Being a good engineer in Team Fortress 2

Engineers. You either love them or you love to be them. A lot of TF2 players shy away from the engie class because it can be such a draining position to play. Not only is it your responsibility to set up a temporary base for your team, you also have to defend that base from attack, keep it in good repair, and listen to everyone complain when you aren’t working fast enough. To top it off, you either have to constantly rebuild your equipment or stand there doing absolutely nothing. Rarely is there a good balance between frantic wrench smacking and thumb twiddling, making the engie class an all-or-nothing character to be.

But, when played right, a team of engineers are the fulcrum in which a team can pivot around. Players huddle around your dispensers like a herd of Tim Langdells to the word “EDGE”. Your teleporters zip everyone to the front lines in an instant. Sentry guns are often the only thing keeping the other team at bay. When you’re in trouble, other engineers are happy to dash over to help, and everyone wants your equipment to stick around as long as possible. I’ve seen some amazing feats of engineering ingenuity in Team Fortress 2.

If you’re a beginner TF2 player or are just curious how you can step up your engineering game, here are a few pointers to set you in the right direction. Continue Reading >>

The quick saga of Ketara, flOw, and Aquatica

Here’s a fun bit of indie gaming drama that rose and fell within a 48 hour time period. A couple of days ago, Toronto-based studio Ketara released Aquatica on the iTunes App Store, a free game that looked and played exactly like ThatGameCompany’s flOw. It seems the general gaming public didn’t like that, and a storm of scowls quickly spread across the internet. In Aquatica’s original description, neither flOw nor its creator, Jenova Chen, were mentioned. Chen later sent out a Tweet saying “I released flOw source for people to learn. I didn’t expect to see it on iphone without quoting the creator”. Ketara quickly updated Aquatica’s description with proper credentials and stated none of its code was taken from flOw and the game was intended as a “fan remake”. But the damage was already done.

The current status of Aquatica is “gone”, while the current status of Ketara is “apologetic”. I don’t believe the company had malicious intent with releasing the game, but dropping something as copycat-like as this on the very commercial iTunes App Store was a mistake, with or without a price tag and with or without proper credit. I hope this doesn’t discourage Ketara from working on its game some more, adding some original ideas and trying again. But I’m also glad the gaming community stepped up to help protect one of our valuable designers’ creations.

Dingoo review

Got my hands on the Dingoo a few days ago and have had plenty of time to run it through the gauntlet. For an $85 portable machine designed to play tons of media files along with retro console/handheld games, it does a pretty good job. The system is small, performs well, has a good looking screen, and does a lot of things right out of the box. My main reason for grabbing one, though, was to play old games on a system I could slide into my pocket. I’m not rolling in the sun-drenched lens-flared awe that is Dingoo, but I feel like it was a good buy, especially since Pandora has yet to show itself to the world.

The Dingoo itself is tiny, about the size of an iPhone but thicker and a bit longer. It’s surprisingly lightweight and the screen sits behind a thin layer of plastic which creates a smooth appearance. The buttons are laid out just like a SNES controller with tiny little L and R triggers on the top. The bottom has two speakers, a slot for a mini-SD card, AV out, and a USB mini plug, while the right hand side has a reset/off switch and an awkwardly-placed headphone jack. Oh, and on the back it has a little paw print, Dingoo Digital’s logo, so there ya go. Continue Reading >>

Songbird 1.2 released

I’ve been a fan of Songbird since it was still in early beta. Now that I have an iPod Touch and am forced to use iTunes from time to time, I’m an even bigger fan. For the uninitiated, Songbird is a full-featured, cross platform, open source music player/discovery tool built on the Mozilla engine. It allows you to manage and play your music collection as well as discover new tunes on the web using a surprisingly effective pane that displays songs from the web in a playlist-type form. You can even install plugins that allow you to buy songs directly from Amazon MP3 and eMusic. “Play the web” was Songbird’s early tagline, and it’s so, so right.

Version 1.2 adds a feature a lot of people have been waiting for: two-way iTunes integration. Now you can both import and export iTunes library files from Songbird, allowing you to make a near-complete migration away from the dreaded Apple bloatware. Oh, and it’s free and open source, which is always better than not-free or proprietary. Enjoy.

Edge returns to iPhone

So, Edge is back on the iTunes App Store. I hesitated to post about this for one specific reason: no one is sure why. Did Langdell fall into a bottomless pit in Sparta? Did Mobigame make some sort of deal with him? Am I in some sort of parallel universe? Either way, it’s back, it’s $4.99, and it’s a good game. The lite version isn’t available yet, but oh well. I just hope ole Timmy doesn’t get a cut of the title’s profits in any shape or form.

Home of the Underdogs abandonware site reborn… twice!

My original plan was to post about this almost a week ago, now RPS went and beat me to it, so it looks like I’m copying them. :-( Oh well, it’s ok, I just got Firefly on Blu-Ray, so all is good in the world. Anyway, Home of the Underdogs, possibly the most complete and most famous abandonware site on the interwebs, has had a resurrection of sorts. Since its host went bankrupt ages ago and razed most of the archives with it, its creator and sole manager, Sarinee, gradually lost time and interest in running the massive site. But leave it to the internet to pick up the slack. Also leave it to the internet to pick up the slack in two distinctly different ways.

Yes, HotU is back, but it’s back in two separate forms. HOTUD.org embraces the former site’s philosophy and general design but presents things in a much different way. New coding makes things faster and slicker, but it’s got a lot of what we’re really after: games. HomeoftheUnderdogs.net, on the other hand, emulates the original site’s look and feel and believes HotU should stay that way. An homagey kind of resurrection, you could say.

So there you have it. Go without HotU for a while, now we have two. Well, technically three, but who’s counting? I’m just downloading. Soon I’ll share a few favorite old abandonware games of mine, ’cause I’m cool like that.

tl;dr version:

* HOTUD.org – More games, different design, community-driven fewer static pages.
* HomeoftheUnderdogs.net – Classic layout, original archives.
* hotu.pratyeka.org – Uhh…..

Mother 3 wallpaper for you!

The other day I was messing around with some of the Mother 3 sprites and decided a minimalist desktop wallpaper was in order. I made a few, but this Ultimate Chimera one seems the coolest, and it’s the least spoilerey for those of you who haven’t beaten the game. It’s only available in one size, 1920×1080, which is widescreen, but you can squeeze it in and change the file format if necessary. It’s not a complex piece of imagery. :-P Click below for the full size. Enjoy!

How to play a pyro (TF2)

The pyro is my most-played class. I’ve logged almost twice as many hours with the flame-wielding maniac than my next favorite class. Why? Because he (or is it she?) is a surprisingly versatile character, featuring a good short-range attack weapon that functions as an excellent support tool. As a pyro you help protect your teammates while holding back the enemy. A skilled pyro can take on any other class (though some with difficulty and a low-success rate), and the sizzling flames you spout tends to send your foes scampering. It’s good to play with fire, and here’s how to do it well.

* Pyros exist for two reasons: pushing back the enemy at the front lines, and making everyone feel safe and protected from spies.
* I like to burn things. A lot. For this reason, I will charge flame-first into a pack of heavies just to set them on fire. Why? Because burning characters often have this reflex to retreat and heal. If I can buy my team a few seconds safety, that’s worth risking my life. Note that this doesn’t mean “hold W and the left mouse button!!!”, it’s a tactical charge, and I rarely die because of it.
* Corners are your friend. Fire can kind of clip through corners to hit hidden sentries and camping enemies. Stay in safety while you burn.
* Flames aren’t always an attack, they can serve as a deterrent as well. Spouting a blast of fire across a hallway discourages foes from running through. Running around burning the air also keeps watchful spies at a distance. Prevention can be the best medicine.
* The compressed air blast: use it. Don’t switch to the backburner, it’s useless by comparison. The ability to knock back an opponent is a priceless boon for your team. If an uber comes in, its your job to hold them off or, at the very least, disorient them with constant shoves.
* It takes a pyro’s flames some time to kill an opponent. For this reason, he usually functions better as a fire-and-forget class. One strategy I employ is to run to the front lines, set a bunch of people on fire, knock them back with a blast of air, then step back and let the heavier artillery in for a hit or two.
* Pyros are the only class that can really detect spies. For this reason, you should always spy check. everything and everyone. Tap the fire button when you pass any teammate, just in case. Take the road less traveled and burn thin air just in case a spy is lurking around. And don’t be afraid to burn seemingly empty corners, spies love to hide there.
* Pyros are an engineer’s best friend. Hover around them whenever possible, they feel warm and comfy because of this.
* Shotgun versus flare gun is a difficult choice. I find myself sticking with the latter for one key reason: fire is scary. Setting someone on fire who is camping a tunnel exit is a good way to encourage them to move on.
* Pyros are terrible in wide open spaces. Keep that in mind.
* Most of your pyro points will come from assists. Don’t expect to be vaulted to the top of the scoreboard when you play a pyro, but do expect to keep your team safe. Karmic bonus points are awesome.

EDGE and Langdell, on being a bully

Been following the whole Tim Langdell/EDGE lawsuit thingie? It’s causing a small but violent stir in the indie gaming community, mostly because Langdell is now on the IGDA board of directors. To put it succinctly: Langdell thinks he owns anything with the word “edge” in it. He’s so sue-happy over his little copyright, he’s forced an excellent iPhone game, Edge, off the App Store, and had a hand in over a dozen suits regarding game titles using his holy word (including Mirror’s Edge). TIGSource has a stellar rundown of the whole situation, which I highly encourage you to read, since I’m grossly oversimplifying things here just so I can rant.

My response to all of this: Langdell, you don’t own the word edge, edgy, EDGE, or any variation of that. Yes, you may technically be an independent game developer, but what you’re doing is nothing short of bullying. Quit. Being. An. Asshat. Go make a game or something, leave everyone else alone. For a fine example of how ridiculous you are being, see this letter from Groucho Marx as he responds to the Warner Bros. threat to sue over using the word Casablanca in a Marx Bros. movie title.

After Langdells bitchery, what does the indie community do? Start an unofficial game competition! EDGE, a competition for GAMES, where one of the rules is the word EDGE must be prominently displayed. I love the indie game community!