Posted by Moss | 15 Comments

All-Girls Competitive L4D League

I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard the words competitive and all-girls used in a sentence before today. iDeTV has graciously offered to cast and endorse competitive matches for an all-girls competitive group that has recently been formed as of March ’11. Most of the girls participating have never played with each other before. In a male-dominant game, it’s very rare that more than one girl will be on a team together. The group gives girls an opportunity to play with and against one another in a friendly, yet competitive setting. Here is a game that I just played in last night.

I’ve had mixed feelings about this group since it started. Most of the girls who consider themselves competitive don’t know what they’re doing. With all the estrogen in the air bitch fights are just bound to happen, and most of the girls can’t carry their own weight. I’ve found that if someone’s not calling strats, the girls get distracted and end up either talking about boys, shoes, or grabbing eachothers tits. Regardless of some of my concerns with the group, all the scrims I’ve played in so far have been really fun. As a girl, I’m glad I’ve been given such a great opportunity.

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Posted by Moss | 5 Comments

L4D CEVO is back!

Left 4 Dead: a highly overlooked game with an underestimated interest in its competitive community. Since the game’s release in November, 2008, I’ve been around to see its community develop to what it is today. Believe me, this game is much different today than it was in 2008. Gameplay is much more difficult to pickup by someone who is just learning how to play the game. Its frowned upon when people pick up med packs or tier 2 weapons. Melee cooldown has been reduced to only 2, and there are no longer any molotovs, pipebombs, gascans, propane tanks or extra pills in the latest competitive mod Hardcore Rotoblin. The number of casual as opposed to competitive players has also become very scarce. Ever since the release of Left 4 Dead 2, there have been very few sightings of newcomers sparking interest in L4D2′s predecessor. The casual and competitive community were looking pretty meager until just recently when CEVO announced its Left 4 Dead Throwback Tournament. Although the tournament saw only 37 teams sign up and participate, the throwback tourney sparked interest in the competitive community once again. CEVO has announced another season of L4D due to popular interest. Sign-up dates have been extended into March. Season 2 is expected to start in a few weeks. We hope to see many more teams participate.

I’m really excited to see Left 4 Dead make such a comeback. It’s nice to look for games and actually find people in random public servers that were all empty only a few months ago. A lot of old-timers have come back from their temporary retirement of the game. It’s interesting to see how some old teams have reacted to the changes made to the game. Being an old-timer myself, I’ve found that gameplay has become a lot more fast-paced. Campaigns that used to stretch up to 2 hours in matches are now completed in less than an hour. Because there are no items to scavenge in hardcore mode, all that time searching dark rooms for molotovs and setting up gas cans has been eliminated. Basically as a survivor you want to run as fast as you can when spawns are down, wipe attacks when spawns are up, and take minimal chip from SI and tank. Because there are no longer any health kits in competitive play, it’s not uncommon to see all survivors crawl into the safe room in “red” temporary health. Consequently, it’s advantageous to play survivor quickly and efficiently. Playing on the infected side (aka zombies) hasn’t changed as much over the past 2 years. However, teams have to coordinate attacks better now than ever before. Because people have become so skilled at survivor play, infected have to work even better as a team to see any chip on the opposing team’s health bonus. Because of the new updates, survivors have been nerfed so infected have a better chance of wiping a team from map to map. Hardcore Rotoblin has been established as the official mod for the current iD League L4D Tournament; however, the mod to be used in CEVO Season 2 is still to be decided.

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Posted by Moss | 11 Comments

Ocarina of Time Makeover! Link I want to squeeze your baby cheeks.

There are very few games that are simply put, perfect. Perfect in design, in story, in music, in gameplay, in length, etc. Ocarina of Time is one of those games that just got it right. So it’s not exactly surprising that Nintendo is choosing this title as one of the flagship titles for their newest portable, the 3DS.

Now, I saw the 3DS at E3 this year and basically put it’s like sex for your eyes. It is one of those items that unless you physically see it in person you won’t believe what it can do. As soon as it was my turn in the huge Nintendo line to play around with the device, I felt my eyes grow wide when I realized what I was seeing. I can’t even explain how insanely cool the 3DS is, and I don’t even like portable systems! But god damn, I’m sure as hell going to get one just to have a portable version of Ocarina of Time.

Nintendo released new screenshots of Ocarina’s makeover yesterday, and they are gorgeous. Naturally Link looks updated, and the new textures along with the fact the game is now on a tiny screen make everything look smooth and fresh.I don’t care if it costs me $250, I’m getting this game.

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Posted by Moss | 36 Comments

Heroic Deadmines: God I Hate Reavers…

First and foremost this article is really long and has *******SPOILERS******* regarding Heroic Deadmines. Many delicious spoilers. Read at your own risk! Also just click any of the pictures to enlarge them.

Yesterday I wrote this article about how Heroics are no joke, and then today I beat Heroic Deadmines (everything except for the minigame boss at the end  that is). That doesn’t mean I completely disregard anything I said though. I just found a better and more dedicated group that was willing to wipe over and over and strategize to eventually finish the instance. That said, Heroic Deadmines is still god damn hard, but wow is it fun.

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Posted by Moss | 168 Comments

Cataclysm Heroics Are No Joke.

In Wrath of the Lich King you can pretty much herp derp your way through any heroic as soon as you hit 80. With the random Heroic feature pairing well geared people up with not-so-well geared people, the groups are usually balanced and even new 80s can easily get carried through any Heroic except maybe Halls of Reflection. Packs in the beginning of the expansion that were somewhat difficult are now a huge pushover, and bosses like Skadi in Utgarde Pinnacle that used to take minor strategy, or even Loken (remember how hard that shit was!?) now just get wrecked in 30 seconds flat. What happened to when Heroics were supposed to, you know, be heroic in difficulty? Casuals happened, is the real answer. But then the new question is what can be done to fix this? And the answer? Nothing. Nothing can fix WotLK Heroics, they’re stupid and will forever be laughed at. But there’s still hope, because Cataclysm Heroics on the other hand, are no joke.

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Posted by Moss | 281 Comments

TGS 2010 Brings All The Griffons Thingies to the Yard

Sorry for slowness in updates! I knew that Tokyo Game Show was coming and was putting all my energy into forcing Ueda-san to show new The Last Guardian footage, and it worked!!! The Last Guardian and I have a very touchy relationship. It was the one game from E3 that I cared about and the one game I’m waiting for before getting a PS3. I actually went to Sony’s press conference this year and tried to see it, and my heart broke into a bajillion pieces when they didn’t mention it even one time, after promising it would be there. Jerks. But now Tokyo Game Show is here, and so is new The Last Guardian news! And new Ico and Shadow of the Colossus news too! Less of jerks!

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Posted by Moss | 212 Comments

Guilds Can Now Require Authenticators

New Cataclysm patch notes came out yesterday, and boy were there some interesting changes. Old weather flying, tier 11 bonuses, guild achievements, and more! Also MMO-Champion revealed the oh-my-god-awesome-holy-shit Alliance guild mount! My own personal Aslann!! So excited. But one thing that kind of got overlooked in the new patch notes was the blurb about how guilds can now REQUIRE an authenticator! What a fantastic idea!

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