2cool4u: 343i's UNSC and the Death of (Good) Lore

Ok, I'll admit it. I love Halo. Bungie's Halo: Combat Evolved was the first FPS I really ever sank my teeth into (yes, I know, "babby's first FPS," etc.; blame my parents and their rules on video game violence). To this day, I still claim that my life simple would not have been the same without Halo. The friends I've made, the rivals I've gained, and the experiences I had in my teenage years often could be traced back to me sitting slack-jawed in awe during the summer of 2002 as I fought my way through the game's titular ring world.

While the gameplay was nothing short of superb - Goldeneye 64 had created a working formula for console FPS games that Halo: CE perfected - my favorite part of the series was its thoroughly well-defined lore, especially in the novels such as Eric Nylund's superb Halo: The Fall of Reach (said novel was passed around so often in my circle of middle school friends that the binding was nearly destroyed). The Covenant seemed vast and truly alien, the Forerunners were shrouded in mystery, the Flood seemed unbeatable and terrifying, and the UNSC, the military arm of humanity, was written as a capable and strategically sound fighting force that was only being pushed back through attrition and due to a technological gap with the Covenant that was bordering on the extreme. Of the major players in the universe, the UNSC was always my favorite.

Oddly enough, it was never the SPARTANs that made me like the UNSC. Rather, it was their portrayal as a whole - the UNSC was structured like a modern military (Marines, Army, Navy), had plausible future technology at its disposal (helloooooo railguns!), and perhaps best of all, was imperfect but still highly competent. Internal conflicts would often pit parts of the UNSC against one another such as Dr. Catherine Halsey and Col. James Ackerson, and the UNSC would often find itself fighting human insurrectionists on their own colonies over political differences. Nonetheless, humanity was shown to be a tenacious and capable opponent. To me, this alone was worth nothing in comparison to what little sci-fi games I had played at the time, where humanity was often seen as hopelessly outclassed by alien invaders. Halo's UNSC represented a plausible, logical evolution for humanity's military in an age of space exploration. It was by no means perfect, but still effective and highly professional.

Look at these badasses. State of the badass art.

And now, in the age of Halo 4, 343 Industries has seen fit to throw that all out the window.

Overdrive: Why Games Need More Run and Gun

In a world of cookie-cutter shooters, "ordinary" has once again become the extraordinary.

(Sorry for the long absence, real life has (sadly) caught up to me recently. Moving sucks. - VR)

This past week saw the long-awaited, totally free, and shockingly well-polished Black Mesa. A mod a full eight years in the making - and technically still not finished - has recreated Half-Life from the ground up using the engine that powered its sequel. Needless to say, the bar was set quite high. Half-Life has long been considered a cornerstone of modern video games, and with good reason. When it released in 1998, Half-Life was considered revolutionary, and many of its design tenets, such as the use of scripted sequences to both advance the plot and create dynamic scenes during gameplay, are still used widely in modern shooters.

Black Mesa, amazingly enough, manages to not only maintain the spirit of Half-Life almost fourteen years after the game's debut, but also improve upon it in several ways. By refining level progression, puzzle solving, and scripted events, the Black Mesa team was able to polish the few rough segments that were present in the original game. It is very much a 90's shooter in the clothes of the modern era. This isn't to say that Black Mesa is without flaws, but it did an utterly fantastic job at hiding them, considering the project was done entirely by volunteers. Black Mesa's greatest achievement, however, may be the complete shift that the game will represent to players new to 90's-style shooters.

A Tale of Two Spin-Offs: Ace Combat Cross Rumble and Ace Combat Assault Horizon

As someone whose childhood was defined by repeated viewings of Top Gun, it should be no surprise that I love the Ace Combat series. For the uninitiated, Ace Combat is basically an arcade-style flight action game, mixing an accessible flight model with plenty of missiles, melodrama, and music that results in a truly unique and enjoyable experience. However, after the release of Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation, Namco saw fit to try and liven up the series by changing a number of the franchise's established concepts. After numerous sequels and spin-offs, evolving the series' formula was to be expected - one of the few criticisms that was leveled at Fires of Liberation from nearly all reviewers was that the game brought very little new to the table compared to the last 7+ games in the series, especially since most dogfights effectively boiled down to "do high-G turns until you can shoot a QAAM at the other guy."

Ace Combat Assault Horizon was to be the rebirth of the series, introducing a number of new features and concepts to the formula. Sadly, Assault Horizon may ultimately have done more harm than good to the series. But, before one can discuss what AH did wrong, it's important to understand what previous Ace Combat games did right that gained Project Aces both immense respect and the undying adoration of a legion of fans (myself included).

Balance, Tactics, and the Problem with Pistols

Average semiautomatic pistol, according to DICE

Author's Note: This article will include discussion of both real-world and virtual weapons deployment. If you are unfamiliar with one or the other, I strongly suggest doing some research on your own so that you can have a better understanding of my claims.

I play Battlefield 3. A lot. Like, an awful lot. As in "I give myself insomnia playing this" levels of "a lot." While the game is certainly fun for the most part, there's a certain element that has bothered me since launch, and, curiously, it doesn't seem to bother anyone else. In fact, it doesn't seem to bother anyone in Battlefield 3, it didn't seem to bother anyone in Modern Warfare 2, and it didn't even bother them in Rainbow Six: Vegas. Maybe it's simply because it's such a small part of the actual gameplay, but I feel like I'm the only one who's bothered by this. Whether or not anyone else notices, it's a problem that has gone on for far too long and needs to be addressed. 

The problem? Automatic pistols.

I TROL U: "Trolling," "Entitlement," and the Industry

Recently, there's been a rather interesting trend that I've noticed in the way game developers and publishers treat their customers. Perhaps not so coincidentally, it coincided with the popularization of internet trolling. Now, I'm not going to pretend that trolls haven't always existed, but in the past year or so it has gotten to be a bit excessive, especially with memes and general *chan culture finding its way into the mainstream via sites like Reddit and Facebook. Trolling has changed as well - it used to simply be things like griefing (think "that one guy who stands still in the hallway as your team tries to push through so you all die a horrible death when an enemy eventually notices").

These days, the most common method of trolling appears to be consistent repetition of intentional logical fallacies or insults with no real basis. It's exceptionally stupid (and in my opinion, not even nearly as entertaining), but it's very widespread these days, especially on any site involving video games. In a way, it should be expected - internet culture has been tied to video game culture for a long time - but it has resulted in some unexpected consequences. For every obvious trolling attempt where someone says "this game sucks, needs more ponies," there's a legitimate complaint that rabid fanboys, or worse, the developers themselves, will write off as "attempted trolling." Overzealous forum moderators like Bioware's infamous Stanley Woo eventually see anyone who isn't licking their organization's boots as a troll, regardless of whether or not their complaint had a point or a well structured argument. This ultimately impacts how companies see their customers as well.

Giant Robots for Japan (and why it might just work)

According to Geekosystem (who, admittedly, credits Kotaku, but there's no way in hell I'm linking to that terrible site), two members of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party, Tadamori Oshima and Bunmei Ibuki, plan to discuss the plausibility of building a real, fully operational giant robot. Now, you may recall that the Japanese have previously built a 1:1 scale model of a Gundam, but building a Gundam that is capable of actually moving, nevermind operating in a live-fire combat environment, is a significantly more difficult challenge.

Now, don't get me wrong - I love my 'Mechs. My desk currently has a pair of BattleTech miniatures on it - a Clan Jade Falcon Loki and a Clan Nova Cat Shadow Cat, to be precise - the vast majority of my PS2 games have "Armored Core" in the title, and in high school, any time not spent at the FLGS playing MechWarrior: Dark Age was spent at home playing MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries online. You dig giant robots, I dig giant robots, we dig giant robots, chicks dig giant robots. It's an unavoidable part of being a nerd.

Unfortunately, in real life, giant robots (hereafter referred to as 'Mechs, because I grew up using the BattleTech term) are...well, stupid, especially those that are bipedal. Really stupid, in fact. There's a number of issues with the concept from both engineering and tactical standpoints that make the idea of Atlases serving in the future U.S. Army ridiculous.

Reactor: Online. Sensors: Online. Weapons: Online.

...All Functioning Systems: Nominal.

I suppose there will be time for introductions later (if I decide to do them anyway), but for the moment, I'm just getting everything set up. All you need to know about me is that I'm a young gamer/gun nerd with too much time on his hands and opinions I can't keep to myself.

What am I setting up, you ask?

Well, we'll iron that out over time. If nothing else, it should be a pretty wild ride for those of us who love games and the real-world warfighting technology in them. This is to be a home for the warriors of virtual battlefields; a opinion page for the 21st century digital warfighter.

In the meantime, sit back, relax, and pardon my dust. As they say, I cannot into webpage design. If you'd like to give me a hand, shoot me an e-mail at dwvalkyrieraptor@gmail.com.