I Want A New Drug

(Probably TLTR. Short version: I'm bored with most games atm.)

Just played some Black Ops after taking some time off from it. What stood out the most, was how many bullets it took me to kill others, while they seemed to drop me with a single shot or two. That and the online gameplay is just grossly thick with Aim Assists. Watching the Kill Cams of people who pwned me, all they had to do was point thier crosshair in the 1/8 screen vicinity of my avatar, and the game locked onto me for them. It really is such a noobified shooter, it's sad. I get more enjoyment now out of the Combat Training with bots, than I do with the online play. And it's not that I suck at the game, it's just frustrating. My Hardcore Team Deathmatch k/d ratio is over 2.0 - which ain't too shabby (And I'm a run-n-gunner, not a camper.)

After a particular unfair BlOps beating, I said "F this..." and sought refuge into a more mature shooter - Battlefield: Bad Company 2. With the lesser AA, bullet physics, dedicated servers and all that, I'd have a much better time. Actually,... nope. Instead, I got dropped onto a team of outnumbered noobs, against a team of level 50s, and spent 15 minutes getting spawn killed by their helicopters and tanks. Sigh, Wtf. I think that game is played out now, those still playing it are masters of that shooter after putting in probably a thousand hours. I'll admit as an old man with 4 young kids...I can't compete with that.

The only other multiplayer games the folks on my FL are playing atm are Gears of War 3 (absolutely hate the mp in that game - clunky 3rd person bulletsponge peek-a-boo shooter) or the BF3 beta (like I said, a buggy mess, not to mention that map is a prone camper's paradise).

So now I'm thinking - am I going to really enjoy MW3 or BF3 online when they drop in a few weeks? Either it'll be more of the same aggravation from CoD's host advantage/lag/overpowered aim assists...or getting raped by vehicles and prone snipers in BF3. Not to mention, it seems pretty clear that BF3 really should have stayed on the PC, because the console versions look bad in comparison.

For both of them though - "Been there, done that." I don't know if I can muster any excitement for games I've already played for hundreds of hours and many sequels over. Same thing happened with Halo Reach: after playing Halo:CE, Halo2, Halo3, ODST...when Reach dropped, it was really underwhelming, even though I did enjoy the campaign and the Firefight mode. (Although at the same time, I really do want to replay Halo Anniversary, esp the coop with my sons.)

With all these superhyped sequels dropping, there's no multiplayer games I'm anticipating playing on XBL for the rest of this year. Nothing like the great time I just had playing 4-player online coop in DEAD ISLAND (love me some loot RPGs with online coop - Borderlands was the same way.)

Man, I'm thinking it's time for a departure from playing what everyone else is playing for the rest of this year, and just doing my own thing with single player games that offer me new experiences/worlds to explore. I'll definitely need my GameFly subscription back though, because I can't buy all these games - Rage, Dark Souls, Batman, Skyrim, Deus Ex, Portal 2, etc.

Call me crazy, but you know what game I'd love to play on my Xbox right now? Phantasy Star Online 2. Something I can just chill and get into; online adventures with loot drops and character progression. (InB4 "NERD!!" post in the comments section.) :D