Category: Free

So I stopped by one of my favorite sights for optimizing my pc, TweakGuides and low and behold sitting on the front page is this tagline: WarRock – A Free Battlefield 2 Alternative. I thought for free, a BF2 clone worth a shot, right. So I go to the sight at WarRock.net and register my information (but make sure you fill out everything because it will say your nickname is unavailable when it is available and other nag screens). Then I hit the free download button and it started to download. At this point I looked at the speed of the download and knew it would take awhile so I played some Quake 4 (download speeds are slow, so be patience). Once it finished I installed it I was on my way (be sure to restart Xfire so that it recognizes the game or you will not get all your hours logged like me). The game play is fantastic and it is remarkably close to BF2 but different enough to be its own game. One thing to note for people that do not read the key controls and jump in the game. The “F” key is the button for entering/exiting vehicles and for getting health and ammunition. You can run and double tap the “W” key for a quick dash. There are five characters to choose from and different weapons to select. Something that is original to the game in my opinion is the “Knuckles” weapon. What is the “Knuckles” weapon you ask? Well it is as the name implies two fist balled up and ready to swing. It is funny when you run up behind a camper and knock his block off. The sound effects are good too with everything pretty much sounding how they should. In War Rock there are also vehicles to control like tanks, hammers and motorcycles and their War rock sight states that planes and arbutus will be added later. The graphics on the game are pretty decent too but as an added bonus for people with low-end PC, they can still play with the minimum requirements only asking for a Pentium III 700mhz, 256mb, GeforceMX2 or better and Windows 98 or better. Now its time for me to break out my old CPU and use it for something again. Seriously though on high-end PCs there are shaders, textures and everything else to make it look beautiful. Hitboxes on War Rock in my opinion are better than some games I play and actually open for some fragging to happen. Remember this is a public beta so with that being said there are possible bugs or glitches but I have not experience them yet. So in conclusion is this the BF2 Killer that is in the tagline? It is free so go download it and found out for yourself.

Well I talked about how great Xfire is and put up my profile with Xfire’s miniprofile. The miniprofile is accessible once you login to Xfire.com. You can change the size and style but that is about it. There is only about four appearances with no way of customizing to your only style. After doing this you have the chance to place it on your website or forums. Xfire users were not happy with this and took it into their own hands. They created a sight called CXS (Custom Xfire Signatures). The first thing you need to do is register then right after you are taking to a page where you can customize everything from the fonts, placement, colors and backgrounds. That’s just scratching the surface because they have made it capable with lastfm.com and their audioscrobbler plugin that displays music that is currently playing through your computer’s music player of choice. My suggestion is to check the forums for any help and questions. I used the sight and created this for my first try with their tools:

What if there was a way of founding your gaming friends online? Better yet there was a way of telling what game they are playing? On top of that being able to talk to them and then joining their server with the same game on your computer? Now you can with the semi-magical program of Xfire. Why is it only partly magical because I can not take away the magical styling of David Blaine, can I?! I do not know but this program does all the aforementioned and more. Download Xfire now before I combust…here is my profile.