carnage 4
cohosted a halo 2 lan party saturday: 1 garage, 14 guys, 7 xboxes, 6 tvs and a digital projector, two routers and a mess of lan cable, a sound system that kept you from hearing the person sitting next to you, tons of soda, and a key component as it turned out - an air conditioner [way to defy the establishment, ox]. for 8 hours straight, we did nothing but spawn, frag, yell, and die. it was awesome. as lans usually are. when it comes to gaming, not much trumps a good lan party. xbox live is awesome [except for the modders, standbyers, quasi-racists, and foul-mouthed little boys], but it can't replace the opportunity to see the look on your opponent's face as you stick, snipe, sword, spray, or splatter him. the smurk of victory, the shame of defeat. good times. good times.

we all showed around 2:30, got set up, and played till about 11:30. we played every standard game type [except territories] including some we had made up. one of those we made up which worked out really well was predator [the gametype for predator is posted here]. we also played some 4v4v4v4 team crazy on warlock and ascension [those were insane], no-shield shottie ffa slayer on elongation, single flag on lockout and relic [very cool], and a slew of slayer matches spawning with battle rifle and shottie.

all the games were awesome, but i think the most fun i had was either predator or zombies. prior to saturday, i had never been much of a zombie fan because all the matches i'd played on xbl sucked, but when we had just under a full house, and everybody played the way they're supposed to, i found it to be the pinnacle of genius. props to whoever originated this gametype. we were all instantly hooked and found ourselves zombified on foundation, gemini, ascension, foundation again, and finally backwash. idk, something about barricading yourself up in a room with crates and whatever metal objects those are in the rooms on foundation that just screams dawn of the dead. the last of us [me and death] used that two-person jump [thanks for the boost, korpse] to get up in the ceiling of one of the rooms on foundation, cowering like little girls as the green zombies lunge at us trying to get a swordlock. alas, i and death were finally turned, and the game was over. but the coolest moment of that game was undoubtedly when intagi, holed up in a room by himself, survived a five-zombie rush _twice_ before he finally succumbed. that guy is a master of anything with a scope on it. pure skill. he should have seen it coming tho. the guy that holes up by himself always dies.

one funny moment during zombie had me literally crying. the game started on ascension. if you don't already know, which apparently many do [lol], if you're standing on the dish facing the sniper tower, to the left where the walkway curves around, you can jump up onto the wall and then over the side of it where there's a thin ledge you can hide on. you can really only be seen here by someone standing either on the wall itself looking down at you or else on the banchee spawn looking over. anyway as soon as the game started, me and nikon both headed there for cover from the zombies thinking this would be the sweet spot to hold up, only to be the middle of a pack of six guys standing on this teeny-tiny ledge. i was fucking crying it was so funny. every way i turned, there was some other guy huddled up next to me. after a minute or two, everyone dispersed, but in the end, nikon and i were still the last to crave brains.

all in all, carnage 4 was a definite success. to those who came, i say thank you. it was a blast. and i leave you with this nugget of chewy goodness: seven of us left alive in a zombie match on backwash, holding up in blue base cave standing up against the wall as seven zombies take turns lunging at us only to meet the volley of our shotguns and pistols. we managed to last several minutes before being overcome one by one by the endless barrage of undead. the last few minutes with ra, dna, ox, nikon, and myself envoking that famous gladiator warcry so as not to waste our ammo, "HOOOOOLLLLD!!!!!! HOOOLLLLLLDDDDDDDD!!! HHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!" Matt @ 9:36 AM