Battlefield 3 beta, Origin and grenades

You are going to see this logo a lot in the next year or so.

Yesterday I cruised home over lunch to start the BF3 beta download, and for 3 gigs it went exceptionally fast.  80% by 2PM or so is no joke with that size download.   I wasn’t able to get in the game right away due to a driver update download (much slower from nvidia) and the CHILDRENS, but got in late at night for a span of time.  Suffice to say, this is really a must-have game for everyone that likes FPS, even if they play 10-20 hours with the singleplayer and dabble with the multi, it will be well worth it for the visuals alone, which are incredible.  EA knows everyone will want and buy this because, let’s just face it, it will be awesome incarnate. Like Blizzard with Starcraft/D3, and Stardock and every online publisher, EVERYONE wants to try to take a piece out of Steam. Since BF3 is going to be so awesome, EA wants to take a big piece out of Valve with it’s new Origin system.   You must have Origin installed and running to play BF3, even the single player, from what I understand. So EA is strong-arming people who want to play their awesome game to have their version of Steam installed.  Wouldn’t you?

Obviously, this has raised the same type of ire that D3’s “always online” with the master servers (like an MMO) issue that is causing lag in single player games in the beta (granted it’s still a beta).  What’s more, the older thingy EA did to try to mimic Steam really really sucked, so who can blame people that are gunshy after that crap was installed and polluted people’s systems?  However, just like D3, everyone will buy this game anyway despite complaints and suffer Origin’s existence.  Given that, after just a few hours last night, I think EA’s Origin is going to be a lot less obtrusive and annoying than Blizzard’s MMO style approach to Diablo 3– though Origin seems very strange at first because it is the game’s front end and it’s in a browser, I think  interface so far is top notch, everything is very cleanly laid out, it doesn’t seem to effect anything in game, chatting is very well implemented and overall stuff is very simple to find and use.  At first I was understandably annoyed, but after an hour or so with many crashes kicking me back to the interface, I started to think the Origin implementation is pretty neat.  If you are a hater without giving Origin a go, you know you cannot deny that BF3 is something you want and it makes total logical sense that EA would push it’s version of Steam off it’s super heavyweight title.  Just try it out. It’s not that bad.

Now onto the game:  BF3 crashed a lot.  I fell into the map twice and couldn’t get out until I hit a kill-brush.  There was horrible lag when I was near some other players, ending in my demise via the knife.  I couldn’t find a server that wasn’t full  for 5 minutes or so each time I tried to play.   I didn’t get on the map with the vehicles because they were all locked.  I couldn’t get in a game with any of my friends.   Lots of issues?  Yes.  Was it fantastic and would I face all of these issues to play more?  YES.    The feel of the game was great, grenade explosions are absolutely breathtaking (I threw one every time I respawned just to see it explode!), tracer rounds look gorgeous, the environmental damage effects are awesome, and you can go prone and, drum roll, you can get points for suppression fire!!!  Fire and movement tactics not only implemented in a game but rewarded. Finally.  Say you are a mid ranged, hang back and fire the LMG’s type of player– you may not kills that much but you are certainly helping your team by forcing the enemy to keep their heads down and restricting their movement.  Now you get POINTS for it.

As I mentioned above, I only got to play on the non-vehicle map in the park/subway and only for an hour or so, hence I can’t write that much about the game.  Despite no tanks and toys, it was absolutely engrossing– clearing halls and rooms with your squad via grenades, suppression and rush is what this is all about and BF3 does it well.  I’m itching to see what else the game has in store.

Also of note, on Origin Deluxe BF2142 is in the FREE GAMES section. Can’t argue with that!

Summer Reading – Cropper’s Cabin

Yes, I know summer is over, but I finished this bad boy just after the solstice so it counts dammit!  Jim Thompson– crime writer, very under-read, if not underrated.  I find while reading his stuff that I have many V-8 head slapping moments of “oh THAT’S where they got that from!”   El Rey from The Getaway is referenced in From Dusk Til Dawn, and the whole “son is the father of the man” thing in Blood Meridian is straight out of The Killer Inside Me (not that Thompson made that up himself).  I’d say No Country for Old Men is almost a homage piece to Thompson’s style.  Though there is no doubt in my mind that McCarthy is the better writer overall, a virtuoso with diverse novels like Suttree and All the Pretty Horses, but for crime novels, Thompson is the best I’ve read, blowing away even Hammett in terms of construction and language.  That said, Cropper’s Cabin is not Thompson’s best, but it is a great fast read delving into the psychology of a kid that is pushed to the absolute brink by those around him, and like a powder keg, the reader is just waiting and waiting for him to implode or explode.  I won’t spoil it, as it has a few twists and turns to get to the inevitable conclusion, but suffice to say it has a pace change in the middle and some horrific revelations.  What I dug most about it was the window into the cropper’s (and their Indian landowner’s) world and lifestyle as a backdrop for the events.  In some of the other crime novels by Thompson, the place and situation don’t matter all that much, but in Cropper’s Cabin, the cultural context is crucial to the story.  I’d put the book slightly above The Getaway due to that book’s almost tacked-on ending (the El Rey bits), but not quite as good as After Dark, My Sweet.  If you’re looking for an intro into Thompson’s work to see if you’ll dig his stuff, Cropper’s Cabin is a good one.  Unfortunately this was last published in ’92 as part of the Black Lizard line of crime stuff so might be tough to find– but with electronic books (bleh!) it’s instantly available.

 

Uhhh– EA did you just make me tweet HOLY SHIT?

>>UPDATE!  – this was a scam!  <<  Don’t click on any twitter links to beta stuff–the only way to get it is to sign in to origin and look at the free games section.

I rarely log in to twitter, but this morning I did only to find a tweet on my wall or whatever the hell it’s called that approximated to: “Holy Shit, I just got my Battlefield 3 beta code. better get them while they last….”  of course I don’t have a Battlefield 3 beta code so this is even more ridiculous.  Of course some sites post stuff for you but this is a not a slight bit shitty because 1) I don’t have a BF3 code so I don’t know where that came from  2) it says, and I joke not, HOLY SHIT as the first piece of text in the tweet.   This EA BF launch is turning out to be very, very strange.

From the wave – September

Rumors of google wave’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Vladmir Putin: ACTION MAN.

One meme that should never die.  Halt’ den Ball flach, Alter! 

Best Buy ad from 1996  – this has some crazy crap.  PSX and Genesis– but no Saturn stuff!?

Bowie’s Space Oddity as a children’s book.

Amazing shot of the alien from Alien chilling out on the set (note this has the faceplate off so you can see the skull beneath–not shown much in the film itself).

AirMech-  a Herzog Zwei remake

The real Guardian Heroes release date.

Octobeerfest!

this was not taken in Milwaukee this year.

So I got about as loaded as possible without puking or being hung over (?!) at Octoberfest Saturday. I was so drunk I told my three year old to “wait here” on the crowded dance floor while I went to take the piss. Of course she had no idea what was going on. Ridiculously stupid.  While a big event, I wonder why this isn’t bigger in Milwaukee: like the big one, the capstone to all the festivals had over the course of the summer, the blowout! Like many cities in Germany, Milwaukee could be THE Octoberfest destination for the entire midwest region of the country. We already have the big festival grounds, the relatively nice downtown (though crime-ridden), old world third street, and what’s most important–many many Germans!  It’s sad that podunkville La Crosse (while beautiful) is more known for Octoberfest than Milwaukee is– it has just as crime-ridden of a downtown as Milwaukee does these days.

Of the Beers, the Lakefront Brewery Octoberfest brew was by far the best of the few that I had (you can’t get a sampling when you are drinking a stein at a time). While I enjoy too much the Franizkaner, I should have been drinking the Lakefront stuff the whole night. I would have loved to have had New Glarus’s staghorn in a big stein as well, but they weren’t around.

The Clutch Brew

I got a chance to try the new brew from Clutch this week during some raucous games of King of Tokyo and it was pretty good– not a sessionable beer by any stretch of the imagination, but that’s really not what microbrews of this sort are.   It’s dubbed a sour coffee stout and just that claim is eyebrow-raising in of itself.  I think if the sour came through strong first, it would ruin the experience, but somehow a mellow stout starts it off, and then a blast of coffee– after you get a sour Franzizkaner-like finish.  Overall, a very interesting brew, but I’m not a fan of coffee, so would love to try this without it.  I’m not sure I could do a whole bottle (they’re pretty big) but a pint will go down well.   The bottle itself is gorgeous.  Time will tell if this is a series or a solid one off.

 

DC’s new 52

Yeah, I’m a weak person.  I broke down under the hype (and phone calls from MATT) and picked up a few issues of DC’s re-numbering of their popular titles (some had gotten into the 700’s so it was about time).  I was skeptical because, like a lot of people, I remember the awful Marvel New Universe.  So DC put out a new Batman N0. 1, Action Comics N0. 1, Justice League, etc.   With the exception of Swamp Thing, back in the day I discounted DC’s stuff during the heyday of Xmen (mid 80’s but before the X-splintering into so many titles it was impossible to collect or follow).  When ROM ended (shittily I might add), I picked up a Batman here and there and it was ALWAYS good, in addition, I got into the Justice League International madness when that was going through a really awesome period of writing and art.   With the normal Justice League, you knew they were going to just kick everyone’s ass once they got through the curtain of bullshit surrounding an enemy or problem, they had Superman after all.  With JLI, typically their ineptitude and lack of communication was a huge part of the curtain of bullshit between them and the real enemy.  What’s more, they were typically totally outmatched by their opponents (with the exception of times when Guy Gardner was around) once they actually found out where and who they were.   Anyway, it had a good run, and the new 52 one was meh.  The Batman one I got was good but extremely grotesque, I can’t leave that around for the kiddos to see.  Still sort of meh.

At the counter there was a free mag going through all the comics in the new 52 and though I feel a bit blase on the first couple, there are a few in the list that look like winners.   First off is Justice League Dark– dealing with spellcasters  (of course Zatanna is all up in there) and the like (John Constantine from Swamp Thing for example).  The cover is just gorgeousity itself so that’s a must buy.  Second is a title that I think is totally new: Red Hood and the Outlaws.  It looks very Image-esque (which is good for the art, but bad for the writing) and is in fact penned by a guy that worked on WildC.A.T.S.  Last is, and this is really showing my personal weakness, the oft-cheesy (especially back in the day) Legion of Superheroes.  While I’m aware of it’s cheese potential, I think this is the closest thing in print to the Alien Legion, so yeah, that’s my excuse.

There’s a bunch I’m on the fence about: Suicide Squad, a new Jonah Hex title, Animal Man (awesome cover there) and Batgirl (yes–batgirl) that I’m going to have to page through to see if their up to snuff before buying.  I know people are huge fans of Justice League, but I’m not one of them.  While FAR better than Marvel’s Avengers as a team, when you have a character involved that could punch the planet out of orbit, it just loses it for me.

Perusing the comic shop: what on earth happened to the fantastic four?  Spiderman?  White suits?  No Johnny Storm?  Well if any series needed a change, this was one (the Avengers can’t be made right so they shouldn’t even try).

breathing out the mouth

Chumpo:
ya this guy does a complete playthrough, good quality, http://www.youtube.com/user/Nastydude1989#p/u/21/enVA_WZkZcw
Me:
of the whole beta? that doesn’t go too far right?
Chumpo:
ya it’s like 1/2 or 1/3 or 1/4 of act1. the guy playing isn’t using any skills, just normal attack… failure
Me:
ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz….
Chumpo:
WHY IS HE IN BETA!
Me:
family man family with someone there or a press person…
Chumpo:
they are dumbasses, you and i need to be in talking CRANKSMACK.
Chumpo:
shit you can hear him MOUTH BREATHING!!!!!!!!! fucking terrible.
Brian:
file
Me:
i’m just not going to watch. i don’t want to make the association. During the game MONTHS from now I will remember some part that I get to and remember THAT GUY MOUTH BREATHING into the mic like a fat fuck that he is and it will ruin that small part of the game. I can’t take a chance that that will happen.