Posts Tagged ‘rookie’

Warhawk Diaries: Up and Atom

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

“Because every soldier keeps a diary, right?  Right?!”

Continuing with my mixed fortune on the green servers, I fancied another game of ‘zones’.  Out of all the game types, ‘zones’ has to be my favourite.  I don’t know whether it’s my play style, or whether I just seem to have so much fun in it.  I like to play a ‘zones’ match as often as I can, because it just seems to hit the spot and satisfies my gaming needs.  The objective is just so simple: capture as many zones as you can, and the team with the most zones wins.  It’s kind of like a gigantic tug of war and there seems to be many different strategies involved.  Intriguing…

Mixing it up
Alas, one day all the ‘zones’ servers were full, so I had to make do with another game mode.  The next mode I played for quite some time was ‘Collection’, in which you’ve got to collect as many radioactive cores at one, without getting killed, then returning the cores back to base to score.  Something like that.  I participated in a varied number of different games: some chock-full of players, and some mostly empty.  I used the empty games to familiarise myself fully with how the game type worked both in theory and in practice!  On the quieter games I collected the cores myself, whereas on the busier games I mainly took the role of transport, and provided covering fire in my big, badass tank   Overall, ‘Collection’ is fun, but not as fun as ‘Zones’.

The old classic, ‘Capture the Flag’ offers up some quality action as well.  Plenty of dogfights, and tank battles.  Some quite amusing deaths as well, with players often not making the return journey back to base with the flag.  I’ll skip over ‘deathmatch’ and ‘team deathmatch’ as I can honestly say I don’t spend much time on those game modes.

In the zone, baby
It was another day or two before the ‘Zones’ servers weren’t full any more.  Bad timing, or just bad luck?  Anyhow, I was back where I belonged.  I remember this one game quite vividly: I was on the Eucadia map, and my usual mix of flying the Warhawk, manning the turrets, and driving my faithful tank simply wasn’t working.  I was being hosed wherever I went.  Then came one of those moments of inspiration which was a cross between having a vivid flashback, and seeing your old mentor, Obi Wan Kenobi, telling to to use the force.  In my case I had been playing a friend on the Eucadia map a few days ago one-on-one.  He trounced me by using proximity mines.

Enough day-dreaming.  I headed to an area I knew where I could stock up on some supplies of proximity mines.  I then headed to a particularly well-defended outpost which I hoped I could capture for my team.  After being killed several times by walking in the front door, I used a back road and dropped behind their buildings from the top of a hill.  I then went and waged guerilla warfare.  I placed proximity mines at each door in their building complex.  I can’t tell you how satisfying it was after leaving that area to see many names being ‘killed by LosHavros’, flashing up on the screen.  Unfortunately, we didn’t win the battle, but in my mind I had won my own little skirmish.

Till next time, when there will be more tales from the Ruined Capitol and The Badlands.

Tags: experience, gameplay, rookie, Warhawk
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Warhawk Diaries: First Assignment

Friday, September 19th, 2008

“Because every soldier keeps a diary, right?  Right?!”

Sure, Warhawk has been on the market for about 12 months, but its online community is thriving.  The servers are full of veteran players, but the addition of trophies and the brand new expansion packs have kept the game fresh and interesting.  I’m a new Warhawk player and these scribblings are my experiences of being a rookie (I play on the green servers) in the unfriendly skies.  So grab a coffee, and read on, why don’t you?

You may (or may not, actually, if you’re a new reader) recall that I wrote some mixed thoughts called ‘Getting toasted in Warhawk‘.  To gain some perspective, that was written within hours of my first proper go on Warhawk, and I was truly rubbish!  But now, things have changed baby.  Things have changed!

Tanks a lot
Playing my first few games, I quickly realised that I was not going to go anywhere fast in a Warhawk.  My solution?  Ground vehicles.  I scanned the area around me, and quickly laid eyes on a tank.  Perfect!  Out I trundled in my luxurious 60 Ton (at a guess?!) personal safety vehicle, right into the middle of the warzone!  I must have blasted about three Warhawks out of the sky within a minute.  The power- it felt good.  Real good.  But… they all kind of ganged up on me and turned my tank into an elaborate metal coffin for me.

Man the turrets!
A good map for me has been the Ruined Capitol (correct me if I’ve got the name wrong).  Rather than get caught up in the huge bloodbath in the centre of the map, I opted to protect our home base.  I wasn’t hoping for peace and quiet though, as I knew an enemy player would fancy their chances at capturing our base.  I didn’t have to wait long.  From the top of our tower, I had a great vantage point in my rocket turret and could spot an enemy jet from quite a distance.

Sure, I took down my fair share of enemy aircraft, but they had a surprise in store.  Unbeknown to me, an enemy aircraft had flown in low and had not crashed as I had assumed.  We’d been boarded.  After admittedly being killed by the intruders a couple of times, I eventually managed to gain the upper hand and defeat them.  After doing this, I received a couple of trophies: ‘anti-camper’ and ‘revenge’.  Not too bad for one night’s work.

Till next time
I hope you’ve enjoyed this account of a new Warhawk player fighting the good fight, but that’s all for now.  Tune in next time to read my triumphs and mishaps in the various game modes, and find out which mode is my favourite!

Tags: experience, gameplay, rookie, Warhawk
Posted in Gaming, Online | No Comments »