Assassin's Creed 3 Frontiersman Mission UFO Bug/Glitch

Unfortunately, The UFO Mission in Assassin's Creed 3 is extremely glitchy. After picking it up in the Frontier, you have to go to Boston to speak to someone in a tavern, but it simply won't trigger thanks to a glitch.

At this point, after 3 major patches, there is still no fix, so the best thing to do is go to the official Ubi forums and post there, to let them know it's affecting you. The more people who post, the sooner it will be fixed.

Here's what it should do. If it doesn't work like this, then visit 
http://forums.ubi.com/forumdisplay.php/27-Assassin-s-Creed

Far Cry 3 Tribal Knife (Sacrificial Knife)

The Tribal Knife in Far Cry 3 - some people refer to it as a Sacrifical Knife - is a pre order bonus in the Warrior Pack, which was a pre-order bonus with Amazon, and part of the Insane Edition.
You can now also get it for PC, PS3 and Xbox as part of the Deluxe Bundle DLC for £7.99/$9.99/800 MS points from an in-game download.

It's not a signature weapon. For the signature weapons, check the video below:

Of Orcs and Men Review

So. Of Orcs and Men.

Pretty standard fantasy fare, really. Nothing new here. Orcs vs Humans. Humans have driven the Orcs practically to extinction. They've built a huge wall (think, Game of Thrones type wall) to keep out the few remaining tribes. The Orcs are hippy earth mother types. You're The Butcher of Bloodjaw Tribe (Riddick, anyone?), Arkail, and tasked with killing the human emperor in a final suicide mission. 

You're sent looking for a guide who turns out to be the only sentient goblin in existence (the others are basically feral, like wild dogs, unable to speak and how little or no signs of intelligence - in fact, you're going to be killing lots of them).

Styx is your goblin friend, and between you, you make a pretty formidable pair. Combat is intriguing. You slow down combat (to practically a standstill) while you queue up to 4 commands from 2 trees. There are actually 3 tress, but one is "special" and hardly used.

Arkail the Orc has Offence and Defence. Also, a rage bar. Offensive attacks fill the rage bar more quickly than defensive. Defensive attacks also contain rage-bar-emptying moves. If you max your rage, you (literally) lose control of him, and he auto-attacks everything, including Styx, if he's close. He pumps out way more damage, though. Juggling rage deployment is key to winning battles. 

Defensive moves trade damage output for aggro generation and damage mitigation, with some light healing, including a shell buff.

Styx, on the other hand, has melee and ranged. Instead of rage, he has a 'concentration' bar, which fills over time (stats/equipment affect the charge speed) which limit his high damage attacks.

Given his lack of health, it makes sense to keep him ranged as much as possible, while letting Arkail suck up the ammo. 

In addition, Styx can stealth, and kill enemies before combat proper starts. In this way, you can turn the odds against you. It's fun to scout around and work out who you can take. Lightweight stealth, generously implement. It's easy to see who you're meant to get, and not hard to get them. But fun nonetheless.

There are many types of debuff (damage armour, vulnerability, bleeding, stuns and more). 

It's a bold system that reminds me in a large way of Mass Effect, although you can actually (and will need to) switch players- you're not stuck playing as one or the other.

It's also extremely punishing. You will die. Often. Especially at the start. But autosave points are frequent (basically before every combat), and at least on PC, you can manually save wherever you like. Also, if a character dies in battle, raising your team mate is quick enough that's it's practically instant, although their health will be low when they come back, so you'd better have a plan.

Levelling up is also done nicely. At each level, both characters gain a stat point (mind, stamine, agility, strength), which each affect 2 of 8 characteristics. The characteristics and concepts aren't desperately well explained, but that's ok. What exactly does striking force 25 mean? Is it a percent? Is it added to my stun attempt? I don't know. But 26 is probably better.

You also gain skills, and here things get interesting. Each skill has 2 options to specialise, and you can only take one. It encourages a replay, just to see how it would have played out differently, especially if you consider the stats which can change you loadout considerably. Do you go for low damage, high survivability with Arkail, or a comparative glass cannon? Do you focus on offensive skills to max out rage quickly and go on a frenzy? Or do you want to balance high damage with control?

Loot is generous with stat boosts too, meaning you can recover early mistakes with gear easily.

The levels themselves are seriously linear, with exploration limited to the occasional alley offshooting from the main corridor. Loot is limited. But that's part of the charm. It's a short game (maybe 15 hours if you take your time), so you're never going to scream in frustration at getting stuck on terrain, or the awful voice acting (listen to Styx and Arkail, skim the subtites and skip the rest). The appalling human character models won't upset you too much, because the Orc and Goblin are really something to look at, and it's them you're looking at for most of the game.

The side quests are unimaginative too, always a case of "go here, kill some people on the way, then kill a miniboss, then watch a loading screen".

But, there's definitely something about it. If you can pick this up from a bargain bin, and enjoy a good, quick romp through a pretty fantasy world (with ugly characters), I'd strongly recommend it. Styx and Arkail do have some great lines, and I found myself, while not laughing, at least smirking in appreciation of some of their comments, but quickly started to skip any interactions with other characters.

You can see the first part of my playthrough here:

How do I know if I have the Assassin's Creed DLC (digital deluxe) installed

So, I grabbed the Assassin's Creed Deluxe Digital edition for PC. Comes with a bunch of lovely extras (although, it's bloody hard to find a list of exactly what, so here it is). I also had trouble verifying I had the DLC actually installed. So you need to go to extras from the main menu, and enter the code, even though you've already entered it to register the game with UPlay. Very weird, very lame, very confusing (at least for my pathetic little mind).

The Lost Mayan Ruins single player mission, which includes the Sawtooth Sword
The Ghost of War single player mission(s).
A Dangerous Secret single player mission.
Benedict Arnold Missions

A war club (meh).
Naval Boarding Axe (in game it's a pirate's axe)
Pirate Flintlock
Scottish Flintlock

Captain of the Aquila outfit
Colonial Assassin outfit

And, the season pass.

I snagged it off Greenmangaming for about half price, so I think I did pretty well.

The Lost Mayan Ruins are the closest we get to a puzzle dungeon, and it's EXTREMELY short. And that's all I've played so far. I'll update this post with screenshots and videos as I make them.

Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate's Booty Guides - Borderlands 2

Oh hai,

I want to write a review of the new DLC but for now, I'll just drop the guides in. So, without Further Ado (it's important that you capitalise that)

Oasis:

Cult of the Vault

Hidden Rooftop Chests and Message in a Bottle

Horrid's Hideaway

Wurmwater:

Cult of the Vault

Refined Tastes and Skiffless

Message in a Bottle

Ye Scurvy Dogs

Hayter's Folly

Master of my domain and Message in a Bottle

Wet Reward

Cult of the Vault

The Rustyards

Crow's Nest and Message in a Bottle

My Main Squeeze (Scarlett Dolls) and Cult of the Vault

Washburne Refinery

Arm Thyself, I get it for the Articles and Cult of the Vault

Magnys Lighthouse

Maroonie's Inheritance, Noob Cannon and Cult of the Vault

Message in a Bottle

Leviathan's Lair

Cult of the Vault and Lost Lost Treasure

How to kill th Leviathan solo (and no skills at all)

Updates and such

Probably time for some updates, eh? I'll start with games. Tomorrow.

A trip to Ramallah, Gaza

I've just got in from a trip to Gaza, which was incredibly interesting.

If you just want pics, the full album is here: http://goo.gl/YNd1

First was a trip to Ramallah, where we showed up at a coding event and gave a quick talk, and then let them get on with it.

It was in a treehouse/café called Snobar, which confused us, but it's arabic for 'pine'. About 100 people turned up. Good results.

The following day, we went to Gaza for 3 days, which involved a lot of red tape. It was our second attempt to get in - the first was back in november, when our passes never came through. This it went smoother.

Once there, we headed to the hotel, and checked in, and left our stuff. Then we headed out to a summer camp, where some of the 200, 000 girls and boys from the UNRWA-funded schools can play together and work on arts and crafts for a couple of weeks.

After that, off to an actual school to talk with teachers about some of their challenges. They have very few computers (I wrote down 640, but for 200, 000 students, that seems way too low). But, they're implementing a school for basic arabic and maths for the 45, 000 students who are currently failing them. Many schools run split shifts - that is, different students morning and evening, because there aren't enough buildings.

Then, to the UNRWA, where we learnt some pretty shocking statistics - I won't preach them at you now, but suffice to say, the region is destitute.

After that, some lunch, and then to a school for the deaf, who learn english, arabic and have a partially equipped hearing aid and medical lab, funded largely by donations. 300 students learn classes and vocational training - some stay to work in the workshops making furniture, rugs and trinktes. You can buy online from here: http://www.atfaluna.net/crafts/

Then it was time for a meeting with Impact Consulting, and a chat about some of the problems Gaza faces. It turns out that actually, the internet is one thing they do have access to, and with pretty good speeds.  Their biggest issues are equipment - there's a 1 year waiting list to get ADSL, although when you get it, it's 2meg, and reliable. Companies frequently have 20 meg or more. Universities are well connected too.

Then, back to the hotel to meet some kids who were working with Mercy Corps to learn about global politics. Their YT Channel is here: http://www.youtube.com/user/GlobalCitizenCorps

Then, dinner with MercyCorps, who had helped us get in - their work behind the scenes can't be overstated, and they're there every day, not just for a short visit like us.

Bed time (so tired), and then up at 6, for another day of full meetings. The morning was spent visiting 3 universities with varying degrees of technology - they all had internet with PC labs, but facilities varied wildly, and 2 universities had 20k students. The backbones were anything up to 1gig networks, but outbound was significantly lower, ranging from 5 - 20 meg.

The third started as an e-learning centre, but the government refused to recognise e-learning as attendance, which is a requirement for obtaining a degree, so they've pioneered a video streaming and archiving service for their entire curricula which means students can always go back and watch, and easily find out their tasks, as well as video chat with other students and professors. Pretty awesome.

As mentioned in one of the pictures, we also saw a makeshift UPS from car batteries, and a mechatronics lab.

Madness.

Next, Marna House, where a number of companies talked to us about what they're up to. Everything from web design and SEO, Android development, serach engines, trading platforms through to ISPs and e-government initiatives.

Then, off to meet an incubation program, PICTI, which invests in student projects. One of the universities ran a similar program, with three clear steps from idea to functioning business, and mentors along the way. Many startups are building apps for phones or the cloud, taking advantage of the global economy. One major problem is banking - the few banks which remain often can't cash cheques - one guy had a $3000 check that he couldn't cash.

Finally, we had some students present to us their ideas, which ranged from a prayer time display to a wirelss health monitor for ICUs, complete with business plans. A little rough around the edges, but impressive to see such work being done at all.

Then the third day, we presented for 5 hours to a crowd of developers, entrepreneurs and students keen to learn how Google could help them. We covered Adsense, Blogger, Knol, Chrome, Geo, Translation and Transliteration, Chrome Extensions, HTML5, Mobile Web, App Engine, Google apps, as well as sessions on basic search and innovation. The questions asked showed a pretty decent understanding of the web, and many people already had websites operating. The one that sticks in my head is http://eshopy.co.cc/eshopy/index.htm. Uses the Maps API, too.

Then, off to the checkpoint for 3pm, for some insane security checks and re-entry to Israel.