New Counter Strike Game from #Valve

I'm not feeling very creative lately.  So, another image to sum up my thoughts on the new Counter Strike game.

Half Life 2 Mod: Age of Chivalry

When not playing an MMO, I tend to scour the Internet and my game collection for a project to scavenge. This past week I found the Age of Chivalry (AoC) mod for Half-Life 2 (HL2). I know, I'm playing AoC, heh.

I've played a lot of HL2 mods over the past couple of years, but I haven't talked about many of them. Why? Because most of them are terrible and take years to develop into an enjoyable state.

AoC has gotten some coverage lately that spurred me to try it. Supposedly it was a fun mod, but after playing it for several hours I am not quite sure what game those reporters were playing.

AoC, to me, was about as much fun as watching paint dry. Well, maybe a bit more fun. After all, AoC aims to be a recreation of medieval warfare, complete with knights, castles, and siege warfare. That should count for something.

The models and maps look nice, but the gameplay, controls, and weaponry suck. Every class available to play moves about as fast as a Heavy from Team Fortress 2 (TF2). For those that have not played TF2, just imagine playing a game where your avatar is trying to run through knee-deep mud the entire time. This wouldn't be that big of a deal if the maps weren't HUGE and players didn't start on opposite ends of the map. It honestly took minutes to reach action, only to get creamed by a long range siege weapon.

Then there is the combat, slow as well. Even bows, which one would think could give a feeling of FPS normalcy, are so horribly inaccurate that it literally took me twenty arrows to hit my first stationary target. On top of the inaccuracy, it always felt as though the arrow traveled far too slow. So slow, that I never hit anything other than other stationary archers.

When playing an up-in-your-face Knight or Footman, I found the best tactic was just to chase down archers. Archers die in a single hit, have crap for defense, and rarely would their ranged damage be enough to break through a Knight's armor. Archers are free kills for the competent Knight.

I will admit that I did find some fun in the mod. Playing as an Archer, perched upon a castle wall was cool, even if I couldn't hit the incoming enemy. I did get to see one archer land a lucky, long-range shot, fired into a mass of enemies, halfway across the map.

The objective based gameplay was also refreshing. I am a sucker for games that shake-up the standard deathmatch/team deathmatch model. Every map has a different set of objectives, from capture the point to kill the horse. Yes, a noble Knight was required to lay down his life for a horse!

Unfortunately, due to server version mismatches, I was unable to play some of the maps. Hopefully this will be resolved, as a new patch has recently hit, and I'll get a chance to play some other maps.

If anything is to be gained from this mini-review, it would be this: AoC is a typical mod. It is cumbersome, buggy, and in an ongoing state of development. However, there is potential and it is a cut above the bulk of mods available. Given time, this could become a bearable time waster for anyone with a copy of HL2.

Half Life 2 Singleplayer = Complete

Well I've finished the singleplayer campaign for Half Life 2 all while AFK mining to glory in EVE Online!

I'll work on a review later in the week or early next week. I can't believe I didn't play this before now. It is an insane experience. The story is great and the end left me doing a "WTF" turnaround.

9.5/10 only lost .5 for no pr0n.

Update: 29 Nov, 2009 - Edited post, corrected spelling, removed broken links, and applied labels.

I ended up NOT writing a review for HL2.

Half Life 2 - Singleplayer

After setting some skills to train and hauling a load of veldspar back to station in EVE Online I decided to boot up the single player campaign in Half Life 2. I originally never bothered with it simply because I bought the game for Counterstrike Source and other Steam apps.

I am glad I waited until now because I have a kick ass computer to run it on. The game is simply amazing. The puzzles are unique and are definite exercises on the brain. There is usually just enough information presented to figure out each one without making them too easy or frustratingly hard.

The story line is great even for those unfamiliar with the events of the original Half Life. The real joy so far has been the interaction with pretty much anything in the surrounding areas.

Having played a bit of Half Life 2 Deathmatch and Lost Coast I am aware of many of the weapons I will get to play with later. The standard crowbar is king and the grav gun is its slave. I can't wait to get the grav gun in game and can't wait to see some of the puzzles it is used in.

Now if I am really feeling in the Single Player mood I may just crack away at the Call of Duty 2 SP experience.

Goldeneye Source HL2 Mod

One of my all time favorite multi-player games was Goldeneye 007 on the Nintendo 64. Many of my high school days were lost to the pure joy that was Goldeneye 007 multi-player! It seems the game has left a mark on quite a few other people as well. So much of mark that they have made a Half Life 2 Mod to recreate the Goldeneye experience.

Goldeneye Source is a multi-player (with limited single player) mod for Half Life 2. It features many faithful recreations from the original Nintendo 64 version. There is plenty of servers out there running the mod and the action in game is intense.

So step back in time with me a bit and indulge into a bit of gaming nostalgia. Enjoy!

After T-day update!

I am back home from Texas and all my T-day happenings and here is the update of what happened while I was gone. Lets begin:

What sort of gaming did I get done in Texas? Not much that is for sure. The CZee, AT&T gaming/net cafe, was poorly managed and I will write up; Mouthing Off 5 - Piss poor net cafes

Whats in my gaming future?

1. Battlefield 2 : Special Forces - Initial impressions are good, but I'll have to dig into the expansion, so expect a better impressions post on this $30 expansion to an already good game.

2. Call of Duty 2 - I was getting good before I left for Texas and I hope to return to prominence. Sadly, I can't dedicate the time I wish I could. I also plan to knock out some more of the single-player campaign.

3. Counter Strike : Source - Renewed interest to get some CSS in, but not too much.

4. The Hidden - A half life 2 MOD that my boys at MWHQ.net are playing, so we shall play and we shall gank some newbs.

5. Day of Defeat : Source - Not only Call of Duty 2, but DoD : Source! I paid for it so mine as well get at least 50 hours of gaming out of it.

Update: 12 May, 2009 - Edited post, removed broken links, and applied labels.