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

My February gaming was a letdown.

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

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Game of the Month


Mass Effect
Cost: $4.99 (Steam Holiday Sale)
Played: 5 hrs
3-words: Sucked, gets better.





My game of the month was Mass Effect; in honor of the release of Mass Effect 2 this month.

Mass Effect is growing on me.  At first I despised the combat and drawn out conversations.  Mass Effect has one of the worst introductions to an RPG that I've ever played.  There was nothing in the first four hours of the game that made me jump for joy.

However, I now have a feel for the game and have let the cards fall where they may.  I'm picking up steam, rock hopping across the galaxy and sticking to the main storyline.  I find the side quests easily and best avoided.  I didn't log as many hours I had hoped this month, but I do still plan to finish Mass Effect.

March's GotM: Battlefield: Bad Company 2

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/Played

In the /Played section, I cover other games I played during the month.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Beta

I love the Battlefield games.  Bad Company 2 is the next great title in the series and I spent most of my gaming time with it this month.  From my initial impressions post:

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.

The full version goes live March 2nd and I am dedicating most of March to this great game!

Allods Online Open Beta

Its been an up and down month for Allods Online and its open beta.  I put a few hours in and have Healer and Scout leveling slowly, but surely.  Regardless of how the cash shop debacle turns out, I have to admit that Allods is a fun game to play in its free version.  That's why its so disheartening that the upcoming game changes could kill the fun.

Also, my Allods Online guide is coming along nicely.

Left 4 Dead 2

Left 4 Dead 2, like most of Valve's games never gets old.  I hooked up and rocked out for some great VS. matches on The Parish campaign.  The finale, bridge map for The Parish is one of my favorites.

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/Paid

Total spent this Month: $49.99
My Value Rating: Average

Bad Company 2 was expensive at $49.99.  I would have felt more comfortable at a $35 price point.  However, I was fortunate enough to receive a $75 "points" card as a bonus from work.  One of the few things it can be used on is a prepaid card usable on Steam games.  That is the only reason I shelled out $49.99 for this game.

I have now used up $105.16 of my $180 gaming budget for 2010.  Stay tuned each month to see if I can stay on track!

Calm Down! SecuROM DRM in Battlefield: Bad Company 2

I hate DRM as much as the next person, SecuROM being one of the worst offending DRM schemes out there.  However, the heat that Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is taking for including this DRM is out of proportion to the facts of the DRM works.  Fortunately, we have level-headed redditor, SnakeDiver, to steer us through the fog.  He posted a great response to a comment in /r/gaming over on Reddit.com.

I've capture the comment in its entirety:

If you have been following BF:BC2's blog then you would have read How BC2 Uses Copy Protection .

Of course it's going to be disabled by pirates. It's inevitable. All it is is a deterrent. But SecuROM doesn't run like it has in the past in BC2.

• It runs only when the game runs, and really only does anything on first launch.
• It's a wrapper contained within the EXE. Launch the EXE and SecuROM does it's check and game goes
• It doesn't install anything into the Kernel

In reality PB is more invasive then this SecuROM. The only thing annoying is the download limits. I wish they'd have a smart activation server, not just a "limit to 5 installs" server. With the smarts being, unlimited installs but if you install X times within X geographically dispersed locations within X amount of time, we're going to block your key.

Complain about real piss-poor DRM such as UbiSoft's "always-on DRM". BC2's DRM is, for the most part, non-invasive as DRM should be. I don't care if they want to protect their code as long as it doesn't get in the way of my use of the product (or of other products).

Again, I don't like DRM. Pirates are already playing BFBC2 on pirated servers, days before the official launch. However, DRM is a fact of life for PC gaming and voting with my wallet is the only way I can let game companies know what I think of their DRM schemes.

I vote for Valve's games on Steam, because Steam offers more than just DRM protection for the games. I didn't vote for EA's last DRM disaster, Spore, and its originally planned "phone home every 10 minutes" DRM. I will NOT vote for any of Ubisoft's new "always-on DRM". I will and have voted for the new SecuROM bundled with BFBC2. its not perfect, but its not as terrible as it once was.

A Self-Serving PC Gaming Wish-List

It's not my birthday, but I was inspired by Alec Meer's birthday post over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

I want these things.

• A Free 2 Play Warhammer Online.
• A fantasy-based EVE Online (where is World of Darkness anyways?).
• A Shadowbane that doesn't make me want to vomit on my keyboard.
• Battlefield 1942 recreated in Battlefield: Bad Company 2's engine, destructible environments and all.
• An announcement from 38 studios on what their MMOG will be.
• To figure out what ever happened to Project Offset.
• Some sort of hypno-therapy that makes me incredible at FPS games overnight.
• To never see or hear the phrase “dumbed-down” again
• A loaf of bread.
• My kid's two front teeth (teething sucks btw)

NOTE: Yes, I stole a couple of Alec's ideas and changed or did not change the words slightly.

Tips & Tricks: How Not to be a Noob at Battlefield Bad Company 2 (Video)

Best. Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Video. So. Far.

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. 

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