Making Changes For a New Tomorrow

I have changed some associations and made some new updates to my personal blog. As some of you may or may not know, I am no longer a staff member at SFX-360. Sorry, no juicy gossip story or Behind the Music type of break-up. As you can probably guess, my family and career take up a significant portion of my time. It boiled down to not having the kind of time I wanted to dedicate to the site. I have a tremendous amount of respect for the SFX-360 crew and I did not want to short change them by simply tagging along for the ride. They have a good thing going there and many more good things to come. If you haven't already been there, check them out over at www.SFX-360.com. Thanks again to Ross and Julie Furman for the opportunity to write for their site. I have met some wonderful people during my short time with the SFX crew.

So that leads to the direction of this, my personal blog. The main focus of my blog will now be opinion and editorial pieces relating to the shooter genre. Shooters are my first love and what I spend the majority of my time playing, so I figured why not make that my focus. Instead of breaking my neck trying to compete with all the news and review sites out there, this will allow me to write at my own pace about the topics of my choosing. On occasion, I will jump into other genres.

As always, I welcome any and all feedback. See you online!

BFBC2: I Wish I Could Love You

AS POSTED AT SFX-360.COM

I was drawn into the launch day hype of Battlefield Bad Company 2. Admittedly, I am not the biggest fan of the Battlefield series. I would not typically buy this game; however, I was convinced to make the purchase by the marketing campaign, the media hype, and the critical acclaim. I now find myself second guessing this decision. Please note that everything I am going to talk about below applies only the multiplayer portion of the game.

I want to love this game. I really do. There are certain aspects of the game that make it quite easy to love. I absolutely adore the Squad Team Deathmatch game type. It is well done and it allows you to overcome the things I am going to complain about in the next couple of paragraphs. I also enjoy the audio. I am continuously impressed by the sound quality and the attention to detail. I love the sound of tanks rumbling in the distance, I love the echo when a squad mate pops off a round in a building that I am standing in. The battlefield chatter is also exceptional (with the exception of, "Let the bodies hit the floor." Seriously? - WTF?). I admit, there is a lot in the this game to love.

Despite the positives, there are parts of the game that I utterly and completely despise. It is almost to the point that it makes the game unplayable for me. First and foremost is the lack of a true lobby/party system. I understand that a lobby/party system exists in the game, but it is heinous at best. The lobby/party system only provides you a spot to assemble your four man squad and enter a game of your choice. That is where the lobby/party system ends. After a multiplayer round ends, the party leader is not given the option to back the team out. In other words, you can not back your party out of the game and into a pre-game lobby. To select a different game type, your party leader is required to join the next game, back out, start another lobby/party and resend invites. This simply does not make sense to me. Why, in the age of Halo and Call of Duty, am I not able to back my party out and select a different game type without having to stand on my head and jump through hoops?

Another item that gives me fits is the control of your character. The responsiveness of the controls leave a bit to be desired. My character moves like a roided up middle linebacker that can't get out of his own way. I can't ever recall missing so many door openings or struggling so much while crawling into windows. This is especially aggravating when trying to escape a shower of bullets. This is a minor complaint, but it still enrages me at least once per match.

The final item that infuriates me is the inability to seamlessly assemble a squad of more than four people. In objective based games like Rush and Conquest, teamwork is imperative for victory. Your squad of four may be the greatest squad ever assembled in any Battlefield game, but you will have a hard time winning an objective based match if all the other dullards on your team are in ghillie suits in the far back or waiting at the spawn to crash the next helicopter. If my winning/losing hinges on my entire team, please give me the option to seamlessly fill the entire team with my friends instead of putting my squad and I on a team of good for nothings. Perhaps I am too competitive. In the rare event that your squad is placed on a team with like minded squads, it is a thing of beauty. I want the ability to make this happen all of the time.

This game reminds me of the first Assassin's Creed. It is so close to being good, but it could just use some more polish and TLC. It is a nice change of pace and I am having fun with it, but it is not the Call of Duty killer that many hoped it would be. I admit, I am a Battlfield noob. If there is a way around these issues, please let me know.

Humiliation Defined - Death in MW2

AS POSTED AT SFX-360.COM

Humiliation is defined by Webster as "to reduce to a lower position in one's own eyes or others' eyes." In the world of multiplayer video games, there is a gamut of ways to be reduced to a lower position in your eyes or in the eyes of your online opponent. This little opinion piece could literally be pages upon pages, each listing a number of humiliating ways to perish in various video games. Instead of boring you with just a list, I will focus mainly on mortifying ways to succumb in the hot game of the moment: Modern Warfare 2.

When I speak of humiliating ways to die, I am not talking about dying by the pre-patch javelin glitch or the noob tube into your spawn. What I am talking about here is, as the kids say, "getting owned" or the popular variant, "getting pwned". So here you go, here are some of the controller breaking, leg punching, drywall busting, swear a blue streak to make a sailor blush, most humiliating ways to die in Modern Warfare 2:

1. The Throwing Knife - Nothing quite promotes the common utterance, "what the f*ck?", like the throwing knife. There are a couple of different levels of humiliation with the throwing knife. There is the sneak up on the enemy from behind, line it up, and let it fly throwing knife deaths. This fashion is not that humiliating. The one that makes you hang your head in shame is the one where you line the dude up in your sights and right before you pull the trigger...whap. Right between the eyes. You can pretend that you do not know what I am talking about, but you know...

2. The Riot Shield - This plastic shield of death is pure pain with the right player behind it. We have all seen the noobs try to use it without great success. What is scary is the veteran player uses it with the proper perks/equipment. It is a bit scary to see this monster slowly walking toward you as you throw everything in your arsenal at him. You empty your clip at him. He lumbers forward. You noob tube. He moves forward. You stick him with Semtex. He laughs and presses on. You try to flashbang him and you stun yourself. Before you know it, he gives you the first love tap. As you panic to fight off the plastic shielded juggernaut of doom, he taps you again and sends you to meet your maker.

3. The Predator Missile: Now I am sure that you are thinking to yourself, how is the Predator missile a humiliating way to die? Sure, we have all been hit by them, but doesn't it seem that sometimes they are picking on you? Ever think that perhaps they ARE picking on you? Whenever I have the chance to drop one of these whistling death angels, I fight the urge to drop it into the crowd of red squares. Instead, I look for the guy that is trying his hardest to avoid getting hit. You know, the one red square that is making a mad dash from the pack to avoid the incoming missile...yeah, I always aim for him. That son of a gun looks like he has the most to lose. Hopefully it ruins a lot of kill streaks.

4. The Care Package - Yeah, sure...like you have never been killed by getting hit by one of your own care packages. If you haven't, good for you. If you have, you know it sucks. It is even more embarrassing if the enemy drops one of his packages on you.

5. The Self Death - This one comes in a variety of pretty packages: Falling off a building, misjudging a cooked grenade, hiding behind a burning car, holding down your post next to the burning barrel, etc...

So there you have it. I, like many others, have been on the receiving end of every one of these ways to depart the virtual earth (with the exception of being hit by the enemy care package - that is just wrong). If you have other embarrassing stories or ways to die, please share them in the comments below. Happy fragging!

Halo Hype Claims Another

AS POSTED AT SFX-360.COM

Perhaps I was one of the only gamers in the Universe that was not excited about Halo: Reach. Before you all flame me off the interwebs, let me explain…

Let me give you some background. I am a Call of Duty/Gears of War kind of guy. I like the Halo series and I find it entertaining, but I lack the fan boy drive that makes me want to eat, sleep, and dream about John 117. I have played the campaign and I have fought numerous multi-player battles, but for some reason, something was always seemed to be missing from the franchise for me. Perhaps it is because I am not that skilled on the multiplayer front. I can hold my own, but as a matter of routine, I receive free lessons from the community on the finer points of the tea bag. There is something very humbling about getting dismantled by a 11-year-old and then being told all about it in the lobby. My humility aside, new Halo games and Halo map packs were reason for the “Halo Kids” to stop screeching in my ear on Call of Duty and move back to the lands of Cortana and the Flood.

All of that changed two days ago. My new issue of Game Informer arrived in my mailbox and I was immediately enthralled by the cover. This front and back beauty provided a little taste of what Halo: Reach was about in beautiful muted tones. I gawked at the hulking Spartan, I looked over the shoulder of a leader Spartan, I saw a smaller Spartan, I gazed at a Spartan with a skull design painted on his helmet, I scanned over a ravaged landscape. Excited, I flipped right to the Halo: Reach article and dug in. I devoured the article word for word and carefully dissected the pictures. Shocked by what I was doing, I stopped. I could not believe what was happening to me. I became genuinely excited for this game, giddy even.

Wrestling with my thoughts, I began to think through what was making me so excited for this game. Now that I am thinking more clearly, I have compiled a list of reasons below for our faithful readers:

Squads: We have seen what one Spartan is capable of. Imagine what kinds of awesome a squad of Spartans can provide?

Class Based: Working in conjunction with the squad theory, it seems fairly obvious that Halo: Reach will be class based. Finally, you will be able to specialize in your favorite brand of combat. Does this mean no more races to the sniper? Heavy Gunner, Sniper, Scout; they all seem to be represented in Reach.

New Weapons/Armor/Vehicles: The Game Informer article briefly touched on some of the new weapons. A needler rifle? A Designated Marksman Rifle (DMR)?, Armor abilities, a Falcon attack/transport vehicle? Yes please.

Back story: The Halo Universe is deep and well crafted. The events of Reach allegedly take place before Halo: Combat Evolved. Any prequel that shines more light on the Halo Universe is sure to be gripping.

An updated Halo Engine: If the Game Informer screen shots are any indication, serious upgrades have made to the Halo Engine. This means better graphics and a better overall game play experience.

Modern Warfare 2: What? Yes. Modern Warfare 2. For once, Bungie has a challenger to the FPS throne. Modern Warfare has swiped Bungie’s thunder and has become the premier FPS (sorry kiddies, it’s true). This forces Bungie to up the ante. Competition leads to better products and service for the consumer. This is Bungie’s chance to regain the FPS heavyweight title and we all benefit from it.

The Public Beta: Modern Warfare 2 may be the current king, but a number of bugs and glitches have left dissension among the ranks. A public beta would have served it well and likely would have prevented a number of bugs and glitches that pushed some players away in the first months. That said, Bungie realizes the value of a good public beta. Allowing throngs of the biggest Halo fans to pound on an early code of game will provide Bungie with invaluable data and hopefully prevent game breaking glitches. Let us not forget about the obvious here; the public beta also gives early access to the most anticipated game of the year.

Bungie’s Last Hurrah: Halo: Reach is also Bungie’s last (announced) Halo game. If this really is true, you can bet your right arm that they are going out with a bang. I, for one, am really looking for to it.