I recently had a Gears of War 2 marathon and managed to finish the game in under ten hours on the day it launched. When I told some people they laughed and thought I was nuts, some were even upset saying that I had cheapened the experience of playing through the title. I do not think I cheapened the experience, I played through and listened to the story and looked for COGs and extras, but still managed to finish the game in coop with a friend in the first day.
I will admit that once I beat it there was a sense of being tired of course, but also a sense of being lost and wondering what to do next. Now that the core campaign had been used and abused, was I relinquished to treating Gears like a multiplayer game and just grinding out games on-line or was there more for me to do?
This brings to mind a few things like why are games so short now a days? I do not think I cheapened the experience, but the game developers created a game that can be beat in a relatively short time frame. Yes there are multiplayer modes and different difficulties to play on if you want to run through again, but that is not the point. Playing through on different difficulties to me is not a different experience, just one that tends to frustrate the player more. The increasing of difficulty typically changes nothing in the game except for making the AI near god like and decreasing your ability to kill enemies. Unless the new difficulty provides new maps or a different game mechanic, this should not be considered as extra gameplay or extra content.
I have not had a good old-fashioned video gaming marathon in quite some time and I decided that the launch of Gears of War 2 would be my call to arms. I shuffled over to my local Best Buy and picked up a regular copy of the game, no limited edition gold lancer for me, then went home to get in some good old-fashioned chainsaw fun. My marathon embarked at 6 PM and did not reach its end until 5 AM, so a solid 11 hours devoted to Gears 2 to get me into the game and the result was a full play through on normal.
In a way I was both happy and sad that my marathon culminated in the completion of the game. I realized this would be another short game, similar to the first Gears, when I saw that a few hours in I was already into Act 3 of the game, but I was pleased that my marathon ended in something fruitful instead of just saying I didn’t sleep and played video games. I played with a couple of different coop partners as some of them would drop from time to time and my game actually froze twice during the 11 hour sit-down, which forced me to power my Xbox 360 down and restart again.
I did take some breaks to play Horde, which is probably my favorite game type in the game, if not possibly my favorite thing in the game period. So the way I figure it, I paid $65 and finished the game in 11 hours so I am averaging $6 per hour of entertainment, pretty decent. I know there are many things to go back and do like collect all the COGs and play in the harder difficulties, but these are side notes for me and will probably only give me a couple of extra hours of game time. Where I may spend some more time is the new online modes and matches, especially since I unlocked all the different multiplayer skins already.
I got home last night and was pretty intent on getting from level 62 to level 63 on my main hunter so I sat down and began the grind. I invited a couple of people to help me quest through. Hellfire Peninsula was my main place to grind along with the Zangamarsh, inviting people into the “Loot Ninja Com” guild as I slayed mobs. I have realized that making money in the Burning Crusade is much easier than it used to be and I am quickly grabbing up gold like Snicker bars.
I began this World of Warcraft fest at about 6:30 PM and it lasted until 1 AM. I finally dinged level 63 and got some new skills and a pain in my hand again. My only breaks were to eat a sandwich, walk and feed my dog and take a shower, other than those things I was locked in to my hunter.
With roughly six weeks left until the release of Wrath of the Lich King expansion I need to average a level a week to hit level 70 and be semi ready for the new areas of WoW. Then after the expansion releases it will be a whole other task to get to level 80.
At times playing through WoW is a lot of fun but can become like a third job. What has your longest WoW marathon been recently? I am sure my 6 and a half hours is child’s play for some, since this didn’t involve any instances, but straight questing. Matt has been delinquent on the WoW fornt and I have all but abandoned my new character I made with him and focused on my main.
Looks like the frag Dolls took our Halo 3 non-stop gaming session and altered it a bit. They played Rainbow Six Vegas 2 for 24 hours straight on the Xbox 360 to raise money for breast cancer research and to set a Guiness world record.
I like how the blonde talks about coming out of the restroom and looking for a tactical advantage about 14 hours into the event. Also her major complaint is “her bra hurting”. Some say that 3 girls playing game sis hot but something about 3 girls playing games for 24 hours straight with no shower breaks is a bit disturbing to me.
We are going to get Max into gear with that Halo 3 marathon! Good job to the Frag Dolls for setting the record and raising some money for this great cause. Congrats!! I didn’t know the Frag Dolls were British?!
Round 2 of Max vs. the Xbox 360 is set to begin on Friday afternoon. This time, he’s not alone. Friend of Loot Ninja, Freddy (Mr NCAA) will be joining Max on his Halo 3 adventures to see if he can break the Xbox 360.
They’ll be starting around 2pm ET and playing straight through as long as possible. Freddy is a level 45, Max is getting close to a level 30. If you’re interested in playing with them, you better bring your A game.
We’ll keep you posted with updates, pictures, and time lapse video this time as it all goes down. Make sure to check back to see if the Falcon can hold up to another marathon session.
After a full 24 hours, Max has thrown in the towel. The Xbox 360 has won this round. Yes, I said this round. Later this week, he’ll be going at it again, this time anticipating 48 or 72 hours of play.
I honestly have gained a lot of faith in the Xbox 360 after the past 24 hours. The new Falcon chipset really keeps the system cool and stable, unlike the previous iterations of the system. I expected a RRoD within 12 hours of play, but it wasn’t even that hot after 24 hours of play.
I want to throw this one out there. To the people saying I don’t take care of my Xbox 360 with my 8 broken systems so far, this should prove I’m not doing anything bad to the system. It has plenty of air flow and is holding up very strong, which is great to see.
More pictures after the jump. Stay tuned for round 2, which will be sometime this week.
We’re about 21 hours in and still going strong on both fronts (Max and the Xbox 360). Since the last time we checked in with our heroes, it’s been a lot more Team Slayer and Team Doubles. Even a couple custom matches were in there.
There have been a bunch of friend requests and invites coming through and some great matches. If anyone out there wants to play Team Doubles and is good, send an invite or friend request to drunk pandas because Max needs a good partner. He’s around a level 22 on that game mode and wants a teammate on his way to getting a level 30.
Keep checking in as we update you. More pictures after the jump.
Actually, it started a while ago, I’ve just been tied up. Max began has marathon Halo 3 session Friday night around 8:30pm. So at press time, that’s about 13 hours straight so far. Both he and the Xbox 360 are still going strong.
Most of the time has been spent in Team SWAT, the double EXP weekend playlist from Bungie. There’s no sheilds or HUD in this playlist, so it’s virtually one shot kills. Matches are fast and furious (much like Vin Diesel). There have been a good deal of Triple Kills and Overkills going down. Otherwise, it’s been a bit of Team Slayer and Team Doubles, both ranked.
If you want in on the party, send a message to my gamertag, drunk pandas. I have 97 people on my friends list right now, so only 3 more people will be getting in. Max has been instructed to accept the friend requests, so I’m guessing it’ll fill up quickly.
Stay tuned for pictures and updates. One of them will break…
Loot Ninja reader and my brother-in-law Max decided it’s time to try and set a record. Not his own, not a Loot Ninja record, but a world record. That’s right, Guinness Book type shit. The game: Halo 3.
Max will be attempting to play Halo 3 online multiplayer for longer than anyone else. Just how long does this need to be? We’re not sure yet, as there’s no record on file like this.
He’ll be playing at my house, my 360, my gamertag. We’ll be doing a time lapse recording of the entire event and will be covering it here on Loot Ninja as it happens. Not sure when the record setting marathan will start, but we’ll keep you posted.
How long do you want to see him play? Any specific game types you want him to focus on? Any recommendations or questions? Let us know in the comments. And if you want to join in on the fun, keep reading as we let you know when everything is going down.
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