Yeah,I should totally work for XTR.

Anyway, this blog isn’t going to be a rant or some helpful advice. Nah, today, I’m going to show you,the reader,t he process and development behind the XTR blog.

So here’s my process of making a blog

Step 1: First, I have to consider who my target audience is, what will they be expecting from me,the blogger? What will they want to hear about?

Step 2 : Now that I’ve considered this, what will the blog be about? What will the title be? Remember, it has to be catchy!

Step 3: Consider what the message behind this blog post is. And remember, quality is more important than quantity! In other words, no 200 page novels about a yoghurt.

Step 4: Now start with a starting point eg My First blog!!!

Step 5: Write up my beautiful captivating story/news/whatever it is

Step 6: Submit for review

Change of plan, this sucks. This isn’t how I roll. Here’s how I really do it.

Step 1: Stay up till 3 in the morning, brainstorming ideas, trying to do something different. I’d say coffee helps but that’d be lying. Besides, 2/3 in the morning is when the crazy ideas kick in due to lack of sleep.

Step 2: Now that I have a few ideas bouncing around, I pick them off one by one until I find one that sounds good in my head.

Step 3: Failing the previous steps and unable to think up ideas, look at the forums, new articles, see what the latest debate is or what the latest news or latest article is.

Step 4: Now, just improvise and make something up cos I don’t want to get sued or lose my job as blogger for copying other peoples stuff.

Step 5: Write it up, then submit for review, go catch some sleep or go on Youtube.

That’s it from me folks. Hope you enjoyed this blog and see ya around

*And by we I mean basically everyone but me, I’m just some guy who happened to be here

If you’re reading this,chances are you’re in a clan aye? Ever wonder about how it started sometimes?

I know how my clan started, sure, but what I’m thinking about about is what the very first gaming clan must have been,and when it began, because for some reason, I always imagine a group of people at a arcade machine, playing Pac Man probably, then one of them thinking suddenly, “Y’know, we could play this game against other groups! And have tournaments and stuff!”

Mind you, I can also imagine how the clan matches against other clans would have went…

Whoever gets the most points without dying once wins the round! God, that could drag on for hours…rather much like infantry only matches can on certain maps of Battlefield 2142, ( Shia Tubia I’m looking at you, you life-sapping fiend!)

So, have a think about that,
it’s food for thought if you’ve nothing better to do

Now, since this is my first blog post,t ime for the traditional Oscar winning speech… I would like to thank my dog for inspiring me and helping me out during the dark moments…

Yeah I’m kidding, I don’t even have a speech prepared.

So, for my first blog, a bit of help with GMod,for those who have played GMod and tried playing on the TF2 maps, you’s will know that it looks quite,well, un-Tf2ie? Eg the windows are not there, instead covered by some black cover thing.

Well,good news folks!There’s a way to get back that TF2 look!Lookie here at this guide,it’s quite simple

http://tf2comic.muux.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=65

Oh, and I would put it up as a proper link you can click on, but I can’t figure how to do that cos it keeps disappearing for some reason when I try. [That's why I'm here -Ed]

Anywho, hope you’ve enjoyed this, or at least found it a new way to kill time.

I remember buying and playing King Kong which was okay but it was a bit restricted in where it could go because of the movie. I found that the movie was a great thriller, and in my opinion the game let it down.On the other hand I found the LOTR films quite boring (ok hate mail to my usual p.o. box please) but the game was a totally different, it was a great, exciting and enjoyable game to play.Another example is the Harry Potter series…these games were good but the movies were far better.

Now the thing is, that if the target audience of a movie is under 12’s then that means the game has to be targeted to the same audience. Unfortunately this means that some movies are turned into what can only be described as drivel due to the limitation on what can be included in the game, no gore, not much fighting and no violence in general. I believe that this is a big downside on what the games could include, although they are usually a direct copy of the movie and a few wanted extras may not be included because of these restraints.

So why then are most movie games shockingly bad? Is it the lack of individuality or is it the limitations to change and adjust? Or is it simply due to the fact that they are nothing more than cheap cash-ins?

Anyway you’ve heard my opinion, now lets hear yours…

Right I was playing rock band with my friends and there is a song called ‘Still alive’ and yes I got picked to sing it Although funny at the time we ended up 5 starring it

Well…I decided to look it up on the internet because it was quite a catchy song. I found that it was the song at the end of portal, when the credits are playing. I wonder why they decided to add a song from a completely different genre of game onto Rock Band. Anyway, it is quite a good song, so now you guys have even more incentive to get around to completing portal

So if you think you can sing better than GLaDOS does at the end of the game, download the free song. Or maybe there is a better song from a game’s credits that you want love to sing along to, if so let me know.

Hey guys

Has anybody else noticed how expensive gaming mouses are? I looked on the internet for a couple of minutes and I found a gaming mouse at a staggering price of £314.31, and some of these expensive ones look so hi-tech they could be the main gadget in a James Bond movie, but is it really better than a cheap, ugly looking mouse?

After another few minutes searching I came across a £1.87 ordinary, everyday mouse. Comparing both mice I found that they both had scrolling wheels, they were both optical and they were both wireless which makes it impossible to get tangled up in the wires.

I can understand that a gaming mouse will be needed for the gamers amongst us that need pinpoint accuracy and a reliable mouse that moves to were you want it to but is £314.31 a bit excessive? I use a normal, everyday mouse and it seems to cope ok, just ok.

I don’t see the point in having a mouse that is probably worth more than my laptop is (because i’ve had it a couple of years). Anybody want to defend the unbelievably high priced piece of plastic? or are you on the side of the cheap side of things?

Looks like the Allies, the Eastern Empire and Blizzard could of met their match!

That is until Tanya arrives of course.

According to pczilla.net the demo is a “Game Engine Test”, so it is not a playable version. It contains an ingame sequence, too. Far Cry 2 is said to need at least an Athlon 64 X2 4000+, a Core 2 Duo with 2.8 GHz is recommended. For the graphics acceleration you should have a Geforce 9800 or a Radeon HD 4870.

With this Far Cry 2 joins the exlcusive club of hyped games that had to suffer from leaked versions in advance of the official release. Half Life 2 and Stalker: Clear Sky had to endure the same fate. Even Crysis was available over illegal channels before it was officially released to the market.

We cannot link the article because of legal reasons.

Further screenshots (sourced from tiscali.games) are below:-

Take Call of Duty 4 for example, taking a page from the battlefield series. Allowing a series of unlockable weaponry, perks and challenges which are gained via ‘Experience points’ something previously exclusive to role playing games. This is becoming more and more common, a series of merits unlockable via the conductance of several tasks or kills. Team Fortress 2, BF2142, Dark Messiah and Day of Defeat to name a few, all bringing elements of achievements into them, all taking little pieces of the rpg genre and stirring it up with some fps goodness.

So what about it? Modern fps games are now placing more emphasis on stats, achievements and unlockables becoming closer to that alien genre, without the gameplay and storyline to account for it. Go online with Team Fortress 2 and search for servers, what do you see? Servers specifically set up for stat padding, in order to get those achievements and thus the unlockables. Its a dangerous balance right now, fps’s are taking in more and more aspects akin to rpg’s without developing the gameplay to deal with it. With an rpg an unlock or achievement is actually hard to do, ‘Slay 50 trolls’. You can’t cheat that due to the nature of it, Tf2: ‘Slay 50 Heavies’. I log on with a few friends or persuade a local on the server, repeatedly mauling him for my new shiny flamethrower.

This has implications for the new player aswell. I’m new to the game, no achievements no unlocks and somebody wants a specific high-end unlock. I wouldn’t be going anywhere fast, again its encouraging stat padding and farming. Without these achievements and the play time put in, putting casual players at a further disadvantage, anyone who doesn’t have these new and improved weapons of mass destruction is going to be at a terrible disadvantage. It needs rectifying, valve have the idea right making penalties for every upgrade but the method of getting them is too easy. Stat padding for the lose.

The ideas good. I like new stuff, I like being told how well I’m doing and having merits to compare by. What I don’t like is when the game can’t account for the merit system properly.

Take a step back developers, I think we need to work the gameplay for the merits instead of throwing them in as we choose.

This is Left 4 Dead.

For those of you who haven’t heard of it, Left 4 Dead is Valve’s / Turtle Rock Studios’ upcoming cooperative zombie shooter. With roots hailing from 28 days later and dawn of the dead, the zombies in this game aren’t the shuffling bulks of flesh of the past. Instead charging towards the player at high speed, flailing and ravenous! Intended to be high speed, objective based and cooperative based fun, Left 4 Dead is the online teamplay game many of us have been waiting for.

The game pits four survivors of a terrible zombie apocalypse against the hoards of 28 days later styled zombies. So is this a purely cooperative game with to competitive elements you ask? Not quite. The infected have at their disposal 4 ’super zombies’ which players can operate, allowing the hostile players to assist the AI in killing off the survivors. Examples of such are the tank, a huge bulking mass of muscle and rage, as well as the hunter, inspired by half-life 2’s fast zombies they are agile but deadly.

However one of the most interesting features of Left 4 Dead is its replayability and its snazzy new AI overlord, the director. The director does what it says in the name, designed to direct and control the overall movements of all the infected as well as recreating the tense, near death experiences of the survivors in the movies. Although it should be noted that near-death can become death if you’re not quick enough! The director also makes sure that each level is played differently, that each level is almost as fresh as the first time you played it. By shuffling round zombie attacks and objectives.

The end comes on november the 4th (except for uk which is the 7th but still ;)) for xbox 360 and pc.

Boohoo ps3!