TF2: Pyro - Engineer's Midwife

We've all had it happen to us. Pushed back to the last point with 10 minutes remaining, and the only thing standing in the enemy's way is your Level 3 Sentry Gun. The minutes drawl by, you relentlessly wrenching the sentry gun. By darn gosh, you think, we might just hold out. Then he appears.

The smell of croissants fill the air. In the midst of the battle, no one notices his disguise as he approaches your sentry gun. With a slight of hand, he attaches the Electro Sapper to your Sentry Gun, disabling it and marking it for destruction.

"Spy's sappin' mah sentry!"

Nostalgia

What is nostalgia? We hear the term thrown around all the time, particularly when making comparisons between newer games and older ones, but what exactly is it? The Greek origins of the word are a combination of "homecoming" and "ache," which implies a sense of longing. The "nostalgic" feeling we get when we play older games stems from a desire to return to the state of existence when we first played them; back when 16-bit RPGs were innovative, Nintendo was king, and multiplayer games were fun and interesting.  But is this a good thing for us to experience?  Is it healthy for us on a psychological level, and does it conflict with our ability to hold logical discussion significantly?  Why do video games evoke this feeling so strongly?

In order: it can be in controlled doses, no comment, yes, and...well, we'll explore the last one throughout the article.  Also, those statements I made right before those questions are all bullshit.  Don't believe me?  Well, read on.

Because saying it's bullshit makes us edgy!

The Gaming Industry And You

I’m not sure when and where I was first introduced to the concept of being a tool.  It is a very pervasive insult.  “Oh, that guy looks like such a tool.”  I’m sure that most people reading this blog have heard some variant of that phrase in their lifetimes, but the term itself rarely gets a rigorous definition from its users.

What is a tool, in the traditional sense?  A tool is an object that is to be used to achieve the user’s ends – a hammer, a fork, and so on.  Most objects can be defined as tools since they exist to facilitate the needs and desires of the people that use them, be it to get something productive done or to more easily relax oneself.   It’s kind of an overly utilitarian way to look at things, but it certainly isn’t invalid.

The insult that comes from calling someone a tool is the insinuation that the person is useable.  Most people like to adopt a certain sense of free will, and we are generally uncomfortable with the idea of being manipulated for someone else’s ends (particularly in American culture).  The merits of this standpoint aren’t what I’m here to argue; let’s just take it as a general explanation for why people consider it a bad thing to be a tool.  The kinds of people that we call tools are the sorts who are easily influenced by peer pressure to do things that aren’t necessarily in their own best interests.  If they are easy to influence for someone else’s own ends, then they’re a tool.

 Still not sure which I find funnier: The picture or the fact that the image-maker sucks at censoring things.

League of Legends: Barely Getting Started

Hello everyone, back to League of Legends time! Last post we went through the pre-game: your attitude, your team composition, and your individual setup. I want to follow this train of thought to talk about the early game, also known as the laning phase. This includes such actions as deciding the lanes, level 1 fights, and actually laning. Once again, these are my opinions only and they should not be taken as a true reflection of the game.

Kieran's 5 simple ways to make Star Wars Episode 1 suck a lot less

I really truly love Star Wars. It's probably my favorite series of movies. Now when I say that, I am referring to the Original trilogy which came out between 1977 and 1983.
I hate the Star Wars Prequels with a fiery passion only equal to my love for the originals. They're nothing but big toy advertisements now. They don't care about writing the storylines as long as they can shove as much shit on screen as possible and have the characters change outfits hundreds of times to increase the number of toys they can sell. They're really not that different from the Transformers movies.
Episode 1 The Phantom Menace is probably the prequel that I hate the least. The other two are so pointlessly bad that they are absolutely beyond saving. However, while the Phantom Menace is an awful awful movie, there are certain things that could have been changed that would have made the movie really good.

I will now list 5 major problems in the movie, any reasons why they might be that way, and a solution that would have vastly improved the film.
So let's break this shit down.

TF2: Combat Engineering

Team Fortress 2: Combat Engineering

July 8, 2010, the “Engineer” patch comes online for Team Fortress 2. Valve releases a set of updates aimed at the Engineer, changing some mechanics, and adding in new items. One of the new items introduced was the “Gunslinger” an unlockable robotic hand, serving as a melee weapon for the Engineer. With the Gunslinger, a new Engineer playstyle was born.

Side effects of Australium may include replacing your left hand with a robotic one.

So I heard you wanted to be a Combat Engie.

In Defense of Competitive Gaming

There are many people in this club who dislike the idea of competitive gaming. The concern is that competitiveness discourages a social atmosphere in favor of a competitive atmosphere where the only concern is to beat the guy who is higher up on the competitive ladder then you. Its why this club is called the "Social" Gaming Club; the "Social" is meant to indicate that we are a group of friends that play video games, instead of a group that focuses on tearing each other up on some sort of competitive ladder.


So here's my argument: There is actually very little difference between a social gamer and a competitive gamer.

A Fine, Fine Line

I don't really play video games anymore. I'm not sure when I first realized this, but I certainly find myself remembering the fact often. I have a Wii, a DS, and a Playstation 2 in my possession, but they tend to collect dust more than anything else. I have a laptop capable of running a modest number of games (provided that they're run at settings on the lower end of the spectrum), yet I only find myself idly playing minesweeper over any other game.

Thrilling adventure awaits!

A thread was recently posted on a forum that I go to, asking the community about their picks for the top five games of 2011. The ones that he remembered to list were the following:

Dead Space 2
DC Universe Online
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
LittleBigPlanet 2
Killzone 3
You Don’t Know Jack
Marvel vs. Capcom 3
Bulletstorm
Dragon Age 2
Homefront
Pokemon Black/White
Yakuza 4

League of Legends: Before the Game Starts

Hello everyone! My name is Kathy Chen and I am a sophomore majoring in Accountancy and Finance. I’m being forced to blog (not that I really mind >.>) so I’m just going to write down my thoughts (THESE ARE OPINIONS PEOPLE, NOT FACTS). This blog is mainly going to be about League of Legends (since that’s the only game I regularly play). My blog assumes that you have played LoL before or at least know the fundamentals of the game. I figure I’ll start with strategy and move onto champions and other games when I’m done. If anyone wants to talk to me about what I’ve written, be it congratulating me on how correct my analysis is or raging at me because I was terribly wrong, leave a comment at the end of this post or add me in game. I am mostly on the NA server, but sometimes I play on the EU servers. The summoner name for all three accounts is UTXKai.

So let’s get started. Strategy in LoL begins before the game begins. Many games have been lost before the game even starts, whether it be the synergy of the team (if it’s solo queue), team composition, or the setup of each individual summoner. Much of what I’m going to say is common sense, but these are ideas that many forget to apply.

Kieran's Movie Reviews- Mission Impossible 4 and Real Steel

Hi everyone. Since Scott reviewed some games, my entries will be movie reviews.

DISCLAIMER: To start I would like to say that the opinions in these reviews are only mine and you don't have to agree with me. It's better to have your own opinions about movies than to blindly follow the opinions of others, including me. That being said, my opinions are right and if you disagree, well then, I guess you're wrong.

RATING SYSTEM: I don't give movies numbers or letters as ratings. Instead I developed my own system. If a movie is GOOD, I compare it to an equally good thing. And if a movie is BAD, I compare it to an equally bad thing.

The argument against Snipers

From its onset, Team Fortress 2 brought a different style of gameplay from other shooters. While other shooters focused on varied equipment for a single character, Team Fortress instead, focused on varied characters. This design philosophy brought the world 9 unique and memorable classes. Scout. Soldier. Pyro. Demoman. Heavy. Engineer. Medic. Spy. Sniper. Each class had their own perks built into the characters themselves, and in the different weapons they wielded. Each one granted a much different gameplay to the FPS world, new strategies that have not been seen elsewhere. All except for one. The Sniper.

Now, before I continue on, this isn’t a rant that snipers are overpowered, or that I have a personal grudge against them (which I do, but that’s still beside the point). This is to explain why Snipers have no place explicitly within the Team Fortress world.