I got into the PS3 beta for Battlefield Bad Company 2.  GameSpot.com is giving 65,000 keys out.  Download it and installed.  When I went and tried to play it asked for a password.  Had know idea what it would be or how to get it.   I looked back on GameSpot’s website it said it was open to U.S. residents only.  I was like, “shit”.  Then I got thinking may be my Battlefield Heroes password would work, it did.

So far I have tried 1 and a half rounds.  From what I have tried the map is huge, there is a lot going on and it looks great.   Like most online fps games I play I die a lot and have know idea were I got shot from.  I did manage to get a total of 8 kills. LOL.  All so like most online game you can hear the people with head sets yelling and bitching.  That can be funny but most of the just plain annoying.

Where did all of the posts go?!?!

We moved to a new home, www.sinistercorps.co.cc, there you will find our new forums, and the games that we play as well as all of the posts that we made. Thanks for stopping by.

Please head over to our new website

Ich habe, wie versprochen, das neue Battlefield Patchpaket getestet. Neben einigen Bugfixes und verbessertem Updater, sind vor allem veränderte Fähigkeiten des Gunner, ein Prestige-Rangsystem sowie eine neue Karte hinzugefügt worden. Eine weitere Neuerung ist, dass man von nun an die bevorzugte Region der Server einstellen kann, auf die man zugreifen möchte. Dies führt zu weniger Überaschungen beim Ping.

Gunner:

Das Schild des Gunner überträgt sich nun, auf in der Nähe stehende Teamkollegen, ähnlich der Heilfähigkeit des Soldier. Dies macht den gunner somit zu einem noch wichtigeren Teil eines jeden Teams. Die Fähigkeit Frenzy wurde ebenfalls verbessert. Sie erlaubt es dem Gunner nun, einige Lebenspunkte durch verichteten Schaden zurückzugewinnen (leechen). Auch das Fass des gunners wurde überareitet. Wird man von diesem getroffen, wird man neben dem üblichen Schaden zusätzlich für einige Sekunden verlangsamt.

Zusammenfassend, eine deutliche Aufwertung des Gunner. Es ist fragwürdig, ob der Patch dem Gleichgewicht der Klassen gedient hat. Sicher ist jedoch, dass dieser unterrepräsentierten Klasse unter die Arme gegriffen werden sollte.

Riverside Rush:

Es herrscht auf Riverside Rush der Herbst. Ob sich der interessante Name des Updates so herleiten lässt? Dann müsste es eigentlich Heroes of Fall heissen, denn der Rest des Patches zieht kein vermehrtes hinfallen oder stürzen nach sich. Die neue Karte ist schön geworden. In der kleinen Stadt machen die Schlachten Spaß und bieten den commandos, im Gegensatz zur Stadtkarte Victory Village, einige Positionen fürs Scharfschützenhandwerk. Es ist die erste Karte, die völlig ohne Fahrzeuge auskommt. Schade ist es, dass man sich keinen Server aussuchen kann auf dem gerade Riverside Rush gespielt wird. Für ein Antesten muss man somit den Kartenzyklus abwarten.

Rangsystem / Assists:

Meiner Meinug nach ist das neue Rangsystem nicht völlig durchdacht. Ab dem zehnten Level beginnt man für dieses Rangsystem Punkte zu erarbeiten. Hierbei wird dem Spieler pro 16000 Schadenspunkte ein weiterer Rang gegeben. Nachdem man seinen ersten Rang erhalten hat wird man, ganz militärisch, zum Private (Gefreiten). Man arbeitet sich hoch bis zum General, um dann mit Schrecken festzustellen, dass man zum Private II “befördert” wurde. Die Liste der Ränge wiederholt sich somit immer wieder bis man bei General C angekommen ist. Diese Neuerung soll den Spielern zeigen, wer in den beiden Teams erfahren ist. Über die Fähigkeiten des Spielers sagen diese Ränge jedoch wenig aus. Eher über die zur Verfügung stehende Freizeit. Schade ist ebenfalls, dass man seinen eigenen Rang im Spiel nicht einsehen kann und weiterhin auf eine Fortschrittsanzeige verzichtet wurde.

Eine positive Neuerung ist der Assist. Somit bekommt man von nun an auch einen Punkt, wenn man das Pech hatte, nicht auch noch den letzten Lebenspunkt eines Gegners abgezogen zu haben.

Me enrolei bastante pra fazer esse post mas finalmente esta aqui, esse ultimo update de BF:Heroes trouxe muitas novidades e aqui você vai ler quais são essas novidades e minhas opiniões sobre elas:

1º) Esse grande update foi chamado de Heroes of Fall (Heróis do Outono) e foi dividido em 3 capitulos, vamos as explicações de cada 1 deles:

• Capitulo I: A classe gunner ganhou um belo update em 3 das suas habilidades elas são:

Explosive Keg: Agora quando atingir um inimigo ira diminuir a velocidade deles tornando-os alvos mais fáceis, os que forem atingidos ficarão com uma aura roxa para indicação.
Hero Shield: Será compartilhado com os companheiros que estiverem em volta do gunner, ótimo pra quem esta levando bala mas ruim pro commando que esta tentando se esconder já que fica aquela aura amarela em volta dele.
Frenzy fire: Recupera a vida do gunner, eu não sei quanto hp ele recupera mas não deve ser muito porque nunca vi muitos gunners usando essa skill e mesmo depois do update não vi um aumento do uso dessa skill.

• Capitulo II: Um novo sistema de rank que dirá qual o nível do inimigo que te matou e também dos seus companheiros, bom para saber se você esta jogando num time cheio de noobs ou de pros, eu gostei muito desse sistema mas infelizmente ele veio com 1 defeito só quem começar a jogar agora que  realmente terá o seu rank correto, eu por exemplo já estou lvl 26 e comecei com o private quando já deveria estar como general ou algo mais, também aparece na sua pagina pessoal:

E também uma melhora no sistema de amigos que você pode ver quem lhe adicionou, quem você adicionou e quem você aceitou como amigo:

• Capitulo III: Não tenho certeza mas acho que era sobre o novo mapa antes conhecido como “Heat” foi nomeado Riverside Rush, já tínhamos 2 mapas de infantaria e esse é o 3º ele é tão infantaria que não tem nem jipe pra sair correndo pra pegar a primeira bandeira, eu curti bastante esse mapa que é bem grande e bem equilibrado:

2º) Essas foram as principais mudanças mas também veio outra “novidades”, armas com skins modificadas que são legaizinhas mas é claro que custam BF:

3º) E talvez a mais interessante no quesito BF os Bundles, pacotes pra quer economizar um pouco de BF:

4º) Ainda não foram anunciadas quais são as mudanças mas um PTE esta em andamento que trará mudanças aos rifles dos commandos, vivem dizendo que ele é muito forte mas eu espero que não ocorram muitas mudanças já que meu char principal é um commando:

Bem é isso ai ate o próximo update e rezem pra não enfraquecerem meu rifle.

Fui!!!!!!1!!!!11!!!!one!!!!!™

Δύο εκατομμύρια παίκτες στο Battlefield Heroes, σημαντικό update καθοδόν | Game 2.0

Η ΕΑ ανακοίνωσε ότι το free-to-play shooter Battlefield Heroes έφτασε τα δύο εκατομμύρια εγγεγραμμένους χρήστες, νούμερο που αν μη τι άλλο είναι εντυπωσιακό.

Μάλιστα, η εταιρεία στις 30 Σεπτεμβρίου θα διαθέσει ένα νέο, ιδιαίτερα σημαντικό update για το παιχνίδι, ονόματι Heroes of the Fall.[next]

EA’in  Team Fortress 2′ye karşın geliştirdiği, online ve ücretsiz Battlefield hamlesi başarılı olmuşa benziyor. EA kanadından bugün yapılan açıklamaya göre Battlefield Heroes 2 milyon kayıtlı kullanıcıya erişti.

Ayrıca EA oyunculara bu durumun hediyesi olarak, 30 Eylül’de ‘Heroes of the Fall’ update’ini sunacak. Yeni bir harita da içerecek olan bu update paketi tıpkı oyun gibi ücretsiz olarak indirmeye sunulacak. (Kaynak)

Okay, so I didn’t get new magic cards because I was short on cash after getting Wendy’s and buying cards for a friend ._.;. However, I did find a new fun shooter to play :3. It is called, Battlefield Heroes.

Check out that awesomeness! The game is based off World War II and there are two factions to choose. The Royal Army (British Army) and the National Army (German Army). The game is a cartoon shooter with massive character customization features, however you have to pay for “Battlefunds” to get them. The characters, in my opinion, are a little unbalanced. The commandos can go into stealth and just run up and stab you, and they’re fast, which makes them hard to hit. The gunners have lots of health, take less damage, and have a machine gun or a rocket launcher. However they are slow as hell which makes them easy pray for the commandos. The soldiers are a balance of the previous two classes. The are a mid-ranged fighter that use sub-machine guns. However, commandos can snipe them from long distances, or get behind them and stab them. I am sure they will nerf the stealth because you can stay hidden until you attack. Also, even if I think the commandos are a little unfair, they have very low health and are easy targets when out of stealth.

Anyways, it is a really fun game and no gun is “better” than any other, its all based on how you use it. Coronaway and I like to drive around in the cars and crash run people over.

GDC Austin is in full swing and the Twitter chatter is going strong.  There were a number of exciting summits on Tuesday but the one standout was my client PlaySpan’s Monetization 2.0 Forum. Standing room only as over 220 industry executives packed the room to hear from industry trailblazers. The breadth of speakers and subjects was impressive culminating in a fantastic case study by Fernando Paiz, Executive Producer, Dungeons & Dragons Online where he discussed switching over to a hybrid monetization model and providing consumers choice in play and pay is increasing ARPUs with virtual goods as the key driver.  If you’re at the show, stop by PlaySpan’s Booth 801 to check out the eye-opening DDO Ultimate and Nonoba demos and explore ways to optimize your digital goods commerce and payments.  Read on, the following is a detailed summary of the day’s events:

2pm, Opening Remarks
Karl Mehta, CEO, PlaySpan
Karl Mehta opened the Forum with market insights from the VGMarket/PlaySpan Digital Goods Buyer Survey. The survey talked with 2425 respondents from the PlaySpan Marketplace examined individual digital goods purchases and sales behavior across multiple genres and platforms.  12% of those surveyed in US purchased virtual goods last year. The industry goal is to take that number to 25% in 2010 and deliver virtual goods and digital goods to the mainstream.  10% of 55-64y purchased virtual goods, women 25-34y making up the largest group of buyers. The survey also ranked the popularity of payment methods: PayPal #1 (50%), Credit Card #2, Ultimate Game Card #3, Cash #4, and Spare Change at #5, ahead of Google checkout and money orders.  (Survey findings will presented in detail at Engage! Expo next week.)

2:15pm, Social Gaming Panel
Moderated by Ned Sherman, CEO, Digital Media Wire
The next panel focused on social gaming trends and featured senior executives of the five major players in the viral and social space.  Moderated Ned Sherman asked the panelists to share case studies of unexpected successes and failures, how they measure success, and to tell us something we don’t know.  (On September 30, Ned Sherman will be digging in deeper at Digital Media Wire’s NY Games Conference, if you’re planning on going discount code: GDC will get you $100 off.)

John Pleasants, CEO, Playdom
Having recently joined Playdom from EA, John offered an interesting perspective on the direction of the gaming business: ”The gaming business is a $45B business growing at a rate of 10%, no other $50B business in the world is growing double-digits in this economy but two-thirds are shrinking, the traditional business, and one-third which is online is booming at over 30% globally.  The most exciting part is online social gaming.  Playdom is at the nexus of free2play, online social gaming, live services (vs software model), it’s so current and has so much momentum behind it, along with the audience here, we are shaping where the industry goes next.  Very exciting time.  What’s working well – Mobsters II came out 6-7 weeks ago on Facebook  - key metrics around virality, engagement – first game that has sequelled – Mafia category is now 3y old, long-lived.  What’s not working – Sorority Life wardrobe feature – more features doesn’t mean better game – we misread audience. Metrics watched includes DAUs, ARPUs and virality, engagement most sacred which is the highest quality measure of the quality of the game, repeats, frequency/depth of usage, time on site, 24 hours – 72 hours – 1 week after a game, you can predict what’s going to happen to a game.  We are best at monetizing games, that said monetization is not more important than growing the industry, getting people on the platforms, overly focusing on monetization is a trap.  We are a game producer and platform/publisher – we make great games, distribute them well to multiplatforms, thus we watch operational metrics, currency programs, virality, business intelligence.  Sharing, rewards, referrals are features incorporated in all games – haven’t cracked the nut on UGC yet – mass participation will grow the business – had a fashion item contest in Sorority Life with huge participation – wound up selling 12 as items in store.  Launching game with synch play, live service access through any portal.  Can’t own customers in a web world, always one click away from losing customers, must earn them through better service.  And by the way, we’re hiring!!”

Sebastien de Halleux, COO, Playfish
“Playfish is the fastest growing in the social gaming sector, 7 of the top Facebook games are from Playfish, we also top MySpace, Apple charts. Since 2000, 100+ mobile titles.  We were frustrated by retail, catalogue, portal experience, sought distribution revolution, saw Facebook platform as a distribution opportunity.  Playfish puts your friends at the center of the experience, part of the game DNA, value you get is derived from interaction with friends, similar to the fun you have with friends around a game of Monopoly.  The company is 20 months old, started in London, now has four offices including one in the Arctic Circle- organically grown to distribute 130mm games – 1B game sessions in a single month – social games are addressing latent demand and receiving enthusiasm of large audience.  Surprises – 4th largest country on Facebook is Turkey. Some countries have zero revenue, when it comes to monetization, it’s not one size fits all. Monetization question is global but propensity to purchase inside a game is equal across countries.  Most popular games – Pet Society 17mm MAU and Restaurant City 14mm MAU – both audiences larger than WOW – both less than 6m old.  Monetize with virtual goods in-game microtransactions where players buy goods for self-expression or collectibility.  Virtual Goods pioneered in Asia but now widely adopted around the world with items upwards of $40.  Sell 20mm items daily in Restaurant City – pay with attention based currency (earned by time playing) and/or real currency.  It’s not retail – try before you buy. User is put in control. This is the first time not telling the user how much the entertainment is worth – some spend hundreds of dollars because you have simply removed the ceiling, can monetize the demand curve more closely.  Quiztastic! on Facebook, based on UGC, harnesses creative power via crowdsourcing friends for relevance – many want to participate in game design process but not necessarily coders – Quiztastic! creates a socially relevant filter than creates a high quality experience.  Next trend on web will be the access method, play same game on MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Google Android…a service accessed through preferred community site, in that respect you do own your customer. Era of destination sites is marginalized compared to reach you can get by going to users, not a product on a standalone platform.”

Lance Tokuda, CEO, RockYou
“RockYou is a virtual social app-based ad network focused on monetizing social apps and viral widgets.  With the number of page views that virtual goods generates, developers can make decent money on the side just by putting ads on remnant inventory of page views, getting $0.05 – $2 CPMs depending on the quality of the experience.  Things we did well was grow our reach, now at 211mm/month with ad network and Facebook/MySpace games.  What didn’t work was building apps to take advantage of Facebook viral channels, competitors copied and overloaded it.  Now building high quality experiences and let virals take care of themselves.  Remnant inventory advertising, branded ad sales – goal is to reach 40-50mm US, 200mm worldwide to become a must buy for brands – Did you know that 80% of ad money goes to these must buy top ten sites like Facebook, MySpace…. (Developers should check out AppSavvy too.) Biggest spenders:  ATT, Sprint, P&G, studio theatrical trailers. As for UGC, only 10% of players will actually provide UGC, very hard to retain recurring engagement, Facebook limits distribution self-expression – apps don’t own profile space anymore.  Other features like competition, exploring, leveling, and socializing are stronger than UGC on Facebook platform. Big fan of synch games. And did you know you can increase CTR 5x by simply changing icon on bookmark to red 16×16 square.”

Robert Goldberg, SVP Business Operations, Zynga
“Been at Zynga 6m.   Zynga marries best of web with best of game design, get good games out quickly and iterate to other games over time.  Biggest failure in terms of investment/time was Guild of Heroes, a deeply immersive 3D game on Facebook, but not a very social game, not appropriate for Facebook, decommissioned it.  Need to design more to social principles, experience friends in new and different ways and express yourself through games.  Farmville launched 8 weeks ago, 16mm DAU, 40mm+ MAU – caught fire – appeals to a wide audience cross age groups, genders, countries, appeals to a variety of game play – for those interested in leveling up, to those interested in expressing themselves through decorating, have fun staying connected to distant relatives.  Good games on Facebook, MySpace are about communication, self-expression and game play – combo of two create the social experience.  Farmville some items only purchasable through farm cash (real $$) not earned coins – no negative feedback yet, enough free game play to enjoy the game – haven’t spent a dollar yet and on Level 31 without spiffing coins or cash. Texas Hold Em largest synch game, something magical about finding a friend at a game.  Striving to make asynch play that closely approximates synch play.  We have a great relationship with Facebook, MySpace platforms – why not stand on the shoulders of giants.  Games running on both Facebook Connect and MySpace OpenSocial.  Game play is more about social fabric underneath rather than where you’re playing.  Hmm, tell you something you don’t know –  pink tractors outsell red tractors on Farmville!” (This hot tidbit got retweeted!)

3:05pm, MMOs & Virtual Worlds
Moderated by Nanea Reeves, SVP, EA Online
“Online monetization is currently a big topic at EA, target 7-8% free2play conversion, 5% on social networks.  Topics for the panel: business models, offerings, consumer base, and fraud.”

Cary Rosenzweig, CEO, IMVU
“IMVU is a 3D free2play virtual world that allows developers to sell credits to users rather than cashing them out directly to us. Rapidly growing, hiring engineers!  Making $1mm+/month (will have a big announcement in 3 weeks), 80% revenue from consumer (microtransactions + UGC), only 20% advertising – managed offer or banner ads.  Oh what a difference a year makes (big laughs from the audience-that’s for sure! from the panel) – one year ago $750mm in venture capital money went into advertising-based virtual worlds, then it was abandoned to launch virtual goods models.  The essence of a strong business model: fight fraud, build economy, provide a service customers will pay for.  Do the math, you have to be a massive planet to base business on advertising, if you’re a satellite, monetize directly from your customers, increase monetization per active user, monetization machines can be more successful than those with larger customers bases without a monetization machine.  Free2play metrics:  track engagement, user hours (50mm monthly), overall transaction value (understand relationship between user hours and monetization- $50mm US back and forth), conversion (user base active in economy – 51% not paying anything), repeat usage, watch retention more than acquisition, lifecycle value over 2 years, markers – did they buy or sell something, buy or sell currency, put them in buckets and move them along.  Free to paid conversion rate targeting, 5-10% in Asia, 20% is an anomally, if you’re at a 5% and go to 6% you’re up 20%, more than a trial strategy, people that play for free, engaging larger community, adds value to those that play.  In the business of UGC, like eBay market, 20,000 active users/developers out of 150,000 create 3-4000 items created each day. 2.5mm 3D items in the catalogue to customize.  Many come to IMVU to buy credits for items they want, not selling virtual goods directly. Top 10 creators earned $100,000+ last year real cash.  There will be a revolution in the west when mobile companies charge what VISA charges, trillions will go through mobile, right now mobile payments are not reasonable at 50%, must drop to 10% to tap customers can’t tap now. Fraud is surprising low, we have a good handle on it, whenever you can get cash out, there will be fraud.  We let the market decide quality, extremely long tail, top ten items 0.02% of sales, players buy to look unique for social capital.”

Joshua Hong, CEO, K2 Network-GamersFirst
“Large scale hardcore MMORPG free2play portal launched 2y ago, manage 4 MMOs from Asia.  Free2play phenomena started in Asia, all revenue comes from selling items, make very little advertising.  MMO ARPU is high, game play is long, persistence is everything, relationship is long, community customer service is key.  Social has different DNA than MMO.  Hardcore segment will grow. They start with game boy migrate to iPhone to social gaming to console to MMO.  Turkey 75mm population, 50%+ under 25y, predominently Muslim but trying to become more western, looking for more content.  MMO combined with free2play is a winning combo, global perspective, emerging marketplaces like Brazil.  Why pay for box, then subscriptions. Free2play is another pricing option, a try before you buy, large percent of sales come from all you can eat membership model packaged as item microtransactions because that’s what members want.  Make a lot of money in Turkey, Eastern Europe, not reliant on credit cards or PayPal, rather sell prepaid cards or code, works in China too, payment that’s easiest way to go.  Watch Turkey, Brazil, India, Russia – kids looking for amazing digital content, speed to market, free2play way to go. Avoid China/Turkey fraud with prepaid cards.”

Johny Mang, Live Operations & Publishing Director, EA- DICE
“Free2play games, two titles Battlefield Heroes cartoon shooter and Battle Forge free RTS game. Both PC games. Microtransaction business works for packaged goods titles too.  Some markets localized with billing instruments that are popular work above planned ARPUs – selling decorative items, emotes, items progress faster through game experience, no tangible benefit in game play.  Other markets without language perform under plan.  Free2play sells boost on Battlefield Heroes sent it to top of charts, booster packs to equip army with skills and power, designed with higher conversion rates into the game.  Game design influences conversion rate, if items give functional advantage, smaller user base higher conversion than buying decoratives, how well positioned to monetized geography, conversion rates 5-10% very good, some markets will rate lower.  Korea homogenous market – clear demographic and established payment instruments different than Europe.  Looking at game economies where vast majority of players wont ever become customers, whatever opportunity to monetize free-riding audience I welcome, taking away illusion of ad market, may not sustain 80% of revenues, but if it brings in 20% it’s very welcome – offer reward programs or advertising, it’s welcome, microtransactions innovate in advertising space to give back to audience through ads, tie ad campaigns to virtual item rewards adds different flavor to frontal bombardment of content they’re not interested in.  Maximum potential starts with localization on billing, content.  What will happen to $20-30mm game production business model 3-4y from now.  Give consumers/audiences the tools to get what they want.”

Tom Hale, Chief Product Officer, Linden Lab/Second Life
“Second Life is a 3D virtual world that is similar to MMO, it’s a game for creating and selling things and making money, 189th economy in the world.  Making $80mm-100mm via hosting services (letting 3D content persist e.g. renting an island), virtual currency transaction fees, and premium subscription. Make some money in-game advertising for events, self-referential. How to work with advertisers to provide them and us a value, to integrate brand well into game where doesn’t ruin immersive experience.  Cash going into games from offers where you have to fill out survey – different than game advertising.  Help content creators grow their brands, mechanisms to promote, try product, rating/ranking not as useful because of charting, gets lost in the long tail.  Top merchant on Second Life is a sweater maker $1mm/year, has employees, outsourced in China – word of mouth – everyone knows she makes the best skirts.  Will see more interchange between virtual worlds and games, see that a bit with offgame trading services already, metaverse economy bigger than any one.”

Craig Alexander, VP Product Development, Turbine
“15y developer of traditional core MMO games: Asheron’s Call, Lord of the Rings, Dungeons and Dragons Online.  DDO went from being subscription-based, now 2 weeks into free2play microtransaction model, great being a part of the big monetization transition going on: core games last to make the transition.  Went with hybrid monetization model because of high fixed cost of running MMO, desire to grow revenue and offer flexibility and choice to consumer – not everyone wants to pay subscription, leaving out a significant part of the market with paywall barrier, hardcore will pay more than the subscription price – moved from mandatory subscription to optional subscription bundled with dual currency, its a balance of time vs. money, if you put enough time into game, you can play for free, or you can pay your way through convenience and consumable items.  Surprised that paid subscriptions have gone up since going hybrid, currencies are way up too, contrary to what DDO modeled would happen. DDO building own content, democratization of the design process, merchandising what players want to consume, big volume transactions are infrequent with dual currency. PC Retail is in serious decline, 3-4 years off but console going away as well.” (more on DDO below, see Fernando Paiz)

John Bates, BD Strategic Marketing, Entropia Universe
“MindArc are the creators of the Entropia Universe MMO virtual worlds game, virtual currency is backed with US dollars, approved as a bank in Sweden.  Currently one world in the universe, Planet Calypso, growing to multiple worlds in the platform.  In-game wallet – we don’t take money til item is used, e.g. when bullets are used up and players needs to replace – the fact that sooner or later the player has to fix or replace drives economy.  2008 $450mm US exchanged in universe.  Advertisers increase loot pool.  MMOs were the original social networks – very social.”

3:55pm, Monetization Demo
Chris Benjaminsen, Co-Founder, Nonoba
“Partnering with PlaySpan to provide micropayment solution for flash games. Nonoba.com is a casual community of UGC flash games, a showcase for GameRise turnkey solution for developers seeking to build a game community, completely customizable flash games platform, community APIs deep integration into any social network or community, high scores, achievements, ranking, translation, build multiplayer flash games with SDK, hosted in the cloud, free to distribute anywhere. Currently there are 235 games built by 100+ indie developers in 21 languages as well as commercial clients licensing the technology directly, open infrastructure for everybody, system running for 2y+, teamed up with PlaySpan to help developers to make a living at it with microtransactions, payment APIs offering integration, content management, accounts, permissions, wallets.  Worked with PlaySpan to develop Ultimate Pay. PlaySpan already has 85 providers, huge audience, money in the ecosystem, they are experts in handling payments, excellent fraud protection.  Demo for Ultimate Pay at www.nonoba.com.”

4:15pm, Platforms
Moderator Charles Hudson, VP BD, Serious Business
“Facebook is launching an integrated payment system. Feels like the history of electricity, for first hundred years electricity was used solely for lighting, no one imagined anything else, had to screw washing machine into light socket.  Then they figured there must be a better way.  It’s the moment in time we’re in right now.”

Ramu Yalamanchi, Chief Product Officer, hi5
“We’re a social entertainment platform with a games channel and virtual currency, 60mm worldwide. Very global, monetize games in surprising markets through currency and localization support, 40 currencies, 50 languages, many small ad markets actually quite good in virtual goods monetization.  Items in games drive monetization, current view is premium model payment path, collecting through offers or stored valued cards, will start to see hybrid of advertising and direct payment, creativity paying people for attention, segment those willing to pay and those willing to give time.  2008 launched open platform, metrics measures success dollars for DAU, MAU, adoption on the platform.  A successful game is 100,000-1mm DAUs in 6 weeks.  Monetization – hi5 markets similar to Facebook, MySpace $MAU, $DAU, lower across all markets 30-50% but still better than advertising.  Top requests are for real-time, 3D support, and distribution to bigger audience, go from zero to hero with friends.  Regarding fraud, individual attacks not so coordinated, spam been a problem a long time, handle coins for developers so they don’t need to worry about it, there is no cash out component, still need to pay attention to in-game fraud.  If you give people a way to open their wallet, they will, be it stored value cards.  Favorite game is Organized Crime on hi5, of course”

Danielle Deibler, Engineering Manager, Adobe
“Adobe makes tools to build content including Flash Runtime which a lot of social game developers use on the PC side.  Seeking to integrate Flash platform for secure payments, trust factor is important, working with PayPal, Visa, PlaySpan, don’t want platform lock-in like Apple.  Half of web flash game developers monetizing via advertising, many convert over with mochi coins virtual goods systems out there, 20% starting to introduce virtual goods in last 6m, multiple monetization methods in-game ads turned off if buy virtual goods, subscription is not popular for flash, might change with casual MMOs using flash for browser-based games.  Get in, talk on Facebook, get out quick.  Don’t build WOW for casual where it takes 6 hours.  Feature requested most is 3D support, gaps in mobile, tv, global.  Go with payment aggregator so you can concentrate on game play mechanics.  Favorite game is Shadow Complex and Hello Kitty, US beta.”

Damon Hougland, Senior Director, PayPal Platform
“11/3-4 PayPal Developer Conference. Fraud prevention, focus on total end to end experience- in-game and beyond the game.  In 190 countries today but it doesn’t seem like that’s enough, pride on fraud control, Paypal does it better than anyone. Games coming to set top boxes, aggregation, escrowed digital goods – customer wallets/$ come first.  Fraudsters love the SDK as new tool to automate, fraudsters talk to each other, but Paypal is very good at tracking down the large networks, lots of experience from eBay, it’s a main preoccupation.  Favorite game? My kids love Lego Star Wars.”

Jason Citron, Founder and CEO, Aurora Feint
“Social gaming platform for iPhone, it’s like Facebook/XBLA for iPhone, millions of users, thousands of developers, hundred active games in app stores from SDK, provide hosted services like leaderboards, chat rooms, multiplayers, acheivements, and provide visibility in app store with OpenFeint, social cross-promotion technology, by engaging in a game friends are notified of achievements. Only in-app purchases allowed in $.99 apps on iPhone, cuts off free2play upsell, so single purchase apps is where it’s at, iTunes model for ten years, price trending toward $1, 10-15 apps on phone, average spend is $80.  Short bursting game sessions not much attention or focus, play for about 30 seconds and leave, leverage social interaction with friends, invite friends to play. Most requested feature is multiplayer with social cross-promotion.  Huge piracy issue on iPhone and iPod Touch. Make money with Apple Affiliate Sales, sell more games via social cross promotion: instead of Apple 30%/Developer 70% its Apple 25%/OpenFeint 5%/Developer 70%, it’s a great program! Favorite game is Shadow Complex for XBLA.”

5:05, Transitioning Dungeons & Dragons Online (DDO)
Fernando Paiz, Executive Producer, Turbine
The highlight of the day came at the end when Fernando Paiz delivered a compelling presentation on the effects of offering hybrid monetization:  ”Our challenge was imagining what it means to transition an existing premium fantasy MMO in a North American market from a box retail subscription model to a hybrid microtransaction/subscription model to get a flexible monetization platform without scaring away customers or ruining what’s fun in the game.  Turbine had been in business for 15 years old, Asheron’s Call around 10y with big franchises like Dungeons and Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings, constantly innovating with game design and alternate business models. Subscription models are hard to make work. North America slowly more accepting of microtransactions.  Launched DDO Storm Age in Febraury 2006. Delivered a fun role-playing dungeon crawl experience, action combat and integrated voice chat.  Light on the content expectations, limited advancement, no solos, and it was a hard subscription sell, people willing to pay for the box but not sure it was worth $15/month.  Since 9.09.09 launch worked on additional features, accessibility, level cap increases, solo difficulty, small party play.  When undertook relaunch we were trying to define what is the nextgen business model that would support large populations and has an ecommerce system reusable for Turbine.  Release needed to feel meaty, worthy of a AAA launch, took level cap to 96 levels of advancement, polished combat, store game-changing, adding value to subscription plan.  Central to the release was to give a choice on how to play the game, and how to pay for the game.  Many might be willing to pay $50 for  box and $50 goods but not able to justify a subscription of $15/month. Wanted to give the customer flexibility to pay as much as they want to. (A revolutionary concept!!) Guiding principles: don’t do it halfway, present fundamental choices time v money, rent unlimited access with subscription plan or buy a la carte depending on how many hours you’re going to play.  Had a healthy subscriber base that we wanted to preserve revenue, had good game mechanics, weren’t starting from scratch, goal of game is to quest for super sword of awesomeness, not willing to give easy button on that and sell it as high end loot, however there are several things you need to unlock that you can buy.  Got push back for charging for a dungeon but its a handcrafted adventure, developing new content is expensive, want to charge for it.  There are tiers of customers – free – no credit card needed for first 4 levels which are free, limits in place to counteract goldfarmers, fraud and spammers, then there are premium and VIP customers. Had to upgrade payment system and decided to partner with PlaySpan. Turbine handling the billing and game integration and PlaySpan handling front end and back end of web-driven in-game store hosted on their proven microtransaction platform on their servers, skinned for DDO.  Learned it’s important not to skimp on testing, 4 weeks is too short, need 10w, observe usability sessions, where are users going to get stuck.  For DDO, the game stayed the same, players never need to use the store but its always ever-present, and seamlessly integrated. A third of the content is free, prompted when its time to buy.  Critics warned hybrid model might cause confusion, we’ll lose all our subscribers, can’t charge for features that have been in the game for years – none of this proved true.  Quite the opposite.  Eventhough it has only be a week from switching the paid subscription model to the free2play microtransactions/subscriptions hybrid, the results have surprised everyone. Paid subs actually increased since launch (9.1-9.9-9.14), 22% of players have discovered the store including those with free points, 70% put things in cart have checked out, experiencing reduced acquisition costs with 3x CTR on banner ads for the game, now 24th overall ranking and #8 in North America MMOs in XFire ranking, was at 104 in overall ranking #33 in MMO list, trending up in play hours, passing Conan, Warhammer.  So far so good! Items selling – heal potions, experience boosts, resurrection cakes, new cast, additional character slots, catalogue of 400 items, conditioning of free players in buying the loot and gear for characters. To prevent fraud, disallowing real money transactions. Always fine-tuning, where do we go from here and how do we adjust.  Hired people to work the store, merchandise the items.  If it helps us acquire more users we’ll make more things free.  Exploring a lower cost subscription with no points, also exploring offering a subscription with a lot of points for more  as well as product bundles. The DDO case proves players will spend on virtual goods in a subscription game.  Giving players choice to opt-in removed a key barrier, and without a ceiling some paid higher than original subscription!”

5:45-7pm, Cocktails
The evening ended as guests mixed it up at the afterparty.

If my now-client PlaySpan has anything to do with the monetization of Facebook and MySpace, it’s sure to be a banner year for social in 2010.  PlaySpan first caught my attention when it won TiECON last May and CEO Karl Mehta’s young son Arjun made an impressive presentation at SD Forum’s Teen Tech Titans on how he started the wildly popular publisher-sponsored in-game commerce network when he was just 9 years old.  Having already raised $24mm in venture capital with 100+ employees serving over 100mm+ gamers worldwide, PlaySpan is a major monetization force prepared to vault the economies of social networks, virtual worlds and online games into the stratosphere.  They are hosting an incredible monetization forum at GDC Austin next Tuesday, 9/15. Looking at the speaker list, expect it to be similar to the phenomenal Social Gaming Summit held last June which tweeps are still buzzing about.   If you’re already registered for GDC Austin, then attendance at PlaySpan’s conference is FREE.  What an awesome way to kick off GDC.  With over 200 high profile industry players in the audience, the networking should be fantastic.  RSVP at corp.playspan.com/gdc, tweet along at #agdc #gdcaustin, and throughout the show stop by PlaySpan’s Booth 801 for some awesome demos.  Here’s the guide:

Tuesday, 9/15
GDC Austin, Austin Convention Center
Level 4, Forum 18CD

2pm, Opening Remarks
Karl Mehta, CEO, PlaySpan

2:15pm, Social Gaming Panel
John Pleasants, CEO, Playdom
Sebastien de Halleux, COO, Playfish
Jason Oberfest, SVP Business Development, MySpace
Lance Tokuda, CEO, RockYou
Ned Sherman, CEO, Digital Media Wire

3:05pm, MMOs & Virtual Worlds
Cary Rosenzweig, CEO, IMVU
Joshua Hong, CEO, K2 Network-GamersFirst
Johnny Mang, Live Operations Director EA- DICE (Battlefield Heroes)
Tom Hale, Chief Product Officer, Linden Lab (Second Life)
Craig Alexander, VP Product Development, Turbine
Nanae Reeves, SVP, EA Online

3:55pm, Monetization Demo

4:15pm, Platforms
Ramu Yalamanchi, Chief Product Officer, hi5
Danielle Deibler, Engineering Manager, Adobe
Damon Hougland, Senior Director, PayPal Platform
Peter Relan, Founder and Chairman, Aurora Feint
Charles Hudson, VP Business Development, Serious Business

5:05, Transitioning Dungeons & Dragons Online (DDO)
from Subscription to Hybrid Model (Subs + Free2Play)
Fernando Paiz, Executive Producer, Turbine

5:45-7pm, Cocktails

It’s a familiar scenario: After making the seemingly endless trek to your objective, besting numerous foes on your way, you are finally on the home stretch and boom. Headshot. In online games the sniper is always there and always ready to punish rash moves and errant mistakes.

“Dirty snipers” is the rallying cry of whoever in the house happens to be playing, or watching, as the familiar sniper rifle icon separates your username from that of the person you are currently cursing. When done badly the sniper can be the single biggest frustration in a game. Battlefield Heroes, for example, was pretty much ruined for me almost solely because of snipers.

Technically that’s not fair. It’s not the fault of players sporting the sniper rifle that they are ruining Battlefield Heroes; characters simply move to slowly. As a byproduct of the players unurgent gait across the landscape any half-decent sniper can, of course, be a persistent annoyance. The match that forever turned me against the game consisted of the large Coastal Clash map, two snipers spawn camping and multiple deaths. At this point, especially at the early levels, you are pretty much helpless if you spawn away from cover.

This is less of a problem if there is an easy method of countering a persistently pesky sniper. Team Fortress 2’s Heavy class is, unsurprisingly, a sniper magnet. He’s slow moving, large and his gun has no accuracy against far away targets. The difference between Team Fortress 2 and Battlefield Heroes is that, during those times when you find your Heavy is being consistently taken out by a sniper in the distance, the fix is surprisingly simple. In Battlefield Heroes any solution you engineer to get rid of a tricky sniper has to be done with your existing class and environment. In Team Fortress 2, however, if you have a similar sniper problem you can choose any of the other 8 classes to fix it. Particular fun can be had as the Spy as your new Sniper friend is often not expecting to be troubled from the safety of his base, at least the first couple of times you kill him.

If snipers are such a frustrating part of online games shouldn’t they just be removed? Categorically: no. As I said at the start the sniper is always ready to punish a rash move. Good, rash moves should be punished. Death is cheap in gaming with the penalty being a simple spawn timer and a reset to base. Unlike spawn campers, grenade spammers or turret hoggers the sniper enforces care and attention in an environment that breeds the opposite. Snipers bring back the risk that balances the reward. In TF2 you may find yourself legitimately having an issue with them as the lumbering Heavy, but if a sniper was giving you a consistent problem as, say, the Scout then you’re not paying enough attention to your surroundings and the means you go about completing the objective.

More importantly sniping can be a lot of fun. It’s a slightly different mindset you have to adopt to be effective with the class. Perhaps ironically, given my issues with Battlefield Heroes, the best fun I’ve had playing a sniper has come from Battlefield: Bad Company*. In Bad Company the sniper class, and in particular the ghillie suit, is fantastically realised. It was Bad Company in which I learned of the concept of safety bushes: whereas many snipers may prefer the perceived safety of a building or roof, the real thrill comes from crouching down and moving from bush to bush getting as close to the action as you possibly can. There is genuine pleasure gained from the fact that as long as nobody sees your muzzle flash you are practically invisible. There have been moments hidden away in my bush in which an enemy soldier has run directly past my ear or a tank has rolled past oblivious. A good sniping position increases the tension tenfold: death is suddenly less cheap as you’ll lose your spot but at the same time you have a limited number of times you can operate from the same place before you’re spotted.

Just a little closer.

This is the perhaps the source of the frustration, and joy, of the sniper: they are playing a different game, aloof and distant from the main ground war. It’s the ultimate griefer class of the traditional class-based shooter dynamic. Frankly, if you don’t hate them then they aren’t doing their job right.

*I’m going to lose some respect points here by mentioning I’ve never played one of the main PC Battlefield games.

Gibt es jemanden unter euch, der mehr oder minder regelmäßig die PC ACTION kauft? Derzeit gibt es eine Aktion mit dem Schwester-Magazin PC GAMES. In jeder Ausgabe findet man Bonus-Codes für den kostenlosen Online-Shooter Battlefield Heroes.

Mein Problem: Ich spiele ausschließlich die Nationals und habe die PC GAMES abonniert. Diese bietet aber ausgerechnet Codes für die Fraktion der Royals an. Die PC ACTION widerum stellt Codes für meine Fraktion zur Verfügung.

Wenn also jemand die letzten beiden Ausgaben der PC ACTION sein Eigen nennt und mir die Codes zur Verfügung stellen könnte oder aber gern gegen die Codes aus der PC Games tauschen will, bitte schreibt mir in die Kommentare.

Diese Aktion läuft übrigens bis mindestens März 2010. Spätere Tauschaktionen sind also vorprogrammiert.

Ich danke.

.

Two sad articles today. One from G4TV and one from Kotaku. Well, it is looking like Battlefield 1943, for the PC, is being pushed back to early 2010. I really is gay. G4TV did a huge interview with Gordon Van Dyke about Battlefield 1943.

G4: Does the success of Battlefield 1943 change the direction of the next major Battlefield on the PC?

Dyke: Nope, Battlefield 1943 is its own unique star in the Battlefield universe.  It has caught a lot of people’s attention that download only games can be more than just an Arcade or Retro style experience.

G4: Why is Battlefield 1943 launching later on the PC? In retrospect, was this the right decision?

Dyke: We haven’t released a Frostbite [DICE's game engine] built game on PC, so going into this project we lacked a starting foundation we had on Console.  There are also many different and unique only challenges to the PC that has lead to us pushing the release even further to Q1 CY 2010 [early next year].  This was a hard pill to swallow, but it was absolutely needed to ensure the features and functionality that PC Players have come to expect from Battlefield on PC are not missing.  Things like support for DirectX 9 and 10, higher player count (up to 32-player matches), wide peripheral support i.e. Joysticks for flying, VoIP, and ranked server provider hosting.  So it was and still is the absolutely right decision, for quality sake, to not release until it is ready.

For more, Check out Developer Follow-up: Battlefield 1943 over at G4TV.

Now, back onto why the Wii sucks. Stright from Kotaku, reason #17492 why the wii sucks.

Modern Warfare Wii Gets Coop With a Catch

In the Wii’s Modern Warfare Squad Mate mode, a second player can use a second remote to fire off shots at enemies, but has no control of the movement and only their reticule will appear on the screen.

It’s kind of like a shooter’s version of Co-Star Mode, the cooperative two-player option in Super Mario Galaxy that had one gamer playing while the other fired off stars to help out the main gamer.

Read more at the sitre. But this is just sad. Why even bother with co-op if it is gimped.

I wanted to do a quick review of the Battlefield Heroes beta and what I got from it. Turns out that I got a bit more addicted to the game than I first realized. Most of us in our group have played BFH and it seems a lot of you are all starting to play a little more. So I wanted to give some tactics advice and maybe a couple tips on a few of the maps. But first I want to get into a little bit of detail on the classes that you can play.

Leveling up is pretty standard the better you do the more experience you get. In this field kills don’t help you as much as capping flags or just doing massive amounts of damage to people. I find myself doing a ton of damage but not getting the kills because someone else happens to get that last shot. I’m Ok with that because I just got the experience from all of the damage I just did. Though they get the fame of having the kill, at least I’m advancing. You get a HP (Hero Point its not extra health) every other level. These points you can use towards your skills to improve them. Another good thing about HP is you can distribute them as you like and if you messed up you can just click the redistribute button so you can fix it. As you level up more and more items become available in Store as well.

During battle you get points Called VP or Valor Points. You can use them buy weapons and different clothing. Weapons and Clothing purchases with VP can only be rented for either 7 days or a month. Battlefunds on the other hand you can use to permanently buy clothing and rent out bonuses to VP and Experience.

There’s 3 Different Classes.

Soldier:
The Soldier is my favorite class to play mainly because, if you know me at all you know I love to heal in games. So this class fits me quite well. I have a couple of setups that I like to run with, but one of them only works really well with others with the same build.

That build is the Grenade Spam build. With this build I put as many points as I can into Grenade Spam, while still putting 1 point into the 6th sense ability and at least 2-3 points in healing. This build is a good build with at least 1-2 other Grenade Spam builds with it. The goal of this team is to pretty much spam the heck out of the Grenade Spam Ability while using 6th sense to see the enemies around corners. Its pretty much unstoppable.

The problem is this is more of a solo game most of the time. I have a build just for that as well, which is the Burning Bullets build. With this one I tend to put at least 2-3 points into burning bullets at least 3 into first aid and if i have the extra points i toss in 1 in 6th sense. With this build just like the one above you use 6th sense to look around corners time your use of Burning Bullets and strafe a lot and there’s a lot of toasty enemies on the ground waiting to re-spawn.

When I play this class I really like to play the Second one best. I love to keep close to the gunners and keep them healed while they blast away at all of the enemies while I lite them all on fire!

Healing Troops

Commando:
With the commando there’s a few different play styles that most people use and that I use myself. There’s the normal sniper, stick back behind your troops and snipe the enemies from a distance using any cover you can. With this type of build I like the take the Elixir skill which allows you to dash away while most people are too busy trying to see past the dust cloud to even shoot you. Also its nice to take a heavy gun for long distance shooting with the Piercing Shot skill to boost damage while sniping. I often see people with Mark Target with this build as well to randomly mark key places where most people stand in Stealth.

The second one I tend to see is the short range sniper. These guys stick really close to the soldiers and the Gunners throwing out a barrage of sniper shots. A lot of the people who play this style also love the up close and personal approach and take the Poison Blade ability so they can do extra damage over time with their Knife. With this build its important to put a lot of points into the stealth ability. Its also nice to grab the Troop Trap ability and set up traps behind you so when you need to flee people chasing you get a little surprise while chasing you.

Of the two I prefer the second build thats more up and in the enemy’s face type of play. There’s nothing like sending out a ton of fast sniper shots right into the face of the enemy.

Troop Trap, Tank coming at full speed. Yeah I’m about to get owned.

Gunner:
This class has to be my least favorite class of the three. With the gunner there’s a few weapons that seem pretty useless. As an example I would not suggest the really fast rate of fire gun. It seems to do a minute amount of damage and can’t seem to keep up with the Soldiers damage. The advantage of being the Gunner seems to be its survivability. A good gunner can do some amazing damage with a well placed Explosive Keg while spamming the Leg It ability to out maneuver their opponent. The advantage to having a Gunner surrounded with Soldiers or other Gunners on the same team is the Leg It ability gives an AOE bonus so everyone around can suddenly go amazingly fast for quite a long period of time.

Often times You’ll notice that even though you have your gun right on the enemy that the mini-guns tend to have such a bad spred that you miss a lot. The Frenzy Fire ability seems to help in this but it does not seem to help enough. Hero Shield is very important and is what helps gunners really out last the enemy. Having a gunner around with I Eats Grenades is a really good defense to the Grenade Spam team but unless they have a couple Gunners with this skill the other team is likely to still get mobbed by grenades.

When I do use the Gunner, I tend to be the more up close and personal type and take a lot in Hero Shield, as well as Leg It with I Eats Grenades ability. Nothing like ruining a soldiers day while gobbling up all of his grenades.

4 vs Me. Seeing a pattern here? (Look out for the “Smooth Criminal” Look-Alikes!)

There are 4 Different maps for Battlefield Heroes. Though it seems that most Servers only have Coastal Clash and Buccaneer Bay going as they are the most popular. My official favorite has to be Victory Village.

Victory Village is a very up close and personal map something that I really like. Its very good for close and long range sniping, if you know the village well enough. Its really handy to have 6th sense equiped to duck around a buildings and see where the enemy are coming from. This place is an intricate village of buildings. It has a couple area’s that are really high volume of players like to hang out where Grenade Spam works wonders.

Coastal Clash is another one of my favorites. Though I’ve only been playing this map a few days I’m really starting to love the duck and move tactics that the map presents you with. There’s also some really nice sniper area’s where people just don’t notice you in time to do anything about it. I really do like going for the middle part in this map be it the upper side or the bottom side. There’s an advantage to holding each of these. This one I still need to explore some more myself to get it down a bit better.

Seaside Skirmish is probably my least favorite map. This map is a really huge vehicle oriented map. I love to be a soldier and thats likely the reason though. Soldiers are pretty much worthless vs tanks and this map has a ton of tanks and planes. Though if you really like to play with vehicles this is your map. I find that the main street where the two Cap’s are in the center of the map are the funest part to play around in. There’s a tower on that main street where snipers like to set up troop traps that blow people off the ladder and into the deep ravine. Its a good tactic the first time, after that though most people seem to watch out for it. There’s a few places where they put the anti plane gun turrets that are really useless because of so many trees in the way.

Buccaneer Bay is a mixture of everything. This is the map that has just about everything someone might want, from tanks, planes, up close combat, ranged combat and some really nice close up action in the middle of the map in the broken boat. My favorite is to see people on the many hills sniping or seeing someone come out from behind a hill path that you didn’t think anyone would ever use.

Each map has its use and purpose, love them or hate them they are a great set of maps to explore and use your own tactics on the fly.

In general this game is really fun and only has more to come in its development.

Hope to see all of you in game!

~Kate

Game Website: Battlefield Heroes
Player Name: Seriene
Most Played: Earthie, Level 15, Nationals

“When Battlefield: Bad Company 2 ships in March, it will deliver the best online multiplayer experience ever.” Those were the words of Karl Magnus Troedsson, Battlefield: Bad Company 2’s executive producer, at this week’s GamesCom in Cologne Germany.

Even if only half of that statement turns out to be true, we either have a new sequel to the Battlefield series this coming March, or we will have an experience with multiplayer that goes far beyond what gamers have enjoyed in Activision’s own Call of Duty 4.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is planned to be available to consumers for the PlayStation 3, PC and Xbox 360 on March 2 In the United States and March 5 in Europe.

Die Ewige Diskusion

Was bestimmt ein Ballerspiel? Der Inhalt jemanden zutöten? Oder dies mit einer Waffe zutun? Oder sind es alle Spiele Die mit schießen zutun haben. Mag sein, doch darum solllen sich die Politiker streiten. Doch bei diesem kann selbst kein Politiker behaupten, dasss dies ein Ballerpsiel ist. So muss man zwar auf virtuellle Menschen schießen, jedoch spielt sich das ganze wie ein Kinderbuch.  Die Grafik ist konsequent im Comiclook gehalten und auch die Musik scheint nicht zu einem Schooter zupassen.

more…

I was thrilled a few months back when I got into the, as it will be known from here on out, BF:H closed beta. I had this whole big write up I wanted to do on it, along with Quake Live. The first time I logged in, it was fantastic, the tutorial was fun, I liked the mechanics and everything. I go to start a game, and I get this:

Error'd

Ok, no big deal. It’s a beta right? They could be fixing the servers, or updating something, right? Maybe it’s a client issue? For at least two months of straight trying once every few days, on two completely different computers, and in two different houses (3 hours away!) I get the same problem.

Ugh!

The impossible really is possible. The seemingly unachievable is most certainly achievable. Finally, after years of deliberation and earnest wishing, I am finally going to Japan. My excitement is actually beyond measurement and understandably so; one of the most bustling cities in the world and some of the most gorgeous scenery this planet has to offer is just under a month away. On 29 August, I fly from Dublin to London Heathrow and from England’s heaving capital on to Narita International in Tokyo in the biggest adventure chapter of my life so far. I’ll be staying in coastal Yokohama with my Japanese school/university friend, plus another Japanophilic German chum. Presumably, trips to Tokyo will be daily occurences (I believe the two cities are only half-an-hour to forty minutes apart by train – in the strictly heretosexual sense, I’m actually looking forward to experiencing being prodded aboard the morning intercity by men employed to pack as many people on the carriages as humanly possible) whilst a small excursion to Osaka is on the cards. My flight across half of the planet is being funded by my friend’s mother (to be paid back in full, of course) so massive financial burden has, for the time being, been shed. Of course, Tokyo being the most expensive city in the world, I’ll need a fair bit of spending money. Regardless of the incovenient, murky financial side of it, I’m looking forward to trying out one of the infamous kapuseru hoteru (capsule hotels) just for the novelty value. Japan seems so intriguing and fascinating as to be unreal – I’m looking forward to finding out in my two week stay. Sushi, Shinkansen, sumo and samurai – can’t wait.

On a more domestic note, my break in England has been going spiffingly. Although I haven’t been doing much in Marlow (aside from browsing far too much internet and playing an unhealthy amount of  Battlefield Heroes (a fantastic game that should be sampled by all – best of all, it’s free!)), I managed to get to London today. I had a fantastic time and the weather was surprisingly warm, almost unpleasantly so. I’m strange though, preferring arctic frigidity to the heat and glow of our caring star – presumably, 95% of Earth’s population is normal. An in-depth post’ll be coming along tomorrow.

Life can be misleadingly enjoyable sometimes.

Aliens invade the podcast this week, and it causes Drew to forget the introduction format (apparently we don’t have names now). Our alien overloads also caused us to discuss their Earth domination plans, which are made clear in the new Wii shooter, The Conduit.

And I, for one, welcome our new alien overlords. I’d like to remind them that as a trusted podcast personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves. (obligatory Simpsons joke).

The message from the extraterrestrial sponsors is available from the link below. The message is cleverly disguised as a fantastic somewhat-weekly video game podcast.

You Shall Not Cast – Episode 4(b)

We also discuss the merits of keyblades when compared to chainsaws. We revisit the Pacific Theater in Battlefield 1943, and go cartoony in Battlefield: Heroes. We offend everyone Down Under with our Australian accents. We talk old PC games, be it city building games, RTS games or board game ports. We talk point-and-click games and their wonderful fit with the Wii. Alex has a nerdgasm when he discusses Monster Hunter on PSP. Alex has mob flashbacks when he chokes random henchmen on the Wii, but can’t hack the mob life when he fails to micro-manage. Alex… well… he keeps going, with talk about Terminator: Salvation, Bionic Commando, his man-crush on Capcom, iPhone gaming and Rock Band 2.

Alex also takes over the video game news section, where he talks about Mass Effect 2, Calling, Nathan Fillion in Halo ODST, Command and Conquer 4, the adventures of Scurvy Pete, Guitar Hero 5, Mario Galaxy 2, Resident Evil 5 on Wii, Wii Motion Plus, the Summer of Fighters, and probably more I missed. It’s a long episode.

Check it out! And check below to see that illustrious YouTube video of Alex getting his shit knocked in Rock Band 2. Laugh at his unpleasantness!

Music used in today’s podcast is from the song “Bliss”, by Muse, off the Origin of Symmetry album.

To trazendo hoje o vídeo review de BF: Heroes que o gametrailer fez há um tempo atrás, um ótimo review pra quem não conhece o jogo e esta querendo informações, concordo com a maioria das coisas que eles falam só não curti que eles só jogaram de royals ¬¬, eu sou national até a morte xD.

Fui!!!!!!1!!!!11!!!!one!!!!!™

Girls, one of the ways that EA gives back.

Some major stuff has happened that has gotten gamers behind EA for the first time since  Westwood was dismembered with the EA chainsaw and thrown into the corporate wood chipper. The list of grievances against EA is long, often petty, and completely unwarranted considering that other major publishers do the same thing. Some how they never got the kind of attention that EA did.

The angriest criticisms against EA started with yearly sports games that seemed like the same games with roster changes, horrible DRM, and their crappy PR team who at one point dismissed a petition from some articulate consumers with the statement “We don’t listen to the vocal minority (read: whiners).”

More words if you click here.

But these days EA has gotten a lot better at PR and maintaining their community; I blame Peter Moore. Here’s a short list of things that EA seems to be doing right these days.

Piracy.

The Sims 3 was leaked nearly a month before it’s release date. And EA, instead of issuing their normal “Pirates are sponsoring state terrorism and cloning babies for food” statement simply told pirates, “eh… you’re missing out on a lot of content .” This was true: a bunch of features only available by registering the game online were unavailable to pirates until the full game came out. Of course it’s still being pirated at the rate of 180,000 copies a day with the extra content. Was EA successful in stopping piracy? No, not really, but they did successfully show that they were willing to approach the problems of piracy using the kind language that speaks to most gamers. In the end piracy won’t end with threats and name calling. Actually it’ll probably never end, but this kind of tact goes a long way with reasonable people.

Original IP.

Once EA was known for its cookie cutter sports game rehashes. NHL 07 was NHL 06 with new rosters the same went for Madden and Tiger Woods Golf.  There was no where to turn. EA effectively have a monopoly on all sport franchise game licensing making any would-be competitor turn to making unlicensed sports games like  “Black College Football Xperience.” Aside from any offense you might take away from the racist overtones in the title, the idea of playing your favorite NFL stars appeals to most sports gamers, and only a very small niche of gamers will ever go out of their way to buy your non-franchised game.

Now EA has been working hard to fix that reputation by taking some risks with games like Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge. You may not like those games, but it’s the first time in years new EA games aren’t WW2 shooters and don’t have a sequel number in the title. Regardless, EA still insists on 60$ yearly roster updates for your favorite sports games.

EA giving back to gaymers (gamers).

Recently EA decided to sit down with representatives from GLAAD and talk shop about how to  address rampant homophobia prevalent in games. This is blatant PR if I’ve ever seen it, but who cares if it is? This move is getting people together to talk about something that is getting quite annoying. For once I’d like to play a game on XBL where I wasn’t assaulted by some 12 year old who discovered he can get the attention his parents don’t give him by shouting ‘faggot’ into the microphone as loudly as he can. Anyone who can shut that kid up deserves a pat on the back and a beer, or in EAs case I’ll buy a copy of one of their games so that whoever shut him up can get paid and buy their own beer.

Saving Brutal Legend.

Now I know a lot of you see this as a really nice thing for EA to do. After all Doublefine’s poor tortured producer suffered so much after Psychonauts, right? I’m sorry, I don’t see it that way at all.  I think there’s more at work here than philanthropy, EAs rather light fall season lineup and a good deal financially probably have a lot more to do with this than it being a PR stunt. Still we love to see when the good guys get a break. Whatever your intentions, thanks EA. Also, Brutal Legend looks great so far!

Battlefield Heroes: Free to play.

“Free-to-play, free-lunch, neither of these things really exist. You’re either being advertised to, or your being encouraged to spend money on virtual items. EA is testing a new content distribution technology, one that is highly successful in Asia. Virtual items are a multi-billion dollar industry around the world, EA isn’t giving you a free game, they’re giving themselves an opportunity to sell you Michael Jackson outfits, or virtual gold plated AK-47s.

EA hasn’t become nicer so much as they have learned that their community isn’t going to tolerate being treated like they’re brainless credit cards with legs drawn to shiny PR schemes like moths to the flame. People who play games tend to be warier than the average summer movie-goer mainly due to the price of games.

I guess the question we’re left with now that EA has cleaned up its act is “Where do I go when I want to be generally angry at the state of videogames?” I suggest Ubisoft, they’re French, and they’ve pretty much ruined everything they’ve touched for the last two years. Those two things are related somehow.