FFF Recap: Gears 1 Campaign Again

posted by papi blez

Sat Jun 06, 2009 at 12:28:18 PM EDT

I've told you guys how I convinced a buddy to get a 360 this past Christmas, right?  Well when I signed on late last night thanks to a really long wait at a restaurant for dinner (my daughter had an ear infection yesterday for the first time in about 2 years, but she was finally feeling better and very hungry last night, so we went out with my wife's friends for dinner), Suns and Kenai were already firmly entrenched in some Horde with a full five, so I kind of hung around for a little bit until I saw that my buddy was playing Gears 1 campaign.  I promised to help him beat the game when he got the 360, so I bowed out of Suns party and went over to my buddy's campaign.

It's fun going back to Gears 1, especially the campaign, after playing a lot of Gears 2.  It reminds me of the joy I first felt when playing the Gears campaign for the first time.  The first time I shot a torque bow, etc.  Although I will say that I miss the head popping good times with the TB from Gears 2 when playing Gears 1.

After playing that until about 11 or so and my wife announced she was going to bed, I signed off and played a bunch of the Uncharted 2 beta.  Let me tell you, I think I'm going to play it quite a bit when it comes out.  There is nothing new or revolutionary about it but the gameplay itself is very much my kind of pace.  You can be sneaky about getting kills if you angle yourself perfectly or stay still.  A couple of times I saw someone coming and hid behind a wall, waiting perfectly still until they passed me by and then meleeing them and shooting them from behind FTW.  It's not the whole straightforward, run around like a chicken with your head cut off gameplay of most FPS.  I led my team three times last night.  And there are people who've put some serious time into this game, being in the level 20 plus.  I'm only a level 5 now.  But it's a ton of fun.  

I'd love to play with some Gearheads sometime but no one was on last night.  I know Blank gave out a bunch of codes, so let's get something going sometime.  Uncharted 2 was already a must buy for me because I loved the first game, but the multiplayer is really surprising good even though this beta is really bare bones.

So Suns, let's hear about your Horde stories...and whatever else any other Gearheads did last night.

  • ::


Tags: uncharted 2, friday night fragfest, gears of war, gears of war 2 (all tags)

Comments Disabled | 9 comments

  •  ha ha ha Good stuff, papi. (none / 0)

    It is 2:21am right now. I woke up in the middle of the night and the thing that kept me from getting back to sleep?  

    How and when the efff did Blankman get so good at Gearz?

    Let me backtrack a little and eventually work my way back to that point.

    First of all, thanks again for poppin' into our party papi.  (ha ha ha - that's some mad alliteration!) Even just getting to say hi and touch base and let each other know what is up, is great.  

    Kenai and I got on at just about exactly the same time, so we started up a Horde room, and very quickly gathered a squad with substitutions (CiRCuiTz, Legend, Wonka, RoBBins, and PrOdIgY ReBoRn).  Several of us were missing various maps towards the multi-map Horde achievements, so we went after the Flashback Maps first.  It was Horde on casual, so we could shoot the breeze while we man-handled those nasties from the hole.  

    Anyway, I kept saying to the gang that I understood now why papi loved Horde so much.  Lots of fun, and eventually, before the night was over, we came back to it with a slightly different crew and did all the Combustible maps as well.  I am now forty points richer.

    Infidel, JohnE, Johann, Rage, and eventually Jambi filled out the other room and were going for massive points against the public, kickin' butt pretty consistently judging by the big grin on Johann's face.  (BTW, I think they were able to hear me hootin' and hollerin' almost as clearly as they heard Johann.  Sorry about that guys!  LOL)

    Had papi not already posted a re-cap, I was going to write one and title it "Old Friends".  Here's why in point form:

    • "Like an old friend" is what Kenai said about going back to Gears 1, and we all agreed as we giggled with delight, embracing our "old friend" again.  As I have said before, Gears 2 gave me Gears 1 back again.  I was loving it like I used to before our dalliance with CoD4.  It was like hauling out the old tattered board game again at the cottage.  So many memories of late nights filled with laughter and shenanigans.
    • I noticed that I no longer call Kenai by his gamertag as often as I call him by his real name.
    • I missed gaming with Jambi and Infidel and Rage and JohnE (who were gaming in a room with Johann).
    • Our old friend, Blankman, at some point, got really good at Gearz: like way beyond bread and butter good. I say Gearz, because I am talking about both games, and I say "at some point got good" because for a while now, I have been chalking up a portion of his skills to "host" which he often so graciously is.  I realized this morning, at 2:00am, that that couldn't be further from the truth.  Last time Blankman very reluctantly placed the Gears 1 disc in the tray, he immediately took it out for fear of an aneurysm, I think.  Last night, however, he came in better prepared to weather the storm, and rather than being rough-handled, he took that bully by the ear, and made him beg for mercy (leading the teamZ on several occasions).  In Horde, it was even more evident as he seemed to "steal" everyone's kills. But he wasn't stealing.  He was just playing like Wayne Gretzky played in his glory days (the days when I saw him on the ice at the Coliseum in Edmonton), with gliding speed and seeming prescience as the Horde attacked us from all sides of the maps.  Well done, Blankman!

    It was a good evening. Thanks to all who could make it!

    Note:  I edited this post and reposted it.

    by 3Suns on Sat Jun 06, 2009 at 07:03:08 PM EDT

    •  Thanks for the kind word, Onii-san. (none / 0)

      LOL That's big brother to those that don't speak Japanese. Last night was very fun because the last time that I played Gears 1, I had to take out the disc in fear of punching a hole in my TV. LOL I groaned when I saw that everyone was actually playing Gears instead of Gears 2. So, I just had to adjust my frame of mind to have fun regardless of the shenanigans. I was so tired this morning from staying up until the wee hours, but it was worth it.

      I, too, absolutely love Horde. It's a wonder that Cliff & crew has been so influential in game design. Although it's true that the cover aspect was originally introduced by Killswitch, the guys at Epic perfected it. Now, practically every shooter out there has some form of cover system. We are now seeing many more games adopt the Alamo-type mode (Horde). A few games that are doing so are L4D, CoD:Waw, and now- Halo ODST.

      Suns and I have definitely noticed that the usual suspects just don't frequent this site or game together as often as we used to and that makes us sad. In fact, the list that he put up in his post were just some of the names that popped into my head the other day when we were Skyping. I hope that fact changes soon because we sure miss them a great deal. The camaraderie that we formulated over almost three years ago will always be there. :)

      Friends don't let friends two-piece.

      by Blankman on Sun Jun 07, 2009 at 12:10:44 AM EDT

      [ Parent ]

  •  Wanted to write sooner... (none / 0)

    But yesterday was a whirlwind of activity.

    Big cancer walk, graduation parties, Liv's first ballet recital, closing cermonies for cancerwalk...

    The point is that we all have parts of who we are and what we do.   It is a treat to carve aside a piece to game (playtime) with our Brothers from other mothers...

    It's funny what everyone is writing on this recap.  I have the same feeling.  All I want to post is the names of all the guys we hung out with on Friday.
    Pretty much the ones listed by you all, I really enjoyed some reconnect with old friends.  Wonka, Prodigy Reborn, Circuitz to name a few.  Robbins came online late and although we were lovin Horde in a full room, we all need to take care of each other so we switched over to Gears 1 to throw some love his way.

    What fun!  PMS Legend joined and then Blankman.  The hootin and holleran was hilarious!

    Yes there were many Gearheads MIA.  But we all have a connection at this point where the "Cheers" motto applies like nothing I've ever experienced.

    "Norm!!!"

    Peace to all on this week of daily life.  See you all soon!

    "I do not tell lies, but I am a savage" ~ William Wallace

    by Kenai 91 on Sun Jun 07, 2009 at 02:24:40 PM EDT

  •  I love me some Gears 1 MP (none / 0)

    End of story. Best way to come back from not playing for 2 weeks. Awesome times. Many thanks to everybody who switched to Gears 1 for me. I had a great time.

    R.I.P Polandstyle :: 9/8/68 - 3/16/09 ::

    by RoBBins0096 on Sun Jun 07, 2009 at 02:34:01 PM EDT

  •  I just want to throw this out there.. (none / 0)

    but I stopped at Wawa on my way home from work and got some Game Fuel... and its still amazing. I'm gonna have to grab some 2 liter bottles of it if they're selling them around where I live.

    R.I.P Polandstyle :: 9/8/68 - 3/16/09 ::

    by RoBBins0096 on Mon Jun 08, 2009 at 03:33:42 AM EDT

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