#gaben now has issues

[nightguide]

GANG SIGNS AND CRIBS, ESE

ARIES

SUCK MY HEART OUT NIGGAS

SHUT THE FUCK UP, IM BETTER THAN EWE WICCAS

JEALOUS THAT U AINT ME JAMAICANS

ACTUALLY SHY IN REAL LIFE ENGLISH

TAURUS

ENGINEERING EVERYTHING BUT THEMSELVES NIGGAS

SATANIC WHORES FOR YOU ONLY WICCAS

I AM ALONE JAMAICANS

RUB IT IN EVERYBODY'S FACES ENGLISH

GEMINI

I LOVE MYSELF TOO MUCH THAT I HATE IT NIGGAS

TODAY WICCAS

I HATE YOU BUT NOBODY HATES ME JAMAICANS

I FORGOT TIME AND THEY'RE STILL?!?!?!?!?? THERE ENGLISH

CANCER

FUCK YOU OUT OF MY LIFE NIGGAS

SHEEP WICCAS

I TOLD MYSELF OFF FOR EXISTING JAMAICANS

YOU'RE NOT GOOD ENOUGH ENGLISH

LEO

ROWR XD ME NIGGAS

IM LONELY TOO MUCH THAT IM ACTUALLY AQUARIUS WICCAS

STOP LOOKING AT ME JAMAICANS

STARGAZER ENGLISH

VIRGO

FUCK YOU NIGGAS

SAY IT TO MY FACE WICCAS

IM ACTUALLY MATHEMATICAL JAMAICANS

FUCK YOU HARDER ENGLISH

LIBRA

IM GAY NIGGAS

I LO VE YOU WICCAS

IM HAWT AS HEWLLLLLLLL JAMAICANS

*ACTUALLY A TOXIC ASSHOLE IN REAL LIFE* ENGLISH

SCORPIO

NOT EVEN MYSTERIOUS BUT ACTS LIKE IT TIL THEY DONT GIVE A SHIT BUT THEY DO BUT IT DEPENDS ON HOW DEEP THEY ARE LIKE STONERS ARE SCORPIOS TO THE CORE NIGGAS

LINNA RIAZ WICCAS

LINNA'S DAD JAMAICANS

DEADASS HARPER ST. JAMES BEST FRIEND TO THE EARTH BISMA ENGLISH

SAGITTARIUS

HEARTBROKEN BUT HEARTUNBROKEN NIGGAS

SLEEPING WITH THE FISHES WICCANS

ASSHOLES IN REAL MULTIVERSE JAMAICANS

DUMBASS ENGLISH

CAPRICORN

FORGET YOU EVER EXISTED NIGGAS

TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE IN EVERY SINGLE WAY WICCAS

DUMB AS HELL IN REAL LIFE TO SAVE FACE JAMAICANS

LANCELOT ENGLISH

AQUARIUS

SHY AS HELL NIGGAS

HEARTBROKEN ANGRY OLD MEN ENERGY WICCAS

ONE PUNCH MAN IN REAL LIFE JAMAICANS

*IS ACTUALLY GOD* ENGLISH

PISCES

STUCK UP NIGGAS

SHUT THE FUCK UP (AT A WEDDING) WICCAS

SELENA GOMEZ FANDOM JAMAICANS

*ACTUALLY PREGNANT IN REAL LIFE* ENGLISH

1H

FUCK YOU TO THE WORLD NIGGAS

DUMBASS FUCK, U GOT NOTHING ELSE FOR ME TO LOSE *GAMBLES THEIR UNIVERSITY FEES FOR FREE RAVES* WICCAS

HATES YOU ETERNALLY JAMAICANS

MAIN CHARACTER IRL ENGLISH

2H

SHUT THE UP NIGGAS

THIS IS WHY WICCAS

MARVEL FANDOM EATING THANOS ASS FOR FREE JAMAICANS

FATASS ENGLISH

3H

AHA! NIGGAS

DICKHEAD WICCAS

FUCKED UP IN REAL LIFE JAMAICANS

GOT NO ASS BUT SOLD IT ALL TO THE SOUL OF ALLAH FOR A 'FUN DAY' ENGLISH

4H

BENCHOD NIGGAS

SISTER FUCKER WICCAS

SMITH FAMILY INCEST JAMAICANS

ACTUALLY GAY ENGLISH

5H

NOT ACTUALLY FUN NIGGAS

PARTY TIME IS SLEEP WICCAS

FORGOT TO READ AT THE RIGHT TIME JAMAICANS

AUSTRALIANS IN REAL LIFE ENGLISH

6H

BLUEY FANDOM NIGGAS

BINGO WICCAS

SATAN JAMAICANS

WHORES ENGLISH

7H

ASTROLOGY PHYSIOLOGY NIGGAS

HUBBA BUBBA BUBBLEGUM WICCAS

FLO RIDA JAMAICANS

SIA GAYLORDS ENGLISH

8H

BRITNEY PISS NIGGAS

CONTROVERSY PALESTINIAN JOURNALIST WICCAS

LESBIAN UNIVERSITY TEACHER JAMAICANS

ACTUALLY RETARDED BUT KNOWS EVERYTHING ENGLISH

9H

MARIYA NIGGAS

IRON MAN WANNABES WICCAS

LILITH INFESTED LOSERS JAMAICANS

COLONISER WHITE BOY ENGLISH

10H

EMO NIGGAS

FALLOUT GABEN BETHESDA NICO AVOCADO WICCAS

KHAJIT WARES JAMAICANS

STARWARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS ENGLISH

11H

KICKED NEO OUT OF THE MATRIX FOR RENT NIGGAS

RACIST BABIES WICCAS

ZENDAYA JAMAICANS

CHICKEN RUN STOLE THEIR QUR'AN ENGLISH

12H

REANU KEEVES DARKLORD BASTARD7219 NIGGAS

DOWN - FIFTH HARMONY WICCAS

CHEESUS PRIME JAMAICANS

HALF LYF ALYX PORTAL FANTASY FATASS COSMETIC SURGERY ENGLISH

NIGGAS = ARE

WICCAS = ENERGY

JAMAICANS = VIBE

ENGLISH = WHAT YOU'RE DOING THAT MADE YOU FAMOUS

[ranger-report]

Thoughts On: Heretic

Earlier this year, just before the beginning of quarantine, I played a little game called AMID EVIL, something I would not have done were it not for the enchanting video skills of YouTuber Civvie 11. In his video, Civvie demonstrated the awesomeness of the retro shooter, both in graphics and gameplay, and since I was jonesing for something a little more dark fantasy than I was used to, I decided to give it a try. The game is a thrilling rush, and worthy of its own post here, but that game was a segue into me finally picking up and playing a game series that I had been intrigued by for nearly twenty some odd years: the Heretic and Hexen games.

AMID EVIL owes a lot to these games; in fact, it's not much of a leap to say that it owes everything to these games. It's even less of a leap to say that most first person shooters, whether dark fantasy or no, owe a lot to these games. Raven Software introduced a monster of a franchise when they dropped Heretic in December of 1994, working in collaboration with id Software as Raven was creating their games using the DOOM engine (or, as I think we're calling it now, “id tech 1”). John Romero helped in-house, giving advice on how to work with the engine, which was instrumental for Raven to push id tech 1 to its limits. They made changes to the engine which eventually became staples in other FPS games: an inventory system, translucent objects, pushable objects, the ability to look up and down, and the ability to fly. While the game itself was objectively a reskinned version of DOOM, it was stylish and engaging and reworked the most popular game engine at the time. In short, it won accolades in no small amount, and sealed itself in history as a high watermark for boomer shooters, hell, for PC gaming in general. So when we're looking backwards into the foggy past of our ancestors, is Heretic a game that we, in the Year of Our Lord Gaben 2020, should consider playing, either for the first time or as a throwback? Roll up your sleeves, party people, we've got a deep one to dive into today. Because we can't simply look at Heretic alone; oh, no. We're going to have to look at the whole franchise.

Heretic is not a complicated game per se, but it has a lot of tricks up its sleeve. We have the standard issue Run-Gun-Have-Some-Fun gameplay that Wolfenstein and DOOM brought to the table. There's three keys of different colors – yellow, green, and blue – there's a variety of weapons that almost line up point-for-point with DOOM's stack of damage inducers, and there's a horde of enemies that are around every corner waiting for you to come out magic blazing. But where DOOM has a mostly straightforward path from point A to point B, Heretic is a trickster which can and will give cause to tear one's hair out. Secret doors, invisible walls, fake walls, and hidden switches are everywhere, which means that nine times out of ten you'll either be consulting your map to figure out where the fake walls are, or you'll be pressing the space bar on every surface to see if it will open or activate something useful. Raven did a bit of a whammy on the game, setting up the simplistic stuff to lure you in, as though promising a hot night out with the kind of experience you think that you're used to, but then they strap you in for the kinky stuff that you always imagined you'd be into, but now that we're here you're not so sure. Make no mistake, I did consult a walkthrough at least once, maybe twice if I'm remembering right, during my playthrough. And the game is punishing the deeper you get: enemies lie in wait immediately behind doors, around corners, hidden out of sight or just above you since some of them can fly, and as your limited ammunition dwindles down into the red, you'll be forced into running risk-and-reward of melee weapons and inventory items to keep moving. Fortunately, each weapon has its own ammo stock, and some enemies are more susceptible to different weapon types. Adding to the bonus in the player's favor are inventory items that boost weapon damage, specifically the Tome of Power which magnifies the current weapon's attack power into a secondary fire that more often than not is absolutely brutal. But, unlike future entries in this series, the motto of the day is: Keep Moving, Keep Shooting, Don't Stop Moving, Don't Stop Shooting. It's Fun, Fast, and Furious in an entertaining way that only occasionally leaves you pondering why you even booted up the game this morning.

However you may feel about the gameplay itself, it can't be denied that the visual aesthetics and gamefeel are dripping with atmosphere. Everything from top to bottom feels like the best of cheesy 80's style fantasy art, from the front cover to final screen. Gloomy castles, underwater domes, craggy hellscapes. Weapons impress with over-the-top magical properties. The default staff acts like the DOOM pistol, lobbing nearly harmless yellow energy, while the Etheral Crossbow shoots multiple energy arrows at once, like a magic shotgun, easily the most versatile weapon in the game. Besides that one, my other favorite weapons are the Hellstaff (which blasts rapid-fire red energy, and causes acid rain to fall when Tomed up) and the Phoenix Rod (basically a magic rocket launcher that belches fire when overpowered). Depending on what you're facing, proper usage of these weapons (all finely drawn sprites, natch) can either chew through a mob with ease or leave you scrambling to get back. Stun lock Disciples with the Dragon Claw while obliterating Golems with the Crossbow; save the Phoenix Rod for big bads. And enemy creatures run the gamut from the simplistically annoying Gargoyles (red bat-winged creatures who also shoot fireballs) to the sturdy Golems (which come in a secondary variety which throw flaming skulls at you) to the Disciples of D'Sparil (faceless hooded monks who fly, chant, and shoot fireballs at you, on theme). Usually these damage sponges come at you in packs, rarely doing so in solo numbers because otherwise the game wouldn't be a DOOM clone. What really gets challenging is when boss creatures start popping up like regular enemies – in packs. Take the Iron Lich for example, a massive floating skull wearing a spiked helmet that throws walls of fire and tornadoes that do continual damage, they appear as a boss at the end of the final level of the first episode, then appear later on in groups. They take incredible amounts of damage and return fire constantly, which leads to a tense game of bobbing and weaving and staying as far away from them as possible. But the absolute worst is the Maulotaur. Basically, a minotaur that stands head and shoulders taller than the Iron Lich, carries a huge mace, and shoots waves of fire at you which can one-shot you if you're not paying attention. Staying away from them is key, but they can charge forward fast in order to close distance and take a few swings at you with the mace. These assholes also start as a final bosses, then appear as regular enemies surrounded by waves of other mobs. Maulotaurs are the dealbreakers of the game; they require ridiculous amounts of ammo to kill, and will force you through most of your inventory items if you're not already powered up. Thankfully, your inventory can hold quite a few helpful items, such as quartz flasks for health, the aforementioned Tomes of Power to boost weapon damage, invisibility spheres and wings of flight, and even motherfucking time bombs. But amongst all these, the most ridiculous and yet satisfying item is the Morph Ovum. Shaped like an egg, when used it gets thrown outward and whatever it hits is transformed into an easily killable chicken. Got a wave of monsters crowding too close and you need to thin the herd fast? Turn them into chickens, then turn them into fried chickens.

What gets me is that this game doesn't feel nearly as highly regarded as its indirect sequel, Hexen, and that's probably because for the most part this is a full-on DOOM clone. There were a lot of them back in the day, too many to count, and I think that if wasn't for the legacy of Raven and Hexen, this might have fallen through the cracks of history. Is it uninspired? No, not in the slightest. The quality of the spritework and animations are top notch, the production values are stellar, putting it just above the quality of the average obvious Doom clone. The amount of innovation, with the aforementioned inventory system and modifications to the engine, mesh well with the ambitious world/story crafted in the background of a single warrior trudging across worlds to defeat an evil tyrant who has taken over his people's lands. The current version on Steam is actually the second version released; initially, the game launched in 1994 with three episodes, the first one being the shareware version, and then later on in 1996 had a second physical release which added on two new episodes. It was like an expansion pack folded into the main game, and considering that Hexen was released in 1995, it makes sense that the two new episodes of Heretic feel so much more brutal in difficulty by comparison. And thematically it makes sense for them to have a higher base difficulty, since it’s about escaping the dark world you had to break into, and now you're crawling your way back out of it. Kind of a neat trick, having the hero beat the bad guy halfway through the story, then showing his journey to get back home. Hell, even the name of the main character is awesome. A later game in the series will reveal that his name is Corvus, but originally the character was simply referred to as The Heretic, and in a gaming landscape featuring such characters as Doomguy, the Quake Ranger, and the Doomslayer, the Heretic ought to stand right up there with the rest of them.

So is the game worth playing today? Absolutely. Any fan of boomer shooters or retro gaming in general should absolutely play this game. Utilizing DOSBOX (which the Steam release uses) is fine, but doesn't allow for the best playing experience currently. A quick download of GZDOOM to launch the game will give better controls, easier mouse compatibility, and smoother graphics. There's a method to tie GZDOOM into your Steam page so you can even track how long you've been playing it (for those who this is important for). And it's super cheap, meaning there's little to no excuse to not play it. So why then is this game sitting in the background, kind of like the little engine that could? You know, I'm doing my best to get into the meat and potatoes of this game, to be more descriptive of it and really entice you, the reader, into wanting to play this game. The powerups are fun, there are segments where you absolutely get to go apeshit on monsters and laugh hysterically while you do so, there are moments where the “AHA” is so enlighting that the relief is palpable. Some of the bosses are so memorable that to find them around the corner later in the game as minibosses – in multiple! – is downright frightening and adds to the risk/reward, since they're usually guarding something good that you want to pick up. Long story short, if you like DOOM, you'll like Heretic, which feels like selling the experience short. But the real reason I think Heretic is overlooked is because it is overshadowed by the more complex, more engaging, and more brutal Hexen.

If it hasn't become obvious yet, this is going to be a multi-part Thoughts On post. You've read Heretic, which is a fine game that does what it does and is memorable and fun and fine. But next, we're going to dive into the second course of this delicious fantasy meal, Hexen, and talk about how the second game in this series is the one that got everyone to sit up and take notice of what Raven Software was doing.

[thetoxicgamer]

Dota 2 Breaks 900,000 Players For The First Time Since 2019

Fans of Dota 2 have had an incredible 24 hours. All because they wanted to get their hands on a free Arcana, hundreds of thousands of players suddenly went online again and crashed Valve's servers. As a result of announcing The International 2022 Swag Bag, which included a number of free goodies that anyone can claim just by playing a few matches, Dota’s player base skyrocketed overnight. In less than a day, Dota 2 became the most-played game on Steam, breaking 900,000 concurrent players for the first time in more than three years. Even while struggling with server issues due to the influx of players and implementation of the TI11 Swag Bag, players have flooded back to the game. At around 11am CT on Oct. 27, 920,538 players were online trying to do something in the Dota 2 client—even though most of them were likely just trying and failing to claim their Swag Bag. This is the highest peak player count for Dota 2 since May 2019 when the game just missed the 1 million player mark at 997,341, according to Steam Charts. Most of the hype to hit this three-year high was probably generated by this giveaway, but with TI11 ending soon and the battle pass about to enter its second season, there are a few other reasons for lapsed players to come back. Regardless, this isn’t that big of an outlier after looking past the largest peaks. The game has been trending upward in terms of peak player counts since July and tends to hover in the mid-700,000 range on average. As for the player response, the community is actually mostly positive about this influx even while dealing with the issues, going as far as to praise Valve for the TI11 Swag Bag idea. One player specifically noted how much this meant to Dota players in Iran, who were forced to take a break from the game when it was banned by the government last month. “After a long ‘forced’ break, you return to your favorite thing in this shit world and Lord Gaben has $40+ worth of free cosmetics. almost 3 weeks of my salary,” one Reddit user said. “I know it doesnt change my life but it sure did change my day!” A wider portion of the player base is also happy with this addition, with a few users detailing a lot of the positive changes and things Valve has done for Dota over the last year. And in a time where a lot of talk surrounding the game, battle pass, and the competitive scene was pretty negative, this is a nice change of pace. Now if only everyone could get the Swag Bags without running into connection issues. Read the full article

[altnahas]

Xbox 360 controller driver windows 10 download wireless

XBOX 360 CONTROLLER DRIVER WINDOWS 10 DOWNLOAD WIRELESS HOW TO

XBOX 360 CONTROLLER DRIVER WINDOWS 10 DOWNLOAD WIRELESS INSTALL

XBOX 360 CONTROLLER DRIVER WINDOWS 10 DOWNLOAD WIRELESS DRIVERS

XBOX 360 CONTROLLER DRIVER WINDOWS 10 DOWNLOAD WIRELESS UPDATE

XBOX 360 CONTROLLER DRIVER WINDOWS 10 DOWNLOAD WIRELESS UPDATE

,Ĭhoose Yes to update the driver with the selected one,Ĭongratulations, your driver is installed, now you just need to pair your controller.

XBOX 360 CONTROLLER DRIVER WINDOWS 10 DOWNLOAD WIRELESS INSTALL

Select install from disk (don't worry about finding the disk),Ĭhoose Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver for Windows Version: 2. In search box type "devmgmt.msc" (without the quotes),įind the item with a yellow triangle with an ! in it, To install the driver manually, follow these steps:

XBOX 360 CONTROLLER DRIVER WINDOWS 10 DOWNLOAD WIRELESS DRIVERS

I would easily recommend this to any gamer who wants to have a wireless controller setup for their PC, but I do recommend you be comfortable installing device drivers manually, as you may have to do that if you are on Windows 7.

XBOX 360 CONTROLLER DRIVER WINDOWS 10 DOWNLOAD WIRELESS HOW TO

The driver install on Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit is a pain in the you know where, but I will help you out and explain how to do it to get it to work Here's the link to the workaround (it's even on Microsoft's official site):Ĭord is slightly too long for my tastes (but is minor issue) I would definitely recommend this product for anyone looking to get some continued use out of their XBOX 360 controllers, or to those who want the freedom of a wireless controller to accompany their glorious shrine to GabeN. Also wonderful for my non-PC gamer roommates to play with (I'm a tried and true KB/M man myself). It's great to play some Steam games using my XBOX 360 controllers, especially when you have friends over for games like Castle Crashers and Serious Sam. I've heard these units are fragile, but mine has seen normal movement/jostling and hasn't had any issues so far. I've run this from one room to the next via USB extension cables. The range is solid, I'd guess it gets about 30ft which is plenty for any room. Regardless, you can run it on either type of USB port. I've found that plugging this unit into a USB 3.0 port has better stability than a 2.0 port (I read that these adapters need a lot of power, and I'm guessing that the 3.0 port was able to provide what was lacking from the 2.0 port). There was a bit of a workaround needed to get this adapter set up properly as the included CD was not able to provide the correct driver, but after that it has been working flawlessly. Click Next, and then say "Yes" to the warning (it's a knock off driver, so it can't guarantee compatibility). Select the Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver for Windows.ġ3. Scroll to the bottom of the list and select "Xbox 360 Peripherals"ġ2. Click "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer" because Windows 8 already has drivers!ġ1. Searching will not find driver, so select "Browse my computer for driver"ġ0. Click the "Change Settings" (note must be logged in as administrator to do this)ĩ. Double click on the Unknown Device to show the Unknown Device Properties.ħ. (to be sure this is your wireless receiver, unplug the USB and see if it goes away, and then reconnect)Ĥ. Scroll to the bottom where you should see "Unspecified" and 1 "Unknown Device". On the Start screen, click Control Panel.ģ. But thanfully, due to reading several 1 star reviews I came across a review that instructed me how to set this up for my Windows 8/ 8.1 laptop.ġ. but with no instructions, making it impossible to figure out.

[linuxgamenews]

Aperture Desk Job and some further insight into Valves handheld

Aperture Desk Job and the Steam Deck are making waves on Linux and Windows PC. Which is an interesting title from the creative talents of Valve. And it's all available for Free on Steam. Aperture Desk Job reimagines the been there done that genre of walking simulators. Then puts them in the lightning spanked, endorphin-gorged world of sitting still behind things. This is the premise behind the free game release. While you play as an entry level nobody on their first day at work. With your heart all full of hope and your legs full of dreams, ready to climb that corporate ladder. But life’s got other plans, and they all involve chairs. Aperture Desk Job is a free playable short for Valve’s new Steam Deck. Taking you through the handheld’s controls and features, while not being nearly as boring as that sounds. As from Aperture Desk Job, there is a lot of hype over the Steam Deck right now. With a lot of hope for the future, where is it going to go? According to an interview with Gabe Newell and IGN, there is a future afoot.

Gabe Newell on Steam Deck's Launch and Future

The first main and most obvious point, this is a permanent extension of the PC gaming market. This is impressive, so as you play Aperture Desk Job, it's good to consider that you are playing the first mainstream Linux based gaming handheld. According to GabeN, the demand has been much higher than Valve is expecting. Despite the current hardware supply issues. The good news, Steam Deck will not see a price increase. Seeing people are buying the most expensive option over the cheaper units. Which is to be expected, you get more with the top tier Deck. On top of that, Valve is going to continue to make it better. So it will be interesting to see more Valve games aside from Aperture Desk Job. While riding the latest hardware changes to increase the Steam Deck performance. All due to fulfilling what a PC developers want at the higher end. Then working to solve the next set of problems that arrive. Meaning, it may continue to evolve into a Valve console. But until then, be sure to check out the recently released CAD files online. Also note, there will not be any Steam Deck specific games, despite Aperture Desk Job. This is also a further win for Linux, as developers seek to find means of porting games for both platforms. Despite the positive and negative features of Proton. So, if you own a Steam Deck, invest some time into Aperture Desk Job. The game is available Free for both Linux and Windows PC via Steam. Only playable with a controller, even on desktop.

[lootbear]

Will CS:GO ever die? Will CSGO skins ever lose their value?

Many years ago, when LootBear was just a cub being taught to fish by his mother; The first installment of the soon-to-be world renowned game series ‘Counter-Strike’ was released (way back in 1999!).

From it’s early days as a simple mod to the already popular game Half-Life, Counter-Strike was a hit. People loved it and it was soon developed into its very own stand-alone game.

But we aren’t here for a history lesson. We are here to understand how and why the game has remained so popular after 21 long years. Of course, the game that we play now looks and plays a bit differently to its 21 year old predecessor but the essence of the game is very much the same - Terrorists try to plant the bomb and Counter-Terrorists try to defuse the bomb.

The gaming industry is a very fast paced environment, new games are being released almost every day and many great games simply burn up and fade into nothingness very quickly. So what has kept this 21 year old dinosaur of a concept alive for so long? How many more years are we going to rush B? How many more cases are we going to open?

We believe that the game has lasted so long, and will continue to last because of 3 very simple but very powerful things:

It’s simple, yet infinitely deep - It’s a very simple game to understand at a basic level, much like Football. It’s not hard to grasp the basic concept, no difficult techniques need to be learned in order to play a ‘Proper’ game of CS:GO. But the skill ceiling is incredibly high. It’s in the seemingly small things that the depth of this game really becomes apparent. Learning insane smokes to cover your team, learning the angles to hold that give you the largest chance to win, perfecting your aim to pop heads like ScreaM and the execution of complex team strategies to win the game. It is this depth coupled with its core simplicity that makes CS:GO so fun to play and why a seemingly stale game (same maps, same guns over and over for years) has withstood the test of time and will continue to do so.

The professional scene - In the previous point, I compared the game’s simplicity to football and it follows suit here too. Counter Strike is quite simply just a fantastic, exciting game to watch at a pro level. The opportunity for any player to go huge and make a game winning play is thrilling. Many other games don’t allow for this. The entertainment value from the game and the number of eyes each major tournament attracts means that the game will also continue to attract money from sponsors. As long as the professional scene remains popular and exciting, more and more money will be pumped into the industry which in turn helps to keep it alive.

 The skins industry - No game before it had ever seen the level of success CS:GO did with its in-game microtransactions. Valve’s addition of a simple case unboxing system has spawned a monster of an industry estimated to be worth over $1billion USD a few years ago. It’s value now is much higher. With skins comes collectors and the dopamine rush from unboxing something awesome (or the debt from unboxing continuous trash, Gaben why have you forsaken me?). These collectors coupled with the average kid that just wants to flex to his friends with a cool knife sparked the beginning of a snowball that would lead us to a moment where it is possible to build an entire business around these virtual items. People are truly passionate about skins and it is this passion that paved the way for platforms like us to be created. As long as this passion for skins exists, the game will not only survive, but it will thrive.

So what’s next?

In 2 months, CS:GO will have been released for 8 years. Not many games go on to have a life span of 8 years. Look at Call Of Duty for example - They have to repackage, rebrand and re-release the same game every year in order to stay relevant (stop making kids buy the same game for $50 every year, Activision!). But how does the future look for our beloved game?

This is a graph showing the evolution of the player base over the years since CS:GO’s birth in 2012. Over the past few years I have heard people around me say ‘CSGO is dead!’ or ‘It’s dying’ and until I saw this graph - I could have believed it!

It’s easy to mistake a personal loss of interest in a game as an actual issue. But for every player who has burned out from playing dust_2 six thousand times, a few other new players are experiencing getting wall-banged for the first time. 

The game is STILL growing, not only that but it’s growing FAST. Competitors come and go (cough, Valorant, cough) but CS:GO always remained. Propped up on its pedestal balancing on the 3 core pillars of simplicity, watchability and skins; CS:GO will continue to be a legendary game for years to come.

[judgesabo]

In Infinite Finality

So this is going to be my first non-Homestuck post here. I usually try to keep to that theme so people know what they’re getting and not get bogged down by politics or whatever else. But this is rather important to me personally, and we likely won’t get a better time to address it, so I’ll make the effort. This isn’t a theory post or anything though, it’s just a goodbye to a company I once knew.

For those not in the loop, or reading this after the fact, today Marc Laidlaw released his genderbent “fanfiction” of what he had planned Half Life 2: Episode 3, which can be read here. Marc Laidlaw was a lead writer for the entire Half Life series at Valve until he left the company last year in 2016, so this can essentially be taken as a leaked story for what they had planned back in 2007 when the last game came out.

Communication with Valve over the course of this period has been infamous. Episode 3 was originally planned to be released back in 2007 back when this entire process began, yet a decade later we have heard only two major bits of information on it, the first being a leak by an anonymous source of some out dated concept art back in 2012, and the second being this. From today. Valve doesn’t even seem to even recognize the existence of Half Life fans anymore, not even to simply confirm that it isn’t happening.

It’s painful to see what remains to this day as one of my favorite franchises lost and forgotten.

To really get this across though, I’d like to remember better days.

I distinctly recall as a kid watching my dad play the original Half Life. I think it was the first shooter I ever saw, and it astounded me. I didn’t really “get” the entire concept back then, nor did I remember the title, but the idea that there was a game where I could walk around as this person and save the world from an alien invasion stuck with me.

But by the time I was old enough to really play video games, new things had come out and I paid attention to those instead.

Then when Half Life 2 came out, I found my way into a physical copy of it. I didn’t know what this “Steam” thing was that it wanted me to download to play it, so I put it off. I still have it; it’s in my hands right now.

In the summer of 2008, this changed. While I was at camp, a friend told me about this cool game called Portal. He described it to me as being filled with action, puzzles, clever writing, unique gameplay, set in an interesting world... it hit all my checkmarks. While I couldn’t play it directly at the time, I could find the Flash version, and just like he said, it was mind bending. It reshaped how I had to think about space, to be “thinking with portals,” and the thought that there was something out there that was this but in 3D was astounding.

I eventually got Portal only to find it was everything he described to me and more. Not only was is superbly written, but the more I dug into it, the more I would uncover. Little secrets were hidden throughout the world, and if you were clever you could find this giant backstory to the series, about the mysterious Ratman or Cave Johnson, or find the history of this company as it tried desperately to get funding in competition against Black Mesa.

So naturally, hearing about this Black Mesa place, I needed to play Half Life, and my expectations were blown away yet again. Fast, fun gameplay, a story of epic proportions, and more mysterious forces seemingly beyond human comprehension. It made you feel like a hero.

Among this I found act fan communities creating whole new projects like Freeman’s Mind, which remains one of my favorite channels to this day. And then there were spin offs of that as well. I found fanart, music, and theories, and not to mention Black Mesa Source as a ground up remake of the original game simply created out of the love of the fanbase. Just like with Portal, the more I would dig the more I would uncover, revealing this elaborate and well constructed universe to explore. The more I would try out, the more impressed I’d be. Not to mention other games like Team Fortress 2 to start and just enjoy playing with friends. And to top it all off was Steam, a platform most famous for simply throwing these games at you with deals, not only for Valve’s own games with groupings like the Orange Box, but all games.

Valve, to me, was this cornucopia of creativity and excellent game design. In my eyes they could do no wrong, and while Valve Time was already infamous back then, there was so much to already explore, I could wait. Half Life 2 Episode 3 was in the works, Portal was a success beyond anything even Valve had planned for, and the future was bright. Left 4 Dead 2 released somewhere in there as well, but I didn’t pay it much mind.

My patience was rewarded in March 2010, less than two years later, when Portal quietly received an update adding radios to each level, providing clues that the community I had come to know was quickly unfolding into a whole new story, and a sequel was on its way. It was disheartening that we still hadn’t received any news on Episode 3, but my favorite game was getting a sequel! How could I not be happy? Besides, Portal had originally just been the tag along to apologize for Episode 2 being late. I knew that if we waited long enough, Valve would present us with a finely polished product which would surpass our expectations. They would regularly interact with their communities and clearly loved making the games just as much as we did playing them. Valve would count to 3 eventually.

Portal 2 faced some delays (more of that infamous Valve Time, haha), but it did eventually come out the next year and it was... good. It was a good game. It went through a lot of the old ground Portal had. Didn’t offer much new. The tone had changed. Things that had previous been in the background were brought to the foreground, and when I digged into it I found significantly less despite it being the bigger and more richly detailed game. Some parts didn’t really make sense. But it was alright, and had a lot of clever moments, and most people I talked to seemed to love it even more than the original, which frankly confused me. I’d like to talk about these differences in more detail in a separate post later, but for now Zero Punctuation hit a lot of the issues.

So I continued to wait, started watching E3 just for the chance that we would once again get news, that the dramatic cliffhanger we were left with would be addressed, or at least to get a sign that some more of that patented Valve creativity was still at work. People began to stop talking about Episode 3 and instead talked of Half Life 3 as the big title in the works. After all, the entire point of the episodic structure was for these short games to come out quickly. Valve had even suggested that they would be coming out on a monthly basis, but haha, classic Valve Time, it took years instead. We still had their promises to go off of.

I still remembered warnings from Doug Lombardi that Episode 3 would come out even later than Episode 2 did, Gabe Newell talking about how they might add a deaf character, about how the next Half Life would return to the darker roots missing in Portal 2, of bits of code in other minor releases by Valve making explicit reference to Episode 3 assets, Gabe Newell coming out to meet “protesters” hoping for some news, discussions of “Ricochet 2″ talked about openly, and Gabe shown working at a forge on a crowbar, saying how it took time. In 2012, like a breath of fresh air, some concept art apparently from back in 2008 was even leaked, showing that there was indeed actual work done by Valve showing that it wasn’t just all lies. A multitude of little pieces to let us know that it was still alive, that hope was not dead, the list of which has disappeared from Valve’s dead forums but can be found here on the wiki. Sure Valve seemed focused on that DOTA 2 game, but who really cared about that. Just another joke on them not being able to count to 3, haha.

Things became worse. Calls for Communication weren’t answered. Any kind of discussion by Valve at all became further and further apart, and what was there was abandoning what we were promised. Talk about abandoning single player games entirely were common, and Gabe even seemed dismissive of putting out more Half Life sequels and making bizarre claims like how Valve would be breaking new ground by focusing on multiplayer because there’d never been commercially successful multiplayer games before. Source 2 eventually came out (can’t count to 3, haha), but all the attention was focused on that DOTA 2 game which was still around and getting regular updates and news. Valve started focusing on hardware, trying to play catch up with their competition, making a big deal about releasing a normal controller, or working with other non-Valve groups to develop VR hardware.

The Know releases a video claiming that an anonymous inside source from Valve officially confirmed Half Life 3 as dead, with Valve too scared to release a new game to meet the insanely high expectations as well as some other problems, but Marc Laidlaw dismissed Valve ever being scared. Then old talent that had been with Valve from the beginning like Doug Lombardi and Marc began leaving, the few creative masterminds we still knew were there, gone.

Years pass in complete silence. The 10th anniversary of Episode 3′s announcement comes and goes in complete silence. And what we do hear isn’t much better. In AMA’s even as early as last January, and we still get the same line from Gaben, still joking about the number 3 and refusing to confirm or deny whether anything will come from the series, refusing to give closure one way or another, and even stating how Valve just loves to troll fans by making t-shirts and posters of Half Life 3.

Instead of the game we were promised or a new IP, Valve has now stooped to copying others, and we get a fucking card game for Dota 2, something not even fans of Dota 2 wanted.

And now, out of nowhere, we have this, a look into what might have been. And it doesn’t come from Valve, but from a man we once loved who’s moved on, and seems to despair at how things turned out.

And here we are. I spoke of my return to this shore. It has been a circuitous path to lands I once knew, and surprising to see how much the terrain has changed. Enough time has passed that few remember me, or what I was saying when last I spoke, or what precisely we hoped to accomplish. At this point, the resistance will have failed or succeeded, no thanks to me. Old friends have been silenced, or fallen by the wayside. I no longer know or recognize most members of the research team, though I believe the spirit of rebellion still persists. I expect you know better than I the appropriate course of action, and I leave you to it. Expect no further correspondence from me regarding these matters; this is my final epistle.

This is simultaneously the most news we’ve heard about Half Life 2 and also the most disheartening. It’s a stab at an old wound long scabbed over, a reminder that the talent we used to adore was real and not just the stuff of myth and legend.

The comparison I look around and see people making is one of death, that this is the final nail on the coffin, and this is the only burial that our good friends at Black Mesa and in the Resistance will ever receive. I’ve made that comparison myself already.

But now that I sit here and write this out, that I look over everything, I don’t think that’s the right answer.

Marc even followed up with a tweet pointing out that an old, unused script is not a sign that nothing will ever come out. And he’s right. Valve may indeed release something one day. Valve still lives and breathes, and is making tons of money through Steam.

Instead, the more apt analogy is that of someone suffering from Alzheimer's. A deeply loved relative has fallen ill and has slowly become a shadow of their former self, making occasional references to the glory days as we smile, nod, and pat their hand. What happened today was a brief moment of clarity breaking through their mind, and getting a chance to talk to them as they once were in their prime, and the moment quickly passes away again.

It’s a reminder of what was lost, and that no matter what they do now, the Valve I knew is gone forever. The talent behind what we knew and loved have left, and there doesn’t seem to be anyone to replace them. No matter what happens now, the cake was a lie. And I want to be wrong so very badly. Even now I can look around and see them walking around the corner, just like their old self, and going on some new adventure.

But here we are. And seeing how quickly the community latched onto this, onto anything proves that I’m not alone.

I wish Valve nothing but the best. Even for their stupid card game.

[spartanburger]

So, in making this image, I had a number of interesting issues. One of the main issues is that the face mode, Plasmid’s nude Tali model, has bed-head syndrome with hair that has never once been brushed. The face is a rip of Fang from Final Fantasy XIII, and the original hair is the same, only a different color.

So the first issue I found was that, using the $alpha override material didn’t seem to work in making the hair disappear. Interestingly, it did work on the normal Fang model, and it did work on other parts of the Tali_Face model:

we assassins creed now

I figured it out by discovering that there were an unusually high number of material files (VMTs) for the hair, many of which didn’t show up when adding override materials. I manually added $alpha 0 to each of those VMTs and it worked fine.

The next step was to create the pose. This involves tearing apart the suited Tali model by shrinking and pulling back the head while lowering the neck a little. Meanwhile, a separate Tali model was created, and had the whole thing scaled way down except for the head, which was scaled way up, in order to create just a floating helmet. Unfortunately, the original face is visible through the mask due to Ambient Occlusion, so I added her armored visor and it mostly hid it. Finally, I took the now-hairless nude tali model, and scaled it down a wholebunch, scaling the neck and shoulders back up so that it looked appropriate. 

It wasn’t done in that order, per se. I actually moved the nude/face model first to position the head appropriately (quarians have long necks), but w/e

Perhaps the hardest thing was now finding a new set of hair to use. This was a whole bucket of issues, from similar alpha issues, to invisible models casting shadows and having to be moved into weird positions, to transparency issues, and it’s all just a load of nonsense. Gaben plz.

I pulled 11 hair models that I thought might work together and tried them out.

1: Oerba Yun Fang, hairless, from FF XIII

2: Lightning, from FF XIII

3: Oerba Dia Vanille from FF XIII

4: Serah Farron from FF XIII

5: Serah Farron from FF XIII with no pony tail

6: Female Civilian #124790b from Half Life 2

7: Tracer, from Overwatch

8: Lady from Devil May Cry 3

9: Nora Estheim, from FF XIII

10: Cassandra Penthouse from DragonAge Inquisition

11: Faith, from Mirror’s Edge Catalyst

12: Bayonetta, from Action Tits: The Game!

I went with #12 because it seemed to be the most fitting to what I had in mind. However, I know some argue that Quarians would be pretty much hairless since it would get in the way in their suits, and I generally agree, so I made alternate versions with the #1 style.

Anyway, here’s what the situation looked like without any body parts or alternate hairstyles hidden:

Finally, here’s an intersting thing. This is what the Nude/Face model looks like all scaled to hell and back, only without the other models in the way. I’m putting it behind a keep reading line because NSFW (but HAHA GOOD LUCK with that keep reading line if you’re reading this on my blog because my blog doesn’t have it lol):

jigglebones. not even once.