Team Fortress 2

I've had quite a time with Team Fortress 2. Admittedly, I was not even going to buy this game. The Orange Box really did not get me very excited upon it's release about a year ago. However, like most Valve games, word of mouth got to me and I bought The Orange Box. Now I buy all Valve games before they even come out. I now have complete confidence in the team at Valve.

This isn't a review of the Orange Box, though. I have not even finished Half Life 2. I really should. Anyway, I am here to review its multiplayer component: Team Fortress 2. The game came out a year ago and consequently, every game critic has reviewed it to their heart’s desire. So what do I have to say that’s any different?

Time is that answer, I believe. I have had time to really play the game with the community. One of the greatest experiences I had had with video games came in early April of 2008, where everyday for about a month I could not wait for school to finish so I could go home and play on the PC Gamer server. That also entailed waiting for sometimes half an hour to get in the server. But the same people played almost every night and it was a tremendous amount of fun. That experience is one that I feel gives me special credibility in reviewing this game.

My Rank back in May 2008

Shawn Elliot, an old editor for Games for Windows Magazine, has often wondered what the point of reviews are. My impression is that they are someone’s opinion to whether or not it is a worthy purchase. In few words: yes. In many words: yes yes yes yes yes. Especially when they are giving it away for ten dollars every so often, and when it is not on sale, it is only twenty bucks. My advise is : if your computer can run it, you like shooters and you have the internet, buy this game.

I wrote a paper not too long ago that postulated the question: “what is more important, form or content?”. This applies to everything, including video games. So I will start out with form.

Graphics. Team Fortress 2 is built from the source engine, which was made for Half Life 2. The team over at Valve has made one spectacular engine. The graphics are cell shaded but everyone moves like real people. In each map, every different section has a different art design so the player never gets lost. In two sided maps, like 2fort or Well, each base is uniquely colored, either red or blue. Most importantly, the nature of graphics help us suspend reality. We forget to question why the soldier has flames on his feet after he jumps using a bazooka. Or how the medic can shoot health out of a gun. The game also runs extremely well, coasting at about 60FPS on 1680x1050.

Cartoony Graphics help this game a lot

Sound. Sound plays a very crucial role in this game. Because Team Fortress is so stylized, the combat is such that it often takes 10 seconds of constant shooting to kill someone. So, the element of surprise is not needed and quality headphones are not needed. However, Valve put a lot of time into the audio for this game and it shows. The audio helps tell us what is going on just around the corner. The player’s character also shout taunts after kills and these taunts help a lot with immersion into the game.

Each class has a distinctive look

Now, for the real fun part of the game, the content. The game shipped with six maps but now has eighteen maps that span across five game types, Control Point, Capture the Flag, Territory Control, Payload and Arena. Each game type is so different it is like changing games almost. Almost every map is brilliant. Valve, as numbers indicate, has released a lot of content over the past year. The new maps outshine the older Hydro and Granary. I had forgot Granary so completely that I had to look it up online. The game type Payload and arena were not originally not shipped with the game. Yet Payload is my favorite game type. It involves pushing a cart, filled with explosives to a checkpoint and the round usually ends with a large explosion.

Goldrush, a Payload Map

The game also features nine classes. Three offensive classes: Scout, Soldier and Pyro. Three defensive classes: Demoman, Heavy and Engineer. Lastly, three support classes, Medic, Sniper and Spy. Each class is very different in almost every way, including height, speed, apparel, voice acting, health and weapons. Changing classes is like changing games. The type of play style difference between engineer and soldier is immense. The medic plays nothing like the spy and the scout is a complete opposite of a heavy. Valve has succeeded in differentiating each class enough that the game seems to change when you change.

This is clearly the Red base…….

Team Fortress 2 does have flaws though, I suppose. If you are looking for a story, this is not the place for you. This also is not the place for people looking for realism. Feet on fire and invisible people do not exactly scream modern warfare. The learning curve here is fairly steep as well. It takes a while for a new player to learn who does what and how well. Despite those small flaws, Team Fortress 2 is my favorite shooter of 2007 and 2008. Call of Duty 4 was very good, but does not seem to capture the magic of Team Fortress 2’s game play or community.

Final Score:

Good:

• Excellent Graphics
• Sheer depth of content
• Stellar Community and Updates

Bad

• No back story
• Rough Learning Curve

Ed Note: This is only for the PC version of the Game. I have and will not play the xbox version. It only supports a maximum of eight players a side adding up to a total of sixteen. This is not enough, in my mind, to make a good team, therefore ruining the team experience.

It’s a puzzler

Okay, So I kinda dropped off the face of the writing earth recently. I’m not sure why, but I haven’t really been in the mood to write. What is really perplexing me is that fact that writing reviews is what has really given me writer’s block. I can’t make myself sit down at write them. Right now, I’ve been telling myself I need to review Team Fortress 2. But what can I say that others have not already said? What makes me different than any other person with an opinion? That is what has been my main hurdle. And also,

 

how can you put a simple number on a complex opinion?

 

8

Change is a Comin’

I feel it right around the bend. Except to see reviews.

Now Playing

Dance Gavin Dance - Downtown Battle Mountain - The Backwards Pumpkin Song

Earn That Content

With Call of Duty, the more and more I play it, the more and more I realize how brilliant of a game it is. I'm level 52 right now. And I am playing it to play the game and experience it. Achievements have infiltrated every game that I own, so I've resorted to one of the games where they don't matter. Well, challenges give you silencers, ACOG scopes and red dot sights. And leveling up gives you new weapons. So what am I talking about?

Call of Duty 4 is a prime example of having to earn your content. I'm actually still on the fence on whether I like it or not. Earning your content, I mean. I know for sure that I like Call of duty 4. How would the game change if everyone had every gun at the beginning of the multiplayer game? Cod4 is not nearly as time consuming as WoW in terms of earning your content. Anyone who spends any time playing it gets the guns fast enough. You decide what guns you advance and what guns you leave alone. I really do applaud Infinity Ward for their balance of all the guns. From what I think of now, most guns are viable killing machines. No gun is extremely over-powered, but I do think some are under-powered. Although, if the player is good, usually he can do well with any gun.

Speaking of earning content, I'm plugging along in WoW. I finished all the quests in Howling Fjord, but now I'm not really looking forward Borean Tundra. I've heard from numerous people that the Fjord is better. But I'll stop talking about WoW. That's why I have a WoW blog, right?

LAN. December 13th-14th. I plan to have a good time and not have a seizure. Unlike last LAN. I plan to play Team Fortress 2, Call of Duty 4, Left 4 Dead, Trackmania Nations and Warcraft 3. I would be totally down to play some Company of Heroes. But we will see how the cards fall.

Today I also updated and patched Worms, so now I can play it online. Talk about a game with no achievements and only playing it for the fun of the game. I wish they made it for mac, because for whatever reason, Worms seems to belong on a laptop. I'm not sure why I feel that way. Wow, just think of it, playing Worms during class. I'd really get nothing done.

Test

Lets see if this works.

Just a Test, but more to come

I was just fooling around today on the interwebs, when I stumbled across my old Windows Live Space. I was exploring around and found that Windows Live has a blog writer. I’ve been looking for a program to blog on for the longest time. Now, my only question is,

 

“Do they make it for Mac?”

The Death of Desktop Gaming

The Media has its crazes. When it sinks it's teeth into an idea or a story, it never lets go. The Death of PC Gaming is one of those ideas that it will not let alone. For the past two or three years, we've been continuously assaulted by the idea that PC Gaming is going to die. I really really doubt that. Too many people are devoted PC Gamers and it is too good of a platform to fall by the wayside. But one thing that I think we may see the death of is the desktop computer.

Now I am a PC Gamer. I was a late convert, but once I saw the light, I accepted the true way of PC Gaming. The platform is so much more flexible and powerful than consoles and most games are more fun to play with a mouse and keyboard, with the exception of racing games and Gears of War. But that's why they make Xbox 360 controllers connect with a USB port. I built my computer from scratch, buying most my parts from Newegg about a year ago. I won my case from a LAN party but this last friday I went and picked up a replacement case. This lead me to thinking: who really has a desktop computer nowadays? My mom just bought a new laptop, my dad uses a laptop and most my friends only have laptops. The only people who have desktops are my gamer friends. People don't want to spend the money on a monitor, keyboard, mouse and computer. They want it all set up for them with something that is easy to use. And laptops are that answer.

Laptops are easy to setup, take down and transport. My desktop certainly is large and I had to debate what to do with it when I went home from college over these holidays. It would have been thousands of times easier to just fold my laptop and put it in a case and take it on the train. But as it was, I bought a box and packed it all up. The box was heavy and large and would have been extremely inconvenient if I did not have a car.

I don't know if I will ever buy a gaming laptop. The keyboard in front of the screen kills the immersion for me and I don't think they make 22 inch laptops. I also like my desktop too much. It's large, noisy and bright. But that is part of the allure of it. I am expecting to get a new video card for Christmas and part of the fun of the gift is the fact that I am going to have to put it in. One thing that laptops can not do easily is upgrade. It is possible to do but the technical know-how required is not something that your average consumer has. This argument of upgradability is largely moot, however, for in all practicality, you do not need to upgrade to play any new games for at least 2 years. And that is enough time to save up to buy a new laptop.

This leads me to my final point. I think that PC Gaming will be around forever. There is a hard core fan base for it and I do not see that going away. What I do see is the death of desktop computers. The only people who will continue to buy and furnish desktops are hobbyists. I am a hobbyist and I fully expect to continue to build computers all my life. This minimization of the market might lead to a slow down in the development of the technology for desktop computers and I really hope that Western Digital, nVidia, ATI, Intel, AMD and all other companies really do see the potential profits in continuing to humor us and make us hardware.

Playlist:

1. Left 4 Dead
2. WoW
3. Cod4

Left 4 Dead and other stuff

So I have not written in here for a while. Let's rectify that, shall we? Left 4 Dead came out and the game does not disappoint. It has the most incredible blend of shooter with co-operative game play. Playing it over and over with only the same chapters does not seem to matter. The levels are so well designed that playing them over and over doesn't get boring. The key to it is that each level is randomized. The witch is not always in the same place and you don't always get a tank when you go into a certain room. The director decides what enemies get thrown at you and when. And even if you die within the same chapter, every time it is different. This helps the game maintain its freshness. Another key thing that L4D does right is that it is designed around co-op and team play. If a survivor runs off by them self, they will die. There is no way that they can survive all the hunters and smokers that are continuously thrown at the party. Survivors are not the only team that needs team work. When playing as the infected, you need to coordinate your attacks. Just going one at a time will not work. This intense team work will satisfy most of the gamers out there. Gamers that like to lone wolf it will not find L4D as enjoyable as Call of Duty 4.

Wrath of the Lick King also came out recently. I have not been playing it as intensely as I have been playing L4D. But Wrath is good. The quests are very similar to what they were in classic and Burning Crusade, but if something's not broke, don't fix it. The quests are better than they were however. A lot of them are more compelling and have things to do that are more fun. I've been taking it slow, doing a couple quests at a time then logging off. I'll get to 80 eventually, but right now I'm taking the time to smell the roses. I think that this will lead to a more highly enjoyable experience. I'll probably raid over either winter break or over summer break. I won't have time to do it while in school.

Playlist:

1. Left 4 Dead
2. World of Warcraft
3. Call of Duty 4
4. Company of Heroes
   

The coolest song in Audiosurf

So, in celebration of one thing or another, Steam decided to put Audiosurf for $3. Audiosurf is this game that generates a track, based on a song you choose and you ride the track, collecting points. I chose on old favorite, "Lip Gloss and Black" by Atreyu. And oh mi gawd. That song is amazing. Both by itself and as an Audiosurf track. It generates tunnels when things are intense in the song and when Atreyu is yelling "Live. Love. Burn. Die", tunnels appear. And it's just a cool feeling.Other than Audiosurf, I've basically been playing WoW, Geometry Wars, World of Goo and Call of Duty 4. I decided to play COD4 again on a whim and I really enjoyed it. It's not so much a shocker on why the game is so popular, because it is intense and unforgiving.
Playlist:

1. Wow
2. Geometry Wars
3. World of Goo
4. Audiosurf
5. Call of Duty 4
   

World of Goo!!!!

I went out on a limb the other day. I bought World of Goo. I tried it out as a demo and absolutely loved it. It is a wonderful creation blending imagination, art style and humor into one game. For people who have not played it, the game is an engineering game. You start out a level with lots of goo balls and a basic structure. You place to goo balls near the existing structure and it adds to it in a way stated upon screen. You are always building toward a pipe that you will "escape" the level from. Your goal is to build to the pipe in the fewest amount of goo balls possible, with each one you get increasing your score. This sounds sounds easy (well it did to me) but the game of course throws in curve balls. You have to build over obstacles, some which will pop your goo balls. This game is so different from all the other games I've played recently. I don't really spend a lot of money on games and this game is actually a reason why I do not. The vast majority of games are all the same. Sure, a lot of them are like "Oh oh! look at how our game is so much better! We have 500 player multiplayer and introduce this new gameplay mode called Traffic, where you are all in cars and you try to get to a building to go to work. The more damage on your car, the worse your score". Okay, so? World of Goo is so much different that any other game I know. World of Warcraft is very similar to Runescape, Ultima Online and Everquest. Team Fortress 2 is very similar to most other First person shooters. I cite these examples because I label them my most played and therefore favorite games. The reason WoW and TF2 escape the current of mediocrity is because they do so many things right and their little things are what save them. WoW is such a polished game in so many respects that it differentiates itself from the pack in that way and TF2 's classes go that extra length to make it feel that a scout plays very differently than a heavy. World of Goo is such a departure from modern gaming in general. It's graphics are not stunning although they do add tremendously to the feel and atmosphere of the game as a whole. It's concentrates on a game that asks you to use your mind. Portal is actually an example of a game that was so unusual that people were really taken aback by its quality. 

I also bought Geometry Wars and a wired controller. I don't know where my wireless connector went and so I decided to splurge and pick up a wired one. Geometry Wars is very rare because it is such a compelling game. You just want to play it over and over again. It gets you hooked and doesn't let go. I also found out that my roommate plays Geometry Wars, and so he has been playing it too. He beat my high score :(. O well, that means I'm going to have to practice and beat that. I think 1,500,000 will do. ;).

Playlist:

Wrath of the Lich King; the end of new WoW players?

Should this game be called “World of Warcraft: Now You Have No Life!”? With this content expansion, they are essentially barring new players from starting. The focus of the game up to this point was accessibility and ease of play, but this new expansion is doing the exact opposite. Leveling to 80 is a very daunting task. From 70, its only 10 levels and for the experienced 70s, its 10 levels of refreshment. They have had lots of time at level 70 to play around not having to level up. They got to raid and reputation grind and all. But now, they have are anxious to return to what initially drew them to the game: leveling up.

But what about the new guys? Everyone started out at one point and leveled up. But now we run into a barrier to entry. Most people playing the game now have been playing for a while and they have built up a social structure while playing. The vast majority of players are in a guild and have friends in the game. The newbies have none of this. If the entrees can bring themselves to level to 80, who are the guilds going to take on a raid: the guy who has been there for several months, or the new guy who just leveled up? They will take the veteran and the newbie will get discouraged, quit, and not encourage his friends to join. Word of mouth is the most effective form of advertisement. I think in this case though, its called word of ventrillo.

How do we judge the successfulness of a MMO? I can't be how fun the game is because we all know that MMOs are boring as shit. We judge a MMO based on subscription numbers and WoW has been no different except the quantity of subscribers. At the peak of WoW, the numbers were at about 11 million people playing. Those numbers have dipped since then, with many people defecting to Warhammer Online, Age of Conan or simply getting bored. With this release, Blizzard is expecting to pick up lots of subscribers. But who is really making up that increase? Chances are, it is veterans coming back to the game, wanting to see the new content and experience the process of going through Northrend. How many people are going to join this game because they see an advertisement on their TV? I'll admit, I played up to 70 because of a Mr. T commercial I saw about a night elf Mohawk, but I was a veteran. I didn't have a 70,60,50 or even a 40, but I started out a long time ago. I started playing based on a friend's recommendation in 2005, a year after the game came out. I didn't see Mr. T saying, “I pity the fool who doesn't play WoW” and run out and buy World of Warcraft, its expansion and a time card.

The bottom line is that Blizzard is now catering to the hardcore and experienced players. All the people in the game will be vets and very few new players will be coming to the game. The game that started out as a very user friendly and accessible game is now turning into the exact opposite. The connotation of a WoW player is very present in the video game community and even in the main stream world. It is viewed as a overweight person, sitting in a basement who has no life. This is actually contrary to reality, for studies have shown that MMO players are actually just under the national obesity average. Now, the time commitment to really make the game fun is climbing ever higher and now the stereotype might have to be true for the entry level players. They will have to move into the basement, become obese, eat mounds of Cheetos, Hotpockets, and Rockstars. Unfortunately, since nerds have no social skills, they will not be able to convince their parents that living in the basement is a good career move, at which point they will be kicked out and there is no internet o the street. This game is becoming school: you have to have started reading early or else you're so overwhelmed by the quantity of work, you just don't bother.

Playlist:

1. World of Warcraft
   

Shameless Plug/Update

I started a WoW blog to just babble about WoW. It's so this isn't so nerdy....if thats possible
Playlist:

1. WoW
   

I Can't Believe It

I started to play World of Warcraft again. I think that patch 3.0 and being there at the live recording of the instance is what really encouraged me to renew my subscription. And, I have had a pretty good time playing it so far. The achievements have made this game a little more addicting than heroin. I've been running around revealing lots of parts of the map. Also, with all these achievements that came out, I realized how much I really haven't done in the game. I only have about 1000 points. I'm not sure the maximum that can be achieved, but I have about 93/750. That's a lot of stuff to do. I do have to take issue with some of the things that happened. I killed some of the bosses that it said I didn't kill. I have the t4 helm to prove it. Anyway, most of my work has been me running around exploring everything. And raping low level dungeons. With this release date and patch, the game is starting to feel like the end of high school did. Everyone knows the end is coming, but we are all still there. We are doing things as if they don't have repercussions. I bought lots of expensive gems for my ret set, which is something I wouldn't probably have done unless I had a lot of money. Everything is now a joke. We 5 manned Onyxia, and Kara groups are a dime a dozen. No one is taking this game seriously anymore, and I have always felt that games really become fun when the game isn't too serious. It's a thing that this game will have for a while. No raids will really exist until about next spring which might actually be a little to early. People will hit 80 soon, but enough people to have a reliable raiding guild is something that will not exist for a while.


Speaking of Warcraft, I've also been playing Warcraft 3. Just normal games online, with matchmaking. It's a really fun game. I remember everything that I liked about RTSs and I do like them a lot. I also played Starcraft recently and it is still fun and an amazing game. Games that good really transcend the age barrier. By that, I mean are immune to the passage of time when speaking of playability. I have also realized that I have played WoW since basically the beginning of the game. I started in 2004. I never got past level 36 but I was playing. I had my mage, then a druid and various other characters. I never really settled on a character like I have now. I do like my druid, but my paladin has everything that I want and it makes playing him a real joy.

I said earlier that Shawn Elliot left the brodeo and it spelled certain doom for it as a podcast. Well, he never really left. He will always be here with stories. Only this time they will be read by Chuff(Anthony Gallegos) and Babito(Robert Ashley). And now Ryan Scott will actually be able to talk. However, it would not surprise me in the least if they got Jeff Green or Shawn Elliot to phone in to the podcast using their fancy new ….phone in technology. GFW was my favorite podcast and it still is. I really like their random tangents but they usually have good insight. I hope that it wasn't just Shawn who had the insightfulness. Shawn Elliot is such an amazing individual and he will be sorely missed.
Back in the good ol' days.

I really like to write, I have realized. I like to flush out my thoughts and put them down on paper. I do have this blog, and I am trying to evolve this blog into a thoughtful, insightful place. I will, of course, just put random things on there, I.e.: hatdog, but I also want to try and put things that delve into the game theory. The problem is, I might be going into it already, but it lacks life relevence, so its going to be hard for me to really recognize when I do it. So, it is here I announce that I am probably going to write a back story for my World of Warcraft character, Akoris. Dun, dun daaaaaa.
Playlist:

1. World of Warcraft
2. Warcraft 3
3. Team Fortress 2
   

OpenOffice.org

This isn't really video game related, but I downloaded Openoffice.org 3.0. It's amazing. Its basically a free, FREE, competitor to Microsoft Office. It doesn't disappoint. It's amazing. It looks like office so everything is where is should be. And it runs naively in Mac OSX. win.
Playlist:

1. Team Fortress 2
2. Warcraft 3
   

Hi guyz

hi guyz!!
im hat dog!!!

Playlist:

1. Team Fortress 2
2. CSS
   

I just wanted to say this:

When in doubt, chuff it out.Which makes me think: maybe I should finish Crysis and Half Life 2. Just chuff it out and play them.

Playlist:

1. Team Fortress 2

Shawn Elliot leaves the Brodeo

I'm so depressed that he left. I guess everything is ending for me now that high school ended. But, high school ended and college began, so I guess that other things will too.

Shawn Elliot is a huge inspiration to me. He is not only a hilarious individual, but he is also a very insightful and intelligent one. I wish that I could poses his insight that he seems to have every week. I get a good idea maybe once every month. Plus his awesome stories are so amazing that I have started to amass stories that I can tell.
Playlist:

1. Team Fortress 2
   

BonK!

I started playing Team Fortress 2 again. It's a lot alotta fun. But, the question that has been pestering me lately is: why? Why is it fun? Humans by nature are pretty competitive creatures. We've been racing each other places since the dawn of time and wars simply come from competitions over natural resources. So, I doubt I am any different than those humans, despite my constant showering and my real lack of having to do physical labor. So I do enjoy competition. Blowing up someone with a sticky bomb you lobbed over a wall or cliff is extremly satisfying. As is throwing someone up in the air with a ocket launcher and then fataly shooting them again while they remain airborn. Is this fun because you beat another person? If I killed you once, then I am way better than you are. This statement is not valid, for in that game, random events can and do occur that resut in freak deaths, eg. rounding the corner into a crit rocket that someone shot at nothing. I think the real pleasure and the thing that keeps bringing my back is beating the other team. Working together with your teammates to defeat a common enemy is an incredably uniting experience, eg. World War 2 and us kicking the shit out of the Taliban. The great thing about that game is that somehow, situations can arise that leave both teams satisfied. I was playing dustbowl and we were holding the other team down for the entire match. And then, at the end of the match we all of a sudden all died for various reasons and the other team managed to capture the point and win. We know we were the better team, so we were not mad. And the other who pulled a miracle win was jubilant. Not many games are able to do that.

It's been a while since there has been a new class update. But, Robin Walker, blogger on behalf of the dev team, has been doing his job. Namely, blogging. His last blog was titled "Gentlemen" and his newest is entitled "Git along there, little doggies". These are some of the spy and engineer taunts, respectivly. This could point to a class pack release, maybe of both spy and engineer. This would be interesting because spies and engineers are basically enemies of each other. Well, not really. I think the engineer hates the spy, and the spy hates the pyro. The pyro in turn hates the soldier, who hates the demoman. The Demoman does not care for heavies or pyros. Heavies hate spies. Medics hate everyone, scouts are ignored by all and everyone hates snipers, who hates spies. That is why they should release a offense, defense, support pack. I would vote for soldier, demo, sniper. But that is probably not going to happen. I would be okay with engy/spy/offense. I enjoy both scout and soldier so I am okay with either. What if they released another pack for the already updated classes. Just add more weapons! that would be nuts.

Playlist:

1. Team Fortress
   

New layout

I just wanted to point out I put Twitter back on here. I update to say things that I'm doing. Follow me if you want. I'll probably follow you back. I also put a follow feature that's from Blogger. I'm not sure what it does. I also put up a new poll. I think its clever.

Playlist:

1. Team Fortress 2
   

I want to Post here

But I really don't have anything to say. Only, that in college, ive stopped playing WoW and am playing TF2. That's it.

Games of Interest

So, a lot has happened recently in teh gaming industry. Will Wright finally released his new pet project, SPORE, this past weekend. The game has been getting tons of positive feedback, allowing the user to personally tailor a universe. Starting from the cell stage, much like a point-and-click game, to the create stage, more like an rpg, to the tribal and then civilization stages, dumb downed rts's, to the space stage. Space is a combination of all of these and more. A world pissing you off - bomb its inhabitants, use a laser on the buildings. They launching interstellar warefare against you - sign their death contract with a simple click releasing the planetary bomb that explodes their entire planet. (I have yet to unlock this tool but I imagine it's amazing.) All-in-all, SPORE is a revolutionary game that will be the talk of the town for quite sometime.

On a different note, Blizzard Entertainment gave an official release date for Nov. 13th of this year, claimed to be "invading a store near you." I'm sure I am not the only one shocked to find out that Blizzard is on top of things, not pushing back the release date an entire year as was done with the previous expansion. Wrath of the Lich King is set to deliver an even bigger overhaul to the UI and gameplay then before, complete with a new hero class, the Death Knight, bringing more of the old Warcraft Lore, as well as the Inscription profession that augments the abilities of players in certain situations, and finally the increased level cap to 80 and the Northrend area to do it in. Many other additions have yet to be revealed, but the game is expected to have no real effect on the market. One critic was quoted saying that the game will "simply keep current players in the game, and those who would just begin the game out because of the gap between leveling and gameplay."

Things still on the horizon are the much anticipated FallOut 3, and Fable 2. I will be purchasing these games and recommend them to any person seeking intense rpg action, intriguing, depthful story lines, and creative ingenuity. I also recommend a trial of Mythic Entertainment's, those who brought you Dark Age of Camelot, Warhammer Online (referred to as WAR). Having participated in the Beta versions of the game, it leaves much to be expected. Whether due to WoW's near monopoly on MMORPG gameplay and creativeness or expectations, who knows. The game features a multitude of classes, in-depth storylines and quests, as well as something WoW has only recently thought of, siege-warfare. While WoW has their battlegrounds, WAR has full on castle assaults and siege equipment usage. WoW will be releasing these additions in Wrath of the Lich King, and some suspect WAR took this idea from them.

To conclude, it should be a very interesting Q4 for video games.

Playlist: World of Warcraft, Team Fortress 2, Warhammer Online, Spore

Portal 2

Could this possibly ever be a good idea? It seems very unlikely that they could ever make a complete gaming experience as tight and compelling as the original. I only ask because I saw something about Gordon Freeman earlier today on some gaming sight, and I thought it said something about him at Aperture Science. I was wrong about that, though.


Playlist: Bionic Commando Rearmed, Madden '09, Final Fantasy VI

im so cool

So I bought the World of Warcraft soundtrack. And now I've been
listening to it when i play WoW. Sorta defeats the purpose right?
Also, the past two nights I have been up really late playing WoW, this
past night being up untill 5 30am. That is the point when it stops
being late and starts being early. I did not know a game could hold my
interest for so long and so intensely. And now I started a warlock
that i have to level. O man.

Working at the library tonight

Was incredibly boring.

Though I did read a very interesting book about Ayn Rand, Objectivism, Atheism and Rationalism.

My Mage (100th Post)

Well, I have a paladin, druid, hunter and a really low level mage. Now, I like my mage, but I always think that they are better than they really are. They really don't have enough health to stand up to anyone in a melee fight. They do have the power to kill people from afar but then they really have to rest after they kill anyone because of the large mana requirements of all their spells. I wish I could have all these guys up at 70, but I really don't have the time. I work all the time and I wish I didn't so much. I have worked constantly since two wednesdays ago. Wednesday through saturday, monday through friday, then i went to tahoe with my family until today. Now, this is a vacation but I like my house and I like my room and I miss it. I have all this stuff for a good reason, which is to use it. There was internet up at tahoe but it was slow and only available from the window sill of my room. There was the Hyatt across the street and I didn't want to go over there just to play World of Warcraft. I will also be working from wednesday to saturday it looks like. This bums me out a little bit. We are returning home a little early, which I am all for. I do want some off days though. I want to just sit around and play World of Warcraft. I also want to play through the new Team Fortress 2 achievements and test out all the new heavy weapons, which one of them seems to be a sandwich to regain health when you do not have a medic around. This is a good thing to put in there, allowing heavies to be a class that is good to play when you do not necessarily have a medic on your team.

I think that heavies are a class that really insights terror into the other team. When I as a soldier round to corner and see that ugly russian heavy visage, I turn and run right away. There is no way that I can take him on. I can take him if i get the element of surprise on him, because I can get at least 2 rockets at him before he can even start shooting me. The sandwich will not be in any way replacement to a medic. I am assuming that the sandwich is a single use thing that must be switched to use. This would stop the damage output from the heavy by a significant amount, first to stop firing, switch to it, use it, and then switch back to the minigun and start firing again. So this sandwich will probably just be a out of combat use thing that you use after a fight. Also, the new five maps will have to be played so that I can get use to them. I still think Goldrush is a thing of beauty along with Dustbowl and Badlands. I hope that the new payload map is as genius and fun as Goldrush. I do admit that I have not really played a lot of Fastlane and that other new one. Also, arena mode will be able to bring the strategy of Counter-Strike Source to Team Fortress. As it is now, there might be game plans, but they are only general strategies. There are no things that people do that are incredibly specific like in Source.

Speaking of Source, I have sorta taken it up on my free time. It's an incredible game. It's fast, intense and complex. My favorite map is definitely Dust2. It's evenly balanced, and small, allowing for quick transversals of the map. The thing that really makes me mad is when I die very quickly and don't even kill anyone, or even hurt anyone. That is one thing that Halo really hooked people on, is the ease of killing people randomly and not dying easily. You can throw a grenade and, if there are any people around at all, you can probably kill one. But, Halo also made it so that you could take a grenade and not die. It was the game for people who were new to shooters and it hooked them in for other ones. I do not particularly like Halo anymore, but I have many fond memories playing it with all my friends. It also hooked me in for games like Gears of War and Counter Strike.

This furthers my belief that what you like now is primarily a product of where you were. I first played Halo at Chris Clark's house and I was really bad at it. But I liked it and kept playing and got way better, eventually becoming the best of all my friends. I then learned about the video gaming center The Matrix. We went down there and use to pay $5 an hour to play the games on their high end computers. I use to play Counter Strike and Battlefield 1942. I eventually got Counter Strike on my home computer and played there and stopped going to The Matrix for I could play all their games. I then played Halo 2 a lot after it came out. I think the success of Halo 2 rested on the ease of play online and the fact that no other games for the Xbox came out at that time. There were games like Half Life 2 and Counter-Strike Source, but I didn't have the money to do computer games then. After Halo 2, came Gears of War, then Halo 3. I liked Gears a lot more than I liked Halo 3 I think because Gears was so different and a departure from the traditional run and gun gaming. But then, I started playing more and more computer games on my brother's computer, which reigned supreme over my eMachine piece of garbage. One day, I bought the orange box and played Team Fortress 2. That game was truly amazing and I remember the day I knew I would play it forever. I bought a BFC can of monster on a friday afternoon and played until 3am. That was last October. And I am still playing it. I did take a break from it for a couple months and right now am not playing it a lot, with WoW taking up most of my time. But I am not expecting to quit any time in the near future. There really isn't game on the horizon that has me very excited. I am very on board with World of Warcraft, its upcoming expansion, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike Source and Starcraft 2. Okay I lied, Starcraft 2 has me excited.

What does worry me is if World of Warcraft will get boring. The grind is pretty common in virtually all forms of WoW. Even with my level 70, I am still needing to grind rep in order to get those patterns. With Wrath coming out, all the factions that we grinded o so hard to get up will become useless because new factions will come out. Argent Dawn is not going to all of a sudden become useful again. If they do, they are rewarding old players and not encouraging new players to come in. That is the same reason that the Sha'tar will not be useful in Wrath. I think that World of Warcraft will end at level 100. By that time, levels 1-90 will be a breeze. It will fly and it will only demand about a quest or two a zone to level up. I also think that either 80-90 or 90-100 expansion will be the emerald dream. Maybe, in a bold move, Blizzard will make the Emerald Dream expansion a 80-100 expansion. Also, I think a very interesting idea would be that if you could start a character at level 60. All characters that went through the all 100 levels will be "true" level 100s but you can do it.That would allow people who want to play a chance to only have to level 40 times. That would devastate the old world and would make getting an instance group together for anything but 60+ instances impossible without prior planning. One thing that would also not surprise me is if Blizzard made every instance available in Heroic mode. If Razorfen Downs was a 80 instance, I might be encouraged to go do it. That is the only reason I am doing things like The Botanica and Ramparts. I might be able to experience Blackfathom Deeps and Maruadan and Dire Maul. Also, it would not surprise me if they tuned down Upper Blackrock Spire and Molten Core and other old raids and even Burning Crusade raids to 5-mans and made it a heroic. If Blizzard did those things, it might breathe old life back into a dead world.

on the road blog

now now now, what is there to do? well, i could write. but of course, what is there to write about?

Altophobia

Now, I usually right about things that are philosophical in nature, usually trends in video games that I see as troubling. But, I have exhausted tings to talk about for now, so I'm going to be a little more shallow and World of Warcraft related.

As previously stated in this blog, I have a level 70 Paladin, who happens to be Holy Speced (Healer) Paladin named Akoris. I do have about 20-21 days of play time on him and I still have a lot to do. I play him continuously because I need to do things that I can do without raiding. Namely, getting badges for my good plate healer belt, but I was able to pickup a blue healer belt for about 70g today on the AH. I'm also going for the best healing trinket in the game. I have a badge trinket that is very good and my other is just a philosopher's stone, making it better than my running trinket. I do miss my Nifty Stopwatch. It made getting away from a lethal fight a lot better. But, I need to craft my healing trinket, from alchemy. I did pay about 700g to level that up to 375, which is the max level. Now I have to get to revered with Sha'tar. I did recently get to honored with them and that allowed me to purchase the Heroic key for the Tempest Keep instance wings. Then, I have to make an alchemist's stone with the recipe I can purchase with the revered reputation. That will take a lot of money to do, but it will give me +15 to all stats, which will help. After that, I have to gain exalted with Shattered Sun Offensive, which I'm at about half way to. Exalted will get me the Redeemers Alchemist's Stone recipe, which will give me +115 to healing and mana potions become 40% more effective. It will also give me a good neck item that gives some pretty bonus healing. Then, I have some raiding to do to get some gear. I need a new chest piece, gloves, wrist and shoulders. My chest, gloves and shoulders are good because they are epics and have good stats, but they are PvP pieces of gear and are not for raiding. My gloves and pants are cloth and don't give enough armor, but will do because they are PvE pieces. 

That is stuff I have to do. That is a lot to do. I have a 36 Druid from my server Kil' Jaeden that I transfered to Kul Tiras. I went balance spec because I was bored with feral. I do like it actually. I heard that Moonkin form is pretty good, so I am excited about that. But, I don't want to play him when I have so much more to do on Akoris. I feel like I am not doing him justice or something. I feel I need to have someone good before I work on someone else. I also have a 21 hunter that I would to play some more of but I run into the same dilemma that I do with the druid. I get on them and realize that I have more to do with Akoris. I also immediately realize why I loved Akoris and why I played him all the way to 70. I really loved Paladins and I loved him so much that I played him constantly all the way to 67.  

Use what now?

I wish I played the drums. The drum set I use for Rock Band is used constantly and I am really getting good at it. But real drums are loud, noisy and you can't pack them away under your bed. Games today seem to like to add elements to add realism to our games. We first concentrated on graphics, then sound and now we are moving to the next sense of touch. The consumer doesn't know it, but they want to be a Guitar Hero, so Harmonix makes a game where you can play a plastic guitar and be good with no calluses and, if desired, no sound. This really isn't all that new except everyone with an PlayStation can buy it. Arcades have had race car, ski-do, snow mobile and pod racer simulations for a long while now. But now, we can set up our band in the living room. Then Harmonix broke new ground and made plastic, fake drums, which included real replicas of drum sticks.

Nintendo had tapped into this market now. Wii is an entire console based around touch and motion realism. Bowling, baseball, tennis and golf are games included with it and of course have the corresponding motions to go along with it. Then Wii fit game out, complete with a yoga mat and all. Let's run over the fake plastic stuff we have now: PS2 guitars, XBox 360 guitars, drums and microphone, and Wii mat, gun, racket and bat. And I don't really have a huge closet or anything.

That's all good because at least we can use them in future games, right? Apparently not. Guitar Hero 4, who is jumping the fake band boat, has announced it will have drums and microphone included. Of course, the Rock band drums won't work because the GH4 drums have a totally different layout. Rock Band 2 is also designing a new layout for it's drums, rendering it previous version a useless piece of earth polluting garbage. It is comforting that Harmonix recognizes this and it offering all Rock Band 1 songs as free downloadable content so that you can really throw away or long term store your fake drum set. Wouldn't both companies sell more game copies if they standardized the designs?

This trend might be a good thing. It does really make us feel like we are playing the drums and can help us feel as though we are playing tennis or at yoga class. But, as it is, because of multiple companies in the market competing, everyone will make their peripherals game unique and only for one generation will they be usable. If Company A stays with one design, Company B will innovate and they will get more sales revenue and the publishing company of Company A will yank the cord from Company A and those nice game designers will be out of a job. If my complaint is that all this junk takes too much space, Wii is really catering to me, for the controller and the num-chuck really have multiple uses. I think that this whole peripheral war was instigated by the government in an effort to get video game nerds out of apartment and into houses with bigger closets and garages. That might stimulate this housing market.

Depth of Interest

I know what it means to play a game for a long time. I currently have at least 634 hours of Wold o Warcraft. That's a lot of game time. On my character Akoris, my level 70 Paladin has about 20 Days of playing time. That is 480 hours of playing. It really says something about the game when it can hold interest for that long. But why do games strive to hold our interest for such a long time? For a game like WoW, there is a monetary incentive for it: the longer people play, the more subscription fees they collect. Yet that isn't the case with a game like Oblivion, which an entirely offline, single player game. There were times when Donkey Kong, a 2D platformer, was the pinnacle of gaming, being fun and easy to pick up.

Why do we strive for depth in our games? It isn't about just shooting people over and over and over. People enjoy novelty in games, which is why Geometry Wars can be fun. It is certainly different to fly around shooting shapes. Yet, that doesn't remain fun. The game eventually introduces different modes in the game, different guns and more shapes and more enemies. Yet that game looses it fun after a while because it is always the same. That is where WoW gets its fun. There is always more. More areas, more spells, more levels, more dungeons, more fights, more gear and more quests. Is this truly fun,. or is all this new stuff just renewed novelty? Is depth just renewed novelty? Just an effort to give us new stuff all the time? Maybe depth is just an excuse to not come up with something fun, just give us so much that we think what we do is fun. We are constantly impressed by all the new stuff that we are getting that we fail to realize that what we did wasn't fun. 

Depth might be good for players who really want to play and for people who are veterans to the game, but does it stop some players from playing? WoW is about to release the new expansion pack Wrath of the Lich King which raises the level cap to 80. 80! That is quite a milestone. For players at the current level cap of 70, that is only 10 more levels. But to a newbie, that is 80 levels. Blizzard did cut the experience required to get from 20-60, a process that seemed to have been largely ignored by the game's designers which is evident is the amount of ingenuity put in. But that is still a long ways to go and a lot of things to do. Is the amount of depth in a game like WoW a good thing or would it scare off new players? Team Fortress 2 is running into this problem. It gave players unlockables which rewarded players for laying well. But, all these new weapons and perks give them an unfair advantage over their lesser experienced counterparts. Could these barriers to entry be a reason that a game like Counterstrike:Source is so successful? It is still being played in record numbers today, with thousands of servers still up and tournaments being held around the globe. The money system in that game allows players to buy better guns, but that resets after every game. Pros and novices start out with the exact same amount of money in the beginning. Will Team Fortress 2 still be as popular 4 years from now? Or will these new unlockables keep piling up so much that new people will not want to start playing and experienced players will stop playing because things stop being new.

just awesome

Murder Suspect Too Busy Playing Guitar Hero To Notice Impending Arrest

My LAN party

I went to another AG LAN Saturday. Pretty good LAN. I played a remarkable amount of World of Warcraft for a LAN party. I played a lot of Team Fortress 2 as well. I punched out a lot more BonK members as a Heavy than I should have, namely 3. Sorry, I'm sorta blogged out for now. Read my post below to know why.

Playlist:

1. World of Warcraft
2. Team Fortress 2
   

The Good Story

I like science and programming. That is the reason I applied to college under that particular major. However, one part about me wants to be a writer. Now, I'm not talking about Stephen King or John Gresham or JK Rowling or Fyodar Dostoevsky. I'm was thinking more along the lines of a magazine writer for PC Gamer or EGM. The reason I didn't want to try and go to college for that specific career in mind is because I know how hard it would be to get that job. People stay at magazines for a while and they don't hire a lot of people. So, therefore being a software engineer would be a much more lucrative choise, as computer development is listed as on the most rapidily growing fields of work.

Working at a video game or computer related magazine would be an amazing chance because it would combine some of my favorite passions: video games and writing. I do like to write, but really only opinion pieces, ones that I have a chance to be funny or witty or what have you. I do fancy myself a person who is relativly persecptive and is funny so putting my speech into writing would not be that hard to do, especially on things I know a lot about. This is one of the reasons I started this blog. It is a place where I can write about video games and a place to practice writing. I don't really write anything of real importance here, mostly about what I have been playing and what is cool about it and what have you. I have heard that blogging promotes blogging and the more you do it, the more you want to. I also posed the question, is blogging about one or two sentences or is it about fully fleshed out ideas that read like Magazine articles.

Now, getting to my point. If blogs are about realized and interpreted ideas, what does one write about? I could come and complain that the reason I don't do the former is because there is nothing to write about. But that is clearly not true for the folks over at PC Gamer do it every month. So, maybe the key to being a good writer is finding those things to talk about. That stories and articles are the ones that no one has really thought about. If everyone has already realized why things are the way they are, we would be stuck thinking "That sky is blue". Instead, the truly writers are the ones out there pushing the bounds of human thought, thinking that the true meaning of exsistence is to be nice to each other and make humanity have a nice day. So, if I really want to be a writer I should find things to write about that are things that no one else has though about. I also suppose that sort of thinking is what makes is possible to get 5s on the English AP test.

hehehe

Al Gore Places Infant Son In Rocket To Escape Dying Planet

Playlist: Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, Rock Band

Best action RPG?

Fable or Oblivion?

Did I forget something? I know people are going to ask about Baulder's gate. Not in the same class, IMO.

Playlist: Mlb 2K8, Wii Sports, Wii Fit (!!!), Viva Pinata
(You'll notice that ever since I beat Oblivion, I've been more of a "casual gamer". That's Oblivion for you. That's about as hardcore as it gets in the world of one player RPGs.)

A shameful victory

I just defeated Beautiful Katamari. In related news, a sixth grader stole my lunch money today.

Playlist: I'm not saying, but it rhymes with heutiful satasari.

The server is down!

Watch this. It's long, but it's worth it. That's what she said.



Playlist: Street Fighter II, COD4, Oblivion (stupid DLC!), Wii Sports (still)

My Favorite Game(s)

What defines a favorite game? These days so many games are so different that comparing a game like Oblivion to a game like Team Fortress 2 seems unfair. So I'm going to give two favorites: favorite Single player and Best Multi Player.

Favorite Single Player:
This is a tough one. I would have to give this one to Bioshock. I beat the whole thing only one time and in basically one sitting. It was such an experience that was haunting and enlightening.
Runner-Up: Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 1

Favorite Multi-Player:
Another toughy, but it's easier than single player. I'm actually going to differ from what I though earlier today and say World of Warcraft. That game has sucked me in and kept me there for the longest amount of time and offers such an in-depth system of player interaction that I have to give it to it.
Runner-Up: Team Fortress 2

Playlist:

1. World of Warcraft
2. Rock Band
   

So I don't forget

http://wow.curse.com/c/daily-quest-guide/
amazing for dailies. all of them. Is a blog suppose to be a blurb, meaning 2 or 3 sentences, or a magazine article?
Playlist:

1. WoW
2. Rock Band
3. Team Fortress 2
   

No Comment

Playlist: Oblivion, um...

14 days 18 hours 47 minutes 20 seconds

14 days 18 hours 47 minutes 20 seconds. Has it really been that long? I don't regret a single minute of any of it. Many movies were watched and many podcasts listened to. It was enough time to watch Groundhog Day 200.06 times. And I watched it at least 20 times. It is truly an amazing movie. When ever I think back to my time of leveling, I will probably think of Un'Goro Crater whilst watching groundhog day. Even in my entire travels, I think that The Hinterlands is my favorite zone, followed closely by Westfall. I think Westfall only because it's got a sweet name and for nostalgia reasons. I think I watched almost every movie in my collection during my odyssey.

In case you missed it, that is my time it has taken to get me to 70 in World of Warcraft. I had doubts along the way. "Will I ever get an end-game character is any game?". My guy is level 52 out of 55 in Call of Duty 4. This was my first character to an End-game and now the game seems much bigger. When ever I'm in Azeroth, I'm sad. It's these zones that no one ever goes in, but which were once populated to the brim. Outland will soon be that way when everyone packs up and moves to Northrend. Azshara is a piece of shit zone, but it makes me sad I never see anyone there.

Well moving away from sadness and loss. Now that I have hit 70, there are a plethora of things to do. Right now, my main goal is to reach 375 fishing skill, so I can do dailies and make a fortune in conjunction with my cooking skill. I'm also doing some Battle Grounds, trying to grind for my Arena Season 2 gear, with is only honor points now. All of this before we go raiding. All of that is to help me make enough money to get my Epic Flying Mount. There is so much to do. It's almost overwhelming. I'm glad I have music I like enough to listen to for this whole time.

Playlist:

1. WoW
2. Rock Band
3. Team Fortress 2
   

I can post here now, and I'm going to do so

Everyone has a friend (or perhaps, as in my case, IS the friend) who plays the GTA games for hours, loves them, but only completes two missions the entire time the game is out and relevant. Yep, you're talking to that guy right now. I've owned every GTA game that's been released for the xbox, yet I've never gotten remotely close to finishing any of the games. Not close.

Here's why: Killing random people is the BEST part of GTA. Picking up girls and taking them places and watching the cutscenes with the blatant racism, blah, blah, blah...who cares! Kill people! Blow up cars! I try - I really do - I try to complete the missions, but I just don't care enough. It's just so hard to take freakin' Michelle bowling yet another time. It's hard to care about some stupid get-away van when you can find many perfectly not exploded vans everywhere in the game.

That's where the cheat codes come in handy. I assume a certain level of gamer readership on this site, thus, I will not deign to actually putting the codes on here. You know where to find them if you haven't already used them. As I expanded upon in my blog (shamless plug), dropping boats out of the sky onto cars over and over again is an inexplicable joy. Also you can get lots of weapons. And boats. The best part about dropping boats on people is that when they die, from the boat that just dropped on their head, no one knows that you did anything. The cops don't bug you. They just do their thing, and you can take all the money. It's a sweet deal.

Going over to my other recent obsession, Oblivion has destroyed me. I've played for close to 120 hours so far on this character, yet I cannot bring myself to do the last couple of things I need to do to complete the main quest. "Think of the gamer points!" I think to myself, yet a strong, more deeply-rooted voice tells me "Think of the side-quests!" Yes, I know you can do the side-quests after the main story has ended, but I want to be a beast when I defeat the game.

Playlist: Oblivion, Wii Sports, COD4, GTAIV

Ha

So I started playing WoW again. I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or not. I started a Horde Mage on the server Velen, not that anyone really cares or anything. I don't know why I even play. There is no real fun factor in it. There is that momentary feeling of achievement when you level up, but then the feeling of helplessness sets in and you remember that there are many many levels left to 70. Are we playing for a delayed reward of being a level 70? Since when did we play Video Games for reward later? If we want delayed rewards, we do well in school or read. And Video Games is neither of those. In Team Fortress 2, you kill someone and you feel good. You succesfully beat someone else. In WoW, you can beat someone but how much of that is you being good and not just how much time you put in it for gear and how lucky you got in the ambush of them? But, Team Fortress 2, my rocket, even though it has 45 hours of experience behind it, it does as much damage as Logan's who has 0 hours play time. WoW, you grinded that sword or boots and so forth. I suppose that is what makes MMOs different than FPSs, eh?

Playlist:

1. Team Fortress 2
2. WoW
3. Sins of a Solar Empire

PS, Radon, if you want to write here, just ask.

Episode 2

In this episode we discuss the podcast names, Trials 2 Second Edition, COD 4, piracy and facebook stuff. Breifly of course.
Episode 2
Playlist:

Podcast?

Lol so Here is a test that I am putting up. It's a podcast about. nothing.
Episode Uno

1. 
   

Team Fortress MORE?!?!!?

ohmgee, I play a lot of Team Fortress 2. More and more, I've been experimenting with other classes and it has been pretty fun. I am trying out spy more and more and its been pretty fun for the most part. If I ever get more than 2 kills in thirty seconds, I literally laugh out loud becuase it is always some retarded people being retarded. One of the things that makes this game so amazing is that playing as a spy is almost completly different game from when you play as soldier. Same as when you play as Engineer. That is why this game has longevity and attraction. If you get bored with a certain class, you can switch to scout and play as some fast boston baseball fan.  

Also, I started playing Sins of a Solar Empire again. That game is sooo different if you play without just spamming units.


Playlist:

1. Team Fortress 2
   
2. Sins of a Solar Empire
3. Grand Theft Auto 4

Presentation

I gave a sweet presentation today on Team Fortress 2. I didn't explain it a lot because I didn't want to lose the class's attention. Radon marked me down for it. But anyway, I keep playing TF2 it continues to be fun. I'm not sure if it will keep being as fun. Im pretty sure that solider is my good class.

Playlist:

1. Team Fortress 2
2. Grand Theft Auto 4

Drinking for the Well of TF2

How did I even get title? I guess it just came to me. Anyway, to address the prompt. I started playing Team Fortress 2 again and again, wow. That's all I can really say. That game is just so good. I mean you can just play for hours and hours and hours. Every map has a much different feel to it that changing maps is almost like changing games. It's a true testament to the design of Valve. Every class plays so differently and yet so well. And every class works with every map.

Anyway, to the point of this whole blog. I read an article by Super Intern Norman Chan that I really agreed with. He puts forward that one thing that makes TF2 and UT3 and even Halo 3 so attractive is the lack of difference between the best players and the epic N00bZ. Norman Chan's rocket from the soldier does as much damage as someone who has started 5 minutes. The only advantage he has is that he knows where to shoot them. This is in contrast to a game like Call of Duty 4 or Battlefield 2, where the more experienced players are rewarded with better guns. This might encourage play to get those guns, but after you obtain them, where do you go? The game stops being fun. In Team Fortress's case, you have played for 100+ hours because you love the game. With the new achievements and unlockables coming out, I'm not sure that initial fun will stay.

First, it will the night of 1000 medics. Everyone's going to want to get their Uber-saw and we won't have anyone to heal or Uber. Second, we reward the talented medics by giving them better things to heal with? If anything, we should give the bad players an advantage, for they clearly need it more. This can be seen in true form in Super Smash Brother's Brawl. If someone is doing bad enough, they get a sympathy smash ball. This allows them to attempt to alleviate their losses. Third, after you get those achievements, will anyone want to continue to be medic?

My proposition is that you simply give the weapons to everyone. If people must work for them, it discourages new people from joining the game. If the weapons are initially unlockables, but then just given, there runs the risk of offending your loyal player base. The achievements are a fun enough meta-game to stand by them selves. No reward for achievements. When I was on my stint with my 360, I wanted to play to get the Achievement Points. I sat through Prey to get the 500+ points. Games stopped being fun, only something to be done to get those points. At one point, I had even asked myself, "Why would someone play any games on any other systems where there are no achievement points?". It wasn't a good thing, to say the least.
Playlist:

1. Team Fortress 2

And a year later

It's not all I have been doing, but I find it ironic that I'm still playing Oblivion. Granted, this time its for the best system out there, PC, but its still a two year old game. And it still holds up. With graphics ramped all the way up, I get 60 FPS and it looks gorgeous. Now, I'm gonna describe my character, because I'm lame. I'm a mage/theif. I have recently run into the problem of not being able to to get through any gates, for my unlock spell just goes right through them. And even with a large area spell, it doesn't unlock them. It's bullshit.

And Super Smash Bros Brawl is still a favorite. I have a feeling that it will be for many many years to come. My characters are (in order from best with to not): Pikachu, Toon Link, Captain Falcon, Kirby, Ice Climbers.

Playlist:

1. Oblivion
   
2. Super Smash Brothers Brawl
3. Guitar Hero

It makes me want to fight my freinds

Childhood conjures lots of pleasent memories: fresh cookies, Tag on the playground, naivity. But none of these are as current as Super Smash Brothers. You would sit down and have a good romp with your friends with your favorite nintendo and other cartoon characters. Then Melee came out, which was a fast departure from Original, adding lots more characters and a much faster pace. Now, Super Smash Brothers Brawl is upon us and it does not dissapoint. MY character is Picachu. He was joke that I played for one of the stages in story mode and I was good with him. Its ridiculous. Words can not describe the awesomeness of this game.

Playlist:

1. Super Smash Brothers Brawl
   
2. Geometry Wars

Geometry Wars

The need for my 360 has finally been quenched. I was able to procure Geometry Wars for the computer. This is also really gives validation to my purchase of the 360 controller receiver for my computer. I am using my controller more than ever. That game is basically an intense acid trip were you fly around and kill shapes. It's a trip.

I have also been playing a lot of Call of Duty 4 recently as well. I am currently level 48 and counting. I have all the guns to look foward to: the P90 and the M14. Well, I'm still waiting on the Barret .50 Cal Sniper rifle, but that's not as anticipated for. So now, I'm just going for M14 headshots. I am almost convinced that I like the red dot scope more than the ACOG. But, I'm going to play more and then we will see. I think it's because I can see more when I'm scoped with the red dot. I hated the iron sights for the M14. It drove me insane. When I hit level 55, I think I might just vagugly attempt to get all the achievments, you know, unlock all skins for all weapons and do all the challenges. But, not activly and not just for that. Otherwise, it would be boring. I have a couple hated maps: Bog, Overgrown and Downpour. I dislike Bloc and Wetwork, but there is not hatred there.
Playlist:

Nerdorgy

Whenever you talk or play about Sins of a Solar Empire, make there are no attractive, normal females around. Because, the quantity of the Nerdergy will be catastroophic. It is seriously that bad. But, if you can be nerdy, you can play this game. And what a game it is. Scalewise, everyhting is completly epic. I today just finished a five hour game that I have been playing for about 3 days. Yesterday, I stayed up untill midnight playing. I want to sleep now. I'll post later about it. To say something about it, its cool. Ships fly around and you blow up other ships. Economies are neccasary
but I feel that military teching does not produce a lot of benefit.
Playlist:

1. Sins of a Solar Empire (further to be referenced as SOASE)
   
2. WoW

How epic can one game be?

Sins of a Solar Empire is my latest addiction. Already it has sucked almost as much time as the entire single player campaign of COD4. It is too much fun and epic on a scale that it can only be compared with The Lord of the Rings and Jesus himself.
Playlist: Sins

The Real Modern Warfare

Is battling for time to really play Call of Duty 4. It's my recent addiction. Getting good is nice. I think that you really get into the game when you can have some influence on the game. Seeing your name at the top of the kill list is extremly satisfying. I'm level 39 (I think) and really feeling good about the game. I know that a silencer in theroy reduces your range, but if you are any good, you can easily extend your range by crouching and shooting in bursts. Speaking of not being good at games, Marc cheats. If he can't get the achievments then he makes a LAN game and kills mike. What the fuck. really. Hardcore is the best, for it is the most real feeling experience. It is a war when all you have is your sight and your gun in front of you. And, I turned the graphics up and it looks amazing and I am still getting 70 FPS.

In WoW I am level 66, putting in hours here and there. I recently starting playing Warcraft 3 again and I don't know why I never really got into it. It is a great game with a lot of different factions and with the RPG elements with the hero. And I really can't wait for Sins of a Solar Empire. It is Civ 4 in space. Huge planets that have distinct traits, and large intergalactic battles. I can not wait. It is like 45% done I hope.

Playlist:

1. COD 4
2. Warcraft 3
3. WoW

When a man loves a women

They defineatly do not play WoW. Thats probably why I am playing so much lately. I'm level 65 with my Paladin Akoris. I'm on the march to 70! I'm done with Zangermarsh. 
Finished! I already miss Terrokar Forest. I shouldn't though. Anyway, My dwarf hunter, my side
protoge is 15, just slowly creeping, I've reserved his play time for morning before school. A little, here, a little there, its's workin for me. I'm liking My boar that I tamed, with the charge and all. Witht he three people that read this, they are not hunters, so There are not any suggestions for any other good pets to tame. But, I'm looking towards some sort of DPS animal. I also set up a bank account. 200g bought me 11 neather weave bags and all teh slots in the bank. His name is Labanque and he is a half naked gnome warrior in Ironforge. 
I simply send all my want to be autcioned stuff to him, and he runs and does it. Saves time for having to go to major cities. Just saying. My goal is to be 70 and decently geared to go on the 
Tram (cross my fingers) to northrend. Dual screen really promotes Thottbot and Wowwiki searches.

I've been playing Call of Duty 4 multiplayer a bit too. I'm really liking the level ups, but it is not as big of a goal for as level 70 is. But, Just some time into it, makes the difference. I like the MP5 but nothing is as overpowered as the M4 Carbine.

Big TF2 news, however, huge new DL content coming out. Hopefully it comes out after I hit 70, because then I will be able to experience it with 
everyone else. But, the link the the new updates are here Here. I think that they might be taking cues from COD4, with the unlockable weapons. Also, i'm playing Track mania every so often and I'm sorta getting excited about Sins of the Solar Empire. Looks, interesting.

Playlist:

1. WoW
   
2. COD4
3. Team Fortres 2
4. TrackMania Nations

Dual Moniter Support

I set up Dual monitors for my computer. It's so sick. I play WoW in Windowed mode, maximized,
so I can instantly go to thottbot and WoWpro.

O, and I added Daniel and Marc to be authors to this blog, so it will be pretty more full, but probably not.
Playlist:

1. WoW
   

WoW: Blizzard Finally Showing a Firm Hand?

So I've been playing World of Warcraft for awhile now. Blizzard has always been a touch-and-go type of administration. They don't ever really seem to show any resolve or whatever. However, I was shocked to discover that Blizzard is going to implement an additional system to reporting afk players-deductions. Once a player is confirmed afk, if he or she does not show they are participating in the game, they will lose anything from honor removal, loss of marks of honor, or even destruction of currently held honor items/ compiled honor. Blizzard states that it is
wrong to have people take advantage of other players, and that hundreds of thousands of accounts or being monitored. In addition to the above, Blizzard will issue a one time Ultimatum warning: Once a player is reported afk multiple times, or finds a way to exploit this new system, tht player will be suspened for a period of one week, or banned from the game. Yikes, Blizzard's ugly side...

WoW

I'm playing WoW alot. I started a Horde on server kaegclos. It's a hunter. I have to say, I am really enjoying the pet thing again. I liked the lock who has a pet, but I got bored of it. In retro spect, I
probably get bored of this too. But anyways. I am playing that and Call of Duty 4. It's really addicting, the whole level and ranking up system. I enjoy just having to get that next level. I also like unlocking some new guns and new addons. Track mania also is taking up some time, just playing and stuff.

Playlist:

1. Wow
   
2. Call of Duty 4

What I like in Video Games

The major thing I am liking in video games right now is innovation and fun design. It really doesn't matter to me how great the game looks, as long as it is fun to play and keeps me interested. For instance, I really disliked Crysis, no matter how amazing it looked, it was a bad game. At the same time, Super Mario Galaxy was amazing because of the fun way it is played. Thats just my two cents on the way video games should be made.

Playlist:
1. TF2
2. WoW
3. Mario Kart 64
4. Guitar Hero 3