Zero Atoms » Gaming

CoD and Halo: Breaking Down the Differences

Tim — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 04:03:17 +0000

Hello, readers. Today I’d like to talk a bit about people’s views on those that play Halo — BEFORE you click away, hear me out. I’m not a crazed fanboy defending himself or a devout CoD frat boy downing on it. I’m simply trying to disect the issue. I’ll explain after the jump.

I’m going to start off with how I started thinking about the different views of Halo and CoD by watching the positive and negative comments unroll on KontrolFreak’s Facebook post saying simple, “What are your favorite Halo fanpages?” Needless to say, many more outspoken CoD maniacs follow KontrolFreak on Facebook, so there were more negative responses from those people than the actually neutral — that’s right, not saying Haloz iz 4 teh pro gamers — just trying to explain the differences.

I’m going full disclosure before continuing: I do think Halo’s a better game, but I try to pride myself in keeping a neutral stance on all games — I will say x is better than y among friends, as my personal opinion, but I can think objectively. For those of you having not finished seventh grade, objective thinking is factual thinking, versus subjective thinking which is based in opinions.

Kill Speed

First off, I’d like to talk about ease of getting a kill. In Halo and CoD, anybody can get a kill easily. However, they play to different skill sets. CoD plays to fast-reacting and weapon-specific players (often, not saying only). Halo plays to people who are better at maintaining a lock on their target and firing in a controlled manner. We all know kills in CoD take a maximum of two seconds, in most cases. Otherwise, you utterly fail at Cod in accuracy or choosing the proper weapon for the range you’re shooting at. So in CoD, the game is faster paced and based on first-come, first-serve, basically. Most cases, whoever gets the first few hitmarkers gets the kill — accuracy providing. This takes a certain amount of what some would call “skill” out of the game, in many cases — before you rage, let me continue! — because a lucky shot can easily land you the kill. I myself, in first getting MW2, wasn’t great at CoD — I could easily hold my own, but I could also get my ass handed to me. I was an average player. However, CoD did make me a better shooter player overall, because I had to learn to react even faster and figure out my preferred weapon — but only because my friends played CoD (MW2) at the time, and I was being put in lobbies with people out of my league. To quote Eric Nylund in one of his books explains this: “Adapt or die.” I adapted, and rose to a higher reaction-time and learned my best weapon faster. The only reason Halo didn’t hone my reaction-times was because a) my friends weren’t playing it at the time, so I played with people who were at my Halo rank and b) I wasn’t being properly challenged.

I’d like to take a minute to fully explain the Halo bit, if I may. You can skip this paragraph if you want, as this is just me fully explaining why Halo wasn’t the game to hone my reaction-times (mostly for those who might prefer Halo, so I can explain myself to them — you?). To explain the Halo bit a bit better than just two points, Halo was quite literally my first Xbox game — ever. First one I ever played. But now for some badly-fitting sentences, and a brief story. My friends bought Halo 3 not a huge amount of time before me — along with their first 360 — so I decided it was the first game for me to get on my brand new 360. Now, I sucked at Halo at that point. I had never played it online before, so when I played with my friend (who was pretty good) and his brother (who is either the luckiest or most skillful person on Earth, and I’m not joking) I dragged them down. So I settled to be the driver on all vehicle maps and the support role, leaving them to do what fit them best: shooting. To stop short, that’s why Halo didn’t hone my reaction-time because I took a second-place role all the time in it. To defend myself, though, I was the best driver in videogames of anybody I’ve ever faced. My two friends were, in my world, the gods of shooters, and I sat happily on my podium for the god of driving. I did take some time to learn the rope of driving in a war game, mind you, but once I learned the maps my hog always lived. Even without a gunner, somehow I could drive my ass off to shake a gauss turret. But back to me taking a second-place role, as I got vehicle maps less and less I got better and better. I was just below my friend’s (not his brother) skill level when he quit Halo when he got bored of it, but I passed him soon after. Satisfied, I stopped playing Halo — nobody I knew played it anymore, really. But later, when I got MW2, I was once again back to shit-status. I was great at WaW, but let’s be honest: that’s not that hard (if you want to know my preferred weapon sets, i would rock any rifle excluding snipers at any range). So in MW2, I sucked. It was much faster paced than Halo. It took me awhile to get used to it, but as long as you ignore one of my friends who says he can beat anyone, I’m alright in it now — have been, actually, only took me a few weeks to get good — and my average game, alone without friends to watch my back is a 25-5, K-D. Though with all the modders and religious players with over three weeks logged in it, I now go closer to 25-20 or negative — but I can’t help that. Explanation over.

Kill Speed (continued)

Now talking about kill speed in Halo. Halo, as we all know, is a MUCH slower game, overall. Not if you’re in a game with me or my friends with other good players, but generally matchmaking goes much slower than CoD’s. While CoD relies on reaction-times and knowing your specific weapon, Halo makes you focus on adapting (the Eric Nylund quote was from “Fall of Reach” by him — and yes I read it, I was curious). Adaptation is the key. You won’t get your TAR, Famas, Scar, F2000, or any other weapon all the time! So you adapt, and learn to work as a squad. You have to play to your skills on many maps. Personally, I’m not a very great marksman in Halo. So I try to run in and do what damage I can for my friends who might be better at that kind of thing — note, however, I’m desperately trying to separate my Halo 3 experiences from the Halo: Reach Multiplayer Beta, which I rocked better than Halo 3, I’ll say unmodestly (non-modestly? arrogantly?). Continuing, in Halo you learn to use grenades more and melee more combined with guns. So even with all this, kills can still take forever because of people having a chance to duck behind cover more often, due to lower weapon damage.

I can tell you however, in Reach the game is much faster-paced with more powerful grenades, assault rifles, and pistols overall.

Though, I guess I have to talk about SWAT, as well. In case you CoD-goers didn’t know, SWAT is Halo 3′s hardcore mode. headshots ftw, and bodyshots still take a good many hits do get a kill with. This still isn’t all that fast-paced in Halo 3 compared to CoD because the maps feel larger — I guess in Halo people use more of them, they don’t just go to high-traffic areas adding to the traffic.

So it’s settled in speed: CoD kills are faster because of less permanent cover and Halo’s kills are slower because of a greater mix of different-ranged weapons being used in different ranges, and more body-tracking is required, due to the lower weapon damage and higher bullet resistance.

Size

Halo’s a completely different game because of the sense of scale, as well, from CoD. CoD’s small corridors make contact happen faster, and therefore more kills-per-minute lending to shorter games. Halo’s much larger maps, and more low-range weapons makes the games take longer and fewer kills-per-minute because more time is devoted to finding people — and that is NOT a bad thing! Nobody likes spawning and finding an enemy putting a bullet through your virtual skull seconds after you spawned. Halo suffers from spawn-camping as much as any shooter, but larger maps allow for more spawns, therefore decreasing the chance of getting spawn-camped, and combined with slower kills, those getting shot at often having a chance to regain health and kill their oppressors (ie spawn-campers, in case you weren’t following).

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Emotional Reactions to Games

Tim — Sun, 30 May 2010 23:01:29 +0000

Hey guys and gals, I’m going to be writing a post for you today! The topic is ‘Emotional Reactions to Games’, I will talk about my feelings on games that get you involved about specific characters, and how that affects people.

When I play the singleplay story of videogames today, I don’t want shit like Modern Warfare 2, or most other games out there. Even Halo 3. I want to feel connected to the story, drawn in, and feel saddened by the loss of a character, like in a book. Too often do games have throwaway stories, and they learn nothing from their rivals. At the very least, I want to feel sad or regret upon killing something.

The last time I was actually sad in a game was in playing Fable 2. I had sided with the evil cult because of the advantages of doing so, but then I was sent away for awhile. I came back to a town ravaged by the same cult I joined, and the very air was darker in the village; gloomy. I strongly regretted my actions, and remembered the names of several of the villagers I had interacted with most often. They, too, seemed gloomier. I had brought this upon the people. This is the emotional reaction I want — I want a game to be evocative.

Another instance of an emotional reaction in a game was playing GTA4 – yes GTA4, it has feelings, too — and several times I was faced with decisions of execution. These people I weren’t actually attached to, but in their final hour I actually stopped and thought. I thought of what I’d been told they’d done, and what part of that I thought was true. I shot Playboy-X because he hung his mentor out to dry. I killed several meaningless druglords. I saved Ivan, though, because he was against the menace I was forced to work for, and every act of rebellion I could pull off was strived for. Most of the characters in that game I didn’t care about, but these decisions made me stop and think. That’s what makes an even weakly compelling story: moments where you have to stop and think, where there’s no immediately obvious gain either way and it’s a completely moral decision.

Another way, I feel, to achieve a more evocative game and make people take more stock in their actions, is to add children to games. If there were children in GTA, I’d be a lot less likely to shoot anybody who said anything negative to me on the streets. Especially if each kid felt unique, as in there was an extreme variety in the character models and speech options to each action, and if they acted scared more wretchedly than the adults. I know I’d feel sad, ashamed, and regretful if I killed a young kid that was tripping, scrambling, screaming in his or her attempt to just get away from me.

To address you now, I’d like to ask: do you want more evocative and compelling singleplayer campaigns in games, or the throwaway crap that’s been all that’s being developed the past years especially? Would you also like to see similar things carried over into the multiplayer?

Thanks for reading!, in case you were wondering who this new guys is; I’m Tim, owner and founder of Fynmark.org (known before fall of 2008 as Finmark with an “I“). I’ve known Sean here for awhile, and helped him out a little bit with his forum that he used to own. We knew each other from Droidz (a little known and low community count pivot website). But that’s enough of our personal affairs.

I might be making some more guest posts here soon, so hopefully I’ll see you then!

EA Online [Rant]

Sean — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 06:44:37 +0000

Hey guys, this was going to be a comparison of Modern Warfare 2 and Battlefield Bad Company 2 but since BFBC2 is unplayable to the point where reviewing it would be pointless, I’ve decided to vent using the wonder that is ranting. The rant isn’t so much about BFBC2 as much as it is about EA, so here goes. (Warning: Contains Coarse Language)

Okay Electronic Arts, I’ve had enough of your crap. Everytime I try to make an account or link my account or something, it doesn’t work, it’s either a system error on your website or it says something to the effect of “Your online account is not allowed to access online gameplay” when I try to log in/sign-up on my Xbox 360. My Xbox Live account is not set as under age and it is not on any family settings. I’ve tried so many things just to play your game but still it does not work and many, many other people have reported the same problem.

Yet you continue to make players create an account on your shitty website just so they can play a game they already bought from you even though they have already got an account with Microsoft. Isn’t the money they paid for the game enough for you?, you have to go and get members for your useless site too just so they can give you feedback on the game, well guess what?, most of the feedback is negative because your online accounts still don’t allow them to go online!

You really need to piss that registration shit off right now!, no body wants it, it’s just a compleatly un-necessary thing to have, I see no other game companies with this kind of crap!, why do you have to do it?!

You are loosing out on hundreds of thousands of dollars because of that stupid system because no one is going to keep a game that doesn’t work! As a matter of fact, I will be taking back my copy of BFBC2 as soon as possible because not only does the online not work, but the campaign sucks as well. There is cut-scene’s every 5 seconds which you cannot skip, the team mates do not move out of your road to let you go at your own pace and the graphics and sounds are totally shit when in cut-scene’s and arn’t all that great when playing either. You’ve given DICE a bad name.

I will happily go back to playing Modern Warfare 2 thank you very much, the glitches in MW2 are nothing compared to the shit you’re dishing out.

Sorry about the rant guys, I had to vent. I highly recommend you stay away from anything made by EA if you plan on playing online because it’s just one giant headache.

Modern Warfare 2 – Shotgun Attachment

Sean — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 07:07:44 +0000

Hey guys, me and my friend (razza 2) were playing MW2 on Xbox Live last night and thought we’d have a private match with the shotgun weapon attachments only.

When we were playing a game on rust we noticed that the range on those things was extreamly long and accurate at the same time. We thought “Hmm.. Lets test the range on these things against the Model 1887′s” So we did and I recorded it.

My friend has the Model 1887′s Blinged (Akimbo and FMJ) and I have the Shotgun Attachment on the SCAR-H, we both have Stopping Power and Steady Aim on aswell.

Here the video of us testing it:

As you can see at the start of the video, he is unable to shoot me but I am able to shoot him very easily. We estimate that the bullets can accuratly hit a target from 20 meters away but you would need approximitly 3-4 shots to kill a target in a hardcore game, 1-2 shots from 15 meters and 1 shot from 10 meters or less.

Question: What do you think of this?, do you think people will start to exploit this or do you think it’s pretty well balanced?

In my opinion the range is increadible and isn’t realistic but I do not think this will threaten the way we play because of how little the damage is at that range. By the time someone has shot you with one of them, you’ve already found them and can shoot back.

Thank you for reading! Let me know your thoughts in the comments, I’d love to hear it!

Games Using 3D Glasses?

Sean — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:26:12 +0000

Hey guys,

“Should games use the same 3D technolodgy that avatar used?” This is what crossed my mind when I was watching avatar in 3D at the movies a few weeks ago.

Weapons:

AUG HBAR – Red Dot
Javelin (or Stinger)

Equipment:

Blast Shield
Flash Grenade

Perks:

Scavanger (Pro Version recommended)
Cold Blooded (Pro Version not needed)
Ninja (Pro Version not needed)

Death Streaks:

Final Stand

Information: This class is designed for you to pull out and use when an enemy has a aircraft in the sky. You’ll definintly want to use this one when your team is getting owned by somebodys Chopper Gunner or AC 130.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I do!. Btw, I’m probably going to write more about MW2 sometime in the near future too, so don’t forget to subscribe (in the sidebar) if you want to read more!

P.S: If you want to hit me up for a few games of MW2, just add me on Xbox Live, my gamertag is: MentalGamefreak.

5 Helpful Modern Warfare 2 Tactics

Sean — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 12:01:36 +0000

Hey guys, today I’m giving you 5 helpful tactics for Modern Warfare 2, they should really come in handy, and even if you don’t use them, atleast you’ll know what some other people might be using against you so you can combat it.

Stop, Drop & Shoot

This tactic is for when someone is moving towards you and you’re caught a bit off guard.

Once you see them, stop moving, drop to prone and shoot at them.

This gets them off guard because they wont be expecting you to just lay down in the middle of the ground, so for a second or so, they’ll still be shooting where you were, not where you are.

Thermal + Smoke

This tactic can be quite handy on large maps or maps with narrow hallways.

Step 1:

Put a thermal scope on any gun you wish, then choose the smoke grenade.

Step 2:

While you’re in a match, locate where a group of enemy’s are, then throw a smoke grenade in between yourself and the enemy’s and then look down the sight through the thermal scope.

You will now still be able to see them and they won’t be able to see you, so now you are free to shoot them all you like and they’ll just be shooting blindly into the smoke hoping to hit someone (unless they have a thermal too, so be careful).

Unlimited Grenades

This tactic is extreamly simple but works quite well.

Step 1:

Add scavanger to a class with a grenade set as your equipment.

Step 2:

Find a bunch of dead enemies all relativly near each other and just stay near them.

Step 3:

Chuck a few grenades towards the enemy and keep walking over the blue bags to get more grenades.

Keep doing that for as long as you want, it can last you quite a while.

Defensive Play

Step 1:

Find a good little area with a nice view of the enemy’s main congregation area.

Step 2:

Pick off the enemy’s when they come into view, but stay on the move in your little area so that when the enemy you just killed comes back for you (and believe me, they will), you can kill them again because they’ll be caught off guard by the fact that you’ve moved a few meters to the left.

Step 3:

After a few kills, be sure to check if anyone is trying to flank you, because they’ll be thinking you’re only watching the one way and we don’t want them to be right about that, now do we?

This is not camping by the way, camping is staying in the same exact spot all the time. This is called playing defensivly, it’s preaty much holding down a position. You wouldn’t go to war running around and firing into the distance hoping to hit something, would you?

Nuke in 7 Kills

This is a great tactic to easily get a nuke in 7 standard kills.

Step 1:

Set the following kill streak rewards: Harrier Airstrike, Chopper Gunner (or AC 130) and Tactical Nuke.

Step 2:

Use the ‘Defensive Play’ (as shown above) tactic untill you get 7 kills in a row and then call out the Harrier Airstrike near the enemy.

Step 3:

Camp in a secluded area while your Harrier racks up 4 kills, then use the Chopper Gunner or AC 130 and kill 14 more people.

Once that’s done, call in your Nuke and enjoy the slow-mo finish.

I hope you enjoyed this post, please don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed or Follow me on twitter if you like what I write and want to know when there is a new post here.

5 Great Weapon Classes for MW2

Sean — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:48:03 +0000

Hey guys, instead of posting a review of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 like I said I would on twitter, I thought since everyone has done it, why bother?

So I’m going to give you 5 custom classes that will give you a huge boost in how well you play if you use them right.

Custom Class #1 – Stealth:

Weapons:

SCAR-H – Silencer
PP-2000 – Silencer

Equipment:

Throwing Knife
Smoke Grenade

Perks:

Marathon (Pro Version recommended)
Cold-Blooded (Pro Version recommended)
Ninja (Pro Version needed)

Death Streak:

Pain Killer

Information: This class is designed for stealth (obviously), with this one you’ll want to use it to get as close to the enemy as possible and as soon as possible to ‘flank them’ (kill them while they’re distracted).

Custom Class #2 – Rambo:

Weapons:

SCAR-H – ACOG Scope
PP-2000 – Akimbo

Equipment:

Frag Grenade or Throwing Knife
Flash Grenade

Perks:

Marathon (Pro Version recommended)
Light-Weight (Pro Version not needed)
Commando (Pro Version needed)

Death Streak:

Final Stand

Information: This class is designed for those wanna-be rambo’s out there (me) that feel like they need to rush in and kill 40 people at once, well now you can.. kinda (more like ‘kill 4 people at once’ since there is only like 6 people on a team).

Custom Class #3 – LMG Assault:

Weapons:

AUG HBAR – Red dot
USP .45

Equipment:

Frag Grenade or Semtex Grenade
Flash Grenade

Perks:

Sleight of Hand (Pro Version recommended)
Hardline (Pro Version not needed)
Steady Aim (Pro Version not needed)

Death Streak:

Final Stand or Pain Killer

Information: This class wasn’t really designed for anything.. I just tried it out one day and found it worked really well, if you use it like it’s an assault rifle with a giant clip, you’ll do well.

Custom Class #4 – Professional Sniper

Weapons:

Intervention – Silencer
Desert Eagle (or any other pistol)

Equipment:

Tactical Insertion
Smoke Grenade

Perks:

Sleight of Hand (Pro Version highly recommended)
Cold-Blooded (Pro Version recommended)
Steady Aim (Pro Version highly recommended)

Death Streak:

Final Stand

Information: This one was designed for snipers that want to use what real life snipers use. Just find a nice spot to set up camp and drop those guys from the other side of the map while they sit there trying to spot you.

Custom Class #5 – Explosives Expert:

Weapons:

M41A – Grenade Launcher
Javalin

Equipment:

C4
Flash Grenade

Perks:

Scavenger (Pro Version recommended)
Danger Close (Pro Version not needed)
SitRep (Pro Version not needed)

Death Streak:

Pain Killer

Information: This one was designed for people who love to see things explode.. or just people who are good with explosives and want to use that to their full potential.

Kill Streaks:

Care Package (3 Kills)
Harrier Airstrike (7 Kills)
Emergency Airdrop (8 Kills)

Information: These are my three recommended kill streak rewards for all of the above classes.

I hope you enjoy those custom Modern Warfare 2 classes!, please let me know how you go with them in the comments section below.

Go here for a second set of custom classes if you enjoyed this one: 5 More Modern Warfare 2 Classes