Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Infamous 2 Notes

Infamous 2 Notes

The first option that appears is to continue your Infamous 1 story, with a choice of either good karma or bad.
I choose to continue with good karma.
I get level 1 good karma, extra xp and extra energy storage for having completed the first game.

We get a comic book recap of the first story.
Cole a bike courier is at the center of a blast from a package he was carrying.
The city is quarantined and bad guys start showing up.
Cole meets Kessler, himself from the future, who has come from an alternate timeline, where a huge beast rampaged through the world. Cole wasn't ready for him in that world and came back to toughen himself up in the hope of altering the past.
We are now still in this training process, waiting for the beast to appear and hoping that Cole is ready. An agent named Lucy Quo has arrived with Cole, she worked with someone who was involved with the creation of the raysphere, the device that gave Cole his powers. Lucy wished to aid Cole in his preparations. Zeke, Cole's friend from the first game is also present.

As Cole is about to get on a boat and go to another city nearby with Zeke and Lucy the city starts to explode and it looks like the beast is here early.

Controls
Usual analogue sticks for movement and camera.
L1 is aim
R1 is shoot a lightning bolt or static thrusters while airborne.
X is jump
Square is throw grenade.

Mission 1
I leave the boat and go to see what is going on. I am on a pier and there is a locked gate we have to zap with lightning to break down. People are running everywhere.
A building can be seen collapsing in the distance and a car comes flying out of the mess and smashes into a nearby boat causing a huge explosion.
A few more meters closer to the city we can see the giant flaming beast, he looks similar to the human torch, only one hundred meters tall.
I am prompted to shoot in his direction to attract his attention. He responds by throwing a huge statue at us and coming closer.
We now fight the beast, shooting him in the head with lightning. He makes us fly in the air using some kind of gravity weapon and tries to suck us into a vortex. We get chances to shoot at him in between trying to stay clear.
After a while a piece of his head is blown off and we then get prompted to use an ionic storm by pressing down on the dpad.
This brings a lightning storm down on the beast head and he sinks into the sea.
We are now prompted to go back to the boat. As we do so the beast reappears and uses it's gravity wave to hold us floating again. We are grabbed in it's hand and can only shoot at it. We then get the prompt to use the ionic storm again. This hurts Cole and drains him.

In cut scene we see that Cole was saved by Zeke and Lucy, taken away on the ship.
The beast simply regenerated and carried on.
Cole is devastated by his failure and after some wallowing and angry scenes gets himself together and they flee to New Marais, to hopefully get more prepared for round two with the beast.
Zeke makes Cole a sword like weapon called the amp.

Mission 2
As we approach New Marais a gun battery can be made out. Cole gets out into the swamp and goes to take out the guns so they can approach safely.
We can hover over longer gaps by using static to thrust with, by pressing R1.
Some enemies appear and are easily shot with lightning bolts.
We can recharge our energy from electricity supplies in the environment.
The first karma choice appears. There is a bridge, which we can lower by charging up it's machinery. If we overload it, it will blow up the enemies as well. Also the civilians.
I choose not to kill the civilians.
I am given a good karma opportunity to heal some hurt civilians.
I  move through the small township, zapping soldiers until mortar fire comes from a  riverboat.
Shooting a fuel tank near the boat blows it up and sinks the riverboat.
I now have to make my way across the water using the debris. Cole dies if he falls in the water. His own electricity shorting out.
Someone named Bertrand makes a broadcast, he is the leader of the milita and he is using the threat of the beast to make his own martial law. we see this piece of information on a tv screen.
We now are introduced to the grind wires, which were great fun in the last game.
There is some emplaced guns we have to deal with.
The mission ends when we reach the edge of the city.
Zeke and Lucy bring the boat in. Lucy is impressed with Cole not killing the civilians.

Mission 3
New Marais is a fairly lawless place anyway after a flood devastated it.
The militia are only making it worse.
We can throw electricity grenades.
It isn't long before we are getting shot at in the city.
Lucy is with us and she shoots at enemies.
We have to get a blast shard which is being guarded by milita.
They are on a roof and there are about ten of them. Once they are downed we can pick up the blast shard.
I get the opportunity to save a citizen who is being mugged by militiamen.
When I pick up the shard, Wolf the scientist calls, he is in trouble. A large explosion is seen on the other side of the city and blue trails can be seen shooting into the air.
We now have to make our way there through heavy militia fire.
When we get there we speak to wolf, who recognizes us as Kessler and is confused.
Wolf has made a rayfield inhibitor, which can take away powers the same way that the raysphere gave them. Cole thinks he can use this on the beast to weaken it.
However we need to ingest the power from more blast cores before we can use the RFI.
Cole ingests the blast core that we just picked up and it gives him a new power.

Mission 4
Zeke finds Cole unconscious and wakes him up and we have to learn about our new power.
We now have the ability to pick up objects and hurl them using our powers.
I have to defeat a militiaman using a thrown object and throw a car.

Mission 5
Lost and Found
Wolf is missing. We need to find his carrier position, Which is on top of the clock tower.
Wolf used carrier pigeons to convey messages.
We hear a message from Wolf, seems there are lots of these pigeons to find.
Also the blast shards, which we need to collect three of to progress.
Pressing L3 shows up nearby blast shards.
I go around collecting a few. They give you some more powers if you collect them.
I also find another pigeon.

Mission 6
Mission are seen on the map as white dots. Going to them and pressing R1 starts them.
Zeke tells us that a good and bad character has contacted him asking for our help. This is a simple choice to make, since we are being good, I go to the good character and do their mission.
I have to save some civilians that milita men are terrorizing.

User generated content is introduced. Missions can be created and uploaded by users.
I get to play one made by the creators of the game.

Mission 7
We are to generate new powers by stressing our body in combat.
Here we have to kill six militia men. Then we get pincer bolts which sends out three blasts at once which converge on the target.

Mission 8
I have to meet an electrician on a roof.
He tells me about overcharging. This is where we take on a lot of energy, but we must stay in the air on the grind lines otherwise we blow up.

Mission 9
We think that Wolf has been taken by Bertrand, the leader of the milita.
Bertrand is to make a speech at a church. Cole plans to snatch him and find out where Wolf is.
We attend the Speech, Bertrand is an older man, with a large cutlass. He seems madder than a bag of weasels. He talks about Cole and as Cole is getting ready to snatch Bertrand some monsters turn up and attack Bertrand as well. We have to fight these mutant clawed creatures and then give chase to Bertrand who makes his escape in a limo. We have to chase the limo using grind wires.
Once I catch up with the limo a cut scene shows a relaxed Bertrand ignore Cole and set a helicopter on him. We have to fight the copter and knock it out of the sky with lightning bolts.

Mission 10
New Marais tea party.
Bertrand has supply boats docked, we are to get on them, take out the guards and throw the supplies overboard.

Mission 11
Bomb Scare
A man tells us of an object stuck to the wall of a building. We are to investigate.
As we do it blows up and kills a lot of people. another one is close by. We can defuse it by draining the electricity out of it. We then collect a blast shard from the bomb.

Mission 12
Wolfe hunt
we are to follow one of Bertrands men who is in a Casino.
We chase him across the town to where Wolfe is being held.
We are to take out roadblocks on the escape route and Lucy will go in, get Wolfe and drive him out.
After the first roadblock is taken care of I am prompted to go to the next.
At this roadblock we find all the milita dead. A large insect like creature is burrowing under the ground and popping up to now attack us.
It is called a ravager and we have to take it down.
Once done we go back to Lucy and stand on the back of the truck while they drive away. The milita attack in large numbers and we have to defend the truck. We can get energy from the truck.
As the mission reaches a crescendo a large lorry rams the truck. In cut scene we see that Wolfe is dead and Lucy captured.

Mission 13
Desperate times
Cole is getting despondent again. Zeke has seen something out in the swamp that we should investigate.
In the swamp we investigate shacks. There are some new charging exploding mutant enemies out here. Which are my most hated type.
A new milita type with a chaingun appears.
We go to another shack guarded by all types of enemies so far.
As we search the shack some fighting can be seen nearby.
A female with superpowers is found, she is called Nix and can move very fast.
She also seem to be able to control oil, using it to coat enemies.
She wants us to help her take out some milita.
We follow her around shooting milita she traps in oil. She also wants us to cover banners of Bertrand in oil.
Once we have them all done, we light them on fire.
Now we take out all the enemies. Nix leave and gives us a blast shard.
Zeke asks if it's a good idea to play nice with someone so obviously insane. Cole feels that at the moment their agenda seems to align, though he obviously doesn't trust her.

Mission 14
Storm's coming
Zeke appears in a milita outfit and Cole doubts his spy routine. He is about to absorb a blast core which will knock him out for hours. He ask's Zeke if he will wake in a milita cell?
Zeke tells him not to be an ass, and he thought that their bad history was water under the bridge.
When we wake up we have a new power.
Ionic storm. This is a tornado of energy that we can send out ahead of us. We get it by killing certain milita men, they release an energy which gives us one charge of ionic storm.

Mission 15
Jail Break
A cop wants us to help free some police who have been imprisoned by milita.
We go to a location and find cops in a truck. Lots of milita to kill then open up the truck and the mission is done.

Mission 16
I meet up with Zeke and Nix to discuss the intel that Zeke has gained. He thinks Lucy is held in a nearby plantation. There are lots of other prisoners there and some of Bertrand's best men. Nix wants to load a car up with explosives and send it in the front door as a diversion while they go in and get Lucy. Zeke points out that this will probably roast alive lots of innocents. Zeke suggests freeing policemen and asking for their help. Nix wants nothing to do with a plan involving helping the police.
Looks like if  we want to be good there is no choice at all. It also looks like we will be fighting with Nix soon.
I have two mission starts to choose from. Good and Bad.
I choose the good, to free the police.
There are three trucks to attack, and stop. Then free the police. Now we go to the plantation house. We have to clear the milita, then they start with mortars. We have another wave of milita and the three mortars to destroy then we get to free Kuo. She has been transformed and now looks like she has frost powers. She is not feeling great and we have to protect her as we leave. There are lots of pods and it appears that Bertrand has been making his own brand of super soldier.
We now have to escape to a car that Zeke is driving and the mission ends.

Mission 17
Changing the channel
We have to drain the power from five dishes around the main square so that Zeke can hack in his own signal to the large tv screens to silence Bertrands propaganda.
Simple enough, climb around until you are close enough then drain the dishes to complete the mission.

Mission 18
I am told to investigate the park where lots of milita are dressed as statues????
I fight them all and mission is done.

Mission 19
Crossfire.
I find some milita and mutants fighting and have to take on them both.

Mission 20
malpractice
I take a mission to retrieve some medical supplies that were stolen from a paramedic. There are four packages to retrieve, all guarded by milita.

Mission 21
Tourist trap
I have to take some pictures, of the vertical poles, a mugging and an abduction.

Mission 22
The sidekick

Mission 23
Tough Critic
I meet a cop who wants us to guard a milita man until he can get backup. We have to stand and listen to him abuse us for a minute to complete the mission. Nix calls and tells us to kill him while we are waiting.

Mission 23
those who trespass against us.
The milita are having a party in the cathedral, we have to clear them out.

Mission 24
I meet a woman who kisses us for helping her mother in the first game by sharing food.

Mission 25
Field Medicine
More paramedic supply retrieving.
We have to get a crate and take it back to a drop point. Which is harder than it seems.

Mission 26
Trick Photography
We have to take a picture of sin tower and a movie theatre.
Next a ravager mid charge, a helicopter and a downed milita man.
Of course to end the mission we must fight and kill them all.

mission 27
Going overboard.
More boats to deprive of supplies. This time in the swamp area.

Mission 29 Main Mission
Powering up ascension parish
The milita have broken a power link between transformers. We have to restore it.
We have to fire a tesla missile which acts like a flying vehicle, we can control. I have to guide it to a target some distance away. This seems to send electricity between the two transformers and we then have to activate the newly powered transformer. This is a simple defend the position mission. I trigger the transformer startup sequence and have to defend it while it boots up.
Enemies come in waves.
I have to repeat this, we are deep in the dark part of the city, with no power to refill our energy.
I have to repeat this three times.

Mission 30
Choppers vs Monsters
Two ravagers, monsters milita and a helicopter to take out.

Mission 31
six hostages paramedics need to be saved from milita capture.

Mission 32
Police Parade
Again 9 policemen have been taken by milita and the guarding milita need killing.

Mission 33 Main Mission Sacrifice
I go to a mission marker and a woman is calling for help. I find a woman tied up by her hands to a tree, there are lots of the the wing armed monsters around. I have to free her by shooting at the wrist bindings once the monsters are cleared out.
She tells us that her uncle is in trouble and asks us to help him as well. I have to follow her, along the way the milita and monsters appear at certain points along the journey.
I find her uncle and he is suspicious of Cole but seems reasonable about them having the common goal of getting rid of the milita.
A huge monster turns up, like a rhinobug.
It shoots snot and has a long tail that can latch on to you. It  seems easier to kill that the ravagers though.
Once done the resistance are now on side for the moment.

Mission 34
In the name of science
A scientist wants swamp monster samples for analysis.
We have to go into the graveyard and lure a bunch of ten lobsterarm monsters back to a specific location, then kill them.

Mission 35 not human, conduit main mission
Lucy Kuo is back, she seems traumatized, but she definitely has frost powers. Cole tells her that he can help her.
He encourages her to show him what she knows already. She can fly in a similar way to Nix. Flitting through the air as a stream of frosty smoke.
She can use frost to hold enemies and we can shoot them like with Nix.
She tells us of a blast core that might be located around here, she has a picture and we have to find the location, inside the location is another pic. More monsters to fight.
Find this one then Kuo tells us of the plague that hit Empire city now being in New Marais.
Another photo location to find, then a ravager and some other mutant enemies.
This time the ravager seems to spawn bugs out of pods.
When it's killed we get a blast core from the vault.

Mission 36 main mission
I go to zeke and absorb the blast core, he appears to have a cough and Cole fears the plague.
After the blast core we now have improved static thrusters. We can fly for longer and can use the electricity in cars to jump higher.
We also have the sniper precision aim feature, by holding up on the dpad we can zoom in.

Mission 37 Overcharge
another wire gliding puzzle, rooftop to rooftop without getting off the correct path.

Mission 38 Grave danger
The graveyard is the scene of a battle between milita, monsters and resistance. We step in and take down the monsters and militia helping the resistance.

Mission 39 Life Insurance
A woman starts of a spiel about life insurance then seems to turn on us and set a bunch of monsters on us. I kill them all. Strangely enough the woman gets eaten by one of the big monsters she seems to bring to the area.

Mission 40 Enemy surveillance
I have to follow a fast moving lone enemy back to it's base and fight a horde of monsters.

Mission 41 Good Deed
We meet with Kuo who tells us that an area of the city is being attacked by monsters. We have to follow her to the areas and kill all the monsters.

Mission 42 Firing squad
A bunch of 6 civilians are being lined up and shot on a rooftop. I go up and make sure the milita are the ones to fall off the roof.

Mission 43 Enemy surveillance.
Chase the monsters to their base and fight them again.

Mission 44 Stories of the past Main Mission
We meet Nix, she tells us of how she grew up in the shanties in the swamps, it isn't a fun tale.
She wants to show us something out in the swamp, for this we need a boat. We go to the mansion from earlier, kill lots of milita and steal a boat.
Cole does not seem to think this may be a trap. If nix strands Cole out at sea he will have no way of getting back to land.
Nix drives us through the swamp until we come to a milita outpost on an island. It seems that the milita are dug in here fighting the swamp monsters. It may be that the milita are trying to keep the swamp monsters out of the city. We come to another island after fighting lots of milita and swamp monsters and all the milita are dead.
Eventually the milita killer makes itself known, it's a bigger version of a ravager named a hive lord.
I kill it the same way as the ravager, it has the same attack patterns. Nix then tells us to be still as a whole bunch of ravagers appear out of the ground on a nearby island. We move into fog and a huge monster can be heard in the distance. Nix hides the boat in the fog and the dinosaur sized beastie moves away.
In cut scene Nix takes us to a huge crater in the ground, with a pillar in the middle. It is the same crater as the raysphere made in empire City.
Nix tells the story, Bertrand brought a huge group of people into the blast radius of a raysphere and triggered it with him in the center, this gave him the energy of the people and killed them in the process. Nix survived because she was a conduit as well. This means that Bertrand has powers and may be significantly more powerful than Cole. Nix takes us back to New Marais.

Mission 45 enduring freedom
Four people have been stuck up at the edge of the swamp by the milita as sacrifices to the swamp monsters. We have to kill the milita and save the people. Kuo helps on this mission.

Mission 46 Transferring Power Main Mission
Kuo, Zeke and Nix meet Cole on a rooftop to discuss things. Zeke has found out that the machinery for controlling powers is in fort Phillipe, which is a huge castle like stronghold.
Cole thinks that even with all their powers they could not cope with the amount of militia in a good defensive position. They would need an army. Zeke suggests the rebels. Kuo tells Cole that they would need to win their hearts and minds first to get them to help in such a dangerous assault. Here we are asked to choose good and evil choices. Kuo tells us to steal the medicines from the Milita which they obviously have since none of them have the plauge. Nix wants to go on a killing spree attacking the resistance disguised as milita. Then have Cole come in and save the day making them eternally grateful to Cole and more likely to follow him into battle.
We are given the choice of choosing a diverging mission start, good or bad choice.

Mission 46 Hearts and minds campaign
I start the mission and Kuo drives  out of fort Phillipe with an ambulance full of medicine.
We are chased by milita and Cole has to ride on top of the ambulance killing milita and unblocking the road.
We come to a huge road block with a large monster and then some chaingunners.
Eventually we get to resistance headquarters, with the milita. This does not please the resistance and we have a huge fight with milita here. Eventually I win and The resistance pledge to help in our fight.

Mission 47 Storm the fort
There is a cut scene with Nix, Kuo and Cole discussing the attack with La Roche the resistance leader. He seems to have a thing for Kuo.
Plans are made, though Kuo and Nix are going to have a hard job not killing each other.
Inside the fort is a hige fight, Nix, Kuo, resistance, Milita all in enclosed spaces.
I have to take out machine gun emplacements for the resistance. Then the power is cut to try and halt Cole. Zeke shows us a transformer and we have to use the tesla bolts to link two transformers to restore power to the fort.
Now there are mortars to take out, two of them. Once this is done the mission cuts to a scene.
Kuo and Nix meet Cole at the machine. The machine can swap powers between two conduits. Nix wants to share powers with Cole, and Kuo thinks it's a bad idea, though she is prepared to share power with Cole. We have to choose. Obviously making the other an enemy.
I choose Kuo as being good means no other option.
Nix is angry and leaves. Kuo and Cole strap into the machine which explodes with energy passing between the two of them. Both are knocked out and thrown clear. Cole sees Bertrand getting into a helicopter to escape. He tries to shoot at him but can't stay conscious.
Zeke appears after a period of unconsciousness. Kuo has went after Bertrand, she seems to have no new powers. Cole it appears has though.
Our first new powers is a frost version of the ionic storm.
Spending waves of ice out from Cole.

Mission 48 Ship of fools
A boat is firing into the city. I sink it by chucking lots of grenades at it.

Mission 49 heavy weapons
A helicopter and a devourer to kill.

Mission 50 Convoy
A convoy must be destroyed.

Mission 51 Main Mission Joseph Bertrand the 3rd
Cole finds Bertrand's helicopter crashed just before a bridge. Bertrand isn't inside but the huge monster from the swamp appears and attacks Cole. Milita fight with Cole for the first time against this huge creature. It has five glowing pink points which we must shoot. This is a fun boss battle, not a hard one. It didn't kill me once.
Eventually when it's health bar is down the monster explodes in a cloud of whirling green smoke. It turns out to be a horribly mutated Bertrand. Who is still alive but escapes on a boat to the other side of the bridge, into the inaccessible part of the city.

Mission 52 Powering up flood town. Main Mission
I have to power up around 5 transformers in the flooded powerless city.
We have to fire a tesla bolt at each one and then defend it until it powers up.
The conduit powered troops that Bertrand was making in his underground facility have claimed flood town as theirs and don't want Cole there it seems.

Mission 53 Overcharge
Again a matter of staying on grind lines and working out the best path.

Mission 54 Prescription Strength
I have to move a crate of medical supplies to another location for the paramedics.

Mission 55 the Dunbar Beam Main mission
La Roche and Zeke are found in the shanties, seems that there is no cure for the plague and all they can do is keep the victims comfortable.
There is not even a way to get help through as aid is being blocked by swamp monsters. A motion sensor is triggered and Cole goes to investigate.
Here we find some spotlights, it appears that the swamp monsters are killed like vampires by infra red light.
There is a perimeter of three or four lights around the shanty. we have to run between each light and use it to kill waves of swamp monsters. Then back at camp some more armored versions of the ice men arrive, they ask La Roche for his blast core. Zeke looks upset and betrayed by La Roche who obviously didn't tell him that he had a blast core. We have to fight two of these icemen, they have a freeze ray type weapon that is fairly effective.
La Roche tells us that he will give us the blast core if we do one more thing for him.

Mission 56 Emergency measures
I have to retrieve four medicine packages for a paramedic from the icemen and return them.

Mission 57 best served cold.
Icemen and milita are fighting, we have to take out both sides.

Mission 58 Enemy surveillance
I track some icemen back to their base and have to kill them all.

Mission 59 Double Whammy
Some Icemen are escorting milita prisoners around, we have to take out both sides.

mission 60 Unlikely allies
Kuo has spoken with an iceman who wants to defect and help them. We are to go and meet him.
He says he can take us to some blast shards. I follow him and we are ambushed by monsters on the way, after taking them out he leaves us to defeat the guards of the blast shards.

Mission 61 Burning Wells
La Roche tells  us that four oil wells have been set alight in floodtown, we need to cap them, however there is only one cap, so we will have to take it with us across the town.
Each time we get to one of the wells we have to place the cap on top. However there is trouble at each well. A new Iceman enemy appears named a crusher. He has big icy arms and fires lots of ice streams and chunks at us.
At the last Well I find Bertrand turning someone into a monster. From this we can gather that Bertrand is the source of the  swamp monsters.
There is a railyard that seems to be a center of Bertrand activity. Once the last well is capped La Roche tells us to find Zeke he will have the blast core.

Mission 62 Seek and destroy
Three Icemen have been spying on resistance fighters, I have to chase them down before they can get away and report their intelligence. This is quite a fun mission, but I don't want to many of them. I hate timed missions.

Mission 63 Overcharge
Ride the lines from A to B.

Mission 64 Ray Field Energy (Main Mission)
Cole goes to Zeke to get the blast core that La Roche promised. Kuo is there too, she tell us that she has found out that raysphere radiation is what causes the plague. Therefore Cole is responsible, well Cole from the future who came back in time and blasted the raysphere off in Empire city. The RFI will cure the plague if it is used. Cole absorbs the blast core and passes out. When he wakes he tries to use the RFI but can't, he feels that two more blast cores will be needed.
We now have the ability to fire a rocket by aiming with L1 and pressing triangle.
Freeze rocket and quicker combos are also unlocked.

Mission 65 Icebreaker
Kuo wants us to help her attack a base of the icemen. We have to follow her to two areas where there are lots of icemen and kill them all.

Mission 66 Rail yard intel (Main Mission)
Back at the little base we meet Zeke, Kuo and Nix makes a reappearance. The discussion is about Bertrands behavior. He seems to be making the monsters. Nix tells the group that Bertrand makes the monsters, which them rampage wild. However, after a time he can gain control of them and she thinks he is raising an army of them.
Kuo wants to expose Bertrands' schemes by gathering evidence. Nix wants us to try to control the monsters as she has been able to once before. She thinks they will make us a good army.
The Mission ends and we are given a choice, which again since I am being good this playthrough means helping Kuo.

Mission 67 Exposing Bertrand (main mission)
Kuo tells us that she has seen a way into the railyard occupied by Bertrand.
We have to sneak around the back and go into a place where she has fed the guards sleeping drugs. Now we are in the railyard and the guards are lying around sleeping. We have to move around various railcars which have been turned into cages and take pictures of people and monsters kept in them. Finally after about five sets of pictures, we are told by Kuo that Bertrand is there. We have to climb onto a warehouse roof and take a picture of him through the skylight. Once I do a cut scene starts. It shows Bertrand turning a civilian into a monster. Kuo takes our footage and broadcasts it to the city. Now we see Bertrand spotting us and running. We have to free the civilian prisoners.
I free two carriages worth of civilians, jumping on the roof and prying them open. Then a cut scene shows Nix arriving with her monsters in tow. She appears to be wanting to help, though it seems that the inevitable fight against Nix might be coming soon.
I now have a ravager to kill and one more set of civilians to free. No more sign of Nix.

Mission 68 Stay frosty
Kuo tells us that our iceman ally wants to meet, she warns us that he is changing, they all are.
When we meet him he is bulkier, and pretty monosyllabic compared to last time.
I have to follow him to the railyard, and kill some monsters.

Mission 69 The Beast draws near (Main Mission)
Zeke has been spying and has found a missile. He thinks that they should use it on the Beast which is getting very near and a glow from it can be seen on the horizon. We have to clear a path through fighting factions in the city for Zeke to drive the lorry. Boats attack us while we are on the bridge. At the dock Zeke parks the lorry with the missile and we have to climb a crane to get the targeting done.
When I get to the top of the crane icemen attack. We have to kill them all so we can get a clear shot at the beast.
Once done the nuke is launched at the beast. In the aftermath there is great wind and yellow cloud everywhere. The beast seems to be gone. Zeke is hurt, a container has fell on his legs. Blown by the winds from the blast. We have to get it off him. Then help clear his path back to the truck. On the way there is some glowing and sparking at the crane we just came from. It seems the beast may not be down after all.
I get to the truck and in cut scene we see zeke drive off.
The screen goes black and tells us that the beast is in New Marias.
It may be that the nuke damaged him though, as his isn't rampaging around destroying everything. Zeke thinks he has went to the gasworks.

Mission 69 battle by the bay.
A citizen tells us that militia and icemen are fighting in the bay.
I get there and have to kill them all. Swamp monsters turn up as well.

Mission 70 Action shots
I have to take some pictures, why, don't know, but I do.
First the beasts footprints, then the crane it destroyed when it seemed to teleport in or reform in New Marais.
Next a swamp monster eating a dead man.
Next some icemen, in midair on their ice towers and a hive lord laying the eggs that spawn the little fly like creatures.
Then you have to kill em all.

Mission 71 Powering up the gas works (Main Mission)
We have to power up the gaswork area of the city.
Firing tesla missiles we can see some crusher icemen and take them out with the tesla bolts.
Then hit the transformer and go to it.
Defend it while it charges, and then shoot at more icemen and another transformer to defend.
Again we have more icemen crushers to kill, about five or six. Then the transformer, some pretty slick flying is needed.
The last transformer I go to starts a cut scene.
It is a trap, huge metal gates swing down and trap cole in the area with the transformer.
Bertrand appears with milita men.
He asks us to team up with him to take down the beast. Cole refuses and Bertrand orders the militia to shoot him.
We have to survive in the cage for a time, then Zeke comes and saves us.

Mission 72 Cold snap
We have to take out a bunch of icemen with milita prisoners, then two crushers attack when I do.

Mission 73 The Gauntlet
The blast shard bomber has called Zeke and wants to meet. This is the man that is making the blast shard bombs which seem to be random events which can improve your karma.
Seems he wants to give himself up. I doubt it.
I go and find a bomb which nearly blows us up. The bomber runs away from nearby, and we have to chase him. He uses a sequence of bombs to try and slow us down.
Eventually I get to him and we have to defuse his bomb by absorbing it's energy and kill him.
Otherwise civilians he has herded close will be killed.

Mission 74 Ice tea party.
I have to go to a battle between milita and icemen over their boat supplies to kill them all.

Mission 75 Forced Conduits (Main Mission)
Zeke sends us to a warehouse, where he has been told there is a blast core. We have to search a warehouse for a crate with a milita symbol.
I have to blast at crates until I find a safe hidden inside one of them.
Inside the safe is deeds to three other warehouses. I have to search them all.
I search the three, each one is a dud, though one does give blast shard.
At the last warehouse a titan attacks. This is a bigger boss ice creature.
It goes down fairly easily. This one has a little twist in a God of war style. When it's health is low you have to go up to it and lever off a bit by mashing a button. Then kill it.
After killing it inside the safe is a blast core. And info that those Bertrand was making the monsters and the Ice men to sell as weapons. Cole wonders what Bertrands motivation is?

Mission 76 The harder they fall.
I fight an ice titan and a swamp titan, that are fighting each other. Also some smaller enemies.

Mission 77 Special delivery
La Roche tells us about an Iceman courier heading to a warehouse, we have to follow him without letting him see us.
Then at the warehouse kill all the enemies, including a crusher.

Mission 78 The Big chill
Our Ice soldier ally wants to meet us.
He has turned into one of the giant crushers monsters. Though he still has his personality and wants to help us. We go into a warehouse full of icemen and kill them all. Two try and run for it and we have to chase them down.

Mission 79 Mercy kill
The ice soldier has succumbed to his new beastly nature and went rampaging. Kuo and Cole have to take him down.

Mission 80 Ice storm.
The warehouse we liberated earlier has been reclaimed. La Roche asks for  our help in retaking it.
Icemen and a crusher, with some rebels to help.

Mission 81 Easy Going (Main Mission)
Cole and Zeke have a fun buddy moment, then Cole uses the Blast Core. He wakes and we now have lightning tether, this makes climbing easy, point where you want to go within range and lightning zips out and drags you there. Press L1 to aim and then R2 to use the tether.

Mission 82 Proud Warrior
Zeke wants us to hack some satellite dishes again.
Five or six to find and drain. Then Zeke plays a video taking the mick out of Cole on the tv's in the area. Suggesting that Cole is looking for love and gives out his cellphone number.

Mission 83 Overcharge
Ride the lines to the end.

Mission 84 Biohazard
Icemen have stolen some volatile chemicals.
Three of them to chase as they make a run for it.

Mission 85 Coast Guard
The milita are shooting at the rebels from two boats, we are asked to help.

Mission 86 The face of change
Bertrand has a boat full of his weaponised conduits ready to ship. Zeke tells us to sabotage it. It has electric anchor winches, which we can break.
I go to the first ship and fight some icemen. Then disable the boat.
On to the next, a crusher is the boss fight here on this boat.
When we disable the anchor here a cut scene starts.
A man named John appears behind Cole, He is wearing a suit, with no shirt, his chest looks torn up and he has scars on his face. His name is John. Cole knows him from Empire City. He thought he was dead.
John explains that the raysphere explosion killed him, but also made him a conduit. In a blatant rip off of Dr. Manhattan's origin story from Watchmen we learn that John pulled himself together and is alive again now. It is fairly obvious that he is the beast. He wants to show Cole something, it does not appear to have hit Cole yet that John is the beast. Cole Allows John to touch his forehead and give him a new power.
John has given us the ability to see those infected with the plague. He tells us that the plague will stretch across America if not checked. He tells us that nothing can stop it. Unless they can find a specific woman.
I go to a plague ward, which is basically a gathering point for those about to die.
I find that now R3 makes the humans appear as if x-rayed. Seeing a glowing red in their belly if they are infected. One woman has a spidery yellow thing at her heart. John asks Cole to heal her, he can't. John tells Cole that he can, but at a cost. Cole asks him what it is and John tells him that he will show him. John starts to glow and reveals himself to be the beast. His energy blasts the warehouse apart.
Cole wakes across the street where he has been blown. The woman who had the yellow spider walks towards him, she is healthy and she suddenly flies straight up into the sky. She then blasts off in a white glow like Kuo does. Seems that the plague isn't killing humanity off but evolving it. Those with the right genes are changed into super-beings, the rest die. John tells us that he can save what he can of humanity, but a huge percentage will die.

Mission 87 Photo Finish
Take pics of the beast detonation site.
Take a picture of the ice tower.
Then an ice titan using its powers.
Then kill the ice titan.

Mission 88 Main Mission
Bertrand plans to leave New Marais by helicopter. Zeke, who is sounding sick, has sabotaged it. We can find Bertrand for a showdown at the helicopter pad.
When the mission starts we meet Bertrand on the helipad. He tells us that he wants all conduits destroyed, that is why he is making them and selling them. He wants the world to know they are evil and rise up and destroy them. Cole tells him that he is just sour because the raysphere turned him into a huge maggot instead of a shining superhuman.
Bertrand threatens to change into the beast again. Cole doesn't care, it's time for a showdown.
Bertrand leaps off the helipad and changes.
Zeke tells us to get onto a truck.
We are driven by Zeke to a point where La roche has set up an ambush. Nix and Kuo also help fight Bertrand.
We have to shoot his glowing pink spots a lot. little monsters run interference.
At a halfway point we are picked up by helicopter and have to shoot at the monster from the air. Eventually we are dropped back of and resistance and conduits alike take out Bertrand.
Nix is pleased and even Kuo gives her a little kudos.

Mission 89 Death Toll
Zeke has seen the icemen in possession of a blast core. We go into their stronghold to get it from them.
Zeke has the plague.
I fight a lot of icemen and then one of them runs with the blast core.
I chase him to the tower and up to the top of it.
The blast core is encased in ice.
We need to activate some valves to open the flow of gas and burn the ice off the top of the tower.
Three valves and many icemen later the top is blown off  and the blast core goes down to the ground again.
Now we have to fight another horde of icemen and eventually the blast core is ours.
during this mission we have the ability to power up anywhere, due to a lightning storm that is going on.

Mission 90 The final Piece (Main mission)
Zeke and Cole chat and he then absorbs the blast core.
We now have Ionic storm power.
Which calls down lots of lightning

Mission 91 the final decision (main mission)
We meet with Zeke, nix and Kuo.
Cole tells them what he knows about John and his plan to save conduits.
Cole starts to use the RFI. It begins to kill Cole, Kuo and Nix, zeke stops the process.
It seems to be up to a big choice, use the rfi and wipe out all conduits or let John save only the conduits.
I choose to use the RFI and save humanity at the cost of conduits.
The rfi has been broken, it needs a new power regulator.
Zeke fixes it but it needs charged again. Nix is to take it to power stations and we are to protect her. The beast is after us.
I am led to a boat where we start fighting the beast.
I have to use tether to get back to land, then get to the sub station and charge the rfi.
We fight the beast again, and Nix sacrifices herself to hurt it.
Kuo attacks us and we have to knock her out.
We have to take the rfi to the last sub station and it's charges up. Cole uses it's power to zap the beast one last time. Then Kuo appears and apologies. Cole fires the RFI wiping all conduits from the world.
A cut scene shows all conduits die, and the plague is cured.
Zeke is seen taking Coles body on a boat. Lightning strikes it. So maybe there will be an Infamous 3.

We are told after the credits that time has been wound back. We can go back and do any side missions still remaining. Also we are reminded that we can go back and choose an alternate path, the evil one this time.

20 hours
35% of trophies on first play-through

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Duke Nukem forever Notes

A little montage of scenes from the first game is shown over pounding rock music.
I am surprised about how much and how little I remember of it at the same time.

New Campaign and let's rock or Normal difficulty.

Usual analogue sticks
Click Right stick to crouch.
Click Left stick to run.
Right trigger to shoot
Left to zoom.
Up on dpad for Duke Vision.
Down on dpad to drink beer.
A to jump.

Mission 1
Start off urinating into a urinal. Duke is in what looks like the shower room of a football team locker room.
I move into a large room and there are some uniformed police or soldiers standing around a whiteboard. They are planning how to attack a large monster. Their plan seems to be simply to charge.
There are wounded lying around.
I go out into the corridor and the monster can be seen under fire from the cops. I go towards it and it blows up the cops hurling Duke back down the corridor. The Way is blocked so we have to go back and go down the stairs.
I move through some corridors and see soldiers fighting aliens.
I move through an area with fighting, though as soon as I get in the area the soldiers take out the aliens. A gun is left behind. As I pick it up I get taken up on the lift I am standing on.
I am now facing the giant monster that was blowing things up earlier on at the football field itself.
The boss has rockets, a rush attack and an ground based energy weapon. Ammo for the rocket firing gun you have called the devastator runs out quick but is dropped in by air support. The alien has a health bar. Once it's worn down you have a little QuickTime to hurt the alien and kick a field goal with it's eye which pops out.
Then the scene cuts

Mission 2
We are in the real world now, seems what has went before was a game Duke was playing. He quips that it should be good as it has taken 12 years to make.
Two girls are pleasuring Duke while he plays the game.
The news reports show that alien ships have arrived and are hovering over the city. The president is in talks with the aliens. There is speculation as to whether these are the same aliens from the last time 12 years ago.
I can play pool just like the last game.
Looking in Mirrors and playing pool increases your ego, which means you can take more damage.
The alien ship can be seen out of the window of Duke's Penthouse.
I move through Duke's Penthouse filled with pictures of him climbing Everest and other outrageous feats. Then into an elevator.

Mission 3
Downstairs we are in the tv studio of a late show a like. I have to sign an autograph for a kid and then go on stage. However the show is canceled as the aliens have arrived in a Dukeburger nearby and all the news crews are covering it.
Duke decides to go and investigate.
Backstage a guy is giving a Christian Bale style rant, we can knock him out for an achievement.
Inevitably the aliens have started shooting, explosions can be heard and the ground is shaking.
I take another lift.
It seems that we are stuck and  the emergency button opens the lift roof which we can climb up onto.
The doors to the next floor are forced and I come out into a Duke Museum.
The museum is full of statues and pictures from the earlier games.
A throne is available to take pictures on. A kid is sitting in it, he won't move until we take his picture and we have to press a button to make it happen. He then moves and we sit on the throne which is a lift to a secret areas.

Mission 4
The Duke cave
In the Duke cave, which is filled with computers and screens. The old bios screen on bootup isn't lost on me.
The President and a general appear on the screens and tell Duke to sit on his hands. The president is in talks with the Cycloid emperor and does not want Duke to start shooting them up yet.
The general it seems reluctantly agrees with the President.
Duke's computers flash a warning about intruders. Through a door in the back of the room we see the aliens are inside Duke's complex.
In the next area an alien is coming through a door trying to hit us. I punch him and he goes back through. On trying to open the door a computer voice tells us that we need a red keycard. Duke tells us that he doesn't need a keycard and we force open the door with QuickTime.
Now we can chuck objects at aliens and kick them to execute them.
I go through a hatch into a crawlspace.
Then things go dark and we have night vision, aptly named Dukevision.
Now we are meeting more aliens and get a gun to shoot back.
The reactor has three pods that have been removed. Two are found in the room of the actual reactor. The last is two rooms away and we have to use a remote control car to get it out of a room. Basically a little puzzle and skill test to push it from one place to the other. Back in the reactor room we  turn the power back on.
Now we run along some corridors shooting the aliens. We get a pistol in addition to the alien plasma weapon we have been using so far.
I run along the corridor until I come to a gun type emplacement at the centre of a lift.

Mission 5
Going up in the lift Duke Activates the gun. We come out on the roof of the skyscraper under the alien mothership.
This is an emplaced gun section. The mothership needs shot in the guns that protrude out of it's shield. There are ships which attack with lasers and sent out jetpack troops.
There is long loading every time you die and the enemy ships are two hit kills.
After wearing down the ships health it's main gun blows up. Duke's gun is hit by debris and he is knocked out. The elevator takes him back down and he wakes up four hours later. We crawl through some vents.
Now we have to stop an elevator from falling, we pull the emergency brake, but it heats up and fails. I struggled with this mini game to understand what the hell I am meant to be doing. Again a long load after a death in what seems like a tiny area of game.

Mission 6
I eventually learn that you have to keep it from overheating.
Now we come out of the elevator and get shrunk by a crater of alien goo.
We meet the kid from earlier that we gave and autograph to. He lets us have his remote control car to drive.
Now there is a long driving sequence where we take the remote control car through the hotel.
Lots of jumps and we can see aliens kidnapping women using teleporters.

mission 7
After a load we progress through the casino halls until we come to a door the car can't pass under.
I find that duke can get out and crouch to get under. we now need to climb on stuff to get to the door switch.
Now we have more driving, charging aliens try and stomp you.
We come to a gate, the two girls from earlier are behind it with soldier.
We have to move a luggage trolley next to the switch and then jump on furniture to get to the switch.
Now we meet the girls and get back to full size.
Alien start teleporting in, we get the shotgun and it's a fun time taking out waves of aliens with the shotgun. Eventually the babes are teleported away and Duke is angry now.
I have to force open a gate then go along the corridor we just drove along fighting the charging pig aliens.
Next we have a wave of all variety of aliens coming from a hole in the ceiling.
Now another large room, we seem to be going back along the track we took with the car, why?
You  can play the fruit machines.

Mission 8
We come to a statue of Duke, we have to move it so that  it is pointing to a man above us on a balcony. The arms have to be moved up. We then have to pull down a city structure that is around Duke and then climb on it to climb onto the statue and up it to get to the balcony.
Now we get a quick tutorial on trip mines. How to duck under and over them. Also to shoot them when we can see the actual mine.
Fires are shown to us and also the fact that we can shoot fire extinguishers to put out fires that are blocking the way.
We meet some soldiers from the Earth Defense force.
Then a boss battle with a fat flying creature. It shoots rockets and is backed up by some pig cops.

Mission 9
The general speaks to us. The aliens have made a wormhole by the Hoover dam. They are using it to bring in reinforcements.
The aliens are taking women to the Dukedome.
We go outside and meet a gung ho soldier. Every second word is a curse from this man. In the back of a supply truck is Master Chiefs armor, which Duke pronounces is for pussies.
I get the ripper gun, which if I remember was a staple of old Duke.
Now we have an emplaced gun section out on the streets.
Waves of pigs and flying teleporter pigs.
A new alien beam weapons and an rpg here.
Now we are moving through the streets, also some emplaced guns and waves.
I come to a large crater and after some waves of enemies a large boss appears.
I shoot it a lot with rockets and it dies fairly easily.
It shoots lasers and rockets at you.
Once downed yo enter a sewer tunnel.

Mission 10
I move through broken up sewer, avoiding electrified water by jumping on pallets, another fire to put out with a fire extinguisher. Now up a ladder.
He we end up in a construction yard. builders tell us to get in a container and they will lift it over for us. We are now in a kind of vehicle section where we get moved around and have to take out the waves of enemies.
Same barrel throwing dude kills me three times in a row, four and it's off.
I manage it by only shooting a pipe bomb into the place where he runs from.
Eventually the crane is toppled and we are back on foot.
I enter another construction yard area, then the front of the Dukedome. Aliens are toppling a statue of Duke.
Now we enter an area where there is a button to press to open a gate. Only there is no power on. We have to make our way into a portacabin, through the roof and switch on the power.
while we are inside the aliens attack in waves. Eventually the cabin is overturned and we can get out again.

Mission 11
I come to an area where there are containers which must be filled with barrels to make them tip and then jumped on to get to the next area. If this Half Life 2?
Now we must find a battery to get a crane working.
The crane's mast must be scaled to get into an adjacent site to get the battery. A dropship attacks and must be shot down with rockets.
Back at the crane we must bash a hole in the side of the stadium to enter.
We must position the crane so we can run up the mast to enter.

Mission 12
Now we are inside the stadium.
The alien hive is filled with organic matter. Orifice like doors and little bugs.
We have to hit a bug which rolls up into a ball. If the ball is rolled near a grabbing arm an orifice door is unlocked.
Now we see women cocooned and mutated to give birth to the aliens.
Little jump pads that shoot you up, in sequence like a human pinball.
Duke find his two girls mutated and they are killed by bug like aliens in front of him. This makes him angry.
Now we have puzzle, to get a door open we must find a ball, however it's far away down a dark corridor, enemies run interference.

Mission 13
More ball rolling to open a door.
Quite a bland level, sensing a theme.
New monsters that Duke seems to think are shaped like dicks. They shoot white goo.
No comment.

Mission 14
I come into a more human looking area again, part of the stadium. A door is locked and there seems to be an obvious way around the obstacle but I can't seem to jump up to the ledge where there is a way around.
You can throw a pipe bomb through and detonate it on the other side.
Now the queen. She has thick armor, and three breasts. We have to make her dazed by hurling a pipe bomb onto the jump pad which sends it over to her. She hits at us,and send the small monsters in as well.
Once the queen's health is low the octobrains arrive and they shoot your rockets right back at you.
Eventually I kill it and Duke is injured as it dies.

Mission 15
Now we are in what seems to be a dream sequence. Duke is in a strip club.
He is approached by a stripper who asks him to find three items. A dildo, a condom and a bag of popcorn.
Once we find them, in a locker, in the break room and in the toilet we are to go and get a lap dance.

Mission 16
Duke wakes up from his dream of lapdances to find he is in a helicopter heading for the Hoover dam.
The helicopter is shot down and we are on our own again.
We have to climb down from the tower we have crash landed in.
Lots of little ledges and tentacles to negotiate, ladders and some interference from alien jetpackers.
I find a crashed helicopter and have a little emplaced gun shooting to do at alien ships buzzing around the tower.
Then we get a gun called the devastator which is a rapid fire missile launcher.
A large ship needs to be taken down with it.
An alien jetpacker teleporter guy grabs Duke and takes him out into the air. Duke Punches his head off and then crashes through the window of the tower with the flying corpse.

Mission 17
We have crash landed in a duke burger, There is a puzzle with an electrified area blocking out way.
We have to get small and crawl through a hole, turn off the power then get small again and climb up and into the walls. We then make our way through the inside of the walls to the next area.

Mission 18
We now have tiny shrunk aliens to deal with, they hide under drink cups.
Little platform puzzles in the Duke Burger to make our way through the area.
We then have large enemies to deal with while shrunk, the trick is to lure them onto shrink pads so you can kill them.
We then have to clamber our way up the larder. Who told these people that platform games were fun in first person shooters?
Next is a marathon clamber around a kitchen that is filled with electrified water.
This is not fun at all.
I just got burned on a grill and have to go back for miles of non-fun jumping.
Eventually after much puzzling with a toaster I get past this awful area.

Mission 19
On the roof we have to wait for pickup from the military. Five minutes on the roof with monsters incoming. I get the shrink ray which is fun at least.
Once the aliens are shrunk you can stamp on them by running at them looking down.
Many waves and two large flying bosses are quite fun, for once.
This game is too stop start, you just get going with the gunplay and then it's back to wandering around and climbing stuff.

Mission 20
We have to fire from a helicopter gun too clear the landing zone at the dam.
Then we have to drive a monster truck. Nothing happens here though, just a drive along a track.

Mission 21
More driving here, we get to run over enemies and jump large gaps by using boost.
Eventually the truck runs out of gas and we are back on foot.
I have to clear the road and kill some waves before being allowed to move forward due to a barrier which is cleared for us by the enemy. Now we have the same puzzle as earlier. Get into a building via the skylight.
I get the gas can and have to go back to the truck. Some more road driving with bits of road being blown out by ships from above.

Mission 22
More road.
Then a town and yet another gas stop.
We have to clear this western town and then puzzle it out in a barn with pulleys and ladders to get the gas can. Turning a winch to move a platform and letting a ladder down.
More fighting in the town and then back to the truck.
Through the town and into a tunnel on the other side.
I get the holoduke here, which makes a holoduke that runs around doing stuff distracting the enemy. I am invisible while it is working.

Mission 23
More driving. This time we have trucks with barrel throwing enemies on the back to get past.
When we do the road runs out and all of us come crashing down.
The car is ok and we move on.

Mission 24
No gas left again.
Now into an abandoned mine.
We have a lot of enemies outside the mine. Then a dropship brings more in. Then we have to fight the dropship.
Now inside the mine for some puzzles with little mine carts. We have to get the mine cart to move with us in it to jump gaps.
Once I get the gas there is some platforming.
Then a mine cart ride out into the open and back to the truck.
Now we jump the truck over some bridges and into another tunnel.

Mission 25
Hopefully the last of the driving?
No, but not for long at least, we are near the focus of the action. A large spire or organics that seems to be sending a beam of electricity up into the sky causing a large cloud formation.
The president meets us here after we ditch our tuck in the water.
He isn't happy and still seems to think that he can negotiate with the aliens.
Duke is stoic and carries on where we meet up with some military for a firefight.
We fight along the dam until one of the big monsters from earlier appears.
This time it needs to have it's health worn down twice. It gets angrier and more deadly after the first QuickTime event.
Once he is downed Duke Rappels down the side of the dam. We have to go and find the general inside the dam's tunnels.

Mission 26
We meet some workmen and an EDF soldier downstairs inside the dam. The men have barricaded a door and there are lots of aliens behind it. They say they will open up a lock on the far side of the rooms beyond if we go in and clear out the aliens. I do, I get the freeze ray for this. Does what it says, hose the aliens and they freeze, run up and punch them and they shatter.
The door is opened and that is that.

Mission 27
Now we come to a section where there is alien growth blocking the way. We can turn valves which lets out steam which kills the growth. We have to move pipes by unlocking them and twisting them to make the steam reach an area of growth.
Now we fight some more and come to a shrink patch. Shrunk I now have to enter vents after clearing away rats. In the vents air is bowing fast and we are buffeted around and taken on a ride. I have to clear a brush from a fan to make it move to get carried upwards.
Now it gets complicated, inside the gears of a diabolical machine this is real first person platform gaming and a good example of why the genre doesn't work
Long reloading after death does not help here at all.
I eventually get through this nightmare. Considers stopping playing for a bit though.
Some electric switches and pistons to avoid at the top of the gears nightmare.
Now into a room with some small aliens attacking. Then another large alien while you are small scenario.
This seems to be the boss for this area.

Mission 28
We come out into a control room and have to open a door to get out onto the top of the dam.
Now some tentacle monsters who fly around hurling barrels and crates at you.
a lot of them and an emplaced gun.
Now a large one called an octaking. This is a fairly easy boss. It's attacks don't seem to harm me on the emplaced gun. It runs away, so I am sure we will be seeing it again.
I progress into a room where there are lots of waves of enemies then a puzzle involving a forklift to get up to a ledge. Into an elevator and mission is done.

Mission 29
I come out onto the generator room of the Hoover dam. The alien tentacles are infesting it.
This is a platform puzzle. I make my way up using the dam structure and the tentacles to the top. Then a man in a control room starts a large lift platform moving. This is a survival box and waves of flying aliens come before the octaking makes it's next appearance.
Here we have limited cover while the octaking and three octo aliens attack
This seems impossibly hard until you realize that the three octo aliens don't respawn infinitely. The boss is too hard with them shooting at you as well as them. So use pipe bombs to take them out until they stop respawning. Maybe around four sets of three. Then take out the octoking. Once his health is down a little he will take out your cover anyway which makes it impossible to survive with the other little octo's flying near you.
Once he is dead the lift goes to the far end and you climb down behind him into an elevator shaft and have to drop down into water.

Mission 30
We land in the water and have to climb out into another part of the dam. Putting out a fire lets you move forward.
Now we have a little puzzle where a spinning fan blade attached to a huge pole is blocking the way. Large metal toolboxes can be pushed into it from nearby and once three are in the fan stops.
Now we move through this huge generator machine room to a set of ducts.
Dropping into a room ends this mission.

Mission 31
Here we have more underwater fun.
Air bubbles like the ones from old sonic games refill your air.
we have to open a door with a wheel and a turbine gives us current to fight against.
Now we meet lots and lots of the little ocatababies in the water. The almost kill you instantly. Lesson one off terrible game design is don't give people tasks that are dull, like opening a stupid wheel door and swimming around for a few rooms before an annoying instant death moment. This game has been an exercise in masochism from near the start.
I hang back and retreat, and use pipe bombs and trip mines and manage to get past these annoying enemies. I can see humans fighting a large alien, one we have fought before.
Now we have an area of darkness. Some normal alien to fight. Ammo is running scarce here, a new tactic?
We start heading down into alien hive territory.

Mission 32
Now we have some fighting in more corridors. Then a large area. Here we have a scaffold on wheels that we must push to a point to make the way forward open. Taking out some crates that block the way.
A crane type boom seems to move when I shoot some barrels near an enemy standing on the pivot point.
It seems that the mission here is to get the boom to pivot until you can climb on it and get out of the area. You have to find barrels which can be placed in the basket of the crane and weigh it down. You need about five barrels. Once you find enough enemies start to come in in waves after each new barrel. Eventually two flying bosses arrive. Once dealt with you can climb the boom and leave the level.

Mission 33
We find a room full of aliens, a fight and a little puzzle to jump up and around the room to get out. Now we come to a large room,a pool in the middle is flooded and there is electrified water in the way. We have to jump on stepping stones in the water, accessed from the right side of the pool. Once across we come through some rooms climbing some stairs and come out above the pool. The EDF soldier is badly injured and tells Duke that the plan to shut the power of has not worked. The new plan is to blow the dam. Duke is given charges and the soldier dies.
The only way forward is to go down the ladder beside the soldier, which seems to be backtracking but never mind.
I have to move a platform, as we do so, octaflyers attack.
This bit is a pain in the ass as there is no cover and the octaflyer's attack has large splash damage.
there is around 40 seconds loading time each time you die.
Once the five octaflyers that attack almost all at once die you move the grate, flick the switch that is controlling the electricity to the pool. Now you can dive down into it and get a wheel turned to open the way out.

Mission 34
Now we pass through large underwater areas, always mindful of the need to keep close to air bubbles.
There is a large flooded area and it seems we have to plant two charges. I find the first one following air bubbles. Octaflyers attack and it's even harder now that you have air to worry about while fighting them.
Following the pipes and opening valves gets you forward. I find and plant the last bomb and a large eel like creature attacks. It's called an energy leech and it's annoying, it trashes you and shoots electrified darts at you. It also tries to suck you in.
In places like this where you die frequently you spend half your time waiting to respawn. Why, it can't possibly need to load the area again?
I eventually kill the worm with the bomb. swimming through the door the worm came from ends the mission.

Mission 35
Now I have an escape the dam mission. The place is blowing up and flooding. You have to stay above the flood water and keep moving. There is a broken bridge, which can be got past by using some red pipes to the side.
Now I go up some steps and barrels are flying down them at you.
Some more enemies to deal with at the top of the stairs, then some more running around breaking up stairs and walkways. Finally into a large pipe, water spills along it and we are washed out of the dam in time to see it breaking up.

Mission 36
Duke is resuscitated by an EDF soldier. The dam is blown, the portal is closing. It looks like the invasion is denied by Duke again. Nobody has seen the cycloid emperor. The president isn't happy.
He appears to have been on the cycloid side all along. The president tells Duke that he has called in a nuke and it will kill Duke. However the emperor is pissed and appears and kills the president. We are now into the final boss battle.
This is a repeat of the start of the game, only we are in the broken dam front rather than a football field. Strangely enough it's the easiest boss battle since the first one. I have to use rockets that we get from the pig cops that help the emperor. Once the emperors health is down he falls and I have to rip bits off him in QuickTime. Do this three times and it's over.
The general appears and picks Duke up in a helicopter. On the way out the Nuke goes off and the copter crashes. A computer screen tells us that Duke is KIA. Then we hear his voice telling us that he will be back.
The credits roll.

570 achievement points
16 hours on normal difficulty

Thursday, June 16, 2011

SOCOM: Special Forces notes

42mb patch to download, just bought it a week ago and that was day of release.

I Choose normal difficulty.

Our character walks into a military base.
Pirates are attacking shipping lanes, they are called Naga.
There is a private company running security and Nato have sent a task force in as well.
I think my character is part of Nato.
There appears to be tensions between Nato and the PMC.
An Asian woman is arguing with the general when we come in.
We are going to check the security of the perimeter.
The scene shifts to six hours later, pirates and soldiers are fighting in the street.
We are in a hotel and helping airlift some people away.
Seems that there has been a coup and we are caught in the middle.

Controls

Usual analogue sticks.
Clicking left stick runs.
R1 is aim down sight
R1 is shoot.
R2 is grenade.
triangle is a crouch toggle.
Square picks up weapons
Circle goes in and out of cover.
Holding L2 brings up a menu by which we can switch guns and grenades by holding the sticks in different directions.

Mission 1
I get control as a rocket hits the hotel.
I am told to get to cover and a location waypoint appears down in the foyer.
I move out of the hotel and a van enters the hotel grounds and we are under attack.
I move out onto the streets and there has been some heavy fighting and bombing going on, there is a lot of devastations. I shoot some enemies and head up onto an overpass.
I am told to take out a man in a building using grenades.
We come to our base and it is attacked by heavy armour.
In cut scene we call our superiors and find that most of them were in the base that just got zapped. We call air support and have to guide bombs in to hit the tanks.
Now we are moving forwards again. I come to a large area of street with lots to shoot at. This is actually quite fun when you get into it. Makes a change from COD, back to the Rainbow Six / Graw type of game play.
A waypoint takes us to a car and a cut scene which shows out gang get in and drive off.

Mission 2
We are now going out to investigate Naga bases out in the jungle.
Apparently we are to meet our PMC friends, as we stop our car close to our destination, we see their plane get shot down. Some manage to parachute off, we are going to look for survivors.
We arrive at the crash site and are told to be stealthy, we have to move slowly so as to not make noise and also to crouch in long grass.
We are shown how to sneak up on someone from behind and press R3 to stealth kill.
We then find some enemies blocking the way and are shown how to order our two squad members to attack targets.
After killing the enemies I progress on to the crash site.
We now find the Koreans who are under heavy attack from the enemy. I wade in and save the day.
In cut scene the female Korean leader who is named Park is appraised of the seemingly hopeless situation. She doesn't take it well and seems to resent the Nato people.
She does join us though reluctantly.
We now have to take out the anti aircraft gun that shot down the Korean plane.
I enter the village and the game is trying to teach me the controls for ordering around the two teams. It's a little confusing and it all goes to hell. I basically trigger full scale war and to hell with stealth. It works though. I clear the village and place a charge on the anti aircraft gun and take it out. We leave the area and that is the mission done.

Mission 3
A frigate has been spotted in dry dock that will pose a problem for any new ships entering the area. IF we can cripple it in dry dock it will help the situation.
Park, the Korean woman is a stealth specialist, she is sent in to do the job. Our hero and her have a bit of a chat about her lack of respect for authority before the mission. She thinks Gorman sent her team into a meat grinder and therefore that is why she was so rude to him.
This is a night mission, we are to get in and out in a stealthy manner.
We have a stealth meter which shows how visible we are. Sticking to the shadows and cover is the way to go.
I can shoot people but I have to hide the bodies.
I can throw shell casings to distract people over towards a direction.
I can scale certain crates.
I now come to the ship and have to sneak past many sentries and patrols to get to the pump station. Here I sabotage it and now have to get out again. We go under the dry dock and run around corridors here being guided by the hero who is watching using UAV's.
Now we have to climb onto the top of the cargo containers.
Over the containers and then some more sneaking to the exit.

Mission 3
The sabotage will delay the launch of the frigate, however it won't prevent it entirely. We now have to go in with more men and disable it.
I can take it slow and tactical or go in all guns blazing, it soon descends into madness anyway.
I approach the gates, get inside killing all resistance and move through the dock area towards the frigate. Snipers attack here, usual red lines show their location.
As we approach the ship all tactics  goes out the window as we have the ships gun firing at us. I have to run under it's firing range straight into a load of enemies.
Once the enemies are cleared around the ship I board it and plant two charges on the weapons systems.
Now we plant a beacon for the bomber. Now we leave, some more resistance on the way out.
The plane comes in and blows up the frigate.

Mission 4
Oracle tells us of a Naga supply line, which we should obviously do something about.
We come to the road and kill a few guards. Then we set up an ambush. The a.i. do it all for me, setting up claymores and getting into good positions.
I am told to go up on a bridge and wait. The convoy comes and the ambush is very effective.
We now progress along the road fighting, snipers attack as well.
I approach the base and find a large influx of tanks coming off ships, helicopters etc. This isn't some provincial pirate, he is being supplied by a government.
We have to use the air strike to destroy four vehicle groups and then hack a computer to get intel.
Then we leave.

Mission 5 Fluid Dynamic
Intel taken from the computer shows that Lazard, the leader of the coup is holed up in a specific location. However, it is well defended. The quickest way to cause chaos and ruin the bad guys day is to blow a dam that overlooks his hideout. Oracle advises that this will ruin the area for years to come and cause lots of civilian unrest.
The commander does not agree.
On the way there Lazard calls our hero. He seems to know him, presumably from an old game.
They talk about previous blood being spilled and our heroes previous failures.
Lazard wants to ruin commerce transport in the strait and hold the global economy to ransom.
Our commander doesn't think he should be let get away with that.
We enter the area and meet heavy resistance. Two vehicles drive in, though they handily park near exploding barrels.
Inside the dam building, are lots of soldiers, I kill them all and hit the switch. However, there is an emergency close switch somewhere else that we will need to control.
This is a long defend the position objective. Lots of soldiers, snipers and a helicopter attacks.
A cut scene shows the devastation the flood causes.

Mission 6
We are chasing Razard into the slums.
Cut scene shows 45 and another grunt chatting about the commander. The backstory about the last game is explained quickly.
This is another stealth mission where we are controlling 45.
A scripted a.i. officer walks around talking to men and making sure the guards are doing their job. We have to follow him around and take out the odd soldier who is in the way.
After a while of this we are to take out rooftop snipers.
Then sneak in and place a tracker on Razard's car.
We then sneak out of the area.

Mission 7 Means to an end.
The tracker has worked and we now know where Razard is. We are now going to go and get him.
Reviving your team mates when they go down is very hard to do, because it's broken.
Now we move through the slums we just sneaked through with Forty-five all guns blazing killing everyone.
We get to a new area and an armoured vehicle shows up.
There is a handy rocket launcher nearby of course.
Then we move into the target building.
Up inside it and we find Razard in cut scene.
He offers the commander a million dollars to walk away, of course our stand up hero does not accept the bribe. Razard is asked for the name of who is financing his coup. It appears to be Clawhammer, the PMC that Forty-five works for.
Razard is shot by a sniper.
We now have to escape.
Which is against a time limit and the previous areas are now filled with soldiers.
I get to the Extraction point but it's quite hard.

Mission 8
Clawhammer have turned on the Naga forces and are now openly taking charge.
Nato forces are under attack and we are to assist.
We find them under heavy attack.
Eventually we meet two survivors and they joins us as we fight through the slums.
A helicopter attacks.
Shit this helicopter is hard to kill, eventually it's a matter of learning it's pattern.
After it's down a cut scene shows the commander and Forty-five arguing about why they need to personally finish the war single handedly.
The commander has no answer other than it's a game duh, who else is going to do it.

Mission 9
We are now sending Forty-five to attack a Clawhammer fortification.
We sneak in at night and find Gorman, the original commander is the leader of Clawhammer.
Forty-five wants to shoot him right there and then, but the commander makes her think about it. We have to place a tracker on his helicopter.
I sneak in after lots of false starts and plant the beacon.
Then have to sneak back out again.

Mission 10 Turning point
We have to get into a base and hack the friend or foe identification on Clahammer ships.
I progress through two bunkers and then have to defend while the missiles are hacked.
Then I have to shoot at a ship in the distance with the missiles.
Now another bunker to attack.
Same deal, defend Chung and shoot the frigate. It tried to blow you up with Missiles this time though.
Then run for extraction point.

Mission 11
We are now going after Gorman.
As 45 we are gaining intelligence on the base and seeing what is happening.
I have to sneak past soldiers into the base.
Gorman intends to launch missiles at a tanker, then he is leaving, as if his forces were never there.
We have to take out three sentries with a sniper single shot. Then get in and upload some plans from a computer.
Now we have to plant charges on three thanks.
Which is hard work, we then escape and blow up the tanks.

Mission 12
The straight would be closed for a year if the tanker is blown in the straight.
The economic implications for oil prices would be huge.
Clawhammer's companies would probably be the ones paid to clean up.
Gorman's missile must be stopped.
We use a jeep to get as close as we can to the base in daylight and attack.
Then we work our way along a road through ruins that are heavily guarded.
Finally we get to the launcher.
We have to stop the enemy from launching it.
After a long siege the gang are sent to get a helicopter and we go to disarm the missile.
Gorman attacks while we do and he is stabbed by a pen, however he shoots us a few times for good measure.
we disarm the missile and Gorman runs.
45 finds us dying and we tell her to go and get Gorman.
Though he tells her not to kill him, then dies.

Mission 13
45 is now in the city again, chasing down Gorman.
Lots of fun in the streets, just corridor shooting our way towards Gorman.
Then up through a multi story car park.
Now we have to use air support to take out five convoy trucks from the roof. There is heavy sniper and soldier fire to deal with apart form the heavy artillery form the vehicles.
After we destroy the convoy lots of soldiers attack.
We then go into the train station to face down Gorman. He is wounded and dragging a case full of money.
I don't shoot, I presume the cross hair that appears is a chance to kill him or be merciful.

Credits Roll

8 hours of game time give or take.
40% of trophies on first play through.

Vanquish Notes

I choose normal difficulty. There is a casual auto mode, wonder what that is?

We see our character called Sam being put into the suit.
Elena and Prof Candide are talking through video call into the suit helmet hud.
We have to calibrate our movement, some tutorial stuff.

Controls
Normal left and right analogue sticks for movement and camera. Third Person view.
We Can go into cover by pressing X, X also jumps over cover when in it and pushing towards the object.
Left trigger is aim
Right trigger is shoot
Y is grenade
B is melee.
hold right bumper to pick weapons.
dpad changes between the four weapons you can carry.

The suit can slide on it's knees and go into a bullet time like mode.

Cut scene shows the world, a city, peaceful  and sunny, looks Like San Francisco.
A machine appears to be powerful up in space.
Looks like an attack is coming.
Looks like some kind of microwave gun, which blows up the city and fries the people.

A video sent to the president shows a Russian leader telling us that there is to be surrender, he is in control of this weapon and will use it on New York next.
The President won't surrender and it's war.
We see spaceships heading for the enemy
A Commander gives a pep talk.
We see Sam and a woman Called Ivanova discussing the professor who built the microwave weapon. Seems he is unhappy about it's current use.
The commander talks to Sam and tests his reflexes.

Act 1 Mission 1
We get control.
We move along a corridor, the ship is being hit and there are breaches in the hull.
A cut scene shows the ships approaching the Russian ships, there is a lot of damage and the ship only just makes it.
There is heavy resistance inside the ship, we are seen getting into a ship and flying down to land inside the enemy ship.
We find our way blocked by gun emplacements. I am to flank them and kill the robots using the guns. There are two large walker type robots.
I can take control of these if I shoot the operators.
I can heal downed team mates.
The commander's name is Burns.

Act 1 Mission 2
We now fight into a large open area with a balcony. There are lots of enemies in the square with us and lots up on the balcony.
I clear them, and some more a teleported in. We then get some more waves coming in through a gate and a larger humanoid enemy is with them.

Act 1 Mission 3
Some transports come in and let lots of robots loose now that we are up on the balcony. I use their emplaced guns against them.
A huge robot boss arrive. I have to shoot it's legs, which exposes it's core.
Then it transforms and I have to shoot arms and legs and it's core after each limb.
The boss has many attacks, all devastating.
One hit kills are not uncommon.
This is old school masochism at it's worst.

Act 1 Mission 4
We go through a door, there is some chat about a teleporter that isn't fit for human use.
Guess we will be using that later then?
We are going to be meeting up with friendlies.
I fight through an open area with lots of enemies.
There is a bigger robot but not a boss, just a tank type.
I come to an area where three men are being held captive.
I go to rescue them against advice from Burns.
This is basically going to three points and pressing a button.
Then a  door opens and more enemies arrive.
A dropship gives me trouble.
Now we go through the door.

Act mission 5
We proceed through some fairly squared off areas fighting, it's fun and all.
Then we have to get up on a bridge and protect some soldiers who are being overrun. We have emplaced guns to help.
A man is trapped and again Burns wants to close the gate on him and we intervene.
A mini boss and lots of enemies to kill then we see a cut scene of us saving the man.
Burns gives a grudging nod of approval.
Weird to see characters smoking
Burns takes high ground here and we have to take another route.
I progress through a trench and burns is above taking out those shooting us from above.
We come to a large open area and a tank boss appears.
A big tank with blades on the front and a gun. It has many red bits to shoot and eventually dies.
Not half as much of a pain in the ass as the last boss though.

Act 1 Mission 6
We have to blow up a barrier.
We meet up with a friendly vehicle, which we now have to escort.
Some robot spiders and large octopus type enemies advance on it and  we have to stop them.
We come to a gate which we have to plant two charges on.
Then more spiders and squids before a cut scene shows us bursting out of the tunnel onto the surface again.
some crude jokes about ass insertion here?!?!

Act 1 mission 7
We drive up a hill to a large open area with the vehicle following.
A lot of enemies are dug in here at some large doors.
I start shooting, then a large drill type thing appears out of the ground and takes out the vehicle. Lots of enemies and a large humanoid boss appears. It's got all the big attacks and is very mobile. Sliding around on the ground like you can do.
Shooting it in the two red spots on it's back and chest seem to be the way to go.

Act 1 Mission 8
We go up in a lift and reach another large open area with lots of boxy cover littering the area. In cut scene a professor can be seen, we are to capture him.
I fight a mini boss here again and then a cut scene kicks in.
The professor sees Sam and is herded away by robot guards.
The leader of the enemy forces appears. He is wearing a similar suit to Sam, only his one has a flying jetpack. His name  is Victor
He attacks for some stylish cut scene fighting then we are into a boss battle with him.
He flies around like a hyperactive flea, though as usual with fights with the same boss that will recur over and over in a game we aren't seeing his full power here. I take him down first time, though when his energy gets low he comes in for some button stabbing quicktime.
Then he decides that this round is over and leaves with the professor.

Act 2 Mission 1
we are heading for a freight transport. More standard fight box fighting.
We are now fighting on a freight conveyor system.
Two moving large belts, there are doors that have laser fields that kill you instantly.
Lots of robots in the middle to shoot and your cover needs to adapt to the moving rails which exposes you all the time.
We then go up a set of stairs and have two mini bosses at once.
We then get on the train.

Act 2 mission 2
This is an on rails vehicle section, we have a fairly long train deck to stand on. Enemies fly in from above and try and land troops onto the deck of the train.
There are also flying robots to take out.
Another train comes on a nearby track. This track twists and turns around us and we have to take out all the robots on it in a time limit. They have rigged it to crash into our train. Ivanova can hack it if there are no robots left on it.
This was quite a fun section, the view around you of the inside of the orbital is mind bending as your train runs inside the cylindrical inner walls.
The train eventually is derailed and we are ambushed by chasing forces.
I have to take out the incoming forces. After a few waves a cut scene starts.
Sam jumps onto an enemy flyer and uses it to take out some of the incoming ones.
The train crashes through the structure it crashed into and Burns and some of the other soldiers go down with it. Sam tries to go after them but it looks like they die in a big explosion.
Sam is being chased by flyers and loses them in a tunnel.
We are now using the flyer, all we have to do is aim and the flyers guns shoot where we aim.
Linked into the suit systems.
I shoot at a train filled with robots and then one of the big argus bosses shoots the flyer down.

Act 2 Mission 3
Sam survives the crash of course and we are now to heading to the airport??
Maybe we are chasing the professor?
Maybe after the Victor guy, not sure if the game knows why we are going there either.
Some rolling ball robots appear, they rush up as spheres then sprout legs and guns. melee attacking them kicks them into orbit.
I proceed down narrow corridors, the argus boss can be seen outside in the distance.
Ok, now there are two of the giant bosses.
In cut scene Burns arrives back, you know when you want to make an impact when a character you think is dead turns back up, maybe at least five minutes should be given without them.
It isn't as bad as I was fearing. While before you had to kill the first form then the second, this time you just have both forms at once. So it's the same length of battle.
It's just that there is more fire going on. They don't both concentrate on you though unless you fire upon them. So they can be taken one at a time.
Oh and miracle of miracles there is a checkpoint once you kill one of them.
It still has that one shot kill weapons though.
I kill it then we pick up signals from another team. the gang decide to go and see if they need help and to find out what intelligence they have.

Act 2 mission 4
We are now trying to take a hill, on which a jamming system is making life hard for the rest of the soldiers. If we can take out the jammer the navigation systems will work. This will make co-ordination of attacks possible.
We storm a large tank type troop vehicle, and then out over the top of it to a container yard.
Then up the hill, into another container.
Our way is blocked by a gate which we have to blow up.
I fight to the gate and in cut scene we see it getting blown up and the men running through.

Act 2 Mission 5
We run along a small bridge getting attacked by enemies from above.
Then we come to the hill bit again. There is another argus at the top.
And there is some kind of bombardment going on as large chunks of the building behind are falling down the hill.
I go up the hill slowly, cover to cover and it's great fun.
We have to go through a door at the side and in cut scene Sam rides a flyer into getting chased by a load of missiles then flies it down right on top of the argus destroying it.
Of course he survives.

Act 2 Mission 6
Now we come to a heavily fortified defensive position.
Lots of robots then three of the mini-boss romanov's.
A new boss appears, like a tiger with long lashing tail.
We then progress to the final bit here, the jammer and cannons themselves.
We have to shoot two  cannons at either side.
There is heavy mini-boss activity stopping us.
Basically we have to take out a large eye that shoots at us while avoiding or killing waves of mini-bosses.
The jammer is broken and we can now use troop transports to get around.

Act 3 Mission 1
The bad guy victor Zaitsev taunts the president in  a private video call.
We are flying in a transport and land in a new area. Why? No idea. We are linking up with someone else, hey ho.
We fight our way down a long set of plaza like steps. This looks like an entertainment area of the orbital.
Some new blue fast moving tougher robots. Then some drill armed romanov's.

Act 3 Mission 2
We come to an area where a draw bridge is blocking the way. We ask a flying transport to land on the other side and manually bring the bridge down for us.
Enemies attack from the other side of the bridge where the controls are. Once they are gone the ship lands and puts down the bridge.
We are then attacked by two drill transports full of enemies and the tank with cogs from before.
we then proceed through a door to some elevators. A huge laser is seen outside taking out skyscrapers.
We come to a road, a short fight and then a cut scene.
The enemy have actually brought a ship. inside the orbital!
It shoots nearby and blows up half the road ahead.

Act 3 mission 3
we are now moving down the devastated road.
Which  promptly starts to collapse. we have to run headlong through enemy positions. Everything is exploding and the ground is pitching and yawing like mad.
It's quite fun, if short.

Act 3 Mission 4
Burns wants to use air travel to get to wherever the hell it is we are going.
Ivanova thinks it's too risky and the battleship will take them out. Sam agrees and he wants to use a monorail nearby.
This is a weird little mission, we have to ride the monorail car, in a darkened area.
Searchlights have to be taken out with the sniper rifle.
A flyer comes over and has to be shot down, this triggers a rocket attack and we have to take out the lights quickly or be killed in the monorail explosion.
We enter a station and there is a barricade. Sam has to get out and place two bombs on the barricade and get back into the monorail.
Then outside in the light again we see the large cruiser overhead.
We are attacked by a small flying enemy ship.

Act 3 Mission 5
The destroyer which we find out is named the Creon comes in for a landing.
It's funny when people use names in stories that are also real world things. Creon to me is a brand name for a food supplement for people who have had their pancreas taken out.
We are now advancing along a large road. The Creon has landed and transformed into a huge gun.
We have to protect our railgun tanks so they can get close.
There are loads of the saw tanks, thankfully there are some emplaced guns which make quick work of them.
Now we have to shoot up into the leg of the Kreon tank to stop it marching forward.
In cut scene a railgun tank shoots a hole in the side of the Kreon.
Now we have to run across some bridges to the place under the hole in the Kreon.
Heavy resistance on the bridge and the Kreon opens places in it's side which reveal balconies filled with robots.

Act 3 Mission 6
Inside the kreon we go using grappling hooks in cut scene.
A little ride on a cargo transporter introduces us to a new boss.
This thing is like a mangle of metal parts. It changes shape constantly and has a few attacks.
It has lasers, can instant kill you by grabbing and smearing you, or fire machine guns at you.
It needs to be hit enough to expose it's red ball core that is usually hidden amongst the parts.
The core has a health bar, when worn down it's dead.
In the next area the blue faster robots that can fly teleport in.
Now we come to a core area, giant rings fill with energy in timed intervals and we have to make our way through without being blasted to bits.
Robots run interference. we also get back onto a cargo container on rails.

Act 3 Mission 7
We now have reached the critical systems of the Kreon that can be destroyed by one man. A conduit must be blown that will cause a chain reaction.
This is a climb up the side of the Kreon, using platforms, elevators and pulley type switch system.
Lots of robots to kill and another unknown boss.
I reach the summit and the conduit we have to blow up. Only it looks like we will be killed with it when it blows.
Burns will come and pick us up, hopefully.
I break the conduit with some button mashing and Burns saves us in suitably heroic and action movie style.

Act 4 mission 1
Now we are going somewhere else, lost the ability to care about the nonsensical plot.
It's a wooded area now.
We are heading for a dam.
Lots of enemies and two romanovs to fight.
Then a heavily defended gate.
Inside we have to wait for an elevator and are ambushed.
New flying transforming enemies arrive.
A cut scene shows the top of a bridge we need to get across.

Act 4 Mission 2
A new boss named a buzzard appears. crab like bird like transformer. Usual attack types.
Shoot the red bits as usual.
I go across the bridge and into a room, where a gate is opened, then down some stairs on the outside of a building.
Then another argus attacks with some small robots in tow.
We move on through similar stairs and then meet two of the whiptail bosses. Both together are quite hard. Their whip attack is a one hit kill.
Then two Romanovs and a tank.

Act 4 Mission 4
There is some trouble ahead, the enemy have hit a factory and it's melting itself.
looks like we are going to be passing through anyway.
We come through the factory and meet a new enemy, a crystal man shaped robot with a sword, he is a bit like the silver surfer.
He isn't that hard to kill.
Though his death causes a problem, he explodes and a nearby large structure goes up with him. This causes a chain reaction that breaches the outer hull of the colony.
The air starts escaping, pulling large ships down out of the air.
The gang use some escape pod devices to go into the under structure of the colony.

Act 4 Mission 5
We are now in a cylinder, gravity is not present here, though our boots stick us to the floor.
We navigate the circumference of the cylinder shooting up enemies.
Then another unknown, mangle beast.

Act 5 Mission 1
There is debate about letting the soldiers outside have time to get to shelter or closing the doors that will prevent the colony depressurizing and being entirely destroyed.
Burns closes the doors and Sam argues as they watch the men die.
Sam goes back up and Burns stays in the control room.
He speaks with the President and it appears that the attack on san Francisco was not orchestrated by the Russians after all, or at least Zaitsev and the President planned it for a reason.
We are heading to the colony core now, for as yet unexplained reason.
I have a buzzard and a romanov with some normal robots.
Then we have some large laser cannons to destroy.
Once the charges are places a mass of enemies come from the rear and we have to fight them of and then proceed.
Elena is being jammed it seems, she can't provide any support for much longer.
I enter a room and there is a silver surfer to deal with.

Act 5 Mission 2
Elena is cut off. Burns calls and asks where we are. He tells Sam that he is in trouble. Sam sends the remaining marines back to help him and goes on alone.
In the control room Sam finds Professor Candide, he seems to think Sam is a bad guy. He obviously knows the president is up to no good.
Burns appears and shoots Candide, he tells Sam that they are going to use the Microwave weapon to hit Moscow. It appears that The president also ordered the attack on  San Francisco.
Burns attacks, Sam kills the remaining marines in cut scene and then we into a boss battle with Burns.
Burns isn't interested in fighting Sam, he wants to get to the manual controls for the targeting of the weapon. He gets on a train and Sam gives chase.
We chase him to the control room and while he has a lot of  health he isn't that hard to take down.
In another bemusing turn of events Burns appears to have a change of heart after being beaten and tells Sam to leave. He appears to be going to blow up the microwave weapon and himself. Sam Runs and the marines coming behind who seem loyal to the President shoot at Sam and level their guns at Burns. Burns is blown up. Sam moves on.

Act 5 Mission 3
Moving towards the core of the colony Sam is attacked by Zeitsev, and another wearing a similar suit to him.
They claim that President Winters wants to create a stable world government and war is her way of doing it.
There is more chat, but the smoking and the nonsense story are really to badly done to make any sense.
We fight the two bosses, simple as that.
They turn out to be slave units. Zaitsev also has them rigged to blow.
We escape in an escape pod.

The colony is blown up and Elena thinks Sam is gone with it.
Only two seconds later he appears.
He gives Elena a hug as the shockwave of the explosion hits their ship.
Zaitsev does not seem bothered that things seem to have gone Wrong.
Winters shoots herself.

Credits roll, and it's a  mini space harrier style game.
God hard difficulty is unlocked.

340 Achievement points.
Total time played around 11hrs