So, myself, David and Conor played a few…

So, myself, David and Conor played a few hours of Bad Company 2 tonight. We’re all low ranking players but getting to know the game better as we play. One of the new Rush maps, Laguna Presa, came up time and again and on my low res screen the foliage was a b*tch to see through. On the bright side David’s mic worked, but Conor’s didn’t. I contemplated calling him and leaving the phone on speaker phone as I have loads of minutes but that probably wouldn’t have worked too well.

Later Geoff sent me an invite to play and I asked David and Conor to join me. David did join the game but I think the game filled up and Conor couldn’t. Unfortunately for us we were playing against Geoff and his highly coordinated team on a map I presume they know well as Geoff’s latest video is set there! Let me just say, I hate Laguna Presa. The one highlight for me was knifing 3 enemy soldiers as they sniped from a cliff. Their medic got me though and then I got kicked out of the game so I’m not sure if those kills still count.

We got trounced, mostly.

I went looking for Conor and found him in Arica Harbour, playing Squad Deathmatch. I wasn’t on his team, but I did end up on the winning team, helping out with heals and revives and 7 kills to reach the winning score. Pure luck I ended up with them of course.

I’m almost rank 4 now (I think) and I unlocked the red dot sight and the first of the health pack improvements.

Update: David blogged about his game and he ended up doing well:

At that point I was going to blog the disaster and go to bed – BAH! But then I thought, let’s give it another go, I’ll use the Medic class and basically just stalk one of the other players shoving medpacks in his face and reviving him whether he likes it or not.

I rock.

Some other things come to mind. I’m sure I’ll remember some more later:

  1. There’s a glitch in Laguna, in the third base I think. It’s the one with the river running through the front of the base. I was disabling the bomb when suddenly I was in command of the guided missile launcher that was several feet away. I went WTF, got killed by Geoff in his tank behind me and the bomb exploded!
  2. Squad deathmatch is populated by lots of snipers. I was being sniped by a guy hidden in some trees but thankfully I was behind walls so the bullets didn’t hurt too much and a health pack helped. I waited him out and he eventually decided to run for it when I mowed him down with my LMG. Amazingly the roof of the house I was in was home to a sniper taking aim on the town in Arica Harbour. He had his back to the ladder. so the combat knife came in handy. Unfortunately his buddy sniper got me.
  3. On the first base in Laguna, we didn’t use the heavy gun on the boat enough to soften up the base. Must do that in future.

Anthony shows off his Modern Warfare 2 c…

Anthony shows off his Modern Warfare 2 classes. I’ve played with him a few times and he always rips through the enemy so I was particularly interested in this.

I notice he has completely different perks to me, but I bet he’d still be a better player even when using mine. I haven’t used steady aim since I got my headset as my footsteps were so loud but maybe it’s time to revisit perk 3 again.

Great Bad Company 2 rush mode assault cl…

Great Bad Company 2 rush mode assault class tutorial by TWTHEREDDRAGON. I don’t play the assault class much but many of the tips and hints apply equally to the other classes. (via Field Operative)

Sasbenjr has a great video showing off the effects of smoke in BC2. Must try the assault class and level it up!

Battlefield Bad Company 2 for Absolute Beginners

A quick tutorial for those new to Bad Company 2 multiplayer. This game is really hard when you’re starting off. I should know. I’ve done it twice. Once on Xbox 360 and again on the Playstation 3

  1. When you start off as a raw recruit all you’ll have is your main and secondary weapon, a grenade and a knife. That’s all. You have to unlock ammo and health packs, repair tools and other gadgets.
  2. There are 4 classes of soldier in the game: assault, engineer, medic and recon. Each class must be upgraded individually. As you play as a class you’ll earn class specific points. There are also a number of all-classes upgrades.
  3. If you’re totally new to the game I’d advise you to try the medic first. The LMG has plenty of ammo even if it’s apparently not that accurate. I still manage a few hits with it so it can’t be too bad.
  4. As a medic you’ll unlock the health pack before you reach rank 1 at 1410 points. You’ll unlock the defibrillator to revive fallen comrades at 5800 points. Use the D-PAD left and right to drop the health pack or activate your defibrillator. Make sure to drop health packs around objectives or where you notice your team gather to attack or defend. When your packs heal your team the points will start rolling in and your team will thank you!
  5. If possible “check your corners” before rushing out to revive a team mate. There’s nothing worse than reviving someone only to be killed yourself or have the revived team mate die in a hail of gunfire.
  6. Make sure to spot the enemy. This puts an orange triangle above their heads and the rest of your team will see that triangle too. There’s also an audible warning that’s broadcast to everyone. You’ll get a spotting bonus if they’re killed. On the other hand, if an enemy has seen you lining up to shoot them they may have “spotted” you so watch out for incoming fire! On PS3 hit the select button, on Xbox 360 hit the back button.
  7. Use your mic! This is a squad based game so please don’t be shy. You can talk to your squad to plan tactics or decide where to attack or routes to take, or even give warnings about advancing enemy soldiers.
  8. You have a mini map. Your squad mates show up green. They’re the most important people on your team as you can speak to them and hear them. You also get more points for helping your squad than your team. As a medic if a team mate is killed you’ll see a tiny lightning symbol where they fell. Get to them within about 5 seconds you can revive them. When you see your team mates in front of you they’ll have a small health meter below their name. Toss them a health pack if they’re in need of it and shout at them to stop for it if they’re in a hurry somewhere!
  9. The defibrillator can kill. Oh yes!
  10. I blogged guides to all the classes by Games in a nutshell not so long ago.
  11. Sasbenjr has some great videos on Youtube with lots of advice for playing the game well. Definitely worth watching.

More to come, but in the meantime this guide to medic unlockables is a good read. As a rank 8 medic on the Xbox I prefer the health pack upgrades to gun enhancements but I do like the M60 LMG. You might also like to read David’s first impressions of the game. It is true you’re equipped with “the equivalent of a damp towel” starting out. Especially when playing with rank 20-30+ players I saw yesterday evening.

A tutorial video by Pixelenemy is well worth watching for those new to the game:

A few links courtesy of field operative:

  1. [STRATEGY] Battlefield Bad Company 2 General Tips
  2. [STRATEGY] Battlefield Bad Company 2 Sniper tips
  3. And a good recon class guide though much of the advice applies to other classes too!

David published part 1 of a guide to surviving Bad Company 2 multiplayer. Looking forward to part 2!
Part 2 is now on his site. Love the description of the medic:

“Medic!” – we’ve all seen it in the films. The enemy opens fire, someone gets hit and the call goes up. The heroic medic runs through a hail of fire to scoop up their comrade’s brains, stuff them back into his skull and make it all better. Oh yes, the medic is where the action is. And they get all the women too!

Part 3 of surviving BfBC2 multiplayer by David just went online and concerns the localized language option. If it’s on, your team mates will shout in Russian. I really should uncheck that..
Part 4 of David’s guide covers mic comms. A desperately important part of any Bad Company 2 game which is sorely lacking in most games I’ve played with strangers.
Part 5 is now available where David talks about leveling up.

More links on the beginner theme: here, here and here.

Strategy guides: part 1 and part 2.

Lots of great strategy guides at gamereplays.

Now get playing!

Dubai, world's hottest property

Dubai, world's hottest property

I’m an avid fan of the National Geographic and while sorting through my dead tree archive yesterday spotted this issue from 2007 when property in Dubai was described as “the world’s hottest”. It certainly is now. It’s untouchable. A reminder of an age gone by.

I also have an issue of National Georaphic from December 1954 which deserves a post of it’s own at some time in the future.

The WD TV media player arrived this morn…

The WD TV media player arrived this morning!

Much sooner than expected the postman delivered a box from Amazon containing the WD TV “HD Media Player” and a 16GB Cruzer flash drive from Sandisk. The media player works as advertised and played all the movies I through at it. The Cruzer USB flash drive is unfortunately quite slow at writes (about 3MB/sec) but is perfectly adequate for streaming movie files from it.

The Playstation 3 has been rescued, but video quality is dire through the shipped composite cable. I don’t have a HDMI socket on my monitor, so I can’t wait for this component cable switcher to arrive.

Playstation 3 and Xbox 360