All posts by Eric "smurph" Murphy

Eric is a software engineer and father of two, who's hobbies include video games, open source software, and just being a geek.
gaming

Halo Reach Beta (It’s Super Awesome)

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Thanks to Nick, Co-Optimus, and Bungie, I have the pleasure of playing in the Halo Reach Friends & Family Beta (it’s super awesome) this weekend! So far, I’ve only played six games, but oh boy was it fun! I played some Team Slayer, 1 flag CTF, Stockpile, and SWAT. They were all enjoyable minus the one match where the other team was able to lag switch on us (unfortunately, Bungie has not stopped that completely). During the beta (it’s super awesome), I’ll excuse that sort of thing since that is what the beta is for, catching those sorts of things.

The new weapons are great. I haven’t played with all of them but I REALLY enjoyed the DMR and the Magnum. Armor abilities are sweet, although, I was a bit disappointed with armor lock. I’m guessing it will be more useful in other maps and game types, but so far, armor lock just saves your butt for a few seconds and lets the enemy line up their shot for when you pop out of it. We’ll see how it plays out. The only thing that really bugged me about the beta was returning flags. Right now, you pretty much have to be standing right on the flag to start returning it. Obviously, that leaves you in a pretty vulnerable position and the flag obstructs your vision quite a bit. I’m sure that will be tweaked as the beta continues. I’m really looking forward to the other game types coming later in the beta (it’s super awesome).

Overall, it was a blast. I just wish I had someone to play with. Since last night was also a co-op night for the new L4D2 DLC, Nick and the others were busy (I don’t have the DLC yet). Hopefully, I’ll be able to hook up with them over the weekend. If not, I’ll still play (duh). Feel free to send me requests on Monday when the beta (it’s super awesome) goes live for anyone with an ODST disk. Don’t forget to stop by Halo Waypoint after playing a few games to pick up your free beta tester hoodie!

P.S. No, I do not have codes.

Cross-posted at Co-Optimus.

gaming

The Spartan I Project Crew

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Last night ContactTango invited me to play some Halo 3 with his fellow staff members at the Spartan I Project. Despite being a loud bunch, they were all really nice and I had a blast playing with them. Everyone seemed to be very teamwork oriented which is a nice change from the usual random people we run into. The teamwork was almost organic and communication was hardly necessary at times.

If you’ve never heard of the Spartan I Project, you should head over to their site and see what they have to offer. They’re famous for their fast and successful Vidmaster Annual runs which was the first I had heard of them. If you need any help with achievements (especially Vidmaster achievements) or are just looking for great teammates, I suggest you check them out.

gaming

Halo 3 ODST Audio Log Nightmare

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Last Friday Co-Optimus hosted a “Halo Collectible Night” as part of our monthly co-op night with Halo Waypoint. We planned on helping people find skulls, terminals, and audio logs from Halo 3 and Halo 3 ODST and hopefully pick up some achievements. I already have everything so I sat around waiting for someone to ask for help. I ended up hooking up with L1GHT3NSTRIKE to pick up all the audio logs in ODST. We hit all 29 from the streets in about an hour, but couldn’t find the entrance to Data Hive where the 30th is hidden. Google told me the entrance to Data Hive isn’t accessible until you play through all the flashback levels. What a pain! We both already finished the game and started the game with the Mombosa Streets, so why block us from Data Hive?

I was wary of exiting and starting up Data Hive because I had a suspicion that we’d lose the audio logs we collected. On the other hand, we weren’t about to play straight through the game just to get the last one, so we took the risk. Well, I was right. We fired up Data Hive and lost all our precious audio logs! Why Bungie? WHY?

Bungie is one of my favorite developers, and has rarely wronged me in the past, so this really surprised me. I know ODST was a small project but it seems like too many corners were cut. The one that really hurts is the lack of matchmaking in Firefight. The excuse was that Firefight was built on top of the campaign engine, which doesn’t have matchmaking capabilities. That’s such a shame. Firefight could have been huge with matchmaking. I also wish Bungie would crank out some new maps for Firefight. The existing ones are cool but some new maps would really spice it up. ODST could have used multiplayer as well. Just think of playing the current Halo 3 game types in ODST, and all the new game types that could have evolved from ODST. That would have been a blast.

In the end, ODST is a great game and I’m sure I’ll be firing it up for years to come. One thing is for sure, I’ll never try helping anyone with audio logs ever again! Do it solo. Here’s some help:


Audio Logs 1-29 video walk-through on YouTube
Audio Log 30 (in Data Hive) video walk-through on YouTube

IRL

And on that farm he had a Beel

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I had the kids in the tub this morning and we were singing Ol’ McDonald as usual. Payton always picks the animal and the sound to go with it. We went through the usual farm animals and then moved on to family members (who apparently all make farting noises). Emma, Payton, Daddy, Mommy, Gampa, Gamma, and then “Beel” which is what she calls our friend Nabeel. So cute.

Nabeel! We miss you! Come home!