Last night, TsN brought us the first in their weekly look at MP 1v1; Feel The Pain, which primarily focused on PK. The show was presented by Stile, Liuokin, with special guest Toast.

Early on most of the TsN members, although not new to online gaming, confessed to being new to Painkiller, but despite this gave us an interesting and balanced discussion about the game.

The possible impact of the new netcode was discussed, which is clearly difficult, since theres been little or no solid indication about how much of an improvement the complete re-write of the netcode will be. The state of the existing netcode obviously merits change, although TsN expressed concern that the new netcode might be worse. It was pointed out that any new netcode may possibly bring with it some changes to the gameplay, but it was surmised that the pros could quickly adapt to these changes.

Next an overview of the maps was given, mainly detailing Psycho, Sacred, and Fallen2. TsN gave Sacred a high rating, were indifferent to Psycho, and unsure about the merits of Fallen2.

The discussion about Fallen2 brought them onto their next topic; the weapon balancing. Their main concern here seemed to be that the lightning gun was far too overpowered, and one of the reasons they gave for Fallen2 being a bad map for 1v1 was the domination of this weapon. The phrase sports game was used, referring to the activity in which the players would attempt to be the first to LG at the beginning of the game.

Following this the discussion moved to discussing the use of the rocket-jump binds from within PK. It was proposed that this was reserved for newbies, and would have no place in competitive 1v1 gameplay. The counter argument for this was given that it was part of the game, and people should not complain about something which was intended to be used by the makers of the game. The analogy drawn here was that of shield-use in Counterstrike, which is sometimes frowned apon. The conclusion to this discussion seemed to be that it should, and would, be up to the community to decide.

Next the use of powerups within 1v1 was discussed. Although some partial support for this was heard, the concensus was that this was a bad idea for duelling, since it gave such a large unbalanced advantage.

Finally, the evening was concluded by Toast playing Destrukt, with commentry by Stile.

(my apologies for any mistakes or omissions in this text)

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