StarHawk Corner - Newbie Help

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A quick note here from now until the 21st I'll be moving, so StarHawk Corner posts may not happen as quickly as they were last week.

Just Starting in StarHawk?

This post is dedicated to you and trying to bring you into what's going on with this beta. So let's start out, this beta isn't like a normal beta. Most betas these days are glorified demos. They are meant to help find some bugs, but generally not much more than that.

StarHawk is different in this respect. The developers are looking for much more. They are tweaking everything from weapon balance to actual game mechanics. What that means is you, new recruit, can't sit on your butt and not participate.

Crashes

So the first stop on this tour will be about crashes. They will happen, your PS3 will freeze. So back up your saved games now. When the game freezes or crashes, you may have to hold the power button on your PS3 to reset it. When your PS3 comes back up, it will ask if you'd like to send a crash report to Sony. Say yes.

Let me repeat that, if asked to send a crash report to Sony say YES.

The crash reports are used by developers to identify what's wrong and why the crash happened. They are vital to developers.

Forums

You'll be expected to participate in the forums. Please do so, here's a link: http://community.us.playstation.com/community/games/shooter/starhawk/starhawk_beta

Don't worry, that link only works for PSNs that are actually in the beta. Now before you go shooting your mouth off, there's a couple of things you need to do. First look to the right of the posts, there are subspaces. Are you in the right one for what you want to talk about? If you're talking about weapons, that probably doesn't belong in the general discussion. If instead you're talking about something that cuts across multiple sections or general game play, yes the top level forum is probably good for that.

Second, look to see if someone has posted something similar. It happens a lot, and there are already a lot of posts. If so, don't start a new topic, add to the existing one first. If you do need to start a new topic make your title descriptive.

Finally, this is a place to share opinions and ideas, but doing so without justification is generally frowned upon. If you don't like something, say why. If you can't say why, at least try to give the devs an idea of what's really the problem. Here's an example:

Shotgun Sucks (BAD)
The shotgun is over powered (BETTER)
The power of the shotgun when at a medium range is too much. It can go further than the rifle and cause more damage. (BEST)

Note, the last one tells what is wrong and why. The first one does nothing to help.

Bugs

If you're playing, you might stumble upon a bug. I know, heaven forbid, but it might just happen. You can go to the forums and complain or you can file a bug report and have it fixed. There is a special subspace for bugs and a sticky post on how to post a bug. Do start a new topic for new bugs or if it is already existing and you feel you have extra detail to add, add it. "Me too" isn't any extra detail. Take pictures and video if you can, and attempt to repeat the bug before posting. (If you can't repeat it, do post anyways.)

One Game Two Controllers

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***WARNING. THERE BE SPOILERS AHEAD. INCLUDING SOME SINGLE PLAYER SPOILERS. READ AT OWN PERIL***

Beating Portal 2 Co-Op Mode By Myself

So I'm by no means the first to do this. I beat Portal 2 by myself.

And due to a clipping bug, there was only one really hard part.

First, for reference I'll go through the test course names:

1. Calibration
2. Team Building
3. Mass and Velocity
4. Hard-Light Surfaces
5. Excursion Funnels
6. Mobility Gels

So the first part that is tricky but not hard is in Team Building. You have to hit 2 buttons with each player and the timer is set such that you must do both at the same time.

This is actually quite simple. Set your portals, use your action button, run forward. In terms of actually making sure two people are playing this test is a little lame.

The real challenge comes in from Mobility Gels, test chamber 7. I had asked my wife to help me complete this as it was difficult, but she couldn't quite understand what she had to do. After about 30 minutes of blowing herself up we called it quits.

Here's the thing, player A has to use the speed gel and two walls to get up to speed. Player B has to then hit a button to lift a platform up. While the platform is coming up, player B has to run towards player A and use a portal to launch them onto the platform. Player A must then run to end of the platform on the right hand side. While player A is running down the platform, player B must go back to a different switch. Once player A is in place B has to hit that second switch to drop a box. Player A must catch that box and run back before the platform drops.

Quite literally it took both hands and foot for me to complete this. I had to make player A run forward using a toe, while I controlled player B. It took skill, luck and timing but I passed this chamber into the last one.

Now test chamber 8 is where people say there's another difficult part. I would have too except there's a clipping bug that makes this much easier. In the second part of test chamber 8, you have to slide a box down an incline. This blocks laser beams raising platforms that then lower. It is expected that both players run over the platforms and hit a button at the same time.

Well if you take the box with player A and walk down the ramp you can block the lasers leaving the platform up for some time. If you take player B and use the now stable platforms you can get all the way to the switch. Go to the left switch with player B, and stand in the corner. Face the switch and then have player A unblock the last laser. If done correctly, player B will still be standing facing the switch when the platform retracts.

This then makes it a simple to drop the box, and while it slides run along the platforms with player A. Hit the switch at the same time, and you're all golden.

Then simply take care of some turrets make a big jump and do a little dance cause you're done.

Down to 10 trophies till platinum on the PS3.

Now would it have been possible to make a test chamber actually require 2 people? Sure, but if you did then it may not actually be solvable by most teams playing. That said, a set of running forward and hitting switches and placing portals type of test would have probably kept me from completing it by myself.

But in the end, I saved science.



Oh and the credits are insane. I couldn't catch all of it.