Niji Superfan

G. O. T. Y. !!!!!!!!!

MW2 is bad, though. Like, I don't know of a single serious COD4 player who thinks MW2 is better than COD4 is. Hell, most of them don't even think WAW or BO compare. COD4 was not without its problems (in fact, it was fucking plagued with them), but it still managed to have the longest lasting appeal of the last four games. I really hope that IW (or whomever they're outsourcing this to) takes MW2's fan reaction as a wakeup call and gets their shit together for MW3. If the core gameplay was just an expanded, rebalanced COD4, I'd be all over that.

How is that true, at all? Most anything that's popular is given to overplay by the fanbase, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's bland. Street Fighter is huge, and I'm sure half the site would argue that it's anything but bland. Similarly, I think COD4, however overrated, was one of the tightest FPSes I've ever played, regardless of how mediocre the three games following were.

Oh this is just too good. And now, to contribute to the topic: Halo is bland and overrated. Reach was probably the worst game in the franchise and still doesn't look as good as a 360 game should. There we go!

The Scorpion/Sub Zero episode is seriously the best thing to come of the series so far and your opinions can suck a dick. The first episode started out strong, other than Sonya not being nearly young and hot enough. I guess it would fit that someone of her rank would have to be old enough to be, well, appropriately seasoned. Michael Jai White fucking slays Jax, that just needed to be said. Black Dynamite makes Mortal Kombat his bitch. I thought this in the movie pitch, but even in the two episodes he starred in, he was a badass. Baraka looked kind of dumb, but it's a free web series. I'm sure they'd have just used some crazy CG shit for Baraka if they had the time and money, but I doubt the budget covered that kind of pomp and circumstance. The Johnny Cage episode was alright, but it felt like the setup for a longer subplot that we'll never get to see. Still, MK Legacy is ostensibly just a chance to show off what the series could do with a real movie deal and gather some attention from the fanbase, and to that end, I think the aim is to use this as the vantage point for a big-budget movie deal. Shao Kahn was disappointing as fuck, no matter how you slice it. I seriously had no idea it was Shao Kahn until they referred to him as such. Free web series or not, Shao Kahn is the sort of character that demands a perfect portrayal. If you couldn't get the most towering, fearsome human being on the planet (that's still capable of a decent acting performance, anyway), you'd may as well just shelve him and leave him with a cryptic off-screen presence instead. Other than that, the Kitana/Mileena episodes had a decent premise, but it was admittedly pretty underwhelming. The Raiden episode was fucking pointless, and it was just so scatterbrained that I didn't know what to think. I will never understand what people like about this. The fight scene with the tasing was fucking awesome and somewhat made up for the plot direction being all over the place, but let's think about this: He's a god. He's a fucking god, and he's trapped in a mental facility? If they wanted to take the convincing mental trauma approach, they shouldn't have shown him making a giant fucking crater in the facility grounds, because if you just cut that whole segment from the episode, you'd be left thinking "Wow, this guy is crazy, I wonder if he's really a god or some other kind of fucked up?" I'm dictating well past the point with this, but you get me: It was silly. He dicks around in a mental institution, gets a few lobotomies, reforms somewhere else to try it all again. Ultimately, everything leading up to him appearing in Chinatown and grabbing a dude's coolie hat amounted to nothing, and that's what bothers me. The Scorpion and Sub Zero episodes were kind of up and down, but overall, I was pretty pleased with them. I do think the ending was a tad stupid, what with SPOILERSPOILERSPOILER Quan Chi being a shapeshifter when he's never been anything of the sort in the games. Shang Tsung was standing right there with him; why the fuck didn't they just make him pose as Sub Zero instead? This doesn't even seem sensible to me. ENDSPOILERSPOILERSPOILER Anyway, I'm a little torn on the new costume designs. I really don't know what's going on with the white-on-blue shit Subs has going on, and his mask looks a tad silly, but I'm sure that's another case of budget constraints taking hold (I attribute the cheesy fire effects to this as well). Scorpion's is actually a really cool concept, what with the more authentic throwbacks to feudal Japan, but I feel like the execution was a tad lacking. I really don't know why they picked a dark green mask instead of like, black or something, because the color really clashes with the yellow. Still, Ian Anthony Dale made for a pretty badass Scorpion, though I have to admit he played it up better in the movie pitch when he was still rocking the facial hair. This is so unbelievably gay of me to be nitpicking over this, but the fact stands. Independent of all this, the fight scene was seriously fucking awesome, and I kind of giggled at Scorpion screaming GET OVER HERE in Japanese. It was funny in an ironic sort of way, but still convincing enough that I can appreciate it for what it is. I definitely have mixed feelings about MK Legacy, but all in all, I've enjoyed it. For being a free web series, it's shot surprisingly well and the fight scenes look legit as fuck. Neither of the two full-length movies had fight choreography that even compares to this, and those actually had a sizable budget to work with (...Well, the first movie did). Sure, MKA was a giant flop and I'm wasting my breath in contrasting with it, but I loved the first movie when I was a kid and honestly, it's still a pretty good movie by today's standards. It's nineties as fuck, but it does a good job of representing the characters without being too far up its own ass, and that's an increasingly rare quality in movie adaptations of games. ANYWAY, all that's left now is the Cyrax/Sektor episode this following week, and from the short clip of them in the pre-release teaser, they actually look really well done. I can't wait to see where they go with it.

My. Thoughts. Exactly.

Wow, I forgot all about this thread. Apparently I have some catching up to do. The netcode is fucking awful, yeah. They're patching that within the next week, thank christ. I can think of times where I've lost a match because a dash-in parry dropped one of the inputs and made me do an uppercut, or when I missed the catch/pop-up on a combo that would've won it. It's a shame, because the game plays so smoothly offline. Kung Lao is the guy with the bladed hat, and he's pretty solid. I don't know if he's top 3-5, but he's easily top 10. He has some of the strongest offense in the game, and there are only a handful of characters who can really contend with him up close. Truthfully, I still think Sub Zero is the character with the most in his repertoire, if only because he has some of the strongest offensive AND defensive play. He can go toe to toe with Kung Lao, and that's saying a lot. At the same time, when he really needs to play defense, clone + iceball controls space better than just about anything in the game, and you'll steadily build meter with those setups. He's a deceptively versatile character, and no one seems to see that. I truthfully didn't think much of him when I played the demo and even when I picked up the game, I wasn't blown away (I was mostly waiting for the opportunity to pick up Cyber Subs), but after Tom Brady started plugging Sub's merits, I had to go check him out again. Suffice to say, it really stuck, because he's easily my best character now. I think what I like best about him is that unlike the scrub-friendly characters, Subs is only as good as the player. He doesn't have any cheesy exploits, he doesn't have any super-scrubby ways to shave a third off someone's health bar, he's just an expansive, methodical character who can set the pace no matter what the matchup. That's a rare quality in MK9. If you want a good trick with Kung Lao, pressure with ground hats to draw them in and go for a jumpkick+divekick. If you're doing it right, there are so few ways through that. ...Except for well-timed clones with Subs. :up: And now, for some other shit that I missed! Tag is really not meant for serious play, I hope you realize that. It's broken as shit and there are plenty of combos that can do an easy 100% damage. It was never meant to be balanced, it's just supposed to be fun to dick around with. And no, Cage's tag-in attack is his shadow kick. Considering Sektor has the absolute best wakeup attack in the game, one of the fastest uppercuts, a solid shutdown for jump-ins and some of the best normal strings, I'd say he's pretty far from a "funsies" character. He's A+ tier, if not S, and he's probably just shy of the top ten. Also, working your ass off, Smoke. Pick one. I'll play Smoke occasionally because it's fun to try going rushdown with him, but he's the most absolutely scrub-friendly character in the game. The zen of Smoke is to smoke cloud back and forth to control space and build meter, then hurtle smoke bombs whenever it's safe. Voila, Smoke. There's just no thought to playing the character. Also, NRS has been saying for the past month that the big patch coming out next week is going to contain a netcode update, so I don't know where the hell you're getting a "lack of communication" from. "Some combo opportunity somewhere"? Did you SEE her strings? It's like you don't even need to try to do mixups with her. More than that, are you seriously bitching about a 29% Xray? Average Xray damage is roughly 35%, so you're effectively bitching about 6% damage? You can make that back in chip, for christ's sake. Even then, the amount of damage it does is not as concerning as how much it scales in combos; if it scales as gracefully as, say, Sub Zero's, it'll be one of the better Xrays in the game. Above and beyond all of this, Xrays become less and less common as the level of competition goes higher, because a breaker becomes much more valuable to you when every single punish is for 20 percent, if not 30 or 40. Regardless, Skarlet looks fucking awesome. I'm probably going to rush out to buy her right away, and I didn't even give a shit about her during her reveal. She looks like the missing link between Mileena and Sonya, and that's reason enough to want to try her out right there. I can guarantee you that DLC list is a load of shit, for three reasons: 1) The retro costumes are coming out before Skarlet is, which already clashes with their forecasted DLC order 2) Skarlet and Kenshi aren't going to be in the same DLC pack, and it's confirmed that Kenshi is coming out further on down the line 3) Ed Boon already posted a tentative list of DLC characters on his Twitter even before release, so as to see which characters had the most fan demand. Frost and Mavado (whose name they didn't even spell right) weren't on there. Point-blank, this is just some stupid shit that some dumb kid thought up based on the reveal article. He concluded that Kenshi and Skarlet were going to be packaged together because they were in the same reveal, so he made up some other character pairings that people might want to see. I can almost guarantee you Mavado won't make it into the game, and if he does, it won't be for quite awhile. The characters Boon named were Rain, Cyber Smoke, Tanya, Shinnok, Kenshi and "new character". We obviously got the last two first, which I suspect was just to cover their bases, as MK9 lacks 1) new characters and 2) any old characters from MK4 and on. The only other character who seems a likely inclusion at this point is Fujin, based on a leaked DLC placeholder (just a barebones male character model) who the announcer called "Fujin". I really doubt they would've recorded a voice clip for a character they don't plan to do anything with, but there's been no word on him one way or another at this point. ANYWAY, on my end, I've just been trying to branch out and learn a lot more combos. Generally, when I win a match online now, I'll pick a new character each time and move down the line until I lose again. I usually find myself going Subs -> Cyber Subs -> Ermac -> Sektor -> Cyrax, by which point they either leave or I actually lose. I'm still getting the hang of using Cyrax in a high-pressure situation. I've also been trying to play Noob on rushdown lately, which is extremely difficult but definitely a lot more interesting than the scrubby high/low spamming Noobs you'll see most often. He's definitely got strong rushdown potential, it just requires a lot of work. The upknee is basically the shoryuken of this game, and he's got high/low projectiles to mix it up with. You can get some really solid mixups going by alternating the charge and the upknee at the end of your strings, and they both have great coverage. I'm also trying to pick up Shang, but I haven't quite been able to get on top of his combos yet. It really doesn't help that I have a lot of other characters on the go and he's one of the hardest characters to play. Still, I'm seeing plenty of great combo potential in there and apart from having a dick-slow uppercut, he's got some great normals. It really helps that a lot of his combo potential comes from his fireballs, which you can't breaker. Still, I've had MK9 for a month and a half, and I think it only gets better with time. This game definitely has more lasting appeal than MvC3 did, though that's not saying a whole hell of a lot. Oh, and on the subject of DLC, for anyone who missed this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrMfeE8XKhE I can't fucking wait for this. It'd be really cool if Cyber Subs could use them, and it'd be no more out of place than Ermac using an MK1 costume when he was never in the game. Let's face it, blue retro cyborg would be sweet shit.

LRp truthfully isn't too bad once you move the control scheme around and use something really fucked up and counter-intuitive. It controls fine there, just... Not with any of the default controls. Of course, AC3 played fine as long as you're using a blade, and I've played AC1 on my PSP by the same means. The PSP maps L2 and R2 to the analog stick when you're not using it, so by default, you can use that to look up. Personally, I just mapped blade and weapon switch to the analog and used triangle/circle to look up, a la AC3p, but that's just me. Even still, I'm pretty sure you can choose to switch between the analog or the D-pad for proprietary movement in the PSP HUD, with the other being used for the extra buttons, though it's been awhile. What I'm really getting at here is that dual analog support has nothing to do with Sony of America's refusal to put AC1 and its expansions up on the store, it's AC1's jarring unpopularity. Point-blank, no one gives a shit about it, not enough to warrant putting it on the market again.

And now, the why-the-fuck-am-I-even-doing-this-to-myself post! - PMs have far from enough tracking. I can dodge them effortlessly without the use of flares, and their damage is so pitiful it hardly matters if you do get hit. Anyone worth his salt can dodge these, and at the highest level of the competition on the 360 side, PMs never hit. - The GA gens are supreme, and you still need to get it through your head that KP is a void stat in AC4. The metagame dictates that it does absolutely nothing. The difference in KP between the SS-GL and the MAXWELL is so absolutely negligible that the recharge time is hardly any different, and even if it were, you'll never recharge your KP without turtling anyhow. Unless you can get to cover or safely pull away from your opponent (which is impossible against a faster opponent in high-level play), you'll never be able to recharge KP on command anyhow. Despite what you may think, KP has no direct impact on damage cut, whereas rectification does. I've ran stacked shell/PA designs with the SS-G gen, purely to get away with the drain of the PA molder extensions, and still had no issue with breaks. By the time your opponent has started to wear down the massive rectification and durability on a dedicated PA whore, you can be well on your way to safety if it's an option, and if it's not, you lost this matchup before it even started. - The ability to use weapons like the VEGA with ease really don't matter when weapons like the VEGA are inarguably bottom-tier, because they just don't hold up in AC4's metagame. Let's run a hypothetical: You bring a VEGA against an average midweight, for which the reasonable defense cap is about 9000/6000 or 8000/7000. You need to hit with at least half of those shots to even make it worth bringing, and then what? There are no back weapons that are good enough to operate as a standalone, limiting to you to a crosswield or a half-assed missile spam approach. The crosswield is the only consistent and reliable option here, and most worthwhile crosswield setups are a whole lot of added weight and drain, seriously impeding your ability to pressure. If you don't have the speed and energy to close in on your opponent, better than he can stop you from closing in, you will never make the VEGA work. A decent opponent knows not to dive into a VEGA, simple as that. He'll draw you to exploit these setbacks, and you'll never be able to get in and make the damage count. Even in the event that you do, you'll need to make sure that the damage you do is worth the damage you take on the approach. Point-blank, VEGA is a catch 22. Your options are to run a bare-bones setup that requires absolutely immaculate play in the face of absolute predictability, or to go in armed to the teeth and lose the ability to press the offense adequately. Simply put, you're damned if you do, and damned if you don't. The greater issue here is that the TELLUS can still utilize some shell weapons for a lot of great weapon setups, most notably the hand missile and the lower impact rifles that aren't quite so involved (R100, 100R, 47 and 51). There is nothing stopping you from running an ER-0200 and 100R setup on the TELLUS, and it'll hit with them just fine. At the end of the day, the TELLUS will still get the job done just as well as the HILBERT will, and when the HILBERT is just a heavier version of the same arm once you have both of them hitting consistently, TELLUS is strictly superior. You make it sound as though the HILBERT allows better weapons, but ultimately, it just allows different weapons, many of which aren't as good as the tried-and-trues that support the TELLUS. - If the HILBERT was a problem for you in any respect, that doesn't speak highly of the PS3's metagame, because I can't recall ever losing to anyone using the HILBERT legs on the 360 side. The SS-L has some appeal for stacking shell defense, but even that is grossly outmatched by the SS-LL for the same purpose. To put it bluntly, true heavyweights aren't viably in AC4, any more than tanks are (if not less, by virtue of the few good ways to abuse tank hangars). A mid can consistently flank a heavy, and a light can literally run circles around it. The only way to make a heavy competitively viable is to create a hybrid frame that speeds it up with lighter weight parts (SALAF core is the all-purpose way to cheese weight classes like this), and the issue here is that the HILBERT just never has enough defense when doing this. By the time you strip a HILBERT down enough to make it fast, you forfeit its defense, which gives you absolutely no reason to use it at all. The only good HILBERT frame I can think of off-hand is 47AN/47AN/TELLUS/HILBERT. You might be able to make 47AN/SALAF/SS-A/HILBERT work, but I don't think it'll do anything that a more conventional mid-heavy can't do better. - ...SS-A is "limited in its weapon choices"? HOW? It has ridiculously high precision, maneuverability and recoil control (the highest combination of all three after the HILBERT, in fact), not to mention the best overall statbase of any arm part in the game. For its weight, the amount of defense, AP and even PA you get is fucking admirable. That arm was absolutely broken, period. If you could make an AC with the SS-A move fast enough to play rushdown, it was almost unstoppable just for that. This is why so many Japanese players ran head du jour with SALAF/SS-A/47AN, because it was a mathematical phenom. - SS-LL has not a single downside, not a one. Its few weaknesses are so easily made up for that it's easily one of the best legs in the game. Take the head/TELLUS/TELLUS/SS-L frame. About the only thing keeping this frame from being truly flawless is that it can't do sweet SALAF aerial ballet. - Okay, have you even looked at the weight difference between the HOGIRE and the 47AN? Go put it into effect. The difference in speed isn't just negligible, it isn't noticeable. For much lower shell defense than the 47AN, it has a little more AP (a measly 1500, memory serving) and an EN defense boost that could easily be made up by the TELLUS or HILBERT head. Hell, it even drains a little bit more. Ultimately, the HOGIRE is very slightly better than the 47AN in a few ways that kind of matter and drastically worse in one way that really matters. You won't notice the few advantages that the HOGIRE has in practice, but you'll really notice the disadvantage. - The SALAF core is the lynchpin for just about every god-tier frame in the game. How the hell does that need a buff in any way whatsoever? If anything, it needs its rectification toned down so it doesn't overshadow the AALIYAH 99% of the time. I already know any debate spurned from this is going to go nowhere, but this is a whole lot of shit that needed to be said.

Since Niji is bordering on this issue as it is, I'll be the first to say that I think the rifles don't need a nerf so much as other weapons need a buff. Point-blank, the simplest fix for AC4 would be to give all the rifles an ammo cut of about 25 to 30 percent, though that's not the best way to solve its problems. Some people might argue that they need a decrease in damage or increase in reload time, but the issue with rifles is that they're consistent to a fault, at least comparatively. If you nerfed their damage output (damage over time/DOT, more specifically), by any means, there'd be almost no way to balance them perfectly. You could either nerf them too hard, or not hard enough. Cutting their damage or rate of fire by just a little bit wouldn't do anything to solve the balance issue on the whole, but cutting it by a wide margin would render them useless; if you want a glimpse of that outcome, try playing with all of the rifles banned and see how much lasting appeal that has. Basically, it's not so much that rifles need to get worse, everything else just needs to get better. Machineguns need to be viable and accurate at least up to the 200 range, maybe even 300 on the weaker models. Grenades need to return to being high-accuracy balls of fire at the cost of slow reload and (relatively) poor tracking, forcing you to use proper setups instead of hammering the fire button like some trigger-happy scrub. Bazookas need to be more moderate in general; less damage, less stun, higher accuracy and reload. Laser rifles are fine for the most part, but they definitely need a little more ammo, a little less usage drain and a LOT less damage scaling over time. Snipers really just need greater applicability from shorter distances so they can at least be used comfortably from mid-range, albeit no closer than that: Anyone who's played Last Raven can understand why I don't want a repeat of the RS, and seeing someone dominate you with a sniper rifle when he's close enough to rub your nipples with the barrel just looks really dumb. I could go on, but hopefully, this gives you some idea of where I'm going with these part changes. All in all, rifles need to be SLIGHTLY toned down, and everything else just needs to be toned way the fuck up. ...Though none of these fixes would matter with the netcode in the state that it's in, of course.

You know, that might just be relevant if your argument in its entirety wasn't centered on PSP support and PSX AC's reliance on dual analogs. You claimed that AC1-era would never get ported because it requires the use of dual analogs (implicitly, anyway). I pointed out that this obviously isn't an issue when you consider that 1) AC1 predates dual analog and 2) Last Raven was ported to the PSP, despite being a game with a dual analog control scheme by default. QED, dual analog support has nothing to do with it and you're dumb. P.S. I said lame and unfunny comebacks, sweet pea. When you say something genuinely witty for any point or purpose, I'll know your account has been jacked.

I don't know what that threshold speed is in numbers, it's just a matter of feel to me. Simply put, you know when your design is going to be too slow or clunky to catch up with the designs that DO meet that threshold level. I don't mean to say that everything in the game can be as fast as a lightweight should ever want to be, only that there is a point to which more speed is unnecessary. Theoretically, you can never be too fast, but when it comes down to "Use a full SALAF with AALIYAH arms for that little extra speed" or "Throw on some thicker parts to lose a bit of speed and gain thousands more DFP", I think the wiser choice is pretty obvious. To me, building smart is as simple as maximizing output (not EN output, but output in the sense of productivity). As far as I'm concerned, positive factors like speed, AP, DFP and energy are like point values, and whichever design has the highest point total is most likely to win; obviously there's more to it than that in an actual matchup, but speaking purely in terms of frame solidarity, it's sound logic. For instance, a design with a generous amount of speed for around 9000/6000 defense (solid/EN) is likely to fare better than a slightly faster design that achieves its speed at the cost of defense, and ranks it at around 6000/4000. The faster design COULD win through absolutely immaculate play, but in all reality, that design is going to lose more in a tradeoff and its marginal speed advantage is only going to make it so slightly better at recovering lost ground; assuming equal skill level, the design with higher overall output is more likely to win. Granted, I feel like each category can be more or less important depending on a number of situational factors, but we'll get into that another day so I'm not here all night.

The Nerves Concord emblem is pretty slick. I can't believe it took this song for someone to think of that, the emblem piece was right there.

The AALIYAH/S looks much better on paper, but the problem is that using AALIYAH/S with the VIRTUE or AALIYAH/M makes for the most taxing booster setups imaginable. The KRAKEN may have less bang for your buck, but ultimately, it'll get the job done with less energy expended. ORTEGA is a nice substitute in either case as well, but as you said, the accel is pretty meager, and I value that above all else. I don't mind ORTEGA so much on mid-range builds, but I'd never use it in close quarters. Really, it does just come down to the fact that using AALIYAH/S with VIRTUE or AALIYAH/M is just slightly too much to handle for most conventional builds, whereas KRAKEN keeps you under the line.

Uh, how is this even a debate? KRAKEN/HOLOFERNES has never NOT been amazing. It was easily the best booster up til 1.5, and while it got scaled down quite a bit with the booster rebalancing, it's still a solid part. It produces more than the ORTEGA, but drains less than the AALIYAH, and while either booster is more efficient, efficiency isn't absolute. I personally find any excuse to use the AALIYAH/S, but I found I still used HOLOFERNES on just about every other design that didn't have it (and a select few lighter ACs that used the SCHEDAR). The appeal is that while the AALIYAH and ORTEGA are technically better boosters on paper, the KRAKEN is a comfortable medium between the two and still performs admirably in execution. If the AALIYAH drains too much but the ORTEGA isn't quick enough, the KRAKEN is a nice middleground that's still functional and reliable. In fact, I'd say choosing a sidebooster in post-1.5 AC4 comes down to AALIYAH wherever you can afford it -> HOLOFERNES if AALIYAH is too costly -> ORTEGA if HOLOFERNES is still pushing it -> SCHEDAR if absolutely nothing else will work; I'll probably call you a baby-back bitch for using the SCHEDAR in pretty much every case, but I digress. Oh, and to the TC: Stop trying to use profile comments to flirt with someone I brought here or I'm going to have to fight you to the death for her affection. Just FYI, you'd lose.

I do have limited internet access. That took a grand total of twenty minutes to type up. If you know how fast I type, that shouldn't even seem like much of a stretch. VIRTUE already is the HOLOFERNES main booster equivalent. VIRTUE is to AALIYAH/M what HOLOFERNES is to AALIYAH/S. LW legs were balanced fine, it was LW arms that needed a buff. Off the top of my head, here are some changes I felt 1.6 AC4 needed: - POPLAR needed the missile count upped to at least 6; 4 is just too little - PM missiles needed much better tracking - AALIYAH gen needed a LOT more output; they got this right in FA, but it just doesn't have a purpose in AC4 - SS-G and GL needed the output cut by at least 1000 or so, perhaps with a compensatory cap boost; more on this below - HILBERT arms needed an absolutely massive def boost, or at least a reasonable weight cut (there's just never any reason to use it over TELLUS unless you absolutely need the tracking) - HILBERT legs needed a moderate weight cut, putting it somewhere between SS-L and SS-LL - Conversely, SS-A needed a weight hike, and possibly even an aim precision cut - SALAF legs needed a slight AP boost - Lightweight arms needed a massive accuracy boost and possibly a weight cut; more on this below - SALAF arms in particular pretty much needed a boost in every single category - SS-LL needed a weight hike and a turning cut - HOGIRE arms needed lower drain, and HOGIRE core needed higher defense (probably just 15 to 20 percent in both categories) - AALIYAH core needed higher PA rec, and SALAF needed lower - ORTEGA needed somewhat more efficient QB; as it stands, it's just a toned down AALIYAH - The entire HOGIRE booster set needed to be more efficient, as with the earlier regs I could go on, really. These are just a few quick fixes that need to be performed off the top of my head, and some of those still aren't as quick as they should be. Right off, my issue with the gens is that they're all functionally identical; the game tries to portray each generator as being specialized for a certain playstyle or build type, but really, you're just going to slap on the highest output generator your weight cap will afford. Most people will immediately go for the SS-G or MAXWELL, depending on how much KP output they're looking for. The only time you'd EVER use another gen in AC4 is when you opt for the SS-GL or HECTOR, because one of those big bad generators won't fit. Truth be told, the SS-G and GL could just as easily get an output cut so they don't absolutely dominate this stat and the game would be fine, but I think it'd make more sense to set them about 2000k shy of the AALIYAH/MAXWELL/HECTOR and just give them a tremendous cap. This would make them a different sort of generator for a different build type, which would greatly improve part variety. Ironically enough, FA actually got this right in the early regs, before it defaulted every returning AC4 part to whatever it had in the final reg of that game. While all the parts listed above only need simple tweaks, there are some parts (even entire categories) that need a much more involved adjustment. Perhaps the most glaring would be the GA boosters and the LINSTANT frame. At a glance, the aim of the GA boosters is ostensibly to offer solid normal boost speed at the cost of poor QB performance, but sadly, the normal boost isn't a whole lot higher than what you'd get with the AALIYAH, which also has stellar QB stats. Similarly, the LINSTANT does have markedly higher PA than every other frame, but at the end of the day, mixing and matching JUDITH/AALIYAH/47AN parts will give you comparable PA for a dramatic increase in defense and AP (without which PA rectification is worthless). Both of these parts take a more radical approach to stat layout, and that's the bitch of rebalancing them: The easiest fix would be to even them out a little more, which would increase viability but overlap with existing parts. Personally, I think it'd be more sensible to just take the stats that these boosters intended to emphasize and increase them drastically. If you gave the LINSTANT part a 150 to 200 percent increase in rectification, their awful stats might just be offset by the ridiculous PA shielding, and it'd definitely make for some interesting builds when you mix it with the other frames. Similarly, if the GA main booster had 20k horizontal thrust, let's face it: You'd give it another try. It'd make for some interesting ground-based designs, especially quads. Truthfully, I just don't think From takes into account context when they're developing these games; it's like each full frame in AC4 has its stats allocated independently, as if they designed each set ignorant of all the others. If you look at the GA boosters by themselves, they actually look okay on paper, but they're an immediate writeoff once you've seen every other part in the game. I'll just leave it at that for now, because I could probably go on for pages about all the little adjustments I think AC4 needed. Don't fucking get me started on ACFA, either.

Oh hey, and because I missed this: Don't talk about ACFA as if you know the game. Just don't.

Alright, so while I have limited computer access, I'll make some addresses here. I'll be honest, I only read the first page (and to say I read it at all is putting it pretty fucking liberally), but while my laptop is out of order, I don't have the time to thoroughly assess seventy-odd posts on AC metagame and part balance. I suppose I am a tad behind in giving my input, but oh well, better late than never. Anyhow: - l-o-fucking-l at Ironsoul saying From is "too busy with AC5" to balance ACFA. The game has around 300 parts, most of which could be given a bell curve by category and around two dozen of which need a hard adjustment; they could make a better reg file if they really broke and down and made some more specific alterations, but the aforementioned approach would at least make the game reasonably balanced. Adjusting the regulations is really no more involved than opening up a spreadsheet and playing with numbers. From could very easily pay a nerd like me a meager sum of money to create a new reg file based on 1.4 (or even an earlier reg file, for all it matters) in the span of an afternoon. I could be really generous and say that it might take as long as a full day, but given the ostensible lack of playtesting that plagued every reg file from 1.1 in AC4 right through to 1.4 in FA, I very highly doubt it'd take more than a few hours. From is clearly above paying money for silly things like playtesting or fine-tuning. By the way, your facial hair looks like shit, go invest in a beard trimmer and become learned in the ways of the base clipper setting. Granted, your face looks like shit and to say that the facial hair mars it in any way is like saying that a bit of mold on a piece of shit is what's holding it back, but I digress. In a loosely related matter: While he's still the man (err, manchild) of the hour, Ironsoul brought an MG/rifle combo to all two of the matches we've ever been in together. During the second of the two, he used them in close quarters against the last surviving member of our team (namely Delfe/Sweetooth/Vision of Shiva/Strayed Mongrel/Fuck me he's had too many names), when it was down to the two of them. Our guy was down to his hangar handguns, and so was forced to get within humping distance just to do any damage to Ironsoul. Our guy also had 100 AP (no, this is not a typo, I really mean [/i]one hundred AP[/i]), and somehow, Ironsoul wasn't capable of dropping him. It went on long enough that we lost because Delfe expended both his hangar handguns and summarily flew out of bounds, lacking anything else to fight off Ironsoul's sad little build with. To this day, those of us that were there still marvel at how Ironsoul, in all his splendor, was somehow incapable of landing even one shot with a rapid fire weapon at point-blank range. Like, the law of averages would dictate that he'd HAVE to connect with at least one shot in the time it takes to burn off three handgun clips, even just by stroke of luck. Realize that these were handguns, on the SS-AL arms: I am not exaggerating when I say that Delfe was inside the 100 range mark during this time. I mean, Stevie Wonder could hit a man once with a weapon that has a reload of, uh, 4 (in fact, I think he had the ZAKAT, in which case it would've been a reload of 2). Even spraying it like a firehose, you'd be bound to get lucky and connect with just one stray bullet, and somehow, that wasn't even possible here. QED, Ironsoul is fantastically terrible at AC4. He is so bad at these games it's wholly unrealistic; it defies all logic and reason. ...That was more or less irrelevant, I just find it hilarious because you reached for a prime example of an intentionally terrible AC and you unwittingly turned up a combo Ironsoul used in earnest. - The White Glint parts are far from broken, regardless of reg. They're all high tier (well, excepting the head), but they are the absolute least of ACFA's problems. Frame parts in 1.4 suffer from Silent Line syndrome, in that there's almost a strict hierarchy for part viability: The EKHAZAR core is better than the 63AN core is better than the WG core. The 63AN arms are better than the WG arms are better than the LANCEL arms. The list goes on, really. Amongst the arms, there's really never any reason to use anything that isn't the 63AN unless you're statwhoring with the ARGRYOS, which supports a limited amount of weapon setups. Amongst the cores, there's almost never a reason to use anything other than the EKHAZAR, seldom excepting the 63AN just for higher defense on lighter builds (and only if you can afford the added weight and drain). Frame design in ACFA is methodical to a fault, to the extent that there's almost always one "right" way to build any one AC. Building an AC in AC4 was methodical to the effect that you could rotate certain frame part combinations to be more efficient or produce more with your build. Building an AC in ACFA is methodical to the effect that you're basically retarded if you're making a serious design and don't use the EKHAZAR core with the 63AN arms. - In that vein, For Answer needs a hell of a lot more than a netcode adjustment to be balanced. Even independent of the velocity issues, the actual part balance is just bad. There's almost always one best part in any given category, and even when there isn't, there's either a strict hierarchy or a body of It honestly feels like the worst of SL and LR's part balances with none of what made either game enjoyable. ANYHOW, to get back to the original question posed by the topic, I can safely say that AC4 is the best-balanced game (in 1.6, anyway) and ACFA is the worst-balanced. Like, Project Phantasma was probably more sensible than this shit is. I can still find ways to be innovative in AC4 even with its limited assortment of parts, and somehow, FA doesn't offer the same creative depth with roughly twice as many parts (feel free to correct me on this). Fuck For Answer, what a waste of money. The worst of it is that the regs actually got worse from 1.2 on; 1.1 was far from balanced, but it was a huge step in the right direction, even if there was still an overall lack of part variety due to blatantly copypasted stat. Compare the 47AN to the 63AN, NSS to SS-L, HOGIRE to LANCEL: these are just three of the many that have near identical stats. Half of the new parts were blatantly copied from an existing part, with two or three stats modified. The part balance wasn't stellar either, but if nothing else, 1.1 is playable. More than that, it has some interesting parts and plenty of potential for innovative builds, in a stark contrast to the later regs. All told, 1.1 is a fun reg to play on. This really can't be said of 1.2, 1.3 and especially 1.4, which kills the part variety more than 1.2 ever did and still manages to be more broken. A lot of people question why most of the older players (myself included) hate ACFA so much. What they fail to realize is that I was absolutely behind ACFA up til the American release, when I realized From was never going to put any effort into addressing its issues. Truthfully, i recognize that For Answer has all the potential to be a much better game than AC4 ever could be, and somehow, it doesn't even manage to be as good. It hopelessly pissed away every chance at being decent with each new reg file that was released. Moving on, we have AC4. I'm still never quite sure how to feel about AC4, really. It's easily the best-balanced game in the series, but at the same time, it lacks a lot of the finer subtleties of, say, Silent Line or Last Raven. It does offer more streamlined multiplayer than any other game in the series, and its part balance in 1.6 makes the majority of the parts competitively viable (albeit with the exclusion of entire categories, such as handheld grenades and half the missile types). Still, to say that there's nothing wrong with AC4 is far from the truth, so it's about time someone really addressed that. First and foremost, AC4's metagame emphasizes rangelocking to a fault. Weapons like machineguns could be used at mid-close range in Last Raven, but in AC4, they can't be used unless you're close enough to feasibly rub your dick on your opponent. Similarly, where sniper rifles could be used at almost any range in SL or LR, they're all but useless outside of the 1000 range in AC4 (and they're still going to get laughed off by a half-assed decent player even when used from a safe distance, but that's beside the point). This is is one glaring fault that's made all the more pronounced by the exceptional range control of certain weapon types; the 47ANNR can effectively cover every range mark you'd ever need to cover in a competitive matchup, to the point where sniper rifles seem completely superfluous. Machineguns work in a competitive setting, but even up in the nosebleeds, a MARVE can dish out damage fast enough to compete with a MOTORCOBRA (taking into account consistency of damage, of course), and it can do so from longer ranges than the MOTORCOBRA. The list goes on, really. AC4 very blatantly favors certain weapon types, for far more reasons than the velocity cutoffs that usually take the heat for this issue. Point-blank, rifles have an unbridled mix of potency and versatility that makes them far and away the best weapons in the game; you can double up on any rifle in 1.6, and guaranteed, you have a strong and reliable weapon setup. This really should never be case, and while some of you will argue that there are much better weapon combos than strictly dual rifles, that isn't the point. When you can run in with just two MARVEs or two AZANs and drop most any setup in the game with a can-do attitude, a little elbow grease and a stunning lack of self-respect, it tells me there's something very wrong with the weapon balance in this game. I need to stress that this is in 1.6, because due to the hefty nerfing the MARVE and AZAN received in 1.4, it doesn't quite pan out the same as it does in any of the earlier/later regs. AC4's problems run deeper than this, though. A lot of mechanics from the previous games that helped it to maintain coherency were arbitrarily removed in AC4, not the least of which is the boost lift. In the older games, you generally lifted into the air by boost alone, with jumps being a more situational measure. It was typically used to save energy, and jumping was still a huge asset (especially to RJs) so long as you were safe to stop still for the brief vulnerability period it entails. In AC4, for whatever ridiculous reason, you can't even leave the ground without jumping. If you don't stand perfectly still for about half a second, you can't even get into the air. This emphasizes air combat to a fault, and at the highest level of competition, you won't even be able to safely leave the ground unless you're in the opponent's blindspot or behind cover, which is strictly a luxury. You can't always get behind cover, and in some matchups, you may not even be able to get in your opponent's blindspot at all; even assuming equal skill, it's just not possible for even a fully-loaded mid to flank a featherweight (well, a good one anyway). I'm getting tired of going in-depth at this point, so I'll just summarize and say that active drain on weapons that are still in the hangar is one of the most idiotic mistakes From made with AC4, especially considering they didn't have active drain in Nexus (y'know, the first game in the series to introduce them). The same dev team designed every game from Nexus right up to AC4, so really, what the hell is their excuse? This is just one of those silly little discrepancies that are completely inexcusable, which impeded AC4 and absolutely defined FA. Given how easy it would be to mitigate all of these design flaws, you can probably empathize with my lack of respect for Nabeshima's design team at this point, and it's largely why I don't have high hopes for ACV. Alright, I'm spent. That was a hell of a lot longer than I was expecting it to be, but hopefully it does something to contribute to the topic. Enjoy. Or don't. Or something. DISCLAIMER: I probably should've proofread this, but I really don't feel like it and consequently, it's bound to make absolutely no sense in a couple places. I'm really good at randomly excluding words and failing to notice it until I've read it two dozen times.

Working on it. ...Wait what

Maybe it's a really big cadillac. You seriously drew this from scratch, though? That looks photorealistic.

I agree with Niji's breakdown somewhat, but I do think that speed is (arguably) the ultimate deciding factor in any AC game. It's less pronounced in AC4 for two primary reasons: Speed is easier to attain, and due to the erratic nature of QB maneuvering, there is a point to where it becomes superfluous. Simply put, you only ever need to be SO fast, at least in terms of evasion. There is a point to which you just don't need to be any quicker than you are, and for that reason, building in AC4 is more about hitting that speed threshold and maxing out your defensive potential. The goal is basically to be as fast as you'll ever need to be, then get as much DFP and AP as you possibly can while still meeting your speed quota. The bitch of this, of course, is doing so without running too high on your total drain, or your total weight in the case of RJs and lights. My design philosophy is usually to build a generic frame around my weapon combo as a vantage point, then improve upon it from there, maximizing my AP/DFP/energy as much as I can while keeping my losses to a minimum. That's just my two cents.

Uh, I am literally the only person who voted for #8 in MacGuyver (and I fully admitted that I was voting ironically if that wasn't blatantly obvious to begin with), so I don't know where the hell you're getting this "people just defaulted to that design" bullshit. Your rationale is retarded, by the way, considering it ultimately boils down to "I voted for it because I couldn't vote for my own". There were nine other designs you could've voted for, big guy. There was absolutely nothing limiting you to that vote, and you tell it like it was a catch 22. I revolve back to "you're bad at the game" because that's the same shit you pulled with me when I got into with Exogen over AC4, completely out of nowhere. I still don't know where the hell you get off thinking you have enough credibility to call me out where AC4 is concerned, because at least Exogen is held in such high esteem on the PS3 side that I can meet him head-on in a debate. Regardless of merit, you drew first blood. You started with the bullshit accusations based on something as arbitrary as my belief that the 47AN tracks well enough to match the AALIYAH's functionality, memory serving. It's also the same shit you pulled every time I brought up SL, despite the fact that you have NO basis for my skill or playstyle apart from one submission to an onsite design contest. One submission that I made after a day of dicking around in SLp, which was the first I'd touched the game in years. I made it sheerly to try something new and interesting, and you used it as some kind of platform for your self-righteous dickwaving. I couldn't bring up SL, or anyone who played it and wasn't you or PD, without hearing about how they're not as good as you and PD are. PD is truthfully very good at SL and LR alike from all that I've seen of his gameplay, but then, PD isn't an elitist prick and in contrast, I've seen shit all to judge your playing by. I suppose I could just jump to conclusions based on your silly ACDC submission, but then, I'm not as ignorant as you are. If it's any wonder to you that I turned the same condescension around on you when you tried stepping into my territory, you need one hell of a reality check. To that end, Idunno why you say you would've entered your ranker ACs if you wanted votes as if those would've been any more likely to get votes than what you did submit. Still, this is an argument for another thread, I'm sure.

Why, because they didn't vote for your shitty design? I'm just going to cut the shit for a minute here: No one likes Wak. I don't think it has any profound appeal to anyone other than yourself. If you like your design, so be it, you're entitled to your opinion. Unfortunately for you, everyone else is equally entitled to theirs, and no one else seems to think Wak is anything more than a shitty joke design that isn't worth committing to memory. Get over it. I didn't even think MY design was going to win anything, but I entered for shits and giggles, and the challenge of completely blind-designing an AC for a game I haven't played in years. Clearly, you were just a little bit more ambitious with your entry, based on your butthurt backlash and the random attacks on me in chat at the first mention of AC4. Ironically enough, you voted for it in the last category yourself, so you really have no right to bitch whatsoever. Chode actually summed it up pretty well. I definitely would've suggested the AALIYAH/B and either POLARIS or AALIYAH/M depending on what you're trying to do with it, and I personally used more offensive rifles with mine; the original 43138, before its widespread circulation in the later regs, had dual MARVE with dual POPLAR on the back in its final revision. This was back in 1.3, mind you, before the POPLAR was nerfed to the point of uselessness. I revised it for 1.4, but I was never quite as satisfied with it as I was with the original and it eventually faded into obscurity, until the design passed from Zelandias to Timeater sometime in 1.6. Again, the 43138 story is not that it was the end-all be-all design, just that its high raw stat totals and unparalleled ease of use made it a scrub's best friend. Bad players like Timeater, who could barely get off the ground with anything else, were actually capable of holding their own against decent players, even if the design was still easily routed at the highest level of competition. I'm guessing Chode opted for the JUDITH mains because I told him Timeater's 43138 had it, and given that he entered it ironically, it would only be appropriate to use the same cheesy setup (Timeater's 43138 actually had the 47AN head, though). Even still, my every vote for that AC stands, with the obvious exception of MacGuyver. If it had even come CLOSE to winning that category, I'd have gone back to change my vote, because that'd just be really fucking lame and I'd feel like a monumental douchebag. That said, all of the 360 folk who voted for the design (you know, all three of us) didn't vote for it because we're lameasses trying to rig a vote, we voted for it because 1) we all found it funny that Chode entered it and 2) we really think it wins those categories. Truth be told, I like the look of 43138's frame, much more so than all the lame cookie cutter SALAF-headed shit that comprises half the frames submitted. Truth be told, I do think 43138 is arguably the best candidate for LAN champ; god knows it's a big enough statwhore. Truth be told, I... Well, no one in the right mind is going to argue against its ease of use anyway, not without an unhealthy combination of butthurt and irrationality. Incase you didn't notice, the other two guys from the 360 side didn't vote for it in the second category because they WERE voting seriously, and all three of us fully agree that 43138 is the most tired design of the 360 side. You can say what you want about the reason #8 won, but frankly, I was voting seriously. I think the other two who voted for it across the board will say the same. I actually think the OGOTO is a pretty nice touch, though. I've almost never used it, but now that you've brought it to my attention, it's a great situational weapon. It has next to no drain, and while the weight is noticeable, 43138 has a more than generous weight cap to work with. Worst case scenario, if you're fighting a quicker aerial target in a 1v1, you can just drop it and it's like you never equipped it in the first place; it's the same principle as dropping flares if your opponent has no missiles. I'm starting to wish I'd built more ACs like this, especially for pressuring Delfe. At any rate, Chode's draft really is faster than it appears to be, and while it can't really flank or give chase, it just doesn't need to. It's fast enough to counter pressure in close, and outranging it isn't even possible. I already know Exorcet is going to pull out his laughable dual PITONE scenario as a corollary, but see, we've tested that: You'd need to land damn near every shot from dual railguns at above 700 range (which is the bare minimum distance to safely outrange this build, given that the 051ANNRs have around 600). Between the combination of 43138's high shell defense and deceptively potent evasion, you'd be shit out of luck if you made a concerted effort to outrange it. Consider that the only other weapons capable of outranging it are laser rifles, sniper rifles and sniper cannons: Laser rifles aren't going to do enough combined damage at greater than 600 range, sniper rifles aren't going to do enough combined damage at any range and sniper cannons just aren't consistent enough to be used as a proprietary offense measure. You just can't bring two sniper cannons and expect to outrange a guy with them, because their massive shot flare completely telegraphs every shot you take; this isn't such an issue in close due to their high velocity, but at >700 range, you aren't going to be hitting consistently. Hell, the other guy could flail around like a jackass with constant QB and he'll still probably dodge half your shots in total. ANYWAY, I still have my 360 copy of For Answer (even if I'd rather circumcise myself with a spoon than ever play it again), so I could come up with a paintscheme for 43138 in that. The original design used a decal paintscheme, albeit a simplistic one, so I'll have to come up with something else. Still, I had a few different versions of the design kicking around across all of the regulations, so I'm sure I can come up with something suitable. P.S. The name of the original 43138 was Savage Noble, FYI. The 43138 moniker is something Timeater came up with, and I've always thought it stupid beyond all fucking belief (especially when you consider that it was said out loud via voicechat more often than it was put in print, and 43138 is five fucking syllables). Regrettably, it stuck, and so we've referred to it as such ever since. I just figured I'd point out that this arbitrary name-by-AP-count shit is not my doing, even if I'm perpetuating it every time I refer to the build. P.P.S. Ironically, Chode's submission doesn't even have 43138 AP, because the 43138 total is what the design had with the 47AN head. Of course, the HOGIRE head looks rad as fuck, so that makes it totally okay.

LOL at how my AC won MacGuyverBot, and 43138 (in all its lame splendor) won every other category. So, so good. I'll be fair and say I don't think it deserved to win MacGuyverBot. I do think it wins E-Z-P-Z Joe by a longshot and even Fashion Model for the look of its frame (regardless of the boring preset paintjob), though LAN champ is pretty arguable; high output missile and laser setups cleave 43138 pretty good, but then, nothing here uses those well enough to really put up a fight, with the possible exception of my AC. Still, I would've felt pretty bad if it actually won MacGuyverBot, I just voted for it to be ironic. I figured there was no way it would win that category anyway, but to be honest, I don't think any of the especially creative ACs here are, like, good. Mine is the best of the more innovative submissions, and hell, mine isn't even THAT good. To that end, for all of you suggesting various additions like verts and different generators, I agree for the most part. You have to realize that my submission was completely blind-designed (and blind-painted, to uh... Questionable effect). That's why it's called Stevie Wonder. Get it? Get it? ANYWAY, It was actually a late submission like Atari's, albeit only by a day or so, but when everyone was left with the impression that I hadn't entered, I thought it might be funnier that way. I told everyone I hadn't entered, and Niji went along with it because he thought it would be more fun watching people guess at the designers. No one was really expecting me to go gungho anyway, and so I figured no one would question whether or not I'd entered. True to form, no one did. Every other entrant was found out in short order, almost sheerly by process of elimination at times, but no one implicated me. Truth be told, I got a pretty big kick out of it. To elaborate on why I made what I made (for all one or two of you who give a shit), I wanted to do something that was innovative but effective. AC4's design logic is pretty tired at this point, due in no small part to the limited number of parts. I had to try and come up with something I hadn't already done four years ago, which was a bitch of a time when I couldn't even play the game. On top of that, I wanted to avoid submitting an RJ, because when I go about building one, I wear my design philosophy on my sleeve. It would've been too fucking obvious that I submitted the design if it had been an RJ, regardless of whether or not I was suspected. Naturally, I went with a biped because they're so ubiquitous that it'll never completely give someone away on frame alone. Anyway, being that it was a submission I couldn't playtest for a game I haven't touched in years (on a reg file I haven't touched in even longer), I really played it safe with this one. When I got the chance to test it on my friend's PS3 copy, I was actually surprised at how well it handles, though it's obviously not as good as it could be if I'd had time to sit down and fine-tune it. All in all, I'm pretty happy with it, though I'll be the first to admit that my submission wasn't as good as it could've been. If I ever get the chance to play again, maybe I'll post up a refined edition and get that fag Owen to take some hi-res captures of it. Anyway, last and least, I have one small request: Do you mind if I submit my own paintjob for Chode's design for the wiki entry Niji, pending his permission? I was a little disappointed that it had a preset paintjob, and being that he fully admitted he submitted it ironically just because it was one of my more notorious designs, I think that'd be reasonable as long as Chode's okay with it. I don't know how often Chode even posts anymore in light of his dilemma, but hopefully he'll pop up to c/d this.

This is the absolute truest post that is or will ever be in this thread, maybe with the possible exception of "OP is a faggot". Granted, Noob saying that this is going to suck if it's not a reskinned COD4 is definitely a contender. I disagree with Rachis, actually. I think IW is going to try to play it closer to the formula this time, in light of the critical backlash they received with MW2; yes, I realize every major game reviewer verbally fellated the game (if they didn't literally perform oral sex on it by some fucked up means), but the fanbase was pretty divided over it. Black Ops has been better received by the players, and very noticeably draws more from COD4 than MW2 did. I think IW is going to take that as their cue to build upon the tried-and-true, rather than coming out of left field with needlessly bombastic shit like dual-wielding PDWs and twirling shotguns like revolvers. I'm cautiously optimistic about MW3, really. I was nothing short of fucking ecstatic about MW2, and consequently, I was thoroughly disappointed. I took one look at the perk layout and the list of weapons, and my first impression was "Oh, hey, this is like COD4 with a better perk layout and more options." What I didn't realize is that it was going to be the cheesiest FPS I'd played in years, with the most gimmick-driven metagame I've ever seen. Black Ops was definitely a step in the right direction, but then, IW had nothing to do with that, and that's probably why. That said, I certainly identify more with the setting of the Modern Warfare line than I do with Black Ops and its ghetto-rigged rifles, so I really hope that MW3 is the proper sequel to COD4 that we didn't get with MW2. Oh, and while I'll concede that nothing tops COD4 for maps, I don't see how anyone could think Black Ops' maps are worse than MW2. Truthfully, the maps in Black Ops are fine, it's just that the spawns are sensitive to a fault. If one guy walks over to the other end of Nuketown, the whole spawn flips in the blink of a fucking eye. I applaud them for recognizing where MW2 went wrong and taking measures to correct it, but uh... They went just a little bit overboard. P.S. Infinity Ward is still working on the single player, albeit with some degree of assistance from Sledgehammer games (who ostensibly dropped their "action adventure" COD project). Boy, Magnus just can't catch a break.