APB: Reloaded

APB:R, or ‘All Points Bulletin: Reloaded’ is a free to play game created by GamersFirst. It’s a massive multiplayer online game where the player takes the role of either a criminal, attempting to get notoriety and recognition from his/her peers, or an enforcer trying to become the most prestigious officer in the district. An easy way to think of it is imagine GTA‘s single-player, just online. There are a few differences, in that instead of going to people’s locations to work for them, you simply ‘pledge’ to them, and you can receive missions whenever you are ‘ready’. Then, the big difference. You don’t fight AI players. Infact, there is no AI in this game (Okay, apart from the pedestrians and drivers). Your enemies are always played by real people, and let me tell you. It takes things to a whole new level.

Graphics

A successful bank robbery is successful

The graphics on APB:R are brilliant. Especially for a free game. I’ve yet to find anything graphically bad. I did have a slight problem at the start, in that my character always looked Chinese due to the eyes, but a bit of tweaking fixed that. The cars have a nice shine to them, players look and move realistically and for the most part, even their deaths look pretty good (Although occasionally I found my player’s body flung across the entire map by a rocket, but hey!).

In the daytime, the city (Or district) looks pretty good. I’ve yet to find that feel that you can find in other similar games that make you feel like it’s a real life living and breathing location, however the fact that you are playing with real players definetely helps that. Stopping patiently at a red light and seeing three sports cars zooming past you adds variety to how the district operates. I don’t really notice the day/night cycle (I don’t mean I can’t tell the difference when it’s day and night, I mean I don’t notice it getting darker), which I guess they could improve on to make it feel more like a real life location that continues living regardless of what you’re doing.

At night-time, the district looks amazing. The lights are all lit up and it looks like a place to go for a good nightlife. Aside from the fact, of course, that you might get shot in the face or ran over by some criminals. Personally, I think at night-time is when the district really livens up. I’m not sure if there is something mental that just makes people become more exciting the darker the location is, or if it just looks that way, but it is definetely much more fun playing in the night-time. Not to mention that you can use the darkness to sneak up on your enemies. 😉

Gameplay

As I’ve already said, the game is pretty similar to GTA. You take part in missions to complete a series of objectives for money and notoriety/prestige. You can do this either on your own or in a team. It’s really recommended however that you play in a team, as your opponents can easily out number you, and sometimes there are multiple objectives (For example, raiding three houses) which are completed faster when in a team, which can help you to beat the enemy team (If you and your team are in fast cars and know the roads, you can easily complete objectives before your enemy even gets there).

Unlocks (weapons, clothes, abilities, effects etc) are unlocked by pledging to a person who will give you missions, and as you level that character up, you unlock things specific to that person. This gives the feeling that the game has a progression system (Going from the lower level missions to the higher level missions through a recommendation system). The way you progress to different people is when you max out a person, they will recommend you to someone higher level, and so on and so forth until you complete that district, then you can go and complete the next district. Some unlocks are unlocked just by levelling your own character up, and require nothing but personal experience.

Better take cover!

 The group/team system for missions is really good, and I’m pleased that it’s how the game works. You invite other players (Or just wait for them to automatically join a group, hopefully yours) or join others (Or, yet again, wait for yourself to be put into another group automatically), and then all ready up by pressing ‘K’, then wait your instructions and complete them as fast and efficient as you can. Higher levels will make the mission much easier for you, as you (or your teammates) will have much more powerful weaponry, and probably just be better at the game in general. Not to mention faster cars. The districts are split up into ‘ranks’. Bronze, which is for new Trainees and low-ability players, Silver, for medium/casual players, and Gold, for more advanced/hardcore players. Bronze gives lower rewards, but are easier to complete, Silver gives average rewards and therefore has medium level difficulty, and gold has vastly harder levels, but gives much better rewards. Overall, the missions are the same, but in the different level districts, you’ll fight harder opponents, making the levels harder, and the rewards higher.

Cons

There are a few cons with this. Most of which can be overlooked/fixed, but it’d be nice to not have them exist. The first main one is the one you’ll notice on first play. Your character is ALWAYS linked to one single server/world. This is fine, but due to the next problem, it can be a serious issue.

LAG. There are two ‘types’ of lag in this game. There’s the normal, standard sort of lag. Either your network speed isn’t fast enough, or you’re too far away from the chosen server to get smooth gameplay (Fixed by deleting your character and picking a new server/world). Then, there’s the other problem. For some computers and networks, there is a driving-delay. It’s based off the way windows handles network queries from the APB server. It can be fixed pretty easily and after that it’s fine. It’d just be nice to have the fix pre-built in as a patch or something.

Overall though, APB:R is an outstanding game, I’ve racked up nearly 20 hours already, and I still feel like the game is brand new. A rare case, especially for a game such as APB:R. Not to mention it’s free, so it’s outstanding+1. You should go and try it out. Now.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive gets free maps – Take THAT CoD!

Yellow, blue, indigo, pink, green, orange vertigo… Wait, vertigo? Isn’t that the name of one of the free maps released to all Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players?

Yep, you heard right guys. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was updated today, bringing two new maps into the Counter-Strike map rotation. Vertigo, a ‘Classic’ map (being that you can play it in both classic casual and classic competitive) has been recycled from the original counter-strike. Don’t worry, it’s not using old textures or anything like that. Infact, it looks pretty nice, if I do say so myself. The other map, monastry, is also an updated version of an old map. I don’t actually recall playing this map, ever, but from what I’ve read it is infact just an updated version of an old map. Either way, it’s pretty badass. Only problem is, it’s Arms Race only. Neither of these maps are cross-gamestyle.

So, let’s delve a little deeper.

Map One: Vertigo

Go, go, go!

Vertigo takes you and your team to the top of a skyscraper, what can only be described as a truly epic location of battle for both sides. I’m assuming that as the terrorist side your goal is to completely obliterate the skyscraper, and therefore obviously your task as a CT is to stop that occuring. At first look, the map confused me very slightly. Infact, one my first attempt at this map, I fell off a construction rig and got shot in the face with an AK. Brilliant.

Once you get over the slightly-confusing map layout, you’ll realise it’s actually pretty good, tactically. CT’s have multiple locations to defend the area, whilst the terrorists have both sneeky and gun-ho methods of completing their goal. Both methods make for an interesting finish. The combat on this map is pretty close, so I’d reccommend either an SMG or a shotgun for this map, mind you if you go with the shotgun, I’d have to suggest it being auto. So far whilst playing this map I’ve been shocked and been put very close to having a heart attack by the large amount of enemies that appeared out of nowhere. You won’t do too well without an automatic shotgun.

If, however, you’re too 1337 for a shotgun and decide to go with another weapon, snipers are ALMOST out of the question. If you’re sniping, you’re either going to have to pretend you’re playing CoD and quickscope (PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS), or sit at the back and cautiously move around long hallways. Most of which an AR will have a better time than you. If you’re going with the AR or SMG, it’s really up to personal preference. Any gun will do the job well in these two sections.

Overall, Vertigo is a pretty good map. I can certainly see myself having this as the only map in rotation for a few hours.

Map Two: Monastery

Monastery is a very small map, like all (Ahem, both) Arms Race maps. Also like both arms race maps, monastery has multiple levels of battle. You can fight on the ground, on top of buildings or anywhere in between (Quite literally. Most buildings have holes or windows to shoot out of). This is a really well done map. It works for all gun types as far as I can tell. AR? Watch the pathways. SMG? Go hard, and go fast (No that is not what she said). Shotgun? Stick to the walls and clear out rooms. Sniper? Here’s the fun part, sit at the top of one of the towers and sneakily pick off your enemies as you so wish. Even hanguns will have a nice time playing this map, you’ll just have to be slightly more sneakier.

Open fire! On bots…

The monastery itself is covered in snow and rubble. Overall, it looks pretty damn sweet. It has that barren sort of feeling, yet making you feel like you could walk into the entire enemy team at a corners turn. It’s a good mix. I like it. Gameplay wise it’s extremely fun it play on. Due to the map layout, you can jump from building to building, picking off foes who will stand in your way, all the time unlocking different weapons. There’s only one slight problem with this map. Due to the terrorists spawning on the top of one of the towers, an effectively co-ordinated CT team can simply camp opposite it, easily picking off the enemies. The terrorists only hope then is that they will spawn at the bottom of the tower, which occasionally happens. Just hope there isn’t anyone down there, too.

Verdict?

Hell, this doesn’t need a verdict. It’s free. It’s good. You already have it (Provided of course, you own CS:GO). Well done Valve, thanks for proving to us yet again you know how to give good support post-release.

Kickin’ It Old School – Theme Hospital!

Hey all, hope you’re having a fantastic week! I’m having a good one, thanks for asking. Primarily because I’m reliving some games from my childhood!

Now, I’m not exactly what you’d class as a ‘Doom-era’ person. Infact, I’ve never played Doom in my entire life (Oh my!), but I did grow up in the 90s and therefore have played a lot of games that just don’t seem to exist today. From what I can remember about that era of gaming, most games required patience, skill, knowledge, luck or any combination of them. It’s the primary reason why a lot of the time I enjoy playing a couple of old games.

The game I’m playing at the moment is called ‘Theme Hospital‘. It was a pain to get it working on Win7 x64, but once I did, it worked like a charm. I won’t get into the nitty-gritty of it all,  but it requires you to own an original copy of Theme Hospital and to download a modified and updated version of the game engine. I’ll remember to write up a guide at some point this week for it.

Theme Hospital may not LOOK the best, but it sure is addictive!

For anyone that hasn’t played Theme Hospital, it’s the same basic idea as all the other Theme games (If you haven’t played a Theme game, I suggest you do so immediately.) You start off with a small yet humble little hospital that you, yes you, have to organise and manage, bringing your hospital to the top. It may not sound like much, but it sure is addictive. It’s pretty difficult when you first play the game to effectively set up your hospital. You’ll be putting your GP office far away from all the other diagnosis rooms, and your pharmacy somewhere on planet mars, but after you get used to what is classed as a ‘good’ layout, you’ll be fine. That’s where the fun begins. You’ll begin researching new ways of dealing with a whole range of different diseases, medical conditions, physical conditions and more. This will require specially trained staff, not to mention the specialist rooms to deal with the issue. It’s a combination between strategy and skill. The strategy obviously being that you know where, when and how to layout your hospital, with the correct amount of staff with the best qualifications and CVs, the skill being that you keep your workers (specifically handymen) busy, making sure that your ques are as low as possible, whilst retaining high profit margins.

Whilst the graphics of theme hospital may not attract you (Saying that though, I personally quite like the style of Theme Hospital), the game-play will almost certainly keep you entertained for hours. There’s even a patch/update that enables online play, pitting three players against themselves to see who can create the best hospital. I’m not too sure if the online servers for the game have been shut down (Probably) but I’m sure there’s a work around, regardless if they have. It doesn’t overly matter if there is multiplayer anyway, due to the nature of the game, you can send it to your friends and chose a specific scenario offered to you (There are around three scenarios offered at the very start of the game, each posing different challenges) and simply see who can do the best. You could even Skype up with a couple of friends and have  race to see who can beat the scenario the fastest!

What’s even better, is that I’ve yet to come into any ‘serious’ bugs within the game. Occasionally you’ll get a mysterious error message pop up, asking if you’d like to recover (Just press yes, it does nothing and you can still play) or one telling you that a ‘humonoid’ (or in normal non-Bullfrog talk, a patient) has glitched out of the que and now has nothing to do, you can chose to send them home and it’ll remedy the problem. Neither of these are anything game breaking. It may crash every now and then (It’s yet to crash on me, but my girlfriend has crashed on it multiple times. I blame her.), not that it matters. It’ll autosave your game for you, so you’ll just need to start it up again.

Look at all them custome- I mean patients!

Overall, Theme Hospital is worth more than just a look-in, it deserves a full play. The game IS completable (Though from what I’ve heard, it gets dastardly difficult at the later levels), and once you’ve completed it you’re free to roam any hospital you want. I’m very happy that I’ve managed to get this old charm working again, and look forward to having many hours of fun, and I hope you will too!

Black Mesa (sort of) Released! (Includes download link)

It’s here. Finally. The remake of the original game ‘Half-Life’ that defined what an ‘intelligent’ FPS should be. Years in the making and countless people doubting its release. It’s finally here. Sort of.

By sort of, I mean it’s not fully done. It goes up to the ‘Lambda Core’ level, however by that time you should know whether you like the mod or not. Oh, yes, it’s a mod. Not a game. All it requires is a free install of Source SDK, which you’ll already have if you’ve played any Source game (Half-Life 2, Portal, TF2, CSS etc). Thankfully this means a majority of people interested in the Half-Life remake ‘Black Mesa‘ will be able to get it whenever they want to. I’ll leave the download link at the bottom of this article for you to download.

 

As usual with all of my blog entries regarding games, I’ll post up my general thoughts on the game (A warning though: I’ve yet to play the mod)

 

Graphics

Yep, I’m sold. I’ll BUY your mod.

The graphics on this game look absolutely outstanding! They bring the original game of Half-Life up to par with today’s games, and besides, it’s a completely free mod created by an independent team that doesn’t get paid for this. I don’t know if they have any sort of contract with Valve, but as far as I’m aware they’re entirely independent. Some of the weapons look different. Now, Half-Life’s weapons have already gone through two ‘weapon-phases’. When the game first came out, the SMG was an SMG. It looked like an MP5 variant with a mounted grenade launcher, then with the HD Texture update, it turned into a more M16 variant with a mounted grenade launcher. Now, it looks like it’s returned to it’s routes and become a truly bad ass looking MP5. Either way, it looks and even sounds amazing.

Not to mention all the terrain changes. Yet again, this is the third ‘phase’ of the terrain. There was the old block, pixelated backing phase of Half-Life. Then the higher resolution version that was brought in with the HD Texture update, and now finally the Black Mesa update has finely tuned the back drops to make them look even more astounding. I don’t know about you guys but I sure can’t wait for that reveal when you finally reach the surface, by the mountain side out the vent? Man, that’ll be awesome!

Even further than just weapons and terrain, there are even map changes! All maps have been, as expected, up-res’d to look far better than their original counterparts, but some maps have had objects, sounds, NPC’s, effects and a whole host of other shenanigans in. Obviously, all these add-ons do not change the game-play.

 

Gameplay

Now obviously it’d help if I had played the actual game that I’m talking about, but seeing as despite trying for countless hours it just wouldn’t work, I’m going to have to do my best to convey to you the overall game-play mechanics of the game.

Now, the biggest change in the way the game plays out would be the engine. Whilst we’ve already seen Half-Life on the Source engine, that was only a ‘physics’ update. If you look, the main changes between the original ‘goldsrc’ version of Half-Life and the updated Source version are textures (including water) and physics. Boxes would sway from side to side when hanging from the ceiling, items and people would float more realistically etc. However, that update as I said, was mainly a physics update. Black Mesa has rebuilt the entire game off Source. This means that, unlike the Half-Life: Source version of the game, the entire game is built using the amazing Source engine. Everything you see on Black Mesa has been created from scratch using SDK (Source Development Kit). This means an overall fresher experience than previously seen, and probably less cross-engine bugs.

Have a look at them apples!

I’d assume that whilst this’d create some different methods to play the game, some easier, some harder, the overall experience would be similar to that of Half-Life/Half-Life: Source.

 

Sound/Voice Acting

Here is a crucial change to the game. In both Half-Life and Half-Life: Source, the original audio was pretty much left alone. Same foot steps (Minus the ‘Source’-ey ones), same voice actors, gun noises etc. In Black Mesa, they have completely reworked all the audio. The footsteps are different and sound updated, same with the guns, the voice acting has a slightly humorous Hollywood touch on it. Overall the sound changes bring a welcome change to the ageing game. We no longer have to hear the nonsensical footsteps of GoldSrc (Yes, you know the one I’m talking about). In fact, as far as I can tell, we don’t even have to hear the Source foot steps any more. It sounds similar to the footsteps in Global Offensive, being that they actually convey your weight and equipment.

This leads to a much better sounding game. Which, for anyone who has listened to a game on the lowest possible sound settings, then listened to it on the highest, will know that good quality audio can change a lot in a game, mainly atmosphere.

 

I personally can’t wait to get my hands on this mod. I won’t be playing it till it’s fully completed, as I don’t fancy getting up to a point in the game then not being able to continue until they have finished working on it, but by all means, download the mod and enjoy yourself!

 

http://www.blackmesasource.com/download.html

 

 

Tribes: Ascend

 

 

Tribes: Ascend is a F2P game and let me tell you now, it’s amazing. It has 5 different game modes, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, CTF Blitz, Capture and Hold, and Arena. Each one is entirely unique and presents a completely different playing style. The game has been out for some time now, but I’ve only just started playing it and within around an hour of playing it I found that I had found my new muse. It was no longer Counter-Strike, but it was playing Tribes: Ascend for hours and hours on end. The game is addictive, fun and very entertaining.

 

Game Modes

• TEAM DEATHMATCH: OBLITERATE EVERYTHING

Team Deathmatch is the traditional FPS style of game play. See something that isn’t on your side? Kill it. Before it kills you. It’s without a doubt the most popular game style. I cannot think of a well-known FPS that hasn’t got Team Deathmatch in it. It is the backbone of every FPS game ever released. In Tribes: Ascend Team Deathmatch games are generally on wide open maps, allowing the player to get in and out of action as fast as possible. For the most part, to get into the battle you simple ‘ski’ into the center of the map and start shooting your desired weapon. Kill someone? Great! Now do it again. And again.

• CAPTURE THE FLAG: BASE, VEHICLES AND STRATEGY

Capture the flag is a fairly obvious game style, right? Go to the enemies base, take their flag and make it back home. Well, Tribes: Ascend brings something new to the table. In CTF on Tribes: Ascend there are vehicles, turrets, radars and a whole load of bad guys wanting to kill you. The idea is still simple, get their flag, get back home. Rinse and repeat. However just with the inclusion of ‘ski-ing’, vehicles and turrets it changes the entire atmosphere of the CTF game style. Ski-ing is by far the most popular way of retrieving an enemy flag. Build up speed and swoop in and out of the enemies base with their flag in under two seconds flat. It sounds pretty badass, and believe me. It is. You could also go in with a tank-like vehicle and blitz the be-jebus out of your enemy, of course.

• CTF BLITZ: CTF! JUST WITH MOVING FLAG STANDS…

CTF Blitz is a game style that, yet again, revolutionises the way CTF is played. Before, players were used to learning the best way in and out of a flag capture. Ski in at the same place, ski out. However now, the flag stand will move with each successful flag capture, completely changing the way you need to capture the flag. It could be placed on the top of a mountain, or in the depth of the enemy base. You have no way of knowing where the flag will spawn, you just have to wait and find out. I’ve not played CTF Blitz, it’s not a game style that appeals to me very well. CTF or TDM are my main game styles, however, CTF Blitz certainly looks like it could be a lot of fun when working as a team as it’ll require tonnes of teamwork in order to co-ordinate a successful flag capture if the flag is in the enemies base.

• CAPTURE AND HOLD: CAPTURE A LOCATION. HOLD IT.

Capture and Hold is pretty much base defence. You have to first of all capture the structure (Done simply by standing on the marked area) and then holding it off from attackers. There are three points. A, B and C. The more structures you own the more points you’ll get per every five seconds, and you have to hold the structures until either the time limit runs out or the score limit is reached. Unfortunately, just like in Domination on Call of Duty, once a team owns two structures, they tend to camp them structures and not let go of them, usually resulting in a very dull game experience. It’s far more enjoyable when you have buddies that are playing the game correctly, and you can all co-ordinate a powerful strike onto the enemies structures.

• ARENA: BATTLE IT OUT!

From my layman’s perspective, Arena seems like a smaller version of team deathmatch. The maps are extremely small, and spawning will often have you in a gun fight almost instantly. It mainly appeals to those who just want a chaotic, blood bath form of team deathmatch. Needless to say, I don’t like it much. I prefer having a small break between fights, however I can see why people would find the game style that is found in Arena extremely entertaining.

 

Aside from all the game styles, there are loads of weapons, equipment and powerups. All have the option to pay with either real life money, or using your experience points you have gained along your travels (and battles!). I personally use experience points as I’m cheap as hell, not to mention I think using real life money to make a game faster to complete almost defeats the entire point of playing it, the exception being that you play for fun entirely.

Overall, Tribes: Ascend is absolutely outstanding! It’s a great game if you like FPS’ and hey, for £0 you can’t really go wrong!

 

Steam’s Bigger Picture

The home of the Big Picture

Imagine a world where your Steam games and friends could be taken into the living room and played with a controller, all on an intuitive user interface designed with you in mind. Wouldn’t that just be amazing? Well, we don’t need to imagine anymore. It’s happening! Valve are creating an entirely new user interface designed with living room/bedroom atmosphere in mind. No, they’re not creating a new console, yet. What they are however doing is building a new version of steam, nicknamed ‘Big Picture’ that is designed as if it were a console.

 

The User Interface

Let’s buy all of our games!

The UI (User Interface) for ‘Big Picture’ is very similar to the UI of Xbox 360. It has almost the exact same game-selection screen (No, seriously. Load up Big Picture and click onto a game, but don’t play it. It’ll load up all the achievements, game reviews, last played, time played, friends who own the game.). I don’t necessarily think this as a problem, I myself very much enjoy the Xbox 360 user interface, it looks clean and slim allowing me to do what I want to do without any unneeded nonsense. Is it a bad move on Valve’s part to (What looks to be) use the 360’s user interface as a base/template? Maybe. It depends on how many people are going to comment on it in a negative way. Also, baring in mind that ‘Big Picture’ is currently just in beta, it is possible that the entire user interface could slowly mould over into something completely different. Fine by me, just as long as they don’t make it into something I won’t be able to understand.

 

 

Breaking Into the Console Market?

I’m not too sure whether this is the start of Valve attempting to break into the console market. It could be. It could not be. We’ll just have to wait. Personally, I’d be quite happy if the did try to reach out into the console market, just as long as they don’t forget the PC platform. Or try to make the PC platform too console-like. I’m also not too sure how well Valve would do against big, established consoles such as the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3. A majority of Valve’s ‘supporters’ are all very PC. They almost avidly hate console gamers for their lack of competitive skill, not to mention the fact that most Valve games to be released on consoles are always held back update-wise due to either Microsoft or Sony not letting Valve update their own games using their own methods. As an example, compare the console version of TF2 to the PC version. The PC version has hats (Yay!), bug patches, performance improvements, addons, community addons etc. The console version however is just the stock version of TF2. That is, it’s the same as it was when it was released.

Recognise this from XBL?

If Valve does break into the console market, it is also highly likely that their games will become more and more console-y (Look at Counter-Strike: Global Offensive just for an example). Depending on your outlook on games, this is either a good thing or a bad thing. It might be good because it means chances are it’ll be built around more casual and relaxing play, making the game easier for you. Obviously, the bad part is that might be the complete opposite to what you want in a game. You may enjoy games that challenge you to the brink of rage.

 

Console Computers

Here is something that sparked an entire supernova of confusion in my head when I read it. We all know that the average gaming computer vs the average console argument usually goes ‘consoles are cheaper’. So surely, making a console that is infact a computer would therefore be utterly pointless because it’d cost the same as a computer with the functionality of a console. Yes, you will possibly be able to mod your Skyrim to the high heavens and make it look like a realistic version of Minecraft, but would that really cover the cost of the computer?

You might be wondering where I’ve got this idea from. Well, on the ‘Big Picture’ page on steam which is located in a place I don’t know of, it talks about console-like computers. That is, computers that are small, sleek and slim enough to fit in as a console, but are actually computers. Yes, this means you’ll be able to browse the internet from your console-computer at the comfort of your bedroom whilst in incognito mode (Yes, you know what I mean by that gentlemen), but it also means you would’ve paid a premium for a feature that is already available on consoles.  An example would be the Alienware X51. Take away the extravagant price of it, and you’ll get what was described by Valve. A small, sleek and slim gaming computer designed to take the place of a console. Just aslong as these new ‘console-computers’ don’t replicate the pricing of Alienware…

 

As for me? I much rather sitting at a computer playing my games than a couch.

 

Social/Casual Gaming vs Hardcore/Competitive Gaming

I’m sure all of us know that one really nerdy person that spends his entire life playing video games and gets extremely disappointed with himself and his team when he loses. Be it on Call of Duty, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress, Battlefield, any game that pits two or more teams against each other. As for the hardcore gamers, I’m sure you all know that annoying idiot that just can’t get a single kill but will happily stroll into the battlefield and get killed numerous times without a care in the world, bringing the entire team down. But the question is, what is more enjoyable? Social/Casual gaming, or Hardcore/Competitive gaming? Well, let’s compare them, shall we?

 

Social Gaming

Social gaming gives the player freedom to play how he wants, when he wants, for as long as he wants and nobody gives a damn if he dies ten times per kill with a resulting K/D spread of 3-400. You’ll never really get ‘better’ at the game whilst playing like this, but hey, as long as you’re having fun, who cares?

We all enjoy playing games with our buddies. Doesn’t matter who you are, if you can find someone to play a game with you and use Skype or another VoIP program to communicate, you’re just bound to have hours of fun. Doesn’t matter what game, either! You’re also not required to have a super MLG legit pro username to show all of your teammates that you are serious about gaming, and not to be messed around with!

You’re also not restricted to playing any specific game over and over again to get better at it, nor do you have to pick your games according to what is considered the most ‘pro’. This widely opens up your potential gaming enjoyment, allowing you to play games all across the genres, from sports to fps’, platformers to strategies as well as horror games to rts’.

 

Competitive Gaming

Competitive Gaming gives the player focus to play to win. It encourages him almost religiously to become better at his chosen game, to prove to himself and his peers that he is the true champion. You play to win, nothing else. Playing competitively will almost ALWAYS improve your game, after all, you’ll probably be practising for hours on end and won’t stop until you have mastered something.

You’ll be playing among a select few players that have been hand picked to fight along side you. They are your only friends and you will be damned if you fail them. The bond you could come to create with these buddies is almost undestroyable, and in a totally non-nerdy way, it is truly something amazing. No, seriously, try it. Get into the competitive gaming scene for a few months, get yourself in a team (or a ‘Clan’) and just watch as your bond between you and your buddies become stronger than some of the friendships you have with your real life friends that you speak to every day of your life. I’m pretty sure that made me look like a total nerd, but hey, I’m allowed to geek out occasionally! Often… Regularly… Everyday :-/.

The main draw back with playing in the competitive side is that quite often you’re restricted to playing games that are almost ‘built’ more for competitive playing. Games such as Counter-Strike and Starcraft, are the type of games you’ll be playing. Whilst to some this doesn’t pose as a problem, after all, 100+ hours on Counter-Strike probably means you enjoy playing the game, but to others it is a strong downfall for competitive gaming. Each to his own, though.

 

What Should You Do?

Well, I don’t know. I’d suggest trying both and seeing what you prefer. Also, don’t try it for a few days then decide you don’t like it and move on, stick at it until you are good at it and realise you still don’t like it. Then you can safely say it’s not for you.

What Do I Do?

I play whatever the hell I want, but I always try to be the best I can. I don’t limit myself based on what’s considered hardcore and competitive, but whatever game I play, I always play to win. I suppose that makes me more competitive than casual, but I also often times like to just relax and play a game for half an hour and not care what the outcome is.

Steam Greenlight

What a wondrous idea, Valve!

 

Steam Greenlight. The new initiative made up by Valve to help us, the users (see:gamers) pick what games (I believe specifically indie games) they want to see on the online gaming platform, Steam. The way it works is on a voting system. Users are asked to trawl through thousands upon thousands of games (some being duplicates, others being ‘official’ games, therefore having no place on Greenlight.) I think the idea of Greenlight is superb, and shows that Valve is 100% behind getting lesser known independent games on the market. Due to the rating system, which I’ll get into more in a moment, users can not only choose games they want on steam, they can also choose games they specifically don’t want to see on steam, which is great! Providing that the system doesn’t get abused, of course.

 

As said previously, the main ‘target’ for Greenlight is games developed by independent ‘artists’ or developers that wish to get their game published on a more professional level. I’m not too sure on whether that gives Valve any percentage in the profits of each game purchased, though I’d assume so. Either way, it’s a great way for developers to get their content published and seen by millions instantly. The only problem is, however, one word. Minecraft. Thanks to the indie success story of Minecraft, every John, Bob and Harry want to create their own Minecraft-esque game, in the hopes of becoming famous and raking in the money. I went through a relatively small amount of games, namely about five to six pages, and I’d say at least half the games on there are very Minecrafty. Not that I think there’s anything wrong with Minecraft, I just find it a illogical game to attempt to recreate seeing as it is already popular, cheap and done to death.

 

I’m sure this’ll be released on Greenlight!

There have also been fakes to be uploaded to Greenlight. The funniest being a certain game called ‘Half-Life 3’. The user was banned (not sure if permanent) from Steam. The games description was “I am Valve. I just released HL3, *hint hint*” along with a conceptual Half-Life 3 logo (It was basically just the Half-Life 2 logo with the 2 replaced with         a 3). I’m not sure if the user was attempting to troll the Steam community or just make a strong nudge at Valve. Either way, he done both. The comments section was filled with countless users insulting the user who uploaded the fake Half-Life 3. I sure did wish that it was a real upload, but somehow Valve asking its users on Greenlight if they  want them to release Half-Life 3 didn’t seem realistic. Aside from fakes (There were more fakes. GTA V, Minecraft 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 etc) there are also tonnes of duplicates. I’m not too sure how many times I saw the same game spanned out over the pages, but it was enough to drive me mental! Hopefully Valve will get a team to sift through the entries and remove any duplicates.

 

My final point: The rating system. I’m not too sure how well it works, as I’ve not taken too much interest into Greenlight (Hey, I just play what’s available!), however it’s rating system uses a fairly simple style, similar to that of YouTube‘s. If you like it, rate it up. If you dislike it, rate it down. Whilst this may seem like a good idea to the ‘untrained eye’ (after all, it’s giving an accurate example of what is wanted and what is not wanted), to myself and a lot of other peoples minds, this system can easily be abused. Just like on YouTube, one user’s community hates another, the other user’s videos will get disliked and flagged. Well, on Greenlight it can work the same way. If one indie game has a lot of community support on Steam and another doesn’t, and the game wants to eliminate any form of competition, it can pretty much just get all of it’s users to go ahead dislike the other games, lowering the other game’s chances of getting put on Steam, and therefore increasing the chances of the indie game being put on Steam, if you follow? Either way though, I suppose it does represent the general feeling overall. I mean after all, if a game can get users to help it dominate the opposition, chances are it deserves to be supported. Right? Right…?

 

Overall, I think Greenlight is ‘good enough’. I mean, it provides an accurate rating system allowing users to show whether they want a game on Steam or they don’t want a game on Steam. It targets independent games and is just generall well laid out. I think it’s a good move on Valve’s part. Who knows, maybe a game we see on Greenlight will one day get taken over by Valve itself?

 

 

Valve’s Fear of The Number 3

Valve, the master of my life.

 

Counter-Strike

Counter-Strike: Condition Zero

Counter-Strike: Source

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Day of Defeat

Day of Defeat: Source

Deathmatch Classic

Dota 2

Half-Life

Half-Life 2

Half-Life 2: Episode 1

Half-Life 2: Episode 2

Half-Life 2: Lost Coast

Half-Life Deathmatch: Source

Half-Life: Blue Shift

Half-Life: Opposing Force

Half-Life: Source

Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead 2

Portal

Portal 2

Ricochet

Team Fortress 2

Team Fortress Classic

 

This is a list of every Valve owned game that i can think of. Do you see a number three anywhere? Anywhere at all? I sure don’t. Sure, if you count Half-Life one and all it’s expansions you’ll get a three, same with Half-Life 2, but I still don’t see a ‘3’ anywhere. Why is this relevant?

Well, aside from the fact that I’m a huge Half-Life fan (I personally have Half-Life for single player and Counter-Strike for multiplayer), it is almost baffling how Valve has a fear over the number three. Ickle forum-use talk shows why. Common sentences such as ‘Every time a sequel hits number 3 it dies’ may indicate Valve’s feeling of a third sequel. But that leaves us with a problem. What’s going to happen to Half-Life 3, Portal 3, Left 4 Dead 3, Dota 3, Team Fortress 3?

I read an article somewhere stating Valve’s new plan for content. It no longer plans on episodic content or game releases, but plans to just merge all games into one, and constantly update that one game. This seems like it’d work fairly well for multiplayer games. Heck, even Portal 2 could use that to it’s advantage. I just don’t understand how a single player only game such as Half-Life could use something like that. Will they just continue the story in DLC? I don’t see how that would work.

Come on Valve, make me happy!

Half-Life, for those who don’t know, is the game that started Valve.  I don’t see it fair to forget about the series that gave them everything. Counter-Strike started of as a mod for Half-Life, as did Team Fortress. Maybe I’m slightly biased. Maybe I just want a new Half-Life. It does, however, make me think about Valve’s thinking on more of a wider scale. If Valve truly is worried about the number three, if this new Content-Delivery-System doesn’t work according to plan, how are they going to provide new games to us? Not that a game that gives us continuous DLC is ever considered a new game, of course.

 

Just a side note, ignoring Half-Life, the next game I would like to see released from Valve would have to be Left 4 Dead. Yes, I know it’s the last to get updated besides Half-Life, but even if Portal 2 and Counter-Strike:GO hadn’t been released, I’d still want a new Left 4 Dead. Hours of fun!

Counter Strike: Global Offensive – Improving your accuracy!

Hey all! Just a quick one today, and it’s mainly a small little tip for people that player CS:GO.

By default, the crosshair in CS:GO is TERRIBLE for accuracy. It’s designed to show bullet spray/spread, which is great… If you want it. The problem with that is most people that have played Counter-Strike before already know you shouldn’t even need to know that, as you should be bursting your weapons over long ranges, so bullet spread is not a concern. The closest you can get to the old style crosshair in CS:GO is by setting it to ‘Classic’ in the game settings. This is an improvement, sure, but your accuracy will still not be as good as it can be (crosshair wise).

I did a bit of scouting on the internet, as you do, to find if there is a remedy for fixing this. Turns out there is. There’s a small youtube guide that details how to get your crosshair to be a small little dot. PERFECT for accuracy. Now, the video is slightly long winded, not very good quality (at some points you can not hear a thing the guy is saying), so I’ll just list the settings below.

Here are the crosshair commands:
cl_crosshairdot 1 // default is 0
cl_crosshairsize 0 // default is 5
cl_crosshairthickness 1.5 // default is 0.5
cl_crosshaircolor (0-4) // default is 1, choose what you like

In order to make your crosshair (Should be a dot by now) RED:
cl_crosshairusealpha 1 // default is 1, this must be set to 1 for black to work
cl_crosshairalpha 500 // default is 100, 500 will make it opaque
cl_crosshaircolor 5 // default is 1, 5 uses the RGB values below
cl_crosshaircolor_r 255 // default is 50
cl_crosshaircolor_g 0 // default is 250
cl_crosshaircolor_b 0 // default is 50
Now, you have a red crosshair.

Why is a red dot good for accuracy? Well, none of the maps (that I can think of) blend in with red, so it’ll stand out. The dot makes you have pinpoint accuracy (Providing you know you should be tapping at long range, bursting at medium range and spraying at close range). I gave it a quick try in a deathmatch server and oh, boy! Was I accurate or WHAT? The answer is I was accurate. There’s still elements of CS that cannot just be modified to make easier, such as knowing where enemies will be, but this sure makes killing them pesky enemies a whole lot easier!

Now, off to find a way to see bodies through walls…