Robert C

Got my worst ass kicking in a long time in freemode a couple days ago. Saw a bunch of dots near the downtown pay and spray and decided to say high in my usual way. Unfortunately, they were having none of it. Most of them were together, and they were really, really good. I ran into a couple of them a long time back, and still remember it - I'd put them #1 or #2 for the toughest DM opponents I've faced. I managed to hold my own with most of em, but one guy just wiped the floor with me. They lost interest in their 4 or 5 on 1 after a while, and I wasn't complaining about that for once.

I've kinda punted on this game, at least for now. I'm just a hair short of level 27, and just need to grab half a dozen more helium whatevers on the moon to level some piece of armor to get enough light for 27. Thing is, I've been at that point for a week now, and I haven't touched the game during that time. I just don't feel like going to the same old places to find those things on the moon again. Same thing goes for doing vanguard bounties, and I already know the crucible is not for me. Maybe I'll get the urge to pick it up again at some point. For now, I'm enjoying Borderlands more than this, though I'm dying at least 10 times as often in that game.

Oh well. I guess being unskilled will be my cross to bear, then. I think I can endure the shame.

Both of my fantasy teams would like to thank the Chargers for failing to cover Emmanuel Sanders in the end zone tonight.

Yeah, that was a hell of a good time. We had a little bit of all the annoying bullshit (tanks, jets, glitches, god mode), but none of it was egregious to get in the way of the fun. Pretty much just one continuous firefight the entire time, and we kicked the crap out of almost all of em. I could not believe the level 7 guy kept coming at us. He'd spawn 3 blocks off and charge us - his pistol vs. our heavy snipers. I think we wound up with about 90 kills on him before he finally took off. I swear the competition in this game has got significantly worse over the last month or so. The best example of that last night was when I was fighting 1 on 5, and somehow had them outnumbered. Must've wound up about 20-1 against that group. I was wondering what the hell was happening at first, till I figured it was the god mode guy shocking us somehow. I was laughing my ass off at my guy dry humping the asphalt in the middle of a major road. You looked like you were doing the Humpty Dance till you fell over.

You shoulda got on for the DVDR Night Shift beach party. Everyone invited, and admission is free. We just require that guests make a rather large blood donation.

We had to delay our vacation, so I'll probably be on late tonight if anybody is around. Might stick to shooting scavs in the face in Borderlands if nobody's on. I did get on for a bit on Monday. None of the Horsemen were about, so I did my standard solo freemode activity - drive around sticky bombing white dots. Only one guy was really any good, and he was being a little bitch. He was sniping from a long way off, and he'd kill himself anytime his health got low. Haven't run into too many people that do that, but it always annoys the living shit out of me when I do. I said the hell with that and drove off to sticky bomb a couple people out of their custom trucks. Drove back to find the annoying guy was standing in the middle of the street behind his custom super, and had somebody else pinned down. He never saw me coming, so I sticky bombed him and his ride, sailed on by, and left to do a deathmatch.

I was wondering if you were even conscious by the end there.

Stout, man, you missed the nite shift bat signal tonight. melraz, RUkered and I spawned out of a mission and it stuck me in a nearly full server. Within 30 seconds, somebody stuck a bounty on me. I looked the player list up and realized there was only one other guy above 80. We proceeded to take bloody vengeance on the entire server, starting the guy that put the bounty on me. He managed one lucky kill on me, and we got him at least 20 times before he bailed out. The entire server was pretty much made up of nitwits, halfwits and dimwits. Even for lower level guys, they were almost uniformly atrocious. Lots of glitchers (who got fed a series of sticky bombs), but otherwise none of the annoying usual stuff. Don't think I got sniped once all night. No tanks. We only saw one jet, and he crashed right next to RUkered and me before he could take anybody out. Hell, I never even saw a Mary Lou used against us the entire night. Don't think we ran into a single decent opponent all night.

melraz is like a kid in a candy store any time he finds dots around the beach. Probably not gonna be on much for the next week or so. We're having Thanksgiving early this year, so we're headed down to my uncle's place for the annual family shootout tomorrow. Packing 6 guns and a pecan pie. Going hunting Sunday, then the wife and I are heading off for a few days in a cabin for our last vacation before the baby gets here.

This sucks to hear. I think I coulda found a way to get past the gargoyle thing. First thing I ever saw her in was Lone Star, and that was enough to develop my lifetime crush.

I've seen a little bit of the gameplay here and there. Looks a little too action RPG for my tastes, but not to the point where I won't get it.

Wife and I got back from her mother's oncology appointment. Biopsy results changed the initial diagnosis of almost certainly metastatic lung cancer to we don't know what the fuck it is, but it ain't cancer. Still a lot of uncertainty, but that's a damn good first step.

Not if I was around. I'm struggling to do even the basics, like differentiate between friend and foe.

I definitely don't trust that it'll be a good game, but I'm gonna be stupid enough to pre-order it anyway. Loved origins, and didn't completely hate DA2, as broken and crappy as it was.

I don't even need opponents to get killed. First death in the second match we did yesterday was me accicentally jumping off a cliff and killing myself. Of course, I think I've killed myself more times overall than the fallen/hive/vex/cabal have got me.

Did my first crucible runs with JT and Phil yesterday. Unsurprisingly discovered I was completely useless in there. It was fun enough with crew, but I ain't ever going in there by myself. I did do enough to realize I would never finish the exotic bounty I picked up. Gotta get 500 crucible kills with void damage. That could potentially happen, though I'm not sure I'd ever want to bang my head on the crucible wall long enough to get that. Making negative progress on that count from getting my ass kicked, on the other hand, makes it a fool's errand. Count only got to 3 before being dropped back down to 0 again. Dumped that shit and moved on. Life's too short to grind through something like that.

The weird thing was that when I soloed that mission last week for that same bounty I didn't get the cut scene - and I certainly didn't do anything to skip it. Maybe the update changed that?

Gotta take care of boss lady first. That's the same reason I haven't been on much since middle of last week. I have This Mystic Decade by The Hot Snakes on my MP3 player. I nearly got a ticket flying up 301 this weekend to go and visit my girlfriend in Maryland. I knew for sure that if the cops started chasing me, they'd give up after five minutes if I successfully evaded them. I have played this game too much. Just throw a sticky bomb on their hood and run for it.

I have managed to grab a grand total of 5 gold chests in this game. I found one on Mars. JT pointed out the other four to me on Earth. Apparently I suck at paying attention to that kind of thing. My leveling comes in weird jumps. I was level 20 for a long time, then jumped to 22 in an hour or so. Stuck at 22 for a long time, then jumped to 25 in a single day. Got gifted my first legendary weapon (Doctor Nope), and ... I hate it. Hopefully the stability/range gets better if I ever manage to upgrade it. Right now I can't hit shit with it, unless I'm standing right next to the target. So far, I'm sticking with mostly pulse rifle/shotgun.

Sounds like they've managed to make special crates popping up all the time a thing now, like it's the new armored cars popping up all the time. Not sure if that was intentional or another screwup on Rockstar's part. I haven't been on since we faced glitch boy last week, so I can't say for sure. My trigger finger is getting itchy, and the white dots are feeling a little too safe. I should be on tonight if anybody is around. Also, meant to post this earlier. I was disappointed in myself for not thinking of this when melraz was doing his police armored truck rampage:

I've always done the same setup for that final ME2 mission. Really should try something different if I ever go back to play again, but at least I know this setup will keep everybody alive. Tali down the pipes, Garrus leads the second team both times. Mordin goes back with the crew. Zaeed and Kasumi with me on all waves. Their grenades make most of the fights almost too easy. Only thing I ever vary is swapping between Samara and Jack for who does the biotic shield thing.

The required hours in my day to play the pre-sequel will be cleared by putting Destiny in a box and letting it gather dust, I think. That game is really starting to feel like work. Borderlands 1 & 2 are many things, but they never feel like that.

Got in my car morning, and Mind Playing Tricks on Me came on. I was waiting for some asshole in a Zentorno to pit me on my way to work. Think I've played a little too much GTA for my own good.

I would never say such a thing about the mayor of our fair city.