![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
Originally published at Out of Sorts. Please leave any comments there.
*contains language*
This is pretty damn funny. I particularly like the cameo by the companion cube. :)
Originally published at Out of Sorts. Please leave any comments there.
My friend Pete (1st place), me as a medic (2nd place) and David (3rd) on red. We ended up winning the game. As an aside, we three haven’t played the game in over 6 months. :) I love pwning!
(This helped significantly in bettering my mood.)
Thanks to Pete for the screenshot. (Click to embiggen)
Originally published at Out of Sorts. Please leave any comments there.
Because really, it’s totally okay for women to be sexually harassed when it’s all in good fun.
What the CAPITAL Flying FUCK was EA thinking with this contest? You know I don’t like to swear in my blog posts, but I can not believe a reputable gaming company would treat people like this.
But then again, didn’t Sony sacrifice a goat and offer fresh offal for everyone to eat to celebrate the sequel release of God of War? They had topless women feeding grapes to guests at that party, too.
It’s bad enough when I have to suffer teenage male hormones on MMO games like World of Warcraft, and Age of Conan. But offering up females in the flesh at events like product launches and gaming conventions crosses a line and manages to piss me off all at the same time.
I can see the appeal to young females willing to make some cash at these things by standing around looking ditsy and pretty, but if EA is encouraging its male fan base to grope and oogle, they lose all respect from me. I dont’ think I’ll be purchasing any more EA games.
More often than not, I’m playing FPS games that feature nothing but male characters with guns. The few games I do play that offer female leads, the women in the stories are usually half naked and boob-a-liscious or evil and turn into fire breathing dragons. I don’t know who is doing the storyboarding, but these writers need a serious dose of reality.
If designers can make a realistic, trained man, they should be able to make a realistic, trained female that retains all her clothes.
Regardless, I digress. Naked pixels and the objectification of women on a monitor is one thing. I’m not even saying that is cool, either, but it’s understandable. It’s fake. If a prepubescent teen wants to look at an almost naked night elf ass all day, fine. Not saying he needs extensive amounts of therapy.
But it seems like the decision makers who utilize real, living women the way EA and Sony have done so far, need a lot of psychiatric help.
Shame on you, EA.
Originally published at Out of Sorts. Please leave any comments there.
When I first saw this game offered on the PC Steam Platform, I rolled my eyes. “Everyone is capitalizing on this zombie craze! When will it become too much?” I thought as I continued on my way to Counter Strike.
It was only on one lazy Saturday afternoon, I was bored enough where I downloaded the demo and fell in love.
There are 50 levels of pure, addicting fun in this game. The content remains fresh and keeps you on your toes as you progress from front to back yards complete with pools, roof levels, and night and day arenas. This is a game that doesn’t take itself too seriously and it’s all the more hilarious because of it. Zombies drive zambonis, emulate the late Michael Jackson in his “Thriller” video, and engage in identity theft by pretending to be your mother.
Once you are done with the boss at level 50, (the only time I was actually eaten in the game) there are loads of things to keep you busy. There are fun little mini-games, puzzles and a fun zombie survival mode which if you’re stressed after playing L4D, this will make you feel better about chances in a plant friendly post apocalyptic world.
If you haven’t tried it, at least grab the demo. I’m not kidding, you will be amused and ultimately wonder where the time has gone. For me, I found out how obsessive compulsive I am while playing this game. Everything had to be planted in symmetry. If I had any plants out of order, I’d dig them up and plant again so everything looked very pretty.
What?
Steam users: Don’t buy this retail. Steam is offering at price points hovering around $7.00 to $9.00, as opposed to the $20.00 seen on the Popcap and Best Buy stores.
Game play hints: Plant at least two rows of sunflowers. I went from level 1-35 planting only one row, and while I didn’t die, the levels went by very slowly. It’s more challenging with less sun, but if you want to utilize the higher powered projectile plants, you want to plant a lot of sunflowers.
Also: Somewhere down the line, you receive a key for beating a level. This unlocks Crazy Dave’s store out the back of his van. Purchase the pool cleaners for the backyard levels. They cross the entire distance of the pool instead of dropping to the bottom like the lawnmowers. If your plants have been eaten and you are too weak as to set off the last line of defense in the pool, you want to wipe your entire row of attackers to start fresh.
Originally published at Out of Sorts. Please leave any comments there.
My Team Fortress 2 mobile came in the mail today. I’m kinda sad it’s missing the medic, only because that’s the main class that I play. But I have a feeling it would have looked a lot like the pryo. I think out of all of the shadow carvings though, the heavy is my favorite. Ka-boom.
Naturally, I had to hang it near my Portal Companion Cubes which are furiously guarded by the yet unnamed red dragon of desire doom.
What?
Originally published at Amnesia. Please leave any comments there.
I was lamenting that there were no songs celebrating a rare breed; girl gamers. As we saw on this season’s WCG: Ultimate Gamer, there are female professionals out there that could probably beat the piss out of most people and look good doing it.
Here is my musical tribute and incidentally, I had a ton of fun doing this song. I especially like the third verse. ;)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Originally published at Amnesia. Please leave any comments there.
According to this article in The Escapist, virtual protests are cropping up everywhere from Second Life to World of Warcraft. Imagine my surprise when one of my hobbies was included in that list; the first person shooter, Counterstrike. While I applaud certain people for fighting for noble causes, I can’t express how annoyed I am at the same time. I paid $49.99 for the Orange Box. I pay a monthly fee for Internet access and I would like to use my valuable free time in a manner where I don’t feel like I’m being harassed.
A good societal obliging woman like myself should be able to shoot the heads off of pixelated terrorists or zombies without having a peace sign shoved up my ass.
Granted, I have yet to experience these protests online. Yet, should the experience occur, only two things will happen while these avatars lay down in the shape of heart or spam the channels with their hippie love fest. I will knife and/or shoot them and then I will teabag their dead and bleeding corpses. See, I don’t care about your agenda when I’m trying to blow off some steam. That’s the thing isn’t it? I’m a productive member of society who finds ills and abuses just as sick and twisted as the next girl. I donate to charities and I’ve done a little marching myself in younger days. Yet, when I’m starting up a favorite video game to escape the crap that is happening on both a personal and global level, I don’t care to be reminded of anything outside my little four foot space. I am happy in my comfy chair, with heavy beats thumping through my headphones and a large cache of weapons with which I can do substantial damage. This is my time.
I hate to say it, but I place these people on the same level as the jerkoffs who cheat and make any gaming experience miserable by not playing by the rules. Even in the chaos of staking out Pete for example and jamming a knife through his prone body, there are rules that one needs to follow in the gaming world. Even so, this new teamwork we’re seeing in the form of protests has no business interfering with the land of make believe.
Didn’t these men and women learn anything from their childhoods? We must be able to seperate the world of fiction and fantasy from real life if only to maintain our sanity. As the lines between the real world and gaming continue to be blurred by people with their own agendas, I guess my definition of terrorist does too.
Originally published at Amnesia. Please leave any comments there.
While searching for ring tones for my recently replaced phone, I looked up video game sounds and came across a blast from the past.
I thought I was the only idiot who loved and played this game!
Apparently not. I wish it were available now, I honestly think I would never be seen again until I beat it again.
Originally published at Amnesia. Please leave any comments there.
Yes, here comes another uber scientific study suggesting that people, specifically those who play first person shooters or FPS’, train their brains to amp up their visual rods. Rods in the eye are responsible for our ability to see in the dark, help guide our peripheral vision and act as motion sensors in low light situations.
Where was I when this study came rolling around? “Here, go play Unreal Tournament for 9 weeks, we’ll pay you and you tell us if you can see different shades of grays!” My luck though, I’d be in the other testing group that was forced to play The Sims. I probably at that point would have been purposely setting my virtual house on fire and letting my creations piss themselves. I hate that game. Sorry.
The good news out of all this is that kids have yet another excuse to play their coveted video games. Not only will hours fighting zombies and terrorists fine tune hand/eye coordination, but now, you totally get to be a color gray connoisseur. (On an unrelated side note: I totally spelled connoisseur right the first time).
Now, if only video games could help me land voice work jobs. ;)
Originally published at Amnesia. Please leave any comments there.
I have this big problem.
Whenever I start playing a new video game, I often dream about it. Last night was no exception. I recently obtained Left 4 Dead, the omg-mutated-zombies-are-gonna-kill-me-un
I am wholly confident that unlike life in The Matrix, that if you die (repeatedly) in your dreams, you still wake up. 
As for the game itself; wow. This game is intense. I’ve always thought that should in theory, a zombie apocolypse manifest within my lifetime, that I would fight to survive as best as I could. As I continued to play this game, I’m pretty sure that I made a few remarks that I would have put a bullet in my own head instead. Sad thought, I know, but really, you are one of the only humans left on the planet and everything else is trying to kill you. Doesn’t that go far beyond therapist curable paranoia? You can’t even cross the street without getting sucked in via a big tongue like appendage or sprayed with goo that is an apparent beacon for every zombie horde hanging out in the city. There are even times where you are completely incapacitated and your teammates are the only ones who can help. Oh, and don’t even try to make friends with a ‘witch’. This lucky, beautifully bald and scarred girl emits a cry like a lost and scared child. Shine your light on her or get too close and she flies into a murderous rage, usually killing the person who has disturbed her. I don’t think in all the times Pete and I got her wrath that both of us made it out alive.
The most fun is a enemy called a ‘tank’. Made of pure muscle, he/she/it just runs at you full speed ala Bald Bull in Mike Tyson’s Punch Out. Pete learned the hard way that the worst thing you could do was fight this thing in close quarters. It just repeatedly beats you until you’re fighting with your last gasping breath or unless your teammates put enough rounds in it to make Ted Nuget look an amateur.
All in all, it’s a fun but really intense game. It doesn’t give me the chills that the Half Life Series does, only because in that game, you had downtime and were able to let your body release all the adrenaline that had built up over the course of a battle. The only reprieves you get in this game are the 2 minutes given as you arrive in a ’safe house’. You get patched up, resupplied, given a damage meter of sorts and then off into the wilds of zombieville (incidentally taking place in Pennsylvania) once again.
The only criticism I have of the game is while the opening scene is pretty awesome, there is no backstory. How did the plague spread? Are we somehow immune? What are the witches and how are the tanks made? Right now, left up to my own speculation, I’m pretty sure I’m seeing A-Rod or Roger Clemens as steroid laced muscle machines turned zombies. I can only guess the witches are Paris Hilton wanna-be’s who are so upset they’ve lost their hair and figures so they pretty much chop anyone who has the audacity to steal a glance.
As for everyone else? I feel sorry for them in this kind of future. It’s no way to live.
Or die.
Age of Conan vs. World of Warcrack
Originally published at Amnesia. Please leave any comments there.
First off, Age of Conan takes itself way too seriously. Sure, you get to chop off heads and taunt your victims while headbutting them in the face as they splash you with their blood. You also get to see boobies and cavort with whores and thieves. Yet, after a few levels of broken quests and memory leaks which crash you to desktop, the cool stuff is drastically overshadowed.
I would argue even, that the graphics try to be too good, constantly bogging down a decent system. A lot of my friends would have needed to spend mucho money upgrading their rigs to see the game at its full glory or even make it playable with frustration levels hovering around 5-8 FPS. Mind you, the world is absolutely beautiful if you’ve got the equipment to display it. With DX10 support coming soon, gamers who spend the money to upgrade to cards supporting the feature will probably be blown away.
It’s just a shame that the other 90 percent of the player base won’t ever get to see that except through screen shots.
Another thing not helping Age of Conan, is the art of the armor and weapons. Most people who play MMO’s take pride in beating a particularly hard boss for the loot. You can imagine the disappointment when you’ve reached the level cap of 80 and you still look like you shop at the Salvation Army. Frankly the NPC’s have better looking gear.
Earning money in the game is extremely hard to do as well, level 1-40. When AoC first launched, to purchase a mount at level 40, you needed a total of 3 gold. I was very well frustrated to find that despite the small and expensive bag space, no amount of selling vendor trash was going to get me a much needed horse. The zones are huge. At level 40, I had approximately 50 silver to my name.
They’ve since lowered the price of the mount to 75 silver, but I’m sure the riding book is still 2 gold. Unless they adjust the prices of vendor trash, one will need to be creative in obtaining enough gold to do anything. While the economy in the auction house was trying to settle, I took advantage of buying leather low and selling it for a profit.
I hate doing that. It’s such a waste of time.
Not to mention, once you hit 50, gold production is drastically increased, but at that point, it just sits in your bag. There is absolutely nothing to spend it on.
The good things going for Age of Conan are few, but they do exist. The combat system is beyond a doubt one of the best I’ve had the privilege to play. It’s not a one button click-fest. While most MMO’s depend on group strategy when working together, success hinges on the actions of each player, whether soloing an instance or working together in a group.
Speaking of solo instances, this is another feature that really shines in AoC. You can immerse yourself into your own little world away from guilds or parties while fighting instances specifically designed for a solo player. It fully enables the gamer to level up when the multi-player situation is too much, or not enough.
I do feel abit cheated now that I look back. AoC was released for mass consumption too early IMO and it seems that Funcom expected the player base to pay for a beta. With the impending (and now delayed) release of Warhammer, I’m sure they felt a product in any state would be a significant advantage over their newest competitor. The cool factor drew most of us in, but after escaping the first zone at level 20, there were significant problems waiting for us. In some cases, unforgivable problems that really minimized enjoyment of the game.
Lack of customer service added to the problem, and while the subscription service was easy enough to navigate, any in-game issues were for a good part ignored, due to lack of agents and GMs. If you do not have the infrastructure to handle a big player base, you shouldn’t really be in the MMO business.
I’ve since cancelled my monthly subscription and from what I’ve read, a lot of others have done the same. I was going to sit on my hands or finish playing CoD4, but instead was convinced to go back to World of Warcraft after a two year hiatus.
So far, it’s been nothing but fun.
Tomorrow, I will discuss the pros and very little cons that make up the biggest MMO in gaming history; World of Warcraft.
