E3: Battlefield 3 DLC and ARMA 3–Year of 3’s Continues

So the biggest names like last year came out first swinging with the next projects coming this Fall. For those missed it here’s a short list that I’ve seen so far that may turn out (In my opinion) to be great titles of 2012:

• Halo 4
• Battlefield 3 DLC’s: Close Quarters, Armoured Kill and Premium
• Crysis 3
• Farcry 3
• ARMA 3
• Resident Evil 6
• Splinter Cell Blacklist
• Star Wars 1313
• Last Of Us
• Watch Dogs
• Assassin’s Creed 3

A pretty nice group of games, pretty expensive year if you are going to try and play them all. Some would argue would be better than others, but all are doing well thus far in terms of generating hype. Name dropping does not make it an awesome game, just generates interest. Until they’re all released, I would put in my final verdict on this one. Only one exclusion to this list really doesn’t shine much, Battlefield 3.

Consider what about to say is a warning to anyone considering on buying Battlefield. It’s a great game with a huge disadvantage. Graphics are superb, server population is immense, many weapons and varieties of attachments. Aside from this, well…bear down and be ready. You have to assess the game through Origins. Even with Steam, you have to get an account on Origins then start Steam to start Origins to start Battlelog. “Wait, what is this Battlelog?” you must ask. Well, think Facebook with stat tracking minus all Facebook sharing. It’s an online service to start Battlefield, even single player you have to go through this service. I’m not even done with the problems with Battlelog. If you’re using Chrome, tab browsing this site is a no-no if you are queued in a server because at times it causes errors server side to boot you off the queue or start Battlefield but freezes it. Likely fixed with the new updates. Now to the game itself, expect change to be slow. By that I mean fixes to bugs and glitches. So servers are flooded with exploiters regardless, if there’s something wrong that can be exploited then expect servers with certain maps to have pretty long queues. With many weapons; there will be ones that dominate like mad. Currently with the release of the new Close Quarters, all the weapons in the DLC out play the base weapons. It’s slight but get all the Close Quarters players to play against the core game equivalent on fair ground, expect a dominate win against core weapons. To put in perspective; face to face in game, ACW-R vs any shotgun in CQC will defeat the shotgun even though the shotgun was designed for that situation. I even swapped in the buckshot for slug rounds and determined the same conclusion. Not sure if it’s tight groupings or the damage is slightly higher, but wait there’s more! They’ve brought in the M417; similar to the M416. Behold, I was shot by a Recon wielding this and I too went toe to toe with this guy and he popped me. I don’t expect change, though I do have a feeling if I want to keep playing. I’m going to have to grab kits of the ground to keep playing. Along with the new DLC’s, they’re adding more and more gated content. If you can dish out the cash, you can get new unlocks that begin to resemble Modern Warfare 3 from Call Of Duty. Camouflage for your weapons and yourself, dog tags and Gunmaster which is Battlefield’s version of Gun Game from Call Of Duty which will be in an upcoming DLC. Price for the whole DLC package is pretty simple, pay individually or use the Battlefield Premium service. $55 get you two weeks early access plus premium dog tags and profile background(?).

The next paid shooter I’m hounding is ARMA 3. It’s pacing and design is pretty amazing compared to other FPS games I’ve seen which makes it my “do want”. DIY missions, mod support and massive maps; and massive as in squared kilometres. Which makes missions a bit more interesting within a sandbox, interesting as in hard. A lot that Battlefield doesn’t have, I would put the 55-60 that would spend for the DLC for a full out game. While we are on full games, AC3 may be competing for the spot for what I want to buy. From the demo gameplay, seems like a lot has really changed since Revelation especially combat refinements. Looks really amazing, but it has to pass the “kill some time” test.

That’s all for now, expecting some good games for summer and fall?

Ready To Play With Me? Invite Sent!

It’s no surprise if you’ve been following my blog for some time that you know I LOVE games. One of my great obsessions. Like women and clothes, I got my games. Recently I had an nice interesting thought of what I should do as a small token of my appreciation. So rather than chatting about games, how about you play some with me?

Yes, it’s an open invitation to join me into play two games for now since I have my eye on two. And as an inaugural event on my blog being both a first event and first invitation to play alongside with me.

So get ready to mark down your calendar:

First Friday Fun Fest (Battlefield 3)

December 9 – Player ID “nawkcire”, I’ll be in North American servers with “PBBans”. Use the search filters to find which servers have it. If you can’t get in, it’s cool just put yourself in queue if there is one.

Every Friday (except Fridays landing 3 days before or after a statutory holiday) thereafter.

Star Trek Online F2P Launch Party (Literally!) – More info in January!

January 17 (also reserve 18/19/20 in case server problems prevent us from playing) – More info of my Player ID.

As for VOIP if you wish to hear and play, I’ll definitely set up a RaidCall server so we can all play. Likely max 50 people on it but still enough. You can get the client and set up an account for free at www.raidcall.com. It’s not a shameless plug, I’m just too poor for TeamSpeak and not intelligent for Ventrilo. More info on the server info when we get the ball rolling. Though Battlefield has it’s own VOIP so we might use that instead for Friday Fun Fest.

I’m also setting up a guild/fleet type deal for Battlefield and Star Trek Online. Anyone interested, please contact me. My contact info is in my About Me page, you can comment if you don’t want to email me. That reminds me, I need to make a page for that.

I’m excited to play with you guys since I would like to have a group of people to play with rather by myself. So whether you are anonymously following, stumble upon this, or just been following for awhile now, here’s your chance on some adventures with a fellow blogger. As the new year rolls in, I’ll have a more appropriate schedule for stuff. Until then, let’s just take it slow with Battlefield and Star Trek.

See you guys in game!

Battlefield 3: You’re Doing It Wrong

After a couple rough with very little sleep, I’m finally rested to give a full take on the game. Of course, you must be tired by now of all the thumbs-up-thumbs-down reviews after the whole month. Like I said once, I’m a realist. When you think it’s perfect, it’s really not (also I don’t like the word perfect, implies an impossible human condition/expectation; more on that later). Though on the outside, it seems pretty great with a thorough campaign sticking to the multiplayer controls. However as you game on, you would start noticing a few snags that may deter you from playing.

So far the pros of having this game is fully expected. Good graphics and textures, physics seem more real, lighting and other environmental effects are top notch, weapon systems are somewhat realistic. A lot of your usual FPS expectations just been checked off. Starting with the campaign, the campaign straight up introduces you to the graphics in Frostbite. You can notice the camera transitioning from the dark interiors of your IFV to the glorious warm Iranian sun.  As you walk pass your fellow soldiers you can see the landscape fairly much alive and would seem almost as if you’re just walking right passed them. Once again after your quickie briefing you can noticed a lot of smaller shadowing details and how sound is affected in certain spaces. I must thanks the script writers to give us a story that just kept asking question about why this sole marine is being interrogated by a couple agents taking us to bizarre surreal locations we wouldn’t necessarily imagine of going (unless you you sign up for a real tour, country permitting). At times the script seems a bit rushed, seems as though some dialogue was put in to change the story up rather than really moving on with more single-player action. Example being the pool side sequence where you question your own loyalty, you guys totally could’ve had another ending to the game. Nope, decided to go linear I see. First somewhat disappointed that I had to shoot the poor guy or redo it. After awhile, you just accept the fact it’s not like Grand Theft Auto IV’s story ending.

I find the system requirements to be really crazy. As an XP user and a proud Nvidian, I was worried about my GPU being under the limit of what the game can do. Well fool me once, shame on you because with even the recommended requirements you can run this thing real well on just a 430 card and not worry about overclocking. But for those not so lucky, worst case is that you don’t have the GPU and the operating system. You’re looking at a $300+ investment that in the end might have to go high end to let it be all and end all card purchases for the half decade. If you’re running an AMD/ATI card, probably sticking to the high 6000 or 5000 series would still work out. Just make sure you know how to overclock, or set the texture rendering to auto. Since I know a guy running a gaming laptop from Alienware, I’m not recommending this to anyone with a gaming laptop. A, no such thing. B, gaming laptops can’t be properly maintained unlike a desktop. C, just an over glorified word processor (my views, but if you got it installed and working like a charm…grats, go to Subways and get yourself a cookie).

Moving onto the MP component, seems fairly much the same from it’s Bad Company iterations. Not much has changed except for a slight map size increase. Vehicles are pretty standard; went with the usual Marine/RU vehicles. Apparently a Stryker is equal to a BMP, who knew two different era military machines could be equals. Weapons have lots of customizable features. Which inherits a flaw where each map may require a different set of weapons and attachments that would take you about a minute to click them all. Load-outs would come in handy especially 3 per class per map. Also most attachments are really useless, I see more people run around without the laser and get more kills than people with the laser equipped and activated. Goes about the same for certain sights, where it’s just a matter of preference between Optics A x3.4 and Optics B x4.0. There’s a slight change yes, but doesn’t matter so much since it’s a medium range optical sight. Also most of the weapons are pretty cliché for a FPS game. One such weapon is the .44 magnum. Literally every game I know has it or some variation of it. One other popular one to date, Glocks. Though I must admit having two versions of the pistol doesn’t add to the cool factor. The G18 and G17 are approximately the same in the game. I haven’t really noticed anything different except one has a full auto functionality, but as a pistol with only 17+1 rounds per magazine I like to make each shot count. Also M16A3 and A4 variant, difference being burst or full auto. The 416 has both so what the hell, DICE? In short, staying with my M1911. I enjoy the levelling set-up though with the auto-balance features out of balance (pun intended) makes gameplay really one-side since the unlocks are much better than the standard given load-out or weapon. Co-op thus far isn’t as exciting as I expected since most of the time I spend sitting here waiting to get matched with a partner or getting  some crazy lag from my partner. As a precaution, I’m going to stop playing co-op until I know they have the problem solved or what have you. Aside from content, the system seems to have some green screen flickering. Likely more bugs in the system.

Optimistically, I think Battlefield 3 is doing pretty well. Overall it has some major features that seem to be half-ass tested. But in time, they can work it out. The social features are a main drag and it seems they’re jumping on too many bandwagons at the same time; mainly cloud computing and social networking features. Cool and all, but as a gamer; I want to play, so let me play and stop making me come to your site to play (now read that back like a child whining.) Not the best game so far, but it has made some improvements on itself making the best in the series or at least a close tie to the Refractor iterations of Battlefield. If rating out of all the games released this year, I would award Best in Show to Battlefield for the look and feel of the game. No so much content since it’s pretty much the usual storyline producing you some twitch based gameplay. If not Best in Show, probably a case a beer and call it even.

Boots on the ground, eyes out…

If you read my last entry, you wouldn’t find it a surprise. Though I will likely drone on about this topic a few times before I stop. I’m just so excited after a few days settling into Battlelog and setting up my account to play co-op and (after co-op) multiplayer. But lets go back around Friday and start our story there.

After much deliberation, I decided on getting my sister a present. Because of how things have been going for her, it would be a small feat in the whole picture. “What to get her?” I thought. A few red flags popped into my mind considering I’m not too sure about her likes and dislikes. Likely a gift card would be pretty lame. A CD or DVD would be hard to find since I’m not too sure what she would want, same for soap or some hygiene product (I feel awkward walking into a Body Shop or Lush, also it would make me the only dude there which would make it even uncomfortable). So out of options I just began looking around at game stores downtown. First the usual electronic haunts, then I realized she never really owned a video game before. So with that in mind, I wanted to give her something that may interest her. I know she’s pretty fond of FPS games, which saved me tons of time. Long story short, wait for Modern Warfare 3 or get Battlefield 3? So I began looking around and seeing what I would want and what she would want. Of course, there was bias to this decision since I really wanted a Battlefield game than a Call Of Duty game (I can always wait for Call Of Duty, never really had nice freebies anyways…except if you pay over $100 for the Prestige Edition). So BF3 it was; no surprisingly, I went back to Best Buy for their last two copies. Out of stock, really? First my Touchpad and now this? Future Shop the. I looked at the monstrous game shelf by the latest software of 2011/2012, not sure if they’re out of stock or they don’t have it. By now, I’m desperate so I went to EB Games at Eatons. Guess what? Yeah, out of stock. My outlook on this hunt was grim. Luckily the guy knew there was a Gamestop across the street. Yes, a promising lead. For being Yonge Street, it’s got a nice streak of having this game out of stock; bring it to a total of 4 shops with not a single copy in sight. Called a buddy up for suggestions; “…did you try Game Shack?”, “Game Shack?”. He instructed me it was located in the Bay Atrium. How did I not remember this place?! I always pass by it and never really noticed it. Walked in and stood in line while 3 people check out on some movies and some Wii(k…get it, Wii-k?) games. Luckily that insanity of a console wasn’t in everyone’s mind, guy in front of me had a PS3 game released awhile ago; bless his heart. So as almost like an urgent little kid waiting in line at a candy store, “You guys have BF3?!” Oh so calmly, “Limited Edition or BF3?”. I was hysterical since they had both. Quest complete! Bought two copies and got the hell out of there. I went home pretty happy, though it was late. I waited for the right time to really give a copy to my sister. Saturday, lets wait Sunday; until then, lets run the game for the first time…Campaign…Hard difficulty. I did it in 10 hours, according to Origin. Sunday morning, I realized a flaw in my plan. Modern Warfare is out on Tuesday. Damnit, I have to make it an early birthday present just in case my sister plans on getting Modern Warfare by mistake! Called her up to hang out and as we left her place, I whipped it out like a BAMF and said “Happy Birthday!” Her smile was good enough for me.

So now Tuesdays, I’ve been persuading her to get her computer back so she can play. I did promise her that I would play co-op with her only if she finishes the singeplayer at least once (on hard mode, if she wanted. She insisted easy, I am disappoint.) So now I’m just persuading her to get it back so she can get all her Limited Edition perks before it’s too late. For those who don’t know beside the Act Of Valor promo dog tags; you get 2 variants of the M1911 pistol (suppressed and tac light) and 2 Mass Effect dogtags. Not a bad deal, I would’ve went with the preorder. But I think the M249 is satisfactory for me, though I wish they added the P226 pistol in there as well. So what now, Eric? Well, we wait. We all have to wait. Well you can wait until the next blog while I go play singleplayer again for the shear fun. Also made a challenge to do the whole thing without dying. Hard even on easy but it’s possible.

Once I run through co-op with my sibling once, then all you can have a piece of in the multiplayer. Yup, call out all the BF3 players reading this. Lets play some BF3 sometime…in 2 weeks or so. Also, I’ve set a new email address for anyone who wishes to contact me. I don’t like people using my personal address so I’m sending you guys to a specially made one; not because I don’t like you, I like you in a platonic way. And on this momentous occasion, lets be friends and play online sometime in Battlefield.

You guys can contact me here. Just leave you nickname in the space. If you don’t have a email client, just go to wordpressnawkcire@gmail.com with the subject headline “Re:Boots on the ground, eyes out…” I’ll add you guys when I get a chance to. Probably see me on and off online until my sister starts playing; after that, we can go murdering some people on Operation Metro or something. If you are super mega lazy or doesn’t care who adds you, post in the comments.

Also if you got feedback or want to send me ideas or opinions to talk about, feel free to do so at that email address.

Going back to my campaign carnage, until next time!

Update: OH SH*T I have a present from Steam? ❤

Moving On Up! (P.S. I’m still keeping my Ubuntu)

It’s a hellish week for my computer. A lot of “on the bus, off the bus” kind of stuff. After a solid week of upgrading and working on the new operating system, I’m pretty excited on how my situation turned out. With new the OS and my almost one year old Zotac GT 430 card, I just barely make it into the minimum requirements for Battlefield 3. I’m just happy I just slipped through (maybe happy that damn PNY card fried itself…twice.)

After almost a full decade, I’m caving into Windows 7 to slip into the requirements for BF3. Without spending a dime on the new OS (sister’s CD onto my USB, there’s lots of how-to’s to do this). After some tinkering, I’ve managed to optimize and re-download most of my programs. “You could’ve recovered them from the windows.old folder after installation…” You might be wondering or even wishing you could shake it in me. I did look over all my files and I found it just as convenient to download my utilities and Steam. Since I had an external hard drive, my media files were just easy to transfer and keep on it. At first glance, it’s pretty user friendly. With some major changes to the look and feel, I just found it just too user friendly with some critical settings really tucked in deep in places where I want them apparent. In short, the Control Panel. There is a reason real control panels are really complicated and not call “This button to nuke” panel. In short, I’m disappointed on it’s friendliness. However there are a few upsides such as the much more apparent search feature. Alongside with all the new bells and whistles, I’ve found it pretty handy that most of my programs are set in a way most easiest to operate them. Makes things like Windows Live Writer easy to simple (-er) when used on Win7. It’s pretty biased since Windows works on Windows stuff, but I honestly find it easier than XP.

After two days of riding the buzz of a new system upgrade, I began reading through all the user manuals for my computer and discovered one thing that I should’ve done when I installed Win XP. One reoccurring theme through all these informative novels I’ve missed over the years I’ve read through them. My computer can support 64-bit programs and operating systems, which is a huge slap in the face. I’ve had 32-bit everything installed, including this fresh installation of Win 7 in 32-bit. So after a full couple days, I said to hell with all of it and reinstall from scratch. Starting with a new installation of Win 7 in 64-bit and reinstalling all the 32-bit programs I use to have and opting in to 64-bit whenever possible.

Aside the +2 days of repetitive insanity and frustrated frantic feeding of programs, I’ve managed to have it back up and running. Minecraft and Steam all up and running with my utilities and have been problem free for the last five days or so with BF2 and Project Reality at the ready when I feel like installing it in. For now, I’ll forgo the installation since Team Fortress is working out okay for now. Also I don’t really need to install games for now.

Though I’m not giving up on my Ubuntu USB since I still think it’s still something I really want around just in case.

After God knows how long without TV, I’ve managed to really stay synced up with shows I want to watch. Currently downloading or streaming when I can and watching the next day. Most of shows now are around from the Discovery Channel. It’s not so bad since I’m getting an educational experience. Well if you count Mythbusters, Sons Of Guns and anything they stream as an educational experience. Slightly embarrassing but true, the occasional following of Ghost Adventures as well. As long as I don’t blaze through a season of a single show, I should be able to keep up. Think of it as a personal TV network! Hehe, MeTV…”TV made awesome.”