UPDATES

I was really busy yesterday, praying to every omnipotent being I could think of in hopes that they could possibly bring up my precious item server on TF2, but Robin Walker (God of Hats), Gabe Newell (God of Delays) or Andrew Hussie (God of useless killings) failed to answered my call, so I just ended up doing nothing all day except watching random YouTube videos and eating canned pudding, so my Tuesday had effectively become my normal Saturday. But you haven’t come here to read my endless bantering about how Canned-Pudi Inc. is sure to be worth 10 times the amount Apple is wo TF@ no you came here to read about my useless opinion!

Today we’ll be touching base on the following subjects

• Team Fortress 2 (Hats and Other items)
• League of Legends (Free Champion Rotation & new skins)
• Homestuck
• State of Santa's Workshop

Let me just get out my trusty name-drawing hat, this is gonna require me drawing out something special... Homestuck? Nah, not going to start there, we'll just go in the order of the list.

Team Fortress 2

All right, for all of you following the TF2 blog (linked here) should know that Valve loves to act like busy little bees, in the form of adding new items, going back to about a week ago, Valve has added a ring for Valentine's Day, simply called the "Something Special for Someone Special" to the Mann Co. Store. The ring is a cute misc item for $100 bucks, but can't be traded, and comes with a free thing of gift wrap and  name tag, for gifting to that special someone, and upon gifting, everyone on TF2 is sent the message of love that had just happened. So beautiful, no? Other items include the Snapped Pupil for Demoman (A picture of his good eye, taped over his eye patch) and a Boombox, the Boston Boom-Bringer, to replace the Scout's pack and to bring some much needed beats to Teufort civillans.

League of Legends

A bit of old news for anyone who does follow Leage of Legends, but its always nice to see who's FTP this week.

• Kassadin- Void Guy, quite annoying when he teleports to you and launches goop on you
• Master Yi- PRO
• Rammus- Spikey the Armadillo
• Singed- WW's best bud, and a lunatic
• Taric- Opals are so fabulous
• Malzahar- I HAVE A WALL AND A TARANTULA AS A PET. DON'T MESS WITH ME
• Miss Fortune- "Pirate Hunter" who's dad was totally not killed by Gangplank
• Caitlyn- All sheriffs have top hats, all top hats are purple. This is final.
• Talon- Absolutely nothing like Ezio from Assassin's Creed. Totally.
• Fizz- Self-Explanatory

Along with the free rotation, Riot has left us with a forum post as to how they choose their free champions, check it out. We also see some new skins, a very women-empowering NSFW skin that will definitely win Vayne Tramp-Of-the-Year. But, there's also a new skin for Ryze, which scares me to no end. But, that's no different from normal.

Homestuck

I'm completely caught up on Homestuck, into act 6, and almost understand whats going on. Seriously, so many little children, so little time. I got to say, Hussie is magic, and I'm just talking about his lips (which have the power to kill all the heroes who have ever existed.)

Here in the Workshop

Recently I hit 1,500 views, actually I'm at a bit above 1,650 but I forgot to make a post for 1,500. All I have to say is, thanks. I didn't imagine a blog that's just a cute little project from my AP class would end up actually being a legitimate source for learning (or for anyone looking up Jax for whatever reason, which alone has gotten nearly 900 views.) But, if you take out Jax's one post, I'm at like 750, which still beats everyone else in the class by like 10 fold. So thank you everyone for making this little project into something a bit bigger. For anyone who does red this blog, please take a bit of time and vote on what you'd like to see more of, I will respond to you guys. Feel free to comment as well.

T. Hanks

--Santa

TF2: The Scary Part Is That I Only Have 2 Weeks!

Well, once again ladies and gentleman, I have had my highest hopes revealed! Late last night Team Fortress 2's blog updates (Automatically notifying via Steam) and I get the message I have been waiting for: Scream Fortress III.For those of you who have been playing for more than 10 days, you may know a bit more about how Robin Walker and his team go about doing their hat-filled updates.

For the past 3 years, the Team Fortress team has taken it upon them to make a halloween filled update, and every year, they've made it bigger. Year one saw the addition of a new map, a mildly disturbing mask for every class, and of course, a free hat to all of those who clicked on a special page, or then dominated anyone who wore said hat. This was the birth of a hat for all, even though Ghastly Gibus isn't that much of a hat.  It gave the ability to all of those poor, hatless people to have one. I remember my first Gibus. Even though it is long gone, I still remember it with fondness. Mostly because I sold it for a Stout Shako.

Year two saw the addition of new masks for every class, the addition of more hats, haunted weapons, and even the first ever mini-boss. The Horseless Headless Horseman was the first baddy to not care if you were RED or BLU, he enjoyed killing everyone. Maybe he was color-blind. Im not quite sure. But what made him special was the ability to "scare" opponents, even shutting off sentries, super-jumping, and of course, gratuitous amounts of HP. This lead to the making of the "Vs. Saxton" Mod where you could fight off  Saxton Hale, or even control the great Australian-Moustached behemoth.

This year intorduces a special costume for every class, a new map, and the Demoman's missing eye, who you must defeat. This is all in the pursuit of a good time, and the addition that you only hve two weeks to collect these items on official servers makes me think of all the time that will now be dedicated to TF2 over the next few days. I had plans to play Reach with friends at a halloween party, but nooooo. TF2 just ruined all of my plans. I had even bought a Monkey Wrench and spray-painted it gold for part of my Engineer costume. I always love scaring the little ones by dressing up like an evil Texan. But, now I will be obsessed with trying to get a costume to make the Soldier look like a robot. Oh well. Time well spent! Time to get to work. Who knows? Maybe I'll stop for a candy break sometime in between.

TF2: Why Did I Sell My Buds?

Yeah, they're still alive. I was getting worried, no post from the TF2 team in almost a month? Preposterous. Even though Robin Walker (creator of the original Team Fortress) can sometimes go onto hat filled tangents for months at a time, even he comes out and gives us something new. Usually hats. No, they were saving up. They released a whopping universal update in honor of my all time favorite update, the Mannconomy update. A few days ago, trading turned 1 year old, and to celebrate: they added a few goodies that I’ve been wanting for awhile now.

First off, they added new hats! (I know, calm down!) But, they also improved the features of uploading hats as well. just follow THIS to see. (This covers the whole update, be warned there is a Baby Saxton Hale exploding out of a bear's chest.) But, that’s not the point; the point is a new miscellaneous slot. That’s right. If you thought wearing earbuds and glasses at the same time was impossible, YOU WERE WRONG! You can also add custom decals to your weapons, and try out weapons from the store, oh and give people high-fives (If you pay for the “taunt”). Re-plays now come with Slow-Mo, and of course, a few new maps. One is for testing your new hats, and one is for playing.

With this update comes what I feel is more attention to what the players have been wanting, even though I now have the chagrin of knowing that Earbuds have skyrocketed. But, I’m okay with that, even though my horrid computer still can’t play games with anymore graphics properties than Toontown (coming up in a future blog!) without crashing. Team Fortress 2 shows that not only the community can play, but can actually play, too! Over this year span, over $2 million have been payed in royalties to hat/ weapon creators, that’s pretty cool. But TF2 continues to do what I love most: be itself, which isn’t what it was in the beginning of it’s life so many years ago. TF2 is the only game where a human of unknown gender can go around with a monocle and hair taped to its face, listen to earbuds through its mask, and of course, wearing a quite nice fire brigade’s helmet while setting people on fire. Yeah, it’s a bit brutal, but it’s so, creative. I do know that they do sell out to Major game developers, but it does fit within the actual game, or it at least feels that way. So, until the day that Hat Fortress 2 doesn’t launch on my computer anymore, I will continue to play, perhaps not every week, but I do love the game, and of course, all of the features it brings with it.

Dominating Has Never Been So Rewarding

League of Legends is one of those games that can really make an impression on everyone who plays it, from the lores to the vast amount of character abilities that you can have, and control. But, the main point is always in the game, which as I found out, Dominion completely changes up. For all of you gamers out there, its like Modern Warfare 2's Domination tied up with the fast action of a good game of Dustbowl on TF2. League of Legends is quickly pulling me back in as a very powerful and addicting game, and Dominion is the main cause of it.

For those of you who like a visual representation of the map, click this! It shows the entire map, and'll give you a good representation of how the game works. Once again, you get to be on one of two teams, blue or purple, and spawn on their respective sides. But, you start out at level 3, more gold, and gaining xp and gold over time, and at a rather fast pace. This pushes gameplay a lot faster, and lets you get a larger grasp on your abilities. Now, you get one minute or so to talk shop with your team, and decide which of the 5 towers you want to capture, or "cap." There are 5 points of interest all around the map: The windmill, the quarry, the refinery, the drill and the boneyard. Capturing 3 of these points will swing power in your favor, and hurt the enemies' nexus. Since you can't hit the enemies' nexus, it now has an odd form of hit points, which are damaged when you have 3 or more towers, one of the champions die, or you complete an objective, given every 10 minutes or so. The Nexus has 500 hp, and although it may seem like a lot, it only takes about 15-30 minutes to finish one game of Dominion, packing all of the intensity of the original gametype into a faster paced game. 

But, LoL isn't all about the fighting; it's also about finer things, like how you can kill people faster at the beginning. In LoL, you are a Summoner, a magician who controls your champion through magical powers. And you have 2 spells that you can cast to help your team, or yourself, and runes, which affect only yourself. Both of which you unlock as your summoner level goes up. Spells are free, but runes must be purchased, and at levels 10, 20, and 30, you unlock Quintessences, which are like super runes. Runes do everything that items can do, but can also grant the abilities to gain more experience, or build better over levels. You also get Masteries, similar to runes, but free, and not quite as powerful. Masteries come in 3 different slots: Offensive, defensive, and utility. All of these can give powers to your champions before you even enter battle, but be warned, as not all of these powers will help every champion and playing style, try to experiment!

Seeing to the fact that I believe that seeing can really impact, I thought I would showcase two of my favorite characters in League of Legends. First up is Gangplank, that swashbuckling pirate. Yes, he says just about every single stereotype you can think of, he is a drunkard, a brute, and inappropriate, but he's also quite fun to play, and my first champion. Gangplank is a carry, making him quite strong later on in the game, and is a melee character. Gangplank has two unique things about him, one is his main ability "Parrrley" yeah, it is a bad joke. But it is special. Gangplank fires his Ye Olde pistol, and deals around 20- 70 damage (depending on its level) and however much attack damage you have, too. To put this in perspective: Gangplank gets around 200 attack damage by the time I hit level 15, so, 270 damage, that's also with pretty good range. This ability can also critically damage (for 200 or 250% if you get Infinity Edge, a very nice weapon), and apply effects like slowing and whatnot. Gang's ultimate attack is cannon barrage, which allows him to take his ship's cannons, and fire anywhere on the map. Literally anywhere. I can fire right on their spawn if I want to be that big of a dick. My usual build for Gangplank goes for attack speed, critical strike, and attack damage. I can get gang attack twice a second critting every time, and deal 800 damage per hit. He can be a very scary guy. 

Now, you your immediate left, you will see a giant insectoid. He is wearing a suit, top hat, and monocle. He also has a bottle of champagne and a pipe rubber banded to his claws, yes, this is the greatest skinned champion of all time, Gentleman Cho'Gath! Now, Cho'Gath does not usually come in his greater, cockney accented form, I had to buy him like this. He is the epitome of human eating Praying Mantises, as his ultimate allows him to eat enemy champions. If he successfully eats them (essentially killing them) then he will gain a feast stack, making him grow larger, and giving him more health. Cho'Gath also features a scream that can stop enemy champions from casting abilities, spikes that he can shoot from his back, and the ability to stomp on the ground, and fracture it. While Cho'Gath may require more grace than Gangplank, he is also much more, how do I say it, civilized, and hi famous catchphrase: "Let us Fight Like Gentlemen" is even printed on one of Riot's T-Shirts, showing him sitting in a nice chair. I bought that shirt, and I am currently wearing it. What can I say? I can be quite the fan boy.

For the rest of you hanging on the fence about joining this League, do it. It is a large download (not quite the size of TF2, but it comes close) and snazzy things such as skins can't be bought without throwing money into the game, but, you do earn champions with IP, given out at the end of each game, and Riot also goes through the free champion rotation, giving you the chance to sample before you buy. So, if you need to kill a few hours, or maybe just one, try out the league, Riot is always trying to out do themselves, and as Dominion has shown, they're always coming up with something new.

A Look Into the Greastest Game Of All Time, Part II

To start where we left off, the defense classes, starting with the Heavy, the lovable Russian. The Heavy has a mini gun named Sasha, is the slowest class, and likes sandwiches. General Heavy strategy is to stick close to a Medic, keep his mini gun ready, and general crowd control, since he has the most health; he also has the most longevity.


The Demoman is Valve's "Black, Scottish cyclops," Tavish DeGroot He is an alcoholic with a taste for explosive ordinance. He comes standard issue with a a grenade launcher, and a sticky bomb launcher, which allows for you to detonate at will, but can be destroyed by shooting. The special thing about the Demoman, however, is his melee capabilities, as he has multiple sword, and shield unlocks.


Last in the Defense category, and my all around favorite class, is the Engineer, also known as Dell Conagher. The Engineer, a soft spoken Texan, has 11 PhD's, all used to destroy anyone who opposes him. He can build items, such as a Sentry gun (Which has 3 levels, one being a simple gun, 2 having duel machine gun, and 3 adding a rocket launcher), Teleporter, and Dispense, which heal teammate. Then Engineer is one of the classes with the lowest class, but makes for it with the Gunslinger, a robotic fist which grants Dell more health, and gives him a fast-building, expendable mini-sentry.


First on Support is the Medic. The Medic is the greatest support character, giving health to teammates in the middle of battle with his medigun, a portable hospital on his back. The medic, after healing for a few moments, build up an Ubercharge, allowing him to turn himself, and his patient to become invulnerable for 7 seconds using an "Invulin." There are other mediguns, with different purposes, but the Invulin comes standard, and is best for general use.


Mr. Mundy, otherwise known as the Sniper, has a rather obvious job. Hailing from the Outback down-under, he got his skills from years of hunting big game. When he isn't killing people from 5 miles away, he's living in his van, or training for his strict "Jarate" regimen.


The last class, and most elusive, is the Spy, the illustrious French lady killer, or to be more accurate, man killer. With the power to become invisible, feign death, and kill with a single stab of a knife, the spy is one of the most dangerous classes. He can disguise himself, giving him unlimited access to your team, can place sappers on Engineer's buildings, and can be a general pest to somebody unlucky enough to walk by.


What ties all of these odd characters is a battle royal between two companies, Reliable Excavation and Demolition (RED), and the Builder's League United (BLU). This gives the reasoning for team colors and the building styles, BLU being more industrial and RED being rough. The TF2 team releases comics to build an intricate web of connections between characters, their pasts, and how the war has been raging for 100 years. TF2 has become the largest lore in the Valve universe, what really sets it apart from most other games for me. You get a feel for the characters you play, and have feelings for them, and the fun continues through an easy to use server system, where there are more game types than I could make in one post. If you ever get the time to, and have the space on your hard drive, hop on Steam, and start the download, TF2 is now a free game, and while you can't trade on the Free to play version, you can still receive items, and get item drops. The one drawback is the download size, which currently rests at just below 10 gigabytes, and with all the mods I’ve downloaded, I have 20 gigabytes worth of Team Fortress goodness, this game isn’t for the faint of heart, it does have gore, blood, and your characters do have the tendency to explode into giblets, but, it is a very good way to spend an hour or two, in my case, over 700.

First Post- A Look Into Something New

Welcome to my humble blog. After 2 weeks of development, hopefully it's been worth the wait. The premise of my blog is more of just to show what's happening in a few different cultures, today: Videogames, the game in question: Minecraft.

For those under a less tech-savvy rock, Minecraft is the best thing since Legos. Minecraft is a game developed by Mojang, a new Swedish video game company, formed after its founder, "Notch", made the blocky world that took the gaming market by storm. The game mixes everything a gamer could want, building, fighting, crafting (for all of those who have played TF2, you know what I mean,) and multiplayer. Minecraft lets you take the world around you, harvest it, and turn it into whatever you please. And now, its even better. Yesterday, Mojang released Minecraft Beta 1.8, dealing with some of my biggest issues. It splits Single player into two different themes, allowing you to decide on what your true purpose is: Survival, or Creative.

The difference is right in the name, and it puts the difference into what you really want. As I tend to build more than anything else, I tried out creative first. As I found myself flying around this new world, punching blocks with ungodly strength, destroying them with one blow, I almost found it as cheating, but, I found it to be much easier to complete massive monuments to building. I finished my trans-continental finishing the project that had plagued a different world for weeks in just an hour. I found it almost too easy, but in survival mode, I found quite the opposite. Spawning in a world where you can level up, (which doesn't do anything yet,) and have to eat food to survive, (something I thought I wouldn't have to do ever again since Survival mode in Fallout: New Vegas,) Minecraft turned into a game that I hadn't experienced since my first playing of it, a survival game. Once again, I found myself having to build a small dirt house at night, with one torch inside to prevent violent mobs from spawning in on me, but, it had its perks too. I found the same excitement of killing my first Creeper, (A monster that explodes when it gets close to you, much to the dismay of many unfortunate miners,) to re-finding diamonds, and making a diamond pickaxe to last the ages.

Overall, I saw improvements that I didn't think I'd ever use again, the last time I actually used a sword to vanquish a monster was months ago. The addition of noclip lets me finish large house in half the time, and I'm starting to remember the awful hiss of Creepers during the night. I'm glad to say that you can have the best of both worlds, (even if those worlds on a different saved world,) and I even took the time to play the game in the fashion I had forgotten so long ago. Minecraft is by far one of the greatest indie games out there, and hopefully Mojang can keep working its Magic, I look forward to the Xbox version, then I'll never be able to leave my La-Z-Boy downstairs.