Kalen Lu

Earlier this week, the Panorama UI has been released into the beta release of CS:GO. The Panorama UI has been anticipated for a while in the past few months. It’s supposed to be a much cleaner and more organized version of the old CS:GO UI which has been pretty much the same for the past few years. Supposedly, the new UI shouldn’t change any of the actual gameplay except the scoreboard. Additionally, it’s supposed to increase the framerate for most people.

From pictures and videos of the new main menu as well as the inventory and setting screens I can say it looks a lot better than the old UI. In addition to being a new sight, it feels and looks like a whole new game. On the main menu, there’ve been a few changes. Most of the main features are still there, but it looks a lot different. There’s now an animated character model that takes up around half of the screen. You can select a weapon for the character model to hold, and from what I’ve seen it looks like all of the weapons have different animations. Your profile, which includes your rank, medals, etc have been hidden to the right side of the screen and can be brought up by moving your cursor to that side of the screen. Your friends list has also been moved to the same side. Party lobbies have also been removed and now they’re just in the top right corner where you can still type, but now you can still change your settings without having to leave the lobby. The inventory menu has also been changed by being more organized and the case opening animation has also been changed. You can now more carefully inspect your weapons by rotating them on your own although it doesn’t seem like you’ll be able to rotate them 360 degrees.

The Panorama UI is still in beta, so its features can still be changed before the official release. Overall, I think this will be a good change for the game since Valve has been known to not really pay attention to their own game by adding useless things that don’t help the enjoyment of the game.

This week, Epic Games didn’t add too much to the game but there are still a few things to mention. Due to the lack of content I usually have to write about, I’ll also write my thoughts on the shotgun nerfs from past few updates.

The main part of the update this week is the new Thermal Assault Rifle which supposedly allows you to spot chests, air drops, players, and “more” easier. The way it works is that when you ADS your screen turns a different shade and only chests, air drops, players, etc will be a different colour. Since the name implies “thermal” some people thought you were able to see through walls, but you actually can’t. From what I’ve seen, it looks like it just changes the colours on your screen. You can still see exactly what you’d see if you didn’t have the thermal assault rifle it’s just easier to see things. In my opinion, I don’t really think the thermal aspect of the weapon has any real advantage as long as you have decent vision. However, it supposedly deals the same amount of damage as the SCAR rifles. The trade-off for the thermal ability and the damage is 15 bullets from the magazine. If you ask me, I honestly wouldn’t pick one up over a SCAR. I’ll probably use it for fun in a few games to see what it’s all about, but then after a few games, I’ll just leave it.

Before I write on about the shotgun nerfs, a few other additions are that most traps can now be placed on ramps and there’s been a new soccer stadium next to Junk Junction for the World Cup which is currently being held in Russia. I don’t think they’re worth elaborating on, but they’re just nice to know about.

In the past few patches, shotguns are usually affected in some way whether they’re buffs or nerfs. Last week, I wrote about the shotgun nerf and how I didn’t think it would change the way I’d play. However, I was quite wrong because last weekend as I was playing I noticed something was “off”. I usually us double pumps in my inventory which used to be very effective. When I played after the pump shotgun nerf last week, I’d been experiencing frequent single digit numbers when fighting opponents in close range (even when I’m in the same room as another player). Usually, anyone would be hitting triple digit damage numbers or at least double digits, but lately, all of my friends that all used to double pump have all been talking about how they’re kind of useless. At first, I thought it was just me being me and having bad aim, but after hearing from other people that play nearly every day it seems like the double pump strategy isn’t that effective anymore unless you’ve got really good aim and can constantly hit headshots. Even then I would be hesitant to still use double pump since it’s very possible to do damage in the twenties even with a headshot.

This week, the patch notes weren’t that exciting from my perspective, but the shotgun changes from last week were. I think I’ll give the double pump a chance for my next few games, and if it doesn’t work I’ll switch to a different strategy for close quarters fights.

This week Epic Games added a new Bouncer trap and also nerfed some of the shotguns as well as decreasing material available on the map. I will be writing about what I think of these changes and how they will affect the game. I have yet to play with these changes, but I am a fan of the game and enjoy playing it so these are my opinions as a player.

The new Bouncer trap is found in stacks of three and can be found in all loot sources (chests, houses, llamas, etc). They are to be placed on floors, ceilings, and walls. The will propel any player that is close enough to it in the direction it is facing. The player being propelled will also receive the same kind of effect of the Hop Rocks that were added in the Season 4 update so they won’t take any fall damage. However, the effect doesn’t last long so the player won’t get the perk of being able to jump higher. I’ve seen clips and videos of people using these new traps in different ways, and they do seem to hold the potential of being practically useful in some scenarios.

Shotguns, specifically the pump and tactical shotguns were nerfed. Previously when the game was first introduced, the tactic “double pumping” was extremely overpowered. The tactic involved having two pump shotguns in a player’s inventory switching between them for every shot being able to shoot very fast for shotguns. Epic Games increased the draw speed for the shotgun a while ago. This made double pumping impossible or at least ineffective although they were still capable of dealing up to 237 damage in one shot. A few weeks ago, they decreased the draw speed, but not to the point of the original speed. However, this week they decided to nerf the pump shotgun again by reducing the damage. Now, the pump shotgun is no longer capable of dealing a one-shot kill no matter the rarity. Although this will definitely change some scenarios, I still think the double pump strategy will still be an effective one. The tactical shotgun though I feel didn’t deserve the nerf it got although it wasn’t as bad as the pump shotgun’s. I thought the tactical shotgun was fine as it was, but I guess if Epic Games wants to there’s not much anyone can do.

A few other changes to mention are the damage trap changes and the material availability nerf. The damage traps used to do 125 damage but were nerfed to only do only 75. In this recent update, the damage traps now deal 150 damage which is double of what it used to be which surprises me. However, I don’t think this will change too much of the current trap meta (most effective tactic available). As for the material changes, the number of materials you get from llamas were reduced from 500 to a mere 200 per resource. The chances of finding resources on the floor have also been reduced by 33% as well as the amount of material you get by 33%. These changes to materials I find was completely unnecessary. The double pump nerf I can understand since it was a little overpowered, but I fail to see how building which is a crucial aspect of the game is overpowered. As long as you have materials usually the player with better building skills would win at least in the late game. Reducing the material availability will only make building in early game as well as build battles less common forcing players to farm for materials a lot more often.

Overall, this update has its ups and downs in my opinion and I’m very interested in seeing how these changes will affect my play style as well as others’.

 

In the past two weeks, there have been even more additions to the Fortnite Battle Royale game mode. The items that have the most attention at the moment are the new shopping carts and the jetpack. The jetpack was released a while ago, but I didn’t write about it last week. The shopping carts, however, were just added this week. I was able to use the jetpack a few times last week. However, like always whenever there’s a brand new addition, I haven’t gotten a chance to take a look at the shopping carts for myself.

First the jetpack, it can be found in the chests scattered around the map with a legendary rarity and takes up one inventory slot. The jetpack can only be in use for a while until it needs to recharge. However, it doesn’t have an unlimited amount of fuel. The recharge is more of a cooldown while there’s an actual amount of fuel the jetpack has. When all of the fuel is used up the jetpack is destroyed. It allows the user to fly by jumping whilst in the air. The jetpack can be used to travel faster or to throw an enemy off in the middle of a fight. Personally, I jump around a lot in-game, so when the jetpack gets activated if I press my space bar in the air it sometimes activates when I don’t want it to. This can be kind of annoying since it makes noise, wastes fuel, and I can miss a jump or accidentally hit something.

Next is are the shopping carts. Since I haven’t used them yet, I can only write about what I’ve seen from videos and the patch notes from Epic Games. From what I know, the shopping cart involves up to two players. One person can push the cart while another can ride as a passenger. The shopping cart can move faster than just normally sprinting, but it looks to me to still have some issues. The passenger can build and shoot while the person pushing the cart can only direct the cart to where they want it to go. In my opinion, it doesn’t seem too practical, but I have seen some interesting ideas of people using them in different ways. The shopping carts can be found around the map but can also be destroyed.

Another addition was mushrooms that can be found in shady wooded or swampy areas. When consumed they add five shield to the player if they aren’t already at 100. But other than those there isn’t much else that would be worth mentioning besides some new Limited Time Modes, but if you would like you can read more about the updates here.

A few years ago, my mom bought an Apogee ONE from a music store near us. The ONE is an audio interface used to record music. She used to use it for recording vocals, but recently she wanted me to record myself playing the guitar with it.

The ONE has a built-in microphone, but also allows you to plug in an external microphone and/or an instrument like a guitar. Yesterday, we were able to connect the speaker output to the stereo in my room so that when I play electric guitar it’ll come out through the speakers. I was able to record acoustic guitar with the built-in microphone, but my mom also found a condenser microphone so I was able to use that as well. So far I’ve only used the interface with my phone, but I know that it’s possible to download the Apogee software onto a computer. When using the interface you can change the input volume, the line outputs, which inputs to use, etc. After checking the settings in the Apogee app I used the GarageBand app on my phone to record the audio. I’ve tested recording both electric and acoustic guitar, but when I play the electric guitar there’s a bit of static or hum in the background even if I’m just playing clean guitar. I’m not sure whether or not it has anything to do with the ONE or if it’s just the cable though. Otherwise, the acoustic guitar sounds just fine using both the built-in microphone and an external condenser microphone.

After using the interface I’d say it’s pretty good since it came with almost all of the cables that I needed to use. I plan on at least trying it out with my Mac, but I also know that if you put in some batteries into the interface it’s portable. I’m interested in seeing how that would work.

This week my school held it’s annual track & field. Since I’m in elementary school we have nine events being standing long jump/broad jump, running long jump, triple jump, shot put/ball throw, 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, & 1500m. I signed up to participate in all of these events except the 1500m since I don’t really like long distance too much.

The meet was supposed to be on Tuesday, but the weather wasn’t good so it was pushed back to Thursday. Our day was split into separate sections for different events. Usually, we would have all of our events and then possibly a rest period if we had spare time. However, this year our gym teachers decided to have our standing long jump & 2oom in our gym periods prior to the meet in order to save time. Unfortunately, not all of the intermediate students, which includes me were able to do the 200m before. Because of that, everyone had to do it again at the very end of the day.

At the start of our day, we had over half an hour of rest time before we actually started any of events. Personally, I think this was a pretty unfortunate thing to happen since I wouldn’t get to rest when I’d actually tired but wasn’t much  I could do about that. Since our school just finished with track & field yesterday I only now some of the results. I’d gotten first in all of the jumping events even though for running long jump I’d faulted my first jump but they still counted it. If they hadn’t counted my first jump I’m pretty sure I would’ve gotten second since we only got two jumps and my other jump wasn’t as good. I had also gotten third in the 1oom and from what other classmates have told me, I’d placed within top six for shot put. For the track events, it’s kind of hard to guess how well I did until the official results are released, but I don’t think I did too well in any of those.

Overall, I had lots of fun and I’ll get to go to the area track & field meet that takes place at a high school nearby where some other elementary schools gather to compete. I’m looking forward to the area meet mostly because I don’t have to go to school for a day, but I’ll still try my best to do well.

Earlier this week, Epic Games released a new Limited Time Mashup which also involves the latest Avengers movie which came out last week. In this game mode, a meteor lands on the map and drops the Infinity Gauntlet which has all six infinity stones on it. If you pick up the gauntlet, you will transform into Thanos who is the main antagonist of Avengers: Infinity War and have different abilities to use.

Any player can pick it up, but will have to drop all of their items, won’t be able to build, go through doors, or use launch pads. Originally on the day of the release, while transformed as Thanos you’d have 300 shield and 700 health. Your shield will replenish after every kill, but your health cannot be replenished though. However, as of now, you’ll only have 200 shield and 800 health. As Thanos, you don’t take fall damage and you have four abilities to use. Your first ability allows you to punch and it destroys walls, floors, and ramps in just one hit. The second ability allows you to fly towards the ground if you’re in the air and does the same effects as the first ability. The third ability allows you to shoot a beam in the air or on the ground that deals damage although you are immobile whilst doing so. Your last ability allows you to jump higher than normal after a charge up effect. There are a few other changes to weapon drops and things like that, but you can read more about it on their patch notes page here.

I haven’t gotten a chance to play this game mode yet but it looks pretty interesting. If you’re worried about spoilers for the movie by playing this game mode I don’t think you have to worry since most of the things featured are already common knowledge within the Marvel community.

This week Epic Games (developers of Fortnite) released Season 4 to the public. In Fortnite Battle Royal which is the more popular version of the game right now, there are seasons that last when they’re in effect you can buy a Battle Pass which allows you to get cosmetic items as you play the game. Also along with the new cosmetics, there are usually changes to the map. Last season was Season 3 which added a few extra places on the map but they weren’t as drastic as Season 4’s.

There has been a whole lot in the past few weeks of comets and meteors hitting specific places and you can probably search those theories up on Youtube or Google. However, most theories suggested that a comet in the sky would end up striking Tilted Towers which is a popular landing spot for lots of players. Most of these speculations were actually incorrect though despite the loads of evidence that could be found to prove it. Instead, it seems like the comet turned into a meteor and hit Dusty Depot which wasn’t that good of a landing spot (in my opinion) even though it was named on the map.

Dusty Depot was changed drastically with the area around it creating a crater. It is now named “Dusty Divot” due to it being a divot in the ground. Inside the crater, there are Hop Rocks that can be consumed by a player and allows them to jump a little higher than normal for around 30 seconds although I’m not sure if they are able to be stacked on top of each other if multiple are consumed at once. It seems like there are facilities and other things like that scattered around Dusty Divot, but I haven’t been able to go in-game to check it out yet.

Overall I think these changes have granted the game more media attention than usual which is already a lot. However, I also think that these changes will keep players interested with something new. One thing that just for my friends and me might be disappointed in is that on the damage from Dusty Divot too South-East with it being just a little tail next to the circle of damage. Before the update, my friends and my somewhat favorite landing spot was an unnamed location in between Salty Springs, Retail Row, and Dusty Depot. However, due to the extra tail from the circle of damage, it’s now no longer there which kind of disappoints me.

Last Monday on April 23, Alek Minassian drove a rental van down Yonge Street killing 10 people and injuring at least 13 more. This week I will be writing my thoughts and opinion on this incident.

The deceased victims’ ages ranged from 22 to 94. Two of them were foreign, one being a Korean international student and the other was a Jordanian citizen visiting his son. I’m sure the families and the public were very shocked with the incident and the families that were directly affected have my condolences. Slowly, the area of the scene is returning back to normal, but even then we should still remember that these types of things can occur and we should remain vigilant.

As for Alek Minassian however, he cannot be forgiven for what he has done and it is still unclear as to what his motives were. Another thing to consider though are the parents of the suspect, Sona and Vahe Minassian. So far the Minassian family has been trying to keep attention away from themselves, but Vahe Minassian was in the courtroom when charges were pressed. Soon after he left reporters and interviews surrounded him, but he only replied with “I’m sorry” to the questions. It seems like the parents also don’t understand why their son did what they did, but if I were them I would ultimately feel responsible for the actions of Alek Minassian.

Overall, this was a tragic incident that doesn’t seem to happen in very often in Toronto and when you think of attacks you don’t really think that much about Toronto or Canada in general. However, I think this is a reminder that these types of incidents can happen anywhere and that we should all take precautions and stay safe.

Yesterday it was just announced on the Counter-Strike Blog that Dust II, one of the most popular maps in gaming is now back in the Active Duty Map Pool which is a group of maps in which professionals play on and the most played maps in general. Dust II was originally always apart of the Active Duty Map Pool until Valve decided to take it out to make some changes. Therefore, taking it out and replacing it with Inferno which was another classic Counter-Strike map.

Whenever a map is brought it, another one is taken out. This time it was Cobblestone which I don’t really play for a few reasons. Cobblestone is a decently old map even though it has had some minor changes over the years. I know a lot of people like to play Cobblestone, but for me, it’s a bit awkward to play. As a Counter-Terrorist, it has different angles that are difficult to hold with a lot of height differences. I feel like this is a reason why they took it out because months ago a new map was released called Canals. It was very different than most other maps since like Cobblestone there were lots of height differences. Canals now is alright, but even now not too many people play on it. Personally, I already felt like Cobblestone was a bit different from other maps and that we didn’t really need another one like it.

Most of the time when maps are taken out of the map pool means that Valve’s making changes to it. For example, Dust II was brought out and had changes done to it mostly visually but changes none the less. Nuke was brought out and also had changes made. Cobblestone takes place in a castle sort of environment so I’m interested to see if they’ll change it or how they will if they do.

Overall, I’m interested in seeing how the pros will play the new Dust II and seeing how the changes will affect their play. However, I think the most interesting thing for the community now is going to be Cobblestone since changes to maps usually cause a stir in the community especially if they’ve remained the same for a while.