Chezman!!!!

Despite the rather poor for in your attendance at the last LAN, even being out done by knoski, we would all like to wish you a hazy, alcohol fueled birthday.

New potential UCC machine.

SPECS

Motherboard:
http://www.netplus.com.au/product/MB2/MBGIGA890GPA-UD3/Mainboards/Gigabyte-GA-890GPA-UD3H-AM3-DDR3-16XPCI-E-ATX-RAID-890GX-USB3-ATX

Processor:
http://www.netplus.com.au/product/CP1/CPAMM2-7-1055T/CPU/AMD-Phenom-II-X6-1055T-2.8Ghz-Six-HexaCore-AM3-9Mb-125W-CPU-TurboCore-HDT55TFBGRBOX

Memory: two of
http://www.netplus.com.au/product/MY3/MYD313-2048K/Memory/2Gb-DDR3-1333-Kingston-Memory-2048Mb-Single-KVR1333D3N9/2G

Graphics:
http://www.netplus.com.au/product/VD5/VDGIGTX460-E1/Graphics-Card/Gigabyte-GTX460-1Gb-DDR5-256bit-PCI-E-GeForce-GF-Nvidia-GV-N460OC-1GI

DVD:
http://www.netplus.com.au/product/OP9/OPLI20A1S-RET/Optical-Disk-Drives/LiteOn-IHAS324-Black-24X-DVDRW-SATA-DVD-Writer-Kit-Lite-On-Retail-Black-Nero-8-SATA-Cable

PSU and Case:
http://www.netplus.com.au/product/CA10/CACOCEN53-35-BLK/Case/CoolerMaster-Centurion-5-II-500W-Power-Supply-ATX-e-Sata-Front-IO-Case-All-New-Model!

Total cost (no postage costs!): $1024
Then add an extra GTX460 for characid: $1323

Pretty impressive, and proposed by BOB, will presumably be further discussed at comm. meeting tonight, so I shall revise this when I get back home, estimated to be on Wednesday at 1:30pm.

OllieLAN

LAN at mine. It was going to be thursday, but now will be Friday as soon as you can get here. I plan to play Titan Quest a lot, usual TF2 and maybe some SC2. I understand Jon can't get there till late cuz of work and Cheezybouy becoming a man on saturday (no Ben, no a bar mitzvah). Cheez should have a party and get wasted, and maybe invite us too. Um, yeah so LAN: discuss.

Also, UCC LAN (doitfaggots) is on August the 9th. Need to get our ET shit together. They also claim to try this time in TF2, we'll see.

In case you didn't realize, it is Friday and Saturday at mine.

Epin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spGLsMY47Xo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHqH13Nts2I
http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=iPfaQJuWGvU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQk9gc4pikc
http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=mXol_YHgroo&feature=related < Not great but perfect music and still pretty damn cool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsIgo0_sAzU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUTFL0KEDrQ < Cum buckets when it kicks into the scout part.

Now poast yours. :D

French Intensifying Linguistic Materials.

It has come to my attention that we need to (our should) allude to media beyond that of video games. This is a review of a few films which I have viewed within the past week.

Primer, directed and produced by Shane Carruth (2004)
The first thing to note about this film is that is makes a profound effort to maintain consistency with modern science which is by and large accepted, save a few issues. For myself, this provides a refreshing sense of legitimacy in a genre which seldom sells itself through this means. Much research is evident within the film, and Shane Carruth himself is a mathematician and engineer, so most of you should be able to find comfort in that. The primary characters themselves are engineers of sorts, making them more appealing, as engies pwn n00bs.


Scientific consistency aside, the film lacks great plot progression, focusing rather on the presentation of themes that Carruth deems related to scientific discovery. The film certainly manages to bring the common viewer into the world of science, with its down-to-earth style, and also through the characterisation of the two main characters, who maintain amounts of naivety and cluelessness throughout the film, rendering them with more 'humanity' than most sci-fi films will have you associate with scientists. Further supporting this is the fact of the discovery itself being accidental.

The film is shot well it must be said, the technique involved adds a lot, with the contortion of time being reflected in the production. However, I cannot recall any standout acting performances.


Overall, the film is not amazing, but it generates interest and portrays some sort of opinion on morality in science, although it seems to lack the emotional impact to make the opinion stick.

hurr durr Romantic questing.
7/10

Trainspotting, directed by Danny Boyle (1996)
For myself, this film was more entertaining, and certainly more emotionally involving than Primer, and overall, a superior piece of film work. It has greater development of character individuality, and this gains increasing significance in any film as it progresses, and unlike Primer, you actually give a shit about what happens to some characters.

A lot of this can be put down to good acting. Ewan McGregor makes a great lead, and the support of (particularly) Ewen Bremner and Robert Carlyle is amazing, and to a lesser extent Jonny Lee Miller. The plot is simple, yet enthralling, and the film seems to capture the historical time, as well as the prevalence of poverty and economic depression, so contextually it is all quite fitting.

It almost immediately establishes the drug environment, and really immerses you in the distinction between their perspective and that of a 'clean' person, and this remains throughout. Stuff I was going to say here was too hard to phrase without spoiling so too bad.

Cool film, good acting performances, good-enough plot, engaging characters and believability make this film well worth watching. Can't remember much of the production or filming, but whatevs.
8/10

The Usual Suspects, directed by Bryan Singer (1995)
Love the start to this film. Insta-characterization and the same sense of action and momentum that draws us to all shitty Arnie films, but soon to be backed up with ingenious plot-line, and a greater level of sophistication.

Impeccably structured to draw the best out of the script, the film assumes a non-linear, often narrated story development, and this keeps you thoroughly involved for the entire duration, and allows for plentiful guessing from the viewer(s).

Supremely good acting. Kevin Spacey is always great, and he yet again assumes this role with creativity and great sense, Gabriel Byrne suits the lead role perfectly, and Pete Postlethwaite performs his more minor role intelligently.

Basically, this film was genius. Shot in a way such that watching it again would be no detriment to the success of the film, and yet that blows your mind beyond belief the first time, and seems to revels in doing so.

Hella good.
8.5/10


So yeah I'm just doing films that I'm watching by myself, and I have a few more lined up to be watched. It would be swell if we could start getting some reviews for music, films, series, books etc. up on the blog IMO, so do it.

Proof-reading is for homos.

Grid/ Toca 3 review

So I've decided to include Grid and TOCA 3 in the same review seeing as they are both games from the Race Driver series by codemasters. TOCA 3 is the 7th game in the series from 2006 while GRID is the 8th from 2008.

TOCA3
First up TOCA Race Driver 3. TOCA stands for TOuring Cars Association. However there has not been touring car exclusive version in the series since the original TOCA back in 1997. For reviewing TOCA 3 I will be comparing it to the benchmark game of the time GranTurismo4
*gets bored of writing sentences*
*begins using dot points*

> Good things (Things it has which make it better than GT4):
-Damage
-More in depth racing classes (touring cars, multiple open wheelers, gt/lemans)
-Better selection of tracks
-Heaps of Aussie stuff (wanna go race in Wanneroo? YOU CAN)
-V8 Supercars. Bitches!
-Runs on Computer (as well as xbox and ps2)
-Has a 'campaign' where you do sets of 2-5 races in a single class or you can do an entire season in the other mode. Allows for more variety in cars, you unlock races and the cars are supplied.
-Burnouts/powerslides (GT4 sucks at these)


> Bad Things (where GT4 raeps it)
-Not as realistic physics (pretty good actually, but I am comparing it to GT4 :S)
-Rally and dirt modes are not very good (very disappointing from codemasters who make the colin mcrae series(now dirt2), this is something that could have been much better than GT4)
-In the campaign only three races offered at a time.
-Cutscenes? (they're ok, and there's a scottish guy and lots of random chicks... but I dunno)

All in all, TOCA3 is a very respectable driving simulator and is very comparable to GT4. The graphics on the computer are better than what you get on the PS2 which is also a bonus. I would say this is the best realistic driving sim you can get for computer (barring rally games which I have a reasonably sized soft spot for).


GRID
Now on to GRID. I will compare this game to TOCA 3 because quite frankly, I enjoyed TOCA3 more. Grid does have superior graphics, physics and ai but it has gone a bit NFS'ish. The physics have gone a bit soft, making driving.... EASIER. Sure its nowhere near nfs easy, but the brakes are OP, you can corner whilst braking and all cars can take quite a lot of cornering g's before losing grip. (in fact, the only way to lose grip is to go up on the rumble strip or pull the handbrake).

The main new features which have been added are:
>a Flashback system (where you can rewind time for about 5 seconds)
>Extra storyline
>Having a racing 'team' with additional features
>being able to paint your cars and add sponsors (part of the team thing)

The new features which have been added arguably add to the experience as a game(for nubs) but they detract from the realistic simulation and expectations of a TOCA game. I think codemasters must have been planning this so although its part of the racedriver series (for publicity probs) they called it GRID instead of TOCA4. This name change is probably designed to quell the bitchfest from people like me for ruining the series. I SHALL NOT BE QUELLED!

*cue bitching* (I shall try to concisely get all the things i dislike about this game said)

1. Having to spend your money on a teammate is shit.
2. Having a poor selection of cars and tracks is shit.
3. The flashbacks could potentially have been good... but they are shit
-3a. The combination of keys required to flashback, esc-downarrow-enter(you now have flashback selected)-f8(changes camera view)-f2(rewind)-f12(use flashback)
-3b. when you crash(totaled) an animation is triggered, so you cant flashback until you've stopped crashing by which time the flashback is not long enough to prevent the crash.
4. Need for Speed is not a respectable driving simulator.
5. Slip streaming is not that effective. You shouldn't be able to overtake in identical old mustangs using slip-streaming.
6. You should not be able to buy racing cars off ebay, it is blatant advertising.
7. cars do not get faster if you win races in them
please note: it anything in the list above doesn't make sense, its because many features of grid are bullshit. QED.

So now I have that off my back I would like to admit that some of the weaknesses of TOCA3 have been addressed in GRID.
>The campaign system of toca3 where you had three races available at a time has been changed to three pathways of 9 races each in GRID. This gives you more freedom to choose races.
>Also in TOCA3 the rallies were crap, in GRID they don't exist (I expect this is less to do with admitting it was bad and more to do with not taking sales away from dirt2 also by codemasters).

GRID did however have one highlight:
Drifting.
This new game mode was thoroughly enjoyable and helped me forget about the races that were through dockyards and cities without proper tracks. Actually now that I think about it, the drifting was shit too. Sometimes the drifts didn't register and the scoring was so based on 'combo drifts' that you could easily abuse the scoring using many small drifts.

So then why did I like the drifting?

because of the AE86


Oh AE86, how i love thee.

In summary GRID is a compromise between real racing games such as GranTurismo and the TOCA's of old and Need for Speed. As it goes with compromises, they tend to make everybody unhappy.

p.s. This ended up a lot longer than I intended, so sorry bout that.
p.s.s. R.I.P. TOCA

Sykpe.

This is why we need to use it for TF2.

Timetable Thread.

Everyone post timetables.
Everyone rate them.
:)))))))))))))))))))))))))

Titan Quest - review so far

This morning I had the chance to sink my teeth into Titan Quest. Think 3D Greek Diablo. I must say I had fun with this one, and It seems like a well polished game from the folks at IRONLORE. Its pretty, the voice acting is good, level layout is creative, combat is interesting and flows really well.

Visually, titan quest is the best looking game of its genre. The details on the characters and monsters are very good. Especially enjoyable is the lighting, from the gloom to the caves to the shadows cast by ruined fortresses. The animations are all nicely done and the levels aren't too repetitive so far. Being able to look over a cliff and see the little monsters you will fight later is kinda cool and shows off the 3D nicely. Another subtle thing about TQ is there is no loading. Don't ask me why, but all games should have that.

In terms of character creation, there is 8 trees. 4 magic, 4 combat. You pick one and then another at level 8 (focusing on just one tree seems beneficial though) The standards are all there: ranger, summoner, rogue, DPS magic guy (warrior is actually divided into offense and defense which I personally like). Each 'mastery' has a set of actives, triggered and passive abilities and there seems to be some cool builds when you mix up different mysteries. The summons are really cool. The flame elemental guy is sick and the Lich is way cool. They definetly carry their weight and seem essential to most casters.

Putting your skills together can be tricky, especially as some fight are very tough. I choose the Spirit tree and built myself around life stealing and my summon. This made fighting undead difficult, as I discovered they had no life to steal... and they mob you and do ridiculous damage. So to minimize my panziness, I picked some anti-undead skills to deal with those bags of bones. Pretty cool, IMO. As for bad guys, you get a wide variety of creature from Greek mythology (plus the standard spiders and demon imp things, this is a D2 knock off after all) and they are mostly easy, though some boss fights require a bit of thinking. gear is as to be expected, but from an early stage you are forced to focus one being a mage or fighter, as the requirements for items are really savage.

I am glad to see that the team decide to try an improve on its foundations, rather than replicate them with new shiny bits. Adding a average DPS for you basic attacks is an excellent idea, as is making the basic attack of a staff magical. I can't think of any gmae ideas that make it inferior to Diablo 2, but it does seem a little old already. The quests have no real drive, and I was progressing because the game gave me one path to follow. Some of the side quests have nice rewards which encourages the player to explore a little.

I have enjoyed this so far, but it isn't completely enthralling. I think if we added a few more dudes to the party the skill diversity could make things pretty interesting.

LANMachi.

Tonight, TF2, LANMachi, aim for being ready at 8pm.

ruse - free weekend

HURRY GUYS!!!!!!! THER EIS ONLY 16 HOURS (at time of posting) OF R.U.S.E's FREE WEEKEND! TRY THE BEST RTS EVRA!

RIVRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR

hope everybody has an awesome time.

A gig worth seeing

Now, I am aware not all of you are I-jazzed-in-my-pants people. None the less I have found the gig for you. Firstly, it features pretty much every good jazz musician in this city. Secondly, its free. So now you don't have an excuse.

Polycount Pack Winners

http://www.polycount.com/2010/07/15/the-team-fortress-2-polycount-pack-winners



I FUCKEN' CALLED IT!

Polycount Pack Finalists

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=74543

Pick your winners.

Console fags - Singularity

I finally gave into my brothers nagging and played SINGULARITY on xbox this morning. "play it on hard" he said, "its a better atmosphere." No its not a better atmosphere, its just fucking hard! This game suffered from "difficulty spike syndrome" eventually causing a rage quit after attempting a section about 16 times. Why can't I run over a bug that is 3 inches tall? why does it have to block me when I can't see it, then explode and kill me instantly! What I discovered form this console experience is this: I have become accustomed to PC. I had to have my sensitivity so low just to kill the guys in the tutorial, that it took me 5 seconds to do a 360.

The controllers and controls in these game are a source of infinite frustration and were so, so poor. PUSH LEFT STICK IN TO RUN? ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS? that really got me hard. Also, my time slowing button didn't work so I changed controllers. Then 2 minutes later it ran out of batteries in a boss fight. So I changed to my last working controller. It died. Yes I could have done battery transplants, but I wasn't going to give the game that satisfaction. So back to the shitty one. awesome.

This is a shame because the game started off so well. I highly recommend the hour of play as it introduces a nifty story line and has some truly epic horror scenes. After this all subsides you are left with a game that is a mash up of HL2 (you actually get a gravity gun and have to do physics puzzles) Bioshock (looks identical) and is a complete rip off of Timeshift. Timeshift was a pretty cool game that did time manipulation really well. It had many cool puzzle ideas and combat worked really well. The same can't be said for Singularity. Your time device and guns have basically no synergy, and are both clumsy to use. Especially frustrating was the puzzles. For example: "Oh noes! He must have changed the safe combination. Use your time device before it is too late." Cool! I will reverse the lock combination to its previous state in time so he will be able to unlock it. I was wrong. As I used both hands to press my 'time' button, the safe door evaporates. ..... what the hell. This game had a chance for redemption and instead it decides to bone physics and the universe.

Verdict. Play the first hour and see If you like it, on a port!

A Note of Possible Interest

This short article is directed at those of you who are expecting the second (or perhaps first, but that's not the point) coming of Christ upon the release of Diablo 3. I want you to cast your mind back to the game Hellgate: London, in particular to the development team. You will notice that that particular team was led by some ex-Blizzard Entertainment employees, and guess which games they worked on there?

Of course it could be argued that now those rotters are out, D3 will be better off. It probably helps too that Blizzard lets its developers take as long as it takes to make the game good, whereas Hellgate: London was published by EA, whose strategy is to spew out as many games as possible and hope some of them turn into annual series.

So this small fact could mean nothing at all in the end, and D3 will be everything the fanpeople (lolol political correctness gone mad) want and expect. I would like to think that Blizzard, of all companies, can do this right and show companies like EA and assholes like Bobby Kotick that quality can, in fact, be more profitable than quantity.

ME2 review

I recently finished what I believe to be the most immersive game experience I have played in my gaming life. This will sound like a fanboy rant, but I cannot stress how good this game is.

I played and completed the original Mass Effect several years ago now, and Bioware had crafted a gem. It was like being dropped into one of those 1000 page science fiction novels with a space ship on the front. The amount of effort and attention to detail made was nothing short of bowl shatteringly spectacular. The conversation system was smooth, the voice acting was absolutely perfect and the art direction was fantastic. The game looked brilliant. As enjoyable as the game was, the combat and some game play elements where a little bland and didn't really add much to the game. The item system was tedious and combat was slow and repetitive. Overall, it was a great but flawed game. And that is where Mass Effect 2 comes in.

Game developers around the world, please stop playing WoW for 5 minutes, your raids can wait. Take note of a perfect sequel. Clearly, the seasoned team at Bioware (best developers in the biz IMO) took all the aspects of the original and discarded them. The entire character and inventory system have received a massive overhaul. A class based system was introduce which allow for specific play styles, though are somewhat limiting. Items are now researched and upgraded at the ship instead of being scavanged in the classic loot system hat previously had me in my menu screens, maticulously comparing kit, only to find a superior 30s later. The new item and character systems work really nicely in this game. The skills are also very well done, although executed in a familiar experience=level=skill point way. Getting a skill to max rank gives you the choice of giving it an AOE or making it incredibly powerful. Also, you can unlock a special skill from a team-mate further diversifying your character. I really admire Bioware for taking initiative and improving the aspects of Mass Effect that clearly needed improving.

Combat in Mass Effect is a pretty standard 'cover shooter' model. It provides a smooth, if not repeatability experience. As an adept class, I spent most of my time launching balls of God at people. Although it became tedious after not too long, picking up an enemy and throwing his lifeless corpse into an explosive box and scattering his body parts in a pretty explosion never was dull. I found lots of ways to use my powers in combination with each other and my weapons to great affect. The environments where the firefights take place are designed well, allowing you to use strategy and tactics to gain an advantage. These battlefields are well detailed and look fantastic. As for enemies, there is a great variety of bad guys to destroy. Try to infiltrate a cooperate building: expect to fight mercenaries, security and automated defenses. Investigate some abnormal activity on a distant world: have fun destroying waves of those zombies (sort of...) the Geth. No spoilers but the last boss is awesome! Combat in ME2 is an improvement but still could be improved and is not the feature of this game.

If it can be said that Bioware tossed away elements of the original Mas Effect that they poor, what would they do to what made it a great game? The art work, the scifi wealth, the dialogue, the characters, the plot and most importantly the feeling of choice. These are what made Mass Effect great. I wondered how they would reappear in the sequel. Imagine you took all these things, and injected steroids into them until their balls were so shriveled they could run in the woman's 400m event. I will try to empress in words how good these elements are in ME2, but I have no doubt I will fail.

I have loved a lot of games in my life, but I have never been emotionally attached to a game. Mass Effect 2 is unique to me. It is the only game that made me actually feel. The characters, especially those on your crew, are so interesting and well developed that you form a bond with them. Many favorites return from the original and you get to see how their experiences between games have changed them. So many times I was forced to make a decision that i didn't want to. I literally sat with my head in my hands contemplating the decision, weighing up the good and bad. I had to make so many sacrifices, and those decision tore me in two. I was so attached to this game, it was unlike anything I had experienced thus far. I spent an hour searching the citadel for a wallet to prove a poor Quarian girl innocent because I felt sorry for her. She had clearly been on a pilgrimage from the migrant fleet and needed help. I was just so sucked in by this game. The finale of this game forced me to make many choices, most of which I regret. I remember the faces of those lost, and it makes me sad. I know this sounds like a review of a romantic drama instead of a scifi shooter, but understand this: this game is deep. My head is stuck in the rich sprawling universe of Mass Effect 2, and It will likely never return.

Happy Birthday

Johnothen.

Nick's List for 11-07-2010

No major releases from the list (just 2 little Messiah Tier releases to my knowledge), but a few reshuffles and one addition.

Zeus Tier:
30-06-2011: Deus Ex 3: Human Revolution (Zeus)

God Tier:
2011 : Half-life 2: Episode 3 (Athena)
2011 : Max Payne 3
2010 : Crysis 2
2011 : Star Wars: The Old Republic
27-07-2010: Starcraft 2
2010 : Portal 2
2011 : Diablo 3

Demi-god Tier:
2011 : Rage (Hercules)
2010 : FEAR 3
2010 : Call of Duty: Black Ops
2010 : Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam
2010 : Fallout 3: New Vegas

Messiah Tier:
2011 : Fable 3 (Jesus)
01-02-2011: Dragon Age 2
2010 : Rayman Origins
2010 : Dead Space 2
2011 : Duke Nukem Forever
2011 : XCOM
2011 : Red Faction: Armageddon
2011 : Bulletstorm
2010 : Brink
14-10-2010: Medal of Honour
30-09-2010: Arcania: Gothic 4

Notes:

Singularity has been removed. Apparently it's OK but not brilliant. I'm torrenting it very slowly atm. If it had received better reviews, I would have left it on the list and waited to play it myself. Also waiting for Sniper from Nabs. It only got 5 I think on IGN.

Someone, I think Jon, complained at the high ranks of Starcraft 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic. I've decided to shift them down somewhat because although they still have next-clan-rts/WoW-killing-MMO potential respectively, there are other such vidyas, and who is to say these others won't be better, even if less hyped? Furthermore, I've never actually played SC1 or KoTOR, though they are high on my to-play list (I've actually just compiled one, it's enormous).

Dragon Age 2 is confirmed for early next year, so has been added.

I found out that Fallout: New Vegas is being developed by the Alpha Protocol team, which recently received average reviews and sales, so this forboding sign caused a slight shift downwards.

APB, an MMO of sorts which just released and wasn't on the list, sounds good but apparently loses appeal after a while.

Requesting a Red Dead Redemption PC port.

GlaDOS beat Bowser and Ol' Man for #1 Video Game Villain of All Time on an IGN table. Not sure if just...

I formally apologise for including non-gaming related material in my "rant" yesterday. If I feel compelled to do so again I will use Macebook or make my own blog. And to those who have been incessantly hailing this question down upon me:

Nick's Rant for 10-07-2010

Gaming status: Piracy, piracy everywhere. So many rendang vidyas to try out. More primarily, I'm slowly working though Splinter Cell 1 (I intend to finish the other 3 I've not played too, then review them collectively here, expect that sometime next year), Bioshock 1 (with a view to 2), MW2 and Modern Warfare 2.
UPDATE: BIG SWINGING DICKS. I'm near the end of Modern Warfare 2 and it crashes every time it tries to load the next section. I'm forced to look at the Wikipedia plot synopsis and imagine how epic playing it out would have been. For the record, despite the multiplayer quarrels (basically the same game, PC features retarded) the singleplayer campaign is awesome, possibly better than the first, with lots of twists. There's also some good rendang singleplayer challenge mission things. And it still has great mechanics. wawisgood.jpg

Sex status: This is well-distinct from conventional "gaming status". Gladwrap your immediate surroundings (slightly more specifically, your whole suburb) and prepare to expel a prolonged, veritable fountain of warm, gooey love from your loins:

Visceral descriptions of ejaculation aren't gay

Through the haze of the rogue-nerd-discrete-vidya-cam-massive-faggot-headintheway viewpoint, the graphics seem solid, and the environment of the city and nightclub seem sexy and filled with heaps of NPCs with their own characters and opinions to share, which was so good about the first two games. Jensen is a madcore badass like JC, and although I like Alex too, Jensen seems to have a better voice and more conviction than Alex. Both JC and Alex I thought were often quite neutral in some ways - Jensen's responses, whatever they are chosen to be, really go at it. This is probably a good thing, and the voice-acting seems good, but this is something that has been really over-marketed in the last 5 years or so (Oblivion FFFUUUUUUUU-). It doesn't add THAT much, as long as the breadth of starters and responses is there, even if they are just in text (Morrowind FUCK YE).

It looks like you enter codes manually - small thing but good thing, which hopefully shows that more subtle but awesome things from the original will be maintained. Grid system of inventory is also confirmed (God-tier inventory system, Zeus-tier if weight is also a separate consideration). Moving of corpses looks good, I really wanted to see it dragged into the vent shaft though. I hope they spontaneously ignite upon contact with a fire source. Deus Ex 2 bonfires with a whole cleared-out zone of corpses are among my dearest [strikethrough]gaming memories[/strikethrough] lifetime memories. Some possibly bad things being criticised by HK fans on the forums are:

• Third-person views. I think this ability to look around corners and also see your delicious, manly cyber-punk character is excellent. This is seen in part 1 of the leaked vidya, followed by the main thing in dispute which is:
  
• the "press A to win in third-person" combat implementation. I'm not a fan. I don't see how it can be implemented without being OP and - in combination with regenerating health - destroying the brilliant use-your-limited-selection-of-weapons-and-gadgets/SHIT-I-ONLY-HAVE-ONE-LIMB-LEFT-LOL combat and stealth. But we shall see. Hopefully if it sucks, this will be an OP gameplay implementation which is easier to ignore and not use than Oblivion's fast-travel (FFFUUUUUUU-). For those not in-the-know, the original had INDIVIDUAL LIMB/HEAD(isthatalimb?)/TORSO DAMAGE AND DESTRUCTION. I cum every time I remember that fact. Please don't talk to me about Deus Ex in the company of family, acquaintances or strangers - shit gets weird.

Cutscenes, cover-based combat and true weapon scopes are controversial additions to the series but I think they have potential to be good as long as they don't dominate.

There are also claims of ME2 clone elements in DX3. Pic hopefully not too related.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Rating: 9/10

KotOR is probably my new favourite BioWare RPG, though there are many left for me to play. It has a great storyline with the traditional nice guy/regular guy/total asshole options for conversation and general character building, based of course around the Force.

You begin the game as a soldier of the Republic with a somewhat mysterious past. Where your character goes from here is up to you, dark side, light side and I-don't-give-a-fuck are all available to you. There are 3 classes to initially choose from: Soldier, Scout, and Scoundrel. When you become a Jedi, you choose between Guardian, Consular and Sentinel. All of these classes are very unique and there is a lot of character customisation to be done here. There are also some limited customisations for gear, in the form of standard upgrade devices to be used on some special armour and weapons. Lightsabers however can be customised using crystals you can find around the place. One of these crystals determines colour, while the other two give the lightsaber special properties.

The combat is based of a d20 system and is turn based, however it plays out in real time (though you can pause it to queue up actions and order party members around). I found that ranged weapons were somewhat weak compared to melee, but there is something to be said for having at least one party member not blocking you when you want to hit a guy. I think this is the appropriate section to note that the swordplay animations are great, if somewhat repetitive; its really fun when you have lightsabers.

The story is excellent, and some pretty crazy shit happens, especially, but perhaps unsurprisingly, when the Force comes along. The characters are great, I think every companion (save perhaps the bots) has a history to share with you over the course of the game and they will sometimes join in conversations to tell you if they approve. They are all very different, from HK-75 the murderous assassin bot who can't imagine how we meatbags put up with all the water sloshing about inside us, to Jolee, the old man and ex-Padawan, who always has a cheeky remark to insert.

I loved all of the worlds that there were to visit, all of them were unique and had some great side quests to do or people to meet. There are only six or seven worlds in total though, which seemed very limiting. I know that stopping the Dark Lord of the Sith is pretty important, but couldn't I go to just one more planet for some swoop racing? No one will challenge me or pay me since I became champ on both of the available circuits. And how about a Pazaak tournament? I paid a lot of money to put my side-deck together, I want some recognition damn it.

The graphics are pretty good, no widescreen support without some mod I don't have but that wasnt much of a problem. The sound is good, the music and background noise always suits the situation, and the voice acting for all the different voices and languages was done well.

All in all, KotOR is a fantastic game, well worth playing. The character and party customisation allows for some definite replayability as well. I have not yet played the sequel, and I think that will probably be my next venture. So, before I strike the TL;DR threshold, assuming I haven't already, Cheerio.

my TF2 cents: Engineer Heaven. M

Here is what I think of the update for my most beloved class. I think Nabs summarized the impoprtant stuff well, but I feel we need to hear a bit more. I am referring to the engineer's new right arm. Basically this thing has the best taunt I have seen. I'd like to take you back to the demo update. We were all surprised that demo knight was introduced, adding a completely new class, effectively, to the fray. I believe this is what The Gunslinger achieves: a new way to play the engineer. allow me to explain. Pre-update, Mr. Engineer was primarily a defensive class armed with the same weapons that many classes enjoy (shotgun, pistol). The frontier Justice, and especially The Wrangler trade the engie's somewhat minimal direct fire power for better sentry gun operation. I comend valve on this, as they created something tha treally benefits the class's role, and not a throw away gimmick weapon. On the other hand, (...) we have the new cyborg arm. This reminds me a lot of the sword. Health buff, decrease in maximum firepower, but allows the engie to keep moving. I guess as the engie lover I am, I should really go a bit deeper.

Frontier Justice: such a cool name, second only to the blautzenflauger. The clip size was initially oh so painful, but I seemed to have adapted, making every shot count. No random crits in no worries, as it doesn't rely on crits to be successful (cough cough rockets). It also encourages the engineer to keep his sentry alive, sometimes over his own life, which I think just great. Having a deep bond with you sentry really does so much to build the engie's character. I applaud valve for this. Now to the nitty-gritty: the mechanic. As sad as it was to see my beloved sentry go down to a sapper while I was sewer-side chasing peeps, I could help but have a small orgasm at the 33 crits I had received. I once again applaud valve for their choice here. Rewarding a players hard work and toils will do a lot for gaming. So I promptly set off on rampage. the best thing about shotty crits, it that no one really expects them to have a large effect. after OHKOing several demos from across the famous 2fort bridge, I briskly strolled into BLU base. As you can imagine, there was small war going on. 3 red sentries outside, God knows how many inside. And there were plenty scouts and soldiers in between. "But not for long" I thought to myself as I gunned them down instantly. I felt like a God. I would pop my head in, take out a few spam-spammers and then retreat for instant dispenser heals and warmth. About 8 kills later (roughly a massacre) a blue glowing ball of fun decided to grace me with its presence, and smear me all over the wall. As I sat there looking at annotations of my various organs sprawled about the base I thought "Well that was fun. Lets try to get to 50 crits this time." I love this gun.

THE WRANGLER: if there is one thing that is consistent in TF2, its cool nomenclature. Every new weapon (with the possible exception of the medic's) has been a well executed combination of functionality description and general character. I admit the backburner may have been a little obvious, but you didn't have to even read its descritpion before you snuck behind an unsuspecting noob and instantly kill him. (come to think of it, you never 'face-stab' with a BB, so they should make the BB's target area the same as the butterfly knife's) Yes, I'm getting off topic but the point is wrangler (or 'ranga' as I fear it may now be known) Is a perfect name. Just perfect. It builds ties with the engie and his Texan backround, and describes its purpose. I must say, i had fun with this one. I'm not sure how many of you have tried that make-a-level-3-sentry-on-the-battlements-and-see-how-long-it-takes-the-snipers-to-gang-up-and-kill-it but it usually went down pretty quick. So first thing I did was join my fellow engineers on the battlement to get one back at those pesky bodyshotters. It was a sight of beauty. 3 sentries showing the opposition in spiraling rockets and hot lead. The glowed with so brightly, I felt at one with my beloved machine, as I trapped scout after scout on the sky box until their invincibility juice wore off, and their limp corpse well onto the bridge and flopped into the water with a satisfying splash. Feelings aside (as I am a true engineer), this weapon has potential. The lack of a automatic pistol to hunt down enemies was not as bad as I thought, as staying close to my beloved was all I could think of, and its new range meant I was always safe. I haven't tested the shield, but I imagine its going to be a bitch to bust. When a level 3 SG is firing at twice its usual firepower, the last thing a solly, or heavy or demo would want is to have to put 3 times as much spam into it. I'm not even sure if the soldier or demo have enough ammo in their respective primary weapons to take it down without ducking out to slide more explosives down their barrels. One thing demos and friends have over SGs is brains. Generally a player can outsmart the computer controlled firing platform. Not anymore though! for example, demoman is tossing is little grenades up the sewer stairs, bouncing them off walls to take down my sentry. Seeing the incoming barrage, I wrangled, absorbed mos tof the incomeing damage, and fired some preemptive rockets, and teh rest is up to splash damage. finally a way to stop spam, thankyou very much. I don't think this weapon will show up much in professional play, which is a shame really, but it has changed 2fort forever IMO, and isn't that what TF2 is all about?

THE GUNSLINGER: I am yet to get an accurate idea of this weapon's true potential, as every server form here toTMR1C is littered with mechanical killing machine. Once the hysteria dies down, we will get to actually see if this thing can do what it was supposed to do: ambush. For those of you who have reached the second milestone or have been lucky enough to find one (or both and craft an engie class token) you will have noticed that this ting goes up fast, bloody fast. No more nervous waits hoping that no pyro attacks it before it can cover your arse. Your Arse is now insta-covered. Also, I like the idea of being able to throw it down in combat and force your opponent to choose: take down the player and then bail or kill the SG, or vice versa. I think that in many situations, it will not be a matter of choice, and you will atleast be able to take him down and atleast one of you or your metal companion will live to kill some more. However it is not all balloons and party streamer. Lack of repair or upgrade makes it useless in the normal sentry role, which is why the 100 metal cost is great. Most painful of all, 1/2 damage compared to the damage of a regular level 1 SG, which is crappy in its own right and can easily be sandwich tanked (or did they patch that edible medkit?). The claw itself looks funky as, and the crits mechanic encourage same daring engineering. The health boost is nice, and really should tell the player "YOU ARE NOT A NORMAL ENGINEER, DON'T JUST CAMP THE INTEL!!!!!!" I think this one will be fun for killing demo knights on koth_nucleus and pissing off people running (or equalizing) their bloodied behinds to a medkit. I doubt it will go much further. Most importantly, a cyborg holding a pistol is beyond cool.

I don't think I have it in me to go into detail about the new maps (sick!) and being able to carry your buildings around (game-breaking!). I apologize for all the tangents and irrelevance of this report. Its nice to get that off my chest. But before I go, If you ever wrangle a mini-sentry, i'll gut you like a Cornish game hen.

pseudoabdul

Engineer Update.

Well, all is going swimmingly in the world of TF2. Fanboys praising Lord Gabe, haters hating, consolefags QQing, demomenz and sollies raping, spies thinking they're in heaven and still getting raped, everyone getting rectally injured, and also there are some people playing engineer.

Thoughts so far.
The new shotgun is great. It adds a great deal of timing and strategy to the engie, which he lacked before, and it rewards it greatly. Also poses some slight potential in competitive use, something I look out for and deem of high value in class updates.

The Wrangler is pretty brutal. Of the few times I've died since the update went live, most could be contributed to me underestimating the potency of the shield, bitch takes some damage. One of its other great strengths is its ability to consciously exceed the range of the ordinary sentries. It should produce some cool mind games, hiding from the sight of the engie rather than his sentry. Also, SENTRY FUCKING ROCKET JUMPING. That is why The Wrangler is king. <3

FUCK ALL MY SHIT GOT DELETED AND THERE WAS NO DRAFT FUCK.

Ahem, cyborg fist of combat is OK, health buff is nice. It certainly encourages retards to put sentries down aimlessly and ceaselessly but I shall not care about that when shitstorm is over. Eh, forgot what I wrote here before but whatever, not as cool as the other sidegrades IMO, though it does provided a degree of synergy with the others.

The engie shiv is, as with all community items, by and large a lame lack-luster lunatic piece of shit. I have no idea what it is intended for, as wrench 1-shots spies, and the stats are just generally weak and stupid. Provided I am not missing anything, this is probably the worst of the community items.

Ummmm... the ability to shift your junk.
Brutally powerful, and a general buff to engies everywhere. Probably the most significant thing in the update for mine, and will no doubt provide some interesting strategies in the future. The ability to move one's structures from imminent destruction in the line of fire is priceless.
[spoiler] Raping imbeciles carrying their shit is easy and beneficial. [/spoiler]

The 3 new maps and the inducted map.
Have yet to play the new maps, though there are millions of servers with them. I played cp_coldfront when it was a custom community map and it's great, and it'll be good to see it outside the competitive environment and in some pub servers.

Overall, it's pretty cool. I don't see much furtherance in the role of engies in competitive play, but that's OK. There is a great degree of synergy between the items this time, which I love. And it did not greatly promote camping (the main issue with the prospect of the update), and nor did it remove the engineer's ability to assist teammates and thrust them into the ever progressing 'front-line'.
Good one, Valve.

Next things to look forward to are the Polycount Pack and maybe Meet the Medic. Both of which have been confirmed to exist on the Valve timeline of immensity.

Hope that shit's all in order and formatted/complete as shit got crazy half way through.


Hurr durr sentries.

It's Here.

IT IS UPON US.

chess, its a man's game

Sorry bout over 9000 posts tonight, but i'm thinking of taking up online chess, anyone care to join?

anyone wondering what the clan image has changed to? Lee Yun-Leo, the top starcraft player ever. generally regarded as having the best micro. This man is a pro.

the new Winrar

winrar has been replaced. New most awesome program evra is WinDirStrat

keyboards

as you may be aware. My G15 has been retired after many years of service. Now i'm not sure what I should replace it with. I was thinking I don't need anything as elaborate as a G15. Any thoughts on the matter?

Don't Question.

Weebl's Latest Work

Its a good'un guys. ClickTheNicePurpleText

HOLY FUCK!

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/701341.html

First Impressions.

I have recently.. err.. purchased Just Cause 2 and Sniper: Ghost Warrior. After countless re-installs JC2's first not-even-a-mission has become possible, and thus I have actually been able to play some of the game. First thing to note- this shit is fun, and so far, it seems that's basically what the developers Avalanche Studios and Eidos Interactive had in mind. The game, aside from the plot, does not seem to be presented in a way that asks of its player a great degree of, well, perception of reality, or at least it wants you to forget that for the time being. The protagonist, Rico Rodriguez or 'Scorpio' is seldom dealing with high risk, high threat situations by any conventional means to the ordinary human, or the skeptical physicist in this case. However, should one put aside their aforementioned perception of reality (you are playing a video game, inb4 Crysis) then I believe this game provides a quite refreshing gameplay experience. Basically, it's more than a metric shitload of fun to fly across a sparse landscape into a crowd of militants, armed only with remote explosives, launch oneself further into the air and descend with either an oddly timed parachute, or in your idiosyncratic 'sugar possum' style. From memory I have been playing on the Medium difficulty, and so far it has actually been rather challenging, if predominantly due to my affinity with approaching these dire situations with a degree of recklessness, and a Ph.D in abandon, the enemies do a fair job of hunting you down, and also of being present in mass numbers, making for an often tough time for Pterodact- I mean Scorpio.

The game (apologies) looks pretty, as we have now come to expect from similar sandbox style games. The terrain so far has remained a little uniform, though not to the extent of Far Cry 2. The graphics are reasonable, though I played for the first few missions not in ideal graphical settings, and dark hues resulted a little grainy. Also, the character animating with regard to voice dubbing is pretty average in a lot of scenes, but sometimes is not noticeable. The main issue really is the motion blur, which is used by developers as homeopathists use distilled water or alcohol, and aside from making aiming and looking around a bitch, it to me just doesn't add any degree of realism, and frankly, if it did, I probably wouldn't be writing this review as I would have offed myself as an infant soon after becoming capable of turning my head. It just needs to get the fuck out.

The black market system seems pretty nifty, the idea of being able to summon shit for you bidding at almost any time is great for keeping up the antics, which in turn adds to the number of utilities you can order from the market as your Chaos Meter increases.

As with a lot of similar style sandbox games, the draw to dick around and try to make the lives of civilians hell often outweighs the draw to help some random bloke increase his cred/wealth/pension/whatever. This, as you can imagine, becomes intensified when they give you the ability to launch yourself to almost anywhere at pretty high speed, and the capabilities to summon fire engines 'n' RPGs 'n' shit.

Overall, I've had a lot of fun so far, despite the intense motion blur, and I look forward to continuing and probably reviewing the game at the end.

As for Sniper: Ghost Warrior, I had only really done a tutorial and most of the first assignment, but so far I am very much allured. The tutorial is quick and effective, not over-complicating a mechanic which is tried-and-tested in the FPS genre, and the fact that you don't start out as a rookie is great. I really look forward to getting rid of the red sight and testing my skills, but even so, a lot of the shots feel damn cool. It aint all "shoot this dictator" either, you come into quite close range with a lot of d00ds. At one point I thought I was going to be taught how to assassinate a goon from behind in close quarters, expecting a "press V to slit throat" or something similar, only to have him turn around and start wailing on me with his assault rifle. So the game isn't limited to just a few targets, nor to just taking single, defining shots which allow you to win forever and prevent a war. It's also great to see that having your position compromised does not end your entire existence, as I half expected it to. As with the melee range goon situation, once he turned around I was still left able to fend for myself as a certified no-scope legend, as one should be.

The atmosphere of the game is great, and waiting for the call from d00ds who appear to be your superiors is always intense. Note that you don't always have a team or a partner to guide you or give you intel, which is great.

I probably haven't played it enough to uncover any major flaws, the shooting seems clean (as you'd hope it would be), it looks nice and as I stated in an earlier prophetic post the engine is delicious, characterization and plot line is certainly lacking though thus far, which I suppose I suspected in a game which promotes mindless 2fort sniping (just joking, it aint like that), but it would be nice to know a little more about myself than my code name, or that I am better at hide-and-seek than the new recruits.

Concluding, the atmosphere has really got me hooked, you have a grappling hook, if one that is a little mundane after JC2, and the stealth and shooting mechanics are great, but it needs more than the tension to get you truly involved.

If you see any typos feel free to tell me, footy's about to start and I don't want to edit shit now. Barlow :(

MOAR YOOTOOBZ

My internet travels have brought me upon another video that you gentlemen and potentially ladies might enjoy.

Also, cool Gavin Harrison (of Porcupine Tree) and some guy collaboration: here