Knifer

Probably my favorite class currently, it relies on speed, misdirection and hitting the enemy from where they least expect it.

Weapons

• P90
• Red Dot Sight
• .44 Magnum

The P90 has a huge clip so it's great for dancing around up close with an enemy if you miss. The Magnum packs a good punch for aimed shots. 

Equipment

• Tactical Insertion

Drop this down in a hidden area behind your enemy to give yourself a sneaky start.

Special Grenades

• Smoke Grenade

Use this to cover your escape or confuse enemies.

Perks

• Marathon Pro
• Lightweight Pro
• Commando Pro

Marathon so you never have to stop sprinting, Lightweight gives you that speed boost to get in close faster. Commando increases the range of your knife and mitigates fall damage letting you drop into unexpected places.

Deathstreak

• Martyrdom

As a knifer you'll usually be really close to someone when they manage to kill you, so dropping a live grenade is the best choice for payback.

Strategy

Ruuuuuuuuunnnnnnnn..... this class is best used constantly on the move. At the beginning of a round go for a lesser travelled path that will get you deep into enemy territory. You always want to be surrounded by enemies, not friends. You can run much faster than most other people so getting deep into the enemy area should be fairly easy. Head to the back of the map and start working your way forward. Remember to drop your Tactical Insertion somewhere hidden at the back of the map so that if you die, you don't have to sprint through enemy lines again.

Just keep sprinting and checking common camping spots. Always try to keep yourself out of long lines of sight and work in tight quarters and around corners. Remember, the knife carries you forward so knife early. You'll get the range after a few kills.

Once you come upon your hapless foes, you'll most likely be in one of 4 situations.

1. The enemy has their back to you and is alone. This is the second best case situation, sprint up and stab them in the back.

2. The enemy is facing you and is alone. The enemy has spotted you and is most likely firing at you. If they're close enough, just rush straight for them and knife em. If you've got a bit of distance from them, either strafe left and right while charging them or duck back around a corner until they are reloading and then charge.

3. The enemies have their backs to you and are in a group. This is the best case situation. Start knifing from the back of the group. Drop them one by one, making sure to prioritize any that start turning around or moving. If they notice you, drop a smoke grenade, back off and take another approach.

4. The enemies are facing you and are in a group. This is the worst case situation. 9/10 times, someone will nail you. If you're lucky enough to get around a corner, drop your smoke grenade and bail out. Look for another route.

Most maps have a natural flow and the key is to work your way through the rear of the enemy up to the front where your two teams are fighting. The front will shift but where you should be will not, always in the rear, surrounded by enemies and alone.

--------> fighting <--------
|                                        |
|  their side                         |   your side
|                                        |
------< you are here ------

Good luck and remember, keep moving. Video example coming soon.

I've seen a lot of posts around the net regarding how to get Death Toll & Dead Air Versus maps running. You don't need to download anything, you just need access to a server config. To get those campaigns running in Left 4 Dead, follow these instructions.

Add 2 lines to your server config:

sv_search_key youruniquekey
director_no_human_zombies 0

Reboot your server and you'll be good to go. It will start up with No Mercy VS. Get a bunch of friends together, get into a lobby and type in console (enabled in keyboard/mouse options):

sv_search_key youruniquekey

When you search for a dedicated server, it will choose your server. Once you've joined create the following bind by typing this in console:

bind "F9" "rcon_password yourrconpassword;rcon changelevel l4d_airport01_greenhouse"

bind "F10" "rcon_password yourrconpassword;rcon changelevel l4d_smalltown01_caves"

Now hit F9 or F10 to load those maps and they will load in versus mode.

There are a few bugs associated with doing this that can be slightly painful.

1. Infected climbing paths are sometimes unmarked
2. Sometimes you can go out of the world
3. Players can't join by invite
4. Only one team gets to play the finale

To get players to join, just get them to openserverbrowser in console and search for your server. They should be able to join through the browser though you can sometimes get the server is full message.

That's about it, have fun with the new campaigns. 

After searching around fervently for ways to watch the ICBM go off at Fort Constantine, I decided it might be a good idea to put a quick guide together for how to enjoy a nuclear experience in Fallout 3. This posting contains some spoilers, so check out some screenshots of other games if you don't want to read ahead.

1. Megaton

The easiest and most obvious one is the big unexploded nuke, sitting in a puddle of irradiated water in Megaton, the first town you run into in the game. You can accept the quest (The Power of Atom) from a man named Burke in the Megaton bar, giving you the necessary component to remote det the nuke. You need an explosives skill of 25 to rig the bomb. Once you do, you'll get to watch Megaton get reduced to an irradiated landfill from the balcony of your sweet new apartment in Tenpenny Towers.

Funny little easter egg, if you go back there, Moira Brown, the supplies shopkeeper is now a ghoul but well and alive.

2. Fort Constantine

Fort Constantine is in the NW top of the map, surrounded by satcom towers. It looks like a burnt out civilian installation with a military truck, but actually contains an ICBM launch facility. To get into Launch Control, you do need a key, and you might as well pick up the T-51b Power Armor while you're in there. Head to Underworld which is in the Museum of Natural History near the Washington Monument and talk to Mister Crowley. He'll give you a quest to asassinate a few people, you can just pickpocket them or talk them out of it. Dig deep on some of them and they'll give you the location of Fort Constantine on your map.

Once you have all three keys, you can head straight up to Fort Constantine and head into the small 1 story house (CO Quarters) near the entrance. Down in the basement is a safe on your left which contains the launch codes for the ICBM. Head into the Launch Control and you'll find a working computer with a one button launch procedure.

Fire away and you'll go through a sequence where everything closes up, electricity sparks from computers and the ground shakes. Now this leads to a mystery. The computer then says "Targeting Navigation Corrupted" and there is no evidence of a nuke going off anywhere. The 2 theories are that since it's an ICBM, it's aimed somewhere off the map or that it does not actually launch/goes off in the launch pad. Email me if you find any different.

3. SatCom Array NW-05a

Just to the West of Fort Constantine is a satellite communications tower called SatCom Array NW-05a. Inside, there is a wastelander with a science coat on carrying activation codes. Head up to the top of the tower and before going up onto the dish, there is a computer. Feed the codes in, jump up onto that dish and watch the mini-nukes rain down.

4. Cars

Just for fun, or if you see an enemy standing beside a car.. or even better.. a bunch of cars, shoot the cars to get them burning. They will explode complete with radiation damage about the size of a mini-nuke. Try it in a car park for radioactive fun.

5. Fat Man and Mini Nukes

The fat man is the mini-nuke launcher you find in the game. There are lots of mini-nukes scattered throughout the game so don't be shy about liberally dishing them out in the Rivet City marketplace.

After a little frustration of playing HQ1, the original, not the VGA version, I switched over to the point and click and finished Hero's Quest 1.

I really love the fact that it was one of the first games where you could save your character and import it into the next Hero's Quest. Many fond memories made this a great experience to re-live. If you've never played the HQ series or even Police Quest or Kings Quest... hit an abandonware site and play through em.

In these days of antialiasing beating great gameplay, I love the chance to work through a well designed story over the physics in Crysis.

In a day of many failed multi-million dollar initiatives, gameplay has been replaced by high-end graphics and low barrier for entry. It still amazes me that a game like X-Com: UFO Defense can hold me rapt for longer than any Call of Duty or even Civilization. Still one of the best games ever made with no real challengers for sheer enjoyment with its creepy sound effects, tactical battle simulation and world building, X-Com can suck you in like a comfort food.

If you've never played it, pick it up now. It's available on Steam or even on many Abandonware sites.

Elastic computing seems to be the next logical step when it comes to scalable application infratsructure. While still in its infancy, this segregation of systems architecture from application architecture is of great value to businesses that don't have predictions of product usage, allowing them to scale up on demand. Companies like Elastra are providing service based Elastic Computing on their own existing grids.

From an environmental perspective, there are an enormous amount of wasted cycles on underutilized server and home computers. Generally servers operate well below their safe threshold as a design decision to accomodate peaks. Home computers are often left on and generally are at 0% utilization for the majority of the day.

This existing infrastructure is completely untapped and provides a great platform for both utilization and a revenue source for those that have underutilized infrastructure.

A distributed application which provided a platform (a la seti@home) for Elastic Computing could easily be downloaded onto existing servers and home pcs, providing the horsepower to drive expanding applications and also provide owners with a revenue source for underutilized systems. Adopters of the distributed application could be paid on a per usage basis and be included as part of the Elastic Cloud.

In my mind, with the concerns of energy usage and constant turn over of systems infrastructure, this solution both moves us towards a more environmentally friendly approach to computing and allows for owners of infrastructure to utilize it to the maximum while providing a revenue stream.

Wish I had time to build the app.

So there I was, on vacation in Los Angeles, ready to gorge myself on the holy grail of meat: Bacon. After a long night of hearing salespeople gripe about their jobs and reminding people that we don't ride polar bears to work in Canada, I was ready to indulge in a salty fiesta known as a breakfast buffet. While preparing to approach the meat tray and carefully placing a second napkin on my table to wipe my brow clean of the meat sweats, I couldn't shake the repetitive chant of Michael Phelps that echoed through the cavernous breakfast hall.

The evening before I had spent at the hotel bar, quietly sipping my beer and listening to the collective pride in the crowd's champion, a half man, half fish, gold metal hauling athlete. I seemed to be the only one there who noticed the scrolling news ticker below the olympics advertising Bush's negative stance on the Russian invasion of Georgia. Not surprising, seeing as the oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea runs directly through Georgia. I wonder if the conflict would have even made the news if the Blackwater guarded U.S. initiative to run a pipeline through unstable countries to avoid having to buy exported Russian Oil was a real alternative.

I began to wonder if people realized what herded, pampered pawns they were in the grand scheme. Urged to quit smoking, be active and meet the media's image of the perfect human, American culture seems to push people to aspire to be great physical beings like the fish-man while the left hand is pumping their kids full of super-sized salt burgers and 3 pounds of diabetes inducing sugar. I wonder if they teach the word hypocrite in American schools. Of course I digress into sheer stereotypes, but it's hard not to in this image-centric population.

As I turned the page on USA Today, I saw a picture of Oakley wearing soldiers, standing around in Iraq. They also were well built, looked healthy, as you'd expect from the well-oiled military machine. But no-one was cheering for them in the bar, just the athletes. To me, this "Quick, look over here, it's a fish-man, ignore that war thing" looked like it was working quite well, though somewhat disconcerting. Although those soldiers may or may not be fighting for a good cause, they're fighting, and perhaps it might be worthwile to draw some attention to them and make them feel like they are appreciated. Either that or add limpet mines to the free swim event.

Surrounded by overweight sales people, super-sized children and a culture of violence and decadence, I steeled myself to push through the sweaty crowd to the bacon trough and loaded my plate up with as much of the shiny, crispy, chewey goodness as I could. As soon as I managed to maneuver myself to my four-person table for one, I plopped myself down and popped a slice into my mouth. It was horrible. I couldn't even bring myself to try another slice, something had gone very very wrong somewhere between the sty and the metal heating container. Making bacon bad was something I thought was a technical impossibility, but someone had managed. Amidst all the gorging, killing and hypocrisy, lost was a carnal pleasure second to none. A tear ran down my cheek as I stood up and took leave of this proud but misguided dining populace.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly when the Internet was lost to the swarms of technological neophytes to emerge later as the "web". It was probably at the exact point when pornography proliferation was at its highest, drawing in the worst and most uneducated swine onto this advanced communication tool to help shape it into quagmire that it is today.

Normally I'm happy to let the peons go about their business, making themselves available to predators on MySpace and getting all their data mined on Facebook. I'm even ok when idiotic posts like "root kits in Bioshock" make it up onto what used to be a reputable tech news source, Slashdot. Just so long as they keep it out of my private space.

Having run out of reading material for the can, I had picked up a copy of the latest Wired magazine to see what kind of editorial butchery they had employed in their article on Halo 3 and for emergency toilet paper. As I was flipping through, carefully averting my eyes to make sure I didn’t lose too many brain cells, I came upon a big 2 page spread that drew my eye.

WW1

I giggled in delight at the prospect of reading an article on World War 1 written by someone who shits their pants in fear when they receive a suspicious attachment in their email. But as my eyes slowly moved over the glossy page I spotted something that made my blood run cold.

Web War 1: How Europe's Most Wired Country Beat the Botnets

Now, I knew they were idiots over there, but you’d think that someone there would have somewhat of a clue… maybe the guy who installs the workstations. But no, now they’ve gone and infected the public with yet another excuse to spread ignorance around the world. When I was a little boy I remember looking forward, wondering when the days of downloading a 4 part jpeg from a BBS on my 2400 baud modem would be done. When I could no longer just send text messages, but could publish things, search things on a sort of a global BBS.

I guess someone was listening to me, because then the Web started evolving. This new shiny experience called the World Wide Web was a wonder for many people, sitting on top of the Internet using HTTP protocols to display and share information. Slowly, other forms of Internet protocols started losing popularity, like newsgroups, finger and the Web started filling some of these roles. Underneath the Web still lies a uh… uh… web of lower level protocols which enable the core and business functions of the Internet and allow the Web to run.

I think I might be starting to make myself a little clear, but let me spell it out. The Internet is not the World Wide Web. The World Wide Web is but a fraction of the Internet. If we’re going to call things by the name of their largest component, we should have just called the whole thing Porn.

I’m baffled at the idea of running a DOS attack on the HTTP protocol; maybe they were flooding the systems with SOAP requests or sending massive XML documents through POST requests. If this were the case, and the hackers were as nubly as the writers and editors for Wired, well we’d have a very safe world indeed. We could just throw both groups in a pit and fill it in with back issues of wired… slowly. Unfortunately the attackers were a little smarter, using botnets and other hijacked systems to attack their target with more low-level and powerful protocols.

I don’t know why I feel the need to punch someone in the tongue whenever they try and blur that distinction between the Web and the Internet, but that’s just the way they built me. Technology is a tool, and people generally don’t use a band saw if they think it’s called a jackhammer. Understanding of technology is what empowers us to make it better and more useful to us; instead of blindly flailing about with our iphones in our hands riding our Segways, perhaps we should look a little closer at the technology which allows us to do more and more powerful things every day and try to understand it.

And by the way, you can’t Google the Internet, not only does it sound dirty, but it’s a proper name, not a verb. You can, however, search the Internet with Google. Unfortunately I think we’ve already lost that linguistic battle, maybe it’s all the porn on Google.

Caught myself at a critical decision point the other night while grinding my level 51 shadow priest on Gurubashi. Should I just uninstall the game right now and get on with my life, or should I just aim to hit 60 and then put the game on the back burner for a while. Unfortunately I realized that the addictive quality of WOW allows for neither option. I have a feeling that I'll be raiding Molton Core many a time in the next while vying for the best mana regen equipment I can find so that my Holy respec is worthwhile. I am however getting a little tired of people who just won't play the game on principle. I find that WOW is the pinnacle of current MMORPGing, perhaps only until D&D but it's one that you can't miss. Without experiencing the vast amounts of great artwork, gameplay balancing and content that fills this multi-user environment one could end up with a big gap in the history of gaming. So to all you naysayers and so-called moral crusaders who say WOW replaces your social life and is addictive as hell, I say you're misguided(on the first point).

World Of Warcraft enables a thriving social community where people interact without the regular biases of personal communication such as appearance, age, sex and other discriminating factors. One can be judged simply on what they say and what they do, one of the benefits of non face-to-face communication. This is one part of the evolution of communication technology that I feel has benefited a new breed of humans who no longer are able to discriminate based on stereotypes and bias. So before you judge so harshly this new form of social environment, consider the last time you sat down and had a conversation with a homeless person. It may have it's flaws, but it also is a pinnacle of human communication which is currently enhancing global collaboration.

Some great satire about gaming. Be sure to check it out http://www.purepwnage.com.

It occurred to me when I was cleaning out my paintball rifle that perhaps the average person might get the wrong idea about the intent behind my penchant for virtual and non-lethal combat. Some may feel that this extends into an ideology that accepts and encourages violence and war, though I can assure you it's not necessarily the contrary, chances are you won't find me on top of a tall building screaming something to the effect of "You'll never take me alive.", not this month anyways. I've always had a small obsession with warfare and combat, never contact sports, only the more serious end of human competition. There are reasons for this inescapable curiosity other than visual gratification.

I've found over the course of my professional life that it's very hard to find people who approach problems and challenges in a confident and straightforward manner. Many seem to rather cower and pass responsibility instead of taking it on. In war and combat there's a different sense of priorities. This may be a result of a general consensus that in order to survive, your side must win, making your task all the more vital to self-preservation. Whatever the reasons, decisions made in combat seem to carry more weight and be made with precision, or at least you'd hope so. I feel that actual competition and combat brings out the best, and worst in humans; The most powerful to be sure.

Coming back to my combat urges, be it paintball, target practice or virtual online war, I find these forays into violence and competition leave me with a sense of confidence and pride (when I don't lose); A sense of self that transfers into every aspect of my life, allowing me to take on challenges others would shirk due to their seeming difficulty. An urge to "win one for the gipper" and attempt to achieve my goals through any means necessary. So if you happen to be driving down the highway and you see a young man in a window cleaning his rifle, don't shake your head, feel some comfort in knowing that at least there are a few people out there that you can count on to get the job done and do it with pride.

"Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum."

Just immersed myself in Medal Of Honor Pacific Assault and I gotta tell ya, it's worth every penny of the $29.99 CDN I payed for it on Boxing Day. While the cinematics are great, the low-caliber weapons and small clips really make battle interesting. Lots of bayonet gouging and panicked reloads with Japanese officers charging at you with samurai swords.

This close up less than lethal combat, combined with the awkward 3d controls make for quite the challenge. Purposefully or not, they really stress that picking headshots is the only way to go and also quite difficult to do thanks to the slow response of your character and limited aiming ability. MOH excells with gorgeous cinematics and really hectic battle environments. If you can find it really cheap somewhere, it's worth a quick play through.

It's rare that a game these days, especially one built for ps2 and ported to pc would bring back the nostalgia of late 80s and early 90s gaming. Lack of a graphical engine forced developers to focus more upon complexities of the puzzles and challenges thus developing timeless wonders such as Below The Root, Stunts and Ufo Defence. POP WW definitely puts me back in that mood, but with a great graphical engine to boot. See how it really stacks up later this month in the upcoming review. Check out the screenshots.

The wonderful minds over at Running With Scissors have featured Art's Postal2 Review in the latest newsletter. Glad to see all this work is appreciated. Check out their newsletter here. Cheers, guys, this one's for you.

So I finished Half-Life 2 last night, much to my chagrin, and early, within 36 hrs of getting it. I probably honestly spent 1/4 as much time downloading it as playing through it the first time. NOTE: First Time. I say this because the wonderful engine that valve decided to let us play in, makes the game quite versatile in playability. I figure there are several more ways to go at situations in the game. But enough of that, check the updates in the gallery and look for the review, coming as soon as I play through again. I'm off to giggle and cringe in awe some more.

I'll see ya'll in a little bit. Just finished downloading Half-Life 2 off of Valve's Steam Engine and boy was it slow and ureliable. But 'nuff whining. I'll see you when the dust settles and the quivering exo-skeletons stop steaming.

Updated: Dang.. physics modelling that'll make your protracter excited.... check out the gallery... less talkie more play

Just a quick tip for those of you like me who were too impatient their first few times through Hitman Contracts. If you sit back and watch the title screen for a while, you'll get to see some great Hitman cutscenes. Instead of spoiling it with a screenshot, this one will have to suffice.

Might as well check out the new Hitman Contracts Screenshots while you're here.

So what happens if Bush doesn't win? Does U.S. all of a sudden play nice? It almost seems like a curse to a future fps developer (hopefully) if global conflict has no congealing cause. I mean, don't get me wrong, I would love to see evolution of global justice. Unfortunately, that means that these little smurfs... i.e. peackeepers will be called upon to do further duties. In my eyes, the natural evolution of the current combat ideology entails less troops, greater effectiveness, as it has always been. The creation of the ultimate combat ready mediary is a respectable endeavor, but neither candidate has the potential or the drive of men like Pearson.

For fps gaming to thrive, i figure it relies upon three things, a willing group of individuals with an interest in purely virtual combat, a stellar engine which utilizes current and future technology, and a personal link to atrocity and war. The latter factor draws what I think as the most indulgent and financially capable market. Without a link to reality a game can only rely upon it's visual appeal.

Without global conflicts like Vietnam, WWII we could not have the visceral experiences available in games like Call Of Duty. I guess it's the curse of the virtual warmonger.

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/TorontoSun/News/2003/10/24/234937.html

Just wondering how many terrorists are going to play the new Siphon Filter...

Also, if it's in your best interests not to associate it with a terrorist site, wouldn't they be mad at the news agencies posting this story? And how come it was solely up to the TTC, what about tourism and government, a positive exposure of Canada's largest city to the future generations of the gaming world could ease the general nasty sentiment between our populaces. Personally, I never knew I wanted to go to Cote D'azur in France until I played NFS Porsche Unleashed, course I guess I'm not allowed to bring an overpriced sports car and smash into oncoming traffic while I'm there.

Although I'm angry about the lack of Canadian representation in gaming and war games considering our vital roles in world wars and our top notch in the international peacekeeping efforts. But this transfer to reality issue is prevalent with the less intellectually fortunate and perhaps the TTC has a point. With the widespread release of these games on easy to get - easy to play gaming platforms, even the amateur user has access to the new information provided by the game, true or false. As in everything in life, it is up to the person to interpret this information and weed out fiction, which should be easy when playing a Video Game.

Abbot had a recent experience that demonstrates it the best. While skateboarding, several less gifted hooligans started asking him to do tricks like the ones from Tony Hawk Underground. The fact that the only information that these had that was relevant to skateboarding was the video game, and they were willing to express the knowledge they gained from the game, it makes you wonder what other transferrences to reality may happen.

Ahh, the M79 or thump gun as some refer to it lovingly. This stylish little tube can launch grenades a fair distance and is generally used for clearing out bunkers, NOT CQB. Some players enjoy exploiting the no team damage and nailing people point blank with the nade launcher. Not all that realistic... or fun... Most of the exploits up until now were mostly vehicle or camping which both have some grounding in real life. Point Blank Bomberman just ain't the BF Vietnam way, well at least not mine. In response to these cheesemongers hiding in the tunnels with their tube trembling in their hands, I've come up with a quick way to even the score. Tired of Americans cheaping you out of a rightful homeland? I call it BFV Collectors Edition (See Right Screenshot).

As for the left screen, just an update on the chopper to chopper jumps... it looks like you can ride on top of some choppers. The next question is: Can you parachute on to them?

So there I am, slicing through hordes of underground VC in Operation Cedar Falls for Battlefield Vietnam, when it dawns on me that I'm on a server full of newbies. It's late enough that their reflexes have been dulled by my constant machine gun fire and no one in their right minds is going to stick their head out of the tunnels. It's time to play with the choppers. After a few successful under the bridges and 3 second touchdown/takeoffs the old no one to kill bad vibe starts to kick in.

That's when I notice Swissboy, a fellow early morning gamer just hovering over our base in the transport chopper. After some high speed low altitude flying I decided to try the fabled chopper leap, originally conceived of for Delta Force. This involves jumping from one chopper to another in an emergency situation while in mid air. While watching me try was probably a lot of fun for those on the ground, the end result was rather dismal. While it may be possible with the right combination of momentum, the rotor blades aren't too friendly to your shins when you land on top of the chopper, blocking the easiest access route.

I'm gonna give it another stab tonight.... but it looks like even if successful, it will be only a marginally acceptable chopper leap in this game engine.