>Archive for the ‘Gaming’ Category

Plants vs. Zombies

Popcap, purveyors of digital crack have unleashed their latest game: Plants vs. Zombies. It’s basically tower defence where the creeps are zombies and the towers are plants. The game is a great mix of addictive gameplay, great visuals and some absolute comedic moments with Crazy Dave (He’s CRAZY!).

The game isn’t without its flaws however. One of the biggest ones is that there are no hotkeys, you have to move your mouse to the top of the screen to select new plants. There is a solution to this – AutoIt, the Windows automation tool that has been helping me in MMOs since Star Wars Galaxies. It is able to simulate any input (mouse movements, keyboard presses) and has basic support for hotkeys.

I’ve put together a script for AutoIt 3 that will set up hotkeys on the top number keys to correspond to the 10 seed slots. You can view the script here.

Edit: Gir489 from the Steam Forums has taken the script and improved it beyond all recognition. It now features windowed support, an update checker and numerous other changes. You can find details on the Steam Forums.

Red Alert 2 Multiplayer on Vista

Red Alert 2 is one of the best RTS games that has ever existed with some of the craziest most fun multiplayer I’ve seen. We used to play it a lot at LAN Parties until last year when everyone started moving to Windows Vista. It is one of the few games that uses IPX for network games and Windows Vista does not have IPX available.

We thought that this was it and Red Alert 2 was dead, however, Scorpio9a has released a patch. The patch makes Red Alert 2 use IP instead of IPX and I’ve tested it and it’s working under Vista! How to get it working?

Download the patch: ts_ra2_lanpatch_1_00.zip
Extract it to your Red Alert 2 directory
Edit ra2.ini and change the ‘NetCard’ setting in the [Network] section to 0 (If you have more than 1 network card, you may need to try different values)
Run Red Alert 2 and choose ‘Network’ and you should end up in the lobby!

Some common problems you might come across are:

Network button doesn’t do anything and just returns to the main menu
You haven’t selected the right network card, just edit ra2.ini in the Red Alert 2 directory and change the NetCard setting in the [Network] section.

You can’t see any games or connect to someone else’s game
Make sure you’ve allowed Red Alert 2 on any firewall like Windows Firewall or Zonealarm. Also make sure everyone is running this patch regardless of operating system, otherwise they might be hosting an IPX game which your IP broadcast can’t see!

If you find this post helpful or have more problems/solutions, then please post a comment and let me know and if Scorpio9a reads this – if you come to a UK LAN Party, let me know and I’ll buy you a drink!

i34 Feedback

So i34 is over and Multiplay have some time to reflect and work out what to improve for PC Gamer Showdown in September and i35 in October. My thoughts on the event are very mixed. Click to read more on my feedback!

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Video from i34

Enjoy!

i34 is here!

Well it’s that time of the year – Multiplay‘s summer gaming festival, i34, is here. It’s a new venue and a new style of event for MPUK and UK LAN Parties. In the past few years, the i-Series events have become more and more commercial and more of an expo/event tournament LAN with less for the traditional casual LAN gamer. Recognising this, Multiplay have upped their game and have now turned their typical large UK LAN Party into a gaming festival.

I’m here with Box ‘o’ Win and will be taking photos and putting them in the gallery. We’re on rows U and V on the far side of the hall so come and say hi! I arrived about 4PM and with the rest of the box, we set up the Tent ‘o’ Win – a 30ft x 10ft gazebo for drinking and general socialising. After that, Shazz and I went to Leamington and found our Travelodge with the largest room I’ve ever seen in a Travelodge, with room not just to swing a cat, but an entire zoo! We then went and joined the epic queue for checkin. It was only 30mins or so waiting when we queued, but there were people queuing for almost 2 hours to get checked in.

First thoughts on the event? It’s OK. Having everyone in one room is interesting and with the lights off there is a bit of atmosphere, but it’s not a patch on DreamHack. The trouble I think MPUK will have is that the tournament gamers will not want the lights off during their tournaments, and they definitely won’t want loud pounding music. Both of which are important in bringing the atmosphere to DreamHack.

The MFestival exhibition isn’t open yet, it’s scheduled to open at 9AM with all manner of exhibitors and an epic stage, that by all reports, dwarves anything attempted at a previous i-Series.

As always, photos and video can be found on the gallery as well as on YouTube.

Team Fortress 2 T-Shirts

I like Team Fortress 2. It’s a game I’m finally good at, so I’ve decided to get some T-Shirts made for it, if possible. The two T-Shirts are below:

Update!

I’ve had these shirts made and they’re great. The company I used was AKAK, however any T-Shirt printer should be able to do these. They worked out about £12.50 each ($20 or so) . I’ve also considered getting a Sandvich T-Shirt made:

Sandvich Shirt

i33 – Day 1

So I’m finally here at Multiplay’s i33 event in Newbury, Berkshire. Possibly the last event here! After arriving at 2PM and checking in (although not allowed to go into the building), I set up a pro sleeping space in the red room and finally at 6PM managed to get into the Box o Win. It’s not bad, quite a decent size, good mix of games.

Not much else happening tonight, so off to bed. Quite glad I’m not staffing this event as a number of things have made it trickier for staff. Anyhow, I’m off, but the first lot of photos are up on my gallery now.

Wembley

Hi from Wembley Stadium! I’m here with the CentralanUK team and some great guys from EnemyDown running the £50,000 Unreal Tournament 3 National Championships.

A 5AM start for setup, and we’re finally kicking off with only an hour delay. We’ve had fun with power connectors, delivery, wireless keyboards and all manner of venue difficulties, but it’s all working and we’re ready to go!

I’ll try and get some photos up along with some coverage throughout the event.

Murray-Mint.co.uk

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