While the battle between the COGS and the Locust seems like an endless struggle, yours truly has finally decided to hang up his weapons

at least for ranked purposes. Everyone seems to be getting the Seriously achievement now so I decided to do one better and get another 10K kills. No glitching, no team stacking, no having others play my account for a spot on the leaderboards, no modding, no clans; just me, my skills, and a lot of free time. While the game has been addicting for me to play online, I can honestly say I can do without everything I stated above that cheapens the leaderboards in addition to the loud, annoying, obnoxious, and racist people who seem to have migrated from Halo 2 to this game. Plus I feel like I have nothing left to prove on this game (other than that I Can't Quit You Dom achievement). Furthermore, this will now free up my time for the 10 or so games I bought since last November and my upcoming transition out of the active duty Army. Check out my score if you want the only thing that will change is my rank which is 477 in the world.

[UPDATE]: I can't stop playing this game on ranked. It's like crack. Or like the ex-wife you would forget about if it was not for the fact that you are paying child support. And by child-support I mean my burgeoning stats and my rank in the top 500. Top 400 when you factor in the people who play legit.

score 001.jpg

At long last I have finally acquired one of the most famous games never to be released. A game so innovative yet so violent, the evil empire known as EA wouldn't even allow other publishers to sell it because they were afraid of damaging their pristine reputation. Thank goodness for the internet as I was able to acquire the full version of the game to play (thank goodness for CDI files ) on my Dreamcast. For those still unfamiliar with the game it was going to be the first fighting game to feature 4 player action before the Dreamcast game Powerstone and also featured the handicapped, the amputated, and the criminally insane who would fight to the spiritual death in a reimagined hell and all for a demon's amusement. No noble battles of good versus evil, no path to enlightenment through combat, just self preservation and carnage for carnage's sake made this one of the most honest fighting games storywise. The game would later see an incarnation in Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style which would turn out to be crap while this game could have added another facet to EA or brought legitimacy to another up-and-coming publisher. Oh well, at least I'll enjoy it.

Well it took all of 7 years to finally get something that I want and worthwhile from the Army....and all I had to do was go through two branches of service to do it. On July 27th I will get an honorable discharge from the active duty Army and join the National Guard. If you are not familiar with the Guard they have 100% tuition assistance to any college in your state. I also get a two year stabilization which means that I will not have to worry about being deployed anytime soon. This is all to set up my enrollment to Wake Tech for their two year degree program in Simulation and Game Developement that opened up a year ago. That's right, now I can finally get on track to a career and not just a job; and one that I actually like to do and have years of unofficial experience doing. I also reclass to information systems specialist to fall back on and soon will be on track to get picked up to make my sergeant rank which automatically puts me in most managerial positions I would apply for in the civilian sector. Hopefully, I will get an internship at, say, Epic Games which is in Cary and I live in Raleigh which is about a shade under an hour's drive from where I will live. Now that Microsoft Creator's Club is starting to look like I should buy it...

After assessing the idea of customizing the 360, I think I am going to do a full mod rather than paying a lot of money to do a small job like paying to put a new faceplate on and just some little crappy skins. I am going to pimp mine up by doing a full case and controller mod. While the default white is good as it is, you can't go wrong with black. I think it'll be cool as hell to have it look more like my PS2. Plus, I can pretend it's a PS3 minus the overpricing and lack of games and the George Foreman Grill look.

[UPDATE]: Apparently, Microsoft likes my idea and they are coming out with a 360 elite. It has an HDMI port, 120G, a component cable and something else I don't care for. I think I'll just get the bigger HDD and lie to people saying I have the elite system... 

After downloading the maps on the first hour they were out and playing them for a while I have to say that I have mixed feelings about the new maps.

Old Bones is a great map hands down because I personally do better in maps with open spaces and more than one area to have firefights but I noticed that it is still a race to see who can get to the Longshot and the Boomshot. I have been in what two battles that did not involve the courtyard and those were inside the doorway to the courtyard. This map is great if you are outnumbered because there are enough places on the inside of the buildings to hide.

Ok now Raven Down I had to play a lot more to actually think it was any fun because at first I would have been happy if I had never played it again. No weapons? WTF? Even though the map seems about bigger than the Rooftops I still do not understand why the only thing you can pick up is the grenades. This level has nice, dark corners but with no weapons and not at least ammo for the ones you have, the only person who is going to do good on this map is the host and the grenade taggers and the lucky person left alive after a big chainsaw/shotgun match where everyone is within 2 feet of each other.

Both levels look nice (on my HDTV!!!) and you can't beat free which is good. If you want to have a good time on all gametypes you can't go wrong with Old Bones. Raven Down matches go by almost too fast and fills the map with gibs. If I had to give the maps a letter grade it would be a B.

[UPDATE]: After playing a good amount of matches on the new maps I have to change my opinion of Raven Down and Old Bones. I play a lot better on Raven Down and I like it a lot better than Old Bones despite the fact that there are no weapons to pick up. The main reason for this is because I like chucking grenades at people and racking up a crap load of kills. Old Bones I still can't get profiecient at for some reason and I think its that most battles take place in the courtyard and I do better inside the buildings.

[UPDATE2]: The new Hidden Fronts multiplayer map pack came out 3 May 07. Microsoft has forced Epic to charge people for new maps when they stated downloadable content would be free. I wonder why they would charge people $10 for 4 maps (!) instead of doing something cheaper. Does Microsoft set the damn prices too?!? Anyway all the maps are pretty big and they have finally put a map in that deals with the Imulsion plants. The only one I can't seem to stand is Bullet Marsh because it is REALLY,REALLY dark and although it is a nice touch that the kryll can attack you, they should just kill you like in single player. Gardens will be a favorite for a good amount of people because of it's wide open spaces and that nice environmental hazard of the gases that keep you away from the sniper and you got a Boomshot and a Hammer. My personal favorite is Process which take place in an Imulsion plant (finally!) and has the Torque Bow, Longshot, and Boomshot. Its what I think Raven Down should have been. Finally there is the Subway that has plenty of places to hide and at least 2 choke points to surprise people. In all, the maps are pretty good (except Marsh) and has at least the Lonshot and Boomshot on every one. Still don't know about the $10 price point...

Everyone else has a winners and losers of '06 for about every category so I'll throw my two cents into the videogame industry.

WINNER: 2K GAMES

Rockstar may have taken some hits to their street cred but 2K Games built on the success of Jade Empire with the award winning Elder Scrolls Oblivion, horse armor incident and all. next up, Bioshock and "emergent gameplay".

LOSER: EA SPORTS

Madden failed to fully realize its next-gen glory on the 360. NBA 2K7 beats bests Live for yet another year. Charging gamers in Tiger Woods for already available options. Continues it's stranglehold on competition with it's exclusivity contracts. Fight Night and ESPN integration were bright spots though.

WINNER: WORLD OF WARCRAFT

With 7.5 million subscribers worldwide, it's the new Evercrack. Crossed over into TV land with South Park, Stargate, and Help Me Help You. Took bad press with the tragedy in Korea and the transgender incident. Blizzard still puts out expansions.

LOSER: JACK THOMPSON

Yet another shining example of why everyone hates lawyers. The REAL reason people play Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.

WINNER: PS2 GAMERS

Okami, Metal Gear Subsistance, Final Fantasy XII, Guitar Hero 2, Bully, Kindgdom Hearts 2,etc. So many good games still out you would think it was the only system released by Sony.

LOSER: PS3 GAMERS

The price tag, the delays, the snub of the Euro gamer, no rumble, the robberies, the Ebay price gougings, the Lik-Sang debacle. PS3 gamers have no place to go but up.

WINNER: E3

Even though I always wanted to go to E3 I for one applaud the move to downsize the event. Less cosplay and random people with no business being there means that more information and coverage on games will only benefit the gamers more. Although I already miss the booth babes...

LOSER: USK

Don't get me wrong I LOVE Germany and it's people. I was born there, I spent my 21st birthday there and plan on going back. However, what is up with the USK and their policy towards "killer games"? It's bad enough people have to import games like Gears and Dead Rising but putting them in the same category as porn? Crytek might move if it goes through which sucks for them but if I lived there it would give me an excuse to visit "the back room"...

WINNER: GEARS OF WAR

No Halo? No problem! The Emergence of Gears of War proved three things: Epic can be more than Unreal, the 360 is more than just HALO, and you need HDTV to truly enjoy your games. This game was the tip of the spear of great games on the 360 in '06 and continued to cement the legitimacy of Microsoft and the relevance of XBOX Live.

LOSER: FANBOYS

PS3 fanboys who have only been gaming for maybe 10 years thinking the PS3 would "pwn noobs" on hardware and sequels alone. The 360 fanboys thinking Sony will fold in the face of losing exclusives. The Wii fanboys thinking the Wiimote is the greatest thing since the Powerglove. The PC fanboys thumbing their noses at anything not keyboard and mouse. Ignorance and a keystroke can make for a mind-numbing online experience.

WINNER: GAMERS

It was a good years to be a gamer. Two console launches and multiplatform trends have been contributing to the consistent increase in revenue towards the industry. Gears of War, Final Fantasy XII, Comapny of Heroes, and Zelda: Twilight Princess proved there are good games on whatever system you have. Expect more of the same next year when the PS3 gets on track, HALO 3 and Super Mario Galaxy make their debut, and Crysis makes you wish you upgraded your computer...