Gaming | Gaming, Technology, and Whatever

BF3 Alpha Invites on Origin; More EA/Steam Drama

Jul 282011

Yesterday, DICE and EA expanded their BF3 multiplayer alpha test by inviting a seemingly large size of previous BF players (DICE/EA likes to call them “veterans”). While giving explicit details about the alpha test is strictly forbidden, it’s been widely reported that if you were one of the few who did get an alpha code and invite, to participate in the test, which runs through August 1st, you are compelled to install Origin and link your EA account to the Origin store. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a publisher force a brand new download service and client on gamers just to get a highly desirable piece of content. Remember Steam and Half-Life 2?

While it’s been confirmed that BF3 will be available for purchase from other downloadable services like Direct2Drive and Impulse, EA and Steam have been at odds which may lead to BF3 not being available on Steam. Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen EA titles disappearing from Steam, most notably Crysis 2, the delayed appearance of Alice: Madness Returns and now Dragon Age II. Both Crysis 2 and DA II were previously available and now have been pulled completely. EA’s official word is:

“Unfortunately, Steam has adopted a set of restrictive terms of service which limit how developers interact with customers to sell downloadable content. No other download service has adopted this practice. Consequently some of our games have been removed by Steam.”

Valve hasn’t said much, if anything on these accusations, and we’ve yet to hear similar complaints from other publishers or developers (aside from standard Steam complaints). What this almost sounds like, is Apple’s App Store guidelines for selling in-app content or subscription services. Is it that Valve has a similar policy in place? Could it be the DLC has to be made available through Steam, and not link through to a different marketplace which requires a separate checkout process? You could make an argument that streamlining the experience through a single storefront benefits both the customer and obviously the storefront — but that’s a debate for a different day.

For many gamers, this issue may not matter much. Steam isn’t exactly a perfect service and has its share of problems. However, no matter how you feel about it, Steam is the biggest PC game storefront on the market, and as of right now, there is no indication that the one of the highest profile PC games to come out in a while (BF3) will make an appearance on Steam.

Sanctum

Gaming, PC Gaming, Uncategorized No Responses »

Jul 242011

For the last few weeks we have have been slogging away at Sanctum. It is developed by Coffee Stain Studios as part of Epic’s Make Something Unreal contest. It is a first person shooter tower defense game. You can check out a trailer over at YouTube.

I have been playing mostly co-op games lately and CSC added the ability to play co-op on several of the maps. First off, the game is fun. It is essentially waved based, monster attacks. You lay out a maze on the buildable spaces with empty blocks. Then you fill selected blocks up with towers of various types which include guns, mortars, electrical, and anti air type weapons. These weapons can be upgraded throughout the game as you get money to spend on upgrades. You can also select Televators which are blocks that allow you to teleport around as well as elevate you up to the level of the top of the block as you can not jump that high.

You are equipped with three weapons. The first is an assault rifle that has a grenade launcher as its secondary fire. The second is a sniper rifle with two levels of zoom. The third is a freeze weapon which can slow enemies down or stop them in their tracks with the secondary fire. These weapons can be upgraded just like the towers. The weapons essentially overheat, or run out of ammo. You then have to wait for them to recharge before you can use them. Weapon switching therefore is essential. I prefer using my sniper rifle to get some high powered hits in, switch to my assault rifle while the sniper recharges, and then flip back to sniper. Rinse and repeat.

I do have some issues with the game. First, the only way to really communicate with your teammates is by highlighting one block in the build mode. So, it is difficult to do any planning. Essentially, one person has to plan and build out the maze and then communicate what to build after that. CaGBlight over at the Steam Forums has developed a java based tool that you can use before your game to do some planning. Unfortunately, it is a little buggy for one of the more interesting maps. But oh well, it is free. This type of functionality should have been built into the game. The tool outputs images such as this one to show how to build the maze and what towers to build.

Second, the difficulty of the game varies too much from easy to moderate. On the easy level we can practically win a 30 wave game with our eyes closed. It is boring actually. However, on the moderate level, we have won only one time. We needed three people to do it and it was close. With two of us, we usually only last till wave 12 or 13. I would suggest lowering the difficulty of moderate down a tad and then keeping high where it is.

Third, I would bring out some more maps. Maps for a game like this are not complicated. You are not designing gigantic worlds with lush flora or anything like that. They are essentially grids that you can build on. In fact, several of the maps are just that. Or they should allow third party development of maps. But having more maps with more possible routes would certainly raise the challenge and creativity of defending the core in the game.

Overall, the game is fun. It was certainly worth the $3 or so that we paid for it from steam. I am not sure I would pay much more than that for it. Currently, it is $15. I would definitely not pay that. Keep in mind, I have not played the single player version, only the co-op. So, they may be much more playability in the SP. Another helpful resource for the game is the wiki article over at wikia.com.

What are your thoughts on the game? Any dislikes or likes?

Team Fortress 2 (TF2) is now free to play

Console Gaming, Gaming, PC Gaming, Technology News No Responses »

Jun 252011

If you have been living under a rock and had not heard the news yet, TF2 is now free to play. You can download it at the TF2 website for both Macintosh and Windows.

The free to play will now be supported by microtransactions within the steam store. You will be able to purchase new weapons and items. Valve also claims that they will continue to offer free items as well.

Valve also seems to be taking a pragmatic approach to supporting the community:

“It’s a belief of ours that in multiplayer games it’s generally true that the more people playing the game, the higher value the game has for each individual customer.

“The more players, the more available servers in your area, the wider variety of other players you’ll find, the greater the opportunity for new experiences, and so on.”

This would be bucking the trend of AAA titles coming out at $50-$60 range and support disappearing. It also seems to be a lesson that some companies *cough* Epic *cough* could relearn.

According to Steam, I only have 2.8 hours played in TF2. Unfortunately, the Orange Box came out at the same time as CoD4. CoD4 got a bit more playing time. However, if more people pick up on TF2, I could certainly see myself devoting more time to it.

Update to EA/Steam Crysis

PC Gaming No Responses »

Jun 162011

Yes, I’m a fan of bad puns, get over it. After yesterday’s news over Crysis 2 getting mysteriously pulled from Steam and then the assumed demise of future EA games on Steam, we get news that the Crysis 2 deletion was done by Valve, not EA, over Steam policies. EA was quick to direct the internet’s wrath directly on to Steam, although I don’t think it’s safe to put your Origin conspiracy hats away just yet. Here’s a quote from EA on the matter:

“Steam has imposed a set of business terms for developers hoping to sell content on that service – many of which are not imposed by other online game services. Unfortunately, Crytek has an agreement with another download service which violates the new rules from Steam and resulted in its expulsion of Crysis 2 from Steam.”

No word on what “new rules” are in place and what Crytek agreement with another service (Origin?) is at fault with Steam’s terms. Basically, it’s business deals that most gamers don’t and shouldn’t care about. It doesn’t have an impact on those who previously bought Crysis 2 on Steam, they will still be able to re-download it if need be — but right now, no new purchases are available, hardly a tragedy on a 3 month old game, except for those holding on for a great Steam deal. Valve is typically tight lipped about this things, so it’ll be interesting to see if they ever address this issue publicly.

What remains unclear is if this will affect future EA games, since Crytek specifically was called out and not EA in general. Will this weaken any relationship between EA and Steam, especially with EA pushing it’s Origin service, or will it force the companies to work things out? It is interesting though that Steam is one of the few places where you can’t pre-order Battlefield 3 today, although previous Battlefield titles remain on the service.

No BF3 on Steam worries fans as EA’s Origin looms

PC Gaming 19 Responses »

Jun 152011

A couple of weeks ago, EA essentially re-branded their EA digital download store as “Origin.” Nothing exactly Earth-shattering, and it didn’t even feel it was worth discussing at any form here. Yeah, there was the bit about Star Wars The Old Republic being an Origin exclusive, but for a yet-to-be-released MMO, it didn’t really register as note-worthy. Now things are starting to get interesting. RPS posted an article alerting us that Crysis 2 has been pulled from Steam and Alice: Madness Returns is no where to be found on Steam as well. Also, interesting is that there have been zero hints of Battlefield 3 pre-orders on Steam, especially with EA and DICE pushing pre-orders hard elsewhere, as we discussed yesterday.

Of course the conspiracy theorists already have BF3 as an Origin exclusive, meaning if you want to buy BF3 digitally, direct from EA will be your only choice. While that may end up being the case, there is one small problem in that logic: you can currently preorder BF3 on Direct2Drive and also on GamersGate (at 10% off). To make things more interesting, you can still by Crysis 2 digitally on Direct2Drive and Amazon, so it doesn’t appear to have become an Origin digital exclusive, at least not yet. Is Origin solely targeting Steam? We’ve heard in the past from other retailers and some publishers that they felt that Steam carried too much weight by dominating the digital download market, and maybe EA is trying to strong arm Steam by not making available some high profile titles there. They’ve done it on the used game market of console games with “Project $10”, so maybe Steam is their next focus.

I understand from a publisher’s perspective the downside of Steam. Obviously, Steam takes a cut of the game sales, but that’s true of D2D, GamersGate, Amazon, and even brick and mortar stores like Gamestop and Best Buy. Steam, however, works a bit differently on the technical side, requiring a somewhat rigorous approval process for not only the games but all patches — and let’s not forget that Steam games need to have separate patches applied to them which isn’t true of games purchased digitally elsewhere (except, obviously, if it’s a Steamworks game.) So, maybe it’s more about having to maintain two different versions of a game and less about trying to forcefully limit market share of Steam. Or maybe it’s some crazy argument over fees or other back-room deals that have really nothing to do with anything gamers should care about. The point is, we really don’t know and I’d wager that most gamers don’t care. They want to buy the games they want, where they want to, that’s it.

I have some, friends, actual real people, who only buy their games from Steam. They will buy their games from Steam, even if better deals can be found elsewhere, and many times, will never buy a game simply because it’s not sold on Steam. The question is, if BF3 is never sold on Steam, will those people buy it? Between this and the pre-order shenanigans, have you been soured on BF3 any, or are you full steam ahead? Yes, the bad pun was necessary.

BF3 pre-order bonuses irk fans

Console Gaming, PC Gaming No Responses »

Jun 142011

Pre-order bonus are nothing new. The fact that it’s a trend that upsets many gamers doesn’t seem to be decreasing the wide-spread usage of pre-order bonuses. Many games, you’d have to buy multiple copies from both brick and mortar and online retailers to compile all the various extra weapons, levels and perks being offered, which is obviously a non-customer friendly practice. Even stranger, it’s not uncommon to see codes for bonuses sell on eBay for $10 or sometimes much, much more. Now that details of BF3’s “Physical Warfare Pack” and “Back to Karkand” have been fully explained, many gamers have been fighting back against DICE and EA on these practices, claiming that if you don’t pre-order the game, you’ll be at a disadvantage online because you won’t get the extra weapons pre-orderers will get. Also, you’ll have to pay extra to get the “Back to Karkand” pack, which includes some old favorite maps like Strike at Karkand and Wake Island, that any BF veteran will want access to.

What kicked it off was a threat of boycotting the game over at Reddit, which then prompted a response by DICE. Of course, gaming boycotts rarely work — and we all remember the CoD:MW2 Steam boycott group (over lack of dedicated servers) who many of which were found to be playing the game on release. However, the internet reminds us it was Sarcastic Gamer who promoted a boycott of the original (console only) BF Bad Company game, which tried to pull a similar stunt on pre-order exclusive weapons scattered about various retailers. After hearing the outcry of the internet, DICE and EA backpedaled on the idea, and everyone was happy.

This time around, DICE doesn’t seem as willing to compromise, stating that pre-order weapons won’t imbalance the game, and will just offer a “more varied arsenal.” As far as “Back to Karkand” — well, if you don’t pre-order the game, you can still get it post-release at an undisclosed extra price.

I’m definitely not a fan of pre-order shenanigans like this, although I have been known to pre-order games, mostly at Amazon. My main motivation for pre-ordering is usually monetarily based, due to the plethora of $10 and $20 credits offered pre-release on high profile titles. I usually won’t pre-order a game that only offers exclusive content as it’s usually just throw-away items — most developers won’t offer “game changing” items because it throws the whole balance of the game out of whack. DICE says they are most definitely not doing that here, almost alluding to the fact that these extra weapons are worthless. However, the extra map pack, offering some highly desirable maps, could save you money by not making you pay full retail for the game ($60 on all platforms) plus conceivably another $10 or more for the Karkand pack which includes Karkand (duh), Wake Island, Gulf of Oman, and Sharqi Peninsula which represent the best maps from the previous BF games.

Who’s pre-ordering this one? I’m still on fence, but don’t appreciate DICE explaining the pre-order bonuses as “rewarding our core fanbase.” We know what these incentives are for, please don’t insult us. A better way to reward your core fanbase is to offer these 4 map remakes to all purchasers of the game, included in the base price of $60.

Final Thoughts: L.A. Noire

Console Gaming No Responses »

Jun 142011

Having finished L.A. Noire last week, I figured I’d follow up my first impressions with a few final thoughts on the game. Overall, I found the game very entertaining from start to finish although this can definitely be considered a game that is “not for everyone.”

First off, it’s not an action game. Even though it’s Rockstar who brought you GTA and Red Dead Redemption, L.A. Noire is most certainly not a cops and robbers shoot ‘em up. There is a bit of shooting, and you’ll get to kill your share of bad guys, but these sequences feel more like afterthoughts or bolt-ons rather than important parts of the game. Additionally, the shooting in the game isn’t very good, and probably provides some of the least enjoyable parts of L.A. Noire. Adding to the feel that action isn’t a focus, there is an option to allow you to skip action sequences if you fail them a few times in a row. I didn’t need that option, but it’s nice to see it available for those who aren’t adept at action games and want to enjoy L.A. Noire for its story and adventure-like aspects.

Second, the driving parts can be quite tedious. Driving, sometimes long distances, to crime scenes coupled with the fact that reckless driving can hurt your overall case score makes you want to skip driving all together. Thankfully, this was accounted for, as most of the time your partner can do the driving, which basically amounts to fast-traveling to your destination. After the first few times, I let my partner drive everywhere, although there are a few instances where you are forced to take the wheel to tail a suspect or chase someone down.

Lastly, the overall case formula can be repetitive. When you strip it down to it’s core components, each case more or less follows the same pattern. You start at the precinct and get a case assignment. You drive (or fast-travel) the to the crime scene, look for clues, question witnesses, follow up leads, interview suspects and charge the one that best fits the evidence. Sometimes it can end in a shootout or car chase to vary it up, but the basic formula is there. Without spoiling it, there is no true way to fail a case, just varying degrees of success. In cases with multiple suspects, you’ll have a sense that none of them are guilty, but some are more worthy of being thrown in jail than others. There’s always the “popular” choice from the captain and your partner, even though you have suspicions that something larger is going on. The cases are mostly all tied together and yes, it all will make some sense in the end, so stick with it.

With a bunch of negatives listed above, how is it possible that I enjoyed this game? The game, at heart, is a very well polished adventure game, like some sort of modern-era point and click adventure. With the action being forgettable and a repetitive case formula with some deviations, the thing that brings it all together is a capturing story, top-notch voice acting and excellently written dialog. L.A. Noire unfolds like a great cop drama, sticking with the implied noir theme set in a beautiful 1947 Los Angeles environment where attention to detail was paramount. And let’s not forget the motion capture tech used here, that has the in-game characters not only voicing their lines, but acting them out as well. It’s all very well done.

Again, I’ll voice my praise for this game, as I did in my first impressions. The story keeps you interested all the way through, and makes you easily dismiss the weak parts while you enjoy the experience that’s a bit unique in today’s games. As mentioned previously, this game also is great for spectators who can play along looking for clues and interrogating suspects, while also enjoying the story much like watching a TV show. Playing the game a case at a time seems to work as a good pace, as each case can run roughly an hour at a time, depending on how thorough you want to be. With about 19 cases, there’s a decent amount of content here, and that doesn’t count the side stuff like finding hidden cars, responding to street crimes and doing the free-play modes where you can explore the city, if you so desire. I haven’t done much of that and concentrated most of my focus on the main story. It’s probably one of my favorite games of this year, if not the favorite so far.

Still looking to pick up L.A. Noire? You’re in luck, it’s [amazon_link id=”B002I0J5UQ” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Amazon’s Deal of the Day[/amazon_link].

Codemasters and Epic Games hacked, reminds you to use unique passwords-Update: Bethesda too

Gaming, Technology News No Responses »

Jun 132011

With the news of both Codemasters and Epic Games recently being hacked, this again serves as a sobering reminder: don’t reuse your passwords. These include forums and other services both of these companies provide along side their games. So if you ever raged about the latest UT or GoW game on Epic’s forums, or linked any accounts to Codemasters in games like Dirt, you could be affected. When these types of security breaches happen, many times your email address and password can be exposed, and in the event you use this same login combo elsewhere, other unrelated accounts can be compromised too. Using a password manager like Lastpass, 1Password, Keepass, Roboform, Mitto or any other of your choosing can help you generate and keep track of your unique passwords. The obvious advantage is, if a particular site or service is hacked and/or login details are exposed, that password can’t be used elsewhere (say your bank account or email account).

I am personally a fan of LastPass, and while storing all of your passwords in a centrally located spot has its own risks (online or offline), there are ways you can mitigate the risk — and of course, pretty much anything is better than using your birthday or pet’s name as your password everywhere. I should have a detailed review of LastPass along with some other easy tips on securing your own data this week. While it’s easy to rage at the Sony’s of the world, we also have to take some personal responsibility to securing our own information.

UPDATE: And now Bethesda reports a similar hack attempt was made on them last week. The overall point stands, especially since there appears to be assault on game company sites. Spend some time and update your passwords with uniques.

Armchair E3 Analyst Part 2: What I’m worried about

Console Gaming, Gaming, PC Gaming No Responses »

Jun 102011

This is part two of my feeble attempt at analyzing what the analysts have told us about all the excitement at this year’s E3. Part 1 is here, where I take a look at a few things that I’m looking forward to. In this part, I take a look at a few games that I’m a bit worried about. By nature, if I’m worried about a game, it means it’s definitely high on my watch list, and am just concerned that it may not meet my lofty expectations.

Before you go crazy, the first two games I’m most worried about are on my “will buy day 1” list, although I’m pretty sure I’m in the minority with these, as most people seem to be 100% positive these are “game changer” games…or…something.

Mass Effect 3. Loved the first two, but was slightly disappointed that the second game dumbed down the RPG elements and focused more on action. Seeing the promos for Mass Effect 3 worry me further, because it seems to be almost *all* action. It appears they are billing it as a 3rd person shooter more than anything else. Yes, I will play it, and I’ll probably enjoy the hell out of it, but I want something more — dialog, character development, universe exploration, and RPG stuff like stats on weapons and abilities. Hopefully all that is in there, and am hoping the epic over-the-top action is just marketing hype.

Battlefield 3. What I’m worried about in BF3 probably has to do more with me than with the game. I’ve loved the previous BF games and sunk hundreds of hours into BF2 and BC2 online. BF3 looks to take the best parts of the last two PC versions, and do it in the beautiful Frostbite 2 engine. I’m worried because I can’t seem to get myself excited to the same feverish pitch that friends and the media are about this game. It could be all the focus they have put into the single player, which is something I don’t want from a BF game. It looks great, and I’m sure it’ll be fun. I’ll buy it, even preorder it. My problem is most likely I’m suffering from modern warfare fatigue. It’s getting a bit overdone, and the constant DICE/EA trying to out-do Call of Duty is getting old, and even a bit embarrassing. Maybe by the time BF3 rolls around with its shear awesomeness I’ll be ready to dive back in to the online modern warfare shooter world.

Aliens Colonial Marines: A game that I haven’t heard much about, but I’m always skeptical of games of some of my favorite movie franchises. Sounds a bit like Star Wars Republic Commando with the squad-based mechanics and is billed as the “true sequel to the Aliens movie.” Hopefully it gives us the Aliens game we’ve always wanted but that, by nature, sets the bar so high it would be a minor miracle to achieve. The other factor is Gearbox. They’re responsible for picking up the pieces and finishing DNF, which isn’t really a good thing. I’m keeping my expectations low.

I’m probably worried about much, much more than this since I’m cynical by nature, but those are just a few that stand out in the post-E3 rubble. I’ll be closing my E3 thoughts in part 3 of my Armchair E3 analyst article, where I take a look at the things that just don’t look appealing at all.

Armchair E3 Analyst Part 1: What I’m excited about

Console Gaming, Gaming, PC Gaming 1 Response »

Jun 092011

With all the big news sites covering E3 from head to toe, it’s hard to avoid the headlines and the hype. When casually following this year’s E3 news, you tend to make some assumptions, get excited about, lose interest in, and never want to hear again about different things coming to the gaming landscape this fall and beyond. As a person with no credentials other than actually a player of games, I figured I’d take a look at a few things that I noticed out of E3. I’ve broken up my thoughts into 3 parts, what I’m excited about, what I’m worried about and what over-hyped stuff I could do without. These are loosely organized ramblings about what stuck out in my mind about E3.

What I’m excited about:

Batman Arkham City is an easy one. After having some early hesitation about Arkham Asylum when it was first released but then being completely blown away by it, I’ve been eagerly anticipating Arkham City. Admittedly, I haven’t seen too much about AC at E3, other than snippets about having a playable Catwoman character that makes me worry ever-so-slightly. I was pretty much sold on this game day one. Gaming media types tell me not to worry, so I won’t. This is easily my most anticipated game for 2011 and my only fear is that my expectations are so high, I may only be setting myself up for disappointment.

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Some people would call me a terrible gamer for not playing any of the previous games in this series. After playing Fallout 3, I did go back and play some Oblivion, but it just didn’t seem to hold up well even a few years later and I never got very far into it. Since buying into a bit of media hype and seeing a bunch of Skyrim footage, I must say I’m interested in actually playing an Elder Scrolls game, properly, for the first time. Looks like the buggy and sometimes ugly Oblivion/FO3/FO:NV engine is gone and new tech is in place. The potential is there for an epic story that I could end up enjoying more than the last couple Fallouts, which I was pretty happy with, although New Vegas lost its luster fairly quickly and was almost relived to make it to the ending.

Prey 2. Yeah, weird, huh? Prey 2, the sequel no one wanted actually looks decent. It’s hard to tell how it will shake out, but the media all seem to be pleasantly surprised by it, and what videos I have seen look interesting. Oddly enough, Prey 2 doesn’t have much to do with the original Prey, but hey, you’re some bounty hunter guy in an alien city-world like Coruscant with everything having a Blade Runner-ish feel to it. Assuming it’s as good as they say it is, this game could be a sleeper hit. Maybe I shouldn’t have wrote it off the minute I heard that Prey 2 existed. Go figure.

Assassin’s Creed Revelations. I basically played the AssCreed games backward. Dabbled in the first two games and wasn’t all that impressed, but got Brotherhood and absolutely loved it so much, it made me go back and play AssCreed 2, which I loved the second time around. Again this is another title I haven’t followed too closely, but like Batman AC, I’m mostly sold on it. It doesn’t even have to do anything revolutionary for me — just give me a tweaked Brotherhood experience and tie up the story and I’ll be happy.

Bioshock Infinite. Loved the first, found the second to be ho-hum. Bioshock Infinite is being made by Irrational, who did the first, so that’s reason alone to be optimistic. Infinite changes up the environment, adds a supporting character reminiscent of Enslaved and looks to have a more varied gameplay experience. I’m not 100% sold, but I’m definitely interested in it. Ken Levine also made a compelling argument for PlayStation Move support in Infinite and says they’ve found some good ways to use motion control beyond what you’ve come to expect from games that use waggle. I guess we’ll see.

Those are the notables that caught my eye. Look for part 2 “What I’m worried about” coming very soon.

Older Entries Newer Entries