[sek929]

I don't have a problem with melee, except what Dakar already mentioned.

I'd rather see them fix the f'ing lag on RTB.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Originally Posted by sek929 

Update X2:

It seems I'll be working in Boston tomorrow, and maybe thursday...ugh...this move is going slower than molasses.

Safest bet would be playing on Saturday and or Sunday...I'm going through withdrawals here!

You're killing me. That bastard ::maroma:: will have his star soon, and I can't really play much without risking going gold.

I find you highly inconvenient, stepladder!
doubly so if I get a snow day tomorrow

[::maroma::]

I'm looking forward to that melee fix. Even if they fix the latency issue, where I actually see my character hit the guy well before I do, yet I go flying to my death. That always gets my teeth griding.

And don't worry Dakar, I will be out of town for about a week starting tomorrow night. Which means no Halo for maroma. I won't be getting my star until I get back. That is unless I can muster up 15xp tonight, which aint gonna happen.

Why is it I would rather stay home and play Halo than take a trip to New York? Its a work trip mind you, but its still a trip to NY. I should be excited, since I've never been there before. Oh well, I'm sure my Halo jones will subside after a day there.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Pic(s) of the Day

[::maroma::]

Originally Posted by Dakar the Fourth 

Pic(s) of the Day

Nice! Is he up there as a product of a beat down or what?

[Dakar the Fourth]

No, he's waiting for me. But lucky for me, I can see. I imagine it'd be harder had he been blue, though.

[::maroma::]

Damn thats sneaky. And he must have a buff right calf muscle to be balancing like that for an extended period of time.

That 1st pic looks like you used The Force to put him up there or something.

[Dakar the Fourth]

It only works on the corners.

Oh sek, it looks like slappers only! isn't possible. I lied.

[sek929]

So I get back from Boston early.....perfect time to move, right?

Biggest rainstorm in a year, +40mph winds.

My Halo craving is getting worse.

[Dakar the Fourth]

I'm up 575 exp, so with the exception of customs, I'm waiting on your ass, Darlin'.

[sek929]

You could always Forge up a few maps in the downtime, chop chop!

[Dakar the Fourth]

Actually, I'm going to use it as a chance to do that write-up I've been putting off.

[sek929]

Chop chop!

[Dakar the Fourth]

Guess what I didn't do last night.

Pic(s)of the Day: Laser Edition

Here I am doing some artful dodging of Missile Pods and Lasers


Very rarely do you get to see two laser fired off at once. In the end, the cover saving the one guys life, which is awesome.

[Dakar the Fourth]

The St. Valentine's Day Massacre Playlist is now up.

For those of you who have no idea what is going on:

The playlist will be a variation of the existing Team Doubles hopper, trimmed down to just Team Slayer (and variants of) and will blast off on Thursday morning at 10 a.m. Pacific time and evaporating at 2 a.m. on Monday (Feb. 18) morning.

...

There will be prizes that we’ll be awarding for a variety of things from this hopper. We’ll have a pretty detailed set of information and statistics at our disposal to use to figure out what prizes should go to whom (things like most vehicle jacks – while we won’t use THAT statistic, that’s just an example of the sorts of things we may look at) and we’ll be watching the hopper for cases of cheating, chicanery and general in-game jerkdom. So now would be an excellent time to NOT cheat.

[sek929]

Dammit!

The Halloween Playlist was mega-fun, too bad I'll have to miss this one.

[Dakar the Fourth]

It's Team Doubles, so I'm not sure how much I'd enjoy it.

[sek929]

But I might be able to win Recon!!1!

[sek929]

My picture for the day:

[Dakar the Fourth]

Yeah, I'm wondering what the prizes might be. I think they very well might be physical real world objects.

[sek929]

Who knows, "most wheelman awards" might be the ticket.

[Dakar the Fourth]

In Team Doubles?

"Let's grab the Mongoose and ride!"

I hope they give it to the people with the best average over the no-lifers that just try to win by spamming the system.

And I guarantee most needler kills gets something. Pink MIst? Valentine's Day? Oh yeah.

[sek929]

Originally Posted by Dakar the Fourth 

"Let's grab the Mongoose and ride!"

It could happen if the passenger gets RL. Not bloody likely though.

Originally Posted by Dakar the Fourth 

And I guarantee most needler kills gets something. Pink MIst? Valentine's Day? Oh yeah.

Sounds perfect to me...dammit, I've got the H3 shakes right now.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Originally Posted by stepladder 

Sounds perfect to me...dammit, I've got the H3 shakes right now.

Yeah, I've been holding out for obvious reasons. I feel it too. I'm kinda glad the playlist doesn't excite me more or I'd be bursting right now.

[Stogieman]

I played a little TS tonight and man did it suck. Half the time someone on my team didn't finish or ended up with a total of 5 kills and a -8 k/d ratio. The few times I was placed on a good team, no one ever wanted to team up after the win. I'll never get past 13 with this luck. During this one match I had a guy on my team quit 2 minutes in. To make matters worst, another guy didn't get a single kill during the whole match. THE WHOLE MATCH! How the hell do you play for 15 minutes without getting one kill. It was basically 4 on 2. I was able to get 17 kills but it wasn't enough.

I did play some RTB and the results were much better. Of course having 2 Colonels, 2 Brigadiers and a 3 star General helped a lot. We played CTF - 1 Flag on Last Resort and these guys showed me a cool trick to help protect the flag... cover it up with that big green box. You can use grenades to flip the box over.



You can even nudge it over by Melee. The box will stay there until the other team can destroy it with a warthog or a ton of grenades

[sek929]

Genius!

Great trick!

[Dakar the Fourth]

Originally Posted by Stogieman 

I did play some RTB and the results were much better. Of course having 2 Colonels, 2 Brigadiers and a 3 star General helped a lot. We played CTF - 1 Flag on Last Resort and these guys showed me a cool trick to help protect the flag... cover it up with that big green box. You can use grenades to flip the box over.



You can even nudge it over by Melee. The box will stay there until the other team can destroy it with a warthog or a ton of grenades

Originally Posted by sek929 

Genius!

Great trick!

I've been hearing about this recently. Apparently/supposedly they removed the Brute Shots from the CTF RTB variants (and replaced them with Plasma Pistols) just to prevent this. I see that hasn't solved the problem though.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Game 1

The Cast

Gold Team
DakarZero - Our Hero
Andallray - Robin to my Batman, only with less sexual tension

Blue Team
TheKurrigan - got Tonya Harding'ed
Crosbie360 - Sucked pudding pops

Green Team
FattyMcBlobicus - Into Heavy Metal
Charlie Blue - why so sad?


Multi-Team Slayer on the Pit
Tone of the Game: Boomerang Kills


The setup: After a few Rocket Races and a lukewarm Flag Rally, it was time to take our already sorted Doubles Teams back to the more traditional realm of Slayer. I was going to opt for 3 on 3 -- I'm not a big fan of doubles -- but everyone was happy with their partner (big surprise, chuckit), and multi-team does add an interesting aspect to the game.

The beginning: It took roughly 10 seconds for sek and I to meet. It would have been even earlier, but I'm not a big fan of rushing the Rockets -- at least not without my trusty 12-guage. ::maroma:: decided to follow me lead, (and be the bait, apparently, as sek launched his first rocket at my partner) and we met a decidedly solitary sek. We managed to each avoid a rocket, and ::maroma:: began ARing the soon-to-be Brigadier as I pelted him with distant shotgun blasts. sek quickly fell, I selfishly grabbed the remaining rockets, and hit a surprisingly stocked invisibility hallway, at which point I instructed/asked ::maroma:: to part ways so I could maintain some stealth.

Meanwhile, Blue Team quickly made its way to the Sword Room. After waitong for a while, the lonely Blue Team ventured out all the way to the east corner, where sek demonstrated for Kurrigan Shotgun > Sword, and then eliminated a nearby stogieman moments later for the Extermination Lite®.

First to 10: Gold Team, followed by Green Team at 7, and Blue Team trailing with 4 kills.

By the third round of spawning, it started to become obvious that the Pit's major short-coming was that players who got killed kept spawning close enough to "Return to Sender" and try and take revenge almost immediately. Example: If someone eliminated a player on a snipe tower, that player would spawn at that sides shotgun spawn (roughly) where they were a sprint away from challenging their murderer. This accelerated as the game progressed.

In this case, however, it played as an advantage for sek -- after waxing ::maroma:: and myself, we spawned near/at the shotty corner, where I quickly grabbed one. Psychic, sek headed for our area. I met him just outside the corner where I put a blast into his gut and then laggily died a moment later as his delayed blast came through. ::maroma::, nearby but out of sight, decided to join me on the ground for a nap, out of team spirit or something. These deaths would fuel sek's Killing Spree, and Green's grab of the lead.

First to 20: Green Team, Gold Team nearby at 16, with Blue Team fighting ADD at 8 kills.

To be honest Blue Team was at a bit of a disadvantage here. I consider chuckit and stogie to be roughly of the same caliber, but Kurrigan is no Fatty -- he's closer to my (and ::maroma::'s) level. Secondly, they kept going to the Sword (partly because it was available), however with the rate at which Green and Gold teams kept encountering each other, camping the Control Center was a losing strategy. And since Kurrigan and stogie didn't know each other and Kurrigan isn't that great of a TS guy, they tended to go their own separate ways, with disastrous results.

This round, however led to one of the more atypical moments of the game: a bizarre three-way in which ::maroma:: invaded the control center from the west ramp (Kurrigan defending), while chuckit attempted to turret stogie's Control Center position from the east tower, whilst I tried to BR chuckit from cover near the center ramp to the Control Center, all the while dodging an alert sek's sniping from Tower East.

I have no recollection how this sorted out, but it was pretty cool.

First to 30: Green Team, Gold Team within reach at 27, and Blue Team spinning their wheels at 17.

Here's where the game started to pick up steam. Blue abandoned their Control Center excursions, and began to Boomerang their deaths (return to their killers fresh off spawn), like the rest of us. Coincidentally, this is where I picked up a Killing Spree, initiated by a Green Team Extermination (grenades FTW) where I picked up a Sword and began to wreak extreme havoc (including back-to-back Exterminations of Green then Blue Team) until ultimately falling to Green again.

The gains, however were significant, as we closed major ground on Green Team, and took a brief lead at 39-37.

First to 40: Green Team, Gold Team 39, Blue Team dirt-napping at 24.

The final 10 kills was a race that saw several quick lead changes. By now, most of the action had migrated to the Rocket Spawn area, and grenades and bullets were flying in a dog-eat-dog-eat-dog environment. Fatty would kill Me, be weakened and die to stogieman, who all the while was taking bullets in the back from ::maroma::. In the end, a 47-47 lockup would get decided, appropriately, with a sek shotgun massacre taking place while Gold Team was busy respawning.

Final score: Green Team 50, Gold Team 48, Blue Team 28.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Pics of the Game

Fatty vs Kurrigan

Shotty > Sword

New Heights

A Rocket blast from Fatty sends ::maroma:: sky high. Meanwhile, stogie dodges the explosion and a Rocket of his own.

Headshot

Definition: Hit made while standing on persons head.

Clash

chuckit and I duel over stogie's still fresh corpse.

Misty eyed

chuckit rains bullets on Blue Team, while ::maroma:: unloads the needler from another angle. The turret shielding saves chuckits life, as well as a snipe from sek.

chuckit snipe

A well placed grenade leaves chuckit in a favorable position to eliminate an oblivious yours truly.

sandwich

Well-armed but slow-moving stogie gets a double-dose of Green.

Fail

My attempt to drop chuckit gets interrupted by a bullet whizzing uncomfortably close to me head.

Payback

Revenge of the stogieman

Subtlety

Kurrigan unwisely decides to go Plasma while under cloak.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Notable Stats of the Game

1. Only two players finished in the positive. Those same two players (sek & Dakar) are the only people to get Killing Sprees and Frenzies. chuckit was the next closest player at -6.

2. The only Sword Spree belonged not to Blue Team, but to Gold Team's Dakar.

3. sek had the only Triple Kill in the game.



4. sek and Dakar each had more kills than Blue Team in totality.

5. chuckit had as many assists as Gold Team in totality.

6. Dakar has the least assists and deaths.



7. After 10, the best spree was 3.

8. Gold Team members were killed the most by sek, however both Green and Blue Team members were killed most by Dakar.

9. ::maroma:: was most killed for 3 of his 4 opponents. The fourth person, chuckit, never killed him once.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Hope that was worth the wait, fackas.

[sek929]

Originally Posted by Dakar the Fourth 

Subtlety

Kurrigan unwisely decides to go Plasma while under cloak.

Lolz, good write-up Dakar!

BTW, I played like 6 hours of Red Faction last night seeing all that is left in this hovel is a PS2.

[Peter]

I gotta get involved in this

[Dakar the Fourth]

Originally Posted by sek929 

Lolz, good write-up Dakar!

Thank you, thank you. It took the first half of my morning to write. Yay for Fridays.

Originally Posted by sek929 

BTW, I played like 6 hours of Red Faction last night seeing all that is left in this hovel is a PS2.

I happened to play some on New Years. We stopped after one game. It's amazing how bad PS2 looks on an HDTV.

I have to say, I love this shot. You never get to see this thanks to pace of the game. Your shot must have barely missed my ass. I love how it goes right through the center of my reticule, too.

Originally Posted by Peter 

I gotta get involved in this

Welcome, Peter! We'll just need you to include a picture of you tea-bagging sek included with you member application and you're good to go. (I'll settle for your gamertag and GMT availability, though, if you don't mind)

Gonna be honest though, it's gonna be rough for you to meet up with us, being on the other side of the pond and all.

-----

Speaking of which I believe I owe an answer for this, which was posed during my weekend sabbatical

Originally Posted by ::maroma:: 

decog asked me when we're going to all play again. I told him "when you get good", but he wasn't cool with that answer.

Wanna try to set another date?

Yeah, I think we're good to try for another Thursday meeting, same as before (particularly because Saturday was such a shakey turn-out).

For now, we'll set it for Thursday the 21st (assuming you're back from NYC by then). 9pm -12 pm EST, roughly.
As always, if possible attendees could weigh in one way or the other, it is greatly appreciated.

I'll see if I can cobble together another list of possible game-types.

Edit: I forgot to include these
Greatest Win Ever?
Checkout the Kill-to-Assist Ratio

[Andy8]

I have to work on my skill levels, they are half of all you guys

[sek929]

Update:

I'm all moved in, the 360 is set up and all I need now is a router so all three devices in this house can enjoy internet.

I expect to be playing lots of H3 tonight into tomorrow morning so all are welcome to join me.

[Peter]

Originally Posted by Dakar the Fourth 

Welcome, Peter! We'll just need you to include a picture of you tea-bagging sek included with you member application and you're good to go. (I'll settle for your gamertag and GMT availability, though, if you don't mind)

Gonna be honest though, it's gonna be rough for you to meet up with us, being on the other side of the pond and all.

Rough in a timezones, a latency or a "i'm new" way?

[sek929]

I'd imagine the timezone difference would be your biggest obstacle.

[klb5090]

hey guys,
ive yet to catch a macnn game but i'll be on tonight starting around 10-11pm EST to 2 or 3am if any one wants to get a game going

gamertage: Kevin Bogues

[Dakar the Fourth]

Originally Posted by sek929 

Update:

I'm all moved in, the 360 is set up and all I need now is a router so all three devices in this house can enjoy internet.

I expect to be playing lots of H3 tonight into tomorrow morning so all are welcome to join me.

Yay! Perhaps we can do some play tomorrow?

Originally Posted by Peter 

Rough in a timezones, a latency or a "i'm new" way?

Timezones. I could give a crap if you're new. Our next meeting is set-up for 3-6am GMT on a weeknight, roughly.

[sek929]

I'll be going out to eat with the g/f around 6:30-7 so I'm game anytime before then.

Tomorrow, that is.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Does anyone here have Monday off for President's Day?

We could have an informal meet-up for that.

[sek929]

I'm not sure about my work situation, I don't think I'll be working.

If not I'm totally down.

[Stogieman]

Monday sounds cool. You can add me to Thursday's roster as well.

[Chuckit]

I'm in for Thursday. I might be free on Monday, but I'm doubtful of that.

[sek929]

After a 6 day hiatus I was noticeably rusty getting back into the swing of things today. Not to mention that my TV is at a way different height now, but no matter, I still had some fun and got lots of good shots...lots being the key word here.

First notable game was good old RTB Slayer. We started out a little soft and ended up almost getting a Steaktacular. I had 8 BR kills with 9 headshots total. Except one of those headshots was a well-placed snipe so all 8 kills with the BR were headshots. My killing peaked in the seawall hallway when I was able to kill 4 people in a row with my trusty BR.


You can see three bodies (one is still standing, not for long) and a pile of weapons that was my first victim.


Aforementioned sniper shot

Next game was 1 Flag CTF on Sandtrap and it was laser-mania right off the bat. The next image sequence goes: Me blasting Warthog, Me blasting Chopper, Me getting blasted by dude on sand dune. All within a minute of each other.





Randomness from the same game included some lucky skunk getting to see me stick myself in the face with a nade via bubble shield.



After that I lost, so no use bragging about it here. I will, however, leave you with two sweet images also taken today.


An invisible Elite taking damage accidentally seen while taking the headshot pic.


Hilarious image of a fairly ghetto-esque Fatty driving with one hand and starin' you down.

[::maroma::]

Nice recap Dakar! Brings back painful memories of being spanked (via most killed, and a negative kill/death ratio). Lucky for me I was on your team though, so I at least get a little bragging rights for being on the team that came in a close 2nd.

I hope that I am a little better these days since I've been using some of your guys' tips. My goal is to get in the positives next time around.

I will be back from NY on Tuesday, so a Thursday game will be perfect for me. I can't wait to get back and start playing again. NY is fun and all, but I can only take so much of it and I can't really get enough of Halo.

[sek929]

Well, it's Monday and I don't have to work, but Dakar is nowhere to be found...

No matter, I'll just brag a little more, heh.

I continued my streak of wins in my favorite scenario, RBT One-Bomb on Valhalla. I'm not about to go back and check for sure but I don't think I've ever lost this scenario.

Slice n' Arm

The bomb guy kept himself hidden while he waited to pounce, but our base was guarded by yours truly and another sword-carrier. This bomb was quickly disarmed.

Hitchin' a Ride

Our second attempt at offense started with me grabbing this guys ghost (killing him in the process)

Two for One Deal

Then I ransacked their base and finished off with a suicide run in the bowels of enemy territory. We armed the bomb, and it was disarmed with only 2 second left on the counter.

...and my teammate wanted to veto, sigh, I had to tell him that One Bomb is my speciality.

[Dakar the Fourth]

I just woke up, ass.

[sek929]

Hooray!

I saw you were on late last night, but I pussed out and went to bed.