What is the fastest way to travel long distances in Minecraft?

Question

In Minecraft, I have pretty much emptied the places around my home of resources and thus I need to travel a lot to other mines. I would like to know a fast way to do so. I have tried minecarts on rails (take up a lot of iron, and aren't really that fast), boats and more. I guess I should build some sort of construction.

What is the fastest mean of transport you can make in Minecraft (something which is still worth the effort to build, of course)?

Answer

Well, the fastest form of transportation is by minecart, and within The Nether you travel at a 8:1 ratio as in the overworld, so my answer would be traveling via minecart in The Nether.

(Even walking in The Nether is faster than any overworld transportation - minecarts top out at 8m/s, and you certainly walk faster than 1m/s.)

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What am I to do when something appears on one of the levels?

Question

After playing some more the Binding of Isaac I've come across strange messages that are triggered by certain events.

For instance, when I defeated one of the bosses, I suddenly got a pop-up message that read something along the lines of: "A radioactive spider has appeared in the dungeon" (there was also a drawing of a spider on that message).

Another time, after taking a yellow pill, I got a rather enigmatic hint that said "bombs are keys". I then proceeded to blow up a strange looking rock, only to be greeted with another pop-up saying: "A small rock has appeared in the basement" (this time with a picture of a block. I don't know if taking the pill was actually a prerequisite to get this message).

What do these messages mean, exactly? What am I supposed to do once they appear?

Answer

I own the game (on Steam, not even sure if a retail version exists..). The popup messages like "small rock has appeared!" notify you that you've unlocked an acheivement, that's all. Some acheivements have rewards, though.

I'm equally confused about the bomb message, though.

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Arcanum replay value

Question

I finally got around to beating Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, and I'm curious if I will enjoy a replay.

So my question is, what can change from playthrough to playthrough, other than different combat due to a different character build and different party members?

Answer

I'd say absolutely. Play it as a magic user, then play it as a technologist. You can also do elf/dwarf/human but in those cases the differences are more cosmetic. It's also fun to try out different specializations: the masters for the highest levels all have different quests.

There are also tons of side quests. It's unlikely that you saw them all in a single playthrough. Different party members? Lots of stuff.

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One Move Controller for 2 players?

Question

Can you play some games like bowling and Sports Champion on ps3 with 1 controller for 2 people by passing the move controller around?

Answer

From the PlayStation blog: Yes, some games do have this option. What you are looking for is pass-and-play multiplayer.

Q: How many PlayStation Move motion controllers do I need?
A: Most PlayStation Move games only require one motion controller. However, some games may support two controllers for single-player gameplay (such as The Fight: Lights Out and certain events in Sports Champions) or for multiplayer mode.

Q: How many players can use PlayStation Move at the same time?
A: The actual number of players supported depends on the game you are playing. Many PlayStation Move titles support anywhere from 1 to 4 players with many options for gameplay, including single player, pass-and-play multiplayer, competitive, or co-op modes. The PS3 system supports up to seven devices, of which up to four of those devices can be PlayStation Move motion controllers.

Sports Champions does support pass-and-play.

Sports Champions supports 1-4 players through intuitive, pass-and-play gameplay or head-to-head challenges.

High Velocity Bowling does not specifically mention it, but reviews I have read suggest that it supports pass-and-play. Brunswick Pro Bowling doesn't mention it either, and I can't tell from reviews whether or not pass-and-play is supported.

If there is a specific bowling game you're asking about that isn't listed, add that to your question and we'll see if we can find out whether or not pass-and-play is supported for that game.

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Do culture points 'roll over' if you opt out of adopting a new policy?

Question

When asked to adopt a social policy, you can right click to opt out. If you do this, do you lose those cultural points, or do they roll over until your next cultural advancement?

I don't like any of the currently available social policies, but I have been asked to choose a new policy twice.

Answer

You will accumulate Culture Points even if you already have enough points to buy a policy. This can be very important strategically:

• If you build the Cristo Redentor Wonder (or are close to building it) you should wait to buy your policy until after it's complete, in order to gain the 33% discount.

• If you build or annex more cities the cost of future policies goes up, so you should purchase your next policy before obtaining a new city.

As far as not wanting any of the currently available policies, sometimes you have to just take a non-ideal policy to open up future policies you DO care about.

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Is it possible to load a save file from a game of another region (PS3)?

Question

I played Batman: Arkham Asylum (BLES) for a while and got almost all the available trophies (the PS3 equivalent of achievements). Yesterday I bought the Collector's Edition (BLUS) and I noticed that I could not use the same save file I used before.

I don't wanna to play the game from beginning right now, I just want to get every trophy and be ready to play Batman: Arkham City.

Does anyone know if I can do something to fix that?

P.S. BLES - European Game; BLUS - US Game

Answer

Nope, you're up the creek. Save game files are locked to the region of the disk (at least in the cases I've dealt with). You could try logging a support request with the developer to see if they can help you out.

Some game saves are locked to region, others to the PSN account name, and I'

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No snow in minecraft version 1.8 - is this a bug?

Question

There doesn't seem to be any snow in my current minecraft worlds, although I haven't explored huge parts of them yet, so I guess it might still show up. Are snowy biomes just really rare, or is there a bug causing them to not be generated at all?

Answer

The terrain generation code was completely rewritten for 1.8. Whether it's a bug or intentional, you're right — there are no snow biomes in Minecraft 1.8, at all.

Minecraft 1.9, which will be released in the near future, re-introduces them, though. The pre-releases of 1.9 already generate snow biomes, so it's a pretty safe bet.

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Halo 3: ODST Achievement - Killing things that are new and different is bad/good

Question

When I played through Halo 3: ODST I saw the "squids" and killed them when I saw them, and got a counter (1 of 10, 2 of 10, 3 of 10, etc) toward the achievement Killing things that are new and different is bad. Eventually, like in the scene when I'm in a banshee escorting the phantom through the city, when I would kill the squids, I wouldn't get that counter anymore, so I could never finish the achievement. On the other hand, I never saw ANY reference when I played toward getting the "good" version of the achievement. Can anyone tell me how to accomplish this, or why I might have stopped "getting credit" for my squid kills, and what the difference between the good and bad versions of this achievement are?

Answer

Ok, so the way to get the "bad" version is:

• Only killing Engineers (that's what the squids are called) in the night time story count (ie. where you get the missions from)
• There are ONLY 10 of them
• You can miss one, which the Brutes are killing

To get the "good" version you have to only avoid killing these 10 (ones in the individual missions don't count) and save the one from the Brutes

Here is a map of the 10 engineer locations (and incidentally the audio logs)

I found the map at AchievementHunter.com

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League of Legends: How do blind effects work?

Question

How do blind effects such as Teemo's blinding dart and Heimer's grenade work in League of Legends? For example, does it work against an enhanced auto-attack such as Nasus' siphoning strike?

Answer

Blind affects auto-attacks only. Instead of damage numbers, a yellow "MISS" will display instead.

Blind interacts oddly with ON-NEXT-HIT spells, like Garen's Decisive Strike and Xin Zhao's 3-talon strike. The Auto-attack damage is negated, but any spell effect still goes through.

This means, for instance, that Xin will knock your champion up on a 3rd hit, even when he's blind.

"Blind has no effect on Lee Sin the Blind Monk."

In an April Fool's video, Riot joked that Lee Sin was immune to the effects of blind, but this is not the case.

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After beating the Portal 2 single player campaign, how do I listen to the ending song again?

Question

Is there a way to listen to the ending song again after I have beat the game? Other than the obvious way of beating it again.

Answer

Youtube's probably your best bet.

Alternatively, you could manually save your game directly before the final boss fight. You'll have to beat the boss and go through the ending cutscenes again, but it's shorter than beating the whole game an Nth time.

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Back up and restore Bejeweled 3 after HDD format on Windows 7 PC

Question

I'm going to format my Windows 7 x64 PC and I will make a fresh installation of Bejeweled 3. The problem is, I've made a big progress in the game and I don't want to lose the current state of the game (some levels are available only after a certain progress in the game).

What should I do to protect my state in the game? Are just backing up C:\Program Files (x86)\PopCap Games\Bejeweled 3 folder and restoring it enough?

Answer

Gladly that will only backup your game not all your stats...

You have to go to the c:\Users\&YourUserName&\AppData\Local\PopCap Games\Bejeweled3\Users

Note to do this you need to unhide the hidden files and folders...

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How do black hearts function?

Question

I just started playing the Binding of Isaac and one of the pick-ups I came across was a black/blue-ish heart (much like the red ones that fill up your HP). Initially, I thought it was a sort of "heart container" that increases my overall HP, but I noticed that I couldn't pick up additional health to fill it up.

Here's me after picking up the black heart:

Then, after taking some damage, I noticed that the extra heart was gone (I was back to the three red hearts alone). So I was wondering, do black hearts simply serve as a temporary HP boost, or are they more complicated than that?

Answer

They simply serve as a temporary HP boost, once you lose a blue/black heart, it's gone forever. Note that when you take damage, it will always subtract the damage from the blue/black heart(s) first.

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What is the simplest way to re-encode Fraps recordings to something more sensible? [closed]

Question

I took a quick FRAPS recording showing this clever answer at work.

The output was a 54 seconds long 424×240 video for a mere 138 MBs, or 45 minutes of upload on my link.

Now, as long as the video takes a reasonable amount of time to upload, I'm fine with just getting the process done in background while I get other stuff done in the meantime. However, this isn't always the case.

How I can turn this into something more reasonable before uploading? I'd prefer answers that get the job done in Windows, but if there's something super-awesome in Linux that's fine by me.

Please post a step-by-step guide. If there is some one-time fine tuning that can be useful to make a better job of transcoding gaming videos, don't forget to mention them!

Answer

I am always a fan of VirtualDub on Windows, but it might require you to download some additional codecs. ffmpeg and mp3 (ACM) would be the more popular ones.

If you are looking for a quicker solution then there is Any Video Converter. I'm linking to the free version.

On Linux, I would definitely suggest AviDemux, or if you are into command line, mencoder.

OK here is an updated rough tutorial to VDub:

• Prior to all else, install Lame MP3 ACM codec, or any other codec with direct show filter.
• Start VDub
• Drag/drop input file into the main window.

• Configure video compression: menu -> video -> "full processing mode" is chosen, click on video -> Compression. Select a compression. For example, if you installed ffdshow, choose ffdshow video codec and click configure, select your encoding there. Click OK when done.

• Configure Audio compression: Click on audio, select full processing mode (direct stream copy takes the input audio and writes to output, without modifying it). Click on Audio again, then Compression. Lame MP3 should appear there, if you successfully installed Lame MP3 ACM codec.

• Click OK and close all setting windows.

• Press F7, or File -> Save as AVI.

Choose output directory and let it encode.

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Who is the guy in this picture?

Question

In DOS there was my favorite game, but I forgot its title. I have just seen the main hero of this game in this 404 message:

Could you please tell me the name of the game? As I remember, it was about a captain, whose spaceship broken on the planet and you should choose the level walking on the map, open new levels and so on. He also show his Thumbs Up very interesting.

Answer

Commander Keen.

In case you're referring to the guy in the 404 picture displayed when clicking your link. If not, post a different link.

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What is the difference between Breath of Fire III for the PSX and for the PSP (or PSPGo)?

Question

I am aware that some games (like the early Final Fantasy titles, Disgaea) which are on PSP (more appropriately, PSN) are later versions with a small amount of extra content. Normally it is fairly easy to find this information out with a bit of searching.

However I have not been able to find anything on the differences (if any) between Breath of Fire III as a PSN download for the PSP go and the original on PSX. Can anybody enlighten me? Also, is there some better way to find out this kind of information than blindly searching the internets with Google?

Answer

AFAIK it's the same with better graphics, picture gallery and the ability to share fishing minigames with friends.

EDIT: Someone made a list of the differences:

• The title screen is different

• Some slowdown before attacks until you've had the game on for a bit.

• The electric room with the machine soldier in the "Factory" has permanent slowdown which actually makes it a lot easier to do that sequence of lever presses. I think this was done on purpose because there's no other parts like it in the game.

• Hachio's name is "Haochi"

• The room with the block puzzle in angel tower has one of the passages decreased in width and you can't get into random battles to teleport to the top to skip the puzzle.

• Stallion's color scheme is completely different. He is Brown, white, and yellow if I recall.

• "Utmost attack" had its name changed to "Vacuum Wave". I think it is because Stallion was supposed to look like "Ultraman", a Japanese hero. Utmost attack must have been one of his techniques?"

• In the Desert, getting into random encounters does not turn Ryu in a random direction. Turning right once, then walking straight until you reach Manmo still works thankfully.

• Dupe glitch does not work anymore.

• The Holy Mantle seems to work better. If you walk perfectly straight, you will go a while without fighting. Take a single turn, and it's battle time though. I remember it doing absolutely nothing.

• Finally, all of the music has added instruments which in my opinion make the music in the game a LOT better. I have never heard those extra sounds even on my I-pod. When I play my PSP on TV, you can still hear the new sounds. I wonder if the music had some sort of error in all of the tracks to begin with? Every song I can think of has something new in it.

Source: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/196817-breath-of-fire-iii/55291244

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Are ICO and Shadow of The Colossus related to each other?

Question

Now when the "ICO+Shadow of Colossus Collection" is out for the PS3, I was wondering that are these games some how related to each other? Is it better to play ICO first or vice versa?

EDIT: After getting an answer I searched again and found out that Wikipedia has also a small section how these games are connected to each other.

Wikipedia - Shadow of the Colossus & connections to Ico

Answer

Yes, they are. Shadow of the Colossus is a prequel to ICO, set in the same world. In addition, Shadow of the Colossus explains some of the story from ICO. So I would recommend playing Shadow of Colossus before starting ICO.

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When does the Ico / SoTC HD remake come out? [closed]

Question

does anybody know when the upcoming remake of Ico and Shadow of The Colossus is going to be released?

I have heard many conflicting stories about when, the nearest I could find to a definitive timing was in this Playstation blog article.

Anyone have any more info?

Answer

This article on Pinoytutorial and this one from GameRant say the game's been pushed back to the holiday season of 2011. Can't confirm how true this is, but it's the most recent news I could find regarding a release date for the Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Collection.

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Should I level up other my newly discovered Pets?

Question

I'm playing Pets Live and I often discover new Pets

But is there any advantage to upgrading these or should I just focus on my main four Pets (Water, Earth, Air & Fire) and keep those maxed out?

Answer

Only your 4 strongest monsters are used in combat, so it's only beneficial to maintain 4 pets.

Of course, there are better pets to be unlocked than the ones you start out unlocking. The best pets are unlocked around level 85, and the ones you use will depend on whether you want to be an attacker or defender.

For more information: see this guide

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What do the G, L and E avatar attributes mean?

Question

When selecting an avatar, a small descriptive blurb scrolls across the bottom of the screen. At the end of each blurb, three attributes seem to be displayed: G (integer), L (integer) and E (percentage). As far as I can tell, these aren't explained anywhere in-game.

What does each letter stand for, and what effects do these attributes have?

Answer

I discovered the answer to this on the Groove Coaster Facebook page.

When selecting an Avatar, a description of that Avatar is displayed at the bottom of the screen, followed by the letters G, L, and E and some numbers. These letters and the values associated with them signify the special attributes for that Avatar as follows: G (GROOVE): This is the initial amount of GROOVE you begin a stage with. L (LENGTH): This refers to the length of the Groove Gauge. E (EXP): This amount modifies the amount of experience points earned when playing stages.

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How can I achieve the First Emblem of Pot Achievement of Master Chef II?

Question

How do I gain "the right to learn the savory secrets of Master Chef II"?

Answer

Emblems are special items given by gods when your favor with one of them reaches 1000. You can garner favor with gods by doing quests (which often assign a number of favor points to a particular god associated with the task you completed) or by donating to the shrine of a specific god. Donations award xp (up to a daily cap) and favor, the amount of which is proportional to the value of the item donated.

This particular emblem is gained by donating to the god Pot and enables you to learn Master Chef II. All emblems are tied to a specific high-level skill which you unlock when you earn the emblem.

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Starting at a different Tier in Spiral Knights

Question

I have recently gained Tier 2 clearance. I have heard that it is possible to simply pay a tax and start at Tier 2. I'd be interested in doing this, but I don't know how. Can somebody please point me in the right direction?

Answer

From the ADVENTURE BOARD, choosing to start at a different Tier is simple!

Here's the normal view. If you want to start at Tier 2 instead of Tier 1...

Simply click the "Tier 2" in the middle of the ADVENTURE BOARD. The tax, if applicable, will be shown below the energy cost.

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How I do to manage so many Overlords?

Question

I'm training using zergs in Stacraft2, and I create a lot of Overlods. In broodwar it's straighfoward: I send my OL to patrol my base.

With Stacraft2, There are so many variants that I'm lost on how I do to manage all this work:

• Scouting;
• Spread over the map and expand creep where the tumor is not arrived yet;
• Morph to Overseer to get detectors to patrol my base;
• Scatter the excess in some safe location;
• Remove it from the rally point to don't obscure my weaklings ;)
• etc;

Whats are the recommended strategies?

Answer

Aside from general scouting (which is something you should do constantly), a couple of practical examples come to mind:

• On most maps you can position two overlords around the base of your opponent (on some maps or spawning positions this only works with one overlord due to lack of air space behind bases). Put two of the first couple of overlords there and fly in from time to time to scout for early game things your opponent is doing ("two-port banshees. oh sh...").

• One use of Overlords is to spread creep on empty expansions near or around your opponents half of the map. This prevents him from taking rogue expansions and annoys him by requiring him to send a marine / stalker / whatever to the location of your Overlord and drive him away. Of course, this also provides you with information on the economic status of your opponent.

• Scatter the overlords behind your bases where Medivacs are likely to fly by if your opponent wants to drop in one of your bases. This enables you to detect the drop early and prevent it from even happening if you're fast enough.

• If you want to use them as "warning"-sentries of some sort, you can position them just outside the edge of cliffs. This way, when your opponent attacks them, they immediately automatically fly up the cliff without being killed (if your opponent has no air units) and also cause the advisor voice to say "We're under attack" (or whatever).

• This may seem subtle, but it is actually very important: The creep connection between your main base and your natural. If you reach Lair and haven't managed to connect the two bases with creep tumours yet, you should at least have overlords positioned along the way to start spewing creep as soon as you reach Lair. The few seconds more it takes a couple of zerglings to reinforce your natural to a Terran push can make or break a game.

• Morphing Overlords to Overseers will often times save your game. I can say this from actual experience. Countless times I have been saved from Dark Templars last second because of morphing Overseers.

• Even if you spread creep constantly, it will often happen that the tumors just get destroyed during battles and you have no time to build them again. In some cases you will try to finish off your opponent. In those cases, use overlords to build a "creep-street" along the path that your reinforcements walk.

And finally:

Most of the time you will still have a ton of overlords which (who?) just sit around your base doing nothing. Take a bunch, put them on a hotkey and take them into battle. If you send them towards your enemy just a couple of moments before the rest of your army arrives, the Overlords will usually eat up the first volly of attacks of some units, which can be useful against Thors for example (Thors lose a lot of DPS with that initial missed attack).

And always remember to research the speed upgrade for Overlords on Lair :)

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How can I squeeze grain out of chickens more efficiently?

Question

I know I have to squeeze a chicken, but having to find 5 chickens to make a single unit a flour, it seems like I'm missing something.

Answer

Invest some time learning Animal Kinship. The higher levels of this skill allow you to squeeze more grain from chickens, not to mention squeezing the same chicken multiple times. Animal Kinship 6 and 7 also raise the chance that you'll get bonus goodies and super harvests to a level where you see them regularly.

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How can I find a specific kind of vendor

Question

How do I find what streets have, say, grocery vendors, and even better, which street with a grocery vendor is closest to my location?

Answer

Try Zog's Glitchy Tools, a collection of data gleaned from the Glitch API. Specifically, the locations page shows details of Vendors, Trees, Resources, etc and clicking on a specific one will tell you the closest location and how to get there from your current location.

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What is new in Minecraft 1.9pre2?

Question

What's new in the 1.9pre2 update?

I have noticed that there is more Enderman roaming about and that tooltips are purple now, but wanted to know what was new in this specific update over the pre1 update.

Answer

Here is an ongoing list of changes from reddit between 1.9-pre and 1.9-pre2.

Currently, these changes have been found:

New items

• Nine new music discs (11 in total, one "broken")
• Blaze powder
• Magma cream
• Glass bottle
• Spider eye (dropped by spiders)
• Fermented spider eye

Game mechanics

• Hardcore mode: game over when you die, hearts have new icons
• Golden apple now has a shining animation
• Pressure plates on top of fence posts now make sound when you walk on them or next to them
• Villagers has no names (No more TESTIFICATE)
• Holding the spacebar allows you to jump continuously again
• The enderman pearls now teleports you when thrown
• Endermen teleport to dodge arrows. Endermen teleport out of water when they touch it.
• Endermen teleport a lot more
• Item repair! Put two damaged items in the crafting grid (arrangement doesn't seem to matter)
• F5 view cycling
• Fences now attach to adjacent blocks, has an interesting outcome when used certain ways
• Pumpkins can be “crafted” into 4 Pumpkin Seeds
• Zombie Pigmen now randomly drop rotten flesh or gold bits instead of everytime
• F8 cinematic mode is back

Animal breeding:

• Feed passive mobs wheat to make them breed with each other
• Passive mobs follow you when wheat is selected

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How to connect to new Pokewalker?

Question

My brother lost his Pokewalker and got a new one individually to replace it. I looked up about replacements here on Bulbapedia and tried the Up+Select+R thing. It gave the Pokemon back, but if you try to connect to the new one, it says it isn't registered. What do I do now?

Answer

At the Pokewalker connection screen, you must hold Down, X, and L on the DS. This is a necessary step so that you cannot clone Pokemon. After that, you should be able to connect a new Pokewalker.

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How do I beat the Stone Spirit in the Deep Roads in Dragon Age 2?

Question

Does the Stone Spirit have any vulnerabilities? I have both Hawkes, Isabela and Varric in my party. I don't have any tanks with me. Does the Stone Spirit have any weaknesses (ice, fire, etc.)?

Answer

Could it be the "Ancient Rock Wraith" you are fighting?

I only bothered playing through on Casual so I just beat him to death with relative ease, but if you search for "Ancient Rock Wraith" in the following guide it shows weaknesses and some tips...

http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps3/988967-dragon-age-ii/faqs/61965

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Are there any countermeasures to turbo-controller users?

Question

I've been playing quite a few online matches of Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 and have come across quite a few people who use a turbo controller to gain an unfair advantage.

Seeing how blocking just before an attack hits allows you to perform a substitution jutsu, negating all damage and placing you behind your attacker, people that use a turbo controller to spam the guard button are nigh-impossible to attack, as any attack in the game can be avoided in this manner.

This also allows them to land rather potent attacks while their opponent is still recovering from the sudden reversal, which in turn gives them breathing room to recharge their chakra (which is necessary to perform substitution jutsu).

Ranged characters may be a good counter to this technique, as substitution jutsu does not place you behind the attacker if he is not within melee range, but it is impossible to spot a turbo-controller user at the character selection stage.

Is there any tactic I can use to punish people who rely on turbo blocking?

Answer

There are really only two things you can do. First, file a bug report with the developers, (who ought to be able to write some code to detect and respond to turbo controller usage if they decide it shouldn't be done,) and second, don't play with people who use turbo controllers.

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Is there a way to remove level requirement to Oblivion's quests?

Question

Aware of the leveling problem of Oblivion, I decided to create my char aiming to be strong while my enemies are weak, by choosing main skills that I would not normally use. I finished main quest and decided to do all the side quests, and many of them have level requirements.

As I'm low level, it will be hard to grind through high level to do quests like Hermaeus Mora.

Is there a way to remove these quests level requirements?

Answer

You can make your own mini-mod for this. Since this is GameDev, where we develop stuff in preference of using other people's tools ...

1. If not already done so, install The Elder Scrolls Construction Set (version 1.2 is fine; you need the older 1.0 only for few specialised tasks which are broken in the latest version). Optionally, install the Oblivion Script Extender and the Construction Set Extender for significantly easier modding in general.
2. In the TES CS, load the main oblivion.esm by going to the menu item File -> Data, marking the tick to the left side of oblivion.esm, and clicking OK. The loading will take a while.
3. Open the list of quests by picking the menu item Character -> Quests...
4. The quest data window appears, with all the existing quests in the game (even those who aren't "real" quests, or are left-overs from the development) listed.
5. The next step depends on the quest.
   • Some have the level requirements listed right there, in the "quest conditions" part. In such a case, mark the offending line (it has a GetLevel check) with the mouse and hit the [DEL] key on your keyboard to remove it.
   • Other quests have the level check in the topics which start the quest. You'll have to work through the Topics tab and remove such conditions.
   • Finally, some quests have the level condition (again, using player.getLevel) in the quests scripts. Click on the [...] button next to the script name to edit those.

For the lazy and in a hurry, there is a mod which does it for you: No Daedric Quests Level Locks.

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Is there a time limit to campaign levels?

Question

So far I've always managed to complete the objectives for the campaign levels, and I know there are various conditions that trigger a loss (losing an election, coup, having your palace destroyed). But what happens if I just keep playing a level without either of these things happening? Do I eventually run out of time to complete the level and have to start over from the beginning?

Answer

There is no time limit. This guy seems to agree with my own testing.

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How do I unblock guild invites?

Question

Several weeks ago I disabled the possibility for people to invite me to guilds.

Now I want to remove this setting and I cant find it again.

Where is it?

Answer

Interface > Controls > Block Guild Invites

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How does one play Evelynn effectively in the laning phase on Summoners Rift?

Question

I started playing Evelynn when she was able to jungle. It wasn't easy pre-nerf, but post-nerf I can't jungle at all. I used to be able to consistently gank lanes, now it feels like I am forced to stay in lane.

How can I be useful to a team with Evelynn in the laning phase?

Options as far as I can see are:

• Solo/Mid lane: Impossible.
• Jungle: Very hard, can't keep up with lane experience now.
• Duo lane: Weak in lane, easily harassed. Also hard countered by sight wards. (Only the one lane has to purchase them).
• Gank: Loses too much experience from moving lanes. Effective at first blood, then everyone will expect you as soon as you are MIA.

Edit: I will update this question if Eve's game style changes much after the stealth remake.

Answer

Evelyn has always had a pretty weak laning phase. Ideally, you will want a strong ranged harasser to lane with -- if your partner (say, Miss Fortune, or Caitlyn) can harass the enemy champions effectively, they can spend less time harassing you.

Additionally, laning Evelyn really needs to build tanky -- start with a Doran's shield (Perhaps go 9/21/0 for masteries as well) and don't be afraid to blue pill back if you find yourself dangerously low. Dying is never preferable to simply retreating -- either way you lose out on possible experience, but with the latter at least, you're not giving your opponents xp / gold.

Finally, abuse your stealth to wage psychological warfare. Activate your stealth ability within sight of your opponents, and dart in and out of the bushes so that they never know where you are. The more nervous you can make them, and the more cautiously they play, the less they can harass you.

On last note that bears mentioning -- I find teleport extremely effective on both Evelyn and Twitch. Using the summoner spell effectively can get you ganks without the xp/min loss of walking in between lanes.

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How do I run GKART?

Question

I've downloaded and installed GKART but now I can't figure out how to run the game.

Two icons were added to my desktop, one is Garena Messenger and one is gkart, but running any of them only opens a login window which ends up in garena messenger. I know the game is installed since there is a folder with size around 1GB in my installation path named GKart, and that can't be only a messenger.

Does any one know how can I start the game itself?

Answer

It seems the problem is region: GKART is released only for Singapore. It seems there is a link to start game somewhere in applications installed with GKART, but it's only available for those who are in Singapore.

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What changes have been made from Civilization 4 to 5?

Question

I've read the surprisingly light Wikipedia article on Civ 5 and it seems to be lacking coherent comparison of features between it and its predecessor. I'm also reluctant to bring down the 4Gb demo on a whim...

Please could I have some clarification on the following:

• Has the speed of conquest been slowed down even further?
• Are wars any easier to end (and avoid re-igniting) diplomatically?
• Are there still culture-related borders?
• Is the AI as aggressive as the article seems to indicate, or is it possible to have stable diplomatic neighbours?
• This one's rather subjective, I'm afraid: With regards to improvements, is this an XP to Vista kind of upgrade, or Vista to 7? By which I mean are they generally look driven, or core gameplay driven improvements?

Let me know if this should be a community wiki, or needs clarification.

Answer

Some of these are opinion only, but here's my take on it:

• Has the speed of conquest been slowed down even further?

It takes longer to capture cities, if that's what you mean, but I think the hex-based, 1UPT, ranged units, and the fact that a unit doesn't necessarily die at the end of each combat (both sides can survive, for example) makes CIV V's combat strictly superior.

• Are wars any easier to end (and avoid re-igniting) diplomatically?

Kinda speculative; this is difficulty and AI leader personality dependent.

• Are there still culture-related borders?

Yes.

• Is the AI as aggressive as the article seems to indicate, or is it possible to have stable diplomatic neighbours?

Again, depends on leader + personality + difficulty level. Stable diplomatic neighbors are possible, however.

• This one's rather subjective, I'm afraid: With regards to improvements, is this an XP to Vista kind of upgrade, or Vista to 7? By which I mean are they generally look driven, or core gameplay driven improvements?

Personally, I would say Windows XP to Windows 7. Both looks and core gameplay.

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Does the Wii still corrupt 1019 GameCube memory cards?

Question

I just bought Eternal Darkness and intend to play it on my Wii.

I apparently need a GameCube controller and memory card, so I've done some shopping for a Wavebird (man, they're expensive!) and memory card. A quick search reveals that many people have seen their Wii corrupt all their data stored on 1019 GameCube memory cards.

Is this still the case? Should I just buy a 251 memory card and call it a wrap?

Answer

If the corruption problem was caused by the hardware, then the Wii will still corrupt those specific GameCube memory cards today, as there have not been any substantial hardware changes to the Wii since release - and the hardware changes that have occurred were primarily to prevent hacking the Wii.

If the corruption problem was caused by software, we don't know if it is fixed or not, as Nintendo has never acknowledged the issue, nor specifically said that a new version of the OS has fixed it.

If you are concerned about it, just buy a different card.

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Do you need to purchase the “Rezurrection” map pack to get the new Mule Kick perk?

Question

Has the new "Mule Kick" perk, introduced with one of the new map packs, been added to all of the map? If so, do you need to get the new map pack to get the new perk?

Answer

According to the Call of Duty wiki:

• In the update that took place on September 27th, Mule Kick is now available on all Maps for Xbox 360 and PS3. PC update is unknown at this time.
• It's not necessary to have the Rezurrection Map Pack to have the Mule Kick in Kino Der Toten, "Five" or maps from the other map packs.

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Is there any benefit for having animals spawn on the islands?

Question

I think I closed the window that explained it too quickly, but I read that after you are able to expand the vegetation through some percentage of the land, animals come to the island and stay to live there.

Is there any benefit for this? Or is it simply aesthetic?

Answer

If your coverage is at a certain percentage (I think around 50%, and later again at around 100%) you unlock new memories.

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Is there any way to predict where a star will show up?

Question

Sometimes there are platforms and a star could be above or below them. By the time you see it, it's too late if you're not on the right path. It's frustrating that it breaks your streak and you have no control over it, because all you can do is guess. Is there anyway to know ahead of time where the star will be, so you don't have to guess?

Answer

No. I once shut off the music and spent a while straining to see if the sound effects gave any indication of location, but they don't. There is also no visual indication.

Other sources like this guide back me up:

They are placed in seemingly random locations throughout the stages, and their appearance is never certain. At higher velocities, they appear more frequently.

That's the nature of this sort of game, I suppose! Frustration is part of the addiction.

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How do I use the Tactical Enhancement pack I redeemed in Deus Ex?

Question

I successfully redeemed my tactical enhancement pack pre-order bonus on my PS3, but I dont see the weapons in my inventory. I'm currently roaming the city after the first mission at Sarif and I can't figure when they (and the money that was supposed to come with the pack) become available.

Answer

According to this thread the bonus is added right after your brief with Sarif on the flight to the manufacturing plant mission. If you activated the code after that point, then you will not receive the bonus.

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What is the minimum level one can feasibly reach the 3rd challenge chamber in Nier's DLC?

Question

What is the minimum level one can feasibly reach the 3rd "World of the Recycled Vessel" challenge chamber in Nier? I ask because the 3rd chamber of the DLC is supposed to have enemies that have a higher drop rate of Titanium Alloy than the robots in the Junk Heap.

At the time of asking, I am around level 13 and die in 2 hits in the first challenge chamber.

Answer

• The 1st Door can be cleared right after starting part 2 of the game when you are in your low 20s. It seems the key is to have a strong weapon from that part of the game.
• The 2nd Door will kill you in 1 or 2 hits in the first chamber at that level. It can be cleared easily in the mid-20s.
• The 3rd Door can be cleared in the late 20s with a suitably upgraded weapon. Just be careful of the 3rd boss on the bridge, it can kill in 1 hit!

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Where does Bastion store its configuration/settings?

Question

I just picked up Bastion on Steam and ran into a small problem.

By default, the game was running at my monitor's native resolution of 2560x1440, but I went to the in-game options menu and selected a different resolution by mistake. The problem is, the list of available resolutions doesn't have a scrollbar, so now I can't change it back! The highest resolution I see in the list is 1920x1200.

Since I just purchased the game I don't have any saved games to worry about, so I just want to wipe any settings/config files and start from the defaults. Where does Bastion keep its settings, or more importantly, how can I reset the resolution?

Answer

Here's a quote from the developers:

Q: I changed the in-game resolution, how can I restore the original settings?

A: The game will auto-detect your monitor's proper resolution on start-up. If you change your resolution and the proper one is not available in the options menu, you can have it auto-detect again by deleting your profile here (exact location may vary): "\Program Files\Steam\userdata\33142021\107100\local"

Source

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Fastest way to kill a sentry gun with a sniper rifle?

Question

Say I spot a sentry in the distance, and I take out the engineer. What's the fastest way to destroy the sentry?

1. Shoot a series of slow, fully-charged shots?
2. Shoot a series of fast, completey-uncharged shots?
3. Shoot a series of half-charged shots?

Or is there an even faster way? e.g. shooting quickly without bothering to zoom in.

Answer

According to the TF2 wiki, a fully charged sniper round does three times the damage of an uncharged sniper round. Therefore, if you can get off three shots in the time it would take to charge, then you should go with (2). However, keep in mind that you're going to use a lot more ammo this way, and that gradual damage is often easier for the Engineer to repair than a series of more damaging shots.

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Final Fantasy VII - How to get the full Enemy Skill Materia?

Question

As the title suggest, I would like to know how to fully grow a Enemy Skill Materia: I managed to get some E.S. but not every fight brings me one. There's a strategy to get 'em all?

Answer

E Skill learns new skills by being subject to those skills in battle. So it's a matter of fighting the proper enemies, not enough battles. It's also impossible until the end of the game, due to one being in the last dungeon. There are 3 "problem" E Skills, as it were, that cause some frustration. 2 because they can be lost forever and one that's fairly luck based.

1. Chocobuckle, granted by level 16 Chocobos near the Chocobo Ranch. They'll only use the attack when low in health, and the only way to get them to it without them running away immediately is to use another Enemy Skill, Lv. 4 Suicide. Level 16 ones are the only ones that can be hit by the skill, anyway. However, it's never quite guaranteed that they'll use it, so it may take some time.
2. Trine, used by the bosses Materia Keeper and Godo, as well as Stilva, an enemy in a dungeon that can only be visitted once. So once you have beaten both bosses and gotten past that dungeon, it becomes impossible to learn the skill. So make sure that when you fight the bosses, you wait long enough for the skill to be used.
3. Pandora's Box, used by the Zombie Dragon enemy in the final dungeon. This one is interesting because in any save game, the skill can only be used once. So you need to make sure you have every Enemy Skill materia equipped at this point, because if you run into a Zombie Dragon and it uses Pandora's Box and you don't have it, you've just lost it forever.

Past those, the rest tend to be a simple matter of fighting the right enemies and waiting for the right attacks. There are some buff spells which will need you to use the Manipulate materia on the enemy, such as Dragon Force, Angel Whisper, and White Wind. If you see an enemy using one of these skills, then use Manipulate and force it on yourself if it's available. Past that, the rest is all a matter of getting your face beaten in.

General strategy is simple - always keep that Materia on at all times! Then you will not miss the one-times and you'll always catch it when the attack happens in normal scenarios, rather than having to hunt the skill down amidst all the rest of the late-game stuff you need to do.

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How can I transfer data from one Xbox 360 slim to another slim?

Question

I'm thinking about getting the Gears of War 3 limited edition console and I already have one of the new 360 S consoles. How can I transfer my data between the two?

I checked Google and couldn't find any new hard drive transfer cables, just the old ones. Normally I would just swap the hard drives but the Gears one comes with a 320 GB and I want to take advantage of the increased capacity.

I really don't want to move all the data with a 16 or 32 GB thumb drive, it would take forever. In theory, I should be able to just hook the two hard drives up to my PC (they have standard SATA connectors) and use Clonezilla. Has anyone tested this?

Any ideas for how to simplify this process are welcome.

Answer

According to the Microsoft Store, the Data Transfer Cable will work with Xbox 360 and Xbox 360 S consoles. Note that it will do regular to regular and regular to S, but not S to S.

As far as DLC licenses are concerned, there is an option in your accounts in the dashboard to transfer all of your licenses to the console you are on. It's in Guide > Settings > Account Management > License Transfer. There is also a webpage about license migration here.

---

Update: A new transfer cable for sending data from a slim to a slim has just been announced. The Microsoft Store has yet to post the new cable, so you must contact customer support to order one at this time.

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In Final Fantasy VII is there any way to save Aeris?

Question

In Final Fantasy VII is there any way to save Aeris?

I heard once you could bring her back to life.

Answer

No. You can cheat with things like the game genie, but she cannot be "legally" brought back.

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Does Spell Vamp affect magic damage procs from items?

Question

I've been pondering how best to build Ezreal in the new Dominion mode, and it's gotten me wondering: Are Magic Damage procs, like from Wit's End and Madred's / Kitae's Bloodrazor affected by the aggressing champion's spellvamp?

I know they don't get counted as part of the base damage of the attack, i.e., a separate damage number appears, and proc-boosted attacks don't generate more lifesteal than expected, but are they considered for spell vamp at all?

I know, for a time, the Wriggle's Lantern, 500 damage vs. minions proc, triggered lifesteal (which, given that it was 500 bonus damage, was quite noticable) but that has been patched out.

Answer

The Spell Vamp portion of the LoL Wiki and my own experience show that

[Spell Vamp] works off of activated item effects, summoner spells, and abilities, regardless of the type of damage done.

Therefore, items that give proc effects to attacks like Bloodrazor, Wit's End, Malady, Wriggles etc, will NOT grant the user health through spell vamp.

On a side note, Ezreal's Mystic Shot (Q) applies on hit effects, including but not limited to, lifesteal.

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how to run gkart?

Question

I've downloaded and installed gkart but now I can't figure out how to run the game.

Two icons were added to my desktop, one is garena messenger and one is gkart, but running any of them only opens a login window which ends up in garena messenger. I know the game is installed since there is a folder with size around 1GB in my installation path named GKart, and that can't be only a messenger.

Does any one know how can I start the game itself?

Answer

seems the problem is region, gkart is released for singapur. it seems there is a link to start game somewhere in applications installed with gkart but it's only available for those who are in singapur.

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Gears Of War 3 Beta Rewards

Question

I heard that their are some achievments and challenges within the Gears of War 3 beta, could someone tell me what they are and what they require? Thanks

Answer

http://m.ign.com/articles/1153613

It looks like there are unlockables like weapons and medals. I don't see achievements. The link above has a list of all the unlockables. Unlockables will carry over to the release version.

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How is listed DPS calculated when dual-wielding weapons?

Question

I was trying out the dual-wielding in Diablo 3, when I noticed really strange. When I equipped my off-hand, which has 0.5 less damage than my main-hand. My overall damage actually went down. So my question is, how does the dual-wielding mechanic work for calculating damage? It seems rather odd that my overall damage should be more with one weapon than with two.

Answer

Dual-wielding does not mean you attack twice as often. There is a slight attack-speed benefit, but this is apparently being offset for you by the lower damage from the offhand weapon.

According to this thread on the forums, the formula for number of attacks per second is

((Main Hand APS*1.15) + (Off-hand APS*1.15))*1/2

Which means that if you had two identical weapons, dual-wielding would give you a 15% attack speed bonus.

The main reason to dual-wield is that you get the bonus attributes from both items. This doesn't mean much early on when attributes aren't very strong, but is a big incentive later on. However, compared to a two-handed weapon that does more DPS, there isn't a clear winner. It will mostly come down to whether you've found better one-handed weapons or two-handed, and what your preference is for faster attack versus stronger attack.

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Can the server choice in Frozen Synapse be changed at any time?

Question

I just created an account and I'm being asked to pick a server to connect to. Is this choice as binding as it would be in (say) League of Legends (airtight containers where you can't see anything of what's outside and you can't switch at a later time), or as free as it is on (say) Quake 3 (where you can join and leave servers at your heart's desire and it doesn't really matter)?

Also, why is there no online count for the 'ORIGINAL' server? Is it, in any way, special or something?

Answer

You get asked this question every time you sign in. Your account is not bound to a server.

In practice, everyone ever is always on the UK server, really.

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Help me identify this old PC platformer with monsters and soda

Question

I've been looking for this platform game of a guy (teenager with blue pants and a cap I think) that collected soda bottles and there were lots of monsters around. I played it on pc when I was like 4 or 5 (+- 15 years ago). I'm not totally sure but I kinda remember these other aspects:

-There were executions (monsters killed you) and a funny animation showed up

-There was a world map Super Mario-like with locations that included: ice mountain, haunted forest, etc.

-The name of the game had "ken can" or something like that

Answer

Sounds like Commander Keen to me, though I wouldn't describe your deaths as "executions". He certainly had blue pants, and here's the funny death animation :P

CK 1-3 looked like this, note the pop cans and ice:

CK 4-6 were like this, with 4 having forest levels:

And the ice mountain level:

It also had soda bottles:

This was the world map:

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Final Fantasy VII - How to get Ribbons?

Question

I know that I can morph Master Tonberry in order to get a Ribbon, but he is a very tough guy...

Do you know any other way to get Ribbons?

Answer

Location of the Ribbons are as follows:
- Gaea's Cliff in a hidden passage (Disc 2)
- Temple of the Ancients in room V of the clock room (When accessible)
- By winning 10 Special Battles in the Gold Saucer at the battle square

Alternatively, you can get infinite more by morphing these enemies:
Master Tonberry (Northern Crater)
Ho-chu (Special Battle Square)

Also, it might be helpful to note that Yuffies ultimate weapon, The Conformer, does not take the morph damage reduction penalty, meaning she can still do 9999 damage with Morph. This allows Master Tonberries to be easily morphed.
It is also good to know that Master Tonberry can be located in the Nothern Crater Swamp area and has 44444 HP.

All information was taken from this guide.

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Do I lose materia and equipment when I lose a character?

Question

SPOILER: This question involves major plot points of the game.

Now that I know Aeris dies I don't want to give her any equipment or materia because I'm afraid of losing it ... except at this point in the game I'm forced to have her in my party and without equipment/materia she brings my party down.

So I wonder:

Is it possible in Final Fantasy 7 to lose equipment by giving it to a character who leaves/dies? If you can answer for Aeris only it's still much appreciated.

Answer

No, her materia is automatically returned to you. You do lose her weapon and armor, but you get to keep her accessory.

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How can I obtain Final Fantasy Adventure for a Mobile phone in the US?

Question

A little back story. The first (quasi) RPG I ever played was Final Fantasy Adventure. At that time, I was quite the platformer fan and NES Zelda games, although moderately fun, never caught my attention for long.

One day at a flee market I picked up Final Fantasy Adventure for a couple bucks and I fell in love with the experience of leveling up, weapon selection and getting engaged in the story. I was hooked and from then on I was a hardcore RPGer*.

Because of it's personal history, FFA has a special place in my gaming heart. Every few years I pull out my old cart, slap it in my old-school GB and play it for a few hours. It doesn't matter where my saved file is-- I've practically memorized what to do from any place in the game and it's always still just as enjoyable as it's initial discovery.

Today, I learned that back in 2006 a Japanese version was released for mobile phones that was quite similar to the original, but with updated graphics. As an uber-fan... I MUST PLAY THIS GAME.

Sorry, I'm still a bit excited. The problem is I live in the US and I would have no clue how to obtain a mobile game from an international market. Can this be done? Is there an emulator for such a thing and, if so, where can I find it. I don't mind that the game's text will be in Japanese. I can't read it but, honestly, I don't have too.

Yes, I get it. I'm a bit of an obsessive nerd. Any help, however, is much appreciated.

Thanks!

*I know that FFA isn't a typical RPG. However, it did have RPG elements and it lead me to other games in the FF story-line. I fell in love with the traditional RPG style as much as I had the Action-RPG style of FFA and I've never looked back.

Answer

I don't know about the cellphone version, but you may be able to find copies of the Game Boy Advance version, Sword of Mana, which had an English release.

It incorporated many of the changes to later games in the series.

Speaking of the series, Final Fantasy Adventure is actually part of the "Seiken Densetsu" or "Mana" series of games.

It has 3 direct sequels:
Secret of Mana (SNES)
Seiken Densetsu 3 (Super Famicom, no US release)
Dawn of Mana (PS2)

It also has 4 spinoffs:
Legend of Mana (PS1), similar style to the second and third games.
Children of Mana (DS), a dungeon crawler
Heroes of Mana (DS), a tactical RPG
Friends of Mana (Mobile phone, no US release), no idea

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What things are missable in disc 1 of Final Fantasy 7?

Question

We all know that a certain event happens at the end of disc 1 - but what things should I do before that event that won't be available after?

I can think of the following so far:

• all her limit breaks
• all her weapons
• maybe max stats(?)

Answer

I don't think there's much more you can do for her once you have her ultimate weapon and final limit break.

As for other missable items/materia, there's a guide on GameFAQs that details them.

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Where does the Illusion World song from Chocobo Racing come from?

Question

I'm sure I've heard this song before, even though I haven't seen much Final Fantasy gameplay (since I've never owned a console I've never had any of those games).

Where does it come from? (Bonus point for a Youtube link.)

Answer

I actually answered this roughly 40 minutes ago in Gaming's The Bridge Chat, but Gaming is blocked from where I work... would have been back sooner (stupid traffic jams).

This is the Final Boss Theme from Final Fantasy III for the NES/DS.

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Is Final Fantasy X the only game in the franchise where you can swap characters in mid-battle?

Question

I'm fairly sure that Final Fantasy X is the first game in the series where you were able to swap characters in and out during a fight, but I'm not certain if it's the only one.

Are there any other games in the series where swapping in "inactive" characters during a battle is possible?

Answer

No, it is not. Final Fantasy XII lets you switch characters in the middle of battle in pretty much the same fashion - to replace fallen allies or just to alter who is taking the brunt of attacks.

I don't know about the ones that come after, but one's enough to say no. ♪

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Square Enix Soundtracks

Question

I've downloaded the soundtracks for Final Fantasy X, X-2 and XII at this website but have noticed that there are some inconsistencies with the naming of tracks between what I've downloaded and the actual track names (based on a few sources ie playing specific tracks on YouTube).

Is there somewhere that I can see the entire playlist as it would appear when it was released so that I can rename all of the tracks that I have to being the correct ones?

Answer

Wikipedia has lists of all the songs in albums released of Final Fantasy games' soundtracks. For example, the ones that you mentioned:

• Final Fantasy X
• Final Fantasy X-2
• Final Fantasy XII

The box on the right serves as a handy link to the others though:

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What is the name of an arcade Godzilla-like game where you destroy buildings?

Question

I played a game a few years ago on someone else's computer (I'm guessing that it was running MAME) but have forgotten the name.

In the game you had a choice of monsters, I remember 2 of them:

1. A Godzilla-like creature - I think it was yellow or cyan

2. A robot monkey whose arm extended to punch - I think it was red

The gameplay involved going around with your monster and destroying buildings. Some buildings could be picked up and thrown by your monster. I believe the enemies were a combination of the army and other monsters, but I cannot be sure. The style of gameplay was arcade.

The graphics were isometric pixel art. Because of this, I'm guessing it was made in the '90s.

It is not in the Rampage series.

Answer

Sounds like you could be talking about King of Monsters II.

It's a Neo-Geo game, and is a beat-em-up where you go around fighting aliens while roaming in a destructible city.

It has a Godzilla-like creature:

And a robotic monkey:

I can't recall if he has an extendable punch attack, but as can be seen in this video he has an extendable head attack (and in the video the monkey is actually red). In this specific part of the video you should also be able to see that the monkey has a "rocket punch" sort of attack, which could also fit the bill.

As you can see the game is also isometric, though I personally think the graphics are a little too detailed to be considered "pixel art".

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Battlefield 3 Beta Performance (Is my GPU the problem?)

Question

I've been attempting to play the Battlefield 3 beta but I get staggeringly bad framerates (unplayable) unless I turn down the resolution to 800x600 (ish) - even then the framrate isn't great. So far as I can tell my machine meets the minimum requirements:

OS: Windows Vista (Service Pack 2) 32-Bit
Processor: 2 GHz Dual Core (Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHZ or Althon X2 2.7 GHz)
Memory: 2 GB
Hard Drive: 20 GB
Graphics Card (NVIDIA): DirectX 10.0 compatible with 512 MB RAM (NVIDIA GEFORCE 8, 9, 200, 300, 400 OR 500 series with NVIDIA GEFORCE 8800 GT or higher performance)
Sound card : DirectX compatible
Keyboard and Mouse
DVD ROM Drive

I've got an Alienware M15x:

OS: Windows 7 64 BitCPU: i7 Quad Core 64 BitRAM 4 GiBGPU: Nvidia Geforce GT 240M

Is my graphics card here just not quite up to scratch or do you think this is just a beta pre-optimisation issue?

Answer

They say

with NVIDIA GEFORCE 8800 GT or higher performance

The problem is an 8800 GT == 9600 GT == 240 GTS

So what i wanna say is you have an 240M this is a mobile version of the 240 GT/GTS wich means it has lower performance than the 240 GT/GTS so lower performance than the minimum requirments tell you that you need. Im sorry but you will not be able to play BF3 any better on that laptop.

Source.

• http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_list.php
• Knowledge about GPU and Mobile GPU

P.S. There may be a chance that special BF3 Drivers or little improvements on their side pump up your Fps a bit but dont count on it due to an outdated GPU

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Am I able to complete Horde mode as a single player?

Question

I have been playing Horde mode in private matches with two players and it has been really, really tough going. I just wondered, is it possible to complete Horde mode (all 50 waves) with just one person?

Answer

At least for me, the answer is definitely no. The game throws way too many enemies at you for you to be able to have success on your own. I can't imagine surviving the first boss wave (wave 10) on my own, when it throws multiple Reavers, Berserkers, or a Bromak (sp) at you.

It would be cool if they made a version that could be played by yourself, but as it stands today you need a group to hope to complete all 50 waves.

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What does mastery skill do?

Question

I recently started playing WoW again after a few years, I'm not a big player (usually get over it after a couple of weeks, highest character is lvl60) but I noticed that all the skills and such have changed around (for the better I've found so far - kinda like it now).

I noticed at level 80 or so you can get a skill called Mastery with a extremely vague companion description saying something along the lines of "Allows you to benefit from the mastery rating".

Does anyone have a more clear explanation of what this does? Is it secretly awesome?

Answer

Mastery is a skill that was introduced in Cataclysm to provide some class specialization uniqueness: the reason it's so vague is because what it enhances is entirely dependent on what your spec is.

However, you can find out what mastery is currently doing for you in your current spec by hovering over the mastery rating in your character information panel, which you can access by pressing the C key (by default). That should tell you in broad terms how it's helping you.

You can also check out Wowpedia's Mastery chart for more detail.

But for convenience's sake here's what each of the tooltips say:

Death Knight

• Blood (Blood Shield): Each time you heal yourself with Death Strike while in Blood Presence, you gain 50% of the amount healed as a damage absorption shield. Each point of Mastery increases the shield by an additional 6.25%.

• Frost (Frozen Heart): Increases all Frost damage done by 16%. Each point of Mastery increases Frost damage by an additional 2.0%.

• Unholy (Dreadblade): Increases all Shadow damage done by 20%. Each point of Mastery increases Shadow damage by an additional 2.5%.

Druid

• Balance (Total Eclipse): Increases the bonus damage from Eclipse by 16%. Each point of Mastery increases the bonus by an additional 2.0%.

• Feral, bear form (Savage Defender): Increases the damage absorbed by your Savage Defense ability by 32%. Each point of Mastery increases the absorb by an additional 4%.

• Feral, cat form (Razor Claws): Increases the damage done by your bleed abilities by 25.04%. Each point of Mastery increases bleed damage by an additional 3.1%.

• Restoration (Harmony): Your direct healing is increased by an additional 10% and casting your direct healing spells grants you an additional 10% bonus to periodic healing for 10 sec. Each point of Mastery increases each bonus by an additional 1.25%.

Hunter

• Beast Mastery (Master of Beasts): Increases the damage done by your pets by 13.36%. Each point of Mastery increases pet damage by an additional 1.67%.

• Marksmanship (Wild Quiver): Grants a 16.8% chance for your ranged attacks to also instantly fire an additional ranged shot. Each point of Mastery increases the chance by an additional 2.1%.

• Survival (Essence of the Viper): Increases all magical damage you deal by 8%. Each point of Mastery increases magical damage by an additional 1.0%.

Mage

• Arcane (Mana Adept): Increases all spell damage done by up to 12%, based on the amount of mana the Mage has unspent. Each point of Mastery increases damage done by up to an additional 1.5%.

• Fire (Flashburn): Increases the damage done by all your periodic fire damage effects by 22.4%. Each point of Mastery increases periodic damage done by an additional 2.8%.

• Frost (Frostburn): All your spells deal 5% increased damage against Frozen targets. Each point of Mastery increases damage by an additional 2.5%.

Paladin

• Holy (Illuminated Healing): Your direct healing spells also place an absorb shield on your target for 12% of the amount healed lasting 15 sec. Each point of Mastery increases the absorb amount by an additional 1.50%.

• Protection (Divine Bulwark): Increases your chance to block melee attacks by 18%. Each point of Mastery increases block chance by an additional 2.25%.

• Retribution (Hand of Light): Your Templar's Verdict, Crusader Strike, and Divine Storm deal 16.8% additional damage as Holy damage. Each point of Mastery increases the damage by an additional 2.1%.

Priest

• Discipline (Shield Discipline): Increases the potency of all your damage absorption spells by 20%. Each point of Mastery increases the potency of absorbs by an additional 2.5%.

• Holy (Echo of Light): Your direct healing spells heal for an additional 10% over 6 sec. Each point of Mastery provides an additional 1.25% healing over 6 sec.

• Shadow (Shadow Orb Power): Increases the damage done by your Shadow Orbs by 11.6%. Each point of Mastery increases damage by an additional 1.45%.

Rogue

• Assassination (Potent Poisons): Increases the damage done by your poisons by 28%. Each point of Mastery increases damage by an additional 3.5%.

• Combat (Main Gauche): Your main-hand attacks have a 16% chance to grant you an attack that deals damage equal to 100% of a main-hand attack. Each point of Mastery increases the chance by an additional 2.00%.

• Subtlety (Executioner): Increases the damage done by your finishing moves, and the effectiveness of your Slice and Dice, by 20%. Each point of Mastery increases damage by an additional 2.5%.

Shaman

• Elemental (Elemental Overload): Grants a 16% chance for Elemental Overload to occur. Elemental Overload causes a Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, or Lava Burst spell you cast to trigger a second, similar spell on the same target at no additional cost that causes 75% of normal damage and no threat. Each point of Mastery increases the chance of Elemental Overload by an additional 2%.

• Enhancement (Enhanced Elements): Increases all Fire, Frost, and Nature damage done by 20%. Each point of Mastery increases damage by an additional 2.5%.

• Restoration (Deep Healing): Increases the potency of your healing spells by up to 24%, based on the current health level of your target (lower health targets are healed for more). Each point of Mastery increases healing by up to an additional 3.0%.

Warlock

• Affliction (Potent Afflictions): Increases all periodic shadow damage you deal by 13.04%. Each point of Mastery increases periodic shadow damage by an additional 1.63%.

• Demonology (Master Demonologist): Increases the damage done by your demon servants and damage you deal while transformed into a demon by 16%. Each point of Mastery increases damage by an additional 2.0%.

• Destruction (Fiery Apocalypse): Increases all fire damage you deal by 10.8%. Each point of Mastery increases fire damage by an additional 1.35%.

Warrior

• Arms (Strikes of Opportunity): Grants a 17.6% chance for your melee attacks to instantly trigger an additional melee attack for 100% normal damage. Each point of Mastery increases this chance by 2.2%.

• Fury (Unshackled Fury): Increases the benefit of abilities that cause or require you to be enraged by 11.2%. Each point of Mastery increases enrage effects by an additional 5.60%.

• Protection (Critical Block): Increases your chance to block by 12% and your chance to critically block by 12%. Each point of Mastery increases your block chance by an additional 1.5% and your critical block chance by an additional 1.5%.

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How can I get this party started?

Question

I'm trying to create a social/common area for my NPCs, so that they don't have to spend all their time hanging out in their bedrooms. Unfortunately, all my NPC housing to date has been apartment/hotel style and no one seems willing to leave their floor:

How should I instead construct my NPC housing so as to inspire them to mingle? I like the idea of having some kind of common room, but it's difficult to gather folks there if they're afraid of stairs.

Is there some way to get NPCs to travel up or down? (I'd prefer to avoid a sprawling, village-type layout.)

Update: Success! Based on Raven Dreamer's answer, I tried putting a single wood platform to split the difference between floors. Here's the merchant, having just bounced down:

Answer

Bwarner has the right idea, but I have a different implementation.

The NPC pathing is pretty simple - amble back and forth, opening doors in their way. In your apartment style base, this restricts them to the same level as their "house", since they will not pass through wood panels, either by jumping up or by falling through (like you, the player is able to do).

What you can do is create what are effectively "one-way passages" for NPCs (no need to bother with removing floor that they're standing on!). In principle, this is quite simple: just put a drop of sufficient height (3 blocks should do it, 2 might, but I'd have to check) to the side of their house with their door. The NPCs will wander about during the day, fall off the ledge, and mingle in the pit you've created rather than alone in their homes.

Since NPCs teleport home at night (only when you're a sufficient distance away, though) their safety is not in question (though you could build a mosh basement as well, I suppose, that would keep mobs out regardless), and better yet, you won't have to re-corral them into the congregation pen every time you visited your town.

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What are the tournament/pro level graphics settings for Unreal Tournament 2004?

Question

In UT2004 - what are the recommended tournament level graphics settings?

For example, like in Quake 3 the professionals set their graphics to only show the necessary elements in the game, and maximize the size of their opponents graphics boxes.

e.g. removing unnecessary/distracting textures.

Answer

There are none. You can tone your graphics settings as you like and maybe set a custom crosshair and change the HUD size, but tournament holders sometimes have a strict policy of what the HUD has to look like.

And, you can't redefine or modify hitboxes in UT 2004, if that is what you mean. Playing with such values can get you kicked by the server security (Safegame, AntiTCC etc.) real fast.

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How do I load/board a ship?

Question

Two of the 4 scenario battles available in Cortex Command contain a step requiring you to load something onto a ship, or to escape on a ship.

...How do I actually do this?

Answer

You have to open the doors of the ship. When selected, firing will open them, firing again will close. You'll see small dotted line coming from both side of the doors. If your ship is empty, any actor passing between these lines will be pulled in. Then, you can send the ship pack in orbit.

The safest way to grab an actor is to use a dropship, rather than a rocket. With a dropship, you can just open the doors, then grab your actor from above. With a rocket, you ave to open the doors, set the AI to stay, then select the actor to bring him into the ship.

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