Blogs - Boots_and_Socks

I know, its been a while since I posted a blog. I just have been really busy with school ending and keeping up with studying and finals. School is important to me so... School > Blog :D. But now that summers here, my free time is endless. I plan on not sitting around every day so I planned a few things to do over the summer. Activities that will keep me off the computer a little. Here is a list of what I plan to accomplish:
-Become better at the guitar
-Learn to play an Ocarina
-Learn to play a little bit of piano
-Build my Mark IV helm

It's nothing crazy, just stuff to keep myself busy and use my time proficiently :P
But a game that I plan on playing during the summer with my friends is APB. All Points Bulletin looks like a game that everything GTA should have been, and the best part is that it is made for the PC :D, yayayay. It's not a bad console port straight to PC. I'm so excited for it to come out soon. Although I have trouble running the game right now, my sweet friend of mine from Canada sent me a CPU and Motherboard in the mail so I could run the game. That alone made my summer, I'm so happy that happened :3.

But I'm glad that my friends are picking up APB, we haven't all played an MMO together at one time since we played WoW, two Christmas's ago. So this game is really exciting me. Great content, game play, visuals, and my friends. Not much else I could ask for?

Going to be a great summer.

I am late on my blog five days... I have been so caught up in Magic the Gathering that I have been neglecting my ever so important blog. I'm sorry blog forgive me, puppyface.

I think you'll get over it blog.

It's strange how you can get back into something after not associating with it for so long. I hadn't played magic in over 5 years but I started playing it again and I am heavily involved with it right now. Its just strange to me how I hadn't touched a card in years to keeping my deck on me at all times. I really enjoy the game, it puts a smile on my face when I play it. The same thing is happening to me with Counter Strike Source right now. I use to play it religiously and owned my own server about 3 years ago. Now I am playing the game for hours a day instead of... writing my blog, oh well!

I just found it weird that I went back to two old forms of entertainment again. And I think Im going to skimp on this blog today, CS_OFFICE is just waiting for me :3

You rarely heard the word "casual" in the gaming scene until recently. In my opinion the reason this word is being used so much is due to how many people game now. World of Warcraft has 11 million users. People who have been playing that game since BC, or Pre-BC have been raging due to how easy the game has become. This is because they want to appeal to the whole crowed so they can attract more people. I think that's more then oblivious so I wont run on about it anymore. But I will run on about how I can't stand Call of Duty 4 and how its dramatically changed the face of gaming right now.

Call of Duty 4 was a huge hit on Xbox 360, PS3 and on PC. The game was visually great looking, the story was amazing and the multi player was outstanding. Although the biggest reason that disk wouldn't leave peoples console was because of how easy the game was. The game is very casual and makes you feel good even though you really aren't. A lot of this has to due to how the game helps you with aiming your bullets, another factor is how small the maps are and the area of affect of a grenade. The biggest factor that people play that game over and over is the fact that the game makes you believe you are good. It is very easy to gain XP in Call of Duty 4. Even though your team didn't win and your K/D was negative you could still level up or unlock a new skin. This would make people think they are a "beast" or "pro" at a game that is relatively easy or made for "casuals".

Don't get me wrong there is plenty of skill involved with the game, but not enough that the skill gap between someone who has been playing for a week and someone who's been playing for two months. If you had someone who has been playing Halo 3 for a week and someone who has been playing Halo 3 for two months the skill gap is much greater due to how much more skill and thinking is involved with Halo.

This game single handedly shaped the gaming scene for right now, and I do believe that it is here to stay. Most games that are now made have RPG elements just like the perks from Call of Duty 4. The XP system that they used is now being used in every shooter that is coming out now. Look at Halo Reach, the XP system is now so similar. That personalty makes me sad because I loved how Halo did not have XP like Call of Duty. It is my favorite console shooter because of how much it reminded me of a PC shooter.

That is why I don't like the word "casual". Its all I ever hear out of someones mouth. It wont leave until gaming dies out of family house holds and games have a more serious factor to them. Although I don't believe this will happen since the gaming industry is so huge, I guess I will be hearing the word casual for most of my life.

sadface.

I shuffled through all the alpha and beta Indie games on moddb lately. One game caught my eye. Although the game was not mind blowing or a new style of game. It's a simple zombie survival shooter. There has been so many games like this made and game types with in games, but this game grabbed me for some reason. I proceeded to download the alpha and played it for a bit. Although the game play wasn't amazing or anything new, the website and the community that the Rampant Studios was trying to make for this small game seemed great. After playing it for a short while I already gave my input on the forum and was quickly greeted by the founder and given a response. It felt great to have a response that quick. Since I got this great vibe from Rampant Studios at an alarming rate, I have decided that I want to help make this game succeed. I am going to test this game for ever new version that comes out and give my feed back. I hope that other people feel the same way about this and help this up coming Indie company get on its feet!

Here's the info!
Rampantstudios.co.uk
Indiedb.com
The password to the file is on the forum!

I hope others feel the same way about Rampant Studios as I do.