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Vidmaster: Endure - Mega-Write-Up + Panomania!
Posted By: DMFanella <dmfanella@gmail.com>	Date: 4/18/11 7:35 a.m.
Well, it's been a few weeks since we attempted Vidmaster: Endure. We wanted to have our write-up out sooner, but there were some delays. Below is a recounting of our adventures that night. Enjoy... While a certain naysayer would have you believe we weren't capable of completing this challenge without him (he's so humble) and his precious Alpha Shite, in reality we gave it a thorough spanking. We spanked it like Hyokin wants to spank Padraig's hot cousin. We spanked it like Kugamunga needs to spank his crying baby that's always wailing in the background (just kidding - Tuna does not support the spanking of human babies). We spanked it like the honey badger spanked the cobra. We spanked it with teddy bear fists ...ummm wait, no, that's the opposite of what I meant... Admittedly, Bones' comments actually had me concerned early on during the first set, as our group was starting to run low on lives and things were looking rather grim. However, once we became more comfortable with our individual roles within the squad, things went smoothly from that point on. We started to function like a precisely tuned killing machine. We started to feel like ODSTs (Well, all of us except for Padraig - he felt like a bitter old man smoking a cigar). By the end of the second set, the Covenant were no longer hunting us, they were running to the hills. ...but I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's back up a bit... We had a pretty good turnout for this challenge - enough people to form two teams. Our first team, Team Tuna Pady, consisted of Padraig, Mazz, Revenant and myself. The second team was made up of Bry, Loftus, Snake (aka Angry Old Man) and Vagueness. For a while, it looked like Bones was going to take the 4th spot on team two, but luckily Snake jumped in, quashing any chance Bones had at obtaining a 4th Endure trophy. Dreams = Crushed Although he wouldn't be participating, Bones decided to stay in our party to provide us with expert advice and motivational support. His comments were invaluable, ranging from the ever witty "you guys suck" to the blatantly obvious "shoot the purple part of the Wraith with the laser" (really man? really?) Also, let's not forget the incessant badgering where he repeatedly reminded us that we "...should have picked Alpha Site instead". Thanks man, we couldn't have done it without you...even though we did ;) Before heading into battle, Team Tuna Pady took some time in the lobby to discuss strategy and define what each of our roles would be. Earlier we introduced you to the teams - now let's take a closer look at the individuals… ---------------------------------------- As you may recall from the previous thread, Pady insisted on manning the Chopper. He felt so strongly about it that he even threatened to leave Team Tuna Pady a man down if he didn't get his way; that's dedication! Not wanting to lose a valuable asset, we put him behind the wheel and boy did it ever pay off. The man is an absolute terror on the Chopper. While not busy splattering Covenant brains across the ground, Pady spent his free-time delighting us with his colorful commentary about...well, everything. Perched safely atop my ivory tower, my tasks revolved around only two weapons...the laser and the pistol. It was my reponsibility to ensure that Wraiths never had the chance to lob a mortar and that Covenant light infantry were dead before they hit the ground. Needless to say, by the end of the night everything was blanketed with confetti. It was also brought to my attention that I had a third specialty. As Mazz so kindly pointed out the other night in front of an entire lobby of HBOers, I "...sure spent a lot of time hiding from Buggers in that Splaser room...". Don't think of it as hiding, Mazz. Think of it as, securing a tactically advantageous position over hostile forces that were allowed to breach the perim......eh, whatevs, fine I was hiding ;) Revenant had a very unique role to play within our squad. His time was equally spent between calling out enemy locations, sniping any Brutes that Pady failed to mop up, serenading us with the refrains of Holy Diver (or as you'll see later, Holy Tuna) and ensuring that I remained alive by keeping the Covies off my ass (both while on top the main structure and while “hiding” in my safe room). He could also be found tearing it up on the Chopper or Warthog when needed. I really appreciated your services, as you made my job that much easier. There is no better way to explain Mazz's duties than by simply saying "wild card". Whatever needed to be done, Mazz did it. Honey badger don't give a shit and neither did Mazz - he just got the job done, regardless of how many times he died. No matter how low our pool of lives got, Mazz was always willing to get into the fray and waste a few more. At various times he could be found with a sniper, FRG, SMG, pistol, driving the Hog, manning the Hog's turret, driving a Chopper, trying to hide under a crate, etc... While I was not shocked to find that Pady is a powerhouse on the Chopper, I have to say that Mazz was just as much of a force to be reckoned with while driving one. He really plowed that thing into a lot of unsuspecting dudes ;) Anyway, enough bad jokes, let's get to the action...and some more bad jokes... ---------------------------------------- (Note: The images below were provided by Mazz, Padraig and myself. For bigified versions just click each pic.) (Check out the bigified versions, trust me, it's worth it.) Like Ke$ha once said "the party don't start 'til Tuna and Rev walk in..." or something like that: Dropships inbound as Revenant preps his SMG: Rev just chilling on the ledge during some downtime between waves: Pady and someone acquiring our first Chopper: Take it Jackhole! Me Splasering some Wraiths: Pants = tight: Desperate times...: Same as above, but a different angle: Mazz decided to try hiding under this crate, leaving me to deal with that Brute alone. Just kidding, I'm pretty sure I took off, leaving him to handle things all by himself: Chopper meet face: Even during battle I can still find some time for a pretty pose: Mazz, doing what he does best...scratch that, he's sniping instead: Let's try that again...Mazz, doing what he does best ;) ...and again: Practice makes perfect: Pady, doing his best Mazz imitation: Revenant introducing the Covies to Vera: This is either Mazz or Revenant. Thanks for both being Dutch and making my job that much harder: Again, I don't know which one this is. Whatevs...it looks cool: Pady in a Hog: Pady show us how to properly take out a Brute (i.e. when one is without a vehicle): This shot is one of my favorites. The Brute that Mazz just splattered is still shooting at him while the one he is about to splatter looks to be begging for mercy: Mazz catching some air underneath a dropship: This is a continuation of the above image. While it may have seemed like Mazz misjudged a jump, inadvertently launching himself into the air and over the Grunts, it was actually all part of his strategy for distracing the bonus round Grunts so we could take them out from above: After landing, Mazz circled back around to rack up a few splatter sprees: One of the rare occasions where Pady was not in a Chopper: Mazz getting ready to take out some Hunters: That's a lot of orange: That's a lof of green: Me, striking a pose, while I rain down terror from above: Revenant giving me some backup while I take out a Wraith: Rev and Mazz doing something: Rev having a stand-off with some Brutes: What! He's not in a Chopper again? That's more like it...he's back on his Chopper giving it good to those Grunts: All-Star boy dropping off a "special delivery" via Warthog: A Jackal trying to dive out of the way of the Chopper: SPOILER ALERT...he failed: ---------------------------------------- I'm not really one for talking about stats, but I know some people find that stuff interesting so I'll do my best to point out some interesting numbers from our game. The final score of our match was 1,626,867 with the player breadown as follows: Tuna - 637,400 Padraig - 372,217 Revenant - 318,313 Mazz - 298,937 While it may seem like I had a ton more points than the others, keep in mind that I spent the majority of the match taking out Wraiths. Quite an easy task compared to what my team mates had to deal with. That being said, 366,608 of my points are from Wraiths alone and it doesn't really seem fair to count them. Moving on... Mazz and Pady lead the team in deaths with 31 and 29. Amusingly, they also both lead the team in betrayals as well with 2 each. On an interesting note, one of Mazz's deaths was due to a trip mine. I find that curious considering I don't think I've ever seen a trip mine in ODST. Of course Mazz would be the one to find it. As I said earlier, Mazz and Pady both dominated on the Chopper, splattering 139 and 134 respectively. Not only did they get a lot of kills by splatter, they also had quite a few with the Chopper's guns as well. Pady with 321 and Mazz with 247. Revenant also had a respectable 145. Kills were doled out pretty evenly on the Grunts, with Pady taking out 208 of the little guys, Tuna with 196, Rev 190 and Mazz 147. Speaking of Mazz, while he'd have you believe that I was cowering in fear from the Drones, I actually took out 25. Not too shabby considering Mazz only got 34 of those bastards. Of course Pady had the lead with 55 Revenant decided to keep the Covenant on their toes by dealing out carnage with 17 different weapons (very impressive). Of note, he lead in sniper (28) and SMG kills (51). I stuck pretty stricly to my two weapons of choice, the pistol and the laser, racking up 251 and 137 kills with each. Speaking of the pistol, Rev and I both popped quite a few domes throughout the night. Rev with 133, and 240 for me. Oh M6C, how I love thee! In closing, I just want to say that out of all the Vidmaster challenges Endure was by far the most fun. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that we chose the vastly superior Lost Platoon over Alpha Site and that we had an awesome team which spent most of it's time talking about Iron Maiden. Whatever the reason, I feel safe saying that a great time was had by all. ---------------------------------------- One more thing - as I was saying earlier, at one point Revenant was massaging our ears with his golden pipes...wait a minute, let me try rephrasing that a bit differently (that was starting to sound too much like something Bones would take pleasure in jumping on). At one point Revenant began improvising lyrics to the tune of Holy Diver. It was mostly about my fake rivalry with Bones and his beloved Alpha Site. Anyway, Rev promised to sit down and rewrite the whole song based on this. About two days later we received his reworked version. Enjoy... Holy Tuna Holy Tuna You've been playing too long on Alpha Site Something just don’t feel quite right Ride the Choppa Oh wait you can’t, that’s on Lost Platoon Oh thank god we play that soon Gotta get away Alpha Site Exploding Grunts Like the confetti on a birthday cake Clutch headshots that always save Race for the Warthog The Tuna’s on a splatter spree Oh don’t you see what I mean? Gotta get away-get away Between the lasers sight There's a dead and smoking Wraith The Tuna never dies Unless Padraig accidentally betrays… Holy Tuna Don’t listen to what Bones might say Lost Platoon don’t want him anyway Jump on the Chopper They say its cheating but we disagree Its just what this achievement needs ---------------------------------------- Special thanks to Pady for contributing some panoramas; and to Revenant for the awesome Holy Tuna lyrics. Also, an extra special ultra-classic thanks to Mazz for all his hard work reviewing the film numerous times (he went through a two hour film like 4 times), creating panos, coming up with the A-Team idea and taking care of organizing things behind the scenes. Seriously, he really busted his ass...so get off your feet and put your teddy bear fists together for him, he deserves a round of applause. Well done boys! tl;dr We won. Pretty Pictures. Tuna > Bones ;)

Message Index

Vidmaster: Endure - Mega-Write-Up + Panomania!	DMFanella	4/18/11 7:35 a.m.
>> INCOMING TRANSMISSION	Superintendent	4/18/11 7:36 a.m.
Wintacular! (with disclaimer)	Revenant1988	4/18/11 8:07 a.m.
Re: Wintacular! (with disclaimer)	Superintendent	4/18/11 8:55 a.m.
Oh-ho-ho!	Beckx	4/18/11 9:22 a.m.
Re: Oh-ho-ho!	DMFanella	4/18/11 9:25 a.m.
>> Incoming FAIL!	Bones153	4/18/11 10:23 a.m.
Re: >> Incoming FAIL!	DMFanella	4/18/11 10:40 a.m.
Re: >> Incoming FAIL!	Joe Duplessie (SNIPE 316)	4/18/11 11:40 a.m.
Re: >> Incoming FAIL!	DMFanella	4/18/11 1:36 p.m.
Re: Oh-ho-ho!	Revenant1988	4/18/11 10:30 a.m.
Re: Oh-ho-ho!	DMFanella	4/18/11 10:42 a.m.
Awesome write-up, DMFanella! Thoroughly enjoyed it *NM*	Kermit	4/18/11 9:31 a.m.
Terrific write up! Thanks for sharing! *NM*	CaneCutter	4/18/11 10:37 a.m.
And You Didn't Invite ME?! *NM*	Morpheus	4/18/11 11:00 a.m.
Awesome Writeup! However...	Bones153	4/18/11 11:24 a.m.
this is to the tune of.....what again? *NM*	Revenant1988	4/18/11 11:28 a.m.
Fanella's newest favorite pop artist.	Bones153	4/18/11 11:32 a.m.
What is this I don't even	Revenant1988	4/18/11 11:35 a.m.
Re: What is this I don't even	DMFanella	4/18/11 1:34 p.m.
Re: Fanella's newest favorite pop artist.	DMFanella	4/18/11 1:36 p.m.
LOLOLOL *NM*	Bones153	4/18/11 1:41 p.m.
Re: Awesome Writeup! However...	DMFanella	4/18/11 1:31 p.m.
Gotta get away.... Get AWAY! YEA!	padraig08	4/18/11 1:56 p.m.
Re: Gotta get away.... Get AWAY! YEA!	DMFanella	4/19/11 11:56 a.m.