MuttersomeTaxicab

A friend of mine gifted me a copy of Half-Life 2. I imagine the next game I purchased directly on steam was probably Left 4 Dead or the id pack.

I played my first rounds of CS:S last December during the Valve gift grab stuff. I'd never really been into military shooters, so I was just goofing around and trying to find a loadout that worked for my playstyle. It was tough, but I was consistently getting at least one kill a round. Because I spent a lot of time wandering around the maps to get the lay of the land, there were more than a few times I missed brutal firefights that decimated my team, so I was the last man standing. I even managed to win a round like that by popping a terrorist in the head just as they were coming to ambush me. What's great about Counter Strike is how much Valve understands the reward-you-even-if-you're-still-learning aspect of achievements. So even while you're dying constantly, it's still raining cheevos, which is a nice feeling. I've never really encountered any shit talking on any of the servers I've played on, but I typically ignore the chat feed and, if I'm playing on my laptop, I have the speakers muted.

As a result of those reasonably positive experiences, I'm pretty excited for CS:GO. Really enjoyed what I played of the beta. Arms Race is a neat little mode, too. Since it's so cheap, I'm considering picking it up for PS3 as well as PC.

@pyromagnestir said:

racism.

To be fair, I only do it casually. Y'know, if I'm at a party and someone else is being racist.

I'm just gonna bump this because: internet.

We love you, Patrick. Loved that write-up on Amnesia (almost convinced me to go back and finish it) - seriously can't wait for that System Shock 2 coverage whenever ya get to it.

@patrickklepek said:

@freakin9 said:

I would describe Patrick's review as luke-warm, not quite "acclaim"

I dunno, man. Just because I didn't give it five stars doesn't mean I can't have really enjoyed my time with it.

Yeah, if we're going to get into "stars = enjoyment-of-game" territory, then Trackmania 2 deserves way more stars than the 3 Jeff gave it. Sometimes a reviewer can have a good time with a game, but recognize significant flaws that will likely push other players away. Just one of the many blithe ways the review "score" system betrays itself.

Edit: sorry. Jeff gave Trackmania 2 four stars, but still ripped on it pretty hard for not doing more to fix issues from previous games.

@Jams said:

@believer258 said:

@Jams said:

@believer258: Would you rather play shootupmania?

I'm afraid I don't quite get what you're saying?

If you mean "would I rather play something that allows you to carry different weapons and shoot more rounds", then yes, I would.

Sorry, bad attempt at joke.

Kurt Cobain and William S. Burroughs Day 1 DLC makes Shootupmania a no-buy for me.

Played during the TNT. Had an absolute blast. It's in 50+ player games that I can really see Shootmania's appeal as, well, manic. But for real: needs more dubstep.

Yeah. I mean, I'm not surprised at any of the choices they had to make to put the game on PC. That said, I absolutely loved Dark Souls on the PS3, and I'm amazed that they even responded to the online petition. Will pick it up, even if it's just to support FROM.

When I play Trackmania, it's typically for short periods of time. Mostly I'm there to goof around because I don't really have time to boot up a longer, more involved experience. I'll hop into the GB server, fail spectacularly at a few tracks, maybe do a few of the single-player maps and then move on with my day.

I usually get up early in the morning, grab a coffee and fuck around for a bit before getting ready for work. Shootmania fills that niche perfectly as a sort of goofy, low-impact kind of shooter. If, say, there were a constantly-populated Quake 1 server, fuck yeah, I'd be playing that instead. Though, in Shootmania, even if I'm sucking (which isn't as frequent as I figured) - I'm still improving my overall score. If I only get a few points in a round, no biggie, it still boosted me up 100 or so spots on the global rankings.

It's definitely a weird take on the FPS genre, and I can see people who are looking for actual pro-gaming madness being a little put off by it. For me, it scratches a weird itch I didn't realize I had.

Super pleased with everything I've seen so far. I like that they're also pretty transparent about the fact that it's still "in progress" and letting players vote on new features, etc. I'm really hoping the develop some more of the lore into actual game mechanics. Horatio has quickly become one of my favourite factions, just based on explanation alone. I'm also amazed that this game looks as good as it does and runs as well as it does, even on my 5-year-old laptop.