The last 'Spy-Hunter of 2007 closed out our first season in spectacular style due to quite a few innovations including new Halo 3 maps (which kick total ass, by the way) and the addition of Console Editor-in-Chief Will Tuttle to the GameSpy team. Will is quite a Halo 3 player, so I was expecting us to do well this time out.
Unfortunately, even his legendary greatness couldn't forge us into the lethal kill-squad I'd hoped, but I suppose (given the tradition of lousiness that we have cultivated over this first season, and if you don't believe me you can check out the HD video of past matches) my hopes were somewhat unfounded. No matter how awesome the general, they're not going to win battles if their troops are a sad bunch of twits... but before I completely digress into the shame spiral that comes with the examination of our shoddy performance, I'd like to thank all of those who participated in this most recent 'Spy-Hunter match as well as those that have participated in previous matches.
Thanks to your hard work and relentless assault on we hapless GameSpies, 'Spy-Hunter has become a rousing success! Kudos to everyone that participated in the last game; I don't think it's a coincidence that many of you have become regular players in our bi-weekly slaughter-fests, because I've had more fun playing you guys than I've ever had doing anything else online (something I consider pretty awesome considering the amount of time I spend playing videogames online). Your support means a lot, but enjoying my job is even more important to me and I owe a significant portion of that to the dedicated 'Spy-Hunters that show up every other week to shoot the crap out of us.
New Maps, Old Grudges
As I just finished saying, we've cultivated quite a crop of meticulous murderers in 'Spy-Hunter (who thankfully restrict their killing to online arenas... I hope) which is simultaneously super cool and incomprehensibly damaging to my fragile gaming ego. See, I love the fact that our participants are outstanding gamers, but that means that we get served all the harder whenever we play. This week was no different (a phrase that I think I've typed nearly 19 times this first season), so while we put up a good fight, we GameSpies were still far from victorious even with Will's superior tactics, comprehensive knowledge of the new maps and skill on our side.
And yet, as you watch the positively brilliant HD video capture, you might notice that I appear to be something of a wunderkind at Halo 3. This is, of course, because I'm responsible for editing the video, not because I'm actually good at the game. Also, I've developed a bit of a chip on my shoulder when it comes to certain participants. Specifically, I will almost always attempt to target LIEKMUDKIPZ (formerly SpikeDelight, and possibly SpikeDelight2 in the future -- yeah, I got your message, dude!) for no other reason than because I feel like he's always a good sport and I am likely to end up with some great footage from our little tussles. This last iteration of 'Spy-Hunter was no exception, so every time I saw his gamertag pop onto my screen, I ruthlessly pursued the poor guy and I'm proud to say it paid off a couple of times as you can see in the video embedded above.
Also worthy of mention is OrdinaryFailure, who has been joining in the fragging fun almost since this feature's inception. He got in a couple of good shots, but in the end I think his most worthwhile contribution to our latest outing was a spot of comic relief as he was blasted into the stratosphere after a surprisingly well-placed rocket from yours truly. Thanks for the laugh, man, you do good work!
