I have just finished my two recent favorite action games

also I am playing Xenoblade 2 so.... yeah

Very happy that the switch records at 60fps so cleanly, now make XC2 and smash recordable

Enjoy a clip

RIP G+, also i'm lazy

i haven't been working on any of my projects, and i could blame that on school but it's really me.

so have some stuff.
Happy Splatfest
Happy dead by lunar new year

time to wrap up Year 3 part 1: Para Bellum

Ooh a lot has happened this year, Two Free Weekends, Mad House, Summer Splash, Pro League Season 7(or something), Pulse is an esports caster, the passing of Mid-season Reinforcements,  Operation Pro League broke, Operation Healthier, Operation Ni- BANNED,  and now, Operation Censorship. AND HOLY HECC CSGO IS FREE(which is good, but it's monetized by lootboxes)
Youtube Rewind also came out, Smash Ultimate, expect a Gaming Rewind poster from me again.


I've already given my ratings on Chimera so Now we can move to Para Bellum, Grim Sky, and Wind Bastion. Also Bayonetta has a PC port, who knew.

Operation Tachanka 2

Welcome to the Operation everyone expected to be buggier than usual as it followed the year after O P E R A T I O N H E A L T H. but it surprisingly stayed good. no major exploits, like vault glitching was already gone, dropshots were nerfed already. and the map was "the most competitive ever" which it was. We had insane maestro hipfire, wall deletion, and "GOT ONE"
Let's go through the Operators, and Map, Including Clubhouse Map Buff.


DEFENDER #1
Maestro "My Beautiful Evil Eye is Ready."

Maestro played a surprisingly active role with his cameras, more than echo's drones (including the buff from this year which gave him a second one, allowing teammates to view his drones as well as scan with them. a big intel buff indeed. AND Bulletproof cameras were introduced this operation) Maestro was a new 3 armor defender with an ACOG scope on his defense-sided LMG, Which was notorious for its miniature hipfire spread, making it easy to spray close range then use an ACOG for long, it was arguably the most broken thing about him.
He possessed weapons that he shares with Alibi and we'll go more in depth about the ACS-12 and the two revolvers with her.

He brought two "Evil Eye" camera turrets to the table. they were "thermal" as they could see through smoke clouds. they were immune to most forms of attack. Explosives or a sledgehammer would do the trick, the big secondary tool they had was harrassment. The shell could open up to shoot a laser at operators and gadgets to destroy or annoy, this left the turret vulnerable, and so really early on we learned not to ignore the camera when putting down gadgets.
Maestro was unremarkable when compared to the rest of the intel swarm, he proved a pretty good anchor and spawnpeeker.

Final Rating: 778/1000

DEFENDER #2
Alibi "Never reveal the cards you were dealt."
If you want to know where all the edgy ela and vigil and jager mains went..... well here she is

Alibi was designed as a distraction operator. She's equipped with three Prisma "hologram projectors" (lore says otherwise but what ever,) That project basically perfect duplicates of her that don't move, when interacted with (walked through, shot through, touched,) they fizzle. If an enemy does that interaction they are marked 5 times in rapid succession like a jackal scan.

This is not my image.

Alibi brings the Mx4 Storm SMG that is fairly powerful. She brings the ACS 12 Automatic Shotgun that pumps out 30 rounds of full auto wall deletion. She brought the Keratos .357 revolver which hits like a truck and has little recoil for a revolver. The recoil is very good which makes it a pocket sniper with no scope. She also brings the Baliff .410 Revolver which shoots out buckshot that makes good mini holes in walls and decent killing damage at close range hipfire. It has a reflex-styled sight.
Alibi's space in meta use has gone down and she's not a must-pick roamer.

Final Rating: 825/1000


VILLA:
Villa was an oddball map as it's objectively a very competitive map, there's few reasons to dislike, but people still dislike it. It's beautiful, It plays well. I would just like a drone hole into wine cellar ASIDE from the garage.

My Rating for the map?
EZ: 998/1000
-2 points for some annoyances.

My Final Score for Para Bellum?

974/1000: Good Season

Happy new year, have an update

Gaming rewind poster is being made.
I got a nintendo switch.
I'm writing my Rainbow six Year 3 wrap up post.
I'm writing the Saya's Vigil review while playing it on my switch with screenshots from my switch gameplay
COLORS WEAVE INTO A SPIRE OF FLAME
and i need to get to this blog more often, have a happy new year.
(also my nightmare season at work is over)

Knock it off pedleck! You LAUGH like an Electrocuted Hampster!

Vor's Prize review, Part 2. Wake up Tenno.

So Chimera is out, and this is overdue. yeah.....
Fortuna this week too

Tenno, you're safe. But your work isn't done yet

Now that you've escaped Vor, you need to prepare a counter attack. First you need to get that Ascaris off your leg. After completing the previous mission you have extracted with the arsenal segment to your ship. It turns out that while Ordis and your ship were impounded, the Grineer looted everything, except for the somatic link and the helminth rooms (not important and wont open yet). Lotus plans to help you by finding someone to remove the Ascaris. First you have to make contact with him. Lotus has found a replacement for your lost communications segment on E Prime ( a mission node on Earth.)

When deploying to this mission you get your first taste of the SPY mission type; where you go to Data vaults and hack them. this is a decent tutorial for alarms.

Now that your communications are back up you install them into the market segment, ignore it that's a bad choice to install it into and I think DE actually for once TRIES to get you to spend.
But this gets you in contact with the system, and here you can invite friends to your session and have them help you. Next thing to do is rescue Darvo "Deal" Bek, a Corpus Black Market man, from the Grineer.

Darvo is a very interesting well made con man of a character (he has a pretty cool accent to the likes of Cassian Andor and Helmut Zemo, but not as thick, and less fluent in english feeling)

Darvo is in prison because he wouldn't sell his wares to the Grineer. This is a rescue mission which requires you to go through the tileset, but once you get close you gotta be careful, if the WARDEN EXIMUS guards see you and trigger the alarms it will begin a  countdown to kill the prisoner. you have to hack the door to let Darvo out.

 There's a bit of a problem during this. Vor's Ascaris has made it's way into the void energy in the warframe. Nothing too bad yet, but he's going to half your shields for now. Once you get back you get a plan to get out of Vor's Grip.

Soon the worm will be in your spine and I will control this Warframe of yours... I will purge your doting mother and bring you home

So Darvo has given you a blueprint to take care of the Ascaris. But you don't have a way to make it. so you'll need to get back the Foundry segment for your Orbiter. You've also recovered the mods segment so you can equip and upgrade mods for weapons and warframes in your arsenal.

Throughout this quest you've been getting cracked/flawed mods which are less powerful than their regular counterparts and these are a good starting way to understand how they can boost your equipment. 

Lotus (Space Mom) has contacted some miners who will have a foundry segment for you, no trouble right? Turns out the Grineer got here and slaughtered the miners. So grab the segment, and begin your first ever Exterminate mission type. Kill a certain amount of baddies, then extract. (it's counted as an endless mission so they'll keep spawning) You'll get a normal mod named Fury It's for melee weapons and increases swing speed. This is in addition to more flawed mods.

So you CAN build it, but with what? Your foundry can't work with no resources. So Darvo gives you info on a Corpus outpost. This is the only corpus node you'll ever play on earth as it's a Grineer-controlled planet. 

Now you're probably wondering, who are the Corpus? Well the Corpus are like the Trade Federation, they're a commercial military with robotic proxy units. They wear spacesuits usually and use energy weapons over ballistics and animals.

This mission is not any specific type. You are tasked with locating and opening resource caches which will contain an exact amount of resources that you will need. This will mainly be a chance to practice against these baddies. Darvo mentions that the Corpus are moral garbage compared to the fact that you're stealing. They'll sell anything to anyone. 

You thought we were done with Vor? nope!

Vor's cut of all transmissions from Darvo and Lotus, He's insisting that you will come to him over your own will. You will need to get back to the ship and craft the negator.

Once you craft it and remove it you run into its final hiccup.

"What a waste"

The Ascaris has a tamper failsafe built in, and it will detonate if you cant deactivate it by killing the guy with the controller. Yep, VOR HIMSELF. You must find him, and quickly. Your next mission will acquire your navigation segment (even though you already have it?) and give you the location of Vor.

You will board a Grineer Galleon (green spaceship) and recover it. Then you get your first chance to try a sabotage mission type. Once you have recovered the segment Lotus tells you that the ship is on a path to attack a colony. You can save them by destroying the ships reactor or you can extract, Lotus tells you to extract but it's your choice. however inconsequential the choice is. Seriously no repercussions at all for rewards or anything.

Now to face Vor: He's on the asteroid tileset on earth (much like the original mission on Tolstoj Mercury) You will get your first taste of an Assassination Mission. You make your way to Vor and Fight him.

"Foolish Tenno, Do you realize Your Lotus has sent you to DIE?"

Vor has a pistol and the Janus Key. He will fire rounds at you and use the key to spit energy orbs onto the floor, these will latch to you and drain health and shields quickly so stay away from those, stay at range on the platform and don't use melee combat. There will be additional Grineer trying to kill you.

When you smack down his health he will gain an invulnerable state and get more Grineer to attack you. Vor will tend to teleport around to keep you off guard so make sure you can keep moving. In addition he will use the Key as a beam attack. Once you hit him enough you will have killed him (although for continuity mess-ups, he wont truly die until you get to Ceres, even though he gets CUT IN HALF)
You will have Finished Vor's Prize upon extraction. Excellent job, the system needs you. and the next quests you can do are Saya's Vigil and Once Awake.
but for now that's all I have to write. Dream, not of what you are, but of what you want to be.

Look at them, they come to this place when they know they are not pure. Tenno use the keys, but they are mere trespassers. Only I, Vor, know the true power of the Void. I was cut in half, destroyed, but through its Janus Key, the Void called to me. It brought me here and here I was reborn. We cannot blame these creatures, they are being led by a false prophet, an impostor who knows not the secrets of the Void. Behold the Tenno, come to scavenge and desecrate this sacred realm. My brothers, did I not tell of this day? Did I not prophesize this moment? Now, I will stop them. Now I am changed, reborn through the energy of the Janus Key. Forever bound to the Void. Let it be known, if the Tenno want true salvation, they will lay down their arms, and wait for the baptism of my Janus key. It is time. I will teach these trespassers the redemptive power of my Janus key. They will learn its simple truth. The Tenno are lost, and they will resist. But I, Vor, will cleanse this place of their impurity.

I felt i should make this

RIP LAWBREAKERS.
servers shut down

oh, Vor's prize pt. 2 on the way

Also, their marketing said Rise or Fall, i think it did one

Vor's Prize: Review. (not a bad tutorial, not a great one neither) Warframe Part 1

For generations you've slept, no purpose, no call to wake you. But now, something has arisen from the ruins of the Old War.

The Twin Queens, the sisters, have sent their most beloved commander, Vor, on an urgent mission. To protect the twisted crusade they have begun. To transform the scattered colonies into an empire. To see that the Tenno, hidden and asleep, will never awaken.


Wake up, Tenno.


That line has stuck in my head for a while now. I started playing Warframe just before the Sacrifice released. I had been told it was one of those universally great games, that DE had the best microtransaction system, and that I should give it a try. I am truly glad I did.

This quest isn't so integral to the story so it wont make that much of a splash for you to read this, nonetheless, spoiler alert.

When you first launch warframe, you are thrust into Vor's prize, your very first quest. Here you will choose your first Warframe, your first weapons, and your first keybind prompts(like every tutorial...) You will also complete the Liset, defeat your first grineer, destroy your first boss, and meet Ordis Cephalon (that won't shut up)






Wake Up: Captain Vor lands on earth (yes he's ugly) here to take you. You are a Tenno, one of the only threats to The Grineer Empire's crusade to take over the Origin System (where the game takes place, almost identical to our solar system). Vor wants to take you for his own to present to the Grineer Queens as a mind controlled soldier (it isn't as cheesy as I'm writing it to be). He's so dedicated to taking you that he will take out another Grineer official using ancient void technology, called the Janus Key. He goes to a Void gate and opens it using the key, and behind the gate is you in cryosleep.


The Lotus wakes you up from cryosleep. She refuses to lose another Tenno. The Lotus is your guide and exposition dispenser for the game, She'll tell you vital information (whatever waypoints and the hud don't tell you) as well as story clues.

Lotus wakes you up from your cryopod and you now get to pick your very first Warframe



HARNESS YOUR TENNO POWER:

You now get to pick one out of three Warframes:
Excalibur: kinda the faceless face of the game,

Excalibur Prime

Excalibur is arguably the easiest and best of the three, His abilities focus on damaging the opponents with as much sword as possible, so much sword. (yes these photos are from the fan kit). Excalibur is a versatile platform that doesn't do much aside from damage.

His first ability is Slash Dash: He lunges and does damage.

Second ability: Radial Blind is much more interesting, it blinds nearby opponents (which stuns them and stops them from firing at you, it also allows you to do a melee finisher on them (epic looking melee animation that often does lethal damage).

Third Ability: Radial Javelin summons javelins, and when he slams his sword into the ground they launch and deal damage, potentially pinning enemies to walls.

Fourth Ability: Exalted Blade swaps out your weapon for this massive sword that is channeled, it does more damage and and launches waves of energy with every swing. It. is. epic.

And lastly his passive allows him to gain bonus swing speed and damage from using swords. so yeah, swords.

The Second Warframe: MAG (My chosen starter)

Mag Prime

This is one of the worst Warframes in the game, honestly, I love her so much but she just stinks. She's decent at removing shields but just lacks everywhere except shield-based combat.

Mag's Passive is really helpful though: Bullet jumping (a mobility option, extremely fun and cool) will draw in nearby loot and items (you auto collect items on contact).

Ability One: Pull is kinda meh overall, damage enemies and pull them closer while wiping them off their feet, kinda cool.

Ability Two: Magnetize creates a bubble around the target, drawing bullets in, doing slight damage over time, and preventing them from shooting back (all bullets they shoot get pulled back into them), this slightly enhances damage done by Pull. If an enemy dies in the bubble it will explode on ending.

Ability Three: Polarize is probably the most useful ability in her kit. It depletes shields of enemies nearby. It reduces armor of enemy units which then deals damage for the stripped armor (but I'll be honest I didn't know this happened because I've never noticed it), The main use of this ability is it boosts allied shields a bit. It synchronizes with Magnetize by making shards out of the stripped armor. which are boosted by magnetized targets.

Volt Prime

Ability Four: Crush is the most epic looking of her abilities. She picks up enemies in a radius, and then crushes them together for big damage, boosted against magnetized targets as well. Mildly restores friendly shields, great against one type of baddie but not another (explain later)

The Third Warframe: Volt, probably the most engaging of the three.
I haven't played as this warframe ever so, relying on external info.

 Volt has the potential to do the most sustained damage and Burst damage out of the three.  Speed, control of the field, and damage. The description states he's for those that want an amazing alternative to gunplay.

His Passive builds up electric damage for running on the ground (static charge) and boosts the next gunshot or melee swing

The First Ability: Shock is a simple lightning chain.

Second Ability is really fun: Speed gives you and allies a speed boost, and it can get really fast. attack speed and reload too.

Ability Three: Electric Shield deploys an obstacle that you can shoot through but enemies cant. Your damage is amplified as it goes through the shield. You can pick it up to become a smaller more ballistic-shield styled mobile zappy boi. You can even run people down!

And lastly, Ability 4: Discharge makes you go all UNLIMITED POWER on your enemies, they get stunned in a radius, then charged, and then they start zapping other baddies as well as themselves. ZAAAAP

GET OUT OF THERE

Now that you've chosen your warframe you emerge from your cryopod. You are very weak. You try to get up, remember what you're doing. Vor walks through the void gate and surrounds you with guards. He walks over to your prone warframe and attaches a device called an Ascaris to your leg.(this is so far unused outside of this quest, wasted potential.)

"What has he done to you? I can't lose another Tenno. I am surging your Warframe's power systems."
Now you get to fight, You're standing now, Vor wants his soldiers to stop you as he leaves.

You now get to fight using only your first ability (with unlimited energy) as you have no weapons yet, and this is where you should PAUSE

Go edit the keybindings,

I personally think most of the default keybindings are not good and you should edit them at once, I've picked ones that go with my gameplay rhythm. Keep in mind for some reason these are hardware based not account based. Also melee is not Mouse 1 (most important keybind that you don't expect to not be where it is)

What do you remember?

Once you've butchered everyone, you will have completed Part 1: Warframe Power. In this tutorial mission only there's a "progress bar" showing how far along you are, this appears nowhere else in the game. After learning some movement you will choose your melee

You can pick between a BO staff, and a Skana (katana). one is slower more damage and reach, one is quicker and more mobile. The pick is up to you.

Lotus will guide you through several ways to use your weapon. and you will complete Part 2: Melee Combat.

You will now learn more mobility and how to stealth attack (keep in mind this isn't a stealth game). You now will grab your Secondary, The Lato Pistol, or The Kunai Throwing knives. (pick the Lato, The Kunai are hard to aim, and you'll want a different secondary. even if it isn't quiet)  This will complete Part 3: Secondary Weapons.

Now you will learn some gunplay, standard stuff, While learning some mobility and shooting stuff like aim gliding, you'll kill some Grineer Bad Guys, and now Vor knows you're trying to escape.
You find your first resource caches and loot your first crafting materials as a start to your looter adventure.

The Extraction ship comes to get you and VOR BLASTS IT OUT OF THE SKY using the Janus Key, there goes your escape plan. You're too weak to face Vor head on so you are tasked with getting around him and blocking his energy beams. By now you've likely leveled something up, don't worry about it. There's no skill tree or anything and gun stats don't get better, Leveling will be explained by me later in the quest.

You get close to Vor, but you cant harm him, instead you're targeting a panel that you need to operate.

 This will complete Part 4 : Release Lockdown. Have you noticed by now Vor can talk directly to you no matter where you are? Important villains tend to be able to do this. And almost all of them talk in english so even though there are subtitles you won't need them as much. 

You will learn some parkour, like double jumping, wall running, wall climbing, bullet jumping, wall clinging, etc. On completion of this tiny room you will have completed part 5: Advanced mobility. Now you've earned your Primary weapon.

 You can pick between the Braton assault rifle, or the Paris Bow. Both are usable depending on playstyle, The Braton is loud, rapid fire, fully automatic.
The Paris is a charged, long range, projectile, silent bow that can one shot the low level enemies you encounter in this (on a charged shot or headshot). Picking yours out completes part 6: Primary Weapon. You will now go through some more shooting.

Thanks warframe wiki

Now you've found the old Liset craft, your new way out. It's been locked down by the grineer for years, maybe centuries. So time to disable the Parking boot on your spaceship. fight your way to it, silently can be fun. You go to the console and begin your first Hack. Hacks are pretty straightforward. They're minigames that involve solving a line puzzle or lock puzzle. Completing the hack Finishes Part 7: Security Systems. You aren't done with this yet though.

Guess who? It's Ordis Cephalon!
"who?"
You'll wish you never knew him by the endgame. Ordis is the onboard computer of the Ship you just unlocked. He first mistakes you for a Grineer soldier, then realizes. You are his old operator!
Ordis begins the takeoff sequence and you are tasked with "defending the ship." Just don't die. Once you fly out of there you've done it!
Now to get that Ascaris out of your leg.
The following missions of Vor's Prize will be detailed in a post coming soon.
Until then.....