by Matt | Mar 19, 2005 | Games
Last night Lauren, Robin, Humara, Chrisy, myself and a few random other people went out to Dave & Busters for Robin’s birthday. My groomsman probably remember D&B as the place we went out to for our bachelor party. For those unfamiliar, Dave and Busters is a big arcade, bar and resturant. You can eat, play pool, drink, play arcade games, etc. Anyway, being the complete geek I am, when I was asked to play BattleMech with 6 other people I jumped right in. I don’t know if anyone’s played that game before but it’s basically a big simulator sized version of Mechwarrior for the PC. Only, at an arcade, you get to sit in little pod with a joystick and throttle and speakers thumping in your chair.
Well, it was ugly. I neglected to tell any of the people I played against that I happen to play video games on occasion. I think my final score was 20 kills, 4 deaths and about 12,000 points. I think 2nd place had about 3 kills. They got schooled. I almost felt bad as I ran over a few of them. They all picked the “cool looking” mechs with the fancy designs and lasers and shit. I picked the heaviest mf’er with missle racks AND lasers. It probably didn’t help that the kid they had running it recommended the “smaller, faster mechs” for people who hadn’t played before. That was nice of him. TCC was representing at D&B last night.
Of course, after a night like that, where else can you go but IHOP. We got home around 3am and crashed. Hearing my alarm this morning did not feel good, neither did my “omg, I’ve been to IHOP” stomach ache. Oh well, it was fun.
by Matt | Nov 16, 2004 | Games
This. Is. Unbelievable.
Guys, this is quite possibly the most wonderful thing I’ve ever seen. It’s lived up to it’s hype. Valve has outdone themselves. This is simply one of the greatest leaps in gaming. Period.
by Matt | Oct 20, 2004 | Games
Well, I’ve done it. I broke down and pre-ordered HL2 through Steam. Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m the one that hated Steam. Well, curiosity got the better of me and I have to say that for the most part I’ve very impressed. Having last used Steam two years ago simply as a game update client I thought it was doomed to die a slow, laggy death. They’ve done right and really fixed the major issues it had.
So, immediately after preordering Half Life, all the games that come with it immediately appear in your “my games” section of Steam. From there you can choose what to load/preload, play, etc. I started the HL2 preload as well as the CS:S and DoD preload. I left it all running, went to bed, and when I woke up I had 6Gs worth of stuff on my hard drive and it was telling me CS was ready to play. Shit, I couldn’t resist an invitation like that, so I fired it up.
Let’s get to obvious out of the way. This is NOT Counter Strike 2. It’s simply a rehash of everything from the original, tweaked, and brought into DirectX 9 land. The map layouts are 99% identical. I fired up cs_office and knew right where to go. That doesn’t mean that they’ve left everything as is, just that the “flow” of the levels hasn’t changed. Basically everything got a nice polish and a cleaning and everything that changed engine wise was updated. For example, the glass shattering on Office, the water on Aztec, that sort of thing. Also, as a side note, I don’t know what sort of fetish Valve has developed but everywhere they had blank space they put in oil barrels. There’s hundreds of them, it’s kinda weird.
Anyways, I figured you guys might like some screen-shots, so I fired it up for a few quick minutes here on my “fast as heck” work machine. If I’m going to show you screen-shots, they might as well be nice ones, right? The descriptions precede the image link. I’m too lazy to make thumbnails, sorry.
CS Havana:
Cool street lighting effects – Image
Same – Image
Sunlight effect on center courtyard – Image
Glass window effect, no longer shatters as a “sheet” of glass – Image
Same glass, shot again, not how “pieces” break off – Image
Ooops… umm, showing the “physics”, yeah, that’s it… – Image
DE Aztec:
CT start area facelift – Image
Everyones favorite bridge (notice the water below) – Image
Site “B” is a bit prettier – Image
I like the new C4 model – Image
My favorite CS gun, the “commando” and all the realistic bullet holes it makes – Image
DE Cobble:
T start area, a bit updated – Image
I like what they’ve done with the place – Image
Area “A”, same improvements – Image
Area “B”, same thing – Image
DE Chateau:
T start area, nice water and grass – Image
On the way to site “A”, damn nice looking water – Image
DE Dust 2:
T start area. Look, stuff in the distance! *gasp* – Image
Interior hallway, notice the “light particles” and floor shine. Spiffy! – Image
Some things don’t change much – Image
Tunnel view – Image
Apparently Dust is in the ghetto – Image
Thats about it guys. Hope you liked those. I don’t really see CS pulling me away from DC, especially not with DC Final being out now, but it will be a welcome break and a trip down memory lane. I can only hope they do an equally nice polish on Day of Defeat. With all those water effects and smoke effects in the engine, they could really make DoD look sweet. We’ll have to wait and see. DoD:S should be out before Christmas but after the launch of HL2. I can’t wait. November 16th is just around the corner, and I have 5Gs of HL2 on my harddrive. It’s taunting me.
Matt out.
by Matt | Jul 29, 2004 | Games
Quick little update before I head off to work…
Last night the TCC won a hard fought battle against a very tough opponent, VOD. TCC is now the number one CTF clan in the country… again. We held the spot for some time but slipped down to 3rd and then back to 2nd a month ago. Now we’re back on top and feelin’ good. We’ve also got a few upcoming matches, a Conquest match for 3rd place on that ladder on Thursday and then a BattleField Vietnam Double-Header on Monday night.
I just want to quickly thank VOD on being such a class act and bringing such a good game last night. They’re very talented and I’m sure it won’t be long before there’s a rematch. Anyway, you can check out the results in our forum post, right here.
Matt out… and late for work…
by Matt | Apr 27, 2004 | Games
Is that a pun? Regardless, a big Huzzah for the boys in Boston as they took 4 from the Yanks. They’re now 12 and 6 this season and 7 and 1 against New York. Way to go boys. Here’s hoping for a great September.
Linky
Matt out.
Listening to: Rancid – Ruby Soho
by Matt | Apr 6, 2004 | Games
Umm, yeah. Click to make biggie.
PS: that number 3 score, Bossman, that would be my employer. Yeehaw!
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