Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 Stumblethrough #3

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Well, we finished off Mission 1 by providing over-watch for our assault team. That was pretty exciting.

In the next mission, we are still in the Philippines, but now we are on our own (no spotter), so we are free to make some bad decisions... (I told you I would include a death here or there)

Mission 2: Out of Nowhere (Part I)

Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 Stumblethrough #2

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Ok, we've made our way through the first part of Mission 1. Now, I have played through this first part of Mission 1 numerous times thanks to the crappy, console-like, save game functionality and died at various points. I'm sure this game gets a lot more difficult as you go, but for now it is fairly easy. One thing for sure, there are times when you are able to sprint, but when in doubt, crouch. Your spotter will wait for you and you won't accidentally come upon enemies and alert them, at least not as easily. I actually died off camera at a point that you'll see in the first part of this next video (Part II) at the railroad tracks.

By the same token, don't dawdle. If you need a quick breather, pause the game. Wait too long, and you might be discovered by a wandering patrol. Of course, it helps if you are the least bit coordinated as well. I'm not that great at games, but I truly suck at FPS games. Ultimately, I will include some of the deaths I undergo, but without it getting too bogged down. Typically, you'll see the little flip transitions where I've had to back track.

As you'll see in this episode that finishes off the first mission, things start to open up a bit...

Mission 1: Communications Breakdown (Part II)

 

Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 Stumblethrough #1

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I certainly hope that you have been enjoying (or at least tolerating) my TESO: TU Stumblethrough, and I thought that I would offer up a bonus, a break, as it were, from TESO.

True to my nature, I found another shiny to mess with that I would like to share. I literally own dozens of games that I have either barely started or not played at all. Ridiculous, I know, it's my addiction along with my computer gaming ADD, and every time I see a good game on sale (lately through steam or gog), I often get it, even though I don't have time to play it.

So, Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 was released in 2013. Here's the description as provided on their website:

Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 is the only multi-platform, first-person, modern shooter exclusively designed around the sniper experience. It takes the bulls-eye precision of its predecessor to new and exciting heights, offering more diverse sniper challenges; a rebuilt AI system and the thrilling “one shot, one kill” precision that made the original a huge hit, selling 3 million copies worldwide. Taking advantage of the advanced capabilities of the CryENGINE3, Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 also delivers striking graphic environments.

As you will see, the graphics are as spectacular as advertised. I will talk a bit more about the game and what prompted me to try something like this out in my next post, but in the meantime, let's get right into it with...

Mission 1: Communications Breakdown (Part I)

Three months ago Russian mercenaries raided a bio-lab in Siberia and stole canisters of weaponized African hemorrhagic fever.
A Filipino national, Kalalo, wants to buy the bio-weapon and it’s your job to stop him. Your task force needs to infiltrate enemy territory and disable enemy communication lines to aid your efforts in recovering the bio-weapon.

TESO: TU Stumblethrough #7

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Woohoo, we kicked some bony skeleton butt right there. Good times, I don't care who you are.

It's nice to be back out questing in the sunshine as we pursue two more quests on Khenarthi's Roost that have us involved in some of the political intrigue taking place between the Dunmer (Dark Elves), Altmer (High Elves of which Aria is one), and Khajit (Kitty Cats) over who has "ownership" of the Island...

TESO: TU Stumblethrough #6

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Now that we have the history lesson out of the way, we can return to our questing in Khenarthi's Roost. As I mentioned in the video last time, should you wish to learn more about the lore and history of The Elder Scrolls Online, might I suggest you take a look at ShoddyCast's videos here.

So, back at Khenarthi's Roost, we have some serious undead butt to kick as we explore the area in and around the Temple of the Mourning Springs ...

TESO: TU Stumblethrough #5

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We've been traipsing around Khenarthi's Roost, dipping our toes in the Questing scene, killing and looting, and having all kinds of fun. If only we could find a dang staff. We continue to use a two-hander despite the fact that we're really not built for a two-hander, physically or otherwise.

At the start of this episode we are visited by a ghost and our presence is requested immediately for an important trip through recent history...

TESO: TU Stumblethrough #4

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Well, ok, so the last episode was not very exciting. I mean, we made some introductions, took a quick glance at the UI, and then made our way to Khenarthi's Roost, the little starter island off our main Island, Auridon.

In this episode, things get a little more exciting as we begin to explore the southern coast of Khenarthi's Roost...

TESO: TU Stumblethrough #3

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Whew! Wasn't quite sure how we were gonna make it out of Coldharbour, but we did, thanks to Dumbledore, and, we've managed to get to level 3 in the process.

So, we've found ourselves back in the land of the living having been rescued from the sea by 'friendly hands'. We are now in the city of Vulkhel Guard on the Isle of Auridon. We'll get our bearings, do a little UI exploration, then set out to do some questing in the starting island, Khenarthi's Roost.

TESO: TU Stumblethrough #2

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So, we made it out of the prison area of Coldharbour. Now, swinging that HUGE two handed sword (which we are NOT built for), we encounter some actual combat whilst we make our way to rescue Professor Dumbledore, er, I mean, 'The Prophet'. Will we ever make it back to the land of the living???

Episode 2

TESO: TU Stumblethrough #1

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Yes, I'm changing it up again. Insufficient time to write a blog, so I'm going to switch to Game Play videos for a bit and I will get back to Space Engineers. Yeah. Sometime.

First up: The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited (V2.0). This game has gone "Buy-to-Play" so, once you've purchased the game, there are no subscription fees (although that option is available). I'll be creating short posts with embedded videos, but you can also simply subscribe to the Playlist.

I'm calling these "Stumble-throughs", as they are not meant as tutorials nor as demonstrative play-throughs. You will have to look elsewhere for those. These videos will be me, stumbling through the game in my own casual, amiable, way. I am not an expert in any of these, and, as I will be encountering the content for the first time, there will certainly be noobishness, and perhaps even death involved (gasp). But hopefully you won't die of boredom. I will be making light commentary as I go, and occasionally some explanations of UI, crafting, combat, and whatever other game mechanics I feel like talking about at the time. This will NOT include every second of my game play. I will be focused on questing for the most part with some occasional crafting included for interest. Bank visits, inventory management, lengthy travel, etc. will be either missing entirely or compressed (if I can figure out how to do that). Segments will be between about 15 and 30 minutes in length.

So, without further adieu, let's stumble through the first part of the tutorial area...

Episode 1

Space Engineers #3 - Lift Off!

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All right, time to get crackin'. Remember that 'New World' button? Let's mash it!

Crap. More options. No worries, this will just take a sec...

Quickstart puts you into the 'Easy Start 1' scenario (more on this in a moment), but in 'Creative' mode (as opposed to 'Survival' mode). What's the difference? Well, similar to Minecraft's Creative mode, in this game you will get infinite supplies, instant build times and no death and that is why you will never pick it.

Select 'Custom World' and you can do whatever you want with the World settings (including all of those from Quickstart if you really want to).

Now, in the interest of getting into the bloody game, I will postpone the explanation of the Scenarios and World Options until next time. Suffice it to say for now, a great place to start is with the 'Easy Start 1' scenario with the default settings shown...

and Advanced settings changed thusly...

finally, we rename the world and give it a description...

Mash the 'OK' button, and whoila! You are somewhere out in the asteroid field on your own little outpost consisting of a mining platform, 3 small ships, and one large ship!



Press 'v' to move the view into 3rd person perspective...

hold the 'Alt' key down to move your camera around for a selfie...

then use the mouse wheel to zoom out, and...

get an overview of the whole operation. Sweet!

So, before we go, let's take a little spin around the platform and check out some basic controls...

 

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#8 - Tomb Raider 2013, Episode 5 "Woman versus Wild"

No, this is not a video of "Lara Gone Wild", like on spring break, but rather, Lara is finally about to branch out (see what I did there?) and start working on her own, starting with finding some food, which means killing game, which means finding something to kill with...

Episode 5 "Woman vs Wild"

#7 - Tomb Raider 2013, Episode 4 "Signs of Survivors"

So, Lara has spent an exciting time navigating the underground passages of the "Scavenger's Den", attempting to avoid crushing boulders (whoops), jumping across gaps, and scrambling up an ascending path with boulders rolling down it. Having narrowly escaped death (well, a second death anyway), and concluding the introduction to the game (marked by the big "TOMB RAIDER" words that suddenly appear in the sky) Lara gets a moment to catch her breath. Wow, that last segment was exciting wasn't it? It certainly got my blood pumping. Hmmm, yes, well just wait. Plenty more where that came from, in...

Episode 4 "Signs of Survivors"

 

#6 - Tomb Raider 2013, Episode 3 "Force of Will"

In episode 2 (a rather short episode), Lara has escaped from her cocoon, and made her way along a passage, obtaining and lighting a torch along the way. She is about to face her first real puzzle in order to continue on her way and hopefully, out of the underground maze of passages. She is able to figure it out without too much backtracking.

In future episodes, I will try to keep death related re-loads to a minimum as I will some of the more boring or repetitive parts of a quest.

Tomb Raider Playthrough - E03 "Force of Will"

 

#5 - Tomb Raider 2013, Episode 2 "Scavenger's Den"

Okay, so whether you knew it or not, you didn't see any actual gameplay in Episode 1. Hah! Well, ok, maybe the last few seconds where she's hanging upside down but even then I hadn't pressed any keys. Now, on to episode 2 where I have to actually press some keys when prompted.

By the way, these episodes roughly correspond to the "quests" in the game to start with. I may split up future quests into multiple episodes if they get too long. It will also remain to be seen whether I record through the entire game, but that will be mostly determined by 1) you the viewer, and 2)... SQUIRREL!

You will note in Episode 2 some minor enhancements to the video (transitions and fade out). Still don't have voiceover, although honestly, I'm not sure my comments will add that much. Maybe let me know what your thoughts on the matter are. We'll see. Oh, one more thing... Spoiler Alert!!! If you plan on playing this game, you may not want to watch too many of these episodes as they provide a walkthrough of the game. On the other hand, if you're not, the experience will allow you to play "vicariously".

In the first episode, we saw Lara leave port for some grand adventure on the ship "Endurance" (hah). Little does she know what the adventure has in store for her. In the "Dragon's Triangle", the ship hits a sudden storm and an Island, breaks apart and sinks. So does Lara, as she gets separated from the rest of the surviving crew. She is knocked out (by "someone"), and we left Lara hanging upside down in the "Scavenger's Den". Let's see how Lara get's out of her cocoon in...

Tomb Raider Playthrough - E02 "Scavenger's Den"

 

#4 - Tomb Raider 2013, Episode 1 "Intro"

Tomb Raider. The iconic Lara Croft. What video gamer hasn't heard of her and the game series.

I've played a couple of the first Tomb Raider games, and they were quite a bit of fun despite the blocky graphics (which all the games of the day had anyway), and the prevelent bugs. The game has certaily evevolved over the years as has Lara Croft herself.

The newest Tomb Raider takes Lara back to the beginning, before she was the fearless, experienced (and underdressed) adventurer that she is now (or then, errr, whenever).

So I was curious and excited when I heard about the new TR game coming out, along with its new storyline. Kind of a 'Lara Begins' kind of theme. Surely the new graphics couldn't hurt either ;).

Now, I'm going to do something a little different with these Tomb Raider posts. I'm going to be including video. Whoa, you say. Yes. Not only that, but these are videos that I've made myself! Crap, you say. Well, hopefully not. These videos will consist of actual gameplay footage whilst I am playing through the game. The first few videos won't have voiceover (which you may actually appreciate) as I am brand new to the tools and techniques of this process. Speaking of which, the first (4 1/2 minute) video took me numerous hours and about a dozen and a half 'takes' before I was able to produce what you are about to see. Now, I know that there are hundreds of other people doing the same thing on Youtube, but hey, they mostly have moronic and/or swear laden commentaries and besides, I just wanted to have a go myself.

Let me set the scene as told by the game developers...

"At the beginning of the story, we experience [21 year old] Lara embarking on her first job after graduating from University. She shows fear in the face of danger, initially lacking confidence in her own abilities and judgment. Still, we can see the seeds of what Lara will eventually become. She possesses a powerful sense of moral courage. She is clever, resourceful and determined."

And from the Strategy Guide...

“Lara sets out on her first adventure to find the lost kingdom of Yamatai aboard the research vessel, Endurance. Inside the dangerous area of sea known as the Dragon’s Triangle, a freak storm grips the ship and the crew ends up on a mysterious island. Beset by the harsh environment and hidden dangers, even if she manages to uncover the island’s dark history and escape its relentless hold, Lara will never be the same.” 

Excerpt From: Games, Brady. “Tomb Raider Signature Series Guide.” v1.0. DK Publishing, 2013. iBooks.This material may be protected by copyright.Check out this book on the iBookstore: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/tomb-raider-signature-series/id609781799?mt=11

So, without further ado...

Tomb Raider Playthrough - E01 "Intro"