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Prima Games Blog

The Prima Games Blog is the place to read about new video games, get expert strategy, tips, downloads,
free walkthroughs, and insider game info by gamers for gamers.

All posts by jasbury
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Bad Company 2 Demo Survival Tips

Are you as addicted to the Battlefield Bad Company 2 demo as I am? I’ve been playing the game for nearly three months now and I still can’t get enough, squeezing in at least one hour of multiplayer every evening. But if you’re having a tough time grasping some of the new (and old) concepts, here are a few quick tips.

Tag Those Targets: You may have noticed the red/orange icons above enemy units. This is the result of your knowledgeable teammates tagging targets through the new Comms system. To tag a target, aim at an enemy unit and press the Comms button; “Q” on the PC, “Back” on the Xbox 360, or “Select” on the PS3. Tagged targets are visible to all teammates both on the HUD and minimap. This is an easy way to communicate with your entire team, plus if a teammate kills a target you tagged, you earn a 20-point Spot Assist bonus. A target remains tagged for approximately five seconds, but you can tag it again as long as you maintain line of sight.

Pass the Ammo: Hey assault guys! Would it kill you to drop an ammo box? The assault kit’s ammo box is the only source of ammo. So when playing as assault, be generous with the bullets. You’re rewarded with a Team Resupply bonus (10 points) every time a teammate retrieves ammo from an ammo box. Engineers and recon players often need more rockets and sniper rounds, so consider dropping a box at their feet to keep them firing. And for you medics, don’t be so stingy with the medkits either.

A Tank is not a Battering Ram: To all those players who drive their tanks headlong into enemy infantry: Stop it now! All it takes is 2-3 rockets to take out a tank, so keep it a safe distance from enemy infantry. Instead, use it as a stand-off weapon, blasting enemies from long range. The machine gun turret on each tank is equipped with a zoom function, making the weapon extremely accurate and deadly at extreme distances. Also, consider playing as an engineer, so you can repair your own ride.

Alt Fire Specialization: This is the only specialization available in the demo, so always equip it before spawning into the game. This perk allows drivers of tanks to fire a coaxial machine gun by holding down the alternate fire button. The UAV even benefits with a deadly machinegun of its own. But the AH-64 Apache gets an even bigger bonus with this feature. The gunner can use the secondary fire button to shoot tracer darts at vehicles while the pilot can launch Hellfire missiles, homing in on the gunner’s traced targets.

Destruction 2.0: In Bad Company 2, structures can completely collapse if they take enough damage. This is a great way to take out M-COM objectives located inside houses. In the demo, objective A at the Construction Site and objective B at the Office Site can be destroyed in this fashion. Simply target the building’s outer walls with explosive munitions until you hear creaking and moaning sounds, indicating an imminent collapse. Collapsing buildings not only destroy M-COM stations but they’ll kill any opponents inside.

For more multiplayer tips and tactics, be sure to check out our guide, releasing next month. Inside we cover every kit, weapon, vehicle, and specialization in detail, complete with stats, tactics, and unlock criteria. The guide also contains labeled maps showing the locations of all bases, objectives, control points, as well as spawn points for all vehicles and stationary weapons. So look for it on store shelves when you buy the game.

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Sucked into the Void

Read more about Dark Void Game Guide

With some projects, not all, it might take a few missions or levels to get drawn into the game. It’s usually not the fault of the game itself, but rather a side effect of having a kick-ass job like writing guides. Confused? Okay, hear me out. You see, at the start of a project, I try to approach the game very… “clinically.” That is to say that I try not to see it as a game, but as something to diagnose, take apart, reassemble, and present to the reader. Basically, I try to set myself up to do a good job.

In some cases, however, the game makes it very difficult to remember that I’m working. Dark Void was one such title. As soon as Will and Ava crash landed in that lush jungle inhabited by freakin’ aliens under mysterious circumstances, I was hooked. Within a few minutes, I was sucked into the Void. The Dark Void.

I could go on about how much fun it was to sit down, grab the controller, and “get to work,” but you’d think I was just bragging (you’d be right). So instead of digressing about the job some more, let me share some nuggets of wisdom for you to employ while adventuring in Dark Void. Mind you, I learned many of these during my second playthrough.

While Archons are some of the most exciting enemies to bring down, they can also be the easiest. After slowing them down by blasting the joints on their legs, your first instinct may be to rush the Archon’s head. Don’t! Instead, rush the Archon’s tail and follow the on-screen prompts to bring them down quickly, easily, and get an Achievement (or Trophy) while you’re at it.

Perhaps one of the most rewarding enemies to bring down are the Watcher Knights. Sure they can hover out of reach and make most covered areas a dangerous place to hide, but once you bring them down, they gift you with one of the best weapons in the game! After bringing down a Knight, search through the rubble to find their large caliber machine gun! You won’t be able to run quickly with it in your hands, but you won’t need to with that kind of destructive power at your fingertips. Whenever you face multiple Knights, destroy one, grab its machine gun, and turn it on the others. You’ll shred through them in no time.

Finally, don’t be afraid to explore and locate all of the hidden Tech Orb Caches. Yes, you’ll get Tech Points by defeating enemies, but in order to get your weapons fully upgraded and gain a real advantage over the enemy, you’ll need to seek out all the extra Tech Point Caches scattered throughout the game. Fight the urge to blast to the next mission to find out what happens next and instead, do a little recon and locate some of those glowy orbs. You may not reach the next objective as quickly, but you’ll be happy you did when your weapon is maxed out toe level three and you’re mowing down the Watchers with ease.

Dark Void Prima Official eGuide

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Mass Effect 2 Collector’s Edition Guide

Want to know more about the universe behind the universe of Mass Effect 2? Then definitely check out the Collector’s Edition of our guide, which features exclusive interviews with the development team behind the game, as well as the founders of the BioWare studio. Learn what influenced the look and feel of the game. Discover which squad members are the developer’s favorites. The Collector’s Edition also features lots of cool pre-production art; check out the evolution of Mass Effect 2 as it went from the page to the screen – and all of the fascinating steps in-between.

Mass Effect 2 Collector’s Edition – Prima Official Game Guide

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Mass Effect 2 Guide Author Speaks!

Read more about Mass Effect 2 Game Guide

Catherine Browne recently finished writing Prima’s official game guide for Mass Effect 2. Here she shares some of her thoughts on the process of writing a guide and the game itself.

I played through the original Mass Effect twice – once going straight Paragon and then next indulging my inner Renegade. I still think the pacing is fantastic, hurtling toward that breathtaking final act where every narrative thread comes together for one of the most satisfying climaxes in an adventure game yet. So, naturally I was excited when the opportunity to write the Mass Effect 2 guide arose. Not only would I get to play Mass Effect 2 months before anybody else, but more importantly, I would also get to see how the story continued into this second chapter. By now, we all knew Commander Shepard met a hard fate at the beginning of the game, but how would the former Spectre (I say former because, well, there’s the whole death thing) be resurrected? And who would Shepard go into battle with?

After all, the supporting cast of a Mass Effect game is just as important as Shepard. Without thoughtful, engaging, and clever squad mates, Mass Effect just would not be the same. And so when I started my first real playthrough and taking notes for the guide, I kept a separate file on the squad members so that when I wrote the book, I could accurately describe these characters not just as hired guns to get the job done, but as real personalities that help shape your adventure. If I could give one piece of advice to anybody playing Mass Effect 2, it’s to consider the personalities of the squad when making some major choices. If you have friends with strong personalities, you know how some of them do not get along. You know how strong personalities can end up causing one friendship to further bloom while another withers? The same goes in Mass Effect 2. So if you discover squad mates that you particularly like, such as Miranda or Tali, don’t just take care of them with Medi-gel. Take care of them personally with kindness and deflection. That is one way to get the most out of Mass Effect 2.

Another way to get all that you can from the game is to play at least twice, each time with a different character class. BioWare did a masterful job balancing the six character classes in Mass Effect 2: solider, adept, engineer, infiltrator, vanguard, and sentinel. While some of these classes share abilities, like the soldier and vanguard, others could not be more different. Which class you select – and how you upgrade that class’ powers – really defines your play. Because I like close combat, I zeroed in on the vanguard class in one play through. Just having access to the Charge power (instantly close the gap between you and an enemy within eyesight) completely altered my play style, as I got quite good with the Charge-and-shotgun combo. But then I played as an Engineer and learned how I could use AI Hacking and Combat Drone to create chaos on the battlefield while I stayed on the outer perimeter. After these powers thinned the pack, I moved in and mopped up. Same scene – but totally different play styles.

Be sure to check out the Training chapter of our guide to see all of the powers each class uses so you pick the class that is right for you. And then look at our tables for creating a balanced (or class-heavy) team, because you aren’t the only person in the galaxy with specialties. Miranda, Jacob, Thane… each squad member has strengths. Putting together good team combos for different situations (going into battle against geth versus a mercenary band) is another way I found to get varied experiences out of each playthrough of Mass Effect 2.

One cool thing about writing strategy guides is that you get to see how games really come together in the final months of development. Now, at no point was Mass Effect 2 “broken,” but remember what I said earlier about narrative threads? Not all of them were neatly tied up back in October. I could see the personalities, but watching them grow as all the parameters of their death-defying missions were filled in was extremely satisfying. During my original playthrough, I definitely picked up on all elements of the plot, but by the time I finished my final playthrough, I could see how these personalities came to life when the real do-or-die desperation of the suicide mission was completely filled in. A new cutscene here. A little dialog trimming there. Just like editing a scene in a movie can completely change the tone, the editing of a game can really elevate its resonance. What was a great adventure at first had morphed into a great adventure with real significance (and weighty consequence). It made me even more respectful of the development process.

Looking for awesome Mass Effect 2 game strategy? Just choose your format:

Mass Effect 2 Website
Mass Effect 2 eGuide
Mass Effect 2 Book
Mass Effect 2 Collector’s Edition Book

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Ready for the 40th Day?

Today marks the release of Army of Two: The 40th Day, featuring Salem and Rios in another fist-bump-worthy adventure. I had a lot of fun with the first game, but this one is a whole new beast with some welcome additions and tons of super-cool new features. And I’m not saying that just because I wrote the guide. I really feel the latest installment is a huge improvement over the original. So what are some of my favorite innovations? I absolutely love the one-button melee attacks. It’s especially satisfying to sneak up behind a distracted enemy and dispatch them with your bare hands…or a bayonet. Grenades are also now assigned a button of their own making it much easier to frag thugs during a heated firefight. But that’s just the beginning.

Perhaps the most exciting feature of the new game is the weapon customization option. Not only can you buy a large assortment of assault rifles, sub machineguns, shotguns, sniper rifles, and light machineguns, but you can tear each weapon apart and apply its parts to different weapons in your arsenal. Want to add that AK-47 stock to your M416? No problem. Or maybe you just want to attach a shotgun beneath the barrel of your semi-automatic grenade launcher? The customization options are absolutely insane allowing for the creation of some truly brutal implements of war. I made sure we paid a great deal attention to this feature in our guide, complete with stats and info on every weapon and weapon part. We even put together a helpful quick reference table in the back of the guide showing all these stats.

Army of Two was one of the first games to take co-op gameplay seriously, taking a ground-up approach in its design. I’m pleased to see that the co-op experience is even more fluid this time around. For example, co-op sniping can be initiated at any time; a great way to eliminate two target simultaneously. Plus you can perform some awesome new co-op actions such as the mock surrender. But the co-op interactions don’t end with the gameplay. Your team’s choices can affect the outcome of the story. Throughout the campaign there are a variety of co-op choices requiring you and your partner to make a tough decision. Are you in it for the money? Or are you more interested in helping your fellow man? Even better, none of these decisions are real cut and dry. But don’t worry; we cover all the co-op choices in the guide, describing the rewards and consequences for each. Also, if you’re a completionist you’ll be happy to know that we also have labeled maps illustrating the locations of all collectibles including weapon parts, radio transmissions, civilians, cash drops, and Maneki Neko cats.

Late in the project we had the chance to play through the different multiplayer game modes with the developers. And I’m pleased to say that we didn’t get totally embarrassed. Still, it helps when you have experts on your team. In all there are four game modes: Control, Co-Op Deathmatch, Extraction, and Warzone. Of all these modes, I had the most fun with Extraction, requiring you and three buddies to hold out against wave after wave of AI-controlled enemies. It’s a very tough mode but the teamwork required to come out on top is very rewarding. The developers even took the time to write some tips for each map pointing out crucial locations and tactics necessary for achieving victory.

After this one, I’m eager to see what’s next for Salem and Rios. I’m happy to see EA is investing in this franchise, complete with a new comic book set to release this month from IDW—we have the first few pages of the debut issue in the back of our guide. These characters are perfect for a comic series and I’m sure it will help maintain interest while we wait for the next video game adventure. I know I’ll be checking it out every month.

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Sean Devlin’s School of Hard Knocks

Read more about The Saboteur Game Guide

If your knuckles haven’t had a bruise since last Sunday and you want to take some liberties with a Nazi officer’s face, you’ve come to the right game. In The Saboteur, you play Sean Devlin, a rough-and-tumble bloke who joins up with the French Resistance to put a hurting on the Nazi regime that has taken up residence in World War II Paris. Sean escalates from boosting cars and brawling in bars to assassination runs and top-secret sabotage missions. It’s always more fun to punch, shoot or blast your way through the Resistance missions than to sit back at HQ and read intel reports, so here are five tips guaranteed to cause maximum mayhem in the streets of Paris.

DYNAMITE DESTRUCTION: Normally you plant your explosives on a prime target, light the fuse and run for your life. You only have a few seconds to escape the blast radius, so you can’t always set up the ideal explosion. However, you can set your dynamite without a fuse and detonate it from long range with a well-placed bullet. It’s precision damage, except just remember that if your bullets can detonate the dynamite so can the enemy’s.

BURN, BABY, BURN: Once you get your hands on a Terror Flammenwerfer, you’ll turn the Nazi’s book-burning flamethrower against them and spark up a few unplanned BBQs. It underscores the meaning of “friendly fire,” so watch it around allies, but you don’t even have to hit enemies directly to kill them. Spray the area and watch as pants, coats and gloves burst into flame and send the bastards screaming to their charcoal graves.

SMASH-UP DERBY: Stolen vehicles help you cruise around the city in style, and you can also transform them into weapons. Besides running over errant Nazi foot soldiers and crashing through roadblocks, you can accelerate to full speed, aim at a target, then jettison out of the vehicle before impact. If you strap some dynamite to your speeding projectile, it’s an even bigger boom! Though you’ll need to earn that ability.

JAWBREAKER: Soften up enemy combatants with a couple of quick punches and follow with a strong punch to the kisser. Even bulky Nazis go down quickly with a flurry of relentless jabs. Throw in a hefty kick once in a while, or really punish an enemy once you unlock the Haymaker perk.

The Saboteur: Prima’s Official Game Guide is now available in print and digital download http://www.primagames.com/guides/display.php?isbn=9780761559566. You’ll get maps of all mission areas as well as an overview map of the entire game world, with labels for tons of hiding spots, pick ups, and more!

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The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

Two major milestones were reached on the seventh day of December 2009. I turned 30, and Nintendo released the most legendary handheld adventure game ever made. I’ll leave it to you to determine which event merits greater fanfare. (Note to site admin: please do not make a poll out of this!)

What an incredible game Spirit Tracks is. Everything that made Phantom Hourglass so wonderful has been improved. Motoring around the Overworld by train is a blast, and to my surprise, it was even more enjoyable than sailing the ocean was in Phantom Hourglass. Though the train-based combat is similar to those engaging nautical skirmishes, the biggest thrills came from the villains I couldn’t defeat: enemy trains that chase after Link’s trolley, ending his adventure if they manage to ram him. Shifting gears and altering course just moments before a head-on collision produced some of the biggest thrills I’ve experienced yet on the DS.

Driving the train was also a joy due to the constant eye candy. Rather than being surrounded by endless ocean, you’re treated to scenic views of dense forests, rolling hills, rocky mountains, and snow-covered plains. Whenever I wasn’t blasting pesky enemies or obliterating trackside objects with my trusty cannon, I found myself slowly scanning the horizon in constant awe of the visual splendor the developers were able to produce from such a tiny a game cartridge.

There’s also a big and satisfying twist! I don’t want to spoil it for you, but when you first fire up the game, it’s revealed in the opening cinematic. I knew instantly that this was going to be a memorable adventure. And that it was.

Spirit Tracks just never disappoints. The adventure is huge, the production values are top-notch, and as we’ve all come to expect from Zelda games, there’s just so much to see and do. Rest assured we’ve left no treasure chest unopened in our sizeable guide, which boasts a versatile walkthrough and pages of checklists to ensure you never miss a thing.

Turning 30 isn’t something I really wanted to do, but I was literally begging my betters at Prima for a chance to write the Spirit Tracks guide. Looking back at the project, I now recall a haze of long hours and late nights, but I couldn’t have asked for a better way to ring in my fourth decade. Thank you Prima for this special gift; it’s just what I wanted. And thank you Nintendo for continuing to innovate and reimagine, even after all these years. Growing up with you both has been a wonderful ride.

Happy Holidays!

Zelda: Spirit Tracks
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The Party Scene

Dragon Age Collector's EditionI have 300+ hours into Dragon Age: Origins, and I’m still going back for more. Not to replay the quests (I’ve done them all), not to load a new character up with fancy loot (though, admittedly, there are some cool weapons I still want to check out), not to discover a secret location in Ferelden (the unknown frontier has been colonized for me a while back). No, I miss the party scene.

I do miss chugging some ale around camp with the fiery dwarf Oghren, but it’s more about wanting to go back and see all my friends. My companions that journeyed with me from the Grey Warden Joining to the final battle against the Archdemon. Sounds sappy, maybe, but I’ve never played a game before that had this much interaction between you and your pals. We’re all used to the A.I. party member that hacks a monster in the skull to save your neck (most of the time) and slashes through a spellcaster hellbent on turning you into a campfire marshmallow (most of the time); these guys are standard fantasy fare. I was pleasantly surprised, then amazed, at how my Dragon Age buddies came to life.

First up for my party was Alistair. A fellow Grey Warden, the wise-cracking, sensitive-yet-sometimes-surly Alistair became my warrior tank from the moment we sunk our boots into the Korcari Wilds muck. His banter with Morrigan is priceless. The two act like ex-boyfriend and girlfriend with a real axe to grind, and not as prep for our next darkspawn encounter.

Unfortunately, since I mostly played a mage, Morrigan got left home as soon as I hooked up with Wynne at the Circle Tower. Alistair got me again there, when he once asked Wynne to mend his socks because he’s a guy and she’s a motherly grandmother type. Hilarious stuff. There is a lot to love about Wynne and her nurturing wisdom, but probably the coolest thing was when her Vessel of the Spirit ability appears. This ability seals the deal for Wynne as the best healer in the game, but you only get it after a series of events at Party Camp and after a tough boss fight in a random encounter.

As a human male character, I choose to seduce Leliana, our rogue who joined the group at Dane’s Refuge in Lothering. Little did I know that she’s the hardest one to woo: She needs a 100 approval rating to fall in love, unlike companions like Morrigan and Zevran who enjoy their flings. Leliana’s a bard, and when she broke into song—the whole thing: music, lyrics, and all—just for me at Party Camp, I was floored. What other game gives you that much as a “throwaway” moment in camp? Amazing.

There are just too many moments in the lifetime of one character to chronicle. Dog’s fetching antics, grumpy Sten, discovering the gender-bender golem Shale in the downloadable content—moments I’ll remember forever, not because I killed a foe in .2 seconds flat, but because I made a connection with these characters.

Like a good book, I’m excited to get to the end of Dragon Age: Origins, and when I get there, I’m heartbroken that it’s over. Luckily, this story can be retold in many ways, and each time I’ll catch another Alistair joke or a disparaging Oghren comment that seriously makes me pause and think, “Did Bioware just create life with this game when I wasn’t looking?”

 

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To access the official Dragon Age strategy site visit www.DragonAgeWalkthrough .com.

 

 

The Prima Collector’s Edition Guide and Prima Official Game Guide to Dragon Age: Origins are available wherever games are sold.