GhostofAnakin

I finally had some luck tonight in Destiny when it comes to weapons. Usually when I get purple enygrams (sp) and bring them to the Cryptologist, they end up turning into blue weapons/armor. Tonight I got a purple one that ended up turning into a yellow pistol, my first weapon of that color.

Had to abandon a bounty for an epic weapon. One of the criteria was finishing with a bunch more kills in the Crucible than deaths. I hate the MP of Destiny with a passion, so there's no way I'd ever be able to pull that off.

Got my Titan up to level 20 in Destiny. Now I've got one of each class leveled up to 20+. I'm not sure what I'm going to do now. After reaching level 20, it's a bit of a tedious grind to find blue or purple (or gold, if you're lucky) weapons and armor.

Went back to playing Destiny. This time I'm using a Titan, the only class I'd never created a character for before. In terms of "cool factor", IMO the Titan class actually has the best look/armor. Doesn't take long to level them up. I just started today and my Titan is already up to level 9. I haven't even left the Cosmodrome yet, just finished the story missions and did some patrol missions. Hope the expansions planned end up fleshing out a lot of the stuff mentioned briefly but never expanded on in the main campaign, including more to do with the Awoken Queen and that mysterious female that keeps following you around.

I think that goes without saying for most stealth games -- In Hitman Blood Money for instance it was also about trying to memorize the movements of enemy guards and the terrain you were fumbling through. The AI have simply become smarter over the years though, which have ultimately also made it a bit more tricky. Since it's also moved away from you having to infiltrate industrial complexes or military bases to more open and litted areas, it's become.. well more tricky to approach. I did prefer how it was done in Snake Eater, with the jungle infiltration, but you still got enough mechanics at your disposal to keep out of sight and mark enemies to keep track of their movements. Like in previous games I just tend to remove most of the guards near the any points I know I might return to later by using the tranq. I'd agree, however, that stealth shouldn't feel like the exception to the rule in Metal Gear game, which is what it does with Ground Zeroes a bit. Ultimately, I just don't care too much for the sluggish Rockstar-Games-inspired movement animations and things like regenerating health as opposed to using rations to heal. The games have been watered down a bit, I'll say. I ended up enjoying it anyway. Isn't the base automatically on alert as soon as you hit story point x? In any case, I didn't found it hard to extract without being spotted. But if I remember correct, the base was on alert anyway. A lot of stealth games do seem a bit more run and gun now, but I just found Ground Zero really bad at it. Compared to the latest Splinter Cell game (which also had the criticism of being too shooter oriented), it at least felt like you could do the missions completely stealth like if you took your time. This one, it seemed no matter how careful I was, I got spotted. Usually, it seemed due to there being a limited number of routes to take. The prisoner inside the building, for instance, had one exit from that room and a bunch of guards already near the exit. I only played it once, mind you. So maybe it was just a bad first impression and if I actually felt like going back to play a second time, I'd find it more forgiving. But my first impression was it went out of its way to make sure you got into gun fights rather than encourage you to try the stealth approach.

Played some Metal Gear V: Ground Zero. Was not impressed. For a game that's supposed to be stealth-oriented, the final extraction mission is ridiculously difficult to pull off without basically putting the entire base on alert. Hope the main game when it comes out won't be this unforgiving.

Yeah, it's the subtle things, the subtle changes in a character's tone or movements, that really stand out. Not like ME3 with Emo Shepard suddenly running through fields in slow motion in his dreams, all because some kid he's never known died.

I thought both the voice actor for Joel and Ellie did a bang-up job. The programmers (or whoever is responsible) also did a fantastic job of matching the facial animations and body animations with the words being spoken. They seemed ... real, so to speak. A lot of video games, you'll hear the voice actors trying to portray emotion, while the actual character animations look stiff and unnatural.

Finished my New Game+ run through of The Last of Us. It really is a great story. One of the little things that really makes the game come alive is the interactions between Joel and Ellie as they're traveling. Ellie will attempt to whistle, but just end up making a splatting sound. Or she'll shy away if you shine a flashlight in her eye. Just little nuances that make the characters feel alive, rather than your typical "AI companion" who just tags along and doesn't do anything until the next combat sequence. The facial animations also are so in sync with the voice acting. The facial expressions do a good job of conveying every pause in speech, every tone of doubt you hear in their voice. The upgraded guns on my + play through was also satisfyingly rewarding.

I'm not sure whether to buy Evil Within or Alien Isolation. Then again, I'm a wuss when it comes to survival horror games, so maybe both would end up sitting on my shelf not getting any play time.

You play as a cop, yes? Are you tasked with actual investigations and clue solving, or is you being a cop just an excuse to explain why you're at this place and now it's just survival horror in dark corridors?

The "El Diablo' gun in the Last of Us is such a fun gun to use. Now that I've upgraded it to full capacity, I no longer have to deal with it only having 1 or 2 shots before needing to reload it.

A little disappointed with New Game+ in the Last of Us. I was expecting to carry over my inventory from the previous game, but I'm back to starting the game with one pistol. The only thing that carries over is my character's upgrades. I was looking forward to using my flame thrower early on on the mobs of zombies.

Have you come across any tedious areas yet? One of the reviews I read said that the good parts were dragged down by a bunch of walking around with nothing happening.

Is that a sword or a jousting lance?

Loving The Last of Us so far. I can see why it got so much praise. The zombies are a breeze now that I've got some better firepower and bombs. The voice acting is actually quite good for a video game. Not quite Diana Allers quality, mind you. But still good.

I get nightmares just reading about those slow walk dream sequences. Whoever at BioWare thought those would be a good addition to the game should never work in the game industry again.

I just realized now who voices Ellie from The Last of Us. The little kid from Growing Pains!

Playing some The Last of Us. Those zombies that need to be shiv'd are annoying, especially when you don't have enough shivs. I had to waste molotovs on them.

I finally got around to finishing the main story campaign for Destiny. It ended more abruptly than I thought. Not as much further story as I thought there was going to be after the first two planets. I thought they'd flesh out a few more of the characters and factions, but it sort of just glossed over various characters and moved on to the next part. I'm probably going to put it on the shelf for the time being. My character is pretty much as high a level as you can get, and the equipment upgrades are just taking too long. Grinding for one piece of material per day when you need 20 of that type to upgrade is just getting tedious. Can't complain, though. I spent around a solid month playing it. I don't know whether that's depressing or not that a game is considered money well spent if it lasts me a month.

I wonder how the Destiny servers actually work. Despite the fact there's thousands of people playing Destiny at any given time, I find that I only run into about 2 or 3 per map when I'm roaming around. When I'm on the Tower, there will be like 50 people running around. But as soon as I leave there and go to one of the planets for missions, those numbers disappear.

The scarcity of Ascendant Shards/Energy makes leveling up my guns/armor in Destiny a pain in the ass. I finally upgraded my helmet to its fullest potential after earning an Ascendant Shard from a public event, but now I need something like a total of 25 more to upgrade the rest of my gear.

It was a bad list the moment #1 on the list wasn't the silly star child, followed closely by Emo Shepard.

Give it time. They're probably still ranting over her having an attractive face. One of these days, only below average looks and overweight bodies will be the norm for female protagonists!

I don't know if it means anything, but the ascendant shards and ascendant energy tokens are now listed as "legendary" (purple) in Destiny. Previously they were simply blue currency. Speaking of which, those things are a hassle to collect. I need them to upgrade my armor and guns, but it takes forever to actually earn them.