From off to on

I just need to forget about some things I think.

Went to Tezz’s today and chilled out, started the afternoon with an all day full english breakfast to die for.

Played that eye of judgement game and won by chance.

Sleepytired, broadcasting my games all night. Gotta work hard on this photography site tomorrow!

Carrier has arrived..

The official Starcraft II website has just released footage of the brand new Protoss Carrier, modelled after the prototype Tempest airship that has since been scrapped.  It’s evident by the threads that immediately popped up on the Battle.net forums about the tempest, that people absolutely love the Carrier.  There’s just something about seeing a golden hive of interceptors loom over an enemy base before unloading and engaging.  The first time I saw a group of these Carriers was very much a wow! moment for me.

I anticipate at least one wow! moment in every game I play.  I’ve come to expect it, and I’m left dissapointed afterwards if I can’t recall one.

Prey had the huge expanse and maze of gravity platforms, all floating in mid air, connecting archways, miniature planets and walkways to each other.

Oblivion had quite a few.  That painting quest, where you go into a world of oil paints to fight trolls using turpentine.  The opening landscape you come across when you first emerge from the sewers, and the posotively terrifying end-quest where you have to fight the towering Daedric prince of destruction himself, Mehrunes Dagon.

Painkiller had the massive boss fights. Starcraft had the final push against the overmind. Half Life had the pit beast and its sequel had the hectic Strider battles and push up the combine tower to Breen’s office.  Empire at War had the Imperial AT-AT testing grounds.  Bioshock had.. Well.. Will you kindly?

Can’t wait to get my hands on those new Carriers..

Starcraftin’ across the universe

I got Starcraft in 1998. It was practically my first ‘real’ game on the PC. I remember seeing it on a full-page advertisement in some gaming magazine, and the image of that creepy purple Protoss face stuck in my head long enough for me to recognise it and scoop it up at the shops (after thorough play-throughs of the demo, which I adored.)

I played it religiously, trying my best to get past the starter-levels on each of the three campaigns usually to no avail, I didn’t have tactics or any sense of resource management and so I turned to cheats. As I cheated my way through the story I was drawn in further and further into the story but often missed huge chunks of in-game dialogue.

I played my way through properly once I was adept enough not to die in the first five minutes of the game, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I even had a makeshift clan (Oh the Fallen-Angels, wherefore art thou?) that I recruited random people in to (and later people from college). I trained myself up as best as I could, and then I joined 5punk.

And so I got XFire.
Suddenly I could tell how long I spent on any one game from February 2005 onwards. The program would completely disregard all of those hours I had invested in the game before getting the program, and would occasionally go down and stop recording my hours.

I played through Guild Wars (210 Hours) and Eve Online ( 247 Hours), MMOs with a big requirement for you to invest lots of hours into them. As I played each game, they took over from Starcraft, pushing it further and further down my most-played list. Until at last, yesterday at about 11:30pm, Starcraft broke the 248 hour mark, and regained its place at the top of my list. Long may it live at the most prestigious position I have on offer!

Now.. All I have to do it get Starcraft 2 to the 249 hour mark..

Team Fortress 2

Oh my, what a game.

They’ve really done Team Fortress Classic justice. TFC was one of the first games I played seriously, and probably my first real ‘online gaming’ experience. I hadn’t even played Starcraft online, the prospect of fighting against people that could be better than the AI was daunting.

TFC was different though, something you could only play online, so there was nothing to compare myself to. To my surprise, armed with my 56k modem and lighting-quick 14 year old reflexes I could actually kill people in this game. Learning the well practiced maps (2Fort, Well, Rock2) that everyone else knew like the back of their hand was exciting. I’d trail people around as a scout and see what they did, see what shortcuts they took, and what classes were best for each job.

I fell into different roles that I felt I was best at. On CTF maps my role was a defensive engineer and an offensive medic. I eventually became so well versed at these few maps that I was scooped up by a clan (=BD= – Blood Drawers) and went on regular practice sessions and games, I had to keep track of how long I spent playing and hand over money for the dial-up connection to my parents once I’d finished.

I learnt more and more, studied where the best place for sentries were, and what angle to jump off slopes to minimise fall-damage when carrying the flag. I even professed as an offensive engineer, capturing flags and returning to repair my gear.

And now here’s TF2 Beta.. I can experience this all over again, with beautiful new graphics, new abilities, new maps (which for the best part stay true to their origins). I can say I’m truly looking forward to playing this regularly.

(I’m even enjoying the Heavy, ssh.. Don’t tell anyone.)

This week..

And now for a semi regular blog feature, what exactly have I been playing in the last seven days? Having been nominated as vampire of the year in the 5punk awards a little while back (which was deservedly won by a Mr. Hehulk) It’s become quite apparent to me that I might have slight video game addiction. Nevertheless I enjoy playing games, and this little weekly featurette might open my eyes to just how much time I have on my hands.

Trickster Online: 20 Hours
Command and Conquer 3: 2 Hours
FEAR Single Player: < 1 Hour

Dear me, Trickster Online. Pretty much a polished up version of the popular Korean grind ‘em up Ragnarok Online. Kill little monsters, gain levels, get new gear, kill bigger monsters, gain levels, get new gear ad infinitum. It’s quite addictive though. Despite the main form of interaction being clicking on an enemy sprite till it dies, playing with other people and chatting over TeamSpeak actually makes it pretty enjoyable. Shouting profanities at strangers does help a little, however.

The best thing is that it’s taken a leaf from a number of successful Korean MMO games by getting their revenue from “Micro Transactions” – Encouraging people to part with their hard cash to gain special items and statistic boosts instead of a monthly fee. You don’t feel obliged to play everyday to get the most bang for your buck and that’s a nice feeling. Having paid for items in Albatross 18 in the past, I can see myself investing in a shiny sword and shield on this game if I continue to enjoy it.