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Gaming Update #18: Purple Aliens and the Woes of John Marston

By natetodamax 9 Comments

The idea for this blog is pretty old. During my brainstorming period that frankly lasted several weeks, I revisited Halo: Combat Evolved, got back into the groove in Persona 3, and ate some weird mochi balls. Now, I believe I am ready to sit down and dedicate the next hour or so of my day to some in-depth writing about neither of those. Rather, I'll be looking back on my luscious experiences with Bungie's latest purple alien murder simulator and Rockstar's open world game, Grand Theft Horse (known to some as Red Dead Redemption). Oh, and this will totally contain ending spoilers for Red Dead Redemption.
 

Halo: Reach

Bungie's last entry in the Halo franchise creates the impression that the series is afraid to progress further than just a few modifications and enhancements here and there. Indeed, Halo: Reach is a cool game, but Bungie's attempts to make sure the experience feels new don't seem to work as well as they'd hope. 
 

Last One Out, Turn Off The Radio

 How did the Covenant manage to get this on Reach without anyone noticing?
 How did the Covenant manage to get this on Reach without anyone noticing?
I will be honest and say that I am not a fan of how Bungie tells their stories. Specifically, I hate having orders barked to me over the darn radios in the game. I didn't mind it at all in Bioshock because it's a lot more personal and there are subtitles, but holy crap Halo: Reach. Aside from the cutscenes, there is practically zero meaningful face-to-face interactions in the game. Instead, you are put on a large map and told to do things as you are speeding around in vehicles and getting shot at by Covenant. I don't know about you, but when I'm taking fire from all sides I'm not going to listen to anything some schmuck says to me over a silly radio. This combined with the lack of subtitles lead to me finishing Halo 3 and Halo: Reach without having a clue what I was doing and why I was doing it. And it's because of this that everything I know about the Halo universe is stuff I've read online at official wikis and other pages, websites created by people who, to my surprise, managed to scrounge together information about the fiction and make paragraphs out of it. That's not how I want to experience a game's story. 
  
 Cue dramatic shot of Noble Team     
 Cue dramatic shot of Noble Team     
Even worse is how truly frustrating the campaign can be. I played on Normal my first time through, and I couldn't believe how many times I was getting killed. And none of the times I perished was the result of taking too much fire. Rather, the campaign is packed full of unavoidable explosions and other nonsense that it makes your deaths feel really cheap. You'll be gunning your way through a mission when suddenly, surprise! An Elite that you didn't know existed comes out of nowhere and eviscerates your pathetic figure from behind with his big glowy sword. Other times you'll be making your way through an area when surprise! A Ghost decides to hit the boost and run you over. Not to mention stray bullets hitting explosive objects which result in you getting a faceful of hurt, Wraiths that can kill you with pinpoint accuracy from a mile away, and those Shade Turrets that always know exactly where you are.
  

Is Ze Multiplayer At Least Fun?

      I sincerely hope this was staged
      I sincerely hope this was staged
Aside from the moments when the Covenant are teabagging your body in celebration of their latest one-hit kill, Halo: Reach is an enjoyable experience. The core gameplay triangle of weapon-grenade-melee remains relatively unchanged, which is probably a good thing because it works. Ze multiplayer is entertaining, but after a while you start to realize how little it really offers. Bungie puts a huge emphasis on having unique weapons that require different strategies to use them effectively, but there just isn't enough of them to keep things fresh. After a while you start having that realization where you find yourself saying, "This is the mode where everyone has the DMR. This is the mode where everyone has the assault rifle. This is the mode where everyone has the sniper rifle. And this is the mode where everyone tries to capture the other team's flag... while using DMRs." Believe it or not, but I actually got bored playing Reach's multiplayer after a while. Armor abilities add an interesting element of strategy to the game, but not many people seem to know how to use them correctly. Specifically, I'm talking about the jetpack and armor lock abilities. It seems that everyone who uses the jetpack chooses to fly up as high as possible when they come across an enemy, which usually results in that person getting peppered with bullets like a sporting clay. And those that use armor lock will comically initiate it every time they get shot, which leads to situations where my team gathers around the coward like a firing squad and flattens him as soon as he comes out of it. 
 

Fight Or Fall, We Can't Stop It Now

So, Firefight. I'm glad that I can do matchmaking since having to get a group of friends together seemed like an annoyance in ODST, but after a while the novelty just wore off for me. The amount of customization in Custom Game Firefight is simply incredible. Yes, I downloaded a map that got me the 1,000,000 point achievement in 10 minutes, but I had more fun doing that than I did in any Firefight Matchmaking game. Because come on, achievements should be fun to get. And flying around with infinite jetpack with infinite rockets firing at groups of Elites that spawn every 3 seconds is just hilarious and worth it.  

Concluding Thoughts: I could probably write a lot more about Reach but I'll cut it off right here. If I made it seem like Reach is a bad game, then believe me when I say that Reach is easily the best in the franchise. The campaign is by no means terrible. It's just frustrating. And the multiplayer is capable of providing hours of entertainment, but it's disappointing that the game's simplicity is blanketed by a plethora of menu options that make it seem like it's the deepest multiplayer experience to ever reach consoles. No pun intended. 

Red Dead Redemption

Now here's a game I've been meaning to write about for some time now. Red Dead Redemption tells one of the best stories I've experienced in a while, closely rivaling one of my all-time favorite games Mass Effect. John Marston is truly the best character Rockstar has created. You can really sympathize with this guy in nearly every way. He's a no-nonsense kind of dude, but he's also a devoted husband and father and even a humorous fellow at times. 
 

Scumbag Blues

 EEEEEEEEEGGGHH
 EEEEEEEEEGGGHH
If there's anything I disliked about the story in Red Dead Redemption it's probably the majority of the characters involved in it. Nearly every contact you meet in the game is a total scumbag in every sense of the word. There's Seth, who is one of the most frightening things I've seen in a game. You become acquainted with Mr. Nigel West Dickens, who made me want to tear my hair out every time he talked. Let's see... there's Colonel Allende and his right hand man De Santa. One of them abuses women, the other... well, both of them abuse women. And you got Irish, who always has more alcohol in him than Lindsey Lohan on a Friday night. (Did anyone else notice that he touches a horse's penis when you arrive in Mexico?) All of these people I pretty much wanted to kill, although I can make an exception for Seth because even though he gives me nightmares he is pretty amusing to watch.  
 
But most of all, I wanted to murder Edgar Ross in the most vicious way possible. The ending of Red Dead Redemption left me with so much rage and hatred for this guy. Heck, I wanted to slap his voice actor. So imagine my excitement and thirst for blood when I found a stranger in Blackwater and promptly asked him for the location of Edgar Ross. When I talked to the dude's brother, I thought for a second that I was going to feel bad about Ross, because his brother was a real nice guy! He gladly told me where Ross was and never once suspected that this random cowboy strapped from head to toe with weapons was going to rip out Edgar's windpipe and stamp it into the ground. So I approached Edgar slowly to make it seem all cool and nonchalant, and in the ensuing dual I blasted him directly in the face with every bullet my pistol could hold. It was easily the most satisfying thing I had ever done in the game, and I love how they flashed a bright red title card when Jack walks away. At that point, I was literally done with the game. There was nothing else I could do in New Austin that could possibly feel as worthwhile as that one moment.
 

That Compass...... It's So Far Away!

I'm gonna hit y'all with a fact that will likely blow your mind and shatter dimensions. It's this: Music is the most powerful form of entertainment. Game soundtracks can be great, but sometimes you get tired of hearing that pounding orchestra over and over again. Red Dead Redemption incorporated music in one of the most amazing ways I've ever seen. I am of course referring to what some would consider to be the best two moments of the story: when you first enter Mexico and when you are finally allowed to return to your family. The former is so perfect. The somber sound of "Far Away" by Jose Gonzalez play softly in the background as you ride your horse across the barren wasteland of Mexico, sun beating down on your neck (or in my case, the moon). Several hours later, once you've forced Dutch van der Linde to commit suicide, the tune "Compass" by Jamie Lidell accompanies you as you ride your horse to reunite with your family. In this example, the song creates such an amazing feeling of happiness that is unlike anything else. 
 
I have thought about what a game would be like if it made heavy use of real life music instead of original scores. There are situations where inserting a good song from the real world can make a normal scene amazing, as evident by Red Dead Redemption. But when you think about it, these instances are few and far between, and overusing real world music would certainly make these moment less stunning.

But Let's Not Beat Around The Bush Here

 
 "HOW ARE YOU DOING JOHN!?" "I'M GOOD, HOW ARE YOU!?"  "JUST FINE, LET'S CONTINUE TO TALK IN THIS REGISTER FOR THE NEXT 3 MINUTES!!"   
Alright, so I've swooned over Red Dead Redemption so far. But by no means is it a perfect game. I did have some issues with it, most notable the mission structure. It seemed like almost every mission involved some sort of shootout that came after an incredibly long horse ride with whoever was joining you. I like the fact that you can hold the A button to match their speed, but after a while it got somewhat tedious listening to John and his companion literally yelling back and forth at each other. Grand Theft Auto IV had a similar problem; a lot of missions involved too much driving for me. 
 
Perhaps Red Dead Redemption is an example of a game that is too big. It's fortunate that the horse butt physics are so stunning because you'll be staring at a lot of horse butts during the game. (That sentence might be a lot weirder than I intended). The oversized map is especially noticeable during Free Roam, which I ended up avoiding because of this. The game drops you into it, usually far away from all the other players. The starting horses are so darn slow, and it sucks having to practically crawl your way to the nearest group of players only to find out that they moved someplace else as soon as you arrive. 
 
But whatever. I enjoyed Red Dead Redemption so much that I simply cannot go on and on about the little flaws it has. It's irrelevant.
 
Concluding Thoughts: Simply put, Red Dead Redemption is one of the best games I've played. The story is constantly exciting and a it's real tear jerker. If you haven't played it yet, first of all, shame on you! And second, here you go.  

Well

It feels good to finally get all of that out. There was a time when I didn't think I would write something about these two games. This ended up more like a review blog than I had intended... regardless, I hoped you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it.  

Until next time, children.
9 Comments

So I got these weird Japanese (?) treats....

By natetodamax 35 Comments

A friend of ours that delivers Chinese food to us recently took a trip to Asia, and when he stopped in Japan he picked up some of these..... things. I don't even know what they are. Frankly, the guy is so unpredictable that they might not even be from Japan. Only evidence that I have that it came from there is one of those wetnap things (the little moist towels) that has Japanese characters all over it. 
 
So anyway, I decided to taste these anomalies and write about them. There are five different treats, and there's at least three of each. Here's an overview: 
 

 Oh yeah, webcam quality!
 Oh yeah, webcam quality!
As you can see, three of the treats have already been eaten. I ate one of the brown ones (next to the tan-ish ones on the right). Let's get to it! (And yes, I had to take pictures with my webcam because our camera died and I couldn't locate any batteries!)
 

Mystery Treat #1


 Hamburger bun?     
 Hamburger bun?     

 It looks innocent on the outside, but the inside is a different story
 It looks innocent on the outside, but the inside is a different story
Texture: I'm not sure what I just ate. The outside is covered in sesame seeds, or something that resembles sesame seeds. This little addition made it seem like I was chewing on a piece of Earth.
Flavor: At first I thought I tasted a little hint of some kind of peanut, then all taste immediately went away, and then I thought I tasted some sort of chocolate... I don't even know.
Would I Eat Again?: Nope, partly because I have no clue what I just put into my mouth.
  
 

Mystery Treat #2


      If you look closely, you can see an evil face staring back
      If you look closely, you can see an evil face staring back

 Narsty
 Narsty
Texture: This one's got a really soft feel to it, but it's just creepy once you start chewing on it 
Flavor: This one is definitely some kind of chocolate, or at least I think it is. Not only is there a weird aftertaste, but the aftertaste seems to physically stick to the insides of my mouth. 
Would I Eat Again?: The taste wasn't that bad, but just like the last one it's the putty-like material that is rather disturbing. 
  
 

Mystery Treat #3


 Little pipsqueek
 Little pipsqueek

 Looks like some kinda deep sea creature. Rawr?
 Looks like some kinda deep sea creature. Rawr?
Texture: There isn't really anything too significant about the texture of this tiny thing. Despite it's small size, it was extremely thick and I didn't feel like I was making any progress as I chewed it.
Flavor: Very similar to #2, and I think there are small chocolate flakes sprinkled on top of it. As I'm typing this, I'm suddenly getting a very small taste of peanuts. Bizarre! 
Would I Eat Again?: It wasn't awful, but it was...... boring. I can't imagine having a craving for these things, or rushing to the store to buy some. 
 

Mystery Treat #4


 Looks much bigger in person
 Looks much bigger in person

 Looks strangely similar to the last one...
 Looks strangely similar to the last one...
Texture: I was really afraid of eating this one. I'm not a fan of treats that have strange things in the middle, and this one looked like it was about to burst at any moment. Thankfully, it turned out to be a weird mess of putty-like material that was soft like #2. After eating it I grabbed another one and ripped it open. Turns out there is a filling in it. I could easily make out the outer shell-like layer and the inside. But I only taste one thing when I was eating it, so it's possible that the filling is the same thing as the outer layer, just a slightly different color.
Flavor: Again, a little chocolately, but the taste got drowned by the sheer size of the thing. The mass of the treat itself was enough to make me forget about the flavor and worry more about getting it down to an acceptable size for swallowing. 
Would I Eat Again?: Frankly, no. Just the sight of the thing freaks me out.
 

Mystery Treat #5


 What is even....
 What is even....

 Volcanic rock?
 Volcanic rock?
Texture: I was excited to try this one. It looks like death. Much like the first one, the texture was like dirt and gravel due to the weird black sesame seed things all over the outside. 
Flavor: Do the Japanese know what makes candy good? It's the flavor, not the texture! Come on! This really didn't taste like anything. I got a hint of chocolate but that disappeared pretty quick because it felt like a sesame seed apocalypse in my mouth. 
Would I Eat Again?: How about no? I like my candy to taste like something. I don't like my candy to feel like it's invading my mouth with little particles. 
 
 
 

Anyway

There you have it. I don't "explore" very often when it comes to eating, so these monstrosities were easily the strangest things I've ever eaten. And if you're reading this, it means I survived! Fantastic! Better yet, has anyone seen these before? I would surely love to know the identity of these things that have invaded my stomach. 
 
Also, I just opened up what I thought was a little wetnap package, and this was inside: 
 

No Caption Provided
WHAT IS THAT?
35 Comments

I Think I Lost My Headache

By natetodamax 25 Comments

So today I finished Perfect Dark, which I bought off the Xbox LIVE Marketplace shortly after it came out. Okay, well, I didn't completely finish it. But I think I'm on the last mission, and that's good enough for me because......
 
...... Holy crap, this game is painful. 
 
Really, the only good thing I got out of it was the memories of Goldeneye 007 that came back to me as I played it. Now that I think about it, Perfect Dark also made me love today's first person shooters even more. It made me love the fact that developers aren't making games like it anymore. 
 

 Screw you Suit Dude. You don't make things better.
 Screw you Suit Dude. You don't make things better.
Playing through the campaign, I couldn't stop myself from getting headaches as I played. When I think about it, it may be the aftereffect of the lightning fast movement speed combined with the 60 frames per second that made it seem like I was gliding across some ice equipped with a pair of skates that were propelled by sizable rockets. But really, I think the physical pain the game caused me was a result of the horrible missions structure. In present-day shooters you are given clear objectives, and most of the time it's easy to figure out where you need to be going. You see, Perfect Dark isn't anything like that. Or rather, modern day shooters aren't anything like Perfect Dark. You are given three objectives immediately before every mission, and the game does absolutely nothing to show you how to complete these. An objective as simple as "Disable the shields" can turn into a pathetic 20 minute long journey through the entire level trying to figure out how to disable said shields. 
 
There is no map or helpful waypoints of any kind. I find myself being strained to complete every mission in the game because it doesn't make clear what I need to be doing. The constant state of being lost has lead me to getting headaches nearly every time I've played, because running in circles through every part of a level is never a fun thing to do. And if, by chance, I wasn't getting a headache, I was getting enormously frustrated at the dumb level design that would place objectives in inconspicuous locations, or at Elvis who seems to enjoy falling behind and getting murdered.
 
I think Perfect Dark is the first game to cause me pain. That's not cool :(
25 Comments

Gaming Update #17: Underwater Cities, Uh Uh Uh Uh, And Persona???

By natetodamax 16 Comments

So a few minutes ago, a bunch of cops arrived at a house across the street (well, across the street to our right) and shortly after six shots were heard. The thought that someone could be dying or dead just a few hundred feet down the road was pretty intense. We found out just a few minutes later that it was actually just a small animal (probably a raccoon) that likely set of an alarm in the house.

Splicers are funny
Splicers are funny

But that is completely irrelevant to this blog. I just felt like sharing it. This Gaming Update is brought to you by the fine makers of Bioshock 2. Well, not really. I did spend a lot of time playing the game recently, though. But rather than playing the single player, I spent a few hours with the multiplayer which actually turned out to be a lot of fun. I had spent about 8 hours playing it previously but had some issues with it. You see, the thing about Bioshock 2's multiplayer is that it requires you to experiment with guns and plasmids to figure out what works best, for you at least. You can't just go into the game and start smokin' everyone you come across. The guns are horribly underpowered for a reason. It's pretty clear that the developers made the guns surprisingly weak to force you to use plasmids; I cannot think of any other reason why this would be. And while the weapons do lead to some frustrating moments where an enemy should have died after you unloaded a clip into them, it's strangely satisfying when you combine a plasmid and a weapon and discover that the combination is extremely effective. For a long time now I've been using the Electro Bolt with the Pistol, which I originally thought was a terrible weapon. By hitting an enemy with the Electro Bolt, they are stunned and are unable to move or shoot. All it takes after that is a few quick shots from the pistol and they go down. Stuff like this can also be learned from other players instead of just trial and error; I discovered the effectiveness of the Electro Bolt + Pistol after getting destroyed in a match by someone wielding the godly powers of both.

So if anyone is struggling with the multiplayer (I know I did for a while), here are some useful combos:

  • Electro Bolt + Pistol w/ Automatic Fire(mentioned above)
  • Insect Swarm + Grenade Launcher (or really, just use the grenade launcher on it's own. It's incredible)
  • Electro Bolt/Winter Blast + Shotgun w/ Increased Rate Of Fire
It's a-me, Mario!..... No?
It's a-me, Mario!..... No?

I think I want to talk a bit about Assassin's Creed 2. I first played it back in March but didn't get a chance to beat it, for we had rented it. But mainly, I didn't beat it because I hated it. I hated pretty much everything about it. The climbing, the fighting, the mundane and psychologically arduous errands I was doing for people in the first hour. It seemed like everyone I came across wanted to get rid of me since they sent me out on all these stupid jobs. But a few weeks ago, I "borrowed" the game from my brother and decided to give it another chance. For a few minutes I still had the "Why am I even playing this game?" mentality, but soon grew out of it when the game went from the boring run-jobs-for-dumb-people structure to the let's-actually-stab-some-dudes-and-witness-plot-twists structure. Because it had been many months, I knew nothing about the story. I didn't know who the "conspirators" were, what they were doing or planning to do, and why they needed to be eliminated. But it didn't really matter all that much to me, for I found the game enjoyable to play after all that time of writing it off as boring. The lack of a return date for the game gave me some more freedom to explore the neat little economic system and do some side stuff in addition to main storyline missions. I even managed to complete all of the Assassin Tombs, which proved to be challenging yet entertaining platformer sequences requiring crackerjack timing.

Before anyone asks, I did get the achievement for kicking a guard while using the flying machine.
Before anyone asks, I did get the achievement for kicking a guard while using the flying machine.

My biggest issue with Assassin's Creed 2, which I also found rather annoying when I first played it back in March, was the climbing. For some reason, Ezio hates me. Whenever I "tell" him to jump a certain direction, he jumps in the other. Whenever I try to leap from one building to a next, he finds it amusing to instead jump into the nearby river or, if he really wants to be funny, take a leap of death into the streets below. There was one occasion where I synchronized a viewpoint and when I went to jump off into the hay bale at the bottom, Ezio pounced off to the right and died on impact when he slammed horribly into the ground. Fortunately, these incidents weren't too common, so they didn't drive me completely insane. Besides that, I was really disappointed with the lack of music in the game. Specifically, I mean the lack of battle music. While the guards in the first game were very unforgiving, the song that plays when being chased it astounding. It really gets the adrenaline going and is goosebump-inducing. So why wasn't there something like that in the second game? Maybe there was, but I didn't hear it. It was even worse when you engage in a fist fight with the antagonist at the end, and the entire scene is completely silent except for the dialog and the muffled punches. It was honestly one of the weakest final boss battles I've ever seen, mostly because there was no music. I'm a sucker for awesome video game music, and Assassin's Creed 2 really let me down there.

And what even happened at the end? It was totally awesome playing as Desmond and stabbing dudes (his kill animation was pretty cool) in the face with a "hidden" blade, but it got me thinking.... is the sun going to be the antagonist in the next game!? That wouldn't make much sense, would it? Final boss battle has Desmond stabbing the sun with a really long space blade or something. Now that would be incredible.

Finally, within the next two days (hopefully tomorrow) Persona 3 FES will be arriving in the mail. I was really interested in doing a text-based Endurance Run type series of blogs, similar to what I did with Dragon Age: Origins, but since there is already a user doing one I'll probably keep them on my profile should I actually commit to it. I have a feeling people would get annoyed if there were a bunch of blogs appearing under Persona 3.

With all that said, we reach the end of this Gaming Update. Hope everyone had a fantastic hump day.

Until next time, children.

16 Comments

I have arrived at a frightening conclusion

By natetodamax 54 Comments

I'm going to start over in Final Fantasy XIII

I came to this conclusion strangely during a match of Bad Company 2. I was thinking about the game and the fact that I haven't played it in well over a month. A few months actually. The reason being is a boss that I was stuck on, and once I took a little break from the game to do other stuff I just never returned. 
 
 Alright, let's take it from the top! Tell me your names, left to right!
 Alright, let's take it from the top! Tell me your names, left to right!
I don't hate the game. Quite the contrary actually. I really enjoyed my time with it, but I made some mistakes during my original playthrough that resulted in me making this decision. Probably the biggest mistake was not fighting every group of enemies I came across. There were times when it would be late at night and/or I wanted to stop playing so I would rush on to the next save point, and in the process would run past many many enemies. Because of this, I was probably really underleveled when I came to the boss that I never beat, and probably won't beat on this playthrough. Granted I was only 20 hours into the game, but I never even reached Gran Pulse (to be honest I'm probably right at the doorstep of it, but I don't know for sure). 
 
I have decided to restart my playthrough mainly because if I went back into the game now I will have forgotten everything that occurred in the story. That was the major killer for me. I'm not really playing this game for the combat or the act of running forward; rather, I'm doing it for the story. But it's gotten to the point where I really can't recall much that has happened in the story. It's been that long. 
 
So, it is with great regret that I must start over. This time however, I plan to fight every single enemy I come across, and maybe do some grinding in the process. Because when I meet up with said boss again I want to murder him/it into tiny little pieces. 
 
(Only problem is that I'm getting Persona 3 FES next week which will might take up a lot of my time....hmm) 
 
Also, don't ask me who the boss is. I don't remember the name or what he/it looks like. :(
54 Comments

It's hard to dislike a game that gets its ideas from great ones

By natetodamax 14 Comments

In many ways, the multiplayer of Medal Of Honor is very familiar. If you've played Modern Warfare 2 and Bad Company 2, you've played this game. Developed by DICE, the multiplayer combines the animations (from reloading all the way down to the weapon bob) and graphics from Bad Company 2 with the fast paced gameplay and customization of Modern Warfare 2. In a way, the lack of originality seems like a big hit to the quality of the game. But then again, the two popular first person shooters from which this game gained much inspiration are great, so what's to hate? 
 
Regardless of how upset you may be at the "unoriginality", it would be imprudent to say that Medal Of Honor isn't a fun game to play. And that's what may be a selling point for people. It's fun to play, and that's one of the things that has got me excited to see the final product. Playing the beta, however, I couldn't help but notice all of the similarities to Modern Warfare 2 and Bad Company 2. So, I aim to point out the similarities that I noticed in this blog, so that you, my ever so faithful reader, can truly understand where this game gets its ideas. 
 

Modern Warfare 2

 At least DICE calls this the red dot sight, and not the holographic sight
 At least DICE calls this the red dot sight, and not the holographic sight
Probably the most hated and loved shooter on the market today, Modern Warfare 2 and its predecessor, Call Of Duty 4, popularized the idea of customizable weapons and classes with the mainstream audience. DICE recognizes that people like the ability to slap on red dots or suppressors on their guns when they feel like it, so Medal Of Honor gives players the ability to do so. The way you unlock attachments and new weapons is different, however, but I will cover that in the next section. Still, there is something oddly satisfying about unlocking a new sight for your weapon and using it against your enemies in the next match. In addition to the normal red dot sights and silencers are different bullet types and magazines you can utilize to further modify your guns. However, there aren't any loadouts that you customize. Instead, you have classes that can only use specific weapons. For example, the sniper uses sniper rifles and the special ops guy uses submachine guns and rocket launchers. So, you'll unlock new guns and attachments for the classes as you play.  
 
Medal Of Honor has scorechains, which are essentially interesting twists on killstreaks. So the first scorechain you get is awarded after gaining 40 points and the number of points needed increases after that. I'm not exactly a big fan of killstreaks, so it's disappointing to see that DICE has incorporated scorechains into the multiplayer.
 
Another thing I quickly noticed was the fast paced nature of the game. It doesn't take many hits to die, and conversely it doesn't take many shots to kill an enemy. In the Team Deathmatch game mode, there aren't any respawn times, so death really isn't a huge deal. Movement is fast, killing is fast, everything is fast compared to Bad Company 2. 
 

Bad Company 2

 Fire up Bad Company 2, reload the M4A1, then fire up Medal Of Honor and reload the M4. Surprised?
 Fire up Bad Company 2, reload the M4A1, then fire up Medal Of Honor and reload the M4. Surprised?
Some may argue that the comparisons to Bad Company 2 are less apparent, but to me they are probably more apparent than the Modern Warfare 2 comparisons. Medal Of Honor's multiplayer runs on the Frostbite engine, which powered both of the Bad Company games including Battlefield 1943. As a result, Medal Of Honor visually looks more similar to Bad Company 2 than Modern Warfare 2. This certainly isn't a terrible thing, as Bad Company 2 isn't a bad looking game, but Modern Warfare 2 is the more impressive game aesthetically. The Frostbite engine powering the game also means that the reloading animations for a lot of the weapons are the same as they were in Bad Company 2. This is easily the most strangest similarity I've noticed, since identical reloading animations suggests that the developer injected aspects of their own game into another. Thus, Medal Of Honor begins to feel less like an individual game and more like a collaboration of games in a way. It even goes down to the weapon bob, both when running like normal and sprinting. 
 

In Conclusion

As I stated earlier, Medal Of Honor feels like a collaboration of two great games rather than an individual game that is capable of standing out on its own. It lacks many distinguishing features, but the two games that inspires its existence are terrific shooters, so surely Medal Of Honor can only turn out right..... right? I think it would be terribly rash of someone to dismiss the game based solely on the beta alone. Conversely, it wouldn't necessarily be right for someone to praise the game in its early stages. DICE still has a long way to go to make Medal Of Honor a truly great shooter. Let's just hope the studio is devoting most of its time to fixing some of the most prevalent bugs, like the 1 second lag that occurs when you die and the mysterious white red dot sights. Medal Of Honor will need to be near perfect to stand next to Modern Warfare 2 and Bad Company 2. All DICE needs is a little support from the fans.
14 Comments

Bullet Point Blog Commemorating The Birth Of My Account!

By natetodamax 16 Comments

So I was originally going to write up another Gaming Update today but I was too busy editing the wiki. And besides, that blog would mostly consist of me ranting on Call Of Duty and Bad Company 2. Nobody wants to read that. But anyway, two years ago on this day I created this account. Since then I've become top poster and have accumulated over 23,000 wiki points. That's pretty awesome.  
 
So instead of a long blog post, here's a quick bullet point list of things that come to mind.
 

  • I got on the front page of Top Wiki Editors. I'm slowly working my way up to the top!
  • Uguu~
  • Started playing CoD: World At War again because I'm only in 5th or 6th prestige and wanted to level up more. But I'm kinda done with the game because I hardly have any weapon challenges left to complete, which means getting to 65 will basically be a grind that I do not want to do. And the knife is still broken in that game
  • I decided that I'm probably going to sell my copy of Bad Company 2 because I no longer feel like playing it. Too frustrating for me :(
  • I made the Brotherhood of Steel page totally awesome, so check it out!
  • Next week I'm going away and probably won't have internet for a week. But I might, nobody knows yet.
  • I changed my user icon to Rise because Rise is totally awesome and this is probably my favorite one out of all the ones I've used
  • I finished the P4 Endurance Run a few days ago. Now I can finally start exercising again and lay off the chips. I think I've actually lost weight this month. Not drinking soda helps a lot.
 
Oh, and I'm addicted to this song like none other. It's so simple yet astounding at the same time. 
 
  
 
 
And here's a rather hilarious version of it 
 
 
  
  That's all.
16 Comments

I finished the Persona 4 Endurance Run, but I didn't finish it

By natetodamax 9 Comments

So today, I finally "finished" watching the Persona 4 Endurance Run. But the thing is, I didn't really finish it. I found myself skipping through lots of episodes that consisted of mostly combat or grinding. I skipped through fusing, I skipped through all the Naoto S Link convos (sorry Naoto, I love ya, but we got to catch the killer), I skipped through *some* story sequences. But I am satisfied now that I've finished it.... this means I'll be able to spend more time editing wikis (still havent gotten on the front page of Top Wiki Editors like I wanted to) and I'll have more time to go out and exercise now. 
 
This can only mean great, great things. But anyway, I almost cried at the last episode. It was sad. Like, really sad. I'm so glad they did that feature. 
 
Carry on.

9 Comments