I Still Wish I Could Loose!
So to continue on my looserish or loose favouring rant… I really don’t get it. Is competition really that big a part of our lives today that a sub-par score just wont do? I mean we are supposed to be gaming for fun right?
Its weird in games like counterstrike when you get a single head shot and then just die, or spend an entire round hidden up in some corner, waiting for a victim… you know in typical sniper style people don’t get what you’re doing. Is it really that important to run after kills? If all I’m trying to do is have fun, then that’s all I’m trying to do…
If I find it interesting to build 20 ornagers and have them mow down a forest, while my woodcutters do nothing, is that really all that big a deal? I don’t get it… why aren’t we allowed to be weird, and slightly irrational when we play a game?
Its really not fair!
I mean most games are bad parodies of realities, specially in the FPS format, so then if I want to have some fun and just get myself killed as I try to at least play the character with some amount of dignity what is the bid deal?
For example when I Splinter Cell, I find it virtually impossible to actually pull of the whole stealth bit, and instead try Rambo mode… the game wont let me. In fact most games don’t let you do most of what you want to… which brings me to the topic of my next blog… but then you’ll have to wait for that, because I’m not yet sure what I want to say.
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Can I Loose? Please!
So another thing about gaming, that is interesting, is the fact of the only choice you have, to play or not to play. Once you’ve made that choice, there’s really not much free will you have left, assuming of course that you want to win the game.
First I’d like to qualify my statement. Okay, now I know there are games that let you make some very significant choices. As an RTS fan, I cannot but acknowledge that, of course the choice between training horsemen, pikemen or bowmen is very important, as is the choice between collecting gold, wood or food, or gems, or whatever it is the game requires you to do.
Even FPS games give you a choice, you can either go through the front door, or the sewers or the back door… or I don’t know, the roof maybe. Sports games give you choice too, the team you want to play with, how you want to play with it. I mean you can make someone like yourself become the star of the NBA. The only thing that you cant choose, and this is common to all games…
Is to loose. There is no game, at least none that I know of where if you pursue a strategy with any goal other than winning in mind that you can be successful. I mean I know what I’m arguing for is kind of stupid… to say that you want to play a game to loose it, is not exactly intelligent…
What I’m complaining about is the simple, singlemindedness with which we are required to pursue this goal. There are no hasty beatings of the retreat… no changes in strategy… to use analogy from the economic world, as a gamer the only goal you are allowed to have is that of profit maximization… even in economics one can try risk minimization, or underselling etc.
So I’m not saying I want to loose… just that sometimes we should be allowed to choose what it means to win. In Racing games a third place should be acceptable… the insistence on a win before the game allows us to proceed is kind of irritating.
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Gaming as part of Life, the Universe and Everything
Now I’m bored.
This is pretty much when I like to play games, but instead here I am writing this blog, which I’m pretty sure no one is going to read, and in the end, doesn’t really serve too much purpose after all.
I mean for all the amount of actual ‘positive’ it will add to the world, I may as well be playing a game. Though that implies that while playing a game, I’m not doing any thing remotely constructive or ‘positive.’ I’m not sure that’s too accurate.
Of course playing single player games is not really positive, for example winning the last race of NFS carbon, will not in any way add anything to the world, beyond the cost of the game, and if like I usually have, it’s a pirated copy I’m playing, then not even that, really!
But when playing online games, that’s kind of cool, and might actually pass of as true social interaction after all, you make fun of people, tell them they’re loosers, etc. and then you win. And in all of this, you’ll probably never see the person you’ve just called a looser again. And for what? Some immaterial little cyber blue ribbon? Does it really matter in the world.
Okay now I’m flirting with the much more dangerous philosophical questions of life the universe and everything, and all I know about them, is the answer to the question is 42. Now go figure.
Till I figure out the rest of the book!
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The RTS
So then,
What about the ideal RTS. Well, like I said, it should have the elements of an actual battle, and we should get to be part of it, not some kind of removed chappy, with nothing to really do in the bloody overall plans of the world, with out any immediate agency.
That’s sad, imagine the immense amount of fun you could have, manipulating a character, Never Winter Nights Style, outfitting it before a battle, designing battle plans around it etc. and then choosing the mode of battle, setting out reinforcements and all that. And finally attacking.
I mean each unit has a definite strength in a game, and you use it for a definite reason. The whole period before, when you’re collecting resources and the like, WHY? It serves little or not purpose at all, in the sense that I don’t really enjoy it, it slows down things tremendously and really, really, provides no entertainment, nor is it particularly nerve racking. You’re in a particular surrounding, go collect as much of everything you can. What else is there to do?
I really hate the whole collecting bit… researching techs, well may be, but even that, I think should just be normal when you increase an age, you should get to choose how you want civilization to go, and what kind of researches you want to do, and then proceed.
In fact I think this is a worthy theme. An alternative to the stupidly stereotypical method of building up a stupid army, based on resource collection. There have to be other paradigms in which it can be achieved without the boring-ness of things.
And why should building armies be so slow too. You know that n number of units is the kind of army you want to have… why cant you just have it immediately, so that fighting involves a greater degree of actual in battle strategy so to speak, than just scrambling to have a steady stream of military units to fight?
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The Ideal RTS
The ideal RTS…
Well strategy is all fine good, but in all honesty the best gave ever in that genre is chess, with Chinese checkers coming a close second. So what is different with the idea of a computer game along the same lines.
The idea of resource collection is quite irritating and actually adds an element of unsurity and chance in the game. Plus it creates a definite, unchangeable structure to the game… this is how you must play it, to win, because resource collection or the amount of it, is basically decides who wins, with actual military stratagem playing a subordinate role. If you can afford the best unit, you will win. Pretty simple!
Well alright not really, because each unit can be used in various ways, and siege weaponry, and ranged weaponry are good versus various other kinds of units… so alright I take that last point back. But at the end of the day, there is a formula, which is all I’m trying to say.
So my idea of the idea RTS… well the Ideal RTS would allow me to play in the action. If we were allowed to become one of the heroes of war craft III or something like that how cool would that be?
I mean you know actually play the role of a general on the field, sword buckling action like that of LOTR, mixed with some basic strategy of say Rise of Nations. Meaning that we design an army… like create specific battle groups, cavalry, infantry archers etc. and then choose to be part of one such group, say an infantry man, and then command the field… like generals of the old school did.
Imagine being able to give the “Charge” cry and actually charge into battle, and in some limited way, single handedly change the tide of the battle etc. I don’t know, we’ll thrash out the heroics of it later.
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Review: Brothers In Arms Hell’s Highway
The Brothers in Arms series has offered some of the most compelling takes on the WWII shooter genre, mixing in a healthy blend of squad mechanics, as well as some excellent story elements. Now, developer Gearbox has launched the fourth proper entry to the series, Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway. Hell’s Highway plays up the series’ strengths quite nicely, offering intuitive squad elements and great action, as well as a compelling storyline. While there are some issues with the game, including problematic AI, it still stands as a solid entry to the series and worth a look for fans of WWII shooters.
In Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway, you once again fill the heavy shoes of Sgt. Matt Baker as he commands his units through Operation Market Garden, a risky move that pushed military forces through Holland and into Germany in an effort to end the war before Christmas 1944. The story focuses heavily on Sgt. Baker and the toll that has been done to his emotional and mental state throughout his tour of duty, and does an excellent job of adding seriousness and emotional gravity to the game’s plot.
Like its predecessors, Hell’s Highway is a first-person shooter with squad command elements. You’ll be able to command squad groups around the map, getting them to suppress enemies with fire, allowing you to flank their position and move in for the kill, as well as move to different locations. Another element that comes into play is the destructible cover system. Some objects that can be used for cover, like barrels or wooden tables, can also be destroyed if hit with enough firepower. Therefore, you can command your units to focus their attacks on your enemy’s cover, breaking it and exposing them to fire.
Your individual squads will each have their own strengths in battle, as well. You’ll have squads that are better at laying suppressing fire, as well as bazooka units, leading you to utilize a bit of strategy when giving out orders to your different units.
While you do have access to squad commands in the game, it is primarily an FPS, and features some great mechanics. The cover system works quite well, similarly to Rainbow Six: Vegas, as you’ll be able to find cover in a variety of objects throughout the environment. Once you move into a cover position, the game will switch to a third-person perspective, from which you’ll be able to fire at enemies while avoiding gunfire.
The game does have some issues that prevent it from being a truly great WWII shooter, namely the often problematic AI. Your enemies will often perform some screwy actions, including popping out of cover for no reason, or just generally leaving themselves out there to get shot. However, the biggest problem with the AI comes from your squadmates. Although the game states that your squadmates are soldiers and therefore will react to enemies and find cover whenever necessary, you’ll find yourself doing a fair amount of handholding in order to keep your teammates out of harm’s way, otherwise they’ll get wiped out fairly quickly.
Additionally, ordering your troops around can be a hassle when the action gets hairy. You can be pinned down by enemy fire and try to get your squad to suppress your foes, only to accidentally order them to run out of cover and getting taken out. This happened to me more than a few times, and became quite frustrating.
Graphically, the game looks very good, utilizing the Unreal Engine 3 to some great results. The character models look great and showcase some varied emotions. The environments are also great looking, offering tons of details and destruction effects.
The sound is also done very well. The voice work and dialogue sounds very good, and the soundtrack is dynamic and changes when the action gets intense.
Hell’s Highway is a welcomed addition to the series, bringing some fine new elements to the series’ successful blend of compelling narrative and squad-based gameplay. While there are some problems, including spotty AI and rough squad controls, the game is still a solid title for fans of WWII shooters.
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The Gamer
Who is the gamer? or what makes him such? Can a person be defined as a gamer?
In china a few years ago, I read online, a group of boys got together, hunted down, and killed another boy because, online, in a game, he’d found and killed one of these boys, who, unfortunately had found a very rare ‘object.’ and his death, had meant they’d lost it.
The really scary thing was that this wasn’t an isolated event, and the story was actually about measures that the Chinese gov. was taking to prevent this sort of crime, by making the net more anonymous.
I’m not sure if these people can be called gamers, because the rest of the article also dealt with people who were, clinically, addicted to the internet.
The idea of the gamer used be of this social misfit, someone who can’t quite be cool, or even accepted in the real world, and so he escapes to this alternate one, where is the top cat. Typically, these would be seen as wimps, sissies, geeks, or any similar social stereotype that was a misfit.
Later when society started moving towards being more and more electronic, and spending hours staring at a screen became part of job descriptions, and not really that weird, gaming came to be a little more accepted. It was a legitimate pass time.
But obsessive gamers were still not quite regarded as socially normal.
Now gaming is coming to be recognized as a professional sport, and you have to wonder what kind of sportsmen these are… they definitely don’t fit the macho image that sportsman have.
Nor do they spend the time they’re not staring at screens blinking at the ‘bright light’ around them. They may not be hunks running on testosterone but they’re definitely not diminutive either, and if you want competitive spirit, they’ll give the Australian cricketers a run for their money.
Which once more leaves me asking, where exactly do gamers fit in? More on this later.
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Why the Need for Speed
I’m a big fan of the NFS series, I know, everyone says they’re better racing games out there, with better races, better storylines and better… well pretty much everything, and I might even concede.
Right now, though, I don’t know what’s wrong with the NFS Team. I mean, their best game ever was underground 2, and since then they seem to be in a downward spiral. The things that made UG2 were its storyline, and the things you had to do beyond the racing. Like all the points you needed to rack up for style, the magazine shoots, the DVD covers, it created a good, ‘underground’ feel to the whole thing.
But the next two installments just sort of destroyed that. I’m not sure which came fist, Carbon or Most wanted, but both disappointed. Most wanted had pretty much the same story that UG2 does, with a slight variation, and so did Carbon, with slight variations, in which parts of the story they tell, and the women.
Then the actual racing: in Most Wanted the tracks are fine, and really interesting, though being day light does take away significantly from the look. The cars are pretty much the same, I think… but what really disappoints are the visual mods. They’re almost non existent. Well what’s the point of visual mods in a racing game you might ask… well what’s the point of having to wrestle with police cars in a racing game, I’ll answer. If the idea is to create the image of a lifestyle, real or imagined, things have to be consistent, street racers believe in bling… and unfortunately Most Wanted did not. The required number of felons to get through is another thing I didn’t quite understand, I mean as an idea they were fine, but the speed with which the requirements escalate… and why they cant just be cumulative?
Anyway, Carbon kind of went to the other end, pure racing, only racing, and nothing but racing. The next big thing of customizable mods fell flat for me… because of firstly the degree of customization offered, and second they weten’t that many mods anyway. I mean you couldn’t take a mod and change it around, turn is upside down, or sideways… it was way to straight jacketed to actually be creative with.
The other thing in both these installments that I found really disappointing is that neither have the many new races they’d brought in with UG2. Street X, Drags, and Drift, these made for interesting variations on the standard start and stop racing ideas. I really was looking forward to more of them.
I’ve not yet played Pro Street, so I can really say much, but I get the feeling that once more, the reality of racing has been stressed at the cost of the image of racing, which is why a gamer is drawn to the game. If we want real racing, we’ll just hit the road!
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Gambler Ruler
Deciding which online casino to play in isn’t an easy task. With literally tens and hundreds of casinos around how do you come to know the best ones. The site is GamblerRuler.com and it gives you great reviews of casinos. Which casinos are good and which ones aren’t? Well here is a site which tells you the way it actually is. So here you get a ratings guide to the online casinos on the web.
What’s great about them? Well they say their team has been wagering at online casino sites since 1998 that obviously means great experience. The way it works is real simple. You see the review of the casino on their site. Simply download the software and play for real money. So effectively as a user you can get great quality news, tips and reviews of online casinos. They have also partnered with some of the best online gaming operators for years.
Gambleruler.com also has a great tutorial and tips section. From Online Casino Operators… to Slots Glossary - Learn … to Five Hot Slots Tips..to. Progressive Jackpots - you get it all here. Overall a great site for casino lovers.
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Bingohouse,com Offers Variety of Playing Options
For the diehard bingo fan, the Internet is emerged as another venue where one can play to win or just have loads of fun. Bingohouse.com is an extremely popular gaming site which offers a variety of online bingo games. Here one can also play free bingo and get the opportunity to take back huge winnings.
Bingohouse.com allows its players to enjoy online bingo in numerous ways. One can choose from several types of games like the most popular Bingo Central, the bingo with the big winnings like Blackout Bingo or the more sedately-paced Fair N Square Bingo. other than this, the gaming site also offers free bingo for those interested in trying out the game at no risk an no cost. For this a player needs to get registered after which he or she is given a chance to play free online bingo.
Bingohouse.com is well protected against hackers and uses state-of-the-art technology to safeguard all account details of its players. This makes it safe to use credit card online since all information remains protected by powerful firewalls at the site. Players can thus enjoy online free bingo at the site without having to worry about the safety of their transactions.
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