Gaming News

There's a game of CS this Friday evening - meet at 8pm, likely venue will be the KM server. There's plenty of notice so no excuses :p

Given that we are using the Killer Mongoose (KM) CS: Source server most Fridays, it would be useful if you could all download their custom map pack. This should save you some time downloading the map from the throttled server mid-game.

Valve have released an update to CS: Source, which adds a couple of new player models (G.I.G.N. and Guerilla) and makes tweaks to some weapon behaviour. There are also a few bug fixes relating to grenades and to the bots.

Read the full release notes here.

de_nuke makes its first appearance in CS: Source, and it comes with High Dynamic Range (HDR) lighting. Anyone who has played HalfLife 2: Lost Coast on decent hardware will appreciate what HDR adds to the overall look and feel. That said, in the cut and thrust of a CS round, you're not likely to stand there admiring the view.

There are also a bunch of other gameplay tweaks, bugfixes and bot behaviour updates. Read the full release notes.

EA have released version 1.12 of Battlefield 2. The update contains several bugfixes, plus new features in the form of a zip line and a grapple hook. Not all classes get these, so choose wisely :)

Read the release notes and download the update (280MB).

This week's Steam client update added functionality to launch games from a web browser. The client registers the steam:// url with all installed browsers.

Our Game Servers page has been updated to make all CS:Source server IP addresses clickable links that launch the game on that server :)

Valve have hinted that they are working on Source versions of the old favourites cs_militia and de_nuke. Also, there will be additional player models for T and CT. No dates have been given for the release.

Valve released a "technology preview" in the form of a new map - Lost Coast. This is a small map with little in the way of gameplay, but it does showcase High-Dynamic Range lighting (HDR) in the Source engine. Only high-end machines will be able to get the most out of it - the installation process will tell you if your machine is up to it.

Quake 4 hit the shelves this weekend. So what have the critics had to say about it?

The main focus of the developers was clearly the single player game. It carries on the storyline from Quake 2. This time, you have a squad at your disposal. Team-mate AI is ok but not great. They can do a lot of damage to enemies, but are slow to get out of the way when attacked. The enemy AI is poor in comparison with games such as FarCry and Call of Duty.

The gameplay is very linear, with not much in the way of challenging puzzles.

On the multiplayer side, the game is limited to 16 players. Action comes in the traditional flavours of Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and CTF. It is good, but no better than any other recent multiplayer game on the market, eg all the HL:Source derivatives.

Find links and more info on our Quake 4 page.

Ubisoft have announced that Ghost Recon 3 will not ship this year. It is likely to be released in Feb 2006. The reason given was so they could optimise the game for the Xbox 360 platform. However, all platforms are reported to be delayed til next year.

An update was released yesterday for Battlefield 2. Version 1.03 brings a load of bug fixes, plus a welcome return for the popular BF1942 map Wake Island. They have also allowed for you to prefix a 6 character clan tag without affecting your account name. Better late then never I guess.

You can read the full changelog here, and download the patch here.

Another BobLAN comes to an end, and what an excellent event it has been. We played a good variety of games, all of which worked with little hassle and mincing. The new rules regarding WoW and XBox usage during core gaming time made for good numbers in all the games.

As expected, Battlefield 2 was a popular game with some good close contests. CounterStrike also proved popular once again.

The big surprise was the reappearance of QuakeWorld after a few years absence. The FuhQuake front end gave it a new lease of life. We played some Capture the Flag on the old favourite map CTF5. We also played a full 3 vs 3 team deathmatch on DM3 using the Kteam mod :) A bit of drunken FFA action on the FragTown maps provided added nostalgia.

On the RTS front, we tried a game that none of us had ever played before - Settlers 5. The game looked really good, and for the first half an hour, it played well too. But, when the 6 players started churning out the units, the network code showed its weakness and the game slowed to around 2fps. Given that Age of Empires III will be out in time for the next LAN, I doubt Settlers will get much of a look-in.

Finally, a big thankyou to DF-Lynx for hosting the LAN. The facilities were fantastic, as was the crispy duck for 3 meals running :) Also, hats off to Pup who provided the main game server for the weekend.

As the LAN draws closer, work has begun on getting the various servers configured. Most of the servers from last time will still be ok, but we are looking at getting a proper dedicated CS:Source server running this time.

A newcomer this year will be FuhQuake - a replacement client for QuakeWorld with all the eye candy of today's games. The server remains the same - the zquake server that includes the Win2000 fix. It is a simple case of installing a new client, crafting a command line to set display properties, and running it.

To discuss the games to be played, head over to the BobLAN 2005.2 Games List thread on our forums.

DF-Lynx has confirmed that the next DFC LAN will be on the weekend of the 24th September. Festivities will commence with the usual setup and mince on the Thursday evening, with gaming continuing until the Sunday.

The games list is yet to be decided, however there is little doubt that Battlefield 2 will feature heavily, as hopefully will CS: Source.

A new LAN Code of Conduct has been drawn up in order to prevent anti-social behaviour such as playing WOW when a LAN game is underway, and also to prevent XBoxing before the midnight watershed. The full Code of Conduct Knowledgebase (COCK) will be published in due course.

Valve have made the Half-Life addon Blue Shift available via Steam for those who have bought the original Half-Life Generations box set, or who bought HL2 Silver or Gold packages via Steam. Even the Generations version that didn't actually contain Blue Shift allows you access to the game.
Read more at steampowered.com

The new instalment of Ghost Recon, titled Advanced Warfighter, is now set for release on the PC as well as the Xbox 360. This is great news, as we were big fans of the original, and disappointed by the dumbed down consoleness of GR2.

The game is scheduled for release at the end of October, and PC Zone have posted some screenshots from both platforms. Looks good :)

Telewest have announced that they are to follow NTL with major increases in the speeds of their broadband packages. Current 1Mb connections will become 4Mb, and 2Mb will become 10Mb. Upstream speeds will increase to 384Kbps - a very welcome 3x increase.

This should benefit DFC in terms of BobLANs, as DF-Lynx is currently on the 2Mb service. I'm not sure the upgrades will be rolled out in time for next month's LAN though.

Last night saw a good practice session on some of the newer CS: Source maps. Present for DFC were Lynx, AngryDaz and Mesmer. We played on the KM server, which has a player limit of 32 and was full for the most part.

We also used Ventrilo for the first time - a new server-based voice comms system. It worked well, although the voice activation needs some tuning compared to the ease of use of Skype or TeamSpeak. The fact that it is server based is a great advantage over Skype when it comes to gaming, as your game doesn't keep minimising if there are problems with the chat session.

DF-Lynx is curently trying to arrange a friendly against Killer Mongoose - a Counter-Strike: Source clan who also have members who work at the Halifax. More info to follow when we have a date for the game.

KM have also kindly offered us the use of their server - see our Game Servers page for more details.

Following last week's dodgy v1.01 update, EA have released a hotfix. Update v1.02 replaces the previous patch.

Read about the update on the EA Community page and download the update from the same page.