The Lamer Gamer

After waiting way too long for the Halo: Reach beta to download, I got into a handful of matches last night.  It plays pretty well, better than I expected.  Controls are going to take a little getting used to though.  Green Thumb is generally how I like it, click the thumbstick to melee. http://gruntsrus.com/2010/04/halo-reach-control-scheme/

Really, the strength of Reach at this point is the variety of game types and the addition of some new ones.  Slayer gets kind of old.  Not that people, myself included, don’t play every game like it’s slayer anyway, but I love objective matches.

The Modern Warfare type exp system is unremarkable, but being able to buy customizations with those credits is at least kind of amusing.

I ocassionally hunt Nuke Boosters in MW2, but never really thought to catalog them.  Followed a guy around for a few games this evening.  I wasn’t the only one apparently.  Now that is amusing.  Piss off enough people that there’s a posse following you to your next game.

Here goes.  Booster in Bold, helper in Italic

1. ledbulletsniper
2. CPTxKluTCHx

Been trudging through Bioshock 2, and in one of the random corners of a level that I’ve explored, I found this:

Schrodinger’s Cat, no?  I laughed a bunch when I found this after melting a patch of ice in the frozen gallery in Dionysius Park.  Since there’s no box, I think it’s pretty clear that this cat is dead, but you never know.  Anyway, great Easter Egg.

Bioshock 2 is surprising me bit by bit.  The main game is more of the same, the story is new of course, but most of the enemies are the same, the weapons are essentially the same (just updates of the originals) and rapture, looks about the same.  I’m having fun with it, though I’m having trouble keeping track of some of the characters.  I think it supposed to be obvious that you are this guy who’s daughter was kidnapped and turned into Little Sister, and you yourself turned into a Big Daddy, but I’m rather confused.  Oh well, I’m almost done, and it’ll be sorted out by then I hope.

Multiplayer is what’s actually surprising.  It’s obviously not MW2 or anything of that ilk, but a decent set of derivative game types with the spin of Bioshock’s Plasmid and Tonics + weapon upgrades.  Doubtful that I’d want to keep the game just for that, but it’s a nice diversion after  some of the more tedious collecting of things (all Little Sisters, audio diaries) in single player.

One has to find ways of passing the time at work, and this has proved a great time sink today.  Though I find it annoying, I don’t get quite as bent out of shape about the whole Nuke Boosting thing as a lot of other people.  I’ve found people doing it and killed them, cause hey, I want to win.  Anyway, there are of course those who REALLY hate it, and those that for some odd reason record every moment of the time they spend playing MW2.  Occasionally you find someone exhibiting both traits.

And thus I found http://www.youtube.com/user/PS3HouseMDPL, only the most prolific recorder of MW2 booster hunting.

This guy is great!  While his gameplay is good, the greatness comes from the comedy.  He’s added some pretty solid music and sound effects to the recordings along with a running annotated commentary, and I can’t stop laughing at points.  Not only does he have some recordings of the DUMBEST boosters ever, but some of the most indignant I’ve ever seen.  If I had to nitpick, he does seem to like teabagging just a little too much, but to each their own.

Unfortunately he’s playing MW2 on a PS3, so I’m never going to see him.

Geez FINALLY!  Maybe playing all this MW2 is rotting my brain but I’m less excited about this than I once was.  Seeing any more of the Halo Bible is great though.  Oh, and is that a Needler Carbine I see?  Nice!

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/02/microsofts-own-e3-halo-reach-beta-dated-fable-iii-details.ars

All of a sudden Modern Warfare 2 is the worst game I’ve ever played. The Javelin/Semtex thing was kind of anoying, but it didn’t ruin a whole game.  Tonight, every fucking game I join has assholes rapid firing grenade lauchers, thumpers, RPGs whatever.  Nice hack…

I hope the fuckers who came up with this one are banned for life. 

Hey IW!  Fix this shit already!

Read more:  modernwarfail.com hahahaha

Well, it is and it isn’t a typical rail shooter.  Ammo isn’t unlimited, for all but the basic weapon, kinda standard.  You can pick up peculiar, non-weapon items, not so standard.  Oh, and you’re on-rails, duh.

But aside from the tie in, to a successful game on non-Wii platforms, the game isn’t that good.  The on-rails thing kills me, as Dead Space itself, allowed for a lot more mobility, and strangely it didn’t feel necessary as you clearly have the means to direct yourself around the map.

But oh well, I played, and played, and for some odd reason it took me a while to stop playing, not cause it was good, it’s just that I thought it would eventually not be as agonizingly boring.

I probably missed out on some fun story elements, but I’m better off leaving this game alone.  It’s a shame, cause I was pretty sure, this was going to be the first game for an adult on the Wii.  Ehh Wrong!  It’s gross, but still sucks eggs.

Now I’m really pissed.  All I wanted to do last night was get together with a buddy and play some Firefight.

Dude never showed, I got bored, figured I’d play with some strangers.  BUT, there’s no freakin’ matchmaking in Firefight.  That’s some BS.  Now I’ve got to do some social networking.  Odd how I hate people, but love gatherings…

I haven’t touched Halo 3 matchmaking in a while, not since earlier this year.  Now that ODST is out, I was thinking of playing again.  Now I only rented ODST, so I don’t have the extra disc with all the extra maps for Halo 3.  Imagine my surprise when I find out that you can’t join a ranked playlist without the new maps.  What the FUCK!

Now I could buy ODST to get the maps, but it isn’t really a keeper and the $60 price tag doesn’t help, I guess that’s supposed to be eased by the map inclusion.  Campaign was okay and Firefight is fun, but like Horde in GoW2 it loses its appeal after a while, as you aren’t exactly competing with people.  Ostensibly this is why the Halo 3 multiplayer disc is included.

Gotta feel bad for the poor bastards who A) already purchased those maps via LIVE Marketplace or B) gotten the Mythic Map Pack with Halo Wars.  Thankfully I’ve done neither of those things, so I’m not out any money and yet, somehow, I feel ripped off.

Why, I already spent $60 on Halo 3 (probably $70, stupid limited edition), and on top of that the LIVE subscription, but now I’ve got to spend another $10-20 on maps just to keep playing a game I already own?  That’s lame shit.

I’m somewhat puzzled by the structure of ODST.   The previous FPS installments of the Halo universe are all of course built on the notion that you’re a super soldier and thereby the fighting is filed with hyperbole, you get hit a TON and don’t die, why? Well because you have shields.

My assumption was that ODST would force you to be more sneaky because after all, you play a much more frail human being, as opposed to the Chief.  Granted ODSTs are supposed to be badass, but still more like me than a cyborg.  I always play the Halo games on Legendary, and I don’t feel as though the game is so very difficult.  In a number of ways ODST just feels like the original Halo, you have a life meter, which doesn’t regenerate, and this stamina indicator where you don’t take damage unless you’ve already been hit, essentially poor man’s shields. I don’t find that this kills the experience, but the feel is surprisingly very Haloesque where I’d expected something else.  You are limited in a few ways, no hijacking covenant vehicles (pretty sure I’d heard this, but it’s in there), no dual wielding, but you can still walk up behind a brute and melee for an assassination, not to mention ripping off turrets like in Halo3,  seems wrong to me.  Oh, and you jump way too high in fact jumping off 30 ft structures, you won’t be hurt.

While the rules of gameplay are roughly the same, the rules of the world, however, diverge slightly.  The game takes place in two ways, first the present at night where the the map is considerably more open, far less “on-rails” than before, allowing for more mobility in firefights and possible routes when hoofing it to objectives.  If you don’t like that you’re heading into an enemy controlled area, you can try to find an alternate route.  Likewise, you can explore the map to find weapons caches and Audio Logs from a side story you can uncover.   I like finding stuff.  The second way is through a set of triggered  ”flashbacks” where you relive the experience of your missing comrades from several hours ago as you search.  These interlude missions have more of the Halo, on-rails style.

I know it’s a short game (estimated at 10 hours) but it does seem to make good use of a small chapter of the Halo bible.  Those who were enthralled with the Halo story, particularly it’s Sci-Fi elements, might be disappointed as all but the “engineers” are old news.

Firefight might prove entertaining, but I haven’t really looked at that yet. Gonna need a LIVE card first.