First Reach Impressions

I'm only halfway through the campaign, so I'm not going to discuss that at this juncture, but I will say that I am enjoying it so far. My one complaint is that the new character models for the Elites feel a bit...rounded out, I guess. I remember the Elites in Combat Evolved seeming very lean and athletic-looking, but still having enough musculature to be far more imposing than Jackals. If the old models looked like collectible statuettes, the new ones look like action figures designs for children under the age of 10. They're devoid on edges and small parts. You can judge for yourself.

The first image is from Halo 2 and the second is from Reach. I guess the difference now that I see them side by side is how much broader the shoulders are on the Elite from Halo 2. The new models are almost too humanoid. They just don't jump out at you the way they used to. They might have done that so that they'll not such huge targets in multiplayer, but I think it kind of detracts from the single player experience.

As for the multiplayer, I think this game may go down as the definitive Halo game. Sure, there will always be people who like Combat Evolved the best, and there is literally nothing Bungie nor anyone else can do to change that, but there will always who think the first Super Mario Bros. is better than the third. Nostalgia and fear of change. I'm sure there will also be people who like Halo 2 the best, but I don't think anyone is going to say 3 is the best anymore. Nothing against 3--I loved 3--but CE, 2, and Reach will stand as the three paradigms of differing philosophies while 3 remains a neutered transition between 2 and Reach. CE will will remembered for its brilliant simplicity, innovation, and ease-of-use; 2 will be remembered as the best execution of a dual-wielding centered FPS; and Reach will be remembered for its clever gun balance, armor abilities, and staggering depth gameplay options. Unfortunately, Halo 3 is now obsolete in my mind. It had dual wielding, but it was more of a leftover from Halo 2 and hardly used. It had equipment, but equipment was gimmicky, frustrating, and at times over-powered. Armor abilities are basically like equipment, but fun. Halo 3 also had a great depth of gameplay options, but Reach has far more. Lastly, Reach's version of Forge makes Halo 3's look almost embarrassing. Double lastly, Halo 3 lacked any true standout maps like Blood Gulch, Lockout, or Ivory Tower.

While I was a big fan of dual-wielding and I will always argue that team slayer doesn't get any better starting with an SMG on Halo 2's Lockout, I can't say that I really miss it. Halo's gameplay really does benefit from shooting at guys you can barely see.

--Chilly P

Within Reach

The beta completely failed to sell me on Halo: Reach. Then I saw this video (one of Bungie's "ViDocs"), and now I am completely sold. For once, the last thing I care about is multiplayer. I'm decently excited about the campaign, very excited about Firefight, and I'm now drooling at the mouth for Forge World, which looks to be worth my $60 by itself. I may never (i.e., 'rarely') touch matchmaking. Anyway, enjoy the video.

--Chilly P

Thoughts for Wednesday 070710

Map Pack 4 has been released for Bad Company 2. If you guessed that it didn't included any new maps, you'd be correct. We've now got Atacama Desert available in Rush and Port Valdez in Conquest. Are we finally gonna get chopper battles in Rush? I'd be more snide about this update, but I really wanted Atacama for Rush.

I got Sin & Punishment: Star Successor for Wii. Like all Treasure games, it punishes you. The game is nothing short of incredible, though. The gaming world can essentially divided into two halves: interactive media and video games. Where games like Mass Effect 2 and even Call of Duty can be called interactive media, Sin & Punishment is 100% video game. Remember back in the SNES and N64 days when games didn't have that much of a story or any AI whatsoever and the entire game was scripted and demanded that you memorize the game in order to get the high score? Man, those are video games, and that's what Sin & Punishment is. For those of you who missed my recommendation of the the first game, S&P:SS is an on-rail shooter akin the Star Fox 64 or Panzer Dragoon. Yes, you can do barrel rolls, but no, you aren't instructed to do so in a memorable fashion. I haven't made it through the whole game yet; my plate has been pretty full. Having a real job sucks.

We broke out Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare last week and got our beaks into some clan matches. Good times, dude, good times. I tell you what, that game had awesome graphics in its time (way back in 07), but next to Bad Company 2 it looks like shit. I also kept hitting the back button trying to spot people and getting the score menu. It's also crazy how quickly you kill people in that game.

I played some Guitar Hero II last night. I couldn't believe how hard it was to see hammer-ons compared to Guitar Hero 5. I tell you what, though, that game's setlist was and still is unparalleled. Even the bonus songs were incredible. I can also tell that I've gotten a lot better since the days when I used to play that game non-stop. To think I used to have trouble with Thunderhorse...

--Chilly P

p.s. Blood Gulch is coming back. Let's hope they don't screw it up this time.

E3 Day 2

Man, oh man, did I get some swag today. I have now doubled the amount of shirts that I have to take back home with me. I also saw Felicia Day and got my picture taken with Bear Grylls. But, on to some game impressions...

Sega might have a real winner on their hands with Vanquish. I'm not sure about the whole story behind it (I'm pretty sure some famous Japanese designer is behind it), but I know it's Japanese and I never expect Japanese shooters to feel this fantastic. It plays a lot like Gears of War, but faster. It also has a much more...titanium-feeling art direction. Oh, and holding the left bumper makes you slide around on your knees. It's to the same effect of the roadie run, but it's way cooler and distinctly Japanese. There's also the fact the you fight a whole bunch of robots instead of aliens. Oh, and if you tap the slide button while sitting in cover, the dude pulls out a cigarette and lights up. How ballin' is that? I had so much fun with it today that I had to demo it twice. It's definitely my favorite demo so far. I hope it has multiplayer. Good multiplayer. And co-op.

My least favorite demo, on the other hand, has to be the Conduit 2 demo. The graphics don't even look good for a Wii game. They also really need to work on their control scheme. Holding 'Z' pulls up a box and health bar around an enemy, yet if you want to aim down sight, you have to toggle it by pressing down on the d-pad. It looks ugly, feels terrible, and it's really just a shame because I like seeing small studios succeed.

Bungie, because they have to be cool, was holding hands-off demos every thirty minutes. I was able to skip the 2-3 hour line by showing up 3 minutes before one demo time and mixing into a crowd of people waving and hollering for t-shirts. By the time they ran out of shirts, I had miraculously blended into the front of the line :). Anyway, they demoed a space battle and the new Firefight mode for Reach. The space mission was one where you're in a limited area and you fly around in circles shooting banshees. It looked really dull, just like every other dog-fighting game or level ever, and maybe it's just me, but I doubt banshees are space-worthy. Firefight definitely looked cool, though. There's a new armor ability and class called 'Medic' where the player drops a bubble shield that heals people who are inside it. It worked nicely for Firefight, though I'd think it too overpowered for multiplayer. They also showed a new weapon that's a cross between the Hammer of Dawn from Gears and Bad Company's mortar strike. It was cool.

I saw a fat guy eat a booger. It was gross.

I found out today that my Exhibitor badge gets me into the private meeting rooms upstairs, so I checked that out a little bit today. I got some sweet Portal 2 swag, so I geeked out pretty hardcore about that. I'm going to sign up for some appointments tomorrow to preview those more private games for the good of all of us...except the ones who are dead.

--Chilly P

p.s. In case you haven't heard, ESPN is coming to the 360. It's gonna be killer.

The Space/Time Continuum of Multiplayer Gaming

It's not a particularly novel concept, but it is interesting to look at how we play games with our friends in terms of space and time. Are we playing together in the same room, or are we in separate places and competing over the internet? Are we playing together at the same time, or can our play time be mutually exclusive? It should seem quite obvious that the most popular form of multiplayer gaming is remotely synchronous. Every online shooter falls under this category, and it's this category of competitive gaming that companies spend the most amount of time and money on... Right?

Well, it's not entirely true, and I'll get to that in a bit. First, let's look at which realm the first form of competitive gaming was in: co-located synchronous. Spacewar! and Pong were both strictly multiplayer games that required both players being in the same room looking at the same screen. It's interesting to note this, because the next wave of arcade games were almost all single-player. Pac-Man, Asteroids, Centipede, Donkey Kong; just about every other old-school arcade game you can think of is single-player, but they did issue in the second realm of multiplayer gaming: co-located asynchronous. While you were not directly competing against anyone, every game had a leaderboard, so you took turns going for the best score, and in that way you were competing against everyone who came before you and everyone who would come after you.

So, if you think about it, leaderboards are still the most common form of competitive gaming, but now they're all online. Just about every Xbox 360 game has some sort of online leaderboard, but when the boards are so expansive they tend to lose meaning. They're great for competing for the best kill-to-death ratio in Call of Duty or the for the highest Pacifism score in Geometry Wars 2, but they're such minimalist interactions that they barely qualify as competition. In fact, they're more of a meta-game than a game, since you don't play leaderboard. So, if you exclude leaderboards, the most common form of competitve gaming these days falls in the remote synchronous quadrant. While I would never complain about this, I would like to enjoy games in the other realms as well.

Party games, much like blockbuster PC games, seem to be a dying breed, which is just a shame. Super Smash Bros. Melee and Halo: Combat Evolved pretty much mark the the last hurrahs of co-located synchronous gaming. We definitely live the age of online gaming, and the problem with it how impersonal it can be. Sure, split screen was and still is a nightmare, but we've become so spoiled by Xbox LIVE and the like that it's almost become taboo. Hell, Call of Duty and Battlefield won't even allow you take a friend online with you, which is almost unforgivable. LIVE games are great for keeping in touch with friends who've moved away, but it's ridiculous that if I'm hanging out with a group of friends and we all want to play our favorite multiplayer game, everyone has to return to their respective residences to play on their on 'Boxes. These days, the only company that seems to still encourage the party game is Nintendo...which not-at-all coincidently has the worst online gaming network.

So, there's my little rant about synchronous games, but what about the asynchronous? Well, if you take leaderboards out of the equation, they don't exist all that much. There are turn-based games like Chess or Advance Wars, but are they truly asynchronous? I guess I'll accept a "yes," especially if you're playing Advance Wars on a single Gameboy since people usually take turns observing the gamespace.

Something that I hadn't seen very often until quite recently is the asynchronous remote game. The first game of this type I remember enjoying was Scrabulous on Facebook. Now I play Words with Friends on my iPhone, and it's essentially the same thing, but I like it better because playing it on my phone is far more convenient. It's absolutely fantastic. For those who don't know, it's the classic Scrabble board game (with a few minor changes to avoid copyright infringement), but you can take as much time as needed between turns and simply play at your convenience. It's a way to throw in some quality gameplay with friends while you should be doing something else. I would love to see more games like this in the future.I'd love to see more original games of this type that aren't adaptations of established board games like Chess or Scrabble. Advance Wars (well, it'd have to be a copycat of it) would be particularly great.

So, anyway, I hope I've given you guys something to think about while I'm out of town this coming week. For those of you familiar with Words with Friends, check out the 1500+ point play in the picture above. Somebody had the play of a lifetime; although I suspect it didn't come about organically.

--Chilly P

Trivia? !?!?!?!?!

(ht: Polska)

I hate trivia... but I know many people do not. So here is something for those of you who like this sort of thing.

Quiz for Halo games.

I did about 10 and then lost interest, so I can't really offer a "score to beat."


Enjoy.

Reach Out and Touch Faith

...because faith is almost all I have to go on at this point. Every time I dive into Reach, I have fun for about 30 minutes and then I find myself wondering, "Is this it?" There are times when Reach really shines, and there are some aspects of the game that truly are the best of the series, but it's just not keeping my interest. Since the beta came out, I think I've actually logged less time on it than I have Bad Company 2 since then. I see why Bungie's ready to move on, because the formula is getting old.

I'll go through the positives first because I don't want to give the impression that I think this is a bad game. First, the level design (for all two levels) is fantastic. Both maps are intricately planned and offer tons of corridors for battle. They're not as plane-Jane as Guardian or Epitaph, not as pointlessly open or symmetrical as Snowbound or The Pit, not as confusing to learn as Ivory Tower or Lockout, and they're not filled with the awkward set pieces that made Hang 'Em High look like a paintball arena in a canyon. Learning you way around takes seconds, but mastering the intricacies takes hours. Both levels also have a great sense of verticality, something that suits Reach far better than any FPS I've ever played.

Second, I like the armor abilities. They seem fairly well balanced, and each has its advantages and pitfalls. Clyde's a fan of invisibility, while I feel naked without a jetpack. The aforementioned verticality (I think I just invented that word) of the levels gives the jetpack the edge it needs to be competitive with the other abilities, since it would offer little to no use on a map like Snowbound or even High Ground. The only problem with the armor abilities is that they make the hammer and sword better. The jetpack, cloak, dive, and sprint all make it much easier to get in close before the enemy has time gun you down.

Lastly, I really like what they've done to compliment gameplay. Adding names to map locations is brilliant, they finally mapped melee to a shoulder button, you can queue yourself to automatically join a friend when they finish their game, and navigating your friends list to send and receive invites is all done in-game now. Okay, let's get to the complaints.

First and foremost, where the fuck is my BR? Is it really so hard to balance a single shot weapon with a three-round burst weapon? You already have loadouts, just let us choose which rifle to start with.

Okay, got that off my chest; time to talk like an adult, now. My main problem with the game is that it's some sort of bizarre hybrid between Halo: CE and Halo 3. For every step the game takes forward, it takes another 2 back trying to recreate the first game. It just doesn't work that way. That game wasn't built for Xbox LIVE and a lot of aspects that fit that game well don't work in Reach. This is what happens when you let incessant fanboys with rose-tinted glasses cloud your judgement. Believe it or not, there are plenty of people who like the sequels more than the original, but they're not as vocal because they can still play their favorite version to their heart's content (hang in there, guys!). Here's the thing: bringing back health packs, fall damage, and single-shot rifles doesn't automatically mean you're getting the CE fans on board. Halo 1 was about horizontal play in spacious areas--don't act like you played anything other than Blood Gulch or Hang 'Em High seriously. Yes, both maps had elevated areas, but there was very little overlapping. The magic of Halo 1 was using an impossibly accurate pistol to gun down enemies you could hardly see. Hell, even the shotgun had pretty incredible range because close encounters were so few and far between. The reason health packs and fall damage were appropriate for that game was because these long range battles were the norm. Without health bars, a skilled pistolero could have wreaked havoc on lesser players because there was no good way to sneak up on him and he could typically manage to isolate encounters to one on one.

With the move to dual-wielding in Halo 2, maps became much more intricate and close-quartered. Having a weapon as deadly accurate as the pistol in that game would have rendered dual-wielding useless, and having health bars would have made stringing kills together even harder than it was. Plus, maps became much more vertical with a lot more layering, and having fall damage would limit your mobility too much.

So, the problem is that Reach is trying to be every Halo at once so it can please everybody, but it does it all wrong. The maps are tighter and more vertically oriented than ever, and having fall damage and health bars just adds an unnecessary amount of stress to the gameplay. The developers at Bungie are no better than Icarus' father who gave him wings that would melt as soon as he had too much fun with them. The difference in winning and losing a close-quarters battle is so minuscule that having health bars just punishes the good players after winning the first time. The open, long-distance gameplay of CE allowed the better marksman a fighting chance regardless of whether he shot first or had more health. The closer the battle, the better chance the lesser player has, especially when they fire first. To add to the problem, Reach plays more close quarters than any other Halo game to date. The shotgun has very, very little range, the rifles are entirely inaccurate unless fired very slowly, and the assault rifle and pistol have one hell of a time trying finish someone off in a single clip. The problem is that only a couple of weapons can actually kill someone who's more than 20 feet away before whatever armor ability they're using allows them to escape or close the gap. If they do close the gap and get within 10 feet, at that point the rifles are too weak to be of any real use. It's ludicrous how often the best strategy is to get in close and punch twice...or just spam hand bombs.

Luckily, I think a lot of this can be fixed. Unless they plan on opening the levels up and flattening them out, I say get rid of fall damage and add some sort of recovery rate to the health bars. They don't have to be as immediate as the shield, but a surviving player shouldn't have to leave a strategic position to have to find a damn health pack. I understand the motivation to limit camping, but the health bars really hurt the wrong people in objective-based gametypes. No one should have to make a detour to a health pack before getting into the hill or trying to gank some last-second enemy flags in Stockpile. Also, if they want to please the Halo 1 crowd (or, well, anybody who's played any console FPS ever), put the range back in the game. The recoil concept either needs to be thrown out or severely lessened, and the rifles need a slight boost in power. It's hilarious that they tried to make the rifles more like the pistol by making them single shot, but then made them harder to use and less accurate than the BR. Obviously, they missed the point. Anyway, if the DMR and needle rifle are made as accurate as the CE pistol, Reach should have CE's range game, and that's all it needs from CE (other than wacky Warthog physics).

Next, boost the power of every other gun (not including explosives or melees weapons) so that Halo 2's dynamic close quarters combat is back. It's ridiculous that punching someone twice is easier, faster, and more effective than the shotgun or even a fully-loaded assault rifle. Punching needs to be nerfed back to where it was in Halo: CE. It really needs to just be a last resort so you don't get that ridiculous trend from early Halo 3 days where people would just run straight at each other trying to get the winning punch. If I remember correctly, punching was originally made more powerful in a Halo 2 patch as to give single-wielding players a chance against dual-wielders. It made a lot sense for that game. But, since dual-wielding became less of a focus for Halo 3 and was completely nixed for Reach, why is the punch still so powerful? All it does is promote brainless bee-lining between players, and makes the sword and hammer all the more effective since someone wielding a gun has lost their best strategy. It's okay to make the assault rifle actually good, it just needs to lose to the pistol and rifles outside of 10 feet. Hell, make it effective from range if tap-fired correctly. There's no reason for it be nothing but a last (spray 'n') prayer or just a set up for a punch. If you make the guns better, the power weapons become less dominate (but still powerful) and the game will become less frustrating.

If all these changes are made, the game will still be dynamic and have the variety that made Halo 2 and 3 so great while also reviving the simple point-and-shoot nature of the first game. It doesn't matter which of the first three Halo games is the best because that debate will never settled, and it really doesn't matter. Bungie is never going to make a sequel that feels more like Combat Evolved than the sequels because it's a step backward in most areas. What is indisputable, though, is that CE was the most easily accessible Halo, and that's what they need to bring back. All that the recoil, the fall damage, the health bars, and the weakness of the guns do is make the game less accessible.

--Chilly P

That's a Reach

As I continue along with Clyde's cheese-laden, punny titles concerning Reach posts, I find myself having a much different outlook on the upcoming beta. First of all, I'm in a camp of people who like Halo 2 & 3 better than CE. Personally, I found the landmark Xbox 1 title boring. Sure, I participated in some epic CTF Blood Gulch games, but fore the most part, the game came down to the pistol and the sniper rifle. They were basically different versions of the same gun, and the game felt stagnant because of it. Yes, it was a landmark title. Yes, it changed console FPSes forever. Yes, I believe it is one of the top 5 most important games of the past decade. However, variety is the spice of life, and Halo: Combat Evolved's sequels had variety out the wazoo.

So, unlike Sweet Clyde, I thoroughly enjoyed Halo 3. It was infinitely customizable, had solid gameplay, and had exemplary matchmaking. That being said, it certainly wasn't perfect. The counter-vehicle weapons were far too easy to use, and outside of Infection and Grifball, the gametypes were largely uninspired (It's not a good thing when Team Deathmatch/Slayer is the best gametype). Like Clyde, I too would have liked see a larger variety of mid-range rifles. There's no reason there can't be a BR and a pistol.

I had rented ODST when it came out, and it was definitely at least two weeks-worth of solid entertainment. The campaign was the best since CE, Firefight was entertaining, and the pistol in that game was extremely satisfying (weaker than CE's, but much faster and just as accurate). There's really nothing like one-shotting a Grunt in the face.

So, am I excited about Reach? Honestly, I'm not sure. I've been playing Halo since 2001, and the formula's starting to get old (even Bungie is ready to move on). The assassinations look pretty cool, but I fear they're going to be frustrating. They look like they're basically the same thing as chainsawdomy in Gears of War 2. The armor stuff worries me a lot, too. There's one where you go invincible for an amount of time but are forced to stand still. Invincible. I don't care if you can move or not, being able to dictate the beginning of a period where you can't die has to be overpowered. On the flip-side, jet packs are cool as shit. They just are. Like bacon and fire, jet packs make everything better. As for bringing back health bars, I say, "BOOOO!" Halo 2 pioneered regenerating health, and it's become the standard for good reason.

I definitely like that Elites and Spartans are more differentiated this time around. I don't remember the details, but I believe Elites are faster, weaker, and can jump higher. Don't quote me on that. If that's case, sounds good to me. I'm also thrilled that there's a gametype that looks a lot like Rush from Bad Company. I love Rush. However, 6v6 might not be enough people to populate such a gametype. Also, Rush is greatly benefited by dedicated servers; it'll be interesting to see if Invasion can run smoothly. As for the Head Hunter and Stockpile gametypes, I hate to say it, but they sound like more losers to throw in with Juggernaut, Territories, and Rally.

So, to summarize, like Clyde, I'm cautiously optimistic, but for different reasons. Where he's looking for a more old-school game, I'm looking for something completely fresh and unlike I've ever played before. Oh, I also want to see Infection and Grifball more fleshed out, and I'd like to be able to host public custom games.

--Chilly P

Abandon Ship

Holy crap, have you seen this? Infinity Ward employees are jumping ship like it's the Titanic. What the hell is going on here? They were setting the world on fire just this past November. Man, I hope this comes back to bite Activision in the ass. I'm trying not to jump on the evil empire band wagons anymore, but it's hard not hate Activision at this point. As you can see from the above image, peoples don't much care for Bobby Kotick. He deserves it, too.

Anyway, there is going to have to be some backlash after all of this. I kind of feel bad for Treyarch because they might get stuck fending for themselves with the Call of Duty franchise, and I doubt they hack it for too long. You know who's lickin' their chops right now? Bungie. The Reach beta comes out soon, and it's right on the heels of an overpriced map pack and a colossal falling-out at their biggest rival. This is also setting EA up pretty nicely. Medal of Honor, which is straight-ripping Call of Duty, comes out this summer, and the two IW execs who are in a epic lawsuit of he-said-she-said with Activision have formed their own studio which is working with EA Partners (which puts them under the same roof as Valve). Hell, even Epic has decided that now is the time to announce Gears of War 3 (which has an April 2011 release date; making room for a beta test, this time?). This is going to be interesting to watch unfold.

--Chilly P

p.s. Just for the record, I've been saying this for a while now.

p.p.s. Some background info on Infinity Ward that sheds some more light on the situation.

Thoughts for Monday 041210 (Mostly about Bad Co 2)

PSA: April 15th is the last day that you can play any original Xbox 1 titles on LIVE. Bust out your copy of Halo 2 for the last time.

I'm almost 17 hours into Final Fantasy XIII and the game is still going nowhere. This is when most games are wrapping up, yet FFXIII has decided that it's still time for plot development. Seriously, there hasn't even been any real rising action yet.

Trying to play through Perfect Dark on Special Agent has given me a whole new appreciation for check points in FPS campaigns. I've been stuck on the same level for a long time (Infiltrating Area 51).

And now the rest is about Bad Company 2...
In no particular order, here are my 10 favorite kits for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (one kit per gun; vehicle perks and side arms not included ):

• Medic: M60, Defibrillator, Red Dot Sight, Magnum Ammunition
• Medic: USAS-12 Auto, Defibrillator, 12 Gauge Slugs, Magnum Ammunition
  
• Assault: AN-94 Abakan, 40mm Grenade, Red Dot Sight, Assault Marksman
• Assault: M16A2, 40mm Grenade, Red Dot Sight, Magnum Ammunition
• Assault: WWII M1A1 Garand, C4 Explosives, Light Combat Equipment, Magnum Ammunition
  
• Recon: M24 Sniper, Mortar Strike, 12x High Power Scope, Improved Demolitions
• Recon: VSS Snaiperskaya Special, C4 Explosives, Red Dot Sight, Magnum Ammunition
• Recon: Type 88 Sniper, C4 Explosives, 4x Rifle Scope, Magnum Ammunition
• Engineer: PP-2000 Avtomat, M136 AT4, Ammo Hip Bandolier, Magnum Ammunition
• Engineer: AKS-74U Krinkov, Anti-Tank Mines, Explosives Leg Pouch, Improved Demolitions
  

And, hey, you know what's nice about BC2? I can carry all of those kits and more into battle! I can't stress enough how awesome it is that I don't have to pre-build kits before battle. I hate being stuck in a situation where I could really use a certain class and I just can't. For example, if we're getting bogged down by tanks and I really need to go tank bustin', I can throw together an engineer class that is completely geared toward shooting a lot of rockets at tanks. You may notice that I put Magnum Ammo on nearly everything. Well, it's easier for me to tell the benefit of magnum ammo than the benefit of ceramic armor in that game. Maybe if it was like Call of Duty and told me when I was shooting at someone using body armor (a.k.a. Juggernaut/Pain Pill) I'd be more aware of it. As it stands, most of the specializations in Bad Company 2 only offer marginal benefits, so it doesn't make that much of a difference.

I think I may be the only person who likes the USAS better than the Saiga. I know the Saiga has better stats (that's indisputable), but something about the USAS just feels better.

I've now gone gold with every gun except the G3, M9, M93R Burst, and the MP-412 Rex. Having spent quality time with every gun, I can pretty positively say that the AEK-971, the Uzi, the F2000, the MG3, the Thompson, and the SV98 are my least favorite guns.

I have a total of 4 tracer dart plants. I fail to see how tagging a helicopter is sufficiently easier than hitting it with a rocket.

The "Stimulus Package" ended up being the fastest-selling map pack in XBL history. So much for $15 being too expensive. To everyone who bought it: thank you very much for raising prices.

On that note, DICE has said that they'd like to make all of their map packs free, but it's not really up to them. It's up to EA. Giving away free map packs would be a good way of steering more gamers away from the Call of Duty franchise. I honestly can't imagine anyone liking Modern Warfare 2 better than Bad Company 2 after having played both. Having said that, I really don't want BC2 to be more popular than Mod2. You know how Macs always brag about how they don't get viruses? Well, why do you think that is? Is it because OSX is a more secure operating system, or because Apple hardware is more robust? No, it's because the Mac user-base is exponentially smaller than the PC user-base. It's not even close. Plus, almost all businesses use Windows. So, if you're going to write viruses or spyware, why go after such a small portion of the population? Writing viruses for Macs is a waste of time. By that same reasoning, Modern Warfare 2 is plagued by asshats and glitchers because it's the most popular shooter on the market. Sure, Infinity Ward should have done a beta and that would've caught stupid things like the Model 1887s, but even if they had, there would still be near-constant attacks on their code base. The point of this aside is that I'm worried that if BC2 becomes more popular than Mod2, that all the hackers and idiots will bring all their nonsense to that community and I'll have to go elsewhere once again. I know it's completely selfish and I wish nothing but the best for the guys over at DICE, but if some ridiculous thing like the javelin glitch happens to BC2, it will be a sad day for all of us.

Speaking of free map packs, why not just port some maps from the first Bad Company straight over? The only adjustments you'd have to make--that I can think of--are changing all of the Artillary guns to UAVs, adding UAV spots to each new offense spawn, updating the vehicle spawns, and making certain buildings collapsible. Valley Run was a fantastic map (here's a quick refresher for those who played the first game) and I'd love to see that one come back. I would also love to see Over and Out because defending that last point in the bottom of a bunker was a blast. I loved Harvest Day's farm setting, but I think it'd be too open for BC2. Snipers would just wreak havoc on that map. Oasis was good, but there's no need to bring that back because it's just an inferior version of Arica Harbor. I really liked the enormous cranes that you could snipe from on Deconstruction, but they'd have to alter that map to make the second leg easier for the offense. Getting across that bridge was an exercise in futility. End of the Line involved way too much running/swimming and was so open that you actually saw people too infrequently. Final Ignition had that giant building at the beginning that was way too easy to defend and got frustrating. The last map was Ascension, which was a nightmare for the offense. It was like Nelson Bay, but the offense had to run uphill the whole way, and the entire map was congested with buildings. It might not have been any fun, but it did have a castle at the end which was a cool-ass set piece. That's something that the new game lacks. Leguna Presa really missed an opportunity when it used the dam as just the background. How cool would it be to snipe from/at the top of the dam? I also wish they'd bring back the golf course setting. The campaign of the first game had a level where you infiltrate some rich Russian guy's house, and you have to fight your way through a golf course to get there. When they eventually released the Conquest gametype, they had a golf course level. It was awesome.

I've heard some people grumbling that M14 and G3 don't have available RDSs and 4x scopes. They discussed this on the Battlefield Blog and his reasons make sense, especially with the M14. If you want a powerful semi-auto rifle, use the T88 S.

I wish they'd make it so that if your teammate puts C4 on your UAV and blows it, your UAV should explode. It's pretty cheap that three guys can systematically destroy every MCOM station without ever leaving their spawn. Sure, a good player should always spot a UAV when he sees it, and the team should be able to shoot it before it flies away, but there are newbies who have no idea what's going on, and it's not really fair to them.

Top 10: Best Achievements

Yeah, a lot of people hate them or think they're a waste of time. Hell, I hate 'em; I just can't stop going after them. I've spent far too much of my life 'cheevo chasin'. But, even though the majority of Achievements are mundane, sadistic, or just stupid, there are some truly great ones out there. Some are even iconic. So, what makes an Achievement great? It could carry a large amount of prestige, be hilarious, or even inspire copycats. Without further ado, here are my top ten 'cheevos of all time, and no, I haven't gotten them all.

10. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 -> 'Et Tu, Brute?'
The first 'cheevo on the list makes it there because it's perfectly suited for hilarity. This Achievement rewards you for getting five of your friends' dog tags. Not only is it awesome that you can get an Achievement for embarrassing your friends, but DICE had the wisdom to do this one right. 5 is not a large number, but it also requires a little time. This way, you probably can't get the Achievement in one sitting, but you shouldn't feel the need to grind for it ("Okay, come let me knife you and then you knife me"). Plus, you don't have to knife 5 unique friends, so don't expect random friend invites from strangers looking for this Achievement. Also, since you sometimes end up on the other side as your friend if you join him midgame, there should be ample opportunities to get this one.

9. Portal: Still Alive -> 'Out of the Blue'
This one makes the list because it's one of those Achievements that adds a fun challenge without decreasing the fun of the game. That being said, this is no cake walk (sorry...and wtf is a cake walk, anway?). The goal is--once you control both portals--to only use the orange portal as your entrance and always come out of the blue one (geddit?). I've tried this one a couple times and I'm still not entirely sure where I've failed. Guides on the ingterwebs suggest that you have to make sure you get through every portal as quickly as possible. But, hey, don't let the challenge dissuade you. Plus, Portal's just such a good game that you shouldn't mind playing it a few times.

8. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved -> 'Pacifism'
This Achievement tasked you with surviving the first 60 seconds of a game without so much as firing a single shot. People loved this Achievement so much that the sequel had an entire gametype built around the idea. No, it wasn't all that difficult to get (it should only take a few tries), but it was definitely a lot of fun to get. Plus, since Geometry Wars was one of the first games on the 360, you could really say that this 'cheevo paved the way for Achievements revolving around trying to play the game a certain way or by handicapping yourself.

7. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock -> 'The Inhuman Achievement'
No, I don't have this Achievement. I've never even beaten the intro. This Achievement is on here simply because it's probably the most prestigious Achievement in existence. It's not like 'Seriously 2.0' where any monkey can get it with enough patience. This takes an ungodly amount of skill and a shit load of practice. If you have this Achievement, you can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you really are one of the best Guitar Hero players in existence, and that you will probably have carpal tunnel in the near future. Oh, and let's just get this out of the way: yes, 'Kick the Bucket Award' (GHII) came first, but "Through the Fire and Flames" is both a better to listen to and tougher to beat than "Jordan."

6. Battlefield: Bad Company -> 'Darwin's Parachute'
When you read the description for this Achievement, it says, "(Online) Glide in the parachute for 3 seconds." Seems simple enough. So, you get yourself a helicopter and fly as high as you can and then jump out. A moment afterward, you realize you're plummeting towards the Earth and that you have no idea how to open the parachute. You start randomly hitting buttons, but your efforts are fruitless, and you smack into the ground at terminal velocity and get to wait for your next respawn. "Crap, how do you open the parachute?" you think. Then, before you can even finish that thought, you unlock the Achievement. You quickly hit the guide button to make sure you're not crazy. Yep, there it is, but now its description reads, "There is no parachute, right?" Yes, that's right, you just got tricked into killing yourself, and now the title of the Achievement makes sense. This is hands-down the funniest Achievement I've ever seen.

5. The Orange Box -> 'Little Rocket Man'
I did not have the patience for this one (and I, uh, never found the gnome), but one of these days I'm going to go back and get it. This was a very popular Achievement, and it even inspired a follow-up for Left 4 Dead 2. This Achievement takes dedication unlike any other, and shows just how much you want to help a garden gnome reach his dream of making it into space. For those of you who don't know, this Achievement tasks you with carrying a garden gnome from the beginning of Half-Life 2: Episode 2 all the way to end. So, after every firefight you have to go back and pick him up. The most frustrating part is trying find a good place to wedge him in the car you have to drive for a large portion of the middle.

4. Dead Rising -> 'Zombie Genocider'
You earn this Achievement for killing 53, 594 (the population of the local town) zombies in a single playthrough. No, this Achievement was not particularly fun to get. In fact, I outsourced about half the work to a friend. This one makes the list for a few reasons, though: you unlock the bitchin' Mega Blaster weapon for earning it, it was one of the first well-known and much-coveted Achievements, and it inspired several copycats. The first copycat was Left 4 Dead's Zombie 'Genocidest', which was awarded for killing 53, 595 infected over all games. The second was [Prototype]'s 'Trail of Corpses' Achievement for killing 53, 596 infected. In other words, this one makes the list not because it particularly great, but because of its legacy. Speaking of legacies...

3. Gears of War -> 'Seriously...'
Getting 10, 000 kills in Gears of War's multiplayer was no small feat. You were lucky to get 30 kills in a 45 minute game. If you had this Achievement, it meant two things: you played a lot, and you were probably pretty good. Sure, any 12 year-old could get it, but they usually didn't. This is still the most prestigious online Achievement, and almost anyone who has it proudly wears the emblem as their gamer picture. Like Zombie Genocider, it also yielded copycats (The Club's 'No, Seriously' for 10, 001 online kills), including the follow-up 'Seriously 2.0' in Gears of War 2. 'Seriously 2.0', however, was hugely disappointing, as it required 100,000 kills across all gametypes. Anyone who has it probably spent an inordinate and ridicule-worthy amount of time replaying the brumak rodeo over and over again.

2. Halo 3 -> 'Vidmaster Challenge: Annual'
We're getting down to the end, and here we have my vote for the funnest Achievement of all time. This Achievement required you and three of your 'cheevo chasin' friends to beat the final level of Halo 3 on the hardest difficulty with the Iron skull turned on, but with a little twist. Instead of allowing you to use a couple of warthogs and allowing you to strand stragglers, everyone had to be in their own ghost and everyone had to get to the end. It required team work, persistence, and a little luck, but it sure yielded a handful of laughs. This Achievement is the shining example of how to add challenge and fun simultaneously. Oh, and this 'cheevo grants you exactly zilch in Gamerscore, so fun's the only thing you're gonna get out of it...that, and you'll be one step closer to Recon.

1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare -> 'Mile High Club'
This really shouldn't be a surprise. If I were a betting man--and I am--I'd wager that more time was spent globally trying to unlock this Achievement than any other. It's very prestigious, but only requires a minute of your time to unlock...if you get it the first time...and you won't. What made this Achievement so cool was that it was so hard to get, but it was always just out of your reach. Every time you start up the Epilogue, you think to yourself, "Okay, this is it. This is the time I actually beat this thing." Sure, it required luck to unlock (AI is inconsistent, so the pure memorization of the NES days isn't an option), but once you unlocked it, it was like taking a monkey off your back. And I'm not talking about a cute monkey like Spike in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, I'm talking about the kind of mokey that throws feces at you and your friends. If you've unlocked this Achievement, you're in the club.

--Chilly P

Who's the Current FPS King?

So Joystiq just posted some early impressions on the next Medal of Honor game, and I came away with basically thinking that EA has scrapped everything from the shit storm that was Medal of Honor: Airborne and is just straight ripping Call of Duty 4. Hell, the article even says its campaign seems like a truer sequel to CoD4 than CoD:Mod2 was. It also says that DICE is developing the multiplayer (EA Los Angeles is doing the campaign), and given how much I'm loving Bad Company 2, I might actually have to keep an eye on this one. But then I got to thinking...

The new Halo: Reach trailer mentions having loadouts, and even Bioshock 2's multiplayer aped CoD4. So here's the question: is Call of Duty the new king of the shooters? I guess the answer would have to be, "yes." I mean, Modern Warfare 2 was the fastest selling-game of all time, beating a mark once held by Halo 3 and then broken by GTA IV. Now, it's not exactly a fair fight because both GTA IV and Modern Warfare 2 are multi-platform games, but still. It says something that all these new FPSs are trying to mimic the Call of Duty formula when for so long everyone was chasing Halo. Have we already seen that fabled Halo-killer?

Just think about that. I remember a few years ago thinking that the idea that a Halo-killer could possibly come out before Bungie was done with the series was just preposterous. Killzone and Killzone 2 were both hyped as Halo-killers and I think we all know how that turned out. I can't believe that I'm about to type this, but Halo: Reach is playing catch-up to Call of Duty. Halo is no longer the leading innovator in the genre. How did this happen?

Well, way back in 2007, Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare were released. I still consider the former to be the premier shooter on the console, but I'd say I'm in the minority. I think where they lost their audience--not to imply that Halo 3 is struggling to find an audience, they're just not way out in first place anymore--is that they spent too much time innovating in the wrong areas. More on that in a bit, but first a little background: Halo 3 was the first game to eclipse Halo 2 in online activity, and this was after the first Gears of War and three Call of Duty games had come and gone. While Call of Duty 4 was a much-hyped contender (Game Informer named it, not Halo 3, as its most anticipated game of 2007), there was little reason to believe that it could actually top Master Chief.

So where did Halo 3 misstep? While I know Sweet Clyde has some considerable distaste for the game, I would probably say it's my favorite game of the series. It's a lot like Halo 2 but with more dressings. That's the problem, though. While Forge and the ability to save replays are awesome, they're not features that will draw in more people than a fresh experience. The problem was that Halo 3 felt like Halo 2 in HD with more features but the same gameplay. While I loved that, I'm not playing it anymore. I feel like I've been playing it since 2004. Sure, Grifball was enough to bring me back for a while, but they won't offer it to me on a consistent basis, and the gametype doesn't yet have the staying power I'm looking for. The fact of the matter is: Halo 3 didn't innovate gameplay and Call of Duty 4 did.

So, back to the question I proposed in the title: who's the current FPS king? Honestly, I don't know. Is it Call of Duty 4 still or Modern Warfare 2? With Activision pumping out a "new" CoD game every November, how long before that series becomes stale? Maybe Halo: Reach will take back the crown in a year when the CoD torch has been passed to Treyarch. Hell, maybe even Bad Company 2 or Medal of Honor can come in and take the reigns. There certainly seems to be room because if nothing else, Modern Warfare 2 was cocky as hell. It's actually very easy to draw a parallel between Modern Warfare 2 and Halo 3. They were both sequels to what was the most popular FPS on the market, and neither felt particularly fresh.

If there's a recipe for success when creating a sequel to the most popular game on the market, I think it's following the footsteps of Halo 2. Sure, there are still people who are waiting for a "real" sequel to Halo: Combat Evolved, but if Halo 2 had just been more of the same, the proverbial Halo-killer may have arrived years earlier. You can't just follow the "If it ain't broke don't fix it" philosophy because otherwise people will get bored. I know Sweet Clyde saw jet packs in the Reach trailer and groaned, but that tells me that they're trying to create a fresh experience (Yes, I know Tribes had jet packs, shut up. No one else is allowed to do jet packs because Tribes did it? Did you consider Halo: CE a Doom-clone, you narrow-minded prick?).

I know I've rambled on about this for a while now, but if you take one thing away from it it's this: the state of the current FPS market is in flux and we may never again have one series that is the golden standard for the genre.

--Chilly P

Top 10: What the Hell Were They Thinking?

I like lists, so I'll be doing top 10 lists every so often. This edition is about some of the all-time fuck-ups in game design for this current generation (Otherwise the QB Vision Cone would be on here...possibly twice). Note that something like "The Javelin Glitch" won't be on this list, because there wasn't some fart-knocker over at IW who thought it'd be fun to sneak that into the code. It wasn't a design decision. So, here we go: a list of some shit that broke the game, some shit that was unfair, some infuriatin' shit, and shit that's just dumbfounding.

10. Brutal Legend-> Roadies
I know a lot people probably didn't play this game (let alone played it online), but let me run down the basics. It's an RTS (Schafer is lying to you) where the only way you can win is by destroying the enemy's stage, which is their only non-defense-tower building. Only one unit in the game (which belongs to one of three factions) is anti-building: the Roadie. The roadie is also the only unit that is invisible unless you are close to it. It's an invisible unit, which destroys your base quickly. Yeah, sounds balanced, right?

9. Mass Effect-> The Mako
Holy shit, I hated the Mako and I'm so glad they completely axed it for the far superior sequel. Trying to drive that jalopy over mountainous terrain was about as entertaining as rubbing my knuckles against sandpaper.

8. Grand Theft Auto IV-> Entertaining Friends
I'll never understand how this game got such a high metacritic score. You had your whiney, needy, backstabbing "friends" calling you every three damned seconds to insist that you go bowling or dart throwing or mini golfing (oh, wait, the mini golf course was just a prop), and they'd bitch and moan if you couldn't shake the cops in your greased up Admiral (more on that later) in time to satiate their spontaneous demands. Then, you finally pick up your annoying cousin or that incomprehensible Jamaican dude and when you finally get to the bowling alley, you find yourself spending 15 agonizing minutes playing a minigame that wouldn't make the cut in Fuzion Frenzy.

7. Halo Wars-> Prophet Rush
It is nearly impossible to beat a Prophet of Regret rush in 1v1 or 2v2 if you're using the UNSC. Even if you do possess the skill to fend off the rush, it takes way, way, way more time, effort, resources, and skill to defeat the rush than to execute it. I know they've nerfed the Prohpet by making him slower, but it's still a pain in the ass. Why the hell does he get an overshield? At least make him upgrade once or twice before you make him the only leader with auto-regenerating health.

6. Modern Warfare 2-> Akimbo Shotguns
I think anyone who's played Mod2 (and there are a lot of you) know exactly what I'm talking about. Sure, Akimbo made sense for SMGs and pistols because those are guns that lose significant accuracy when hip-fired, but who aims down sight with a shotgun? Ever? It just doubled the effectiveness of an already effective gun. That first patch couldn't come fast enough.

5. Call of Duty: World at War-> Bouncing Betties
The very first time I my head got blown off by one of these little bastards, I was dumbfounded. Where the hell did that explosion come from. I then sat back, stupified, as I watched the killcam show a nearly-invisible mine hop right out of the ground and explode in my face. It was from that moment on that I realized that World at War was not a game I would enjoy. Now, before you say, "Just put on Bombsquad," let me say this: fuck you. Don't defend them.

4. Gears of War 2-> Grenade Planting
I talked about this in my Rules for Shooters. A lot of people complained in the first Gears that it was too easy to get kills by grenade-tagging, so they responded to that in the sequel by letting you grenade tag EVERYTHING. The best part is that before they patched the game 30 times, the planted grenades were nearly impossible to shoot down if you did luck into seeing one before it killed you, and any douchebag running around the map controlling the 'nade spawns could actually plant infinite grenades. How the hell does it not occur to you that some douche is going to just plant a grenade next to grenade spawn and then run around planting grenades all over the damn map? They didn't even disappear when you die, so every game of Annex turned into a damned minefield. Ugh, terrible. To make matters worse, some maps had rotating weapon spawns that switched between frag and ink grenades and one team would get frags every time while the other was always stuck with inks (they patched that quickly, but what an inexcusable oversight). They have since patched the game numerous times so that a player can only have two active mines at a time and they're slightly easier to shoot down (although it still takes multiple shots for some reason). It's an improvement, but I would still prefer this feature be removed entirely.

3. Grand Theft Auto IV-> "Realistic" Car Physics
Hey, remember in GTA: Vice City when it so entertaining to just drive around in a Comet or a Cheetah and e-brake your way around every turn? Remember in GTA IV the first time you tried to e-brake around a turn, and the car went careening uncontrollably into the nearest pole, and then you went flying out the windshield, and a cop ran up and busted your ass on the spot? Yeah, that was fun, wasn't it? I looked "realistic" up in the dictionary, and this may shock the folks over at Rockstar North, but "fun" was not listed as a synonym. Also, Niko, buckle your seat belt. Not that hard.

2. Gears of War 2-> Smoke Grenade Stuns
I mentioned this in my rules post, but yeah, the 2 second rag doll effect was awful. The worst part is that it was inconsistent, too. Get stunned on some stairs and your floppy ass is gonna slowly slide all the way down while Cole Train patiently follows you down so he can chainsaw-domize you as soon as you get up. I actually remember wondering why they didn't just use the same animation they used for when your teammate hit you with a mortar. It only took them about a year to figure that one out.

1. Super Smash Bros. Brawl-> Random Tripping
Here we are, folks. The most mind-boggling design decision of all time: random tripping. I'm really not even sure what to say about it. I guess it's supposed to be some sort of rubber band system for leveling the playing field, but why can't I at least turn it off? I'm really just dumbfounded by this one. It's just so profoundly stupid. I guess I can postulate as to how the idea came up in a meeting:

"Alright guys, we've already taken away wave dashing to make sure our game is less fun for the people who will play it the longest, but I'm still worried our game is too good. We certainly want these people to buy our game, but we can't offer downloadable content on the Wii, so we need them to get bored with the game and buy Wii Fit. Any ideas?"
"We could take Mario out of the game."
"No, we need them to still buy it in the first place."
"Let's have the guys who compiled the soundtrack for Sonic Adventure 2 do the game music."
"No, no, the soundtrack really is a purchasing incentive for a nostalgia-based game like this."
"I got it. Let's make people trip randomly like they slipped on one of Diddy's bananas."
"My God, Jusaka-san, you've done it! It's perfect! It won't keep anyone from buying the game, and the hardcore players who buy a lot games in the first place will be infuriated by such a blatant random event! Fellas, crack open the sake and break out the hentai!"

The reason this is number 1 is because out of every fuck-up on this list, this is the only one where I really can't imagine any reason a sane person would include this in the game. It's not a balance oversight, it's not there to show off any sort of techno-babble, and it's not supposed to simulate something observed in real-life (maybe Bugs Bunny cartoons). I really just don't know what the fuck they were thinking.

--Chilly P

Chilly P's Rules for Online Shooters

I've played a heck of a lot of online shooters over the years. Not so much on PC, but I'm a bit of an Xbox LIVE expert. Anyway, mainly drawing from the Halo, Call of Duty, Gears of War, and Left 4 Dead series, here are some basic rules I think all games should follow. Later this week I'll go over some all-time best features and worst fuck-ups.

HUD and Other On-Screen Information
The heads-up display is one of the most important and often over-looked features of shooters. One thing that drives me bat-shit crazy is when information like how much ammo you have will just fade away at times. Little things like an ammo count never obscures your view, just leave them there. Always (unless--and this is rare--it should be removed for gameplay purposes). For example, when I'm a charger in L4D2 and I'm choke-slamming some poor sap, why does my health bar disappear? Sure, I can't move anymore, but it's nice to know how much health you have. Just leave it there.

I also don't understand why games like Gears of War have no radar whatsoever. Call of Duty has a perfect model for this: you see the map in the upper right-hand corner, and dots show up when people fire. This makes sense. If you're in real life and you hear a gunshot, you can tell where it's coming from. Games use stereo sound, so until surround is the default (which it probably won't be any time soon), information like this should be expected. Another thing CoD does which I think should be in more games is the grenade indicator. If someone throws a grenade at me in real life, I'm going to hear where it bounces. This compensates for a lack in technology, and that makes it a good thing. Actually, the lack of the two aforementioned features in Hardcore mode is the reason I think that mode is ridiculous. It's supposed to be more realistic I guess, but I think taking away things that compensate for technological deficiencies is just stupid.

Another thing that's important is feedback for hits and misses. Halo does it by showing flashing energy shields, Call of Duty does it with that little 'x' in the middle of your screen (accompanied by a little 'tsk' sound), and Gears does it with blood spray. I really don't have any complaints here, I just thought it was worth mentioning.

It's also important that objective markers and other on-screen data do not obscure your view. That damn "C" marker in Domination on Underpass is like a dick coming out of someone's forehead. It's already hard enough to see on that map, don't make it worse with giant green/red arrows.

Be careful in how you distinguish teams. Halo gets bonus points for brightly and distinctly coloring each team. Gears gets a C- because the Locusts make more noise and are thus less sneaky than the COGs, and Call of Duty gets an F+ because it's nearly impossible to tell who's friend and foe without seeing a name above their head (which can lead to confusion when a friend is behind a foe and it looks like your friend's name is above that bastard who's about to gut you with a striker). You may think an F+ is too harsh, but let me also remind you that ghillie suits all look the same, and the fact that the team wearing black scuba suits on Sub Base has a distinct disadvantage to the other team of guys in snow camo.

If you're aiming down a scope and someone shoots you, your scope should be interrupted. Halo does this correctly.

Auto-aim is a necessity on consoles, but try not to let it go overboard. I can't tell you how many times I've killed people in Call of Duty because my auto-aim starting tracking someone I couldn't see. Yeah, I use it to my advantage, but it's pretty unfair.


Button Layouts and Weapon Swapping
Halo: CE got it right. Two weapons max, switch weapons with "Y", and map grenades to their own button. It's as simple as that. Battlefield: Bad Company does this archaic crap where the shoulder buttons cycle through different items, one of which is grenades. No. Don't do that. I don't want to have to switch to grenades. Ever. BC commits another no-no in that knifing results it actually keeping your knife out. This is also dumb.

You should also never have to cycle through anything. This is why the two-weapon idea is so important. Cycling is a pain, requires too much memorization, and can cause some serious problems in the heat of battle. One button, "Y", should switch between two weapons. Don't over think it. No cycling, and no mapping weapons to the D-pad. I'm looking at you, Gears. Nobody needs to spawn with a Lancer, shotgun, and a pistol. You already let people choose between a Lancer and a Hammer Burst, just let them choose two guns to load out with. Before you ask, "Well, who the fuck is gonna want a damned pistol?!" let me tell you who, you vulgar little delinquent. This would balance the meat shields and boom shields because--wait for it--you have to have a pistol to do it! There, now the boom shield isn't the most advanced piece of weaponry in the game. "What about the grenades?" you may ask. Like I said, map them to their own button. "LB" and "Y" aren't particularly useful in that game; I'd say go with "LB" since I know you'll have mapped weapon-switching to "Y" like I asked. Tap "LB" to blindfire (blindthrow?) a grenade; hold "LB" to start swinging it like a foxtail. You're welcome, Epic.

Two more things on this subject: always map reload to either "X" or a shoulder button, and never make me press a button to pick up ammo. Left 4 Dead has reload mapped to "B." Why? To spit in the face of console conventions because you want to be different? No! Bad Valve (slaps wrist). Oh, and Active Reloading in Gears is an awesome idea. No complaints here.

Other General Rules
Never, ever let physics interrupt gameplay. I'm looking at you, Epic. Remember when Gears 2 released and smoke grenades made you go ragdoll for 2 agonizing seconds? Dumb. Sooooo dumb. I know you've fixed it since, but you lost a lot of players because of that.

Do let physics be hilarious, though. Remember warthog jousting in Halo: CE? It was awesome, and I wish you could somehow turn that on in Halo 3. Also, so-called "gibs" in Gears are quite funny as well. Dead people flying around like weightless ragdolls is always a good laugh.

Proximity explosives should be visible and delayed. Good: Claymores in Modern Warfare. Bad: Bouncing Betties in World at War and grenade planting in Gears 2. Claymores are perfect. They have ~180 degrees of effectiveness, you can spot them around corners if you're careful, and if you're not, then you die. Even if you know there's a grenade planted around a corner in Gears 2, it's still pretty impossible to avoid it. It takes forever to shoot down (if you even can) and they go off nearly instantly. Bouncing Betties are just too hard to see without Bomb Squad.

Never have lock-on weapons for use against user-controlled vehicles (this excuses the necessary Stinger in Modern Warfare 2). Remember in Halo: CE when you had to kill vehicles with a well-timed grenade or rocket? Yeah, took skill. The Missile Pod? Not so much. Actually, let's throw Spartan Laser in there, too. Vehicles should never be death traps. Make people earn their vehicle kills. Now, I know the splaser and the missile pod are there mainly to shoot down Banshees, but it's not my fault the developers decided that the most elusive vehicle should also be the only one with an unexposed pilot. Maybe they should've thought of that before.

Offer a variety of playlists. Bungie gets, like, 12 gold stars for this. Modern Warfare 2 gets one gold star. Why only one? Where's my MLG playlist and 1st-person Team Tactical? Actually...

If your game has "cheap kills" (think energy sword), offer a set of MLG playlists. You know why Modern Warfare 2 is losing players? There's no where to escape the knifers, shotgunners, and n00b-tubers. I'll go into more detail about this in a later post. Sneak peak: Hardcore does not count as a satisfactory playlist for "hardcore" players.

Do a beta test. Seriously. Gears 2 and Modern Warfare 2 didn't do betas and their games launched as glitchy, unbalanced messes.

Don't let multiplayer achievements affect gameplay. The first Gears and--to a lesser extent--Halo 3 did this, and it's really, really annoying. However, I'm not saying that you shouldn't have multiplayer 'cheevos. I likes me my 'cheevos. Just be smart with them. It's also smart to emphasize winning over K/D or getting kills with specific guns. A player's first priority should be winning.

Flamethrowers are never a good idea.

Dog tags (Bad Company) are an awesome idea. In fact, if you have to do a kills-based 'cheevo, you should probably require unique Gamertags (and, obviously, a smaller number to compensate). That should get rid of those damned grinders. Buncha jerks if you ask me.

Never let people be temporarily invincible (unless it's to counteract spawn-camping). It was so annoying in Gears having to wait until the pick-up-weapon animation was done before I could pop some knucklehead's dome, and don't get me started on that temporary invincibility when you pick up the overshield in Halo 3.

Sprinting is good; holding down a button to sprint is bad.

Dual-wiedling is okay, just be careful how you implement it. They had to patch Halo 2 because dual-wielding was overpowered (although I say Halo has become better because this led to melees and grenades being more powerful), and I think we all remember those damned Akimbo Model 1887s.

If melees cause victims to be stunned, be sure that stun time is less than cool-down time. This was an issue in the first Gears because you were stunned longer than it took to perform a second melee. Also, the melee-spamming in Left 4 Dead was unbalanced in favor of the survivors (they patched it to include a cool-down after a few successive melees).

I actually can't believe I have to say this, but don't make the amount of time it takes to reload longer than the reload animation. In Left 4 Dead 2, the sniper rifle (my personal weapon of choice) takes ~3 seconds to reload, and when the animation is done, you're still not quite finished reloading. You have to wait a moment until that '0' becomes a '30' before you can switch weapons or take some pills. If you do it an instant too soon, you have to start all over next time you switch back to your sniper rifle. Honestly, you should make the animation run a little longer than the amount of time it actually takes. Props to Modern Warfare 2 for getting this right.

Summary
You may or not agree with me on all of these principles, but you probably should. I'm not trying to take away anything that made these games unique, and I understand that newbie-friendly game elements exist as a way to level the playing field. I'm just saying that certain conventions have proven to be much, much better than their alternatives, and that if you do want to include newbie-friendly weapons and/or classes, offer some way for the seasoned vets to avoid gameplay mechanics that feel cheap.

--Chilly P