One Good Point (Video Game) - Helldivers 2

Over the past two years, I've bought two sequels to games whose originals I haven't played: Baldur's Gate 3 and Helldivers 2. So at this point, I feel pretty silly for putting off playing games like The Witcher 2.

Early in 2024, there were a couple of games that took off like a rocket, and Helldivers 2 was one of them (the other one was Palworld, which I've never played). I had it recommended by a friend whose gaming taste I trust implicitly, and I also heard a rousing endorsement on a media podcast that I trust less, but still trust some. I waited a full month to see if a discount might drop on Steam, but I finally pulled the trigger at full price (which at $40 is still perfectly reasonable).

And I gotta say, this game met all of my expectations and then some.

I remember the first time I opened the game. I watched the intro movie and was tickled by the Super Troopers hyper-patriotic vibe. That vibe continued just as strong into the tutorial, with fantastic humor in addition to helping you get acclimated to some of the game's unique mechanics, which brings me to the first, most important point about this game:

It's fun.

Sometimes you can play a game and find certain mechanics disjointed from the rest of the game, or half of the game is fun, but then there are some tedious escort quests, or it takes way too long to progress and expand your abilities. Helldivers 2 seems to be a game designed solely with "fun" in mind, and the strategems are the best example of this. You immediately get access to a destructive orbital cannon and a machine gun, but you also verrrrry quickly begin to unlock other options. Exploring new weapons and utility items becomes a natural part of the game's progression, and the pace is well-constructed, doing a great job of empowering you with new options at a pace that is neither too fast nor too slow.

But the game also has a number of long-term goals to pursue. You can upgrade modules on your ship to improve your various strategems, unlock new primary and secondary weapons to take into the field, and gain access to special boosters that apply not just to you, but to your entire team, increasing your survivability, stamina, vision, and more.

And that's one other vital part of this game. It is utterly and completely a team-oriented experience. Your group gains exactly the same experience, medals, requisition slips, samples, all the various things that you accumulate, you accumulate together. You get bonus XP if you get your team out alive, but your mission is a success if you accomplish your goals, no matter how many of your Helldivers make it out alive... even zero. But by the same token, friendly fire is permanently enabled. Cooperation and coordination are essential to a positive gaming experience, and while you do get the occasional knucklehead, my experience has been overwhelmingly positive. Your fellow Helldivers want to be victorious with you.

Does the game have long-term staying power? I believe it does, as long as "long-term" means "a couple years" to you. There's a plainly untouched 1/3 of the galactic map that clearly beckons a new enemy faction, and there's a broad base of strategem and weapon/equipment ideas that could definitely be implemented still. Based on the fun-first outlook that I believe the developers take when working on this game, I expect they'll continue to offer interesting twists and new opportunities to fight for managed democracy and defend Super Earth.

Helldivers to hellpods!

Click here to buy Helldivers 2 on Fanatical today!

My 2016 Games of the Year

For you longtime blog visitors (both of you), this will bring back memories. For the rest of you, here's a quick explanation.

I don't play new games all that often. So, rather than come up with my games of the year, evaluating the four actually new games that I played, I generate a list of the top ten games that I played during the previous year. That means that the games could have been released at any point in history (see #2), or are repeats from last year (see #1).

Anywho, here's my list. I spent most of the second half of this year playing D&D, and while I do love dungeon delving with the total freedom that D&D gives you, I kind of miss video games. We'll see how 2017 pans out.

I always put my lists in order, because I need to judge things.

10. Rocket League

Rocket League is an international sensation...which I find to be just decent. It's not that I dislike the game or anything. I get why it's fun, and I enjoy it from time to time, I just don't have the same excitement that it gets from a lot of other people. Specifically Scooter. Still, it's fun enough to round out my top ten.

9. Clash Royale

I'm not generally one who sticks with phone games. I get my fill and then move on, because none of them really ever have an "ending." You just keep going, keep building, keep leveling up, keep grinding, and never really "accomplish" anything.

Clash Royale has a lot of that same grind to it, but there's something gratifying about finding a deck that you can run well, and rolling over a couple opponents in a row. Combine that with a solid clan and regular splashy content, and I find myself consistently engaged by the Clash.

8. 4 Elements

So the funny thing about this game is that I only started playing it because I knew I wasn't playing many games, and figured I'd start towards the top of my games list. So, starting with the number "4" and 4 Elements, I fired up a new game. It's a simple puzzle game with its own twists of strategy. I wouldn't call it revolutionary on any level, but it's aesthetically pleasing and simple enough to pick up. I would just barely recommend it, if you're looking for something to kill a few hours.

7. Destiny

I bought Destiny basically because a friend told me to. I hadn't played an XBox One game in a while, and he had suggested it a few times. So I grabbed some pack off Amazon that included a couple expansions and fired it up. It's made by some of the same folks who made Halo, and it shows in a lot of the artwork and gameplay. That said, it doesn't really capture that certain something that Halo's campaign system had.

The game itself is fairly fun, it's essentially an MMO first-person shooter, but your experience is very rarely "massive," which is a good thing. You can do a series of solo missions (that you can bring friends along to complete as well), and you can also join a queue for dedicated multiplayer missions, missions that are considerably more difficult and require teamwork to complete. Overall, it was a pretty fun experience, and while I won't be paying $60(!) for a new expansion, I might pick it up down the road someday.

6. Dead Rising 3

I love Dead Rising. If I had to pick one franchise that I think defines all that I like about video games, it's Dead Rising. It's got great weapons, a somewhat open world, and the the ability to render massive numbers of zombies inert. Eddie got me Dead Rising 3 for Christmas last year, and I dove into it eagerly.

And it was good. It wasn't the perfect sequel like Dead Rising 2 was, and it wasn't a revolutionary advancement like Diablo 2. It was a solid game with some interesting characters, and enough of the classic material I enjoy to keep me entertained. The one caveat I would give it is that, while the graphics are an "improvement" over the previous games, the extra layer of detail is a bit difficult on my eyes over longer gaming sessions. It became too much eventually and I set the game aside, but someday I definitely plan to get back into it and finish the story.

5. Heroes of the Storm

A repeat from last year's list, it's still a very solid game that has developed a lot over the past year. There are a ton of new heroes, though this year's crop is a bit less revolutionary than last year's; there's no hero like Cho'Gall or Lost Vikings this year. In that regard, it's getting a bit closer to League of Legends, but with the solid gameplay, the introduction of a similar "brawl" system to Hearthstone's, and the fact that the game continues to be completely free to play, it's still a winner in my book.

4. Lifeline

Anthony told me about Lifeline when it was free on iPhone for a couple days (or maybe is still free? I don't know). It's essentially a choose-your-own-adventure book, put into the context of you being on the other side of a communication device, trying to help a stranded space traveler survive on a moon or asteroid or planet. I don't remember the specifics, but I remember really enjoying the game. The way it presented the story was insanely entertaining, and while the finish was clearly built to encourage you to purchase a follow-up game, it was satisfying. Very well done.

3. Sid Meier's Civilization V

So I was a little late to the Civilization V achievement hunter party, but I did get there eventually. Over the past year, I nabbed a couple dozen achievements through considerable playtime, as I figured out what settings I needed to use on my laptop to make it work without crashing...often. The game is just really, really solid. Every time you play it's a new experience, and the maps and different civilizations provide nearly endless replay-ability. It'll be a while before I get the new one, obviously, but that's partly Sid Meier's fault. He made the previous version just too damn good.

2. Total Extreme Wrestling

TEW is a wrestling simulation game. That's right. A wrestling SIMULATION game. The game puts you into the role of a head booker at a wrestling promotion, and your job is to put on the best product possible to increase your popularity, generate income, and keep your job. You manage rosters, contracts, locker room chemistry, pushes, and all of the business aspects of how you put on a show.

It's the kind of game that appeals only to a narrow group of people, but I'm one of those people. I freaking love this game.

1. Dungeons and Dragons

I mean, what else is there to say that I haven't already said? I play D&D 2-3 times a week, which when you compare that with the 4 times a week I work, it takes up the lion's share of my free time. It's complex, it's cooperative, it's creative, and it's social. I say again, D&D is the perfect game.

CS:GO Skins Wishlist

A while back, I started to put together a series detailing my favorite skins for each weapon in Counter-Strike:Global Offensive. I got through the pistols before I lost steam, for a couple of reasons. First, there are just so many skins, and there are more coming out every few months. But secondly, I ran out of descriptive words to use when attempting to explain why I liked X skin or Y skin. My descriptions were always going to be subjective, but once they became subjective and redundant, I decided to nix the rest of the series.

But now we're back, with a more focused effort. I'm reviewing all skins for all guns, and deciding if I could have a single skin for that gun, what would it be? I'll also be marking the ones that I've already acquired, so that in the event that a generous soul comes across this list and wants to donate something, they know what I've already got.

Note: On two of the guns, because the skin of choice runs more than a hundred dollars, I selected a secondary option. I think the Dragon Lore is a phenomenal-looking skin, but it's unlikely that I ever find myself in possession of one. So, the Man-o'-War is my alternate target.

We'll start with pistols again, same as before. But this time, we're going all the way, like a saucy prom date.

Pistols
P2000 - Amber Fade (got it!)
USP-S - Orion
Glock-18 - Brass
P250 - Undertow
Dual Berettas - Retribution
CZ75-Auto - Tigris (got it!)
Tec-9 - Nuclear Threat
Five-SeveN - Copper Galaxy
Desert Eagle - Naga

SMGs
MAC-10 - Heat
MP7 - Nemesis
MP9 - Hypnotic
P90 - Desert Warfare (got it!)
PP-Bizon - Antique (got it!)
UMP-45 - Grand Prix

Heavy
MAG-7 - Memento
Nova - Antique
Sawed-Off - Highwayman
XM1014 - Red Leather
M249 - Impact Drill
Negev - Loudmouth

Rifles
AK-47 - Vulcan
AUG - Chameleon
AWP - Dragon Lore...or Man-o'-War
FAMAS - Djinn
G3SG1 - Murky
Galil AR - Chatterbox
M4A1-S - Hot Rod...or Atomic Alloy
M4A4 - Modern Hunter
SCAR-20 - Grotto (got it!)
SG 553 - Anodized Navy
SSG 08 - Abyss (got it!)

Living In the World of Warcraft

I've been debating for months about possibly getting back into World of Warcraft. There's a lot I like about the game:

I get a kick out of some of the quests in the game, and they're definitely a bit better than they used to be. Granted, plenty of them are still "Kill 8 boars," or "Gather five boxes," but there are others these days, especially into Outland and beyond, that have a bit more depth to them. And I enjoy unlocking new skills and shaping my character to be my own.

I enjoy taking on the instanced dungeons in the early, from Wailing Caverns to Shadowfang Keep to the Scarlet Monastery. And it's a fair bet that once I get to some of the later ones, I'll enjoy them as well. I also like how some of them have changed; SFK is much more interesting with the Worgen layer on top.

I like the organic economy that ebbs and flows in the game, and I like finding ways to exploit it to generate funds, which I happily use to further exploit market inequalities, or to buy things I want like gear or recipes.

I like collecting resources, and sharing them between my characters to really craft the shit out of the game. I haven't managed to get multiple characters to high enough levels to make a huge difference, but I've definitely put together armor, weapons, and potions for my guys to share.

So now that I've got a full-time job, what's been stopping me? Well, the thing about me, and it's different about me versus a lot of other users, but...

...I love the grind.

I feel like it's the grind that makes you feel like part of the world. The quests may not be amazingly crafted as far as lore, but they add little pieces of what's going on in the zone to your experience. Lots of stuff like this helps to explain why you might want to delve into a particular dungeon, like the quilboars being general assholes in the south Barrens, and how conquering RFK and RFD are your ways to strike back.


The grind also makes me feel like I own my character a little bit more. You used to have only certain weapon proficiencies when you started your character, based on your class and race. If you wanted to learn how to use other weapons that your class could use, you had to seek out weapons trainers and pay them a fair sum in order to learn how to use that weapon type. And you leveled up your use of that weapon just like any other skill, so your first few swings with a new weapon would be ineffective.

Was that "fun" for most people? Probably not. But it added a reason to search around the various capital cities, which made you learn more about them, which made you feel like more a part of the world you were living in. Now, you know all proficiencies just by creating a character. You also don't need an actual "fishing pole" to go fishing; once you've got the skill, you apparently have a phantom fishing pole that sprouts as needed. Which I guess whatever, but I liked that you had to commit a backpack slot to a fishing pole if you wanted to fish. Again, character choices.

In the end, because of the aspects I mentioned above that I enjoy, I'll probably still get back into the game (if I haven't already by the time this gets posted). But I think when people complain about the grind, it'd be important to remind them that the grind is there for a reason. When people complain about having to carry a mining pick around to mine ore, remember, it's there for a reason.

Immersion is a tough thing to achieve; I don't think we should so easily dismiss it.

Top 3 Skins (2013-2014) - P250, Dual Berettas, Desert Eagle

In the first leg of this journey, I looked at the three starting pistols in CS:GO. This time, I'll be looking at the three pistols that are always available to players for purchase, regardless of team or loadout: the P250, the Dual Berettas, and the big money pistol, the Desert Eagle.

P250

It's taken me a little while, but I've gotten to the point where I buy a P250 anytime I'm not buying a high-end rifle. It's low-cost, good rate and ammo and accuracy, and solid armor penetration, which is vital in those middle rounds when everybody's got armor.

That said, while it's an amazingly useful gun, the P250 doesn't have a whole lot of exciting skins. Here are the best of the bunch, but like I said, not that exciting.

#3 - Supernova

The Supernova skin is one that I think actually looks better the less you look at it. At first glance, it's got a cool color scheme and sort of an interstellar vibe (hence the name). But when you really stare at it, to me, it doesn't hold up. The sharpness of a lot of it seems counter to the theme. It's still a fine-looking skin, just not as good as it maybe could have been.

#2 - Nuclear Threat

The Nuclear Threat is probably the P250 skin I would want to use on a regular basis. While it's not as "attractive" as my #1 option, it's a bit more flashy in a smooth kind of way. It's also very distinguishable from the base option, which I do kind of like. Plus, Nuke is one of my favorite maps.

#1 - Cartel

In a vacuum, Cartel is my favorite P250 skin. It's sharp, uses blacks and silvers and greys, and overall looks fairly realistic. As I said, I think I'd prefer to play with the Nuclear Threat. But the Cartel has all the aspects I like in a weapon skin.

Dual Berettas

I do not enjoy using the Dual Berettas. While I appreciate that they've got a lot of ammo, and the damage is okay, I just find that the accuracy isn't great and the accuracy "feel" is even worse. I remember in the original Counter-Strike I enjoyed the feeling of wielding two guns, but in here, with a better appreciation for how well (or poorly) I'm playing, it's less appealing.

It's basically the opposite of the P250 though, because there are several Beretta skins that I enjoy. None of them is a high-rarity skin, since the gun isn't widely used. But as someone who appreciates a level of subtlety, the Beretta skins are right in my wheelhouse.

#3 - Panther

The Panther skin is the essence of subtlety. Black guns with red highlights just to give it enough character to be unique, that's what I like. They look good in-game, too.

#2 - Black Limba

Black Limbas look a lot like the base Beretta skin, but with a bit more severity, a bit more of a "criminal underworld" hue. I like the base skin a lot, so I like these a lot, but I like these more. And if I'm being honest, I occasionally buy Berettas in casual games because using this skin makes me feel like an outlaw.

#1 - Retribution

As much as I like the other skins I've mentioned, Retribution is easily my favorite weapon skin for the Dualies. When I was a kid, I played with a lot of G.I.Joe toys, and for some reason this skin reminds me of that. In addition to being a slick-looking skin, nostalgia puts it way over the top.

Desert Eagle

The Desert Eagle is the glamor pistol option. It's the most expensive and most powerful, but with its small clip, it's a high-risk, high-reward option. I hardly ever buy it myself, but if I come across one dropped in a pistol round or some such, I'll give it a whirl. I'll also occasionally buy it when my primary is a P90, to give myself a better option at range.

The skins for the Desert Eagle are all up and down the range. But because it's that "glamor" option, they tend to be a little higher on the rarity spectrum, which means they're often quite attractive. Plenty of good options, but here are my favorites.

#3 - Crimson Web

I find myself swinging a lot with regards to how much I like the Crimson Web skin on the Desert Eagle. Sometimes it looks amazing, first-rate. Other times, it looks unassuming and unspectacular. The particular image of it above is more the latter, but it still looks alright. I'd like a little more of a "webby" look, and less of a "fractured earth" look, but it's still nice enough.

#2 - Conspiracy

Conspiracy is exactly my kind of gun skin. Dark colors, highlighted by metallic accents. If the color scheme wasn't so close to the Pittsburgh Penguins' team colors, this might be my #1 skin. Alas, screw the Pens.

#1 - Heirloom

The Heirloom skin shares a lot of features with the Pilot skin from the Baggage Collection, so I excluded the Pilot from the list. No point in telling you I also like this other skin that looks like the one I just mentioned. Anyways, the Heirloom honestly looks the way I would expect a fancy base Deagle skin would look. I absolutely love it, and I'm glad I have my own version to use, even if I almost never use it.

The Buggy Old Republic

Overall, I've been fine with the game quality of Star Wars: The Old Republic. It does definitely seem to be a little laggy at times; sometimes an ability will finish channeling on the server well before it shows on my end, or I'll miss an interrupt that it doesn't look like I should've missed. But all told, while it's not as crisp as World of Warcraft, the combat is fairly stable.

The video rendering can be a little twisty, though. Here are a few screenshots from my time in The Old Republic that I found pretty funny. None of them created a quest issue for me, so I could appreciate them as simple video quirks.

I've got one more image for you. It's not an issue with the video loading slowly or improperly, though. It's just a funny little design choice that I appreciate...even though I'm not a big fan of Johnnie Walker:

Apparently folks on Tattooine enjoy their scotch.

Unsubscribing from Star Wars

So I recently allowed my subscription to lapse for Star Wars: The Old Republic. It wasn't a mistake; I had subscribed for a month and enjoyed it, but I knew going in that I'd be headed back to a free-to-play status. Well, not exactly that; SW:TOR has a middle tier called "preferred" players, giving a few extra bonuses for players who have spent any money in the Cartel Market, or have ever been subscribers. The middle tier has a few more character slots, quickbars (which really shouldn't be limited on any tier; they're part of gameplay), auction slots, etc. It's also got a credit limit of 350,000 credits for each character, and this factor has had an effect that I couldn't have anticipated:

I'm playing the game again.

While I was a subscriber, I spent the majority of my time trying to make money. I was going to say "a good portion," but the truth is it was a majority of my time in the game. I would log in, send my crew on missions to pick up crafting materials, then peruse the auction house for this or that, then Alt+Tab to work on whatever else I had going on, or just watch Orange Is the New Black.

Sometimes I'd swap into another character while I was waiting for my crew to get back, so that I could send another companion on another crew mission. I was literally grinding out a job on days I had off from my real job. And not even with a goal in mind; there isn't really anything credit-wise I was saving up for. I was just acquiring credits so that I had them.

But now, with the 350,000 credit limit, there's no reason for me to wildly accumulate. As a result, instead of wallowing on the Imperial Fleet, I'm pushing forward with my class missions. I'm a bit over-leveled because I have a habit of doing every single mission I get, so I only get experience on like half of the missions, but the story is moving along, and I'm enjoying that.

Additionally, I'm less concerned about spending money on the Galactic Trade Network (I called it the auction house earlier, but GTN is the official name). The one thing I'd spent money on before was mounts, but I was always reticent to shell out the cash, because I didn't know if I was getting a good deal. Now I don't care much; I have a credit limit, so if I don't spend the money, it gets locked away in "escrow" until I pay to have it transferred or re-subscribe. So if I see a mount I don't already have, I buy it. No researching the prices, no wondering if it was for sale somewhere from a vendor, just nom nom nom.

I still send my guys on crew missions, of course. I'm not going to change who I am at my core. But the credit limit has helped to change my play habits, I think for the better. I'm getting a lot closer to that "experiential gaming" I mentioned in a post last week.

And I am pleased.

A Gambler's Secret CS:GO Fun: The Trade-Up Contract

Note: Prices from this article were retrieved in November, 2014. CS:GO market fluctuations may result in jumps and dips, but the relative prices between tiers should be consistent.
 
If, like me, you're new-ish to CS:GO, you may only have a cursory knowledge of the Trade-Up Contract. And that's okay; it's not like you're missing out on a key game feature, like grenades or deathmatch. It's a sideways way of getting new weapon skins when you've got a lot of junkers. But if you like gambling, it can be a slightly less risky way to wet your whistle than opening cases.

The Basics

First, let's go over how it works. Weapon skins have multiple grades, progressing in the following order from least rare to most rare:

• Consumer
• Industrial
• Mil-Spec
• Restricted
• Classified
• Covert
• Contraband*

*Contraband is a designation given to only one weapon thus far, the M4A4 Howl, which was redesigned and discontinued due to art theft by the submitter. For our purposes in this article, Contraband Grade weapons are irrelevant.

In order to "trade up," you select ten weapons of all the same grade, and you will receive one weapon of the next grade up. For example, If you trade up ten industrial grade weapons, you get one mil-spec weapon. If you trade up ten mil-spec weapons, you'll get a restricted weapon, and so on. So, if you wanted to trade from only consumer grade weapons and get a covert weapon, you'd need 100,000 consumer grade weapons. There are certainly that many consumer grade weapons out there, but at a nickel apiece, you'd be spending five grand to get to that point; not exactly a great strategy.

Map Collections and Case Collections

Of course, there's more to it than that. How does the game decide what weapon to grant you? Each weapon is part of a specific "collection." There are two different kinds of collections. There are collections that drop at the end of matches. We'll call these "map collections," because each of these collections is named after a map in CS:GO. So you have the Dust Collection, the Mirage Collection, the Train Collection, etc. The other kind of collections are those that drop when you use a key to open a weapon case. We'll call these "case collections," for obvious reasons. Something to note is that case collections only drop mil-spec or higher weapons. Consumer and industrial grade weapons only exist in map collections, and only drop at the end of matches.

If you trade up ten items from within the same collection, you'll get an item from the next tier up in that collection. For example, take a look at the Arms Deal Collection, the first case collection in the game. If you were to trade up ten AUG | Wings, you would be guaranteed to get one of three items: Glock-18 | Dragon Tattoo, USP-S | Dark Water, or M4A1-S | Dark Water. So, your chances of getting any one of those three items would be about 33.3%. You could also trade up three AUG | Wings, three SG 553 | Ultraviolet, and four MP7 | Skulls, and have the same odds of the three restricted-grade weapon skins.

With the original Trade Up Contract, this was your only option. You were required to trade up within the same collection. Now, however, you have more options, which creates greater gambling possibilities.

Mix and Match

With the current Trade Up format, you can now trade up ten equal grade weapons from any collection and receive a random item from the next tier up among those collections. Each of the ten items contributes 10% of the odds of the resulting skin. So for example, using the AUG | Wings from above, each AUG | Wings you use in a contract would add a 3.33% chance to draw each of the Glock-18 | Dragon Tattoo, the USP-S | Dark Water, and the M4A1-S | Dark Water. If you were to add a PP-Bizon | Brass from the Dust 2 Collection, you would add a full 10% chance of drawing the P2000 | Amber Fade (one of my personal favorite skins). Each base item contributes ten percent to the total, so adding this list of guns to your Trade Up Contract...

AUG | Wings
AUG | Wings
AUG | Wings
PP-Bizon | Brass
PP-Bizon | Brass
PP-Bizon | Brass
PP-Bizon | Brass
PP-Bizon | Brass
PP-Bizon | Brass
PP-Bizon | Brass

...would result in the following odds:

Glock-18 | Dragon Tattoo = (3.33 + 3.33 + 3.33) = 10%
USP-S | Dark Water = 10%
M4A1-S | Dark Water = 10%
P2000 | Amber Fade = (10 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 10) = 70%

But Math Isn't Fun...

So what's the big deal, right? The Mil-Spec weapons from the Phoenix case (UMP-45 | Corporal, Negev | Terrain, etc) are about $0.05 apiece, and at the trade up level, the Restricted weapons from that case range from $0.25 to $0.45 apiece. So a trade up only loses you money...

...unless you mix and match sets. For example, look at the Assault Collection (which you'll find is everyone's favorite because of the Glock-18 | Fade). The only industrial grade skin is the Five-SeveN | Candy Apple, which is about $1.11 on the market right now. If you traded up with only consumer grade skins from the Assault Collection, you'd spend about $1.50. But, if you only included, say, two skins from the Assault Collection, and then put in eight skins from lower end collections (Dust 2 consumer grade skins are about $0.03 right now), you could roll the dice on a 20% chance at getting the Candy Apple. It's still mathematically a losing proposition, but now it at least boasts the possibility of a big win. That's gambling, folks.

So what you're looking for are skins whose values at various tiers are notably different from the same tiers in other collections. Some rough base values to use:

• Consumer - $0.03 - $0.05
• Industrial - $0.05 - $0.09
• Mil-Spec - $0.09 - $0.14
• Restricted - $0.34 - $0.45
• Classified - $2.00 - $2.45

Covert weapons can't be traded up, only case collections go up to cover level, and covert weapon skins generally set the value for the whole collection. So, there's no reason to concern yourself with them on this chart.

An important note: there are some skins that are regularly below average market value for their grade that you should never, ever buy for trade ups. The reason is that some skins below Covert are still the top level weapon skin for their collection.

Which Collections Have Outliers?

All collections are going to have some variation in price from one tier to the next. It's a complicated result of a number of factors, most specifically the following:

• Age/supply of collection
• Demand for highest tier of weapon

That's really it. Other people will try to tell you there are more factors, like how much time is left in the current operation, or the value of lower tier weapons within the collection, and maybe they're right. But the impact of those factors is almost always negligible. I use CSGO Stash to get quick glances at various collections when I'm in the mood, or just to check up on a particular skin. The information is usually up-to-date, though it's almost always a couple cents off. Still, not enough to be a problem.

You can, of course, do your own research, but I wanted to provide a little information directly regarding which spots have some potential for gambling upside. These are skins that you can slide in as your "lotto ticket" for a reasonable price, and give yourself a chance at a big win. These are in no way guarantees, and I want to impress upon you that, even these adjusted tactics will still, more often than not, lead to a negative result, value-wise. It's just fun to give yourself that chance.

Anyways, these skins have trade-up potential that goes above and beyond the normal values for that tier. These are also only skins that have 100% trade up "win" potential; that is, if you "hit" on this skin, you're going to get a valuable skin as a result.

Assault Collection 
All consumer grade skins 
Five-SeveN | Candy Apple

Bank Collection
CZ75-Auto | Tuxedo
Galil AR | Tuxedo

Cobblestone Collection
All industrial grade skins
All mil-spec grade skins
All restricted grade skins

Italy Collection
Sawed-Off | Full Stop

Overpass Collection
All industrial grade skins

Vertigo Collection
All consumer grade skins

For giggles, and in case you were unsure of what this whole process looks like, I've prepared the videos below for your pleasure.






Thanks for reading all the way down, and good luck with your gambling!

Balmorra World Boss Destroys My Hard Drive

My brother bought me Star Wars: The Old Republic (obligatory referral link if you're interested, or if you're already a subscriber and you've never designated anyone as a referral) when it came out a couple years ago, and I finally redeemed the code a week ago. It gave me a free month and some other bonuses, so I've been playing it on the regular. It's been pretty good so far; the storyline and quest interaction is miles better than other MMOs I've played, and it's Star Wars, so there's a lot of familiarity between the aliens, the music, the planets, etc. Plus, the space missions have been a lot of fun, and a great change of pace from the rest of the game.

But that's not what this post is about.

So, each world has a "World Boss" roaming somewhere in it. These World Bosses are gigantic creatures (at least they have been in my limited experience). They appear to be engorged versions of creatures that exist on the planet. Well, the other night, I saw in General chat that someone wanted to get a big group together and try to take down that world's boss. I was, of course, totally in on it. I found out later that the group had level 55 guys while I was level 25, so I probably didn't have too much of an impact on the battle, but it was a fun little experience all the same.

Anyways, I knew I had FRAPS running on my computer, and I said to myself, "This might be a fun thing to record." So I hit my little hotkey to start recording just before the battle, and away we went. For posterity, the video of the battle is below:



(Side note: holy crap, my microphone is loud as a mother. Do you guys have to deal with that when I'm streaming? This explains why everyone seemed to leave my streams after five minutes of watching.)

Not crazy exciting, but getting that little achievement pop-up is always a nice feeling. I went back to my side missions to wrap up the planet, and at the end of the night, hit the hay and shut down.

The next afternoon, I logged in to do a little resource gathering, but my machine was running noticeably slower than usual. I had a few Firefox windows open, so I assumed that was the trouble, but it continued to be jittery even after I closed them down. I sent my crew members on long missions and exited the game, then went to take a shower. When I got back into my room, I saw a little notification bubble on the screen. It said, "Low disk space." I checked and sure enough, I was down to a measly 33 MB of free space on my main hard drive. I thought that was odd, but I had recently installed a few games to get their card drops, and hadn't yet uninstalled them, so I assumed that was the trouble. I uninstalled a couple of other games I never play (Planetside 2 and Warframe), and had plenty of hard drive space.
 
Then I remembered the FRAPS video I'd made the night before, and I realized why I had so little disk space. I had never shut off the video recording after the battle. So, FRAPS just kept FRAPSing, recording as much content as it could until it ran out of room on my hard drive. I checked my videos directory, and sure enough, there were 76 gigs of videos there from the night before.

I'll go through them soon enough to check out what might be waiting for me. I assume it's more loud keyboards and boring gameplay, but you never know.

How Can You Enjoy a Game You're So Unbelievably Bad At?

I'm talking, of course, about Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO for short). I am just really, really bad at it. Part of it is age; I'm no spring chicken anymore, so my reflexes aren't what they used to be...which is not to say they were ever particularly good. Additionally, most of my positive experience in first-person shooters has been in campaign form (Call of Duty, Halo, Borderlands, etc), which is way different from competitive gaming against other human players. You can usually game out AI, figuring out their tendencies, their weaknesses, and, more often than not, a gimmicky way to get past difficult points in the game.

Counter-Strike isn't like that. You're almost always playing against real life opponents with real life responses to everything that happens. Most of the time, they're people who play more games than me, are younger and quicker than me, and know more about the game's strategies than me. I lose more than I win, and I'm often at or near the bottom of the scoreboard. And yet, I enjoy the game. Why?

(Mostly) Good Matchmaking

While some of the game modes (Deathmatch, Arms Race, Casual) bring in all levels of players, CS:GO's competitive matchmaking queues emphasize competitive balance. There are 18 levels in all, listed below (I'm a Silver IV):

As you can see, I'm in the fourth group out of eighteen, so obviously I'm a below average player. But when I put myself into competitive matchmaking, I get matched up against players around my skill level. This makes for interesting, competitive matches, and that makes for a more enjoyable gaming experience.

It's not a perfect system, of course. If you queue up for only a single map, or only very uncommon maps, your queues will often take longer, and the longer your queue time, the more likely the system will put you into a game with players of more widely varied skill levels. They'd rather you play something than just sit in the queue all day. But overall, especially if you're interested in playing any of a few maps, competitive matchmaking is a great way to find similarly skilled players to play with and against.

You Get Better

I don't expect I'll ever reach even the second column above. I don't have the time or youth to be particularly good at the game. But I am unequivocally better than I was. Some stuff is simple enough that the instructions are enough to change your behavior:

• Fire in short bursts
• Grab guns at the end of a round
• Aim for headshots

Some improvements require a little more instruction/experience, like good and bad usage of smokes, grenades, and flashbangs. And of course, learning each of the different guns and finding your own strengths and weaknesses goes a long way towards improving your play. The feeling of playing in games where I know the opponent is actually worse than me is great (albeit rare). And as you get better, you want to play more, which makes you better, etc etc.

The Drops

As much as I'd like to say the first two factors were equally important, the truth is the whole reason I got the game is because of the in-game item drops. A lot of these drops are nearly worthless (the number of nickel skins out there is insane), but some of them sell for a dollar or more. The fact that the game paid for itself within a few weeks was fantastic. Of course, now I've got an inventory worth probably $100, so Valve has gotten their share of my money. But I keep getting more drops, keep defraying whatever costs I incur from operations or investments or simply buying myself a neat-looking gun skin. While competitive matchmaking and my own personal improvement would keep me somewhat interested, it's the drops that will keep me interested in CS:GO for the foreseeable future.

The Professional Competitive Community

There's one more factor that's really drawn me in recently, and that's the explosion of professional CS:GO teams playing worldwide. In case you missed it, there was a huge event in August, ESL One Cologne 2014. Sixteen elite teams from all over the world competed for a $250,000 prize pool, and the event drew massive numbers of viewers on Twitch.tv. I was glued to my computer screen for a great deal of the event, and it reinforced what had been brewing in my mind for a while: I love watching experts play this game. The perfectly timed movements, the strategic use of grenades and flashbangs, and the absolutely insane "trigger speeds" they have is just incredible. If you haven't had a chance to watch two top-tier CS:GO teams clash, I highly recommend it.

So that's that, that's the deal with me and CS:GO. If you want to play with me, my name is GoodPointJoe on Steam. And as I said before, bear in mind I'm a silver IV. So it may be horrible playing with me, if you enjoy winning.