First-Person Shouter

Scout unlocks, Battlefield Heroes and Guitar Hero World Tour for me.

“weclomes”

Grammar Nazi AWAY!

Battlefield Heroes is great, but it’s driving me nuts that I can’t say anything about it! Well, I’ll probably be playing that, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, and a few other assorted games this weekend.

You could also have: “I oughta axe you…” for a closer phononym.

Would be playing Titan Pack and DoW2 if I wasn’t back in San Fran this weekend.

Same thing I’ve been doing the past few days, Fallout 3.

I don’t think you will be getting your UT3 on, you know. The servers are crowded as shit and I still can’t download it.

Assuming I can get around my Steam-carrying drive’s limited remaining space and install UT3, I’ll be looking for you, Chris.

And I guarantee (maybe) that at least once, I will have your head with a sniper bullet through it.

Cool…wonder when the Fallout ex packs will be available on Steam…

Good luck getting UT3 to download..

Also BF-H is ok I guess, can be pretty fun.

TF2, L4D and Battlefield Heroes. Yay for multiplayer games! Wanted to try UT3 before buying it at the discount price, but as was previously said there’s no way to download it off Steam.

Lucky me, I managed to pick up a retail copy of UT3 for 1.50$! I didn’t even know anything about it’s titan pack at the time, and just thought it was a sweet deal. Pretty good game, too. My only quarrel about it is that it seems the Unreal Engine 3 is only capable of colors with brown and grey mixed with them and characters without necks and limbs made of redwood trees.

Been playing KOF:Maximum Impact (2 and Reg.A) quite a lot recently. MI2 has a surprisingly good single-player for a fightng game.

Other than that, waiting for The Pitt. Or The Namelss Mod - whichever comes first.

I got UT3 back on the Christmas sale. Never got to play it, though. I installed it and played some today, it runs like shit on my shitty PC just as I thought (lowest resolution and lowest graphic options, and I still get slowdons). When I looked at the store when I got a link to the free weakend (I clicked it because it said something about “Black” and I had no idea what it meant), I was surprised to see the minimum system requirements. They are so low, my computer (yes I am going to use a new word agin) looks like a beast next to it. NVIDIA 6200?!? What’s up with that? Casual games need more power. I find the game pretty nice, although pretty darn similar to UT2004.

I don’t understand why you would caricaturize “Microsoft Points,” I’m finding it difficult to find it ridiculous enough that to call it “Phun Bux.” It’s a tad over the top.

im gonna be playin halo 3 on xbox live all weekend, thanks to a recently discovered free 48 hour xbl trial card i found! Huzzah!

Fallout 3 for me. I’ll more than likely spend the majority of my itme finding the most entertaining ways to kill Sticky. I have yet to find anything that tops letting him get mauled by a Deathclaw.

“Valve added that none of its testers have reached over nine minutes in a Survival match.”

That sounds like a challenge to me.

I’m planning to - get this - BUY TF2. Yeah, I’ve been commenting this whole time without actually owning the game; I’ve been playing on my friend’s PC almost daily. Seeing as how I really suck, this isn’t that impressive a feat…

Challenges in Left 4 Dead? Count me in! Expert mode was never a challenge. My group went through Blood Harvest on Expert in 90 minutes on the first try.

I’ll be playing a bunch of Team Fortress 2 this weekend… Mainly due to the fact that I just gifted a copy to my friend. And I’m currently over at his house with my computer. It’s awesome.

Also, Oblivion. Just started it again when I realized I never finished the main quest back when I still played it… Getting Fallout 3 was a big blow to my Oblivion love, I never really got into it afterwards.

I’m getting a new PC this weekend so I’ll probably be playing around with this and that just to welcome it in.

The H.A.W.X. demo just doesn’t cut it if you flew in Falcon 4.0 with all controls set to expert.

Carefully outmaneuvering enemies and frantically listening to your sidewinders’ climaxing NEOWNEOWNEOWNEOWNEOW as you close in simply beats twirling around in third plane view, auto-targetting and *bleep, shoot missile nao plz*.

But somebody really needs to add the voice commands to Falcon. Those are awesome.

Woah. Also holy shit World of Goo saved my progress from the demo. OMG <3

Apparently there is also a perk that specifically boosts your damage with that weapon so my guess is it’s something you’re not going to put down once you’ve got it. Can’t wait :D

My plans for the weekend are to make some more progress on my LP of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and perhaps even do Sam and Max: Hit The Road in one run. I’m also going to try out some game demos that came with my PC gaming magazine. Probably play some World of Warcraft and get my Night Elf Hunter a bit stronger.

Ofcourse there is the inevitable Homework Spawn I’m not gonna get around.

When I was in a certain garage in Fallout 3, accompanied by nothing but my shotgun and some radroaches, I heard a strange voice, an old man’s voice. It said, faintly:
“You can’t hide from us, you know.”
It came behind a door, and when I opened it…

A radroach.

Nice going, bethesda.

I’ll be playing Empire:Total War and not playing Fallout 3 unfortunatley, but I will be updating my Fallout 3 travelogue. Y’know, as someone has to update their blog about a play-through of a bethesda game when others wont *cough* Christopher *cough*.

darn ut3! been downloading for 6 hours and only at 17%. 1.1 day to go.

@Killa-Ewok, you do realise that’s supposed to happen? There’s a backstory in some bulding in DC about a family who mutated into roaches from radiation but retained human speech. It’s a reference to the Metamorphis (I think that’s thw name of the book?) and you’ll occasionally run into a random speaking roach.

@Bardie

Be happy you are actually downloading it

Headwound, I think all demos should do that.

bardie, it’s taking me forever to download UT3 too. :/

Mr. Brit, that sounds awesome.

It’s good to see I’m not the only one who loves the sandman.

Better play it as much as possible, just in case of nerfing

@Mr. Brit

Thank.
You.

Now I’ll have to hunt down that damn building to satisfy my curiosity about how they got that far from D.C.

@Killa-Ewok, Oh I feel so special that my vile lie has led you on an unending quest through DC. What you found was almost certainly a bug :P

@Mr. Brit rofl, nice one.

And HOLY SHIT MY UT3 DOWNLOAD ACTUALLY FINISHED!!! Only took 3 days and constant stopping/starting to finish it.

@Mr.Brit

Dat’s cool.

But really, I think it’s an easter egg, as it freaked the shit out of me.

Man. A few hours downloading last night, and a few hours this morning, and my copy of UT3 is still only 12% complete.

I’ve been playing Halo Wars all weekend so far.

Street Fighter 4 - Meh. Pretty but ugh not fun.

I had another crack at Far Cry 2, gunplay still nice and fun, but i don’t feel like I’m really doing much at all.

I finished Fallout 3 yesterday and then logged onto TF2 and picked up some achievements I thought I would never get as a scout. Seriously, I captured the intelligence all three times that round? I really did capture the intelligence without firing a shot? It had to have been my best game of TF ever.

UT3 is great. Loads of fun. I’m so buying it for the $12.

Hey. Just giving you a warning, we are organising a coordinated offensive against the next comments section.

All we want is a reply. Is it a dead site? If it is, TELL US! Just stop leaving us hanging. Or extend the comments section past 500.

Probably should have mentioned what i was talking about. Link is in the name.

Whaaaaaaaaa?

I uninstalled Fallout3. There were a lot of fun parts in it, and I do love the whole concept of an FPS with RPG elements, but I felt the game was more RPG than FPS.
It became obvious when I realized that I prefer VATS over old-fashioned aiming. There couldn’t be anything farther from FPS than VATS.
My main gripe is the engine. If the game was built on the Source or Unreal engine, it would be an awesome game, but I feel the game is too clunky too be an FPS.

Fallout 3 doesn’t even work for me lol.

And the UT3 free weekend just ended :\

i made this when i was bored at the weekend >.< http://fc03.deviantart.com/fs42/f/2009/067/b/9/Sap_responsibly_by_Regashii.png

thats about all i did this weekend

@Cpt. Falcon
Fallout isn’t a FPS with RPG elements. It’s a RPG.

cool. also, will you do stuff in: half life/comic
or at least in oblivion?!

anyway, whats ur email, or the fan-base email so that you will read my idea/stuff about the team fortress 2

@ Chris12

You’re about a year late for e-mailing chris suggestions for the TF2 comic, and several years late for suggestions for a half life 2 comic.

Just give Chris some time for livin’ in oblivion - he does (contrary to popular belief) have a life outside of the internet.

Also, Christopher? i think you’ve got a cameo in fallout 3.

just click my name for the link to the page.

Yes. His last name is Livingston. Chris is the only person in the world with that last name ever.

Now, I hope Chris has been reading the comments, because I have a question. Does he still play Oblivion? If not, then he should announce that he is no longer doing Nondrick. But if he’s still playing, a new blog update would be nice.

@jimborb: No, it isn’t.

And I agree with n00bie about Microsoft Points, just call it what it is. Just go buy a 1600 points card from Target or Best Buy or something. Then you won’t have to bother with the 500/1000 crap since the expansions are 800 points a pop. There, bitching solved.

Hooray! shot down in flames!

Ah well, now to find something else to link Chris to.

I’m not crazy. Much.

Hi! I’m Sonja, the author of Toki Pona. You know Mark Rose (Zompist)?

Can I add you as a friend on Steam to have the opportunity to game with you one day?

Sonja

Back when I only had Oblivion I was fine with Chris’s decision to leave Nondrick there.

But now that I have Fallout 3, Oblivion is dead to me.

Bring on NONDRONE!

That’s an oddly clean chainaxe.

hey sonja, you are way too articulate for this place. You should rephrase it as “lets ply g4m3s dood lolololol”

also, can I change my name back to its original now? or will it just bring back bad memories?

I don’t think you should. Feel free to change it back if you want to,but don’t tell me i haven’t warned you.

CHRIS/GUYS!!!!
THERE’S GOING TO BE ANOTHER FREE WEEKEND FOR UT3 THIS WEEKEND!

i think i’ll take your advice kollega

So, Putzy’s Andy, eh?

Another free weekend!Oh boy!

I think Kollega’s right, Putzy. The people will be mad. Very mad.

@killa-Ewok
Getting close…

Hooooly crap, Unreal Tournament is taking forever to download. It’s already gotten to 100% once, now it’s at 31% preloading. what is it doooing

no killa-ewok, i’m not andy. I’m your worst goddamn nightmare. *epic music plays*
Im actually the OTHER bastard who spammed 1fort ages ago.

Hey, Chris, a Left 4 Dead patch has been released. I didn’t know about some of those exploits, but they sounded like fun!

“Fixed a case where it was possible to spectate an AI infected and hit +use to take them over”

“Fixed a case where a Tank frustration meter could run out right as he was in his death animation and he would come back to life”

Half Life 2: Episode 3 CONFIRMED!!!!
releaseed in may 2027!!! OMG

Statement: Master, I do belive that this is a fruitless subject. Perhaps if the killing of meatbags such as yourself were innvolved, it woulb become useful.

|> Did you just call me ‘Meatbag?

|> What is it with you and the killing of innocents?

|> (Speech %74) Maybe you should go home and re-program your life.

|>>> What is it with you and the killing of innocents?

Condescending Reply: Master, at what point did I say they were innocent? I may have meant that murderous evil meatbags would be killed. Whatever would lead you to believe I want innocents harmed?

|> The fact that you have been carving a tombstone during this conversation! And it has my name on it!

|> The way you dont seem to actually see humans, just floating bags of meat.

|> Enough of this, I want to ask about something else.

|>>> Enough of this, I want to ask about something else.

Bored answer: Very well, Master. You can continue to waste time asking questions to get answers you already know, further decreasing the time you have left to get to your ship and escape before I kill you.

|> Well, I wanted to know about - wait, what did you say?

|> Will you stop carving that fucking tombstone!

|> Did you just try to stab me while you were talking?!?

|>>> Well, I wanted to know about - wait, what did you say?

Quick retractment: It appears my vocabuliser is malfunctioning. Please excuse me. Now, what was it you wanted to pointlessly ask about?

|> Do you know how all the other people here came to be dead? It looks like they died from blaster bolts.

|> (Force/Persuade) I really think you should kill yourself.

|> Do you know where my clothes are?

|>>> Do you know how all the other people here came to be dead? It looks like they died from blaster bolts.

Jovial answer: Yes, they are dead, aren’t they? With very well placed shots as well. In answer to your question, Master, I do not know who expertly and brilliantly killed the meatbags.

|> You’re hiding a blaster pistol behind your back!

|> Why are you so happy about it?

|> I want to ask about something else.

|>>> You’re hiding a blaster pistol behind your back!

Suspiciously quick answer: No I’m not. Your meatbag photo receptors are obviously malfuctioning. Maybe I should take them out and repair them.

|> You just dropped it on the ground!

|> Stop trying to stab me while we’re talking!

|> STOP CARVING THE MOTHERFUCKING TOMBSTONE!

|>>> You just dropped it on the ground!

Feigned surprise: What? Oh look, a blaster pistol is on the floor! I wonder how it got there?

|> You just - Oh, I’m not going to bother.

|> Seriously, where the hell are my clothes?

|> Thats it, I’m taking the tombstone off of you!

Join us next time for more adventures of…
HK-47 ‘N’ THE PLAYER!

Holy fuck that was epic.

Also is noobie51 here? What the fuck? Stop stalking me.

you thought it was good? I was afraid it might seem a bit too much like spamming.

“Please, please do not abuse the comments section. I have no sense of humor about this.”

Perhaps you should listen to the almighty? Also every time I scroll down to the bottom and see that little smiley face below the copyright I can’t help but smile. Just felt like mentioning that.

What smiley face? And Putzy,please,please do not abuse the comment section. Chris has no sense of humor about this.

Change your name back! Go on! It’ll be hilarious!

Aw, i feel all left out…

ah well, anyone know TF2 and Steam’s minimum and recommended requirements? I’m getting a laptop soon and i’m wondering what specs i should aim for.

Minimum: 1.7 GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, DirectX® 8 level Graphics Card, Windows® Vista/XP/2000, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection

Recommended: Pentium 4 processor (3.0GHz, or better), 1GB RAM, DirectX® 9 level Graphics Card, Windows® Vista/XP/2000, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection

I am the king of copy-paste omg.

ok sorry everyone. also the smiley face is tiny, and hard to see but its there right at the bottom.

Go for something better than the “Recommended,” although most laptops built for games these days beat those specs anyway. I’d say 2-4 GB of RAM, Windows of your choice (Vista and XP are both decent, XP is familiar and less annoying, but Vista truthfully is more modern in many areas). Valve has confirmed that TF2 will never use DirectX 10, as it would break compatability with older systems, so don’t buy Vista just for that, although DirectX 10 is used in Left 4 Dead and the Unreal Engine (read: about half of PC games). Consider the Windows 7 Beta, which is free, legal, and will work until August, which I personally think it the best mixture of XP and Vista-ish features, and which works with any driver for Vista. It runs TF2 and other Valve games swimmingly; actually better than Vista as Windows 7 is built lighter and just seems better at allocating resources for a game.

At this point, I’d say install the 64 bit version if you get 4GB of RAM as support is getting much better and it’s obvious that 64 bit will probably be the default in a year and a half, so this may save you a reinstall later.

The CPU should probably be an Intel dual or quad core chip, with 2 GHZ or higher speed. Those chips seem more power and heat efficient than the competition.

Oh, and TF2 and other Valve games are huge, as is the case with most PC games. You’ll want a big, fast laptop drive, at least 250 GB, probably 500 GB, or at least an external drive. Speed’s good for load times, but once a modern game is loaded, hard drive performance is negligible, except for maybe save times (but games are getting better at doing that in the background as well).

As for video card, avoid Intel’s graphics. They’re not meant for gaming, they’re meant for PowerPoint, at best. Same goes for Via’s graphics cards. You want an Nvidia or AMD/ATI card, preferably midrange or higher. Nvidia’s leading the pack right now and have cool features like CUDA and PhysX, so I’d recommend them. Avoid their 8500/8600 line of GPUs, though, as they’re rather prone to defects and not every manufacturer is good about replacing them.

Oh, and buy a cooling pad with a USB powered fan. Gaming laptops have fast, hot components that pump out a lot of heat in close quarters, usually more than their cooling systems can maintain at full blast, so they throttle back automatically, making the game’s framerate fall when you need it most. A cooling fan helps the system stay consistently fast, and coupled with a program like SpeedFan to max out the internal system fans before playing a game, you’ll be in great shape. It’s also a good idea to use if you’re ripping a DVD or decide to run Folding@Home while your computer is charging. You can still use your computer on your lap or on a flat desk, and do almost anything you normally would (watch videos, office/web work). Games in particular can’t handle overheating or running without external power.

Shoot, that was a long post. GIST:

1. CPU: Intel Core Duo or better CPU with at least two 2GHZ cores or faster.
2: RAM: 2 to 4 GB. (Buy the lowest amount you can in the laptop, then buy the right amount from NewEgg.com or Crucial.com. Easy upgrade, and much cheaper. EBay the ram it came with if you want…)
3: OS: Windows XP, Vista Home Premium, or Windows 7 Beta (Disables in August, although that can probably be worked around). Preferably 64 bit, but a negligible choice if your system has under 4GB of ram.
4: Video card: Nvidia (preferable) or ATI discrete card. 256 or higher RAM. (512 seems to be the sweet spot right now).
5: Hard drive: 250GB or bigger, or an external hard drive (really cheap these days).
6: Cooling: Get a cooling pad or you’ll not get the full value of the system you paid for. Seriously, they’re $30 and the difference between $500 laptop performance and $1,500 laptop performance.