Can’t talk, frog blasting the vent core

My girlfriend went back home to NYC for a week-long stay, so I’ve decided to do something this weekend that I never, ever do: Be a completely lazy slug of a human and do nothing worthwhile with my time. So far I’ve managed to wrap up my playthrough of Halo 2, read a chunk of The Amber Spyglass and make it to the 3/4 mark in the so-good-you’ll-vomit XBLA version of Marathon: Durandal.

Mission? So very accomplished.

I checked out the Durandal leaderboards a few minutes ago and discovered to my surprise that I’m ranked in the top 250. How strange — my role on XBLA has always been the leaderboard caboose, so to speak. Someone’s gotta provide the absolute bottom-end of the rankings, and that someone is me. I feel like I’m letting down the side by actually playing Durandal obsessively.

I feel I really should be social or whatever and play some deathmatch (contradictory as that may sound), but I’m close, so close to that Bob-B-Que achievement. I’m pretty sure a homicidal streak on the next level (Where the Twist Flops) should put me over the edge. And after that, I think I finally need to play Metal Gear Solid 3. It’s only been, uh, two years? Yikes.

16 thoughts on “Can’t talk, frog blasting the vent core

  1. I bet you can guess what I’m responding to, so I won’t bother to say anything except: please do.

  2. Heh. I too have ambitions of playing my copy of MGS3 “when I get time”. What is it about the game that lends it so well to shelving and procrastination?

  3. MGS3 is kind of lame, sad to say. It doesn’t get bogged down in nonsense the way 2 does, but it’s incredibly linear and the story, such as it is, is so perfunctory as to be sort of insulting. It’s sort of worth it for the NONSENSICAL HIJINX of Young Ocelot, though.

  4. Ooh, forgot to mention: Subsistence is FAR PREFERABLE to the original version, due to the inclusion of a rotatable camera.

  5. Rumors suggestion GeoX hates quality gaming, and as such cannot be trusted.

    Except on teh Subsistence tip.

  6. Tru dat and a dubl tru on the free camera comment, but I found MGS3 extremely enjoyable, largely due to the repaired camera.
    As previously mentioned, Ocelot’s character is quite entertaining, and while it’s not as good as MGS2, it comes in a close second.

  7. So far, MSG3 lets you succeed occasionally, which is more than MGS2 let you do. (Go back and think: how many times were you given something to do/kill in MGS2 that you actually succeeded at?)

    Parish: I’ll race you. I’m only about 2 hours in.

  8. What, you haven’t played MGS3 yet? Get crackin’! It’s probably my favorite of the series so far. It cuts out a lot of the rather blatant insanity that was in MGS2 (but without losing the weird charm of the series — the Cobras, jungles in Russia, etc.) and thus is able to tell a tighter and more coherent story. It also manages to have a more emotional pay-off at the end, although I’m not sure whether that’s because Kojima got better at writing, or there were less distractions.

    I can’t really see how MGS3 could be faulted for its linear nature. You may have had more freedom to roam in 1 and 2, but they’re still probably the most linear games around. (someone’s gotta let Roger Ebert know)

    And yes, it’s obvious, play Subsistence. The 360 camera makes all of the difference in the world, since the level design just isn’t suited to the old camera. Gah, talk of MGS3 makes me think of Metal Gear Online. It had plenty of issues, but I miss it anyway.

  9. Oooh, The Amber Spyglass? How are you liking it so far? I really loved The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife, so I’m interested to hear what you’ve got to say about the last book in the series.

  10. Just rectified the issue I had with Metal Gear Solid 3: that I have never played it. I put it on my Gamefly queue, so maybe I’ll be less bored by my nerd machines for the few weeks they’re unoccupied while waiting for Bioshock.

  11. Damn, am I the only one here who was never bothered by the MGS series’ camera? In all honesty, I don’t even like the 360 camera of Subsistence, I hardly use it.

    Now, if it allowed for third-person over the shoulder shooting, ie RE4 or I believe MGS4, that’d be a different story.

  12. I was ranked #145 the first day. The only explanation that makes sense to me is that maybe there was only 150 players at the time.

    Anyway, no sympathy from me, since you’ve knocked from the #1 spot on my friends list. A situation that will have to be… rectified.

  13. ah, relaxing weekend. I’ve spent my time chilling in this nifty apartment curled up on a couch with FF6 and some downtempo music, while the lights of SF twinkle through the fog. it’s a wonderful thing.

  14. The overhead camera was fine up until MGS3 because you always had the Soliton Radar to keep track of your surroundings. But once that was removed, the only way to get the same results was to scope things out manually by constantly stopping and switching to First-Person View. Which got old fast.

  15. I loved Golden Compass and Subtle Knife, and I recently finished Amber Spyglass. It left me with so many questions.

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