Monday Night Combat - Early Impressions

So I've been playing MNC off and on for about a week now (between games of battlefield Bad Company 2) and have decided to try to put together some thoughts on the game. Just a note: I have left a LOT out for the sake of brevity. Just want to keep this general while providing background on where I'm drawing my conclusions from.

I'll start with this: for $15, you get a lot of game.
Here are the positives:
1. There's a single-player/co-op mode that's interesting and almost like a tower defense game in which you're a more direct participant.
2. There are 6 classes to choose from and all of them are difficult to master.
3. The crossfire match is an intense 6-on-6 multi-player game with several different ways to contribute to your team no matter what class you are.
4. Combat is intense, the game is polished and there are a TON of hard decisions to make over the course of one crossfire match.

All of that is great, but brings me to one of the biggest problems with the current "DLC" game industry. No Manual. In MNC's case, there's not even one available on the web (that I could find). This makes an already steep learning curve almost insurmountable for a beginner. The available walk through gives you an idea of the controls for one class, and some basic game concepts, but falls short on the details (like various turrets' and weapons' power/range). This would be fine, except the details aren't made available to you at all.

As I said, the learning curve is STEEP. Each combatant has 2 weapons (with a right mouse and left mouse function) and 3 "skills" (some of which may be weapons). For instance, the Assault has a grenade launcher(much like the TF2 demoman) and an assault rifle to select from via the mouse wheel. The right mouse button does a "Grapple" (close-quarters take-down like in a fighting game) for the grenade launcher, but the Assault rifle zooms in for better accuracy. He can also "Fly" (float at his current height with a jet-pack), throw a bomb to be detonated later with the same key, and "charge" (which can be used to knock players off the map). Every single one of these things should be used to play effectively.

These skills and weapons can also be upgraded using money. Money is gained by killing bots, players and opponents turrets. The biggest issue in learning the game is that you die a lot. When you die, your opponent becomes more powerful and can now kill you much faster than he could before. I think you can see where I'm going with this. On top of that, he's now a greater threat to your teammates and all of your team's bots and emplacements. With the re-spawn time, you're also taken out of the fight and can't even help beat back the opponents' bots.

As a beginner, you're at a disadvantage which is multiplied by the fact that every time you die, your opponents are that much stronger. (Even if you don't die, they're going to get stronger at a faster rate than you due to their experience). It can be extremely frustrating as you're one-shotted by a sniper you never see over and over again only to begin avoiding him and running into experienced players who have already purchased several upgrades while you're struggling to get your second (the first is free). Often in this game, I've felt like I'm carrying a BB-gun to a tank-fight - especially when you factor in "Juice" (equivalent of an extended ubercharge from TF2).

Despite my frustrations and misgivings, there's a hell of a game there if you're ever able to learn how to play. Deciding how to spend your money is a massive challenge. Do you get yourself a skill-boost that you may not use or build/upgrade a turret that might be laid to waste by a juiced opponent? Do you unlock a jump-pad for your team to use or save up to buy a shot from the annihilator?

Negatives:
1. Extremely steep learning curve.
2. Frustrating to learn, both for you and your teammates who have you on their team.
2a. As an example, I was firing on an enemy turret. A teammate "Hacked" it and I continued to fire on it. (For this writeup, I had to look up whether friendly fire was in the game. It isn't.)
3. Needs more content from the announcer (hearsay)
4. Lack of a manual is brutal. Wiki can only carry you so far.


For now, I'd list it as a buy. The price is right and while I'm not having much fun yet, I hope to at some point.

Inspired.

Inspired by a tweet from @lukeisbazooka72 on twitter, my Myers rap.

Standing 6 foot 8 like a skating tree,
Myers coming at you with insanity.

Lurching around like he's out of luck,
Suckered you! He's already gone with the puck.

Blazing through the neutral zone like a bullet,
only way to look smoother? Sport a mullet.

Watch out Goalie he just torched your "D",
and now you're stuck alone with a skating tree.

Fifty seven dekeing to the left and the right,
try to follow every move? you'll see a red light.

Sitting back you just try to enjoy the show,
He just winds up with a slapper and he lets it go.

Off your noggin and into the goal,
Hey at least he didn't beat you five-hole.

Hopefully she worked on one as well for comparison. I put this together in 10 minutes.

Disappointing, but for the best.

I attempted to start this out as a Sabres blog, but there are simply too many smart Sabres bloggers out there. It's not that there's too much competition, but that I have nothing to add that hasn't already been said. Pretty much all of my contributions to the Sabres-blogger-world can be summed up in 140 characters or less.

I think my efforts are better spent on other topics with the occasional peek into Sabres-land. Whether it be videogames, technology, or boardgames, I'll hopefully have something worth adding to the conversation.

Ugh

Job hunt is really eating into blog-time. Hoping to get something up on free agency and the Sabres before the draft now that FTR has posted a comprehensive list.

5 Sabres thoughts

Inspired by Katebits, master of thought enumeration, I make my own attempt. I'm probably revisiting a lot of things other people have already talked about, but I just started this thing this week. :-p

1. Sabres season ticket prices went up again this year. I was lightly rebuked on twitter (by James Mirtle no less) that it was only $1-4 per game. However, when I first got section 311 tickets for the 2006-2007 season, they were only $1722. These same tickets now cost the same as a center ice ticket in the 300 level, $2378. Between losing the cheaper price for selecting a seat closer to the "end-zone" and overall increases in prices, that's a $656 (nearly 40%) increase in just 4 years. I think I have a right to be mildly upset.
(Non-NHL aside - the dictionary definitions of chide and rebuke are much harsher than I thought they were)

2. So the Sabres season is over and while the playoffs have been fun, they were definitely a disappointment from a Buffalo perspective. I've been struggling to even root against the Flyers these playoffs as they did us the favor of humiliating the Bruins (and how!). Overall, I've felt detached from these playoffs - much more so than in previous years. I am rooting for the Hawks, and I'm still watching the games, but I'm mostly indifferent to the outcomes and that's a little strange for me.

3. I love Drew Stafford's twitter personality. I hate Drew Stafford's on-ice personality.

4. Tim Connolly. I like Timmy. He was awful in the playoffs and I hated his statements afterwards, but I like the dude and wish he could be pre-Peter Schaefer Timmy again. That said, a change of scenery might do wonders for the guy (and our team).

5. Derek Roy. I hate Derek Roy. His regular season has been maddening for the last 3 years and his attitude makes me want to hurl a ferret at a baby. That said, I thought he stepped up in the playoffs and showed why the Sabres identified him as an up-and-coming star a few years ago. I guess he should be kept around a bit longer despite my clamoring for the Sabres to trade him for the past few years.

Thinking I might work on a free-agency post sometime after the playoffs are over (Hopefully by Monday).

Brief Dungeon Lords Review

Played Dungeon Lordsfor the first time Sunday. I was greatly impressed with the number of familiar mechanics that were jammed together to create a whole new interesting and well-themed game.

You begin by secretly selecting 3 actions you would like to take (similar to race for the galaxy) with the goal being to gain resources. Resources include food to pay monsters with and buy imps; gold to pay taxes and buy traps/food; imps to work in rooms, mine tunnels and excavate more tunnels; traps and monsters to fight off heroes, and rooms to produce resources and gain victory points.

You are required to pay taxes, pay your monsters, and have a special (randomly drawn?) event happen each of the two years and these events happen in random order - though you're given some warning so you can plan. After these 3 things happen, you're invaded by the heroes who've decided to raid your dungeon over the course of the year with the hardiest heroes targeting the most evil dungeon lords.

As you're an evil dungeon lord, hopefully you've accumulated enough traps and monsters to counter the threat these do-gooders present. Thieves defend the party against traps, warriors are tough and are the first in line to be attacked, wizards cast nasty spells and Priests heal the adventurers in front. As a dungeon lord, it's a lot to deal with.

After 2 years of being attacked (of 3-4 turns each), a good portion of your dungeon is likely to have been conquered by these nefarious beacons of light and justice. These regions count for negative points, while unconquered regions will score you points. Titles are granted to the most evil dungeon master, the one with the most rooms, tunnels, etc. These are worth big points in the context of the game and can undo a lot of damage done by having conquered tiles.

Overall the game is blast, but I find it only worthy of a B+ or A- rating overall due to the complexity of the rules. It's no Battlestar Galactica or Arkham horror in that way, but a lot of quirky little exceptions add up in the initial rule reading of an already complex game. That said, once you're through the rule reading, it's as good a game as you'll find.

Games it's like: Kingsburg(3 seasons and attack, limited role selection), Agricola(Pacing of harvests/worker placement), Race for the Galaxy (secret role selection), Galaxy trucker (watch your creation destroyed by malevolent forces), Vegas Showdown (tile placement)

First Post.

This is more of a placeholder for the moment. I'm hoping at some point to begin writing about the Buffalo Sabres (and maybe the Bills too), Board gaming, computer games and hopefully other things Buffalo as well. Kinda strange how easy these are to set up.