owlixx

[owlixx]

[owlixx]

Wake up a new Virtual Boy emulator for 3DS that has a good UI and runs all retail games at full speed on O3DS just dropped

[owlixx]

mlp cool

So in an ask one duder mentioned mlp cast as mobians so I thought it'be funny to try

Mind: I'm not much of an mlp fan, so i'm sorry if like uhhhh I didn't get it all that right

Btw, luvs, I have a twitter where I usually Sonic-unrelated stuff, would be gratetful if you checked it <33

[owlixx]

Cod ranking

1. WWII

2. Black Ops 1

3. Modern Warfare 2

4. Black Ops Cold War

5. Black Ops 2

6. Modern Warfare 1

7. Infinite Warfare

8. Modern Warfare 3

9. Advanced Warfare

10. Black Ops 3

11. Vanguard

12. 2

13. 2: Big Red One

14. 3

15. Roads to Victory

16. Classic

17. Finest Hour

18. Black Ops 4

#CoD #call of duty #black ops #modern warfare

[owlixx]

CoD Notes WWII, BO4, BOCW, Vanguard:

I like CoD WWII a lot but didn’t finish the campaign because it erased my mid-mission progress after a particularly grueling and unfun airplane level.

The multiplayer of any of these old games just can’t appeal to me when everyone left is way too good at the game.

WWII zombies is fun in theory but I just don’t have it in me to google guides and walkthroughs for every single map.

BO4 obviously has the worst “campaign”. They could’ve tried harder to have an interesting narrative out of the cutscenes or had just…more. It just sucks. BO4 is a strange game overall, feels like an attempt to be more like competitive shooters.

BO4 zombies is almost too easy with bots and easy mode, and I got the “ick” after 2 long runs.

Black Ops Cold War has a pretty fun campaign. I really enjoyed the mental interrogation mission and choosing the “bad” ending. Stealth missions fun.

Vanguard wasn’t as bad as I expected but it still has bizarre writing and the constant flashbacks undermine the plot. I enjoyed the gameplay but it’s clearly a downgrade from WWII. Did one round of Shi No Numa and didn’t care for it.

#cod #call of duty #black ops

[owlixx]

CoD Notes: WWII Started

Only did the first mission and a bit of this game but it has really impressed me! It’s funny that I played a decent amount of this on PS4 before and wasn’t super impressed then, but now it seems like a godsend compared to the classic WW2 era call of duty games.

The opening D-Day segment is so brutal, it feels nice to play a CoD campaign that feels like it has something to say. I don’t love the medkit system but it makes sense and it isn’t too obtrusive. I like the way the guns look and feel, and having hit markers. Squad abilities are a nice touch. I like being able to unmount LMG’s and remount them. So far just a really terrific game, I think I might be a sledgehammer games fan, but maybe revisiting Vanguard will change my mind.

I also did the smallest amount of multiplayer. I think it’s actually a weaker offering than the campaign so far just because it’s less unique, feels more like stripped down CoD rather than how the campaign feels like it really benefits from the increased focus. I do like the double XP permanently and having shipment to grind, but I don’t think I’ll probably spend too much time here. So far, Infinite Warfare is honestly the most tempting multiplayer offering, although I am impressed by the sheer amount of content here, especially with the restrictions of such a specific era.

I also did just the prologue tutorial of zombies. Feels great, looks great, and I love having an objective. I also happen to own all the dlc kind of by accident already so I’m actually pretty excited to check out all the maps!

#cod #call of duty #CoD wwii #call of duty wwii

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CoD Notes: Infinite Warfare Finished

Plowed through the rest of this game last night, skipping all the side quests. I’m glad they’re there, but I didn’t need the extra help to clear the finale.

I really liked the mission on the asteroid near the sun. It was fun to have one mission of only robots to really lean into the anti-robot tools. The spinning skybox and sun-avoiding were a nice touch that reminded me of mass effect which is always a good thing. And the finale of this mission with a whole swarm of bots is pretty cool.

I also really enjoyed the final earth mission where I got to do some sniping and solo play, had a good feel to it. Got a lot of use out of my single shot Volk I brought.

And then of course, hijacking and then using the main Mars ship is pretty cool.

The actual final ground assault was actually less bombastic, but well enough. I was surprised that Ethan’s actual death was so much less tragic than his almost-death earlier.

Then I played a couple matches of multiplayer. I like having a different random goal every match. Is this the only infinity ward game to use the pick 10 system? I generally like pick 10, but I also like being able to overload attachments with no repercussions so I’m torn. Anyways, this multiplayer feels pretty good and I wouldn’t mind playing more here or there.

Then I did a round of zombies. I really will have to get the season pass for this game at some point because I love Zombies in Spaceland to death. I’m particularly curious about the Elvira DLC. And I do like Fate cards better than gobblegum if only slightly. I at least need to come back and play enough to get the pack a punch on this map which would be no hardship for me to have to play a few more times.

Overall, this game impressed me and is far better than its reputation. I’d love to see a return to this style of game, full stop. Just in terms of campaigns, I’d rank it above the original MW3 but below the original MW1. But this is the best package of the “dark age” by far when you add up the campaign, multiplayer, and zombies stacked against against Ghosts, AW, Black Ops 4, and maybe WW2 but I need to play it first. Black Ops 3 is a tough package to contend with though, it’s just that the campaign is its weakest offering. And all of these games from AW to BO4 are made worse by gameplay-affecting micro transactions (actually can’t remember if BO4 has that).

Oh, also I always liked Advanced Warfare’s killstreak customization so I’m happy to see it here!

#CoD #call of duty #infinite warfare #call of duty infinite warfare #cod iw

[owlixx]

CoD Notes: Infinite Warfare Started

Last note of this session (BO1 Finished, BO2 Beat, Ghosts Beat, AW Beat).

I’m maybe 1/3 or so through Infinite Warfare on Xbox. I’m generally impressed by this game. The graphics look great, I like the mild RPG elements, the space stuff isn’t bad.

Im not crazy about the space ship fighting but it might be better than Starfield’s. I like the fun gimmicky weapons with transformations and the like. I like the overpowered fun grenades.

I think my biggest issue with this game is just that it’s a little…boring. The writing can be ho hum and a lot of the missions are just grey hallways.

I think the only real eye roll inducing thing is how comical to evil Kit Harrington is. It wouldn’t be out of place for him to tie a damsel to a train track. Even the “game over” screen says things like “the Mars Liberation Front chose its name to give the false impression of being an underdog”. I know all CoD games are propaganda, but somehow this one feels the most egregious. This narrative really wants you to know that the Martians are 100% evil and there’s nothing wrong with killing lots of them. The opening shot where Kit Harrington shoots one of his own men just to be wacky is so cringy.

I don’t think I’ll be doing any of the side mission any more than I have to, but im glad they are present.

Almost all of my memories of playing this game from the ps4 and PC were the zombies, so I look forward to giving that a fair shake once I beat the campaign and then maybe a couple matches of multiplayer.

Oh, the big thing so far is the scene where our player character and Ethan the robot cling to each other in orbit, about to surely die. The writing between them is so sweet. It’s such a cheap tearjerker but when the robot said “I think I’m scared”, it really got me. By far the most effective emotional moment in the entire call of duty series. But also “his arms were frozen shut wrapped around you” got to me as well just moments later.

#cod #call of duty #infinite warfare #call of duty infinite warfare #cod iw

[owlixx]

I know I posted some of these but here a version without text.

Further explanation: here

[owlixx]

Comics I Read Yesterday

Moon Knight ‘16-‘18

So, Marvel Unlimited is weird. They count 3 very distinct runs here as one big run. The ‘16 Lemire run was pretty fun because the tv show clearly rips it off but the comic is of course way better. But then yesterday I finally got through to the end of the ‘17 Bemis run about fighting Amon Ra/Sun King which was fine, I guess, but not on the same level. And then that turned into the ‘18 Bemis run which started by revealing an insane version of how Marc Spector developed his split personalities that seemed a little over the top edgy to me, so I put it down.

In the end, I like Moon Knight. He’s cool. But now I know to be a bit more skeptical of Marvel Unlimited’s comic issue collections and just put a series down if it suddenly changes art style and writing style in a direction I don’t like. And I also wanted to put this down so I could get cracking on the long list of good, short series ahead of me.

Contest of Champions ‘82

This was just kind of a silly, fun one. Very early crossover, of course. Only 3 issue. It was apparently supposed to be a tie-in for the Olympics until the US pulled out in ‘80. That explains the focus on now-obscure international and why they must compete “at all four corners of the Earth”. Very simple, very straightforward. Not a ton of questioning the nature of the competition or nitty gritty about the rules, just some toe-dipping into “hey wouldn’t it be neat if X met Y”. It is very funny to see these all-powerful deities drafting for their team and leaving out Hulk/Thor so they can instead take “Le Peregrine” or whoever so more countries can be included. And the contest itself is so silly - just lay hands on a golden object that’s…nearby. Easy read since it’s so short, but so funny that there’s a sequel and a whole phone game based on this and that it’s really the template for a lot of these crossovers.

Secret Wars ‘84

This one I was much more looking forward to. I love Symbiote Spider-Man, although we really just get the design and origin here. Overall this was a lot of fun, much more fleshed out than Contest of Champions. I really liked the dynamic of villains vs heroes vs xmen vs galactic. I also liked that they didn’t just play the game here, and instead Doom tried to break the rules. Also I just generally like Doom and he was pretty cool in this one. I think I had only ever read the last issue as a kid since my dad owned it physically so it was nice to finally make sense of how Cap broke his shield, plus the general events leading up to the finale. I also really liked when they were stuck under the mountain and all combined tech and powers to soup up Iron Man for one big laser. I think the weakest part of this was the weird Jonny Storm/Colossus love triangle with the local alien healer woman. It was funny also though how the villains included respectable names such as Doom, Galactus, Kang, Doc Ock, Lizard, but then also people like Absorbing Man and Wrecking Ball who have really faded into obscurity. Also fun to see what seemed like the origin of Titania! Surely her backstory has been retconned to not be “in the 80s, a chunk of Denver was pulled into a planet arena and Doom gave magic powers to two random women off the street”. Also cool to see Rhodey in the Iron Man suit and Monica Rambeau Captain Marvel! Certain unsavory folk would have you believe that such characters only started to exist like, a year ago. Also I switched from reading on just my phone to busting out my foldable laptop and reading these in portrait mode on it. The Marvel Unlimited web interface is a nightmare, so it’s best used in tandem with the app, but it’s fine once you’re actually inside the comic you want and boy does it look good on a larger-than-life screen.

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine ‘84

This one was a lot of fun! Seems like this is where the name Shadowcat comes from as far as I can tell? I really liked how small-scale and personal this was, especially coming off the heels of Secret Wars. I would imagine that at the time, this kind of intimate, personal story was a little less common, but that’s just me guessing. I genuinely wasn’t sure how this was going to go, which is a lot of fun. I do always think there’s something kind of inherently funny about Wolverine being a weeaboo, but it’s not a problem or anything.

#comic books #comics #marvel #marvel comics #marvel unlimited

[owlixx]

CoD Notes: Advanced Warfare Beat

This is, what, the 4th game I’ve beaten since the last time I took notes?

I again went into this game wanting to like it. I was rooting for this to be an underdog hidden gem, and honestly I think that’s what happened. It helped that Ghosts was kind of a letdown and this game picked up the pieces.

Hit markers are back! A solid start. RPG profession is back! Another solid return from features BO2 had that Ghosts was missing.

Obviously the big thing here is the exo suits. I kind of like them but there’s some issue. My biggest one is that making us switch between two different kinds of rigs and even then having different abilities for each mission meant that I never knew what my abilities were which meant I just never used them. There was a singular missions towards the end where I finally started using my sonic blast and stim. I was constantly trying to double jump in levels where I didn’t have it. I do generally appreciate the extra mobility though.

I also really like the switchable grenades. It would be overpowered in multiplayer but this isn’t multiplayer so kudos for this feature. I also really like the invisible HUD in campaign where all the ammo/grenades are just visible on your gun itself.

Also the writing in this game is so much better than Ghosts! It’s pretty cringy to see Kevin Spacey so much but he does turn in a pretty great performance, as one would expect. I’ll admit that the “are we the bad guys?” mid-game twist is a little too obvious and happens a little too clumsily but it’s still more entertaining than anything Ghosts was doing. Gideon in particular started to really grow on me by the end.

Oh, also I like that getting stronger is tied to kills, headshot kills, grenade kills, and intel collected. I found the most intel in this game by far and felt actually rewarded for it. I also maxed out headshots like halfway through the game.

The best part of this game is the giant mech suit parts at the end, plus the section where you can’t use your robot arm so you have to just pick up a new gun every time instead of reloading. That section was genuinely such s great idea and is so fun to play through.

It’s not perfect, but AW feels genuinely so much more ambitious than Ghosts. I didn’t connect with his game as a kid but now I’ve really started to develop a fondness for Sledgehammer after being something of a MWIII defender. You can even see kind of connection between “smart grenades” and breacher drones, plus the AMR9 is in both.

Now, I did only play one multiplayer match, and I kind of hated it. I’m sure I’d get used to the movement over time, but I felt like I was just hitting buttons and dying over and over. I have zero desire to revisit this game’s multiplayer.

Also did one exo survival match, it’s fine. I like that it tries to evolve the MW3 survival formula, but both feel so basic compared to anything zombies. At least it means there’s something to do on the multiplayer maps eve when the servers go offline.

I also tried exo zombies since you are forced to get the “gold edition” with 1 DLC if you buy digitally. Here, it actually makes sense since you get a whole new game mode. I had never realized just how similar this mode was to treyarch’s zombie maps, but with everything shifted off a couple degrees. I ended up dying because I got infected and racing to the cure chamber got me killed, but overall this mode impressed me. This is the last one without any meta progression though so I won’t be likely to revisit.

Rankings wise, it’s not better than any of the “golden age” games (MW trilogy, BO 1/2) but it beats even BO3 in terms of raw campaign.

#cod #call of duty #advanced warfare #call of duty advanced warfare #cod Aw

[owlixx]

Comic Todo List

So the sky is the limit now that I’ve got Marvel Unlimited access and I’ve maybe already bit off more than I can chew, but I wanted to go through the series I’ve added to my library on MU and state my interest in them so I don’t forget what I was thinking.

And to be clear, my attention span is super short right now since I just got the app. I like the idea of reading 500 xmen comics in a row…but not yet. So my balking point for issue counts is incredibly low right now but that will change after the first pass of reading a bunch of short series.

Also addendum to my last post: I read like 25 issues of Agent Venom and he’s my blorbo, that was pre college

Man Thing ‘74

22 issues is a bit much for my lack of strong interest here, but I’d like to see some old spooky stuff sometime

Black Panther ‘77

A bit long for how old it is and my current interest but I’ll get around to it.

What If ‘77

44 issues, but some real classics. I wish they had them all in one place.

Contest of Champions ‘82

3 issue crossover, no brainer

Secret Wars ‘84

Short, sweet, never read it all the way

Kitty Pryde and Wolverine ‘84

Short xmen primer

Scarlet Witch and Vision ‘85

12 issues for some classic avengers

Beauty and the Beast ‘85

Seems like a small hidden gem

Strange and Doom ‘89

One shot, easy

Infinity Gauntlet ‘91

Always surprised by how small these crossovers are lengthwise on the core story

Spiderman 2099 ‘92

Long but I want to remember to check out all of 2099

Inhumans ‘98

Short primer on them

Contest of Champions II ‘99

Too funny not to read

Garth Ennis Punisher ‘00

Not a big Garth fun but I want to give it a shot

Daredevil: Yellow ‘01

Recommended to me

Ultimates ‘02

I wanna know a little bit about ultimates

Spiderman: Blue ‘02

Recommended to me

X-Statix ‘02

Reccommended to me

Hulk: Gray ‘03

Recommended to me

1602 ‘03

It’s Neil Gaiman, Cmon

Runaways ‘03

A modern classic

Fantastic Four Origin ‘03

Curio

Warlock ‘04

Hidden gem

Loki ‘04

Website recommended it

She Hulk ‘04

App reccomended

House of M ‘05

Easy, vital read

Young Avengers ‘05

Kind of curious

Son of M ‘05

Short, seems interesting

X-Factor ‘05

Circle back to later

Nextwave ’06

Love a self contained story

Dr. Strange: The Oath ‘06

Seems like a succinct strange story

Blade ‘06

Gotta have one blade

Civil War ‘06

Never actually read the original

World War Hulk ‘07

And same here

Guardians of the Galaxy ‘08

App recommended

Punisher ‘09

App recommended

Tron ‘10

I love tron

Uncanny X-Force ‘10

Recommended to me

Deadpool Kills ‘11

Short and oft referenced

Wolverine and Xmen ‘11

Recommended to me

Infinity ‘13

Short, could be fun

Age of Ultron ‘13

Gotta know the source material

Silver Surfer Parable ‘88

One shot

Moon Knight ‘14

More good look knight

Silver Surfer ‘14

I’ll give him one run

Ms Marvel ‘14

Her origin

She Hulk ‘14

Comes recommended

Black Widow ‘14

App recommended

Elektra ‘14

App recommended, says it’s painted

All New Wolverine ‘15

Recommended to me

Vader ‘15

Gotta try one star wars

Captain America: White ‘15

Recommended to me

Scarlet Witch ‘15

App recommended

Jessica Jones ‘16

Recommended to me

Gwenpool ‘16

Recommended to me

Mockingbird ‘16

Self contained story

Civil War II ‘16

Morbid curiosity

Thanos ‘16

A bit long but could be fun

Old Man Logan ‘16

Recommended to me

Black Panther ‘16

App recommended, I’m iffy

Rocket ‘17

App recommended

Black Bolt ‘17

Recommended by everyone

Immortal Hulk ‘18

Recommended to me

Jessica Jones ‘18

Recommended, short

Venom ‘18

Apparently the best venom

Deadpool ‘19

App recommended

House of X ‘19

Short, recommended

Black Widow ‘19

App recommended

Dazzler ‘19

Recommended to me

Guardians of the Galaxy ‘20

App recommended

Empyre ‘20

App recommended

Xterminators ‘22

Recommended to me

#comics #comic books #marvel #marvel unlimited #marvel comics

[owlixx]

Comics I Remember Reading

Whats uuuuuuup, this is now a comic blog for a while. Got access to my best friend’s Marvel Unlimited account so now I’m reading a bunch of comics and I wanna jot down what I read as I go, but first I need to jot down what all I can remember already reading.

Phase 1: Pre-College

So first off, the biggie is reading all of Invincible a few years ago. That’s easy to keep track of. It’s great. Duh.

Besides that, I think the first comic thing I really remember getting into was reading all of Secret Wars and a good chunk of the supporting material when it was the most recent big crossover. I liked that a lot at the time but I need to revisit it as an adult sometime.

I read some self contained story from the 80s(?) about Avengers and a supervillain prison breakout…can’t remember what it was called.

Oh and I read maybe a dozen issues from the start of Ultimate Spiderman

Phase 2: Post-College

My comic reading really stepped up when I started getting comics from the local library and with the assistance of my best friend’s recommendations.

I read Court of Owls, I liked it well enough. (Recommended to me)

I read Kingdom Come, it’s of course very fun. (Recommended to me)

I read the first half of Saga (all of it at the time) and enjoyed it up until the end and now I’m soured on it.

I read All Star Superman and it was fun but a couple parts confused me. (Recommended to me)

I read Superior Foes of Spiderman and really enjoyed it. (Reccomended to me)

I also of course read Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye, kind of associate that with the above for being about loser malewifes. (Recommended to me)

I checked our X Factor and X Statixx but never read them.

I personally picked out a Daniel Way Venom and hated it, and didn’t care for the Bendis Moon Knight I picked out either.

Phase 3: Kind of Recently

Read a Spider-Man What If where he keeps Venom, liked that

Phase 4: Recently

So far I’ve read the Tom King Visions family comic and like half of a mid 2010’s Moon Knight. The Vision run is great of course and the Moon Knight is fun because it’s clearly what inspired the show, even if I didn’t love the show. Marvel Unlimited is weird though because this “series” clearly contains 2 barely related arcs.

#comics #comic books #marvel #marvel unlimited #dc

[owlixx]

CoD Notes: Ghosts Beat

Yep, another whole game start to finish since my last notes.

Going in, I wanted to like this game. I was hoping it would be a real hidden gem. I knew this game had a bad reputation but a few staunch defenders and I was ready to keep my mind open. I ended up tolerating the game and agreeing that it is underrated, but I’m not head over heels for it.

Positives: I like the graphics, the feel of the guns, the UI. I like the idea of a story about a future war where the US is an underdog. I liked the space stuff and more sci fi elements. I liked playing as one character from start to finish and being told an actual story.

Negatives: first thing I noticed was no hot markers in the campaign. I prefer having them. Actually even before that was the bizarre opening cutscene where the Ghosts are first explained to be a military team who one time hid under some dead bodies and killed all but one guy who said they must be “ghosts”. No relation to Simon Riley Ghost aside from the name of the dog which seems bizarre. The next thing I noticed was how boring and samey a lot of the guns are. Half the guns that drop are the SCA and SA or something like that and I can’t tell them apart.

More negatives: The main thing wrong with this game for me personally is the nothing-plot combined with the goofy tryhard writing. Making the villain faction “all of South America banding together” seems odd but I’d have rather focused on that rather than focus so heavily on a guy who used to be a Ghost being the main villain. Rorke sucks as a character because the writers clearly want him to emulate villains they’ve seen in other, better fiction before but have no idea what makes him tick or what his motivations are. He seems to be upset that Elias dropped him, but any stereotypical military leader (as Rorke seemed to be in that flashback mission) would’ve told their squad to do the same thing. But that’s not the real issue. The issue is that he ALSO got supposedly tortured and brainwashed by the South American military offscreen and with zero proof of work of exploration of this concept. Which one is it? Is he brainwashed or betrayed? It would’ve been an amazing twist to have him reveal that they never did torture him, he just went along with all this of his own volition. But that would’ve ruined the other twist of our player character being teased at getting brainwashed right at the end, which is hilarious now knowing this game will never get a sequel.

More bad writing: it’s so funny that IW wanted to tell a more personal story this time but still didn’t want to make the player character speak or visible or do anything interesting, so they gave us a brother so that somebody here would actually be able to be seen interacting with our dad. It’s not a terrible way to accomplish what they were going for but it has the side effect of putting up a mirror and showing that there’s nothing in our reflection, so to speak. It’s one thing to have a silent player avatar in isolation but with our brother there, it makes our character feel weirdly mute by contrast.

The worst writing: the worst of it though is everything relating to the Ghosts. Maybe this is just because I had a mission crash and had to rewatch this one cutscene like four times, but the perfect example of this is the cutscene where Hesh (I think) talks about how “I’ve seen soldiers bury their dead before, but not like this”. BROOOOOO calm DOOWWWN. We are told that everything the Ghosts do is cool and good and awesome but then they just die and get captured like any other character. There’s literally nothing special about them. Rorke is obsessed with killing all the Ghosts but that’s just because they used to be his coworkers. That’s the only thing special about them. And the twist that our dad is the leader is painfully obvious because he won’t shut up about how cool and totally real they are. There is zero significance or weight to the player and our brother becoming Ghosts. They didn’t even have a little ceremony or anything.

Anyways, the last big negatives are the glitches and the signposting. I had a mission hard crash and make me start from the start of the whole level which isn’t a dealbreaker but isn’t great and hasn’t happened before. Then also I had to restart a checkpoint once because the helicopter I had to kill wouldn’t spawn in even though I could hear it and wandered the whole map trying to get it to trigger. And by “signposting”, I just mean that I got lost in this game more than any other CoD because of the lack of objective markers. They still have those tacky golden glowing objects to interact with though.

I did a tiny amount of multiplayer. Got the castle map, which I remember from being a kid but it was far too big to have any fun on. The whole “squad” concept is fascinating but ultimately feels a little flat. Why do I need 10 soldiers if the customization isn’t that deep? I am kind of happy to see currency return from BO1 but with contextual camo challenges that DONT require a million headshots before you can even start working on the rest, which I think even the later BO3 suffers from. “Field orders” are a fascinating weird addition that I think only make sense against bots, but also I love that bot matches can grant XP since it’s hard to find a regular match now. I just wish they had a separate set of challenges for facing bots.

Also played a little of extinction, including the DLC1 map that I had to get as part of the “gold edition”. Its…fine. I do appreciate them trying something new, and introducing meta progression. I would’ve played plenty as a kid but now it just lacks the nostalgia factor of other classic Treyarch zombies stuff, and it seems like an uphill battle for solo players. The DLC1 initial boss fight destroyed me and my one online companion which seemed unfair. I do also like the idea of the random challenges on each hive but they seem a little unbalanced.

#CoD #call of duty #cod ghosts #call of duty ghosts

[owlixx]

CoD Notes: BO2 Beat

Got this game done start to finish in record time so it’s all a bit of a blur, but I’ll jot down my overall impressions before going level by level.

Overall, I like this game a lot. I think it’s not a hot take to say it is mechanically stronger than Black Ops, but narratively weaker. Finally getting hit markers and class customization in the campaign is a godsend, and I’d rank them at the top of the list of new features. Somewhere in the middle would be the “branching paths” story decisions, and towards the bottom would be the strike force missions. Oh, also I do like the campaign mission challenges too.

Now, the class loadout system did just turn into me using a threat finder scope on an LMG towards the end, but I appreciate that I got to choose that for myself. And I like certain gear being unlocked from challenges to encourage replaying. If I had played this on the 360 where I got games much less frequently, I likely would’ve replayed this campaign tons, but I got this on PC after becoming a PC gamer and having a zillion games to play.

To elaborate on the Strike Force missions, I simply do not like them. I only did the tutorial one and I barely survived. I had a lot more patience for these as a kid but I just wasn’t feeling it. Maybe it’s just because I’m in a rush to get to the next game, but I just want an objective and some guys to kill. I also think this would’ve made more sense as a take on MW3’s Survival mode, with the option to purchase troops between waves and using each multiplayer map.

The split narrative of this game is another “new feature” I suppose, and it’s just…fine. I like having an entire second set of weapons to play with, but this felt very unnecessary. It makes me wonder if they already had some of these levels or story bests designed before deciding to go futuristic. I don’t think anything they said about Mason/Woods really needed to be said, and I may have preferred to have kept the action focused in either 2025 or 1985.

For that matter, a lot of the “high tech” sci fi stuff like the wing suit, grippy globes, spider drone, etc. feel a little shoe horned and unnecessary.

I wanna say this is also the first of these games to just start making up entirely fictional weaponry, which makes sense given the setting but still kind of contributed to the franchise’s identity going forward.

Raul Menendez is just an okay villain. In theory, he’s more complex than previous villains because of his dead sister, but that doesn’t really connect to his weird cult or dark knight joker antics, it just feels like they needed a reason for him to hate Woods. He comes across as a kind of…wannabe villain. Sure, the Black Ops 1 villains are just standard evil Russians, but somehow that felt more believable than “a cartel guy from the 80’s becomes the leader of a billion person cult in 2025 just to really screw with one singular guy”. They never even really explore the implication of his cult having 1-2 billion members. Also I’m already misremembering some of the details of Raul with some of the details of Hades from Advanced Warfare.

This is already starting to take up a bit of time to write out so I’ll just rattle off some mission thoughts from memory rather than pull up the list of every mission.

The hotel resort mission - kind of a cool concept and decent in execution.

Driving a car that one time - I really fumbled with it, and weird that it lets you pick whether to do the car or the drone.

Opening mission - seems weird to open with basically a Black Ops 1 epilogue but it’s fine enough.

President saving/Final mission - a little toasty in terms of difficulty, but fine.

Also it’s so funny to me any time they transition to Woods by saying “hey remember that one time my uncle told us about a story?”

Oh btw I got the worst ending possible.

The mission where you play as Raul is so silly to me because he has a ton of health and a melee attack but I died anyways so my version of events is Raul huffing and puffing and being very mad about his sister dying but still carefully popping out of cover with a scoped rifle.

I wanna say this is kind of the beginning of a lot of grey hallways being a go to for the series.

I do really like that the HUD is different between the 80s and 2020s even down to the hit marker visual.

Oh, and I did really enjoy the one 80s sniping mission.

And the scene where Woods is tricked into shooting Mason is a lot of fun! …but it’s no Black Ops 1.

Finally, I did play a singular match of Town on zombies. Managed to find a guy online! He didn’t know English well but we still managed to interact a small bit and got to round 18 or so before I blew it and brought us both down. Got a ray gun on my first try at the box! Well, my third try, but the first try where all I wanted was a ray gun. Okay, fourth try because I had gotten monkeys on my actual first try.

Also couldn’t find a match in game so I hopped on Plutonium (fan server add on) and played one match. I mean, it’s not bad, but I don’t think I feel the urge to revisit the multiplayer of this era as badly as I thought I would. It is hilarious seeing just how much I used the pump shotgun in this game online and nothing else nearly as much in my career record.

In the rankings, hmm…probably below BO1/MW2 but above MW1/3

#CoD #call of duty #black ops 2 #black ops #bo2

[owlixx]

CoD Notes: BO1 Finished

I had been worried that Black Ops 1 would unfairly feel like a step backwards for me since I decided to do MW1/2/3 back to back and MW3 came out a year later. This was not the case. Black Ops feels like such a revelation to the franchise. The story isn’t high art, but it feels so much more involved than anything else in the franchise up to this point. The voice cast is far more stacked than ever before. Alex Mason as a protagonist is far more interesting than any previous protagonist. I think his largest competition is Soap, who only gets to be more than silent player avatar in MW2/3 and even then isn’t as interesting as Mason.

I mean, this one game has so many more memorable characters than any other Call of Duty. Ed Harris’s Hudson, Ice Cube’s Bowman, Gary Oldman’s Reznov, Woods all stand out but even Weaver, Dragovich, Steiner, that one scientist guy in Kowloon, are all so much more vivid than the tryhard wannabe NPC’s of something like Ghosts (oops, I beat many games in a row without taking notes).

The plot twist alone elevates this game from “stupid annual release” to video game hall of fame. I’d argue that video games are the best medium for plot twists. It’s no Bioshock, but the Reznov twist is so fun and so well executed. I remember it blowing my mind as a kid and it was a ton of fun to see all the little hints as I went through this time. But I’ve already talked about the game at large twice. Let’s get into the last few missions.

Crashed plane assault mission was fine. I noticed the radio shout out a “Sergeant Blundell” which I recognized as Jason Blundell, the main Black Ops guy, this time. Also very funny and on the nose to have a section set to Sympathy for the Devil.

Snowy mountain assault was just okay. The top-down tactical part was clearly a stepping stone to the Strike Team missions of Black Ops 2. Didn’t love that section. But it was kind of funny to get to play as Hudson. This series seems to have some sort of quota to meet on having multiple playable characters. I did struggle really hard on one checkpoint in this level.

Then is the Vietnam mission where you get to fly a helicopter. I remember liking that part as a kid and it’s fine now. I’ll admit that these ‘Nam levels blend together for me.

But then we’ve got the Rebirth Island assault where you sneak around as Mason and do a gas-mask armored strike as Hudson. It’s pretty cool to get to see the same moment from two perspectives, a rare good use for having multiple playable characters. I will admit that Hudson’s breakable gas mask ended my life many times though.

Then the big plot twist as a cutscene mission, which is very fun.

Then finally the big boat assault and underwater base. Nothing too special gameplay wise, but generally a nice capper on the game.

And I love the implication that Mason killed JFK. I mean, it’s a very strong implication, but I suppose they never outright confirm it was him who pulled the trigger. I half expected the final scene of zooming in on Mason photoshopped into the background of a JFK pic to turn into a “JFK assassination simulator” for a second, but instead it transitions directly into the opening cutscene for Five, which is such a treat.

I did manage to get to round, like, 9, I wanna say, on Five. Sadly died right I before I could PaP because I forgot how the weapon thief mechanic worked and ended up double buying a gun. The voice lines in this map are even funnier to me as an adult who has more context on this era.

Overall, I think this game is peak CoD as far as campaigns go. First, set out to tell a story that would work even outside of this series, then drench it in a particular era and add a bunch of fun weapons and setpieces.

In the rankings so far, I think this is going at the top.

#call of duty #CoD #black ops 1 #black ops #bo1

[owlixx]

CoD Notes: BO1 Continued

Played some more! Finished the mission where you get out of Vietnam “with Reznov”.

Finished the Kowloon mission, a pretty good one. I appreciate the visual variety in this game. And it was nice to use a sniper and a G11! I swear some of the CoD campaigns want to hide the snipers from you.

The highlight of this session though was the Reznov flashback mission. How fun! And so many WW2 guns to use. Very neat to be able to do. And this time I’m fairly certain that other character is the player from WaW which is so fun! I either didn’t realize that as a kid or had forgotten since then. Funny that Black Ops 3 also has a snowy WW2 mission.

And then the mildly stealthy Vietnam jungle mission is just alright, the highlight of course is the tunnel sequence at the end.

Nine missions down, six to go!

#CoD #call of duty #black ops #black ops 1