Redhawke

As much as I would love to, with articling and whatnot going on around such a time, there's far too much uncertainty, and so I'll have to just count myself out at this stage. Hopefully next year will fare a bit better for me.

Rats! Oh well, looks like I won't be torn away from Civ4 after all.

The giant player is in the same situation Norg described trying to fire into the map. In short, one has to fire pretty randomly in the direction of the map (which is above the Skybox in Italy), to hit enemies which one has no freaking chance of seeing. So, as they say of communism, it works in theory, but not in practice.

I vaguely considered going to FF this year, but A) I had to work like a madman I'm still pretty new to GC and CS generally, and C) I haven't had a valid licence for some time. However, should there be plans in the works, and my fiancee doesn't want to come visit me for that weekend, then it shouldn't be too much of an issue. Someone will have to remind me to clean up my case though. It's pretty damn dusty. Edit, had to disable emoticons

We could always split the difference and go for 9. Not that it matters to me, but it's a suggestion.

Count me in, eh?

Duh. I actually forgot to describe the symptoms of my error. In short, my connection will stutter. Every few seconds, there will be no communication at all for a second or two. So, while I'm moving as far as I'm concerned, the server sees no movement of mine, and then shunts me back to where it last saw me. Unfortunately, the ping rating doesn't reflect it, as my ping is still around 100 (as it usually is) for those seconds where there is a connection. It's a problem that I've not encountered before. It just gets annoying for web browsing, as sometimes packets just won't get sent, but a quick refresh will bring the page up immediately.

Actually, my ISP pretty much admitted that my connection error appeared to be an issue with the integrity of the actual coaxial cable coming into my apartment. The primary reason for this determination was that the connection problems affected (and still do affect) my numerous Macs as well as my PCs. They're coming to check it out on Sunday, but it pretty much means I'm out of the OSS this time around, as the troubles have only gotten worse. I haven't actually been able to play more than half a map for about 1-2 weeks. Nevertheless, if my ISP doesn't straighten up and fly right in a hurry, it may be time for me to switch providers.

Not nearly enough, VooDoo, not nearly enough.

I honestly love the map, and do a little happy dance every time I'm lucky enough to have it in the little section of the rotation which I tend to play each night. I'd play more often, but work and crap tend to get in the way of such. I've stayed up far later than I should have, deprived myself of sleep, and gone to work feeling horrid just to play alivemetal. I have fun on every map, no matter how poorly I'm doing, but it does make some difference how well I do as to how much fun I'm having. With alivemetal, I've finally come across a map where I can just have fun, and enjoy the game without the concept of stats. How well I'm doing has no effect on how much fun I have. I could be the first to drop every round, without having fired a shot off, and it's still fun. Fun fun fun. Alivemetal is where the fun is.

I'll admit two things before I begin. First of all, my skill level is certainly not high enough to be any sort of swing vote in terms of wins. Second, I tend to play CT almost exclusively. Ina ll honesty, the reason for playing CT is that I like the M4. And by like, I mean that I feel naked when I don't have one in my hands. Personally, I prefer playing the cs maps as a CT, primarily because it does require the entire team to work at the game. We can't just camp and wait for the other side to show up. We also don't have the luxury of being able to get into an area, plant a bomb, and let the clock fight the battle for us. No, we have to bust heads and stay alive all the way to the hostages, and all the way back. In fact, the journey back is often more difficult than the journey there. Occasionally the situation comes up where we're either owning the match, or the more common, we're getting fustigated. I can't say this ever really bothers me, primarily because of the blowout rule. If we get beaten by 10 rounds, the map changes. Then, invariably, the teams reorganize, primarily because a lot of regulars just hit the auto-assign button, and let CS do the magic for them. The only sort of unevenness that does bother me is when the raw numbers are very uneven. A 12 vs 8 run is never particularly fun when you're part of the 8. Auto-balance kicks in after a round or two, and some of the regulars or admins are usually kind enough to switch to fill the gap. In all honesty, I'd be happy to take the bottom of the opposing roster just to even the numbers. It can be frustrating to lose on a constant basis, certainly, but it is all the more frustrating when you are literally outnumbered before you start. Outgunned and outskilled I can deal with, but it's the outnumbering that does annoy me at times. By the time I've noticed an outnumbering against the opposing team, usually someone else has switched to cover the gap before I could. This is good, and it's something we should be alive to on the servers. It can't be enforced any more than the auto-balance does, and that's fine. In general, if you're playing for fun, and not for the scores, then the game is enjoyable no matter how many or few kills you get, and how many or few rounds you win. Even teams are nice, but the worst case scenario is that you have to deal with a stacked (though inadvertently) team for 10 rounds maximum. However, it's far more fun to rally and, as Fatty said, make them work for the victory.