Final Fantasy 13 Guides - Transformation Catalysts for Accessories

The why

Yeah this took me a ridamndiculous amount of time to post up. Sorry about that. For the basics of transformation catalysts see here.

The How

Compiled this list of which accessories are transformed by which catalysts. Also added some basic stats info to help you decide what to upgrade or not. I've posted the list twice. Once sorted by Accessory type (did you know you can safely sell all those damn millirites you have been getting?) and once sorted by Catalyst type. Enjoy ^^

Final Fantasy XIII Guides - Transformation Catalyst Info

Update: 3/22/10
Added Fangs Weapons.

Update: 3/23/10
Added Sazhs and Vanilles weapons.

Update: 3/24/10
Added Snows and Hopes Weapons.

The Why

Every Weapon and accessory in FFXIII can be upgraded through components. (See here for some info) and when you max out their levels, you can upgrade that weapon | accessory into a better form using transformation Catalysts.

But the prices on those Catalysts are obnoxious in FFXIII. So you really can't experiment by buying up weapons and catalysts and seeing what goes where with which.....

The How

So with that in mind, here is a list of weapons and Accessories (not yet ^^) and which Catalyst Items are used to upgrade them.

Weapons

All Weapons Come in a 3 part series. 1 weapon You can buy. A unique version of that weapon it upgrades too. And an ultimate version of that characters weapon type. The Ultimate weapon is always the same, but it's stats are based on the 2 weapons previous in the series the Ultimate came from.

All weapons have max levels. These go 21/41/100 or 26/61/100 in the series. With all Ultimate weapons being capped at 100. You need to get the weapon to this level before you can upgrade. (with the exception of the Ultimates of course.)

For ease of reference. And a handy way of telling if you are pumping tons of Gil into trash, I posted the weapons Max Stats and any special auto abilities the weapon may have. The stats are ordered by Strength then Magic in all cases.

And Finally, I added what Transformation Catalyst (T-C) the item needs to be upgraded to the next highest form.

Final Fantasy XIII Guides - Leonara's Garage and cost effective weapon upgrading.

The Why

If you played FFXIII, and you tried your hand at upgrading weapons and accessories, you know how goddamn unintuitive the whole experience is. Trying to figure out which part gives what XP isn't that much of a problem if you are getting the components as drops from mobs. But once you start shopping for components, your (Ridiculously) hard earned gil starts coming into play. And buying up tons of the wrong part can definitely drain what little money you already have.

The How

With that in mind here are some tips for Minimizing amount of gil spent and maximizing XP. The key thing here is knowing what component does what in general. There are 4 main types of components.

1. Organic: Low xp, Gives XP multipliers.



2. Synthetic: High XP, Removes XP multipliers.



3. Transformation Catalyst: Changes Weapon, accessory to next strongest type when level is maxed (Star where level should be.) Need specific TA to upgrade. (Currently working on a list) Have the list started Here



4. Sale items: Includes Credit Chips and Dolls. Sell them because they give 1-3 xp a pop.

Ok now with the basics down lets get to upgrading. First things first, get that 3x multiplier on your weapon or accessory. You do this by adding organic components to them. Cheapest way to do this, is to go to Creature Comforts and buy 36 sturdy bones. Slap them on your weapon or accessory and you have your multiplier.

Note: you can Get the multiplier as far up as 5x but that requires a ridiculous amount of components. 3x is plenty.

Next comes leveling the weapon. Here is a list of the items sold in Leonara's Garage. (May not be complete, still dicking around in Gran Pulse.)

Lenora's Garage Gil to XP Ratio (Helter-skelter Baseline)
Name	Bought	Sold	XP	X Gil for 1 xp
Amplifier	520	260	108	4.81
Bomb Fragment	430	215	82	5.24
Bomb Core	1200	600	551	2.18
Ceramic Armor	660	330	147	4.49
Crankshaft	840	420	215	3.91
Epicyclic Gear	320	160	66	4.85
Ferroelectric Film	460	230	102	4.51
Fiber-optic Cable	840	420	216	3.89
Insulated Cabling	280	140	65	4.31
Liquid Crystal Lens	320	160	70	4.57
Parafin Oil	320	160	67	4.78
Passive Detector	840	420	188	4.47
Perfect Conductor	1600	800	751	2.13
Piezoelectric Element	840	420	310	2.71
Polymer Emulsion	200	100	48	4.17
Radial Bearing	320	160	64	5.00
Ring Joint	840	420	208	4.04
Silicone Oil	660	330	162	4.07
Superconductor	840	420	400	2.10
Turbojet	840	420	212	3.96

These XP totals where gotten from the Helter-skelter weapon with no Multiplier. The X gil for 1 xp column shows how much gil you spend for 1 point of xp. This will scale with other equipment you upgrade other than the HS. So don't worry if your XP totals are different. Superconductor's are still the best bang for your gil buck on this list. But you may not have access to those right away. (Chapter 10 or 11 I think.) Just pick the lowest Value component in the X gil for xp column you currently have access to. Buy it up, and pop it onto your item.

note: synthetic parts will clobber your XP multipliers so use them in bulk, or you are gonna have to keep using organic items to get back multipliers. Also note That I added bomb cores to the list since I farmed the hell out of those repeating Cie'th stone mission 7. It's a short walk and you get 5 Bomb cores guaranteed. I was using bomb cores as a baseline for my spreadsheet because I had a ton of them.

I'll be updating this list when I unlock more (probably still more) items from Leonara's Garage. Also here is a list of what Transformation Catalysts are used for weapons and accessories.

Topic Shenanigans

Every so often, I like to vent stupid on Gamefaqs.com. It starts off innocently enough. I go there to try and help people out with some of my favorite games. My "good deed of the day" if video game advice counted for that....

But the longer I stay, the more stupid I end up reading. And by virtue of what I am reading, I become stupid myself. (Hell if they aren't gonna take this seriously why should I?)

example:

I'm on the dragon age board and a TC (Topic creator) states. "That dragon looks like a wyvern to me." Now it takes a special type of nerd to enjoy dragon age. A type I am proud to be. The type that can name all the different dragon types from memory. (Oh like there is any difference memorizing dragon families and memorizing baseball stats :/) we are the Tolkien Nerd. Those guys that could recite The Fellowship of the Ring (Book or movie) or recite the Canticle of the Lance. We go nuts for things like Dragon age and spit fiery venom at things like Eragon. So you would think someone who was a fan of DA:O would Know what the hell they where talking about when it comes to dragons.

So, with that, I assumed the TC was just making a joke and decided to go along for the ride. And this list of dragon types popped out of my brain.

• Dragon: 4 legs, set of wings



• Drake: 4 legs, no wings




• Wyvern: 2 legs, set of wings, no arms




• Wyrm: no legs, no wings




• JRPG: 4 legs, set of wings, plasma cannon, may or may not have eyes, gigantic floating symbol on back, feathers (wtf?), may or may not have a young girl in a mini skirt on back or in arms.




• Western Developers: 3 legs 1 is way bigger than the rest, 1 wing, 4 eyes, mask of another dragons face on shoulder, chains(srsly wtf?), maybe a motorcycle built into it's body depending on how high artist was at the time, tail with a mouth on it.

Now I'm currently playing FFXIII And seriously can't wait to see what Bahamut looks like. It's a long standing, spoiler free tradition of mine that harkens back to FFVI. Sometimes I'm disappointed (ff10, where I got most of my JRPG jab from) sometimes I think he bleeds awesome (ff8,9 and 11) sometimes I think he is over doing it (ff7, Orbital beam much?) and sometimes I worry about Square-enix in general. (ff12)

I hope to hell he doesn't look like (or turn into) a train or some nonsense.

Also, in case you thought I pulled the JRPG description out of my ass. (Wouldn't blame you since JRPG's get a lot of needless Flak these days.)
I'm at least fare in my assessments.

Resident Evil 5: Desperate Escape DLC - First 60 Minutes

Random Thoughts

I hope the hell this isn't like last time......

Having to skip the cutscene I saw way back in RE5 means now I don't know why Josh and Jill are together.... Oh like it really matters. Josh: "Hey it's Jill. Lets get the @#$% out of here!" Jill: "OK." If I didn't hit it exactly I came damn close.

Oh good I get to actually fight something this time. And their good old-fashioned Majini.

Lots of Majini.....

Holy crap that's a lot of Majini....

Ok that was a lot of Majini 15 minutes ago, this is Mercenaries on Super Modified Crack Cocai... Oh you have got to be kidding! {My reaction to four, yes four, Chainsaw Majini}

Executor Majini? O.o

Yes Josh, I want you to use the grenade Launcher. No Josh I don't want you to shoot the guys behind you, I'll handle that. Josh.... Josh! Don't make me shoot you Josh! {They really should have just labeled the context B option "Have partner touch grenade launcher for one second."}

Oh good, more executor Majini.

Holy crap it's quiet.... Ok soon as I blast that door open... yep here they come >.<

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
{My reaction to dying for the 5th time running around an area with what seems like infinite spawn Majini, 1 Executor Majini and 3-4 Big Man Majini. Also 2 Grenade Launcher placements right in front of me. Finally figured out to play "run around the storage crate" with the executor till the G launchers take him out. Hurray for Friendly Fire.}

Nice going Capcom, I felt like I was playing "Lets play relaxing RE5 Mercenaries" for the past 50 minutes and now you put the timer up. {Note: "Lets play relaxing" is a series of ROM hacks of old NES games. They're usually of the "Die in first 5 seconds if you don't push something" Variety.}

Gatling Gun Majini? T.T

{Vroom Vroom Vrooooooom}..... more chainsaw Majini..... yaaaay...

Oh screw this, I'm just running around in a corner for 5 minutes. Not Like I'm getting score for extending my time.

Or have the ability to extend..... my...... FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
{My reaction to Doug saying he has to find an alternate route, thus adding 2 minutes to the timer.}

{Cue last Gatling Gun Majini} I don't even care anymore. T.T

{Cue final Cutscene. Note spoilers I guess} Ah Doug, you are probably the Only none dead RE series Helicopter pilo{kaboom}.... Apparently, rockets in the RE Universe are helicopter pilot seeking. {Seriously Figured he'd live since he's your pilot for Mercenaries. Oh well, he knew the risks, and the body count, of being a helicopter pilot in RE5. Seriously think they kill one every 1 and 1/2 games on average.}

Retrospect

I actually enjoyed this more than Lost In Nightmares. If for no other reason than you actually fight. Ok you fight a lot. And goddamn do I mean a lot. If you never played the mercenaries portion of RE5 you are gonna be in for a shock. It's insanity from the getgo and just gets increasingly worse. It's basically a bastard child OF RE5 and Mercenaries. It requires exploration, but there are a ton of Majini on your ass. You need to kill a ton of Majini, but need to do exploration to get to new areas.

Thankfully there are plenty of ammo pickups, but health is a bit on the "oh come on already" side. And the bosses... 8 Chainsaw Majini, 4 Executor Majini, and 2 Gatling Gun Majini. (There might even be more if you kill too many Majini in an area. That was a device of Mercenaries.) Surprisingly though, the Game was chalenging but never aggravating. (Yeah I curse a lot while dying.... and seeing what Capcom was throwing at me next. But I did enjoy myself.)

Which is another big difference between this and LiN. Those Lamprey monsters where just made of pure cheese. And taking your weapons from you was a bullcrap move to end all bullcrap moves. Thankfully, nothing like that happens this time around.

So all and all another worthwhile DLC from Capcom. If you have to choose one, definitely go Desperate Escape. For where as LiN Was more a nostalgic experience, DE Actually feels like a game. And one thats gonna Kick your ass if you haven't played Mercenaries in a year.

Deadly Premonition - Full Review - 6.0/10

Summary

Survival Horror murder mystery set in a small town. Kinda like Shenmue meets Resident Evil 4 meets Silent Hill. Could have done much better Just sticking with the Sandbox aspects.

Synopsis

This game seems to be very polarizing at the moment. You either love it or hate it and neither opinion makes much sense.

On the one hand, we have those who hate it. Who look at a 20 dollar title and say "THIS MUST BE GREATEST GFX EVER OR TIS TEH SUX!!!!". These are mostly graphicwhore gamers who are probably better off with a blue ray player and a CG movie with a very well thought out interactive menu. Whether or not they hit pause is the most complex decision they feel safe making.

On the other hand, we have gamers who love things that are not mainstream, just because they are not mainstream. Forgiving whatever flaws this game has based solely on the fact that it didn't come from a big company. This is a form of unqualified elitism that can be best surmised as "Everyone but me is dumb. So if everyone likes it, it must be crap. I like things nobody else likes to be Awesome."

Of course, applying either of these All or Nothing Philosophies to Deadly Premonition is a great way to make yourself look the fool. You either seem like an easily distracted 12 year old with unlimited access to mommy and daddies Credit card. Or you seem like you're freakin crazy when you get caught saying things like "this games gameplay is better then RE5's." or "The combat isn't that bad." So taking a valid, Middle road (ie realistic) approach to this game is really the way to go.

To start us off, lets talk about the worst part. The combat sequences. Their just a heaping helping of horrible suck that all begins with your camera. The game pretends that the rightstick is a camera control right up until it snaps back to the default position upon letting go of the stick. Like some messed up practical joke. Jesus, that is freakin disorienting. And why do this? Leftstick move, rightstick look... why is this so goddamn hard for developers to not play around with. Did they really have to make their over the shoulder gameplay that different from RE5? Did they honestly fool anyone? We all still know where you got the gameplay from so don't make it almost unplayable. And it's a minor gripe, but breaking up the exploration and combat camera's in the options menu meant moving the camera up instead of down my first battle.... (thanks Swery :/)

Speaking of which, the cameras movement itself is finicky as all hell. I ended up aiming at the ceiling half the time. Then the damn floor the other half. Until, of course, I started using auto target. But because of the shittacular camera, going for headshots is pretty much tapping the leftstick in the general direction you want to shoot bullets at. Hoping what you aimed at didn't move too much. (Sometimes they randomly stand there.....) Then tapping back into the correct position. Then hoping to hell the camera decides to cooperate through the whole ordeal. An exercise in tap and pray gameplay. If you are praying to the trickster god Loki of course.

Once you have mastered the intricacies of tap and pray, you realize that the combat mechanics themselves suck ass. Most of the time it feels like you are hitting air. There is very little feedback to let you know you are actually causing damage. Sure, headshots feel like you actually did something, but body shots, for the most part, splatter purple paint all over till something drops.

And what the hell is with all the QTE going on here. There are entire sequences of nothing but QTE. Like the game decided I can't figure out how to runaway on my own. I crap you not, there is a 5 minute long Quick time event where you have to run from the "Raincoat Killer" (tm?) that requires you to waggle the leftstick the whole damn time. Broken up occasionally by some of the most unhurried animations possible for opening doors or climbing obstacles. Picture it, Desperately running away. Followed by opening a door, looking left, looking right, walking past door and waiting for it to close behind you. Then, DESPERATELY RUNNING AWAY AGAIN! I can't tell if the Gameplay needs consistency or York needs bipolar Meds.

And finally.... and this is the last bad I have to say about the game, the shadows.... for something I was so damn impressed by at first (See here) These came across sorely disappointing. They sound horrid, they move horrid and they just come across as utterly thrown together. Like something that needed to be shoehorned into the game at the last second.

And that pretty much sums up the combat experience, shoehorned in to appease somebody. It's almost as if the developers just weren't confident in there oddball detective game and decided they needed to add survival horror elements in there to make it into a game. And there is very little survival (Infinite ammo weapons to start?) nor Horror (are you older than 5? than you can't be afraid of the shadows.) But, as I will get into in the second section, there is a perfectly fine oddball detective game in DP. No Silent-evil-tower (Resident-clock-hill?) needed.

Deadly Premonition - First 60 Minutes

Random Thoughts

Very long but surprisingly cool opening CS. (Should I count it for the F60M?)

Tom and Jerry in an Sado-Masochism relationship? Ok I love the writing to this game so far. XD

.....did those.... did those chipmunks|squirrels|whatevers just screech like monkeys?

.... is he swallowing smoke!?

Where the hell is the light coming from... it says flash light.... looks like he is holding it in his mouth.... or has he magic glowing nipples?

The hell is wrong with this camera?

Oh look it's the creepy woman from the screen shot.... the exact same screen shot. Is she trying to rip out my tongue?

.... seriously, the camera controls suck.

why is their blood purple.... wait a minute {Goes into options screen to check blood option} yep ok.... lets turn it OFF I guess and.... Green? ok back to purple.....

"Don't Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiil MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

"Amazing."

".... Don't want to diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiie!"

"Don't Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiil MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

"Amazing."

".... Don't want to diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiie!"

"Don't Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiil MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

"Amazing."

".... Don't want to diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiie!"

Yeah combat isn't getting old...... :/

Most horrifying thing about this game so far is the camera controls....

Oh good! Quick time events with catastrophic failure. ^^ My favorite.......

{runs through area again}

Oh good! Quick time events with changing button layout and catastrophic failure. ^^ My favorite.......

{runs through area AGAIN}

Is that a cookie or a muffin I just got for my first achievement?

Retrospect

Well, I said back in my looking forward that this game had to prove otherwise on my Survival Horror Sandbox theory.... It did. There is neither survival (Infinite Handgun ammo? Lulz) nor horror in this game. Unless you count constant, repetitive, badly dubbed, low tempo moaning as frighting. The camera controls are terrifyingly bad though.

However, right after the combat, I got right into the sandbox portion. And after playing the game proper for a little bit the investigation part seems rather interesting. I'll get back with a full review in a few days.

Mass Effect 2 - Full Review - 8.9/10

Summary

Kinda like Oceans Eleven Dirty Dozen Gears of War err... an RPG in space.

Gameplay 93/100

I was going to write about how people need to stop complaining about inventory screens. Changed my mind half way when I re-read what I had and realized how much venom was posted in that. I also realized these people are obviously deficient in some mental faculty and therefore I should "be nice". I'll just leave it at "If you can't read properly, don't make life worse for those who can" and call it a day.

That being said, I like what BioWare did to the inventory system :D ....almost. Part of the problem with ME1's inventory was people who needed more realism in their video games. You know, the ones that complain about monsters dropping loose change. So RPG developers have been coming up with all sorts of gimmicks to explain how you are getting your money. Body parts, gear, items you can later craft into more expensive doodads. The list goes on and on.

And it's working... Almost. ME1's system was born of this mindset. Get weapons, ammo and armor drops from mobs and sell them back for credits. Problems arose from the sheer number of drops you got. Often times this clogged up your inventory, not allowing you to pick up anything new. And Jumping Jesus on a Jackhammer was it a bitch and a half to clear out your inventory when this happened. Especially ammo... (Do I need this? Should I gel it? What the hell was I just looking at 3 items ago?) So instead of trying to fix the mess effect (OK feel dirty now -_-) of the old inventory system, they just 86 the whole thing and start from scratch.

Sounds good... And I'm sure some focus group was involved with the new system. (Question one, how do you feel about inventory systems in video games: "Durp Hurt brain make words do Durp"{Smash head into clipboard till it's pried out of their hands by Volunteers At EA headquarters.}) So ya, we get a handful of weapons now and we get to upgrade them. Which is perfectly fine.... BUT CAN I PLEASE SEE WHAT THE HELL I JUST UPGRADED BIOWARE? PLEASE? WITH A GODDAMN CHERRY ON TOP? Would the durpapods seriously complained if each weapon had a status screen? They're probably too stupid to find the weapon locker on the ship anyway.(Remember "Be nice")
Yes I know they have an upgrade tab on your private terminal but it's an unsortable mess after you get 15-20 upgrades. Besides, doesn't actually show the stats of the weapons now doe's it?

Oddly enough though, I really have very little problem with the other changes made by BioWare. The streamlining of the XP system, the removal of the "HillClimber: Get up that Goddamn hill" Mini game (Yes the Mako) or the way they present the story like chapters in a book.(nice mix of linear and free form story telling there) It's obvious they realized they had a much better action game than RPG there. (Stat based aiming in realtime = fail) and adding RPG elements to an action game works just fine. Hell you can add RPG elements to anything and it will work.

The gameplay itself is constantly compared to Gears of War. (Cover based shooter) And fans tend to take serious offense at this. Which is silly if you think about it. Not like GoW was a bad game. And it's not like every game is new and original. We wouldn't have Silent Hill, Saint's Row or Half Life if the industry had an aversion to improving on previous ideas. It's probably the decades long polarization of RPG and Shooter fans. And since the industry is constantly mixing the two genres. We, as fans, should probably knock that Super Silly Shat off.

So yes, I (mostly) love the changes to the gameplay from ME1. Love the cover based gameplay ripped from GoW. :p And love the absence of having to slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowly climb hills in the mako. They did replace the latter with a probing minigame...... OK so it's not all good. I guess probing was added to make even "1xp per mob, 10k xp to next level" grinders bored out of there skulls. Is this a preamble for excuses for further removal of RPGness from ME3? (Remember probing ya biatches? This is why we took this other thing out.) Or a halfhearted attempt to please ME1 fans? Only time will tell.

Resident Evil 5: Lost in Nightmares - First 60 minutes

Random thoughts

Hahahahaahahahah master of unlocking indeed haaaaaaaaaa!

Hey... wait a minute.... this looks familiar.

Obsessed with cranks heh... Wait a minute.... was that almost good writing from Resident Evil.

This piano looks familiar.....

Zombies?

This Jill playing this piano looks familiar......

Zombies? You their?

This hallway looks familiar......

Zombies? Come out come out wherever you are.

The lighting in this room looks familiar......

Zombies? Hunters? Undead dogs? Disgruntled CPS4 employees? I'll take anything at this point.

This room full of boxes.... no wait, this is new.

Ha I know how this goes. Second time through the hall and.... Yep here comes the...... bat? WTF?

ZOMBIES? HELLO! WHERE THE @#$% ARE YOU!?

Ok I should not be laughing my ass off at Jill getting squished by the spike room. Her reaction was just hilarious though.

Oh cool, this is new.

Yay new monster.....

3 monsters later no more ammo......

Haha! Dumb asses! (My Reaction to Chris and Jill busting there ass while running in a cutscene)

Oh good, now I have no more weapons.....

One aggravating underground puzzle later....

and one long hallway later....

and one overblown Wesker battle later....

and one very familiar CS later....

and.... we are done?

Retrospect

Yep, you can beat RE LiN in about 1 hour. You will be treated to a RE5 style RE1 mansion... with nothing but boxes and flash backs to events in RE1 to keep you company. Then you will go through a prison, fight about 4 axe wielding giant Lamprey headed monsters, run out of ammo, Run out of weapons, run away from 3 more of those damn things. Then finally fight Wesker till you die..... beating the dlc.
Not a bad way to blow 400 ms points.

Looking Forward #1 - Deadly Premonition.

Wanted to do this on the new RE5 DLC. But, by the time this is out, It will have been released. Unless there is a delay..... (Capcom =/= EA, Capcom =/= EA, Capcom =/= EA)

Anyway less stupid, more forward of the sight internal.

So I ran across screens of the game Deadly Premonition about a year back and told myself "midgets? WTF?" and that pretty much ended my interest in the game right there. Not that I have anything against little people. Just these two had a "Murderous Moppets" vibe going on. And that's a bad thing.

However then I ran across this.

and now I can't wait for it to get released.

So yes, in my mind, Little people that bear a tenuous link (apparently being short and two of is all I need) too two irritating characters from a late night TV show = bad. Creepy doll, woman... thing with no eyes = good. Now if you are worried about my state of mental health..... Trust me. You are not as worried as I am....

So what is Deadly Premonitions exactly? Sandbox Survival Horror would probably best describe it. Now true, it will probably be more on the horror side and less on the survival side of the coin. It would have to be a pretty crappy sandbox setup if your MC was running low on supplies continuously. And sandbox horror sounds like a 3 year old getting his head stuck in a bucket. So I'm going with Sandbox survival horror unless the game proves otherwise.

Also of note, The production director Swery (that's it? Swery? No last name? ..... Seriously?) had this to say on the promotional site.

Swery: "Another feature I want you to try out is "Stalking.""

note: Almost shat myself laughing when I read that. Probably because I pictured Swery bolting upright from a dead sleep screaming "They won't know Unless I tell them! All that work for nothing!!"

Ok put the pitchforks and bullhorns down, and put that nearly broken soapbox away. Not JP-ERO-GAME stalking. He means Shenmue Stalking. You know, following characters around to see what the developers programmed them to do.

Now I'm not looking forward to being a virtual voyeur (that got old quick in Shenmue) but there is something neat about characters following a schedule. It worked semi better in Fallout 3 and Oblivion then it did in Shenmue. (Admittedly, only in as far as there are way more things to do in the former games than the latter one.) And it does open up interesting gameplay possibilities. (Wow. The old man who shows up to eat breakfast here every morning isn't here now. Wonder if zombies got him.) but that of course assumes you'll pay attention to these details.

Speaking of details. You apparently need to shave and change clothes in this game as well. Lest you become a smelly, hairy vagrant nobody wants to talk to. Which sucks, when you consider you are supposed to be a detective solving a murder case. (Oh did I forget mentioning that? sorry XD)

But most importantly, At least for me. Is it's $20.00 price tag. And 20 bucks is good enough reason to try out something new. Be back on the 23-24th with my first impressions on this. (feb. 23rd release)

Bioshock 2 - Full review - 6.9/10

Summary

Been there, done that, rehashed to hell and back. Still fun though.

Gameplay 80/100

For those of you who haven't played the original Bioshock (I won't be so cliched as to mention things about rocks and living under them.... wait I just did) Bioshock 2's gameplay can be surmised as an FPS with light (emphasis on light) RPG elements.

And this worked fine in BS1. Run through a structurally faulty (more so this time around) underwater city. Pick off crazed, genetically modified, superpowered vagrants (most common superpower being "talk to yourself" apparently). Collect Adam (XP to you and me) from little girls protected by Mechanical deep sea divers. Use Adam to get useful powers and upgrades. Make moral decisions which can be summarized as "Are you a child murderer (Yes?|No?)". It worked well then, no reason it shouldn't now.

Unless you where expecting something new. In which case.... you have protecting Little sisters to look forward to I guess. See, you get to harvest Adam this time around from dead bodies. Not just from ganking sea slugs from deformed children.

Also, trap rivets and mini turrets... which is kinda part of the latter. Just cover the little sister with the damn things while harvesting and go hide in a corner. What, you where expecting to be an unstoppable hulk of an armored suit? Nope! Go hide in that corner! Hack some camera's and turrets while you are at it. Last thing you want to do is get smacked in the face by the handle of a hand gun. And die.... You hear that? That's the other Big Daddies laughing their collective asses off at you.

And this game really drives that point home... The point being 2k Marin couldn't decide if they wanted you to be a Big Daddy or average joe fps guy. They settled on subaverage daddy fps guy but forgot to take out all the bits for Big Daddy. This shows when you are swamped by splicers and end up running for your life to avoid bullet wounds. Yes Bullet wounds. And they made such a big deal about showing how indestructible Big D's where in Bioshock....

Being a Big Daddy (which is the rough equivelent of say, playing as M.Bison in SF2 Champ. Edition or playing as Magus in Chrono Trigger) comes off as massively unfulfilling in BS2. Least Drill rush makes up for this. Sorta.... Ok no, it doesn't make up for it at all.

Bioshock 2 - First 60 minutes

Random thoughts

..... Well the little sisters no longer look like walking ass. Wonder if that's a  cutscene only thing?

Oh Good, My big daddy looks.... like a giant penis in a rain coat...

Making my character shoot himself in the head right before I have any control over him sorta takes away any sense of dramatic impact this scene should have had. I hope this means I'll get to start ripping crap up soon.

Yep here we go..... Take that splicers hahahahahaha.... hee <out of gas> This sucks :/

Ok so the drill was a no go. Lets try out this nifty new rivet gun.....

That's a big sister? That was awesome.

Ok rivet gun was underwhelming,  how about the Gatling gun I just got a hold of....

Good God, these weapons are made of ass and broken promises.... Wait, trap rivets?

Ok seriously I am taking waaaaay too much damage from gunfire. I'm supposed to be an unstoppable wrecking machine of questionable parentage.

Get out of my head creepy eye girl! Booze hound? You almost gave me a heart attack for booze hound?

Ok. Little sisters no longer look like walking ass. Guess 2k Marin realized parents associate children with cute. Therefore, I'll be more willing to save something that doesn't look lik..... Yes, daddies toys have toys.... creepy Tim Burton moppet.

YES! Drill rushing rocks socks!

Retrospect

Once I got over the initial awesome of being a Big Daddy (and the subsequent  disappointment of being a Big Daddy) I actually started to enjoy the game. There is something in the back of my mind telling me that I was supposed to be a giant wrecking ball in Rapture however. Especially since all hell breaks loose when you get a little sister to start harvesting. Waves of enemies would  make sense against a Big Daddy. But not a  Big Daddy who has  armor made of tissue paper and dreams of better days.

Still Drill Rushing rocks socks.