Got That Dog In Me

Every match is a new adventure, and I keep coming back for one more.

I spend most of my day building systems, reading diffs and keeping servers healthy. When I log off, I want a game that's fun, makes me think, and has a team that needs me. Lately that's Wardogs.

It's wicked awesome. Every match plays out differently, there's always another job to do, and I've gotten way too attached to watching my cash stack climb.

Some of my best matches have been on foot with a ground team, fighting to hold the hotzone. One that sticks with me: we got pinned down behind some rocks in a valley and couldn't move. I went down, got revived, went down again, got revived again. That happened close to twenty times. My team just kept dragging me back up.

We finally won that long, ugly fight for the zone. Then we lost a FOB and lost the whole match right at the end.

It still might be one of my favorite matches. Losing like that hurts, but it's the kind of loss that makes you queue up again right away. Winning a fight like that is the whole hook.

When I'm not on the ground, I'm usually in the air. The MH-6 Little Bird is small, quick and forgiving. It's perfect for zipping a few players into the hotzone or dropping them behind an enemy FOB before anyone notices. The Z20 Lakota is the big Black Hawk-style transport. It's heavier and takes more care to fly, but it carries a whole squad.

There's something really satisfying about a clean insertion. You come in low, flare, set down, and your team piles out exactly where they need to be. You lift off before the other side figures out what just happened. When it goes right, you've changed the match without firing a shot.

When it goes wrong, it's a very expensive lesson. That's half the fun too.

Logi doesn't get the glory, but I love it. Somebody has to keep the team stocked with ammo, fuel and build supplies, and when that's me, I take it seriously.

It scratches the same itch as my day job. You figure out what the team needs, where it's needed, and the fastest safe way to get it there. A FOB doesn't build itself, and a squad out of ammo can't hold anything. Good logistics is invisible right up until it's missing.

The thing I like most is how much there is to do. In one match I might fight on the ground, fly transport, run supplies and help build a FOB. You're never stuck doing one thing, and every role matters to how the match ends.

It also rewards teamwork more than almost anything else I've played. The matches I remember aren't the ones where I got a lot of kills. They're the ones where the team clicked: pilots, logi and the folks on the ground all pulling the same way.

And yes, the cash. Earning it, spending it on the next vehicle, then earning it back is a dangerous loop for someone like me. I'm not even sorry.

If you're a PC gamer, yes. Go check it out. Find a squad, try every role at least once, and don't be too proud to run supplies.

If you're on console, sucks to suck. :P

See you in the hotzone.