Over the weekend, I spent approximately three hours farming the materials and the 150,000 gold required to enter the secret level in Diablo III. It was kind of a pain, but it was completely worth it to be able to send three of my friends in utterly free of charge, and enjoy it with them before most of it was sufficiently spoiled.

Because most of the guides I’ve found aren’t particularly concise in their directions, and provide spoilers to boot, I’m going to make a completely spoiler-free guide on how to access the secret level itself.

1) The Basics: you need five reagents to build the staff to access the secret level, in addition to the recipe to build the staff itself.

The recipe is found in Act 4 near the very end of the game, so I suggest beating the game on Normal (you should be around level 30), then clearing all of these areas with your high-level character. It will be much easier to do so.

2) Act I:  The first item is the Black Mushroom. You can find this on the first floor of the Cathedral in Act I, but it will not spawn every time. Take the Cathedral Gardens waypoint and walk left towards the Cathedral, falling down into it as normal. Put on your fastest movement gear/passives/skills and run around until you find a Black Mushroom growing on the floor.

If you don’t, quit the game and hit “resume game”, repeating the process. It took me around 10 runs to find it, so don’t give up.

3) Act I: The next item is Leoric’s Shinbone. This is one of the easiest items to grab, but one of the least likely to spawn. Take the Leoric’s Manor waypoint in Act I. When you enter the Manor itself, you’ll be greeted with around 30 minions.

Run past or eliminate them, and head to the first door on your right. At the end of the room you’ll find an unlit fireplace. If you can click on it, Leoric’s Shinbone will pop out. If not, leave the game, and resume to try again.

4) Act II: Wirt’s Bell is the easiest to get.

All you need to do is find Squirt in Act II at the Caldeum Bazaar near the South-West tip of the town. Buy the bell for 100,000 gold.

5) Act II: Liquid Rainbow is next. Enter Act II and take the Path to the Oasis waypoint. Go completely south until you find a shack with Zaven the Alchemist near it. If he doesn’t spawn, leave the game and resume until you find him.

Once you save him from attack, enter the Mysterious Cave. In this cave, you may find the Mysterious Chest on either the first or second floor. It’s not a guaranteed spawn, so keep leaving and resuming until you find it — if Zaven doesn’t spawn, you have to try it again.

6) Act III: The Gibbering Gemstone in my opinion is the hardest piece of the puzzle. Take the The Bridge of Korsikk waypoint in Act III and go up to reach the Fields of Slaughter. In the Fields of Slaughter, one of two caves can spawn. The Icefall Caves or the Caverns of Frost. You want the Caverns of Frost — if the Icefall Caves spawn, leave the game and resume to try again.

If you spawn the Caverns of Frost, enter it and find a unique enemy called Chiltara. It’s a cat-like unique purple creature. Kill it to obtain the Gibbering Gemstone. This took me around 20 attempts to do, so be prepared.

7) Act IV: Finally, the plans are within your grasp. Enter Act 4 with the Gardens of Hope Tier 2 waypoint. Clear the one room required and fight the second boss (to avoid spoilers, it’s the one fought right before Diablo in a circular arena).

The boss will randomly drop the plans.

8 ) Once you have the plans, give them to the blacksmith to gain the ability to craft the Staff of Herding for 50,000 gold.

9) Take the staff in-hand and go to the very first town in Act I (New Tristram). Go out the right gate and head North until you reach a left-bend — head up the road and you will see the ghost of the Cow King. Talk to him to enter the crack in the ground, and enjoy the secret level!

In Nightmare Mode, you’ll need the Nightmarish Staff of Herding. Buy it from Gorell the Quartermaster in Act 4, and you’ll be able to craft the Nightmarish Staff with the original staff and 200,000 gold.

Diablo III is finally here, and if you can get past the initial shock of playing a game with single player always-on DRM, you can experience it yourself. With five classes ranging from the Wizard, Monk, Barbarian, Demon Hunter, and Witch Doctor, there’s pretty much something for everyone here to experience — personally, I couldn’t resist the demonic gaze of the Demon Hunter.

For the purposes of this impressions piece, I have a level 30 Demon Hunter that just finished Act 4 (the final episode), but I have dabbled in every other class, and found them all fairly exciting in their own way. Join me as I muse on various aspects of Diablo III from levels 1-30, which encompasses all of the game’s Normal level difficulty.

Diablo III hits you fast and hard, and immediately sucks you into the action. Unlike Diablo I and II, which can be fairly vague in explaining everything to you in-game, D3 pretty much tells you everything you need to know at all times. That isn’t to say the game is holding your hand, as you still have to fight the denizens of hell all on your own, but it makes it easier to identify what new skills you’ve earned on a level-up, for example.

For the hardcore D2 fans who re-rolled and deleted entire characters, you don’t have to worry here: you can change all of your passive and active skills at will at any time without any penalty. Your character will trek through Normal, Nightmare, Hell, and Inferno difficulty levels, but of course, a true Diablo fan knows that the real fun of the game is found in hundreds of runs of the highest difficulty level.

The character I beat Normal mode with, and the one I have the most experience playing, is the Demon Hunter. Simply put, I think this class is probably the most fun I’ve ever had in a Diablo game. My build is basically centered around AOE damage and maneuverability. Using a smoke screen and a battle flip, I can move around the field at will, increasing my movement speed with one of my passives — it basically means that at any point, I can escape a boss characters special attack, or get out of a sticky group enemy situation. It also means that I’m a glass cannon — able to die  in mere seconds if I don’t act quickly.

At first glance only being able to use 6 skills at a time looks “dumbed down”, but that notion couldn’t be far from the truth. In essence, your character is more open to options than any other dungeon crawler to date. Using the insane amount of passive skills, you can custom tailor you build to pretty much any play style within reason. Do you want your Demon Hunter to do lots of base arrow damage, and increase your damage when you’re extremely far away? You can do that. Do you want your class to do tons of up close damage, inside the action, and have a bit more survivability? You can do that as well.

While the Monk and Barbarian classes inherently take 30% less damage than the other three, making them more survivable, every class to their own limits can make themselves bulkier. The ability to instantly change builds depending on the situation also helps heaps, and this only gets better after you’ve beaten the game and know what’s coming — making it more raid-like in nature than a typical dungeon crawler. Each class also has it’s own unique resource system. For instance, the Demon Hunter has both Hatred and Discipline, which allow him to use different types of skills. Hatred can be gained by using your standard attack (which is kind of like a Berserker class in most RPGs), and Discipline naturally regains over time (or through certain parameters depending on your setup). Having both resources to micro-manage adds to the strategy of the game, and allows you to further your build if you wish. Other classes like the Barbarian have Fury, which you gain from taking and inflicting damage (which subsides over time), or the Wizard’s standard Mana resource.

Speaking of “raids”, the boss encounters are set up to basically be just that. Instead of aimlessly following you around like most dungeon crawlers (Diablo II included), bosses will have environmental implications as well, and nearly every class has a dodging/dashing ability to quickly move out of harms way. The notion of “staying out of the fire” in a raid is present here, as is the imperative nature of constant movement. I can’t wait to see what higher level difficulties can bring, because if normal boss encounters are any indication of future fights, I’m extremely excited.

Another antiquated D2 notion, “mules”, is completely eliminated. For non-Diablo fans, “mules” were characters that were created for the sole purposes of exchanging items between characters. In order to give say, your Wizard alt a staff that you found with your Amazon, you had to make a game, have someone stay in it, quit, then come back and grab the item either on the ground (which could be lost if the game was ended), or from the other trusted player.

Thankfully this time around Blizzard not only implemented a system where all characters share the stash chest (your bank), but you share gold as well. When I say “share gold”, I literally mean that all of your characters will have a running gold purse between all of them — if you start a new level 1 character after beating the game with your main, you’ll have all of the main’s gold. This is a smart move on Blizzard’s part, as it allows you to skip the pageantry when making a new character and get right into the thick of things. Blizzard knows that you can still only find the best loot through.

The full “real money” Auction House isn’t up yet in the US (it’s set to drop on the 22nd), but I have dabbled a bit in the in-game gold currency AH. To be blunt, it’s pretty much what you’d expect out of an Auction House. There’s tons of drop-down menus to select exactly what sub-series of gear you want, and there’s tons of parameters you can input to get your perfect piece. Gold prices are extremely high right now, but I expect them to subside as the game progresses, and certain loot becomes more common. As for the effectiveness of the AH, I can safely say that I have sold a few rare items over it with hardly any effort on my part.

If it’s story you’re looking for in this iteration, I’d probably search elsewhere. Sadly, outside of some Diablo fanboy revelations (a group that I am proudly a part of), the story is extremely lacking. Other than some particularly boss action cutscenes, the narrative is both extremely predictable, and fairly droll. After your initial “oohs and ahhs” at some character reveals, there really isn’t anything to write home about. But of course, old fashioned dungeon crawlers aren’t going to give two Wirt’s Legs about the story — I’m just warning the newly converted here.

The Acts themselves however, are pretty incredible, and I can easily say that D3 is more equally yolked in terms of Act balance than the other two games (even if D1 didn’t technically have “Acts”). Each Act sort of builds up in a crescendoed manner, and the final conclusion is nothing sort of amazing in terms of the setting. Unlike Diablo II, there’s no clear “throwaway act” like Act III (at least in my opinion, and the opinion of my D2 community): everything feels equally fun and entertaining

Overall Diablo III is a pretty incredible game. I can’t say for certain whether it will have the 10+ year staying power of it’s little brother just yet, as I haven’t experienced Inferno Mode, but I’m excited to see what it can bring to the table. With a planned PVP patch and two potential expansions on the way, it’s safe to say your purchase will probably be justified in terms of the long-haul. If you’re worried about the DRM issue and whether or not Blizzard will support your characters in say, 15 years, I’d point to both Starcraft I and Warcraft III, which Blizzard is still supporting after all these years.

Also, I’d like to think that years down the line, Blizzard may implement or patch in some sort of offline play to placate people who are afraid of server loss. Of course this is all speculation, but Blizzard has a history of supporting their games, and I feel fairly comfortable with my purchase. It may be a while before my official review drops, because I want to experience everything before I pass a final judgement, but I hope this helps answer some of your questions if you’re on the fence regarding Blizzard’s latest dungeon crawler.

[As you may have heard, Diablo III is not immune to disconnecting you from the game, also known as "Error 37". In-game I haven't actually encountered this more than a few times, but it was extremely frustrating. Actually, it happened twice in a row when I was fighting the final boss, which is a fairly long encounter, and I nearly pulled my hair out, as I had to start the fight all over both times. Although Blizzard expects to have these issues ironed out as early as this week, keep in mind that this sort of thing can happen]

Another year, another humongous list of MMOs to sift through. Right on the heels of Blizzard’s own Diablo III, worldwide Korean MMO TERA is on a mission: to tear you away from whatever MMO you’re playing now, and earn the right to collect your subscription fee at the end of every month.

At first glance, TERA‘s main selling points are beautiful landscapes, controller support, and action oriented gameplay that forces you to manually aim your attacks, as well as block and dodge enemy assaults. But how well does it work? Is action-adventure gameplay viable for an open world MMO?

As previously mentioned, without hesitation, the biggest draw of TERA is easily the combat system. While other dungeon crawler titles such as Phantasy Star, Vindictus have adapted a less traditional method of combat, those games are heavily instanced: full action combat isn’t exactly a stand-out mechanic in open world MMOs. Immediately when you boot up the game, you have the option to utilize native 360 and PS3 controller support, as well as your typical mouse and keyboard MMO staple.

Imagine conflict in your favorite action RPG, from Amalur to Dark Souls — that’s basically how combat works in Tera. Although it isn’t as nuanced or twitch as those few titles, it does get fairly deep the more you level up, as you gain a number of different skills that both complement, and literally chain off one another. On the screen is a small reticle, which allows you to aim all of your attacks despite what direction the camera is facing.

I ended up choosing the Warrior class, and using a 360 controller: to my surprise, the experience translates perfectly, as it felt like I was playing a typical console action title.  It also helps that my class lends itself incredibly to a controller, given that it isn’t your prototypical manifesation of “MMO Warrior”. TERA‘s Warrior is actually more akin to a rogue, opting for quick movements and attacks — the Lancer, Slayer, and Berserker classes are more slow and deliberate in terms of melee interaction.

By pressing the back button, I was able to map pretty much everything I wanted to every button on the controller. My setup uses LT to initiate conversations/pick up items, “A” to jump,  “LB and RB” to change my list of skills, “X, Y,” are mapped to attacks, and “B” initiates an awesome Spider Man-like evasion flip.When I hold LB, RB, or LB+RB, I can switch to different pages of skills, and use those by pressing A, B, X, Y, or LT/RT with the aforementioned bumpers held down.

Using a 360 controller is great for leveling, but will it be viable long term? While I can’t imagine using a controller at end-game for serious raiding, TERA does make concessions to potentially make the tactic feasible. For instance, it is possible to deliberate choose certain attacks and combo them into other attacks, meaning you don’t have to list every single skill on your controller map. Not only does this help for end-game controller fans, but it’s also a really fun way to help more casual fans not get overwhelmed by a large amount of skills.

TERA also makes a number of concessions for people who don’t normally play MMOs. For instance, you get your first mount for free once you reach level 11 — no questions asked. Typically in MMOs, you have to wait until at least some point in mid-game (around 20 or later) to have the right to pay a ton of in-game gold for a means of travel — thankfully TERA lets you start chugging along fairly easily. Flight paths (nodes which are used to easily travel across the game’s world) are also significantly shorter than most MMOs, as they have a Star Wars “warp speed” type clip that expedites travel across long distances.

Keep in mind though, that at it’s core, TERA is very much a traditional MMO. It has the holy trinity of classes, people can steal your quest items and kills, and quests progress fairly similarly in regards to 90% of the MMOs on the market, in that they consist largely of a number of fetch/kill quests. Thankfully, TERA manages to stay engaging because of the combat system: a testament I’ve seen many players also reiterate through in-game chat. Because you are consistently involved in combat, it never quite feels like a grind — group bosses are also much more exciting given the fact that you basically have to constantly move around.

While I haven’t embarked in my first instance/dungeon (the first one is level 20), there is (thankfully) a dungeon finder tool readily available in the game (take notes, TOR!). As far as group composition goes, things are fairly traditional in terms of the “holy trinity” (tank, healer, DPS). Lancers are generally agreed upon as the “main tanks”, but Warriors can evasion tank as well, provided they’re skilled. Mystics and Priests are on heal-duty, and everything else is DPS. As a Warrior, I’m looking forward to trying my hand at tanking, but for now, I’ll keep leveling and reporting my thoughts.

All in all, TERA can be a great distraction from whatever MMO you’re playing now, whether it’s TOR, Rift, LOTRO, Aion, WoW, DCUO, or anything else. Provided you have open mind towards the decidedly anime aesthetic, TERA‘s combat system alone might be worth the price of entry.

Guild Wars 2 hasn’t had a beta of this magnitude since the inception of the project — in fact, this is the first massive beta that didn’t largely involve the press. Thousands (if not tens or hundreds of thousands) of gamers are going to flood ArenaNet’s servers with sugary beta-testing goodness, and there is absolutely no NDA involved, meaning anyone and everyone can screencap and dump video to their heart’s content.

While I did encounter some technical issues with the beta thus far, I was able to capture some video of the event to show off some of the game’s content – new videos will be added as they are recorded. Without further ado, here are a bunch of videos of Guild Wars 2‘s beta event.

Character selection

Charr Blood Legion Intro

Norn Wolf Intro

Human Noble Intro

Roaming around the world

How World Encounters work

Charr Mesmer showcase

Charr Elementalist showcase

Norn Engineer showcase

Norn Thief showcase

Norn Necromancer Showcase

Human Warrior showcase

Human Guardian Showcase

Human Ranger Showcase

At the recent Guild Wars 2 preview event, we were able to test out a number of general mechanics, but what about the professions? At launch, the game will ship with the Guardian, Warrior, Engineer, Ranger, Thief, Elementalist, Mesmer and Necromancer classes.

Although I did try out quite a few professions, the Necromancer is the one I spent most of my time with. So without further ado, onto the my discussion about the paranormal, undead, and various other terrifying creatures that go bump in the digital night.

The basic draw of the Necromancer is that he performs a DPS role, but unlike most of the other Warlock derivatives in other MMOs, he can also utilize support and healing functions (mostly self healing at early levels). Rather than the Ranger’s “companion pets”, the Necromancer can summon “minions”, which are more fleeting in nature, and perform concise roles than a general “pet” function. Additionally, Necros can toggle their Death Shroud ability to enter a shadow state, granting them new abilities.

One thing I noticed about the minions in particular is that they die often, so you’ll basically have to constantly re-summon them in heated combat situations. I hope that ArenaNet is able to fix this issue in the final build, because while it’s understandable that these minions shouldn’t be overpowered, it’s a bit annoying to have to constantly micro-manage them, which takes away from the gameplay experience a bit.

The minions I was able to experience were the Blood Fiend, Bone Minions, and Bone Fiends. Like Diablo III in regards to sustained, so long as you allot each ability to a slot, you’re allowed to keep as many minions out as you like — just keep in mind that there is a maximum amount of skill slots. Blood Fiends constantly leach health, Minions do DPS and can explode on command, and Bone Fiends attack from afar, with the additional ability to root opponents in place.

Like all professions, the Necromancer has different skills depending on their equipped weapon, whether or not they’re underwater, or depending on their Death Shroud state (there’s even a combination of underwater + Death Shroud). There are ten possible weapon combinations for the Necro, made possible through a Staff, Scepter, Axe, Dagger, Focus, and a Warhorn. I was able to experiment with everything but the Focus and Axe, and found that your skillset and strategy drastically differed depending on your weapon choice.

For instance, while using the dagger, my auto-attack was severely limited, and basically forced me into melee range. When using the Scepter however, my autoattacks and abilities had a farther reach.

Death Shroud reminds me of the World of Warcraft’s Shadow Priest mechanic, but it’s a bit more tactical, and is limited in use. Ran by another statistic unique to Warlocks called Life force, you can toggle the shroud instantly, granting you an additional life bar in the form of Life Force. Once it’s all gone, you’ll go back to your normal state and your normal health bar.

As a result, it’s clear that Death Shroud will be a crucial mechanic in group situations, where Necromancers will be able to off-tank weaker enemies with this extra health bar. Additionally, it can obviously be used as a “last resort” cooldown to save your skin (as I utilized multiple times while leveling!).

I noticed that compared to the other twenty or so press members that were playing, I leveled up slightly faster than most of them, but not as fast as a few other classes, like the Engineer. This seems to be about on par with typical life leech classes in other MMOs, due to the fact that while they aren’t the absolute highest damage-dealing powerhouse in the game, their ability to stay alive and heal themselves constantly helps when it comes to leveling.

My time with Guild Wars 2 was incredibly fun, and I can’t wait to get more in-depth with the rest of the classes — particularly the Engineer, which one lead developer told us was the most “interesting class in the game”. If you’re joining in this weekend on the GW2 beta event, be sure and check out the Necromancer.

Guild Wars 2 carries a lot of expectations in the gaming community. Considering Guild Wars 1 was basically a dungeon crawler and not an MMO, many gamers are skeptical whether or not ArenaNet will be able to pull off a truly persistent world. On top of that immediate concern, there other claims ArenaNet has made, that if true, will chance the face of MMOs as we know it– enhanced grouping; event driven quests; truly competitive even-ground PVP.

Even with all of my skepticism intact, after previewing the game at ArenaNet’s recent press event, it looks like the famed developer is poised to succeed with Guild Wars 2.

For the purposes of this event, we played the Human starting area from levels 1-10. I don’t say this very often, but Guild Wars 2 is not your typical MMO. Right off the bat, you’ll notice when booting up the game that there are no “quests” — they have been replaced with “events”, which are much deeper than your normal progression fodder.

For instance, say you approach a town in most MMOs — the town leader may ask you to kill ten centaur enemies that are “attacking” the town. When you approach the specified area, the centaurs are most likely grazing around their camp, doing nothing. Once you complete your kill task, you go back to the perfectly serene town, turn in your quest, and never see that area again.

Guild Wars 2 wants to avoid all that, and make the world itself seem more alive. With the “event” system, you’ll find that not only are centaurs actually attacking the town, but they can actually murder NPCs and burn the town to the ground entirely. If you choose to join in on the fight, you’ll help fellow players not only rebuild and save the town, but you’ll also optionally drive the centaurs back into their own camp, and destroy their home base. During any point, you might actually complete the event parameters for bonus XP, but you’ll completely forget about it in favor of becoming lost in the quest.

What Guild Wars 2 has done here is truly remarkable, because in the 10+ events I was able to experience, this system actually works. In the finished product, events will scale depending on the amount of players in the area engaging in the event — meaning a large epic battle will actually feel epic, but if you’re alone in your task, it won’t be impossible.

Speaking of dynamic groups, this is easily my favorite part of Guild Wars 2. Multiple times, I was able to fully complete fixed events and randomized events without having to worry about a party, or having people steal my quest drops. ArenaNet has not only instanced individual drops, but allowed players to obtain equal XP even if they aren’t in a party when attacking mobs with other players. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve dreaded seeing other players come in and steal rare required mobs in a certain area — when I only need *one more* red dragon, and that dragon spawns once every fifteen minutes, it’s absolutely maddening to have that kill stolen.

The event system also lends itself well to dynamic groups, given how so many different variations there are. For instance, in addition to the centaur example before, a town’s water system could be under attack, and any number of bad outcomes could occur, from poisoned water to an outright blight. In fact, for some events, there are as many of four tiers of outcomes, all of them dynamically giving you XP the entire time. Again, you’ll completely become lost in the moment, and eventually realize you’re leveling up and gaining XP — not the other way around.

In addition to levels 1-10, we also were able to test the World vs. World system with up to 40 players. Of course, the full WvW mode will accommodate for hundreds of players, but we were easily able to get the general gist of the mode by encountering various skirmishes at set areas of the map. Just in case you’re wondering, World vs. World is one of two PVP modes set up in the realm of Guild Wars 2. Competitive PVP will automatically level other players to 80, giving them equal gear and equal skills, allowing utter skill to take precedent over anything else — there is no way to gain an advantage. World vs. World subtly levels players to 80, but still holds you to your skills and gear at your current level, which can still allow players to earn gear, and thus, earn some competitive advantage. You can access World vs. World and PVP at anytime through the in-game menu, and you will instantly enter it.

World vs. World is similar to recent Dynasty Warriors iterations, in that it is largely a hack and slash affair, with strategy and war weapons mixed in. Various bases and checkpoints are strewn about the very large map, which allow for capture from any one of the three giant teams on the map. When a player captures a node, they’ll either gain a valuable supply commodity to build new war weapons, a vantage point, additional score to win the mode itself, or all of the above.

Each “round” of WvW will last around two weeks, and will wrap up on a score based system. Servers will be competing against other servers, and will constantly be matched up depending on which group is the most competitive. ArenaNet mentioned that various tweaks will be made to ensure that low performance servers aren’t completely abandoned in favor of other competitive WvW servers, but they couldn’t elaborate upon that. Sadly, other than in-game chat, there are no plans to include an in-game “Vent-like” functionality for teams, so servers will most likely have to rely on fan-sites for Vent/TeamSpeak info. Players on opposing teams also won’t be named, as to avoid meta-conflict and outside stress — instead, you will see “Invader” above their character.

In terms of leveling, players can take to the standard questing and world map mantra, or level from 1-80 completely through World vs. World. ArenaNet mentioned specifically that there are quests and things to do in WvW in addition to the player vs. player conflict, so no doubt many people are going to role play as various merchants and adventurers, which is a nice addition to the game. Leveling itself will largely be uniform, in that gaining most levels will “feel” the same when we’re talking straight progression.

To clarify, in most MMOs, levels 1-20 may feel really easy, but once you get up to say, 49-50, it becomes extremely difficult. Guild Wars 2‘s leveling will feel mostly the same, in that it will scale your level with the area you’re in, allowing you to level to 80 based on your comfort zone. This system will allow players to enjoy the world more regardless of the area, as opposed to grind in zones that they hate just to knock their level-notch up one digit.

So long as the game can keep people entertained, Guild Wars 2 is shaping up to be an amazing purchase — at least until level 80. Everything will hinge on whether or not ArenaNet can continue to develop new and interesting content, and whether or not they can keep their early zones updated to entice newer players. Be on the lookout later this year for more Guild Wars 2 news and previews, in addition to our official review. In the near horizon, I’ll give my complete  impressions playing as a Human Necromancer.

The “trap” genre isn’t all that popular these days. Other than the Deception series, Trap Gunner, and the more recent Orcs Must Die!, there really aren’t a whole lot of venues to placate your inner sadistic torturous voice.

As a result, I’ve resurrected the Retro Reunion series to share what I feel is one of the best games in the niche sub-genre of trap-dom . Strap in and prepare to relive moments from the PS1 classic, Kagero: Deception II.

Throughout the 90s, Tecmo released three games that all fell into the same sort of genre; Deception, Deception II, and Deception III, all released for the PS1. Some years later in 2005, they released the PS2 game Trapt. For this particular piece, I chose to single out Deception II because I feel like it was the most well received game in the Deception series – it’s also consequently my personal favorite.

So what in the world is the fascination some people seem to have with trap based gameplay? To be perfectly blunt, Deception II is perfect for people who love senseless violence and a feeling of God-like control. Like the city-building genre, you’re going to be spending a decent amount of time planning, and surfing menus — except instead of providing digital citizens with places to live and work, you’re ripping their entrails out with spikes and bear-traps.

You play the role of Millennia — a young woman being controlled by God-like beings called Timenoids. One of your master’s requests is to protect them from greedy humans who desire the Timenoid’s power — as a result, you are tasked with sufficiently trapping various locales to guard secrets and personnel. Traps are done in a multifaceted fashion — there are ground, wall, and ceiling traps, all controlled by the X, Square, and Triangle buttons respectively. These pitfalls can be ran solo or used in tandem — you can also set up fairly elaborate combos that use environmentally specific traps dependent on the level. For instance, at the base of a stairwell, you can set up a bear-trap to snare an unsuspecting peon’s leg — as they’re attempting to escape, you can pepper them with some arrows shot by a nearby wall just as you initiate an “Indiana Jones” inspired boulder to roll down the stairwell itself. As you can probably tell, you can get pretty creative when it comes to bringing the pain, including the ol’ electric rod in water routine. Traps can be used consecutively, but you had to wait for a “cooldown” period that was shown on screen.

Healing was done in a fairly strategic fashion, as you were only allowed to use health prisms once per chapter — once they were used, that was it — forcing the player to conserve the baby blue power-ups until absolutely necessary. To add even more strategy to the mix, traps could be improved through points earned with each mission, allowing you to customize the method in which you dispatched your foes.

While you can trap to your hearts content, pugilists beware: your avatar is not capable of hand to hand combat. Unlike Orcs Must Die, you have absolutely no way to defend yourself outside of your traps — which adds a certain sense of urgency to your quest. Enemies range from simple peasants that happen upon your evil mansion, to menacing fully armored knights, to near invisible ninjas. Each type of enemy has their own special abilities — for instance, lumbering brutes may have the ability to ignore bear-traps or grab giant slabs of rock before they inflict damage. Wizards can cast long range spells to mess up your day, and special enemies can dance around you with super speed and physical prowess.

For the most part, standard levels don’t present an insurmountable amount of challenge, but it manages to stay engaging and fun throughout, partly because of the dynamic choices found within the game’s cut scenes. While the story isn’t anything to write home about, you can occasionally make choices to spare your enemies, or defeat certain rivals to change the outcome of the game. In essence, Millennia can make choices to either support or rebel against her Timenoid masters, funneling those choices into four different endings. Dialogue is usually dull and uninspired (and sometimes comically bad), but the focus is action-centric, and the new scenarios usually lead to more gameplay options; sparking the desire for multiple playthroughs. To add extra incentive, completing the game multiple times yielded extra secret traps.

Deception II is easily a great starting point if you’re not completely familiar with the trap genre. Graphically and mechanically it is a bit dated, but if you have an open mind towards PS1-era titles, I think you’ll have a ton of fun with it.

While Ninja Gaiden III is not really up to par with the rest of the series, at times it is still a serviceable action game. Also, at least one of you out there will be playing it at some point in your life, so an achievement/trophy guide is probably going to be requested by someone, and I haven’t seen any yet.

So, without further ado, read on for help on the game’s achievements/trophies.

Falcon Dive

Learn the Falcon Dive.

This achievement is unlocked through normal story progression at the start of the game. You cannot miss it.

Sliding

Learn how to slide.

This achievement is unlocked through normal story progression near the beginning of the game. You cannot miss it.

Kunai Climb

Learn the Kunai Climb.

This achievement is unlocked through normal story progression near the beginning of the game. You cannot miss it.

Wall Run

Learn the Wall Run.

This achievement is unlocked through normal story progression a short while through level 2. You cannot miss it.

Flying Bird Flip

Learn the Flying Bird Flip.

This achievement is unlocked through normal story progression near the middle of the game. You cannot miss it.

Rope Crossing

Learn how to cross a rope.

This achievement is unlocked through normal story progression near the middle of the game. You cannot miss it.

Izuna Drop

Learn the Izuna Drop.

This combo is done by pressing X, Y, X, X, X, Y (pop-up then three slashes, then grab). On PS3 this is Square, Triangle, Square, Square Square, Triangle. You can obtain this accomplishment in multiplayer or single player.

Ultimate Technique

Learn the Ultimate Technique.

This achievement is unlocked through normal story progression near the beginning of the game. You cannot miss it.

Steel on Bone

Cut down 100 enemies with Steel on Bone attacks.

This is done by using normal attacks and then mashing the attack button when the camera zooms in. You learn this technique in-game and you will most likely obtain this achievement in the game’s story. You can obtain this accomplishment in multiplayer or single player.

I Got Your Back

Play a Co-op Ninja Trial with a partner.

You need to utilize the online pass, as the game doesn’t have local coop. Simply complete any Ninja Trial in online coop mode to unlock this. You can play the easiest challenge possible, just try and do it as soon as possible before the community is gone.

Initiation

Play a Clan Battle.

You need to utilize the online pass to play online. Simply compete in Ninja Battle and finish the round, win or lose.

Teamwork

Win 10 team battles.

You need to utilize the online pass to play online. Win ten team matches to unlock this in Clan battle.

One Against the World

Win a battle royale match.

You need to utilize the online pass to play online. Once you do so, you have to wait until you get a match that turns into an FFA at the end – win this FFA. An easy way to get kills in FFA is to use the ninpo blast into a group, or utilize ghost killing (instructions are two achievements below).

Shady

Perform a betrayal.

This one can be both hard to get the opportunity for and achieve. Keep doing contracts in multiplayer until you get the betrayal contract. Once you do, you have to press (left analog stick click – L3 and attack at the same time) — aim at your teammate to switch to the other side. You will either unlock this achievement immediately or after the match is over.

Sneaky

Perform a ghost kill.

You need to utilize the online pass to play online. Eventually you will unlock the ghost kill ability online. To use this ability, slowly walk by moving the analog stick slightly, then press heavy attack when you’re near an enemy to execute them.

An Honorable Death

Perform harakiri.

You need to utilize the online pass to play online. You unlock this ability around level 25. When you’re near death, you can press “B” (Circle) to kill yourself, unlock the achievement/trophy, and deny a kill.

Snowfield

Play the Snowfield stage 10 times.

You need to utilize the online pass to play online. Simply play online on this level and complete the match ten times. Once you start paring down this and the other two level achievements, you can just quit/rejoin clan battles until you get the level you need.

Guardian of the Village

Play the Hidden Village stage 10 times.

You need to utilize the online pass to play online. Simply play online on this level and complete the match ten times. Once you start paring down this and the other two level achievements, you can just quit/rejoin clan battles until you get the level you need.

Observer

Play the Watchtower stage 10 times.

You need to utilize the online pass to play online. Simply play online on this level and complete the match ten times. Once you start paring down this and the other two level achievements, you can just quit/rejoin clan battles until you get the level you need.

The Spice of Life

Get 10 customization parts.

You need to utilize the online pass to play online. Simply play clan battles and you will unlock this in a very short amount of time — you may not even notice the unlock.

Walking Dictionary

Get 100 kanji.

You earn kanji through multiplayer and Ninja Trials. Play a combination of ninja trials and clan battles to earn kanji, and earn this achievement/trophy. Do well in clan battles to have a higher chance of unlocking kanji.

Inferno

Learned Ninpo.

This achievement is unlocked through normal story progression near the beginning of the game. You cannot miss it.

Steel on Steel – THROUGH - Mentor

Destroyed the Steel Spider – THROUGH - Cleared the game on Hard.

All of these secret achievements are unlocked through normal story progression. If you play your first playthrough on Hard, you will unlock the Hero and Normal achievements as well. During each level, one achievement is earned at the mid-way point, and one is unlocked at the end after a boss fight.

Master Ninja

Cleared the game on Master Ninja.

Beat the game on Master Ninja to unlock this achievement/trophy. In order to obtain Master Ninja difficulty, you must beat the game. Other than the DLC difficulty, this is the hardest mode in the game.

Initiate

Cleared 10 Acolyte Trials.

You do not need the online pass to unlock this, as you can do it solo. Clear the 10 total Acolyte Trials to unlock this. You can also do this through online coop, however, please note the final achievement on this list before you do so (if you clear a trial in coop before you do it solo, it will not count towards the final achievement).

Veteran

Cleared 10 Mentor Trials.

You do not need the online pass to unlock this, as you can do it solo. Clear the 10 total Mentor Trials to unlock this. You can also do this through online coop, however, please note the final achievement on this list before you do so (if you clear a trial in coop before you do it solo, it will not count towards the final achievement).

Prestige

Cleared 5 Leader Trials.

You do not need the online pass to unlock this, as you can do it solo. Clear the 10 total Leader Trials to unlock this. You can also do this through online coop, however, please note the final achievement on this list before you do so (if you clear a trial in coop before you do it solo, it will not count towards the final achievement).

Overlord

Cleared 5 Master Ninja Trials.

You do not need the online pass to unlock this, as you can do it solo. Clear the 10 total Master Ninja Trials to unlock this. You can also do this through online coop, however, please note the final achievement on this list before you do so (if you clear a trial in coop before you do it solo, it will not count towards the final achievement).

Ultimate Ninja

Cleared 3 Ultimate Ninja Trials.

You do not need the online pass to unlock this, as you can do it solo. Clear the 10 total Ultimate Ninja Trials to unlock this. You can also do this through online coop, however, please note the final achievement on this list before you do so (if you clear a trial in coop before you do it solo, it will not count towards the final achievement).

Master of the Katana

Raised the katana to level 10.

When Ninja Gaiden III was released, it only had the katana available — more weapons have shipped via DLC. Each weapon in Ninja Gaiden has a weapon level, outside of single player. Complete trials or clan battles to level up your weapon slowly but steadily. Clan battles level up the katana higher.

Hayabusa Style Grand Master

Reached level 50.

You can earn levels through solo play, trial coop play, or clan battles. This is simply a grind achievement and there is no way around it.

Lone Ninja

Cleared 10 Solo Ninja Trials.

Unlock this achievement by finishing ten ninja trials by yourself. This achievement is glitched at launch: if you clear a trial in coop before you do it solo, it will not count towards the final achievement). To avoid this issue, complete the ten easiest trials immediately.

DLC

Legendary Ninja

Clear the story on the Ultimate Ninja play style and Ultimate Ninja Trials 4 & 5.

This achievement/trophy is unlocked through normal story progression on the Highest DLC difficulty setting and the required trials. The difficulty is free DLC.

Bloodied Talons

Defeat 100 opponents in Clan Battles with the Metal Claws.

Unfortunately you must buy this DLC (Claws separate, or DLC Pack #1) to obtain this achievement/trophy. Simply equip the claws online, and grind multiplayer matches until you earn this achievement. You don’t have to earn them with any special parameters in mind — just grind it.

Grim Reaper

Defeat 100 opponents in Clan Battles with the Great Scythe.

Unfortunately you must buy this DLC  (Scythe separate, or DLC Pack #2) to obtain this achievement/trophy. Simply equip the scythe online, and grind multiplayer matches until you earn this achievement. Ghost killing works well for this. You don’t have to earn them with any special parameters in mind — just grind it.

Warrior

Clear all Ninja Trials included in Ninja Pack 1.

Unfortunately you must buy this DLC (Trials separate, or DLC Pack #1) to obtain this achievement/trophy. There are twenty trials in this pack, and they are as follows – Acolyte 11-15; Leader 6-10; Mentor 11-15; Master 6-10.

Sage

Clear all Ninja Trials included in Ninja Pack 2.

Unfortunately you must buy this DLC (Trials separate, or DLC Pack #2) to obtain this achievement/trophy.

For the next installment of my “Quick Tips” line, I bring you a Mass Effect 3 multiplayer guide, earned through my blood, sweat, and tears after earning a 100% Galactic Readiness Rating for the purposes of my review.

Even on Insanity, ME3‘s campaign is easy enough, but multiplayer, especially on the “Gold” rank setting, can get pretty tough. Read on to find out how to have an easier time raising your Galactic Readiness rating.

Basics

• Always try to queue up for a random arena and a random enemy – you’ll earn more experience and a high overall Galactic Readiness rating.
• That number in the red, next to the N7 logo, in a person’s playercard? That’s their overall level with all their characters combined. If you’re the type of player who only wants to play with experienced people, feel free to quit and come back to another game.
• You will need an online pass to access Galaxy at War and the multiplayer component. The percentages can be raised through multiplayer and two iOS apps. Galactic Readiness affects your ending in Mass Effect 3, and you can earn an achievement/trophy for obtaining 100% overall readiness.

Advanced Tips

• Save one rocket launcher special weapon (up on the d-pad) for Wave 11.  You will fight at least two of the “big” enemies (like Mechs and Banshees). If you can easily take at least one of these out, extraction will be fairly simple.
• The easiest way to level up characters is to keep buying the cheap 5,000 credit boxes after you have bought a few 20,000 or 60,000 boxes. All you really need from the higher level boxes is one good weapon to use for your class of choice. You’ll also have a high percentage chance to earn bulk XP for character classes you already  unlocked.
• You only really need to take one or two weapons with you on each mission, so you can use your abilities more often. As a Soldier, I usually only take a rifle and sniper rifle (mostly for Guardians or other select enemies).
• Infiltrators can cloak to revive allies and tag objectives while invisible. Make sure and utilize that.
• Nabbing objectives faster nets you more credits and bonuses. Simple as that. Don’t take five minutes grabbing the first objective. Run to the objective, bunker there, then move.
• You can grab enemies behind cover and one-hit-kill them. Simply hide, have the enemy approach the other side, then melee.
• If you’re a soldier, be sure and level up grenades quickly, as they are extremely effective. Memorize where ammo boxes are, and make sweeps around to all of them, refilling your grenades constantly as you use them.
• Don’t be afraid to use or equip your power-ups, especially if you’re buying the cheap 5,000 credit boxes. Winning a match and earning that much more credits is always worth it. Except for medi-gel, which I will get to next.
• On the topic of medi-gel, make sure you save your applications for when you’re the last player left, or when you’re near the end of your bleedout session. Also, saving one for Wave 11 works well, as you can waste time before extraction while bleeding out.
• Once you obtain level 20, you can “prestige” your character and promote them to your single player game to earn more war assets. You can do this as often as you want, but it does take some time to reach level 20.
• Multiplayer will always end at Wave 11, with an extraction mission. As long as one player is at the extraction point (the start of the level), everyone wins.

Cerberus Tactics

• Troopers – Cerberus is probably the second easiest enemy arrangement of the bunch. Their diversity attempts to be unique in that you’ll need a variety of tactics to defeat them, but once you get them down, you just rinse and repeat. Troopers are pretty standard fare as far as enemies go. Pretty much any standard tactic above will work on them, as they don’t do anything out of the ordinary.
• Centurions – these enemies are prone to shield damaging powers like Overload, and scopes that see through smoke work well against them when they drop their screens. Centurions can do a decent amount of damage if you let them, so focus fire as long as there aren’t any more high priority targets around.
• Nemesis – these sniper foes can get pretty troublesome as they turtle behind cover at a distance. Soldiers and Krogans can make short work of them, but any class in the game can bum rush them. Infiltrators can also cloak and melee them to death (or out-snipe them). Just be sure and take them out fast.
• Atlas Mechs – the Atlas is probably the easiest “big” enemy in the game. It’s extremely slow and cumbersome, and you can hear it coming from a mile away. Just duck into cover to avoid the missile and you’re good to go, while you’re shooting away at the canopy.
• Guardians – Guardians are another fairly easy enemy. You can use singularity to lift them off the ground and rid them of their shield, or you can simply snipe through the slot and kill them in one shot. Grenades and other high impact abilities will stagger them, allowing you a two second window to fire at their feet or head.
• Engineers – these guys need to be killed as soon as possible. Their job is to build high damage turrets around the map. At first glance this seems useless, as the turrets are stationary, but they are extremely dangerous and can kill you in a few seconds – they can also very easily catch any of your teammates off-guard if they come around a corner.
• Phantoms – these enemies can be stopped through energy drain or overload, which allows you to take off their barrier. Phantoms are the highest priority target that Cerberus has, so make sure everyone is focusing fire. As long as you cooperate in taking them down, and maintain some distance, Phantoms will go down pretty easily. If you let them roam around with their cloaking ability, they will systematically kill all of your team one by one (like the Banshee).

Geth Tactics

• Troops – In my opinion, the Geth are by far the easiest enemy in the game – consider yourself lucky if you randomize a Geth map. To add insult to injury, Disruptor Ammunition will work on all Geth, as will Overload and Sabotage.
• Hunters – Geth Hunters can get the jump on you if you’re not careful, but they need 2-3 shots to kill you, and the AI isn’t aggressive enough to go all out most of the time. When you see a Hunter, try to stun it in any way possible (including grenades or melee) – as long as you disable it before it shotguns you, it will die very quickly. Just keep an eye out when playing against Geth for cloaked Hunters and you will be fine.
• Rocket Troopers – Rocket Troopers, like Nemesis enemies on the Cerberus front, can be deadly if you don’t stay in cover. The solution? Stay in cover when you see them in waves. They die extremely quickly, and can be sniped or shotgunned around a corner before they rocket you. Just imagine them as snipers with slow moving projectiles – the splash damage of their rockets isn’t large enough to be scared of them.
• Pyros – Pyros are probably the most dangerous unit the Geth have – they can surprise you and kill you in a few seconds. Cloaking isn’t particularly effective against Pyros, as they’ll usually just flame you out anyways. The best strategy is to of course stay far away and blast them from a distance, but you can also shoot their tanks to make short work of them. When you’re playing Geth, just keep an eye out for Pyros on the map and be aware of their locations while moving around – you don’t want to get cornered by a Pyro.
• Geth Primes – Primes will deploy turrets and drones in addition to launching some heavy firepower your way – thankfully they have the least amount of health compared to the “big” units of other enemy armies. When a Prime enters the fray, just focus fire on it – you can even kill a Prime by yourself if you use a few abilities (which you should do if possible). You can also shoot their missiles to render them even more ineffective.  As long as you’re paying attention while playing the Geth, every enemy is easily countered.

Reaper Tactics

• Husks – in my opinion, the Reapers are by far the hardest enemy in multiplayer. Husks, however, are extremely easy to deal with. Gun them down while they’re running at you, and be prepared to mash the melee button if they grab you. You can also “save” coop partners from their grabs.
• Cannibals – Cannibals are the standard ranged troops of the Reaper army. You can shoot them in their heads to kill them quickly, but otherwise you can just take them out in any standard fashion. Don’t underestimate them however, as a group of them can gang up on you after a large firefight – especially if they’re buffed by Marauders.
• Marauders – these enemies aren’t dangerous on their own, but they make other units dangerous through their blood bond buff. Gun down Marauders as soon as possible, and use abilities like Overload to take down their shield. These units can also be easily sniped in the head.
• Brutes – Brutes are not particularly difficult enemies on their own in earlier waves, but when you get to later waves, they can be extremely dangerous due to their aggressive nature. Make these your top priority if your group is pinned down in an area, as Brutes will run in and directly ruin your day as the rest of the enemy army slowly makes their way into your foxhole. Brutes can be shot from behind as they aggro on another one of your partners, and blowing all your big-time abilities is a good idea against these units.
• Banshees – Banshees will “aggro” on one unit at a time – use this to your advantage. Make sure that you’re always aware of the Banshee’s location (listen to the screams), so that you’re not instant killed (if a Banshee grabs you, you cannot be revived). Salarian Engineers have decoy, which works well against them. Banshees are probably the most destructive unit in the game, as they can also throw projectiles. Make sure the whole group focuses fire on these units.
• Ravagers – Ravagers are one of the most destructive enemies in multiplayer. If you’re not paying attention, they can take you down from a distance almost instantly. They also have a tough carapace, and send out spider drones to boot.  The easiest way to take them down is to circle strafe them with a melee class (shotguns and Krogans work well).When they die, avoid the green acid where their carcass is and be aware of the spider drones they spawn.

After looking everywhere, I couldn’t find a complete achievement guide for Mass Effect 3 – so I decided to make one.

Mass Effect 3 has some pretty cryptic achievements. Nearly every achievement can be obtained through single player, but some can be unlocked in tandem with multiplayer play. Read on to figure out how to earn that Platinum/1000GS.

* = Missable, before the end of a normal campaign playthrough

[There are minor spoilers here, but I attempt to keep them light]

Driven

Return to Active Duty.

This achievement is unlocked through normal story progression. You cannot miss it.

Bringer of War

Chase down an assassin.

This achievement is unlocked through normal story progression. You cannot miss it.

Mobilizer

Bring a veteran officer aboard.

This achievement is unlocked through normal story progression. You cannot miss it.

World Shaker

Destroy an Atlas dropped from orbit.

This achievement is unlocked through normal story progression. You cannot miss it.

Pathfinder

Explore a lost city.

This achievement is unlocked through normal story progression. You cannot miss it.

Tunnel Rat *

Survive the swarm.

This achievement is unlocked through the special optional mission Attican Traverse: Krogen Team. You will obtain this mission through Wreav after the first mission involving the Genophage.

Party Crasher

Sabotage a dreadnought.

This achievement is unlocked through normal story progression. You cannot miss it.

Hard Target

Call down an orbital strike.

This achievement is unlocked through normal story progression. You cannot miss it.

Saboteur

Disable a group of fighter squadrons.

This achievement is unlocked through normal story progression. You cannot miss it.

Arbiter

Win a political stand-off.

This achievement is unlocked through normal story progression. You cannot miss it.

Last Witness

Extract ancient technology.

This achievement is unlocked through normal story progression. You cannot miss it.

Executioner

Defeat an old adversary.

This achievement is unlocked through normal story progression. You cannot miss it.

Well Connected

Send a warning across the galaxy.

This achievement is unlocked through normal story progression. You cannot miss it.

Fact Finder *

Discover an enemy’s monstrous origin.

This achievement is unlocked through the optional Kallini: Ardat-Yakshi Monastery mission. You should obtain this mission from Liara after the incident with Cerberus at the Citadel.

Liberator *

Stop a Cerberus kidnapping.

This achievement is unlocked through the optional Grissom Academy: Emergency Evacuation mission. You should obtain this mission through talking to the officer next to the Galaxy Map.

Problem Solver *

Evacuate a scientific facility.

This achievement is unlocked through the optional mission Ex-Scientists. You should obtain this mission through talking to the officer next to the Galaxy Map.

Patriot

Make the final assault.

This achievement is unlocked through normal story progression. You cannot miss it.

Legend

Mission accomplished.

This achievement is unlocked through normal story progression after you complete the game, with any ending.

Shopaholic

Visit a store in the single-player campaign.

The easiest way to do this is on the Normandy itself. Go to the 3rd or 5th floor and access the medical bay or weapon bay systems.

Master and Commander

Deliver most of the Galaxy at War assets to the final conflict.

This achievement requires you to complete the Galaxy at War mini-game within Mass Effect 3 to basically raise your War assets to 4000 or above. Finishing story missions and/or multiplayer can affect Galaxy at War, which affects your war asset value in single player.  You need to basically get all your planetary percentages to 100% (or a high percentage, and do lots of single player missions)- to do this, play random maps constantly to raise percentages on every sector.  Once you hit 4,000 or above (check this value in the War Room in SP), assault the Cerberus base, and the achievement will pop.

Lost and Found

Dispatch 10 probes to retrieve people or resources in Reaper territory.

Once you reach the Galaxy Map, enter a Reaper system (the Reaper is sitting on top of the circle). Fly around and spam LT (or L2) to locate a hidden resource – scan the planet and obtain the resource – do this ten times.

Long Service Medal

Complete Mass Effect 3 twice, or once with a Mass Effect 2 import.

Self explanatory. You need a completed Mass Effect 2 file to import your game into 3. Additionally, Bioware is reporting there are issues with cloud saves for importing – avoid cloud saving for Mass Effect.

Insanity

Finish the game on Insanity without changing difficulty after leaving Earth.

Earth is the beginning of the game, and a tutorial of sorts. It lasts around 10-15 minutes. Change your difficulty in the start menu to Insanity just to be sure, before you board the ship to leave Earth.

A Personal Touch

Modify a weapon.

Simply get any weapon mod item and equip your weapon with it at any weapon table (level 5 of the Normandy), or before any mission.

Paramour *

Establish or rekindle a romantic relationship.

Simply fraternize with any crew member you wish on a consistent basis (in between every mission go to their room). Main crew members that have romance options enabled are Liara, Ashley, Tali, Kaidan, and Cortez (male to male only). The easiest way to do this as a male is to keep going to Normandy level 5 (cargo bay), and talk to Cortez.

Combined Arms

Perform any combination of 50 biotic combos or tech bursts.

This is only difficult for the Soldier class. Simply use any combination of biotic or tech abilities that freeze or cc the enemy (Singularity works best) – then use another ability while they’re cced. You can combo this with your squad mates a la Mass Effect 2.

Focused

Evolve any of your powers to rank 6.

When you level up you will have the opportunity to upgrade your skills. Save your points and upgrade any skill you want to the max level of six.

Recruit

Kill 250 enemies.

You can earn this through all playthroughs and/or multiplayer. You will earn this in one playthrough.

Soldier

Kill 1,000 enemies.

You can earn this through all playthroughs and/or multiplayer. You will earn this in two playthroughs or one playthrough and multiplayer.

Veteran

Kill 5,000 enemies.

You can earn this through all playthroughs and/or multiplayer. This one takes a while – multiplayer grinding is the easiest way.

Bruiser

Kill 100 enemies with melee attacks.

Simply melee enemies to death 100 times. You can use a heavy or normal melee attack. Melee every Husk you see for an easy achievement.

Untouchable

Escape a Reaper in the galaxy map.

Simply enter any Reaper owned part of the Galaxy Map (any circle where a Reaper appears). Spam LT or L2 – Reapers will appear. Fly away outside of the circle or to a Mass Effect relay to pop this easy achievement.

Defender

Attain the highest level of readiness in each theater of war.

This achievement requires you to complete the Galaxy at War mini-game within Mass Effect 3 to 100% for all sectors. Keep in mind the only way to access Galaxy at War is to redeem an online pass, and play multiplayer games until you get 100%. Every 12 hours, your readiness will lower by 2%, so it’s best to grind this achievement when you have a lot of free time.

Overload Specialist

Overload the shields of 100 enemies.

Use overload on 100 enemies in any mode. If you don’t have this ability in Single Player, you can play a class that has it in multiplayer.

Sky High

Lift 100 enemies off the ground with powers.

Throw, Pull, and Singularity both work in this case. If you don’t have this ability in Single Player, you can play a class that has it in multiplayer.

Pyromaniac

Set 100 enemies on fire with powers.

The easiest way to do this is with a Soldier with Inferno Ammo. Just gun down 100 enemies with the ammo. You can also use incinerate.

Eye of the Hurricane

Kill a brute while it’s charging you.

Brutes are the giant hulking enemies, of which you’ll probably find 50 of in one playthrough. Simply have your squad mates hold behind a wall, get the Brute down to almost no health, wait for it to charge, then unload on it. You can also earn this in multiplayer.

Mail Slot

Kill 10 guardians with headshots from the front while their shields are raised.

Guardians are the Cerberus enemies with giant shields. The best way to get this achievement is to use a Sniper Rifle and a Soldier’s  Adrenaline Rush ability to slow time – aim through the slot in the shield at their head. You can earn this in multiplayer.

Hijacker

Hijack an Atlas mech.

Shoot at the Atlas’ cockpit. When it shatters, you can kill the driver with a pinpoint shot (best with a sniper rifle to the head) – walk up and press A or X on the Atlas.

Giant Killer

Defeat a harvester.

You will fight Harvesters in the single player campaign (around ten of them) – they look like blue dragons. Simply kill one to earn this achievement – they’re not too difficult.

Enlisted

Start a character in multiplayer or customize a character in single-player.

Self explanatory. If you use your online pass, you can make a character of any class. By “customize” a single player character, they mean make a new Shepard without the default look. Wait for the intro to end and this achievement will pop as you gain control of Shepard.

Tour of Duty

Finish all multiplayer maps or all N7 missions in single-player.

To complete this achievement you can grind multiplayer or simply choose specific missions to complete. You must beat the mission (even on bronze) to pop this. Additionally you can complete N7 Missions in single player, which are obtained through the officer next to the Galaxy Map, or your personal terminal.

Always Prepared

Obtain two non-customizable suits of armor.

To earn this achievement, simply buy armor sets – the easiest way to buy them are through Citadel terminals (the hospital specifically), or level five of the Normandy.

Tourist

Complete one multiplayer match or two N7 missions.

You must beat the mission (even on bronze) to pop this. Additionally you can complete N7 Missions in single player, which are obtained through the officer next to the Galaxy Map, or your personal terminal.

Explorer

Complete three multiplayer matches or five N7 missions.

You must beat the mission (even on bronze) to pop this. Additionally you can complete N7 Missions in single player, which are obtained through the officer next to the Galaxy Map, or your personal terminal.

Gunsmith

Upgrade any weapon to level 10.

There is more to this achievement/trophy than meets the eye. In one playthrough of the game, you can only upgrade weapons to level five. Once you enter New Game+ and import a ME3 character, you can upgrade them further.

Almost There

Reach level 15 in multiplayer or level 50 in single-player.

Keep playing multiplayer or single player to unlock this. The easiest way to earn experience is to queue random maps and random enemies for an XP bonus. Alternatively, you can import your Mass Effect 2 character to start at level ~30. Otherwise, this will require two playthroughs.

Peak Condition

Reach level 20 in multiplayer or level 60 in single-player.

Keep playing multiplayer or single player to unlock this. The easiest way to earn experience is to queue random maps and random enemies for an XP bonus. Alternatively, you can import your Mass Effect 2 character to start at level ~30. Otherwise, this will require two playthroughs.

Battle Scarred

Promote a multiplayer character to the Galaxy at War or import an ME3 character.

Finish multiplayer (level 20) and “prestige”, or simply beat Mass Effect 3, select the New Game option from the main menu, and select “Import ME3 character” (this is New Game+).

Unwavering

Finish all multiplayer maps on Gold or all single-player missions on Insanity.

Purposefully set all multiplayer missions to Gold and complete them. Or, complete every mission in the game on Insanity in single player. It’s best to write down which maps you’ve done.

DLC

Freedom Fighter *

Find all required intel to help Eden Prime’s colonists.

You need to find the three required pieces of intel in this DLC to pop this achievement. One is in the trailer marked “5″ near the start. One is across from the trailer marked “2″, after you find the coffin, lower in the map. The other is in a trailer in the third and final part of the map.

Prothean Expert

Learn more about the Prothean Empire.

This achievement is earned automatically through completing the DLC.

I’m going to put this on record: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is my least favorite Zelda game of all time. But I’m not stopping there; not only is it a poor Zelda game, it’s also a poor videogame in general.

Without even touching upon the love ‘em or hate ‘em motion controls, there’s more than enough evidence to show that Nintendo should’ve taken a step back, looked at Skyward Sword’s innovations, and asked themselves, “Are we sure these ideas are good?”

Gameplay Mechanics

“Nintendo never innovates with Zelda” and “Every Zelda game is the same” are some of the arguments Zelda detractors tend to throw around. They have some merit; almost every game follows roughly the same structure: you get a slingshot, a bow, some bombs, etc. etc. and then you use that “dungeon item” to defeat the dungeon boss. So with Skyward Sword it seems Nintendo took those complaints to heart. They added new gameplay mechanics and some new items. Too bad many of them are terrible.

Let’s start with the stamina meter. Link gets to sprint now! Yay? Problem is, whenever you start sprinting, a big, green meter shaped like half a lime pops up to show you how much stamina you have left. Not only does it look ugly and out of place with the game’s aesthetic, but Link has the wind of a 70 year-old smoker. In previous games, if you wanted to run faster you’d equip the Bunny Hood, ride Epona, or perhaps do a little bit of Goron rolling. Now you can sprint for a few seconds, wait for the gauge to refill, then sprint some more.

But the stamina gauge affects more than just sprinting. Almost every other activity in Skyward Sword is dependent on that little citrusy meter. Climbing, spin attacks, carrying things, pushing and pulling blocks are all dependent on Link’s incredibly tiny stamina pool. While a stamina meter could create a fun sense of risk vs. reward, the fact that it lasts for such a pitiful short time in Skyward Sword makes it more frustrating than anything else. How can Link sprint away from an enemy if they’ll just catch up in a couple of seconds when it runs out? I suppose he can politely ask them to wait to attack him after he’s caught his breath. Everyone knows monsters obey the rules of Time Outs.

Let’s move on to dowsing. Dowsing. I shudder every time I hear that word now. We get it, Nintendo. Skyward Sword is played with the WiiMote–a thing you point at the screen. We don’t need a gameplay mechanic to remind us of this. Dowsing has to be one of the dumbest things ever, and it only gets worse when you realize you have to use it all the damn time.

Here’s how pretty much all of Skyward Sword goes: you go to a new area, Fi (more on her in a bit) pops up and says that something (or things plural) is hidden in the area, she suggests you dowse for them, and then the game turns into a hot n’ cold, hide n’ seek simulator. Were gamers supposed to be impressed at this “innovative” way Nintendo managed to include the WiiMote’s pointing ability?

You’re trying to find Zelda? Dowse for her! You’re trying to find some lost forest bird/plant things? Dowse for them! Musical notes swimming in a lake? You guessed it; dowse for them! I’m not complaining that dousing required the use of the WiiMote. It still would’ve been a terrible mechanic if you were moving the cursor around the screen with an analogue stick. The problem is that dowsing made the game resemble a bunch of never-ending fetch quests.

There are other mechanics I could touch upon–flying and the loot system–but I have other things I want to talk about. So just know that those two are also filled with bad ideas, but let’s move on to the game’s narrative.

Narrative

I’m a fiction writer, so a game’s narrative is always something I pay attention to (see: Killzone 3). Zelda games aren’t known for their incredibly deep narratives. Rescue the princess, stop Ganon, save Hyrule, rinse and repeat. But I remember reading reviews and other articles that raved about how Skyward Sword had a better narrative than previous Zelda games. Unfortunately that narrative ends up being distilled into: you need to prove yourself; go do these fetch quests; eventually defeat some evil demon monster.

For the record, I’m not against Zelda’s “save the princess” story. It’s simple, but it works. However, I do have a problem with the way Skyward Sword’s presentation, both its in-game narrative and the design choices surrounding that narrative. You can tell a simple but effective “Zelda story” without having to resort to the same design choices (like how Thompson points out that all of Link’s items function as keys) over and over again.

In Skyward Sword for every new dungeon you encounter, it seems like there’s a new time-consuming sidequest just to “purify yourself” or “cleanse your spirit” or some such nonsense before you can even enter. From a gameplay perspective these quests ruin the flow of the game as they keep you from actually experiencing what Zelda is all about: exploring dungeons, getting new items, and beating bosses.

From a narrative perspective these quests and the reasons given to the player as to why you have to do them break the flow of the narrative. While he tends toward exaggeration, Ben ‘Yahtzee’ Croshaw puts it best at around the four minute mark. The fetch quests and weak narrative reasons for them sap any sense of urgency from the story.

The game tells me (over and over again) that I need to stop the Imprisoned and save all of creation, but before actually letting me do that, I have to prove myself worthy. Over and over again. By the end of the game, I’d actually forgotten why I was collecting all the different doodads. I just knew I had to do it to get through the game. It bled any sense of desire to figure out where the story was going right out of me.

Characters

But what’s a story without characters to sell that story? For the most part I have no complaints with Skyward Sword’s iterations of Link and Zelda. They’re both the same archetypes they’ve always been, and by now that’s blandly inoffensive. I don’t care if they get developed more than that or not.

But early on in the story you meet Fi, Skyward Sword’s version of Navi. She’s a Goddess-created computer program that lives in your sword and speaks in auto-tune. At first, her overly verbose way of explaining everything was entertaining. Early on, I exclaimed to my girlfriend, “I like Fi! She’s funny.” I spoke too soon. For as annoyed I got with Navi’s incessant “Hey! Listen!” she’s got nothing on Fi.

Skyward Sword already has a bad habit of telling the player its story through longwinded conversations instead of showing, or because this is an interactive medium, letting the player do and experience the story more organically. But then Fi has to step in. She steps in after every conversation where an NPC tells Link where to go or what to do and repeats all of that information in the most roundabout way possible and always with made up probability statistics. I grew so tired of having to read lines like “There’s an 85% chance that Zelda is in the vicinity,” that I groaned every time Fi would pop up on the screen. Without her, Skyward Sword would have some fine, if a bit bland, characters, but with her, the game is worse.

“If it ain’t broke…” or Innovation for Innovation’s Sake

Skyward Sword gets so many things wrong because it felt like Nintendo was trying to silence the innovation-demanding subsection of their fan base. Instead all they needed was somebody on the development team to remind them of the old phrase “If it ain’t broke (and this ‘it’ happens to be a beloved, 25 year-old franchise), don’t fix it.”

Link never needed a sprint button, dowsing is a mechanic that wouldn’t be needed with more focused level design, and Fi should’ve been scrapped at the drawing board stage. In trying not to make another Ocarina of Time rehash, they’ve moved themselves away from that all-important videogame tenant: fun. And frankly Skyward Sword wasn’t any fun at all.

[Achievements that require no explanation will be branded as such]

A lot of people out there have been having issues obtaining a number of SoulCalibur V’s cryptic achievements, so I decided to share some tips.

There are a number of unlocks that can be obtained simply through completing the game’s single player modes and ranking up online, but a number of them are unlocked through in-game options and through your combat prowess — as well as your general knowledge of SoulCalibur V’s new mechanics.

Hit the jump to figure out how to get every achievement or trophy — if you’re new to the game, you might learn a few things too.

History Repeats

Battle in SOULCALIBUR V for the first time (excluding training and VS battle).

(Self Explanatory)

A Soul Coalesces

Edit a player license.

The easiest way to obtain this is to quickly create a character, then press Start on the main menu and change your license portrait to that character.

Beginning of Destiny

Register 3 rivals.

Every time you play someone online you have a chance to register them as a rival. After completing a match, win or lose, you can register them immediately into one of three slots.

Proof of a Fighter

Win consecutive matches on Xbox LIVE/PSN

Win two matches on Xbox Live/PSN in a row

Mercenary of War

Fight 30 times on Xbox LIVE/PSN

Simply compete in 30 matches on Xbox Live/PSN

Strategist of War

Fight 75 times on Xbox LIVE/PSN

Simply compete in 75 matches on Xbox Live/PSN

Hero Carved in History

Fight 100 times on Xbox LIVE/PSN

Simply complete 100 matches on Xbox Live/PSN

Carry Out Your Beliefs

Win 5 times in one style on Xbox LIVE/PSN

Use one character (or one created character) and win five times. “Style” = character.

Courageous Warrior

Win 20 times on Xbox LIVE/PSN

Simply win 20 times on Xbox Live/PSN

Conqueror of the Arena

Win 50 times on Xbox LIVE/PSN

Simply win 50 times on Xbox Live/PSN

Synchronize DNA

Use Ezio in a player match.

Use Ezio one time in a non-ranked online match

Awakened to Violence

Reach E4 rank in ranked match.

Play enough ranked games to get to rank E4.

Reason to Fight For

Reach E1 rank in ranked match.

Play enough ranked games to get Rank E1.

First Step of a Legend

Reach D1 rank in ranked match.

Play enough ranked games to get Rank D1.

Sings Own Praise

Upload a replay of your win.

This one is tricky. Right after a match, upload a video. Then, go to “replay” in the online play menu (not your player card). Go to the Battle Log section and save one of the uploads. Then, go to the “My Battles” section to complete the requirement.

Notes on Rivals

Play back another player’s replay.

The easiest way to do this is register a rival, press Start and view their player card, then view a replay.

Path to Glory

Quick Battle: defeat 50 warriors.

You must defeat 50 CPUs in the Quick Battle Single player mode. If you’ve already beaten a CPU it will display their name in white. If you haven’t, it will be green. Note that you can sort/flip the quick battle menu with the option at the bottom of the screen. The easiest way to gauge this is to view your “titles earned”, not “wins”.

Road to the Duel

Quick Battle: defeat 150 warriors.

You must defeat 150 CPUs in the Quick Battle Single player mode. If you’ve already beaten a CPU it will display their name in white. If you haven’t, it will be green. Note that you can sort/flip the quick battle menu with the option at the bottom of the screen. The easiest way to gauge this is to view your “titles earned”, not “wins”.

Sudden Temptation

Quick Battle: defeat all warriors.

Quick Battle has 240 total warriors. You must defeat all of them. This is easily the hardest achievement in the game. The easiest way to gauge this is to view your “titles earned”, not “wins”.

Perfect Trainee

Arcade: clear Asia route.

Go to the single player Arcade section. Select the Asia route. You can set this to easy, or if you choose hard, you can get two achievements in one (War Veteran).

Purge of the Holy

Story: clear episode 1.

Self Explanatory – story mode progress. By skipping cutscenes you can complete the story in 30 minutes.

Shields Come Together

Story: clear episode 8.

Self Explanatory – story mode progress. By skipping cutscenes you can complete the story in 30 minutes.

Resurrection of Order

Story: clear episode 16.

Self Explanatory – story mode progress. By skipping cutscenes you can complete the story in 30 minutes.

Home is Faraway

Story: clear final episode.

Self Explanatory – story mode progress. By skipping cutscenes you can complete the story in 30 minutes.

War Veteran

Arcade: clear any route with difficulty set on hard.

Choose any Arcade Mode path and beat it on Hard. All paths offer similar difficult levels.

Mask Another’s Memory

Arcade: clear a leaderboard route with a record better than your rival.

To make this easier on yourself, register all 3 rivals. Go to the Arcade section and select “Leaderboard route”. If your rivals have times, simply beat them to unlock this. If your rivals do not have times, register new ones online — the more rivals that have times, the better. Nightmare and Mitsurugi are particular good CPU bashers.

Usurped True Name

Quick Battle: win against 10 players with titles and use the obtained title on the player license.

Earn this in Quick Battle. After 10 wins, simply switch your title to the last CPU you beat (pay attention to their title). If you go over 10, you can simply switch to the next CPU you defeat’s title.

Pursuit of Obsession 

Quick Battle: defeat Harada TEKKEN.

To find Harada TEKKEN easily, switch the criteria for quick battle search to “Advanced”, “Japan”. Cycle through the list until you find him. He’s fairly hard to beat as he uses cheap tactics. I found Ezio’s crossbow attacks or Yoshimitsu’s spins to be the easiest way to defeat him, as well as constantly attacking low with most characters.

No-hitter 

Ranked Match: win 10 times with Ezio.

Simply win 10 times as Ezio ranked online. Do this sooner than later unless you plan on learning Ezio, because by the time you rank up, everyone else will be more skilled than you.

Skills for Duels 

Legendary Souls: win with brave edge.

After you beat the story, Legendary Souls mode will unlock. It is a boss rush mode. To obtain the achievement, win a match with a brave edge attack (these vary from character to character).

Passionate Artist 

Creation: create a character with full-on coordination (used everything except for height).

Create a throwaway character with every single equipment slot filled. Hats, armor, stickers; everything. To be sure you get it, fill your portrait up entirely and take a snapshot, then save the character. Your creation will look ridiculous, but at least you’ll unlock the requirement.

Colorful Illusion 

Creation: take a thumbnail by manually setting a decoration frame and background.

After creating a character to go the snapshot menu option. Create a full background and both frame options. Take a picture.

Fetal Soul

Player level reaches 5.

“Player Level” is earned through doing everything in the game — not just online ranked play. You can earn points by playing every mode.

Throbbing Soul

Player level reaches 50.

“Player Level” is earned through doing everything in the game — not just online ranked play. You can earn points by playing every mode.

Soul Fulfilled 

Player level reaches maximum.

“Player Level” is earned through doing everything in the game — not just online ranked play. You can earn points by playing every mode.

Stalwart Barbarian 

Perform a wall hit 50 times.

When you knock a player into a wall, whether it’s destructible or not, it’s considered a wall hit. You cannot “cheat” this achievement/trophy by doing it in Versus against a dummy player, but you can boost this in online player matches with a friend.

Adored by Heaven 

Perform 20 grapple breaks.

Press L2 or LT right as a player is going to grab you to break it. Eventually you will easily earn this achievement even by accident. You cannot “cheat” this achievement/trophy by doing it in Versus against a dummy player, but you can boost this in online player matches with a friend.

Like a Flowing Stream 

Successfully perform a just guard 5 times.

Press Guard the moment a player attacks and quickly release it to perform a Just Guard. You cannot “cheat” this achievement/trophy by doing it in Versus against a dummy player, but you can boost this in online player matches with a friend.

Momentary Pleasure 

Successfully perform an impact 100 times.

Impacts have been changed in Soul Calibur V — they are basically obsolete in SCV given how good Just Guarding is. But for the purposes of this achievement, press back or forward, and (A x B x G).

Black Sword of Death 

K.O. with critical edge 30 times.

Simply finish an enemy with a critical edge (super, in other games) 30 times. Press DF, DF A+B+K to execute it with all characters when the enemy has low health.

Hands of the Abyss 

Win by ring out 50 times.

Self Explanatory. You cannot “cheat” this achievement/trophy by doing it in Versus against a dummy player, but you can boost this in online player matches with a friend.

Parrier of Swords

Perfect win 50 times.

Win without taking a hit 50 times. You cannot “cheat” this achievement/trophy by doing it in Versus against a dummy player, but you can boost this in online player matches with a friend.

Wind of Battle 

Reach over 87,600 m in total movement distance in battle.

Self Explanatory. This one could take you a while.  You cannot “cheat” this achievement/trophy by doing it in Versus against a dummy player, but you can boost this in online player matches with a friend.

Alluring Kaleidoscope 

Land a brave edge 100 times.

A Brave Edge differs from character to character, but is executed after certain moves with (A+B+K). Look up your character’s movesets to figure out each Brave Edge. You cannot “cheat” this achievement/trophy by doing it in Versus against a dummy player, but you can boost this in online player matches with a friend.

Gale Forces 

K.O. the opponent 25 times with an attack after a quick move.

Press Up or Down twice to quickly move, then press an attack — KO an enemy 25 times with this ability. You cannot “cheat” this achievement/trophy by doing it in Versus against a dummy player, but you can boost this in online player matches with a friend.

Never Ending Effort 

Land an attack 20,000 times.

Self Explanatory. You cannot “cheat” this achievement/trophy by doing it in Versus against a dummy player, but you can boost this in online player matches with a friend.

Footprints of Soldiers 

Defeat 100 male characters.

Self Explanatory. You cannot “cheat” this achievement/trophy by doing it in Versus against a dummy player, but you can boost this in online player matches with a friend. This is probably easiest attained with defeating all 240 characters in Quick Mode.

Give in to Temptation 

Defeat 100 female characters.

Self Explanatory. You cannot “cheat” this achievement/trophy by doing it in Versus against a dummy player, but you can boost this in online player matches with a friend. This is probably easiest attained with defeating all 240 characters in Quick Mode.

Fancy of a Mad King 

Guard burst 30 times.

When your Life Gauge changes to red, you are suseptible to a guard burst, which means your guard will be broken and you will be stunned for a few seasons. Against turtling opponents, don’t let up when their meter is yellow, and break their guard 30 times to earn this achievement.  You cannot “cheat” this achievement/trophy by doing it in Versus against a dummy player, but you can boost this in online player matches with a friend.

Lively Pub 

Change the BGM in options.

Go to the options menu, and change any stage’s default background music. You can earn this faster than any achievement/trophy in the game.