Video Game Tester Application‎

Written by Aperama
Mason Powers Journal Entry #6: “Im finally beginning to make some headway into this case, I think! Its all confusing, really, but Im definitely less lost than I was just a little while ago. My trusty CAD let me know where I had to go next – a lovely night club in Barcelona, Spain. Carlos Ramirez was Jackals handler – it took a bottle of wine that probably cost more than my retirement fund, but I got him to tell me more about Jackal – and why McBain was still looking for the presumed-dead Scorpio. He also gave me a lockpick, and I think I now know how to disarm the bomb that Operation Thunderbolt is inversely linked to! Anyhow, this all sent me down to Venice, Italy, where I met a money-grubbing bartender, a lovely stripper with some delightful moves, a KGB operative who looked like he could snap me in half like a twig.. and, most of all, Scorpio! Turns out he faked his own death after the Jackal began to threaten him, sure that the Company would just send him to a mythical place like Sanctuary.. turns out he probably would have been right! Ive only got time to say this because I took a flight to Rome, Italy – my old lover Lisa Loomis let me know that the Company was willing to hear me out. Im ready to present my case to Jack Quinn and his lapdog – I sure hope I dont mess up any words!”

Technically, this flight cost $700. But travelling by line-air is all worth the while

Countdown, since doing its utmost to lose me completely, has been remarkably straightforward and game-like as of this update. This is very much working in its favour coming up to a PISSED rating – but I still dont think that coherency now saves it too much in the face of what has happened. And there are still lots of gaping issues that should really be addressed.. but again, I ramble over the game because my cheeks are still glowing with a mixture of anger and pain at the way things have come together. Anyhoo! Last I left you all, I was left with a vague clue as to where to go next. Ive learned the likely name of Stormbringer – Jackal. Confused? Dont be, theyre all just the creepy guy with the moustache in the last update. I thought at the time that he was likely Scorpio – but the game seems to have left that thought for dust throughout this update, as several people have affirmed that theyre two separate people, and I just dont see why people such as Carlos Ramirez, Jackals handler, would bother to lie to me about that sort of thing..

My first attempts to persuade him to join the good fight were.. less than convincing

Carlos is a drunk. Well, the game doesnt really give you a clear idea of this, but you meet him in a cabaret, and he repeatedly goes for swigs of alcohol from what appears to be a cognac glass while you talk to him. The only way to get him to talk is through BLUFF-BLUFF-PLEASANT-PLEASANT. Basically, you intone that youre a member of the CIA looking into some double-crossing action, insist that you dont want to involve the full chain of command, and then offer him the ridiculously old bottle of wine found back in Sanctuary. He sees a good deal (this must be 15th century or so – I can only imagine how expensive it must be) and begins to blab along. He doesnt really have too much of use to tell about Jackal, ironically, given hes seemingly the only one who could wrangle him – instead, you learn something about Scorpio through him. Scorpio used to have a girl back in Venice, Italy by the name of Golden Desire – turns out, he was thinking of turning coat to the Soviets at around about the time that he had his accident in Beirut...

Yeah, mister? Well not only did I live to tell about Fontaine, but I left him in an alley, completely conscious and.. oh god hes behind me isnt he?

The other thing he has to offer – which I got absolutely no indication of other than the fact that I obsessively use every item on every person in an adventure game that feels like its lacking in sense (if you offer cash to someone who is willing to take money, theyll pull up a haggle screen) – is a lockpicking kit for $400. Sure enough, thats what I needed for the safe back in Athens. Technically, I didnt rush straight out there – Im on a deadline, and Italy is on the way to Greece – but it definitely felt as though you were supposed to race back there straight away. There is only one thing in the safe, being a small, encoded message – fed through the CAD, it reads as follows:

Do you put plot-sensitive pieces of encoded paper into blatantly obvious safes, too? Congratulations, you can be a part of Black December!

Anyhow, this stop technically happened near the end of the playthrough here – but there again, in truth Im very mindful of the timer in this game and had actually run from Carlos the moment I got it to take a peek. Savescumming hurts nobody, right? (Right.) From Greece back to Italy, and Venice – and what would appear to be either a high-rent strip club or a low-rent cabaret, Im not entirely sure which. The first room brings us out to a bar, where there are two wise-cracking Europeans, and a bartender – well get to him in a moment, but first lets continue our little tour of what I plan to now title the striparet.

The front room, where hilarious jokes are told.

The back room, where.. BLACKJACK?!?!?

Id been wondering for a little while as to how this game would be completable if you hadnt found all of the caches – and I could already sense my dollars going down rapidly given that I was taking the plane every time for time constraints. But no? This room has a video blackjack machine. Excuse me for a moment..

Leisure Suit Larry has taught me well, sensei

Yeah, I ended up with about $5500 before I actually worried about things like plot. Psh. Who cares about plot, anyway? The back room really had nothing much to speak of, as I wasnt able to talk to the dancer onstage, and she didnt seem to be going away any time soon. The dancers room is closed off with a bouncer, and you cant threaten him with a scalpel OR plastic explosive.. no fun, game. A quick jaunt up to the front bar (where you can taste some Finlandia vodka no less) and we get to talk to the bartender.. who unsurprisingly wants a bribe. $500 seems a whole lot less when youre wandering around with an infinite money-generating device in the next room, so I pay the man and happily – he tells us that Golden Desire is more than likely to be willing to chat to us, and that hell tell her to come down from the stage and wait for you in the next room. He also mentions that it seems strange – he remembers the name Scorpio, yet after the reports of him dying came out, she never seemed particularly worried about them despite them seeming quite the couple..

Im only insulting these people for -you- guys. You wanted to see their silly faces, right?

Masons default dialogue is, to be perfectly honest, somewhat dire. All he seems capable of doing is insulting her or introducing himself – but thats fine, as she doesnt need any real coercion to tell you things that might help you. She mentions that the Jackal was an absolute animal when he worked with Scorpio – and gives a rather impassioned plea attempting to explain that Scorpio was knotted up in all sorts of trouble, got unlucky and got taken out, and is clearly very angry with the CIA for putting him in a position like he ended up in to begin with. The dialogue is actually decent here for what I take to be about the first time in the game thus far – the writing makes her seem legitimately angry, and almost human. This is about the first sad sprite that we actually get to see, but its not actually that humorous – so instead, heres her reaction to being called babycakes...

Good thing that the CIA have knocked Mason off of their lists – hes a walking sexual harassment suit

The next step is more than a touch counterintuitive. Unfortunately, the game has taught us that time is an issue, so you should rush whenever you can – Im still staring at the top right corner of the screen every time I get involved in anything. Thankfully, keeping saves sitting around, I was staring at the screen and trying to use my inventory on everything and anything – and then the bouncer up and left. Yup, just left. No tact or foreknowledge necessary – he just up and went away. Hooray! That makes things easy enough, I guess. The room ahead is Ms. Desires dressing room – theres not too much of interest in here, really, just a one-room puzzle that involves finding a key which leads to another key which leads to a memo. The memo runs through the CAD, and gives an anonymous memo that essentially reads Im going away for a while, dont tell anyone anything – Buzz Brezhnev will know where I am. (Theres also a makeup kit, which I take just.. because.)

Bonus quiz: wheres the first key in here? Hint: its the thing that looks like a clipping issue..

As last time, Im almost tempted to end it here – but everything else that Ive done to this point is entirely set in the chat window. Buzz Brezhnev is a man that looks like he belongs in Red Alert more than anything – hes described by the bartender as a big Russian bear. Hes also in Venice.. the weird thing is that its not entirely certain as to how Mason manages to find him, as hes apparently somewhere in Venice. Theres a pretty consistent problem with this – its never particularly clear as to how exactly we find out where these sorts of things are. Regardless, Buzz is here, and hes quite a difficult man to get anything out of. It takes several minutes of messing around to find the exact key – he likes to be harassed heavily, in that co-conspiratorial fashion Im imagining. Hes also full of the most ridiculous faces in the entire game IMO, having a full range of emotions in his character portrait.

Hes quite fun to be around, this ol Buzz.

Eventually, by sheer trial and error, you work out that you have to convince him that youre sure that Scorpio is alive, using the knowledge of the memo – and after a little bit of work, you manage to get him on your side. After you manage to convince him that youre not angry or looking to take out Scorpio, hell share the fact that indeed, Scorpio is alive and well.. and looking to speak to you! Hes also in Venice. He has a lot more information to give you, including the fact that the KGB have similar interests to you in taking out the Black December cell. This is a nice little touch from this game – theyre essentially giving you a reason why this KGB agent is actually willing to talk to you, which I rather like. He also passes along some knockout capsules to be slipped into peoples food at a cost of $500.

They really worked on this mans expressions..

Given we dont even leave the state, let alone the country to do so, Im including Scorpios short piece. Hes quite condescending, telling you how hes amazed that youve even made it as far as you have. Hes open that hes a member of the KGB now, and asks for your promise of silence on the matter. He doesnt actually offer anything particularly groundbreaking at this point, but he does make it rather clear that hes not the Jackal in disguise. Hes also a well-thought character, making this more or less three for three – but that doesnt forgive the sheer amount of caricatures that have existed up until this point. If anything is to be taken, just the following conversation should really do as an example of this game at its best:

This is an amazing example of what this game can be.. and I wish, was, the whole way through.

Scorpio more or less gives us a running commentary on the things weve learned up until now – and he continues to keep the idea going that he was a bad guy to be on the wrong side of.. and that Jackal is just as bad in his own right. Hes clearly the bad guy, but Im still a bit weirded out by the idea that Scorpio and Jackal are very, very similar in looks to my mind. The story is actually shaping out really well, now – Jackals motives seem to be an attempt to get the ultra-conservative General Leeland elected as the next President of the US, given that another large-scale terrorist attack would almost clearly win the election for the General according to more than just a couple of people. The games actually beginning to get some positive points for it, which has me quite happy to say I think it might finish strong. When leaving Scorpio, a message pops up from our CAD, sending us off to our e-mailing system – Lisa Loomis has something to tell us, and she just happens to be local, just down in Rome..

See you next time, dear! (This entire picture was such a fan service moment. Why didnt they just have it on an e-mail? Woulda been fine..)

The notion of listing inventory has backfired a little as the game refuses to get rid of seemingly innocuous things, leaving me with two uninteractive boxes that I cant tell apart and a bag – but Ill keep up traditions..

- Coat hanger
- Masons wallet
- Scalpal
- Keys
- Grappling hook
- Flashlight
- Boots
- Bag
- Box (two separate ones)
- Fake passport.
- Cash ($3703 – no real risk in losing any more.. weve got blackjack now!)
- Three doses of plastic explosives
- The CAD
- A battery
- Pliers
- Wire cutters
- Note with hidden message to Rachel
- Screwdriver
- A photo of Jackal
- A makeup kit
- Stationery (the note to Golden Desire)
- Knockout capsules
- Message with (wiring diagram?)

Session Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time: 9 hours 00 minutes

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: There’s a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no points will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. Please...try not to spoil any part of the game for me...unless I really obviously need the help...or I specifically request assistance. In this instance, Ive not made any requests for assistance. Thanks!

Written by Aperama

The pyromaniac in me told me that I had to at least trial the plastic explosives...

Countdown is a terrible, awful game that I want to die a horrible, horrible death Countdown is not the fairest game in the world. As though the pain of constantly dying throughout Sanctuary werent enough, I encountered a potentially gamebreaking bug while getting this update up – but more on that later. Last I left, I was really positive about what Countdown had left me. A clear sleuthing pathway, some solid puzzle solving that didnt take too much to get through – I was quite happy with where things were. I was left with three obvious places to go – Lebanon, and Rachel Akure, a Mossad agent. Egypt, and Fontaine, the hitman that took out McBain. And local Turkey, and Masons old sweetheart, Lisa Loomis. Given that time is still looming on my head, the obvious next step is to the local Turkish branch of the CIA – theyre not looking out for me, because Sanctuary cant get any information out, has no transport and is in the middle of nowhere.. and thats where they all think Mason is. So? To Ms. Loomis!

Aww. You really care that Im being hunted for my life! True love!

Lisa Loomis seems to more or less largely be a dead end. She offers everything freely with no need for coercion, and quickly explains lots of stuff that has already been explained. Stormbringer is the CIA mole, they think I killed McBain (and am therefore Stormbringer myself). Shes more or less telling us as gamers that our character is so lacklustre that she cant actually see us as having done half of the stuff that the CIA has accused us of – now if thats not true love, I dont know what else is! Still, the only thing that I seem to be able to get out of her is a name – Earhardt Fleischer, who is apparently Jack Quinns personal advisor and friend, who follows him around like a puppy. Im assuming that the only help in getting this information is knowing a name to avoid if it comes down to it – but there again, its fully possible that hes the mole himself – or that I need to know his name when Quinn ends up being the villain. Im always like this in mystery flicks, too, but arent we all? Still, that point (literally, I earned a point for it) taken, we leave Turkey – losing Lisa as a choice to go to.

Beginning to see why we broke up, dear.

Pre- 9/11 checks really WERE lax. Ive got a fake passport, four doses of plastic explosive and a knife that Im taking with me on the plane to Lebanon..

The next stop is the next most obvious one – we take our Indiana Jones line (which does actually occur, just it wasnt noticeable in the tiny motion taken through Turkey) next down to Beirut, where Mossad agent Rachel Akure greets us with more than a touch of scepticism. Essentially, she tells us that she could care less what we have to say – McBain was helpful to her in the past, and shes fairly confident that were not here to tie her up as a loose end – but the CIA can deal with us as they see fit..

The fact that she has an uzi in her lap is probably not hurting her confidence, either.

After cycling through her talking for a short while, I give her the dossier found in McBains office, and shes suddenly willing to give me a whole heap of information. Unfortunately? Again, much of it is stuff already known. She lets us know that McBain counted us as the only one we could trust (go us!), that Black December has an operation coming up shortly (codenamed Thunderbolt, which gives us another conversation topic.) She mentions to us that she heavily dislikes Jack Quinn, denoting him as a pencil pusher, and when we mention Fontaine, she suggests that she might be able to help us out with him.. for a price. Yup, the Mossad pay her so well that she needs a bribe.

Naturally, I retried everything. The bribery angle goes up in tens – from $500 onwards shell hand over something.

That something, to my surprise, wasnt actually just plain old information – it was something a little more tangible, Im happy to say! Its something to get information from Fontaine – a hypodermic dart. Apparently, it needs to be shot within three feet to get maximum penetration. The hypo is filled with Sodium Thiopental, a highly effective truth serum. It does make no small amount of sense that instead of just trying to kill Fontaine for his attempted murder of us that were actually to get information from him – sorry if I hyped you all up by the thought of taking him out with explosives!

Hi, Joe! My game wants to be your game.. I mean. To Egypt!

Fontaine is in Cairo, Egypt, as the goodly Doctor Hashish told us way back in Sanctuary – he didnt give any more information than that, but I like to think that Mason simply walked around and asked as to where the murderous hitman was. Mason seems like hes that sort. Anyhow, we end up in an alleyway and a description that were in a hot place, and that this could turn out to be unpleasant if Im not careful.. Yeah, he was right.

Back to stealth mode.. yay

Hes not a nice hit man...

But heres his truly devastating technique

Im not certain whether its just my copy of this game, or whether its an innate problem of the game that the few people who have played it have kept to themselves – but... the bug that I alluded to. Oh, its horrid. Basically, it seems as though the game struggles to find the gunshot sound effect fired out when you die from anybody who chooses to fire a gun at you, Fontaine included. The first time he shoots, it immediately breaks the game, giving me the above error message. A reload and another attempt later gives the death message, half of the gunshot sound effect, and then crashes DOSBox. Were it not my first game, I think that this would likely be the straw breaking the camels back. The camels back on account of Im in Egypt, see? Right? Yeah, Ill get back to it..

Thankfully, you dont need to let him fire his gun

Fontaine is very much a throwaway character, I feel. Given the truth serum, I suppose, hes quite robotic in his responses, simply telling things as they are. For instance, hes mad at the doctor for letting on who he is and where to find him, and unlike the majority of the other characters in the game, he simply responds with statements of what out and out happened. All of the information he gives is seemingly truthful, and he gives us only a little bit of stuff that we didnt know again. For instance, he attests to the fact that he wasnt the one who shot McBain – that was actually somebody else!

You can literally say anything – apologising for how much the hypo hurt  – and this is all he comes out with!

Athens, Greece.. a lead!

I was tempted to end it here (and just for the record, Fontaine doesnt actually go anywhere – after you dart him, he just stays in the same spot – as you can tell, Mason really is a hardcore secret agent), but after the aggravation that came of the bullet shots, I decided to charge on to another, slightly more interactive scenario. Athens, Greece leads us into an ancient fortress. Or, to put it another way, an ancient torture chamber..

Id kinda like to know how he got INTO the torture chamber..

Peeking around, there are only a couple of interactive objects – the majority of them simply blow you off with no explanation of what theyre actually supposed to do. Theres several old torture devices – an iron maiden, a pillory, a rack – a dungeon gate, and.. a catapult. The catapult is in pieces, with a large stone in one section, an arm in the other – its not too hard to work out what youre going to be using a catapult arm for! Arm and rock? Grabbed. Installed into catapult. My mind stated that wed be breaking down the door with the catapult? But no.. no, that wasnt to be, as the door opened to reveal a white-dressed member of the Ku Klux Klan – er, Black December, that is to say.. well, lets just have the screenshots tell the tale.

The squish sound effect is quite possibly the most cathartic noise Ive heard made in this game

Walking out of the door, I was expecting to take a peek and then know I was ready to wrap things up – but instead, I was greeted with.. you guessed it, another stealth action section. Another guard (by the way, both of these guards were armed with guns, and had the previously explained Fontaine bug every time I took a misstep) was patrolling the corridors, making some extremely fast motions – this one wasnt one that was going to be easily avoided! The layout has us in the bottom left, a small cell with a prisoner inside in the bottom right, and a pair of rooms in the top right. On the wall outside one of those rooms is a monitor, which the guard seems to look at rather religiously.. and immediately, my first plan flashed into mind. After working out his patterns, I quickly darted (meandered as swiftly as the game would allow me, anyhow) to the top right room, used my ESP fingers to set up an explosive on the monitor.. which it allowed me to do! Wait ten seconds..

… no more guard!

In the top right room is a safe, which is impervious to my beloved explosives. So, disappointing though I do find this on a deeply personal level, I instead go to the bottom right room, and talk to the hostage..

Hes another person who is all too willing to help you – but I best liked the hassle option..

It turns out that the man in the chair is Michael Kirkland.. and he doesnt have much to say once more – or at least, nothing that we dont already know. Basically, hes just been sitting in that chair being fed bad food and being largely harassed. He hasnt actually received much information in his time on the ground, but he does at least have a couple of things for us. One, he has the name of the local agent that he believes is due to be in charge of Operation Thunderbolt – the Jackal. More importantly, though, he has a picture of one of the Black December operatives unmasked!

Unlike so many people in this game, he just bolts as soon as you let him go

… Uh oh.

- Coat hanger
- Masons wallet
- Scalpal
- Keys
- Grappling hook
- Flashlight
- Boots
- Bag
- Old wine
- Box (two separate ones)
- Fake passport.
- Cash ($4903 – spent $500 on plane travel twice. And weirdly, lost nothing in bribing Rachel – is this a bug?)
- Three doses of plastic explosives
- The CAD
- A battery
- Pliers
- Wire cutters
- Note with hidden message to Rachel
- Screwdriver (this popped into my inventory since last post, and was clearly in the toolkit, but I have no idea where it came from)
- A photo of who I am rather worried might be Scorpio...