A Challenge, a Free idea, and Warhammer Online

Bootae has issued a challenge:

A challenge for my fellow bloggers!

First take the assumption that the game isn’t in the alleged maintenance mode and there’s not only money for new content, but you have access to new content that’s been in development over the last year. So we’re writing this in a happy place. Now then, if you had control of Mythic what would be your plan for WAR in 2010?

Broken down into Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, what would be your strategy for changes, improvements and expansions to the game?

Follow on past the jump for what I would do if I were Mythic in 2010.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 vs. Battlefield 2

In my initial impressions post for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (BFBC2), Esoteric Articles left a comment asking me what I thought of BC2 vs BF2:

Do you think it [BFBC2] is better or worse than Battlefield 2?

I left my initial thoughts in a reply, but I wanted to note and add to those thoughts here.

As compared to BF2, BFBC2 Pros:

• BC2 is better about vehicles. Aircraft aren't overpowered (so far) and ground vehicles aren't invincible.
• Destructible environments.
• The leveling and upgrade system is superior in BC2.
• In-game friends system.
• Squads are limited to four players in BC2 and any member can be used as a spawn point.
• Vehicle-based upgrades.
• Rush game-type (a game mode that doesn't stray too far from the traditional BF "capture the flag", but provides a focused objective-based progression map).
• Collecting dog tags for melee kills
• A move away from kills counting for the most points, allowing support players to be in the hunt for top honors each round.

As compared to BF2, BFBC2 Cons:

• The gun play feels sloppy in the BC2 beta. 
• Players can not go prone in BC2.
• Ground vehicles feel overpowered until players unlock laser tags.  This is mainly because C4 in BC2 is  a pain in the rear to use.
• Some graphic effects in BC2 are annoying (scope blur, bloom, fog/smoke, explosion bounce).  BF2 always felt very clean visually, allowing players to make sense of the madness.

Good in BOTH

• Squads
• Large, open maps
• More to do than just kill enemies, but its still really all about killing enemies.

Sucks in BOTH

• The server browser.
• Close quarters sound effects are non-existent.  I've never heard another player approaching or running around near me in BF2 or BC2. 

Hmmmmm... it has been a year

Just realized that it has been a year since I posted this bit of news.  Amazing how time flies.

And to prove he's mine, here's a pic:

Does the Green Bay Packers outfit give it away?

1205 Pages Complete: A Dance With Dragons Update

Not Done Yet is the title of George RR Martin's latest blog posting.  In it he reveals that he has reached 1205 manuscript pages for A Dance With Dragons.  Suvudu makes the comparison, in manuscript pages, of the series:

As a reference, A Game of Thrones is 1088 manuscript pages, A Clash of Kings is 1184 manuscript pages, and A Storm of Swords is 1521 manuscript pages.

Its been a productive period for Martin and it appears that the story that is A Dance with Dragons may finally be winding to a conclusion. Then its onto the waiting for the next book!

Superbowl or Super Snore Forty-Four?

Saints win! What, not that excited? Well, the Superbowl has come and gone again. The Saints ain't no longer the Aints, so the city of New Orleans can finally put the brown paper bags away.

It was a competitive game, but outside of the last few seconds of the first half, the onside kick to start the second, and the late-game interception the game was a bore. For two of the "best" offenses in the NFL, they managed to have a very unspectacular game.  Also, its quite ironic the Saints were the benefactors of two late-game interceptions thrown by two of the greatest quarterbacks in the league (Favre in the championship game and Manning in the Superbowl).

Other than the Snickers commercial with Betty White, the commercials were a huge letdown. The halftime show was as unmemorable as they come.

The worst part, of course, is that Football has ended for another year. The 2010 regular season can not come fast enough, but I'm chanting Go, Packers, Go! already!

Jan 2010: What I'm Playing/What I'm Paying

Welcome to the first What I'm Playing and What I'm Paying post for 2010.  In the future I will attempt to have these posts ready for the first of each month, but Heartless_ Jr is teething and when I finally had free time this past week all I wanted to do was own face in Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

I have embedded the new What I'm Playing/What I'm Paying spreadsheet for January below.  The overall spreadsheet can be found here.

Initial Impressions: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Beta

My gaming budget of $180 for all of 2010 does not have much room for new games.  However, I saw this video for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and remembered how much I miss the traditional Battlefield gameplay. (Found the video via ITG)



I've always been at odds with the Battlefield series.  I've been a fan since Battlefield 1942, but have skipped every other title in the series.  I played 1942, skipped Vietnam, played 2, skipped 2142.  I skipped Bad Company 1, but now I'm going to be playing Bad Company 2. (NOTE: I left out BF:Heroes as it is outside of the traditional BF series).

The first thing that struck me about Bad Company 2 (BC2) was it's destructive nature.  As can be seen in the video, almost every wall and obstacle can be destroyed.  This was something promised back in the days of Battlefield 2 and only partially realized in BC1.  BC2 takes it to another level.  No wall, box, barrel, or cement slab seems safe.  Annoying sniper on the third floor three buildings down?  Level the first two buildings and smoke that fucker out.

Oh, did I mention the foul mouthed soldiers fighting on the field?  Every other word seems to be fuck and I have no doubt the enemy (Russian?) one-liners are just as abrasive.  It takes a bit away from the game and with a kid in the house now, I have to pay more attention to things like this.

The next touted feature for BC2 is the reworking of the Squad mechanic (first introduced in Battlefield 2).  BC2's flavor allows up to four players per squad.  Any squad member can become a roving spawn point instead of just the squad leader.  Even in random pick up group play there is a reason to be in a squad.  Lone wolfing it will mean a lot of running.

Fortunately, I was able to spend the first three hours or so of the Beta with Alex Taldren.  The squad mechanic shines when playing with a friend or group of coordinated players.  The game has built-in, squad-based voice communication which works well.  Teamwork goes a long way; Alex and I were able to remain on the top of the scoreboard running as an Assault and Medic combo.

The combat took a bit to get used to, but I've been playing so much Civilization 4 lately that my FPS skills were rusty.  A couple hours in and I was somewhat back to old form.  My only quibble was with weapon damage being all over the place.  Sometimes a good burst would take down a target, while other times an entire clip could be laid into a hard charging foe only to have them cover the gap and collect my dog tags (via a knife kill).

There is a level and enhancement system built into the game. As I'm only level 4, I don't have much of a comment on the system.  It seems straightforward and most of it does not seem as though it will create overpowered have vs have not situations.

On a side note, in BC2 there doesn't seem to be much of the insanity that the Battlefiled series is known for.  No crazy jumping, vehicle riding, or parachuting tricks.  It has a more realistic feeling, from environments to combat to vehicles.

I recommend this game to anyone that's enjoyed the Battlefield series over the years, but make sure to buy the PC version (its cheaper @ $49.95 via Amazon.com).  The Limited Edition will grant beta access prior to launch.  The game launches on March 2nd.  I can be found in game as [BLOG] Heartlessgamer

My wishlist for further improvement to Borderlands multiplayer

With the recent update to Borderlands, the multiplayer connectivity and stability has been fixed. Now that I can actually enjoy online games, I have a wish list for some other changes I would like to see:

Borderlands improves PC multiplayer

Back in my review of Borderlands, I had a huge complaint against the state of multiplayer on the PC. It just didn't work and for a game I purchased with multiplayer in mind, it was disappointing. News came down today that its fixed:

Multiplayer connectivity has been improved; users should no longer be required to forward ports to host or join multiplayer games. (source)

After reading this, I immediately jumped into my Linksys router's settings and dumped all of my port forwards. I jumped in the game and I was able to join the first game I tried without a problem. Its amazing what a simple change can do. I am feeling a little Borderlands action in my future (I haven't completed playthru 2 yet).

Steam can learn from Netflix

I love Steam, but I hate misleading press releases. Valve, Steam's overlord, announced that they now have 25+ million users. Unfortunately the details are sparse. There is no indication of what "active account" means or how many are purchasing games on a regular basis. It's difficult to believe these numbers don't include accounts that have long gone dormant. The only vague number given is that ~10 million people have a profile, indicating some sort of buy-in into the Steam platform.

During the last calendar year the platform surpassed 25 million active accounts, up 25% from the prior year. Of the 25 million accounts, over 10 million of those have profiles in the Steam Community.

In addition to the millions of new accounts created during the year, the peak number of concurrent users eclipsed the 2.5 million mark during the month of December, pushing Steam's average monthly player minutes to more than 13 billion.

Contrast this information with the recent Netflix end of year report:

Subscribers. Netflix ended the fourth quarter of 2009 with approximately 12,268,000 total subscribers, representing 31 percent year-over-year growth from 9,390,000 total subscribers at the end of the fourth quarter of 2008 and 10 percent sequential growth from 11,109,000 subscribers at the end of the third quarter of 2009.

Net subscriber change in the quarter was an increase of 1,159,000 compared to an increase of 718,000 for the same period of 2008 and an increase of 510,000 for the third quarter of 2009.

Gross subscriber additions for the quarter totaled 2,803,000, representing 34 percent year-over-year growth from 2,085,000 gross subscriber additions in the fourth quarter of 2008 and 29 percent quarter-over-quarter growth from 2,180,000 gross subscriber additions in the third quarter of 2009.

Of the 12,268,000 total subscribers at quarter end, 97 percent, or 11,892,000, were paid subscribers. The other 3 percent, or 376,000, were free subscribers. Paid subscribers represented 98 percent of total subscribers at the end of the fourth quarter of 2008 and at the end of the third quarter of 2009.

At a glance the reports look similar, but Netflix has two subtle differences.

First, Netflix breaks down year over year and quarterly growth in hard numbers, not percents. This is an important distinction as it gives a clear picture of where the platform is heading. Steam on the other hand only provides a current number and percent growth.

Secondly, Netflix identifies the number of accounts that are riding on their various free offerings and trials. The Steam report has no indication of how many accounts were brought on board through free game offers or "required by game" installs.

Other than labeling all 25 million Steam accounts as "active", there is no real sense of the power of the platform. With the Netflix report, we get a much better feel for how subscribers are using the platform and how Netflix is growing.

Valve is more than generous with data collected from Steam (hardware surveys, heat maps, etc.), but its starting to feel like marketing overdrive when they are talking about the status of the platform. Hopefully, Valve can take a queue from Netflix and realize that granular subscriber data is not the end of the world.