“Mann Co. acquires Blood Eagle assets in landmark sexual harassment case”.

HEADLINE: Mann Co. acquires Blood Eagle assets in a landmark sexual harassment case. Diamond Sword purchase excess BLU mercenary surplus as part of settlement negotiations.

VS.

Saxton Hale
Mann Co. CEO
Australian Extraordinaire

In a press conference held today with Saxton Hale, CEO of Mann Co., the landmark harassment case was discussed involving the acquisition of resources held by the Blood Eagle Clan.

Reports indicate that Blood Eagle tribesman references Saxton Hale as a “girly wuss”. Mann Co. replied by allowing Mr. Hale to airdrop in to an unknown battlefield while wrestling with poisonous cobras that caught fire during the freefall. After using the now charred snake skins as replacement hat bands, Saxton proceed to “Beat the crap” out of a tirbesman who referred to himself only as “a pathfinder” upon finding out that the tribesman’s only job was to “run away”.

Tribal warriors still seeking to remain actively employed have been offered temporary mercenary positions within Mann Co. pending a probationary period.

Negotiations were vicious, but a court appointed mediator assisted with the dealings before running away for “undisclosed reasons”.

More reports will follow upon Mr. Hale’s return from a gorilla punching expedition currently scheduled for Friday.

Okay, that was fun and all, but I don’t think it’ll ever get approved by the TF2 or Tribes communities as a whole. But hey, it’s fun to play with photoshop.

Regardless, this isn’t what I’m posting about today.

Instead, it’s about cross training.

Cross training you ask?

Yes… Cross training. And not the dumb kind that involves shoes, or exercise, or any legitimate effort. Screw that noise.

Instead, I speak of cross training of the video game type.

I have been heavily involved with two FPS games over the last couple of years. Team fortress 2 and Tribes.

We already know that I’m a filthy sand raker (Though Blood Eagle is quickly gaining steam in my book for some reason), but when it comes to TF2 I’m never quite sure if I’m more of a BLU or a RED fan. Both are awesome, BUT, unfortunately, (because I’m usually a blue team kinda guy), RED is taking the lead because BLU uses dumbass apple style products.

If there is one thing I stand by, it’s that fact that I CANNOT stand anything the supports the Apple mindset, culture, or mentality. iScrew iThat!

iDumbasses!

ahem… back to the topic at hand.

I’ve been playing these two games.

I’m usually a medic or an engineer type when I play Team fortress. Not a lot of aiming required and I can let the machines do most of the work for me. I like that. Not a lot of skill, and plenty of time to look good while I help others on my team. Yay for being a team player, right? Right!  TEAMWORK! (Queue up some Tenacious D right there).

Now, in tribes, I started as a soldier because I didn’t wanna be a heavy, and pathfinding wasn’t my thing. So, I spent my time and I learned to shoot at people. I then unlocked technician (I’ve been playing since early beta) and found that I really liked this class. Turrets are awesome but I’m still HEAVILY involved in actually shooting at people.

I worked on my aiming skills.

Spinfusors? Hell yeah!

Machine guns? Bring it.

Thumpers? *giggles*. Yes, I do love this weapon.

I’ve learned to shoot. I’ve learned to aim. And I’ve learned to lead my shots and actually hit stuff.

This is something that I had never really learned how to do in Team Fortress. I just could never quite figure it out. My shots were “too slow” in my opinion.

I’ve gotten good with the spinfusor again and my thumper is warm from use. I’ve gone fast, I’ve dropped turrets, I’d repaired generators, and I’ve shoved grenades down the throats of more brutes than I can care to count. It’s been glorious good fun. 

Anywho, I fired TF2 backup again today after being in tribes for a little bit during the last week or so. I sat down and picked soldier since there were too many engineers on my team. I saw the scout screaming across the screen in the distance (They really aren’t THAT fast ya know.”, and I let a rocket loose.

KER-BLAM!

That scout just took a rocket to the friggin FACE!

Suddenly, after spending WAY too much time with a spinfusor in my hands, I could aim and shoot rockets. This is new. This is exciting. This is reason to giggle as I proceeded to run around the server and shoot people in the friggin face. I’m not any good with a sniper rifle or even with the knife of a spy, but when it comes to rockets and pipe bombs of a demo man… I’m freaking dangerous!

I enjoy many games. These two are my current favorites. And while I didn’t expect to get any better at one because I played the other, I found that the unexpected side effect resulted in way more than I could have hoped for.

-R.H

*edit: Because Words

Advertisement

Tribes Ascend Refer A Friend Program – aka: Click here to be bribed!

Filthy Sandrakers!

Butchers!

Sworders, Beagles, Red Team, Blue Team, good guys and bad guys.  No matter how you word it, there are two sides to this war.

Before we get too far in to this, I figure I will offer you a few wallpapers. Pick your allegiance as you see fit.

 

 Okay, we’ve got that out of the way. Lets move on to the meat and potatoes of this post.

I’m a Sworder. I play on the Diamond Sword team. The blue one.

That’s right, I’m a “Filthy Sand Raker” and I’m proud of it!

Diamond Sword represent….

 

Well, since we know what team I play on, let’s talk about why we’re here shall we?

The refer a friend program. It’s a great thing.

You’re reading my blog so in my view that makes you a friend. Friends need to help friends. Amirite?

Well, I could use your help here.

Most likely you don’t actually play tribes yet. Well, you should.

Why you ask? Well, it’s simple. Tribes is incredibly fast. It’s a smart mans shooter. None of that point and kill kind of warfare. This takes actual skill, time, practice, and luck. Add to that the fact you have a Jetpack….

Let’s pause for a second and let that sink in…

A JETPACK!

okay.. back to the thought at hand. You have a jetpack on your back. This gives you a third method of movement that Call of Duty and Modern Warfare just can’t ever hope to touch.

The graphics are amazing. Hell, I don’t think I should have to explain this again. Read my old posts.

The long of the short here is that you can play for free.

Yes, that is the BEST price. FREE!

Well, the best price is where they pay YOU to play….

Oh wait, THEY DO!

Like tribes ascend on facebook and they give you a code for 250 free in game gold. Yeah, they just paid you $5 to play their game. Since I’m not above bribery I took the offer. Woot woot for free stuff!

 

Anyways, since I want you to play. And since I want you you be able to enjoy the game that I enjoy, just click my Refer-A-Friend link below and join up.

I won’t be mad if youplay for the Blood Eagle. But honestly, we all know that the Diamond Sword are where the cool kids hang out.

 

Click the Tribes Banner to “Go Fast”!

 

 

King Toko has a good read

While playing Dungeon Defenders recently with some co-workers, we ran in to a spot that we couldn’t quite beat. After looking on the interwebs to find the answers we needed, I stumbled on a little gem from King Toko. Now, while Dungeon Defenders is going to Yield its own post in a day or two, I felt the need to post this link to King Toko’s blog.

He covers gaming in general.

He’s talked about many of the games I enjoy (Tribes, Skyrim, Dungeon Defenders, etc).

Head on over and take a look.

Link is found….

HERE

30 Day Blog Challenge – Day 6

Okay, day 6 states that I have to post a picture of somethign that makes me happy.

I looked at that challenge and said, “This is simple. BAM! A picture of Andrea”.

 

But I realized that this is what I ALWAYS do. No, not this time.

As much as I LOVE and adore my wife and children, this time this will be about something other than my family that makes me smile. Don’t get me wrong, my family makes me happier than most anything on this earth, but since we assume that this is a given, we’ll move on to the next best option.

 What you are seeing here is a rendered version of a scene from Descent. Now, it isn’t this game in particular that I want to write about. The shot is more of an analogy. Maybe a metaphor. Possibly some other word that says it means something other than it looks like. I forget, but that’s not important.

The thing I’m trying to represent here is video games in general. I play them. I enjoy them. Some of them make me smile. Some piss me off. Some make me think. Some I just like to look at. Others I am finally begining to play.

There is so much of my life that has been affected by video games.

I have a few that top my list of favorites and those I believe I will point out in the future.

…

Well, it’s TECHNICALLY the future now from when you read those last lines, so I guess I’ll tell you about them now.

GAREN’S TOP xx FAVORITE VIDEO GAMES

 

5. Super Mario Bros. series on NES

I spent way too many summers playing this bugger. Be it with or without cheats, I enjoyed it. I played with my brothers and sisters in nearly every house I lived in growing up. This is the epitome of nostalgia in my book. LOVE IT!

4. Metroid

Metroid is one of those games where I love the premise of the game. I love the physics. I love the controls. I love the exploration and the ability to wind up in some really strange places…. but…. I never beat the game. Hell, in all reality, this game scares the ever living daylights out of me. Dunno why. But it’s still one of my favs.

3. Tribes

“Trust me, I work at Gamestop”. Worst words ever to hear. Best game that could have ever been suggested by that guy. I still think he was a tool though.

2. Warcraft Series

From RTS, to point and click, to MMO… The warcraft and Starcraft universes  make me smile. I love the lore. the storylines. the graphics. the ideas behind the game. And hey, Jaina is kinda hot. LOL. Regardless, with the amount of time invested in this series, it’s up there in the top 5 for a reason.

1. Descent

I played descent for way too many years. I still pick it up from time to time even. The game makes me sick to play. It’s scary at times. And no one I know plays because they were never able to get ansy good at it. Let’s not forget though, I have the super power known as ADD, so a lot of things like this I wind up being really good at. Take battletech for example. I’m CRAZY GOOD at that game.

But that isn’t the point. The point is that I enjoy video games, and some board games. And it is those forms of entertainment that give me the opportunity to escape the real world for a little bit, enjoy some time either alone or with others, and let my imagination run wild.

So, what is it that makes me happy? (Other than my family which is my true #1)

Video games.

Sorry, it’s true

 

-G

Constant Bearing, Decreasing Range

Okay, so I have been in to the blogging thing as of late. But seriously, who doesn’t enjoy a good blog?
So, because of that I’m giving you a heads up on a few things that my next handful of posts will be relating to.
1. The thirty day challenge.
This will be 30 days worth of posts that fall along a set schedule of awesomely creative questions. It gives you a good insight to your author.

2. This, That, and Such.
This is my wife’s blog. I’ll be referencing it from time to time. There will be a post discussing her. Just an FYI.

3. More scenes from underway
Having just pulled back in to home port but with more underway time coming soon, I am planning to post more scenes from life on the ship. As soon as I transfer off this bucket, the series will end so enjoy it while it lasts.

4. Tribes
Since I’ve been playing it a bit lately, I figure I might post some screenshots or discuss the games I’ve considered picking up. Maybe, sorta, probably not. We’ll see on this one.

So, consider yourself informed.

The butchers have our flag.

How do you think those around you would feel if they knew that 2,000 years from now the central point behind all of the major wars would be contesting around who has posession of a flag?

 

I recently picked up Tribes: Ascend. You can read about it HERE. I realize that I don’t have many friends that play the kind of games that I play, but it doesn’t stop me from trying to put the resources out there for people to use. If you recall, I put together a post like this about the game Descent a while back.

Anyways, this post is a lot like the one I did about Descent, except I’m doing it about Tribes.

The majority of the information I’m putting up here was gleaned from the Hi-Rez Tribes Forums. The post can be found HERE.

Simply put, Tribes is a game of massive multi-player warfare where teams consist of 32 vs. 32 players. It’s on an epic scale. It can be deathmatch, Capture the Flag, or a handful of other game modes. Deathmatch and CTF being the most popular.

While you can run around on the ground, you also have a fancy jetpack that can propel you forward or up in to the air. Adding this extra dimension of movement makes the game faster, more difficult, and way more entertaining than you would think it could be.

There have been a number of Tribes games that have released over the years.  Now, to save you some heartache, I’m only providing information for two or three of them because some don’t get played anymore.

First was Starsiege: Tribes

This is was created the genre of tribes style games that included the jetpack. It doesn’t get played much anymore and those that do are usually on the higher end of elite and don’t take well to newcomers. If you consider yourself a glutton for punishment though, you can snag it here.

Then there was Tribes 2.

Man, this game was AWESOME. It is still being supported by the fan community over at TribesNext. You can go there to download the entire thing. OR… you can just click HERE.

Some people complained that they wanted a storyline above the shoot, kill, repeat model that had been in place for years. So, they brought out…

Tribes: Vengeance

This game was good in my opinion. I enjoyed the story. The game play was solid. There were a few new features and I had a good time with the single and multiplayer.

The game isn’t played online by many people anymore, BUT, the single player campaign is TOTALLY worth playing.

Want to give it a shot? Click HERE

Okay, now we have moved into the modern era …

Tribes: Ascend.

Again, you can go look at the post I put up about it for more information (I reccommend this!), but if you wanna just skip the whole thing, then you can always just GO HERE and download the game. It’s quick, easy, and fun to play.

So, there you go. It’s all the basic info you need.

DOWNLOAD LINKS:

Tribes 1

Tribes 2

Tribes Vengeance

Tribes Ascend

An AMAZING explaination of the Game and the mechanics.

Click Here for that.

And my personal thoughts on the whole thing.

Right here!

Pick it up. Play it. Enjoy it.

It really is fun.

I promise.

-G

The cheapest drug an internet addict can get.

The internet is an amazing tool that will allow even the heartiest adventurer to succomb to the paings of addiction.

Be it Stumbleupon, bloggin, online gaming, cats on youtube, memes, or even the fine art of trolling, the internet provides us a wide array of addicting substances.

While I enjoy each of these addictions in kind, I have found recently that the one that is providing the most joy for me is blogging.

I have written about a large number of things. Work, Religion, my wife Andrea, personal life, and even a post or two about video games. Each of these topics have been very entertaining to me as a writer. Actually, I’m not really a writer. I just think of an idea and belch it out onto digital paper and hit publish. Hopefully someone at leasts find my posts entertaining or worth their time. The last thing that I want is for someone to read something I wrote and just blink at it and exclaim tl;dr.

Regardless of what people currently think, todays post is going to be based on something compeltely different. I’m going to talk about “What People Currently Think!”. (See what I did there?)

So, with this in mind, I am asking you as a reader to actually take the few minutes required and give me some feedback. That is afterall what the comments section is for.

What would you like to see?

Video Game related topics?

Religion related topics?

More stories from my personal life?

Stories and pictures from work?

More political commentary?

If I can find out what people WANT to read, then I can find what it is in that topic that interests me and I can write on it more often. Hell, I can even write on it somewhat regularly.

Now, I pointed out that blogging is one of the internets addictions. And while that may be true, the big part of blogging for me that holds the addiction is the view counter.

HOW MANY PEOPLE READ WHAT I SAID?

That’s what I like to see. I like to see that number grow saying people have read my blog post. Maybe even told their friends about it.

So, with this in mind, I am willing to do the following:

I will post regularly. Maybe even on a schedule.

I will post on those topics that my readers would like to see.

I will read the blogs of people that comment on mine. I will even comment on yours.

in exchange for this, I just ask that you tell me what it is that you want to see.

Because if you don’t, I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing and I don’t think I’m doing it right.

-G

“If you liked Descent, you’ll love this… Trust me, I work at GameStop”

ONCE… Just once has a suggestion from game stop actually been worth the effort.

This was back in 1999. I believe I was still living at home and was associating with my good friend Rocky at the time.

The suggestion was thus, “You would like to play Tribes”.

I had never heard of tribes, and didn’t know what the game was about. It was a FPS with a twist, you had a jetpack and could ski across HUGE amounts of land very quickly. Of all the game I think I have ever played, this one is by far the fastest playing and requires the most amount of twitch.

Well, after playing tribes for a bit, I realized that this game was quite entertaining. I mean, REALLY entertaining.

So, after figuring that out, as a child of the era when the internet was still new, what did I do? I uttered the rallying cry that wasn’t even a phrase yet…. “TO THE INTERNET!”.

I fired up google (Because I used google before it was a verb), and looked up tribes. I found screenshots and such from the game. And honestly, this is pretty much what I was playing…

Nothing fancy. Well, the internet told me that there was going to be a sequal. I even knew roughly when the release date was.

Since game marketing was still young, the best you could get was a display in the electronics portion of the local walmart or fred meyer.

While at the electronics department of the freddies down in Bremerton Washington one afternoon while I was with Rocky, we spied something. It was what appeared to be Tribes 2.

I looked at rocky and exclaimed, “It’s Out!” and ran over…

The following is a decent account of what took place as I stepped up to the display.

The boxes on that display were empty. The game wasn’t supposed to be out for a few more days at least. What is really sad is I knew this. What is even MORE sad is that I had seen this comic that morning before Rocky and I went down to Fred Meyer.

Yeah, that’s right, I got suckered in to a display. Honestly, it sucked. So, I waited the extra week and sure enough, the actual game was out.

I purchased my new game, I went home, I installed it, and started running the updater. (All while Playing Descent 2 on Kali in the background).

  

After the updater was complete (I already knew it was a horrible update system they were using after glancing it it), I was faced with a situation a lot like this one….

I took my beating and the update completed. I was playing tribes 2.

Much better eh?

Well, time passed, games come and go, and I moved on.

Well, here I am, 10 years later and I found a link to a new game. Tribes: Ascend.

Just like Team Fortress 2 (GREAT GAME BTW!), it was free to play.

In my head, I started doing the “No-Pants, I’m so happy Dance”.

I clicked join.

I clicked install.

I clicked update. (No kicking this time)

I clicked play.

What did I see?

BAM!

  

(Oh yeah, click the pics to make them bigger… will ya?)

Bar far, this is the best tribes yet in the way of looks.

But how does it play? Well, it’s still as fast as the first two. It’s still got all of my favorite features. But it’s a tad different.

Lets look at this video before we get too far. Just to give you an idea of some of the things that take place in this amazing game.

It used to be that you couldn’t change your loadouts on the fly anymore, they have since fixed that, but it wasn’t a big deal because your life expectancy isn’t long enough to really matter.

Oddly enough though, after my first few minutes, it reminded me a lot of playing Halo. The first one. Something about the way the gun is carried. The general feeling of the architecture. The overall mood seemed kinda like something Bungie would put out.

Honestly, I’ve only had two hours logged in game when I wrote this, but I’m really enjoying it. Little things like the the damage effect, the key layouts, and the ability to use grenades are pleasing to see.

Will I keep playing? Probably. Do I want my friends to play? YES! Yes I do.

Would I be crazy excited if my wife and/or son decided to play with me? HELL YES!

I’m a little excited honestly. Okay, maybe a little more than I like to admit. But regardless, it’s a hoot.