XCOM: Enemy Unknown - Mission 2 - Operation Burning Smoke

We landed in Miami at nearly three in the morning. This should mean that civilians are in bed, blissfully unaware of what is going on in their town. There, thankfully, won't be any chance of civilian casualties. 

Basically, our objectives were: kill all aliens, come home.

Bradford still held my hand for the first half of the mission. He first sent my fellow Scot, Rookie Hunter, into that building.

This method of opening doors may be quieter, and thus preventing the enemy from knowing where we are, but it's nowhere near as fun as kicking doors in. Sadly, this is a time of war, not for play.

Another piece of advice Bradford gave me was to send certain soldiers onto elevated surfaces.

Not only did it help us scout out the area and find two future corpses, but it gave Squaddie Vargas some combat benefits...

This alien made the mistake of firing at Vargas. It made the even bigger mistake of missing. This is how Vargas deals with this level of stupidity...

One alien down.

Rookie Hunter here showed off one of the abilities available to all soldiers, regardless of class - Hunker Down. This is a defensive ability that will turn a "half-shield" of cover into a full shield - with the added bonus of critical hits being completely nulled. It can be very useful if a soldier is near death, it could give them a better chance of coming back alive.

I had almost ordered Hunter to do this, but Roux got the honour of throwing a grenade at the alien - granting him his first kill.

After a few more rounds, our Belgian, Rookie Verhoeven, catches sight of our next target...

Sadly, it's way out of firing range.

Alas, moving closer spooked the aliens into hiding into this building. This easily collapsible building. If only we had a rocket...

The aliens did something weird here, Dr. Vahlen suggested that the two aliens merged their minds or something? I'm still not sure, but it did make the target of the merge more powerful.

Thankfully, it didn't make it any more accurate. Not a single shot from one of these fellas hit any of our soldiers. The latter two images do show off the "Overwatch" ability - anyone that runs into their line of sight will be subjected to a round of fire. Our soldiers can use it too - it is very useful when defending a certain area. It is less accurate than usual, but it can be devastating to our enemies if luck is on our side.

As I mentioned in the last entry, Alejandro Vargas' promotion means he can now carry a rocket launcher. So it's time to perform an experiment - what happens to aliens when a rocket hits them?

Huh, they die. Well, I think that test was very conclusive, but I think we need to run more tests. Maybe, one or two or eighty more?

Easy enough mission, though I don't expect the rest of them to be this easy. Still, I think our squad has earned a few day's break.

Mission Stats

Alejandro Vargas - 3 kills (2 missions, 4 kills)

Victor Roux - 1 kill (1 mission, 1 kill)

Scottie Hunter - 0 kills (1 mission, 0 kills)

Amber Verhoeven - 0 kills

Super Mario 64 - The Birth of 3D Platforming

Song of the Day

Inside the Castle Walls

The Birth of 3D Platforming

Since the early 80s, platform games has been the king genre of home video game consoles. The aim of the classic platformer is to get from A to B while jumping over obstacles such as enemies, gaps, barrels, spikes and various other traps. While there was plenty of platform games by the time the NES rolled around it would be a certain plumber in 1985 who created the blueprint of what a 2D platformer should be. It helped that 'Super Mario Bros.' was the biggest selling game of all time until recently (Wii Sports holds the record now-a-days, due to it being packed with every Wii...).

I'm sure just about all of you have seen this screen at least once...

SEGA would find success with their own 2D platforming mascot Sonic the Hedgehog. Both the Mario and Sonic franchises were the kings of their respective consoles, but it would be the transition into 3D that would truly see who the superior franchise was.

In 1996 Nintendo released Super Mario 64, a launch title for their new Nintendo 64. The game was a critical and commercial hit, it pretty much wrote the rulebook as to what 3D Platforming should be. However, it was not the first attempt at a 3D platformer. There was a few games in the 1980's that could be classed as a 3D platform game, but being the 80s, most were pseudo-3D at best. In 1990 a game was released for the Atari ST (though later ported to the Amiga). The game looks dated to hell 22 years later, but it can be considered the first 3D platformer game. I've never played it myself, but the way it's described you have a 3D field and you have to jump onto a platform which acts as a trampoline to allow you to jump to the next platform until you reach the level goal.

The levels were "abstract". You don't say...

It even has a few things that would be a common 3D Platform feature, such as a movable camera and the ability to move in any direction. Despite this, it is not particularly remembered as a game that influenced the genre. A game was released in 1995 called Jumping Flash. It is considered to be the gameplay continuation of another game called Geograph Seal, which was never released outside of Japan. Both games are a hybrid of a first person shooter and 3D platformer. It was released originally on the Playstation to some fantastic reviews, but it was soon to be completely overshadowed. It's another game I've never played, but it is available on the PSN under it's 'PSOne Classics' banner.

The precursor to Metroid Prime? (Image: MobyGames)

There was a few other games released during this time, 'Bug' for the SEGA Saturn was very similar to the classic platformer, but it did allow you to walk in all directions. "Fade to Black" was the sequel to "Flashback" and featured a fully 3D characters and environment. However, despite retaining some of it's platform-like features, it resembles a shooter more than anything as well as the inability to jump.

Nintendo, SEGA and new boys in the console war Sony were in a rush to get a 3D Platform game for their respective new consoles. After all platformers were still big money-makers in the gaming world.

Sony would put their trust into Naughty Dog, seen as a risky move at the time as they had just released 'Way of the Warrior" which was not a well received game at all. But, with the backing of Universal Interactive Studios, Naughty Dog's game would be 'Crash Bandicoot' and it would go on to sell over 6.8 million copies. 

We'll be seeing this fella soon enough...

SEGA had their own game in development for the Saturn. It was to be called 'Sonic Xtreme', developed by SEGA's American studio, STI. The game was eventually cancelled however, after much squabbling with the Japanese team. 'Sonic Xtreme' was to be a very different kettle of fish compared to previous Sonic platformers, however in the end the SEGA Saturn didn't even get a proper Sonic game. It wouldn't be until the Dreamcast, and 'Sonic Adventure' that we'd see the blue hedgehog in 3D.

This is apparently what it would have looked like...

Finally, with the release of the Nintendo 64, 'Super Mario 64' was released changing the entire game on 3D Platforming. It was not the first one, not even close, but it terms of lasting influence, it may as well have been. Carry on plumbin' Mario!