A week of August is already gone. School is returning soon and with it the Fall gaming season. But before I even look ahead to that, let’s see what I’ve been up to.
I recently wrapped up Alan Wake and Crysis. I have my thoughts on Alan Wake down, but Crysis is still brewing. I’m very tempted to tear into Crysis, but I think it’s best to give it a bit more time to reflect.
I’ve also begun playing Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Sky. It’s my first Dragon Quest game and also my first ever Nintendo DS role playing game. So far, I’m enjoying it a lot.
While I’m not beating the crap out of Slimes, I’ve been dabbling in some Bad Company 2 multiplayer some more. They unlocked new maps. The Conquest variant is awesome, the Rush mode sounds horrid.
Up next, I’m thinking about getting into some Yakuza 3 and Red Faction: Guerrilla for PC. I hear it’s a blast — literally.
The fourth VIP map pack is now available. And by “available”, I mean unlocked for consumption. I don’t approve of these VIP map packs since they’re nothing, but lies. They’re not map packs. They’re just unlocks. If they called them what they were, I wouldn’t have much of a problem with it. But if EA thinks they could pass these unlocks as some kind “free added content” that can compete against the likes of Modern Warfare 2′s map packs is just sad. (By the way, the Modern Warfare 2 second map pack was made available to all platforms yesterday.)
However as disingenuous as these VIP map packs are, they’re great for Bad Company 2 awareness. Every single time one of these things are released, EA throws out a new trailer which gets picked up by the media and tossed onto their front pages. And if these “freebies” convince more players to join in the fray, I can’t completely knock this idea.
After such a long wait, the console patch for Bad Company 2 was finally deployed (it’s server side). In it were the mentioned PC balance changes from way back and additional tweaks as detailed below:
Slightly increased the damage of the UZI at long range.
The AKs74u now has more felt recoil when aiming.
The G3, VSS, and all SemiAutomatic rifles now settle slightly faster between shots when aiming.
The PKM, Type 88LMG, G3, An94, and 40mm shotgun have returned to their former glory.
Increased the damage of the MG3 to bring it in line with the rest of the LMGs.
Fixed a bug where the Saiga12 with slugs would do too much damage at long range.
Fixed a bug where the SVU would do too little damage at long range.
Fixed a bug where M95 rounds would not kill armored targets with headshots.
Want to get the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 DLC for free? Here’s a guide I cleaned up for your viewing pleasure. I take no credit for this. It’s similar to the Mass Effect 2 Dr. Pepper DLC code trick.
Please note that the DLC is currently only available for the Xbox 360. PlayStation 3 and PC users still need to wait for EA/DICE and/or Dr. Pepper to release them.
These are the codes you can use:
CBEEAAA41NWH
CBEEAAAE4L9N
CBEEAAAFQG9J
CBEEAAAE98ZV
Use these codes after signing up at the Dr. Pepper website. You can only use the code once per account, but the codes are universal.
Here’s a step-by-step breakdown:
Create a new account at the Dr. Pepper website. (You can use @Mailinator.com as valid e-mail address, but it’s not necessary since confirmation isn’t required)
Enter a universal code from above and ‘Submit’. (You can enter ‘No Purchase’ for the questions below the code, if you wish)
Right-click the ‘Claim now’ button and copy the URL/link
Place the URL in your web browser’s address bar
Change the =3 at the end of the URL to =4 (or vice-versa if it doesn’t work) and hit ‘Enter’
Claim your Bad Company 2 DLC using the same EA account you are using with Bad Company 2
Repeat 1-7 for the remaining DLC
Let me know if the instructions don’t work or need clarification.
The PC patch is out now! There are a whole slew of changes for you PC players to pore over including tweaks to weapon balance. At first, DICE didn’t divulge the all important weapon balance changes in their original post, but now they have.
