Now that the beta is closed and we're done playing at fever pitch I wanted to take a few minutes to go over some of the stuff I really liked and disliked. Keep in mind this will be gameplay aspects, not bugs that need fixing. As it was a beta, and a version that was several months old it seems inappropriate to talk about stuff "I hope the fix before release."

Likes

• Weapons: By and large the weapons seem to be a little better thought out than in previous Battlefield games. Historically everybody was running around with one specific weapon per class. Variety is good, and it seems like they took some extra time to make sure each weapon had pros and cons.
• Suppressive Fire Effect: I know this is cool because it aggravates the shit out of me. Taking overhead or defilade fire makes my screen go all silly. It reduces my situational awareness and makes it extremely difficult to identify and fire on a target. Squad tactics become pretty important when a group of guys can lay down fire to help an advancing teammate, this is one of the first things I learned in basic training and one of the things the Army put a lot of time into teaching us.
• Mobile Spawnpoints: This has been missing from Battlefield games since day one. I always assumed that Bad Company 2's addition of squads and squad spawning was their answer to this, but I am thrilled to be wrong. This will make both gametypes MUCH more interesting in larger maps and REALLY help the flow of the game. No more minor skirmishes at an objective and wait 2-3 minutes for the next group of opfor to respawn and march across miles of desert to get back to your position and vice-versa.
• Weapon Addons: Jesus, they finally got it right! No more "Magnum Ammo" on a piddly little sub-machine gun! Rail-mounted weapon mods that make sense and don't skew gameplay such as taclights, bipods, flash suppressors, etc. Each weapon mod has a bonus and a drawback, which means weapon mod combinations can be better tailored to individual playstyles, rather than the cookie-cutter crap we saw in BC2.

Dislikes

• Assault/Support Classes: What did I miss? The shock troops at the front of the fight are expected to run back and revive/heal and play the support role overall while the support guys in the back are expected to run to the front and be the shock troops? It's nonsensical. Assault rifles have no advantages over traditional support weapons, they cannot sustain fire for more than a few seconds, they don't have the damage capability due to projectile size, and they're no more useful in short/medium range situations than any other weapon class in the game. The heal/ammo thing needs to be put back in order and the underslung grenade launcher needs to be a much earlier unlock. Additionally, this class could use a flash grenade, smoke grenade, or some other close-range suppression/cover device to get it out of the other classes' collective shadow.
• Support Weapons (Sorry Reersh!): Seriously, what the fuck is with DICE and their hard-on for the light machine guns? For as long as I can remember the LMGs have been way, way, way out of whack. Any weapon that can pour this kind of fire downrange needs to have greater drawbacks than they do. There are no hits to mobility, very little in the way of obvious accuracy disadvantages, and now the silly fuckers can throw down their own ammo. LMGs are typically used for suppressive and area-target fire at range in the real world. The poor guys running around with M249's and 240B's in the Army aren't bouncing around like crack-addicted Jack Russell Terriers and laying down much in the way of point-target fire. Target aquisition is a much longer process with LMGs than assault rifles in ANY firing position due to their size and weight which tends to make them less desirable than rifles in just about everything but a support role. Yes I understand this is a video game and NOT the real world, but now that the fire suppression effect is in place I think it's time somebody re-examined the role of LMGs on the virtual battlefield and put them back into a SUPPORT role.
• Remington 870/12g Slug Combination: The fact that any of the shotguns start with shot of any kind is mind-blowing. As far as I know (granted, I'm not all-knowing) slugs are pretty standard issue with any combat shotgun in existence. Okay, for balance's sake we can make slugs an unlockable weapon mod, but shouldn't we consider real-world ballistics here? I'm pretty familiar with shotguns myself, and the idea of somebody reliably landing a hit with slugs at 50+ yards is insanity. A low-velocity round as big around as my index finger is simply NOT going to be terribly accurate at range.
• Artillery: Um.... This has been a staple of the Battlefield series since day one, it seems to me with LARGER maps and LARGER teams this would be even MORE useful. Which one of these guys went to war and forgot their gun bunnies? Somebody owes the tribunal they're about to face a BIG explanation....

Overall

I'm looking forward to release. The blend of Battlefield 2 and Bad Company 2 is refreshing, despite being much heavier on the BC2 side. I can see why the guys expecting a prettier version of BF2 are pissed (DICE did say this was BF2's successor) but despite being more appropriately titled Bad Company 3, I think the game itself has something for everybody. I think this has a future both recreationally and competitively provided the community doesn't whine and cry and reduce it to bare-bones, non-unlock weapons and infantry only.

With the horrible disappointment that was Global Agenda's "Update," Project Medius and many of its members have taken a step back away from the keyboard to pursue their life dreams. Recently I sat down with a few of those members to discuss their current undertakings and future ambitions.

Unvevo

I recently caught up with Unvevo in the men's room of a seedy bar.

It's unusual to be bear-hugged from behind whilst using the urinal so at first I was unsure how to react, and being a little... occupied, I was unable to catch a glimpse of my new friend for a moment and was primarily focused on trying to make out the phone number of the lawyer that was stamped into the urinal cake. Upon completion of my evacuatory duties I turned to find a big grinning doofus whom I hadn't seen nor heard from in nearly a year. It turns out our light-knickered friend has taken his newly earned responsibilities as Texas Law Man quite seriously and has time for little else than maintaining the peace and protecting the innocent.

He held my hand as we left the dusky lavatory and made way through the smokey room towards the bar. I offered to buy him a beer, but he politely declined, choosing instead to have a Roy Rogers and stating that grenadine and maraschino cherries help him to maintain the zen-like focus required to uphold the law.

He told me stories of his recent adventures, spinning tales of action and mystery like under appreciated and unrecognized author of the great nickel mystery novels of yore. He dazzled me with tales of wrestling bears and rescuing fair maidens from railroads tracks moments before their doom. After several more virgin cocktails, he leaned in toward me with glassy eyes and said there was something else he felt he should tell me. He ordered a water, saying he'd already had too much carbonation and he could feel his chi-flow slowing and begun a tale about an ostrich smuggling ring supplying juiced up ostriches for the International Ostrich Racing Circuit.

On his own he'd discovered that an international landfowl cartel had set up shop just south of the Rio Grande, but their influence and size was too great for him alone. In hushed tones he continued, stating that he'd teamed up with legendary martial artist and fellow Texas Law Man Chuck Norris and famed Marvel superhero Wolverine to track down the leaders of the cartel. He told me that he was in town only to enjoy what may be his last night out as the trio of vigilantes was setting out at dawn, bound for the Texas wilderness in search of of giant, poison injected birds and the evildoers who sneak them out of Mexico and into heart of America's wholesome favorite pastime.

In the recent build of Battlefield 3 that we’ve been seeing lately, there have been a couple of newly implemented gameplay mechanics not included in the Beta that really stood out to us for a few reasons. The first being that they could drastically change the way some gamers play Battlefield and second, because they looked quite similar to gameplay mechanics found in the Call of Duty series.

At around the 3:30 mark in the video below, notice the player as he engages in a fire-fight with an enemy inside the tunnel infront of him. From what it looks like, it seems that whenever his enemy fires his weapon, which is noticeably unsuppressed due to the muzzle flash, his position shows up on the mini-map in the bottom left-hand corner, but is not highlighted by an orange triangle above his head. This basically confirms that enemies who fire an unsuppressed weapon will have their position revealed on your mini-map, which was not the case in the BF3 Beta.



What do you guys think? We’ll let you be the judge of this one.

Another feature in question is the ability to see the locations of your teammate’s death thanks to a skull that appears on screen and on the mini-map. You can check out a few screen shots of this in our Dissection of the Near Final Build of Battlefield 3.

It is arguable that both of these features are very similar to ones found in the Call of Duty series. Teammate’s deaths have always been visible, and enemies have always shown up on the mini-map when firing an unsuppressed weapon. However, it’s undeniable that both of these gameplay mechanics are also effective and enhance the gameplay. If this is indeed true, then why would developers not include it in their own game, regardless of whether or not it’s been done before? In an interview with complex.com, Alex Grondel comments on this very issue: “Since we’re building what we’re building and other shooters are building their stuff, you can easily see when you get the awkward crossover in some places. You have the same inspiration, but you did it in two different ways. In other cases, you have two completely friendly implementations that have no resemblance, but you will still get compared.”

Article shamelessly copied from mp1st.com

GREETINGS TRIBES BETA TESTER!

I am excited to announce that we are planning at least one and probably more short "Systems Tests" for Tribes: Ascend ahead of the official start of Closed Beta on November 4, 2011.
During these tests, players that have been admitted to the Closed Beta (including those that have Pre-Ordered the Tribes VIP Starter Pack) may login and play components of the game for a few hours while we test specific parts of the game and its surrounding infrastructure.
The next Pre-Beta Systems Test is scheduled as below.** NOTE: At this pre-Beta stage of testing, it is possible that tests may be cancelled at the last minute due to technical issues or other problems. Please watch the Tribes Beta forums for up-to-date information regarding the test. **
I look forward to seeing you in the game and thank you in advance for your feedback.

Stewart Chisam
Executive Producer

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YAY!! WOOHOO!!

Oh my! While the video is depressingly short in comparison to much of the footage DICE has already released, it's chock full of action rather than cinematics. Not only are we seeing clips of maps not available to us in the beta, but there is also a lot of footage of vehicles we didn't get to see either. One of my questions during the beta, while looking through the awards and unlocks was whether or not marine vehicles would be included in the game. The (obviously limited) awards/medals screen contained nothing in relation to boats of any kind, so seeing them in the latest trailer is quite exciting. Amphibious assaults have long been a staple of the Battlefield series and it's heartening to see that it will continue in this title.

The next thing that made me gooey was footage of the AH-6/MH-6. Desert Combat is what got me into the helo piloting part of the Battlefield series and to see these choppers mixed in (after their disappointing exclusion in BF2) is almost an emotional thing. Being able to throw down heavy fire with the 30mike-mike in the Apache is fun, but being able to whip in and out of combat in a Little Bird, make strafing runs, and transport a fireteam contingent in the blink of an eye is HUGE. If these helos can do everything in BF3 that they could do in DC, the battlefield just changed. We're talking surgical precision strikes here, people! Surgical in terms of aerial fire AND strategic insertion.

And watch the video, the Little Birds aren't showcased, but when you see them they're in places where helos can be effing scary. One clip that blew my mind and IMMEDIATELY made me think of Desert Combat was the clip where a guy pops around a corner looking into a tunnel and hovering a few hundred meters down the tunnel is a damn Little Bird. I will admit that I squeaked, knowing that that cute little chopper floating there in the tunnel was a mobile gun platform. Cinematically it worked out great, the guy ducked back around the corner just as a volley of rockets launched by said helo flew down and out of the end of the tunnel. Cool!