How to "Pwn" in Battlefield: Bad Company 2

By Kalib Crone

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 one of the top, if not THE top, realistic first person shooter war games that exist to this day. Opposite of many COD lovers' belief, Battlefield is so much more realistic in gameplay all around that a player switching from MW2 to Bad Company 2 would simply be annihilated. There is no running into the open by yourself and shooting away with perfectly smooth handling while being shot the hell up such as in MW2. There is no true camping. And most importantly, there is no freaking "everyone for themselves" in Bad Company 2. It's all about teamwork, conservation, and all around practice. Battlefield is fairly different than most other shooter games because of its reality, so there are a few things to be learned and kept in mind while playing.

Teamwork is key

With battlefield, if your entire squad/team is not willing to contribute to the team, that team is not only doomed from winning, but each individual will struggle.

• Use the mobile spawn option to spawn near your squad. Spawning near your squad is the best way to ensure that you can share materials and be as strong as possible.
• Try to avoid picking the same class as everyone else on your squad so that you may help each other in every respect possible by using each classes different abilities.
• SPOT YOUR ENEMIES. If you are new to the game, this doesn't just mean your enemies and keep their location to yourself. It means find an enemy, put your cross hair over them, and press "Q" for PC, Back button for Xbox, or Select for PS3. This will create a red triangle over the enemy's head for a short period of time that your entire squad can see making the target very easy to find. Not only that, but even if you don't get to kill the target that you spotted, you will still get points for spotting as long as your own squad member kills the target.

Be Careful, This Game Uses Physics! :O

Another thing to go along with Bad Companies realistic gameplay is the fact that they have brought physics into play. Punny.

• Gravity seems to be forgotten in a lot of shooters and it seems to give snipers an insane amount of edge. If all a camping sniper has to do is put their cross hair on an enemy's head from 2 game miles away and shoot to kill, how can any player with an assault rifle have any fun? In Bad company 2, gravity actually gives your bullet a downward arc, just like in real life. Because of this, to become a skilled shooter of any type, one must learn how to control his or her shots to compensate for gravity's pull to earth.
• Bullets are rendered. This means that physical bullets are actually created in the game that shoot out of your barrel. This caused me a load of confusion when I first started playing, because sometimes someone 50 meters away would be shooting at me while I was also shooting at them and we would end up both dying. At first I didn't understand how this was possible until someone explained to me that while I may have killed him first, his actual rendered bullets were still in the air coming for me.

Classes

Now that we have all of that out of the way, let's go through each class and how to best utilize the strengths and avoid any weakness's.

Assault

• In my opinion, the Assault Rifles are the easiest to use, usually have great accuracy and speed, and they are the strongest automatic guns by far. But, the main thing I am going to say about every gun in this class and the engineer class, do not go fully automatic. 3 shot bursts are your best friend with these guns. It keeps them extremely accurate and that can make you a very dangerous player.
• With the Assault class, you have enough mid-range power to move into the open and be safe, but always keep your guard up, and never stop moving in the middle of the open.
• Always use your ammo pack, whether you need it at the moment or not. It is best to place it in any building even if you aren't staying there long, that way a team member that may end up in the building can use your ammo pack and you also get points for it. Remember, you can only have one ammo pack spawned at a time.

Engineer

• Engineers are the ninja's of Battlefield. They use only silenced weapons and it is imperative that they stay stealthy the majority of the time.
• Their guns are for the most part quiet and quick, but lacking power. Sneaking from building to building is a great way to stay alive as an engineer.
• Although these "ninjas" of the battlefield may have quiet little guns, they are also the only class with rocket launchers. This actually makes it even more imperative that they stay stealthy however because engineers need to be able to sneak up behind tanks without them noticing in order to do a good amount of damage. And btw, I say the BACK of the tank because that is its weakest point fyi.
• Use the repair tool.. okay, this is obviously an extremely UNrealistic part of the game, but it would be boring without a couple of exaggerations. If your team has a tank or vehicle, stay near it and heal it as much as possible, but only get near the vehicle when you believe it is safe as it is usually the central area of bullet fire. BTW, the repair tool can damage enemy vehicles.. I think it can kill people too but I've never got around to trying.

Medic

• Medics are my favorite friends and are always my choice of squad members to spawn near, but they are in my opinion not that easy to play although healing is quite fun. The Medic class is very defensive class and must stay a bit farther away from the action and always stay with the squad. A medic by himself is fairly easy to kill if up close.
• Medics use light machine guns, making close combat not the best choice as they are not very fast firing weapons. They are also not as strong as they seem to look. A good strategy is to stay with the squad and augment them as they take most of the damage but stay farther back and try not to get face to face with an enemy.
• Using the defibrillators is a great way to help your squad/team, but it can also hurt them as well. Only use defibrillators when the coast is clear, otherwise you not only risk your own life, but the life of the recently saved teammate again, giving other teams more points towards victory.
• Just like with ammo packs, always use the health packs whether you need it at the moment or not. It can really help your team.

Recon

• Recon is not a Sniper, but Recon does have sniper rifles. This means, do not only use your sniper rifles. This will make your team hate you.
• Always use your radar as much as possible. It not only locates enemies on your own radar but of all of your squads radar. As a bonus, if any enemy dies within your radars proximity, you get points for it.
• As a Recon, you should always stay near your squad, but staying a building or two away can also be a good strategy as it adds protection from different angles, and your squad can still use your thrown radars.
• As a Recon, many think that they have to find a good camping spot away from the action. Although it is true that you should try to stay away from too much close combat, you should always move around and never stay in the same spot.
• A recon has the choice to use C4 or an airstrike. The choice is yours, but I prefer C4 all they way. C4 is extremely powerful. What I love to do is place it in some random places that I know have a lot of traffic, go away to a far building, and wait until unknowing prey walk into my traps. Not to mention, sticking 3 C4's to the back end of a tank is an instant vehicle destroy.

More Thoughts

• Remember, if you are getting shot, it makes it very hard to shoot back because of the massive screen vibration. If you want to get in someones face, at least try to get behind them and shoot first because close face to face shoot outs usually end up in both dying, or whoever made the first shot wins, even if it wasn't the stronger gun who shot first.
• If a medic dies nearby but you managed to fight off the killers and the coast is clear, go ahead and take your medic squad mate's gear and heal him with his own defibrillator. You will be stuck with the medic gear, but if you don't want it, just swap it out with one of the enemy's you just killed.
• It IS possible to shoot a driver, pilot, or any riders from a vehicle making it possible to take down an entire helicopter with one very skillful shot the the pilot's head.

And that is that folks. If I missed anything or could improve on how I stated something, please let me know. I hope I helped and have fun pwning in Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Alienware M14x Review Roundup: A Lovely Blend of Poise and Power

By Darren Murph of Engadget

Know what happens when you split the difference between an M18x and an M11x? The M14x, of course! We managed a bit of hands-on time with Alienware's middleman back in April, and now the web at large has had a chance to spit their opinions on it. By and large, critics were overwhelmingly pleased with performance, and hardly anyone could find too many griping points. Hot Hardware dished out an Editor's Choice badge, noting that the 14-incher exhibited a near-perfect blend of portability and power -- it's not often that a machine capable of running today's latest 3D titles can also get four hours of battery life. Having Optimus onboard is certainly a boon, but just about everyone also suggested springing for an SSD to really round things out. Folks also seemed to love the apparent lack of bloatware, and while the $2,000+ price tag was certainly steep, the top-tier numbers it delivered definitely helped soften the blow. The long and short of it? Folks looking for a nice balance of mobility and raw horsepower need look no further, but you can humor yourself anyway by digging into the links below.

Laptop, Hot Hardware, CNET, VR-Zone

More Coverage: ZDNet

Nintendo's Upcoming Console: The Wii U

By LORDGIDEON of Bullet Proof Pixel

Nintendo’s Wii’s had serious problems for some time now. It was underpowered at launch and had only proven to fall farther and farther behind Microsoft’s crushing Xbox 360. Despite leading for some time in hardware sales, Nintendo had problems with third party vendors shying away from the console entirely simply due to how underpowered the device is. To top it off, Xbox 360′s attach rate has always been higher than the Wii and Playstation 3 attach rates combined.

To bring the hardcore back into the fold, Nintendo had a tough play on their hands. How do they keep their new casual gamers while giving hardcore gamers something new? How can they provide a new gaming experience while keeping the strengths of the Wii but also eliminating the weaknesses?

Nintendo’s Answer: Wii U.

Stupid name. Seriously. The actual truth of the product is actually something revolutionary – but Nintendo completely fumbled and flopped on the entire presentation. They claimed this was all about making hardcore fans happy, but did ZERO to show us what they’re doing to bring us back. They didn’t tell us what resolution it was running at. They didn’t bother to even tell us it was an actual new console (i.e., box under the tv) – they spent the entire presentation telling us that it was a controller with a screen in it – and even in the videos, we never saw the new console part of it. They had a Wii under the tv screen. This led everyone to believe that it was a new third handheld device. Fragmentation anyone?

I spoke with SteelValor after the presentation – we were both confused. Nintendo never bothered to deal out even the basic information about the device.

As a gamer, it’s clear that Nintendo’s completely lost touch with it’s “hardcore” audience. Reggie, if you’re looking to really get us back tell us how awesome your new actual console is. A new controller is fun, but you need to tell us what’s powering the device. You need to tell us what makes this device run in HD. You need to tell us that you’ve wiped out the atrocious multi-player system from the Wii and gone with something that’s not from 1951.

Don’t make us do what I had to do – dig up the press site to actually see the REAL console and actually find out what’s in the device.

*sigh*

This is the real Wii U. Don't let Nintendo fool you. Without this device under the tv, that swanky controller's a paperweight.

Now that I’m off the soap box, let’s talk about what’s actually in this device – and why you should be very interested in it. And, for the record, I don’t use the word “console” interchangeably with the word “controller” like Nintendo did. They are not the same. Without the box under the tv the “console” (really the controller) that Nintendo kept calling it is worthless. It won’t function.

Let’s get to the facts:

- It’s a completely new console.

- It streams games from the console to the handheld device. Not the other way around.

- It runs at 1080p.

- It’s powered by a “multi-core IBM microprocessor”.

- Four USB ports (No word on speed)

- Uses up to four Wii Plus remotes.

- It IS backwards compatible with all Wii games.

- Supports HDMI, Component, S-Video, and Composite.

- Completely re-vamped online gaming system

- The new controller is single touch

- The new controller can display completely different info on it than what’s on the tv screen.

- The TV can be switched to something else while the Wii U streams it’s gameplay to the controller screen

- Internal flash memory (no word on how much) It’s expandable with an SD card, or a USB hard drive.

- Does NOT have an internal hard drive.

So what does this mean for Microsoft and Sony? Is this a game changer? It’s too early to tell – having nice looking hardware is cool, but without specific references to exactly what’s powering it we can’t tell. We don’t know how many cores are in the IBM processor – I’m hoping it’s a quad core, but wouldn’t be surprised if it’s only a dual core device. We don’t know how much RAM is in it. We don’t know what kind of video card is powering it. It looks like a logical step to the Wii moving on from what it is.

The baseline truth is that it’s a Wii HD with a new type of controller.

You have to be in the room to send the video to the controller – the controller is only that – a controller. It’s not the Wii U, just the device you use to interact with it.

No price point has been mentioned and Nintendo’s staying firmly mum on how much it’s going to cost. If you’re interested in this and believe you’re going to pick it up launch day, look for probably a $400 to $500 price point.

Reggie Fils-Ame has stated that they’ll be revealing more about the console during E3. Make sure you check back – we’ll keep this post updated with the latest info as we get it.

***Update***

According to Kotaku, Katsuya Eguchi (One of Nintendo’s chief game designers) has stated that the Wii U’s new disc format holds 25GB’s of data. [Source: Kotaku]

Rumors of a New Xbox Console: The Xbox 720

By Dean Evans of Tech Radar

Rumours about the new Xbox (or Xbox 720, as it's often referred to as) are now more

than just internet gossip.

It's one thing to wildly speculate about the next Xbox console. It's quite another to find out that Microsoft is gearing up to build one.

Recent job postings reveal that the Xbox Console Architecture team is hunting for new blood. Successful candidates will join a team that will be "responsible for defining and delivering next generation console architectures from conception through implementation."

It screams Xbox 720 (or whatever Microsoft chooses to call its new Xbox). So let's gather together the facts, the half-whispered untruths and the wishful thinking to see what such a machine might be like…

The Xbox 720 specs will be a significant technological leap forward

The Xbox 360 was launched in 2005, with the best technology that 2004 had to offer. Inside, it used a custom-made IBM Power PC with a trio of 3.2GHz cores and an ATI graphics processor.

Compare this ageing specification to a 2011 PC like the Scan 3XS vengeance. It rocks the latest Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge CPU, Nvidia GTX 580 graphics card, 1TB of onboard storage and 8GB of DDR3.

Cevat Yerli, the boss at Crytek, believes that the PC is effectively a generation ahead of the Xbox 360 and PS3. "As long as the current console generation exists and as long as we keep pushing the PC as well, the more difficult it will be to really get the benefit of both," Yerli spilled to Edge.

Something has got to give.

Potential new Xbox 720 features might include…

Cloud Storage? We might not be ready to abandon physical media just yet. But Steam has served PC users well for several years and OnLive is turning heads.

The most obvious next-gen storage option for the next Xbox is Blu-ray. But Microsoft has refused to add it to the existing Xbox 360. Other alternatives? You'll find flag-wavers for flash drives, Nintendo-style game cartridges, even the resurrection of HD-DVD.

Considering that the Xbox 360 Slim now features a 'Vejle' CPU/GPU combo processor, KitGuru ponders the possibility of the new Xbox 720 getting a cutting-edge AMD Fusion chip. It's betting on the DX11-capable Krishna APU (Accelerated Processing Unit), due for release late 2012.

The 'bigger, better, more' ethic is what makes the games industry tick. Eat Sleep Play founder David Jaffe suggests we desperately need a new generation of high-end consoles to keep producing 'blockbuster' games likeBattlefield 3, Crysis 2 and LA Noire. "Gameplay travels very easily," Jaffe told IGN. "The spectacle doesn't."

EA's Frank Gibeau disagrees. "Obviously, more computing horsepower is nice, but to be honest, the Xbox 360 and PS3 still have a lot of horsepower that hasn't been tapped."

Epic's Mark Rein suggests that a tablet might be the shape of consoles to come. "Imagine a future Xbox 360 that is actually a tablet you carry around,"Rein told Develop last year. "It will have more power than 360 does today, with technology like Kinect built right in…"

What about the Xbox 720 controller?

Love it/hate it, gesture-control is here to stay. Expect an improved version of Microsoft's Kinect hardware to be a prominent feature of any new Xbox. Kinect is currently the world's "fastest selling consumer electronics device" with sales topping 10 million. A Guinness World Record.

But the game pad will remain the input device of choice for veteran gamers. We can't imagine playing Gears of War 4 by waving our arms around. It lacks precision.

The Xbox 720 release date is 2013. Or 2014. Or 2015…

The LinkedIn ads that have caused such a stir suggest that any next-gen Xbox is firmly in the concept stage. Besides, Microsoft has said publically that the Xbox 360 will have (at least) a 10-year life lifespan to match the PS3. That puts a new Xbox launch into 2015…

Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli feels that we're due a "new [console] generation in 2012, 2013." While M2 senior analyst Billy Pidgeon told NowGamer that, while he expects a Wii 2 to surface by 2012, he's "not expecting a next generation Xbox before Q4 2014."

The 2014-2015 timescale looks a good bet. Square Enix is already anticipating the Xbox 720 by planning to open a second Canadian development studio by 2012. "The new consoles from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo will require more attention and more staff," said Stéphane d'Astous. "We want to prepare ourselves."

Backing this up is a comment made by a designer who has worked with Microsoft, who implied that a new Xbox 2015 release date is set. In his online portfolio, Ben Peterson wrote "Microsoft Xbox. Confidential / Collaboration with Microsoft's IEB design group investigating future user experiences and hardware for 2015."

Alongside an angled image that doesn't give much away, he wrote: "Microsoft Xbox. Confidential / Collaboration with Microsoft's IEB design group investigating future user experiences and hardware for 2015. *Work samples only permissible in person.* (March 2011)."

Question marks hang over such information; who is Ben Peterson? Didn't he sign an NDA when working with Microsoft? Why is there no contact information on his online portfolio? Will he be allowed to live after such a faux-pas? Or is this all a traffic-mongering lie?

But the next Xbox could be showcased at E3 2012

The successor to Microsoft's Xbox 360 console is likely to be unveiled at E3 2012, according to a "high-ranking source at Crytek". They said thatTimeSplitters 4 is being developed for the next-generation console, using Mircosoft's updated DX11 development tool.

Rumors of a New PlayStation Console: The PS4

By Dean Evans of Tech Radar

When it comes to rumours about the next Xbox, there's some wild speculation to get your teeth into.

Over on the PlayStation 4 rumour mill, things were, until recently, turning much slower. As Kaz Hirai said earlier in the year: "we're

not deliberating on a PS4 or a next generation machine, whatever you call it."

But on 26 May 2011, that stance appeared to change when Sony's executive vice president and chief financial officer Masaru Kato seemingly confirmed that Sony is working on the PS4. The revelation took place

during a conference call to investors where he was asked about increased R&D costs.

"This is a platform business, so for the future platform - when we'll be introducing what product I cannot discuss that - but our development work is already under way, so the costs are incurred there," Eurogamer reported him as saying.

However, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal on 31 May 2011, Kato denied that he was specifically referring to the PS4, saying "Some people misread what I said."

So what can we expect from the PlayStation 4?

The PS4 specs could abandon the Cell processor and return to x86…

In February, there were rumours of a failed Sony/IBM research project to develop a PowerPC chip for future PlayStations. Going forward, Sony will surely stick with the advanced, multi-core, bitch-to-develop-for Cell processor that it dropped $3 billion on. Here are three reasons why:

1. Easy backwards compatibility with the PlayStation 3

2. A familiar development environment. By 2015 (or whenever a PS4 comes out), games developers will have had much more experience working with Cell and its software tools

3. Toshiba recently sold its Cell factory in Nagasaki back to Sony for £400 million. Sony is hardly going to abandon the chip now it owns the means to manufacture it in bulk

What are the PS4 features we'd most like to see?

PS4 info dreams of a next-gen PlayStation with a 32nm Cell processor an up to 16 SPEs, double the number in the PlayStation 3. While over on gamrConnect, there's talk of a greater partnership with Google. Sony's new fondness for Android on the Xperia Play is an interesting strategy.

Blu-ray on the PlayStation 4 is a dead cert. While digital distribution is undoubtedly the way forward, not every PlayStation owner has access to a fast broadband connection.

As Kas Hirai told Develop, "we do business in parts of the world where network infrastructural isn't as robust as one would hope. There's always going to be requirement for a business of our size and scope to have a physical medium."

As for the PlayStation 4 controller, Dr. Richard Marks (Sony Computer Entertainment's US R&D manager of special projects) says that "anything that lets us get the player's intent into the system more" is technology they'll be looking at. No brain wave gaming just yet.

Could there be a redesign of the PlayStation network too?

According to Reg Hardware, Sony has a PlayStation Network design upgrade in the works to compete with Xbox Live - could it eventually launch alongside the PS4?

What about a PS4 release date?

Tricky. If you side with the likes of ITProPortal, you might believe that "the whole concept of a single lounge-bound gaming device may become obsolete". The future of gaming may well lie in a more portable device/controller that you can play on the move or plug into your TV. Epic's Mark Rein has some interesting thoughts on this here.

Sony claims that the PS3 will have a 10 year lifecycle, suggesting the next PlayStation will arrive by the end of 2016 at the latest. Or we might not get a PlayStation 4 at all. Developers haven't yet maxed out the potential of the PS3, while the release of PlayStation Move has given it an extra dimension…

However, according to Digitimes, Sony is to start production of PS4 at the end of 2011 with Kinect-like body control. Though we're not sure how accurate that can possibly be.

"Where we go after this is an interesting one," says Sony Computer Entertainment UK boss Ray Maguire. "The online side is very interesting and is a big part of our business going forward. But in terms of what sort of technology we'll be using, it's far too early to say yet because we're only half way through the lifecycle of PS3 - there are many years to come on that machine."

Long live PlayStation 3.