This is just some snippets of my successful Dead Space 2 Plasma Cutter only run on Zealot, an early part of Batman Arkham Knight on Hard where I'm trying to stop the dreaded Scarecrow, and my take so far on the Dead Space Remake based on several reviews I've seen.
Dead Space 2
I played this in 4K equivalent DSR, and though it's not quite as graphically stunning as Dead Space 3, it still manages to look pretty good. To make this challenge work, I picked up as many power nodes as I could find, and eventually fully upgraded the Plasma Cutter and Kinesis. My Rig ended up lacking two HP upgrades, but it sufficed. There's always that tough decision once you get to the corridor to go to the centrifuge, whether to go down to the far end of it afterward and get the power node there, or leave it be and hope you have enough. Just turning right in the corridor, being the way to the centrifuge, is daunting enough, as there are several monsters to deal with. As it turned out, I was wise to deal with the even heavier spawns down the long corridor trek, as otherwise I might have missed out on the Special upgrade on the Plasma Cutter, which adds an incendiary effect to each shot.
It's helpful as well to approach each battle with the "how do I get through this with the least ammo and health" mindset. Aside from the usual sever a leg, an arm, then finish by tossing the severed arm back at them, it often means taking out one leg of a Pregnant, then an arm after it falls when it puts it's elbows high as it tries to crawl toward you. This means less risk of bursting it's sack of swarm, which can take a LOT of your health if you don't shoot them all. Another trick I loved was using a Stasis shot or stasis canister to slow fast moving Necroes, then get in position to manage a shot at an Exploder's sack as they both started converging on my position, taking both out in one shot. Sometimes it would only take ducking back through a door I'd just come out of after running to the spot that triggered a couple Necroes, then peek back out after the Exploder ran over where an Enhanced Necro was, and quickly ending their little posse plans with a quick shot to the Exploder's sack.
In Chapter 12, the ride atop the mine drilling rig gets really heated up, but shooting the Enhanced Necroes in the arms as they're trying to crawl onto it, using kinesis to grab fuel canisters up high on the ridges, and tossing them at Lurkers that appear there, are some key necessities. It got even uglier on the LONG elevator ride up way before in Chapter 7 though, where you're only hope is staying in the center and keeping your head on a swivel and hoping to God you brought enough ammo and health. I ended up nearly drained on both. By Chapter 13 things start heating up even more, as Enhanced Slashers and Leapers are the norm, and the regenerating Ubermorph keeps coming at you. You also find a Divider here and there in the late chapters, which can often just be evaded by running past with no stasis. The Creepers that pop out of them once killed can be dangerous if near other Necroes they can reanimate, so they are best left alone. For everything else in these chapters, it's wise to just use stasis a lot, and run like hell past them, cuz you know, I've got legs, and I'd like to keep them.
This is the final battle and end game. The destroying of the Marker is a LOT easier if you just max out a Contact Beam and Force Gun, but the Plasma Cutter can suffice too if maxed. You just have to deal with the tons of kids that come.
By the way, I also made a valiant effort afterward to get to the first save of a Hardcore run, where you're only given 3 saves the whole game. I normally save just before the fight with the Tormentor at the end of Chapter 5, but made a bad decision to try bashing a slasher with a heavy crate repeatedly using Kinesis midway through Chapter 2. The rule of thumb I'd forgotten was, if it looks like in their past life they'd been liar liar and their pants are all sooty looking like they'd caught fire, they are too Enhanced to be slowed down by tossing even large metal crates at them. So I got rushed and died.
Aaand that is why I decided to take a break from Dead Space 2 for a while and play some Batman Arkham Knight. I'm playing on Hard, but despite feeling a bit awkward refamiliarizing myself with the controls after a LONG time since I played it last, my combat has been better than I remember from before. In fact I'm finding myself letting my XP build to where I have as many as 13 upgrade points before I bother spending them, whereas before I was immediately dumping them into melee and firearm armor. I'm also not clinging to intentionally using environmental devices whenever I can, though at times end up using them inadvertently. The main difference is I'm just being more conscious of the blue attack prompts above approaching enemies heads, then tapping the WASD key that direction and using RMB to counter. This means it's LOT less wasted button mashing, and quicker and more fluent combat.
Batman Arkham Knight
This is the last half of the Ace Chemicals mission, where you have to battle tanks, break through the wall to the access tunnel to the mixing chamber, deal with some goons overtly and covertly, then thwart Scarecrow's plans to toxify the city.
Now, regarding the Dead Space Remake, after watching several lengthy video reviews of the game, I have to say, my skepticism that Motive would wind up with numerous bugs and performance problems using the harder to code with Frostbite Engine appears to have been errant pessimism, which I'm fully willing and happy to eat crow about.
That said, I DO have one nit pick that feels to me to be a pretty big negative. For some reason they have chosen to use Gunner Wright's likeness for Isaac now. Every time I see his face, it's this random looking guy that isn't believable to me as a seasoned engineer, leaving me detached from seeing him as the real Isaac Clarke.
Dead Space 2
I played this in 4K equivalent DSR, and though it's not quite as graphically stunning as Dead Space 3, it still manages to look pretty good. To make this challenge work, I picked up as many power nodes as I could find, and eventually fully upgraded the Plasma Cutter and Kinesis. My Rig ended up lacking two HP upgrades, but it sufficed. There's always that tough decision once you get to the corridor to go to the centrifuge, whether to go down to the far end of it afterward and get the power node there, or leave it be and hope you have enough. Just turning right in the corridor, being the way to the centrifuge, is daunting enough, as there are several monsters to deal with. As it turned out, I was wise to deal with the even heavier spawns down the long corridor trek, as otherwise I might have missed out on the Special upgrade on the Plasma Cutter, which adds an incendiary effect to each shot.
It's helpful as well to approach each battle with the "how do I get through this with the least ammo and health" mindset. Aside from the usual sever a leg, an arm, then finish by tossing the severed arm back at them, it often means taking out one leg of a Pregnant, then an arm after it falls when it puts it's elbows high as it tries to crawl toward you. This means less risk of bursting it's sack of swarm, which can take a LOT of your health if you don't shoot them all. Another trick I loved was using a Stasis shot or stasis canister to slow fast moving Necroes, then get in position to manage a shot at an Exploder's sack as they both started converging on my position, taking both out in one shot. Sometimes it would only take ducking back through a door I'd just come out of after running to the spot that triggered a couple Necroes, then peek back out after the Exploder ran over where an Enhanced Necro was, and quickly ending their little posse plans with a quick shot to the Exploder's sack.
In Chapter 12, the ride atop the mine drilling rig gets really heated up, but shooting the Enhanced Necroes in the arms as they're trying to crawl onto it, using kinesis to grab fuel canisters up high on the ridges, and tossing them at Lurkers that appear there, are some key necessities. It got even uglier on the LONG elevator ride up way before in Chapter 7 though, where you're only hope is staying in the center and keeping your head on a swivel and hoping to God you brought enough ammo and health. I ended up nearly drained on both. By Chapter 13 things start heating up even more, as Enhanced Slashers and Leapers are the norm, and the regenerating Ubermorph keeps coming at you. You also find a Divider here and there in the late chapters, which can often just be evaded by running past with no stasis. The Creepers that pop out of them once killed can be dangerous if near other Necroes they can reanimate, so they are best left alone. For everything else in these chapters, it's wise to just use stasis a lot, and run like hell past them, cuz you know, I've got legs, and I'd like to keep them.
This is the final battle and end game. The destroying of the Marker is a LOT easier if you just max out a Contact Beam and Force Gun, but the Plasma Cutter can suffice too if maxed. You just have to deal with the tons of kids that come.
By the way, I also made a valiant effort afterward to get to the first save of a Hardcore run, where you're only given 3 saves the whole game. I normally save just before the fight with the Tormentor at the end of Chapter 5, but made a bad decision to try bashing a slasher with a heavy crate repeatedly using Kinesis midway through Chapter 2. The rule of thumb I'd forgotten was, if it looks like in their past life they'd been liar liar and their pants are all sooty looking like they'd caught fire, they are too Enhanced to be slowed down by tossing even large metal crates at them. So I got rushed and died.
Aaand that is why I decided to take a break from Dead Space 2 for a while and play some Batman Arkham Knight. I'm playing on Hard, but despite feeling a bit awkward refamiliarizing myself with the controls after a LONG time since I played it last, my combat has been better than I remember from before. In fact I'm finding myself letting my XP build to where I have as many as 13 upgrade points before I bother spending them, whereas before I was immediately dumping them into melee and firearm armor. I'm also not clinging to intentionally using environmental devices whenever I can, though at times end up using them inadvertently. The main difference is I'm just being more conscious of the blue attack prompts above approaching enemies heads, then tapping the WASD key that direction and using RMB to counter. This means it's LOT less wasted button mashing, and quicker and more fluent combat.
Batman Arkham Knight
This is the last half of the Ace Chemicals mission, where you have to battle tanks, break through the wall to the access tunnel to the mixing chamber, deal with some goons overtly and covertly, then thwart Scarecrow's plans to toxify the city.
Now, regarding the Dead Space Remake, after watching several lengthy video reviews of the game, I have to say, my skepticism that Motive would wind up with numerous bugs and performance problems using the harder to code with Frostbite Engine appears to have been errant pessimism, which I'm fully willing and happy to eat crow about.
That said, I DO have one nit pick that feels to me to be a pretty big negative. For some reason they have chosen to use Gunner Wright's likeness for Isaac now. Every time I see his face, it's this random looking guy that isn't believable to me as a seasoned engineer, leaving me detached from seeing him as the real Isaac Clarke.
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