Random Gameplay Thoughts

Urban Dead - "Please do not spit in my hospital... Thank you."

2010-06-07T17:14:00.006-04:00

It's been a while since I've done a post here, so I thought I'd regale you with a tale of my survivor from Urbandead.com. If you're into text-based browser games, then this is probably one for you.

Excerpt from Shoujin's Journal

Monday, July 17th - GST unknown

It's hard to find paper or a blank book without someone having pulled out the pages for paper. Thank god I found this book in decent condition.

It's been a few weeks since I woke up in my hospital. Apparently, I've got amnesia as to how I got there. I remember I was a doctor, I remember my training but everything else is a blurry mess. I guess having to deal with all the bodies, both dead, alive and in between has had me stressed out for most of my life.

One thing I will say about becoming one of them... it's a very... cold... cold existence. Thanks to the idiots of Necrotech, I remember everything... I saw what I did. I remember everything!

. People around here just tell me "Ignore it... You're alive, and you're a doctor. So do your job." I've been doing it, but apparently I've taken the precaution of carrying guns around... a lot of them... Pistols, a shotgun and now a crowbar... I find I'm kind of tired of running around, smashing my hands against the barricades just to get in. If anything, the only blood that I've drawn is from myself.

That kind of changed when I found a zombie lurking around in front of a building. How I found it is a little fuzzy, but I think that poor mutated bastard has more of a headache then I do now. After a few swings and dodges, I finally smashed the beer bottle I had been drinking out of across its head. And just today, I tried to empty all of my pistols into another zombie, only to wind up punching it across the face. Both of them looked a little stunned and that's when I made my escape.

I've been hanging around with some other survivors, but as far as I'm concerned, I need to keep on the move. Last night, the Maine Building itself went dark as a few of the people that I'm with were watching. We heard some groans and then nothing. We didn't bother checking - either they ran out of fuel and are safe, or they've all been taken.

Better safe then dead, as far as I'm concerned, but I've got a long road ahead of me. I found a hospital, but it's barricaded so much that I can't even get in before some zombies would come for me. I've seen people running around, jumping over buildings to get inside. Some of them scare the shit out of us at times. Running out of paper now, so I'll say this - I'm trying to learn and I'm learning as best I can, but these damn... people... zombies... whatever they are anymore... They're making it hard.

Lurch yourself to UrbanDead.com if you haven't and make yourself an account. Live or be undead; start as a corpse or one of three different survivor classes, each with three different occupations.

Netrek

2010-05-25T19:11:00.002-04:00

Ah the glory of space warfare. I've been playing Netrek recently because of my disappointment with star trek online. This game has got was most online games lack. GAMEPLAY! As simplistic as the graphics are the game itself handles like it should, you can chose from a multitude of ships, beam up, beam down, bomb and anything else a captain might need to do. The controls though are for those willing to tolerate a complicated game. For someone like me it was a matter of minutes before I had all the controls figured out. It's free and it's for trekkies/trekkers like myself. Consider it a form of arcade stratagy multiplayer action as if it was a game boy version of starfleet command.

2010-05-04T16:24:00.003-04:00

YSflight - Arwing problem.

Modding can be fun.

As i depart to head out I must take a moment to talk about the arwing. Recently I added it to my YSflight compilation of aircraft and with a few tweaks i had it pretty close to what I think the real thing would be like. This thing can accelerate and decelerate at without any trouble and generally makes the realistic aircraft the game comes with look like 3rd world country biplanes.

Well i couldn't let my whole game become unbalanced so i fitted 747's with a multitude of gun turrets and armor to simulate battleships... or something. Then I unleashed my iron armada against them. As it turns out the arwing is perfectly suited to deal with the task. So.... I threw in some VF-01's and let them take care of it. with a little patience this game is whatever i can make of it. Anyone who ever wanted to run a flight sim server should know that you can make server specific mods to create any air combat experience you want.

Spymaster - Social Shock?

2010-05-02T22:25:00.003-04:00

Well, for those of you on Twitter & Facebook that play Spymaster, and those of you that don't, it seems the creators of Spymaster, Irata Labs, have put the game on hiatus. Access to the game has been closed pending its second day of inactivity.

Could this be a bad thing? Or is Irata Labs doing some much needed maintenance on the neglected game? Apparently, the news is not quite so clear - News Corp. Buys Irata Labs

From the looks of things, those spymasters could wind up with a better game, or some serious spam. Including myself.

Oh boy...

- Shoujin

Whoops - I pressed the big red button.

2010-05-02T22:01:00.002-04:00

First of all, I'd like to ask the people that have subscribed to us... Why haven't you deleted us yet? And secondly, thank them for not deleting us.

There's some things I haven't done recently between disappearing and reappearing. First of all, props and major kudos to Aika, blogger extraordinaire from Kawaii Time and Beautyscape for her work on changing our generic layout to something more gaming oriented.

And I'm disappointed, yet not surprised, at the amount of conversation surrounding the last post. I would've thought more conversation would've been stirred, but high hopes and all that. Eh... Que sera.

Some good news for those of you still with us, there'll be a new member coming to this blog. He's been a gamer on the lower end of the gaming spectrum, but often time, the best stories are ones shaped by players themselve. So said the brilliant Will Wright, creator of Maxis himself during at presentation at the GDC when revealing Spore, but I digress now.

Back to the topic at hand, our new add-on is dubbed Backfire. Insightful, if not a little crazy, he's one of the guys that enjoys freeware, classic and pen & paper games. Plus, if it's Star Trek, you'll bet he's had his hand in the jar. So what's so good about him? Well, he's one of the guys that got me into the Black & White series by literally giving me the game years ago. Now that's friendship amongst gamers right there.

Welcome aboard, Backfire.

Game Talk - Defining the undefined: Hardcore and casual

2010-02-04T18:51:00.003-05:00

In anticipation of setting up for my review site, I'd hoped to set up two different fields of ratings for differing gamers, when a sudden realization dawned on me - what exactly defines a "hardcore" gamer from a "casual" gamer? Who sets the precedent for a "hardcore" and "casual" gamer?

The answer would no doubt be simple if it came down to the number of hours spent on gaming, but unfortunately, a wrench gets tossed into the gears as other people choose to define it as the quality of the player, not the quantity of time the player spends.

Having looked at a few opinion sources, the obvious answer is not as clear cut:

From the Escapist forums, home of the renowned gaming critic Yahtzee, this thread presents the arguments of a hardcore gamer being a self-appointed title to being a person willing to go the extra mile in order to enjoy their game should anything go wrong.

Gaygamer.net's Dawdle posted this opinion in their article from 2007:

For me, the term hardcore gamer is too often used as an excuse for antisocial behavior ("You wouldn't understand because you're not hardcore enough!") or poor design ("This game isn't too hard or annoying, it's just made for hardcore gamers!"), but there's definitely something that separates the vanilla player from the in-it-to-the-elbow diehard, and hell if I know how to put my finger on it.

From Dawdle's article, we're referred to Siliconera, where vysethebold wanted to know exactly what was the consensus of hardcore, yet no video was seen released (looked pretty thoroughly on the site).

With no frame of reference to go off of, the review site comes to a screeching halt - opinions being tossed around like a giant garden salad keep people from really getting the full picture of gaming. After all, while one gamer can pick up any game, another gamer can only pick up certain games if interested.

So, here's a question? What's your take on the definition of hardcore and casual gamers, and why? With a little ingenuity, the question could be cracked, once and for all.

Downloadable - Unofficial Half Life 1 Series Icons

2010-01-31T01:04:00.004-05:00

If you love the Half Life 1 series, yet despise those ugly icons on your desktop, I did a remake of the Blue Shift official icon to make the following set for your own personal use:

Each icon contains 48, 32, 24 and 16 square pixel dimensions and come in 32 bit and 256 color flavors. Enjoy!

Download the pack here.

Biting the Bullet - MMORPGs

2010-01-30T10:49:00.010-05:00

Well, as much as I hate to admit it, I've bitten the bullet and gone back to playing an MMORPG. I don't consider it a personal shame to go back to a game that I've enjoyed, but I really am eating my own words when it came down to saying that I'd avoid making micro-transactions to get an edge up in the game.

Fortunately, the shame passes easily enough.

So what's this mysterious game I've invested a portion of my money into? If you've heard of the name "Nexon", thoughts of terror will be screaming through your mind at the side-scrolling hell of Maple Story. You can breath easy as I'm not playing that game.

If you do know about Mabinogi, then you know that the game already takes into account that a second player or a pet is more useful then fighting alone. While it is possible (yet not recommended) to fight solo, you'll be hard-pressed to finish on your own without some aid from a guild, a group of friends or a pet.

Which is where I bought into it. But I'm not ashamed given the fact that pets are more useful as inventory space, a new character to play (yes, you can play as the animal), and an extra fighting partner in those difficult dungeons. In all, I spent 20$ dollars for two pets, which is one additional team member (only one summon at a time) that I can control in contrast to paying 20$ just to even play the game. Tack on another 10$ to customize my character AND rebirth him back to level 1, allowing great barriers to be breached in less time, and the game value has soared phenomenally.

I admitted when I started playing the game, and I still admit it: Mabinogi is a wonderful model of F2P games. It also helps considering that in this game, levels matter less then ability points.

Also - built-in video recorder is pretty nice and very optimized:

Team Fortress 2 - "I am credit to team!"

2010-01-30T10:28:00.003-05:00

Remember this little prediction I made?

Not a big surprise that it didn't come out. But... told ya.

I think the next update is going to be the worst one yet, because we're all anticipating the update of the last class - The Engineer. Valve is going to have to pull out a gold encrusted rabbit out of it's hat this time, otherwise, a good chunk of people are going to be sh***ing bricks over another ugly class update.

The Engineer is the third most played class after the Soldier and the Demoman to date. When is Valve going to learn the concept of not eating it's own words when it talks about "balance"?

Speaking of "balance", the statistics for the following maps seem to be favouring red... a lot:
cp_egypt_final
pl_goldrush
pl_hoodoo_final

Might be worth a look at the map layouts if you haven't looked:

TF2 Stats (again)

Team Fortress 2 - Aftermath of WAR!

2009-12-30T23:28:00.004-05:00

I think Valve is going backwards.

It started at Left 4 Dead 2... Melee Weapons and new infected are cool, but honestly, a ragdoll could do a better job than Rochelle, who seems to be just another girl placed in for that "politically correct" feeling. In fact, the whole team could be replaced by ragdolls. Left 4 Dead's survivors had bright, vibrant personalities that seemed to shine and contrast each other, where as the other four, or rather, the other three (Coach, Rochelle and Nick), all seem to contrast hard against the loveable Ellis. While Nick's character maybe necessary, being a reclusive man that doesn't associate well with other people, Coach and Rochelle's personalities seem... bland. Like, blander than bland. But, I digress...

Now, this whole "WAR!" business in Team Fortress 2. Never have I seen such blasphemy when stating that the unlockables are "balancing" instruments. In fact, the two "tournament" classes that often time you will see in every game have become, in fact, the most played classes to date.

http://www.steampowered.com/status/tf2/tf2_stats.php

This, of course, will vary with class updates, but the stats say all. I just wish there was an archive for the most played classes as each update was released.

Worst of all, top it off with this comment:

It all comes down to this. I'd give you a motivational speech right now, but the time you wasted reading it would be less time you spent making a difference on the battlefield. Go ahead and break the bad news to your grandfather: YOU are officially now the greatest generation.

Virtual battlefields don't compare to the real ones, that much is obvious, so don't even try. Honestly, I don't think jokes of that nature are respectful of any veteran of any REAL war. Some might take it with a light heart, but seriously... My opinion... Not good.

Valve... How could dis happen?!

Left 4 Dead 2 - Demo Mod?

2009-11-06T23:14:00.002-05:00

Infected mod for Left 4 Dead 2 demo. For those of you wanting to kick ass as a zombie instead of just playing the game as a survivor.

Worth a try, even if you don't intend to buy - Play as Infected with the Left 4 Dead 2 Demo

Farmville - Secrets? I didn't know there were!

2009-11-06T21:13:00.002-05:00

"For $47, no, better yet, $27, you can find out how people make FarmCash with little to no effort!"

If that doesn't sound like a pipe dream to you, then you really need your head examined or you need to keep an open mind. Cause when it comes down to it, most of the "secrets" to a game are going to end up in your grasp once you get the hang of it.

Welcome to the world of social hacking. Let's say for example that you're promised 1000 FarmCash. Sounds crazy, right? Well, all it takes is the right imagery, a few blogs linked together and some patience for the right sap to come along and buy into it. Where do you think that $27 is going?

Yup... It's the FarmCash that they're claiming they got through "secret" methods. Unethical methods, more like.

Blogs have a nasty habit of being a tool for scammers lately, so, watch what people promise you online.

I wonder if I could sell that as a guide for $5... Hmmm.

Source: farmvillesecretsguide.blogspot.com

Left 4 Dead 2 Demo Review

2009-11-06T18:35:00.002-05:00

Back when I heard that Valve was releasing Left 4 Dead 2 just one year after they launched Left 4 Dead, I was annoyed at the idea and generally at first, I didn't give much of a damn. Frankly, after playing the demo itself, I still don't see it.

Pluses:
- Daytime environments - But anyone can program that in for Left 4 Dead 1.
- More interesting crescendo events - Same idea as daytime environments.
- Armored infected - Interesting, but annoying when you need to bash them over the head repeatedly in order to make them turn around.
- Spitter Special Infected - Acidic Boomer/Smoker combination that is butt ugly and a challenge to avoid running up to and killing. The mess goes everywhere and keeping your distance becomes a problem.

Negatives:
- Mobs aren't that "suffocating" - The common infected have a tendency more to spread out, making it easy to pick them off with a machete or melee weapon.
- Melee weapons - One hit wonder weapons making it anyone that can wield a machete effectively a godsend player, and thus, an empowering and overpowering weapon.
- Charger Special Infected - Out of nowhere, you get slammed by a Charger. You could be all the way behind, all the way forward, or with your group and it's not going to matter. The Charger will get you, grab you and slam you into a wall before pummeling you into the ground. A one hit wonder that's annoyingly difficult to avoid.
- Jockey Special Infected - As with the Charger, the Jockey is another of those exceedingly difficult to avoid infected. What's worse is that you could be staring at the Jockey one moment, and the next, it's on your back, controlling you, leaving you disoriented once your teammates get the damn thing off your back. While the Hunter Pounce is easily polished and recognized, the Jockey "mounting" isn't quite ready yet.
- Over-zealously released? - Usually with FPS games, the community is given time to get accustomed to the game and the company allows the game to "age" before they start working on a new sequel. The community would have a chance to release an assortment of maps that are played and finalized before the eventual sequel is released. Not the case for Left 4 Dead. While there is a small listing of new maps in places like L4Dmods.com, most are roughly made, in beta or edits of the original campaigns. Left 4 Dead 2 will draw away attention from these maps and the community will migrate to Left 4 Dead 2, leaving some map-makers undoubtedly thinking of what the hell they put all that effort into just to wind up with a new version of the same game out.

People could probably argue I'm just biased against the game. Might be true, but then again, why did Valve release another zombie game so readily? Well, it might have something to do with the other company that's involved with Left 4 Dead 2. That's right, folks... The Big Evil Assimilator - Electronic Arts. Next time you think about Valve, wonder how much longer before all your favourite titles start to become shallow and repetitive. Valve doesn't have that problem yet, but it might soon enough.

Team Fortress 2 - N-n-nice doggie!

2009-09-23T09:43:00.004-04:00

Obviously, Valve has taken a heavy interest in some community released "updates".

The Guard Dog Update!

If such a thing were to be released, it could definitely tip the scales of any game by introducing a serious multiple role class, making it the ultimate utility class for competitive gameplay, and offer a balance of support for teams failing to defend and provide an offensive edge in attack maps.

Which is probably why such a release will never see the light of day.

I give it 10:1 odds of it ever making it into the next update, given the fact that most Valve's staff is busy with L4D2.

Team Fortress 2 - "Yes... I like dis new weapon..."

2009-09-03T14:57:00.006-04:00

And so the new hat is, quite really, a new hat!

Players now get to show off their incorruptibility with this glowing, wonderful halo while the apparent 4.5% percent of external cheat program users get to wallow in shame.

This is the only hat (so far) that can be used on all classes.

Unfortunately, Valve needs to fix the halo, as spies can be seen running around with the halo on.

Top it off with an increased hat drop rate? Valve, we salute you!

Team Fortress 2 - "Danke Comrade!"

2009-09-03T12:26:00.003-04:00

So Valve has adopted a zero tolerance policy for cheaters when it comes to Team Fortress 2. At least for external applications. What else is new?

Still, I like the idea getting a hat for my moral fiber instead of getting jack squat. I just don't want to end up with a crappy football helmet. Give me a Spy Fedora! Give me an Engineer's helmet! Gimme something good!

Ah, I'll probably end up with a pyro beanie...

Evil Genius - You have to be cruel to be... cruel.

2009-08-31T20:36:00.003-04:00

What do you get when you take a James Bond film and cross it with Dungeon Keeper and Risk?

Evil Genius.

This game is just wacky. Traps, panicking tourists, wacky radio announcers and a whole lot of minions and gadgets at your disposal. Not for the impatient or the speedrunners.

This game needs room to breath, and room for the player to breath. The first three objectives get the player established with their base, and by then, you'll STILL be remodeling your base.

The game itself its comical yet dark, allowing you take prisoners, shoot them in their cells or subject them to a variety of maps or torture devices. No blood for those wondering.

Manage your base as you would for defensive purposes, then send your minions out to a Risk-like board to commit Acts of Infamy. Steal stuff, plot Acts of Infamy, kidnap skilled workers and just cause the world a whole lot of problems.

The only downfall? This isn't a game for those willing to finish it in one sitting. It will take you time and patience to build up to the best base possible and keep those political stormtroopers from breaking down your doors and killing your minions.

Definitely worth the ten bucks I spent... only I missed the sale by a few hours.

That's a royal pain in the ass.

Tech Talk - Social Games & Money

2009-08-25T15:22:00.002-04:00

I'll be honest.

I'm poor, like, really poor. So, you can appreciate the irony when I look at these amazing ways to make games available via the internet, syndicate them out into the world and even embed ads into them.

If you've played several flash games from Newgrounds or on Facebook, then you've no doubt seen the pre-loaders being distributed through MochiAds by MochiMedia. Developers are now earning profits for placing ads within their games, most being CPM.

Times are good for flash developers.

Review - Red Alert 3: Overhyped?

2009-08-21T12:31:00.008-04:00

So, I've recently had the pleasure to play the demo of Red Alert 3. Yes, I'm way behind the ball, but give me some credit. I had a feeling that it would be crap, and knowing EA's habits, I was right.

Not only is the acting terrible, the interface is so messed up that I feel like smacking my head into the keyboard. Now I have to open this, close this, switch to that, select this. I can't even double-click to get ALL the units on the map anymore. But, this is the demo, what do I know? Interface problems aside, Youtube has been a rather enlightening tool for me with the Red Alert 3 saga. Honestly, a BLONDE Tanya? WTH?

Unfortunately, and here's the kicker, the expansion has peaked my interest for one single reason.

The Yuriko Campaign.

Screw Buffy the Vampire Slayer, this girl is hell on wheels.

Pretty bad when one of the Command & Conquer expansions are more interesting than the actual game. That's EA for you.

Left 4 Dead - "Francis, is there anything you DON'T hate?!"

2009-08-18T02:36:00.004-04:00

I don't hate games. Honestly, when I saw Left 4 Dead, I was psyched. What pisses me off?

Multi-player Entropy. The state where a game hits its peak of performance before the regular casual player will end up getting bored of the game because of the serious amount of douche-baggery.

Why are teenagers running servers? Why is the game getting stale with all the uber-friend teams running about in the game. Talk about ruining the foundation of a decent game.

So, like all games that have fallen past their peak of freshness for me, I've uninstalled it. I'll go back when I've space and time for it.

Hearsay - Electronic Arts to revive the dead?

2009-08-16T01:09:00.004-04:00

According to several sources, EA is looking to review and revive the long dead "Bullfrog" licenses its had tucked away in its belt for the longest of times. Whether or not this is hearsay or actual news requires some confirmation, as Kikizo.com released this news with some rather vague speculation.

For those not in the know, Bullfrog was responsible for releasing such titles as Populous, Syndicate, Theme Hospital and Theme Park, and the notoriously evil Dungeon Keeper series. Between balancing the checkbooks and micromanaging your staff, most Bullfrog games share the real time strategy genre, whether your administrator of a hospital or the evil overlord of a dark dungeon.

Until EA confirms this news, which is highly doubtful, we may never see another Dungeon Keeper or Theme game from them. Perhaps it's best that way.

Original articles from:
Kikizo.com
Bit-Tech.net

Real Life - "How could dis happen?!"

2009-08-12T08:41:00.003-04:00

Yup, it happened. I disappeared again from my blogging.

Not the first time and probably not the last, but it's not as if I'm generating anything of interest to people.

On a side-note, those of you familiar with one of EA's "devil deals", Bullfrog Entertainment, you remember a certain evil game... no, not Theme Hospital... no, not Syndicate either! If you're an avid Dungeon Keeper on Vista, you might want to have a look at my post on the Keeper Klan forum.

Apparently, Vista doesn't like DirectDrawEmulation. Go figure, but the shocker is that Microsoft actually FIXED the mess they made... now if I could only get Master of Orion 2 working.

Real Life - Civic Holiday

2009-08-04T23:23:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was a Civic Holiday and I haven't really found the time to bother posting anything.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow, when my new case fan and wireless card come in (hopefully). My NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT has been generating a lot of heat and I need to push it out or risk having a KFC GPU.

Which is why I'm getting the case fan. As for the wireless? My machine needs to be moved out of the way to make room in the living room. Glad we actually HAVE a wireless router, for once.

Pandemic II - End the world?

2009-08-01T20:54:00.002-04:00

I've seen a lot of games with a sadistic twist, but lately, I notice that there are plenty of developers turning their attention towards the end of the world, especially on Newgrounds. From pummeling the world into the ground to ending all life on the planet.

One such game, Pandemic II and its predecessors turn you into the biological equivalent of a mad scientist. Track the progress of either a virus, parasite, or strain of bacteria, mutate it and try and take over the world.

The game reacts by having the governments locking you out and trying to keep you from spreading into their country. This can be difficult if you're trying to spread to a single country (specifically Madgascar).

An interesting game to say the least.

Play it here.

SPORE - Junivius on the Rise

2009-07-31T17:10:00.002-04:00

Seems this blog is becoming more loaded with Youtube videos the more I get into producing these. Another video for the new race of mine, the Junivius. If you haven't played Spore, this should give you a little insight into the game.

Spore © Electronic Arts

Left 4 Dead - Hunter... Boomer... Smoker! TAAAANNNKK!!!

2009-07-30T19:41:00.003-04:00

Uploaded a new video, probably my first stable Source Recorder video ever.

Hope you all like it.

Left 4 Dead © Valve Corp.

Left 4 Dead - TAAAAANNNNK!!!

2009-07-29T22:09:00.005-04:00

Recently downloaded a metal theme sound pack for special infected encounters, made by Xenogenocide. If you just want a listen, here's the Youtube video.

As for downloading the pack itself? You can find it l4dmods.com.

Enjoy!

Left 4 Dead © Valve Corp.

General Rant - Vista = Progress?

2009-07-28T19:46:00.008-04:00

In general, I tend to avoid bitching about what I don't know about. But Vista is driving me up the wall. It looks pretty when first glance, but you start to live with it and you start to get sick of it. Sort of like a normal vista that you've seen over and over.

So why the rant? Compatibility issues. Having received a few old games from family, plus playing some really old games has been difficult. I have Dungeon Keeper, Police Chase, Kar Racing, Midnight Road Warriors, Master of Orion 2 and Crusader: No Remose all lined up to play, but for the life of me, Vista kills them the minute I try and play.

So far, everything I've done to get them to work fails. Whatever prompted this decision to not allow backwards compatibility (even though they TRY to let you have some sense of program compatibility), I don't like it. Vista gets a fail for me for a gaming platform. Pretty bad they made a commercial that showed people using Vista without being told like some "taste test". These people probably don't even understand how operating systems work to begin with, and gave reactions of "It's cool" or "It's so pretty."

When's the last time you needed your operating system to be "pretty"?

If anything, Vista looks more like a crippled, rejected experiment that got the last minute okay. How it breathes? I don't know... I dread what Windows "7" will be like.

Vista & Vista Logo © Microsoft

Real Life - Birthday

2009-07-27T16:57:00.004-04:00

I'm turning 24 today, so really, I don't have much of anything to post in the way today.

I've received three "new" games, so given a few days, I'll check them out and post a blog or two on them. "Police Chase", "Midnight Road Warriors" and "Kar Racing".

I have no idea who made them or if they'll run on my Vista system, but we'll see soon enough.

Battlefield Heroes - National or Royal, we're all the same, right?

2009-07-26T07:35:00.005-04:00

If you haven't taken a swing by EA's Battlefield Heroes site, chances are you're missing out on another free online FPS game. However, this game has some serious issues, much like every other free game that has come along and every other free game has.

As with all free online games, they expect you to pay, in some form or another for some aspect of the game. Thankfully, they only expect you to pay for making your characters look much better than they start out to be. Of course, if you don't care, then the game is pretty much smooth sailing. With me so far?

Second issue? PunkBuster. If you haven't heard of it, you might want to get edumacated about it by looking up "remove Punkbuster" as to why, and also how you can keep it from screwing up every game. I just tweaked a couple of Punkbuster files so they load manually instead of automatically. "More rubble, less trouble".

Finally, Heartless_ Gamer has a few tips for holding out in such maps as Victory Village. God only knows how many people can actually defend when the odds are against them. From what I've seen, there's a good portion of a games that end up with Royals or Nationals outgunned. Sometimes it's not the number that matters, it's the skill, and other times, vice versa. By the way, if you're going to play with vehicles, gunners, ignore the grenade. Waste of Valor Points otherwise.

Battlefield Heroes © Electronic Arts

Flash Games - Gaming staple

2009-07-25T12:26:00.004-04:00

So recently I've come across a couple of interesting games on the internetz. It's amazing how skilled some of these programmers are that are out there, working for themselves instead of companies.

Maybe it's a lack of interest in hiring Flash programmers, but nonetheless, these people manage to scrape together people and resources to make their games come to life.

The flash game to the left is "Learn to Fly", a physics-based game by Light Bringer77, where you assist a penguin in its dream of flying. The game "pays" you in research grant money... Yes, you heard me right, and you get to put a glider and a rocket (yes, again, you heard me right) onto the penguin. You can play it here.

The game on the right is called Bunni: How we first met by Daniel Cook and Andre Spierings. The game's premise is rebuilding a fallen land with all the items you receive from "magic bubbles" containing sets of trees, rocks and creatures in order to help you complete your goals, marry the girl of your dreams and stare down pirates. Corny? Maybe. But you get to blow up deer. I'm not complaining. :P

Play the game at Bunnibunni.com.

Team Fortress 2 - Face-Stabbing And Fail-Stabbing

2009-07-24T22:22:00.005-04:00

If you've played Team Fortress 2's Spy class, you've no doubt come across several glitch moments with that butter knife of yours.

Personally, I've seen my fair share of them. Despite the constant patching and fixes, Valve has never quite solved the problem. The question is, how does someone intentionally facestab?

Seems no matter what happens, if you accidentally or intentionally facestab, you get called a noob. I know I've been called one several times.

Still, nothing sucks more than fail-stabbing. That's when either the revolver or the liberal use of the knife becomes essential. After all, if you tried to fight, might as well finish the job, yes?

Team Fortress 2 © Valve Corp.

Black Mesa - Still Alive and still waiting

2009-07-23T18:09:00.004-04:00

If you haven't visited the fine folks at blackmesasource.com, then you might want to stop by and have a poke around.

I don't remember when I hopped onto the bandwagon for Black Mesa Source, but I do know that from everything that the site has, it'll be well worth the wait.

I quote from the official Black Mesa Site FAQ:

What is Black Mesa?

Q. What is Black Mesa?

A. Black Mesa is a total conversion of Half-Life 2, retelling the original game of Half-Life. Utilizing the Source engine and its endless array of possibilities and powers, Black Mesa will throw you into the world that started the Half-Life continuum and introduced Gordon Freeman, the gun-toting, bullet-dodging Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics.

Release Information

Q. When will Black Mesa be released?

A. We have always gone for a "when it's done" approach. We have however commited to releasing in the year 2009.

Q. Will you be having a public beta?

A. No. The single player aspect of Black Mesa will not be released in beta form publicly. However, we will have a group of appointed testers to help us out privately. Please don't ask to beta test, as your request will be ignored.

Q. Ok, so the single player aspect won't be publicly released in beta form, but will the multiplayer side?

A. In respect of the co-op side, it will be handled the same way as the single player. As for deathmatch it is likely that this would be released as a public beta. However, we have no idea when this will be, as again it's a case of "When we're ready".

Q. How large will Black Mesa be when it released?

A. Current estimates place the final build between 5-6 GBs uncompressed.

I'm damn well looking forward to this. Half-Life is a great series, and to see it renewed as a mod? Icing on the cake.

The cake is a lie?

Real Life - Just keeps pulling you back

2009-07-22T23:25:00.003-04:00

Got sick today. Slept in and pretty much didn't play a game. Though, I will say one thing for TV. Today was pretty good day.

If you haven't seen Torchwood: Children of Earth, you better get your ass in gear and buy the DVD when you can. Plenty of action for the boys and male nudity for the gals.

*shudders at the thought* Must purge imagery. Who knew first contact with aliens would require that much male ass being shown?

SPORE - Abort, Retry, Fail? R

2009-07-21T10:07:00.006-04:00

So, I've started repopulating my little sandbox in Spore.
Started with a new creature called Junivius, which can be found on their homeworld of Osian. They'll be a tough race, but I haven't decided what to turn them into as of yet, so we'll see how their development goes.

Speaking of development, you'll be able to watch their evolution on my Youtube. Enjoy

Spore © Electronic Arts

Spore - Please reset machine and insert coin

2009-07-20T19:53:00.006-04:00

I had a fun time dealing with EA's 1.04 Spore patch. So much so that I ended up having to reset my galaxy.

After all, recreating everything I worked so hard on is fun, right?

Wrong.

Words cannot describe my anger at Electronic Arts at the moment. Why do I blame them and not Maxis? Well, Maxis is just doing their job under EA's looming shadow. Same thing happened to Bullfrog, and now where are they?

Electronic Arts has a swelled head. Somebody needs to pop it.

Spore © Electronic Arts

Team Fortress 2 - You got blood on my suit...

2009-07-20T00:00:00.003-04:00

James Bond, I'm not. Nonetheless, I enjoy playing Team Fortress 2. Even after all the bullshit about this random weapon grab, which resulted in a compromise of random weapons (and hats - I want my beanie and fedora, Steam cloud!) and achievement weapons.

This means those who have skill or are smart enough to grind through an achievement server instead of actually grinding through standard servers, get their weapons faster then those who let fortune (a.k.a. Steam Cloud) decide what new item they'll receive.

I still want my fedora for all those backstabs...

Anyway, back to the point. Team Fortress 2... I play it... why? One answer.

Spy... Not secret agent, 007 explosion spy, but spy. Espionage, sabotage, and a butterfly knife that turns a Heavy into a "big baby" on the floor. It's all in finding the weak points of an enemy's defenses and either slipping by or stabbing your way through. Pyroes are the only problem, assuming you aren't careful. Nothing the revolver Valve gives you can't handle.

But of course, the game never really ends.

Team Fortress 2 © Valve Corp.

Maintenance - No Gaming today

2009-07-18T23:32:00.003-04:00

No, you're not seeing a high tech video game. Even if it was, I'm sure it would look better than this.

My computer has been working overtime in order to play my games, and this is the result. Lots of fragmentation and slow performance.

So, no games tonight. I needed the rest anyway :P

Left 4 Dead - Watch your back!

2009-07-17T20:01:00.006-04:00

I love Left 4 Dead. The whole reason I bought the Valve Complete Pack was so that I could have Left 4 Dead and the Half-Life series. The game itself is great. Varieties of zombies coming after you, special infected that can make or break your ability to survive.

The problem? Versus mode and people. There's a lot of players that walk around, thinking they're all that, and yet they leave people behind for a second and blame other players for falling behind. Then we get the usual:

RAGE QUIT!

I think people should practice more in campaigns first before they decide to jump in and tackle Versus mode.

Valve! Give us Infected Practice Mode! *shakes fist*

Left 4 Dead © Valve Corp.

Fallout 3 - Surprise!

2009-07-16T19:33:00.006-04:00

I just love the Hollywood physics in this game. Aside from this image, there have been several instances where a frag grenade has proven very effective against several embedded enemies.

"Oh shi-" has never sounded more hilarious to me.

Good hunting, wastelanders.

Fallout 3 © Bethesda Softworks

Plants vs. Zombies - The Stuff of Nightmares

2009-07-15T22:45:00.001-04:00

Just when I thought I'd seen everything horrifying and ugly with movies like the Exorcist, Saw and other movies.

Zombies... with mustaches growing on them and butter flying into their faces. Thank you, Popcap. My nightmares are plentiful now.

For those of you who like Mustache Mode in Plants Vs. Zombies, type 'mustache' while in gameplay to see this "gruesome" transformation.

Plants vs. Zombies © PopCap Games

Fallout 3 - Radroach Meat?

2009-07-14T20:23:00.001-04:00

"You know, I think I've found a new way to prepare Radroach meat. Still tastes like old feet, though."
- Moira Brown

I can understand her eating Radroach meat, but how in the world does she know what old feet tastes like? Cannabalism, perhaps? Anything's possible in Fallout 3.

Fallout 3 © Bethesda Softworks

Shoujin's Gaming is back?

2009-07-14T20:20:00.000-04:00

Nope.

Instead of posting my information about my games, this is going to be a little more different this time.

I'm just going to post up a random thought a day.

Simple enough, since I'm not a talkative guy.

Enjoy the madness.