Leedzie’s Loopholes: Survivor Shelter Shortcut

As this is an equal opportunity gaming blog, today we’re going to step away from video games to have a look at one of our country’s most demanding and unforgiving competitions: Survivor. Inspired by the 1997 Swedish survival show Expedition Robinson, Survivor premiered in the United States in 2000, and quickly took the country by storm. Now, 14 years and 28 seasons later, the series continues to run strong by innovating new rules, formats, and play styles.

Each time a new season is announced, millions of diehard fans flock to auditions in hopes of earning their chance to outwit, outplay, and outlast their peers for that sweet, sweet $1,000,000 — and I am NOT one of them. Don’t get me wrong, I want to play the games and prove my strength and possibly win enough money to set my family for life, but unless they’re giving me free birth control pills for 39 days, I have no intention of dealing with my period when the nearest Aleve can only be reached by helicopter.

But even if it’s a game I never intend to play, that doesn’t mean I can’t still break it.

Leedzie’s Loopholes: Fallout New Vegas Lonesome Road Bug Bypass

(Warning: Spoilers and in-game jargon ahead.)

I’ve never been one for RPGs. For me, having to deal with so many stats for so many different people and objects tends to detract from gameplay, so much so that I have yet to ever complete a game in this genre. Despite this, my best friend bought me a copy of Fallout: New Vegas last year, insisting that it was an RPG that I would enjoy much more than the others I’d tried.

For the most part, she was correct. It wasn’t long before I found myself deeply invested in the storyline and adjusting to the various weapons, but again, the stat system was killing my enjoyment quite a bit. To resolve this, my bestie put my save file on a flash drive, disappeared for about half an hour, and then returned to tell me that my file had been hacked and I was now essentially a god, courtesy of TooTooBang’s Mod. With the stats eliminated, I happily resumed what I did best: Wrecking shit and completing dialogue trees.

This all came to a screeching halt, however, when I completed the Lonesome Road DLC chapter.

As many gamers before me have woefully discovered, this menu pops up upon leaving The Divide and returning to the Mojave Desert. The game is trying to reward the player by offering a free point to one of the courier’s S.P.E.C.I.A.L. traits, but as you can see, all fields are maxed out. Despite the fact that there’s allegedly an option to reset a given field, pressing the indicated button doesn’t actually change any of the values. The point can’t be added, the numbers can’t be lowered, and this screen can’t be skipped.

This was going to take some ingenuity.

Leedzie’s Loopholes: ACNL Groundhog’s Day Trick

Hey guys, welcome to my new semi-regular segment on this blog! Leedzie’s Loopholes is a category of posts in which I explain how to break a game in some way or another without the use of cheat devices. This has come about because I have a long history of doing exactly that, and, er, I just did it again the other day.

For this first entry, we’re going to examine a game that’s been devouring my life for the last couple of months, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, and how the Bug Off contest drove me to the brink of my sanity.

Sonic CD Good Ending Strategy Guide

Well, we’re in the home stretch, and it’s not about to get any easier. This level gives Sonic a taste of his own medicine by surrounding him with lots and lots and lots of sharp spikey things that are anxious to steal your rings away from you. This level has an abundance of extraordinarily testy jumps, and will happily force you to walk into time travel posts you weren’t in the market for. The good news is there are no more hologram projectors to take out now that Metal Sonic’s been destroyed, but the bad news is that the robot generators are now that much harder to get to. Gird your loins, because the final sprint is going to be a doozy.

Sonic CD Good Ending Strategy Guide

With the dance floor from hell behind us, we continue on toward our good ending into a level that’s almost as unpredictable horizontally as the previous level was vertically. The “speedway” portion of this level’s name is very appropriate, as it has a habit of propelling you forward whether you were planning on it or not. This level is somewhat easier than Wacky Workbench, but by no means does that mean that it’s easy. It’s a fun level to blaze through if you’re not worried about endings, but with our specific goals in mind, I recommend taking your time and being very careful about your footwork.

Sonic CD Good Ending Strategy Guide

If you were ever under the impression that level designers love you and want to show you a good time, prepare to have that illusion shattered. Even the best level designers snap every now and then, and considering that there are four versions of every first and second act in this game (as well as two versions of every third), it was only a matter of time before Sonic CD’s designers decided to blow off steam by making an evil level.

The primary gimmick of this level is the fact that the ground floor is extremely bouncy, and if Sonic touches it even for a second, he gets shot up to the ceiling. This wouldn’t be such a problem if not for the fact that there are electric coils near the ceiling in most areas. Interestingly enough, they still managed to make Wacky Workbench’s insidious level mechanics enjoyable (who doesn’t like kooky sound effects and flying through the air?), but just because it’s fun does not, by any means, mean that it’s easy. Put on your big kid pants, because the difficulty is going up.

Sonic CD Good Ending Strategy Guide

This level introduces an interesting new spin on an old gimmick. Conveyor belts have been used in lots of other Sonic games, but Quartz Quadrant is unique in the fact that you, the player, are allowed to decide the direction of the belts. This will make a difference more than once as we progress, so keep a careful eye on the directions. (Also, if you’re the type of person that likes to stand still on moving sidewalks, you might want to keep in mind that there’s a 10 minute time limit per level!)

Sonic CD Good Ending Strategy Guide

As we continue our quest for a good ending, we come upon the most loathed category in all of video games: The water level. Whether it’s the fact that movement is more difficult, certain weapons become unusable, or the character’s health is in danger, no gamer on the face of the planet has ever looked at a water level and said, “That looks like a good time!” Sonic CD at least cuts its audience a break by omitting the nightmare-inducing drowning countdown when Sonic’s running low on air.

Sonic CD Good Ending Strategy Guide

Just as every Sonic game has its paradise level, many of them also have a casino/pinball zone, and this is it for Sonic CD. While it does lack most of the casino aspects, it makes up for it with its sheer volume of bumpers and springs. This area can be tricky to navigate, whether you know the game well or not, and it’s designed to be difficult to backtrack. Let’s be sure we don’t give ourselves a need to do so.

Sonic CD Good Ending Strategy Guide

If there’s one thing that most Sonic games have in common, it’s that they start out in an idyllic, paradise-like setting. The colors are bright and vibrant, and there are beautiful waterfalls and mountains. We get this first impression of beauty and happiness in order to appreciate just how dark and ugly the later levels become. Sonic’s games are often criticized for cloning Green Hill Zone over and over again, but I must say that I give this level some credit for coming up with some new gimmicks and not including the word “hill” in its name.