I recently just found out that TF2 can run on windows 2000 OS. Now that it's being released seperately, I took a second to recheck the system requirements. There was the answer, staring me right in the face. I was so excited I had to recheck at a few other sites xD. I will probably get it once the school year is over. I have so much studying to do this year.

In other news. I've just received my first PC Gamer maganize, which I subscribed to a few months ago. It doesn't come with the CD because I subscribed through my school's fundraising program. This was a little dissapointing, since this month's CD comes with exclusive Starcraft II stuff.

Also they tested around 60 FREE MMOs and came up with the 10 that they felt were the best. I tried to play Fiesta, but it only runs on XP/Vista.... Then I tried Holic, which I'm playing now. Holic is a korean-based MMO. It's artwork is 3D anime style. It reminded me of Dark Cloud 2. The interface looks alot like WoW. This is the only reason I decided to try Fiesta before Holic. I haven't played WoW, but somehow it feels alot like WoW too. From the equiment ratings, fight sequences, money set up (it's basically gold, silver and copper, but with different names). Sorry if my descriptions are hard to follow, I've never been very good at describing how something looks.

Also there was one article by Norman Chan titled "Have A Cookie". I'll sum it up for you: TF2 is a multiplayer giant. Games have rewards that encourage a player to keep playing. In FPS games there have been two types, short term rewards that end after a play session, and long term rewards that stay with the player. Games like CS use short term rewards, giving money to each player. This adds a certain strategy to the game, e.g. saving up the first few rounds for sniper rifles. Other games that use long term rewards tend to lead to a certain one-sidedness in-game. Examples are BF2, which you get unlocks to use in battle. CoD4 uses a mix of both, allowing progress in ranks with unlocks. Also after certain consecutive kills you can call in artillery which leads to....more consecutive kills. Really is the game any fun once you've gotten to the top? That's why I preffer games like TF2 or UT3. All I want is an even playing ground, that isn't affected by stats, unlocks etc. I understand the point of having rewards in the game, but there's nothing more rewarding then blowing your head off with a rocket launcher.

Ok, that's about it. I may have left out a few key points here and there, and it won't sound as nice either, but I think I got most of the points in. Anyways, I was amazed when I read this. I've been playing BF2 for a while now, and I developed my own theory, much like Norman did. I related to his article completely. like "OMG I know what ur saying!"

TF2 HERE I COME!

What I usually do is stick with one game for a long time. Playing through it, trying to get really good at it. But there comes a point when I penelize myself for the smallest mistakes. This causes stress and alot of times I just want to smash my computer to bits. That's about the time I buy another game to suck me in.

Right now I'm playing Guild Wars, Battlefield 2 and Rock Band. The only thing that's appealing anymore in Guild Wars is organized PvP. This, though, is harder than it seems. Most of the time I'm stuck with random people, but occasionally I can join my guild to go in. When I'm stuck with random people, well... you can be grouped with anyone. You can be grouped with downright jackasses who blame you for everything, and there's the RARE group that, when you have to leave, asks you come play with them again. Also something that's been happening alot lately: I've have to go eat dinner right when my guild decides to PvP. By the time I come back they've found someone else. And by the time a spot comes open, I have to go to sleep.

With BF2 I get upset very easily these days. e.g. "omg wtf how did i die?", "omg I should've killed that guy.", "omg revive me!!" Stuff like that. I've been playing it for over a year now. I don't know of any good BF2 clans or whether I should join one, so I usually play by myself. Similarly when I play Rock Band, "how did I miss that note?"

I really want to get CoD4 and the Orange Box but chances are my computer (which still uses Windows2000) won't be able to run it. I'm looking forward to Starcraft II, but for the above reason, I probably won't be able to play that either.

My other alternative is to buy a new generation console (I still have the PS2), but the newer consoles seem so much more complicated than they used to be. Like how does the internet work? I know you have to pay for xbox live. Also I heard only specific models of the PS3 are backward compatible.

auron570

well i've been playing Rock Band on my PS2 for over three months now. I'd been pretty satisfied with the drum set despite what other reports said. I even concluded that problems only occured for the 360 set. Well I was wrong =P. My brother broke the pedal. He says he was playing a song on hard, then it just snapped. I have played songs on expert np, now he is saying he's going to repair it somehow.

So currently I can't play the drums on RB =S. Which is a real shame since I found it is a very satisfactory way of releasing stress.

Regards, auron570