So Tomorrow is Halloween then isn’t it? Time truly does fly. Personally I’ve always found the holiday silly and pointless, I’ve gone trick or treating when I was younger, got dragged into doing it with a friend when I was 16 too, but I just prefer relaxing, avoiding the trick or treaters, passing on the parties. My own fondest memory of Halloween was just hanging out around with a friend, walking to a restaurant and getting a bite to eat. Call me strange, but the whole beg random people for candy and then getting a sugar buzz never appealed to me.

Ah well, that’s just me, to those of you who celebrate it in any form, Happy Halloween!

So, last night (Hence the Tuesday) I went to see a concert. A concert wherein Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend performed, with some replacement members as The Who. It was awesome. Two hours of pure sweet music. Most of the songs done were among their older classics, and only one song was actually from their new Live Wire album. 19 Songs, 2 encores, just, awesome.

FINALLY! An OFFICIAL announcement about the Bioware MMO and it IS a Star Wars MMO! This is great news in my oppinion…ah can’t wait for the beta…

Today the beta was updated to allow access to level 24, and Hardcore Search and Destroy, Hardcore Team Deathmatch, and regular Search and Destroy have been added, there appears to be one more map thats bugged and causes the server to reboot when it comes up also, hopefully that’ll be fixed soon also.

At the very least, the tracks can be disabled. I’m unsure if the turret or gun can be also, however I’ve experienced the tank surviving but one of my tracks not, so I know that part to be true.

Alright smallish correction first off, I said Second Chance was just a revive for teammates, now more testing is needed but it appears it does 2 things. First off, it allows you to go into a last stand, second, it allows you to heal up any teammate IN last stand. I see this being a VERY useful thing to have. Second off, its come to my attention that the ‘Shades’ perk is going to help against the effects of the flare. 

Other then that, game is FANTASTIC. We have many of our old challenges back from COD4 and quite a few new ones.

Another neat little thing is for the Molotov cocktails. Where as most games you pull them out and they’re magically lit, in COD5 when you pull it out your character goes through the motions of lighting it BEFORE throwing it. All on screen, quite neat I think.

Another thing is, tank combat. Now a little mistake people often associate with tank combat in WWII is that there were just massive roaming units of tanks that went out by themselves. This isn’t true, tanks, ESPECIALLY in close combat where the lines intermingle, were escorted by infantry, because even the machine gunner on top cant cover all directions at once, and he’s the easiest target on the whole tank on top of that, being that he’s made of the fleshy weak stuff rather then steel. As such, tanks often had infantry nearby, a good thing I’ve noticed about COD5 is that, despite tanks being very strong, they arent invincible except for other tanks. I’ve quickly noticed that without at least one infantryman watching the outside of the tank, it’s going down, fast.

You see, while the bazooka is a powerful weapon, its greatest strength seems to be it distracts quite easily, seeing as the obvious anti tank weapon will destroy you quick if you’re not careful, yet this, whether by design, or pure dumb luck for most players, serves primarily as a distraction for the MAIN attack. You see, the satchel charges are even better at taking out a tank, 2 alone wont quite cut it, but add a bazooka hit or two, and its enough. Worst part is, with all the noise the tank makes, its hard to detect that stealthy little infantryman running up to your rear while you blast at the source of the bazooka rocket and then get blown to pieces as those satchel charges detonate. Now while it pains me to say this as I myself love driving the tanks, this is exactly the way it should be. Infantry are EXACTLY the right strength against armor if they act correctly. Of course even the sticky bombs have their role in taking out a tank.

Well thats enough rambling for now, aside from that, I just have to say, I can’t bloody wait for COD5 to release!

Well, being one of many people that preordered the game (Over 25000 ranked positions already!) I got into the COD:WW Beta. Tried it for the first time today, and it’s friggen great. It carries over the perk system of COD4, different guns obviously, theres several categories for Weapons, including Bolt Actions, whats termed just Rifles, Sub Machine Guns, Machine Guns, and Shotguns. The Bolt actions primary use is to get experience with and then get the ability to put a scope on them to use as a sniper rifle, aside from that, they aren’t overly useful. Rifles are semi autos that are main combat weapons, the others are relativly straight forward.

A neat addition I think is of Bayonets. I’ve yet to unlock one, so I’m unsure how it’ll work, but I imagine it’ll require just using the same button as to knife, but with more range. There also are rifle grenades available.

There are 65 ranks it seems, followed by, once again, the ability to go into prestige mode. The beta only allows one to rank up to level 11 though, so not sure how most weapons perform.

Now a few lists, First of the weapons, then of the perks.

Bolt Action Rifles

          Springfield 

          Arisaka

          Mosin Nagant

          Kar98k

          PTRS-41 (An anti tank gun? yet not much more damage then any of the others? no idea what thats about…)

 

Rifles

          SVT-40

          Gewehr 43

          M1 Garand

          STG-44

          M1A1 Carbine (Note: It actually has the full wooden stock and is really the M1 Carbine as opposed to             the paratroopers M1A1)

 

Sub Machine Guns

          Thompson

          MP40

          Type 100

          PPSh-41

 

Shotguns

          M1897 Trench Gun

          Double-Barreled Shotgun

 

Machine Guns

          Type 99

          BAR

          DP-28

          MG42

          FG42

          Browning M1919 (Wtf? Aircooled 30 cal…manportable? How the heck do ya fire THAT without a bipod            or preferably tripod?!)

 

Sidearms

          Colt M1911

          Nambu (But no Luger! )

          Walther P38

          Tokarev TT-33

          .357 Magnum

 

Grenades

     Primary

          Frag

          N 74 ST (Sticky bomb)

          Molotov Cocktail

     Special

          Smoke

          Tabun Gas (Blurs vision, impairs movement)

          Signal Flare (Blinds and disorients any targets in its field of view)

Perk 1 Options: Special Grenades x3, Satchel Charge, M9A1 Bazooka (no other anti tank rockets available), Bomb Squad, Bouncing Betty, Bandolier, Primary Grenades x2, M2 Flamethrower (Rank 65 to use )

Perk 2 Options: Stopping Power, Fireworks (Explosives do more damage) Flak Jacket, Gas Mask, Juggernaut, Camouflage, Sleight of Hand, Shades (lvl 32, no idea what they do…) Double Tap, Overkill

Perk 3 Options: Deep Impact, Extreme Conditioning, Steady Aim, Tossback (Resets fuses on thrown back grenades) Second Chance (Revive? From laststand maybe?) Martyrdom, Fireproof, Dead Silence, Iron Lungs, Reconnaissance

Vehicle Perks: Water Cooler, Greased Bearings, Ordnance Training, Leadfoot, Coaxial Machine Gun.

Few more notes, YES, there are vehicles, so far I’ve only seen tanks for the Russian and German teams however.

And thats all for now folks!

 

Where I found it

I’ve actually had this rifle for a few weeks now, but figured I’ll post it now. 

For all intents and purposes its an AR-15 modeled on the M16A4. Only real major difference between mine and the one in the image is due to state laws, mine doesn’t have the bayonet lug. This is from the website of the same company that made mine. The actual name is a Stag-15. Haven’t had it for long, and haven’t shot it yet, but it can’t be worse then the other .223 rifle I had.

Alright, heres the main thing that jumped out at me during the Vice Presidential Debate. (To paraphrase) ‘Dick Chaney invented the role of the vice president as being part of the Senate, the vice president has no role in the senate other then casting a deciding vote in a tie’ Didn’t memorize the actual wording, so that will have to do.

US Constitution, Article 1, Section 3:

The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.

The Senate shall chuse their other Officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the Office of President of the United States.

Source

Now, the way I read that is that the president pro tempore should very rarely preside over the senate. In fact, except in a rare case, the only really extended time that the Vice President shouldnt preside over the Senate, is when they’re filling the role of the president. Not that short of a tie vote the vice president should ignore the senate entirely. But hey, what do I know….I’m no senator, I just know how to read and read the US constitution…