Week of 10 Mar 2024
“A woodchuck would chuck no amount of wood since a woodchuck can’t chuck wood.”
Achievements Earned In:
- Crysis 3
- A Little to the Left
- Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge
- Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters
This week was the end of Prophet’s journey in Crysis 3, and it was luckily a pretty easy stroll to the completion. The “Supersoldier” difficulty continued to be much easier than I expected, and both beating the level-specific achievements and the levels themselves was simple enough. If there was any issues at the end, it was collecting the final weapon attachments and suit upgrades. For the former, I luckily knew exactly which one I’d missed: a bayonet for a Marshall on “Safeties Off”, which of course I didn’t pick it up because, ew, shotguns. But it’s right in the opening of the level so that took almost no time to mow down the CELL soldiers looking for you and cycle through all their weapons until it popped. The hardest part of wrapping this up was locating which three upgrade kits I’d missed, since I didn’t follow a guide for that particular collectible as I played. I found one quickly because a quick skim of a guide I instantly recognized a later-level one I don’t remember. I also scouted the locations for them as I went back for other achievements, and even worked on upgrading the suit modules as I played, too. By the time I reached the final set of upgrades, I only needed a few that could all be completed on the same level, “The Root of All Evil”. Kicked some big white containers at some dudes, smushed some dudes with my big ole feet, and carelessly played peek-a-boo with an attack helicopter and I was done! Overall, not counting the multiplayer that I didn’t really “play”, I really enjoyed this game. I just love stealth gaameplay, and having that option just always tickles my brain. Even if playing that way made this take longer.
Achievements unlocked: 60 (+25) | Completed
So, in post-apocalyptic Brooklyn, someone took the time and had the resources to put up this sweet mural???
The Daily Tidys I do every day in A Little to the Left continue to dish out cumulative achievements as I slowly work my way to the 30-day mark, alongside the actual achievements for this mode.
Achievements unlocked: 9 (+3) | Completion: 16%
YARRRR! It be time to finally check off Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge, since I’d done the original recently. I actually started it to obtain another medal for one of TA’s March Targets, but it sadly wasn’t enough Gamerscore to cinch the gold. But, at least it was an easy and short completion. Just like any adventure game of this ilk, you can easily follow a guide to clear through the puzzles and story very quickly. This one has a speedrun achievement, so a very efficient walkthrough was ideal, which I managed to find and it breezed me through the whole silly tale. I chuckled a good bit throughout the playthrough, and snagged all of the achievements in barely an hour and a half. Nice to get this classic knocked out.
Achievements unlocked: 12 (+12) | Completed
Oh dear, did I overdress?
Over on the Hall of Gamers Discord, we’re doing themed-month events to drum up some community engagement. I haven’t been able (willing?) to take part because I’m a weirdo about how and what games I play, but I finally found a nice cross-section between this month’s theme: licensed titles! I have a good few in my backlog I need to get around to, and to coincide with my return to the podcast, I figured I’d also join in with Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters, which I’d actually only recently picked up. I figure these licensed games are going to get harder and harder to locate, so why not grab them while I can? For what it is, this game isn’t half-bad, to be honest. The gameplay does what it intends to competently, and Ryan Reynolds himself even returns to voice a… new story? I actually have never seen the film this is based on, but I think I know enough to recognize this is not how that went. The combat isn’t the most fun, though, because of the stupid ranged enemies shooting from off-screen and ruining combos, even stun-locking you at times! But then you get the Rocket Punch construct and can just spam that until you win most of the time, even on the hardest difficulty. Not a bad completion, and pretty easy overall. There’s a bit of a grind at the end to purchase all of the upgrades, and I found it easiest to just continue on back at the start of the game and replay the first level or two and get the points needed that way. Plus you get less when you level select anyway.
Achievements unlocked: 40 (+40) | Completed
All the power of will and imagination at my disposal, so I shall fight a lengthy battle with conjured fists and a giant anvil!
Highest ratio: 6.27
Suited-up (Crysis 3)
Lowest ratio: 1.00 (tie)
Old School (Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge)
Just Getting Started (Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters)
