So I decided arbitrarily to go back and get the final online achievement I had to unlock for Rock Band, the "Tug of War Champ" achievement worth 30 gamerpoints. I thought this would be a five to ten minute process, having won many ranked tug-of-war matches prior. I played beautifully, perfecting several songs, choosing both Hard and Expert difficulties as I felt inclined. However, as time passed and more and more songs were rocked to and completed to my satisfaction, I noticed that I had yet to garner this simple achievement. Confusion (along with a minor bit of frustration) was the emotion of the evening. I was positive that I had won enough to make this easy for me, yet it was not until my tenth or twelfth song (I was only roughly keeping track) that the happy achievement popped up on my screen. Naturally, I was pleased to be rid of the most annoying of the online modes (in my opinion). I am still not sure if the achievement was accurate in the count to twenty or if I merely had a higher number in my head than I actually had. Regardless, the achievement is now under my belt.
One day and one good night's rest later, I found myself wanting some good clean competition. Seeing as I do not have any games with Live capability that give me that experience (other than Rock Band of which I had sworn off due to the night before), I turned reluctantly to Halo 3. I knew with a heavy heart that the end result would be a system pumped full of adrenaline and a mind filled with numerous words of vulgar nature. That in mind, I popped in the disk and jumped into Social Slayer. Immediately, I found my left ear barraged with inferrences about another's mother, whilst simultaneously another told a fourth to cease and desist speaking. My first instinct was to mute the lot of them, yanking my mic off of my head as I did. Yet, whether it was from some twisted sense of masochism or the feeling one gets while watching a train wreck, the headset remained clamped firmly to my skull.
Why is it that people feel the need to swear and curse at everyone in the game? I understand the freedom people feel when anonymity shows it's vindictive visage. I understand the allure of being able to freely voice one's opinion without fear of reprecussions. I merely cannot comprehend why some feel it increases the size of their online male genitalia. I know for a fact that the object of my ego has not grown nor shrunk during any of the few occasions I decended to the level of those who practice the language vulgar. Regardless of my uncouth adjectives, I did not do any better or worse than normal. Alas, that might be a part of gaming society I shall never know.
I lost track of how many games I played, and even now only vaguely remember the four or more hours I sniped and shot my way to victory or defeat. I do remember the inexplicably large probablity of being thrown into a Shotty-Sniper round. I believe I played one on Vahalla (with three of my teammates dropping out and two of my opponents following suit, leaving me to completely pwn the other team of two), two on Last Resort (wherein I lost a teammate there as well, and ended up losing by one with myself as the best player), and one on High Ground (I swear I hit one guy in the face three times only to have him calmly turn to me and shoot me...seriously, not cool). I'm sure there were more, but those stuck out to me, primarily the last one. Now, Bungie, I appreciate that you guys have created a system that will, in essence, accuately deflect bullets as need be. That being said, I believe that your system sucks ba......um......is very undesirable. Many rounds, I charged at a guy who obviously had half shields, firing my battle rifle into their face and finishing off with a bash. The end result was my death. Needless to say, my television nearly suffered a similar fate, the only difference being a controller instead of a battle rifle.
I do realize I could go back and meticulously search the Theatre lobby looking for the instances, save them, and then upload them to Bungie for cheat analysis, but the truth of the matter is that I'm lazy. Very lazy. So lazy that if I do see cheating, I probably will do nothing. Of course, I quickly justify this laziness with the following thought: "He's cheating at Halo 3. A video game. Just to beat people. Wow. Real great life he's got."
...
Well, talk about a rabbit trail...and a real great boost to my credibility. "I'm losing so he must be cheating." Allow me to sticky myself to save all of you the trouble.
Showing posts with label Halo 3. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Halo 3. Show all posts
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Monday, August 4, 2008
All Ringed Out
Halo 3.
I wish I could just post that and end it right here and now. I really do. But I'd be neglecting my personal goal of cross-analyzing the library of games I have so far played as Halo 3 was one of the first trio of games delved into. Therefore, in the interest of accuracy, my thoughts.
Allow me to start with the Campaign. Having played through Co-op on Legendary and halfway through solo on Heroic (I don't have the time nor drive to solo Legendary), the first thing I really noticed was the massive difference having a teammate makes on the gameplay. When I played by myself, more often than not I found myself clenching my jaw in frustration and concentration. Somehow, the game was a chore, something I was struggling through for the sole purpose of garnering achievements. However, as soon as my bro popped his controller on and joined me, the game suddenly became fun. We sat next to each other, screenwatching both screens to make sure we were cooperating well, yelling back and forth for the little things we were or weren't doing. The sensation of working with someone made it quite enjoyable whereas playing it alone made it a chore.
The plot and achievements based on it are both well done. There's achievements per level, per skull found, and per meta-campaign mission completion. It gives several layers of depth to the otherwise bland achievement list for the campaign. That, and it made it easy to tell my first time through when I had reached the end of a level rather than just a checkpoint. I won't spoil the plot, but the ending was well done in comparasion to the last two iterations of the series, sealing off the Halo trilogy quite well (if they do indeed leave it finished).
Overall, the campaign is good, but in a way, it is merely a shiny cover for the real draw for most people (excluding myself): multiplayer. Thing is I'm all for pwning people in a match of twitching trigger fingers. I have nothing against it. I do however prefer the people I'm pwning to be people I know. For one thing, it eases the ego blow for myself (or them if I get lucky in a match) when I know legitimetly why that person beat me. That, and I know where the said person lives so that if they do try to verbally bash me, I know where to go to bash their face. It's a simple system that works well. Unfortunately in an online setting, it's quite impossible to effectively utilize this method.
Which brings me to my biggest grief with Halo 3: the community. Of course, I can't blame Bungie for it; annoying idiots are inherent to any group of anonymous people. It does detract from my enjoyment of the game, however. In the few rounds where I had logical, reasonable people on my team, I enjoyed myself immensly. For the majority of the rest, doing anything was a chore. Now, before everyone and their uncle jumps on me and complains about how I'm being unreasonable, allow me to clarify. Not everyone playing Halo 3 is an immature imbicile, just most of them. In all reality, I should be somewhat unbiased when it comes to reviewing, but I find it difficult to seperate the community from the game itself since the multiplayer is what is placed on a pedestal.
As for the multiplayer achievements, I can see their use and their purpose, but they still frustrate me immensly. First off, I think it's somewhat lame to have achievements that you have to pay Microsoft through the nose to get, and even when you do pay, you still need to be the gaming equivilent of Batman to finally get them. Top on that offending list is "Two For One" which is nothing more than being able to line up a near impossible shot (assuming it's being done legitimetly instead of asking people to nicely stand in a line) on a specific playlist. It's frustratingly difficult. Grats to those who have it, but I don't think I'm going to kill myself to get it.
In the end, what Halo 3 comes up being is nothing more than something one either loves and plays straight for five years or is ambivilent towards and plays because they have little else to do. As of this post, I have achieved 910/1000 points and doubt I'll get much more beyond the few meta-campaign missions I have yet to get. It's a good game, one I enjoy playing casually, but I don't think I'll kill myself in an attempt to perfect the game.
Overall Gamerscore for Halo 3: 820/1000
+ Good Campaign with great Co-op
+ A legitimate challenge if needed, casual enough otherwise
+ Achievements are varied for the most part
- Online Achievements. 'Nuff said.
- Annoying / Imbicilic Community
I wish I could just post that and end it right here and now. I really do. But I'd be neglecting my personal goal of cross-analyzing the library of games I have so far played as Halo 3 was one of the first trio of games delved into. Therefore, in the interest of accuracy, my thoughts.
Allow me to start with the Campaign. Having played through Co-op on Legendary and halfway through solo on Heroic (I don't have the time nor drive to solo Legendary), the first thing I really noticed was the massive difference having a teammate makes on the gameplay. When I played by myself, more often than not I found myself clenching my jaw in frustration and concentration. Somehow, the game was a chore, something I was struggling through for the sole purpose of garnering achievements. However, as soon as my bro popped his controller on and joined me, the game suddenly became fun. We sat next to each other, screenwatching both screens to make sure we were cooperating well, yelling back and forth for the little things we were or weren't doing. The sensation of working with someone made it quite enjoyable whereas playing it alone made it a chore.
The plot and achievements based on it are both well done. There's achievements per level, per skull found, and per meta-campaign mission completion. It gives several layers of depth to the otherwise bland achievement list for the campaign. That, and it made it easy to tell my first time through when I had reached the end of a level rather than just a checkpoint. I won't spoil the plot, but the ending was well done in comparasion to the last two iterations of the series, sealing off the Halo trilogy quite well (if they do indeed leave it finished).
Overall, the campaign is good, but in a way, it is merely a shiny cover for the real draw for most people (excluding myself): multiplayer. Thing is I'm all for pwning people in a match of twitching trigger fingers. I have nothing against it. I do however prefer the people I'm pwning to be people I know. For one thing, it eases the ego blow for myself (or them if I get lucky in a match) when I know legitimetly why that person beat me. That, and I know where the said person lives so that if they do try to verbally bash me, I know where to go to bash their face. It's a simple system that works well. Unfortunately in an online setting, it's quite impossible to effectively utilize this method.
Which brings me to my biggest grief with Halo 3: the community. Of course, I can't blame Bungie for it; annoying idiots are inherent to any group of anonymous people. It does detract from my enjoyment of the game, however. In the few rounds where I had logical, reasonable people on my team, I enjoyed myself immensly. For the majority of the rest, doing anything was a chore. Now, before everyone and their uncle jumps on me and complains about how I'm being unreasonable, allow me to clarify. Not everyone playing Halo 3 is an immature imbicile, just most of them. In all reality, I should be somewhat unbiased when it comes to reviewing, but I find it difficult to seperate the community from the game itself since the multiplayer is what is placed on a pedestal.
As for the multiplayer achievements, I can see their use and their purpose, but they still frustrate me immensly. First off, I think it's somewhat lame to have achievements that you have to pay Microsoft through the nose to get, and even when you do pay, you still need to be the gaming equivilent of Batman to finally get them. Top on that offending list is "Two For One" which is nothing more than being able to line up a near impossible shot (assuming it's being done legitimetly instead of asking people to nicely stand in a line) on a specific playlist. It's frustratingly difficult. Grats to those who have it, but I don't think I'm going to kill myself to get it.
In the end, what Halo 3 comes up being is nothing more than something one either loves and plays straight for five years or is ambivilent towards and plays because they have little else to do. As of this post, I have achieved 910/1000 points and doubt I'll get much more beyond the few meta-campaign missions I have yet to get. It's a good game, one I enjoy playing casually, but I don't think I'll kill myself in an attempt to perfect the game.
Overall Gamerscore for Halo 3: 820/1000
+ Good Campaign with great Co-op
+ A legitimate challenge if needed, casual enough otherwise
+ Achievements are varied for the most part
- Online Achievements. 'Nuff said.
- Annoying / Imbicilic Community
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