Battlefield 2 patch 1.2 and Armored Fury

EA is at it again today with the new Battlefield 2 patch 1.2 and the announcement of Armored Fury another booster pack. Also with the announcement they put a price tag of $9.99 on the two announced booster packs; Armored Fury and Euro Force.

Onto the 1.2 patch notes and some commentary.

• * Helicopter now carry 8 missiles rather than 14
• * TV-Guided missile now have a shorter range
• Both of these will go a long way to balancing the attack helicopters.
  

• * Hit points on all air vehicles have been reduced
• * AA missile lock on has been improved
• More nerfs to the overpowered air power. Ground pounders rejoice!
  

• * Support kits have had their primary weapons adjusted for accuracy
• * Sniper kits have had their primary weapons adjusted for accuracy
• * Anti-Tank kits have had their primary weapons adjusted for accuracy
• Hmmm wonder if this means they will be more accurate? I may go back to playing support and sniper now. Nothing like letting 100 bullets fly at someone two feet away and not hitting them with the support guns or the 50/50 accuracy of the sniper rifle sometimes.
  

• * "Dolphin Diving" is no longer possible
• Dolphin what?
  

• * Players can no longer jump and shoot at the same time
• And a whine hear the world round was heard the day the bunny hoppers were nerfed!
  

• * "Prone Spamming" is now fixed
• * "Sprint exploit" is now fixed
• Exploit fixes are always good!
  

• * The Sa80 weapon has been improved
• * The G3A3 weapon has been improved
• Don't even know what weapons these are... oh well.
  

• * Reload while sprinting has been enabled
• Fin a fucking lee.
  

• * Chinese and MEC APCs can now shoot through penetrable materials
• Now they didn't specify if these were the main gun or the side guns.
  

• * Damage decreased for the M134
• * Medic defibrillator paddles have been adjusted. They now reload while not in use.
• Medics rejoice... no longer pulling out the paddles and having to watch them re-reload!
  

• * Server search filters now work properly
• What??? They FINALLY fixed the server browser filter issues. I will believe it when I see it.
  

• * All mines (Claymore, Anti-vehicle, C4) can now be picked up by the same class that dropped it by using the “G” key.
• Snipers rejoice... no longer is it a "wait and see if I got a TK for using a claymore!"
  

• * Mines can no longer be destroyed with other explosives
• What you do in one patch can always be undone in the next.
  

• * Flash bang effect radius decreased
• Good... never made sense that flashbangs worked 100 feet away and through walls.
  

• * Added unlocks for Sniper and AT kits
• Say what? Interesting.
  

• * Fixed a bug in terrain rendering with night vision, whereby terrain was still dark in dark areas.
• * Fixed a bug whereby mods that are not bf2 or not xpack permutate shaders every time a level is loaded.
• * Fixed a bug whereby non-xpack mods cannot use xpack shaders.
• * Fixed bug in TV guided missiles of Havoc helicopter
• * Bug in MP7 fire rate fixed. Ammo count increased and mag count and damage decreased
• * APC Update – “Chinese and MEC APCs can now shoot through penetrable materials”. This fix was a miscommunication to the patch team. Chinese and MEC APC’s have been reverted and the LAV25 now no longer shoots through penetrable materials.
• Awww damn... hope none of you had your hopes up.
  

• * Vehicles no longer disappear when viewed from some vehicles with a HUD (e.g. Tanks).
• * Performance gain found in static mesh rendering.
• * Detonation radius from grenade launcher explosions has been reduced.
• * Grenade launcher projectiles now have a minimum time before arming.
• All the poor noob toobers spamming Strike at Karkand will quit... I mean it! I can't say much since I had a love affair with the noob toob grenade launcher for a while.

Battlefield 2 : Euro Force... my predictions

EA has announced that Battlefield 2 will recieve a booster pack entitled Euro Force. Here is a list of what it will bring.

3 New Maps

• * Operation Smoke Screen
• * Taraba Quarry
• * Great Wall

4 New vehicles

• * Main Battle Tank - Leopard 2A6
• * Main Battle Tank – Challenger 2
• * Fighter – Eurofighter (Typhoon T1)
• * Attack Heli – Eurocopter Tiger (Tiger HAP)

7 New Weapons

• * HK53A3
• * Famas
• * SA80 L85A2
• * SA80 L85A2 with UGL (AG-36)
• * HK21
• * Benelli M4
• * P90
• * L96A1

1 New Army

• * European Union

1 new award

• * European Union Special Service Medal

---

Now onto my predictions.

1. It is no secret the Chinese Army is the most underplayed army in BF2. For good reason; the Chinese maps are large and prone to air power raping the entire map. On top of that there is no single good map for scoring points in the Chinese map set.

So one of these new maps is going to be very (and I mean VERY) similar to Strike at Karkand. It will offer equally fast paced combat in an urban setting without the use of any air power. People will flock to this server because it will gain as many (if not more) points than Karkand does. EA probably believes this will somehow even out the balance between the armies.

2. A patch will be appearing shortly before or after the launch of Euro Force. It will make Euro Force unplayable and be removed. It will be taken back and retooled and then be released with the next big update.

3. The pack will sell well because of the new Karkand like map and EA will be convinced they can keep making money off these minor content updates. Its a good idea, but after Special Forces I don't expect too much meat with the release of each of these booster packs.

EA has failed to integrate the game play of SF and Battlefield 2 as it is which has segregated the community. I don't see this pack being that great, but give the stat boys a map to whore points on and they will pay... they will pay.

Dungeons and Dragons (DDO) beta preview/review wrap-up

Update: 29 Nov, 2009 - Removed post as all links were broken. This will be kept as a historical placeholder.

This originally linked to various articles detailing previews/reviews of Dungeons and Dragons Online's beta.

Virgin Worlds : Panic at the Console; a look into MMORPG gamers

The Prognosticator over at the VirginWorlds blog has an interesting article up entitled "Panic at the Console" which delves into the differences among FPS and RPG gamers. It also touches on the differences of MMORPG gamers.

I wrote a somewhat in depth response which has now been included into the original posting. I've cut and pasted it here for your reading pleasure, but for the full effect please read the linked article above.

Assuming of the 5 million or so MMORPG players that are playing out there (which I'm doubtful of, but we'll play ball) it is a drop in the bucket compared to the number of players that would play MMORPGs if they didn't come off the line like solid brick walls. There seems to be little, if any, move to make MMORPGs more accessible (please don't read that as simpler) to the mass audience.

You hit the idea on the head that RPG gamers come from a different breed. I'm not so sure if you can limit it to past systems. You need to remember that back in the day of the Atari 2600 there was almost TWO TIMES the number of gamers in the market. Yes you heard that right and if I could get the link to Nolan Bushnell's speech I would :P

RPG gamers also come from the roots of D&D (duh!) and that is something you can compare to the experience of being a non-Atari gamer back in the day. It has never and will never be about the graphics, technology, or the feature list.

It will remain to be about the PEOPLE.

Also I think you are complete backwards on people coming in through WoW and moving onto "harder" games. It is quite the opposite. People get stressed out on the overly time sink methodology of games like Everquest and jump ship to the more casual friendly WoW.

WoW in no ways should be seen as a market entry point for new gamers. It is bringing in new players, but the experience it promotes DOES NOT make people get into what you are classifying as harder MMOs. Don't confuse more time consuming with harder. It could be debated for years how hard WoW's end game content is compared to EQ's. Its the delivery mechanism that counts here and WoW delivers a system that a new gamer isn't going to be destroyed in.

On another note I don't believe time played is something the MMORPG market has cornered. I would even wager that the average Counterstrike player has more time online than most MMORPG players over a much shorter time span. Sure there is a lot of cross population amongst FPS players and what games they are playing, but the same is true of the MMO market (except within the HARDCORE circles).

What I'm getting at is that ONLINE play is what is stealing the market. MMORPGs are just charging for that time and hence are getting the attention of the venture capitalists looking to fund projects that are going to prove to be a genuine revenue stream.

Video gaming was born in the social aspect. It was not something that was developed as a solo experience. Pong (or Tennis for Two) was two players remember. The majority of early games focused on playing together. It wasn't until after the video game crash and the eventual launch of the original NES that spurred more single player games.

You give players a way to play together and they're going to eat it up. This is something MMORPGs have been charging for, but they by far do not have it cornered.

World of Warcraft 1.9 Patch

Update: 8 Jul, 2007 - Removed post. This will be kept as a placeholder for historical value.

Originally, this post contained links to various World of Warcraft patch download websites.

Carnival of Gamers X - Winter Carnival

Carnival of Gamers X (10 for the non-romans out there) has graced the front page of the KillTenRats blog. Go over and check out the articles linked. There is a great selection!

This is my first Carnival of Gamers appearance and I submitted my "MO5 - The SOE effect… part II… MMORPG madness" article.

Trust Me, an article from the Escapist on MMORPG economies

The Escapist, an online magazine, has an interesting article looking into the heart of MMO economies. The article covers both happenings in EVE Online and Second Life.

Quote:
But business is good only because it's not actually ISS that owns the outpost. An ISS corp operates the outpost (and technically, within the game's mechanics, owns it), but real ownership has been vested with the pilots of EVE, through what has become the first publicly owned company in the game.

If there was a great article out there to start 2006 with... it would be this article. A great read that poses a lot of good questions.Freedom is the premise of most online worlds.

However, many fail to even get close to freedom. EVE Online and Second Life have shed that approach and have told their players "Try what you want." It is dangerous ground to stand on, but as the article highlights it can be the most rewarding.

2005 into 2006

Happy New Years!



As we leave 2005 I wish the best to all of you for 2006. Look for a wrap up of 2005 sometime this week. Enjoy!

Xbox 360 outsold by Gamecube in Japan?

According to this report from Nintendojo the Xbox 360 can pretty much be wrapped up as a complete failure in Japan. It is failing to outsell the Gamecube and this is not because of lacking supplies. Japan has a massive excess of Xbox 360's. Me thinks that Microsoft's marketing campaign to drive hype by shortchanging supply only works in the American market... go figure.

Here is a cut and paste of the top selling consoles and games from Japan from the linked article.

Hardware

1. DS - 597,628


2. PSP - 161,332


3. PS2 - 97,475


4. GCN - 36,646


5. GBASP - 35,764


6. GBM - 19,261


7. Xbox360 - 5,674


8. GBA - 906


9. Xbox - 141

Software

1. PS2 - Kingdom Hearts II, Square Enix - 727,591


2. DS - Animal Crossing: Wild World, Nintendo - 416,132


3. DS - Mario Kart DS, Nintendo - 302,742


4. PS2 - Naruto: Narultimate Hero 3, Bandai - 216,966


5. DS - Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon: Blue Rescue Force, Pokemon - 157,786


6. GBA - Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon: Red Rescue Force, Pokemon - 156,430


7. DS - Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop!, Bandai - 156,181


8. PS2 - Metal Gear Solid 3 Subsistence, Konami - 103,894


9. GCN - Mario Party 7, Nintendo - 100,130


10. DS - DS Training For Adults: Work Your Brain , Nintendo - 93,240

Goldeneye Source HL2 Mod

One of my all time favorite multi-player games was Goldeneye 007 on the Nintendo 64. Many of my high school days were lost to the pure joy that was Goldeneye 007 multi-player! It seems the game has left a mark on quite a few other people as well. So much of mark that they have made a Half Life 2 Mod to recreate the Goldeneye experience.

Goldeneye Source is a multi-player (with limited single player) mod for Half Life 2. It features many faithful recreations from the original Nintendo 64 version. There is plenty of servers out there running the mod and the action in game is intense.

So step back in time with me a bit and indulge into a bit of gaming nostalgia. Enjoy!