Try getting a podcast where the three of us like something and I’ll show you an internet forums where people can discuss opposing views rationally. Today sparks fly as usual as we look at Wolfenstein and Battlefield 1943.
Where’s the love you ask?
Before this year, my purchase of Digital Download content was rather restrained with only some CoD multiplayer maps and a few cheap XBLA games and a Guitar hero song or two. Somehow this year, I’ve gone nuts for DLC and download titles. It never really hit me that the revolution has overtaken me and I’m hip-deep in this shit.
There’ve been Singstar tracks, Guitar Hero Tracks, one Fallout DLC pack, two Call of Duty World at War map packs, Halo 3 maps, Burnout Paradise add-ons, Grand Theft Auto TLAD. But then there’s also Battlefield 1943, Shadow Complex and Trials HD and Peggle and World of Goo. Suddenly, that purchase of the 120 GB Hard Drive doesn’t seem so extravagant. Expensive, yes. but worth it. No more juggling and deleting crap to make room.
Gears of War 12 reportedly cost $12 million dollars to make. Shadow Complex, however) would have been a fraction of that, even with the costs of licensing the Unreal 3 engine. Shadow Complex may be a small game from a small developer (recently acquired by Epic) but its managed to make a big stink with people complaining about author Orson Scott Card’s involvement with the game. Battlefield 1943 managed 600 000 downloads in its first few weeks, an amazing feat for a DD-only title. And Trials HD has every dick on my friends list beating my measly scores. DD on consoles has come of age. By come of age, I mean draining my wallet of space bucks.
DD on PC has fewer barriers to entry but a different type of dynamic. Paid DLC- such as map packs is not as prevalent. You tend to have more of the expansion pack mentality- where you still need the original game in order to play, plus the expectation of free maps and updates for some titles. The microtransaction element, that was introduced to consoles this generation is standard practice in Asia. Many games are free to play with either ads or microtransactions paying the developers and publishers for their efforts. EA has tried this with Battlefield Heroes (micro payments) and id with Quake Live (ads). You can buy a silly hat for your in-game character or a gun that shoots chocolate death. EA tried small paid map pack expansions for Battlefield 2, but theses merely fragmented the player-base between the haves and have-nots. Lousy Have-nots ruining my BF buzz.
Nowadays, you don’t even need a game in order to buy stuff that has no bearing on the game. Sony Home is the ultimate in this regard. You pay for shit to decorate a virtual apartment that does nothing. Buy designer costumes for your avatars. Now we have 360 Avatars with lightsabers- lightsabers that cost more than many XBLA titles did when the 360 was launched in 2005. AND I’M SERIOUSLY THINKING OF GETTING A LIGHTSABER SO I CAN BE COOL. So we’ve come a long way from the days when Oblivion’s Horse Armour and EA Sports pay-for-cheats where the hot topics for gamers.
Of course, PC gamers have had it pretty good with free updates over the years. Of course that means Valve these days since Activision have more or less ignored the huge player base of Call of Duty 4 in regards to DLC and expansions, a mistake they’ve readily admitted while Treyarch’s been breaking records with WaW’s three map packs. PC gamers have been so spoiled that when Valve attempted to release a sequel to Left 4 Dead a year after the original, some vocal fans feared it would mean the end of DLC for their beloved game. They even started petitions to have Valve make L4D2 DLC for the original game. Top tip- don’t buy it if you don’t like it.
Here’s the catch. There’s been a fair bit of my DLC Odyssey that I regret buyuing. And of course, I can’t sell it on. I wish I had resisted the temptation to pick up Penny Arcade Ep 1, The Burnout DLC (thanks PS3 region coding on DLC), the Halo maps (since they’ll be part of ODST) and Grand Theft Auto Lost and Damned. I’d probably have enjoyed that more if I had played it before Infamous and Red Faction but them’s the breaks. I’m sure many people bought hyped up games and then thought “hmmmm.” Thank Christ i didn’t lay down money (Real or Microsoft points) for any game that picks an animal out of a zoo directory and sticks the word ‘space’ on the front.
So while EA might be looking at the numbers for BF1943, how many of those customers will return for more maps that are almost guaranteed to trickle out of EA over the coming months? Bethesda have said their five expansions for Fallout 3 are the last they will release (never mind how much it costs to but the game and then all of the DLC). Mass Effect 2 is coming out early in 2010 yet EA and Bioware are just now releasing the second DLC campaign for Mass Effect the original. DLC is all over the place and its still unpredictable. Apart from Ubisoft trying to sell you the end of Price of Persia. Dicks!
Reviewed n Xbox 360. Also on PS3, PC Developed by DICE. Published by EA
Back in 2002, Battlefield 1942 shook up the PC multiplayer shooter world with its blend of infantry and vehicle based combat. Carving out a rather large chunk of the market, EA and DICE never managed to achieve the same level of devotion to its follow-ups to 1942 set in Vietnam, the present day to the future. Bad Company was a recent console-only attempt that wowed those who tried it and the free to play PC title Battlefield Heroes hasn’t really found the huge audience was expecting. It’s a testament to the power of the original 1942 title when a downloadable remake using the Bad Company Frostbite engine that only features three (now four) maps managed to spur on 600, 000 downloads in its first few weeks.
So we have three Pacific theatre campaigns (with a fourth now unlocked) which are very close remakes of Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Coral Sea (a plane-only map unlocked after 43 millions kills on each platform) and Wake Island. They are almost identical to those found in the original release but with substantially upgrade graphics and sound. The pace of the gameplay has been upped with infantry weapons actually quite useful and respawns being much faster than the PC original. Regenerating health and explosives are another key difference. The objective of each game is to capture and hold the bases on each map with each capture and each kill removing tickets from the enemy team’s score.
There are three classes to choose from. The Rifleman has a semi automatic rifle, rifle grenade (which is possibly a little overpowered- the opposite of the firecracker in Bad Company’s rifle grenades), bayonet and a few grenades. The heavy assault has a sub machine gun, and a bazooka whilst the sniper has a scoped bolt action rifle, explosives and detonator and a sword/dagger for melee. Of course, any of these guys can get into a tank or plane and ruin the game for everyone else but 1943 seems a lot more fun to play as infantry than some past PC BF games. Tanks aren’t as invulnerable to infantry attacks (well, when I’m in one they seem to be made out of newsprint) and there are many anti-aircraft cannons dotting the maps.
A nice touch is the ability for each team to call in an airstrike. When the airstrike is available, all you have to do is enter the radar bunker and then you can guide the trio of bombers to their target (much simpler than actually flying a plane but more involved than just point a cursor at a map).
Overall, the game does not punish you for being on foot as much as previous BF games which makes this one the BF that managed to get it right on consoles and be recognised. Of course, if you’re like us and gave Bad Company a chance last year, you already know DICE have the console side figured out pretty well. Added to that is EA’s use of server backed games proves that P2P (only Halo’s P2P code has ever been really playable for me) means that this game can hold its head high in the online arena. You still have vehicle campers and people who’s idea of teamwork is to shoot you so that you don’t get the plane but this has been fairly well restrained (but it’s still there).
Of course, Bad Company, the first game to use the Frostbite engine showed that DICE nows how to make a pretty console game that looks sounds and above all runs very well. It’s in no way a primitive looking game and is polished to the extreme. The sounds are impressive in the same way they were on BC. You wouldn’t think this was a re-skin of a seven year-old game just by playing it. There’s obviously been a lot of attention paid to this game and it shows.
Overall, its one of the better online experiences around at the moment. It might even stop me from forking over any more money for World at War map packs.
High recommended if you have Live, PSN (or a PC, whenever that version is released)
Controller1.com Rating: 3/3
PS- I suck at this game but I love it nonetheless
In this Post Red Faction: Guerrilla world, I am avoiding open world single player experiences in favour of the highly directed and cinematic Ghostbusters game. So far I’m having a mixed reaction to it. Against the prevailing wisdom, I’m playing on Normal which is relatively difficult. Coupled with a system freeze whilst playing hasn’t made a 100% positive impression.
But it does hold promise. It feels like Ghostbusters- which isn’t a natural fit for most of today’s most popular genres. It’s not a platformer, a shooter or a brawler. At least it isn’t where I’m up to. And at least someone learned lessons from Luigi’s Mansion.
What I’m liking:
- They got the Ghostbusting bit right and the Ghostbusters right
- Original cast providing the voices
- All of the music from the film is used and not just Ray Parker Jr’s song on repeat
- Gameplay is different from every other game
What I’m not liking:
-Cinematics seem lacking in cinemacity. They’re as lifeless as most ingame cutscenes. You know why. Animators are good at animating people, they’re not necessarily good directors, camera operators or editors.
-It seems the difficulty is a bit much on normal.
I’ll stick with it for a bit.
Battlefield 1943 got a bit more playtime. It’s a lot of fun to just dip in and out of. I missed most of the original Battlefield hype in 2002 as I wasn’t that thrilled about multiplayer gaming but I eventually played a bit of it and its expansions as well as Desert Combat in the lead up to BF Vietnam. So unlike many, I’m not reliving anything by playing BF1943, its a newish experience for me. I loved Bad Company and its great to see its engine being used with the ‘classic’ BF1942 maps. And boy does it work nicely on a console. I had BC on PS3 and I’m playing this on 360 can I can’t pick which one is better. I also believe EA is running servers for the game, WHICH HELPS A LOT! I only wish Activision would follow this lead on MW2.
Tomb Raider underworld arrived and I played about 10 minutes after installing. It should make for a pleasant diversion after Ghostbusters becomes too tiresome.
So after months of playing CoD WaW as my main multiplayer game at home (Killzone 2, Gears 2, Left 4 Dead or Resistance 2 didn’t really light my fire), a new game that I know will entertain me for a while has been released. I have purchased it for 1200 Microsoft Points and I have enjoyed the sweeping vistas of the tutorial level. Here are my impressions of the game so far.
Battlefield 1943- according to press releases and previews is a Download-only product shipping with three maps with the promise of more to come. Using the same engine as Battlefield Bad Company, it looks very pretty and sounds amazing.
You are greeted with the above image when you boot up the game and then asked to make an EA.com account if you don’t already have one. I must have about three lying about the place but made another just for the purposes of playing this game. You are given a few options- Jump into a quick match, play with friends, play the tutorial level or tweak your options. I elected to Jump into a quick game.
I have to say, I was blown away by the graphics on the what I saw next. My jaw dropped to the floor, so astonished at the sight that greeted me. It was amazing. Words cannot adequately describe this game. You have to experience it for yourself. But here’s a spoiler:
So it seems every man and his dog is playing Battlefield 1943 and EA’s trusty 286 server can’t hold up to the strain. EA is promising to remedy the situation and has ducked out to Best Buy to see if they can get another NIC. Until then, its best to think of the game in this way- At least PC gamers can’t play it yet.
