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.

Goodbye Recon, hello Halo 3: ODST

Not even announced for that long, and really just a trailer is all we've seen of Halo 3: Recon ... but now we can't call it that. Bungie announced today that the game will now be called Halo 3: ODST, which stands for "Orbital Drop Shock Trooper." You can read the full announcement at Bungie.net

Bungie also mentions that all current materials for Halo 3: Recon have been altered to reflect the new ODST name. Such items include wallpapers, themes, gamerpics and related downloads, even the trailer has been rebranded, the website also received a proper facelift, as it's where you'll be finding a bulk of these items.

But not all is different, if your a fan of seeing Recon in the game's title, we still have the original trailer at VFHvideo, which is now also in fancy widescreen. As for me? I preferred the Recon name, but it's not like I'll be getting the game for it to bother me. What are your thoughts on the change?

TGS 08: Halo 3 Recon

Originally supposed to be announced at E3, Bungie finally got to announce its first project since separating from Microsoft, a Halo 3 expansion, published by Microsoft... Anyways, what Halo 3: Recon actually is, is a prequel to the events of Halo 3, but starring an new character, who's yet to be named. However, despite being a prequel, and technically a separate game, it's listed as an "expansion", in my mind meaning you'll still need Halo 3 in your 360 to play it.

Meet your new Spartan
I don't own a 360, so chances are I won't be playing this. However, I'm still intrigued, as I've never seen an FPS that (at least looks to be) set in a rainy environment. Sure, Metroid Prime has its instances, but I think Bungie is going for an entire game full of rain. We'll see how it turns out.

Halo 3 Update, w00t!

So, I booted up my Halo today to get a few rounds in, and was treated to an update, and thought to myself, "Could it really be THAT update?!!?" Yeah, it was.

The update changes and adds a variety of things to the game, some of which relate to matchmaking settings and changing a few minor things in the maps, most importantly being the blue barrier doors in a few levels, which is odd.

One of the major, and best changes is the addition of around 30 brand new achievements for you to unlock, which is pretty awesome.

The other change is the fact that they now gave each matchmaking mode a unique military rating, instead of a global one like they used to have. This is a bit odd though, as that was what the levels, 1-50, were for...but whatever...all your previous data still stands though, so don’t worry about that getting erased or anything.

So yeah, if you haven’t played Halo 3 in awhile, now may be the time to get back on the Warthog.