jstout

We finished a silver or two, maybe, but we spent some of the night trying to figure out how to turn down the difficulty from bronze to aluminum.

You mean you aren't taking your XBox on vacation? I got some vacation coming up and I wanna buy enough groceries to leave the house one time in nine days, max. I want to ignore the shower until my cats start trying to cover me with litter.

This was one of the best things to happen to me while playing videogames in a long time. Robert, Melraz and I are getting ready to play a multiplayer match with some random. Robert and I and the random are ready, but Melraz isn't, went to get a beer or something. So random votes to kick Melraz. Immediately, it's strike one, strike two, strike three, he's kicked. Dude's gone with a quickness. Guess he didn't imagine we could know each other.

Went into Los Santos for a little bit, got $62K for some reason, got a Dukes O Death and played that new top-view adversary race mode, which is fun as hell and should be tried out. It's over quickish. Doesn't pay real well, though. Remember, gotta go on by tomorrow to get your $425K "tax refund."

Is it me, or do the APEX missions you do in multiplayer seem much harder than joining or creating a random match? I know there's stipulations like pistol fire doing more damage than other fire, etc., but I just think they're harder overall. I think my computer teams have a better chance of finishing them, so I may just send those. Stipulations are fun, though. Should be prowling around sometime around midnight tonight if anyone wants to carry me.

I went through a phase of that. Going back to the main menu should clear it up.

The rally with Robert was even more furious than the one with J.T., because there were two of us instead of 3, and we were in a very open section of the map. It was like a dudes with miniguns convention. I'd revive myself, heal Robert, promptly die, Robert would heal me, etc. I wore out health packs and revives. Robert, I told you wrong, I didn't get the ultra-rare Krogan, I got the rare one. I did an APEX mission on a new map with randoms, and we just got our teeth kicked in on round 3. We had a hack in a big open area in the center of the map, and we just got swarmed.

I gotta admit something very sad - my prime motive for wanting to do another playthrough is hooking up with someone different.

Two-timer. I cheated on Peebee with the news lady from the Nexus wondering if there'd be a big blue [Joey Styles] CATFIGHT! [/Joey Styles] Now I gotta go back to pay another visit to the Angaran.

I did too, actually, but by then the game had earned so much goodwill with me that it didn't matter. I really got into all the interpersonal relationships on the Tempest - felt like we'd all built something more than boss/employee. So there won't be DLC? That seems absolutely foreign these days.

I finished single-player last afternoon, and I can't say enough good things sbout it. I assume we'll get some DLC - is it any good, generally, judging from the last ME games?

I was playing multiplayer earlier with J.T. and two randoms, and we got into a wave (5, I think), where I really have no idea how we managed to survive. I think one person was dead and the three of us were jammed with our backs against the wall, firing wildly at anything that stepped in front of us. It was just a furious, improbable rally. How we managed to get through it was beyond me, but it instilled in me a sense of purpose I didn't know I had with this game - I was like "dammit, we're finishing this one and everyone's extracting if it's the last thing I do." I was ready to fire RPGs at everything that moved if it meant getting us out of there. We actually made it.

That's when you cower on a corner and wait for your teammates to take care of them. Works for me!

To be fair to our massive MP skills, the only bronze match we failed was when 3/4ths of us were screwing around with low-level characters, trying different crap. Silver, on the other hand ... "Damn you! Die already!" The shotgun that wrecks things in Bronze was a peashooter in Silver. Man, last night was an incredible amount of fun. Great to have J.T. along, been too long.

I got a text from the mayor that read r' That's why he's the mayor of space. Working, prolly be home about 11:30, will see who's on.

There's still the arms-dealing DLC in the pipeline, so this thing ain't dead yet. I suspect a return will be made eventually. As for the new player playing in the first place, I say go for it. Just make sure they know their escape routes should people be too dickish - don't be afraid to go into passive or change rooms if the heat's too much while you're finding your way around. As you get more comfortable in dealing with those situations, you'll use that stuff less. Most rooms (not all, no sir) have a basically friendly core these days. Human interaction GTA-style is too oddly random to be missed.

Fun little find in a side mission, spoilered.

I'm going to quit doing it, but it bothers me that for expediency's sake, I'll land on a planet and go from mission to mission that's there on the planet instead of starting a mission and going wherever it takes me to finish it, then starting another. I had to step in the middle of a beef between two people, and so much time had elapsed between starting the mission and finishing it that I had no idea what they were feuding about. Between the NBA Playoffs and whatnot, I think single-player is gonna simmer for a bit. If you see me on, shoot me a message or invite if you want to play multiplayer.

I didn't see Ass Dan in those lineups.

I just made a decision I thought was a slam-dunk no-brainer only to come around about a minute afterward and decide I was wrong.

Just got done watching the main. I've never been more hopeful that wrestling's pulling the wool over my eyes and the Shibata injury is a work, but it doesn't seem to be. That was just a breathtaking match, the headbutt was absolutely unnecessary, like they always are. Subtract it from the match and tell me if it affects your enjoyment of the match one way or the other. Probably increases it -- the headbutt took me out of the match for a bit while I was concerned about both men's health. You could see Shibata's right side start to "droop" a bit on the walk back from the ring, and that's when I started wondering if he was legit hurt. It's amazing how smartly done and how built to perfection this match was, and if Shibata winds up tossing away his career over an unnecessary spot in the middle of all that drama, it's going to be just a gigantic shame. I thought (guess not) that Kushida might have knocked himself wacky on that powerbomb to the floor and they had to go to the finish earlier. It's good to have short matches in situations like that, it keeps things fresh.

The game's bugs are beginning to grind in the ol' nerves a bit. Both my guys on the mission with me must have decided to go see a movie, 'cause they just vanished. Now I have a guy who's obviously supposed to be doing something besides walk into a wall, but he can't be arsed to quit walking into the wall. Reset number 9,000...

LONG LIVE POLLY PRISSYPANTS!

Yep. It's in the last vault as part of getting the temperature calmed down a shade. It's completely optional - I found it while getting way lost. I looked for a solution to it online (I know, I'm a cheater) last night, but couldn't find one. Found one today in a different place. It's a 5x5 Sudoku with only five answers filled in for you, so it's a toughie.