Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Thoughts on L4D: Crash Course

It came as a bit of a surprise to find out that there was going to be some new DLC for L4D, Valve really didn't make a lot of noise about it, unlike when they did the Survival pack. After finally getting to play it I can see why there was so little fanfare.

Was there anything wrong with it? No, not really, it was basically the same as all the existing campaigns, you run through a city in an eternal dusk setting shooting zombies and trying to find you're way to safety. I have only two minor problems with the game:

1. The campaign was way too short, consisting of two maps, one set in an industrial/warehouse district, prompting you to run through a maze of storeroom, offices, and alleys due to street blockage caused by jackknifed semis and the sort, and a finale episode that entails you to run through a fairly extensive shipping yard to get to a vehicle designed to travel the streets safely. Seriously though, if you're escape vehicle is a ten minute run from the safe house, can this really be called a safe house? Seems to me this is just a house, but I digress.

2. Guns and ammo are everywhere to be found. On the surface this may not seem like a problem, but the degree to which weapons and ammunition are scattered throughout the levels was one of the main atmosphere setters in the original campaigns. You were always aware of how many rounds you had left because that's how close to death you were at all times, but Crash Course apparently had an M-16 fairy run through the entire map sprinkling her certain brand of love. It got to the point that I was more worried about hurting myself tripping over piles of ammo in the street than the zombies getting to me. The one thing they did do is limit the health packs, however that's still not the same thing as limiting the firepower; as long as I had one point of health left I could continue shooting, you never had to worry about being defenseless AND hurt.

Along with the guns and ammo, there were an almost unlimited supply of gas cans and propane tanks laying around to shoot, not to mention the pipebombs and Molotovs; I think this is a sign of Valve trying to cater to the instant gratification crowd, giving more and better destructible environments, something I personally don;t need, but it's no biggie. One feature I really liked though was in the finale, you're required to flip a switch to start a generator, bringing a horde of zombies down on your team; the catch was that you have to stand there in the open for about 10 seconds doing nothing button hold the switch in order to activate the generator. On top of that, you need to do this again in the middle of the fight in order to restart the generator. A lot easier said than done.

So there you go, all in all it's a good add-on. A quick campaign that can be played relatively painlessly. I would also say that the maps seem to be longer than any of the original campaigns and I think the graphics are a little smoother. My opinion is that this is essentially a beta for Left 4 Dead 2, what you see here is what you'll be seeing there, based on the screenshots I've seen of the new game.

Since it's free, as long as you have the PC version, there's no reason not to get it and play it. If you have the 360 version I would seriously consider waiting for L4D 2 and saving the 500 odd points that Microsoft is charging.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Top 10 Movie Plot Holes

God I wish I could take credit for this one, but I can't. I do however have to say most, not all, but most of these questions have crossed my mind at one point or another during my life time.


Gotta say, number 10 is the one that bothered me the most, even back in the days before I knew anything about networking computers or viruses I wondered how the hell they did that one.

Robs Thoughts on WoW Classes

I've been playing pretty religiously for the last 3 months now and I have to say I'm really set in this game, Blizzard has truly created an immersive world that draws the player in, This is in no small part due to the surrounding actions of the game, not just the hack and slash, although without that there's little point in playing the game, but the things you do in between the hacking and slashing. Add the race/class mix in and this game just doesn't give up.

So what are my favorites you ask? I'm glad you did! Today I'm just going to address the race/class thing (mainly class).

I freely admit that I haven't tried as much as the game as I would have liked to (yet) so my opinions are slightly limited, but I have managed to bring a Warrior, a Hunter, and a Paladin up through the ranks with an assorted mix of professions between them; I've also got a mage in the upbringing and have started dabbling with a priest, but they're fairly low level. Along with this I've hit most of the races, even a couple of the Horde types, but I'm pretty much an Alliance guy.

Without going into too much detail, I need something to write about down the line, I've enjoyed all of them, the Dwarven Hunter, the Gnomish Mage, the Human Warrior, and I've got no problems with my Night Elf Priest, but I have to say none have brought me as much joy as my Human Paladin. I think the Paladin is a great choice for the up and coming WoW player, they dish out the dirt and heal when needed; add plate armor to that and you've got an awesome dude. To be honest I can see my warrior starting to approach my Paladin in DPS, but it's just not the same thing as playing a Holy Warrior; Hurtinator lives to kill whereas Ultronicus lives to kill AND heal!

The Paladin allows you to get a taste of the magic user mixed in with the attack power of a warrior, giving you a sample of both sides of the spectrum, adding in survivability to keep you going; my warrior has spent a lot more time dead than my Paladin. The best part of this is that down the line if you want to get a pure magic user going, like a Mage or a Shaman, you have an idea of how that works and what you need to focus on. The warrior doesn't lend itself to these skills as well, although Blizzard has managed a pretty gentle learning curve for all classes.

As for the human part, well if I had to do it over again I might have gone dwarf, my hunter is really cool, but he's a human and I accept him for that. Each race has it's unique abilities giving it an edge in certain things, but I mainly went human so I could stay in a comfort zone.

Having said that though, if PvP is your thing, I'd say a Hunter should be your choice, although this changes as time goes on. The very heart of WoW is wearing bigger boots than the next guy, and two sets of boots is always better than one (especially when one pair of boots is worn by a gorilla named Randolph). I don't mind the PvP, but it's never been a big part of my lifestyle. The Hunter also gives you a taste of magic use, although it's almost strictly limited to offense magic, and is largely associated with your gun, but magic none the less; as a matter of fact I think the Hunter teaches you more about Mana management than the Paladin does, an important skill for magic use.

So there you go a very limited run down on my thoughts for starting WoW. Only thing left now is for you to go and find out for yourself.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Dark Disney Princesses

Stumbled across this the other day. Thought it was cool enough to share.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Now There is Some Good Advice Here: Shit MyDadSays

A friend of mine runs a humorous blog where every once in a while he shares some Internet gold with the masses. One such nugget was a Tweet, or whatever you call a twitter site, called shitmydadsays. I now visit this page every day.

Don't get me wrong I don't have a Twitter account anymore and I firmly believe very very very few people are interesting enough to pull off a worthwhile Twitter run. I did say in the past that there are a few worthy Twitters going on and shitmydadsays is one. Not only is it humorous but there is some damn good life advice there that I think needs to be shared.

1) "The universe does not give a fuck about you. You are a speck in its shit."

Why do I like this quote: well there seems to be an epidemic of people wallowing in their own sense of self importance. Thank god I'm a humble bastard but it seems like a plethora of the human race needs to read this piece of Dad advice and take it to heart. :)

2)
"Don't listen to the pussy side of you when you make a decision. People gravitate towards being a pussy. Remove the pussy, son."

Damn good advice here fear of taking a risk leaves many an opportunity missed. Note being humble doesn't equate to being a pussy :)

3)
"The worst thing you can be is a liar....Okay fine, yes, the worst thing you can be is a Nazi, but THEN, number two is liar. Nazi 1, Liar 2"

Glad the man straightened that out for me.

4)
"Here's a strawberry, sorry for farting near you...Hey! Either take the strawberry and stop bitching, or no strawberry, that's the deal."

What a lesson in negotiation!

I hope the guy running this Twitter sees the genius his dad is sharing.