Veiled Malice

Ren nodded to Grim and followed Foreshadow up the staircase to the what he hoped to be the surface. He didn't know the hero from before, aside from Icarus's (then Heavy's) whispered warnings about him. Still, he had to imagine the man had changed a lot from his otherworldly version. Besides the whole "missing eye" thing, of course. Being without in-depth knowledge of the various heroes and villains of Freedom City had a lot of downsides, no doubt.

Well, like I said, my game up and decided not to give me any more missions suddenly, which meant that I had to start a new one. That comes as something of an annoyance, since that never happened in the other GTA games to me. I'd still suggest you try it out, though. Aggravations over the driving and character parodies aside, it's a great game.

Moved to the appropriate place, thanks. ;)

"I have no idea," Ren said to Rant, shaking the dirt and other crud out of his hair. "He's never done that before, and I doubt it's just from claustrophobia. He's wearing a fully enclosed suit, after all." "But we need to get his butt back here before he brings all of Omega's people down on our collective heads." He turned to Earthbender. "Can you let us out here? Somewhere out of the way, perhaps?"

Or you can put your faith in the SupermanlyTM Nightrival and hope he catches you. But yes, you can burn a HP to become unstunned, then try to make another Reflex save to catch the ladder as you fall.

Yeah, you are without actions, but I thought you could make a reaction post or something.

I don't want you to get the impression I don't like the game - I do. I'm just disappointed that it's not the polished gem I thought it would be. There's some glaring annoyances, but if you're willing to look beyond them, there is an awesome game underneath. I suppose I should say, if you're willing to look past the awesome game, there's some niggling glitches I find fault with. A real shame for a work of art like GTA 4. And I'll get back to where I was before in the game. It'll just take me a while. If it happens again, though, I might have to hang it up and move on. No game is worth having it screw up on you like that.

Oh yeah, no problem there. You'll have ample time. And he was kidding in the chat. (At least I think he was... :? )

I'd been hanging around for more than an hour (real time) with nothing to do when I decided to do all the extra jobs your friends offer you. I've done them all. It's taken me about five real time hours. If that call is coming, then there's something wrong. The choice to have other people in the car just doesn't come up a lot early in the game. It's usually just you, up until Packy and his bothers start robbing things. I'm just annoyed that the two big things in the game - driving and shooting - are so difficult to accomplish. I typically get away from cops because they've all crashed into each other, ala "Blues Brothers", not because of any mad skillz on my part. And prioritizing the autoaim so it would fire on the man directly in front of you firing the shotgun into your face over the man standing behind the car would be good too. And yes, you can turn off the phone - if you don't want the game to advance. It gives you a chance to get the side quests, I suppose. And yes, I have checked to make sure my phone is on.

The cats couldn't actually hurt him, of course. His skin was so near bulletproof that it really didn't matter. But getting pounced on surprised him, and that in turn had provided the impetus for his rather emasculating outburst. "" he muttered in Japanese as Lynn tossed her "babies" into the next room. But the next part - the kissing part - that was very nice. As she moved up to his lips, Ren suddenly wrapped his arms around the girl and pulled her in for a long, lingering kiss. "I'm much better now," he said with a wolfish grin after he'd broken it off. "But you didn't say you had attack cats. Any other hazards I should be aware of?"

Alright, you found him. He's currently standing at a control panel near the middle of the factory floor. Go get 'im. ;)

Okay, very good, both of you. Now, here's what happened: Grim had a slightly lower DC to retain her hold on the ladder, because of the buffer provided by Nightrival. Unfortunately, that's rendered moot because she is now Bruised and Stunned, and falling towards the fire below her. Nightrival, of course, stands only slightly singed by the same flames and is more than capable of acting normally. It's your move, Heritage. :twisted: (Oh, and thanks, SB. That's considerably better than what Heritage called me in the chat. )

Yeah, go ahead and give me one of those. You shouldn't have too much of a problem, though. Rotten's not very stealthy.

Indeed, I liked GTA 4 as well. Although I would have liked it in a game called Grand Theft Auto to actually be able to drive the cars more than 15 miles per hour without having them handle like a pregnant ox! Is that a new feature or something? Having a completely broken driving system? And God help you if you want to drive and shoot at the same time, in which case you will be combining two of the worst implemented systems in the game. Oh, and I really love being called up every two minutes by overly clingy, inevitably annoying people who want to go out for a night on the town. Because everyone knows, they couldn't do that without you! It's like a requirement now that every single NPC in the game is so over the top in their performances that it becomes irritating. I noticed it in the other GTAs, but they have taken it to the next level here. I have come to dread taking missions from these people, as my ears are going to be assaulted with horrifically fake accents and ridiculous character interactions. The one saving grace is that Niko, the person you control, isn't like that. Only he tends to shovel out his back story at incredibly inappropriate times. At home, behind closed doors? Fine. After having executed a mafia boss in broad daylight? Not so much. Compound that with the fact that I had to restart my entire game after it decided it didn't want me to advance anymore and refused to allow me to get another mission, and I am very underwhelmed. Everything detail is better from previous games; more realistic. I suppose the driving system is evidence of that. But sacrificing fun for realism? Now you've lost me. I'm going back to Civ 4, thank you very much.

From the corner of her eye, Velocity's enhanced time sense caught a blur of motion coming towards her, and managed to turn just in time to dodge Rotten's punch. Unfortunately, he quickly moved out of range and back among the machinery. "Wow, you are a quick one!" the PA system crowed again. "But do you think you can dodge me all day? I don't. I think that, eventually, I'm going to get lucky, and then where will you be?"

Uh oh! That's not a good thing! Anyway, both of you give me two reflex rolls - one to hold onto the ladder (you can skip this if you want to fall off), and one versus a DC 16 area attack. That's a DC 21 toughness if you fail, DC 18 if you succeed.

Both heroes easily made it to the ladder, Nightrival leading the way and Grimalkin coming in close behind. It only got easier as the two climbed, as the very nature of the "deathtrap" assisted them with the way up. As it receded up into the ceiling, Nightrival reached up to turn the locking handle on the hatch. As he did, though, the wheel turned of it's own accord. "Wrong door," the disembodied voice boomed in a disturbingly final tone. The hatch blew open and flames belched out of the portal. The heat wave alone was a physical presence, hammering the two heroes back as surely as a blast of wind. It was immediately followed up by the fire itself, washing over the both before they could move.

While Grim did her best to calm down Icarus, in dawned on Ren that the shaking of the cavern they now stood in might not be doing wonders for the armored man's mental state. "Oi! Quit the quaking! You're freaking him out!" he yelled at Rant and Earthbender. If they didn't stop, he couldn't really do much, but at least he'd made his wants known.

Yeah, me too. Could you give me a notice check real quick?

Same here. I have nothing but good to say about it, and it's a tremendous coup for anyone even remotely into comics. Or movies. Or stuff that entertains in any way, shape or form. :D

I think that means "girl" in Portuguese. I'm not sure, though.

I was wondering why my name was all green... :? :)

And to you, good sir. Although as I understand it, "weekend" is something of a misnomer in the Japanese workplace. In the US, it's traditional to stop working, for example. ;)

Lookin' better all the time! This is what I like: we're getting to see the evolution of an artist over time, and you can really see where you're improving with each picture you create. Keep it up! :clap:

Ren leaned into the kiss that, at first, seemed to be coming for his lips, but when Lynn switched over to his cheek, he was somewhat taken aback. What was with the lukewarm greeting? What was he, her father? "Jacket. Right," he mumbled as she took the article of clothing. Dissapointed by the lack of feeling in her welcome, Ren none the less looked foreard to tonight. It was the first time he'd been in her apartment, after all. Though the place wasn't exactly new, she'd done some good work in keeping it up. He was about to make his way into the kitchen and pick himself out a drink (though the alcohol would have absolutely no effect on him), when he noticed, or rather heard, the felines on Lynn's bed. "Oh hey! You have cats," he said, pleasently surprised. Though he wasn't much of a cat person, the three seemed to be pretty cute. "What are their name- " the last part of his query was cut off in a flurry of Japanese as two of the three jumped at him, clawing his shirt and bearing him down to the ground. "Halp! They're tryina' kill me!"