Mreh
Musical Updates - Got the new In Flames and Muse albums. I rather like them. Both of them. I'm glad they weren't let downs.
Game updates - Have Battlefield 2, Battlefield 2 Special Forces. Got a couple nifty mods for it. It's a shame that while it's meant to be a VERY team oriented game, your team usually doesn't amount to much more than a bunch of slack jawed idiots who cry "I wants da jettt!" "Y iz it dat evry tim I di, sum1 takes the jet?" This expands even further to TEAM KILLING. This isn't any slight TKing mind you.
We're talking about a full squad of about 6-8 people lifting off in a chopper to go for an objective, but "MEthaGR8kIlLah_112" wanted the chopper so he go and fly around in circles over the flag before being 1) Shot down, 2) Crash it into the center of an enemy spawn so that he is shot to pieces and the chopper has been wasted for the next five minutes, 3) Go joyriding, and THEN get shot down. To ensure the concept of "I WANT THE VEHICLE", this chopper carrying an entire squad is then obliterated as it's half way through take off by a few rockets from the person who wanted to take it and perform one of those 3 actions. Needless to say, this single person has TK'd an entire squad by blowing apart the chopper and created a nice little chunk of advantage for the attacking team for the next few minutes while the squad waits to respawn and then get reorganized.
To go even further, they will stand in front of jets that go barreling down the run way in a (usually) brutal reenactment of Tinnamen Square, but with more deadly results. Then they will scream that the pilot TKed them on purpose. Pardon while I don't shed a tear, as I hope the people behind those online personas are sucked into jet intakes. I'd feel worse for the plane having something to disgusting ruining the engine.
Of course, this is assuming you can find a squad. The original online game rewards team play, but unless you're in a clan, you're unlikely to find that kind of team work.
Luckily, the mod "Project Reality" addresses much of the squad issues, since if you try to go lone wolf, your survival chances are about zero to null.
I love the game, but sometimes I find it more worthy to play against the bots, since the human players can't handle the idea of working together. Don't get me wrong, I have had the opportunity to play with some great people and when the squad/commander dynamic is followed, the game is exceptionally gratifying. It's just that wandering around alone is usually not very fun in Battlefield 2, just because the size of the maps at times. Dying and then respawning about three minutes away from anything is annoying.
As far as wandering around alone, I get a much more satisfying feeling from DOD still. You can still accomplish alot by yourself and sometimes it's even easier that way. I will say though that it's much more difficult to coordinate a "squad" in DoD though and BF2 has done an excellent job with that. That and graphically, BF2 really shows just how far we've come from older games. Don't get me wrong, I still love DoD, but until Steam gets off their ass and fixes the problems preventing me from playing ANY Source game they create? BF2 will certainly replace DoD Source, CS: Source (not like that's much of a loss) and the other Source games. Of course, things will all change with the advent of Forgotten Hope 2. Forgotten Hope 2 shows the potential to dethrone DoD Source.
Who knows. All I know is that I've waited for years to really fully enjoy a product I paid in full for and have gotten nothing but errors. At least with BF2, I've gotten what I've paid for (including the whiners, sadly), gotten the expansion on the cheap and felt it was worth the $15 it cost on sale, and that it will for sure be worth much more than I paid as soon as mods like Forgotten Hope 2 as well as a few other choice mods are completed.
Wow. I have no idea how this got to be such a long rant. I also wanted to say that Disgaea looks intriguing... After playing Final Fantasy Tactics twice through, I realized how much I really like that style of playing and when I realized that's how Disgaea was played, I was interested. We'll see what happens with that.
The other thing I've still been on the look out for and haven't seen with any substantial drop in price is Trapt. After playing Kagero (it really was fun!) and noting that with a bit of polish and a better control scheme, it really had a GREAT concept and that the mechanics, while basic, were wonderful and had lots of room for building on top of. I think Trapt did that, based on what I've read. That and the price is still pretty high, so I'm guessing that it's still a pretty hot commodity. Usually with PS2 games, you can see which ones have done well and which haven't. When I can still find PS2 games that have been out for well over a year that still cost more than $30, that has to say something for the quality of the game.
Sadly, there is even yet ANOTHER game I'm looking forward to beyond that. It's the next game from the people who made IL-2 Sturmovik and Pacific Fighters. Finally, they're attempting the Battle of Britain. One can only imagine what will come of that. From the screenshots, it looks impressive enough and I hope there is a dynamic campaign option. I'd love to see how they'd implement "Operation Sea Lion" if the Germans did well enough in the Battle of Britain. On the flip side, I also wonder if they'd incorporate the raid at Dieppe. Granted, it was a couple years later, but it'd be awesome to fly cover or defense for either of those operations. That and the classic idea of tangling in that much of a target rich environment is enough to get the juices going. It's a battle that many flight sims have yet to really do well, allowing only about 20ish aircraft into an area at once. With the power of today's machines, you could probably get an appropriately sized fleet up there to give a true impression of the scope of the Battle of Britain.
Speaking of WWII and mods, I came across a mod entitled "Experience WW 2". It looked... Less than thrilling. It may have been their absolutely horrible research, but I almost want that mod to come out so that I can see if it comes anywhere close to the amount of realism they claim they want to have. I will try to give a quick example. They mention some of the weaponry in the mod. One thing they mentioned was the STG-44 assault rifle, the worlds first such weapon. The 44 at the end represents the year of formal introduction of the rifle, 1944. They proclaim that it was in service in 1938!!!! It hadn't even been fielded to units as a TRIAL until 1942 and even then wasn't the rifle it ended up being. On top of that, they claimed the bullet was "Standard Mauser 7.92 MM". That's one hell of a trick, since the standard Mauser round is 7.92 X 57 MM. The STG-44 fires a round that is 7.92 X 33MM. IT'S A FULL 24 MILLIMETERS SHORTER!!!! HOW THE HELL DO YOU EXPLAIN AN ERROR LIKE THAT!?!??!
At least it's not the terrible attempt that BloodRayne used to try to get around paying any royalties to anyone. Calling a "Springfield" a "Springbrook" or a "Mauser" a "Maus".....? @#_@_T#)$^$#) It makes the history part of my brain ache...
*laughs* I can't believe I wrote all that. Maybe I should become a game critic... The funny thing is that there is so much more that I could write about on that same topic.
*grumbles* That and I'm annoyed that I have no way to experiment with D&D. I would've loved to fiddle with it at one point, but now my 3.5 rulebook just sits in it's little basket and I occsaionally look at it out of morbid curiosity. I never got to understand or know D&D that well, but I loved the concept of just how far you could go with creating a good campaign. Shame that there's no one to really create a campaign for. For the same reason I was once told I would make an excellent criminal, I'd be good at making up campaigns. I usually can come up with damn near EVERY possible outcome and I could probably make a lot of crap up for that kind of thing.
Holy crap. I feel the "nerd" pouring out of me right now. It's been way to damn long since I've even looked at that sect of existance. No wonder I feel so greasy. *laughs* I think a shower right now would do me good. Yeah. That's it. Shower time it is.
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EDIT: I would like to know WHY the soundtrack for BrokeBack Mountain came up when I put In Flames in the search engine for "currently playing Music" here on MySpace... In Flames is freaking METAL! What does Brokeback Mountain have to do with In Flames!??!? (A moment of thought later) Oh wait. Gays. Flaming. Flames. In Flames. It's a reference to anal sex. Being "In Flames". *Cries* I hate my mind. It links words together that make me hurt.
Game updates - Have Battlefield 2, Battlefield 2 Special Forces. Got a couple nifty mods for it. It's a shame that while it's meant to be a VERY team oriented game, your team usually doesn't amount to much more than a bunch of slack jawed idiots who cry "I wants da jettt!" "Y iz it dat evry tim I di, sum1 takes the jet?" This expands even further to TEAM KILLING. This isn't any slight TKing mind you.
We're talking about a full squad of about 6-8 people lifting off in a chopper to go for an objective, but "MEthaGR8kIlLah_112" wanted the chopper so he go and fly around in circles over the flag before being 1) Shot down, 2) Crash it into the center of an enemy spawn so that he is shot to pieces and the chopper has been wasted for the next five minutes, 3) Go joyriding, and THEN get shot down. To ensure the concept of "I WANT THE VEHICLE", this chopper carrying an entire squad is then obliterated as it's half way through take off by a few rockets from the person who wanted to take it and perform one of those 3 actions. Needless to say, this single person has TK'd an entire squad by blowing apart the chopper and created a nice little chunk of advantage for the attacking team for the next few minutes while the squad waits to respawn and then get reorganized.
To go even further, they will stand in front of jets that go barreling down the run way in a (usually) brutal reenactment of Tinnamen Square, but with more deadly results. Then they will scream that the pilot TKed them on purpose. Pardon while I don't shed a tear, as I hope the people behind those online personas are sucked into jet intakes. I'd feel worse for the plane having something to disgusting ruining the engine.
Of course, this is assuming you can find a squad. The original online game rewards team play, but unless you're in a clan, you're unlikely to find that kind of team work.
Luckily, the mod "Project Reality" addresses much of the squad issues, since if you try to go lone wolf, your survival chances are about zero to null.
I love the game, but sometimes I find it more worthy to play against the bots, since the human players can't handle the idea of working together. Don't get me wrong, I have had the opportunity to play with some great people and when the squad/commander dynamic is followed, the game is exceptionally gratifying. It's just that wandering around alone is usually not very fun in Battlefield 2, just because the size of the maps at times. Dying and then respawning about three minutes away from anything is annoying.
As far as wandering around alone, I get a much more satisfying feeling from DOD still. You can still accomplish alot by yourself and sometimes it's even easier that way. I will say though that it's much more difficult to coordinate a "squad" in DoD though and BF2 has done an excellent job with that. That and graphically, BF2 really shows just how far we've come from older games. Don't get me wrong, I still love DoD, but until Steam gets off their ass and fixes the problems preventing me from playing ANY Source game they create? BF2 will certainly replace DoD Source, CS: Source (not like that's much of a loss) and the other Source games. Of course, things will all change with the advent of Forgotten Hope 2. Forgotten Hope 2 shows the potential to dethrone DoD Source.
Who knows. All I know is that I've waited for years to really fully enjoy a product I paid in full for and have gotten nothing but errors. At least with BF2, I've gotten what I've paid for (including the whiners, sadly), gotten the expansion on the cheap and felt it was worth the $15 it cost on sale, and that it will for sure be worth much more than I paid as soon as mods like Forgotten Hope 2 as well as a few other choice mods are completed.
Wow. I have no idea how this got to be such a long rant. I also wanted to say that Disgaea looks intriguing... After playing Final Fantasy Tactics twice through, I realized how much I really like that style of playing and when I realized that's how Disgaea was played, I was interested. We'll see what happens with that.
The other thing I've still been on the look out for and haven't seen with any substantial drop in price is Trapt. After playing Kagero (it really was fun!) and noting that with a bit of polish and a better control scheme, it really had a GREAT concept and that the mechanics, while basic, were wonderful and had lots of room for building on top of. I think Trapt did that, based on what I've read. That and the price is still pretty high, so I'm guessing that it's still a pretty hot commodity. Usually with PS2 games, you can see which ones have done well and which haven't. When I can still find PS2 games that have been out for well over a year that still cost more than $30, that has to say something for the quality of the game.
Sadly, there is even yet ANOTHER game I'm looking forward to beyond that. It's the next game from the people who made IL-2 Sturmovik and Pacific Fighters. Finally, they're attempting the Battle of Britain. One can only imagine what will come of that. From the screenshots, it looks impressive enough and I hope there is a dynamic campaign option. I'd love to see how they'd implement "Operation Sea Lion" if the Germans did well enough in the Battle of Britain. On the flip side, I also wonder if they'd incorporate the raid at Dieppe. Granted, it was a couple years later, but it'd be awesome to fly cover or defense for either of those operations. That and the classic idea of tangling in that much of a target rich environment is enough to get the juices going. It's a battle that many flight sims have yet to really do well, allowing only about 20ish aircraft into an area at once. With the power of today's machines, you could probably get an appropriately sized fleet up there to give a true impression of the scope of the Battle of Britain.
Speaking of WWII and mods, I came across a mod entitled "Experience WW 2". It looked... Less than thrilling. It may have been their absolutely horrible research, but I almost want that mod to come out so that I can see if it comes anywhere close to the amount of realism they claim they want to have. I will try to give a quick example. They mention some of the weaponry in the mod. One thing they mentioned was the STG-44 assault rifle, the worlds first such weapon. The 44 at the end represents the year of formal introduction of the rifle, 1944. They proclaim that it was in service in 1938!!!! It hadn't even been fielded to units as a TRIAL until 1942 and even then wasn't the rifle it ended up being. On top of that, they claimed the bullet was "Standard Mauser 7.92 MM". That's one hell of a trick, since the standard Mauser round is 7.92 X 57 MM. The STG-44 fires a round that is 7.92 X 33MM. IT'S A FULL 24 MILLIMETERS SHORTER!!!! HOW THE HELL DO YOU EXPLAIN AN ERROR LIKE THAT!?!??!
At least it's not the terrible attempt that BloodRayne used to try to get around paying any royalties to anyone. Calling a "Springfield" a "Springbrook" or a "Mauser" a "Maus".....? @#_@_T#)$^$#) It makes the history part of my brain ache...
*laughs* I can't believe I wrote all that. Maybe I should become a game critic... The funny thing is that there is so much more that I could write about on that same topic.
*grumbles* That and I'm annoyed that I have no way to experiment with D&D. I would've loved to fiddle with it at one point, but now my 3.5 rulebook just sits in it's little basket and I occsaionally look at it out of morbid curiosity. I never got to understand or know D&D that well, but I loved the concept of just how far you could go with creating a good campaign. Shame that there's no one to really create a campaign for. For the same reason I was once told I would make an excellent criminal, I'd be good at making up campaigns. I usually can come up with damn near EVERY possible outcome and I could probably make a lot of crap up for that kind of thing.
Holy crap. I feel the "nerd" pouring out of me right now. It's been way to damn long since I've even looked at that sect of existance. No wonder I feel so greasy. *laughs* I think a shower right now would do me good. Yeah. That's it. Shower time it is.
------------------------------------------------
EDIT: I would like to know WHY the soundtrack for BrokeBack Mountain came up when I put In Flames in the search engine for "currently playing Music" here on MySpace... In Flames is freaking METAL! What does Brokeback Mountain have to do with In Flames!??!? (A moment of thought later) Oh wait. Gays. Flaming. Flames. In Flames. It's a reference to anal sex. Being "In Flames". *Cries* I hate my mind. It links words together that make me hurt.