Frikkin' Annoyances

Well, I spent my moment of New Year's playing Armored Core, and I'm finding my groove again. Unlocked some Bernard Felix Foundation parts, and they're a corporation that does my absolute favorite thing in giant robots: Sniping. New Fire Control System with longer sighting, new arms with higher precision, new sniper rifle with faster ballistic velocity, and a new head with better lock-on cameras. So, I'm feeling quite happy.

And then I run into a walking spasm named Cube.

For those not familiar with the series, you've got missions (and now, apparently, online multiplayer co-op missions, which I'm looking forward to when I find a partner) and the arena, where you face off against an AI piloted robot built under the same rules as yours (almost). My opponent of the post was some guy named "Cube" whose backstory says it's a cyborg, and has taken down many Lynxes with his inhuman piloting abilities. Well, they're certainly inhuman.

Now, this guy wasn't really hard. His AC (er, NEXT, to use the unnecessarily updated terminology) was apparently spec'd to be an ultralight. I hate ultralights. What came in handy was his poor choice of weapon use: He used some shotgun or machine gun... to tickle me at long range. Those weapons can be very nasty at close range, but over long range, the projectiles spread out and don't do much. That's why he wasn't really hard.

But what made him frikkin' annoying was that he wouldn't stay still for an instant! The generally best evasive maneuver in the game is the quick boost. Burst of speed that costs a fair bit of energy. Apparently, Cube had energy to spare, since he'd QB side to side like crazy, zipping across my screen at close and mid range, and enough to throw off my sniper rifle's lock at long range. I was so glad I equipped a standard rifle in my other arm with a deep magazine. Without it, I would have gotten to see what happens when both players run out of ammo. (Probably settled by who has the most AP -armor points- left.) The match lasted twenty minutes and thirty-one seconds. I am so glad his armor was paper thin, too.

So, anyway, now that you've read my rant about a frikkin' annoying scene in a videogame, here's your chance: Leave your stories in the comments.