Muting Voice Acting - Company of Heroes 2

                I will admit I'm an RTS snob. Along with an engaging theme, I require real time strategies to flow well or else I lose interest. While fun, games like Total Annihilation, Rise of Nations, and Command and Conquer: Red Alert stagnated, as is the common pitfall of the RTS. It is difficult to obtain the perfect balance of base production, resource economy, and combat in a game. Without a doubt, my snobbish preferences came from growing up on a main diet of Starcraft: Broodwar. This classic game, and the subsequent Starcraft 2, set the standard of RTS quality for my gaming experience, leaving me wanting on many others I've tried.

                With this established, you can understand me when I say I've found an RTS that competes with Starcraft: Company of Heroes 2. I received it as Steam gift from a buddy and I absolutely loved it on my first playthrough. From the innovative twist on resource economy to the high level of unit micro, COH2 offers unique and intense mechanics for gamers. However, this WW2 reenactment failed to beat Starcraft as my number 1 game because of one key feature: no swear filter.

                While I have a strong opinion on swearing in video games, the purpose of this article is not to be a persuasive essay on the issue. Rather than attempting to lay down such an argument, the kind of which I've seen beaten to death on the internet, I wish to offer a solution: Company of Heroes 2 doesn't need a swear filter because it doesn't need voice acting.

                To clarify, I don't mean that Company of Heroes 2 shouldn't have voice acting. In fact, the voices in the game are some of the best I've ever heard. From the passion of the actors to the spot-on use of colloquial phrases of the time, the voice acting adds a rich depth to the game and its theme. When I say that COH2 doesn't need voice acting, I mean that you can mute voice volume in the options and still be able to play. This is a rare feature to be had in an RTS. For example, if I lost sound during a Starcraft match, I would be dead in the water. Apart from a small ping on the mini-map, the only alerts Starcraft gives is auditory prompts.

                Company of Heroes 2 has the same auditory prompts and mini-map pings but it also has two other alert-type features. First, there is a news reel above the mini-map. Not only does it give you textual feedback on the state of your units, it also gives you heads-up when commander abilities are used. This is useful for staying aware of the overall battle, as well as differentiating between simultaneous map pings.

                The second, and more powerful, feature is the summary of unit banners in the top right of the HUD. The reason COH2 can get away with showing every single unit is because they are organized into squads, allowing compact information bundling. These banners detail the current happenings of each unit, which includes info on combat, suppression, pinning, heath, retreats, etc. Honestly, the banners themselves could function adequately by themselves for in-game battle information. The mini-map, news feed, and auditory prompts only serve to create a redundant system to ensure players get the information in the time they need.

                This allows us to remove some redundancy without losing too much information. After I got the idea to mute voice volume, I tried it in a custom game and found that it worked quite well. I would compare it to driving a car: both need a certain level of focus and require you to check your surroundings every few seconds. I also found that I had been relying too much on auditory prompts and, once I got over it, developed my skill of micromanaging units.

                Thus is my solution to the lack of swear filter. While it is sad for me to miss out on the beautiful voice acting, muting voice volume allows me to continue to play the game because, honestly, I would have stopped solely from the amount of swearing in the game. I would not go so far as to advise using this shortcut during competitive PVP games, but it works just fine in casual games with friends and CPUs. I hope this helped anyone looking for an answer, and I wish the best of luck to you out on the battlefield.

The American Cheese Rush - Starcraft: Brood War

            This is a little trick I learned from my brother's friend Kendrick that is fun to use against the computer. First off, you need to be Terran. Start off normally and send SCV 6 to the enemy base. Have number 7 immediately follow.

            You will have a 2/3 chance that a random enemy computer will be Zerg or Terran. The rush works on Protoss, but the whole thing with be long and messy. When your SCV arrives, take it to the Vesphane geyser. If the enemy has already built on the geyser, abort the rush and try a different tactic. It is preferable to completely finish your refinery, that way it takes longer for the enemy to destroy it. While it is building, have SCV 7 build a barracks outside of the base, but not too close to attract attention.

            The rush works because the computer has a programmed building sequence. When you build over their Vesphane, you interrupt the sequence and create chaos. Terrans won't build more than one Marine until they are able to build on their gas. So it is easy to build up and overrun their base while that one Marine is attempting to destroy your refinery. It is essentially the same with Zerg, only watch out for Sunken Colonies. It is effective to head straight for the minerals line and tell your Marines to stand ground. That way they can fire longer at the workers and won't go run after any by themselves.
            If the enemy is Protoss, however, things are a bit different. They build one Zealot and it can destroy your Refinery before you build a sufficient army. So, build a second barracks outside of their base and then you have two options. You can build an Academy back at your base and start making Firebats. Or you can practice your micro on wild goose chases, since Marines are faster than unupgraded Zealots. However, you have to keep careful eye on your men because you'll have several chases and your Marines have to keep moving. Whichever you do, don't lead the Zealots back to your barracks or else you'll lose your forward staging position. Keep applying pressure until you are strong enough to go directly into the base. Hit the Gateway or the Forge first to stop army production and then hit the mineral line.
            That's the basics of the American Cheese Rush. Have fun experimenting and tell me about any insights or cool things that you find.

The Rapid Fire Missile Technique - Metroid Prime 1

            Lord of the Rings: Two Towers was the first game I got for Gamecube. It was fun but the bosses were incredibly hard because you had to learn their secret. Without the secret, winning was impossible and you would continuously die. However, once the secret was learned, the boss was too easy, especially on subsequent playthroughs. While secrets allow hard bosses to be quickly  programmed, they don't contribute to replay value. I eventually stopped playing the game and sold it.

            On the other hand, I have kept, and still continue to play, Metroid Prime. The game is one of my personal favorites and its replay value is very high, mainly because the bosses don't have secrets. You can do a scan to get a hint, but whether you do or not doesn't matter: that boss isn't going down until you've earned it through sweat, patience, and skill. Not only are boss battles long, requiring constant focus, they also punish players who haven't learned necessary game skills.

            These skills include honing your dodge reflex as well as building muscle memory for toggling weapons. But there is one skill in Metroid Prime that actually is a glitch. It is called the Rapid Fire Missile technique. I learned this skill on my own and then found it on the Metroid Wikipedia, confirming that others had the glitch as well.

            When you fire a missile, the arm cannon rotates, signifying that a new missile is being loaded. However, if you fire a missile and then immediately toggle back to the Power beam, the missile cooldown is skipped. This means the next missile is ready, providing an improved rate of fire. You have to get the timing right but it will come naturally after some practice. It is important to note that Rapid Fire can only be used when you have currently equipped the Power Beam. If you try it on any other beam, the cannon will revert to the beam's shape and take much longer than a normal missile reload.

            Learning this glitch can be a powerful skill in the game, especially when you venture onto Hard mode. And it wasn't fixed when Metroid Prime was rereleased in the Trilogy pack, meaning the game developers kept it to reward advanced players who learned it.

            So try out this glitch and add it to your arsenal of skills in Metroid Prime 1! I wish you luck and have a blast trying the game on hard mode.