Tag Archives: gaming

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

gaming

Customize Your Lost Planet 2 Character to the Extreme

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Lost Planet 2 Custom CharacterIf you were worried that Lost Planet 2 wouldn’t offer the level of character customization you were hoping for, you can stop worrying now. Check out this blog post from someone who is apparently, in the know (I wasn’t able to figure out who “Snow” is but he definitely has a wealth of knowledge to share). Character appearance is extremely customizable:

The game is loaded with various factions, all with their own cultures. You’ll be getting parts to these characters as you play, and it’s all interchangeable. You’ll be able to swap out heads/helmets, torso/armor, backpacks/t-eng canisters, and their legs/boots. Not only that, but each of those pieces has various colors and patterns to choose from.

Plus, there will be abilities, weapons, emotes (the next level of T-bagging), and titles that can all be changed to make your character even more unique than your friends’ characters. Lost Planet 2 is sounding more and more like an RPG, which, in terms of customization, is a characteristic many of us here are particularly fond of.

Source

Cross-posted at Co-Optimus

gaming, IRL

We got a Wii!

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My wife surprised me yesterday with a Wii for our anniversary! We only have Super Mario Party 8 and Wii Sports but we’ll be adding more to our collection soon. We also had a GameCube way back when we started dating so we’ll dig those games out too.

So far the Wii is exactly what I’ve expected. Lots of fun, simple games that get you off of your chair/couch which is a nice change. I’m impressed with all the channels available but the community features are lacking. What the hell is with the Wii ID code thing? That’s just ridiculous.

Graphics, of course, could be better. Its hard to go from Xbox 360 to Wii but at least the graphics are very clean and pleasant to look at. I like the integrated WiFi (connection was a breeze) but I would have opted for an ethernet port since I already have a switch in my cabinet.

Overall, I’m really excited about having a Wii finally. I’m excited that Payton should be able to start playing some of these games. Of course, its every gamer dad’s dream of having kids that will game with them. My wife rocks!

If you have a Wii, feel free to add me. My code is: 4351-0219-0087-7428