WarSpartan

I thought i read that you can play LAN games, however they would not be ranked / not count towards stats.

What your not gonna claim 4 cents to top my 3 ? C'mon we're bidding here now You made good points. I could give TF2 a try. I think I've only attempted it at a LAN once. Theres a number of games I would suggest, but again it becomes a matter of taste again. Maybe there is no real answer nowadays.

Yep I definately understand your post tecboy. I think wnyg is mostly comprised of the #1 - #4 gamer. And that's totally cool. The social aspect of it all is nice, and my post wasn't in any way to dis wnyg. I personally find I enjoy the wnyg lans the best out of all the ones I frequent in the area. I find the same type of "clique" gaming goes on at all lans nowadays. Biggest factor I'd say is that theres now such a huge range of good games available nowadays. So many different tastes in gaming. Some popular ones have player limits which are sometimes under the LAN size. Then theres always the "who has which game that day" bit as well. As for gamer types I'd offer an option #6: - Comes to play with / against others type. Wants to play most of the day. Socialize some yes, but mostly play. Fun gaming, good natured banter and ribbing, teaming up to bring down the top players, coming away with fun "war stories". I love the war stories part, lol. I find I'm that #6 type. LAN's for me have always been about digging into the multiplay with others. Sometimes I get bored / bummed waiting for games to get rolling. Even when you try advertising a game that you know everyone can get rolling quick n easy it's still hard to get that cohesion going. Whether its taste, availability, etc, its just not an easy thing to get most of a lan rolling on a game, unless everyone has it installed and ready. I think thats why we see so much L4D2 played. It's the one game that right now almost everyone has and they have it installed, and its updated and ready to go pretty much at any time. Yes L4D2 is fun and has its own merits (though I still dont enjoy scavenger - boo !), its mostly easy to get everyone rolling on. I think the best suggestion nowadays, is have at least 1 game that we can all agree on to play as a "backbone" / "backup" game for an upcoming LAN. Maybe even have a server running for it that folks can jump into between other games or when its primetime for the game. One with a wide range of appeal and availability. Everyone can still splinter as they desire, but in those downtimes when everyone is prepping another game, those of us with no game going atm, can jump into it and play away. L4D2 has become that kind of game for the LAN's. But the 8 man limit leaves some twiddling thumbs too often Again theres just too many shinies nowadays I think. And I definately understand its not easy to get a spur of the moment game going. So thats my 3 cents. More cents for me !!! Ramble on Goodness knows I do, lol.

I've always been a proponent of "lets all play the same game ... at the same time ... ". Unfortunately no one really wants to do that at LAN's nowadays. Worse some games have a player limit. L4D2 i'm looking at you. On average if I go to a LAN for 10 hours I usually only get 2 (3 if im lucky) solid hours of multiplayer gaming. This seems to happen at any of the LAN's i go to lately, no group in particular. But I must admit I havent been to a "big" LAN in a while so dont know if thats the standard with them now. I know I've caught flak for suggesting it in the past, but I still think any LAN party should pick at least 1 game where they say "we're gonna play a large chunk of [Named Game]". Come prepared - we're using patch version "x". Let everyone fill in the rest as usual, but at least have 1 game where everyone is expected to jump into. Of course pick a game that everyone should have an opportunity to play / the most people can have access to. Vote maybe ? Nowadays it just seems like there are too many options, and not enough overlap. This leads to a lot of downtime. The modern LAN party

Tai Chi sounds interesting but I always figured it would be a touch low key for me. Im a more traditional martial artist hitting the dojo for those usually aggressive workouts / training sessions / conditioning sessions. I havent spent enough time to learn about it. Is there a taught for self defense fighting art in there or is it mostly designed as a light conditioning wellness art ? TY for the offering, its always a joy to see martial arts programs in this area.

I wont be able to make the trip down, but I should be able to jump into a few of the games via the intrawebz

Too bad its still a touch of a mess right now I tried to clear my joystick commands as they bind up and cause my keystrokes to double and effect - like press s to go backwards and it fires my weapons too - gah. Cant clear them at all right now. I have like 7 different fubars like that - so i cant really even play it. My desktop wont connect to any servers at all (same problem in beta). My lappy does, but between dropped server connections and PB issues its a bite to stay in games. Everyone in our group is praying for that first patch, lol.

Nice ! I always loved the Red Alert series. I would do some throwback on original RA if any want to. Then of course if you want to catch me online or at the LAN's I keep RA2 and others handy.

I totally understand what you're saying about how games "feel". The new Aliens vs Predator has a demo. I grabbed that and played a bit. Its total shite. Mechanics feel horrible - very much feels like a port. A game that I wanted a demo for was MW2, but they didnt make it. The game was okay. Very good elements were all the new toys. Poor elements were the lack of some game modes and IWNet matchmaking. Not having dedicated servers, not being able to choose where you play, and having IWNet ALWAYS choose where you play, has got to be the crappiest thing ever. If I had a try at a demo I probably wouldn't have gotten it. CoD4 is a more stable and consistent gaming experience. A game that has a ton of potential buts scaring me a little so far is Bad Company 2. The beta is really cruddy atm. I know of course its beta, but its terribly buggy. Even on a decent machine it runs like poop. I pre-ordered it but I'm half wondering if I should wait to see if they do a cleaner demo before actually committing and picking up my copy. For me a lot of the new games I've tried over the last year just havent felt good, or were disappointing compared to their earlier versions.

Very good LAN. I'll look forward to the next one.

Who else has the Bad Company 2 Beta ? I would definately like to play that a bit.

I converted to laptops for LAN's years ago. IMO 17" works well enough. The 15" models just dont have enough estate to enjoy as much. If you could do a 19" that of course would be nice. However dont take a hit in specs. Its my preference now to have a laptop and an external monitor for LAN's. All the gear is still easily carried in one trip, the LCD takes little space and is an easy setup. And all said and told its so much nicer to have, in my case a simple 22" wide LCD for gaming at the LAN's, vs. even the 17" or 19" LCD screen. Lastly even on gaming laptops, the LCD's arent usually going to be super high performance. Their claim to fame is just size and resolution. I dont ever see n the specs the response time on them. Plus you can use the extra LCD for dual screen gaming at the LAN's or for apps etc. Make ur lappy LCD your secondary, set lappy to the side how you like it, and the LCD the main. So I'd say make sure your core machine is solid, the money you save on the larger laptop screen, put into a comparatively inexpensive LCD, and you're set. Very solid gaming laptops run as little as $900-$1000 right now. Grab a 22" lcd for like $200'ish or less, and you are well ahead of the game with a better hardware setup.

I'm in Lapres we need your larger group server workin for L4D2, lol. I hate just missing a round cause 8 person filled up to quick, lol. And barring the server being temperamentally non functional again... We need a fallback shooter that we can pop a server up for and leave up. One that we can all play whether we have it or not at that time, so in between rounds of size limited games like L4D2 the rest of us can jump into and blast away to pass the time. I'd suggest CoD4 (other viables I like are Far Cry and BF2). A game that we know all of us can install effectively enough and run as a backup choice. CoD4 is a very quick n easy install. Also I woulnd't mind trying out Stalker or Stalker Clear Skies multiplayer as well. I got them with the steam sale, but I have all the necessary stuff for it as well somewhere around here. SS HD though intriguing isnt something I want to spend $20 on right now If theres a touch of luck they'll sale price it again before then and I can reconsider it. Other suggestions ?

Another blast from the past - Red Alert 2 Yuri's Revenge. Ive been itching to play this one recently though I havent touched an RTS in years now, lol. Used to be great fun and made for awesome games. Even has a random map generator build in.

Also I bought the $2 and $5 Stalker games from steam tonight. I remember LAN'ing the first stalker once. It was quite fun, had a lot of potential, and a couple of the maps were just plain cool with the weather effects. I vote to give that a try as well.

I tried that at another LAN. Not particularly exciting but okay. But I can give it some more play time if thats what everyones gonna do.

That would be insane ... is that a real picture or photoshopped ?

I will attend. My retro votes are Far Cry, AvP2, or Mechwarrior4. Current votes are Modern Warfare 2 and L4D2.

Merry etc...

Good LAN. Nice seeing everyone again. I must admit I'm L4D2'ed out for a while.

Are there proposed games for tomorrow ? Based on the chatter I assumed L4D2 is a given, but any others ? I can always dig out my AvP2 stuff in celebration of the upcoming game. Im always down for some cod4 as well.

For once I can officially say I'm in. Day off on the schedule and no major family events to roll.

The Dark Carnival story - what a b****. Finished it but pretty heavy at the end.

Gamestop had it for $30. I bought it. About to play it on my 55" Panasonic, lol. Drooling over the prospect. Well at least I finally have a game of choice for the lans now :vio37:

I am saddened by the "port" attitude they took on this. Was a huge cod4 fan. In the grand scheme of things the max 18 players / server doesnt bother me too much as i found in cod4 the sweet spot to play at was about 20 people. The peer to peer bit is quite scary though. If it does manage to match based on close pings and was consistent it wouldnt be too bad. A big question I have right now is if I went online to play with buddies could i get into the same games as them ? Gonna try it out later - im really hoping they didnt bjork the control scheme and it feels clumsy console'ish.