I was going to write this edition about my recent experience in the OMM clan tournament but it is in the best interest of the readers of this blog (all 8 of you) that I decline as I tend to live up to my name when discussing it. It is not disguising a bad performance by any stretch of the imagination; in fact, my performance was probably an eye-opener to the other team, who apparently can sleep at night knowing they lucked out with the tiebreaker. However, that is all I will say about that and I have probably already said too much.  

 

Instead, I would like to wax poetic about a topic that trumps Halo 2 in terms of enjoyment factor. I am a roller coaster enthusiast. My screen name comes not from the De Niro movie but from an awesome B&M coaster at Six Flags Great America just north of Chicago. B&M make some of the best coasters on the planet and I am blessed to be within a day’s drive of a good ton of them. You may not know the name but you would recognize the design as all B&M coasters have 4 across seating. They have pioneered some unique ridetypes, including the inverted coaster, the floorless coaster, and the flying coaster. Most of my top ten steel coasters (when I bother to try and rank them as I hate ranking coasters) are B&M creations. Only a ride such as Millennium Force is able to make me think about something other than B&M. I have converted my wife to the cult of B&M and it is always a pleasure to hear her call out when she can first hear the B&M roar when we arrive at a park. All in all, I could be a level 50 Halo 2 player and the opportunity to go ride a B&M roller coaster and coasters in general would yank me away from even a tournament.   

 

Back to Halo 2, have you ever noticed that you seem to do better with some people on your side than others? I mean, sure, the player in question could be a lot better than a lot of the opponents but if the player was equal to others, do you notice that you seem to function better? I have made little sticky notes in the back of my brain about how well I seem to do when I am on the same team as Q007 and DanLeCrinque. They are both better than me in terms of skill but I just seem to elevate my game when I am on the same team as them. I was surprised recently in a multi-team game to see that not only had I outscored Q (by 1) in a multi-team game but that our combined kills were higher than the second place team. Of course, our partner chipped in 5 kills to get us the 50 for victory but it was basically a 2 man army. On the flip side, the opponents can also have a lot to do with how you perform but it just seems to be a trend that some people work better together as a team because of varying skill sets.

 

Custom game of the Week: Iwo Jima. This is my name for a 2-flag CTF style game with SWAT rules. The starting weapons BR’s and Magnums with no vehicles or weapons on the map. The flag does not have to be at home to score and 30 seconds is the respawn time. I’ve never actually had a chance to try this so I cannot make comments on how it plays or which maps work best (try Zanzibar, Turf, or Headlong). Perhaps you, the loyal reader, could give it a try and offer your own suggestions and feedback?

The issue that arose was a complaint about starting parameters in a custom game. I’ll refrain from using names but the complaint was about starting Burial Mounds in a slayer game with SMG’s. The starting weapon was changed to Battle Rifles and the game was played out. At the end of the game, a few people dropped out quickly and someone in the party spoke out about those who had complained in the first place; basically, this person (Mr. X) was saying that they should go start their own party and let the party leader handle things the way they want to. As I left the party after that game (my effectiveness as a Halo player was gone for the night), I thought about Mr. X’s comments, irregardless of whether or not he was being serious, and approached them from my standpoint. On one hand, I agree that the party leader should have the freedom of what he wants to do. The person has his reasons for being the party leader whether it is random luck or someone decided that they would be a good party leader. On the other hand though, I have to believe that being a good party leader also involves listening to the members of the party. It is a lot easier to tell someone to hit the road and make their own party than to try and include them in the game choice process. It is not always easy to leave one party and join up with another one of comparable size (especially now with GRAW sucking people away). We all have different personalities and we like different kinds of games. I know I have been frustrated before by certain party leader’s selections of games and have bit my tongue. The flipside of that is the fact that I rarely get thought of as a next selection for party leader, likely because of my quirky set of games (Room of Doom anyone?). It is a delicate balance to keep the party happy but also ensure that you get to reap the rewards of being the party leader.

A post and poll by LBSUTKE has me wondering how people perceive my skills as a Halo player. I know I am not to be feared by the likes of some of the hardcore players on the sight but I would like to think that teammates of mine during games are glad that I am on the squad. I have my days of looking awesome and being “in the zone” in regards to my Halo play. In fact, back to back team leads in Weakest Link games on 3/5/06 are something I got excited about. I do have my off days though as well as the fact that there are certain game types and certain opponents that have my number. Let us just say that I tend to want to avoid PapaHamster in any type of punchout game on Lockout or Ivory Tower and any SMG game on Ivory Tower. I also have to point out that I find it in my best interests to have Lonewolf1973 on my team as he seems to pull out the Voorhees Unreality Engine on me time and time again. You can usually tell when things are not going good for the Bull as I tend to get very sulky. I have tried to get better at communications as well because yelling out, “Here they come” or “He was over there”, does not inspire folks to think of your tactical brilliance. I just wonder what kind of yearbook award I would win if the OMM did such a thing.

My custom game type highlight of the week is a Juggernaut match that had an interesting first game, which derived some tweaks in the settings. The name of the game is Steven Seagal, in order to represent the seemingly indestructible nature of Seagal in most of his movies. The Juggernaut has Overshield, runs fast, has damage resistance, inflicts more damage, and basically has all the extra powers except active camo. The players have no shields and the weapons on the map are default. The first time I ran this, the Juggernaut had active camo and the players had no motion sensor, which made it next to impossible to kill the Juggernaut since we played on Turf. I changed those two options since that kind of blowout would get old real fast. This gametype is best played on a map without rockets as that is the one weapon that can take the Seagal effect away in a hurry. You could alternatively give this game names such as Chuck Norris, etc. I’m not a big fan of Juggernaut games but if you set it up right, you can have some quick time killing games of this while you are waiting for a party to get bigger or full.