Back to Global Agenda
Been playing a good deal of Global Agenda again lately. Won't go into a whole long post about it, but they've made a lot of improvements with the Sandstorm expansion. If you're interested there's a 14 day trial I believe, capped at level 12. And should you chose to buy it, use one of these coupon codes for 15% off:
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- GACOUMTSLICK01701
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Go!
GA Head Start Begins Today
These last 2 days have been painful, with no GA to play. I've actually had to resort to going out in the real world, and hanging out with my friends! Awful, I know. But today we can breathe a sigh of relief! GA servers go live today at 3pm EST!
Even though my team lost, I absolutely dominated this map
I'll be playing with the guys from Unrepentant, and although I went by Oroborus in beta, my name in live will be Doink. Look for me at the top of the charts 
Star Trek Online – Second Impressions
So now that I've finally been able to play the game for a bit, I can give you all a little better review!
I'll start out by saying that the game still seems to be very rough, even for an open beta. From the moment you start the game up you begin to see bugs, or just unpolished content all around you. Much more so on the Klingon side than the Federation side.
The game itself is a bit like EVE I suppose, but really only so much as it's set in space. The space combat itself is much more engaging than EVE's "set orbit, set weapons to autofire" combat system. You have to manually pilot your ship, position yourself so that you get the maximum number of weapons firing at once, or so that you're taking damage on the strongest part of your shields. And if you're shields start weakening on one side, you can divert power from areas you aren't taking damage on to the weakened area. Just like in the show!
Probably the most important part of combat, and something I've seen very few people other than myself use, is the "Stance" system. I call it that because I have no idea what it's actually called. But basically theres 4 combat settings you can use for your ship. Attack, defense, speed and balanced. Now it seems pretty obvious to me that if you're going on the offensive, you want to be in attack mode, and if you're being fired upon by multiple enemies, you want to be in defensive mode. But like I said, I'm the only person I've seen use these settings so far. I've been trying to spread the word when people ask how I live through so many things targeting me, but word hasn't spread quickly. Oh well.
In addition to space combat you are also sent on ground missions, which are more like traditional MMOs. You beam down to a planet, or onto another ship with your away team, and either kill a bunch of people, or gather information. The missions themselves are pretty mundane, but the combat is fairly original. I personally wish there were more ground missions, but maybe I just haven't gotten to the bulk of them yet.
The number of ships in the game seems to be fairly large. And the customization you can do to each ship is pretty impressive, both in function and visually.
Anyhow, I've forgotten what else I wanted to say. Oh well. So far I'm enjoying the game, even with all the problems it has. I think they should push the release date back to fix a lot of the issues, but what do I know.
If you're bored, and don't mind dropping the cash to get into the beta, I suggest giving it a try. My global in game is @Oekss
Nostalgia
I got to thinking the other day, and I really miss the good old days of online gaming. Sure there are a ton of great games out now, but none of them really offer the freedom to be a real bastard to people like the classics did. So many fond memories of hate tells and nerd rage that just wouldn't be possible to achieve today.
Gone are the days of opening a portal in Britania to have unsuspecting "noobs" walk through, only to be greeted by an energy vortex in an inescapable room. No more poisoning loaves of bread and leaving them in town for people to eat. No more trapping chest boxes and leaving them in the bank. No more body blocking someone into a corner then going AFK for hours or days on end. No more dropping people helplessly from buildings, directly into a pack of boss monsters. All of that is in the past.
And it wasn't just in MMOs, some of my greatest griefing memories were in FPS games. Sitting in a tank at the end of the runway, blasting any friendly plane that tried to take off. Or piloting said plane, letting my team mates hop in for a ride, then nose diving straight into the ground. Lobbing sticky grenades on to teammates who were climbing into the vehicle I wanted. Blinding teammates with a flashbang, then lighting them on fire so they didn't know who did it, only to watch the server devolve into a team killing massacre. Sadly, it seems the days of having fun at your teammates expense are coming to an end.
I wish I would have thought to save all of the screenshots and videos I had over the years. I could have probably filled an entire drive with the tales of griefing hilarity. I guess the only thing I can hope for is another game where I can torture my teammates as much as I used to.
Yes, I am that bastard team killer you hate. I am the griefer who rezes you, just to watch you die to the low level mobs beside you. I am that asshole, and I love every minute of it! Well, at least I used to 
The Secret World
Seems like it could be an interesting game, assuming Funcom doesn't fuck it up.
Holy shit, I think I’m in love
While the skeptic in me says not to get my hopes up too high, the gaming geek in me can't help but be hyped. I was recently introduced to Global Agenda, an upcoming MMOFPS that just looks awesome. I've always wanted another one of these types of games to be released, since the disappointment that was Planetside. And this one shows all indicators of succeeding where PS failed.
The major differences between GA and PS are that combat in GA will be instanced, which will hopefully take care of the lag issues PS had, while at the same time making fights easy to find. In PS you could literally take over entire bases by yourself, because there was simply nobody to oppose you. The world was too big, and there were too many servers. The population was just spread too thin.
Another major difference, and this is the big one for me, is that you'll actually be able to build your own "fortress" layout. In PS, you simply took over the premade bases, and that was that. Not very much fun in my opinion.
Anyhow, while I'm not in the beta test yet, I'm keeping my fingers crossed. And if you sign up for the beta, be sure to use this promo code: HZDMTSLICK2583
My latest addiction
So now that I'm no longer playing WoW, and Aion has yet to be released, I've found myself going back to an old love. Team Fortress 2.
Now, when the Orange Box was originally released, I didn't really give TF2 a whole lot of play time, as most of my play time was spent in whatever MMO I was playing at the time. My love of TF comes from the old school days of QuakeWorld TF. That's right, you bastards, TF existed before Half Life!
When I first started playing again I sucked. And not just your regular run of the mill suck either. This was the hardest I've ever sucked at an FPS. Frankly it was embarrassing. But I worked through it, and am now back to my former level of ass-kicking.
Now that's not to say I'm good with every class. I'm defiantly best with the Sniper, Engineer and Pyro. And I still suck with the Spy and Demoman. But that's probably only because I'm not a huge pussy. Yea, I'm calling you out spies and demomen. Play a real class, bitches.
Anyhow, if you feel up to an asskicking, my Steam ID is "Nadric"...I think. My in-game name is usually "Doink!", but it changes based on what I find funny that day. Look me up. Get wrecked.
The next big thing
After playing in the past couple beta events, I can say with a good amount of certainty that Aion has a chance to be the next big MMO. Will it unseat WoW from the top spot? Unlikely, but it'll certainly have more players than AoC and WAR...combined.
The video below uses all in-game graphics! No CGI at all. You can watch a higher quality version of the video over on Facebook. YouTube always sucks for quality, even in HD.
Now for as good as this game looks, the performance is even better. On my 8800GT system with 4G of RAM, I get around 120FPS outside, and around 80FPS in major cities. Those are better numbers than I get in WoW, by a long shot. The CryEngine is far and away the best engine found in any MMO to date.