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Hey it’s a day late on posting every day, but that was due to the unforeseen length of my stay at my girlfriends house. Speaking of which, you should check out her tumblog (It’s the first in the links section).

Yesterday was Father’s Day and while I couldn’t catch up with my dad, I hope you guys all had a good weekend with yours.

I spent a majority of today being introduced to the power of Alan Wake. The thrills that game gave me were substantial enough to generate a blog post. The themes were powerful and flowed rather well. The story reminded me of, and played out like a Stephen King novel. Of course, Alan (coincidently) mentions Stephen King being an influence in his self narration, but it is incredibly evident if you read any of his stories.
I had a couple of moments where I got shocked a little, but no genuine scares, sadly. Still, for a game it is really good, and if you haven’t played it, you really should.

I borrowed this screenshot from the main site. I’d take my own, but I can’t get into a game.

During the guest pass period, I logged on twice, and out of those two times, the busiest was when there was a whole seven people playing, spread out over five servers. I’ve never been interested in playing small games, least of all when I’m new to it, so I let it go.
This weekend, since the free weekend is on and the game is already preloaded on my computer, I logged in half an hour ago to give it another go. This time, most servers were full. However, not only were there no servers under 200 ping for me, but whenever I connected to a server, I was disconnected before I was actually able to play, with no reason supplied. How can I try a game when they won’t let me play?

This experience has killed any desire I have to play it.

I treated demos not only like the trailer for the game it was intended, but as actual games. They provided variety when one couldn’t afford to buy lots of games, and when they weren’t readily available at our fingertips. Over time demo discs have stood the test of time, but I have to admit, lack the appeal that they used to. Nowadays they’re packed with full freeware games, mods for games you may already have, reviews, videos, and even more. Despite this, I’m finding I’ve grown less and less interested. I attribute this partly to the cheapness and availability of games online nowadays (I picked up Left 4 Dead on special for $7.50, and I gifted someone the original Aliens Vs Predators for $5), which means it’s not such a hassle if I buy a game and don’t like it. Demos were meant like movie trailers, in that they are meant to give us a taste of the game, to entice us to buy it by seeing how good it is. With prices being so low when purchased through Steam and the like, I’ve stopped looking at them.

This isn’t to say they don’t have a place in today’s world though. I did buy a copy of one of the many Xbox 360 magazines around, and it came with a demo for Ghostbusters, and Splosion Man. The single level of Ghostbusters was quite stunning, and if it weren’t for the fact that the game is a little expensive, I’d probably own it (the fact it’s single player is a bit of a downer too). Splosion Man looks like an addictive side scroller too, and the only thing stopping me getting that is an Xbox Live account.

What’s your standing in the world of demos? Do you play them still? Do you buy magazines with them still? I’m curious.

I am out of the office starting Feb. 12th (but on email). For general issues, e-mail scott@valvesoftware.com. For marketing or press issues, e-mail lombardi@valvesoftware.com.  To complain about HL-2 Ep 3 taking too long, email laidlaw@valvesoftware.com.  To complain about L4D2 not taking long enough, email toml@valvesoftware.com.  To complain about the crafting/lack of crafting in TF2, email robin@valvesoftware.com  To compliment the writers of Valve for creating funny out of office replies, email lazygadabouts@valvesoftware.com.  I’ll be back in Seattle Feb. 21st.

I couldn’t help but laugh. Seems they have their fan base pretty much covered.

To do this, they’ve set up a story about the RED team’s demoman and the BLU soldier forming a strong bond of friendship, and the admin behind the scenes of the war don’t like it. To separate them, some healthy competition is unveiled.

The storyline directly impacts gameplay, as how soldiers and demomen perform in game will decide how the update pans out. As a soldier, the more demomen you kill, the more likely the soldier update will be better (and vice versa). There’ll be more achievements, weapons and sounds for both classes, but in the end the one with the most kills will get an extra weapons.

Now, I’ve never played much of either class, if any (seriously, only about 5 minutes for the demoman, but hours and hours on other classes), but I’d been thinking that I should try getting better at either of them and this update gives me that final shove.

I can’t wait until the final update comes out; I’d love to see what comes of this.

Update: Ok I just gave the game an hour of my time, and well, it is interesting. As I should of realized, now that this is out; everyone is spamming as these classes. Going onto my usual servers, teams were made up almost completely of soldiers and demomen, with maybe one or two medics. The gameplay is a flurry of grenade and rocket spam, and no-one cares about the actual objectives. “Get the briefcase? FUCK OFF, throwing random grenades over this wall in hopes of killing a soldier is much more invigorating.”

Kind of sucks, but it’s a little funny at the same time. If you play Team Fortress 2, what do YOU think of the new updates that are rolling out? Good or bad?

This bastard of a gnome is making Half Life 2 so hard. All this for a goddamn achievement.

It proves just how bad I am at Team Fortress 2 when I am apparently killed by a bloody decapitated head.

Lunchtime on the Team Fortress 2.

Being the whore I am, I’m going to start posting random achievements on the blog. I’ve really fallen in love with Team Fortress 2 thanks to Brittany, so this is a logical thing for me. It basically serves as something fun for me to throw into it.

In game screenshot from Brittany’s view. We did it for the lulz (Check the kill notification)

Team Fortress 2 has done nothing short of reignite my love for class based gaming. I used to play Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, but over time that game lost it’s appeal, since there was only one mode of play (Axis vs. Allies, completing missions), and only so much you could do. In TF2 though, there’s various game types, lots of servers (many Australian ones too, which is a plus), and plenty of reasons to keep playing. Like on Xbox, you can win achievements for doing certain things, and win new weapons and items to use IN the game.
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, and in fact many other FPS games take themselves too seriously. Team Fortress 2 is designed to be about fun. Lots of little jokes and giggles fill the game, giving it an awesome bright feel.

And you know, I’d keep talking about it, but doing so has made me really want to just play. So, into the game I go. I promise to give this a better go around next time. Just…the urge is too great.

Also, I’ll be throwing said achievements into a page accessible via the sidebar, strictly because I can.