GAME POW 08.01.09: InFamous and Boom Blox

Posted by Sam Pow on 08.01.2009

In this special GAME POW, we have Armando Rodriguez here to help with InFamous strategies! Add that to some super awesome Boom Blox level editing secrets and you've got a GAME POW that you can't afford to miss!




GAME POW---July 25th, 2009
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It's that time of week again, here comes yet another GAME POW! This week's column is going to be a little bit different. We're taking a flashback to Boom Blox, my favorite Wii game of all time, so I can reveal my level editing secrets that have been percolating for years. My creations range from cannons, catapults, roller coasters, and even a FPS game. It's going to be amazing. As if that wasn't enough, we have guest writer Armando Rodriguez here, writer of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly news report. Armando is going to be sharing his very own tips on PS3 mega-hit InFamous. And with that, here is Armando's week in gaming:

I spent the entire week hooked on Battlefield 1943. It is amazing how much fun I am getting out of a $15 game. Also I spent a lot of time with Namco Museum Essentials. I am convinced Galaga is digital crack, because I am officially addicted.

Sam Pow's week in gaming: My week has been one without too much gameplay. I dabbled into GRAW 2 again with some friends and unearthed Boom Blox from my dusty Wii library. I played it for the first time in months, rediscovering all the level tricks and taking a look at the dozens of creations I have made. As for GRAW 2, I had forgotten how much fun that game is. For how old it is, it looks amazing, and the fluidity of the shooting and strategy mechanics are spot-on. I also bought the full Marble Blast Ultra off XBLA, after spending hours with the pack-in demo. I love the physics puzzles, and the game looks great too. Anyway, I think it's time to begin looking at all those Boom Blox Secrets. Here goes.

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Boom Blox: Level Creation Secrets
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I'll just start by saying this: a lot of games have come out for Wii. A lot of good games have come out for Wii. I've played almost every triple-A release, from Twilight Princess to Metroid 3 or Smash Bros, and I still think that Boom Blox is THE best game on the system. It beautifully combines colorful graphics, realistic physics, fun gameplay, accessibility, and powerful creation tools. And after making my way through the bulk of the game, unlocking the tools, and playing the multiplayer, I finally discovered the level editor. The level editor allows you to create your own physics puzzles with so much freedom that you could re-create 90% of the levels in the real game. I spent hour after hour making my own jenga towers and castle battles, until one day I got an idea. I found a simple cannon in the pre-made sets. You shot the trigger and it would explode, causing a block in the barrel to launch out. I found this fascinating, and immediately began construction on my own cannon.



I spent tons of time experimenting with different designs, trying every approach I could, most of which ended in failure. Eventually I found one cannon design that was workable, and shot out a block at a good enough pace to knock down a wall. I kept working with it, and eventually my cannon became so powerful that it could go through a wall, taking out only one block, leaving the rest unmoved. I continued to make several different designs, and started to make other things. Catapults, roller coasters, nothing was impossible. I found ways to utilize the physics in ways I doubt the game was intended for. It all culminated into one thing. After messing with the camera, I found that you could zoom in far enough to explore the courses close up, which eventually grew into my first design for a first person shooter. I'll outline my ideas for each of my designs, so that other Boom Blox players can create things as amazing as these.

Cannons

Cannons are a great way to test speed in the game, or to shoot the annoying block animals. It all comes down to a few key components.

The first thing you'll need when building a cannon is the chamber. Make a large hollow cube with a hole in the front and back. Fill it with bomb blox (single cubes, one big one won't do the trick). Now, to make a barrel you'll need four long blox (these ones will be immobile). I find that 4 or 5 by 1 works for the dimensions. Now, put a 2x1 block in the barrel. You can use normal blox for this, but I prefer to use toxic blox as they are easy to see. If you shoot one of the bomb blox in the back, the whole thing should go off, shooting the toxic block out the barrel. You might wish to set up a wall to witness the carnage your cannon can cause.

The great thing about cannons is that there are endless variations. Try experimenting with your own cannon designs. The basic cannon can be modified to shoot bigger blox, shoot balls, or shoot at different speeds. Play with it and find something that works. If you're feeling really adventurous, you can even make your own designs of more obscure prototypes. I have done things like shotgun cannons or cannons that fire when you pull a block out.

Catapults

One of the first things that often come to mind when building Boom Blox machines, the catapult is a fun little toy you can make that seems simple but is actually very, VERY complex. This one might take a while to get right.

The first step to building a catapult is to make a Y out of immobile blox. This will hold a long normal block, which is the main piece, and should be longer on one end. This will cause it to fall to the ground. Now you need something to launch. Large cubes work great, and some about 3x3 or 4x4 will do. Place this on top of the long main piece, near the end on the side that has fallen. It may make things easier if you construct a holding wall behind the main piece to keep the large cube from falling off. Now, we need a way to launch it. The easiest way to do this would be to drop something on it, and that means you'll have to make a dropping mechanism. Place four 1x1 immobile cubes in an order so that if you connected the dots it would make a square. Now take a vanish block and stretch it on top so that the immobile blox are holding it up. The last step is to put a gem block on top. This has to be smaller in width than the area of the immobile blox, so that when you shoot the vanish block it can fall through without getting stuck. Now, move the whole thing up in the air above the high end of the main piece. When you shoot the vanish block, the gem block should fall and hit the end of the long main piece, causing the other end with the large cube to come up, and thus launch the cube. Simple. The gem block that you drop won't be just any gem block, though. In the pre-made sets you will find a catapult. Place this and play with it a bit, and you'll soon discover that the gem block in the set is much heavier than a normal gem block. For some reason it is the heaviest block in the game, and can copied so that you can use it in your catapult.

Roller Coasters

This one is kind of fun to see. Although I could never get one to last long enough, roller coasters are my favorite ways to utilize ice in the game. This one may take a bit of time to construct.

The basic idea of this is that a flat square ice block will slide down a track of ice blox. But, making tracks means that they have to be at an angle. First make an ice block that is 2 blocks wide, and however tall you need it to be to fit the rest of the track (you'll see later). Place it on top of a single 1x1 immobile block. One side should be supported, and one not. That way when you start the level it will fall to one side. Now build a platform to catch it before it falls all the way. This platform is where the coaster will be. You'll need two tracks, and put a wall on the left side of the left track, and the right side of the right track. That way they won't fall the wrong way. The platform should be a flat ice block, big enough to stretch across the tracks. The only thing left to do is make a small, weak cannon to push the coaster off the platform and onto the tracks. Voila, your very own, very short, roller coaster.



Two things you may wish to note:
1. If you were very persistent and patient, you could make a much larger roller coaster with multiple cannons and directions, and
2. No, you can't put block animals on the coaster. Unfortunately, the coaster just falls out from under them.

FPS Games

This is probably the one you were the most interested in, and I'm willing to bet that some of you skipped down to this one in particular. After messing around with Boom Blox for countless hours, I did discover a way to make an extremely simple FPS game. Here are the directions.

To make a first person shooter in Boom Blox, you'll need three key ingredients. The first is the map. If you can adjust the map so that it is directly below you when the camera is all the way zoomed in, it looks like you are looking through a first person camera, and the movement looks like walking. To make this happen, place a block on the map that fills the entire perimeter of the building area, and is 6 blocks tall. Now for the second ingredient: tool. What tool you use can change things. You could use a simple revolver, or you could use bombs, or even grab (so you can throw around enemies like a kung-fu master). Try different tools and see what you like best. The last key piece to the puzzle is enemies. Place some block characters on the map to shoot. You can also make this more intimidating by having them charge you. Take an aggressive block animal (one that will chase down and attack other creatures) and use it as the enemy. Now put a prey animal in an enclosed box behind you. When the level starts, all you will see is the aggressive animal that appears to be coming after you.



All this may not seem like much, but trust me, when it all comes together in a complex stage, it's pretty awesome. I've built other variations of the first person theme, including my all-time favorite level, and the one I'm most proud of: Block Agent. In Block Agent, you play a secret agent that must infiltrate a cow owned facility and stealthily make your way through it, solving multiple block and physic puzzles, as well as dispatching cows with your hand-to-hand combat (grab tool). Your goal is to find the hidden money (50 point block) and escape with it.

It's all very convincing, and it's hard to believe that it was made in Boom Blox. This is the kind of thing the developers probably didn't have in mind when they designed the level editor.
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Ok, so we all know my super secret Boom Blox blueprints now. I encourage everyone who hasn't played this game to go and pick up a copy. It's more than worth the money, and is one of the best games on Wii.

And now, it's time for the special guest appearance in GAME POW. Please welcome Armando Rodriguez, here to give you some strategies for InFamous. Enjoy.

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InFamous: Beating the Game on Hard Tips
------------------------------------------------------ By Armando Rodriguez

There is a lot of debate online on whether or not being Good Cole or Evil Cole makes it easier to beat InFamous on the hardest difficulty setting. Some would argue that Good Cole makes it easier since some powers allow you to heal yourself, but after beating the game on the hardest setting with both Good and Evil Cole I have determined that Evil Cole is significantly easier. This is not a complete walkthrough or in-depth FAQ, this is just a general procedure on how to complete the game on the hardest setting.



Here is why I believe Evil Cole is easier:

- 1) Because you are Evil, you don't need to worry about the safety of pedestrians, so you can cause as much collateral damage as needed.
- 2) Because you don't need to worry about the safety of pedestrians, you can bio-leech constantly to recharge your powers. Essentially every civilian around you is a walking battery.
- 3) The majority of evil powers deal more damage than good powers. This allows you to finish enemies more quickly.
- 4) The evil exclusive power Arc Lightning is incredibly effective against large groups of enemies. It becomes one of the critical powers late in the game on the Hard setting.

Now here are some general tips on how to complete the game on the hardest setting:

- 1) Contrary to some people's opinions, completing all side missions is required if you want to beat the game on the hardest setting. You earn about 2/3's of the experience you earned on the normal difficulties, which means that you need to do a lot more to be able to max out your powers.
- 2) Completing all EVIL side missions is a requirement to fully max out the Arc Lightning power. Because of how useful this power becomes (when maxed out) you will have a harder time beating the game without it.
- 3) You DON'T need to max out every power in order to beat Kessler and finish the game on the hardest setting. Concentrate on maxing out the Megawatt Hammer, Shock Grenades, Reduce Damage, Polarity Wall and Lightning Storm powers. You might also want to fully upgrade the Shockwave power, but that is mostly personal preference.
- 4) Maxing out the Electric Drain power comes in handy in the final battle with Kessler since there are no nearby pedestrians to Bio-Leech. It is pretty much useless until then, so max out the other powers first and leave this one for last. It is possible to beat the game without maxing out this power, but it is a bit harder due to the scarcity of electrical outlets in that final battle. It might come in handy in the battle with Alden as well if you don't have a maxed out Polarity Wall, but if you do then this power is not needed for that battle.



The game is more difficult, but not impossible on the Hard setting. I found only two critical battles pose much of a problem, that's why I have decided to make a small strategy guide for them. The two battles are the one against Alden and the final battle against Kessler.
Against Alden:

- 1) Whenever he sprays bullets your way, stand still and use the Polarity Wall. If you followed my advice and have it maxed out, then the bullets absorbed by the wall will restore your own electricity, eliminating the need to drain electricity from the nearby lights.
- 2) Whenever he is about to throw a fireball or chunk of metal, stand still (allowing him to target you) and when he throws it, run and roll out of the way. These things are easy to avoid if you remember to stand still first (so that he takes good aim and lets go) and then you move away as soon as the projectile is in the air. People who have issues with these projectiles is mostly because they run around BEFORE he lets go and because they don't know exactly where the projectile will land, they run straight into it.
- 3) The Megawatt Hammer is your friend against Alden. Target a big part of the creature's body (like the shoulders) and fire as many shots as you can before Alden attacks again. The best opportunity to attack is either, as he is picking up a big projectile to throw your way or right after he lets it go (just remember to move away first!).



Against Kessler:

Kessler is a difficult boss to fight until you memorize his attack patterns and learn to time his attacks as well. It is a requirement to have maxed out Megawatt Hammer, your normal Bolt attack and the Electric Drain power if you want to have the easiest time possible beating him.

- 1) For the majority of the fight, use your normal bolt attack. You don't spend electricity with this attack. Electricity is pretty scarce here, which is why we need to save as much as possible.
- 2) ALWAYS keep Kessler in your sights. It is the only way to know which attack he will unleash and determine your next move.
- 3) If Kessler creates ghost clones of himself, knock them out quickly with your bolts. It might be tempting to just ignore them and focus on Kessler, but if you do these things will damage you and they are also quite a distraction. Considering who you are facing, you don't need another distraction!
- 4) It might take a few retries, but it is possible to time every attack Kessler makes and dodge out of the way with a roll or a jump. Doing so AT THE RIGHT TIME is the key to opening attack opportunities with the Megawatt Hammer. When is the right time? This takes a bit of practice, but if you learn the timing of his "Shockwave" attack you can unleash one or two Megawatt Hammers before you roll out of the way. Also if you learn the timing of his dash ability it is possible to roll out of the way of the last dash (it leaves him stunned for a few seconds) and unleash 2-3 Megawatt Hammers.
- 5) Be precise with your Megawatt Hammers. I already said electricity is scarce. Do not fire an excess of Megawatt Hammers in an attempt to deal more damage, more than likely you will miss and waste precious energy. The brief windows of opportunity you get to unleash this power allow for 1-3 shots at best, so don't waste more shots. It is better to shoot once and deal damage than shoot 4-5 times and waste your time and energy.
- 6) I hope you followed my advice and maxed out the Electric Drain power. Around the battlefield there are a few small antennas that provide the only source of electricity on this fight. A maxed out Electric Drain allows you to drain them faster and spend less time standing still. Kessler's attacks are very powerful, so standing still is not a good option.

If you follow this advice you will be able to beat Kessler and finish the game on the Hard setting, getting that precious Gold trophy.
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Thanks for the tips Armando, I now know that if I ever play this game I'll have to go evil, if only to suck dry all those human batteries.

Well, I hope you all had fun with this week's GAME POW. Expect to see more visiting talent in the column down the road somewhere. Remember to tune in next week, but until then, POW!