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Endure: The Return - Write-up + Contest Reminder
Posted By: DMFanella <Dmfanella@gmail.com>	Date: 5/5/11 7:14 a.m.
So, I'm sure you've all had many sleepless nights, lying awake wondering..."who won, Bones or Tuna?" I suppose you want me just to tell you right now and get it over with. Well, not so fast there, fancypants. We'll get to that in a minute. We have some other things to go over first... The Contest Just a reminder, Bones and I are holding a little contest (that you may or may not have seen in his other thread). You and three of your friends can be the proud owners of some Defiant map packs, or equivalent value MS point cards. All you have to do is play some Firefight (according to the rules below) before May 11th. That leaves you guys about 6 days... 1. Download the custom-built firefight gametype from Bones' fileshare. 2. Load up the Vidmaster Endure gametype in the custom Firefight lobby, and proceed to conquer it with three of your fellow Spartan compatriots on Xbox Live, System Link, or Split-Screen. You must pass the fourth set, and enter into the first wave of the fifth set. Immediately after you have entered into the first wave of the fifth set, end the game. 3. If all players already have the Defiant Map Pack, you must play on Unearthed. Otherwise, your party may choose to play on either Courtyard or Beachhead. 4. Do not adjust the custom firefight gametype settings. 5. Each eligible player must have a valid Xbox Live Gamertag. 6. No idling. If a player idles for more than 2 minutes, they will be disqualified. We will take special considerations like lag into account at our discretion. 7. Once your match is complete, one member of the party needs to upload the film to their fileshare. Once complete, send an e-mail message to mbones153@gmail.com with a link to the game stats page on Bungie.net and a link to the film in your fileshare. 8. Bones and I will take the top seven highest-scoring games and select a winner based on the level of teamwork displayed. Assists are a good thing; betrayals are a bad thing. 9. Fun is a requirement. We will disqualify you if you're not having fun! 10. The difficulty must be set to Heroic, as per the "Endure - The Return" challenge. 11. All entries must be submitted before or on May 11th. We have not received any entries thus far, although I hear Macphisto, Pady, NsU and someone I don't know are going to take a crack at it. Come on, you don't want them to just walk away with the prize, do you? Word on the street is that Pady plans on spending his MS points on horse armor and Gears of War 1 strategy videos. I'd really hate to see them go to waste like that. So, come on boys and girls, let's make this a real contest...slap on those ODST helmets, get out there on the battlefield and make them work for that prize! Bones vs Tuna Now, where were we? Ah yes, The Fury in the Quarry! As you all know, Bones and I have a long standing rivalry here on the forum. A rivalry whose epicness could be compared to the likes of GI Joe vs Cobra, Autobots vs Decepticons, Ke$ha vs Lady Gaga, Customs Night vs Classic Customs Night, etc... You're probably saying to yourself "But Tuna, something seems amiss! We always see You and Bones in party chat together. That doesn't seem like something rivals would do!" While you'd be right in your assessment that we can usually be found in party chat on a daily basis, what you're not aware of is the actual contents of said chat. Sure, you're probably assuming we're in there talking about puppies and flowers and gumdrops just like everyone else is, but the harsh reality is that we use the chat for some of the most brutal, unfiltered trash talking ever uttered by the mouths of men. Why just the other day before our little showdown, Bones vehemently spewed at me... To which I quipped back... Needless to say, it was rather intense. Trust me, you don't want to just wander into one of our chats unprepared; it's some pretty nasty stuff. Which is why we usually have the chat set to Invite Only - it's for your protection. Last Friday, in prepartion for our epic Firefight showdown, Bones and I were in the midst of one of our usual verbal beatdowns when we received a message from Mazz. He wanted to join our party. Being that Mazz is from New Jersey we figured he is probably pretty familiar in dealing with trash and trash talking. That being the case, we felt comfortable in letting him tag along for the ride. Invite sent...Mazz joins... Without pause, Bones continued on with his relentless assault, lobbing another frothy, hate-flavored volley in my direction... This carried on ad nauseam, until Mazz finally had enough and decided to intercede... And so it was decided that, like Voltron, we would unite and use our combined powers to vanquish the coming evil. Luckily, unlike Voltron, we would have much more than 5 minutes to accomplish our task. However, it wouldn't just be Bones and myself embarking upon this journey - Mazz would be joining us as well. That's right, like a big three-piece Voltron without arms, we would stumble into the Viery Territory in attempt to kick the Covenant senseless. Why did I decide that we would be missing both arms as opposed to both legs or one leg and one arm, you ask? Because it's less weird, that's why. Don't overthink it. For the next part I was going to introduce you to the team, but since two of us are returning from the previous Endure run I kind of feel like it would be somewhat redundant and lame. Perhaps I should just introduce you to the new member? Speaking of teams, is it still Team Tuna Pady if Pady wasn't present? Maybe we need a new name. Hmmm, what about Team Tuna Bones? Nah, that doesn't have a ring to it. Perhaps just Team Tuna? I don't know, that seems a bit pretentious. I'll tell you what...let's just call it Team Teddy Bear Fists (TTBF) for the time being and if something better comes to mind we can change it mid-post, ok? Anyway, back to the introductions. Should I just introduce Bones? I mean, you guys already know him pretty well, so it doesn't really seem necessary... Well alright, if you insist... Introductions Bones is such humble guy. Certainly not the kind you would find openly bragging about his accomplishments on some internet forum. I don't know if you guys are aware, but he is the proud owner of multiple Endure trophies; I don't think he has ever mentioned that. He is also a Bungie All-Star. While he claims he uses his All-Star status to get into Indiana's "hottest parties", I feel he is being a bit deceptive with that statement. Hot parties in Indiana? Really Bones? If anything you're getting into the hottest square dances and corn mazes. That's about it. When he's not busy polishing his Endure trophies, he can be found on the Reach battlefield hogging the target designator and barking orders at his team mates about how they are no longer permitted to throw grenades without his prior express written consent. Seriously though, Bones is a very valuable asset. Not only is he a great teammate, but he excels equally at taking charge when needed and getting the most out of his team. It also doesn't hurt that he's pretty efficient with just about every weapon he picks up - just don't let him fly the Falcon. He's still a target designator hog, but whatevs...it's an honour having him on my team. What can I say about Mazz? Once again, he played the role of wild card very well. At any given point, he could be found scampering around the battlefield with an ever changing array of weapons. It was very rare that I would see him with the same weapon combo more than once. Just like Bones, Mazz is also a superb teammate. He does whatever is needed, without hesitation. Whether it be recovering weapon drops, taking out Wraiths, selflessly delivering weapons to others, etc... And, as you'll see later, he played a very pivotal role in helping us secure our victory over the Covenant. I used the pistol a lot. Someone would have you believe that I just stood around most of the time not firing it, but I think he's just jealous because I had the most headshots. Attempt #1 Unlike our previous Endure run, we didn't really spend any pre-game time discussing strategies for the match or defining what roles we would all play. It seemed the general consensus was that we would just wing it and see what happens. The only thing we actually decided upon was that we'd all don ODST helmets in honour of the challenge. Within seconds of starting the match it was obvious to me that things were going downhill immediately. First of all, why was my armor black? Everyone knows I roll with purple and brown. Apparently letting Bones design the custom gametype was an error on my part. It seems that he took it upon himself to force everyone's armor color to black. He claims this was to preserve the authenticity of being an ODST. Bull! I believe this was his attempt at psychological warfare. He knows how I feel about my armor. This was his little way of trying to get into my head to gain an advantage for our showdown. I have to give him credit - it worked, temporarily. Well played sir, well played! There's not much to say about our first attempt. Things were rough fairly early on and continued that way for the entirety of the match. I don't believe we even made it to the 2nd set (or is it round?). It ended with me being the last man standing, or should I say running...as I spent the last few minutes of the match running around the perimeter of the map with only 10 pistol rounds left and an Elite on my tail. Unfortunately that was not the last Elite - there were several more waiting for me in the courtyard. After a mere 20+ minutes it was game over. Attempt #2 Clearly Voltron was not capable of quashing his foes without any arms. At the very least one arm was needed. TTBF realized the mistakes that were made and decided to recruit another member for it's next attempt. What a coincidence, Pady just signed on. Who better to fill that fourth spot than Pady himself. Team Tuna Pady would ride to an Endure victory once again! Invites were sent and dreams were crushed as Pady informed us that he could not take part in our activities. Apparently he had already made plans to attend a friend's annual Driving Miss Daisy viewing party. I...........uhhhh............I.....yeah, I don't even really know what to say about that. Things became grim as the realization set in that TTBF was going to have to face this challenge as a trio again. Spirits were down (not violated, just down). That is until something miraculous had happened. Out of nowhere a prompt popped up notifying us that "Korny Munky has joined your party". Could it really be? I thought he was in temporary Halo retirement? Turns out that he was so fascinated by Bones' post that he couldn't resist the urge to hop on and see what all the fuss was about. After informing him about how Bones and I made amends and deicded to team up to take down the weekly challenge, he agreed to join us on our quest. Looks like we have another TTBF introduction... I have to admit that I haven't had the chance to play with Korny very often, so I don't really know a hell of a lot about him. That being the case, I'm probably going to just point out a few random things that I do know about him. Just roll with it. Korny might be the only person on Xbox Live that talks quieter than Mazz. His armor is always red. He enjoys taking screenshots of my Spartan because of his fascination with my armor and color scheme. There is a weird sexual tension betwen him and Bones because of some "incident" with a Banshee. Anyway, Korny played a similar role to that of Mazz. He seemed to be all over the map using every weapon or vehicle he could get his hands on. Just like Mazz, he also played a major part in our victory. We'll get to that in a bit. Enough words, let's look at some pictures... Lots o' Pictures (Panoramas sponsored by the Mazza Family Pizzeria. All other screenshots provided by Bones, Korny and myself.) (Click images to bigify) Bones setting up shop with his pistol: Extreme close-up of me (thanks Korny), and I think that's Mazz in the background: Mazz looking mean with his shotty: Me doing pretty much nothing with the sniper: Tuna smash! Someone trying to take out the dropship turret. I'm assuming it's Mazz and Korny: Killionaire incoming: Those poor bastards have no idea the pain that awaits them: Ooops, that was an accident...no really, it kind of was: That's alright Mazz, I got this...you just stand there: Someone getting a few splatters. I can't see who. Probably Korny or Mazz: Me and Bones providing support fire: Some four-way action: I stuck the Elite with a grenade. He decides to pop some armour lock. Bones and Mazz go boom! This may or may not be why Bones insisted we stop throwing grenades at Elites. He sees it as a double betrayal. I saw it as prime opportunity for a pretty screenshot: Mazz tearing it up with the sniper: Mazz scouting for leftovers between waves: An Elite looking pretty pissed at Mazz: "Ahh, hell nawh," you're doing it wrong Korny. You gots to get in closer with that thing: Well, now you just went and mad him mad: Korny fleeing the scene: Mazz beats Wraith: Now that's a knife: "When I drive, I work the radio!" Either Korny destroying a Wraith or Korny narrowly escpaing his Wraith being destroyed: It might look like he's taking a break, but really he's just reloading: At several points Mazz suggested that we should fall back to the spawn room for when things started to get rough. Bones and I were kind of resistant to this idea at first, but after getting hammered by Elites one too many times we figured we'd give it a shot. Korny decided to bring along the Rocket Hog. I have to admit that at the time I thought both of these were terrible ideas. It turns out that in the end they actually ended up saving our asses: That poor Elite is taking it from all sides: Korny taking out some Elites: We're in for a long...afternoon: Brutal: Meh, I don't know what you want me to say, it's just a Jackal: Don't forget to zip up when you're done Korny: Bones looking pretty in pink: Sparks fly while Bones cowers in a corner: Bones preparing to take out a Wraith: Bones just nancing about in a field. What do you know, he has the target designator: Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the purple and brown from me: Bones going out with style: Boom! When all was said and done, we were able to endure - completing the weekly challenge, just barely. I feel comfortable speaking for all of us when I say that this was by far the most satisfying Reach Firefight experience any of us has had. To top it off, we each went home that night with a nice little bonus of 10,000 cR. Although being the ODST fanbois that we are, I suspect the credits were not an important factor for any of us, as we would have attempted the challenged even without a reward. Hey Urk, tell the boys we said thanks for the challenge - We had an absolute blast! The challenge combined with Bones' custom gametype really made for an experience very reminiscent of ODST. Well done guys! Stats Alright, time for some numbers. I'll try to keep this as brief as possible. We finished the match with a total of 421,928 points, with the breakdown as follows: Bones 134,350 Tuna 119,041 Korny 93,823 Mazz 74,714 Deaths were pretty even across the board - Bones with 13, Mazz with 15 and I had 10. Thanks to his crazy vehicle antics, Korny wasted most of our lives with a whopping 25 ;) I stole the title of Betrayal King from our boy Mazz, sabotaging my teammates with 4 throughout the night. The other guys had a total of 4 between them. Sorry guys. Business as usual, Bones had the most kills with 471. Korny and I were close behind with 384 and 376. At 179, Mazz had the least, but what I find impressive is his assist count. His raging teddy bear fists reined in an astounding 126 assists, nearly matching his kill count. No one else even came close. Now that's teamwork! Nothing really exciting happened as far as weapon statistics are concerned. Bones and I had nearly identical numbers with most of our weapons. Our weapon of choice was the pistol. Bones snagged 233 kills, 168 by headshot, while I had 242, with 177 being by headshot. Likewise, we had similar numbers with the target designator, 46 for him, 32 for me. So, I guess he didn't hog it as much as I originally thought. On a slightly more interesting note, Korny's main tool of destruction was the Rocket Hog turret. He finished off 188 fools with that thing. Mazz's stats were fairly even with all his weapons. Most notably, he led in shotgun kills with 56 and Warthog splatters with 30. Before I go I just want to point out something curious I noticed while scanning the film for screenshots. If you look at the image below, it almost appears as if there are some letters interspersed amongst the vehicle tracks and dirt. It might be somewhat hard to see, so I included a second image with the saturation lowered a bit. That might make it stand out a little more. I don't know, perhaps I'm just seeing things. Maybe it's nothing at all. Only the map makers know for sure: ;) tl;dr Good times were had by all.

Message Index

Endure: The Return - Write-up + Contest Reminder	DMFanella	5/5/11 7:14 a.m.
Epic Fishbowl!!	Mazz	5/5/11 7:52 a.m.
Re: Endure: The Return - Write-up + Contest Remind	Kermit	5/5/11 8:06 a.m.
Re: Endure: The Return - Write-up + Contest Remind	DMFanella	5/5/11 10:13 a.m.
What hoe!	padraig08	5/5/11 8:35 a.m.
Re: What hoe!	Revenant1988	5/5/11 9:21 a.m.
Re: What hoe!	padraig08	5/5/11 11:34 a.m.
The spelling, the horror.	Bones153	5/5/11 10:17 a.m.
Re: What hoe!	DMFanella	5/5/11 10:18 a.m.
So Holy diver just played on my station....	Revenant1988	5/5/11 9:12 a.m.
Re: So Holy diver just played on my station....	DMFanella	5/5/11 10:08 a.m.
Excellent write-up, except --	Bones153	5/5/11 10:47 a.m.
Holy Stripes!	DMFanella	5/5/11 10:53 a.m.
Re: Holy Stripes!	Bones153	5/5/11 11:15 a.m.
Re: Holy Stripes!	DMFanella	5/5/11 11:36 a.m.
OMG it's a giant! *NM*	padraig08	5/5/11 11:42 a.m.
Re: Holy Stripes!	Bones153	5/5/11 12:01 p.m.
Re: Holy Stripes!	DMFanella	5/5/11 12:21 p.m.
Re: Holy Stripes!	Bones153	5/5/11 1:03 p.m.
Congratulations...you win	DMFanella	5/5/11 1:21 p.m.
Epic derailment!	padraig08	5/5/11 1:23 p.m.
So, business as usual? *NM*	Bones153	5/5/11 1:28 p.m.
Re: Holy Stripes!	Beckx	5/5/11 12:03 p.m.
or less alcohol... *NM*	padraig08	5/5/11 12:08 p.m.
I assume Tuna is like Johnny Fever *NM*	Beckx	5/5/11 12:33 p.m.
was that a plane?	padraig08	5/5/11 1:24 p.m.
Re: I assume Tuna is like Johnny Fever	Louis Wu	5/5/11 1:39 p.m.
Re: I assume Tuna is like Johnny Fever	Beckx	5/5/11 1:56 p.m.
Re: Holy Stripes!	DMFanella	5/5/11 12:24 p.m.
I guess you could say that without me around...	munky-058	5/5/11 11:06 p.m.
Re: I guess you could say that without me around..	Bones153	5/6/11 8:40 a.m.
Re: I guess you could say that without me around..	DMFanella	5/6/11 9:11 a.m.