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Mashing buttons since 1984

Halo 3

Halo 3: ODST may be my biggest gaming disappointment this year

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Unfortunately, with all the recent events I have not been able to give Halo 3: ODST any decent write-ups. That’s probably acceptable though because I simply cannot give the game enough time to do a decent write-up. Not that I haven’t been playing games, I’ve just been playing everything except this. Halo 3: ODST may be the biggest disappointment this year. The game is chock full of good ideas but is extremely poor in its overall execution.

What I really blame for this is the idea you can incorporate standard Halo gameplay without Master Chief. Bungie gave me the impression combat would have to be more strategic, perhaps more stealthy. Nope. The game is pretty much straight up Halo, except you’re not anywhere near as tough nor can you wield the same kind of firepower.

So here is a pretty decent story hamstrung by an incredibly frustrating play experience. I’m sure the game will sell like gangbusters because its Halo, people will love it because it is Halo, and the game will still continue getting decent reviews simply because it is Halo. If you’re not invested in the Halo franchise? I’d recommend steering clear.

I do want to get back into the game because I want to see how the story pans out. I just don’t have the frustration tolerance for it right now.

What we’re playing (Weekend Edition)

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It’s the weekend and it’s time to get geared up for a great weekend of gaming! It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these so I’ve got some catching up to do. I know Nat hasn’t been feeling well, so I’ll let him fill us in on what he’s been playing whenever he feels like it.

As for me, I’ve been pretty busy. After reading Nat’s (and everyone else’s) attempts to actually finish a few games, I took it to heart and placed a self-imposed rule that I had to finish something, anything, before I picked up a new game. I really wanted to get Burnout Paradise, so I gave it the college try and decided to wrap up some loose ends.

Even though you never really “finish” Pokemon Diamond, per se, there is an end to the game, which after consulting GameFAQs once or twice, I finally made it to. I found and finally finished off the last bad guys. It was fairly easy and quite anticlimatic. But it is the first Pokemon game I’ve “finished” so there’s that. I think my Pokedex was more than half full which flies in the face of the mantra of collect them all, but I’m only human. I’m not waiting around for a convenient Friday just to catch a pocket monster.

I also managed to finish the single player campaign in Halo 3 (On Heroic, mind you). I hated the sphincter level, but the last level was most enjoyable. A true homage to the Halo series. The ending was infinity times better than Halo 2’s ending.

Halo 3

Yes it was.

But now I’m done with those two games. Sure, I still play Halo 3 multiplayer like it’s my job, but I doubt I’ll be doing the single player much more except to find the skulls. Maybe I’ll do co-op with someone to get the achievements, but that’s about it.

So here’s what I’m playing:

Burnout ParadiseBurnout Paradise: I’m a few months behind the curve on this one, but I am loving Burnout Paradise. Burnout’s trademark speed and pedal-to-the-metal is still there, with the added open world. I haven’t stopped grinning since I started playing this one. I haven’t played with anyone online yet, but I can definitely see that being a blast. I miss crash mode but showtime mode is a decent replacement.

Super Mario Galaxy and NSMB: Again, I’m a few months behind the curve with SMG, but I can’t get enough of this. A little while ago, my 3 year-old started watching me play NSMB on the DS and wanted to try it. He isn’t bad (for a 3 y/o) and he really likes the Mario character. My daughter loves Princess Peach (duh) so our new past time is to play Super Mario Galaxy. This is another one of those games that are just plain fun. The platforming has been taken to another level with the galaxy concept. I love it. Being able to have my daughter join in the fun with the other Wii-mote is perfect. I’ve gathered 22 stars so far and I don’t want to stop any time soon.

I’ve also been playing a handful of web-based flash games (a few I’m too ashamed to admit to playing, others I’m saving for future blog posts) all in the name of “research”. And of course I can’t go to bed until I get in a game of Spider Solitaire and Tetris.

This weekend I’ll be playing Burnout and SMG, and hopefully getting back to my Mass Effect save. Should be a busy weekend.

NAT: I’ve been playing the “stay hydrated and gain my weight back” game (PSA: wash your hands). Actually, two nights ago, I finally took the cellophane off my copy of Mass Effect. My initial impression is that it’s cinematic. Even though we purchased Brawl, we must be the only home in America that’s just not sucked in by it. We’ve played it a total of two nights. My son has been keeping me busy with a few racing games: Cars, Cars:Maternational, Forza 2, and a couple of the Burnouts. However, mostly, I’ve been playing Bully: Scholarship Edition. It’s been a hoot. Last night, I popped Geometry Wars Galaxies into the Wii and now I have an itch to play a lot of that. This may seem like a lot of titles, but for me, it’s only been 5-15 minutes at a time.

What are you playing?

Pic Lens

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This has pretty much nothing to do with gaming, but it is way too cool not to pass along. My bud and fellow buttonmasher, the Monkey, sent me a link to Pic Lens, a browser plug-in (it will auto-detect your browser) that is pretty much the Bee Knees. If you use Flickr, Google Image Search, Picasa, anything like that, it’s a must-see.

So why is it a must-see (and for that matter, a must-install)? Because it takes image browsing to the next level. Kicking it up a notch, as it were, if your Flickr stream were some shrimps and Pic Lens was Emeril. What it does, in a nutshell, is take an image stream and “Apple-ify it”. Think a little Cover Flow in iTunes (originally from this guy) but better. Pic Lens tiles the images in a manageable arrangement. You can then view the images in “3D”, scrolling through them much quicker than you would be able to if you were simply viewing the Flickr page, for example. You can click an individual image to enlarge in and then use your mouse scroll wheel to zoom in and out. It is very slick.

It’s also a very smart program. If you’re looking at a Flickr group (Explore, for example) that spans mulitple pages, Pic Lens is smart enough to retrieve everything in that stream. It is very slick.

After installing the plugin, when you mouse over an image, you’ll see a little “Play” button. Clicking on the play button brings up Pic Lens and grabs all the images it can associate with the image you clicked on (a Flickr stream, a Google Image Search). Then it’s surf’s up!

The only thing I don’t like is the inability to get any image information (source, tags, comments) but that is an enhancement that could always be added. It hardly detracts from the coolness that is Pic Lens.

So yeah, nothing here about gaming (although the Halo 3 Flickr Feed was fun to surf) but something I find extremely cool and thought you would, too.

Pic Lens

Actually, come to think of it, didn’t the Flickr guys try their hands at an MMO (The Game Neverending or something) and then they envisioned Flickr as a game? See, it’s all related!

More Halo 3 Stats

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Since I can’t actually, you know, play Halo 3 at the moment, I thought I’d dig back into my Halo 3 stats, revisiting sites I’ve already mentioned (StatsReloaded.com) and check out what other services have popped up recently. I’ve got to get my fix somehow.

Earlier this month, BS Angel asks how many betrayals you average and then points to halo3.junk.ws (You can see my meager stats here).

While both present fairly the same info, I’d have to say Halo 3 Junk presents it in a much cleaner and pleasing manner. I love that all of the “Best of” results for the various categories are clickable and they take you to the game where your exploits occurred. Very cool. I think Halo 3 Junk will be my site of choice for all my statistical analysis needs for the time being. And I promise I’ll lay off the Halo 3 stat posts until Query Spree make its return.

So back to the question at hand — how many betrayals do you average? I average 0.03. How about you?

Tender Moments in Halo 3

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I was doing my daily multiplayer matches (USDA Recommend Daily Allowance is at least 5 a day), this time in the Ranked Team Slayer playlist. I’m matched up with some players and we wait for the map to load. As often happens, someone comments on my gamertag (I aint yer Pa). The person that found it funny was a player with a gamertag like “EvilPRINCESSS183” or something. At first, the voice sounded like like a teenage boy whose voice hadn’t deepened just yet, but it turns out it was a real girl. I chuckled at the name EvilPrincess193, thinking some little kid thought it would be funny to call himself an evil princess.

The match was set for Guardian (one of my favorite maps) and it was on. Turns out that the competition was quite weak, so I was running around spanking the other team on the bare bottom. I go up the elevator and find three blue guys looking for trouble when EvilPrincess842 runs in and screams “Ahhh! Why do I always find the bad guys when I’m by myself?” She was promptly dispatched and then I Gravity Hammered two of them into oblivion before the third one got me.

I respawn and I hear a couple of my teammates talking. Another member of the team was RootofEvil583. I should have made the connection, but I didn’t until after the game (I noticed they had similar names and icons). How cute — a couple playing Halo 3 together. They were even playing on separate boxes (this was a ranked matched, after all). This adds to the cuteness. Then I overhear this conversation:

RootofEvil482: Honey, please! Don’t fall of the edge again.
EvilPrincess410: I’m trying! It’s not the easiest thing to do.
RootofEvil482: Sweetie! Be careful. You’re gonna fall!
EvilPrincess410: This level drives me crazy! It’s so hard to jump around!
RootofEvil482: You’re doing great! Now lets go get some kills!

It was a nice tender moments between a couple of love birds. The encouragement, the positive reinforcement. I just wanted to hug ’em! I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: “The family (or couple) that games together, stays together.”

Achieving Satisfaction

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As anyone who’s been in a “Lone Wolf” Free For All match in Halo 3, you’ll know that a lot of players would like your assistance in getting a few of the tougher achievements that can only be earned in ranked FFA matches. BS Angel talked about this earlier. I’ve been spending the majority of my Halo 3 time in Lone Wolf matches, so I’ve been hearing this a lot.

I usually ignore the pleas to help out. “I’ll get in the Ghost, then you hijack me, then I’ll hijack you, then you hijack me back.” This was an actual conversation I heard as a game was loading. More often than not, I’ll head to wherever these guys are and mess with them. Then I’ll leave them to their business. Sure, I want the achievements, but I want to earn them, man!

One of these achievements is called “Two for One”:

Two for One

Recently, I was in a Lone Wolf match on Snowbound. It wasn’t a Slayer match, however, it was Oddball. I snatched the Spartan Laser and started chasing after a guy, training the laser on him the whole chasethe whole time, trying to time his movements to the charging laser. As luck would have it, another bad guy (with the skull, no less) came in the other direction. I charged the laser, blasted at guy #1 one and the nudged the laser ever so slightly and caught the other guy. Two for one, baby!

Here’s an in-game screenshot:

Two for One

Not the best shot, but you can see my name there in the background, in the little tunnel there, with the laser blasting the Ghost and the two bad guys as I earn my achievement the hard way. That was most satisfying.

Wednesday night musings

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Since there aren’t any sporting events going on this evening (no college football games of note, the Indians have a day off, and who wants to watch pre-season NBA?) I’m working on some blog items, mostly updating plug-ins and playing around with their settings. A day doesn’t go by that I don’t totally *heart* WordPress.

I also have a couple other items to get to: For the time being, we won’t be hearing much from my newest co-blogger, Dark Reyule. He’s taking a break from gaming and blogging isn’t an option at the moment. I told him he’s still very much welcome around these parts, so hopefully he’ll still drop by once and a while. So the blogging will be coming primarily from me and Nat for the foreseeable future.

I’m also going through a bunch of drafts and stubs of posts I have sitting in various degrees of completion, so there may be the occasional post with some “older” content. Hopefully it will still be relevant in some way. The blogging will continue, even if morale doesn’t improve.

As for the musings: Anyone here listen to Major Nelson’s podcast? If so, is it just me, or has the podcast’s quality declined lately? When Major and his co-host “e” are talking about things like their latest travels or other minutia, I lose all interest. Their conversations also have an “inside joke” feel, but not everyone is in on it. This was something that turned me off of the Evil Avatar Radio podcast. I want to hear about games! Not how exciting your company retreat was! I don’t care who you saw at the Halo 3 launch. Tell me about the actual game. I do love when he interviews people in the “industry,” however. The interview with Marty O’Donnell was top-shelf. I love the music from the Halo Trilogy and hearing Marty talk about it was a treat. Get back to the games, Major.

I would also like to mention that the Halo 3 theater rocks. That is (not) all. More on that later.

Halo 3 Stats and Stats Galore

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Stats!I am getting a lot of Google searches for people wanting all the Halo 3 stats info they can find. Google is directing them to a post I did about the Halo 3 Beta stats going live. That doesn’t help out much, so since I am a huge Halo 3 stats whore (I love love love them), I’m more than happy to provide people with additional information.

Right now, the pickings for a comprehensive, one-stop shop for your Halo 3 Stats are slim. The best is still going to be Bungie’s site. That’s not a bad thing, as it’s quite easy to use and well designed. They have a boatload of stats and just about everything you can ask for. Of course, that’s not enough for some people. They want, crave, and desire more. So I went looking for more.

The site StatsReloaded.com is the first stop you should make. While it’s not perfect, there is a lot of potential. Give it a try. (Please note that their site is “in Beta” and the stats may be reset a couple times before the site launches for real).

The first thing you’ll have to do is “register” your gamertag with their site. It’s simply adding your gamertag to their database. After you’ve added it, they create a page that is reminiscent of your Bungie.net page, but will a little more data (you can see mine here). I like the “Most Feared” and “Most Killed” stats. I expect most of my friends to appear in the “Most Killed” column!

I like to compare my stats with people on my friends list (and the random people I play) but it’s a little clunky with Bungie.net. StatsOverloaded comes through, with the ability to compare up to 16 players. (Again, the players you want to compare have to be in their database.) I went ahead and added my co-blogger Dark Reyule into their system (hope you don’t mind, DR!) and compared our stats. You can see the comparison here. Not too shabby.

For those of you that love your forum signatures, your bases are covered.

StatsReloaded Halo 2 News & Stats

StatsReloaded.com has a lot of potential. It seems like their servers are a bit sluggish and their site isn’t the most usable one out there, but for those of you looking to do more with your Halo 3 statistics, on October 8th, StatsReloaded.com looks to be a one stop shop. There will probably be A LOT of these types of sites that pop up. Heck, Bungie may even do something on their site. But whatever you’re looking for, there are going to be many ways to have fun with Halo 3 stats.