An Educational View of Red Faction: Guerrilla: Session 8 - 2/22/10

While some people have Spring Break stories of staying at home, traveling to another city, or even another country, mine beat all of those. I flew all around the galaxy to save it from imminent extinction at the "hands" of a race of sentient machines...twice. I rescued a bunch of genetically modified little girls from the deranged squatters of a derelict city, and I fought aliens and parasites on the megastructure ring worlds of an extinct civilization. Yeah sure they weren't real adventures, but reality is all in the mind.....

The screenshot archive can be found at:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~pastorek/RFG/Session 8/

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"We saved Oasis. Eos is next" says Sam. Looks like that's where I'm heading. Odd, I destroyed that bridge in the last session. It couldn't have been rebuilt, could it?

Oh, I know what happened. For some reason I didn't save the game after I blew up the bridge, but the autosave feature did. Looking at the times between the saves, I would have lost a half hour's worth of game time if the autosave didn't catch it. Lucky me :P

Wuh oh. I'm heading into the Free Fire Zone anyway so that warning doesn't scare me.

My mission is to follow the path that the Colonel "spilled". The Commander made it clear that lives WILL be lost going through here, but the end justifies the means: Getting the Red Faction into the Eos sector will clear out the EDF's last stronghold on Mars.

I'm meeting with a group of RF vehicles. As soon as I joined the formation they all split up and formed a line, which caused one of the vehicles to bump into me. I don't have high hopes for the AI drivers.

And I was right, these drivers suck. One cut right in front of me so I T-boned their car. The debris field is from a truck that blew up near me.

Made it across. Now I have to destroy the three generators powering the FFZ cannons.

I found and APC and tried using it to ram a hole in the first generator building in an attempt to use the APC as a blunt weapon. It didn't entirely work, but now that I have a clear shot of the generator I can figure out the best way to destroy it. From my past video game experience, simply shooting it enough times should be enough.

Hmm. It doesn't seem like I'm doing enough damage. Maybe the hoses on the top are the weak spots. Yep. Now I know where to fire on the other 2 generators.

They're waiting for me with a vehicle. I'll use the one over here to even the odds a little bit.

"One more core to go."

I don't have enough ammo to punch through these turtles on foot, so I'll go back and take the APC that was shooting at me.

I'm not sure what happened, but apparently the APC got caught on some loose debris that, by the game's mechanics, launched it forward at a high rate of speed. Since I wasn't airborne, I hit something on the ground that took away about 70% of the APC's armor so by the time I hit the generator shed the APC had lost too much to be drivable. I'm close enough that I'll be able to make it on foot though, so the plan worked.

I found an ammo chest so I restocked and swapped the nano rifle for the rocket launcher. In an attempt to shoot the soldiers in front of the generator, I ended up destroying the generator itself. I should have used the rocket launcher in the first place.

A nearby radio pylon announced that the Red Faction had taken control of the Free Fire Zone and that the EDF destroyed the gun generators "to deny the enemy from using them". Sometimes the truth stings, but the EDF won't be able to cover it up for long.

All the structures here have reverted to neutral (as opposed to hostile) so destroying them doesn't do anything but give me salvage. I'll get rid of the remaining EDF crates around here and then head into Eos.

Eos has a cold, grey appearance. It might be because it's nighttime, but it still looks dead and uninviting.

"They're puttin' somethin' in the water an I'm gonna prove it!"

I wonder what the thermobaric rocket is like. I can't afford it but I'll probably be able to in the future.

The first mission I'll take on is a transporter. Instead of running down the winding slope like a moron, I'll jump off the cliff since the jetpack can help negate my downward velocity.

The vehicle is one of the ones I saw in Oasis. I wonder what keeps the doors from slamming down on whoever opens them. Springs? They could be passive dynamos, using the resistance of generating electricity to slow the door's descent. The DeLorean used gas shocks to hold up its gull-wing doors, but I read that as they aged they became unreliable and couldn't hold the weight of the door.

I took a wrong turn right near the end and I had to maneuver it across this narrow walkway. If this was a heavier vehicle it might have punched through, but I made it across and completed the mission in time.

I'm not sure what happened before I arrived, but this flaming truck is the aftermath.

The billboard says "Ore supports Earth...Earth supports Mars." I'm sure if you asked the miners and colonists they'd have a different opinion.

The concrete has bits of rebar sticking out of it. A modern construction practice is to reinforce concrete with steel rebar because it bolsters the cheap and plentiful concrete with the durability and stress mitigation of expensive steel. I like that this is shown since most of the time I just plow through the billboard support posts with a truck or something and don't stop to inspect my work.

A demolition mission. "This is combat demolition. It's not about being safe, it's about blowing the unholy shit outta those things."

That was simple, although I probably would have brought it down faster if I could toss more remote mines. I should get back to Eos since I'm done with the FFZ.

I know I've said it before but I really like the the scenery here.

Clearly the gunships have found the safehouse. What now? "I really enjoy our conversations, Mason. Everyone else treats me like...I'm messed in the head *hahahaha*" Sure thing buddy :[

I guess they just disappear. The guerrillas at the base even started to open fire on them but they flew away. What a letdown.

There's a "destroy everything" mission nearby, but first I'll take out these chemical tanks.

Now that those are out of the way, time for the mission. I'm using a mech that is equipped with a rocket launcher. This oughta be fun. the other mechs I've used were mining vehicles that were improvised melee weapons, but this one looks like it was built for war.

Unlike prior missions, I'm supposed to kill EDF soldiers, not destroy their vehicles. It's hard to see with all the rocket smoke and explosions everywhere, but I'll just hold onto the survival instinct of "keep firing until they stop making noise."

Another raid. This one is at some kind of restaurant or something. Wow, I can't believe I actually shot down a gunship with a dumbfire rocket. You'd think the gunship would have detected the projectile before it even launched.

An EDF headquarters building. I'll make quick work of it with the rocket launcher and i'll use the nearby transports to kill any soldiers blocking my way.

This vehicle is equipped with one of those mini tank cannons. I'll use that instead of the rockets because I'd be foolish to trade infinite ammo and the vehicle's protection for finite ammo and vulnerability.

Both buildings destroyed. There's a transporter mission nearby so I'll use that to get myself to a safehouse.

REALLY? Damn rocks.

Almost power slid into a pile of explosive barrels and two chemical tanks. I'll use the truck to blow them up just so that I won't have to worry about it in the future.