PixlBit

   Starting tomorrow is the Too Many Games Convention at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Phoenixville, PA, which is not in the city but in the suburbs. This convention is like practically in my back yard, and it's gotten bigger and bigger every year, but I haven't planned for it again, and so won't be going. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME!!! Let's look at what I'm going to be missing and then maybe I'll buy tickets for next year.

     It’s 1979. Space Invaders, Asteroids and Lunar Lander rule the arcades, but what’s this tucked away in the corner? Lunar Rescue? What’s that? It looks like all those games mashed up into one game. Oh yea, this is awesome!

    You are one of the four members of the Ranger Corps. Poachers are killing animals to the point of extinction. What will you do? Punch and kick and give them a taste of your rocket launcher of course - SHBROOM! And get some help from your animal friends too!

    A full day put into Enemy Front chasing down achievements. I played to get all the mission based achievements, and while I was there, looked for secrets I'd missed. It was my second full playthrough of the game, with some extra levels played partially a third time for the drawing-a-resistance-logo-on-a-Warsaw-wall-14-times achievement.

     Saturday I logged another 3 hours into Enemy Front before work. A lot of the time the game seems to be asking me to stealth my way through an area, but I'm finding this really impossible. You have no silencer or throwing knives, so getting close is your only option. Thing is, they see you very quickly, and then it becomes a firefight, which is more my style anyway. Oh yeah, I finished the campaign in a very slow 9 hours total. My friend did it in 6 and HowLongToBeat.com says it can be done in under 5. Well, I like to explore as I go and not race to the end.

    I started Enemy Front on Sunday and played for about three hours or so until I got to this sniping mission that drove me nutzo. There's something about the targeting controls that I just don't like - seem too sensitive. My crosshair kept zipping too quickly across targets. Only when I quick-scoped (or quick-iron-sighted I guess you'd call it here) did I have good accuracy. Anyway it was taking me too long to aim with the controls. I repeatted the level several times before I had to take a break out of frustration. Then I lent the game to my friend sitting next to me and watched him adjust the sensitivity and then get past the area where I got stuck. Boy am I stupid.

     Today was a long one in front of the TV catching up with the games annouced at Microsoft's pre-E3 briefing and getting my gun fu on in Wolfenstein: New Order.

     I want my very own Panzerhund. A Kampfhund would do nicely as well, but a Panzerhund would be the best. . . I found out that the word "panzer" means armored, so the Panzerhunds in Wolfenstein: New Order are the big all metal ones. "kampf" means fight or struggle, so kampfhund means fighting dog. They are the partially armored real dogs in the game. The one's you have to fight most often. Oh yeah, and then there's swinehund which just means pig dogs. There are no pig dogs in the game, you just get called that frequently by the Nazi soldiers. German lesson over. Now to how I played Wolfenstein the last two days.