The new game console war is kicking off

That's my biggest beef with COD. In MW3, they made maps that would have had the hardcore rushers from CoD4 days squealing with delight...

And gave people way too many perks, equipment and hidey places to encourage camping like no FPS has seen camping before.

Couple that with Youtube so-called "pros" extolling the virtues of camping and head-glitching, and the pussification of CoD began. Well, to be fair, it started in MW2, but MW3 sent it over the top. "Rushing" became a bad word. There were limp <SFW edit>s coming out of the woodwork all over and championing camping as a legitimate "tactic." The idiots actually claimed that camping took SKILL. ROFL! They pussed out, whined and cried to Infinity Ward about the perks that didn't help campers until IW nerfed them completely, and made camping even more attractive.

I miss the CoD4 days. Even the early MW2 days. The good old days where your left analog was always pushed down or your ass was getting flanked. The glory days when if you got caught camping, the entire lobby lit into you and never let you live it down.

Don't get me wrong, there ARE specific circumstances where a temporary camp is acceptable. Note the emphasis on TEMPORARY. Your UAV is up and you know 1-4 enemies are about to enter a choke point. You're protecting the bomb while it's ticking down. Something like that. Anything else is cowardice. I don't give a rat's patootie about your K/D.

I opted not to even buy BO2 because BLOPs was so full of fail. By most accounts, BO2 is actually good (better than MW3 at any rate). But it's too late in the cycle for me to start up now.

The others are too painful to play for very long anymore. I swear I'll pop an aneurism soon if I have another Domination match where most of my team doesn't even try to capture. Hell they don't even try to defend! They just run to the tent of their choice and camp away. Going 8-1 in a loss is far better than going 35-25 in a win after all...

I love CoD. I have no respect for the current state of the game nor the players who made it that way. Call it Camp of Duty. Or "Crouch slowly of Duty."

 

Hehe. I remember when MW3 was still relatively new. I would watch vids to try to see how other people were using the maps. I see one video titled "How to Rush in MW3."

I thought, ooooooo... this should be good. There's so many dark spots, corners, and clutter to allow people to camp all day long, I want to see how this guy does it. He starts off the vid showing his stats of a 5.85 K/D with a 4th prestige already (Most people were still on 1st or second prestige. Hell, a lot of people were still trying to get to 80). This guy must be awesome! The second coming of Sandy Ravage or XCal even.

Then he starts the game. Oh, he rushed alright. Rushed right to his favorite hiding place. Threw down his portable radar, got into a postition where only the tippy top of his head would be visible, went ADS, and proceeded to camp like Daniel Boone until he got his air support, then let his air support do the rest. Rinse, repeat.

And he wasn't being ironic! He honestly thought that's what rushing meant. Getting to the advantageous camp spot first. I weep for my daughter's generation.

Speaking of my daughters....

One of my twins has had a long term boyfriend for almost a year. He's a good kid. (Sure sign you're old: You describe a 20 y/o as a kid) He even jokes that we should game together some day, but since he plays PS3, and I play 360, that hasn't happened. So we chat every now and then and I told him I think I'll be getting the PS4 this time around. He agreed and said that we could definitely do some gaming then. Which shooter would I be getting? BF4 or Ghost? I said I was debating going with BF4 because the CoD kids were really irritating me lately. He said, and I quote:

"Yeah. Don't you just hate those try hards that have to rush all the time?"

Son, you're dating my daughter. I'm not a fool. You're both adults and have been dating a year. I don't want to know about it - but I know what's likely happening. The fact that I haven't yet choked you out, castrated you or otherwise shortened your life shows great patience and tolerance on my part. Advocate camping one more time, and you won't be so lucky.

 

Classic!

 

Well, at least Micro$oft is listening...

http://news.xbox.com/2013/06/update

 

About time. (Do you think getting their stool pushed in by Sony on pre-orders factored into this more than fan complaints? I do.)

Just think how well E3 may have gone if they'd been listening for the 6 weeks prior to E3. 6 weeks? These things were rumored 3 months prior and people were rallying against it.

Now announce a launch console WITHOUT the Kinect bundled in (and without a Kinect being required), and maybe, just maybe I'll reconsider.

Probably not at this point. But maybe...

 

I've seen people on various sites already calling it the "XBox 180."

 

Again, there's still too much wrong with the "180." Starting first and foremost with the Kinect.

If they scrap the Kinect being bundled in and/or necessary to play AAA titles, I'll reconsider. The ONLY reason I would (when it comes to gaming, the PS4 is still far superior hardware wise) is that XB Live is without a doubt the superior on-line system... and I like their controllers better.

I don't see them doing that though. So I'm still in camp PS4 for now.

 

If you're bored, the fanboy flame war that's ensuing in the comments here is pretty entertaining. http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/19/xbox-one-drm-used-games-reversal/#comments

 

One of my dislikes about previous Playstations was their controllers. They were too small and cramped for my tastes.

The XBox, and especially the 360 controllers were very good. I think we can put another notch in the PS4 column:



For comparison's sake, the XBox One's controller, although slightly more "full" is the same size profile as the 360's controller. I like this new PS4 controller. It doesn't look like it'll give me cramps and carpal tunnel finally.

I do prefer the off-set style the XBox controllers have always used with the thumb sticks, but I think I'll adapt.

 

So I decided to go old school the past couple days and play some older CoDs on-line.

CoD 4: so full of hacks it's unplayable. Oh, it's still fun if you find an unhacked lobby, but finding an unhacked lobby in CoD4 now is akin to going on Chatroulette and finding a guy who doesn't have his pants off.

Ok, let's just go back one generation of CoD and play some MW3. Yeah...

MW3 is now completely full of everything that made it horrible to begin with. If you have 16 people in the lobby, 10 of them are wannabe snipers, map be damned. Of those 10, 2 will actually be indestructible gods who use the sniper as an obscene limitless range shotgun and dominate. Hey, they're skilled. All props to them. But it isn't fun. The rest? Killstreak fodder for everyone else. At least 2 will consistently go 2-26. No, I'm not kidding. You'd think they'd at least accidentally kill more than 2 people, or learn to protect themselves better than to die 26 friggin times. Sadly, without fail, both of those guys will always be on my team. I had one TDM match where the stars aligned, my connection was good, and my reflexes were in the zone and I went 30-2. We lost. Horribly. It wasn't even close. smh

Everyone else is pitching tents next to their favorite head glitch spot and not moving at all. Some seem to have only one game plan: find a corner - any corner - and squat. When they do move, they're crab walking n their knees, always ADS. I weep for the death of boldness and FUN with my kid's generation. Are you so afraid of dying that playing not to lose is the only way you can play? You know you just respawn... right?

Oh, once in a while you can still find a lobby where people mostly play aggressively. And when you do, it's glorious! Just sheer chaos and action. So fast paced, you really have no true concept of how you're doing or even what the score is until the match suddenly ends. I can get my ass royally stomped in a match like that and still have fun. But, again, see the Chatroulette comparison.

As an aside, a word of advice and encouragement to the weenies who think camping is somehow playing "tactical" or more "realistic." there's a game for that. It's called Battlefield 3. It's a great game that is MADE for that play style. Kindly GTFO of our ACTION shooters. CoD is not, and was never intended to be a sim.

Surely I shouldn't even bother with MW2. The last time I dared try that game was almost 2 years ago, and it was so littered with OMA noob tubers that every single match was an unplayable mess. But what the hell, let's give it a shot for nostalgia's sake.

WTF? This game has more players than I expected! AND, noob tubes aren't so heavily used! Every few lobbies will still have one horribad running around with them, but they don't last long anyway. Camping isn't so bad either. Head glitching? Not so horrible. This game is actually playable! Who knew? That's not to say I'm any good at it. There's some guys playing it that seem to have played ONLY that game for 4 years now and could kick my ass with their eyes closed. And panic knifing is a huge problem. But the point is it's playable and fun. Go figure...

 

I'm shocked that MW2 is still playable. I haven't played it in a really long time. I do believe I would get thoroughly and regularly whooped on. I wish MW3 wasn't like the local KOA on a Saturday night. I really enjoyed that game online.

Ahh, panic knifing. I wonder how many times someone laughed at me for panic knifing during the kill cam.

 

I have a confession to make. I was a HUGE knifer back when MW2 was new. I had one match on Sub Base where I went 45-5. I did get a PM/Harrier/AC-130 cascade that probably accounted for half of those kills. The other 24-25? All but 2 were with a knife. The difference is I was intentionally knifing. Running around like a maniac with a tactical knife, marathon, lightweight and commando. (levelling all 3 perks. none of them were "pro" at the time). But I was known to do knife matches while not using commando too. (For the record, Commando in MW2 was more overpowered than any perk in any CoD, and that includes assassin/ghost). A panic knife is when you round the corner on someone and they just clamp down on their sticks getting the knife kill ("lawlz! My 8 foot arms and knife trumps your bullets even though you put half a clip in me)

If I keep playing MW2, I should go back to the default controls setting and knife too. But I've been playing tactical for so long, it's hard to go back. I just look like an idiot running around the map randomly slashing the air when I mean to duck down.

 

Oh hell yeah. It was like cheating at times with tactical knife on Scrapyard, Sub Base, and the Brazilian map. I'd run around with Marathon, Lightweight or Cold Blooded, and Commando. Good times...good times.

 

Had a string of some really good games (for me) tonight. Nothing Earth shattering. Games like 25-5, 21-1, 19-2, etc. All in TDM. Unless you completely dominate the entire lobby, it's really hard to get 30+ kills (or if your kill streaks are almost immediately shot down like mine were tonight). I had a good run for about 2 hours until I started running into the weenie squad. Still had some decent games, but not too consistently due to random noob tubes in my face, or some "ninja" hiding and pretending to be grass and ruining a streak.

Also saw the most pathetic display of ineptness from a team ever. While I was having my good run, there was another guy on the opposing side who also was having pretty good runs. After a few matches, we got put on the same team. "Oh, this is going to a slaughter." You'd think...

I went 26-5. He went 27-2. We lost. 7500-6000. Let me repeat that...

In a game where 2 of us combined for 5300 points, we lost 7500-6000. The rest of the team managed only 7 friggin kills. In a game where 2 of us combined for only 7 deaths, the rest of our team died a combined 68 times. ROFL. So sad, it's funny.

Hey, I have bad games all the time. But never something THAT bad. At least they weren't camping I suppose, so... yay.

November can't get here fast enough. I need some new games, and maybe some fresh, reinvigorated blood among a game community.

 

Sucks when you've got a hot hand, and the rest of your team is acting like the first one to respawn loses their xbox.

I may have to dust off the controller and see just how rusty my MW2 skills are.

 

Random musings after another night of playing. Some bad games (playing "Hide and Seek of Duty" isn't my most fun game), a few really, really good ones. (Double AC-130 match in TDM? Yes please)

Here's what I don't understand. Well, I don't understand a lot, but just one example. Why are people camping in a game that doesn't even matter anymore? Nobody CARES about your stats. Even in a current game, but in one almost 4 years old??? At 9th or 10th prestige, do you still not know the map??? Not confident enough to know where you're going? Same goes for all past CoDs. I mean, I don't condone camping (or "playing defensively" or "tactical") in any FPS except under very specific conditions. But if it's an old game, loosen up and have some damned fun.

Guess what I saw tonight. Go on, take a guess. I'm not even kidding. I saw 2 people boosting for a nuke! Really? I mean, REALLY??? Again: this game is 4. years. old! So Mr.s vObviousHacker (lol. yes, that's his name) and S*****555 (not sure his name. It started with an S and ended in 555), I hope you enjoyed it if XBox Live people even care about that game anymore. If they do, a ban is incoming. hehehe

That was only the start. Then I proceeded to get no less than 4 different private messages offering boosting lobbies and tac nuke lobbies. Some even asking for MS points in return! Yeah, those should have been forwarded to the admins too. But at that point, I was too busy face palming to even care.

Ran a few matches using only my shotgun (at least until ammo ran out) and I can't believe I never tried the SPAS back when MW2 was fresh. That gun is suhweet. True, you're toast if you get caught at range, but work the map right and you can cut those odds down (still working on that part).

I watched a few vids on the upcoming CoD: Ghosts. I'm seriously conflicted. I'll want a good competitive shooter for the next gen system. When it works the way I like, CoD is a lot of fun. But then they talked about added features for the new game...

1- Momentum climbing and jumping over objects. GREAT! The old way was fairly clunky in an otherwise smooth and tight game for motion.
2- SLIDE! The drop shotter in me giggled like a school girl.
and...

(excuse me, I'm going to hurl)

3- Leaning from cover. Well, <bleep>.

As if head glitching wasn't bad enough, now they're going to add side head glitching? Really, Activision/IW?? You just have to cater to the campers, don't you?

I'll have to see it in action and see how much is visible of the body when you lean out. Maybe it won't be as egregious as head glitching. But knowing their track record, A)it will be, and B)we won't see it in advance. They're loathe to have beta tests or show anything too specific in advance. This might be a deal breaker. And I don't want to buy or order the game until I know one way or the other.

Football season needs to get here stat.

 

I don't get. I've never understood the way a lot of these guys play like there's high money stakes on the line.

Wow. I couldn't have guessed that one. Those dudes have waaay too much free time on their hands.

I can't remember really using the SPAS back in the day. I was a fan of running around with dual 1887s.

I'm out. Seriously, that's a game killer. It was bad enough getting shot from behind walls before. You think camping's bad now? Man...

 

I'll have to ask my nephew about it next time I see him. He's a fairly serious and competitive PC player. Apparently this lean has been available on PC for the CoDs for a long time. It could just be knee jerk on our part. Then again, if you get kicked in the crotch every time a bell rings, by the third bell, you'll be flinching.

 

Oh, I wasn't aware of that. I suppose it wouldn't be so bad, if you were accustomed to it throughout the series.

I'd flinch after only one kick. Though, I may just have a sensitive crotch. Wait...that may not have come out right.