Still Alive

It have been over 7 months since my last post.  I am still alive.  I have just been many, many, layers busy.  We have added onto the house and I did nearly exclusively all of the work myself.  While it still has a ways to go, including a new office I am currently working on, I have came to a point to gather myself and take time to enjoy a more normal pace of life and activities.  That includes better updates on here. 

Fallout 3 Character: Jason

Growing up in Vault 101 Jason devoted all his time to education. In his free time he would do intense physical training and read his favorite comic book, Grognak the Barbarian: In the Lair of the Virgin Eater. Key survival skills for him once he escaped the facility was intelligence and strength. He loved his dad very much but always knew he was holding back. Jason thought that his Dad knew about life outside the vault. He was always mad that he would not share more. Jason wanted to be a tunnel snake in his teens. The ruthless “bad-ass” gang of Vault 101. He however ended up being the baseball MVP of the vault. He could hit and pitch like no one had ever seen in 101.


The Overseer never had a favorable disposition towards Jason. On his way to escape the vault and find his father Jason killed the Overseer. He regretted it terribly. It bothered him but he could not stick around and try to work things out. He had to leave and find his dad.


At first Jason didn’t know how to act in the capital wasteland. He quickly found himself at home in the settlement of Megaton. He met some people and soon became friends with local shop owners like Moira Brown and Colin Morriarity. The town was like his base of refuge. During the day he would explore more outside of the town and the surrounding “burbs” of D.C. At night he would come and have drinks at the Brass Lantern in Megaton. He would sell and trade at local shops and was quickly becoming known as Strider to the locals.


Jason soon found out that he enjoyed donating any spare money he had to the Church. He was a regular attendee of the Church of the Children of Atom in Megaton. Later on during his travels he would attend services at Saint Monica’s Church in Rivet City.


Besides attending church Jason also found salvation in Alcohol. He found out that it was his path to happiness, since he could not find his father at the time, drinking his worries away was great. The sweet nectar also gave him a sense of being strong, so he drank almost all the time. He must have been bless because Jason never developed an addiction to beer or whiskey.


During his travels Jason came across a gang. It was lead by Goalie Ledoux, who was a ruthless thug. Jason was charismatic enough to get Ledoux alone and then slip a live grenade in his pocket. From this point on he felt he was fighting “the good fight” by cleaning up the streets of the wasteland. Goalie Ledoux had in his possession a hockey mask. Jason put on this mask and was transformed. It was like it gave him added reflexes, even if only physiological, he never wanted to take it off during a gun fight.


Jason believed that “size mattered” in the capital wasteland. He was drawn to big guns and studied how they worked. He kept all the guns he salvaged and had a massive stockpile at his house in Megaton. He also loved explosives. It was just like old times throwing a grenade as it was just like a baseball. Jason was also a pyromaniac. Fire was something seldom seen in the vault, so his favorite weapon was the “flamer”. He later found his favorite book to be 30 Handy Flame-thrower Recipes.


Fighting the good fight put Jason in dangerous situations. He decided to assault the slave camp of Paradise Falls…alone. He was jacked up on lots of alcohol and ended up killing everyone there. His attack was a total surprise and he even killed Eulogy Jones, the fiend that ran all slave trade in the capital wasteland.


After this Jason became a valuable commodity. Citizens turned to him for help but he was also hunted by mercenaries from Talon Company and other hit squads. Jason had no choice but to undergo facial reconstruction surgery in Rivet City. While recovering in the city he met Dr. Madison Li and learned a lot about his father and own personal history. Turns out Dr. Li was able to direct Jason to his father’s location. He finally tracked down his father, James, in Vault 112. They had a physical altercation but Jason agreed to help him with Project Purity.


While working on the project James was killed by the Enclave, the ruthless genocidal remnant faction of the old government. Jason seeked out his revenge. He used his superior vault education and destroyed the Enclave base and became a Brotherhood of Steel soldier in the process. He died in combat but was able to follow in his fathers footsteps fighting the good fight.


Humanity, with all its flaws, was deemed worthy of preservation. The waters of life flowed at last, free and pure for all. So ends the story of Jason. The lone wandered and strider of the wastes that stepped out from the great door of Vault 101. 

Teller Mines

Teller mines are only available to Panzer Elite in Company of Heroes.  You must take the tank destroyer doctrine and use 1 CP for your Grens to be able to lay the mines at 50 munitions each.  Only vehicles will set them off but they are very powerful.  The short gameplay above shows some good placed teller mines that allowed me to win 2 games last night.  I was able to immobilize a early Stuart tank on Rouen and finish it off with a AT grenade.  The last is a M8 armored car that hit a mine and lost control on Semois.  These maps are great for mines with more narrow pathways.  On both games this happened in the first 8 minutes of the game.  In both instances it was my first teller mine built that did the damage.  Had the vehicles missed the mines I very well would have lost both of these games.

Fustration with RTS games

Some players just get a little worked up over a game.

More Screens from F.E.A.R.

F.E.A.R. The Best "Forgotten" Shooter

The best "forgotten" shooter of the past decade is FEAR.  Lost in all the Call of Duty franchise hype, FEAR is a very polished game with incredible balance of suspense and combat.  The story is intense and evolves deeper as you play, aided by great environments, enemies and unique weapons.  FEAR is high on presentation and has innovative gameplay elements that are used in current FPS titles. A classic for many years to come and it does not require a beefy CPU and GPU.  I have played dozens of games and this comes highly recommended.

Burn a British Rush

In a 1v1 automatch game last night I played a equally ranked (around level 7) British player on Langres.  My opponent tried a very interesting approach, one I have not seen in the roughly 100 online games I have played. He didn't bother to capture any territory but aggressively tried to skirmish right away with infantry sections.  If I had not been prepared to be aggressive as well I would have been in bad shape.  Instead I met him with Volksgrenadiers.  I was also able to gain the entire map with Pioneers while he quickly tried to dig in on the middle of the map with 2 MG nest and a slit trench.  Normally this would have caused me to panic but I could tell he was over extended without grabbing any resource sections.  I made a MG squad to cover my flanks and took 2 Volks squads and Pioneers with Flamers around to flank his MG nests.  In little time his forward positions were toasted and I was outside his base.  The game lasted only 9 minutes.

Just 3 Minutes in he had MG nest and slit trench

I flanked his position with 2 Volk and Flamer Pios

Burned

I moved in on his base leading to quick resign

Rough Company of Heroes Notes

Rough Notes before I make a nice print-out in Photoshop.  Can add some images and other graphics as well, will publish finished product when done.  Making one for Wehrmacht and later American Armies.