H4: Specializations Part 2

We've discussed Armor Specializations before, but here's my quick cut:

• Wetworks: If you love assassinations and creeping around. (FragginURdoodz, TimMAY1023)
• Pioneer: If you want to level up as fast as possible. (CoolerSopranos2, UnsavorySamurai)
• Engineer: If you want to help the team coordinate special ordinance drops. (Beer4Porter)
• Tracker: If you love special weapons. (FishBone10, Masher 24)
• Rogue: If you spend a lot of time scoped in (Sniper, DMR, BR). (gtdroptop, Octurian Poon)
• Stalker: If you get fixated on killing one person. (darknorpo, QuelBelle)
• Pathfinder: If you're always in the gunner seat (OmniscientDeath, MEAN MR MONKEY)
• Operator: If you're always driving (BeerMonkeee, Mean Mrs Monkey)

Picking your Specialization is important because you can't change it until you've fully leveled it up.  There are 8 choices in total, with Pioneer and Wetwork being available to all players at launch.  Purchasing the Halo 4 Limited Edition gets you access to all 8 right away.  Those who pre-order and play by November 20, will get all 8 quicker as well, but probably not until 11/20 (about 2 weeks after launch).

Halo CEA Reviewed

So we've had a couple of days to play with Halo Combat Evolved: Anniversary edition.  It does appear that you need to download the classic Halo 1 multi-player maps by using the code included in your game.  Some thoughts:

Campaign: It's sad that this is 2 player only, but it's still a pretty fun campaign with great music.  It's gorgeous compared to Halo 1, but I wouldn't say that it's quite "current gen."  Hitting the Back button is neat to see the original graphics.  The Grunt Funeral skull is a game changer, it basically makes killing Elites trivially easy.  Headshot one grunt in the squad, and everyone goes boom.  Also makes it dangerous to melee grunts now.

Firefight: This is satisfyingly fun to play on the Halo 1 campaign maps, and a nice alternative to campaign.  It basically gives you a way to play snippets of the campaign as 4 player co-op, on XBL, with Challenges available.

Multiplayer: This is launched from the Halo CEA disc, but takes you into the Reach matchmaking engine.  The game types and maps prefaced by "Anniversary" are the classic game types and maps.  Beaver Creek was the most familiar, but Damnation and Prisoner showed up several times as well.  Here are averaged clan stats from clan night, some things never change:

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Halo CEA.

Early clan night for the new game.  Cooler has the delusion that because he was good at Halo 1 10 years ago, that he'll be good in this game.  Over/under for when he quits in frustration is set at 45 minutes.  Achievements on the table:

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/game/halo-ce-anniversary/achievements/

Duke Nukem Forever

Duke Nukem Forever has been released to manufacturing and is credibly on its way to market.  It launches on June 14 and could be a very fun next game for the clan to play.  There was little to no interest in my suggestions for non-FPS games, so this seems like a perfect fit.  FPS, but clearly a fun and not too serious game, with lots of nostalgia value.  There's even Holsom twins for CoolerSopranos2.  I've put a new poll on the blog.  It will be open for a week, vote if you want to play this next, expect that we'll switch over on day 1 (June 14) if there is critical mass.

Check out the website for more information.

Clan Night Postmortem

Here are some highlights from last night.  Since we had a bunch of objective games, I didn't filter them out this week.  Also worth noting, even though it's not highlighted in the table, is Mean Mrs Monkey's career best game with 8 kills and +4 spread on Anchor 9 DMRs.  Most people seemed to really enjoy zombies last week, and there is talk of playing Left 4 Dead more than just once a month.  I've put a new poll up on the blog, go and vote to voice your opinion if you'd like to play L4D more or less.

Clan Night Postmortem

Halo Charts has a new Game Aggregator tool that produces some pretty interesting data.  Thought I would share some highlights from clan night last night.  Below is some key stats from our Slayer games (objective games excluded).  Numbers will obviously be tilted slightly for people who were helping the clan while on the other team...

Player Spotlight: CoolerSopranos2

CoolerSopranos2 is one of our original clan members from the days of Halo 1 LAN parties.  Per popular request, we sat down for a quick interview to find out more about him.

Q1: What's your name in real life?
A1: Kevin Copeland

Q2: What is your day job?
A2: I work at Intel Mask Operations where we deliver world class masks and tape out support enabling Intel to be One Generation Ahead on technology with industry leading time-to-market.  I sit in a cube supporting factory operations trying to never set foot within the factory.

Q3: What's an interesting thing about you?
A3: CoolerSopranos was a Xbox suggested name after multiple attempts to create a nametag based on Soprano's characters failed.  Wanting to get in and play Halo:CE as quick as possible, I decided to use the suggested name figuring I could always change it later.  Fail!  The name stuck and after something happened to the original account and it could not be renewed, I signed up CoolerSopranos2.

Q4: How did you get into Halo and/or video games?
A4: I bought the original Xbox the day it was released specifically to play Halo:CE.  Playing Co-op campaign with Omniscient Death until the early morning proved the game was addicting.  However, it was the underground online play that was really groundbreaking for consoles and created the Halo experience.

Q5: What's your favorite thing about playing Halo?
A5: Sneaking up on unsuspecting players and assassinating them.

Q6: What's your biggest dislike about playing Halo?
A6:

1. Sneaking up on unsuspecting players, missing the assassination attempt and getting tea bagged for my effort.
2. Score Whores!
3. The Arbiter

Q7: How do you manage video game time with wife time?
A7: With only one TV in the house, it's tricky as I won't play until the wife goes to bed.

Q8: How has Reach brought you back into the Halo world?
A8: Daily and Weekly Challenges are a surprisingly effective motivational tool.

Many thanks to CoolerSopranos2 for his time and welcome back to active duty!

A Monument to All Your Sins

One of the most difficult (or tedious) achievements to get in Halo Reach is "A Monument to All Your Sins," awarded for finishing the entire campaign on Legendary, solo.  Congratulations to Octurian Poon and CoolerSopranos2 for accomplishing this impressive feat!

See the chart for some comparison of Campaign data, click for huge.  Winter Contingency continues to be the easiest level, and The Pillar of Autumn continues to be the hardest.  Interestingly, on Solo, Long Night of Solace has bubbled up to be the second hardest level of them all, but also the highest scoring.  If you notify when you finish Legendary Solo, I'll be happy to compile your stats as well.

HR: Player Profiles - CoolerSopranos2

Player: CoolerSopranos2

• Rank: Corporal
• Games: 21; Kills: 148; Deaths: 233; Assists: 72; Time: 0:03:01; Wins: 5; Medals: 191
• Win %: 24%; K/D: 0.64; K/G: 7.05; D/G: 11.10; A/G: 3.43; M/G: 9.10; Encounters/G: 22.21

Run and Gun Frontline Support. A really high melee kill percentage (24%) with almost nearly as high of an AR kill percentage (23%) imply a Halo 1 style of play, charging into action and punching through the finish.  A low K/D ratio (0.64) is compounded by low Assists (3.43/game) and high Encounters (22.21/game).  DMR stats do show up in top five weapons (19 kills, 13%) along with Headshot! medals (13, 7%).

Best suited: Medium to long range slayer, providing kill and assist support to team mates.

Recommend: Suggest changing play style to Ranged.  Learn how the Magnum works in Halo Reach.  It is very similar to the Magnum from Halo 1 and is an extremely effective weapon in the new game.  Also consider getting better with the DMR and hanging further back from the action.  Improving accuracy and headshot skills, while staying out of direct fire will really boost the K/D ratio.

Grifball Double EXP Weekend is Live

Grifball is back. Good time to get some achievements.

Clan night tonight. 8:30pm PT. Halo 3/ODST

Sorry for the delayed start time the past couple of weeks. I have a new (slow) customer in China and we have calls from 7-8pm PT. As they get smarter, I should be able to bring clan night back to 8pm. If you're going to participate in clan night, please try to be on-time. These are the kind of game types we can play with the number of people on-line:

1. Pocket pool
2. ODST campaign
3. Firefight 200k Slow
   
4. Firefight 200k Fast, Endure, Deja Vu
5. Social Slayer, Social Skirmish, Team Mythic
6. Ranked Big Squad
7. Social Big Team
8. Social Big Team, Team Mythic for Achievements, 2x Firefight

They are all fun game types, but game types for 4 and 8 players are the most popular. That means when we have 5-7 players, we're always trying to get to 4 or 8. We don't want to kick people out of the party if we have 5 players, so it's better if the 3 players who sign on late get on-line on-time so we can have 8 at the same time.

Mythic Map Pack Now Available

The Mythic Map Pack is now available for purchase by itself via Xbox Live Marketplace.

Click this link to download directly to your Xbox.

This is the same map pack that comes bundled with the Legendary Collector's Edition of Halo Wars, and includes Sandtrap, Assembly and Orbital. It currently costs 800 points (about $10). The Legendary Map Pack is also still for sale for 600 points, and Bungie maintains there are no plans to make either map pack free. Since we are not playing Halo 3 regularly as a clan anymore, I leave it completely up to you as to whether or not you should go out and get these. Currently, I am the only one I know who has these maps, so there is certainly not critical mass. OmniscientDeath, BeerMonkeee, MEAN MR MONKEY, and CoolerSopranos2 have all played the maps in matchmaking at my house. If you're interested in what they think, comment on this post.

Both map packs come with new achievements. Assembly is a visually stunning map that feels a lot like Midship or Gemini from Halo 2. It's a symmetrical map that's based inside of a Scarab factory. The environmental graphics are fully animated, and you occasionally see huge Scarab parts going down the conveyor belt overhead. Orbital is a very large indoor map with some interesting gaps and potential for Mongoose mayhem. Sandtrap is an enormous outdoor space with three unique playing areas. Sandtrap can be completely blanked out and is really designed for Forge. A near perfect recreation of Foundry has already been reconstructed within Sandtrap.

Clan night tonight, 8pm PT, Left 4 Dead

I'm moving the clan mail to a blog soon. This way, items in these weekly posts will be archived, and you can avoid clutter in your inbox. For the handful of you that prefer the e-mail, I can auto-email up to 10 of you. For the rest, I'm happy to help you setup RSS feeds so that it automatically shows up in iGoogle, My Yahoo, or your favorite reader.

Effectively, the entire clan has moved to Left 4 Dead. It's hella fun. Active players: gtdroptop, FishBone10, darknorpo, OmniscientDeath, MEAN MR MONKEY, Mean Mrs Monkey, BeerMonkeee, QuelBelle, Beer4Porter, CoolerSopranos2

Halo 3 Service Tags

• B80: gtdroptop (John Wei)
• B81: BeerMonkeee (Scott Lenker)
• B82: TimMAY 1023 (Tim Romero)
• B83: CoolerSopranos2 (Kevin Copeland)
• B84: OmniscientDeath (Ryan Averill)
• B85: FishBone10 (Laurence Day)
• B86: Beer4Porter (Brien Porter)
• B87: Available
• B88: Available
• B89: darknorpo (Nory Ison)

Halo 3 Final Stats

It's been a year since H3 came out, so this is the last week that I'm going to update the stats like I've been. Here's a dump of the past year:

• gtdroptop was promoted to First Lieutenant. Represented as clan overlord with a massive number of games logged, specializing in Team Slayer by optimizing play for K/D ratio and leading the clan in fewest deaths per game in all game types. Finishes the year with most games played, most custom games, most campaign missions, most enemies killed, best campaign K/D ratio, most achievements, highest gamerscore, most skulls, most meta-games finished, highest campaign level finished, least ranked deaths/game, best ranked K/D ratio, most social games played, least social deaths/game, least total deaths/game.
• BeerMonkeee finished the campaign on Legendary. Finished the year with the least ranked deaths (owing largely to very few games played there). The stats don't show it, but BeerMonkeee is an assist machine and is far and away the clan's best vehicle specialist with over 1300 Wheelmans and over 200 Splatters!
• TimMAY 1023 finished the year as the highest ranked active clan member as a Major, grade 2. TimMAY was a ranked matchmaking machine, logging some 4X the number of ranked games as the next closest person, and 7X the clan average! He had the most matchmade games, the highest skill, the most EXP, the fewest friendlies lost in campaign, the most ranked games, the most ranked kills, and the most total kills. His most important contribution is taking up his role as team sniper, something Bada Bing has always desperately needed, logging over 500 sniper headshots, and over 1100 total kills with the human sniper!
• CoolerSopranos2 fell from grace during H2, but has regained a shadow of his former glory. Though he remarkably leads in zero stat categories, he has maintained a positive social K/D ratio for almost eight straight months. An impressive feat, considering how few games he logs.
• OmniscientDeath is the clan leader in kills, taking the reigns from darknorpo's H2 reign. ODeath leads the clan in games/skill rank, skulls found, meta-games finished, campaign level finished, social kills, social kills/game, social K/D ratio, total kills/game, and total K/D ratio. His score-whoring is welcome because of his unparalleled skill on the chain gun. He proves that it's more than spray and pray, with two Untouchable and one Invincible medal in his medal chest.
• FishBone10 has been our small team's most consistent fourth. His video game ADD syndrome hurts his H3 skills, but he has racked up an impressive body of work, considering how many other games he has had to play to chalk up a clan leading 15,860 gamerscore. Though he doesn't lead in any individual stat categories, he does trail in the fewest, showing a consistent strength across the board.
• Beer4Porter gets special notice here for being far and away the most persistent n00b, sticking through the tough times to come out on the other side as a respectable team member. Gone are the days of being double digit negative, Porter finished a stringent training regimen through the lower ranked game playlists and actually bests CoolerSopranos2 in several real categories including: games/skill, games/exp, ranked deaths/game, social deaths, social deaths/game, total deaths andn total deaths/game.
• darknorpo has let work take priority over his true love, and his H3 stats have suffered accordingly. Once a clan powerhouse, he is now relegated to being an occasional average contributor. He does shine in games/exp, ranked kills/game and fewest total social deaths. But norpo is a shell of the master chief he once was. Maybe with the new map packs and new achievements, we'll see more of the pink wonder.

As a clan, the active members have logged:

• 4,253 games
• 44,764 kills
• 38,343 deaths
• 10.53 kills/game
• 9.02 deaths/game
• 1.17 kills/death