I guess it was sometime between christmas and new years that my son and I got Borderlands.  First impressions were “wow, this game is awesome.”  Now that I have had some time to play Borderlands and get a feel for it – its still a great game, but it could have been a lot better.

• Why did Y2K use gamespy for the multiplayer?
• Why are the really cool weapons only found after the first play through?
• Where is the software developers kit?
• Where is the dedicated server option?
• The skill tree seems a little “limited”.
• Where are items like combat vest, gloves, helmets?
• I guess all we get is a shield?
• Why are the sniper rifles so underpowered?
• Why does the mic stay on all the time? Seems like a waste of bandwidth to me.
• Why does the world have seams?  Another way of saying that – why do we have the loading screens between the levels?  In case nobody told Y2K, loading screens died out with Doom and Quake 10+ years ago.  At least we dont have to run around looking for colored keys to go to the next level.

Even though Borderlands has some shortcomings, its still a great game. Here are some of the things that I like about Borderlands.
• The graphics and futuristic settings are jaw dropping
• The detail to the background is amazing
• Almost unlimited quest offers almost unlimited replayability
• Skill tree is nice, even though it is kinda limited
• Being able to drive a car is cool
• Massive amount of weapons – its like a dream come true
• Open world – its really nice being able to explore an area
• Unlimited amount of stuff to kill – and that is awesome

Overall, I think Borderlands is well time and money for at least a couple of play throughs. Please post your comments in this thread on Borderlands over at the forums.

Over the past 15 years (1995 – 2010), pc gaming sure has changed a lot. As I look back, I also realize I miss some of those old games and the fan made modifications from the 1990s. That time era was for games such doom, quake, diablo, diablo II, quake II, quake world, team fortress, capture the flag, half-life,,,,, you know, the epic kind of games.

In todays gaming market, rarely do I see a modification that gets the attention like what capture the flag, team fortress, rune quake, quake world and rocket arena did. Its as if the fan made modifications get very little attention. And thats really sad, because modifications like Fortress Forever are truly great games.

I miss the days when games actually worked when they were released. Take left 4 dead 2 for example – it suffered from crashing to desktop bugs for 2 weeks after it was released.

Quake and Quake 4 – either have a story plot, or dont have one.

Quake – no story plot, but still a great game
Quake 4 – 1/2 a story plot and terrible game.

How long with the war go on? Its been 10 years now – Quake 2 – Quake Wars. Its about time to find a new story plot dont you think id software?

I miss games that paid attention to detail. If you take Doom and compare it to Doom 3, in my opinion the developers of the original doom paid more attention to details then the developers of Doom 3. If there was one thing that I would compare between doom and doom 3, it would be the sky boxes. Such a simple thing can greatly add to the atmosphere of the game. Doom 3 has terrible skyboxes, while Doom has some great skyboxes. What is the problem here? Its like Doom 3 went backwards in time at least 15 years with one simple little feature.

When half-life was released, it had an epic story plot, some epic introduction cut scenes,,,,, it was several things added together that made half-life one of the greatest games of all time. Now we have left 4 dead and left 4 dead 2, which both have great graphics, great skyboxes, but the story line is sketchy at best. Why couldn’t left 4 dead have started off by showing the scientist that might have caused the disease? Or showing the people from the government doing their research into some kind of strange new disease? Would half-life have been as great if gordon freeman after the accident? Nope. One of the things that made half-life so great is we saw everything that took place that morning.

Half-life 2 had an “ok” story plot, it goes along with the way left 4 dead tells its story. You know “something” has happened, but exactly what that “something” is your not 100% sure of. HL2 – some kind of war has happened and humanity surrendered. L4D – some kind of virus has been released that is killing off the human race.

If you want to talk about a game that develops an awesome story plot, the winner has to be Diablo, and not diablo II – I mean the original Diablo. By the time the player is 3/4 of the way through the game, he/she knows just about everything that has happened in the past 1,000+ years. Everything about the holy war, and the soul stones is spelled out for the player, what more could you really want?

Post your comments in the I miss the games from the 1990s thread of the forums.

Doom: Legendary first person shooter that looks like crap today. You play the part of a space marine that must run around the level looking for colored keys to open the door to the next level. This never did make any sense – if you have a rocket launcher, why not just blast the door and go to the next level.

Doom II: Another legendary first person shooter that looks like crap today.

Final Doom: Another legendary first person shooter that looks like crap today. Idsoftware was too busy working on Quake, so Team TNT did the development of the Final Doom.

None of the Doom series had mouse look – where you could use the mouse to look and down.

Duke Nukem: Kinda like doom, but your fighting some kind of alien invasion. Duke always has some kind of smart remark to make about something.

Fallout: Even though its not a first person shooter, I would like to say “screw you interactive” for making a game that most people could not play. Fallout was a couple of years ahead of its time in cpu requirements.

Quake: Looks slightly better then Doom. The original tcp/ip support was crap and caused massive lag. That is why quakeworld came about. Quake made names like multiplayer deathmatch and quakecon an everyday word.

Team Fortress: Some silly game where 9 character classes fight over a stupid flag for points.

Quake II: Slightly improved graphics over Quake, but the gameplay sucked big time. Weapons were under powered, strogg looked stupid, no moving clouds or interactive environment. Enemy AI sucked big time.  Screw you ID Software for making Quake II one of the most overhyped games of all time – I want my money back.

Hexen II: Cool game where you get to run around and kill sheep. Crappy maps, crappy story plot, but at least there are lots of stuff to break and plenty of sheep to kill.

Unreal: One of the first games to make you say “holy crap” with graphics that were ahead of their time. The only problem, a lot of the computers at the time could not run the game very well.

Red Neck Rampage: You play the role of a red neck hick that fights an alien invasion. Its the one game where your character can get drunk and start throwing up. The levels got a little boring after awhile.

Half-life: You play the role of a nerd by the name of gordon freeman. Gordon leaves his scientist buddies behind to die in black mesa as the troops are brought in to kill all of the survivors. half-life is a good example of how the strong survive and the weak die. Gordon basiclly says “screw yall, I’am outta here.” Even though half-life used the quake engine, the graphics were like “wow”.

Team Fortress Classic: Like the original team fortress but with better graphics. The teams are still fighting over a stupid flag, what is the deal with the flag? Once its stolen it just goes back to the base anyway. If the enemy wants the flag bad enough, sell it to them and make some money.

Counter-strike: One of the few games where you get to play as a terrorist and kill cops. Graphics look like crap today due to the quake 1 engine.

Quake III: Attempt made by valve software to cash in on the quake name, and is multiplayer only. Well, you could play with bots, but they get really boring after awhile. This game was boycotted by a lot of loyal quake fans that wanted some kind of single player game. Idsoftware took out the single player side and replaced it with a bunch of eye candy.

Doom III: Screw you id software for ruining the glorious name of Doom. Nobody at id software has ever heard of “duct tape”? Its this stuff you can use to attach a flashlight to a weapon. The original release of doom III was not even finished, you had to download a patch to finish the game. Did anyone that worked on doom III even play the original?

Painkiller: Your killed in a car wreck, your soul is sent to hell to kill demons so you can rescue your wife,,, or something like that. Music gets old. Awesome maps though.

Half-Life 2: Gordon freeman comes back, but this time he is forced to save a city called “City 17″. Gordon blows up part of city 17 and runs for his life before the combine can catch him.

Counter-Strike:Source: Now when you shoot a counter terrorist, you can see the blood spray on the walls. Gun Games modification rocks.

Quake 4: ID software was too busy to develop this game, so they let raven software do it. And one more time I would like to say “screw you raven and id software. Quake 4 sucks.

STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl: You play someone who was in a car wreck and does not remember who he is. Quest system sucks, weapons suck, radiation sucks, maps suck,,,,,, cool game though.

Fortress-Forever: Most awesome team fortress game ever made. Except that the medic is some kind of overpowered super man, who kills sentry guns at the speed of light.

Team Fortress 2: Screw you valve for ruining the name of Team Fortress. What id software did to Doom III, valve did to team fortress II – I want my money back.

Quake wars: When someone figures out what this game is about, let me know, please.

Unreal tournament 3: Grab a weapon and start killing people. Screw you interactive for using gamespy for the multiplayer part.

Left 4 Dead: You get to play some kind of mutated zombie and hunt the survivors down. The problem is, the survivors have guns, so you have to be careful.

Bioshock: Guy survives a plane crash, only to find an undewater city where he has to kill people who have too much lead in their water pipes. Its like everyone you run into is crazy and wants to kill you.

Left 4 Dead 2: More mutated zombies to kill the survivors with. But this time, the survivors get more weapons.

Borderlands: You run around killing these strange looking dogs. Good thing PETA has not seen this game. Closed maps with load times between maps, sorry multiplayer setup,,, this game rocks, but could have been so much better.

Post your comments in a candid history of first person shooters thread of the forums.

Like a long lost friend, the Steam Holiday sale has come and gone.  Now its time to start saving up some money for the 2010 – 2011 sale – I hope its just as good as the 2009 – 2010 sale.

For those of you that mised it, you missed some really good deals, like STALKER for $2.00, ID pack for something like $23,,, butu oh well, there is always next year.

The people at Steam are being extra nice this year, the christmas/end of year sale has been extended 1 more day.  If you missed the past week of sales, your in luck.  But the clock is ticking.  If you want to pick up a couple of extra games, you better get on the ball.

Tis the season to be jolly, and the people at Steam are being real jolly right now. For the next 22 hours and 51 minutes, the ID Super Pack is on sale for $23.79 – US Dollars.

The package includes:
Commander Keen
DOOM 3
DOOM 3 Resurrection of Evil
DOOM II
Final DOOM
Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders
HeXen
HeXen II
HeXen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel
Master Levels for Doom II
QUAKE
QUAKE II
QUAKE II Mission Pack: Ground Zero
QUAKE II Mission Pack: The Reckoning
Quake III Arena
QUAKE III: Team Arena
QUAKE Mission Pack 1: Scourge of Armagon
QUAKE Mission Pack 2: Dissolution of Eternity
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Spear of Destiny
The Ultimate Doom
Wolfenstein 3D

Even though this is a great package – the most recent game is Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil, which was released in 2005. Where is Quake 4, where is ENEMY TERRITORY : QUAKE WARS? Even though Quake 4 and Enemy Territory Quake Wars were not developed by ID software, they are still part of the Quake series.

Even though the package does not include some of the more recent games, for a little over $1 a game, in my opinion – its well worth.

Post your comments in the Steam Deals thread of the forums.

Haha49 has posted a 10 minute video review of Zeno Clash in the Elite Gamers forum.  Zeno Clash looks like an interesting fighting / role playing game. The dark shadow around the outside of the screen looks like it might be a turn off, but the music is kinda cool.

While I was looking through wikipedia today, I came across an article on the Nvidia TNT2 video card. I bought that card shortly after it came out. It had 32 megs of video memory and made half-life 1 look amazing.

At the bottom of the article about the TNT2 article was a link going to the 3dfx VooDoo2 video card. Hey, I had that card as well. But it only had 8 megs of video memory.

For a little while I ran my computer in SLI mode with the VooDoo2 and the TNT2. For the time period, the graphics were amazing.

Before the VooDoo2 I was running a 4 meg video card that I can not even remember the name of. It had replaced the on board 2 meg card that had came with my packard bell computer.

Currently I’am running a VisionTek ATI Radeon HD 4650 512 MB PCI-Express video card.

Video technology sure has come a long way in the past 10 years. We have gone from a TNT2 32 meg video card, to cards with 1 gig of video memory.

Oh the memories that TNT2 and 3dfx voodoo 2 video card brings back – Doom, Quake, Quake II, Quakeworld death match, quakeworld team fortress, half-life 1, team fortress classic,,,,, those were good days.  When Quake, Quake II, Diablo and Half-Life 1 were the games of the day.  When things were simple, games were easy to install and fan sites were simple html pages.

In a way, I miss those good ole days.  The days when Quakecon was the hottest thing going and 256 megs of memory was a lot.  Its difficult to imagine with todays standards, but at one time there were only 3 or 4 multi-player online games.

Post your comments in the trip down video card memory lane thread of the Elite Gamers Forum.

First impressions of the new Zombie Panic:Source modification – this is one cool mod. The install through steam was straight forward. Just find Zombie Panic in Steam, use the search feature to do this. And then click the “Install Game” button.

The total download size is around 2 gigs – 2,006,974 kb in the GCF file and another 52 megs in a Zombie Panic! Source folder in steam apps/ profile name / Zombie Panic! Source.

When the player first joins a game, they start in a room with three exits – spectate, survivors (humans) and the zombie team.

When I played on the survivors team, I started out with a keyboard and a pistol for weapons. Personally I could think of a lot better weapons laying around the office, such as a mop handle or even a drawer from a metal desk. My team and I quickly ran into a couple of zombies who were finished off with a few rounds from the pistol. When I ran out of ammo for the pistol, the player did not automatically switch weapons and go to the keyboard.

While playing the zombie, there are some blood vessel looking things that go around the screen. Only one zombie can infect the human players. This seemed to go against the classic zombie movies. Zombies attack, eat and infect human players. It seems strange that only one zombie out of a whole group can infect the humans.

Overall, the Zombie Panic! Source modification is a well worth downloading and playing. The amount of time and effort put into this modification is staggering. The attention to the little details truly adds to the overall effect of the game.

Post your comments in the Zombie Panic! Source thread of the forums.

The people over at the Elite Gamers Forum have opened a new Clan Forum. If you have clan news, updates, request to join a clan, looking for members,,, or anything else, go on over there and post your stuff.

Also, if you are looking for a free forum for your clan, read that thread at the Elite Gamers Forum