I’m currently playing through the SC2 campaign on Brutal difficulty in order to obtain the Sarah Kerrigan portrait.  The first 2 missions were pretty cruisy, until I got to Zero Hour, which caused me to retry a few times.

This mission is basically about holding your base for 15 minutes against an ever growing Zerg army. Now on normal difficulty, you can actually build an army large enough to go outside and kill off all the Zerg forces, but on brutal, this is quite difficult, because at this point of the game, you don’t have Marauders to counter Roaches yet.

Initially the Zerg attack in small waves, until the 5 minute mark, then they get exponetially larger until the timer finishes.  Before the 5 minute mark you can opt to rescue 2 (or was it 3?) packs of marines scattered around the map.  This is easy.

Build about 3-4 barracks and pump out marines non-stop.  Have SCVs on hand to repair bunkers.  You can also build supply depots/barracks at the bridge to block off incoming Zerg rushes as well.

Once you hit the 4-5 minute mark, salvage all remaining bunkers outside your ramp.  Lift off any barracks and use it to block the ramp.  The reason for this is because bunkers have too little HP to tank the incoming banelings.  I also lifted my Command Center and used it as part of my wall.

You’ll also need about 2 missile turrets on the right side of the ramp to deal with mutalisks.

At the 1 minute mark, the final Zerg push will begin.  At this point your base will most likely get overrun.  Just lift up all your barracks and CC as your wall gets destroyed, and make a run for it.  Hopefully one of your buildings will survive against the mutalisks and hydralisks attacking it.  As long as one of your buildings survive by the end of the timer you will beat the mission.

Starcraft 2 has pretty much taken over most of my free time lately, and as a newcomer to the series, I stumbled upon a pretty good Terran guide by Zoltan on the Team Liquid forums.

With his permission I’ve decided to publish his guide on this blog.  The first part of the guide will cover Terran units and structures, while the second part will focus on strategies and build orders vs each race.

Disclaimer:  All of this guide has been written by Zoltan and not by myself.  I’ll mark down any bits which I have added any comments in.

About Zoltan:

Diamond level T player- had almost 1100 games in beta- Find me at Zoltan.472 on NA server.

And a foreword about his build orders:

A few quick notes on the matchup breakdowns and build orders therein: They are mostly focused on stopping “What can kill me now” cheeses and all ins. These guides will be as thorough as possible in this regard, and I will try to point out any and all possible cheeses and all ins that can come at specific timings. Also, note that the guides will be mostly for defensive play, however learning how to defend all possible attacks will eventually make you aware of when a specific timing window is open for you to push, not to mention when you successfully stuff someone’s attack they are often wide open for a beating in return.

Part 1 – Units and Structures

Part 2 – Terran vs Terran matchup Overview and Strats

Part 3- Terran vs Zerg matchup Overview and Strats

Part 4- Terran vs Protoss matchup Overview and Strats (Coming soon)

At one point of the game you’re forced to fight a ‘Molten Cerberus’ boxx which spits out little exploding smaller versions.  As you start pulling off heads off the boss, you get 1, then 2 satyrs joining in the fight.

Now while this fight probably won’t give you that much trouble on normal or easy, on Titan or Chaos modes, it is literally your worst nightmare, because the satyrs have extremely high health, unblockable attacks, and don’t stun very easily, and blocking is not an option because the explosions from the dog are not blockable.

After about 2 hours of epic fails trying to beat this encounter, I finally managed to beat the boss with a relatively easy to do strategy that has a low reliance landing Gorgon summon.

Here’s how I did it.

Read more…

I thought I might start a post with some of my greatest Uncharted 2 moments  and replays.  Though they may be a bit old, and I’m using Situational Awareness in most of them, hopefully you’ll still be able to see some of the tips from my other posts in practice.  All these videos are annotated with my comments.

First up is a match on the Village where I go 24-2.

Next is a match on the Plaza where I run 34-6, getting a Rage medal in the process.  My team wasn’t really getting many kills, but thankfully they were pretty good at not dying that much either.  About 3/4 through the match, I pick up the SPAS-12 from an enemy I killed and went on a massive killing spree with it.

More videos to come.

I recently stumbled upon a very good and detailed Uncharted 2 multiplayer guide with tips for new players and in depth weapon info on the PSN forums written by ChronoJoe.  With his permission I’ve decided to publish his guide in it’s full glory here.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves™ Survival Guide

I made a thread before, about sharing multiplayer tips, and whilst my thread didn’t get many people sharing any tips – it did get a considerable amount of kudos, which to me implied it was atleast somewhat helpful. So I figured I’d attempt to write out a full guide for the games MP component, primarily in the interest of helping the community, especially the lesser experienced players, get better at the game.

Read more…

I’ve been playing heaps of Uncharted 2 Multiplayer lately. It’s totally awesome and I love it, it’s just like MGO without the gay auto-aim /CQC / Konami ID bullshit.

Firstly, my creds.  I’m level 53 with a K/D of 1.94.  It used to be 2.03, before one of my cousins wrecked my record, anyway,  I consider myself a pretty good UC2 player.  Here’s some tips I can give people who are looking to improve their game.

• If you’ve played the Single Player and gotten yourself the Steel Fist trophy, then do this in Multiplayer.  High level players know how to abuse this extremely useful tactic. For those that don’t know, Steel Fist is basically running up to your opponent while blindfiring, then 1-hit melee to kill them.  Blindfire while running with the pistol has INSANE tracking, because within a certain distance, as long as your character is facing the enemy, the game will auto-aim for you.  If you ambush enemies at close range, you should be able to beat out AK/FAL users, since they won’t be able to turn fast enough to shoot you, and pistol has the superior blindfire accuracy.  Be wary of Shotgun and Pistole users though, because they will 1-hit kill you instead.

• In patch 1.05, it now only takes 1 92FS bullet and a melee hit to kill someone.  Therefore, it is important to melee as soon as soon as you score 1 hit to avoid getting killed yourself.  What you are looking for is your reticule to flash RED when you run and gun.   This indicates a hit, and you can then press melee to get the kill.

• Of course, run and gun with a rifle is not nearly as good as with a pistol.  This is because the rifle firing angle and tracking is nowhere nearly as good as pistol weapons.

• Camera Sensitivity – unlike games like Modern Warfare and Counterstrike where you need precision aiming, Uncharted 2 plays much faster and people have more health.  At the default settings (lowest),  your aim with long guns like the sniper and FAL might be better, but it’s not fast enough for when you’re running around without aiming,  when you are aiming at close range, or especially when you need to turn the camera behind you to throw a grenade.  I highly recommend at least 1/2 sensitivity or maximum if you can handle it.

• Camping at ground level doesn’t really work in this game due to way spawning works. You may find that sometimes an enemy group will spawn very close to you or behind you and kill you. This is especially true for maps like The Fort, where if you are camping at the end on the top half, enemies may spawn right next to you. If you’re gonna camp, make sure it’s relatively inaccessible, like on the 4 ‘towers’ in the sanctuary level.  Situational Awareness may also help you getting ganked from behind if you are camping.

• Learn spawn locations of the maps. There aren’t many, and you can guess where the enemy team will spawn based on which spaces your team currently occupies.

• FAL is an awesome gun.  Think Battle Rifle from Halo 3. Great accuracy combined with scope makes it deadly for mid-long range encounters and supporting your team mates. The downside is that you will lose to AK-47 at close range unless you get the first shot in. Switching to pistol at close range is preferable.

• AK47 is quite useless without the Down the Irons booster.  With it, it’s a monster machine as you can afford to hold down the trigger and spam, even at mid-long range.  See my other post on Down the Irons vs From the Hip for more info.  Without DTI, you need some finesse while using it, using 3-4 round bursts, but don’t expect to win a 1v1 with it.

• The 92FS (starting pistol) is more accurate than the AK47 at long range.  Without Down the Irons, I actually find it preferable to use the pistol as my main weapon.  The only problems are that you can’t afford to take on an AK user in a mid-close range shootout, and that the pistol has very low ammo and it’s fairly rare in most levels.  I run with Bandoleer most of the time to counter this.   Since the 1.03 update where DTI was nerfed slightly, I have gone full-time pistol now.  I can’t recommend this weapon enough, it’s extremely accurate, great for blindfire and reloads quickly, what more can you ask for?

• If a team mate dies to another player carrying a power weapon (shotgun/pistole/Hammer/RPG) I highly suggest you remember who is carrying it, and attempt to at least trade kills (with a well placed grenade, at your own feet if it’s a shotgun etc) when you see them.  A good player carrying a power weapon can get 4-6 kills, it’s best to rid them of the advantage as fast as possible.  If it’s a shotgun/pistole, remember where your teammate died and either avoid completely (if it’s a closed or narrow space) or don’t go alone.

• Nades are your last option, not the first, because it’s insurance against 2v1 and people carrying instant kill weapons. Imagine all the times you ran into 2+ people and could’ve killed them if only you saved your grenade! For example:

You run into enemy spawn of 2+ people. If you have no chance for escape, throw/drop a nade and pray for a trade or double down.

You see a guy carrying a shotgun running towards you, but can’t kill him in time. Run backwards, look ALL THE WAY AT THE FLOOR, tap L2. Result, you trade kills or even get him before he reaches you.

You are in a 1v1 shootout but losing…throw nade and hope for a trade.

You run into a guy at close range, he’s got the jump on you and going for a Steel Fist kill. Run backwards, look ALL THE WAY AT THE FLOOR, tap L2, hopefully you will trade.

You are being shot from behind but manage to take cover in a building. If you think you will be chased, keep running with the camera pointed behind you, and tap L2. If you don’t get a kill that’s fine, at least you didn’t get killed.

• If I’m not mistaken nades explode 2 seconds after hitting any surface. So supposing a guy is hiding behind cover but next to a wall, you can actually throw the grenade at the wall above them and it will drop nicely onto them (exploding in mid air). Saves having to fiddle around with holding L2 and getting the right angle.

• There are 2 ways to throw grenades in the game.   One is holding L1 and then presssing L2.  This will throw a grenade straight at the crosshairs on your screen, which goes further.  The other is to hold/press L2.  This is more of a lob and is better for going over low cover.  The press L2 method can also be used to drop a grenade while running (without stopping), which is useful for doing a defensive nade when retreating.  This is especially useful if you run into someone with a shotgun or pistole, if you have no chance of escaping, look all the way down and press L2.  You should at least trade kills this way.

• Learn to switch weapons depending on your situation. If you’re running around with a shotgun out in the open (aka not using it), switch to pistol instead. This covers your ranged game, and has the added benefit of NOT leaving the shotgun on the ground should you die. This can also deceive enemies, say you are carrying a shotgun but using the pistol, you might lure one into a chase into close quarters and blow them away with the shotgun when they get close enough.

• Utilize the high ground advantage.  Uncharted 2 is a unique FPS in that you are able to scale the environment.  So most of the most have an area where you can climb up and easily see most of the map.  Examples are the towers on Sanctuary, standing on top of the middle house in the village, and the high platform in Temple.  Don’t stay too long because people will eventually catch on.  Get a few kills then move on.

• The current fastest known way to level up is to play Co-op arena until level 50 when you can use Prestige Boosters.  Boosters like Invalid, Glass Jaw, Veilied, Come Get Some etc give lots of money for every 5 kills you make with them.

• This goes without saying, but abuse the 3rd person camera whenever you can.  This can be used to look around corners etc and is especially useful in close quarter maps like Sanctuary.

• You can maximize M32 Hammer ammo and kills by landing 1 shot on your target, then using quick weapon switch (Hold L1 and press Triangle), and finishing off with 1 pistol bullet.

• Blindfire works really well for the RPG-7 and M32 Hammer.  You can be on the retreat and still make kills with these without actually aiming.

• You can switch the side of the over the shoulder camera while aiming (holding L1) by pressing in the left thumbstick (L3).  This is helpful if you are trying to shoot behind cover where the cover is on the right side (and where the character model would normally be blocking your view).

• Kick off vs Pull down – Pull down is vastly superior to Kick off due to the crazy reach it has.  To beat Pull down, you need to approach the enemy at a diagonal angle or from the side in order to Kick Off without getting pulled down.

• The riot shield can be a handy tool when you are in a closed space looking out into the open (ie when you are in the house where the shield is in the Village map and looking out towards villain spawn point).   If your opponent does not have a grenade they will have no choice but to retreat to cover or get killed.  The downsides to the riot shield is that not only is your movement speed slowed considerably, your turning speed is as well.

• Learn to use Long Jump.  It’s a technique where you can jump longer gaps and avoid stumbling by pressing jump at the last possible second.   The correct timing is when you see your character’s foot step past the ledge you’re jumping off, then press jump.

• See the Uncharted 2 Multiplayer Survival Guide for more tips.

• Also see my video post for some of these tips in action.