What Are You Playing This Weekend?

I finally have a weekend where I’m not flying anywhere! Unfortunately (for my gaming needs), I have a pair of videogame-award shows and related parties to attend. *sigh* I really want to have a whole weekend to start Skyrim…perhaps next weekend. For now, I think I’m going to spend Sunday playing Bastion for Chrome OS. It’s a great game and I want to see how it translated to a browser-based world.

How about you? What’s on your weekend playlist?

Author: RPadTV

https://rpad.tv

45 thoughts on “What Are You Playing This Weekend?”

  1. I would like to play Bastion because I've heard good things, but I'm going to wait until it goes on sale on XBL.

    Speaking of which; can anybody recommend From Dust? It's on sale now and I was thinking about buying it, but I don't know anyone who's played it (or who has played it, but can recommend it). I really have no idea what it's about or how it plays.

    As for this weekend, I'm going to try to knock out Catwoman's achievements in Arkham City. I like the way she handles in combat. She's like a slimmer, more agile, sexier version of Batman with less fat and a much nicer ass.

    -M

    1. I only played the demo for From Dust, but it's an RTS where you take the role of God. You're basically responsible erosion, flooding, wind currents, and other natural forces to better smooth the flow of evolution and civilization of your sentient beings.

      It seemed pretty cool, most likely worth $5 or $10.

      Funhouse Brawl Extreme with Catwoman… good f'n luck. I can't survive it. She won't get on top of the titan dudes so you have to take them out while on the ground and avoiding everything else. If you find a trick, let me know.

      1. Oh, yeah. I guess I could check out the demo. Also, I think Big Blak has played it, but who knows where he is nowadays.

        I will see your challenge and raise you a case of Pabst. Seriously, I love fighting with this chick. I'm just better with her now after a period of adjustment. She's faster, less cumbersome, and she doesn't have all of those gadgets to confuse and make me hesitate in battle. Batman just has way too many toys and moves in this game. (I thought he had a lot in AA). The hardest achievement for me to get was that damn Perfect Freeflow Fighter 2.0. I rarely use all of his moves in a fight, let alone in one seamless combo. I must have failed like over 50 times. Catwoman brings back the simplicity, although I do find her predator challenges a bit lacking since Batman's various toys are what got me through most of those maps quickly. Also, grapple gun > whip.

        -M

      2. Yep, yep, faster, more simple, I'm with all of that too.

        The problem is her limitations once it gets hairy. In the story, your fights are cakewalks compared to some of the challenge rooms. Few examples: She has no disarm so the shields and tasers are always in play. The limitation of moves ande gadgets diminishes the variation and gadget bonuses i.e. lower scores.The whip… sucks. Those caltrop things, really hard to make them work and keep the flow. And my biggest gripe is what I've been saying about the titan freaks.

        Her predator rooms, actually pretty fun. It creates a new level of challenge and completely different. It has a cat-burglar feel to it which is awesome.

        Perfect Freeflow… I must have failed 200 times. I have MANY pointers. Hit me up on chat if you want details, but I'll go through the basics:

        The level is crucial. I used the second one (Prison Break? maybe? It's the one I have a ridiculous score on). You aim to hit it on round 3, but you have round 4 as a backup.

        Get the disarm early in the combo. All they have is bats, knives, and a fire extinguisher. Nothing that can't be punched out. The problem you want to avoid is being stuck with that left and nobody is armed. Because if they aren't armed, it counts as a special takedown.

        Most important… knowing the list of moves. I had to memorize them and work out when was the easiest to flow them. The variation bonus needs to hit 12, but I swear it's 13 counting the dodge (A,A) yet it doesn't count it in the bonus. Here are the moves (from memory):

        Strike (X)
        Counter (Y)
        Stun (B)
        Combo Batarang (tap LT)
        Disarm (X+Y)
        Special takedown (Y+B)
        Bat swarm (X+A)
        multi ground takedown (A+B)
        Beatdown Finisher (Stun, XXXXXXX)
        Aerial Attack (Stun, A,A)
        Super Stun (B,B,B)
        Ground Takedown (RT+Y)
        and Dodge (A,A)

        I like to hit the batarang right after the bat swarm, pick a guy away from everyone else to hit the aerial attack on, I like to end with a super stun and then a ground takedown, and for the beatdown, be prepared to counter anyone who interferes. Practice the beatdown/counter thing in those first 2 rounds.

        That's how I did it.

      3. Yeah, thanks for the tip, but I wish you could have told me that sooner as that probably would have helped me. As I mentioned in my previous post, I already got the achievement. Your fighting tip about spamming the bat swarm did help me out on a lot of Batman's challenge rooms and campaigns, so thanks for that. It really does help when you're in the middle of a shit-pile of goons.

        So now, allow me to return the favor: the way to beat Funhouse Brawl Extreme with Catwoman is with the bat-swarm, or rather, cat swarm… er, whip swarm? Whatever, I don't know what it's called; but just spam the f-*k out of A+X. I tried it a bunch of times and I found that there are basically two approaches to round 4- The Brave/Borderline Stupid method, and the Safe Method. Neither are a guaranteed win, mind you, and they are really not an exact science, but the approach is what we are focusing on. The Brave way is building up a combo quickly and then going straight for the one-armed guy. As you are punching him, quickly whip-swarm (A+X) and continue with the fast beat down. Once your combo number flashes yellow again, whip-swarm, rinse, repeat until the guy is down. Since the beat down gets your combo up fast, you should have the whip-swarm ready to go about every two seconds or so. That will keep most of the thugs off you for long enough to finish off the lieutenant. The only X factor to this is the Titans. If they are too far, they will charge you, so you have to keep an eye out for them and dodge out of the way as needed before going back to the beat downs. If they are too close, they will get hit and start blindly swinging, which could hit you easily in a crowd. Again, you have to keep an eye out for them and dodge out of the way when necessary.

        The Safe way is what I used to beat the room, however. It is basically clearing out the room of thugs and then leaving the three big guys for last. The key to this is building up to your freeflow focus and not losing it (unless you absolutely have to). This slows everything down and is a huge advantage. Clear all of the guys out, but don't worry if you have to hit or stun the titans/lieutenant if they get in the way. You'll probably have to, anyway, but just focus on the lesser people until they are all on the ground or possibly one or two left. With them out of the way, you can focus on one big guy at a time. Use the cat-whip (A+X) method and keep dodge jumping to avoid any random hits or charges. Constantly moving/dodging and keeping an eye on the titans is the key. Of course, you'll try to focus on one at a time, but be opportunistic. Focusing on one big guy at a time may not be feasible, so just take your hits where you can get them. Also, you can use your whip in a similar fashion to the REC blaster. There's a way to whip the lieutenant to have him spin around, which hits everyone around him. It's pretty useful.

        I hope this helps you if you ever decide to give Catwoman another chance. She does, after all, have a nice ass. I've got seven more campaign rooms left, and I am so not looking forward to them. I feel handicapped enough in the predator rooms with her compared to Batman. I can't imagine doing those extreme maps with even more handicaps.

        -M

        P.S.- The Top of the World room sucks so much ass!

      1. Damn, I miss Steam. I have it on my work computer, but I don't really have time to play at work anymore (it's been years since I've played the Orange Box on it) and the MacBook I have at home is running dangerously low on resources when I run Boot Camp.

        I really need to get a new PC or something, but right now, it’s either a new PC or a few large boxes of diapers… and the kid craps like all the time now.

        -M

  2. Will try and find 10-12 hours and hopefully beat Skyward Sword. Thinking about buying Epoch on iOS

    1. Can you explain to me that "arrow to the knee" internet meme thing? Is that some kind of Skyrim inside joke or something?

      -M

      1. Every guard says "I used to be an adventurer like yourself but I took an arrow to the knee"

      3. I saw an anti-smoking PSA on one of the local TV channels the other day that started with the line, "I used to be a smoker," and my mind immediately filled in "but then I took an arrow in the knee."

      4. MANY possible songs flood through my head. Rolling Stones, GNR, etc. but my favorite so far is the Monkees/Neil Diamond classic "I'm a Believer":

        -"I used to think that love was just a fairy tale. But then I took, an arrow to the knee"-

        What's funny is that the rest of the song still makes sense and even rhymes.

      6. when i get depressed about my generation, its videos like this (and conversing with you fine people) that give me optimism. There are truly some funny fuckers out there

    2. No because the awards shows are mostly garbage. Just like most reviews of games are garbage these days. Look how many outlets gave Rage perfect glowing scores so as to not piss off Bethesda so they could receive Skyrim early to play it. That is just so damn stupid.

      I feel this way about any awards show…even the Nobel Prize.

      1. I'm a fan of the first 2. I never played Snake Eater and part 4 seems to be more similar to that than the first two games. This is the first time that I have played a MGS and didn't love it immediately.

      2. Even then, if I would have employed your theory of "if it doesn't snag me in an hour"… I wouldn't have finished it either. That game really does start slow. I don't think I got into it until I got a ways past Drebin.

  9. The VGAs suck. I looked at the nominee lists and on the RPG list how come Witcher 2 isn't on there? It's a badass RPG.

    I'm sure it's a foregone conclusion that Skyrim will win that category because of the console fanboys but come on man! I've played both and Witcher 2 is a great game. Skyrim just doesn't do it for me and that's odd since I have over 100 hours in Minecraft.

    Anyway..GoTY should either be Skyward Sword or Portal 2. I wouldn't be upset at Minecraft winning but it's not a nominee.

    1. Aww, I missed it. Did anything interesting happen? I'm curious to know how some of these gaming media sites pick their GOTY with so many awesome games this year.

      -M

      1. You missed horrible teleprompter reading. Kind of appalling to see the marketing team think that particular crap appeals to gamers.

      2. I'll have to find that on YouTube.

        You'd be surprised how many suits can't figure us gamers out simply because they are working with an antiquated stereotype. What they don't realize is that a "gamer" now a days have transcended the young, nerdy, teenage, virgin poster boy and has evolved into such a demographic that saying "gamer" now is actually closer to saying "movie enthusiast."

        The best way to appeal to gamers is actually to be genuine and likable. These are the same reasons that Billy Crystal is the host of the Oscars again and again. In the gaming world, I think people like Cliffy B, Reggie Fils-a-face-up-with-chin-Amie, and Kevin Butler would fill this description nicely. I would even venture out further than the gaming industry and have other popular celebrities that enjoy games do a lot of the presentations… since, you know, they do those kinds of things for a living.

        -M

  10. So irritated by all the “game journalists” that are bitching about the VGAs. That’s like a movie critic bitching about the MTV Movie Awards. It’s so cheap and lazy to bitch about the VGAs. I don’t see these people writing positive articles about the Interactive Achievement Awards or the Game Developers Choice Awards.

    1. I noticed this phenomenon in the music industry when I was about 8 years old.

      The fact is… when it comes to entertainment, the only thing we have to judge is what entertains us individually. In a philosophical sense, Plato's forms are total bullshit. There is no perfection so therefore it really comes down to individual life experiences that influence our tastes.

      Example… Skyrim getting GOTY. It would never be my GOTY since that fantasy of dragons, wizards, and trolls is not something I care to indulge. If you went by sales numbers, Madden would be a front runner every year. If you went by innovation in tech, we;d see alot more mobile contenders and the folks who made Flower would be famous. So the only thing left, is politics and "my opinion is more important than yours"-ism.

      I've expressed my lack of faith in critics in the past, and your comment drives it home further. Even Metacritic is flawed in the fact that it's "popular opinion". Obama won our "popular opinion" or "democratic" election, so why is anybody not happy with him? Herein lies the flaw.

      I was at Gamestop once and there was a mother and teenage son picking out a game as a gift for someone. They were very loud about what they were looking for. They wanted a game that had been out at least 4 months and still had a price of over $30. They settled on Metro 2033… I laughed my ass off. If they would have gifted me with that game, I would have sold it the next day since it's a style of game I've been playing since the late 90's and have since got sick of.

      The real reason people complain about this stuff is because of an over exaggerated sense of self importance. They want to pre-pick all the winners before nominations and show off that they were right. They're mad that that fantasy didn't happen. Someone should make them a game where they can indulge THAT fantasy.

    2. Do those awards shows stream the event? If not then they should do so.

      You know my thoughts based on our twitter convo.

      1. Lots of game journalists are bitching about it. Some are being more reasonable than others. The ones that are whining the loudest are relatively new to the business. It's kind of annoying. The show is far from perfect, but it's getting better. Every year a new batch of whiners bashes the show, but doesn't acknowledge the improvements that have been made since 2003.

      2. I actually enjoyed the show, the host seemed cool, though i didnt know who he was. I got to see Stacey Kiebler, which is always nice. All in all, i enjoyed the show and everyone who appeared on it…except LL Cool J, fuck that guy

      4. OXM had an article today complaining about it.

        I think the VGA's have their place, but I just tune in for the announcements. In fairness, I don't watch the Oscars, MTV Music Awards, Grammy's, Daytime Emmys, or any of those other awards shows because I, as a rule, don't enjoy watching awards shows.

      5. It's funny getting heat from a lot of the younger writers about it. They love to dramatically dog on games and award shows they don't like. They get awfully sensitive when someone bags on their thoughtless rants.

      6. That's the folly of youth, I suppose. Overreaction is kinda the norm. I'm 35, and admittedly I still suffer from the affliction from time to time, though not as much as when I was 22.

        I mean, I get the gripe on some level. But it's no worse than any other awards show out there. You can't go into a network or cable TV production of a video game awards show expecting the same level of care w/ regards to the craft of making games as you would from a dedicated outlet or an industry sponsored event like the IAA's. You're going to get the prescripted "spectacle" that is the VGA's. On some level they should be glad a network with some name recognition outside of the industry is doing a video game award show at all.

      7. You totally get it. I acknowledge that there were parts of the show that were not good, but the VGAs are generally a positive thing for gaming. I particularly love that it helps raise the profiles of great developers. The way some of these people talk about it, you'd think that the VGAs will lead to the end of the world or millions of people dying. The overreactions are amusing.

  11. Since Android Market started having $0.10 downloads I stopped downloading pirated APKs and buying Luke crazy. 16 new apps/games in 3 dayz

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