Keeping your mind open is a sign of intelligence; don't waste it.

• 10Dec 09

  Toughest bosses encounters

  Hey, everyone!

  I was taking a look in the games of my collection, looking for the ones I've finished, those I never played more than an hour and also the titles I finished uncountable times already. Naturally, when it comes to First-Person Shooters, the list is quite large in any of those categories. DOOM, for instance, is one game that I simply don't know how many times I finished. But let's face it: the final bosses in DOOM are quite easy, even at the hardest difficulty level. The game itself may be punishing sometimes, but every average gamer will pass the final challenge with no problems at all. The same can't be said about a few other games, though.

  Several bosses made me re-load the progress a lot, and a few of them almost made me stop playing the game. It's like when you pass through an entire ocean by swimming, to finally die at the beach. It's so frustrating that I can't simply give up, so I always keep trying during hours and hours until I find a way out. What games am I referring to? I'll list the most relevant ones below (from "hard" to the "almost impossible" one). If you're going to reply to this blog, feel free to post yours too, keeping in mind that final-sequences-without-bosses also count.

  #3 -->Blood and Magic (1996, Interplay): This is an ADnD Real-Time Strategy game for the PC, MS-DOS. I finished it in the past year and it was a great challenge during all the campaign maps. But the last level is just unfair; your enemy has much more powerful units than you, and he attacks with total fury all the time. The AI uses a huge number of weak golems to transform them into the toughest monsters of the game through a conveniently positioned magical forge. I had to take a deep breath and carefully study all the pixels of the battlefield, so I could get the best of it. I also used some Artificial Intelligence limitations (to not say "glitches") and cheated the computer a little, so I could resist bravely with my outnumbered army. It was simply epic when I finally did it! If you want to know more about the game, take a look on my review.

  #2 -->DOOM 3: Resurrection of Evil (2005, Nerve Software and id Software): Some may say that the method used to kill Maledict is scripted; you just need to follow several steps correctly in order to succeed. Well, maybe I did it all wrong, but I tried so many times in so many different ways that I guess it isn't scripted at all. The flying demon of DOOM 3 expansion is definitely hard, at least on "Veteran" difficulty (imagine how it would be on "Nightmare"...). You fully charge up a lot of BFG shots and hit right on the guy's face, but it isn't enough if you don't use the artifact correctly. While trying to kill him, Maledict casts a lot of nasty spells that are almost impossible to dodge, and they deal a serious amount of damage. For more info on this game, you may read my review if you want.

  #1 -->Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders (1996, Raven Software): I almost gave up while trying killing D'Sparil, the final boss of the third chapter of this great game. I even took a look at the videos in Youtube, to see if I was doing something wrong. After reading several comments of a particular video (which shows the tough guy being killed easily), it was said that the difficulty level was one level below the hardest one. Well, I was on the hardest setting and I came to a conclusion: Raven Software didn't test the final boss at this difficulty level. The guy simply doesn't die, even if you use all your resources and the extra ones spread around the map. This is because D'Sparil summons a lot of mages and, after taking some damage, he starts to teleport around with a freakin' speed. What I did to beat him? Well, I was using a Win32 port (ZDOOM v2.1.7) to run Heretic better on my Windows XP, but I never used the mouse to aim, because the original game under DOSBox doesn't allow you to do so (actually, it's possible to configure the mouse in the MS-DOS version, but the movement sucks hard). The Win32 port allows you to play the game with keyboard and mouse, just like any modern game; so I reconfigured the command keys and, after hours of useless attempts trying to kill the boss, I finally did it! Naturally, aiming with the mouse along with a Win32 port makes it much easier, which means that it would be virtually impossible (at least for me) to beat the original game under MS-DOS or DOSBox. Gonna try it in a distant future, anyway. =) Here's my review on Heretic, if you're interested in reading about it.

  • Posted Dec 10, 2009 11:43 am PT
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• 18Nov 09

  The Exclusion Zone never looked so good

  Hey, everybody!

  Most of my friends here in GS know that I love First-Person Shooters and, as a secondary favorite genre, slow-paced Adventures. When I like a game, not only I want to explore every bit of it, but also try quality custom content from the on-line communities. I played mods and total conversions for DOOM 3, Jedi Knight: Academy, Half-Life and so, but I never got anything as amazing as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Complete 2009. This is the best mod I ever played in my life, and not only greatly improves the graphics on S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, but also adds weapons, sounds, special effects (scary night and breathtaking sunrises, for instance) and a lot of gameplay tweaks. It improves the game in a way that definitely makes it flawless. I ain't kidding about that, really.

  S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Complete 2009, when unpacked, adds more than 1GB of custom content that improves the original game to unbelievable levels. I'm playing it again on "Master" difficulty, finishing the game for the third time. My closest friends know well that I love S.T.A.L.K.E.R., so it isn't a big surprise that I gave this one a solid 9.5 out of 10. If the game was released with this amazing and huge mod applied, I would have given it 10 out of 10 without a doubt. The graphics and gameplay are even better than in Clear Sky, which is, even with its problems, an excellent game.

  If you added S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat in your "Wish list" but can't wait any longer for its release, you should consider installing Shadow of Chernobyl again and play it with the Complete 2009 mod applied. If you're a newcomer to the series, you should install the mod as well, since it only improves the game without staying far from the original feel. In truth, Complete 2009 even corrects bugs and AI issues that the official patches didn't fix. After beating the game, the mod allows the player to keep wandering in the Zone freely, accomplishing random missions and exploring dangerous areas that he/she avoided before.

  Finally, let me give you guys a little update: I'm still playing Penumbra: Black Plague and totally enjoying it. This is a very immersive Adventure game, although it better fits in the Survival Horror genre. I stopped with Torchlight after ten hours of gameplay, since the game was incredibly easy even at the hardest level... and I played with a type of character that I totally sucks playing with in every RPG game (Destroyer, the melee tank of Torchlight). I can't stick with easy games for too long, so I decided to uninstall Torchlight; I'm not sure if I'll play this game again, especially after a horrible crash that made me lose a few hours of progress.

  My next activities will be: upload screenshots and videos from Penumbra: Collection and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Complete 2009; review the following titles: HeXen: Death Kings of the Dark Citadel, Wheel of Time, Zombie Shooter, One Must Fall 2097 and Fate.

  Keep gaming!

  • Posted Nov 18, 2009 6:20 pm PT
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• 28Oct 09

  Tagged as well

  Hey, everyone!

  So, I got tagged by topsemag55, and below are ten random facts about me:

  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  1. I'm a Brazilian gamer since I was four years old;

  2. I live in Teresopolis (Rio de Janeiro), a small town surrounded by beautiful mountains;

  3. After an unsuccessful relationship, I'm single right now, but I do wish to have kids someday (it will take as much time as possible, trust me);

  4. I love to take a ride with my bike during the mornings;

  5. Instead of going to a gym, I work out in my own house;

  6. I don't drink alcohol and sodas alike;

  7. I love to play casual games on the PC, being World of Goo my favorite so far;

  8. My favorite movie genre is Horror, followed by Drama/Romance and War;

  9. I work as a teacher and study System Development and Analysis;

  10. I'll probably migrate to Linux if I'm forced to uninstall Windows XP to use Vista/Seven. =)

  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  I tag geoff-uk123!

  • Posted Oct 28, 2009 4:13 pm PT
  • Category: Other
  • 14 Comments
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