Black Ops War Journal: No, Ghost Doesn't Beat Motion Sensor

So it's been awhile since I last checked in on my blog. I need to come back more often I guess, so I'll come back with more casual updates such as what I'm playing recent games, and maybe an experiment in Indie Gaming Tonight!

Oh yeah, speaking of Indie Gaming Tonight! Christmas is coming up and I'm very interesting in investing in a HD PVR for myself. Then I can really make my YouTube account shine! Like real good commentaries, a revisit of my Street Fighter IV stuff but in HD and maybe commentaries as well. And to really make something special and regular, the concept of Indie Gaming Tonight! is to download a different indie game demo every week and go through the demo blind for as long as I can. Thinking about the set up, it'd probably benefit from a live commentary format.

Play Testing Today

I'm eligible for select play testing of a game in it's beta stages and apparently I'll discuss games I've already played in a focus group as well. I think that's as far I can go in describing this. Why? Because I have to sign a confidentiality waiver before taking part in the testing.

I've taken media law as an undergraduate and understand most of these legal ramifications involved. As a journalist, we have certain freedoms to further our job of news and yet at the same time there are legal boundaries in place that keep journalistic integrity separate from things such as trade secrets, copyright, as well as press embargoes.

I guess I'll figure out what I can and can't talk about later tonight after my play testing finishes and I get a good look at what my contract entails.

Enjoying Splinter Cell Conviction; got Super Street Fighter IV early

So I finally got back from watching Kick-Ass and it was pretty kick ass (yeah, cheap). Anyways, I find myself with peace of mind to actually post something substantial.

• Splinter Cell Conviction: skulking around the shadows as Sam Fisher is fun and all, but it's twice as fun with a buddy.
• It's amazing what ten new characters, rebalanced attack properties, and a new online mode structure will do with a game that's a year old.

Picture of Splinter Cell Conviction from Ubisoft. Picture credit to Konsole Kingz.

Blammo! Custom Combos!

Just a quick note, in case you haven't noticed, I've changed the layout using Blogger's handy Blogger In Draft template customizer. I didn't feel comfortable designing my own code because a lot of what makes the default templates work were CSS files relative to Blogger it looks like (plus I hate, hate, hate to deal with CSS).

Most importantly, I finally have to freedom to widen my margins. Finally, most youtube videos will actually fit here! Like this one!




And yes, I've downloaded Kasumi's Stolen Memory for my copy of Mass Effect 2. I'll get around to talking about it later, so chill.

Back on the Street Fighting Bandwagon

It's been a long time, especially longer since my friend Kelvin borrowed it from me, but I'm back on Street Fighter IV in preparation of Super Street Fighter IV. This of course means going back to play the character I've learned to play: Rufus.

Finals are done, but here comes Christmas

Finals were a big pain in the ass, but as soon as they finish, I now have Christmas to deal with along with my sister.

In the meantime, I've close to Prestiging on MW2 and got myself Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks for the DS. I'm probably going to make some entries on some hilarious tactics, classes, and moments from the upper echoleons of MW2 and of course, talk about Spirit Tracks and Christmas gift giving.

Happy holidays everyone!

What was interesting in my absence

I've come down with a bit of a cold and have been bogged down with homework. Doesn't mean I've stopped reading my feeds though.

• Stabbing little girls won't fix your Internet - Gizmodo
• Not only is Ryu Ji Hye hot, but she's Chun-Li - Real Cute Asians
• More details on Modern Warfare 2, Spec Ops, etc. - MTV Multiplayer
• Great moments in fight game history - iPlay Winner
• My girlfriend wrote about me and this is totally not a plug - My boyfriend is a gamer
  

Blazblue TWO wishlist

It cracks me up every time someone says "The game hasn't been out for even a year and you already want balance changes?"

For your information, my dull witted friend, though the console version has been out less then a year, the game as a whole (I'm referring to the arcade) has been around for one to two years plus the console version is a straight up port concerning game mechanics and general character balance (except for astral heats, which are useless in a competitive sense).

So here is what I'm wishing for in Blazblue Two, organized by characters.

Ragna
- Buff his Soul Eater drive so it actually makes a difference. Do whatever it takes to let Ragna absorb more health, from nerfing Blood Kain to tweaking how strong Ragna is.

Jin
- No changes really necessary, though some argue he needs more flaws to be more appealing in a cast wide balance sense.

Noel
- No buffs or nerfs come to mind.

Rachel
- Personally my favorite in terms of balance. Her move set favors a lot of rushdown, which makes spectating her matches so awesome. However, her vitality reflects her rushdown perfectly.

Arakune
- Remove his Zero Vector's ability to curse on block. He already has plenty of devious tricks to get his drive attacks to curse on hit through sly teleporting and mix ups. The ability to curse on block can lead to some tough match ups and most of all, a possible loop (which he doesn't need).

Carl
- His ability to loop (called the ClapTrap) is essential to Carl play. His ability to loop his opponent is balanced by his absolute bottom tier stats (lowest guard strength, lowest stamina, lowest damage output).

Nu
- Find a way to limit her extreme zoning. I personally want to increase the start up frames on her drive swords so she can't throw them out rapid fire. Her swords come out fast for projectiles after all. Even Ryu needs frames to wind up his hadouken.

Tager
- Admittedly, this list is in response to Tager's horrible match up to Nu. No othe character screw with Tager more then Nu. Even Arakune has openings Tager can exploit. What if Tager had an ability to spend his electric gauge to "reverse" his "polarity"? He starts a special attack which start to drain his electric gauge and it can't be stopped until it drains completely. During this special state, when Tager blocks, he moves forward instead of backwards (hence, he's reversed the knockback effect from blocking, or his polarity). Blocking moves him half as much as the regular knock back, and instant blocking moves him up as much as regular knock back. This changes Nu matches considerably in my opinion, since she can't throw swords out all day without fear of punishment, as long as Tager has gauge to use this reverse polarity power (in addition to spark bolt).

Bang
- More nails to use would be a positive if his damage output remains unchanged (which is abnormally low for such a beefy stamina character).

Hakumen
- A normal run, please. Also, longer active frames for his drive counters.

Taokaka
- Can't think of anything. She's pretty much a complex, low damage output, combo-oriented speed machine with a nightmare set of mix ups attacks.

Litchi
- I got nothing to say frankly. I don't know what the rest of the community thinks, but I think she might be fine the way she is.

Offensive engineering: a thankless but rewarding job

For many veteran players, the engineer is inherently easier to play on defense. Simple set up a dispenser, build a sentry, and upgrade both, and you have a very difficult line to break. It's not unbreakable, but it can make stall the enemy as they build an ubercharge or get a competent demoman or spy. But for, I find defensive engineering boring. Whenever I play engineer, I love playing offense.

It's certainly more difficult. Engis aren't meant to take much punishment, so putting them closer to the frontlines is bound to get you killed. But offensive engineering is very rewarding when it works. You'll know you're responsible for keeping teleporters up to supply the frontline with fresh combatants and reduce the travel time for the slower characters. Injured players can fall back on your trusty dispenser t reload and heal. And of course the sentry is there to protect everything, though offensive sentry gunning is a different part altogether.

Build your blu SG in surprising nooks and corners and use the ambush tactic to weaken the enemy defense as your team mates catch up. Playing an offensive engi is fun especially when you work on SG placement because it essentially makes you two fighters in one. Your enemy has to make a choice: kill you or kill the SG. Either choice ends in their death most of the time.

Tricking out Team Fortress 2

I've been spending a lot of time on Team Fortress 2 since the Sniper vs. Spy update landed and after weeks of playing, I've gotten around to even reskinning several things in my game. Nothing too extravagant, but just little things to make the experience more subtle.

Heatshielding shotgun
This might be a bit much, but since I like playing support engi and battle engi sometimes, I thought skinning my shotgun would be a good idea since I'll really be spending a lot of time with it. Nothing's more rewarding then luring a scout back with your shotgun only for him to get riddled by my sentry.

The Backstabber's knife
The spy is a gentleman first, assassin second, scoundrel third, and a prick fourth. His default butterfly knife seems a bit too plain and out of character for a person of his caliber. When I think butterfly knife, I don't think pinstripe suit. This skin makes the butterfly knife look like the gentleman's sophisticated butterfly knife. The gold band in the middle really sells it.

Four-slot grenade launcher
This is a necessity, not an option to me. The grenade launcher shoots 4 grenades, and yet the model has six slots. This stems from the beta having six slots but reducing it to four when the retail version launched for balancing reasons. There's really no excuse for Valve to simply leave a six-slot grenade launcher shooting four. INEXCUSABLE!

Western revolver
With the Ambassador out, using either the revolver or the unlockable is a big toss up in terms of ability. However, in terms of sexiness, the Ambassador wins hands down. That's why the western styled revolver puts some style into your by-the-book revolver. The Ambassador isn't the only gun that can do engravings!

Whack-on monkey wrench
Short but sweet: monkey wrenches always need to be red. They just look cooler that.

Orange illuminated builder/destroy PDA
Now that this skin is up, I forget what the original PDAs looked like. The big thing is that this skin taught me how to remove the obtrusive option overlay that tells you which number is which building. After you spend an hour playing engi, you instantly memorize how the buttons go (1. sentry, 2. dispenser, 3. & 4. teleporter entrance and exit respectively). These PDAs are skinned so that you cna have a reminder whenever you need it, but with the building hud down, I can actually see trouble heading at me while trying to build. Also, it lights up under low light conditions!

Golden Lady Ambassador
Let's face it; just like the incorrect six-slot grenade launcher, the Ambassador suffers some serious visual problems. There's no hole for the bullets to shoot through, the skin reflects incorrectly sometimes, and the texture of the gun overall is kind of crappy. The Golden Lady remedies those problems and highlights the most important feature of the Ambassador: a gold engraving of the Scout's mom off the beautiful silver finish.

skins courtesy of the fpsbanana community.

A Transition from Console Gaming to Pc Gaming

In the past, PC gaming intimidated me. I have all these numbers and specs to keep track of and I need enough of these numbers in order for my game to run properly on my pc. These questions just didn't exist on console gaming.

But this semester, I took a computer engineering class that familiarized me with everything that a good employee working at Fry's Electronics would be familiar with. So a month ago or so, I finaly took the plunge and bought myself a 512MB AGP video card for my pc. Its pretty old, so yeah, I had to get AGP. But where am I now?

Well, I've finally gotten rid of that stupid fear of messing up my pc after opening it up. An open pc isn't like an open flesh wound. Besides from dust building up and overexerting yourself on things like slots, I've learned in class that there's usually nothing to worry about when your pc is opened up.

I've thouroughly enjoyed Team Fortress 2 as I've had it for year but couldn't play it before. Now, I have new found confidence in opening up my pc again someday to upgrade more compenents to play Left 4 Dead and so forth.

Current specs

• 2.7 Ghz Intel Pentium Processor
• 1.5GB RAM
• 512MB Nvidia 6300 AGP Card

Future goal

• 3 Ghz Processor, most likely Intel
• 2GB RAM
• A New motherboard to support...
  
• 1GB Video Card PCI-E Card
  

In case you were wondering...

I've recently upgraded my pc, making it possible to play Team Fortress 2, which I bought a year ago but couldn't play. So I've been catching up with all the stuff I've been missing like the Medic update, Heavy update, Pyro update, Scout update, and all the little things like the mini updates for the Spy's cloak and Engi's little toys.

I'll bring it the front tomorrow probably, but right now I have to finish other things. Just finished the SFIV tournament and the Howie's game day a week before. It's been pretty hectic as Vice Prez of Gaming Club.