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The Podcats: THREE (Uncharted 3, BF3, MW3)

Why has Uncharted 3 not impressed me? Why has Battlefield 3 not lasted that long? Why has Modern Warf… HOST MIGRATION… Synchronizing Game…are 3 kept peer-to-peer Multiplayer on PC?

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E3: The Storm before the Storm

Microsoft’s showing was a mixed bag this year (UPDATED WITH PICS AND MORE GAMES)

• So Project Natal is going to be called the Kinect. And the lineup is about as predictable as the Move. Oh dear. There’s a move enabled Forza, a Wii Sport Clone, a Wii Sports Resort clone, a Just Dance clone, a Wii Fit clone. It’s coming out in November (no pricing yet). Avatar racer Joyride is now a Kinect game.

• Star Wars and Disney titles for Kinect as well
• But the 360 has gotten a slimmer redesign with in built 802n wifi (at last) but no price cut. It’s available in stores this week in the US (Europe in July). It’s black and edgy like the cross between a sword and a marker pen.

• Halo Reach and Fable III are the 1st Party games for the gamers from MGS.
• Metal Gear Rising showed us fruit slicing skills.

• ESPN sports streaming
• Gears of War shown. 4 player co-op demoed
• New Crytek 360 only action title Kingdoms
• CoD Black Ops trailer- 360 getting all map packs first for next three CoD games.

EA probably had a line-up more in tune with what people who read blogs like this actually want.

• Need for Speed Hot Pursuit! from Criterion
• Dead Space 2
• Medal of Honor MP Beta starting soon
• Bad Company 2 Vietnam expansion
• EA MMA, EA Active 2, Tiger Woods, Madden, etc
• Sims 3 on consoles
• Crysis 2 will support 3D on consoles. PC?
• Bulletstorm details (coming Feb 2011)

Ubisoft also held a press conference with that dude from unfunny show Community. He was marginally better in this.

• Driver: San Francisco
• A cross between laser tag and a video game and a goody press conference that is more embarassing than MS’s rather goofy show.
• Ghost Recon Future Soldier looks like Modern Warfare with robots. It looks great.
• More Rabbids
• Rayman reboot. Looks greatacular. DD game
• Child of Eden is Rez with motion control
• Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood coming mid November
• Shaun White, a snowboarder, has a skateboarding game
• Innergy. Jesus Christ
• Mania Planet. Make your own Shootmania, Trackmania and Questmania
• Michael Jackson’s corpse being given another outing

REVIEW: BATTLEFIELD: BAD COMPANY 2

Reviewed on PC. Also on: Xbox 360, PS3. Developed by DICE. Published by EA

Sweden’s DICE are back to the Battlefields with their latest release. It’s an interesting release for various reasons and it’s also one of the better games in the series. The first game in the series came out for PC in 2002 with two decent expansion packs before the law of diminishing returns started to kick in and we had the unloved Battlefield Vietnam and that’s where things went all over the place. There was the somewhat-loved Battlefield 2 with a DLC fragmented player base, its late to the party console versions BF: Modern Combat and the best forgotten Battlefield: 2142 and Battlefield Heroes. The first Battlefield Bad Company was DICE’s first designed for console-only title and was loved by most of those who played it, though the lack of a PC version was bemoaned by many (which is fair considering it was a defining game franchise in the PC shooter space). Bad Company was sold as a single player-focused game with a multiplayer component, but it felt like a single player shoehorned into the wide-open multiplayer maps. BC’s multiplayer was excellent (I played it on PS3/PSN) with its infantry combat now being useful and not 100% dominated by whoever camped long enough for a Tank or can fly a chopper for more than 20 seconds without crashing. It also brought with it the excellent Gold Rush mode, where one team attacks and the other defends its bases. Once two crates in each base had been destroyed, the action moved to the next base until the defender’s bases were all destroyed or the tickets of the attackers had exhausted. That said, it was unfortunately ignored by a lot of long-time BF fans w. many of whom aren’t interested in FPS games on a console. The still console-only but soon to be PC Battlefield 1943, which remade 3 maps from the original game using the Bad Company Frostbite engine, made a of those people sit up and take notice (BF1943 is apparently the first game on XBLA to sell over 1 million units. This also sold well on PSN, so that’s a lot of people taking notice).

BC2 came out early in 2010 and brought with it a PC version. Before release, the PC diehards were still waiting for a true sequel to Battlefield, but having played the PC version to death since release, they need not wait as this is what they need. I do, however, find the need to write a review to attempt to extricate myself from its charms and its vices.

BC2 has several modes. Single player feels like a fun version of a scripted classic Medal of Honor or CoD single player experience, though here, instead of tough and gruff professional soldiers, we have a bunch of whiny slackers. The single player campaign on its own is not worth buying the game for but could be a pleasant enough diversion if you find yourself unable to connect to EA’s servers (which occasionally happens). The real meat and potatoes (or tofu and potatoes for vegetarian readers) is in going online in Rush mode. Yes, there’s BF’s traditional conquest mode, plus Squad Deathmatch, Squad Rush, etc but I’ve only played Rush. It’s a pity that there aren’t more playing Rush on PC (surprise, surprise- more PC players are playing Conquest). Rush offers and intense experience that Modern Warfare 2 removed by going down that arcadey, badly networked path; an experience that targets the action very well, funnels you to the action quickly without having to walk across the entire map due to a poor spawn choice. Squads, first introduced in BF2, allow you to spawn alongside people already in the thick of it which can save valuable battle time. It also means, you can spawn in the middle of a mortar strike or your opponents spawning squad members in the middle of a pistol duel can shift the balance very quickly.

There are four classes you can play as in BC2. The grunt with the assault rifle and grenade launcher is not as overpowered as in MW2, though the grenade launcher is at least usable in BC2 (it was so incredibly weak in BC). The Engineer has a sub machine gun, can repair vehicles and carry mines or a rocket launcher to take out tanks and APCs. The Medic runs around with an light machine gun and drop medkits and later on can revive fallen team-mates so they can go back into battle and get shot again by the same enemy within 3 seconds or resurrection. The last class is the recon, AKA sniper AKA sniping fuckers. Snipers will generally sit back in their ghillie suits and snipe from a very long way away and pepper the field of battle with mortar strikes. Even with BC2 making sniping trickier by having bullets falling away, a good sniper will be able to make a defending team’s life miserable. However, due to the perception that sniping is easy, you sometimes end up in a game where all of the attackers are sniping, meaning no one gets around to setting charges. Oh well.
The more you play the more gadgets and weapons you can unlock. Unlike MW2, if you unlock a new sniper scope, you can equip it the next time you respawn rather than between matches (on PC, anyway). The progress and unlocks does encourage farming. I recall one sparsely populated server where there 5 members of the one clan used a public server to unlock a boating medal. That’s fine, we just used them to farm our sniping stats.

Of course, there are vehicles in BC2. You have a few tanks, armoured personnel carriers, mobile anti aircraft, jeeps, quad bikes, boats, jetskis and helicopters. And unlike previous games, you have far better tools, as ground forces, to deal with them. Some of which are improved by improving your stats to unlock specialties, better vehicle armour, improved reload times, etc. Missing, are the artillery batteries but we have the UAV which is a remote controlled chopper that can be used to send in a missile strike. Fortunately, Tamiya doesn’t build them very strong so a few hits from an M16 should see them right. Engineers can use a variety of rocket launchers to take out vehicles, Snipers can use mortar strikes or place charges on a tank, Engineers can use the LMG to pound the choppers plus there are a profusion of mounted machine guns and stationary rocket launchers dotted around the maps. It’s not like the original game where you were totally fucked once someone who could fly got into a cockpit of a Zero.

An online game is only as good as your community and it seems all popular games are going to be full of dickheads. BC2 started off well in the first few weeks when everyone was learning the ropes, but once the tricks start emerging, most games quickly degenerate. With BC2, it depends on the server you’re on but generally seems to have far fewer abusive players (or maybe the worst ones are the ones with headsets, which I have muted anyway).
The Frostbite engine produces great graphics and the sound for BC has a unique real world sound you don’t hear often in games. It sounds loud even when it’s not.One technical aspect that has cast a vast shadow over this game is network code. It’s just not as god as you’d expect from DICE on a PC title. Back wen I played the older games on PC on bog standard 512k ADSL, a ping of 70 was average for a server in the same country as me. Years later with much much faster ADSL 2+, pings of less than 150 are wishful thinking. That said, you can have a decent game playing with people in other countries, so long as you don’t use sniper rifles. The server browser was not working that well at launch and I took to using the matchmaking for a week or two.

It’s certainly a pretty game that runs well, plays well and you will have fun playing. Until the fucking snipers get you. Spawn and again. Overall, if you like shooting games, BF games and are sick of MW2 and/or the extortionate price of the ‘stimulus to Kotick’s wallet,’ give BC2 a spin.

Controller1.com rating 3/3

Play if you like Bad Company, Battlefield Modern Combat, Battlefield 1943, Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Modern Warfare 2

Don’t play if you like: Single player, Final Fantasy XIII, Heavy Rain, Tetris

NOW PLAYING: BATTLEFIELD: BAD COMPANY 2

Currently, I’m playing BBC2 on PC (well, a Mac running Win 7 in its spare time) and despite the typical “EA can’t get their server shit together at launch” deal, it’s quite a blast.

I did play the original Bad Company online quite a bit back in 2008 (on PSN/PS3) and has a great time. I actually am a bit dirty having bought the PC version since I was aiming for a console version this time but several of my now former CoD4 colleagues were preordering with the intention of playing the PC versions on our machines at work during our lunch hour. Away I go to pre-order, ignoring the beta, but these two PC diehards hated the beta so much they went to the trouble of getting a refund from Steam.

So I’m playing the PC version, and it’s a great game. It runs well on my machine but I can’t help thinking some of the issues I’ve had with MW2 are just as prevalent here. We have dedicated servers again, something that MW2 proves is a must for PC games (Hell, they really make online console games light up). But the server browser is a tad ungainly with pings not currently showing up (for me at least) nor is there any way to filter by geographic location (if say, you were sick of being stuck with a US host on MW2, you could stick to servers in or near your country). So in the end I use the quick match option and see where I land. It’s literally Russian roulette since the lat few games were on servers in Europe and one was in Montreal. It was hard to tell because the people who did type messages, typed them in perfect English. No writing as if a text message, 1337speak or barely comprehensible babble. It was a bit hit or miss as far as lag goes (the game seems to cover it up quite well most of the time). You can either hit people or you can’t.
The game offers a very intense dynamic but there are a few balance issues (as there is any game of this sort) as is typical with Battlefield games, some people lead charmed lives. Snipers are the bane of the game right now though this is from DICE, who thought Battlefield Vietnam would benefit from a kit that combined a super accurate M60 heavy machine gun with a grenade launcher.
I’ve not had a chance to play much of the single player, but boy does it feel like a slightly above average Medal of Honor game (oe a slightly below average Call of Duty game). Let’s say it’s a dead heat with World at War and be done with it.
If you’re sick of Modern Warfare 2′s quirks but want something similar, I’d recommend this.
For someone who’s not been much of a PC gamer at home, I’m finding the uber cheap (and ultimately devaluing) Steam sales to be a great way to A) Try out games I wouldn’t have taken a punt on and B) giving me something to do at lunch at work. Far Cry 2 a few weeks ago might have been a waste of $10 but undeterred, I picked up Batman Arkham Asylum and Just Cause today. I’ve been seeing a lot about JC2 that makes me curious so I figure the price is right. Batman AA is recognized as one of the last year’s best games so it can’t hurt if I give it a spin. Even if neither game doesn’t gel with me I can’t complain too much.

So Sony and Microsoft. This is directed to you. You both have the infrastructure on your respective online marketplace mechanisms to offer download versions of your games. Sony’s gone quiet here but MS’s Games on Demand is crying out for two things. Sanity in pricing- especially outside of the US, and sales. I’d buy Saint’s Row 2 as a 360 download in a heartbeat if it wasn’t double the price of the disc version. Both the games I just got on Steam would have been a no-brainer to buy on either HD console if the option had been there.

Back to some more BBC2 and hoping Bioshock 2 turns up soon.

NOW PLAYING: WEIGHTY PRECIPITATION

It could be worse- it could be Morbidly-Obese Inclement Weather.

So, Heavy Rain, the PS3′s first big hitter of the year has the makings of a huge hit, particularly amongst non-gamers easily impressed by pores. Despite losing a day of “gameplay” due to the apocalyPS3 this week, I’ve put in a few hours into the game (stopping when it hard locked my PS3 last night) and have gotten a feel for what it’s about. But nearly three hours in- I have picked a fight with some random guy and that was the only action I’ve seen so far.

This means that so far, I’m not particularly impressed by Heavy Rain. The story, the defining element of this game, may not have spun into top gear for me yet- but if it hasn’t, why hasn’t it? And if it has- God help us all.

So far I like and not like bits of this “game.”

Liked:

- Graphics. Even though nothing is happening, what little that does happen is pretty and fluid. Of course, it comes across as one of the high end graphics demos you used to see running instores selling PC’s.

- Trying to do something new with quicktime events.

-sound is well done. Great musical score, even if it borders on the melodramatic. Melodramatic game sounds melodramatic.

Disliked:

story, gameplay, characters, voice acting, hype.

I believe the game will appeal to non-gamers in a way that the Wii does and that’s a good thing if gets people using PS3′s for things other than Blu Ray movies. In time they might move onto actual games like Uncharted 2. But to me, it’s one enormous cutscene that I CAN’T SKIP. Metal Gear games are often derided by people who don’t play them because of the ridiculous story portrayed in the codec screens and cutscenes, but you could always skip these if you just wanted to get to the action. Because HR is a game of cutscenes, that would defeat the purpose of the enterprise.

HR brings back mandatory six-axis motions to effect on screen actions. I won’t use the word control because that would be too generous. To say you control this game the way is offensive to my DS3′s left analog stick. Let’s just say you influence your character the same way the actions in Star Wars influence C3PO- ie reluctantly and like a gay golden droid. The first three hours ofter some mundane home life tasks, an optional fistfight and some SCIENCE FICTION detective stuff. Note to developers: Don’t talk about reality when you offer up The Matrix in Ray-Ban form.

Some the blur is from the game, some is from my camera

“How far would you go?” n my case it’s about 2 Kilometres to the nearest EB games. Trade it in before everyone else does by the end of the first month and clogs up EB/Gamestop’s trade-in exclusions list.

If you are a fan of French cinema or thrillers aimed at the over 40 crowd starring Jodie Foster or Sandra Bullock, you might think the story is riveting. In which case, you could rent a movie with them and use your Six axis  as a remote for your PS3. It might be more fun. Maybe the thing that bugs me most is this a story in a genre I often avoid. Maybe I’m not ready for David Cage and company’s bold dream. Maybe it’s a shit game. Who knows?

Online Gaming Survival Guide

With the explosion of Multiplayer gaming these days, sometimes the old hands forget what it is like to be the new guy. So if you’re new to the world of online gaming, or have been away for a while, here’s what you need to know.

1. You are a n00b. Whatever you do, you are a n00b, even if you’ve been playing the game for years, you are a n00b. You are a n00b if you die a lot, a n00b if you win and a n00b and if you do anything that results in beating another player with a higher ranking fairly and squarely, you are a n00b.
See also nub, newb, noob, just got the game, huh?

2. You use hax. If you play the game using elements placed there for use by the developers of the game, you hax. If you use last stand, you are hax. If you use a scope on an AK47, you are hax. If you use anything at all other than hip firing a bolt action rifle, you are hax. See also get some skill, grow a dick, etc

3. You are cheating. If you use a rocket launcher against another player, or a grenade launcher, you are cheating. Even if they just used the same tactic against you, YOU my friend, are the cheat, you cheater. Mr Cheater C Cheaterton III (really you’re the IV, but you’re such a cheater).

4. You are gay. Even if you’re married with six kids and had more tail than everyone else in the game (which wouldn’t need to be all that much), you are gay. See also: gh3y, WoW

5. You are of colour, Mr Albino from Sweden

6. You are lagging. Even though you’re not. See glitching

7. You are glitching. Despite the fact that network communication iver the internet is quite a complicated and marvelous thing, you are the reason the connection is poor and that they are losing. See also lagging

8. You are camping. This means you have found a quiet spot to fire off a sniper rifle and that your opponents are too lazy to come around behind you to take you out.

9. Bullshit. Whenever someone thinks they are better than you and you kill them, it is obviously bullshit. See also: hax, n00b, lagging, glitching

10. You should develop an interest in the thoughts of 12 year old children. Otherwise you will fail to appreciate the rich social commentary that is only possible from players of this age. Children say the darnest things such as “fuck you, you black jew fag hax nub lagger.” It’s so cute. They think they’re people.

11. If the child in question is headset enabled, you are in for a treat. Not only will you get an aural Live Journal update, but you may also experience the joy that is the favourite music of this child either through an MP3 playing while the child plays, or if you’re really lucky, a live rendition of said child’s favourite song or songs (though it’s usually just the same song over and over again. Actually it’s usually only the first verse over and over).

12. Fuck IWNet. See also Fuck Kotick, Fuck Activision, Fuck Infinity Ward and Fuck Bowling up his Fat Pipe.

So there you have it. The reasons why I never plugged in my headset to my consoles or PC, the reasons to keep out of team chat and the reasons why single player games will never die.

Controller1.com Focus Test: WOLFENFIELD 1943

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?

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NOW PLAYING: Battlefield 1943′s Me

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.

Driven into the Ground

Activision have started the PR for what looks to be Infinity Ward’s next Call of Duty game. Whilst other companies seem to have learnt their lesson about yearly updates, Activision obviously haven’t. EA seemed to have stopped the annual release of Medal of Honor games, id aren’t churning out yearly updates to Quake and Doom. Halo, Gears, Resistance and Killzones aren’t being squeezed out every year. But Activision seem content to have a Call of Duty every year, as well as multiple versions of Guitar Hero annually. But curiously enough WoW is still the original with only two expansions in nearly four and a half years.

Iterating till doomsday has seen a lot of game series being ruined, but you can predict when this going happen very easily- People start referring to it as a franchise as if its a frozen yogurt stand in a mall. The more often you make the same game with only minor upgrades, the more likely you are to suffer from boredom and deja vu. With games like Madden, there’s evidence to suggest that many football fans buy the game every couple of years, rather than every installment. With Madden, there’s also no other choice if you want an NFL game.

With shooters, its perhaps more perilous because there is so much more choice. Call of Duty has to compete with Resistance and Killzone on PS3; Gears and Halo on 360; Tom Clancy shooters on all systems; Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress on PC as well as the ancient juggernauts of Counterstrike, Battlefield and Unreal games. Valve didn’t release TF3 a year after TF2, they added new content (free or not) but Activision took the success of Call of Duty 4 and threw it away by release the almost as successful Call of Duty World at War a year after. If there’s a new CoD game every year, how long before people get sick of it? You can argue that they sold a large number of CoD4 boxes and then a year later sold a large number of CoD WaW boxes. But they also had to devote two of their best teams to making a new title in two years, rather than smaller teams making expansions or DLC.

You can tell the tide of the Guitar Hero Rock Band style games has turned a little bit. People seem a little less enthusiastic about those games these days. Perhaps the lure of being a Rock Star fades after a while? Or the sight of fat geeks rocking out gets old after a while? You know how everyone groans about “another WWII game?” That’s because there was a time when you had Medal of Honor, Commandos, Brothers in Arms Wolfenstein, DoD,  CoD, plus dozens of  strategy titles and smaller PC games set in the same settings. There are dozens of SF or fantasy based games but the difference is they have freedom to make up new worlds whereas games based on actual events or settings (such as WWII or Modern Combat games) have to adhere to a certain aesthetic and conform to real world experience and expectations. You couldn’t have Gaz pull out a BFG and keep a straight face.

Look at Battlefield. First there was a WWII game and some expansions. Then there was Battlefield Vietnam a few years later, the Battlefield 2 with its mini expansions and console versions and then Battlefield 2142. The SF sequel fizzled pretty much and now the series is drifting backwards in time like some kind of ass-backwards Buck Rogers. Bad Company is back in current times and Battlefield Heroes and the new downloadable games are in WWII (ish) times. EA tried to iterate by innovating but really what they needed was space in between releases.

We’ve already mentioned Blizzard and WoW. But look at Starcraft. It was a huge hit in the late 90′ s but here we are, a decade and change later and we’re still waiting for the sequel (Just suppose EA had bought Blizzard in the past. We’ve have had Starcraft 2-5, Diablo 3, 4 and Origins and Warcraft 4-6 before EA shut them down). Of course, they are releasing SCII in three different versions. Kotick, you magnificent bastard! The clamouring for new SC is such that people will buy the three versions and not bitch too much about triple charged. WHy? Because Blizzard let the demand for a sequel build organically over time. Maybe 11-12 years is overkill, but its worked.

Personally, I am happy to have a new CoD game each year. But I know the series probably won’t be what it is if it starts fatiguing gamers to the point Activision mandate harmful changes in order to fix the malaise. “Have you guys considered adding giant robots?”

Minimicroteensyweensietransactions.

In parts of Asia, many PC games are free with the makers recouping their costs on players making microtransactions. This can be for a new spell in an MMO, weapons for an action game, or maybe even clothes for a social game (think Home, but popular). EA is going to try this approach in the west with the free-to-play Battlefield Heroes on PC.

EA, even though it makes a lot of money, isn’t always flush (hence the regular round of Russian Roulette their dev studios play each time the company has a tough quarter). EA isn’t offering Battlefield Hereos for free out of altruism, their hoping you’ll buy lots and lots of stuff just like people are doing in Korea. So what will you be charged for and how much?

Weapons: (price 99c- $3) This is the most obvious one. Why grind to upgrade to a new weapon? Just pop in your card details when you agree to the EULA and you can go from being hamstrung by a n00b pop gun to having a gatling gun and pwning all teh cazULs (casuals)

Costumes: (price 99c- $2) If you want to play as a wizard in a shooter, you should be able to, provided you’ve got the dosh to spare. You can also customise you character with kevlar body armour ($3) shin pads ($1), pocket protectors (70c) and transitions lenses in a number of fashionable styles ($120)

Team Killing: penalty ($5) . If you TK, you will get charged, not with manslaughter, but five bucks. Taking a life is easy, paying your debt to society is harsh.

Playing like a Tard penalty: ($10) This is a nasty one, because if you do things like call for map

change votes 30 seconds before the end of a map, switch teams incessantly when you’re losing and generally act like a douche, you will get charged.

Barking orders into the headset like you know what you’re doing penalty: ($5) Yes, you have a headset. We know. But you’re not very good so why should your orders be listened to by anyone else. If you want to be Napoleon, go and play an RTS and shut the hell up.

Bandages, Healing, etc ($3): You don’t medical attention for free in the real world, so why should you be a freeloader in Battlefield Heroes? Medics in games like TF2 and BF2 are like real doctors. Real doctors make a lot of cash and dive around in Mercs and BMW’s while medics in games just sit around healing everyone and have more achievements than anyone else. Just think about 8 years of medical school and translate that into playing on achievement farm servers for 8 years. Who’s wasting whose time?

Pay for instant respawn ($5). In real war, rich men pay to get out of serving. In a fake virtual war, real men pay to avoid having to wait to respawn. Get on it EA!

Fuel for your Tank (linked to the real world price of oil). Seriously, one of the worst parts of Battlefield games are the Vehicle whores. Well, make them pay for their fuel and we’ll see who long they stay inside the tank.

Pay for Perks: Hey, in CoD, you have those perks that you have to earn by playing the game a lot. Not so much in BF:H. Plunk down $3 for Martyrdom, $5 for 3 frags, $7 for Fireworks.

Swear Jar: This game is going to open the market to people who aren’t perhaps ready for the barrage of bad language. Drop the F bomb and you’ll lost a buck. Question someone’s sexual orientation and you lose two dollars. Racial remarks lose you $5 and sexist remarks get you a drink thrown in your face.

Campsite Tariff: Shooters, particular those with larger maps are prone to camping. Spawn camping is particularly rife and mainly unavoidable in the BF style of game. In order to reduce this, you’ll have to pay site fees and rent when you go camping. Pitch a tent, pay the landlord.

EA’s on a winner with this game.