Battlefield 3 open beta launched this past weekend!

Battlefield 3 open beta opened this past weekend. Anyone with an Xbox 360, PS3, or a computer (with the system requirements met) can get their hands on the soon to be released game. The graphics are excellent, the color palette is extensive, and everything looks crisp and vibrant. They added a lot of blur effects to the game (including a blurring of the screen when you’re next to someone firing a weapon) which added a sense of realism but it did get to the point where it became hard to focus on an object.

Battlefield 3

The gameplay: The beta offers one map and all four classes (medic, assault, engineer, and sniper). The map is an objective-based assault map with one side assaulting and one defending. The map didn’t have any vehicles, so we still don’t know anything about them outside of the officially and unofficially released videos. There are above-ground and subterranean parts of the map with the subterranean portion being in a subway. Each class has a unique ability such as ammo box, medic pack, repair (blowtorch), or radio beacon with the option to improve or change these abilities as you rank up.

Flaws in the beta: Naturally there are going to be problems in a beta, here are some of them that we found. There are various terrain bugs (such as not being able to stand still and glitches interacting with things like the floor or wall), it’s possible to get stuck in a few places, there are issues with guns going through walls, occasionally the screen will go black on a frame, and there are some minor audio glitches. The most annoying glitch of all is the inability to quit the game (apparently you’re supposed to spend the rest of your life playing the beta).

Gunning down those baddies

We are excited for the release of Battlefield 3 but it still has a long way to come, hopefully the purpose of this open beta isn’t to just test to server but actually catch some of the last glitches so that it may have a smooth release. Above all else we are most excited for one thing in this Battlefield game that takes itself back to its roots. We can finally lay on the ground again, something that I have missed for a long time and should have never been taken out of the Battlefield games. You can find the open beta Battlefield 3 in the Xbox 360 demo game section, on the PSN, and on the Battlefield 3 homepage for PC.

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It is Friday, The Onion, and SW:TOR

Calling it a day early this week everyone, I tried and tried to find something that wouldn’t just be random blabbering to write about but alas I never found that hidden gem. So to save you 3 minutes (but still waste 2) I will not be doing as most major news outlets do to fill space by posting a meaningless article.

The Onion sums up my thoughts on the subject completely. (NSFW language)

Yes I realize by posting an article dedicated to not posting an article I am contradicting myself but it gives me a reason to share the video which is all that matters because I enjoy it.

PS. A lot of people that are signed up to be in Bioware’s SW:TOR beta received an email last night. The email may have been sent early or to the wrong email group but it implied that the recipient was already part of the beta. Hardly newsworthy but it made me chuckle at how many people became instantly upset over it because they were still without a closed beta invite. Oh how I wish I could get permission to write about SW:TOR closed beta but the greater beings in the industry have deemed it wrong.

The mobile quick pick of the week Drag Racing!

Have the need for speed but the wallet of an average American? Check out Drag Racing on the Android Market. This game is but 8 days old but the Android Market claims that it has over 10 million downloads already. Drag Racing (that is the actual name) hardly needs a review, it is a fantastic game and is certainly the best of its kind. It is very easy to play but it leaves a lot of room for perfecting your racing skills.

With tons of cars to pick from, customizable upgrades, easy to use controls, and several different play modes Drag Racing offers a very complete experience. The graphics of the game are very good, I had it slow down once but a simple restart of my phone solved the problem. There are a few bugs but I remind you that it is only 8 days old so hopefully they will be fixed (things like the throttle being stuck down or not being able to accurately tell your rpms, but they were rare and avoidable if you know the cause).

Tons of cars, tons of upgrades (basically the same for each car though), offline, online, head to head, skill only, and pro league rounds are available. For the most part all of the cars are viable though in the upper tiers there are clear favorites. There are 10 levels of cars, you buy a car at a certain level then upgrades will increase the level to a certain point. For example if you buy a level 1 car and upgrade it completely it will probably only be level 3 (with exception to 2 of the level 1 cars). The controls are as simple as pressing the on screen gas peddle before the race (proper timing helping your launch) and using on screen up and down shifters as needed. To make things easier there is an on screen guide to help you know when you need to shift.

Because it is a free game there is a premium currency but the good news is its very easy to get. Simply racing bosses, online matches, and in the pro league you can earn respect points (the in game premium currency). RP as it is labeled and cash are used to buy upgrades past level 2 and to tune your car however I warn you before trying to tune your car, it is time consuming and challenging to get positive results from it unless you know something about racing cars (which I do not). There are a couple advertisements that pop up at the top of the screen but they have been appropriately placed to be out of the way. The only one I really ever noticed was while waiting in a pro league room for a game to start (when I’m already not paying attention) and towards the last third of the race an advertisement will sometimes pop up over the track guide at the top left half of the screen. Because you’ve already progressed in the race past that point it doesn’t get in the way and I’ve never seen it cover my opponent.

Drag Racing is without a doubt the best drag racing game on the Android Market. Get it. It’s free, the premium currency can easily be grinded out, and the advertisements are not invasive at all. According to the Android Market it is one of the top grossing games out right now, even though it’s a free game and can be played to its fullest potential without money I like that it is on that list. If developers made games as great as this one, with the ability to maybe speed up progress without giving a true advantage through premium currency I think mobile gaming would improve as a whole.

I am just about 200 races in with just over a 50% win rate (the pro league against 9 other people rather than the head to head against 1 other really lowers the win rate) and I am still loving the game. I’m not sure how they do the racing but lag is non existence. I imagine they save my race and play it against someone else so it isn’t real time head to head battles but the feeling is still there. Drag Racing does suck your phones battery dry so I recommend playing with your phone plugged in if you can. If not, keep track of time because those 2 hours will go fast.

Drag Racing’s rating: 91/100 One of the best games on the Android Market.

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Rift Patch 1.5 goes live, I wait patiently to see if Trion launches patches better than Blizzard

So news in the world of gaming at the time of this writing is a bit slow. The announcements about this year’s biggest titles have come for the most part and now it is just a waiting game until the games are actually released. The holiday season is still a couple months away and you need something to hold you over until then. Don’t like WoW anymore? Try Rift. I have been playing it steadily since shortly after its release. The developers have held up their end of the bargain for the most part and have been releasing content and updates at a rate that would make vanilla WoW cry. Rift offers unique pvp, in battleground and world pvp, while also offering a solid amount of end game content, some of which is still being reached by the top end players’ months after its release. With its unconventional talent tree system we can already see games like Guild Wars 2 modeling its systems after it. It allows far more flexibility without making everything so easy mode as WoW did.

With any full price MMORPG it is hard to commit the money and time to make it seem worth it, fortunately for you Rift has a very good 2 week long free trial. If you are hesitant about the commitment and aren’t sure you want to get back into the MMO scene, give it a try. When this is being posted Rift will be launching its newest content update, patch 1.5, which is making more changes and allowing end game players both newly end game and late end game more opportunities, something many other games fail to do. I am excited to see what Rift will do as its popularity increases.

P.S. Dead Island has already been picked up by Hollywood to be made into a movie. There aren’t a whole lot of details about it just yet but rumor is they are aiming for a late 2013 release for the movie. Will Dead Island turn out as great as the trailer was? Will it feel over produced in an attempt to be like the trailer? Will Dead Island turn out to be a great Christmas time movie? Lastly, will Dead Island just be another game turned movie that turns out like crap?

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Our newest T-shirt is here. Enjoy. We demand it.

It is Tuesday so we have a new T-shirt design for you guys. This one was inspired by a post on our forums (even though they are in a very primitive state). It is a great gag gift for that tied down nerd friend. If you have an idea for a T-shirt that you would like to see made shoot us an email or put it up on the forums. We want to do an ‘It’s over 9000!!!!!’ shirt but we need your ideas to help inspire the final product so post below!

Here is a link to our newest shirt design. Cleverhyperlinking