Like Everyone Else: Highlights 2012

I liked MMOGC's (why do I want to type mmogoc?) format to the highlights of her year of 2012, so I thought I'd have an entry myself on it. 2012 was a great year for both gaming and photography, for me and in general.

I had my first official photoshoot in 2011 and I loved it; I had spent 8+ hours doing something I absolutely loved. I was creative.. tried new things.. struggled with lots.. (beautiful women! lol)but was very successful with many of my photos. I craved more (photo)shoots in 2012. My vacation coincided (luckily) at the same time when my parents were away, so for 3 days in August, I had 4 photoshoots at my house. I had one of my oldest friends, my photoshoot stylist, with me, helping me build confidence, so that I had the mental fortitude to have 3 additional shoots all one my own. 

I'm afraid though; there i've said it.. or atleast this is the first time that i've written it out; I'm afraid of making photography a full time gig. I've seen my photos and think they're good, but I see what other photographers have done and theirs is very good as well and it makes me wonder if I can make that a full time job.

With that said, I hope to have even more photoshoots and even better quality photos this year.

As my friends have gotten older, we've stopped doing outdoor activities (frequently) and clubbing (thank god) and have transitioned to having game nights. We used to play Trivia Pursuit.. Settlers.. Agricola, but this year we changed our retinue and had a whole slew of new games that we tried. Dungeon!, Ticket to Ride, Guillotine, Bonanza, Risk.. tons of new games. I like how we have so many different kinds of games available to us.

MAGIC! lol. In the first half of 2012, we (my group)must have played Magic: The Gathering, every. Single. Weekend. And from the stories, one of my friends played it with her husband, every. Single. DAY. But the start of the football season, came a waning interest in Mtg and a new passion (for all the guys except myself[I like watching, not doing]) for fantasy football. I love the multitude of strategies, rich story and could literally spend hours on deck building; probably something you can do with fantasy football, but as I wrote, I would rather watch the game, than do anything more with it. Its not the main reason, but a big thing that kept me even thinking about fantasy football was:

All the video games that came out this year! Borderlands 2, X:Com Enemy Unknown and Guild Wars 2. Borderlands 2, Game of the Year, by the way by some people's count, is a fantastic game.. very similar to the original, but improved across the board. Still a few issues/bugs.. some incredibly hard parts.. *cough* people duping (not me but friends, which takes the fun out), and it was partially GW2 and a crappy 1st dlc that kind having me let dust settle on the Borderlands 2 cd. I used to play (10+ yrs ago) X:Com: Terror from the Deep. An incredible, but punishing game that never let up on you and made no apologies if it beat you. I was almost deathly afraid that 2K would either keep the insane difficulty (I basically never won and lost 75% of my squad on every mission) or/and ruin the game and the nostalgic parts that made it a great game. And I was so surprised that not only did they do a fantastic job (although a bit shortish, research-wise), I was able to finish the campaign! The only problem I encountered, once again due to GW2, was I didn't have an urge to play another campaign.. whether for keeping my perfect record.. or just boredom from a completionist first-time play-through  For the longest time, I was trying to resist GW2.. mostly because I don't have the willpower (yet) to become addicted. I have good enough willpower to do daily self improvement (stock research, career opportunities, learning a new language, blog etc), but I still spend more time than I want to.

Randoms

Now everyone knows, I love Borderlands.. but I'd like everyone to stop right now. I do not suggest buying the newest DLC of Captain Scarlet and her Pirate's Booty.

I've only had a short chance to play the DLC, but so far i'm highly disappointed. 

1. Everything is so far apart. I understand needing to space things and make it seem like a big open world, but this Oasis area is way too big and the fighting areas are so small. It feels like you spend 5 minutes fighting while travelling from one spot to another for 15. Do not like. I prefer places like the Bloodshot Stronghold which were huge and full of baddies.

2. The new hover boat vehicle, the sandskiff is over-rated; so you can hover and run over enemies easier... big whoop. I don't see what is so impressive about it. I actually just use the car from the first Borderlands when i'm travelling as the double turrets do accurate consistent high damage.

3. Weak story.. unlike Borderlands 2 which has a rather inclusive storyline, I can't really tell what the story about this DLC is about other than looking for treasure....

Anyways; will be spending more time with it in the next coming weeks; I've bought the season's pass already, so maybe I can find what makes this DLC worth it. Worst case scenario, this can be the 'free' game from the season's pass.

I had some time the other day *halo* and I actually beat XCom: Enemy Unknown. It was a big surprise to me, because the original XCom games were incredibly tough and I rarely survived my missions. Heck, I never beat the game or came even close. Granted I was on the easy setting, I can see how it can be an incredible challenge.

I found.. that the game is really short. **SPOILERS! TURN AWAY**

Its like: learn to capture aliens, capture an alien crystal pilot, assault an alien base and encounter a powerful telepath. Do a few more missions and get some alien technology; research it, build the appropriate building, use your telepath to assault the huge mothership and if your telepath guy lives, you win. Yes yes "you played it on easy mode, so obviously it was short"... but actually I rarely did priority missions, I ensured every single country (that didn't leave lol) has a satellite, that I built facilities on every square and researched EVERYTHING possible. I had a team of 14 troops all at the highest ranking (although I only used the same 7-8 characters over and over).

Its a GREAT game. If you are nostalgic with XCom.. this game will be even better b/c you can actually win (and aliens don't camp right outside your dropship). Go buy it!

Borderlands 2 & XCom: Reasons to Never Go Outside Again

So as the title says it, having a blast with both Borderlands 2 and XCom: Enemy Unknown and trying my best not to get addicted. Borderlands 2 released their most recent dlc: Captain Scarlet: And Her Pirate Booty. I haven't had much of a chance to play it as i've been saving it to play with my gf exclusively. 

In the meanwhile, I've been trying the new Mechromancer class which I believe is the older Tiny Tina from the normal storyline. You may notice how her left arm is robotic and there is a very interesting Echo recording on how that came to be. 

The class, to say the least is amazingly easy to solo. Even with a 60 second cooldown which I thought was too long, it is an incredibly powerful skill; it stays on the field for a good 20-30 seconds, flies, has tons of life (i'm lvl 22 and it has only died twice) and has good dps. It also is really adept at shooting down the annoying Rakks and Buzzards with it's lightning wave.. and gets even stronger with it's laser beam skill: The Stare. Its like having a second person to play with almost all the time, that draws agro better and doesn't die. If you hate pugging but find solo too difficult at times, this may be your class! Countless parts in which I had massive problems with my other classes, the Mechromancer passed it without breaking a sweat.

About 10 years ago, the game looked like this; notice how aliens will be camping RIGHT outside the dropship to get cheap kills.

I played the original XCom: Terror From the Deep (TFtD), which was apparently the worst and the hardest. This (XCom: Enemy Unknown) is an incredibly addictive game; I thought Heroes of Might and Magic where I was going "one more turn" was bad. Or with Skyrim in which it takes forever to log out, b/c there is just one more thing you need to do, put away or explore. You know what hooks you in this game? The missions seem so short.. that in your head, it takes 5-10 minutes, but in reality, it takes about 20-25.. and when you scan and build and research and do all the micromanagement there is in the game.. what you also think takes mere minutes.. whoops, its 2.5 hours later than when you promised to turn it off.

There are many sites and forums with helpful tips on this newest (and best! I say best b/c I can actually complete a mission without having a single agent die) iteration of XCom and I would have posted some links, but I can't find any. So here are a few of mine:

1. Whenever you can, build satellites. Players say to save them for the end of the month and launch them in unhappy countries to prevent them from leaving... not so sure about that.

2. Get medkits. I never bought or used medkits before in TFtD. Mostly because I didn't know how to use them and the alien's weapons were so powerful, they crumpled and died anyways from one shot. Get your support (i'd recommend 2) leveled up so they can carry 3 medkits with them. Alive units means they get more powerful AND less wounded time.

3. Assault classes and Run&Gun skill. Don't underestimate this skill. I normally have 2 assault class units with me which run into rooms and guarantee me two dead aliens. The ability to run extremely far distances and STILL shoot, with 100% chance to hit AND possibly do critical damage, is really effective.

Fast forward 10 years later.. look ma! I'm gorgeous!!!

In my first playthough, I thought Priority missions were .. a priority and tried to complete them right away such as the one with researching the Arc Thrower which is used to capture aliens. I learnt in my second playthrough that the game will wait for you and give you other missions if you choose not to do it right away. There are 2 findings to this though: 1. Although you have more time to research, build and get stronger, you're doing more missions where you have to choose between 3 different countries when there are alien abduction missions. This results in 1 happy country but 2 unhappy countries. I've found in my 2nd playthrough, I have alot more unhappy countries. 2. The enemies get stronger as you get stronger. I may have played the same amount in real hours in my 2nd playthough, but nowhere as far into the story as my first and i'm facing against incredibly strong aliens I never saw in the first. So its my belief, the game can tell when you are getting stronger and adjusts the difficulty accordingly (which I like).

Its on my wishlist that there is some kind of sandbox mode for this game; I feel although I can avoid the main storyline, eventually you'll get to a point where you have to complete it, otherwise the aliens may get too strong or too many countries will abandon XCom. Unfortunately, that is the thing about the game, without there being a story, sandbox mode may lose it's meaning.

XCom: Game of the Year

Whats that you say? XCom: Enemy Unknown may just be more addictive than alcohol, smoking and crack combined times infinity? I can attest to that. When you thought you couldn't possibly say "ok, just one more turn" and its 5am... for the second night in a row.. it isn't Civ 5.. it isn't Heroes of Might and Magic. Its XCom.

I had serious doubts that the newest iteration of XCom was gonna be horrible; that 2KGames was going to bomb one of my most cherished pc games of all time. A game that I didn't fully understand how to play.. and a game that can be terribly hard if you don't have a solid strategy. A game that will whoop your butt and not give you any consolation prize.. nope.. the earth has been invaded by aliens all thanks to your incompetence. Goodbye!

If you played and liked the original XCom series: Buy it.

If you like turn-based strategy games: Buy it.

If you like Aliens vs Humans games: Buy it.

If you like squad based combat: Buy it.

If you like units that you can fully customize and upgrade: Buy it.

If you like a pure challenge, even on the easiest difficulty: Buy it.

If you want an insane challenge that'll bring you to the point of tears: Buy it.

I honestly can't say enough good things about the game and how happy I am to have picked it up; it makes me wish that I bought it on release day resulting in VERY tired mornings at work.. and probably resulting in 'sick' days. Its basically the XCom for this generation, like how The Dark Knight Rises is the Batman for ours. Its not 'good' is 'OMFG SICK.'

 Lets get straight to the bad; there are only two things that I can see that is bad about the game. Maybe three. One: when in a map with multiple levels (1st floor, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and more), the camera doesn't work well. You'll be wanting to move your units, but the camera will show you the level above, causing massive tactical errors. In areas such as these, mistakes such as this results in dead veterans; Ginger and Juan are now on the memorial having sacrificed themselves for the greater good. I really hope they fix this issue with a patch; it nearly makes the game unplayable. Two: the game seems short. In my first playthough, I went right ahead and started doing the priority quests, thinking that they expired.. (they don't seem to) it seemed like the game was progressing very fast story-wise. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised later, but it feels very fast-paced, when I want a little less urgency and a little more skirmishes with aliens. Three: Its so incredibly addictive. Those stories above about the 5am game sessions are true. I forced myself to sleep, knowing full well the past 3 hours I kept saying to myself: "ok, after this one scan, i'll log off." And something interesting always happened and the cycle happened again and again.

Phew. With that out of the way, we can talk about the great stuff. First: Graphics. Huge overhaul to the original and thank goodness for that. Knock on wood, no graphical glitches other than the wonky camera only in multi-level maps. And only one crash. Second: Customization. Just like the original games, you can customize your soldiers, use your name, your friends names, whatever. Make them look as much or as little in resemblance to you. When they level up, you get a simplified (more so than even Mass Effect 3 if you can believe that) ability tree; but the small choices make a big impact in the game for you. Third: Pick up and go. Well besides the 5am part, whenever you fight aliens, the map is a perfect size (atleast in the early goings) that you can normally complete one in under 10 minutes if you're efficient. It makes you feel like you're accomplishing alot and builds morale and a feeling that you're unstoppable (until your whole squad dies).

I could keep going on and on and on about how great XCom is, but I don't want to raise your expectations. Its a serious buy and totally worth the money imho. I thought this year many great games came out: Diablo 3, Skyrim, Borderlands 3, Mass Effect 3 etc etc. For the longest time going, I still thought, overall, Skyrim was the Game of the Year... Now? XCom wins hands down. No. NO! Hands down. Shuddapa your mouth; nothing is better than this game. Case in point: I haven't touched the game in 2 days in fear I won't ever go to sleep again.