updates aplenty!

So some really awesome news is that the Team Fortress 2 Scout Update is almost upon us! I've recently been playing the scout as my primary class as well as whoring arena maps like no other. I have this belief that if arena maps were there since the beginning then the competitive tf2 scene could have been much stronger.

The first big Left4Dead update is coming out soon too, bringing us a new survival mode and 2 campaigns to verse each other in. I'm pretty amped. Valve's co-founder Gabe Newell also mentioned some very interesting statistics on recent steam sales since their sales. You can read all about it here. Pretty much all those numbers are crazy, and can pretty clearly let the community know that PC gaming is not even close to dead.

My friend Dan purchased his very own copy of the new Street Fighter IV, which I've gathered is quite good. Not one into fighter myself, I am a little curious to try it out once I get some spare time. I know that if you're big into fighting games you should get this regardless.

A few rumblings I've scavenged... SC2 might not be coming out this year (boooooo) but Blizzard did state that something will be released this year (o.o). I'm still excited for Scribblenauts, even though there's no recent news on it.

Oh, and make sure you check out my good friend Kai's site. It's focused on gaming goodness, and it has some really good content focused mainly on gaming tips. You can check it out at Crescive Gamer.

getting older?

Is everyone else finding less time for gaming? Don't get me wrong, I still want to, and I still do, but I just don't do as much of it. Other things are starting to appear whether it be for better or worse. I have gotten through a good chunk of Fallout 3 (which is still amazing) and am eagerly awaiting my completion of it so I can move onto the other games I'm waiting to play (GTAIV, PoP, The Witcher, to name a few).

Did you know Left 4 Dead has a CAL League? It's about to start up its first season. Pretty crazy considering it's primarily a co-op game. The versus is going to be super intense, and I foresee any single mistake being a huge factor in score. Survivors still have the upper hand IMO. I would get into the league (I was invited to participate in a team with some guys I used to play TF2 with) but other commitments have stopped me. Not that I want to stop those commitments just to play.

There are plenty of mods coming out for Left 4 Dead that change the game play, such as one that makes the game more of a survival-horror game by making it more "realistic" (in whatever way one goes about doing that in a "zombie" game...) Custom maps have also been done, such as some of TF2's maps. You can see some game play footage on youtube.

What games to look out for on the horizon? I honestly don't really know. I haven't been following the industry as closely as I used to, and no big titles have jumped out at me. A few I have noticed though are Street Fighter IV (unfortunately I'm not big into fighters), Final Fantasy Dissidia for the PSP, and still Scribblenauts for the DS. Oh, and Dawn of War II is looking pretty sick (TYRANIDSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!)

Scribblenauts

Wow, this game looks off the hook. Just imagining all the possibilities makes my brain orgasm. The concept is just so sweet. Check it out.

http://ds.ign.com/articles/936/936157p1.html

The Big One-Oh...... Oh, Oh...

So going by the counter at the bottom of the blog, we have reached over 1000 unique visitors. Of course this includes people that might have viewed this through different IPs, but it's a landmark nonetheless. Sure, I don't really write here anymore, but that's okay. I've been busy with schoolwork, extracurricular activities, and going out in general. I do have a lot to talk about, which I figure I will go into more detail in near-future posts, but I'll just give some quick ideas of what's to come.

-Left 4 Dead is amazing, get it and you'll have tons of fun. It might not be a game that you can build competitive gaming out of, or a game you can play for hours straight everyday, but it will certainly provide much needed breaks occasionally while refusing to be too stale. The campaigns are difficult enough at expert, and the entire feel of the game is almost-perfect.

-Weison and I noticed a lot about guy's sections in stores in Manhattan while aimlessly following around members of the other gender in their quest for fuller wardrobes. Mind you, there's a difference between the Men's section, and the Guy's section.

-Fallout 3 is amazing, and a must-get. While I may not have had much time to play it, I've thoroughly enjoyed it, and is one of the few single-player games I really enjoyed.

-WoW:WotLK shatters 24-hour sales record, selling 2.8 million copies in its first 24 hours of release... the previous record holder was WoW:TBC, with just under 2.4 million copies...

For now I must return to my schoolwork.

My God I'm Jealous

Diablo 3... playable at BlizzCon? Oh god how much I wish I were going to BlizzCon...

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/09/diablo-3-playable-at-blizzcon-2008/

Been a while.

And yet here I am posting again. There's quite a bit of things I could take about. I have not been gaming much recently since school started. Mostly just Call of Duty 4. You can support my CAL team by idling #ascend on irc.gamesurge.net and visiting www.a-scend.net (advertising hell yeah). The COD4 competitive scene may be dying soon. COD5 is just around the corner, with the possibility of all the teams migrating to that. CAL has also recently started up a COD1 tournament, with 80 teams signed up ready to go. Perhaps they will revive the CAL COD1 league.

I bought myself a copy of Spore when it came out. Lots of news about the DRM that EA used, including over 2,000 1-star reviews on Amazon. My thoughts? EA is just hurting the customers who would actually buy the game. It's too easy to bust through any sort of anti-pirating software on games and really is a pain in the ass. They limited the amount of times you can install the game to 3, which by their statistics may be somewhat reasonable, but it's the thought that counts. I know people who have installed the game on three computers already, their laptop, home desktop, and sibling's computer too. Now they're screwed. Way to go. As for the actual game, I found it enjoyable. The editors really are the most amazing part. There's a LOT of customization, although truthfully less than I originally imagined. Don't think it's hurt because of it though, there's still so much you can do. The building editor isn't as fun as the creature editor, and doesn't play a big part. The tribal and civilization phases are the weakest links too. The cell, creature, and the vast space phase are the best by far. Space does become repetitive after a while though, I got bored when I got the mission to find the Grox (They're so FAAAAAAAR). Overall I'd say get the game when it's cheaper (if you haven't already gone and pirated it).

I haven't forgotten about Warhammer Online, a game I highly anticipated before. I participated in the beta, and it was really fun. Comparing it to my experiences in WoW, I'd have to see I might enjoy WAR more. It feels much more immersible, with more to do at any given time than WoW. You can also join in RvR Scenarios at lvl 1 (although you may not be very useful). Public Quests are a great idea, and having area markers for where you can complete your quests saves me large headaches from searching around aimlessly. I really loved my black orc, and would have loved to RvR more with him. However due to schoolwork, friends, and finally going to all my classes, I do not have the time or energy to play WAR at a pace I would want to. That said, perhaps in the future I will change my mind if my workload lightens. If you love MMO and you liked WoW before or you are new to the MMO scene, I definitely would suggest checking out WAR.

Some random tidbits of gaming news I have heard scattered around:
Diablo 3 may be coming out before Starcraft 2
Starcraft 2 is "on schedule for a 2009 release"
Watch for Left 4 Dead, I'm really hoping it's going to be good
Fallout 3 coming out soon too, another home-run from Betheseda? I think so
Call of Duty 5 has confirmed Co-op Multiplayer, hell yeah!
Call of Duty 6 already "confirmed" from Infinity Ward (set in the future?)

That's all for now.

It's time to kick ass and chew bubble gum. And I'm all out of gum.

Hail to the King, baby.

looks real enough to me.