Call of Duty: Black Ops II Review

Call of Duty's always been a series with extremely varied reception. It all started back in Modern Warfare 2, by far the best game in the series until, of course, everything went wrong. The community tried, and succeeded, in finding every single overpowered gun and killstreak (or attachment, in one infamous case) and abusing it to depths never seen before. It's gotten to the point where if you join any game in Modern Warfare 2, in any game mode in any playlist, there will be at least three people using the Intervention for trickshotting and quickscoping, and at least two people with two Grenade Launcher classes, each with One Man Army and Danger Close, constantly switching between the two classes for infinite, overpowered grenade launchers, dubbed almost universally these days as "noob tubers".

The attachment that ruined Modern Warfare 2.

Thankfully, Treyarch fixed this issue in the following addition to the series: Call of Duty: Black Ops. The other aspects of multiplayer in that game, however, were terrible. Even after a nerfing patch, the Famas was easily the best gun in the game, with low recoil, an immense firing rate and high damage, it was more or the less the only gun seen used in most games. The SMGs didn't exactly have a clean halo either - the MP5k and the AK74u outclassed all the other SMGs easily. Quickscoping, however, was more or less impossible, which was one of the few things Treyarch most definitely did right. Zombies also made a return from World at War with tons of new features and more maps. Zombies was much, much more fun than the fairly unrealistic campaign or the unbalanced multiplayer.
              Then along came Modern Warfare 3 in 2011, which fixed many of Infinity Ward's previous takes on the series, fixing niggles such as grenade launchers and removing Danger Close and One Man Army. Quickscoping was much easier than in Black Ops, but harded than Modern Warfare 2. The guns all kill too quickly- which in a way, actually makes the game balanced. Survival Mode was a welcome addition to Special Ops, but they botched the fairly repetitive campaign. Overall, an enjoyable game.
            And then, on November 13, 2012, out came Black Ops II from Treyarch's metaphorical womb. With it were tons of new features, guns and equipment due to the developers having a lot more freedom with the technology as it is set just over a decade from now, in the future.
             I can say one thing for sure this time around - they nailed the campaign for me. Instead of just point-and-shoot, run to objectives and complete the mission, you now have a lot more freedom - that is, you can make critical decisions that affect the story. There is a point around halfway through the campaign where the main antagonist, a narco-terrorist called Raul Menendez, is seemingly captured and brought in front of a building where Frank Woods, one of the main protagonists of Black Ops 1 and 2, is told to shoot him with a sniper rifle. You have a choice - shoot him in the head and kill him instantly, or shoot him the leg. Both actions drastically affect your ending.

            There are around four different endings to the story, all revolving around Raul Menendez. There is a "good" ending, where sacrifices have to made for the final result, and a "bad" ending, which you usually get when you don't do the Strike Force missions.
              Strike Force controls more like an RTS game - you can give orders for a squad to go and defend one objective, or to attack another. If you're not one for strategy, you can also hop into a camera feed of one of the ground troops you're controlling and play as them to complete the objective. There is an option to skip these missions, which, as I said before, usually nets you the "bad" ending due to a few of them involving key characters.
              The first half of the campaign often switches timelines. Some play in a period in the 80s where you play as Alex Mason, main protagonist of Black Ops 1, or Frank Woods, presumed dead at the end of the first game. Jason Hudson also returns, but with a less major role, and Grigori Weaver is never mentioned. The other missions allow you to play as David Mason, Alex's son, in 2025 with futuristic equipment and weaponry. Attachments such as the Millimetre Scope, which allows you to locate enemies behind walls and doors, and the Target Finder which functions similarly but has higher zoom, are available.
               Throughout the entire campaign, you can now customise your loadout from the start. If you unlock future weapons, you can (rather unrealistically) use them in the past, which funnily enough nets you an achievement/trophy. You can choose three attachments for both your weapons, and you can use a primary weapon as a secondary, too. You can also choose two perks to help with gameplay. Overall, the campaign is my favourite one of the series so far, competing even with Modern Warfare 2. Treyarch added a ton of new features, which they absolutely nailed. The only niggle I find is every now and then you get killed by explosions you have no warning of - grenades sometimes glitch so the warning icon is not shown. Almost invisible snipers are also included, making playing the game through on Veteran a hefty challenge.
                 On to the most anticipated mode of the game - Zombies. Technically, you start off with only one map (if you have the Hardened/Care Package edition or the Season Pass you also get Nuketown Zombies which I don't have and therefore have no sure-fire opinion on). The map is known as Green Run, as is set somewhere in the Northern Hemisphere. It includes many future and past weapons, ranging from the Israeli Galil from the late 60s to the HAMR, a futuristic light machine gun similar to the Scar-H and the Scar-L from previous titles. It is, however, split into three "Survival" maps (the traditional mode of playing from Black Ops and World at War), "Town" (my favourite), "Farm" (my least favourite) and "Bus Depot". All of these maps are playable at once along with many new areas in a new game mode called "TranZit".
                 Have a play of TranZit and then Survival and it's pretty obvious which mode Treyarch have focused more on - the former. On Survival and Grief (we'll get to that later) your character doesn't even have a voice, and TranZit has a lot more Easter Eggs and achievements than Survival, which is a shame because I play the latter a lot more than TranZit as I usually play solo.
                  When you see early Black Ops 2 info videos by people like TmarTn and Ali-A, you always see some mention of an innovative 8-player Zombies mode - Grief being exactly that. You're split into teams, the Centre for Disease Control or the CIA. It doesn't really make a difference which team you're on - no-one has a voice, but the CIA wear suits while the CDC wear hazmat safety clothing. You have the choice of working together or against each other, and power-ups only affect the team who get it (even with Max Ammos, which is really annoying). You can't kill enemy players directly, but you can do things like knifing them while they're reviving their teammates to stop the process.

Low-quality image, but you can just about see a CIA member to the right of the downed players and a CDC player further to the right. One CDC member is down, in yellow, and a CIA member is also down nearby. This is on the map Town.

All this sounds rather enjoyable, don't you think? Well, for the most part, you'd be right, except for one little pointless, infuriating feature that almost ruins the gaming experience as a whole.
Lava.
If you take a look at that picture again, you'll notice near the Pack-A-Punch machine to the left, there's a massive pool of it. And see those cracks near it? Those spread throughout the whole map. Every map. 4 hits by the lava without Juggernog and you're down. If that's not bad enough, if a zombie runs through the crack or the pool, they get set on fire for about 30 seconds. If you kill them while they're on fire, they explode. The explosion damages you about as much as half a zombie smack. It might not sound like much, but on the early rounds, getting smacked once, then going over a crack for 2 seconds, then getting hit by an explosion downs you pretty often. I know for a fact I'm not the only one praying for a patch soon that gives you an option to turn the lava off - it's infuriating.
              Now on to multiplayer - and you have to give credit to Treyarch, they always like change. Almost all the killstreaks are new, and include the Dragonfire, a quadrotor vehicle to mow down enemies, the Hunter Killer drone, a small rocket that seeks out enemies, and the VSat which functions similarly to the Advanced UAV and Blackbird from previous titles. Most of the killstreaks aren't too annoying, but there are two which really, really annoy me and a lot of other people. These killstreaks being the Lightning Strike and the Guardian.
               I don't mind the Lightning Strike for the most part, but it's so, so easy to get spawntrapped by them. There's no "Ultra Blast Shield" like in Modern Warfare 3 yet, and the UAV shows people on the mini-map who have just spawned. It's not the fault of the players, really, it's just the killstreak's effectiveness that needs fixing.
               The Guardian is, in short, overpowered. It's basically like a huge fan that blows out radiation that slows down and slowly kills anyway caught in the rays. This time it is the community's fault. They always, always put it at a secluded place near the spawn of the other team, and they get caught in it as soon as they spawn. Treyarch, fix it please.
                Generally, the guns are very balanced - I haven't been killed by a grenade launcher at all yet. That said, the game is generally SMG-dominant, with the PDW-57 and the MSMC being used very often. Quickscoping is back, although it's much harder to do so than in previous titles as the aim assist's been toned down and the bullet spread can be rather sporadic.
                Lag compensation and bullet registration is a major problem. If you miss one bullet you'll die in most gunfights, and sometimes even if all your bullets are on target you'll still die, even on a 4 or 5-bar connection.
                All in all, Black Ops II is an enjoyable game with a lot of niggles - but due to the magic that is patching and updates, by the end of next year it's sure to be generally a much more enjoyable gaming experience, with new maps and game modes to keep the dying Call of Duty series on its feet.

                                                             8/10
Thanks for reading!
                                    

MK7 First Impressions

Hey y'all. I just felt like updating this blog seeing as I haven't done so in about 2 weeks, so what better way to update it than to talk about the best Mario Kart ever?
Yes, I said it. Now, you might think I'm being a bit bold here, but seriously, this is what I always dreamed MarioKart would be like. They've polished a lot of the niggles I had with Mario Kart Wii and its predecessors (did I spell that right? xP) such as reducing the dreaded Blue Shell's damage intensity and some great new items - for example, the Fire Flower which allows you to burn anyone in front of you to a crisp like a mother-in-law on a bad day. It's not overpowered; if I recall correctly it only causes the damage of a banana, but it's a lot better than the fabled fruit skin because you can easily hit a foe twice in a row with it.

The fire flower, an awesome new item!

Now, I don't know if any of you can drift your minds back to the days of Mario Kart DS, one of the first really good games released for the DS, but you may remember a cheap little tactic known as "snaking". This consisted of getting loads of drift boosts while still staying on the track (here's a video explaining the process a little better). Luckily, Mario Kart 7 has inherited Mario Kart Wii's way of drifting; getting a boost the longer and harder you drift, with orange boosts lasting much longer than blue ones. This was, in my opinion, a brilliant move by Retro because snaking pretty much ruined MKDS' online. Some thieving little bugger has discovered a way to snake on MK7, but it's much, much less effective, which is a good thing because it makes the online a lot more fun and playable.
Overall, if you have any sense in you and have a 3DS, GET. THIS. NOW. I guarantee you won't regret it.

Before I go, if you don't watch Pointless at 5:15pm every weekday, you're seriously missing out. Genius concept, humorous presenters, and definitely one of those shows which will make you scream at the telly due to the occasional idiocy of the contestants.
Until next time, I hope life treats you well.

TF2: Scout Tips

Heyllo there loyal followers. Started making a new little series to help people with playing certain classes on Team Fortress 2, feel free to add a few tips in the comments if you'd like.

The scout, the fastest class in the game.

First of all, get to know how other players percieve you. Most players - pyros especially, it seems - seem to dismiss scouts as annoying flies and prioritise more dangerous targets such as heavies, engineers (turtling ones especially), pyros and soldiers. However, a good scout is as dangerous as any class when used correctly. Try and lure them into danger by shooting them a few times so they come over to try and get rid of you in the most brutal way possible, as is TF2. Now (this works well on heavies) trick them with your speed and double jumps, and keep shooting. Obviously if the enemy is being healed by a medic you should probably back off and leave them to some allies with more firepower.

Use your pistol if you have it in your loadout. If you're using the Force-a-Nature or the Soda Popper and have the pistol as a secondary, don't forget to use it. Take them on with your primary and when you need to reload it, switch to your pistol. I've lost count of how many times I've gotten a kill using this strategy instead of just reloading and probably letting them get away or kill you. At close range it has quite a large damage output - around 20 damage per shot if I recall correctly, with 12 bullets in the clip, so 20 x 12 = 240 damage per clip, more than enough to kill nearly every class as long as they're not overhealed. and to severely weaken overhealed heavies and soldiers.. 

Know how to use Bonk: Atomic Punch. Don't just run into battle using it like an overenthusiastic baboon, you'll probably get killed the instant the effect wears off. Instead, do what your name suggests: scout around, checking for sentries and heavies. You can then press U to give this information privately to your team, for example, if you saw 3 engineers camping on a balcony, each with a level 3 sentry, tell any demomen to try and stickybomb them. If you see any heavies, especially ones being healed, tell your snipers and spies to try and pick them off. I've done this every time I've had Bonk in my loadout and it's really helped.

Use your speed and abilities to your advantage. If you're taking on a Heavy or a Soldier one-on-one, trick them by running around them in circles and changing directions every now and then, double-jumping over them, and using the pistol when you run out of ammo for your primary. If a medic comes and heals your target, back off. They will kill you. The medic can totally undo any damage you've done in a few seconds and overheal them too; leave the sentries, heavies, soldiers, and spies to take care of them. Dodge and fire at them while running away if you have to.

Only use your melee in dire situations. The scout is, essentially, a class which is designed for close combat and as long as the target isn't too dangerous, you can easily take care of them with the right strategies.  Don't go around trying to kill everyone with your bat; the sentries will inevitably mow you down before you manage to hit anyone, let alone kill them. Only use it when very low on ammo or if the enemy is already very weakened so you can save ammo. Using it when the enemy has full health and your primary and secondary weapons have ammo is, if I'm honest, stupid. Saying that, don't forget to always use the Sandman's alternate fire if you're using it; from afar, it can easily make them vulnerable for any snipers and any other players on your team.

Don't forget, you capture points twice as fast as other classes. But don't just stand there while capturing your point; move around, zigzag while still on the point. Snipers and spies will easily take you down if you're just standing there like a retarded goose. Playing as a scout is great on maps with control points that don't take too long to capture such as Dustbowl and the final control points of places like Egypt.

I hope you've enjoyed this guide, and as I said in the beginning, feel free to add some more tips in the comments. More coming soon. Probably.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii Review

Intro
Way back in 2006 Nintendo released their first Mario platforming game on a handheld for a loooong time. It recieved extremely positive feedback, although many experienced Mario platformer players complained that the difficulty wasn't quite as high as it could have been, making it an extremely enjoyable yet very easy game that could be finished in just a few hours.
As if Nintendo had been listening to Eminem in the 3 years between when that and its sequel, New Super Mario Bros. Wii was released,  they most certainly didn't "go back to that now". The difficulty in this new game (which was the first Mario sidescrolling platformer on a home console since Super Mario World all the way back in the early 90s) is easy enough for kids to have a great time and hard enough for experienced gamers to be raised a new challenge.

NSMB Wii's sexy red boxart.

As you can see from the image in the boxart there, it also marks the return of the plumber's trusty old dino friend, Yoshi.
Controls
The game is played with the Wiimote on its side, with the 1 and 2 buttons on the right. Speaking of those buttons, the 2 button is the essential button necessary in almost every Mario game, the good ol' Jump Button. 1 represents the Dash and Action button. Holding it down while using the D-Pad to move makes Mario sweat buckets as he sprints past the goombas. Press and release it while you have a projectile-shooting ability (the Fire or Ice Flower power-ups, for example), however, and you shoot an enemy-damaging ball of ouch. The D-Pad is used to control Mario, as always.
Plot
Peach, the Mushroom Kingdom's famous ruler, celebrates her birthday at a party with some of her Toad servants, and Mario and Luigi as well, of course. Her huge, tempting birthday cake screams for you to cut and eat a slice of its sugary goodness. But suddenly, Bowser's children, the Koopalings, and Bowser Jr., spring out of the cake and capture the princess! Mario and Luigi are quick to chase them, but the Koopalings get away from them! The helpful Toads fire huge boxes of Power-Ups to help the plumbers (and the 2 brave Toads with them) out of the cannon and they scatter across the land.

The dastardly Koopalings.

Each world has a different Koopaling in it. In the end of the halfway forts you engage the world's Koopaling in a one-on-one battle on a platform. At the end of the final castle at the end of the world, however, an evil sorcerer comes on casts a spell on the room, giving the Koopaling an advantage. The effect ranges from simply making some of the floor raise to covering the room with water. In the end, as with almost every Mario game, you face off in an epic battle against the primary antagonist, Bowser.
It's a little generic seeing as basically the same thing happens in almost every Mario game, but hey, the game's fun and it more than makes up for the fairly weak plot.
Graphics
Obviously due to it being on the Wii instead of the DS like before, the graphics have been polished up and looks as good as ever. Mario and the enemies look less choppy than before, and Bowser much more detailed than before as well, but obviously that's expected. It's a huge improvement from the graphics on the DS and in my opinion Nintendo have done a mighty good job of it.
Music
Many of the songs on this game's soundtrack are remixed versions of NSMB on the DS's music, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but I would have liked to see a little more new tunes. The songs are as catchy as ever, and the "hah" effect in a lot of the songs return from the original. Many of the game's tracks are original, however, and very well composed. A great job by Nintendo on the music as ever.
Special Features and Multiplayer
As I said in the intro this game marks the return of Yoshi, a small dinosaur with a huge appetite. In a few levels (I say few, I'll get back to that later) you can hit a block and and an egg will pop out, hatching in a second or so into Yoshi. The colour of the Yoshi depends on which order it's hatched (e.g. the first egg always hatches into a green Yoshi, the second one into Pink etc). If you get hit whilst riding him you're forced off him as the little confused creature frantically runs around before calming down, usually running off a ledge while doing this. If your Yoshi dies there's almost always another block containing a Yoshi egg in the level.

Yoshi in all his green-ness.

Playing as Yoshi is very fun, but there simply aren't enough levels which feature him. There's one in each world, at most. Sometimes there isn't a Yoshi level in the whole of the world, which is a great shame seeing as it's one of the major additions to the game.
Now for multiplayer.
I've played multiplayer quite a few times with my friends, and I can honestly tell you, it can end up in some hilarious situations. Whether it's chucking your friend repeatedly in the lava when they've gone to get a drink, or taking years to get a Star Coin together, it can give you some very happy memories. Nintendo really pulled the multiplayer off in this game.
Now for Star Coins themselves.
If you're new to modern Mario games, a Star Coin is a special coin which, if you collect enough, can nab you some good stuff depending on the game. There are 3 in each level in this game. I certainly adds replay value to the game, and it feels very satisfying to nab a Star Coin you've found very hard to get.
Rating
94%
Nintendo did a brilliant job with this game, and it's a massive improvement from the DS version. Just a few more Yoshi levels and it really would have been something special.
Thanks for reading! See you later.

Music

Good music is what sounds good to our ears. Keeps us going. It's what we think about in our time of need and it gives us that burst of hope needed to get through the restrictive barrister that is life.
This is good music. This is good music. This isn't. You see, what this is, is a successful attempt at sparking hope in young girls' hearts making them think that one day they'll meet him backstage and he'll fall head over heels in love with them. Obviously this won't happen in a million years, but that one, tiny little spark in those girl's hearts suddenly erupts into a fiery inferno of obsession. They throw away the microscopically low chances of it ever happening and start living in a dreamworld of love. "Justin Bieber DOES love me. He said it himself on his Twitter. He loves his fans. And that includes me." The reality is, you fools, is that he doesn't give a shit about you. You're nothing special. You're just another of those screaming girls at his concerts. But no, you don't care about that. You still think he loves you. You still think that one day you'll be Mrs Bieber. WRONG.
And these trending topics on Twitter. Every goddamn day, there's one about him made up by his insane fans. "WE LOVE BIEBER". "BIEBER OR DIE". "BELIEBERS RULE THE WORLD". Get real, you morons. He goes on Twitter to advertise and retweet some of his fans' tweets about him to make them feel good about themselves. In 20 years time he might be a judge on America's Got Talent or some shit. But maybe you'll get yourself some common sense and realise he isn't worth obsessing over. Heck, I bet if he wasn't so "cute" he'd never have become popular.
And don't even get me started on Dirty Bieber Secrets. It's just sick.
Reality is, let's be honest, you only like him because of his looks. He's actually got a little singing talent, but unfortunately, you'd be too busy screaming over him at his concerts you'd never hear him.
This isn't one of my usual posts (I'll be back to normal soon) but I just felt that it was worth having a rant over.

Monster Hunter 3G Preview

Since school started I haven't had much chances to post here much, sorry.

Monster Hunter 3G is basically MH3 but expanded, with more armour, more weapons, and most importantly, more monsters!
A few screens and monster info has been given which you can check out here. This includes info about a new monster called the Brakidios, who (I think) will be found in the Volcano area.
It's very similar to the Barroth from the original MH3 but its forehead and arms seem to be able to explode after a while, which should be interesting.
The second screenshot in that article (after a picture of the Brakidios) is called the Plesioth, which makes a return from some of the older Monster Hunter games. The Lagiacrus makes a return as well, and the Subspecies addition (recoloured versions of monsters which are usually much tougher) returns, showing the Azure Rathalos. A refurbished Loc Lac is also shown, along with the Moga Village offline hub from Tri.
This looks amazing and I am really, really excited for it. Defo getting it when it comes out here.

Agnaktor gon' DOWN

That's what the big bad critter I beat yesterday looks like.
Seriously, he's just a big, fiery, stronger Lagiacrus on Land and if you've got a good weapon and some good armour (I used the Sharq Attaq lance and full Rathian armour set) he's fairly easy. He's a bit bigger than Lagiacrus generally and has a few new attacks, such as digging into the ground and jumping up into the roof, coming back down and repeat, while trying to hit you. He can also dig into the ground and jump at you repeatedly, and it's hard to block unless you have a full Stamina bar. If you do the "invincible dive" (running back from a large monster and pressing the "roll" button) he'll hit you again when you get back up, so either try to run or hope your stamina doesn't completely deplete while he hits you.
By far his most famous attack, however, is his Fire Beam. He can perform this in two ways: He can just do it while you're fighting him, but he can also dig into the ground, partiall come back up, and perform a 360 fire beam. You can tell when he's going to do it when he raises his head snaps his beak a few times.
Also, I've unlocked the Ceadeus quest! I'm not going to do a guide yet, as it'll probably be a while til' I actually get the weapon I need and beat it.
I actually had a go on the Wii Fit yesterday as well and (thank god) I am a "healthy weight". My brother's actually nearly "underweight". I think it's because of his lack of muscle. But he might just be skinny.
So I'm going to try and follow some other people's blogs to try and get a follower or two back. See you people.

I've defeated Jay Leno!

Sorry for the recent lack of updates again. So yesterday I got round to fighting the Uragaan and I succeeded!

He looks a little like Jay Leno, hence the title of this post.
He's pretty hard but he's stunned easily so if you keep superpounding his chin and genitals he should go down without too much trouble.
I got a Uragaan Jaw as a reward for my efforts which I'm happy with.
I used the Vodyanoy Hammer (upgrade of Ludroth Splashammer) to do the job. His rolls do a LOT of damage and he uses it often so be sure to get and upgrade the best armour you have when you fight him, or bring a weapon that can block.
That's my bit for today then. Bye

ONM Top 100!

2 blog posts in one day! Disgusting I know.
Basically, I've beaten Barioth with Djinn which I got after a very quick and lucky Rathalos run.

So ONM (or rather, Shaun2k5 and King Slazo) revealed the results of the top 100 count tonight.

Shaun trolled us all by saying that Black Ops had come first but he was joking, and Guwuh's apparent reaction was rather hilarious. Okami came in the top 20, so I'm happy with that but I still think it could have done a little better. Everyone else thinks it's overrated. I just like it.

Brawl was the game that won. Fantastic game, but I did not expect it to come first.

That's all for today. Going to RSPB Conwy tomorrow to see if I can spot any Curlew Sandpipers that have popped up there recently.

One more thing, I'm going to be writing a review on Tri once I beat Ceadeus and beat offline.

Bye guys.

Rathian Armour geeeet!

I look like the guy on the left.

Sorry I haven't updated for a while, I was busy. So as you can clearly see if you're not blind I have full Rathian armour! It only took me about 3 days to get it all (considering you need the Plate, Spike and Talon to make the full set) so that's pretty good. Still working on Rathalos so I can get Red Bludgeon (an upgrade of the Peco Flint hammer) and the Djinn (upgrade of Peco Chopper sword and shield). I'm going to use the Djinn after I get it to take on the Barioth, my new task.

He's hard.
See you soon doods and doodettes. If there are any doodettes reading this blog.

*ka-shing*

Hurray for Wyvern Blade!

Cos that's totally the sound my new Longsword makes. So yeah, I killed Rathalos again and got the shells I needed to make this sexy blade, the Wyvern Blade "Fire". Of course the Agnaktor LS is better but I'm an impatient little bugger. So I got this to keep me going. Can kill Royal Ludroth in 2:32 so that's pretty good. Could probably farm it and sell the rewards to get my 21, 500 zenny back tomorrow but I'll probably be playing online for a while since I finally managed to get the Barroth Urgent Quest. Unfortunately I got DC'd all the time so I couldn't do it again and I nearly played online with Noodle Link again but because of some annoyances such as lunch and my crappy internet connection it's going to have to wait.

Going to the dentist next week ;_;. God I hate my dentist. She's a bitch. She's always like "Hellooooooo. Maaaah, youuu've grooooown!" every time we see her and she has this fake-sounding Russian accent which makes her really hard to understand.

So that's my life for today. Buh-bye.

Heeeey.

And the Rathalos falls down dead. If you're wondering what it looks like it's the big red dragon I have with my blog heading. It's the male version of Rathian, the monster you have to kill to get the Lagiacrus. Did it in about 15 minutes with the Gobulu Muruka lance (if you couldn't guess, it's the Gobul Lance you can make as an upgrade from either Ploshasta or Rhenohasta I can't remember)  which has 299 raw damage and 120 paralysis element. Spamming the counter and high strikes on its head worked pretty well.
Also today I went on online and did the Alluring Dress quest 3 times, the quest to kill 30 sharq naked,  and got the 5 sharq tickets you get from that event to get the Sharq Attaq lance, a very powerful water lance with an *ahem* interesting appearance.

 Had to do the Royal Ludroth arena quest 5 times to get the R. Ludroth coins needed to make it. Now I just need to get 15 more damn Pelagacite ores and it's done.
Meanwhiiiiiile back in the real world my mum took me shopping today to get some school stuff and we went to visit some relatives on the way back and got home around 4 and played MH3 till tea and during that time I did all the stuff I've mentioned, then had tea which was FAJITAS. I BLOODY LOVE FAJITAS. And Ice Cream for pudding to cool down the burn. Good day overall. See you soon whoever the hell might be reading this blog.

The Lord of the Seas falls!

So after some Peco farming and a quick Rathian kill I finally upgraded my trusty Plume Flint into the mighty Peco Flint! 

It... doesn't really look much different BUT it's got some major damage difference and is a very effective weapon against monsters who are weak to fire such as the Royal Ludroth, Lagiacrus and Gigginox. Straight after I picked up this weapon after some farming I decided to try it out on the Gigginox!

The gigginox is a litte-bit-more-than-creepy little critter who's got some poison-producing organs in its belly which it uses to hunt its prey and (annoyingly) fight back against us hunters. It's head looks exactly like its anus except its head has teeth. Its head is very stretchy and it uses this to its advantage by swinging it around. It can also use its sticky hands to climb on the walls and ceiling.
So back to the point I wielded my new hammer and beat the sh*t out of it. It fell after 13 minutes of relentless bashing and gave me the item I wanted: the Pale Extract.
I wanted the Pale Extract because when you combined it with the item, Demondrug (Might Seed + Catalyst) it made a Mega Demondrug which, along with some other Peco materials, gets you your first Fire Element sword, the Qurupeco Chopper! Haven't used it properly yet but I will as soon as I can.
So, as for the title of this blog. After using my old Plume Flint to repel the Lagiacrus on one of the urgent quests and defeating Rathian, I unlocked the option to fight the mighty Lord of the Seas to the death!

And using my Peco Flint, it met its fiery end! Now I have to capture it in the narrow water passages of the Flooded Forest which is proving to be harder than killing it.
I've also been doing some online quests with my fellow ONMer Noodle Link who has his own blog I recommend you check out.
Eventually I'll be writing a review on this game so be sure to hang around.
Phew, that was a long update. See you soon guys!

MH3 Update!

Hey guys, BlueSoup here again.
So today I got a sh*tload of zenny after doing the R. Ludroth capture quest over and over and over again (I've got about 35,000 zenny now)  and managed to get enough materials to get the whole Armour set and I got quite a few armour spheres too to upgrade them all. So from that I felt I was ready to take on the mighty Barroth! I took him on wielding my trusty Plume Flint hammer and after approximately 20 minutes it breathed its final halitosis-filled breath. I managed to knock his scalp off and got 2 carves from that (I had felyne carver) and I got some good materials from his body too. Afterwards I got the Gobul quest which I did after one failed attempt where I didn't get a chance to use a frog to fish it out and got some good materials but I only got 2 Gobul Spikes and you need 3 to make the Ananta Boneblade, the first Longsword. So it looks like I'm gonna have to do it again to get this weapon.
That's my not-so-interesting lot for today. See ya.

My new Wii and Mii

 Haven't posted for two months, sorry 'bout that. I forgot I had an account here.
So about 5 weeks ago my Wii stopped working, no idea why, it just couldn't read the game discs. So we got a new one (was a bargain, cost under 100 quid and came with Wii Sports + Wii Sports Resort) and, of course, I had to start all my games again, which was a bit of a shame but at least I could experience playing them again. I've almost completed Okami and I'm on the City in the Sky on Twilight Princess atm. But about a week ago I started a new file on Monster Hunter Tri, undoubtedly one of the best games on Wii in my opinion. I bought full Chainmail Armour as soon as I could (the second-worst armour in the game in terms of defence), got myself a fairly weak Great Sword and, after doing all the tutorial tasks, got started on the quests.

By now I'm in full Jaggi armour, which I've upgraded to level 3, and am readying for my fight with the Royal Ludroth.

See you soon guys.

Alton Towers

Came back from Alton Towers 2 days ago - my time there flew! My brother won a competition so me and my family could go there for two days and stay in either the Alton Towers Hotel or the Alton Towers Splash Landings hotel. We chose the former; it was amazing! I really couldn't guess how long it would have taken them to build it. There were fountains, fish, huge depictions of Sir Algenon (a traveller whose adventures inspired the building of the hotel)'s travels, the bed was comfy, we had a decent TV.... I couldn't have asked for more. The food we had was delicious too, although it was a bit pricey. We'd won a competition though, so we could get it for free! Bang tidy!
              In the actual theme park we went on quite a lot of rides. I didn't go on any big rollercoasters, but my parents went on Nemesis, which looked absolutely terrifying! We went on Hex - "The Legend of the Towers", which had a bit of an overkill build-up but the ride was amazing - we'd gone on it before and instead of actually trying to experience the ride we were just trying to find out how the hell it worked! We also went on Duel, where you have to shoot ghosts and zombies, which was fun, and also "The Flume", which my brother hated, and the "Congo River Rapids", where you travel down a river in a yellow tub. We also went on the Squirrel Nutty ride, which was absolutely terrifying (!). So yeah, I had a brilliant time in a brilliant place.