Going Insane (almost) all on my own

I went "Insane" and I did it on my own.  Okay, not exactly but I didn't really get a whole lot of help from my friends either.  Until I begged.

I've been working on playing Gears of War 3 on insane.  I tried the standard campaign but couldn't do it by myself.  So I tried it in Arcade.  I figured it was better to play with strangers than to play alone.  Instead of hosting a public match, I jumped into strangers rooms.  At least that way I knew there was one other person there to help me out.  Unfortunately that meant playing the story out of order (not a big deal since I've already finished it on normal) but also having to deal with idiots.

When it got too much I started hosting my own room and just hoping someone would jump in.  Eventually they would but I had to play a lot of mission over again so I would get credit for 4-player co-op (which I was also trying to work towards). 

But once again I was dealing with idiots.  People who spend all their time running around picking up ammo.  If they're gun is full they'd shoot a few rounds then pick up more ammo.  Of course this meant that when it came time for me to pick up ammo there wasn't any left.  Yeah me.

I also had players follow me around trying to swap weapons.  There's nothing more annoying than to be crouched between cover trying to shoot someone when you're own teammate is standing behind you, not firing at the enemy, and their character keeps saying "swap weapons".  So even though someone was in the room "playing" with me I was basically doing Insane on my own a lot of the time.

When it came to the last mission on Act 5 it was even harder to get anyone to join and those that did didn't seem to know what they were doing.  Once a couple of guys picked up the Hammer of Dawn, but never used it on the Queen when she was down.  Another group stole all the ammo but wouldn't shoot the Queen when the bug was on the tower.  If you don't shoot her, she won't come off.  Another group would hide on the other side of the building when the Queen was in the air shooting her laser.  It wasn't bad until the Theron Guards starting climbing up the building.  Because they were on the other side of the building they couldn't do anything about them.  That left me to battle the Queen, and to dodge her laser AND pick off the locust that came up.

And don't get me started on the guy who came in the room and somehow glitched the game so we couldn't knock the Queen down so we could hammer her.  After fighting for 30 minutes and not getting her to drop I shut the room down.  It's never taken more than 5 minutes before even if I had to do it myself.

I eventually got Genghis to join me in a standard co-cop game.  I picked Insane for difficulty and he picked casual.  He did all the heavy shooting . . . I just tried to stay alive.  The Queen was defeated (rather easily) and I got my insane achievement.  Unfortunately I didn't get the Onyx medal for completing the game on Insane in 4-player co-op.

So I begged my friends for help.

When no one responded I thought I would be doomed to never get it.  So close, yet so far.  But Sand Dog came to my rescue.  He booted up Gears 3 and we started the last mission on Arcade Insane.  We also got lucky.  Two other players joined my room and they actually knew what they were doing.  It didn't take long to finish the queen off and for me to get my 4-player co-op Onyx medal.  Thank you Sand Dog!  I also made a new friend.

I still had to go back and find some missing mission I didn't get 4-player credit for but that didn't take long either.  I would much have preferred to play with friends than the hassle I went through playing with strangers but at least I got it done.  It only took several months and over week just for that last mission but I can cross that off my "to do" list.

And speaking of lists I went through and deleted a bunch of people from my friends list on my Xbox.  I took off people I don't play with (or will probably never play with again) and people who are just down right annoying (I'm looking at you Pogue).  I just didn't want to be reminded of all the people I could be playing with but wasn't. 

There are still people on my friend list for sentimental reasons.  Those people will never be deleted.  And Sand Dog has earned his place on that list. He will always be on my list because he helped me go Insane.