Starcraft 2 Beta Gameplay

If that one video was not enough for you then check out more at that guy’s Youtube channel.

http://www.youtube.com/user/HDstarcraft#g/u

How I felt after a Gears 2 Horde Run or ODST Firefight game

I enjoyed playing Gears of War 2.  I really did.  Right up until the point that I completed a full Horde run.  A few friends and I got together one Saturday afternoon and went through the full Horde run.  It took us about eight hours to complete.  After that, I don’t think many of us have even loaded the game up again.  It seriously ruined the fun factor of the game.  Every time I think of playing Gears of War 2 now I think of that one single marathon gaming session and how I felt afterward.

Last fall Bungie Studios released Halo 3: ODST.  The game was thrown together fairly quickly by a small development team.  As such, they decided not to implement a full multiplayer matchmaking system like they did with predecessor games Halo 2 and Halo 3.  They did, however, include a new multiplayer mode called Firefight.  Essentially, it was a copy of Gears of War 2’s Horde, in that a team of gamers faced off against wave after wave of increasingly stronger enemies in an attempt to gain a higher score.  Once again, I got together with some friends one day and we played through the Firefight mode.  Although not quite the marathon length of Horde mode, it still took us over two hours to get through.  Just as with Gears of War 2, I never really have enjoyed ODST the same since.

What is it about these marathon endurance modes that ruins the gaming experience for me and probably many others?  I think it has to do with the challenge difficulty.  The whole point of these modes is to see how far you can go, how far you can push yourself.  In order to do that though, you have to set aside the fun part of the gaming experience and turn it into something most of us are trying to avoid by playing video games – work.  In order to succeed you really do need to view it as work.  It takes planning, leadership, and a team effort to succeed.  You can’t screw around and just goof off.  You have to take it seriously, otherwise what’s the point of even doing it?

Just today I sat down and played the latest DLC content from Gear Box Software for Borderlands.  Some friends and I managed to get through the first three arena challenges.  These are five rounds of five waves each, facing stronger and stronger enemies each wave.  It took us probably five hours to complete those three challenges.  After beating those three, we find out there are three additional larger challenges.  We went into the first of those challenges just to see what ‘larger‘ meant.  They are twenty rounds of five waves each.   Twenty!

I’m not sure how long before I attempt those later challenges in Borderlands.  Right now I really enjoy playing the game.  I guess I should learn from past experience and just know that once I sit down and force myself to play through them (which I know the perfectionist inside me will eventually make me do) that I will probably not feel like playing the game anymore after that.  Then again, maybe if I actually do it before Gearbox Software releases their next DLC, maybe that DLC content will make the game fun again.  Either way, I still wish developers would move away from these marathon gaming modes and find newer, better ways to make gamers want to play their games for hours on end.  One that doesn’t require gamers to play it hours on end just to actually play it.

We gamers would like to thank you for the great products you have produced over the years. As great as your games have been, we still feel the need to bring to your attention a few glaring defects in your games regarding the online multiplayer matchmaking and party system. The Modern Warfare 2 pre-game lobby is such a glaring eyesore on what otherwise is one of the best shooter games of all time.  What makes it so much worse is the fact that other shooter games have had the whole pre-game lobby and party system mechanics down for years.  When we first put the most anticipated game ever into our systems, we expected a perfected and well polished product.  Instead, we found a broken and inept matchmaking system that makes us feel as if we’re playing an online game from the late 1990’s.

First and foremost on the list of issues we would like to see corrected is the role of party leader.  In online matchmaking where gamers go in as a party, one person is designated the party leader.  This role should provide some level of power over how the party plays the game.  When in a pre-game lobby, sometimes gamers have reasons to back out of the matchmaking system.  The way your current system works is completely wrong.  The party leader has absolutely no control over pulling the party out of matchmaking.  Instead, the only way to keep the party together is to require the party leader to back out of the matchmaking system by themselves and then have the rest of the party notice that the party leader is gone and they then need to back themselves out.  This has caused many gamers grief with having half a party back out while the other half is still in the game,  completely oblivious to the fact that their party is gone.  The party leader should also have the ability to designate a new party leader.  This prevents the entire party from being broken up just because one person needs to leave.

Another issue is that of party stability.  When we enter matchmaking as a party, we generally want to play the game as a party.  This means we want to all be in the same game and on the same team.  The current system glitches often, which causes parties to get split up and thrown into completely separate game lobbies.  The way the gamers are listed in the pre-game lobby also makes it difficult to recognize if your entire party managed to make it into the same lobby.  We would like you to fix this so that parties are kept together, no matter what the connection quality is.  We would also like you to change it so that if we do somehow manage to get into the same pre-game lobby together, that we have our party listed always together and possibly have an on screen indicator of who is in our party.  You do this during the game (with the blue/green indicators) so why can’t you do this in the pre-game lobby?

One great feature of the Call of Duty franchise is the ability to join matchmaking games in progress.  Not many other game developers put this into their games.  While it is great to be able to get into games quicker, we have a few suggestions on how to refine this.  The first thing you need to add (this goes along with the party leader powers) is the ability for a party leader to set the party status as open or closed.  A closed party should not be available to be joined in progress.  Another feature we would like to see added is that join in progress be disabled near the end of an online match.  There’s nothing worse that joining a game in progress only to be placed on the losing team with just a few seconds left in a match.  There should be some qualification measure to determine whether or not join in progress is enabled or not, such as having a certain scoring margin within the last minute or two.  If it’s a close game, join in progress can be helpful, but no one wants to join a game that they have no chance of winning.

We hope you take this into consideration and we look forward to seeing many, if not all, of these suggestions implemented in a future title update.

To all you other gamers, if you agree with this, feel free to leave your gamertag in the comments below for Infinity Ward to see.

May 3, 2010

• First Impressions

Wow.

Yep, that’s my initial reaction to this game.  Wow.  Bioware really nailed it with this game.  The extra long opening sequence really set the tone for the whole game.  Seeing the Normandy get blown to bits and my Commander Shepard get hurled into space to die tells you right away that this game is serious.   The graphics in the game are amazing.  I actually had my wife come up to me and ask me to play the game some more so she could watch it  (that reminds me…I have a suggestion for Bioware, but I’ll leave that for the end).  The music though is what really sets the tone in this game.  The first game had decent music, but Bioware just raised the bar with this one.

Recently I just finished my second play through. Before the game came out, I had heard a lot about how this game was supposed to be so much longer than the first game.  There was so much more voice acting done for this sequel, so obviously the gameplay must be longer, right?  Well, Mass Effect 2 certainly is better, but just not sure it’s that much bigger. I managed to finish both play throughs in roughly thirty hours each, doing every single side quest I could find each time. The first game was comprised of four main quest areas to go through with a bazillion side quests that were as annoying to play as could be. Mass Effect 2 went the opposite direction and gives you almost two dozen main quests to do and just a few side quests. At least with Mass Effect 2 you don’t have every single area looking like just another cookie cutter cutout of the previous area. They really did improve in that area of the game.

• Got rid of the Mako

One of the most annoying parts of the first game that almost all gamers agree on is driving the stupid Mako vehicle. While the Mako seemed like a cool idea at first, the first game made you spend probably half your time playing just trying to drive the stupid thing up the side of a near vertical mountain side.

In a smart move, Bioware decided to drop the whole Mako from the sequel. In a not-so-smart move, they replaced it with something as annoying, if not more so. Planet scanning. Yep, now you don’t drive around a planet looking for minerals. You just sit in orbit and move your little cursor all over the planet scanning for minerals and launching probes when you find one. What makes this more annoying than the Mako driving to me is the fact that you actually have to do it in this game. The first game made all that mineral hunting an optional side quest. Mass Effect 2 makes it a requirement because you need those minerals in order to upgrade your weapons, armor and ship.

• Combat

Mass Effect 2 made some serious changes in how the combat plays out this time around. In the first game the combat seemed a bit nerfed with weapons able to have attachments that made the game a cake walk. In their efforts to improve the game, Bioware introduced the Mass Effect equivalent of ammunition – thermal clips. Technically, your weapons still have unlimited ammunition, but this time around you have to use thermal clips to keep them from overheating. Thermal clips aren’t unlimited, but at least they’re universal between weapons. It gets a bit annoying on the higher difficulties to have to manage your thermal clips, especially if you’re playing as a soldier that has no other special abilities like the biotics and tech specialists do.

There are also changes in specific abilities custom to each character class. Soldiers, for example, are the only class that has the ability to use assault rifles. Vanguards get biotic charge, Sentinels – tech armor, Adepts – singularity, etc. This time around you no longer feel you’re just playing a subset of two other classes, but instead you have your own special characteristics and advantages if you choose one of the 3 combination classes (Sentinel, Infiltrator, Vanguard).

Another change is the addition of heavy weapons.  This sounds really cool at first, but then you find out that Bioware decided to make finding ammunition for it just about the hardest thing to do in the game.  However, when you do manage to get ammunition for it, all I can say is damn, I love the Cain! I am, of course, referring to the above pictured M-920 Cain.  This gun packs a mean punch.  Hitting an enemy with this is like setting off a nuke in their face.  Just for fun, I used it on casual difficulty on the end game boss.  Killed it in one shot.

• Storyline

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• Gameplay

In order to survive the final mission, you need to have the loyalty of your squad.  For some reason, Bioware decided to equate loyalty with your team’s survivability.  When you actually play the game and put the same character in the same situation, whether or not the enemy shoots and kills them depends solely on their loyalty to you.  To me, that just seems weird.  Another thing about the loyalty factor is that it’s either a yes-they’re loyal or no-they’re not.  There isn’t a lot of middle ground.  Their loyalty is gained by doing the side quest they tell you about after being recruited.  Personally, I would rather have seen a loyalty system based off of what actions you take when that character is in your party.  That would at least require you to play with all the different characters at different points of the game and make personal decisions in alignment with that character in order to earn their loyalty.

Gone are the infamous and annoying elevators from the first game.  Bioware resorted to just showing us loading screens when they needed to load more of the game code.  As a gamer, that’s fine by me.  Mentally I tend to just block out loading screens whereas before, they actually had conversation going on during those elevator loading times. Show ▼

• Overall Impressions

Mass Effect 2 has to be the most polished, well made game I’ve seen.  Ever.  Unfortunately for Bioware, all they did is raise my expectations for the last installment of the Mass Effect trilogy.  Even with how good Mass Effect 2 is, there is still room for improvement.  The scanning for minerals part of the game is what really stands out as needing improvement.  Aside from that and a few release time glitches (finished missions not showing as finished, audio cutting out in certain key scenes, and walking through in game geometry) Mass Effect is as as close to a perfect game as I think it could be.  Assigning a score to the game, I would have to rate it 9.8 out of 10.0 with that little bit missing due to the aforementioned reasons.  The game leaves you wanting for more, eager for the next game which sadly won’t be available for a very long time.

This website has a philosophy I can get behind. Classic games with no DRM, updated to run on Vista or XP machines, and low prices. They have a very nice selection of games arranged by category and I expect more to be added in the future. Happy nostalgic gaming!

Yes, I’m talking about the RIOT shield. This thing is beautiful, and for several reasons. One, it deflects just about ANYTHING in the game if you’re aiming it right including Air Support. Acting as a target for the enemy harrier will frustrate them to no end, if they know what is happening. Two, it usually surprises enemies if they come blitzing around the corner and see you there. And third, if you’re playing right, it will take several of them to take you down.

But there are some drawbacks too. Unless you’re running lightweight and marathon, you’re PAINFULLY slow, and even with those perks it’ll take you awhile to get to the fight. Enemies can also just hit you in the side if you’re not using terrain properly, and can also sneak some bullets to your feet if they’re smart. Lag will also let some of the more aggressive opponents “Slide-stab” you, where they run to your side and hit melee, which will auto-target you and you’ll be unable to defend due to unavoidable internet latency. Sometimes they seem to just be able to shoot through your shield. Some people roll with semtex on all of their builds, and will try and stick you. Some people get their grenade launchers/AT4/RPG out and shoot behind you negating your defensive bonus.

These drawbacks aside, nothing brings me more pleasure than hearing a lobby full of opponents complaining about how big of a noob you are for using a short-range blunt object to kill them. Also, its a different way to play than the standard “Shoot enemies” way of playing, and it isn’t like the Stabbing epidemic that seems to be running around right now. Here are some general Do’s and Don’ts, and I’ll get into specific tricks of the trade in the next section.

Do’s

Do: Crouch when you encounter an enemy from ANY distance.
Do: Face your enemy and have him in the center of your screen at all times.
Do: Be patient when engaging multiple foes.
Do: Avoid sprinting when in enemy territory.

Don’ts

Don’t: Get too aggressive and lower your shield with an enemy in your direct line of sight with a gun pointed at you
Don’t: Stay in one spot for too long
Don’t: Stand in the open. Use terrain to your advantage.
Don’t: Use smoke or Flash grenades. These take too long to use and your shield will be down during this time.

Very simple to follow! This will allow you to survive for a little longer than an unshielded opponent. Now I’ll get into some tricks that will actually allow you to go positive in K/D while Rioting.

The throwing knife is a very quick weapon, allowing you a ranged attack that will minimize the down-time of your shield, and not to mention pretty humiliating when you nail someone from a decent range with it! Also handy for hitting people that aren’t moving but you can’t get to them without exposing yourself too much. The trick is to absorb some of their fire until they get confused as to what to do about it, all the while you’re lining up your throwing knife with the center of the screen from behind your shield. When they stop to throw a semtex, or aim at your feet, you chuck the knife, then go pick it up off their body and repeat the cycle.

Semtex: Slower than the throwing knife, but more likely to net you a kill with good placement. The tradeoff is shield downtime, which is why I prefer the shield.

Stun grenades are quick. Slightly longer down-time than the knife, but the benefits are awesome. One, the enemy is slowed to a crawl, two their aim is dropped, three they can be blinded temporarily with a direct hit. A well placed stun grenade beneath the feet of a charging opponent will make them bait for anything you may want to do to them. My personal favorite is shield bashing, as they can’t get away, and they can’t lag-slide you with their knife. Flashbangs and smoke are useless as the idea is for them to see you coming, and they take too long to use anyway. Plus flashbangs will hit you through your shield, while stuns do not.

C4: I haven’t personally messed with this, but planting it on the wall and using your shield to get them to rush you and blowing it could work. Problem is having the controller out for it means no shield. An ALLIES C4 would work wonders though, they can have it planted and you could pull them into the explosion. Or you can sit on the C4 pack and just back up a bit when its time to blow it up.

Claymores: These are trickier to use alone. To pull them in and set it off, you almost have to put it where they can see it at an odd angle. This requires a stationary position, and would work better defending objectives. Make sure you are somewhat facing your claymore to protect you from as much of the explosion as possible. Pulling an enemy into a teammates claymore is better as you’re not going to take damage, and you get extra points if they shot you before they ’sploded.

Now, onto perks and builds. I’ll list my favorites then some alternatives. First is Scavenger. With the Riot, once you’re in the combat zone you’re not gonna be moving alot, so Marathon isn’t necessary unless you’re impatient and want to be in the fight quicker. Scavenger gives you full ammo for your secondary weapon (non launcher) and allows replacement of lost throwing knives, used semtex and stun grenades, and the like. VERY handy and ups your killing power quite a bit.

For the Red perks, I prefer Cold Blooded and Lightweight, depending on the map. Lightweight with Marathon for the biggest maps to get into position, and Scavenger and Cold blooded for maps where you’re in the action quickly. You can use other perks to enhance your secondary weapon if you wish, they’re not my preference however. Having the shield on your back is very unreliable.

Yellow perks, there is only one you need: Commando. As slow as you are, if you’re gonna bash them to death you need range, and commando provides. The Pro level also has the handy ability of being immune to fall damage, so you get some great shortcuts opened to you. Nothing else really compares to the benefits you see for the shield.

Section 3: Its not all about you.

Ever notice how you get “Good distraction” points when the enemy shoots your shield, then is killed by an ally? The shield was put in to help support the “Team game” concept.

Get in front, your ally does the work while you act as a bullet/grenade/everything they have magnet. Playing as a team player helps cement your victory over your opponents. When acting as a bullet sponge, make sure to keep the enemy attention, and to let your ally know to hang back a bit and watch for flankers that would hit you in the side. Have them wait behind you, and when an enemy shows up and puts lead to your shield, they should pop up and blast them while the enemy is figuring out what to do about you. This is the simplest way to deal with enemies. Getting your shot in with the melee is good too, as dealing with multiple opponents is often too much for people to deal with, much less the complication of dealing with one wielding a riot shield. This will weaken the enemy, and make their demise that much easier for your ally. Beware of stray explosives, this is what people will try to throw before they die when confronted with multiple opponents.

Defending objectives is made easier with your riot shield in hand. When the enemy is trying to rush an objective point, such as in domination, they’re planning on swinging in, grabbing it, then running off before your team can react. You not only prevent an easy capture, you delay them until you can ultimately kill them, or an ally can more efficiently put them down. Make sure you’re crouched in a common path to the objective point, avoid easily flanked locations, and wait. Your enemies will be along shortly. Then its just applying above skills to the encounter.

I hope you enjoyed this short guide to RIOT shielding for fun and profit. Good luck, and have fun pissing off your enemies!

Now that the KAA have been identified it is time to designate three Areas of Responsibility (ARs).

The three ARs have been designated AR Elevator, AR Middle, and AR Helipad.  Because all three AR are long and narrow on this map it makes sense that the AR owners should be snipers or other long range builds.  Long range builds are recommended for each AR but there are enough nooks and crannies that a camping shorter range build could do the job.  Remember, I don’t care how each man takes care of his AR so long as it is taken care of.

The major vulnerability that is not addressed by the three ARs is the Red Pit tunnel.

This is marked as a SAA but anyone who takes that route could get behind all of the AR owners if they are sniping from the building.  This weakness can be mitigated by using claymores or having the Quick Reaction Force (QRF) or the Mobile Forces (MFs) covering the tunnel.  The QRF is not a very reliable defense because the QRF will probably be called out to help one of the AR owners.  As we all know, claymores are a decent defense but they can be circumvented.  This means that it falls to everyone to keep a loose eye on that area and if the MFs want to cover that area then more power to them.

Provision to the 50/50TACDOC for Highrise or any other map:

If any AR owner is getting taken out regularly they can request that someone take their area from them.  The AR owner must watch their area until someone relieves them and then the AR owner must assume the duties of the person replacing them.  The same goes for anyone that wants to change their duty position for any reason.  If a MF wants to take an AR position he must have an AR owner agree and then go relieve the AR owner.  Changing positions is a two way street.  If the QRF wants to switch role he must wait for the person to relieve him as well.  This way is someone is having a bad game in any role they can change roles.

Applying the 50/50TACDOC to any MW2 map is a four step process.

1.      Key Avenues of Approach (KAA) must be identified.

2.     Areas of Responsibility (ARs) must be assigned along KAAs to deny OPFOR the use of KAAs to outmaneuver our forces.

3.      A Quick Reaction Force (QRF) will be created to assist any AR that is under attack

4.      Maneuver Forces (MFs) will be assigned to harass OPFOR and destroy any massed OPFOR attacks.

Now the 50/50TACDOC will be applied to the Estate Map to give you an idea of the KAAs.  Once KAAs are identified three ARs will be identified to control OPFOR movement on Estate.  After the ARs are identified the duties and responsibilities of the QRF and MF will be more fully explained as they apply to the 50/50TACDOC.

The KAAs are marked by black lines.  Teal lines mark the Secondary Avenues of Approach (SAA).  The KAAs and SAAs are not intended to mark all possible avenues of approach; only the most important or frequently used avenues of approach are marked.  Also, the KAAs and SAAs are only my opinion at the moment and are open to debate and refinement.  Here is the map with KAAs and SAAs marked.

The KAAs have been identified now the ARs need to be identified.  Before the ARs are identified the role of the ARs and how they apply to the 50/50TACDOC need to be explained further.  The AR is simply and important piece of real estate that one person is assigned to control.  The person assigned to the ARs can defend it in any way that they see fit so long as they effectively deny the area to the OPFOR.  The person assigned to the AR owns the AR and it is their baby.  If the person assigned to the AR want to sit behind the AR in an over watch position that is all good.  If the person assigned to the AR wants to camp in some nook of the AR it is all good.  The idea of assigning AR instead of a specific position is that each person plays differently and with different weapons.  As long as they can keep the OPFOR from using the AR as a maneuver route then the person controlling the AR is doing their job.

Of course, each AR is not set in stone.  Those are the ARs that I think are most important.  The particulars of each map are open to debate and refinement.  Each AR is not defensible against a massed OPFOR assault.  The person responsible for each AR is only expected to deal with one or two OPFOR at a time by himself.  The main job of the AR owner is to keep the OPFOR from getting one or two men behind the lines and into a position to flank everyone else.  It is inevitable that the OPFOR will eventually mass four or more guys to push through an AR.  If the owner of an AR gets attacked by more than he can handle he puts out a call to the QRF.  There will be one guy assigned to the QRF and it is his main job to quickly help any AR owner that needs help.  Ideally, the QRF will be enough help to take care of the OPFOR but if the OPFOR show up with their whole team two guys will not be able to hold an area.  This is where the Mobile Forces (MFs) come into play.

Ideally, the MFs will be operating in the OPFOR area and keep the OPFOR from massing to attack any one AR, but if the OPFOR can get enough of their guys together then it is the MFs job to be the cavalry and come to the rescue.  The MFs should try to attack any AR that the OPFOR have taken from the flanks or the rear because the AR owner and the QRF will be fighting to take the AR back.  The way the spawns will probably work means that the AR owner and the QRF will probably be approaching the OPFOR from the front.  This will allow the AR owner and the QRF to delay the OPFOR until the MFs can flank and catch the OPFOR in a cross fire.   Also, the AR owner and the QRF should press the attack on a lost AR so the OPFOR cannot consolidate and control the lost AR.  The one caveat to this plan is that the MFs are given carte blanche to do as they please.

The only job that the MFs have is to defeat the OPFOR in the most effective way they can.  This means that the MFs are never required to help an AR owner.  If a MF is effectively taking the OPFOR out on the other part of the map then they are free to keep doing what they are doing.  However, if all or most of the OPFOR is identified as being on one part of the map then it is expected that the MFs will head over there and kick a little ass.  The MFs are not tied to any particular part of the map and are free to camp, sneak, and outmaneuver as they see fit.  As long as the MFs are racking up the kills then they are doing their job.  Of course, the MFs are encouraged to be team players and not a bunch of mother fuckers.

That is the 50/50TACDOC in a nutshell.  Of course, there are a lot of individual Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTPs) that we already like to use and those can be codified and added to the 50/50TACDOC.  The idea is that the 50/50TACDOC can be used to effectively unify our efforts and keep us from being flanked while allowing each of us to apply the TTPs that each individual favors.  As always, this tactical doctrine is intended to be refined over time.