Fox's Finish February....and beyond

[CrimsonFox]

Fox's Finishing February
Following Fozzie's Fantastic foray forte-ing finishing four fungames, Fox fancies finally finishing festering favorites forever! (FFS)


Translation....I have been inspired video game guru SirFozzie, nay put on a crusade to finish titles once and for all that have long sat in my steam library. And not only will I join his quest to finish 4 old games in February I'll continue the story onward.

This is a story of love gone bad. Feelings hurt. A life unfinished and gone rotten.


These are the games...and this is their story...

*clack clack*

[CrimsonFox]

There's a game!

MUST GET IT!

http://i.imgur.com/NSxU6zi.gif?noredirect


To those of you confused by the preceding message and...EVERYTHING that follows, this is a blog. Think of it that way.
Fozzie came up with (or stole) a challenge and that was to finish 4 old games in your computer game/steam library during the month of February and invited others to do so. I took up the challenge and decided to blog my plays of games.
Rules:
1. I will not play only one game through. I will jump from game to game.
2. I will blog-stream-of-consciousness my play sessions. Some more than others.
3. Being a blog, sometimes random thoughts and pictures will emerge.
4. I may, will, can put pictures of the actual gameplay of said games when I have time.
5. When I finish something I will put it in this post.
6. I will try to colorcode games I post about since I will be switching from game to game.
7. Something something dark side, something something comple-te
8. For certain games, I will tell a story of my journey through the game from the perspective of the character going through it. Some games won't work for this obviously.
9. Push this button to escape
http://www.gsm-modem.de/M2M/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/IoT_button.png
10. When selecting games, I will first tell the story of how I started playing the game, how much I put into it already , and why I didn't finish it?
11. https://media.makeameme.org/created/oh-really-you-l3jgfg.jpg




Games complete:

Batman Arkham Asylum

[CrimsonFox]

Our story begins over a year ago, when my trusty rusty laptop that has been all over the country with me curled up in a little ball overnight and closed its eyes like Fry's dog for one final time.

http://basementrejects.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/futurama-season-5-2-jurassic-bark-frys-dog-seymour-asses-dies-review-episode-guide-list1.jpg

Aside from losing tons of vacation pictures and many shots of people that are no longer with me, I also lost a lot of game work across my whole library.

It also forced me to go a-hunting for a new computer faster than a singing frog courting a mouse. After weeks of deliberating I finalized on a little desktop I found at Costco that had quite a bit of power. Yes I know what you're thinking. But that little voice inside me just wouldn't go away. And since it is a known fact that I'm certifiably crazy for having little voices inside my head, I bought it. An ACER (gag) ATC-120-UC22.

With an a10 in it. That kinda sold it to me. An AMD a10 for 400 dollah. not bad. I didn't want a desktop but kinda got tired of my laptop overheating. And yes I actually had to keep a fan ON the laptop whenever I played a game, otherwise it would overheat and turn itself off midgame. (whimper)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--YAOVQ2YoJ8/TbjqDLo9UiI/AAAAAAAAAOY/LvEl2r6HIcU/s1600/nocrying.gif

But now I had a DESKTOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (top...top...top...)

Problem...it had but 4 GB on it and was running *gag* WINDOWS 8!

So yeah...it was limited in what it could play.

One of my favorite titles, Unreal...was not working....very stuttery and unplayable. Batman Arkham Asylum, unplayable....

It DID manage to play new MMO Star Wars The Old Republic (well, three years old, new) but in highly congested areas it also had its problems...

So during the black Friday sales (yes I waited that long cause I'm lazy), I bought an 8GB upgrade kit...and that sat idly by doing nothing while I tried to figure out what was wrong with my sound systems and would I need to take it in to fix that. Thankfully it ended up just being a bad speaker cable and the sound card itself was working fine. That just meant getting new speakers, etc. They were old and I got them as a handmedown.

So I bought a very cheap and very great set of Creative speakers. Perfect. It worked and I didn't have to move the computer around with my foot anymore just to keep the sound from cutting out. (I actually had to tilt the thing at a 45 degree angle and hold it there at times.)

https://cdn.photographylife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/45-Degrees.jpg

So now I was rocking and rolling.

2 full months later I finally decide to try and install the memory.
And...it doesn't work. Not only that it doesn't fit.

"It'll work," they said.
"No problem" they said, "it's exactly what you want. Trust me!"

Well it didn't totally fit. I had to shove it in a little and finally got it in the slots. I turned on my computer and was treated to beeps and a huge frowny face.

No joke, Windows 8 ACTUALLY gives you a frownie face when it won't turn on properly just like Idiocracy.

Luckily it did no damage but it also meant I would have to research things more.

Now I admit it, I am not a hardware expert. I am not even a hardware intermediate. I am not that good with my hands. (Joke missing)

But I finally do come research from crucial.com (the manufacturer's of the memory) and find that this particular stick set was incompatible with my computer. So I rush it back (albeit 2 months later) to the computer store and tell them this and they try and tell me and sell me stories that they can't exchange it blahblahblah. So I throw fits and talk to managers and talk to salesclerks and give them twinkies and Mr Pibb (geeks like those I hear) and finally they exchange it after I offer to pay even more for the memory that is actually compatible. I also do a little more research on how to install the stuff.

Another day later I finally install it correctly, this time pushing all the way down causing the endclamps to fasten. The previous sticks were simply not doing this though. Just seemed just a TAD too big overall even though I was even told by the clerks that "it SHOULD have worked". (And they should have pointed the crucial website to me to begin with since they say they use it all the time).

Anyway making a long story short (too late), after swapping out
the memory 3 different times and posting my questions how to do so on the acer site, the crucial site AND a tech site (which was the best) I finally determine how to install things right.

Because even after I installed it correctly it was STILL only reading 4 GB.
Removing the old memory got me to 8 GB. Another swap and my computer angerly beeped at me again. Eureka I found DIMM 1 (and longing for some Dimsum) So just guessing something that shouldn't have worked (according to...wel, EVERYBODY) I found the magic formula of CRUCIAL, CRUCIAL, KINGSTON, EMPTY.....12 GB 12 GLORIOUS GIGABYTES and AWAY WE GO..................................

[CrimsonFox]

GAME ONE: Batman: ARKHAM ASYLUM

The Background: Why I liked this game
Being a massive THief: The Dark Project Fan I was totally inspired by and immersed in this fantastic world. If Garrett had really buffed out and used all of Prince Bafford's money to buy himself a fancier grappling hook, some Karate lessons, some freeweights, and an even cooler costume, he could have been this game.

Totally in the genius world of Eidos and a proud descendant. And it helped satisfy my OCD need to collect things...COLLECT ALL THE THINGS!

http://www.macaskill.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/all-the-things.jpg


Fox, why haven't you finished this game yet?
Batman died with my computer...I was almost to the end of the game when it died. So I would have to start over. No worries I got this.

Well after installing it I found that the nice (lovely, fabulous, sensational) people of steam actually cloudsave most of your games and progress. WOOHOO!!!! So there I am...hooray...back at...

FUCK....

Back at that dreadful boss battle with two titans. I always felt that the boss battles were the worst part of this otherwise beautiful gaming experience. Make that ALL GAMES. Great world great world, great story, great characters, great gameplay, great immersion, I am batman, I have a cool cape, I have powers, I am gaining power...so much POWER...MWUHAHAHAHAHA!!!

https://s3.amazonaws.com/archive.timmmmyboy.com/uploads/2011/09/slytherin.png

Then KRUNK! Get slapped down with a minigame that I don't know what to do with. Standard boss battle. figure out all the things you have to do over and over again but what prevents you from actually making progress in doing so is the fact that you will rapidly die before you can figure anything out.

http://portforward.com/games/walkthroughs/Batman-Arkham-Asylum/Batman-Arkham-Asylum-small-245.jpg

uhhuh...

TO THE INTERNET I GO!!!!!

[CrimsonFox]

WATCH ME FINISH THIS GAME!

http://imgc-cn.artprintimages.com/images/P-473-488-90/59/5998/B1PQG00Z/posters/erik-hilgerdt-it-s-not-cheating-if-everybody-does-it-new-yorker-cartoon.jpg

Okay...something I am frequently reminded of is that people that are gamers are typically bad teachers. In fact I could probably say that about any person that knows a lot about something. They generally don't know how to explain it properly. So goeth with gamernerds. So while I am reading up on what to do to beat TWO titan henchmen that repeatedly charge into me while about 12 other goons pummel me is that..."Oh yeah this is easy. just beat the thing and ride the one until he hits the other one and knocks out all the little ones..."


Uh....ooooo....kkkkkk?

Mind you this is over a YEAR since I even played the darn thing so I can't even make batman walk without chafing his thighs on his batsuit.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/ef/2c/2e/ef2c2eabecfa8efdb4446505b5774699.jpg

Even these will not help me.

However...I continue my quest and FINALLY find a page that tells me what I have to do...well not really. No page says "Click the Q key repeatedly, then click the left mouse...and then when they charge, click the right mouse, hold it down, hit the left, then pound the space bar multiple times, then left click the bajeezus outta your mouse HOOAH! Then you can ridem cowboy, rinse and repeat.

http://blogs.sandiegozoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Devil-e1414352840677.jpg
The mighty bajeezus in its matural habitat.

But it told me enough to then send me back to the control menu to RELEARN THE ENTIRE game. (yeah...I had that coming anyway...RTFM)

BOOM! I finally do things. I"M DOING THINGS I'm CLICKING BUTTONS I GOT THIS!
Oh wait...i died

http://technabob.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/video-game-death-china.jpg

Even Manny was sad.


I try again....same deal...what's the matter with this...why can't I jump onto the guy like it says. 20 minutes of reading later and ...okay...chea---I mean knowledgable research complete. Just hit him when X happens and you are on. See what I mean about the arbitrariness of boss fights? All you have to do is X and it's simple but we aren't going to let you do X. That's why I don't like them.

So a few more tries and okay....one went down....now I'm on him again and....BOOM......all the little guys down....and....all that's left is to kick him in the...I mean punch him body blow body blow...

And the creep falls.

http://l.j-factor.com/gifs/PunchOut-GlassJoe4.gif

And that's it....that's all I had to do....It was followed by a LONG movie sequence with Joker where he turns big and comes at me and just do a bunch of things it tells me and it's over.

http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/15/151982/2198922-joker_fight_1309232528.jpg

Game over. Wow....all I had to do was win those two fights and I would be done a year ago?

The universe seems smaller now.

http://nicspaull.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/you-are-here.jpg

But ho-o-o-o-old on there....

http://www.jedisparadise.co.uk/2/index_htm_files/14733.jpg

You ain't finished, musky...

It is true...I'm still only 79% finished...So I accept the challenge to continue this quest to find all the other little crap I have to find to end the game...and this means riddler trophies, superpowers, tape recorders, and other story blips. What's my OCD for if not to obsess?

...and be impeccably clean...

http://www.staceywelu.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Niles-Crane.jpg


To be continued...

[Brian Swartz]

Outstanding work with the pics and captions!

The 'boss battles' thing I like in many games. Arkham Asylum annoyed me though. I never finished it because of Poison Ivy. I would randomly survive longer on some attempts with no idea why, couldn't figure it out, didn't want to cheat by looking for hints, so I just bagged it.

[CrimsonFox]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v105/pgson/Worlds-Finest-Batman-Cape.jpg


Oh momma I had forgotten how fantastically cool it is to run full srpint across the compound, click the F key to line grapple, up to a roof, clop across the rooftop like blitzen in a cape, dive freefalling across the hillside while my cape billows in the freeze and then snaps into a glider....soar across the campus then continue running full speed, cape flicking back in the same cool billowy blob behind me.

http://s3.vidimg.popscreen.com/original/15/eGtnc3B4MTI=_o_batman-arkham-asylum-catch-and-glide-achievement.jpg

So I have discovered that the only place I have left is the Penetentiary. There is a riddle in there, a trophy, maybe some clacking teeth (with or without plaque) and a scarab plaque. (AHA! THERE'S THE PLAQUE WE MAKE HOLES IN TEETH)

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/s8Y_vEKbZhU/hqdefault.jpg

So solve this and then I will see what else.

[CrimsonFox]

Outstanding work with the pics and captions!

The 'boss battles' thing I like in many games. Arkham Asylum annoyed me though. I never finished it because of Poison Ivy. I would randomly survive longer on some attempts with no idea why, couldn't figure it out, didn't want to cheat by looking for hints, so I just bagged it.

And now you know why I do not consider looking up hints on a game cheating. The alternative I find far more tragic...that of never playing the game again.

I learned long ago on first person shooter adventure games to not waste too much time looking for "where I am supposed to go next". Bad level design...even on just one level can ruin a game. And totally impede the nice story and vibe going on. Even point and click adventure games and puzzle games I don't mind looking up the occasional hint. Granted I would usually put down a game and pick it up at different times when I'm more fresh. But if I have done this multiple times and still get nowhere....hint city! I'd rather see the cool levels to come then never play it again.

I can't recall the poison ivy fight. Obviously I got through it. I remember the gool movie. Loved Poison's world. Can't remember if I looked up hints. I actually didn't have to do it that often in this game. Just boss fights I think.
I was really annoyed by most of them actually.

[CrimsonFox]

Okay....it seems that ALL of the penetentiary riddles are in one room that behind a forcefield and there are two rentacops standing there staring at computers. Stumped me forever....but....drum roll please....


BAZINGA!
5899


...and there it is....


GAME DESTROYED!

GAMES: FINISHED 1/4

[CrimsonFox]

Okay maybe it wasn't as easy as just one thing


but it was as easy as

1...

5901

2...

5904

3...

5905

uh...

4...

5900

5...? you gotta be kidding me!


5903


I'm sorrying, are we BOTHERING you???

5905

wait bats you DID that already COME ON!

5906

okay break that thing yeah GET ON WITH IT...

5907

okay now you're just showing off...

[CrimsonFox]

ok Batman completed with 84%. The entire story is done and I found all of the things! I am considering that complete. To get 100% you have to do all the challenges which means do ALL of the fight sequences and crap in record time or something which I have no desire to do.

I'll just play the sequels later instead.

Done and done.

http://orig10.deviantart.net/6787/f/2009/146/7/5/homer_s__as_batman_by_mmasamune.jpg

[CrimsonFox]

The Second Game: Unreal
http://img.gamefaqs.net/box/2/0/7/207_front.jpg

Background: Origin Story

The Year Was 1997.

I know that because I still have nightmares about that year. I was on my second job, a job that allowed me to bop around the country on a not that great salary finding myself in totally trendsetter places like...SAINT LOUIS....and ... THE QUAD CITIES...home of THE MALL!

The Quad cities is not cool. The Twin Cities are Minneapolis and St Paul. That place is cool. The QUAD cities are 4 TOWNS stuck together on the border of IOWA and ILLINOIS.

Seriously this place was so amazingly bad, staying at my hotel playing video games was a lot better than actually going out to find something to do.
I called a radio station to answer a contest. I said I was from out of town...the DJ said "WELL WELCOME TO THE QUAD CITIES". I laughed uncontrollably into the phone. I could not help it. I at least did not say "THIS PLACE SUCKS ARE YOU JOKING?" I listened to myself winning the contest. Obviously they edited out my little chuckle. In my head I was busting a gut.
I'm often less funny than I think.
http://png.clipart.me/graphics/thumbs/147/retro-cartoon-laughing-fox_147261815.jpg

There was one godsend to being there...it had the saviour of the 90's...BEST BUY!

http://www.internetretailer.com/static/uploads/best-buy_store.jpg

NOW with a Discount Bin!

It was at that very best buy that I purchased a game. Not just any game....a lifestyle choice...a love affair...an intense way of life. That game was UNREAL.

http://seriouscat.com/serious_cat.jpg
(No seriously that's the title.)

I know what you're thinking and you're right. YOu HAVE heard of it. But you probably know it as the UNREAL ENGINE, which powers many OTHER things you've played before...oh do I mean Unreal TOurnament? The Quake Competitor where you arena fight other bots and people? No I don't mean that. There was a game that was touted as a "Game made by gamers for gamers". A srrawling experience that kicked in the pants any and all graphics of the day. Want a vast beautiful panoramic scene?

http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/1504-unreal-windows-screenshot-realistic-waterfalls.jpg

Yeah it's got that...want a close up texture shot? Yeah it's got that too. Want intelligent enemies that point to their shield taunting you? Yeah you'd swear they were 14 year olds controlling those things. It had events, intrigue, music, ....music events...yes things triggers just to play music that accompanied you throughout the room affecting the mood.

The plot....You are aboard a prison ship. In a cell...injured...yes a prison in space...

5908

This looks like my hotel in the quad cities.


Apparently your ship has just crashed into something as you are flung out of bed and your health starts just there...at 11...almost dead...and by the sounds of the screams you hear and the chaos of the electronic warden, things are not very good outside your cell. But at least the forcefield is down. YOu wander around seeing ...um...blood and body parts of your comrades, electrocute some schmuck on accident... climb through the ventelation shaft and shimmy your way around explosions to find the bridge...and there you learn the truth...that the ship was pulled onto some planet by a tractor beam.

http://blog.arcsoft.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/levar-burton-star-trek.jpg
Tractor Beam...Oh Please! That's First Year stuff!

[CrimsonFox]

So Fox, Why Haven't You Finished IT?!?

Well since that fateful day in 1997, I have played that game about every few years...and every time I get just a little bit closer to the end...

No joke this game is huge.
And the level design is just impeccable. You become so immersed in this game...and really there no other people to talk to...except a bunch of bunnies and some Nali Priests that try to help you in another language.

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/monster/images/a/a2/NaliN.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130221231027
http://www.unrealtexture.com/Unreal/Downloads/3DEditing/UnrealEd/Tutorials/unrealwiki-offline/images/scriptedpawn-nali.jpeg
Sorry...I don't speak OOOHHHHHHMMMM!!!

I played it on my emachines computer that I negotiated out of my boss. I played it on the computer before it. I played it on my work laptop. I played it at Safeco on the desktop there...I think I have really played it on every computer I've ever owned.

But that's just it...This game always outlasts my computers. That's right...either the computer dies before I continue far enough or I lose access to those computers. And every time I start it again I start at the beginning.

And the thing is I don't mind starting over each time...I mean then I can visit the monk's monastery again...
Then I can see that amazing first event...
Then I can pet the little bunnies...
http://www.unrealsp.org/legacy/images/gameguide/creatures/nalirabbit.gif

And then I can accidently step on and kill one of these cute widdle guys and shout at my computer "SORRY! OH NO! I'm SORRY! OH MY GOD BUNNY!!!! WHAT HAVE I DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then I can watch the 50 foot titan battle 3 firebreathing floating gasbags in a 1000 foot long trench that blocks my path to a Russian spaceship. Oh man it is the best thing ever...

[CrimsonFox]

Fox, are you going to start over yet again?

But still, even though I'd gladly ride the spaceelevator up to the mother ship over and over again...I really should solve this thing.

And then I could play the sequels and such.

So the catch is...I have no save game. There is no cloud info for this game. It's so old a game you could probably fit the whole thing on one DVD-R. Maybe even a CD-R (yes I bought those)
The cloud will not even accept this game.

http://cdn.xl.thumbs.canstockphoto.com/canstock17329987.jpg
Your computer so old, it wears vacuum tubes!

However there is ANOTHER WAY!!!!
https://www.yourprops.com/movieprops/original/yp_5329a1578f96f2.04008102/The-Candidate-Button-McKay-The-Better-Way-1.jpg

I can cheat...literally...there is a console and cheat codes...so I can teleport myself to the game level I wantand give myself all the weapons I would normally have at that point...which is all of them I'm pretty sure (there are only like 10 anyway...

SO LET'S DO IT!!!!

[CrimsonFox]

WATCH FOX BEAT THIS GAME!@!!!!

Okay I have figured out that I know I've been to Dada Pass, butnot sureif I've beaten it but I definitely don't remember the cellars or Serpent's Pass so I will start this game at Dasa Pass.

A warehouse of sorts patrolled by 3 Skaarj Gunners (These are the nasty mean alien race that has enslaved this poor planet. ) And I actually had the idea that I really didn't need to summon any extra guns and just find more from dead skaarj...but....I don't think I'll be able to do this level with my tiny gun. I think I will start with the flak cannon and nothing else. (that is my FAVORITE weapon.

Perhaps a shot gun too. When you fire a shotgun it is great. It takes their head clean off and as they fall their hands grope the area where there head once was. Kinda funny


So gonna start with shotgun and flak cannon and update my starting dispersion pistol (the energy weapon you start with) to level 3...(which it would be by now)

http://www.oldunreal.com/grafix/walkthrough/unreal/u1-25-01.jpg

Okay, guys, I KNOW you aren't in here just to look for lost arks! Come on out!

[JAG]

I stayed for the Glass Joe knockout pictures.

[CrimsonFox]

Dear Diary,

I'll never get off this ******* planet. I keep going...and going and going.

I ventured into a warehouse. Who knows what's in these crates and boxes. they smell awful and I can't seem to break into them.

I didn't have much time to look around when I saw a Skaarj ahead of me. THis one looked tougher than the rest. Luckily I managed to find another Flak Cannon and some Dispersion Pistol Power ups. I dropped all my weapons in the canyon getting up here.

These guys are a lot fiercer than the typical ones. BUt they all turn into salami just as easy with one flick of my trigger finger. Uh oh, they have friends coming...



Ow! Crud....How do you fire this...ugh the safety is on...

I died...

and died...

and died...


ugh uh oh teleporter. I'm back in the prison ship! NO THIS CAN"T BE!@!!!

Ugh I died falling off the top level and got hit by the ceiling. how embarrassing.

sad. There's that guy I killed accidently in the electrocution chamber . I wonder what his name was. Goodbye Fryguy. I'll never forget you.

Oh I'm back. Whoa what a trip.

Okay those skaarj finally went down although I hear another creepoing around. At last! Some ammo! man...just a bunch of bullets. Ah well. Ammo is ammo. And oo nice secret stash! A shield belt! Now I can survive a little longer.

Okay...let's just flick this switch and get that door open! Great...Ah! Krull!

I always liked their speech. So interesting. I wish I could study them more. As a special they are very powerful and tough and sure of themselves. Very stalwart and loyal. Why they are working for the bloodthirsty skaarj I'll never know. Man this drawbridge doesn't look so good. Kind of rickety. Aha a journal...Krall bridge foreman complaining about having to keep fixing it in the rain hahaha! Oh man...I feel for you buddy. SOrry I just killed you.

Let's see now...Ahhh divebombing birds. okay died again but I'm back. Okay
a haiku
I shot a bird from the sky.
The end.
Maybe the krall can teach me how to haiku.

Darn why won't this door open?!?

Must sleep. Oh there is a passage...looks like a bridgehouse part of the castle...Okay! There we....what's that? AHHHHHH!!!!

SHOOT SHOOT SHOOTT!

Oh...sorry to interrupt your snacks and destory your chairs guys. And uh...man krall guards shooting me through the window. Lots of side pasasges...Okay fun chase scene. Oh more poetry books? NO more journals...dang I really could get to like these guys. THey complain about work just like we do.


Okay I've been looking around this place for awhile now and I can't *yawn* figure out how to open this door.

I'll just sit down in this corner in a chair and rest....zzzz.....

(pics coming)

[CrimsonFox]

Thank you Sir Fozzie for the inspiration and push to do this.

[SirFozzie]

Very glad to have inspired someone to do this!

Now *I* need to get back on the twitch streams :)

[CrimsonFox]

Man does not live on one game alone. So I'll be jumping around as the wind takes me....

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/TLW_Lldw-gg/hqdefault.jpg
I have no home...I'm the wind

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...because that's how I roll


https://elcaminolaverdadlavida.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/shabbos.png

Tonight I played...The Bridge....

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IVihX4jjLDI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

No Fu BJ! Not you!

I mean that funky mix of MC Escher and puzzle games. Obviously a direct descendant (or ripoff if you prefer) of Braid.

It yes contains the wind back the time feature. It contains two things Braid does not...
1 a vortex to get yourself and others sucked into. YOu cannot get out of the vortex....EVER....UNLESS you make something else turn OFF the vortex...while inside of it....(dundundunnnnnnn)

And
2

The mad ball...
http://www.i-mockery.com/minimocks/madballs-revival/madballs-i-mockery.gif

only the madball kills you when you hit it...or he hits you...because that's how HE rolls

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/CfNAM2vW8N0/mqdefault.jpg

yeah...see that guy?

F*** THAT GUY!

I beat 2-6 finally! Yeah that picture above...THAT is 2-6

and then 3-1 inversion was pretty easy. That's enough for now.
Don't want to escher all at once. Then I won't have any left for the weekend.

[CrimsonFox]

oh yeah:

Background:

I first saw the Bridge this past year on Steam. I bought it.

Fox, Why haven't you finished it?

It's one of those MANY many games I have bought in the past X years (where X is an even number divisible by WHO GIVES A ****) and haven't played.

Wait, this is a new game? Are you sure this counts as finishing an OLD game?

I dunno. There are rules?

[CrimsonFox]

Another night of The Bridge and we're cruising along...

Chapter 3 is about inversion.

That's when you go behind a pedestal and hit the up arrow and it can turn a grey man white.

https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/chris-rock-hosting-oscars-2016.jpg?w=670&h=377&crop=1

That way he can be nominated for an oscar!

This is important for symmetrical roundish structures. These have obejects which are both white and grey, including keys, doors, madballs, etc.
YOu can only interact with things of your color.

https://pmcdeadline2.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/chris-rock-backstage-at-oscars.jpg?w=446&h=299&crop=1

Alright! I get it! We all get it Chris!

So TImepiece was pretty simple and a matter connecting the right key to the right door. (not really spoilering much)

Then the whole game rumbled and shook.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WvufFwdqMzg/hqdefault.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/02/28/article-2569833-1BE59A0800000578-603_306x510.jpg

and suddenly i'm thrown onto a crumbled structure with another inversion puzzle called...."Aftermath". Themewise it reminded me of doing the puzzles of Portal 2 on the broken sets.

3-4 has a name too but I don't remember it. After a little trial and error it too fell to the mighty Fox. 3-5 has two different colored madballs.

Neither Llama nor I can deal with it.

http://cdn.makeagif.com/media/8-17-2013/jVeZzD.gif

Time to kill things.

[CrimsonFox]

Or maybe I'll just fall asleep.

http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/x/sleeping-dogs-7397187.jpg

[CrimsonFox]

Game: The Bridge

And that's all of Chapter 3.

First I knocked out The Antique which was a spinner inversion level where you try not let the key fall off into oblivion.

Then A level where you have inverted madballs and of course can only get squashed by one of your color.

And the last was INVERTED KEYS!

http://www.freakingnews.com/pictures/69000/Alicia-Keys-Upside-Down--69352.jpg

No not that kind of keys (and that's kind of creepy)

4 keys, 2 of each color...and 4 inversions to do.

Overall this game is a little bit challenging but easier than portal and Braid.
harder than say Thomas was Alone.

[CrimsonFox]

Game: Unreal


There I am...facing down a horder of Krall on one side a gang of Skaarj on the other. They rip into me. Blow after blow, shredding me apart, yet i do not die. They tear pieces of flesh off me and the pain is excrutiating, let I live on...I see a bird swoop down, beak opoen...It charges and opens widfe aimed for my head and...

I wake up in a cold sweat. Still by the chairs in the corner...

I guess I have to keep going...whatever fears are lingering.

Having searched every nook and cranny in this guardhouse for an exit, I go outside frustrated. Bupkis. I state up at the purple black sky, sun glaring at me and the bird creatures circling. One of them poops...or spits, I'm not sure and it falls into the chasm...I follow it down and....hey! There's a beam leading down and connects all the way up to the side. How did I miss that?

I give a leap and land on it. Whoa! It's kinda thin...I go all the way down to the mountainside and...ugh...nothing...what is this? Now I have to climb back up...

Ugh I don't wanna fall now (well yes I fell a few times...)

What do I do? Oh mighty gods...tell me...Don't look down...don't look down...okay i look down and...hey! there's a ledge...

I leap down and immediately engage with more Krall.

Their tridents hurt in multiple ways. I mean OUCH REALLY HURT!

FInsih that battle and ride an elevator up to click a switch to open a big door down below...the castle gate in fact. Whew...can I make the jump down without hurting myself? It's now or never...uh oh it is closing! I jump and OOF! and run through. Ugh! more krall ouch ouch ouch!

This goes on again and down a hall...AHHH! ran into a brute. These guys have rockets on their arms. kay back I go. I wish I had something more to fight with than bullets and a pistol. At least I found some precious precious fruit. I go down the hall and find a submerged room. I dive down and am immediately bitten by four fish. I blast them and come up for air....sometimes...
and climb up to a platform. Another wheel that spins to open something...the next door.

Beyond this door is an odd site. A Brute kneeling down in front of something. An altar? What's he doing. Hello? AHHHH ROCKETS!

BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM! Okay dead brute. This sequence was just door after door after door and the cool thing was...this is where I left off a couple of years ago. This is where things are new.

What's behind the last door?

Um....something bad....very bad.

A titan.
These are a few stories tall and throw rocks at you. If one of them hits you it turns you into a smear. HOwever there are krall in this room too. The cool thing about unreal monsters is that they will fight each other.

And you can make that happen! Yay!
of course....the titan can still kill you too...

check out these post mortem photos. THe monsters still go on attacking and patrolling after you die.

[Alf]

That intrigues me. I haven't been able to understand a single thing so far

[CrimsonFox]

That intrigues me. I haven't been able to understand a single thing so far

Pictures coming for the last two unreal posts! That makes things more clear.
Other than that not sure what you mean. They take a little time to shrink down and post though. Will get them up.

[CrimsonFox]

SLAMMED BY WORK LATELY (I GUESS IT'S A GOOD THING)...but I had a little moment tonight to play gamez...yay

The Cellars level of Unreal has given me quite a run for my money ...so many doors to open so many krall...

and then...

The Titan Krall fight...imagine if you will...

a 50 story beast....and then also imagine....a bunch of dudes smaller than you that are fast, tough and do lots of damage.

In a small room...

http://i.imgur.com/SHSfR.gif

i knew you could...

and that's just it...they DO fight each other. That's the beauty. different monsters WILL fight each other if they meet. They will also turn and fight you. The big guy throws boulders and if one hits you you are a smear. meanwhile wave after wave of raptor I mean krall shoot greenglight bolts (that means GO....take more damage) at you...

so you are avoiding the krall that are charging you and hope you don't accidently run into the titan...who WILL kill you.

Get the krall to damage the titan enough while you are peppering everybody with the shards of my favorite weapon...the flakcannon...it slices it dices, it turns monsters into cold cuts...

it's a hole in a tube that you stuff compressed shards of metal into and then push the trigger...yes...slicendice


FINALLY after 10+ tries I won the fight...then climbed and pressed buttons and jumped and fought more crap and....then back to the cellar halls looking for more ways to open blocked doors.

this level is pretty intense

[CrimsonFox]

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRqg3Xa-mkcwTxZsVWZVIwF3wdLRFZXqk3N3-e_CyP8aPWg9j6C
stonetitan

http://i.imgur.com/p5cBoiq.jpg

krall

[Brian Swartz]

It's like the middle of March now.

I'm just 'sayin ...

[CrimsonFox]

Fine I shall change with the times...

[CrimsonFox]

I have noticed that repeatedly capturing screenshots of my exploits was taking a LONG time...and thus causing me to not want to continue this because I weas spending so much time capturing and then editing down the size and then uploading them and then changing them and then captioning them that I hardly played the game.

So Instead I will try just commenting on my exploits and then linking to my steam page where I capture screen shots. So you can see the journey there.


If I have something important I want to show...I'll post individual things perhaps.

So...

[CrimsonFox]

Unreal!

I spent quite a long time...months in fact....in the Cellars at Dasa Pass.

A series of underground tunnels with corners and ramps and lots of locked doors. One by one the doors fell... this granted access to other areas... one of which was a pool over which a superheath, shiny and bright shone in the night with lizards aboot. It also led to a endless stream of Krall which I pictured earlier...

The endless roomfest finally ended.

I carried on.

[CrimsonFox]

This emptied out onto a dock underground...A simple tethered canoe tied to a post...I was weary of such things...but I climbed in.

I sat there not knowing what to do, the canoe sat there too mocking me.

I finally shot the tether with my dispersion pistol and that set the boat in motion... I jumped for joy...which took me out of the boat...which I could not catch making me have to swim the whole way behind it.

I tried this several more times...

IT is a leisurely and eventess ride on a river...sky overhead....birds in fliught...one of the moons shining brightly. mountains everywhere. Ahhhhhhhhh...so peaceful.

This is Serpent Canyon!

It ended at another dock with an unfortunate welcoming committee. A windmill and...no not Don Qioxote...but a Skaarj shooting fireballs. I crept into the mill cautiously. There were a lot of goodies inside. But I could hear a growling somewhere below. It took another door opening to gain access to the stairs and the fight was on. A tough Skaarj gunner on rounding stairway. I got splattered quite a few times.

[CrimsonFox]

Here are my Steam screenshots...however they start from the most recent. YOu can scroll down to live the story...

Steam Community :: sircrimsonfox :: Screenshots (http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004585919/screenshots/)

[CrimsonFox]

Next I found it! The great castle itself NALI CASTLE!


http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/287476444268944786/573DE03996235C79FCA2A776303D1BAEF97B70EC/
This is the castle in the opening of the game! Always packed. Mary and Joseph couldn't get a room here either.


the peaceful nali whose planet this is...

and who are now enslaved to the skaarj...

Their capital.

Totally posh. A giant statue of their god.
Red carpets everywhere

Comfy rooms...with an unwelcome visitor.
http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/279599570104460605/5C753324BD0F5021BB758A69C2C8EB1C06AEC40D/

Get yer stinkin' hands off my clean sheets, you dirty skaarj!

Dungeons which I could not gain access to until I defeated the great 5 eyed demon. Funny there are signs saying this. Who made these signs?

Anyway I have to find the wizard's tower. Jumping is possible but you can't jump very high. A big level also involving a library with a book stuck out of its shelf. I pushed it and you guessed it the bookshelf swiveled like YOung Frankenstein...

I jumped behind and got goodies, then I I'm trapped back there and I hear something...the bookcase swivels again and 2 mercenaries are there for the ride and attack! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Tricksy!

I also play around with smashing myself in the bookcase Gene Wilder style. PUT ZE CANDLE BACK!

[CrimsonFox]

Here is Nali Castle...
Unreal Walkthrough: Mission 28. Nali Castle - Planet Unreal (http://planetunreal.gamespy.com/Viewb1a8.html?view=UnrealGameInfo.Detail&id=37)

yay!

It takes me quite awhile to find my way around...there are side rooms with enemies...there are also parapets which lead to nowhere...and a hanging cart which doesn't move...

FInally I round a large stair to the tower...and inside is a giant gasbagh. It breathes fire in a shiny room that looks like Beauty and the beast were dancing in it but stopped because this big blob with a mouth et them all up. THe floor is shiny too.
http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/279599570104462024/EF6C9F6514E8FBBF41541851CE691565C210F7A4/
Beast ate Beauty...Oh No!

He was actually quite easy. Movemovemove blastblastblast. *whump*

This grants me access to the dungeon level where poor nali are in dungeon jails guarded by a skaarj on one side and a mercenary on the other. One of the Nali waves at me when I free him. This means follow him. I follow him up and up and up and up to the hanging cart! He takes off without me #@%^*(&@#^(*&#@^(*&#^$!!!!

I restart and beat him this time. This takes me to more ramps to climb....and a wide open field beside the mountain with a stiff drop on the other...

As my friend and I walk across the field...a spaceship comes out of nowhere and STRAFES US! F***ING STRAFES US! My friend is blown to bits and I fall to down into the water...where I can't find another way in so I restart...man...

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/279599570112853187/D91D377E73ADD191139BBB669B5032A21FAAA6A1/
Strafing is the New Black...

I try it a few more times and realize there is no way to destroy the ship. And your friend dies period. Lame. At the end of the field is a little open barn with 2 cows and barrels. Inside are Nali fruit seeds. Not an amazing prize but I realize I'll need them for later.

I head back down down down past the dungeons and to my big battle....lava on both sides I know I'm in a world of pain...

[CrimsonFox]

oh yeah the second to last picture in that previous link is a torture chamber with a nali inside a guillotine. Once you enter, a skaarj decapitates him. It might let you do it too...there is no way to save him.

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/279599570104463114/D65D40DF9C9A9AC4FDF57B29C2B22848CAF9109E/
2 Points!

There are various nali on crosses and hanging from things through the gave. Those still breathing I envision myself freeing them and directing them to the safest refuge with a gun and ammo. For the deceased I say a prayer and bless them sending them onto the next life.

It makes the pain of "no way to save anybody" go away. There are also times where I put them out of their misery.

[CrimsonFox]

The next area I find myself in an immense volcanic cavern. Lava everywhere, a raised pathway leads up to a large winged creature of black, cannon on his arm....er...no...cannon AS his arm. red red red all around.

The Demonlord's Lair!

Unreal Walkthrough: Mission 29. Demonlord's Lair - Planet Unreal (http://planetunreal.gamespy.com/View4cbc.html?view=UnrealGameInfo.Detail&id=38)

Very scary dude. Took me about 10 tries.

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/279599570112851931/1B06EF7A723D12C3A3B5A671A43375729991F5BD/

Mommy!

He flies. YOu can fall down to either side and fight there. There is one thruway under the raised path. It became a matter of shooting and dodging, shooting and dodging...then he chases you so I run thru to the other side while he flaps and prances....let him get close to you and you are dead.

Very scary and creepy fights. He laughs at you when you miss.

[CrimsonFox]

This also epitomizes this game really...there are parts that literally stop you in your tracks. Make you wallow in misery for months, even give it up.

Then you get past it and you soar through the next 5 sections....such is what I have done. THose Cellars were a beast...I also now have attached it in memory to some rather horrible things I went through while playing it.

Nali Castle also took awhile....lots of nooks and crannies

[CrimsonFox]

Nifty...I can hotlink straight to individual steam pictures...Now All I need is to be able to reduce the size and I'm in business...

Anyone know how to do that?

[CrimsonFox]

Well I'm not sure there is a way for this site to shrink down pictures you link to so I'll just go with this for now. It's not THAT much bigger than normal screen size, at least for me it isn't. If you shrink the screen down a couple steps it's actually perfect. So I'll keep doing this for expediency and progress. Much easier just to pick out photos from my gallery and plunk them here than uber processing them all.

Okay, let us continue...

[CrimsonFox]

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/279599570112854317/F20BCF31822CC04CF54778D91E1D005219E03B54/

Time for the elevator ride of doom....well it's actually kinda neat...

It dumps me in a storage room with glowing sludge barrels and fire barels that you can shoot and they explode. It's dark (and I'm wearing sunglasses)

Yikes.

Stuff everywhere....Skaarj and Spiders....those spiders make sick scary creepy noises.

Even when they die...

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/279599570112854449/0EFCE196E879753639C640C78EB34567940503AE/

One creepy crawly thing dying...AH! AH! AH!

[CrimsonFox]

I slink down to the basement to visit The Alamo.....and twiddle the power cabubulator...

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/279599570112855130/31502A9B1AC5D725DD639D1D0A12A9A11FC79FFE/

Power Cabubulator Twiddled!

I go upstairs and guess what...there's a welcoming committee...and all my friends are there waiting to blow me the hell up!

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/279599570112856139/6F4B299DCD04B519649E3D7947125588BB746024/

I see London, I see France...I see Maurice (wwwwwheeeeeeeek Wheeeeeeeeoooooooooooo) about to die!

[CrimsonFox]

I next take this super funky lightbeam elevator up another vertical shaft (Damn right)
http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/279599570112859328/F8315924ADC4822433CEF5EB18CB93316EC11FCA/

This takes me into the Mothership Lab! Where it seems the entire ship is now alerted to my prescence and shoots presents at me...

There are these cool machinery things that open up and suddenly they are vidscreens showing various charts and pictures.

I spy (with my little eye) various Skaarj officers standing with their back to me reading these screens...and I proceed to Double-Flakcannon them into sausages!

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/279599570112860464/CA3A302451E69046FB33C1C3623FDC8355756D86/

Lt. QWKX'x'x'z decided to work late in hopes of getting that promotion. Little did he know...

The Flak Cannon is my favorite weapon. It is a big yellow gun with a square barrel shape. And you basically load concentrated shards of metal into it. When you pull the trigger these shards explode out in all directions and slice things into cold cuts. So next time you are in subway you might want to think again before having that Italian BMT.

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/279599570112860308/44F9F724436B59F20918EE0C23BC186B96DC9C53/

You've been promoted to Jarrod's meat

[CrimsonFox]

There are many many rooms with viewscreens and guards and "scientists" aboot.

And I also find where they emprison the test subjects. Skaarj, dice-playing mercenaries, a room full of blobs.....Spiders....

Oh yeah don't you dare open the roomfull of blobs...

They are acidic and will chase you all over the freaking ship. It also happens to be the one forcefield that you can destroy, letting them escape their cell.

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/279600210843500346/9360379A607D9990A592CC11F30DCC110B407811/

Run, Don't Walk...as the blobs chase you

They are pretty much impossible to hit as I've seen. Maybe they are immune to most weaponry. But they just keep coming after you.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/696590346/ms_twss.jpg

The spider room is a trap too. You see one of your prisonship comrades sitting against the wall in the far corner. These people are littered about the whole adventure and indications that other people from the prisonship escaped the ship and forged ahead before you.

And these deadmates usually have equipment you can collect and often you can read messages they kept in their diaries. like "I think I'm going to die here". In this case it is a total trap. There is nothing besides the body here but if you go all the way over there to find out, spiders immediately start jumping out of holes in the wall.

Spiders aren't hard to kill....but they move in jumpy motions and if they get close enough they lunge at you and bite. If they do that enough times, you are toast.
So you have to RUN AWAY! RUNAWAY!

Two interesting things about this level...I've unlocked these wormhole doors and going through them....well....look at this!:

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/279599570112862727/6F8E86F1DDCA1A19BE9048987E9BFE7C2255E48F/

GO INTO THE LIGHT!



This dumps you in another part of the ship. I guess that's how BIG this place is that they need wormholes to get around...

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/memoryalpha/images/1/12/Five_minutes_to_warp_core_breach.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20090515010044&path-prefix=en

Captain We Have Warp Core Wormholes And There's NOthing I can Do About It!

[CrimsonFox]

The OTHER interested area is a room where a Genetics experiment is going on. A Skaarj scientist is summoning/building/creating....a super duper orange flaming Skaarj who looks FABULOUS!

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/279599570112863560/A326F491BD101A237502CA4F76FB3C1AE6D0E2D6/

He clashes with everything!

Oh yeah, see the guy on the left? THe scientist? Notice anything missing about him? No not his wristwatch. His freaking head!! That is the second favorite gun in the game. The shotgun. And it's got a great sniper type zoom. If you headshot things just right, their head falls off. And their bodies don't realize it at first...So Wile E Coyote style they grope around midair for where their heads used to be...and then fall over.

OH man it's funny.

The orangeguy fight was pretty tough. I shotgunned and rockettted him to death. He took a lot of ammo but I kept moving.


I'm actually getting close to the end of the game! Woohoo!!!
I'll leave you with this!

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/279599570112864485/D6DED5CA425AA1EE580E8F388299D96CFF45E468/

Darn...I left my head in my other pants!

[CrimsonFox]

I finally find the right hallways and triggers to allow me into this vertical shart room. It glows green like the hallways, the green lights unjulating down the whole shaft. (damn right)

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/279599570122021637/CF74F43C69A306D6F4736EC914BD54886A154DEE/

There is a bridge to the center....which I gleefully take. THe motorized pillar in the centar revolves and lowers. This makes me very cautious. I look about and below me is an open hatchway with clouds moving beneath.

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/279599570122021789/984B38FC88B6149A7266A9A4A13614A9A7057851/

I feel like I've just screamed NOOOOOOOOOO at my father who has just cut off my hand. I actually try jumping onto the door and die immediately. Oops. I'm such a Luke.

http://images.moviefanatic.com/iu/s--nq-JZwcV--/t_slideshow/f_auto,fl_lossy,q_75/v1395034880/empire-strikes-back-mark-hamill.jpg
Even the force is no match for instant death clouds...

I try again and after about 10 minutes of embarrassing searching...oh there's the bridge there to another door...and it takes me to....ANOTHER LEVEL! WOOHOO!!!! Goodbye Lab!
Hello Mothership Core!

Where the entire ship now knows that I'm here and wants me dead...I'm immediately in a hallway with two palookas.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/8Zp-3KdTW44/hqdefault.jpg
That's right. I'm not your friend palooka.

They are pushovers. I shook em up. Pushovers. I went out for In and out burgers afterwards.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/so9U5Fu4v2k/hqdefault.jpg
****ing amateurs!

I find that I'm in a series of ramps and hallways surrounding a large room. Around every turn is another monster...a skaarj trooper here, a mercenary there...all armed to the nines and badass beyond belief. It is a glorious challenge befitting a warrior such as I.

[CrimsonFox]

And then there are those times when a level is so big and so difficult that every time you pick it up, it kills you and makes you want to not play anymore. Well I finally broke through that wall.

The Mothership Core Level is MINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Again winding corridors with lots of doors. Another central atrium that the path winds through allowing Skaarj gunners and assassins and superjuicedconseco skaarjs to snipe me from afar or even jump the gap across to my level to slice and dice.

The other thing is this blog. Sometimes the blog is much more work than i want to put in and keeps me from getting levels done. But luckily here is the level for you...

Someone who obviously knows the level and did it much cleaner and quicker than I.
And yes you can TELL they know the level backward and forward due to the fact that they shoot at badguys before they are even on the screen.

But yeah 2 badguys in every new room. Plus it seems some extras wander.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/V-KFx6t5DnQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

For a more accurate depiction of me playing, pretend that each room kicks my ass. Especially the big room with two guys popping behind the columns. Also the green elevator up...that was a fun fight...there was a "sleeping" skaarj at the top. ANd shoots the hell out of you. Jupming down the elevator is good and he slowly follows you. I shot him all the way down his rtide...then he landed and sliced the hell out of my clothes.

[CrimsonFox]

A highlight from my journey...

See this? This thing here?
The green glowy lines underneath the bridge I'm on?

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/267226724933734629/2783E8AF3F6BB03D4C9FB46ED241E9255D22B177/?interpolation=lanczos-none&output-format=jpeg&output-quality=95&fit=inside|1024:771&composite-to%3D%2A%2C%2A%7C1024%3A771&background-color=black

[CrimsonFox]

Now see what it does?

This is after I jumped on it.

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/267226724933734743/D1C1C7933A14DB0534EEF445C2C0DB42B08D1AD2/?interpolation=lanczos-none&output-format=jpeg&output-quality=95&fit=inside|1024:771&composite-to%3D%2A%2C%2A%7C1024%3A771&background-color=black

That's not bologna. That's my spleen

[CrimsonFox]

Finally arriving on the otherside of this level you are greeted to the following Level Title: Skaarj Generator

As if pinkie pie hasn't been sending enough of those things at me in wave after wave.

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/villains/images/0/08/Pinky_Pie_with_knife.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20141101132702

She'll cut you. She'll do it.


http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/267226724933734844/7E5C83F3E8691A636E6FC293F3C565FEAA48E454/?interpolation=lanczos-none&output-format=jpeg&output-quality=95&fit=inside|1024:771&composite-to%3D%2A%2C%2A%7C1024%3A771&background-color=black

But look! A nice new arena to fight in...multilevel even. When the level starts and you enter the room a skarrj jumps down at you and IMMEDIATELY starts running up that big ramp in front of you...if you give chase...you'll regret it, for that big green shaft of light in the center will do exactly to you what the previous green lights did.

[CrimsonFox]

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/267226724933734997/390676A179E66DC47AE888F44973218F144B14BE/?interpolation=lanczos-none&output-format=jpeg&output-quality=95&fit=inside|1024:771&composite-to%3D%2A%2C%2A%7C1024%3A771&background-color=black

Oh look! there he is now, shooting his double fireballs at me.

[CrimsonFox]

This cool room is multileveled. You can run up the afformentioned ramps onto two rings above and jump from there to multiple ramps and platforms in the center.

Around the outside of the room are these portals...they lead to random locations on the top ring. The plethora of badguys will use them too!

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/267226724933735210/6A82187C4CE966A4E6543BC0869E429BA8AF2634/?interpolation=lanczos-none&output-format=jpeg&output-quality=95&fit=inside|1024:771&composite-to%3D%2A%2C%2A%7C1024%3A771&background-color=black

[CrimsonFox]

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/267226724933735318/9B8B6C363433AA94852663A3873782C9BAB9C0C1/?interpolation=lanczos-none&output-format=jpeg&output-quality=95&fit=inside|1024:771&composite-to%3D%2A%2C%2A%7C1024%3A771&background-color=black

A view from above into the center. That sparkly thing? Yeah you don't want it. The first go of this I followed the skaarj up the ramp and whee fell right into it hehehe

[CrimsonFox]

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/267226724933735440/505F89AD57A22C0C7176D290E96F85040B852857/?interpolation=lanczos-none&output-format=jpeg&output-quality=95&fit=inside|1024:771&composite-to%3D%2A%2C%2A%7C1024%3A771&background-color=black

THIS time, the game is VERY gracious to you. In that previous monster level of Core Mothership, it teases you with like 3 rooms FULL of goodies, ALL behind forcefields that you can't remove.

But this room has TWO, Count-em TWO superhealthpacks like this one on the ramps and platforms. Just sitting there. These up your health by 100. And if your health is ALREADY at the 100 max....it ups it to 200! But if you ever go below 100 again you can't go above it without another superpack.

So yeah...having two of these in this room PLUS a shield belt and other armor in this room is um...worrisome.

[CrimsonFox]

You fight and fight and fight...

Maybe 12 of these guys.

And then...THIS guy.

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/267226724933735569/F65B6251BC5C57DB0E0EC0E329393ED2C3AE261A/?interpolation=lanczos-none&output-format=jpeg&output-quality=95&fit=inside|1024:771&composite-to%3D%2A%2C%2A%7C1024%3A771&background-color=black

[CrimsonFox]

I said...

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/267226724933735701/1D8C99195F1ACE4127E22D8968F5E97254C1F690/?interpolation=lanczos-none&output-format=jpeg&output-quality=95&fit=inside|1024:771&composite-to%3D%2A%2C%2A%7C1024%3A771&background-color=black

THIS GUY!

Winged demonlord with the rocketlaucher on his arm.

So yeah....pretend it's cthulhu. Run like hell. At this point I had so much ammo and had fun killing him in different ways. The video I put up previous also reminded me of the alternative firing methods. Each gun has a SECOND way to fire it (by using the RIGHT mouse button instead of the left). Each gun fires in a different way...like the rocket launcher...instead of actually firing rockets straight at something....lobs then undetonated in an arc where they bounce along the ground and THEN they explode.

Lotsa fun stuff. This fight in the big portal room with multiple levels...yeah he can just hover around while you hit him from multiple angles. Pretty easy but rewarding. Last time we saw him was in his lair with no where to go but lava which was a ton harder.

[CrimsonFox]

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/267226724933735811/1B61C767449630BF1991DD1912EA3EF378C66427/?interpolation=lanczos-none&output-format=jpeg&output-quality=95&fit=inside|1024:771&composite-to%3D%2A%2C%2A%7C1024%3A771&background-color=black

All is over. Poor demonlord!

[CrimsonFox]

At 16 health ...heh.
Just barely won.

So an elevator lift comes down from the center once you kill him and you look up at this.

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/267226724933735930/976A507714026A2D9B84970BF8FC786B5465DF04/?interpolation=lanczos-none&output-format=jpeg&output-quality=95&fit=inside|1024:771&composite-to%3D%2A%2C%2A%7C1024%3A771&background-color=black

and inside are 3 green electiricity like filaments that you can shoot.

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/267226724933736025/0E02B269B2E66D534AFD52FB7F14D2382C82DF60/?interpolation=lanczos-none&output-format=jpeg&output-quality=95&fit=inside|1024:771&composite-to%3D%2A%2C%2A%7C1024%3A771&background-color=black

Pew! Pew! Pew!

[CrimsonFox]

And that's it! whee! I won right?

Oh...huh the elevator lowered... okay yay me! I won!

There's arumbling all around! GO ME I WON!

THe whole thing shakes! There are blue lights around...YAYAYAYAYAYA I WON!



http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/267226724933736125/C2F2CA9E605E7A1F571E2180FB7EFB404B8E77B6/?interpolation=lanczos-none&output-format=jpeg&output-quality=95&fit=inside|1024:771&composite-to%3D%2A%2C%2A%7C1024%3A771&background-color=black

And then the whole structure falls on top of me..


(ouch)


(yay me)

[CrimsonFox]

And then...

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/267226724933736223/822752B0EEB6F7A53087FEF6DF0E7EDC5FE5EF77/?interpolation=lanczos-none&output-format=jpeg&output-quality=95&fit=inside|1024:771&composite-to%3D%2A%2C%2A%7C1024%3A771&background-color=black

All goes white

A new level...called....ILLUMINATION!

Am I in heaven?

um....

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/267226724933736325/8449B9B3DD23649EE372CE6BA4CDC4E543C0C3E2/?interpolation=lanczos-none&output-format=jpeg&output-quality=95&fit=inside|1024:771&composite-to%3D%2A%2C%2A%7C1024%3A771&background-color=black

nope...still a pancake....and still dead

but oooo pretty light show.

The worst part?

I have to go back and finish the previous level to get back here and do it all over again.

[CrimsonFox]

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/267226724933736420/03068276ED401BC3A153EE165110572BAACACB0B/?interpolation=lanczos-none&output-format=jpeg&output-quality=95&fit=inside|1024:771&composite-to%3D%2A%2C%2A%7C1024%3A771&background-color=black

So here I am incorrectly taking a selfie with the AGAIN dead demonlord.


http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/267226724933736516/FC241014CA112D34FF36D524A8AEC0D635679397/?interpolation=lanczos-none&output-format=jpeg&output-quality=95&fit=inside|1024:771&composite-to%3D%2A%2C%2A%7C1024%3A771&background-color=black

And here I am getting a closeup of those green filaments inside the ship. A LITTLE too close. That smear is me :(

selfies are dangerous

[CrimsonFox]

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/267226724933736634/766E6EC34FF2858C297D0F067156C4DA7AB9A8C8/?interpolation=lanczos-none&output-format=jpeg&output-quality=95&fit=inside|1024:771&composite-to%3D%2A%2C%2A%7C1024%3A771&background-color=black

Here is an example of using the altfire method of the flak cannon. Regular method is to shoot shards of metal out of the gun which slice everything in their path. THIS method shoots the whole round forward and it explodes once it HITS something....like this skaarj that is being minced by its impact!

yum!

[CrimsonFox]

Third time's the charm

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/267226724933736742/2326BCED5B021B24B9CD8D26C8A6CA9228A0A118/?interpolation=lanczos-none&output-format=jpeg&output-quality=95&fit=inside|1024:771&composite-to%3D%2A%2C%2A%7C1024%3A771&background-color=black

[CrimsonFox]

And THIS time I get OUT of the ship and move FAR FAR AWAY after blowing up the core!

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/267226724933736958/86186AE24C18CBE116B245960D2874AC597E7191/?interpolation=lanczos-none&output-format=jpeg&output-quality=95&fit=inside|1024:771&composite-to%3D%2A%2C%2A%7C1024%3A771&background-color=black


Pretty darn impressive fireworks. That whole thing is what fell on me.

Yes it reminds me of the end of Portal too

[CrimsonFox]

And then the blue electriicity starts zzzzz-ing everywhere

and blue lights...

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/267226724933737073/C81A86405ADCB8BFC0DA1E10CF21DA79AF7E29B7/?interpolation=lanczos-none&output-format=jpeg&output-quality=95&fit=inside|1024:771&composite-to%3D%2A%2C%2A%7C1024%3A771&background-color=black

Thus leading to the next level...the Darkening...

where we go back through the previous level....but with no electiricty...thus no forecefields....no elevators....and disturbing blue lights...

And m*****f****** spiders



Until next time.


but oooo looking forward to this

[CrimsonFox]

Note if you use the CONTROL and wheel to shrink the font in the browser, you can see all these pics fully and not have to move a slide left and right.

[Brian Swartz]

This is definitely among the better thread re-starts I've seen in quite a while .

[CrimsonFox]

This is definitely among the better thread re-starts I've seen in quite a while .

That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me.

I may weep *sniff*

[CrimsonFox]

We interupt this weeping to bring you another game from my list!

I have made a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE breakthru in one of my favorite all-time games...Thief: The Dark Project (now THief: GOld)

So I will switch things over to report on that.

[CrimsonFox]

The Game: Thief: The Dark Project
http://www.knightdiscounts.com/software/thieftrianglebox.jpg

Background: Origin Story

The Year Was STILL 1997.

Look at the previous page where I told the tale of Unreal. This game came out the same year. Maybe a little before. Or at least that was in my memory. The thing I remember most about this game and what attracted me to it...the first thing at least...was the shape. A TRAPEZOID?!?!?

"But Fox! All games are rectangles! We're very clear on that! Games must be rectangles!"

I know...I know...It's crazy I know.

But it was a trapezoid ...all dark and forboding...had the word DARK right in it.
And THIEF. Dark and THief were two words that I, unless I missed my guess, warmed to. At least in gaming. I looked at the back

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81C481ZE02L.gif

Crazy looking monsters? Checkerboard swirl hallways? Fantasy? knights? Swordfighting? AND stealing? I'm in...

But it would take me longer actually to be in.

It was a battle between Unreal and THief really. Which would I buy first. I remember seeing both on the Best Buy shelves...maybe in the Quad Cities.

But I definitely think I bought Unreal first. I think it had the better marketing slogan..."By Gamers, FOR Gamers"

Fancy Schmantzy.

But I don't think it was long before I bought it too. And I definitely remember that the same friends of mine that loved Unreal, Loved Thief as well.


And from the first scene it introduced me to a new kind of immersion that I haven't seen since. It used cut movies scenes within missions and from the first one you knew this was going to be cool. YOu are in a world ...medeival fantasy...different factions, different sects....

But to you, a young scamp on the streets...stealing your way through life, things were about to change....when the person you are stealing from grabs your hand and escorts you to an alley and tells you he is a keeper...and keepers are not easy to be seen when they don't want to be. He invites you to come to his house and he will teach you things....I know that does sound kinda gross...



The first mission is nothing but learning not only which keys to press to do what things....but what weapons to use. You get sword. It slashes left right and overhead. You have a bow. When you press the mouse and hold it down it zooms in to a target. YOu can practice these. YOu can also run, jump climb, hoist yourself up to a higher level, and swim. YOu have a little training ground to do that with....

And that's just it....you can stay at this little place as long as you want, running jumping, fighting, shooting. And really those were just basics...bgefore you actually get into what the hell you were doing in the game....it was inviting you into this world...to BE this character. And you indeed felt like you WERE young Garrett, learning these things....oh yes did I forget something?

Two of the important lessons.

1. Stay in the dark.
2. DOn't make noise

These two things are very important and in fact at the heart of how you play.
This was the birth of the First person Sneaker. After all the Doom and Quake and halflife, etc games that had come before where you are running through dungeons shooting everything that moves. Here was a game where just staying in the shadows....and being quiet and slow....will actually help you...will actually REWARD you.

But again...this intro level did not teach you anything yet.

Level after level you sink into the game.

You start out with a minimovie....with old sayings....and one HELL of a voice actor playing the pivotal role of Garrett...he's smarmy, full of himself, funny, kinda emo...and very sure of himself. And the actor brings all these characteristics to life.

He tells you each level or mission...how it comes to be...who his copntacts are, why he is going after a place....and that's just it. Each level is a mission....a job....a target. A thief's gotta eat. And the first is Lord Bafford's Mansion. A fatcat fatty lord with a magic scepter that will bring you big bucks.

It is actually a pretty long mission considering it is a starter mission. Looking back it is fairly simple and gives you most of the things you'll find in the game.


Firstly it shows you what just hiding around the corner listening to guards talk is like....they do...most of them are bored guards whistling away. Benny the guard in the beginning gives a hilarious monologue telling his friend how he's going to the bear pits to see bears fight. But that's not important for you as you slink through the alleyways...you were told of a back door from the intro and you actulally have a map....I say MAP...but this is another brilliant part of the game.

Every level /mission you receive a map from a contact. But that contact usually just wrote vague notes and areas....Most of the maps are NOT exact.
Some have sketches, important landmarks, really fuzzy maps.

BUt that's more realistic of what you are likely to receive. And once you get inside....you realize...you are in a big mansion. And you can walk around this place however you want. Go where you want. Do what you want. In whatever order you want. ALL you have to do is steal some money and steal the sceptre. How you do it is up to you.

You are given an assortment of tools....lockpicks, a sword, and an array of exciting arrows. NOne of which it went into detail about in the intro. This castle is the perfect place to discover that. Water arrows put out torches from afar to create dark areas. Moss arrows make the ground silent as different surfaces (marble, gravel, brick, stone, metal) are pretty loud when walked upon. Marble and metal are so damn loud. It's like clipclop loud . Loud attracts people. People that want you dead. You are after all breaking into every place you go. And their swords hurt. Try it. YOu won't like it. The guards are skilled at swordfighting and wear armor. They will do a LOT of damage to you. But you will probably need 7-8 swings before killing them. Hence...stay in the dark. Don't alert them.

This is an RPG of sorts...you have hit points. There are 3 levels of difficulty. You have fewer HP at higher difficulty as well as the guards are more sensitive to noise/harder to kill....AND you have more things to accomplish the higher difficulty.

But here is the thing about the guards. It will not end the game to be seen. Guards will hear you. Guards will see you. And when they do, they shout at you. Then they will chase you and try to slice you in half. But guess what...you have legs. You are a lover not a fighter. You can run. YOu can run all through the mansion.... You can lose those sobs. Run around the corner, jump down the stairs, rundown a hall, enter a mystery door, jump into the corner and sink to the ground, hiding...waiting....listening.....hearing them just outside walking down the hall, praying they don't open that door. This is thief. YOu are intruding and have a chance of getting caught. It's really tense and exhialerating. Probably the most tense feeling is not fighting a guard. But when you are trying to open a locked door before a guard comes around a corner and sees you. You can lead a whole congaline of guards through the castle. Granted it's not good to do that as they alert each other.

So how do you deal with guards? You sneak up all quietlike behind them and gentlely bop them unconscious with your blackjack, then carry them craftily into the darkness and leave them there. (after robbing them blind) The immersion of this game sincerely makes you create stories here. Whenever i place someone somewhere I always think about what happens in a few hours when they wake up in this strange new room. Or in a locked closet or something. Or piled up in a cell with 10 other guards.

And as you make your way through level after level...the world notices. The fatcats know who you are and talk about you in their diaries...and you also start attracting the attention of some pretty mean and powerful dudes....The Hammerites. A religious group of monks and priests who wear red and white robes and armor and worship The Builder. And carry VERY large and deadly hammers. Get it? Hammerites? Not so funny when in mission two you have to break one of your contacts out of jail. The Hammerites imprison people just because they want to....taxes and such too. "Sinners". And it's a scary place. And oh yes....it's haunted.

So leads to the next reason I love this game so much. It's one of the best horror games I've ever played. By getting the immersion right...you are aware of yourself and feel like you are in the game. You are also aware of the world aroound you and that people and things in the world are aware of you. That's an excellent place to inject horror. It already has the tenseness and isolation feeling perfect....

Now let's add haunted places and monsters. Yes the mines underneath the Hammerite prison are haunted with zombies and they are really fricking scary.
The design...the noises they make. SImple yet terrifying. And holy water becomes very important. And let's not forget the spiders. I'm not certain what is scarier...trying to move around a zombie that is lying in front of you...or being in the middle of a hammerite prison behind the scenes and just knowing those bruts are EVERYWHERE. It was in this level that I've never felt more rebelious and in need of revenge. And everyone I knock out...I imprison in their own cells and lock the door. Yes...I know they will die in there. I know they will be cramped 12 in. I don't care. These bastards deserve it for what they do to these people. And yes, this meant carrying people from ALL OVER the building into these corridors and cells and then going up and locking them again. This is not something that is needed from the game...it's just something you can do. ANd it is more satisfying than scoring a million points on some other game.

Actually my favorite level is the following one where you are retrieving an artifact from a series of underground tombs full of zombies and worse things...

So there are alternate spooky things and normal things...

The story ever expands through the mission cut scenes...
and diaries and notes you read. You discover how each household is run just from the orders written by the masters to their servants or from one worker to another....or from this cheating lord about how he spends all his money...or what the builders did to each of their sinner prisoners :(

So this is why this game has always been my favorite.

[CrimsonFox]

Fox, if this game is so great, why haven't you solved it?

Because it is hard for one thing. SOme level are downright tricky. It was definitely from an era where games were harder.

Because a couple of the missions are tedious and confusing to figure out where you are going. And once you are tired of searching for an exit without a proper map for an hour you kinda are bored and want to just kill things.

And like Unreal...I put this down and pick it up later, etc. I actually made it to the second to last level at one point....never made it further.

And every new computer I've had I put this game on it and played...

However this one does NOT hold my attention span as MUCH because it is a much slower game. You play at your pace with succinct goals....which do not include killing.

So you do have to be in a less aggressive mood.


Now one thing...years after the original, they rereleased it...with a level editor. Plus THREE levels they pulled from the original game.
The Thieves Guild, The Opera House, and one other I forget.

These levels were actually pretty darn hard and long...maybe that's why.

And my latest attempt had been halted by one of these three.

THe THieves Guild....It is long and hard (That's what she said)

Your goal is to break into a casino and find the secret passage down to the hideouts underground of two warring thieves' guilds. ANd steal something they are fighting over. Aside from ALL of the thieves in the casino, there are a million twisty miles of sewers and places where guards patrol, plus under=grouns entrances to open, guards to get by and two complete hideouts to deal with. Took forever.

[CrimsonFox]

BUT I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The casino part was always fairly straightforward. HOwever the probblem with this whole level is there are so many places with lanterns you cannot put out with water. So sneaking is harder.

And I had done all that. It was the finding my way around underground that was so impossible. THere are so many brick passageways. THen so many sewers. And several large rooms that look alike. And heavily guarded entrances of the guilds themselves. And thieves everywhere.

Plus thieves with bows. THieves with bows hurt...:P
And running fromthem is harder...

Here I'll just post this...watch this to get a taste of how long this thing is...

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NEj50XAeJJk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[CrimsonFox]

Oh yes...the other grea thing about starting this game over is that I finally started downloading all the patches and MODS made by thief fans over the years. Their texture mods are really great. Being a 1997 game the thing it did NOT have going for it was great graphics...but with gameplay like this it was easy to overlook.

SO that has been a great bonus.

[CrimsonFox]

To tell tales of my sortee into the guild...

getting into the guild and wiping out the casino was the easy part really. However as mentioned there is now a combination of light sources. Some torch, some fireplace, some lantern. Only the first two can be extinguished.

Maybe this level was too easy with torches. BUt it's really hard without.

There is a long wall dividing the main floor of the casino. ON either side is a long bar (like a drinking bar). And these bars are patrolled by 2-3 guys. Outside the bars are the casino tables which face watchrooms with 2 guards each. Usually one with a bow. So if any guard sees you, ALL the guard in the place come running. If any patron sees you, they shout out to the guards.

So yes this can be a challenge. But getting into the center is the key. Take out the outside torches behind the bar and you can then position yourself to take out the patrols easily. You can sneak into darker areas and knock out the patrons pretty easily. Getting the watchroom guys takes quite a bit of work especially getting through the doors. I think one area allows you into the hallway behind and from there picking locks and headbashing is easy.

There are then 2 entrances down into the sewers. One through a secret door entered by the roulette table and the other behind one of the guard rooms. Behind that is a series of rooms carved in stone and gravel with small beds and fire lit for hideous living conditions of the thieves. The other way has two guards having a converstaion about a vase that the 2 warring master thieves have stolen and are fighting over....thus begins your quest.

Steal the key from one thief to open the safe from the other.


But this area is full of brick passageways and guarded large rooms with guards everywhere. YOu also have to make your way into rooms that open sewer gates that lead to other areas. So many of the passages look alike or double back to areas you have been. In 3d or 2.5 d or something this would be easier. But 1st person it is maddening. Especially getting past the large room with the pool in the middle but two levels of ramps on the outside where guards patrol and one guy at the head of the room with a bow. There are about 3 areas that look like this.

So getting to Donal HQ and/or Reuben's is tricky...and your map is really not much help at all. Just sketches of things...areas....labels...South basement, lower sewer, upper sewre, north basement, with arrows saying which direction to go for each thief. Granted I did say it was more fun not having exact instructions sometimes...until it becomes monotonous and adds nothing to the game. Perhaps that is why this level was thrown out originally. The lost world level set in like mayan or incan looking burnt city with lava flows....got a similar treatment. It was so empty and confusing and boring...that in the gold release they added more guard ghosts....and also more of these dinosaurs called "burricks"...oh how cute these burricks are. They were first appeared in the Bonehoard underground level. And they spit poison gas at you.

So it is easy to see why I stopped playing this altogether. And frequently consulted with visual walkthrus to determine just where the hell i was supposed to go....the answer of course is always the same....through ONE doorway...and if you miss that ONE doorway...you won't get there.

I went to DOnal's HQ first and cleared it out. The place is actually well to do and pretty, with soft (quiet ) rugs and stained glass and golden banisters and marble bathtub....and I always feel obligated to jump straight into the bathwater in my dirty clothes just so the fatcats have to waste all that water.

IT's funny that I always find a bottle of wine and /or candlesticks right by the tub. Both are goods worth something.

Of course I missed a guard or two that ended up chasing me. I was kind of sloppy in this area...as well as when I finally got to reuben's. Probably because I was impatient to finish. I used quiet a few healing potions indeed as they hit me a LOT. Reuben's place is mostly stonemade and he keeps a lot of cells locked. SOme had storage, some had bones of people...one had a gigantics fricking spider....which ran out and immediately attacked me again and again....damnit the cheek and snarkiness of these designers. THey got me.

But I potioned up again and got the key. Getting back to Donal's was an equal farce as I AGAIN lost my way. Kept going back through the SAME guards again and again and ending back at ruebens. Finally i took the right underground sewer passed the white dead spider then the Y then the other dead spider and since I cleared out the whole place earlier it was all I need was to bounce on the bed a couple times, steal the vase and head for one of the outdoor areas to win.

And this was all on normal. I figured I needed normal for this level. Expert won't let you kill anyone and only gives you 10 hit points...

I needed 20 for this plus I wanted to kill people....and kill I did. The most frequent targets were Reubens guards who would all follow me through the sewers into one of the big rooms. IT was a matter of climbing a ladder and shooting them from above, then chasing them when they run away. Then they fall when I meet them later with one sword swipe.


Next level: The Sword....one of the best and trippiest created in the first game. A Mad lord creates a torsyturvy fun house with upsidedown rooms and hallways, a cavern of space, a sword hanging in the middle of a chamber which you have to steal. It's quite cool. And gets back to basic thieving.

I think this is the first encounter with scissorhands monster.

[CrimsonFox]

This thread kinda stopped because I found it a lot of pressure not only to play the games but track what I'm doing and take interesting pictures about it. But now I've got a completely new obsession: ACHIEVEMENTS!

So I'll track that now until I get bored with it! DOing great so far...

To be Clear...Steam has achievments in game for doing various things. Some games have achievements just for playing bits of the game and give you a LOT of them. Some have planned things that are VERY hard to get. And others make fun of achievements...

This will not only chronicle getting achievements but finishing games 100% (according to Steam) which means complete the game + get all the achievements.

Anyway let's go...

[CrimsonFox]

Let's start with The Stanley Parable.

A game I got back in 2013 under peer pressure for way more than I should have.

It clearly made fun of achievements, giving you one simply for restarting the game after exciting.

Another had you touch door 430 5 times....but if you do so the announcer is disatisfied in how easy that was so he leads you on a scavenger hunt of tasks throughout the game only to finish back at the same door where he finally gives in and gives you the achievement.

But these last two were hard ones...

The first...

BEAT THE GAME in under 4 minutes and 22 seconds....SPEED RUN!



Here was the beginning of my attempt...

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934930301101293171/B35F135FF9A79D102F3CC0B91C4491E8B4B1CD7F/

It was also the beginning of a SECOND acheiemvent. The hardest one....Play the whole game for an entire Tuesday....that's 24 hours of gametime...

[CrimsonFox]

So I planned to start the game at around 11:50 PM....monday.

But I forgot and took a long shower...

And...

It was 12:15 when I remembered. So I set my clock back...to 11:55.

And started the game and played it for a bit.

Then tried the Speed run several times, failing....

Then I did risky thing number 1...I alt-tabbed.

I read other people talking about commitment run....and they all did the same thing. THey turned on the game and left it on screen the whole time.

I alt-tabbed.

I watched movies and such and read up on the speed run. And found one movie that had him scaling chairs and falling over the side of a railing to land on the rising catwalk below to save time.

Never knew that.

Any case I left the game for awhile staying in here:

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934930301101293288/491D2D4B12709E82263566BC1DB1BE20B6E6CA0B/

[CrimsonFox]

I did TRY the chair method

There are two spots in the Mind Control facility with chairs that lead to a table and you can walk the railing and fall below. Otherwise you just push the button and wait for the railing to rise.

I couldn't figure out how to get on the first one so I just waited. The second one I pushed the button and got on the table, then fell off into darkness. At this point my game was over. There is no way out of the bottom of the room.

Thus risky thing #2: I restarted by hitting escape then "BEGIN THE GAME AGAIN". This actually is fine but I was worried. You can start the speed run at any time by doing this. It is also fine for commitment because you aren't actually exiting the game. NEVER exit the game.

I did do something else to assure my coming runs...I changed the mouse sensitivity to almost maximum. That way it was easier for me to go up the stairwell to the boss's office.

Also you HAVE to run through the game at LEAST twice and type in the boss's secret code before the narrator finishes. By the third time, the narrator gets annoyed and fed up and just opens the secret door for you.

So the next run I wasn't even trying that hard and failed to get up on the first table, I got up on the second table but couldn't fall over. I guess there was a place where I needed to go on the rail I couldn't find, but I fell off left onto the platform anyway. The catwalk was in view by then so I just waited for it and ran normally. The rest was cake. Just waited for the minute and a half narration while the garage door opens at the end....and....


https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934930301101293384/9B08B473E1EA16BE2FBBEF4156C9ABB59D83719D/


Freedom!
Achievement complete!

[CrimsonFox]

But that still leaves COmmitment....

I was absoutely expecting to have to do multiple tries but I was bored still and...

Risky move #3 (perhaps the biggest one) - I started up other steam games and played them while Stanley parable was running. Even took pictures and got other achievements in other games.

After 24ish hours I came back and played a few more times for old time's sake when I came to the amusing narration about THIS Serious fern:

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934930395670038143/A359032DCB071BB9290EEDEC90D962F7830D6C17/

I stared intensely at this fernivorous plant....and ten minutes later...the little blip and icon appeared. I had done it. The 24 hours on a Tuesday Achievement was mine.

COMMITMENT! (which is what I fear is what I should do to myself now)

[CrimsonFox]

And....100% of the game...my second one. I do not know what game #1 was...

[CrimsonFox]

Fooling around in one of the first games I ever got on Steam...and won!
: Portal

There is an achievement that I think was created years after the game was made (I think). Steam didn't always have achievements so I think it was created once that happened. It's about the radio. There is a radio hidden somewhere on EVERY level. You have to:

1) Find the radio
2) GET the radio
3) Take the radio to SOMEWHERE in the level where the light will turn from red to GREEN.

At that time you will be told "Transmission Received" and the achievement will update. You must do this 26 times.

And apparently it's a big metapuzzle as well. That each transmission can be listened to and deciphered as another puzzle.

Some of them are tricky just to get the darn radio.


As of now I have 12 / 26 including this one!

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934930081140824074/09DB1A0A5131615672DC4B00751EEC6291C50B34/

[CrimsonFox]

On Feb 4 at 11:07 AM I created a portal above and below and fell through for about 6 minutes...

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934930081138136958/1C4356508325050583C57C73C912907C2A896298/

To get the Terminal Velocity Achievement...Fall 30,000 feet.

[CrimsonFox]

A couple hours ago I placed a portal on the wall and one on the floor turned around, jumped in and after about 30 seconds....

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934930395674567479/DECE3D4ADDF0F60E4CF83DEF615667A37FE93447/


Got the Long Jump Achievement.

[CrimsonFox]

Last week on Long Live The Queen, I, the 14 year old Princess just turned queen because the death of my mother, kissed a nine year old, drown, had a duchess assassinated, and got run through with a sword getting acheievments for all. Now...I challenged someone to a duel at a party for me...and he proceeded to shishkabob me.

But got the achievement anyway. Such is the life of Royalty (I so love this game...you put points into classes to take and you can choose any of like 18 but get penalties and bonuses based on your current mood and current cute outfit you wear. So...the goal is to make it to the throne with your head still attached to its neck and there are LOTS of ways to die.

This is one of many of semi casual games that have LOTS of achievements.

Which leads me to explain my Steam categories for the process of getting achievements...

1) Achievement Hunt - These are games which I will be currently seeking specific achievements or whatever achievements I have left. These games usually have been fully played or at least partially played but going after the achievements will help me finish things.

2) Casual Games - Lots Available. Like Long Live The Queen there is an achievement for everything. Oftentimes with these games the game concept is simple, often storybased or else just pure casual game and for everything you do you get an achievement.

3) Yuk - Time to Make the Doughnuts. Games I hate/dislike and probably won't be playing much at all. Maybe I'll pop one in just to get achievements as the game/theme/gameplay just doesn't do it for me. They are not necessarily bad games persay all the time...they just turned me off for one reason or another. TOmb Raider and Bioshock Infinite are even in here.

4) Gotta Start Somewhere. Games I haven't even started yet altho I've installed some of them. Can't wait to begin.

5) Good ones...Getting there...
These games haven't made it into other categories yet as I haven't totally assessed them but I did enjoy what I've played so far yet haven't really looked at the achievement needs. And usually I haven't gotten far enough to worry about those.

6) NO ACHIEVEMENTS - These are usually old games whose companies are defunct and therefore the game went into steam yet no one is around to make achievements. Some really awesome games are in this category. And I haven't finished these games either

7) WORK COMPLETE - Games that I've completed AND gotten every achievement. This currently contains a meager 3 games.

[CrimsonFox]

The newest addition to category 7 COMPLETE Games...

Thomas was Alone

A clever little puzzle game, on the easy side...which is fine with me.

It has a similar narrator to Stanley Parable. Very conservative British.
I really think both games got narrators who "sounded like Stephen Merchant" based on the success of his Portal 2 character.

Anyway this game is really fun. You move shapes of different sizes around like a platformer...each one has a different attribute and ability. All jump, some higher than others. And there are little squares about when you get them you get the achievement. I finished the game...but missed 5 out of...20 or so.

So getting them was actually pretty easy since finishing the game I could start on any level.

Had to play through some bits though. THe tricky one was the level where you start out falling and just have to keep falling and avoid these spikes that will kill you. An achievement is tucked away to the right under one of these spike platforms. So...

This was the last one...


https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934930395674033348/29E0BB51296E2E83B42F5EAD865152033A425A5A/
An underwater one. And with that I 100% completed the game.

[CrimsonFox]

Updated List of Completes
1 - Undertale - I finished this twice...once half saving/halfkilling people and fought the xerox monster then fought the king many times finally restarting...then I did the supernice ending. There are NO achievements in this game and the dev seems to like to troll and keep people from replaying his games.
2 - Doki Doki Literature Club - Oh man what a long strange trip that was. No achievements in it and finished it. And you should too!
3 - I don't know what the 1st game I beat 100% and not sure how to find out.
4 - The Stanley Parable. Originally I played this way way back when it came out and only did a few endings. A couple years ago I started fresh and got a lot more of the endings. Now I've finished those funny achievements.
(100% COmplete game #2)
5 - Thomas Was Alone. You witnessed it!

[CrimsonFox]

Now it's time to look at what started this whole achievement hunt!

In the early 2000s there was a game called Serious Sam.

It was basically a next generation of Doom. Take a beefed up beefcake, give him lots of guns and throw endless hordes of monsters at him. But this was actually 3D (not 2 1/2 D) and the graphics were really good.
Plus multiplayer the hell out of it!

It boosted the best Multi I've ever seen still. It had the deathmatch with maps and stuff yadayadayada. But where it shined was the coop. YOu could coop the whole game with as many people as you wanted. And the difficulty could be set to increase with more people to keep it challenging. So fun. Such Chaos! So wonderful. Plus secrets galore!

And with all this comes....achievements!
And an HD version!

So I've been playing the game and going back and was told about an achievement....one that involved playing it on Coop mode on SERIOUS mode (highest difficulty) playing it through the whole way. I joined 4 others in this task and had a blast. We all succeeded. In getting That achievement plus one to beat the game in Co-OP Hippee mode (which changes blood into flowers and pumpkins)

Ever since then various members of this group have joined forces for other Serious Sam Achievements both coop and Deathmatch...and there are a LOT of Deathmatch onesSome absolutely insane.

So I've made a bunch more steam friends all in pursuit of achieving achievement in this and others...


And here is what I"ve done so far...

Achievement / What it is / When I got it
Serious Beginner / Complete any level in single player / July 2014
Game Master / Complete the Game / January 20 - Got this during the Serious coop run. Never finished it before I guess.
Serious Run / Beat the "Estimated Time" on every level / Feb 1 - The latest achievment I got. I thought it would be hard, not knowing WHAT times I had to beat, so I put the game on easy mode and just ran through as fast as I could. Some levels let you skip things. Others shut the door until you kill all monsters in that room. I beat most levels by 15 minutes at least.
Cannon Expert / Pierce 10 enemies with a single cannon ball / Jan 21 - Gotten on the last level where an endless barrage of Kleer Sleketons charge out of the side of a building and line up for you in a nice line as they charge. Then it's a matter of bowling!
Perfect Kill / Kill all enemies in the karnak level / Jan 23 - The first big solo one I got, required many tries and LOTS of reading and watching videos. Most enemies spawn and they don't spawn until you step on the right places...so it took a bunch of tries and knowing how many monsters are supposed to be in each room
Look, it's a secret / Find 50 secret areas in the game / With a secrets list it was quite fun. Beat it by level 6 I think
Co-op Beginner / Beat any level in co-op / Jan 16 - Don't even remember
Coop Hippy / Complete the Pyramid Level (the last one) in hippy mode / Jan 20 - During the MAJOR RUN!
Serious Co-op / Beat the entirte game in coop serious mode / Jan 20
Rocket Jumper / Perform 100 Rocket Jumps / A Rocket Jump is a thing where you jump while blasting a rocket almost straight down. The force propels you up and onto or over walls. It really opens up the game actually as you can do whole levels on walls where the monsters can't reach you. About 5 of us were doing this at once. Was so fun.
Look Ma, I won! / Win a Deathmatch / Mar 13, 2017 - Was probably some random guy
Deathmatch Veteran / Complete 100 Deathmatches / Jan 22 - During the height of our sharing kills day
Deathmatch Duelist / Win 25 1 on 1 DMs / Jan 21 - Made a good friend in one of the Serious coop people. We've been doing this ever since.
Untouchable / Win at least 4 player Deathmatch by reaching frag limit of at least 25 without dying / Jan 23
Fragger / Frag a total of 100 players / Jan 21
Desperate Fragger / Frag 25 players with a knife while having no more than 10 health left / Mar 13, 2017 - I vaguely remember doing this with some other guy in the past doing the exact same setup
Butcher / Frag 100 players with a knife / Jan 22
Swordsman / Frag 100 players in a knife-to-knife fight / Jan 22
Backstabber / Frag 100 players with a knife from behind / Jan 22
Grudge / Frag the same player 5 times in a row in at least a 4 player DM / Jan 23
Nemesis / Frag the same player 10 times during a single round in a 4+ player DM / Mar 13, 2017
Frag Combo / Perform 4 frags with each being no more than 10 seconds apart from the prev frag in 4+ DM / Jan 23
Royal Frag Combo / Frag all players in a single frag combo / Jan 23
Swimming instructor / Drown an enemy / Feb 24, 2017

Those are most of the easy ones. Or easi-ISH.

What remains is much much harder and I don't think I'll be getting a lot more.
There are a couple that just require a LOT of frags in deathmatch altho I don't know if I have the patience.
The rest of the solo ones require playing on serious mode by yourself in various places and might be way too hard for me.

ANyway....those are the achievements...I'll finish with pictures!

[CrimsonFox]

I will commence with pictures as soon as Steam fixes their picture server. :P

[CrimsonFox]

Games and their achievements from this week

Hell Girls - A Casual Game...looks like another gem matching game but instead of switching gems you line up matching gems connect the dots style, the more you get the higher level book it turns into. And then connecting books does more damage to monsters. ANd you can increase stats and things. Every battle you win you get an achievement as well as every scroll you buy, and every level of the three characters you increase. So avalanche of achievements

and it's all gorgeous anime....

http://steam.cryotank.net/wp-content/gallery/hellgirls/Hell-Girls-02-HD-textless.png

Feb 4: Fire Level 3, Lightnighg Level 3, 3 Goddess of Victories (for battles)
Feb 5: Fashionaista 2 (for finding an outfit), Goddess of Victory 11 12
Feb 6: Goddess of Victory 13 14, Master of COllection 1 2 3
Feb 8: Goddess of Victory 15 16, Master of COllection 4 5 6
Feb 9: Master Ice Level 3 4, Goddess of Victory 17 18

[CrimsonFox]

Picked up this Limbo achievement on Feb 8

Alone in the Dark!

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934930395674488213/CC9755D720FBBB7B50357219E2C069B6244C6935/

[CrimsonFox]

3 Portal Achievements:
Terminal Velocity for falling 30,000 feet
Long Jump for Jumping 300 feet
and Cupcake (or whatever) for completing 2 advanced Achievements

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934930081138136958/1C4356508325050583C57C73C912907C2A896298/

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934930395674567479/DECE3D4ADDF0F60E4CF83DEF615667A37FE93447/

[CrimsonFox]

Haunt the House - A VERY casual game where you play a cute ghost and fly into a house or train or whatever and possess all the items in it and accessing various levels of haunting. VERY casual. Cute and the fun is seeing how each item gives a scare. A little tedious to try and "WIN" each level tho.

Got 3 this week.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934930081141280094/D9FD7A53F26A5BC61507389F70E018F0603DA9C2/

Feelin' Blue for haunting the leftmost picture in the mansion to its max
Finders Keepers for possessing every item in the Mansions
Through the Spooking Glass for accessing every level of haunting every item in the Mansion

[CrimsonFox]

Eldritch - A cool spooky game based off Minecraft engine. Perfect engine for the creepiness really. You do Cthulhu things chased by cthulians

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934930081141347788/07A1803EE6BCF52790E30768704CBE51F68176FD/
Got the Well Read Achievement for reading every book

[CrimsonFox]

Faerie Solitaire Remastered is a game given to everyone that owned Faerie Solitaire

IT's basically one specific game of solitaire (cards) with a storyline, special locked cards, and eggs and resources you can find to grow cute pets. As casual as casual a game can be. Pleasant graphics, images on the cards, and cut scene storyline. Tons of achievements

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934930301101290129/5EADCB2807C8E600BE2E47B19232C222C96D06E0/

As I begin the game again I got:

Super Combo
QuickDraw
Perfect
Hatching
Hexionist
Perfectionist
and
Stage I Complete

[CrimsonFox]

Final game to report is NEKOPARA Vol. 0

I got achievments for playing in Chinese and Japanese.

[CrimsonFox]

Oh eayh I completed the EGYPT achimnt in Glass Masquerade, another Casual game of putting together stained glass windows.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934930395674064444/FEE9F9595298FD95BE35551CF4D3B9003F999D8E/

[CrimsonFox]

Perhaps I shall give these casual games a rest or at least won't play so many of them at once so that I don't have to report so much :)

[CrimsonFox]

Hell GIrls - Goddess of Victory 19
Lightning girl seems to be the best of all of them. Maybe it's a coincidence.
I attacked monsters at the water temple. Then I attacked giants and demons and got stomped right at the end.
My mouse is acting up tho. This game requires drag and drop and that's where my mouse is flaking.

[CrimsonFox]

Haunt the House: Terrortown -

9/10 of the Law- Possess every object in the terrortown level.

I got greedy and tried to go for many at once. I at least possessed every object but missed a level of one to get the other one. I also tried using every ghost but i didn't understand the rules in time. Also tried to make people jump out of windows but that's like the hardest tihng to do in game.

[CrimsonFox]

Tried to get a different result in Long Live the Queen and failed. I basically didn't advance much in any skill. Ended up having a vote of no confidence at a party and a randy duke tried to force a marriage on me. The vote failed andc I executed him. But I've already ordered someone's execution and been forced into marriage and faced a vote of no confidence before. So nothing new :(

Then I died on the way to a party instead of the way I wanted to. I'll have to check on my death achievements tho. Okay just checked. Only died 4 ways. 7 more to go.

So I did another Glass Masquerade Map.

The Galleon of Portugal!

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934930677739515041/EC1E12150C1987BD4E9BD0E0B7DADF150F34FD8C/

[CrimsonFox]

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934930677741491265/71CAE40A680375F1553BAE51EE18D5907245489E/

These Limbo ones are hard/not hard.

They often take several tries and also you have to start at a chapter and go through some stuff just to GET to the achievement.

Like this one.

Limbo -> Urban Exploration


I kept getting squished by the elevator.

[CrimsonFox]

'Til Death Do Us Part from Vermintide...one of my FAVORIte games of late.

A 4 player coop that can use bots as well. Like Sam and Doom it throws endless rathorde at you with specialty rats too (Assassins that jump on you, packmasters that strangle you with dogcatching poles...which they raise and pplant in the ground....so creepy....and the giant rat ogres. ) So fun! So fast paced and really a game you can just play a round whenever you want quick without feeling you are behind in anything. You can build up weapons you get and craft more in the forge. This achievement was about putting 5 similar level items in the forge to forge a better one!

I was also working on the one that requires you to heal 10 of your mates.
Usually I suck down the potions and bandages myself so I'm learning to be more the team player :)

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934930677741752923/EDD54A5B009FE013985D2982DF4C542AF566A70A/

The Horn of Magnus! Blow this and you alert the town of the rat invasion! (The first mission). That doesn't look phallic at all....nope! :)

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934930677741753009/CB01EF5467805B7A2991F49175C88A04797C6B6C/

Don't you assassinate me, gutter runner! Don't you do it! (1 second later he leapt through the air and was on top of me)

[CrimsonFox]

I changed the Steam Library categories somewhat...

Instead of just "Achievement Hunt"

I divided it into 3

Achievement hunt will be 0-24% complete

Achievement Hunt 25%

and

Achievment Hunt 50%

and

Achievement Hunt 75%

Now I can concentrate based on how much I need from it plus have more goals to motivate me.

On another note I am starting a couple new games. Warlock on Firetop Mountain based on the old FIghting Fantasy gamebooks. Impressed by what they did with it so far. But I got eaten by a Slime Monster and Slime Zombie and died and got no achievmeents on my first run.

[CrimsonFox]

In Hell GIrls, 3 Frustrating battles, the first against a 5 monster pack, losing against the LAST monster. Some battles other of your girls can pick up the fight where you leave off. Not so with this one. Gotta be straight through all 5.

After that I lost two more battles. So annoyed. Stopping now.

But through RP choice of helping the water wizard I got another scroll.

Collector 7

[CrimsonFox]

Retried Warlock on Firetop Mountain. Caught a bad skill roll and all the orcs saw me as I tried to sneak across their training room. Rather than fight and die, I surrendered. They knocked me out and I woke up in a jail cell with my stuff. When I heard them coming I fought bravely and lasted quite awhile with my 2 hitpoints. But that luck ran out and I died. The sorceress resurrected me at the bench and I found some rooms. One of which gave me the Orcish Peanut Brittle achievement.

[CrimsonFox]

Started up another new game. This one I totally blame Eaglefan for. However his heart was in the right place. I'm speaking of course of that AWESOME Christmas season years ago when STeam had goals for their games. if you bought certain games and completed semi easy level one tasks WITHIN the game, you would get a bunch of steam experience, etc. It was a really fun concept and led to us buying a lot of regrets.

Hoard was one of my first of these. Also a great concept in a game, lousy execution. Too fast, too unbalanced. Easy in some ways, broken in others. YOu play a dragon flying over the countryside torching things and taking back gold but it is very arcade like.

Got two quick achievements on the tutorial level.
Popcorn I - for destroying 50 crops
Overthrow - for destorying my first castle

[CrimsonFox]

Continued Warlock on FIretop Mountain

Doing well...killed 5 orcs at once in the messhall as well as the fat cook and a bunch of jailers/torturers.

I got these two achievements:
Thanks for Nothing! and BLACKSAAAND!

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934930677746422328/942032228E6C94EC67C9CE945B9B5DE6E67F5F9E/

They call me "Little Red Torturing Orc"

[CrimsonFox]

Next I opened up action platformer Cally's Caves 3. A nice sweet game with jumping, sidescrolling and shooting. Love the game except it really stinks at helping you remember what keys you have to press.

Today I got the aptly named ""Kill 100 Knife Bandits achievment by fartin...I mean by killing 100 knife bandits.

[CrimsonFox]

I upped my meat count in Cooking Witch which is an awesome arcade style game where you are a witch flying around on a broomstick and picking up kids of the village dropping them into your cauldron and cooking them to eat! YUM! COmplete with Monty Python Sousa music! Such a fun little game.

GOing for the last achievment.

I also just got the SWEDEN achievement for Glass Masquerade....pretty parrots and viking wizard. What's not to love!

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934930677747879379/E664E4B9380452A13437BA5314D2D383E865C4B8/

[CrimsonFox]

Tried Haunt the House achievements again with utter dev failure. It seems many people have trouble getting some of these to unlock even when they do what they are supposed to. The game still crashes and lags even after 4+ years on the market. Failware...

Went back to Hell Girls with utter success...

Boosted the Lightning maiden to level 4 and bought 3 more scrolls. Then beat the 5-monster battle of demons and fire creatures with Ice Maiden...I guess she was the best one to do that after all but you REALLY have to keep your sheilds, health and mana as full as possible at all times! The magic boosts really help so you can cast your spells.

Achievements gained:
Master of Lightning 3
Master of Collection 8 9 10
Goddess of Victory 20

edit:

Played one last time today and won a fight with the Maiden of Fire against some flying demons. Got Goddess of VIctory 21

[CrimsonFox]

Here I am regretting my life decisions...

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934930677748874782/8F4E41F4D39902099B1C21A40585C9C6B187203B/

FINALLY got the Spice of Life from Haunt the House: Terrortown.

That's use EVERY spook level in EVERY object in 4 separate buildings!

YUK! So tedious. Still can't get them to jump out windows :(



This achievement is the HARDEST one to get ....for me it was a stupid lightbulb that I missed.


However, getting this advanced this game to the next level! **************75% achieved!***********

[CrimsonFox]

Went adventuring into Warlock on FIretop Mountain again...frustrating game but the frustrating thing is partially the original design of nothing but dice.
Also the guess where the enmy is or isn't going to moveof the game.

Anyway I found the Eye of the Cyclops! And took it....then died multiple times trying to find a way out. :(

Achievement: Eye don't Believe it! for getting it with Blacksand character. Oh yeah I kick an uberfan into a moat or something. Cute.


https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934931031554835873/56B035F133ABF4BF34E87EA45D06A12642E7AEBC/

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934931031554835967/53187A277913D7F32FCB1DE78E868CE2B60FB8B0/

[CrimsonFox]

Got the FIERY Achievement in Faerie Solitaire Remastered for melting 20 ice walls.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934931031555018209/14BF97562035A505DCCEED8165CA78B52BA678E5/

[CrimsonFox]

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934931119178694615/2DBFF1C07FE69D827C9514669FC8E863D059892E/

It's ICELAND (achievement), or the Phillipines, or Hasting...or...or...THIS place!

One night in Glass Masquerade makes the tough guy crumble...

[CrimsonFox]

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934931119180422893/2422257962693FF39617F602CD2F5841AF2F9661/

This pile of meat is the most excellent MEATFEAST of Cooking Witch!

Got the final achievement: Collector! for 10000 meat.

Also my record of 1888 meat.

Nyeeeeea-heeee-heeeeh-hehe-hehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Come closer, dearie!

[CrimsonFox]

Ahhhh the pretty elephants of Tanzania!

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934931119191678997/EC77205E60A7BF9D7414D5C854AAE9A518CE6B2B/

more Glass Masquerade

[CrimsonFox]

This Lich battle got me Goddess of Victory 22

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934931119189062970/D23C074898AC6474979829DCE5DAFA61987A1248/

and Master of Lightning was purchased thereafter to get the weakest damsel some more hit points and junk.

THe Ice Mistress shown there is indeed my favorite and the most powerful I think. I think her hit point supply and special hit point spell are what do it for her.

[CrimsonFox]

Switched over to Cally's Caves 3! Great little side scrolling action platformer.

Killed 25 Smokeys Achievement.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934931452906648469/3B4536E871E0B63D5271E5538D4BE977802C420F/

That douchebag there is one...

[CrimsonFox]

Back to Haunt the House...

Playing the North Pole level instead.

Got both achievements...
Frozen Assets - Possess every object
and
Leave No Snow Unturned - Use every Spook on every object


https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934931452910705027/00BB14929C11EDA1BB61F7A92617265D96EF2D73/
Brrrrr-r-r-r-r-r-r-rrrrr!

[CrimsonFox]

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934931452910704822/2134C8D0E018E58C647938301D466F41DC22044A/

Love this Croc-o-puppet spook!

[CrimsonFox]

I killed King Carl Slime IV in Cally Caves III

nice achieemvent for the boss fight

THen I found the triple jump and had my shotgun upgraded during the fight. Better spread

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934931452914082401/285A642E3478B4EA4FC02AB07ADF355A37BE96A1/

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934931452914082490/B5DAEF01897998B6214E4DC4B88811768194FB21/

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934931452914082581/B9FF7205EA8D19AB5D2FBDC867A0ADCEBBA89FE2/

[CrimsonFox]

This game sucks. DOn't buy it. Nothing to see here.

Got the Stolen Identity achievement of

Home

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/934931452914682510/CF4D396332C94DD54860C20121B1C5E075E913EE/