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Have You Hit a Gaming Wall?
Stephen Totilo, at MTV Games, has hit a gaming wall. At the newly un-flashed Multiplayer site he talks about the bane of gamers everywhere, what developer Jamie Fristrom calls a 'shelf-level event': a gaming wall that makes it hard if not impossible to complete a game. While a lot of gamers can overcome difficulties to reach the end credits, there are some frustrations that can suck all the fun out of play. He cites the bosses from Final Fantasy X and Super Paper Mario as dealbreakers. I personally am playing through God of War again, and the incredibly frustrating spear trap in the 'Paths of Madness' section of the game never fails to provoke hysterics. Have you run into any such obstacles lately? What game obstacles have caused you toss away a controller in frustration and swear off a game entirely?
Find all secret areas in some levels to gain a tarot card.
"No matter where you go, there you are." -- Buckaroo Banzai
Gears of War has a "Load Last Checkpoint" option in the menu. Try that to reset yourself to before the bug.
Grim Reaper? That's nothing. Here's how you do it:
1. You need the cross (boomerang). Lucky for you, it is available on the way to the reaper, even if you die and restart.
2. You need to build up hearts, at least 40-50 of them. On the top of the staircase that leads to the hall full of axe knights, there is a large heart in the candle directly above the stairs. Grab the (5) hearts, go down the stairs and come back up and repeat.
3. You need triple-shot crosses. You can get this by killing the axe knights with crosses, then afterwards hitting candles with the cross. The candle should drop double, and later triple shots. IF you fail to get the triple shots, go back down the stairs and come back up to face the axe knights again.
Strategy for killing the reaper:
1. Saturate the space. Fire crosses even if they're going to miss the reaper. The primary purpose of the crosses is to kill the reaper, but the secondary purpose is to kill the flying sickles. Try to fire crosses at multiple levels of the screen so you get more coverage. This works well with the next technique, which is:
2. Always keep moving. You can't see the sickles appear under you if you stand still - you have a chance of dodging them if you see them fade in. Jumping from level-to-level makes this strategy easier to pull off, and also allows you to saturate the whole screen with crosses (see above).
I did spend quite a bit of time learning how to beat the reaper hen I was a kid, but compared to the count he's cake. Still, until I came up with this strategy he usually kicked my ass, so I'm not surprised you're stuck on him.
Man is the animal that laughs.
And occasionally whores for Karma.
The AR codes were the only reason I finished that race. It's also worth buying one because you can use it to unlock parts that are not accessible any other way. IIRC, you had to bring your memory card to some special event in Japan to get them legitimately, and they let you build some cool vehicles.
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
Best weapons for bosses (obviously get at least double-shot for best effect):
Giant Bat - holy water. Hide under the block on the right side of the screen, then throw the holy water on the block when the bat flies at you. Once he is caught, you can burn him to death.
Medusa - holy water. Even kills the annoying snakes on the floor.
Mummy Men - cross. Slip into the far left as the men appear and fire your crosses. Not only do they take out all the stuff the men throw at you, they do quadruple damage because each cross hits both men twice.
Frankenstein - holy water. Throw it directly on Frankenstein, and ignore Igor. You can kill him quickly with that. Try not to die, because you can't get the holy water where you restart.
Grim Reaper - cross. I've discussed this above.
Dracula - I know a lot of people like the holy water route, but I like the cross (triple-shot, of course). You can use it to ward off fireballs in his first form (got to get the timing right so you throw the cross right before you jump up and whip him in the head).
For the second form, just smother the screen at dracula's head level with crosses. Keep jumping up and firing a cross towards the other side of the screen. Every time he comes down from a jump he will get whacked multiple times. You have to hope and pray that he will high jump when he gets to you, but it usually happens enough times for you to win.
Man is the animal that laughs.
And occasionally whores for Karma.
The first time I played through Star Ocean: TSS, I was having trouble beating Indalecio so I decided to leave the dungeon and do some leveling. While on the world map I figured I would hit all the cities on last time in case I had missed a Private Action at some point. To my surprise, I did find a PA with Indalecio's daughter. Little did I know, this PA (only available if you have a save at the last save point in the game) turns off Indalecio limiter which means instead of needing to be level 70-80 to beat him, you pretty much need to go all the way up to 255.
I didn't realize that and when I went back to fight the boss again, I foolishly saved over the earlier save. About 5 seconds in to the fight Indalecio wiped out my whole team. It wasn't until years later that I played through the game again and actually beat it.
- 'early' weapon mastery: stock up on ammo for the gun(s) in question and head to Los Santos International Airport (use a car as a stepping stone to get atop the guard shack), then proceeed to keep shooting the tires of the baggage hauler until you get bored. And while you're there, get in some stick time... enough of these sessions and you'll not only be on your way to Hitman level with one or more weapons, but have the airports 'unlocked' well before flight school. Doing this is requisite for the next tip:
- Easter Hill Airport is home to a missile launcher (not RPG) spawn. Said launcher comes in very handy for 'Toreno's Last Flight' and a couple of other ops which require shooting down helicopters.
- Coming to 'Grey Imports' (wherein you have to crash a Ballas arms buy) with Hitman level for the sawed-off shotgun means you can kill the arms dealer before he gets into his Banshee... and claim said car for yourself.
- Once you've purchased Verdant Meadows, you have a relatively safe way to score FBI Ranchers. Simply take the bike which spawns there and head down to Area 69, then let one or more of said vehicles chase you into the hangar. Dismount and quickly save your game. Too bad there isn't an emergency vehicle fence like there was in GTA3...
Two of the 'missions' in Scarface: The World is Yours - specifcally, those associated with Chi Peso Trattoria and Coco's Lounge and Disco - can easily become walls if you try and play them 'straight'; however, utilizing vehicles to block off entrances makes things much easier. Conversely, the fact of the game using Everything or Nothing-style targeting (lock-box with adjustable fine aim) whether you're on foot or in a vehicle, and letting you fire from vehicles in 360 degrees (thank you Saint's Row for bringing that to the table), makes certain other things easier than their GTA counterparts (hint: boat drivers are always exposed)...- White Knight of the Order of Mihoshi Enthusiasts