Session 10 - 3/22/10 - 6:00PM to 8:00PM

I played Metro 2033 over the weekend. It's a first person shooter based on the Russian novel of the same name in which the survivors of Moscow carve out a new, though bleak, life in the Metro tunnels after the world blew itself apart with nuclear war. It was a very realistic game and included a large number of character archetypes such as beggars, comedians, tough guys, grandfatherly figures, and so on. Even the non-essential NPCs had dialogue that I could overhear, such as a former submarine officer talking about how the comm channels went silent when Moscow was nuked and market vendors trying to out-shout each other.

It pleases FPS enthusiasts, those with a taste for post-apocalyptic games, RPGers, and other demographics. It definitely felt like I was venturing through the scraps of a displaced civilization trying desperately to survive the constant onslaught of mutants, bandits, and the endless winter. The game designers made sure to use realistic "barricades" such as destroyed cars, collapsed tunnels, or locked doors to let me know where the boundaries of the game where.

The screenshot archive can be found at:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~pastorek/RFG/Session 10/

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I'm driving into the Irradiated Zone. The last time I bought the armor plating that will protect me from the radiation, but I don't see any visual depiction of it on the vehicle I'm driving.
I'm entering Marauder territory now.
Warning signs. They look somewhat aged but it's likely they haven't been properly maintained given where they are.
A radioactive symbol appeared at the top along with my health bar, but the health bar disappaered and only the symbol remains. I hear the ticking of a gieger counter, likely to let me know that this is dangerous territory and to remain inside the vehicle.
A Marauder vehicle literally spawned in front of me, giving me no time to react and causing me to collide with it. More Marauders joined in from behind and to the right. Although this ATV has a machine gun, it's weak frame is vulnerable to gunfire and I wouldn't survive for very long if I went head-to-head with them.
If I didn't know any better I'd say that's the outer hull of what used to be a starship.
They destroyed my vehicle. There are too many to fight so I'm going to try to outrun them.
That didn't work. What's the death count now, 16? Mason must be going on his third cat by now.
This time I'll take a dump truck because I know it can take a few hits and keep going.
It's durable, but not agile. I'll trade it for one of the Marauder vehicles instead.
That plan worked...barely. I slid off the road a little further up so I had to abandon it.
Apparently the leader of the Marauders, Vasha, is Sam's sister. The two of them debated over the nano forge and its use, and the agreement they made with is that the Marauders will ally with us as long as Mars belongs to them at the end. Not sure how that'll work out, but I'll let time run it's course. The story missions are back in Eos so I'll head there.
The first mission involves me protecting a Marauder truck that has stol..."borrowed" a missile from an EDF facility that will be filled with nanites and fired at the Hydra. Instead of directly protecting the truck, I'll be firing the Free Fire Zone cannons. Sam says they replaced the power cores I destroyed but the guns haven't been tested yet.
I keep getting scolded for shooting too close to the truck but, as you can see, area-of-effect damage is quite easy here.
The truck bumped into one of the carcasses of the EDF transports I blew up and Sam announced that it was destroyed. Whatsamatta? Can't drive around them?
We have the missile now. On to the next mission. After the EDF destroyed the safehouse last time, many Red Faction members lost hope. Sam and I are going to take over an EDF radio broadcast station and let them know that the Faction is still powerful.
Looks like they know we're coming. Good thing I'm fighting fire with fire.
How can Sam expect me to fight off the EDF when they're coming from all sides? The blue flashes at the bottom of the tower are the after effects of a singularity bomb. Once the tower fell I failed the mission.
At least it started me at the radio station. I'll use that homing rifle this time. The faster I can kill the approaching soldiers, the better.
Message broadcasted, but now I have to escape. This APC will do. Sam didn't waste any time jumping into the turret.
EDF control is at 0 - Time to liberate Eos. That's the last monumet; I should destroy it while I'm here.
Well, was the last monument. The EDF was waiting for me. Too bad they couldn't stop the rockets.
The liberation mission requires me to infiltrate EDF Central Command. A force field blocks non-EDF vehicles from entering, but Sam has procured a transport with a cracked IFF transponder.
There it is. I wonder how it determines whether or not a vehicle is EDF? For that matter, how does it stop unauthorized vehicles? I'd imagine that the in-game mechanic is just to treat it like a solid wall, but in real life.....
Now that I'm inside, I'm supposed to destroy the core that powers it.
"The force field is down. Here comes the cavalry."
A rocket mech. I won't pass up this opportunity.
Well that certainly didn't last as long as it did during the "destroy everything" missions, but at least I took down two tanks, several small vehicles, and I can't count how many soldiers were caught in the crossfire.
I took down a couple airships and EDF transports, but I'm not going to last long on foot.
Now that I destroyed the power core, Sam wants me to make a direct assault on the command building. She said General Roth may be inside. Someone conveniently left another rocket mech for me.
"What's the situation?" "Central Command is a pile of rubble, but no sign of General Roth." "He must have escaped."
I ditched the mech and took an EDF transport. This looks like it might be the last assault on the EDF. The Marauders are at the control tower at the top of the mountain, where the mass accelerator's barrel exits, and Sam wants me at the bottom to help set up the missile.
EDF soldiers are advancing on our position. I'm using the satellites to spot targets for the FFZ guns again.
The incoming vehicles are getting stuck on the corpses of those before them.
Sam disconnected me from the satellites and wants me to go to the top of the mountain to help the Marauders fight off the EDF.
I reached the top of the mountain with just a sliver of armor left in the tank. I'm on foot now, and Roth is threatening to destroy the planet if I don't give him the nano forge.
I'm glad they're on my side this time.
Now I'm facing off against the General himself. On foot. While he's in a tank. This is extremely unfair...
...for the General. Maybe next time I'll shoot with my left hand.
"I did it Sam. The launch tube doors are open." "We're ready to launch. Might wanna cover your ears."

This is a video I found of the ending since a montage of pictures doesn't do it justice:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyMSsgFjGxk

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On that note, for those of you who stuck it out with me through these 20± hours of gameplay, you now have an understanding of Red Faction: Guerrilla and, if you choose to buy it, will be better prepared to overcome the challenges I had to overcome.

I didn't find all 300 crystal growths or destroy all 300 EDF storage crates, but those are tertiary accomplishments that would just be a mundane "search & destroy" with a guide open that points out their locations.

I didn't complete all the missions, but since I did a few in all of the categories (demolition, hostage rescue, raid, etc) there's really no point to doing the rest other than a sense of completion.

I didn't upgrade all the weapons, nor did I buy all of them, but this game was designed so that I didn't have to. Given that every gamer differs from every other gamer, there will be some who prefer the remote mines to the rocket launcher and some who prefer a shotgun to a machine gun, but to each his (or her) own.

What I did do, however, was free the colonists and miners of Mars from the tyrannical grip of the EDF. I gave them a chance to prosper without the weight of the police state on their shoulders. I removed the checkpoints, the random beatings, the document inspections, and so on. I gave them the freedom they'd been wanting for years.

I am the voice of Mars.

Session 9 - 3/15/10 - 6:00PM to 8:00PM

The last of the snow is melting and we reach that magical time of the year where all the garbage and dirt collected by the plows is revealed under the melting black piles.

Command and Conquer 4: Tiberium Twilight is supposed to be released tomorrow. I've played the C&C series since the original and I'll be honest: it's become repetitive to the point that I'm not sure if I'll get C&C 4. I like the updated graphics, vehicles, missions, etc, but it's still the same "build an army, destroy the enemy's" game. I'll check out gameplay videos and whatnot before I make a final decision though.

The screenshot archive can be found at:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~pastorek/RFG/Session 9/

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I'm 4 guerrilla missions away from 50, which will likely lead to another unlocked weapon. I'll do those first.
The first mission was a raid on an EDF building that quickly devolved into guerrillas on the ground using conventional rifles to fire at gunships. I used my rocket launcher. As I was leaving, a random pedestrian said, "Your wanted poster doesn't do you justice."
The second mission was announced over the radio. A fuel depot is being absorbed by the EDF and we're supposed to fight them off. This is the same fuel depot I died at last time. I'll be sure to stay clear of the fueling pumps this time.
The third mission is demolition with a mech. The first time I tried it I ran out of time because I didn't destroy everything, but the only things left to "destroy" were overhangs that were too high for the mech to reach. The second time there were still some things standing when I apparently finished the mission. Very strange.
The fourth mission is with Jenkins. During the entire run he was talking really calmly and solemnly, except for when I was destroying stuff and his witty retorts would pop up. At the end, the last thing he said was something like "For Mars to be free, the Red Faction has to die."
Apparently one of the missions I completed didn't count as a guerrilla action. It was probably the demolition one. I'll find another mission to complete.

I'll rescue some hostages. As soon as I started opening fire, a horde of guerrilas joined in. Surprisingly, the guerrillas actually killed all the EDF soldiers while I went inside to rescue the hostages. My only opposition was a couple transports that showed up while I was escaping.
50 guerrilla actions completed, but no milestone. A brief search on google doesn't turn up anything about specific milestones, so I don't know what to say. At the very least morale is at 100 and there are only a few things non-story missions left in Eos. I'll go destroy the rest of the bridge I began to bring down during Jenkins' run.

I destroyed one of these monuments during the first raid mission. This is the second out of three I'll eventually destroy. The monument site lit up as soon as I fired the first rocket and I left it a body-strewn war zone behind me. So much fuss over a bit of concrete and steel...
Hmm. The bridge has been repaired. Also, the APC's cannon isn't doing any damage to the structural supports. Nano rifle time.
While I'm here I'll buy the heat-seeking rockets upgrade. I've had to fire rockets at gunships quite frequently and this'll help out a lot.
The nano rifle made quick work of destroying the bridge and the EDF's control of this sector is at 11. One more guerrilla mission and I'll start doing story missions.
The first mission is to kill a number of business leaders who happen to be gathering in a nearby building for a meeting. If it appears that the "insurgency" can't be contained, they'll pull back their support for the EDF, which will cause the EDF to lose even more of their grip on Mars. The briefing suggests this will be a massacre. When I arrived at the building I was surprised to find that it wasn't even a fully-built structure. You can clearly see the steel endoskeleton poking out of the top and there are no windows or exterior details. What kind of dumbass meeting is, or was, this? Now I'm curious; was this a setup?
Now I know what you're thinking. Did I fire six rockets or only five? Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. The heat-seeking capabilities definitely helped guide some of the rockets around the building's debris to their targets. I can't believe this is still drivable after being nearly point blank by one of the rockets.
The next story mission is to eliminate some EDF snipers who are keeping the nearby citizens under (lethal) lockdown.
My M.O. in the close quarters of the buildings was to use the sledgehammer to kill the soldiers as I passed by them, but I accidentally hit an ammo crate and the crate exploded, taking out about 40% of the building.
I took one of the sniper's rifles. I like using an enemy's weapons against themselves.
Who says I have to snipe with a sniper rifle?
Mission complete. Only one more and Eos is liberated. This final mission involves me leading a multi-sector assault into the Eos sector. The Commander said that either the EDF will accept peace on our terms or continue fighting a war they can't afford.
One thing I've noticed with vehicles in video games is that I've yet to play one that takes into account the wind resistance that keeps car doors shut. Seeing the door on this EDF transport stuck wide open hurts the realism of the game slightly.
All of the sudden the Commander aborted the mission on the grounds that we were under attack. I'm given 3 minutes to make it to a Red Faction camp.
I might be too late. "The Commander is dead. I repeat; the Commander is dead." One of the last bits of radio chatter I heard was a guerrilla warning the others about incoming EDF bombers.
Now that I've found Sam, we're in the center of an ambush. The nearby mountains provide us some protection and bottleneck the approaching soldiers, but it'll still be a tough fight. The nearby cover are the modular shacks scattered around the area, but they're quickly being leveled by gunship fire and singularity bombs. I didn't get a picture of it, but apparently a singularity bomb is a device that creates a miniature black hole. Assuming it's lethal, I didn't get close enough to take a picture of one in action.
All of the nearby guerrillas died except for Sam and I. A cinematic cutscene showed the Sam and Alec debating about what they should do now that the Commander is dead and the Red Faction is somewhat scattered. Alec mentioned the nano forge, and Sam suggests that it can be used to take down the Hydra, the EDF flagship heading towards Mars and bringing Hell with it. Sam said we need the help of the Marauders, and Alec immediately questioned her mental health. Sam revealed that she is, in fact, a Marauder and that they'll listen to her. This explains her sadness when I first found the nano forge. Apparently the Marauders have a mass driver that can be used to fire the nano forge's ammunition at the Hydra.

My mission now is to gather bits of scrap to be used as radiation shielding so that I can cross the Irradiated Zone. I have 1131 salvage saved up and it only costs 150, so I'll buy it right away. With the shielding in place, I'll head into the zone next week.