Strong Boxing

I don't post very often. Sorry, gents. However, I thought that I'd come back and give a bit of commentary on the Strongboxes popping up on TF2. Many people (myself included) rumored these strongboxes to be part of the hyped "End of the Line" update, this is not the case. Now, we can hop back over to the idea of strongboxes in general, what was Valve's plan? Another community update.

Valve has, for the last couple of big updates now, referred to only community made items, and pushed focus to the idea of updating, not upgrading. This works just well, but I think that Valve has recently forgotten that TF2 is not only a hat-based simulator. Don't get me wrong, I love this simulation and everything about it, but I like playing the game too. Just making weapon tweaks does little to what I refer to 'actual gameplay.' In the case of "New MvM updates" we're all fairly aware that although Valve entices with new maps and abilities, the real appeal of MvM is Australium Weapons and Professional parts, which you need to buy tickets for.

TF2 has ceased to be a game, and this worries me. Nowadays, TF2 sits 3rd as most played, behind both DOTA 2 and CS:GO. I think this can be tracked by the fact that TF2 is no longer receiving updates that makes it special. The last weapon add was in December of 2012. I still have hope for TF2, because Valve isn't the tpye of company to just drop a game. We can keep the belief that Valve Time is just keeping from a true, versatile update that gets to the hearts of players. I'm hoping that End of The Line does just that.

--Santa

It Happened

Living the Dream

I know I promised that I was going to update more frequently, but it never really happened, did it? Between the beginning of a new school year, Mann vs. Machine, and some personal events that were completely out of my control, blogging has fallen to the way side, but I’m trying to get back into it, starting with this: the milestone post. You see this hat? It’s mine. Perhaps I should explain what’s happened in the last few weeks:

Starting with the whole Triad Bundle or whatever the TF2 Team decided to go with, I launched and thought it may be a chance to profit, starting with weapons, I only managed to craft a Neon Annihilator, and it was already out of the 100s. So, about to get off, a quick look in my backpack told me that I could do some hat crafting, and so I figured, why not? What was the worst thing that could happen? Putting in 2 Pyromania hats, and next thing I knew? I was sitting on a Last Breath. Not believing my good luck, this time I tried a 3 refined craft, and came up with something unimaginable: the #13 Champ Stamp.

The crafting gods had smiled upon me this day, my friends. For all of you wondering, #13 is not only a low number to get, but also popular with a couple of collectors. So, I kept pushing my luck. I got a liquor locker, a Point & Shoot, and Outback Intellectual, Apparition’s Aspect, and then the Marxman #23 came into my possession as well. Overall, my haul was pretty good. My friends were mad, mostly since I was yelling at the top of lung in our Ventrillo channel. Going immediately to Outpost and Trading Post to show the world my winnings, I saw this as my chance to really hop into some new wealth, and decided to take a break and play some Dustbowl to celebrate.
In the meantime, I got into contact with one the owners of a Sunbeams Ten Gallon on Outpost, this time offering him my two craft number items, with my two unusuals (the Stormy Ten Gallon and Merryweather) altogether. After much conversation he decided against it, and said that if I could liquidate my items, then maybe we could do business. With some new items in my inventory, I began on the path to my Ten Gallon, this time with a new gusto.

Biding my time, I eventually received an offer of a Massed Flies Tosslecap on my #13 Champ Stamp. Price checking with some of my unusually inclined friends lead me to find out the hat was worth anywhere from 2-3 buds, and so I waved goodbye to the first of my truly rare items, and quickly waved goodbye to the Tossle for a nice 2 buds and 4 keys, at about this time though I realized that liquidating the two unusuals would take longer than I would want. So, I asked how many Earbuds he would want with the two unusuals to take my offer. After much negotiation, I talked him into taking 4, and already being halfway there, I got to work liquidating items in my backpack.

Looking at hats and misc. items in my backpack, I quickly found an easy 50 keys (the equivalence at the time to 2 buds) and started selling items. In the matter of 22 bays, I was up to 26 keys, and was feeling like it wasn’t long until my 500 hour goal would be reached. However, I reached a long, dry patch on day 3; until some came into contact with me about my B.M.O.C.s. I was reluctant to sell my babies, since it was harder to find them now that Christmas was coming close, but I relented. I gave up my two babies in return for 24 keys, and asked him if 2 buds and 50 keys would suffice him. He added me 5 minutes later.

The guy had the same views of TF2 as I did. Engineer was his favorite class, this was his baby, but he had reached a point where he needed liquidation, and so he asked me my trading story. I told him about my ventures from beginning to end, and he thought about it, and made me a deal: put a mark on the hat, and it’s yours forever. I couldn’t be happier to oblige.

And with that, my first and longest goal since I began trading had come to an end, completing a loadout that I had been working on for over 500 hours, but still needing only small patching up in the miscellaneous department. In the end, I had around 7.5 Earbuds invested in the items I gave for the Ten Gallon, paying around 10-12 in a mix of promo and unusual, and coming out with my dream. It was expensive, it was time taking, but it was worth it. From here, I’m not sure what my new goal is. I was thinking a vintage item collection, but it may take some time. Then again, it’s always fun to set a high goal. It may not be as expensive as the 10 Gallon, but it’s a time waster. I’ve always loved vintage items, and I think a collection would do them justice.

--Santa

Mann vs. Machine

I've been gone for a while, and I'll bring you up to speed on that soon-ish but for now there are very exciting things brewing. I got up this morning and was immediately bombarded with a flurry of messages from my TF2 happy friends, it was happening. Watch this to get up to speed

So, today a new comic has come out, and let’s just say that the Machines may be coming sooner than we expected. I love how TF2’s lore is so entangled, and always comes back together. Read it, and get into the idea of it guys, it may actually be before September 2^nd that we get more news on this 2 year in the making update.

--Santa

In Bravery We Trust

So, I didn't make that post for day 3 of Meet the Pyro, I'll be honest, I think everyone was too busy trying to be that lucky guy crafting that new hat, and it wasn’t me. I did make a last breath, and some other cool goodies though, which almost mate up for the huge amount of money I spent crafting. I even crafter together genuine hats. That’s how bad it got. In any case, I have decided to give up crafting… until the next major update. However, this did not stop me from unboxing, and ended up getting the Bird Man, the Ushanka and, an Infernal Orchestrinal. So, it hasn’t been too bad, but I still have to sell all of these items, and to make it all better, I found a Killer Exclusive yesterday; I guess things are starting to turn around.

But enough about TF2 for now, let’s talk about movies! I’m pretty cheap so I don’t tend to go to movies I don’t think I’ll like, but I always have one major exception for Pixar movies—I haven’t missed one in theatres since Toy Story 2. I don’t know why it is, but I love Pixar, I still hold that Up and Toy Story 3 are probably some of the best movies of all time, and this means I went to see Brave.

This isn’t to say that I was automatically thinking Brave was going to be bad, I thought Up would possibly be bad, and I had to go flail myself for thinking such things of Pixar. However, I was wary. I hold that Pixar has never made a bad movie, but Cars 2 came close. Cars 2, I feel was a Disney ploy to make more money off of the Cars franchise, since for whatever reason, Cars toys sell so well to kids. I thought that Brave was giving off the same Disney Princess vibe, and I have to say, it scared me to think Pixar may have been selling out to their evil corporate overlords.

So, going into the theater for Brave with my brother, I went to get the snacks (since he gets to refill them during the movie since I’m quite lazy) and where does he decide to sit? In between a full row of children, with just one seat left for me. I’m not a small guy, so when they see this 7’24” behemoth coming to sit down, I think I scared some of them. I got those looks from their parents that told me that they thought I was nothing, and what was this big guy doing at a little girls’ movie? But, I have no pride, and don’t care, and I hunkered down for the movie, shoving my mouth with the salty mess we refer to as popcorn.

Brave is a movie that takes place in Medieval Scotland, with the protagonist, Merida, a Scottish princess about to be married off to one of the members of the clan. She doesn’t want this, and of course, with the queen (her mother) behind all of the planning in this case, she has to come up with some way to change her mind. When she stumbles across a witch who gives her a spell to change her mom, the story kicks off in an unexpected adventure. Riveted with a beautiful landscape, wonder character animation, great voice actors and a plot that ties together fairly well, Brave is a good movie. The only thing that lets it down, like almost every other movie, is how it ends. I personally feel that Brave could have had a stronger ending, and that Pixar just… left it there. It works, but I expect more from the animation giant. They make a movie per year, they can do I bit better I feel.

Overall score: 8/10

Brave is not Pixar’s crowning achievement, but it’s still a nice piece of work. If you’re into the whole fairy tale stuff and love pretty, tom boy princesses, then this is the story for you. I think this is one I’ll pass on, it’s just not my normal piece of pie, but Pixar still makes it in a way that everyone from little girls, to their parents, to a big gamer like me can enjoy such a normally niche story.

--Santa

Post 100: Meeting New (Old) Friends

Well, here we are. This is post numbro 100 for the old Workshop. We’ve come pretty far, eh? Well, I thought it would only be right to give it a bit of a wait, after all, we’re seeing what could be the biggest, and best update in the history of TF2 since the Mannconomy update: Pyromania.

Yes, the long awaited meet the pyro update is upon us, and with it is coming a giant hat dropping party, the name was originally planned to be called “Safety Dance” but when they realized the band’s horrendous name, they decided it would be better off to use their own creative name, “Pyromania.” We are now in day one of the supposed 3 day updates (and if we remember to the über update, then it could actually be 4 days of updates) and we have been showed a new gametype: Doomsday. The mission is to relay a bomb to famous space chimp, Poopy Joe, only one team can win, etc, etc… Looks interesting, but there were no hats released today, which makes day 2 seems all the more exciting.

Another thing to note is the page found on Adult Swim, saying that they have teamed up with Valve, and for reasons we have yet to learn, that something extremely good will come out of this:

“are teaming up for something that you'll probably enjoy. To learn how their video game peanut butter will be getting in our network's chocolate, come back next week.”

This will of course, probably lead to the Meet the Pyro update being on Adult Swim, but this also raises the question, will this mean that Meet the Pyro will be much longer than previous “Meet the” videos? Looking at both the Medic’s and Spy’s videos, which were the two latest, and have gotten longer each time, it would make sense for there to be a long episode, say 15 or even 30 minutes long, but this could end up being much more than even that.

Talking with some friends, I have come up with the theory that it is completely possible that Valve is going for a TF2 series, and if this at all true, then I will need about 15 pairs of pants every time it comes on. I’m not much of a TV guy anymore, but if there’s one thing I do love, I do enjoy myself a good slice of lore, and the old style, super complex storyline of Team Fortress 2 is without any debate my favorite of all time, we will most likely not know until Wednesday if this is what’s really going down, but I’m excited to see what Valve does next. Expect an update per day on this big update, this is it.

--Santa

E3

So, its like a week or 3 after E3, and I’ve finally found the time to stop trading, and talk about some of the things I found interesting! We’ll be doing this in chinks, via game, with 2 in the Spotlight, and then a few just for notes.

Pikmin 3.

It’s happening! Oh god, it’s happening! YES! YEEEEES! This is, except for HL3, probably the game I’ve wanted to see most. I did a whole post on my secret lust for the little flower people, but it’s actually coming! YEEEEEES! Oh, wait…. It’s only on the Wii U. And, according to Gamestop, the pre-order price is… $99.99…. excuse me while I go flush out my childhood dreams.

Personally, I feel that this new installment into one of my personal all-time favorite franchises should be on both systems, so I still have an excuse to keep my old Wii lying around. I really don’t want to go out and buy a new console for… pretty much a one use wonder. I only use my Wii because I feel bad for it, and I’m too lazy (and it helps that my Xbox broke) for Netflix, which I’m not proud about either. Pikmin 3 is a game that I will watch with begrudgingly high interest, since I want nothing more to play it, but nothing less than to buy it.

Watch Dogs.

This is a game that I’ll bet most of you didn’t notice, and it’s a shame. If anybody’s seen Person of Interest, it gives off the whole “Big Brother” vibe, but it looks almost like a cross between a modern day Assassin’s Creed and Grand Theft Auto. This is extremely relevant to my interests.

To give a recap of THIS TRAILER, what you see is a man, a contracted killer I presume, possibly working with the US Gov, possibly freelance, is out about going onto his mark. He has the ability to do numerous things, including hack people’s cell phones, tell their age and occupation, tell the likelihood of violence (useful for a fight), and can also cause havoc with other technologies (like when he turns off everyone’s cell phones.) Inside, he gets information on his target, and goes to wait for him out in the rain, and when he’s crossing through the intersection in his car, he changes the lights. Yes, this man is like Solid Snake inside of Sam Fischer. He goes in to finish the job by “sending a message” and killing his mark. A wild chase ensues by the police, and you get away safely by controlling a drawbridge to go up, and you make a sick jump. Yeah, this is by all means relevant to my interests.

Other Objects of Note.

We have the introduction of Smartglass by Microsoft, and later on the introduction of the “Surface” which I will admit is also quite relevant to my interests. The Microsoft factor as I’ve always referred to it, is to build off of ideas around it in the form of “see iPad, make one better.” However, this isn’t always the case, I do remember the Zune/iPod wars, and we all remember the winners.

There is no news on HL3, but in other news (and this is completely E3 unrelated) keep your eyes open for a possible TF2 update this Friday, with the 7 new items, there’s a lot of speculations that this is the “Meet the Pyro” update, and its just it time for summer!

I’m thinking that Halo 4 looks interesting, and I’m also thinking the new South Park game may be fun. I have no idea if I’ll buy them but I’m keeping them on the shortlist.

--Santa

A Dent in my Pride

I’ve been a bit busy with games and whatnot over the last few days, and understandably this will be another update post.

As mentioned priorly, I’m part of a group of people who play games. We’re mostly a bunch of pubbers who just dick around in a trade server, but we’re pretty good there and in normal servers, so we thought we’d form a Highlander team. For all of those out there who haven’t played anything competitive in their life because they’re a sheltered child, Highlander is pretty much the pro version of TF2. Normally, I find TF2 to be a relaxing game, filled with hats, and occasionally a bit violent. If I want to go and get my ass pummeled, I go onto Reach for a bit, and remember why I suck. But, back during my console days of TF2, I was one of the best Engineers. Based off a point-filled game, I got to rank of 70-something, worldwide. I got to admit, this inflated my head, and I thought this would make Highlander something I could simply breeze over.

As I’ve mentioned beforehand, my computer sucks. I’m currently on a laptop that’s a bit better (and in this case, I mean it runs TF2 to the point that I can play on a normal server, as long as I don’t look at any sugoi explosions.) I down loaded a program called “Gamebooster” which frees up more of your RAM so your computer can think. It didn’t do me much good. So, while playing I thought we had a pretty good chance. I know all of my team; we play on a payload server a good amount of the time. I’m a giant dick with my mini sentries, and I thought this would lead to me winning, and whatnot.

The game starts, on a map I’ve never played before named “croissant” and its control point, which I haven’t played in literally a year. I run to the middle point, drop a mini, get sniped, and shortly after our entire team is wiped out. 90 seconds later, our last point is capped, and we move on to round two. This time, we last a full two minutes; I was in dead last, with 2 dominations on me, and a grand total of 0 kills.

So, we moved onto Barnblitz, where I could set up a sentry and help the team a bit more. With the constant use of my mini sentries (which got me a grand total of 2 kills, and 3 assists) we captured the first point in only 3 minutes, and quickly lost the rest of the round. We now had to keep them from capturing point 1 in less than 3 minutes, or we’d lose. It was going to take a godsend.

I’ve never played on Barnblitz before, so with me running around like an idiot, I finally find a good place for a level 3, and start building. I only get a level 2 up before the gates open. I kill 1 guy, and quickly get sniped from behind my beloved machine. I’m seeing it as the end. Nonetheless, I switched back to my Strange, Face-Melting Gunslinger, in hopes that I could finally be credit to team. Long story short: I wasn’t. We lost with 1:34 being left on the clock, and the game was done. Looks like I’ll always be a pubber.

In other TF2 related news, there are some new promotional items from Quantum Conundrum, a new Medic miscellaneous (the Surgeon’s Side Satchel), gave the Rocket Jumper a new look, and now doesn’t suck as much (since it no longer lets the user take an exorbitantly large amount of damage), nerfed the Enforcer (it now shoots slower, only deals 20% extra damage when undisguised, and there are no random crits.) and there have been clipping fixes on the Last Breath. Overall, a good set of updates, a bad week for my pride on TF2.

League of Legends is getting a new slew of updates in the upcoming Draven patch. Pretty much, we’re seeing nerfs to Graves and Ahri, a new broken champion, a still broken champion, and a buffed Swain. I’m looking forward to death in the next patch.

I’ve also been playing more Civ V. In my friend and mine’s campaign, we’ve become so advanced over the other cultures, we’re just speeding things up by conquering everything. We’re in the 1800s, but I’m nearly done with the Manhattan project. I’m excited to see what happens next.

Later on, I’ll be making a post about whats happened with E3, and my own impressions. Stay tuned, gents.

--Santa