How an FPS Should (and Shouldn’t) Reward Experience

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While I’m not the Valve-only gamer I was a few years ago, I do seem to always find myself coming back to Valve’s pre-eminent titles. No matter how many times I grow tired of their old games and branch out in the hopes of finding similar but fresh content, I always eventually come crawling back for more Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress or Counter-Strike. Recently I took a bit of time to try and puzzle out just what exactly Valve had done to continually attract me so. And I think I’ve figured it out. The single best thing about Valve games in… [Continue Reading]

Every year the same damn thing…

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Why do they do this to us? Torture us with nothingness and promises that never fade away and instead bubble in the depths of our minds, occasionally surfacing to torture us? It’s the exact same thing every damn year, year in, year out. Yes, I’m talking about the bloody early year update drought. The big updates every year are Smissmas, Scream Fortress and the Summer Update, which has a varying name. There used to be more big updates every year, generally with one or two big updates around Scream Fortress and the Summer Update, but as the game has grown… [Continue Reading]

April 16th – 23rd

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Taxes are due everybody! Hooray! If you’re anything like me, taxes are a long and laborious chore, and I’m even more qualified than most because I worked as a tax preparer for over a year. I’m only 24 for god’s sake, I’m supposed to be spack-dab in the middle of the part of your life where you look forward to cashing out your W-2s after work and buying a round of drinks with your refund. But the IRS is not a fan of entrepreneurs or freelancers turns out… But I digress. In the world of Team Fortress 2, taxes don’t appear… [Continue Reading]

Medics and Monsters – Medic in Skyrim Part 2

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Ah, I’m back in Tamriel, kicking ass as always! Last time I was just getting started. Today, I finish up finding a damn horn for some reason, and things are rainy and crappy. Anyway, off I go. Oh, and excuse the syringe gun poking out of my back, not to mention the ammo box. You gotta keep this stuff somewhere, right? So, I’ve entered this cave, and the first thing I spot is the large number of dead bodies. Sadly, there’s little I can harvest off them. I forgot my scalpel and my jars of preserving alcohol. Dammit. Although the… [Continue Reading]

April 9th – 15th

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With post-Easter candy on sale and taxes looming on the horizon, perhaps Valve can be forgiven for not doing a heck of a lot this week. Lord knows none of the game teams for whom I’m developing ever do anything of merit around this time; save creativity for a time where it won’t get you audited. Back in 2009 on March 13th Valve did push a minor Sandman nerf; stunned players now took 50% less damage. This gave you a slightly better chance of not insta-dying just because some Bostonian twerp nailed you with a baseball while you were trying… [Continue Reading]

On Mercenaries and Munchies

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Look at that Heavy, sitting there, nomming on his sandvich while his Medic buddy burns alive. Look at that Scout abusing the ever-loving heck out of his over-buffed Crit-a-Cola and critting everyone to death. Look at that other Scout failing miserably at using Bonk! Atomic Punch to sneak behind the enemy team and be useful. Why is it that only Scout and Heavy get to eat mid-battle? Well, first off, eating in the middle of a fight is rather impractical. Both Heavies and Scouts need to find cover to consume their consumables, but anyone who wishes to pause to do… [Continue Reading]

Assassinating and being hard to kill…

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Power in TF2 comes from killing people. You kill your enemies then push forward. But there will always be someone waiting in the shadows to push against you. An Engineer. A Medic with Uber. A Sniper. A camping Heavy. A Demoman and his stickies. You need to take them out, but can’t afford to split up your team and waste men. How? Assassins. Alternatively, you need to quickly take out that Carry? Kill them nice and fast before they ace your team? There’s an answer for that too. Assassins. Ass-ass-ins, if you are that way inclined. What is an assassin?… [Continue Reading]

Medic’s Sixth and Seventh Ever Competitive Matches – I don’t know any more!

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As the season is now over and there’s no more matches, I’ve decided to combine these two articles, as a quick overview of both week 8 and week 9. Both somewhat interesting, both pitting teams of hugely varied experience against one another. Week 8 was the last official match week, and week 9 was the start of the playoffs. The skill levels are all over the place, man! All over the place! And so is the ping. Also included is week 7, which was stupid. Week 7 was a blow out, the other team forfeited. They messed us around, unable… [Continue Reading]