B:BC 2 beta impressions

Well I finally got into a good match a few times today (although I often get randomly disconnected) and I must say it is quite fun.

It's very reminiscent of the first one and that's not a bad thing at all.

In terms of how it controls, I feel there have been some changes but not a lot. In fact it plays pretty much the same way as the first, the only way I could probably distinguish between the two in terms of how it plays would be if I had them side by side. This is not a bad thing at all, I felt right at home as soon as I first parachuted on to the battlefield and I'm sure newcomers would be able to get to grip with the controls rather quickly as well. One little niggle I do have with the controls is the switching through weapons  using the mouse scroll wheel. Instead of looping after switching past the last item in your inventory, as you'd expect it to, it requires  you to scroll back the other way. Yeah, a very nit picky, minor annoyance but still annoying.

As you descend to Port Valdez in your flimsy parachute you're greeted with AA gun fire and a beautiful panoramic view of the whole snowy map. It's quite stunning actually, but once you hit the ground it's time for action. I can't tell whether it's a step up from the first game but damn it looks good, character and vehicle models especially are very well crafted and animated. With the introduction of "destruction 2.0" to the Frostbite engine we get a lot smaller destruction, pieces of wood from a fence being chipped away, and we also get an overhaul on the large scale destruction, toppling a whole goddamn building. This really helps make every match fresh and fun, and also elevates tension as your enemies could come from anywhere at anytime. Particle effects such as fire, smoke, debris, and explosions to name a few are also really well done. It's really a sight when a tank bulldozers through a corner of a building and unloads an explosive round at the enemy. I have also yet to encounter any graphical bugs which is great, and the fps never wavers either, and no screen tearing whatsoever.

It all really ties together to give you a very addictive, hectic, sometimes strategic, and rewarding online experience.

Now back to the beta.

Battlefield: Bad company 2 PC beta is here!!

And it's full of lag...

Good thing is that DICE are aware of the situation and are working hard to fix it, at least that's what it says on the ticker. Will post an updated impression and maybe a video once they solve their issues.

Single player reconstructor mod

Just a video tutorial I made for installing the SP reconstructor mod for Red Faction: Guerrilla. a lot of people I've seen have been confused as to how to actually get it working, myself included. Everything is running fine now though, it's an excellent mod.


I would've preferred to make this an audio video tutorial tutorial but my computer is so loud that whenever I record it sounds like I'm standing next to a wind turbine.


Anyway, I hope this helps anyone who stumbles across it.

Wings of Prey

The demo for this game is available on Steam. I downloaded it last night and fired up the engines.

After a few minutes of fiddling around to get it to work with my joystick, I was swooping and swerving through the sky and what a glorious sight it was. This game really is quite beautiful. There are little additions, such as getting the windshield soaked when flying through a cloud, that really make it quite immersive. And then there's the damage models on the planes which a re fantastic, you can actually see where parts of your plane have been shot off.

That's the graphics. The audio is wonderful as well, although my shoddy "Pcline" 2.0 speakers don't do a good job of making it sound great. What I could hear was excellent though.

Controlling it with my Genius Metal-Strike keyboard was fine, although it could get a wee bit sensitive at times I had a lot of fun. And it felt rewarding taking down an enemy plane from afar using it.

Not a buy for me though, I already have plenty of games to keep me busy this February, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 says hello.

Dirt 2

So, I just purchased Dirt 2 from Steam at the discount price of £15. Did a couple of races and so far it's been a surprising lot of fun.

Controls are good even though it feels a bit weird racing with a keyboard. It looks splendid, car models are very well done as is the environment. Car damage on the other hand doesn't quite fit in with the polished look of the rest of the game. Mind you I've only crashed a few times and they were only front bumper and wind-shield damage.

I'm sure you've heard this many times before but the menu system and the way things are generally presented, such as cycling through the options, or looking over the "Dirt tour" map is flashy and stylised, it can be a bit in-your-face sometimes.

Other than that, I'm enjoying it so far. Maybe I'll record some videos.Meh.

Under construction

This is also getting an overhaul and I promise my self that I will make it something worth while.

I will create my own background
I will relate it to gaming in a way
I will sort out the look of the tabs at the top
I will create a banner of some sort
And more when I can think of some

It's HTML, not that hard. It's really all about whether I have the design skills or not.

A symphony of destruction

Is the title of a video I'm making that combines classical music with volatile explosives, provided by Red Faction: Guerrilla.

An extremely fun open-world game set on Mars with lots of blowy-upy things that makes big noises and look pretty.

All is not well though, Fraps has been giving me trouble yet again. Although it's one of the best screen capturing programs, it has issues. One big one is the out of sync video and audio. It happened before when recording GTA and it's happened now. My guess is something to do with my hardware. I run a Quad-core Q9550 with a GTX 275 and 6GB of DDR2 ram (800MHz I think).

A good machine, if I do say so myself but when running a game like Faction and all it's destruction physics it struggles a bit. Nevertheless, I only need the video for this project, so I discard the audio when editing anyway.

Oh, and an arbitrary rating for the game itself 8/10. Great game, meh story, incredible destruction physics, good weapon selection, really fun MP.

Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?

Bioshock, the game so highly appraised by many for it's stylistic visuals, intriguing story, and great gameplay.

Thanks to the Steam sale, I've finally got a chance to see what all the ruckus was about. Well, I was pleasantly surprised.

The game starts off with  a plane crash in the mid-Atlantic, the plane shudders and jolts, and then darkness. You wake beneath the waves with a raging fire above you as the plane is, torn to pieces, is engulfed by the ocean. The game then gives you control of your character, you start swimming to what seems like a spire protruding from the ocean. Leaving the wrecked plane behind you, you enter through two golden double doors into a dark room. The lights flicker on and you see what seems like a mini submarine in front of you. You enter and pull the lever.

You travel deeper beneath the waves, and suddenly it appears right in front of your eyes. An underwater utopia, this is Rapture. And it is splendid to behold.

Well, that's my summary of the 15 minutes of the game. I haven't played so far into the game, but I am thoroughly enjoying it. Plasmids, sort of like power-ups, are extremely fun to use and they really add a new dimension to the gameplay. Sounds are very well done, I genuinely felt scared as when the lights go off unexpectedly and you start hearing footsteps, clinking sounds, and the like. It really gets you on edge.

As for the graphics, you have to keep in mind that this wasn't developed primarily for the PC, so those capabilities weren't taken advantage of. All in all though, I think it pulls off it well. Great water and lighting effects, solid framerate, good character models, and nicely detailed environments.

Going off at a tangent, I'm thinking of making a small video with Red Faction: Guerrilla. A montage of explosions in slow motion, to the sound of some classical music. I must get on with that.

Crysis

Holy wow, I never knew this game was so good. It has Call Of Duty action blockbuster esque gameplay but multiplied to like the infinite, man.

I run it on all settings high 2XAA with an average FPS of 30. Lowest is probably 15 - 20. So anyway, it looks stunning, especially the snow level I'm up to right now.

I'm finding it hard expressing how awesome this game is because I simply can't stop thinking about it!

I would love to try and record some gameplay segments but they're all available on youtube for everyone to see. Maybe when I get that ATI 5850 (or 5870) I'll record some clips, but right now trying to use fraps while playing turns it into a slideshow.

Final thoughts: Sound, Environments, Character models, Vehicles, Enemies, Controls, EVERYTHING is just immaculate. And I can't wait to play some more tomorrow.

Game. Start.

So, this is where I'll be posting about all the games I play. Maybe reviewing them as well if I find I have the time. I'll try to keep it updated daily, shouldn't be too hard as I love playing games anyway.

To start off I'll just link to A Battlefront II gameplay montage I made earlier.






Awesome game, I got it off Steam during their sale and reliving all those great times I had while playing it on the PS2. A lot of people have mixed feelings about this game, it's kind of a "hate it or love it" sort of game. You have the devoted fans and then you have the people who would rather watch grass grow. There's not really any middle ground. But I am one of those devoted fans and I await, patiently, for the release of a third Battlefront game.


But with the news of Pandemic's, and Free Radical Design's closure the future of this series is looking grim.