If this here is the only gaming blog you visit then I would like to treat you to something very special. However, if this isn’t the only gaming blog you visit then SHAME ON YOU and now I will have to punish you by making you watch these stupid videos all over again.

The engineer update is almost upon us and we all know what that means. I think Robert Walken put it best in this email I received from him earlier today.

Here at Valve we’ve created something of a new tradition that we do every time we start trolling TF2 fans with tidbits of information about a major new update. After delaying the daily reveals for as long as humanly possible, to generate maximum site traffic and publicity, we all get together behind Valve headquarters for a good old fashion weenie roast (using hot dogs) over the massive flames coming out of the server computer that hosted the TF2 blog before it’s glorious death by means of a billion fanatical fingers hammering the F5 key until something broke (usually the finger). So if you ever wonder why the blog is taking an eternity to load, now you know. STOP emailing me about it or I will DELETE all your backpack items!

So with that In mind I Just thought I would share with you a few tips & tricks when it comes to checking the blog for updates and hidden pages. First of all, If you don’t already have Firefox go download & install it from the Mozilla website now.

To find hidden pages more easily install the Web Developer add-on for Firefox.  Then after restarting Firefox go up to the newly installed toolbar under the address bar and click on “Information” and then “Display Link Details” in the drop down menu.

This will display a yellow text box next to each link on the page  allowing you to easily see any hidden links.

If you would like to be automatically notified whenever a page is updated simply install the Update Scanner add-on for Firefox. Then restart Firefox again and right click on the page you wish to check for updates on and select “Scan Page For Updates.”

This will bring up an options box where you can adjust different setting.

Then whenever the page is updated you will be notified with a small pop up box and sound effect.

I know, it’s a bad portal joke, but let’s just ignore that fact for now. So what have I been up to lately? Well, I’m currently working on a review for Splinter Cell: Convection that should be up soonish. Progress on Spire and Inferno is going nowhere at the moment because of my unfortunate decreasing interest in Team Fortress 2 and lack of time to even work on them.

I’ve also been busy working on a few other website projects lately, and I’ve been exploring possible improvements I could bring to N00bicial.com.
It turns out blogging on a regular basis is a lot harder then one might think. At least for those that have difficulty getting their thoughts together and hate everything they write. Maybe in the meantime I could try to dig up some of my old custom TF2 sprays to share with you all..

The engineer class has always been one of my favorites so I just thought I’d list a few of the items I hope will make it into his update. I do know that most of these ideas have probably already been suggested by a dozen people already. Also keep in mind these are just ideas and some of them would need a lot of testing, tweaking, alterations, etc.

Check out my ideas over on the steam forums.

So after years of intense brainstorming and field testing Valve has finally come to the incredible realization that randomness doesn’t equal fairness. How amazingly profound. Unfortunately, I and many others had already known this for ever.

The randomness of the system they created was not only unfair, but actually promoted and rewarded bad behavior (idling) more then anything else. Proof of this can be plainly seen in the latest changes to the drop system. The only way Valve could discourage idling was to make the randomness of the drop system almost completely negligible.

Valve’s original dilemma was that once crafting was implemented players would be able to get hats much more quickly then before, so they decreased the drop rate drastically. However, this meant that the chances of getting a drop was so low that only idling for hours would guarantee any kind of real hope. So Valve changed the system to have very little randomness, allowing them to both guarantee item drops for players that don’t idle and limit the amount you can get (so you don’t gain them too quickly). Making a terrible system a little bit fairer for everyone.

All in all I view this as a victory for dirty idlers everywhere. If it wasn’t for the idlers Valve would have probably never changed it. The new system doesn’t discourage idling as much as it makes idling easier so you don’t have to idle as long.

I stopped idling a long while ago because the chances of getting a drop was so very low that only the most hardcore fanatic would be crazy enough to keep their PC running 24/7 for the chance of getting something, but now since idling is so much easier it makes the idea of idling much more attractive. This way you can gain a few items each day and build a hat for those rare occasions when you might come back and play a little.