Actually, yes I am that busy

Seriously. We have a lot of important things that we are doing here at Ethix Systems.

1. Scratching ourselves
2. Playing Team Fortress II
3. Working on the business itself

I'll make this brief, because Nick is gazing at me like my head is going to come off if I don't get back to work. We're not only very busy working on projects for clients, but we are also building our business infrastructure. We are planning on hiring an intern, which is taking a lot of time to work out. We are developing a support contract for our existing clients so we can help them budget their software expenses. And we are developing a newsletter to tell people about the kinds of projects we are working on. (If you want to receive it, I'm sending out the first one today. Send me an email at decarr@ethixsystems.com)

But the kicker is that I'll be starting to teach a web programming class for 5 weeks at Saint Vincent on Tuesday. So things are going a little crazy.

Not to fear - I'll be back. I have much TF2 to discuss, and I'll hopefully have some other things to share. But lately, it's been mostly business and I haven't had much interesting to share.

Don't stop visiting please. Just be patient!

Dan

Team Fortress II: Meet the Scout

In an effort to rejuvenate my blog posts, I thought I would post in here about the game that I'm easily playing the most these days.

Team Fortress II is a very fast paced game FPS with a twist. There are 9 classes to choose from, each with benefits and downsides. I'm going to start with the most difficult to play (in my opinion) and give some tips.

The Scout.

Read more: http://tf2wiki.net/wiki/Scout

The site probably says a lot of stuff that I'm going to say, but...I'll say it anyway.

The scout is a lightweight, fast-moving killer when used properly. One on one against a heavy, pyro, soldier, or most of the other common classes, you don't stand too much of a chance. Engineer turrets? You can just about forget it.

But there are some things that scouts are great at - speed and maneuverability. Your double jumps allows you to get some places that only soldiers and demos can get to. On top of buildings and ledges are great places to shoot from unnoticed.

But the very best thing that a scout can do is run behind enemy lines and wreck havoc. With an open battlefield, plenty of things to hide behind, and lots of health packs, a scout can suppress an enemy charge very well.

Scouts are excellent in melee since their bats hit quickly, and you can finish off a sniper or medic this way often before they even realize you are there. Hiding behind corners, killing one or two people, and moving on. That's what makes a great scout. You can't hold a single position for very long. If you get caught on fire, you will probably die. A shotgun blast to the face may do it too. You have to move, fire, and get out.

So in my opinion, the best scouts are the ones that sneak along behind the enemy and kill the little guys. If you can down a sniper or a medic, often that will change a game. But you have to be very careful not to stare down a heavy. Fire and run, and get to the healthpacks first, and you'll be fine.

Not the best class to start playing TF2 with. Position is everything, and you need to know your maps very well.

Next time: The Soldier.

Will Activision Ruin Blizzard?

When this was announced, tons of people (including myself) were worried about what might happen to Blizzards' three touted franchises. There are two ways of looking at this situation. The first is that Activision will be ruining Blizzard, and the second is that Blizzard will bring Activision back from the depths of EA-level production.

I personally in light of new events would like to support the argument that Blizzard ain't going nowhere, and that Activision might actually learn something from Vivendi.

• Blizzard's reputation speaks for itself. Any gaming company would like to have Blizzard's sterling reputation, including EA and Activision. When announced, Vivendi and Activision were adamant that each would continue to develop games separately - as in Vivendi will continue to work on Starcraft, WoW, etc. and Activision will continue to work on Guitar Hero, Call of Duty, etc. Why do you think that they did this? Because Blizzard fans were so paranoid that Activision would ruin Blizzard's games. It wasn't because all those Call of Duty fans were worried about Blizzard ruining their game. With this in mind, Activision and Blizzard seem to already know about each others' reputations, and will likely work hard to maintain Blizzard's good reputation, while working hard to improve Activision's. Whether that will work remains to be seen.
• Blizzard at one time had been working on a two year cycle (approximately). Over a span of twelve years, they had released 6 major new titles (Warcraft II in 1995, Diablo in 1996, Starcraft in 1998, Diablo II in 2000, Warcraft III in 2002, World of Warcraft in 2004.) Now, about a year apart, Blizzard announced Starcraft II and then Diablo III, two highly anticipated games from titles that are 10 and 8 years old, respectively. Not to mention yet another expansion for WoW and rumors of yet another big MMO. This deal with Activision will allow Blizzard to make more quality games, because they can actually afford to work on more than one big title at a time without worrying about a flop like Starcraft Ghost bankrupting them.
• Now that Guitar Hero IV has been announced, I was interested to hear that it is taking on Rock Band directly by adding drums. People are getting pissed off about this, because "it's copying" and "it will be bad for consumers because we'll have to buy both." Well, why do you have to buy both? I think that it's a good thing, because it will mean direct competition from both. If Guitar Hero IV kept with its two guitars, would Rock Band feel pressure to improve their game at all? Probably not. I blame the bad blood between the two companies more than the direct competition for any technical issues. I agree that Activision has made some questionable company decisions. But now Vivendi has controlling interest in the companies, and business decisions will be run through Vivendi and the new higher-ups. I hope to see a newer company attitude from this. Will this stop the blood feud between Harmonix and Activision? Probably not. But still, I think that it is better to see Guitar Hero directly challenging Rock Band in this way. I guess we shall see.

Honestly though, I like this merger. Activision has produced some cliche games from movies, and they aren't as buggy or as poorly put together as EA's have been. Blizzard now has resources to tap into the console market where it might be appropriate (though likely not for any of the main three franchises). I expect to see better things from Activision and to continue to see marvelous things from Blizzard. (And I sure hope I'm right.)

Diablo III Announced

Boy Blizzard has been busy. First Starcraft II, and now Diablo III.

http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/

It looks awesome.

A Few Free Demos

I don't have a lot of time, so I'll make it brief.

Team Fortress II Free Trial

This weekend, play Team Fortress II for free. Only this weekend though. If you haven't tried it, you ought to. Just as a note though, prepare to be frustrated initially. Lots of people are really really good, and it takes some time to learn the maps and the classes. If you're worried about survival and learning, try being a medic, find a big guy to heal, and stay out of the line of fire. That's usually the best way to start out. Or start out as a soldier. But watch out for spies! Download Steam to try it out.

Spore Creature Creator

The makers of spore have introduced their creature creator. I haven't tried it yet, but it's a sample from the game, and probably the first time to really get an idea of what the game is about. Download it at www.spore.com.

Have fun, and have a great weekend. Hopefully I can post more soon.

Portal Trial

http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php

Play the first 11 levels of Portal just by downloading Steam.

Steam is kinda resource intense (it's a chat client for gaming), but...for the first 11 levels of Portal, it's definitely worth trying out.

Monsters (PS3)

Well, I've been back for a few weeks now, so I'm finally caught up on work, and I've gotten some time to play some more video games. So I might be posting a little more now.

I started playing Monsters, a downloadable game for the PS3. It's made by PixelJunk and costs $8. Definitely worth every penny.

Have you ever played Warcraft III: Frozen Throne and found the secret level? It's just like this game. Basically, you are a little turtle running around building towers. You start out being able to build arrow towers, cannon towers, and anti-air towers. The enemies start walking towards your base where your 20 babies are sitting undefended (oh no!), and your towers fire upon them, hopefully killing them. Those enemies drop eggs and coins. Coins are used to buy more towers, and eggs are used to research new towers or upgrade your towers. You can also upgrade your towers by "dancing" on top of them.

It's an old concept (I know there are other games like it, but I've never played them) with a newer twist. There are online scores so you can see your ranking on certain levels as well as the whole area. There are unlockable items as well.

They made the game cutsie for casual people, but it's intense enough for serious players too. Try saving all 20 of your babies on each level - it isn't easy. It's also a lot of fun to see how high of a score you can get. The highest we got was into the 300's. We were proud.

You can play the game single player or co-op. Co-op is a lot of fun if you're with someone who can strategize with you well.

We just started playing the expansion (another $6), and it's whole other island of levels. Can't wait to see how it turns out. If you have a PS3 and like RTS games, this should be an awesome one.

Oh, and can anyone else not wait to see if Spore is going to be either a flop or the game of the year? I don't think there's an in-between.