General Discussion

Why did I read it as "Are Angry Birds Fans Hurting Gaming?" LOL! Still, he has a great point and I can't help but to agree with him. I can't recall the name of the developer that was mentioned in this video and in one of your roundtable videos, but it is sad that angry gamers can get a developer so upset. Is this also why Flappy Birds was removed from app stores today? That developer said that he couldn't "take it anymore," though I'm not sure what specifically he was referring to.

I totally agree with Travis, the Internet provides anonymity and people do tend to complain a lot and it is most definitely "a sea of negativity." Just look at your Facebook newsfeed, especially whenever something "controversial" is posted. Even though anonymity doesn't exist as much there, people will still comment negatively on a post you made instead of just ignoring it and scrolling through the rest of their newsfeed.

I also agree with Travis about distancing himself from his online alias, although that's not something I've put any thought into. At first (during the BBS years), I went by "Cobain" (yes, an obvious reference). I then later changed my alias a bit over the years to various ones, one that last a long time was some version of "Cupid De Locke" (The Smashing Pumpkins song) like QpiDeLocke. However, now I use "GregoPeck" as I've been called "Gregory Peck" or "Peck" for short and at college, I was nicknamed "Grego."

That's cool about yours, Jon. Mine is similar too as I sometimes use gawoodruff (adding my middle initial after the first to differentiate from my Dad who is also named "Greg").

Yes, MCIS was fantastic! What else I loved is that the released all the singles in a box set, which contained more songs (some very good covers, in fact, like "You're All I've Got Tonight"). It probably is my favorite album by them, although Gish and Siamese Dream are right up there with it. I listened to their latest one a few times and liked it.

/slowclap

I wish I had a video of this, but alas, this was a long time ago. My friend Harry was introducing me to Halo - he was a veteran, but it was the first time I'd held an Xbox controller. Most notably, I wasn't used to the analog triggers.

Over the course of the game, I performed some *spectacular* failures. I found a way to lose the tank on the Rolling Thunder level, forcing us to take a long jog to our next objective. I could empty a clip at an enemy at point blank and hit nothing but Harry, but somehow I was a damn prodigy at driving the warthog. I could weave that jeep through impossibly tight spaces and park it on some asshole's head like it was no big deal. Of course, that led to me wanting to hold on to the warthog, so I tried to fit it through the door of a building. I wedged it in there so hard that we didn't think we'd make it to the next level, but we did something clever with mounting, dismounting, and grenades that somehow wound up doing the trick.

I also pioneered combat ballet. I'd hear an enemy, and I'd turn around and start firing my machine gun. Thing is, I had a tendency to pull the stick toward me as I turned, and the look sensitivity was set too high for me. From Harry's perspective, I'd get startled and react by doing a few tight pirouettes and shooting the shit out of the ceiling.

But my two favorite moments are the reasons I forever after had to take point in all of our co-op sessions. The first was when Harry was ahead of me, and starting to climb down a ladder. He commented that it was dark and he couldn't be sure there were no enemies. So, I walked up right behind him and turned on my flashlight. Or would have, if I hadn't mixed up my "flashlight" and "melee attack" buttons. You might already know that a melee attack from behind is an instakill. Harry chose to interpret this exchange as "Hey, it's kinda dark in this hole," "THEN IT IS A GOOD PLACE TO MURDER YOU AND HIDE YOUR BODY".

The second was when we were creeping along a hall, wary of enemies. We were moving slow, things were tense, and I didn't realize that I was holding my controller a little too tightly. Without a positive "click" to inform me I'd hit a button, my left trigger finger slowly crossed the shear line and tiny fluctuations in my grip shuttled it back and forth before I realized what was happening. My Master Chief *spazzed* out, and I twitched all four of my sticky plasma grenades right into the back of Harry's head. Harry said "Shit! I hear a plasma grenade!" I was staring, dumbfounded, at what I had done, and couldn't find the words to explain to him that the action had already been resolved. After a spectacular explosion that flung him clear down the hall, and left me battered but still alive, he looked at me and asked "What the hell just happened?"

I said, "The good news is, it's all over, and it can't happen anymore. The bad news is that I'm out of plasma grenades."

Oh man, can we start a new feature on the site called "Story time with CapnCurry?" Seriously, that was hilarious. I also have my new favorite out of context quote ever: "... we did something clever with mounting, dismounting, and grenades that somehow wound up doing the trick."

There are a ton of interesting/weird things you can do in that rolling thunder stage, like getting the Warthog into place it's not suppose to be or getting access to a banshee and skipping half the stage. One time we got the Warthog inside one of the buildings where the hallways were so narrow that the enemies had no where to run and we just ran them all over on our way through. I really miss the days of indestructible vehicles. With clever use of rockets and grenades you could really do some interesting things with the vehicles.

Ooh, I'll have to go and refresh my memory - I've got a yarn or two about Halo 2 multiplayer, at least, and I might be able to dust off some old Twisted Metal II tales for good measure. :D