Tut Guides

So it's been a while

2009-03-28T19:10:00.000-07:00

Wonder why? I haven't been able to play video games in quite some time because of schoolwork, social issues, tennis practice, and writing on other sites for profit. So, does this mean that I need something to do, or does it mean that my life is full enough without writing remarks about video games?

I haven't gotten to play Oblivion much, so my grand plan to take over the world has not gone into action quite yet. In fact, I would appreciate it if you had any ideas what I could write about. So, what do you want me to write about?

Ultimate Oblivion Victory

2009-02-12T15:30:00.000-08:00

I don't know where to start, so I'll cut right to it: I have been working on the same Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion character for a year and a half. He is a High Elf mage, and a vampire, and I have been trying to get him to 100 in all of his major skills. Well, except alchemy, that is, but who cares about that? And today I had a major victory.

I bought enough Restoration training and increased my Alchemy skill enough to get my Restoration skill up to 100. Now, here are my character's skills with the vampire bonus: Alchemy: 80, Alteration: 100, Conjuration: 100, Destruction: 120, Illusion: 120, Mysticism: 120, and Restoration: 100. However, I had won the Oghma Infinium by completing the Daedric quests about five months ago, so I finally opened it and took the path of spirit. Now, my character's Destruction is 130; his Conjuration and Restoration are 110; his Intelligence is 110 (But I have 7 points worth of equipment bonuses, so it's 117), and his Willpower is 120.

This High Elf Mage, Lord Lirro, has become unstoppable. At Level 41, he has 554 points of Magicka when fully equipped, 412 points of health, and an array of custom spells that can kill almost anything; in fact, he has a spell named "This Will Kill Anything" that really can kill any non-essential human or creature in the game. He can turn invisible with almost no effort at all, take on 21 guards on medium difficulty and walk away unscathed, and even survive a two-hundred foot drop by using certain Restoration spells. I wish this game could be played online, for I believe that when I am in command of him, he is invincible.

I will now wage a war on Cyrodiil with Lirro. His only allies will be his conjured creatures and the Adoring fan, who really isn't much of a fighter, but has taken a few hits in the past. My objective is to crush the core of the guard system; although they will respawn, they won't all respawn at once! Once there are no more than two or three active guards in a given city (preferably less), Lirro will effectively control all of the territories: civilians may try to assist the remaining guards in defeating him, but they shall be put down! All NPC's who wish to survive, though, will be enslaved using a Command Humanoid spell.

Once the Imperial City has fallen, the next strongest is Skingrad; the guards there wear heavier armor. No big deal, though, for Lirro can break them easily. Many of his Destruction spells are area-effective spells, making it easier to combat more than one guard at a time; plus, he has a necklace that boosts his Blade skill 25 points, and combined with a Restoration spell, he has a Blade score of 115. Combined with his arsenal of over 200 deadly poisons, his sword is a menace to any who walk in his path.

I will be sure to post video clips of Lirro's War.

Taken

2009-02-07T21:50:00.000-08:00

My friends and I saw Taken today at the mall, and I have to say, it was quite a film. To avoid any spoilers, I'll condense the plot: Bryan Mills's (Liam Neeson) daughter gets kidnapped when she takes a trip to Paris that he wasn't comfortable with in the first place, and because Neeson was a special forces agent or something, he takes it upon himself to rescue his daughter and her friend. What unfolds is an hour and a half of almost non-stop action.

Neeson obliterates the enemy by utilizing his combat skills. This movie will get viewers excited because not five minutes pass between each scene in which Neeson is slashing, shooting, and snapping necks. Seriously, I wasn't bored for one second of Taken. In one scene, Neeson goes on a complete sword spree (Halo) and takes out nine men in an apartment. Additionally, he sees fit to slam a man's head into a car door and shoot an innocent woman.

Neeson is a cold-blooded killer in the film, which is very gory and thrilling. Throughout the whole film, my friends and I cheered as Neeson gunned down the criminals, gasped as he decapitated a baddie with a bulldozer, and laughed as he "replaced" the waiter at a house party. In my opinion, the film was funny, but at the revolted looks on the other audience members, I guess it wasn't meant to be a comedy.

I highly recommend the film to anyone with a basic interest in violence or comedy should see Taken. However, be wary: If you get influenced by movies easily, then you may find yourself with an incurable urge to start fighting the random people surrounding you. Just don't give in.

My Day Off

2009-02-05T05:41:00.000-08:00

Teachers' In-Service? Day off from school? Snow on the ground? Oh no! It's every parent's worst nightmare for a child with a video game console. However, I am not the typical child with a video game console: I'm a teenager with a Nintendo 64 who reviews classic video games. Nevertheless, at least I had an excuse to spend much of my day off playing N64.

I started out with 007: Goldeneye, a first-person shooter that's been out for almost my whole life; however, the game hasn't lost its entertainment value. Though the graphics are simply terrible by today's standards (the character's faces don't even move) they don't interfere with the gameplay one bit. The player is able to tell what a gun is, what an enemy is, what an explosive is, and what a door is; as far as I'm concerned, that's enough to make this game enjoyable.

Oddly enough, I didn't decide to play through the game again, but I just played my favorite mission, The Facility. This takes place nine years before the rest of the game, during Bond's last mission with Alec Trevelyan (006). I made my way through the bottling facility, killing guards and scientists indiscriminantly (I failed Mission Objective D: Limit Civilian Casualites within five minutes), and eventually arrived at that pivitol point of the mission in which the Russian general is about to shoot 006 in the main bottling plant. It looked as though the mission would proceed as planned, but I intervened.

I drew my golden pp7 (yes, it's a cheat option that I unlocked) and shot General Ourumov in the chest. He fell and died (he's unable to be killed with any other weapon in the game because the programmers wanted the game to run smoothly). However, an innumerable flood of guards pours into the room, and 006 and I fight to kill them. As I said, there is no limit to the number of guards that are spawned, for the game is programmed to keep spawning them until the player is dead.

Using a variety of weapons such as a KF7 soviet assault rilfe and a Cougar Magnum (yes, another cheat option) I dispatched scores of guards. I even took to playing with one hand just for the fun of it; however, I began to take a few hits because I wasn't moving at all, so I started playing seriously again and mowed down a trio of guards in a second. Yet because I had already used the mines that were supposed to blow up the tanks to take out the first wave of guards, I was now unable to complete the mission without shooting the tanks, which would require me shooting at something that wasn't the guards. Additionally, I had failed Objective D, so I could not complete the mission anyway. Oy vay!

I resolved to stand my ground for a bit longer, then returned to Trevelyan's side. He was firing at the single door, the choke point, from which the gaurds poured into the facility, but I was angry because he didn't seem to be killing them very quickly. Suffice to say, I drew my magnum and placed a bullet in his head. Yet Alec didn't die. Instead, he said "So the golden boy's a traitor," and attacked me. Now I didn't have anyone who even pretended to help me out.

Although I could have easily just shot Alec again to make up for the game's glitch, I decided to play with my food. Despite the advancing guards, I ran to a smaller room in the facility, 006 hot on my heels, and drew my silenced, non-golden pp7. As he opened the door, I placed one, two, three bullets in his right leg. He staggered. I laughed. Then, about ten guards lined up behind him and started to fire into the room, and becuase Alec just wouldn't get out of the way, I drew my magnum once more and fired straight at his head.

The bullet passed through 006, killing him, and also took care of three of the guards before bouncing off one of their helmets. I quickly dispatched the rest of them, but my shot hit one of the bottling tanks that had already been battered. The room proceeded to fill with toxic gas, and although I continued to hold off the guards for several more minutes, the gas overtook me. I died after killing 348 guards for no reason.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Showdown

2009-02-02T06:06:00.001-08:00

It was a dark, cold, and windy Saturday night. I had nothing to do because my girlfriend was at a party and my friends all seemed to be busy, plus my brother was sleeping soundly in his bed, eliminating drum practice from my possibilites. I had spent most of the day on the computer writing, watching movie clips, listening to music, chatting on AIM, and just spacing out, so I definitely wanted to "power-down" for a bit. Then, I caught a glimpse of my N64 in the drum room.

Entranced, I waltzed over to it and, without thinking, popped in Super Smash Bros. Yes, the original Super Smash Bros. This continues to be one of the best video games of all time. I decided that if I was going to kill some time, I wouldn't just play several shorter matches, but one long match. I set the characters as Mario (me) versus Luigi (the computer player) and set the Lives as high as they could be in a stock match: 99.

Then, I edited the items so that only the Moon Sword (lightsaber) appeared, and then set the item appearance to "Very high." I selected Saffron City as the battleground, and after the countdown, the battle had begun.

I completely obliterated Luigi. Granted he was only level 7 (the maximum is 9), I ended up winning the match with 72 lives to spare. Out of all the times Luigi died, I got 91 kills, meaning that he had 8 errors (fell off by himself, blew himself up with a pokemon, stuff like that). The match took two hours (I spent about ten minutes using my phone and pausing it, but not much more), and when I was done, I couldn't believe how quickly the time went by.

What to do in Journalism Class

2009-01-12T08:14:00.000-08:00

Here I am in my high school journalism class once again, having finished my articles and edits for the day, I find myself with nearly twenty minutes of free time, meaning that as I am writing this, I am in a mood of accomplishment, and, admittedly, some boredom. I wrote an article for Helium (which has yet to appear in my active articles page, for some reason), but am still looking for things to do. I wouldn't dare play computer games....

In school, tight restrictions are placed on computer use, making it almost impossible to get away with playing games in the library. False. If you clear your browsing history and make sure that you don't get caught in the act of actually playing a game, then you are free to do almost whatever you want as long as the administrator hasn't blocked certain gaming websites from your browser; however, you could always just download a game to a thumbdrive. One of my friends has the original Halo on his thumbdrive and brings it in daily.

I am not one to play computer games in class, or in school, for that matter. Yet, if a student truly has nothing else to do, why not let him or her have a little bit of harmless fun? Granted there's a difference between looking over your shoulder and seeing someone blast aliens to bloddy bits in Doom and watching the Happy Go-Lucky creatures of Mario Bros. prance around in their glory, so some restrictions on violence may apply.

Friday is Halo Night

2009-01-08T19:32:00.000-08:00

When you don't have school or work the next day, what's the best way to spend your night? Well, besides going to a party or going on a date, that is: Playing Halo! So, this means that every Friday is World Halo Night, in which you are supposed to find your best friend who has the game and play Xbox LIVE until your eyes are bloodshot. Here are some tips for a fun Halo night:

1. Bring food into your gaming area. You will not have time between games to go to the kitchen and prepare a meal. Take bags of chips, chex mix, and even burgers if you want into your living room or basement.

2. Don't invite the kid nobody likes. Seriously, if three of you are hanging out and want a fourth person, remember that it's better to have an empty space of air than someone who's annoying. Besides, if three of you are playing, one of you gets a big screen!

3. Everyone. Gets. A. Chair. Make sure there is enough space for everyone to sit comfortably. Forget worrying about sleeping; they can sleep in their seats. You want everyone to be comfortable during your Halo matches.

4. The game's over when everyone falls asleep. Don't quit early saying, "we should wash-up and get ready for bed." You play until you're seriously tired, meaning that you'll fall asleep minutes after the Xbox is shut off.

Helium.com

2009-01-07T17:36:00.001-08:00

As you may already know, I write for www.helium.com, and I have written fifty-seven articles for the site that are about video games. Since I haven't exactly played many computer games this week, I thought I'd take some time to point out a few articles of interest:

I love The Elder Scrolls, especially III and IV. However, the site had created a title for IV (Oblivion), so I wrote a short gold-making guide for it.

I enjoy playing MMORPG's. Actually, I haven't gotten a chance to play one since I quit Runescape, but I know what I'm talking about as far as organizing parties goes.

The above advertisement is a link to my selection of the best Xbox 360 game. Have fun reading those, and feel free to join Helium if you wish to contribute!

Bowman 2

2009-01-05T18:48:00.000-08:00

I thought that I would bring to your attention the best shooting game out there (that you can play for free online without having to wait for any significant amount of time): Bowman 2, at http://www.addictinggames.com . The game is incredibly simple: shoot an arrow through the head of your opponent, or just hit him enough times with arrows to various parts of the body, and you win!

All you need to do in the game is choose whether you want to play against a computer player, a human buddy, just practice with targets, or hunt birds. Playing against a computer player can be pretty rewarding, and there's no chance of him cheating. When you're playing with a friend, on the other hand, you might want to cover his or her eyes so that he or she cannot see the trajectory of your shot, which would allow him to almost automatically win the game.

Practicing is pretty boring and useless...but Bird Hunting is fun! There's no score or time limit: just point at the myriad of birds flying through the sky and fire away! This is something I find particularly fun to do when I'm bored out of my mind, as it requires little to no effort at all.

The Green Thumb

2009-01-04T09:18:00.000-08:00

As I have mentioned before, Halo 3 becomes popular around winter break...well, it becomes popular when there is any period greater than or equal to twelve hours in which we do not need to attend classes or do homework, i.e. the weekends. That being said, I've been playing the game a lot with my friends and family (I have a brother, you know), and I have been rather annoyed that I'm late beating people down because my thumb needs to jump from the right analog stick, which I had been using to aim, to the red button (B), which has undoubtedly cost me many kills and skewed my K/D spread.

The solution? The Green Thumb control scheme, of course! Though it's rather unpopular, there are several games out there that use the same configuration, such as Call of Duty II, III, IV, and V! All that the Green Thumb control scheme changes is the use of the right analog stick is turned into the beat down function and the red button is turned into the zoom function. Nice and simple.

Scenario: You're charging at an enemy with the weak assault rifle. You're not a very coordinated lad or lass, so you struggle to keep your fire spraying at your opponent's chest. When you get close enough, you need to beat him down as soon as possible, but you need to hit the red button to kill him. In the half second that it takes for you to move your thumb and press the red button, your opponent has already beaten you.

Let's use the Green Thumb.

Scenario: You're charging at an enemy with the weak assault rifle. You're not a very coordinated lad or lass, so you struggle to keep your fire spraying at your opponent's chest. When you get close enough, you need to beat him down as soon as possible, so you simply push the right analog stick into the controller. You win the beat down, and your opponent hath been slain.

However, the Green Thumb control scheme isn't perfect. If you prefer to fight from long distances, using weapons such as the battle rifle and sniper rifle, then I recommend using the default scheme. Using the same principle as the easy-access beat down, you want to be able to zoom in and out while keeping your aim steady. It is my preferred scheme because I'm the type of player who likes getting up close to make my kills.

Gaming Tip of the Day: Sharing is caring, but trust is a must. Don't lend out your games to someone with a history of misplacing or selling other people's stuff.

11:30

2009-01-03T08:48:00.000-08:00

I didn't manage to get myself out of bed until 11:30 today, despite the fact that I went to sleep around 1 a.m. Well, I woke up around 10, but I just couldn't seem to find the energy to get up, so I just lay there for an hour and a half...why? Because I could afford to. Or, I thought I could; now I find that one quarter of my last days of winter break has vanished to sleep. Guess this means I have less time to play video games.

Over the break, people, teenagers in particular, have much more free time on their hands, and the amount of time spent playing video games spikes, especially amongst teenagers. This is from my own experience too: although I got out and did a lot with my life this break, including running in the snow and walking through the Getty Center, I found myself at home playing The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for almost two hours one day.

First of all, I hadn't really played the game in months before winter break. In fact, the only games I had played were Halo 3 and Dead Rising, both of which I played with my friends. I just hadn't had time to play video games because of Cross Country practice, homework, and a social life outside of the confinements of my basement. And I have to say: I didn't miss video games much.

True, some may call me a "nerd," but there's more to life than video games. Although it may be a bit of an about-face for me, I believe that the time we have is limited in this world, so we should make the most of it by actually carrying out our own lives rather than living in a virtual world. Yeah, playing video games can be a hobby, but there are so many other things, such as love and friendship, that can give you just as much and even more pleasure; and the latter two can also be carried with you later in life.

No, this blog is not switching from a gaming blog to some type of self-help guru guide. I just wanted to point out the fact that in the past week, I have learned that time doesn't seem to move so quickly when you aren't playing video games, and it gives you a chance to slow down and savor every second of your life. Then again...I spent ten hours in bed last night, so who am I to talk about time management?

Gaming tip of the day: You know it's time to stop playing when your eyes feel dry and itchy. It means they're becoming bloodshot.

I'm back

2009-01-02T07:35:00.000-08:00

Yes, that's right: it's been over a year, but Tut Guides is back to bring you more useful information for video and computer games...well, some information, anyway. Some of this may just end up to be rants and complaints about the gaming world today. Take Call of Duty V, for example. I have one word for it: BACKTRACKING

Seriously, what gives? Call of Duty II was great, so was Call of Duty III...IV was a different story (modern warfare games are so generic and over-abundant that it was virtually indiscernible from Ghost Recon or Battlefield), but the former two games had one brilliant feature in common: split-screen Xbox LIVE play. This meant that you and a friend could sit on your couch and play online together while in the same room; however, the developers who led the train wreck that is Call of Duty V: World at War decided to leave this feature out. Want to know what happens when this feature is left out?

Here I am, watching my best friend playing Call of Duty V. I haven't told him how much I hate the game yet, but I think he gets the idea. When games that are supposed to let friends play together don't, you get people who horribly mismanage their time (I see a few fingers pointing at me), but you also get boredom. Games such as Halo that allow up to four people per console to take their missions online encourage togetherness in a society that is continuously encouraging isolation through technological advances.

So, really, what's the deal, Activision? Sure, you changed the game by having us fight the Reds, but the last time you changed the game, it ended up sucking; didn't you learn? To those of you who haven't purchased Call of duty V: just don't. You're better off playing II and III (at least you can choose to be a medic in those). When they try to spice things up by changing whom you fight, they lose control.

By the way, feel free to check me out on Helium, Where Knowledge Rules!