Critical Mindset

Battlefield 3 Premium: Is It Worth It?

2012-06-22T09:46:00.001+08:00

Some people feel betrayed that DICE went this route. A route that seems pretty much in the same vein as the Call of Duty franchise with their Elite subscription service. After all the bashing, mudslinging that EA has done to the opposition just to prove that they provided the better game and all other free features that Activision charged players for, here they are jumping on the same boat.

However, if you look closely to what Battlefield Premium is all about, it's not entirely the same as Call of Duty Elite. First of all, Battlefield Premium is NOT a yearly subscription. It's more of a one time payment for all the DLC packs including Back to Karkand plus a few extras. The distribution of the DLC content is the same as the non-premium players but the former get them ahead of time. It's like EA is doing us players a favor, especially those who failed to avail the Limited Edition of Battlefield 3 thus missing the Back to Karkand DLC pack, by offering the whole package for a discounted price. I can't see what's wrong with that.

Some of the controversy comes from the fact that some people purchased Back to Karkand. And now they want the premium to be discounted just because they won't get the potential savings they would get should they waited for this announcement. In all honesty, I feel for these guys but really, that's how this business works. It's the same as if you've bought Little Big Planet 2 for $40 just to find out later that it's offered for free for Playstation Plus subscribers. You bought Uncharted 3 the moment it came out for $60 and bought all its DLC separately then you find out later that a Game of the Year edition comes out which includes the game and all its DLC. That is just the way it is.

So what do we get from Battlefield Premium? Of course, and probably THE only reason you wanna buy it is all of the 5 DLC Packs: Back to Karkand, Close Quarters, Armored Kill, Aftermath, and End Game. The $50 value of the premium is pretty much worth it considering you want to get all the DLC packs for Battlefield 3. Assuming each DLC packs will be priced at $15, even if you only want the DLC packs and you don't care about the extras, it's still worth it. Even if you already have Back to Karkand from the Limited Edition, you still save a few bucks by buying the premium if you want all the future DLC content. Now it's a different story if you are not planning on getting all the map packs. I know a lot of people playing on console are not interested at all with the Armored Kill DLC pack just because we're still limited with 12v12 gameplay albeit the large maps and some people are not really interested with vehicles. They find it boring because there's not a lot of action going on unlike when you're playing on Operation Metro or Seine Crossing. However, I'm personally excited for the upcoming Armored Kill DLC, in which one of the additions is the AC-130 gunship. That will be totally badass. Now for the last 2 DLC packs, we know very little about them. All we know for now is that Aftermath takes place on an earthquake-ridden Iran and End Game will include motorcycles. But seeing DICE's record, we've seen how great Back to Karkand was, reimagining old maps from past Battlefield games into Frosbite 2 engine, we've seen footages of Close Quarters and Armored Kill, we can safely say that these last 2 DLC packs are gonna be great as well.

So what are the extras? Here's the complete list:
1. 2 weeks early access to all future Battlefield 3 expansion packs, starting with Close Quarters
2. Unique in-game knife, unique in-game dog tags, 10+ unique soldier camos, unique weapon camos. Some random crap that people might find interest in collecting.
3. Stats reset feature. Pretty cool feature really, if you're aiming for a good overall stats for your Battlelog profile. But then again, for me stats don't mean anything in the community if not at all.
4. 10+ unique Platoon emblem decals, increased Platoon emblem layers. Random crap for platoons.
5. Server queue priority. I'm not sure how this will work, but I'll assume this is gonna be an issue for people who want to play at popular servers. If there are several players on queue, premium players will given priority first and will be upped in the queue. I don't really think this is a good addition and might trigger some hate from the players.
6. Save up to five of your favourite Battle Reports
7. 5+ unique Assignments
8. Exclusive events. Hmm, competitions for virtual and real world prizes like COD Elite perhaps? Maybe exclusive betas for upcoming games from EA? We'll have to wait and see.
9. Exclusive Double XP weekends. Pretty cool stuff, unless you're already at max level.
10. Exclusive videos and Strategy guides. I don't know exactly what DICE has in store for this but Youtube alone has TONS of content from skilled players that the inclusion of "Strategy Guides" in this features list of the premium sounds like a big joke. I can give you a few names you can subscribe to if you want to learn the game from inside and out and from ground up. I really don't think this feature is necessary.
11. Additional bonus content.

Most people could care less about these extras though. Maybe except for the early access to future DLC packs.

So do I think it's worth it? It actually depends on what DLC you want to have. That's mostly the only reason you want to buy the premium, to avail all the DLC packs at a discounted price. The extras are just icing on the cake. If you're enjoying Battlefield 3 to the fullest, close quarters or large maps, and you can't get enough of it then I do think it's all worth it. It's just a one-time payment anyway, not a yearly subscription. I do think that for a hardcore Battlefielder, this package is a must buy. However, if there are aspects of the game that you don't enjoy like vehicles, large maps, and what not then I suggest you save your money and just buy the DLC packs that you want. And then wait for further annnouncements on what the last 2 DLC packs have to offer so you can decide if they are worth your penny.

Streaming E3 Through PSHome? Meh...

2012-06-05T12:55:00.001+08:00

It's over...

I should have woke up earlier. Now I missed a lot of moments from probably one of the most exciting E3 I've ever watched. But as I made my last effort to watch what's left of Sony's E3 Live Conference, this is what it looked like when I streamed through PSHome. Man, I should have watched this through my laptop instead.

The sound is a bit too low even at max volume in my HDTV. The video lags so bad, and later at around 3 min onwards, listen to what happens to the sound...

When I try to watch the rest on my laptop, I never had any problems at all though. Of course, streaming through PSHome might need more internet bandwidth than just streaming through a laptop or desktop computer, and this might not be a problem in other countries that have much better internet capability.

I don't really get into PSHome that much, but things like this tells me that I don't really have any reason to get into it.

If you like this post, don't forget to subscribe to my RSS feed.

The Samsung Galaxy Y Review

2012-06-04T12:38:00.000+08:00

I want to get this out before I buy a new phone, especially now that Samsung Galaxy Y Duos and LG Optimus L3 are out in the market. It's better late than never. This will serve as a comparison once I write another review. Most likely, I'll buy the LG phone though as I want to try another phone that doesn't have an "i" or Samsung on its name. Before anything else, let's take a look once more on its specs.

Display: TFT capacitive touchscreen, 256K colors, 240 x 320 pixels, 3.0 inches (~133 ppi pixel density) with TouchWiz UI
Dimensions: 104 x 58 x 11.5 mm
CPU: 830 MHz ARMv6 processor
RAM: 256 MB
Phone Storage: 180 MB
External Storage: 2 GB microSD (expandable to 32 GB)
Camera: 2 MP, QVGA @15 fps
Data: HSDPA 7.2Mbps 3G/EDGE/GPRS, w/ Wi-Fi Hotspot
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth v3.0 with A2DP, USB 2.0
Battery: 1200 mAh
Positioning: GPS w/ aGPS support
OS: Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread

This is probably the first time I'll review a smartphone so forgive me if my little rants here are not up to your expectations as I'm only going to review this according to my experience with the phone. This is probably something I'm gonna do from now on everytime I buy a new smartphone (which will not happen very often mind you).

Let's face it, the Samsung Galaxy Young is pretty bad for a smartphone. But then again, for people that don't have the budget to buy an iPhone or any high end smartphones out there, this is a good start. And I really applaud Samsung for introducing cheap entry level Android smartphones like this one. No wonder, it's selling like pancakes. With that said, I'm going to enumerate the limitations of the phone that I've observed so you can decide if this phone will suffice for your on-the-go mobile needs.

1. Sucky resolution. The resolution of the Samsung Galaxy Y is a measly 240 x 320. The pixels are very obvious so if you're meticulous about the resolution then steer away. For watching videos, the maximum resolution I can get to play is 360p. There's no way to play 480p and above videos. I tried to find a good video player in the Market and one of the best contenders is the MoboPlayer. However, upon using it the video just lags horrendously from its audio. I've given up. Looks like 360p movies is the best you can watch with this phone.

2. The phone has no native support for AVI video format. You normally can't play AVI videos on a Nokia N70 phone but with the right app, you can make it work and it actually looks pretty good. On Samsung Galaxy Y though, I haven't found a good app that can play may AVI vids smoothly. With the apps that I've tested so far, the video either lag behind the sound or the quality is oh so bad.

3. Very low system memory. The 189 MB system memory of Samsung Galaxy Y feels like a slap in the face. I don't even have a lot of apps that eat that much memory except for Facebook and Tweetcaster. I had to erase some apps that I don't use that much like Google Plus (and it's a whopping 23 MB!) because of this limitation. But even then, I can't get the free space to more than 25 MB unless I clear apps data and cache and by doing so, I'll only be freeing around 14 MB of space. Of course, I have the option to root my phone so I can install my apps on the micro SD instead but it's something I'm not willing to do as of now as it will void my warranty.

4. Sound is a little too low and flat. For people who likes to watch Youtube videos, I suggest to put your earphones on, especially if you're like me who likes to watch video game commentaries. The sound is too low even at max volume. For watching movies, I suggest using Meridian player over the default movie player. You'll definitely notice the sound boost with the Meridian player. It's also an issue when you select your ringtone, though not a big deal if you don't want your ringtone to be too loud. It's very noticeable that the quality of MP3 ringtones is pretty bad, so I selected .m4a format for my ringtone (you have to change the extension to .aac though). Listening to music through the included earphones is decent though.

5. Camera plainly sucks. The 2 MP camera of the Samsung Galaxy Y takes decent pictures when there's sufficient lighting. When I say sufficient, not so much light and not too low either, having any of them will destroy the picture. If you can remember my article about the INC Grand Evangelical Mission in Quirino Grandstand, the first picture that I've posted there were taken through this phone. You need a steady hand when shooting photos as a little shake will blur your photos badly. That's why I don't recommend this for shooting fast moving objects and sports. There's some notable features like panoramic shot but don't expect any excellent shots with it. I don't use the video recorder that much but it happened to me once, the sound of all the videos I took got suppressed. I had to restart my phone to fix it. It might be attributed to the phone's pretty low RAM (256 MB) that even when there's minimal applications running in the background, the phone is still hogging around 75% CPU usage.

Check out some pictures below taken with Samsung Galaxy Y.

A not so beautiful free throw shot.

6. Not so good default image viewer. I have a few documents that are saved as jpeg files, like damage calculation tables, frame data in certain games that I play. Guess what, they all look like doo doo pasta when I zoom in through my Samsung Galaxy Y. Not really a big deal if you can download Quickpic through Google Play Store, and I'd definitely recommend this image viewer to anyone who wants to view their pics in their SGY with better quality.

Left: The picture as can be seen from Samsung Galaxy Y through its default image viewer.

Right: The picture as can be seen from other handsets.

7. Pathetic battery life. Battery life is like a joke really. You'll be lucky if your fully charged Samsung Galaxy Y gets to around 8 hours throughout the day. If you're like me that connects to wifi once in a while, check out email and Facebook, download and watch a few videos through Youtube, as well as receive occasional calls, you can easily drain this to around 5-6 hours. I don't recommend leaving the phone on data network mode throughout the day as this will easily drain the battery to around 4 hours. Playing games with this phone will discharge its battery to about that long as well. No kidding. If you have fewer open apps then you might be able to squeeze an hour or 2 more but overall, this is probably my biggest gripe about the phone.

8. Not very good performance. The moment I used the Galaxy Y, I already noticed that the Menu and Back buttons are a bit unresponsive and requires a bit more pressure register. To add to that, I noticed some lag when closing applications using the Back button. I get pretty impatient at times with the back button that I push the Home button instead to close apps. Hang ups and sudden restarts happen occasionally as well when you have too many open applications. Browsing through the default browser can be a bit stressful because this is where you'll feel the lag. Overall, the performance, though not very stellar, is pretty smooth when doing your usual tasks like social networking, messaging, reading e-books and playing some light Android games like Angry Birds and Sudoku.

This handset is equipped with an 830 MHz ARMv6 processor, and as you browse the Play Store you'll notice the limitations. Some applications like Firefox for Android are not present in Google Play Store as well as popular games like Temple Run (though I don't really recommend playing games with this phone).

9. Small Screen. The first time you try typing with the phone you're greeted with a QWERTY type keyboard on PORTRAIT MODE. That's right. With its small screen and cramped keys that's probably the most frustrating experience with this phone. Fortunately, you can change the keyboard settings to a 4x3 keyboard which is similar to a regular mobile phone keypad. But even then typing with the Galaxy Y is kind of stressful. It's pretty hard to not make input mistakes even with landscape QWERTY mode because the keys are still kind of cramped on each other. 4x3 keyboard is probably the way to go given its handy design if you're into texting a lot or posting in Twitter or Facebook. I got used to it through time and now I don't make mistakes as much the first time around.

Did I tell you that internet browsing with this device is stressful? Aside from the occasional slow response of the touch screen while browsing you have to constantly scroll left and right if you're reading articles due to the absence of a text reflow option.

Despite the cons that I've outlined here, there are several features of handset that I really liked.

1. Very handy design. It fits very well in my small hand and I can easily write a text message with one hand alone due to its handy design. That comes with a compromise of course - the small screen, the low resolution, among others. I don't find these aspects a burden for the most part, everything can still be read clearly. Just replace the default QWERTY keyboard with a 4x3 so you will have an easier time typing.

2. It's an Android phone! And a very cheap one at that. The Samsung Galaxy Y rocks with Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread right out of the box which other handsets that even have higher price ranges failed to have (most come out with Android 2.2 Froyo instead). Being an Android phone, it gives you access to a vast collection of applications and games through Google's Play Store. It has limitations, yes, but for an average guy it gets the job done for all the usual smartphone tasks that he needs, from browsing and posting in Facebook and Twitter up to finding your way with Google Maps and GPS. The phone also comes pre-installed with Quick Office which lets you view and edit your document files, but again you might find that task rather stressful due to the small screen.

3. USB and WiFi tethering. It's a nifty feature that helped me a lot of times when my Globe Superstick can't find good signal. The device can support up to 5 wifi devices but I don't think you would want to do that given its weak processor and battery life. The device will only last up to 3 hours with wifi tethering on. Overall, it was a life saver for me during those times that I needed to work remotely and Globe Superstick can't help me get the job done.

Though I find the Samsung Galaxy Y lacking in many aspects due to compromised CPU, a measly 2 MP camera and small screen, it's still a good entry-level phone that many people especially first time smartphone users will find attractive because of its price. It will satisfy you in most aspects, except if you're a bit impatient because of lag or you want to play Android games. This handset was priced at only P5990 during the time I purchased mine, so I'm pretty sure it went a little lower now and some retailers might be selling this now at around P5000+ mark. If you want a larger screen though, a much better performance when it comes to applications, or maybe something you can play on with Android games, and you have extra money to spare then I won't recommend this phone.

If you like this post, don't forget to subscribe to my RSS feed.

Do You Think Street Fighter X Tekken is Worth Buying?

2012-04-25T13:23:00.001+08:00

This article will serve as my own review of the game as well as my opinion if the game is worth buying despite the issues and questionable rumors circling around the game for quite some time now. Take note that by reading this, I assume that you have read a little about the game's mechanics from other sources as I don't want to make this article too hurtful in the eyes.

If you recall my last post about this game, I kind of despised it due to how Capcom is trying to milk the game with questionable DLC propaganda, which I'll discuss a little later. With that said, Street Fighter X Tekken is still a solid competitive fighting game. And with all the hype surrounding the game, the reality show Cross Assault, as well as nostalgia, I gave in to temptation and bought the game at last.

If you don't know what Cross Assault is, it's a first ever reality show produced by Capcom based on a fighting game. Basically, there are two teams, Team Tekken and Team Street Fighter with 5 members each who all came from a competitive background on the games that they represented respectively. The two teams would break down the game Street Fighter X Tekken, which at that time was not released yet, and compete for a grand prize of $25,000.

Apparently, Capcom wants to build the hype amidst the controversies that they're going through. And guess what? I couldn't resist the hype myself.

Just for a second, let's look past the bad business decisions that Capcom went through way back and see what this game has to offer. I'm going to enumerate the things that I like and I don't like in the game, things that you might consider in buying it.

1. Region locked? I never expected that Capcom would go this route with this game because both Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Super Street Fighter IV are not region locked as far as I know. Not a big deal though but I normally use my US PSN account to buy DLCs, now I have to load up my Asian PSN account just to buy any future DLCs because I bought the R3 version.

2. Representation of the Tekken characters. The Tekken characters are a little bit off when compared to their real counterparts. I mean, come on, Steve and Jin having projectile moves? Some people have noticed it quickly and are pretty pissed off about it especially Raven and Julia fans. Not really a big deal if you ask me, I already expected this to happen. It's a crossover game running on the Street Fighter engine so Capcom would have their own renditions of these characters. This is to be expected as well for the Street Fighter characters when Tekken X Street Fighter comes into fruition.

3. Controls. So far I haven't found a way to turn off the analog stick. Like in Tekken 6, it just gets in the way if you leave it on while using the D-pad and thankfully you have the option to turn it off in that game. Though I'm more comfortable with the D-pad, using the analog stick to perform special moves actually works, you just have to turn off L3 and R3 as Quick Combos are assigned to these buttons by default. You don't want to

Some hardcore SF players think the controls were dumbed down, all QCFx2 or similar commands are thrown out of the window. To do a Super Art, you just have to input a certain Special Move motion like Hadouken (QCF or quarter circle forward) then hit three punch or kick buttons depending on the character. For example, QCF+PPP gives Ryu his Super Fireball. Boost Combo + Cross Rush (otherwise called the ABC combo) provides a very easy tag combo for newbies. In addition to this, the player can use assist gems to further make execution easier, making special moves 2-button presses. This comes with a drawback of course, as wearing the said gem will decrease the damage of all your attacks by 10% as well as lose access to some important unique attacks. For example, you can execute Ryu's Hadouken by hitting -> plus any punch button but you'll lose his overhead attack (f+MP) and Solar Plexus Strike (f+HP). This might help alleviate a newbie's frustration due to the rather strict timing of cancels but in my opinion, it only takes away players from the game's real core. The tutorial, challenges, and trial modes are always great ways to teach a newbie player the basics because the game, being a tag fighting game, already boasts a lot of new game systems that will keep anyone's hands for a while. Which leads me to my next point...

4. Gameplay and Difficulty. Though the game is running on Street Fighter engine, Capcom devs was able to incorporate some of Tekken's gameplay mechanics, namely the launcher (not the ABC launcher but the character specific launcher moves) and juggle system, forward roll and backroll on wake up, etc. The tag system is somewhat similar to that of Tekken Tag Tournament as well, wherein if one of the characters lifebar reaches 0, his team loses. These mechanics, combined with Street Fighter's combo system make up for a complex and deep yet very fun and creative gameplay.

If you've been playing the Street Fighter series especially since Street Fighter IV, you'd definitely feel at home here. You'd need a little bit of work if you're from the Tekken scene though. But overall, the basics of this game is not really that hard to learn when you compare this to something like Tekken or even Virtua Fighter. And in some ways, it seems as if Capcom is holding up the new players' hands by giving them tools like assist gems, preset combos, and whatnot that can at least help them hold their own against experienced players while they are trying to learn the game further. High level tactics are a different story of course but you don't have to worry about it for now.

Though Capcom may seem to be catering to new players by giving them these tools, the game still requires practice of timing and execution, patience as well as experience.

5. Online and Offline Multiplayer Matches. The Paired Battle Mode is probably my favorite feature in the game. It reminds me of Street Fighter EX3 in PS2. I know some fighting games have this functionality as well but I can say that this game has done it correctly and made this extremely fun. As a result some tournament organizers are adapting this 2v2 matchups in their SFxT tournaments.

Basically, you play the game normally but as 2 teams of 2 players, playing the game in tag team style. The 2 players playing together need to have great coordination skills to make the most out of their combos and setups as well as save each other from KO. This 2v2 setup can also be brought on your online games so you can team up with your online friend, though this functionality did not make it to the Xbox360 version of the game due to resource issues of the hardware.

The game also offers Scramble Mode, in which all 4 characters are onscreen at the same time controlled by players, beating each other's teams. It's more of a fun side mode for me and will most likely not become a tournament standard.

6. Comebacks and Timeouts. In our day and age of fighting games in which comeback mechanics are prevalent, Street Fighter x Tekken doesn't seem to have something like Tekken 6's Rage, Marvel vs. Capcom 3's X-Factor, or even Street Fighter IV's Ultras. I know for a fact that comebacks produce an exciting gameplay, but I honestly don't like comebacks that are artificially produced by rewarding a player with a highly damaging move or additional damage boost for getting hit or decreasing his health bar to a certain level. Street Fighter X Tekken game doesn't have anything similar outside of Pandora Mode or maybe the Gem system (and that still depends on what kind of gems will be offered in the future). The former is an untapped potential that is designed with comebacks in mind but is more of a gamble than a comeback mechanic. I have yet to see people incorporate Pandora effectively to their gameplay but the game is still quite young and I'm pretty sure there will be much more to discover in this game during its life span.

With that said though, comebacks hardly ever happens in this game. Timeouts almost always happen just when you're about to regain momentum and nail that last ditch of effort to turn the tables around. Though 99 seconds seem long enough considering the amount of damage you can dish out in a tag combo, you'll be surprised at how fast that time runs out considering the length of certain attacks, combos, animation of super arts and cross arts that doesn't freeze the timer. It's no big deal if you ask me and of course, timeout is a legitimate way to win, however for new players and people that might want to try the game out, it looks pretty lame and unexciting to watch people jumping and running away from their opponent after chipping their lifebar to 50% once the timer hits 30 second mark or less. I hope Capcom fixes this in a future patch, increasing the time to something like 120 seconds.

7. Balance, Bugs, and Glitches. I can't really say anything much about balance because the game is too young at this point. Of course, there are characters that seem stronger and more popular than the rest of the cast like Ryu, Raven, and Hugo while there are some that seem underused like Paul and Yoshimitsu. However, being a tag game, if you play your cards right you can get away from lopsided matches like Zangief vs. Dhalsim by tagging your partner in. Let's say you want a team that utilizes Zangief as your main, you can choose an anchor character that can cover Zangief's weaknesses.

At the first week of the game though, a couple of infinite combos were found, one of the most dangerous being Kazuya's due to how easy the execution is. A few character bugs were found as well, namely Megaman's fly glitch and Jin's overhead move glitch. With Street Fighter X Tekken being a straight to console game, it can't be helped. No matter how skilled the testers are in exposing the bugs and glitches, there still some that will get through seeing how complex the game is. Fortunately, Capcom promised that these shall be fixed in a patch soon. I wonder though, for how long will Capcom keep supporting this game? Last time I checked, they released new editions of the game instead of a patch. I would be pissed if they release a Ultimate Super Street Fighter X Tekken Turbo Edition or some crap like that after 6 months.

8. Gems, DLC Character, and Other Additional DLC Content. Probably the most controversial aspect of Street Fighter X Tekken, the Gem System has drawn a predictable ire among the community. Basically, they are claiming that the gems will be an important part of the gameplay and yet Capcom announced that some gems will be offered as paid DLC. It's kinda like you're "paying your way to victory" that's why a lot of fans are not in favor of this mechanic.

Another issue at hand is the 12 DLC characters that they announced being locked on disc. I totally think this is outrageous despite Capcom's justification. Come on, DLC stands for Downloadable Content, not Disc Locked Content!

But then, I read this somewhere in the Shoryuken forums, that it's possible that the DLC characters were unfinished at the time that the game was submitted to the manufacturer, Sony, and Microsoft for approval. Kinda make sense.

And even if the fans, however unthinkable it may be, all united and decided to not buy any game with on-disc content, Capcom will just change their DLC model and force the players to download it later. But then again, why do you have to milk the game like this Capcom?!

It's a shame that the casual fans are sending this game early to its deathbed just because of the way Capcom handles the marketing of this game. I definitely believe that Street Fighter X Tekken is a great competitive fighting game and this is probably what I've been yearning for all these years since Capcom killed the Street Fighter EX series. The gameplay mechanics and some of the tag mechanics are kind of similar to Street Fighter EX3 and this is what I will be discussing in one of my next articles.

So do I think Street Fighter X Tekken is worth buying? If you're into fighting games and playing competitively and you don't mind Capcom's shady business practices then I'd definitely recommend this game. I'm definitely having a lot of fun in this game and if you think you'll have fun as well then buy this game and give it a try.

If you like this post, don't forget to subscribe to my RSS feed.

Battlefield 3 Playlists?

2012-03-28T00:07:00.005+08:00

Hopefully this gets out before the big patch for Battlefield 3 comes out. If you're a little out of the loop, DICE just released an announcement that they are gonna deploy a really big patch for Battlefield 3 in PS3 this coming March 27, with release date for PC and Xbox360 stated as "soon". There would be a lot of changes here especially in weapons balance, vehicle and infantry balance that I didn't bother to read everything in the patch notes. I feel that DICE is changing a lot of things all at once but one thing is for sure - this patch will definitely change everything.

Now in preparation for this upcoming patch, DICE and EA servers went through maintenance last week. And guess what happened afterwards - "playlists" was implemented in the server browser. For a detailed explanation of the server browser playlists, watch the video below from dontrevivemebro:

TL;DR? When you look at the map rotation of servers, some of them feature only large maps like Wake Island, Caspian Border, and Operation Firestorm while some of them let you play only on close quarter maps like Seine Crossing and Operation Metro. The most notable change in the server browser is the alternating game modes. Some servers switch between Rush and Conquest modes every round, some switch between TDM and SQDM, while others rotate all these 4 modes. The only mode that's left out on its own is Squad Rush.

Some people liked this idea for variety. While I have no problem with this setup, apparently some people didn't like this as not everyone is accustomed to all game modes that Battlefield 3 has to offer. And while official EA servers still have those normal Conquest Mode only servers, I failed to find any Rush Mode only server. All servers that have Rush Mode also have Conquest Mode in rotation. I can't find Hardcore servers that are Conquest Mode only as well.

A lot of my comrades only like playing Rush Mode on Hardcore servers so they don't favor this change at all. I do agree with them that the map rotation kind of kills momentum because you have to change your play style every match. I'm not sure if this change is initiated due to popular demand, but I'm pretty sure that a large portion of the Battlefield community still favors Rush Mode over Conquest.

Honestly, I welcome this idea of letting you play on just selected maps depending on your choice of play style, whether you want close quarters type of combat to get more personal, or large maps with all vehicles. Rotating maps is a good addition for people who like variety but I hope DICE will include servers that are Rush mode only for people that don't like to play Conquest. I don't want this to be a reason for people to opt paying to rent a server so they can customize their own matches.

In my next article, I'll try to get into the differences between Normal and Hardcore modes. There are obvious differences of course, but I will get into more detail as to why people favor one over the other.

If you like this post, don't forget to subscribe to my RSS feed.

I Hereby Declare Globe Superstick Totally Useless for Online Gaming!

2012-03-22T09:22:00.002+08:00

My relationship with my Globe Superstick has been in a downhill lately. At first it was pretty decent, with download rates reaching maximum during off peak hours and more or less 50% otherwise. But now, I'm lucky if I could maintain a 3 Mbps average, which is even below 50% of my subscribed speed. The average I could get right now is a little over 2 Mbps during peak hours. Honestly, I can live with that, I don't really do too much downloading or HD streaming lately that I will need the full 7 Mbps speed that I've subscribed to. However, it seems like my speed is getting worse and worse by the day, and now my Globe Superstick is completely useless for online gaming.

Yes, I posted some tips recently on how to improve your connection for online gaming but the thing is it's very hard to find that time of the day with optimal connection that will let you play as smoothly as possible. I also said that I could still use it during weekdays when network traffic is pretty low but lately I've been trying every morning to no avail. And even if I succeed on connecting to one of the servers in Battlefield 3, I get kicked out of it after a few seconds. The connection is very very unstable and it's frustrating to play knowing that the connection will drop a few moments later. And yeah, I've tried on other online games like Starhawk beta so it's not with the EA servers or the game.

My Superstick is also now useless in my work, I get dropped out of VPN after a few minutes. Conference calls always drop as well, pretty embarassing when I'm talking to a client counterpart from overseas. It could be the same problem with online gaming but I can't really tell what's wrong.

I've exhausted all workarounds that I can think of and maintained a consistently low ping rate but all my efforts were in vain. I've tried asking my friends in Globe but it seems like there's no other way to solve this but to subscribe to a wired connection like DSL, which means I have to terminate my current subscription (I can have both of course but that would be impractical and costly).

I've weighed my options and thought about it if this Superstick subscription is worth keeping but it doesn't help that old subscribers like me are still paying the same subscription price since day 1 (P1299) while newer subscribers can get the same maximum speed for only P999. I asked Globe's Customer Service earlier and they don't allow any downgrades for my subscription, but then again, why downgrade if it's still useless in online gaming and my work?

I asked them about termination fees and since my lock-in period is not yet through, I have to pay P4995 for the device (the ZTE MF60) which I get to keep and P550 for the admin/termination fees. Fair enough I guess.

I'm not saying that Globe 3G is all that bad. I know a lot of people are getting into mobile internet these days and that's probably one of its best selling points - mobility. The idea that you can check your email as well as your Facebook feed anytime anywhere is a great thing, and in the end it all goes down to purpose. If you're always on the go and want to receive your important emails anywhere you are then I highly recommend this. If you're that social network junkie who wants to check your Facebook or Twitter feeds anywhere you go then I highly recommend this. If you want to download HD movies or any large files at high speed rates then I can recommend this to you as well. If you're like me who wants an internet connection to use for competitive online gaming then this is not for you. If only I'm not playing online games...

I will have my subscription cancelled after Holy Week and then subscribe to a DSL connection but the thing is, this device is still with me so I'd probably snap in a prepaid sim or subscribe again to a consumable plan depending on how often I would need to get online remotely. Who knows, once Globe have upgraded the cellsites here in my area to HSPA+ (take note that I'm trying to avoid the term 4G) I might have the interest again to have a postpaid subscription to Globe SuperStick, especially that they released recently a new SuperStick unit, the Huawei E355. But for now, so long Globe SuperStick. Nice knowing ya.

If you like this post, don't forget to subscribe to my RSS feed.

Nokia 808 Pureview - To Capture Every Single Detail with a 41 MP Camera!

2012-03-17T22:54:00.003+08:00

For about 6 years now, I've never been amazed by any other Nokia phone since the very day I got my hands on my Nokia N70. If you're reading some of my articles for a while, you know by now that I'd never replaced my Nokia N70 until late last year when it finally died. During those years when Nokia was fully dominating the smartphone market, I'd never seen any reason to replace it with anything that Nokia released, no matter how better their specs were. I'm not sure why, maybe because the newer Nokia phones didn't really have any mind-blowing feature that was reason enough for me to ditch my phone. Not until now...

During the Mobile Web Congress last February 27 to March 1, Nokia surprised the world with a stunning revelation: a smartphone with a 41-megapixel camera! So how does it work? Well, let's take a look at Nokia's information on the phone on its press release.

"The Nokia 808 PureView features a large, high-resolution 41 megapixel sensor with high-performance Carl Zeiss optics and new pixel oversampling technology. At standard resolutions (2/3, 5 and 8 megapixels) this means the ability to zoom without loss of clarity and capture seven pixels of information, condensing into one pixel for the sharpest images imaginable. At high-resolution (38 megapixel maximum) it means the ability to capture an image, then zoom, reframe, crop and resize afterwards to expose previously unseen levels of details."

Honestly, I can't tell if an image still looks good at such a high resolution as 38 megapixels. I'm no professional photographer, but I can tell the amount of detail that the Nokia's sample images has. And honestly, I'm stoked!

The downside of the phone is that the other specs aren't really that stellar, and especially, the OS is still Symbian Belle, which is gonna die 4 years from now. Nokia explained that the Pureview technology was a result of 5 years development and at that time, the OS of the Nokia phones was still Symbian. However, the Lumia handsets that will come out later will have the Pureview technology. I'm very excited to see this.

However, some people are already underestimating this phone. They try to reason out, "Why would I need something like this? I would take DSLRs over this any day of the week." In my opinion, this phone will not in any way replace your much more efficient DSLR. However, cameraphones still have some advantages over DSLRs, one of which is portability. I don't think you'd ever want to take your DSLR on the go so you can shoot those rare moments. Also, there are places where you can't bring your DSLR and a cameraphone is the only thing you can get away with.

Other people might ask, "Why would I need a 41-MP camera phone? 8-MP is enough for me." Yeah, that's exactly what I thought 6 years ago when I had my Nokia N70 and I told myself, "2-MP is enough for me." Improvements like this are always welcome for me. 8-MP camera phone might be the norm now, who knows what could be the norm next year or even 2 years from now?

And now that Nokia has announced that the Pureview technology will also come to future Nokia Lumia handsets as well, I wonder if this is the trump card that Nokia needs along with Windows 7 phone to beat the competition.

If you want a more detailed explanation on why this cameraphone is revolutionary, I highly suggest reading this article.

If you like this post, don't forget to subscribe to my RSS feed.

Bringing My Blog Back to Life!

2012-03-14T20:01:00.000+08:00

For those who are new to my blog, you may have noticed a huge gap between my fourth to the last post to the next one. Yes, I've kinda abandoned my blog for a short time because I got too busy with work last December that I was still working during the holidays just to finish my deliverables. Honestly, I thought I would not be able to post again, but the views that I get everyday inspired me to continue what I've started. It's not much, but I feel proud that my blog gets at least 50 views in a day. My Globe Superstick reviews are my most viewed posts here, and I still receive comments and questions about it from time to time.

Those tough days are over, and I'm pretty glad that I can now post regularly in my blog. I still have a lot to work on though. My blog's design is still pretty messy, and I need to change a lot of elements and fonts. I still haven't decided what to do with that navigation bar though. I would love to hear suggestions from you regarding this so let me know in the comments.

Hopefully, I can work on these little by little as well as posting as regular as I can. Thanks to people that are still checking my blog from time to time and please be patient with the changes around here.

If you like this post, don't forget to subscribe to my RSS feed.

This is How You Create a Street Fighter X Tekken Film!

2012-03-14T13:07:00.012+08:00

Let's face it, the Tekken movie released last 2010 was a horrible piece of crap. And upon watching this 10-min film from Youtube, I can't help but be reminded of a thing that Hollywood movie producers failed to create throughout these years - a good film based on a video game. The Resident Evil series is probably the best that we got, and it's not even that spectacular. I wonder if movie makers have a damn clue of what they should do to create a good movie based on a video game. They should learn a thing or two from this video.

I personally love the last part of this video showing Jin. Enjoy!

If you like this post, don't forget to subscribe to my RSS feed.

Iglesia Ni Cristo Grand Evangelical Mission in Quirino Grandstand

2012-03-09T01:17:00.004+08:00

You know that awkward feeling when you see this amount of people in the GEM held by Iglesia Ni Cristo in Quirino Grandstand? Yeah, I know, it's overwhelming, I felt the shivers down my spine because little did I know that it would be THIS huge. It felt like the INC 95th Anniversary all over again.

The picture above was a desperate attempt from me to keep a memory of one the biggest gatherings of Iglesia Ni Cristo in history. Yeah, my phone's camera is an epic fail during events like this but at least I was able to get a decent shot out the 19 pictures that I took (yes that's the best that I've got ^__^)

Brethren started filling up the venue as early as 5 AM in the morning, so it was no surprise that I had a hard time getting near the stage as it was already crowded at around 2 PM, 3 hours before the start time of the Bible exposition. My girlfriend and her officemates who went to the venue a few hours later had no choice but to walk their way to it from Ayala Ave. Traffic was already too heavy and the LRT was too crowded that the line to the ticket booth extended to the streets.

You can imagine how massive this event had become. Media has released their estimates but the numbers are a little bit off, some estimates say it's 200,000, some say 600,000, while I've read a few ones say it's over a million. I'm not gonna give my own estimates here though. And since my Samsung Galaxy Y can't do the job very well, I'll post some more pictures here that I've taken from another source to give you an idea how many people were in the said event in Quirino Grandstand as well as shots taken from other venues. There are 19 venues all in all, so I missed a few of them.

An aerial view of the GEM in Quirino Grandstand during the night

An aerial view of the GEM in Quirino Grand Stand during the day

GEM venue at Freedom Sports Complex, Pili, Camarines Sur

GEM venue at Palawan

Gloria Town Plaza, Mindoro

Tacloban City Convention Center

La Union National High School Sports Complex

Isabela Sports Complex

La Paz Plaza, Iloilo City

General Santos City Gym

Davao Agro-Football Stadium

Cebu City Fuente Osmena

Limketkai Center Cagayan De Oro City

Agusan City

These pictures were taken from the official Facebook page of the Iglesia ni Cristo. Yup, this IS the official one, there's no other, everyone else is fake. Like the page and make sure to follow THE INC official Twitter account as well if you want to get updated about these big events and receive spiritual guidance as well. ^__^

If you like this post, don't forget to subscribe to my RSS feed.

Playing Battlefield 3 With The Globe Superstick

2012-02-26T22:15:00.004+08:00

I know you guys have seen this dreaded message at some point while playing Battlefield 3. It's very very frustrating especially during those clutch situations where the heat of the battle is at its greatest, grenades flying everywhere and you and your team mates are holding your own to protect the objective and then boom - you lose all the points, all the unlocks, all the kills (and deaths) that you've collected and that particular matchup is recorded as a loss. It happened to me a lot of times, and I always felt like throwing my controller out of the window in sheer frustration.

Lag. It's a game breaking problem that most of us have experienced one way or another and it's not really something that the game devs can completely eliminate, especially if you have a wireless internet connection like myself. And it doesn't help that our ISPs here in the Philippines are subpar compared to other countries.

When I check the server browser, I used to always get 1 bar ping on every server wherever it is. It really destroys my gameplay because there are a lot of times that I'm sure I hit the guy first, unload my clip but for some reason he manages to turn around and kill me first. There are times that I've used up a full clip of DAO-12 bullets on an enemy and he's still alive. I feel like my bullets take 5 minutes to hit the enemy sometimes and it's very frustrating. Lag also affects the VOIP, and though the poor quality of the PS3 voice chat is already identified as an issue, it becomes more apparent using a wireless connection (note: The VOIP issue has already been fixed in the recent patch). Especially during those peak hours, I can't understand what my squad mates yell at me.

In this article though, I'll teach you how to enable port forwarding on the Globe Superstick to somehow improve the online experience of Battlefield 3. It doesn't completely eliminate the lag, but it greatly minimizes lag during gameplay which in turn improves hit detection and it also lessens disconnections from my experience. You can also apply this to other online games as well, but the ports that you need to open might be different. In that case, refer to Portforward to check the ports that you need to open in a particular game, or do a Google search. However, this doesn't guarantee that the game will be playable. Tekken 6 is absolutely unplayable online using the Globe Superstick even with the port forwarding enabled.

I must warn you though, don't even attempt to play Battlefield 3 or any online game if you can't even attain a less than 300 ms ping consistently (to check, just type ping -t google.com or any site on your command prompt). You're just gonna get frustrated even more.

The first thing you need to do is to set a static IP address on your PS3. By default, most routers assign dynamic IPs and the Superstick is no exception. It will assign an IP somewhere in the range of 192.168.0.1xx, but will start from the lowest number available, e.g. 192.168.0.101. When a static IP address is assigned to a wi-fi capable device, the router won't know that the device is using that IP address, so it might assign the same IP to another device. Thus, you need to assign a static IP address that you're sure won't be handed out to another device that connects to your Superstick, so choose a higher number to assign to your PS3. Now let's get started.

1. Turn on your PS3, connect to your Superstick through wi-fi then go to Network Settings > Settings and Connection Status List. Write down the IP address that's assigned to your PS3, subnet mask, default router, primary DNS, and secondary DNS as you'll need them later.

2. Go to Network Settings > Internet Connections Settings. Choose Custom for the setting method.

3. Next choose Wireless > Enter Manually. Don't change your SSID and security settings.
4. For IP address setting choose Manual. Now here's the part where you have to set your static IP. After choosing an IP address, just put the same values for Subnet Mask, Default Router and DNS as your settings that you took note of earlier.

5. Just choose automatic for the rest of the settings and save.
6. Ok, now time to configure port forwarding on your Superstick. Open your Superstick dashboard either through Tattoo Superstick icon on your computer or by typing http://192.168.0.1 on your browser.
7. Go to Settings > Firewall > Port Forwarding.
8. Choose Enable for Virtual Server Settings. In the IP Address field, put the static IP that you assigned to your PS3.
9. The ports that you need to configure are in this link. So basically you need to enter 8 rules all in all. Click Apply for each rule that you enter.

Now try to play Battlefield 3. Feel much better now? Again, this does not guarantee that your game will be lag or disconnection free. This is due to certain factors, one of which is the network traffic. There are weekends when I totally can't connect to any server in the server browser until midnight comes, when network traffic is very low. But when your connection allows you to connect, you will feel like you're really playing Battlefield 3.

Above all this though, my best advice to have a better online gaming experience is subscribe to a wired connection because seriously, Globe Superstick or any wireless internet out there sucks chicken ass. DSL is still the most reliable internet connection here in the Philippines.

Take note that all of this testing is with a HSDPA only connection, so given the lower ping rates and higher upload rates of HSPA+, I believe the online gaming experience is gonna change once Globe has rolled out HSPA+ to all cell sites near my place. However, I feel like the improvements of Globe to their internet services is very sluggish. The moment that my Superstick starts receiving HSPA+ signals here in my place I will put it to test immediately to my online games.

Feel free to comment about your experience with the Superstick especially in online gaming. I would love to hear from you.

If you haven't read my reviews for the Globe Tattoo Superstick yet, you can check them out here:

The Globe Tattoo Superstick Review: Device and Interface
The Globe Tattoo Superstick Review: Network Performance and Internet Experience

If you like this post, don't forget to subscribe to my RSS feed.

New Theme for My Blog!

2011-12-17T04:22:00.001+08:00

I deeply apologize for everyone who are constantly visiting my blog for the mess that happened recently. I don't exactly know what happened but it seemed like my last theme got corrupted beyond repair. Well not really, it might still be fixable but I don't wanna go through all that hassle. Applying a new theme is 10 times easier and because most of my articles are related to video games, I've chosen the Gamenation Blogger theme.

Fixes to this theme are far from finished, I've been very busy during the past few weeks and I'm just squeezing what little time I have left for the day to fix my blog. For now please ignore the navigation bar below the title. It's not working and I still haven't decided yet what to do with it. The search function doesn't seem to work as well, and a lot of people have been complaining about Blogger's search widget lately. It's a shame because the theme's default search bar looks cool :-/ Anyway, if you need to search something from my blog I suggest using Google instead for the mean time.

Don't worry I'm planning to modify the sliders as well. Please bear with me till I get done with everything here.

Future Plans

I'm having a lot of problems with the Blogger interface lately it's not even funny. For example, I tried to change the Favicon but I'm getting the error below. The Edit Layout page looks absolutely wack as well. So I'm planning to move all of these to Wordpress so stay tuned for that. I'm just not sure when it will happen but as soon as I get all the resources that I need, I'll update this blog big time.

What the hell?!

I don't get anything from writing articles here but I appreciate everyone who constantly reads my posts and visits my site every now and then. Thanks everyone.

If you like this post, don't forget to subscribe to my RSS feed.

New Members of My Gadget Family

2011-12-08T18:43:00.002+08:00

Sorry for the title. Yeah I know it's lame but I just can't think of a better title for this post. But anyway, I know you're feeling the cold winds of December right now. It's the jolliest month of the year because there are lots of things we get excited about - Christmas, New Year, holiday, 13th month bonus, iPhone 4s release particularly this December, you name it. In my case, I'm pretty excited for Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, and the latest additions to my gadgets and gears collection. These blessings that I received lately are not that much but I'm very thankful to have them.

Logitech G330

From the moment I started playing Battlefield 3 with a clan, I knew I have to somehow find a way to communicate with them. After all, Battlefield 3 is a teamplay based game and team communication is an indispensable part of gameplay if you want to score that W.

At first I try to chat with them through XMB menu if I really need to say something like if I spotted a hidden sniper, etc. It was really inconvenient and it causes my PS3 to slow down or even hang at times due to multitasking. Also, I have to find a safe spot first so I can have ample time to type what I have to say. Sounds absurd right? It also doesn't help that I always tend to play Battlefield 3 when all my house mates are sleeping, and I don't want to play the game muted. I don't want to always go through all of this so I finally decided to buy a headphone that is compatible with the PS3. I could go with the official Sony wireless headset but that is way too expensive for me. I could go with a really cheap one like CD-R King but I don't want to settle with lackluster quality and poor durability. So I asked my clan mates what their preferences are. Their most recommended headset? The Logitech G330.

It's priced at P1950 which is roughly half the price of the Sony Official Wireless Headset. It also works right out of the box but is also a little tricky to setup if you want redirect the audio output of your game to the headset, otherwise you'll hear only the output of the voice chat in it. Also, it's a wired headset so the distance between you and your TV is limited to an extent, though the wire is long enough so you can game at around 4 feet away from your TV, depending on your setup. If you have a big ass TV though, I certainly won't recommend this or any wired headset for that matter. Aside from that, I believe the sound quality is good as long as I can hear everything in BF3 and I don't hear any unwanted noise. I highly recommend you buy this headset if you don't have enough money for the Sony wireless headset and still want good quality.

Samsung Galaxy Y

After more than 5 years, my Nokia N70 has finally given up on me. I always believed that my N70 has all the functionalities that I needed from a phone and I don't need to buy the more techy and more expensive phones out there. Now that it finally died, I needed to find a suitable replacement. There are lots of great phones and tablet PCs out there, and I got some prospects in mind - the iPhone 4s for its awesome 8 MP camera as well as 1080p HD video recording, Samsung Galaxy Note for being a phone-tablet PC hybrid, or the Asus Transformer 101 or Samsung Galaxy Tab for sheer power in an Android tablet. Unfortunately, I don't have the money to buy any of this, so I ended up buying the Samsung Galaxy Y instead.

It's unbelievably cheap for an Android phone, and people are getting crazy over this from the moment it was released in the market. I had the chance to ask the sales guy in MemoXpress and he told me they're selling Samsung Galaxy Y's like hotcakes, as much as 10 units in a day. So I finally got one and I'm enjoying it. I wanna put an in-depth review of this phone as well but this is my first Android phone so I'm not sure if I can put up a good comparison with other phones out there. But I will definitely post my impressions about this phone in the upcoming days.

Steel Series Shift Pro Gaming Keyboard

If you've read one of my past articles, I've mentioned that I won an epic gaming keyboard from Let's Go Gamers and I've already received my price a few weeks ago and I'm very excited to use it in my PC. My PC is not a gaming rig, but I have a few games there that I can test with it. Damn, I wish I could upgrade it sometime in the future so I can fully utilize this keyboard. Here are some screenshots of it. Now wipe off that drool coming out of your mouth :-P.

I will post a review of this gaming keyboard sometime in the future. Now if you're not part yet of the more than 10,000 gamers in LGG community then join now and use this invite code: 84bbcd5

Mipow Power Tube

My girlfriend's hometown is in Legaspi City, Albay, and I take a vacation there with her at least once a year because it is such a beautiful place. And during those long trips it helps that I have some of my gadgets to keep me occupied. However, one way trip to Legaspi City is like 10-12 hours and none of my gadgets can last that long, especially with my PSP having a lackluster 3-hour battery life. So when I got to Mall of Asia last weekend I decided to buy the Mipow Power Tube 2200 mAh from Astrovision.

There are newer models with higher capacities like the 4000 mAh, 4400 mAh, and 5500 mAh. I like the design of the 4000 mAh model but unfortunately, it's only compatible with iPhones and iPods. The 5500 mAh looks the same and also compatible with pretty much every gadget or device out there but is way too pricey for me. The 4400 mAh should have been perfect, complete with all the tips compatible with different smartphones and portable game consoles but I don't like its design. It's literally twice as long as the 2200 mAh model so it won't fit your pocket at all. So I just settled for the 2200 mAh model, and during that time the battery charge of my Samsung Galaxy Y is critically low so I tested it right away with its manufacture charge. Both my phone and the power tube fit in my pocket so it is really convenient though it feels a little awkward later because the power tube gets warm while charging the phone. It added a few more hours of life to my phone before it got fully drained. Wonderful. This will definitely add an extra life to my gadgets during a long trip and during those emergencies where you can't find an electrical outlet or whatever.

So I'm gonna post my thoughts about these gadgets in the near future so stay tuned!

If you like this post, don't forget to subscribe to my RSS feed.

Battlefield 3 Patch Released for Playstation 3: IRNV got nerfed!

2011-12-01T00:13:00.001+08:00

For those of you who missed that post in Battlelog, DICE has just rolled out a patch today for Battlefield 3 on PS3. Xbox360 players will have to wait though. It's some 750+ MB which is quite huge, and here's the complete list or what's fixed in this patch:

General fixes

• Significant improvements to the Squad Join interface, full details in this earlier blog post
• Removed FIND ME A SQUAD option
• Allow players to join empty Squads alone, thus having 1/4 Squad members
• Change order of options to LEAVE SQUAD, INV A FRIEND, SWITCH TEAM
• Disable Privacy flag when 1 man Squad
• Reset Privacy flag from Private to Public when Squad drops to 1 player
• All occupied Squads will now show up colored blue on the Squad selection screen
• Players who choose not to join Squads will also show up as Blue in the "Not in a Squad” line
• Squads that are currently empty will display as white -- if you wish to join an empty Squad, you can choose the first one marked with white text
• Added round duration and ticket summary at end of round screen
• Fixed sound for when climbing ladders
• Fixed and issue with some weapons' sounds in first person view
• Fixed a swim sound loop error
• You should no longer be able to damage a friendly vehicle when sitting in an open position
• Grenades now drop to ground if you get killed while attempting to throw it
• Spawn protection now should work in Conquest so you no longer should spawn too close to enemies
• You should no longer spawn too close to enemies in TDM and SQDM
• Fix for missing input restriction during intro movie, causing players to potentially fall and die while watching movie if moving controller (or having a controller with a bad stick zone)
• Combat areas on Kharg Island in Rush mode tweaked in order to disallow defenders to access the carrier ship after first base is taken and being able to enter the AA gun
• Fixed a problem with revived players not being able to get suppressed
• Fixed a problem with the camera when being revived in co-op
• Spotting VO now plays when spotting from MAV/EOD bot
• Fixed several issues regarding the kill card, including showing wrong weapons used for the kill
• Fixed that sometimes you would be stuck on a black screen when kicked from server
• Fixed so when a team captures two flags at the same time, the UI does not show wrong owner of the flag
• Fixed a problem where the capture progress bar was shown as friendly when the enemy was capturing
• Fixed a problem with the bipod deploy sound
• Fixed a problem that you could be spawned in with no weapons after being killed while using the EOD bot
• Fixed problems with health bars not displaying health properly when using EOD bots
• Fixed a problem with flickering name tags
• Fixed a problem where you could damage friendly helicopters
• Fixed a problem where you could get stuck in the co-op menu when attempting to join the session twice
• You should now be able to spot explosives
• You should no longer spawn in home base if your selected spawn point is disabled while waiting to spawn (e.g. if your teammate dies right before you are about to spawn)
• Damage from bullets will now continue to cause damage even after the firing user is dead
• Fixed several client crashes
• Fixed a problem where players could get stuck in the join queue
• Fixed the repair icon on the minimap
• Fixed a problem with changing camera on certain vehicles
• Fixed a problem with the grenade indicator when in guided missile mode
• Fixed a problem where the machine could hard lock when joining a public coop game
• Fixed a problem where the headset attached icon would not show up in the UI
• Fixed a problem with the falling antenna on Caspian Border. It should now more instantly kill anyone in its falling path
• Fixed a problem where tank turrets would turn too slow
• Fixed a bug on co-op mission "Exfiltration" where you could end up outside the vehicle and not being able to enter it again, thus blocking the mission
• Fixed a problem where a user can become invulnerable after being resurrected
• Fixed a problem with the M60 reload sound
• Fixed a hang in terrain streaming, causing the user to get stuck on black screen under special circumstances in single player
• Fixed a problem where the enemy would not be able to get a road kill on a user that was using the SOFLAM
• Fixed soldiers disappearing in the mortar kill cam
• Fix for Type88 and MG36 zoom in animation offset when in supported shooting mode (using bipods)

Balance changes

• Increased the damage of helicopter miniguns, AA guns, and jet cannons against infantry
• Increased the damage of helicopter miniguns against jeeps
• Reduced the physics impact of AA guns and jet cannons so players under attack from these weapons no longer should lose control
• Increased the damage of the 44 Magnum slightly
• Increased the range and minimum damage of the .357 Round from the MP412 Rex
• Increased the range of all .45cal and 9mm weapons
• Slightly increased the range of the P90 and MP7 and PDW-R
• Slightly increased the range of the 5.56mm PDW-R and decreased the minimum damage at long range
• Slightly increased the minimum range of the Mk11, SVD, and M39 EMR 7.62mm rifles
• Decreased the maximum damage and maximum range of the G3 and SCAR-H 7.62mm weapons
• Reduced the damage from FIM-92 and SA-18 IGLA missiles against aircraft
• Increased the damage and range of the 40mm BUCK rounds
• Reduced the damage .50cal weapons do against helicopters
• Updated T90 canister shell tweaks to match Abrams canister shells

That was some huge update! Also, Demize99 also posted a Youtube video showing how the IRNV scope and SCAR-H gun were nerfed:

I haven't downloaded the patch yet but from judging through the video, it looks like the IRNV can't spot enemies anymore from a certain distance. The color of the soldiers also changed from orange to green. Also, there's some kind of blurring effect that was added to it when you spot moving targets.

And yet there's still people complaining that there's no difference and it's still overpowered. Some people never get satisfied, do they? For those people who are still whining about the IRNV after the patch, please stop whining like 7-year old kids. If you can't see the difference then you're either blind or stupid. If you still think it's overpowered then you're either a fag or a retard. We should be at least thankful that DICE is willing to fix these things unlike other shooters out there that has obviously a lot of glaring flaws yet never get fixed. *cough*MW2*cough*BlackOps*cough*

If you like this post, don't forget to subscribe to my RSS feed.

The Reason Why I Refused to Buy Modern Warfare 3

2011-11-28T21:13:00.005+08:00

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has made history once again this year, getting 6.5 million in terms of sales, and $775 million in terms of earnings in just 24 hours, and that's just for US and UK. The franchise has broken its own record 3 times in a row now. A lot people has been playing ever since including some well-known celebrities here like Anne Curtis, Alodia Gosiengfiao, and much more. Obviously, they jumped onto the Modern Warfare bandwagon because they were curious as to why the title is so popular. The Metacritic rating of the game is very solid as well at 89 and 88 for Xbox360 and PS3 respectively. I believe the reviews were fair for the most part, except for some obviously biased reviews that look like they never played any FPS game other than Call of Duty, and I thought their review of Battlefield 3 was fair. Yes, I'm talking to you Destructoid.

However, from the first day of the game Metacritic user ratings have flopped down to 3.2 for Xbox260, 2.9 for PS3, and 2.0 for PC. This had come to Sledgehammer Games' Glen Schofield, one of MW3 devs and wrote to Twitter:

"I don't usually do this but, if u like MW3 go 2 Metacritic.com & help our user score. It's suspiciously low. Be honest but help if u agree."

Though the voting hasn't closed yet, Battlefield 3 is already winning a landslide victory over Modern Warfare 3 on this site. And then recently, IGN has released its results of community votes for Battlefield 3 vs. Modern Warfare 3 and the results were staggering to say the least. Battlefield 3 wins by a large margin in every category except for Campaign in which Battlefield 3 won by only 4534 votes. Though the votes on that last category was a little questionable to me, it means something: those 6.5 millions of people from US and UK that bought the game don't translate to 6.5 million people enjoying it.

Though I know that trolls and fanboys that vote on IGN and Metacritic can't be avoided, I don't think that everyone who savagely posted ill about Modern Warfare 3 are trolls and BF3 fanboys. If the millions of people that bought it are really happy with it, it will reflect on the user ratings, no matter how many are trolling. There are obviously more COD fans than BF3, why didn't the same thing happened to BF3?

If you look closely to user reviews in Metacritic, most of them are MW3 die-hard fans that wanted to buy the game on the first day, but got disappointed upon playing it.

I do believe that these negativity doesn't mean that Modern Warfare 3 is a bad game. In fact, I believe otherwise, I believe that the professional critics were fair in giving the game a high score and I'm pretty sure I would enjoy the game if I buy it. However, I share the same sentiments as some people who spoke ill of the game in Metacritic, IGN, or wherever, and I refuse to buy the game, well, at least for now.

1. Investing on the game. Call of Duty in general is a huge investment. You literally buy a game that has a 1-year life span for $60 then you spend another $50-$60 for DLC maps or Call of Duty Elite and what not. And then another game comes out. Activision is swimming in hundred millions of dollars every year when a new Call of Duty game comes out and they can't even give incentives to their loyal fans like free DLC or even price cut off. EA's earnings with their franchises is nowhere near what Activision is getting with Call of Duty but they give away a huge expansion pack for free for those who availed the limited edition of Battlefield 3. Though I don't fully agree with that kind of business model as well, can't Activision at least do the same?

2. Developing skills for the game is not rewarding. Call of Duty is just that - a fun, mindless shooter that everyone can just easily pick up and play. You can literally play for 15 minutes and have fun. It doesn't require you to learn or develop some skills in order to have fun, unlike Battlefield 3 that apparently has a rather steep learning curve if you want to learn every part of gameplay, from vehicle maneuvering to the subtleties of bullet drop. With Call of Duty you don't need to worry about them or the competition at all. In fact, some of my friends that bought both games say that MW3 is more like a stress reliever while playing BF3 is like a mental exercise.That's what people like about the Call of Duty games - instant gratification. Most gamers lack the dedication to commit to a game seriously and learn everything before they can enjoy it.

This formula of Call of Duty is a double-edged sword though. It doesn't promote those who are truly skilled. Of course elite players will fare better for the most part, but it's not as necessary when compared to other games.

3. Longevity. I'm not a kid anymore that has all the time to play video games. I have a full time job and for the most part, I can only touch my PS3 like every Friday night and through the weekend. I try to play at times during weekdays when my schedule permits but it's very hard to squeeze that enough time that I would feel satisfied. And with that said, I don't want to buy a game that only lasts for 1 year and then when a new iteration comes out, all of my friends and more than half of the COD population will jump on that one. I want a game that I'm gonna play and the developers are gonna keep on supporting for a long time. People might argue, "Even if a new Call of Duty game comes out, there's still plenty of people playing the old COD games!" True, but the developers will start supporting the new one and leave the old. Look at Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops. There's still a whole lot of broken crap and BS in the game that the developers didn't address and left as is up to this day.

This is probably the biggest reason why COD fans feel like the COD games are getting redundant and they feel like they are playing the same game every year. There's just too many COD games that are coming out! If Activision releases a new COD game let's say every 2 years, I'm sure the players won't feel they are being ripped off.

4. Ridiculous aesthetics. One of the biggest praises about Battlefield 3 is its closeness to realism. And it's because some of the kills in Modern Warfare 3 were too far off from realism. Seriously, can a single bullet kill 4 persons lined up simultaneously? Yes, only in MW3. Though you may get a good laugh out of it when you watch these ridiculous kills, I would rage if I'm on the receiving end of these lucky and utterly insane kills like the one below.

5. Modern Warfare is more like a $60 expansion pack. One of the biggest complaints of fans about MW3 is its lack of innovation and it's more of the same game every year since Call of Duty 4. It may be true but I definitely agree that there's a winning formula in Call of Duty games that make them so appealing to gamers all over the world and Infinity Ward need not mess up this formula. Why fix it if it ain't broke right? Changing the gameplay mechanics will just alienate fans.

However, they don't have to be so obvious and directly copy and paste from the other Modern Warfare games and just tweak it from there. Copying the same graphic element from an old game to a new one is just preposterous. Also, Infinity Ward is still using the same old engine that was used in Call of Duty 4. While it doesn't look bad, with games that are coming out like Crysis 2 and Battlefield 3, MW3 looks stale and outdated compared to its competitors.

So what are the additions to Modern Warfare 3? A few new modes, some new maps, tweaks to guns, perks, etc. Don't tell me that these can't be released as a cheaper expansion pack.

This is not the first time that we've seen this from Activision. Guitar Hero was a very successful game of its genre, until Activision had taken advantage of it and just continued on milking on the franchise, releasing the same game year after year with just a few new songs that should have been easy to release as DLC, and it ultimately killed the franchise. I don't condone this type of business model at all.

And though I'm pretty sure that I would enjoy the crap out of MW3, I refuse to buy a game that refuses to evolve. This is not FIFA. People like to buy a game that they feel worth every cent they pay. They don't want to buy a game that they feel they have played several times already.

With that said, I'm not telling anyone to stop playing MW3 and start hating on the game. If you're enjoying the game, there's no one stopping you to play it. Believe me when I say I'm not hating on the Call of Duty series. In fact, I don't want it to die. It has been a big part of the video game culture that we have today. I'm playing Battlefield 3 now and promoting it because I want to slap the hell out of Activision to stop milking the franchise and oversaturate the video game market with the same Call of Duty games every year until the franchise finally dies, just like what they did with the Guitar Hero franchise.

Let me know your thoughts about this.

If you like this post, don't forget to subscribe to my RSS feed.

Battlefield 3: Operation Douchebag

2011-11-25T16:26:00.006+08:00

No this is not a map pack to be released by DICE for Battlefield 3. This is totally random but I just want to share this video that even came to Battlefield 3 lead core gameplay designer's attention. If you have listened to episode 26 of Don't Revive Me Bro podcast, Alan Kertz has mentioned this video so I got curious about it and tried to find it Youtube.

This is probably one of the funniest and most epic Battlefield 3 videos I've seen in a while aside from Mavtage. I really had a good laugh out of this vid. Blowing up another chopper with your own chopper packed with C4 is BADASS. Let me quote Alan Kertz' reaction to this vid. I completely agree with him. EPIC!

"When a guy jumps out of a helicopter full-packed with C4 and uses it to blow up a sniper hanging on the edge of a crane in Operation Firestorm... Hell yeah, no other game does that."

If you like this post, don't forget to subscribe to my RSS feed.

Free Battlefield 1943 To All PS3 Battlefield 3 Players!

2011-11-24T23:28:00.005+08:00

Apparently, EA was sued for offering Battlefield 1943 to PS3 gamers as an incentive for pre-ordering Battlefield 3 and not keeping to their promise. EA claims that there is a confusion between Battlefield 1943 and Battlefield 3 and so they instead gave PS3 players a week of head start on the Back to Karkand DLC. Of course, gamers were disappointed about this and someone filed a lawsuit against EA under the law firm Edelson Maguire. And let's just say EA finally gave in to the request of the masses to give BF1943 as a free give away. Hey, it's Thanksgiving anyway.

So if you're interested (I'm not but I'm getting it anyway), you should check out this site on or after the following dates depending on your location:

November 26: Europe
December 10: North America
December 17: Asia & Japan

Log in to the site above using your Origin ID and password.
Select your territory.
You will then receive your Battlefield 1943 voucher code. Input the code into your Playstation Network account under Account Management > Redeem Codes.
Download Battlefield 1943. Enjoy the free game.

So that's basically it. I don't know why we in Asia have to wait that long but I'm doubt that I'm gonna have time to play it with Battlefield 3 and preparation for the upcoming fighting game tournament. Honestly, I don't know anything about EA's promise to bring BF1943 to PS3 gamers as giveaway until the lawsuit was brought to my attention and I'm not interested about the game either. But if I knew it in the first place I would be pissed as well but I'm not gonna go out of my way of filing a lawsuit against EA. If I really want to have BF1943, I would have saved much more buying it than filing a lawsuit. Anyway, it worked so we all have our free Battlefield 1943. That should have taught EA a lesson to not say anything to the public if they don't mean it.

Enough of that guys. We should be thankful to EA for bringing us this wonderful game and giving us free BF1943 of course. Happy Thanksgiving guys.

For those people who haven't bought this awesome game yet, Battlefield 3 is on sale now so check out my links if you're interested to buy.

BTW, thanks to Mark Carpio for hinting this to the clan.

If you like this post, don't forget to subscribe to my RSS feed.

Holiday Xtinction: Fighting Game Tournament

2011-11-24T10:43:00.003+08:00

To all fighting game players out there, here is your chance to shine. This is a console tourney, so it's up to you if you want to use either stick or pad.
Read more »

PLDT Fibr: 100 Mbps Fiber Optic Broadband!

2011-11-24T09:33:00.003+08:00

PLDT has just rolled out fiber optic broadband technology to select subdivisions in Metro Manila. This new technology (well, new to us but kinda old already in other countries) promises speeds of up to 100 Mbps.
Read more »

Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand and Details About The Upcoming Patch

2011-11-21T14:00:00.010+08:00

If you're enjoying Battlefield 3 for a while now and you've also got the limited edition then you surely don't wanna miss the Back to Karkand expansion pack. There's currently no exact date yet, but DICE confirmed it's coming this December, and it's certainly not far off. And knowing that us PS3 gamers are gonna get 1 week earlier than everyone else, it makes me more excited.

The First 7 Minutes of Tekken Blood Vengeance

2011-11-19T15:51:00.002+08:00

Harada has just recently posted in his Twitter the first 7 minutes of the video game movie Tekken Blood Vengeance. One word: BADASS. Enjoy the show.
Read more »

The Globe Tattoo Superstick Review: Network Performance and Internet Experience

2011-11-19T03:07:00.005+08:00

This is the part 2 of my Globe Superstick review. On this part of the review, I'll talk about what Superstick is all about - the internet experience.

Smart Prepaid Sim Replacement for ₱99?!

2011-11-13T23:04:00.003+08:00

We went to Smart Wireless Center in Megamall this afternoon to have my old Smart Buddy prepaid sim replaced because none of my cellphones can read it anymore and I need to retain my mobile number.

The Globe Tattoo Superstick Review: Device and Interface

2011-11-12T01:56:00.004+08:00

I've been using the Globe Tattoo Superstick Plan 1299 extensively for 3 months now and now I'm gonna write my thoughts so far with this wireless internet connection. I have to split my article though and discuss my review of the device and the online experience separately. In this part, I'll review the Superstick device that Globe has given me, the ZTE MF60.

How Downloadable Content Becomes A Joke

2011-11-05T04:57:00.002+08:00

How would you feel if let's say you purchased a car, and that car happens to not have headlights, then the car dealer is gonna demand additional charge for those headlights? How are you gonna react if the product that you purchased happens to be incomplete and you have to pay additonal charge for features that will make the product complete?