Rant: What the hell happened?

Over the past 10 years videos games have changed drastically. They have unimaginable graphics, some unbelievable story lines, and innovation that we would have never expected to see 10 years ago. But today I'm not going to talk about any of those things. In fact, I'm going to talk about something that can really piss me off sometimes. Sometimes I wonder just how many people are playing video games just to have some good old fashion F-U-N. You know, that thing Spongebob taught us about back in the day? Games are just too god damned competitive nowadays. And don't get me wrong, I love me some good old fashion competition, me and my friends go way back to Pokemon: Red and Blue (all hail Charizard!). But now it's just gotten way too out of hand. Let me just share with you a few experiences that I've had myself.

Scenario 1:
Me: "Which music game do you like better, Rock Band or Guitar Hero?"
Them: "Well I for one like Guitar Hero better because its songs are more challenging."

Wow, where the hell should I start with this one? This one is probably #1 on my list. Seems kinda weird though. Why would something just as simple as this piss me off so, so, sooooo much?! It's just that I always played Guitar Hero I and II for 90% fun, 10% competition. But then Guitar Hero III came out... let me just clarify that I HATE this game. Call it a grudge against Neversoft, but I really just hate what they've done to the series. It took a complete 180. Now everyone just want's to be the best, they want the toughest songs, it makes me wonder if they are even having fun. If you ask any "real gamer," 90% of the time they will say that they enjoy Rock Band better (at least that's what I've seen from my experiences), why do you think that almost every big game site gave Rock Band 2 a better score then GH:WT? I'll tell you why. Because when you play Rock Band, you play it to have F-U-N, not because it's more challenging.

Scenario 2:
Me: "I think I'll play some Halo 3."
Them: "OMG this guys such a noob! I'm just gonna sit by the Rocket Launcher spawn and wait for it to come. If he gets close, I'll just run up and stick him, because that takes no skill whatsoever." *extremely squeaky voice* "HAHAHA NOOB, DUDE YOUR A STUPID F*CKING NOOB, YOU F*CKING NOOB, YOU SHOULD GO F*CK SH*T BITCH ASS HOLE DICK."

Jesus Christ! How many times have you gone through this? Not only do they use no skill whatsoever to win, but they sound like a 4th grader who just learned how to swear, they always seem to have an extremely squeaky voice and everything. Halo 3 is completely ruined because of people like this. If you've played Halo 3 at all, then you know that this happens more often then you'd think, some people are just complete idiot. I moved to Call of Duty a few months ago, and just decided I would give Halo a try, again. I played one game and quit. People just get too competitive, and then after every game they have to make sure that they rub it in your face that, "You're the loser, and they just whooped your ass." If you challenge them, they will make sure that you know that they're a grade 3 Brigadier, and you stand no chance whatsoever. Oh, and if you beat them, your, and I quote: "A cheap and a f*cking noob who needs to learn how to play the mother f*cking game."

Scenario 3:
Them: "Hey guys, let's play some Nazi Zombies! But instead of actually playing, let's glitch and get to the highest round ever!"

Ugh, I hate glitchers, the only thing I hate more than cheaters are people who agree with cheaters. To me, it's like why even play Nazi Zombies. Good job! You got to round 1,356... now try getting to round 30 without your glitches; now you're getting somewhere. I swear, every time I try to play Nazi Zombies at least one person wants to and/or does glitch. I've never glitched, nor do I ever plan to. If you ARE going to glitch, the least you could do is not brag about it. I've had people brag about how they've gotten to round 100. At this point, you don't even have to ask them if they glitched, it's pretty obvious they did, and you know they only did it because they wanted to beat everyone's score. Which once again brings us to our topic...

Video games are just too damn competitive in today's time. They're becoming more like a race, gotta be 1st, and less like actual games. Guitar Hero is apparently better because the songs are more "challenging" what a stupid reason to think a games better. That's like saying the 360 is better then the Super Ninendo solely because the graphics are better. All I'm really trying to say is that if you're going to play a game, play it for fun, don't play it so that you can beat everyone. Why not get off Xbox Live for a bit and go play a nice 1 player (or possibly co-op) game on the NES for once? Who knows, you might enjoy it.

Call of Duty: World at War Beta Impressions

While I wish I could have gotten into the 360 beta, but I'm fine playing the beta on the computer. The gameplay is basically the same as CoD4, with the addition of a few new features.
The biggest new feature I noticed is the replacement of calling a helicopter after getting seven kills in a row. Instead, you are now able to call upon some trusty hound doggies, but don't be fooled, I doubt you will ever hear the "crying all the time". In fact, these little bastards will chase down your opponents and take a bite or two out of them. I for one think this is a great new feature that adds more strategy, and is more exciting then just being gunned down by a helicopter.

Along with hounds, a few new perks have been added, as well as some new weapons and grenades of course. Oh! and lets not forget the addition of vehicles.
I for one prefer the CoD4 levels over the CoD: WaW ones, although I guess it's to early to judge since the beta only allows you to battle in three areas.

The 1st level I will announce is named "Castle". In this map you fight inside and around an olden time Chinese castle. This level, in my opinion, is the worst of the three, but if you enjoyed sniping your opponents in CoD4, then I'm sure you will be more pleased with this level than I.
The second map goes by the name "Makin". Here, you will battle on a beach, which contains three basic areas. 1st, the beach/water area. If you fight on the beach, expect to die often, since it supplies little cover. Whereas if you fight in the water, I'm sure you can get kills-a-plenty, since it offers you much more protection. The second area in this map is the forest. This are provides excellent protection (as forests often do) and is basically for guerrilla warfare. The last area of the map are the huts that you will find on the beach. Basically used as the sniping area of the map.

The last map, which is my favorite, is named "Roundhouse". This are is the 1st to introduce a vehicle (in this case a tank), which I find...very noobish to use. The tank seems to be overly powerful and seemingly invincible. Basically, whoever owns the tank will more than likely win the match. Moving away from talking about the tank, this area seems to be where many train tracks meet. It contains a few buildings, but mostly you will be fighting on the ground, hiding behind the seemingly endless amount of boxcars that are scattered throughout the level. The only thing that really annoys me about this level is that some areas provide to much protection, while others don't provide enough.

All in all, Call of Duty: World at War is looking pretty promising. The levels are average at best, but there's plenty more to come. Some new weapons have been added of course, as well as perks and grenades (but they're a surprise!). Of course, instead of calling upon a helicopter to do your dirty work, you now summon dogs to kill the enemies around you. The addition of vehicles seems somewhat out of place to me, Call of Duty just doesn't seem like the kind of game where you should be riding around in a tank. Not to mention that the tank is god-like. But, I can't complain, this beta has already drained hours of my life away, so I can't even imagine what the full game is going to do to me (yikes! its gonna be CoD4 all over again!). Hope to have the full game review after it's release on the 11th of this month.