Some COD map thoughts

I have my likes and dislikes of the various maps, but, that aside, I've been noticing a few things about certain maps.

Sub Base: Most of the game takes place on the "A" side and the middle/middle rofftops.  The C side seems to be almost pointless except in Domination.  I think it is a flaw in the design of the map.  The shooting lanes on the back of the C side are not very good, and the roof-tops seems more exposed than they do on the other side.  I think if you could get onto the roof of the C flag building, that would make a big difference, but you can't.  Also, what's up with the tank on that map?  Even looking into the distance outside of the map, what the hell good is a tank doing there?

Wasteland: One thing I can say about this map is that it does not always play the same way.  Sometimes it's a snipe-off.  Sometimes it's ring around the rosie.  Other times it's king of the hill where the tunnel is the hill.  it has under-utilized areas too, like the church, but somehow, it doesn;tmatter as much on this map.

Karachi:  What happened to the building over A?  The first couple of weeks of the game, it was a focal point, now it's barely used.  And the building behind the bus?  This map mostly takes place in the center of it.  I have tried "holding down" some outer areas, but there is little point.  No one goes there.

Estate:  This map has gotten better over time.  it used to be about the house, the whole house and nothing but the house.  Now I have even played games where the transformers section was a hot spot.  It's a pretty good map overall.  Lots of ways around.  And, oh yeah, it has a house!  How cool!

Scrapyard:  I think this map had some real thought put into it.  it is both symmetrical (outer ring) and asymmetrical (center).  That's a pretty cool achievement.  I also like it because the games on that map are usually really fast-paced and killstreaks can be had in the span of a few seconds.

Afghan:  Once you lock down C, this is a great team-work/shooting lanes map.  I have also seen B locked down really well.  A is a little tougher, but any map that has two reasonably defensible areas is a good map in my book..

Maybe some more observations later.  That's it for now. 

What motivates you in COD MW2?

I'm still trying to decide what motivates me in COD MW2.  it is clear that leveling up initially motivated me, and it is equally clear that that goal motivates the folks on my FL who are on 4th or 5th Prestige already.  But, I have been able to go to Prestige for almost a week now and haven't done it.  I will admit that I am missing moving up the ranks, but I really enjoy having my maxed out weapons of choice. So right now, my K/D ratio is my motivation.  I'm sort of in a race with Catlemonster, but he has pulled quite a bit ahead now, so I am mainly competing with myself at this point.  Running at 1.17 and shooting for 1.20 right now.

That is a decent motivator, but, it mostly limits me to Deathmatch since K/D is not usually my concern in objective games.

I see a lot of folks who are at level 70 with me and have not gone prestige.  What motivates you?  Just the gameplay itself?  I do like the gameplay, but the lobby is so frustrating, that I feel like I do need some other sort of motivator to keep me in this game.  Having games where I go 19-4 is a good feeling.  All said, i think I am better at this game than I ever was at halo 2 or 3.  I think the halo game experience is still superior, but there is something to be said for playing a game you play decently.

What say you feloow level 70's?  Will you ever go Prestige?  I think I will eventually, but not until I get my K/D up where I would like it to be, which is at least 1.25.

There will never be another Halo 3

Let me tell you a story.  There was once a game called Halo 2.  A lot of folks round these parts used to play it a whole bunch.  You could say this site was born out of that game.  So was my clan, the Old Man Mafia.  For awhile, damn it was good.  The One Game To Rule Them All kept us all entertained and forged friendships still alive and well today.  And then, the XBOX 360 came out, with a whole bunch of cool new games.

Well, the days of one game to unite the clan and one game to unite the site slowly started slipping away.  But, it was good too - lots of great games and fun times.  But, we started to notice a bit of natural separation because we weren't all in the same game all the time.  No biggie, we adjusted, but I think most of us started to realize at that point that there was never going to be a Halo 2 again.

Then, Halo 3 came out.  For a brief time, it was like the first days of the site.  H3 was The One Game, and damn near everyone played it.  The lament of there never being another H2 was forgotten for awhile.  But, we all drifted apart again over time.  Still good friends, but the "magic" was lost again.

Now ODST is here.  And, I think I can say now: There will never be a Halo 3 again.  Sure, lots of people bought it and most of my FL is playing it.  But, ODST is really for 4 people to play.  I know there are 3 MP maps too, but all that is is H3 - and we all know H3 has lost a lost of it's mojo over time.  The sheer volume of threads for H3 versus ODST is another telling sign.

And I know the next COD will have a big following too.  For awhile.

This launch has convinced me like no other launch has - the days of the One Game are in our past..  Long live the Many Games. 

Two months into my diet

So here we are, I'm two months into my diet.  Still making progress.  Officially down just over 12 pounds, which keeps me slightly ahead of my goal of one pound a week.  I think I've hit the "tough pounds" now though, as the past two weeks have seen a net loss of less than a pound total.  Now is where it is supposed to become a test of willpower and, wouldn't you know it, I'm leaving for vacation for our ten year anniversary this weekend.  We're going to Puerto Rico, home of fried pretty much everything, so the diet is looking rickety for a week.  However, we will also be going hiking in the rainforest and hiking all around the radio telescope at Arecibo, so it may not be a total loss - pardon the pun.

So far my favorite part has been moving down a notch in my belts and having some of my real fatguy pants get loose.  Now that I added lifting to my cardio, my next goal is to wake up without being sore - lol!

Anyway, my plan of losing slowly and making actual changes to my eating habits appears to be working, although I will admit I miss going to the grocery store without reading labels.  I am really surprising myself by not constantly cheating.  I really thought my sweet tooth would do me in, but I have found I can still eat sweets in smaller doses.  Favorite new treat is a sundae made with Baskin Robbins hard vanilla frozen yogurt, a small bit of chocolate sauce and plenty of whip cream.  The whip is lower in calories than the chocolate sauce and makes up for some of the flavor loss between ice cream and yogurt.  Good stuff.

Anyway, to the three people who read my blog, thanks for reading and I'll update again at month three. 

iPhone 3Gs - impressions so far

So I picked up my iPhone 3Gs yesterday morning.  Hurrah hurrah!

This is my first iPhone, so while I have used the other two and know a lot of technical info about them, I'm posting this for anyone who is considering upgrading or possibly taking the plunge themselves.

To me, the three "big" things about this version were the faster processor, the better battery and the higher-res camera.

OK, first off, the "s" appears to be no lie.  Applications load really quickly, and even the WiFi connection seems snappier than I remember when using others' 3G phones.  So, definitely a faster processor.

As for the better battery, this is where having owned one of the previous models would be handy for making direct comparisons.  But, for sure, this thing eats the battery like it hasn't eaten in weeks.  I read about some ways to conserve, such as turning off push for e-mail, but, to me, that kind of takes away one of the cool aspects of the device.  I turned my push down to once an hour to see if that makes a difference.  We'll see.  In the meantime, I spent time on ebay this morning buying a collection of extra chargers and a car charger because it is clear I'll need one at work and one in the car for longer trips if I plan to use the iPod.

As for the better camera, yep, it is.  My sister-in-law has a 3G and we took identical pictures of several things yesterday afternoon, and my photos were consistently better when, here's the catch, we zoomed in on them.  In other words, it's exactly the difference between any other lower and higher MP camera with the same lens.  She thought my low-light photos looked better. but I think that is just "i want the new one lust" talking.  I work with photos a lot, and, while I will admit to some slightly better clarity on my versions of the photos, it wasn't enough to make me say I'm glad I have the new one for THIS reason.  Now, the one exception was on close-ups.  Mine was clearly better for close-in "macro" - style shots.  That will probably come in handy for using Evernote, but I'm not sure I see much other advantage for me.

Next is the compass.  It's kind of cool, and it is great to have Google Maps turn as you go.  However, in a death match with my Garmin, Garmin won handily.  I haven't downloaded any of the iPhone GPS apps yet, so, with one of those running, maybe it would be a closer match.  Dunno.  I will say this though, I never used to use Google maps much on my last phone, but I see me using it a lot now.  I don't always have the Garmin with me and GM was kind of clunky on my old phone.  But, with the new one, I used it twice yesterday.  Granted, that was probably because I was trying everything out, but, what is interesting is that a tool I have had access to for years, suddenly seems worth using now.

After much case-research, I went with a Griffin case:  clicky   I will admit that part of my decision was for looks - I think this case looks bad-ass.  It won't fit on a dock with the full case on, but the data cable fits fine and to dock, the bottom half pulls off.  I will be interested to see how well it holds up after being pulled 100 or 1000 times.  I also picked up a couple of silicone skins, and I can see myself switching between the two types as the ones I bought  are pretty cool and have a hard plastic backing that snaps onto them.  Incipio Silicrylic is the name, but it is the older version, which is why I got two of them for less than 15 bucks.

As for the overall iPhone experience, I'm hooked.  Facebook, this site, everything is much, much easier than on my old phone, and I REALLY liked my old phone.  The lightsabre app is cool.