Best Gaming Moments
Posted: June 27th, 2011, 20:21
Every once in a while something happens in a game that leaves you speechless, gaping at the screen in awe of what just happened. It's rare - you can go for years without a moment like this - but most of us have one. It's the sort of moment you run off to tell someone about, even if they don't know or care about games. What moments have you had like this? Here's one of mine.
I'd been playing Eve for about six months, and in that time 5punkorp had gone from a couple of miners running the corpse of a once thriving corporation to a fledgeling component of the industrially motivates Interstellar Starbase Syndicate. Our numbers had swelled and we'd made the move from the safety of Empire space to the badlands of 0.0. It had taken hard work, it was dangerous and scary. I spent most of my time hanging around the safety of our little space station - really little more than a tower in space with gun turrets and an array of cargo containers floating in the shape of a cock. I had a small collection of ships which I'd worked long and hard for; my Cyclone battlecruiser, well enough armed to take on the NPC battleships who lurked in the nearby asteroid belts, my Jaguar interceptor, my pride and joy which despite its tiny size was almost as powerful as the battlecruiser, and my Stabber cruiser. Now the Stabber was something of a white elephant. My frigates I called brawlers and for good reason - I fought at close range with kinetics, getting inside the enemy's range with huge microwarp engines and hammering them while they desperately tried to track me. It wasn't the most effective tactic, but it felt good. The Cyclone was more of a ranged bruiser, using missiles to batter the enemy while keeping its shield charged by leeching the enemy's power into my own capacitor banks. The Stabber, though, had no niche. I never really worked out how to fight with one. The problem was stuck in 0.0 space out on the frontier I needed ammo to feed my explosive fighting style, and taking my fighting ships out into the badlands could only end in tears. So I sacrificed the cruiser, stripped it of most of its weapons and armour, and equipped it with powerful engines and stabilisers which would stop enemy ships from blocking my escape by jamming me. It still felt like a white elephant, crammed with odds and ends, but at least it had a purpose and I didn't really matter if it was destroyed. As it happened though, I'd accidentally created the most successful ship I ever owned.
Ammo was running short again, and since it was early on a saturday morning I decided to make a dash back to civilisation to fill my hold with ammo for my fighting ships. It should be quiet, and I should be able to get enough missiles and shells to last me for the coming week. It was a bit frowned upon travelling alone - Friz always asked that we have a scout jumping ahead to spot enemy gate camps, but I didn't have a scout. All was quiet as usual, but I kept my eyes peeled. The first sign of someone appearing in the local chat channel and my heart would race as I hurridly jumped from gate to gate, ready to flee as quickly as possible if I met the other person, not even waiting to see if they were hostile or not. It was a well practiced routine, and I was good enough at it to avoid the odd lone hunter on a number of occasions. You never knew though. Jumping to the next system I find two people already there. Maybe they were just mining or 'ratting'. Maybe they were just passing through. Or maybe they were camping the gate I was coming out of, waiting to jam and destroy any lone traveller unfortunate enough to meet them. Needless to say, it was the latter.
In a well rehearsed drill I aligned to the next gate and hit the jump button. The actions were as well rehearsed as a pro Starcraft player, and I'd made the clicks in only a second or two. It wasn't fast enough though, nothing happened. I'd been jammed by the pair, a cruiser and a frigate, and with few weapons I tried to make a fighting retreat. Making an aggressive close range pass at the frigate I tried to scare him off, before dashing away to try to get out of jammer range as fast as I could. My turrets blazed backwards as I fled, and I found myself making some headway, much to my surprise. It wouldn't last though, I was outnumbered and outgunned. My shields had gone, my armour buckling. I desperately tried to jump again, certain that nothing would happen. The space around me blurred into a lightning flecked tunnel and the ship shook as I hurtled away. The frigate must have turned off its jammers to make the killing blow, assuming that I wouldn't think to try to run again. With fires burning on my ship, almost crippled, I emerged at the gate to the next system and jumped clear. My heart was pounding, my mouth was dry, and I was elated. I made it to civilisation, and while I ran a few more blockades in that ship (which incidentally probably still sits in a station somewhere), but none were so close or so thrilling.
I'd been playing Eve for about six months, and in that time 5punkorp had gone from a couple of miners running the corpse of a once thriving corporation to a fledgeling component of the industrially motivates Interstellar Starbase Syndicate. Our numbers had swelled and we'd made the move from the safety of Empire space to the badlands of 0.0. It had taken hard work, it was dangerous and scary. I spent most of my time hanging around the safety of our little space station - really little more than a tower in space with gun turrets and an array of cargo containers floating in the shape of a cock. I had a small collection of ships which I'd worked long and hard for; my Cyclone battlecruiser, well enough armed to take on the NPC battleships who lurked in the nearby asteroid belts, my Jaguar interceptor, my pride and joy which despite its tiny size was almost as powerful as the battlecruiser, and my Stabber cruiser. Now the Stabber was something of a white elephant. My frigates I called brawlers and for good reason - I fought at close range with kinetics, getting inside the enemy's range with huge microwarp engines and hammering them while they desperately tried to track me. It wasn't the most effective tactic, but it felt good. The Cyclone was more of a ranged bruiser, using missiles to batter the enemy while keeping its shield charged by leeching the enemy's power into my own capacitor banks. The Stabber, though, had no niche. I never really worked out how to fight with one. The problem was stuck in 0.0 space out on the frontier I needed ammo to feed my explosive fighting style, and taking my fighting ships out into the badlands could only end in tears. So I sacrificed the cruiser, stripped it of most of its weapons and armour, and equipped it with powerful engines and stabilisers which would stop enemy ships from blocking my escape by jamming me. It still felt like a white elephant, crammed with odds and ends, but at least it had a purpose and I didn't really matter if it was destroyed. As it happened though, I'd accidentally created the most successful ship I ever owned.
Ammo was running short again, and since it was early on a saturday morning I decided to make a dash back to civilisation to fill my hold with ammo for my fighting ships. It should be quiet, and I should be able to get enough missiles and shells to last me for the coming week. It was a bit frowned upon travelling alone - Friz always asked that we have a scout jumping ahead to spot enemy gate camps, but I didn't have a scout. All was quiet as usual, but I kept my eyes peeled. The first sign of someone appearing in the local chat channel and my heart would race as I hurridly jumped from gate to gate, ready to flee as quickly as possible if I met the other person, not even waiting to see if they were hostile or not. It was a well practiced routine, and I was good enough at it to avoid the odd lone hunter on a number of occasions. You never knew though. Jumping to the next system I find two people already there. Maybe they were just mining or 'ratting'. Maybe they were just passing through. Or maybe they were camping the gate I was coming out of, waiting to jam and destroy any lone traveller unfortunate enough to meet them. Needless to say, it was the latter.
In a well rehearsed drill I aligned to the next gate and hit the jump button. The actions were as well rehearsed as a pro Starcraft player, and I'd made the clicks in only a second or two. It wasn't fast enough though, nothing happened. I'd been jammed by the pair, a cruiser and a frigate, and with few weapons I tried to make a fighting retreat. Making an aggressive close range pass at the frigate I tried to scare him off, before dashing away to try to get out of jammer range as fast as I could. My turrets blazed backwards as I fled, and I found myself making some headway, much to my surprise. It wouldn't last though, I was outnumbered and outgunned. My shields had gone, my armour buckling. I desperately tried to jump again, certain that nothing would happen. The space around me blurred into a lightning flecked tunnel and the ship shook as I hurtled away. The frigate must have turned off its jammers to make the killing blow, assuming that I wouldn't think to try to run again. With fires burning on my ship, almost crippled, I emerged at the gate to the next system and jumped clear. My heart was pounding, my mouth was dry, and I was elated. I made it to civilisation, and while I ran a few more blockades in that ship (which incidentally probably still sits in a station somewhere), but none were so close or so thrilling.
