Battlefield 3 - Living up to the hype!

After the trailers, the trash talking and the rather controversial multiplayer beta, DICE’s highly awaited first-person shooter, Battlefield 3 has finally arrived. It carries with it the expectations of millions or at least thousands of gamers, who’ve been looking for their next online fix. And thankfully, it does not disappoint.

Now, the Battlefield series (not to be confused with DICE’s Bad Company games) has always provided players with a deep multiplayer experience, but this time around, DICE strapped on a single player campaign as well. The story puts players in the boots of a US Marine named Sgt Black, who via flash backs during an interrogation sequence, divulges the plot of the game. It seems a fanatical terrorist has stolen some nukes and is hell bent on detonating them in Paris and New York. Black obviously is not a huge fan of his plan and does everything in his power to stop it.

Crash boom bang!

Battlefield’s campaign borrows heavily from other shooters on the block, and to be fair, it does deliver some pretty cinematic set pieces with much aplomb. You’ll co-pilot a jet raining hell fire on ground targets, survive multiple ambushes with your troops, manoeuvre a tank through enemy lines, take control of a turret mounted atop a jeep through a war-torn fictitious Middle Eastern country, survive a catastrophic earthquake, and lots more.

The action, while clichéd is frantic enough most of the time, especially during the indoor levels where you’ll be shredding through walls, glass, desks and pretty much anything that comes between you and your target. Unfortunately, the campaign is bogged down heavily by a ‘been there done that’ vibe that never really allows the game to create an identity for itself. Not helping matters is the fact that the AI is completely stupid, some of the missions felt a bit contrived, and the campaign went a tad overboard with its quick time events (QTEs).

Umm that doesn't look too good

Multiplayer is, of course, the main reason most of you will pick up Battlefield 3, and it is without a doubt a freaking ball. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 veterans will feel right at home with the game’s multiplayer modes like Conquest, Rush, Squad  and Team Deathmatch. Each of these modes can be played across the game’s nine vast maps. You can start your Battlefield 3 career off by dabbling with some of the more straightforward versus modes like Squad Deathmatch before you jump into the more complex, large scale ones. During Squad/Team Deathmatch, every map is cut down drastically in size, where a sizeable chunk of the map is cordoned off to provide some up close and personal combat.

Top Gun

If you aren’t too good at pulling the trigger, don’t sweat it; you can take up a support role since Battlefield 3 encourages and rewards players for playing as a team. You could chose to be a medic and heal your teammates or go in for a support class and make sure they never run of ammunition. As you level up your respective classes, you’ll unlock better abilities for them. For example, when you start the assault class, you’ll be limited to med packs, but once you level up, you’ll unlock the defib kit that allows you to bring your team/squad mates back from the dead.

source:  http://tech2.in.com/reviews/pc/battlefield-3-living-up-to-the-hype/252812

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Posted in Battlefield 3 , Battlefield 3 beta release date , Battlefield 3 India , Battlefield 3 release date , Battlefield 3 trailer , BF3 , BF3 beta , BF3 beta release date , BF3 India , DICE , EA

Battlefield 3 Multiplayer tips for beginners

Kick some serious butt on the battlefield with these basic yet highly effective tips.

Battlefield 3 has arrived in all its destructive glory and if this is your first Battlefield game, things can get a bit daunting. Don’t worry though; we got your back with this basic guide we’ve devised to help you on the Battlefield. Time to get your game face on soldier. Hooah! Get Vocal Make sure you have one So let’s rid of the obvious yet basic stuff first which surprisingly a lot of people seem to overlook – Voice communication. In Battlefield 3, voice communication between a squad is instrumental. You use voice communication for everything, be it spotting enemies, requesting health, ammo or a revival. It’s a team game and if you can’t communicate, you’re more of a liability than an asset. You get cheap mics all over the city so you have absolutely no excuse not to own one. Squad Up Squad = Mobile spawn points Now that you’re all set to enter the Battlefield, it’s time you found a nice squad since a squad that plays and communicates well with each other can kick serious butt. Plus, squads act as mobile spawn points for dead players so you can spawn in the middle of the action rather than trekking it all the way from base. However, I suggest you don’t blindly spawn on a team mate, especially if he’s about to die because in all probability you will die as well. Understand the game Choose wisely You’ve probably seen the Caspian Border trailer a million times by now and can’t wait to jump into a 64 man server but if you haven’t played a Battlefield game before, you will die – a lot. To avoid getting frustrated, I suggest picking up some of the smaller modes first, like Team or Squad Deathmatch where you can grasp the game’s mechanics and dabble around with your class as well. Support your team Sharing is caring Battlefield 3 is a game that rewards players for playing as a team even if they can’t shoot to save their lives. If you just can’t seem to catch a break, don’t get disheartened as every class in the game doubles with some sort of a support tactic. Playing as the Assault class? Keep dropping health packs or revive people with your defib. Support class your thing? Suppress enemy targets and lay down ammo for the rest of your team. Even a class like Recon that’s largely relegated to sniper weapons can help out by deploying mobile beacons to spawn on or motion sensors that allow players to pick up enemy movements on their radar. Just make sure you don’t end up being one of those selfish douche bags who’ll be camping in the dirt, going prone 24/7 with hopes of raking up a huge killstreak. Use destruction to your advantage Who needs doors in Battlefield 3 Granted the destruction in this game has been toned down a bit as compared to Bad Company 2 but even so, a rocket to the wall will create a nice door for you ASAP. Similarly, abuse a structure with enough explosives and it will crash down on its unfortunate inhabitants. Just make sure none of your teammates are in there as well. source:  http://tech2.in.com/features/gaming/battlefield-3-multiplayer-tips-for-beginners/253602

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Guns drawn in Activision, EA shooter game battle

The two biggest U.S. companies in the video game industry are preparing for a gunfight. This holiday season, Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts will battle for supremacy in the $5 billion a year market for first-person shooter video games. Just two weeks apart, the two companies are releasing major sequels of games where players shoot weapons through the perspective of on-screen characters. EA is coming out with "Battlefield 3" on Oct. 25; Activision's "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" hits store shelves on Nov. 8. The first-person shooter game genre ranks as the industry's largest segment, according to video game research firm EEDAR.

With global video game sales taking a beating in recent years as cheaper online games emerge, the competition between Activision Blizzard and EA is both a much-needed jolt of excitement and a welcome event for investors. "It creates a lot of buzz for the industry. These are two very high quality titles and when there's high quality content, there will be demand that follows it," said Andre Chan, an analyst at Neuberger Berman, a firm that owns Activision Blizzard shares.

Chan said shares of each company will swing on the first batch of sales data for the games, which can be played on computers and on consoles such as Microsoft's Xbox or Sony's PlayStation. "There will definitely be some impact on the share prices, depending on how well the first day numbers or five day sales numbers are," he said. Sensing an opportunity to goose sales, the CEOs of both companies have been engaging in some playful taunting. During a television appearance in June, Bobby Kotick, the CEO of Activision Blizzard, said that he had only seen footage of EA's game on a computer, the implication being that it wouldn't play well on consoles. That didn't please EA boss John Riccitiello, who fired back by telling Reuters that, "The very fact that (Kotick) is trying to cast doubt on our game is a perfect example of how we got his goat." Trash talk notwithstanding, from a sales perspective EA is bringing a knife to a gun fight. "Modern Warfare 3" is the latest installment in Activision's Call of Duty series, one of the most profitable franchises not just in video games, but in all of entertainment. Last year, "Black Ops," the previous edition of Call of Duty, made $360 million in its first day on sale, more than double Harry Potter's record-breaking opening weekend box office take in June.

The call of the battlefield rages on

Activision's head of publishing, Eric Hirshberg, said that pre-orders for the latest edition of the game were "significantly ahead" of last year's numbers. "We are hopeful that we can pull off the unprecedented feat of delivering the biggest entertainment launch in history for the third year in a row," he said. To go along with the game, Activision is releasing "Call of Duty Elite," a new subscription service that costs $50 annually and offers extra online content, including apps for mobile devices and better ways for online group play. Gamers who buy both the new game and the service together in a package save $10. To differentiate itself from Call of Duty, EA has been touting the cinematic feel of "Battlefield 3," which features a technology called "Frostbite 2" that makes action appear more realistic. "They are going to sell a lot of copies of Call of Duty but our focus is to start taking market share away from them," EA's Chief Operating Officer, Peter Moore, said of Activision.

Moore noted that EA used the same strategy to make FIFA the No. 1 soccer video game. Still, most analysts agree that Activision's "Modern Warfare 3" will sell at least twice as many copies as EA's "Battlefield 3." But EA's aim is to gradually chip away at the lead and gain enough momentum to take the crown back from its rival in the next few years. "EA would be happy to sell half of what Call of Duty sells this year. But it does leave the opportunity for EA in 2014 or 2015 to try to beat Activision at their own game," said EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich. Activision Blizzard shares were down 7 cents at $12.85 while EA shares were up 48 cents at $24.31 in midday trading on Nasdaq on Friday.

source: http://tech2.in.com/news/gaming/guns-drawn-in-activision-ea-shooter-game-battle/249152

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Posted in Activision Blizzard , Activision Blizzard vs Electronic Arts , Battlefield 3 , BF3 , Call of Duty Elite , Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 , COD3 , EA , EEDAR , Electronic Arts , PS3 , Sony PlayStation

FIFA 12 - The boldest FIFA game in years!

Is it better than FIFA 11?

To fans of the FIFA series, that question holds no importance. By the time this review is published, they’d have already purchased FIFA 12 and sunken several hours into it. However, this is a question that many gamers who aren’t fanatical about FIFA tend to ask, and most years, that question is easy to answer. This year, not so much.

EA claims that FIFA 12 is a revolutionary step for the series and football games, and there are a couple of big headlining features using which they aim to achieve this. To anyone worried about this being simply FIFA 11 with a new name – it’s not. FIFA 12 plays drastically differently than FIFA 11 did in a way that even the most ardent FIFA fans wouldn’t expect. FIFA’s rival – Pro Evolution Soccer, has been famous for making fans relearn each new game, while FIFA’s changes have traditionally been gradual and incremental. Not this year though. You’re going to have to learn how to play FIFA 12. But while EA has been bold enough to make a few sweeping changes, do those changes actually make FIFA 12 a better game?

Faster.... FAAASTERRR

EA’s unwavering dedication toward making FIFA a realistic simulation is instantly seen in the game’s slower pace. FIFA gets technical this year; it’s not just about making a pass, but how and when you make it and what position you and your intended target are in when it’s made. The most impactful new feature in FIFA 12 is also the most controversial. While a lot has been done to advance attacking, dribbling and goal scoring in past games, this time, EA has paid a heap of attention to defending. With the infusion of tactical defending, stemming attacks and dispossessing the opponent requires as much concentration, skill and planning as an attack on goal. Covering open spaces is the key and going in for rash, mistimed tackles will leave you exposed.

Be prepared for embarrassment as the AI will make your defensive line look silly on a regular basis on the higher difficulties, but once you’ve learned the nuances of the new system and the effective use of jockeying and standing tackles, FIFA 12 reveals itself as a more tactical game all over the park. The downside to tactical defending is that while defending is harder now, attacking is pretty much the same, so you still have all the fancy tricks up your sleeve. It’s a bit of an imbalance in favor of the attackers, but again, once you get the hang of tactical defending, matches in FIFA 12 can turn into some tense games of cat and mouse.

Gimme head

The other big feature in this year’s game is the Player Impact Engine, which is designed to make the game more fluid and realistic, but its implementation is far from perfect, leading to some embarrassing scenarios. The physics based engine is designed to use on-the-fly calculations to deliver more realistic collisions. On paper, this means that collisions and their effects will vary depending on the direction and severity of impact, and the strength and momentum of the players in question. So a slight nudge would impede a player moving at high speed differently than if he was running slowly. In practice, however, the engine throws up way too many bizarre collisions and awkward player animations, which achieves the exact opposite of what EA was going for – realism. Worse, your own players will trip over one another, and when it happens in your own goal mouth, it can be infuriating. Still, you will see glimpses of how this engine can make the game feel more dynamic, but its debut in FIFA 12 isn’t convincing at all.
source:  http://tech2.in.com/reviews/playstation-3/fifa-12-the-boldest-fifa-game-in-years/246142

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