Anticipating Titles…

Another day and another Post. Finally got a few more early morning hours of TF2 gameplay, and actually got to play all of the classes. Apparently I did better while being the soldier but I do have to say that I had the most fun playing as the spy and getting some sweet backstabbing kills. But something which I found out recently about one of my all time favorite games has really excited.

Empire: Total War:

Finally! Total was naval warfare! This is a relatively old story and I knew about since the latest PC Gamer came out, regardless I feel that it is a great step forward for the Total War franchise, since me and one of my friends who are both very much into history were contemplating where in history Creative Assembly would focus next. So to see that they will slightly change the gears a bit regarding gameplay will freshen things up a bit, add a brand new awesome looking graphics engine and this just became one of my most anticipated games.

Now for which has me stare in awe every time I see video footage of it.

Crysis:

If not the most anticipated shooter of the year, certainly is at the top of the wish list of every PC fps fan. I’m writing about Crysis because two new videos of it appeared on GameTrailers.com with the one that came out today describing the multiplayer aspect of the game, and the other which was posted yesterday is an interview with the lead game designer of Crytek explaining Crytek’s relationship with Nvidia and how they complemented each other in building the graphical drivers for the game. This though begs the question, if people with ATi gpus will be at disadvantage in terms of performance when the game comes out.

The Beginning.

Welcome to Gaming Loft, a blog which is focused on everything encompassing video games (and maybe some tech related news). I have been an avid video gamer since the age of 4 affiliating with the classic gaming consoles of the time such as the NES and original gameboy, moves on to SNES and Amiga Commodore. At this point on my video gaming career I focus mostly on PC Gaming ( almost on a snobbish way), but I also own a PS3, and through friends I get my 360 and Wii fixes quite regularly.

Despite all that though I will attempt to focus on all things video gaming, though my main focus will be PC Gaming make no mistake about that. So without wasting anymore time explaining my gaming credentials on with the most recent and interesting news on the gaming sphere!

Team Fortress 2 Beta:

Has it really been 11 years since the original TF came out as a mod for quake? Jesus, I remember I was still in Greece working with a 166Mhz Pentium and 32mb of ram. Getting together with my buddies having 4 vs. 4 lan party, which were immensely fun at the time.

Regardless though TF2 beta had a shaky release, with a lot of people feeling a tiny bit cheated by Valve. This is because their promise for a Monday September the 17th release, did not happen on the 17th, but for most people came on the 18th. The problem apparently with Valve was that they could not get their Linux SDKs properly done (not sure of what the technical issues were) though it seemed that the Win32 SDK(as they claimed) was fine, but still people, including myself, were stuck with a “pre-load complete” game and could not launch. around 3am EST the game finally became available, and my brief playtime with it since after an hour of play I was too exhausted to continue after a long day, I can say that it is a fantastic game worthy of any gamers’ attention.

Going back to the issue at hand though, Valve and the team working on Steam have to get their act together, since the release of Bioshock was a shaky one as well. I love online distribution, and personally I think Stem’s service is great… when it works, so I was gravely disappointed when they could not pull it off as they promised for two of the most anticipated releases for PC of the past two months. My only hope is that when the actual release of the full Orange Box comes around everything goes smoothly, I have been looking forwards to this more so than Crysis.

Sex and World of Warcraft:

I thought this topic was interesting and might stir some discussion among people. Apparently Blizzard shut down the Ravenloft RP guild Abhorrent Taboo (now known as Vile Anathema), because of their role-playing ways, which involved sexually tabooed themes. Apparently players from the servers in which they delved found this material offensive and reported it. Some of the reports involved minors, who allegedly joined the guild, who (according to the people reporting it) had inadequate age verification methods. Also the guild leader made comments such as “I want to defend us, but I also want to defend the pedosexual community.” saying that he is talking about the idea of pedophilia not the actual action of it.

I know this is a touchy subject for a large number of people but there is an inherent problem I see with this, and I feel it is rather obvious one. That being how far can examples like this one go in an online video game setting, and what are the responsibilities of the people who participate.

I for one do not support this one bit, and it is not because I was raised conservative or I am some religious freak who thinks you are insulting Jesus if you do so. My view is based on the premise that when you attempt something like this (i.e. making an MMO erotic guild) in a game which in this case is so popular and you know that wide range of different age groups play, who have to very much so be aware who you let in the guild and try to keep the subject matter as guild private as possible, for the simple fact that a lot of people find this material offensive and they should not be obligated to witness any of it. On the matter of the age groups, you really have to be careful who you let in, and using the excuse that minors who do make it in is a result of poor parenting skills is a pathetic attempt of an excuse. I mean I am all for the parents observing what video games the child buys and should let them know boundaries in how long u play video games for, but it is hard for parents especially with the responsibilities parents have these days for them to observe every aspect of a kids video gaming career, it’s just ridiculous to think so.

Plus STOP trying to make it seem like you’re being repressed in a video game, its a game that is all, enjoy it for what it is, make your social contacts, if you want to take it to that level fine but know there will be consequences, good or bad, if you are found out.