Played some Bad Company 2 again...

And I remember why I preferred the gameplay in Battlefield 3.

To be fair, there aren't many people playing Bad Company 2 anymore and I've been playing alone - which is never wise in any Battlefield game. The main thing I feel when playing is that I want to play Battlefield 3 again. I miss having a more realistic approach to gun selection, without it being a simulation. Bad Company 2 squeezes you into a very limited selection of weapons for each class and none of them really take my fancy - I end up running around with an 870 shotgun or a G3 and wishing for my LA85A2 (british army's standard assault rifle), which I adored in Battlefield 3. Also, the gameplay is just a little less refined than I remembered.

I looked back through my blog at some of my past comments on these games and I have consistently said Bad Company 2 was better overall. I think this is a feeling of how it felt at the time. Battlefield 3 had some really frustrating aspects that were easily managed by Bad Company 2, most notably playing in a squad with friends. Battlefield 3 had the annoying habit of chucking everyone you'd gathered into your in-game "squad" into random squads in a match and even on different teams. Also, Battlefield 3 brought in player run servers, which were almost all terrible - trying to get onto an official server without any bullshit or worrying about being kicked, was nearly impossible.

Bad Company 2 just worked, all official servers, easy squad creation, easy connections to games. If they'd had all these aspects in Battlefield 3 it would have been better in every way than Bad Company 2. They may seem like small things as they don't actually relate to gameplay, but they're so important for providing good gameplay.

So yes, overall Bad Company 2 was more fun, but, frustratingly, it hasn't aged well. I hope to play with my mate, who was my main battle partner through Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 3, and then we'll see how it weighs up. But, like Battlefield 2142, it's probably better to live with the memories and play something more up to date.

First brew setup yesterday

I visited a friend in Edinburgh yesterday and we setup our first ever brew together!

We bought a starter kit from the brew store in Edinburgh, which comes with all the gubbins you need to ferment your brew and the various syphons, thermometers, bits and pieces and also a barrel, which is very handy.

This time around we kept it very simple and just did the pre-made brew with malt extract and hop pellets, but we decided this was best for a first run through. Once we have familiarised ourselves with the time periods, the fermentation period and various parts of the process we'll then look at brewing with malts and dried hops, so that we can create our own recipes and get into the nitty-gritty of it.

I'll keep you posted!

Things and stuff - blog name change

Been wanting to change the name of my blog for a long time now! Couldn't get things and stuff, so got the next best.

The main reason I wanted to change it is because I'd quite like to discuss other things, like brewing beer and other interesting stuff that I may be interested in.

Gauntlet: Slayer Edition

My god this is good!

I'd never make a good reviewer, due to giving away my feelings way too early and probably getting too emotional about games. But Gauntlet is one of those games that just feels good to play.

The recent update is free for anyone who already owns Gauntlet on PC and it's been a significant overhaul of the game. The different weapons for each character now have slightly different attacks - some which are linked in with various moves and make for great discoveries when you accidently link them up! The campaigns been changed into a sort of map thing, so you can pick which level you want to play; quite a nice change when you just want to go back and play a particular level. And they've introduced Endless mode! Genius! The colosseum is still there too in the form of a daily challenge, which I'm a little skeptic about, as surely, someone will need to update that every day...? Unless the game somehow has a way of procedurally generating them. Who knows, but it's pretty cool.

Other changes include the addition of talisman (talismans?). These now change how potions are used. When a character drinks a potion they activate their talisman power, this could be throwing it like a bomb or turning into a giant version of yourself, to give a couple of Thor's talisman options.

Relics are still in the game but you only choose one, I think they've generally been toned down a bit, and they work on a cooldown timer.

A possible negative, which has been talked about a lot my the community since it's release, in an apparent change to the camera. At first I also found it strange and agreed with many of the thoughts put down by others, but after a good few hours of pure arcade, blood filled, awesome-ness, I may have changed my mind. Now, the camera feels ok. I understand that all the characters are sharing the same camera. The real test for the camera will be when I play some multiplayer, as so far I've been going solo.

The game is very addictive and feels hugely replayable. Endless mode procedurally generates dungeons, level after level, no two ever being the same. As you descend further the difficulty keeps ramping up and the gold you gather needs to be spent on food, potions or skull coins (respawns), otherwise I have found what I gather through my adventuring doesn't give me enough.

Love it.

New home, no job.

Been a hectic couple of months.

End of July I moved home and was quite happy to leave my last job. My girlfriend has a job though so I've got a bit of time to find something half decent, maybe.

While I don't have a job I plan to be a bit more active on my blog and also in designing my games! Wastelands is crying out to be written up and printed off and a couple of other game ideas are also on the edge of my mind, crying to be put onto paper.

If anyone knows of any gaming clubs in Carlisle, please give me a heads up; the internet isn't giving me much to go with...