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Here’s another wacky comic by gamespy.  I think it covers the basics of what it takes to be a video game villain.  Some of them are pretty accurate as to how you take out some bosses in games now days but still funny!  I wonder if this could be used to determine how Rambo takes out the villains in all of his movies, hmm.

http://www.gamespy.com/articles/102/1029366p1.html

So, during some random browsing around, I found a blog that had an interesting tid bit of info about how to improve your ping times.  I remember reading and doing this before but since then, I’ve been using Windows 7.  I’m curious if things have changed registry wise so I’m willing to potentially break something to see what kind of improvement I get in Windows 7.  There are some drawbacks to what it does but it’s worth trying once. 

http://smallvoid.com/article/winnt-nagle-algorithm.html

If any of you readers out there were interested in trying it yourselves, please, be my guest but I take no responsibility in what you might break, hah!  At the moment I’m at work but I will post my results after I’ve had the opportunity to do it.

Here’s a little gem I screwed with a while back and may get back into with some local guys. It’s called Quake Live. You literally get to play Quake 3 through your web browser. No need to have the actual game. You just have to register a login on their site and get started. Currently, it supports most platforms out there so you can play it on a Windows PC, Mac, or Linux box.  You can customize your settings through the web browser. Once you have done so, you can login from any computer and play with your settings any where, any time. It has a built-in stats system to keep track of your progess as well as they made their own in game achievement system if you are in to that sort of thing. Nice way to kill some time or hang out with some friends up for a few good first person shooter matches. 

And let’s be honest, it’s Quake for Christ’s sake. Who wouldn’t have fun?!

If you want to check it out, go to www.quakelive.com

After a little bit of fiddling around and what not, I now have my Team Fortress 2 server(Grim Ends) setup most of the way I want it.  I’m still working on a good map rotation and I was considering a day of the week based map type rotation.  For instance, say Mondays could be arena map night, Tuesday ctf, Wednesday capture point, etc.  I think it would be fun.  Currently I’m working with Sourcemod to add some additional admin/reserved player slots to the server because I think my friends should have priority on my server.  Sourcemod has a few nice features and in concept, it reminds me of the old Tribes 1 and 2 admin frontends except without the nice GUI.

I hope to have all these goodies fully operational sometime next week.  This weekend I only have 1 off day so I will actually be working on this site and another project or 2 for myself.

Well after playing through all that the Orange Box had to offer, I honestly can’t wait for another episode for Half Life 2.  They have a way of story telling and yet making the game remain very fun and making you want to play more.  The graphics are awesome as always and more is revealed with each episode.  I hope they don’t take too long on making that 3rd episode if they are even making one.  They so leave you hanging at the end of episode 2.

For those that don’t know what I’m talking about, these episodes are extensions to the game.  They occur after you get to the end of the normal Half Life 2 campaign.  They are sort of like expansions and boy do they have a bit of content.  If you do look into trying any of these, the link I provided shows you what is in the Orange Box.  All of the games in it are awesome and worth getting bundled.  I had mentioned it in a previous post but seriously get that box.  It is well worth it!

Well after some boredom struck, I decided to finally pickup the Orange Box since it had so much bundled with it for an affordable price.  I got the opportunity last night to try TF 2 and boy is it fun!  I can probably play that for several hours on end and not get tired of it.   I like how the game gives your class a personality and randomly says things when you blow up some players or when you kill your ‘nemesis’.  AKA, the player that has killed you a lot that match.  You can execute some funny actions to say or throw back at the enemy or call for a medic so they can see you on their HUD and come heal you.  So far I’ve played as a medic and demoman.  The demo man makes me laugh due to his accent they gave him.  So fitting that his melee weapon is a bottle heh.

But since I’m not up to typing a huge critique article due to being at work, follow the links in this post to get an idea what the game looks like.  They have a real winner with the way the game appears, sounds, and plays.  It’s simple and affordable.  I may come back to edit this post or make a seperate one on my findings in the game.  They recently patched it so there are a few new things in it I guess.  But back to work for me!

I happened upon this article from a creatively named site and it’s worth a read if you have played Left 4 Dead.  Valve has an interesting approach to games than some other companies.  The idea that they make them for entertainment rather than for the time of year gives you some idea of how they like to distribute their games.  I like the way they distribute their games on Steam.  Granted you do have to download some pretty big games on there but I think it’s worth it. 

On a side/random note: Nothing like fragging tons of zombies in a game

You know, nothing still like a good ol side scroller video game.  Seriously, they are still around and alive and kicking.  I sometimes miss the good old ones such as Life Force and Contra.  Those games were simple enough but were always fun to play no matter how many times you played through.  I recently tried out Castle Crashers which is an xbox live arcade game and its got the same feel as the moldy oldies.  Glad to see someone out there knows how to capture the feel of play the old games had.  Of course for some odd reason, Castle Crashers almost reminds me of the Earthworm Jim series of games.  Now there was some funny added to an almost serious game.  It’s graphics were cartoony and yet pleasing to the eye with their detail and animation.

There are some old games you just can’t put down.  Doom is one such game.  To this day, I still can’t put the game down!  It was simple and yet very entertaining and long unlike some other games now days.  I think I will make posts like this a weekly or monthly thing.  I dunno.  Seems cliche but we shall see.  I’m a game enthusiast and its a nice avenue to release pent up rage while you frag/gank people’s digital avatars hehe!