Perspective: 27/08/2014

So my perspective of gaming currently is what I will hopefully showcase in these blog posts. Things that I am playing and excited for, as well as some news and opinions.

What am I playing? 

Dota 2

As per the norm for almost the last 20 months Dota is at the top of this list. Over 800 games in I am still terrible, I play mostly with my friends and I have to say that is the best way to play Dota. I am currently practising Io or Wisp and still taking up the role of support. For those of you who have no idea what dota is, I suggest checking out:

http://www.purgegamers.com/

&

https://www.youtube.com/user/DotaCinema

Purge is who you're usually directed to via the Dota 2 community if you want to learn more, while I personally prefer DotaCinema for some more fun videos as well as some good teaching.

Alongside this I am paying great interest to the pro-gaming side of Dota 2, if you haven't heard about the international then basically it was a tournament where the top professional teams of Dota 2 players from around the world, were invited to Seattle, to compete for a total prize pool of over $10,000,000.

This competition was it's fourth iteration, and fourth year of existence. Financed by the game developer and Steam creator, Valve as well as over $8,000,000 from the community.

After each international, the teams seem to have a down period of a month or so, it is now when most of the rosters change and this year is no exception. In Europe, a previously stable and top tier team Na'Vi (short for Natus Vincere), based in Ukraine have lost two long standing players. This goes along with Alliance, who were last years winners, having a remodel in lineup after both failed to reach the dizzy heights of the Grand Final.

These are not nearly all of the changes though with a new 'secret' team being announced amongst others. Over in the Chinese scene things are very much the same as this years international finalists and runners up ViCi Gaming announced two changes along with the eventual winners Newbee also making changes. Out of the teams that participated in this years international only one (as far as I can remember) has not made any changes.

For up to date information I find that r/dota2 reddit is always fun.

For more professional content try

http://www.gosugamers.net/dota2/news
&
http://www.joindota.com/en/start

Medieval II: Total War: Westeros: Age of Petty Kings [Mod]

Long before the rise of Valyria, Westeros was divided into countless Petty Kingdoms.  In the south, the Reach is consumed by fire as countless Andal Kingdoms are drawn into an ever growing civil war.  In Dorne, the deserts run red with blood and in the north four kingdoms struggle for supremacy, even as they face invaders from all sides.  As chaos descends upon the lands of Westeros it remains to be seen which Kingdoms shall forge dynasties to last a thousand years, and which will fade into history.

M2TW has for a long time been one of my favourite games, perhaps it is my interest in the area of Medieval history (as I am studying it at university) but the older total war games have always been well played. Mods continue to breathe life into this game, with the Game of Thrones craze continuing to bear gifts. Petty Kings is based on the time before the Valyrians came to prominence in the lore. I came across this mod while looking around some mod websites and it looked very promising with high ratings for it all round. It's now installed and soon enough I will be happily assembling thousand strong armies of Andal men to go and murder other thousand strong armies of Andal men. The creator Admiral Thrawn is looking to give this mod his full attention, and with everything these days donations are much appreciated.

It's pretty easy to install, you just need a Kingdoms copy of M2TW to get started.

More information can be found from the moddb page:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/westeros-age-of-petty-kings
Also they have had some good publicity from PC Gamer!
http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/08/24/mod-of-the-week-westeros-age-of-petty-kings-for-medieval-ii-total-war-kingdoms/

Arma 3

One of the games which I was not expecting to enjoy so much this year is Arma 3. Recommended by a friend I decided to grab this game in the steam summer sale; a great choice. Although it may seem very serious and perhaps too much of an fps for people to enjoy, gaming communities when left to their own devices are brilliant when it comes to just having a laugh (or trolling [usually both]). This game is no exception. While i personally find single player a struggle as for me it is too much of a military simulator for me to get into, multiplayer is a lot of fun. With mods such as Battle Royale enabling a free for all survival way of playing, to RPG Altis Life (which I play as a server mod meaning a vanilla install for my PC is fine) theres plenty to keep trolls and military geeks alike involved.

Here are some screenshots of my antics:

 Gazing at beautiful marine wildlife we're about to start hunting.

An attractive view of my friend's bottom side, thanks Arma.

Playing the risky game of truck balancing.

Anyway...

That's about it for today, I hope to write up some stuff about these games in the near future. I hope everyone reading this blog so far is enjoying it. Please feel free to +1, share or comment, always looking to improve!