Ye olde geeky blog

Last night we played the Annihilation game mode of Loadout. At first, I had no clue as to what the hell was going on, but caught on quite quickly. It is basically a combination of 3 of the other game modes, with a few twists of course - and it's a huge amount of fun! Firstly, to understand the other game modes: Death Snatch This is Loadout's version of classic death match. You run around and kill people. The twist here, however, is whenever you die, you drop a Blutonium vial. You must collect this item in order to score the actual points. This also means that if someone snipes you from far away (which I personally hate a great deal), they don't get the points unless he/she or a teammate picks up the vial. And, your team mates can get your vial, and prevent the opposing team from scoring. A very nice take on regular old boring death match indeed! Jackhammer Everyone knows Capture the Flag - you each have a base with a flag, and your job is to go over to the enemies...

Yesterday, I finally got my Steelseries Siberia V2 gaming headset, and I couldn't wait to do a proper gaming session with it. Now firstly, I'm not a pro gamer at all! A gaming session for me is playing for 2-4 hours. Anyway, my buddy and I booted up Loadout last night, and I switched my headset over to the 7.1 channel emulation. Boy oh boy, I am not disappointed with my new headset at all! The sound is amazing, the mic works very well, and the best part, it's extremely comfortable. When you look at the set, it looks quite big a bulky, and heavy, but it's really not. And the USB soundcard that came with the headset is definitely better than my regular onboard soundcard. Here are some screenshots of the software (which you have to download - there's no driver disc with the device): Not the prettiest interface, but it does the job it's supposed to. Here's what the USB soundcard looks like: It's got volume control, and mute buttons ...

My awesome wife bought me this baby for our anniversary: I just unpacked it, and I'm listening to some music now as I write this. I've got it loud. Very loud. And it sounds freaking amazing! I've never had a decent set of headphones, and I cannot believe how huge a difference it makes, even to something as simple as listening to music. The bass is incredible, I can feel the set vibrate on my head, and the noise cancelling is spot on, I cannot hear anything from the outside world, not even me typing on the keyboard (can't hear that even when nothing is playing!). And, when nothing is playing, you cannot even hear the slightest hiss in the background, they're dead silent! NICE! I cannot wait to use it for this evening's Loadout session! I will definitely be updating this post with my experience :D

This post is basically a continuation of this one:  http://yeoldegeekyblog.blogspot.com/2013/09/logitech-is-failing-me.html  - it was basically a summary of how Logitech, once one of my favourite computer peripheral brands, is failing me. As you can see on the above post, I've gone through numerous Logitech devices, and they always seem to start failing or breaking after a while. Usually just out of the warranty period. Anyway, on 14 October 2011 I bought myself a G330 gaming headset - now, firstly, it's not the top of range model at all, and it didn't cost me that much - ZAR313, which is around $30. Anyway, so I've had it now for just over 2 years (2 years 4 months to be precise), and the pad on the left ear has torn off. I do not use it a lot, I don't ever go out to LANs, so I literally only use once, maybe twice a week for a gaming session. Or when I need to use the mic if I'm Skyping someone. Here's what it looks like now: As you can see,...

I've always liked shooter action games, and I remember a buddy and I used to LAN (with coax cables nonetheless!) Half-life 1 a decade and a half ago. I grew up in a small town, and it was basically just the two of us who played. Every now and again a 3rd guy would join in, but that wasn't very often... Always had fun though :) I've never been a huge online shooter player, I leveled up my Battlefield 3 character to about level 20, and that's pretty much it. I tried Team Fortress, but man I just couldn't get into it. I've never played Call of Duty, and I probably won't be taking part in the Titanfall beta which is going on right now. But, I was nonetheless intrigued when I saw Loadout pop up on my Steam home screen. I checked out some videos, and the curiosity totally overwhelmed me. I installed it (only about 2.1gig download, not too shabby!). See for yourself: The idea behind the game is firstly it's a 3rd person shooter. Secondly, you get to cr...

I've always quite liked CCG - that is, Collectible Card Games - I am a huge fan of Magic the Gathering and a have a huge box full of cards. I don't, unfortunately, play as much as I'd like though. Anyway, Infinity Wars just released their beta on Steam, click here for their website  - also, check out this short intro video on what the game is about: Firstly, I always like it when developers take a tried and tested game mechanic, but add a few twists and things like that of their own. Infinity Wars is a prime example of what I mean - firstly, instead of actually taking turns to play your game, and have several phases through which each turn goes, both players now play their cards at the same time. You cannot see what the other player is playing though, so that immediately introduces some form of surprise. Also, the battlefield consists out of several zones: There are four zones in total - Command, Support, Assault and Defense. Whenever you play a card, it...

Ahh Free to Play - this always conjures up an image in my mind of micro-transactions that are inevitably needed to win the game, and sometimes even costing more in the end that some major AAA titles out there. EA is a huge culprit in this area, with the new mobile version of one of my favourite classics, Dungeon Keeper. I haven't played it, and I don't intend on playing it. Apparently the cost of moving things along is just beyond ridiculous, but quite frankly, I didn't expect anything less from EA. Luckily, their dumbass decisions have caused many awesome games to sprung up that are so-called Free to Play, and NOT Pay to Win. This is a really awesome way of actually going at the whole free to play model. You have this really awesome game that anyone can play in full, and actually complete the game without paying a cent (or be worried that you'll be up against other people who are way more powerful than you just because they have huge wads of unwanted money lying ar...