There is tons of great music out there these days. No matter what you like there will be a song to define your day, your mood or even your life. There are even awesome power metal remakes. But none of those songs compare to the awesome that is Metropolis Zone. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 has always stood out for me as having the best soundtrack during the 16 bit era. Sure Megaman was great, of course Castlevania was up there, and who can forget the tunes for Super Mario World or the Opera from Final Fantasy VI, or whatever the hell it was here in the states.



These games all have great soundtracks, but Sonic 2 stands out for having so many great tunes. From the jazzy sounds of Casino Night, to the quirky and menacing tones of Oil Ocean, every level had it's own unique feel, not just due to the design, as all the levels were brightly colored and full of spikes and floating platforms. No, it was the music that really made each stage come alive. However, one track, one track amongst all stood out.



Metropolis Zone's music was the best. The offset scratch, the epic bouncing bass rhythem and that amazing wailing guitar in the background, all culminating in a frenzied chorus. It was the only stage so epic that it got THREE acts. It was the toughest stage by far, filled with impressively annoying enemies who were placed ready to fire just off screen and at the edge of cliffs, ready to knock you off to your doom and steal all of your rings. Metropolis zone was the industrial stage. It was the stage Trent Reznor would make if he had a fascination with the color green and with annoying screws and starfish. But really, Metropolis Zone is more than just green tinted awesome with great music. It is an excuse to post the following video:



That's right, Michael Jackson mixed into Metropolis Zone. I cant tell if this is the greatest or worst thing ever, but I don't care, it's awe inspiring nonetheless.

Metropolis Zone is essentially the night cap, the climax of the game. After this, up is the only way to go, with Sky Chase, Wing Fortress and Death Egg Zones being the only things standing between you and the end game. But the music for Metropolis stands out as the best in the game.

These days, a lot of music has gone orchestral, but maybe that's why I love Atlus, those guys currently hold the banner up for excellence in original game music, and if you dont believe me, check out the Persona soundtracks for some of the best Jazz based game music ever. And one final thing, the only song(s) to actually rival the amazingness that was Metropolis Zone in the 16 bit era was in Sonic and Knuckles, and they are called Lava Reef Zone, Act's One and Two (cause theyre so awesome, they get two different songs, each of which are amazing.





(I like Act two a little more, though it is no Metropolis Zone)

I know Im not the only one who loves these songs, what do you guys think?

LEEEEETS PARTY!

That's right boys and girls. The Vice President has taken over the country with military might. Only one person can stop him! THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and his 1337 secret special forces suit of power armor.

Metal Wolf Chaos is not just a classic XBox game that the majority of you have never heard of, its actually the BEST game you've never heard of. In fact, I think it is so best, that it deserves not just Game of the Year 2004, but it deserves game of the year for every year SINCE, since no game has come CLOSE to its Raw Sex appeal. It's better then Oblivion, Eat Lead, Super Mario Galaxy, Killzone 2, Call of Duty 4, Rad Racer, Ridge Racer 4, The Sony PSP, Final Fantasy VII, Cooking Momma, Commandos, Jagged Alliance 2, Giants; Citizen Kabuto, Black and White, Majoras Mask, Metal Gear Solid, Left 4 Dead, Ryu, Blanka, E. Honda, Boba Fett, Laura Croft and even Qbert.



I hereby declare this game best game ever! This games so awesome I dont even think it would play on a 360. THATS RIGHT, it pushed the original XBox so far past it's limits, it broke a 360. You cant compete with the awesome that is Metal Wolf Chaos.

The only way this game should EVER lose GotM is to a NEXT GEN SEQUEL, starring Barak Obama and Shaq. I know, I know, it's been rumored, but until we get concrete news, Metal Wolf Chaos will have to remain the best game ever.

Like many others here at DToid, I was really looking forward to Puzzle Quest: Galactrix. Having played the PC demo, I was enjoying things like a fairer combat system, a sci fi story, more characters and more addictive gameplay. I played the hell out of the first Puzzle Quest on the PSP despite the party glitch. I considered buying it for my iPhone and XBLA. I literally did everything I could in the PSP version, captured every enemy I could, trained every mount. I was seeing those little gems and skulls in my sleep. Then I tried the PQ:G demo when it dropped on PC. I was enthralled. I actually liked the demo, it felt different, but it also felt like because of the gravity system, it'd be easier to trick the AI away from cheating, and in the demo, it certainly felt like this was the case.

Of course Day One rolls around and I sacrifice 30 or so dollars of my hard earned cash to pick it up. It was pretty much a hold over until Killzone 2 dropped later that week, but if it was anything like the first Puzzle Quest, it might have even distracted me from that game. That... wasn't the case. I opened the game and popped it in my DS. And I played for about an hour, not really having any fun the entire time.
"Its Okay," I told myself. Tutorial stages are always a pain in the ass. Then it gives me three crew members I dont have to earn. Well, thats interesting, as in the first Puzzle Quest, very few members were actually just given to me. The thing is, the actual board of Galactrix just isn't very fun, due to it reliance more on luck and random chance then any semblance of strategy, so all the mini games are a lot less fun when you have no control over a gem that could fall from one of six sides, depending on a random cascade.

See the board itself, hexagonal in shape is at the core of the problem in Puzzle Quest: Glactrix. I get the zero gravity fighting thing, it just doesnt work for a game like puzzle quest, as it paradoxically takes out much of the strategy while replacing that with a lot of random luck, yet at the same time remains too complicated for me to pick the game up and play it casually to relax after a long session of Killzone 2 or Left 4 Dead. The over complication of the core concept is what bothers me the most. I hate to use the term casual, but Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords is what Casual gaming was to me. Not the Wii, but chilling out with the simplicity of number 1, where everything was made obvious and everything was simple and spelled out for me, but the fights still required a bit of thinking and strategy, with only a bit of blind luck. Ok a lt of luck, but strategy certainly played more into it then it does in Galactrix. The fact that a 4 of a kind does not get me another turn bothers me as well, as that was a large part of the strategy of PQ1, you were always looking for a 4 of a kind, while trying to prevent moves that gave your opponent one. Sure the AI cheated in the first game, but its just as bad in this one. I've watched the AI purposely miss a 5 of a kind in order to get a supernova which included 3 bomb chains and created a separate 5 of a kind, of bombs. I died in 3 moves that round and almost punched my DS in it's face. And this was in a random encounter. Only Lord Bane pulled that kind of BS in the first game, and I hate him perhapse more then any other gaming end boss. Really.

But it's not just the game board which over-complicates the game. I know Conrad complained about this as well, but the map is a mess. It not just that it's a chore (like actual work, as opposed to fun) to hack a leapgate, but the actual setup of the map on the DS sucks. And then when you get to a system, you find that there is the same 3 or 4 objects in each system and none of them have a STORE. Crafting weapons sucks. You have to buy or find plans, then you have to mine an asteroid for minerals and technology and the like. Then you have to go to a planet that allows you to craft a ship component. And only then can you equip the thing. I would have been fine with missing out on the item crafting mini game, which is not hard and is not fun and like much of the other game is a chore (and a bore) more then anything. The early game, before you get the shield matrix that allows you to get a bit of your shields back is a royal pain in the ass. I felt like the game was forcing me into taking some side quests to grind.

Basically I really, really want to love this game, but it is hard going. But every time I have to hack a leapgate or mine an asteroid I hate the game a little more. It's almost as if the game doesn't want me to progress and does everything it can to stop me. Actually fighting the ships can be fun, but not enough to make me continue slugging through the monotonous tasks that they've given me to do before I can get to a ship to fight. Its not that I hate complication or luck based games (hell, I love games like Culdcept Saga and Valkyria Chronicles). All said, Im 8-10 hours into the game, and I think I'm done. Instead of torturing myself with this game, I've already started playing the first game again and have been enjoying it again. Its too bad really, and if Infinite Interactive can return the concept to the beautiful simplicity of the original PQ, then I will pick up their next game. I don't mind grinding, but I mind it when I do it and it doesn't feel rewarding or fun. So, sorry Galactrix, but I'm done with you.

After seeing Mass Effect postings coming to light again, I figured I'd post this review I wrote for a school show on December 7th, 2007. Why post this review so late? Well there are a few reasons. 1. Seeing as how Mass Effect is in the news again with the new special edition re-release, the PC patch and the new DLC, it seems timely and strangely appropriate and 2. I'm Bored and I just found this while looking through the backlogs of my written works from college, I found it amusing and I thought the Dtoid community might enjoy it, so I figured why not.

And so it begins:

Lots of big first party games try to be really ambitious, and not all of them succeed (Perfect Dark Zero/Killzone, I'm looking at you!). Regardless or not if Mass Effect succeeds, it still has the potential for juicy lesbian alien sex. Yes.

Now that that’s established (Lesbian aliens!), lets get on with what Mass Effect is really about. Mass Effects core story is the relatively generic tale about a Human soldier trying to stop a charismatic alien badass from destroying all life in the universe. However, the more you play Mass Effect, the more involved and interesting the story becomes. Most of this is due to Mass Effect’s incredible, incredible universe.

The Game takes place about 300 or so years in the future where Humans have found the key to interstellar travel in some ruins on Mars. Humans have been steadily expanding their influence in galactic politics and generally pissing off the 10 or so other alien species. Except the blue all female race, cause we’re smarter then that. Essentially you play as the person (in your case, probably woman you pervert) who is destined to become the first Human Specter, The Alien Government’s personal weapons that deal with the things that diplomacy can’t. Your role is pivotal to humanity as you basically get to be the guy who’s someday going to get humanity on the (Lesbian Aliens!) galactic council.

First the good, the universe in Mass Effect is stunning in how fleshed out it is. Every race is detailed and has their own cultures, from the ultra polite Hunar to the seemingly always-rushed Salarians to the all female Asari (ALL FEMALE), each race is unique and appears as such. The immersion is spectacular because the universe is so involving. You actually do feel as if you’re a part of it. This all ties into the story nicely as well, and is what really begins to turn the story from something bland into something that really begins to grow on you, and then into an addiction you wont be able to put down.

There’s an incredible amount of stuff to do in Mass Effect, like (Lesbian Aliens!) combat, surveying planets, exploring worlds, completing side quests, attempting to drive the Mako, murdering lots of robots, having the same 3 conversations with Seth Green, exploring the cities, traveling the galaxy, completing the main quest, fighting Darth Vader and Boba Fett, riding the elevator on your ship for a good 3 hours (a good way to talk to find out your NPC’s don’t want to sleep with you yet), and yes, completing a possible lesbian relationship side quest (WOO!).

The dialogue options are fun, especially because in this game, unlike in BioWare’s KOTOR series, being bad actually isn’t just about picking the angriest response. Here it’s clear you’re a good guy who just needs to do some bad things. Or you can be a “paragon” and potentially miss out on the alien lesbians (BOO!). The dialogue options are interesting though, because it can be fun to role play as a dick, or in the case of most of Xbox Live’s community, themselves.

True combat takes over for KOTOR’s MMO style fighting. It’s active gunplay. The cover system kinda sucks, but that is forgivable because its Bioware’s first (in recent memory) attempt at a shooter and the actual shooting isn’t that bad. What is annoying is the class structure for leveling up. If you don’t pick a soldier class, you’re pretty much stuck using pistols for the entire game, because you can’t level up (train) in assault rifles and shotguns. Though you can use cool psychic or electronic powers (Hacking was my favorite). This is a minor grievance, but it still mildly sticks out, also, Lesbian Aliens WITH pistols (Eww…)! NOT THOSE KIND PERVERTS!


(You Can Tap This)

The game has its faults, but most of them are minor. For one thing, the game is huge, but still somehow seems unfinished. When you land on a planet, if there is a structure you can enter, the interior will be based on one of three designs. Seriously, the 25th century has bunkers that come in 3 flavors and they all pretty much consist of warehouse 1, 2 and 3. Next, the Mako, your badass six-wheeled ass kicking machine handles like a greased up pig with wheels after a case of New Castle sometimes. It does not like to aim around and drive forward at the same time. Its VERY floaty as well, I understand that other planets have less gravity, but that is no excuse my 25 ton ass kicking machine should FLY off of cliffs (and the thrusters don’t really help either). I don’t need realistic physics, just when I'm chasing the main bad guy down, I don’t want to have to stop because I turned a corner and ended up rolling cause the physics on the thing are so floaty. We’ll leave that at that. The Teammate AI isn’t brillant, but the quick commands to get them to help out work pretty well (stasis makes the game a bit to easy sometimes, though it can be a life saver). Finally the game does stumble sometimes. The frame rate can crawl during shootouts and the Mako exploration levels, and I have experienced some horrible texture less landscapes for about a full minute while the textures take their sweet time to load as I'm running around or driving on a new planet (Update: apparently this can be fixed by installing onto the Hard Drive, which my HD has no space, though the elevator times dont increase!). Speaking of loading, the load times in general pretty much suck. This completely ripped me out of the game. Elevator rides are how the game loads. You will spend a LOT of time riding in said elevators. You’re on the most advanced ship in the universe and it takes something like 5 hours for your elevator to take you one floor so you can flirt with one of your NPC’s (Not the Alien, but still Lesbians!), realistically this is the only major flaw in the game. Most of the other elevator rides aren’t terrible, they’re long, but your NPC’s will converse or you’ll get some galactic news tidbit (which can actually add a new side quest for you to do, which I found to be pretty cool).

So in summary, you get to save the Milky Way, Explore the Galaxy, get an experience in drunk off roading, Save the President*, shoot lots of robots, intimidate shop keepers, annoy your crew mates, deal with intergalactic racism, kick ass, chew gum, be all out of gum and yes, make sweet lesbian love to your hot blue alien crewmember, you sick, sick perverts. Yes I’m judging you. Mass effect is not perfect but it is great, especially from an overall fun standpoint. The immersion for the most part is excellent and the universe is amazingly fleshed out. I would rate this as a buy it, if you have any interest in exploration, space operas, killing Robots, saving galaxies, exploring the moon and Alien loving.

* Note: that’s in Ghost Squad, not Mass Effect.
** If there are any factual or other errors within this review, sorry, but I called it as I saw it. Also, I still love this game and will probably give it a playthrough a year, at least until ME2.
*** The only thing in the game I truly hated was the mako's controls and the fact that I didn't get some achivements Im pretty sure I earned, but I've already bitched about that in one thread this week, so no more...
**** Sorry for the lack of pictures, I didnt want to repost Mikey's Liara pic without permission, as amusing as it would have been, and there arent really any inherently funny mass effect pics out there and I dont have time to make an amusing pic. Next time!

2008 didn't suck. It wasn't the worst year ever, but it wasn't the best. "Best" is a title that in my own honest opinion belongs to 10 years ago, the wonderful year of 1998. I loved 1998. I was 12 and had an N64 and a PSX. What more could I ask for? What follows are my reasons for believing that 1998 was so much better then this past year.

1998 was literally a perfect storm. It was probably the only thing that could follow after 1997 was completely eclipsed by Final Fantasy VII. Almost every game that was great in '98 was an original title, not a sequel, and the ones that weren't original introduced something so amazing to their respective genres that they pretty much redefined them. Lets look at a few examples of why 1998 was so amazing:


Tactical Espionage Action: Metal Gear Solid: October 21, 1998
I wont lie, this is one of my favorite games of all time. It was the first thing I ever pre-ordered and the first game I HAD to have on Day 1. And it was worth it. I remember borrowing a friends Dual Shock controller because I remembered my GamePro review recommending it. I remember playing in a dark room, actually jumping at the DARPA chief's heart beating in my hand (at that time I even thought it was really the DARPA chief too). But I wont lie. Most of all, I remember the battle with Psycho Mantis. It was the first game to truly blow my mind. MGS was technically the second stealth action game on the market, because Tenchu: Stealth Assassins beat it by two months (August 31, 1998), but it was so far ahead of Tenchu that I consider it the first. The immersion and the cinematics, the focus on stealth and the fact that each boss battle was memorable, from the first moment you step into the ring with the Tank, through Psycho Mantis and Sniper Wolf to the final chase with Liquid, every second of the game felt like a movie. Metal Gear Solid 4 is my favorite game of 2008, but even the absolutely stunning conclusion cant hold a candle to the first time I played through MGS. I could write a whole article on why I love the first MGS, but I will save that for a later time. Technically a sequel, but this game really changed the 3D action genre and showed the non JRPG crowd that games could be as powerful as any movie.


The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: November 23, 1998
What has to be said about this game that hasn't been said a million times before. There had been other games, before and since, but none have had quite the longevity that Ocarina has had. To my shame, I never actually owned a copy of this game, rather I borrowed it from a kid down the street. I never did get to beat it, but I will say this, GTA: III had 3D open worlds, as did Mario 64, but they never felt as alive and open as the land of Hyrule did in OoT. This game changed adventure games forever. Many Link's have come and gone since, but they can never beat the memory of how amazing it was the first time I rode Epona over Hyrule field.


Half-Life: November 19, 1998
A quiet release, as the game SiN was supposed to be the best Shooter of the year in '98. Half-Life literally changed the PC gaming world. It led to three things. First was a new breed of interactivity and innovation in First Person shooters, one where it wasn't all corridors and enemies, rather you had allies and some of the most impressive level design seen in the day. You didn't even start with a gun and you never left your character, immersing you further and further into the Black Mesa Complex. Second the game gave us Counter-Strike, which love it or hate it really paved the way for Online gaming to be a legitimate option, paving the way for things like XBL. Third, it eventually led to Portal, which as we all know is awesome. I will be honest. I like Half-Life more then OoT. Sorry, but between the story and the inclusion of CS, I had more game then I ever needed. That doesn't mean I stopped playing games, 1998 had tons more to offer.


Now I wont go into the other games in as much detail, but there were many that came out in 1998 that either still influence the gaming world today or were memorable as amazing games. To name a few, Marvel vs. Capcom came into the arcades on Jan 23, 1998. Resident Evil 2, which absolutely blew my mind when I first played it, as I was 12 and it scared the living hell out of me, but as much as it scared me, I couldn't put it down and it came out January 21,1998. Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit did not invent police chases, but rather was the first game to do it well and came out March 25, 1998. Thief: The Dark Project was another stealth game, but went medieval on our collective asses and came out just after MGS on November 30, 1998. Rare's way-too-happy-but-still-amazing-even-to-this-day Banjo-Kazooie dropped on June 29, 1998. Tom Clancy's first game, Rainbow Six, which also got me started reading Tom Clancy, came out on August 21, 1998. Insomniac's Spyro the Dragon came out, which eventually led to anther favorite series of mine (Ratchet and Clank), was released September 10, 1998. A game I never got into, but that people still fiend off of, StarCraft, came out on March 31, 1998. The list goes on and on, Fallout 2 (another game I can write a whole page on, but won't here), Grim Fandango, Time Crisis II, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, Mario Party, Bauldur's Gate, and personal guilty pleasure's Gex: Enter the Gecko and Rival Schools: United By Fate. There are literally games upon games which people still talk about and revere. Well maybe people dont revere Gex, but still, games that are coming out today are still compared to these. 1998 set a golden standard for quality. Any RTS is compared to StarCraft. FPS, Half-Life. Adventure game: OoT, etc., etc.

There were other greats that year, but I feel like I made my point. 1998 is arguably the greatest year in the short history of video games, not even in review score's, but rather in terms of games that have withstood the test of time. 2008 has its share of greats, from Gears 2 to MGS4, from Left 4 Dead to Advance Wars: Days of Ruin and Valkyria Chronicles and Persona 4, there was no shortage of greats, but as for games that can withstand the test of time and be remembered as well as these greats, we will have to see. Personally I think the year that came closest in greatness to 1998 was 2007, where the Next Generation finally matured into the current generation, with epics like Mass Effect, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Bioshock and many others. I'm not writing off 2008, there were many games I enjoyed, and I plan on playing Persona 4 for a very long time. Also, 2009 looks to be a year of true originals, with Brutal Legend, Prototype, InFamous, Borderlands, Rage and a number of other, AAA titles lined up for 09. We'll have to see. Goodbye 2008, you were good, you just got beat by 1998 is all.

(Note: All games release dates were based off of Wikipedia and this article was about the North American release dates. If I forgot a great game, sorry, but there were so many great games that I remember from that year that I dont think I could remember them all, but feel free to politely let me know why you loved it. And yes Spice World did come out in 1998. Special thanks to whoever made the Half-Life cereal box image.)

The other day, Destructioid's Jim Sterling wrote an article I found very interesting. It was on how Left 4 Dead was not Halo. At first, I scoffed, as I had gotten the game at launch, and must have gotten very lucky. Most of the people I had played with were not in fact douche bags. I laughed at Jim's bad luck, enjoying the friends who I regularly played with who were, among other things, competent at playing a game with a cooperative mode. I regularly played versus, seemingly getting lucky with the fourth person to join myself and my merry three man band of survivors (or zombies, depending on the round). However, I needed a break from Left 4 Dead about two weeks ago. Not because I got tired of the 4 levels (2 really, cause of the limitations of Versus mode) or because I got tired of playing with friends I rarely see in the real world. No, I had to take a break because of the terrifying nature of my finals. I figured, two weeks is nothing, I'll come back, and things will be just the same.

I was (pardon the pun) dead wrong. Let me tell you a story of why Live might be starting to lose it's appeal for me.

I returned to find that apparently, every asshole in the world has now caught on to the (potentailly former) glory of Left 4 Dead, and might be too stupid to grasp what is could be a perfect co-op experience, one where if you go alone could not only screw you over, but also screw over three other perfectly nice individuals. Now Im no stranger to co op gmaes, its one of the reasons I love Valve, or at least the Counter Strike team. I've played enough Counter Strike, both public and match games, to realize the value of a team, so I enjoy chatting on the Mic and calling out locations of enemies, to have my friends rack up the kills and save my ass. Apparently, tonight as I learned, I was sheltered, and if I get stuck with a stranger in the Zombie apocalypse, Im pretty much doomed.

Tonight, I had the wonderful experience of playing Left 4 Dead with some friends. The first time through on No Mercy was a blast. 4 good people who were against four good people. It created an interesting scenario where everyone actually played to the best of their abilities and the score at the end of the chapters were so close (lamentably we lost, but not by much!). But after that, those friends left, the server broke up and I ended up playing with two other friends. And some random asshole and his little brother on a guest account. Naturally the kid (and I stress, he was a child) joined my team, while his brother picked the survivors side. "Well", I thought, "this might suck, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, after all the first filler person we had the night I bought the game sounded like a kid and ended up being a good player." The first round in versus was not bad, though we got lucky, and a friend spawned as a tank just outside the saferoom, killing them all before they could get in. I figured that that was nice, maybe we wouldn't do so bad as survivors. This was not to be however, as the first thing this kid did, was Beeline straight ahead, leaving one of my friends tangled by a strangler and myself and my other friend and I vomited on by a boomer. Wonderful start to this game, as we were maybe 15 yards from the initial spawn of Blood Harvest. As Im calling for help, he did not respond, but eventually we untangled ourselves from the mess and were forced to use out health packs. As soon as I start healing, I see the distant blue outline of Zoey thrashing. And the kid has the audacity to call for help. And curse us out for not being behind him to help out. He was so far ahead of my friends and I, when we got to him, he was incapacitated from being surrounded and had just had a hunter spawn near him. Being the nice guy I was, I killed the hunter, and helped him up. His response? Nothing. No thank you or any words of acknowledgment, but rather another beeline away from the ammo stash, resulting in him getting killed before I could catch up, which later lead to my friends and I getting tentacle raped by two smokers and then, as we got out of that, barely, getting proper screwed by a witch. Good times.

The kid quit the next round, taking his brother with him. So we were in a public match, and after the survivors all quit (go XBL!), and we slaughtered the AI like the sheep they are, more humans joined the game, including another person to take the role of a survivor. Good, I thought, maybe this person is competent! No. No they werent. in fact, the kid from earlier might have been better. He ran off and quickly got us all lured into not one, but two traps, succeding in his plan to get me to turn off my Xbox and write an angry C-blog about how worried I am for the state of online co-op. Needless to say, I dread playing the game after Christmas. It wont be like Call of Duty 4 was last year, where my clan and I would slaughter the noobs like lambs to the slaughter, because not enough of my friends will be longtime players with Left 4 Dead like we were with CoD4. Regardless, I wont stop playing, but when I do, I will have a full party.

The main reason I'm ranting here is not just to tell a fun horror story about the worst kind of people on Live (3:1 odds on these kids being Halo players), but rather to lament the lack of people who can grasp a concept as simple as help the people around you survive, as you get a total kill count and the satisfaction of saving someone's virtual life. The rush that I personally gain from helping an incapacitated survivor up when surrounded by zombies is second to none in video games. It's a true adrenalin surge, and one of the most basic reason to play a game. It's fun to go with four other people and slug your way through Zombies for a couple hours. I learned very quickly that it's not fun to run off your own in ANY team based game because then you die, and I hate spectating. I would like to assume that others do. But maybe there's some sort of sadistic complex these kids have, where they enjoy watching other players suffer as a direct result of their actions, I only have a degree in psychology, I don't practice it, so I don't know. But I imagine if they do, we are in for a rash of serial killers, as these are probably the same bad eggs who torture small animals to get off. Or maybe they're just masochistic, and get off inflicting pain on themselves by being the first of the gang to die. I don't really know. All I know is that it sucks the fun out of these games. it reminds me of the reason of why I always played on the same CS servers, or with the same 10 or so friends on Live, cause I got tired of people acing like assholes and trying, literally, seemingly trying to ruin my favorite games for me. It also reminds me of why I love single player stories so much, because I don't have to rely on others, if there's a mistake, it can generally be chalked up to my own screw up's in-game.

Now I'm not just basing this lack of cooperation on live on my own experiences. Many of my friends, co-workers, and many people who come in and talk about games at my job (a game store) all seem to be having the same problem. We all mock the kids who play Halo and spew endless streams of obscenity, but now that it's spilling into other games, there might be trouble brewing. I don't want to totally shut myself off from the community, as I do meet a lot of great people on Live, but maybe there needs to be some sort of age filter. Let the 12 year olds play with other 12 year olds. Of course there's no real way to do this. But I can dream of someday getting into a versus game with 7 random strangers and playing a strategically sound round without wanting to break my controller in frustration. I have loved Live for so long, specifically for the joy that CoD4 has brought me, allowing me to meet competent people who were as fun to play the game with as they were to shoot the shit with, but I have to wonder after hearing about all of my friends complaining about the excess of idiots that seem t have flooded onto Live recently, with the drop in price and ease of access. Should it be limited? No, but if nothing else MicroSoft, make the player rating work better, maybe that will help.

TL;DR? I might hate XBox Live, would probably get killed in the event of Zombie outbreak due to other's ineptitude and lament the days when people online actually wanted to cooperate to accomplish a goal, and not just rack up a kill count.

(Note: This is my first C-blog, I hope it's not too long, and I hope it's coherent. I also hope I'm wrong, and Live will become fun again. Maybe I caught these other people on a bad night. Maybe it's just the stress from finals. Are you guys also having problems with people on Live?)