But here it is, in all its finished glory:

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For some reason this contest piqued my interest - it’s encouraging Second Life users to dress up and take beach-themed photos. I decided, ah hell, it sounds fun! If you have a Facebook account, please vote! No, that’s not my Facebook account (I don’t have one, doh!)

But do check out the other photos and vote for them if you think they’re cool. Or even better, take part in this contest and let me know!
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I tried joining public games but have had pretty bad experiences with most of them. *shudder* Oh the humanity!

One of these days, when I have some time, I’ll go back and edit these 4 page tips so they’re grouped by campaigns instead of being random as they are now. =) This is a continuation from part 1, part 2, and part 3.
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Dead Air: The Terminal
Death Toll: The Boathouse
No Mercy: The Gas Station
Blood Harvest: The Warehouse

Dead Air: The Terminal

This map is pretty easy - you can see the zombies and special infected from far away. I was able to do this with two other friends and a CPU. Three of us had shotguns, and one person grabbed the M-16 (for the specials). First, we all grabbed pipe bombs or molotovs near the bathrooms. Then we stood on top of these newsstands and trash can.
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Dead Air: The Runway
No Mercy: The Generator Room
No Mercy: The Hospital
No Mercy: The Rooftop

Dead Air: The Runway

For this one, grab the M-16 or hunting rifle. This is to take care of the smokers and some of the tanks. This one has little instructions - you want to run behind the rescue plane, up the hill, and jump on a pile of suitcases.
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You have unlimited time to prepare a spot to defend, but once you trigger the event, waves upon waves of zombies, special infected, and tanks will come for you. Sometimes there are 4 smokers or hunters at once! And two tanks at the same time! So it’s really exciting, and the goal is to survive for at least 10 minutes in each map.

Here are some sweet spots for some of the maps that helped me get gold. I’ve also included screenshots because sometimes a description doesn’t quite help. Some of the screenshots I’ve also marked some letters on to illustrate the most common places special infected will show up. Green S for smoker, Red H for hunter, Red T for tank, and blue Z for regular zombies.

There’s also survival mode tips part 2, part 3, and part 4.
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As I described previously, you can meet up with your friend across the world and go virtual-clubbing. But wait - what shall you do about your avatar’s clothes? What about your avatar’s hair? Interestingly, most people are emotionally attached to their avatar because it represents them. Take Sheado’s comment “when my pants don’t render fast enough I do feel a tinge of embarassment =D”. I agree with that - I feel my avatar is an extension of me.
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1. Get a JR Pass
Before leaving the country, I had to purchase a JR Pass voucher. The web site explains how much it costs and where to get it. For me, it meant going to my local Mitsuwa and talking to a travel agent. The agent should ask you when and where you plan to go in Japan (for me, it was Kobe and Tokyo, which is about 4 hours of travel in between) to help you determine which pass is better for you (and whether it’s worth it or not). The longer the distance traveled on the train, the more worth it it is to get the pass. I purchased the 14-day pass.

Upon entering the country, I remember I marked “sight-seeing” and “visiting relatives” and got the “temporary visitor” stamp on my passport. The Osaka Kansai airport happens to have a JR station right next to it. I think I went to the information counters in order to exchange the voucher to get the pass. Either way, most people are helpful and will direct you to the correct area. They will ask you when you will be using this pass because it will have an expiration date. After showing my passport, they verified the “temporary visitor” stamp, copied my passport # onto the pass (along with my name), and gave me the pass. Now, whenever you use the pass, you’re supposed to carry your passport with you so they can make sure you are you. They never asked to see my passport however - maybe I looked like a tourist. =)
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I’ve been following this bento blog called AnnaTheRed’s Bento Factory. You should check it out, she’s sooo awesome and detailed - she inspired me to play with food!

Here are my results:

All I can say is, man that takes a lot of work. A lot of the love goes into crafting the details. I’ve never created art from food before, and I’d say from start to finish, this took me about 4 hours. However, I was working non-stop with a clear-cut strategy in place (I drew my plan and wrote it down in steps on the left so I could time things better).
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From left to right, the shapes are balloon, heart (of course!), and birdhouse. And my imagination takes off running! Can you kind of imagine creating a Patapon body from these shapes? Here’s a reminder of what Patapons look like:
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