zanshin

Well I continued playing Deus Ex today and did the Montreal. It was pretty good, but at some points I found no way to avoid killing, as I prefer hacking and sneaking around.

I found the fight with Yelena extremely frustrating, as she has the ability to move much faster than Adam, who is especially slow, dragging around the heavy rifle, which I assume is the only weapon to be used against Yelena. Making it worse, she can rush Adam with incredible speed, and repeatedly give off blasts of energy. And she is also armed with two machine guns. Oh yeah, and she can also turn invisible. So the odds were heavily weighed in her favor, and it was a real bitch defeating her. To compound the problem, earlier in the day, I had 9 praxis points that I hadn't used, and I kind of squandered them on non-fighting abilities a couple of hours before the fight with Yelena. Since I was mostly playing stealth and hacking, this boss fight was rather frustrating, since it required combat skills. I finally made it through it, but it was a long and frustrating battle.

After many months away, I have finally started playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution again. It was a bit confusing at first, because I wasn't sure what my objective was, or in which direction I was supposed to head. I finally figured it out which direction I had to go in and I guess I made some reasonable progress in the game.

I think my weapon hoarding has had a bit of a negative impact on my game play. I have been carrying around some guns that I have never used and it turns out that the rocket launcher I thought I would never find anywhere else was lying on the floor of the room with the two robots for that boss battle (I guess they won't leave you unprepared)

Well, I just left for Montreal. Hopefully it won't be several months until I continue.

Well, I was able to attend PAX East for the first time this year. It was a big thrill just to walk in there and see all the games and people wearing shirts and costumes that only a gamer (or geek) would understand.

There was a huge line that I waited in just to get my entrance pass and then another line to get into the convention. After waiting for nearly a hour for both of those things (and seemingly being routed into the wrong line), they announced that we could enter through any entrance that the lines were on longer necessary. That sucked.

Once I got inside, I was overwhelmed with the number of people there. It was kinda like that Star Trek episode where the enterprise is empty and the planet is so overpopulated that all the people are constantly bumping into each other (maybe the Japanese subway is a better analogy) I was kinda surprised when vendors I talked to said something like "when you get back to your hotel" I assumed that most of the people who attended this event were from the local area, but I guess a number of hotels were completely booked due to people flying in to this event.

I was happy to find that Tribes Ascend was available as an open beta. I have played both the original Tribes (though well after it's heyday) and Tribes 2. I cannot remember if I ever bought Tribes Vengeance (or if I did, if I ever got a around to playing it). Anyhow, playing Tribes again after so many years was bit confusing, as Tribes plays a bit differently from other shooters, with it's jump packs, vehicle spawns and now it has around 9 classes (the original had 3, IIRC). Still, from what I played of the game captured the feel of the original Tribes. The only real problem was the server was always fully populated, so there were always people all around, making it hard to sneak up on any enemy without getting shot in the back. On top of that some of the devs were playing, and I think they were kind of dominating the matches, having a bit of an edge over the convention goers with their fresh knowledge of the game. I also have to compliment the team at Tribes Ascend, for having a great set up with minimal wait time.

I also got a chance to play Star Wars Kinect (which I thought would have been playable in the local Best Buy, but wasn't). Unfortunately, the only game modes they let you play at PAX were Podracing, Rancor Rampage and Galactic Dance Off. I turned down the opportunity to play Galactic Dance Off and was given the chance to play Rancor Rampage. Galactic Dance Off does have some entertainment potential, but Hyperspace Hoopla (at Star Wars Weekend in DisneyWorld) is more entertaining. Anyhow, Rancor Rampage was okay, but it was lacking the Star Wars experience I seek from a Star Wars game. I had really hoped to play one of the two lightsaber games that Star Wars Kinect has, but was told that they take too long to set up so I couldn't play them at there.

Of course there was swag, T-shirt give-aways a few plush animals and a lot of paper stuff. I didn't find much in the way of game give-aways. I wanted to check out Borderlands 2, but the hour and a half wait time deterred me from doing so, even with the offer of a free T-shirt.

And for those of you who have seen pictures of cosplay girls from Comic Con or such, I am sorry but this was a bit of a disappointment in that area. Guys outnumbered the girls 100 to one. And of those girls who did attend, there were less of the smoking hot variety and more of the apparent geek variety. So a lot of the cosplay was less of the stunningly hot variety and more of the I want to be this character variety. Though there were a few hot ones, including a woman dressed up as Loki (I think). She appeared to be walking around alone, but I didn't see her advertising anything. While there were a fair number of guys doing cosplay but, in general when guys do cosplay it's a lot less appealing, but it can be good when the guy makes a nearly perfect costume. Still not sure why a guy was dressed as Naruto at a gaming convention though.

We are not a screwed as we would be if GiantBomb had a mobile app. That would officially signal an end to my social life...

All the opposition to this is encouraging.

I am outraged at boobs. As an infant I was repeatedly had boobs shoved in my face. That is the kind of thing you never really get over... Now to have to witness boobs again. Can't we simply outlaw boobs before more harm is done?

Well I once again was distracted by a Team Fortress event - Australian Christmas 2011. They had a 'contest' similar to the one in summer where you can win prizes by getting achievements in various games. Only in this case the prizes were pretty much just coupons and coal (7 pieces of coal could be crafted into something, most likely another coupon). Later it was revealed that there were also hats that could be given for getting some of those achievements. I played every game I could that was free, with the one exception of Toki Tori, which I got for free as a prize for getting an achievement in some other game. Still, all I ended up getting was a lot of coupons, most of which I have no use for what so ever. I did get a copy of every game Valve developed in 2011 as well as a copy of Half Life Episode 1, but I already have that, so it hasn't done me much good.

What I was really after was the B.M.O.C. (The Big Man of Christmas) hat, which is a Santa hat. It seem like that should have been one of the first Christmas hats ever released, but they waited until this year, and they made it extremely difficult to obtain.

@WhiskeyAbe: What is that gadget you have there? Is it part of Whiskey media's web site?

After taking some advice from , I paid Bobby the bribe and then took him out which seemed to have gotten the girl off and then got my money back, but I wasn't able to track down Jaya again. I went where I thought her apartment was, but she wasn't there. Then later when I checked, it says that I failed the mission, and IIRC it was something about not getting Jaya's debt settled. Did anyone successfully complete this mission after taking out Bobby? Did I do something wrong?

Well, did as SMTDante suggested and seemed to have gotten the girl off and then got my money back, but I wasn't able to track down Jaya again. I went where I thought her apartment was, but she wasn't there. Then later when I checked, it says that I failed the mission, and IIRC it was something about not getting Jaya's debt settled. Did anyone successfuly complete this mission after taking out Bobby? Did I do something wrong?