Category: Gaming

Battlefield 3 Hands-On Beta

Let’s get this straight, I love the Battlefield 3 beta. Ive been playing it every moment I’m not eating, sleeping, or working since it was released on Tuesday the 27th. I eagerly await the open beta that starts tomorrow to welcome a new whole crowd of players, both Battlefield veterans or just potentially interested gamers, into the experience. Since I started playing the Battlefield series with Battlefield 2 in a Gamefrog cafe that was located in a mall I have never stopped wanting more of the series and this beta, as a representation of what is to come with the final release of the game, delivers almost everything I could want or expect.

That all being said, there are quite a few things about the beta that I do not particularly enjoy, but many of those things are simply because it is a beta and is bound to have an approximate truck-load of problems. Some of the bothersome aspects would be the wide variety of bugs that you will experience while playing, sometimes the booming and glorious sound will all but disappear, other times you will get killed by what would appear to be the ground and then in the killcam you see their corpse bugging out through the floor and arms a-waving every with direction, and if you happen to crouch or go prone near a wall or a piece of cover you will often notice that either you or the wall/cover is bouncing. And what fps game beta with the ability to go prone would be complete without the bug of going into the ground? But as I said before, this is a beta so these kinds of things are not even remotely a surprise and they do not dampen the amount of fun there is to be had with the beta.

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The Razor’s Edge of Balance.

There is a never-ending and ever emotional argument when it comes to many games regarding balance. Balance would be the game being fair and everyone having an even footing when it comes to actually playing the game. It is not an uncommon sight to visit a particular game’s forums and see someone talking about, or dare I say complaining, about how feature x or feature y is unbalanced or favoring their opponent.I believe that balance is something that has become so subjective that unless there is a significant and obvious difference between two things in a game that should be equal that we, the people playing the games, might have a less than objective perspective on balance .

Say for example that your opponent in a real time strategy game like Starcraft 2 is playing a certain faction and is beating you rather severely, my reaction could be any number of things but most likely would fall into either A) “Oh wow this opponent is good/Oh wow I’m awful at Starcraft 2.” or B) “Hmm maybe his faction is just overpowered/the faction I’m playing just isn’t very good 1v1 against his.” In that example I would go with option A as it is a fact that I’m not very good at SC2 but I think it provides a good example of the ranges of reactions.

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Gaming
Jess Brohard

Star Wars: The Old Republic to be Released December 20

Finally, after months of waiting with baited breath, BioWare and LucasArts have decided to keep us is the dark no longer. According to the official Star Wars: The Old Republic news site, this highly-anticipated MMORPG (not to mention potential WoW-killer) will be released on December 20 in North America, and the 22nd in Europe. I’m

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Call of Addiction Warfare

I’m not the largest Call of Duty fan out there, I don’t buy all the dlc packs, I don’t particularly enjoy Black Ops, and I find myself growing ever more cynical about the lack of cooperation amongst teammates when playing the more recent titles in the Call of Duty franchise.

That being said, I still play Modern Warfare 2 like a fiend. Its as if I have an addiction to the game which wouldn’t be a total surprise as I often ride passenger to my addictive personality. I hit the prestige cap long ago and I can clearly remember numerous nights of playing round after round of the fast paced and twitchy shooter. Most likely, after I finish this column I will proceed directly to my PlayStation 3 and fire up Modern Warfare 2 and play a few rounds.

Just what is it that draws me back to playing the Call of Duty games time after time? Why do Call of Duty games persistently outsell equally good, if not better, other first person shooters? What does Call of Duty have that other games don’t?

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Food & Drink
Jess Brohard

[Review] Stand O’Food 3 for iOS

G5 Entertainment recently released Stand O’Food 3, the iOS sequel to the casual but popular burger-serving game Stand O’Food. With over 75 new levels, Stand O’Food 3 delivers the same addictive gameplay as its predecessor, this time with graphics, music, and in-game upgrades.

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Raptr Surpasses 10 Million Registered Users

The industry-leading social network site for gamers Raptr has announced that it has surpassed 10 million registered users. Of these, at least 1 million are active on any given day. This far surpasses the other big names in the gaming-focused social network space: gamerdna.com with ~450,000 registered users* playfire.com with ~400,000 registered users* wegame.com with

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Gaming
James Trauben

Space Marine is Only War – to its Detriment

Space Marine would be far less frustrating if it weren’t obvious that Relic truly loves the Warhammer 40,000 setting. I’m not a huge 40K fan, but I really wanted to like this game. Even in spite of this review, I can’t say the experience wasn’t often entertaining. But the most damning thing I can say

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