Game Review - Battlefield Bad Company 2 - 2nd Review and Tips

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So I've been playing Battlefield Bad Company 2. I've spent more than 24 hours online and started though the single player mode.

This is a long post and covers lots of different aspects. In an effort to combat the simple tl;dr, this post is split up into several different sections, so here's the TOC:
Multi-player Review - The Bad
Multi-player Review - The Good
Multi-player Review - Overall
Multi-player Tips
Single Player Review - The Bad
Single Player Review - The Good
Single Player Review - Overall

Multi-player Review:

The Bad

In less than 24 hours of online play I've unlocked all the vehicle and recon upgrades, which is sad. While it encourages play in other classes, those other classes start off pretty bad. Take for example the medic: you start out with a light machine gun and a pistol. Add in a grenade and knife you're good to go. Except, you're a medic, how do you heal someone without a med kit?

Once you actually unlock the med kit, advancing in the medic class is easier, but it is just a little weird. What would have been better is to start everyone off as assault and then unlock classes. X number of long range hits, you unlock the sniper class. Y number of savior kills (killing an enemy who's shooting at a team member) you can be a medic. Z number of blown up vehicles, you should be a grease monkey. This would have made a lot more sense then a medic who can't heal.

While it is unlikely that a game developer will be reading this post, I still want to put out this proposal, if you're going to have to unlock weapons, Why not unlocking classes as well based on performance? Help guide the player to where they can do the most good for their team.

Also, from time to time I'll encounter a glitch or two, such as I had a reverse repair gun for a while yesterday. I couldn't repair an empty tank, but I should as hell could tear it apart.

The Good

Despite my previous reservations with the game, as it turns out the multiplayer isn't a knocked out in a weekend. It really takes some skill and practice to get good. While sometimes your team just steamrolls the competition, more often than not the battles are well balanced. I mean my best game to date is one where as defenders, we lost.

I also learned something, you can get a road kill with the UAV. That was a learning experience.

Overall

The multi-player aspect has some real replay value. It may seem easy, but there's some real effort needed to become a well rounded player in game. When you start getting good with one class there's another to try.

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Tips

First, I cannot stress enough using the select button to highlight enemies. Especially as a recon, that is your job. Spotting enemies gets you points when they are killed as well as gives your team a chance to react. Don't be a douche and try to get the kill without spotting, spot first then shoot.

Stay with your vehicle. Until it blows up. Not kidding about this one as well. I can't count the number of times I've seen a tank run up the enemy base, and then everyone jumps out since it is damaged. Why not put a bow on the gift at that point? 1 engineer with a repair gun and you've just handed the enemy team a shiny new tank.

While we're talking about vehicles, take them when they spawn. If you leave a vehicle at your spawn, the enemy will take it if you don't.

Get behind the enemy force. Especially important for recon, with expanded ammo packs. A single recon behind enemy lines can cause havoc.

Spawn on your team mate behind enemy lines.

Give the recon some ammo. 2 "motion mines" isn't a lot. The can be the difference between win and lose in a close game. Spawn on your snipers and drop off a crate.

Oh and about spawning on snipers, if you spawn on a sniper who's in a nest, get away. You're drawing attention to them and going to get them killed.

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Single Player Mode

The Bad

My biggest complaint so far with multiplayer mode is the trigger based story line. For example there's a scene where you have two guard towers and 3 guys standing around. The game instructions is to jump down follow the river and take the towers and such out from the side. That seemed like a piss poor idea to me, so I took out both towers with single shots and then the 3 guys on the ground. Quick, so there wasn't anything to worry about.

There's no movement, nothing. As soon as I hit the river, people start spawning out the banks. WTF? Even if I took everyone out, why weren't they camped out down there? I much prefer an Uncharted like approach to the baddies, it allows me to choose the style of combat rather than have it forced upon me. Is that really too much to ask?

Additionally, there's some glitches in the dialog from time to time. These same glitches appear to affect multi-player as well.

Finally, I keep trying to spot people in the single player mode. Yeah, that doesn't work so well. I use spotting in multi-player all the time and having it in single player would certainly help in identifying enemies.

The Good

The game play is smooth and the story line is interesting. It's fun and shouldn't be too bad to complete on any level of play. It also appears to be reasonably long, could be knocked out in a weekend.

Overall

Despite the glitches and slightly different controls, the single player is fun and interesting. Worth playing though once at the very least.

Demo Review - Star Trek D-A-C

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So I was excited to see a new Star Trek game. My hopes were high while I downloaded the demo on my PS3. I should have known better, really.

Imagine my disappointment when it turns out to be Super Stardust HD, only repackaged with different things to shoot.

Yes there's a co-op mode, and a few other things that Stardust doesn't have, but in general the control scheme is the same and all you do is fly around and shoot things in an asteroids style game.

Like I said, I should have known better.

There is no strategy, no thought. Part of what I loved about Star Trek was the the cerebral part, mixed with ship battles. In fact you could do much better by allowing most of the ship battles to be automated and work on the missions. Worth a download, but not worth the money.

Scores:

• Explosions - Yes
• Controls - OK
• Rating - 5/10
• Get the Demo - Meh.

• Get the Game - No

The Pitfalls of the Pint - Drinking and Gaming

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Drinking and gaming can be fun

Here's some tips to keep you from being banned

So you've done it or know someone who has. Drinking and gaming. That said, it is especially important in multiplayer online games that you use moderation and control. Otherwise you end up the jackass everyone muted for trying to sing Poker Face to your team, while playing a FPS. (Drinking and Rock Band is a completely different story.)

Here's the tips:

1. Play on servers that you won't be banned (official, friends) for trying to lighten the mood
2. If you're an angry drunk, just don't drink. If you're the singing happy drunk, that's cool. (Your team might be loosing 120-0 but at least they can laugh.)
3. Don't join serious games. Understand that you really won't help your team all that much, so drinking before a clan match is probably a bad idea.
4. Stay on the ground. I can't tell you the number of times, flying while intoxicated has killed my character. Mainly because at a certain point you quit caring and keeping track.
5. Listen to your team, if people are complaining then stop, or move to a different server.
6. You can sing without using the mic. Not nearly as entertaining to your team, but still a lot of fun.
7. Limit your intake. I had a night that I didn't realize how much beer I was consuming until I finished off a growler. That didn't end well. Have a limit and stick to it.

Now, these tips apply less to multiplayer party games. That said if you're throwing a party with drinking and gaming, make sure you have a place people can crash without driving.