IamKrAzE.com | Paul Cooper

Well, this was my 2nd mml ever. For those of you not as nerdy as myself, MML stands for Million Man Lan. What is a lan? Check my post: http://iamkraze.com/the-life-of-a-lanparty

Anyway. I packed two days ahead of time, making sure I brought everything I needed, and more importantly everything I didntneed. I ended up bringing a second computer, a projector we officially pet named the “pronjector” and 2 car subs with tweeters accompanied with a 350 watt amp.

The first day was a blast. Thankfully I was riding with someone (defeat) and his car got way better gas milage than mine ever would. He showed up at my house early that morning and with very little sleep under each of our belts we proceeded to pack like true tetris afficianotoes. It was raining at this time and to combat this we put up a large wall-less tent andput the car under it. We feared that the smallest bit of water could ruin our entire weekend.

Once packed we headed onto the open road. Leaving the tent as somone elses problem. We opened up my cellphone and punched in the directions to our destination. Being the nerds that we were, we refrenced the voice in the phone to the voice in the tank, from red vs blue. Sheila. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecjgqJwaHtI)

After 4 hours of driving we decided it was time for a bit of dinner. We told the gpsto findus the nearest Dairy Queen. It did just that, only all of them were behind us. After many separatesearches we finally found one only 3 miles off the highway in which we could stop at. The person waiting on us had to have been the saddest individual I have ever seen. She looked like she needed a hug. After defeats meal of chicken strips, gravy, toast, and fries (BEST BASKET EVAR) we headed back on the road.

We finally arrived and defeat andI tried to find the actual entrance to the complex. Ofcouse the actual directions were wrong andthe building we were in were completely different from the directions given. After wondering aroundwe finally found were to unload. Defeat had the bright idea to bring each item up individually. This wasnt going to fly with me. Instantly I told him lets go check out the event andI will find us a trolley to put all of our stuff on. Sure enough the event registration had 3 just sitting and I asked to borrow one. He stuck his hand out.. and my first thought was “he wants me to pay him?” so I verbally asked “how much?” He said nothing so I tried another approach, “high five?” At this point he simply said, “take one….” I laughed at the awkwardness, still happy I got a trolly out of it. We loaded all of our gear and headed in. I knew it would happen, as we trollied in our bags, the guy at the desk did nothing but stare at the massive speakers I had on it, I laughed a bit, and told him “they are my headphones.”

Unpacking and putting everything together was a snap. Soon I was set up with a IRC window on one side of the screen and a server browser on the other. It was time to game. A few hours of gaming went by when I got a call from Barby. Apparently they haven’t even left yet… epic failures. I even had to give them new instructions via text message because they packed their instructions in the trunk on the very bottom.

Eventually they got there, I got my retarded walk then hug… she was rather happy to see me, which is weird since last time she was next to me, her friends were fags and left early. I got to meet an4, aka Brandon. He was a cool little emo asian. I only messed with him a bit :).

The newcomer, Steve, one of barbies actual friends was very cool. I am glad to have met him. I really thought the kid was smart and interesting. Go Barby for having cool friends.

We helped Barby and her friends pack on a trolly (notice the trolley skills) and then they soon got into the room to unload all of their stuff. To my suprise they told me they didnt know how to do it… hopefully this was a joke. An4 started joking with me, kid was pretty damn funny if I say so myself. Eventually we got everything working… well whatever you want to call it. Steve had motherboard/ram issues, and barbies computer sounded like a moped at idle.

Soon we got Steve’s computer working magically (bad bios settings that magically wouldn’t fix) and barbies was a different issue all together. She let me hear the roaring of her graphics card… I instantly told her to let me see it.

I took it outside the event (where light still was available) andnoticed that a screw was missing from the fan housing… shit. Our initial thought was to find a screw in something electronic I had… none of them were the right size… oh well right? Well she delt with the sound for the night.

Eventually they retired for the night at their hotel… I however slept on the floor at the event like a true hardcore gamer.

The next day, after they went back to the hotel forever, they came back to find it was ten times louder. We decided to go to walmart and to eat and I was allowed a shower at their hotel YAY.

After eating we went to the hotel, I showered and shaved. I cut myself and made barbie freak out by getting my face wet to make it look like I was bleeding all over.. good times. When I was finally done, I got a complement… I think. She told me that it smelt very “manly” in the bathroom… go axe?

We then proceeded to walmart.. there I bought 2 gallons of gatoraid, 2 cases of alchohol, and she bought an assortment of screws that may fit the device and some engine oil.

On the way out they had music in the midway and we decided to do a little jig. An elderly lady saw me and I instantly asked her….well told her.. she had to dance on the way in. She laughed and didn’t dance.. I guess she thought I wasnt serious.. I then again told her she better be dancing or she is to blame for me hating Kentucky.. she simply pointed at me with her back to me.. im not sure what that means but im guessing it means “hey watch it”

The last day was pretty calm, I spent most of my time on the FTP que. I got brandon at one point to go get my xbox 360 controllers out of my bag so we could all get some mario party into the mix. Turns out he was going through some random Chic’s bag thinking it was mine. Ofcourse later that night I felt bad, and they randomly left again *winks* and I took the time to appologize to the chic. After I did, I realized she had soul calibure on her xbox.. I had a mini orgasm at that moment. She said I could play, so I ofcourse did after a bit of hesitation. After awhile ofcourse I had people in line trying to play me… I rock at that game and it was no contest. Good times.

Eventually her boyfriend came over, and started talking to me. Turns out this was all developer kit stuff the main stream wont see for awhile. He then gave me some swag worth quite a bit of money. Thanks destructoid guy! I really need to email him.

He eventually showed me he knew fatality… wohoo? and he showed me a movie I will never forget. Machine Girl. Its not out yet, but its a Japanese movie dubbed in english… totally amazing.

Shortly later, when I realized barbay and brandon werent coming back, I fell asleep. Final night. The next morning we all finished our gaming up and file sharing. Then the lights turned on and it was time to pack up…. another great trip tho.

I made this waaaaay too long… need to stop.

I am all packed… lets go through the checklist:

1. Computer
2. Monitor
3. Keyboard
4. Mouse
5. Mousepad
6. Headphones
7. Server
8. Empty Case for Barbay
9. Clothes…shit I forgot socks…. see!
10. Hardrives (2)
11. Amp
12. Speakers
13. Projector
14. 50 Ft. VGA Cable
15. 3 RCA Connectors + Phono Adapters
16. Keyboard 2
17. Wireless mouse (server)
18. Random Cables including cat5
19. Router (just incase)
20. Xbox wireless controllers + Wireless PC Adapter
21. GPS Device
22. 80MM Camera + Firewire
23. Coaster

I hope I didnt forget anything!

                                                        WHEW!

Whenever I mention the word “Lan” to my normal friends I almost always hear the word right back in question form. Well ladies and mostly gentlemen, I present to you, the Lan Party.

The Lan Party: A gathering of computer gamers for one main reason: to play in close proximity.

Video games are almost always viewed as this kid:

The kid sitting in his room with his console playing by himself. Well for computer gamers, this is partially true.. we are sitting by ourselves but most of the time we are playing online with others. A lan party is perfect to meeting those who you regularly play with online and gives you the ability to talk smack to them in person instead of over voice chat.

Back in the day, console gamers, in order to play multi-player had to actually go over to that persons house and play. Computer gamers have never had this luxury however. Ever since I can remember we have always had multiplayer over the phone lines or some form of long distance communication. A lan gives us the best of both worlds: Proximity and the greatness of computer gaming.

I am not going to say computer gaming is better than its console brothers (it is) but computer titles have always lacked the ability to sit with others and just play. The lan party however fills this need.

So your interest now? What do you need to set one up?

(more…)

Changed the music and the order of the clips.. hope you like it!
The volume isnt full when the movie loads, sorry for that!

Wii Life (wii parody) - Watch more free videos

It all started when me and snail went to another server due to the fact that our server was playing a overplayed map.

We went in and about 10 minutes later everyone else from the clan started showing up. At this point we were all in vent and decided to have a little fun in this server.

We all agreed to meet at a certain spot on the map and thats where the fun happened.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsdM46BNSrc]

Sometimes helping somone who is a lower level then you in an MMO is nice. I have never seen somone so excited as this person:

I go over a few of the basics of playing in a scrimmage atmosphere for counter-strike 1.6

The video is 18 minutes long, so unless your serious, you might want to avoid this one.

Just hit play. The video is double sized and windows media, so I recommend IE and double clicking full screen to watch!

If you would prefure extremely high resolution, I recommend you get my demo file, located at www.teamxw.com/downloads/scrim/practice1.dem Save the file to your steam/steamapps/loginname/counter-strike/cstrike folder. Once you do that, open cs, and type play practice1.dem and the video will start.

Edit: Coming soon, apparently youtube is a bitch and only allows 10 min video’s.

So I havent owned a console since the dreamcast (and I still use that thing when friends come over) but I have noticed alot of notable games that console only friends have had to play.

 I still dont think I could ever live with myself if I bought a console again. Mainly because of the price, I mean, its probably worth it, but I have a 1.8k computer that does EVERYTHING I ever wanted a entertainment system to do, why would I buy another machine to do the same thing? Maybe when both the 360 and the PS3 come down in price, I will fork out the money.

The only console I actually want right now would have to be a wii, and that is only because the control scheme is new, and I have always looked at nintendo for great inovative games. Even when I have the money to get one, I often dont because I am afraid that it will not be as entertaining as I thought and will die out quickly. I guess I could always go over to friends houses to play huh? lol

Well, this post is going to be updated whenever I see a new game come out that I would like to play. Its sort of like a “list o games I wish were on pc” and if they are going to be on pc, yay!

 The Roundup:

Shadow of the Colossus

Gears Of War (coming out on pc?)

Assassins Creed (woot pc)

Zelda for wii

SKATE (hope they port it, well not port, but make it for pc)

All the metal gear solid games I have missed

Ninja Gaiden (played this in CALI and was addictive)

This is a rough draft, I intend to add video’s and such when i get on a pc worth a damn. Anyhow, I have been playing TF2 since the beta release and overall I am not excited about the game, but hey it passes the time right?

The Concept

The game was based off of a great mod called TFC, I am not here to go into the details of the history of the game.. but it was originally for another game but they made it for the half-life engine now. The game rocked serious ass. Like any worthy mulitplayer game, it had extreme highs as well as extreme lows. One of my most memerable moments were getting killed by those damn giant laser beam weilding snipers.. see a red dot, and know your completely fucked kind of thing. Killing the snipers was just as fun however, get close to the snipers and they dont know what to do. Overall it was good times.

TF2 tries to recreate this, but give it a “fresh” feel as well as make it available for the masses retards to play without getting frustrated. Now dont get me wrong, extremely hard games are frustrating, but why has it become, if its not super simple, its not fun? I played alot of the games because the learning curve was so extreme, it gave you something to get better at.

TF2 makes me feel like a retard. Yes I am going to say it, THEY TOOK OUT GRENADES. Why? Because they were spammed… wow…so give them only one then douche. TF2 was amazing because each class was so different. The grenades were either defensive or offensive depending on the class. Caltrops for the scouts so they could run without being chased, demomans fire wall to keep people trapped, engies spinny thing of death, the CONC was amazing.. because the medic cant defend himself for shit and atleast he could use it to get away. Those are the most memorable parts of TFC to me..the grenades broke the battle into parts.. it wasnt a constant rush like it is now.

So what solutions are there to this? Well I am hoping somone makes a mod to include the grenades again.. or steam realizes they need them and add them in after a year to increase replayablility. To say they removed them so the new players wouldnt get frustrated is stupid.. everyone is a new player.. its a new game no matter how literal the transition is.

What the Fuck Happend?

What else do I miss? I miss the pyro not sucking ass. Yes he is a powerhouse close range.. but anyone knows.. see a pyro…run backwards and fire.. the most he can do is catch you on fire for a moment…MEDIC, you peice of shit, stop healing that other guy and heal me.

What the fuck happend to the soldier.. he shoots like 5 rockets out of one tube now.. how in the hell does he manage that? To top it off, the rocket flies lower than the tube… if you want to use the rocket as a splash damage weapon, you better jump or aim above where you want to hit… Another thing.. what happend to the rocket jump? Sure its still there, but its about as high as a fucking double jump now. ONE, count it, ONE demoman sticky sends you higher, and its smaller. Hell, 2 stickies send you rocketing to the moon… I have on many occasions sticky jumped to places on the map waaaaay above players, just to sit there lobbing shit down until I ran outa ammo, or somone was smart enough to look were the shit was coming from.

General What the Fucks.

The Engineer

The sap charges are really cool, but how many do the spies get? On occasion I have been healing my gun, a spy then saps my gun, and I break it instantly… then he resaps it and I do it again.. 7 more times this happens.

Now why didnt I kill the spy? Because I am getting free points for his stupidity. Granted he can kill me, but then he get shot to hell by my gun, and I am willing to trade my life for that.

 Speaking of the engineer.. they need to put a limit on where around the gun you can set the dispenser.. because sitting ontop of my gun, while my despenser heals me, and I repair the gun is hilarious, but wrong. I block the damage, dispenser heals me, and I heal the gun.. its a interesting combo.

Another exploit I found, that really isnt a exploit but is hella funny, is the teleporter shield. I got a friend to build a gun nexto mine.. we both had dispensers behind us.. and we built our teleporters infront of the guns. The hitboxes on the teleporters are high, so the fire gets absorbed by the teleporters and the guns fire right through them. Another way to kill the gun quickly.

The Sniper

Another development that was very well done. The speed and the double jump makes this fucker very effective.. the engineers gun is still way faster than him, and can pick you out of the air, often using the guns knockback to keep you in the air until you die. Other than that, movement and accuracy are very nice and this class have improved a heck of alot.

The Heavy

I feel he was definatly nerfed in this version. Originally he was a badass. If you heard that gun winding up, you better run because your about to get multiple holes put into you. Now, the only thing really scary about the heavy is if he has a medic.. even then its more of a process of killing the medic and avoiding him. Now that most classes have above 100hp, the gun isnt really that effective.

 The Spy

This class shines in the new version. He is very well balanced and can get out of almost any situation. The cloak feature is great both getting away and entering a base. The sap is very usefull if anything, you can use it to get past a gun, or help your team temperarily get to the gun to destroy it.

The Pyro

Once again, I would like to see the single fired napalm rocket to come back to this one.. Or have the fucking flamethrower go more than a few feet, what is that thing a dollar general brand supersoaker filled with cheap booze? Come on, its pathetic. Dont get me wrong though, if a pryo can get to you, you are dead. His damage is insane when touching you with the nose of his gun, but how often does that happen? Your best bet with this class is to burn them and just keep hitting them with your shotgun until the enemy either dies or burns to death.

The Scout

This character is actually usefull in this game. The combination of speed and double jump make him extremely usefull now. I would still like to see the caltrops used for this class. Right now, most people use him as an offensive class instead of a sneak and steal class like it was originally designed to do.

The Medic

This guy is alot better in TF2. His ability to heal at a distance is amazing, granted he cant defend himself worth shit. Reguardless, that is how I would want it. Who would want a class that could heal himself automatically and deal shitloads of damage? I would still like to be able to heal enemies but actually poison them like the original did. Bring back the conc grenade so the medic can escape when his teamate dies!

The Demoman

Uhm, this class is decent. I find myself using this class the most. I do this because it is a versatile class. You can go on offense as well as defense. I would like to see the primary gun go a bit farther than it does currently. Or atleast the ability to charge it like the sticky bomb can do. Sticky bomb jumping is extremely powerfull like I said before.

The Soldier

The most general class becomes a bore to me. The rocket seems to fire lower than the friggin tube, and to get a splash damage kill on an enemy I find myself having to either jump or aim above the crosshair to get it to land in the right spot. I dont know what thats all about. The fucker is extremely slow, I am fine with that however, because he can rocket jump right? Yea, about as far as you can throw a rock. The rocket jump needs a definate boost. You can barely get over the walls they designed for rocket jumping. The class is mostly good for shooting lots of rockets at an entryway.

Conclusion

The game isnt TFC and I accept that.. but I still would have had TF2 be more like TFC. I miss the grenades most of all, bring those back and balance the classes more.

The real downside of this game is the people itself. During beta it was mostly fun. People worked together and plans were made. The day of the release it felt like a mass of retards joined the servers, stacking classes and generally doing nothing over and over again causing the game to really start to go to shit.

Maybe valve is right.. maybe the grenades would make the noob worse. After all, I saw an engineer build a gun against a wall in a locked capture point (our spawn) when we were capping there last 2.