Keri Honea - 136/183 - Strategy Guide Reviews

Portal 2 Strategy Guide Review

May 25, 2011 By Keri Honea Leave a Comment

Part of the fun of playing games in the Portal franchise is trying to figure out all of these insane puzzles yourself, as it really is VERY rewarding to do so. At times that reward feels like you’re an idiot for making things really hard on yourself, but it’s still immensely satisfying no matter what the aftertaste is. However, patience runs thin for many of us, so for those puzzles that do make you pull your hair out because you have no idea where to go or how to get to a certain point, Future Press’s Portal 2 Strategy Guide is your life line for keeping you away from Cave Johnson’s insanity.

One thing I really appreciated were the warnings/suggestions at the beginning of the single-player and co-op chapters, where it strongly urged players to only use the guide when they were stuck. I can’t recall any guide saying that, not even the original Portal strategy guide. Granted, the reason why people buy a strategy guide is for assistance, but it’s nice that the writers asked users to try to work out the puzzles on your own, because really, you won’t get the beauty of the game without trying on your own.

Thankfully, the rest of the Portal 2 strategy guide is great and doesn’t hide behind this suggestion to mask any deficiencies. The guide is divided by campaign, chapter, and then chamber. The start of every chamber has a clear map–multiple maps if the level has multiple areas–with marked orange and blue portal placements. Each placement is numbered to correspond with the numbered paragraphs in the walkthrough. So if you just look at the guide whenever you have a quick question, it’s extremely easy to find what you need within seconds.

And if you just don’t understand how to implement their advice, you can use the little QR codes at the top of every chamber. Register your strategy guide online at Future Press, and then you can type in the QR code and watch a short clip of how to solve the puzzle. Just be prepared to perform a hefty face palm after you watch the videos.

In addition to the maps, the strategy guide does include various screenshots with the walkthroughs to help point out where you should place your gels or your portals. The maps do a fairly great job of depicting portal, light bridge, and funnel placements, but they don’t show where to place the gels. I find this to be a good thing, because otherwise the maps would be a mess of blue and orange. Instead, the screenshots depict a mess of blue and orange, but at least there, it’s easier to decipher and that’s what you’re going to be seeing anyway.

Within the walkthrough paragraphs, there are also callout boxes–marked with a nifty Aperture Science logo–for speed tips, hidden Achievements/Trophies, warnings, etc. I most likely wouldn’t have racked up half of the random Achievements without these callout boxes, because I never would have thought to head to certain areas or do certain completely random things. I was too busy laughing at all of the dialogue or trying to figure out how to make a jump without dying.

Of course, in true Future Press fashion, there is more to the guide than help with the single-player and co-op campaigns. There is an artwork section, explanations of the Portal universe, interviews with the devs in the Collector’s Edition, AND a speed run guide for the first Portal game. I personally didn’t try out the speed runs because as I stated earlier, I didn’t enjoy the first game. However, I did watch the movie clips, and I can attest that these guys definitely know what they are doing. I watched most of them with my lower jaw in my lap.

However, my personal favorite feature of the Collector’s Edition guide is the two woven bookmarks included: one is orange and one is blue.

To make a long story short, the Portal 2 strategy guide is flawless and offers everything anyone could want to get the most out of both Portal games and the Portal universe.

SGR Rating: 5/5

Authors and Publisher: Future Press
Editions Available: Paperback and Collector’s Edition
Acquired via Publisher

Aficionado Anecdotes – Learning to PC Game

May 23, 2011 By Keri Honea Leave a Comment

So I’ve learned over the last couple of weeks that there is a bit of a steep learning curve when it comes to PC gaming. Portal was a nice, slow introduction to it, especially since the last PC game I seriously played was either Warcraft III or Age of Mythology. So I [wrongly] assumed that picking up any other PC game would be just as easy to learn and just as intuitive. Oh how much Dragon Age: Origins has taught me this is not the case.

For starters, there really isn’t a great tutorial for the controls. The game goes over distributing orders, leveling up, setting tactics, and the like, but it never–unless I missed it completely–goes over camera controls. Until yesterday, I believed that there was no way to rotate the camera, which forced me to constantly play in the overhead view. I like this view for combat and issuing orders, but I don’t like it for exploring and general running around. Not to mention the fact that I couldn’t figure out how to turn around so I could open doors that were behind me. I was having some serious buyer/seller remorse over it.

So yesterday, after dying a lot because I couldn’t rotate the camera enough to really figure out who all was attacking me and where they were coming from, I pulled up the options screen. There had to be a way, dammit! And yeah, there was. There are some really simple keyboard controls that handle all of that. And hey, I can use the keyboard to move my character! I don’t have to use the mouse to click on set positions all the time! The game’s controls are actually fun now!

And while I back in the options area, clicking around on everything to see what other vital information I might have missed, I noticed that my resolution was set at 800×600. No wonder the graphics looked worse than the 360! Once I reset them to my Mac’s lovely 1440, the difference was unreal. No more pixels, my character looks as awesome as she did–actually, more awesome–on the 360, and unlike the 360, there are no framerate issues. The game crashed on me once, but I’m hoping that was a hiccup and not a result of Bootcamp taking a dump with the upped resolution.

So hey, DAO is fun again, I feel like a complete idiot, and I’m looking forward to getting into some more PC games. Just don’t tell my EIC over at GamesAreEvil.com!

Prepare the Pitchforks: I Didn’t Really Like Portal

May 20, 2011 By Keri Honea Leave a Comment

I finished Portal 2 earlier this week, and as such, I’ve been pushing people to get into Portal 2 like it’s my final mission in life, even to my friends who have never played the first Portal. After ordering a co-worker to purchase P2 from Twitter today, I realized with surprise that I’ve never really encouraged anyone to play a game with this kind of vigor before. What doubly surprised me was the fact that it was for P2, especially since I didn’t really like Portal to begin with. Then I mentioned this on Twitter. Enter the angry replies.

So here is why I really didn’t like Portal.

Portal stressed the hell out of me for the same reasons why platformers stress the hell out of me. I have zero patience for pretty much everything in life. If I can’t do something perfectly the first time, I usually get frustrated and quit. It drove my mother insane when I was a child. This is why I don’t enjoy platformers; failing at performing certain jumps over and over is not fun for me. It frustrates me. It stresses me. It makes me flip over coffee tables in rage. This is part of the reason why I got into strategy guides in the first place: they helped me skip the frustration.

Portal had a similar effect on me. I was fine with most of the puzzles, but the puzzles that had timers or the ones that were 100% suspended over goo that melts your flesh and required the use of moving platforms nearly did me in. As disgusting as it sounds, I sweated through my shirts more often than I should have. It also didn’t help that the constant quiet other than the hum of moving platforms (that I swore I heard in my sleep) and bullet fire really messed with my mind. The first Portal did set out to mess with you, and it was a great success–pun intended–with me.

And on a final note, the controls drove me batty as well. One thing I greatly appreciated in P2 was that my aim when I would jump down stayed consistent while falling instead of constantly sliding upward. Double-flinging was cake–another pun intended–with this control fix.

Now this does not mean at all that I don’t appreciate the first Portal game. It was and is the most unique and creative puzzle game I have ever had the privilege to play. I am very pleased that I played it and completed it, but I know I won’t play it again. Chapter closed, and Portal 2 warmly embraced.

In My Mailbox: the Strategy Guide Motherload

May 19, 2011 By Keri Honea 2 Comments

Am I showing off in this post? Most definitely. I love getting things in the mail, no matter if I purchased them or not, and I was overwhelmed at the sheer number of high quality books that came in this week’s deliveries.

I haven’t decided which I’m keeping, which are going out for review, and which will take part in a fantastic new giveaway. A few have been decided, but not all. I wish I could play everything, but alas, my clone machine still isn’t up to snuff.

See anything you like? 😀

LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars Strategy Guide Review

May 18, 2011 By Keri Honea Leave a Comment

When it comes to LEGO games, everyone knows that it’s not very difficult to get through each level. When you’re stuck, you just break enough stuff until the solution appears. One can burn through any of the games in less than 10 hours with that method. However, everyone also knows that the main point to the LEGO games is to complete them to 100%, which means obtaining all the studs for “True ____” status, finding all the pieces to whatever you’re supposed to build, snagging gold bricks, and locating (and buying!) all of the red bricks. Here is where one may need the guide, because oftentimes, it’s just not that obvious where you can find all of these delightful collectibles. It is this standard that the strategy guide for LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars has been held against, and the guide fulfills this monumental task very well.

The opening page for each mission starts with maps that pinpoint locations of the various Minikits, locations of items needed to reveal a Minikit, and locations of the highly coveted purple studs. While these maps are quite important, the most useful portion of the opening pages is the chart that lists all of the Minikits in every mission, where they can be found, and if they can be obtained in Story Mode or Freeplay. Just below the chart is the stud requirement for the True Jedi status. For the DS guide portion–yes, they are two separate games–the stud requirements for both Story Mode and Freeplay are listed.

Unfortunately though, it is with these charts and maps that the guide lost half a point in the rating. In a few places, the True Jedi requirements were incorrect. For example, the Epilogue is listed as having a 20,000 stud requirement, when in reality, it’s 250,000 studs. In addition, the map to the right is supposed to mark 10 rocks the player has to break in order to summon a Minikit. There is no number 10 on the map; however, I have to wonder if this is the fault of the guide writers or the game, because after roaming every inch of the area, I couldn’t find this 10th rock. As LEGO games are known for their glitches, it’s possible that this rock doesn’t exist.

Everything else in the guide, though, is flawless. The page layout makes it very easy to follow along with the story sequence, locate Minikits, and locate Red Bricks. With each callout for the Minikits, it’s clearly labeled as whether the Minikits can be found in the Story or in Freeplay so you won’t have to waste your time trying to search for them in areas you won’t be able to reach. If you need to purchase a certain character to obtain the Minikit, the player is forewarned. There are also separate callouts on the page for words of caution, notes, and tips for obtaining True Jedi status.

To make things even easier to find, there are colored tabs on the right pages (as shown to the right) to mark exactly where each mission is in the guide, for both console and DS versions of the game.

The console version of LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars has an extensive Hub world, and I know I never would have found the second Hub that opens up more missions without this guide. Why? Because I never once would have thought about flying a ship OUT of the Hub world. I was surprised to even find that the Hub world was mentioned at all in the guide; that’s how much I wouldn’t have thought about exploring outside of the Hub. Everything in the Hub is obvious enough, right? Apparently not in this game.

So despite the minor flaws mentioned above, I cannot recommend this guide enough. For anyone who wants to complete the game 100%, the LEGO Star Wars III: Clone Wars strategy guide is practically a necessity.