Wargame: Airland Battle trailer details dynamic campaign
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Game Dev Tycoon studio outlines future plans
Baldur's Gate 2 Enhanced already has 350,000 words of new content
Weekend Confirmed Episode 35
by Garnett Lee, Nov 19, 2010 12:20pm PSTThanksgiving might be a week away but the new release feast is in full swing. After a couple of quick follow ups to last week's Black Ops coverage, Garnett, Brian, and Jeff serve up Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, 007: Blood Stone, and Donkey Kong Country Returns as the main dishes in Whatcha' Been Playin? The reactionary commentary of ESPN's 1st and Ten cast in response to Kobe's appearance in the Black Ops ads starts off the Warning. Your thoughts on shooter fatigue, urgency without a ticking clock, and more take the conversation right up to the Front Page. October's NPD sales numbers and Bizarre Creation's uncertain future headline a full slate of news.
Weekend Confirmed Ep. 35 - 11/19/2010
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Listen to Weekend Confirmed Episode 35 (player window will pop-up)
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Download Weekend Confirmed Episode 35
Weekend Confirmed comes in four segments to make it easy to listen to in segments or all at once. Here's the timing for this week's episode:
Whatcha' Been Playin: Start: 00:00:00 End: 00:31:07
Whatcha' Been Playin and Cannata-ford a New Game: Start: 00:32:10 End: 01:03:58
The Warning: Start: 01:05:08 End: 01:37:16
Music Break featuring "Never Get 2 See U Again": 01:37:16 End: 01:40:30
The Front Page: Start: 01:40:30 End: 02:11:14
NFL 'Tailgate': Start: 02:12:15 End: 02:20:42
Music Break this week features "Never Get 2 See U Again" by Beta. Chris Contreras aka Beta is an emcee and aspiring filmmaker hailing from Southern California. The Hip Hop culture and movies have made a huge impact in his life, and to his work. Beta is also an avid gamer. "Never Get 2 See U Again" is a collaboration between Beta and his brother Brandon Menace (who is currently in the military stationed in Japan). He has known and worked with Tak/Ribkat from the acclaimed groups Fort Minor and Styles of Beyond, for many years. For more from Beta, keep up with him on Soundcloud, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
Original music in the show by Del Rio. Get his latest single, Small Town Hero on iTunes. Check out more, including the Super Mega Worm mix and other mash-ups on his ReverbNation page or Facebook page.
Jeff can also be seen on The Totally Rad Show. They've gone daily so there's a new segment to watch every day of the week!
Our Official Facebook Weekend Confirmed Page is coming along now so add us to your Facebook routine. We'll be keeping you up with the latest on the show there as well.
Comments
The community is really split on what Bungie should do with The Arena, the playlists that are designed for competitive players to be ranked against.
The issue is whether or not Armor Abilities belong in a competitive playlist, or if they introduce too much imbalance and randomness into the equation.
Armor Lock, which makes players temporarily invulnerable but immobile, received most of the bile from the 'pros', but Bungie has stripped out Camo, Jetpack, and Armor Lock for next season, leaving just Sprint and Hologram. Combine that taking more than half the weapons out of rotation (most of the Covenant weapons, basically), and you have a very stripped-down but ostensibly more 'sporting' competitive environment.
I am on the other side of the debate, and firmly behind keeping Armor Abilities in The Arena. I don't feel they are particularly imbalanced and believe they add new tactical wrinkles into the battles. Traditional map control strategies can be broken through the use of the Jetpack or Camo, Armor Lock and Sprint can allow players to extend or escape a confrontation, allowing the player in jeopardy to use teamwork or environmental awareness to reengage on better terms.
These basically force the enemy to react and adapt accordingly, be it by adjusting their battle-tactics or selecting new Armor Abilites on respawn. It's a fresh, dynamic element that makes Reach feel new and different from the previous Halo titles. Yes, they will allow players to make-up for mistakes that otherwise would have resulted in a death, but in my opinion that just makes for more dramatic fire-fights, matches, and more of those 'HOLY SHIT!' moments that seperates Halo games from other FPS titles.
Thoughts? How far is too far in the pursuit of 'competition' or 'sport' in the FPS space?
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 5 replies.
Reach plays far more like an RTS dresses up as an FPS. Each weapon has it's own strengths and weaknesses, and therefore fills a particular combat role. Armour Abilities also play into this formula, where you need to choose the ability that best suits your combat role.
This requires a level of flexibility that most halo 3 "competative" players lack. They have trained themselves to be highly skilled at a very small portion of the game. Now that portion of the game isn't overpowered, they need to learn other ways to counter or react to different playstyles. Unfortunately, there are lots of players who refuse to realize that they just aren't as good at Halo as they thought they were... they were only good at a single overpowered element of the game. Now a more defensive player who favours mid-range combat actually has a shot against a long range expert, if they manouver themselves properly. The "competative" community would rather complain than adapt and learn new skills.
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