Hola los GS miembros, voy a Guatemala lunes! For those of you who don't speak Spanish, that means, hey GS members, I'm going to Guatemala this Monday! (you would leave out este, right? Just, voy a Guatemala lunes?)
Yup, it's a missions trip for school. I'm not dreading it anymore, and it'll prolly be an enriching and enlightening experience. I'm in a skit, I'm filming the trip (that's if we can produce a camera...), and doing other assorted activities. We leave dark and early monday morning and get back dark and late the next monday, so bye bye Spring break. No matter, this just means I'm not missing classes and making up work during the trip, so no complaints here.
However, if one were to have a complaint, it'd be cuz I got Rainbww Six Vegas 2. This game is unbeleivably awesome, and they addressed a plethora of VERY large and VERY small issues with the last game, and I was happily grateful for the improvements. Pardon me while I delve right into my impressions.
The gameplay is as solid as ever, with a few control changes (all for the better) and a few major gameplay tweaks. Most notable is the OMG THANK YOU FOR ADDING THIS UBISOFT sprint. Much like CoD 4's, you have a short burst where you lower your gun and haul off in a refreshingly fast speed. Even before CoD came out, I had wanted a sprint in the first Vegas, becuz in real life, when a grenade drops onto your foot, you aren't going to prance away at a trot while you are shredded to pieces by shrapnel. Instead, you would MOVE YOUR ***. In this game, you can 8) Much obliged, Ubisoft.
Another characteristic from CoD that I still had wanted before it had come out was shooting through wall capability. They took a much more realistic approach than CoD, with different guns having different penetration rates, as well as materials that weren't just "shoot throughable" or "not shoot throughable". However, the result turned out the slightest bit underwhelming, with some materials still posing the "I know you're there, I'm trying to shoot you through this wall, and it won't work" problem. It's better than nothing though, and with the new rewards system, it's especially satifying to shoot some guy through three layers of wood boxes and targets.
That last one is in fact the last major thing I was gonna bring up. The ranking system, borrowed from CoD as well, is in fact improved over it (so I'm told). But basically, you rank up midgame for killing, but you also get bonuses for doing certain things to kill them, which in turn increases one of three categories of stats. These categories will over time improve to unlock weapons or give drastic EXP boosts, which are the main way to accelerate through the straight up ranks. I like the system, it's more rewarding, as you don't have to finish a match to be rewarded, you don't have to win to still get a butt load of EXP, and you also can use the bonuses themselves as official bragging rights. The one beef I have is that the bonuses don't "stack". So say I killed an opponent through cover, at a far distance, with a headshot (all bonuses on their own merit, then I'd only get the +5 for the far distance, but the +2 for the headshot and +5 for through cover wouldn't count. That said, I still appreciate the new system a lot more, and it's most certainly for the better.
Ah, but I'm not even close to covering all I wanted to say about the gameplay and I must move on :P The graphics are as I had hoped--very nice. VERY nice. They used the same engine from the last time around, so they spent all their time fine tuning and tweaking everything to just look that much better, and it all does. The other big thing is that multiplayer matches graphics standards are up to par with single player, which is great. Other benefits of using the same engine have been improved AI, much MUCH less bugginess, faster loading times, and smoother framerate. And oh man, you should see those frag grenades go off...
As far as sound goes, it's quite good stuff, though not much has really changed, and most new guns recycle sounds from old guns. It's a paradox though, in a game, the guns can only sound that much different, but in real life, all guns sound the same. LOUD.
Anyway, that's my slim overview of Vegas 2 so far. Maps are fairly good, with none really standing out over others, though there are stars, there's no replacing good ol' Calypso. Ubi, you guys seemed to listen to me and my friends talk about your game online and address every little thing, can you PLEASE bring Calypso back?? You brought Streets back!
In other news, life's been good. Matt is moving from fourish hours away to one, so I'll see him a lot more in the VERY near future. I'm still reading Catch 22, but I haven't been able to read it at all in school cuz people yell at me for laughing at it, so I decided I'd read it on the flights for Guatemala and finish it up. As far as TV and movies go, I haven't watched much lately with Brawl and now Vegas, but I did watch a little bit of Bourne Ultimatum today, and I have to say, the cinematography in all of it's atrocity didn't bother me like it did the first time, in theatres. And of course, airsoft has come to a halt since I'm actually out of BBs and haven't bought more. Thats becuz I finally settled on the reflex sight and sling I want for my gun and ordered them. The five pack of clips is out of stock on the site, and I found the vest I want once I get said pack of mags, so I'll soon have five extra clips and a huge vest for airsofting like crazy. Soon. But no idea when.
But I think I may or may not end up getting those things, or at least not the vest, for a while. Becuz among three choices for a new gun I want, I've decided the one I want the most of the three is also the most expensive--+400 dollars, actually. I've seen the prices for it run the gammut, but I recently found it for 350 bucks! So I have 150 ish left over, so I'm hoping if I can get jobs filming lacrosse games like the football games earlier last year, I'd be squared away...in the near future. Who knows, is it a crazy dream? Maybe. But in complete honesty, I don't think so :D I mean really, there's a lot of games I want to play when I get some free time, say, summer, but most of them I can procure, be it borrowing, renting, buying cheap, or I already own it, so I really have no games coming up I need money saved for. So, PSG-1, here I come... (note, that link is not the cheap place, but has the best pics ever). Also, if you REALLY want to, you can look on Youtube for "Tanker Flanker"'s review of his PSG-1, in three parts.
Well, i guess that's my closing of the blog. Happy Easter everyone, I really like that Jesus guy for dying for me, and then he freaking came back to life? Winner!
*disclaimer* This blog was completed at 12:57 local time, and I am not going to proofread it. As such, it is subject to run ons, typos, other assorted errors, incomplete or unclear thoughts, and repeated statements.
Until next time, I've been a quite the long blog writing irmleeman5995, and that's a mouthful to say!