Call of Duty: Vertigo (3rd Person Tactical)

I woke up unexpectedly around 2AM last night. Reibo invited me to join him for some Modern Warfare 2. Since we were short with only 4 players, we played some 4-on-4 3rd Person Tactical, playing Team Death Match, Domination, and Capture the Flag. After some disorientation, I got used to the 3rd person a bit, doing OK on CTF on Terminal and Scrapyard. I went negative in a couple of Dom matches, but they never capped the point my team-mate and I were controlling. Things went smoothly -- until we got our asses handed to us 3 games in a row. And, it was 4 games in a row for me, since I got thrown by myself into another match and had to back out.
A couple of the losing lobbies were really poor connections. On one yellow bar game on Estate, I couldn't seem to hit anyone, even from close range. Demonic joined us for a few games for regular hardcore TDM, which was a welcome relief. We managed to win all those engagements, even with a couple of randoms offering human targets to the enemy team. Still, I can see the fun potential in 3rd person. It's definitely a different game; not my cup of tea at all, but OK for a change of pace. On to the links:

Today's YouTube vid has more general chit-chat than actual commentary on the gameplay, tho it's a really good video, IMO.

• Cheaters do get their due, eventually. Recently, an Xbox Live user who was receiving solicitations for 10th prestige lobbies over and over decided to take matters into his own hands, kinda: He started messaging the cheating douchebags that an Xbox Live member with the gamertag The Pro was interested in a 10th prestige lobby and that he (the cheating douchebag) should send The Pro an invitation. Well, you can see where this is going: The Pro is one of the leading head-crackers on the Xbox Live Policy Enforcement Team. And the bans and suspensions have begun rolling out.
• Has the anti-care package patch already been broken by the tireless wall-humping Timmies? As seen on this thread on XboxAchievements.org, some players are reporting some version of the care package glitch is still around.

I posted a thread on this over at the 2Old2Play forums, and one of the forumers identified it as a JTAG-modified Xbox, which were previously (and still may be) used for 10th prestige cheating.


More Gaming Links:

• Vid of the Week: From BASHandSlash comes this amazing James Bondian helicopter stunt on Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Here's the direct YouTube link:

• Joystiq: Black creators Codemasters making new FPS. Black was an insanely good FPS, single-player only. I loved it -- until I got hopelessly stuck right near the end.
• YouTube: Halo Mythbusters, Episode 3.
• ZergWatch: Microsoft won't release standalone 250gb 360 drive. Douchebags.

Non-Gaming Links:

• In memory of Doug Fieger of The Knack: The Best "My Sharona" moments in pop history.