So either by pure luck (and by luck, I mean a mistake on Valve’s part) or by sheer consequence, I got to try a beta of Medal of Honor today and can I safely say that I am very disappointed.

As you probably already know (or maybe you don’t), the multiplayer portion of Medal of Honor is being developed by DICE – the company that brought us great games like Battlefield 1942 and more recently Bad Company 2. BC2 features almost completely destructive environments, 4 classes of soldiers (Assault, Medic, Engineer, and Sniper), and a plethora of game modes. The maps are big, but not too big (if you know what I mean) and the environments are refreshing. The weapons fire with realistic recoil and bullets don’t fire into the same spot, unlike CoD4: Modern Warfare 2.

Medal of Honor on the other hand seems like a step backwards for DICE and features nothing we haven’t seen before in shooters like Modern Warfare or even Valve’s own Counter Strike: Source. From the maps I got to try (there were only 2!) I got an impression that EA and DICE had a meeting sometime before this game went into development and they thought of ways to make this game exactly like Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare.

Destructive environments are gone and so is the engineer class. Funny enough you can drive vehicles in this game, but I guess you can’t repair them? I am still confused about that. There is absolutely nothing original about this game’s multiplayer. It’s like DICE just “copy and pasted” everything from Bad Company 2 into this game. Even the sounds they use are the same! How lazy is that? I know that both games come from the same house – Electronic Arts or as I like to call them the “Devil’s Asshole” – but can we have some creativity, please? NO? OK. I can hear you asking me: “Suvo, why do you call them that?”, it’s simple why, three words – “Westwood” and “Ensemble Studios” – but that is a totally different subject, into which I cannot indulge myself to get into at this moment.

Now I know this is a beta and the game is still in development, but it is clear what direction EA is taking this game into and I think they are setting themselves up for failure. They are hyping this game up into something it is not. The marker is over-saturated with this type of shooters, especially those that have a Middle Eastern setting. And there is nothing creative or original that will keep the players intrigued. EA is a little too late to the party, but that is just my opinion.

To make this story short, if you already own Bad Company 2, do not buy this game. If you do, then you will experience the biggest deja vu moment of your life!

This is what you need to do:

Step 1. Install Windows 7 (if you haven’t done so already)

Step 2. Run Windows Update*
*In order to do this you must have access to internet, so I sugest using your laptop as a network bridge. Bridge your connection using an ethernet cable.

Step 3. Windows Update will find a bunch of new updates (some more worthy than others) for your desktop, but the one you are looking for will say will have “wireless-g” in the title.

Step 4. Click on the chechbox next to that update and press install. Now Windows will download and install the update.

Step 5. Reboot your PC!

That is it. Pretty simple I would say. If you have more questions leave me a comment bellow.

It has come to my attention that NBC has plans to move the “Jay Leno Show” from it’s 10pm slot to the 11:35pm slot, which at the moment belongs to Conan and the “Tonight Show” cast and crew. And as a fellow Conan fan I say screw that! Conan and his cast worked long and hard to be where they are today and they do not deserve this. If Conan leaves, than that stupid network will loose one of it’s best!

To show your support, re-tweet this post by Jim Gaffigan.

Spread the word!!!

This is a hard blow to the hardcore fans of Starcraft who have been waiting for a sequel to the game for over 10 years!! It’s OK Blizzard take your time. How about another 10 years? I get it you want the game to be perfect like everything else you do, but come on give us a break. You are already splitting the main story line into 3 pieces and may I mention making us pay for all three of them.

From what I’ve read on the web it seems that Battle.net is the cause for this delay and since multiplayer is the biggest part of what makes Starcraft so special, it would make sense for them to push the entire game back, but it still sucks.

On the bright side, maybe this delay will give Blizzard enough time to finish the entire single-player campaign and maybe, just maybe they won’t make us break out our piggy banks to pay for three separate games.

I want to thank Rad at Mac Technical Support for all the help with this issue.

Hope this helps to everyone who wanted to play Diablo 2 and couldn’t.

Diablo 2 patch

Recently I’ve obtained a soundtrack to a very good horror game(which I plan to review later) published by Konami – Silent Hill: Homecoming.

I wanted to do something for the readers, so I’ve decided to give it away to whoever comments to this post. What I want you all to do is simply right a couple of sentences about your favorite SH game and why? The name will be drawn out randomly so everyone has an equal chance to win.

I will run the contest until the end of the month.

Good Luck!

This is a new segment I am going to be doing every week from now on. Basically I am going to do a quick review of an app I think is useful and gets you your money’s worth.

Last.fm
Free

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get tired of listening to the music I have on my Touch. With this application you can listen to any artist of your choosing for free over wifi or your data plan. All you have to do is type the artist’s name and presto.

This app also automatically pics  artists similar to your search and ads them to your playlist.

Great menu design, easy to use and best of all it’s free. What could be better. 

Here are some screens…

I have been focusing on my studies for the last couple of months and as a student in a university, it is really hard to find time between that and work to post, but no more. 

I will resume reviewing games and I also want to review gadgets, so Sony if you are reading this I can definitely review your new PSP if you are willing to send me one or twelve I’m kidding, but seriously sorry for not posting.

New review tommorow!

Mikhail

I was looking through my game collection the other day and I came across a game I have enjoyed long ago. In the times when Grand Theft Auto 3 was all the rage, this game came out and made most people realize that it wasn’t just another GTA clone; it was something else. The game was set during the time of mobsters and the biggest gangs in America, the 1930′s. It did take me a little while to get used to the cars of the era, but after that it was an amazing experience.

GTA3 came out in October of 2001and Mafia was released 1 year later yet the graphics and model rendering were much more realistic. The game play was about the same yet Mafia’s missions and story made it way more interesting and compelling. There were a couple of differences in the game play however. In Mafia cops would stop you if you were to break the speed limit and cars behaved more realistically. Also if you were to run out of gas you had to go to the pump and refuel.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the GTA franchise it is just this game appealed more to me for some particular reason. If you want to check out this game, then you can buy it in you local GameStop of get it from eBay for 10 dollars.

]]> http://techag.wordpress.com/2008/07/31/classic-review-of-a-classic-game-mafia/feed/ 0 Suvo13 http://techag.wordpress.com/2008/07/02/another-major-sony-screw-up/ http://techag.wordpress.com/2008/07/02/another-major-sony-screw-up/#comments Wed, 02 Jul 2008 05:47:52 +0000 Michael http://techag.wordpress.com/?p=166 ]]> I haven’t ranted in a long while but this just pisses me off. I just downloaded SONY’s big answer to all of our prayers, aka firmware 2.40 and boy was I in for a big surprise. They promised us in game XMB with access to all features, but did they deliver? This answer is a big fat NO! Sure you can access the XMB in-game but what can you do with it-absolutely nothing. To do anything means quiting the game. You can’t even listen to your own fucking music. In one of those “tutorial videos” on SONY’s official blog they said custom soundtracks, but when you try to do so, this is what you get:

“MUSIC CANNOT BE PLAYED DURING USE OF THIS GAME”

When I first saw this error message I though maybe it is just this game, but no you still cannot play music that is stored on your HD while in ANY game. Also the XMB slows down to a speed of a 90 year old granny when the game you are running is on a blu ray. Anyway it’s late, I am tired and upset and I am off to get some sleep. Maybe when I wake up this would all be a terrible dream.

But HOORAY, at least we got a clock on the home page now!!!

[UPDATE 1]

Here is the video where they promised us in-game music(skip to 3:30):

[UPDATE 2]

For those who are interested, the XMB doesn’t even work with PS1 or PS2 games, it is simply not accessible. Another smart move by SONY.

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