Mister Maf

First off, thank you c: I was going for introducing it in a way that someone completely unfamiliar with Monday Night Combat could still get into it. I'm trying to set up that mystery like that even though most of the readers will be people familiar with MNC - it just makes the story better and more accessible. However, MNC actually has very little "lore". Five "laws" are established: 1) the players (pros) are clones. 2) the continents are the same but it's heavily implied that the United States is no longer united. 3) despite cloning technology, other people still die permanently. 4) the pros retire at some point even though they are clones. 5) the government is totalitarian. It also sets up a theme of corporate dominance and overcommercialization. There are also hovercars, absurd products, and colonies on other planets if you choose to play with those. None of these things are ever actually explained by developers or official written lore (although Cheston's bio does mention that Europe collapsed at some point between now and the game's time). They are all taken from close observation of the in-game banter between the announcers, GG Stack and Chip Valvano. Someone else on the Uber Ent forums is writing a fanfiction of their own, and the pretense, setting, details, and mood couldn't be more different - but it follows all of the above rules. The only thing you ever see of the Monday Night Combat universe is inside the arena. It leaves a ton of leeway to construct your own world without breaking anything. Not only that, but it's a really fun challenge to come up with real-world reasons for some of the ingame things that don't quite work in real life - like the characters' names. This whole story was sparked by the discussion that started when I made a thread posing the question, "How do all the Megabeth clones have her tattoos?" There were a dozen different theories on how the cloning in the game worked and almost all of them would work, and all of them, whether they worked or not, had the ability imply a totally different kind world. So I like to make it a fanfiction. It makes me feel less like I'm ripping off Uber's IP, and I'm still able to explore the themes that I want to explore. That opening riot was based on the Vietnam War protests and the Occupy movement, and there are questions on human rights and government power that I want to build the story on as well. There is a protagonist among the established cast, but it's not just about him. Sure, I could pull a STALKER/Roadside Picnic, but I'm not really ever going to publish it. ^_^

And if we had had it in the first place, that guy over there would still have his arms...and at least one of his balls.

Crysis 3

It's also a point that has been made repeatedly on the TF2 forums due to complaints over everything Valve ever does.Ever.Except the Engineer Update; I'm pretty sure everyone was happy with that after they got over the Golden Wrenches.Also, did anyone think Microsoft's Smartglass thing was basically a giant middle finger to Nintendo? Here's a copy of a post I made on another form regarding the three console company press conferences:

I hate the weapons pack that's growing in popularity. The guns are too powerful for their prices.Odder den dat, it's nice. I like the crossbow + single deagle, and it's extra convenient because once I hit sharpshooter 6, I just started spawning with the crossbow. I like to mix it up with the other classes, though, because just using two weapons all the time, even if it's pretty much the most effective combination of weapons besides skilled use of a katana and fire axe combo. Plus, I want to level them up, too, so I can play something besides sharpshooter or medic on suicidal/hell on earth...Also my favorite player model is Reverend Alberts. At least when I'm playing sharpie/support, because the weapons look cool on him. Otherwise, it's fairly random.

I would highly appreciate Nightfall. Even if you don't still have it, I admire your generosity to give away cash items. Nightfall and Outbreak are the two I don't have, so if someone doesn't have any and wants them instead then they can have it.

Scouts, decent dodging skills, and the ability to pop enemies in the air with rockets.

One of my other favorite animes is Full Metal Panic because hilarity, boobs, and giant robots.Also, don't confuse Blood+ with Blood-C. Blood-C is....eww.

The Splinter Cell and Tomb Raider gameplay demos in the Xbox conference were freaking amazing. Completely stole the show for me. Watching the nonscripted gameplay events of those two was a hell of a lot more entertaining than the super-scripted Black Ops 2 footage and generic-as-it-gets gameplay. Watching SC and TR felt like I was watching spy thriller and action adventure movies, respectively. Watching CoD just felt like I was watching another CoD, only this time it was trying (a little too hard) to be Action Ghost Recon.The Splinter Cell preview at Ubi's conference was a lot less interesting but also didn't show any gameplay.

The first runthrough, plot beats everything. Backstory is what keeps it relevant and alive. A story with no backstory is just a story - you go through it, hopefully enjoy it, and are done with it. Backstory to explore and learn about and speculate on keeps you invested and deepens the characters. One of my favorite animes is Blood+ because of how realistic and believable the characters are. They act according to their experience and personalities in such a way that real humans would and are dynamic in the literary sense over the course of the story. You slowly learn more about the characters and their backstories and lives and begin to understand why each one acts how they do. The most convoluted is Hagi, who you wonder about the entire time until all is revealed and everything makes sense. It sounds cliché, but it's well done and other media should take note. Backstory is powerful and deepens the experience, causing it to remain in the audience's minds longer.That said, I probably enjoyed HL2 Ep2 more than anything in a long time, and that universe's "backstory" is known well enough to the point that there was little to wonder about in the game. The story and presentation were bonanaza amazing enough that I remember it just as well.

I'm you, but more handsome.

I'm starting to see the downside of external hard drives, and its name is "laziness". And I already had to chop it in two to make it work on the Uber Entertainment forums.I'll get on it...Edit: There, chopped off some extra transparent space on the top and shrank it by exactly 10%.:(

Back when Garry's Mod didn't have a proper icon, I just got one off Google, pasted it into MS Paint, and saved it as a .bmp. Worked fine.

Shhhhhhhh.If there were a proper size limit then it should be enforced in the forum settings.

Learn to play this by ear:

I was somehow able to extricate myself after a (relatively) short amount of time, but these links pose a serious problem.

Goddamnit, another link to TV Tropes. There went a perfectly good hour.

I like teamwork-focused and/or objective-based games. For general genres I like shooters and RTTs (real-time tactics - all micro, little or no macro; basically it's all about outmaneuvering your enemy's troops with yours instead of building the biggest blob of an army). Unfortunately, RTTs are not very popular to the general populace of gamers, so not very many get made. I was about as big of a fan of Tom Clancy's EndWar as there can possibly be; I was in the top 300 of the overall global leaderboards and administrated for endwarboards.com, the main site for the game (more popular than the official Ubisoft EndWar forum). That game was not only fantastic on its own, but had the best strategy adaptation of the conquest/capture points gametype I've ever seen. The problem with it (which is really native to RTTs in general) was the massively steep skill curve that turned off newbies. Now, I play a mod for Company of Heroes called Operation Market Garden that converts the game into an RTT in its purest form, and it's a hell of a lot of fun.I've also always been a Battlefielder; 1942 was my first online game. Give it up for the inventor of large-scale 64-man combined-arms battles and the conquest gamemode. I was really disappointed by most of the later iterations before the new engine rolled around; Battlefield 2142 is the one exception and IMO is DICE's best pre-Frostbite game. I play Battlefield 3 now, but the first Bad Company is my all-time favorite Battlefield (kind of funny, since it's the bastard console spinoff). I rolled with the top players in that game, too. I guess a lot about how much you like a game is who you play with, but there was a lot about BC1 that was great - the quirky nonserious atmosphere, the incredibly varied and balanced maps, and the balance between the different classes and vehicles. It wasn't perfect, but it was very good and every one of the five classes was worth playing at any time for their various roles...Battlefield 3's class choices basically come down to this:1. Do you want to be a team player? If yes, proceed to 2. If no: Recon.2. Is it a close-quarters map? If yes, proceed to 3. If no: Engineer.3. Are you an explosive-spamming lowlife? If yes: Engineer. If no: Assault.Mix in the occasional Support to be your ammo bitch.-sigh-Ok, paragraph time over. Lists.Genre summary: Am good at and like RTTs and shooters. Teamwork elements strongly preferred. Occasional interest in adventure games like Assassin's Creed. Am generally bad at but still enjoy RTSs. Little interest in RPGs, though I have a few in my backlog. Have a soft spot for driving and flight games because they kickstarted my gaming career.Current favorites:Team Fortress 2Killing FloorCompany of HeroesOperation Market Garden mod for CoHBattlefield 3Notable past addictions in rough chronological order:Team Fortress 2 (it gets to be on both lists because I've been addicted to this one since 2007)Alien Swarm (I would give my firstborn to have Valve make this game into a proper $50 title with lots of official content)Tom Clancy's EndWarBattlefield: Bad CompanyHalo 3Super Smash Bros. Melee & BrawlLEGO Star Wars (the very first one)Smuggler's Run: WarzonesCrimson Skies: High Road to RevengeMechWarrior 3 & 4 (we're getting into childhood now)Battlefield 1942Flight sims like Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 3LEGO Racers

Sure thing, bruce.

I see no reason to gimp yourself like that.I think I'll use the shovel from now on.

Given Facade's comment, I mostly suspected it not to be real, even with the URL. So, I plunged onwards, and found it highly parodic and pretty damn funny.Also, I welcome deviantArt's new feline overlords. If only I could log in to share my appreciation.

So Many Ponies....

I have a private unranked BF3 server with all unlocks enabled for everyone for shenanigans if anyone has that game.

I remember when every other thread on SPUF would be met with simply,

I think you mean, "How did you get into console gaming?" I was born 'n' raised on Windows games. I'd been using my father's business laptop since my very earliest memories. Good ol' Win95.