Yesterday I posted my weekend report with all the juicy things. And I forgot my dark side.
Shooters.
Yeah. Some Battlefield Heroes got it's way to the weekend, as an appetizer and reminder how darn boring a totally repetitive stuff can be. As if this wasn't enough, I finally gave in to my son's plea and installed a free FPS called Crossfire.
First impression: darn, it works!
Second impression: darn, I died.
(repeat second impression five times)
Umpteenth impression: Take that, buster! I KILLED IT!
For someone with fingers like bratwursts, a real FPS is a pain. The fingers don't fly on the buttons they are supposed to fly, the mouse control seems to be off-sync and why on Earth each and everyone on the opposing side are killing only me?!
But when you get the hang of it (and it seems that the mandatory military service does help a bit), the thing starts to flow. Duck and shoot, aim low, shoot bursts instead of continuous fire. All works in real, too.
After the first match - at which I really blew everything, even myself once - I can honestly say that I wasn't bad. I didn't end up last in the kill tables once. I managed even get a positive kill/death ratio once or twice.
What doesn't follow the rules of real engagement:
-You can take a few hits before falling. Even in mid torso.
- No-one cares about dying in Death Matches at least, so full throttle against the foe, kill, kill, die. Rinse and repeat.
- Everyone works as an individual. No co-operation, even though that would win the war.
In the end, I can play 7-12 matches in a row before I get bored. The repetitive running to the slaughter from spawn point really gets me, and it doesn't change a bit to 'know' that there are 'real, alive players' on the other side. Why should it, because they act just as awfully stupidly as do the team members?! In Battlefield Heroes the spawn site changes semi-randomly according to the situation in the game, but in Crossfire it's always the same. Thankfully there were no corpse campers in the games I was in...
As a comparison, I can play WoW for hours on end. Not even instancing, just doing those little, repetitive quests with kill ten rats, fetch that oogle, chat with my pal here kind of things. For some reason this feels more meaningful and interesting than shooting and dying repeatedly in a shooter. Even if there is as much 'human contact' involved, the shooter has no story nor character development...
Anyhow, I will be balancing my playing with occasional shoot outs. Crossfire and Battlefield Heroes, one or the other. What ever strikes my fancy.
