Wizard's Blog

Battlefield 1943 was released on Xbox Live Arcade yesterday (it comes out on the PlayStation Network today) and it puts a lot of other XBLA games to shame.

I’m getting a lot of hits from searches like “failed to connect to ea online”, so here’s something to help those people:

EA underestimated the demand for Battlefield 1943, so there aren’t enough servers.  They’re adding more, so just be patient and either keep trying to connect or wait a day or two.  In the meantime you can follow their twitter feed or go to their forums for news.

Continue reading ‘Battlefield 1943’ »

ECA logo

The Entertainment Consumer Association is a non-profit organization that lobbies for gamers’ interests.

Throughout history the establishment has always been afraid of new things that they don’t understand – from the waltz to rock and roll.  These days gaming is the new kid on the block and I’m sick of the media and politicians ignorantly blaming it whenever some lunatic shoots someone.  With the ECA around there’s finally someone to counter the rhetoric and hyperbole.

In addition to this, I found out from an article on Kotaku that one of the membership benefits of ECA membership is 10% off of gaming purcahses on Amazon.  As membership costs $20 and games cost about $60, you break even if you buy at least three games a year.  So not only can you help a cause that’s dear to your heart, but you can effectively do it for free!

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The new Battlefield: Bad Company maps I mentioned back in August have finally been released!

It took them a really long time to make them, which is why in a previous post I suggested that they should release less maps, more often.

I think it took them a bit too long to do this – while I was waiting for these maps to come out, I bought and finished Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, and bought and played Saints Row 2.  If money had been less tight, I would have also bought and been playing Fable II and Far Cry 2.

You can see a little bump in the usage stats when the new maps were released, but I think it’s too little too late:

Battlefield: Bad Company player graph with bump

On the up side, apparently they’re working on Battlefield: Bad Company 2…

Today I found out about a website called hubdub. It’s a game where you bet on what will happen with a news story – for example who will win the US elections:

Who will be the next President of the U.S.?

It doesn’t use real money, and it’s loads of fun.  There are lots of different news stories – politics, sport, entertainment, world, business, technology, science etc.

It does all sorts of real stock market type fluctuations and you can buy low, sell high etc. instead of waiting for the final result.  For example if you bet on Barack Obama and then a lot of other people bet on Obama, your bet will be worth more than it was when you made it so you can cash it in early and keep the difference.  However if after you bet on Obama a lot of people bet on John McCain, your bet would be worth less so you would lose money by cashing in but you could still wait to find out what the final result was, in which case you win if you’re right no matter what other people bet.

You can also add your own questions for people to vote on.  I’d like to add my own question but I haven’t thought of anything measurable enough yet.

If you want to join, use my referral link

EDIT: I’ve added my first hubdub question:

Will a second Windows beta of Google Chrome be released in September?

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Image via Wikipedia

DICE have announced that we can vote on what Battlefield: Bad Company single player map will be converted to a Conquest map for the (free) map pack coming this fall.  The map pack will contain the two maps that get the most votes as well as two selected by DICE.

The maps up for vote are:

• Acta Non Verba – Nestled with small villages around streams, rivers, and heavy forest could make for a perfect covert style infantry map.
• Crash and Grab – This level with spread-out villages and industries in the lower mountains could lead to great light armor and infantry battles.
• Par for the course – With a golf course in the middle of this map, this map could offer a great mix of golf carts, tanks, and gunships!
• Ghost Town – Dense villages, dried up rivers and high bridges could lead to intense Heavy Armor and infantry fights that scar this once peaceful desert!
• Crossing over – Dipping hills and patches of open fields mixed into the eastern European woodlands could make for an intense Gunship and Heavy Armor all out warfare.
• Welcome to Bad Company – With open fields and small pockets of forest, this foothill map could make for a mix of Medium Armor and Jeep battles.

Voting is only open until September 2, so don’t delay – vote today!

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• The long tail for games

Image via Wikipedia

The next game in the Need For Speed franchise (Need For Speed: Undercover) has been announced.  So far all that they’ve said is that it will be more like a movie, and it will be plot focused.

It will have FMV shot in real Hollywood style by a real Hollywood director starring real Hollywood actors.

I have a feeling they’re reeling a bit from the disappointment that was Need For Speed: ProStreet.  The car customization was weak, the real life aerodynamics were a huge disappointment, and although the car damage was pretty good they took all the freedom out of the game.  I don’t want to race on a track – that’s why I’m not playing TOCA.

I played the original few Need For Speed games a bit, but I wasn’t really a fan until Hot Pursuit and I briefly became a fanatic for Underground.  Carbon and ProStreet left me cold.

What I really enjoyed was the freedom in Underground – it’s up to me what car I buy, what I do to it, where I go in the city, who I race etc.  The OMG moment with that was when I lowered the suspension on the car, drove out of the garage and I could feel the difference.  That’s the first time that ever happened to me in a car game.

So – more like a movie? plot? actors?  Meh.  Bring back Underground!

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I wrote a post about the long tail for games – how game developers should be paying more attention to how long people play their games, and trying to improve that by regularly releasing content.

Last week DICE released the first DLC for Battlefield: Bad Company (the Conquest game mode) and guess what – there was an uptick in the number of people playing the game.

Now if they could do that once a month they’d have people still playing next year.  And like I said in my previous post, it doesn’t have to be anything as major as a new game mode – a new map would do.

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Battlefield: Bad Company soundtrack

The Battlefield: Bad Company soundtrack is available – I love the menu music (the jazzy piano one) but it’s not on the soundtrack!?

Although I really enjoy the environment destruction in Battlefield: Bad Company, it is fairly scripted.  You can’t dig too deep into the ground, you can’t completely destroy any of the buildings and when you shoot an explosive at a wall it always breaks a hole a certain size in a certain position.

Red Faction: Guerilla is supposed to come out in January and it boasts proper destruction – you can take down whole buildings, and it uses real structural physics.

The only down side (for me) is that the surface of Mars isn’t as much fun to play on as Earth.

Apparently there’s a beta of Red Faction: Guerilla, but unfortunately I’m not in it