Battlefield 3 Notes

It asks me to install high definition content, aren't all Xbox 360 games high definition anyway? What they really mean it that they want you to install the game on the hard drive.
well no, i don't really do that, don't know why to be honest, but have always really played games from the disc and never found it a chore, not going to change this late in the day on the Xbox360's life cycle.

Next is campaign choice and difficulty, easy normal and hard, i always plump for normal these days, just in case hard is too hard, as difficulty is a subjective thing.

Controls
Left and right analogue sticks as normal
Left trigger        Aim down sights
Right trigger        Shoot
Left bumper        Grenade
Right bumper        Melee attack
Y            Change weapon
X            Reload
B
A            jump
dpad            toggles
Start            pause
Select
Clicking right stick    Crouch
Clicking left stick    Run

Mission  1

Semper fidelis
New York, Brooklyn Bridge, a train, someone jumping from a bridge onto it, then falling inside through a window. A terrorist is there and we crash into him and take his gun. Control is given and we get to shoot at him.
I move through the train, crouch past an obstacle and shoot some more terrorists.
Then get a shotgun which is keeping a door shut.
A man attacks us and we have to button press at the right time to kill him in suitable depraved and viscous style.
I move onwards and come to a carriage door, I can see a man doing something through the glass.
It is a bomb and we have to get out through the window and climb past the carriage break. The bomb goes off and the carriage we would have been in are senting spinning back into oblivion.
The man shoots at us and we have to climb back on top of the train. Another bomb goes off and a rent is torn in the roof of the car. Some men shoot at us from the sides of the train.
Back inside we fight through some heavy enemies to get to a door. Inside we are ambushed by the man and a gun is held at our head.
Fade to black and this seems to be a flash forward to what is to come at the end of the game.

Mission 2
Operation Sword breaker

A marine Blackburn is in detention, homeland security has been told that they need to speak to the marine about an attack in New York.
He seems to be under suspicion, a picture of the man on the train is shown to the marine.
Looks like the marine is going to tell the story now in flashback.
We take see soldiers in the back of a transport, we are going to deal with the PLR in Iraq.
We get out of the back of the transport and have to follow a soldier to a point where we meet a commander who briefs us.
Viper squad were investigating an explosive at Spinza meat market and contact has been lost, we are to go and find out what is happening.
We move through some buildings and through a school, the ground shakes at one point.
We come out into an open area and a soldier is shot by a sniper. All hell breaks loose and we have to start shooting at the enemies who pour into the area.
Once they are cleared we move forward and are attacked by a rocket launcher from a nearby balcony.
We are looking to take out the sniper and head up some stairs looking for higher ground.
We  have to sprint past some windows as incoming sniper fire comes in.
Now on a roof we crouch our way across it dodging sniper fire until we get to the end of the roof, we can see where he is, but not see him exactly. The idea is to have some suppressing fire then use a rocket to blast him. I do this it seems to work.
Now from the rooftop we are told to cover a squad who are extracting the man who was wounded by the sniper earlier. We have to shoot at those who attack the squad carrying the wounded man.
We are now trapped on the roof of the building as a large force of enemies arrive and enter it.
We use a plank to cross to the adjacent building then climb down the series of smaller roofs.
We cross the street and then enter a large building, inside we have to fight through.
Here we find  two of the patrol we were looking for dead.
Outside in the street we are very exposed, it looks like the patrol are all dead or wounded. A bomb has been placed on a wounded man and a wire leads away into a building. We are told to trace the wire.
we climb though vents and enter a basement where we find the other end. As we are disarming it we are attacked and have a quick time fight with an enemy.
We have to go back out onto the street to help the squad who are under fire. We are told to go up onto a road bridge and use a machine gun as attackers stream down the street towards us.
We have to go and defend another flank as the attackers switch direction and are told to get on a car mounted gun. As we do a large earthquake hits and one of the nearby tall buildings comes down nearly hitting us.

Mission 3
Uprising
Back in the interrogation Blackburn is being asked about what happened after the quake, seems he blacked out for a while. As he awoke he sees the leader of the PLR talking to a man, maybe a soldier, who he asks the question, "do you want to live or die?" The man answers yes and appears to be dragged off in severe pain.
Blackburn blacks out again and then awakes later, there seems to be nobody around.
Then we see patrols looking for survivors, a voice on a loudspeaker tells us that the PLR is reaching out to help American soldiers. I don't believe that for an instant.
I sneak through a trench in the road made by the earthquake and then move through into the building we came through earlier.
Inside we can sneak attack an enemy and get his gun.
Now we are back to fighting our way forwards.
I move through the building, then fight down a torn up street. I come to a large open area filled with enemies. This is the car park we fought in earlier. There are a lot of enemies to clear then we go through a garage into another street. Into a bus and we are rocketed. This opens the way forward though.
Now we are back to the school we came through, we meet another soldier and have to follow him.
He tells us that there is a coup in Iran, we go back to the street where we first started and have to regroup. Here we use an emplaced gun until the ride arrives and we get out.

Mission 4
Going hunting
Back in the briefing room Blackburn is asked about what happened next. He went on a recon mission first, he is asked about Colby Hawkins, an f18 pilot. Blackburn seems to not know her.
we are changed to her point of view on an aircraft carrier near Tehran. The PLR leader Al Bashir has been located on satellite imagery and we are going to make his life hard. we follow a commander up onto the deck and get into a jet.
We take off and fly around for a bit, I am not in control of the flying, just the guns missiles and flares.
Migs attack and we have to kill them
We then have to use a variety of weapons to attack sam sites, planes on the ground and then a helicopter and a few cars.
We then fly back to the carrier.

Mission 5
Operation guillotine
Back at the interrogation, it seems that the intel was wrong and the helicopter and cars we blew up were not Al Bashir's. Al Bashir seems to be in charge of the PLR, there is also someone named Solomon involved.
Blackburn is asked about who shot his commanding officer and also about the time he found the nuke in Tehran.
The view switches to soldiers on the ground.
The missed strike has just taken place and we are on the ground nearby, a chance now is given to take some intelligence from an apartment building held by the PLR.
We run down a hill carrying a mortar, under enemy mortar fire. We have to set up the mortar then fire a flare.
We then climb over a wall and engage the enemy.
We progress up from the road up a hill under heavy fire, the enemy are dug in and have machine gun nests. I reach the buildings and a grenade is thrown inside this blows the door open we are inside moving from room to room.
On the other side we meet some more soldiers and are told to get in a hum-vee.
We begin driving through a tunnel and are moving into enemy territory.
On the other side of the tunnel, after a little badly disguised load, we are told that an ambush is very likely, though this is the most expedient course of action, which means we are basically expendable.
A vehicle is blocking the way and we stop to move it, which does not seem like a good plan to me. Though seemingly I am not in control of my interactive game anymore.
We approach a tanker, yes a tanker, and of course the enemy put a rocket into it blowing it up.
They are arrayed on a bridge over the road and we move up to flank them.
After crossing the bridge we move on up the road fighting all the way.
Then a tank appears and we duck into a building and it fires at us. A cut scene shows the gang getting up after the attack and dusting themselves off, we are now looking for a way out of the building as the entrance is now blocked by rubble.
we move through and out onto a street, the tank drives by backwards, and suddenly a missile takes it out.
We now have to support the javelin team, which is presumably who is shooting the tanks with the missiles. I find the javelin team just as they are killed and we get to take over and use the javelin on three incoming tanks.
Now we have to attack a building, lots of other soldiers are converging on the front. A frontal assault is silly, and the commander tells us to find a back way in.
We move around back and find a ladder.
Then climb in through a toilet window. A soldier ambushes us and we button press kill him.
Then have to knife another, then we are inside this bank and fighting lots of enemies in an open courtyard type area.
As we clear it the others come in from the front.
Now we are moving into the basement looking for Al Bashir.
We come to an elevator shaft and have to rappel down.
Friendly fire will not be tolerated flashes up far too often as you have perfect line on an enemy and then some team member will float in front of you, often while you are shooting.
I have also seen team members advance into enemy territory and be in the middle of enemy a.i being ignored, I have to shoot the ones they are ignoring that are still aiming for me.
at the bottom of the shaft we chuck in a flash-bang and then are fighting in the vault.
After the enemy are defeated in the vault we enter the actual huge walk in safe. Inside we find a case for three nukes, however only one is in the case.

Mission 6
Comrades
Back in the interrogation room Blackburn is being asked about the other two nukes, seems that something is going on in Paris, Blackburn is asked about a Spetznaz soldier named Dima, who it appears that he knows.
We change to playing Dima in Paris.
Driving in a car with another two Russians, it seems we are going after one of the nukes to prevent Solomon from using it, seems he is out for revenge.
We rush through the gates then enter a building through the parking garage.
We fight through the garage and down some stairs.
Through another section of the garage, we then come to an area where the enemy release gas, we have to put on a mask.
We now enter the offices and fight our way through them. Heading up the floors now.
The partner a.i. is a little annoying, they stop moving when there are enemies, adopting cover etc. However you know instantly if you have killed everyone in an area as they move on to the next part of the script without an instants pause. Sometimes you aren't sure all the enemies are dead, though if you see the partners running on as if they are safe as houses you know it's clear. Which is a bit of an immersion breaker.
Moving on through much office space we come to the trading floor.
Here we find out target, who flees. We have to give chase. We chase through the building. Fighting obstructers as we go and eventually come out onto the streets. The police are here in force and aren't in any way friendly to either party in this fight.
we wait and let the police give our enemies trouble, then move in when it looks like he is going to get past them.
We chase him down the streets, fighting police, the commander of the mission is hit by a rocket explosion and impaled by a piece of scaffolding shrapnel. He dies, we are sad, but give chase. There is a Mirrors edge like sequence, as we chase the nuke carrier up into a subway station. Here we find that the case is empty, the two are worrying about where it is when the answer is given. The nuke goes off and it appears they are both caught in the blast.

Mission 7
Thunder run
Back at the interrogation we are told that it was ten hours ago and 80,000 people are dead.
The talk turns back to the bank vault where Blackburn found the one nuke.
A tank brigade are coming to his rescue.
We are playing a soldier called Miller.
We are driving towards Tehran in the desert, here we use the tank to blow up other tanks and enemy vehicles. we attack a missile site using air support and then go in and finish the job, then a convoy.
We move into a populated area and find a convoy that has been ambushed, we have to get out of the tank and collect a control, then detonate a minefield clearing device.
Then we get back in the tank on the top gun and fight lots of soldiers, cars fitted with bombs start running towards us on suicide missions. Eventually this section ends and we are told that we have new orders, which is obviously us being diverted to go and help Blackburn.

Mission 9
Fear no Evil
We quickly skip to Blackburn, and he is still talking about the extraction from the bank.
Then we are back with Miller in the tank.
We drive through the streets fighting, and end up at the bank, our tank is immobilized at the doors. Blackburn appears and we have to protect him as he loads the nuke onto a helicopter, we come under heavy fire, eventually Blackburn gets away. Things look bad for Miller, the tank is not going anywhere, the enemy are advancing.
We see him overpowered and knocked out.
He wakes tied to a chair with a man standing in front filming. Not looking good. Someone, possibly Al Bashir talks to him, he talks about his sons toy, and being a hero. Of loss and the inevitability of death.
Miller is killed to make a point.

Mission 10
Night Shift
Blackburn is shown the video of Miller being killed, they don't believe that he isn't on the PLR side. However a phone call comes in, apparently someone fitting Solomon's description has been seen in New York.
Blackburn tells them that he knows he is coming, from when he went after him in Tehran, which of course we now flit to.
We are on a rooftop, we have to take out four lights with a sniper rifle. Which makes the landing zone dark. A vtol comes in and soldiers rappel out of it. We are to take out a lookout and then rappel down to the ground ourselves.
In a very call of duty trademark like sequence we follow the soldier we are with, avoiding patrols and shooting out lone soldiers and lookouts.
We climb up another ladder.
Then shoot at some more enemies that are in the way of the other team.
We enter a building, have an unnecessarily graphically violent fight and then are shot at and have to run for it into a sewer, where we leave an explosive surprise for the enemy.
We move through the sewer until we find a ladder back out.
As we come up a squad is on top of us and we have to take them out. Then we go inside a building and find the room where Miller was executed.
The room is attacked and we have to survive, we move down through the building and join the other squad. We are told to go up on the roof and provide over0watch.
Which we do.
Here we have to watch as they get into position then breach and attack. Enemies arrive en masse and we have to hold them off as best we can. Eventually a car breaks out and we have to run to the other side of the building and shoot at it. If we are successful we then have to go to the car and find Al Bashir has been thrown through the windscreen, we pick him up and have to get him to safety.
We run across the street and have to take out some soldiers that arrive. Then into a building, it is a mall. We end up in a shop taking stock. The HVT is badly hurt, and we have to hold off enemies until extraction.
We then have to run out to the vehicle.
This is a fucking annoying bit, I can't get into the vehicle, even when the HVT is aboard, scripting feels labored and just plain dodgy here. Eventually I realize that you have to wait in cover until you are told to board the helicopter. I manage to do it finally.
On board the helicopter we give Al Bashir a shot of adrenaline. He asks how we found him, and realizes it was the execution video. He imagines that Solomon has betrayed him, he decides to tell us his plans. Solomon is using trains to deliver the bombs and will strike on the 14th of the month. Al Bashir’s phone is recovered from his body.

Mission 11
Rock and a hard place.
Back the the interrogation room, Blackburn is accused of lying about this last confession of Al Bashir and also that the phone is Al Bashir’s. I am not sure what Blackburn has done to earn this scorn, though I am sure we are getting to it.
Using intel gleaned from the phone, Blackburn is redeployed to investigate an arms dealer called Kaffrarov at his Villa.
We are driving towards the villa when we are ambushed.
After killing the ambushers we find out that they are Russian paratroopers.
We regroup with a larger force which we were heading to meet and find out that Russians are dropping in heavy forces. The commander believes that the Russians were working with the PLR and want to silence Kaffarov before we get to him and find out what is going on.
We wade into the Russian camp and start shooting, which I didn't think was the best tactics, be hey, who am I.
We move on through the valley, stopping and starting fights with Russians. We have to take out armored vehicles at times with a rocket launcher.
Then a jet attacks, we have to move from cover to cover as it takes runs at us the squad. I am tasked with getting a ground to air launcher from a vehicle nearby and shooting down the jet.
Once this is done it appears that there is going to be a mutiny. two of the squad are dead. One of the other soldiers acts like this is a total outrage, how dare the bad men kill any of the nice people. He seems to want to turn on the commander, who admittedly was leading them into certain death. The commander asks us too choose, the screen fades to black.

Mission 12
Kaffarov
Back in the interrogation Blackburn is asked about why Dima was in Iran with the Russians.
We now switch to Dima's point of view, he is parachuting in with the Russian forces.
We land and then attack an enemy patrol, then take their car.
We drive straight into Kaffarov's operation, using the stolen car, blending into a convoy.
Inside it isn't long before we are spotted and we have to start fighting.
There are rings of security around the villa and it has the high ground, getting up the hill is hard work.
Once there we enter the villa.
We have to hang back and use a sniper rifle as the other two provide suppression fire. Then it's close quarters storming into the Villa.
We have to work through the entire thing, and it's huge, sometimes taking higher floors while the others take the lower.
We get into the basement and have to work our way around in the dark, then go through a training course set up in the basement.
They must be trying to artificially extend the game now, poor check-pointing here for the first time.
After taking out a machine gun we progress through the basement and come outside again at a helipad.
Here we have to run and jump onto the helicopter as it rises.
If you succeed a cut scene shows you fight Kaffarov inside the copter and then both of you fall out into the swimming pool, which was handy.
Dima beats Kaffarov until he starts talking.
Back at the interrogation, we find that Blackburn arrived at the Villa also, around the time this was happening. We take over from Blackburn’s shoes.
We start just outside the now wrecked burning Villa.
Inside we find Kaffarov by the pool. Dima speaks to Blackburn, he tells him the Kaffarov stole the Russian nukes, and sold them to Solomon who plans to blow up Paris and New York. Dima tells Blackburn that this cannot happen, asks that as two soldiers, with no politicians they work together to stop this and avert war.
A soldier bursts in and tells us to get down on the ground. He then shoots. I wasn't sure I had control. They aren't very good at making the scripting obvious.
It seems that this is our commander, and we have to shoot him, otherwise we die.

Mission 13
The great Destroyer
Back at the interrogation, it appears that we did shoot our commander. This is why we are being investigated. Solomon is revealed to be an American deep cover agent and it appears that Blackburn has been played by Dima, who the agents believe is the real terrorist.
Blackburn is still convinced that Solomon is going to nuke New York. A train has been stolen it appear. Despite this in good story logic the agents still don't twig that Blackburn is right.
Another man from the unit, Campo I think is brought in. Blackburn asks if he trusts him. Looks like they are going to make a break for freedom and take on Solomon.
We fight the agents who come to take us away to jail. Then jump out of the window. A short trip through some alleys and streets we jump from bridge onto the train.
Now we are back mission one, which we repeat until the point where we come face to face with Solomon. Now we fight him with quick-time and we detonate another small charge which crashes the train.
When we come to Solomon is gone, we fight some more enemies.
We then chase through the sewers fighting, then out onto the streets. We are met by Campo in a car and we drive after Solomon. Eventually we crash into him and have to quick-time fight him.
After beating him with a brick, we stop him from setting off the nuke.

We see that Dima survived the nuke in Paris, though he did get a good dose of radiation.
The credits roll.

8 hours
225 Achievement points

Modern Warfare 3 Notes

I choose a new game, on hardened difficulty.

We see Price and Nikolai bringing Soap in on a stretcher, cut with flashes from the previous games. The screen goes dark and we hear a defibrillator charging.

The scene changes to New York where the Russian invasion is in full swing. We have a mission to complete, a jammer system has been erected in Wall street, we are part of Delta team and find ourselves in a crashed helicopter in the streets of Manhattan. Our character's name is Frost.
After getting out of the helicopter we find the streets in ruins, missiles are still hitting the skyscrapers.
We have to fight along the streets until we come to a doorway and are told to follow the leader of the mission whose name is Sandman. We move through the offices then out to the alleyways. We are told to throw a stun grenade to take some Russians by surprise.
Moving through the alley we come out into a department store, here we clear out the Russians as they stream in from a hole in the wall. Out into the street we are heading towards the stock exchange. Fighting our way inside we come out onto the actual stock exchange floor.
The stock exchange floor is a nightmare or random fire, I eventually make my way across and up some ladders and stairs. Then I have to clear a balcony and come out at a ladder onto the roof.
On the roof the Russian soldiers guarding the jammer have to be taken out. We then place some thermite explosive on the jammer and bring it down.
Rocket teams on the roofs attack and we have to use a predator drone to take them out. A Russian hind helicopter attacks and we have to use the drone to destroy it also. Then we get aboard a helicopter. Now using the emplaced guns we fight some helicopters rushing through the skyscrapers.

Mission 2
Hunter Killer
With the jammer down and comms back up, a co-ordinated strike by jets takes out several key targets in Manhattan. This pushes the front line back to the harbor. There is a submarine with cruise missiles here and the plan is to take it and use the Russians own missiles against them.
We are still playing Frost, and find our self in a diving suit in the Brooklyn tunnel, which has been submerged.
Using propeller floats we move through the tunnel and out the hole rendered in it's roof. Here we meet the navy seal team and move on with them. There are mines to be avoided. The submarine passes overhead.
We place some mines on it, which makes it surface when detonated.
Now we climb on top and shoot the enemy as they open the hatches for us.
Inside we move through the sub shooting as we go.
When we get to the bridge we use a kicker breaching charge and enter in slow mo to kill everyone inside.
We get the launch keys
Then turning them together launch the missiles against the Russians.
We have to evacuate quickly and get out of the sub and into a zodiac boat. We have to drive it through the rowdy crowded and exploding harbor, in true action movie style. We reach a helicopter and are extracted.

Mission 3
We find ourselves back with Soap and Price, Soap is still badly injured and incapacitated. Makarov is tying up loose ends and it seems Price is a prime loose end. We play a Russian spetsnaz soldier named Yuri who is tasked with helping Price.
Outside the room we find our self in is a courtyard, helicopters are landing troops, which breach the courtyard. after a bit of fighting we have to go back inside and help Soap, we give him a shot, which looks like it would do more harm than good. The place is obviously unsafe and we need to leave. Price leads the way, another man carries Soap and we have to clear the way with Price.
Through the courtyard we come out into a street filled with civilians and the bad guys have no problem mowing them down to get to us.
We move through the streets fighting hard for every inch of the way.
We are promised a helicopter to extract us, though there are too many of the enemy between us and it. There is a unmanned ground vehicle in an armory nearby, we have to go and get it.
We have to drive this vehicle, armed with a mini-gun and grenades through the short distance to the chopper, however an entire army seems to be camped here. Some helicopters also attack. At the chopper we wait until the gang are aboard then a predator drone takes out the UGV. Yuri now has to run for it to the chopper. He is hit by a blast and falls down a slope into the water. We pick him up.

Mission 4
Turbulence
We are playing a Russian secret service agent called Harkov. He is on board the Russian president's plane where a meeting is taking place. The president wants to make peace with America and there is resistance among his advisors. Gunfire is heard, it seems that there are enemies aboard the plane. We have to make our way through the plane taking out the enemy boarders.
We get to the rear of the plane and find the president's daughter, and save her from the gunmen.
Then we go through a door and all hell breaks loose, the plane breaks in half, we can see the back of the room we are in tear away. Then we see the plane is sliding along the ground. An engine comes in and hits the section of plane we are in and it all goes black.
Harkov wakes and is unsteady, limping and his vision blurred. We are helped up and we have to go and find the president. His daughter is found. We move out into the snow and the trench that the plane's landing has ploughed looking for the president.
We move on looking for the president, the enemies arrive and we have to fight them. The president is found and we head for  his location. A helicopter arrives to extract the president, we are told to open the door for him. As we do Makarov appears from inside and shoots Harkov. The president is captured and asked for missile launch codes. He refuses, Makarov tells him that his daughter will suffer for this.

Mission 5
We are with Price, Soap and playing as Yuri. Makarov has some cargo in Sierra Leone, they think he is planning to invade the UK. Price thinks he might be able to find Makarov here.
As the mission starts we find the gang up to their knees in a river.
We move downriver and come across a patrol, Soap kills one of them.
We have to snipe two men who are burning civilian bodies.
We come across men burning civilians who are alive and we have to kill them.
Then we sneak through the village which has been attacked. We have to avoid and hide at some points and take out lone men at others.
We are told to take up a high position and protect Soap and Price as they advance.
They get to the factory and it's empty, wrong intel. We are told to progress further into the town. Things go pear shaped and we are discovered, the militia attack in large numbers and we are told to progress through the firefight. I come to a truck with an emplaced gun and we have to use it to mow down loads of militia and their trucks. Mortar fire makes us abandon the truck and we have to run for it through incoming mortar fire. We are told to take out the mortar operators, then use the mortar to defend ourselves.
We then make our way through a sewer and into another street firefight.
The objective is a church where the cargo is suspected to be.
We have to storm the church quickly, as a helicopter arrives to take the cargo away. After much militia mashing we are too late and the cargo is lifted away in front of our eyes.

Mission 6
Mind the Gap
The cargo is expected to head for England, MI5 and the SAS are on alert looking for it.
We take the role of an SAS officer named Burns
We are attacking a warehouse where the cargo is suspected to be, there are trucks being loaded.
We move through the warehouse, with sniper support and fast efficient kills. we end up fighting all out in the car park at the last truck, it is  found to be empty. We fight our way through the enemies and end up at the London underground. Seems they have got themselves a train and are going to use it to deliver their weapon. The train leaves in a hurry and the SAS give chase using trucks on the underground. This is a fast paced on rails ride.
Eventually the train is derailed and we board it. moving through it into a station where we take on more terrorists. We come out onto the streets and have to take out one of the vans as it comes along the street towards us. This van is taken out, however there were others.
We see a family vacation, filming a mother and child as they go to Big Ben. The truck pulls up in the background and then explodes, after the explosion we see that it has released poisonous gas.

Mission 7
Goalpost
Delta force
The attacks were not just in London, all over Europe similar attacks have softened up key government targets. The Russians start to invade Europe.
Frost is now part of a landing force that is pouring in to Germany to reinforce the defense against Russian invaders.
We land amongst a large American force, we are tasked with finding out what has happened to the vice President who was here, his convoy has been ambushed. We start by following tanks up the beach and into the streets. It's fairly chaotic with fire from all directions.
We come to a barrier and regroup with the tanks. The gunner in one is shot by a sniper and we have to take over. We use the gun on a hind that is approaching and then go into a parking garage. Here we move around the garage shooting at soldiers and vehicles. The tank falls through around three floors of the building at one point and is broken. We need to get back out on foot. Now we basically progress through the streets and buildings fighting all the way until we come to the convoy, there is no sign of the Vice President. We move into a building nearby following a trail of blood, we have to breach a room and shoot the gunmen before they kill the vice president. He is then extracted by helicopter.

Mission 8
Somalia
We are back with Soap,Price and Yuri, going after a Somalian warlord named Warrabe
We are storming his compound, no finesse, straight in through the gates with jeeps and helicopter support. We get to use the helicopter gun by remote control at certain points to clear out some of the resistance.
Much fighting in the buildings and yard of the complex and we eventually get to Warrabe's office. Inside we have to breach and clear as usual. Then we interrogate Warrabe, which means setting off a gas grenade and withholding his gasmask. After he tells us about a man named Volk who was involved Soap shoots him. A sandstorm is approaching fast.
We come out of the building and head for the LZ. As the helicopter arrives we are ambushed. We now have to fight to a safer landing zone. We progress through to a building and get up onto it's roof. The helicopter is shot down and we now have to go and save the pilot Nikolai. We move through the sandstorm which is darkening the area and dust and debris is flying everywhere. We fight through to Nikolai and have to carry him to a point where we are met by jeeps and escape.

Mission 9
Bag and Drag
We are back with Frost, who is now in Paris, going after Volk on Price's tip. We are to capture him alive if possible.
We move through a bombed building and find some dead American men. Then are attacked from across the street, we have to move across the street and enter a bookstore.
After clearing out the bookstore we move into the streets again and meet up with some French forces. We now have to move down an enemy infested street and find the gas truck, then through some buildings. We come to a heavy concentration of Russian troops and have to throw gas marker flares for air support. Then the same for a tank type truck called a BTR.
We then move down a manhole cover into the catacombs.
The catacombs are the famous bone encrusted underground tunnels of Paris.
Inside we roam around and are ambushed. Volk makes a run for it and we have to give chase.
We chase him through the catacombs and out into the building and onto the street.
Then we get into a car and chase Volk's car. eventually after shooting up half of Paris and being shot at by tanks, helicopters and gun mounted jeeps we crash into Volk's car and kill his guards. we take him alive.

Mission 10
Iron lady
we now have to get out of Paris with Volk in one piece.
We start on the ground with frost and the gang, the aircraft sent to extract them is hit. We switch to a spotter plane and have to take out loads of tanks and helicopters that are converging on the team. Then we have to escort them down a street. The aircraft is attacked and we switch back to Frost. A machine gun is keeping them pinned down and we are sent to flank it.
After flanking the machine gun we have to throw smoke at a tank that arrives. We then switch back to the flying eye and have to take out more tanks and helicopters as the team get into vehicles and move through the city. They come to a bridge and we move back to Frost.
We have to use a rocket launcher which can lock on called a javelin to destroy two tanks.
Then push on over the bridge for extraction.
We are pinned down and it all looks hopeless as we run out of ammo. The cavalry arrive just in time and blow things up, some much so that the Eiffel tower is knocked down.
We are extracted with Volk.

Mission 11
Volk is tortured and reveals Makarov's whereabouts, he is due to attend a meeting in Prague, Price, Soap and Yuri are now going after him.
We find ourselves in sewers and have to progress to a meeting with resistance fighters, we have to sneak under some piers where soldiers are herding prisoners and civilians, some are being shot. We then enter another part of the sewer and meet the resistance. Prices goes with them and Soap and Yuri are sent on a separate part of the plan.
We move through the streets, holding position and ducking, shooting at snipers and squads. At one point we have to stay prone as we watch men pass by only inches away. We then come to a square and see Price on the opposite rooftop.
We then ambush the men in the square and start fighting along through the massed enemies.
We then have to take out a tank with a rocket launcher and follow Soap again.
We continue to weave through the fight, there are lots of resistance fighters on the streets and a huge battle is going on, we weave through it being guided by Soap.
We end up inside a church, where we are told by price to wait for a few hours until the meeting.

Mission 12
Yuri
With everything in place to blow Makarov's head off as he arrives we find the gang waiting.
We are across the road, in the church tower overlooking the hotel where Makarov's meeting is to take place. Price is on top of the hotel and we are to provide support as he abseils into the hotel. We snipe some guards and then Prices gets inside. We can see from across the road that he is in trouble. We have to help him fight some enemies, then we find our contact tied to a chair with a bomb strapped to him. Makarov comes over our radio and it appear that we have fell into a trap. It also appears that Makarov is old friends with Yuri. Soap and Yuri's vantage point is also compromised and they leap out the window as a bomb goes off. The abuse that the men in Call of Duty get is above and beyond. They manage to survive a fall down from the church, crashing through scaffolding.
Soap is injured, again. We have to carry him. Price shoots and we just have to run to the destination.
We are attacked and have to fend off enemies, running for an escape. The resistance come to our aid.
They carry soap inside, and we are told to press on a bleeding point. Soap tells Price that Makarov knows Yuri before he dies. Price punches Yuri down a flight of stairs and asks why he knows Makarov.
We see Yuri and Makarov in 1996, helping Zakhaev escape from a bad arms deal.
Then we see Yuri and Makarov in the middle east in 2011, when the nuke goes off in the first Modern Warfare.
Then we are at the massacre in Russia, Makarov knows that Yuri has betrayed him, and shoots him. Leaving him for dead as he starts the massacre we crawl after him and try and shoot at the gunmen as they wade through the civilians. Yuri collapses and we see paramedics work on him.
Price let's Yuri live for now.

Mission 13
Yuri tells Price of a nearby castle that Makarov uses as a weapons cache, Yuri believes that Makarov may be using it as his base. We are going to attack it.
We start by parachuting into the area.
We land near the castle and again are following Price around, sneaking under trucks, planting c4 and avoiding patrols. We reach the security office and then get down into some jail cells. Price takes out the lights and we use night vision.
Running around in the dark we are eventually rumbled and flares are set of to counter our night vision. We come out onto some scaffolding and plant more C4. Then we go inside and blow through a wall. We climb up inside the wall and find some men in a control room. On the screen is the Russian president, Makarov is still trying to get the codes from him. It seems his men are trying to find the presidents daughter to use as leverage.
Things become heated as the guards discover the bodies and we are now fighting our way through the castle. I come to a courtyard and have to support Price from above as he fights through. We then blow up the c4 we planted earlier.
We now storm back into the courtyard and fight our way to a jeep. Then a rushed and chaotic emplaced gun ride until we fall over the edge of a cliff, no matter, we have parachutes.

Mission 14
scorched earth.
Back with frost in Berlin, now racing to rescue the Russian president's daughter from Makarov's forces who are closing in on her.
The mission starts with Frost recovering from being in an explosion, which then cuts to 20 minutes earlier. The team is coming in by helicopter and are attacked. They land on the roof of the attackers and take them out, moving inside the building and then out onto the roof. We see enemies on the roof of the target building and then use snipers rifles to clear them. The helicopters then land another team on the roof and we have to aid them, sniping the enemies that appear.
We then have to use air support to take out three tanks that are approaching.
Granite team then goes in after the daughter, though contact with them is lost. We now have to take over the mission.
We run down onto the street and then fight our way along. We take out a tank and then have to follow some friendly tanks down a large open street.
As we are moving down the street a bomb goes off and a tower block falls on us.
This was the point we came into earlier.
We have to progress through the damaged building, then out onto the street and into the target building at last.
We make our way up to the room where the daughter is and then, she is captured right before our eyes.

Mission 15
Back to Price who is going after the president himself.
We are storming some kind of bunker.
We come out and find we are in a place that looks fairly cold, air support is aiding us in a big fight in clearing. We move along the large open construction site like area fighting, a helicopter gives air support. A bomb is set off to open the way into the complex again and we come in through a door we make ourselves.
Not far inside we find the daughter, it may be too late and the threat of harm to her may have made the president give Makarov the codes to launch the Russian nukes.
She tells us that they have taken her father deeper into the mine. We press on and rappell down a large shaft. we come to a reinforced door and have to blow a hole in the roof rather than the solid door.
Inside a bullet time sequence sees us kill the presidents guards and recover him.
We have to hold position until the helicopter comes in under heavy fire.
Then get into the helicopter, half the cast of delta force are killed in the process, though Yuri and Price get away in the chopper with the president.

Mission 16
The war is over, the Russian and American presidents sit down to negotiate for peace.
Price is going after Makarov.
The mission starts with Yuri and Price in the back of a van, which is under heavy fire, they are wearing Juggernaut suits. We move down a street towards a hotel fighting heavy enemy resistance. We enter the hotel and go up some escalators into a lift. two helicopters arrive, one goes to the roof to extract Makarov, the other starts shooting at the lift. We have to shoot it down and it crashes into the lift. The armor is damaged and we have to abandon it.
We jump to another lift and then go up towards the roof.
We now have to fight through heavy fire to get to Makarov, we chase him through the hotel, until we have him in our sights. A helicopter blasts the side of the hotel and we manage to hang on only just as part of it collapses. Yuri is impaled on a spike. We run after Makarov and chase him to the copter as he almost gets away, we have to jump to catch onto the chopper.
Price kills the chopper pilots and in the process a gun goes off and damages the chopper. It crashes. As we climb from the wreckage Makarov does to, we have some button pressing to make Price fight Makarov, Makarov gets the upper hand and is about to shoot Price, when Yuri makes a last appearance to save the day. Price then punches Makarov about and wraps a cord around his  neck. The glass ceiling of the hotel gives and Makarov is hanged. Price lights his cigar at last. The credits roll.

8 hours 10 minutes
also about 5:30 hours on multiplayer at this point in time to rank up 335 achievement points for one play-through of the campaign on hardened difficulty.

Gears of war 3 Notes

As the game boots for the first time a whole host of messages are displayed, suggesting I am getting unlocks for playing previous campaigns.
starting a new campaign I choose Hardcore Mode

The campaigns starts with Marcus in a cell again, echoes of the first game, at first I think this is a flashback, though it isn't. You have to wonder why they would imprison a soldier when the human race is on the brink of extinction.
Anya appears and rips the door open with Jack, Marcus tells her that she is going to get into a lot of trouble for this. She tells him that things have changed, she gives him his uniform and tells him to follow her.

Controls
Left and right analogue sticks for movement and camera as always.
Left trigger is aim down sights.
Left bumper shows your current objective.
Right bumper is reload.
Right trigger is fire.
Dpad changes between four weapons you can carry.

Short cut scene, as we are now in control, quickly into the action it seems. it turns out that this is a dream scene as when Marcus walks towards Anya she starts to echo and fade away, a door behind her opens and we are outside Marcus's house, which we went to in previous games. Adam Phoenix is there and he asks why Dom and Marcus have come to rescue him. He tells them that they need to save his research.
We go down the hill a little and fight against incoming locust soldiers.
This is still a dream and the environment is making itself as we approach, rising like smoke and becoming solid.
The locust evaporate back into smoke when you shoot them.
Marcus speaks while we fight, telling us that his father was always more concerned with his work than him. Saving the work while Marcus saved him.
A corpser appears and I shoot at it. Though this isn't a fight we have to win. The corpser is pulled away into the sky and a cut scene shows a Raven coming in to extract the gang. It is hit by a missile and slams around knocking into the house. A pillar falls and lands on Adam Phoenix, apparently killing him.
Marcus wakes on a ship, a voice is telling him to report to CIC.

Act 1: Chapter one: Anchored.
I start in my bunk, a corridor and some bunk rooms.
A man talks about stalks and polyps, which don't sound like fun.
There is a man blocking the corridor, I find a door that opens and Dom is behind it. A cut scene shows that he has taken to gardening as a side job, explaining that if he doesn't grow it they don't eat it.
Marcus gets him to follow.
Back in the corridor we hear over the tannoy that the raven is coming back, which isn't expected.
I can now go further along the corridor, on the next deck I see a lambent stalk rising out of the water, a twisted tree like structure.
A new Cog is introduced, Jace, an African American man with dreadlocks.
Up on the next deck there are more soldiers and people milling around.
I find Anya and a cut scene starts.
It seems that the Raven has found chairman Prescott, the leader who it seems has been absent for the last 18 months.
Things immediately go bad. A door opens up a head and scorpion like glowing monsters come through killing a soldier.
We are into the action proper. Shoot the scorpions, though a door and up some stairs for more scorpions.
Then up onto the deck proper. Where we find humanoid skull faced lambent creatures. There are also huge tentacles which seem to be depositing the lambent on board the deck.
I have to kill a few of the new lambent and then find that the deck lift needs raised to allow the raven to land.
I do this and a cut scene starts.
Prescott does indeed waltz back in as if nothing had happened, he wants to speak to Hoffman, who has also been gone a while, though he is helping survivors at a place called Anvil gate.
Prescott it seems is a busy boy and has a mission for us. He asks who is in command and wants to speak with them.
Prescott gives Marcus a disk to watch, telling him that he will want to see it.
More Lambent appear in a fairly square fight box area.
Now we have to go up some stairs to get to CIC to view Prescott's message.
Inside the CIC we view the disk, it shows Adam phoenix, he is talking to Marcus, though this is obviously a message he recorded to send to Marcus. He tells us that he is a prisoner of the locust. He understands what is going on, and tells us that the imulsion is the problem. It is infected and the planet is dying. He knows a way to fix things, or so he tells us.
The disk is garbled at the end, Anya thinks she can fix it. A huge explosion rocks the ship, looks like it's time to kill some more lambent.
A new addition here is the ability to click the left stick when zoomed in on an enemy to get your squad-mates to target that particular enemy.
We fight our way back through the same area we have came through to get back under deck.
A fire extinguisher is needed as there is fire blocking the way.
I pick it up and can use it in the normal way.
After putting the fires out, we have to fight some more lambent to the captains quarters. Where a cut scene starts.
Prescott is wounded, the captain dead. The lambent are attacking the hangar deck and we need to go and save the helicopters. Marcus tells Prescott to stay put, he wants a chat later.

Act 1 chapter 2 Abandon Ship
We move though some of the ship corridors, fighting the polyps, then more lambent locust in the ships galley. Now into a store room.
I come out into the hangar bays and fight our way to the control room, past the two ravens.
One is lifted out of the bay by the use of a switch. We are going to help the other when it is attacked by a huge tentacle.
We have to shoot at the tentacle until it vanishes. Then fight our way back up to the lift controls to get back up on deck. We now fight our way through a new area of deck, just off from the one we fought in earlier. This time the deck is on fire and we have to turn water valves to clear the fire.
After turning two valves we have to use the extinguisher again.
As we do a cut scene kicks in. The lambent leviathan rises from the sea and starts chewing the deck. It's tentacles land either side of the gang and the deck gives way. They all fall down and it's lucky that nobody is killed.
They are now down below again and need to get back up on deck to fight.
Cole and Baird come over the radio, seems they are back near the boat and can see what is going on.
We come into an area of below deck and the tentacles rip a cavern through the middle of it. We have to fight some lambent across on the other side of the cavern, then the tentacles send in some scorpions to attack us. After a few waves a barrier drops down and makes a bridge for us to progress. Cole tells us to get the beast towards the front of the ship.
Marcus decides to use something called Silverbacks, which are in the maintenance bay to prod the beast towards the front of the ship.
we have to run before the tentacles crush us up on deck.
Now we get to the silverback bay. These are robotic exoskeletons filled with big guns and rockets. We can move around in them and emplace the silverback to shoot rockets.
The monster appears and starts chewing up the deck.
We have to shoot it in the eye, then the mouth. Driving it towards the front of the ship.
This is repeated a few times, with the monster moving forward a little each time. Lambent and scorpions run interference.
Eventually a cut scene kicks in and we see Baird drop a container full of tickers onto the monsters head from a bridge over the river.
This blows up the monster, along with the front of the boat. Marcus and Dom can be seen running and jumping over the side for their lives.

Act 1 : Chapter 3 : Homecoming.
One hour earlier.
Cole Baird, Carmine and a female called Sam land in a Raven, they are looking for supplies.
We land in what looks like a small town by the sea and enter the desolated place to investigate. There are bodies lying around, it looks like there has been a fight here recently.
We come to a gate and a light shines on us.
A cut scene shows Cole negotiate for food with a stranded, he isn't very friendly towards the COG soldiers. He does offer a side of bacon for Sam however. Cole declines, despite Baird wanting to take the deal.
We are told that there is another settlement along the way. we decide to go and investigate, there are enemies along the way, we are warned.
I find a cap??
Kicking open a gate we head into a playground.
As we go through a huge tentacle burst out of the ground and spews out a large humanoid monster.
There are three sets of tentacles to deal with, all sending out pods with various types of lambent inside.
We climb through some razor wire and into a new area.
Here we fight more stalks and lambent in the car park of the grocery store.
now inside the store.
We make our way through the fairly barren, already long ago looted store fighting locust as we go.
At the rear of thee store there is a large fridge blocking the way, we need to shoot out a crate which is blocking a switch. This opens a room with a Silverback like device, only it has no weapons. It is a version of a forklift truck. We come to a crate of supplies and the loader can pick it up. Now we have to break out through the loading bay doors into the loading bay proper. Here we have another fight. We then have to knock over some cars to make way with the loader. Placing the crate on a smoking beacon brings in the raven to pick it up.
Now we are off to investigate a warehouse, where there may be more stranded we can trade with.
We come to an area which is falling into the emulsion below, it looks unsteady, yet it takes our weight.
Now we come to a large square where lambent are attacking the stranded. We help. There are larger locust which shoot lava balls. Also snake like wriggling things that explode when they get near.
We meet the stranded and a woman shows us inside, she tells us that there is some ammo we can trade for.
We walk through the settlement, we are near the stadium where Cole played at and a lot of people know of him.
We come out the other side at a dock area and find the ammo. We radio the raven to come and pick it up. Now we are going on towards the stadium, which we can see in the distance.
More fighting on the docks. Now we come to the stadium and meet up with some more Cole fans who show us his statue. As we are about to be shown to the boss of the stranded at the stadium the lambent start to attack inside the stadium.
We get to choose the upper path or lower path.
Inside we fight some more lambent.
Now a cut scene, Cole visits his old locker room, there is a nostalgic scene where Cole reminisces about the glories of the past. It turns into nightmare as Cole finds himself on the pitch with a giant lambent stalk.
We have a semi game-play, semi cut scene moment where we have to barge past some lambent, pick up a ball shaped bomb and them slam it into the stalk. Which is then blown up.
Cole is picked up the by the rest of the gang and we are to go and look for the leader of the stadium stranded.
As we do so the radio tells us that the ship with Marcus and Dom on is under attack.
We find the leader, she is a German spoken woman, with a scar on her cheek. She is very unhelpful.
Cole knows a way to the bridge, which we know the ship is going to pass under.
We make our way to a lift, which is, as usual a cage for us to survive in for a minute while they rise up.
Now we get on a zip line and make our way to the bridge.
On the bridge, yes more lambent to fight.
We come to a barrier, thinking it's stranded, the gang approach, however, it's the locust and they open fire.
We enter the fenced in settlement that is the bridge and fight through it. Up on top again we have to get to the where the ship will cross under in time.
Another choice moment, lower deck or catwalk.
I take catwalk, where we fight a few locust and then climb up a ladder and meet the others.
In cut scene we see the culmination of the fight with the leviathan from the other side. Baird is tasked with working out how to kill the leviathan and there is much dialogue from the group who haven't really got a clue.
Baird decides that the locust must have ordinance here, we are tasked with finding it.
we have to fight through an area of bridge filled with tickers, Baird thinks tickers may be the key.
Now we have a mortar crew to take care of. Then a locust zeppelin, which is made from a huge inflated creature appears and we have to take it out.
Mortars are left by the mortar crew which is handy.
We then progress through more of the bridge and come out on top again, here we can see the tickers in a box, that we know will get tipped on the leviathan's head. There are lots of locust in the way. When we reach the box a cut scene shows the gang tip it over the side and the tickers kill the leviathan. The gang are tipped off the bridge which is destroyed in the process.

Act 2 Shipwreck

Chapter 1 Hanover coast
We find Cole and the gang recovering in the shallows, Marcus and Dom are incommunicado. Cole sees locust heading for the shipwreck and we are to follow them.
We are in a more lush greener area. fighting locust that burst out of the ground as if being shot from geysers.
We fight through some enemies and then find Dom and Marcus. Marcus contacts Anya by radio and she is in trouble with Precsott. Marcus quickly explains to Cole and Baird what is going on and then we are attacked by more locust.
New locust weapons are underground creatures that dig under the ground in straight lines and come up underneath you.
I fight through to a large living siege catapult. Once the grubs around it are downed, we can use it to take out another two, then a brumak that appears.
We fight through to where Anya and Prescott are holed up under heavy fire.
In cut scene we find that Prescott is dying, just when he would have revealed the plot, how convenient, lessons from Lost? Anyway, he tells us that Marcus' father was working at a secret facility called Azura, which the locust Queen, Myrrah has captured in the past few days.
Prescott gives Marcus a hardware encryption key. Baird knows what it is for, a disc that Hoffman stole from Prescott. Baird was tasked with breaking the encryption but could not.
We now have a new goal, getting to Anvil gate and finding Hoffman and the disc.
Locust attack again.
Then a Brumak to take down.
In cut scene we see a portion of message Baird manages to get recovered, it shows that Adam was captured by Prescott and held captive at Azura. He also talks of something called the imulsion counter measure.

Chapter 2 House of sand
We come to the wreck of the gas barge that was shot down earlier. Marcus thinks it might be a good idea to commandeer one to get to Anvil gate.
We fight through a desert like area where a small corpser attacks. Then some more grubs and through a large locust door.
Now we have to run to avoid mortar fire.
Then take out the mortar crew.
we now can use the siege cannon to take on the reinforcements that arrive.
On a ridge the gang can see that the locust are excavating the whole area and seem to be building themselves a new home.
A barge settles down nearby and we set off to hijack it.
Here we have a stealth section, if we can stop the locust sounding an alarm, we can have far less locust to kill.
The sniper rifle is handy for this.
There are three horns, one guard at the first, then two at the others.
I give up and just fight the enemies that come when you get discovered, it's more fun, what is this Metal Gear Solid?
We go inside the locust stronghold.
Here we have a large shootout in an area described as trenches, though it looks more like an old Spanish fort.
Now we see a gasbag come in to land, though it sees us and starts dropping bombs.
We have to run from cover to cover in the trenches, avoiding deadly bomb bombardment.
We see a tower in the distance, Baird has picked up a locust gps device and managed to program it to send the gasbag to Anvil Gate, all we need to do now is reach the tower and get aboard a gasbag.
We come to a ticker assembly area and blow lots of grubs and tickers up.
A grub shuts in a room with a corpser.
Then we come a corpser boss battle. Baby corpsers are hatching from eggs. We shoot them and then the mother turns up. We have to shoot it in the eyes and then some of the medium corpsers appear.
Once all the eyes are shot out, the corpser runs around rampaging and you have to avoid it. Then run down a corridor.
A cut scene starts, we are outside at the gasbag station.
The locust Queen Myrrah is riding a large flying locust.
She sees Marcus and it appears she has plans for him as well.
She sends some smaller bugs to attack us, and flies off.
The smaller bugs are flying tickers.
We fight some more locust at the gasbag station.

Chapter 3 Airborne
Then up on top of the docking ring. Here we fight the crew of a barge and then get on it.
Baird programs the autopilot and we are heading for Anvil gate.
On the way we find a truck being attacked by two barges, it's Dizzy from the second game.
We descend on ropes and join his fight.
After taking out some grubs and theron guards we meet Dizzy, Hoffman is alive and well at Anvil Gate and he has the disc. We have to help Dizzy get some supplies from this depot and then  get back on the barge. However a large contingent of grubs arrives an we have to fight a few reavers that land and shoot at us with rockets.
Back on the barge we go.

Chapter 4 Touchdown.
We are attacked by other barges and then Myrrah turns up on her flying bug. She shoots a huge laser light like weapon at us and the barge is knocked out of the air. It crashes, and everyone is ok. Hoffman appears and we are rescued and taken back to Anvil Gate. The grubs are on the way though in force.

Act 3 Chapter one Untouchable.
We get back to the anvil gate fort just in time to help in it's defense against the grub army.
We fight from the top of the gates for a while, then the gate is breached. Falling back to a second gate we do the same. Then finally in a garage we have a last stand.
The last resort is triggered, a plan which sees a large fuel tank being pushed into the courtyard and we have to shoot it. This blows up a lot of the grubs and the battle is won.
Hoffman and Marcus have their talk now. Hoffman was never impressed by Prescott and is even less so now. The disc is given to Baird to work on and he is also tasked with Getting the hammer of dawn back online.
Sam and Anya are trapped by the grubs outside and we have to go take a truck and rescue them.
we get a choice, to drive the truck or provide covering fire.
I choose to drive the truck, only you don't you ride in the back out to where Anya's vehicle has been overturned. Our truck is toppled and we have to fight our way back to the fort.
Lambent appear and it's a fairly confused chaotic fight.
A berserker lambent appears and Baird uses the hammer of Dawn on it. Only it doesn't kill it. We now have a boss battle with it, in the courtyard of the fort. It has a glowing bit in it's chest we have to shoot.
After a few shots to the chest it starts to leak imulsion, then imulsion gas and finally explodes.
In cut-scene we find the contents of the disc are the location of Azura, the secret facility. Seems that whatever is there is top secret as an artificial hurricane keeps people from visiting. Hoffman tells us of a sub, though we will need to fix it and fuel it.

Chapter 3 Breakneck run.
Marcus leaves Hoffman at Anvil Gate, Cole and Baird are sent to find supplies for the assault on Azura. Marcus, Dom, Anya and Sam head for a town called Mercy to collect fuel.
We have a fairly frantic set of driving sequences now, driving along, we are on the back of the trucks. Dizzy driving the tanker and two smaller vehicle escorts. Reavers attack first, then we have a few pipes to blow up to clear the road. Then we get some corpsers to fight, small ones then a short fight with a large one.
Now we get stuck in sand and have to defend against incoming grubs until we can get free.
Then we cut of a brumak's head using a wire between the vehicles.

Chapter 4 ghost town.
We move through the town, it is indeed a ghost town. We see a bomb on the pipeline, it has a motion sensor. Moving to it and holding X disarms it.
Moving on through the empty town I find and disarm another two charges. As Marcus disarms a third a shot rings out and blows up a pumpkin near him. In cut scene we find an old man who seems a bit mad, he tells us that everyone else is dead of some kind of fever that sent them mad. He runs off. We have to give chase.
I find him dead in the sewers, though we can hear a woman's voice, crying. When we find her, in cut scene she turns out to have turned lambent, suggesting that whatever is happening with the locust and the lambent is now spreading to humanity.
We now have a fight with a lot of lambent humans.
Back up on the surface Marcus tells Dizzy what is going on.
We come to a large square with a fountain in the middle. A man can be seen on a balcony waving to us. As we go over to him the lambent turn up. We have a large vulcan cannon which needs two people to operate, but certainly tears through the lambent. After clearing the ambush of fifty odd lambent we climb the ladders into the man's hideaway.

Chapter 5 Brothers to the end.
The man isn't much help as the lambent burst in and kill him. We are chased out of his hidey hole by another horde of lambent.
Then through the town until we reach a church.
Behind the church Dom finds Maria's family grave, and gives a touching message to her.
We then get the pumps working. This seems to stir the lambent up inside the church and they come spewing out. We have to go through the church and through the crypt. It's the quickest way back apparently.
Dizzy reports that the tanker is too holed to fill after our run through locust fire.
We come out onto the surface near the tanker and find the locust have arrived.
Lambent locust, human lambent and grubs all attack at once.

Act 4 Chapter 1
Ashes to ashes.
We run out of gas at a city which was leveled by the cog using the hammer of dawn in the early days of the war when it was thought that it might stop the locust.
We go in looking for fuel.
The city is filled with ash statues, that it seems were people running for their lives as the hammer struck, they were turned to ash where they stood by the intense heat.
We walk about amongst them and then enter a church, as we do a piano nearly falls on our heads.
Then a gun is rigged too go off. It appears that the people who live here, may be covering themselves in ash and standing still amongst the dead to hide.
We move on through the city and the ash man keeps setting off traps, such as exploding gas canisters.
We come to a point where we are hemmed in by two gun nests. Then lambent locust appear.
After fighting them off for the ash man, he comes to chat.
Griffin is the leader of the settlement and we are to go and see him about trade.
We are taken up in a lift and shown through the sky high township, with cable cars to Griffin.
Griffin is played by Ice T. He isn't happy about the COG at all.
He wants us to go and sort out his fuel supply problem, in return her will give us some fuel.
He holds Dizzy as hostage to make sure we comply.

Chapter 2 Hang em high
We move out into the crater where the hammer burst hit, which is huge.
Lambent attack in large numbers.
After fighting lots of lambent we come to Griffin's second tower.
In the lobby of the tower we have to find a switch to turn on the elevators, which all spew out lambent humans. Then we have to take the stairs.
We find a lift and push a car as a counterweight. Whilst on the lift something called a gunker crashes through the roof and we have to fight it at close quarters.
We get up onto the roof and find that the loaded fuel cable car is undamaged.
A cable is stuck, which is holding the cable car halted at the rooftop. We have to go down into the building a little way and cut the cable, then come back out onto the roof to the cable car. Lambent humans fight us all the way.
As we get back to the cable care Dizzy calls on the radio, Queen Myrrah has appeared with her beetle and is attacking.
She leaves and we can see lots of barges coming in to deliver grubs.
barges attack us as we come down in the cable car.
When we get back to the first tower there are lots of locust and everyone is being massacred. We fight through them and come to dizzy and Griffin. Griffin accuses the cog of being jinxes and storms off in a huff.
We have our fuel and it's time to head back to the shipyard.

Chapter 3 Batten down the hatches.
We arrive at the shipyard, it seems that Myrrah is tracking Marcus, she seems to want to stop him, though i'm not sure she is too serious about stopping him, maybe making a show of it, but secretly wants him to succeed.
She sends some nasty looking new locust after us.
At the shipyard we have to fight our way in through the gates.
Inside the shipyard we find some old ships, there are huge webs covering them which look ominous.
We come out into an open area of dock and a large centipede type enemy is released by the locust.

Chapter 4 Bon voyage
We come to the sub we are going to use to try and sneak into Azura.
It has a cracked rotor, so we need the parts, we also need to fuel it.
We get a choice.
I choose to search for the  rotor first.
We go through and meet some wretches and tickers in small room and then some theron guards outside. We have to push down some carts filled with shells to blow up some emplaced guns.
Back inside we go up in a lift.
More fighting and we come to the rotor, we have to use the walker forklift to take it back to the sub.
Locust of course get in the way.
Back at the sub dizzy starts fitting the rotor and we now have to go and get the fuel.
There are some cog tags at the first room you come to after starting the fuel mission.
I  fight through this large room out onto the docks again. There is a ship here and it has the fuel we need sitting on the deck.
We have to storm the locust controlled deck, using a ramp that need moved into position. Then once on board more locust arrive. We have to use a crane to pick up the fuel, then the locust try and blow it. Lots of them arrive from doors and by barge to run interference.
Eventually once they are cleared a door opens up back to the sub.
Now we have to escort the sub out of the dock into the water, a series of doors opens up, each one holds an assortment of locust varieties.
After a last bunch of locust the special queens guard appears.
These guys have special armor that means they need to be killed by explosive fire.
The centipedes join them for a good fight.
I eventually realize that shooting the tail of the centipede kills it. The front sections are armored.
We now flood the dry dock and the sub is launched.
Anya calls Cole, she can't tell them that Dom is dead.
We

Chapter 6 watery grave.
We find ourselves in the sub, manning gun pods on the side of it.
Dizzy is driving.
We are attacked by fish, and have to fight them, then we hide from them in the deep turning off the searchlights.
Now we are attacked by a large fish, it chases us through a minefield, and we have to shoot at it and also the mines.
We are then chased by the leviathan into a cave and have to shoot it in the mouth before it kills us. We then move through the cave and find that the artificial hurricane also extends underwater. We survive it and find that Azura has defenses. Torpedo turrets have to be taken out. We blow open a set of doors we come to then more torpedoes and turrets.

Act 5
Chapter 1
Home away from home.
We find a dock and land, Marcus tells Dizzy to take the sub out to a safe distance and wait, it might be their only way out.
We find that there are a lot of dead civilians in the water around the dock.
I am attacked by lots of locust in the train station. It seems that Azura was to be a safe haven for the elite of Sera, evacuated to this supposedly impregnable facility to live out the war in safety. Seems to have been a rubbish plan as the locust got in anyway.
We fight to the train and then Adam Fenix speaks to us. He is trapped in his lab in a hotel tower. He tells us that the imulsion is a living organism, it is infecting everything like a parasite, locust and human. Adam has a way of destroying the imulsion, however Myrrah wanted him to adapt it to not harm the locust. He tell us that the imulsion is reaching a critical stage in it's life cycle and it will wipe out all life on Sera if left to reach this phase.
He tells us to get through a maintenance tunnel and head along the beach to the hotel tower.
We now come to a trenches like section and fight the usual assortment of locust.
Then into another part of the maelstrom facility. If we can bring down the maelstrom, Cole and the reinforcements can come in.
We progress through the beach and storage like areas of the Azura facility.
Now we reach the maelstrom generator building, we have three generators to shut down in the basement.
We reach the basement and Adam tells us that there are three switches we need to hit in order. Marcus tells him that Dom is dead, Adam promises that they will have a future and everything isn't in vain.

Chapter 2 Blackout
The three switches are switched fairly easily, however the maelstrom continues. Seems that the locust have rigged a backup. Adam tells us to blow the coolant and that will cause the generators to overheat. We will have to get out fast though.
The generator core is a large cylinder, we have five switches to pull. Locust appear around the sides and on the platforms of the cylinder to run interference. Once they are dealt with the switches pulled, we have forty odd seconds to leg it back out of the place.
A cut scene shows the maelstrom building blowing up and the hurricane ebbing away to reveal bright sunshine. Cole and Baird arrive with a navy ship they have picked up. Marcus tells them that Dom is dead to ruin the fun and then they all go to get revenge. Even Jack the little cutting robot is back.

Chapter 3 Shattered paradise
We get air support for a little while here, until it is taken out by a catapult. Also jack moves around shocking the locust to distract them for us.
The catapult has to be taken out so we can use air support. I find it and then some barges arrive, we use the locust's own catapult against them. There are more catapults to be found.
We move through the hotel, there are lots  of dead civilians. The locust killed everyone other than Adam. Adam is about to tell us about Myrrah, but Marcus tells him to wait.
We have to take out another catapult crew, then blow a dam which kills another two catapults.
Inside the hotel again Adam tells us that his weapon is a wave of some kind that will kill of lambent cells in everyone, which are multiplying.
We move down a long corridor and fight a lot of locust.
Cog tags at the end of the long hall with signs for rose station.
We come out onto a terraced area and find the last siege beast.
Many locust later we kill a barge and push the siege beast into the sea.

Chapter 4 Threshold
We come to the tower where Adam is being held. It is huge.
There is a huge ornamental garden out front and we have to fight our way through it.
We then have to defend against the lambent who arrive on mass on our tails.

Chapter 5 Ascension
We are in the tower and have to get to the top where Adam is.
We progress through the hotel for a bit undisturbed, then we meet locust. Fighting through the lush hotel we reach some lifts. Then the lambent arrive while Jack gets the lifts working.
As we go up in the lifts we shoot at locust who are trying to kill us. Our lift falls and we end up on top of another lift. Now up high in the tower we are only a few floors from Adam. Heavy locust resistance is met. Eventually Myrrah appears on her bug, smashing through the window. Nothing I shoot seems to be hurting the bug, so it seems we just have to avoid it for now. Running up a few flights of stairs I avoid being cooked by it's heat beam.
We reach the roof and Myrrah has us trapped, Baird sees a statue on the ceiling that has a counterweight, it seems it can be brought down on top of Myrrah.
We have to release three cables which brings down the weight on the bug, there is no sign that Myrrah was still on it's back.
We are chased into a lift by lambent stalks.
The lift doors are guarded by locust, Adam warns us to take a side exit through service shafts.
There is a cog tag behind some crates just outside the left doors.
we come out and ambush the locust waiting for the lift, then fight some that have a turret in the corridor.
We have to go into two rooms at the side of Adam's lab and disable an electric laser security grid in front of his door.
We finally get inside to Adam.
He starts doing stuff with his machines. He tells us that the imulsion was the original start to the locust coming above ground. It drove them from their warren's.
Baird is upset that it seemed the government knew that emergence day was coming and didn't warn the people. Adam tells him that it was only him that knew. He gives Baird a disc. Seems to be foreshadowing that Adam won't survive for long.
We have to leave as the locust are back. Back out in the corridor there are hordes of them, then lambent. The turret comes in handy and we kill them all. Down the corridor we get into the lift.

Chapter 6 Reckoning
We come out onto the roof of the tower, the device for destroying the imulsion is there. We have a lot of lambent and locust to deal with. Carmine appears on a Raven and he gives us covering fire with the emplaced gun.
Once we clear the roof Myrrah appears and knocks out the Raven.
Now we have to shoot her bug in the mouth. Which seems to damage it now.
We have to wear it down, shooting it in the mouth and avoiding it's heat beam. Then it falls and while on the ground we can use the hammer of Dawn on it.
It also attacks the machine and if not stopped breaks in and Kills Adam causing a game over.
After wearing it down a cut scene starts. Lambent appear en masse. The machine fires and a blue light emanates from it. This kills the lambent stone dead. Adam comes out and tells us that he has too many lambent infected cells and that he will die. He asks Marcus to live for him, then dies, crumbling to dust in his arms.
Myrrah appears from the ruins of her bug and Marcus stabs her.
We see some scenes around Sera as locust and lambent are all killed by the wave.
Marcus appears and takes off his armor and sits down. Anya comes to him and tells him that she is there for him. He asks what is left and she tells him that they have a tomorrow for the first time.

14 hours
355 achievement points