Thursday Next

I don't care what people choose to gripe about on a forum. I just don't want to hear it while I'm trying to play the game. Ohhh, right. Yeah. Not such an issue on console as you can only bitch to your squad. You can't type a message to the world at large.

PS3 is no different. It is a bit involved I admit and it would be just grand if you could have a list of presets, e.g. "Close Quarters Dark", "Open Ground Daytime" like you can in CoD. The only work-around I can see for it is that the game seems to remember individual weapon setups since the assault rifles handle similarly I suppose you could set up one with a torch, foregrip and reflex scope for close quarters, the other with a 4x ACOG, Bipod and heavy barrel for more open environments. Given how little customisation there was in BFBC2, I'm more happy to have the options and spend a good few minutes each round setting up my kit between bases.

Not sure if directed at me... or just making broad generalisation...

I only equip flashlights for the tunnel bit of metro. Even then, I spawn, switch it off and then only use it when I know there's a guy about to come around the corner. It can be great for that half second disorientation you need to get the kill in but if you leave it on all the time, you might as well walk around with a target painted on you. I'm also stunned at how many people don't seem to change loadouts when they respawn.Maybe they just don't die, but if you are in the first or last section with a torch, you've got to ask yourself what you are thinking about.

You could apply for a trademark. Especially if it is a name you Blog under.

It's not so absurd. For BF2142 we allowed BF2 players to reserve their name.

Yup. I remember back in BF2 when you would have entire herds of Medics and Support bunny-hopping across the map, spamming medpacks like they were going out of fashion. Nowadays you have to email someone a request. Oh, I'm VictorAnalogy (I'm only on PS3 mind).

From the publishers perspective, I kind of understand the reasons for this. Retailers love pre-order exclusives and will give preferential shelf space, more allocation for advertising hoardings and even up their orders if a publisher will give them a meaty exclusive. On the other side, I don't think a game will ever sell more copies because a certain retailer has a certain exclusive. Instead, you'll see 3million sales at retailer A and 2million at retailer B, rather than 2million at A and 3 million at B. On balance, I think pubs would be better off just not doing retailer exclusives. Especially when it comes to big budget titles. Retailers should count themselves lucky that they are able to stock a FIFA / CoD / Gears / BF game. It's guaranteed to shift loads of copies at full price, so they'll make their money. I think there is more of a case where a more niche title is concerned. I can understand Atlus for example offering Game an exclusive with Demon's Souls for stocking the product as it was a bit of an unknown quantity. Squeenix should not need to offer incentives for retailers to stock an FF title. Damage to the brand or not, it'll still fly off the shelves.

Some other things people need to learn to do. 1. When you are playing Support and you get set up in a position, drop a god damned ammo box. You may have umpteen billion rounds to use up, but I don't, there's been at least three occasions just in the course of the beta where I am running around, bingo ammo, and no one in a support kit even looks like dropping any ammo. I only have one grenade. I will only ever have one grenade unless provide some... ummm, what's that word? Oh yeah, SUPPORT! 2. If you are the squad leader, point your cross-hairs at an objective and press back / select / Q. It will put a marker on the point and give you an extra 20 points for anything that any of your squad does in that radius. It's free fucking points! In fact, even if you aren't the squad leader, do it anyway because you probably are the squad leader and are just too stupid to notice. 2. (a) If, by some miracle (or because I am your squad leader) there is a marker on an objective. Go cover it. The rest of your squad should be there so you will have plenty of back up. I'm sure that guarding an objective from wave after wave of enemies is not as fun as sitting in your favouritest spot on the map, sniping at (and missing) anyone who happens to stray into the no-mans-land that you have decided to watch, but the rest of your squad would really appreciate it if you cooperated. 3. Turn your laser / torch off. Especially if you have just spawned on me. Press up on the dpad and stop signalling to every arsehole sniper on the map exactly where we are currently ensconced. Thanks. All this goes for Conquest too. Especially if you have used matchmaking to find a squad. There may be a number of different languages, people without mics and what not. But everyone can understand that you need to head to the m-com station / flag / whatever with the spiky bits sticking out of it. Oh, and if you do want to lone-wolf it, then lone-wolf it. Don't join a squad and then piss off up a hill somewhere. Leave the squad and play your way, on your own.

Let's not forget the fact that while sneaking all the way up to the enemy base to spawn kill defenders is all well and good, and could in fact see you rank near the top of the leader board for that match, you would in all likelihood score far higher if you got off your arse and actually armed an objective so that the round can continue a little longer. I don't think people get that the defenders do not have tickets. You can sit there for an eternity and kill defenders and never win a round. Every time someone dies on your team, you are one step closer to defeat. I'd love to see the winning side get double their points instead of a measly 500 extra. It would encourage people to actually complete the objectives rather than sitting back and protecting their K/D.

Great end to the series. Can't wait till Christmas. Are there any teasers up yet?

Any developer who tells Kotaku anything deserves to have it splashed all over the internet. Those guys have a proven track record of not keeping to NDA's, so why would you expect them to keep anything not covered by an NDA under wraps?

Just meant that if it looks like a torch and you're being blinded, then it's a torch. If it looks like a torch and you aren't being blinded it's a sniper. Origin has... "Origin Chat"? Maybe you could use the overlay to bring up the browser to use Steam chat? EDIT: You can't. I guess you'll just have to persuade all your steam friends to get on Origin.... Mwuhahahahahahahahaaaaaa!

I find that laser people are pretty easy to spot in the underground section of metro. They have big red sticks coming out of their guns so you know when they're coming past your position long before they see you. Not saying it's perfectly balanced mind. I think that either the duration of the effect needs reducing or you should need to be much more accurate. No one ever got blinded by having a laser shone at their neck.

@Dean: Press shift + F1 for your Origin overlay instead. Learn to love the Origin! Love iiiiiit! - Tactical Flashlight blinds players and illuminates dark areas. It can be turned off by pressing up on the d-pad (not sure what the PC key binding is for it). - Laser Sight also blinds players and can also be turned off in the same way. - Glare from scopes should not blind you. It should just show you exactly where the snipers is. The pay off for being able to blind people temporarily is that you are lit up like a Christmas tree.

Well in COD you can get points for objectives like captures or bomb plants but you're right about BF3 just throwing XP your way. Still, that doesn't make it any more fun when you're dying everywhere and don't have anything but a crappy gun with iron sights. You shouldn't do too much dying if you play with a squad, even with iron sights you can still get plenty of suppression assist points (my new favourite feature).

You'd be missing the point of this if you rooted it. It's a tablet that is designed around the kindle service. It's supposed to connect you to the amazon cloud so that you can get books, films, etc through that interface. With only 8gb storage and no external storage options, it's not really intended to function as a jack of all trades tablet.

Chill out, I'm not dusting off my red jacket just yet. I was told off by an American colleague for putting 24hr format in a contract, so I thought I'd see what the general consensus was here. Globally, most countries (from experience, my European and Asian colleagues) seem to use 24hr (certainly in writing), European countries use it in speech too. I was wondering if the 24hr clock gets taught in the US, or if it's a relatively alien concept outside of the military. To me 24hr seems like the most certain, least ambiguous format. No amount of bad hand writing will make 17:00 look like 05:00, but a scrawled pm could look like an am, so it's the one I prefer to use.

Let's talk about time... Apparently in the US&A you do not use the 24hr clock. I've been told (well told off more to the point) that in America I will be looked at like some sort of nutter if I wrote 23:59:59 in a contract.

Will have to add some of you chappies for BF3 action.

Star Wars is not "fairly popular". Comparing Star Wars to Warhammer is like comparing Lord of the Rings to A Song of Ice and Fire.

This is the problem with offering access to an event so far in advance. Lots of things can change along the way and what might have originally been intended to be a much bigger, longer running event may get pared down to something much less exciting.

Agreed Yant. It's all marketing BS.