#counter strike 2 gameplay

[rebeccasthoughts]

Video Game High School Review

originally from The Battle for Glory: esports, TV, and media I like (and don’t) Video Game High School is an American web series and is probably the series I have the least amount to speak for. This isn’t because the show isn’t good or somehow an inferior product, but rather the series is short and is not the most accessible show. Despite being the easiest-to-watch show on this list, Video Game…

[devileaterjaek]

[silentwisher-feed]

Counter-Strike 2 Is COMING

Counter-Strike 2 Is COMING CS2 is generating a lot of excitement and there is good reason for it!… The excitement surrounding Counter-Strike 2 can be attributed to several factors. As a sequel to the widely popular game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), a first-person shooter that has been a staple in the gaming and esports scene for years, Counter-Strike 2 brings with it a lot of…

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Does anyone else remember LAN parties. They were wild because you'd drink an entire years' worth of coke in one night and think nothing of it. I learned that I (someone who hates dex-based gameplay) become an absolute God at Counter-Strike at about 2am and stay that way until I finally get some sleep, after which I revert to being terrible at it. Everyone would set up their computers in one room and in the next room there'd always be some console set up where one person at a time would go to play the worst game you'd ever seen, or Halo, those were the choices. One person would always be doing this and if they stopped, somebody else would go and do it, like we were taking shifts or something. Someone's little sister would be there and we'd have to wait for her to go to bed before we could start making the worst "coke = cock" puns we could think of. The pizza was ALWAYS meat lovers, which also got some cock jokes. We'd sing songs from the Avenue Q soundtrack while the Computer Guys would help the one person who didn't know how to plug in all their computer peripherals because it's the first time they've taken it out of the house. There were always at least 2 guys you recognised from Warhammer Club but they didn't want to talk about Warhammer Club. They were here to be absurdly good at StarCraft until it was time for them to switch games and get fucking destroyed by me in Counter-Strike at 2am.

[salted-bird]

Unique interactions aside I adore how Sinclair Who Shall Grip's character is reflected on the gameplay side, we are told through his Uptie story that he doesn't believe in Faust's cause as much as he *wants* to, and it shows, because he is just godawful at the job she gave him.

For starters, Nails, the thing that defines the faction; Shall Grip Sinclair can't inflict any stacks of it.

All other N-corp IDs we have so far can apply at least one Nails, and we are informed in N-corp Don's Uptie story that the nails possess a symbolic importance for them because "the reason we pierce evil with nails beeth to utilize them as tools so the One Who Grips may enact justice". It's all about the One Who Grips, and even at his worst Sinclair is unable to aid her beyond the surface level, quite literally he can't help Faust carry out her Execution because the skill requires Nails and he can't give them.

Though it doesn't end there, the more you use them the clearer it becomes that the Faust Who Grips and Sinclair Who Shall Grip IDs don't mesh together at all. Faust's nails inflict Bleed count, Sinclair needs Burn Count, Faust's passives heal SP, Sinclair needs to stay at low SP, Whistle gives Fanatic to two allies, Sinclair hogs one stack due to always being the lowest SP ally by kit-design, but then there's how he can't make proper use of the Fanatic buff because of the SP heal ruining his tails flips, so rather than helping it's like trying to put a torn band-aid over a wound when that Fanatic could be going to someone actually capable of benefiting from it.

Sure, his skills include effects that involve other N-corp units, but first, it's a selfish interaction, they can help Sinclair but the most he will give them is a pathetic 2 Bleed on the last hit from Amoral Enactment, and second, what little ways they have to help Sinclair pale in comparison to letting him fight alongside IDs from other faction, what's a 15% damage increase compared to rolling 30 on each one of Self-destructive Purge's coins, and what's 5 Burn Potency compared the obscene amounts of Burn Count Liu Hong Lu can provide for his second skill and E.G.O? The N-corp effects are pretty much just there as lip-service, which applies to Sinclair's half-baked belief in their cause too, he shines the most when going against Nails and Hammer, and that keeps being the case even for the ID that's supposed to be on their side.

I find it funny how the closest to a synergy you can find between Faust and Sinclair is Faustie's Gaze buff, which sums up their relationship perfectly. She points to something and Sinclair kills stuff, Sinclair's core personality remains unchanged just like how the only thing that Gaze does is provide a crude damage-buff that doesn't help with any of Sinclair Who Shall Grip's obtuse mechanics, but the 'Sinclair kills stuff' part is enough for Faust.

Lastly, another point that I love is Sinclair's physical types and resistances.

All his skills deal Blunt damage, which is exactly what the N-corp Inquisitors are weak to.

Other N-corp units deal Blunt damage too, but they also have Pierce skills that the Inquisitors endure, Sinclair on the other hand doesn't waste a single bit of damage when it comes to killing them ASAP, and unlike the rest of N-corp Units, Sinclair Who Shall Grip has an Ineffective resistance for Blunt, at the same time his resistance against Pierce is normal rather than fatal, meaning he can go against the Inquisitor enemies without worrying about dying in a blink because they simply can't strike his weakness.

But of course, there's one N-corp character who Sinclair can't deal with, and it isn't Kromer, you must have seen already how she gets staggered if you bring Sinclair against her.

No, the one Nails and Hammer member who can claim the title of best counter against Sinclair Who Shall Grip is funnily enough, Faust Who Shall Grip.

Emitter is weak to Lust but it doesn't matter because Faust resists the physical type of all her skills, her passive ruins Sinclair's rolls to the point he can hit 0 as a coin value, and guess what, Sinclair's base E.G.O, Branch of Knowledge, has a fatal weakness to Pride, the element of Faust's Execution skill.

There's something so twisted yet beautiful about the fact that even in gameplay terms, Sinclair can't hope to go against Faust, while she could easily get rid of him if she ever felt like it.

But of course, what I find even more beautiful is that Sinclair Who Shall Grip has one small means of rebellion left, one last tool that can he could use to hurt Faust if he ever dares go against her: Branch of Knowledge, the E.G.O that encapsulates Sinclair's sin.

Emitter also has a fatal weakness to Gluttony, and unlike Sinclair Who Shall Grip's own skills, its physical type matches Faust Who Grips fatal weakness to Slash, making it the ideal tool for killing her.

Given how turning a blind eye to everything as a way to cope is a big part of Sinclair Who Shall Grip's character, I like how the one thing he could theoretically use to break free from his dependence on Faust is a manifestation of his inner psyche literally called Branch of *Knowledge*, I would assume these are all coincidences if it were any other game but PM has put crazier details on their works before.

[lunatic-harness]

a brief and informal history of unofficial team fortress

inspired by a reply i made explaining that fortress forever was developed during the interim between team fortress classic and team fortress 2.

so after the quakeworld team fortress (qwtf) devs got hired by valve, fans took it into their own hands to expand on the original team fortress formula. this post provides a brief summary of various notable TF mods for other games over the past two decades, from the first quakeworld tf mods to modern revivals of the old team fortress formula.

Mega Team Fortress (Quakeworld)

mostly an expansion of qwtf. scout has flashbangs and a jetpack, most classes can lay traps, sniper can call down airstrikes (jesus fucking christ), engineer has a mini sentry, and so on. admittedly had a hard time finding info on this one

Custom Team Fortress (Quakeworld)

each player gets cash (a la counter-strike) to customize their class with weapons, armor, and special abilities. abilities are pretty crazy like being able to summon quake enemies, give nearby teammates quad damage, and disarm enemy players.

Weapons Factory series (various games, initial version Quake 2)

as mentioned above, since the original TF team was busy working at valve, it was up to fans to continue TF into quake 2. weapons factory for quake 2 was pretty big at the time, even showing up in a french gaming magazine.

this one deviates a lot more from qwtf because it wasn't intended to be team fortress at all; it began as a simple CTF with classes mod, but later updates bumped up the class count until there were 9 of them that vaguely followed the TF class setup. the cool thing about this one is that everyone has a grappling hook.

anyways look at these class names lol it's like dollar store team fortress.

(while the analogues of which WF class is which TF class is kinda obvious, the cyborg is actually more like a mix of soldier and demo with a tf2 sapper)

weapons factory got sequels/ports for quake 3, quake 4, unreal tournament, and even half-life 2.

Quake 3 Fortress (Quake 3) and Enemy Territory Fortress (Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory)

while weapons factory was enough for people to get their tf fix in quake 2 and 3, and team fortress classic came out in 1999, some people decided to make a proper team fortress for quake 3 anyways. behold, at the turn of the millennium: q3f. all the classes play similarly to their qwtf counterparts, though quake 3's physics does change the gameplay a bit.

the developers of quake 3 fortress formed splash damage in 2001, a studio that went on to work on the multiplayer components of various games like batman: arkham origins, halo mcc, and gears 5.

enemy territory fortress is a 2005 port of q3f to enemy territory wolfenstein, which ran on a heavily modified quake 3 engine. not much to say about it since it doesn't do anything particularly different from q3f.

Unreal Fortress (Unreal Tournament '99)

also coming in at the turn of the millennium was unreal fortress. abbreviated to "UnF" like the sound doomguy makes when he interacts with a wall. what stands out about unf is that engineer (sorry, "armourer") can attach a rocket launcher or flamethrower to his sentries, and non-armourer teammates could apply class-specific upgrades to them such as snipers improving sentry aim and spies adding enemy spy detection.

Quake 4 Fortress (Quake 4)

hey look, it's 2fort

there's not a lot of info about this once since it didn't have much of an audience - feels like a mod nobody asked for for a game nobody asked for. mostly takes after qwtf with extra stuff like scout having flashbangs. quake 4 fortress was abandoned in development and released in an early state with full source code.

Attackers Go Red (Quakeworld)

released in 2006, attackers go red is a qwtf mod built around one team always being on the offensive and one team always on the defensive. it also carries over some abilities from custom tf.

in the days of qwtf capture the flag a common way to play was for one team to always be attacking and the other defending (known as o/d) -- this was great because the typical push and pull of symmetrical ctf didnt really work in qwtf, so it ensured constant action for both teams involved. problem is, there was nothing enforcing this: if the "attacking" team decides to go on the defensive the gameplay slows to a crawl because now both teams are turtling instead of fighting each other, and additionally there's nothing stopping a "defending" player from going behind the other team's back and stealing their flag what with them being occupied with offense.

attackers go red solves this problem by enforcing the attack/defend split: red gets points for capturing flags, blue gets points for defending for a certain amount of time.

Fortress Forever

the thing that separates fortress forever from all the other games just mentioned is that fortress forever takes more from team fortress classic than qwtf.

didn't last very long because tf2 managed to stop being vaporware in the middle of its development and even released before fortress forever did, but it still found a small niche as a continuation of tfc's gameplay style in the source engine. has new features like scout being able to build jump pads, spy being able to turn enemy sentries against its team, and pyro being able to use their flamethrower as an improvised jetpack.

i really like the industrial aesthetic it has going on. ff demoman looking like a white tf2 demoman is a hilarious coincidence -- he's styled after the old team fortress classic demoman. menu theme is a banger.

section break: everything from this line onwards came out after team fortress 2

Doom Fortress (Doom)

it's team fortress 2 for doom (specifically, the zandronum source port)! all it actually brings over is the classes; not a difficult task since zandronum already provides a class system and some gamemodes. uses assets from other 90s fps games. i love how heavy is just the doom 2 chaingunner and pyro is just doom 64 doomguy. here's germanpeter's video on it and here's an abandoned attempt to update it from 2018

FortressOne (Quakeworld)

the latest revival of oldskool team fortress, as a result fortressone has a little bit of everything. you have to reload weapons like tf2/tfc; pyro has airblast and scout has double jump from tf2; most class loadouts are closer to tfc than qwtf; tfc and fortress forever maps are available. has a small but active community on discord and is still being actively worked on. check it out here

Typical Colors 2 (Roblox)

this one's just a tf2 clone in roblox. also includes some unofficial gamemodes like versus saxton hale and randomizer

TF2 Classic

based on the tf2 beta, team fortress classic brings back features that didn't see the light of day like scout's nailgun and demoman's dynamite bundle. tf2c is more well known for its custom weapon support though: the most popular servers have hundreds of custom weapons bundled in, most of which are unbalanced in a pretty fun way. check it out here

[cheatsru]

PUBG Hacks

Understanding the allure behind PUBG hacks is essential for grasping the evolving landscape of competitive gaming. While some players view these cheats as a shortcut to glory, others argue they disrupt fairness and authenticity in gameplay. However, what if we consider the psychological aspects at play? For many gamers, the desire to win intensifies their connection with the game environment; hacks can often serve as a means of enhancing that experience, pushing boundaries and challenges far beyond normal limitations.

On platforms like CheatRU, where Counter-Strike 2 hacks are also popular, one can delve into an expansive world of digital enhancement. Here, players unlock not just power-ups but also a deeper sense of control over their virtual destinies. Perhaps it’s about escaping reality or simply mastering new skills through non-traditional methods that fuels this fascination. Yet amidst these innovations lies a critical debate: does using such tools undermine personal growth and true skill development? This question invites both seasoned players and curious newcomers to reflect on their own gaming motivations—transforming every match into more than just an attempt at victory but a journey toward self-discovery in a digital arena.

[rex101111]

More stuff for the Baiken Game I Will Never Make. This time some funny Achievement names because those are always fun and some extra gameplay ideas.

Okay first, building on the idea for a Super Meter, each Demon Tool has a Special Attack (Overdrive) that costs half a meter and does something unique for each Tool. You can increase how much Meter you have by collecting stuff (Prayer Beads maybe? Increase Health by collecting Statues of various creatures, probably Asuras.)

The Claw pulls you in for a whirling attack you can follow up with a combo, the gun fires multiple shells with bigger AOE, the big sword (Yozansen) does two slashes instead of one as a good combo ender to send enemies flying etc etc.

With full Meter you can string specific Supers together one after the other. Using the same Super more then twice in a row halves the power and then again until you do at least two other different supers.

The main katana also has a Super based on her usual three hit Overdrive that takes full Meter and does a ton of damage, holding the input during boss fights when a boss' health is below about 15% or so lets you do an instant kill, based on Baiken's IK from Rev2 but rendered uniquely for each boss. You're wide open during the activation so choose your moment carefully.

Okay enough gameplay stuff time for Funny (citation needed) Achievement Names!

1. Get The Gears Turning: Wake up and finish Anji tutorial.

2. You. Over Here. Get.: Receive the Chain Claw.

3. Feelin' Lucky: Receive the Fireworks Musket.

4. Speak Softly: Receive the Spike Mace.

5. Slab Of Iron: Receive the Great Sword.

6. Give 'er A Spin: Receive the Spinning Blade.

7. Nothing Up Your Sleeve: Use three different Demon Tools to beat a single enemy.

8. SLASH!: Defeat an enemy with an Overdrive.

9. Predictable: Perform a counter/parry a total of 50 times.

10. Living For The Moment: Perform a parry 15 times in a row. (AN: Remember that one achievement in Bayonetta 1 where you had to perfect parry 3 times in a row. And it was ass because the input was like frame perfect? Feel my pain. Anyways there's an enemy type that has a flurry attack that hits 15 times exactly and if you go full Daigo and follow up with a Super you kill it on the spot.)

11. DESTROYED!: Perform an Instant Kill on a boss.

12. Seven Golden Letters: Beat a boss without taking damage.

13. A Momentary Peace: Beat the game on Normal.

14. Six Mon For Lord Enma: Beat the game on Hard.

15. Mirror Of A Broken World: Beat the game on Very Hard.

16. Strike and Sheath: Beat the game on Instant Kill difficulty.

17. Eternal Karma: Beat the game on Road To Naraka.

18. Skin Of Your Teeth: Beat a level using the Broken Katana.

Some Boss Achievements~ (a few scattered half baked Gear boss ideas plus a few interesting match and bonus stuff)

19. No Sake Needed: Slay the Eight-Headed Gear. (Gear that looks like Yamata-no-Orochi. Natch.)

20. Flash Of Lightning: Humble the young Crusader. (Young Ky boss fight where he tries to preach to Baiken about the Cause, very quick and agile, cutscene after boss is Baiken punching him in the nose.)

21. An Old Blade: Repel the Veteran Crusader. (Kliff boss a few chapters after Ky, wants to see what his protege was going on about. Heavy damage lots of health, second phase has him going Young and being much faster. Ends with Baiken knocking him away and running.)

22. Eye For An Eye: Lose yourself to the blood, the anger, the pain. For the first time, and not the last. (The chapter where bandits ambush an exhausted Baiken, break her one arm and sword, and she goes feral. Ends with her ripping the bandit leader's throat out.)

23. Never To Meet Again: Survive Justice. (Hopeless Boss against Justice. Gotta have that gut punch.)

24. Fire Of Corruption: Strike out against The Original Gear. (Final Boss Sol. Win and he goes Dragon Install and forces Baiken to retreat. Her goal of revenge still hanging heavy after failing to kill Justice herself.

Secret boss Achievements~~

25. A Promise Kept: See how serious a friend can be. (Anji bonus boss where he actually tries to beat you.)

26. Symphony After Dark: Fight a Gentleman. Ferocious and quick and strong. How Very Dandy. (Slayer bonus boss. As ridiculous and difficult as you would imagine.)

27. In Awe Of The Dawn: Face The Maiden Of The Grove. (Dizzy bonus boss. Though technically its a fight against Necro and Undine while Dizzy tries to help you calm them down.)

28. Requiem For The Midnight Carnival: Overcome the onslaught of the Witch. (I-No bonus boss. Absolutely insane bullet hell bullshit in an action game. Deliberately and explicitly unfair. Just like she always is.)

29. Time Exile: Confront an image of your past self. Accept, and overcome. (Mirror Baiken bonus boss babyyyy)

Now for a few special secret bonus things I thought of~

30. The Other Side Of The Mirror: Listen to Anji's side of the story. (Beating the game on Very Hard unlocks a short Anji Campaign! Mostly just battle areas for you to try his moveset out. Doesn't have Demon Tools but has his dodge from Strive with all the follow ups and a ton of I-Frames.)

31. Bedtime Story: Wake up from a very sweet dream. (After finishing both the main game and Anji's campaign on Very Hard, you unlock Delilah's What If. Another side campaign where you fight as the Very Broken Delilah in a boss rush where it ends with Delilah musing on how she wished Baiken had someone who helped her like she helped Delilah.)

32. The Lonely Blade: Get every other Achievement.

[microwave-kid]

Saw a post on my dash about Valve not making 3rd entries in game series with Portal as an example of the huge missed opportunity, but I honestly feel like out of every series Portal is the only one that doesn't NEED a sequel. Basically the only major plot-point that wasn't resolved was the Borealis which was meant to play into Half-Life 3, everything else - the state of Rattman, Wheatley being trapped in space, Chell just kinda being left in a corn field, GLaDOS deleting Caroline - they would all just kinda be cheapened immensely by expanding upon them explicitly (I honestly feel like the Portal universe is already experiencing severe Flanderization with all the spin-offs Valve releases to demo their new hardware).

Series like Left 4 Dead and Half-Life ended on cliffhangers, not to mention their core gameplay loops could be wholly expanded upon.

Team Fortress 2 also currently has a narrative cliffhanger and has since January 2017, not to mention that it's been so neglected and overrun with hackers and bots that I'm genuinely shocked that Valve hasn't received a class-action lawsuit considering the game is literally unplayable a significant portion of the time yet they regularly add new microtransactions to buy without ever updating the core game.

Day of Defeat is a cult game and considering its origins as a mod for Half-Life I feel like Valve is really missing an opportunity not creating a Source 2 sequel using Half-Life: Alyx as a framework.

Honestly it would even make more sense to make a Dota 3 even though Valve already updated Dota 2 to use a new engine and all.

Portal is like the only time Valve has EVER decided to make and conclude a series, and while I get that the universe lends itself to expansion that does make it sting a bit when it's the ONLY series they EVER make spin-offs for.

If you're wondering why I didn't mention Counter Strike, that's because a new CS game is actually coming out in a few months. And honestly considering the way Valve titled it they HAVE to be self aware by this point

[some-pers0n]

I can't think of anything for the assuming thing that you reblogged, but while I'm here uhhm. I'd like to hear abt tf2 if you're willing to explain.

I don't know a lot abt it but I see the stuff you reblog!! I know the game, but I've never heard any lore or anything abt the characters.

No pressure ofc, you don't have to :]

You're. asking me..to infodump? About TF2!?

Okie okey I can do it. Uh. Keep in mind it's going to be pretty long-winded and incomprehensible. I just really like this game...

Oh! And if you're a follower or mutual, read on as well! I put a lot of effort into this. If you're at all interested in understanding my madness even a little bit, this is for you.

Before we even begin, I HIGHLY recommend first checking out the Meet the Team videos and perhaps Expatriation Date. It will take you roughly half an hour to watch all videos. They are simply fantastic. They are humorous and show off the personalities of these characters in a great and short way. Plus it establishes the tone of this game (which is very silly)

With that being said, let it commence.

Okay, so, I guess we start with the basics. Team Fortress 2 is a sequel to Team Fortress (Classic), which was a mod for a game called Quake using the engine for Half-Life, Source. It was made by a couple of friends who would later on become a part of Valve, a game company known for their own games such as Portal, Half-Life (as previously mentioned), Counter-Strike; Global Offense, and of course, Team Fortress.

Team Fortress 2's development is pretty interesting and cool in of itself. I could go on for a bit, but just know that TF2 was announced back in 1998. Over this time, it went by the name of Invasion, following an art style similar to TFC and Half-Life with them now being on some alien planet thing. However that sort of style became outdated, so they then went under a major art style shift. After nine years in development, they final released it in 2007 as a package called the Orange Box. It released alongside Portal and Half-Life 2, Episode 2.

Since then, Team Fortress 2, or simply just TF2, has become a cornerstone of the internet and general team-based shooter games. Its influences can be seen all over, with the most prominent example being games like Overwatch being a spiritual successor to it.

You don't want to hear me ramble about the actual gameplay and such though, I assume. I really like watching people play the game, but I would be lying if I didn't find a smidge more enjoyment from the characters, hm? I mean, how could I not? They're one of, if not the best parts of the entire game.

But before we get to that, even more ground work. Here's the basic lore you need.

In the 1800s, a man called Zephaniah Mann owns a company. He's your generic richy-rich upperclassman guy. His business partner, Barnabus Hale, co-owns this. This will be slightly important later. He has three children, Redmond, Blutarch, and Gray Mann. Redmond and Blutarch practically come out of the womb hating each other, while Gray Mann? Well, he's. special. He's incredibly intelligent for his newborn nature, being able to speak fluent English as well as supposedly inventing a new kind of algebra.

Zephaniah Mann freaks out. He tries to kill the child, however he is, and I quote, "absconded by the Eagle". This is a random eagle that's been apparently terrorizing the small town that Zephaniah Mann lives in. It breaks through the windows and literally steals Gray Mann, saving him from an untimely death.

So that happened.

Years later, Zephaniah grows old. Blutarch and Redmond are the only real heirs of his company, but the both of them won't come to a single agreement on anything. Pissed off about it, Zephaniah writes in his will that he's giving his company to Barnabus Hale, leaving his servant, Elizabeth, with all of his "gold", and jack-shit for Redmond and Blutarch.

Well...not nothing. Redmond and Blutarch convinced Zephaniah to buy up a bunch of land in New Mexico. Gravel pits and dustbowls. When Zephaniah died, the two of them tried claiming the land for themselves. This sparked the main event: the Gravel Wars.

Blutarch and Redmond hired a bunch of mercenaries to fight for each other. This was the original team. Yes, that is Abraham Lincoln you see there. Get used to it.

The mercenaries fought and fought, yet there was no clear victor. In the end, Blutarch and Redmond were growing old. By 1890s, it was becoming obvious that the two would die before they saw the end of this fight.

Or...until a certain other party emerged. Radigan Conagher. A brilliant inventor that catches the attention of Blutarch Mann. He brings Radigan to him and asks something so simple of him.

Build him a machine to make him immortal.

Radigan agrees to the task.

However, this also gets the attention of another person. Remember that servant I mentioned? The one who inherited Zephaniah Mann's gold? Well, it turns out that it isn't gold, but actually an incredibly powerful material called Australium.

Australium is native to Australia. It is a precious mineral that is capable of incredible power. Among giving the people around it super-strength, heightened intelligence, and generally being very Australian, it can also be used to make a person immortal through extending their life.

Elizabeth knows about this, and for some reason that we still don't quite know, she wants to continue on this war. So, she approaches Radigan and asks him to build another life extender machine for Redmond. Also for her probably.

So now the old men (and also this chick) are immortal. Cool!!

The 1930s roll around and there's another group of mercenaries. We don't care about these ones that much. Just know that they are the same mercs from Team Fortress Classic and they'll be somewhat important later. Understand also that Barnabus Hale's company is now called MannCo. and is the main supplier of weapons to this war.

NOW IT'S THE 1960S YAYYY IT'S TIME FOR THEM!!! THE SILLIES!!

Something to also know is that there's somebody pulling the strings. The Administrator. For some reason, she wants to continue this war between Redmond and Blutarch. She's not Elizabeth though!! Definitely not. Totally not. Definitely not a plot twist that WOULD'VE HAPPENED IN THE FINAL COMIC HAD IT RELEASED- but it's fine.

Anyways, I digress. Elizabeth and the Administrator (also known as Helen) are pretty much the same person. Working as her assistant is Miss Pauling, who (among other things) hides bodies, gives contracts to the mercs, and generally does whatever the Admin wants her to.

Whew!! There you go. That's the general gist of the lore. Back in the 1800s there was a guy who had two kids who hated each other. They hated each other so much they went to war over a bunch of useless land. Over 100 years later now we've got the mercs.

Finally!! We can start talking about them.

Scout, aka Jerma985

The Scout, real name Jeremy, is a loud-mouth, obnoxious 20 something year old from Boston. He fights using a shotgun, baseball bat, and a pistol. He's got 7 older brothers (he's the youngest of them all) and has an affinity for baseball, Tom Jones, and a soda drink named Bonk! that is apparently radioactive. He's what I'd argue to be the most ""normal"" merc, since he's just kind of an asshole who likes killing people. He talks and acts like an obnoxious guy, but he's overall not that bad.

Oh I forgot to mention he's canonically God's gift to women.

Here's a snipbit of the scene where Scout dies and goes to Heaven where he meets God Himself and tells Scout that he was intended to have sex with as many women as possible.

Scout is also illiterate and can't read. He's actually a pretty good artist though. He's got a Tom Jones memorabilia collection that he once used to try and impress Miss Pauling. Oh right! He's also got a massive crush on Miss Pauling. The Expiration Date short is all about it, with him trying to get a date with her before he dies of cancer.

Soldier, the American Idiot

The Soldier, real name Jane Doe, is a red-blooded American patriot from somewhere in the mid-west USA. He fights using a rocket launcher, a shotgun, and a shovel. He is not a real solider. In fact, he was turned away from WWII because of his mental instability. That didn't stop him from buying a ticket and going to Germany himself, beating the crap out of all of them Nazis. He only stopped when he was told that the current year was 1949 and the war had ended four years ago.

Soldier is what I'd argue to be the character the narrative focuses on the most. You'd be pressed to find a comic that doesn't feature him a lot. He's the second half of the WAR! update, the first merc that Miss Pauling recruits when the actual main comics happen, generally pops up a lot in bits and pieces of the lore, and is one of the stars of Expiration Date.

Soldier was roommates with a 6,000 year old wizard named Meramus. Meramus is a character from TF2's annual Halloween event, Scream Fortress, and is a silly wizard who attacks them once every year. Despite this, the two of them lived together. Past tense because Meramus was kicked out. Here's a panel from a comic about this that I find funny.

Soldier also drinks lead water. The water in the base is the same water that the people from a nearby town, Teufort, which is all full of idiots from the water situation. We don't know if he's like this because of the water. It's probably not the only reason.

Pyro, the Silly!!

The Pyro has no identity, no backstory, nothing. Anything we know about them is pretty much nothing. They, along with the Spy, are the most unknown of the mercs, but even then we still know more about Spy and generally what he's like. Pyro? Nothing. We don't even know their gender.

Pyro fights with a flamethrower, shotgun, and fire axe, however they see these items as a cute and wholesome version. In Meet the Pyro, it's revealed that Pyro sees the world through a oddly sweet lens, full of lolipops and rainbows and whatever. This isn't reality, obviously, and what Pyro sees as them petting a dog is probably them gutting it.

Pyro and the Engineer have some sort of bond and connection, most likely stemming from how Pyro's in-game help out Engineers by keeping away spies and whatnot, as flamethrowers are the best ways to get rid of them.

Anywho, that's Pyro. The silly!!

Demoman, Man I Love Being Drunk

The Demoman, real name Travis Finnegan DeGroot, is a self-proclaimed "black Scottish cyclops". He fights with a stickybomb launcher, a grenade launcher, and a bottle of his beloved whiskey: scrumpy. Demoman is a full-blooded Scotsman hailing from Ullapool and has a long, long lineage of fellow bombmakers and general stuff.

Demoman is actually one of the more intelligent members of the team, being knowledgeable of chemicals and bomb making. This is however not exactly known as 90% of the time he's black-out drunk. He gets drunk so often that his liver actually changed to adapt to this sort of environment, now drawing minerals from booze as if it were water. Now Demo basically gets poisoned by drinking water.

Demo's eye is actually cursed, by the way. No, he didn't lose it during some fight or some accident. Well, I mean, it technically was an accident. He opened up a cursed book, the Bombinomicon, and now his eye is just. fucked.

In fact, the Medic tried giving him a new eye. Several times in fact! Why doesn't he have it still? Well, uh, this.

He's so silly.

Heavy, The TF2 Guy

The Heavy Weapons Guy, real name Mikhail (or Misha), is a Russian man hailing from Siberia. He fights with his miniguns, a shotgun, and his fists. He's rather fond of his guns, in particular his main one, Sasha.

Heavy is a family man and generally a lot different than how a ton of the internet characterizes him. He's intelligent, having a PhD in Russian Literature, and a lot more soft-spoken. When he was young, his father, a counter revolutionist, was taken by the KGB. Soon enough, his entire family were imprisoned in a gulag. They escaped and found refuge, but Heavy became protective over his sisters and mother.

TF2 goes hard, like if you agree. Every time I think about Heavy I just get increasingly sad.

Heavy likes sandwiches. A lot. In fact, you can swap out his shotgun in the game for a sandwich (or some other food item). Apparently in TF2 canon, Heavy just hunkers down in some corner after taking a good amount of damage and starts eating this ham sandwich to suddenly have his bullet wounds be healed.

Engineer, YEEEEHAWWW!!!

The Engineer, real name Dell Conagher, is a hardworking man who's come round from Bee Cave, Texas. He fights using a shotgun, a pistol, his trusty wrench, and a little tiny box called the PDA. That lil' box gives the Engineer a major advantage, being able to now make buildings. Dispensers that give ammo and medkits. Teleporters that make traversing the maps easier. Lets not forget the sentries now either, stationary automatic guns that fire upon any enemy that gets too close.

If the name "Conagher" seems familiar, that would be because Engie is the grandson of Radigan Conagher from all the way back. Also Fred Conagher, who was the Engineer for TFC. Here's the both of them when Engie was a kid.

Engie is commonly mischaracterized as being normal. This is because he seems smart and okay. He is not. I need you to understand that his Meet the Team video has him using a BLU Sniper's body as his campfire and he shows little to no reaction to bullets being mere inches away from his face. He just sits there and plays his guitar while his sentry guns mow down anybody nearby. Also the whole being a mercenary and his job being to kill people.

Unfortunately for Engie there's not too much Funny comic book stuff about him. His big break was mostly with the Loose Cannon comic. In other ones he's usually a supplemental character to the others. In the main comics he's the sort of caregiver to the Administrator, just sort of standing around her while she says stuff.

That doesn't make me any less terminally ill about him in this one comic though. They make me SICK!! I love them,,

And, well, speaking of these two...I suppose it was only a matter of time before we got to him.

Medic, You Already Know Who This Is

The Medic, real name maybe Ludwig Humbolt? I dunno. It's unclear. All that's really confirmed is that his last name is probably most likely Ludwig. Some people like Ludwig Humbolt. Others like Fritz Ludwig. I like calling him Ludwig Ludwig.

Anyways, this is Medic! He hails from Stuttgart/Rottenburg, Germany (it's not very clear where he's from) and he is a bit of a silly little fellow. He fights using his trusty bonesaw, a syringe gun of sorts, and a unique device of his own creation: the medi-gun. With this machine, he's able to heal people as well as deploy an übercharge, which makes both the Medic and whomever his medi-gun's healing beam is connected with invincible for eight seconds.

The Medic is a silly little fellow. One fascinating thing you can see about him is how his character has been shifted since the launch of the game. His voice lines in-game are a lot more...er, how should I say this...Nazi German stereotype-ish? Hehh, uh... So not particularly great. He's barking orders and generally seen kind of like that.

However, as time goes on and more and more updates come out, his character shifts. The Pyro goes under similar changes in presentation, going from a mysterious and scary character to more friendly and cutesy. With Medic? He forgos that previous stereotype and more or less just becomes a mad scientist archetype. He's got a silliness to him that wasn't present when the game first launched.

My favourite example of this shift in character is the change in how the Meet the Medic videos would've been. Did you know there was a scrapped Meet the Medic video? It was a lot more like the earlier ones, styled like an interview he was giving. He's doing it on a train(?) and it shows how he created the medi-gun. There's a noticeable lack of silliness, aside from when the Spy head begins talking. The Medic is a lot more stern and serious, mentioning more how he's proud of being able to make gods out of men.

Then, of course, we see the actual Meet the Medic. Medic is preforming surgery on the Heavy, and it's all fairly silly and wacky. Medic explodes Heavy's heart, his birds are just straight up inside Heavy's organs, he basically tells the Spy head (which is actually a reference to the OG Meet the Medic video) to shut up, and laughs away like what he's doing is no big deal. He's got a manic twitch to him. He's a brilliant scientist, though a mad one at that.

I have a lot to say about Medic if you can't already tell. He's my silly!! He's the guy giving me all of this brainrot over this game. I just go into detail about his characterization because it's a major pet peeve of mine when people label him as a uncaring sadist who hates his team and wants to experiment on them all. He IS an uncaring sadist, but he's sill and I will go down swinging on this hill that he, at the bare minimum, cares about his team. I rationalize his in-game voice lines by saying it's from him a) dying a lot and getting pissed off at how his teammates just let it happen and b) he's having a manic episode every day at work and has zero filter. All of them have zero filter when battling. If they all acted the way they did in the game, then characters like Scout should be GO GO GO GO!!!! 24/7 without rest, something that's certainly not the case in Expiration Date. On a similar note, let's not forget that Medic and Engie decided to spend their last few days trying to develop some kind of cure for their tumors.

Anyways, deranged EngieMedic fangirling aside (these two make me violently ill and they are the only characters I could even dare to say I "ship")(even then it's as a QPR because I'm diseased and hit Medic with my aroace-ification ray)(you cannot convince me that this man in alloro in any way shape or form he does not even know what an emotion besides mania and blistering rage is), Medic is a fascinating character who I feel not too many people really get. He's either written as a pencil-pushing busy-body vaguely Nazi stereotype or as a soft uwu twink cinnamon roll who wants to help his team and only has a small sadistic streak and only wants to be railed by Heavy. You guys don't get it. He's silly :)

Oh, yeah, right, Heavy. Heavy and Medic definitely do have a connection established. I left it out in Heavy's section, mostly because I want to give focus onto Heavy as a character and leave Medic out of it. Heavy already gets piss pour treatment by the fandom, where he's just reduced to "the other guy" in every ship. He doesn't deserve that...

But, yeah, Medic and Heavy certainly is kinda pushed. Medic and Heavy duos in the game aren't that uncommon, as Heavy is a good tank and Medic can hide behind him, leading to Heavy more or less becoming a stream of bullets to mow down anybody nearby. In Meet the Medic, Medic experiments on Heavy's heart and the big climactic end has him activating the übercharge on Heavy. In the comics themselves, Classic Heavy, the inverse of our normal Heavy, is antagonistic and extremely rude towards Medic. The complete and utter opposite of what Heavy and Medic had back in the day. Then finally he shows up when Medic is literally About To Die.

Blah blah blah, there's a lot of stuff relating back to Heavy and Medic at the VERY LEAST having some sort of ties and liking to each other. That's the reason why there's like 1100+ fics on Ao3 tagged with them.

Medic is a silly goober as previously mentioned. As shown in the Engineer section, he experiments on random civilians. I like to imagine that he doesn't particularly do random fucked up experiments on the RED team, but rather he more or less does everything on civilians. He enjoys putting somebody through pain and suffering, but he wants it to mean something. He doesn't want to just mess with people. He tests out the bounds of which a person can go to, which he does on random people he plucks off the street because there's replaceable to him. His teammates? Not so much.

Oh, and also the Classic Team. He doesn't care about these people. They suck! They aren't his friends. So he just does. this sort of stuff.

He's a bit special. Love him dearly for it.

Sniper, Aww Piss

The Sniper, real name Mick Mundy (real birth name being Mun-Dee), is an young Aussie from the outback. Yes. Young. This man is roughly 30 in 1972 (when the comics take place). Can't you tell by how stereotypically young he looks? Sniper fights using a sniper rifle (duh), an SMG (or other items), and a kukri (big knife).

He's one of the most level-headed of the mercs. Not sane, but rather a man who sticks to being professional and a set of rules. Despite this more refined sense of mercenary work, his parents don't exactly support him being a crazed gunman. Also his parents aren't his biological ones.

That's right, Sniper is adopted. Why do we care? Because he's not Australian, but rather from New Zealand. New Zealand is at the bottom of the ocean, by the way. In 1932 they sunk their entire country because Bill-Bel, Sniper's dad, convinced everyone that the world was going to become an uninhabitable wasteland if they didn't otherwise do this. Ten years later, and when little baby Mun-Dee was born, Bill-Bel and his wife began working on a rocket to escape to space because now they were convinced that earth was going to explode or something. They only built the rocket big enough for one person though, so they fought over who would survive. While fighting, Mun-Dee crawled into it, was shot up into the sky, and then crash landed immediately onto Australia.

So Sniper is Superman.

Also, remember how I said that Sniper sticks to rules and such? Yeah, apparently being a professional also means throwing jars of piss at people. Jarate, a form of jar-based karate invented by Saxton Hale, owner of MannCo.

Sniper's just like that.

Spy, Fr*ch

The Spy, real name unknown, is the second most mysterious character. He's from France (no idea where particularly) and he's just kinda. yeah. There. He fights using his butterfly knife, which he can instantly kill anybody he backstabs, a revolver, and a sapper so he can destroy the Engineer's buildings. Also, an invisibility watch, where he's able to cloak himself and become invisible, and the ability to disguise himself as the enemy team.

The Spy is a richy-rich upperclassman. He likes the finer things in life. Smoking, wine, expensive suits, all that. He's a lot more refined and generally snobbish than the other mercs. However, I don't think of him as exactly mean or rude. Definitely stuck-up, but he cares about his teammates. In Expiration Date, he takes the time to ask everyone what their final wish is. When that's a bust, he then happily spends time with Scout and teaching him how to get ladies.

Ah, yes, right. Scout and Spy. Spy is actually the Scout's father. It's a theory that has been around since the release of Meet the Spy, with the RED Spy being in pornography staring Scout's mother. It's been tossed around and hinted at, with their dynamic and Expiration Date as well as a couple references to Spy and DNA tests. Then, in The Naked and the Dead comic, it's pretty much outright confirmed. While Scout is bleeding out and on the verge of death, Spy takes a moment to finally give Scout some peace.

...while disguised as Tom Jones, of course.

I could go on and on about this scene and how I feel about Spy's characterization and his dynamic with Scout, but blah blah blah...yeah. Spy TF2.

Annnddd that's it for now! Basic summary of it all. The characters, the lore, all of it. I've reached the image limit and have been sort of dancing around it for a while now. Hope this was informative. Toodles!!

[crystalelemental]

Okay so I picked up another demo, now that I'm done with Unicorn Overlord demo. I am a wee bit late to the party on this, but decided to try Triangle Strategy. And this is. A very different experience.

I played for about an hour and a half. Approximately 10 minutes of that was the one (1) map. The entire rest of the game was scenes, and a bit of exploration. In comparison to Unicorn Overlord, which is incredibly fast-paced, this game is veeeeery slow.

The story itself isn't bad by any means. But it's also not that interesting? Like it's fine, but I'm not wowed by much. the protagonist is fairly bland, his friends are fairly bland, Frederica is cute but not particularly interesting, your dad having Old Man Disease at 40 is tragic I guess. The background cause of the war and the fact that all parties seem pretty on the level right now is the most interesting angle. But it hasn't exactly gripped me.

Which is really weird! I'm like an hour and a half in, with barely any gameplay, and despite all this story and character stuff, I have very little to say about them. I don't feel like they're any more developed than the Unicorn Overlord crew, which wasn't exactly a hugely developed group either. It's just an odd, slowly paced experience that doesn't have a whole lot to show for that.

As for the minor gameplay I did engage in, it's fine. Fire Emblem-esque grid movement, but you only attack on your turn (barring counter skills), and positioning matters. After each turn, you need to determine which way your character faces, and the direction you attack from matters, in as much as striking from the back is a sure-crit. There's elevation tactics as well, but that didn't seem to save the cav dude who got fucking annihilated when opponents got behind him and wombo comboed his ass to high hell. Was probably supposed to use healing items but it's map 1 and permadeath isn't a thing, your ass is grass dude. I admit that I think it's a little more involved than I think it needs to be, but I did at least recruit a girl whose stealth tactics are interestingly integrated by having two actions to facilitate getting behind the opponent to attack, and what I assume is the armor knight who moves less distance having the counter skill. Oh, and if you surround them, your ally that attacks from the other side will combo for bonus damage.

The...I forget what they're called. The 3 point stock things you can spend for skills. They're...odd. For characters like Frederica and butler-man, you need 2 for your special, and recover 1 every turn, so you can't do that every turn. But then you have the protagonist's delay attack, or Heal. And these are 1 point free actions. So I seem to be allowed to do this infinitely without any kind of issue. And...maybe it's just me, but nonstop infinite heal seems really fucking good, dude. it's also very...reminiscent of Octopath Traveler, in that it very, very feels like endgame is a matter of maximizing these points for a specific character to spam their big attack to deal with huge HP values on bosses.

I did take a peek at the forge system. Fun fact, I generally don't like forge systems. I dunno, man, just trade out the weapon. The system eats a lot of money, and takes consumable resources, which...okay. Depending on the availability of resources, I might hate this one. We'll see.

I still need to get more gameplay to feel like I have a sense of how the gameplay is. And hilariously, am still waiting for the story to actually ramp up. I'm guessing that will happen at exactly the moment the demo ends.

[dimalink]

Counter Strike 111

At the country house I have a computer. Notebook. Asus F3S. It is windows XP computer. And with it I play different games. While I have a breaktime. And for interest too. So, last time, I played second Quake and I decide to add some diversity in gameplay. To try different games. Another shooters. And for a long time I want to try a racing genre.

So, I have installed at my hard drive – Counter Strike version 1.1.1. With pre installed bots. It is PodBot version 2.5. And I play something like via local network with bots. It is very interesting, how developers, turn idea of game Half Life into another game - Counter Strike. Network shooter. It is very famous game for its time. Well, saying the truth, I never played very good in this game. But with bots, I have some time to run with bots.

I remember how it built here everything. Button B – buy. It is for purchase. So how it was B 4-1. Button B and number combination. Weapons are sorted by types. Sounds are also nostalgia. Bots, by the way, are rather good – for purpose just play. They can speak with each other. And run the map here and there. Bot has some dialogue between themselves. So, they write different messages.

This map is stupid.

Or. Remove bots. They are stupid.

This player someone is cool with shooting.

And they have in result a whole complete conversations. It is, of course, add more fun in gameplay. So, I can watch them.

I remember a map Tundra. It is a small map. And, as a rule, all actions are go fast. As a rule, it is fast match. Several ways. You need to follow a character to a control point. And it is going a crossfire. There are places for sniper. And for running. And there are cover places. Interesting map. All the things are in winter there. There are some houses. There is open field. It is good compact map.

Yes, I forget to say, that bots are added from a console. Tilda. And you write command addbot. And maximum for every side it is 8 bots. And total 16 players. You and 15 bots. They run rather good, shoot to each other. So, it is ok, normal to play with them! Even more - it is cool and fun!

Some map was very close to CS Mansion. But it has another title. There are maps, that are very close to levels from half Life. Or just a big by size maps. At the big maps, match can go longer. And it is not so fun. It is cool thing, if it will be possible to add more bots in those places. So, that’s why, I try to play with small maps. To have a fast match and have fun.

Now, I remember how big fun, it was to play with brother, during my legendary Pentium 2 computer days. With new map CS Mansion. Certain this map. Say it simple. It has a house at the center of the map. And two floors. And around a house there is an open field. Bushes. There is sewerage. And map is something like it is not big. But it is so interesting. With different attiudes. Let`s take a way, like sniper can shoot sharp to windows of the house, or opposite to turn off the light in a house at the second floor, and using one of the several windows to shoot at the open space around the house.  You can run into the house with machinegun. And make a crossfire. Or opposite, tricky way to climb out of a house. And shoot everyone you see.

 Weapon is good here. So, I noticed that in every game - weapon has its own way of behavior. So, lets say, I, for example, right now, already, played a lot in Killing Floor. And, after this game, weapons in Counter Strike feel different. There is a good difference, easy to see. But, it is rather good. So, here we have pistols, automatic guns, machine gun. Grenades. Yes, there are lots of everything. And weapon has a second type of shooting. As additional mode. It can be aim, zoom of screen. Something else. So, it is rather good variations. At the moment 2024.

Graphics is norm. If to setup a good resolution. It is very well-known graphics about first half Life. I with my computer has a screen with 1280 at 900. So, select something that is close to this resolution. There is no problem. And rather good it is graphics style - very remarkable. So, I think, that it is very cool, that there are so many games with Half Life engine.

So, I installed this Counter with a special idea. To remember a moment. To play with bots. In a weekend day. At the county house for relax.

Playing little games. From time to time i like to play videogames. And write about it. Dima Link is making retro videogames, apps, a little of music, write stories, and some retro more.

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[purplekoop]

So. This was supposed to be a 2023 games recap, but I remembered that one of my favorite games of all time got an incredible expanded remake at the start of the year. I then talked about it for. a while. So I pivoted it into...

Things I Love #3: Kirby's Return to Dreamland Deluxe

Yeah it's not Ninja Turtles yet, sorry. I'm only on episode 2 of that rewatch, but even without playing this game for the better part of a year, I can still definitely rattle off my thoughts on it.

As usual, this is a spoiler-free rundown on the game, since the point of this post series (I think) is to explain why I love a thing in hopes of getting other people to check it out for themselves, which I do in fact recommend this game. That said, let's get to it!

The original version of this was the game that started the "Modern Kirby" formula that was inherited by the 3DS games and Star Allies, and while at least the 3DS games have always been pretty highly regarded, RtDl was kind of given the New Super Mario Bros effect of being shrugged off because it started a trend of similar-looking games. That's a massive undervaluing of this game though, since in my opinion it's still the best iteration of the standard 2D Kirby formula yet. It's hard to articulate exactly why, but for me Return to Dreamland just has that magic to it. Maybe I'm biased since it was also my first normal Kirby game, but this game's level design is just so pleasant and satisfying. Each level has its own subtle personality, to the point where after enough playthroughs (including challenge runs) I can remember the order of levels and even the minor details of each one pretty well. The puzzles are a personal high point, making use of the game's great roster of abilities exceptionally well, while also giving plenty of room for cheese and alternate solutions. And it's a personal favorite for multiplayer, once again I think being Kirby's best multiplayer outing. The game feels built to accommodate 4 players while holding up flawlessly as a single player adventure. It doesn't feel too arbitrary like Forgotten Land or as centralizing as Star Allies, it's just the right balance. Wrap it all up in a series standard pleasant visual presentation with a banger soundtrack, and you have one of my top 3, if not top 2 games of all time, both in general and for the Wii specifically.

And those praises apply to both versions, but it gets better. Of all the "Deluxe" games in the Switch's lineup, this is one of the best in terms of new stuff and improvements. Saving the new modes for a minute, the biggest change is the art style. It's different enough to where I can see some people not being a fan, but personally I think this game is gorgeous, especially if you just recently saw the Wii version. The sharp outlines and bright colors just make this game look even better than it does in my rose-tinted view of the original. The only truly major visual difference is Dedede's new design, based on his striking Forgotten Land appearance but with his normal outfit. Personally not my favorite Dededesign (that'd be Smash 4/Ultimate), but I gotta appreciate Mr. Clump Penguin, especially with some of his expressions. It also feels better when I remember he wasn't exactly a looker in the Wii version with his big head and tiny body, so I don't mind it much at all.

The main gameplay has some functional changes too. On the subtler side, some moves from newer games have been added to certain abilities, like the skyward strike from the 3DS games in Sword's moveset. The most notable examples are the 3 non-Kirby characters having their extra moves added in one of Star Allies's later updates, such as Meta Knight having a unique counter attack and Dedede having his iconic jump-and-slam and face plant moves. There's also other things of less substantial note added for gameplay, like the ability to dodge while guarding being added ala the 2D games between the original and DX versions, but those are largely minor. I do wish some of the original's somewhat limited abilities, like Needle and Hi-Jump, got maybe a new move or two, but that's such a niche complaint even by my standards.

The most notable new additions to the main mode are two brand new abilities: Mecha and Sand. The enemies and ability pedestals that grant these abilities have been retroactively added to existing levels, never replacing anything but if you're paying attention their placement is a little tacky. The Sand enemies are always placed on a newly added star block and I have no clue why but it bothers me irrationally. The abilities are also introduced as the same time as other new abilities were in the original, which does mildly hinder the otherwise fantastic pacing this game has when it comes to introducing new abilities, but again, that's such a petty gripe that's only coming from someone who knows this game far too intimately. As for the abilities themselves, they're both a delight to use. Admittedly Sand surprised me, it was the second of the two to be revealed and it was much less flashy and thematically exciting than Mecha, but it turned out to be just as fun. It fits right in with the other elemental abilities like Water, and has a set of utility and movement options that make it fun to keep around, but it's just a bit boring in combat. Mecha is the much more obviously exciting option, with an arsenal of very silly attacks that feel more like a Dream Friend than a normal ability, though with less damage output and utility than you might expect. It's also lacking in movement attacks for something that looks so much like Jet, but its midair controls feel so nice I don't mind too much. My main gripe with it is that unlike Sand, the game introduces it in a level much less suited to its talents, and right before the water levels where you can't even use it. The new ability challenge is fun, but otherwise there's not a great time to get a feel for how useful it is compared to the existing abilities and even Sand. Again, a nitpick, as just having the big unga bunga laser and cool flying and even just looking like that is enough to make this ability's inclusion appreciated.

Festival, the single-use screen nuke ability from Star Allies is also here. For some reason. Frankly I'm just mad they only added Festival as the one existing ability retroactively added to this game, something like Beetle would've been nice, but I can see why they went with basically the least obtrusive extra addition possible.

On the note of additions though, this deluxe package comes with not one, but two major new modes.

The first is Merry Magoland, a non-canon(?) side mode, unlocked after beating the second level of the main game, where Kirby and friends go to a theme park to play minigames new and old. And this minigame lineup is super neat, as there's a minigame representing just about one for every single game in the series to have them, with the exceptions of the 3DS games and Star Allies, which... yeah fair enough, those would be a little redundant in the context of the Switch's library. This leads to an interesting selection of minigames, as basic as one featured in Adventure all the way to one from Squeak Squad that's like that one weird Smash 3DS mode. It's a super interesting lens to see the history of the series, with each minigame being a super faithful 3D HD recreation of the original minigames, down to each minigame having an appropriate results screen, and menu music rearranged to match the respective game. There's also two entirely original minigames: Tome Trackers and Booming Blasters. Tome Trackers is a simple "find the thing quickly" minigame, but is unique in using the same movement controls as the main game, just with no attacking. It's okay I guess. Booming Blasters meanwhile is my favorite of the whole set of 10, being a top-down shooter deathmatch and the most mechanically complex of the set. It gets decently intense, and you can end up landing some oddly satisfying trick shots. Now, the glaring flaw of Merry Magoland and the game as a whole is one fatal sin: there's no Scope Shot. Only the significantly less cool Ninja Dojo minigame returns from the original, while my favorite of the two Wii version minigames is the only notable piece of content left behind. There's traces of it throughout the game, and admittedly I realize why it's not the best fit as a co-op style of game in the otherwise competitive party game mode, and the selection of other minigames covers the gap it leaves behind, but it just sucks that it keeps this otherwise massive improvement over the original from being truly perfect

Merry Magoland has a bit more to it, namely in terms of progression. It's not just a minigame compilation, as it has its own sort of completion metrics. First off, there's the Stamp Rally, a weird sort of self-contained... battle pass? You play minigames, and based on your time played and performance, you get more stamps filled in your card, and every page of the stamp card you get storable items usable in the main game, or dress up masks you can wear in either mode. It's honestly just a nice bonus that happens passively while playing the minigames. The bonus items are neat but by no means a necessity (if you're a normal person anyways), but the masks are a bit more interesting, letting you "dress up" as a wide array of characters from the history of the series. There's some cool deep cuts in this lineup too, but admittedly many of them look more goofy or creepy than cute or cool. Still, it's a fun way to add some extra personality and customization to your playthrough.

Meanwhile, the real completion metric of Merry Magoland is the damn challenges. Basically an achievement list, which ranges from "play this minigame with a mask of a character from the same game :D" to "KILL ALL FOES FLAWLESSLY TWICE IN A ROW." I do appreciate the incentive to play these minigames more thoroughly than just beating every difficulty, but these challenges get mean. That example was barely a joke, you seriously have to do that for a couple minigames' final achievements. The part that makes it a slog is that it's just so random compared to all the other 100% completion requirements, and yes, this mode is required to clear entirely for 100% completion. It's just a grind with some of these minigames, especially when they're not all gonna be everyone's favorite. I personally dread Samurai Kirby and Egg Catcher, but I had to master them in order to complete the mode. But the variable CPU performance means that sometimes you can cheese a challenge, or sometimes you don't. Most modes are forced to have 4 players, human or computer, which is annoying for multiplayer with 2 or 3 players but also makes challenge clearing more annoying. You can cheese some challenges by having 2 unmanned controllers taking the player 2 and 3 slots and just making it a 1v1 between you and the machine, but that's not exactly fun and still doesn't guarantee victory. Again, cool concept to have achievements, but it's so random and so grindy of an overall process for 100% completion, which is otherwise one of my favorite parts of a Kirby game. Aside from like. Keychain/Sticker/Puzzle Piece/Gacha grinding in the other recent games, but at least those are just grindy and don't take effort.

One last complaint: no online multiplayer, for the main game or Magoland. This is a bummer as someone with online friends halfway and all the way across the country, but thankfully I do at least still live with my sibling who's as much of a Kirby fan as I am, if not arguably more in some areas. There is one online minigame: Samurai Kirby 100. This being the very basic timing-based minigame, but instead of facing off against 1-3 other players or a single CPU, your reaction time is tested against that of 99 other players. My uh... least favorite minigame. Great. Also because the Kirbys you face are based on other players, including their masks, you can get spoiled on the 100% completion reward mask. Very cool. A kind of lame addition, but it's an addition so who cares that much.

Overall Magoland is a fun side mode with some issues. The minigame selection isn't gonna be for everyone, the challenges required for 100% are tedious, there's no online play, and most glaringly: no Scope Shot. But those are mostly petty gripes from an overly dedicated series fan, and the impact the mode has on the game overall is a net positive. I'm interested to see how this mode serves as a possible pit stop in a family game night or other party game scenario, so I might have to see if I can convince some folks to play it soon.

Now onto the other new mode: Magolor Epilogue, the postgame adventure advertised on the back of the boss that also spoils a 10 year old game's plot twist. Oops.

In all seriousness, the mode is great. You play as Magolor, who's now a pathetic soggy webkinz cat incarnate, starting with an extremely limited moveset based on his playable debut as a Dream Friend in Star Allies. He starts with only a basic energy ball attack, but over time unlocks an expansive suite of moves, once again largely (but not entirely) based on Star Allies. Most moves are unlocked via story progress, but others are unlocked by using the points you earn during levels to enhance Magolor's abilities in a special menu. These upgrades are pretty significant, turning what'd otherwise be pretty piddly attacks into playstyle-defining staples. It's not a skill tree per say, you just upgrade specific attacks or other attributes of your character, but there's a similar feel to it. And while upgrades aren't mandatory... they help a lot. I've seen a playthrough of the game without them, and it looks kinda miserable. Thankfully it's not super obtuse to use the upgrade menu, and I don't think the game lets you make any super regrettable choices with your investment since it gates upgrade tiers behind story progress.

As for the levels themselves, they're generally shorter and simpler than the main story levels, as to be expected. A key distinction though: there are no major collectibles required for completion. The only pickups are the energy points used for your upgrades, gained either from grabbing them like coins or from beating enemies. You get extra points for combos (for some reason), and getting a high combo and overall point total is the requisite for this mode's main optional completion metric. You get up to a platinum medal based on your score for a level, with combo being the greatest metric to help with that goal. You need only a gold medal on each level to unlock the final bonus level, and I believe simply beating that is the requisite for save file completion. While this is a struggle at first, it's no trouble at all simply going back and blazing through early levels with an endgame set of upgrades. There are also extra side levels, ala the treasure roads from Forgotten Land or the Break Time levels from Super Mario Wonder, dedicated to testing specific moves and other skills. These iirc don't have medals, and just require clearing at all for the sake of completion, but they do have pretty decent point payout, so they're worth doing. Plus these types of levels are just fun, I'm glad they're a new standard in platformers nowadays.

There are also the bosses, which are Mean. This mode overall shares a lot in common with Star Allies's DLC mode, Heroes in Another Dimension, mostly in terms of location and being an extra extra postgame mode taking place in Another Dimension where you get to play as Magolor for a nonzero amount of time, but while the puzzles are simpler, the bosses are nasty in a manner very reminiscent of that mode. These are some of the toughest bosses the series has to offer, with even the first one giving me a rough time initially. Even as your skillset increases, the bosses ramp up proportionally, with the finale being especially devious. I'll say no more besides the final boss being one of the series highlights, somehow standing up in wow factor even now that the series has finally hit full 3D.

Speaking of bosses, the music for those is predictably great, as is that for the rest of the mode. Most tracks are remixes of main game tracks, but rearranged to be far more eerie and alien-sounding. It's a super unnerving vibe, especially in tandem with the mode's overall tone. The soundtrack becomes more triumphant as you progress, as you build up your confidence along with Magolor's power, building up to an extremely satisfying conclusion. It's really good stuff, as to be expected, and this game's especially strong use of motifs is worth special praise. On another note of presentation, the mode takes place in the interdimensional void from Heroes in Another Dimension, but with extra environmental details to make it feel less like a bunch of boring space blocks, as was the issue with the prior mode. It works here honestly, though admittedly levels within the same area blend together a bit, at least not being nearly as distinct as the main game levels.

I think the sole "complaint" worth mentioning with this mode is that it requires beating the main story to play. It's something I've heard at least one person bring up as a deterrent from buying the game, saying "just let me play the new thing right away", but like... oh no, you have to play Kirby's Return to Dreamland in order to play the new content, what a travesty. To me this complaint is moot and insane in the same way as "dang, I wish I could just eat my favorite dessert ever without having to eat my favorite meal first", but I'm obviously much easier than other people to convince to play through the base game repeatedly. Even then, the base game isn't that long if you blitz through it just to get to the shiny new mode, which to note itself isn't super long. You can beat Magolor Epilogue in one sitting if you want, maybe two if you wanna pace yourself a bit. Either way, it's not a super long endeavor, but it's a great one for sure, and adds a great postgame mode to an already great game, on par with others of its ilk like the Meta Knightmares, Dededetour, and Heroes in Another Dimension itself, arguably being the best of the lot.

...Which is more than can be said for the existing postgame mode, Extra Mode. Returning near verbatim from the Wii version, this is simply a second playthrough of the main adventure, but with halved player health, rarer food items, some bigger and smaller enemies, and harder bosses. You also can't use the optional baby mode added into the base game, which doubles your health, and lets Magolor bring you healing items and save you from pits. It's unlocked at the same time as Magolor Epilogue, which... I mean. On the one hand, I appreciate that it's not removing "content" from the original besides Scope Shot, but on the other hand even I can admit it's a bit lame having to play the game again but only marginally harder, especially alongside the much more exciting postgame campaign. I could maybe argue they should've made Extra Mode more exciting, maybe shake up the levels more, but I think I much prefer that they put their effort into the entirely new mode, then left the original modes relatively untouched. The one sucky part is, once again, beating and 100% completing Extra Mode is required for true 100% on your save file. You can't just blitz through it even though the collectibles are nearly identical to obtain. Which again, sucks, but oh well, not a dealbreaker to anyone I imagine.

On the last note of modes, the series staple boss rush mode, The Arena also unlocks upon beating the main story. However, unlike the original, The True Arena requires completing both Extra Mode (like before) and Magolor Epilogue. This means the game's final main mode requires beating both of the postgames in order to unlock, and it's a massive gauntlet of both the harder Extra Mode bosses and the new Magolor Epilogue bosses. It's a hell of a challenge I only managed to clear using a certain cheesy ability I won't mention, but appreciated giving a climactic spotlight to an ability that normally doesn't get much praise.

Now with all modes new and old mentioned in riveting detail, that covers most of what I wanted to talk about with this game, barring anything that's a direct spoiler. So verdict?

In my heart, this game is the rare instance of improving perfection. It's already one of my longtime favorite games ever, from a series I only appreciate more and more each day for how purely it sparks joy. This is a game I never get tired of, one I've adored since childhood and have only loved more the more I've picked it apart with challenge runs and other repeat playthroughs. There's not much more I could've wanted from it, and yet, it was blessed with the best port out of a library stocked with plenty ranging from great to middling. It looks gorgeous, sounds and plays great as ever, and just has even more to do and play with. Even if not every addition is perfect, the entire package has such a fullness to it, and the game I've loved all along is there almost untouched. It feels like such a complete and delightful game that my nitpicks I've mentioned feel and should be read as a bit silly. Again, this is an undoubtedly biased review, if this game doesn't cure depression and save the world for you then don't blame me, but this is my post series of gushing for what I love.

This is my game of the year for 2023, and I don't say that too lightly, even if it is cheating a little since it's largely a remake. If you have the means, play it. It's a great introduction to a very fun beginner-friendly series that's also got plenty of harder challenges stored. It's a great solo time, but the entire game allows for multiplayer aside from the main game's challenge levels (Magolor Epilogue included, forgot to mention that detail, you just all play as different colored Magolors), and it's fun throughout, so I recommend it even more strongly if you get that chance. I seriously can't recommend this game enough, and I'm not sorry about it.

Anyways, possibly expect some (hopefully) less in-depth reviews of some other games I've played this past year coming in another post within the coming days. Next TIL might be TMNT 2012 but that's gonna be about 120 episodes before we get to that point, so I may end up finding something else to talk about faster. I may also be doing the seasonal recap/personal history format in the meantime, in part because it means I get to go more in-depth where I otherwise wouldn't. I like this post series for spoiler-free overviews, so I'd enjoy the chance to talk about spoilers for once while giving the proper warning. Expect that slightly sooner then. Until then though!

[the-monkey-ruler]

Valorant (2020)

Date: June 2, 2020 Platform: PC Developer: Riot Games Publisher: Riot Games Genre: First-Person Shooter / MOBA Theme: Sci-Fi Franchises: Valorant Type: Appropriation

Summary:

From the studio behind League of Legends comes a 5v5 free-to-play first-person shooter that combines the tactical round-based style of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with the Hero Shooter system of Overwatch. Valorant (stylized as VALORANT) is a free-to-play multiplayer sci-fi first-person shooter developed and released by Riot Games for the PC on June 2, 2020. It originally received closed beta access on April 7, 2020.

Set in a near-future Earth following an enlightenment known as the "First Light" (gifting selected people, known as Radiants, superhuman abilities and technology), VALORANT combines the tactical round-based gameplay style of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with the Hero Shooter system of Overwatch.

Source: https://www.giantbomb.com/valorant/3030-77445/

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=250eQlJ8mTU

[usama-pr9]

Who is Hassamplays?

Why is Hassamplay getting famous on youtube and google trend without low subscribers?

Is Hassamplays coming back to gamer battleground?

Hassamplays is former Pakistan's most popular player of Pubg, FreeFire, Counter Strike and many other games. He played and won soo many compatitions on domestic and national level when he is just "14 year old". I also attend his matches personally. He is plays different from other players and most down to earth person. Once i met him after he won Counter Strike online match with his team against bangladeshi team, he met me and talk to me in very humble way.

Early Life:

Hassam born in Pakistan's city named Rahim Yar Khan. He and is baby brother Zain have craze of gaming from childhood from their cousins. He started is gaming experience with 90s and 20s games. Hassam always played everygame with planning and he think & played 2 step ahead from everyplayer.

Studylife

Every popular gamer have 2 options. 1st option is to focus on study and play games less and 2nd option is to play games 24x7 & forget study, result is their grade is getting low.

But i was shock when i confirmed Hassam is not only best at gaming, He is excelent in his study and grades. He got A & A+ in every exams. Hassam is a biggest example for every gamer kids that you can do game and study both in excelent way.

PrimeTime

Hassam played most popular games like Pubg, FreeFire and Couter Strike and many more. He won almost every battle online or Lan gaming. He got Pubg "Conqueror Rank" so early. He also played 1vs5 and 6 matches.

Hassamplays was very famous and polular gamer in gaming world till 2020. Every Pakiatani gamer know his name. Everyone chanted his slogan "Game On, Level Up" when they just hear Hassamplays name.

Fall Time

Quote: "They are not jealous of what you have. They are jealous of what they can't have."

Every rising and hard working person experience legpulling in his life. People try to hold you back when they can't see your success and your glowing your bright future.

In January 2021, Someone hacked to Hassam's cell phone and his Computer. Hacker download all his data and gaming accounts. Hassam contacted with Pubg and other gaming company for recover his accounts but no one listened to him and not reply his emails. Even cybercrime team also can't recover his accounts and failed to found the hacker.

It was very devestated for Hassam to lost all his precious data and gaming accounts. In newspaper they estimated Hassam's accounts price was for 50,000.00 in US dollars. After some months a anonymous hacker who was Hassam's Fan voluntarily found Hassam's Pubg accounts and sent details to Hassam. Detail showed hacker hacked hassam's account and sold it to Someone in Dubai. Hassam sent these details to Pubg's atthorities but they still refused to do anything.

Hassam tried for a whole year to recover his accounts then he lost all his hopes and leaves gaming world.

[themole]

i had little expectations of armored core 6 and was convinced to play it by the zeitgeist and was blown away,,, tears of the kingdom was one of the best zelda games ever in terms of pure gameplay and exploration,,, pikmin 2, one of my favourite games ever finally got a directly inspired sequel with pikmin 4, the talos principle 2 somehow managed to live up to and exceed the impossibly ambitious expectations set up by its comparatively overly small scale first installation, counter strike 2 finally got me into counter strike and i havent even played the new 2D mario, lies of p OR baldurs gate 3 yet,,,,,,,,, god what a fucking year of gaming