xhonzi

005: I've seen a lot of disappointed Portal players on the webs over the past two days.  How is your opinion faring?

ACB MP: I started playing ACB multiplayer yesterday.  Pretty interesting.  I already knew what the basic gameplay was, but it was a different experience than I had anticipated.

Basically,  you're dropped in a couple of city blocks that are littered with muliples of the same  6 or 7 character models.  Each player choses a model to play, and as far as I can tell, each model is only played by one player.  When you get into the game, you're assigned another player as a target and it shows you what he/she looks like.  You're also given a compass that indicates direction and distance to your target.  There's an indicator that shows how many people have the same target.  The better that player is, the more people will be targeting him/her.  At the same time, 1 or more players may be targeting you, but you don't know what they look like.

Okay, so now imagine that you're tracking this guy:

  You navigate by compass to get within line of sight.  Now that you're close, you have to play it cool.  If you look like a another player, instead of a dumb AI guy walking around with the same model as you... you're going to tip him off and he's going to either bolt, or turn around and punch your face so that he can escape.  Being used to Halo, I'm pretty terrible at that part.  But let's pretend that you're sneaky and you start closing the distance.  You get down to 10 feet away.  Then 7, then 5.  2 more feet and you'll be withing range!  And then... you're stabbed from behind by the guy that was chasing you.  Wah, wah, wah.....

You respawn and see that you're far-far away from your next target.  You also notice that 3 players are targeting you!  You see one of them come running around a corner and heading right for you, so you decide you'll punch him before he can kill you (targets win ties).  But then!  You see a 2nd pursuer!  You might take out the first one, but the second one would kill you before you could react.  You have no choice but to run!  You take off in the opposite direction, scanning for single-use gates- gates that shut on your pursuer as you run through them.  Finding one, you lose your two pursuers for a moment, but they'll catch up with you soon unless you do something!  So you look for mindless AI that are your same model and you do your best to do what they do.  Stand still, slowly walk around aimlessly, talk to shopkeepers.  Maybe you've unlocked the "disguise" ability.  You find an AI that looks just like you.  Stand next to it, and then enable disguise.  This makes you change to a random model for about 30 seconds.  Your pursues track you to where you're standing.  And they go for the kill!  The poor helpless AI that had the bad fortune of looking just like you goes down for the count.  And the contract on you is therefore cancelled.  You have successfully evaded assassination.  As this was happening, the third player that was targeting you has arrived on the scene.  You notice that this third player is also your assigned target.  Now the tables are turned!  You waltz in behind him, and slit his throat.

You are a master assassin!

Or something like that.

xhonzi said:

Erm... this may be bad timing for this, due to C3PX's experiences, but Target has ACB for $28 or so.

And so does Amazon.

Erm... this may be bad timing for this, due to C3PX's experiences, but Target has ACB for $28 or so.

If you're unskilled.

Well... I say start watching the TV movie and you can come here and discuss it whenever. 

Perhaps an *******Up to Episode X SPOILERS********** at the top of your e-mail would be warranted.

I need to watch it again.  Maybe I'll do that tonight!

(And none of you are really invited to my office for lunch.  Just in case that wasn't clear.)  :)

CP3S said:

I added some zeros at the beginning and end to disguise it a bit.

Like Greenpenguino and Red five?!?!? [/scorned]

How awesome would it be if that was my real serial number?

 Someone out there has to have it, right?  I think your new hobby should be tracking down and collecting EVERYTHING with that serial number.

I still can't believe Assassin's Creed II did that to me... I spent way more time playing that game over the last few days than I'd really care to admit, and now it is all gone. I even took the time to painstakingly collect every collectable I could as I went along. I had ever feather except for the ones in Venice, all the statues, and all but two seals... renovated every building, built one of each kind of shop as was working toward upgrading them... healthy amount of art purchases... *sob*

That is truly tragic.  It makes me think it can't be the physical disk... that it must either be some bug you walked into the way you (and others) played the game (not that it's your fault- just that it's a software bug that doesn't affect everybody) or some hardware specific thing.  It really is bizarre. 

Did you get to the Glyphs yet?  That was one of my favourite parts of ACII.  I think you would like them.  Surely if you've been collecting everything else, you were collecting/solving glyphs?

I think I was always here and the website sort of just grew around me.

CP3S said:

Did you recognize those numbers?

RedFive said:

I wouldn't play those numbers if I were you xhonzi, unless you want to get hit by a meteor.

Oh, sure.  You and your new boy-toy are laughing at me.  Just kick me while I'm down.  *sob*

(to be frink, I didn't look that closely at the S/N since I assumed you sent me your real S/N, which I wouldn't expect to contain any overt pop-cultural references)

When in Rome is one of your fave movies?

Ew...

Ziggy Stardust said:

Xhonzi said:

"Irregardless, you need to see Inception and I will stob ignoring you."

Wait, how did I get roped into this?

RE: Inception.

Is Cobb solving Fischer's problem by working for Saito?

Or is everyone solving Cobb's problems working for ???

I don't either, but if those numbers show up...

Well, I'm not sure what we'll do, but it will be awesome.

TV's Frink said:

xhonzi said:

Uh-oh!  Is either of you with C3PX right now?  Because he goes through men like tissue paper, but just wait until he gets dumped.  All heck breaks loose and his inner hippie takes over!

Is there a max number on splitscreening?

Traditionally, yes.

RedFive said:

Greeny, 2010 but no 2001?  For shame...
And do you love Batman Begins so much you put it there twice?

xhonzi said:

Uh-oh!  Is either of you with C3PX right now?  Because he goes through men like tissue paper, but just wait until he gets dumped.  All heck breaks loose and his inner hippie takes over!

That's me, remember? ;)

Still?  But, that was several days ago...

Again: Wow.  It's like your Xbox is possessed.

See if it has the winning lottery numbers.

Uh-oh!  Is either of you with C3PX right now?  Because he goes through men like tissue paper, but just wait until he gets dumped.  All heck breaks loose and his inner hippie takes over!

Erm... Inception?

I assume that most of the rest of you more-popular-than-I types already deal with this... but today I've run into the 500 PM limit.  I don't want to go back and delete my old ones!  They're some of my most treasured memories!

Sluggo said:

Bkev goes to college.  That boy was our last hope!

005 said:

No!  There is another

Gaffer Tape said:

Well, Lucas is a colossal hypocrite when it comes to these things.  Adding color to black and white films is bad because it's changing film history, but he can screw around and update his films.  The ability to go back and tamper with films should rest in the hands of the filmmaker, not the studio.  Yet it's okay when Irvin Kershner is the filmmaker, and he's the studio.

 MOAR SQUEAKY CHAIR!

It's a trap!

CP3S said:

Mm, so after playing several hours of ACII, I am realize that it is really about story and making you go through the motions more than anything else. There isn't really any challenge involved whatsoever (except for those damn frustrating tombs)*, it kind of just tells you do to such and such a task, you go do it, and it gives you another task.

When you get down to it, all games are about "pushing the same buttons over and over again."  Hopefully, there's context surrounding those button presses that make them seem more than they are... but sometimes the illusion fails and you realize exactly what you're doing is just pusing them over and over again.  It's a little like when lip-synch fails and you realize that the sound isn't coming out of a character's mouth, but rather from a speaker near your display device of choice.  Or, say, when you play a game and the voice-overs just stop.  ;)

Whenever I hear a complaint that a game is "repetitive", I realize it's really a complaint that the game isn't masking the repetitiveness.  All games are repetitive.  It's whether it feels repetivite- whether it is able to distract you from that that matters. 

I think your observations on "challenge" and "it just tells you what to do and then you do it" to be on a similar level.  Isn't that true of almost all of the games we play?

It may interest you to know that in ACB they give you the tasks, but they also give you a higher goal.  The task might be- go assassinate this guy, but the higher goal is- and do it without taking any damage.  Or the task might be "finish this race in 90 seconds" but the higher goal will be "finish it in 45 seconds".  If you complete the task, but miss the higher objective- you get 50% synch on the memory.  You can go back and play them again later to get the higher rank, if you'd like.  Sometimes it involves completely rethinking your strategy... other times it's just doing it a little faster or a little more carefully.

Ah, but obviously I am forgetting one very important key element here: its a game. And a fun one too.

Amen.

greenpenguino said:

OMG!!!!!!! ******* IS RIC OLIE!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IT'S ALL A LIE!!!!!!!! THERE IS NO RIC OLIE!

 Spoiler tags?

TV's Frink said:

When I heard USD I immediately thought of this.

 Funny... I thought of this: $$$$$$$$$.

RedFive said:

CP3S said:

I don't know? Do you want to be unignored? You should realize you have the privilege of being the first and only person I have ever ignored in all my years here. That is quite an honorary position! Do you still live in Toledo? I only live a few hours away from there myself.

I now feel like smoking and reading some Vonnegut...

The first!? *facepalm*   Yeah I'm still in Toledo, a few hours away where?  That's crazy. 

I myself am about to do something very similar.

xhonzi said:

Great.  And now CP3S has a new boyfriend.

 

It's just great.

see title

Homewrecker!