Sunday, August 30, 2009

Dipping a toe into multiplayer.

For as long as I've owned my beloved Xbox 360, I have to admit that I've never really toyed around with the multiplayer aspect of things. When I first bought the thing back in 2006, I spent many an hour wandering through Oblivion and shooting nazis in Call Of Duty 2 with nary a thought towards taking the fight online.

Until now.

In the last month, I've upped my Xbox Live subscription to Gold and tentatively had a go at online multiplayer in a few select titles. And I have to say I'm hooked. Now, just to be clear there's no way in hell I'm actually talking to anyone online. Voice headset? Fuck that. What on earth would I have to discuss with dudes who have gamertags like Ruthless CXnt and CHAD iz babe anyway? Nothing.

I speak with my trigger finger, MonkeyFart69.

I kind of understand what gamers meant now. When you finish the single-player campaign of a new game, take it online and see how you fare against something other than AI bots.

But don't get me wrong here - I'm not very good. I've been gradually climbing the early ranks of a few games and even though I suck most of the time, I manage to pull off more than a few 'punch-the-fucking-air-with-glee' type moments.

Gears Of War 2 - Currently I'm Level 13.

There's this thing called Horde Mode in Gears Of War 2. Basically, it's you and four other dudes fighting wave after wave of AI controlled Locust enemies. One single map and several hours of commitment to reach Wave 50. As you take down ugly-as-fuck horde soldiers, it's rewarding when a teammate revives you from near death to continue the fight. Gradually, you and the aforementioned dudes form a small bond as you wade through ankle-deep carnage. And damn, it is fun.

These two guys are having a chainsaw fight. A CHAINSAW FIGHT.


Call Of Duty 4 - Currently I'm a Level 10 Sargeant.

This one has all the traditional modes of Deathmatch and Capture the Flag etc. but comes with it the handicap of fighting against people who have been playing this game for two years. Certain maps are just brutal. After spawning and running for two seconds, some prick in a farmhouse with a sniper rifle sends you a care package in the shape of a bullet to the head and your war-torn frivolity is over quick smart. But as I have stated before, Ice-T plays this one (with Xzibit apparently) so naturally, I'll stick with my M1 Carbine rifle with red-dot sight until I find him.


Ripped from the headlines. If the headline was "Today fighting in the Middle East culminated in BOOM HEADSHOT".


Streetfighter IV - I currently have 180 Battle Points.

Since this is a fighting game, the matches just fly by in seconds. The online matchmaking process (the game automatically tries to find you someone with similar skill level and a stable internet connection) is dodgy sometimes. Regardless, I'm unlocking Titles and Icons and generally getting the shit beaten out of me. Small victories are the order of the day here. By playing as Sakura, I've managed to just win my fifth online match. Pitted against Blanka, my opponent loved sticking to the ground and attacking my ankles and much as he could. He won the first round, I won the second and then I managed to string together enough combos to defeat him in the third. And since it was my fifth victory, I unlocked an Achievement called 'Way Of The Fist'. Damn right.


Sakura vs Ken. The kids in the background are celebrating bare-fisted violence. AWESOME.

7 comments:

  1. Bah Strretfighter... there is only one fighter game....

    King of Ironfist Tournaments....
    Enter the TEKKEN!!!!!

    Oooh yeah baby....

    I love seeing Hwoarang take a Dragonsweep to the ankles..... LAW RULES!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Meh

    From what I've seen, the Tekken series hasn't progressed one bit in ten years. I'll give the sixth installment a wide berth. Just like I did with 4 and 5.

    I remember your sweeps you cheap bastard.

    ReplyDelete
  3. 5 Was actually Good... 4 was pretty damn forgetable.

    I have heard 6 is good. It'll probably only come out on PS3 tho... And I won't be getting one of them....

    If you stopped standing up I wouldn't have goten you :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. There is absolutely no chance of me multi-playing online ever. It irks me at the thought of ever putting the X-Box online...

    Oh, and you will never be Doc Emmet Brown in either looks or mannerisms...you're halfway to becoming Colonel Walter E Kurtz ;)

    ReplyDelete
  5. It annoys me that you have to go Online to play multiplayer with an XBOX 360. You should be able to plug in multiple boxes on a Lan and play like you would with a pc.... Bollucks to you Microsoft...

    ReplyDelete
  6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Link

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hmmm I thought you still needed to have the Correct Live membership... but I can't find anythign to back that up... soo...I'll just pull my head in :-)

    Oh and System Link is just a fancy MS name for ethernet cables and a switch

    ReplyDelete