Mastering being 47

     I've been getting back into the 2016 Hitman game. It's reignited my love of the series. I'm more of a cloak-and-dagger gamer. That is to say I have a love-hate relationship with combat, and mostly prefer subtlety and assassination.
     The "Hitman" series plays well into this style of gaming. Each mission is basically a puzzle. For instance, you have to kill someone who is somewhere in a compound. They are often surrounded by guards and/or alarms. Often, they best way is to make the assassination look like an accident, if you can't snipe them or get them alone with a headshot with a silenced pistol.

     So far, I've been replaying the Paris mission, "Showstopper", and the Italian one, "World of Tomorrow".
     In "Showstopper," a power couple, Dalia Margolis and Viktor Novikov, are major players in the fashion industry. However, the fashion industry is a front for their activities for an espionage group called IAGO. The best way I figured out is to start off disguised as a member of the tech crew for the fashion show; you grab the remote control for the fireworks; then you sneak into the maintenance shed to grab the silenced sniper rifle that you arranged to have smuggled in; after which, you climb the barge and set off the fireworks, causing your targets to come outside; then POP... POP.
     In "World of Tomorrow", I found out that it's best to assassinate the male scientist first, then the female scientist, then grab the keycard from the female scientist to make your way to the underground lab to destroy the virus they were working on.

     Now, I'm working on my mastery of the mission in Marrakesh, Morocco. I guess I'll have a drink and start that one again. Good night, fellow gamers.

New generation of console.

     It's late to say, but tax season has passed, and I finally got a PS4! Here's a brief overview of the games I have for it.

     I got the latest Hitman. They call it "Hitman: Season One". Hopefully, it means that there will be a next season. I've gone through it once, and I'm pretty happy with it. They got back to the basics of "Here's your target, have at it, 47." Whenever you complete a mission, you unlock different things which would allow you to complete it again, but with different disguises and/or weapons, and at different starting points. This system creates a greater replayability aspect. And the graphics are just great! Crisp, clear, and gorgeous.

     At the same time as getting Hitman, I got another game that I had been waiting for a long time to play. "No Man's Sky." You start off crashed on a randomly generated planet, then you gather resources to repair your ship, then you gather fuel to get off the planet, then you gather fuel to warp to the next star system. It goes on and on like that.
     While many have decried this gather-travel-gather-travel aspect as the downfall of the game. I find it to be what fuels the game. What makes the game rewarding is the fact that the game is running on an algorithm; every star, planet, and ship you encounter is randomly generated by a programmed matrix, creating the possibility of quintillions of worlds to discover. And it's relaxing to play.

     So, I got the fourth installment of the Saints Row series. I'll be honest, III was better. IV just got a bit ridiculous and over the top, which is saying a lot for a series that is designed to be a ridiculous and over the top version of GTA. It was a combination of "The Matrix" trilogy and "They Live". Your character is president of the US, and aliens invade. The remaining humans are kept alive in computer-generated dreamworlds. Basically, the series has jumped the shark with this one.

     I am very happy with the newest installment of Dragon Age, DA: Inquisition. Your character is the leader of a growing group called the Inquisition, which wants to unite various factions to prevent a blight caused by breaches into the Fade, causing demons to leak into the world of Thedas. I love it so far. I can send troops to complete tasks, which help me in the long run. After a while, you can align yourself with either the templars or the mages. I have a saved game ready for when I complete the main storyline with the mages, so I can do it again with the templars.

     About a month ago, I got the remastered version of God of War 3. I still haven't gotten around to playing it yet, but I hope it's as spectacular as God of War 2 was on the PS2. The added fact that it's on a console two generations newer should make even more beautiful. Beautiful and violent.

     In addition to opening my gaming experience to the latest in interactive stories, I found that I have been using my PS3 wrong all along! I should have hooked it up to the TV via an HDMI cord. I finaly did so, and wow! My games and TV experiences are much more crisp and clear! I wish I would have known about this years ago!

     I'm off tomorrow, so I have some adventuring to do tonight.

Elder Scrolls rants and raves.

     I just need to state this fact: Elder Scrolls rules! Now that I've said that, let me expound.

     I've started Oblivion. My character is doing O.K. He's a mage-thief (head of the thieves guild) and he has taken Sheogorath's place as the new Mad God. Sheogorath, BTW, is one of my favorite daedric princes. As of late, I have him exploring the Oblivion Gate just outside of Bravil.

     I have a new character for Skyrim! A mage, actually. And I'm not only surprised that he can survive with just magic, I don't even have him using weapons. Being bedridden for the past week, I've taken the time to make my mage the Archmage the College of Winterhold.

     There has been a lot of talk about an Elder Scrolls VI game. People on a gaming page were asked "Where would you want it to take place?" My answer was Valenwood. think of it: The Elder Scrolls VI: Valenwood.
     It seems that, after the frozen mountains of Skyrim, Valenwood would be a pleasant change. It has lush vegetation and great big city-trees that move. Definitely a great site to see, given the fact that the next TES game would be released on the latest generation of consoles.

     Dozing... Maybe I'll dream about the Shimmering Isles.

SimCity 2013.

     I finally got the newest version of SimCity, which was released in 2013. I've been addicted to it. Though it has some weird, glitchy shit going on with it, it's still the best version of the game so far.
     I like the fact that you can plant buildings, then grow them with additions and achievements. And would-be mayors can choose what they want their cities to specialize in. This could be mining, drilling, tourism, technology, or gambling.
     Like SimCity 4, this newest version allows you to establish multiple cities on a map. However, you aren't able to choose tiles or reshape the land. That would have been great.
     My play style is as follows: One tech city produces processors, then later computers and TVs. Another city is the center of education, which allows research for greater building upgrades. A third city would bring gambling revenue. Other cities would be bedroom communities (where workers live, and from where they commute) and industrial areas (to where residents commute).
     All in all, it's a good game. Sometimes hard to start, but still.

Art imitates art.

     My gaming and writing are feeding off of each other. I got into playing Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. The first character I decided to play is Wilhelm, a cyborg mercenary with body modification addiction.
     Playing as Wilhelm reminded me of a character in one of my stories. He is a partially mechanical second-mate and security enforcer of a pirate ship, who is also succumbing to bod-mod addiction. But I'm careful not to make it seem like I'm plagiarizing. Being that cyborgs are prevalent in science fiction, and people in real life can be addicted to plastic surgery and piercings and tattoos, they're both common character motifs; and it's really about what the writer wants to do with those motifs.
     A neat gaming experience is playing BL2 and BL: TPS, and seeing the back stories of characters that you'll face in the sequel. In one game, I'm playing as Wilhelm as he starts to descend into his bod-mod addiction (via the Cyber Commando skill tree). In the other game, I'm playing another character who goes up against him, and he's more machine than man.
     Playing through True Vault Hunter Mode in BL2 as Zer0 (the assassin), I'm level 48 and taking the side missions area by area. I completed the Captain Scarlett DLC in TVHM, and I'm trying to decide whether or not I'm going to tackle the Caustic Caverns before doing the story mission in the Hyperion Wildlife Preserve.
     Another cool thing I did, related to Borderlands, is that I found wallpapers for my phone. I got five each for the different manufacturing corporations.
     After this episode of the Blacklist, I'm heading back to Pandora.

UPDATE:
     My Zer0 is now a level 49 True Shot. My next series of missions will take me to Thousand Cuts, the place where players meet Brick (a PC from the first game).
     I'm primarily a sniper who uses SMGs when things get up-close and personal, buy I've decided to carry one explosive assault rifle and one RPG, for when desperate times call for desperate measures. I call them my Fuck-It Gun and my Fuck-It Cannon, respectively.

Classics re-incarnated: Megaman.

(Photo credit: Primantis via Deviant Art)

     Often, while scrolling through Facebook, someone will post the question "If you could take a game and remake it with current generation graphics, what would it be?" Seeing as how Super Mario, Legend of Zelda, and Metroid get remade every now and then, and they end up on one company's consoles, my first choice was clear. Megaman.

     As a kid in junior high, I first got into this series, starting with Megaman 2. After that, it was always exciting to see what different robots that would come out on each successive one. But, with 8bit (and eventually 16bit) graphics, there wasn't a lot Capcom could do. In addition, many of the games had glitches (flickering sprites, etc.).

     Each game featured 8 (6 in the original) robots who took over an area of a futuristic city; the robot hero defeats each one, gaining their weapon as a reward for completing each stage. The key to victory was finding which weapon was most effective against each robot stage boss.

     The drawback was the variations on a similar theme. Similar robots took over similar areas, like the mining areas (Jewel Man, Crystal Man, etc.) or the mountains and icy places (Ice Man, Blizzard Man, etc.).

     I have a few ideas for the current generation of consoles. The obvious is there: Instead of the old-school, 2D, side-scrolling fun, take it to the high-definition, 3D world. Start with an overhead view from the back, like GTA. That would show an immediate difference between this and older incarnations.

     Next, stray from just pointing and selecting different stages for each robot-boss, have the protagonist roam through an open-world map to go on side-quests for energy tanks, weapon ammo, upgrades for Megaman's armor, as well as upgrades for the robo-dog, Rush (can't forget him!). The upgrades would be level-dependent, maybe every so often having Dr. Light contact him to tell him what's available at the lab.

     Different areas of the map would lead to stages, like the forest, marina, digsite, construction area, space, etc. Within each themed stage would be sectioned off areas that would lead to the bosses, which could be taken in any order, like going through a multi-tunneled cave that leads to various chambers.

     Instead of having a few bosses with the same weapon (Flash Man and Bright Man both having time-stoppers, for example), have the bosses of a themed area drop the same weapon, but each one has a different optional upgrade to it, which could be added or removed via the menu. But, for each upgrade you use with that weapon consumes more ammo per shot. However, each time you grab one of the themed weapons, it adds to the carrying capacity of that themed weapon's ammo. This way, players can partially complete one stage and use the new weapon to partially complete the next.

     Maybe take a cue from the Megaman X series, and not just adding Zero to the mix. Stray from the original naming formula, which was basically calling each robot ______ Man. They'd look the same, but would be called something more colorful and imaginative. And another thing that the X series did was have certain actions affect the scenery. In fact, maybe certain actions on some stages might even cause other stages and the main map change; not dramatically, but maybe add things.

     I hate to sound vain, but I think this is a good idea. Anyone know how to contact Capcom?

GTA VI?

     On a Facebook page I follow, I saw this. The commentators on the post debated whether it were real or just a rumor. One person even said that they had relatives that work for Rockstar Games, and that they weren't supposed to say anything, but confirmed it.
     The post said that GTA VI is going to take place in Magnolia City (an old nickname for Houston). And this made fans from Houston happy. "That's my hometown!" As an avid gamer, I know that news of sequels are often just rumors.
     If things go O.K., I think I will have a PS4 by this time next year. The main reasons will be because the sequels to my favorite series/franchises, like Borderlands, Hitman, and GTA, are coming out on current-gen consoles only. But, at least they should be cheaper by then.

     Now, about this setting; I have, what I think, is a better idea than just setting it in Magnolia City. If this is on the newest-gen consoles, they need to go big! I think they should keep the maps from IV and V (update them with real-life changes), but also add a few more cities, Magnolia City being one.      The main storyline should have the protagonist(s) traveling among the cities. To achieve this, drive or fly off the edge of the map of the current city. The direction would indicate the destination. From that point, the player would have two options.
     They can travel by ground. This would feature cut scenes that would fast-foward the game timeclock. The cut scenes would be interspersed with traveling by Sandy Shores-sized towns where they could play around in (maybe tiny side-quests). Time would return to normal while in these towns.

     The other option, of course, is to travel by air. On the plus side, there's a random chance to become a hero and stop an air disaster, therefore receiving a monetary reward. Disasters could include the pilot having a heart attack and the player having to take over; crashing or emergency landing would cause the plane to end up in one of the tiny towns; or disaster could be having to subdue a hijacker. But, on the down side, players have to leave their weapons behind and maybe store one pistol.
     The possibilities are endless, and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens.