No worries...the beauty of Battlefield is that I can almost always find somebody on.

Hope to see you late.

I played quite a bit this weekend. Lee and OG were on Friday night, and I think I saw Spatch come on right as I was getting off at about 1 AM. Being partly snowed in, I played quite a few rounds on Saturday and Sunday as well. I think I added about 25-30 Ace Pins to my collection along with a couple handfuls of Combat Efficiencies and Excellents.

I was on a tear for a while yesterday with 6-8 Ace Pins in a row in a fairly competitive lobby. The highlight of the night was a map I actually lost. I was on a team full of wannabe snipers on Arica Harbor, and I was one of very few on my team who were actually working objectives. I'd normally find this frustrating, but I was rolling...just killing dudes left and right. I ended up something like 39 and 17 with a ton of objectives and dogtags, and I got the Ace by 2000+ points in a losing effort.


The other highlights were the usual epic engineer blowing shit up that happens on Harvest Day and Atacama Desert and a few instances of running up behind a squad of 3-4 with 200-round SAW in hand. I used to try to knife groups like that, but I've learned that simply lighting them up is more reliable and ultimately more gratifying.

Unfortunately, my system finally froze. The trend I've noticed is that my system most often freezes early in map, usually when I'm in a vehicle, and usually when my vehicle and another clip together. I think the system is probably still doing some work putting the map and all the players together, and I'm just getting ahead of it. It's like my system is telling me "Too much math!!!" I think I'll start making a point to take it easy the first few minutes of each map.

That's often how I freeze and I've learned there are certain points I slow down at the top of a map, too. The biggest example for me is taking a CAV out of deployment at Port Valdez. I'll purposefully floor it, brake, floor it, brake down the mountain because I kept freezing. Doesn't happen now that I do that. I freeze if vehicle combat gets too crazy on Harvest Day sometimes, too, especially around Alpha for some reason (maybe no much more often than elsewhere on the map but right now I can picture that the most).

I'd say Harvest Day and Atacama are easily the most common for me, and if I'll bet if I played Heavy Metal more, it would be a problem there as well. I can't really remember freezing on Port Valdez much, but I'm sure it's happened. The freeze the other night was actually on White Pass of all maps. I think the most important thing to do to minimize freezing is to avoid contact with other vehicles.

I can't even wrap my head around the kind of math the PS3 has to be doing to manage maps that large with that many players, all of that destruction, including the ground, bullets with actual physics and all of those vehicles.

Craziness.

I think that and the stats keeping is the gaming evolution that as one such as me who pretty much played SNES more than anything is absolutely floored by. I cannot believe this the ability of the games to keep track of all of this so much - it is craziness! I think the average layperson knows the graphics are better and the stories are better and the gameplay is better but I don't think they have any idea about all of the math and stats involved.

Even having followed every gaming generation from the Atari 2600 through the PS3, I still find the raw physics being applied in this 3-year old game to be almost alarming. Even by current standards nobody is doing anything like BFBC2...not even BF3, where they traded off destructibility for annoying light sourcing and particle effects. Ironically, I prefer the painted look of BFBC2 anyway.

I think a fairly large number of games keep detailed stats though...certainly all of the big shooters.

I've been kind of sickly this week, but if I'm up for it, I'm gonna shoot some bitches in the face tonight.

Got some BFBC2 goodness in this weekend. Played with Lee and Spatch on Friday night, OG for a bit on Saturday, and with Lee again on Sunday.

I have a few new rules that I play by:

Rule #1: I do not play Battlefield with MURDER4FUN
Rule #2: I DO NOT play Battlefield with MURDER4FUN

Dude cheats, and when he comes into a lobby, I simply leave.

I also ran into an existing player with a new username who I hope to avoid in the future: LeonSandcastle

He's one of those motion sensor no-scopers who drive me crazy.

I'm fully back in to this game. So much fun. I see Spatch on pretty regularly and OG on every now and then, but it would be nice to see a few others some Friday night (or any night really).

Played with Spatch for a bit last night and then Lee came on later. We had some really fun rounds along the way and lots of wookie tags. We were getting worked over just a bit on Panama Canal, and a bunch of dudes from my friends list joined our blueberries, and it was rollsville after that. Good times.

The highlight for me was taking this douchebag's dogtags on Oasis. His name: DOGTAG STEALER

My new thing, rather than teabagging, is to pull out my pistol and slowly pump pistol rounds into them while they watch on kill cam...but I only do it to players who annoy me.

Good time tonight guys, sorry my mic sucked earlier, hopefully it sounded better once I adjusted it. That team was pissing me off too, luckily I managed to get a few of their dog tags so I can avoid those bastards in the future.

All good Dave...was just tough to make you out, and yeah, I think it was fine after you adjusted.

An organized squad of medics can be a real MFer for sure, and there was a good stretch there where they seemed content holding one objective and just defending the shit out of it. I hate that.

You must have been doing fine, because I honestly forgot how you got on my friends list until just now...so good job!

What I meant is that you were playing well enough that I just assumed you knew what you were doing, and I was thinking you were somebody that I'd met in game rather than somebody who was new to the game.

How are you liking it so far? Feel like you're catching on?

I'll try to remember to add you to BC stats and get you a banner in the OP.

I went ahead and added Diecast to the DVDTalk group in the OP since he plays with us quite a bit and he's about to hit level 50. While doing that, I noticed that Spatch is gaining ground on me...only 600K behind...but I still have 500 fewer games. I'd really like to see OG make a push for level 50...mostly just because I want him to play more but also because he's soooo close.

I'm even closer than you thought...

Added CardiffGiant to the OP, and he's already ahead of Slider, which makes me smile.



I think I'll move BJ up at the next update.

Everyone likes a good BJ.

Definitely enjoyed it, it's faster than the Ghost Recons and Rainbow Six's of the world (still my favorite style of shooters especially the GRAW series) but much more reasonable than COD and the like. The vehicles and the sheer scope of the maps and of course the destructibility are really impressive.

One thing I'm curious about, does anyone know why there are so many Chinese weapons in the game? If I had to guess I would think it was maybe a trademark or licensing thing (e.g. H&K demanded fees to have their weapons appear in the game while the Chinese firms didn't) but I have no idea.

One thing I forgot to mention, is wtf was with the guys with the UZI and UMP taking me out from like 200 yards away?!?! The UMP ok maybe I can see it but a freaking UZI? That is one of the most spray and pray weapons of all time even in real life from what I've read and yet the guy is practically sniping me? That's some serious BULL shit right there.

Glad you're enjoying it. Hopefully it gets its hooks in you and we'll see you every now and then. Also glad you're appreciating how technically impressive it is. I think as you learn the maps, you'll really come to appreciate them as well. They are really well designed, and the destruction will drive the flow of the game in many different directions as hiding places are destroyed.

You can snipe with almost any gun if you have a good feel for the sights and use controlled burst fire. SMGs are less effective at distance than Assault Rifles and LMGs, but a couple of them are solid. The UZI is one of the decent ones because it has relatively low recoil. Several of the LMGs are good at distance too...especially my favorite, the SAW.

When I see someone in the distance that I want to shoot, I always spot them first with the select button and then just burst fire at the red arrow, which you can see even if they hide in brush or something. It also gives other teammates their location, so there's a decent chance someone else will help out. Hell, I'll spot random bushes sometimes just to see if somebody is hiding in them.

The Warsaw Pact weapons are simply a product of the US vs. Russia setup of the game. I can't really think of any weapons in the game that are specifically Chinese other than the two variants of the Type 88 (sniper and LMG). Here's an unofficial list:

http://planetbattlefield.gamespy.com....Detail&id=262

My favorites by class:

Medic: M249 SAW (lower recoil for sniping, monster ammo capacity, I use it with a red dot)
Recon: VSS (behaves like an SMG, but I spent more time with the USAS playing recon)
Assault: AUG (probably the class with the widest range of preferences)
Engineer: XM8 Compact (great iron sites allow me to run both explosives upgrades for mines)

Got a few games in with Spatch last night. We got a pretty good foothold on Heavy Metal right after you left. We lost the first round with something like 4 tickets left, and we never really let up from there. It's the first time in a long time that I've really had any fun on Heavy Metal, and it was action packed at Bravo.

Sometimes I think the game would be better if it didn't have choppers at all...or if it had more AA guns on some of the maps. On Heavy Metal, Atacama Desert and Port Valdez, Alpha and Charlie should have AA guns (rather than the bases), and they should all be the Russian one because the VADS is almost too effective.

I got kicked out of my last map on Port Valdez, and as usual, I was finally on a great run. They were coming from the Russian side, and I went up that hill right before their spawn because I heard a sniper up there around that big rock that overlooks Alpha. I guess I got there right as they were spawning in on this dude because there was literally a herd of enemies, all looking away from me toward Alpha. As I knifed my sixth dude in a period of 15 seconds or so, BigHurt says "Damn friz, you're going knife crazy up there!". I said, I wasn't done yet and knifed two more before a tank drove through and ran me over. I also had a shit ton of mine kills, was probably something like 25-5, and had the ace by at least 1500 points. Disconnected.

It NEVER does that when I'm getting my ass kicked. Never.

Friday. Bitches.

It's a shame BF3 got dismissed by the DVDTalk population so shortly after launch. You guys have missed some pretty epic stuff. Latest and final DLC came out Tuesday for Premium members. Most notably it added 4 new maps, dirtbikes, paradropping IFV's, and Capture the Flag & Air Superiority game modes.

Air Superiority is basically Conquest 12 vs 12... but all jets. The "flags" are zeppelins that you just need to fly in the vicinity of to capture. Pretty crazy stuff having 24 jets flying around.

I regret that it wasn't a better game with better mechanics. I'm definitely glad some folks are having fun with it though.

I got a few hours in last night...nothing terribly remarkable...way too much Arica Harbor and nothing interesting really happens on that map other than wookie stabbin.

Friday! Got a couple of games in with Diecast last night. Pretty good times other than the map where the other team got both choppers.

I've been exhausted all week. After you guys all got kicked, I decided to call it an early night (after starting some PSN+ downloads). It was good to get some games in again.

It was good to see you out. Diecast got off too, and I just played a couple more rounds before calling it a night.

We ran across some really aggrevating teams tonight.