Luckyg's Gaming Blog

Livestream!

2010-09-20T20:07:00.000+01:00

Yes as you have probably noticed on the blog, I have added my livestream video which will be showcasing TF2 matches and general gameplay and stuff over the next few weeks.

During the times I am away the stream will play reruns of content that I recorded previously.

So yeh, watch it every now and then, and the first match being streamed will be at 8pm this Thursday as our ETF2L highlander team has another of its ladder matches and I shall be streaming the whole match from the source tv, but I will not be playing :(

Whats The Buzz About Minecraft?

2010-09-12T22:59:00.003+01:00

Thats the question I have been asking myself for the past few weeks, why are people so interested in a game where you just hit stuff with other stuff?...

How wrong I was.... On Friday I went and brought the game, it is immediately obvious the amount of detail that has gone into this game which what you can achieve.

I started off on the single player aspect of the game, so that I could get to grips with how everything works, then my local clan that I am an admin of (GTFOGaming) set up a private multiplayer server which I have been using with a few of the regulars and other admins and it is truly amazing, and I feel I have learnt most of what the game has to offer over the weekend so you don't need to be intimidated by the amount of craftable materials and what you can and can't do and you soon pick it all up :)

For only £8 roughly you cannot complain at this game and its weekly Friday updates which vary from new game modes, to some minor additions.

I would highly advise you all to get the game and just let your mind go free and let it build what it wants and see what you find or create :)

Team Fortress 2 Open Beta

2010-09-06T10:25:00.002+01:00

Last night kritkast announced that Team Fortress 2 would be receiving an open beta very soon. With past open betas such as the counter strike source open beta which happened earlier this year featured a load of fixed, weapon changes and some new inclusions. So you can bet that Valve will do the same for Team Fortress 2.....

So what does this mean for me? the gamer.
Whenever Valve release the open beta, you will get a new game appear in your games library in steam called "Team Fortress 2 Beta" this will be a separate game from your standard Team Fortress 2. None of your settings or configs will be in this version of the game. Also, running the Team Fortress 2 Beta will mean you will have to play on TF2 Beta servers, so don't be alarmed if at first you don't see many servers in the game as many server providers and clans will provide servers for you to test stuff on.

When will this open beta be released?
Well kritkast have said that Valve have finished all the stuff they are adding to the beta, so they are just waiting for the right time to flick the switch and activate it. So it could be today, or it could be in 3 months :P

How long will the beta last?
Well, I don't know, but if you take into account how long CSS has had its beta, I would assume it will last a couple of months.

How do I get into the beta? is it for everyone?
The new "Team Fortress 2 Beta" game will appear in your games library automatically, and everyone who plays TF2 will be able to play the beta.

Will there be a TF2 blog post about this beta?
I assume there will be one just before they release it

When is the polycount update coming?
This Month

Thats all guys for now, speak to you whenever :)

PAX Coverage 2010

2010-09-04T17:06:00.001+01:00

While I am not at PAX this weekend, I am still going to report on all the gossip from the event. There is lots to talk about so lets get going.....

Hale To The King!
Yes, after long running rumours that the long anticipated Duke Nukem Forever game would be completed by another developer after 3DRealms collapsed were all true. Yesterday during the first day of the PAX convention, 2K and Gearbox studios announced that Duke Nukem Forever is still going, and will be arriving on your doorstep sometime in 2011 (at least we get a year this time instead off "when its finished") but, to the surprise of many people at the event they were not expecting a fully playable demo of the game for the whole of the PAX convention weekend!

We expect to see a trailer for the game in the coming days.

Portal 2: Co-op Gameplay
This morning, some videos popped up all over the internets gaming communities of Portal 2 Co-Op gameplay. From what I have seen from the videos, the co-op is very intuitive and will no doubt leave your mind puzzled for alooooooooooooooooooooong time. Some gameplay videos will be posted shortly in a new post.

Call Of Duty: Black Ops
While the major unveiling wasn't at PAX, I still want to talk about it :)
Treyarch showed 4 multiplayer maps at the event,

Each 4 of these maps were playable to the public and there is some gameplay footage below,

Treyarch also showed a new multiplayer trailer for the game showcasing the new game modes called wager matches, you can find out more by viewing this video :)

Right thats all I have for you today, I will probs post again later again in the week as I'm at work tomorrow and then back at college on tuesday, FML :D

STFU NOOBS! REMIX!

2010-08-31T19:20:00.000+01:00

Yeh, you all heard the original. Now I went and remixed it :D

Enjoy,

Been Away For Awhile

2010-08-30T17:51:00.000+01:00

Right, I'm back after quite along summer break :)

Over the past few weeks I have been cracking down to my driving lessons and gaming in-between here and there.

I have just managed to finish Mafia 2 today, and even though I have seen many average reviews for the game I think it is personally very good. Don't be fooled by the short missions to begin with as by the time you get to missions 10 - 14 they will be lasting you each a good hour and a half at least. :) I already knew what happened at the end of the game, but i didn't predict they would deliver it the way they did, it set the game up for a sequel or dlc very easily and it was a very smart choice to make.

I have also been playing Worms Reloaded over the past week and well. It's worms on a next gen system, nothing wrong with that :D
The game plays vertually like Worms Armageddon bar the shitty controls. But overall I recommend you pick it up, as it is still good, and if you buy it before this thursday you can bag yourself an awesome tf2 hat and grenade set. WIN!

And finally talking of TF2, in the next few weeks the pollycount pack will be released to the public, which as usual I cannot wait for. Valve have also stated that the long promised trading will also be released and also a new gamemode :O

More on this as it develops,

Untill then, stay safe, or face the respawn timer :)

Starcraft 2 Review....

2010-08-02T22:38:00.001+01:00

Well its good, what more do you want me to say? :)

Destroy A Wrench, Give To Charity

2010-07-24T14:21:00.000+01:00

The task at hand is simple. Below, you'll find a widget where you can donate any amount you wish to give directly to the Child's Play Charity. Your gift will be tallied, along with the gifts of all other contributors, through August 23. These donations will help bring movies, music, games, and toys to ill children who desperately need something to help them through an incredibly difficult part of their lives.

On August 31st, WiNGSPANTT will destroy the 31st Golden Wrench, and invite the 20 most generous contributors to commemorate the event in-server with me as the final witnesses to its demise. Take screen shots, record demos, be the last people ever immortalized as #31's victims before this 1 in 100 item is permanently deleted. For anyone who doesn't know, the destruction of the wrench will result in a global announcement to all TF2 players.

This is a great idea which WiNGSPANTT has set up, I personally have already donated and I would ask that all of you that read this do the same :)

Alien Swarm

2010-07-20T17:29:00.000+01:00

By surprise to everyone last Friday, Valve released details of a free to play source game called "Alient Swarm" which is a remake of the UT2004 mod.

It was released late last night cause many of the steam servers to be overwhelmed and meant i had a solid, strong download speed of 100kb :D

Well this morning I gave the game ago and I must say, WOW! This game just hits all the right notes. We already knew the graphics engine running the game is close to the engine portal 2 will be running on next year, and everything about it looks beautiful, right down to the shadow work.

While the campaign is rather short (1 - 2 hours depending on difficulty) the open end SDK allowing for future mods and maps leaves this game with a lasting appeal. This bundled with the unlocking progression system sees this game having a long life ahead of itself.

Great Work Valve!

Engineer Update Fly Through

2010-07-14T21:59:00.000+01:00

Well the engie update was released last week, and as per usual with all TF2 updates I have released a fly through video of the new maps in the DLC.

Also this time both Gabe Newel (founder of valve) and Robin Walker (Producer of TF2) have both viewed it after I sent them the link :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpJgiUqUBG0

Remember to rate, comment and subscribe :)

Finally...

2010-07-07T09:52:00.003+01:00

Valve have started the engineer update,

http://www.teamfortress.com/engineerupdate/

People are already moaning at the weapons being OP or shite, but what you got to remember is, valve would have been working on the engie update since the WAR update finished last christmas, therefore they would have done extensive play testing for balancing and OP issues. Valve know what they are doing, and so far these two weapons seem ace to me :)

Also the new map Upward, looks very good, focusing on verticle gameplay such as badlands which I love and the fact there is lots of twists and turns to take everywhere. LOVE IT! :D

Now if only I could get my hands on a golden wrench :/

Valve Be Trolling....

2010-07-03T13:55:00.000+01:00

I Just wish now that valve would stop posting random, pointless post on the TF2 blog about the upcoming engineer update (which we are all dying for now!) and just release the information on it.

We all know its coming soon with many people decoding the .gcf files to find hidden textures and the golden wrench which can be activated server side and from the videos I have seen it looks pretty sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

Also yesterday I decided to install a new GPU cooler but for some reason the temperatures when gaming have sky rocketed :-/ so looks like I would be playing any games for the next few days :-(

Medal Of Honor Beta

2010-06-22T14:05:00.000+01:00

Over the past 6 days I have been playing the MOH beta on and off. And quite frankly Im shocked at the amount of people that are hating this game so much, yes it has its bugs here and there, but your bound to experience them as there is that little word in the title of the game.... BETA!

Most people I see are demanding refunds based on it being very buggy, but people don't understand that during the beta stage of a game you are meant to report bugs, you are not meant to expect it to be an early access to a finished game when it clearing isn't yet.

Anyway, DICE have said that they will be releasing a patch in the coming days, you can see the full update list by clicking here,

And also, people complaining about it being similar to BC2 or MW2, well the game has another 6 months in development, it could all so easily change and be so very different.

/end rant

Im personally loving the game, I get more FPS than Bad Company 2 and I feel it plays a lot more tactical than Modern Warfare 2, and I for one cannot wait for the final game to get released

ATI 10.6 Drivers Released

2010-06-16T20:31:00.001+01:00

ATI in the past 30 mins have released their monthly driver updates for their graphics card range,

To download them click here

And to see all what has been updated click here

E3 Press Conference, The Best Bits

2010-06-15T22:38:00.003+01:00

With Sonys press conference finishing just 20 minutes to go I'm going to sum up my highlights of all 3 of the main
console manufactures press conferences, sharing my views on them on what I didn't like and what I did

Microsoft

Way to much talk on Kinect, honestly, I just don't care about it.
The opening with COD: Black Ops was very good, but I dunno, the engine just seems dated now and it looks like something we have already seen before.
Metal Gear Solid: Rising, just looks epic, nothing beats a bit of slow motion HD body cutting :D
And with me being a massive Crytek fan the surprise of a new game by them under the working title "Kingdoms" just gets me excited
Xbox Slim, looks very, very good. Look forward to getting my hands on one in the coming months. Feel sorry for all those who have just got an old Xbox 360 in the past days :D

Nintendo

Lots of trailers and gameplay of many, many interesting games.
3DS, looks fantastic, sounds fantastic, but what about its price?
It also looks like the 3DS is going to have a good line up of third party games such as Saints Row, Resident Evil.
Wii Party, just sounds shit :P
And Finally, Golden Eye Wii, OMG! :O I want this game right now!

Sony

Seemed to talk a lot about Playstation move, however unlike Kinect, showed lots of games that would interest me instead children :D
While I am a PC gamer, seeing Gabe make a surprise appearance on stage and talk about Portal 2 on PS3 still got me excited, and well the trailer just topped it all off. GO VALVE! :D
I don't know who Kevin Butler is, as I ain't from the USA so I don't see their playstation ads.
Grand Turismo 5, on Top Gear Test Track, and a release date, YEEEEEEEES!
Little Big Planet 2, looks promising, and look forward to seeing more of it at the Tokyo game show.

Right thats the conferences out the way, tomorrow going to pre-order Medal Of Honor on steam and try out the beta on thursday (I knew Bad Company 2 would come in handy some day) so erm, yeh, will write something up about the game probably later on this week.

Also where did Onlive go? Its just disappeared and its meant to be released in the USA in 2 days, I really want to see how it goes, as I personally see it has potential.

What's Here?

2010-06-11T20:45:00.003+01:00

Oh dear.......

TF2 for Mac.....

I got my hopes up for engineer update release date along with the Mac Release.....

My hopes were crushed......

And Mac players get a free set of headphones......

Oh well......

I GOT THE HEADPHONES! :D

I don't own a mac either :)

T-Minus 6 Days To E3!

2010-06-08T20:05:00.002+01:00

Sorry I haven't been posting here much recently, been having lots of exams at college which have been taking up the
majority of the time,

Anyways back to some gaming news, next week see's the return of this years E3, personally I cannot wait, there are just so many games I want to see more off such as Crysis 2, CoD: Black Ops, Portal 2 e.t.c. I just don't know how they are going to fit it all in within 2 days.

The rundown of press conferences is as follows,

With many other third party companys also hosting press conferences during the 2 days aswell. Of course you can also stream the press conferences on your pc, personally I like to use either gamespot (http://e3.gamespot.com/) or gametrailers (http://www.gametrailers.com/e3/) to watch the press conferences live and keep up to date with the news and info.

Right, I'm also still waiting for the Engineer update that was coming soon a good month and abit ago now. I can but hope we will get information either this week or next week if recent interviews with Robin Walker are to be believed.

Erm, thats all the info I have for you today, will write again before E3 and of course during E3 aswell :D

Red Dead Redemption Beats....

2010-05-26T22:02:00.006+01:00

All of my revision for my exams this week and in the coming weeks, I'm just way way too addicted to this game. I'm
having a blast on the multiplayer with my mates and though-ally enjoying the single player campaign as well. Can't wait
for the promised DLC in June :D

As for the Engineer update I'm still hoping for some information this week as I'm guessing TF2 will be release for Mac either next week or the week after that and there is no better way to promote sales of a game then promoting it with new free dlc. And maybe a price cut and free weekend.

I'm also planning on going back to Bad Company 2 after this patch comes out early next week (I hope.) EA have lost a lot of fans for the game however I think the upcoming patch fixes a lot of those issues that drove people like myself away, hopefully this patch isn't as buggy as the last one.

Right will speak to you all in the coming days is the posible run down of the engineer update unveiling :D

Red Dead Redemption Review

2010-05-21T17:25:00.006+01:00

Red Dead Redemption while at first sight may seem to be a sequel to Rockstars Red Dead Revolver it is far from it, but this isn't necessarily a bad thing.

You play John Marston a retired outlaw who is abducted from his family by government agents, however the government agents claim that if he is to kill the members of his former gang then his family will be returned to him. Thus starts the story of hunting and killing in the wild wild west.

The game features a fairly limited tutorial in that you learn as you play basis. During the few opening campaigns you learn the various techniques required to see yourself get killed…. I mean…. kill enemies. While going through the first few missions the game can feel complex due to yourself adapting to the controls as they can be fiddly to begin with, but once you master them, they become second nature.

The world of Red Dead Redemption is massive, and you can access any of it at any time without long loading screens, however that being said when loading the game up and during some cutscenes you can experience some fairly drifted loading times where you can be sat for a couple of minutes twiddling your thumbs.

Most open world games feature a hefty single player campaign and then a tacked on multiplayer mode that just doesn’t have the same spark as the single player, however RDRs multiplayer world is so vast and there is so much to do that it could be a stand along multiplayer game by itself, you can go around in the same massive environment as the single player with up to 16 players and do so much more, you can also form posses which is where a group of your friends or strangers can become a team and participate in various other multiplayer modes together. The free roaming mode aspect of the game (which was just mentioned above) is the equivalent to a multiplayer lobby in any other game, it serves as a portal to any game modes you want to do such as free-for-all or team based games, and while this idea seems very good I struggled to get more that 2 players into a game at once, maybe that was due to me playing during *off peak* times or whether or not I’m just too l33t for some of these players :P

The graphics are on par with Rockstars other major hit Grand Theft Auto 4 but only this time the engine the game runs on has been more optimised and allows for smoother changing of environments and all round looking better. And I can still say that the game has some amazing graphics even for an open world game, heck the graphics are better than some more enclosed games coming out soon *cough* alpha protocol*end cough* :D

During my time of playing I did experience a few hiccups with the multiplayer, such as getting randomly dropped from games and some clipping animation issues, really nothing that cannot be fixed by a few patches. I must say this game is very polished and Rockstar as usual have delivered a very well made game. The promise of DLC will also keep me enticed in this game for many months and I can already see it being easily the game of the year, I would highly recommend you buy this game.

My Verdict:

9.5/10

Incoming!

2010-05-21T08:57:00.007+01:00

Valve yesterday released some new community items which both include weapons and hats, all I can say is time to
get back to idling, :D

Demomen
[Hat] Tippler's Tricorne
[Melee] The Scotsman's Skullcutter
+20% damage done
15% slower move speed on wearer

Sniper
[Hat] Bloke's Bucket Hat
[Melee] The Tribalman's Shiv
On Hit: Bleed for 8 seconds
-35% damage done

Pyro
[Hat] Whiskered Gentleman
[Hat] Vintage Merryweather

Engineer
[Hat] Safe'n'Sound

Heavy
[Hat] The Heavy Duty Rag

Medic
[Hat] Ze Goggles
[Hat] Gentleman's Gatsby

Scout
[Hat] Whoopee Cap

Soldier
[Hat] Sergeant's Drill Hat

Spy
[Hat] Frenchman's Beret

Here is hoping for the Engineer update in the next week or so! Untill then Red Dead Redemption time! :D

What A Quiet Week So Far....

2010-05-19T16:30:00.005+01:00

Not being up to much since Sunday, I pre-ordered Red Dead Redemption from Amazon on Monday afternoon. I'm also
still waiting on the Team Fortress 2 Engineer Update to come (Hoping to get more information this week *crosses
fingers*)

Yesterday saw the unveiling of the first Call Of Duty Black Ops gameplay trailer, you can see the video below and well it looks amazing, however I cannot yet decide if I will prefer the new Medal Of Honor or this more.

Thats all for now then folks, will talk with you on friday when I have got a whole day off college to play Red Dead Redemption, WIN! :D

Weekend Recap

2010-05-16T21:33:00.011+01:00

Spent most of saturday watching FA cup final (unlucky Portsmouth) and then sat and watched some classic acts
on britians got talent. My favourate act had to be Paul Burling with his impressions, most of them were just amazing

Tonight is the final episode of The Pacific (well I wont be able to see it till tomorrow) and well all I can say is that the mini series was just amazing and that I highly recommend you all either watch repeats which will inevitably be on or buy the box set.

Tomorrow i'm planning on pre-ordering Red Dead Redemption after reading overwhelmingly positive reviews about the game. I loved Gun and RDR has all of what that had plus much more and its from Rockstar who are just ace at making open world games. Check back next weekend for my review of the game.

Thats all for now, speak to you all next week!

Portal 4 Free

2010-05-15T22:30:00.011+01:00

This news may be fairly old now but forgot to post it earlier, untill May 24th you can get portal for free as a celebration for it being released on Mac.

I highly recommend the game as it is just so original and funny to play, plus its free and from Valve the developers of Half Life 2 and Team Fortress 2!

To get the game for free simply click here

Defragmenting Steam Games

2010-05-15T15:10:00.006+01:00

People are unaware of a little program developed for steam which defragments steam game files (GCF's) which can improve load times and responsiveness of each game. After every update to a game steam reshuffles files in the GCF's it is therefore advised that you run this defragmentor after every game update.

Step 1: Download this .rar file containing all the files you need to defragment,
Click Here To Download

Step 2: Completely shut down Steam. While Steam is running it uses data in the GCF files and by defragmenting while steam is running can cause corruption and require you to reinstall your games.

Step 3: Unzip the file you downloaded using software such as winrar or 7zip, and extract the files to the directory that contains your steam GCF files (typically something along the lines of C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps)

Step 4: Open up the directory where we just extracted the files and double click the file named "Defragment.bat"

Step 5: Let the program run, if you have never defragmented your files before this process may take in excess of 1 -2 hours depending on how many games you have on your steam account

Step 6: When it is finished press any key to close it, then boot steam back up, and enjoy quicker loading games :)

FAQ:
How does this program differ from the built in steam defragmenter?
Steam defragments whole GCF files while this app defragment every file in GCF's

I get a red error message when running the defragmenter, what do I do?
Make sure that steam is shutdown, check task manager aswell under the process tab for "steam.exe" and end it

How often should I defragment?
After every game update

What about the other 2 files in the .rar file?
Just make sure they are extracted along with the defrag program, other than that you do not need to touch them

ZOMG! Need For Speed World Beta Key!

2010-05-14T20:08:00.006+01:00

Just checked my emails to see a email from the Need For Speed team, seems they have accepted me into the
Need For Speed World beta :O

Downloading the game now, can't wait to try it out. I will try to get some beta keys if I can to give away so stick around :)