Team Fortress 2

Team Fortress 2 is a FPS (first person shooter) where you are part of a team that takes on others. The objective: dominate your enemy by capturing control points and taking their intelligence back to your base. There are X character types each with their own unique ablilities and skills.

You can choose to play a Scout, Soldier, Pyro, Demoman, Heavy, Engineer, Medic, Sniper or Spy. Each of these characters are fun to play. Some are more offensive in nature while others are more defensive.

One of the nice features of this game is the build in voice chat. It's easy to set up and is clear and easy to hear. It does not affect game performance and so far has been a asset to the game.

This game does not allow you to set up computer players (bots), so you will need to have people logged in to play or find a server with people on it.

All in all this is a fun game and has a decent amount of replay value. Due to mild violence, parents may want to check out the game before allowing younger children to play.

He's a little teaser trailer that I found online. Enjoy.

Orange Box

Orange Box was recently release for PC and Xbox 360. This is a compilation set of 3 games (Half Life 2 w/episode 1 and 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2). It retails for $49.99us but can be found on sale for less. Currently ToysRUs has the XBox 360 version on their buy 2 games get a 3rd game free promotion that runs till the end of October. Circuit City has the PC version on sale for $39.99, though I believe this sale ends soon. I do not own an XBox 360, so I will only comment on the PC version. I have not played Half Life 2 or Team Fortress 2 yet, so I will leave those for another posting.

Portal is a puzzle game where you navagate mazes avoiding death traps, robots with guns and other obsticles. There are items along the way that help you complete the maze. The bigest one is your hand held portal generator. This allows you to move around the maze fairly easily, but only works on certain surfaces.

The game is relatively short in duration, 4-8 hours of play will get you through all the levels. The game is fun and enjoyable but the replay value is limited. It's a great game for everyone, with no gore or bad language parents will have little to no complaints.

There is one warning however that I must pass to you. If you are prone to getting motion sickness, you may have a tough time with certain levels of this game. I have motion sickness issues on amusement ride and sometimes when traveling. This is the first video game that has almost made me toss my cookies! I had to stop playing and sit in the bathroom for a few minutes. Once my stomach calmed down I went to play again and within 15-30 minutes I was back in the bathroom. My tip if you find yourself getting sick, stop playing and pick up where you left off on another day. You can save the game at anytime.

The game is worth playing and is rather enjoyable. Look for my thoughts on the other games in this box later this month. Until that time, I leave you with the trailer for Portal.

October Days are here.

October is one of my favorite month of the year. The weather really starts to change with the heat of the Summer giving way to the cool temperatures of Fall. The trees start to change colors and life just seems to slow down a bit.

This is the lull before the storm. November and December are the build-up for the holidays and tend to be a bit rushed. The weather is still nice enough to allow for fun outdoor activities and the not-so-fun ones are going away (taking care of the yard).

My thoughts start straying towards the upcoming presidential elections in 2008. The next 13 months we will see an ever increasing media bombardment of political ads and news commentary. In the end it will come down to the same decision as in the past elections, picking the lesser of two evils. Well it's still early and I don't expect to spend much time dwelling on politics, at least for now.

American Solutions is a site that attempt to get people together to discuss issues and purpose workable, real world solutions for them. It's meant to be a bipartisan effort by involving people from across the political spectrum. Focusing less on the Presidency or Congress, but focusing on Local and State officials. The site is still a little new but there's some interesting ideas and discussions forming or in progress there. Oh and for my Democrat readers, don't let Newt scare you off. :D