Skip to main content

Second time around I turn into Leeroy Jenkins

In complete contrast to the sedate pace of train simulation the other game I have been playing this week is the frenetic shooter painkiller. I played the expansion "Battle out of Hell" for the first time and I replayed several levels of the original. The fast paced moving and shooting remains as entertaining as ever but I was particularly struck by how differently I approach the expansion (which I had never played) to the original game which I had previously played extensively.


Playing new levels for the first time I am extremely cautious. I favour long range weapons that kill mobs before they can retaliate. If possible I try to use the terrain to protect me from damage and to trap mobs into kiling zones. I am miserly with ammunition and health even to the point of re-loading a save gamed should I fall too low on either.

Second time around I abandon caution entirely and go all Chuck Norris. I run around blasting everything in sight with a shotgun and/or melee weapons with little heed to personal safety or conserving ammunition.

I suppose it is only human nature to be cautious in unfamilar territory but the difference in my own behaviour is really quite dramatic. The strange thing is that in Painkiller and in many other games of my experience the reckless approach works just as effectively as the more slow cautious one and also happens to be a good deal quicker. 

Comments

Anton said…
I haven't played many shooters...Wolfenstein...Doom...Marathon...the only new ones I've played are Star Wars Battlefront 1&2 and Rainbow 6 Vegas 2. I recommend Rainbow 6, though. Sometimes I do want to run through, guns blaring. But at least in that game, that's rarely the most effective approach. But yeah, it works sometimes. The cautious approach seems a good deal more interesting to me for the most part, but sometimes you just want to run in and shoot everybody!!!...Therapeudic.
mbp said…
Hi Anton. I did play an earlier Rainbow six game and enjoyed it. I do remember that it was squad based and required tactics as opposed to run in and shoot everything. If I see Vegas 2 on sale I will definitely get it.

Popular posts from this blog

My First Gaming Mouse: Logitech G300

I bought a gaming mouse yesterday a Logitech G300, here my initial thoughts. What is a gaming mouse?  There are a wide variety of devices available classified as gaming mice but a few features  seem common: 1. Wired rather than wireless: Although some high end models are wireless wired connections are just better and faster than wireless so most gaming mice stick with wired. As a bonus wired mice don't need batteries so the mouse is lighter.  2. High response rate: 1 to 2ms response rate so the mouse immediately responds to input.  2. High DPI. Gaming mice invariable boast high DPI numbers from 2,000 DPI upwards. This makes the device very responsive to the smallest movements.   3. Adjustable DPI . High DPI improves responsiveness but reduces precision so gaming mice generally allow you to adjust the DPI down for precise work such as pulling off headshots in sniper mode. Generally the mouse allows dpi to be changed on the fly by pressing a button.  4. Extr

Android Tip 3: Sharing a Folder between multiple users of an Android device

Android has allowed multiple user logins for quite a while now. This is can be very useful for tablets which are shared by family members. Normally Android erects strict Chinese walls between users preventing them from using each others apps and viewing each others files. This is a useful security feature and ensures your kids don't mess up your work spreadsheets when screwing around on the tablet and should also prevent them from buying €1,000 worth of Clash of Candy coins on your account. Sometimes however you really do want to share stuff with other users and this can prove surprisingly difficult. For example on a recent holiday I realised that I wanted to share a folder full of travel documents with my wife. Here are some ways to achieve this. 1. If you have guaranteed internet access  then you can create a shared folder on either Dropbox or Google drive. Either of these has the great advantage of being able to access the files on any device and the great disadvantage of bein

Portal 2 two screen coop on one PC.

I mentioned before that I intended to try Portal 2 in "unofficial split screen co-op mode. Well split screen on a small computer monitor is a recipe for a headache especially when the game defies gravity as much as portal. However a minor bit of extra fiddling allowed us to drive two seperate screens from one PC. The Steam forums describes a complicated method of doing this that I couldn't get working so this simpler method which worked for me might be of use to someone. 1. First I followed the instructions in this post to get split screen multi-player working: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1847904 A minor issue not mentioned is that you need to enable the console from the keyboard/mouse options menu I am using keyboard and one wired Xbox360 controller as suggested. Getting the controller to switch to channel 2 was tricky at first but as Chameleon8 mentions plugging it out and in again during loading works. The trick for me was to do the plug / p