Today was orange. The light, I mean. The usual yellow-ish glare of the noon sun was a deep amber, all day long. I’ve heard it was due to smoke and haze from some brush fires a few hundred miles away, but even knowing that didn’t make it any less eerie. So, I figured that since it looked like the end of the world outside, I should do something suitably apocalyptic and play my first-ever online game of Halo 2, courtesy of some of the Talking Time crew. Verdict: I’m really terrible at killing other people. I guess that’s good to know in the event I’m ever falsely accused of murder.
But what is the deal with no one besides me playing as an Elite? Spartans are totally passé, guys.
Also on tap for “signs of the apocalypse”: a review of a Game Boy Mega Man game that just might be on par with the second and third NES installments. At least, that’s what wumpwoast posits. I dunno, pretty soon cats are gonna be hanging out with dogs and stuff. I’m not liking the way things are shaping up right now.
I didn’t know you could use an Elite until today. I might use one. Everybody compliments how intelligent they are… and I could use some of that.
Yeah, I’ve played so little Halo multiplayer that I had no idea you could play as an Elite.
Well I had fun.
I always use one!
The Mega Man crew really started to take their awesome pills with the last couple of Game Boy games, especially considering how rote the main series had become by that point. And the fifth one is even better!
I had fun, too. I just… wasn’t any damn good.
It was really fun. I also didn’t know that you could be anything other than a spartan. I’ve never really played on Xbox live before. So I had a great time (short but fun while it lasted). Hopefully I’ll get the chance more now that my friends from the forums are on my list. Any way great fun, everyone should join in.
Don’t Elites have larger heads, making headshots easier? That’s probably why nobody uses them in the far-too-serious world of online multiplayer.
Unreal Tournament 2004 was like so much better, dudes (no, seriously Parish, you should try any of the UT games, its much more fun than Halo… which kinda sounds like a German girl trying to greet someone in English).
Almost any game is good if played with rational human beings who just want to have some fun (like you, gentlemen), instead of 12-year old retards with a fixation on words like “gay”.
I hope I don’t disappoint you Rich, because I’m inclined to rank the fifth Game Boy game on par or maybe a little bit lower than the fourth. And since Mega Man V is full of new content (planet-based Robot Masters!! Great special weapons! Almost all new enemies!), the fact that it’s only on par with IV is a little discouraging.
That, and some prick in High School never gave it back to me in return for borrowing his gimped Sega Master System. He took my copy of Link’s Awakening too! Bitch.
Excellent review. It is humbling to see that they could wring such character out of robots and industrial backgrounds using 4 shades of grey and such a low resolution (under 200×200), not to mention the 1.78mhz processor. The dynamic levels just add to it. To this day most games still use fairly static environments. I was feeling good about getting a real-time level editor into a low-poly directx 9 game on a P3, this gameboy stuff is really excellent. I feel bad for writing them off as lazy for the endless repeats. Then I remember which number Battle Network we are on.
Movement in stages, when done right, gives the impression of life and makes the areas feel like real places that existed before your character got there, and will still exist after your guy has moved on. In the case of this game, it lends a sense of urgency. If it was a static warehouse, no big deal. But with this crazily active factory, it lead you to think, “What the hell is wiley up to? Better stop him!” Another example of this is the train stage in Ninja Gaiden 2, though it is limited to a fast scrolling background (possibly 2 layers), it adds a lot of excitement to the most mundane stage in the game.
All these Mega Man articles have reminded me about Mega Man Mania. I really wish that had come out instead of vanishing into the ether.
Holy mother of God, so I was re-playing UT2K4 and someone just told me about Unreal 3 and, oh boy, Bungie is gonna have to come up with some really magical shit if they want to make something better (considering every already existing UT game is better than any existing Halo game online-play wise).
Not only did Ninja Gaiden 2 have those fast scrolling backgrounds, but the music really kept the mood fantastically. Some of my favorite videogame scores are from that series. Maybe someday I’ll write a little about them.
I saw some “Mega Man Mania” screens and they look really similar to how the original carts look when played back on my GBA. But you don’t see the originals pop up every day now do you…
Fine, I’ll discuss the most important part of your post, since no one else did: the orange sky.
…it was weirding me out all day at work. No one else mentioned it, and for awhile I was worried I was the only one that could see it. Now that it’s gone, I kind of miss it, though.
I wonder how many regular posters in this site reside in the alien, orange sky area.
I do. I wanted to make a comment about that weird little comment by Parish that he always puts on his updates, but then I had the feeling that if I said something stupid someone would yell at me to squeel… like a pig.
Yeah, the orange sky thing gets to me. Once when I was driving, the sky made the asphalt look pink. I started feeling sick. Then my alternator stopped working. Damn you orange sky!
On Ninja Gaiden music: Is it just me, or does Honest Mistake by The Bravery sound like early Ninja Gaiden music, but more repetitive (than NES music!)?