The Humpday Challenge: Hoppers Nouveau
Our challenge against a Mexican clan is still on hold pending some logistical hurdles, but this week, I took the plunge myself. I logged into the hellhole of our new playlists and got stuck into Rumble Armory, Team Action Sack and 6v6 Team Battle. With mixed results. And a lot of colorful characters. The games shown are the ones that were completed, without anybody calling anybody's mom anything nasty, betraying on purpose or suiciding. And apparently, midnight PST, is when sweary clowns come out to play. It's also a facet of any new playlist - folks experimenting with it, quitting out, bailing when they see a weapon set or map they don't like. But technically, even though there are way too many qualifiers here, this was "our" first victory in ages. Maybe we're back?
The Bungie Lone Wolf
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Frankie – Up too late, too little to do, too angry to shoot straight.
The Rest of the World
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British Guys - Polite until they were abused, then not so polite.
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Smack Taking Racist Jerk - Enjoy your week off.
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Normal Jerks - If you have nothing nice to say...
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Voice of reason guy - Nice try at calming everyone down.
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Regular Gamers - Thankfully, the vast majority.
GAME 1: Team Slayer BR (6v6 Team Battle)
Game Stats Burial Mounds , BR starts, normal weapons Game Duration: 7:38
General Tone of Game : Shooty
Ever have one of those games where it seemed like you only ever got killed by one guy? That happened in all my games last night, and in this one, it was NUDDIE who kept capping me. I would spawn, he'd be there, brap-brap-brap, I'm dead, the end. Sucks to be me. I actually did OK this time around, even though I'm a horrible Battle Rifler. I grabbed a hog and led our team on an easy killing spree with the chain gun. I also witnessed the fastest carjacking-de-carjacking ever. they grabbed our turret guy, but he was ready for it apparently and murdered the would-be carjacker almost bizarrely quickly. I noticed that all my driving was ensuring zero kills for me, so eventually, as the balance started to tip in my team's favor, I stopped doing it and ran around for some selfish kills.
For some reason, I still can't really deal with the geography of Burial Mounds. I know my way around the outside, but stick me in the trenches and I'm always a little bit confused. For some reason, I kept spawning there and being murderized before I could really get my bearings. I was also playing on my 360, and I was surprised at how the subtle differences in control caused me to panic. Eventually though, I had grenade-switching (my biggest new controller prob) down, and was lobbing plasmas like an old-school Plasma Lobber. Which is an actual profession, you know.
The start of the game was pretty balanced, and we actually had to fight for it, but either the other team lost interest, or we were simply so awesome that they became afraid. I prefer of course, to assume the latter.
Final Score: 50 to 32 - Frankie's team, led in scoring by ND STRUCTABLE, wins handily.
GAME 2: Rumble Snipers (Rumble Armory)
Game Stats
Ascension, Sniper Rifles
Game Duration: 9:38
General Tone of Game : Super Deluxe Mega Awesome!
Although I was sort of disappointed to get Snipers rather than something more exotic, like Rockets or Shotguns, I was pleased it was Ascension, the only map I am good at sniping on, thanks to me three spots. Standing just below the lip of the "shotgun" ramp and sniping folks at the Banshee platform, or down and around the corner, lobbing 'nades up to the main tower, or more unusually, standing on the spiral ramp in that same tower, taking potshots at anyone. Surprisingly, folks seldom look at that location. If they did, they's see the top of my head peering out at them. Of course, I'm usually zoomed in, and there's usually someone else in that perch with me. And they're usually standing right behind me...
Anyway, my three spots served me well, as did a lot of luck in some panicked grenade/melee battles during reload spells. Nobody was really talking during the match, which always makes me slightly more nervous, and therefore twitchy. I actually loathe that feeling of waiting for a victim, and the sudden, unexpected shock of being killed while zoomed in. It would make my palms sweat, if they could which for some reason they can't. I have a very dry handshake.
Final Score: 18 to Frankie! For the win!
GAME 3: Shwatgun CTF (Team Actionsack)
Game Stats
Beaver Creek , Classic CTF with Shotgun starts, no shields
Game Duration: 12:06
General Tone of Game: Scattershot
We actually lost a player pretty early on, so we were a man down. i was going to try another game of Team Actionsack after this, but I was sleepy. Plus my butt was starting to hurt from squatting on the floor in front of the TV for so long. And my retarded cat kept trying to climb me like I was some fleshy cat tree. But my teammates stuck it out so I did too.One of the players on the other team had a color combination that made him appear blue when he ran into our base, gaining him valuable seconds. I don't mean a secondary color where the player is half blue, half red, I mean a totally convincing blend of the two. I would love to know what he chose, because he fooled me three or four times.
We actually didn't do too badly. It was mostly even for most of the game. Towards the end though, the red team started to press its advantage, and I know I made a few stupid errors that probably cost us a flag or two. Still, we soldiered bravely to the end, and I have to say, Shwatgun CTF is a fun gametype. It's got a nice mix of spastic horror combined with strategic brilliance. Defending dropped flags is both easier and harder thanks to no shields, and you can hold and reset a dropped flag very easily given the small stature of Beaver Creek (no more endless matches).
Final Score: Four flags to three. It was close. But not close enough.
Next Challenge: Who knows? We'll see soon enough.