Team Fortress 2 Speculation

Those of you playing God Team Fortress 2 should know by now that Valve are one by one revamping all the classes adding new abilities and weapons. The first two to be done were the Medic and the Pyro. Now thy have announced that they are going to revise the Heavy Guy, specifically to make him more viable when he’s not with a medic.

Today I want to speculate about what weapons the Heavy Guy and the other 6 classes could recieve, this is also a chance for the community to brainstorm their ideas too. So let’s begin. I’m afraid I’m not very original with names so bear with me.

The Heavy Guy:

The Sprayer: A lighter version of the normal Minigun. It has high bullet dispersion which means it is extremely powerful at close range but weak at longer ranges. Unlike the Minigun, the heavy will not have a movement penalty when using the weapon.

Boxing Gloves: Removes the ability to to critically hit with melee, but grants the heavy extra protection against frontal attacks when he has his boxing gloves out.

The Spy:

The Life Sapper: Replacing the spy’s normal sapper, this can be placed on other players instead. This slowly zaps the player to death, similar to a pyro’s flame. However, to “extinguish” the sapper, an engineer on the same team will have to whack you.

The throwing knife: Replacing the Magnum comes the throwing knife. This does fairly weak damage and has a short range. However, if the throwing knife hits the player’s back, it will cause a critical hit.

The Sniper:

The Auto-sniper: Replacing the normal sniper comes the Auto-sniper. This does much less damage than the normal sniper but can fire rapidly. It also removes the ability to charge up a critical hit.

The Rifle: A scope-less semi-automatic rifle replacing the Sub-machine gun. Has very limited ammo capacity but can deal a lot of damage even at medium ranges.

The Soldier:

The Master Blaster: This extremely powerful rocket launcher replaces the normal rocket the launcher. The Master Blaster is very unreliable and inaccurate especially at longer ranges as the rockets have a tendancy to spin out of control. However, it is much more powerful than the standard rocket launcher and allows the soldier to reach even greater heights when rocket jumping.

Demoman:

TNT: Replacing the sticky bombs is TNT(it’s dynamite). These are timed charges that do a ton of damage and are especially good at taking down turrets. Holding down the fire button will cause these to be thrown further, similar to sticky bombs.

The Engineer:

The Flame turrets: The flame turret would replace the normal turret. Instead of firing a machine gun and rockets, it shoots out a short ranged burst of flame, nearly identical to a pyro’s flamethrower. The advantage of this is that the engineer can have 2 of these turrets active at one time, but they are significantly weaker as they lack the collision effect and range of the normal turret. The different grades of the turret increase the power. Grade 1 is very short range and quite weak. Grade 2 boasts 2 flamethrowers and therefore is twice as strong. Grade 3 boasts a number of high tech flame throwers and fires a blue flame which is stronger and has a longer range.

The trap: The trap comes instead of the teleporters. The trap will be invisible to the enemy unless they shoot at it. When an enemy goes near the trap it will zap them for a large amount of damage. Note: scouts can jump over traps unaffected. The trap will also be visible while it is being constructed.

The Scout:

The Mighty Bonker: The Mighty Bonker is a baseball bat that gives the scout a huge speed boost after killing an enemy player with it. However, unlike the normal baseball bat, it cannot cause a critical hit.

And that’s it for today folks, I hope you enjoyed reading. Feel free to leave a comment about your own ideas or if you can think of any improvements to my own. Thanks!

Shadowrun Minigame

This is just a video of me and Adz playing some Shadowrun (On PC if you want to know). The objective is to hold out against the waves of trolls that come at you.

New Resident Evil 5 trailer

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/34647.html

Do I even need to say anything?  WATCH THE VIDEO ALREADY!!!

Team Fortress 2 Graphical Glitches

I was rather bored this morning so I thought I would put together some graphical glitches.

Project Origin Videos

Here are some videos from the upcoming Project Origin.  As mentioned in the Perseus Mandate review, this will follow on from the original FEAR and not the two expansions (as they were not created by Monolith).

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/34241.html

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/211060.html

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/211086.html

Most of it looks VERY familiar.  However, it’s clear to see that the graphics have been kicked up a notch.  The inclusion of being able to use one of those mechs (and possibly other vehicles…the way the developer talks seems to suggest there are others…) is about the only new thing I can see. 

Even though I liked FEAR, I’m personally hoping for a little bit more.  I imagine there’ll be more videos to come, so I haven’t given up hope on that.

Peter Molyneux Interview

http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/05/molyneux-my-nex.html#more

Game-Life have interviewed Peter Molyneux (head of Lionhead Studios) about Fable 2.  However, he also mentioned his next project.  He had this to say about it.

“I think it’s such a significant scientific achievement that it will be on the cover of Wired”

Interesting.  I’ve known about his secret project for quite a while now (since an old episode of GT’s TV show).  Everything he says about it seems to suggest it will be unique and mindblowing.  Yet, I have no idea what it could possibly be.  Guess we’ll just have to wait and see…

…and with it being Peter Molyneux, we WILL have to wait…(sorry, couldn’t resist :D)

Battlefield 2 Stunt Compilation

I just thought I would post this awesome compilation of Battlefield Stunts. Enjoy.

Call of Duty 5 Speculation

Hello everyone, I’m here today to summarise and speculate about the upcoming Call of Duty 5.

So what do we know already?

We know that Call of Duty 5 will be made NOT be made by Infinity Ward (the guys responsible for Call of Duty 1,2 and 4). From this we can assume that the game will be made by Activision’s other Call of Duty developer Treyarch who worked on the poplar Call of Duty expansion United Offensive and the slightly less popular Call of Duty 3. Treyarch introduced some key elements to the Call of Duty series which was picked up by Infinity Ward in Call of Duty 4. These include sprinting, cooking grenades, airstrikes and most importantly Vehicles.

So assuming Treyarch are developing Call of Duty 5, we can expect some of the features they introduced with United Offensive and Call of Duty 3. This would mean larger scale maps and a class based system which they previously used. De Ja Vu? Battlefield anyone? As a Battlefield fan myself I enjoy Treyarch’s perspective on the Call of Duty franchise.

But what about the setting? We were told last month that Call of Duty 5 will take place in a “new military theatre”. Does this rule out Modern Warfare or World War Two altogether? Or does this just mean they are going to look at a new area. Possibly the pacific war?

Here I have provided the top contenders for a “new military theatre”, assuming they won’t go back to Modern war or WWII. This is just my opinion.

5. Call of Duty 5: The Great War
The First World War lasted 4 years but resulted in Millions of deaths across Europe. The idea of trench warfare could be implemented. There would be limitations in within the combat though, as there wouldn’t be much diversity in the weaponry (Lee Enfield, Lee Enfield, Lee Enfield…). The idea of trench foot doesn’t turn me on either.

4. Call of Duty 5: The Falklands War
A war fought between Argentina and Great Britain in 1982. The war only lasted a few months, so the game wouldn’t be set over a massive time period. However, there would be a lot of opportunity for a class based system as there would be diversity in weaponry. The biggest limitation to the game would be the fact that not an awful lot happened in comparison to larger wars.

3. Call of Duty 5: 2142
If Call of Duty follows the so-called “Battlefield Pattern” which it seems to be doing so far. We could se the next game set in the future. For a futuristic war, the possibilities are endless, though it usually ends up with Aliens and Apocalypse somewhere. I personally dread the thought of this game turning to the “dark side” because I am a Historical Accuracy fanatic. Only time will tell I guess..

2. Call of Duty 5: Korea
The Korean war was fought during the 1950’s. It wouldn’t so different to the WWII setting we are used to. Plenty of events happened throughout the war as it played a key roll in America’s “containment” of communism. The war could be played from the perspective from a number of UN countries or the opposing North Koreans, Chinese and Soviets. However, the war is not quite as controversial as other wars in the past century.

1. Call of Duty 5: Vietnam
‘Nam! An extremely well documented war that still creates controversy even today. Many iconic elements of the war could be implemented, Agent Orange, the Vietcong, Napalm. And of course, the Americans losing their will to fight. The war could just as easily be played from the perspective of the Vietcong, who were simply fighting for their freedom. A specific part of the war could be focused on like the Tet Offensive. The South-East Asian jungle environments could also breath a breath of fresh air into the European environments we have grown so tired of in the previous Call of Duty games.

So there you have it, feel free to comment and post your own opinion of where you think Call of Duty 5 will take place. See you on the battlefield!

Silent Hill 5 gameplay videos

http://www.gametrailers.com/game/5159.html

Gametrailers recently added some videos of Silent Hill 5 from Konami’s Game Day event.  People seem to have mixed feelings about the game.  It looks as though some work still needs to be done, but I’m being optimistic about it.  I didn’t like what they did in Silent Hill 4: The Room, so I think it’s nice to see something that resembles the other four games (that’s including Origins).   I love how they’ve decided to do the transition from the ‘real world’ to the ‘dark world’.  The combat system still looks a bit clunky, though.  Unfortunately, I can’t see that changing.  Maybe I’ll just have to put up with it and take it as a Silent Hill staple.

Anyway, enjoy. 

F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate

Hi all.  While Ali is still doing revision/exams, I’ll probably post some stuff up.  I have a lot of free time in the next 4 months or so (although some of that of that will be used towards games, obviously).  I thought I’d start with a small review for F.E.A.R: Perseus Mandate.  It’s been out for a while, but I’ve only just got round to playing and completing it.  Might as well write about it while it’s fresh in my mind.

If you’re not familiar with F.E.A.R., it’s a First-Person Shooter where you play a genetically-enchanced operative of a group called First Encounter Assault Recon (hence the title).  The character has super-fast reflexes, which takes the form being able to ’slow time’ in the game.  ‘Bullet-time’ had been done to death even upon the release of the original game in 2005, but it was part of the game’s main appeal.  The other thing that made the game stand out was the frequent ‘hallucination’ sequences and unsettling atmosphere.

So what does Perseus Mandate do differently?  To be perfectly honest…not a lot.  Much like the first expansion, Extraction Point, it just provides more of what made FEAR so good in the first place.  The only difference is new weapons and enemies (most notably a very efficient assault rifle).  You’re also in the shoes of a new character, but the movement and abilities are identical to that of the ‘pointman’ from the original and Extraction Point.  Simply put; if you didn’t like FEAR before, nothing will change your mind here.

The storyline is pretty much typical of the FEAR series.  You’re sent in to deal with something, things go wrong, you have to get out of it, more things go wrong, a big plot relevation is revealed…and so on.  That said, there are still some nice action sequences (I challenge anyone to meet up with that giant mech without thinking “OH CRAP!!!” and then run the hell away).  Unfortunately, both Exraction Point and Perseus Mandate will not be considered canon in the real sequel, Project Origin.  As a result, the expansion packs could be considered redundant (much like filler arcs in anime).

So there you have it.  If you liked the original F.E.A.R. and want a game you can get through in about three days, Perseus Mandate might be for you.