I have never been a huge fan of the FPS genre. I love multiplayer gaming, but when it comes to FPS and RTS games people tend to get so good so fast that it’s nearly impossible to keep competitive. Sure, I’ll play a single player FPS now and then. I was a huge fan of Bioshock, and I hear that people are crazy for the Haloz, but I don’t have the same reaction to them that I do to RPGs.

I’ll admit it: I never played Half-Life. I bought, but never completed, Half-Life 2. I played a little Counterstrike now and again, but only when the servers were down in World of Warcraft (or whatever MMO I was currently playing). So, when I started seeing videos of this Team Fortress 2 I was only slightly interested. This is of course until the “Meet the X” campaign began. I suddenly saw that this was not the typical FPS. This was a game that understood it’s players. It was a game with a whole lot of style, a talented art team, and a whole lot of humor batched in. I started to see what there might be a bit of quality batched here.

After getting my hands on the game for awhile, I feel very safe to say that this is the best multiplayer experience I’ve had outside of an MMO since Diablo 2. The game is fast paced. Sure it comes with the same frustrations that any First Person Shooter tends to incite (”Where the #%#$ did he come from, What the @#$%# is shooting me?”), but I still can’t help but laugh even after seeing my own foot lying on the ground with a little label telling me of its origin. It really helps to take the edge off a typically tense genre when the game refuses to take itself seriously.

However, I think what really separates TF2 from herd is the intense team dynamic. Most first person shooters pigeon-hole the player into one type of play style. Whether its Counterstrike, Halo, Half-life, or whatever you’re play style is determined only by the type of gun you choose to pick up. Team Fortress 2 has 9 classes that each have important roles in the victory of the team. However, playing a Scout is a very different experience than playing a Spy. While a Spy’s role may be sneak behind enemy lines and take out a few of those annoying sentry turrets or drop the medic that is about to turn the heavy into an unstoppable killing machine, the scout’s role is to rely on its speed to capture the point or return the intelligence. Meanwhile the Medics, Soldiers, and so on all have their own role in the fight if there is any hope of emerging victorious.

Team Fortress 2 is part of the Orange Box, and is available on Steam October 10th, or you can pre-order it now and begin playing it this very minute! Check out past the Jump for some videos.

Edit: Feel free to friend me on Steam if you’re looking for a Medic friend – Hiphopopotomus

Kris

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I can has Xbox?

5) Pokemon Pearl and Diamond – I know what you may be thinking. Pokemon is a mindless pastime of children these days, and has no educational value. You would say that because you have not watched your own children play with this game. You may see it these kids spending tons of money trying to “catch them all,” but what you don’t realize is the amount of social education that these kids are gaining from this game. Pokemon, at it’s core, is a game of sharing, trading, and growing. A player is tasked with putting time and effort into the game in order to improve his or her collection. However, the player cannot become “the best” alone. He or she must seek out others to trade and share (and sometime battle) their Pokemons and power-ups to fully realize their potential. Through this game your kid’s just learned how to: Work as a team, share, build a social network, and work hard and cooperatively to attain a goal. Still think this is just a pointless pastime?

4) Wii Sports (Comes with the Wii Console) – Ever wished your kids would stop sitting on the couch all day watching cartoons and would get our with their friends and do something active? While it is no substitute for having your kids play little league, Wii sports gets kids active in something that they enjoy doing already. It is easy to take a game like this and compare it to the value or organized sports, and it is a tactic often used to invalidate the value of such a game. The game isn’t a replacement for outdoor activity, but a replacement for watching TV or playing a less mobile type of video game. Place the game in the correct context and it’s easy to see how valuable it could be.

3) Mario Party 8 – Video games tend to summon up the impression of lonely gamers in their parents basement spending hours trying to gain the next level. Many see letting their kid’s play video games as sending them down the path of social failure. Instead of removing the games, consider trying to change the way that he or she plays. Invite a few friends over and put in a game like Mario Party. Party game like this can be very fun, and quite active for kids. The minigames, many of which require quite a bit of cooperation and coordination, will keep them busy for hours. This isn’t your standards “sit in fount of the tv and play” game either. These games require kids to get out of their seats and preform quick motions that can build up quite an exercise. Again, if presented in the correct way this game can be a enriching experience for a child, and is not just a “brain rotting video game.”

2) Brain Age 1 or 2 – This one is for a bit older kids (it was designed for adults), but can be very useful for those just starting high school. High school is the age of standardized tests. Once a child enters that time in their lives they are asked the fill in the dots once every 25 seconds. Having to train for these tests can often be a very painful experience. However, Brain Age and it’s sequel are designed to help the brain think better and faster. It trains those same skills that kids need when taking important standardized tests. It’s no replacement for a good SAT training program, but over time it could really improve those test scores.

1) World of Warcraft – I know, “but World of Warcraft players are all overweight 30 year olds who still live with their grandmothers and eat Cheetos and drink Mountain Dew all day long.” Stereotyping aside, this is another game for the older kids. High school is about the time when kids begin to build their social skills. We all have memories of either being or beating up on the “nerdy, “geeky, “lame,” kids that didn’t really fit in. Often this is because those kids didn’t have the social skills to “fit in” with the greater crowd. Well, if this fits your child then you may want to consider them getting involved in an MMO community (monitored of course). When done correctly, kid’s can learn organizational and social skills that they could never have learned just being tossed into the jungle that is freshmen year. Now, this will require quite a bit more work from you, the parent, than any other game on this list. These games must be monitored both for the people they are coming in contact with (people from all walks of life play this game; most friendly, some not). Parents should set up the proper time limits using the tools provided by the game to ensure that all studies are done and the game doesn’t take away from any other aspect of the kid’s life. If properly done, World of Warcraft (or any other popular MMO) has the potential to teach your kids the skills to not only do well in high school, but excel throughout their lives.
Kris

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Ok, so lets start with the big stuff. What does a new expansion mean? Well, I will defer to Blizzard Community Manager Drysc for this:

“Sometimes when a video game developer loves a game very much they go into a dark office, and after many months an expansion comes out! While the expansion can be a lot of work for the video game developer to take care of, the expansion allows everyone who loved the original game to continue playing it. They want to continue playing it because it opens up an area for them to progress, to continue a story line, improve their character, fight new monsters, get bigger weapons, and in general continue playing the game they enjoy by having more of it available.”

Basically, we’re talking about some add on content for those that already play the game. For those that do play the game, we’re talking about Northrend. Back before World of Warcraft there was a little game called Warcraft III. Sure this may seem like the lore of old now but before the MMO, Warcraft was a real time strategy game. In that game we follow Prince Arthas Menethil from being the favored paladin of Lorderon (nerd speak translation: he was a good guy), to being the feared death knight in service to the lich king (translation: bad guy). In the process he traveled up to Northrend to grab a sword called Frostmorne which ended up possessing his soul, binding him to the will of the lich king, and leading him to kill his father and take over the throne to the eventual destruction of the entire kingdom. You know that old story. Well, eventually he fused souls with the Lich King and now commands the entire undead army across all of Azeroth. Well, now it’s time for the heroes of Azeroth (that’s you) to go up the Northrend and take care of this little problem once and for all.

But what does this mean for us who play the game? Well…

1. Level cap raised to 80 (yippy!)
2. New Profession: Inscription (permanently enhance you spells and abilities with powerful pieces of paper)
3. Tons of new game space with the addition of the continent of Northrend
4. New PVP dynamics with siege weapons and destroyable buildings
5. New character customization options. You can now change your dance and your hairstyles.
6. New Dungeons
7. And a bunch… bunch…bunch… more.

Oh, yeah… and the somewhat important thing. We will be seeing the induction of a brand new class into the game. The first ever hero class: The Deathknight. It’s like a paladin, only evil. The Deathknight will inscribe runes on its weapon to use in combat (in lieu of a resource system like mana/rage/energy). The Deathknight will start at a high level (sources say in the 50-60 range) and will be unlocked through a very difficult quest obtainable to your main character at level 80.

Things are looking up for the World of Warcraft, and if you haven’t yet joined the ever growing community of people who call Azeroth a second home you should really check it out (the original game is still as accessible and fun as ever for new players). If you do play WoW, then get ready for new challenges and new adventures.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer: and enjoy.

Kris

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When I first played CoH on release it was a game full of holes, flaws, and a serious lack of end game content. In fact if one wished to continue playing the game post-50 they may as well get comfortable doing the same taskforce over and over, or learn to dance. Once World of Warcraft was released it wasn’t too hard of a choice to leave the world of Paragon City behind and enter the world of Azeroth. After 2 years, an expansion, and a whole lot of time spent in World of Warcraft I had nearly forgotten City of Heroes. However, thanks to a small fractioning of the guild (group of players organized to accomplish tasks) a friend and I have decided to go back to City of Heroes, but in a very different role. Since the time of our departure, City of Heroes is now two games. Now you can play both a hero, and a villain.

The changes made to the game since I have been gone are really somewhat amazing. The game still has it’s flaws, and it is nothing to cancel my WoW subscription over, but it is actually a very enjoyable game.

Some Highlights from the past week of playing:

• Mayhem missions: blowing up everything in the city in order the create as much havok as possible in order to gain more time to rob a bank.
• Building a perfect Villain (The Office Pirate – a idea given to me by former employee here at Become and fellow blogger Daryl) with the very well done character customization process
• “Invention” system – very cool new crafting system that has you constantly finding recipes and making new stuff.
• Arena Combat – I love WoW’s arena system, but it could learn a lot from the way that CoH has implemented everything. Tons of maps, and lots of situations make Arena combat fresh and new.
• Tons of powers – I was shocked at the sheer number of skills that I could receive. There are hundreds of ways to customize your hero of villain to your own play style.
• Casual game play – Being able to play for 2 hours a night at most and still feel powerful is a serious bonus in an genre where typically those with the most time dominate.

So really, if you have put the game aside or need something new to try out give the game a shot. for $30 , and a free month there is really not that much to lose.
Kris

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World of Warcraft is a persistent online virtual world where players take up the roles of one of 8 (in the expansion 10) races to battle for their faction and protect their world. The expansion pack releases 2 new races, an increased level cap (previously 60 is now 70), all new skills and abilities, thousands of new quests and tasks, new professions, flying mounts (ever wanted to ride a dragon?), and plenty of goodies for any Warcraft series fan to enjoy.

Seriously, why are you still reading this. Pre-order already. There are 7 8 million people that play this thing, you want to fight them for a copy on the day of release? Go already!

YOU ARE NOT PREPARED!

Kris

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