Question of the Week: What's one game you're an expert in?

Posted by: Randy at 1/16/2009 1:13 AM

More On: What we're playing Companies: Gaming Nexus

MTV Mutiplayer blogger Stephen Totilo recently played rapper Soulja Boy at three very different games: Geometry Wars, Gears of War 2, and Street Fighter II. Totilo, a highly-regarded games journalist, was veritably pwned at all but Geometry Wars. While some NeoGAF posters (expectedly, unreasonably) called for him to turn in his badge, one poster made the presumption that Totilo should have at least been "decent" at SF. Totilo conceded that not sucking at an established 20-year-old franchise was, indeed, a fair request.

That aside, What's one game you're an expert in?

Ben Berry: I own at the NHL titles for the 360. Each new year's release takes a couple of weeks to get back fully in the groove, but I have managed to master EA's franchise pretty much from the day I put each year's entry into the 360. Chuck and I play each year when the new title comes out, and when we go to schedule it, the conversation usually starts with "OK, let's get the asswhoopin' out of the way so we can review this thing." I will say that with the complete rewrite of 2K Sports' NHL franchise this year, it took me almost a month to where I was scoring at a high clip against the highest difficulties. (Currently Playing: History Channel Civil War: Secret Missions, NPPL Championship Paintball 2009)

Elliot Bonnie: Much like Nathan, I can hold my own at most games I play, but there are always people out there that wipe the floor with my false sense of confidence. A couple examples of this are Gears of War and Call of Duty. Instead of continue on about my mediocre gaming skill I will tell you about a couple of games that I am terrible at. In high school, my friends and I used to get together and play a lot of Mario Kart and 007 Goldeneye for the Nintendo 64. Wow...talk about a constant disappointment. I was like a duck out of water trying to figure out Goldeneye's control scheme. I feel like I was just a little unlucky with Mario Kart, but either way, I was terrible at that game too. I still had a lot of fun playing those games and that is what really matters, right? (Currently Playing: Midnight Club: Los Angeles, Fable II, Gears of War 2, Left 4 Dead, Fallout 3)

Sean Cahill: I'm an expert at Guitar Hero, considering that I can clear the "Expert" mode. Besides the obvious there, my knowledge of the original Legend of Zelda is downright scary, along with every Final Fantasy game made for the console, with the possible exception of X-2. (Currently Playing: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations, Mirror's Edge, Perfect World International)

Sean Colleli: I may not be the eminent expert on it, but I have a pretty embarrassing knowledge of Deus Ex. I've played through it dozens of times with just about every combination of class skills, which means I've seen just about every possible story element and conversation. Once I got bored with the conventional ways of playing it, I started bug-exploiting it six ways to Sunday--it's always fun to climb up a building by stair-stepping on sticky mines. I'm also not the fastest speedrunner in the world, but if you need me to I could probably finish all three Metroid Prime games with 100% scans and items in a lazy weekend. (Currently Playing: Rock Band 2, Gears of War 2)

Dave Gamble: I totally rock at just about any SimBin racing title. Setting the AI skillz at 100% is just for warm-up. I have to go to 110% to get any real competition. I run towards the front of the pack during MP races, and patience will usually get me to the front since the caution-to-the-wind crowd tends to wipe out early. I won't stay in front for long, though, as the fast-but-careless crowd tends to boot me out of their way rather than make a reasonable pass. (Currently Playing: Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway)

Charles Husemann: I'm mostly an FPS guy and I can pick up almost any single player or multiplayer FPS pretty quickly. After that I'm mostly a generalist who will play anything that's at least mildly entertaining or involves blowing stuff up. (Currently playing: Killzone 2, Team Fortress 2, Sacred 2)

Randy Kalista: The only time I’ve aspired to any level of mastery was in the latest version of Sid Meier’s Pirates! No ship/nation/governor/fair lady’s heart was safe from my sailing/buccaneering/politicking/ballroom dancing skills. I saved my entire family, brought my arch-nemeses to their knees, ended every pirate’s career, made swarms of aristocrats' daughters fall madly in love with me. I thoroughly swashed every buckle and shivered every timber from Bermuda to Vera Cruz. The New World was indisputably my world. From my first game to my last, whenever I retired a character I retired at the top of the socioeconomic scale, with my subjects tipping their hats and giving me props with an “’Owdy, Gov’!” (Currently Playing: Gravity Bone, Fable II: Knothole Island)

Cyril Lachel: Although I won't win any tournaments, I would say I'm an expert at Rock Band 1 and 2. I mean, it says expert right there on the difficulty, so I must be an expert, right? All joking aside, I find myself playing Rock Band whenever I have a spare minute. If I can't take playing a review game a minute longer, I turn to Rock Band. If there's nothing good on TV, I turn to Rock Band. It's the drug I keep coming back to, and I've easily put 100+ hours into Rock Band 2 since September. Perhaps its the fact that I'm constantly buying new content that keeps me coming back, or maybe it's the lengthy world tour mode, but I can't put my fake plastic guitar down. Maybe I'm not the world's best Rock Band guitarist, but I bet I can kick your butt! (Currently Playing: Rock Band 2, Ninja Gaiden II, Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse)

Matt Mirkovich: SSX was a game I excelled in. Especially SSX3. Know anyone that can do an entire combo down the mountain from top to bottom? Although the most top tier super play I've ever seen was watching a guy get through Battletoads on the NES without dying once. That was amazing. (Currently Playing: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4, DJ Max Portable: Black Square, Ar Tonelico 2)

Nathan Murray: I seems that no matter what game I get marginally good in I always meet someone who is at least 10x better. Every fighting game, FPS, RTS, RPG, MMO, you name it, no matter how proficient I become I meet some one who just blows me away. What sucks about that is that they usually aren't the best of the best in that game either. There has been one exception to this rule and that is Quantum of Solace. Maybe it’s because not a lot of people play but I have made my way up to the top 300 in kills on the leaderboards before. Top 300 in the world ain't too shabby. Of course I'm always better than my younger brother, who worships me as a gaming god, so I at least have that. (Now Playing: Fable II, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Rock Band 2, N+, Combat Arms)

Shawn Sines: The wise man knows never to overestimate his skill. I would say I'm closest to an expert at most RPGs because I tend to understand the systems involved and can manipulate them when the game does not cheat int he background. I'm definitely an expert at the D&D RPGs because of my ability to min/max the rules. (Currently Playing: Prince of Persia, Killzone 2, The Lord of the Rings: Conquest)

John Yan: I have to say I'm an expert in first person shooters. Just give me an FPS with a keyboard and mouse and after a few days I'll start becoming a top scorer without too many problems. Right now it has to be Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2 as I can run through expert mode pretty well in Left 4 Dead without taking too much damage unless my teammates really screw the pooch. In Team Fortress 2, you can usually find me lighting many people on fire, shooting rockets with reckless abandon, or sniping the heads of the enemies. (Currently Playing: Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2, Gears of War 2)