Pros:

• Played on Riot! Games stage for League of Legends (LoL) and lost horribly! My screen was one of the highlighted ones and it was not a good game for me… maybe this should also be a con…
• Played in a Battlefield 3 mini-tournament with the new expansion pack CQB.  I came in tied for 5th but ended up 6th or 7th score wise.  Not bad for a tourney of 16.
• Cosplay and lots of it this year!
• High-Rez studios releasing Smite, another MOBA type game like LoL only in a 3rd person point of view.

• Double Dragon Neon! This game brings back memories
• Lots of free-to-play games coming out
• Won a t-shirt at Ghost Recon for winning our match
• Torchlight 2, Diablo 3 betas on PC for 30 minutes

I can’t tell you how frustrated I was when I joined the beta. After playing CoD:BO for months (getting to 9th prestige), I entered back into the world of PC first person shooter (FPS) gaming. The learning curve wasn’t too hard as I’ve always been a PC gamer, but the learning curve for BF3 was incredibly harder than I had imagined.

I had a couple of weeks to enjoy BF3 until Modern Warfare 3 (MW3) came out.  Like CoD:BO, MW3 was fast paced, easy and required some strategy, but not to the level of BF3 did.  And within a week of MW3′s release, I played the game twice.  The rest of my gaming December was filled with BF3.  Why?

Tanks, helicopters, jets and more tanks!

In MW3, the game is very linear.  You worry about your other opponents who are also ground forces.  Once in awhile, you’ll get the killstreak helicopter or airstrike, but those can be easily shot down with a rocket launcher.  Otherwise, you worry about those on the ground.  Fast forward to BF3!  Tanks, helicopters and jets that you as a player can drive/pilot.  You can blow up buildings, collapse them and all inside. You can destroy barricades, lay down anti-tank mines or hop in an anti-air vehicle and shoot down those pesky choppers.  In the case of BF3, you not only need to worry about ground forces (other players), but you need to also watch out for tanks that patrol, light-armored vehicles (LAVs) that can transport others to objectives, or even jeeps that can run you over!  And that’s not mentioning helicopters that can spot you, shoot you down or blow up the building you are hiding in.  Battlefield 3 adds that extra dimension and strategy that Modern Warfare 3 can’t and that is vehicles.  How do you defend or attack your opponent who is steam-rolling you in an M1 Abrams tank?

Alright, enough about the game.  I’ve spent entirely way too much time playing but I’ve had a lot of fun.  If you’d like to add me, check my stats or play with me, feel free to shoot me a message and I’ll be more than happy to join you.  I now leave you with some screenshots and a short video by jackfrags!

My Battlelog Profile

[Disclaimer: I took more than these pictures but put the better ones up. And be sure to visit TechRepublic which used my pictures too]

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 V

Star Wars Unleashed II

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Monday Night Combat

Star Wars: The Old Republic

It has only taken 6 years, but Mac owners can now enjoy what the rest of us Windows owners have enjoyed for the past half-decade.  Awesome gaming!

Valve has confirmed that Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1 and 2 will be released today on the Steam platform.  I honestly can’t wait to try it out.  Too bad I’m expecting the same artifacts as Portal has (Portal is made by Valve too), and I’m expecting some graphic inconsistencies compared to the Windows version.  But if it keeps me from Boot Camping, I’ll take it.  Now, when will Left 4 Dead or Modern Warfare 2 port over to the Mac?

OH! And for those who say Mac’s are superior, they aren’t meant for gaming, some other random babble… I do own a Mac and am entitled to my own opinions… even though the benchmarks are facts! In the meantime, check the video:

Steam released their platform for “cloud” gaming for Mac OS X last week and I have had a full week of gaming to assess whether or not Macs can handle full-time gaming.  The verdict?  It is OK.

Just OK.  Since this is the first huge release for gaming on the Mac, there will be a lot of issues and bugs.  There have been a lot of crashes on my MacBook Pro and when Steam is running, it is still very glitchy.  There are currently 2 games that I have been playing (1 replaying) on OS X:  Portal and Torchlight.  Portal issues can be found at Tom’s Hardware, where they have given a full comprehensive review with benchmarks for Steam.

Torchlight on the other hand, works.  And I use work loosely as the graphics are almost the same as a PC, but I’m not sure MacBooks are meant to handle gaming like Alienware laptops can.  I’ve already had my MacBook shut off on me due to overheating, and the fan is constantly running… loud and fast.  I can’t even play with the MacBook on my lap! While Torchlight is not very graphically intense, I can only imagine what would happen if Macs try to run Crysis…

So while everything seems fine and games can be played, my hopes aren’t too high when it comes to the future gaming on Macs.  Yes, you might be able to play less intense games, but what about us hardcore gamers who play BFBC2, MW2, Crysis or L4D?  Looks like PCs to me…

I’m here a bit early and I have a couple of pics of vendors setting up.  There are a lot of people down stairs waiting to get in!  It is going to be one looooong day!  Keep tuned to more pics.  I’ll be putting them up in Flickr as the day goes on (or follow the Flickr widget below).

3 floors of all day gaming, talks, more gaming and demos.  Now that you’ve seen the map, take a look at the schedule!

I’m trying to find a balance between attending sessions, taking hundreds of pictures, interviews with game companies, hitting the expo floor and demoing some new games.  It won’t be easy, but I need to find time for lunch and dinner in there too!

If there is any session that you want me to take notes on, a podcast of or anything else, please let me know!