Be Excellent To Each Other

I believe that part of the reason Forza night ran and ran was because it was the same time every week. We had a dry patch through last autumn where we were all bored of CoD4 but there were no big new multiplayer games out; now, though, we have Gears 2, Left4Dead, Midnight Club, and UT3; not to mention that there is still life yet in CoD4, Burny Pee, and probably others I am missing out.

I think it'll help get us back into the routine if we establish a couple of regular games nights. I also know that lots of people (like myself) find it easier to arrange things if they have a fixed time slot. I'm not sure yet what the games should be. Perhaps we should do a Shooter day (alternating between, say, Gears and L4D) and a Driving day (alternating between Midnight Club and Burny Pee perhaps). I'll probably throw another vote up for games after we work out when we can play.

Rememeber that at the moment there is FIFA on Wednesdays and Poker on Thursdays; although there isn't anything necessarily wrong with doubling up one of those nights. Also, I think we should set one or perhaps two fixed start times (an "early" and "late" shift; say, 8pm and 9:30pm?). People might play through from one to the other, or turn up in the middle, but I think it helps to concentrate people's minds on when the game starts. It certainly did with Forza. It's quite disheartening to make the effort, turn up to game, and find no-one online for an hour.

I find a lot of the problem with games like Gears and L4D is that there's no easy in-out gameplay like there is with the others. There are small groups (4/5), and if other people are in a full group, you can't play with them. You also can't join games in progress.

That's one of the reasons that BP has been probably our most successful online game. No matter what time you boot up your machine, if people are playing it you can jump right in.

Same with Forza, Halo 3 and CoD4.

You can jump straight into Left 4 Dead if there's a free slot, of course. If you want to drop out, your character will be AI-controlled until the slot is filled. The chapters are short enough to give quick games, but the whole thing is limited to 4 players (or 8 in versus mode).

I'm not going to vote. All nights are as good/bad as eachother. I'll just try to turn up to whatever night the poll decides.

If we play proper GoW2 private multiplayer instead of Horde, then people can drop in and out.

That's rather the key issue. There's nothing more irritating than planning for a night of gaming, then loading up the 360 and the game being played has full slots. No-one's at fault, it's just an inconvenient part of games with small fixed numbers of slots.

From my Big Bezzie Bash thread:

I've not touched Live for ages.

Yeah, I'm not complaining - I'm just thinking that if you're going to reserve a night, it's best to not do it for games that prevent people joining in easily, especially when people might need to get a pass from the little lady.

Mind you, I've only got a few games anyway, so the suggestions in gaywood's post don't apply to me.

What about FC2, eh?

Yeah, needs to be 8+ really.

I cant commit to any night or time in particular due to Daddydom. Wednesdays are usually a good night for me though. I'm a late starter though.

*glances down at barren pubic area*

I did ask for more suggestions, but was greeted with general apathy.

TF2, HL2

Lack of adding people on the fly to Horde in Gears2 is most frustrating, yes. Although we should really be exploring some of the other modes it has; Wingman DM sounds appealing for example.

I see the 4/5 player parties as a bonus though, frankly. Firstly with 8 people on the mic, I find it very hard to banter because everyone (accidentally) talks over the top of everyone else; quite often in Burny Pee games I find myself losing the thread of the conversation and just concentrating on the game instead. I enjoy the banter aspect more with 4-6 people. It's also harder to get new people in the games with a full 8 people -- The Egg found UT3 hard work because we were all yakking out usual codshite about "gollyaths" at 100mph and no-one could take the time to explain to him.

Secondly, when we were getting 10 people turning up to Forza night, we would end up with 8 in one room and then a couple of people left over. With 4 player groups it's much easier to split into three or four groups and for each group to have a decent session. We could then all agree that at the late start time, we shuffle all the groups around; otherwise, obviously, you'd all be having a fight over who gets to be in my group.

Fixed.

Also: With 4-8 player games (dependent of course on how many play it) it's pretty easy to get a group together with no prior warning.

If you're going to make the effort, you mat as well choose a game that would benefit from it (as compared to overfilling, like Forza)

A regular PC gaming night would also be neat. We really should get it back in action with Dawn of War, Defcon, maybe some Civ 4 and TF2.

I find it's difficult to start. Say I find two other guys online and we start playing Horde, a fourth guy quickly turns up, and a fifth, and then we're full. But if the other two guys are playing single player stuff when I come online, then I play single player stuff too, and then all five of us play single player all night. Where these nights could help with is getting the ball rolling.

The multiplayer in Fracry 2 is a sack of spanners, but if you get a few people mucking around it can be a lot of fun, on the proviso that nobody takes it even remotely seriously, as the collision detection is just terrible.

That said, shooting grenades at someone approaching you slowly via hang glider will always amuse, and the weapon levelling system means that whilst you start with the same guns, after a few rounds you'll have people specialising in different areas (sniper/silenced/grenade launcher, etc).

I wouldn't mind some Farcry MP action, the fact that you can edit your own maps means there is a whole host of maps no one will have played on, which is cool.

I'm trying to rush through the GoW2 campaign and want to Horde it up immediately afterwards. Surprised I've not had an invite yet... *sob*

Would do, but we're in different timezones (I'm on ZOMG and you're on FAIL).

He can play with Mr. Chris then.

All the cool kids hang out late on live, while you're tucked up in the bottom bunk with your cricket almanac.

Can everybody stop choosing Battlestar Galactica night?

Sky+ it dude.

I dont mind any night, but I can only play a couple of games, I dont really like shooters apart from cod as nothing really compares to it in my opinion. and I dont own burny Pee so cant play that

I'm always up for CoD4, because I didn't stuff myself and have it smeared all over my face for six months solid.

Last week's comedy CoD session was hugely entertaining.

wednesday is best for mwe, and for fifa, where you can easilily join and leave it is perfect, that it returns every week.. other nights not sure, dependas on the week, thurstday-sunday often difficult

I smeared, but im still smearing.. 8 and a half days online isnt that long I dont think....

I'm u[ for owt. If I've the game, and it says that my "friends" is playing, then I might swap discs. So, I'm not overly bothered, as I love all bessies equally.

Bezzies.

Bessies.

Yay, it's me!

Bring back Counterstrike Mondays!