"I'm a grown up, I don't play console games." This was a comment made by some ignorant moron last night as I was playing Team Fortress 2. (On a computer, on Steam).
I find this statement inaccurate for two reasons:
1. Age has nothing to do with your platform (of choice) or any platform you play at all.
2. Neither PC or console are any better then the other, however, both have their ups and downs.
Because of our misguided friends statement last night, I'll start with Consoles.
Consoles offer something a PC never can, and something someone who has only ever played PC games in their life can never understand: The feeling of having a controller in your hand. This is the way I grew up, and would never trade it for anything in the world. It's something a mouse and key board can just not match.
Platformers: Have you ever tried to play any kind of platformer on a PC? (Via Emulator or otherwise?). It just doesn't work, I dare you to play Super Mario World on your PC and tell me it's a good system.
Fighting Games: I'm not really sure how much I need to say on this to make my point. You need two crucial things to play fighting games: A D-pad and buttons. When it comes right down to it, WASD and your arrows keys are just not going to cut it.
Free Roam Games: Any game where you find your self roaming around a large area for an extended period of time should be put on console. And you may think "But MMO's...."
That's exactly my point, a computer is something very easy to sit in front of for hours on end. If it were on a console I think it would be harder for anyone to sit there for as much time, thus making it harder to become addicted to the point that some people have. ( Of course this is my theory, I generally become more exhausted in front of a T.v./console then a computer. May or may not yield the same results for others)
Pc's have long been home of a few key game types. I however disagree with one stereotype surrounding the mouse and key board.
FPS: This depends entirely on how the game was made, and even then, neither console or PC is without flaws when it comes to FPS.
First I just want you to imagine trying to throw a grenade in Halo 3 on a PC. Which button do you press? A button half way down your key board? Use the scroll wheel?
I find my self very often in Team Fortress 2 as a Pyro, I go to switch to shot gun (using the scroll wheel) and wind up with my axe. In the heat of battle, it's a bit of an unpractical system. Yes they have a button next to my movement that would allow me to change that one at a time, but that would also require me to stop moveing.
For all the hell it get's, maybe Halo 3 was over hyped, but it's still a really decent game if you have some friends to play with when you get on. Sure if you just play matchmaking and don't have any key friends then your probably wasting your time, but with friends, it can be an awesome game.
However some FPS work much better on PC then console. Portal and Team Fortress 2 are great examples. With Team Fortress 2 you NEED custom maps, and servers. With Portal, you NEED a bit of extra accuracy for some things.
Overall, I don't think either are any better then the other for FPS. I think that depends entirely on how the games made and that they will both be flawed in certain areas no matter what.
MUD's: Good ol Mud's. That's actually where my name originated from. Mud's should NEVER be played on a console. EVER. This is fairly obvious though, as you need a key board to play them.
RTS: This I will say is a very PC game. I think the only other system that could pull it off would be the DS if they did it right. But mainly PC's have this one in the bag. There are so many commands in RTS's that it's just more practice to sit in front of a computer screen where everything can be easily laid out for you. the goal of an RTS is to make you feel like your in command, something I will agree is very hard to do with a controller, where you spend most of your time in awkward situations, being told what to do, or in instant peril.
Final Verdict Neither PC or Console are without their flaws. I would love a practiced way to change my weapon on PC, and I would love the extra accuracy on consoles.
Neither of these platforms should be ignored by anyone who loves games, regardless of age, race, or gender. They both have unique experiences and play styles. They both have top notch games (they both have shit games as well). If you have your head so far up your ass you think one platform is better then the other, please take it out for a second, and see there's a world beyond it.
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A lot of the time when you enter an MMO or MUD you often have no idea where to go, they don't usually give you an arrow or point in any one direction that says "Go here". This is often quite frustrating because you spend needless time wondering around looking for what your supposed to do.
Such is the case with Kingdom of Loathing, the first time I entered the game I was so over whelmed with various information bits I pretty much said "screw this" and left. Well the other day Luca posted a blog noting the Destructoid Guild so I decided to give it another shot.
Since then I've figured a few things out, Luca has also helped me quite a lot at getting things rolling, and even pointed me to a great resource of information.
So what I am going to aim this blog do to, is for those of you who have never played Kol, or have but, like me, were over whelmed by the information after you log in, this is to help you get started.
This is the first screen you'll come to after logging in. The first place you are going to want to go are the "Big Mountains". I originally wanted to do this with a new account to clean up spoilers but it wouldn't send the registration e-mail to my Hotmail account. (Don't use Hotmail to sign up).
Once your in the big mountains only two of these places are going to show up for a new players. The hall and Mt.Noob. The hall is empty until you get the keys for the doors, so where you want to go is Mt.noob.
Again, the only thing that shows up here for a new player is "The toot oriole". You will unlock the other two places by doing his quests. He will explain most of the games mechanics to you and get you off to a good start. The stuff he does not go threw however, can all be found in the resource I posted earlier.
These things Toot Will explain but also may confuse you at very first, especially "meat":
Contrary to what you've learned in most other games, Meat is not edible here. Nor can it heal HP. Meat is currency in Kol, it is to Kol what "Gold" or "Coin" are to most other games. You will use it to buy things, and sometimes make "Meat Paste" which is used for combining certain items to make new items.
The timer glass is the amount of turns you have left. You'll notice (1) above many places, this means it takes one "Adventure" to go there, you are given a set amount of adventures each day, but more can be gotten threw the consumption of alcoholic beverages and food (Healing and stat boosting items do not count as food, and will not give you more adventures. They have a separate category below your alcoholic beverages.)
You have three types of stats in Kol, Muscle, Mysticism, and Moxie. All are used for various things and they have two classes for each of the three stats. In order to level up. you have to get a certain amount of stat points in the stat your class uses.
Muscle is also needed for hats and weapons. Moxie is needed for pants.
Your tipsiness level indicates how "Drunk" you are (obviously). you can only drink a certain amount of "booze" per day before you become overly drunk and can't adventure anymore. Once you have 15 or more in tipsiness, your to drunk to adventures, and if you try to... well, ill let you figure that one out on your own.
Finally, if you need help finding the Destructoid guild, you can ask me and I'll help you out. You can't join guilds until your level 3, which in my case, did not happen until I was on day 2.
[Kol wiki and various help via Luca Shoal]
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I've been a member of Destructoid for a while now, and this blog marks my 5000th post. But I'm not just writing this to tell you this. During my course at Destructoid, I've felt both loved and hated. At one point this became to much for me and I left, and because some of the wonderful people here who actually cared about me I came back (I know reminding you all of this, is becoming old news but don't worry there is a point to it all).
This blog will not have epic credits this time around, because it is not about individual community members, it is instead about Destructoid, community and gaming site as a whole.
First the good. Dtoid is obviously a wonderful place, the best place to get gaming news and actually hear what other people have to say about. It has a great group of editors, writers and community that I am proud to be a part of. it has provided me with much fun during the Friday Night Fights, and the Team Fortress Tusedays I've been able to participate in. I've been able to meet some truly great and friendly people who really care about each other and watch each others backs.
But there IS another side to this wonderful community. A bit of a darker side. You see, I've been pretty much cast out of IRC, another member of Destructoid who I will not disclose had the displeasure of going into Ventrillio, and from what I've heard (and fully believe, from what I know about who is in vent) was not exactly treated with the kindest of hearts. And I find this all very sad, that there are community members, who in fact, can not be a deeper part of the community because of something that affects no one but them selves, or something that someone uses to express them selves in way nothing else can.
If any of you were cast out of a community you loved because you were a gamer, you would feel like shit and feel it was wrong wouldn't you? Being a gamer is who you are, it's part of you is it not? I know this blog will probably change nothing, and I'll still get shit for it even though I've mentioned no ones name.
What does Destructoid mean to me? It means a place I can go where I have friend, where someone is suppose to be able to be them selves, where most of the community members are generally very nice people.
If only those 3 words didn't make my life so much harder -_-.
Edit: "Cast Out" was not the right words for it. I get it.
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So it seems the guys over at Rooster Teeth are FINALLY putting out a new RedVsBlue series called Reconstruction.
I'm really exited for this, though the trailer doesn't exactly blow me away, there has been a lot of speculation that the original characters that made the first series great will be returning. I really wish I could embed the video but it has not been posted on Youtube as of yet and Rooster Teeth doesn't have an embed code on the news post (go look).
For those of you who don't know what RedVsBlue is, you can find the entire Blood Gulch Chronicles, from episode one to 100 there. If you have never seen or bothered to check on RedVsBlue before, I suggest you do, it's by far one of the funniest machinima series out there in my opinion.
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It was a sad day indeed. Neonie was standing out in the cold holding up a sign that said "Will game for work." Videogames had torn his life apart cuasing him to neglect his family, and loose a job. No one wanted to hire such a sick fuck who spent their free time desensitizing them selves with "Videogames" like Halo 3 and Saints Row.
We here at Foxtoid called Neonie and here is what he had to say:
Foxtoid:Mr.Neonie, how long have you been looking for a job?
Neonie: About 5 months, I call and call and no one calls back. I'm completely broke. I need Microsoft points, I'm going to go crazy without them man! THE NEW MAP PACKS IN HALO 3! I CAN'T AFFORD THEM I-"
That's all I could get out of him before he ran off yelling things about how lolcats we're coming after him and screaming at him in broken English.
"Wii wunt u," they would say, "Wii wunt u."
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Another Friday another Halo 3 FNF. Though I admit this FNF was quite odd for me. I did get to play zombie chase but I didn't get to play shark because I had to leave for an hour or so and by the time I got back there were certain *parasites* who plague Dtoid in the party.
All in all it was a pretty fun night after I was able to come back the second time. There were a shit load of people in the Halo 3 room, more then I've seen since Cod4 came out. We had Lemon in our party who nearly made heretic piss him self with his Mexican imitation. "You want maked for 10 pesos?"
Honestly I think I spoke way to much this FNF, I need to -not- do that next week.
As for game types and such:
Well like Vexed said yesterday we got the new maps and that's where we stayed most of the time this FNF other then for Zombie chase which, of course, can only be played on Sandtrap.
We did do some TERRIBLE rocket race because someone needs to learn how to turn the speed down. Rocket race is not fun when it's faster to just run to the damn checkpoint, seriously, what's the point?
Finally, before I left we did some Big Team Battle which was fun, we totally owned the other team on neutral assault because they had no idea what the hell they were doing and then the next game our teams got split down the middle and the team that had the least Dtoiders lost by 50 points.
That's it for this week, see you next week.
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I'm not sure if Vexed is planning on doing his usual Friday night fight recap so I'll try to do a bit my self, though it's not going to be anywhere near as detailed or well put together as his.
First off I did not enter FNF until somewhere around 11:30pm and left around 2am, so it's only going to cover around two and half hours of gameplay.
When I came into play we did some Zombie Chase on Sandtrap, which is a really fun game type everyone loves where there are two rows of Mongooses (Mongesse?) and one or two zombies to start. Everyone try's to get a Mongoose and a gunner and their off. the goal here is to pretty much just last as long as possible on your mongoose, as a driver, your gunner protects you from incoming zombies but shooting the zombies (which have lowered health, making them slightly like pigeons). As a gunner, your job is to shoot these zombies down and protect your driver, which is pretty much your lifeline and your speed, because without them, you can consider your self dead.
After doing Zombie Chase, we did a couple rounds of Swat Rape on various maps, Swat meaning you die in one shot and only have one life threw out the game, rape meaning.. well... you get raped pretty easily.
Somewhere in between that we did a couple rounds of Shark Attack with the elephants on Sandtrap (A lot of infection and zombie variations this FNF). I did most of the driving on the elephants, which is totally cool with me because that's what I wanted to do anyway.
Then we did more Zombie Chase.
Then we did some sort of Ninja, Zombie variant on high ground, where pretty much the goal is to go into the base, and assassinate as many 'normal' players as you can before being killed. (My highest was three when I started as a Zombie).
To answer a question real quick, of why I don't, or try not to talk during FNF: I don't want to say anything because I always feel I'm going to screw up and say something dumb. A perfect example of this last night:
"Wow he was the only one to not move, yet the only one to not get killed, ironic."
"Ya...Ironic -_-"
Ya see, it's pretty much stuff like that, that is why I try not to say anything. I guess it's not ironic? It was the wrong thing to say? I don't know but the way the response sounded just...confirmed I should just shut up during FNF.
Ok well that's it for this weeks FNF recap, may all your frags be happy ones, and all your head shots be well guided. I look forward to see if Vexed posts a better one.
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Well Saints Row finally came in and now I know why everyone hates Meg: Her voice is freakin annoying. And when you have to replay a mission again and again where you have to sit in a car listening to her yabber on and on for 2 minutes, not fun.
However the rest of the game is quite fun, more often then not the gameplay almost feels kind of cinematic as if I'm watching a movie rather then playing a game. The animations for doing things (Like crouching and shooting) really give it a nice feel. The clothing options are quite nice (Varied and not varied at the same time somehow). But those are much better once you find the more expensive shops. (The cheap shops cloths are pretty crappy).
Overall I'm having fun with it, I'm pretty much playing it for what it is. I did not have very high expectations for it, and the expectations I did have for it, it met or exceeded them.. When Saints Row 2 comes out, I do plan to pick it up :]
Fun Fact:As in most open world games, there are often funny things that happen that the game makers never intended. Well I found out the play testers obviously did not spend enough time in the in-game strip clubs. I went into it planning to go start an escort mission, and as I'm walking past a pole dancer, she burst into flames, completely unprovoked and burned to death right there next to her pole. That made me LOL hard.
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It's a joke lighten up xD
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