Tutorial How-to – Shadowgun On Non-Tegra Devices
Friends! I bring to you Shadowgun! Probably one of the most bad ass Android games to date. It’s Tegra only so if you have a tegra device you are good to go. Nab the game, install, download, done. If you don’t have a tegra device you aren’t left out in the cold. Here’s how you get this epicness working.
- Grab Chainfire3D https://market.android.com/details?id=eu.chainfire.cf3d The free version should work just fine.
- Grab the Chainfire plugins which include the tegra plugin. http://www.megaupload.com/?d=4P9LEW7P
- Finally grab the Shadowgun 1.0.2 APK file. I do not condone piracy. You do this at your own risk. Buy the game it’s that good! http://brockh.at/tiOUcP (google search)
- Install chain fire.
- Install Shadowgun.
- Unrar the plugins(should have 3 zip files).
- Copy the zip files to your SD card.
- Open Chainfire install the chainfire driver(requires phone reboot).
- Open Chainfire again. Choose Install plugins/shaders.
- Install the Nvidia plugin.
- Go to “Per-app OpenGL settings”
- Tap Shadowgun
- Uncheck “Use default settings”
- Check “Reduce texture size” and “Disable MapBuffer emu”.
You can now run the game. If you want it even more buttery smooth and don’t mind giving up a little visual quality you can also check “reduce texture quality”. It’s also worth noting this little tweak could be applied to any tegra game you want to run and can also be used to increase performance for demanding non-tegra games especially if you are on an older device.
Happy hunting!
Farewell Battlefield 3 Till Next Time Perhaps
I’ve all ready voiced, very loudly and very clearly, my reasons for boycotting Battlefield 3. That having been said I’m not one who can justify to myself or others talking about something I don’t know anything about or have had no part in. That being said here is my experience so far with the Battlefield 3 beta.
For starters I wasn’t even invited to the closed beta a month or two ago. Never mind the fact that I’ve beta tested for a decade or more, have run a beta for my own game, played Battlefield since it’s inception and until recently owned Bad Company 2 on every system it exists on and even on the PC *TWICE!*. All that aside, here is my experience with the current beta.
Again I wasn’t invited to the PC version. Mainly because I chose not to buy my way in to it. My buddy Chris got his invite, downloaded the game and…can’t play it. First it only works on IE(officially any way) and second when he tries to launch the game he runs it, it finds a server and then the website tries to launch the game it won’t run. I spent about 45 mins googling and trying different possible solutions and nothing fixed it. This is 2 x 45mins so a total of an hour and a half man hours and no solution. He had spent some time before I got home from work trying to get it to work too so all told I’m sure it was more than 2hrs spent trying to fix it. Not a great start.
Tonight I discover that I’m able to download the PS3 beta no key or anything required. This, unfortunately, made a worse impression than the game not launching at all on the PC. Now before you jump down my throat about how it’s “beta” etc. and I should expect some issues. I fully understand that. Recall my comment above about having beta tested for over a decade. This, this thing, is a giant pile of garbage. It’s hard to know where to begin. Being as close to official launch as it is I assume they are throwing preview code out to aid in hyping the game. But lets be honest this is not what you want the first impression of your game to be.
For starters I had a tough time discerning lag from glitches from lag hacking. On more occasions than I can count I would watch an enemy player appear out of no where and kill a team mate or, with no footstep noises or other indication of his presence he would kill me from behind in our spawn. On one occasion I turned a full 360 degrees seeing no one only to be knifed from behind in an area with out cover. I mention the lag hacking or possible exploitation of the maps because there were several times the kill cam would seem to be moving in the floor. Another occasion I was covering a door and facing a teammate who was also covering the door from the other side. An enemy simply appeared from no where in front of my team mate and knifed him in the face before he could respond. I managed to kill the guy but only after he turned around and simultaneously killed me too.
This lag, or what ever it is continued in to other areas of the game. I would frequently throw grenades that an enemy would stand directly over as it went off, he would shoot me and kill me and his kill cam would show 100% health. Also while attempting to fire, even sited, I would be struck not only by recoil but apparently by epilepsy too. It would appear that recoil was happening but also that my character was sporadically bending at the waist. The flash light is way way way over powered. From a range of 30-40 meters away it would obscure a 10-15 meter radius keeping you from being able to hit not only the enemy carrying it but any enemies in the immediate vicinity. It’s like they ripped one of the lights from the 9/11 memorial and attached it to a weapon rail. Last but not least were the weird buggy smoke trails lit like muzzle flash but with no one present. Other than obscuring vision and flashing sporadically they don’t move, they don’t do anything. Like a programmer was testing muzzle flashes but forgot to remove the particle system and lighting. Finally about every 3rd spawn or so I would spawn with no retical.
The interface has about as many problems. The outfitting menu is some what similar to Battlefield Bad Company 2′s but they’ve added so many do-dads and cruft elements that it’s just a visual mess. The kit selection menu was kind of jammed towards the bottom like they hadn’t scaled the elements for console and half covered the deploy button indicator. Weapons, as you would expect being metal, are a grey color and much of the kill indicator text is a sort of semi-translucent blue. When you’re weapon is sited the text is nearly invisible. I couldn’t tell if I got a kill at range or not due to this which essentially left me chasing ghosts on occasion.
All said this has been one of the worst beta’s I’ve ever played. I can give a lot of forgiveness to a game since I know what it takes to make one but this, I’d call this beta and probably wouldn’t let any one with out an NDA see it. This has completely re-enforced my belief that not buying this game is the right thing to do beta or not.
The Full Tutorial: How To Upgrade The PS3′s Hard Drive
When I bought my Playstation 3 one of the most enticing things about the system was the ability to upgrade the hard drive with a standard laptop drive. Having previously maxed out the hard drive on my Xbox and my refusal to pay though the nose Microsoft’s exorbitant prices, for commodity hardware wrapped in plastic, this is a key feature. While I did pay up front to get a 120GB version which has lasted me the better part of a year I was with in 20GB or so of maxing it out. Thanks due, in no small part, to the Playstation Plus program that keeps pumping my drive full of new games. If I weren’t able to offload my video on to my home server I’d have been making this upgrade far sooner. Despite the ease with which you can swap the hardware the software end wasn’t quite as straight forward which is why I decided to write this. So lets get down to business.
- Backup your data! Use a second usb drive to make a backup through the backup utility. Move important saves to the cloud saves storage. You lose your data it’s your own fault!
- Remove the old drive and install the new one. Unfortunately the person who made the video disabled embedding. Who know why but the link to the video is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sRkj89axOU
- When you start up the system for the first time with the new hard drive installed, you’ll get a message saying “The system software cannot be run correctly”. Don’t panic.
- Format a usb flash drive with a FAT32 file system.
- On the usb flash drive create a folder called PS3 and inside the PS3 folder create a folder called UPDATE.
- Download the latest version of PS3 firmware from here http://us.playstation.com/support/systemupdates/ps3/pc_update/index.htm
- What you will download is a file called PS3UPDAT.PUP. Put this file in the UPDATE folder on the usb flash drive.
- Take your usb flash drive from your PC and plug it in to your PS3.
- Press and hold the ‘start’ and ‘select’ buttons at the same time briefly and you should launch in to the formatting and re-install process.
- Follow the prompts.
What do you do when EA/Dice gives you the middle finger?
So I used to be just mildly miffed at EA because they have crappy service and their tech, I’m looking at you EA Store Downloader, never worked. But now I’m down right pissed. To the point of boycotting Battlefield 3.
I bought and played Battlefield 1942 from the day it came out. In fact I still have the original discs and key. I bought and played Battlefield 2 when it came out, lost the key and just recently re-bought it on steam. I bought Battlefield 2142 twice, once on PC when it came out and when I got a Mac I bought it for that too. I’ve played many hours of Battlefield Heroes and, while I’m afraid to admit it, might have paid for an item or two on the store. I never did buy Battlefield Bad Company because, at the time, I saw it as a travesty to the online multiplayer only nature of the game. I was wrong. So to make up for it I bought Battlefield Bad Company 2 four times! Once on PC, Once on Xbox 360, Once on PS3 and then when BFBC2 Vietnam came out, to avoid the a fore mentioned crappy EA Store Downloader I re-bought it on Steam along with Vietnam. So now every one is getting invites to Battlefield 3 Alpha, except me, and as you might imagine after countless hours and dollars I am way way way beyond pissed.
I believe part of the problem is that I have two EA account. Each under my very very old yahoo account and under my newer(2008) gmail account. I’ve tried adding all the games to my games lists under both accounts. I’ve tried the tips outlined here http://bf3nation.com/2011/07/battlefield-3-alpha-bypass-anyone-can-get-in-get-your-invite-now/ and so far no luck. When I try the second suggestion from that site it tells me my account is not suitable.
It’s just about the last straw. I’m going to Quakecon next week. If I don’t have an Alpha invite by then I’ll hate EA with even more passion than before and I’ll say good bye to the game series that has brought me so much pleasure for so so long.
Now I know many of my friends are going to think I’m crazy. I’m not crazy. I have principles, balls and I’m more than willing to communicate with my cash, or with holding of. EA/Dice, fix this or lose a long time paying customer.
PSP a GO GO. Or, how to GOify your standard PSP.
Whats a PSP love’n gamer to do these days? The Vita looks fantastic but is still several months out. The PSP GO is just kind of awkward but the standard PSP isn’t quite cloud ready. The cost of Memory Stick is kind of cost prohibitive and carting those UMDs around is a pain. If you are a Playstation Plus member you also have access to a pretty decent collection of free Mini’s that run on your PSP and quite a few discounted price full PSP games in digital form. So how do you throw out the UMDs and bolster your storage capacity with out breaking the bank? (more…)
The Rick Roll In Pictures
A few days ago I came across some instructions on how to setup your own URL shortener. It appeared pretty simple so I followed the instructions. So now I have use of http://brockh.at as my own URL shortening service. With this nifty utility at my disposal I soon realized it’s power to surprise. Unless you’ve got a twitter service that reads ahead for you there is really no way to know whats on the other end of that link. So it occurred to me that this was the perfect opportunity to perpetrate that dearest of Internet traditions. The RICK ROLL! Behold, the results.
Incident number two of the RICK ROLL looked something like this.
May be I should have titled this post “Losing Friends and Influencing People”. Last but not least I’ve got one of my earlier attempts at the RICK ROLL in Minecraft no less.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this presentation of some Rick Rolling in action. If you’d like to Rick Roll you’re own friends you can use my link. http://brockh.at/lt3EFR
The Uncanny Valley Is Moving–LA Noire Is Proof
On the eve of Rockstar’s latest game release LA Noire I ponder the concept of the uncanny valley and I wonder if it’s moving. For those not in the know here is a little excerpt from the wikipedia article.
The uncanny valley is a hypothesis in the field of robotics which holds that when robots and other facsimiles of humans look and act almost, but not perfectly, like actual humans, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers.[1] The “valley” in question is a dip in a proposed graph of the positivity of human reaction as a function of a robot’s lifelikeness.
They busted out a pretty slick graph as well that shows where certain things fall on the scale of awkwardness. Have a look.
So what does all this have to do with LA Noire? LA Noire is sporting new technology that maps faces to 3D models in a level of detail never seen before. This maps real performances from actors in to the 3D world and delivers a much more convincing, human, performance in to the game. Check this video of the technology in action. (more…)
PlayStation Network All Green?
Well it appears that of the first wave of PlayStation Network being brought up according to the PlayStation Network Blog. You can scope the map here: http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/05/14/play-on-%E2%80%93-psn-restoration-begins-now/
PSN faithful rejoice! I wont get to my PlayStation for another 24 hours. What sort of an experience arduous having with the restored service? Hit me up on twitter and let me know.
Bad Taste Activision – Guitar Hero on Career Page
So I was doing what I do best. Trolling. It just so happened I was trolling career pages around the industry. Every one wants the fame and fortune associated with working for a big name video game company so I sauntered on over to Activision career page. What I was met with both saddened, amused and disgusted me at the same time.
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| Activision career page featuring Guitar Hero |
Sony Poised To Take Mobile Gaming By Storm
Just wanted a quick note about this. The PSP NGP from Sony is a hot little item coming out apparently soon. Most of the time another version of the PSP wouldn’t be noteable but there are some very interesting things about it that came to light. It’s less about the PSP NGP it’s self and more about Sony’s strategy. If they really leverage what they have, I’m not holding my breath, they could come out of no where to dominate the mobile gaming market. Here’s why.
The PSP NGP is being designed on a quad core Arm 9 processor. The same type(not necessarily number of cores) of processor that is in every smart phone out there. This is important because it means with little to no modification all the games and software Sony creates from this point on can potentially run on that device in your pocket or on your desk right now. They’ve all ready demoed the PSN client/store running on the Android powered Sony Ericsson phone so it’s a short leap to installing it on your Motorola or Samsung.
The second thing of note is the touch screen and 3G capabilities being offered on the PSP NGP. Sound like other devices all ready in your pocket? While I’m sure many bigger titles that are first gen on the PSP NGP are not going to provide much in the way of touch screen support. In the not to distant future I think we are going to see top tier Playstation titles coming to smart phones every where. It’s Sony’s chance to take the mobile gaming market by storm.
Video Game Blogging From Inside The Game
Those who have been using Steam as their gaming platform of choice will know about a little built in feature called the browser. It isn’t your average browser. It’s actually integrated in to Steam’s in game interface which over lays what ever game you happen to be playing at the time. It isn’t very fancy, it doesn’t support tabs or even a right click menu. It does however support javascript and most of the functionality of Google’s web apps. This includes mail and Google Docs. That last one is what I wanted to focus on in this post.
Steam plus Google Docs makes a wonderful platform for writing about games. More specifically writing reviews that some times require using names and places specific to the game that are easy to find when you are playing but not as easy when you are searching the web. A simple two button combination switches between live game play and your word processor. What could be better for writing about such dynamic content as games?
You also have access to the IM and chat client built in so you can bounce your ideas off your gamer friends. As well as get input and feedback on what you’ve all ready written. You can use it to get quotes to add some spice to your write up. Community and game groups also give you some data and statistics on how many people are playing a particular game which is also very useful. So many wonderful uses for the system!
Of course it doesn’t have be limited to Google docs and I could see this being useful in quite a few ways. Blogging is another similar use of the system. Simply fire up your web based blogging interface and you are set to go. Twitter would be another great use for it. Tweet your clan matches or LAN party games as they happen. You can even use Pandora radio to give your game an alternate sound track. What other crazy things can you come up with to use the steam built in browser for?
Top 3 Free To Play Games
As caught up as the game industry currently is in selling a billion copies of the next big “indie” game at $10 or $15 and selling a million or two of the next big $60 game we should not forget that the economy still isn’t real spectacular and people don’t have a ton of money to throw around. So with that in mind I’m going to present my top 3 free to play games on the net today. Keep in mind while they are free if you wanted to you could spend money on these and I don’t make any promises that they will remain free forever.
#1 – Runescape! This free to play MMORPG has been out there doing it’s thing for years now. They were one of the first games to do the play free or pay for a premium account thing. It seems to have worked well for them and the game has aged rather gracefully thanks to constant updates and probably the only truly successful implementation of a Java based game on the internet. It’s a typical fantasy world game with tons of items, spells, quests and the like to keep you busy for hours. All implemented in your browser for easy portability.
http://www.runescape.com
#2 – Battlefield Heroes! I might be partial since Battlefield has been one of my favorites since Battlefield 1942 ruined my life back in 2002. Ah, to be young again. Now I own the latest installment on every platform it’s available on. But I digress. Battlefield Heroes isn’t just one of my favorites because it’s got the Battlefield name attached to it. It’s a far cry from any of the other games with the same name. Player movement speed is drastically slow, initially, and the game is far far far less serious than any of the other Battlefield games. That is part of it’s charm and appeal. It’s pacing is different, it’s premise is different and it stands out as a unique experience. They go with a micro payment scheme meaning if you are broke you can enjoy the fun and if you aren’t you can enhance the game in sooo many different ways.
http://www.battlefieldheroes.com
#3 – Alien Swarm! By far the newest of the bunch Alien Swarm is available through the Valve Steam game system for free. It is a free to play four player co-op top down shooter. Supporting four player co-op through a fairly short campaign the replay value seems short. The key is that we should be seeing mods and add-ons cropping up soon since this comes bundled with the Source game engine SDK. The key here is that each play through with new friends plays out differently so you should get a ton of game play out of a fairly short game. Keep an eye on this one as it holds a lot of promise!
http://www.alienswarm.com
Regardless of your financial situation if you have a PC you should be able to play at least one of these games and if you have even a moderate graphics card you will be in good shape to play all three. Play on gamers!
Baby Savers
I’m dropping the bomb today. For lack of anything better to write about. There is a new game on the horizon for Android users out there from a new company called FatHat Games. The game is titled Baby Savers. You take the role of 1940/1950′s fire fighters trying to save babies being thrown from a burning building on the left side of the screen by bouncing them to the ambulance waiting on the right side of the screen. You start the game with five lives and score points each time a baby makes it to the ambulance. You lose a life if you drop a baby. The difficulty ramps up as the game progresses and it’s game over if you drop 5 babies. This game is going to be a blast when it’s finished. For now there a couple of pre-beta screen shots available on their website at:
Hot New Xbox 360, Just a Year Too Late
I don’t mean to be negative but it’s really hard to stay positive about what Microsoft has been doing with Xbox 360 lately. It looks like one step forward and three steps back. Guess what, the original Xbox was black. The Playstation 3 is black. Why Microsoft thought a white console was a good idea when almost every TV and stereo component in THE WORLD is black is beyond me. Black is the new black.
Built in Wifi!!!! Oh wait, everything for the past three years has wifi built in. My phone, my portable game devices, and my laptop. Nintendo managed to put it in their console that was $100 cheaper and in their hand held device that was $160 cheaper. Oh wait, the free phone I got from IWireless(Iowa’s t-mobile affiliate) has built in wifi. There is no good reason that the Xbox 360 up till now hasn’t had built in wifi. This is really just unacceptable PERIOD!
It’s smaller! Once again, WTF!? Why the Xbox 360 was so huge is beyond me. I’ve opened the original machine and there is a ton of open empty space in the case. So much so that there is ducting in the case to ensure good air flow due to all that empty space. If MS has taken a little more time to think out their system layout they could have released the original as a much smaller package to begin with.
The final, actually positive, piece is Kinect and the leap forward it represents for motion gaming. No controller, the thing can determine depth and track on things as small as fingers. Seems to be pretty spectacular all around but it still remains to be seen if this is going to be put to truly good use or if we’re going to get the same flood of gimmicky games on the Xbox as the Wii has received.
Getting Pictures Off the Playstation 3 the Internet Way
As most of you know I’ve been playing the snot out of Modnation Racers. One of the sweet features that the game includes is the ability to screen shot your creations and in turn use them as your Playstation 3′s wallpaper. Playstation home, Little Big Planet and a ton of other games have this feature as well. The Playstation 3 is super flexible in what it can do and yet there seem to be some pieces missing. For example I can copy the pictures to a thumb drive or external USB drive but I can’t send to e-mail accounts from the communications section so there is no networked, internet based way to get this content off the system. I’ve done some searches to try to figure out how to do it and all suggestions are to use the sneaker net approach. I wasn’t having any of that. So here is how to get your pictures off the system using the wonderful world of networking and the internet.
Go to the Playstation 3′s browser and navigate to your favorite e-mail service provider. Mine in this case is Google GMail. Fill in your own e-mail address. Then click on your link/icon to attach files. You will now have access to the file browser on the Playstation 3 and be able to select any images you like. Attach away! Google e-mail lets you download multiple files as a zip attachment so I can attach a bunch of pictures and then on my computer I can pull them down in one download. Super simple and effective.
Below are attachments of some of my creations in Modnation Racers as well as some of the other hard work from other players.
Activision Trudges On
In light of the current big news stories regarding Infinity Ward, Call of Duty and Activision I thought I’d do a little digging. I knew Activision came to rest in, under, around and through Vivendi. While I had an idea there was some trouble in Activision’s past I found I really had no idea.
Apparently being legally and ethically sketchy is actually what Activision is all about. Starting off shortly after I was born they took part in a little copyright infringement which I’m sure resulted in some nice sized fines being slapped. Then in 86 they bought Infocom and thats when their wife beating behavior began. The studio head didn’t like Infocom and didn’t want that merger to happen so they basically closed the company offering only 11 of 26 employees amnesty. They went and started doing some things other than games for a while under the name Mediagenic. Some where down the line(07? they got bought, named back to Activision, re-incorporated in Delaware, which as I learned is a corporate haven for some reason, and subsequently has since bought and sold companies through the 90′s and this decade. Which in short order brings us to the current big headlines. So you have to kind of wonder if Activision is as big a jerk to their other holdings as they are with Infinity Ward? Could this spark off a lot of movement from Blizzard who is part of Activision and about to embark on the great Starcraft 2 journey? The game industry is about as dramatic as a soap opera and it doesn’t look like it’s going to change any time soon. Sit back, grab a mojito and watch things unfold!
Free Game Krank Is Simple Yet Diabolical
I love open source and the sort of freedom it means for technology so it should be no surprise that I’ve run across a free game or two in my net travels. Krank is new to me and seems to run in the vein of more current indie titles. That is a simple game play mechanic diabolically implemented and blessed with some beautiful visuals.
From a game play standpoint Krank is simple. Nudge the physics based balls towards the stationary points on the screen. When they touch they link up. Pretty simple till you realize that balls moving to fast can bump other balls and disconnect them or that in some cases you may have to get strings of the them to connect between two stationary points. Sound simple? Not when momentum is involved.
The visuals aren’t ground breaking but they are still beautiful. With a combination of abstract images bright and colorful levels never seem bland. It will no doubt catch the eye of any one strolling by your computer.
A final note is on performance. It’s based on SDL and some times that can have some performance issues on Windows. For me the game ran fine during a level but the transition from level to level was very slow(15-30sec). Not unplayable and as with any other open source project iteration should happen often and things should improve rapidly. I’m looking forward to spending some more time with this game.
Spank It! Deathspank still on the way!
Just wanted to write a short post and remind every one that Deathspank still looks amazing and still has me very excited. I might even be able to pull my self away from Battlefield Bad Company 2 long enough to give it a good play through. Some interesting developments is that Gamespot is listing it as canceled for the PC and only for Xbox 360 and PS3. Diablo meets Monkey Island can’t possibly go wrong. No word yet on multiplayer, co-op or any sort of online elements. Do you really need all that fluff when it sports a huge number of customizable equipment…yes. Regardless the game looks beautiful and buttery smooth. Excited!
Modern Warfare 2 FAIL…I Told You So!
I’m not so delighted to admit that my original post from my old blog where I detail how Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 was going to fail in lord only knows how many ways is at the moment lost. My contract with my service provider was up and while I did make a backup the hard drive that backup was on was lost or stolen some where in my move to my new job. I will post my original article when I manage to recover it.
Battlefield Bad Company 2 Day + 2
I’m finding my self having trouble quantifying the intense experience that is Battlefield Bad Company 2. The destructibility is far from a gimmick in this game. While other games before it have attempted to provide this level of destruction they’ve done it in a very over the top blatant way as to bring the destruction in to the fore ground. Battlefield Bad Company 2 makes it epic, no doubt, but does it in such a believable way so as to make it fade in to the background, as a set piece to the frantic, adrenaline inducing experience that is a Battlefield game. I’ve died a million times over in video games but nothing compares to seeing the shrapnel from the wall fly across the screen as it knocks your character sideways in a manner straight out of a war movie.
I could probably go on for pages about the physics and how it helps the experience but there are a few other points of note regarding the difference in PC and Xbox versions. The PC version despite having a release on Xbox 360 is not a “Games for Windows Live” game. While this is initially a good thing, in my opinion, it is also an EA game. Some how DICE has managed to get EA to keep its fingers mostly out of its business. This keeps your interface good and clean with no overlays and only a brief login to the EA system. On the one hand EA and the PC version of the game provide a medals system and the Xbox 360 version provides the requisite achievements and what appears to be a ‘coming’ slew of awards. The Xbox system also seems to have a ‘store’ function where it’ll cost you Microsoft Points to hook up the maps, awards and new achievements along with new uniforms and possibly new gear. It appears there is no real clear winner in which version is more enticing. The Xbox 360 version definitely has that capitalistic Xbox sort of bent to it and the list of achievements recognizable by people beyond the game is kind of nice but the PC version looks better as gives the real pure experience.
If you’re on an Xbox 360 you absolutely have to give the squad rush demo a go. I’m not sure the state of a demo for the PC but if you can get some time on a friends PC most certainly take the opportunity and savor it. It’s a superb experience that can’t be beat.
Battlefield Bad Company 2 Quick Look
I hope in the next day or two prior to release to post a full blown pre-view article about Battlefield Bad Company 2 but for now I only have time for a short run down/preview. We’ll call it a “quick look” since I won’t be going in to any kind of real detail. First a disclaimer that I am in fact a Battlefield fan boy. I spent the two years prior to my deployment playing primarily Battlefield 2142. That aside I’ve played way more than my fair share of the Call of Duty series and the R.I.P. Medal of Honor series as well. You might call me a military FPS buff of sorts. So lets get down to buisness.
Graphically this game holds its own with the latest and best which is to be expected from a title from such a huge juggernaut of gaming as DICE backed by EA. I don’t think I need to say much there. You can find video and screen shots on plenty of other sites. But akin to that is the graphical effect that the deformable terrain and destructible environments have on the game. There is nothing more spine tingling than when you make your way through a portion of the map that has all ready seen action. A space that went from pristine village to smoldering pile of rubble. This certainly isn’t the first game to do that but it is the first to involve as many particle effects, real time destruction and in such a believable way.
The level design also seems to be pretty amazing as long as it holds up. Right now the only playable map in the beta/demo is a squad rush map that appears to be part of what is no double a larger map that you play through in either the campaign or in one of the other game modes. If DICE manages to maintain the level of polish and superb map design this game will stand up to the best in over all balance and playability.
Please please please grab the demo on your Xbox 360 or find your way in to the beta on your PC. This game HAS to be played!
Battlefield Bad Company 2 Day + 2
I’m finding my self having trouble quantifying the intense experience that is Battlefield Bad Company 2. The destructibility is far from a gimmick in this game. While other games before it have attempted to provide this level of destruction they’ve done it in a very over the top blatant way as to bring the destruction in to the fore ground. Battlefield Bad Company 2 makes it epic, no doubt, but does it in such a believable way so as to make it fade in to the background, as a set piece to the frantic, adrenaline inducing experience that is a Battlefield game. I’ve died a million times over in video games but nothing compares to seeing the shrapnel from the wall fly across the screen as it knocks your character sideways in a manner straight out of a war movie.
I could probably go on for pages about the physics and how it helps the experience but there are a few other points of note regarding the difference in PC and Xbox versions. The PC version despite having a release on Xbox 360 is not a “Games for Windows Live” game. While this is initially a good thing, in my opinion, it is also an EA game. Some how DICE has managed to get EA to keep its fingers mostly out of its business. This keeps your interface good and clean with no overlays and only a brief login to the EA system. On the one hand EA and the PC version of the game provide a medals system and the Xbox 360 version provides the requisite achievements and what appears to be a ‘coming’ slew of awards. The Xbox system also seems to have a ‘store’ function where it’ll cost you Microsoft Points to hook up the maps, awards and new achievements along with new uniforms and possibly new gear. It appears there is no real clear winner in which version is more enticing. The Xbox 360 version definitely has that capitalistic Xbox sort of bent to it and the list of achievements recognizable by people beyond the game is kind of nice but the PC version looks better as gives the real pure experience.
If you’re on an Xbox 360 you absolutely have to give the squad rush demo a go. I’m not sure the state of a demo for the PC but if you can get some time on a friends PC most certainly take the opportunity and savor it. It’s a superb experience that can’t be beat.
Battlefield Bad Company 2 Quick Look
I hope in the next day or two prior to release to post a full blown pre-view article about Battlefield Bad Company 2 but for now I only have time for a short run down/preview. We’ll call it a “quick look” since I won’t be going in to any kind of real detail. First a disclaimer that I am in fact a Battlefield fan boy. I spent the two years prior to my deployment playing primarily Battlefield 2142. That aside I’ve played way more than my fair share of the Call of Duty series and the R.I.P. Medal of Honor series as well. You might call me a military FPS buff of sorts. So lets get down to buisness.
Graphically this game holds its own with the latest and best which is to be expected from a title from such a huge juggernaut of gaming as DICE backed by EA. I don’t think I need to say much there. You can find video and screen shots on plenty of other sites. But akin to that is the graphical effect that the deformable terrain and destructible environments have on the game. There is nothing more spine tingling than when you make your way through a portion of the map that has all ready seen action. A space that went from pristine village to smoldering pile of rubble. This certainly isn’t the first game to do that but it is the first to involve as many particle effects, real time destruction and in such a believable way.
The level design also seems to be pretty amazing as long as it holds up. Right now the only playable map in the beta/demo is a squad rush map that appears to be part of what is no double a larger map that you play through in either the campaign or in one of the other game modes. If DICE manages to maintain the level of polish and superb map design this game will stand up to the best in over all balance and playability.
Please please please grab the demo on your Xbox 360 or find your way in to the beta on your PC. This game HAS to be played!
