PAX Prime 2011 was my first big PAX. The reason I say big PAX is because I went to one of the first years of PAX back when it was in the Belleview Convention Center, before they moved over to Seattle. Overall, I had fun. But I had one problem with the convention: I was shy.

During the last PAX, I was just starting to be a part of the Destructoid community. I barely knew anyone from the community going in. However, I went to every scheduled Destructoid function, with the exception of Rock Bottom the last day. The first night I went to the GameWorks meetup and visited with a couple of the people I knew and had talked to before, like Mr. Andy Dixon and Max Scoville. It was fun seeing them and talking to them, but overall I felt lost. I was in a sea of people that I didn't know.



Over the weekend I talked a few other Dtoid staffers and community members. When I'd introduce myself to people, I was surprised at how many people actually knew me. Before PAX, I usually would comment on the front page, play Bad Company 2 with Mr. Andy Dixon and company, and write a few cblogs. But that was basically it. I didn't feel like I would be known by very many people, yet I was. I remember being in line for Destructoid Live 2.0 and meeting Gobun. I'd heard of him before, and he'd heard of me. What I'm kicking myself for back then was that I didn't try to get to know him or any other Dtoider that weekend. I let my shyness get the best of me.

As I type this, we're just a week away from PAX Prime 2012. I've promised myself that this year is going to be different. In the past year I've gone from just Swishiee, to the guy who runs the Destructoid Team Fortress 2 server, hosts a live show on the new community steaming channel, Streamtoid, and runs PC Friday Night Fights. I feel like I've made a name for myself in the community, and as such, I shouldn't be so damn shy around the community. Plus, in the past year I've become friends with quite a few Dtoiders who plan to be at PAX. I'm looking forward to PAX Prime 2012 not because of the games, but because of the Destructoid community. I can't wait to see all of you sexy people in Seattle!



This is going to be the longest week of my life.

Greetings folks! As you most likely know, I am the owner and admin of the Destructoid Team Fortress 2 server! You may or may not have heard that tomorrow marks the day of a major update to the game that adds a new game type to Team Fortress 2, called Mann vs. Machine. If you haven't heard of it, get on it. This is looking to be the biggest update to Team Fortress 2 in a long while. As for Mann vs. Machine on the Dtoid server, I have some good news, and I have some bad news.

I'll start with the bad news first. As you've most likely read somewhere, Mann vs. Machine is six player co-op. You fight against waves of bots (they're literally robots), defending Mann Co. against their attacks. Why is this bad news? Well, the six player cap is it. The server, at this time, supports up to twenty four players. From what Valve has said, modifying the game to support more is doable, but will tax the CPU of the server quite a bit, since the Gray team takes up the extra player slots. So we will not be doing Mann vs. Machine as a regular mode on the server. I wanted to do so, and was hoping Valve had something up their sleeves for the servers, but they said that while MvM is doable with more than six, it's not advised. So, unfortunately, it won't be done on our server.

But here's where the good news comes in. Tomorrow, after the update goes live, I will be setting the server to be a dedicated Mann vs. Machine server. This will only be a temporary thing, but I figured why not? What I'm planning on doing is setting the server to be password protected for the day, just so we don't have people jumping in all day at random and filling up the server at all times. Want to try out Mann vs. Machine? Hit me up on Steam. Just look for Swishiee, and message me if you want to join in. I'm planning on having shifts of players, up to an hour or so each, with me moderating everything.

So yeah! Join us tomorrow with the new game mode! I'm freaking excited as heck! I hope you all are too!

Greetings everyone! As most of you probably already know, I'm one of the admins on the Destructoid TF2 server. What you may not know, unless you were online to hear me announce it last TF2sday, is ownership of the server itself has been transferred to me. With this, I'm wanting to try to refine the server, and take some suggestions on how we can make things better for everyone.

If you have any recommendations on maps, features, and more, please post them in the comments of this post! One thing to take into consideration is I'm wanting to limit the amount of custom maps and content we have in rotation at a time. Maybe change them up once a month or something. I know it's a pain to be a new player on the server and have to download new maps and models and stuff. Not to mention how much worse it is for international players.

Also, we're planning on opening up donations to make the server at least partially community funded. I'm talking things over with Hank, Andy, and Spencer, and we're thinking of ways to reward the players who donate, as well as improving the server, like adding more player slots. If you have any recommendations on that front, please also leave a comment.

Last, I want to extend a special thanks to Conrad Zimmerman, who has kept the server going for us this past year. Without you, we wouldn't have had the server in the first place, and our weekly playtimes like TF2sday would be nonexistent. Not to mention we would't have our server regulars who are now practically formed their own Dtoid sub-community. So thank you Conrad!

So then folks, give me your recommendations! I'll have more info on changes, if any, in the near future.

valve made a game called team fortress classic which was a really goodg gaame with good graphics. then they came out with the gamee tf2 which is completely terrible. heres why
the graphics are just terrible and look unrealistic. thres not enough greay in the game which makes games look hd and real. one server i played on people exploded with cunfetti an d preasents it was weird and stupid. and then theres the hats. whats up with those? i saw a guy with a hot dog on his head. your head isnt the dinner table dummy.
also i die all the time why does this happen im good at the game. id probably be better if i had weapons other than the crappy ones you start the game with but those are too hard to get. also why be a spy his weapons suck and he has no special abilities or anything i thought the other team wasnt supposed to be able to see me. and the pyro is hard to hit people with because im dead before i can light people on fire.

overall tf2 could have been better if it was more like modern warfare because that game is realistic and modern. tf2 looks like a cartoon and cartoons arent video games. maybe tf3 will be better look at these graffics from it.



stop being the worst game company ever valve.

Well, I guess you can call it fanart. For those of you who don't know, recently I've been made an admin of the Dtoid TF2 server. Also, because of my streaming of the events on my own Twitch.tv channel, I will soon be streaming TF2sdays on our new Twitch.tv channel (more info on all that coming soon). Anyways, because of this, I made an image for when I go AFK, or just preparing to go live with the actual stream.



The picture features myself, Spencer Hayes, and M. Randy Dixon in place of some of the regular TF2 team. Also, if you look very closely, the Heavy is posing as Destructoid's mascot, Mr. Destructoid. Kind of hard to see though.

Also, as a bonus, while I was making the image, this happened when I posted Dixon's head into the image. It was so good that I had to save it. Think of this as a special feature on your DVD you bought when DVD's were new and they didn't know what they should do with a DVD.



Good stuff, yeah?

Fez is set to release on XBLA in mere days. With reviews for the game coming out, the controversy behind the developer’s stance on Japanese games has come back to light. Many people are still outraged on the situation, and are planning to boycott the game. The thing is I think these people are going to miss out on a great game, all because of a statement that doesn’t affect them.

For those of you not in the know, Phil Fish, the developer of Fez, was asked his opinion on current Japanese games during an Indie Game: The Movie panel. He gave his honest opinion in response: “Your games just suck.” This got gamers on the internet in an uproar, personally attacking Phil as well as saying that they were going to pirate his game, or just not buy it. Instead of ignoring the people attacking him, he responded. And for that, I don’t blame him.

Fez is a project that Phil has been working on for five years now. And for people to come out and attack him and the project he’s put a lot of his life into, I feel he has the right to defend it. He’s just one guy, compared to studios of hundreds of people. Do I think counter-attacking was a good idea? Absolutely not. Counter-attacking the internet is like adding gasoline to a fire. It’ll just makes things worse. However, he is entitled to his own opinion, as is everyone on the internet.



His statement on Japanese games didn’t hurt me in any way, and I like Japanese games. In fact, my second favorite game of 2011 was by a Japanese developer. Not to mention that I have major respect for some Japanese developers, like Suda51, Hideo Kojima, and Shigeru Miyamoto. I enjoy their games immensely, both new and old. If someone were to say that they didn’t like the same things I like, whether it be Phil Fish, or someone I immensely respect, I wouldn’t care because I still like what I like.

People shouldn’t overlook a great game just because of a developer’s personal opinion. What he said had no effect on how good the game is, and it also won’t effect on how enjoyable it is either. I’m not trying to get people to buy the game, but more to not overlook it. Great games being overlooked for weird reasons drives me crazy. And it seems pretty obvious that Fez is a great game.

Still not going to buy the game? That’s your decision. Overlooking a great game due to a comment that doesn’t affect your opinion whatsoever is your loss. As for me, I’m going to enjoy Fez this Friday.