Battlefield: Bad Company (360) Impressions

*Remember that these impressions are from a beta and in no way reflect the final game, or what it will be like when it's shipped.*

I must say that the Battlefield: Bad Company beta has to be the most issue-packed beta I've ever be a part of, and I've been in quite a few. The game is filled with problems, both cosmetic and gameplay-wise. I recently starting playing some more to see how (and if) the game changed at all. The game has seemed to change in a negative way sadly.

I'll start off with the cosmetic issues I have with the game. The first is something so pathetic, something so obviously wrong that I can't believe it will ever find it's way into the final game. There is no ladder animation at all (think Shadowrun); you basically just fly up the ladder with one leg/arm raised on one side, "Up, up and away!". It may seem like a little grudge, but it is extremely distracting every time you see it happen, are we all superman here? The destruction system is impressive, but if you pay attention you'll notice that every house blows up in the same way. While much of the world is destructable, you'll soon see that most explosions are pretty much the same. The game does look rather nice, but I did experience some screen-tearing at times.

The rest of the problems are mostly tech-based, or just bad design choices. One issue I find ridiculous is the fact that you can't open a door. I know that the game is about destruction and they want to show it off, but honestly why would I blow a hole in a building when I can just as easily open a door. They may think that's cool, but I personally think it's an absolute horrible design choice. The destruction aspects of the game are a bit inconsistent as well. A grenade launcher can blow a huge hole in a wall, but a thrown grenade doesn't do a thing. I did experience one situation where a thrown grenade blew up an entire fence and house which shocked the hell out of me (though this only happened once and never again). I don't find it hard to believe that a grenade being propelled through a nade-laucher would be more powerful than a thrown grenade, but the level of difference seems to be a bit much.

I have to say that when the beta initially went up it ran smooth and I rarely ever experienced lag, but now the beta seems to be full of lag half of the time (especially with a full room). I doubt this will be much of a problem when the game ships because Modern Combat ran really smooth. Speaking of the last game; Bad Company has one of the worst issues from the previous game; no voice chat. I sometimes see a mic pop-up on screen that says someone is talking, but I never hear a thing. I even played with Major Nelson at times and either voice chat doesn't work, or he is one quiet guy. I also found that the hit-detection isn't always perfect, but is in no means horrible (just a little tweaking and it should be good).

For the most part every gripe I have with the game is definitely fixable and I don't think that EA will ship the game with all of these issues. You do have to remember that this is still a Battlefield game. So many game-play issues that plagued previous games still plague Bad Company like spawn camping and the lack of respawn invulnerability. I've always been a fan of the Battlefield series (even the console version), but if the issues aren't fixed then I will have no desire to play the retail version. I'm hopeful that these issues will get fixed, but right now I can't help but be worried.

Iron Man (360) Demo

For those of you who don't know, the Iron Man demo is up on XBL for your playing pleasure (note: sarcasm). I honestly never had high hopes for this game, but from what I've played in the demo... it is one janky mess.

If I had to give a brief description I would say that it plays like a prettier version of Superman Returns while actually controlling worse. The games looks alright, but it wouldn't stand out in a crowd (even a crowd of movie-liscensed games). The real issue with the game is how horrible it controls. I managed just fine due to the fact that your projectiles just automatically hit an enemy if fired in their general direction, but I can't say it's much fun. There's no enjoyment in flying around (absolutely no sense of speed) and it just gets worse on land. I really found no redeeming qualities in the demo, except the fact that it was just a demo and therefore I didn't spend any money on it.

I know a few weeks back there was an article saying that the GTAIV release may hurt ticket sales for the Iron Man movie, but I think this game will have the problem; not because of GTAIV, but because this game sucks hard from what I've played and I doubt it will be getting any better in under a month. So once again we get a crappy movie-licensed game...what a surprise!

Rockstar Social Club pre-registration

Starts today! As of right now it hasn't officially gone up, but just keep going back and eventually it will be working (Most likely by this afternoon). If you're a bit curious about what the Social Club actually is you can check out my previous post here.

http://rockstargames.com/socialclub

Death of CGW/GFW...mag going online only

I will write more about this tomorrow, but I just wanted to let people know if they don't already. It happened early today and they posted GFW Radio today as well. I find this to be a very sad moment. I've fallen out of PC gaming a while ago, but I really loved this mag and still read it even though I haven't played a PC game in ages. I wish all the guys the best as well as the ones who were laid off because of this...I hope everything ends up positive down the road for everyone.

There will still be a GFW in a sense. They will still post articles etc online and as of right now the podcast will still be going strong. You can find more on this news by listening to the latest episode of GFW Radio or by checking out these few links...

Jeff Green's Blog

"GFW Magazine Moves Online"

Minibosses/Persona 3

I can't really decide which news is better, but I'll start with what happened first. This past Thursday I finally got my Minibosses cds! These guys are fantastic (my personal favorite video game band) and they are really talented musicians. I was surprised that they still had cds available and the two month wait was well worth it. I have good news for anyone who wants some great free music...you can actually download all the songs for free off of their website http://minibosses.com ...my personal favs are "Mike Tyson's Punch Out", "Double Dragon", and "Ikari Warriors"!

Go and check out the Minibosses already!

http://minibosses.com

Minibosses' Myspace

____________________________________________________

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 amazingly found its way into my hands and it's all I've played since Friday (the day the miracle happened). I am about 9hrs in so far and I really love this game. The story is interesting and all the characters have their own unique personalities. The battle system is great too, though I really don't have much experience with the turn-based RPG genre. One of the things I love most about the game is the setting; the fact that it takes place with HS students who go to school everyday and kick ass every night...that's just interesting to me. I don't know if previous games in this series were in similar places, but if they are then I would be inclined to go back and check out some of the older games too. I just really like the mature themes of the game and the stupid humor of some characters; I found myself laughing at the dialogue more than once and it really did remind me of high school. Next time you hear me talk about Persona 3 will be when I review it. This could be a while because I have no idea how long the game is and don’t know how much free time I’ll have in the coming weeks.

...One last thing. Gus, the game is friggin' Awesome!!! :)

New Logo +

Well I wanted to say that I put up the new logo I worked on and that you will also find that the review scores have finally been set up the way I planned them originally (go and check them out to see the new score system). I also doubt that anyone who went to the Chicago AGI get-together visits the sausage, but I want to apologize for not being able to make it out...My grandpa was admitted to the ER late last night and he's still there and will be there for a minimum of 72hrs so I really wouldn't have been in the best state of mind for the night. I hope everyone there had a good time and if there's a next time here's to hoping I can make it.

-New review system is simple

...games score between 1-5 sausages, with 5 being Awesome and 1 being horrible...and on rare occasions *cough* Jumper *cough* some games will even get 0 sausages! That's right some games suck so much that they don't even deserve any sausage! I hate you Jumper.

Some Updates

Well there are a few things I plan on getting done in the near future...a few reviews among other things. I might not get around to everything because I have had two great days in gaming these past few days. Yesterday I finally got my Minibosses cds and today I found a copy of Persona 3! (I'll go into more detail on both of these in a post tomorrow) I have to say that Persona 3 from the few hours I've put into it so far that it's amazing! I am really loving so much about it and I think it will be a great game to hold me off until GTAIV gets here.

Anyways here is a list of what I hope to get done soon...

- MLB 2K8 (360) Review
- Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (360) Review
- Bru Krew Designs :P

...I don't know if I'll get all of that done, but I will try. Persona 3 is calling me and I'm so glad I have the game. Boy is it amazing!! You don't know what you're missing Gus!

:)

Zombie Genocider: Is the sausage worth it?

Zombie Genocider: Defeat at least 53,594 zombies
Is it one of the most annoying achievements ever? Yes.
Is it worth it? Yes.

Anyone who has this achievement will likely be considered a whore, a real juicy, nasty whore. I recently went through the agony of running over zombies over and over and over. I hated it, but it was all worth it to me. The reason behind this is because you actually get something in-game for doing this. Have you ever wanted to beat down some zombies as Mega Man!? Well you can't do it in this game, but you can blow some heads off! Is that good enough for you? No...then you can go eat a sausage!

I just want to tell anyone who attempts this amazingly horrible feat that you will hate this game immediately after it's done. You will want to take the game and set it on fire!.... Right after that you will want to take a massive corn-filled dump all over it...and then once all that has had time to settle in; you will finally be able to clean it up and start playing once again, but now you will have the aid of the real Mega Buster. Now take that weapons of mass destruction and bust some zombie sausage!

*EDIT*

I HATE YOU Dead Rising! Why did you freeze on me during Infinity mode? huh...you are a dirty bastard and I truly hate you. You do know I can't save in this mode and thus would have to start from the beginning if I want to make a second attempt. What's that...you think it's funny...STOP LAUGHING! I hate you Dead Rising and I hope you burn in hell!!!

Gamestop.com Changing Things Up

Well for those of you who don't hate Gamestop/EB you'll be happy to learn that their website is undergoing to much needed changes. Some of the major changes are things like: The ability to get your EDGE card discount when purchasing used products online, The ability to pre-order online and pick up in-store, and a community aspect (such as forums and reviews...).

The list of new features is rather long so I'll just link it for those who want to read up on all that's in store for the updated site. I must say that I do not love GS or hate GS, but these additions are great and something that they have needed for a long time.

Gamestop.com New Features

*EDIT*

The site went live on March 30th so everything should be functioning as well. The link has been fixed (It didn't work after the site went like because they moved the page). I have a few issues with some new features that I will talk about at a later date...

EA/Take-Two Possible Takeover

I was recently thinking about the whole EA/Take-Two takeover and it really got me thinking. I know a lot of people (me included) don't want to see this happen and there are many different reasons for this reaction. If this takeover were to happen then there wouldn't be any competition in the sport's market (at least between third-party developers). Then there's the group who thinks that Rockstar will be completely tainted by this possible transaction. I personally never believed that EA would do anything to ruin what we we've come to love about Rockstar, but I recently just thought of something that I think EA would heavily pursue if the transaction unfolds in their favor.

In-game advertisements; I think that is the simple change that they would want to add to a game like Grand Theft Auto. Just imagine how much money they could make selling ad space for one of the biggest (if not the biggest) game franchises out there. I think that would be a horrible outcome if it were to happen. For one we would be losing out on all the great humor that Rockstar North puts into their false ads. Second, the press may try to turn this into something bad like always. I say that because some people may say that real-life ads give the game a more "real-life" feel. I can’t say that I would be able to deny that fact either; seeing a McDonalds on the street, or ads for major retailers would give the game a more “real” feeling. Those two reasons are enough for me to hope that this will never happen, but the way EA works; I can't say that it's really that far-fetched.

*Update*

EA has extended their offer until April 18th, which is the day after Take-Two's annual meeting to discuss all their business. So right now the whole deal is at a stand-still at the moment...