Know Thy Bosses 90
The Guardian Gamesblog has a piece on knowing your enemy to better pwn him. Specifically, they go through some tried and true rules about surviving boss battles. From the article: "If the boss stops, panic. Bosses usually move about - when they stop it means they're about to unleash their signature move, the aforementioned fist or laser blast. Try to avoid being parallel to them when they stop. Unless, of course, it's the sort of boss who blasts the whole screen apart from the thin corridor directly in front of them. In this case stay where you are."
Re:"Stay where you are?" (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:"Stay where you are?" (Score:1)
Also, what does this even mean? The boss is a point. You are a point. How is one point parallel to another? Did I sleep through half of the axioms of Euclidean geometry?
Re:"Stay where you are?" (Score:1)
I have no idea what either of you is talking about, but I'd believe that the point where the player is (A) and the point where the player's guns are (B) are enough to define a line (AB) that the player is firing along (away from both points to the direction of B). Alternatively, B can represent some arbitrary point along the player's lin
Re:"Stay where you are?" (Score:1)
Re:"Stay where you are?" (Score:2)
Try:
Try to avoid being parallel to them when they stop. Unless, of course, it's the sort of boss who blasts the whole screen , apart from the thin corridor directly in front of them. In this case stay where you are. (note the comma before apart)
See kids, grammar is important.
Re:"Stay where you are?" (Score:2)
Re:"Stay where you are?" (Score:2)
Re:"Stay where you are?" (Score:2)
>> Jack and his horse...
> What?
"Capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse, and helping your uncle jack off a horse."
Chris Mattern
Re:"Stay where you are?" (Score:1)
I knelt down before the Queen.
and
I knelt down before the queen.
Lola...lo lo lo lo Lola...
Lemme dawn some clue upon you (Score:5, Informative)
Dude, a game's _only_ purpose is to entertain you. That's it. If it doesn't, then, yes, it is the game designer's failure. It's that simple.
Repeat after me: I _don't_ have some duty to finish non-fun games. I _don't_ have to overcome any challenge if it's not fun. And I certainly don't have to put up with crap tricks to make a short game seem longer, in a non-fun "ha ha, we'll just make you reload 100 times" way. And I _don't_ have any kind of duty to sponsor games I don't like.
There is good game design, and there is crap game design, and there is just game design which doesn't match my tastes. My purpose is to entertain myself and relax. If a game doesn't do that for me, then yes, I won't think I failed the game, it's the game designer that didn't catter to my tastes. And I have no duty to spend hours finishing it, nor to sponsor it. Good luck to the designers making a living out of the people whose tastes they did catter to, but if they want my money too, they better catter to my demographic segment too.
And yes, that does apply to bosses too, end-game or otherwise. If overcoming one turns into a non-fun activity, of the kind that makes tax forms seem more fun, then yes, that game failed to entertain me. It's that simple.
It's the same as with any other product. I don't have to watch a crap movie, if I don't like the genre, or if I don't like their "Noooooo" scene in the trailer, or for whatever other reason I choose. I don't have to put up with a car I don't like, I don't have to watch a sports game if I don't like that sport, and I don't have to wear an analog or digital watch if I like the other kind more, etc. For whatever reason. If _I_ don't like the product, then _I_ don't have to put up with it or blow my money on it. So just in the same spirit, I have no duty to spend hours on finishing a game I find crap, or overcoming some poorly designed game element that's no fun. It's that simple.
In a nutshell: it's just a game. If you think it's a society failure when people just want some entertainment and relaxation from a game, then you're taking it way too seriously. Go out some more, get some real life achievements instead, or join some 12 step group. It's just a game, not something you're duty- and honour-bound to achieve and overcome. Noone gives a fuck about your beating up a pixelated game boss, and certainly noone has a duty to do the same if they don't find it fun.
Re:Lemme dawn some clue upon you (Score:2)
Totally agree. Case in point: Resident Evil 4 on the PS2. Great game throughout... except for one of the boss battles (Salazar), which drove me to a seething fury out of sheer frustration. Even though I knew exactly how to beat him, the precision needed, combined with the limited ammo and the sheer amount of repetition (shoot eye twice, dodge, shoot Salazar, dodge, s
Re:Lemme dawn some clue upon you (Score:1)
GEBs, fecking GEBs. (Score:1)
Bosses? (Score:5, Funny)
Effective Techniques vs. Pointy-Haired Bosses (Score:5, Funny)
From the Article: Keep moving. Whatever you do, don't stand still. Even for a second. This is the only cue an end-of-level boss needs to swipe at you with a giant fist or ...
...assign you to a doomed project.
>Scan for weak spots. Every boss has one...
... usually vulnerable to the Sycophanty Manouevre, but occasionally old-fashioned blackmail can work, too.
give up (Score:2)
Re:Bosses? (Score:1)
I feel like a dork.
Re:Bosses? (Score:2)
Many of the strategies and observations DO apply. Most companies take a dim view of actually killing the bosses, however.
Re:Bosses? (Score:1)
Re:Bosses? (Score:1)
>> of the intro, I thought this was about the sort of "boss" that employs
>> you, not the video game variety. And I had to wonder, why isn't my boss
>> cool enough to have laser blast?
>
I thought exactly the same thing. My thoughts as I read the header:
> The Guardian Gamesblog has a piece on knowing your enemy to better pwn
> him.
Ya, I'd like to know how to manage my boss and bring him under my thumb!
>
Man this is so much help (Score:5, Funny)
Real bosses (Score:5, Insightful)
-Keep moving.
If you aren't where they expect you to be, they can't ask you to come into work on Saturday.
-If the boss stops, panic.
S/he is likely to give you a mundane task that is below your abilities or ask you a stupid question.
-Scan for weak spots.
If you know their weak spot, you can always bring it up in a time of dire need.
-The quarter rule.
At the end of a quarter expect your assigned tasks to multiply, there are deadlines to be met.
-Take a break.
The water cooler is an excellent place to share boss strategies with your comrades.
Re:Real bosses (Score:2)
"Leverage this paradigm, motherfucker!" *BLAM*
Hide? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Hide? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Hide? (Score:1)
Hm not an all that useful post now that I read it over :(
Re:Hide? (Score:1)
Re:Hide? (Score:2)
I don't grasp why using real-world combat tactics which work very well at keeping you alive are considered "n00b" in FPS combat games.
Re:Hide? (Score:1)
> very well at keeping you alive are considered "n00b" in FPS combat games.
In poorly-designed MMORPGs [everquest.com], using tactics like shooting at monsters where they can't get at you or from a ledge is considered an exploitation. Indeed, supposedly monsters could NOT originally hit you through a wall, but they had to allow that to prevent people from shooting at stupid giants in Oasis of Marr through the doors of the huts, who'd just stand there indef
Re:Hide? (Score:2)
If there's a monster I can hit where it can't hit me, all the better.
For example in Duke3d, end of the 2nd episode. The boss with the RPG. I just ran into the secret area in the back, it kept shooting at me but always hitting the wall. I shoot and it's dead.
Or if I can get the enemy into an infinite loop. For example Galamoth (a big boss) in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Just run up to top ledge and keep slashing. Galamoth w
Re:You're kidding write? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:You're kidding write? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:You're kidding write? (Score:2)
hmm (Score:2, Funny)
Damn games section.
Interesting, but... (Score:2, Insightful)
Somehow, I'm thinking that this address will be getting a lot of mail. "Take a break. If you feel yourself becoming enraged beyond the realms of human endurance, give up and do something less stressful for a few minutes - like filling in a tax return." I can't wait for the first person to try this strategy, and suffer a stroke or heart attack brought on by the high blood pressure.
Basically, if you're h
Re:Interesting, but... (Score:3, Insightful)
Load/Save state (Score:5, Funny)
1. Save the state of the emulator at the beginning of the boss level.
2. Try to defeat him.
3. On failure, load the state previously saved, until you succeed.
4. Post this advice on Slashdot as a numbered list, and resist the temptation of writing 5. ??? 6. Profit!!! mostly that it would only make yourself sound dumb.
duh! (Score:1)
3) ???
4) profit!
everyone should know that..
Re:Load/Save state (Score:2)
its the only way i could ever beat Gradius 3 on SNES
Re:Load/Save state (Score:1)
Re:Load/Save state (Score:2)
I still play this game a lot on
Castlevania, Prince of Persia (Score:5, Insightful)
In most fighting games (if not all), the boss usually makes some move indicating what he's going to do. A good example is the final boss in Prince of Persia. When the boss moves his wings to grab a pillar and throw it at you, you should roll in the opposite direction.
So it's all about dodging... this is why defeating Julius (in Aria of Sorrow) was so difficult, he wasn't moving like a boss, but like a player. And even then you could decipher some of his moves , just by watching the color of the glow before he throws a subweapon at you.
Re:Castlevania, Prince of Persia (Score:5, Funny)
-1, Spoilers, man!
Re:Castlevania, Prince of Persia (Score:2)
What Prince of Persia game are you talking about? Wings? Pillars? WTF?
(Admittedly, I haven't played the latest one... does the Prince fight a giant bird in the new one?)
Re:Castlevania, Prince of Persia (Score:1)
Google for it
confusion... (Score:2, Redundant)
Until the Laser Blast part, I thought they were talking about my boss at work.
Re:confusion... (Score:1, Insightful)
I mean, do you even read the other comments to make sure you joke hasn't already been posted in triplicate? Oh wait... I forgot this was slashdot!
Boss Fights? Feh (Score:1)
"You're a Rogue, stand there and keep that little doodad on the floor while we fight over here and kill this dragon."
Re:Boss Fights? Feh (Score:3, Insightful)
I remember my 60 druid, pre-druid patch. "Heal heal, heal, RAISE!, envigorate!, wash rinse repeat." And remember never go feral to save your hide.
Meh to that game. Suffers the same problems as Diablo II multi. Do the same formula to collect better items, to compete with wankers with WAY too much time on their hands.
Re:Boss Fights? Feh (Score:2)
Actually they're all true at some point in the game...
Keep Moving - Applies to LOTS of bosses. Magmadar spits out his little flaming snots you run around, Shazzra teleports and chases people all over, Razorgore has about eleventy billion adds that most guilds kite around the room, Flamegor, Firemaw, and Chromaggus are all peek-a-boo bosses, etc etc. Quite a lot of bosses in the game require some sort of movement during the fight. Som
"Blind fury" attack. (Score:4, Interesting)
I keep powering myself up during very cautious "level gameplay" and when facing the boss, just blow a full frontal attack, rarely dodging anything.
Bosses are meant to be "difficult to beat" so they often try to overwhelm you with firepower, so you have no time to strike back, they sweep the area with fire so what's the point of dodging, but they are meant to last about a minute or three of cautious gameplay with few, rare shots. Assuming some 20 serious shots per minute from the boss, during these three minutes you will take maybe 10 hits or so, dodge another 50. If you blow all your worth at it, own damage notwithstanding, it will take less than 20 seconds to beat. You may end up taking less damage than while dodging, getting hit by 7 out of 8 shots the boss gets to launch at you before falling dead.
Nice ending of "Chaos Engine": I accumulated 28 extra lives during the game, taking time to unlock every secret possible and killing every enemy that would bring cash, maxing out almost everything.
I just stood in front of the final boss and kept shooting. It went down when I was down to 22 lives.
Later I tried the same with dodging. I ended up with 18 or so lives left, failing to avoid the attacks and rarely taking a pot-shot at it.
Now playing Zelda: Majora's mask. The goddamn fish boss, why would I ever care to dodge it? I have fucking 5 bottles with fairies filling my 13 heart containers each! If I didn't move at all, it would take it half a hour to finish me off!
A fine old Amiga game of Perihellion. I took a bit different approach: built up defenses on one character to the level where he had over 100% of immunity to mostly everything outside some obscure, rarely seen attacks (like "extreme sound"
XCOM: Defense. "As you approach the alien brain, before you shoot it, it says..." what a bullshit. I didn't approach the alien brain. I kept launching blaster launcher missiles from several rooms away, until they dug up enough passage to launch one directly at the brain. Half of the crew of 26 was armed with blaster launchers. The other half didn't because I didn't have room for all the ammo needed. (fyi a blaster launcher pops an explosion tha is ridiculously big and destroys most it finds on its way, including hard soil between rooms in underground bases (yay, new corridors!), alien alloys (making backdoors in alien ships), and whole houses ("in this house there is NO enemy now, for sure.")
The worst situation is with games that artificially limit your "capacities". Half-Life 2. 3 rockets, okay, rockets are big. But 3 energy balls, 100 armour (these batteries are small!), 12 magnum bullets(?!!), 10 crossbow bolts, 3 frigging carabine grenades, 3 reloads of the energy rifle, 8 seconds of shooting each! And you end up fighting the boss or a big battle with a shotgun... (and in the meantime, the enemies have infinite ammo but when they die, they drop less than one reload of given weapon)
Do I have to say I hate such "gameplay ballancing"?
Re:"Blind fury" attack. (Score:2)
HOWEVER - I discovered that you could just tool up your team exclusively on rocket launchers and just spend about 10 turns blasting the ever-living crap out of his house from the outside, and kil
Re:"Blind fury" attack. (Score:1)
Second and all subsequent times through the encounters were very easy. I even got the encounters down to basically 1-shot Nihilus (discovering a bug in the game if you off him too quickly) and almost, but not quite 1-shotting the undead guy
Re:"Blind fury" attack. (Score:2)
On the Atlantic accelerato
Re:"Blind fury" attack. (Score:2)
Drop the gauss guns. Persuade the civilians. Lead them over the gauss guns.
For each shot from the minigun they launched a salvo from gauss guns at the pointed target. They could shot their gauss guns as many times as you could shot the minigun (and as you remember, it had a plenty of ammo!) so if I suspected an agent in a building, I would just shot a few short series from the minigun at it.
(and if any of my civilians got killed, I
Re:"Blind fury" attack. (Score:2)
Re:"Blind fury" attack. (Score:2)
no sequel to syndicate WTF mate? (Score:1)
Re:no sequel to syndicate WTF mate? (Score:2)
Re:no sequel to syndicate WTF mate? (Score:1)
Re:no sequel to syndicate WTF mate? (Score:2)
The American Revolt expansion was extremely difficult. I don't think I played more than one or two missions of the expansion before giving up on it. They need to make another sequel darnit! Maybe Moleneaux and Lionhead will come out with an unofficial sequel, but I doubt it.
Oh,
Re:no sequel to syndicate WTF mate? (Score:2)
Do you remember that one of the first levels, "the top level of the city is plush, the bottom is slum"? Imagine playing it first-person!
Re:"Blind fury" attack. (Score:2)
Re:"Blind fury" attack. (Score:2)
Well, one possible explaination to
Re:"Blind fury" attack. (Score:3, Informative)
The prime counter-example would
Re:"Blind fury" attack. (Score:1)
Re:"Blind fury" attack. (Score:2)
Re:"Blind fury" attack. (Score:2)
You can quad Behemoth Zero though, and you can double KOTR (and if you get it to split you can double it twice a round, with 2 characters, but that's about it, and getting it to split is nearly impossible too.)
The last battle was quite easy for me because the characters had lots of med-to-high power stuff accumulated.
(Counter-attack
Re:"Blind fury" attack. (Score:2)
Re:"Blind fury" attack. (Score:1)
Re:"Blind fury" attack. (Score:2)
I'm more or less going through a similar situation in Fable right now. I've mastered the slow time spell so that most b
Re:"Blind fury" attack. (Score:1)
But not by more than about 10 seconds. =
Re:"Blind fury" attack. (Score:2)
In Q3 it's a completely different story, being a cross between Plasma (fast firing) and Rockets (heavy damage) and not eating too much ammo.
Quad and Pent are fun tho
Re:"Blind fury" attack. (Score:1)
Back To The Future Baby! (Score:2)
That videogame stalwart, the end-of-level boss, is back in fashion. Once a mainstay of arcade game design, these creatures have fallen out of favour recently, with modern designers generally favouring a non-linear structure. But smash hits Resident Evil 4, God of War and Shadow of the Colossus have brought them back into the spotlight so once again we're all facing the prospect of being pulverised by giant monsters.
Yes! Those bloody "next generation", "realism" proselytes have finally been ignored.
Re:Back To The Future Baby! (Score:2)
Look, comparing a game to a real-life soldier life is wrong. Morals, problems, realism aside, for a soldier every single enemy is a 'boss'. Look at it this way: their skills are about the same as yours, taking away advantages like ambush or armament (which work in both directions) you have about 50% chance of winning. Plus there's no load/save, the medikit will get you back in
Re:Back To The Future Baby! (Score:2)
Re:Back To The Future Baby! (Score:2)
On the one hand in the military you get training; on the other hand, enemies aren't clearly labeled on some kind of HUD or radar, more often than not one shot will take anyone out of combat at least for a while if not permanently, and there is no do-over.
I imagine little real life combat has anything to do with running around, everyone is your enemy, and if you're clever you can get 'em before they get you. Catching the enemy when they're unawares and not looking for a fight has to
Re:Back To The Future Baby! (Score:2)
Re:Back To The Future Baby! (Score:2)
that's one thing that will often be unrealistic about sci-fi warfare settings; especially the starfighter type games I love so well...humans probably aren't going to be in the loop like they are with modern technology.
Next up: how to play games! (Score:2)
Rubber chicken! (Score:2)