So Chromehounds. Yeah.

I really disliked the single-player. Not that the story is particularly bad; it isn’t. It’s just executed really poorly.

However, in a moment of boredom, I decided to sit down and actually play a bit of it, with the intent of earning some mech parts to go online with. And once I was there, I found the real Chromehounds game.

You participate in an ongoing war over a giant map of various key points. These wars are persistent, meaning they’re going on even when you’re not playing. I think we’re on the tenth war so far. When someone wins, it all resets and we start over from the beginning. So it’s pretty cool to feel that you’re not only blowing people up, but you’re actually advancing your country’s cause.

There are three countries. Morskoj (russian-ish) and Tarakia (europe-ish) are pretty evenly matched. I think Tarakia might be the slight underdog, which is why I switched over there from Morskoj. The third country, Sal Kar, has practically nobody playing on it. I’m going to take a wild guess that it’s because it’s middle-eastern in theme, and that hasn’t been a popular theme around here in the past… five years. It’s too bad because the game would be much more interesting with three factions on equal footing.

The game has high points and low points. It’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. Building and tweaking your mech can be very deep. Combat, on the other hand, is not. It’s point, shoot, whoever has the best weapons wins. Explosions look great, but I hate cycling through the news broadcasts every time I sign in.

I made a squad just for the hell of it. I’ve been letting people join, and we still have some space, so you’re welcome to come fight with us if you want. The weird thing is that I have to be online, and in a specific screen in order to receive the application. It might be easier to message me (absath) first to let me know you’re applying, so I can be sure to be on the right screen. Name of the squad is Steel Potatoes, and the application password is XYYX.

I’m not particularly good at the game, but we have some people in the squad that are. But most importantly, we’re just having fun.

I’ve heard all about E3 being downsized, etc etc. Personally I just don’t care. Now I have no reason to ever have to go back to L.A., and that’s just fine with me. Don’t get me wrong, it was a fun show. But it was such a waste of money for everyone involved.