RockyRan

OK, Bad Company 2 question here. I'm a total noob to the BF series, so I'm trying to learn the ropes of BC2 and I'm finding that the game doesn't tell you a goddamn thing. It just drops you into the game without any kind of instruction whatsoever. Is there a website or a video that explains everything from the ground up (each game mode and what they do, all the intricacies of gameplay such as spotting enemies, etc.)? Any recommendations for totally new peeps like moi?

I have a hard time considering N64/PSX/Saturn "retro". I just consider those systems "old" for now. To me, "retro" is anything before them.

What's it to you to prevent people from enjoying this game? For all we know it will find an audience. Calling it an "audience" is giving that demographic too much credit. What is "that demographic" exactly? I'm really curious as to what you have in mind. Let's just say NOT the grandmas, nor the core gamer, nor the "family". Horny dudebros with horny chicks/adults with far too much to drink. I mean, we got so many other things we can explore with the video gaming medium, does THIS type of thing merit attention first?

^ Except for that it didn't.

What's it to you to prevent people from enjoying this game? For all we know it will find an audience. Calling it an "audience" is giving that demographic too much credit.

Apparently it's not coming Stateside. I'm upset. The damn game shouldn't come out anywhereside.

Getting that too, huh? I've been getting it recently, the server I've had set up for my dorm hall seems to be lagging a lot recently, had us up on a ledge for quite a while. Of course after experimenting around we successfully concluded our server was dead in the water. Possible fixes do not seem to have worked. Did they forget to update the MP server to the current version or something? O_o I dunno. I've had the chunk problem ever since I started hosting my own "server" for just us two, but I'm really ticked off at the ridiculous lag right now. I dunno either. Did he try to disable his virus scanner? B/c some I've read somewhere that it might help and I haven't had the chance to try it.

Sometimes there are huge chunks of the game that are completely empty, as if the game just forgets to render those. Sometimes they render eventually, sometimes they don't. But that's yet another one of the problems I'm having. Should I try to set up the server in my laptop while I play with my desktop? Would that make a difference?

Guys, I need some help. This newest update seems to have borked something for me, because I can't play private multiplayer SMP with my bro anymore without it turning into a headache-inducing lag fest. Before, I'd be able to start up a server on my computer and run Minecraft at the same time, connect to it, and run the game with only my bro connected. Now, we can't seem to do the same without massive, massive lag (he'd see the actions I do literally 30 seconds later, no joke) and horrible framerates, and it never happened before this last week's bed update. Bukkit for some reason refuses to run (errors), and I tried MCAdmin and it was even worse than the regular Minecraft server software. Any ideas? What can I do to get the game going decently? I have another computer that I can run the server off of so that it can function as a "dedicated" server of sorts, do you think it'll help? Anyone else have problems like mine after this recent update?

I think you're defending this game a little bit too much. Some people have differing opinions y'know? I went in with an open mind because I still bought the game, and I did know that it was primarily a vehicle game, having read reviews to that effect. I still didn't like it. I'm all for originality and games trying things different but if I don't like them, I don't like them. It's simple. Don't get me wrong. If you played the game with an open mind and still didn't like it, that's perfectly valid because it's simply unrealistic to expect a game that pleases everyone ever, especially with a game this unconventional. I'm talking about the people who think the game is shit SOLELY on the fact that it's different and unconventional. Like the very first reply in this thread. That's the kind of thinking that makes developers default to same-y uninspired sequels, because contrary to popular belief, gamers are actually a clingy bunch who really only want marginal changes in their games. Take a game and spin it in a different direction and they hate it, not because of the merits of the actual game, but simply because of the fact that it's different. Again, I'm not angry at all when someone says they genuinely gave the game a chance (that is, actually tried to play the game beyond their first failed vehicle instead of failing and saying "lulz physicz be borked") and don't like it. Everyone has their own opinion and they're perfectly entitled to one. I don't, however, condone uninformed, biased opinions on a game based on incredibly superficial facts like "it's not like its prequel".

I absolutely hate people who leave their pets out as if they were homeless. They roam around all day, almost getting hit by cars, they shit everywhere and pester basserbys. I ESPECIALLY hate the idiots who leave their cats out in the night, where they coalesce right outside my window and begin their fucking wailing at 4 in the morning, or run around my backyard and knock shit down overnight. Once we had a problem with rats living in an area with thick plants right next to our house and they'd often cross over to our yard, and we left in those poison pellets to kill/scare them. Far too many pellets were being eaten each night (it was only a handful of rats) and I immediately thought of all the cats that ran around at night, but I got to thinking, if the owners were inconsiderate enough to leave the cats out they really shouldn't be surprised that they'd eat poison that isn't meant for them. With that said, though, I also dislike the people who are on the other side of the spectrum and treat their dogs/cats as if they were children (and in many ways treating them BETTER than they treat their kids if they have any), then whine that you "mistreat your animal" if you don't...regularly brush your dog's teeth?

Glad to see the incredibly idiotic hate for this game is quite alive and well. It's one of the best games of this generation, people. Get over the fact that it's nothing like the N64 games already. Shit, people didn't bitch this much when Mario Kart came out and it was nothing like Mario. The original Banjo-Kazooie games weren't even all that great. Maybe you guys weren't old enough to remember, but when the original BK came out people whined that it was a "Mario 64 ripoff", then whined that the second "was too big". Long story short, there's a long line of bitching regarding the franchise, first because it was too similar and now because it's too different. Here's the deal: Nuts & Bolts is quite easily the one game that gives the series the closest it has to a unique identity, and it's all the better for it. It's an unconventional game that isn't worried about pandering to the lowest common denominator, and it takes a quirky concept and runs with it. Suffice to say that if the "vehicles handheld like crap", YOU did something wrong with designing it, or if the game was "repititive", YOU failed at experimentation. The game isn't completely flawless, but it's NOT "crap". And the people who call this "crap" just because of the fact that it's not a carbon copy of the N64 games without analyzing or even fucking mentioning the gameplay speaks quite a bit of you all's incredible pettiness. Never before have I seen such hatred for a game that isn't even about the game. You people don't hate the game because of what's in it, you hate it because of what is NOT in it. I can't even begin to explain what's wrong with that kind of thinking. And people wonder why Call of Duty is the best selling franchise of this generation. It's because people HERP and freak the fuck out when a game tries anything different. You RUIN it for the rest of us who want new experiences and who, you know, keep an open mind about things.

What the fuck. Is this shit.

No, not causing, facilitating. Like I said, he's helping advance it. He's not literally going around and pirating games, nor is he writing anything for that purpose, but the fact of the matter is that his crack makes piracy possible. One last time, he doesn't have to directly do anything to be responsible for advancing it. That's how it currently stands, but as we all know laws are re-interpreted all the time. The court will decide how it works. You're assuming I'm against homebrew in general. I love homebrew. I installed it on my Wii when I had one and I used all kinds of neat little applications for it, none of which involved piracy. However, this is different. A platform for homebrew was there. No, it wasn't as open as having full access to the console, but just look at what came out of Other OS. That's right, nothing. Of course you weren't necessarily going to get emulators running in there, but homebrew devs didn't even begin to try writing anything for Other OS. There was no interest to use it as a homebrew platform. Except for that they're not. There is a ridiculous excess of people using Other OS as a bullet point so they can take a jab at Sony. The Sony haters are just drinking this in droves, and are blowing it out of proportion. Again, that's why I'm saying "fuck off if it doesn't affect you". Not because of the fact that it doesn't affect them, but because of the fact that people are jumping on hate bandwagons. They really don't care about homebrew or the platform in general. Hell, they don't even have PS3s or want one, they just want to rag on Sony and are using that as a platform. Again, because Linux are "badass mothafuckas?" Please.

Instant GOTY. This+mods=destruction of life as we know it.

I disagree on this point, I think it makes all the difference in the world. What difference would that be? Thinking "I'm intending to promote piracy" and "I don't want to support piracy, but this hack makes it viable and will be widely available. I'm going to release it anyway" makes little difference in the grand scheme of things. You don't have to be a supporter of piracy in order to help advance it. GeoHot IS helping advance it, and at the end of the day that's what matters, not whether or not he says he intended to or not. Because I don't think people should be prohibited from being able to use their stuff the way they want to just because other people will misuse it. To me that's like saying that Fermi was wrong to build a nuclear reactor because he knew that other people would be able to use the technology to make bombs. (No, I'm not saying that GeoHot is as great as Fermi, or anything, so don't read more into the comparison than I put there.) I'm not saying they should be prohibited, I'm talking about GeoHot specifically. He wants to wash his hands by saying he doesn't support piracy, but his methods specifically facilitate it. He's helping advance it whether he wants to or not, and if that's going to get him in trouble, it's going to get him in trouble. And just for the record, if tinkering with one's property involves reverse engineering and publishing exploits of security systems, you're not legally allowed to do it. The law probably could stand to be a little less draconian, but that's how it is at this point.

Yes, it does. Look, in criminal law (not that I'm saying he's a criminal, but bear with me), you still get punished for certain offenses even if you "didn't intend" for anything to happen. In many cases, knowing that something will eventually lead to a crime is enough to get you convicted. I'm applying the same principle. You don't have to directly support something to help advance it, and you don't have to directly promote it to be responsible for it. It holds enough water on its own just fine. The fact of the matter is, the availability was there, and just like hackers hack because they like getting into closed systems, homebrewers write homebrew because they like dealing with hardware restrictions. After all, if they didn't want to go through dealing with "gimped systems", homebrew writers would just write regular apps on a PC. But that's not what homebrewers like to do. They like to develop under specific hardware with whatever restrictions it might bring. OtherOS wasn't unsupported by homebrewers because people didn't like it's restrictions, it was unsupported because people just didn't give a shit. Funny how you ignored that next sentence of mine. I said, if you actually used it it's your right to bitch, but everyone else can fuck off. I don't normally say this, but in this situation so many bandwagon haters are getting their trolling fix from the removal of Other OS that they've begun to make urban myths about how Other OS was so wonderful and everybody used it. Do tell, if Other OS was as bad as you say it was, why was it so beloved? And why do people like to tinker with PS3's and not PCs? Because they like to deal with different environments and hardware. It's the homebrewer mantra to make as much out of as little as possible. Other OS was right up their alley. That's not why I'm saying "fuck off if it doesn't affect you". I'm saying that because of the legions of people making false claims that everyone loved Other OS. I'm not in agreement that you should never be angry if something affects you, but in this specific case, with these many people blowing the situation out of proportion (and they ARE blowing it out of proportion. It's called "vocal minority"), that's the stance that I'm taking. I've read his post before, but frankly I don't care what someone has to say if the results of his work and his actions speak otherwise. It's the actions and their results that matter at the end of the day, not what a person claims in a blog. Again, the homebrewer's mantra and why they develop homebrew. I have, and I don't agree with a lot of the points they make. Not because I disagree with their content, but because I disagree that they make several points that are highly subjective and passing them off as if they were objective. Such as their "justification for piracy" bit, in which they don a gavel and begin to proclaim when it's right to pirate. I'm sorry, but who are they again to make these proclamations? They're obviously allowed to have an opinion, but I don't appreciate it when people pass it off as fact. The bit with the PS3 homebrew was just pandering to their audience. Their "Don't mess with the Linux users, they're badass mothafuckas!!!" was pretty transparent.

I disagree on this point, I think it makes all the difference in the world. What difference would that be? Thinking "I'm intending to promote piracy" and "I don't want to support piracy, but this hack makes it viable and will be widely available. I'm going to release it anyway" makes little difference in the grand scheme of things. You don't have to be a supporter of piracy in order to help advance it. GeoHot IS helping advance it, and at the end of the day that's what matters, not whether or not he says he intended to or not.

It's actually kind of the whole point. It makes no difference if the intent to pirate wasn't there, he still produced and distributed a method that made piracy much easier (and in many ways simply "viable"), fully knowing that it was going to hapepen. I don't buy this whole talk about homebrew. Other OS was actually implemented in the first place to PROMOTE homebrew in a way that didn't involve hacks and jailbreaking consoles, as a way of getting the homebrew without ushering in the pirating that inevitably comes with it. And what did people do? Nothing. Really, all this talk about putting Other OS on a grand pedestal is equally as BS. The amount of people who actually used this was a tiny, tiny fraction of the people, and the amount of people who actually developed applications for the PS3 through the Other OS system was even smaller. People tend to have the timeline of events wrong. GeoHot started hacking away at the PS3 BEFORE the removal of Other OS. Contrary to popular belief (and contrary to what he claims), he didn't do it "for the homebrew" because there already was a legitimate platform for it at the time. In fact, the only reason why Other OS was taken out was because hackers like GeoHot got a little too close to cracking the console for Sony's comfort through Other OS, so they took out the weakest link that incidentally wasn't used by a vast majority of the people. Do I support Sony's move? Not really, but I don't condemn them for it either. Sure, we can whine about "taking out advertised features" all we want, but the fact of the matter is only a very tiny fraction of the PS3 audience actually used that feature, so let's be realistic here. For those who actually used it, of course they have every right to whine and bitch and moan, but everyone else is just jumping on a hate bandwagon, blowing this situation out of proportion. I'm all for consumer rights, but I'm against consumer mobs. This kind of mob mentality of "YEAH CONSUMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT, COMPANIES ARE ALWAYS EVIL" is just as ridiculous as the apologist consumers who are so far up companies asses that you'd think they were on their payroll. Likewise, GeoHotz isn't the martyr or pro-consumer saint that people try to make him out to be. He had no reason to hack the console, but he did anyway. And he didn't do it for the homebrew either, he did it for the allure of cracking a console that spent years and years in the market without a jailbreak. Just that fact alone drove many people to try to crack the console. In fact, that's probably the number one reason why hackers hack: just because they can and they like finding ways of getting into closed systems. Maybe if people were this pro-homebrew in the first place, they would've actually used the platform to develop homebrew rather than hack the console anyway for shits and giggles.

I sincerely hope you're kidding, because the fact that publishers are ripping off consumers is not magically justified by blurting out "capitalism". The fact of the matter is, the two most money-grubbing publishers (EA and Activision) are beginning to think they can get away with charging $60 for PC games. And incidentally, both EA and Activision happen to be the companies that spearhead some of the most half-assed console ports to the PC with none of the advantages of the platform mixed with all the disadvantages of the consoles. Will they get away with it? I dunno, they probably will considering how stupid the average consumer is (DERP I WANT THAT GAEM I DON'T CAER IF I PAE MOR FOR NO REESON). But for those of us who actually question when prices get jacked up for no reason, this trend doesn't make any sense. Exactly how is $60 per PC game more justified even though it really wasn't a couple of years ago? And keep in mind they're charging this much even for the DIGITAL versions, the ones that have near-zero distribution costs aside from paying Valve some undisclosed amount (which is most likely a fraction of the costs of actually manufacturing physical copies and distributing them to retailers). I'm sorry, but that's not "capitalism". That's just two money whore developers ripping people off and the stupid market not knowing any better.

http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2011/02/opinion_game_developers_should.php It brings up a lot of interesting points, and of course many pea-brained comments still parrot the "WAH WAH WAH PIRATES ARE SCUM THIS ARTICLE NO GOOD" trope. As stupid as those people sound, it leads me to believe a lot of game dev higher-ups probably have that exact same attitude (*coughtGuillemotcough*). What say you?

My PSN is GeorgeBluthSr if anybody wants to add me. I only got one person who plays GT5 and my friend's list is kinda lonely

God damn you, Activision and your dirty, dirty greed. Look what you've done, you got a bunch of money grubbing publishers trying their hand at $60 games now after your CoD crap infested the market with that "$59.99" price tag. Now Bulletstorm is launching at $60? Are they high? I still blame the audience, though, for buying the damn games at that price. Good God, I hate it when consumers take it in the ass with no complaints whatsoever.