Waiting for Duviri: The First Failures

Taking a Warframe break before Duviri has given my time to catch up on some other free games I've been collecting in the background. Alas, this set just didn't do it for me from the outset.

Drone Racing League Simulator

This game should really say you need a controller. Using a keyboard takes any move TO THE MAX which makes it hard to follow a three dimensional race course. To its credit there was some one setting up a public game while I was crashing into everything during the tutorial so at least it isn't a "dead" game.

Chenso Club

In this side scrolling platform brawler, you need to stop an alien invasion with violent and gory means. Usually that works well for me, but the disparity between the gore and cuteness is really strange, there's no method to skip comic cutscenes, you lose a life for trying to leave a room with enemies (not just through falling, exiting left or right as well) and what really irked me is that the game basically froze in the tutorial because I wasn't fast enough to kill something. Sorry devs, if you make a possible path a player can take - ensure it goes somewhere, even just a game over screen. This alone was enough for me to confirm this game is shit.

Bloons TD

Or in layman's terms: Balloon Tower Defense. Yep, you are being invaded by balloons and must place monkeys who throw darts, shoot bows and other defenses to stop them and said monkeys can gain XP and get upgraded etc. It looks well polished but I'm not sure who the target market was here as the concept is stupid, even for children. The cringey voice acting doesn't help either. But hey, maybe there are too many "serious" tower defense games out there and this one is the only ridiculous one right?

Wild Cat Gun Machine

Empty is what this game feels like as your chibi sprite runs from room to room avoiding bullets and killing the baddies that teleport in amidst the spartan decoration in each identical chamber. Save points act as shops and there's very little in the way of story and theme. If you want a similar game that does everything better, play Hades.

Runbow

A party platform racer where the constantly changing background color determines what floors and walls you can step on or move through. Other than the "party" segment there are other platformers that better make use of the same mechanic. Also didn't like that again, it's designed for controllers and there's no easy intuitive way to find out that "jump" (default F on keyboard) is what you need to press to start a game.

GTFO: ALT R1B1 - PID Search

If you went OK last time then you should be fine this time too. We had almost the same load out:

Me: Pistol/Shotgun/Cfoam/Spear
DL: DMR/Presicion Rifle/Mines/Hammer
Jim: DMR/Choke Mod Shotgun/Cfoam/Hammer
[Bot]: DMR/Hel Gun/Burst Sentry*/Hammer

*Stuff we didn't use.

From the drop you will soon come to a large crossroads room with your security door options being a key-locked one (non-option for now), a 0-alarm door and a class II alarm. The objective of this level is to get 12 PIDs which seem to be distributed in groups of 3 per zone so you have an illusion of choice. Jim rightfully called that we should do the class II alarm first so that enemies can only spawn from one direction: the way we came in.

The slow moving scan line which obviously will make you go downstairs ensures you will fight the wave which includes giants. These are probably the same set from the last mission you've already beaten twice (including giants), only this time you have no door. We used only guns and melee, forgetting that the bot had a turret...

Beyond the door is just regular stealth bopping while collecting the PIDs (and key card) until you come across the next class III alarm - we cfoamed and mined both doors but the baddies were only interested in the downstairs one. Then repeat until next alarm door (class IV I think) with same defense (only one door to hold) and that last area is huge and has some non-poisonous fog but always small sleepers throughout. Once done return to the crossroads with the 9 PIDs.

We chose the key-locked door next (0 alarm once unlocked) and this area is dark, foggy and has giant sleepers. After all that stealth practice this is the exam! It helps that the terminal was in here (up on the right hand walkway) so I could ping the PIDs while my brothers stealthed around - lock melters definitely handy (and also the bot knows how to use them, just give him space).

With all 12 PIDs its just a sneak out and return to the drop point for an easy extraction. :) If you are wondering what was behind the other 0-alarm door from the crossroads room, darkness, strikers and a scout apparently. Definitely the type of room you'd bring a biotracker into.

GTFO: ALT R1A1 - The Admin

It's been a long while since my last GTFO post and since then, the game has started releasing all the rundowns "for real" this time (marked as "ALT"), which might mean my other write ups are now out of date! O_o No matter. Now we get to see the start, and things sure escalate quickly! Our load out was as follows:

Me: Pistol/Shotgun/Cfoam/Spear
DL: DMR/Presicion Rifle/Mines/Hammer
Jim: DMR/Burt Cannon*/Cfoam/Hammer
[Bot]: DMR/Hel Gun/Burst Sentry*/Hammer

*Stuff we didn't use.

Today's job is retrieving a DNA sample from an HSU unit. Very few foes guard the first few chambers so clear them out quietly and re familiarize yourself with the GTFO computer system to track down objectives. To the West is where you need to go but you'll find a key locked door in the way so instead head North to the Class-II alarm. 6 globs of cfoam on the door and a single mine will be sufficient, but expect giants too.

Beyond that is a heavier sleeper spawn guarding the key. You can and should sneak kill to get your practice up. Also note, that the devs thought it would be fun to put scouts here. We found two lone ones in the edge rooms (that DL just sniped) so beware. On the plus side there's a bonus 0-alarm security door (Zone 51) to the North West that is simply a warehouse with more equipment if you need it.

Otherwise find the key (hopefully no scouts in your way) and unlock the Western door. This is a class IV alarm but be smart by closing the two southern doors before triggering it to force all enemies to come through the single large door, which someone should do cfoam duty on for the duration of the alarm. A mine will help here again - expect the same things from the first alarm hold.

Now this West zone is huge, kinda dark, and has sleeping giants. Save yourself some headaches and kill everything in the first room which has the terminal in the back, ping the HSU, and kill whatever is in the HSU room too. Use of firearms and doors with light cfoam + 1 mine recommended.

Once you find the correct HSU you need to do a team scan which triggers infinite strikers spawning (but only 3-4 at a time) that you'll need to fight through to get back to the drop point and hold to GTFO. If you snuck through all those giants, good luck not making any noise (and preventing the spawn from screaming) on the way back.

Warframe: True Master

Finally, I've won Warframe!

Haha, not really but this was my main personal goal and it feels great to finally have reached MR30. I know there are (so far) two more levels higher than this (Yue is on legendary 2 O_O) but I think I'll leave those ranks alone for now. All I really wanted was the ability to put gigantic statues of myself on the relays! :P

That's a pretty good likeness!

For those wondering, my Loki Firewalker and Xoris combo was excellent for the mastery 30 exam. The disappearing platform tests (MR10/MR13) were more annoying but the (MR28) condensed thermia one was definitely the harder, if not the hardest for those first thirty tests.

Now with that obsession out of the way I might be able to look at other games again. At least for a week or so until the Duviri Paradox comes out. :P

Dog and The Head Hunter

Two movies unrelated to Dog the Bounty Hunter.

Dog (2022)

A soldier (played by Channing Tatum) benched due to his PTSD and documented TBI eagerly tries to get back in the fight, but is first tasked to take a military dog, just as broken as he is, to his handler's funeral. Shenanigans ensue, but are they interesting? Mildly. Alas, that's not enough for me to recommend this.

The Head Hunter

This fantasy horror movie soley focuses on a warrior hermit and titular Head Hunter (Cristopher Rygh) who is summoned via horn call and given jobs through scrolls attached to arrows to go slay beasts in the kingdom. His level of isolation makes me wonder if this was a COVID film?

Anyway, he's pretty good at it based on his trophy collection BUT, and this is a HUGE BUT... almost all combat is off screen. You hear it, but don't see it as he literally leaves and comes back bloodied. It's kind of annoying. Just like that silly window in his cabin. An interesting experiment for sure, but not one I'd actively recommend unless you're looking for something "different".

Walker: Independence and The Winchesters

Prequels of other shows.

Walker: Independence (Season 1)

After an ambush Abby Walker (Katherine McNamara) makes her way to the town of Independence to try bring justice to the criminals that killed her husband, the only problem is her suspicions mostly fall on the little town's new sheriff!

This Western's first season is much better than the series that spawned it. Thumbs up for likeable characters, decent acting, nice sets, and most importantly an interesting plot. I'm hoping it gets a season two.

The Winchesters (Season 1)

After returning from war, John Winchester (Drake Rodger) gets entangled into the life of hunting monsters and other things that go bump in the night which sets up the Supernatural series - but does it really?

Good on them for trying to use creatures mostly not used in the original show, but its telling of the budget that most of them are either person shaped or "possess" people. It's also very strange that there's a notable absence of firearms but it's alright. I'm neither here nor there if this one gets a second season as its fine to end it where it did.

Greenland and Violent Night

Things from the sky.

Greenland

When a comet is set to crash into Earth, every man John (played by Gerard Butler) must do everything he can to get his family to safety, just like the dinosaurs did..? To make it more challenging, his family are dumber than dinosaurs in multiple parts of the film but this is offset by the portrayal of the military who are all amazing people apparently. There are interesting ideas tangled with dumb decisions to push the plot every which way, not helped by the weak CGI. Not recommended.

Violent Night

This comedy features a unique version of Santa (played by David Harbour) who decides to try fix a hostage situation and things get very bloody as naughty people get their gory gifts. While the violence is the big selling point it's also what might turn you off from this film - its definitely not for kids. That said I enjoyed it quite a lot as it had decent action, an ok story, a high body count and very good use of music. If you ever wanted to see Santa toss people into a wood chipper then this is the movie for you.