jayseven

My option was to keep as much of a distance as possible and fire round shots into the front of their ship, usually aiming ahead of them so that only a couple of balls would hit at a time. Took a while but was worth it. Ramming them would leave them dead too often, no matter how slow I could go. Another pro tip; It took me 4 attempts to get the convoy one to unlock. The 4th attempt was no different to the other 3, except I had managed to choke-out the drummer guy up front before combat-KOing the rest. The previous attempts I was in full conflict when I beat up the drummer guy. He normally buggers off so I think he's a bit of a pansy.

Thanks Tales for verifying that 100G to pop tonight, methinks! @Shorty nice! I remember that being tense and thinking I should restart checkpoint with 10 secs left, only to blitz it in a matter of seconds. @Tales any tips for Battle of Chesapeake? I've had absolutely zero luck exposing the frigates' weak points. My ship is too strong. Lols as I types it, I gets it.Just gotta get teh 5 counters and I'm golden! Wow, that was tense... So I did the combos, assassinated the cap'n... then... Desynched! Totally basking in the glory of success only to not notice i had 10 seconds to get off the ship! ...Feck. Luckily it didn;t matter as I'd done the previous stuff in one go, wahey! 2 for 100G! Now to loot a caravan then it's onwards to multiplayer grind! HILARIOUS bit of luck, that went against me. The convoy I was stealthing (got 4 incognito takedowns i.e. not-kills) ran into a bunch of patriots -- who killed off the other guards for the convoy for me! ... so I looted the convoy, giggling to myself -- to find no achievement unlocking. I guess the convoy being killed by others still counts!

Nice one! I ended up winning bowls in style, by winning the last round with all 4 of my bowls closest!! It had caused me so much aggro -- the Original Gamer as a whole, for sure -- that I actually flipped teh bird at the screen.

Have you tried loading an earlier sequence, too? Again I don't know if it'll work for sure. Hopefully if it's glitch it gets patched! @Tales there's perfectionist and completionist achievements - one is 100% mission constraints, the other is to clear your log book (as far as I'm aware), in which Ordinary Man thing is listed. @EEVILMURRAY I tend not to watch ZP before a game because his cynical review style, while fun, isn't set out to identify the pro points. He has a great point about the games reaching modern day and becoming more about politics and less about stabbing people. There's definitely a lack of assassinations. There's a bunch of discoverable assassination contracts given out by civilians, however they don't require much brain power as you can just run up and stab the target. I've avoided much of the 'business' side of things 'til after I'd completed much of the game anyway. You don't need the money, right? So don't bother with the business stuff. Yahtzee didn't mention any of the hunting element - to me that is where a large chunk of the stealthy, assassination-type gameplay from previous games has been invested in order to leave room for the politics. Plus the combat has definitely been improved and made more challenging, but of course this too can become a walk in the park with a bit of practice. And while yahtzee claims the story to be duller I felt it was more realistic and less cartoonish than previous attempts... and also a tad easier to follow.

I'll bear that in mind for any I can't get sneakily - but as I say the main issue was the fact that the convoy wouldn't produce the 'loot' icon. I've now done everything (except the convoy thing), leaving the two missions to replay. Things were a lot quicker than expected. The Ordinary Man achievement's popped, but it's still listed in my tracker even though it all says complete. Hoping that's not an issue...

Introspective, subtle gaming rather than explicit, immature gaming? For the seasoned, sophisticated and enlightened gamer. Wisdom gaming. Sage gaming. You should feel free to take something and make it your own. All these words are nuanced, of course, but if you want to rise above the adolescent aspect then I think 'sophisticated' is best -- though, of course, going for the elitist angle means you really will have to live up to the label.

I stealthily took out the back 6 without raising the alarm (just one convoy not two), and two of the front lot, leaving me with 3 to battle. Just to be clear are you saying the smoke bombs themselves can choke people or that you choked people while the smoke was active? I don't think the former happens but I figured it'd be worth clarifying.

The lumberers are one of the earliest guys you unlock -- I think you get them during sequence 5. I've not tried it but perhaps reload that sequence and try to scan them afterwards? I had lumberers 3/3 really early on - they chop wood, get wood off a wagon and also use a massive two-man saw to slice up a log. Perhaps also make sure you're not just simply following them endlessly - I had trouble with following people in 'predator mode' (or whatever it is). Also, it seemed very unreliable - I had issues with a couple of characters and they 'completed' their logs when they seemed to be 'in-between' activities. I'm also fairly sure that one of my observations popped as 3/3 whilst observing an action I'd already seen. Not sure how they've scripted the whole thing. If you're having hard luck then warp elsewhere and do stuff then return. I've had a fair few glitches in this game where I've had to fast-travel somewhere then run back again, and the issue had resolved itself.

Today I discovered a beard-hair that was 10cm long! Hiding in the sideburns pretending to be regular head hair. Unfortunately this discovery was made because I was having one of those periods of time where a rogue hair was ticking me, so I grabbed it and yanked it away from civilisation as it knew it. I figure it must be at most 4 months old. I was very impressed with myself, and, rather terribly, began contemplating growing an Uncle Albert beard (for I fear I'm inable to grow anything Gandalf-esque). I dubbed it 'Careless Whisker" btw.

Just because it's the place you rest you head and the place you store your things, it doesn't mean it's Home. Living alone can feel like you're in exile, that there's this sudden chasm that opens up between you and perhaps the family and friends that previously helped shape your 'home'. Discipline is good, but also you need to make it so that you look forward to getting home. So ensuring a regular daily routine will help keep the alienation/loneliness on the back burner whilst you adjust to your new surroundings, but also - perhaps more important - is you should take the time to devise some sort of project that will help turn the house into a home. Assuming you're renting then you can't really just redecorate completely (and assuming you're as student, perhaps it's not an affordable option -- but then again you're affording living alone, soo...) you can still dress up a room with posters, plants and trinkets. Creating new memories in a new place also is good - while many will occur as time passes, you can hurry it up by perhaps hosting a housewarming or getting close friends round to 'bless' the place. Lastly, and perhaps in hand with the routine idea, be sure to maintain regular social interactions - join a university society/club, or arrange that every xday of the week you and a friend or two go to the cinema followed by a pub/whatever alternative is socially/culturally normal for you. The internet is a vast and glorious time-sink that is, largely, a good way to be bored whilst doing something. Don't think that you're being stupid, or that feeling alone is an illegitimate thing, or a small concern. Moving house is always a big thing, and moving away from a type of life you're used to -- living with others then living alone, you are forced to question your own strengths. You will test yourself and you will come out the other end stronger!

@Diageo What do you have left? I finished the hunting stuff and I've been chipping away at other things, but replaying some of the missions has taken up many, many retries thanks to obtuse bits of unfortune. I have 2 missions to redo (turns out I had 6 to redo instead of the 5 I'd thought) and done a few extra club challenges... only to unearth tier 3 for one of them which looks to be an utter, utter bitch.

96% Completion with 40 hours... Quite enjoying the challenge.

I would be very interested in socially interacting with you, Iun I get back to our ancestral soil on the 19th, but I don't really know what my obligations are currently. Theoretically I could make 20th, but I think I may be 'expected' to spend time with friends/family (plus potential for jetlag - 11 hour time difference BIATCH -- though I hear going the other way is easier).

yeah I'm down with the patience thing; I have the time to be patient. If I only had 2 hours of gaming per night then I'd totally be more selective, but as it is, having the space for 3 hour gaming slots means I can afford to be patient. I think that's something gamers don't always take into account when looking at games.

Can you ask your council for another bin? The bins aren't meant to account for individual households but rather x amount of persons - 9 people should warrant another bin.

I'm not very experienced with the online mode for this but I find it to be really punishing, and it doesn't teach you anything at all... I've come 2nd with a decent score but I do feel that the majority of my games = nobody else dressed like me. I'm not quite cool with the scoring system. I feel like there should be a bonus for killinh someone with more experience than you... I guess more experience will make it better! Not as fun as I'd hoped (so far) -- because I suck.

Yeah having to listen to people speak to you before being able to peruse their wares is a pain. The game was largely a test of patience (which I have, so that's cool). The subtitle confusion was annoying, too -- they're supposed to be colour-coded by the yellow and white texts are very similar. Have you tried teh co-op thing at all?

One of those 'little things that make me unreasonably annoyed' - when they don't collect the recycling because the lid was not fully shut (due to excess recycling material). Oh, so I'll just throw away the excess, yeah? Thereby defeating the whole fucking point of recycling. Oh, and if I'm to keep a hold of this binful of recycling for another fortnight (that's right - collected twice a month!), what should I do about any newly accrued glass, card, tin or plastic? Just throw it away yeah? Sure thing!

I finished the game in about a week, too - nightmare mode all collectibles. Only achievements left are online/co-op. I heard a lot of people complaining about the racing missions but I found all of them incredibly easy, only having to repeat a couple. Of course there were some very frustrating moments but the ability to save pretty much anywhere covered that. The exploration was indeed really forced by achievements - not knowing when an area would close up or not was terrible - as you said, most areas you returned to - usually during a bounty-board (whatever they called it in RAGE) mission, however many of these areas would be partially closed up. For no reason. I agree that there's not really anything significantly special about this game. The story was non-existent and the ending left me thinking "... what. That's it?" -- I could imagine a sequel being perfectly decent, but it's just sloppy to leave the game ending like that. Invisible walls were really rampant - though I don't recall the specific area you mention - but by-and-large it was a case of not trying o be too clever about a situation. A large part of playing a 'new' game (new to you that is, rather than chronologically new to the world) is having to adjust to the limitations that particular game is offering you; knowing when/how to recognise that what you are trying to do is correct. Valve games use light to show you the way around a map, AC3 uses a lot of 'lock-on' for climbing/free-running and the camera often moves towards the next available climbing space/direction. RAGE is basically an extremely linear game where there's only ever going to be one way to do something, so like in FO3 where I don't try and find shortcuts over mountains (because inevitably I'll get glitch-stuck in some crevace somewhere) I don't even try to go someplae in rage without a clear path. But yes, that's a valid thing to be disappointed with. There's definitely some pop-up in RAGE, however I think it's just more noticable than other games. I've not been keeping tabs on which engine does what but I have noticed that many games have sneaky ways to disguise their pop-up - some more effective than others, i.e. GTA4's trees that fade into view, AC3's weird texture aliasing thing (hard to explain) and RAGE's pixellated textures refining themselves. I'm generally not bothered so long as it sorts itself out reasonably quick - there were a few instances where I was talking to someone and their face was still a blur, however. I do think the game is worth maybe £10. As you say it's a very short game that can be done in a week. Just not anything exciting or different. Wow wall of text.

Just finished story;

I also don't have a bank account at the moment so I can't digitally purchase anything - should've mentioned that :P

I also have guilty feelings -- I'd play it if it was available on XBLA... I'm not a PC gamer. If you fancy giiving me a decent gaming set-up then I'm sure that status will quickly change, but as it is it's very hard to get uber excited about a game I can't play :P

But doing so would mean claws to the eyeball, which I do not want.

The house cat here is roughly 1.5 times the size of a normal cat. He's a hunter, bringing home lizards he's caught (and a few mice, but no birds since I've been here). He's also not been very well trained in regards to his claws so he's a bit of a slicer... And sometimes he seems to completely forget what he's doing and just freak the fuck out and attack me for no good reason. He's only done it three times, and first two times I was wearing jeans so I got by ok... He basically attacks my leg with his forelegs AND teeth for a few seconds. He is very claw-y at the best of times. He's never been trained not to use his claws - is that normal for cats? He also treats a large percentage of stroke-incoming hands as if they're flying ducks or somthing. However, since he 'attacked' me last night, he's clearly aware that's he's pissed off -- going from sleeping next to me, to staying the fuck out of my way. of course, me clapping as loud as possible whenever he's been near didn't help his cause. I feel a bit mean, but to be fair he did start gnawing and slashing at my ankle for no reason whatsoever.