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Gaming Moments: Mech Wars
2007-02-22 14:15:00
Games can leave lasting impressions upon the people who play them, especially when they're online games and moments shared with other people. Any gamer with a decent amount of gaming experience will have many stories to tell, whether it's an amazing clan match they've played or an insane raid they've experienced, everyone has their memorable moments. As do I - and in order to make this blog a tad more personal, I'll be sharing some of my most memorable gaming moments with you!The game I'll be talking about this time around is a browser-based strategy game called Mech War s . It was one of the most unforgiving browser-based games, but it's very open-ended and player-driven nature also made it the most enjoyable browser-based game. Players would run their territories, building armies and bases, while fighting against people for resources.     Mech Wars allowed players to suck their opponents dry if they wanted to, so pretty much every player was a member o...
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PC gaming VS console gaming 1
2007-02-21 13:29:00
In recent years consoles have gotten much more powerful and capable. Rather than merely being gaming platforms, they've now gained online capabilities and turned into media centers. Cons ole s are essentially turning into semi-PCs for in your living room - and the lines between PCs and consoles have began fading.In this series of articles I will take a look at the pros and cons of gaming on the PC versus consoles. Rather than merely shedding some light on the financial aspects, like in this previous blog entry, I'll attempt to take a look at the whole of pros and cons this time around. There are good reasons for choosing to play games on the PC over a console, or the other way around, other than merely pricing differences. I hope this series will help you see those differences - and will assist anyone currently in doubt between the two in choosing their gaming platform of choice.     This entry will go into the pricing and accessibility aspects of gaming on bo...
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Screenshot of the Week #4
2007-02-19 17:31:00
I've managed to find yet another interesting picture to continue the Screen shot of the Week feature into it's 2nd week. You'll be able to admire a new interesting screenshot here every week, so be certain to check back regularly! Each of these screenshots will have an accompanying background story of course.Week #4The Lord of the Rings OnlineStory: This screenshot was taken with my level 10 Elf Minstrel. I had just died (hence the black outline along the screen - that effect stays for a couple of minutes after dieing) and was running off to a quest giver by a cabin in the woods of Ered Luin. A Dwarf popped into view and this was a fairly nice shot without the interface.     The area of Ered Luin is mostly very beautiful, especially the elven cities in the south, which are made out of an intricate web of floating platforms or mountain paths. There's loads of lush green fields and snowy peaks in this portion of Eriador - the region of Middle Earth initially...
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News of the Week #4
2007-02-18 19:17:00
Every week I'll be posting a recap of the most interesting occurrences and news announcements regarding PC gaming that were made in the previous week. This feature is known as the News of the Week - and you can access it in the right menu by clicking News.Week #4 (February 12th - February 18th)This week was fairly quiet, although RTS fans certainly got a load of joy. The next week will most certainly be one of the most enjoyable, or at least interesting, weeks for RTS gamers. Not only do we have Supreme Commander that just released, but also a demo for C&C 3 that aught to be out by then. Back to this week: I'll be talking about an upcoming Command & Conquer 3 demo, the successful release of Supreme Commander, an Xbox360 game making it's way to PCs & an update for EVE Online: Revelations.Command & Conquer 3 Demo ActionWith all the attention being focused on the recently released RTS Supreme Commander, one would almost forget that we have yet another high profile RTS on the horizon...

Guild Essentials
2007-02-15 20:21:00
The demands of players have changed over the years... when a new MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) is announced nowadays, players tend to know what to expect and will request specific features. One aspect of the game requires very specific attention, namely the feature set that supports the creation - and management - of guilds. I have a pretty good idea of what basic features should be provided to guilds in any mmorpg - and I thought it'd be nice to share this with you.FormationAn mmorpg aught to allow players to form guilds, regardless of what they're called (communities, corporations, alliances, etc.) so as to allow players to associate themselves with a certain belief or play style and gather fellow players to easily team up. It's become a basic, but essential, underlying feature of every modern mmorpg.     It shouldn't be too easy to create a guild (e.g.: just 5 silver coins) so that players won't simply create one-man-guilds ...
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An introduction to RF Online
2007-02-14 11:12:00
Roughly a year ago a new MMORPG was released by CodeMasters entitled RF Online . In the past year it hasn't done incredibly well, but it has managed to stay alive, feeding of the subscription fees of it's PvP-loving player base. I've played this game myself for a couple of months and wrote an introduction to it quite some time ago - and I thought it'd be nice to rewrite that article, now that RF Online seems to be picking up steam a bit again and CodeMasters has consolidated all it's servers into one giant cluster for truly massive PvP.The 'Real' BackgroundRF Online was released in Europe on the 10th of March, by CodeMasters. Originally this was a South-Korean game however, raking in an astounding 2 million subscribers. Seeing this, CodeMasters licensed the game for publishing in Europe and the United States, which resulted in a translated and slightly altered version for us western people. In the end the gameplay still proved to be too 'Korean' for most players - as the gam...
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What is a 'noob'?
2007-02-10 13:03:00
Anyone who has played a game online or visited a game-related blog, forum or website will have seen the word 'noob' uttered at least a couple dozen times. Anyone who is new to the gaming community will of course have no idea what this word means - and I've seen it misused a lot of times, so I thought it'd be nice to write up a blog entry that depicts the true meaning of being a 'noob'.The DefinitionMany online gamers will tell you that a noob is someone who is new to gaming - this is incorrect. The correct term to use for referring to people who are new to gaming is 'newbie'. So what is the word noob used for then? Doesn't it have the same meaning as newbie? No, it doesn't...     A noob is someone who doesn't necessarily have to be new to gaming (although they frequently are) and plays in a most annoying, disruptive, stupid and/or unreasonable manner. In essence the word noob is a derogatory term used in reference to obnoxious gamers - people you'd...
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Demo Goodness!
2007-02-09 19:16:00
As of late we've been treated to a couple of great new demos for promising upcoming titles, namely Silverfall and Supreme Commander. I've finally gotten around to giving both a little spin and each of the demos was certainly enjoyable. They might be over 1 GB in size, but are well worth downloading if you have a broadband connection.     I'll provide a brief overview of each game below as well as some of my, admittedly rather basic, experiences with the demo - my first impressions of sorts. If you're interested in downloading these demos and playing them yourself, then head over here for the Silverfall demo and here for the Supreme Commander demo.SilverfallSilverfall is an upcoming hack&slash RPG from Monte Cristo Games scheduled for release in early March 2007. It features beautiful 3D rendered backgrounds, with swaying grass and all the latest DirectX 9.0 features, combined with cellshaded 3D characters.     In Silverfall you creat...
More About: Demo , Good , Ness , Goodness

Team DeathMatch Guide
2007-02-07 21:06:00
This is a guide to playing well-organised Team Death Match (TDM) which I originally wrote for the Quake 4 team (Creative Gaming) I used to play in. I've rewritten most of it so that it's more suitable for use in fast-paced Team DeathMatch games in general, rather than focusing solely on Quake 4 (which no one seems to play anymore, including myself).     If you're a Team DeathMatch player or clanleader and you've always wanted your team to be more successful in TDM play, then be certain to read through this guide - it might help you improve a few aspects of your team play. This guide should also prove helpful for people who want to get into Team DeathMatch without having any prior experience, because it's one of the most difficult game modes to play competitively.Team DeathMatchThis guide will provide gameplay tips for organised Team DeathMatch play in fast-paced First Person Shooter (FPS) games. TDM is a common game mode in FPS games, which pits two tea...
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WarSow - Free DeathMatch Gaming!
2007-02-04 15:39:00
Early June 2006: A new version of a previously unpopular free Death Match game was released that drew in a mass of new players, many of whom were well known players in the DeathMatch scene... It was a decent looking game, based on the old Quake 2 engine, that weighed in at only 60 MB and initially drew a lot of attention from "eSport" websites, which unfortunately mostly died down after a few months, although the game still remains fairly popular today. The name of this game? 'War Sow'.     This entry will cover the basics of WarSow. You can essentially consider it a beginner's guide to WarSow, covering all it's unique features as well as some of it's more basic components. Note that this is not intended as a (p)review, it's merely intended to be an informative overview of WarSow's features. WarSow Basics WarSow is best described as a hardcore first person shooter game, which implies that it's a highly fast-paced game that relies on a significant amou...
More About: Gaming , Wars , Free

PC Gaming - Expensive!?
2007-02-02 20:07:00
There's a particularly stubborn myth swirling around cyberspace any time a new console is released, especially now with the imminent release of the PlayStation 3 in Europe. As always, many console gamers and PC gamers are trying to convince one another of the superiority of their favourite gaming platform. A pet argument on the console side rings that console gaming is less expensive than PC gaming, but with the PS3's high selling point, does that argument still ring true, or not?I'm assuming one purchases solely an upgrade to ones existing PC, in order to have a fair comparison. This means we won't be purchasing a keyboard, mouse, monitor, windows or computer case, because all these items are already yours if you can read this. Let's have a look at this supposedly massive price difference now, shall we? (NOTE: These are all prices taken from a single shop, it's possible to get these components for lower prices still, but these are definitely realistic prices!)PlayStation 3:Co...
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Proper Naming Conventions
2007-01-27 19:49:00
You've just purchased a new game that you've been looking forward to for years. It's an online role-playing game that allows you to go on digital adventures with your friends in an immersive fantasy world. You install and boot up the game, create a character with a your fantasy RPG nickname of old: 'Anthir' and head in-game.    You're introduced to the world in the form of a beautiful CGI intro and then slowly zoom into actual in-game view, with a few dozen other new players who are also just starting out around you. As the game zooms in closer and the names of nearby entities are clearly displayed on the screen, your wide grin turns into a mild smirk: right in front of you is another player, entitled 'J4m3$ B0nD'.The above is a common scenario for MMORPG players. Many players seem intend on creating the least innovative and most immersion-breaking nicknames possible, even in supposed role-playing servers. Usually the naming control mechanism when one cre...
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