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.

Woman: “Yes…uh… err, wait no!”

Officer: “Sorry Ma’am we are a PC only country, We are going to have to put her down.”

::Officer takes out gun, and proceeds to put three bullets into it::

Officer: “You are free to enter the country now.”

Ok, so maybe this Isn’t exactly what happened, but basically its just as stupid.

As I probably lack the ability to accurately describe what happened, I’ll let the woman describe her story herself. But in a nutshell: Woman visits Jerusalem. Gets stopped by boarder patrol because of where shes from. Gets asked a series of ridiculous questions. Border Patrol takes laptop into back room. Border Patrol proceeds to shoot Macbook, and then apologize for doing so.

I hope someone makes a spoof “I’m a Mac” commercial about this. I would cry.

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.

I don’t think I’ve ever had such an enjoyable process configuring a newly built PC then the experience I just had with my new DIY project/sweet awesome toy.

I decided recently that the time was right to take the plunge into Windows 7, a decision brought upon me by the release of the P55 chipset (with new i5/i7’s  from Intel) and the release of ATI’s new 5800 series graphics cards (more about that in my earlier post). The mainstream has never looked so good, with the Intel i5 selling for $199 complete with four cores and low power usage. Benchmarks have the i5 besting the quad Core 2 Duo’s and even the Core 2 Extreme in some benchmarks.

The system I built:

• Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Case
• Three Scythe SY1225SL12L 120mm “Slipstream” Case Fans
• GIGABYTE GA-P55-UD3R LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard
• Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB SATA
• Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB SATA
• 8 GB G.SKILL (4 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 RAM
• ATI 5850 (MSI) GPU– I found this rare card after much searching
• Intel i5-750 CPU
• Lite-On SATA DVD Burner
• Hanns-G 24.6″ 2ms Monitor
• Corsair CMPSU-750TX 750w PSU
• EDIMAX EW-7728In 32bit PCI Wireless 802.11n Draft 2.0 PCI Card
• Windows 7 Professional x64

Total: $ 1475.95 (Newegg and ewiz were used for purcahsing. Newegg as always has scary fast shipping)

The machine is beautiful…I’m a proud papa. The Antec 300 case gave me enough room for all my components, with the total of 5 case fans keeping my rig cool to the touch. The 5850 has enough room to breath with that beefy PSU. Win 7 reconigized all my components out the box. I even installed Win off a USB drive for a faster install time!

One item of note: On my two HDDs I set up 4 total partitions. One 250GB partition on the 500GB drive for Win7, the other 250GB for data. Of the 1TB drive the first 250 has been set aside for full system image backups, with the rest for data. This system image partition drive saved me when awful logitech software for my old webcam riddled my system with all sorts of issues, making 32 bit apps run like my 70 year old grandmother. System restore was no help, but my system image saved the day. Thanks windows 7, screw you logitech for your terrible x64 support. My webcam works, but your software experience was enough to make me think twice before buying your products again.

Later I will post benchmarks and more reviews and analysis of my new rig.

For those of you thinking, “I don’t need a new computer yet”… take this into account: – the average lifespan of a computer is only 3-5 years, according to this article. However, in terms of compatibility with software and new hardware it’s more like 2 – 3 years, depending on what it’s being used for. That’s not to say you can’t continue to use 10 year old PCs; however, it probably will not support newer programs and hardware.

There is a decent majority of people today in this technology driven world who have little-to-some knowledge of computing hardware. But even if you don’t, the chances are high that you probably know someone close to you who does.

Computers today are a necessity. They have become an integral part of everything we do and it’s because of this we can spend countless hours deciding on what to get next in our attempt to support our ever-changing needs.

So… do you build or do you buy?

Buy Pre-Built: Let’s start with the “easy” way out. For some, this method is quick, easy, and painless. Either walk over to your nearest Best Buy, log onto HP’s homepage, or break into your friend’s apartment and steal his $2,000 dollar machine. Of course when he tells you the story you will suggest that the government came and took it because of all the movies he downloaded.

Either way, many of you have more than enough knowledge and common sense to know what you want out of a machine will opt to talk to a Sales “Expert” and have them pick the right pre built pc out for you. The problem? Most times you’ll end up paying $100 – 500 more than the actual hardware in the machine is worth. Not to mention the useless software it comes riddled with that only makes the computer slower and less effective. The benefit? Saves time, effort, and most computers come with a decent guarantee. Many people who opt for this method are either lazy like my fellow blog writer Will Kievit, or are intimidated by testing the waters of building their own machine.

Build: I am probably the worst person to describe the cost benefits of building your own rig. This is mainly because if I had the money I could easily drop $4 – 5k on a gaming computer without flinching. The main reason for the high prices though, is that I would build a computer with extremely high specs to prolong the short “lifespan” of a gaming rig.

Just to give you some numbers too look at, a fast pre-built gaming rig with the following specs: 2.93 GHz Core i7, 8GB DDR3 1333 Ram, 1TB HDD, Blu-ray drive, GTX 295 with 1792MB of ram 800 watt PSU, Keyboard and mouse, will run you about $1839.99 before taxes. These numbers will change based on the type of computer your building. I chose a gaming rig because they are the most difficult to save money on. Lower end computer will have a larger gap in price for pre-built vs. personally built, especially with companies like Apple, Dell or HP.

Laptops can fall into either of these categories. Although the freedom of designing a custom laptop isn’t as high as designing desktop computer, you still get a lot more options. However, in the case of custom laptops, you will end up paying more because it’s the manufacturer who builds them, not you. Of course there is Apple, who makes very good computers, but will cost you way more than the equivalent powered PC.

It all comes down to you and your wallet:

Lazy and rich: Buy pre-built.
Broke and constructive: Build your own.
Constructive and rich: build a $4,000+ rig and then give it to me.

Oh and there’s one other category I forgot to mention: Those who are afraid that they will have wasted their money on pieces of hardware that might not work once they get it all together. To you I say: READ MY NEXT POST, you may just get over your fear.

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.