Thoughts for Wednesday 070710

Map Pack 4 has been released for Bad Company 2. If you guessed that it didn't included any new maps, you'd be correct. We've now got Atacama Desert available in Rush and Port Valdez in Conquest. Are we finally gonna get chopper battles in Rush? I'd be more snide about this update, but I really wanted Atacama for Rush.

I got Sin & Punishment: Star Successor for Wii. Like all Treasure games, it punishes you. The game is nothing short of incredible, though. The gaming world can essentially divided into two halves: interactive media and video games. Where games like Mass Effect 2 and even Call of Duty can be called interactive media, Sin & Punishment is 100% video game. Remember back in the SNES and N64 days when games didn't have that much of a story or any AI whatsoever and the entire game was scripted and demanded that you memorize the game in order to get the high score? Man, those are video games, and that's what Sin & Punishment is. For those of you who missed my recommendation of the the first game, S&P:SS is an on-rail shooter akin the Star Fox 64 or Panzer Dragoon. Yes, you can do barrel rolls, but no, you aren't instructed to do so in a memorable fashion. I haven't made it through the whole game yet; my plate has been pretty full. Having a real job sucks.

We broke out Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare last week and got our beaks into some clan matches. Good times, dude, good times. I tell you what, that game had awesome graphics in its time (way back in 07), but next to Bad Company 2 it looks like shit. I also kept hitting the back button trying to spot people and getting the score menu. It's also crazy how quickly you kill people in that game.

I played some Guitar Hero II last night. I couldn't believe how hard it was to see hammer-ons compared to Guitar Hero 5. I tell you what, though, that game's setlist was and still is unparalleled. Even the bonus songs were incredible. I can also tell that I've gotten a lot better since the days when I used to play that game non-stop. To think I used to have trouble with Thunderhorse...

--Chilly P

p.s. Blood Gulch is coming back. Let's hope they don't screw it up this time.

In the News

Some random stuff, put in bullets for your convenience:

• The new iPhone operating system, iOS4, is available for download. It took like 20 minutes to everything the way I wanted, but I now have all but 10 apps (including the bottom bar) in folders and no longer have pages. I also grabbed a sweet Metroid wallpaper for my homepage. I'm currently listening to Pandora in the fuckin' background. Other than the aforementioned application, multitasking is largely worthless at this stage.
  
• I downloaded iBooks as well. It automatically downloads Whinnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne, but I got rid of it because it doesn't interest me. My digital library currently consists of Alice's Adeventures in Wonderland, On the Origin of Species, The Communist Manifesto, Metamorphosis, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, The Art of War, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The United States Constitution, and The King James Bible. I wouldn't suggest trying to decipher my political and/or religious beliefs from that set. Anyway, there's a good amount of literary classics available for free, all of which I assume are public domain at this point. Now we'll see if I'll actually read any of them (spoiler: probably not).
  
• One last iPhone tidbit--and this one's games related--EA is having a massive $0.99 sale on over a dozen of their games. I think I'm gonna pick up Red Alert, SimCity, and maybe a racing game. I don't remember if Spore Origins (Sporigins?) was listed, but as someone who already has it, I can say that it's probably not even worth $1. Also, you'd think they'd offer Scrabble for $1 to try to compete with Words with Friends, but it's not so.
• The Medal of Honor beta for PC and PS3 has already begun, I believe. It's not available for 360 yet, but it will be "soon." I've already got a key, so I'll be sure to give my impressions.
• Onslaught for Bad Company 2 (it's like Horde, Firefight, or Nazi Zombies) is currently available for PS3 and will be available for 360 tomorrow. It's 800 Microsoft Points, which is a reasonable price; especially considering the success of Modern Warfare 2's 1200 point Stimulus Package.
• Speaking of BC2, I've officially gone platinum (1000 kills) with the M24 sniper rifle. I did it in almost exactly 20 hrs of use (no, it's not as long as it sounds). Want proof (By the way, that's a good site to use if you wanna find out how many Destruction 2.0 kills you have, or if you want to compare all of your stats with a friend)?
  
• Apparently, there's a way to get your BC2 games to stop lagging. I haven't tried it myself, but I have it on good authority that it works.
• Transformers: War for Cybertron has been getting some pretty positive reviews. I played the game at E3 and thought it was basically Call of Duty but uglier. However, that statement is quite a compliment to the gameplay mechanics. They were smooth, the control was tight, and the class system seemed surprisingly deep at first glance. In today's crowded market I doubt I'll ever give it the time it deserves, but if you've ever wanted to battle as a space robot that is also a vehicle, this looks like your golden opportunity.
• David Hale is moving on. We've both enjoyed reading him and wish him the best of luck; the Bulldog Nation will miss him.
  

--Chilly P

E3 Day 2

Man, oh man, did I get some swag today. I have now doubled the amount of shirts that I have to take back home with me. I also saw Felicia Day and got my picture taken with Bear Grylls. But, on to some game impressions...

Sega might have a real winner on their hands with Vanquish. I'm not sure about the whole story behind it (I'm pretty sure some famous Japanese designer is behind it), but I know it's Japanese and I never expect Japanese shooters to feel this fantastic. It plays a lot like Gears of War, but faster. It also has a much more...titanium-feeling art direction. Oh, and holding the left bumper makes you slide around on your knees. It's to the same effect of the roadie run, but it's way cooler and distinctly Japanese. There's also the fact the you fight a whole bunch of robots instead of aliens. Oh, and if you tap the slide button while sitting in cover, the dude pulls out a cigarette and lights up. How ballin' is that? I had so much fun with it today that I had to demo it twice. It's definitely my favorite demo so far. I hope it has multiplayer. Good multiplayer. And co-op.

My least favorite demo, on the other hand, has to be the Conduit 2 demo. The graphics don't even look good for a Wii game. They also really need to work on their control scheme. Holding 'Z' pulls up a box and health bar around an enemy, yet if you want to aim down sight, you have to toggle it by pressing down on the d-pad. It looks ugly, feels terrible, and it's really just a shame because I like seeing small studios succeed.

Bungie, because they have to be cool, was holding hands-off demos every thirty minutes. I was able to skip the 2-3 hour line by showing up 3 minutes before one demo time and mixing into a crowd of people waving and hollering for t-shirts. By the time they ran out of shirts, I had miraculously blended into the front of the line :). Anyway, they demoed a space battle and the new Firefight mode for Reach. The space mission was one where you're in a limited area and you fly around in circles shooting banshees. It looked really dull, just like every other dog-fighting game or level ever, and maybe it's just me, but I doubt banshees are space-worthy. Firefight definitely looked cool, though. There's a new armor ability and class called 'Medic' where the player drops a bubble shield that heals people who are inside it. It worked nicely for Firefight, though I'd think it too overpowered for multiplayer. They also showed a new weapon that's a cross between the Hammer of Dawn from Gears and Bad Company's mortar strike. It was cool.

I saw a fat guy eat a booger. It was gross.

I found out today that my Exhibitor badge gets me into the private meeting rooms upstairs, so I checked that out a little bit today. I got some sweet Portal 2 swag, so I geeked out pretty hardcore about that. I'm going to sign up for some appointments tomorrow to preview those more private games for the good of all of us...except the ones who are dead.

--Chilly P

p.s. In case you haven't heard, ESPN is coming to the 360. It's gonna be killer.

E3 Day 1

I'm gonna try to be quick, so please excuse any typos.

First off, the new locomotion system in Madden 11 feels incredible. They've been long overdue in that department, and I think they;ve finally gotten it right. I'm not at the point yet where I can implicitly trust their newfangled Gameflow system, but I did give it a try. They have a nice addition where you can choose a basic fourth down play on the fly, so no more having to search through plays when you want to fake it. Not having a sprint will take getting used to, but I think it's better in the long run.

Crackdown 2 feels a lot like the first one, and that means it feels good. I probably spent more time with that demo than any other today. It just speaks volumes about how fun the basic game mechanics of that series are.

I gave Dead Rising 2 a little bit of playtime today. It, too, feels exactly like its predecessor, but in this case it feels a little clunky. I was also disappointed with the seemingly small number of zombie character models. It's particularly noticeable when you kill identical twin zombies standing next to each other, especially when they're dressed the same. Sonic the Hedgehog 4 felt terrible during my playtime. It takes a full 2 seconds to get up to speed, what's that about? The new Tron game felt surprisingly fresh. I only played cycle racing, but it was pretty intense. I played Medal of Honor a little bit. Felt exactly like Bad Company 2. I'll wait for the beta to make a call on that one.

Metroid: Other M is an interesting game. Metroid Prime is my all-time favorite game, and Other M feels nowhere near as good as that game. That new Zelda game uses Motion Plus for more accurate sword mapping, and I can confirm that they did a pretty good job with it. Unfortunately, the graphical style is disagreeable. It's like a cross between Twilight Princess and Wind Waker. It needs to commit to one.

I saw Cliffy B and Shaun White.

I'm on a personal mission to snag as much swag (stuff. we. all. GET!) as possible. I've kinda been sucking it up on that part so far, but I'm going to work harder at it tomorrow. I missed out on Bulletproof-themed free burgers with T-shirt give-aways. I feel like a real sucker for that. I also feel like a sucker for not getting a business card from the Activision exec who checked out Vision by Proxy. Tomorrow will surely be more successful. I gotta go, it's eatin' timez.

--Chilly P

Bad Company 2 "Fixes" I'd Like to See

I posted yesterday about a couple of patches coming to Bad Company 2. For the most part, I think DICE has done a very good job with keeping its game balanced. In particular, I think the folks over at Bungie could learn a thing or two from DICE about vehicle balance. That being said, there are still some minor bug and balance fixes I can think of that I'd like to see in the near future:

• Fix that bug where you get stuck in the weapon screen if someone revives you while you're changing kits and you have to suicide to get out of it.
  
• Get rid of the glitched games.
• Make the PP2000 the way it was before the before it got nerfed. It's just useless now.
  
• I would like to see the tracer dart become part of a class instead of being available to every class. I'd also like to see that class not be the Engineer, so that it takes two people to take down a chopper (now that the tracer dart is so easy to use). The helicopters become pretty worthless when an entire team of Engineers is using darts. I know it's never going to happen, but I'd like to see it.
• Give the Blackhawks stronger armor so they can survive the first RPG.
  
• Take the 500 point cap off the marksman bonus, and then add a marksman bonus leaderboard.
  
• Make it so you can see other players' K/D's in the leaderboards menu.
• Make it so friends who've never played Bad Company 2 don't show up in the friends leaderboard.
• Get rid of the whole extra lines for SPECTACT classes. Just make it an option at the end of the row to turn SPECACT on or off. It's stupid that I have to scroll through eight classes now.
  
• I've had some glitch ever since I got the SPECACT classes where my Recon class resets at the beginning of every game. Fix that.
• Don't automatically change the pistol for every class if you change it for one. I never want a Tracer Dart on my Recon class. Ever.
• UAVs should explode if a C4 pack attached to it damages an enemy crate, player, or vehicle (but not if some jerk teammate blows it up because he wants to take it from you).
• Don't let people be temporarily invincible after a revive.
• I don't know if it's a glitch or a design choice, but you can't knife or throw a grenade within 3 seconds of spawning. Get rid of that.
  
• Buildings should collapse sooner. It's too easy to escape a collapsing building.
  

As you can see, most of those are very minor issues. Anyway, just food for thought.

--Chilly P

More Bad Company Updates

Update 1
Update 2

Some more Bad Company 2 updates are rolling in. The first is mostly bug fixes and the second is more on the balance side. Changes of note:

• The Garand's stats will finally be tracked correctly, meaning you can now finish out your medal collection.
• The Isla Inocentes fence glitch is getting fixed. I'm actually kind of upset about this one.
• The minigun on the blackhawk is going to more powerful at range. Maybe it won't be so worthless now (although it's just going to make my island hopping on Isla Inocentes just that much more difficult).
• The points awarded for objectives are being increased. Now playing to win may actually be worth it!
• They're making Conquest suck less: that God-awful horn isn't going to last as long, and the number of tickets is being increased while the speed those tickets are drained when your team has no flags is also increased. Maybe people will actually go for flags now.
  
• The G3 and M14 can now use AR Marksman.
• The stats in the weapons menu now reflect the updated stats from the previous patch.
  

The first update is going to the PS3 first and coming to the 360 "soon." The second update says that an optional update is coming to 360 tomorrow, which I believe means that it's not just a server update. The whole thing is pretty confusing; read for yourself if you want to figure it all out. I just hope they find a way to fix the East Coast lag.

VIP Map Pack 3 is also coming out. It adds Squad Deathmatch for Nelson Bay and Squad Rush for Laguna Alta. Yeah, I don't when they're going to release new maps for realsies.

Onslaught mode is also coming at some point soon. It's Bad Company's version of Horde/Firefight/Nazi Zombies. Joystiq has a preview of the mode here.

--Chilly P

Bad Company 2 Universal Dr. Pepper Codes

Alright, it's been requested that I inform the public on how to get the DLC for Bad Company 2 for free. I will indeed tell you where to find such information, but first I would like to encourage you take this unique promotion into consideration. For starters, gamers in every other country outside of the US have to pay $2 per kit upgrade. Instead of having to do that, all we have to do is buy a 20 oz. Dr. Pepper or a 32 oz. drink at a Taco Bell. Not only do we get these kits cheaper, but we also get to enjoy a delicious Dr. Pepper* beverage whilst we enjoy our new content. I would like to whole-heartedly encourage you to actually buy the Dr. Peppers instead of manipulating the system. That being said, I know you won't. It's a shame, because Dr. Pepper is so tasty. Personally, I would like to thank EA and Dr. Pepper for combining two of my favorite things--soda and video games--into a perfect storm of awesomeness. I love when money I'd be spending anyway goes further than I initially expected.

Anyway, if y'all do want to cheat your way through this same as you cheat your way through the rest of your lives, I understand that as well. These codes don't unlock any real content other than a few wimpy 'cheevos, and those aren't even up-and-running yet. The instructions can be found in several places if you just Google "Dr. Pepper universal codes Bad Company", although the place I initially found them has been taken down. I'm not going to explicitly post the instructions or codes here for that exact reason. So, here is where you can find the codes and how you're s'posed to use 'em. If EA wants to take them down (and they will), that's fully within their rights.

http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/battlefield-bad-company-2-ng/1057437-who-wants-free-dr-pepper-codes.html

For the record, I've heard reports that the fourth code doesn't work, so you may have to buy at least one delicious, satisfying Dr. Pepper**.

--Chilly P

*No, I don't work for Dr. Pepper
**No, they're not paying me in any fashion, I just really enjoy their product

Bad Company 2 Updates

There are two updates coming for Bad Company 2. Here are the details via the Battlefield Blog:

• Balance patch
• DLC

I got a Dr. Pepper code at Taco Bell today, but when I entered it in the site, my options were for Mass Effect 2, The Sims 3, Spore, and Battlefield Heroes. The post clearly says it should be available today. I'll see if I can get the DLC through the in-game Store. I'll update this post when I find out more. [Update] I checked the store. It used to have the Dr. Pepper promotions listed under "Coming Soon", now they're just gone. I tried just entering a code, but it didn't work. I did have to download an update to Bad Company 2, though, so they've certainly done something (there was no update needed when Map Pack 2 became available). I'm just not sure what that something is. [Update, pt 2] Okay, it's up and running now. I had three Dr. Pepper codes laying around (I love Dr. Pepper) so I got the SPECACT kits for the Assault, Engineer, and Medic classes. You know how each class has an open spot on the Weapons and Specializations page? That's now replaced by an orange version of the SPECACT gun (M16A2 SA, UMP SA, MG3 SA, M95 SA). Each SA gun is exactly like its standard counter-part, except it has camouflage...you know, something you can do with every gun in Call of Duty. What's annoying is that there are now 8 classes to choose from on the kit selection screen in-game. Each kit has a + version (i.e., Assault+, Engineer+, ...) that sits below the normal version. I'm pretty sure they could have thought of an easier way to do that. Anyway, there are 12 new awards/medals, 3 for each class. They're get 8 kills in a game with [SA gun], get a 5 kill streak with [SA gun], and get 100 kills with [SA gun]. The 'cheevos for each download aren't available yet, but I'm sure they're unlocked for going gold with each SA gun. Honestly, the DLC kinda sucks, but I drink Dr. Pepper all the time anyway and I love 'cheevos, so it's worth it to me. I'm definitely disappointed, though.

As for the balance patch, it's PC-only right now. Things like this have to clear standards with Microsoft and Sony before you can put them on a console. They don't give a timetable, but hopefully it will come soon. I read through every single detail of the patch and every single one of them seems like a welcome change. The only ones that didn't make sense to me were the nerfs to the 40mm shotgun. I wasn't aware that it was overpowered. I always thought it was a POS. I also thought it was strange that the grenade launcher and Carl Gustav received blast radius nerfs. They were already way less effective than their Call of Duty counter-parts. It seems people really don't enjoy being a'sploded. Some balance fixes I'm particularly eager about:

• The M1911 got slowed down. Definitely a fan of that
• The Grach, my favorite pistol, got increased range efficiency.
  
• The tracer dart's speed is significantly increased. I never understood how using a tracer dart was supposed to be easier than using an RPG.
  
• The power tool overheats faster, but does the same of repairing between overheats. I love repairing shit.
• Decreased explosive damage from Attack choppers. Combine that with the increased dart speed and now that effing Hind on Isla Inocentes won't be such a rape.
  
• Made the AA gun more effective against infantry. That makes the Bakcha AA less useless
• Nerfed the M60
• Increased reload time on mortar strikes. I loved using them, but I knew they were overpowered.
  
• Recon gets 3 motion mines. Hell. Yes.
  

So, hopefully this patch will make it's way to my 'Box soon. I'd love to see less of the M60. I would have liked to see something that keeps people from over-using the C4/UAV combo, but if DICE doesn't feel it's a problem then I guess it's not a problem. Any team that cares about playing defense won't let it happen.

--Chilly P

Thoughts for Monday 041210 (Mostly about Bad Co 2)

PSA: April 15th is the last day that you can play any original Xbox 1 titles on LIVE. Bust out your copy of Halo 2 for the last time.

I'm almost 17 hours into Final Fantasy XIII and the game is still going nowhere. This is when most games are wrapping up, yet FFXIII has decided that it's still time for plot development. Seriously, there hasn't even been any real rising action yet.

Trying to play through Perfect Dark on Special Agent has given me a whole new appreciation for check points in FPS campaigns. I've been stuck on the same level for a long time (Infiltrating Area 51).

And now the rest is about Bad Company 2...
In no particular order, here are my 10 favorite kits for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (one kit per gun; vehicle perks and side arms not included ):

• Medic: M60, Defibrillator, Red Dot Sight, Magnum Ammunition
• Medic: USAS-12 Auto, Defibrillator, 12 Gauge Slugs, Magnum Ammunition
  
• Assault: AN-94 Abakan, 40mm Grenade, Red Dot Sight, Assault Marksman
• Assault: M16A2, 40mm Grenade, Red Dot Sight, Magnum Ammunition
• Assault: WWII M1A1 Garand, C4 Explosives, Light Combat Equipment, Magnum Ammunition
  
• Recon: M24 Sniper, Mortar Strike, 12x High Power Scope, Improved Demolitions
• Recon: VSS Snaiperskaya Special, C4 Explosives, Red Dot Sight, Magnum Ammunition
• Recon: Type 88 Sniper, C4 Explosives, 4x Rifle Scope, Magnum Ammunition
• Engineer: PP-2000 Avtomat, M136 AT4, Ammo Hip Bandolier, Magnum Ammunition
• Engineer: AKS-74U Krinkov, Anti-Tank Mines, Explosives Leg Pouch, Improved Demolitions
  

And, hey, you know what's nice about BC2? I can carry all of those kits and more into battle! I can't stress enough how awesome it is that I don't have to pre-build kits before battle. I hate being stuck in a situation where I could really use a certain class and I just can't. For example, if we're getting bogged down by tanks and I really need to go tank bustin', I can throw together an engineer class that is completely geared toward shooting a lot of rockets at tanks. You may notice that I put Magnum Ammo on nearly everything. Well, it's easier for me to tell the benefit of magnum ammo than the benefit of ceramic armor in that game. Maybe if it was like Call of Duty and told me when I was shooting at someone using body armor (a.k.a. Juggernaut/Pain Pill) I'd be more aware of it. As it stands, most of the specializations in Bad Company 2 only offer marginal benefits, so it doesn't make that much of a difference.

I think I may be the only person who likes the USAS better than the Saiga. I know the Saiga has better stats (that's indisputable), but something about the USAS just feels better.

I've now gone gold with every gun except the G3, M9, M93R Burst, and the MP-412 Rex. Having spent quality time with every gun, I can pretty positively say that the AEK-971, the Uzi, the F2000, the MG3, the Thompson, and the SV98 are my least favorite guns.

I have a total of 4 tracer dart plants. I fail to see how tagging a helicopter is sufficiently easier than hitting it with a rocket.

The "Stimulus Package" ended up being the fastest-selling map pack in XBL history. So much for $15 being too expensive. To everyone who bought it: thank you very much for raising prices.

On that note, DICE has said that they'd like to make all of their map packs free, but it's not really up to them. It's up to EA. Giving away free map packs would be a good way of steering more gamers away from the Call of Duty franchise. I honestly can't imagine anyone liking Modern Warfare 2 better than Bad Company 2 after having played both. Having said that, I really don't want BC2 to be more popular than Mod2. You know how Macs always brag about how they don't get viruses? Well, why do you think that is? Is it because OSX is a more secure operating system, or because Apple hardware is more robust? No, it's because the Mac user-base is exponentially smaller than the PC user-base. It's not even close. Plus, almost all businesses use Windows. So, if you're going to write viruses or spyware, why go after such a small portion of the population? Writing viruses for Macs is a waste of time. By that same reasoning, Modern Warfare 2 is plagued by asshats and glitchers because it's the most popular shooter on the market. Sure, Infinity Ward should have done a beta and that would've caught stupid things like the Model 1887s, but even if they had, there would still be near-constant attacks on their code base. The point of this aside is that I'm worried that if BC2 becomes more popular than Mod2, that all the hackers and idiots will bring all their nonsense to that community and I'll have to go elsewhere once again. I know it's completely selfish and I wish nothing but the best for the guys over at DICE, but if some ridiculous thing like the javelin glitch happens to BC2, it will be a sad day for all of us.

Speaking of free map packs, why not just port some maps from the first Bad Company straight over? The only adjustments you'd have to make--that I can think of--are changing all of the Artillary guns to UAVs, adding UAV spots to each new offense spawn, updating the vehicle spawns, and making certain buildings collapsible. Valley Run was a fantastic map (here's a quick refresher for those who played the first game) and I'd love to see that one come back. I would also love to see Over and Out because defending that last point in the bottom of a bunker was a blast. I loved Harvest Day's farm setting, but I think it'd be too open for BC2. Snipers would just wreak havoc on that map. Oasis was good, but there's no need to bring that back because it's just an inferior version of Arica Harbor. I really liked the enormous cranes that you could snipe from on Deconstruction, but they'd have to alter that map to make the second leg easier for the offense. Getting across that bridge was an exercise in futility. End of the Line involved way too much running/swimming and was so open that you actually saw people too infrequently. Final Ignition had that giant building at the beginning that was way too easy to defend and got frustrating. The last map was Ascension, which was a nightmare for the offense. It was like Nelson Bay, but the offense had to run uphill the whole way, and the entire map was congested with buildings. It might not have been any fun, but it did have a castle at the end which was a cool-ass set piece. That's something that the new game lacks. Leguna Presa really missed an opportunity when it used the dam as just the background. How cool would it be to snipe from/at the top of the dam? I also wish they'd bring back the golf course setting. The campaign of the first game had a level where you infiltrate some rich Russian guy's house, and you have to fight your way through a golf course to get there. When they eventually released the Conquest gametype, they had a golf course level. It was awesome.

I've heard some people grumbling that M14 and G3 don't have available RDSs and 4x scopes. They discussed this on the Battlefield Blog and his reasons make sense, especially with the M14. If you want a powerful semi-auto rifle, use the T88 S.

I wish they'd make it so that if your teammate puts C4 on your UAV and blows it, your UAV should explode. It's pretty cheap that three guys can systematically destroy every MCOM station without ever leaving their spawn. Sure, a good player should always spot a UAV when he sees it, and the team should be able to shoot it before it flies away, but there are newbies who have no idea what's going on, and it's not really fair to them.

Top 10: Best Achievements

Yeah, a lot of people hate them or think they're a waste of time. Hell, I hate 'em; I just can't stop going after them. I've spent far too much of my life 'cheevo chasin'. But, even though the majority of Achievements are mundane, sadistic, or just stupid, there are some truly great ones out there. Some are even iconic. So, what makes an Achievement great? It could carry a large amount of prestige, be hilarious, or even inspire copycats. Without further ado, here are my top ten 'cheevos of all time, and no, I haven't gotten them all.

10. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 -> 'Et Tu, Brute?'
The first 'cheevo on the list makes it there because it's perfectly suited for hilarity. This Achievement rewards you for getting five of your friends' dog tags. Not only is it awesome that you can get an Achievement for embarrassing your friends, but DICE had the wisdom to do this one right. 5 is not a large number, but it also requires a little time. This way, you probably can't get the Achievement in one sitting, but you shouldn't feel the need to grind for it ("Okay, come let me knife you and then you knife me"). Plus, you don't have to knife 5 unique friends, so don't expect random friend invites from strangers looking for this Achievement. Also, since you sometimes end up on the other side as your friend if you join him midgame, there should be ample opportunities to get this one.

9. Portal: Still Alive -> 'Out of the Blue'
This one makes the list because it's one of those Achievements that adds a fun challenge without decreasing the fun of the game. That being said, this is no cake walk (sorry...and wtf is a cake walk, anway?). The goal is--once you control both portals--to only use the orange portal as your entrance and always come out of the blue one (geddit?). I've tried this one a couple times and I'm still not entirely sure where I've failed. Guides on the ingterwebs suggest that you have to make sure you get through every portal as quickly as possible. But, hey, don't let the challenge dissuade you. Plus, Portal's just such a good game that you shouldn't mind playing it a few times.

8. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved -> 'Pacifism'
This Achievement tasked you with surviving the first 60 seconds of a game without so much as firing a single shot. People loved this Achievement so much that the sequel had an entire gametype built around the idea. No, it wasn't all that difficult to get (it should only take a few tries), but it was definitely a lot of fun to get. Plus, since Geometry Wars was one of the first games on the 360, you could really say that this 'cheevo paved the way for Achievements revolving around trying to play the game a certain way or by handicapping yourself.

7. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock -> 'The Inhuman Achievement'
No, I don't have this Achievement. I've never even beaten the intro. This Achievement is on here simply because it's probably the most prestigious Achievement in existence. It's not like 'Seriously 2.0' where any monkey can get it with enough patience. This takes an ungodly amount of skill and a shit load of practice. If you have this Achievement, you can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you really are one of the best Guitar Hero players in existence, and that you will probably have carpal tunnel in the near future. Oh, and let's just get this out of the way: yes, 'Kick the Bucket Award' (GHII) came first, but "Through the Fire and Flames" is both a better to listen to and tougher to beat than "Jordan."

6. Battlefield: Bad Company -> 'Darwin's Parachute'
When you read the description for this Achievement, it says, "(Online) Glide in the parachute for 3 seconds." Seems simple enough. So, you get yourself a helicopter and fly as high as you can and then jump out. A moment afterward, you realize you're plummeting towards the Earth and that you have no idea how to open the parachute. You start randomly hitting buttons, but your efforts are fruitless, and you smack into the ground at terminal velocity and get to wait for your next respawn. "Crap, how do you open the parachute?" you think. Then, before you can even finish that thought, you unlock the Achievement. You quickly hit the guide button to make sure you're not crazy. Yep, there it is, but now its description reads, "There is no parachute, right?" Yes, that's right, you just got tricked into killing yourself, and now the title of the Achievement makes sense. This is hands-down the funniest Achievement I've ever seen.

5. The Orange Box -> 'Little Rocket Man'
I did not have the patience for this one (and I, uh, never found the gnome), but one of these days I'm going to go back and get it. This was a very popular Achievement, and it even inspired a follow-up for Left 4 Dead 2. This Achievement takes dedication unlike any other, and shows just how much you want to help a garden gnome reach his dream of making it into space. For those of you who don't know, this Achievement tasks you with carrying a garden gnome from the beginning of Half-Life 2: Episode 2 all the way to end. So, after every firefight you have to go back and pick him up. The most frustrating part is trying find a good place to wedge him in the car you have to drive for a large portion of the middle.

4. Dead Rising -> 'Zombie Genocider'
You earn this Achievement for killing 53, 594 (the population of the local town) zombies in a single playthrough. No, this Achievement was not particularly fun to get. In fact, I outsourced about half the work to a friend. This one makes the list for a few reasons, though: you unlock the bitchin' Mega Blaster weapon for earning it, it was one of the first well-known and much-coveted Achievements, and it inspired several copycats. The first copycat was Left 4 Dead's Zombie 'Genocidest', which was awarded for killing 53, 595 infected over all games. The second was [Prototype]'s 'Trail of Corpses' Achievement for killing 53, 596 infected. In other words, this one makes the list not because it particularly great, but because of its legacy. Speaking of legacies...

3. Gears of War -> 'Seriously...'
Getting 10, 000 kills in Gears of War's multiplayer was no small feat. You were lucky to get 30 kills in a 45 minute game. If you had this Achievement, it meant two things: you played a lot, and you were probably pretty good. Sure, any 12 year-old could get it, but they usually didn't. This is still the most prestigious online Achievement, and almost anyone who has it proudly wears the emblem as their gamer picture. Like Zombie Genocider, it also yielded copycats (The Club's 'No, Seriously' for 10, 001 online kills), including the follow-up 'Seriously 2.0' in Gears of War 2. 'Seriously 2.0', however, was hugely disappointing, as it required 100,000 kills across all gametypes. Anyone who has it probably spent an inordinate and ridicule-worthy amount of time replaying the brumak rodeo over and over again.

2. Halo 3 -> 'Vidmaster Challenge: Annual'
We're getting down to the end, and here we have my vote for the funnest Achievement of all time. This Achievement required you and three of your 'cheevo chasin' friends to beat the final level of Halo 3 on the hardest difficulty with the Iron skull turned on, but with a little twist. Instead of allowing you to use a couple of warthogs and allowing you to strand stragglers, everyone had to be in their own ghost and everyone had to get to the end. It required team work, persistence, and a little luck, but it sure yielded a handful of laughs. This Achievement is the shining example of how to add challenge and fun simultaneously. Oh, and this 'cheevo grants you exactly zilch in Gamerscore, so fun's the only thing you're gonna get out of it...that, and you'll be one step closer to Recon.

1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare -> 'Mile High Club'
This really shouldn't be a surprise. If I were a betting man--and I am--I'd wager that more time was spent globally trying to unlock this Achievement than any other. It's very prestigious, but only requires a minute of your time to unlock...if you get it the first time...and you won't. What made this Achievement so cool was that it was so hard to get, but it was always just out of your reach. Every time you start up the Epilogue, you think to yourself, "Okay, this is it. This is the time I actually beat this thing." Sure, it required luck to unlock (AI is inconsistent, so the pure memorization of the NES days isn't an option), but once you unlocked it, it was like taking a monkey off your back. And I'm not talking about a cute monkey like Spike in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, I'm talking about the kind of mokey that throws feces at you and your friends. If you've unlocked this Achievement, you're in the club.

--Chilly P

Thoughts for Monday 032910

Sorry I haven't been updating much this week, I've been really busy doing nothing. Plus, I had my fantasy baseball draft. Anyway, Joystiq has a PSA you should look at. Ever had trouble defusing a bomb because you kept picking up kits? There's a work-around for that. Speaking of Bad Company 2, what is with that obnoxious horn that goes off when you're about to lose in Conquest? There's no reason for that. In fact, that might be annoying enough to make a certain list.

I'm eagerly anticipating the new Left 4 Dead 2 DLC. The game has 5 campaigns, so you could say you're paying $12 for each. The new DLC is an entire new campaign for $7. Sounds like a bargain to me, especially considering the outrageous price of the "stimulus package." My understanding is that the original cast from the first game makes an appearance as NPCs, which is cool, but it could be way cooler. Left 8 Dead anyone? I guess that title doesn't make as much sense...hmmm, those who are left, ate the dead. Anyway, allowing 8v8 versus would be entirely broken and probably less fun, but it would certainly be interesting and a nice change-o-pace. It would also have the potential for hilarity akin to Slappers Only.

Mass Effect 2's first expansion, which includes a new team member, is also priced at $7. While Activision jacks the prices up, EA is bringing them back down (EA published L4D2, but it does not own Valve like it owns Bioware). I'll definitely be picking this up, as well. I'm not sure when I'm going to find time to play all this while also getting my BFBC2 fix and making my way through FFXIII, but I'm sure as hell gonna try. It'll definitely take priority over Final Fantasy. There are too many good video games these days. I'm still sitting on unfinished copies of Fight Night Round 4, Secret of Monkey Island, Red Alert 3, Burnout Paradise, Beatles: Rock Band, and Call of Duty Classic, and that's just my 360 backlog of games I already own. That's not even including the games I want but have never purchased. I can't imagine what my backlog would look like if I was still trying to keep up with the Wii and DS catalogs. If I ever did buy a PS3, I think it'd cause me more stress than anything else (but God of War III looks soooo cool).

They're making a sequel to Hydro Thunder called Hydro Thunder Hurricane. I might skip this one and just wait for the trilogy to conclude in 10 years with Hydro Thunder Hurricane Tsunami.

Lastly, Penny Arcade had a damn good zinger last week.

--Chilly P

Thoughts for Tuesday 032310

Cute, isn't he? The pic will make sense later.

That Hind on the last leg Isla Inocentes is way too overpowered. I'm not waffling on that anymore. O. Ver. Powered.

I'm also ready to say that the M60 is far and away the best gun in the game. Is it fair that the class with health packs and which usually gets the most points anyway also gets to have the best gun? I'll say "maybe not." Was that last sentence a run-on? Probably.

I'm 10 hours and 45 minutes into Final Fantasy XIII, and the game is still pretty boring. Outside of a few battles, I really feel like I'm just going through the motions more than playing a game. Honestly, the only real "gameplay" to be had is the game of quickly navigating menus. I've read a bunch of reviews now, and whether or not they liked the game, they all say that it starts to pick up around the 10 to 15 hour mark, and that until you get there, the game is basically a tutorial. Seriously? A 10-15 hour tutorial!? Let's put that in some perspective:

• Metroid Prime: 15-20 hours
• Resident Evil 4: 20-25 hours
• Twilight Princess: 30-35 hours
• Mass Effect 2: 18-22 hours
  
• Halo 3: 6-8 hours
• Bad Company 2: 6 hours
• Dante's Inferno: 8-10 hours
• Portal: 2-3 hours
• Final Fantasy XIII's Tutorial: 10-15 hours!

I think you get the point, and that's that most games are done by the time this one has told you how to play it. The game is advertised to be 60 hours long, but that still means that more than a sixth of it is dedicated to introductory play. I'd say the first third of Portal is the tutorial, but Portal actually required a lot of instruction because it was a completely new gameplay experience. FFXIII is just overly complicated and they guide you along way too slowly. I still feel like I'm just waiting for the game to start.

I downloaded Perfect Dark on the XBLA, and I'm not yet ready to make a recommendation. While it's aged better than I thought it would, it still hasn't aged as beautifully as Halo:CE. However, it's actually playable, unlike the the N64 catridge. Have you tried to play Perfect Dark on the N64 recently? You can't. You can't tell what's going on because the resolution is ridiculously fuzzy. Yeah, it was fine back then, but so was not owning a cell phone. The multiplayer isn't as much fun as I remember, but I'm playing with strangers. I think joining up with three friends and maybe even playing a little--dare I say--splitscreen would be more fun. The single-player, on the other hand, is not very nostolgic for me because I never really played it. My overprotective parents didn't let me have M-rated games back in the day, so I only played it at friends' houses. I guess Goldeneye 007 was rated T because I played the crap out of that single-player and even unlocked all the cheats.

Playing through Perfect Dark's single-player is a blast from the past. No regenerating health or shields. No checkpoints. Ambiguous objectives. No indictator of where to go. Over-the-top animations and auto-aim. Wacky and made-up weapons. No scripted events. If you look at the evolution of the FPS, Perfect Dark and Goldeneye are like the monotremes: more advanced than their predecessors, but an evolutionary dead-end. I'll say the former is the platypus and the latter is the echidna because platypi are venomous, and Perfect Dark had that tranq gun.

DICE Makes Another Parody Video

If Digital Illusions CE doesn't want me to love them, they're doing a terrible job. They just released parody video of Infinity Ward's F.A.G.S. (I didn't come up with the acronym) video, and it's definitely funnier than the original for several reasons: A) It's closer to the truth B) It has Sweetwater in it, and C) It even pokes fun of the celebrity in the video. Anyway, here're the original F.A.G.S. video and DICE's F.R.A.G.S. parody:





You know, when I first saw that F.A.G.S. video, I thought to myself, "Oh, good. They're getting rid of cheap kills." Obviously, I was mistaken. Anyway, DICE also had a pretty good parody for the first Bad Company of what is probably the best video game commercial of all time. I'm feeling generous, so I'll go ahead and embed those as well:





That one's not as good as the F.R.A.G.S. video, but it's still pretty funny. It was more an excuse to put that "Mad World" trailer on there...still gives me goose bumps. Anyway, since I'm one of the few people who's really looking forward to a Mirror's Edge sequel, I guess that makes me a pretty big DICE fan these days. I just hope they eventually get their shit together in whole single-player level design department. Both BFBC2 and Mirror's Edge had the tools to be great single-player games, but they fell way short in the level design. I'll stop rambling now. I'm going to be in Orlando this weekend to go see my 'Stros play, so I won't be updating much. Sweet Cylde may have something for you, though.

--Chilly P

$15 for 5 Maps? No Thanks.

What happened to the days when map packs would cost $10 and then become free after ~5 months? Halo 2 did it. Gears of War 1 did it. Halo 3 used to do it. What happened? Now Activision has the gall to charge 1/4 the original price of Modern Warfare 2 for three new maps and two remakes (one of which is more Overgrown, which was terrible). They charged $10 for three new maps and one remake (Chinatown was a remake of a Carentan) for Call of Duty 4, so I guess they feel an extra remake is worth $5. I was reading some of the reactions to the news on Joystiq, and they seem overwhelming negative. I just feel like this game is spiraling downward toward a disaster. Remember when Titanic had a 10-month run in theaters, became the highest-grossing movie of all-time by a landslide, and won a record-tying 11 Oscars? How many people do you know that still like that movie? It's starting to look like Modern Warfare 2 might get that same sort of backlash, and if that happens, the entire Call of Duty IP may follow. Honestly, it wouldn't really bother me, but it'd certainly be interesting to see.

Now that I've bashed Activision and suggested (you could say, 'hoped that') they may be in for a whirlwind of backlash, let's take their side for argument's sake. First of all, before you bring up Bad Company 2's free release that same day, know that they're not releasing two entirely new maps. A friend and I actually got into a game of Rush on Laguna Presa once (and we aren't the only ones), so clearly I already have that capability and it just hasn't been unlocked. That's not so much an argument for the $15 price tag as it is a knock on the argument for the other side (Also, I don't want to bash EA on that either because I completely understand the strategy, and I don't really mind all that much. They're going after Goliath.).
Anyway, let's compare this to Rock Band's DLC. They come out with new songs every week and charge $2 for each. Infinity Ward is offering 5 maps at $3 each. Wouldn't you say that a new map adds more replay to Modern Warfare 2 than a new song does to Rock Band? Wouldn't you also agree that a lot more work goes into creating a new map than goes into making a new song? I know a large portion of that price point is because of licensing, but wouldn't you still argue you get more bang for your buck paying $3 for a map than $2 for a song? I never hear people bitching about Rock Band's DLC pricing, yet companies charge for map packs and the world explodes.

All that being said, I'm not buying the "Stimulus Package;" however, I'm not going to ask you to boycott Infinity Ward because I think that kind of shit is fucking ludicrous. Let the market determine pricing, and if some yahoo wants to pay $15 for a map pack, then by golly, he should be able to do it without being harassed. Honestly, I don't think this thing is going to sell as well as Activision wants it to so I'm betting this won't happen again, but who knows? XBLA prices have skyrocketed ever since the success of Braid; $15 is the new $10. This may even become a common trend. I don't think it will, but we'll see. If 68% of the people who bought the Call of Duty 4 map pack buy this one, Activision will have made more money, and that's really all that matters to them (and for good reason, they're a business).

If you want to buy the maps, then go ahead. If you don't, then don't. I just know that I'm not, but a lot of that has to do with Modern Warfare 2's community becoming a cesspool of cheesers. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a bracket to fill out.

--Chilly P

p.s. What's with the [noun] [preposition] [noun] naming convention of WWII games? Think about it. Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, Band of Brothers (HBO mini-series, but it still fits), Brothers in Arms, Day of Defeat, World at War, Hour of Victory, Company of Heroes, Hearts of Iron... I know not every WWII game follows that convention, but a whole lot of 'em do.

More About Bad Company 2

I've now gotten to the point in Bad Company 2 that there is nothing left to unlock. I have all the guns and all the gadgets and I even went well out of my way to secure the Garand via DICE's veteran program. Basically, I've played the crap out of the game at this point (over 2 days worth), and I'm ready to start breaking it down into further detail.

First and foremost, this is one of the best shooters I've played in some time. The Rush gametype is simply fantastic. One thing I've missed about the first Gears of War is playing games that would take up to 45 minutes to complete, based on how competitive the teams were. Rush is like that. The game is built so that if the teams are evenly matched, I'd say the offense has about a 60% chance of winning at each pair of bombsites, and then somehow each team really does have about a 50% chance of winning each game. The best games are where the offense gets down to 15 or so attempts every time and somehow keeps pulling through it all the way to the final showdown at the end.

I think I can pretty definitively say that the M60 is hands-down the best LMG. If you put a red dot and magnum ammo on that puppy, you can snipe people by firing one shot at a time. The other gun that stands out as better-than-the-rest is the AN-94 Abakan, an assault rifle that fires in two-round bursts. The fully automatic VSS sniper is also pretty nasty when you put a red dot scope on it and use it close or medium range, but, ironically, it doesn't have the same range as the AN-94 or the M60.

While there are only 5 Rush maps at this point, I have to say that all of them--with the exception of Nelson Bay--are expertly crafted. I find myself celebrating each time a new game starts as if we had just gotten a good map in a sea of bad ones (something I've just gotten used to). While Nelson Bay isn't terrible, it's dark, there are no vehicles, and it's the only map I've actually gotten spawn-camped on (that was a singular occurance, however). I don't mean to say that Nelson Bay is a bad map, I just don't like it as much.

The Hind is nearly impossible to take out on Isla Inocentes. There needs to at least be a Bakcha AA or a stationary AT at the attacker spawn so they have a chance at destroying it.

The squad system can get a little frustrating at times because if you have a party of more than four, it's a real pain in the tookus to get everyone in the same game and on the same team. It'd be nice if you could go to the create a squad menu and create two squads that join a game together. They might not get on the same team to begin with because of how the dedictaed servers work, but hopefully they would eventually. Actually, come to think of it, if you have dedicated servers, why can't I just pick a game to go into? That way I could make sure my party gets into a game with fewer people so my dog tags aren't on the line.

Anyway, the game is fantastic. I absolutely cannot throw enough praise at it. I don't see myself going back to a Call of Duty of any sort for a while. DICE really has their shit together, and they may just be defining online warfare.

--Chilly P

p.s. The single-player was a huge let down. I really enjoyed the first game's campaign, but I wouldn't recommend anything past the first 6 levels (Once you do the part where you run between buildings to keep warm, you can safely call it quits).

Who's the Current FPS King?

So Joystiq just posted some early impressions on the next Medal of Honor game, and I came away with basically thinking that EA has scrapped everything from the shit storm that was Medal of Honor: Airborne and is just straight ripping Call of Duty 4. Hell, the article even says its campaign seems like a truer sequel to CoD4 than CoD:Mod2 was. It also says that DICE is developing the multiplayer (EA Los Angeles is doing the campaign), and given how much I'm loving Bad Company 2, I might actually have to keep an eye on this one. But then I got to thinking...

The new Halo: Reach trailer mentions having loadouts, and even Bioshock 2's multiplayer aped CoD4. So here's the question: is Call of Duty the new king of the shooters? I guess the answer would have to be, "yes." I mean, Modern Warfare 2 was the fastest selling-game of all time, beating a mark once held by Halo 3 and then broken by GTA IV. Now, it's not exactly a fair fight because both GTA IV and Modern Warfare 2 are multi-platform games, but still. It says something that all these new FPSs are trying to mimic the Call of Duty formula when for so long everyone was chasing Halo. Have we already seen that fabled Halo-killer?

Just think about that. I remember a few years ago thinking that the idea that a Halo-killer could possibly come out before Bungie was done with the series was just preposterous. Killzone and Killzone 2 were both hyped as Halo-killers and I think we all know how that turned out. I can't believe that I'm about to type this, but Halo: Reach is playing catch-up to Call of Duty. Halo is no longer the leading innovator in the genre. How did this happen?

Well, way back in 2007, Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare were released. I still consider the former to be the premier shooter on the console, but I'd say I'm in the minority. I think where they lost their audience--not to imply that Halo 3 is struggling to find an audience, they're just not way out in first place anymore--is that they spent too much time innovating in the wrong areas. More on that in a bit, but first a little background: Halo 3 was the first game to eclipse Halo 2 in online activity, and this was after the first Gears of War and three Call of Duty games had come and gone. While Call of Duty 4 was a much-hyped contender (Game Informer named it, not Halo 3, as its most anticipated game of 2007), there was little reason to believe that it could actually top Master Chief.

So where did Halo 3 misstep? While I know Sweet Clyde has some considerable distaste for the game, I would probably say it's my favorite game of the series. It's a lot like Halo 2 but with more dressings. That's the problem, though. While Forge and the ability to save replays are awesome, they're not features that will draw in more people than a fresh experience. The problem was that Halo 3 felt like Halo 2 in HD with more features but the same gameplay. While I loved that, I'm not playing it anymore. I feel like I've been playing it since 2004. Sure, Grifball was enough to bring me back for a while, but they won't offer it to me on a consistent basis, and the gametype doesn't yet have the staying power I'm looking for. The fact of the matter is: Halo 3 didn't innovate gameplay and Call of Duty 4 did.

So, back to the question I proposed in the title: who's the current FPS king? Honestly, I don't know. Is it Call of Duty 4 still or Modern Warfare 2? With Activision pumping out a "new" CoD game every November, how long before that series becomes stale? Maybe Halo: Reach will take back the crown in a year when the CoD torch has been passed to Treyarch. Hell, maybe even Bad Company 2 or Medal of Honor can come in and take the reigns. There certainly seems to be room because if nothing else, Modern Warfare 2 was cocky as hell. It's actually very easy to draw a parallel between Modern Warfare 2 and Halo 3. They were both sequels to what was the most popular FPS on the market, and neither felt particularly fresh.

If there's a recipe for success when creating a sequel to the most popular game on the market, I think it's following the footsteps of Halo 2. Sure, there are still people who are waiting for a "real" sequel to Halo: Combat Evolved, but if Halo 2 had just been more of the same, the proverbial Halo-killer may have arrived years earlier. You can't just follow the "If it ain't broke don't fix it" philosophy because otherwise people will get bored. I know Sweet Clyde saw jet packs in the Reach trailer and groaned, but that tells me that they're trying to create a fresh experience (Yes, I know Tribes had jet packs, shut up. No one else is allowed to do jet packs because Tribes did it? Did you consider Halo: CE a Doom-clone, you narrow-minded prick?).

I know I've rambled on about this for a while now, but if you take one thing away from it it's this: the state of the current FPS market is in flux and we may never again have one series that is the golden standard for the genre.

--Chilly P

How to Fix Modern Warfare 2

I said I would get to this last week, but since Bad Company 2 came out the matter has seemed less urgent. Nonetheless, Modern Warfare 2 is an incredibly solid game with a mountain of aggravating problems. Fortunately, there are a few relatively simple ways to fix this game's online experience without having to change the core makeup of the game. So, here are some ways to make the game more competitively balanced but without sacrificing too much content.

1. First, and this is the easiest one, bring back Team Tactical in first person. That one's really easy, and it's just inexcusable that it hasn't been in there from day one.

2. Get rid of roll-over kill streaks in Search & Destroy. No one should ever get an f-ing harrier--much less a chopper gunner--in Search & Destroy. That gametype is completely ruined by overpowered killstreaks. While you're at it, make sure nothing above a precision air strike is allowed in a care package in S&D. Sure, no one will use them, but that's the point.

3. I completely understand why you don't want to allow party chat for Search & Destroy because it's basically cheating, by why the hell can't I have party chat for other gametypes? Now you're just purposely pissing off your user base.


4. Make some sort of MLG-esque playlists. You don't have to go strictly MLG because they'd want you to completely remove killstreaks and I think that would make your game lose a lot of its appeal. However, you need to offer Domination, S&D, and Headquarters playlists that do not allow the following features:
* Machine pistols
* Shotguns (Unless you want to make them primary weapons)
* Tactical Nuke, Harriers, Chopper Gunner, and Care Packages
* All hip-fire aiming reticules (this will nerf grenade launchers considerably)
* One Man Army, Last Stand, Commando, Scavenger, and Lightweight
* Deathstreaks
* Thermal scopes
Honestly, I would prefer the entire game was like this, but I understand that you'd want to keep a lot of the wackiness of your game. Just offer people some sort of respite from these cheesers running around knifing people. If you're worried about people having trouble with illegal classes, just set defaults for illegal classes: USP, Marathon, Stopping Power, and Steady Aim. I'm sure you can come up with an algorithm that realigns illegal killstreaks, and worst-case they're stuck with just UAV and Predator Missile.

At this point, you can completely ignore me if you want. I'm not sure I care anymore. I'll just keep playing Bad Company. It's just such a shame because the primary weapons are so remarkably well balanced in this game, and it's all ruined because of all the crazy shit you allow to happen. This game could have so easily been better than Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

--Chilly P

Blas Mo Fo Is My Bitch

I am simply loving my time with Bad Company 2 so far. Granted, I loved Modern Warfare 2 when it first came out, but one can only take so many knifers and n00b-tubers before the experience begins to ware on them. I'm not saying I don't like that game anymore--it's still a great game--I just currently have no urge to play it. It has been replaced.

Now, as for that title, I said I would publicly humiliate the first person to thrice surrender me their tags, and that unfortunate sap is none other than Blas Mo Fo. Blas, you got owned, go play PSP.

Back to my general impressions. I took that screen shot (sorry for the low res, I used my iPhone) during one of the single player levels. Take a look at it. Gorgeous, no? I really wish they made a multiplayer map out of that set. There's that sweet water fall, the hill you have to run down before bottle-necked at the bridge, and sniper posts everywhere...okay, it might make a shit map, but it's just so damn pretty that I want to see it more often. In a time when most games use only three colors (brown, gray, and muzzle flash), it's so nice to play a game with such lush landscapes, even if I do shoot them to shit with a Bradley.

I've been playing through the single player, and I've been moderately impressed. It's nothing to write home about, but the campaign does have its moments (sniping during thunder claps, running between houses in a blizzard trying not to freeze). As exemplified by that picture I took, the graphics are just jaw-dropping. Hell, light even filters in through canopies in a natural-looking way (and when you destroy the trees, the effect goes away as it should). The only gripe in that department is the fire effects, which look very Xbox 1 compared to everything else. The campaign has been pretty fun for the most part, but after a few hours I was already ready for it to end. The vehicle levels are not very fun. I just want to blow shit up in the jungle. I also just kind of miss the feel of the first game's campaign. It was funnier, and I liked the plot a whole lot better. That said, it's still nice to get more time with these characters.

Multiplayer has been a blast. The game just feels so different than anything else I've played (including BC1). The squad-based gameplay makes you feel like you're part of a war with a scope beyond your play experience. I can't really describe it better than that. It just feels like the game is bigger than you. What's really fun is just going on adventures with your squad mates. You know, little side operations. A friend and I decided that it was crucial that we knife the opposing team's UAV pilot, so we had a race to the offense's spawn area (avoiding enemy contact, of course). I got there first because my friend had to take a detour to C4 an enemy tank. It may not sound hilarious in text, but let me just promise you this: the more you just focus on you squad, the more fun you'll have. I've never laughed so much while playing an online shooter.

In terms of the game's balance, the only aspect that stands out as a little over-powered is the Hind (particularly on the last leg of Isla Inocentes). It's really tough to drive, but when someone is good with it, it's a bitch to take down. I'm sure there has to be some tried-and-true method of taking down one of these things, but we have yet to find it.
[Update]: Nevermind, the Hind is not hard to drive, and I think the only Rush level where it appears is Isla Inocentes. The Apache on Port Valdez is very similar, but that map has plenty of mounted guns and a Bakcha AA which are more than capable of taking it down.

Anyway, I need to wrap this post up so I can go play some more. Last thing: I've read some bitching about the game not allowing a squad larger than four people. The game will let you have your full Xbox LIVE Party of 8 in a game on the same team, but you'll be split into two groups of four. Why not let you have a squad of 8? It's quite simple. In a game of 12 on 12, if you have a party of 8, you can have one guy go way around to back of the other team's base and have them spawn their 7 squad mates. That would be terribly broken. To have squads of 8, you'd have to allow games with ~48 people, and based on the reviews MAG is getting, maybe more is not always better.

[Addendum]: I like that they have dedicated servers because games are almost never laggy (and with 24-player games on huge, expansive maps, I imagine you have to have dedicated servers), but they have got to get that shit working on a more consistent basis.

--Chilly P

Bad Company 2 Impressions

I picked up Bad Company 2 Tuesday morning, and I have to say that my initial impressions are very, very good. They fixed a lot of the complaints I addressed earlier this week about the first one. I'm going to miss that adrenaline injection thingy from the first one, but I was thrilled to see that they improved the driving controls (brake and gas both as RT and RB? ridiculous) and got rid of that damned weapon/item cycling and mapped "Y" to switch weapon. They even mapped grenades to their own button and moved melee to a non-face button. As for using the d-pad to switch to your grenade launcher/rocket launcher, I'm not going to hate on it, but if you have an SMG and an RPG, do you really need a pistol as well?

Aside from the control, I was happy to notice that guns aren't needlessly inaccurate this time around (I can actually hit something with an LMG). I unlocked my first non-vehicle perk (called a "specialization") today. It's basically Lightweight, but it doesn't make you fly around the map like a banshee (not a Halo reference). I'm just hoping the perks don't get as out-of-control as they have in CoD:Mod2.

I haven't even thought of touching the campaign yet. In every shooter I've ever played that has an online component, the campaign is usually shit and never has any replay value. I have some friends who have probably jerked off while playing Halo: Combat Evolved's campaign, but I don't see how it can possibly compare to Metroid Prime or Bioshock. Hell, even in Left 4 Dead 2 where the campaign and multiplayer are nearly identical, I find myself only wanting to play Versus. But I digress...

The last thing I'm going to say in this early stage of evaluation is that Rush on Valparaiso is awesome. That map is a work of art (although, this doesn't seem to be the consensus). Oh, and dog tags are back, and they still kick ass. I will make it a goal to publicly humiliate the first person with the misfortune of surrendering me their tags thrice.

[update]: I got into some long range sniper battles last night, and they where immensely fun. There's nothing quite so thrilling as lobbing two headshots in a row. Who'd-a thunk gravity would make sniping so fun?

--Chilly P