Tumbling Down.

So I've decided to pick up gaming again. It's the winter time and I usually end up staying inside a lot. It's not that I had "quit" gaming. I more or less just focused my attention on other things, in hopes that by the time I was ready to dive in again a new game would be ready for me to take on and devour *ahem* starcraft 2. Well that isn't the case, it's the same old same old, and this time it's worse.

Whenever I would take a hiatus I would always have friends around still playing something, WoW, Quake, whatever. Now I have to beg friends to play. It's not that they are burned out, or not interested. Not at all actually. They are just bored of playing the same crap that has been around for the past 5-8 years with no new games around that are worth playing.

So I fire up WoW's 7 day free time they gave me for being a 5 year account. To my surprise I didn't know a single person on my server. Everyone I knew is no longer there, I don't even know if they play anymore. Let me tell you, WoW is rather boring playing by yourself. Looking over to Quake Live the servers are rather dead with the occasional CTF and Clan Arena server located in New York. Yeah that works great for a Texan like myself. My friends list is dead as well. Sigh.

Definitely a sign of the times. I've tried to get friends into games such as WoW, Quake Live, HoN, TF2, COD 4, SF 4. I'm not saying that these games are by any means amazing but it seems a lot of people forget the key feature to playing them, and that is to have a good time with friends.

There was a game back in the day called Soldier of Fortune 2. I couldn't stand it. It was a poorly done multiplayer game. It felt like it was slapped together in two weeks. To my prediction it actually was slapped together in two weeks, a complete after thought to the years they spent developing the single player. However my friends raved about it, wanted to play ever day. While I hated the game from a technical aspect and how budget it felt I also had some of the best online gaming experiences of my entire life, simply because of the people I took the epic journey with. Nothing can replace those memories and at times when I look back on it, those fun moments even made the game look good. I could go on about a few other games that fit this but I think one example is enough.

As I said while the game may not be the best game ever, or the exact style you're looking for, it's often the people you take the adventure with that makes the game. It's pretty much impossible to get a group of people to agree on the same thing, never mind a video game.

As I roll on through the online game world bored and nostalgic in my lone wolf style, I'll remember the great times I've had. Those gems are usually enough to keep on gaming.

Thanks for reading.

Killin Nazis

So apparently I was in a King of the Hill server at Quakecon and had a couple of my duels shoutcasted. I honestly had no idea I was supposed to stay in the server and defend my title. Greg "gerg " Feeney had asked me to come duel him.



Continued

I Am Your Champion.

So I went to Quakecon this year. I go every year, it's only 4 hours away in Dallas. Though this year was a little different. I entered 2 tournaments, the open 1v1 and the byoc 2v2. The open 1v1 didn't go so well, lets just say playing on a completely foreign keyboard, a different configuration, and mouse settings that I'm unfamiliar with didn't sit well with me. I couldn't get a tournament admin to help me out either, things were just oh so wrong. Ultimately this left me getting knocked out of the 1v1 in the second round, barely. Despite all the difficulties, I brought it to 3 maps and one over time in the second map against my opponent. I had to settle for top 30 out of 128 contestants. That's ok though, I didn't even practice for this event, I just went in with my long time experience and knowledge of Quake.


Shifting gears to the BYOC where me and team agon veteran Greg gerg Feeney were in the 2v2 TDM Quake Live tournament, things looked a little different. We were on our own machines, and our own configurations. We went into this tournament without preparation, just as we did with the 1v1. Shaky strategy and uncoordinated is probably the best way to describe how we started out in our first match. We actually went out 2-0 against our opponent Event Horizon, with only 4-5 frag losses. This didn't stop us though because we knew exactly what we were doing wrong and how to fix it. Down in the losers bracket we destroyed everyone in our path, making our way back to the grand finals to face Event Horizon once again, with refined strategy and well prepared aim.

We had to beat them twice coming from the losers but we were ready and I'm sure they underestimated us, or maybe not, I'm not really sure, all I know is we came out swinging hard in the first two maps controlling every power up and destroying their momentum. They came back on the 3rd map, DM6, with a good offense, throwing us off our game. It was really late, 2:30 am and we were starting to lose it. The 4th map ZTN, was close but we pulled it out, due to gerg's stacked armor frag run and my quad damage room defense.

See you next year Quakecon.

Up To Date.

Well hello there. I'm back yet again (whether you like it not!); to talk about a couple games I think have promise. Ever since the days of Ultima Online I've been yearning for a game that allowed me to get into the nitty-gritty right away and had no problems with me getting out as fast I could. Of course this was already done in games like First Person Shooters, Fighters, Real Time Strategy. However I wanted something like an RPG. Well after years and years of moaning about it things are starting to come to life. Especially with the success of WoW-Arena/Battle Ground's. Now if only we could get the Arena's/Battle Ground's without all the "MMO" attached to it. Instead I'm going to show off a couple games as an alternative.

For some time now I've been in a tight lipped closed beta test of a game called Heroes of Newerth. It's a game based off of the Defense of the Ancients map for Warcraft 3. People have been playing this game type for years and for some reason I ignored it, I blame WoW.



To give a quick run down of this game, you choose between a number of "heroes" to control, based off of strength, agility, and intelligence. You're on a team of 5 people (including you) or lower, so picking heroes to be synergistic with your team can be vital. Each hero has a set of skills you will build off of. You will level up quickly killing creeps (npc's) and the opposing team, you also acquire money to buy items in order to boost your heroes effectiveness. The objective is to destroy the enemies base. That is the most simple, short description I can give.

Gameplay video:


Additional thoughts and information, like I mentioned above is just like "DOTA" and I mean that literally. Everything about the game is a complete copy and paste of its Warcraft 3 map predecessor. Though if you've never played DOTA none of that matters. There is a nice match system where you can filter the games from "noobs onlys" to "pros". My only complaint about this style of game is that matches can and usually do take a very long time to complete. Most matches I play in usually take around 45 minutes to 1 hour, there are a lot of creeps to push around, base defenses to break through, and general map control that can slow the game down.



Next up on my hot list follows the same beat. However this one is about fighting only the players and killing them being the objective, think WoW-Arena.

Bloodline Champions
This little game, Bloodline Champions is more suited to my tastes. It's just like WoW-Arena without the MMO attached to it. You have your classes also called Bloodlines, your team, a map, and you let the blood bath ensue.

Speculation and Information

It is reported to have an instant gratification play style (get in get out); There are no levels as far as I know, or gear. Just classes, teams, maps and competition. Other reports say there will be different game modes, Team Death Match, Death Match, Capture the Flag for example. So far the game is in its alpha stage of beta testing. There are rumors of closed beta by this winter. Bloodline Champions is being made by a Swedish developer by the name of Frostfire Games.

Beta Gameplay video (Alpha stage)


www.bloodlinechampions.com

I'm glad the instant gratification style of play is starting to catch on to RPG style games. Thanks to games like Guild Wars, World of Warcraft Battlegrounds and Arenas (not the MMO), Defense of the Ancients, we are beginning to see more and more of them spawn. Millions of people play these games, and I see a cry for games of this nature to be taken seriously everyday on forums.