This sounds suspiciously like Heavy Metal. In case you're not familiar, it's the only bad map in Bad Company 2...huge, lots of vehicles, and long walks if you don't get a vehicle.

I'm a little bit suspicious of 5 objectives with 12 players. Assuming you have 3-4 squads per team, and half of those squads are between objectives at any given time, you're going to have a lot of empty objectives. I like 4 objectives in a square though (think Nelson Bay or Panama Canal), so as long as the objectives are relatively close together and shaped something like a pentagon, it could be a good time.

The only thing that makes it like heavy metal is its size. The maps are all vehicle friendly. And there are plenty to go around. I just happened to be a little late spawning and had to hoof it for awhile since the game had just started and there were no objectives to spawn on yet. On this particular map the objectives are actually relatively close together... they're just far away from the spawns.

There wasn't any "empty" objectives in any of the games I played. There are vehicles everywhere so you can get around the map pretty quick. Plus an advantage of having five flags and such a large map is that it's VERY difficult for one team to control them all and spawn camp you into submission. So far everybody has been playing the objective and no one single team is dominating.

Another thing that's unique about Conquest mode with these new maps is that one of the five objectives acts as a control for the Gunship. This special objective is marked with a plane icon. Whichever team controls it gets to control the Gunship, which is basically just a huge plane that circles the entire map from way up high. There are two seats in the gunship for the controlling team to occupy. You can't steer it, you just rain down bullets and rockets on the unsuspecting bitches below. And of course everybody on the other team is trying to shoot it down and capture its control point. It's adds a pretty cool strategic twist to conquest mode.

OK, that last part sounds pretty cool.

Word.

Fo sho

I'm just sad we can't steer it.
I'd definitely crash that mother fucker into the ground...speaking of that, why is it that when I join you guys, we never play any maps with planes. Nothing makes me happier than flying a plane into the side of a mountain.

Because we almost always play BC2, which doesn't have planes. You'll have to play BF3 or 1943 for your plane crashing needs, but I'll warn you that they feel ridiculous to fly with stall speeds at or near zero. The choppers feel much more realistic.

So does being in the gunship make you vulnerable in any way like the UAV in BC2, or do you completely disappear into the plane?

You're in the gunship like any other vehicle. It takes damage from the new AA vehicles, helicopters/jets, or any soldiers with anti-aircraft rockets. You do get flares to ward off some attacks but eventually the gunship blows up and if you're smart enough, you bail out and parachute down like any other aircraft.

Oh it also acts as a mobile spawn if your team controls it. So even if the two seats are occupied, you can still paradrop out of it from wherever it is on the map.

Sounds pretty good. First time they have a sale for the VIP (or whatever it's called) I'll have to pick it up. It's just too bad I'm so disappointed in the core mechanics of the game.

Yeah if you want vehicle douchiness, you need to play BF3. The vehicles in BC2 are pretty weak in comparison. Of course, once you start unlocking gadgets in the vehicles, you'll stop wanting to crash them and start wanting to kick ass in them.

Tonight bitches.

We had a Slider sighting in Bad Company 2 last night! With him not communicating, it's tough to coordinate anything, but it was good to play with him anyway. Spatch was also in game, along with a few of the other guys I've met along the way.

We were in some good competitive lobbies, but I don't think we lost a lot of games as the other team seemed more focused on kills than wins.

Thanks for coming out fellas!

Hoping to get my new laser tomorrow and hope to have it installed and my PS3 up and running for Friday night.

Rabble. Rabble. Rabble. ****monkeys. Rabble. Rabble.

Just posting for the sake of it. Carry on.

Rabble. Bitches.

Hoping I make it tonight but I'm a bit tired.

Any of you ****s getting Borderlands 2?

Chew was my partner in the first one, and I need somebody who is committed to take his place.

I have it ordered. Would LOVE to do co-op. I hope to have more time in the next few weeks, but we'll see.

I have it pre-ordered also. I'll be playing it regularly. The girlfriend was my primary co-op partner in the first one and she's pretty psyched for the second one. But whenever she's not up to it, I'll do coop with whoever.

Awesome to you both!

I would like to pick a day or two per week that we can commit to it. Maybe Tuesdays.

Dibs on the siren.

On a side note, I got the old girl up and running. It cost me about $20, and I feel like a bit of a badass for doing it. Here's the process:

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Good times rolling with R2, OG and Hawg tonight.

I stabbed a couple of dudes in the face.

It's a shame everybody is so down on BF3. They've definitely tweaked a lot of things since launch. I've been having a blast with it lately. The variety of weapons and tactics in this game has no equal. So last night me and a friend were playing and this random guy joins our squad who was primarily a recon player (we were both engineers). The guy was thrilled that we were talking and working together. So he adds the SOFLAM to his loadout and starts "painting" targets for us and me and my buddy had a little Javelin party. Helicopters have been my nemesis since BC1 so I couldn't get enough of blasting those bitches out of the sky. I hardly ever (ie NEVER) get a recon "team player" so I had no idea that if air vehicles get painted by the SOFLAM/Javelin combo, their flares don't redirect the incoming rounds. Needless to say the choppers weren't lasting very long and we were dominating with the land vehicles. I might have to start playing Recon and see if I can get the same type of engineer support.

Oh and nothing's funnier than using the Javelin on guys on quads. They have no warning of incoming rounds and it's always an instant kill.

Glad you're having fun with it.

I have a whole variety of issues with the game, but the two that are insurmountable are the fact that I struggle so much with the basic shooting and the fact that every time a new map comes up, there's a 50 percent chance I'm going to hate it. I have other problems discussed previously, but it's hard to get past not liking the basic gameplay or the gameplay environment.

With the server browser in BF3, when you select any server, you can see the rules (if any), current players, and map rotation before you decide to join so you should know exactly what maps you'll be playing. A lot of the custom servers play strictly Back to Karkand and Armored Kill maps. I've hardly played any of the original maps lately. A good thing about this Premium stuff is all the people that have it now are obviously very much into BF. So the maps that are Premium exclusives at the moment are always filled, and every single person plays the objective. Hell, I'd even rent a server if there was enough interest in playing again.

As far as the shooting, it has been tweaked since launch, but it's still drastically more difficult than BC2 (for what it's worth BC1 is a lot more difficult than BC2 also). If I get into a one-on-one shooting match, I still probably lose 75% of the time, but I've accepted the fact that's it's my lack of skills and not the game itself. BC2 is the only Battlefield game I've had any success running and gunning. That doesn't necessarily make it better or worse... just different. I think BF3 gives me the most options to hide my weaknesses so it's easily my favorite of the bunch.

If the guys are into it, I'd down, but I have no plans to buy DLC for that game.

I actually found the shooting was WORSE after the tweak. At least before the tweak, I'd found a couple of usable SMGs.

Is it just the lack of auto-repair on vehicles that keeps you away from BC2? Seems like you would have played it more if you had some success with the shooting.

Despite by lack of a dedicated PS3 this week (somebody acknowledge my repair work dammit!!!!), it was a pretty good Battlefield week. I got to play with Slider for the first time in forever, played with Spatch for a bit, and saw OG and R2 on Saturday.

I need a Borderlands 2 commitment for next weekend sometime!!!! It would be really awesome if we could get a regular foursome from our group that played one night per week...but I'd be happy if I could just get one or two of you.

I miss Chew. We played through the first one twice and all of the DLC.

I saw on FB that Spatch plans to wait to get BL2, and we need to muster up some peer pressure. Do you have the first Borderlands Spatch? It's so much fun, but I can hardly explain why. I think the coop will be even better in this version with the Siren being less able to run ahead of the group. Playing coop with a properly equipped Siren in the first Borderlands was the videogame equivalent of watching a fireworks display as she could run way ahead and constantly explode in and out of phase walk. Now, I think she's much more attached to the other players for firepower.

I haven't read anything about the new Borderlands. Are the classes still the same?

Let me know what you're thinking for a weekend night. I'll try to arrange it. I won't have the game for a few days since I pre-ordered from newegg with that 20% coupon from awhile back. Thursday at earliest, I imagine.