Mediiiiic!

So, Team Fortress 2. Like World of Warcraft, it's the elephant in the room that it's impossible to ignore at the moment if you're talking about online games.

I got The Orange Box for Christmas but didn't play it much; work was busy and I didn't think the PC in my room could handle it. But a reformat and some optimisation later - and playing with everything on low settings - and, well, there ya go.

It may look simple on the surface, like a playable version of The Incredibles, but within it has depth that humbles the original Team Fortress - and does the same to bleeding-edge online titles, such as Unreal Tournament 3 and Call of Duty 4. Those games may look more realistic, but in terms of gameplay - where, when it boils down to it, the real victories are won - Team Fortress 2 trumps them.

I favour the soldier class at the moment, but I think this is only because I'm relatively new to the game. An all-rounder with a rocket launcher and shotgun isn't entirely foreign ground to me, and coping with that is far easier than learning the many nuances of, say, the Spy, that I see in PC Gamer every month.

No doubt I'll get round to the other eight classes eventually. At the moment I'm having too much fun rampaging around the brilliantly-designed maps, employing the skills I learnt many years ago, during CTF and TDM games in Unreal Tournament at school. It's not as if I'm even doing that well yet - most games end with me being killed more times than I vanquish foes - but the odd bit of magic rears its cartoonish head: a hopefully volley of rocket fire will connect, the perfect merger of anticipation, aiming and ping, with someone's head. They explode with a ferocious energy that wouldn't look out of place in a Pixar film, and I rejoice for a second.

Then I'm gunned down by a bloody sniper, all Crocodile Dundee and Steve Irwin, gloating at me from some far-flung ledge.

I also like the use of statistics: seeing exactly how I'm doing eliminates much of the guesswork that older games made you use just to figure out how you were getting on. I like to see the gap between kills I've made and times I've been taken out getting smaller.

The balancing is perfect: equilibrium on a knife-edge. It makes team games a total joy - a group of you charging forward always feels like it has a chance at taking the next control point because you know that there's a change you'll do well because of the varied skills in your team, how they compliment each other, and how there's some players on the opposition side who your character can take down. Similarly, there's no huge mantle of responsibility on your shoulders: there's enough scope to be able to go on a gung-ho, charging run to the top of a control point as you know there will always be your team backing you up, or at least holding their ground until you respawn.

Negative points? There's not enough hours in the day.

Oh well. One more match won't hurt.

Oops.

Another week since my last post. Every time I write in here I think that I'll force myself to write more often, and yet I don't. It's a shame because once I start, I find myself enjoying it.

I've downloaded a brilliant little game off Steam called Audiosurf - it's been garnering a huge amount of press, both in print and online, and a score of 85% in PC Gamer is always impressive, not least for a game that cost me just over £5 ($10 and VAT) over PayPal.

Like so many other critically acclaimed titles recently - like mega-stars of gaming Rock Band and Guitar Hero - Audiosurf revolves around music. Controlling a small space-ship, the mouse or keyboard moves the little craft down a track split into several lanes. The basic aim of the game, like casual title Bejewelled, is to group together coloured blocks into trios or more, scoring points for larger groups of combos. Choosing different crafts unlock different criteria for point-scoring.

It all sounds pretty conventional until you come to the point where you pick an mp3 before beginning a level - and then the game analyses the file and uses it to create the track. The shape, camber and direction of the circuit is determined by the music, as is the placement of blocks on the track, and the surrounding world. 'Sin City' was fast, twisting, black and neon - very reminiscent of Las Vegas. Happier songs are given white backgrounds and less undulating circuits.

It's brilliant, giving you a way to connect with the music - picking up little patterns in the audio that you just didn't before because of the arrangement of blocks. I'm only just scratching the surface, I'm sure - and the only thing I wish the game had was a random track-select option, as at the moment I resort to selecting a song before I begin. Adding in an element of surprise would only improve things, I'm sure.

In other news, I keep thinking a little about those Scientologists. It seems strange that they're normal people, possibly with wives and children who they go home to in the evening. They have favourite TV shows and bands, sinful comfort foods they prefer and football teams they watch. But they're outside that building most days, handing out leaflets imploring people to join what is, essentially, a cult. And they believe in that more than they believe in their footballs teams or TV shows - and they don't even know the situation they're in, such is the strength of their indoctrinated feelings and beliefs.

Emotions are weird.

Anonymous v Scientology

So, went into work today to finish off my group test that I'm doing on the side for Computer Buyer magazine. I've been at the office til 8:30 the last three nights of the week as well as today but it's good money, so I can't complain.

It also meant that I got to go to an anti-Scientology protest.

I'd known that they were going on, vaguely, around the world - the 'anonymous' masked folk turning up. But I had no idea it was today until I stumbled upon a video on YouTube talking about it. I looked up the protest page and discovered that the London event was starting at the Church of Scientology and then moving down to the Dianetics Centre near Goodge Street Station - about three minutes from the office - at 2.

So down I went. Get there, and there's barriers on the other side of the road, across from the centre - with about 1,000 people behind them, plenty wearing the 'anonymous' masks. Police are all over the place, but it was a peaceful protest - the most they were doing was telling people to keep walking who were stopping on the pavement to take pictures of the slightly bizarre scenes.

I crossed the road to where the main body of protesters were - they were holding up plenty of signs and banners, and chanting things like 'It's a trap!' when members of the public went inside the Scientology Centre. They were also handing out plenty of cake - it was a friendly protest, after all.

I crossed back to the other side of the road again and joined the reams of people taking pictures of the odd scenes, and nervously hovering around the Scientology Centre and wondering if I should tell them how much of a cult they were. There were three people handing out pro-Scientology leaflets - one, an older man, I felt quite sorry for. He looked quite sheepish and put-upon, and more than a bit reluctant. Another, a woman, seemed a bit more tenacious - she was hovering around distributing leaflets and taking pictures of the protestors. I did read that they'd sent people out to take pictures of them and of the people buying masks for security purposes. It's all very shady.

The third man handing out leaflets is one I've seen out there before. His eyes were permanently narrowed in suspicion, and he thrust leaflets towards anyone who came near. He looked incredibly driven and, dare I say it, a wee bit brainwashed. But, then again, I suppose they all are.

And that's the sad thing - the 'anonymous' group put it very well when they say that they don't oppose individual Scientologists, but the organisation itself. They were all - and probably still are, if you weren't aware of their quasi-'religious' views - normal people. But the organisation itself isn't a religion. It's an voracious money-making machine that tricks and fools gullible people into parting with their hard-earned cash for so-called spiritual enlightment, via some aliens and a man who professed, when he was alive, that the easiest way to make a million dollars was to found a religion.

I guess he was right. Real religions don't charge you for membership and persecute people by fear and intimidation like the 'Church' of Scientology does. It's just worrying that their legal team is strong enough to seemingly halt any challenge to their undoubtedly dubious, and probably illegal, methods.

The Colour of Magic

I've begun to do some work on the side for a wonderful site called Den of Geek that specialises in TV, movie, game and cult news and reviews. I've done a couple of games but then an email went around last week that offered a seat at a press showing of the new Sky One adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic. I jumped at the chance - I love the books - and, instructions in hand, set off to Mayfair and the cinema.

I get there, and it's very busy. The path each side of the entrance is blocked off with barriers covered in film posters, and the other side of the road is similarly adorned. Fans line each barrier - one the Cinema side of the road, they're several deep. Around 50 cameramen are lurking around the red carpet.

An actual red carpet!

I walk up to the very large and beefy-looking security guards on the carpet and introduced myself as a member of the press who was there to review the film. Once they'd checked out who I was, they said I was ok. And I got to hang around on the red carpet! So I did until it got a bit busier and I headed inside.

Indoors, there were a few big models - a couple of Rincewind and Twoflower, and one of the Octavo - and an area prepared for interviews. Limosuines drew up, out stepped Astin and Jason. Pandemonium: fans scream for autographs, photographers yell for pictures and poses, and a thousand flashbulbs go off at once, illuminating the road in front of the cinema. It was like a real film premiere, oddly enough.

Then they came inside and said hello to all the people from Sky they knew. I almost introduced myself but bottled up and headed indoors.

For my thoughts on the show itself you'll have to head over to my review at Den of Geek, which you can get to by clicking here. Suffice to say, it was pretty damn good.

After the showing, everyone stuck around: there was a promised Q&A session with Sir David Jason and Sean Astin. Also attending, to our delight, was legendary author Terry Pratchett - and it was hosted by the director, Vadim Jean. My thoughts on this and a full transcript will be going up over at Den of Geek in a couple of days - but it was funny, hugely entertaining and very illuminating, as couple of interested facts that hadn't been previously known were revealed.

I've never been to a film premiere before. But I'll tell you this - I really, really want to go again.