Review written by ShadowFighter

With the success of the Kickstarter program for a new video game, as well as a browser-based one on the way, I thought I’d do a review on the current edition of the pen-and-paper RPG that spawned them; Shadowrun.

The game’s in its fourth edition now and the release of the 20^th Anniversary Edition of the core rulebook (which is the book this review is focussing on) brought in a few more changes to refine things.  Of course, Catalyst Game Labs were courteous enough to release a separate, freely-downloadable PDF that listed the changes from the original 4e book, meaning those who didn’t want to shell out for a new core book for, relatively, few changes didn’t have to.

So, what is Shadowrun?  The quickest way to describe it is to take a dystopian, cyberpunk future, like what you’d find in Blade Runner or Deus Ex, and throw in all kinds of fantasy elements; magic, spirits, elves, dwarves, trolls, even dragons.  Magic returned to the world in 2012, at the end of the Mayan calender in the latest moment of an eternal cycle.  The state of the world totally changed – Japan once more became an Imperial state, the US and Canada have split apart into many different nations (same thing happened to China but on a much larger scale), Ireland is now an elven nation called Tír na nÓg, Tehran got wiped off the map by a dragon after the ruling ayatollah called for a jihad against all Awakened (mages) and Australia’s become an even more lethal place than it already is.  At least in the real world we don’t need to worry about constant mana storms covering most of the continent.  A dragon was also briefly president of the United Canadian and American States for about ten hours before being killed by a bomb in his limo.

Shadowrunners themselves, what the game assumes you are playing as (though there is plenty of scope for other styles of game), are deniable corporate assets.  What that means is, when a corporation wants to make a hit on another one – steal a research project, an employee or maybe just something to drive the rival corp’s stocks down for a potential buy-out at a later date – they hire a team of shadowrunners.  The person who does so is referred to as Mr Johnson and, typically, will not be intending on the shadowrunners learning his identity.  The ‘deniable’ part about a shadowrunner and a Johnson’s anonymity are so that the hiring corp isn’t linked to the ‘runners’ illegal actions.  Not that such accusations would harm one of the megacorps, like Saeder-Krupp or Ares Macrotechnology, but they’d rather avoid the hassle.

Part of why Shadowrun isn’t as well known as some other RPGs is probably because it’s such a strange combination – science-fiction with fantasy – and that combination just rubs people the wrong way or they find it a bit nonsensical.  Personally, I find it refreshing – fantasy and sci-fi books, games, films and so on are a dime a dozen, combinations like Shadowrun, that do something new with either genre are a lot rarer.  And hell, what was Star Wars if not a sci-fi setting with a few fantasy tropes added?

Another reason may also be from the general tone of a run.  Basically, if you turn the place into the set of a Michael Bay film, you’re either acting as a distraction for another team or something’s gone horribly wrong.  The corps of Shadowrun are almost nations unto themselves (the really big ones even have extraterritorialty – making their land, legally, a separate country like the grounds of an embassy) and can easily bring in troops and firepower that would make SWAT teams look like rednecks with old shotguns.  Not to mention that the more damage a shadowrunner does to a corp, the more resources they’re willing to put towards getting payback.  Leave their employees alive and keep the repair bill down and they won’t put in as much effort as if you left the place splattered in blood and corpses and so badly damaged it’ll collapse from a strong sneeze.

A lot of a ‘run’s success is determined in the prep-work and planning the team does beforehand.  So typically, a shadowrun is more like Ocean’s Eleven than The Matrix.  As one person put it; “A standard mission is 20 minutes of objectives, three days of planning, and 600 seconds of mayhem.”

There are no classes in the game, with character-creation being entirely point-based.  However, there are several character types one can fit into. 

Faces are the smooth-talkers, they’ll be the ones haggling with the Johnson about the pay, trying to fast-talk some info out of a receptionist at the target location – if it involves charisma or an ability to lie with the best of them, it’s the Face’s job.

Magicians are your magic users and can fill a variety of roles, from using astral projection and watcher spirits to do recon or lookout work, to bringing the heavy weapons in the form of a searing fireball or bolt of lightning.  They also have access to healing spells, which will come in handy once the drek hits the fan.

Adepts can generally take on any roll that doesn’t involve hacking or spell-slinging.  These guys focus their magic internally, enhancing their body.  While most adepts turn out as supernatural fighters or gunslingers, some turn their abilities to smooth-talking.  A Face can just as easily be an adept as he could be using cyber or bioware instead.

Hackers should be pretty self-explanatory – if you need a security system disabled, data yanked out of a server or just sending false alarms to distract security, these are the guys to do it.  Technically there are two kinds of hackers, conventional hackers who use programs either bought or self-made and various cyberware to help them, and technomancers, mysterious individuals capable of accessing the Matrix purely with their minds.  In practice, technomancers are more flexible, able to spontaneously create programs the moment they’re needed, while hackers are more powerful when they know what to expect.

Riggers are similar to hackers and can also be technomancers, but instead of focussing their skills on breaking into secured networks, they concentrate on running vehicles and drones, using a full VR interface to effectively become the vehicle or drone.  This interface lets them feel as though the vehicle is their body and can drive far better than someone driving the old-fashioned way.

Street samurai are fighters who have focussed on being the best in a fight.  Either with cyberware or bioware (combined with good-old training and experience) a street sam is an absolute nightmare in a fight, either landing perfect shots with smartlink-enhanced firearms or carving through the enemy with melee weapons (which may even be built into their bodies).  Needless to say, these guys will want to get friendly with the team’s hacker to make sure the firewall on his ‘ware is as tough as it can be.

That’s not a definitive list of what sort of character you can make in the game, but they are the most common.

The mechanics are somewhat streamlined, at least compared to earlier editions.  Every action – from shooting a gun, picking a lock, summoning a spirit or hacking that street samurai’s cyberarm so it starts punching him in the face while spamming his cybereyes with augmented-reality windows saying “Stop hitting yourself!”is all done with the same core mechanic.  You take a relevant Attribute, add on the relevant skill, throw in any other modifiers that are pertinent and then roll that many d6s and count how many rolled a 5 or a 6.  So let’s say a character wants to fire a pistol; you’d take his Agility, add on his Pistols skill, then add or subtract any other modifiers (low visibility, target in cover, bonuses from sights, etc) and roll that many six-sided dice.  If you roll more 5s and 6s than your opponent (who’s going to be rolling his Reaction Attribute) then you hit him.  Anyone familiar with White Wolf’s Storyteller system will feel right at home with this.

This change may rub some Shadowrun veterans the wrong way, as in earlier editions hermetic mages and shamans used two different sets of rules for their magic.  Now, they both use the same system with only minor mechanical differences.  Personally I think they’re making a mountain out of a molehill – with how magic works in the setting no-one knows for certain if all magic comes from the same source or not and the disagreements between mages and shamans still exist.  Its now just been made mostly flavour instead of mechanics.  What’s more, the new system allows players to make their own magical traditions and the book includes rules for doing so, while the Street Magic supplement added more pre-made traditions to the game.

One other thing with Shadowrun, and one that can cause some ‘splitting-the-party’ problems, is that it effectively occurs over three different worlds.  The first is the real world, obviously, while the other two are the Matrix and the Astral.

The Matrix is the system that replaced the internet after a powerful virus crashed the latter and was originally designed as an entirely virtual-reality based system.  When that too crashed to stop a rogue AI from becoming a digital god, the Matrix 2.0 was set up instead.  The Matrix basically takes the modern-day trend of wireless interconnectivity and smartphones, then injects it with every performance-enhancing drug known to man (and a few that aren’t) – every electronic device, from the aforementioned cyberarm right down to your damn toaster, has a wireless component that connects it to the Matrix.  For most people, their interaction with the Matrix is limited mostly to augmented-reality – basically like the heads-up-display in most current video games, Deus Ex: Human Revolution and the new Syndicate game are good examples of this – with the odd bit of VR for total immersion games or other entertainment.  For hackers, AR is an everyday tool or for quick, on-the-fly hacking that they need to do right now, while VR is where their skills truly shine, no longer slowed down by their meat body.

The Astral is the realm of spirits and a mage projecting themselves into it can let their spirit travel at the speed of thought, while their meat body lies unconscious wherever they left it.  In this way, a mage could travel from Seattle to Berlin in the blink of an eye and chat with another mage who just left Shanghai.  It can also let them see any magical defences a place has or if there are any spirits lingering around.  Even just the state of the astral space in the area can be examined.

Now, while both are nice touches to the setting, they do present a GM with some problems.  Namely that, while the hacker is in VR hacking his way through a computer system, it’s pretty much a solo-run for him with the other players left twiddling their thumbs until the hacker’s done.  The actual specifics of hacking are also a little more complex than they need to be while Astral combat does not get a whole lot of info in the book.  Fortunately, both Astral and cybercombat use the same core mechanics as conventional combat (so security programs can suffer wound penalties to reflect damaged code) so the rest can be fudged by the GM.  The book mentions that additional rules for both are in the optional core sourcebooks Street Magic and Unwired (I’ll let you guess which rules are in which book) but this review’s just focussing on the 20^th Anniversary core book.

Speaking of those core supplements, the book mentions these now and again as a place to find expanded rules on something or whole new stuff, with sidebars saying what you can find in them.  The index in the back doesn’t just limit itself to the core book either, but includes page references to the core book and all of the core supplements; Street Magic, Augmentation, Arsenal, Unwired and Runner’s Companion.  These aren’t necessary to play, but all help flesh out both the setting and add to what the players (or GM) can use.  The expanded index also helps for anyone who already had the books, too – unless, like me, you have the PDF version of the Anniversary book.  I don’t know if it’s just my computer or what, but the index pages always seem to take ages to load for me, making it hard to just flip through and find what I need.

The sections on combat have handy tables listing the various modifiers as well as what both the attacker and defender roll, but these weren’t compiled anywhere as a sort-of quick reference page which is something I would have liked to see.  That being said, if you’ve got a physical copy of the book it can be easily fixed with a couple of small post-it notes sticking out of the pages like bookmarks or for PDF owners just a small notepad document with a list of page references.

There’s plenty of setting info in the core book showing how the world ended up the way it is in the game and each chapter is opened with a short story and accompanying artwork.  Hell, the artwork as a whole in the book is great, with one or two exceptions (the poses in a piece on the edge of page 157 in the section on melee combat just look ridiculous).  The portraits for the Bounty Hunter, Face and Weapons Specialist example characters are particularly well-done (the last one in particular – not often you see and elf girl packing that much firepower and still looking entirely professional), although a couple, like the Occult Investigator, could’ve used a bit more detail on the face.

One word of warning to anyone wanting to run a game of Shadowrun in the future – ban technomancers for at least the first few sessions, possibly longer.  Their ability to access the Matrix without any electronics and effectively spin programs on-the-fly isn’t game-breaking, but it is very complex and newer Shadowrun players should either avoid making a technomancer or be willing to do one-on-one sessions so that you and your GM can figure out how they work.  They are not for beginners.  That being said, the fear and prejudice many people still have against technomancers in the setting (one overblown rumour saying that they can hack into your brain – no truth to it but when the public is scared of something…) can make for an interesting character.

Also, be ready for mages to do a little too well early on; while they may not have access to every spell for the job like wizards in DnD 3.5 did, a mage can throw out some serious mojo if he took a power focus or two during character creation – these can let him maintain a spell almost indefinitely.  Also, keep in mind that a mage can only have one unbound spirit summoned at any one time – unbound spirits are the ones quickly summoned up on-the-spot and don’t need a fancy ritual.  I read on a forum recently about someone’s first go at the system and the team’s shaman stole the show by throwing out huge numbers of wolf spirits because both he and the GM had forgotten about this limit.

So to finish off – if you want an RPG that’s a bit different to what else is out there with an interesting and engrossing setting, mostly straight-forward mechanics and the chance to do drive-bys with magical fireballs from a car being controlled by a neural link to a dwarf, give Shadowrun a look.  You can find free quick-start rules at the link below if you want to try-before-you-buy.  You can also find a primer about the pre-4e setting on the Harebrained Schemes website (they’re the ones making Shadowrun Returns).  I’ve added a link for that as well.

Main website (with quick-start rules):
http://www.shadowrun4.com/

Harebrained Scheme’s Shadowrun Primer:
http://harebrained-schemes.com/shadowrun/primer/

This one’s hitting you from all the way back in the 25th of September 2011!

Were you a guest? Did you miss one of them? Do you want to see how awesome we all used to be back in the day?

References to pop culture of yesteryear! Comrade Alexei showing up! Actual guests!

Anyway, check out the podcasts tab or click here!

I’ve got a hell of a backlog but I’ll do my best!

Features a ton of people and it was actually a really fun episode yadayada, have fun!

Outline:

- This ladder is a 4v4 Rush.
- Any outsider can join – Invite your friends.
- Squad Leader of each team must set time with other leader on when they will play each other. (I will be giving access to server back-end to leaders)
- Each week you will be told who you are versing and what map everyone will be playing.
- Each team will play once attacking and once defending, the team who armed the most points wins.
- Each team leader should take a picture of end game score board on both attack and defence.

Rules:

- No using any glitches and exploits.
- Vehicles off.
- Kill Cam off.
- 3D Spotting off.

Submit Your Team Here:

http://www.thebohage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=714

Pre-game:

- Team Leaders talk to each other and set date for match.
- One of the leaders starts up server with the correct settings.

During Game:

- Take a screen shot at the end of each game.

After Game:

- Upload picture and score (mcoms taken) to the submission thread.

The 1.6GB BF3 patch has arrived! With the all new (Bf2 had it) commo rose! And better gun balances.

Its time to reconfigure all your guns and figure out your favourite combinations! Time to throw out the AEK and IN with the F2000!

As you can see in the below picture, Battlelog is updating right now and soon (if not already – if you are reading this after the update) be able to download onto your computer!

Here is the full list of updates:

FIXES FOR PC SERVER OPERATION

• Having the same map occur multiple times in the maplist now works properly
• If adding a new map to the servers maplist after a clear and then running “mapList.runNextRound” the serverwill ignore any remaining rounds on the map that it still run since before the clear and move to the new first map in the list. The server will now have reset the current rounds per map and run the map in the list for the number of rounds stated when adding the map.
• Maplist can contain up to 1000 entries now
• mapList.list will return at most 100 entries. To get the entire list, perform mapList.list repeatedly with increasing offsets (like banList.list)

GENERAL GAMEPLAY FIXES

• Players should no longer take fall damage from short falls.
• Players now get up from Prone slightly faster, allowing better odds of getting away from a grenade or threat when prone.
• Fixed some situations that would unintentionally make a player unrevivable.
• Reduced the black screen fade in time on spawn. The fade is still necessary for properly streaming in loading content at spawn, but it has been substantially reduced.
• Increased the spawn protection time from 1sec to 2sec. The protection will still be immediately canceled as soon as the player moves or shoots.
• Spawn protection will no longer be canceled by the player looking around.
• Increased the speed at which a player regains accuracy when aiming after moving for a more responsive experience. Firing before fully zoomed will still result inaccurate fire.
• Increased the inaccuracy and recoil added when a player is fully suppressed.
• Shotgun Buck and Flechette rounds now have a less suppressive effect at medium to long range.
• Tweaked the damage levels of Buck and Flechette rounds to balance them with other weapons.
• Improved the suppression of the .44 magnum, .357 magnum, and the 5.8x42mm DAP88 rounds from the Type88 sniper.
• Attempting to Crouch (like Prone) will now properly interrupt Sprint.
• Increased the effectiveness of Suppression Resist Specialization.
• Parachutes now respond to turn and throttle inputs more quickly.
• Switching from primary weapons to sidearms and back now takes less time.
• Increased the effectiveness of explosive resistance.
• Tweaked bipod deploy settings so players can no longer deploy a bipod in places higher than chin level.
• The bipod should now be more reliable when deploying on top of sloped objects like cars and rocks.
• Fixed several issues with vaulting objects, especially for thin railings.
• The Knife now only takes two swipes to kill when attacking from a position where a takedown is not possible.
• CRAM weapons on Carriers now count towards stationary weapon awards.

VEHICLE FIXES-

• The A10 properly gives Jet score again.
• Unguided tank rounds and RPGs will now instantly destroy Jets, Attack Helicopters, and Scout Helicopters.
• Increased the damage the MBT’s primary weapon does to the front and side armor of other main battle tanks. Primarily this means 1 less shot to the front, and very good hits to the side can result in a 1 hit to disable.
• Slightly reduced the repair speed of the repair tool.
• Increased the damage done by TOW weapons to armored vehicles.
• Increased the rate of fire and minimum damage of the Coax HMG.
• Increased the damage mounted gunner .50cal HMGs do at long range.
• Increased the power of the repair tool when killing soldiers or destroying vehicles slightly.
• Fixed a problem when locking on to two nearby targets, the locking should no longer jump rapidly between multiple targets. This applies to all locking weapons and Laser Designators.
• Increased the damage of the Javelin and Air to Ground missiles against laser designated targets.
• Javelin missiles fired without Laser targeting now do more damage to the side and rear of MBTs.
• Slightly reduced the locking time of all weapons vs Laser Designated targets.
• Laser Guided missiles can now be distracted by Flares.
• Increased the locking distance for AGM Missiles for Jets when locking on laser designated targets.
• Reduced the locking time for the AGM Missiles for Jets to make them more viable against ground targets.
• Reduced the locking time for AA Missiles for Jets to make them more viable against air targets.
• Flares will no longer break the lock of a vehicle that is locked on, it will only distract the missiles.
• Flares now more reliably distract missiles, especially for Helicopters.
• Flares for Jets and Choppers now reload at 11 seconds again, except for the gunner, which remains unchanged at 20sec.
• AA Missiles are more difficult to dodge in Jets, this was unintended behavior that created an imbalance against skilled pilots.
• AA Missiles should no longer kill the pilot instead of the vehicle.
• AA Missiles should no longer detonate before hitting their target or a Flare/ECM chaff cloud.
• Reduced the damage AA missiles do to jets to 45%.
• Fixed the SU-35 firing Air to Air missiles at a lower rate of fire than other vehicles.
• The IGLA and Stinger now lock on much more quickly and disable an attack aircraft in 1 hit, but have significantly reduced range. This should allow Stingers to mount an effective close range point defense, without dominating an entire airspace.
• Increased the speed of the Helicopter AA missiles lock on to reduce the tedious nature of Helicopter dogfights and improve the Helicopter’s defensive abilities vs Jets.
• Slightly reduced the damage of Jet cannons against Aircraft. Damage is now only slightly higher than it was originally at launch.
• Increased RPG and SMAW damage against aircraft.
• Guided Rockets will now only track ground targets, as originally intended.
• Reduced the direct damage done by Attack Helicopter gunners vs Armor.
• Helicopter guns should now suppress correctly.
• Improved the accuracy of the Attack Helicopter’s Rocket Pods, both guided and unguided.
• Slightly increased the damage of Attack Helicopter’s Rocket Pods vs Infantry and other Helicopters.
• Additional fixes have been made to the TV missile to prevent it from blowing up the launching vehicle.
• The Mi28 has received upgrades to its climbing and yawing abilities.
• Fixed an issue where guided rockets from the Mi28 did not follow the crosshair properly.
• Improved the accuracy of the Mi28 gun to match the AH1 gun.
• Increased the direct hit damage of the APFSDS rounds for the IFVs.
• Decreased the locking time of the IFV Guided Missile to make it more viable as an unlock.
• Miniguns and Helicopter Gunners now more quickly destroy parked cars.
• Increased the power of explosions from cars and other explosive static objects.
• Dying from the explosion of a car or other explosive static object should now correctly credit the player who caused the explosion.
• Adjusted the F35′s Center of Mass and Hover Engine for more stable, level flight in all flight modes.
• Updated the F35 weapon systems to be consistent with the other Jets.
• The F35 will now only attempt to enter Hover at low altitudes, though it will maintain the hover until forward flight is resumed, even if it reaches high altitude.
• The F35 and SU35 now properly have Ejection seats to prevent players from being killed when exiting the vehicle.
• Changed the Kornets to TOW launchers on Wake Island and moved the spawn position of the AAV to a more level position.
• Fixed several bugs with air vehicles colliding with objects at high speeds and taking no damage.
• Players will no longer receive suicides or team kills if they crash their vehicle (dying is punishment enough).
• The MAV will no longer destroy vehicles that run into it, instead it should be destroyed.
• Jet and Helicopter collisions should now properly result in the death of both vehicles.
• You can now spot with the EOD bot.
• Increased the base accuracy for AA guns and added a decrease in accuracy over the course of a burst.
• Reduced the damage AA guns (both mobile and stationary) do to infantry.
• The carrier based CRAM stations are now properly tracked as stationary weapons.
• CRAM and Pantsir stationary AA weapons now have Air Radar equipped by default.
• Improved the sound feedback for damage to help players better understand the amount of damage their vehicle is taking.
• The A10′s extinguisher should now function properly.
• Disabled vehicles now have an increased reverse speed to help escape to cover after being disabled.
• The T90′s crosshair now more accurately represents the trajectory of the main gun.
• Toggle and Hold zoom settings now also apply to soldier controlled turrets on jeeps, transport helicopters, boats, and IFVs port guns.
• The AAV now has zoom and a 3P camera when using the turret.
• Tweaked the AAV’s turret controls to be more useful when the vehicle is moving.
• The Z11w now properly functions with Below Radar.
• Below Radar will now also prevent the lock on of Stinger and IGLA missiles.
• Added Horns to all Jeeps.
• Tanks can no longer drive into the water and cross the Wake Island lagoon completely submerged.

WEAPONS

• Added Extended Mags to the ASVAL. The Extended Mags can be unlocked at 200 kills with the AS VAL.
• Reduced the recoil of the SKS rifle and increased its maximum damage at close range.
• Fixed aimed firing max accuracy on the Pecheneg to be consistent with other LMGs.
• Semiautomatic and automatic shotguns firing FRAG rounds now do slightly less splash damage.
• The M26 MASS frag and slug rounds are now the more effective pump action versions.
• The M26 MASS and M320 now benefit from the Laser Sight when mounted with an Underslung Rail.
• Fixed the bolt action timer on the L96 that would cause an animation glitch.
• 9x39mm rounds no longer benefit from the Sniper headshot bonus.
• Increased the damage of the 9x39mm rounds at long range.
• Fixed the AKS74u damage at max range, it was incorrectly higher than other carbines.
• Increased the damage of the .357 and .44 magnum rounds at max range.
• All semiautomatic and bolt weapons, including all shotgun slugs, now have their maximum damage out to 15m.
• Semiautomatic weapons will no longer “jam” if the player presses fire faster than the weapon is capable of shooting. Some semi-automatic weapons have had their rates of fire adjusted to fit this change.
• Bolt action sniper rounds now have a chance to kill at close range if the player is hit in the upper chest.
• Semiautomatic sniper rifles, Assault Rifles, LMGs, and shotgun slugs now have more consistent damage over long range. At maximum range shots to the legs will not require more hits to kill.
• The spread for Flechette rounds has been reduced slightly on all shotguns.
• The spread for Buckshot has been reduced on the M1014, DAO-12, and S12k. These weapons have an accuracy advantage over the USAS12 but are not as accurate as the 870.
• Zooming shotguns with Buckshot and Flechette loads will now result in a slightly tighter cone for the pellets.
• Reduced the delay time between quick knife attempts slightly. Attacks with the knife drawn are still significantly faster.
• Fixed the Rate of Fire when the USAS and MK3A1 are equipped with FRAG rounds. All other shotguns correctly had a reduced rate of fire with frags, except the USAS and MK3A1.
• Fixed an Accuracy bug when the MK3A1 shotgun is equipped with FRAG or Slug rounds.
• Shotguns equipped with slugs will no longer automatically begin reloading if the weapon is zoomed when the clip is empty. This allows players to see where the slug lands before reloading.
• Fixed 12g FRAG rounds not breaking glass at long range.
• Players can now earn the shotgun Ribbon using the M26 MASS.
• The underslung grenade launchers for Russian rifles now properly report GP30 in the kill log.
• Fixed the AEK971 40mm shotgun round listing itself as FRAG in the kill log.
• Fixed the 40mm smoke grenade so it no longer passes through soldiers and unbroken objects before it detonates.-M27 IAR: No change. The M27 is a heavier version of the M416, giving it good all-around performance though it has worse performance on the move.
• RPK-74M: Reduced the initial recoil and vertical recoil. The RPK-74M is a more stable firing platform than the comparable M27, though it lacks the M27′s higher rate of fire.
• M249: Added an initial recoil. The M249 is the fastest firing belt fed LMG, giving it superior suppressive and damage abilities. The initial recoil makes it a bit harder to run and gun, while making little overall impact on performance.
• Type-88: Slightly increased the initial recoil, reduced muzzle drift. The Type88 fires the slowest of the medium caliber LMGs, though what it lacks in rate of fire it makes up for in controllability.
• PKP: Reduced recoil but added a slight initial recoil, increased damage at max range. The Pecheneg has a heavy vertical recoil with a hard hitting round and little drift, this makes it excellent at sustained fire.
• M60: Reduced the initial recoil, increased damage at all ranges. The M60 has a very low rate of fire that makes it the most controllable with the powerful 7.62x51mm round.
• M240B: Added an initial recoil, increased damage at all ranges. The fastest firing medium MG, the M240 has a substantial muzzle kick and drift that makes all that power difficult to control.
• QBB-95: Reduced the total recoil but increased muzzle drift and initial recoil. The QBB-95 should now kick harder but settle into full auto fire better, combined with the bullpup hip fire bonus this makes the QBB-95 a highly mobile LMG.
• MG36: Added an initial recoil. The MG36 fires at a fast 750rpm and makes a nice middle ground between the controllability of a clip LMG and the sustained firepower of a belt fed LMG.
• 870: No change. The 870 is a popular and highly effective weapon.
• DAO-12: Reduced the total pellets fired from 12 to 9. The DAO-12 has a high magazine capacity with a slow reload that makes it a solid all around shotgun.
• M1014: Increased the rate of fire from 200 max to 210 max. Reduced the total pellets fired from 12 to 9. The M1014 was underperforming compared to the USAS12 and 870, it should now be more viable in CQB thanks to a higher rate of fire.
• S12k: Increased extended mag from 8 rounds to 10 rounds. Reduced the total pellets fired from 12 to 9. The S12k larger extended magazine but slower rate of fire should make it stand out against the M1014, while the DAO-12 has a higher capacity over all, but a slower reload.
• MK3A1: Increased magazine capacity to 8 and 12 for normal and extended mag respectively. Reduced the total pellets fired from 12 to 9. The MK3A1 has a lower ROF than the USAS12, giving it slightly more ammo makes this an edge vs the USAS.
• USAS-12: Increased the initial recoil. Reduced the total pellets fired from 12 to 9. The USAS 12 has a higher ROF than other shotguns, this recoil change better balances that advantage and the pellets balance its damage output.
• M4A1: No Change. Well-rounded carbine, with good rate of fire and controllable recoil.
• M4: Increased vertical recoil, reduced horizontal recoil. The Burst only M4 should now feel different to its automatic sibling, the reduced horizontal recoil emphasizes the greater control you have in burst fire.
• AKS-74U: Reduced initial recoil and vertical recoil. The AKS-74u’s low rate of fire is paired with great controllability. The overall increase in sustained fire control should help this carbine stand out, while the first kick gives it character.
• SG553: Reduced initial recoil and vertical recoil. The SG553 is a lower rate of fire carbine with greater controllability than the G36C. The change to initial recoil should better highlight this difference.
• A91: No Change. The A91′s high rate of fire and bullpup from the hip accuracy is offset by a poor controllability on full auto.
• G36C: Reduced initial recoil. The G36C is a well-rounded carbine, with a medium rate of fire and a medium recoil. The 2 round burst mode gives this weapon an edge at mid-range.
• SCAR-H: Increased damage at maximum range and increased max range. The SCAR-H fires a heavier round than all other carbines, giving it better stopping power at range at the cost of a low fire rate that penalizes it in CQB.
• G53: Reduced recoil and drift, recoil settle times now similar to other carbines. The HK53 is a short carbine with a lot of initial kick but a stable recoil pattern and a medium rate of fire. The changes give it more character compared to the G36.
• QBZ-95B: Reduced muzzle sway, recoil settle times now similar to other carbines. A bullpup like the A91, the QBZ-95B is steady on the move with a lower rate of fire for controllable shots at longer range. The built in foregrip is now properly reflected in the weapon’s stats.
• AK-74M: Reduced initial recoil and vertical recoil. The AK-74M sacrifices rate of fire for controllable automatic fire, the initial recoil was negatively affecting the feeling of controllability.
• M16A3: No Change. The M16 (both A3 and A4) provide a well-rounded stable firing platform with a high rate of fire that is relatively controllable.
• M16A4: Increased vertical recoil, reduced horizontal recoil. The Burst only M16A4 should now feel different to its automatic sibling, the reduced horizontal recoil emphasizes the greater control you have in burst fire.
• M416: No change. The M416 is the middle ground AR, blending a medium recoil and rate of fire.
• AEK-971: Increased initial recoil, reduced aimed accuracy slightly. The AEK has a very high rate of fire, and also a large muzzle drift that makes control difficult. The low initial recoil allowed a player to kill before the weapon’s weaknesses kicked in while the reduced accuracy highlights its close range role.
• F2000: Reduced vertical recoil, increased zoomed accuracy slightly. As a bullpup, the F2000 has a bonus to accuracy on the move and from the hip while its high rate of fire sacrifices controllability for saturation. The previous changes were an overreaction, this is a corrective update.
• AN94: Reduced vertical recoil. The AN94′s 2 round burst mode is incredibly accurate, but it suffers from a low rate of fire on fully automatic. The recoil in full auto has been reduced somewhat to offset this penalty and make the AN94 more attractive.
• G3A3: Increased damage at all ranges, reduced vertical recoil. The G3A3′s heavy recoil and heavy round are offset by a low rate of fire and a small magazine. The G3A3 was clearly outclassed at all ranges.
• KH2002: No Change. The KH2002 is locked to burst fire, with a high rate of fire and a large muzzle drift the weapon favors accurate mid-range fire.
• L85A2: Increased accuracy, reduced muzzle drift. The L85 differs from other bullpup style ARs by having a low rate of fire, the accuracy and controllability were too low to offset the rate of fire.
• FAMAS: The FAMAS combines an extreme rate of fire with extreme recoil making it very difficult to use at anything other than close quarters combat. Due to update restrictions, the FAMAS had different stats on all 3 platforms. The FAMAS is now uniform on all platforms and now has the correct 25 round magazine.
• PP2000: Reduced the initial recoil. The PP2000 has a lower ROF than other PDWs and needed the controllability to be balanced.
• UMP45: Reduced accuracy loss during full auto. The UMP45 hits hard and has a controllable recoil at the cost of a heavy initial recoil kick.
• MP7: No Change. The MP7 has a very low recoil and a high muzzle drift that favors longer bursts than the P90.
• -AS VAL: Increased vertical recoil, reduced first shot recoil, reduced accuracy on the move. The AS VAL fires a long range, highly accurate, high damage projectile that favors short bursts or single fire when stationary. While still quite good from the hip, the AS VAL will suffer if fired while moving and aimed.
• PDW-R: Reduced the initial recoil. The PDW-R has high recoil and favors burst fire, the added initial recoil was making it less effective in small bursts.
• P90: Reduced the initial recoil. The P90 favors a run and gun play style using long bursts to control muzzle drift, the initial recoil was making bursting ineffective.
• PP-19: Slightly reduced the initial recoil when firing, increased base damage. The PP-19′s high initial recoil was over penalizing the burst fire needed to be effective on the low damage, high capacity weapon.

SCOPES

• Fixed the 7x scope not zooming to the full 7x on all weapons.
• Corrected the M39′s laser sight so it points at the point of impact and aligns with scopes when zoomed.
• Fixed a misaligned scope crosshair on the G3A3 using the Rifle Scope 6x.
• Fixed the PKA and PKA-S scopes on the M416 having swapped zoom levels.
• The L96 Straight Pull bolt now functions properly.
• The L96 ironsights have been adjusted for a clearer aiming picture and correct use of the integral front sight.
• The L96 now properly shows scope glint when using the 8x, and 12x scopes.
• Tweaked IRNV to be more consistent across all levels.
• Fixed a rendering issue with IRNV view when taking damage.
• Tweaked the IRNV zoom times and scope visible areas to be the same across all weapons (some were faster than others).
• Fixed the QBU-88 sniper and the L96 IRNV scopes to use the proper sniper reticule

BIPOD

• The Accuracy increase and Recoil reduction of the Bipod has been significantly improved for Assault Rifles and Carbines.
• The Bipod now provides similar Accuracy and Recoil benefits no matter if the weapon is fired while aiming or without aiming for all weapons. Previously only LMGs were worked this way. This especially improves the speed at which snipers can make follow up shots, and also allows effective unaimed suppressive fire with Assault Rifles and Carbines.
• Increased the Speed at which a bipod is deployed, allowing the user to obtain the bipod’s bonus sooner after the deploy has started and allowing the weapon to be aimed in a far shorter time. The speed has been increased 40-50%, depending on the weapon and animation.

HEAVY BARREL

• The Vertical Recoil penalty of the Heavy Barrel has been reduced. The value has been changed from a global percent increase to a weapon specific value.
• A small Hip Accuracy penalty has been added to the Heavy Barrel to represent the added weight of the accessory, as well as focus the attachment on accurate mid and long range fire. The exact penalty amount is a weapon specific value.
• Several weapons with low default bullet speed now have their bullet speed increased when the Heavy Barrel is equipped. This is in effect for the A91, G3A3, AKS-74u, G36C, M4A1, SCAR-H, SG553, G53, and QBZ-95B.
• The Heavy Barrel is now also paired with Match Rounds which increase the maximum range of the weapon. The minimum and maximum damage are unchanged, weapons with the Heavy Barrel will be more effective in mid range.
• The Aimed Accuracy bonus provided by the Heavy Barrel has been increased. This will increase the effectiveness of the Heavy Barrel for small bursts, as originally intended.

IRNV FIXES

• Tweaked IRNV to be more consistent across all levels.
• Fixed a rendering issue with IRNV view when taking damage.
• Tweaked the IRNV zoom times and scope visible areas to be the same across all weapons (some were faster than others).
• Fixed the QBU-88 sniper and the L96 IRNV scopes to use the proper sniper reticule.

FOREGRIP

• The Horizontal Sway reduction has been changed from a global percent reduction to a weapon specific value reduction. For most guns this means very little change, for guns which have a large horizontal recoil the change is more substation. The FAMAS, F2000, and AEK971 are most effected, the AK-74, M16, and M416 are nearly unchanged.
• A small long range Aimed Accuracy penalty has been added to the foregrip. Players who generally find themselves fighting at mid to long range may want to change their accessory, while players fighting in CQB will go largely unaffected. Combining the Foregrip with a Silencer or a Heavy Barrel will offset this penalty.

LASER SIGHT

• The Hip Accuracy bonus provided by the Laser Sight has been increased. Some PDWs have had their crouch and prone base stats adjusted to prevent hip firing being more accurate than aimed fire when using a laser sight.
• The bonus is now a weapon specific value instead of a global percentage, some guns receive larger or smaller bonuses, though all bonuses are better than they were previously.

SUPPRESSOR

• The Suppressor no longer reduces the maximum damage of a weapon when equipped. Instead the Suppressor reduces the minimum and maximum range of the weapon, making it ideal for CQB and Stealth. This change will make the Suppressor slightly more effective at long range, where the bullet drop and speed makes shots difficult already, and reduces the power of the suppressor at mid range slightly.

• The Suppressor’s recoil bonus remains unchanged at a global 10% decrease. This is less than the Flash Suppressor’s bonus for all weapons

• The Hip Accuracy penalty of the Suppressor has been changed from a global percentage to a per weapon value. Generally this penalty is higher now, but not for all weapons. Specifically, the belt LMGs and bolt Snipers do not have any additional hip fire penalty, as their penalty is already at the maximum possible value.

• Reduced the Aimed Accuracy bonus of the Suppressor from 50% to 25%. A Suppressor and Foregrip combo will have similar accuracy to a weapon without any Accessories, at the penalty of worse Hip Fire Accuracy and Range and with the benefit of much improved Stealth and reduced Recoil.

FLASH SUPPRESSOR

• The Flash Suppressor no longer reduces accuracy for Automatic Fire.
• The Flash Suppressor now also works as a recoil compensator, reducing the Vertical Recoil by a weapon specific value. This bonus is larger than the bonus provided by the Suppressor.
• A small Hip Accuracy penalty has been added to the Flash Suppressor to represent the added weight of the accessory. The exact penalty amount is a weapon specific value.

GADGETS

• Reduced the spot times on C4 and Claymore projectiles from 30 to 15 sec.
• Tweaked the controls and physics for the EOD bot to improve its handling and aiming capabilities.
• The Radio Beacon, Mortar, MAV, EOD bot, T-UGS, and SOFLAM should now be much easier to deploy.
• The MAV will now be destroyed when running into a soldier or vehicle at high speed. It is still possible to strategically sacrifice your MAV on a soldier; it will be destroyed in the process.
• The MAV now properly shows up in the Kill Feed. Previously it simply displayed “KILLED.”
• The MAV can no longer be used as an elevator.
• Matched the motion sensor sweep frequency and range on the MAV to the TUGS.
• Players will no longer auto enter SOFLAM, MAV, and EOD bots after they are deployed.
• Players may now use their knife to destroy enemy equipment.
• C4 will no longer be detonable after a player respawns, if the player is revived within 5 seconds he can still detonate his C4.
• The player may now have a maximum number of mines which will persist after the player’s death. Deploying more than the maximum of 6 mines will remove a previous mine from the world.
• Claymores now live up to 5 seconds after a player dies, the player can have a max 2 claymores planted at the same time.
• Claymores can now detonate from vehicles and can be used to disable jeeps or kill the passengers in light jeeps. Claymores will not do any damage to heavy vehicles.
• Ammobags now stay until the user redeploys them like Medkits.
• Ammobags resupply bullets more quickly, but explosives resupply more slowly, especially 40mm grenades.
• Slightly reduced the effective blast radius of the RPG, SMAW, and 40mm grenade projectiles against infantry.
• Reduced the total number of RPG and SMAW missiles carried from 5 to 4. Players desiring more rockets will want to use the Explosive spec.
• Slightly increased the heal rate of the Medical Crate.
• The MAV now will also descend by pressing the Crouch Toggle key. (PC)
• The M224 Mortar can no longer be deployed in an area that is out of combat for another team like a home base or other protected spawn.
• Tweaked M224 exit points so the player faces in the direction of the mortar when he exits.
• Mines, Claymores, C4 and other deployable items will now only appear on the minimap when spotted by a teammate.

TEAM DEATHMATCH

• Fixed a bug where players would spawn close to the enemy team at the start of the round.
• Tehran Highway playable area has been doubled and is now the same as the Squad Deathmatch set up.
• Spawn points have been tweaked, and an extra spawn zone has been added north of the footbridge.
• Kharg Island has a new spawn zone layout, along with a bigger playable area and new cover objects. Spawn points have also been tweaked.
• Strike at Karkand spawns zones have been tweaked to improve player flow. Spawn points have been tweaked to improve safety upon spawning.
• Sharqi Peninsula spawn zones have been adjusted to optimize player movement. Spawn points have been tweaked so players spawn more safely.
• Seine Crossing spawn zone set up has been improved. There is a new spawn zone by the alleyway to the northwest with additional spawn points.
• Caspain Border spawn zones have been tweaked slightly.

SQUAD DEATHMATCH

• Fixed a bug where players would spawn close to the enemy team at the start of the round.
• Damavand Peak layout and spawn zones have been tightened to reduce the spread of players across the map
• Tehran Highway now features an extra spawn zone north of the footbridge, along with tweaked spawn points.
• Noshahr Canals spawn zones have been tweaked. Removed unsafe spawn points in the Northeast corner, and in the middle of the container area to the Southwest.

DISABLE ANTI-ALIASING ON PS3 TO REDUCE INPUT LAG

• PlayStation 3 players may now turn off anti-alias in the options menu to reduce input lag

“Today’s match is brought to you by Mechwarrior: Living Legends.”

“Will you be a living legend, or a forgotten casualty?”

Review written by ShadowFighter

 
As I said in my Mechwarrior Online write-up a few days ago, anyone looking to scratch that giant-robot itch until it comes out (or at least goes into Open Beta) have the perfect avenue for it in this Crysis Wars mod.

Click here to view the embedded video.

One of the most impressive things about Living Legends outside of the gameplay (which I’ll come to) is that this is one of the few mods based on the Battletech intellectual property to have been sanctioned by both Microsoft (who own the rights to any Mechwarrior video game) and receive support and sanctioning from CryTek (the developers of the base game), the latter of which got them early access to the CryEngine 2 SDK.

Since it’s a mod for Crysis Wars (the multiplayer component of Crysis Warhead), there is no singleplayer campaign. This is a purely multiplayer mod. Living Legends is also the first Mechwarrior game where you aren’t limited to just piloting the series’ eponymous Battlemechs. When you spawn into the game, you are on foot and wearing a suit of battle armour – think a halfway point between Master Chief’s armour and a suit of Space Marine armour, then strap a missile launcher to each shoulder – the suit’s jump jets provide decent manoeuvrability and you start off with a small laser, the short-range missile launchers on your shoulders and a single C8 explosive charge which can do surprising damage to a mech when placed right.

While you can buy a variety of weapons to carry, battle armour is very fragile when faced with weaponry intended to sheer through armour by the ton. And since you’ll appear in a mechbay when you spawn, you can immediately buy a tank or a light ‘mech and head out to fight. Any battle armour weapons you buy will be there in the event that you have to eject from your mech/tank/aircraft for whatever reason.

The currency system works pretty much the same way as in the base game, save that you start off with a hell of a lot more money. 49,000 Cbills to be precise – Cbills, or ComStar Bills, being the currency of the Battletech universe – which is enough to have a decent selection of light ‘mechs, tanks, VTOLs or aerospace fighters to choose from. Mousing over a ‘mech or vehicle on the buy menu will show what weapons and other equipment it has, Battletech veterans will recognise the acronyms for them at a glance, but they may be very confusing to a first-time player. There is a wiki for the mod that will tell you what these acronyms stand for, however more than a few articles on there are out of date. It is still useful to see what each ‘mech variant is armed with and to learn the basics of the game and out-of-date articles are labelled as such. The wiki also has links to tutorial videos that can explain the mechanics quite well. They may be for an older version of the mod than the current (version 0.5.5 as of writing) but the basics have not changed.

Regardless, you earn money from damaging the enemy, getting kills or kill-assists, detecting enemies with your radar while carrying a C3 computer (which shares radar and targeting info with teammates) and capturing bases in Terrain Control maps. As you play, you will go up in rank, letting you spawn with more money. However, any money you earn in one life will disappear upon death unless you earned more than you spent plus any rank increases. Meaning that if you spawn and spend 40,000 Cbills and then ranked up while alive (which would let you spawn with at least 55,000), you would have to earn more than 46,000 Cbills in that life to make a profit when respawning. You can put that money to use while alive, though – buying more ammo for your ‘mech, repairing it by walking into a repair bay and shutting down or donating to other players to try and get a larger mech on the field quicker.

Once you’ve purchased a ‘mech (or vehicle, I’ll just stick to ‘mech from here for simplicity), one of the actual bays in the mechbay will close it’s doors while the ‘mech is being built. When it’s done, you’ll get an audio notification that it’s done, what bay it’s in and a HUD indicator over it as the bay’s doors open. Then it’s a simple matter of jumping into the ‘mech the same way you would a vehicle in Crysis Wars or Battlefield (though you’ll need to jump-jet up to the torsos of any ‘mechs you want to use).

By default, weapons on a ‘mech are split into different weapon groups, numbered one to six. The arrow keys and enter allow you to quickly change what weapons are in which groups and the game will remember that configuration for any future purchase of that ‘mech. Pressing a button for a weapon group will fire all of the weapons in that group, though you can switch a group to chain-fire by pressing the \ key, where each weapon in the group is fired in sequence, one after the other, instead of all at once. Lightly tapping the fire key while in chain-fire mode is an easy way to avoid building up heat too quickly, especially in ‘mechs that mount a lot of energy weapons, like the Warhammer or Uziel.

The mod uses many elements from different games in the Mechwarrior series – Mechwarrior 4 being the most obvious influence, but tweaks here and there have made different elements easier for players to use. For instance – I never used jump-jets in any of the Mechwarrior games, but I find that I’m getting the hang of them in MWLL and was putting them to good use while chasing down an enemy a couple of days ago. Whether this is from the jets being more controllable in this outing or if it’s just because they’re now bound to the spacebar instead of J, I’m not sure.

The Battlemechs themselves feel like they should, with each footstep making a heavy thump even in the lightest of ‘mechs. You will need a degree of awareness about where the weapons on your ‘mech are mounted, particularly arm-mounted weapons on ‘mechs with very out-stretched arms, like the Uziel. As you would expect, the projectiles (or beams for laser weapons) emanate from the barrels of the weapons, so even if you have a clear view of the target from your cockpit, there may still be an obstruction in-front of your weapon. An interesting touch is that the weapons on a Battlemech visually change to reflect the loadout. An Uziel Prime, for instance, will have a pair of particle-projection cannons (PPCs) mounted on its arms and a pair of small lasers on its torso. When you look at one in-game, the arms end in the large, blue capacitors of a PPC while the glowing red emitters for the small lasers are clear on the torso. An Uziel A, however, is visually different – it’s arms lack the glow of PPC capacitors and have been replaced with the long-barrelled casing of a light gauss rifle and the lasers replaced with the minigun-like barrels of a machine gun for anti-infantry work. This screenshot of the up-coming Epona hover tank (due to be added in the next patch) shows what I’m talking about quite clearly.

As a result, a keen-eyed player can tell at a glance what the enemy machine is armed with and can alert his teammates, allowing them to co-ordinate and attack in the best way to negate as much of the target’s firepower as possible – engaging a sniper up-close where his weapons can’t recycle/recharge fast enough to fight back properly and engaging brawlers at a distance where most of their firepower can’t reach.

So far there are five game modes – Solaris Arena (a standard deathmatch mode), Team Solaris Arena (team deathmatch), Terrain Control (essentially Battlefield’s Conquest mode but with automated laser turrets at each base), Last Man Standing and Test of Strength. While I’ve never played the first mode, Solaris Arena has the most voice acting of any game mode in the game. The reason for this is because a game of Solaris Arena is commentated by Duncan Fisher – the commentator players of Mechwarrior 4 Mercenaries will remember from the arena matches of Solaris VII. They haven’t just gotten someone else to voice him or re-used the voice files from Mech 4 Mercs – the developers of MWLL actually contacted George Ledoux and asked him to reprise the role of Duncan Fisher for the mod. Having him there commenting on the game certainly makes a Solaris Arena match actually feel like you’re fighting in one of the great arenas of the Gaming World. Sadly; the Steiner Coliseum is not among the current Solaris Arena maps, though SA_Jungle (representing the Jungle arena in Solaris City’s Cathay district) has elements of this in the form of a cheering crowd visible high above the combat area, with loud cheers going up from them as the match intensifies.

Last Man Standing is a straight-forward concept while Test of Strength is a free-for-all mode that basically inverts the money system – instead of starting with little money and earning more, you start with a huge pile of cash but no way to earn more, making it a tactical choice of whether to start off with the big, expensive stuff but ending up flat broke in the late-game, or pacing yourself with mediums or cheap lights and breaking out the big guns once everyone else has blown most of their funds. Sadly, I haven’t played either of these modes since no Australian-based server is running them.

Outside of Solaris Arena, Test of Strength and Last Man Standing; teamwork is near-crucial to this game and oh-so-satisfying. However, this is one area where the mod happens to fall down. I don’t know what the community is like overseas, but the Australian player base is somewhat small. The people who are there, however, are dedicated and very friendly to newcomers. I’ve only been playing this for about a fortnight or so and the help I’ve gotten from them has been immeasurable. Just a few nights ago – the server was nearly full and all of us were co-ordinating our actions; when someone was buying a ‘mech stuffed to the brim with long-range missiles or Arrow IV missiles, someone else would buy a ‘mech armed with NARC beacons, letting those missiles quickly home in on the NARC’d target without the firer needing to make a missile lock or even being able to see the target. Some of us would fall back for repairs and resupply while the others held the line. Lances of medium ‘mechs would flank the enemy to harry them and provide recon on any serious threats, letting the rest of us prepare for them. Even with only a handful of players on, like last night, the game can still be a blast to play as each team stalks around the map in a game of cat-and-mouse, no-one risking using active radar in-case the other team spots them.

As I said, though, the player base is small but there are games going on an Aussie-based GameArena server (which is linked in my sig on the forums if anyone’s curious) most nights – at the earliest these start at around 6pm Queensland time but can run as late as midnight or even later.

Another flaw in the game – which I’m told is being looked into – is that the currency system can cause a bit of a winning streak on one team to snowball into a situation where the team that got the streak is fielding 100-ton assault ‘mechs while the other team can barely afford ‘mechs half that size. When the game gets to that stage, it’s hard for the losing team to recover as they just can’t earn Cbills or rank up fast enough to close that gap while these assault ‘mechs are killing the medium ‘mechs in just two or three shots. True – a co-ordinated team could get out of this problem by working together and using their speed to concentrate their fire and bring down the bigger ‘mechs one at a time, but a co-ordinated team probably wouldn’t have ended up in this situation in the first place.

Tanks (at least the ones with tracks instead of hovering ones) also have an issue in that they have a tendency to get stuck on the tiniest of ridges. Just last night; I had to abandon a Demolisher tank at the bottom of a river when it got irrevocably stuck on an invisible rock and the number of times I’ve heard people complaining about their tank getting stuck on a small bump in the terrain and then being unable to free it – even with Battlemechs or other tanks ramming it – is incredible.

I suppose I could make a final complaint about the animations for the Battlemechs looking slightly off from the outside – like the torsos are remaining too stable – but considering the care and attention that went into this mod, that’s probably just a limitation in the CryEngine 2 that they can’t work around. Besides, you don’t notice this too much while playing and the cockpit interiors of the ‘mechs still move around as much as you’d expect. The cockpits can also feel quite claustrophobic, which is understandable considering just what you’re piloting and this can factor into the gameplay, such as the Warhammer’s cockpit having a large armour plate above the pilot, blocking his ability to see any aircraft above him.

Aside from their tendency to stick – tanks can still be enjoyable to drive and, unlike in the main Mechwarrior games, are still a credible threat to any Battlemech. The same is true of VTOLs and aerospace fighters, though they are quite a challenge to fly so don’t be surprised if you introduce your nose-cone to the ground a few too many times. Skilled pilots, however, can be a major threat – I’ve seen a lone Hawkmoth A (a VTOL loaded with long-range missile launchers and a NARC launcher) slow an entire team as half of them try to snipe it out of the air with long-ranged lasers or missiles, a difficult feat compounded by many ‘mechs not being able to aim that high, while a couple of players head for the nearest mechbay and buy a tank with lots of rapid-fire autocannons and use it like a mobile flak battery.

On the whole – I’d say it’s worth buying Crysis Warhead just to play this mod, especially with how cheap Warhead should be by now. And if you already own Warhead, then this is a good way to get some use out of the game now that the online scene for it seems to have died. The mod is still in beta, however, so some of the bugs I mentioned above may be ironed out in a few months or so. There is something of a learning curve, but if you’re patient and willing to ask for help, then you won’t be disappointed. Well… not until your tank gets stuck on a rock the size of a cane toad at least.

Review written by JackFlash

Perhaps the most unappealing aspect of the beta was the excrutiating registration and installation gauntlet which was required to play, as it was a long and tedious process of dealing with the Blizzard warmachine. Firstly downloading the client, registering it on Battle.net, then of course the unmistakeably ‘Blizzardian’ swarm of relentless patches and hotfixes that ensued once said client had been installed. As if this was not enough, the DRM Demon struck the final blow, for some completely superfluous reason i was ordered to make a ‘Tag’ on top of the registration apparently so ‘my freinds could locate me’. Despite all of these shenanigans i must add that having previously dealt with other games through the Battle.net service (World of Warcraft, Starcraft II etc..), and as a result, owning a Battle.net account, it meant that i did not need to register for one. The installation and registration regime would have increased tenfold had i not previously been a Battle.net account holder.

Unpleaseantness behind me i saddled up what for what would turn out to be one of the premier adventures of my gaming life. Starting out as plucky young Demon Huntress by the name of Kara i began my epic quest on the outskirts of New Tristram in the aftermath of the Cathedral Sundering…..

Click here to view the embedded video.

The first thing i noticed was the new user interface, which i found to be both robust and aesthetically pleasing complete with Health and MP reserve liquid animations. Furthermore, the speed and relative ease at which i was able to navigate the game’s console had already won half the battle for myself.

Having familiarised myself with the new UI and being at the helm of my command i felt ready to begin my journey. Perhaps what struck me most was the atmospheric nature and tone of the game. The combination of gloomy nocturnal lighting, subtle haunting music, and brooding visuals served to create a perfect premise for the inception of my adventure. As i meandered down the road a street lamp cast it’s glow upon an undead feasting on the steaming corpse of a recently slaughtered town villager, without pause i attacked the creature using my crossbow and slew him upon the damp ground. From his shattered form erupted a healing potion and 3 gold, with which i wasted no time in collecting. From this brief but harrowing encounter i noted that the combat and movement controls had been overhauled from Diablo 2 and given new and exciting features, yet retained the same signature feel of a 90′s dungeon crawler. For most who are familiar with Blizzard know that this is their ace in the hole. Being able to retain the established and loved mechanics but also building and adapting upon those pillars of gameplay. This is essentially what number 3 is, a faithful yet modern addition to the Diablo universe, one which will be welcomed by most fans of the series, and thoroughly enjoyed by new players.

As i regressed slowly into the soft fabric of my chair, (back becoming progressively more bent) i began to soak in the sights and sounds of the new Diablo. I became engrossed in the storyline, which for those who are familiar with Blizzard games, is always a high point. After clearing my way into New Tristram, my task fell to travelling to the ruins of Old Tristram, the casualty of a previous Diablo outing ;). As i entered the once bustling town hub i drank in the rich atmospheric quality emanating from the ruins, the once great Tristram now bereft of life, stood as a monument to it’s fallen glory. I made my way in and around the empty town moving between the assorted debris as the buildings began to crumble and collapse as i moved past them (yes, that’s right, the buildings react to your presence in real time!). The sheer amount of quality and detail that has been programmed into the game makes it feel so organic and vivid i found it hard to beleive that it was in reality just lines of code.

My quest then turned to the aforementioned Cathedral where i was tasked with finding and retrieving Diablo’s well known loremaster Deckard Cain. Entering the Cathedral i noticed the great chasm which had erupted as a result of the fiery meteor which struck the building in the Introductory Cinematic. Again, i cannot praise the atmosphere enough for developing such a sense of heroism and epic scale in crusading against an ultimate evil. I truly understood the urgency of finding Cain in preparation for the full-scale invasion of Hell’s forces.

Taking all of these experiences into account i feel that from analysis of the beta, Diablo 3 is going to be a game which plays to the strengths of it’s particular genre. However i also feel as though the game itself will exist within a very niche market, perhaps not one that can compete with the more broad video game titles that are currently popular. As a developer which has a long history with yesterdays gaming enthusiasts, Blizzard’s Diablo 3 may only provide enjoyment for the well-versed gamer, requiring such an insular and calculated style of play.

Popularity gripes aside, as a game that exists as a landmark in of itself (12 years in the making!), i felt priveleged to experience this small portion of such an excellent title, and one which is a worthy addition to the series. Having only completed a very small section of the game, i am now in great anticipation for it’s eventual release on May 15th.

See you all at the midnight launch!

 Sensors:   Online

 Weapons: Online

 All Systems Nominal”

A Review written by ShadowFighter

While that last word may’ve been changed, long-time Mechwarrior fans will find this a minor quibble compared to the fact that they are finally getting a proper Mechwarrior title for the first time in over a decade.  Battletech fans who were dissatisfied with the arcade-y, console-ified Mech Assault games will be over the moon with the new title, Mechwarrior Online.

Due out in Winter this year (or Summer if you live in the northern hemisphere), Mechwarrior Online is a free-to-play title built on the CryEngine 3 and promises a return to the slower-paced, tactical combat of the older titles, where how you manage the waste heat from your weapons can decide where you walk away from a firefight or not.

Piranha Games, the developers, haven’t said what players will be able to get for free and what they’ll have to pay for, but hopefully they will take cues from another freemium title – Tribes Ascend – in order to avoid the pay-2-win stigma that free-to-play titles still generate.  They have confirmed four different mechs that will appear in the game – the Jenner, the Hunchback, the Dragon and the Atlas – while their website has concept art for the Commando, Centurion and Catapult.  Whether these three designs will be in the game on-launch, only available through gameplay/purchase or added later in a patch as free content is yet to be seen.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If the look of the game seems familiar, that may be because Piranha Games were originally going to make and sell this as a reboot of the Mechwarrior franchise and set far earlier in the Battletech timeline with a full single-player campaign.  Unfortunately, that game fell through due to no publisher willing to risk their money on it (it had nothing to do with the long-running issues between FASA and Harmony Gold related to a collection of ‘mechs known as the Unseen, despite popular misconception) so the game was retooled as a multiplayer-focussed, free-to-play title.

There will be online persistence; players will level-up and unlock new passive skills for their pilot or new modules for their Battlemechs, but Piranha are planning to take this a step further by incorporating the Battletech timeline on a one-to-one basis with real-time.  What this means is that, in-game, it will be around the middle of the year 3049.  In the latter part of the year as well as for most of next year, in-game events will reflect the Clan invasion of the Inner Sphere.  This should give the game additional life as players may wish to stick around for later events, such as the Battle of Tukayiid in May of 3052 (so in real-life that event will be starting on the first of May 2015) as well as making it easier to see when newer ‘mechs and weapons will be added to the game, like Inner Sphere-built Omnimechs such as the Sunder.

The gameplay itself will focus around what the developers are calling “Role Warfare”, with each player on a team taking one of four loose roles to help the team as a whole – Scout, Defence/Assault and Command.  This Role Warfare overlaps somewhat with the Information Warfare that they are trying to include – making the various electronic warfare suites that can be mounted on Battlemechs, such as the C3 Network or Beagle Active Probe, more vital to the combat and allowing those piloting light ‘mechs to still contribute even when the terrain won’t favour the hit-and-run style of play many light ‘mech pilots used in earlier games.  As a result, the developers intend to avoid the pitfall of Bigger Is Better that came up a lot in earlier games; where larger ‘mechs were heavily favoured and lights and mediums fell by the wayside.

That’s not to say that certain players will be forced into lighter chassis because everyone who joined before them took all the heavies and assaults – a team can easily field nothing but 100-ton Atlases (otherwise known by the fans as a ‘Lyran Scout Company’ due to the Lyran Alliance’s habit of heavily favouring larger machines) or swarm the enemy with a whole bunch of light Jenners, but the Role Warfare system is intended to encourage a balanced mix of machines and capabilities.

Regular posts on the Mechwarrior Online website by the developers help to explain these systems and answer questions posed by the community.  Just look for the blog posts by Piranha Games, many of the posts there are in-universe articles from Inner Sphere News and, obviously, won’t tell you a whole lot about the gameplay.

So until the middle of the year when this comes out, anyone looking for a giant robot fix can either grab the last Mechwarrior game to hit the shelves – Mechwarrior 4 Mercenaries, which has been released for free with a huge amount of community-made content – or download a well-made and well-received multiplayer mod for Crysis Wars (the multiplayer side of Crysis Warhead) called Mechwarrior Living Legends.  Either way, I hope to see you on the battlefield.

LAN: a colloquial term used to refer to a function that involves computer gaming by various persons using a ‘Local Area Network’.

BOH: a colloquial term used by a number of computer game users to refer casually to the clan known as “The Bohage”.

2011: a colloquial term used to refer to the current year, which is a common year that started on a Saturday. In the Gregorian calendar, it is the 2011th year of the Common Era (CE) and the Anno Domini (AD) designation; the 10th year of the 3rd millennium and of the 21st century; and the 2nd of the 2010s decade. The United Nations has designated 2011 the International Year of Forests and the International Year of Chemistry.

Details:

Time: 11.30am to 11pm.

Date: 17/12/2011.

Location: Wrights rd community centre (youth room).

Click on the map to a closer look!

Link to Original Post:

http://www.thebohage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=434

People Attending thus far:

• McDean
• Jammers
• McBort
• Jimmy
• Dumpface
• Lt Col Goon
• Comrade
• ABendyVixen

Members who have placed a Deposit:

• Gezzaman (Payed the $10)
• Thomas Ignacz (Payed the $10)
• Chromatos (Payed the $10)
• Alurn (Payed the $10)

Members who said they are going to come:

• Katie
• EJ
• Eola (Paying At Door)
• Nijbu
• Checkers (Paying At Door)
• Jazzakid
• Jazzakid’s Brother
• Jackflash
• Rowdy
• Jordy
• Jon6660 (Paying At Door)

If your name is here and you don’t inform us that you can no longer come, it will be assumed that you’re attending and a spot will be reserved for you.

Please post in this thread if you wish to come or want to let us know you cannot come.

This is your last chance to join us! Sign up now!

Discuss HERE!

The goal of MGE is to simulate one on one scenarios. Two players are spawned in an arena, which is usually an important area of a competitively-played map (such as the spire on Badlands and the chokepoint on Granary) The first player to reach 20 kills wins. Other than the standard arena selections, players can choose custom made competitive stages (such as endif and ammomod). The first player to reach 5 kills wins. You can enter an arena by typing “!add” into the chat and making a selection. If no one is queued at an arena, you will be forced to wait until a second player joins. When a duel ends, any player in the arena’s queue is added to play over those who previously played, with the winner of the match staying in the game and the person who lost made to wait until one of the other players wins. Different arenas have different class restrictions, but the only classes allowed for general play are the Soldier, Demoman, Scout, and Sniper. MGE features MikeJS’s ELO rating system. You start with 1,600 points and gain more by winning duels.

Here at The Bohage, we hope this server will help those looking to improve their Soldier, Demoman, Scout and Sniper skills so you can kill us better.

Actually wait no don’t use this server you will be too good. Instead you should play Mahjong or Skyrim until you are bad at tf2 again. Yes that is a good solution.

If a server breaks, let an admin know straight away so that we can fix it for you.

If you have any other ideas for a TF2 (or other Source-based) server, please feel free to post it on our forums. Especially if it’s an awesome new mod. We always like to be the first in Australia!

Admin Team

So come join us. It is as easy as clicking on the button & then clicking on the Apply Button!

A Short Review:

As a complete package Battlefield 3 absolutely delivers and if you don’t have some angry agenda against Origin it’s a must-play. The PC version in particular ushers in a new era of graphical magnificence and the disparity between the consoles begs Sony and Microsoft to up the ante. Shooters don’t come much better than this and it’s a great way to kick off this year’s holiday game rush.

- GameShark

Battlefield 3 Server:

We are thinking of hosting a small Battlefield 3 server! Since these servers cost a lot of money, we are asking YOU the members if anyone is willing to chip in about $5 monthly for the server. If you are, please contact McDean!

These maps include the following:

- koth_harvest_event
- cp_manor_event

And for when the time comes, the “new” Team Fortress 2 Halloween Map, which is due to come out any time soon.

So jump on any time your free to rack up all those free items that you can only get on these map!

Hope you enjoy this once every year holiday special!

Other cool things include Minecraft’s 1.8 leak (ooOOoooOOOOooOOoo!), Space Marine, new Bohage servers, the Big Bohage LAN Party, more fun banter than we’ve had in a while, and surprising amounts of post-podcast silliness!

It’s a longer episode than we’re used to these days, but that’s because it’s CRAMMED WITH CONTENT! And also I didn’t have that much time to edit it down because it was my birthday on Tuesday.

Did you hear about that by the way? It’s my birthday! Me! Jammers! Birthday! Yea! Whoo! :D

Discuss!

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We go through our scant minecraft and tf2 news, I play Stranger’s Wrath, and we have our first proper guest interview in gajillion episodes!

Starring Comrade Alexei, Jammers and Aqua, with special guest, KiD!

Discuss!

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So the main thing we have is Deus Ex because it’s boss as, and also a lot of confirmed stuff for Minecraft 1.8, and competitions and tf2 and all that stuff that is cool!

Also my laptop broke :< Send laptop donations to Jammers COUGH COUGH.

Starring Jammers, Comrade Alexei, and newscaster AQU-WAAA, with minor funtime surprise appearance from McDean!

Discuss!

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We’ve got From Dust, Space Marine, Minecraft news, and a bunch of other stuff this week. Good stuff.

Starring Katalimaq, Jammers and Comrade Alexei, with newscaster Aqua!

We’ve also got Mount and Blade, the results of our minecraft build-off, paintball, and more!

Hosted by Katalimaq, Jammers and Comrade Alexei, with international newscaster, Aqua!

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Discuss!

Win!

Kittens!

What we DO have which is awesome is an interview with him, so that’s cool! Also there is a thunderstorm.

Other fun features include ShadowFighter88 who joins us briefly to promote his new Exalted forum game, and all the news, reviews and other interesting goodies you’ve come to know and love!

Starring Jammers and Lexi, with newscaster Aqua and special guest Eola!

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Discuss!

Nathan Fillion Comp!

Best Comp Comp!

______________________

Links

Munch’s Oddysee -

http://store.steampowered.com/app/15740/?snr=1_4_4__13

Eola’s YouTube channel -

http://www.youtube.com/user/Eolahh

ShadowFighter’s Thread -

http://www.thebohage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=316

Anyway, I hope you like LOTS OF CONTENT because we sure do have a lot of it. I cut it down by 35 minutes and still came up with this much stuff holy shed.

But yes, this week’s BohCast! We have a lot of news, I share my future plans for the minecraft server, and why I’ve backflipped on whether I’ll buy bf3!

Also we have an interview with Miss Jekyll who was super cool, and Aqua gives us a big fat rundown of the gaming news.

On with the show, I say!

Starring Jammers, Comrade Alexei and Katalimaq, with newscaster Aqua and special guest, Miss Jekyll!

Discussion! – http://www.thebohage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=351

Competition! – http://www.thebohage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=349

Subscribe! – http://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/the-bohage/id428852114?ign-mpt=uo%3D4

Show links (supplied by Katalimaq!) -

Links for Podcast
-- Enderman info

http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Enderman

http://www.thebohage.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=6&sid=bd86c517c94871dd0d379cd290c72809

-- Link to sign up for minecraft event on the 7th.

http://www.thebohage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=331

-- Link to Dino game

http://store.steampowered.com/app/70000/

-- Link to article on nathan fillion for industry news.

http://www.gamesthirst.com/2011/07/27/nathan-fillion-to-fans-dont-pressure-director-to-score-me-uncharted-movie-role/

-- link to competitions

http://www.thebohage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=349

Discuss

Play The Game Here

Discuss

General Update:

Since we updated to a 24 slot server we started to experience some server lag every time we had 21 or more players in the server. I (McDean) started to talk to the guys from Hypernia (Our TF2 Server Provider) on why we were getting this lag. They told me it might have to do with the plugin’s that we are running and they suggested to remove all the plugins and test the server again. So with the help of many members that came when I called, we tested the server with 24 players in at once, but it still lagged. So we got our server moved to a different machine, which is where we are right now!

New IP:

Due to being on a different machine our IP changed, so everyone will have to re-save our server in your favourites

203.217.24.51

Our server is exactly the same in every way and form, just a new IP.

Reserved Slots:

If you donate more then $15 to the Bohage you will receive TWO (2) months of reserved slot access into the Team Fortress 2 Server! No more waiting inline till you can get in! Also as a bonus extra, you will get a free Main menu that lets you enter the server with one click, and you get that for life! For more information, click here

Bohage TV:

Once again we have Bohage TV back up and running! I know Replays would be a lot better but due to its high resource usage, our server cant take it without lagging like crazy. So as a compromise, let us know what date, time and a brief description of what happen and we will be happy to find this demo and upload it to the website. This could get a bit crazy though, so myself and the VodBoh team are thinking of doing a Monthly Best Moments in the Bohage Server where we will give a 10 to 1 best moments of the month! So start keeping an eye out on some epic/funny/fail moments! Jammers is also asking for entries on a video he is going to make: “Bohage Failvid” so jump on in the server boys and girls and start having fun!

Stats:

If you didn’t know already, but the server stats are back up and running earlier this month and as a once of special, we had a double point weekend last week! So too bad if you missed it. Check out where you are on the leader board by clicking on “Team Fortress 2″ on the top tabs!

But I did edit it, so that’s ok! They cover a bunch of stuff, and thankfully our blissful drink-adventure-free run remains unbroken… for now.

Discussion Thread

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Starring Lexi and Comrade Alexei, with our now-regular newscaster Aqua, and a surprise appearance from the TF2 announcer to judge the bad joke section!

Also i win something for once! :D

Greetings, Bohage!

I have, as I have at other times, got a tremendously cool bit of information for you! This information is tantalising and delicious! This is information you WANT, Bohage! This information you NEED!
Do you want it, Bohage members? DO YOU WANT IT?

Aw hell, the announcement title ruined it, didn’t it?
Well fine, be that way.

This weekend only, the Bohage will become FREE TO PLAY! Want to play on our servers? YOU DON’T HAVE TO PAY A CENT!
Yes indee – uh..

Sorry, what’s that McDean? Our servers are ALREADY free to play? THEN WHAT DID YOU MEAN?
Oh.
I see.

…

Ahem.

Yes well, I’ll tell them that.

So uh. Hello again Bohage! It appears YOU CAN PLAY ON OUR SERVERS FOR FREE ALL THE TIME FOREVER! And it has been this way… SINCE THE BEGINNING! What I meant to say before McDean RUDELY interrupted was that, for this weekend only, you can INVITE YOUR FRIENDS TO THE BOHAGE!

FOR FREE!

No longer will you have to ask an admin to invite your friends, for this weekend, you can invite them…

YOURSELF!

How marvellous!

However, there are SOME CONDITIONS! And I will LIST THEM in a BORED VOICE!

ONE! I mean.

One. Don’t just go and invite everyone on your friends list – we want fun and cool people, not HeAdSh()tSNipe4Lyf45728 and his poorly named mates!

Two. Make sure you invite people who’d fit in! You’re all a bunch of awesome bros already so you know the criteria!

Three. Make sure they know that they’ll have to wear our =B’oh= tag, at least for the weekend!

Four. If you want, tell them how to get onto the servers, mumble, and the forums!

MCDEAN WHAT ARE YOU DOING BACK HERE.
Oh man ok ok whatever I’ll tell them.

Double points for the rankings this weekend too. Enjoy your full server 24/7 boys and girl!
I bet this gets derailed by some ridiculous game release like always. Or tf2 pushes out a 4 byte update that means we have to update the server for eighteen hours.
(Totally called it).

Also make sure Jazzakid doesn’t get to the top ranked spot! Trolololol.

http://www.thebohage.com/?p=966 Oh noooo, it’s episode 14, and Lexi’s abandoned us D:

Luckily it’s just so he can kick off the Bohage Connection Project, and go down to see Rowdy and Jekyll so that’s alright!

As for us, we’ve got some PUNishment lined up for you folks, ohoho, and an all-new special guest!

Discussion Thread

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Starring Jammers and Comrade Alexei, with special guest ShadowFighter88 and even a quick surprise reminder about the Demoknight competition from Lexi!

Discuss

Play The Game Here

Instructions:
Use arrows to shrink and enlarge the I

Discussion Thread

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Starring Lexi, Jammers and Comrade Alexei, with newscaster Aqua, and Katalimaq as our very own token girl in the audience!

Good times!

Review by ComradeAlexei.

Trine is the name of the game and the name given to the mysterious artifact that can bind souls. Three unlikely heroes, a wizard a thief and a bumbling knight all touch the trine stone and are bound together. In their attempt to understand what has happened to them they travel a magical land and fight enemies. That’s the opening premise which sets a nice framework for an innovative little puzzle platformer! Trine by Frozenbyte studios, differentiates itself in an interesting way from the vast hordes of indie game platformers. For one you play as 3 different characters at the same time. It sounds complicated, but it works wonderfully and adds a lot to the game. The player controls 1 avatar at a time, and uses the keys 1, 2, and 3 to change this character quickly between the wizard the thief and knight respectively.

Each character has different abilities and general strengths to help the player get through all the dungeons!

- The wizard can summon cubes, planks and a strange floating fixed triangle to help with platformer puzzles. He requires high energy which is used whenever he levitates these items. The wizard also levitates cubes or weapons found in the level. He can even drop any of these items on an enemy to slay them, suffice it to say that his strength is not combat.

- The thief is an agile character that comes with a hookshot and a bow. She can use the hookshot to attach to wooden objects that are higher than herself and swing back and forth. She is great at saving herself from a pitfall or engaging distant enemies. Also through clever use of the hookshot she becomes the character who can reach the most difficult locations.

- The knight has a sturdy shield and sword. Later he gets a thunderous warhammer. The knight is the best at close quarters fighting and any traps that throw for example, fireballs can merely be blocked by his shield. He is not agile and needs to be close to deal the damage but you often switch to him when surrounded suddenly or when fighting a mini boss.

The graphics for trine are amazing. As you can see, these are vibrant fairytale worlds with a lovely quaint art style. Large mushrooms and ancient ruins abound. Combined with an appropriate fantasy soundtrack the game comes off as a magical fairytale adventure. This game really has a lot of personality for a cheaper indie game and i’ve been looking for cracks in the visuals or design so I could rip into this game and tell you all it’s horrid or something. You’ll be happy to know that i’m still looking for flaws. While the games not a perfect 10 sure ( if i gave ratings) this game is definetly worth playing if you like fantasy games or fantasy settings. At times the puzzles can be challenging but it makes it satisfying for people who can stick it out and think outside the magical box. It’s cheap, it’s fun, it’s well designed and most importantly I feel this is value for money. Need anymore be said of Trine?

Discussion Thread

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Starring *deep breath* Jammers, Lexi, Katalimaq, Aqua, Comrade Alexei and ABendyVixen, we go through a lot of stuff!

Discussion Thread

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Starring Jammers, Lexi, Comrade Alexei, and newcaster Aqua, with a guest appearance from McDean, it’s a fun filled BohCast with the most epic opening sequence in BohCast history!

A review by Aqua

Discuss

The ‘Spiral Knights’ who are an order of adorable little space faring knights crashland on a mysterious planet. Their ship the skylark needs energy from the core of the planet and you begin your quest next to your escape pod. You travel to Haven, the main city where there is a large lobby called the arcade which is host to the various dungeons you can try to tackle alone or in groups of varying sizes up to four. It is simple, it is brilliant, it is free. Spiral Knights is available on steam as one of 5 new free steam games.

Interestingly there are no classes, or stats for you character.

Instead your amour and weapons have stats, levelling up after each dungeon. Every weapon’s stats changes when it levels, improving and even gaining special abilities, usually reduced attack times. If your helmet and body armour match (matching armour set), another attribute is added – such as increased movement speed. This ability is linked to the look of your character, the highest armour sets look amazing and seeing others wearing them is rewarding. The overall aesthetic clashes with the quality of gameplay, it looks like a typical anime mmo, robot warriors run around looking very cute ( kawaii) and cartoony monsters attack you and your team, it makes the game look simpler than it really is. The party making system is alright, sometimes giving you higher level team mates who will last the distance, or someone who has been playing for only 3 minutes. Chatting using microphones enhances the experience further. If you play through steam microphone support is in game, however I recommend not using the in game system. It’s a nice idea. The best thing is to just start your own team and then invite your friends. Each team has a maximum of 4 players, and usually each player has a sword and a gun equipped, hack and slashing most of the time.

The best part of the dungeon crawling is the boss fights. It is very rewarding to bring down a gigantic black hamster who shoots red laser beams out of his eyes, teleports around the map and shoots spikes out of its ass. Leading up to the fight with the spike pooping hamster suspense is masterfully built, you catches glimpses off him in the background, and before some swarms of enemies he charges into you, stunning you and your team mates. The first time you see this guy you are going “Oh crap! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!” Apart from ridding the world from abominations defeating bosses gives you tokens, which allow you to purchase better equipment without spending either of the other two forms of currency, that being crowns – similar to dollars, and energy.

Being a free to play game, Sega and three rings have implemented ‘energy’ which is required to enter dungeons and craft gear. This is comparable to farmville by Zynga where you can only complete so many tasks in a given day. Let me stress, the game is still very playable, but if you want to play for hours on end you will need to pay a little money to increase your energy stores. On the other hand energy can be one of the most rage inducing elements of the game. Your maximum capacity of the free energy is 100, and elevators usually cost 10 energy. Sure, 10 free levels is a good deal but it’s not all you use energy for. Certain gates require energy, reviving yourself requires more energy each time you do it, and crafting requires energy. Crafting is a nice touch, although it feels unfinished, for instance in order to get a 3 star item that requires crafting a 2 star item, the 2 star item has to be level 1 exactly, whereas 1 star items that require a no-star item to be crafted allows the no-star item to be at any level. (Actually you can use any level item, you just have to unequip it first -Ed.)Furthermore to craft a four star item that requires a 3 star item, that item has to be at least level 5, so it is actually unfair that this is the case. Sure, you say “I could just sell my level 10 sword and have enough money to buy the necessary components”. But you can’t sell your level 10 sword. It’s bound to you. The only items you can trade are level 1. Also, although it makes sense to have the three characters linked to your account to NOT have shared energy, for some reason it is.

Despite these small flaws though, it is a great game, and here in the bohage we will expand our spiral knights operations! So if you’re interested in this game download it now! It’s a good game with lots of potential and I hope to see you there.

Discuss

Low-latency, high-quality voice communication for gamers. Includes game linking, so voice from other players comes from the direction of their characters, and has echo cancellation so the sound from your loudspeakers won’t be audible to other players.

–> Video link here!

Review by Shadowfighter 88

Release Trailer

Discuss here!

Apart from a lack of free time or your personal preferences, there is no reason not to get this game . It is now free!!!

MekTek have been given permission to release Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries as a free download and have made improvements and additions to the game.

The Mechwarrior series is based on the Battletech tabletop game first made back in 1984 by FASA Corporation. In the 31st Century, mankind has spread out among the stars and, as humanity loves to do, split apart into various factions and started fighting each other.

The legacy from these wars was the development of the Battlemech. Bipedal war machines weighing anywhere between 20 and 100 tons and able to carry more firepower than a squad of tanks. Pilots known as ‘Mechwarriors’ drive these machines and like the prequel games, this drops you right into their shoes.

In the campaign, you play as a mercenary commander called Spectre as he sets off to make his own mercenary unit and you complete contracts during a period known as the Fed-Com Civil War. Each planet you visit has a conflict that you can help with, taking jobs for one side or the other and earning money, which goes to repairing mechs as well as buying new chassis, weapons or hiring squadmates. The conflicts are reasonably self-contained, narrative-wise and the pre-mission briefings from your tactical officer help you see what’s going on and what to expect. These conflicts are smaller parts of overall war, either battles between Steiner and Davion forces or where rogue military units are attacking supply convoys.

As you play through, you earn Influence with the two factions as well as Fame and Infamy. All of these can affect what contracts are open to you as you play through – someone known for civilian casualties isn’t going to be hired as security for a peace summit, after all. Near the end of the campaign, you will be forced to choose between aiding either Steiner or Davion forces, or striking out on your own.

While the campaign isn’t bad, there is a case of repeating maps – several missions on one world had me defending the same naval base three or four times. At least the narrative didn’t try to pass it off as a different base each time – it was made clear that it was the same base being hit hard repeatedly – so it’s somewhat forgivable there. Beyond that though, the map variety is enough that you won’t notice any repetition (or will be too busy avoiding enemy fire to care).

The missions themselves are relatively straight-forward, though there are one or two unique ones that turn up. One mission that drove me up the wall was one where you had to sneak into a military base at night to do recon ahead of the attack and to scan some hangers to see where they were keeping their new prototype Fafnir mechs. While difficult, it was a nice change of pace but it came that late in the game that I’d grown so used to using the heavier mechs that having to go back to using a light Raven was something of an adjustment. Most missions, though are defending an area, vehicle or building or attacking the same but the narrative around the missions make it a bit more interesting.

Solaris VII changes this a little by having no conflict going on, but allowing you to compete in the organised mech battles the planet is famous for. A handy way to earn some money and by dedicating your victory to one side of the Fed-Com Civil War, you can raise your standing with that faction. The voice-overs and commentary during the battle by Duncan Fisher (voiced by George Ledoux) add to the general vibe of Solaris, commenting on the earlier matches by the people you’re fighting in the arena or even on your own earlier victories. Ledoux’s voice work just adds to Fisher’s feel as a sports commentator and help to make Solaris feel like a world where the entire economy revolves around the bets placed on the arena fights.

Gameplay-wise it’s a solid title – the mechs move and feel like you’d expect machines of that weight to move, the weapons feel like they’ve got the right amount of kick (on the firing and receiving ends – just wait til you get shot by a gauss rifle). FPS fans may have some problems with aiming, however, as unlike Mechwarrior 3; your crosshair is locked into the centre of the screen and moving the mouse rotates your mech’s torso (Mech3 controlled torso rotation with the < and > keys), meaning you can’t turn as fast as you move the mouse, but how fast your mech can turn it’s torso, which varies from chassis to chassis.

They may also have a bit of trouble getting used to movement, as the Mechwarrior series is more simulator-based that action-based. Mechs cannot sidestep and driving them is similar to driving a car in other games, but where the throttle works more like a space combat sim. You can throttle up manually, just hold the Accelerate key til the indicator on the throttle gauge gets to the speed you want to go at and wait for your mech to start running that fast, or use the number keys to jump to a certain percentage of your top speed (so pressing 5 will set your mech’s throttle to 50% of its max speed). Tapping backspace flips your mech instantly into reverse, rather than having to hold down the decelerate key to drop the throttle gauge down into reverse.

Despite this, quick use of the throttle presets, turning, anticipating your enemy’s movements and careful management of your mech’s weapons and heat levels can make you a serious opponent. This is not a game for pure run-and-gun shooting – you do that with energy weapons and your mech will overheat and shutdown. Hit the override button for that shutdown and the excessive heat will start damaging your mech and cause your HUD to flicker in-and-out as your mech’s computer struggles to work properly when being cooked by several thousand degrees Kelvin. That heat’s not an exaggeration, the heat gauge on the HUD is measured in Kelvin and 4,000 degrees is about two-thirds of the way up.

Mech customisation is cut down a bit from Mechwarrior 3, but I personally prefer this system. In Mech3, you could’ve had your Mad Cat’s missile racks firing lasers or autocannons while in Mech4, those can only carry missile weapons. Some mechs (mostly Clan mechs like the Nova Cat or Vulture) sport Omni-Racks, weapon hardpoints that can mount any weapon small enough to fit in it. You can only mount one Anti-Missile System to a mech (while 3 allowed you to shove a bucketload of them on), but this can still be the difference from a missile salvo shearing off your arm and keeping it intact. All-in-all, the simplified customisation still leaves plenty of room for creative load-outs while not overloading new players with too many options and a clumsy interface.

The graphics do look quite dated, but as this game was first released back in 2002 as a stand-alone expansion to a game from two years before, this should surprise no-one. And if you were surprised, what did you think you’d be getting graphics-wise in a game that’s totally free? Despite the age, the graphics are still able to stand up on their own and aren’t painful to look at (unless you jump into playing it right after Crysis 2 or something, then you might get a touch of graphics-whiplash).

As for what MekTek have added to the game since it first came out and have included in the free release, there’s a lot. New mech designs, such as the Warhammer and Marauder, new weapons and the ability to play as infantry – either wearing powered armour or just on-foot. You won’t be able to use most of these new chassis and weapons in the campaign, but for Instant Action and Multiplayer, they’re there if you want them (though why you’d go in as a guy in normal body armour with a small laser, I don’t know). They also threw in plenty of new multiplayer maps, though for a game practically built around the multiplayer this is to be expected.

I wasn’t able to find any multiplayer games in Australia (and my aim’s bad enough without having to take into account half a planet of lag) so I couldn’t say how it plays there but there are a number of game modes as well as an option for servers to limit equipment and chassis. Not by adding them to a ban-list (though that may be an option), but imposing a price limit on each players mech. The same currency system used to price mechs and weapons in the campaign is carried over into multiplayer so you might not be able to field your favourite, ultra-expensive Fafnir if the server’s set the C-Bill limit low enough.

Overall, the game is definitely worth trying if you want a change from first-person shooters. It can be slower-paced than Team Fortress 2 and the like, but when half your team’s piloting thirty-foot tall assault mechs weighting almost a hundred tons each, that shouldn’t be a surprise.

You can get the game from here, which also has a link to an installation guide

Shadowfighter88!!!!

Is the Witcher 2 the greatest thing since sliced bread? Find out here!!

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Watch the Game Trailer Here

All-in-all it was an interesting game.

An unknown group is killing the kings of the Northern Kingdoms – King Demavend, the king of Aedirn has been assassinated and another assassin has already made an attempt on Foltest, king of Temeria, only to fall to Geralt’s sword. What was more disturbing to Geralt the witcher (your character), was that Foltest’s would-be assassin had the same eyes as Geralt meaning he is possibly another witcher. Witchers are gifted warriors with access to magic, and the witcher universe has much lore and backstory. The Witcher 2 has a solid plot with a few more references to the inspired novels than the first game, the main one being that we’re beginning to see what happened to Geralt between the end of the novels and the start of the first game.

Combat was a massive improvement over the first game. Left-click is a quick attack with Geralt’s sword while right-click is a slower, stronger attack. The real benefit is that if you use a quick attack from far away, Geralt will move closer before attacking, like rolling forward and stabbing as he comes up or making an acrobatic spin as he closes and slashes at them (a Swordsmanship talent you can choose later on lets this wild-looking swing actually damage enemies other than the target, so that animation pretty much turns Geralt into fast, death-dealing whirlwind that he’s described as in the books). Dive-rolling is easy to do – either double-tap a movement key or just press one and the spacebar – and can get you out of a tight corner. Bombs are also easy to use this time – I never used them in the first game as I never saw the benefit, but I did take a liking to Samum bombs – think stun-grenades – this time around. Although part of that may have been the impressive and brutal finishers that Geralt performs on stunned enemies. Finishers that only get better at higher levels, when you get access to group finishers. Each hit you land with his sword builds up an adrenaline meter and when it’s full, tapping X will trigger an impressive finisher where Geralt instantly kills up to three enemies in as many seconds. One finisher against two enemies had him grab one, spin him around and use him as a human shield against the other enemy.

You also start with five Signs – basic magical spells that witchers are taught. You can access these skills at the begining of the story, unlike the first game where you obtained them piecemeal through the game. Aard is a telekinetic blast that can stun the target, allowing Geralt to finish them off with one blow. Yrden lays a magical trap that will hold any human-sized enemy (don’t count on it against trolls or golems), allowing you to move around to behind them and land a strong attack on their back, or just take one of the combatants out of the fight for a few seconds if you’re in a big melee. Igni is your basic, single-target fireball spell. Quen creates a protective shield around Geralt for about 30 seconds or so that stops all enemy attacks as well as preventing Geralt from being knocked over by the enemy (protip: if you’re fighting a guy with a halberd – use the Quen Sign or the son of a bitch’ll have you stun-locked on the ground before force-feeding you all eight-plus feet of his weapon). Axii is a charm spell – I mostly used it in conversations but if you use it in combat, you can turn an enemy into a temporary ally. Probably would’ve helped at times, but I never thought about it til the fight was almost or already over.

Even with the graphics turned right down they still looked pretty good – though animations in conversations seem static. The graphics were impressive despite lack of character animation when talking. A bit of oblivion syndrome, although that might just be from the Mass Effect series spoiling me in conversations where the characters meaningfully move around the place. The only thing that was really hard to make out with the low graphics settings were the scars on Geralt’s upper body, once you get a suit of armour at the end of the prologue you hardly ever see it again. Geralt’s face is more detailed and his hair is even controlled by the game’s physics engine so it flies about realistically!

While the combat was very good and there is much to be said for the graphics and backstory, one of my main complaints was how potions were handled.

In The Witcher 1, potions would last for a very long time. The game clock runs at several minutes real-time-per-in-game hour. So when a potion’s effects are supposed to last for eight in-game hours, that comes out at being easily over 20 minutes real-time (I can’t remember what the first game’s clock ran at so these are just estimates). In The Witcher 2, the longest-lasting potions will only stick around for ten minutes real-time. Although this may have something to do with the reduced size of the wilderness areas, meaning the potions don’t need to last as long. Though why the Cat potion – which allows Geralt to see in the dark – only lasts for five minutes in TW2 while it lasted eight hours in TW1, I have no idea. Got lost in this one cave system late in Act 2 that five minutes before drinking another bottle of Cat just wasn’t enough.

Secondly; in TW1, you could drink potions whenever you wanted. While in TW2, you need to meditate. And sometimes they’ll put a big fight right after a point where you don’t have the time to meditate and down a couple of potions, or an area where they don’t allow you to meditate.  Perhaps most annoyingly of all – TW2 only lets Geralt have two potions in his system at once. In the first game, I had him downing cocktails of god-knows what that pushed his body’s Toxicity to near-lethal levels (and the mutations made to a witcher’s body are meant to withstand that sort of punishment – I’d hate to think what those same potions would do to a human), meditating for an hour to clear the toxicity but still have several hours left on the potions and then downing one or two short-duration potions before going off after a big trophy monster. But in TW2, I found I was hardly ever using potions. Occasionally Swallow – a potion that boosts his health regeneration and allows it to regenerate in combat – when I knew there was going to be a big fight or a lot of bad guys (those nekkers in Act 1 were bloody annoying bastards) or Cat when things were near pitch-dark, but on the whole I hardly ever used potions or blade oils.

While it’s true I was only playing on Easy – wanted to concentrate more on the story – I never felt like the potions were beneficial enough to make me want to down more than one at a time. Hell, a lot of potions had negative side-effects that I either didn’t want to deal with, or did the exact opposite of another potion I was planning to drink.

Pros:

• Vastly improved combat that captures the blindingly-fast style witchers are known for
• A return to the brutal, bigoted, dark-fantasy universe originally concieved by Andrzej Sapkowski
• The ability to use the Axii Sign in conversations (something that was conspicuously absent from the first game)
• The option to disable and auto-complete Quicktime Events (pressing the indicated button, also known as Press X To Not Die) – and that this doesn’t affect fist-fighting
• Awesome combat animations – especially for the fist-fighting minigames: just because Geralt has long hair doesn’t mean it’s a smart idea to grab it

Cons:

• Over-simplified potion system
• Small translation problems in some cutscenes where the English lines ended up longer than the original Polish dialogue, making the cutscenes feel rushed
• Semi-frequent crash-to-desktops, but this can be blamed on no patches being released yet and my computer only barely meeting the minimum requirements
• Some severe lag at times, but again, that may just be my computer

Overall:

An excellent game in its own right, but the simplification of the potions was particularly depressing for me as I enjoyed the first game’s alchemy system. And as Geralt himself said in the first game; “A witcher without his potions is only half a witcher.” Even on higher difficulties I doubt I’d be using potions too often as either they don’t give enough of a benefit, don’t last long enough to be worthwhile, or have side-effects too severe for the potion’s benefits.

Also, for anyone wondering what’s in physical copies and collector’s edition!

With the normal edition, you get the game, the soundtrack, a making-of DVD (both of these are in the same box, the one in the bottom-right of the photo), a game guide – which is either very helpful or overly vague; sometimes within the same quest, a map of the world (which, if you hadn’t noticed) has a slightly Not Safe For Work image in it’s lower-right corner. Nothing major, just giving you a heads-up (though looking at a photo unboxing of a video game may not be exactly work-safe either). You also get two papercraft figures, one of Geralt and another of some other creature – can’t tell what it is and I haven’t gotten around to making them yet – and a rather dissenting pamphlet about King Henselt of Kedwin. It turns up in-game and you get to speak to the guy who wrote it, but I won’t say any more for spoilers. Folded inside it was a small coin (which I put on-top of the pamphlet in the photo) with a diamond symbol on one side and what looks like a skull with tentacles instead of a lower jaw on the other. This may’ve been the original design of a coin that some conspirators were using as a symbol, but in-game those coins were square ones with the symbol of a fish. Could be they changed the in-game appearance too late to change the coins they were sending out with the game.

This next one is the stuff unique to the Collector’s Edition. As you can see – you get quite a large box to keep it all in, another papercraft figure of a creature called a draug, an artbook, a deck of cards with various characters on the face cards (approprately, Dandelion got himself on the Joker), three stickers, five beautifully-made dice – exact replicas of the ones used in-game for dice poker as I said earlier – and a bag to keep them in, a Temerian coin with the country’s coat-of-arms on one side and King Foltest’s profile on the other as well as a small booklet on how to place dice and cards, written by Dandelion. Haven’t gotten around to reading it yet, but knowing how Dandelion acts in the games and books, it’ll either be very informative or have a habit of drifting off to talk about women or something. He’s a well-known and well-respected bard, but he often has trouble staying focussed.

This was another thing that’s in the Collector’s Edition but I couldn’t get it into the above shot. This is a faux-marble bust of Geralt of Rivia. It looks to be an exact replica of his in-game character model’s head (it seems closer to it than the box art at least). As you can see, it’s taken a bit of damage in-transit but that’s to be expected. The engraving at the bottom of it – Gwynbleidd – is Elder Tongue for White Wolf, a moniker Geralt picked up sometime before or during the novels. Probably because of his white hair, pale skin and wolf medallion.

For $150, you’re certainly getting your money’s worth.

In other non-bear-related news, we check up on the comp team’s rise to glory and get enthused about Minecraft’s 1.6 update.

Starring Jammers and IALIEXI, with special guest Comrade Alexei. Katalimaq joins us as a live audience, and finally (so many guests! :D), Aqua calls in to give us the latest news from the gaming world.

Discussion thread.

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Play the Game Here

Description

Reimagine first greets you with faceless celebrity caricatures hopping around the sides of a square, as you realize the GRAVITY of the situation. Everything around you… is part of the game.

From Super Meat Dress, to Double Rainbow Double Jumps, to The Bieber Booty Call, to iPad iGravity, to Groundbreaking Earthquakes, to Apple-ture Science …

… To MUSICAL PARODIES such as Somewhere Are Double Rainbows, Tik Locke, and EMIN3M BIEB3R…
… To the twelve-ish cutscenes of animated havoc and hilarity…
… To the nine-ish minutes of original soundtrack…
… To the twelve achievements that artificially create replay value…

… And to YOU.
The more challenges you complete, the more you can customize your own character in the CHARACTER MAKER. When all the challenges are done, you can play AS YOURSELF. IN. THE. GAME. …And you realize…

Everything about the game… is part of you.
OHHHH DAYUMN
Controls

Arrow keys / WASD to move and jump
Number keys to switch characters
Space is some generic action key
—
P: Pause
M: Mute
Q: Quality
S+K: Skip level, after trying for a minute.

ComradeAlexei

The short review:  Wait until it’s cheaper. Much much cheaper. If you’d like to know why, read on!

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Watch the Game Trailer Here

Brink’s setting is amazing.  The survivor’s of global flooding find themselves clumped together on a large self sustaining city. Some people helped to establish this ‘Ark’ and others are just hapless refugees who live in slum districts. Unfortunately for Brink, this is as far as they choose to take the story with there literally being no single player experience. You get 8 maps, with 8 vs 8 combat. So on that note, lets get right down to the bad things about this game…

They advertised this game as a seamless integration of offline and online play styles. They said we could play through the single player campaign, grab a friend to help us with the campaign and then take our customised avatar online to fight in multiplayer battles. What this approach to the game marketing does, is build up expectations on the single player and gives players the idea that there is a clear differance between playing a single player campaign or playing online.

What the team at splash damage has done however, is use the very same 8 maps for their single player that they obviously they made for multi player battles. At the beginning of each level there is a short introductory cinematic after which you are unceremoniously thrown into a bot match of 8 vs 7 bots with you being the sole human ready to charge forward call of duty style! It feels like some sort of bad joke and with this being the first experience most new players have is it any wonder that some people feel disappointed about this game?

On top of this bad design decision, they also thought it would be a good idea to have the player complete a series of challenges to unlock components for the guns. In theory, these challenges were supposed to introduce players to core game mechanics and have them prepared to fight online without letting their teams down. In practice, the challenges often have you relying on bot teammates which run about like headless chooks within 5 metres of enemy bots who are shooting you while you try to complete the challenge. The easiest challenges are the ones designed to be tackled alone, the hardest I have found to be the ones where you must rely on less than stellar AI teammates.

Medics buff health, engineers buff damage.

The gameplay itself isn’t as horrible as the design. There are 4 combat roles, engineer, medic, operative and soldier. On top of this there are three body types, light, medium and heavy. What this allows is for players to customize their roles in the team. Body type is chosen in the character customization menu so if you choose light, heavy or medium you are stuck with it for the whole game. You can change roles during a match by visiting a command post but once again allowing you to change roles upon death makes just as much sense and would have been less infuriating, even more intuitive to players. The good part out of all this at least is a customized experience, so you can be jumping up the side of a wall, reaching a difficult place with your parkour skills as a light body type and then start picking people off with your damage buffed sniper rifle. Or you can be a big fat heavy medic, buffing your own health and wielding a large machine gun while you resurrect nearby dead teammates.

Visually, the game has a distinctive art style, which is most likely why it has been compared with Team Fortress 2. Characters have elongated caricatures for faces and the thin body type is an anorexic stick, the medium a uh, medium and the large character looks like a boulder of meat with human features. The graphical design of the ark is fittingly high tech and glossy and it contrasts with the maps set in the refugee’s container city which is filled with rusted metal and beached ships. The maps capture a feeling of neglect that is one of the themes for the conflict between security and the resistance, that supplies are running out. Interestingly, the multiplayer experience does a better job of telling the story than the single player. I put this down the human’s controlling the enemies making the combat more interesting and making the various challenges seem all the more urgent and desperate.

Even with glaring problems the game still has some strong appeal to the persistent gamer. There is a comprehensive perk and upgrade system in place for your character and weapons which allows you to customize the experience you have and the role you play. This is arguably the games strongest feature. Despite initial disappointment with the lack of true singleplayer, I found myself enjoying a few rounds as a spry light character who would slide kick his way into heavier characters and slay them with a burst of submachine gun fire. For anyone who likes small 8v8 shooter settings and enjoys playing with perks Brink isn’t an entirely bad purchase. And if you manage to pick this game up for less than 40 dollars you are sure to have lot’\s of fun without the bitter taste of buyers remorse.

Discuss

Starring Jammers and IALIEXI, with special guests Aqua and Comrade Alexei!

Competition posts -
HAT – http://thebohage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=30
GAME – http://thebohage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=31
PotW – http://thebohage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=33

Also, if anyone wants to be in Aqua’s super cool tf2 adventure, he NEEDS MOAR ACTORS! So go tell him in the forum post here! -

http://thebohage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=21

As always, the podcast can be found both here and iTunes -

http://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/the-bohage/id428852114

Discuss Here

Starring Jammers and IALIEXI, with McDean coming in right at the end to give us a bowel update.

Starring IALIEXI and Mcdean, with a brief showing from TehJammers, and special guest ABendyVixen!

Starring Comrade Alexei, Jammers, and McDean, we have this face on the whole time – :D

Starring Jammers and McDean, with a replacement Alex!

Presented by IALIEXI, Jammers and McDean, with this week’s special guest, Katalimaq!