Super-Duper Sombrero

This is probably the most exciting piece of news for me from this year's e3. I loved NG2, and still pop it in occasionally to this day. Looking forward to seeing some new weapons, too.

It's probably a new batch of items or something.

I was browsing through the Saxxy finalists (voted for the OCR guys of course), but I think I really should have submitted something. Some of these are really damn good, but others, not so much. Especially for finals. Oh well, there's always next year. Anyone know what sort of prizes or hats or whatever are given to finalists or winners (if any)? It has a surprise ending (not Sir Prize, though).

Your Eternal Reward: Ol' Peel 'n' Steal Knife: Ol' Flank 'n' Shank Axtingiusher: Ol' Char 'n' Scar Ran out of nametags, so that's all I've got for now.

Welcome back, Powerlord. Sucks about the power outage. Anyone know anything about the Magicka item? Haven't seen anything about it yet, and I actually have the game. Might finally get a promotional item for once.

That is some excellent costumes. You one of them, Brush? Also

This is actually a really solid game. I'm impressed with the execution, especially with such an original concept. At least, it's the first game I've seen do it. The soundtrack is also really good, it has a nice subdued feel to it. Reminds me a bit of SpaceChem's soundtrack, if you've played that. The first night was pretty laggy, had some trouble with slow servers. I'm guessing they weren't prepared for such a high load of users. However, they've since upgraded to ten different servers, should alleviate the trouble. I played a few matches with my brother, and I've been enjoying it immensely. The trailer really doesn't do it justice, what with the heavy emphasis on planning and thinking. I really ought to put up a few replays or commentaries that go turn by turn at some point, to more accurately relay the gameplay experience. In a way, it plays like a cross between counterstrike and chess. Both players spend an indefinite amount of time planning out the actions of tactics of their pieces, and then both players' plans are executed simultaneously in five-second segments. Very unique feel to the whole thing. It's not much of a spectator game, and is similar to chess in that regard. You can watch a chess game as a spectator, but unless you're playing or the players are keeping notes or something, then you won't get an accurate feel for what's going on in the player's mind.

Speaking of hats, I finally got one to drop for me a while back. Unfortunately, it's for the pyro so I can't wear it. If anyone wants a plunger, hit me up, I could use a different hat maybe. Not really sure what it's worth though. Aaaaaand while it seems everyone is uploading stuff, might as well post my own.

Why, yes, in fact, I do. Immensely. Rather fortunate I'm not making an ass of myself, for the most part.

Perfect with your signature image. Made me chuckle.

Any idea what this is about? Does it act like a built-in admin or reserved slot functionality? Too bad I don't have any of those. Hopefully will end up acquiring the Boogly Eyes for my pyro at some point, though. What? That seems like a pretty significant damage reduction, not sure that'll balance out properly. Haha, Sir Prize will be happy about that one. Actually, I might start using it more myself. Who needs headshots when you shoot Jarate-darts?

Last night was pretty fun; we had an impromptu single-class only for several maps. More events would be interesting, I think. OCR Karaoke night comes to mind.

Medieval Madness was quite the time, hum. Turns out that in (almost) melee only games, the spy is quite good. I even get a domination on FROGG! That's about the highlight of my TF2 career right there...

I'm looking forward to seeing the total results they get from these hats. It'll be interesting to see, especially how hat-driven some players have become. Personally, I actually might get the $8 one. I can afford it, and it goes to a good cause.

Oh. That kinda ruined my post.

I think the medic is supposed to be a psychotic, sadistic doctor who likes 'experimenting' more than healing. If I read the bio on him correctly, anyway. Unless you meant a pilot light for a flamethrower, that is. The Pyro is pretty much a righteous paladin, defending from evil with his holy flame.

I'm not sure I would want to be included in one of your videos, what with most everyone being a victim and such. Not that I wouldn't be pleasantly surprised if I showed up to get backstabbed once or twice, but still, amusing to think about. Speaking of the videos, do you record the demos and then re-watch and publish from there? Or do you capture directly with Fraps or some such? If you record demos, I would recommend putting voice_loopback to 1 so it records what you say as well. If you want it recorded, that is. PS: TF2 updated at around 7:45 EST, servers are outdated PPS: Damn Powerlord is fast. Obsoleted my edit after less than 10 minutes.

I have yet to receive even a single hat from the random drop system.

What? My computer goes down for like two days and there's like four new item pack updates out. Seriously, though. Any of these worth using at all? Haven't had the opportunity to see any in action yet at all. Also, Paranoid, do you still need a Degreaser? I think I may have a spare. Not certain about that, but I'll toss it over if I've got it.

XBL: SuperDSombrero I'd be willing to play some online matches, but I'm not really all that great.

I'm well aware of that. I'm saying that suddenly doing 3x(?) damage at a critical time could very well turn the tide of the entire match. Such as a crit rocket taking out an entire front, or a Pyro getting near instant kills on an entire cart at once. These can be fine, but it's rather upsetting if it's based entirely on luck, and not anything on the player's (or allies') planning or ability.

I would like to see BLU with crits off by default. Playing well and lining up a kill, only to be thwarted by a random crit can be very frustrating. I would like to mention that I support no random spread for shotguns to remain off. The amount of damage variance can be staggering when it's randomized. Also worth noting; even though I honestly have very little understanding of how the map vote works, would it be at all possible to make it so that it only pops up after a round ends? I've been killed by the vote popup weapon denial than I'd like to admit.

So I'm not really sure what to think about those new Pyro changes. I was saving up metal to finish out the Attendant set for myself, but now I'm not sure it's worth it. Doesn't look like the increased run speed will be worth the extra incoming damage at this point.

I've been told that the server records and logs demos of gameplay through the Kagami spectator. Is this true? If so, would it be possible to access them in any way?

I suppose it's also worth noting that I have RB2 for Wii to export. I checked out a few retailers earlier today, and I didn't see anyone selling RB3 bundles with the drums or anything. The game is being sold, but it looks like nobody carries any of the controllers. I want to get the 360 version, but I also don't want to drop $200+ on new controllers. Just trying to weigh my options here. Does anyone with the Wii version have any sort of input lag? I'm a bit concerned about input lag or game slowdowns.