Friday, May 9, 2008

The Scheldt [COH]


Map © Planet CoH

- Never ever play this map.

- Do not play this map against humans.

- You can play against bots.

- I hate you Relic for torturing me with this shitty made map and your overpowered artilleries.

In case you've noticed, I am whining about how unfair it is to play Allies. Especially the British because of howitzers. Despite understanding what Sun Tzu said about killing your enemies, I never did like to eliminate my enemies using howitzers and artillery. I do not mind mortars, because it's quite squad support weapon. But artillery in Company of Heroes, are so overpowered, whoever takes British or American, can easily win the game by base raping your opponent.

Face it, just stop playing this game, how many times did you put a smile on your face, staring at the loading screen and plotting your movements, to have your opponents rushing over to the Island in Scheldt, blocking everything and starting to base rape you by howitzers. I don't mind if they're trying to bomb the shit out of my units assaulting the island, but base raping the wounded, I mean, fuck sake, read the Geneva Convention, have you been taught in school that the wounded and POWs are to be let go and no harm should come to them?

To play a fair fight in Company of Heroes is easy, never play against British who would base rape the fuck out of you. I always hated the artillery, it tilts the damn balance of the game. Zergling rush is easy to counter, British rush can be countered if you're experienced, countering Howitzers? Never. You won't be able to do it.

If they deny me resources, that is fine, I can bear with it. If they slaughtered half of my men, sure,I am to be blamed. But to base rape me, killing the remainder of my men, blowing up my structures and so forth, I fucking blame you. It's not like I did baserape you, all I did was innocently playing a fair battle against you, by going man against man, tanks against tanks.

Hence, I said, artillery is never a fair choice of attack. I played against numerous people, people who would go " GL HF" / "Goodluck have fun." labeled all over it and uses artillery to a MINIMUM by lobbing shells at your tanks or men. Hell, tank rushing me, is considered even more honorable than base raping people with artillery.

I played with a bunch of Aussies a while ago who just wants to win by any means, so they just lob me base with countless amount of artillery, my teammates weren't spared from this insidious act. After losing men left and right, I just quit, muttering a comment at whoever is responsible for baseraping me. As my instinct said it, the bastard wasn't satisfied yet, he PM me and tells me I'm a piece of shit, and all the baserape is part of "Object of Annihilation" Seriously, if you are at my end here, you're pulling your hair and screaming out what an asshole this guy is. First off, I lack resources, I lack men,I lack coordination with my teammate, you bastards sits at your end, bolstering up defenses and build even more artillery to kill my HQ. Build. More. Artillery.

I am really condoning the act of base rape or spawn rape or whatever, please, do not be a douche and uses baserape as a means of winning the game, anyone can do that, all you need is barricade yourself from the enemy, bombard them into submission. There is a reason this game is called "Company of Heroes" Valiant men fighting hard to regain territory or stop the advancing army, really, it's not called "Company of Baseraping You To Shizzles." There is no point in playing this game if people just base rape. No point at all.

Go and cry, Howiekids. Nobody likes people baseraping.


Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Another Successful Procedure? [TF2]

Before-

Prior to the Goldrush update, I had complained that there's a huge lacking in the house of healing, all I hear is death after shouting out for the one man who is vital in the process of both keeping up the survival spirits of their comrades and winning the battle. Medics.

Now-

I fired up my Steam and I saw, a huge lag appeared in the steam interface, I knew exactly what's going on, GOLDRUSH! OH YES! GOLDRUSH IS HERE! The mother of all TF2 updates! They boasted new lines for heavy and engineers, new melee animations, 36 zany achievements, 3 NEW weapons for medic and of course, Goldrush map itself. A patch worthy to b00e called the savior of TF2. Or is it?

Then-

What. The. Fuck.

Medics ubering medics and charge against a Level 3 sentry guns? Medics ubering engineers and rushed into the first cap in stage one of Dustbowl? MEDICS UBERING SNIPERS? I know the thrills of unlocking achievements but don't, I mean NEVER let your selfishness in achieving your achievements blinds you in helping your team to win the battle.

So how good is the update?
>Sorta.

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Let me get down to the medic's new toys and tips on using it as well as to choose which weapon for which situation.

[Kritzkrieg /Critz ]
This weapons is next to useless in the hands of amateurs and loners. Don't use this weapon in open fields. And don't use this weapon in maps like Dustbowls, Badlands, and Granary, because you are easily exposed to everyone and you'll be the first target for snipers and spies. Make sure to select splash damage targets first, Soldiers and Demomans work quite exceptional, Critz a heavy only when you can't find a soldier or you want to kill assigned targeted units. Also, don't use this against sentries, unless you have uber with you or you have demomans lobbing critical stickies at it. Another note, you are very vulnerable to spies even with the critz, so take care.

Personal Tip: If you are a fast one, critz a scout and rush; His bat can deal a whopping 105 hits, add in that a scout can bat twice in a second, he'll finished off even soldiers at a great speed. Works very well in tight spaces like 2Fort and tunnels.

[Medic gun]
An all rounder, best weapon ever. Even if you are leaning towards Critz, do bear in mind, uber > Critz. Better to have invulnerability than critical for 10 seconds. Uber is still the best thing for any medics, be it experts or amateurs medics.

Personal Tip: Prioritize your targets, uber only people who can deal lots of damage in a short time, soldiers and pyros will be my best target to uber, unless you're a Turtler who ubers the heavy.

[Ubersaw]
Whacking people AND charges your uber at the same time, killing two birds in one stone is this weapon's name. Or is it? To be frank, not exactly. But it is still generally a good weapon if you're the kind of guy who watches out for spies. Don't use this and charge head on and hoping that you'll score 4 hits and quickly gets an uber. That doesn't work unless you've got a medic supporting you or the battle is in chaotic mode AS WELL as your luck holds up for ya.

Personal Tip: Target only those who wants to engage in melee combat with you. I.E, Scouts, Engineers and Spies. However, thing about this weapon is you'll cause quite a whopper of a damage in 2-3 hits, not really giving you enough to have an uber, unless you can find dumb heavies.

[Bonesaw]
Fast, critical and deadly against spies. I still prefer this weapon over ubersaw, especially in a very confused battle, you can exploit the high critical chance of this weapon against unsuspecting enemies. Scoring kills with this is not really much of humiliation since this weapons was really a high crit weapon to begin with.

Personal Tips: Not much tip here since it's really general,though just use this weapon only and only when the enemy decides to kill you using his melee weapon, and avoid melee another medic unless you're in full healthy condition.

[Blutsauger]
German word for "Blood sucker" or Vampire, this weapon trades the high crit chance of a syringe gun for the ability of healing you. ( +3 per hit) I personally think this weapon is the best of all the unlocks here, because there is not really alot of flaws in this weapon, it's decent, average and just plain good when your buddy is dead and you're like a wounded gazelle retreating back to the Resupply room.

Personal Tip: Valve decides to just replace it with health leaching abilities (corny idea eh?) , but don't blame them, thank them, because this weapon is quite critical against enemies whore are under cover or behind hilly areas, use the gravity as your factor in killing your enemy.

[Syringe Gun]
Like the SMG wielded by the snipers, this weapon is more or so, effective only when you know how to exploit its crit chance and the way it fires the needles. Not exactly the Lever-Action shotgun nor Minigun, its high rate of fire is still deadly, 5-10 hit per needle, and given that it takes roughly 4-6 seconds to finish the whole magazine and add in the 30 hit whenever you got a crit chance, it's still a decent weapon against spies, engineers, scouts, snipers and other medics, demoman too if you know how to kill him before he detonates both you and himself.

Personal Tip: Like the Blutsauger, just use the range and the high crit chance to eliminate enemies in cover. Usually I use it to lure out other medics and let my buddy kill him then his buddy.

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Well, Valve has made it clear for us that newbie medics can easily change their weapons while in mid-game (But are restricted that you must die and respawn in order for the change to take effect) So, after ubering out the rathole you're in, you can switch to the Critz and dish out pains of unimaginable proportion and you're the man who would lead your team to total victory. And you heal too!

However I am expecting that after maybe a few more weapon unlocks for the other classes, Valve will tuned that change like Call Of Duty 4, where a player must exit the game to change their weapons. It's fine and dandy for that to happen to ease out the balancing issues but from my experience, your seat in the game might be taken as well as the long loading times, so let's cross our fingers and hope Valve for the best.


Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Hippocratic Oath [TF2]

"I swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepios and Hygeia and Panaceia and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant-" Hippocratic Oath, Classical Version.

When I was young, my parents always wanted me to be a doctor, a man of healer, wise "Sun" in the field of medicine, to help the wounded, cure the diseased, and lay down the sufferers.

Alas, I'm studying to become a film maker. Enough about that, let's get to what I'm trying to imply here.

In most of the servers I play, everyone avoids medic like it's a black plague. Mind you, it's a very decent and average class to play, next to scout and sniper. What a medic has, you better use it to your full disposal. Icon©http://tf2.digitaljedi.com/


  1. Medicgun - Your main weapon, you are Rasputin.
  2. Syringe Gun - Not all doctors are good, heard of Jack Kevorkian?
  3. Bonesaw - Saw-ee /'Sorry'
I don't want to argue about how ineffective or exceptional a medic is in the frontlines but I want to share my experience with you.

As I was playing Well (CP) in one of the Singaporean server, BLU team, which I was in, was badly owned by the RED, as I look around me, my comrades are wounded and screaming for medic, I hold my Tab key, to my horror, there is no medic, whereas the opposing team has 2 coordinated medics healing the wounded. So I pop up a chat window and asks for volunteers to be medic. None respond, too busy shooting rockets or batting the enemy rather than trying to save your fellow teammates from certain death. With no choice, I became a medic, and I tried very hard to heal whoever's been shot or mangled to bits by rockets and stickies. Unfortunately, I failed to save a few people during my role; do not blame me, my fellow narrow minded beings, for I, a medic serve but 4 roles.

1. Healing
2. Spyhunts
3. Ubering
4. Assaulting

Yes. FOUR grueling roles a medic has to partake in order to save his own existence from pesky spies and charging scouts. And here I am, getting screwed by these so called "pros" for not healing them, of course I died too. And please, for heaven's sake, do NOT run away from the medic, what's the point of healing when you don't come close? Anyways, I'm trying to help buff up needed medics in the servers.

Here's some ethics guideline you can use to help encourage medic players.
  • Be polite to medics, they get low kill counts and high deaths to help you get high kill counts and low deaths. Always say thank you, they'll be happy for helping you.
  • Don't think you've got a second life, a medic can heal and buff you up to a certain point only, YOU ARE STILL VULNERABLE, don't make it a habit to charge mindlessly after healing because it might seem pointless to heal you anyways.
  • Help keep your buddy alive, medics can't kill those spies.
  • When you're paired with a consistent medic who only heals you, helped him gain some points by killing lots of enemies, that'll keep him happy for being a medic.
  • Don't panic when a retreating lonely ubered medic goes for you, uber is like the Elixir of Life, it's limited so make him proud.
  • One medic is inefficient in a team, have at least 2 or 3 to help keep other medics alive for the fight.
  • Do not push a medic to battle when he's not ready, you'll risk both you and your medic's life because he was wounded and you're screaming out "Go!Go!Go!"
  • He's only ready when he is, don't rush out and expecting an uber in a split second, it takes time, be patient.
  • Finally, do not shout out for medic when you're full health or just a tad injured, leave the medics for the really badly banged up folks.
Although I'm expecting lots of medics soon in the servers soon cause of the Goldrush updates and achievement, but do bear in mind, medics are essential, they're the core member of your team and your team will fail because of your selfishness for not being a medic and also your attitudes towards one.

Be a medic, it saves life.


Sunday, April 27, 2008

One Vision,One Purpose

So says Kane in Command and Conquer franchises. What I am trying to achieve here is fairly simple, I redone my site, add in a few features and soon, we'll see perhaps podcast by me, tutorial videos and maybe interviews! It's kinda big but I hope I can fulfill those goals one day.

Future Projects:

  • Podcast
  • Interviews
  • Tutorials Videos
  • Commentaries
  • Tricks
  • Maps and guides
  • Game breakdowns
  • LAN Parties
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Anywho, for those who are playing Team Fortress 2 in Starhubs or e-Club servers, maybe BolehVPN and EGN (Aussie) servers, I'm playing with this nick, Volks, it's very easy to remember, do say hi, I'm really the chatty type in-game.

If you can, add me on Steam with the same nick. I'll see you in Dustbowl,men!


Wednesday, April 23, 2008

The Reason

Greetings, salutations and I salute thee,

My name is Volks (Gaming Nick) and I shall be your new game guide. Simple, non? I wish it is however, many gamers these days are, unfortunately blockheads from outhouses in the Amazons and I am here to educate you on how to be a great gamer! Excited yet? I sure am. Now let me tell you who I am and what I am going to do here.

I am from Malaysia, somewhere in South East Asia, and no, we're not part of Thailand nor Indonesia, and don't spewing out we're Singaporeans too! And most gamers here, are sorta bare, not really armed with gaming knowledge, some are however exceptional, probably from uber trainings at home or just pure luck and maybe pints of natural talents. I am neither, I play with this thingy here call, "common sense". If you heard of it, great! We're in the same league, if you don't, uh-oh, someone needs to go to a shrink here, however, let's not be despair! Float with us on the same boat and I'll guide you through the hardships of being a gamer, the angriness and sourness of being a loser, and lastly, everyone's favorite, a happy winner.

The road to victory is as rocky as Grand Canyon but surely, with guides I write and some ideas from commenters and personal friends, we'll make a pro out of you!