As a die hard FPS gamer and a true fan to the Battlefield series, I can proudly say I have played every single version of this series. I have even hit up a few of the mods. Up until recently, my friends and I took part in the still-packed-multiplayer community of Battlefield 2 (2005), the modern adaptation of the original multiplayer masterpiece: Battlefield 1942 (2002).

Moving away from the standard PC gaming community, DI partnered with EA and created a whole new area of the Battlefield series solely for console gamers called, Battlefield: Bad Company. Straying from their norm even further, DI even came up with a somewhat decent storyline for single player campaign mode as opposed to no campaign mode at all. Naturally, many PC gamers were upset, but that didn’t stop me from playing it.

Anyway, DI announced the sequel to there series, Dubbed Battlefield Bad Company 2, and at the end of January, the PC beta was opened to anyone who pre-orderd. Oh yes, PC. DI must have listened to the cries of the true gamers because this game is now at the mercy of PC gamers as well as those dubious modders (make us proud!).

For those of you who haven’t played the previous Bad Company, I need to mention something that was supposed to make the game and set it apart from the rest, and which was also partly why many PC gamers were upset that it was console only. DI developed a new game engine that allowed the somewhat complete destruction of buildings. I’m talking – your in a building protecting an objective and a tank blows a hole through the wall you were standing against – yeah, it was pretty awesome. However, the destruction was limited, as you couldn’t completely knock down a building on top of your enemies; Until now.

Let me first state that what I have played so far of Bad Company 2 is a beta. This means that the game is not finished and has a lot of glitches and problems. That said, the destructive power of this game is still impressive. Where DI and EA missed out previously, they covered here. I have experienced first hand the sensations of an entire building crumbling to the ground around me and on my head ending my life. I have even flipped my 4X4 over by accidentally driving through a crater on the ground from mortar strikes while simultaneously dodging trees that are being sawed down by .50 cal machine guns. Needless to say, you get a pretty decent feel of being in a very active battlefield, as the destruction will make you thing twice about taking cover from an enemy tank behind a flimsy brick wall.

The graphics look pretty decent as well. Not amazing, but decent. It’s clearly a port from the console version. Although I can’t expect an entire world to be destructible and look amazing, DI truly tried to do both, and what they lacked in graphics they made up in other areas, like sound effects. Full surround sound capable, giving anyone with a 5.1 channel surround system a slight advantage when someone tries to sneak up behind you, and sound effects that will make you swear that you are standing on the battlefield.

Despite being a graphics junky, I know looks are not everything in the gaming world. Gameplay is a major part of making a good game, probably even the majority of it. Before I get into this I must again stress the fact that this is still a beta, so hopefully many of these things will be fixed.

That said, Bad Company 2 feels ported. It feels like DI took the console version of the game and went, “Lets make this for PC!” last minute. Hence the PS3 Beta being way before the PC beta. When I say it feels ported, I mean it feels sluggish. As a PC gamer, the advantages of having a mouse over a joystick when aiming are limitless in comparison to a joystick and controller. When ported from console to PC, the control mapping can cause some weird smoothing issues that despite playing with a mouse, you feel restrained like playing with a joystick on a controller. Not the end of the world, but not appealing either.

I may just be nit picking, but some things should have been looked over control wise when moving to PC. For example, I don’t care what FPS you are playing, there should always be a toggle for crouch. I do not want to have to hold down the “shift” key, aim down my sites/scope and try to maneuver. It should be click to crouch, click to stand up. Just another feature ported from the console version which shouldn’t have been.

Now this last control issue is a big issue for me. I love to snipe, and sniping is all about cover. For some reason, when DI developed the Bad Company games, they removed the prone (laying down) stance from the game. Something that had a huge effect on gameplay in Battlefield 2. Now add in the fact that you have to hold down the crouch button to stay crouched and you can see my frustration.

Other then some control issues due to an obvious port from the console adaptation, Bad Company 2 is pretty decent, even in beta. Weapons are mostly fairly balanced; Dice has even mastered bullet physics. Meaning, when sniping from really far away you’ll need to aim higher as gravity causes the bullet to drop. Ever since Battlefield 2 I had been waiting for a game that had BF2’s gameplay and Bad Company’s destruction, and although Bad Company 2 is not quite there yet, I don’t think DI and EA are too far from a game that is capable of such abilities.

Who know, maybe, if we’re lucky, Battlefield 3 will do just this… if it ever comes out that is.

Look for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 by Digital Illusions and EA Games, In stores on March 2nd 2010.

November 10th marked the release of one of this years most anticipated games yet. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. And the question on the majority of gamers’ minds is, “Will Modern Warfare 2 live up to the hype, or drown in its shortcomings?”

A few weeks prior to its release Infinity Ward, the development studio behind the Call of Duty (CoD) franchise, raised concerns about Infinity Ward’’s lack of perceived commitment to the PC platform. Posted on a fans podcast was information regarding changes to the multi-player aspect for PC gamers, but I’ll get into the details about the changes later. For now, lets just say it was enough to start a forum where 200,000+ PC gamers stated their intention to boycott the game. Needless to say, as an avid PC gamer, I probably wouldn’t have thrown down 60 bucks for a game that disregards certain platforms if I hadn’t already pre-purchased it, but maybe I’m jumping to conclusions.

Despite changes made to the multi-player aspect of the PC game, I knew that I would still want to play the single-player. As epic as the first Modern Warfare was in terms of the multi-player experience, I was extremely excited to see where this one took the single-player story line and to see if Modern Warfare 2 could live up to expectations set by its predecessor.

Story: The first Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was well within the realm of possibility. Nuke goes off in unnamed middle eastern country, and the United Nations (UN) dives in to track down who did what. Although not as realistic, the second installment to the MW franchise brings the story to a new level. Taking place immediately after the first game, you play as mainly two characters. Sergeant Gary “Roach” Sanderson, a member of an elite, multinational commando unit known as Task Force 141, and Private James Ramirez, a member of 1st Battalion 75th Ranger Regiment stationed in the United States; two perspectives of an effort to capture Zakhaev’s (ultra nationalist and main protagonist from MW1) right hand man, who will stop it nothing to get revenge and continue the rain of hell that was brought down in the previous game.

Much like the previous game, MW 2’s action spans well across the globe (and above it), taking place in familiar settings like the middle east but also exploring new areas such as the Virginian Suburbs, South America, and Snowy Russia.

Gameplay: The pace to this game MW2 is essentially MW overdosed on steroids. This game will keep you on the edge of your seat all the way through its surprisingly short 6 hours of gameplay. On top of pace, the artificial intelligence (AI) is much less repetitive than the first game. For example, players will find themselves attempting a variety of different methods to get the AI out from cover, while bots never appear to poke their head from behind cover in quite the same place as before. Some missions will have you running through crowded shacks with civilians running out, as you get shot from all directions, making it extremely hard to camp out in one spot and take out the AI until its safe to move.

The game also creates an atmosphere of urgency, so that even in slower paced missions, players will feel their adrenaline pumping. Whether you’re chasing down an arms dealer through the middle of South American streets, or you’re simply planting C4 to blow up a fueling station players will feel as if it was a real mission and their lives depended on its success.

Even more intriguing is how IW seamlessly immerses the gamer into the more cinematic action sequences. In one sequence you repel down a cliff stomach first, much like the repel sequence in the first Mission Impossible. Then your character proceeds to take out a guard by slitting his throat. The game’s camera actually zooms into the guard’s face, so that your screen is filled with his look of terror as his eyes roll back into his head and he collapses. There are many sequences like this throughout the entire game, where you’ll simply crap your pants at the incredibly well executed cut-scenes.

Since this game is incredibly fast paced and the AI is much smarter than its predecessor, most avid gamers will find even the Normal difficulty settings a challenge. Whether this is a good thing or not is completely up to you. I think the challenging difficulty adds replay value. Additionally, players who purchased MW2 off Steam will be able to track their stats and achievements even more so then the retail copy allows, which to me is icing on the cake of an incredibly well executed game.

Presentation: Although MW2 uses the same engine as MW, IW has tweaked the engine so that even players of the first game will find something eye catching. In the first MW, the lighting only looked good in a select few missions, almost as if they didn’t care about the others. This is not the case in the new MW. The lighting and effects are Jaw dropping, and yet they probably won’t push your graphics card to the limit on even the highest of settings.

You can also tell that IW took time to look into sound effects. Playing in 5.1 channel surround sound gives you an incredible advantage, and weapon sound effects are varied and more authentic than the original game.

The immersion factor as mentioned before is absolutely stunning. You can tell that many sequences were carefully laid out to encourage the player to “take in” the moment. The maps are more open, authentic, and remove the linear feel from the first game. In fact, maps look so good, you may have trouble figuring out which way to go in some situations.

Multi-Player: As stated above, this is a very touchy subject for many PC gamers. Back in late October, IW casually stated on a fan-site’s podcast that they would no longer be supporting dedicated servers. Instead, a closed system that uses a P2P connection method would be implemented, similar to how many games work on Xbox Live. For PC gamers, who are used to playing on their favorite dedicated server much like a patron visits their favorite bar, this revelation was startling. Aspects of PC gaming that have been taken for granted, such as the active modding community that provides custom maps, custom games, and custom skins would be barred from changing the game in any way. Which, according to IW, is how they will keep the game how they intended it to be.

IW also mentioned, but it seems to be untrue, that the servers would be limited to max 18 players or 9 v 9. However after playing, it seems as though IW re-thought this decision (or I was mistaken), using 18 v 18 is the biggest server size for PC gamers.

Changes aside, from a stability point of view, the multi-player works, and very well I might add. Despite having to wait for the server to reconnect when the host drops out of the game, and having servers with slightly less people, the multi-player is just as engrossing as the first.For those on the fence, or just generally pissed off at IW’s choices, give the game a chance and I’m sure you will be playing until you realized you forgot to go to work/class. With the incredible amount of weapons to unlock, new perks, new kill streak reward, a XP point system and grenade physics that will make you giggle with joy, I would be amazed if you’re not spending countless hours of your life trying to unlock the urban camo for your sniper rifle.

Overall: If the single-player experience was the only thing that sold you on MW2, you will not only be in for a treat there, but once you bring up the nerve to actually try the multi-player, I think many of you will be pleasantly surprised.

If I had to describe this game in one word, it would be EPIC, and yes, all in caps. For those of you saying its the same as the last MW, or you still refuse to buy it for the multi-player, I say fine, pirate the game and play the single player alone in a dark corner of your room with no friends, while the rest of the world takes part in some sick ass gun fights.

Thruit gives Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 a solid 4 out 5 Stars

I would love to hear from the rest of you, especially those who thought the game sucked. So please feel free to comment. Discussions are some of the best ways to review games.

Dubbed “Hybrid SLI” this baby has the beautiful GTX 275 GPU and the GTS 250 with well over a gig of DDR3 memory between the two GPU’s (1280MB). The GTX 275 GPU is used for handling all graphics and renderings, while the GTS 250 is dedicated to rendering all the PhysX calculations. With the two GPUs, the abundance of memory and the combined clock speeds this baby pumps out about 179.8 GB/sec of memory bandwidth.

I bet all of you crazy, liquid-cooled, overclocking, Crysis loving (mmm so pretty), performance junkies are probably wetting yourself right about now. Especially because now you can toss that PhysX card into the trash and use that extra PCIe 2.0 slot for your third beauty, and triple SLI the crap out of your rig.

If your looking for performance numbers to validate the purchase of this baby I am limited in my benchmarks as I am going off what I have read myself thus far. However, I can tell you that games that support dedicated PhysX PPU support show anywhere from 20 to 40% increase in performance vs. using just the CPU to do your PhysX Calculations.

So what will one of these little pieces of heaven cost you, you ask? Probably retailing well above $300. However, it seems as though EVGA will be tossing in a copy of Batman: Arkham Asylum with the purchase to make you feel a little less guilty for using that tuition check you got from your parents to pay for it.

Thoughts on this little device? I for one, never really thought the PhysX thing would kick in before NVDIA developed a new computing technology for physics engines, so I’d love to hear what you all think/wanna see from NVIDIA with these new cards.

It’s a great time to be a hardware guru…Intel’s recent release of the i5/ new i7 CPU and ATI’s unveiling of the 5000 series GPU’s at the end of September (Reviews: 5870 | 5850) are making more then one would-be DIYer salivate. The opportunity exists for both these manufactures to attack both the mid-range and the high-end markets, with the goal of making the enthusiast community want to rush out and get the latest for their new(ish) Win7 installs.  The time to build a new system hasn’t been this good for a while, with this climate allowing many to build modest systems with their GPU as their biggest expense and not suffer a CPU bottleneck.

While the 5870 has a stratospheric price (MSRP $399) and high-end performance but  it’s lesser  sibling that has garnered much attention. Given a soft launch along with the flagship 5870, the 5850 (MSRP $299)has been both extremely popular and hard to find. Granted both have not been as easy as finding a deer in a forest, as both cards are consistently on backorder at most major electronics retailers (newegg, amazon, zipzoomfly, tigerdirect etc).  While one can find the 5870, the 5850 has been largely MIA. Rumor around the internets is that the prices on these new cards have actually increased (!) after launch to the MSRPs listed above.

The intense demand for the 5850 over the flagship product may be the less rigid PSU requirements and the shorter length of the 5850, making it more suited for mid-range builds with smaller cases. Nevertheless, it seems like this shortage of 5000 series Radeon cards could be a major lost opportunity for AMD/ATI. With Nvidia having not yet released their upcoming 300 series GPUs  ATI is left with a product that undercuts the existing Nvidia product line in both price and performance.  If ATI had the cards to sell, then they could be making off like bandits.

In the meantime, press F5 and pray that the little button says “in stock”

Have you had an easier time finding one? Let us know where.

Infinity Ward happen to mention on a fan site, (yes fan site, not even there own site)  that they would be doing away with dedicated servers. This doesn’t really have a strong impact on Console gamers other then the method of how they navigate through server lists, but for PC gamers it means no more modding, no more custom matches, no more custom anything in regards to multi-player.

Apparently the new system will resemble the Xbox live connection experience. As a non-Xbox owner I cannot comment on what this means, but I can only guess it has something to do with connecting directly to peers. So if the peer logs off mid match, the rest of the gamers connected to that peer get booted. Please, please, someone enlighten me on what this means, because I’m pretty upset. Not as upset as the 200,000 PC gamers who said they will boycott the game, but still mad enough to take a few minutes away from replaying Call of Duty Moder Warfare 1 before the new release to write this blog post.