Dead Space Review 22/06/2010

Dead Space is the new benchmark for survival horror games. Utterly brilliant in almost every way.

Dead Space always looked intriguing whilst I followed its development but it’s so hard to know whether such games will be any good, especially in the survival horror genre where games like Resident Evil reign supreme. It’s all very well throwing vast amounts of blood at you but the amount of gore can’t be a measure of the amount of pleasure you get from a gaming experience. Dead Space aims to go down a different route however, creating a feeling of fear and dread and being something more than a space zombie/mutant shoot-em up. In this game, set in the 25th century, you play an unlikely hero, Issac Clarke, a humble space ship repair engineer with a small crew who are flying out to the furthest reaches of the solar system to respond to a distress call by the USG Ishimura. The Ishimura was the very first of a class of space ship called planet crackers, which means they go to other worlds and moons and tear them to pieces bit by bit in the search for minerals and fuels in general. This vast mining ship was mid planet crack when something went seriously wrong and it called for help. Clarke and a small crew onboard the USG Kellion, arrive at the Ishimura’s last known location to find the ship structurally intact but with no power and no one answering their radio transmissions. The automated docking guidance system malfunctions when they attempt to land on the Ishimura and the Kellion crashes into the dock. The crew survive but the Kellion is broken beyond repair. As they make their way into the Ishimura they soon discover that not one crew member is anywhere to be found, and signs of a struggle and panic are everywhere. Issac and his colleagues are then attacked by a grotesque mutated crew member, called a necromorph, that brutally kills everyone. Issac, Hammond, the security chief, and a technician called Daniels escape, but Issac is separated. What follows is a long and terrifying journey through the small tight corridors of this vast and broken ship where horrific mutated crew members and epically huge repulsive beasts are constantly trying to tear you limb from limb, the whole time Issac is trying to find his girlfriend, who was an Ishimura crew member, discover what the hell happened here and ultimately escape. The story is far deeper than it initially appears, with a government conspiracy, a crooked captain, illegal mining operations, discovery of alien organisms, a strange religious artefact and several other crazy twists that keep the tension building and has your nerves on a knife edge until the end.

What’s good?

It is possibly the most terrifying game ever. Obviously fear is hard to quantify, by generally being opinion based, for example, I do not fear snakes or mice but a lot of people do. Dead Space amplifies a feeling of dread by being more subtle than the obvious copious amounts of gore. Of course it spills blood, organs and limbs constantly as Issac has to butcher everything that moves but it’s the subtle stuff that makes this very scary. From the truly terrifying opening sequence, where you get chased by screaming necromorphs down a pitch black corridor whilst completely unarmed, the feeling of not being safe at any point never leaves. Even when you get a weapon it never lets up. It does this by never really allowing the game to pause, even when you are at a shop, or viewing your inventory the game doesn’t stop and you are still open for attack. Often the horrific beasts that roam the ship will attack you when you least expect it, from all angles. They will burst out of ventilation shafts behind you, from the ceiling on top of you, come screaming out of locked doors at the end of a corridor, from absolutely everywhere and you have to constantly have your wits about you. You will be persistently forced into narrow corridors and small rooms where you will be stuck for a certain time in a confined space while shrieking beasts drop from the ceiling one by one. As I say, it is more subtle fear than simple blood and guts and quick cheap moments that make you jump. That stuff is there but it is just the starter. The real terror comes from working on an upgrade bench, to turn to your right and a multi-limbed beast that produces copious amounts of slobber, is standing next to you about to attack. Having severed a repulsive mutant’s legs it starts to crawl towards you with its arms along the floor, still crying for your blood, whilst you frantically reload your weapon. How about being stuck in a small room, with dwindling ammo, trying to keep at bay a mutant that cannot be killed, merely slowed down by blowing off its arms and legs, which it will regenerate shortly after? Finding dismembered crew members that are still alive, but then commit suicide in horrific ways in front of you, clearly driven mad by fear? It is the most panic inducing, feeling of dread and vulnerability enhancing, claustrophobic stuff of nightmares and your first play through will be one of the most inch by inch excruciating and terrifying experiences in gaming. But I assure you, it is brilliant fun, incredibly exciting and deeply satisfying when getting through everything Dead Space throws at you.

The action is fantastically paced and incredibly inventive. “Action” is possibly not the best word as it invokes thoughts of “Modern Warfare” but Dead Space does deliver it in its own unique way in spades. Firstly the necromorphs have to be killed in a specific way which is severing their limbs. The problem is, is that they are already dead, so you can blow off their heads, punch huge holes in their chests and it wont stop them, which adds to the fear factor. It’s in cutting off their arms and legs where you will defeat them basically disabling their movements and attacks. I’m not sure this has been done before, but it adds a new dimension to Dead Space as you constantly have to aim for the limbs, and even if you blow off both legs they often still come at you crawling along the floor. Being dead, this means they will also come at you in any situation, even when you’re in a vacuum or zero gravity. Issac’s space suit allows him to survive in a space, but only for a short time until his oxygen runs out but the necro’s will still attack then, but it is much more eerie and quiet when in a vacuum as all you can hear is Issac breathing. There are also areas with zero gravity where you are kept on the ground by your magnetic boots (which come off and on automatically) and you can leap to any surface, often fighting monsters on a ceiling or vertical wall. It’s disorientating but adds more fear as the enemy can literally drop down on you from above and generally come at you from any angle. There are several scenes where you will have to man anti meteorite guns to blast away unwanted things hitting the ship or a beast the size of a mansion. You will also get thrust into cut scenes, where you will round a corner and a huge tentacle will grab Issac’s leg and slowly pull him towards certain death, so you have to quickly shoot it in a specific place before you are mercilessly killed. It is not relentless but it constantly keeps the tension building and keeps you guessing what is coming round the next corner.

The weapons and tools are awesome. There is only one gun in the whole game, a military assault rifle, which is basically a futuristic machine gun, that makes possibly the most awesome noise ever, but it is not the best weapon. What you have instead is mining equipment, but before you laugh, this is 25th century deep space mining equipment, massive industrial looking lasers, saws and cutting tools designed to hack up the toughest of deep space moon rock. Taking one of these to a person, even a horrifically mutated one is going to cause damage and that it does. You get a basic plasma cutter initially, which is like a small laser shot gun, but you will soon unlock bigger and better equipment. There is the mighty line gun, a much bigger and more powerful version of the plasma cutter that basically will sever through anything it fires at, but has limited ammo. The fantastically destructive contact beam, which is designed to fire a charged up bolt of energy that will burst a piece of moon rock to bits and easily splatters grotesque monsters into molecules. The evil ripper, which fires spinning saw blades that literally hack the enemy into any shape you want. The force gun (which I didn’t particularly like to be honest) that is designed to blast things away from you and the classic flame thrower. All these weapons offer Issac inventive ways of fending off necromorphs and putting them down for good. Issac also gets some cool futuristic tools to help him through this nightmare. There is a stasis unit that slows down time on specific objects, which is used to repair parts of the ship, but also can be used on enemies so you can blow legs and arms off more accurately. He also has a kinesis module that can be used to pick impossibly heavy items to simply remove them from his path or, more enjoyably, hurl them at charging necromorphs. You can even combine the two, by using stasis on a necro, blowing off an arm with razor sharp bone on it, then use kinesis to grab that arm and blast it back at the necro. You can be as inventive as you like when it comes to splattering mutant space monsters all over the ship.

Necromorphs are a brilliant and challenging enemy. There is huge influence from the films “The Thing”, “Alien” and “Event Horizon” in this game, and the result is a seriously intimidating and panic inducing enemy. They look repulsive for a start, barely recognisable as once human, with large knife like bone structures jutting out their arms, often with bits of human heads and other limbs hanging off them. The normal guys look mainly like mutated people and generally walk towards you screaming, which although scary is nothing compared to what Dead Space throws at you later on. There are also small creepy looking babies that burst tentacles from their backs and shoot projectiles at you. Things with no legs and large yellow explosive sacks on one of their arms, which are basically suicide troops that if get anywhere near you will try and clobber you with their mutated arm and explode Issac into little bits. Dog like creatures with no legs and a long spine like tail with spikes on it, that hurl themselves at you from afar through the air. Often you won’t know they are there until they fly out the darkness teeth and claws ready. Then there is the terrifying mutated soldiers which move at lightning speed and constantly twitch and spasm (The first time one of these comes at you, you are going to shit yourself) and lots of hideous multi tentacle beasts that nearly always come sprinting at you screaming. They are horrible. Dead Space also goes for epic boss battles as well where you have to fight a huge blob the size of a house called the Leviathan (why does every game these days have to have a boss called a “leviathan”?) an enormous beast that you have to blow to pieces with anti asteroid cannons and the end of game boss is the size of a sky scraper, with as many tentacles, mouths, teeth and ways to slice Issac up you can think of. Necromorphs are unlike anything you will have encountered in any game before and will scare, intimidate and challenge the whole way through. Its dam good fun blasting their arms and legs off though.

The story is fascinating and brilliantly detailed. The story is really intriguing in Dead Space and clearly has not been thought up in a lunch break. You gather clues of what’s happened on the Ishimura as you go through the ship in text, audio or video format and it will keep the story building until the end. It’s impossible really for me to comment on the story without ruining everything, but rest assured it certainly puts most of the current Hollywood dross to shame. There’s lots of familiar themes such as how heartless and inhumane big faceless corporations are, mans inhumanity towards man, how religion derives absolute power and corrupts all and several other things that give Dead Space far more depth and intrigue than the simple bullet fest it has so cleverly avoided.

The graphics are particularly fantastic. It is possibly the best looking game ever. Even though it came out in 2008 and we have had games such as Resident Evil 5, Modern Warfare, Uncharted 2 and many other visually imperious titles, Dead Space still stands out. As is always the case in visually excellent games it’s in the details, the finer things, that really make it stand out. When you kill a necromorph, for example, take a look at it and you will see the level of detail it goes into. Teeth, eyes, blood, veins everything is accounted for. The insides of the Ishimura is all incredibly well thought out, with decks for medical, engineering, engine rooms, plant life (for oxygen), habitation decks, a bridge, all the aspects of a vast deep space vessel have been thought of and executed flawlessly visually. It really is stunning.

As always, there is lots to customise and upgrade. Not having an upgrading and customising experience in a game these days is clearly heresy, and Dead Space is no different. Firstly there are shops scattered around the Ishimura where you can spend credits or sell unwanted equipment for money. Credits, ammo and various tools are generally found scattered around the ship, so make sure you always have a good look round, and the store is the place to spend it. You only find one weapon, the plasma cutter, and every other tool of decapitation has to be bought from the store. You can also buy further ammo, as on the harder difficulties you will not find enough scattered around the ship to keep you going, and extra medical supplies. There is also the mandatory upgraded suits which offer more armoured protection and larger inventories and you can store things such as additional weapons (as you can only have four at any time) or first aid kits etc that you want to save for later. Then everything you buy can be upgraded using workbenches. These are also scattered around the ship and although you can’t buy upgrades as such, you apply power nodes to them. These are fairly rare and expensive to buy, so don’t waste them, and can be used to upgrade your weapons to make them more powerful or hold more ammo, upgrade your suit to make the oxygen tank bigger, give you extra life etc, and make your stasis unit last longer. As predictable as all this is, it’s incredibly necessary, executed very well, there is a noticeable difference when you apply greater damage to a weapon for example, and you will never be able to upgrade everything even after several play throughs, so its incentive to keep on playing.

What’s bad?

You don’t get to keep any of your upgrades if you play again on a different difficulty. Dead Space does not do a lot wrong, but one thing that did irritate me was the fact if you play again on a different difficulty you have to start from scratch. It takes at least 3 or 4 goes to get all your weapons and tools upgraded to a fairly decent level, by that time you will probably be finding your current difficulty a bit too easy. But if you try a harder difficulty you lose the lot and have to start over. Admittedly this is better than losing everything every time you play through but it just seems such an odd choice. Also, it might just be my copy of the game, but on several occasions it allowed me to keep my fully upgraded suit but got rid of all my weapons. I can only assume it’s a glitch or something, but it’s a strange decision nevertheless.

All heads up displays are totally useless except your inventory. On the heads up display you have a map, two objectives/mission pages and your inventory but not at any point will you need to look at anything other than the inventory. “Big deal” your thinking, but it is a big deal as, whenever you hit select, it always takes you directly to the map and you have to hit R2 to click to the inventory. This may not sound so bad but you can’t use things such as first aid kits or stasis pack recharges until you go into the inventory and select to use them. When a horde of psychopathic mutant killing machines are trying to hack you to bits, as remember the game does not stop when you look at menus etc, the last thing you need is to have to switch from your map every time. The map itself is incomprehensible to look at and why do you need two objectives screens? You never need to know any of this stuff anyway as you have an automatic guidance system by pressing R3. This shows a line on the floor of where to go next and points Issac in the right direction automatically, which is a bit annoying, but the point is you can never really get lost anyway. They just should not have bothered with it, made it an inventory only or at least have the map etc somewhere else.

Several of the weapons are not great and their secondary fire is crap. Considering you can only carry 4 weapons at a time, you will quickly realise that the only ones worth having are the plasma cutter, line gun, assault rifle and flame thrower. The force gun seemed so utterly useless to me as all it does is emit a blast, that doesn’t really harm enemies, just sends them flying, where they will get up again and continue their onslaught. Only if it is fully upgraded will it do anything great but you are far better off severing limbs, which it doesn’t do. The ripper as well is not much good, as fun as it is to slice monsters up, because it takes too long and you have to be really close up to use it. Getting close to these monsters is a bad idea as they can generally only attack you up close. The flame thrower, although vital against some enemies, has a lousy range as well and takes too long to kill. The whole time you are incinerating a necro it will attack you, so it’s not good. All weapons have a secondary fire as well which is not much help either, particularly the assault rifle which sprays bullets in a circular motion and always hits bugger all. There’s nothing here that takes anything away from the game, but they certainly are not great.

Conclusion

Dead Space is not perfect, but it is so close it seems daft to pick up on the few small things that irritate. If you like survival horror games, sci-fi games, scary games, gory games, games with fantastic stories, games with lots of varying action that looks fantastic, then Dead Space is for you. Infact, if you have a PS3 and don’t give this a go you’re an idiot. It is unbelievably good. As terrifying as it is, its incredibly thrilling blasting the legs off a grotesque looking space mutant as it sprints towards you, screaming and slashing its knife like arms and it simply just executes everything incredibly well and is very well thought out. I can’t say enough good things about it. Its closest competitor is Resident Evil 5, an excellent game, but I found the story in Dead Space a lot more interesting, it’s much gorier, much scarier, and the control scheme is not nearly as infuriating. If you have not played Dead Space yet buy it immediately, and if you don’t, get rid of your PS3 as clearly don’t like games! CA.

Summary

Is it user-friendly/easy to get into? – 9.0

Very easy to start off with, control scheme is very instinctual, and there’s lots of help menus that pop up and guide you. Will take a few play throughs to get used to the panic inducing terror though (which is a good thing).

Is the story any good? – 10.0

Possibly the best in gaming I have played so far. Nothing cheesy, uninteresting, or expected anywhere, just pure intrigue and excellently thought out plot.

How does it look? – 9.5

Again, possibly the best in gaming so far. Just check out your environments and the finer details on everything. It’s not perfect, as it does have very occasional slow down when lots happening on the screen at once, but generally it’s a visual feast.

How does it sound? – 9.0

No music as such, but the sound effects are immensely creepy and executed excellently. The shriek of a necromorph will send shivers down your spine and all voice acting is spot on.

Is it good to play? – 9.5

Very scary, lots of moments that make you jump, and it often goes out of it’s way to make it even scarier. Ever played a game that’s focused on severing limbs? Me neither, but blasting horrific space mutants into tiny pieces, using deep space mining equipment is incredibly good fun, as well as the varying action set pieces throughout, from defending the ship from a meteor shower, to blasting a beast the size of a house, it’s all seriously exhilarating stuff. Some of the weapons are a bit lame, but it takes nothing away from the entertainment value.

When will I get bored? – 9.5

It’s a single player campaign only, but it will take a really long time to do initially. Realistically you could do it in 12 hours or so, but you will be so petrified the first time round, doing everything inch by inch, so it will take far longer. Even when you’re done it takes quite a few goes to fully upgrade all your equipment and buy/use all weapons so lots of incentive to keep playing. I just wish you could keep your equipment and upgrades if you decide to try a harder difficulty.

OVERALL – 9.5

Review created by C. Armstrong.

Runescape – Saradomin God Wars Guide

Saradomin God Wars Dungeon Guide;

Detailed guide the the Saradomin encampment

After reading this guide, you should have everything you need to take down the saradomin boss: Commander zilyana. Both with a team and on your own.

::DISCLAIMER::
**Please remember, there is always an obvious danger when entering the God Wars Dungeon, just because you have read this guide does not mean that it is impossible for you to die. Death and loss off items is very possible in the dungeon, do not take the risk if your not prepaired for the worst.**

There are 7 major parts to this guide:
– Introduction
– Your gear
– Summoning
– getting kill count
– Fighting the boss
– So you want to solo?
– !! Rewards !!

::-::-:: INTRODUCTION ::-::-::

Welcome to the saradomin encampment. The entrance is to the South of the main god wars lobby and the first time you go you will need two ropes so that you can get to the boss door.

Here there are a number of monsters that are killable:

-Knight of Saradomin (101-103)
-Saradomin priest (113)
-Spiritual warrior (125)
-Spiritual mage (120)
-Spiritual ranger (122)

(note that certain slayer levels are required to kill these monsters, consult your slayer tab in game)

In the Bosses room:
-Commander Zilyana
-Starlight
-Growler
-Bree

::-::-:: YOUR GEAR ::-::-::

First of all many people consider two methods to kill the boss, range and meele. Meele is more comon now because of the faster rate of kills. When joining a team be sure that your team has someone with a ZGS it will freeze the boss for 20 seconds allowing for easy hits.

Remember that you will need a zammy and sara item, here is a list of the useable items:
Bracers
Sara/Zammy d’hide top and chaps
Holy and Unholy Symbols
God Capes and Treasure Trail God Capes
Stoles
God Swords

I personally use saradomin cloak and a zammy arrow

-THE GODSWORD / VERACS METHOD (best)

(90+ Att str 85+ def 70+ prayer)
This method requires no d hide.
The godswords of runescape are acceptable weapons when fighting the boss, although, it is HIGHLY recomended that you stick to either a ZGS or an AGS if you have the money.
Verac’s armor is probibly the best setup that you could use, unless you know what you are doing, then you can use bandos if you have a team willing to bless your gravestone.
Veracs, especialy the helm provides the best protection against the boss as well as a nice prayer bonus, because you will be praying mage the whole time.
I tend to use climbing boots or dragon boots its up to you.
As far as your god item goes, youl need a Zammorak item and Saradomin item. If you have a ZGS your okay but if you dont it is acceptable to use zammorak robe bottoms to replace your veracs skirt until you get in the room.
You may also use the zammorak or saradomin godcapes (the free ones) as your item aswell.

What I tend to do is use my ZGS with veracs a saradomin godcape or saradomin vamps.
The ZGS is probibly the best godsword to use here, if you have a team of 5 with at least 2 or 3 ZGS users youl be okay for over 100 Kc.

If you have an AGS you will be an asset to any sara team, but please make sure that there is at least 1 ZGS user just in case.

If you have enough godswords on your team feel free to substitute a gs for veracs flail if you do not have the money for a gs. (DO NOT BRING A WHIP)

-inventory-
Your inventory solely depends on what familar you are using and what your set up is. For the set up described above this is a proper inventory:

Invo With unicorn
5 Saradomin Brews
8 super restores
4 spirit unicorn stallion pouches
a few hundred scrolls stacked
2 summoning potions
1 prayer potion
(the rest of the space can be used for alch runes or spots to hold drops)

Invo with Fruit bat
5 sara brews
8 super restores
4 fruit bat pouches
a few hundred scrolls stacked
2 summoning pots
1 prayer pot
(the rest of the space can be used for alch runes or spots to hold drops)

I do not recomend going without a famillar but if you must

7 super restores
16 sara brews
2 prayer potions
alch runes

**you may add or remove any of these items for your invo if you feel comfortable, these invo guides are simply that, guides. you can come up with your own invo.**

-RANGING METHOD-

(90+ range and def, 70+ prayer)
Setup:
Torag or Verac helm is fine.
Zammy or sara d hide body. bring oposite item to compensate. (for example if you bring sara d hide bring another zammy item.
Archer Ring, ROW, ROL
Dragonfire shield, Granite/Obby shield, Rune Kite
Barrows Gloves > Vambs > Rune Gloves (if you use vamps and you have a sara d hide body bring zammy vamps or vis versa.)

Inventory:

With unicorn
8 saradomin brews
2 prayer pots
13 super restores
uni pouch
Scrolls
Tele tab

No Famillar
10 sara brews
2 prayer pots
13 super restores
tele tab

**you may add or remove any of these items for your invo if you feel comfortable, these invo guides are simply that, guides. you can come up with your own invo.**

::-::-:: Summoning Farmilliars ::-::-::

The best famillar to use here is the spirit unicorn stallion. (req 88 summ) The Uni can last about 54 minutes and heal an unlimited amount in that time, the amount the unicorn can heal is only limited by the familars special move bar, and its time limit. It is always good to have a unicorn as you will need little to no sara brews and you will last a long time. (for example my longest saradomin trip with a zgs veracs and my unicorn with a team of 5 people all with similar sets and unicorns lasted me 6 hours and 30 minutes) bring around 4-5 pouches, and a few hundred scrolls.

You may also use the spirit Fruit bat. The fruit bat picks up fruit that you may withdraw and eat as an alternative to using your brews, the fruit bats special move also provides food to other team mates and is especialy helpfull to lower level teams. (req 69 summ) bring about 4-5 pouches and a few hundred scrolls.

::-::-:: GETTING KILL COUNT ::-::-::

Getting the kill count is very straight forward. Kill 40 saradomin npcs, you should go for the ones in combat to save some hp. If you can’t find a sara npc who is in combat then pray mage and attack a saradomin priest – easy to kill.

You do not need 83 slayer to get your kill count, it only speeds up the process a little bit.
by about 4-5 minutes actualy, you do however need a certain slayer level for a few of the other monsters, so please consult your slayer tab to see exactly which level.

::-::-:: FIGHTING THE BOSS ::-::-::

THe stragety for fighting the boss is actualy very simple dispite all the hype that this boss gets for being, (the hardest gwd boss).

The commander targets one of your team members, when she spawns I suggest you select your quick prayers to be protect from magic. Once she spawns hit your quick prayers button to turn on protect from mage, that will protect from her sara sword spec. Even if she is not after you the spec will cause damage to every member of your team, (can do double 300). Once it is obvious who she has targeted the rest of the team will then proceed to attack her with whatever weapon they have. Try to negotiate who will use their ZGS spec first and second and whatnot, this will avoid double specing the boss. (which is useless). Each team member will attack the boss (except if you are her target.) untill she has chosen another target.

-if you are the target
If you are targeted by the commander, all you have to do is run around the edges of the room. Stay on the walls and continue to run unless she is frozen. If she gets frozen stop running save your energy and wait for her to chose another target. Once she does, join your team in attacking her.

DO NOT LET HER HIT YOU, I dont care what your defence level is, you cannot tank her, she hits with the speed of throwing darts and has the ability to do massive damage and possibly k0 in literaly 5 to 10 seconds, depending on your hp. If (and this will happen) she does get near enough to you to cause damage eat a shark, or use an uni spec or brew up or whatever at that exact moment, even if its a zero just get in the habit of eating when she hits you, just to be on the safe side.

-AFTER SHE IS DEAD
go for bree first, bree causes the most damage to whoever delivered the final blow to the boss, after bree kill starlight, and then growler. Gather your drops and heal up after they are all dead. (you will have time)

-now just repeat the process above and get some pro drops.

::-::-:: SO YOU WANT TO SOLO? ::-::-::

Soloing sara boss is not hard, you just need to know what you are doing, never meele, always take the ranger gear that is listed above.

The strategie is very simple run around the edges of the room praying magic, when youve got some distance on her, shoot her with your cross bow.
you may want to bring some purple sweets to increase your run energy.

((I DO NOT RECOMEND SOLOING))
just grab a team, its funner and youl get alot more kills.

::-::-:: REWARDS !!! ::-::-::

The best part of fighting the sara boss. Here is a list of the best drops from the commander as well as her body gaurds.

-Godsword shard 1, 2, or 3
-Saradomin Sword
-Saradomin Hilt
-Dragon Med Helm
-Dragon Spear (<--- The best drop) -Shield Left Half (dragon)

Runescape – Shooting Star Guide

Introduction:

Shooting stars are a great method of mining experience, but also provide a nice reward. One star will land on every world every 2 hours. The stars can vary in size, from size 1 to size 9. The stars can land all over runescape, although a hint is given to the general area by using a telescope in your player owned house. The rewards you obtain from the stars depend on how much star dust you can mine.

Requirements:

Size 1 – Level 10 mining – Mining experience per star dust – 14
Size 2 – Level 20 mining – Mining experience per star dust – 25
Size 3 – Level 30 mining – Mining experience per star dust – 29
Size 4 – Level 40 mining – Mining experience per star dust – 32
Size 5 – Level 50 mining – Mining experience per star dust – 47
Size 6 – Level 60 mining – Mining experience per star dust – 71
Size 7 – Level 70 mining – Mining experience per star dust – 114
Size 8 – Level 80 mining – Mining experience per star dust – 145
Size 9 – Level 90 mining – Mining experience per star dust – 210

If you are lucky enough to be the first person to find the star then you will be awarded bonus experience for ‘tagging’ the star. This varies dependent on your mining level. It can be calculated as follows (level*75) for example 80 mining, would get (90X75) = 6,750 experience.

Runescape shooting star bonus experience for 'tagging' the star

Runescape shooting star bonus experience for ‘tagging’ the star

As you begin to mine the star, it will degrade and change in size. As it changes in size the level requirement to mine the star will also decrease. So, if a size 9 star falls, and you only have 70 mining if you wait you will soon be able to mine the star once it has degraded 2 sizes.

Locating stars:

Stars can be located by using your telescope in your player owned house. There are two types of scopes, Oak telescope which gives a 9 minute window for the landing – requires 44 construction. Or a teak telescope which requires 84 construction.

Example oak scope: The star looks like it will land in the next 1 hour 40 minutes to 1 hour 49 minutes.
Example teak scope: The star looks like it will land in the next 1 hour 47 minutes to 1 hour 49 minutes.

Runescape shooting star telescope

Runescape shooting star telescope

The telescope will also give a hint as to what area of the map the star will land in. Below are the areas of the map where the stars can land. And the sub locations under the area, which are more specific.

Asgarnia

Crafting Guild Mine
Aboveground east of the Mining Guild entrance in East Falador
Rimmington Mine
Taverly Mine

Crandor or Karamja

Brimhaven Northwest Mine
Brimhaven Southwest Mine
Crandor Isle Southwest Mine
Jungle Mine
Shilo Gem Mine
Shilo Village bank

Fremennik lands or on Lunar Isle

Fremennik Mine. Near the Keldagrim entrance.
Aboveground near the Jatizso Mine entrance
Aboveground near the Lunar Isle Mines entrance
Miscellania Mine
Neitiznot Runite Mine
Rellekka Mine.

Kandarin

Coal Trucks
East Ardougne Mine (near Legend’s Guild)
Port Khazard Mine
South Ardougne Mine
Yanille bank

Kharidian Desert

Al Kharid bank
Chasm Mine
Duel Arena area
Enakhra’s Mine
Nardah bank
Sophanem Mine
Uzer Mine

Misthalin

Outside of Aubury’s Rune Shop
Lumbridge Swamp East Mine
South-east Varrock Mine
South-west Varrock

Morytania or Mos Le’Harmless

Burgh de Rott bank
Canifis Bank
Mos Le’Harmless Bank

Piscatoris, the Gnome Stronghold, or Tirannwn

Piscatoris Fishing Colony Mine
Near the Spirit Tree and the bank outside of the Grand Tree
Near the bank in Lletya

Wilderness

Wilderness volcano (previously Bounty Hunter) bank area
Hobgoblins’ Mine
Near the lever used to enter the Mage Arena
Pirates’ Mine
Runite Mine
Steel Mine
Skeletons’ Mine

Rewards:

As you finish mining the star a star sprite will appear and will reward you.

Runescape shooting star sprite reward

Runescape shooting star sprite reward

You can mine 200 star dust, maximum. However after you get 200 you can continue to mine for experience. But your reward at the end will increase no further. If you get 200 star dust the rewards are as follows:

* 50,002 coins
* 20 Gold ore (Noted)
* 152 Cosmic runes
* 52 Astral runes
* Have the ability to mine two ores at once for 15 minutes

Runescape shooting star 200 star dust

Runescape shooting star 200 star dust

If you fail to get 200 your reward will be some what reduced.

Note: you may only have 200 star dust at once, if you attempt to mine another star and already have 200 star dust in your bank, You will not be able to mine anymore. You must cash in your 200 first. You may only cash in 200 star dust once a day, no more. But you can still mine multiple stars a day for experience.

Burnout Paradise Review 07/06/2010

Get ready to crash into traffic, crash into walls, crash into buildings, crash, crash and crash again. There’s also some racing.

Burnout 3: Takedown was probably one of the best games on the PS2, and possibly one of the best arcade racers ever. The concept of smashing fellow drivers off the track in ludicrous explosive metal crunching fashion was not really original or unique, but it was executed so fantastically, looked unbelievable and ran so smoothly it was like nothing any PS2 owner had played before. The sensation of speed was mind blowing and the focus on big crashes was its unique selling point. Most gamers’ favourite aspect was “crash mode” where you speed to an intersection/junction and see just how much carnage can you cause. Getting your mates round and seeing who can cause the most destruction is what made Burnout the king of the arcade racer. All Burnout PSP games had very similar qualities, but now Burnout really gets to rev its engine with its seventh instalment on the PS3, where Burnout Paradise gives you the run of an entire city, with a fully simulated road and motorway/highway network with a racing event on every street. As is always the case when game sequels get expanded and studios decide to fiddle with already winning formulas, does bigger mean better and is change always good? For anyone that has not played a Burnout game before it is basically an arcade racer, where you will have to compete in lots of events that generally involve racing from start to finish, smashing all your opponents off the track and of course crashing. There are lots of cars to win and choose from, and they generally range from being road going tanks that are as tough as meat pie and will flatten all opponents, but can’t go round corners, to being lightning fast and agile but will disintegrate under a slight breeze. All have different uses in different events and all deliver a blistering sensation of speed. The key to Burnout, other than driving like a psychopath, is to fill up your boost meter and continuously nitrous your way to victory. This is done by doing everything you shouldn’t do on a road, such as driving the wrong way down the street, very nearly hitting other road users, drifting, smashing your opponents into walls and other cars, performing ludicrous mile long jumps and flips and generally causing as much road going mayhem as possible. This is not Gran Turismo.

What’s good?

It’s still a proper Burnout game. Although Criterion studios has decided to meddle with stuff that really didn’t need it (more on that in a bit) it has still made a proper mental Burnout game. Anyone who has played any burnout game before will be right at home straight away, only everything now looks shinier and more detailed. For those who have never played Burnout, expect to find really simple driving controls, with a very arcade feel to the cars, that delivers an eye melting sensation of speed and the most over the top chaotic carnage induced racing ever. You will have to smash, bash and crash your way to the win in every event, as there are no points for second place, and it is exhilarating to say the least. Smashing a competitor in to an oncoming concrete pillar, which will show you a cut scene of the car folding like an accordion in slow motion, then taking the chequered flag makes you feel an ecstasy that only the god of driving can experience. Where in contrast, cresting a slight hill at over 200 mph on the wrong side of the road, finding a bus on the other side, which you hit, and having to watch your poor smouldering car batter down the road in a multiple, crumpled, flipping heap and come to a rest as your competitors fly past you, will make you want to create a PS3 shaped hole in your wall. It is a rollercoaster ride of pure adrenaline to pure fury and Burnout never allows you to experience anything in the middle. If you like going fast, smashing opponents into walls and generally driving like a lunatic then Burnout will be a must.

It still has a huge emphasis on crashing. If you love the sound and look of metal twisting and contracting under the pressure of a high impact this will be practically pornography for you. In Burnout you will crash a lot, which is possibly the understatement of the year. You crash so much that often you will do races where 90% of the route has been covered in a wrecked crumpled heap rather than a race car. Do not despair, however, as crashing is what Burnout is about and whenever you do, it shows you a slow motion cut scene of your impact, which all slip seamlessly into the action, never really get boring and make even the lamest of impacts look awesome. There is not a point in the game where you won’t be going “ooooooo” or “aaaaaah” when colliding with a sheer brick wall at top speed and watching your poor car get crumpled to half its length. An addition to the game now is you can start a “show time” crash sequence whenever you want, literally on any street any time, by pressing L2 and R2, and your car will flip into a crash sequence where you have to use X and the directional buttons to guide your wreck down a street causing as much carnage as you can. It is ridiculous as you watch a burning wreck bounce endlessly down a street, but will certainly please those of you who are purely in it for the crashing, destruction and violence.

There is an unbelievable amount to do. Firstly there is all the different sorts of races. You have your standard racing of course, which is a check point to check point race the route of which is up to you, and the awesome “Road Rage” remains, where you drive anywhere you want but you have to take down a certain number of competitors within the time limit or before you wreck. But now you have “marked man” events where you have to get from one part of the city to the other, as in the races, but you will have several very tough enemy cars trying to take you down before you make it, and stunt drive events, where you have to rack up a certain amount of points by driving like a maniac within a time limit. Points are awarded for jumps, mid air spins or flips, drifting and of course, crashing. Finally there is “burning routes” which are basically time trials you can only do with a specific car, but if you win, you get an upgraded version of the car delivered to your junkyard. These events are scattered all over the city and are literally on every corner, 120 events in all, so there is so many it would be impossible to get bored. Then there is 75 cars to be had in this game and all of them have to be won. You get a few delivered to you but most have to be found driving around the city and you have to take them down to get them. It’s not worth searching for them, trust me, just keep racing and driving and eventually one will drive past you. All cars, once repaired can have their paint jobs customised to an extent as well. It constantly tries to get you to alternate your vehicles as well, as the events are so varied it is not worth holding onto a favourite car for too long as the fast and agile ones are pretty useless in road rage and marked man events, whereas the giant vans and trucks are too sluggish and heavy to race with. It gives you a lot to do and demands you vary your skills so if you want to take this all the way to completion there is a lot to keep you busy.

The sensation of speed is mind blowing. Anyone played the excellent “Need for Speed: Shift”? Well, the sensation of speed in that game is pretty scary in a realistic sort of way, but Burnout craps all over it for the sheer thrill of blasting down a dual carriage way at a warp speed only the Starship Enterprise would comprehend. It is ridiculous! When you start to get the cars with maxed out boost and speed stats the blistering velocity becomes so stupid that it borders on uncontrollable. If you see some headlights of some poor bastard normal road user on the horizon, too late, you are going to hit it. Reaction times have to be reduced to nano seconds to go more than twenty feet without crashing, drifting can only be done in mile wide turns, jumps can launch you out of the game and generally it takes the laws of physics and simply throws them away. Its terrifying, but few games out there offer a speed thrill of these proportions.

The soundtrack is awesome. Obviously this is a matter of opinion, but if you like lots of hard fast rock, speed metal and punk, then you will be quite pleased. Highlights included the “Sugarcult” and their excellent “dead living”, “Alice in chains”, “Seether”, “N.E.R.D.” and the legendary and highly appropriate “Guns and Roses”, “Paradise City”. It does have a few questionable tracks such as the interminable “Avril Lavigne” and “Girlfriend” (oh god it’s so bloody awful!), but generally you wont be disappointed. I like the fact that not only does it suit the game and action perfectly, but it doesn’t try to incorporate varying types of music for all types. Its rock and metal and that’s it. If you don’t like it, don’t play it.

What’s bad?

They have practically got rid of crash mode. My biggest issue with Burnout Paradise is that fact that crash mode has now gone. Hitting R2 and L2 to start a crash sequence whenever you want (now called “show time”) probably seemed like a good idea but I much preferred the setting of them in Burnout 3: Takedown. It just seems so pointless now, as there is no real reward and no particular moment to best hit the crash breaker. Plus watching your wreck bounce down the street is just stupid, compared to trying to hit crash breakers and points multipliers. If this was your favourite event in previous Burnout games, which is highly likely, then be prepared to be disappointed.

I didn’t like the marked man or stunt run events either. These two events are ok, and offer a little variety, but they have basically taken away the most fun things about Burnout for them. Marked man doesn’t involve you hitting anyone at all, just fleeing for your life and trying not to crash. You can try and takedown the enemy vehicles but they are like wheeled granite, i.e. ludicrously tough to take down and they will simply spawn back instantly when you do and you get nothing for it. The stunt run events are pretty pointless as well and you nearly always have to resort to jumps, as these make the biggest point multipliers. There are only a few decent locations for jumps in the city so every time you do a stunt run event you always have to end up going to one of a few places, and do the same thing. Plus doing a spin in midair or flip is impossibly difficult and the time is very limited. These two events don’t necessarily bring down the experience but you will very quickly start avoiding them and heading for the race and road rage events instead.

This game doesn’t work as well with free roam. I really do think Burnout belongs on tracks, as Paradise City is not quite as great as it seems. Firstly it’s surprisingly small, as when viewed on the map it looks huge but you can blast from one side to the other in around a minute and a half. Secondly, there is only a few finishing points in the whole city so every race will end in one of a few places basically making you take the same roads every single time, often the widest and straightest, thus it gets really repetitive. Thirdly, as the route to the finish line is entirely up to you, you will spend the majority of the time flicking between your map and racing which just gets irritating, and if you make one wrong turn, especially in the faster cars or when doing a burning route, you’re going to lose. Again, it probably seemed like a good idea in production but I think it worked much better on tracks.

There’s no split screen racing for you and your mate. Not a lot else to say about it I’m afraid, but if you want to race your pal you will have to do it online and on a different TV. Considering it was possible in all other console titles, and games like Motorstorm have four player split screen, it is disappointing.

Who in the hell thought DJ Atomica was a good idea? There is a guy who comes over the radio from time to time when your generally driving around called DJ Atomica, on Crash FM. Yes, that is possibly the most wanky name ever and he coincidently is the most wanky human being ever. He just has such an annoying, cocky, and arrogant voice, constantly condescends you whenever you lose and generally acts like a tosser. He keeps going on about “wild” parties he goes to and “crazy” crashes hes done and just irritates and annoys whenever he decides to pipe up. It doesn’t spoil the game, but the same thought of “shut your face, moron” will go through your mind every time he spreads his moronic bullshit on the air waves. This total prat should be shot.

Conclusion

Burnout Paradise keeps the ideals of all its predecessors, by delivering a totally chaotic, super fast, crashing and smashing arcade racer. There’s loads of events to keep you busy, loads of cars, the race and road rage events are huge fun, offer big thrills and the sensation of speed is unlike anything you will have played before. If you want to race cars, smash opponents off the track and crash, a hell of a lot, then Burnout Paradise is for you. Unfortunately though, if you have played all previous Burnout games, and thus have a basis for comparison, there is a bit to dislike. Mainly the hugely enjoyable crash mode has been replaced with “show time” which isn’t nearly as good, and a few other additional events, such as “stunt run” are utterly pointless. Plus the free roam of the city isn’t that great and much pausing to look at the map will break the racing up too often which will irritate. It still does most things you will expect, so saying “you will be disappointed” is a bit harsh, but it isn’t as good as Burnout 3: Takedown. The closest competition is “Midnight Club: LA” and “Motorstorm”. They are similar to Burnout but Midnight Club focuses more on customising and Motorstorm is an off roader. Midnight Club is a hard game to like, to difficult, too frustrating, too joyless, so definitely choose Burnout over Rockstar’s racer. But it marginally has to play second fiddle to Motorstorm. There’s not a lot in it but Motorstorm offers just as hectic racing with mighty crashes, but the tracks are really well designed as are the different vehicles and it is just generally a little more fun. Plus it has four player split screen. So if your after this sort of arcade racer Motorstorm is probably worth a visit first. Burnout offers a massively more intense sensation of speed, but to be fair strapping yourself to a Saturn V NASA space rocket doesn’t offer the same sensation of speed as Burnout. Personally I think the best racer on the PS3 so far is Need for Speed: Shift, but it is a lot more grown up and serious than Burnout, and to be fair, you can do far worse than pick up Burnout Paradise for your joy of crashing………I mean racing.CA.

Summary:

Is it user-friendly/easy to get into? – 9.0

It’s a very simple game but just executed very well. Nothing here will be a surprise. Incredibly easy to get straight online as well.

Is the story any good? – 0.0

There isn’t one.

How does it look? – 9.0

It doesn’t quite have the level of detail of some more modern racers, or games in general, but it runs incredibly smoothly and never stops or pauses or loads or anything. The slow motion crashes are awesome to behold as well.

How does it sound? – 8.0

If you like fast, hard and heavy rock bands, that suits smashing through traffic and blasting down motorways/highways perfectly, then you will love it. This is ruined from time to time by the verbal dog crap “DJ Atomica” comes up with though.

Is it good to play? – 8.0

It is a crash Nirvana, so prepared to crash a thousand times a race. The sensation of speed is mind blowing, as is the satisfaction of battering someone into a concrete wall and it is generally petrol driven adrenaline pumping stuff. It’s just such a shame that crash mode is no more and several new events, such as “stunt run” are pretty lame. Veteran Burnout gamers will be a little let down.

When will I get bored? – 8.5

A huge free roam city with vast road network and a race on every corner. Yes, there is a hell of a lot to do for the single player and you can take your racing online just as easily. Pretty disappointing to not have split screen though and you will tire of its repetitiveness.

OVERALL – 8.5

Review created by C. Armstrong.

Call Of Duty 5 – World at War – Death Card Guide

Here are the names of the Call Of Duty 5 – World at War death cards, where to find them and what they do.

Death cards can be found on lots of the single player missions when you play world at war. There are 13 in total and they unlock cheats that you can use in co-op mode. Some of the cards make it easier, some of them make it harder! Also can be used in single player after you have played the game all the way through on a particular difficulty, you can go back and play it again on the same difficulty with cheats enabled (not multiplayer). Death cards are strapped to a soldiers helmet and you will see them propped up on a stick.

Name: Eight of Hearts – Thunder

Mission: Semper Fi
Location: When you start the mission go to the right into the second hut.

What it does: Explode enemies when you shoot them directly in the head.

Name: Four of Clubs – Hard Headed

Mission: Little Resistance
Location: At a point in this mission you will be attacking a large bunker. You can use the tunnel to sneak closer, kill all the enemies through it and when you pop out the other side go right and it is in the long grass. Look closely!

Effect: Enemy soldiers will need more shots to kill them and generally take less damage from you.

Name: King of Hearts – Suicide King

Mission: Hard Landing
Location: Get most of the way through the level and you will enter a broken building. Before you exit the building and before going upstairs you should move further into the dark room to find this death card.

Effect: While you are downed you will have explosive pistol shots!

Name: Five of Diamonds – Cold Dead Hands

Mission: Vendetta
Location: Reznov will lead you into a building with a drinks bar and when he opens it up and walks through you should look behind the bar before you go into the next room.

Effect: Enemies will not drop their weapons when they are killed – Knifey knifey fun fun.

Name: Joker – Sticks and Stones

Mission: Their Land, Their Blood
Location: You will have to explode four tanks near the end of this mission. The final tank emerges from a barn, once you have defeated it go into the barn and look in one of the stable pens to find the card.

Effect: You will not be able to use firearms at all! Even more knifey knifey fun fun.

Name: Queen of Hearts – Vampire

Mission: Burn ’em Out
Location: Between the first and the second mortar pits you will find this card hidden in a dark bunker on the left, easy to miss so if you get to the second mortar pit then you have gone past it.

Effect: Kill enemies to recharge your health or die! MWHAHAHAHAHAH!

Name: Nine of Diamonds – Flak Jacket

Mission: Relentless
Location: You will go into caves with two different routes through. They both lead to the same room and the end of the mission but half way along the caves they join again and the death card is in this joining section.

Effect: Enemies receive less damage from grenades. Bit lame this one.

Name: Jack of Spades – Body Armor

Mission: Ring of Steel
Location: As soon as you get in the asylum you need to stay left and continue to a little enclosed bit in the courtyard with the death card inside.

Effect: You will only be able to kill enemies with a direct headshot.

Name: Ace of Spades – Undead Soldier

Mission: Eviction
Location: You will go through a kitchen area with loads of soldier in, kill them all and get to the next balcony bit with rpg soldiers etc. Kill them all but before proceeding on you should turn to your right where there is a big flaming hole in the floor. Drop down here and get the card.

Effect: Enemies can now come back from the dead like a god dam zombie.

Name: Ten of Clubs – Painkiller

Mission: Blowtorch and Corkscrew
Location: When you get the satchel charges blow up the first bunker. Then go towars the second one and look for a stone thing with a dead guy hanging off it and the death card.

Effect: If someone on your co-op team dies then just shoot them to revive.

Name: Three of Diamonds – Berserker

Mission: Breaking Point
Location: Blow up all four mortar pits and before you go up the stairs to the big building, turn around and go in the little hut at the side with boxes in. The card is inside.

Effect: Kill three enemies in five seconds and you will be in rage mode. You’ll be invincible for a short amount of time, but will only have a knife.

Name: Six of Clubs – Paintball

Mission: Heart of the Reich
Location: At the very start of the mission look in the tunnel to the left of your starting point for this easy card.

Effect: Paint will splatter instead of blood when you shoot.

Name: Two of Spades – Victory

Mission: Downfall
Location: Finish the massive fight in the large theater room, and your team will break a door down. Look down the hallways (right side)for a dark room with a card inside.

Effect: The HUD is minimised, friendly fire is all good and you take damage twice as fast – Just like real life 🙂

 

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