The Bull Pen #14

It is semi-depressing to be a Halo 2 player and member of the Old Man Mafia right now; especially if you are one of those folks who are unable or unwilling to own an XBOX 360 right now. I say that because a good chunk of the clan has become enamored with the various multiplayer games of the 360. They have set aside half the week for various 360 related activities while leaving one night of the week set aside for Halo 2 action. In fact, some of them do not even play Halo 2 unless it is Friday. I remember the days of yore (more like February and March) when it was not too difficult to get a room of 10 or more OMM folks together and have a nice large scale game. On most given nights, you are lucky if you can cobble together a room of 8 and either play 4v4 or *ugh* get stuck with a lot of FFA matches. I do enjoy the time I spend playing with such other 360-less clanmates such as PapaHamster and Q007 but it really sucks moving my modem from computer to XBOX not knowing if it will be worth my time. I know that I could increase my friends list and hang with some of the other clans but I’m a loyal and nostalgic kind of guy. I could also try and hook up with a 2o2p league team but I probably am ill suited for an effort like that, both skill wise and personality wise. Anyhow, I’ll continue to be there for those OMM folks who want to play some crazy custom games; you know where to find me.

My loyal readers may or may not know this but I am a fan of The Simpsons. I am not a big enough fan to own merchandise but I do try to watch every episode and have made it a point to try and own all the DVD’s (unfortunately, I only own seasons 1, 3, 4, and 6 right now but those are great seasons). It is my opinion of course, like many others, that the number of bad episodes in a season now outweighs the number of good episodes, unlike past seasons. The number of ludicrous plots has ramped up to the extreme and the writers have been forced to use pop culture and heavy concepts for ideas rather than timeless ideas. As a chief example of a ludicrous idea, a couple of week’s ago, the episode featured a Simpsons style reworking of various sea based stories (such as Mutiny on the Bounty). As a chief example of an episode that worked better because of a less pop culture heavy concept, an episode in the previous season was based around the concept of Lisa taking out a restraining order on Bart. Sure, it had time sensitive jokes in the episode but the concept itself was not based around a time sensitive issue (wife swapping episode anyone?). There are so many episodes that I love that I cannot list any single favorite here but I would ask you to watch the following 5 episodes for a good idea of the best that the Simpsons have to offer: Homer at the Bat, Cape Feare, Last Exit to Springfield, 22 Short Films about Springfield, and Treehouse of Horror IV.

Custom Game of the Week: This game has generated some controversy over the settings I use but no one can deny that it is a high intensity game that forces you to remain focused or else. The game in question is known as SWAT Potato and it features SWAT rules with a BR start (that being NO MOTION SENSOR AND NO SHIELDS). It is a Low Ball game with the requirements being 30 seconds for each team member (adjust time as you see fit although you will soon see that 1 minute is only recommended for teams of 4 or less). The wrinkle that is added to this game is that the ball indicator is only on when YOU control the ball. That is correct, you do not get to see where the ball is if it is uncontrolled or controlled by the other team. It forces you to identify not only who has the ball via the back button but also to communicate when you kill said person and where they last were. Some folks have complained about the ball indicator being off when uncontrolled but I say that in a SWAT game, the team that controls the ball needs the advantage when passing it off and it also makes the team without the ball coordinate their efforts. It does make for some tense moments when you cannot locate the ball but it does eventually re-spawn at its original location. I really enjoy this game as you can make a massive comeback if your team manages to get its act together. Sanctuary is the ideal playing field although I have given some thought to Colossus and Elongation as other maps worth trying it on. Give it a try and let me know how it goes.