Hey guys! As I previously posted The medic update is now live. What you might have missed out on however is....
TF2 IS FREE THIS WEEKEND!
Unless you like the taste of massive fail, you should probably fire up Steam and give TF2 a shot. It really is one of the best multi player games ever made.
As CannibalCalvin Posted before you all are more then welcome to come and play on the new TF2 server we have just set up. This server was made by and for the community so feel free to bring any friends and come to just have fun. Spamming will not be tolerated, and we wont hesitate to hit you upside with a banstick if anyone tries to ruin the experience for everyone.
If anyone needs help feel free to contact me or anyone else in the Steam community.
Now stop reading and start playing!
Today, when I woke up in a dizzy haze thanks to the ultimate evil that is allergy's I decided to play some TF2. Lo' and behold I was surprised to find the TF2 Medic update ready to go. NOT ONLY THAT, but Goldrush seems to be as well. It seems that Valve also wants to make spys better, as they can now capture points disguised and no longer get the giant I'm-not-a-spy-really-I-swear trail from the teleporters they got before.
Along with those changes, Valve has also made new animations for most all melee weapons and even taken the time to give the Heavy and the Demo man some more voices. Damn, do I love Valve.
Ladies and gentlemen if your not on TF2 right now, you probably should be. Now go and enjoy it while I sit at school giddy to get home.
Update: If you don't have TF2 (Shame on you! Failure) there is still hope for you yet!
Valve has announced a TF2 Free weekend that starts this Friday and will include the full game and this update. So check out what you have been missing out on, NOW.
Heres the full update:
******************************************************
Source Engine
* Improved particle performance on multi-core machines
* Added FOV slider to Options | Video | Advanced for all games (moved there from TF2�s multiplayer options)
* Fixed surround sound initialization problems with new speaker modes defined in Vista
Team Fortress 2
* Added Goldrush
* Added Character Info and Loadout to the main menu
* Added 39 Medic achievements
* Added unique Medic items:
o The Blutsaugher, The Kritzkrieg, and The Ubersaw
* Added new attack animations to most melee weapons
* Added new speech for the Heavy and Demoman
* Added Stopwatch mode to Tournament mode
o Automatically used on Attack/Defense maps
* Teleporter effect no longer shows up on invisible or disguised Spies
* Spies disguised as their own team can now capture control points
* Increased force taken by pipebombs by bullets and explosions
* Target ID hud is now colored red or blue to match the spectator target
* Tournament mode no longer ends matches early if the time limit is nearly up when a new round starts
* Fixed exploit where clients could start benchmark mode on servers
* Fixed drowning exploit that allowed players to regenerate health
* Fixed reload exploit that allowed plays to fire instantly after switching weapons
* Fixed flamethrower bug where a player flush against a wall couldn't be lit on fire from the front
* Fixed invulnerability overlay not drawing if the invuln player was previously on fire
* Fixed "times used" entry in teleporters maxing out at 32
* Fixed rare client crash on level change during control point capturing
* Minor fix to stat gathering to prevent players using sv_cheats to easily garner achievements
* For mapmakers:
o Mapmakers can now directly place the tf_gamerules entity into their map. Fixes Hammer thinking the inputs to it are broken
o Mapmakers can now place Engineer buildings directly into a map, with an option for them to be invulnerable
o Added "AddRedTeamScore" and "AddBlueTeamScore" inputs to tf_gamerules
o Added "SetRequiredObserverTarget" input to tf_gamerules. Force spectators to use the specified viewpoint
* Granary
o Added setup time logic, and gates to the middle
o Fixed an overlay alignment bug on one of blue's gate signs
o Minor lighting fixes in red/blue spawns
* 2Fort
o Added medium ammo and health to basement hallways
o Added small ammo and health to top of spiral
o Fixed a clip brush exploit outside blue sniper deck
o Fixed number "2" overlay on front of red base not being assigned to the brush face
So I'm guessing by now you can all tell I'm a little bit of a fan for what will be the best game ever made ever. I know a lot of people who were sad about 40k not being the MMO of choice over fantasy. But let's face it, Sci-fi RPG's usually fail. I stress USUALLY (Don't flame me 40k lovers).
But 40k fans have no fear, your Emperor is coming back in Warhammer 40k:Dawn of War 2 which is set to come out early 2009 and be officially announced sometime soon. Heres some screens from a dutch magazine showing you I'm not full of crap.
The post's continue on giving several facts about the game that came straight from the magazine.
********************************************************************* - Uses the Essence 2.0 engine with Havok physics, all optimised for DX10 and multicore support.
- It looks great, think of the DoW intro but with a bit less polygons here and there (in terms of lighting and all that it looks almost exactly the same).
- Units also use CoH-like unit AI for awareness and pathfinding to find cover and such.
- [b]While DoW 2 shares the same (upgraded probably) engine as CoH[ it won't be "CoH in space",/B] while soldiers in CoH will ask themselves if flanking the enemy is the right option, in DoW2 it will be more like Space Marines asking themselves if they should use their jetpacks to jump over an Ork squad to attack them in the back. Different settings, different kinds of warfare.
- Preview only showed a destroyed city landscape, akin to DoW (but more detailed), other tilesets will offer deserts, jungles, mountains and other cities.
- Only the Orkz and Space Marines were revealed, more races on the way obviously and to be to revealed later this year (though how many isn't known).
- Co-op campaign for both the Orkz and Space Marines, apparently not for the other to-be-revealed races.
- More focus on making units and squads unique; every unit has got a name (at least in the campaign it seems), more details and more animations.
- Relic wants to give players rewards at the end of a mission like wargear (armor, weapons, rare objects); "Let's pimp out squads with cool stuff!", you will see these items in-game as well of course.
- You'll fight your way through the campaign with the same squads.
- You can't control more than six squads! I am not sure if this is campaign-only but the preview made it sound like it wasn't.
- The squads are going to be a lot more interesting than before though.
- A squad leader (one or several?) will need to survive if you want to complete a mission; you really have to look out for your squads and don't treat them like cannon fodder.
- There is a lot more interesting commentary from the units as well; if your SM commander is holding a Thunder Hammer f.e. then the opponent will specifically comment on that, Ork Warchief saying something like "Ooh, nice hammer, but mine is bigger!". The warchief will say something else if the commander doesn't have the hammer.
- The campaign lets Space Marines operate from a spaceship, you'll get a view of an underlying planet and you'll be able to choose from different missions (which are tagged with difficulty colours, green, blue and red).
- Certain reward items won't be useable at once in the campaign, so they'll be taken back to the SM spaceship for research.
- Dreadnought can now also trample Orkz.
- No sea or air units (though jetpacks are still in of course).
- Development team of 55 people has been working on it since September 2006.
- Release in early 2009 or later.
*********************************************************************
I personally can't wait to kick the crap out of all of you la-dee-da high eldar loves with my Orkish legions. [We are da bestest, dun cha know]
So what do you guys think? This still doesn't have me nearly excited as WAR Online does but it's just more proof that nothing can kill WAR even the people who have gained popularity by ripping it off. So get excited 40k lovers. You may not have your first choice of MMO setting, but you still have a sizable contender for the RTS market.
[P.S. We play Soulstorm in vent all the time. If you play 40k and I don't know about you,FOR SHAME! Get on vent so we can kick the crap out of each other!]
10/14/08 your life will change forever. That is, if your awesome.
That is until I discovered the magic of Warhammer. It all started with Warhammer 40k: Dark Crusade on vent. About 5 of us started to play it and learn of it's majesty. Now theres around 8 of us who play Soulstorm and the game just keeps getting better.
Warhammer is WoW with a soul. If you like MMO's or RPG's you need to do yourself a favor and get Warhammer. It's what the Emperor wills after all.
Seriously, this game already has 624,338 people signed up TO THE BETA and it's only getting bigger everyday.
If you pre-order period you can get into the open beta when it launches [100%].
In the Collectors Edition you get:
"* An exclusive Games Workshop miniature of the Greenskin leaders GRUMLOK and GAZBAG (Assembly and painting required)
* WARHAMMER ONLINE: PRELUDE TO WAR, a 128-page hardbound, original graphic novel
* THE ART OF WARHAMMER ONLINE, a 224-page hardbound collection of original game art
* Bonus In-Game Item – THE LIBRAMS OF INSIGHT, a special use XP-gain modifier
* Bonus Quests – Twelve (12) exciting in-game quests for further adventures on the frontlines
* Bonus Quest Rewards – Twelve (12) in-game items to aid you on your journeys
* Bonus Character Titles – Twelve (12) titles to show off your exploits to the world
* Bonus Character Customization Options – Twelve (12) unique character heads
* ONLY 60,000 COLLECTOR’S EDITIONS WILL BE AVAILABLE IN NORTH AMERICA! "
Top 5 Reasons you should care about WAR:
1) Warcraft is a blatant rip-off: Warhammer has exsisted much longer then Warcraft and Starcraft which are both blatant rip-offs of Warhammer 40k and fantasy respectively. The only reason Blizzard has gotten away with this is because they make addicting as hell and pay witches to constantly channel magic LSD through your screen.
2) It's got the Emperor: Seriously, FOR THE EMPEROR!
3) A MMO with a soul: Mythic isn't as big as Blizzard by any means. But Warhammer is ages and ages old, has a setting and sticks with it. They know what players want [Lots of killing, lots of booze, scantly clad elf chicks, etc.] and need and how to make anything an amazing time. Who doesn't want to see Giant's get drunk and chuck Squigs at each other, honestly.
4) Evil is everywhere, once more it's fun: There is no good side. There is no bad side. Order is corrupt and filled with witch-burning and cruel sacrifice and torture. Dark Elves are betraying everyone at all times, no exceptions. High elves are waging genocide against their brothers over power. Everything is fair game. Public quests and random quests will make this game epic.
5) WAR is everywhere: War is going on, every second of playtime. You will be fighting in PvP from level one, helping players take over the world for your faction and slicing your opponents to bits. Everything you do helps out your army and the world actually CHANGES because of it. finally their is a reason to be taking sides.
If any MMO can knock WoW off it's pedestal it's this game, the Grandfather of it all. For the love Mythic, do me proud. If you love RPG's support us in this WAR against the real enemy that is WoW.
"When games go wrong" is a new series of blog's I will attempt to keep updating when I'm not being a lazy prick. The series is all about new and old Games that seem to have a good idea, but fail in the end. Hope you guys enjoy.
Last weekend, I started and finished Dark Messiah of Might and Magic thinking, "Hey! I can't be so bad. It looks just like a faster paced Oblivion! What's not to love?!" As I soon found out Dark Messiah is as close to Oblivion as Battlefield Heroes is to Team Fortress 2.
That is to say, not at all.
So I kept playing thinking to myself it HAS to get better, how can it fail with such a good idea?
God what a miserable failure you turned out to be Dark Messiah, Gah.
Though I guess I should be thankful, considering it gave me the idea to start this blog in the first place.
Dark Messiah, you could have been awesome if only you didn't have...
1) A Broken Magic System When a game has magic in it, it adds a special variety that is hard to replace. The key here is to make using it as seamless as it is using Melee. When you have to switch out "Spell Hands" just so you can start to cast a spell that takes 2 - 3 seconds to cast in a twitchy fast passed game, something has gone horribly wrong. On top of this, the mana system in this game is almost as annoying to manage as FF8's "Draw" system. (I loved the game, don't get me wrong. But seriously, whoever thought that up needs to die.)
Fault: The amount of mana spell cost, Cast times in twitch game, Lack of spells.
Examples of games that did it right: Oblivion
Bioshock
Other guilty games: Fable (Aiming spells)
The Witcher
Final Fantasy 8
2)Dependency on poorly implemented items or abilities. I get it guys. Sometimes, you need a special item to spice things up in a game. Like a Gravity gun or a Magical Ocarina to make the game a little more friendly. But when you add something as retarded as a "Rope Bow" you know you did something wrong. Disregarding the fact it takes 2 seconds to draw it, I have to use up a space on my hot bar and the fact it's called "Rope Bow", you could at least make sure your collision works for god sakes. When I get stuck between 2 ropes and am forced to use noclip just to continue playing the game you did something wrong.
Fault: Instant kill Kicking, Rope bow.
Examples of games that did it right: Half-Life 2
Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Other guilty games: The Witcher (Potions and Research)
3) Shallow level up system. Leveling up is supposed to make you feel better, faster, stronger. Kinda like that Daft Punk song that Kanye West ripped off (COUGH). When a game makes you level up, and then gives you such a limited amount of power to change your PC it seems hallow. Why even bother if it doesn't change how you play or give you any new options. You need to make the players feel good that they bothered to go do the side quest to kill 20 bloody goblins just so they could hit the next level.
Fault: Little variety in skills and options. What level - up options are there are almost useless.
Examples of games that did it right: Knights of the Old Republic
World of Warcraft
Fable
Other guilty games: The Witcher [Looks big, does nothing. One click combat FTL.]
Two Worlds
4) "Bonus" Combat When you add things to a game like block, shield bash, kick it helps add to the effect of immersion. Giving the player a greater sense of freedom having more options in combat. When you do it wrong, it's either completely useless or way to good. In Dark Messiah every level without exception had a giant hole that said "Kick guys in here! Really! Do it!". So like any good spartan, I did. Problem was after a while I found myself using my kick more then my sword. Why should I bother hitting someone 20 times with a sword (and magic useless) when I could just instantly kill them by pressing the F key.
Fault: Kicking, Blocking.
Examples of games that did it right: Prince of Persia
God of War
Gears of War
Other guilty games: Oblivion (No one used Acrobatics special abilities. NO ONE! Block was good though)
The Witcher
5) Shallow plot choices. A RPG is called an RPG because the idea is to ROLE PLAY. Dark Messiah offers none. I shouldn't auto fail a quest because I killed a guard of the main city. Like wise I should be able to influence the story and it's outcome BEFORE the end of the game. I shouldn't have to play for 20 hours just to make ONE choice that will change the entire story and then not let me play after. Yes, the final decision is always an epic moment, but it shouldn't be the only choice. My choices in the beginning and middle should have effected my possible choices in the end.
Fault: Make your choice or evil or eviler.
Examples of games that did it right: Baldur's Gate II
Knights of the Old Republic
Never Winter Nights
Other guilty games: Bioshock (Baby eater or Scientologist)
Fable
Hey guys, Today is my 18th and I just wanted to say it was easily the best birthday I've ever had.
From taking shots out of heat sync's
to hearing pretty much everyone on vent wish me a happy birthday [except puppet but thats okay I know he secretly loves me] it has just made me feel like I finnally have a place to call home. Even if I do periodically fail.
Seriously, you guys rule.
Destructoid is the best thing thats ever happened to me since my discovery of Bawls.
I've been able to meet some seriously awesome people like:
Tazar the Bombinator.
Grim the Zombinator.
Chee the Emoinator.
Nihon the Creepinator.
Every one of you have impacted me somehow in this past little while. [Even if I haven't mentioned you, you know who you are.]
And now thanks to Calvin and his preaching of the robots ways, I'm now apart of the best community ever.
I havn't been on Destructoid for very long and already I've had Some of the best experiences of my life and I can't wait to meet you all at PAX [next year because I'm poor]. Even Cjpkiller. I know, I said it.
Welcome to the Giant Michigan Rape fe.... NARP '08 Blog!
The day started out at around 8:30 when I went to go pick up Calvin for the "Fencing Tournament" we we're going to. As we came back to my house and dropped off our Fencing stuff we cruised around Destructoid giddily awaiting the arrival of Tazar's Death Cab.
No seriously, DEATH CAB.
WE RISKED OUR LIVES TO GET TO THIS PARTY!
... I kid, I kid.
Soon at around 9:50 we were on the road. Everyone but me and Grim had a DS, and what better way to start out a trip then to see who can draw the best penis in picto chat.
I felt like I was watching the end of Superbad all over again. For those who care, Chee won versus Calvin for his hairy penis with an afro.
Soon we we're all craving food, so we all decided to go to....
Tazar looks like the guy from a Clockwork Orange.
MCDONALDS!
People suddenly grew more and more confused of what the hell we were talking about, and why we all had shirts that declared Also, Cocks to all those around us.
Cheeburga eating himself.
CannibalCalvin waiting to eat small children that come to close.
Can you see the Evil Grim's eyes? I think I just shuddered a little.
Some tool. Seriously, he's friggin' lame.
Soon we were on the road yet again. On the way to Lark's we killed 2 Birds and hit about 4 potholes.
"WHY ARE ALL THE BIRDS IN THIS STATE FUCKING RETARDED" - Tazar
An hour or so later, we stopped at a gas station in BFE. Where Tazar finally realized I'm really tall (He's observant as hell). And Calvin bought a Condom!
We finally arrived at Lark's Giant Trailer. We occupied the Side room (Brawl + Webcams)
and the Main room (Food and Rockband).
We we're soon introduced to a dog named Ninja. At first he was a pretty damn awesome dog....
But soon he turned into...
And when we thought that was bad...
A NEW CHALLENGER APPROACHES! JAKE THE SNAKE!
Seriously, this kid started out cool.
and then it got worse...
and worse...
until it degraded entirely into an entirely new level of shit...
Suddenly the dog didn't seem so bad.
Chee's impersonation of Jake the Snake.
Nonetheless the night continued on Epicly! The Brawls were fun (as long as it didn't involve Sonic and him using his Smash over and over).
Soon Rock Band was in it's prime. Eventually we got bored of the normal songs and wanted to play some of the DLC so we had to connect the 360 to teh innernetz.
So we matlocked a connection lazy LAN style.
The Next thing I see when I rush back out into the living room is this...
..
..
[pause for effect]
MOVING ON
As the night went on we kept watching more and more random videos we were all fond of including a hell of a lot of youtube poops that sent me into tears laughing.
Then we made a discovery! THE LEGENDARY HELMET OF SPARTA!
It was REALLY friggin tiny so it fit some of us decently...
and some not so well...
YOU AREN'T FUNNY
By the end of the night we we're all exhausted. Even the dog became friendly.
The Casualty's of the night:
And so Lark tucked Calvin in and sent us all to bed, cause he's an admin.
I slept in the Brawl room with Chee and Nihon, and pretty much instantly passed out.
The next day we all started to head back to Midland as lark chased us out
While we were singing terribly to all the bad tunes of 90's we could find on Grim's MP3 Player and stopped at Applebee's, which screwed up Tazar's order the first time.
But then again we all did order Cheeburga's. But he made up for it by loudly telling us all about Vagina's.
Sad dog was sad on the way home that it was all over. But hopefully next year we can rape mor..... play more video games at Larks! [This time without Jake please? Ninja is cool by me now]
Things the NARP taught me: Michigan is filled with potholes.
It is impossible to get lost if Calvin is present.
Chee is really friggin emo, but it works really well.
Picto chat is for penis's.
Nihon Snores.
Pillows do not muffle snoring(we tried).
CannibalCalvin is gay for Chee.
Lark is awesome.
Larks relatives are all less so.
Jake the Snake should die.
Hwy is pronounced "HEWY".
Tazar is bad at Brawl.
Mystery science theater 3000 puts me to sleep.
Sonic's smash is the stupidest shit ever.
If you hit a kid in the back enough he will calm down.
Chee makes slurping noises when sleeping.
Me and Chee are both really women in disguise.
Larks wife is non-existent.
Nihon doesn't log out of Destructoid.
Kids with long hair are arrogant as hell.
Tazar can sing.
I can't play Drums worth shit.
Mentioning a vagina to a waitress is instant lolz.
"Bird" is a word that inspires instant laughter.
Recently I have finished the tech-hungry game known as Crysis. This game has stirred more then enough flame war's Halo would be proud. So whether you think it's a "Tech demo", or another mediocre FPS , no one can deny the fact that the graphics are almost to good.
So my question is this. Can a games graphics be to good? I'm sure that most of you if not all of you are familiar with "Uncanny Valley" where the more human something looks without being perfect humans tend to dislike it. But every day newer games are comming out with better and better graphics, so I wonder... will there ever be a time we have perfect graphics? And if so, what will we think of them? The folks at Bit-tech.net made a post recently comparing pictures of real life to Crysis, Here.
When we look at Crysis's graphics, sure it's not 100%. Nor will be it be in the near future. But I dare ask you when the day comes that we have perfect pixel graphics, will we still make games that have imperfect graphics because we find them most pleasing? In some ways it almost seems like graphics would be down grading themselves when they hit that mark. I know that while I drool every time I see a new Elder Scrolls out and oogle at how pretty it is I wonder if I would rather be looking at shiny Video game graphics or real life.
Why is it that when an original game comes out that is Multi-Platform it comes out with a simultaneous release (like Bioshock). But if it has ONLY been on consoles so far developers apparently are incapable of making the PC game come out at the same time (like Devil May Cry 4, Assassins Creed, Guitar Hero 3).
This has been something thats irked me for a long, long time. But recently I have been keeping my eye on DMC4. I am a huge DMC Fan, that being said I also don't have a next-gen console yet. So I when I looked up DMC 4 and saw that they are only charging 40$ for the PC version I was excited. This I thought to myself was brilliant, cheaper then the normal 50$ to encourage PC gamers to actually BUY the game instead of pirate it. I would be more then willing to hand Capcom 40$ for a solid single player game. However a few nights back it was announced that DMC4 is being pushed back until 4/1 instead of 2/5. Since this game if it's anything like DMC 1 , 2 or 3 it will have almost no replay ability this is hardly worth it to me anymore.
By the time DMC4 comes out for the PC I'll have heard one way or another all of the spoilers from my friends who actually have a 360 or a PS3 and there will be virtually no point for me or anyone who only has a PC to do anything other then pirate it.
Some games like Oblivion and KOTOR have had late PC releases and I haven't complained for the simple reason it wasn't announced ahead of time.
All I ask is if a developer is going to make a PC Port of the game and tell us (PC gamers) that it's going to be coming out as well, they should be able to release it at the same time.
I don't mean to sound like i'm ranting, but it angers me to see developers take so damn long to port a game they promised to come out earlier. Am I insane guys?
Attached photos:
Yo D-toiders, I am Aertyr (Air - Tier) and if you cannot pronounce it correctly just call me Nick. I'm a competitive gamer that used to be apart of a sponsored team [Rapture Gaming] for DotA (A Warcraft III mod) but I won't kid myself and tell you that I'm l337. I've been gaming since I was 2 on Sega and on the computer since 3. I am a pure blood geek in all ways shapes and forms, from Dungeons & Dragons to Magic: The Gathering to every bloody RPG I can get my hands on. Cya round, I'll try not to suck.
Currently playing: Gears of War
Final Fantasy 12
Persona 3
Dawn of War: Soulstorm
Team Fortress 2
DotA:Allstars
My Current Computer Stats: Western Digital 500GB 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
ABIT IP35 Pro LGA 775 Intel P35 Intel Motherboard
EVGA GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3
Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0GHz(OC'd to 3.77ghz)
Creative Sound Blaster SE 7.1 Audio Card
Rosewill 550W Power Supply
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler
G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2Dual Channel RAM
Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Case
3DMark06: 12786
System's I've owned: GB
GBC
GBP
GBA
NES
SNES
Sega
N64
PsX
Ps2
PC
