Borderlands 2: Overlooked Help

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

Only after dismantling another Hyperion facility and killing a Shai'hulud Thresher do we finally reach the Highlands that Sanctuary is floating over. Can't just warp to it though, no sir. For that we head to the village of Overlook to get the warp machine programmed properly, all while Hyperion sends more bots.

I get to really show off here, as all the enemies are clustering towards a fixed point we are meant to defend. DL and Jim get overwhelmed a lot, but rampaging through the enemy (in melee) keeps me aliiiiive! Hahaha I will kill your death! As expected the programming finishes after all the fighting, and we are free to teleport back to Sanctuary for a heroes welcome! Or... not. Actually I doubt most of these meat sacks realize the city is now airborne.

While the Crimson leadership continues to plan the next move, we're kept busy by a sudden influx of new jobs at the now flying Sanctuary, the highlights of which include finding a murderer in which we accuse the wrong suspect - letting the culprit get away, inviting people to Claptraps birthday party which no one attends, helping Ellie put an end to a gang war which we helped start, and retrieving a safe for Marcus from some big blue elemental which we abandon since it is immortal thanks to a bug.

The killer is one of those four guys...

We then return to the town of Overlook with Dr. Ned's meds to help them cure their brain disease then proceed to assemble a town encompassing shield to protect against further Hyperion attacks. Naturally this shield needs to be tested, so we raid the nearby Hyperion outpost and after breaking all the guardian mechs use their super mortar and fire it right at the town.

It goes as well as you might expect!

Insight: The only way to "fix" the blue monster was to leave the area and come back. We got him on our second visit.

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Blaugust Bonus: "What skill do you want to improve on the most?" -Stingite

Currently, anything music related. Finding time to do that is really hard though... Maybe I should change that to focus on time management skill instead? :P

Borderlands 2: Trainwreck 2 - the Wreckening

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

Before going to steal the key to save the planet kinda deal, we opt to have some R&R first - delivering pizza to ungrateful lab rats, winning live grenades at the slot machines in Moxxi's bar (owie), and re-purposing a robot AI into a gun. A really cool, sentient gun.

Mmm that's some sexy pizza!

It's then off to the Tundra to hunt varkids (giant bugs) and meet with 13 year old bomb maker Tina. Varkid hunting is kinda slow thanks to local sniper Mordecai kill stealing all our shit. Anyway, Tina wants us to collect both bomb parts and tea party guests to help us steal the key, tasks that are pretty easy until an inebriated Jim murderizes the last tea party guest. Hah, and I thought I was the psycho!

Good thing Tina still makes us the rocket bombs, casually dressed as bunny dolls which we use to derail one of Jack's trains which was supposed to have his key. Of course, it's a trap. There is no key, just metal and circuits and bullets and rockets in robot shapes that we dismantle. At the same time Roland tells us that Sanctuary has come under heavy attack, and using some special gizmo Scooter rigged plus Firehawk's magic - gets the entire city airborne and teleports it of there. Our next job is simply to catch up!

Have you ever chased a flying, teleporting city before? There's a lot of ground to traverse. Ground slick with blood of the things in our way. Especially those annoying cloaking mini-dragon things. I like to hit them with corrosive bullets since the acid remains visible, even if they don't.

Insight: Letting the varkids coccoon and hatch into stronger versions is a good way to get loot.

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Blaugust Bonus: "What is a favorite Quote/s, and tell us why." -Wilhelm Arcturus

"Happy wife, happy life." because it's true! :P

Borderlands 2: Un-Netted R35CU3

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

Before leaving the Dust to rescue Princess Roland, we decide to first do the very important task of burning an evil volleyball net in the base of the local bandits who also have air support. These buzzards reaaaallly suck as I can't reach them with my buzz saw!

Anyway, we finally burn that net (and the rest of the village) before returning to the Bloodshot Dam with a bandit technical. This time dum dums open the gate. I love it when the enemy is all clustered up together, muahahahaha!

Sure enough, the idiot Bloodshot leader is continually broadcasting his demands on the loud speaker - trying to sell their captive princess to the Hyperion corporation. Hyperion has a different idea though, and just as we reach his cell a robot breaks in and abducts him... again! Some "leader" this loser is turning out to be. We chase the captive screaming bitch princess up the dam, but the constructor bot W4R-D3N that holds Roland at the top is one tough cookie, creating more bots on the spot - some even of the badass variety!

Getting to W4R-D3N through them is too tough, and eventually it takes to the air and flies off like some giant, wingless stone bird with Roland in tow to the Hyperion outpost in the Dust. Obviously we give chase and end up killing the entire base to finally rescue him before he can be probed too much for information.

Terminate all the damned robots!

Back at Sanctuary he spills the beans that Hyperion's leader, Handsome Jack, is intending on opening another vault and to release "the warrior" within which is a bad thing apparently. Jack's just waiting for the key he already has to charge up. We're gonna need to steal it before that happens.

Insight: A buzzard's weak spots are the pilot and the engines. Robot weak spots are the glowy lights, or the unarmored joints which are fun to destroy as it maims them. Kill the drone planes as a priority though. Those little bastards resurrect/repair the bots.

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Blaugust Bonus: "Everyone has specific rituals that they follow, tell us about one of yours." -Everwake

Before going to bed, I always double check that unused power outlets are switched off/unplugged and all the doors and windows are locked. Common sense really.

GTFO (Early Access)

Silly title. Amazing game.

This first person horror survival game is best played cooperatively with up to three allies. Set in some horrible and dark facility crawling with ugly monsters who are for the most part, asleep - you are tasked with various jobs such as lugging heavy objects past doors with alarms, turning on reactors and other very loud objectives.

Before dropping into a level you are free to select your load out to whatever suits you. Just know there are no other weapons to pick up during a level and there are no special skills to unlock. There is no character progression, and you can't buy better ways or unlock skills to finish missions. Everything relies on player cooperation, coordination and ultimately skill.

Watch those corners...

The levels don't even scale. They are balanced for a party of four, but you can still beat them solo if you have the patience, the talent and the balls to do so. Everyone always starts with a heavy hammer too, which is really useful for bopping heads while the monsters sleep. And these are truly monsters. If just eight of the weakest ones come for you at the same time, you will already be in big trouble unless you are skilled. Some maps send these in clusters of thirty plus.

Now this game is not for everyone and plays best if you have friends to go in with you, and more importantly, all of you must have the patience to keep retrying missions because you will fail. A lot. In my current 37 hours of play time, my group of three have only beaten one map. If that scares you then stay away from this game. For everyone else, I give this five giants out of five.

Insight: Stop moving/killing when things flash red if you want to maintain stealth, unless you are sure you can wipe them out before they scream.

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Blaugust Bonus: "What type of content do you feel is severely underrated?" -Roger Edwards

Games like this, where there is no progression at all outside story/map advancement. No "better" armor. No "better" weapons than whatever you pick to start with. No better skills to earn or unlock. No different classes, no different "roles". I've always disliked "roles" anyway. With enough effort, everyone should be able to do everything just like in real life. No wussy wallet warrior methods to help. Everyone is given equal footing, and everything depends on your own mastery of the game.

I'd like to mention that in the earlier story arcs, the combat in Mabinogi was much like this as well. A level 1 character controlled by a competent player could absolutely win against "overpowered" foes which is why I really enjoyed it back then.

Borderlands 2: Firehawk - Ashes and Dust

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

On a quest to save Princess Roland, we three heroes find ourselves in pyromaniac valley - home of all things spicy, hot and burninating to find "the Firehawk" who supposedly knows which closet Roland is being held in. She certainly fits the bill.

Thinking with our fun heads, we mutually save each other from a massive attack by a rival gang - the Bloodshots. She says that Roland is in their castle, no doubt experiencing whatever it is Princess Peach feels while a prisoner to Bowser. But before we go rescue him the Firehawk wants us to check up on her cultists... they are actually really fun guys who seem only focused on setting themselves on fire. This is great as we get to help them burn. Win/win! They do go a bit far when they kidnap a few villagers for roasting though so upon Firehawk's command we ice them for good.

One of the best missions ever!

Then its off to rescue Princess Roland at the Bloodshot Castle Dam but they ain't stupid enough to open the gates for a random looking car so we have to drive all the way out to the Dust where we meet Ellie in her junkyard who offers to make us a "bandit technical" vehicle if we bring her the parts - which is really easy since we destroyed like ten of these cars before reaching her.

When asked why she's all the way out here and not in Sanctuary she says its to get away from her overbearing mom, Moxxi, and her creepy ex Scooter who also happens to be her step-brother. Yikes.

Insight: While in Gunzerking mode, Jim (Gunzerker) constantly regenerates health and ammo!

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Blaugust Bonus: "What are some key sources of media (games/movies/etc) that have shaped your worldview?" -Mailvaltar

Ultima Online showed me early on both how evil some people can be as well as how awesome it is to work cooperatively. Hence I now always strongly prefer cooperative endeavors rather than competitive ones.

Borderlands 2: The Evil H

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

Claptrap docks the boat at some non-snowy wasteland and after murdering and dismembering politely asking the local banditry, we activate a catch-a-ride garage that can spit out cars like bubblegum!

Naturally, DL is great at driving. Takes Jim a few goes to get the hang of it though, especially with one hand in a bag of chips and the other on his beer. Gunner ports are the best fun for me. Run over some yetis and skag dogs while collecting power cells as a welcoming gift for Sanctuary.

The gunner seat is FUN!

Jim plugs them in just in time to power the city shields as the giant, floating H commences planetary bombardment... to no effect! Take that, you evil letter! Inside, Sanctuary is full of familiar feces. I mean faces. Mad Moxxi owns the bar, the unlicensed Dr. Zed practices in the clinic, Scooter tinkers in the garage, Marcus sells guns in person, and Dr. Patricia Tannis runs the Crimson Lance Raider HQ.

The only thing missing is its leader, Roland, so obviously us new guys are sent to find him. Oh, and to kill a bunch of assassins hiding in the nearby waterworks facility first. Those assassins are tough SOBs and have many, many friends. At least they are carrying shineys. As I often say "I like my treasure like I like my baby steaks, raaaaare..." 

Insight: You can deploy two vehicles at once and one of the customization options is the main gun. Generally things that go boom are preferred as the driver can always use the forward machine gun.

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Blaugust Bonus: "What is some popular piece of content/media that seems to be universally loved that you have never been able to understand?" -Dragonray

Lock boxes and basically anything that you pay money for to get a random return - especially when the odds are highly obfuscated. I think anyone that spends money on such things are either incredibly rich and/or incredibly stupid. Also, it is definitely gambling and has no place in mediums that minors can access.

To a lesser extent, the same goes for grinding the same enemies or activities in game for a chance of an item. If I happen to be in the right spot at the right time, cool - I'll help defeat the whatever or run that instance. What I won't do is stay for hours doing the same thing all day everyday for loot. Once is enough. If I get cool gear from it, sweet. If not, too bad.

The only time I find myself repeating things these days is to practice to improve my own real life skills. Or you know, things I really, really enjoy. :P

Neverwinter Online: Path of the Fallen

Introduces cars to D&D.

Continuing on from the hell-bound Vallenhas Stronghold, players can explore more of Avernus is this mod which supposedly has the blood war between devils and demons raging. What's it like? Surprisingly a lot like Borderlands 2 actually, especially when it comes to the design of vehicles, wasteland and domiciles.Yes. Vehicles. Soul-powered vehicles.

 You get a car, you get a car, everyone gets a car!

It's not as terribly genre breaking as I initially feared and it's quite fun to race around the wastes. They do take it a step further with the radio though. Yep. Hell radio has talk shows, ads, and a lot of heavy metal music. Devils have electric guitars apparently.

What they don't really have is the blood war, instead letting the player base dictate which side "wins" per cycle by just keeping track of the type of mobs they camp. I do like that there are a bunch of quests that you can accomplish without combat though, or easy enough combat to progress the campaign. Big plus for that.

Also, I agree with Shintar that while most of the campaign is ho hum story wise the finale is pretty good. All up this mod isn't great but it isn't too bad either (unless you are trying to win the blood war to get a rare boss to spawn, in which case happy grinding).

Insight: Try to kill cambions first as they summon those very damaging flame circles.

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Blaugust Bonus: "If you could change anything about one of your core fandoms, what would it be?" -Belghast

Despite it not being too bad, I still would have preferred it if cars and more modern stuff didn't get shoved into the realms of Dungeons and Dragons.