go by? Everyone knows I-80 goes East/West. Not North. 😛

And then there’s the turnarounds. For example, you’re on US 101S heading for.. LA. Ahead, there’s a sign on the right showing US 101N, and a Truck Stop sign. You take this exit and it shows you how to go back North. Is this, again, the way California does it? Doesn’t happen here. I swear the state is like, it has its own country; having rules of the road that are completely different from what you find around here.
For example, the left lane of an interstate is the Fast Lane. Here in normal land (Kentuckiana), the fast lane is the right lane. What the fuck..?

One last thing. I can’t get over how.. stale the player character is when it comes to chat dialog. Not to mention the animations. It looks like something a monkey made.
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But in short, Rig’n’Roll isn’t a bad game, for its time. It’s just, rough around the edges. And feels, old compared to todays games.
I was hoping I could go on every highway and byway in this game, but I guess this is good enough. Going up and down I-80 wasn’t as.. exciting as I hoped it would be. No dual bridges. No access to Treasure Island. No going through Downtown Sacramento. And there was only two I-80 brother and sister. I-580 and I-880.
But they had to downsize the length of the trips to fit in the game. Which means getting rid of awesome detail.
But still, interchange structure is something I like in this game, which is the reason I wanted it. And they got some nice ones. Like the I-80/580/Oakland Warehouse one. And ones along I-5. And especially the ones of I-10 in and around LA. Ohh god where those fun to travel on.

Even the fact I can’t cheat, it’s not really that bad to be honest. And if I fail and lose all of my money, I’ll just start a new game. Sure, a money cheat would had been nice, but..
I do just wish trucks weren’t so expensive though.. or they should had given you a choice of what truck you wanna drive when you play a new Story mode game. Like in the Single Mission mode.

And let’s not forget the breathtaking scenery in some areas in this game. Such as the overlook between Burney and Redding. And the cliffside between Alturas and Burney (both on SR 299).

They’re working on new addons for the game. One is based from signs you see occasionally that have “This Fall…” and a picture of the famous Las Vegas sign in real life. And others they rather not discuss.
I just hope some of them will fix the shitty AI and add new features.

And maybe this right here could be the start of them attempting to, who knows… do the entire USA? 😀 Though I probably won’t be alive when they move to Indiana.
But if they do… ’18 Wheels of Steel: AWESOME edition’ anyone?

And that pretty much concludes my frequently-edited opinion and review of Rig’n’Roll.