Vivi22

Bull poop. I don't like playing Badlands a lot because I just plain don't enjoy the map. In fact, I'll generally leave the server when it comes up now, or if I stay, I'll usually leave after a round. I have almost never played a round of badlands I enjoyed, and a lot of the times I do suck it up and play it lately it seems to be a steamroll. On the other hand, I actually enjoy dustbowl, goldrush, and badwater so I could play those all day.

I just quit out of it right now. Mostly because the server emptied in a hurry, but I'm also just sick of some of the CP maps. Well and Badlands in particular.

The announcement of this crafting system kind of makes me wish I didn't discard every duplicate item I've ever unlocked.

Meh, I really only go Soldier if I think it would help the team as I'm slightly above craptacular with it. Then I usually realize that even if we need a Soldier, we don't need me as a Soldier providing cannon fodder for the other team so I'll typically switch to something I'm good at again. What can I say, I hate being useless to my team for the sake of helping the Demoman win (which doesn't stop me from going demo in the pre-game mayhem and trying to get some Soldier kills).

And I will continue to help the Demomen by playing Soldier when it suits me. I suck at both but like Demoman more. Though to be honest, I'm just counting on Miyako to beat all of the Soldiers of the world by himself.

Headshots aren't really random with it (though I've seen heavies with fully charged arrows in their heads who are still walking around), but they're kind of hard to pull off regularly since you have to not only lead your shot but account for the small amount the arrow drops over a distance. I only play Huntsman sniper most of the time and it still gives me some trouble. I actually find that half of playing the Huntsman well is firing a lot of shots and having a good sense of where people will be before they get there. Chokepoints also help, and if you're defense on a payload map and the other team is pushing the cart then it's practically like a buffet. Actually, I've played so much Huntsman sniper that I have to make a conscious effort to not lead my shots with the rifle, which pretty much means I can't use it anymore. I'd probably need a few hours of practice to break the habit, but since I like the mobility you get with the Huntsman more I'm not going to bother. The longer you'll play the more used to leading your shots at close range you'll get. Granted, you really only get one. If you miss it's usually time to whip out the knife and charge in like a maniac, which really sucks if it's a Pyro coming at you and you're already on fire.

He'd probably already have some Blu-Ray movies then. Anyway, definitely go for the movies you already like, though some of the better looking movies I've seen in HD include 300 and the last two Bond movies.

If you're like me and some of the other people around here then the game will magically reset them all on it's own soon enough.

I'd agree with this statement for the most part, though Dragon's Souls got nominated for best RPG. It may be deserving of it, but I really didn't see it coming considering this is an awards show where 3 of the 4 nominees for best soundtrack are music games like Guitar Hero, Rock Band, etc.

Thanks to the new infected I'm liking versus a lot more in this game than I did in L4D. I always used to get stuck as a Hunter or a Boomer and I sucked at both. Not that I was much better as a Smoker mind you, but I'm enjoying the other three enough that I don't want to quit everytime I spawn as the original three. I suppose that means I'll probably stop sucking with them after a while.

That perfectly sums up my thoughts on the team AI. I can't be alone in thinking that's actually worse than the last game am I?

I've played through the first four campaigns today on Normal and I feel pretty confident saying that the AI is actually dumber than in the first game. It's not just that they don't know how to handle the new special infected characters or the gauntlet crescendo events (they suck balls at either), but they even do stupid things like two characters ignoring the Hunter that just pounced on me because Ellis has gone down five feet away, or not grabbing health packs in the safe house at the start of the level because apparently not grabbing them is more useful (who knew?). Now, I've seen the AI do stupid things plenty of times in L4D, but never this often or consistently. That said, I shot a zombie in the balls with the magnum an hour ago, making a hole the size of my head that his intestines promptly escaped from. I fucking love this game.

I understand this is fairly late notice as the scrims start in about two hours, but I won't be able to make it tonight after all. I do plan on being there next week though.

I'll be good for the srim tonight from 7-8 again. Hopefully we can get things organized a little faster this time. Also glad to hear the flags are ordered. Any word on the final price and when you want the money?

It would help if some of the admins would accept the friend invites. I'm looking at you FireSlash and Rambo.

I know. Did it leave you feeling like you need a shower too? EDIT: The Magnum does indeed exist and it is fucking awesome!

I didn't even know they were in the demo.

You missed my point. If you're already spending $500 on a new computer, and looking for a new gaming platform, the extra $300 to get there with a PC is a lot more justifiable than just saying, "I think I'm going to drop $800 on a gaming PC today." I also refuse to accept the argument that there are no interesting PC exclusives when no FPS made for the PC should ever be played without a mouse and keyboard and games like Starcraft 2 are coming down the pipe. Anyway, how about the L4D2 that comes out in a week? It's going to be fucking awesome. Also, I still have yet to get to use the Magnum in the demo. Had I not seen one player with it in a game I joined I'd be convinced everyone was bullshitting me about it's existence.

How much did you spend to buy the computer you posted this on? Is the difference between that and $800 really too much to spend given what you could play by spending the extra? I'd be surprised if the difference were much more than the cost of a current console. One thing I would never accuse Valve of is not doing a good enough job optimizing for PC hardware. Given they run the hardware survey through Steam they know exactly what their customers are using and optimize it to run on as many of those systems as possible within reason. It's a lot easier to optimize for the 360 since every single one has the exact same hardware. Getting a game running as smoothly on similar PC hardware (especially with all of the processes PC's run in the background) would be almost, if not impossible due to the sheer number of different configurations out there. At the very least, it would never be worth the time it would take to do it.

After. It actually was quite enjoyable playing Borax if only because the map was fun to explore. There are plenty of balance issues to it, but everyone there was having fun regardless. Still, I agree with the Black Mesa sentiment. I would gladly never see Borax on an RTV list ever again if it meant I didn't have to play Black Mesa for the rest of my life.

My only question for you is why do these people deserve to be treated respectfully when they aren't treating other players with respect? It's right in the rules that respect is of the utmost importance on the server, and I don't think an instant temporary ban at the very least is undeserved if people are going to say crap like that to people. You say it's no fun to have to hold your tongue on a server, but I say it's no fun to be harassed while trying to play a game you like with a community that by and large is respectful and fun to play with. In lighter news, I'm looking forward to the scrim tonight. I'll be able to make it from 7-8 for sure. Might be able to come back on latr in the evening as well.

Regardless of any conflict of interest I don't think anyone would question an instant ban for something like that, especially if others did see it. I don't even see a conflict to be honest since it's not giving Bonzai special treatment by requiring that people be respectful of others. Now to be fair, if it was typed a lot of people may have just missed it. I know I often miss half of what goes into text chat because I'm otherwise occupied trying not to die. Others might simply not have said anything because they figured if there was an admin there then the player would be banned or they planned on bringing it up here. Not saying it excuses what was (or wasn't by those who did see it) said, but it might be understandable if a lot of people missed it entirely. That said, I haven't seen stuff like this going on much to be honest. In fact, when I have seen crap like that it's generally been dealt with quite quickly when it happens (including someone being booted the other day for calling me the N-word. Ironic considering I don't even have a tan but I digress).

Allow me to correct you; many gamers already view games such as SotC as art (and I count myself among them). This is a far cry from being the accepted viewpoint. Many people who care little for seeing movies wouldn't deny that they're an art form, but that is not the case for games. This will change as people of our generation and the next continue to play them in ever increasing numbers, but not without continuing to offer thought provoking experiences to the player. I'm also going to throw it out there that COD4 is one of the better games out there as far as offering a compelling and thought provoking experience in gameplay several times over, similar to what Zircon was getting at with Crisis Core I think (I skipped over much of the description because I haven't finished the game yet. Even though I know what happens I don't want to ruin the how for myself).

When watching the video I kind of figured she was there to be Fox's tool simply because they brought out two people involved with the game and then the mother of a soldier killed there. I don't need to be a genius to figure out where they were trying to go by doing that, especially when they try to blatantly undermine the developers credibility. Glad to hear she was reasonable on the full program and it is a shame to have had to cut her out. Her comments wouldn't have had a lot to do with the point you were trying to make at the time though so I'm not sure where the happy middle ground of making your point while showing her respectable opinion would really be. At the very least, you did link to the full show for those interested in hearing the full debate (for lack of a better term considering Fox is involved).

I'm not going to disagree with any of this actually. I do think that an enjoyable game experience should come first, but the examples you mentioned, as well as games like Silent Hill 2 show you can do both. What it comes down to is that the people who get it will get it and likely appreciate a good game that didn't back down from sensitive topics. We'll never get to the point where a majority of the audience takes games seriously as an artistic medium though without doing it regardless of how many people really get it right now, or cry that developers went too far (I'm thinking of Modern Warfare 2's recent scandal in particular here, and regardless of how much I hate Activision I can at least give them credit for not throwing Infinity Ward to the wolves and cutting the scene on this one).