Morning Vent, 18 April 2010

Definitely my kinda gal...

    Had a really enjoyable night of gaming last night, tho I didn't jot down the stats. We lost more games than we usually do, as we only had 3 regulars, and strategy with randoms is a lost cause. Most of the randoms didn't have headsets plugged in; and, since we played hardcore, the HUD didn't have speaker's ID displayed. (Hmmm. Let me take a minute to add that to the CoD: Black Ops wishlist.)
    The most frustrating thing was trying to get through one of the Modern Warfare 2 Spec Ops missions, Homeland Security, the Charlie level Burgertown wave defense. We made it through the 1 star level; but we weren't able to beat it on two. The weapon selection, frankly, could be better. Instead of the M21 EBR, I'd prefer the SCAR with a thermal scope. (The M21 EBR, apparently, appears to be loaded with candy bullets. Unless you shoot one of those Russkis in the head, he's crawl around a bit shooting you with a laser-accurate sidearm or, worse, he'll regain his health and get up to whup your ass some more.) Once the Spetsnaz start coming in force, the EBR kinda sucks due to its 10 round magazine. The secondary weapon is usually the RPG to down helis and shoot armored vehicles, so switching is a problem. And, being a Call of Duty game, a burst with an AK-47 isn't enough to down an enemy, you need two or three frackin' bursts, and there's no guarantee he won't get up to shoot at you some more. Matt and I tried a two-pronged defense with him in the gas station and me next door in the restaurant, but that wasn't working out. From the strat guide in the links below, it looks like the winning strategy might be to start in the gas station & then after the 2nd wave, fort up in the restaurant next door. We'll give that a try the next time we tackle that mission.
    As noted in the links below and in this Kotaku article, Roger Ebert believes videogames can never be art. I'd probably like to tackle that opinion sometime, but I feel pretty good this AM, and I don't want to get all PO'ed first thing in the morning. My immediate reaction is: Movies are considered art, and the production of videogames is today indistinguishable from the production of movies, so why aren't videogames art? I generally like Roger Ebert, but I think he's being a douche on this issue.