This entry was guestblogged by lorz.

Yesterday I had the occasion to play GTA 4 on a brand new PlayStation 3 console. And I was stunned by the quality of the game, no PC game can be compared to a console one, especially GTA 4. Graphics are brilliant, I haven’t noticed any bugs in about 3-4 hours of playing, the sound has an exceptional quality, especially when you play the game on a 5.1 surround system.

From the start of the game, I noticed that Niko Bellic (the main character) doesn’t have the same Superman abilites like Carl Johnson from GTASA. This guy can’t turn around in a fraction of a second and can’t switch his guns instantly, by spawning them in his hand. Also, at a noticeable speed, if you hit a pole or wall or something, you are thrown through the windscreen. Also, the police heat-system has changed, you get rid of the cops if you run away from the heat zone. The bigger the killings, the bigger the heat zone.

I found the game a little bit difficult, compared to GTASA. I had a mission to rescue Niko’s cousin from a warehouse, I almost did it after the third attempt but at the end I stepped with the car onto a sort of mine.

What is also missing from the game: the countryside. GTA 4, like GTA 3, doesn’t have any countryside, only a big city. (But GTA 4 has a very very big one, compared to GTA 3).

I couldn’t play in multiplayer, ’cause my friend didn’t had a internet connection plugged to his PS3. However, I’m now thinking how can I get some $$$ fast so I can buy a console too, because, even though the game is released on PC, it will always have performance issues.

To sum up, I personally think that GTA 4 is the best videogame, and will continue to remain on top until another GTA will be released.

It’s a game called “Company of Heroes“. It is a RTS game taking place during WW 2 and is based on using resources and capturing strategic points. It has 3 different game modes in which you can play in and they are: Single player campaign, skirmish and multiplayer. Campaign mode is fun and it basically gets you used to all the abilities, units and buildings that the American army has while going against the German army. While you can only play as the Americans in the campaign mode, there is a Company of Heroes expansion pack called “Opposing Fronts“. OF adds 2 more campaign modes where you can play as the British 2nd Army or the German Panzer Elite. Although the campaign mode is fun, it limits the use of certain units, abilities, etc. You have to use whatever the campaign is set for, For example there is a campaign in which you are the American’s Airborne squad. You are basically just using the infantry squad and you are not able to build a tank depot in that certain campaign because the only way to get to the location is through the Airborne. So that is the limit in campaign mode but the real fun begins in the other 2 modes.

Skirmish and multiplayer are basically the same thing in which you can pick the Allies(American/British*) or Axis(German Army/Panzer Elite*) and either annihilate the enemy or capture and hold strategic points. In skirmish mode, you go against the computer and you can team up with a total of 3 computer allies against a total of 4 enemy squads. In order to really get to know each army and their special abilities, it is best to play in skirmish mode because it allows you to use what you want in the doctrine that you pick. Each army has 3 different doctrines that you can choose from. The American army you can pick Infantry, Airborne(My favorite Allie doctrine) or Armor doctrine. Infantry is more based on the front lines with artillery support, Airborne is recon with air support that includes recon, fast reinforcement, strafing and bombing runs, Armor is more defensive units that include heavy tanks. The British 2nd Army* you can choose from Royal Artillery, Royal Commandos or Royal Engineers. Royal Artillery includes infantry, standard artillery and mobile artillery in which the Americans do not have. Royal Commandos is kind is similar to Airborne squad except you can drop off small tanks. Royal Engineers is defensive and builds better defensive structures and heavy tanks. The German army you can pick Defense, Blitzkrieg or Terror. Defense doctrine helps fortify own turn and with artillery support. Blitzkrieg is the opposite of Defense, you have a special infantry unit called the Stormtoopers and this doctrine also relies heavily on armored assault vehicles. Terror (my favorite axis doctrine) is a little bit of both but it includes the heavy tank Panther and the fearsome King Tiger tank. The Panzer Elite* has Scorched Earth, Luftwaffe and Tank Hunters. Scorched Earth is filled with bombs, traps and the deadly Hummel 150mm howitzer. Luftwaffe is the anti-tank air support with more defensive options. Tank Hunters is basically that, the best anti tank units. With so many options to choose from in Company of Heroes, each army and doctrine has its own unique units and special abilities.

Add Multiplayer to the mix and you can have an all out war 4 on 4 against either human or computer opponents and can be the most difficult mode of them all.

On a final note, this is the best RTS game i have ever played. It is very realistic, fun, addicting and really requires you to think strategically other then just go out and kill cause that doesn’t work in this game. I really recommend you buy this game if you are into RTS games.

Also if you do not own the original version of it, you can just buy the “Opposing Fronts version“ because it includes the original version as well.

*Requires Opposing Fronts expansion.

We had a counter-strike game to play with a team from Poland, so we decided to go to a net cafe(although we are not a clan) to play better and guide ourselves. We selected a net cafe where we reserved 5 PC’s for 3 hours(a week earlier).

When we got there the admin(about 1.8 meters tall and like 55kg’s thin guy) tells us that the PC’s are occupied and there’s nothing he can do. One of my teammates got angry and told him that if in 3 minutes the PC’s aren’t vacant for us he will smash his head.

What do you know? The Pc’d got cleared and we sat down and started playing on a public server(to warm up). Loss 17, choke 67. At first we blamed the server but after trying out several servers we were sure that it’s something local, so i did a bandtest that showed connectivity like at dial UP.

I went over to the guy and told him nicely:“turn off the download, we are trying to play”. Then he started telling me: “don’t tell me what to do, ill throw all of you out of here, now fuck off”. I replied nicely again: “piss me off and you will go home with 2 teeth short” . Eventually he turned off the download, and we enjoyed the 3 hours, although we lost in the Counter-strike game.

When we are about to leave 3 guys appear in front of us outside the door, with this thin guy next to them saying: “who’s the tough guy now?”

His only problem was that we knew 2 of the 3 guys standing outside, we shook hands, laughed about the situation, the admin got a kick in the ass from one of the guys he got there to beat us and we went home.

Stupid people exist all around the world…the only thing that differs is the quantity.

Being a gamer is a big trend among teenagers of the 21st century. The love bragging about their accomplishments  even if this means to spend all their free time in front of the computer. This will eventually lead to addiction, and curing it is as hard as curing a smoker.

There is just one tiny step from changing the gaming experience from fun to aggression. Playing for fun means that even if you get killed(in first person shooters) or if every soldier in your army dies(Real Time Strategy) you won’t start smashing your keyboard or monitor.

Every addiction starts with the enjoyment of playing a game. At first you love to play it but as the levels get harder and harder you spend more and more time in front of the PC and you restart the levels as many times as necessary to finish the level.

As i read in newspapers and internet the biggest addiction wave is the World of Warcraft addiction. Each player wants to get better items and level as soon as possible. They get up early/skip school or work and stay home and play. If someone tries to talk to them they start yelling and screaming.

Here’s a great report on World Of Warcraft addiction

An other well known addictive game is Counter-Strike. At a counter strike addict keyboards and mouses don’t last long because they are mostly smashed or thrown

Check out this guy for example:

The best remedy to cure gaming addiction is to cut the supply(make sure they are unplugged first)/mouse/keyboard cables. This will prevent access to the computer. After a few weeks the game addict will chill down and hopefully everything will get back to normal.

When you see a guy doing something like the guys in the videos above it’s best to act immediately. GAMING ADDICTION isn’t something you can joke about!

A few days ago i was about to play a clanwar and didn’t have a server to play on so asked skreach to make me an admin on his clanwar server.

I know that AMX mod lately is more widely used on public counter-strike servers, but didn’t think that it would spread to Clanwar servers also. Well skreach’s clanwar server uses AMX mod and this threw me off a bit because i have an admin config made and optimized for Admin MOD powered servers -> i couldn’t use it on his server.

AMX MOD commands differ from Admin MOD but the good thing is that both plugins recognize the RCON commands( admin_rcon, amx_rcon), because i’m not familiar with AMX commands. It was a bit hard to admin the game, but heck we still played.

After the game i got pretty pissed and opened up the good old notepad and wrote an ADMIN config for AMX modded Clanwar servers. I had a rough time with the synchronization of the restarts and say lines which are used when starting the game, i wasted 50minutes of my time, but eventually i figured it out and got it right!

I decided to share this config because i did a quick search on google and didn’t find any AMX admin configs. You have no idea how much a config can ease your job as an admin.

Remember! You need RCON(CVAR) access to use this plugin!

// ™™™™™™™™™™™™™™™™™™™™™™™™™
//«««««««««««««««¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ AMX mod powered Clan-War Server Admin CFG ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
// Made by www.thaslayer.com
// Wait Aliases
alias wait4 “wait; wait; wait; wait”
alias wait8 “wait; wait; wait; wait; wait; wait; wait; wait”
alias wait0 “wait; wait; wait; wait; wait; wait; wait; wait; wait; wait”
alias wait16 “wait8; wait8″
alias wait1s “wait0; wait0; wait0; wait0; wait0; wait0; wait0; wait0; wait0; wait0″
alias wait3s “wait1s; wait1s; wait1s”
alias wait2s “wait1s; wait1s;
alias wait4s “wait1s; wait1s; wait1s” wait1s”
alias wait5s “wait1s; wait1s; wait1s; wait1s; wait1s”
alias “wait5″ “wait; wait; wait; wait; wait”
alias “wait6″ “wait5; wait”
alias “wait10″ “wait5; wait5″
alias “wait110″ “wait10; wait10; wait10; wait10; wait10; wait10; wait10; wait10; wait10; wait10; wait10″

// Clan-war Settings
alias set “wait4; amx_rcon mp_fadetoblack 0; wait4; amx_rcon mp_maxrounds 0; wait4; amx_rcon mp_roundtime 1.75; wait4; amx_rcon mp_startmoney 800; wait4; amx_rcon mp_freezetime 10; wait4; amx_rcon mp_autoteambalance 0; wait4; amx_rcon mp_freezetime 10; wait4; amx_rcon mp_limitteams 0; wait4; amx_rcon mp_buytime 0.15; wait4; amx_rcon mp_c4timer 30; wait4; amx_rcon mp_friendlyfire 1;”

// Knife Round
alias knife “set; amx_rcon sv_restart 1; wait1s; amx_say 1st RESTART; amx_say Teams prepare for KNIFE round; wait1s; amx_rcon sv_restart 3; wait1s; amx_say 2nd RESTART; amx_say Teams organize tactics; wait4s; amx_rcon sv_restart 5; wait2s; amx_say 3rd and Last RESTART; amx_say Leave your weapons/bomb at start point;”

// Game Start
alias start “set; amx_rcon sv_restart 1; wait1s; amx_say 1st RESTART; amx_say Teams prepare to start; wait1s; amx_rcon sv_restart 3; wait1s; amx_say 2nd RESTART; amx_say Teams organize tactics; wait4s; amx_rcon sv_restart 5; wait2s; amx_say 3rd and Last RESTART; amx_say The Game is ON, GL & HF both teams; wait3s; amx_say [AMX config made by slayer of www.thaslayer.com]”

// Warm Rounds
alias warm “wait4; amx_rcon mp_fadetoblack 0; wait4; amx_rcon mp_maxrounds 0; wait4; amx_rcon mp_roundtime 1.75; wait4; amx_rcon mp_startmoney 16000; wait4; amx_rcon mp_freezetime 5; wait4; amx_rcon sv_restart 1; wait1s; amx_say Warm round. Loosen up!”

// Restart Rounds
alias rr “amx_rcon sv_restart 1; wait1s; amx_say Round restarted”

// Binds to ease your job

bind F8 set
bind F9 knife
bind F10 start
bind F11 warm
bind F12 rr
// ™™™™™™™™™™™™™™™™™™™™™™™™™
//«««««««««««««««¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ AMX mod powered Clan-War Server Admin CFG ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
// Made by www.thaslayer.com

You can copy/paste the code above to notepad and save it as userconfig.cfg or any name.cfg and place it in your counter-strike folder.

If you are using steam the counter-strike folder is located at Steam installation location\SteamApps\your steamID\counter-strike\cstrike

Remember if you save the file with an other name than userconfig.cfg then you will have to execute it from console before usage.

To use one of the settings in the config(restarts,configurations,etc) you normally should write the name of the setting in the console(ex: warmup for warmup settings). To ease your job even more i binded the settings in the config to F(F8,F9,F10,F11) buttons which aren’t used in counter-strike. This means that just by pressing one of the buttons you can restart the rounds/start the game/knife round/warmup round. Cool eh?

Currently i’m at a net cafe where a tournament is held and we are waiting to play.Good thing that i have my laptop at me eh?

If you have any questions feel free to post a comment ;).

Today i accidentally entered a server which had GunMod installed. The game consists in that each player starts off with knives and then needs 5 kills to get a better weapon.

Respawn mod is also active and that’s the beauty of it! You never know who will respawn right behind you.

If you will play on a  GunMod-ed server then just charge the other team, don’t sit around and camp. Camping is not good and it will slow you down on your way to earn higher levels(better weapons).

Its quite fun once you evolved, you can see people with guns and you just attack them with automatic weapons, you can earn 1-2 levels(10 kills) in a single 1.5 minute round!

Ofcourse, next to your weapon you have your knife with which if you kill an enemy you will steal a level from him(he will loose a level and you will gain one).

This mod is really fun, to be honest i hate the warcraft modded servers…if you get the acolyte for example then you can see trough walls and thats like having wallhack.

Remember, this is just for fun and it can help you loose stress really easy, especially if you have a good team

What is War of Zhul?

Over at Outwar the war of Zhul started. It consists in 5 waves of mobs with different elemental power: holy,shadow,kinetic,arcane.

Nar Zhul has spent the last one hundred years gathering his forces after his defeat in the Scezian Badlands. Now with full power regained he seeks to destroy what he once sought with a massive invasion of Diamond City. He has summoned legions of demons to destroy everything in sight, but each demon holds within it some type of essence of its being.
With these essences you can use the new cauldron to form massively powerful weapons and armor, not to mention mysterious flasks.

There was an other invasion back in june/july last year, but the items that you can get now are nothing compared to the ones you got then. These items are the most powerful that exist in diamond city, but getting them takes lots of patience, time, and thousands of rage(turns).

Is it easy to get 1337 items?

Currently this is how my account looks like, the neck,weapon,torso,shield,ring,belt items are temporary items with holy resistance(currently its the holy wave) which will disappear after the final mob will be killed.

Players from all the servers must work together and turn in shards and when there will be enough shards turned in the main boss will spawn which can be taken down by forming crew raids.

Currently the shard level on all servers is at medium, and the war started just yesterday! Most probably this is gonna be a short wave.

Today i wasted like 30000Rage and still didn’t get the important item that i need for the permanent neck item, the drop rate is like 0.0000005.

What about the quests?

There are 5 quests that are currently running in this wave:

Each quest will reward a permanent and Very Powerful item!

1) Holy Neck Recipe (Scarab of the Mind)

You need to hit Zhul Troops(lvl 25) Mind Cannons(lvl 40) and Mind Clippers(lvl 60) to get Holy Book + Prayer + Divine Aura + Fire and Water + Chalice + Refined Coal + Screws and Bolts.

Once you got the quest items mentioned above go to the cauldron and cook them.

If you can beat the lvl 60 mobs and have some more patience and nerves DO NOT GEM this item! You can turn it in to get a better item!

2) Quest for the Angelic Alliance neck item

This is the most powerful item from this wave! 4 gemmed it has over 1000hp!

First of all talk to Dandralor at the entrance to ruins of old stizzy. (one room down from the entrance) He will ask you to bring him Thick Steel.

To get Thick Steel, You put in Scarab of the Mind(Necklace), Bottle of Polish, Random Wires, Metal Object, Screw and Bolts, and Master Coal and BOIL this in the Cauldron and it gives you thick steel. Take thick steel to Dandralor he gives you Angelic Alliance for it.

3) Sandal Recipe

To get the sandals attack all 3 War of Zhul mobs. After getting the quest items: Holy Water + Holy Censer + Candles + Halo + Greater Heal + Divine Illumination + Bottle of Polish + Master Coal go to the cauldron and mix them.

These sandals aren’t the best on outwar but they cna make your day, because 4 gemmed they look great! Also getting Bottle of polish can become a pain in the ass, and its price on the trade-block is up to 500 points….damn expensive!

4) Sacred belt of stars

Talk to Raphael at the entrance to ruins of old stizzy. (one room down from the enterance), he will ask you to get him a Mind stone(lvl 40 mobs drop it).

Once you got it go back and talk to him: Wow you found one! Thank you. Take these potions. May they help you in your fight. You have recieved 10,000 experience! You have recieved a Bottle of Holy Slaughter! You have recieved a Super Rage Potion!

Talk to him again, this time he will ask for Blood of Traitors(dropped by lvl 60 mobs), once you got it go back and talk to him and get your belt: Thank you. I am a man of my word. Please take this sacred belt, for collecting these objects for me. Good luck in the war, may it be of some help. You have recieved 20,000 experience! You have recieved a Sacred Belt of the Stars!

5) Flask Recipe (Bottle of Holy Slaughter)

This bottle can greatly help you and your crew in the final boss raids. to get it find Totem + Blessing + Refined Coal + Holy Crap + Metal Objects.

After you found them go to cauldron and boil them to receive bottle of holy slaughter.

UPDATES!

6) Lordly Sandals

To get this powerful item you need to talk to Athrad at Ruins of old stizzy entrance.

He will ask you go get him Thick Black steel.

To get Thick Black Steel, You put in (Master Coal + Sandals of Thought + Screws and Bolts + Bottle of Polish + Metal Objects + Random Wires) and Mix this in the Cauldron and it gives you thick black steel. Take thick black steel to Athrad he gives you Lordly Sandals in exchange.

After turning in the thick black steel you will get the Lordly Sandals and 30.000 experience!

Boss Update

Main Boss Mindtail has spawned on all servers! Raid him with your crew and get a chance to get a zhul essence that can be used to forge a powerful item!

You will find more updates, and more information about the waves on http://www.outwarstop.com/woz/

Good Luck and Happy hunting!

2 of my colleagues kept talking about DOTA: “dota this, dota that, that hero pwnes, etc” so i reinstalled warcraft, setup the eurobattle.net patch and went for a game.

I haven’t played DOTA for more than a year, but heck its like learning how to swim or how to ride a bike, you can’t forget it.

For those of you who don’t know what DOTA is here’s a definition of it:

Defense of the Ancients (often referred to as DotA) is a custom map for Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, based on the “Aeon of Strife” map for the Blizzard title Starcraft. It is a team strategy game focused on hero combat. The objective is to destroy the opponents’ base using one’s own Hero along with allied heroes and allied AI-controlled fighters called “creeps”. Sharing concepts with role playing games, the player levels up their hero and uses gold to buy equipment in an effort to best the opposing team.

The thing is that i like DOTA way better than WOW, to be honest i like warcraft 2 better than WOW, lol. You need to have a strategy and do teamplay, otherwise your screwed. Planning attacks and pushes on sides are just a few parts of the game.

So last night i didn’t have anything better to do, and after watching the movie Gangs Of New York i went to play some DOTA. I don’t consider myself PRO at all, i’m in the middle category, but some of my teammates we’re catastrophic. They couldn’t even make a decent recipe.

We played(5 vs 5) in -AP(ALL PICK, means that you can pick your hero) mode. I chose -RANDOM(randomly gives you a hero) and ended up with Geomancer. This hero is great, especially his ULTI, which creates a duplicate of the hero, and any time when your close to dying you can just teleport next to it and get away.

I made some quick recipies, and trained all spells. Killing heroes like The Bounty hunter or Rhasta from the other team went like a charm. When i was about to die i just teleported.

One of the main purposes of DOTA is to think straight and buy only stuff that fits your hero(if agility is his main attribute don’t buy items to increase his strenght)

It was an easy game,after which i played one more game where i got Priestess of the moon and i got owned by the other team. But o well, you know how it is: you win some, you loose some.

Yes, yes i am a big Heroes fan, and after finishing heroes 3 and 4(about 3-4 years ago) i decided its time to move on so yesterday i installed Disciples II - rise of the elves (i know its a bit old, but trust me there are lots of old games that are way better than the new ones)

I haven’t played it much but i like it because its more realistic than heroes:

- only the characters that battle gain experience and by this way they upgrade to a higher level

- you cannot stack 398625962 characters in your party, each character represents 1 character, not more, not less(except the fiends and gryphins and the similar characters which use 2 slots in your army)

- before you act you have to think your status over, although the game is autosaved at the end of every turn you need to figure out and think it over that will that move help you or not.

- melee units can only reach opponents in front of them or close to them, they won’t be able to hit anyone

On the Elves saga i managed to get to Chapter 2 - The hunt. Everything is cool the only problem is that i have to defeat the humans and not let them get their message to the empire.

The human’s army isn’t a weak army and the whole irony of it is that there’s no way to defeat them unless if you have 3 heroes with a party made of lvl 3 characters.

Well you can get 3 fully upgraded parties but that would take you about 20 hours of playtime(really) and then you could finish chapter 2.

The “Messengers” Consists in 3 armies, and every time you engage a battle they will attack first -> you 100% loose one of your characters.

Click the images to enlarge

I managed to defeat one of the parties, but the other party killed my lvl 3 hero -> what i got left was 4 parties of lvl 1 characters which can’t even scratch the other parties and they will win.

I’m playing on Userlevel(difficulty) : Average. I don’t like playing games on the easiest difficulty level because i don’t like being a LOW-Level player.

As far as i realized the key in this game lies in they way you manage your army and buildings and decide what to conquer and who to fight and who not to fight.

The most important thing is patience, if you aren’t a patient man i don’t suggest you start playing the game. If you are remember that Patience is a virtue!

I think i’ll skip the elves saga and move on to the Human saga , 20 hours to waste on a chapter is way too much for me, lol.

Conclusion: If you liked heroes you will surely like Disciples II also.

If you are a steam user and you like action games that you will most probably love this news! The important games developed by rockstar are now available on steam!

This means: no cd’s, no installation, no headackes, and you can keep all of them together in a great place: your steam account.

Also if you buy any game till 11th of january you will get 10% off your purchase!