tips – Los Havros

Why don’t bloggers share the knowledge?

Whilst there are plenty of guides and walkthroughs available for games on the internet (note: I’m not on about finding exploits or cheats here) I’ve noticed that many come from big sites and forums, yet relatively little tips and strategies come from bloggers. I’m not on about blogs who are geared up purely to help, but your average, small niche gaming blog, more or less like this one. So I’ve often wondered: why is that?

Truth be told, I don’t know why. I suspect time is an issue for most people, but if this were to be the case, then it still doesn’t explain why forum members have the time and bloggers don’t. If I were to delve into the murky waters of supposition, I could then say that obviously forum members are more likely to be towards the younger end of the spectrum with plenty of free time on their hands and bloggers are older, with many pressures and constraints on their free time…

But no one can simply say that. Without any meaningful investigation into this matter, the best answer that I can come up with is: I don’t really know why this is the case. Which is pretty much what I mentioned at the beginning of the previous paragraph!

In the meantime, I like to practice what I preach and the best example I can come up with for now is my brief guide on How to complete ‘Loose Ends’ on veteran for Modern Warfare 2. Sure, I’d like to have written a guide (or several) on my favourite series, Uncharted, or perhaps Assassin’s Creed. I simply haven’t had the time.

Now, is that a reason, or is it an excuse?

In Brief: Teamwork is key

Had a blast playing some split-screen Modern Warfare 2 with three players (myself included). During a free-for-all there were complaints that I had the bottom half of the screen to myself, with the other two players just having a measly quarter each. Complaints duly noted, so I suggested we have a team death match with the pair of them squaring off against me. It was a whitewash.

I gave them such a pasting that they don’t really want to talk about it afterwards! Whilst I acknowledge that I’m no pro gamer, I do offer some tips so that your team functions: 1) actually communicate with each other so that; 2) you can actually flank someone, 3) you don’t both go down the same narrow alley as you’ll both be blown to pieces by a grenade, and 4) you don’t throw a flash bang grenade in close proximity leaving your team sitting ducks. That is all.

Three Developers Explain LittleBigPlanet Level Design to a 7-Year-Old

Three Developers Explain LittleBigPlanet Level Design to a 7-Year-Old– Kotaku shows why LittleBigPlanet will open the PLAYSTATION brand to such a wide audience, and why the rest of the gaming industry should be afraid. There’s also some neat level design tips for the rest of us!

Patapon Revisited

A few months ago I got myself Patapon shortly after its release and quickly became addicted to it. What I began to realise though, was how nail-bitingly hard it could be in certain places of the game. One easy example, is the difficulty many people had in figuring out how to cross the desert. Once you know how, it’s quite easy. But in the game itself, you are more or less left to try and figure it out for yourself- if you can.

This probably explains why the PlayStation.Blog team had to lend us a helping hand. Also equally frustrating is the ease at which you can lose the beat. From my own personal experience, this has made me want to throw my PSP at the nearest wall after trying to complete the same level 5 times in a row. So I left the game and vowed to return to it once I had calmed down…

What I have been doing for the past couple of years now, is taking my PSP with me on holiday and having a quick gaming session before I go to bed. Last year I took LocoRoco and completed all levels (not all quite 100% yet though!) and this year has been Patapon’s turn. Yes, about 4 months after I had last touched the game, I decided to revisit Patapon and see how far I could get this time.

Surprisingly, I found that I wasn’t losing the beat as easily, but I think this was down to a new technique. Heard the advice (includng my own) about tapping with your foot to the beat? Forget about it- repeating “pata, pata, pata, pon” or whatever drum beat you’re doing, in your head, in-between your turn is very helpful in keeping the beat. Why is it otherwise so hard to keep the beat in fever mode? This is because the fever mode music can trip you up, especially when the music starts. I have found this to be THE most unhelpful feature of any game- ever!

Let my little story not distract you from the main point- this game is fantastic! You just need a lot of time and patience as Patapon is amazingly deep. Think you’ve done it all? Well, you haven’t. There’s just so many rare Patapons, weapons and materials to collect. Get frustrated at time? Give the game a rest and then get back to it, feeling refreshed. Some games are like a fine wine: they get better with age. That is why, although I’ve never actually reviewed Patapon, I’ll give it a 9/10 just because it deserves it. If you haven’t picked it up yet, you need to! Its essential for your PSP.