I am getting ready to purchase my 2010 Gencon badges and I was wondering if anyone else is coming.
If not, I plan on bringing a camera and HD video camera. What would you like me to focus on the first couple days? (I plan on taking pics and lurking the first couple days and then getting some gaming on the last couple days. )
Suggestions?
I have been gaming since the early 80′s and I could not tell you what half of these consoles are.
See if you can do any better!
I started playing Bayonetta a couple days ago and I don’t know what words I can use to explain it other than…..WOW!
Anyone familiar with Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden games will feel right at home here. The combat system is tight but forgiving and the moves are insane. For anyone that has not heard about this game, you play a Witch who carries two guns (Normally) in her hands and two attached to her feet. As a character she is completely over the top but in a good way.
You are fighting “Angels” to appease the underworld so they don’t drag you to “Inferno”. Unlike most action games, the story actually seems interesting. That probably has more to do with the insane cut scenes and crazy supporting cast.
But the star of the show so far are the fights. Every fight seems epic in scope and I don’t have that feeling that I am fighting huge waves of low level enemies. Every enemy I have faced could kill you quickly if you go down the normal button mashing path.
The only issue I have had was in one area where there was a wall that you had to knock down by beating on on. Once you reached a certain level it would blow-up and then return. You would get a cryptic message stating that you need to use your “Temporal Witch” powers to get past. After about 10 minutes of messing around, I finally figured it out. (This was in the second level of the game)
1) Near the entrance to that area there are 2 statues. These 2 statues allow you to “lift” then and a 10 second timer starts.
2) Run as quickly as possible to the wall that you need to knock down.
3) Hit the button to “activate” the timer (X on the 360)
4) Then a lightning bolt from the sky begins to charge. You need to dodge this at the last minute to put you into Witch Time. (aka Bullet Time)
5) Now you have about 20 seconds to knock down the wall
6) Once you knock the wall down, you need to run through it before it solidifies back.
If you are slightly off on any of these steps, you will have to start all over again. I could understand a puzzle like this later in the game but I barely was through the tutorial at this point and was unaware of the terminology being used.
Other than some minor annoyances, this game is FUN! Expect a full review shortly.
On 1/2/2010 I purchased a copy of C&C: Red Alert 3 from Steam. For $10 I could not pass it up. Maybe I should have done a little more research…..
My main reason for purchasing it was for the Online Co-Op campaign.
The first thing I did after watching the intro (Which was awesome by the way) I attempted to get connected to a multiplayer game. Much to my surprise, I get an “Invalid CD-Key” error.
My first thoughts are that I need to enter a CD-Key somewhere and I managed to skip that step. After 20 minutes of searching online, emails and in the game, I realized that the CD-Key is only found by checking your registry.
I checked the support forums on Steam and found that I am not the only one that had an issue and it looks like this has popped up before. Based on what I found online, I needed to contact Steam support. Since I had never done this, I had to setup ANOTHER account with Valve to submit a support ticket. One of the questions that the support ticket asks for is the CD-Key (Which I do not have unless I want to dig through my registry).
I am currently running Windows 7 64-bit which made a couple of the guides I found online incorrect. So after some searching, I found my CD-Key at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Electronic Arts\Electronic Arts\Red Alert 3\ergc
I am now ready to finally submit a support ticket. I copy and paste the CD-Key into the field and upon submitting the form I get “Invalid CD-Key”!!!! This is from Steam….(Or at least the support system) that I get this message. At this point I am just short of furious. I find it amazing that a game I bought a couple hours ago has an “Invalid CD-Key”! I decide to leave that field blank and then add the CD-Key to the message of the body.
So now begins my journey to find the one CD-Key to rule them all!
Stay tuned for updates as I traverse the realm of Customer Support and Digital Distribution. May god have mercy on my soul!
Update #1: Still no word from Steam support so I decided to do more digging. I found a link to an EA forum that states to reach out to Customer Service. http://forums.commandandconquer.com/jforum/posts/list/29390.page
I am waiting for their live chat customer service to answer. Will update shortly.
Update #2: Just got off the live chat and they are stating that I need to uninstall and reinstall. I figure…what the hell….might as well give it a shot.
Update #3: After some investigating, I found that the retail version has a 20 character key. I found a 32 character key. Maybe this is the problem? Not the problem.
Update #4: I uninstalled and reinstalled the game…..no dice. Surfing forums looking for a possible fix. Looks like I will have to wait until the experts get in tomorrow.
Update #5: I was looking at the wrong CD-Key. It is a 20 digit code not a 32 digit code. The 32 Digit code is the product id. Still no update from Steam, EA, or Valve.
Update #6: I sent a PM to EA_Panoptico on their support forums to see if I can get some more info…..I will keep everyone updated.
Final Update: After 48 hours of waiting, the issue was finally corrected. It looks like it was an issue between the game and the Gamespy servers.
