Forte

Ah well, as I said, Nintendo doesn't have download services for their games, and it isn't available for PC, so downloading it isn't really possible without doing something illegal.I did get around to purchasing it, so I have quite a bit to say about it, now. For one, the controls are amazingly smooth. The music is terrific and the new tracks are pretty much the best in the series. A new type of track has been introduced that doesn't function on laps, but instead functions on splitting the track into three sections. This is done for two Wii Sports Resort based tracks and Rainbow Road, which I think Rainbow Road should have been a three lap deal just because it's always supposed to be the longest track in the game.The returning tracks are some of the best picks Nintendo has ever put into a Mario Kart game, and while there are some past tracks I would have liked to see return, I can't really complain about the choices.The items are a lot less unfair than they started to be in Mario Kart Double Dash, and now you are allowed to keep the item you're holding if you're hit by a leader shell, to avoid the scenario that always happened in Mario Kart Wii, where a leader shell would leave you unable to defend your position in first. Unfortunately, Lightning still makes you drop your item.The coins you collect during the race have a cap at ten, and according to the instruction manual, make your kart faster the more you have, but I haven't really noticed that much of a difference, and I think they only provide a temporary speed boost when you grab one. The unlocking parts thing doesn't work by buying things like I expected, but instead the more total coins you have (which is saved after every Grand Prix) unlocks a part. The parts are unlocked after every 50 coins, which means that before you can unlock a single part, you'll have to play through two different Grand Prix modes (Luckily, since 40 + 40 = 80, and then 80 + 40 = 120, 160 etc, you'll get one part for the next three Grand Prix modes you play through).The 3DS's online mode is wonderful, and has all but done away with friend codes for games. The 3DS itself has a personal friend code for the console (much like the Wii did) and having someone added as a console friend also adds them as a friend in any online enabled game, even if your friend doesn't have the game yet. You are also able to create communities that people can join, so that an entire group of people can always play together and not have to worry about the random match making system of the Nintendo Wifi Connection.Overall, I think this game beats any other Mario Kart game ever made, and I hope it continues to impress me that much as I go through the game, unlocking things in preparation to play online.

Unfortunately, Nintendo vary rarely has download services, and if they do, it's through local wireless communications between two 3DS systems. The game can be purchased at any major retailer (Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy), their websites(walmart.com ,target.com, bestbuy.com), or game specialty stores such as Gamestop or EB Games.Related to the game itself, it brings new characters to the table as well, and the kart customization is based around collecting coins in the races you play in, so that you can buy new kart pieces. The game can also be played in first person mode, if you so choose, which makes use of the 3DS's gyroscope to deliver a realistic driving experience (kind of).

Mario Kart 7 was released today (December 4, 2011), for the Nintendo 3DS. Like its predecessors on the Wii and DS, it promises to be a wild ride with Mario and friends, adding in the new element of kart customization to the already interesting concepts present in Mario Kart. While I don't know very much about the kart customization system, I also don't quite know what to think about it, since it both opens up limitless possiblities for how to make a kart that drives exactly how you want it to drive, but also seems to suggest that there won't be very many stock karts, which was a feature I enjoyed in Mario Kart DS (also the unlockable ability to pair any character with any kart).While I haven't purchased it yet, I can say for certain that I will be buying it soon, and look forward to experiencing the 3DS's first online game, and will also have plenty more to say about it once I do own it.

I personally think steam is a great platform for managing PC games. Needless to say, I don't really play many games on it outside of games published by Valve, but there are certain indie games that I play on it, too. Steam, like anything else, does have its flaws, and the biggest issue I have with it is how unstable it seems to be sometimes. Recently, Valve fixed an alt-tabbing error in TF2 and other Source Based games so that minimizing your game goes very smoothly now, and I really enjoy that, since I end up doing tons of things outside of game while I'm still playing (music most of the time).I hear a lot of complaints about steam, but I never really understand why people would complain. I guess that's just one of those things that matters on people's opinion of something.

Well, I can do my best to explain how it works and how the market in TF2 works (an FPS with an MMORPG-esque market... welp)For one, free to play users cannot trade with other people, they can only recieve items. If you didn't buy the game, then unless you purchase an item from the Mann Co. store, you can't trade with another user.Since the Sniper vs. Spy update, users have been able to craft the extra items they find, and for a long time, Valve had promised the advent of trading items. The item crafting system works like this:Two items used by the same class = 1 scrapThree items used by the same class = 1 class tokenThree items used in the same loadout slot = 1 slot token3 scrap = 1 reclaimed metal3 reclaimed metal = 1 refined metalMetal, in all of its forms, are the basic building blocks of the TF2 economy, and can be considered "money". Since it takes 9 scrap to make 1 refined metal, scrap is considered .11 of a refined. Likewise, a reclaimed is considered .33 of a refined.Since weapons are typically very common, they are the least commonly sold things. Some people may want a weapon enough to buy it, but most people will wait until they find it. Hats, on the other hand, are uncommon, and as such, are a very busy market. The majority of the game's hats are classified as "craft hats", which means they sell for cheap and are used to craft other hats according to the rebuild headgear recipie: Hat+Hat = Hat.Other hats, due to popular opinion, general rarity, or how new they are, sell for more, on the order of 3 to 4 refined. Very few hats really go above the 4 refined range, but some Misc. items go for much more, on the order of 7-8 reclaimed.

I'm not sure if many people will look here for one, but since Team Fortress 2 has a trading system, you can come here to set up any trades you might want to look into. If you want to show off your backpack, that's fine too, just use the tf2items backpack viewer at http://www.tf2items.com/. I'm not really looking to make any trades right now, but you can view my backpack at any time at http://www.tf2items.com/id/quickmanx2 It'll update pretty frequently, so I guess it's a good idea to say to check it often.

As some of you may know, the Mother series (called Earthbound in the United States) is a trilogy of RPGs written by Shigesato Itoi and developed and published by Nintendo. In Japan, it is critically acclaimed as one of the best series of games ever created, its popularity extends so far as to have one of its more iconic songs, "The Eight Melodies", printed in school music books. Elsewhere in the world, however, poor advertising campaigns and low sales, as well as poor timing on the translation team's part, doomed the series to obscurity. Even so, it has a very large fan following, one that some will call a "cult following", which to me sounds insulting and degrading to the fan community, since it suggests to Nintendo that the desire for the Mother trilogy to be released outside of Japan is just a few people jumping onto a bandwagon.The first game was unique for its time, since before then, the only RPGs involved medieval settings, swords, monsters, and knights, mages, etc. Mother 1 took all of that and threw it away, giving a modern setting, child protagonists, common household weapons, and a much deeper, more emotion driven story. Another surprise from the game was that it was positively huge, with an overworld map that didn't just imply distance, it WAS distance. Never did you go to a "world map" like in Final Fantasy, where you can see towns and caves that you walk into and then things become life sized again, instead, you got a completely life sized world around you. Due to the frequency of random battles, the low EXP gained from enemy defeats, and the strength of the enemies in the overworld, Mother 1 is considered one of the most ridiculously hard RPGs of all time.Mother 2 came along and kept the formula that made Mother 1 great, and introduced new game mechanics. Keeping with a modern setting and teenaged protagonists, as well as an expansive world, it introduced the concept of enemies in the overworld, making it possible to avoid battles altogether, and the Mother series' signature mark: the scrolling health bar. Instead of just losing HP instantly, when you were hit with an attack for say, 50 damage, your life bar would gradually decrease until you had lost the full 50, at about a rate of 2 hp a second. At the beginning of the game, this didn't mean very much, since your health was capped at 30 and most attacks only did one or two damage, but towards the end of the game, when your HP gets up to the 500s and your enemies are hitting you for damage in the 400s, it's a big advantage. Before your HP hits 0, you have the ability to continue fighting, use healing items, or try to flea the battle. It was a very useful game mechanic when you have that gut feeling that you only need to hit that boss one more time before you win, but you don't have any healing items and your health is in questinable territory.Mother 3 didn't really add much to the formula of Mother 2, but it refined the graphics, brought forth an extremely emotionally compelling story, and reintroduced the running mechanic of Mother 1. All other gameplay mechanics stayed exactly the same, including overworld enemies and the ability to avoid fights with weaker enemies by running into them and knocking them out of the way (a change from Mother 2's method, where you just instantly won). Unlike the other Mother games, however, Mother 3 was played through the eyes of a variety of characters before you got your final party, and many of the main characters were adults.Before we critically analyze Mother, we should go over the basic story of the games. There may be spoilers in this post past this point, so if you want to play the games for yourself and find the endings and stories out through playing them, I suggest you turn around now. However, if reading the story first makes you more apt to play the games, then by all means, continue.Mother 1's story starts long before the game begins. In the early 1900s, a boy named George moves into the town of Mothersday, simply looking for a job. He gets a job with the local newspaper, and becomes a very popular boy in the town, regarded for his kindness and hard working personality. He grows up to be one of the most respected members of the community. In this time, he meets a girl named Maria, a sweet young woman who had also found herself becoming universally liked within the town. As time went on, these two were married, and all seemed well. However, one day, a dark shadow descended upon the town, and strange things began to happen. Then, as suddenly as it appeared, the shadow vanished, and life returned to normal, except George and Maria had disappeared. (it is implied that at this point, they had at least one child)Years passed and nothing was heard or seen of them. The town of Mothersday has lost its most charismatic couple, and they would simply have to move on. Then, one day, as mysteriously as he had vanished, George returned. He didn't speak to a soul, and simply went back to his house, where he stayed, doing all sorts of unknown things. No one could ever get him to tell them where he had been, or what had happened to Maria. He spent the rest of his life by himself, doing research.Almost a century passed. Mothersday grew as a town, into a small but busy city. The game starts here, where we meet a boy named Ninten, about 11 or 12 years old, living on the outskirts of town with his mother and his two sisters. His father is a hard working man who almost never has time to come home, and is only met through telephone calls. While he had enjoyed a relatively peaceful life, he had always had a gift for psionic powers, referred to as PSI. This gift was not uncommon, as many people exhibited the natural ability to use it, and some others were able to learn it, but for the most part, it was a rarity. One day, however, strange things began to reoccur in the city of Mothersday. Ninten's family is plagued by a poltergeist, and Ninten proves his bravery by fighting the evil entity in his house and driving it out. Among the possessed items in his house was a doll, passed down through his family to his younger sister. In the fight, a music box was revealed inside the doll, which played a short tune when investigated. Ninten's father calls, and upon being informed of what happened, he tells Ninten the story of his great grandfather George, who researched PSI and left a notebook. He then tells Ninten that he believes it is up to Ninten to right the wrongs of the past and to save the world from a threat that has been looming for almost a century.Ninten's travels take him all over his region, from the nighboring town of Thanksgiving to the far off city of Valentine, and through this adventure, he meets the friends that will help him save the world, Loid, Ana, and Teddy. He also learns about the tuen the doll played, and finds out that it is part of a set of eight melodies that make up a lullaby that his great grandmother Maria sang. His adventure finally takes him to the Holy Lolly mountain, where he discovers the underwater laboratory of his great grandfather, and meets a robot designed by him to protect Ninten and his friends, named EVE. The lab is destroyed after EVE's awakening, and soon after, EVE confronts a large robot named R7038XX. EVE protects the children from the extremely powerful robot, but is destroyed in the fight. The seventh of the the eight melodies is the last message the robot gives the children. At the top of Holy Lolly mountain lies a grave marker, where George is buried. His last action before his death was apparently to leave a PSI message here for his great grandson, telling him the story of his life. He and his wife were abducted by an alien race and taken across the universe to their home world, and were charged with raising one of their orphaned kind. This alien child, named Gigue, was now the threat facing their world, sent on a mission to destroy mankind to recover their alien technology of PSI. George researched this phenomenon while on the alien planet, and used it to return home. Before George finally faded from this world, he sang the final part of the eight melodies to Ninten.Ninten and his friends had to use the eight melodies to defeat Gigue, who could still remember the care and love he was given by his human adoptive parents, and eventually left Earth, unable to destroy the species of people who raised him and showed him love. He swore revenge to Ninten and took off, back to his home planet.Mother 2 takes place around 10 years in the future, and begins in another part of America, now referred to as Eagleland. The story opens with a boy named Ness, who starts a fantastic journey on the level of Ninten's one night after a meteor crashes close to his house. A strange insect comes from the meteor, claiming that he has traveled through time and came back to the past to warn of the devistation in the future caused by Gigue, the Universal Cosmic Destroyer. Ness embarks on a journey to gain the power of the Earth itself, to defend it from a threat that already exists among them. His neighbor, Porky Minch, however, to avoid the dangers of being a hero, proves to himself that he is not a chosen one by becoming a villain, and begins to succumb to the psychic mind control of Gigue. As the game progresses to the final fight, we learn that it was the complete opposite, and Porky instead used Gigue to confront Ness. We learn that Gigue, in his effort to feel no remorse for his actions against humanity had driven himself to insanity, and now knew nothing but hate. He had trained himself so hard and increased his PSI so much that it destroyed his body, and now Gigue's consciousness was all that remained, a consciousness so powerful that when left to its own design formed a completely separate universe of hatred in its immediate vicinity.Once again, however, through showing love, Gigue was defeated, and Porky escaped using a time machine, so that he could avoid the reprocussions of trying to kill his neighbor. The final message recieved from Porky is a taunt to Ness, daring him to go out and get Porky.Mother 3 is set an undetermined amount of time in the future, but it can be reasonbly assumed to be hundreds of years. The story begins on a set of islands, called Nowhere Islands. Here, a small but tight knit community lives and works together in a rural and seemingly perfect society. The first character we play as is a boy named Lucas, shy, reserved, and sort of a crybaby, he grows throughout the game to be a hero. We meet his mother, Hinawa, his grandfather Alec, and his twin brother, Claus. The story starts off happy enough, but takes a turn for the worse. A strange army begins to invade the Nowhere Islands, and they begin to modify the local fauna and even the flora to make them dangerous. These pink clad soldiers wearing masks that resemble pigs begin to appear more and more frequently, and unfortunately for the family we have only just met, they will soon have a run in with some of the aforementioned modified Fauna.Meanwhile, we meet the twins' father, Flint. His first major task is to go out and help evacuate the forest, which has recently caught fire due to the blundering of what will later be revealed to be called "The Pig Mask Army". After assuring that his best friend's son is ok, Flint realizes that his family isn't home yet either. He returns to the forest during a rainstorm, which has put the fire out, and gathers the locals to help search. After having his own run in with a half robotic caribou, Flint discovers that his children are safe, but his wife has been killed, found with a Drago's fang pierced through her heart. The game has only barely begun, and the tragedy starts.The story fully takes off in Chapter 5, after all the set-up has been cleared out, and a few years have passed since the death of Hinawa. Lucas has grown considerably, both physically and emotionally. At the end of Chapter 5, the party of Lucas, Duster, Kumatora, and Lucas' dog, Boney, is separated, and Lucas finds himself in a field of sunflowers that his mother frequented when she was alive. He follows a vision of her back to Tazmilly village, which at this point in time has become very modern looking, due to the influence of the Pig Mask Army. Chapter 7 begins, and Lucas learns that he is now in competition with the mysterious masked leader of the Pig Mask Army, the Masked Man. Both of them aim for a common goal: to pull the seven needles sealing away the Dark Dragon, and whoever pulls the most will have their desires granted by the dragon. At the game's climax, it is revealed that the world has ended years before the game started, and the people living on Nowhere Islands are the last people left alive on the planet. It is also revealed that Porky Minch is the true leader of the Pig Mask Army, having abused time travel to the point that his body had aged far beyond his mind, and he had achieved a conditional immortality. He then reveals that the Masked Man is Lucas' missing brother, Claus, and that he has also been controlling him. Porky attacks Lucas and his party from a mechanical bed modeled after a spider, and is defeated. He seals himself in the Absolutely Safe Capsule, which he requested to be developed to keep him safe from attack, and also from the end of the world that he planned to bring about by using the Dark Dragon. Lucas and his friends rush to the area where the final needle is, and confront the Masked Man, who was awaiting orders from Porky to pull the needle. He strikes down Lucas' teammates with a lightning blast, and engages his brother in one on one combat.The game ends with Claus coming to his senses, remembering who he is, and killing himself by forcing Lucas to reflect his lightning back at him. Lucas pulls the final needle, and the final cutscene shows the Nowhere Islands being destroyed by the Dark Dragon's awakening.Throughout all of these games, there are very heavy instances of symbolism and fun general trivia. Among these are:At the beginning of Mother 2, Buzz Buzz comes from a future devastated by Gigue. He comes back in time to find the heroes mentioned in his time that were able to beat Gigue once before, and claims Ness is this hero. It's impossible, however, that Ness could be the hero in Buzz Buzz's time, since Buzz Buzz had to come back just to tell Ness he was the hero. Buzz Buzz was actually looking for Ninten and his friends, who had beaten Gigue before, which is commonly believed and almost completely confirmed to have happened 10 years before the events of Mother 2 (You fight Gigue 10 years in the past when you fight him in Mother 2)Buzz Buzz also predicts the situation of the world in Mother 3 (Nowhere Islands excluded) by saying that "In the future, all is devistation." If you think about it, since Porky never would have joined Gigue's side, Buzz Buzz is actually the cause of the end of the world.In Mother 3, there are a set of seven people called the Magypsies. They are the guardians of the 7 needles and their lives are tied to the pulling of the needles. They each have very interesting names, as outlined in an interview with Shigesato Itoi, the series creator.Interviewer: There's quite a mysterious ring to the Magypsy names, like Ionia and Phrygia.Itoi: That was Shogo Sakai's doing. Apparently they're special musical terms.Interviewer: Is that true for all of the Magypsies?Itoi: Even Mixolydia.Interviewer: Really?Itoi: Think of it as Mr. Sakai's own play on words. Apparently, people who know a lot about music find that naming scheme intriguing.Locria’s naming here is special because among the musical modes, the Locrian mode is the odd one out; it is based on the ‘diminished’ scale and sounds very unstable and dissonant when played, which relates to Locria’s character as being an unstable character which caused dissonance among Tazmilians. Aeolia and Ionia, named after the most well-used standard modes, also seem to be the most important Magypsies. Although each of the modes has its own 'mood', there doesn't seem to be much of a correlation between the mode's feel and each Magypsies' character. A few fans have noticed that the Mixolydian mode, which has been said to give music a 'dreamy' feel, correlates well to Mixolydia, who was first seen by Lucas and co. under the influence of mind-altering mushrooms.Each Magypsy also has its own color which corresponds to the color of the rainbow. Their color is also the color of their house. They are: * Aeolia: Red * Phrygia: Orange * Lydia: Yellow * Ionia: Green * Mixolydia: Blue * Locria: Indigo * Doria: VioletOnce again, Locria’s color is significant because Indigo is considered a spectral color (what's a spectral color? if you displayed an indigo shirt, you wouldn’t be able to say specifically “That’s an indigo shirt” because you can’t differentiate between blue and indigo without having a reference). Indigo is often considered a not-color of the rainbow because of this, and is sometimes dropped from the rainbow. This is interesting because Locria ‘dropped out’ of the Magypsies for something else.The seven Magypsies, Aeolia, Ionia, Phrygia, Lydia, Locria, Mixolydia, and Doria are all also named after Greek city states, most of them located next to Persia. Mixolydia is possibly named after Mysidia, since she asks you to simply call her "Missy". Phrygia, the one who always sleeps, also wears a cap, most likely a sleep cap, but more significantly, a "Phrygian cap", which was most commonly worn by priestly classes in Phrygia (the place). This cap has often been used in politics to symbolize liberty.Mother 3 is a huge Biblical allegory, with Lucas (name coming from "Lucius" - The Light) saving the world after pulling the seven needles (breaking the seven seals) which were guarded by the Magypsies (who were always accompanied by saxophone music [The seven trumpets]) and in turn, awakening the Dark Dragon (Satan) after fighting with the complete antithesis of himself.In Mother 3, there are things called Happy Boxes that you deliver to the people when you play as a monkey named Salsa. Happy Boxes are televisions. You might think this is obvious, but a deeper look at exactly what the Happy Boxes do to people, and then at what today's television does to people will help this become quite clear. Happy Boxes are put in place by the Pig Mask Army to induce a state of mind control on the people of Tazmilly Village. Notice how this mind control is achieved: the little box does nothing but display some pretty colors and lights. It doesn't take much to keep people entertained, right? Let's look at our TVs now. What do they do for us? We watch half-baked sitcoms and laugh at jokes we probably wouldn't laugh at if it weren't for the prepackaged laugh-track encouraging us to laugh with it. Some of us might watch the news, but even then, it's just a corporately biased news broadcast, only telling us what someone with very fat pockets wants us to know, and exactly how they want us to know it. These little flashing colors are the visual representation of no real information - like the people of Tazmilly, we are being entertained with pretty lights and funky colors while the world is altered around us by people who, quite honestly, have no idea what they're doing.And while it isn't trivia directly involving the game's story, why Mother 3 hasn't been released to the west ties in quite well with this: it's a satire. Of course, Mother 1 and 2 were parodies of western life, especially in the United States, but they were lighthearted about it. You would have to be looking really hard to find these kinds of implications in those two games. Mother 3, however, came right out and yelled it at you. You name it, if it exists as a social problem here in the United States, Mother 3 addressed it. Treatment of elders? Animal abuse? Homosexuality/transgenderism? The implications of an organized military? Yeah, got ya covered. Of course, let me be the first to say that the majority of the population of the US is too stupid to even begin to be able to read between the lines regarding these matters, but even so, given Nintendo of America's stance on trying to maintain a more innocent appearance, considering releasing such a game, especially when it had such a dark story to begin with pretty much goes against their style.Long story short, the Mother series is art. It can be taken any way you want to and critically analyzed. I could go on about it for days upon days, but for the sake of readers, I'll take it easy.

Five years ago, Nintendo released the Wii, codenamed Revolution, with the promise that the gaming industry would be revolutionized. As gamers, we struggled to cope with the idea of motion controls, and eventually, we came to love the idea. Then it was presented to us. We expected what would most likely become the most immersive FPS and sword games ever created... and what we got... well, it fell a bit short. Any Wii owner found themselves introduced to Wii Sports, and many of us purchased Twilight Princess, the Wii's first Zelda game, at launch. The annoying thing about it though was that as many of us quickly realized, as into the game as we can get, the performance is going to slouch... because the controls aren't 1:1 with our movements at all times. Instead, the game critical actions were performed and sensed by the Wii's accelerometer, not its spacial locating gyroscopes. This lead to the rise of what is notoriously referred to among gamers as "waggling" games, a sharp hit at how a simple flick of the wrist will produce what you want, so the overall game immersion is lost.Then, about two years ago, Nintendo revealed the Wii Motion Plus, an extra gyroscope attachment to the Wii remote that gave it true 1:1 ability. The demo game that this came with was the rumored Wii Sports 2, which was later renamed Wii Sports: Resort. As anyone who played it has realized, the Motion Plus actually does make a difference... and in terms of sword fighting games (one of which was included in Wii Sports: Resort) it makes all the difference in the world.Fast forward to November 20, 2011. Skyward Sword is released and we finally see Nintendo making good on a five year old promise to revolutionize video games. Beautiful, artful graphics, fantastic music, immersive surroundings, well made character models and a story fitting of a Zelda game, all of it wrapped into one neat little package, with a soundtrack CD included... what more could a fan ask for? Try 1:1 sword fighting against enemies that respond to your movement, puzzles based on motion control, a less invasive Navi variant... the list just goes and goes. After only nine days of the game being released in the United States, I can say for sure that it is going to be one of the better Zelda games. The feel of the controls is unreal in how responsive the sword fighting feels. It's very easy to get into, and the best part is, you don't feel like an idiot for getting into it since in order to be completely effective, you HAVE to get into the game. You have to take long though out sword strikes, you have to think about where you hit your enemy, you have to examine your surroundings and think out your puzzles logically. The 1:1 motion control really makes all the difference in the world, and it's an amazing difference.For all of you on the fence because of how unrewarding Twilight Princess felt, sit no longer and jump onto the side where you've purchased the game. It's a fantastic game, and the gameplay speaks for itself.

The next up in my line up of class guides is the Soldier. Portrayed as partially insane, the Soldier's play style almost matches his personality. He has one of the largest arsenals in the game, and when played correctly, can be a very daunting foe.Let's start with the vanilla soldier. He comes equipped with:-Rocket Launcher: Or, as some people like to call it, the "Rocket Lawn chair". To be a rocket launcher, it has pretty impressively low speeds and relatively crappy damage output, doing about 100 damage on a successful direct hit. This basic primary weapon teaches a new soldier player pretty quickly what they have to do to be successful as a soldier: Don't aim where your target is. As if you're playing Space Invaders, you have to aim ahead of a moving target and attempt to predict where they'll be at. This is no small feat from across the map, so you learn a second lesson: although he deals primarily with explosives, Soldier is best at close range fighting, and almost runs on a principal of damaging himself. Of course, rockets aren't just dangerous when you actually manage to hit something with them, and in fact, are more dangerous when you aren't trying to directly impact your target. The explosion radius of the normal rockets is pretty impressive, and does moderate to severe damage to the target, depending on their distance from the point of impact. This makes Soldier akin to playing horse shoes - a ringer is great, but getting close is good too. Therefore, it is essential as a Soldier to practice missing gracefully. -Shotgun: A weapon that three other classes share with the Soldier. The shotgun can be a lifesaver when the slow reloading rocket launcher is out of ammo. It fires just as quickly as any other shotgun, has the same spread and damage output, and generally, should be used when you've fired off all four of your rockets and everything directly threatening you isn't dead yet. -Shovel: One of the relatively shorter range melee weapons in the game, the shovel delivers the same sort of basic melee damage the other vanilla melee weapons do. ~The Soldier Update~-The Direct Hit: A side choice for the rocket launcher. As its name implies, making a direct impact with this rocket launcher deals the very most damage, rewarding accuracy over the traditional soldier playstyle. The upside to this weapon is that the projectiles fire much faster than normal rockets, but on the downside, the blast radius from these rockets is decreased significantly, although damage output from the blast radius is kept the same. The rockets themselves also do slightly more damage than basic rocket launcher rockets. This weapon is very hard to use because it requires so much accuracy, but at close range, it can be a bit easier to handle, and becomes a force to be reckoned with, able to get rid of any 125 HP class in one hit.-The Buff Banner: A strange support weapon to replace the shotgun. As you do damage, it builds up a "Rage" meter. When this meter is full, you are able to blow a horn and give all of your surrounding teammates mini-crits for the duration of the Rage meter (which is about 5 seconds). If your team is operating with the efficiency of an organized crime syndicate, this weapon is one of the most important additions to the soldier arsenal. However, if you're playing on a team of lone gun Rambos, then you may as well stick to the shotgun, since no one aside from you is going to benefit from the mini crits. Not to say that a lone soldier won't benefit from a good set of mini-crits, but that is just a shadow of the potential destructive force of the Buff Banner when used with a productive, well organized team. The biggest downside to this weapon is that you lose your shotgun, and as such, you lose a powerful protecting force. -The Equalizer: Before the Soldier/Demoman update, there had not been a weapon that Valve had released that made people say "you're stupid if you don't use this". Of course, people could say that, but they would just be asserting an opinion. But at the time of this update, the only excuse for not using the Equalizer was that you didn't have one. With no downsides at all, the Equalizer increases your run speed as you take damage, and increases its damage output the more damage you've taken. Of course, the inherent downside to this is that by the time you've got a weapon more effective than the shovel, one stray bullet will probably end up killing you. On the plus side, before a recent update, the Equalizer was able to one hit 125 HP classes if the Soldier was at 10 or less health. Said update, however, put a damage cap on the Equalizer at a certain HP, so while you can run around at speeds just shy of a Scout, you won't be instant killing every scout you meet. -The Gunboats: A secret unlock for the Soldier not tied to any achievement milestones, the Gunboats replace the Shotgun. Like the buff banner, this is their immediate downside. The plus for the gunboats, however, is that they reduce the self damage you inflict on yourself while rocket jumping, giving you the ability to live a lot longer and still travel a lot faster. ~The Polycount Update~The Tank Buster Item SetSet Bonus: +20% Damage Resistance to Sentry fire-The Black Box: A very compact looking black rocket launcher. It grants 15 health for every enemy hit by the rockets, either directly or through splash damage, but on the downside, can only load 3 rockets at a time. It's an excellent choice for anyone who doesn't mind not having an extra rocket to cause havoc with, and would rather survive a lot longer, thereby increasing the projected damage output by quite a bit (although this assumes that you're a pretty good soldier who will live quite a while anyway). If you have a medic pocketing you, it's probably best to go back to using the normal rocket launcher, since you'll have the health bonus of a medic constantly on you, and be able to support both of you by having a fourth rocket. As a note, if a Pyro successfully reflects your black box rocket back at you or another target on your team, that pyro will be rewarded with 15 health, as if he fired the rocket. Be careful about this.-The Battalion's Backup: Working essentially in reverse to the Buff Banner, this weapon is a defense rather than offense device. The player's Rage meter is filled through taking roughly 350 damage from other players in a single life. Once filled, the pack can be used to make all nearby teammates, and you, immune to critical hits, and grants them 35% resistance to regular damage for 10 seconds. Rage cannot be gained from fall damage or self-inflicted damage, but it can be given by map effects. All forms of enemy-inflicted damage, including afterburn, give rage. -The Grenadier's Softcap: It's just a hat. It completes the set and gives you the set bonus.~The Uber Update~The uber update brought quite a bit of weapons to the soldier's arsenal, including two new secondaries and two new melee weapons. -The Liberty Launcher: Taking a note from the Black Box,this weapon only stocks 3 loaded rockets at a time, but they much faster than the default or black box rockets, while still being only half as fast as the Direct Hit's. In exchange, they keep the blast radius of the normal rocket launcher. It is a very good weapon for anyone who wishes to have the enhanced speed of the Direct Hit, but doesn't want to learn how to aim their rockets so precisely. -The Reserve Shooter: A new shotgun for the soldier. It only holds 3 loaded shells at once, but it deals mini-crits to airborne targets. It can also be equipped by the Pyro, and provides a 15% weapon switch speed increase to both the Pyro and the Soldier. Though it was released in a Soldier update, it is much more useful for the Pyro. -The Mantreads: A pair of boots that reduce the altitude you get from Rocket Jumping, but deals a pretty hefty damage to any enemy you land on. -The Market Gardener: A shovel that gives 100% critical hits on any target hit while you're rocket jumping... if you ever hit someone with a Melee weapon while you're both in the air.

May as well keep this updated with the Scout's new weapons. Second Community Update/Promo Items/Australian Christmas:-The Boston Basher: A strange new bat for the Scout, based on a community made custom skin. Following suit with the Tribalman's Shiv, it allows the Scout to deal bleeding damage (Kind of like burn damage) to any enemy that is struck by it. The downside is that if you miss a swing and simply hit nothing, you hit yourself, causing both bat damage AND bleed damage. It is considered by the community to be one of the worst Scout items, and possibly even one of the worst items in the game, but it is an effective killer if you time your hits correctly. Many people choose to use this weapon just to constantly kill themselves. If you wish to make one, it is easily crafted by combining a Sandman with a Tribalman's Shiv.-The Sun-on-a-Stick: A new bat that more resembles a mace than a stick, part of the RIFT promotional items. Unlike other Scout weapons, it tends to support another class - The Pyro. It does 25% less damage than the normal bat, but crits a burning player, much like the Axtinguisher. On the upside, it also looks incredibly badass, so if you want to look cool while swinging a bat, there's your method. The crafting ingredients for it are a bit hefty, and since it's been added to the drop system, it's probably not worth it, but if you wish to make one, it's 2 reclaimed metal + The Boston Basher.-The Fan-o-War: A promotional item from the Total War: Shogun 2 game. It is a Japanese styled fan-like weapon, that deals 90% less damage than the normal bat, but upon hitting someone, they are "marked for death" for ten seconds. Of course, being marked for death means they take mini-crits from anything that hits them, which means all of your teammates can come in and start making kills while you run around wildly hitting people once and running away. The 90% damage falloff almost guarantees that you cannot kill anything with this weapon, unless it just stands there and LETS you kill it, but on the upside, you can hit something with it once and switch over to another, more potent weapon to deal amazing damage. It can be crafted by combining the Mad Milk with a Scrap Metal.-The Candy Cane: A festive little candy cane bat that was released as part of the Christmas update. It fits nicely with the theme. The upside to this bat is that while you're using it, even if it wasn't the weapon that you made the kill with, your victim will drop a small health pack, which normally heals the scout for about 25 hp. The downside is that explosions do 25% more damage to the Scout, making fighting Soldiers and Demomen, classes that a good Scout should have no problems with, a bit more of a challenge. On a side note, though it's probably a bug, anyone killing the Scout that's using the Candy Cane will be rewarded with a small health pack. It can be crafted using a Kritzkreig and a Pain train, which is a pretty strange combination.~The UBER Update~We've waited a long time for Valve to create "Meet the Medic". We'll be waiting an even longer time for Valve to create "Meet the Pyro". But man oh man, when they made "Meet the Medic", they knew how to celebrate it. The game got a new set of updated weapons for EVERY CLASS except the Engineer and Pyro, so of course, the Scout got a new set. Sponsored by BONK! Energy Drink, these weapons all incorporate the drink's famous logo and Hazard Symbols into their design, and the entire set is considered an item set, just like the Polycount update, however, using all the items at once does nothing for you.-The Soda Popper: A new scatter gun that takes a few notes from the Force-a-Nature. It loads two shots, but reloads 25% faster than the Force-a-Nature. The real change begins at its new special ability, to add a "Hype" bar to your HUD which increases while you run or jump. Finally, when it reaches maximum, it automatically discharges, and allows you to fire constant minicrits with every weapon you have until the bar runs empty again. A good scout can use this to his advantage many times in one life. Taking after the weapon's appearance, the crafting recipe is One reclaimed metal, a Bonk! Atomic Punch, and a Force-a-Nature. -The Winger: A new pistol, something that Scout fans have been looking forward to since the Scout's class update. The clip size is 60% smaller, but it does 15% more damage on each successful hit. There isn't much to talk about, since it's a weapon that rewards accuracy. It can be crafted by using one Reclaimed Metal and a Shortstop.-The Atomizer: A new bat for the scout, and the first one since the Sandman to have the "Home run" taunt kill. It grants the user an extra jump, making the scout's jumps total in at three, but every time you use this third jump, you take 10 damage. It also has the distinct disadvantages of doing 20% less damage to enemy players, and swinging 30% slower. Needless to say, the only true upside to it is the third jump. Interestingly enough, a Scout can perform a fourth jump by using it in conjunction with the Force-a-Nature's air knockback. It can be crafted by combining a Bonk! Atomic Punch with a Sandman and a Reclaimed Metal.

It's funny how this hasn't been posted here yet, but since I posted the topic about the announcement of this game, I guess it's pretty handy that I get to post the topic about how it was cancelled. This is a relatively late reaction, so bear with me if this is old news to you. Following the announcement of the game in Late September/Early October of last year, Capcom opened the "MegaMan Legends 3 Dev Room" at their online community, capcom-unity. The Dev Room, which was a forum style user group, was made to garner interest from the fans, and also measure the amount of support that was going to go into the game. From the beginning, the users of the Dev Room were informed that they would be working beside the actual development team in order to help make the game not only something the fans dreamed of, but something they helped create, as well. Capcom also released a video introduction to the Dev Room, telling users of all the things they could do to help the development along, and to help fans who are less talented/too busy to truly help feel better, they included the fact that it was ok to just sit back and watch, too. However, on July 18, 2011, the Dev Room posted an announcement after a few weeks of inactivity, stating that the MegaMan Legends 3 project had been officially cancelled by Capcom with no intention of reviving the project in the near future. This sparked a major community outrage from the hundreds of fans who had been onboard the project for the better part of a year, following all the updates and eagerly anticipating the release of the MegaMan Legends 3 Beta, which has recently been confirmed to have been completed. To make matters worse, at the very beginning, Capcom did not answer any questions as to why the game was cancelled when development seemed so far along. Rumors started to circulate around the internet that Capcom was removing people from Comic-con for wearing MegaMan related things or mentioning MegaMan Legends 3, but such rumors were confirmed to be just that, and that they held no truth. Other anti-Capcom rumors began to pop up, such as that they were suing the Indie Rock-Opera band, The Protomen, over copyright infringement, which was also confirmed to be untrue by the band themselves. After countless questions asked via twitter to Capcom of Europe, it was revealed that the project was scrapped due to "lack of fan interest", which was "what the Dev Room was there for". This caused an uproar on Capcom's capcom-unity forums, prompting people to ask exactly how much "fan interest" they wanted, when the Dev Room was packed with people voting on polls, giving input, and other various things, leading up to one very famous Twitter post between a user and Capcom of Europe, in which the user asked if Capcom just wanted the fans to make the game for them, to which CoE replied "yeah, pretty much". All in all, to someone who had closely followed the actions of Capcom from the departure of Keiji Inafune (MegaMan Series Creator), the cancellation of MegaMan Legends 3, while shocking and disappointing, is very unsurprising. No more than a month before, Capcom announced the cancellation of MegaMan Universe, an Xbox Live Arcade/PSN downloadable game, which already had a playable demo available, showing that plenty of work had gone into it up to that point, so speculation that the MegaMan Legends 3 project would be dropped was already running around. The most upsetting thing about the entire cancellation is that at no point did Capcom ever bother to take note of communities outside of their own being riled up for the announcement, and how they seemed to only care about the input from Capcom-Unity, even though the bigger named MegaMan fansites can be easily found in one simple google search. The entire failure of the game almost seems to be from a massive amount of miscommunication from Capcom as to how important people joining the Dev Room was, which to the users, seemed to just be something extra and fun Capcom threw out to make the release of the game special. In the aftermath, after the anger died down and people began to think rationally, a spark of user-side support began to well up, trying to convince Capcom to reconsider the development of Legends 3, including a Facebook group: "100,000 strong for MegaMan Legends 3", whose goal is, as it says on the tin, to achieve at least 100,000 likes from fans who support the release of the game, which, to date, has a bit over 44,000. Among the other fan involvements are a petition started on the Capcom-Unity forums, An increased community urge for people to "become a servbot" (a feature of the dev room), and various MegaMan fan websites focusing content on Legends. Though we can't tell what the future will hold for MegaMan Legends 3, or the entire MegaMan franchise for that matter, what we can say is that Capcom, even to this day, has no intention of reviving the project. If it changes due to this fan outbreak, wonderful. If not, the fans tried their best.

There's quite a few games coming out soon that I want to buy, probably the top of the list is Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. I planned on buying Star Fox 64 3D, but due to having to buy a new power supply for my computer, I've got to wait on that, and after I found out that it doesn't have online play, I kind of wonder if I want to get it, now. Other games I'm really looking forward to are Kirby: Return to Dreamland, Kid Icarus: Uprising, Mario Kart 7, Luigi's Mansion 2, and Super Mario 3D Land. As is typical, when it comes to games, Nintendo pretty much owns my wallet.

With the advent of Legends 3 fast upon us, I feel it's necessary to, for those who are not familiar with it, cover the story of the Mega Man (RockMan) series. I do my best to keep my information based as much on official information and logical conjecture as possible, but not everything in this timeline is one-hundred percent accurate. The story of the RockMan series is pretty simple and self explanatory for the first six games. Dr. Wily is trying a new evil plot and you must defeat his eight robot masters to save the world. Straightforward and easy. But at around RockMan 7, the series begins to develop a story: (all Japanese names used, aside from "Dr. Right" who Capcom confirmed is correctly called either "Light" or "Right")~~Possible SPOILERS ahead. Please do not read if you're not comfortable with facts regarding the ending of various RockMan games.~~7: Wily creates Forte by harnessing a new energy source he dubs "Fortenium". The nature of this energy isn't clearly defined, nor is it truly important to the series at this time. It later, though semi-unconfirmed, does become important.8: Duo, an alien robot and an evil robot fight in outer space, where their battle leads them both to crash on Earth. Wily harvests what Duo calls "Evil Energy" from the wrecked evil robot. This energy source is capable of giving robots insane strength, though it apparently also causes them to lose their humanlike logic. This energy is confirmed by the Zero Collection timeline to be the original Maverick Virus Towards the end of the game, Forte acquires and uses evil Energy to perform a more powerful fusion with his dog, Gospel, than the one that Dr. Wily built into him in 7.8.5 (RockMan and Forte): Wily creates King to lead an army of all previous robot masters against RockMan. Forte intervenes out of rage induced by Wily's creation of a "superior" robot. Due to the inclusion of a Gospel fusion form like the one used in 8, it is likely that Forte kept the evil energy and has learned to control it to an extent. Forte's ending, showing Wily's plans for "King 2.0" most probably later became Zero.9: Filler sidestory, though it does introduce for the first time the concept of robots having expiration dates and a slight hint at the fact that robots, like humans, possess a desire for self preservation above all other things. Without a doubt, this is the only main series game to prove that the robots of the classic series are, to a certain extent at least, self aware and capable of acting on their own desires. 10: Dr. Wily creates the Roboenza virus, a virus that gives robots flu like symptoms. It is worth speculating that this virus was manufactured through the use of what little evil energy Wily had left. The interesting part about this virus is its ability to be communicated like a human virus, and if the ending of 10 has anything to say about it, can be caught by humans, too. (Wily probably just had a cold.)Somewhere in this mess, Wily starts work on Zero, more than likely using the evil energy to modify Fortenium into a stronger energy source. According to the Zero Collection timeline, Zero is activated shortly after his finalization, though he was destructive and refused to listen to orders. Wily places him back in stasis, probably pissed that yet ANOTHER robot won't listen to anything he says.If it took a while for Wily to create Zero, at least in comparison to RockMan World II (the second gameboy game, which according to the game manual, Wily went forward in time 37 years), it is a reasonable assumption that due to Rock's destruction of Quint, his future self, the future is sadly RockMan free. This, coupled with the inevitable death of Blues (An energy system malfunction mentioned in an arcade game), the world has no hero if Wily does try anything stupid. These events most certainly lead Light to create X if nothing else did. X is completed and put through a series of tests that were to be completed ~100 years after his creation.X is awakened, Sigma is created based on X's design, a new type of robot - "repliroid" is created. These robots are capable of making their own decisions and carrying out life as they see fit. (Don't really see how this is any different from the robot masters in the classic series since in general, they seemed to be free to do as they pleased, especially if Super Adventure RockMan is any indication). Malfunctioning repliroids and mechaniloids are classified as the original "mavericks" and an agency to put and end to malfunctioning units, the "Maverick Hunters". Of these original Maverick Hunters, Gamma and his unit were sent out to search for and eliminate the cause of an abnormal energy source, believed to simply be a malfunctioning repliroid. Communication with Gamma's unit is lost. Sigma is sent with a small group to investigate Gamma's disappearance, And Sigma confronts Zero. Through contact with Zero, Sigma becomes infected with the same virus that made Zero's cognitive functions go awry, though due to Sigma's radically different programming, the virus undergoes a mutation similar to human viruses. This virus is later called the "Sigma Virus", as Sigma was its first known carrier.X6: Human scientists finally determine that Sigma's virus is only a small part of the overall problem and isolate the spread of the Maverick Virus to Zero. Zero is asked by these scientists to undergo tests that may take quite a while. He agrees in order to protect the world he has fought to rid of the virus. These scientists determine that it will be easier to study Zero and create an antivirus by separating his body from his mind. Zero's mind is taken from his body and researched separately.A human scientist researching Zero's mind finds a cure for the Maverick Virus and creates the Mother Elf, a sentient program that can remove all traces of the maverick virus from any infected robot. The Maverick Virus is completely cured, thanks to efforts from X and the remaining Maverick Hunters. Scientists who had previously researched the Maverick/Sigma Virus shifted their focus to the creation of other cyber elves.The Zero series begins. Zero is reawakened by a small resistance of repliroids who fight against the now corrupt global government. Zero agrees to help them to find out who he truly is. During his time he meets Copy X, a creation of Ceil's meant to replace the former X, who gave his life to seal away the Mother Elf, who had, due to overuse, become basically the only carrier of the Maverick virus in the world.Dr. Vile, a former human scientist finds a way to crash the prison chamber he was in, called "Forbidden Ark" back onto the planet. He escapes along with Omega, a powerful weapon repliroid created during the end of the Maverick Wars. Vile creates his own Copy X and assumes indirect control of Neo Arcadia, cementing power over the world. Zero and the resistance remove him from power and destroy Omega, who is revealed to be Zero's original body. Vile retreats to Ragnarok, a space station armed with a powerful laser. Vile sets the laser to destroy Neo Arcadia, aimed right at its center. Neo Arcadia is almost completely annihilated and much of the population of the inner-most parts is wiped out. Zero travels to Ragnarok and fights Vile for the last time, sacrificing himself to make sure that Vile falls to earth with him.Of particular interest, Dr. Vile is the first character to be confirmed by a game to have been converted from human to robot. The only other three to openly admit this are the Sage Trinity of Legion: Master Albert, Master Thomas, and Master Mikhail.It's logical to assume that "The Master" of Legends fame, creator of Elysium, the Irregular Hunters to which Trigger belongs, the System units, and the carbons themselves, was once a Sage of Legion. Legends refers to him as the last true human, but it also puts his age at around 3000. This is only possible if The Master was actually a human converted to repliroid like the Sage Trinity in ZXA, which, for what it's worth, has such an unclear definition of what "human" and "repliroid", calling The Master human isn't necessarily incorrect even if he were a repliroid.

The Medic, an essential part of any team, no matter what map. While you may not realize it, that unlucky individual who chose to be the Medic for your team is doing one of the hardest and most thankless jobs in the game - making your team victorious. Sure, he might have healed you and you still died, or ran off in your time to need to help a Heavy or Demoman plow through a sentry nest, but when you think about it... he helped that Heavy or Demoman plow through a sentry nest, which was probably in a choke point restricting your ability to move to the next capture point or grab the intelligence. Sure, there's a fair share of "bad" Medics. Guys that run off and do whatever or heal a Sniper while there's people who need help on the front lines, but most Medics that people believe are "bad" are just doing job: keeping the entire team alive and not looking after just one person.As a carry over from the days of Team Fortress Classic, the Medic has two playstyles, the typical team healer Medic, and the Battle Medic (In my personal opinion, it's possible to play a hybrid of both). We'll look at the weapons selection from a standpoint on either side.~ Vanilla Medic ~The Vanilla Medic has some of the most underrated weapons in the game, if not THE most underrated. His primary weapon deals lackluster damage and his melee weapon doesn't seem to have much going for it, but closer examination reveals quite a few perks to these otherwise low-ranking weapons.- The Syringe Gun: A fully automatic gun that fires a barrel of syringes. Its reload animation seems to suggest that the ammunition carried isn't so much the syringes themselves, but cans of what can only be assumed to be compressed air. The syringes are without a doubt heavy and aerodynamically challenged, so unlike bullets they travel in a parabolic pattern, making this gun require a lot of planning and know how to be used effectively. Each needle deals relatively low damage, but they fire fast and make contact quickly, so that low damage can add up easily, especially if you pull critical hits out with them. While it's not so much a bonus of this weapon and more a bonus of being the Medic, while using this syringe gun, the Medic heals an average of 4.5 health per second. Medics who aren't so capable with their primary weapon or prefer to rely on others to defend them tend to carry this syringe gun over its alternative because of this healing ability which almost guarantees you will not die by afterburn. - The MediGun: A basic healing "weapon". It gains Ubercharge by healing teammates, whether injured or not, though it gains Ubercharge faster by healing injured teammates. It provides what is known as an "overheal" to any teammate who it heals that is not injured, buffing their HP up to a temporary 150% of their normal health (the Medic once was the only class that can do this, but Pyros can now do it to themselves). After your Ubercharge meter has hit 100%, pressing Mouse 2 will make both you and your heal target 100% invincible to everything except knockback/slowdown. This is great for taking out Engineer camps, clearing away enemies, and overall generating fear. The use of this particular medigun is relatively evenly divided amongst both Medic playstyles, but is possibly more often used by battle Medics.- The Bonesaw: A typical, brutal looking bonesaw. It is a fairly basic Melee weapon with no real upsides or downsides, aside from the fact that according to fan speculation, it has a high critical hit rate. It is more commonly used by defensive Medics for its faster rate of fire in the event of an emergency forcing them to defend themselves. ~ The Medic Update ~- The Blutsauger: Literally, "The Vampire" or "The Bloodsucker", the Blutsauger is a replacement for the Syringe Gun, mostly used by battle oriented Medics. It has the same damage output as the Syringe Gun, but makes the Medic gain on average 2 less health through his own inherent health gain. In exchange for not gaining health as fast, shots that hit with the Blutsauger give you 3 hp per needle, making it one of the fastest ways to gain health in the game, if you know what you're doing. It's a good way to reveal a Spy, too, since shooting a disguised Spy will still reward you with 3 health per hit.- The Kritzkrieg: A different Medigun that charges twice as fast as the normal Medigun, but does not provide invincibility. Instead, it grants 8 seconds of 100% critical hits on both the Medic and the heal target, but giving them to the Medic is a moot point since they won't carry over to other weapons if the Medic puts away the Kritzkrieg (If it did, it's a very safe bet that a battle Medic would be more fond of it). While the normal Medigun is extremely useful for making a Heavy or possibly a Demoman invulnerable, the Kritz is best used on a Soldier for 100% crit rocket output. - The Ubersaw: Another weapon more preferred by battle Medics, the Ubersaw grants 25% ubercharge per successful hit, and as you suspect, it does indeed give full Ubercharge in only four hits. The tradeoff for this obvious benefit is that it does not swing very fast, so timing your hits is extremely important. It doesn't sacrifice the allegedly godly amount of random criticals the normal bonesaw has, so if you're feeling lucky, this is the weapon for you. ~ The Polycount Update ~The Medic, unlike the five other classes that received a Polycount pack, only received one item:- The VitaSaw: A different kind of bonesaw. Instead of doing anything special for your Ubercharge like the Ubersaw did, the VitaSaw gives you 20% ubercharge on respawn, effectively speeding up the process a tad bit. On the downside, it takes away 10 health from the wearer, making the Medic's max HP an odd 140. This is a weapon that finds its home most comfortably in the hands of unsuccessful battle medics.

As an update, RockMan/MegaMan series creator Keiji Inafune has quit his job at Capcom. While this makes the future of the RockMan series seem uncertain, Capcom assures us that any current RockMan projects are still continuing, including Legends 3. While it's strange that Inafune would fight for ten years to have Legends continued and then drop out of the project almost immediately, we can still hope for Legends 3 to be the greatest in the series.

Ah, the Pyro. The nameless, faceless, mumbling arsonist that we've all grown to love... or maybe hate. Either way, like the other eight classes in the game, the Pyro takes a certain level of skill and finesse to play correctly, as you must analyze your weaknesses, your enemy's weakness, their paths, and exactly how you're going to go about ending their lives in a bright and energetic way.The key to any good Pyro's strategy is just that: strategy. You have a variety of tools at your disposal, each one is just as lethal and useful as the other, but there's no way that you'll be successful by just rushing into battle as if your flamethrower is a minigun. You must know the map. Know the common routes, the not so common routes, the hiding places, the chokepoints, the Spy paths, everything. Many say that the Pyro is a class that takes little to no skill to play, and while it may seem that way, a good Pyro has earned that kill, and based it off of his enemy's unpreparedness. ~ The Vanilla Pyro ~The Pyro has three basic weapons at his (or could it be her?) disposal.- The Flamethrower: A basic flamethrower that upon close inspection seems to be homemade. It has the shortest range of any primary weapon in the game, but that's to be expected since it doesn't really fire projectiles. It does reasonable damage and if you leave someone alone, they'll remain on fire for a while, inflicting about 3 damage per second to them unless they find water, a medic, or a health kit. One of the great benefits of the flamethrower is its compression blast feature, a compressed blast of air that is able to send any rocket, grenade, arrow, or jar back to its sender. It can also push around enemies, move sticky bombs around, and put out burning teammates, which makes you especially helpful to people who just don't have enough life to make it to that health pack/medic without dying. - The Shotgun: A basic shotgun. Not much to say here.- The Fireaxe: A basic Axe. It has moderate damage output and moderate rate of fire. It is no more or less useful than any other basic melee weapon. ~ The Pyro Update ~- The Backburner: A new Flamethrower. Initially, the Backburner came with a 25% health boost and 100% crits when you hit a target from behind at the cost of your compression blast. Nowadays, the Backburner adds no health, but instead does a bit more damage than the normal flamethrower. The lack of compression blast renders you an almost completely offensive class, so the Backburner requires quite a bit of intelligence regarding your enemy's position to use to its most effective. A good Backburner Pyro has to be as sneaky as a Spy to operate at 100% efficiency, and even then, getting kills can be pretty hard. - The Flare Gun: An interesting weapon that has a very, very long range. It replaces the shotgun. It is a single shot gun with 16 backup flares, and takes a while to reload. Anything it hits is set on fire. As of a recent update, if a target is already on fire, depending on your range from them, the gun will either mini-crit or crit the target upon another successful hit, making it a very dangerous weapon in the right hands. The projectile it fires is pretty heavy, so it travels in a sharp parabolic pattern, much like the syringe gun, so you have to compensate for gravity when firing. Both this and the Shotgun that it replaces has the Hadouken taunt kill. The Pyro, Heavy and the Spy were the only three classes to have a taunt kill for a vanilla weapon.- The Axetinguisher: Funny name, Valve. This new brutal looking fire axe is another rather homemade looking weapon from the Pyro. It of course, replaces the normal fire axe and is much better at extinguishing lives than the normal fire axe, unless said lives were not on fire, at which point it does 50% less damage than the normal fire axe. If your target was on fire, though, it has a 100% change to inflict critical damage.~ Community Update ~- The Homewrecker: A Sledgehammer that does double damage to buildings, but does 25% less damage to players. The homewrecker destroys any building in two hits, and takes one hit to destroy a Mini-Sentry or a Sapper. That's right, the Pyro can not only defend an Engineer's base, but keep it running, too! ~ The Polycount Update ~Set Bonus: Gas Jockey's Gear: (Must be wearing: The Attendant, The Degreaser, The Powerjack) 10% faster move speed, 10% more vulnerability to bullets.- The Degreaser: Another seemingly homemade flamethrower, this flamethrower gives the Pyro a much faster weapon switch speed, making it ideal for the Axetinguisher. On the downside, you lose afterburn time, so leaving someone to burn isn't necessarily a good idea. As a note, the afterburn time loss isn't really noticeable, and in fact, you probably won't ever care.- The Powerjack: A car battery attached to a stationary jack. The Pyro really has a lot of stuff laying around his house to make weapons with, doesn't she? This weapon sacrifices random critical hits (and if you're used to using the Homewrecker, the ability to destroy sappers) for 25% more damage and an award of 75 health per kill. This is the strongest unaided melee weapon in the game.

The Sniper, like his fellow classes, has had quite a few updates and changes since his update initially came out. Let's review those, for the sake of keeping current.Changes:- Jarate: Has been changed to have a recharge time. No longer do you have to visit a resupply cabinet to get another, just wait a minute and nature will take its course. You'll be rewarded with another flame dousing, mini-crit dealing, spy revealing jar of piss faster than you know it.- Huntsman: Has had some hitbox "fixes". Still a hilariously accurate close range weapon. Pyros can set the arrow on fire and retracting the flaming arrow does not make you lose it. Visiting a resupply cabinet won't make you lose the arrow either, so your arrow is flaming until you either fire it or die. ~Community Updates~- The Tribalman's Shiv: Finally, a replacement for the kukri. This new machete is made of what appears to be high quality wood, with a serrated blade. It does a bit less damage per hit than the normal kukri, but it causes bleeding for 8 (I think) seconds. Being the first weapon to use bleeding damage, it was quite unique and had a few bugs in it. These have all been fixed. Bleeding does 3-8 damage per second for each second bled, and any health pack can heal this just like if you were set on fire. Water does not wash bleeding off, of course. Used in conjunction with Jarate, bleeding can become deadly to any Scout who thought messing with you would be a good idea. ~The Polycount Update~The Croc-o-style set bonus: (Must be wearing: Ol' Snaggletooth, Sydney Sleeper, Darwin's Danger Shield, The Bushwacka') - You cannot be killed by headshots.Not being killed by headshots is kind of a misleading set bonus. More accurately, you cannot be killed by one headshot, unless you find a way to heal yourself. Another well placed shot between the eyes will most certainly do you in. Bodyshots will still kill you, though.- The Sydney Sleeper: A dart gun that single handedly proves why the set bonus doesn't make any sense: You can't headshot either. Instead of headshots, this gun completely relies on bodyshotting your opponent and applying a long range Jarate effect that lasts for five seconds. As you can imagine, this gun makes you more of a support gunner than a true sniper, and is pretty hard to use for those of us who just can't bodyshot for too long. It does no less damage than the normal sniper rifle, so a fully charged bodyshot (at which point the chance of Jarateing someone goes up to 100%) will probably kill your target, making the Jarate effect completely moot.- Darwin's Danger Shield: A shield made of a crocodile skin. It boosts your health by 50. This will protect you from one, non fully charged headshot, so it kind of makes you wonder why you would bother with the complete set. It doesn't protect from spy backstabs like the Razorback did. - The Bushwacka': Another new kukri, if the Shiv just wasn't enough for you. This one has no less damage output than the normal kukri, and actually looks like a metal version of the Shiv. The upside to this knife is that whenever it would mini-crit, it crits instead. If you're sort of thick, then that means that it combos well with Jarate, works against Crit-A-Cola Scouts, and invites you to charge in with a Buff Banner soldier. On the negative, you now take 20% more damage from fire, but seriously... when is a Pyro going to get close to a good Sniper?

In most games, bosses are normally the easiest part for me, unless it's like Final Fantasy or something. The Crystal Guardians in the Great Tree in Final Fantasy V has had me stuck for over a year now, I have to say, it's pretty annoying. One of the hardest bosses that I've been able to beat on multiple occasions is probably the Big Core Mk. III from Gradius III, IV and V. It's at its hardest in V and requires a lot of good timing. I especially can't stand the diamond lasers it shoots, since I have problems with reflective patterns like that.

Ah, the Scout. The quick talking, quick running Boston native that's found his way to more than his fair share of control points. Popular opinion places him as one of, if not the, most skill dependent class in the game. The Scout's greatest asset is his speed, which is very helpful when you lack the health the other close combat classes have. The Scout's other greatest asset is his ability to cap points twice as fast, as well as be a general annoyance against an unprepared team. A good Scout will keep enemy medics who aren't watching their back at bay almost better than a skilled Spy, and his ability to position himself in high places makes him a great spotter on a team that relies heavily on communication.The vanilla Scout has three weapons:- The Scattergun: A sawed off shotgun with a barrel reserve. It carries six shots per clip and has a maximum capacity of 32 shots. At point blank, the amount of shot that it puts out is enough to kill a 125 HP class in one hit if the shot randomization doesn't allow for too much spread, but as is to be expected of a sawed off shotgun, it's almost completely ineffective at long range. It does help annoy Snipers, however, since even the slightest, most low damage hit will throw off their aim for half a second long enough for you to get out of the way.- The Pistol: A pretty common secondary weapon in the world of TF2, the scout's pistol carries the long range that his Scattergun just couldn't do. The pistol is very capable of picking off sentries and enemies from a distance, and luckily it comes with just enough ammo to do that. With 12 shots per clip, you'll find it pretty useful. Unfortunately, it isn't anywhere near as accurate as the Spy's revolver, and loses a lot of accuracy per consecutive shot. On larger targets such as Heavies and Sentry guns, this isn't that big of a problem, but on smaller targets, it can be a hassle.- The Bat: An aluminum bat. This weapon is one of the fastest swung melee weapons in the game, and has a moderate damage output. Three or four hits will kill most 150 hp classes, and critical swings are capable of cutting that number in half. Its relatively short melee range is its only downfall, since the quick rate of fire makes its slightly sub-par damage output bearable. ~ The Scout Update ~- The Force a' Nature: This side grade for the Scout's scattergun is another signature sawed off shotgun. However, instead of a reserve to hold its clips, this is a standard two barreled hunting shotgun with a one barrel shot per pull of the trigger (in comparison to the dual barrel action of the standard scattergun). However, this rather correct method of firing shots does not translate into the gun itself, as the bullet spread and general direction are not changed at all per shot, and firing mimics the scattergun down to a T. As a hilarious extra to this gun, a single shot landed close enough will send your victim flying off in the direction you're facing, great for causing falling damage, getting targets who won't go down without a fight off of a control point, and since its knockback affects you while in the air, it's a great way of playing mind games and even achieving a "triple jump". Like the scattergun before it, the FaN is a killer at point blank, only two shots does the job, and since it's one of the fastest discharging weapons in the game, getting right next to someone almost guarantees their death. The downside to its impressive firing speed is the extremely slow reload speed, which takes an almost unnecessary amount of time. - Bonk! Atomic Punch: The first of the Bonk! brand of energy drinks, Atomic Punch replaces the pistol. It isn't so much of a weapon as it is a support item, making the Scout take no damage from anything aside from the environment (falling damage excluded). Funny enough though, the effects of the damage he would take are still applied to him, so standing in front of a level 3 sentry and jumping will result in you flying across the map, but the good news is you won't lose any health. You cannot drink Atomic Punch while carrying the intelligence, nor can you cap points while under its effect. - The Sandman: A replacement for the bat comes in the form of... a wooden bat. This one comes with a ball, though! Mouse 2 with ball in hand to launch the little baseball at your enemies. If you hit them, they'll be stunned for a moment. The duration of the stun depends on how far away from the target you are. In the melee aspect, it still does the same amount of damage as the bat, and swings just as fast. The downside to having your own little stun attack is that you lose 15 HP, making the Scout's total HP 110. ~ Community Items Update ~- Bonk! Crit-A-Cola: The second of the Bonk! energy drinks, Crit-a-Cola, as its name implies, gives the user mini-crits for a short amount of time. The downside to this is that all damage the user takes become mini-crits, as well. It can easily be crafted by crafting a Kritzkrieg with Bonk! Atomic Punch.~ Polycount Pack ~The Special Delivery - Set Bonus: (Wear: The Milkman, The Shortstop, Mad Milk, and The Holy Mackerel): +25 health. - The Shortstop: A four barreled peppergun. This pistol strangely enough does not replace the pistol, but replaces the Scattergun/FaN. Upon hitting a target, they are slowed for 0.4 seconds. This slow is the same as Natascha's, but it is barely noticeable since the rate of fire on the Shortstop is nowhere near that of Natascha's. It has no other downsides, but since it's just a pistol, its damage output isn't that great. It takes four close range shots to kill classes of 150 HP, which is an entire clip. - Mad Milk: A Jarate like weapon that coats the target in milk. It is capable of putting out fires and revealing cloaked spies. Anyone who does damage to a coated target will gain 75% of the damage that they did to that target and add it to their own health. It replaces the pistol/Bonk! energy drinks.- The Holy Mackerel: A fish wrapped in newspapers, it replaces the bat. It has no real upsides or downsides, aside from being a fish. Whenever you hit your opponent with it, an icon similar to a kill icon will appear in the top corner saying "Fish Hit". This is displayed to your opponent, so if you're fighting with them, it is a very good way to make them think they've killed you when they really haven't. Killing an opponent causes the icon to say "FISH KILL" in a sort of taunting fashion.

Ah, the Spy. One of the most interesting classes in Team Fortress 2, and in fact, one of the most interesting playable classes in any game. The sheer amount of possible methods for playing the Spy are innumerable, with the Spy's class update and recent Polycount Pack items, the amount of ways to play a successful Spy on any given map exceed the amount of ways to play another class successfully, and the Spy is perhaps one of the only classes that can succeed in any hands on any map. - The Basics -A vanilla Spy has five basic weapons.- The Revolver: A common revolver. It does considerable damage and can take out any 125HP class in three shots. It is a very accurate gun, holding ~100% accuracy on its first shot. The time it takes for it to regain ~100% accuracy is about as long as it would take you to reload the gun, so if it's long range gunning you're going for, reloading after each shot is advisable... Though, long range gunning isn't your thing as a Spy. At close range, which is where the Revolver shines, you never have to truly worry about a loss of accuracy. Remember, your Revolver is better than your knife in any situation where your position has been compromised. Don't try to go for luck stabs, just shoot and run.- The Sapper: Perhaps the Spy's most interesting weapon, the Electro-Sapper is placed on any Engineer building. It disables the building's normal function and slowly drains health from it. It can only be removed by an Engineer giving it two hits with a wrench, or a nearby Pyro giving it one hit with the Homewrecker. The Sapper allows for quick, easy Engineer kills, so an unguarded Engineer camp will be easily destroyed using a Sap/Stab or Stab/Sap method. The Sapper also saps both ends of a Teleporter when placed on one end of it. This is very helpful for certain annoyance moves, which will be discussed later. A little known fact is that the Sapper is a building itself, and as such, has a Destruction button just like the Engineer's buildings. In console, type "bind <key> "destroy 3 0"". The bound key will destroy your own sapper once placed on an Engineer building. This seems useless, but in reality, destroying your own sapper can provide you with valuable metal which you can collect from your busted Sapper to refill your cloak. This is especially useful for Dead Ringer spies. This strategy of destroying your own Sapper is also useful for making Engineers feel threatened without giving away your position. - The Knife: A simple butterfly knife. The Knife's base damage is the lowest in the game, sitting around ~30 HP per hit. It has a 100% chance to inflict critical damage on a successful backstab, which thanks to lag compensation, is a debatable term. The "critical" damage on a backstab is not the same as a normal critical hit from the knife, which can only do about 125 damage, and instead inflicts an earth shattering 500% of the victim's current HP. Although somewhat ridiculous, this ensures that no matter what kind of buff an enemy player has, they'll certainly be seeing the spawn room soon. The knife also has the Spy's only taunt kill, which has a related achievement. Like all taunt kills, its killing blow does 500 damage. - The Disguise Kit: A simple cigarette holder? No, the Disguise Kit! This holds all of your available disguises. The instructions are listed inside of it for you. Press the listed key to change teams, press the - key to cancel. By change teams, of course, it means change teams to disguise as. Disguising as your own team can be more useful than you would think. If you pay attention to the disguise process, your HUD changes over to your disguise target and you take a new name. There is also an outline that closes in on your normal character icon. You're not fully disguised until this outline fully closes in on you. Keep that in mind for when disguising on the fly, the last thing you want to do is be noticed. This weapon also has a pretty neat taunt that happens randomly - the Spycrab. Based on the popular fad of walking like a crab using this weapon, Valve added in a taunt that makes the Spy snap his hands like a crab snaps his pincers. - The Invisiwatch: A standard Invisibility watch. It has a slow draining cloak gauge that can be refilled by picking up metal. Ammo boxes, dropped weapons, downed buildings, anything of the sort refills this gauge, but while you're invisible, it constantly drains. The idea behind the Invisiwatch is to get where you're going as quickly as possible. Avoid bumping into people, as this reveals your location for a brief moment. It's always a good idea to stop using it whenever you feel it's safe to pretend to be someone else, or if you're just hiding in an unchecked corner for a while. The gauge recharges by itself, albeit slowly, as long as you're not using the cloak. - The Spy Update -The Sniper and the Spy got their update at the same time, but the Spy's update is most certainly not overlooked. It only provided him with three new weapons, two of which can't really be called "weapons", but all the same, they were much welcomed new items, especially in a world where W+M1ing as a Pyro is almost encouraged. (I'm looking at you, Backburner). Of course, times have changed, and the Pyro's default flamethrower and the new "Degreaser" have certain perks well above the Backburner's meager plus side.- The Ambassador: A stylish new revolver with a lovely engraving of the Scout's mother (a play on the Meet the Spy video which was released shortly after the Spy's update). This gun sacrifices 15% of the Revolver's damage output and a hefty bit of its rate of fire for critical hits on accurate headshots. This is not to say that the Spy needs to become another Sniper, and should only be taken advantage of in situations where your presence is relatively unknown. Proficiency with the Ambassador requires careful aim and planning, as the Ambassador has a cooldown time after each shot, during which you cannot, no matter how close you are, make a headshot. The overall theme of the weapon almost relies on a forfeiture of the knife, since you're doing your quick killing from a longer range. The Ambassador also has a very loud and distinct firing sound, so make sure to make your shots count and make yourself scarce after your kill. - The Cloak and Dagger: Playfully called the "Cloak and Spectate" or "Cloak and Camp" by many, this replacement for the Invisiwatch provides permanent cloak for a non-moving Spy. The tradeoff for this obvious advantage over the normal Invisiwatch is that you cannot pick up metal to supply yourself with more cloak meter, and the cloak meter drains at an astonishing rate while moving. The cloak drain is a function of your move speed, so crouching makes it drain slower, but at the same time, you're moving slower, so you cover the same ground invisibly in the same amount of time. Falling/jumping also makes your cloak drain, so try not to fall. The Cloak and Dagger has the same downside to touching people as the normal watch, so avoid that at all costs. - The Dead Ringer: Perhaps a throwback to the days of Team Fortress Classic, the Dead Ringer provides the Spy with a feign death type cloak instead of the normal instant invisibility. There is, to my dismay, no way to force a feign death on yourself, so your invisibility is completely reliant on your enemies. On the plus side, the Dead Ringer has an instant activation upon clicking your activate cloak button, so the second you press it, you'll be armed and ready to take any hit (as long as you still have 10% of the HP that the normal hit would do to you). As a general rule of thumb, 10 HP will allow you to survive almost anything after arming the Dead Ringer. Upon feigning your death, you instantly turn invisible, drop a ragdoll, a kill icon is displayed to everyone on the enemy team, including your killer, and Valve went so far as to make the Dead Ringer even give out REAL achievements to anyone who earns them by "killing" you. Technically speaking, the Dead Ringer provides a perfect death for everyone on the enemy team to believe actually happened. After turning invisible, you have eight seconds of cloak, which can be refilled by picking up metal. During the initial 8.0 seconds, anyone touching you will not reveal your location aside from you being an obstacle, and you will take 80% less damage from any attack. If, through picking up metal, you cause the Dead Ringer's invisibility to last longer than 8.0 seconds, you will lose the aforementioned benefits, take normal damage, and your location will be revealed upon someone touching you. The Dead Ringer, for all of its perks, has a pretty obvious downside - it sounds like a f*cking electrical storm upon uncloaking. This is, without a doubt, very noticeable. Your best course of action is to dive underwater or find a place that on one is nearby. As mentioned earlier, disguising as one of your own teammates with the Dead Ringer is extremely useful, as you'll drop the ragdoll of whoever you were disguised as.- The Polycount Update -The Polycount pack, TF2's most recent update, included a Spy pack, introducing two new weapons and a "set bonus" for having the hat that came with the set. - L'Etranger: I can only assume that its name means "The Stranger", it is another new Revolver. It sacrifices 20% of its punch for giving you back a small amount of cloak on each successful hit. It has no other downsides or upsides, so it, as most weapons are, is nothing more than a sidegrade and depends completely upon the user's preferences. - Your Eternal Reward: A very intriguing and beautifully crafted knife that strips you of your trusted disguise kit in exchange for becoming a silent killer, with the added benefit of instantly disguising you after successfully killing someone with a backstab. The damage output of the knife has not changed. As you can imagine, it is very hard to use this knife with the Dead Ringer, so it's almost required that you use the Cloak and Dagger or the normal Invisiwatch. Of important note is the "silent killer" part, which does a rather interesting maneuver, cloaking your victim's body and not displaying a kill message to the enemy team. Of extra note is how instant "instantly" disguising is: If your victim was being healed by a medic before you stabbed him, you will turn into him so quickly the Medigun will not stop healing you as long as the Medic keeps his finger on the trigger. - Set Bonus: The Saharan Spy: An addition to the Polycount update is the "Set Bonuses" given to anyone wearing each part of the particular set the items belong to. For the spy, this is the: Familiar Fez, L'Etranger, and Your Eternal Reward. The downside to this, aside from being forced to wear the rather ridiculous looking Familiar Fez and using both of the new weapons, either or both of which you may dislike, is that anyone who touches you while cloaked will cause cloak interruption for significantly longer than normal. The plus side to this is that your decloak sound, even on the Dead Ringer, becomes almost completely unnoticeable, perfect for those Snipers who're wearing their headphones and have the volume up to max, or the very cautious Engineers.

I guess that since the Engineer's Update has come out, it's worth updating this to cover his new weapons and skills.Firstly, let's start with the new Shotgun, the "Frontier Justice". The normal shotgun was just that, a normal, six shot shotgun with decent range and a pretty darn good damage output for close range combat, capable of taking out all 125 HP classes in two or three hits. The frontier justice forfeits three of its clip size and random critical hits in exchange for 100% criticals after the destruction of a particularly useful sentry gun. The criticals are awarded in a 2:1 ratio for every kill your sentry got, and a 1:1 for every kill your sentry assisted in. The maximum amount of crits you can recieve is 32, which is the total clip size of the shotgun, and it's more than enough to take revenge on anyone who dared destroy your trusted sentry gun. It is, like most weapons, a reasonable side-grade, and depending on exactly what kind of engineer you are, you may or may not find this new weapon useful. As a quick side note, this is the first Engineer weapon to grant the engineer a taunt kill.The new secondary, replacing the very useful pistol is an aptly named control device, cleverly called "The Wrangler". Whenever it is your active weapon, you assume complete control of your Sentry gun, being given the ability to aim it in any direction at anyone you choose, and begin to unload a constant stream of bullets and rockets on any unsuspecting disguised spy, enemy snipers across the map, practically anything you want. As an added benefit, assuming control of your sentry will stop it from shooting at anything you don't want it to shoot, an important strategy to keep it from being distracted by Scouts under the effect of Bonk! Atomic Punch, or an ubercharge that is within range, but not necessarily coming for you. Part two of this weapon's usefulness comes in the form of a shield that goes up around the Sentry Gun, so that while you're controlling it, the Sentry takes 66% less damage from all incoming enemy fire. On the downside, the sentry becomes very noticeable, and uses an obvious laser site, so it's not all too useful for being covert about your sentry's position. Also, when you switch from The Wrangler, the sentry becomes useless for a few seconds, before picking itself back up and becoming the automated killing machine it always was.As a matter of personal taste, I almost consider this weapon a pure upgrade, rendering the pistol completely obsolete, but it does leave you a bit more vulnerable to spies, since to be honest, unloading a sentry on a person of your choosing can be a big distraction.The third weapon is, of course, a melee weapon. "The Gunslinger" is a robot arm that replaces the wrench (and the engineer's right hand!) and also replaces the normal sentry with a quick building mini Sentry. The Arm itself functions as your wrench, so it's still able to repair and upgrade your buildings, as well as those of your fellow engineers. The downside to having this robot arm instead of your wrench is that it gets no random critical hits, and instead only crits on the third successive punch to anyone in your way. The other, obvious downside is the mini sentry that can never upgrade beyond level 1 and cannot be repaired. This mini sentry has twice the rate of fire of a typical level 1 sentry, but only does half the damage per shot. (For the record, since the Wrangler ups the rate of fire of the sentry gun to twice its normal speed, a mini sentry will fire at 4x the speed of a normal sentry gun. This means that the mini sentry is actually no better than the normal sentry gun in terms of damage output and is in fact trumped by the damage output of higher level sentries, especially when Wrangled.) Another interesting perk of the sentry is how quickly it builds, almost instantly when you sit there and punch it to help it build faster. Unlike the normal sentry or any other buildings, the mini sentry starts building with full HP. This isn't necessarily a wonderful trait, as its low HP makes it instantly destructable by a Huntsman arrow, a fully charged Sniper Rifle, or a Pyro's Homewrecker. It makes up for its many flaws by being a very silent killer, because of its low damage output per hit and next to no sound, your enemy normally won't notice it's shooting them until they're almost dead, at which point finding a hiding place is difficult. Fun Fact: When this weapon first came out, there was a glitch that allowed players to upgrade the mini sentry into a mini sentry - Level 3 by building a mini sentry with the gunslinger and switching back to the normal wrench through resupply cabinet. This of course produced a level 3 sentry that had all of the perks of the level 1 mini sentry stacked with the perks of the level 3 sentry. This glitch was taken out quite quickly.The engineer received one more weapon in his update, a replacement for the wrench that stays true to being a wrench - the "Southern Hospitality". This wrench forfeits random critical hits for five seconds of bleeding inflicted on any enemy it hits, making it a great way to pursue spies and become a hit and run engineer. It has no real perks over being a Spy finder, and no real downsides besides taking your random critical hits from you.-Tips and Strategies-Remember The Wrangler? Of course you do! It has another super special ability that a discerning Engineer will most certainly take advantage of. Recall that the Sentry gun is capable of injuring its owner, and put two and two together: Rocket Jumping. Of course, this wouldn't be possible if not for the fact that the Wrangler actually lessens the damage output of the rockets, since any good Engineer will know that the rockets the level three sentry fires are a one hit kill on almost any class. In order to pull off a Sentry rocket jump, simply Wrangle your sentry, point it at your feet, fire, and go through the motions that any rocket jumping Soldier or Demoman would. This is very useful for getting up to high, otherwise overlooked places to build a Sentry great for heckling your opponents. It works very well in conjunction with another added Engineer Ability...- Moving your buildings -Remember the days when you had to destroy your hard work just to join your team near the front lines? Forget about them, because now you can just pick up and move any currently build building that you own. Of particular interest is that after picking up a building, you can carry it with you through a teleporter. Couple this with your Sentry's ability to launch you to high places... and you can get an entire base built out of reach of any Spy! Destroy your teleporter entrance to provide added security and you have a near impenetrable fortress as long as you play everything out cautiously.

After ten long years, Capcom has finally announced the sequel to the fan favorite MegaMan Legends 2, appropriately named MegaMan Legends 3. For those who are unfamiliar with the series, MegaMan Legends exists as yet another part of the overall MegaMan story with a slightly different fix, instead of being a sidescrolling platformer, it switches its views over to that of a third person adventure game, incorporating puzzles, enemy diversity, and intense boss fights. Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the series is that it was the first branch to bring MegaMan into full 3D, a world akin to Mario 64, but without the heavy reliance on platforming. The story takes place an indeterminate amount of time in the future from the MegaMan ZX series (For the Nintendo DS), which has been confirmed to be the most recently "dated" MegaMan branch. In the world of Legends, the Earth of the other MegaMan games has become completely flooded, the only civilizations are dotted about on small, isolated islands. The majority of people in this world make a living as something known as a "Digger", a person who explores the ruins scattered about the world searching for treasures known as Refractors, large energy containing crystals that are the primary source of energy in the world. These refractors sell quite well, so being a digger is a good job. The MegaMan of this game, known as Trigger after the final events of the first game, serves not only as a digger, but also has a history of being a Purifier Unit from the civilization that he now explores. Legends 2 elaborated on Trigger's history, who he was, who Juno (the final boss of the first Legends, a Bureaucratic Unit) worked for, and exactly what "The System" is. During the game, you meet other members of The System, Yuna and Sera, the "Mother Units", new Pirates such as Glyde, and unlock the mystery of the famous "Mother Lode", the driving force behind almost all diggers. Legends 3 will, of course, pick up where Legends 2 left off, getting Trigger off of the man made planetoid "Elysium". Not much has been revealed about the story of Legends 3, but it can be assumed that the gameplay will remain the same. Best of all, the game has been confirmed to be on Nintendo's upcoming 3DS system, so the series' lackluster graphics of the past will most certainly find refinement on the very powerful handheld.Here's to hoping for a great new game that the fanbase has been waiting for for ten years!

Yeah, it's happening to me as well. Quite the inconvenient timing, too, since I was planning on changing over some nameservers to test out some things. Oh well, waiting and procrastinating are two things I'm very good at.

There are some keyboards that are more like keymats. You still call them keyboards. There's no reason to rename the mouse. It never looked like a mouse to begin with, to me at least. For what it's worth, mine still has it's "tail", because I prefer wired to wireless in just about everything. Besides, there's nothing that I can think of to call it aside from a mouse. It's what I grew up calling it, and "human interface device port 2" sounds a bit too robotic.

Apple actually already made a gaming console/computer called the Apple Pippin. It was made in conjunction with Bandai, and from what I gather, not very successful. If Apple were to make another gaming console, I don't really see it doing very well. Apple's computers can't really game that well, so I don't see their consoles gaming that well either. It would probably look good, though.