TF2 Christmas Update

For Christmas, TF2 did what they always do, they made more items.


The new additions include the spy-cicle, which is literally an icecicle you use to backstab people from behind with. The cool part is, instead of getting hurt by fire, you become fireproof and your spy-cicle melts and becomes unusable for 15 seconds. They also included the Holiday Punch, which are heavy gloves that make people laugh if they are hit critically.

There are also new uncrate-able items, like Festive weapons and Strange Festive weapons. The festive weapons have strings of Christmas lights wrapped around it and the strange festive's have kill counts and are extremely expensive due to their rarity. There are also new hats that were released and "naughty" and "nice" keys.

The Happy Holidays Predicament

Recently, one of my classes had a discussion about the phrase, "Happy Holidays." While I don't think this is super important, it does bring up a subject that interests me.

Happy Holidays is thought to be a religiously neutral phrase that people use when they either don't know the other person's religion, or when they want to include all religions in the happiness. I find nothing wrong with the statement, it would be odd saying "Merry Christmas" to a Jew or Muslim, or saying "Happy Hanukkah" to a Christian. Why not just say "Happy Holidays."

Recently, there I attended a Holiday Sweater contest and the most surprising thing happened, there was someone with a Hanukkah Sweater, that being said, I thought "Wow, so they really meant "Holiday Sweater Contest." So really, when I thought they were kind of weak for saying "Holiday" instead of "Christmas" I was surprised to see someone with a Hanukkah Sweater on-stage.

What I don't approve of is people using it because they are too scared or politically correct to say something else. You shouldn't be afraid to say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Hanukkah" or anything else for that matter. No one should limit should be able to pressure you into limiting your freedom of speech just because they believe something else. I myself am a Catholic, but if anyone said to me, "Happy Hannukah" I would return the greeting and go on with my life, it's not like I'm going to burst into flames for not correcting them, besides, it's basically them telling me to have a good day, you should only take these mistakes with a grain of salt.

Perfect Video Games for the Holiday Season [Gift Giving]

Christmas is coming up and you're all thinking, what should I get little Timmy this year? Well the answer is obvious. A video game.

Not all video games are equal though, and many have different plotlines, gameplay styles, and interest-factor. Heres a good list of video games that you could consider getting little Timmy:


#5  Zelda: The Skyward Sword

Mainly a classic for gamers that haven't actually grown up yet, easily makes the ones that aren't grown up yet happy. Zelda:TSS has a fun, easy to learn style of playing where you play as a hero named Link and you save a princess named Zelda from Ganon and you go around killing monsters and stuff. A good game for kids.

#4  Modern Warfare 3

Does the recipient of this game have ADD? If so, this is the perfect game for them, heck, they probably got diagnosed with it because they spent too much time playing this game. MW3 is an intense close quarters action shooter that will provide a good amount of fun for people with no patience/skill. Get this for your buddy who likes playing socially and he'll have good times.

Warning: Whiny High-pitched Player-base may cause ear damage.

#3 Batman: Arkham City

Well, if they like Batman, and they like playing video games by themselves... Alone. Then you should get them this game, personally I haven't played it but some of my friends who love video games have and they say it's amazing. You could probably get this for a person who appreciates Batman and kicking people.

#2 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

I have this weird feeling my friends will hate me forever for not putting this in first place. Don't get me wrong, it's an AWESOME game, it has TONS of hours of fun and I had a EXTREMELY HARD TIME deciding between this one and the next. Anyway.

In Skyrim, you start out as an unnamed hero in medieval times (with many magical elements) saved from the executioners block by a freak accident involving a dragon. Then your unknown hero gets a second chance at life. Although you decide what you are going to do in the game, most likely it will involve hurting people. Lots of people. The main plot revolves around you saving the world from being enslaved by dragons, so it can't really go wrong. This COMPLETELY single-player game has an insane amount of storytelling and it can be so immersive you can sometimes forget you're there.

I'd recommend this game for anyone who doesn't mind a little decapitation or gore, since this is a rated M game but the entertainment value is almost infinite due to the ability to mod the game, and I hear it will be moddable for Xbox's and PS3's, but I would still get it for a PC gamer since it will be played best on a PC.

#1 BATTLEFIELD 3

I recently got this game and I have to say, it's worth the wait. I remember how fun Battlefield 2 was and this game just brings it all back and more. I've actually only played two of the maps already and I've had it for almost a week and I'm still hooked. This game is basically a multiplayer large-scale battle of 64 people (on PC, a lot less on consoles) and it really blows my mind how good it is. You have to have a decent computer to actually run this game and I ONLY recommend playing this on the PC because it was really only meant to be played on this and it should only be played on this by anyone who wants their moneys worth.

I STRONGLY encourage anyone who likes First-Person shooters to buy this game. It's the ultimate shooter and it will stay that way for a while.

Review of Battlefield 3

When Battlefield 3 was announced I had high hopes for the game and wanted an equal, if not better successor to Battlefield 2. When it was released, I couldn't actually play the game due to some strange system requirement which required me to upgrade from Windows XP to Vista/7. Well of course I wasn't going to get Vista, especially since everyone has something bad to say about Vista... My thoughts were I would rather go to a Mac than Vista...

So I upgraded to Windows 7.

The only problem I've had so far is that I don't have Office so I can't type things up. This will probably be resolved soon but whatever, I got Battlefield 3.

So after the three hours of downloading Battlefield 3, I start it up. Oh man, oh man, oh man, it was awesome. The graphics were stunning, the vehicles were cool, the weapons were sleek. Everything seemed to be awesome. Even prone was back, which was one of the greatest things they've ever done for themselves in Battlefield 3. I don't think I can even overstate how AWESOME PRONE IS. Before in Bad Company 1&2 you could only crouch, which caused awkward moments when you couldn't get under cover and your head was sticking out, just waiting to be shot. Jets are back too, so now you can finally do that Top Gun impersonation that you've always been wanting to do.

So lets get on to the technical stuff.

Graphics

Let me just say, the graphics are amazing, you can see the entire map and beyond. The textures are very high detailed, and it doesn't lag on my system, even on pretty high graphics. The explosions are awesome and the destruction is rendered very well and it almost seems like the building you're in is actually falling apart, oh wait it is.

Guns

Battlefield 3 has a wide array of guns. It has both factions standard rifles, like the M4A1 and the AK's. There are a wide variety of guns you can unlock, like the Barrett .50c sniper rifle or a coaxial machine gun for tanks. The way you can modify these guns are amazing as well. I can put a bi-pod on my rifle and basically fire it fully automatic into an enemy and expect to kill them pretty fast. They got foregrips, grenade launchers, laser pointers, flashlights, and other cool stuff as well to put on your gun so you can always be prepared.

Vehicles

The vehicles in this game are really powerful and fun to play around with. Jets are basically the kings of the sky, you can always have fun in a jet, doing things like dogfighting and precision bombing are really some of the most intense things you can do in Battlefield and that's the reason why so many people wanted them put back into the game. Helicopters are a lot less powerful than the ones in BF2 but they are still very hard to deal with. The specializations you can use with helicopters can extend their deadliness to unseen levels, for instance, I could get guided missiles and start taking out enemy vehicles quicker than they can roll out of their base in 'em. Tanks are also pretty good, since they changed how vehicles blow up, first getting disabled, then completely blowing up, getting into a tank is a lot less of an express ride to death and now more of a ticket to victory. Jeeps are jeeps and they've always been a fast and vulnerable way to get around the field of combat.

Maps

Battlefield has always been about huge maps to play around in, and it still is. You have maps of varying size, from small ones to ones so large it would confuse a CoD player almost instantly. While it does seem like a much more compact map, the density of the map is so much higher that it makes up for itself.

Destruction

This... is... awesome. Destruction is a great addon to the previous, and current Battlefield games and destruction in Battlefield 3 is taken to new heights as you can destroy almost anything. I'm serious, there is a hilltop control point and throughout the course of the game it's completely leveled.

A League of Legends Christmas

Currently, it's Christmas time (if you hadn't noticed) and everyone's getting in the holiday spirit. Take League of Legends for instance. They have released new "skins" for characters that are Christmas themed, like Snowmerdinger, my friend and peer Santa's favorite little yordle.

But wait, there's more. All the mindless minions you see running in their predetermined pathways also are spicing their apparel up for the holidays. Minions now wear little Santa hats as they march to their deaths. Even the jungle monsters are getting into the spirit. Baron Nashor, an epic monster, has a large Santa hat that he wears while protecting his little space in the frozen river in the winter edition of Summoners Rift.

Health potions, as well as Mana potions, have also had a slight change, they now are Eggnog Health/Mana Potion and their icons have changed to little vials of eggnog.

The Pro's and Con's of Trading In-Game

Let's take a look at trading, it comes in many different forms, and can improve a game in many ways, but there are some cons to implementing such trading systems.

Pro's:

Players will find the game more enjoyable.

  Players love having things to achieve or items to gather, when they get a cool item they think is epic, they will usually freak out and tell their friends how awesome it is or how cool they are for having it.

Players will spend more time playing your game.

  Take TF2 for example, it would probably be dead right now if it weren't for their trading system that randomly dropped items to people who've played their game for a specific amount of time. People will have a reason to stay on longer if they get rewards just for being there.

Players will spend more MONEY on your game.

  Here's another place where TF2 shines, they have an in-game store where they charge money for VIRTUAL ITEMS. To become a premium player and have the ability to trade, they will have to buy something from the Mann-Co Store for REAL money. They can also buy more wealth in-game for REAL money in the Store as well. You can even trade games for TF2 items. So the only way to get far ahead of people in the game is to either unbox an unusual, scam people (isn't recommended), or BUY FROM MANN-CO STORE!!!!

Con's:

Third parties will sell items for money.

  Most people don't go near these people for the fear of getting scammed for actual money, and they easily could scam you, but believe it or not, people can sell items for real money, and it happens A LOT. You will basically be giving even more money to China's economy. Good Job, please congratulate yourself.

People will be unwilling to move to a sequel.

  Think about it, someone could have spent over a thousand dollars for a hat in TF2, and now it will be useless when they move to TF3, they will be PISSED OFF. When people move over, they will lose all their accumulated wealth and investments on their old accounts and they will hate you for it. Of course there will still be a majority of players who will move over and never care because they didn't spend more money than they needed on the game, but it will hurt your sales.

Diablo II

Diablo II (abbreviated as D2) was an awesome game, it had a random level generator that never disappointed you and the game still got attention from Blizzard ten years, that's right, TEN years after the initial release of the game. D3 will be a great game because Blizzard puts a ton of effort into their games and never wants to disappoint their players. Seriously, they are the only ones that do that these days.

Their motto on releasing games is not "Here's the release date, enjoy!" but, "We will get it done when we think it's done!"

If every game manufacturer did this for their games, then we would see a lot more GOOD games and not cookie cutter pieces of shitake mushrooms. They might not make as much profit, but they sure will be on a path to gaining the trust and admiration of every gamer around.

D2 is mainly based around you starting from level 1 and repeatedly bashing in monster's skulls until you reach level 99. What's unique is that it's camera view is birds eye and there are three modes of campaign, each unlockable after you finish the latter.

Gameplay

There are five characters to play as in D2, and seven total in it's expansion pack. Each character has some pretty cool abilities that they can cast, like summoning blizzards, chain lightning, fireballs, and some abilities they can use, like whirlwind strike, where the Barbarian character spins around as fast as a tornado and it does damage to everyone around him. Usually the skills themselves become more powerful, and more impressive the higher the level you get. Take the Necromancer as an example, he can actually bring a target monster back to life to fight for him. If you can get a really powerful monster, you are almost invincible for the time being.

Items are a key aspect to the game, and by key I mean if you don't have them, you'll die. Items can give you numerous advantages over the enemy, like my magical crossbow... That shot exploding arrows. EXPLODING ARROWS... DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY EXPLOSIONS THERE WERE? A lot.

Storyline

Plot: Cliche
Difficulties: Normal Nightmare Hell
Bosses: Many
Acts: Five

So, darkness falls everywhere. Evil monsters are poking their little heads out of their little rocks, and you and your band of heroes are the only ones that are strong enough to defeat them. Ancient demons come out of hiding to conquer Sanctuary, and they call themselves...
The Prime Evils.

The band of heroes travels through five cities, each much harder than the previous. Each with their own kind of dangers and infestations. Together, you must face and kill terrible monsters with the power to destroy the entire world. Together, you must cleanse Sanctuary of it's evil invaders, and you just might get rich along the way.

Do I Recommend This Game?

Normally, I would, but with Diablo 3 so close to release, I would say wait until that is released to spend momentous amounts of time leveling your character. Diablo 3 in my opinion will be a heavily modified D2, though the graphics will be SO AWESOME and there will be different classes and more things to do, but really, there won't be too many extremely different features.


Diable 3 will probably feel like an upgrade to Diablo 2 and here's why. You really can't add much on to it... It's a giant problem with some games, you can't really make a good innovative sequel because there's not much more you can add on to a REALLY good game. You just can't make anything innovative without removing what made the game so good in the first place.

Dishonored

This upcoming game is being developed by Bethesda, so you know it will involve gratuitous amounts of open ended objectives. Actually, that is one of the main concepts the developers push in their marketing strategy. Opened ended.

This begs the question, will it be as open as Skyrim? Don't get me wrong Skyrim is OPEN, but not as open as they would make people believe. When I first heard there would be a "radiant storyline" I thought it would be NPC's giving you quests every so often, like solving disputes or raiding certain dungeons or caves for certain items. But what they really had was a mediocre "radiant" storyline and a one quest per important NPC kind of thing going on. Hopefully modders will make Skyrim insanely more immersive and give it what it truly deserves, a life of its own.

Back to Dishonored, although it's still in development the developers have said that they intend to the plot about a former bodyguard to the queen being framed for her murder, and subsequently hunted down. You fill the shoes of this man and you decide to exact revenge on those framing you. The game itself revolves around how much blood you want to spill to get something done and what's cool is that the atmosphere of the world changes on how much blood you spill.

Let's say you are trying to infiltrate a building of a man you think is associated with the plot to frame you. You have options of sneaking by, only killing guards when necessary, or just going gung-ho and massacring the whole lot of them. This might affect how people view you or how alert future guards might be, or so they say. Again, the game is still in development and no actual gameplay footage has been released, so I can only presume this is what they are trying to accomplish.

My Opinion on League of Legends

In the past I've only really done an overview on the game, but I think it's time to give my straight up opinion. This game is fun. I don't care what anyone says. I love video games and this is one of my favorites because it challenges me to be the best in the game and most of the time I can do that. About two weeks I had to tweak the item build I have for my guys to make an optimized build that will allow me to play better than anyone on the other team, while making sure I don't leave out necessary items that will leave me useless. The guys I usually play as are really fragile but can dish out enormous amounts of damage which can easily kill players on the other team. All I gotta do it make sure they don't do enough damage to kill me before I can kill them.

My big pet peeves about the game is that your teammates are always going to be dumber than their counterparts on the enemy team, it's just common knowledge. Most of the time you get on a team with people who seem like they would be the ones that lick poles in the middle of winter. But there are always those games were it's reverse and the enemy teams take upon the role of dunces. This is a great chance to show off, for example, I went into a lane where there was me versus two enemies, and I completely dominated them. I went 8-0 and basically became the boogeyman to their entire team due to me being more powerful than them from the "feed" that their teammates gave me.

I think the game overall has a lot of potential, people everywhere play it and it has a huge playerbase. It doesn't require some fancy computer to play and people with the same skill level can play against each other. The company who made the game is always pumping out new characters, or champions, to play as. They all have different abilities and have their own ways of dominating the enemy team.

Personally I play Shaco, The Demon Jester. It looks like The Joker from Batman and is even deadlier in person. He has a small teleport ability that can let him blink around a small area around him to evade, or trap enemies.

My friends play some other characters like Ezreal, who basically throws glitter around. kekekekekeke Also, my other friend plays a small assortment of characters, such as Gangplank, some funky pirate that used to have a strange amount of chest hair until they changed it... Then he also plays Graves, an outlaw who isn't that interesting other than his badass background. He sometimes plays Heimerdinger, which is a extremely smart midget that can spawn mini turrets that can deal a ton of damage. Although he can barely ever push because that would require setting up his turrets so our games usually end in defeat unless we completely steamroll the opposition into submission.

Elder Scrolls V -- The Tale of the Angry Dragonborn

 You start out in a quiet little village called Helgen. The birds are singing, the people are walking about, and you're about to be publicly executed! BUT JUST THEN A DRAGON COMES OUT OF NOWHERE AND KILLS EVERYONE WITH HIS ANGRY SHOUTING, which conveniently sets them on fire, allowing you to escape. You then ditch Helgen, which is being demolished by a fierce dragon and proceed to the highest place in the "world" and learn from old men with grey beards to shout angrily yourself. You then proceed to accomplish quests while shouting angrily, and acquiring better gear throughout Skyrim like Glass Swords... Extremely durable (and blue!?!?).

You can also go on a tangent and fight in the civil war of Skyrim, which started from a Jarl shouting angrily at the King of Skyrim, making him explode. You then work either for him or the Imperial Legion, which only affects who you shout angrily at and which order you get your angry shouts in. I did a little research and neither side can say they have a more just reason for fighting each other. But I chose the rebels because they aren't tools and you can WEAR A BEAR HEAD AS A HAT. If the legion had better hats, I think I might of joined them instead. I love my hats...

There are many problems that the people of Skyrim have, and thankfully, shouting angrily when faced with these problems can have positive effects for you, and the person you are helping, unless they are in the way, then they will most likely die. Remember, accidentally throwing people off mountains with your voice is still murder... I think...

 For example, some lady burned down a guys house with his family in it, and later tried to attack me, so I froze her with my angry freezing shout. Then I left her house, which freezes her indefinitely due to game mechanics. 
PROBLEM SOLVED.

You know what I don't get? The comparison of flawless and perfect, both are used in video games as qualities for a tier quality item, but they basically mean each other. If I have a flawless gem and a perfect gem, are they the same gems? Just a weird thing to think about.

Smart-phones and Video Games

The new innovation of smart-phones are becoming increasingly popular among… well… everyone. It’s almost like everyone owns a smart-phone these days and those that don’t want one.

The new leap in technology has made a new way to play video games as well. Now people don’t need bulky computers, or even a laptop, to play video games. Nowadays I doubt you can go up to anyone who owns a smart-phone and have them tell you they don’t have a video game on it. It’s impossible.

Since the innovation of smart-phones, the displays have become clearer and faster. In addition, battery technology and power usage has made it possible for even complex games to be displayed on a cellphone.

The smart-phone industry has spawned new opportunities through cell phone apps, and many of these apps are written by individuals and small game companies. The use of apps are beneficial not only for gaming, but for retrieving internet data efficiently. Many apps have been created in a short amount of time and reflect the ingenuity of the developer community as millions of people are buying them.

What’s inside the phone is also something else entirely. Many support dual core processors and graphics units that rivaled desktop devices that just a few years ago took up more than twenty times as much space as the phone itself uses. This allows the phone to play sophisticated games such as Angry Birds, (although I would never really admit that in a group of friends.) Sooner or later we might even have the ability to play games without a sizable physical platform at all using holographic images and/or virtual reality.

In-Game Currency

Let’s face it, everyone wants to be rich. Video game designers capitalize on that want by giving us something to judge our in-game wealth with... Currency.

You’ll have a whole lot more players staying plugged into your game if you give them benefits for doing so. Take Runescape for example, some people have already accomplished everything, but their quest to make tons and tons of money just overwhelm them, and they even spend real money just trying to amass a fortune of virtual cash. Greed does this to people. They see the money as a way to become powerful in a game, and once they amass a bit of it, they just want more and more, which gives the developer almost complete control over the player because their life revolves around acquiring these so-called currencies.

The want for these currencies are so great, there are certain people that even “farm” gold, or money, for real cash. In China there are even full time “gold farmers” that make a sizeable amount of money per month compared to their average income levels, plus they get to play video games for free! In 2005 the NYTimes estimated the virtual cash “industry” had around 100,000 workers in China and this was six years ago, It makes you wonder how many are doing it now that there are even more people playing video games.

An In-depth Look at Oblivion (Part.1)

I made a small post about the more popular Elder Scroll games available on the market a couple weeks ago, and now I want to focus on one in particular. And that is Oblivion.

Overview

Oblivion starts off with you creating your character in what seems to be a normal jail cell. You choose the name, race, gender, and aesthetic attributes, such as the size of your face and hair, or how pronounced your nose is. After you lock in that, you are given control of your character. You soon find out your seemingly normal cell is actually a secret tunnel leading out of the Imperial City when the Emperor and his bodyguard walk into your cell. You then tag along with them and escape the Imperial City through the secret tunnel and the sewers. Although the Emperor dies from the Red Dawn assassins chasing him, he gives you a sacred magical object that you must bring to a monk named Jauffre at Weynon Priory.

There are numerous skills you can train in Oblivion. You have a choice of making seven of them your main skills and the rest will be secondary, which means they will be harder to train and will be a lower level when you first start out. They are all affected by your attributes and specialization which you pick at class selection and birth sign selection when you are with the Emperor. The ways to level up these skills are numerous, as there are many different spells and abilities granted by each skill. You might choose to be a sneaky conjurer who infiltrates a dungeon and then spawns merciless minions to do his bidding or maybe a bare knuckle fighter, who beats his enemies into submission using his fists.

Once out of the secret passageway and the sewers, you have two options, continue with the main storyline and take the magical amulet to Jauffre, or explore and have fun. Most of the time people start to explore the vastness of Oblivion, which is a key factor in the games success.

There are nine cities in the province of Cyrodiil, but only eight of them are normal, as Kvatch is currently inhabited by demons. This occurred quite recently before your character comes out of the sewers. There are countless side quests in every city, and even in the remote towns that are scattered around the province. These can range from delivering messages to destroying evil demons that are intent on enslaving the entire world. The rewards from these quests are most of the time level dependent, which means the rewards get greater the higher the level you are.

There are three main guilds you can join in Oblivion, which are the Thieves Guild, the Mages Guild, and the Fighters Guild. Each one has an obvious general specialization included in the names, and they all have their own storylines and characters, which gives countless hours of entertainment through questing and acquiring skill in the certain areas those guilds favor. There is one organization that isn’t a guild though… but very well known in the world of Oblivion, and that is the Dark Brotherhood. Much less a guild and more a society of ruthless murderers for hire, the Dark Brotherhood is basically the boogiemen of Oblivion, and will give you strange quests that challenge your ability to kill while remaining stealthy. They have a very dark storyline and will give you large bonuses for accomplishing secondary goals, like dropping a giant animal head onto your mark, instead of running in and stabbing him to death.

If you do get bored, why not just start the main quest line, it’s always there, and you won’t ruin the game by completing it as it’s just like any other quests, except for the fact it’s about a giant daedric prince coming from the abyss to destroy the entire world, but it can’t possibly affect that much of the game… right?

In Oblivion, the entire world seems to revolve around your actions, you are constantly doing things for everyone and it can be quite profitable at times, and you can buy numerous houses and items, but really in the end, it’s all up to the player when it comes to how the game is played and it never gets old because of that. Stay tuned for more.

Runescape

Yep… Runescape… Although it might seem silly that I write about this because of the unpopularity of Runescape among people over twelve, I think Runescape is one of the best MMORPG’s ever made. Although that isn’t that hard to be taking into account the stale game ideas the other MMORPG’s try to push onto everyone. It’s a shame people didn’t try to improve upon Runescape instead of following their dream MMORPG plan consisting of cookie cutter classes and cliché storylines.

What Runescape brings to the table is the lack of barriers, to a degree of course, because they have to make their money somehow. People aren’t stuck into doing lame quests one at a time, and having to do it over and over again, just for slightly upgraded equipment that is completely worthless to everyone else. They can use different materials to create different things in their ever expanding universe, and although you do have to grind, it does pay off in your epic quest for gold and glory. Unlike other games of the genre, where you are restricted from doing any trading to other players, you can trade freely and without concern for paying any fees to the game company for doing so.

I really enjoy their skills system, which lets you freely train any skill that you want, regardless of your play style, and there are so many quests, even for FTP players. There are countless hours of fun you could have without paying a cent for extra services, unlike the cookie cutter games where you pay for your advantages.

Arma II

ArmA II is the premier realistic military shooter when it comes down to commercial video games. It has an extremely large world that people can roam around in. It also has an amazing amount of customizability, which allows for total reconstructions of the game, which is amazing since people have made maps based off of actual cities or regions in different countries. The game also includes an editor which allows you to make different scenarios and missions encompassing the entire map.  You can have TDM’s, seize the city, and eliminate HVT’s objectives, all at the same time.

The realism involved is extremely accurate, as tanks are extremely deadly, as well as AT weapons that counter them, and there are many variants of popular weapons used in the armed forces across the world. The ammunition clips also are kept on a person so when you run out of clips that are full, you move on to the clips that have unused ammunition before being completely out of ammo. This means if you reloaded while there was still ammo left in the clip, you can still use it if you run out of full clips.

The multiplayer war is also waged on a massive scale, as more than one hundred people can play on some servers at a time. I’m pretty sure that you can have as many players as you want, as long as the server can run it though. The variety of things people put onto those servers is amazing, for instance, one that I was on had a scenario that started players in an airport turned operations base, and makes them capture a city that is filled with numerous vehicles and enemy troopers ready to make quick work of anyone trying to invade. You also get a reward for completing the objectives in the form of vehicles. I can’t remember how many times I’ve been saved by an airstrike taking out a tank or other vehicle that’s about to pump me full of lead.

It’s unlike any other game due to the fact that one stray bullet or a tank shell exploding about twenty meters away can easily kill you and/or your entire squad. The AI used in the game wouldn’t be considered dumb in the least, especially if they know you’re there, as they are expert shots and won’t think twice about shooting you. This can sometimes be troublesome as you can find yourself dying many times before you even get to the fight. I remember when my helicopter got shot down and I was stranded on one side of the map while the entire battle was raging over in a small city. There really was nothing else to do but force a respawn because no one was willing to give one guy a ride to the battle and risk getting shot down themselves.

There is another great part about ArmA II that has recently been made available, it’s free, and this free version is available for people online through the ArmA II website. Although the graphics aren’t as good, and you can’t play the campaign, you can still play the extremely fun multiplayer.

The only bad things I can say about this game is that some of the people are not very good at determining friend or foe, so expect to be killed by your own team a lot. Also there really isn’t an ability to sneak in the game, because as soon as you shoot someone, you’re spotted and you will get fired upon by his AI buddies, who no doubt have the skills to shoot you as easily as you shot them.

All in all, it’s a great game and I think you should try it out. Besides, it’s free.

http://www.arma2.com/free

My Thoughts on 3D Games

I don’t think 3D games will become very popular, maybe it’s the frequent headaches people get after playing them, or maybe it’s the fact that most people don’t want to shell out an extra hundred dollars for a 3D console just to see something slightly different from the 2D version. All in all, I think 3D is just a letdown. Most media that uses 3D can’t even do it very effectively, and mostly relies on 2D aspects to make the movie or game entertaining. Even if they were to perfect 3D, we would have moved on to something better, such as holograms or virtual reality that it wouldn’t even matter.

Then you have to think about the health problems associated with the new 3D media. Here’s a small excerpt from the Samsung 3D Health Information statement:

 “Viewing 3D television may also cause motion sickness, perceptual after effects, disorientation, eye strain and decreased postural stability. It is recommended that users take frequent breaks to lessen the potential of these effects. If your eyes show signs of fatigue or dryness or if you have any of the above symptoms, immediately discontinue use of this device and do not resume using it for at least thirty minutes after the symptoms have subsided.”

“Watching TV while wearing 3D glasses for an extended period of time may cause a headache or fatigue. If you experience a headache, fatigue or dizziness, stop viewing TV and rest.”

Although normal TV usage can have similar effects, it seems that symptoms occur when using the 3D TV much more than normal TV. Maybe it’s because we have adapted over the years so we can see normal 2D television without feeling any adverse effects, maybe it’s because 3D really does pose more of a health risk than the normal television set. All I know is that it’s a waste of money and time.

Minecraft

Minecraft is a game like none other, for the moment of course, because developers are probably going to imitate it and make games similar to it. It’s quite obvious even if you only have a basic understanding of the video game industry. Minecraft is so great because it’s a breakthrough, who knew a game could be successful just by allowing people to edit their world? I mean, that’s all the game really is, just a world full of blocks. Sure, they are trying to make it have more action, but that’s after three and a half million copies were sold. What I think makes it so attractive is that fact that there’s an endless supply of randomly generated terrain for you to have fun with.

You start out running around scrambling for resources before night approaches so you don’t get completely obliterated by creepers or filled with holes by skeleton archers. When you get a small house or cave set up you can start getting ambitious and start making even bigger holes in the ground, or making a giant house that dominates the surrounding environment. Usually you either start getting bored because you have become master of your territory, or you keep expanding and expanding until you’ve gotten a giant empire of empty castles and houses. That is when you go into multiplayer.

Multiplayer is a lot different from Singleplayer, and still very similar, it’s just a matter of perspective. Most of the time you will go into a server with friends and at best make a giant cave. The reason why is you can never really have too much fun building larges empires in multiplayer, because there is always that one guy that finds you and utterly destroys you. It’s just a fact of life online; someone is going to ruin it no matter how difficult it is or how long it takes to ruin.

I guess it’s just Minecraft’s simplicity and openness that draws people to it. There aren’t that many barriers to what you can or cannot do. It’s just you and the world… and the creepers.

Garrysmod, The Definition of Sandbox

It was at first just a ragdoll posing game, but then they decided to expand the amount of things you could do. Now they are rich. So basically, Garry, the guy who made the mod, (if you haven’t caught on yet,) just took the Source Engine and made it into a game. Kind of... You can spawn props and stuff from any game that you own onto a map, and then play around with them, maybe make a fort of baby dolls, maybe make a train that seeks out people and runs them over. The possibilities are endless, the only problem is that it completely strains your CPU, so it runs slowly, but when it runs smoothly, it’s insanely fun and addicting.

I like to say you can do anything in GMod. What I mean by that is you don’t really have a specific goal since it’s a sandbox game; it’s up to you to decide what you want to do. You could go on a survival server and survive off the wilderness… Maybe end up making a stove or something… Or you could go on the Jailbreak server and get harassed by a bunch of little kids who really, REALLY, want you to play Simon Says. Maybe you could go on the RP server and drown out your life forever with the numerous chants of NLR or DMer!!! All the while making tons of simulated money from your numerous, well hidden money printers. Maybe you could hop onto a Sandbox server and learn to code a script that is made using a coding language within an actual coding language, thus making you smart and extremely stupid at the same time. Not all gamemodes are bad though; there are some with good game designs that promote doing fun things. Those usually tend to be conventional Team Deathmatch servers though, so you might as well buy an actual video game dedicated to TDM.

Counter-Strike: Source

Counter-Strike: Source is a great game that will be played for many years to come, as their sequel looks stupid... Who knows, maybe it will be a hit, but for now I’m keeping my interest, and money, on newer releases. Counter-Strike, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and Counter-Strike: Source are some of the best FPS’s of all time. The original Counter-Strike, which was made many years ago, is still being played by many today even though blockbuster games such as Call of Duty and Battlefield have an ever increasing player base.

What makes Counter-Strike (in general) so fun to play is the level of simplicity, and difficulty in each game. Each round, two teams spawn at their respective sides, and depending on what type of map, protect a VIP, plant a bomb, or rescue hostages. Each team starts with a small amount of money at the start of the map and progressively gets more from killing the other team or winning rounds. Each player can buy any type of gun that their money allows for, or they could buy better equipment which could end up saving their lives, like Kevlar.

The basic principle of the game is team deathmatch, which is always fun. But mainly it is restricted to the game modes I mentioned before. On a de_ map the main objective is to bomb certain areas on the map if you’re on the Terrorist team or, defuse the bomb and kill all the terrorists if you’re a Counter-Terrorist, simple enough... Although it can be a pain to defend multiple bomb areas at once.

The next type of game mode is the hostage rescue maps, also known as cs_ maps; they start with two teams and usually the terrorists in a fortified position. The CT’s, also known as Counter-Terrorists try to break in and rescue the hostages while taking out as many of the Terrorists as possible. The big problem most CT’s have is that the T’s will be everywhere they are not, so they will be waiting for them at the hostage rescue zone while the hostages are being secured inside the building.

Lastly, there’s the VIP type map. This is the least popular version and has been phased out due to people not wanting to play it. Basically you just escort a VIP to the rescue zone and you win the game. Well… It ain't that easy of course because the main reason for this game mode becoming unpopular is that your teammates could sometimes be AFK or just be giant failures and it ends up becoming a big mess of people screaming at the VIP what to do and the VIP player just aimlessly walking about, usually getting themselves killed in the process.

What I find great about CSS, and the Source Engine in general, is the ease of use when modding. Many new game modes and maps have been created, such as Zombie Survival, which is where everyone but one person is human, and the zombie has to go around infecting everyone before they reach an escape point. There is also the Jailbreak game mode although it isn’t as interesting as it sounds, but it is very popular among the players of Counter-Strike. It’s basically prisoners versus the jail guards, who almost always make you play Simon Says… Don’t ask…

People have even found out how to exploit slanted walls and thus the surf maps were born, which is where players slide along slanted parts of walls until you reach the end, which is extremely strange if you think about it realistically, but very entertaining if you can beat it in a timely manner and not rage quit out of frustration..

The Evolution of Elder Scrolls: III, IV, V

All I’m going to say about the ones before III ist that they are extremely old and I don’t want to go back that far.

Anyway

TES:III is probably one of the most immersive, story driven, complex RPG game in existence. Just the fact that you can get a “super jump” spell from picking it up off a guy who fatally landed with it right in front of your eyes just says “Whoa.” As well as the merchants in the game having very realistic amounts of money, and they don’t reset the money for a very long time, if at all, if you deplete their supply of gold. Those two are just a couple of examples of how deep the game is.

Next up is TES:IV, also known as Oblivion. This time it came back with tons of upgraded graphics and a couple more features. Many say they “dumbed” it down so they could get a bigger audience, and I partially believe this. In Morrowind there were so many complex things you could do. You couldn’t just rest anywhere, and your magicka didn’t recharge like normal. But in Oblivion, your magicka recharges, you could basically sleep on the sidewalk, and you could fast-travel, which I believe was needed because of the vast amount of land in the world. So some of the new features are debatable while others are obviously a scheme to get a wider player base, which I think is ok. But overall this game includes a great questline, many, many sidequests and tons of things to do, even if you have beaten the game. It deserves every single award given to it.

Skyrim, which will be released on 11-11-11, (crazy date, right?) will supposedly have features from Oblivion and, trying to appease the Morrowind players, bring back some of the previously “dumbed” down features back. Of course it be influenced by the game mechanics from their other RPG, Fallout 3, which they created a bit after Oblivion. The game looks spectacular from a graphical point of view, and the inclusion of dragons is making everyone go nuts. But I’m not too happy with the new “shout” system. As one guy put it, “What if we needed to sneak around? What ‘shouts’ do we get?” So like all games, there will be some awkward moments, but overall I think this will be a big hit with anyone who likes immersive RPG's.

The Moneyversary Update / The Manniversary Update

I have to give it to them; they really know how to keep a game going. It’s blatantly obvious to everyone what they are doing, but still, the TF2-train keeps on chugging along. They managed to take one of the best FPS shooters and turn it into a giant money sign while still retaining its entertainment value, and for that, I applaud them. Now let’s talk about what’s in this update of first annual anniversary-size proportions.

So, they finally opened their hat making doors to the community. Now people can get their hats approved by the community, and then put in the Mann Co. Store to be sold. They do this by making a model and textures, and basically doing all the work for Valve, publish it on Steam Workshop and have it rated high enough, then get accepted by Valve and put into the game. So basically you are doing all the work, while Valve gets money. But hey, it’s good for up and coming modeler’s.

You can also put decals on badges that your character can wear using a one-time use store-bought tool. Yep. One-time use and you can only buy it through Valves store. Talk about the money to be made. It’s a good idea, but right now, it’s only usable on a select number of objects in the game. So don’t get your hopes up that you can have a Maul that says 'Ban hammer' yet.

Now let’s move on to the next big thing, two miscellaneous slots for misc. wearable objects! Yay! Woohoo! To people who don’t play TF2 this is almost as exciting as watching grass grow. But, if you are one of the many that play TF2, this is great news. You can now put two misc. items on at the same time! Time for the Mustache Phantom!

Some updates of honorable mention are a bunch of new community made hats. Although they look sub-par, they are hats none the less. There are also a few new weapons for people to play around with. Now all store items will be tradable after a couple of days, which means your store bought items aren’t useless anymore! Yay! What else… Ah, a new map called Gullywash, it looks interesting, but I think 2fort will still be king. It looks like that’s about it for the update. Enjoy.

What Multiplayer Does for a Game

What do people like playing more than Single player? Multiplayer, and that’s the truth.  Single player is mostly the same scripted events over and over again. So scripted and predicable, you could stand where an enemy spawns and kill it before it even begins to notice it's alive. Many single player games have this problem because the developers aren’t going to try and randomize everything that happens for every single small scripted event of their game. This is why multiplayer outlives single player in almost every single aspect. The more randomized events happening, the more challenging, and entertaining the game can get. Personally I have clocked tons and tons of hours into multiplayer games like TF2 and Counter Strike, but I’ve only played the single player mode of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare only three or four times since I got it years ago. It really doesn’t take a great thinker to see why though. You usually don’t watch the same movie over and over again unless you absolutely loved it. Still, even if you loved it you still don’t watch it over and over for the next three months either.


The thing about mainly single player games is that it can be quite hard to expand to multiplayer. Take the Elder Scrolls games for example. How would you make a game that is advertised as an insanely immersive single player experience, and give it multiplayer? How would you even start? What would make it entertaining? The multiplayer would obviously be lacking since the development studio is more focused on the single player aspect of the game. Then there is the fact that if single player is so focused on, why should Bethesda even include a multiplayer? It would just be an afterthought and it could lower the overall game rating just because of their experiment.


Let’s talk about a game that has benefited from becoming multiplayer, Minecraft. When it was in its early stages of development it was really fun and interesting. But what really got everyone’s attention was when it moved from being just survival single player, to survival multiplayer beta (although I personally believe it’s not really a beta, just a constantly evolving game). The reason why it's so popular and fits so well is because both the multiplayer and the single player are updated at the same time, and are basically the same thing; just one has multiple guys running around in it punching trees.


In summary, multiplayer makes some games amazing while others probably could go without. I think it’s because people expect multiplayer to be so good because most games today are centered on multiplayer action. So when people hear multiplayer, they expect it to be a purely multiplayer based game with little in terms of single player. So I guess the working combinations could be single player with no multiplayer, or multiplayer with a small single player, or single player that has an almost identical multiplayer portion of the game. Right now people just expect too much from multiplayer to actually put the singleplayer into the equation of a game's worth.

Quality vs. Quantity

Many games throughout the years have been pushed out as quickly as possible to appease the consumer and to make money, although maybe the first couple of games are good, once the companies start overdoing it with too much of the same thing, then people start to lose interest in the brand and the series as a whole. Take Halo for example, I’ve had many friends say they loved Halo 1, 2 and 3, but they didn’t really enjoy Halo ODST and Halo Reach. Once the ideas that made your game great start becoming boring then you are in real trouble. I think the reason why my friends didn’t like the new Halo’s was that they were the same thing, with a few small adjustments. Not much was added, and they were again charged sixty dollars for ODST, and then again for Reach. It’s great for the company, but not for the series. This is going to happen, or eventually happen for Call of Duty. Sure, they got some nice graphics, but just because you are in a graphically intensive environment doesn’t mean you are having fun. Guess what one of the biggest innovations Call of Duty is planning on bringing to the new game? Wait for it… wait for it… The ability to have two weapon sights at one time! Wow! See what I mean? This is revolutionary stuff we’re dealing with here. I applaud Blizzard though, because the game sequels they do make are well planned, and they try and give the player a whole new experience. For example, in Starcraft, they had to delay it multiple times because they wanted to make it the best game possible before releasing it. I loved the new game, it actually got me to play the normal games in Starcraft, which I’m really bad at and I hate playing because of that. It took them years to make Starcraft, but in the end, it delivered a whole new experience to the player. The way I see this Quality vs. Quantity battle is that quality and well planned games are good for us, quantity and cookie cutter games are good for the company.

Starcraft I & II: The Real Game

This is a classic RTS game. One of the first major titles in the RTS genre. There is a huge variety of game modes to play in Starcraft. Although I’m not going to talk about UMS maps in this post though, because that’s almost another game entirely.

Although Starcraft is known for its in-depth storyline, the main focus is always on the multiplayer gameplay. Starcraft basically consists of three races, and critters, you can’t forget the critters (They violently explode if you click on them too many times in a row). So, the main goal in a game of Starcraft is to completely destroy all your enemies’ buildings. You start out small with only a Command Center, and five (six in Starcraft 2) SCVs, which are your basic worker unit. You have to quickly build an army while balancing military power and economic power while your enemy keeps trying to harass you with their military might.

There are multiple “builds” on how to play the game, if you don’t know what builds are here is the answer; they are pretty much the structure order and unit oder you make depending on the time in the game and economic power. The most well known build is the zergling rush, what players do is they instantly get to work building a spawning pool which allows them to build zerglings. Then, before the other player has time to build up a normal base and army, they attack with about six or seven zerglings, which can devastate the opposing player. But, there are always risks involved, if you run into an enemy blockade, then they can repel your puny force and this will in turn, devastate you in the early game. So really, when it comes down to it, it’s a lot like chess, you have to anticipate what your enemy is doing before your enemy even knows for sure he’s doing it and there are risks and rewards to all your tactics and you have to pick the right one to achieve victory.

Also, there’s a community wide joke that South Koreans are naturally better than anyone at Starcraft, so never challenge one to this game. Ever.

Battlefield 2

Battlefield 2 was and still is one of my favorite games to play. I started playing it many years ago when it came out, and it was insanely fun. Sometimes I even play it today. What I loved about it was it was you had a giant battlefield, and you could run around and set up ambushes and stealthily capture strategic points. The variety of ways you could do this is amazing as well, you could hop in a tank and blow everyone to pieces, or you could hitch a ride on a helicopter, or you could even walk the entire way, but that is something I wouldn’t advise if you want to keep your sanity intact. What was revolutionary at the time was that the game engine supported sixty four people playing in one server, at the same time. Battlefield 2 was made about six years ago, and some of the major games today don’t even allow anything close to sixty four players. Battlefield 2 held many innovations in game design, like their ranking system. Once every so often when you rank up, you got the choice to unlock a new weapon. Also, when you ranked up, and you wanted the Commander position, which allowed you to drop supplies, call artillery strikes, and monitor the battlefield, you got automatically picked over people who were lesser in rank. The fun doesn’t stop there though, because many mods were created for this innovative game.

Project Reality

PR Mod for short, this mod made everything a lot more realistic, or at least as realistic as the PR developers could program into the extremely dated engine that Battlefield 2 relied upon. This game is extremely teamwork oriented and is not for the faint of heart. Each team has a couple squads and extremely limited specialized “kits,” or loadouts. These specialized kits are comprised of AT weapons, snipers, or demolitions. Most of these kits take almost a half an hour to be used again if they are lost! It doesn’t even stop there. Jets and tanks each can take almost the same amount of time to re-spawn once destroyed. Tanks even have two kinds of tank shells, which are used for armored targets, or infantry, and these shells take a couple seconds to reload, or to switch between the shell types. Actions in this mod take much more thought and planning, otherwise you could wind up having a two minute respawn time.

Forgotten Hope 2

Although I have a lot less experience with this game, FH2 as it’s called, is a lot like Battlefield 2… that is if you entered a time machine and went back to 1942. I don’t know what makes people reenact historical battles, but something about FH2 is just fun. Whether it’s using actual mortars to bring down the thunder, or having a dogfight in the skies of northern Africa, you can count on FH2 to have many fun opportunities to fulfill your lust for killing Nazi’s. Oh, yeah… did I mention you get flamethrowers?

Big vs. Little

Sure, you’ve heard of those big game developing companies: EA, Infinity Ward, Treyarch, Activision, and Blizzard. But what about the little guys, you know, the less known developers? Why should they make an independent game development company when the big companies pay to have people make the games? Indie developers, as they are called, make games even though they sometimes lack the budget and the manpower to create games effectively, but one could say if they are more motivated, and if they don’t have a deadline, they produce better quality games. Many new genres are thrown aside by big companies who want to make the sure bet. This can be seen in the massive amount of first person shooters that are on the market. For example new Call of Duty’s are being chugged out each year because their maker wants to keep rolling in the dough.

What they don’t realize though, is that fun and famous games can be produced by independent developers as well. Take Minecraft for example, it was made by a completely unknown developer, but it has reached over 3.5 million in sales. Sure, it might be an anomaly, but that’s why there are only a few huge game companies, because the ones that make the money do better than the ones that don’t. Indie Developers have more freedom to do what they want, and they don’t really have a deadline to meet. It isn’t uncommon for a developer to stop working at the big companies to go off and make their own. It’s the American dream at work.

Although being an Indie Developer has its advantages’, being in the big leagues with EA and Activision can get you more resources at your disposal, like more developers, which means you can make a bigger, more diverse game. It also has a bigger budget, which is a major factor that decides whether a game gets shipped out or not. Also many people trust big game companies to make solid games that are fun to play. The list goes on about whether big or small video game companies are better or not. The only real thing that matters though is if the game is good, the rest is the company’s problem.