Our little Teggy is all grown up 

Growing   When I can get my k/d up to 1, then the apprentice must kill his master. That's what Star Wars taught me. Something like that.  Either way, there's time, because I'm only at .6.

With the exception of a select few titles (Half Life, Rainbow Six, Jedi Knight), almost all of my FPS experience is on console, so I'm not bothered by it.  Playing the single player campaign was certainly enough for me to get familiar with the controls.

It sounds like maybe you are being too aggressive?  I'm far from great at the game, but I'm able to at least contribute positively to most matches by using my chicke... er... "conservative" strategy:

1. always stay in cover, and if you need to move across an open space, run.
2. don't move ahead of your teammates' front line, and see if you can support them if they draw fire
3. work the edges of the map to minimize the directions you can get hit from and find flanking opportunities
4. only fire when necessary - as soon as you fire an unsilenced round, you're on radar.  After you fire, get moving or expect that you'll have someone on your position very shortly. Often, you can just fall back and you'll catch a guy who's coming to look for you.

By doing this, a lot of my kills are on unsuspecting victims. I'm still improving my aim, so if I get in a close firefight, I'm ofter a goner, so I play to avoid them. This tactic might work well for you too starting out.

At what point do you get martydom?

Martyrdom comes at 17.  Here's a quick reference for that stuff.

Funny, I have that chart bookmarked from another site but I hadn't posted it because I figured you guys would have already seen it.

I also saw this on digg - the art of throwing C4.

I don't know if I have the patience to learn how to run around flinging c4, but I am going to have to try that booby trapped car bit.

I'm missing how this makes the VC completely useless.  People have been able to emulate all those systems since long before the Wii came out.

The title should really be something like "[Wii] VC becomes unnecessary for people with the skill or motivation to hack their console."  It's certainly not useless.  Plenty of people are either unwilling or unable to hack their Wii, and for them, VC is still going to be attractive.  It will likely cause Nintendo to lose some transactional income, but certainly not all of it.

I hopped on for a couple of hours tonight. I really wasn't playing too great - had some decent success with Broadcast, pretty average on the other maps, and downright awful on Wetwork (I still have no idea how to play that map). Then, right before 11pm, my hard stop for the night, Creek comes up.  We start on the high side of the map, and I move out to the left side to wait for someone trying to make their way up.  Pop a guy there,  then moved around the left of the patio house.  Wait for someone to try to come up and pop them.  Go down in the gorge and drop a guy trying to make his way up. UAV shows me that no one is in the cave.  Move in and park before the entrance.  Drop 2 or 3 guys trying to get in. I think I also got a guy off the airstrike, and helicopter comes up.

Oh, helicopter, how I love you.

I had never gotten one before, and here we go.  I fell back to the buildings while the helicopter started searching.  Once it found some enemies, the dominoes started falling.  I think I got another helicopter just on helicopter kills.  When the round was over I was something like 24 and 5. That felt gooood. I also maxed out my M4 that round, so I wound up with a ton of XP.

Still struggling a bit with my accuracy.  If I come into a room looking straight at a guy, too often the guy pops me before I can even get off a shot, or I'll shoot wildly and he'll have time to get me.

Also, Hark, got your message about joining when called, and will do in the future.  Was trying to level up tonight so I was being stingy with points, but I guess there's lots of time to get points and its not as fun playing when everyone is being quiet. And it must have taken a lot of patience to write that long a note with the stupid MS onscreen abc keyboard.

So I read on Howardforums (HI2U BIYOBI! ) that EVDO capabilities on some phones cause the battery to drain more quickly if you're on the fringe of the network.

Well, I'm not on the fringe, but when I walk into my house both the EVDO signal and the 1x signal drop to zippy.  I've also noticed that my battery life is pretty short, so I assume that my phone is expending a lot of juice trying to acquire a signal...

So what is EVDO?  Is it a better signal of some sort?  There's a hack to turn the capability off, but I'm not able to ascertain what the impact of that would be other than I couldn't use get it now or dl verizon music.

Thoughts?

EVDO is the next generation technology that CDMA phones use for faster data speeds.  GSM phones will have UMTS as a sort of equivalent.  Although EVDO is technically 2.5G (2nd and half generation technology) while UMTS is considered 3G.  There's quite an alphabet soup of these technologies and you can spend quite a lot of time sorting through them. Short story is that EVDO will get you faster download speeds on your phone than Cingular's EDGE network or other comparable technology.

After EVDO/UMTS, the next faster technology is HSDPA (for GSM phones, that is).

I think i am going it wind up playing again tonight.  Even though neither of those are my name.

I got my first airstrike. I'm so proud  .

You know, the only problem with Robocop is that the sequel was total crap and the third one was hardly good enough for direct to video.  I kind of wish those sequels were never made.  The tv show wasn't too bad for what it was.

An aside:
In the uncut version - didn't the ED-209 blast that guy for like a minuite or two? 

Yea, the Criterion cut has a bunch more violence.  He pops the guy in the front for a while, then you see it from the back, then he is bounced onto the Delta city model and then pummeled some more.  Same with Murphy getting shot up - you see the hand explode, the shooting goes on for a while longer at the end, and overall it is just damned gory. 

Although they also make the point that the shorter version is actually more brutal because the longer version just becomes comical.

Oh man, there are some days when I cite this as my favorite movie ever, and I say that seriously.

"Bitches leave."

"Dick, you're fired!"
"Thank you"

"Nice shooting son, what's your name?"
"Murphy."

Plus, how can you not get pumped up listening to the theme? I'm going to have watch this again soon.

Linky.  Looks like a good excuse to get in some games this weekend, even though the odds of winning something are likely pretty slim. You could even get pwned by a girl on Saturday night

Got my red dot sights for the M4 and the M16 tonight and moved up to level 14 (and got the all-important clan tag ability). Also got through a few rounds over 100 points, but still haven't beaten a kill streak of 4. Arggh!

  I just paid $60 for the GOTY edition like 2 weeks ago. You'll have to pay $10 for the new maps, but you still make out like a bandit.

No love for Culvers?
When I do decide it's burger time,
that is almost always my choice.
Butterburger FTW.

Love Culvers and frequent them often when I vacation in Michigan every year. Although I often partake of the walleye sandwich instead of a burger. I think I started a thread here a while back about fast food places I covet.  The northeast has a few old standbys, but we are particularly deprived when it comes to some of the better burger and fast food places from the midwest, west and south. No In 'n Out, Fatburger, Sonic, Culvers, Steak and Shake, etc. Not a burger place, but I would kill for a Portillos - they even opened up a couple in California now.

Teggy-

Would have invited you but it looked like you were all up into Burnout...should we invite you anyway when you're not playing COD4?

Well, you can, but I might say wait about a week.  Reason being that my wireless adapter basically doesn't work for multiplayer so I have to string an ethernet cable across the room when I want to play.  To get around this I have ordered a different kind of wireless adapter that I hope is going to solve this problem, and I should have it in about a week.  Then I need to see if MS will accept my current adapter as defective, which I really think it is.

I'll post about it when I am all set up.

I actually was only planning on playing Burnout for about a half hour last night, but then I had a change of plans and wound up getting sucked into it. Games with no logical stopping points are dangerous!

As an update, I have stuck with it and I have made it to level 11. I'm definitely improving - I am now ending up in 2nd or 3rd from last place instead of last .  I have also had some positive k/d ratios, although I have not broken 100 pts in a round yet, which is my next goal.  I have also pulled off 2 4 kill streaks.  I really wanted to get an air strike but both times I got a little anxious and got myself killed. The other thing I want to do short-term is get the red dot sight for the m4.

I'm also starting to learn some of the maps. I'm much more partial to the ones where there is plenty of cover and room to room fighting - Creek, District, Downpour, etc. I don't like the maps where there's very little cover and it's easy to just get shot at across the map without having a chance. I hate Countdown. Showdown should also not be played with 12 people. I don't mind Bog - it has a big open area, but there is a lot of cover and some routes you can take around the edge where the buildings are.

I wish they would put stats up online, it seems like that wouldn't be that hard to do.

All I am saying is that if she makes fun of online Halo teabaggers and people who love Final Fantasy and Nartuo on Xplay, why can't she make fun of them on Tyra?

For the same reason it's okay to roast your boss at the company holiday party, but not at the company staff meeting: sometimes the difference between "joking around" and "undermining credibility" is all in your choice of venue.

Morgan was presumably invited to appear on Tyra to explain gaming to people outside the hobby.  If you consider the woman on stage as a baseline, the audience is largely unfamiliar with videogames, and perhaps even irritated by or condescending towards people who enjoy them.  Is *that* really the appropriate venue for Morgan to start waxing psychological about the worst sort of lonely, angry, pitiable gamer?

Watching that YouTube clip, what do you think are the odds that anyone seeing it would come away with a superior understanding of why their boyfriend likes playing games?

-Autistic Angel

You know, I think the person we should be blaming is the boyfriend.  What guy in his right mind goes on a show like Tyra with his girlfriend and doesn't know he's going to be hung out to dry?  Which leads me to believe the whole thing was a setup, similar to all the crap you see on Jerry Springer.

Well, I got some playtime in last night thanks to USMC Kato, JarrodHK and MSDuncan (and no thanks to Harkonis, who killed me )

Definitely less pressure playing that way although I don't know if I improved much just yet.  I never managed to string 2 kills together, although I didn't come in last place every time. Next thing to concentrate on will be to keep moving after a kill - too often after a kill I think I start looking around instead of moving to cover.  One would assume that since I have just given my position away someone on the other team is heading over to get me.

I also need to work on switching to my secondary.  A few times I got the bead on an enemy and ran out of ammo while I was trying to gun them down.  While I was reloading I got smoked.

Learning the maps will take some time.  Part of my problem is that, as someone who hasn't played much online FPS, I don't really know what makes one spot good and other spot bad (other than knowing not to stay out in the open).  It looks like there are a lot of good videos on youtube, so I might look at those at my leisure.

Yeah, getting into some matches with you guys would be great.  I don't have set playtimes really at the moment (evenings eastern if I have the time, some weekends) but I can look for you guys.  Is there a good list of COD4 gamertags on GT? I still haven't been added to Purge's big list.

Well, just help me not get run out of online matches.  I've never really played online FPS, but I figure for my $60 investment I should try to get my money's worth.  My limited forays online have been pretty fun and I'd like to play some of the different game types that are currently locked to me. I've managed to get to level 4 so I can have custom kits, but beyond that I really am a noob.  The last match I played the other guys on my team (I didn't know them) no so kindly "requested" I go hide in a corner because I kept getting killed.

I can play the game - I finished it on hardened - but multi is a totally different animal.  For one, I don't know the maps - what's the best way to learn them? Two, I have this fear of team killing.  When I go running around and spot a guy off in the distance, I can't always tell if he's on my team, and that hesitation is usually enough for me to get me killed.  How do I avoid that? Also, what technically counts as "camping"?  It seems in real life you'd want to find good cover and shoot when people approach and be careful about moving up.  But in a game this is bad?

So give me your tips!

Wasn't this a Richard Pryor movie?

I didn't feel Morgan's comments were condescending.  Now, Tyra and the girlfriend... yeah, they can go jump off a bridge

"I know grown men who admit to crying from Final Fantasy VII, this is a silly game!"

"People who like Final Fantasy are romantics and they want a girl."

"People who like FPS games are fighting something in themselves and find the world unfair."

Didn't know about this so I just watched it on youtube.  I don't know if I'd describe it as being condescending to gamers, but it was a bit contrived.  She's not a psychologist, so I'm not sure where she was getting this analysis from. It sounded like she was repeating something that someone else wrote, possibly a Cosmo article about "how to get your gamer guy to pay attention to you" or something. We know she plays shooters and rpgs, so it sounded awfully strange coming from her.

So is Adam a real gamer or is he secretly condescending of gamers like his co-host Morgan Webb?

Source?  Everything I've read about her says that she's a hardcore gamer.  I think the one anecdote that's always mentioned is that she waited in line to buy one of the Unreal Tournament games.  Or do you mean she just doesn't appreciate that gamers drool all over her because she's a girl gamer?

People are missing the point. My nearly year old wedding website that Rip allows me to host for free is down and no one can see the pictures!

(Actually, if this were a year ago, my then fiance would probably be freaking out).

OK, this is going to be a very personal peeve I'm sure, but I wish there were no boss battles in Metroid Prime games (well, I haven't played the 3rd).  Exploring the world is so much fun that I hate having to spend long stretches trying to beat bosses.  I'm currently on the second temple boss in Prime 2 and haven't touched the game in a few weeks because I don't feel like dealing with it.  Come to think of it, I'm not really a big fan of the dark world in Prime 2.

The entire ending level(s) of Psychonauts = EPIC FAIL.

Meat Circus.  +1

I think a lot of people also hate the controller reversal during the final boss of Beyond Good and Evil, although as it is the very last thing you do in the game and meant to be difficult, it didn't bother me that much.

[Spoiler]

interesting use of spoiler tags, not sure what you were hiding and what you were showing

Heh, well I was just trying to hide the plot points that might ruin a surprise for someone playing the game. For example

Spoiler for Hiden:

your partner's legs are hurt because a helicopter falls on him! Didn't want to give that away.

[Spoiler]

I'm playing COD4 on hardened difficulty.  I got to the

Spoiler for Hiden:

flashback bit

where you need to protect another soldier until help can arrive. I got to the last segment, and was getting frustrated to no end because I couldn't survive long enough.

So here you have a game that tries to be pretty realistic in that you are almost always paired with a group of other soldiers that use real-life tactics (flashbanging rooms before entering, etc.) and requires you to use cover and cover fire to survive. But then it puts you in a situation where you have one

Spoiler for Hiden:

somewhat crippled

fellow soldier who sits out in the open yet can't die, and forces you to become Rambo against waves of enemies.

I wound up looking up a guide since I was getting fed up, and more often than not, the guides told you to just hide, so that is what I did - hid in a ticket booth until the reinforcements showed up.  I was getting rained on with grenades, but of course no one bothered to actually come around to the door to shoot me.  If a large number of players decide the best way to get through a segment is to exploit the game, that's bad design. It's not quite as cinematic, but I think COD2 did a better job of immersing you because it didn't have these kinds of slip ups.

I was looking for a cheap 360 game to pick up used and noticed that Quake 2 (which I haven't played) is included with Quake 4.  Sounds like that might make for a nice value for me.  Is the inclusion of Quake 2 more of a novelty, or is a decent experience playing it on the 360?

[Spoiler]

As a follow up to this thread, since I am a glutton for punishment, I decided to go for "The One Free Bullet" achievement on my first playthrough of Episode 1. This time, I got it. I would occasionally itch to use a gun, but it was actually fun, as it added a lot of tension.  Thank goodness that

Spoiler for Hiden:

Alyx can't be killed, because that would make it a lot less fun to do.

This game needs to be renamed Farther Cry.  Or Far Crier.

Well, I won't harp long on my anti-achievement stance, but this is just such a great example of its problem.  Getting through Ravenholm with the grav gun should be fun because you got through Ravenholm with the grav gun, not because you'll unlock a small icon you'll never look at and get arbitrary points that don't do anything.

You know what, here you go:

Print this out.


And I give you 500 wonderpoints as well.  You can write +500 on a sticky note if you like.

Yay!

Well it was fun, but I still want my nerd points.

Jee-zus! How did you deal with the fast zombies - especially during the "gutter rattling" scene right before riding the tram over to Father Gregori (sp?)?

Yeah, that's as far as I got before giving up on that particular achievement.

Believe it or not, you can just run around in circles and you are able to stay out of their grasp until the basket comes over. I panicked at that point and just started darting around and surprised myself.

The hardest part for me was right before you go down the building elevator and those guys crash through the skylights.  That one took me a few times to get through.

The experience wasn't a complete waste - I learned that wall radiators are really effective at taking out zombies.

First time playing through HL2 and I saw there was an achievement for playing through Ravenholm just using the grav gun, so I figured I would give it a shot.  Made it through, taking a lot longer in spots I could have simply pulled out a gun. Didn't get the achievement  Supposedly, even if you pull out the crowbar and swing it, it ruins it.  But I don't remember ever pulling the trigger on any other weapon. 

Without Kate Beckinsale, is there any reason to believe this isn't going straight to video or going to appear as a "Sci Fi Original Movie"? 

(interesting, though, the second movie made more than the first http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/series/Underworld.php)

[Spoiler]

Started playing the Orange Box and got to the point in HL2 where

Spoiler for Hiden:

You go into a box car and there is a guy with a Vortigant "friend".

If I keep playing this is going to be explained, correct?  I hope? I also noticed

Spoiler for Hiden:

when the transporter was going haywire, there was one in the room with Alyx, but I thought that was some sort dimensional screw up going on.  Guess not.

I was also curious what might have happened if

Spoiler for Hiden:

I had shot the Vortigant as soon as I saw it.

Got a bunch of games I'd rather just offer up to the community than try to wring some small amount of money out of eBay.  I'll probably add a few more later.  All have box (likely with "used" stickers) and manual unless otherwise noted.

EDIT: removed claimed games

XBOX

Dead to Rights

PS2

Wife: "what are you playing, is this Bejeweled?"

Me: "No, it's different."

Wife: "what are those jellyfish things?"

Me: "those are skulls, not jellyfish."

Wife: "How is this different than Bejeweled?"

Me: "well it's a lot different, you're fighting against something."

Wife: "By playing Bejeweled."

Me: "No, but you travel around on quests and gain weapons and magic."

Wife: "Which you use to play Bejeweled."

Me: "But that's secondary - there's a story, and you have a dungeon where you can capture creatures you have beaten."

Wife: "...by playing Bejeweled."

Me: <sigh>