She's no Anne Parillaud, but still cute!
As I wrote in yesterday's blog, I've been playing Battlefield: Bad Company's single player campaign, which I've found largely enjoyable. After all, you have to love a game which lets you putt into combat on a golf cart!
Game balance is a tricky thing. I think when people complain about weapon balance it tends to be because they're asking a weapon to do something it isn't meant to do. There's a reason why, IRL, assault rifles are the primary weapon for military forces: They combine the best features of combat rifles and submachine guns. Something like that has been done in MW2.
It's tough for me to be definitive on the issue because I'm a hardcore player and a camper who plays with campers, and it's a drastically different game than non-hardcore. I really don't see many balance issues in the game myself. The weapon damage issue is practically moot in hardcore. Almost all weapons are one-hit kills. The stacking and effectiveness of killstreaks items are greatly lessened if you play as a team; if you have a sound strategy and communicating players, the other team won't have the opportunity to stack killstreaks. Also, hardcore limits the use of a lot of killstreaks because of friendly fire. If I'm lucky enough or have a Burst of Skill™ that nets me an AC-130, I can't plaster the map with 105mm rounds. I have to pick and choose so I don't kill my team-mates.
Some stuff may be legitimately overpowered. Watching the videos of the 1887s in akimbo, it seems pretty clear that the range was excessive. But, again, in hardcore TDM for the guys I played with, it was hardly ever more than a momentary annoyance. If one Shotty McScattergun got past me, my partner would part his hair with an RPD, and the matter was closed...
My gut feeling is that MW2 multiplayer is pretty balanced for a team-based game. If you're not playing as a team, then it isn't balanced. I don't think anything IW can do will change that since it's up to the players. Maybe they can have a no streaks, no perks, no attachments playlist and call it Team FFA or something. On to the links:
- YouTube: Steam's response to hacker complaint. YouTube: TDM with Unrequited Nuke. 49-0 Stabby Domination. Timmy: "You like it rough?" O RLY? YouTube Douchebag Patrol: Elevator on Derail.
- Call of Duty bad for your relationship. Unless you're this girl.
- Wiiview: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Reflex.
- IGN Recon video for Karachi multiplayer map.
- Dale Earnhardt, Jr. playing MW2 till 2AM.
- CrispyGamer's editorial staff laid off; CEO resigns in protest.
- Reviews: Dark Void at Joystiq. G4's Sessler's Soapbox on Bayonetta.
- Previously overlooked: Angry Joe: Was Halo 3: ODST a disappointment?
- 1Up: Epic regrets Gears of War exclusivity with Microsoft.
- GamesRadar: 15 Ways to tell you're in deadly peril in a video game. The "Save Game" message is usually a good clue.
- GameSpy: Collecting Crap: The Worst Collector's Editions.
- Most ironic title ever: Bobby Kotick opens D.I.C.E. summit. (That's "Design. Innovate. Communicate. Entertain." not DICE the Battlefield series developer.)
- Vote in the Kotaku reader poll: Game of the Year 2009.
- Microsoft: Microsoft points were never meant to "mislead people". Hahahahahahahahaahaahahaahahaahaa! Right!
- Gene Roddenberry's 1974 Questor Tapes to get reboot. Brace for impact.
- App store and games coming to Amazon Kindle.
- Need more teriyaki BBQ sauce: Scientists want to bring auroch back from extinction.
- Why the Uncanny Valley doesn't matter. (Slashdot) Uh, yeah, it does. It really, really does.
- Why I never accept Facebook requests: Slashdot: Facebook master password was Chuck Norris.
- Bada-bing! Shrek was based on Sopranos' star James Gandolfini.
- No. Just no. A David Hasselhoff reality show.
2 comments:
Post a Comment