Life of a Hardcore gamer

Full Steam Ahead or just a lot of hot air?

2006-12-14T12:27:00.001Z

The steam client from Valve Software has been around for a while now. Initially it was used to download updates to valve games such as half-life and then it became an alternative way of buying the games through the client or on the steampowered website. You can also download Mods made by other gamers some for free others were chargeable. The quality of these mods vary but most are excellent. Remember a game called Counter Strike? This started as a Mod and became the most popular online shooter ever.

Now Steam offer games from other games developers. Again the quality varies from the likes of Blood Rayne to top titles like Call of Duty 2.

What are the benefits of using Steam over a store purchase?

1. Instant download - you can download you game from the comfort of your home and be playing in a matter of minutes. Infact Valve games can be "pre-loaded" so you can download the entire game and it becomes playable on the release date (or sometimes earlier).

2. No damaged/lost discs. When I bought Half-life2 the DVD disc was faulty. I tried re-installing several times butit would always fail part way through. I also own half-life 1 but the disc is in storage somewhere. With Steam I just entered my registration code and downloaded HL2 and as I'd already registered HL1 I could download that too.

3. Save storage space. My CD/DVD racks are crammed full of movies and games. Steam downloads take up no storage space (except on your hard drive)

4. Unlimited re-downloads. If your hard drive/PC gets wiped/stolen/damaged you can redownload any games you've purchased through steam as long as you know your login details.

5. Price. New releases are discounted if bought early or pre-ordered. Old games are at white label prices. There are also bundles where buying several related games together gets you a discount. This means you can usually get a good deal.

6. The steam client automatically updates all your games with the latest patches and makes connecting for multiplayer easy to.

7. Save icon clutter. Although you can create a desktop or start menu icon for any game you can choose to launch only from the steam client. This means only one icon is needed (to launch steam)

As with most things it's not all good. Here are some things to think about before using steam.

1. Impossible to resell games. I know that after a while all but the most classic of games I'll no longer play and will just sit collecting dust on my shelf. Every once in a while I'll have aclear out and sell a bunch on ebay or trade-in at my local game store. With Steam games they cannot be passed to anyone else.

2. Long downloads. If you don't have a fast connection some game downloads can take a loooong time. Fortunately for me I have a 16mb connection and games take between 15-45mins to download most games at about 500-600kb/s.

3. Lose steam, lose your games. If your steam client becomes corrupt you will lose access to all your games. This happened to me once, but with the help of Valve I deleted the offending files and a simple re-install got me back in business. Steam have been known to ban users caught tampering with the steam client or games. The hackers are usually trying to gain access to a pre-loaded game before it is released or games they haven’t purchased. If you get banned, kiss your games goodbye.

4. No refunds. If a game you buy in steam is about as much use as a sausage roll at a Bar mitzvah you can’t return it to the store. To be fair Steam does give you a metacritics score for most games and many games let you download a demo. Despite this though, I still have a few stinkers in my collection – impulse buys that I probably would have tried to retun if I had bought in store.

There are more and more games being added all the time, including top titles like Gun and the Call of Duty series. Of course you also get access to Valves own legendary games including Dark Messiah, Half-life 2 and it’s Mods and expansions.

Top marks to Valve for the Steam client – despite the mentioned drawbacks I’d go for a steam download over a store purchase every time.

Wii Stock London: Where's my Wii

2006-12-11T09:31:00.001Z

If you didn't pre-order or didn't manage to queue up and grab a Wii on the 8th of December you'll be hard pressed to get one anywhere (except ebay for insanely bloated prices).

If your wondering when they'll be back in stock I've done some research for you. Please not that dates are estimates and may depend on the branch you go to. Stores quoted are oxford street or camden town.

Virgin Megastore - expect some in this week but do not know exact day
Curry's/Dixons - 16th of December
Game - selling off any pre-orders that didn't get collected (likely gone now) on Sunday and then new stock should be in just in time for christmas.
Argos - expect more stock before christmas
HMV - Don't expect any new stock until the new year.

If you've done your own research please post details here (don't keep it for yourself - how many you going to buy?)

Gamespot give away Burning Crusade Beta Passes

2006-11-03T14:40:00.000Z

Yes that's right. Gamespot are giving away Beta passes to World of Warcraft Burning crusade. The contest is due to start next week so keep checking the site.

Also if you haven't got Firefox 2.0 yet take a look at the review here

Keypad/Fairlypriced
fairlypriced's Profile at GameSpot

World of Warcraft gets it's first expansion!

2006-10-28T09:06:00.000+01:00

The world's most popular MMORPG gets it's first expansion. This expansion will add more world to explore, more missions/quests, more items and most importantly 2 new races/character classes.

Seeking to restore balance between Aliance and Horde both new races will be horde. This will hopefully encourage more players to try playing for the dark side as currently Alliance greatly outnumber Horde.

Check out the feature on gamespot - they are running a live marathon session:

Now Gamespot may call it a Marathon but I'd doubt it would go on as long as my sessions which push my mind and body to their limits.

If you haven't already don't forget to check out my other blog

Long Time No See

2006-10-10T22:53:00.000+01:00

Wow! It's been a long time since my last post. Since then I've clocked up more Levels on World of Warcraft. Completed Half Life 2 and HL2 Episode 1.

I'm currently into Guildwars and eagerly awaiting Neverwinter Nights 2. I just missed out on the Beta but I have got the toolset to play with.

Recently I've started a blog on non-gaming things (shock horror). Seems there are other things to talk about than how many frags or XP I got.

Check it out at http://www.fromthefrontend.co.uk

I now work in the same office as Gamespot UK - a dream come true. I should be doing some work on their website this week so will let you know as soon as it is launched.

Happy Gaming

Keypad

Hot Fox (firefox)

2005-03-10T11:06:00.000Z

Almost forgot. I am now a dedicated fan of firefox. It rocks big time. When webdesigning it makes you realise how broken IE is. Even with the pending summer release of IE7 Firefox will still be the best browser out there. Combined with Microsoft Anitspam and Decent firewall and Antivirus software my system should be kept running stably so as not to disturbe my gaming.

To Gamer Hell and Back

2005-03-10T08:21:00.000Z

Yes it's the return of the gamer. Sorry I neglected my blog for so long but here is a quick whizz through the gamer hell I managed to return from.

As you may remember I quit my old job. Since then I managed to Game hardcore on The Matrix Online Beta for about 6months. During that time the awesome Half-life 2 came out which I completed to death much to the dismay of my non-gamer friends (NGF) and wife.

My Clan and associated sites were going well and I had just launched the clan radio station.

TO GAMER HELL
Things going pretty well and then I hit the wall! The barrier most gamers are unable to cross to reach gamer heaven. The wall where you no longer have the available funds to support your gaming lifestyle.

This meant I had to get a job. This proved easy enough as one of my non-gamer friends got me a job at her workplace - now I remember why I bother keeping NGFs.

This is when the road to hell began. Tried to visit gamespot.com and to my horror!!!

Access to this web page is restricted at this time. Category "Games" is filtered

!!!! You have got to be kidding me !!!! That has to be the most offensive thing I have ever seen on a computer screen - games are filtered!!! I soon discovered the misery didn't end there - my De-Caf PC blocked Kings of Chaos, IGN and even my webmail!!!

Believe me I tried everything. Registering domains and pointing them to sites, new browsers etc. This filter is bullet proof.

But that was that wasn't the end. Not only did I now have an 9 hour gap in my gaming day I also lost my evenings too! I have to supplement my income with webdesign in order to pay my ever growing gaming bills (radio station bandwidth bill, multiple MMORPG subscriptions, Gamesite hosting, purchase of new games, new pc hardware).

I had to spend my remaining gaming hours building and designing for ungrateful non-gamers. In fact I hit rock bottom when one client had such bad taste and was so demanding I had to loose them with a Matrix online Machine gun punch - POW!

AND BACK AGAIN
I then found a really cool client that pretty much left me too it. As of writing, this work is still in progress

This eliviated some of the pain. I then got World of Warcraft (WoW).

This restored balance to force. Things began to make sense again as I gamed for a solid 5hours with my Nightelf smaking the pants of everything in site.

But just as the WoW ambrosia was taking me to Gamer Elysium Fields I had to leave for holiday. Those darn planes don't wait for you to lvl up!!!

Anyway I whiled away the tedious journey with a thick WoW game manual - bliss.

WoW has not been released in the country I visited but as I found an internet cafe where I could play warcraft:frozen thrown. Later snowboarding was so much fun I didn't even need to imagine I was in SSX tricky.

I took over 400 photos and 3 and a half DVDs of footage as apart from my phone and the occasional trip to an internet cafe this was my only access to technology!

Anyway since getting back to London I have developed my NightElf Rogue into a lean mean fighting machine. Things are back on track...

Resignation?

2004-09-02T19:03:00.000+01:00

When Half-Life 2 and The Matrix online comes out. I have already prepared my resignation notice:

Dear Boss,

Although I love receiving your generous pay slip at the end of the month (which funds my gaming). I have decided to quit, effective immediately. I have taken a good look at my schedule and have realised I have to prioritise. I am sure you agree conquering worlds, saving mankind and closeing the gates of hell are more important than ensuring Mr Jones gets the best financial advice this week. My achievements as a gaming god far surpass anything I could possible accomplish with calculator and a barely acceptable internet connection (have you seen how much my counterstrike ping shoots up when you start sending all the boring reports off to head office).

I know that you have appreciated my loyal service over the last 2 years so I will be taking my workstation with me. Don't worry I will send round all my comedy pics before I pack it away.

Well that's all I have to say. Please try and contain your sorrow, maybe we can hook up on Unreal Tornament some time - I'll install a copy on your PC if you want....

Regards,

Keypad

That should do the trick....

Back in action

2004-09-02T18:50:00.000+01:00

So much has happened since I was last here. I'll have to give you the edit highlights

- I got about 5 new games including 2 MMORPGs
- Patched things up with the Mrs (things are better than ever)
- I got a new phone. Forget the phone check my O2 XDA II bloggers/gamers heaven
- I got tickets to gamestarlive

The games I got were quite a varied mix: Lineage 2, Final Fantasy XI online, Star Trek Elite force 2, and the other 2 was so pants I don't even remember them.

The Mrs is treating me like a king now even serving food in front of the PC so that I do not have to pause my gaming rampage.

The new phone rocks. I have Everquest, Age of empires, football management sim etc.... Plus I can blog with the full internet access and email support. MSN messenger is another big bonus.

I got tickets for GameStarLive for this weekend which is the UK equivalent to E3...

That is where the fun ends I am afraid. The reason I haven't blogged in a while is not because I am completely owning the other gamers on Lineage, oh no, it is because of work.

Yes you've made me say the 'W' word. The last week has been absolute hell. Nearly completely devoid of gaming altogether.

I wake up at 6.45am to go to work. I work until 6.30pm and quickly travel to my second job and work until 9 or 10 and then I go home and work on a clients website until I pass out at about 1.30am. I then crawl into bed to start the cycle again.

But at least I get a break at the weekend, right? Wrong! Sat, Sun even Bank Holiday was just another Working marathon. The only thing keeping me going is this game: http://www.kingsofchaos.com/recruit.php?uniqid=87rrncx8

As it is a web browser game I can play it from anywhere so a 30mins at work on it and I can make it to the day. The train journey gives me a chance to level up my character on Everquest on my mobile.... I guess I have to be thankful for small blessings.

The weekend from hell

2004-07-07T08:58:00.000+01:00

Usually the weekend pure bliss. Gaming can continue uninterrupted by trivial matters like work or sleep.

This weekend had mixed results.

My last post ended with me forsaking a gaming session for a concert. This I now realise was a mistake.

After rushing to get there I was told that my friend had neglected to check the date on the ticket. I thought I was 45mins late but it turned out we were 24hrs late.

At this point you may expect me to explode with anger or at least moan but I didn't. I calmly suggested we go for a drink. This is because this was a very close friend and more importantly a recovering gamer. Sadly with his last girl friend of several years he was forced to retire from championship manager and destroy his copy of pool shark. Although they both blame other factors I know it was gaming deprivation that caused their eventual break up. You can only suppress the gaming instincts for so long.

Now my friend is getting back on track (with the help of a PS2 and GTA:vice city) as a fellow gamer I felt it only right I give him a break.

Anyway, from then on things got worse. I got a call from my wife. Let's just say she wasn't too impressed at me for standing her up for this non-concert. As a non-gamer she didn't realise that for me to miss a gaming session what I was doing must have been important.

Even a grand master such as myself got married. I nearly slipped into the realms of a casual gamer (see previous posts) at one point - more on that another time.

I was told not to bother coming home. This is now serious. Another gaming session down the pan and nothing to show for it.

The natural alternative would be to go to a games cafe but my local one closed down. Apparently 80% of their income came from me, and when I got broadband and spent more time at home the business collapsed.

In the end we shot some pool which I won of course. Jimmy white's cue ball 2 pays off at last!

Now the smoke from my house could be seen from the pool club. The wife was was white hot at this point so I brought in some backup. I called a mutual friend over.

The human shield protected me from receiving the wife's flame attack.

My friend wanted some pix copied to CD so I went straight to my PC but I was not prepared for what I found. All my passwords had been changed! I was unable to login to my own PC!

At this point I wanted whip out my long sword +1 and do her some damage but as my human shield was there I settled for pulling out her cable TV viewing card. No more TV.

As you can imagine I spent the night on the sofa.

Well they say every cloud has a silver lining so here is the up side. That night I "hacked" in to my PC by logging in as "administrator" I changed my password and all was restored. Not settling for this I made a back up user account, changed the friendly pic login to the more secure username and pass. I also password protected the bios and changed all other user accounts to limited. Not wanting to stop there I child locked the TV.

I then enjoyed a gaming session on Lineage. This is where the silver lining stops. All though I played until 4am I didn't level up once. I collected more than enough xp but server lag caused of to die 3 times and I took out my frustration on an NPC which killed me again.

That ends my miserable Friday night and gets my weekend of to a flying start.

Fortunately my friend was leaving the country the next day and had to empty her camera now.

Mobile blogging

2004-07-02T19:32:00.000+01:00

You may or may not have realised my last blog (and this one) were written and submitted using my mobile. This a really useful feature for a regular Blogger as you can post an update even if you can't get to a PC.

The disadvantage is that including pics and links is difficult as it is not easy to upload a pic or find correct links to them on most phones.

Nokia may have found a solution. They are releasing a new service called life blog. This service allows you to send ribs that you take with the builtin camera on your phone to your blog page. You can also send pics that you have received in an Multi media message along with some comments. Check out the details on Nokia's website. You can find a link to it if you look up the Nokia 7610 phone as this phone is the 1st 1megapixel camera phone to be release by Nokia, making it ideal for good quality web snaps.

Please note I am happy for anyone to leave comments on my blogs. You don't even need to register.

Gaming break

2004-07-02T19:30:00.000+01:00

Despite my craving to get online and slay some dragons, I just couldn't turn down free tickets to an Alesha Keys concert. In fact I'd doubt I'd turn down free tickets to anything remotely interesting under normal circumstances but after an extended episode of game deprival it takes something special to get me away from my PC.

I better put in a major session of gaming in tonight to prevent myself slipping. Spending to much time away from gaming is like being idle in a team based multiplayer game - if you remain inactive to long you're going to get kicked from the server. I've seen it happen before, a gamer gets a non-gaming girl friend (big mistake). He becomes "idle" and starts thinking of ridiculous questions like "is there more important things in life than gaming?"

Sadly questioning his faith is only the 1st step. His concentration is disturbed by the non-gaming enticements his new girl friend has to offer. This greatly reduces performance and the gamer soon starts playing like someone with a ping of 300.

It is at this point a decision must be made.

Choice 1 - the gamer finds the apparent lag is ruining his gaming experience and starts spending less time with his girl friend to bring his skills back up to standard. This usually leads to the gamer to being dumped. The gamer will then drown his sorrows in extended gaming sessions. He will re-affirm his faith in gaming. His status as a hardcore gamer is restored.

Choice 2:
Sadly some succumb to the will of their girl friend and become what is known as a "casual gamer". The casual gamer deludes himself into thinking that his 30-45mins a week on a 3month old game means he is still a real gamer. He's skills reduce to that of a drunken primate and he is easily fragged into submission by a 13yr old.

The final sad stage is when the casual gamer realises that he can no longer compete and retires from online gaming. Some are satisfyied to play single player games set to easy difficulty. The rest leave gaming completely.

I shudder to think what would become of me if I was reduced that far.

Ok I am late for the concert! Check back for an update later.

Mid-afternoon moan

2004-07-02T15:03:00.000+01:00

My fired up mood has been doused by the tedium of work.

Only thing keeping me going is Copter

This was sent to me by one of the non-gamers, so there is a glimmer of hope yet.

Topped up and Ready to go

2004-07-02T13:41:00.000+01:00

Well that did the trick! I am totally fired up now. Watched a few vids on gamespot.

But the main attraction was chatting with uBer babe - Suicide Girl. One of the only truly cool girl gamers in the world. On the downside she is an import (from US) but more than makes up for it with her ultra hardcore gaming. Incredibly funny and the fact she is hot is a bonus. Totally maxes out my gaming pleasure meeting up with her.

Another clan member made this animated GIF about her. He worships every frag she makes, and who can blame him.

Now I am fired up I will wipe out my work load in record time so I can leave work on time instead of wasting valuable game time catching up with work.

TOP TIP:
To help you get through the day, work out how much you earn per day. Then work out which games or gaming accessories you can get for your efforts.

If I work hard for the next hour it will pay off my next months subscription to Lineage2.

Lunch

2004-07-02T12:48:00.000+01:00

Ok I almost made it to lunch. I can actually feel this place sucking the joy out of me. It's like work drains XP. I have to do something about this. If I don't act soon I could level down. When that happens everything goes gray and you get tunnel vision. All you can see is your work load and nothing else matters. This is the state of half my colleagues. They do not understand the joy of gaming. Some of them are too far gone to every recover from this condition.

I try to save those that I can by sending group emails with links to gaming websites but this is not kindly recieved by the non-gaming joyless souls.

Time to get my "fix". Although I cannot game here (damn those system admin restrictions) I can at least do my 2nd favourite think - talk about games. I plan to chat to my clan on there forums if I don't lvl down by then.

Got that Friday Feeling

2004-07-02T12:11:00.000+01:00

I usually try to get up about 5am to put in a good gaming session (gets all the aggression out before I see my work colleagues). Unfortunately after staying up until 1am for a live broadcast from Gamespot I was too tired.

I hate the time zone issue. Everything is geared around US time zones so I have to wait up with bloodshot eyes for an US afternoon event.

Well the lack of gaming and the tiredness set me up for a brilliant day of work. Thank god it is friday. Otherwise their would have been carnage. The Friday feeling helps soothe the rage and Gaming withdrawl symtoms. Instead of laying waste to the office with a BFG or Sniping the rival company across the street I managed to restrain myself to posting angry forum messages. I have a feeling the flaming is going comeback and bite me in the Ass.