Refer to the sidebar on the right-hand side for our most popular article categories. Further down, you may find a blog archive of all the posts on this blog in chronological order. ;D
With the FIFA 10 demo out, everybody was able to get their hands on the highly anticipated new football simulator. The first time I played through a match, I didn't see any changes, in fact, it felt as if the game lost its sense of physical play.
But every minute more, you realize little things that change the experience, for example, I had broken through the defense and was onto the goalie, I tried to chip it over his head, it worked perfectly except, as the ball was about to bounce into the goal the goalkeeper sprints back and slaps the ball out of the way. Another example, when I was with Ibrahimovic, I was sprinting down the sideline, I tried the cross but it was heading towards the goal, it hits the post, and as another of my players is about to do a diving header a defender out of nowhere clears the ball.
These things didn't happen in FIFA 09, I started to realize how to use the 360 degree dribbling and the skilled dribbling. The defenders now show urgency when the ball is near their goal, and the goalie AI and reactions have much improved.
After playing FIFA 10 I tried to go back to playing FIFA 09, but I couldn't. All the small changes made for an extremely realistic experience that was unique. With the actual game coming out in 31 days, FIFA 10 looks to be the way to go.
Gameplay: 8.5/10 - Unlike other games such as Counter Strike, TF2 has a need for cooperation. Graphics: 8/10 - Although rather cartoon-like, I would say the graphics are quite unique and well made. System: 18/20 - In this game, the classes are quite balanced, there weapons however aren't as balanced, there are some moments where one weapon is easily the better choice instead of just an alternative. Ease of Handling: 9.5/10 - Controls can be easily modified through the developer console or options. Updates: 15/15 - Updates are frequent and they improve the game drastically with new content such as weapons. Multi-Player: 9/10 - Winning relies heavily on cooperation, and through that, helps you communicate with others. Modding Potential: 10/10 - The game can be easily modded and there are fun mods of the game such as party mod, Zombie mod, 100% mod, and modified server settings. Sound: 8/10 - This game includes character phrases such as "BONK!" which are unique to that class Replay Value: 3.5/5 - You'll find yourself playing this game for hours everyday because it's amazing. Total: 89.5/100 _____________________________________________________________________________________ Game Websites: Official website: http://teamfortress.com/ Steam Client Download Site: http://store.steampowered.com/
Introduction to Team Fortress 2
Seeing as I have covered quite a bit about Team Fortress two with the comments about the ratings, I'll attempt to keep this part to a minimal level.
Team Fortress 2 is a fast paced cooperative First Person Shooter (FPS) game, with great graphics (which might not exactly be considered realistic) this game has many things an FPS player would want. Some of these things might include: several game classes (which means several play styles), frequent updates (please refer to http://teamfortress.com/ to find information about the updates), and is generally a fun game to play.
NOTE: Some of the weapons have changed since this trailer.
Team Fortress 2Classes
Scout: Weapons: Scattergun, Pistol, Bat Alternatives: Force-a-Nature, Bonk! Atomic Punch, The Sandman
This class is the fastest class in the game, he is also the only class in the game that can double jump. He is mainly used to harass people and can easily take out: Medics, Spies, and Snipers, easily demolishing their support, but a well played scout can easily take on any class in a 1 on 1 battle.
Soldier: Weapons: Rocket Launcher, Shotgun, Spade
The soldier is the second slowest class in the game, however he quickly makes up for it with the power of his weapons (a critical rocket is devastating to anyone) and the ability to rocket jump. He is usually known to be the counter to the Pyro, but he can decently counter any class with some good aim and the ability to lead a shot (shooting ahead of the enemy using an estimation of where they will be when the shot hits).
Pyro: Weapons: Flamethrower, Shotgun, Fire Axe Alternatives: Backburner, Flare Gun, The Axtinguisher
The Pyro is one of the classes that have "normal" speed, I call it normal because it is the speed most classes have. The Pyro is known to be the "Spychecker" because it is the ULTIMATE counter to spies. The Pyro can also easily counter an inexperienced Scout and possibly a Soldier if the Pyro is able to use the Flamethrower's (not the backburner) airblast ability.
The Demoman is also another class that has "normal" speed. It is known to be the best counter against engineers due to his secondary weapon: The Sticky Bomb Launcher, which can shoot bombs which he can later detonate at his own discretion, usually three or more can kill a full health LVL3 Sentry. An extremely good demo can easily kill any class by leading his pipe bombs towards them.
Heavy: Weapons:"Sasha" Minigun, Shotgun, Fist Alternatives: Natascha, Sandvich, The Killing Gloves of Boxing
The Heavy is the slowest class in the game, but with his heavy artillery, he can easily make up for that weakness. The Heavy is the counter for the Soldier because they are both close/medium range fighters, the Heavy has more DPS (Damage Per Second), and has more health.
The engineer is yet another character with "normal" speed. He is most likely the best defense a team can have, because of his ability to build Dispensers, which dispense ammo and heals players around it, and his ability to build Sentries, which, depending on it's level, can deal a massive amount of damage to any player. A level 3 sentry usually cannot be taken down unless it is by a well protected demo or soldier, or an UBERCHARGE.
The Medic is the most important class in a sense, and is also the second fastest in the game. He can heal his teammates and over time, charged by healing, he can deploy an ubercharge. Using the Kritzkrieg the ubercharge will give the person the Medic is healing, 100% critical hits for the duration of about 10 seconds, using the regular Medigun, the Medic and his partner will be completely invulnerable to all attacks (however they can still be knocked back) for also around 10 seconds.
The Sniper is another class with "normal" speed, he usually stays in the back lines, either defending the capture point/intelligence by sniping people off, or helping his teammates that are in the front lines by sniping off their enemies.
Spy: Weapons: Revolver, Building Sapper, Butterfly Knife Alternatives: Ambassador, Sapper, Butterfly Knife Special: Disguising Device, Cloaking Watch Special Alternatives: Disguising Device, Cloak n' Dagger/The Dead Ringer
The Spy is yet another class with "normal" speed. The Spy is the counter to the Engineer because of his ability to sap the engineers buildings. If using the Butterfly Knife, the Spy can instantly kill someone by backstabbing them if he is behind them.
The Force-a-Nature: -Can push enemies in any direction -If airborne, can use recoil to do a triple jump -Does less damage then the scattergun -Has a faster firing rate then the scattergun -Has 2 shells per clip instead of 6
Bonk! Atomic Punch: -Gives the Scout invulnerability for around 6 seconds -Slows down the scout dramatically directly after wards
The Sandman: -Makes Scouts HP 95 instead of 125 -Can hit a ball by right clicking, the ball stuns enemy players according to distance -Does less damage then the original bat
The Backburner: -100% crits from behind -No Airblast
The Flaregun: -On contact with enemy, sets them on fire
The Axtinguisher: -Does less damage then fire axe -100% crit on burning enemies
Natascha: -Slows enemy on bullet contact -Less damage then Sasha Minigun
Sandwich: -Heals the player
The Killing Gloves of Boxing (KGB): -Slower attack rate then Fists -If a kill is made with these on, the player gets 100% crits for 5 seconds (effect can be stacked)
Blutsauger: -No Crits -Heals 3 HP per syringe that hits
Kritzkrieg: -100% crit instead of invulnerability
Ubersaw: -Slower attack rate then Bone Saw -Gives 25% Ubercharge on hit
Huntsman: -No zoom -Faster charge (gives more power/distance) -More powerful then the Sniper Rifle
Jarate: -Is thrown at the enemy -If it makes contact, it gives anything that hits the player hit by this a damage boost
Razorback: -Protects the Sniper from being backstabbed once -Stops the Spy that backstabbed the sniper from attacking for a short duration
Ambassador: -Becomes less accurate (crosshair gets bigger) every shot, you must let it cool down -100% crit on a fully accurate (smallest crosshair) headshot
Cloak n' Dagger: -Recharges when not in use -Power does not deplete unless you are moving (you can stay permanently invisible if not moving) -Does not last as long as the original Cloaking Watch
The Dead Ringer: -Cannot cloak normally -When hit, fakes your death and cloaks you, reducing damage recieved -Does not last as long as original Cloaking Watch -Can be recharged by picking up Metal (ammo)
Gameplay: /10 (Generally how well the game is made compared to others of its type) Graphics: /10 (How well the graphics are within its style, as certain games have different graphic styles) System: /20 (How well the game is designed, and if it is balanced) Ease of Handling: /10 (How easy it is to get used to the controls and fighting styles) Updates: /15 (How frequently and well designed the updates are) Multi-Player: /10 (How the game incorporates other people as well as yourself) Modding Potential: /10 (If the game can be modded and if there are a fair amount of popular mods) Sound: /10 (If the sound effects relate to the object emitting it) Replay Value: /5 (How addicting it is, and if you will play it a lot)
Starcraft's history is quite rough, dating back to it's first few prototype versions in 1995 where it made it's first step in E3 1996. The game, based off a Warcraft II engine, was quite put down by gaming critics and was thought to be abandoned in a few years, but Blizzard and Starcraft's main programmers redesigned and brandished a new system based off the Warcraft II engine that allowed Starcraft to support many new abilities such as cloaking and burrowing.
After Starcraft's major renovations in 1996, it later was released to the public again, except this time with much more positive comments in 1997. Soon it was released publicly and officially in 1999 hitting many awards such as Game Of The Year and accumulating as many as 9.5 million purchases of the game up 'til today even by ignoring the amount of illegal versions that are of the game.
Soon after it's release, it was popularized in various different countries in the world, but the most notable one was South Korea. During it's legacy in South Korea, the Koreans literally mastered the game. Practicing up to nearly 60 games a day and getting at less as an hour of sleep to NO sleep a day, the Koreans have now glorified it as a national sport; to South Koreans, Starcraft would be played daily like you and I would play soccer or basketball. Starcraft has it's own T.V. channel for pro-gaming in South Korea, and pays a hefty sum of money to take up the job despite the job's requirements. An example of the cost of buying a progamer onto your team would probably hit the 50 Million Won's worth (Nearly $467,000 U.S.D) and that's an average gamer. If you were to get a star like Jaedong or SlayerS_'Boxer' on your team, it would be an outrageous price along with a consistent price of the upkeep it takes to pay. Here are some pictures of some pro-gamers, and I will describe them.
This person, Jaedong (Picture on the right), is one of the best players of Starcraft of all time. He was rated #1 by KesPA rankings for a time of 4 months and has won numerous awards some being as prestigous as the Golden Mouse where you can only win by winning 3 MSL/OSLs in a row. He is an extremely feared Zerg Player. I myself, am a huge fan of this player.
This person, a total God of Starcraft, has been reknowned for his creative and innovative nature in playing Starcraft as a pro-gamer. He is known for numerous ingenius terran strategies that he executed near-perfectly at a whim. His name is SlayerS_'Boxer'. Yes, you will see many pro koreans BOAST about his genius, he is also called "The Emperor" or "Emperor" for being a master of Terran. His micromanagement is scary, and I do not want to stare into his screen for long because you will be mesmerized by his immense micro.
I will include more information about pro-gamers later, on the same article edited in, I hope you will keep tuning in to Starcraft if you are interested!
~Raith001
On a side note, just to clarify: we really appreciate comments (Please don't include rude comments unless they can make me laugh), the button is on the bottom of a post and for some reason it's displayed as a # 3 (# being the # of comments.)
First off, I'm going to give the blog a few pictures about SC and how it's legacy started as one of the best R.T.S if you haven't heard about it yet; It's quite appalling for me to see experienced gamers with no idea of what it is.
You may be repelled by the rather sub-par graphics, but it is quite compensated by it's extremely balanced game-play and system. It requires extensive skill to master and brings out the hard-core gamer in people. The strategies, the units, the combinations, it is intense and very time consuming to master all of it, although the Koreans have adopted this game and made it into a national sport that pays millions-- and even billions of Won. I will go through as much as I can through this section, because Starcraft is such a broad topic ranging from the Korean superstars and the game itself.
With the FIFA 10 demo out, everybody was able to get their hands on the highly anticipated new football simulator. The first time I played through a match, I didn't see any changes, in fact, it felt as if the game lost its sense of physical play.
