Operation Metro 2014 - A study in AWFUL...

Second Assault, the second DLC expansion and, previously, timed Xbox-One exclusive for Battlefield 4, has hit all Premium players' platforms on February 18th, and will be available for everyone else to buy on the... 4th of March (February is iffy when it comes to counting days). "Finally!" or "Sadly...", well, that depends on your personal preference. I know what mine is, though (and I will be dropping subtle hints from now on out).

Second Assault, or "Second Insult", as I like to think of it, is probably one of the "cheapest" map packs I can remember. Featuring four (allegedly) re-imagined "Fan-Favorite Maps" from the abysmal Battlefield 3, they're really not new at all. And there really is nothing much new about any of the maps. As such, DICE did not really have to put much work or effort into it, and they really didn't.




So, Firestorm 2014 has some more destruction - no, wait, "Levolution", they call that - to, mostly,  make fires.







So, Gulf of Oman, the remake of the remake originally from BF2, has a sandstorm to blind and annoy you.

So, Caspian Border has a tunnel, a wall, and the huge tower can be blown apart - and is hands down the best map of this debacle, not in the least because 64 players make it finally feel not completely deserted.



So the grass, once lit-up, burns away - in those two maps, where there is grass, anyway. Big deal.


But the one that undoubtedly stands out is "Operation Metro 2014".
Hailed and celebrated by Battlefield players all over the world as "the worst BF map, ever", and welcomed as "exciting, new and tactical" by the pre-pubescent "Call of Duty"-Crowd, the Original Operation Metro was bad. It was small, cramped, with no destructible environs, and so blithely linear, so painfully lacking in flanking routes, that it was nothing but a repetitive, one-way meat grinder. There just had to be something wrong with a map, if the Rush map was bigger than the Conquest Map. That was Battlefield 3. And it was horrible. But, to my profound shock, it's even worse in BF4.

Now, with BF4 and 64-player Conquest, everyone, including me, expected some big changes to the map, and the previews did look somewhat encouraging. You could see walls coming down, and the ceiling collapsing, and you thought "Oh my, I can't wait to see what else they changed, and use these new features to get outside the metro for some flank and maneuver warfare!" Because there just had to be a way now to flank into the back of an enemy entrenched in the center of the map around capture point B - like the outside area in the, comparatively amazingly open, BF4 map Operation Locker. For that matter, with 64 players, they would have to open up the whole map and add at least two additional capture points, not just the inside areas and that little square outside near the Russian Spawn. Right? Right?

Sadly, that was not the case. The Conquest map size, despite playing with almost three times as many people, is the exact same as before. The number of capture points? The same as before. The ways to maneuver behind an entrenched enemy? The same as before (meaning: none).
Yes, there have been a few "additions", although those quotation marks indicate, that "additions" is quite relative:
You can bring down a good number of ceilings throughout the level (once) to try and kill people beneath it. Of course, nothing stops the enemy from eliminating those dangers safely before you can even get there and try to use them to your advantage.
And there are two, presumably valid, new "flanking" routes, a very narrow hallway and some elevators, but all those really do is... well, nothing, except give you new places to run to to die.

As in BF3's Metro, the main objective is to "run-like-fuck to Capture Point B" and try to hold it. And since there are only three points and no way at all to get around Point B to the points on the other side, Point B wins the match. The problems with this are many and, to me at least, mysterious - as in "Why the Fuck were they allowed to be there?!"

And I do have Video Proof:








And now, that you have seen the problems, it's time to read about them:

Problem number 1: The Russians win. Why? It's pretty simple, really. The Russian team can reach point B quicker than the US team.

Problem 2: The Russians win. Why? Because not only can they reach B faster, but, to reach B from their side, the US team must fight up through five extremely narrow bottlenecks without any cover at all: two bands of narrow escalators, two very narrow elevators, one stairwell and that one new hallway. And despite this being a video-game, moving and fighting uphill is always harder than standing at the top of the hill and throwing down grenades.

Problem 3: The Russians win. Why? Because even if the US team should manage to get a foothold upstairs at the front of B, through the elevators or the first set of escalators, they are stuck, in a pretty small area, behind another set of choke points - completely vulnerable from at least two sides.

Problem 4: The Russians win. Why? Because grenades and bullets trump smoke and mirrors. With the choke points being so narrow and predictable (since severely limited), tossing some smoke to obscure your approach or a flashbang to stun entrenched enemies does not really help. 32 grenades do not care if they see you or not. Bullets from a Light Machine Gun pointed at a doorway, or down a hallway, do not care if you are obscured by smoke.

Problem 5: The Russians win. Why? While the same map in BF3 was horribly lame, at least it wasn't predetermined to be this one sided - for the simple reason that you only fought against 12 players. You could push through 12 players, even 12 decent players. In BF4, there's 32 enemy players doing nothing but throwing or shooting grenades downhill, or waiting for the elevators to open or someone to run around a corner up a one-man wide hallway, and start shooting fish in a barrel. Oh, sure, it might just be possible to push through with an organized team of 20, or even 10 people, but it's very, very easy for even for 32 monkeys to stand somewhere and throw grenades.

So, in the end, 9 times out of... well, 9, the Russians win. It's not a fight, it's a slaughter, with one side helplessly running up a hill of death.

Now, some might say it's easy to recapture a Russian-held Bravo with the US team:
"You just need to coordinate the team, get some smoke, some incendiary grenades, 10 of those MP-APS systems at the bottom of the stairs, a group of supports with the Airburst to keep the enemy in cover, then you feint to the right, throw some smoke, then all 32 people throw grenades up the stairs and rush the center, through smoke, with incendiaries securing the flank, and yes, the first few rows will get mowed down something fierce, but if everyone just pushes, it can be done!"

To which the Russian Team responds:
"You. Throw Granada. Down there. Then do again."

Whether or not it's even possible to get 32 video game players to do something together in a coordinated way, is another thing entirely. And I've heard of people using Skype to circumvent the (still embarrassing) 8 people party limit on PS4, and try to get whole teams together. But the fact that one team pretty much has to mount a complicated, coordinated attack, while all the other team has to do is spam grenades and shoot at huge targets piling out of very small doors, should speak for itself.

Operation Metro 2014 is an insult, and in its Conquest Large 64-Player iteration by far the worst multiplayer map ever conceived. And what's worse, people will still love it...



For all your PS4 or Xbox One needs, especially the European needs, head over to Amazon UK - best deals in Europe (mostly). For TV or Movie Streaming needs, as well. Yes, I do buy there myself. Exclusively. Unless I find a better deal, elsewhere...

the SH!T that HAPPENS (right about now...)

So, now that Warframe on PS4 is finally starting to make sense to me - and others, I might add - it only makes sense to leave the Frames alone for a while. And that has absolutely nothing to do with my monumental lack of coverage concerning the first ever PS4 Community Event, the Cicero Crisis. It was pretty fun, though. Sorry you missed it :)

Anyway, let's take a look around at other stuff happening in the world of gaming. Not all the stuff, but at least the stuff that caught my interest.

Where to start? The Battlefield. Battlefield 4 has had its share of issues - on all of the five platforms it has released on, a feat, that has sadly been buried under, might in fact be partly responsible for, said issues. As is a universal custom among the universally malcontent gaming customer, people have been clamoring for some "free stuff to compensate us for yadda, yadda, bla". Which, with EA as a publisher, was like asking the proverbial Wall to just go away where our head is going to go through. Then EA actually does give people stuff for free, and makes me look like an idiot.
Yes, I speaketh the truth:
BF4 Player Appreciation Month is in full effect, and giving you muchos freebies.
Every weekday, a log-in will net you a Bronze Battlepack, every Saturday and Sunday, there'll be a Silver Battlepack waiting for you. Those packs contain everything from XP Boosts to Cammo to Weapon Attachments, and are, as such, pretty nice. You could earn those simply by playing, but still. Nice, DICE.
More free access to equipment can be gotten by two upcoming Unlock Shortcuts, completely - and voluntarily - unlocking all grenades and handguns (of the main game, not the extensions). It's a shortcut, yes, but you don't have to, if your ego won't let you. It's mostly for newcomers and absentees, and I do welcome it.

Finally, a series of community events (everyone, do this so often in that time), will get everyone Golden Battlepacks, those with the rarest free stuff to be had. The first event, 10.000.000 Dog Tags in 6 days across all platforms, is running right now, so go ahead and stab someone.
They also promise more interaction between devs and the community, but I will believe that when... well, never. Gonna happen. Oh, you can also download BF4 Ringtones for your phone. And one has to wonder, which part of its customer base a "Mature" rated game wants to appreciate that way...
Anyway, it's not free Premium or something, but it's nice to be told you're appreciated. And apparently, what we get is the measure of appreciation we deserve. Or do we?



Moving on, February 25th/28th (US/EU respectively) marks the release of one of early next-gen's most anticipated titles: Thief. The "reboot" of one of gaming's most popular niche-game series was quite a long time coming, but it has recently "gone gold", so, for better or worse, it's almost upon us. Eidos Montreal, acclaimed creators of "Deus Ex - Human Revolution", recently showed off a new, six-minute "Thief 101" trailer - offering a quite compelling look into the world and the ways of the Master Thief.

Now, the younger crowd will undoubtedly have one question burning in their minds: Dishonored, much? It's a valid argument, as so many aspects of Thief seems to resemble Arkane Studio's epic journey of dishonor, dark magic and retribution. People familiar with the original Thief series probably said the exact same thing about Dishonored copying Thief, but to be brutally honest, Thief 2014 coming pretty close on the heels of Dishonored, makes the resemblance a lot more... promising.

Yes. I don't care if it's Dishonored 2.0. I loved the heck out of Dishonored, and from what I can tell, Thief looks very similar - but spectacularly, breathtakingly better from a graphics standpoint. On the other hand, Dishonored probably did have the advantage in cool abilities and nasty gadgets. Stopping time, then leaving a spring razor mine amidst a group of enemies, and vanish again never got old. Thief seems to try and be more grounded in "reality" - whatever that means in video games, anyway. There are the so-called Focus Abilities, but you will have the option (as you did in Dishonored) to forgo the use of most, if not all of them, completely. There is no denying, though, that it looks simply gorgeous, and if the game play can be held to the same high standards of its predecessors (literal and spiritual), Thief looks like pretty much everything fans of stealth-games were hoping for.



Finally, there will be a new Lord of the Rings Game. Yay. More Legos. Well, no, not really, this one looks like "Assassin's Creed - Batman in Mordor", or something to that effect. Actually, a former Ubisoft developer literally accused WB Games and Monolith Studio of copy-pasting code from Assassin's Creed 2 into their open-world adventure set behind the enemy lines in Mordor, right between the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. Middle Earth - Shadow of Mordor teases hope of a game truly deserving the LotR label, with an allegedly open world, various ways to deal with your missions, wraith-like superpowers and a procedural enemy development via the "Nemesis System".

And, yes, okay, we might see where that AC2 comparison came from. I mean, seriously, why would you have these ropes between houses? AC2 was a great game, but Shadow of Mordor already has it beat. Why? You can sneak. If there was one thing I absolutely hated in all Assassin's Creed games, it was the inability to sneak. And no, "Fast Walk" is NOT sneaking! Same goes for the legendary Batman: Arkham Franchise, whose quick combat and detective vision obviously had some impact on SoM's developers.

There are most definitely worse games to be "inspired" by, and let's be honest, when I wrote "Assassin's Creed - Batman in Mordor" who here did not have his heart skip a beat with excitement? The nemesis system, procedurally created enemies that change in every playthrough according to player choices, might the one piece of innovation, to set Shadow of Mordor apart from its spiritual ancestors. It is a very promising premise, but we will have to wait until the end of 2014 to see if the game will live up to it. For now, what seems to be known, is that enemies will indeed be different from game to game, but there is no information on how varied your choices to deal with them are, or if they are simply differently garbed place holders for the exact same missions, the only differences being cosmetic.
Further, it seems that Half-Ranger, Half-Wraith hybrid and hero Talion (oh, did I forget to mention that to the continuity and LotR Canon enthusiasts?), can instantly switch between his two existences, only use his bow in "Wraith Mode", can scale and jump and run like Altair and Ezio, can do stealth kills from both the back and the front and, sadly, seems to be employing Quick Time Events during boss fights.
Well, we can hope. I do. And if you want to learn more, feel free to join the SoM community.

For all your PS4 needs, especially the European needs, head over to Amazon UK - best deals in Europe (mostly). For TV or Movie Streaming needs, as well. Yes, I do buy there myself. Exclusively. Unless I find a better deal, elsewhere...

Warframe on PS4 - Once more into the (Orokin) Void...

Warframe, Warframe, Warframe, it's still all about Warframe (click the Links, for more Warframe). And it might be, until something better comes along, that does even less to explain itself to the people playing it...

If you're new to Warframe, I'd suggest starting with the links above - in order - or your in for major SPOILERS!! Also, you won't understand much of what I'm about to divulge.

The Void. The Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the Tenno, faceless (since helmet-wearing) Sci-Fi Ninjas, on a quest for even more loot. And special loot it is. Prime, even. No, seriously, outside of the Login-Lottery, the Void is the only place you can, if the random reward generators are equally willing, earn your Warframe Prime Gear - special, and mostly better versions of the weapons you love to kill with.

When logging in, and looking at the update screen, did you ever wonder where that damn newspaper/newsletter for the Prime Gear is? You know, "The Void Today"? I sure did.
So, I'm not that smart. I play video games all day, what do you expect?

The Void (and in my defense, that "Today" with that capital "T" is quite misleading) is a place outside of what we, the Tenno, consider our space. The Orokin, these mysterious beings of ancient mystery, made it - well, them, actually. They had a lot of spare time and Forma on their hands.
Orokin Towers are big and filled with treasure. And, as with all treasure, many have tried to win it, and it has destroyed them all. Corrupted them. So, don't feel bad about killing everything inside those towers. The enemies you encounter, from all three different ilks (Grinneer, Cropus and the Infested), are only puppets of the Orokin, and we all know what to do with puppets, right? No, not the anatomically correct life-sized ones, I paid good money for...

Anyway.

How do you get to the Void? You need a key (obviously). Keys to the Void can be gained, as pretty much everything, through the Login-Lottery; but mostly you'll earn them from Tier 3 rewards of Survival Missions. Survive the onslaught for long enough, and 2 out of 3 times, every 15 minutes will net you an Orokin Key. Keys have different Ranks (I-III equaling enemy levels of 10-20, 20-30 and 30-40, and, of course, better loot), and come in the well-known shades of different missions. There's Survival, there's Exterminate, there's Capture (how I hate those...), and all the others - just with a touch or Orokin.
The Keys you can find in your "Key Menu" (obviously). Interesting Fact, though, as opposed to the Clan Dojo Key, only the host needs an Orokin Key, and can invite up to three friends or somethings to join him: 4 people only need one Key. Even better, if you fail, disconnect or abort, the Key is not used up. As you can see, though, I don't have any friends, so I had to do this "Rank I Orokin Exterminate all by my lonesome. Hence, the length...



There's dangers in these Towers. All kinds. Corrupted, yes, but still enemies, no matter how nice they all play with each other. (Mind out of the gutter, people!) Corpus have Shields, Grinner have Armor, and the Infested burn-a-lot. So remember, when loading up for the Void, bring weapons to fight a versatile tide (bring killing stuff with at least Impact, Puncture and Slash Damage).



The enemies you can see are only part of the danger, though. Hidden pressure plates activate deadly traps, and while those spinning laser cubes might look like nothing at all, they burn you bad and quick, and you won't want to have to dodge one during a firefight. You might want to activate one, then shoot out the top to stop it from spinning and create a deadly barrier between you and your enemies, though. When those traps try to trap you is often quite predictably: Secret Treasure Room? Trap! There are a few strewn throughout the regular environment without obvious bait (including the freeze-you-into-slo-mo strips of decorative ice), but those are pretty rare.



And in that regard, at least, going solo is not a bad thing. You can take your time, especially in Exterminate Missions. Nobody runs away, so you don't have to run - period. Except for those huge empty rooms. And to cover. And... well, you know. And did you notice those pop-up covers in the environment? Very handy, those.

Void Missions not only give you rare materials like Gallium and Control Modules, Prime Gear Components or Blueprints, you might also find special mods - the Corrupted kind (obviously). In theory, Corrupted mods have two effects, just like Nightmare Mods, but only one of the Corrupted Effects is beneficial. You might get an increase in Power... uhm, Power, but get a reduction in Power Range, and so forth. Still, they do stack with similar mods to increase certain effects even more, so the trade-off might be worth it.
Sadly, as I now know, regular Orokin Missions (started by keys you get ready to use) do not get you Corrupted Mods. The Corrupted Mods are rewards for getting access to an Orokin Vault on an Orokin Derelict and extracting an Orokin Artifact. Which requires a special needs-to-be-crafted Key (for which you need all those Nav-Coordinates you find) to enter the Derelict, and another, even more special key to open the vault. Weird. But more on that, when I know more on that.

When you're done with the Void, you extract - and might get something special - most likely one Prime Gear Thingee. Sadly it seems, that to complete a Prime set, you have to do different missions (always playing Exterminate will likely net you more duplicates of the same Prime Thingee than a complementary part), and even different Mission (Key) Ranks to assemble something Prime.

And that's it. The Void (halfway) explained. Yearning to try? Warframe is free on PC and PS4. Well, it's Free-2-Play, so you can pay for instant access to better stuff.

For all your PS4 needs, especially the European needs, head over to Amazon UK - best deals in Europe (mostly). For TV or Movie Streaming needs, as well. Yes, I do buy there myself. Exclusively. Unless I find a better deal, elsewhere...

Warframe - I'm Ninja (you can't see me, you can't hit me, I murder you)

... or, "The Bow, the Knives and the Sword"

Warframe, Warframe, it's all about Warframe (click the Links, for more Warframe). So, what? I do like it. It's fun, it's free, and it's a lot deeper and more versatile than you might think. Different weapons, different Frames, and different approaches, can turn Warframe into a totally different game.

Case in point (if that is the expression, which I am totally unsure of), Warframe has a Stealth System. Yes, you, Tenno Space Ninja, can actually be really, really sneaky. Be sneaky enough, and you can finish whole missions without setting off an alarm. Why would you want to? Well, if you, like me, enjoy a good sneak, stealth kills, sniping silently from the shadows, why would you not?

Warframe does throw you in at the deep end, and especially playing with randoms mostly lacks the necessary coordination to go about things sneakily - which invariable leads to running around really quick and competing for who can shoot more things dead. But once you get along with the game, Sneaky Gameplay - and Open Combat with Sneaky Gameplay Weapons - can be an amazingly gratifying change of pace.




You can go solo, at your own pace, you can explore, collect resources, and all that, level up the "slower" weapons, farm bosses - all the while trying to hide and only be seen, if ever, far too late. If you have buddies that are willing, you can have even more sneaky fun. And the game? Plays completely different. So if you ever feel like you're getting tired of the gung-ho, run and shoot Warframe, give the slower pace a chance.

The Stealth System is surprisingly robust. Note though, that stealth requires not being engaged by a mindless Infestation. Infestation does not work with stealth. At all. I think. Anyway, every Corpus or Grineer mission, every location you first infiltrate unseen. Some missions do require you to make yourself known, but the majority does not. You can decide when to reveal your presence, or to reveal it at all.

Unaltered Enemies will follow their regular patrol patterns, and not that attentively. Hiding, crouched, in a dark corner at a right angle to a patrolling enemy walking past will not get you caught. (Once you run headlong into patrolling enemies because you didn't check your corners, they will see you and shoot at you, however, as the video above shows quite impressively.)

Being crouched does make you harder to spot, but it is not a requirement for the one stealth aspect most that played the game, specifically those that chose Loki as the "Free Starter Frame", will be familiar with: The Melee Stealth-Kill. Sneak, Run even Slide up behind an unaware enemy, and you get a free shot. On anything that offers "shots". Robotic Walkers do not. Don't try. Any melee strike is silent, the stealth kills silent and deadly. But they do not guarantee a kill, unless you do enough damage. Not so important early on, but on higher levels it will be.

Another way to kill silently, and the way to go unless you really, really like endless "sneak behind the one lone guy" missions, are silent ranged weapons. There are several options, from the throw-able melee weapons Glaive and Kestrel, to the Ninja Secondaries Kunai and Hikou, to the Bows. There are mods that can basically put a silencer on many others, but I've never seen one, so I run with the Paris bow and the Kunai throwing knives, both with high Puncture Damage against the armored Grineer. Enemies will react to missed arrows, killed enemies within their sightline, and, well, you. So try to go for the last one in line if you can, then work your way forward. You know, that scene in movies, where the three-man enemy patrol gets slowly decimated, until the leader says something, waits for a reply, then turns to find out he's all alone? That's what you're going for.

Should you, like I do quite frequently, mess up and get into a firefight, all (stealth) is not lost. Things only get irreversibly hot, once an alarm has been sounded. Enemies will very often run towards the next control console instead of shooting at you to raise one, so if you manage to kill them all before the alarm goes off, you will still be undetected. Enemies in nearby rooms, near enough to have heard the gunfire, might come to investigate, or take cover and wait for things to happen, but, being sneaky, you can still go on sneakily. Once you get far enough away from the point of disturbance, enemies will be completely oblivious, and on goes the sneakyness.

Until you really mess up, get caught between rooms so both people in front and behind you are running towards alarms, and once the sirens wail, all out war happens. That's when you get things like lock-downs (which is not a bad thing in certain situations, since if you cannot get out, no new enemies can get in), too. Any kind of alarm goes off, and all enemies in the whole level will be alerted to your presence, location and general dislike of their endeavors. Alert enemies are aggressive, vigilant and generally almost superhuman in their knowledge of where you are - or will appear.




Now, if the alarms are blaring, stealth goes out the window. There's no point to it anymore. Oh, sure, you can still try and flank enemies, or get behind them, and Loki's Invisibility is still very handy, but at the very least melee stealth kills are off the table. You don't even get the prompt anymore. So don't crouch-walk around with the alarms on, all it will do is make you an easier target. Enemies will track you down, and attack relentlessly, so the gloves come off. Now, if you're thinking "never bringing a knife to a gun fight - or a bow, for that matter" - I say to you: Bad Ninja! Look at that Green Hooded Arrow guy.

Granted, the bow requires a bit of skill, skill that I do lack most of the time, but once you get used to the travel time, the slight arc of the arrow, the relatively long wait between "shoot, reload and charge", and haven't thrown your controller into the TV in frustration, the bow is very cool. The Kunai knives might be even cooler, especially in close quarters, although I'm even worse with them than with the bow. They fire and reload pretty fast, though, so I can deal. And, as opposed to the bow, you will rarely run out of secondary ammunition. The bow's arrows come from the Sniper Ammo pool, and those are the rarest ammo drops in the game. Thus, I run with the Arrow Ammo Mutation, converting every unused ammo of any other kind into at least one arrow.

You can't see me. I hit you.

In open combat, it's the bow for the distance, the throwing knives for close range, and the sword (swords/daggers/club/axe/axes/boomerang) when things get personal. Charge attacks, and of course the Loki-Invisibility melee attacks with the inherent critical multiplier, can make short work of most enemies, even with mid-level weapons. And while that might not be immediately apparent in the boss-fight in the vid above, that dude has an insanely quick shield recharge, and I had not really brought any Impact or Electrical Weapons, so I had to "chip away", as they say. I did get the finisher in with the bow, though. Of which I am moderately proud. And so are my parents. Yours will be, too. Trust me.

When Councillor Hek was done in, and the reinforcements laid to rest, violently, all that was left was escape. Just me. And my bow. Her name's Paris. And did I mention, she can shoot through several people in one go?





And those that might ask themselves, why did I have to write all that, and not include some witty commentary on the videos? I did. I really did.

I just didn't turn on the darn microphone...

For all your PS4 needs, especially the European needs, head over to Amazon UK - best deals in Europe (mostly). For TV or Movie Streaming needs, as well. Yes, I do buy there myself. Exclusively. Unless I find a better deal, elsewhere...

WARFRAME on PS4 - Survival

(For an intro into Warframe, Tutorial Videos and Gameplay, check out these two posts:  
Warframe - a Christmas Present  and Warframe - More Info, More Gameplay) 

Warframe, the very nice F2P-Title available on the PS4 and PC is built around what is called a "tile set". Basically, these are different building blocks that can be mixed and matched to create ever different levels - albeit with the same parts. There are seven relatively unique tile sets, and while you'll often come across familiar areas during your missions, the game keeps it fresh by randomly changing the arrangement - and it's actually quite easy to get lost, because you thought you knew the way.

What's more, Warframe has different types of missions, and in this post, I will take a look at one that, as is my experience playing with randoms, seems to be a bit misunderstood:

SURVIVAL

Logic would dictate, that you'll try to keep your Tenno-ish Deeds unknown for as long as possible when engaging in a mission. An alerted enemy is a tougher enemy, and all that. Not so in Survival. Your goal is to draw attention, specifically away from another Tenno Operative doing sneaky things somewhere just out of sight. The longer you manage to do that, the more sneaky stuff your operative will get done, of course, but that part is admittedly kind-of omitted by the game.

Your Survival is measured in five minute segments, with a five minute minimum to successfully finish the mission, and every additional five minutes netting you increasingly rare rewards. The timer starts after you, hesitantly but intentionally, trigger the alarm, and the enemy will do its very evil best to kill you. Your Goal: Survival! (So, yeah, that was kinda obvious, but I couldn't resist.)

Which sounds not that hard, given that the tile sets come with many handy bottlenecks, where one could set up and dig in. Which is why, simply out of spite, the evil enemy turns off all life support systems. (How do you know they're the evil enemy, by the way? Shutting off life support even for their own guys in order to get to you is a very clear indicator. It's a check mark. A pillar of Evil Enemy-ness.)

With time, quite literally, running out, Lotus, that Cyber-Honey with the Helmet on, manages to teleport life support capsules into your vicinity. For some reason, though, she cannot teleport them all to the same place, but the game did need a reason to keep you on the move, and this one is not as bad as some I've seen.

So what you do, is you run around the level, trying to stay alive against endless waves of increasingly evil enemies, while finding and then activating life support capsules. Life support is constantly draining, and it is in your best interest to keep it above zero. It is called life support. Every capsule you activate increases the life support running time by 20-30% , but the hordes of enemies can get pretty distracting, so don't just start looking for the capsules once you start taking constant damage because there's no more air.
Because once it's gone, your mission is over. Capsules - and the smaller, dropped-by-enemies personal life support modules that regain everyone 4% when picked up - will stop working, your shields and health will drain, until you have only 5 health points left, but even those will go away after five minutes of vacuum (which is quite impressive, really).

On the other hand, don't activate a capsule until life support has drained to around 70% - anything added to over 100% will be lost, and you might come to regret those lost seconds of precious oxygen. Capsule drops will become less and less frequent the longer the mission continues, so you need to find a balance between keeping it up and not wasting any.

After five minutes of running and killing and killing and killing, your extraction becomes available. You'll still have to reach it, but it will be there waiting for you, which apparently seems to be the General Call to Flee for many of the newer players. Granted, once you hear "Extraction", people unaware of Survival's possibly endless mission length, could be forgiven for heeding the siren call of freedom - especially if you managed to net a nice mod for your collection. If you die and fail the mission, everything you picked up (except for the things you "picked up" in way of experience) will be lost, and the way to the Extraction Point will be filled with enemies.
In Survival, enemies will follow you and appear where you are, even if you don't do anything but stand around the extraction pods, waiting for your teammates to do all the heavy lifting and get you some more XP and Survival Rewards.

But still, there's really no reason except "I really need to use the bathroom, RIGHT NOW!" for a team of three or four Tenno to not remain, and last until minute ten. After ten, things might get tricky for newer or lower level players, but for the love of Pete, don't start a 60-second Extraction Timer with at least half of the team waiting near the pods at 8:50 min. Just don't. Do remember, however, that once you decide to bail out, there might be tight hallways teeming with enemies between you and a successful mission. If you get downed, you can be revived or revive yourself (eventually), and if just one of you makes it out alive, it's all good. But if at any given time all players are down, the mission fails and all those nice rewards are gone, gone, gone.

Wow. That was a lot of reading, and in these literally challenged times, too. So, here is a complete Survival Mission in two videos, going strong until minute 20. This is also the "easiest" Survival Mission, but by the end, the enemies are pretty damn tough.

That's me with three Randoms, playing a Level 20 Loki Warframe, toting the Braton Rifle, Sicarus Pistol and the Orthos Heavy Melee weapon. Notable Mods are an Aura Energy Recharge (with a raise in Warframe Mod Energy), a 45% increase in Shield Recharge, 120% Extra Health, and the 30% increased Maximum Rifle Ammo.
And yes, I am that bad. Also, I was not really used to the heavy weapon with its long strike animations, so you'll see me hitting air quite a lot after I actually had wanted to stop striking anything quite some time before...

Warframe on PS4 - Survival Mission Gameplay pt. 1 and 2





For all your PS4 needs, especially the European needs, head over to Amazon UK - best deals in Europe (mostly). For TV or Movie Streaming needs, as well. Yes, I do buy there myself. Exclusively. Unless I find a better deal, elsewhere...

Warframe - More info, more gameplay

So, as you know, I have been looking into Warframe, lately, and the more I play, the more I enjoy it.

And yet, the more I play, the more I learn, the more I want to share.

As I previously stated, Loki is not my first choice for a starter frame, nor is it my opinion that it's necessarily a bad frame. It's actually quite good, especially when playing with a diverse team, and, once you progress farther into the game Loki can become quite essential - or at least very helpful. Thus it was assured to me by the Warframe Community, and their arguments do have merit.

As you've previously seen some Gameplay with Loki, and since I actually did want to try another frame, I bought a bit of platinum, and got me a Volt. Now, Volt, is a different animal. Volt is offensive and not in the least bit stealthy like Loki. And at least during the first 20 missions, he is quite deadly.

This is some gameplay from an Alert Mission, which is a special randomly occurring event mission, only available for a short time (mostly for 30 or 45 minutes):

WARFRAME PS4 - Alert Mission Mobile Defense


Now, as you can see, Volt can keep his own in this fight, featuring good crowd control and decent defensive abilities. And it is and plays completely different to Loki. Volt is slower, and has no deception or stealth abilities at all. But it is quite fun to play, as you can probably understand. Granted, Volt is especially effective against the synthetic and shielded Corpus enemies, but there's also a Mag Frame in there, that does quite well, too.

Which is something that makes Warframe pretty attractive. Every Frame is almost a completely new game. Mag and Excalibur are two of the more offensive and more immediately gratifying choices for starters, but they are also much easier to come by through the game than Loki. So, ultimately, your choice of initial frame greatly depends on whether or not you plan to spend any money on Warframe. As a US PS-Plus member, you actually get more options, since US PS-Plus nets you a Starter Package with some Mods, an XP and Credit Bonus for three days, 50.000 in game credits (enough to buy two decent weapons, like the Braton AR) and, most importantly, 100 Platinum - enough to buy a second Warframe (either Loki, Excalibur or Volt are available for 75 Plat).

Another thing to think about, is the number of equipment slots you have available. When you start, it's only two Warframe slots and 8 weapon slots. And slots you can only get through Platinum. But there are two ways: Either buy slots separately through your Arsenal-Inventory screen, or buy a weapon or Warframe with Platinum.
Because if you buy with Platinum, you not only get the instant access, but it also comes with a Slot for it, and the weapon or Warframe is "supercharged". Meaning that you have twice the Mod energy available than usual. Mods can only be equipped if you have enough energy, and you get energy by leveling up your weapon or frame. With a "Supercharge" through the Orokin Power Source included in every Platinum purchase (it's already installed, too), you get double the Mod Energy for your level: so a level 10 Frame gets 20 instead of just 10 Mod Energy.
Yes, all of the frames and weapons (even the slightly different Prime Frames and Prime Weapons, although that will require some work) can be gotten through playing the game, and no matter which region you are, you will get some Free Platinum to buy slots, but comparing what you get for the Platinum Purchase (not to mention the free game you get to play), investing a bit might actually be worth it.

Finally, here's some more gameplay, this one sadly with a few bugs showing up, something you will still encounter every once in a while. It's the full first Boss Mission, in a four-man-team, me playing with Volt, so... SPOILER ALERT.

WARFRAME PS4 - Captain Vor Assassination


NEW Videos:

Now we take a look at a little bit of Defense, a Horde-Style, "Survive the Waves and Protect the Thing!" Mission Type.

WARFRAME PS4 - Defense vs. Grineer


Here's some Mobile Defense Gameplay against "The Infested", monster from the deep, spacey beyond... (or maybe they're Mutants. They could be mutants...)

WARFRAME PS4 -Mobile Defense vs. Infested


Finally, some more Mobile Defense against the humanoid Grineer, two parts, one whole Mission, lots of hectic crazy:

WARFRAME PS4 - Mobile Defense Special Alert Mission vs. Grinner



There might be more to come...


For all your PS4 needs, especially the European needs, head over to Amazon UK - best deals in Europe (mostly). For TV or Movie Streaming needs, as well. Yes, I do buy there myself. Exclusively. Unless I find a better deal, elsewhere...

Warframe - A Christmas Present...

It's Christmas! So, merry, merry, and all that.

Seriously, though. Merry Christmas to all that celebrate, and Happy Holidays to all, like me, that simply enjoy a few free days. I'm trying to be nice here, don't spoil it...

Anyway, since it's Christmas, I thought I'd bring you a little present. Thus, let me introduce you to...

WARFRAME

Fine, okay, I didn't make it. But it's free, so it counts as a present. Because I said so.

Warframe is a Free-to-Play, Sci-Fi Co-Op Heavy 3rd-Person Shooter, and it's available on PS4 to EVERYONE. Yes, no PS-Plus needed. Interested? You should be. Read on and watch the vids to get set with all of the info you need to start out. Because, while Warframe is quite a good game, it sadly does almost nothing to explain how things work. I will try to change that, but, as I've been told, I am not always right. I'm sure that violates a law of nature somewhere, but it is the truth. There's also still stuff I don't know or haven`t seen yet, but since this article is mainly to provide people with a place to put their feet and not be swept away, it should suffice. If you want, head over to the Warframe Wiki, but be warned, the Wiki is mostly for the PC version, which is usually a bit ahead of the PS4 when it comes to fixes, events, balancing and stats. Finally, this is my personal impression and my personal opinion. Nothing more. Maybe, arguably, significantly less, but it is what it is.

What's it about?
I'm not quite sure. You play as a Tenno, which I guess means "Space Ninja" in a language yet to be made. Your goal is to fight back against Evil. Space Evil. Ninja-Style. It all happens in our familiar solar system, but presumably far, far into the future. You shoot and kill baddies. What more do you need to know? Also, there's an in-game codex with lots of answers, if you really want to know...
The Tenno-You wears a Warframe, an exoskeleton. It looks pretty sleek. It also has powers.

There are many different Warframes with many different abilities (four to each) available, but you only get one of three for free. You can choose which at the end of the tutorial mission, so choose wisely. Actually, choose either Excalibur or Mag. Probably Mag. Loki might sound cool, but where almost every other Warframe has a devastating Area of Effect Attack, killing lots of enemies, Loki's "Ultimate" makes all the guns in his vicinity jam. Yeah.
Don't get me wrong. As I have been told by more experienced members of the Warframe Community, Loki is amazing, especially when complementing a steady crew, and even more so in the later, harder missions, but I did choose him, and I mostly felt like that guy that always comes late to the party. So, I'd advise you to choose either Mag - because it is the most expensive to buy if you don't choose it for free - or Excalibur, which is apparently the hardest of the three to get through the game without paying. Of course, all of this becomes moot, if you don't mind spending a few bucks, and in that regard, Loki, Excalibur and Volt are the three cheapest to get.

The Three Choices - well, actually, Volt has been Replaced by Mag, so...

How does it play?
Well. It's a 3rd-Person Shooter. It comes with a primary weapon (mostly a Rifle), a secondary weapon (mostly a pistol) and a melee weapon (you start with a sword). You can aim-down-the-sights, you can jump, dodge, crouch, sprint, slide, grab ledges, wall run and do some nice combo moves. You can use your Warframe powers.
Every Planet of the System has missions, and missions range from Killing all Enemies in a certain level, to assassinating a Boss.
It's best to be played with up to three friends, since the missions, even early on, can get pretty hard. If you want to see some Solo Gameplay, scroll down to the last three videos for a taste of gameplay with horrible commentary. By me.

What's the Premium/Paying Aspect?
It`s not that bad, actually. You can buy Platinum with real money, and use that Platinum to buy new weapons, Warframes, a Robo-Buddy called a Sentinel, new Skins and Resources. You can speed up the building time for stuff that you will eventually build with resources. You can do a lot. And I won't lie to you, it's not cheap. Then again, there are people that threw hundreds of dollars into that Simpsons Build-a-City F2P mobile game, so the audience is there I guess. When you start you get a small amount of Platinum for free (more if you're a US PS+ member), but, sadly, not enough to really buy something good. It's a free taste, and it's useful especially early on for some small stuff, like weapon slots.
BUT, you can get pretty much all of the stuff you can buy by simply playing the game. It will take a while, though. To build stuff, you need blueprints and resources and credits. All of those can be earned and bought without ever spending a dime. But it will take some time to get them. Well, quite a lot of time. Yes, it's a grind, quite literally, but if you have a few friends to play with, it's a FUN-grind. No, I'm serious. This is not a pay-to-win game, but the incentives to buy with Platinum (a free equipment slot and a supercharge to your purchase) are there - and for such a fun game, the devs do deserve something, right?

How do you get to kill stuff?
Anxious, are we? Alright. First, you download Warframe, then go through the update process. As with many F2P games, content is constantly added, so there are mandatory updates.
Then you play the tutorial, choose your Warframe (don't choose Loki unless you're planning on running with a crew, did your Warframe research far beyond what this article provides, plan on playing Warframe for quite some time and really like being stealthy with a rather steeper and less immediately rewarding learning curve), and then you can go on missions. There's only one mission on one Planet available at the start, so once you enter the Main Menu and select "Play", you choose Mercury, Mission 1 and you can start.

There are a few things to be looked at before, though:

First, default setup is to automatically look online for people to play with. You can change that in the lobby by pressing "Triangle" and selecting options from open matchmaking to playing solo. Enemy Strength scales with player numbers, so if you have friends to play with, set your Online Connectability to Private or Invite Only. Having buddies is not only good for fun, buddies can also revive you if you die. If there`s people with you, once your health reaches zero, you bleed out. During bleed-out, your buddies can revive you, while you can still use your pistol to keep the baddies of their backs.
If they don't make it, well, you can revive yourself. You get 4 free revives a day, reset at 0:00 GMT, but if you run out, you can spend a small amount of Platinum to recharge. Since you have a bit of free Platinum already, it's not that big of a deal at first. But it's good to know, especially since if you die and forfeit the mission, you ONLY get experience. Resources, Weapon and Warframe Mods, anything else you picked up will be gone.

Second, there are a few options you might want to look at: Specifically the control options, for inverted y-axis for camera movement (if you're so inclined), and something very, very useful for pulling off advanced wall-running maneuvers. The Video later on will show this more clearly, but in short, if you like to be able to aim while wall running, you need to set "Hold Jump/X to wall run" to OFF.
One more option of interest is the Maximum Ping for open matchmaking. We all hate laggers, and setting this option to a lower value than the default 300ms will alleviate that somewhat. But it will also limit your matchmaking pool, so be aware.
And lastly, the way to activate your powers: either via the touchpad - which requires a certain dexterity if you want to keep moving and aiming while swiping in a direction; or via the D-Pad and then activate it with L1. Both have disadvantages, but you'll have to try them for a bit to really see what they are. Okay, fine, the touchpad can sometimes choose the wrong power to go off, and it's kinda hard to swipe with your index fingers, while the D-Pad and L1 option makes it really hard to slide and adjust your aim. But that's just me.

What now?

Now that you've been through a mission or two, it's time to look a bit more closely at what this game and its features have to offer. But don't worry, enough with the reading, here come my personal intro videos, with horrible commentary. By Me.

First off, is a look into the menus, the Arsenal where you choose your loadouts and the markets:


WARFRAME - AN INTRO VIDEO - THINGS TO KNOW - The Menus and Stuff


Second, here's a look at the Play Screen, the Mission Selection, Mission Types and the different Resources of different Planets:

WARFRAME - MORE THINGS TO KNOW - Missions and Resources


Finally, here's a how-to on doing some of the more Advanced Moves in Warframe. This is especially useful, since the game does nothing to explain all those. This is also where the option change concerning wall-running comes into play.

WARFRAME - MORE THINGS TO KNOW - Advanced Maneuvers



A few Tips:

Of course, this is not all, and there's still so much I don't know about. Like Clan stuff, the Clan Dojo (where you can apparently spar against other clan members, and even do some research for new weapons). Or the freshly introduced Conclave system, allowing you to fight 1v1 or 2v2 PVP. Mod Fusion and Mod Transmutation. Maximization, special builds for special missions. And more.
Still, I know more than SOMEone, so let me leave you with a few tips:

If you like Warframe, log in every single day. EVERY single day, even if all you do is log-in. Why? Because every day you log in, you enter the log-in-lottery. And the more consecutive days you log in, the better the prices get. I once got a Weapon Blueprint for logging in the fourth consecutive day. It's free stuff for a log in. Just do it.

Buy the Blueprints for Team Heal and Team Ammo, and if you can, build a few and carry them around with you on missions. You equip stuff like that in your Arsenal/Gear by selecting an empty slot and choosing the item you want. You use it by holding "down" on the D-Pad, selecting it with the Right Stick and pressing X.

Buy a Codex Scanner from the Market/Gear and scan enemies for some free XP and info on their abilities, resistances, and possible drops, to be perused in the Codex. You need to equip the scanner in the Arsenal, then use it as you use all gear, and scan enemies during missions (for all the info you need to scan the same enemy type multiple times). When used, the scanner is held instead of a weapon, so you aim with L2 and scan with R2 - but you also need to press "Triangle" to change back to a weapon that can actually shoot. The Scanner not only scans, but it also shows you un-scanned enemies and un-scanned storage containers through walls!

Don't play a Rescue Mission Solo unless it's really far below your current level, or you really, really know what you're doing. Also, don't try a Capture Mission Solo with a slow Warframe. Just trust me on this.

Invest some Money in Platinum. Support the people who made this. I'm not talking about hundreds of dollars, but you get a great game to play with friends. And it's Christmas. Let's show some love.


WARFRAME GAMEPLAY - with horrible commentary. By Me.

This is a three-parter of me playing a Solo Capture Mission. It should give you an idea of what to expect. Of course, this is just me playing an early mission Solo. Things get exponentially crazier the more you progress and the more people are involved.

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Enjoy! And for more info and more gameplay of Warframe, visit: Warframe - More info, more Gameplay - Yeah. Subtle, I know.


For all your PS4 needs, especially the European needs, head over to Amazon UK - best deals in Europe (mostly). For TV or Movie Streaming needs, as well. Yes, I do buy there myself. Exclusively. Unless I find a better deal, elsewhere...