Battlefield 3 – Back to Karkard expansion was released during the week; giving you 4 of the most popular maps from Battlefield 2 and some new weapons. Having played Battlefield 2 I was expecting great things from this but sadly in true EA style they have managed to stuff up a few too many aspects of the game.

Let’s get the problems out of the way first, there are new glitches in the game including;

• Available kit unlocks disappearing when you join a game. Joined a game last night with Lostagent2 and EnergiserX and we were all hit with this glitch.
• Simultaneous kills are back; having clocked in over 88 hours of online game play I have not had this occur until the release of the expansion.
• Resetting your kit preferences; this had happened a number of times since the game update; your preferences on your kit deploy resetting back to no unlock or just changing the primary weapon to the one before your preferred option.

But the update has given us a few changes that have improved the game including;

• Added round duration and ticket summary at end of round screen
• Grenades now drop to ground if you get killed while attempting to throw it
• Being able to spot explosives i.e.; C4, Anti-Tank Mines, Claymores
• Claymores no longer disappear almost immediately after you die; they now stay in game until replaced by others or blow up.

Now onto the new things; well kind of new things. The Back to Karkard expansion gives you 4 maps from Battlefield 2 remastered with the Frostbite 2 engine including;

• Golf or Oman
• Strike at Karkand
• Sharqi Pennsula
• Wake Island

This is great but my favourite of these maps; Wake Island just isn’t the same. The rush is only half the map and the conquest the American side doesn’t start on the aircraft carrier. It could be the fact that on console the games have half the number of players but the map just doesn’t seem as epic as is used to be.

Also included are 10 additional guns that were also in Battlefield 2; these are unlocked by completing certain opjectives e.g. 10 Revives, Destroy 1 enemy vehicle with Repair Torch, Arm 10 MCOMs.

If you have Battlefield 3 you will have either had the expansion free when you purchased the game or you will have to purchase. As it’s just new maps and guns it’s going to be part of the game and you will need to get this update. But let’s hope they look at fixing a few of the new bugs they have introduced.

Also if you want to join me and my friends, come join the Neo-Terran Front Platoon (NTF) – www.neo-terran-front.com.

Here is the release trailer for the Back to Karkard expansion;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyN_Zjw4l-s

Battlefield 3 was released last week and I’ve been a little busy shooting everyone to get around to making a post. This is the latest release in the series and I think it might be their best yet, taking the best aspects from the last few modern combat games of the series and add it all together, plus some.

A given with any Battlefield games it seems, there is always multiplayer server issues and this is still the case but from their twitter feed, constant server upgrades and the newly created status page (http://www.ea.com/servers/battlefield3) they seem to be right on top of it. The online is like any recent previous version but for the console the addition of server browser which is a standard feature for the PC version. They have added just straight deathmatch in the team and squad versions, this addition to Rush and Conquest game modes means that any first person shooter fan will be able to find something they like. The new unlock system that now unlocks special additions per kit, weapon or vehicle means that you have even greater control over the type of weapon you use and what your kit has. The only thing I’ve found with this that just doesn’t work for me is that there is limits to what your kit can have, e.g. Engineer Kit you can have rockets and repair tool, rockets and mines but you can’t have mines and repair tool. This is the case across all the kits that as open to choose your options there is still some major limits to what your 2 kit options are.

The recent addition to a complete single player campaign mode to Battlefield games has been a nice extra this one gives you a great feel of everything of all the different gameplay you can experience in multiplayer and the story line isn’t that bad either, not as fun and light hearted as the Bad Company’s campaign but still entertaining enough.

A new addition is the 6; 2 person CO-OP missions with set objectives like campaign but designed for the players to work in unison. Once again a diverse selection of game types giving you and a friend a great experience of gameplay and working as a unit. Now I have said you and a friend as some missions require you to work as a single stealth unit and that just can’t be done with just anyone even though the option is there for an open game. These missions have been designed for 2 player but Battlefield has been designed around the 4 man squad and that’s something I would like to see be added to the CO-OP options in the future.

Another addition is the new Battlelog site (http://battlelog.battlefield.com/), the social network for Battlefield 3 this site gives you real-time events for you and your friends check full stats and upcoming unlocks. It also gives you the option to join a Platoon (clan), be sure to join the Neo-Terran Front (NTF). This is really just Facebook for Battlefield 3, so check it out.

They have also taken the dogtags up a notch with the option to customise both the front and back of them, with unlocks through playing the game or special pre-order options. Check out http://actofvalor.com/bf3/ for some more free tags.

Now the big debate between Battlefield and Call of Duty (COD) this is something that has split the first person online shooters for many many years. From this post and pervious posts you can tell I’m a Battlefield fan. I never got into any of the COD’s which has had a similar timeline although longer and more games. But personally I find the Battlefield games to be a more solid build and a better multiplayer to be played with friends, which is something that is important to me. So check it out; here is a gameplay trainer if you are still unsure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zw8SmsovJc

Duke Nukem Forever after 14 years of development has finally been released. The game that was considered folk lore to most in the gaming community, has changed games engine more often than the ones underwear and bankrupted its original developer. And from what I’ve played so far it’s been nothing but a disappointment. The only thing it has going for it, is it’s the sequel to the Duke Nukem 3D game.

So all the bad points; the engine is on the Unreal engine that bought us Unreal Tournament 2004 so its 7 years old and graphics have come a long way since then and when you are “admiring” yourself in the mirror, it doesn’t look much better then then the original.
Having purchased this on the Xbox360 I would like to know if the very poor interaction with the environment and control response is as bad. The interaction with the environment is a little moody, at times it works fine while at other times you have your crosshair in the same place and it won’t allow you to do the required action. This includes shooting. If the crosshair isn’t red for the enemy, it doesn’t matter if you are hitting it or not, you will not do any damage to it. So when the pigcop is jumping at you and normally you would stop that with a point blank shot form the shotgun, more often than not you will somehow miss the thing even with it taking up your entire screen.

Ok let’s end on a high note and say all the good things about Duke Nukem Forever. After 14 years the only thing that’s changed for Duke is he’s older, still the same the macho, misogynistic, wise-cracking character. He’s still spouting some great one liners throughout the entire game and having every girl fall to their knees just to please you.
The actual story is a nice change to the current games in the genre using a more classic first person shooter design; but with a game 14 years old what would you expect?

Can I recommend this game to anyone? Well sadly no; this is a game that anyone who has been a fan of Duke Nukem should play but with the new release price tag it’s just not worth it. So when you see it in the cheap bin at your local game store that’s when you should think about buying it. Till then here’s the trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVuuyRGB_BA

Ok this is yet another post about Battlefield Bad Company 2 but can you blame me when they keep releasing new features to the game? This time it’s a completely new game play using the games engine to take you back to the Vietnam War.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 Vietnam is set in the 1960s war between the communist north and the Americans with all new period weapons, maps and vehicles. This expansion was released at the start of December and had just had its first new map release. Now in past posts I’ve complained about system lag and I’m not sure if EA have been updating their servers again or if there isn’t as many playing the expansion or those who are have better net connections but I haven’t had any lagging issues yet while in the Vietnam expansion.

The new maps for this expansion are exactly what you expect; battle damaged, close quarters and a lot of foliage to hide and run into. The look and feel of the maps is exactly how you would expect them to be in any game set in the Vietnam War.

The weapons choices are only ones that were available for the Vietnam War and what you would expect but the new addition that just says cool; the Flamethrower though not as good as you would expect is still fun to let the ignited petrol loose onto anyone in front of you and see them remain on fire after they have been hit with the stream.

In conclusion this is a must to any who have been playing Battlefield Bad Company 2 and has enjoyed the game. Yes there is a price attached to this expansion I think it’s well worth the money. If you want to have a look check out the trailer below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOG4y9L81r0

The latest in the Assassins Creed series Assassins Creed Brotherhood was released just over a week ago. For those who don’t know about them, it can be hard to explain the full game but simply Assassins Creed Brotherhood is set in Rome during the early 1500’s you are an assassin out to fight for what is right and killing many people along the way.

The story which is the biggest part takes the previous titles and takes them to the next level in game play and abilities. Though some of the controls can at times be hard especially with the 3^rd person view and when the game changes the camera angle mid jump. That being said this is defiantly the best so far in the series with the new option of recruiting assassins to help you though the game and the ability to send them on their own missions.

A major new feature is the introduction of a multiplayer mode, where you are an assassin hunting fellow players while being hunter yourself. his I personally think is a little wasted that could have been used to add more into the single player as Assassins Creed has always been about the single player. I have player it and although it isn’t as bad as I expected, I found that at times it can be hard to find enough players or when you have the time for all players to be ready takes longer than the 10 min game session. While in the area it isn’t as slow as you would think but it can be very slow and the controls don’t always work as quickly as you would like.

In summary this is a great game and is definitely the best in the Assassins Creed series but I’m still not yet convinced about the multiplayer. This is a must to anyone who likes something a little different to your standard action games.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzNs4-kRLaE

Ok this is my 4^th post on Battlefield Bad Company 2, so you might be getting a little over me have a bitch about the game. Well I’m here again for the same reason. Battlefield Bad Company 2 new game type is Onslaught, its great alternative to normal online play but don’t playing a public game if you want to kill anything.

Onslaught mode is the new game type for Battlefield Bad Company 2 it’s a cross between normal multiplayer and single player. A human squad of 1 to 4 players attempts to assault positions against an army of AI’s units. It’s great it allows for you to play similar to online play in the squad mode but allowing different options of numbers and difficulty. I have so far enjoyed it, myself and EnergiserX played through all the level the first weekend it was released and enjoyed the change in game play and strategy.

Now for the bad part, since that time I’ve played some games with Lostagent2 a few private games without a problem (can’t wait to get all 3 of us going together) but when I’ve joined in some public sessions with Lostagent2, problems exist with not lag like in normal online play but instead the AI’s have an almost god mode enabled, that I’ve unloaded clips into an enemy without causing any damage, walls from buildings destroyed and the AI hiding behind unaffected by the explosion. Although from my experience not all players in a public game are affected by this at the exact same time but it is intermittent and a death does not fix the problem.

So once again I find myself saying EA fix the problem with lag and poor servers with over 5 million copies sold across 3 platforms there should be something being done and quickly!

Ok I’ve just had a gaming session with EnergiserX and Lostagent2 in Battlefield Bad Company 2, it’s been awhile for us and in that time there has been another update for the multiplayer and guess what? The lag has gotten worst, so bad in fact that it’s almost impossible to play.

I think the game is great and the multiplayer is one of the best for a war game I’ve played in recent years but the lag that we are experiencing is that bad it may cause me to stop playing the game.

Our theory for the increase in lag has come as a result that every update appears to have increased lag to the game. When the game was first released except the fact it didn’t have enough resources dedicated for all the players the gaming experience was smooth and had next to no lag. Over the few months the game has become worst normally after an update and even with the major increase of dedicated resources has not improved the problem.

During this session common lag experiences included:

• Moving through walls or other solid objects
• Fall through the floor both on the ground and upper levels or buildings
• Weapons not reloading correctly even with the reload animation completing
• Weapons swapping back and forth when changing weapons
• Dying many seconds after you have been shot
• Enemy’s not taking damage when shot.

All these work together to make a much less enjoyable gaming session which will cause gamers to stop playing the game and will give EA Games a bad reputation for poor quality of services.

So EA Games fix the damn problem!

Ok it’s been a few days since my first post about Battlefield Bad Company 2 (BFBC2) where I had a little rant about the network and server issues but it’s still going and there are a few other little things that I’ve found while playing the online multiplayer.

So yes they have been working on fixing what they have call high surge of traffic causing server overload across all platforms with planned maintenance, where they are increasing the dedicated resources for Battlefield Bad Company 2 (BFBC2) but when you read the first week player stats like:

• The 4 different soldier types have gathered a score of more than 34 Billion.
• There’s been more than 400M kills made.
• 1.3M roadkills
• Squads and Teams have assisted each other to 6.2 Billion points.

It’s not surprising that there could have been issues. But EA should have anticipated this (which clearly they did not) with the records for pre orders, projected sales and even how busy the demo was. There was plenty of information to predict what requirement they would need.

Also, when the planned maintenance occurs and you’re mid game it will allow you to continue playing for the net half hour or so,  but all points collected in that time are lost and you are removed from the game –without notice from the game. And I have seen bugs with unlocks when the stats become available again after 1 of the planned maintenances where I was kicked mid game, luckily it was in my favour this time.

There is information in the interweb about any issues and the planned maintenance from EA and Battlefield Bad Company 2 (BFBC2) this can be found on their blog and Twitter feed:

• http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/
• @OfficialBFBC2

Other flaws that have come to life while playing the online multiplayer with Lostagent2 and EnergiserX (my gaming buddies) is the game balancing system, in previous Battlefield games it would move players to the other team to balancing the game, we have seen on multiple times 1 side have a full team with the other as low as 1 or even a team of 6 against an empty team. And even when the teams are balanced they team sizes can be down to under 4, with all the players out there playing surely there isn’t a need for such small games and 2 or 3 of these small games could be merged into 1 large game.

We have also identified a few little bugs in the actual game play, such as;

• In game lag (which can get quite bad at times)
• Vehicles can move through walls, without the problem of it being  a solid item
• Weapons could not fire (but you get the sound), reload, or even work at all during online play.

Interesting enough I’ve read online that installing the game to the Xbox hard drive can help with some of these issues, even though I’ve heard many reports that installing a game to the hard drive actually reduces performance not increase it. I have installed Battlefield Bad Company 2 (BFBC2) and other than my Xbox doesn’t make nearly as much noise as it did before, I have not noticed any changes in performance.

Now on a plus side; the next 2 downloadable maps for Battlefield Bad Company 2 (BFBC2) have and official release date of the 30th of March 2010 and VIP players (ones who pre-ordered the game) will receive this map free. The 2 maps will be

• Arica Harbor Conquest mode – US Command launches a break through action directly at the Russian base. Collateral damage is of no consequence. Capture and secure tactical positions in Conquest Mode across the vast Arica Harbor map.
• Laguna Presa Rush mode – The valley and surrounding mountains possess a strategic value in the battle for South America, and an infantry assault supported by light armor vehicles is likely by both armies as US forces defend the nearby Dam

If you missed it, you can check out my original review on Battlefield Bad Company 2 (BFBC2) here.

Now this wont be as much of a rant as with Part 1. But this will be some tips and tricks I’ve learnt over my time to get the best price for games.Games from pre release through its life sometimes to the classic re brand, prices for games can change from store to store. So when you want a game always check else where before confirming the purchase; I know common sense but some just go out and buy.

Though all new release games have a RRP (Recommended Retail Price) the prices can vary for pre order (although not normally), so don’t expect to get the game $15 to $20 cheaper then the rest. But when you are going for the pre order look around first, for the bigger releases that come with the limited editions or special unlocks. Look around quite often different places have different ones or more then others or they have the same and are cheaper then the other place.

If you can live without the limited edition or there isn’t one you can normally get the game cheaper on release at one of the major store chains (Big W, JB Hi-Fi, etc) so always check the specials for them before going for the game.

And as the game gets older different places will have them on special and continue to get cheaper. Just be sure to check, I’ve seen Original Assassins Creed for around $80 at Big W where you can pick up Classic Assassins Creed for $25 at EB Games. As a general rule games as they get older the game stores have them cheaper and the major chains don’t, with the opposite for them at new release.

Another option is to look for games online from Europe as they have the same PAL settings on their disks. I have done this myself before and been lucky but you should always be careful when buying games online that you aren’t being sent fakes. Always do backgrounds check on the site or the buyer if on an online auction site. Check that they are either based out of Australia or out of Europe. Don’t go with the ones from China or other Asian counties, this is where most of the pirate copies come from and the chances are you wont be able to play them with a standard console.

Now the final options for saving money are the trade in and pre owned options at the game stores.

• Trade in is a useful option if you have a game that you plan not to play anymore however the older the game gets the smaller the trade in. Trade ins are at their best for games less then 3 months old so this option should only be taken if you really don’t want to have the game anymore.
• Pre Owned games are always cheaper (though have seen at same price at EB Games) but what are you buying? Unlike most it appears I look after my games including the cases and instruction booklets. But so many times I’ve seen games without either so you have to wonder how good condition is the disk? Personally I never buy pre owned game for this reason but its an option but be careful.

A fellow gamer, Jonathan Ian Mathers had some interesting thoughts to share on game trades.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN4qHZsytKk 

So there are many tricks and options to get your games cheaper but be careful for some of the options. The best advice is to shop around before buying anything.

Part 3 – Is there a Mr. I.S.P. Freely? – Not so much about games but online gaming and download speeds / limits are important to gamers. Will be posted soon.

Australian Gamers live in the world of overpriced games inconsistent pricing of games when they finally go off their RRP (Recommended Retail Price). American Gamers get nice cheap games compared to the rest of the world especially with Australia; even the European Gamers get a better deal than us.

Prices of Games in Australia are 60% to 80% higher at RRP then US and almost as bad in Europe. Why you ask? Well some will tell you it the cost of shipping (Most games are either produced here or in East Asia) other that we are PAL instead of NTSC (PAL is the standard in most of Western Europe). But that still doesn’t stop with the high prices of games or even us not getting a release of the game in Australia.

The sad and simple reason for this is supply and demand. This has always been the case in Australia. Even back in the earlier generations for consoles the prices were higher than elsewhere in the World but back then people believed that prices were higher because of where we were in the world. But as the publishers learnt that they can get away with this the prices slowly went up. Brand new Nintendo 64 Games $100, new games for the Nintendo Game Boy around the same time $50 and of course as the game got older the prices went down. These days you will pay more than $120 for some new release Xbox 360 games and even more if you go with the special or limited editions of games.

Who is to pay for this? The overpriced retail store? No they have their set mark-up on games, yes some higher than others but still only a percentage mark-up. The publishers? Yes and no, they are the ones that set the RRP that’s higher then everywhere else in the world. How about your parents and their parents? Yes they allowed the higher prices “back in the day” and it’s only gone up since then. But we can’t take it out on them they didn’t know.

What can be done about this?
Well not that I like it, nothing. The prices for many new items never go down; new items only do down in price because there is something new to take that price tag or no one wants the item so they drop the price until they sell them all off. So we can just not buy new release games until the prices go down. That’s never going to happen, me like so many others pre-order the game as we want the game as soon as it comes out. We want to say hey you played the new game yet? Well I’ve already finished the Campaign or Story Mode.
How about reporting it to the consumer watch dog? Seen the price of petrol lately? Or know how much other countries pay for a SMS? That should answer it for you, they can’t help even if they tried to.

Solutions to this problem? Well you can wait till the game comes down in price, which can be a good option gives others the chance to test the game out. Import from Europe this option is becoming more common even I’ve got a few imported games but with buying online you always have that risk of getting a fake, pirate or dud copy. Go online and get pirated copies of games, this is a good option only but the fact that your favourite game developers won’t have the money to make new games if everyone does this. Stop gaming, like that’s going to happen, Gaming is a life not a choice. Final option which is my personal choice, buy the game at the overprices RRP and have a good old bitch about it.

Check out part 2 – How to Beat the Retailers System; which will be posted soon.