Gaming News

The first gathering of 2020, albeit a virtual one, starts later today. Meet up in Discord to vote on games, join the voice chats etc. Also keep an eye on the BobWAN 2020.1 page for the schedule and links to join servers where possible.

Usually on a DFC anniversary, we're looking forward to meeting up for a BobLAN. Sadly that won't be the case this year, however we'll do our best to have a great weekend playing remotely. Pup is doing a great job setting up the servers in AWS, and we've started trying out some online versions of board games such as Ticket to Ride. Server test sessions, aka CS:GO sessions, usually take place every Friday from around 9pm - check out our Friday Gaming Night page for useful links and information.

The first BobLAN of 2020 should be starting three weeks today, however this will now be a wholly online event. We've been testing out game server options for CS:GO and QuakeWorld, and for the most part those tests have been successful. Testing has been every Friday evening from around 9pm, and will continue throughout the lockdown.

Game and server details will be posted in the schedule on the BobLAN page over the weekend, and also on the Friday Gaming page as a simple list of servers.

As well as the standard FPS games, we'll also be trying out the online versions of popular board games - things like Ticket to Ride, Carcasonne etc - should be fun!

It is now almost certain that the first BobLAN of 2020 will actually be a BobWAN due to the Covid 19 outbreak and subsequent movement restrictions. Whist social distancing might sound like a geek's paradise, it means that we will not be able to gather for the weekend like we usually do.

The plan so far is to still use the time we've all booked off work, but to play remotely instead. Many of the games we play support cloud-based server hosting or renting, so we should be fine there. We will be using Discord for comms, both over the weekend and in the build-up. An invite to the Discord server was posted in the BobLAN Geeks Facebook group.

More details will follow, so check back here periodically or join the Discord group.

Friday saw the release of the first non-beta version of Black Mesa, complete right to the finale. There have been many fixes and improvements over the recent Xen update, including an overhaul of the opening menu screens and the addition of a quicksave option.

As with previous updates, this one breaks compatibility with previous saved games. If you were part-way through the game, you can start at any chapter you like (albeit with a default set of weapons, ammo and health, and not with what you had before).

Overall feedback is very positive, particularly on the earlier levels. However, the difficulty of Gonarch's Lair is ridiculous, and has caused many to post on the forums that it's taken the fun out of it. For my part, I spent about half an hour on that level at the weekend and couldn't get anywhere with it, so looks likely that I will have to skip to the next chapter which is a shame.

In a day of shock defeats, following Liverpool's loss at Watford, it was a resurgent Na'Vi that knocked Astralis out in the semi-finals to set up a final against G2 Esports. Astralis were never really in it, in contrast to G2's tight match against Fnatic.

The best-of-five final starts today at 4pm, which you can watch via the ESL_CSGO Twitch channel, or on the ESL Event app.

This year's IEM Pro Tour event in Katowice started on Monday with the opening round. The semi-finals are on Saturday 29th February and the final is on Sunday 1st March.

Follow the action on the ESL Twitch channel - games start at 11:30, 14:30 and 18:00 in the first round, 14:00 and 17:55 in the semi-finals and 16:00 on Sunday for the grand final.

The dates for the first BobLAN of 2020 have been confirmed as Thursday 30th April until Sunday 3rd May. Get those diaries booked!

Note that due to the imminent closure of the DFC Forums, there will be no forums topic for this LAN. Game and hardware discussions should be done via the Facebook group. As usual, you will be able to follow the LAN via our dedicated BobLAN 2020.1 page.

Voting is currently underway to decide the dates for the first BobLAN of the decade. The weekends at the start of May and June are the current bookies' favourites :)

A full announcement together with all the usual content will follow once voting is complete.

After what seems like years of waiting, the Xen update for Black Mesa was released this morning. It is a 10GB download, so they have likely changed other things too. More info to follow after some game time...

Steam's annual Winter Sale is now underway with some great deals for the older games. Games like Rainbow Six Siege, Sniper Ghost Warrior bundle and The Witcher 3 can all be had for under a tenner. Wreckfest is also down by 60% for those who may want it for a second account.

Head over to the Steam Store to bag yourself a Christmas bargain!

A new feature of CS:GO has been revealed today - Operation Shattered Web will allow you to earn the ability to use any of the CT or T player models on any map, rather than being forced to use the default ones on each map. You can also earn new weapon skins, knives, graffiti and other pointless stuff. Needless to say, you have to pay for it. You can achieve the rewards without paying, but won't be able to actually use them until you have.

The announcement is here on Steam and full details with some pretty graphics are on the Shattered Web page.

The roundup this time comes courtesy of Pup's post to the BobLAN Geeks group:

Awesome BobLAN as always.

Great to see lots of smiley faces. Really enjoyed the gaming:

• Wrestfest (apart from my unlocking strop)
• RocketLeague (Unstopable partnership with DBoy as ever)
• Battlefield 1 (that bloody last room!!)
• Counterstrike (fine... but losing its appeal)
• Jedi Whatsit (you need a bit of single player to chill out to)
• Ticket to ride (Wij getting upset that someone else would possibly dare to take his route)
• Table football (great blast from the past)
• THE PLANK (oh my god!!)
• and I'm sure a couple more.

Pleased that day of defeat didn't show its face. Felt odd not to play any Grid!

Food. Great breakfast. Loving the haggis. Shame about the pizzas. Chinese excellent.

Fastest clean up for a while - even if it did sometimes seem like a never ending vacuuming task for T-Dog

The second BobLAN of the year is in full swing. By far the most dominant game so far has been Wreckfest, I think largely due to its accessibility for everyone. Not much in the way of team games so far - a bit of CS:GO and that's about it. More to follow in the post-LAN roundup.

No BobLAN preview would be complete without looking back at the poetic masterclass that is 'Twas the Night Before Easter. It may not be Easter, but it's still a great read at any time of year :)

Numbers are looking good, again the Thursday "setup" session looks like it's going to be well attended. The attendees list is at the bottom of the BobLAN page.

There is now less than a week to go until the second BobLAN of 2019. Get all those upgrades and software updates finalised, and make sure the usual games are all working - CS:GO, Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2, Wreckfest, Grid etc

As always, you'll be able to follow the LAN at our dedicated BobLAN 2019.2 page.

It has been revealed that Star Wars Jedi: The Fallen Order will be available on Steam on launch day, November 15th. It will also be available on Origin, but this is the first time in years that an EA game will be offered on a platform other than Origin.

For full details and a hands-on preview, visit Shacknews

Just in time for BobLAN, Wreckfest received its first major update in a while. Alongside improvements to gameplay, graphics and interface are two new maps.

Head over to the Steam Community for all the details.

Psyonix have confirmed that the existing three DLC packs will soon be rolled into the base game, meaning that everyone will get them free of charge. It looks like this will be in December, so a bit late for the November BobLAN, however it should give us something new to play with in the spring LAN.

Details of the DLC packs are provided on Rocketleague.com and Shacknews and

The developers behind PUBG have announced some of the changes coming in the 5.1 patch. Of interest will be a race track on the Miramar map, along with some general tidying up. How you will be able to race on a race track with people shooting at you is a bit of a mystery, but should be fun.

As usual, further details can be found on Shacknews