Deus Ex: HR – Taggart’s Location in Panchaea

I’ve been obsessively playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution. I am kind of sad that I am almost finished with the game seeing has how there’s not much else that I want to play until November rolls around. This video/post isn’t really a spoiler, but it does take place towards the latter part of the game. I had more trouble finding this guy and for some reason, could not find much help online. From the LIMB clinic do the following:

  1. Go down the hall, up the stairs on the left and through the door on the right. You should now be located on the rightmost side of a fairly large area.
  2. The door that you want to reach is on exact the opposite side of the walkway along the same wall. You can either stealth/fight your way through (the area in the video had been pre-cleared) or hop on the scaffolding to the right and climb onto the ledge (much easier but may require the jump upgrade).
  3. Go through the door and down the stairs (the door will be partially obscured by a series of fallen black beams).
  4. The next hallway is protected by two security cameras. If you wish to disable them, there is a level 5 security hub located in the first door to the right (beware, mobs inside).
  5. Go down the hall, drop down off of the main walkway to the left. Go through the vent.

If you go straight down the vent, you will reach a ladder that will drop you straight down into Taggart’s room (easiest way). Alternatively, if you turn right you will be lead to an area with both a level 5 locked door as well as a weakened wall. Both will lead you directly into his room.  Here’s the map location if it’s easier.

Bastion (XBLA)

I was itching for a cheap new game a couple of weeks ago and turned to Steam to satisfy my need. Bastion was at the top of one of the store lists, but unfortunately wasn’t out yet for the PC so I bought it off of XBLA instead. I don’t know how the PC version compares, but I assume that it is of the same/better quality as the console version since it has received fairly high marks all around. Bastion is a fantastic isometric action-RPG. At heart it is a fairly basic game both as both the gameplay as well as the story or more-or-less standard fair for an action RPG. Just about everything about it though works out very well. It’s polished, the mechanics are tightly controlled and it’s fun. The graphics and sound are both a treat.

In short, the world was destroyed during an event known as “The Calamity”. It is up to you, The Kid to rebuild it. Action RPGs are a dime a dozen; So what separates Bastion from the rest? For one, the excellent narration. The entire story is live narrated by a gruff old wise-man known as Rucks. By live narrated I mean, everything down to minute actions are beautifully narrated. It adds a lot of depth and flavor to each section of the game.

There are a good range of weapons and upgrades. You are permitted to equip a total of two weapons and one special attack. There’s a weapon that will cater to just about every play style. As you level, you unlock slots that can be filled with various potions that will add passive modifiers to your abilities. I do wish that the enemies were a little more varied. As you progress through the game, higher difficulty usually equates to either more enemies or more AoE attacks. It works, but it’s a little uncreative to say the least.

It’s a fairly short game at around 8 hours of gameplay for a single playthrough. After you complete the game, a new game plus mode is unlocked, allowing you to retain all of your weapons from your original playthrough. Bastion isn’t exactly groundbreaking, but it sticks to it’s roots and presents a neatly package, extremely polished game. There’s a demo of Bastion up on Steam by the way.

Diablo 3 and Real Money Trading

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Diablo 3 was discussed over the weekend and the Internet exploded in rageful concern when these three main changes were announced:

  1. Diablo 3 will require an always-on internet connection ala Starcraft 2.
  2. No modifications will be allowed
  3. There will be a real-money trade auction house.

I am assuming that the need for an internet connection to play at all, (as well as the modification ban) stems from security issues associated with the including real-life currency in the game. Or perhaps, it could be thinly veiled DRM plus Blizzard pushing their real ID social networking bit. If I recall correctly, the Diablo franchise has never been all that big on modding, certainty not in comparison to their other franchise (Warcraft and StarCraft). It’s worth noting that I have a reliable internet connection (knocks on wood) and had only ever intended to play Diablo 3 online (yay co-op). Thus, I could care less about needing a persistent internet connection since it does not affect my style of play. That said, what’s wrong with having an offline only mode ala Diablo 2, as lon gas players are sufficiently warned that the offline-mode characters can never be ported over to bnet?

Blizzard has been fighting the good fight against gold selling/trading and I guess if you can’t beat it, you may as well legalize and tax it. This announcement wasn’t all that surprising. It’s not as if RMT did not exist in Diablo 2; It was fairly rampant and to be honest, had a low to non-existent impact on my gaming experience (from what I remember). They may as well offer a legit channel for real money transactions as a legal alternative to any number of shady 3rd party sites (that may result in a ban or being outright scammed). If you don’t like it, then ignore it.

But that said, I wonder how RMT will affect the game’s atmosphere and culture? Any drama with loot gets ugly fast; I imagine real money magnifying the drama by at least 100 fold. *shudder*. I can’t put my finger on it, but real money trading feels sleazy. There’s nothing explicitly wrong with it, but it feels taboo and dirty. Part of me feels as if it moves Diablo 3 one step away from being a game and one step closer to being an occupation. Despite what I have said, I kind of still don’t like it.