06/09/2013 - The Last of Us Multiplayer and World War Z

Good evening! It's been another day of multiplayer on *that* game, and as usual it hasn't been particularly fun. I've spent a good portion of the day trying to finish up this wretched multiplayer and in all honesty, I'm losing the will to live.

The most recent live update has tweaked the Explosives Expert perk, the Hunting Rifle and the Flamethrower. Let's evaluate these one-by-one, shall we?

1) Explosives Expert - This ability has been nerfed from 15% for stage one and 30% for stage two to 10/20%, and rightfully so. As a forum poster stated on the official Naughty Dog forums the other day "Factions mode should be renamed to Molotov Dodgeball". Even with the reduced radius from the nerf, molotovs are still far too easy to come by. Not to mention pretty much every player that has unlocked the perk uses it. I'm going to be a whiner here but today in a single match of Survivors consisting of six rounds I saw twenty-seven molotovs and twenty-three nail bombs. This is ridiculous, there were more explosives than bullets.

2) Hunting Rifle - The buff for this gun was actually needed, considering the average player who wanted to try sniping would just get annihilated by someone using a semi-auto on the other side of the map. They increased the scope speed and reduced the reload time, thus making the gun more feasible during high-level matches. I still prefer the semi-auto and burst rifle, but I do like the improvements.

3) Flamethrower - Another buff that was probably needed, however I think ND went a bit overboard considering the speed that the flamethrower inflicts damage now can destroy all your armor and kill you in less than three seconds. Ouch. Still, it's more avoidable than a molotov and rarely used, so I guess I can't complain.

The next screenshot (followed by even more whining) will display how terrible the matchmaking system still is. <sarcasm/>Enjoy my pro photography skills!

Naughty Dog and their 'much improved' matchmaking process... Yeah, no.

As you can clearly see by the above photo, it still sucks. I wonder if their system couldn't grasp that sticking the four highest ranked players on the same team was a really bad idea, especially in a 'no parties' match.

Although all the above information is negative. I have one that really takes the biscuit. Today I was one shot (instant KO) by a 9mm pistol to the chest while wearing full body armour. I think some people might be exploiting a bug. Has this happened to anyone else? If so, let me know!

In other slightly happier news, I pre-ordered my copy of Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix! Unfortunately it won't arrive here until the 24th of September, but I can live with that.

No news on finalizing my PC build either. If I had the money I'd be tempted to buy one of the new 8Pack systems from Overclockers UK. The guy who is designing and building them has a damn good reputation and several records under his belt.

I also watched World War Z today which wasn't actually that bad, although it was pretty much the plot for every other zombie movie and novel. I don't really have any gripes with the movie, but some of the plot had flaws. The entire opening scene looked as if it had been ripped from The Last of Us intro.

Well that's enough ranting from me. The Mirai Nikki review is almost ready and I'm very sorry for the delay, but I'm a perfectionist when it comes to writing these reviews.

As usual, let me know any of your opinions and thoughts on the topics discussed today. I'm very interested in talking to some other people who have watched Mirai Nikki to get their opinions on the series and the Redial OVA.

Overclockers/8Pack Builds: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=43&catid=2474&subid=2642
The Last of Us Live Update Notes: http://community.us.playstation.com/t5/The-Last-of-Us-Multiplayer/Live-Update-to-Multiplayer/m-p/41533903#U41533903

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