Battlefield Wiki

There are many wikis about gaming out there on the web. You can more than likely find a wiki available for any modern game or series of games. There are also wikis for much older games, and if there isn't one, then it can easily be created.

You can find a wiki here for the whole Battlefield series of games from 1942 to Battlefield games that are still in production. This wiki contains a lot of information for there games that have already come out, but it lacks information for their newer games such as the new Vietnam expansion for Battlefield: Bad Company 2. It could lack information because very little information about the game has actually been released and very few people may have had the opportunity to play it. The game comes out December 18th for PC, and December 21st for both PS3 and Xbox360, so much more information will be added to the Battlefield: Bad Company 2: Vietnam portion of the wiki once the game is officially released.

There are many, many more wikis out there. For example, you can find wikis for the Fallout series, or the Mass Effect series with just a simple google search. These wikis can contain any kind of information such as backstory, voice acting information, appearances, their purpose in the game, and much more.

Steam Sale

There is a sale on steam going on right now on steam through November 29th. You can go to http://store.steampowered.com to view the sale in your browser, or just load up the steam client if you have it. The front page has a different set of deals everyday. For example, the Indie Story Pack is usually $59.95, but it is on sale for 92% off making it total out to $4.99. These sales won't last long.

Purchasing Through Steam

Here is a tutorial video I made showing just how easy it is to purchase games through the Steam platform that I described in this post. It is really quite easy to do, and takes almost no time at all.

Sam's Teach Yourself YouTube in 10 Minutes

The book, Sam’s Teach Yourself YouTube in 10 Minutes by Michael Miller, is about learning YouTube, as you probably could have guessed. There are 26 lessons to be read, which deal with various aspects both on, and off YouTube. 

            The first thing that I noticed about the book, was that it started off at the basics, as if the reader knows nothing about YouTube. That is good for anyone who has not had any experience at all with YouTube, but for many the book will start slow because of that. The first few lessons comprise of tutorials on customizing YouTube to your liking, creating an account, how to search for videos, and how to watch a video. These are necessary fundamentals, but if you already know these fundamentals, you can likely skip ahead a few lessons. The next thing that I notice was the ease of use and fluidity of the steps when a process is given. Many pictures are given so that the reader can visually see what they are supposed to do at times, and the results that they should be receiving.

            This book does not deal with just beginner level topics though. Lessons teach you what various features do, and how to get full use out of them. There are lessons that teach the reader about how to use playlists, saving favorite videos, email videos, embedding videos in a website, posting a video to your blog, and much more. None of these are required to use YouTube, but many of them will help the user get the most enjoyment out of their YouTube experience.

            YouTube is not just about watching videos, but about uploading new videos as well. This book teaches the reader about uploading their videos to YouTube. I must say though that the examples are more geared towards business product advertisements, but all of the lessons will be useful to almost anybody looking to upload a video. The book teaches not just about uploading the file to YouTube, but tips and tricks to capturing the video footage itself. Some of the tips teach the reader about adding light sources, the rule of thirds, and background selections. The book also discusses how cameras and their specifications will affect the resulting video. Transferring the video to your computer and uploading it to YouTube is also discussed. All of these tutorials are in an easy to follow, step-by-step format.

            Much like the subject of Web 2.0, YouTube is always changing and evolving. That means that books written on a subject dealing with Web 2.0 become outdate rapidly. Unfortunately, this is the case with this book. Most of the information is still up-to-date and accurate, but parts of earlier lessons are slightly outdated. Because YouTube underwent a style redesign on their video player and menus recently, many of the pictures will not match up. Most of the instructions and procedures are still relevant and correct, but on a few procedures the reader may need to figure out where the option or menu has been moved to. 

            If you are a beginner, this book will teach you everything you need to know to use YouTube, but because YouTube is changing frequently, some of the instructions may seem outdated. Even if you feel you know everything about YouTube, you still may learn a thing or two. Overall, this is a good book for everyone to read who wants to know anything about YouTube. It is easy to follow, easy to understand, and divided into clear concise sections.

Fallout: New Vegas

A title called Fallout: New Vegas was released earlier this week. As you can probably tell, it takes place in and around Las Vegas. Not Las Vegas as we know it though, a post-apocalyptic Las Vegas. The Fallout series is based on a post-apocalyptic world.

I only have about 12 hours invested in the game so far, but I am enjoying the game so far. It does not feel as fun and complete as Fallout 3 did (another great game by the way). The game looks great, if your machine can handle it. Even on amazing machines, you may get horrible amounts of lag constantly. Fallout 3 had the problem of crashing a log, this one has the problem of lagging a lot. You may get lucky and have a setup that is not vulnerable to large amounts of lag.

The voice acting is quite good, but not amazing. The dialogue from some people in the game is quite hilarious. Finding a lot of the funny characters in the world is an adventure in itself. Since this is Fallout, the main path of the story does not lead you to everything you can possibly do. You will have to do some old-fashioned exploring to uncover all of the hidden gems in the world.

I recommend this game if you enjoy a good FPS with a lot of adventuring on your own. Steam is required to play this game.

The Orange Box

The Orange Box was a group of games released in the same package on October 10th, 2007. It comprised of five games: Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal, and Team Fortress 2. The last three of which were new releases at the time. The first two were released at earlier times, but were bundled with the new three to create The Orange Box.

When The Orange Box came out, it was $50, just like most PC game releases. Now, it can be bought on Steam for $30. The package offers something for everyone who likes First Person Shooters (FPS). A great single player story in Half-Life 2 and both of the episodes. Playing the first Half-Life game is not completely necessary to understand the story, but it is also a great game. The Orange Box also offers a fun puzzle game in Portal and a brilliantly replayable and quirky multiplayer game in Team Fortress 2.

I believe that those five games for just $30 is a steal. Even all five of those games for the $50 it was when it was released was a steal. Each game can be purchased alone for even less than The Orange Box as a package.

Powered by Steam

With the improvement over the years in high speed Internet connections to the mass market, comes the ability to pay for and receive digital copies of video games. The digital download service Steam ( http://www.steampowered.com ) is for just that purpose. Steam is a leading platform for the distribution of digital games. The steam platform gives you quite a bit of information on games that it offers for sale.

Steam also has more sales on games then you can possibly imagine. It is common for there to be a sale on certain games every week, and a different sale for the weekend. It is also common for big blowout sales for special events of the year like Christmas and the December holidays.

As Internet speeds and popularity continue to improve, digital distribution will continue to become more popular. Allowing for the ability to purchase and play at our fingertips, Steam will continue to deliver PC games to anyone willing to play them.