Team Fortress 2: Pyro

The Pyro is one of the best starter classes. The flamethrower can kill relatively easily. It is often said that the mantra of the Pyro is W+M1, which is so true. A newcomer to Team Fortress 2 can do alright with the Pyro with no strategy but with a strategy, the Pyro can be an essential class to any team.

So, down to the meat of the Pyro. His or her, we’re not sure unless there has been some news that I don’t know about, if so comment! His or her main strategy is, ambush. The Pyro’s flamethrower doesn’t have very good range yet it is very powerful. Using flanking routes, a little bit like the Scout can benefit your team immensely. Especially if you have the Backburner which gives you 100% crits if you flame your enemies back, it is extremely important to attack from behind, especially if you need to take down a Heavy.

A more supportive strategy is called spy checking. This is very important when protecting the objective or your Engineers nest. Spy checking involves you puffing or full on flaming your flamethrower in areas that are vulnerable to your team, for example a capture point, the intelligence in CTF, an Engineers nest or even spy checking around a Heavy and his pocket Medic to make sure they don’t get killed when making an important push.

These tips are more for fighting against other players and helping your team mates with your compression blast. The compression blast is a blast of compressed air that can either push enemies back, reflect rockets and other projectiles and extinguish team mates that are on fire. Pushing your enemies back can be extremely helpful, even if you die it’ll give time for other team mates to push the enemies back even more. It is most effective if you push a Medic away from his Heavy. The Backburner uses a lot of fuel when using the compression blast so use it wisely. Extinguishing your team mates is extremely important. I can’t even count the times I have ran circles around a Pyro to try and get his attention to put me out and I die. Extinguish team mates, it makes you more useful and you get points for it.

One last tip, if you are going head to head against a Pyro, keep your distance and get out your shotgun, unless attacking from behind and you have the Backburner or if you catch him off guard, burn him up. It is harder to burn a Pyro because of his/her protective suit.

Team Fortress 2

I have recently been getting into more PC games, partially so I could play with friends and partially because every game developer decided to release their games all at the same time at the end of the year. Anyway, I upgraded my piece of crap computer to a better one, not exceptionally good but pretty good to do what I need it to do, I’m not a PC gamer so I’m not going to shed out ridiculous amounts of money on a computer.

My friend told me that I must get Team Fortress 2 because it’s ‘amazing’. I remember seeing this title in a store a long time ago, probably when it just came out and I thought it looked pretty damn awesome but I never played it until a few weeks ago, and I have to say this is  one of the best multiplayer experiences I have ever had. Team Fortress 2 is so much fun despite the high learning curve of each class.

I love the way this game looks. I have never seen a game that looks cartoony and fun yet so amazing and hard. Most of the classes actually take skill to master unlike in COD when anyone can have at least a small amount of success. If you’re one of those douche bags who run around with Ghost, Second Chance and a noob tube then this game might not be for you.

Each class is made up of a primary weapon, a secondary weapon and a melee weapon, some classes have more things, the Engineer has another two spots to create and demolish buildings and the Spy has an extra slot for disguises. Each class is different in it’s own way, they all wield their own weapons. The Soldier has a rocket launcher, shotgun and a shovel, the Scout has a Scattergun (shotgun), a pistol and a baseball bat, the Pyro has a flamethrower, a shotgun and a fire axe, the Demoman has a grenade launcher, don’t worry, it’s not like the noob tubes in Call of Duty, the grenades don’t explode on impact unless they hit someone, a sticky bomb launcher which can be detonated at anytime and a whiskey bottle, the Heavy has a mini gun, a shotgun and his fists, the Engineer has a shotgun, a pistol, a wrench, a PDA to create buildings and another to demolish. The Medic has a syringe gun, a medigun which heals people and a saw. The Sniper has a sniper rifle, a sub machine gun and a sword. Finally, the Spy has a revolver, a sapper which destroys buildings, a knife to backstab and finally a book of disguises.

These are all the vanilla loadouts of the classes, these slots can be change to different weapons, e.g. the Scout can change his secondary to a jar of milk or different energy drinks, the Demoman can have a range of different swords. There are a lot of items that I’m not going to go into because it would take forever.

Even though there is a learning curve on this game, there is a class for everyone. My favourites are the Scout and the Soldier. The Scout is definitely one of the hardest to master along with the Spy. The easiest is the Pyro, you’ll often hear people say W+M1, the mantra of the Pyro. If you play this game you’ll understand.

One thing I love about this game is that it is so balanced, there is nothing in this game that I’ve really gotten worked up about or that’s made me rage quit, in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever raged quitted from this game. I have shouted at my monitor because of Spies killing me a lot but then I stop and realise that the Spy class is really hard and either they are too good or I’m not playing right. Obviously Jesus made a really good comment on this game, ‘The moment you start making your vanilla weapons looks bad is the moment you have an unbalanced game.’ This is so true and Team Fortress 2 doesn’t fall into the unbalanced category. I still use the vanilla Scattergun for the Scout, I used the vanilla rocket launcher for the Solider for a long time, I use the vanilla syringe and medigun for the medic.

This game was recently made F2P, you may be called a F2P noob when you start, somehow I didn’t. A lot of people complained that they bought the game the day before it went F2P but to be honest, it’s worth the $10 or £10 or €10. There are a bunch of benefits to upgrading to a premium account, you can trade with other players, get more inventory space, that was the big one for me. I went into the store and found a cheap item that I wanted and bought it, it cost me 74 cents to upgrade my account. I have hardly covered anything in this article, maybe I’ll do another one on each class, discussing strategies and ways to play each class. There’s no reason not to try out this game, it’s free!

Crysis 2 Tips

• Crysis 2 isn’t like other FPS games. It’s not like COD where you just run around shooting people, I’m not saying that you don’t need a strategy to do well in Call of Duty but all it is, is you and your gun and nothing else. In Crysis 2 you are equipped with a nanosuit which possesses nanosuit abilities. This leads on to my first tip, use all of your nanosuit abilities. You can use one more than the other but it is important that you use all of them. If you don’t use all of them you are going to get beaten time and time again.
• A lot of people might not think this but I do, this is a very important tip, do not get distracted by the awesome water animation. On Skyline, I once sat in a corner to recharge and I got distracted by the water dripping off my visor and I was stealth killed. It might not seem like a big deal but you could be about to collect your 7th dog tag.
• Understand the maps. This one can apply to all first person shooters but in Crysis 2 it is especially important. If you are low on energy you’re going to need some where safe to recharge, you don’t want to be caught with your pants down in the open.
• Never shoot whilst cloaked. A lot of people didn’t know this one at first but if you shoot whilst cloaked it will drain all your energy, this goes for grenades and melee too. Handguns are the only weapon that doesn’t completely drain your energy. An easy way to switch out of cloak rapidly is to switch to armour, you’ll probably be getting into a gun fight anyway and it protects you from other enemies around you.
• This one applies to other first person shooters but again, I think this one applies more to Crysis 2 because of the nanosuit. Choose your modules wisely, they can help greatly with your nanosuit.
• A lot of people don’t like the idea of cloaking too much in Crysis 2. Some people say it’s like camping or it’s noobish or some people just aren’t used to it but it’s not. The game has given it to you, use it. If your opponent isn’t using it you’re already one step closer to killing him and not getting killed by his team mate.
• Watch Crysis 2 videos. Before I got Crysis 2 I drooled over it watching commentaries and tips videos. It will improve your game even if you don’t realise it.
• Finally, play the game. With experience you’ll know what the best attachments are, what the best modules are etc. Over time you’ll also know what cloaked enemies look like and understand the maps more.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

I bought this game when it came out and I loved it. Me and my friends would role in a squad raping everyone. We had plans for world domination, we would all have our class that we played as, it was very organised and it worked well. The game is extremely different from COD and if you like first person shooters and you’re getting bored of COD this is a great change. Eventually my friend persuaded me to come back to Modern Warefare 2 because he didn’t like it.

Admittedly, the single player isn’t as good. The storyline lacks the imagination of the Call of Duty series but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. The game itself looks amazing, the landscapes are beautiful. The single player might not be as good as other FPS games but there are definitely parts of the game that you won’t find in any other FPS. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 makes up for the single player with it’s multiplayer. The multiplayer is by far the best online experience I have ever encountered. Sure in Call of Duty there are loads of options and game types but you won’t find the maps, and the cooperation of the players in this game. The game doesn’t focus on kills and deaths, more so on points gathered. I enjoy games like this because you don’t get so frustrated when you die or become a different player when you’re on a massive killstreak. Instead of building up kills you are encouraged to gain points by either repairing vehicles, destroying vehicles, planting bombs, defusing bombs, healing, reviving, giving people ammo etc.

This brings me on to the classes. The multiplayer is divided into four different classes, Assault, Engineer, Medic and Recon. As an Assault your goal is to rush into the battlefield and kill. Killing isn’t everything, dropping ammo packs will also give you points, when another player is low on ammo they can resupply by walking over it. As you may have guessed, you can only use assault rifles as an Assault. As an Enginerr your job is to drive the vehicles. The vehicles being, tanks, quad bikes and helicopters. As a Engineer you can have a gadget, a drill that allows you to repair vehicles and this also gives you points. You can only use sub machine guns as an Engineer. As the Medic, your objective is to heal and revive. Healing works in the exact same way as resupplying as an Assault. Reviving brings people back from the brink of death and can potentially give you a lot of points. The Medic can only use light machine guns. I usually hate LMGs but they are really good in this game. As the Recon you are supposed to take people out to aid your fellow players on the battlefield. In my opinion there are only three good snipers in this game. They are all bolt action, the others have horrible sights and are semi automatic, one is full automatic. As a Recon you can call in mortar strikes and throw motion mines which help your team mates. Sniping in this game is insane. The sniping in this game is like no other. It’s not like in Call of Duty where the snipers are basically used like M14s. You actually have to snipe, you have to think as a sniper and when you get that kill from across the map, it is extremely rewarding.

Another thing that puts this game above others is the use of vehicles. You can drive a range of tanks, helicopters, quad bikes, boats, jet skis and humvees. The vehicles like tanks and helicopters can dominate if put in the right hands but if you aren’t an experienced pilot of gunner you are not going to last in a vehicle. Experience does play a key role when lethal vehicles are involved. Another great thing in this game is the UAVs. Instead of just calling one in, you use a stationary computer to fly it around, call in Hellfire strikes and shoot enemies if you have the right specs.

This game is severely underrated in my opinion and a lot of games are taking credit for things that Battlefield: Bad Company 2 have brought into the gaming world. Homefront for instance the Parrot Drone is pretty much the UAV in Bad Company 2. There is also a version of Conquest and Rush mixed into one game type in Homefront. I don’t know the name because I have no intention of playing Homefront, I haven’t heard great things about it even though I was excited for its release. Conquest in Bad Company 2 is when you capture flags and Rush is when you destroy things called ‘M-COM’ stations and move up the map when two are destroyed and repeat. Homefront act as if these things are new but they aren’t and now Homefront are taking credit for it when Bad Company 2 have already done it.

I have recently started playing this game again and I am loving it. Battlefield 3 is coming out and I am very excited for its release. The online can only get better.

Is Black Ops already boring?

Everyone gets excited when it’s that time of the year when the new Call of Duty is released. I was really excited for this COD title because I wanted to see how they would expand and create a new game as good as Modern Warfare, especially after the slight disappointment that was World at War. I say ‘slight’ because it was my first COD title and I personally didn’t find it that bad… until I played MW2.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved Black Ops, I prefer it to MW2, the campaign has certainly gotten better, the action packed missions like, sliding down a zip wire whilst shooting at windows and killing guys. It is definitely the best campaign yet. I know some people may say that the Modern Warfare series may have a better storyline and it may but it lacked the epic feel that Black Ops has. Yes I know, shooting a load of civilians is awesome but it still wasn’t action packed. This brings me onto the multiplayer. The multiplayer is by far the best so far out of the series. It’s great to see that Treyarc are trying their best to combat retarded campers by only allowing killstreaks to be awarded with kills with weapons on your person. I got to say that I don’t really enjoy a lot of the killstreaks, my current set up for Team Deathmatch and anything other than Free for All is, Blackbird, Chopper Gunner and Dogs, Gunship is way to risky, if I get eleven kills I don’t want to be shot out of the sky in an instant. If I’m in Free for All I usually swap Chopper Gunner for a Spy Plane. Spy Planes are really underrated and are extremely helpful in Free for All as everyone is an enemy. I don’t use Chopper Gunner because thirty kills is the limit and I’m not looking for a ridiculous amount of kills, just to win and dogs will most likely be able to do that.

I know a few people, including myself that weren’t sure about buying this game in the first place and in the end we all did. I love this game but it doesn’t stop me wondering about the next Call of Duty and how it’ll bring a new and exciting aspect to first person shooters. First person shooters need to do this or they’ll be tossed out with the rest of the garbage like World at War was. Infinity Ward did create the Modern Warefare series so I’m not as nervous but with ever increasing competition with first person shooters Infinity Ward can’t just release another Modern Warfare title, believe it or not, a lot of gamers actually don’t  just drink Mountain Dew and eat Cheetos, (even though I do enjoy those things) they have a mind of their own and they will realise that they’ve been playing the same game for three years.

I know the Call of Duty series won’t suddenly become popular, it’s one of the best, if not the best first person shooter out there and it will continue to sell but just because it sells doesn’t mean it won’t become popular. The Wii was poplar then suddenly everyone realised what they had done and went out and bought themselves an Xbox 360 or a PS3, the smarter ones, a Xbox 360.