Borderlands 2 and Youtube

Hello fellow GraWists and welcome back!

Ok... lets get something out of the way before we start in earnest... I would love to earn a comfortable living in the game design/journalist/development/commentary. I can barely put into words what gaming means to me but lets face it... the world doesn't revolve around warm, fuzzy feelings.
YouTube is the home of gaming comment. Whilst the websites and blogs throughout the WWW allow people to convey their thoughts in a more detailed and hopefully, intelligent way, being able to just click onto a channel and watch a 4 minute review was always going to end up as the top form of media.
With this in mind I began my YouTube channel about 6 months ago. I was tentative for obvious reasons.... I'm not naive enough to believe that becoming a YT legend happens overnight. I have since managed to get my subscriber base over 50 (a massive thank you to those guys!) and my content has steadily improved, mainly in the area of my live commentary.
However, I feel it is now the time to declare openly that I would like an official YT partnership with a gaming network.... and I hope you guys reading this can help!
So what have I been doing to gain this partnership, I hear you ask. Well aside from working on getting better, more structured content up on my channel, I have been applying to the smaller networks, offering my videos as ''CV'', if you like. It does seem though that something is missing. So what I need from you, dear readers, is some helpful input!

1) Please rate my videos - good or bad could you let me know what you think. Especially bad. I can't get better if I don't know whats wrong with my content :D

2) Share my videos - If 10 people share a video then the chances are that 50 people will watch it. However if you ask your 5 friends to share it then potentially 250 people might watch it, and so on and so forth. This is the viral attribute that is missing from a lot of the videos I produce... so I decided I needed to be proactive in this particular area.

3) Subscribe - Its free and it keeps you up to date with what I'm playing and allows you to communicate freely with me.

So now you have read this you are probably thinking something along the lines of  ''this is selfish and not in the ethos of the BacK2GraW team!''.... You couldn't be more wrong. Brand awareness has to come from somewhere and after speaking to Gee at length about the individual brands this was my response:
How can the BacK2GraW brand grow if no-one is looking. B2G on YouTube is a singular entity, but with all 4 members doing what they enjoy, gathering individual fan bases the group as a whole can become a diverse and popular setting in the future.
Lets get something clear though.. the end goal is for the BacK2GraW GROUP to be known world wide for quality comment, humour and reviewing. We all work hard in our own ways to achieve this and ultimately the group will unite under the single banner to provide our own Community Network. In the meantime I just have to stick to what I know and try my best. Hopefully you understand.
So to kick start your viewing here are the YouTube channels, and I hope you enjoy what you see!

www.youtube.com/ollypantrey
www.youtube.com/goblingee
www.youtube.com/insomniaplaysgames
www.youtube.com/dominchutchinson-backer

Banditlands 2!! Sorry, Borderlands 2

Ok! With that out of the way lets get down to some gaming talk... starting with Borderlands 2! (I feel there should be a cutscene with a still image of a hideous creature and his nickname... but.... meh)

This is one of the craziest games I have ever laid my eyes on. Set on a planet called Pandora you are a vault hunter, who is very much disliked by the guy in charge, Handsome Jack. After a failed attempt to murder you, it is imperative you rid the planet of Jack and his evil regime whilst helping to save the residents in this lawless and baron world.

With that in mind you should understand that this is a dungeon crawler in a similar vein to say Skyrim. It has large, expansive landscapes that offer a main story along with a multitude of side quests and challenges. You bump into many different people that create this large scale Bandit Country. From people that share your cause to people that flat out want the bounty that is on your head, you move from area to area, facing min bosses left, right and centre. This would seem to be not too bad but the native creatures you encounter are terrifying! Bullymongs, Skegs and Spitters are everywhere, not to mention the hoards of Marauding folk just trying to stay alive.
Whilst I'm not going to give out any spoilers I want to give a brief outline on the way this game works.

The Artwork

Imagine a comic book in a post apocalypse world. Now imagine the comic book coming to life. Now imagine that the comic book is beautifully drawn to look 2d, but actually be 3d. Now imagine that everybody wants to kill you. BOOM! You are now officially in Pandora. However, I feel this really doesn't do the game justice. It is a wonderful mix of detailed graphical creatures and simple thick line drawings, blended to create a unique yet stunning environment whether you are in the snowy tundra or the baking desert. I described it in my videos like being in a Bevis and Butthead cartoon... I think you get the idea.
The vibrant, yet pencil sketch colouring, leaves a stark impression that this game is supposed to be tongue in cheek and it certainly is. This doesn't make the animals and wild beasts any less scary though! I haven't even mentioned the psychos either but perhaps that its saying too much.


The Combat

Guns.... lots of guns. Also grenades.... lots of grenades.
Umm yep that about covers the current character I'm using... the Gunzerker/Tank/Fat Mexican Boss.
This of course isn't the truth about what this game offers to the player in the way of killing enemies. It actually does as exceptional job of creating a balanced team of characters for you to choose and customise to your particular style of gaming.
There are 4 ''heroes'' to choose from. A commando, a siren, a gunzerker and an assassin.
These have individual skill sets that can be upgraded persistently throughout the gameplay using the badass tokens and skills tokens you are awarded whilst you level up and complete challenges. Each class also has an ability to utilise a 'special'.
These specials are unique to each character and range from a minigun turret to becoming invisible. They are incredibly useful when in combat situations where the odds seem to be stacked against you.
These classes also allow you to engage in different styles of combat, be it close range, long range or using 'magic' shall we say.
All in all the combat seems to be well rounded apart from the fact that enemies can shoot accurately when being shot. This is somewhat annoying but the AI's ability to take cover and actually become injured to the point they cant return fire is a beautiful design and makes the gun fights seem far more real and engaging.
One word of warning... if an enemy has a higher level than you (noticeable by the number next to their health bar), run.... or get a friend to help....

Multiplayer

Yes! There is a multiplayer. I'm sorry to dissappoint all the fps fans out there wanting team deathmatch, as it is in the story only. This is, however, one of the greatest achievements of this game. It works supremely well in or out of multiplayer because of the ability to hotjoin. Oh yes, no longer do you have to worry about starting a campaign again because one of your friends bought the game late. Just set it up to invite friends and where ever you are on in the story they will join and be able to help achieve all your targets whilst leveling up themselves.
This is soo much fun, especially when the vehicles come out! You can even have all 4 members in one vehicle.... but I'll stop myself there.
Does the game become easier when you are in multiplayer? No. Very much no.
The game has an adjustable difficulty dependent on the number of people that are playing. Play on your own and its tough. Play with 2 and it is very tough. I think you can guess what playing with 3 or 4 people is like! Fear not though because as a bonus, loot drops are increased in rarity, you just have to get over the fact the enemy damage hits are harder and they have increased health.... all in all a pretty fair trade off I think!
The game really becomes fun though even with the difficulty increase as the different classes actually compliment each other when in combat. I'm not going to get into that now as it might go too far as a spoiler to what is still a new game.

So I think Im going to leave you with that as a taster towards Borderlands 2. I'm currently doing a walkthrough on my YT channel so I don't want to give away all the secrets!
Just know one thing, this game is as mental as it is addictive. It is also one of the best multiplayer experiences available at the moment and I can't wait play it from the second I turn it off. Usually because it is very late and my wife is very angry...... usually it is worth it!

Cheers

Flads

Whats The Haps??

Hello Fellow GraWists and welcome back finally to the blog!!


I better start off with an apology for the absence but unfortunately IRL stuff does tend to get in the way sometimes and after spending a lot of time preparing and then delivering in Amsterdam, I have at last managed to find some time to fill you all in on what is occurring on Planet B2G.

Tekkit:

It's been around for sometime now but after playing Minecraft religiously for about a year I needed a break and so missed the arrival of the Technic pack and the subsequent Tekkit addition.
For those of you wondering what Tekkit is, think Minecraft with industrial machinery and ridiculously complex recipes and you will have scratched the surface. What with power plants, quarries and Turtles it is a full on Mod for the cult Indie game and I can't wait to get into it.
There is a catch however, and I noticed it when I attempted to use Redstone for anything other than mood lighting, and that is I'm rubbish at Minecraft..... So I brought a friend along to help me out. That friend is Dixikinz who you will all know from previous blogs and videos.
You will be able to keep track of how things progress through the YouTube channels and on here. Personally I can't wait!

Ghost Recon Online:

We have not managed to stop playing this game since we started testing it in Closed Beta and that is a real credit for Ubi, seeing as we are their biggest critics! Gee is leading the charge on here as he attempts to get himself into the top 10 for the Assault class. He has been making friends along the way, not to mention raging hard whilst on and off his computer which makes it all the more entertaining. I shall get him to keep you update on that!

Background and General Design For the Website:

www.back2graw.com/downloads

In his spare time B2G's Insomnia likes to kill Orcs and design things.... which is good for you, dear reader, because you can get hold of them on the website download page NOW! So not only will your computer's desktop look the mutt's nuts but you can also show your friends how GraW you are and marvel at how Sore they are!
Insomnia has also been working hard on the forum which, incidently, has grown in popularity and has become a great place to go and chat. This brings me quite nicely onto the last piece of news.....

The Official BacK2GraW PlanetSide 2 Clan:

We couldn't let one of the most anticipated games of the year go without an official clan from the grumpiest gamers in the world!
Over in the forum you will find a new section dedicated to the clan, its members and their interests. With members already joined it is set to be an exciting start to the beta, which is epic I will add, and with the team orientated focus of the GraWists leading the charge the Teran Republic can only win... surely... maybe...
Anyway, if you are into co-operative gaming and like to have a chat and meet new Gamers you should get yourself over to http://www.back2graw.com/forum and join in the community!

So hoepfully that covers about everything for the time being and I shall keep you informed on developments as they happen! Make sure you keep an eye out for the Tekkit Diaries and the Ghost Recon Online reports as they come in!!

Cheers

Flads

Insomnia Reviews...Orcs Must Die! 2

Orcs must die! 2 is mix between a third person action game and tower defense made by robot entertainment (founded in 2009), who also brought you Age of empires online along with the original Orcs Must Die! Orcs Must Die 2 currently retails for 15 USD or 12 pounds.

While this was meant to be a review it may end up sounding a little bit more like a sales pitch, however I also realize that there are issues with every game, and that while it may be great, nothing is perfect.

Orcs Must die! 2 has a few modes of game play, firstly story.

While I think that this may be a weaker point of the game, its still decent and i do not think it really needs to be any longer than it is i believe there are only three or four cutsceens in the game, but there is no need to have it go on any longer as the banter between the two main characters at the start of the levels are enough to keep it interesting, silly and above all else..... silly. The biggest downside to the story mode however is that it really feels like you should have someone there with you committing mass orc murder. The game also has a Co-Op modes for both Story and endless witch both feel a lot more natural, as theres usually more than one rift (where orcs come from).

When i first played endless mode, to be honest I was very disappointed, to me it just seemed like another way to extend the game, however when i actually put more time into it I discovered that there were more levels hidden deep within the endless mode that never showed up in story mode, thus my interest in the game was reignited. during endless mode you will be put up against increasingly harder waves of orcs, killing Mr Moneybags (he needs to die, as he is your main source of in game currency) and keeping the orcs well away

from their goal.. along with that during endless mode you will also come across a much larger variety of orcs than you did in the story mode (if you played on normal / war mage).

The traps, weapons, passive abilities and active abilities you have within the game is decided by where you chose to spend skulls in the spell book, that are earned within the game over story mode and endless mode. There are a few different tactics you can employ having the same traps, but selecting different abilities for the traps, for example the arrow trap is usually placed on the wall, however if skulls are spent in the right skill,

it may also be placed on the roof, then it can also be upgraded to either do additional fire damage or slow people it hits, the combinations for traps and skills seem almost endless!

However at the same time i also do wish that they had added a few more physics based traps, and allowed more opportunities to chain the physics based traps together, in the same breath though that is really a small gripe when you consider how much the game coasted to begin with, and the prominence of DLC in todays world of gaming.

The gameplay it self is fast paced, and the game builds up at a nice rate. It does get progressively harder but not to a point where it's going to throw you right out of your depth for no good reason. When you first start a game, you will be asked to chose your traps and place them, during this time you may also have a wander around the map, and figure out just how you're going to make those orcs die... because lets face it, they must.

Robot Entertainment really has made Orcs Must Die! 2 an exceptional Co-Op experience, and while a few of you will be sitting there with a frown on your faces thinking "really... another tower defense game?", I would urge you to give it a shot, the game is cheep and it has a very good balance between action and tower defense.

The pace of trap placing is very dependent on the person playing, you can either be very strategical about it or not. the choice really is yours and here lies one of it's greatest attributes!

Anyway, from me this game gets five skulls.

Insomnia

What Am I Supposed To Do Now?

Hello Fellow GraWists,

It is with a heavy heart that I report to you today with the sad news that my beloved Ghost Recon Online.... has.... has..... finished open Beta testing..... I.. I'm sorry.. just give me a moment *sobs into headset*.

Right, anyway I suppose I beta give you an overview of how the testing went and what you guys can look forward to in the near future (1 Cookie if you noticed the awful pun!). Plus there is some good news to give rise to happy thoughts coming too!

So, as you may already know I was somewhat in love with GRO and even with the problems from the end of Beta Session 2 (read massive crouching bug), I couldn't wait for the 3rd session to get under way.
After entering the arena again I was pleasantly surprised to find this glitch had gone and now the game was running far smoother (for me at any rate), with improved frame rate even whilst recording, which is always nice.

The complaint many people were having was that, as a supposed browser game, it was pretty intensive on hardware but to be honest after downloading about 5GB of content this was anything but a browser game, and quite frankly, trying to play with a core 2 processor and Intel family graphics (which uses your main RAM as it has no dedicated) would be easily seen as naive!

So it was plain sailing I hear you cry... well no actually. Although the game breaking glitch had been fixed it did seem there some other smaller and slightly more annoying bugs that crept into the build which I shall address now.
Firstly, the grenade bug. This isn't a balance issue as such, more of a preemptive strike. Basically what happened was if a grenade was thrown past you, even way past you, for some reason you took hit damage. Now this wasn't direct impact damage, it was just a random kick in the balls as it sailed past. This is only a problem when you are on about 50 hp and someone lobs a grenade downtown only for you to get killed by what i can only describe as a shock-wave. Honestly, some of these guys would have been superstars in the American Rounders League or whatever it is. Fortunately even with my limited programming knowledge this seems like a pretty easy fix in as much as you can't use radioactive grenades because the person throwing them would have luminous genitalia and that would be a dead give away.

Second up into the Flads Fail list is the Heat Perk. Now I better start off by saying this is my favourite Perk and as a result I ended up 7th in the WORLD for suppression after closed Beta, which I think qualifies me to give it some criticism. Lets begin with Mk2 Heat and Wide Emitter (a purchasable add on). This to me is OP (over powered). There is only really one place that this can be countered from, distance wise, and that is the long sight lines at the end of  Korolyov Towers (point C). Other than that you are pretty much able to suppress entire teams across whole widths of the map from a distance of 70m, which in this game is a bloody long way. Maybe a change to say 50m would offer some sort of balance considering how early it is available to people, which is level 12 Assault.
Next is something that you only really notice once you get used to the perk and how it works. Basically you can intensify the heat source by scrolling the mouse wheel. This is supposed to increase the power on the target but reduce your field of effect. What happens though is that you get fewer hit points and it even stops effecting the target fullstop sometimes, which needless to say is annoying. This has probably cost me somewhere in the region of 10 kills with Heat and sometimes those kills can be game changing!

However, with that out of the way I want to assure everyone this game has come on since the last maintenance period and the Devs have done a great job listening to the community and making the changes that were suggested.
The only real thing I see left is some balance issues, visa vie the mentally overpowered top end shotguns and LMGs.
If you can snipe with a shotgun or out gun an SMG with an LMG in CQB (enough with the abbreviations already!) then i'm sorry but there is a problem.
The NS2000 shotgun is a beast granted but people were using it in a similar fashion to the Pentagun in session 2. Basically once unlocked it was like being in Godmode. One shot kills from all of 50m is not cool and the people that used it were equally uncool and more often than not, kill whore try hards.... my least favourite of the try hard family.
The LMG that seemed to be unstoppable against any other gun was the M249. Before everyone start saying QQ I understand that this gun, even IRL is very, very good. If it wasn't then most armies in the Western world would not use it as the go to support gun. However, I very much doubt that given the time it takes to bring that 150 pound lump of metal to bear, it could out do an SMG in close quarter battle even with split second differences in reaction time. It just wouldn't happen. Period.

Wait... wait, there is one more thing niggling me..... The damn spawns in Conquest. Now I moaned about spawn killing already so I am not going to get back into that, this is a far more constructive idea.
When playing with decent players on both sides the critical point of the match by far is the C flag. This one flag is the difference between winning and losing. I ended that sentence there because as far as I can see when you are in a game with evenly balanced high level players once C is gone you are really in trouble. It isn't so bad when there are noobs playing because it becomes a lot easier to punch holes back into their advances, but with Vet's playing the problem is almost terminal.
My suggestion to Ubi is that the spawn of the team that just lost the flag should be 50% closer to the next objective than they currently are (which is a long, long way!). I feel this will offer the team that just lost a flag a much better chance to create a far more effective comeback, thus putting the game into more of a to and fro power struggle where skill genuinely comes out on top, instead of the steam rolling stampede that is created. If anyone says teamwork this and teamwork that, you are kidding yourself. Alot of the time it boils down to luck and I think it would be better for everyone if skill at the top end of the game prevailed.
I also think by doing this we get into the a balanced area that makes it more fun for new comers yet more challenging for experienced players, which can only be a good thing.

So, with that all out in the open how can I conclude this somewhat endless post? Well it is easy.

This FREE game is freaking epic! I waxed lyrical about Future Soldier when it first came out but then the problems started kicking in and made it a miserable experience in quite a short space of time, however this game seems to blossom and grow the more I play it and that makes Flads happy!
The comms from the Devs has been good, the GM on the chat has been a massive help too. The ingame ticketing service has allowed fairly trouble free reporting and the game itself plays out very nicely across the board (must.. not... mention.. spawn rape....).
All in all it has been one of the best beta experiences I have had the honour of being involved with and that is down to the people that play as much as the guys working behind the scenes. Thanks to everyone for making it such a great testing session and I can't wait to play against/with you in the near future.

Cheers

OldFlads

Its All Going On Now!!

Hello Fellow GraWists!!

After my last blog stating that the world of video gaming had suddenly awoken, it seems that I managed to stir up a hornets nest of activity! Not only did the release date of the Ghost Recon Future Soldier title update get released, some bigger, and quite frankly better, news came in that I just had to share with you!

Where to start.... well lets kick off with news from the End of Nations camp. Not satisfied with dishing out a single piece of drool worthy information, they went the whole hog and released 3 announcements!!

Beta Start Date

On the 20th of July the Beta doors at End Of Nations will fly open and let hoards of RTS fans flood onto its servers. After years in Alpha tweeking and testing we are finally going to be able to talk a little more freely about this glorious game. Although I'm not going to give out spoilers I think it is important that everyone who even heard of Command and Conquer gives this game more than a fleeting glance.
Its hugely ambitious setup will leave you in a spin as you take on the might of huge tanks, speedy ground assault vehicles and co-ordinated infantry in mass strategic combat. Taking place in battles stretching across the whole world you fight for your chosen faction with the sole aim of domination.

But Flads how do I get involved in this????? Well that, dear readers, is a good question and fortunately I have the answers for you. To make life easy for you (and me) I'll break it down into steps:

1) Go to www.endofnations.com.
2) Sign up to the lively and highly intelligent forum (just for your information it is one of the most grown up games forums I have been on and I don't mean that in an elitest way either!).
3) Register your interest for the Beta.
4) Sit and wait for a beta key.
I should include that crossing legs, fingers and eyes along with holding a rabbits foot and 4 leafed clover is rumored to increase your chances.... Although I can't officially confirm that.

However should you be a little inpatient there is another way that you can get involved! Follow steps 1 and 2 from above but instead of just registering for the beta, you can actually get involved in helping fund the development and becoming a Founder Member! This will grant you priority access to the beta along with giving you early access to the main game, grants you an XP boost over 60 games, gives you a 5 level headstart on a new commander plus lots more. This really is value for money if you are into this type of game and not only that but it secures you a little piece of RTS history to boot so it's WIN, WIN!!

If that wasn't enough the Trion guys managed to reveal another little gem! The last piece of exciting news is the tentative release date of August 17th.... yes the actual release date! That leaves a good month of beta testing to whet your appetites and then you can really get stuck into the grind.. leaving nothing but smoking machinery in your wake (cue evil laugh!!!)

Ok time now just to take a breath and calm down.... right enough calming down this next piece of news is also bladder squeezingly good.

I should probably state that you might find this a little selfish of me but none the less I think you should know.
Yesterday at 20 minutes past my official bedtime I was sitting on my computer staring bleary eyes at a rampant Twitter feed. I had been spamming Planetside 2 for about an hour and half (much to the detriment of my Twitter following!!) when a message appeared in my inbox.....

That is right my friends, Old Flads is once again going into battle for you.. this time in the outrageous world of Planetside 2! My beta key, one of about 4 million they gave out yesterday, finally arrived and I went from very tired to worryingly awake. However even with the sleep deprivation, knowing I was safely in the priority beta section was a relief to say the least. I really am excited about this game and I know that once my fellow BacK2GraW members collect their keys they will be too!

Getting a beta key for Planetside 2 is a similar affair to End Of Nations. Once again I shall save you a wall of text and give you the simplified version:

1) Go to www.planetside2.com
2) Get a Sony Online entertainment Passport
3) Go to Twitter and follow @Planetside2
4) Spam unceremoniously at the poor bugger from SOE in hope you get a beta key



So hopefully that gets you up to date with the current news we are most interested in and I hope to see lots of you on the various battlefields, be it trading wits or trading lasers!

Cheers

Old Flads

Games are a bit like Buses....

Hello fellow GraWists and welcome back!!

I'd better start by explaining the title (it's a bit of an English phrase), basically when it looked like all there was left to look forward to was another mundane replica of Modern Warfare, the world of game development woke up and delivered a deluge of gaming porn to oggle !! This, loyal readers, is a beautiful thing.

It was fair to say we were excited about the release of the Ghost Recon games from Ubi, but being impatient and always on the look out for the next best thing, the horizon looked dim, colourless and a bit wintry. That was until we heard about a little game called Planetside 2! What's that? You already heard of it?.... Good then you will understand my excitement!

Planetside 2 is a game that we can break down into two genres: The MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online Game) and the FPS (First Person Shooter... our favourite!!). Cleverly the bods of the internet simplified things and called it an FPSMMO.... they probably should stick to game dev!
Let me explain to you why then we should all be feeling a rush of blood to the groin area. First person shooters are the favourite genre of the BacK2GraW group... we can't get enough of them so that is one thing PS2 has in its favour. Secondly there has always been that nagging sensation that the maps of certain games were never big enough or there were not enough players or.... you get the idea, something has been missing.
Well to get round the issue of maps not being big enough the Planetside guys stopped refering to them as maps and went for the slightly more ambitious name of Continents... like Africa only bigger. This means that instead of being stuck in a map full of camping little nobodies you are left in a world that allows you to actually plan and execute long term assaults and defenses, and this is where the next plus point comes in.
When they say MMO at Planetside they don't mean 50 players (BF3 and EoN), they don't mean 200 players either! They mean all out 1000+ (yes that says one thousand plus!) players on 3 different factions fighting... at the same time.... on the same map. Excuse me for a second whilst I take a deep breath and contemplate that for the millionth time. That's better, where were we?... oh yeah, 1000+ players.
If you like the idea of wars being held where you, your friends, their girlfriends and the talkitive person on Facebook that seems to know everyone.... and his friends, can strategically plan and then commence on a persistent battle then you need to check this game out!

You may have noticed a word in there that, at first, probably doesn't mean a lot. Persistent. These wars don't happen on a 15 minute timer and then everyone goes back into the lobby to hurl abuse at each others poor mothers. The war doesn't end. Period. When you are asleep, war is raging. When you are at work, war is raging. In fact even when you are sitting in your bathroom wishing you hadn't eaten the Vindaloo from the local Indian, war is raging. How incredible is that idea?

Now I know a lot of people will be saying "this is the second game in the series so its not new". Wrong! This game is being made at a time where technology can actually handle the beautifully rendered backdrops, the endless terrain and the gorgeous lighting. Not to mention the massive amount of people on a server at any one time! This game is a world away from the original and we are very excited about the upcoming beta testing, which rather unsurprisingly, we are already signed up for lol.

The year is shaping up now to be very exciting, and the challenge remains for the Activision peeps to pull their collective fingers out and see what they can really do, because this group for one has bigger fish to fry with titles like this set to be released!

Old Flads

Update and a Bit About Old Flads

                                                                                                                       
Hello Fellow GraWists!!

Sorry about my extended absence but we have been working hard to get everything sorted (read: website and youtube). This is Just a quick post so you guys are kept in the loop so to speak!!

At BacK2GraW we are trying to release the highest quality material for our GraWists to enjoy. Be that the website, blog or YouTube Videos and as a consequence it is taking a little longer than expected to make sure the official launch of our new site is as spectacular as possible!

After reading back through the blogs that we have written so far it does seem that I missed a small detail at the beginning..... Well I say small but ultimately i forgot to introduce myself properly (*facepalm). So without further a due let me give you a short insight into the Crazy World of Old Flads (sings Arthur Browns; FIRE!! to himself).

I'll avoid going into a complete potted life history (because that bores even me lol), but you should know my life has always contained 2 passions... Football and Computer Gaming. I probably should have played professionally but injuries and women prevented that path and as a result I have played socially ever since my late teens. Computer Gaming on the other hand has always been a hobby, well, up to the point when Modern Warfare was released. After that it became a bit of an obsession!
I have always been interested in the military and even started basic training before getting injured and DAOR'ing (I believe the correct term is bottling it). This meant that the fps/tps genre of gaming came quite naturally to me and I embraced it with open arms and square eyes.

Prior to that I had played all the COD's and Medal Of Honors and loved them all, especially Big Red One. The transformation to the online multiplayer however was a revelation. After playing COD4 religiously I moved onto World at War and was introduced into the Clan Match side of things. If you have never experienced clan battles just imagine it as Nerd War. That is no exaggeration either as it was as heated as it was exciting. It also allowed me to be introduced to some of the more interesting names on PSN, the best being Freddy Four Fingers!
WaW was/is my favourite game of the franchise to date but is almost unplayable now due to the excessive number of half wits that think that hacking is some sort of replacement for a sex life, which is a crying shame. However as you have seen, there is sufficient reason for hope, with both Ubisoft and Trion set to release some epic games in the future. My only real concern is that with the coming of the next generation of consoles just around the corner, it is probably asking too much to expect boundary pushing games at this time.

So with the computer gaming side of my life out of the way i'll quickly cover my home life. Basically I am married with 2 children and work as a joiner. See that was quick wasn't it lol. Seeing as this is a gaming blog first and foremost I dont think it is fair on you, dear reader, to be bogged down with the boring intricacies of my IRL existence... especially when the online version has so much going on!! However if you would like me to comment on things outside of video games then I'll more than happily oblige. After all I am probably the most outspoken person you will ever meet/read about/flame on YouTube.

So expect some more reviews and comment in the near future and don't forget to check out my Youtube channel @ www.youtube.com/ollypantrey

Cheers

Old Flads (or now that we are friends... Olly)