BF3 Premium release rant

So I’m going to rant for this entry, about one of my hobbies. Battlefield 3, which if you are not familiar is a first person shooter FPS video game available on all the major gaming platforms. So if you don't care about gaming you may not want to read this issue.
There are a lot of things to complain about in the battlefield world. Some of them are development problems, some of them are programming problems, some of them are gamer problems and some of them are just problems which I’m not sure who to blame.

My rant is about the developers, programmers, and their marking people. Like many fans of either the franchise or the gaming genre new game generate a certain amount of buzz and excitement and some where along the way the people who make video games figured out if they started having people pre order games then they could save money on manufacturing because they would know how large to make a first run of the game so that they don’t end up with a lot of stock if the game doesn’t sell well after the first few months. It’s a very smart move.

Then they were able to add to games later once they were released with down loadable content (DLC). This saves money because you already have the basics of the game done you are just adding things to an already existing vehicle. Which ,truth be told these were all probably parts that were being developed for the game in the first place but were left out for one reason or another so a lot of the work is already done, but it is programming work and if you can make money on that so be it, which is fine. I don’t have a problem with the game getting a warm up if fact I prefer the warm up.

Then the developers came up with exclusive content which you pay a bit more for but it gives you something that other players don’t have in the game. Which may or may not give you an advantage but it is fun to have if you enjoy the activity and spend any time doing it. It is partly escapist fun so why not give your player some depth of your personality or flavor.

Battlefield 3 is no different than any other game developer out there however they have recently taken a great big whiz in the collective bowl of cereal of their base /core audience.

DICE and EA came out with a premium service which gives those players access to a few things other players don’t have. Some of it helps in game but mainly it doesn’t really it is all just a bunch of filler. But getting to play the games a bit earlier than other players is fun and the premium service was mainly a bundle of the new maps DLCs which were slated to come out over the next 12 months when it was introduced., which was totally worth the additional money to have the game have much more content.

I’ve played other FPS which could have used a lot more DLC which didn’t get any of it and that company is not defunct and they had great games.

So it’s expected by the consumers that the games will be freshened up a bit and it will cost some money.

The whiz in our cereal bowl is that now DICE and EA are making the premium service and all the other DLC and the original game all available for equal too or maybe even a bit less then it was originally sold for less than a year ago and less then 6 months since they asked the original buyers of the game to buy the Premium DLC for just a bit less then they are now marketing the whole thing for in less then two weeks.

To me as a consumer it is a giant F*** you game buyer you mean about as much to us as a speck of dust on our shoes.

You don’t care about the game buyer and you have proven it with that really shitty move. Which really makes the lame premium “bonus content” seem like a double slap in the face, no one really expected it to be more than fluff. Well almost nobody who understands you are in the business to make money from a workable product. Now I’m not sure exactly where making the money stands in the ranking compared to how workable the product is when it is sold but I would like to think the product being the best that it can be is up there slightly higher than the profits and if profits are number two on the list that is ok.

However when you market the “bonus content” as being something to enhance the game and it is a video about stuff that most players have figured out on their own or that many of the Youtube content creators have already explained and explained it better or some other lame thing that doesn’t do anything for the gamer at all. Seriously weapon camo in a gaming system that puts you on a heads up display if you are aimed at or fire your weapon? I mean really how does this enhance the gaming experience? It doesn’t hide us and if certainly doesn’t make the other player shooting at you pause and say oh damn your weapon is so much cooler than mine. In fact they do not notice it a bit.

The thing is they didn’t just give this stuff to you either. You have to do some ridiculously long quest which gives you nothing useful in the game. It is an insult and that our money was just something you expected to get from us and even deserved to have.

Well you haven’t earned that money and you have insulted a lot of gamers and would be willing to be part of a class action lawsuit against the gaming developers for this fraud against the consumers which is really what it amounts to, as the release information was deliberately vague and now offer all the same products for less than the original purchase price it is just shameless and shows the greed that drives businesses to give the consumer less and less for every dollar spent.

I’m not going to stop playing the game but I know I’m not going to buy anymore add on stuff for games and I don’t know that I’ll really buy too many more games from DICE on a first offering because 6 months later it will be half the cost. I’m sure I’m not the only person who fells this way. You’ve really alienated yourselves from a large part of the community and should make it up to your customers in a meaningful way.

In other news.

I’m just not sure what to think about the whole Lance Armstrong thing.



Well, that’s all for now, other stuff tomorrow most likely

Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday

Thank you for reading, please subscribe, you know if you are reading this on blogspot or on diaryland. If you are reading on face book well you are already subscribed. Aren’t you happy.

Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood.

Ciao,






PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don

PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

New Battlefield 3 DLC Close Quarters

Some thoughts on the new Close Quarters DLC for Battlefield 3. The 4 new maps are small enough to allow for a lot of gun play with other players but not so small that you get pinned into an area and are then trapped in a particular corner and your team is then at the mercy or the lack of mercy by the opposing team.
The new maps are Donya Fortress- Operation 925 - Scrapmetal - Ziba Tower
All offer something unique in the environments that force an adjustment in game play for each map.
DICE delivered on their billed claim that Close Quarters is death from every angle there are very few places in the maps that you are safe and not open to an attack from multiple angles and or from higher or lower levels on the maps.
The modes of play are Team Death Match, Conquest Domination and Gun Master
Team Death Match on theses new maps is as fast paced as any other map in the BF3 rotation and if you are on the map you are in a gun fight quickly (most of the time)
Conquest Domination – moves quicker than any other conquest mode and players capturing flag points are generally fully exposed or at least partially exposed. So no longer do you arrive on point and have to wonder why the counter is not burning down because there is some player is hidden in some box, balcony or elsewhere requiring the man hunt or a greater number players to begin taking a point. Simply win the gun fight to take a point
However watch out for C4 though a new assignment requires a few C4 kills and grenades are needed to avoid being vaporized while capping you are going to die if you don’t spot the C4, and there are places to hide off burn to ambush those on burn so there is risk from every angle
Gun Master – Love and hate this game mode. Everyone is even with weapons at the start but not as the game advances. I don’t know that I will be playing this game mode much for a few reasons. While the maps are smaller you can go for what seems an eternity without seeing an enemy and there you are stuck with the M443 while you can see players moving up the Gun Master ladder further and further making getting those first 6 kills to get out of the 3 pistols harder and harder.
That said I love the idea of bettering my aim and gun play with a lot of different weapons. Come in late to a Gun Master round and you are pretty much toast pray you find that unsuspecting person here or there and hope you get a head shot because if you don’t you are a blood splatter on the walls.
The Gun Master Game mode has one other flaw in it that while you are still on a team a win only goes to the Gun Master winner and not anyone on that team. This is not a team game mode and should not count in the win / loss ratio statistics and should be changed to unranked as to win/loss statistics.
Sure I’m going to lose games and I do not mind losing but if you are going to only allow one winner and not a team win then make all the players targets and not just half of them. Because really they are not on your team they are on their own team in this mode.
Another thing I do not like about this game mode, either I’m not seeing an enemy for minutes and minutes or I’m getting shots into a player and then some “team mate” pops in gets off that last shot for the kill and gets the kill and my screen shows Kill assist 99… Ok… really? I swear to BOB in one match I had 40 kill assists and was stuck in the pistols for 70 percent of the match because of all the lost kills to “team mates”. Add up the assists if you get a total of 300 or 400 percent of assist points on a gun level, one or two more kills than necessary to advance let those players advance to the next weapon. However I think the easier thing to do would be to take out the Win/Loss statistic in this game mode. Then there is no adding up to kill assist points and there is no negative loss or gain in the Win/loss ratio to players who want to test their gun skills against other players.
Sure this may be called a “stat whoring” complaint. I don’t have stellar KDR or even a SPM rate, I do however have a positive W/L ratio and I work at keeping it that way by playing the objective and working with my team mates whether they are in my clan or just randoms.
My quit percentage is really low, at 2 to 3 percent depending on how many matches I get kicked out of, my internet craps out on me or I spawn into a game and the team is already being spawn camped and is down by several hundred tickets. I’m sorry this isn’t the real military and I’m not going down with an already sinking ship just to keep that quit percentage from going up a tiny bit. So I think removing Gun Master from the W/L statistics is a fair complaint because W/L is a team based statistic rating and Gun Master is not a team based game mode.
I think some of the assignments are a bit steep but not completely out of range but will take some work while others are so easy that you barely need to think about them to unlock a weapon. The AUG is an example of that I was in a high ticket rush match on Operation Metro and had it unlocked by the third set of MCOMs.
All in all I like all the new maps and new game modes, even if you won’t see me in too many Gun Master matches


Well, that’s all for now, other stuff tomorrow most likely

Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday

Thank you for reading, please subscribe, you know if you are reading this on blogspot or on diaryland. If you are reading on face book well you are already subscribed. Aren’t you happy.

Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood.

Ciao,






PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don

PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

Project PTFO Team Yesh Bandits

Project PTFO Team Yesh Bandits

If you’ve been following the blog you know I was recently involved in a Battlefield 3 tournament which was a new idea in online gaming to bring the community together. However if gaming is not your thing you may not know about this tournament.

PTFO is Play the F’ing Objective and is an attitude of playing the game as it was meant to be played. Win or lose you play to capture/defend, arm/destroy points on the maps and to work with the other players on your squad/team and to have a fun time in the process.

The tournament paired players who also direct and produce video content on game playi and are posted on youtube /Twitch TV / Machinima with fans of their videos and also the game Battlefield 3.

The tournament was free, as in their was no fee for the players but you have to own the game and put on by the staff of Battlefieldo.com

The number of hours the people of Battlefieldo.com have committed to this project have been more than most people really probably understand. This tournament is on all three platforms of the game PS3, Xbox 360 and PC and involved hundreds of people from all over the world. So planning this was not as easy as sitting in a room and hashing out the details it took a ton of work.

The tournament announced aired in movie trailer format and I was all oh man this so exciting and decide that I would enter but did not really have much hope of wining.

I can not tell you how excited I was when I opened my email on Battlefield.com declaring that I had been selected to play as a contestant on Team Yesh Bandits.

Team Yesh Bandits are the directors Robert the Bruce with Yesh Gaming and mariocarrion with Bandito Gaming. These guys both produce video content on youtube and TwitchTV

I was familiar with Robert’s Battlefield 3 videos but was not with Mario’s videos. They are both of very similar mindsets on game play, that being fair play and playing the game to win while having fun and learning.

Meeting both of the via the online game play and online in game chat has been a good experience and I have enjoyed gaming with both of them.

As the winner of the selection draw I got to practice with these guys for the last week and the other winner Kennykyle2010.

We worked on tactics for the tournament game on attacking and defending two different maps in the Battlefield 3 game in the game mode Squad Rush. 4 players v. 4 players. This game mode allows attacking teams 20 player deaths in total to arm and destroy a target, if successful in the first arm and destroy it opens a second target to arm and destroy also with a total of 20 player deaths. If you arm and destroy both targets your team wins on attack. If the defending team kills the attacking team 20 times without the attackers saving downed players the defending team wins.

Each team attacked and defended two maps for a total of 4 possible points, points were only earned on attacking turns.

It is a very thinking game mode that requires planning on both sides of the game and requires that teams have the adaptability to adjust on the fly to what the other team is doing at any given time in the game and a very small mistake can lead to point lost or losing the game entirely.

We practiced for the week and I noticed a lot of improvement in my approach to the game and gun play. I will be the first to admit that I still have a lot of work to improve.

The main point of the tournament was for fun and to bring the community together for the event and for the directors to produce content from their POV of the game play and experiences meeting other players.

Our match was this past Saturday June 2, 2012 against Team LOL which was a European team, Captained by CHu99y from the UK and Dark Symmetry from the Netherlands and their two lottery players.

Unfortunately on the date of the game Kennykyle2010 had a family emergency and was not able to play. So Yesh Bandits was given another lottery player Maripopoza who agreed to come on board and play with no practice with the team and only a very quick 20 minute crash course on our teams planned tactics.

With that handicap Team Yesh Bandits still performed well and brought a lot of pressure to Team LOL and shut them out of two of their possible points.

Team Yesh Bandits did not score any of the 4 points possible but we performed well and were able to breach the defenses of Team LOL several times but just did not produce points.

With any tournament of this kind where the players are in remote areas from the others playing and all players signing onto a location computer server there will be lag or a delay in the data stream to the players and back to the server. The server we were playing on was a European Server so Team LOL was closer to the server than Team Yesh Bandits.

I’m in Virginia, Robert is in Kentucky and Mario is in New York and I’m not sure where Maripopoza is located. Our other team mate is in Seattle so he was further away than anyone else but did not pjlay. I know the two lottery players for Team LOL were in Europe but not their exact locations, so Team LOL’s distance from the gaming server was much closer than Team Yesh Bandits.

The data stream goes out quickly but there is always delay in getting the stream to those furthest from the servers. The slight data stream disadvantage to our side and paired with our team playing with a player who had no practice tilted the odds in favor of Team LOL.

I’m not saying this to take anything away from Team LOL. They are a very solid team who PTFO in a very serious way. They communicate well and play a very tactical game and were good and tough competitors and I congratulate them with all due sincerity for their win.

All of us on Team Yesh Bandits are happy with our performance and had a very good time and are all extremely happy to have been a part of Project PTFO.

I want to thank Robert with Yesh Gaming and Mario with Bandito Gaming for helping me and being very good teachers and always offering feedback in a positive and objective focused way. I’ve noticed a big, big improvement in my own game play and I am winning gun fights with players in my own clan that had usually out gunned me. I have a very new out look on how to play the game and hope we are able game more in the future.

I also want to thank everyone at Battlefieldo for all the hard work and effort you have put into making Project PTFO a great event and I am so glad to have been a part of this event. I hope you are able to plan more events like this one and hope I am lucky enough to be able to participate again.

Well, that’s all for now, other stuff tomorrow most likely

Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday

Thank you for reading, please subscribe, you know if you are reading this on blogspot or on diaryland. If you are reading on face book well you are already subscribed. Aren’t you happy.

Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood.

Ciao,






PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don

PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

Project PTFO and Me

Not sure as I write this how long it has been since I’ve posted something, a while but certainly not forever.

Recently though I’ve been doing things I enjoy more and driving in a different direction than I have been. Yup that’s right I’m the lunatic driving on the wrong side of the road all brit style.

drawing, reading, etc.

Also doing some other writing not online which is not making the kind of progress that I want.

I have also been playing online in a video game I enjoy a good bit. Related to that is that I have been selected to play this week in a very unique tournament involving the online gaming community at large and those who combine their gaming with video production, directing and editing.

If you are not into gaming then you’ll be forever lost in what I’m talking about. However if you play Battlefield there is currently an event called Project PTFO. PTFO is Play the F”ing Objective

Video games generally have a purpose or object to accomplish and many players try hard to play the game as intended (PTFO) while others not so much.

So this event brings known community players the Directors of online gaming content, tutorials, challenges together with their respective fans and community players

The tournament pairs two directors with two fans and they play a round at the end of a week of practice. Then the winning directors get two new fans to move on in the tournament and it’s all in fun and bringing the community together a bit

I have been ever so fortunate to have been selected for this weeks round with YESH BANDITS

Yesh Gaming director Robert the Bruce teamed with Bandito Gaming director Mario Carrion

I am paired with them and another fan

I am uber excited and yes I just said uber

Before you go all aren’t you too old for video games, I’ll admit I am older than 80 to 90 percent of the players I run into on the games but gaming if fun.

It also helps me maintain a good relationship with my son because when he is talking about his games I’m not completely at a loss about what he is saying.

Now he owns me in the games where he is good player and I can hold my own in the games I play.

However I do not profess to be an all star in any way shape or form of the word… I won a lottery and feel very lucky to be a part of this gaming event. Hopefully our team will do well and the directors will get good players again next week to move forward in the tournament

Hey all in all if you are having fun and it keeps you on an even keel it’s a good thing right

It is my story so that’s the way I’m telling it.

In other news …

Did I mention I’m uber excited about this …well I am more later



Well, that’s all for now, other stuff tomorrow most likely

Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday

Thank you for reading, please subscribe, you know if you are reading this on blogspot or on diaryland. If you are reading on face book well you are already subscribed. Aren’t you happy.

Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood.

Ciao,





PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don

PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

Die Red Dots

So if you read yesterday you know I said am a gamer and I play FPSs. I like them because you get to kill people and it’s good stress relief. Well you know not really people but a digital version of the person in the game environment. It is fun …well if it’s not your thing then you probably don’t think so.

Being a gamer there are certain things that people say about games, being a waste of time and what not. Maybe that is true if you spend all your time doing just that one thing and there are enough people who do just that and it gives all gamers a bad name especially the ones that play a little or even an hour or so each day.

However, a person who plays video games and actually plays them to accomplish objects and goals within the game tend to be better decision makers than persons who don’t play video games.

The studies show that gamer is used to making choices and executing differing plans and paths routinely to accomplish goals during their free time and because this is behavior occurring during stimulated brain activity it transfers to times when quick choices have to be made and weighing out multiple variables while on the job. This isn’t likely going to get your boss to allow you to play games at work but it may help you problem solve if you play a moderate amount during your free time.

Gamers also tend to have better hand eye coordination than non gamers. Not always a useful skill set but it can help.

Usually I am playing with my clan, a group of gamers who add a clan tag to their gamer tag to show that these players routinely play matches together.

I belong to the DRD -- Die Red Dots clan. We are few in number but enjoy the games and are not to be trifled with. We have been playing FPSs for around three years. The tag has meant Deadly Red Dots in some versions. The name evolved from the fact that the enemy shows up on a PIP map as a red dot and friendly players are blue or green. You are always a red dot to the enemy so Die Red Dots because that is who we want to kill.

Most of us are adults with jobs and children and we enjoy playing the games for the sake of the games. We like to accomplish the missions and work well together as a team. We are not the top players on the game with the exception on one player who is a beast.

There are around 40 players who are DRD

There are a core group of about 7 who play with frequency. There are player in other countries and all other the US.

The core group of us are invisible don, Ronin, Smoke, Flee, Dope Delta, Kensai

Kensai plays in two clans

Delta is new and is Ronin’s neighbor I think
Ronin is a college guy in Tennessee and a beast
Dope is a construction guy in New England
Flee is also a construction guy in NYC
Smoke is too a construction guy in FLA
And yours truly

Smoke and I were in a match yesterday and were death from above I had a round of 19 and 2 meaning I killed 19 people and only died twice. It is the sort of match Ronin has all the time me I’m usually even or a little behind but I earn points for accomplishing goals. We were in a Viper helicopter and blowing shit up all over the town. And I’m sure I was being cussed and called all sorts of bad things especially as I earned a nemesis ribbon meaning that 10 of those kills were shared by two players at five a piece. I had no idea I was killing the same poor schmucks over and over again. The thing is we were effective because we were working together target spotting and keeping the heli repaired and talking to each other. If we weren’t working together we would have died a lot.

The FPS games are starting to reward teamwork more than individual run and gun game play style. COD is still a high reward for run and gun but most other FPSs do not give those type rewards.

We all work really well together and support each other and don’t freak out when someone isn’t playing like a lot of other clans will do in these games. Seriously they require a certain number of hours of play per week, a KDR at a certain level and other stats that the game provides should be at a level determined to be lethal by the clan.

The DRD doesn’t require any of that, just have fun.

We do group up with The Bangin’ Smurfs, and the Canadian Duo of Goblin Girl and Liquid Circuit

I don’t know any of these guys and girls out of the game environment and while we talk like good friends we wouldn’t know each other if we were silently standing next to one another.

I would say all of us would know one another’s voices thought.

The funniest thing that has happened in the DRD is one of the other beast college kid who is in the clan but doesn’t play a lot is Teal. He was talking about being at a small college in Virginia. I say really which one. He says oh you wouldn’t know it, it is this community college and he says the name. I say no way I teach there. He is like BS dude. So I tell him the street address what it near and all the high schools in the area. He is like whoa one of the college professors plays and FPS

Everyone else was like damn that is pretty amazing two people who randomly join a gamer clan and don’t know one another are actually in the same town doing things in the same place. I’m sure it happens a lot but it’s the only time it’s happened in the DRD. Small world

Recently we were playing against each other in a match designed to pit two squads of four against each other and I was kill by Ronin so many times with a knife to the chest I may develop post traumatic stress disorder from it. But it is a bit of pay back because I’ve gutted him a few times before in other matches but it was like he started in on killing me like it was his job in that one match.


Well, that’s all for now, other stuff tomorrow most likely

Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday

Thank you for reading, please subscribe, you know if you are reading this on blogspot or on diaryland. If you are reading on face book well you are already subscribed. Aren’t you happy.

Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood.

Ciao,





PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don

PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015