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Its like the flood gates have been opened, and takes me back to 1997 through to 1999. It feels like PC gameing is back to where its ment to be.
Over the past week, I have bought so many new, and slightly old titles, ready for the playing after exams… I don’t know if the summer break is going to be enough. And the worst part is, even more games are being released that I know I will want to buy and play.

First outa the ranks is Crysis Warhead.
I loved Crysis, and from what I’ve seen sofar, playing upto the island goes white, Crysis 2 looks to be just as good, if not better than the first.
The pace of the game has sped up HEAPS, and there is alot more ways to tackle missions, and Psyco is just that much more of an interesting character than Nomad. Nomad was a Gordon Freeman type player, and I guess the aim of Nomad/Freeman was to forget you were playing those characters, and pretend it is your self in this place.
That doesn’t work, as it seems every character is asking a retorical question of you when you interact with them.
Psyco on the other hand, he is bad-arse, smart, and a character you want to play. Heck, what other character have you seen call one of the main bad guys a muppit, then explained what a muppit is to the guy?

The next of the ranks is Spore.
I’ve messed around with the automaticly unlocked stages, and from what I can see… doesn’t live right upto the hype created, BUT, I think I’m going to have a real blast, and NOT be disapointed with it.
I’ve had just as much of a blast building creatures, and costumes, and cells in this game, as I did in the Creature Creator that was released a few months ago. And the best part is, in this game, I can now see how my creatures interact, suvive, and all that.
I mean, I want to see my 6 legged, beer-bellied, herbavors whipeout some fat peecock.
Doesn’t sound like diplomacy at all…

After that I have Guitar Hero 3… for the PC.
This is a game that I’ve been meaning to get into for ages, and have always failed to get into, mainly because of the price, and the fact that I can’t really justify spending money on a console game that isn’t on the Wii.
I’ve played a few songs… and the hand-eye from Quake helps a bit, but I’ve still got a LONG way to go before I can unlock some of the harder songs, and do better than 86% on easy.

Far Cry 2.
I almost didn’t save this for after exams after I loaded it up the first time. Its open ended, it has character, it imerses you into the world like nothing I’ve ever experienced before.
All the characters have style, and seem really individual. The ways you can approach the missions seems never ending, the amount of depth for unlocking things. The shear size of the map, without requiring any loading. How SMART the AI is. I could go on, and on, and on. But really, just go out and buy this game. Personaly its my Game Of The Month.

Race Driver 3.
Or V8 Supercars 3. Its a racing game. Its awesome, and I can’t wait to belt around Bathurst, Silverston, Phillip Island, or any of the other tracks that are in the game. And seirously, who doesn’t want to drive a BA V8 Ford really really really fast?

XIII.
I started playing this game a few months ago, and gave pause as the alst assignments, and exams started to roll up with Uni.
The whole gameplay, and story thats been wrapped into this overlooked gem is just brilliant. Sure the graphics look dated, even for cell-shading, but the actual game itself hasn’t gone sour with time.
Its also got this weird sandbox vs linear gameplay to it; throughout the game, you are lead by the nose “this is where you need to go” but once you are there, how you complete this mission is KINDA open ended. By that I mean your basicly given the choice of stealth, and open violence.

And finaly, I want to finish Never Winter Nights 2.
I started this game at the start of the year, and got pulled away from it by Vista screwing up on me.
Why this RPG over all others? I don’t know, theres just something about the gameplay mechanics, and the story line that I’ve uncovered sofar that just… apeals to me.
I mean, I know most RPGs follow the same formula as NWN2, and yeh, the story line seems fairly similar to that of Lord of the Rings (thanks Rachel for introducing me to those movies).
I think its that the gameplay and characters apeal to my limit attention span. You see, most of the games I play are FPS or Racing, I hardly ever get going on RPGs, infact, none other than NWN2 actualy STAY on my HDD.

And finaly theres Quake Live.

Hehehehe.

So yeh, thats my summer break planned.

It seems I may have found a cheater.

Will whack up youtube vids lateron, but lets just say r_shownormals when viewing demos from their POV give it away.

Seirously, am i the only person who gets shitty at people cheating in games? I mean, ok, I’ve beaten this guy a few times, but my God, is beating an amature player really that important?!

.

Nah, not enough.

Yesterday, IE finished with a freakin HUGE bang! Got there wtih my kit at around 10:30am, and got all the last minute stuff done, like the power point, some printouts, and Jake and Pod’s belovid PIR. The whole time, the day had a sense of… well I don’t quite know what it was. That something special was about to take place.

So we get there, and start setting up, cables running everywhere, laptops not working so repalcements being brung in, etc. Cade having to run off to grab a power cable for us. The lollies set out.

Just a mind-blowing thing to get setup so quick.

placement seeker

See! Seirously, how cool do we look!

Anyway, there was some really awesome projects that people had come out with including:

I should include a picture of the Griefline porject here, Pete and Chandrika did an amazing job on that, but alas, not photos yet.

I also discovered that the mysterious Dorra that I kept hearing about all year happened to be Dorra from Peninsula, the IT receptionist who helped me with all the academic stuff back in 2006! So that was awesome catching up wtih her, and letting her know all her hard work hand’t gone to waste.

After all was done with the Expo, and everything packed away, Andrew Owen from IT Marketing at Monash came over for a chat, I had met him once before at the Atomic Live Forum 2008, and it turns out he would be fairly interested in running a Quake3 tournament as part i the next Idef expo! Chances are I’ll get to help out wtih that, so awesome!

Then came the after party.
Man, what an after party.
Lost every game of pool, first with Pete agaisnt Cade and Rick. Then me, Tai, and Cade taking Rick, Vic, and Nim. Then lost again JUST in a close game teamed with Luke against Rick and Vic. We had 5 balls left, they had the black. I sunk 4 of the 5 before screwing up the last!

Man so close (yes pics will come later on).

Then it was to the general socialising, and getting contacts from everyone who I didn’t ahve yet, and ofcourse lots of having fun.

Awesome year guys! Good luck with exams!

…sucks.

Really, who organises a bike riding copetition that takes you along main roads that are used by thousands of motorists every day, and NOT mark off a lane?

Its just pure stupid, riders take up TWO lanes of Nepiean Highway, thats asking for trouble. Oh wait, It DID end in trouble, not just for motorists with it taking over an hour to do a 10 minute trip, and useing up HEAPS of water, but for the stupid bike riders who think they own the freakin’ road.
Driving back from Frankston, what do we see? A copy car, two ambulances, smashed glass everywhere, and a team bus picking up a twisted bike. Whilst I’m sorry the poor bugger got run over, man, it could have so easily been avoided with a few witches hats.

Anyway, on a lighter note. Got Crysis Warhead.

Man I’m so stoked about this game, its sooo much fun. It runs about a billion times better than the original, and its way more fun to play! I will defintly be playing through this one again, and again, and again.

There is just so many ways to do the missions. For example, assult on the beach base. The first time I played this mission I sneeked upto the guard post, silently took out the guards, layed down some mines, dashed accross the complex to the cafe’ area, then worked my way back forwards.

The second time I jumped down the cliff with two SMGs blazzing, clearing the whole place like a rabbit gone mad.

Anyways…

Well today was probably the best day of Uni I have attended. Let me re-phrase that, the best day of Uni at Caulfield.

Not only did I get a bunch of IE work done, but also… the feeling that was there at Peninsula was back.
I don’t know how to explain it, it doesn’t really make sense. At Peninsula, there was a layed back feel, where everyone got on with everyone else, and it didn’t feel…. big? 

At Peninsula, most of the time was spent talking. Not bullshit taking, but productive talking. Everyone is comfortable with everyone, even to the point of talking openly about stuff which… well hasn’t been mentioned since Peninsula. Its good.

I loved the Peninsula campus, there wasn’t alot of students, and it was a facility that was cornered off from the rest of Frankston, it was just so… what I expected of Uni, and its kind-of sad that Caulfield is only starting to feel like that.

I don’t think it has anything to do with everyone being friends now, or anything like that, I’ve known Craig, Yousef, Pranesh, Adam, Sarah, and Tina since Peninsula, and James since roughly the start of last year., and a bunch of other Caulfieldians that are too many to mention. We are all good mates, but… I don’t know, it was just the location seemed a bit stale…

I hope that my last 6 months at Uni next year are going to be like this. If they are, the academic motivation that I had the first year will defintly be there, and who knows, the marks might raise?

So today I thaught I’d list my top 5 games.

Number 5: Wacky Wheels

My very first computer game. The list could not be complete without it. It was a Mario kart ripp-off yes, but it was the best DOS game that I ever played. It was fun, fast, and just totaly awesome. The battle mode and the race mode where awesome, and the maps where designed to work well with the set speed of each of the levels.

Number 4: Age of Empires

The first RTS that I ever played, and the best RTS in my opinion. None of this shitty unit queing, it was pure belt it out. The game was there for the long slog. The single player campaigne was awesome, helped you get into it. I mean seirously, whats not awesome about an army of Villages rushing a few elephants, and seeing them all get trampled?

Whats not awesome about strategicly mauvering your horse archer to harras the enemy? Or maybe your legion of broad swordsmen?

And what other RTS plays so well on Windows Mobile?

Number 3: Call of Duty

Yes, the first Call of Duty, based off Quake3, so nice silky smooth movement, and just the right balance between realisum and fun, the maps where niceand had good flow for all the different types of game mods. And that brings us to the best part of the multiplayer game: Behind Enemy Lines.

But call of Duty wasn’t just all multiplayer, it had one of the most freshest single player games since the first Half-Life, and lets be honst Half-Life’s single player was really really boring. Call of Duty had style, it had emotion, it drew you in and made you think you where that character, and it made you relise how bloody small you are in the game-world.

Number 2: V8 Challenge.

This was a hard one to pick. It was a toss-up between Race Driver 3, and this, but in the end, this won out. Its the main racing simulator that I keep comming back to. Its just a really good racing simulator, the steering feels real, the breaking, the way the tracks are modeled (nice and visible). And it just has that “feel” like Quake3 has to an awesome game, thats designed to function as well as it does. Seems to work well with any Steering Wheel under the sun.

Number 1: Quake 3 Arena.

Obviously, its a game that has kept me comming back to it, time and time again. I’ve been playing it since 6 months after release here in Australia. When I first started playing it, I had just come down from playing Quake2 ALOT on the MSN Gaming Zone. (by the way, Quake2 is the most influential game for me). So I had come down from a successfull TDM and FFA season online, and joined Quake3. The pace just blew me away, it was so nice, smooth, and was just a different level.

Its everything about this game I love, even the community, people are so nice to each other, and most don’t ever get head strong. Its just an awesome game.

—-

And thats my favorites, love it or hate it.

My God! I didn’t relise how unfit I was!

Me and Rachel ended up buying a Wii, and obviously, we got Wii Fit to go with it. Now, I’ve started doing 30 minutes a day on it… and Oh my bloody God!

The backs of my legs are sore. Mum said I look like I’ve shit my self 24/7. This is pathetic, I didn’t relise I was so unfit, playing a game like this shouldn’t ’cause so much burning, and pain, and ouchiness.

I think I’m loving this whole new blog site ALOT more, its very nice.

One thing I thaught I might mention incase anyone else wants to come. On IRC, #atomicmpc. Ten80 is hosting a LAN in Lismore, a bunch of us, including interstaters are going. $25 entry, its not untill Australia Day next year, but if you want in for some good gaming fun, might be time to start saving those pennies for the trip!

OK, so the first post using the new blogging system, seems VERY swish, and BIG props to Mr Dazz over at rapidHosting for getting this all setup for me.

So whats been happening? Not alot, theres more IRC Quake3 being played, more Wii being played, and I can’t wait untill Uni is DONE.

Speaking of which, I better get some more done :S

Whats missing from gaming these days?

No, I don’t mean small things that reviewers always bash on about like game play elements, I mean what makes a great game really great. The players.

In recent years, many games have come and gone, but its been ages since any of these new games have made any “icons”, I use the term icons very loosely, as its unlikely, unless you play they game, the names will never be known.

Take a look at Quake3 at the moment, we have Rapha, Cypher, Av3k, Toxic and a few others who are not only extreamly tallented, but give us reason to remember them.

Toxic will be remember, why? WSVG06 finals. Versing Fatal1ty, and him typing “its quiet in the studio”. Just something that sticks with you. Quake4 also had 2GD and Forever creating drama for it.

Take a look at the CPM scene, its full of people, who not only take their playing seirously, but still know its just a game and have fun. I mean, take a look at all the videos OvO, AHXNXA and 8bitlobstar have released. They know its just a game, and throw shit at people who think otherwise. I mean 8bitlobstar has given us the phrase “fu lobstar”, and one thats now used in many other games of spectators spreying thier bodily fluids everywhere.

And they keep it interesting by changing the style of the game. A year ago, would you believe the shotgun would be so awesome? seirously, take a look at this.

I like to think that with getting more and more members of #atomicmpc involved in Quake3 again, and soon, UT2k4, that we will be able to add to the communites list of characters, everyone knows we suck, but man, we make for a fun game with the diverse personalities.

So I figured, what better way to fire off the new URL, than with my own funky video?!

What I have here for you is a nice collection of frags from the wonderfull people on #atomicmpc over on irc.austnet.org

hashatomic

And the full version can be downloaded right here