Just to let you guys know about this website

http://bfbc2.elxx.net/sigg-o-matic.php

It allows you to create Forum signatures from your battlefield stats, ignore my terrible stats im working on it :P i was so bad at the start i was at 0.5 kd so its gone well up now that I have unlocked a few bits and pieces. though look at my win/lose ratio i didnt realise i won that much. :)

Oh and today i unlocked the Tracer dart so i'll be lighting your tanks up like Xmas trees from now on.

UPDATE: you can get a more detailed view of your stats here http://battlefieldbadass.com/stats/bothof these sites work with PC, PS3 and Xbox, thats it thats the update, sorry if its lame :D

Just a quick update on what I've been doing this week, some of the highlights and my initial impressions of the Blur beta.

Firstly FFXIII I already posted my initial impressions of this wonderful game yesterday, pretty much everything about the game has been quite positive so far, the areas are linear but at least that keeps the story flowing nicely.

I've just gone through quite a lull in the story, for about 2 hours nothing really happened but it started to pick back up again with an awesome boss battle kicking things off followed by a cut scene which turned the story on it head and really caught my attention.

Does anyone know how long this game roughly takes?

The blur beta next, initial impressions haven't been great, the demo gives you a few tracks and a bunch of different cars to play about with and the game is pretty and works well.

The biggest problem I have had so far is that it all feels like a poor clone of the Wipeout series with a similar bunch of power ups which you can use throughout the races, the main problem is that the tracks don't seem that interesting and the controls are kind of sloppy feeling at times like the cars are on ice and that the barricades at the side of the road are only there for steering purposes.

Only time will tell on this one and I plan to spend a bit more time on it before I make my final call.

Highlight of the day

This week while playing Battlefield bad company I managed to level up a few times in the space of 2 matches thanks to me being awarded several badges over the course of the matches for resupplies, squad assists and squad spawns. I unlocked my Thompson M1A1 which is a fun gun to use.

My highlight though is getting a bad squad in one defence rush game and because I was playing as a medic I managed to get over 5000 points just on combat score and an additional 4000 in awards .

It's been a busy couple of days for me, not much time to blog but I'm sure you will forgive me what with what I was expecting to be the biggest release of the year so far. The Final Fantasy release however was somewhat underplayed, uncharacteristic of the series there was no queuing outside the shops, no giant sword wielding cosplayers in the streets gleefully clutching the yet unopened copy of the game like it was made of diamonds and winning lottery tickets.

Tuesday was a typically melodramatic dash to the shops to pick up final fantasy XIII, Didn't want to be late and miss my chance to grab the game on day one when I got too the store there was not a soul just me and the assistant and he said that they had been expecting a rush this morning and had brought in several other staff, my Xbox friends list is also strangely devoid of people playing the game.

I just wanted to throw up my initial reactions of the game, I'm around ten hours into the storyline, barely scratched the surface at this point but I have had a chance to use all the features including the much criticized Crystarium, The Eidelon and their Gestalt mode and the new real-time battle system/paradigm shifts.

Graphics

Although I am playing on the "inferior" Xbox version graphics wise the game is visually stunning the transition from cut scene to gameplay is seamless. Characters are all well designed and stand up too close inspection, the scenery can only be described as epic, when you see some of the sweeping vistas or the massive warship the Lindblum for the first time you will be blown away. The combat system is also suitably flashy.

Characters

The cast of characters in the game range from the Level headed and incredibly fierce Lightning to the incredibly cheerful and somewhat airheaded Vanille. Every character in my opinion that I have met so far has been likeable my favorite though is Sazh who is the funniest character I have came across in a long time even rivaling Mordin from Mass Effect 2.

The voice acting although typically Anime is quite good and although it's clear at times that something has been lost in the translation, these occasions are rare.

Battle system

The battle system has been my biggest surprise so far. As a general rule of thumb I'm not a fan of real-time combat in JRPGs' games like Eternal Sonata and Tales of Vesperia hold no interest for me because the combat often gets frustrating. However with the use of paradigm shifts' in the game Square Enix have found a perfect balance between fast flashy onscreen action and careful strategic planning.

On the default speed however I found myself using the auto battle far too much as often it would concentrate on single attacks rather than AOE spells like Fira/blitz on groups of enemy, so I switched it too the slow setting and gave myself room for thought and was able to coordinate much more effective offense on groups of enemy.

One complaint that I have is that the combat can be quite simple requiring very little in the way of strategy until around seven hours in when you face a tough boss monster who looks kind of like a certain plant based pokemon.

summons

10 hours into the game and I have used this twice, once just too see it and the second time on a rather difficult boss, the system is quite well designed, you initially get the friendly giant on foot and he will fight beside you doing a ton of damage on your enemy and absorbing all the damage thrown at you , at any point you can then enter in gestalt mode in which the character will ride around on its back while it blasts the enemy a little more before returning from whence it came and returning all your party members too full health. There is a trick too it which I haven't figured out yet in which you can strategically activate the different modes to get the most out of your summon. At the moment I'm just hitting and hoping to say the least.

Boss Battles

While many of the earlier boss battles are quite simple to get though using basic switching between damage and healing once you get a little further in you will come across a boss called Aster Protoflorian, this is of course the dreaded bulbasaur boss.

This boss fight is amazing, he changes his resistances meaning you constantly need to keep switching up your attacks and he is able to deal lots of damage in a very short time meaning you have to keep you characters buffed and healed. This fight required a lot of paradigm switching and in the section I'm going to post my strategy which does not require you to farm the level, use any potions before hand or do anything except remember to bring potions.

Initially when you start the fight make sure you switch to super soldier and let hope cast his buffs on the party (shell and protect) while you as lightening start the attack as commando.

Once that is done switch to war and peace and let hope continue to build up the chain as a ravager while you heal the team.

After the team is healed switch to dual casting as this is the fasted way too stagger the boss do this and you should get to the stagger point in no time, because the boss will be doing significantly less damage thanks to the buffs you have on using a few health potions should keep both team members alive.

Once its staggered switch back to slash&burn, this formation does the most damage and stops the boss from doing any damage as he will be launched for the duration of the stagger

.Once the stagger ends go into war and peace and heal up, rebuff in super soldier and allow time to cast barfire as the boss will start doing fire attack near the end and this will significantly reduce the damage taken from these.

Then just rinse and repeat until he's dead.

Remember... keep buffs up at all times and if things get hairy summon your eidelon ,though he is less effective during the phases the boss switches to lightning resistance.Using this should get the boss down in 2 rotations even without your summon

This boss fight was so good I did it twice once with a summon and once without.

So far I have had a great time with the game review coming when I finish the game, I don't want to be one of those people that puts the disk in the drive and posts their review

"ZOMG put disk in Drive started spinning 10/10 best GAME EVAR"

I hate those reviews.

So today because the servers where down again I managed to get the single player campaign in Battlefield: Bad company 2 completed, without spoiling too much some of the bits near the end felt a lot like a parody of the Modern warfare, if you played the campaign you will know what I mean.

So far I have played 8 hours of multiplayer on the game and I hope to have a few videos up on Youtube soon thanks to an Xbox pal of mine getting his recorder up and running. The game unlocks definitely take a long time as I'm level 8 which means I'm leveling at 1 level per hour which is shockingly slow.

Still it's a great game and I have posted a review if you would care to check it out.

http://uk.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/battlefieldbadcompany2/player_review.html?id=711206

Last battlefield post I swear, FFXIII coming out today so I'm looking forward to picking that up :)

I had a great day today, after I woke I put on bad company 2 expecting to play a few multiplayer games and then go back to the single player campaign. Unfortunately my plan had a major flaw, I forgot how fun the multiplayer was and today it was more fun than usual as I managed to get into a rare talking squad.

So as promised I have wrote up a quick overview of the multiplayer maps, modes, weapons and classes

The game has 4 modes, rush which we seen on the demo is probably the most fun in my opinion attackers are tasked with taking out 2 targets in the defenders base once the base is destroyed you move onto the next base. The reason I love this mode is that it allows the team to focus in one direction and work as a team.

Conquest will be instantly familiar to battlefield veterans, each team starts at opposite ends of a map in their respective spawn points and between the spawns is a battlefield with 3-4 flag points which act as spawn points but also for each one you get the game removes spawn tokens for the opposition which means in order to win you need to capture flags and make kills. A good strategy is too balance attack and defence in this game mode, though its rare your team can still lose a round if the other team hold 1 flag and decimate you while you Zerg rush them. I do like this game mode but I noticed people have a tendency to not play as assault which means that engineers and snipers frequently have ammo issues.

The two other modes are squad rush which is a 4 versus 4 rush game with one objective in play at a time and squad deathmatch which pits 4 teams of 4 against each other in mortal combat.

There are ten maps in the game including the VIP map pack 1 which is actually included on the disk but locked until you put in the code.

Panama Canal- I believe this a rush only map the map is divided in the middle by a large canal as per the name, the surrounding areas are all industrial warehouses which overlook the low ground and the 4 flags are located in the corners. Few tips for this map, stay out of the canal it's a death trap and be careful when capturing flags each of the flags is overlooked by another building or a vantage point.

Valparaiso- this map is a coastal shanty town surrounded by heavy jungle and is characterised by the large light house on the map. A great rush map defenders have a harder time than normal as the start off on the low ground which is surrounded by sniper spots and attackers start with a gunship which if used right can cripple the defence of the sites. This map has a great look and has one of the most exciting parts. The third bomb site is in the shanty town itself and has some of the best street too street fighting in any level.

Isla Innocents- one of the only maps based around naval warfare, plenty of little islands in this map. Which I think is called an Archipelago, the defenders start off in a small island with multiple gun emplacements and a few wooden buildings. Attackers can only reach the island by boat which means that they are exposed to lots of enemy fire and it can be quite difficult to land without dying. On this map it is important for the attackers chopper to continuously harass the defenders too allow the team to infiltrate the island. So if you can't fly a chopper its best to let the more experienced players take the wheel or whatever said instrument is called on a helicopter.

Atacama Desert- an absolutely huge map with a desert theme, it contains several large towns on the map which are dotted with debris and SAM launchers. Lots of cover here and tons of vehicles, it's not uncommon for several tanks and multiple helicopters to be in the battlefield at any one time and on foot soldiers may become overwhelmed while out in the open.

Africa Harbor- another spectacular desert map, this map is characterised by container crates and massive container ships, it also features a large town, military outpost and a big bridge. Another vehicle heavy map at the first checkpoint but later on in the map it becomes more infantry orientated as the streets narrow down and navigating the tanks becomes more and more difficult. A great map for snipers as there is a ton of places where you can get good height advantage and concealment.

White Pass- another snowy map, this time set in a sparsely wooded town, the map is mostly an infantry fight and again I believe it's only a conquest map. Plenty of house to house fighting and vantage points for snipers. The best thing about this map is that each of the flag points is along the map in a straight line so that it focuses the fighting around control of the middle ground.

Laguna presa- a conquest only jungle map which is characterised by its 4 islands at each corner of the map, there is plenty of opportunity for tanks and infantry to get involved in heavy fighting as each flag will spawn a tank once captured. Few tips for this map don't get too spread out as it's easy for enemy too sneak past you and attack your bases from behind you. If you're playing and you notice that no one in your squad is an engineer it's probably best to change too one as this map can be easily lost if you lack the fire power to take down enemy tanks

Port Valdez- the vehicle heavy map from the demo is one of the best in the game, attackers can come from many different angles but the main point of attack for vehicles is through one chokepoint at each base leading too lots of intense fire fights and sneak attacks, plenty of areas for snipers and lots of destructible buildings for defenders too hide in.

Laguna Alta (VIP) conquest map in a rural farming area ,its a great conquest map with a lot of street to street fighting and sniping positions.

Nelson Bay (VIP)- I honestly did not have fun on this as its too difficult to assault the bases due to the attackers starting on the low ground and the defenders having a ton of weapon emplacements. The map is great for more tactical battles and requires a team working together to win the round. Tips for this map, on the first bombsite the Bomb at A can be taken out by a single engineer if you blow up the bottom of all 4 walls and let destruction 2.0 does the work for you.

There are 4 classes in the game and each is required to work together if you want to win , try them all out your may be surprised by which class you like the best.

Assault: the anti infantry class kitted out with an assault rifle is the front line fighter, if you find yourself against a tank there isn't usually much you can do however the assault can equip C4 if you select a weapon without the under slung grenade launcher (the limited edition Thompson is a great choice) don't forget to throw down ammo packs for your team as they will undoubtedly need the ammo especially the engineers.

Medic: this healbot isn't quite the push over it is in other games, armed with a light machine gun this support class can keep enemy heads down while dispensing the much needed health kits to his squad mates and if one of your buddies should fall get out the chest paddles and zap them back to life. This is my favorite class

Recon: the traditional sniper packs quite a punch from distance with his trusty rifle and also carries the c4 for use in traps and for taking down enemy armour. The sniper is great for defending the base or annoying the defenders from a distance. Advance as a sniper and you can unlock the mortar which is great when your team is attacking as you can keep the enemy distracted while you take your shots and maybe even get some kills. Don't forget you can also use your sensor mine to spot enemies near your position so make sure too use it. A great tactic when on defense is too booby-trap the bombsite with c4 and throw down a sensor mine, you can then go about sniping until you hear the beeping then just hit your c4 and boom enemy at the bomb get killed instantly.

Engineer: the engineer only gets an SMG for fighting close range but what he lacks in anti personnel firepower he makes up for with his RPG great for destroying building and the people inside and highly effective against enemy armour. The engineer can also repair vehicles and with even the support of one engineer a tank can survive an absolute barrage of enemy hits.

Overall o have had a great time on this game so far, I'm 6 hours in and I am now level 7 and I have managed to unlock a ton of the extra specializations. There are 3 types of special, general which contains extra ammo, faster speed and things of that nature. Then there are Class specific which in some way improves the class you are playing as for instance a medic can get improved range on the health packs or have health packs that heal more. The final type is vehicle specs which can do offensive boosts like extra damage or an extra mg gun for the driver and defensive such as a smoke screen or extra armour. You get to choose one of each of these so pick the ones which suit your play style and the game type, for instance if you are playing on defense a sniper spotting scope on your vehicle or sniper rifle is incredibly handy.

Don't forget to post what you think of the game, I'm really interested in how battlefield veterans and COD players feel about the multiplayer.

Many of you will undoubtedly have played the demo of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and made your decision based on your experience with that. For those of us who are still on the fence about the purchase I just wanted to throw this up and let you see what my first day of playing has been like.

News first, I did not get the limited edition. The store near my house was selling it for an additional fee even though it's the same price everywhere else so I bought mine from a supermarket at a bargain.

Do you know what I missed out on? Nothing, everything I would have got I will eventually unlock at a later time in the game. Also if you played any of the other games you can unlock the M1 Garand and some of the gadgets instantly through the veteran scheme.

Visit veteran.battlefield.com for more info on that.

I'll be honest I was underwhelmed with the single player in Bad Company 1, it never just sat right it felt either too open or too constricting at times, set pieces too use a phrase I recently heard where ham-fisted and the only saving grace for this was the brilliant voice acting and great script.

Battlefield: bad company 2 is like a blooper reel from any other action game, the comedy has returned in bundles and the characters are just as charming as ever but it's the in game action that is the new star in town. Where BC1 sometimes felt like it lacked direction BC2 flows nicely from mission to mission, set pieces are suitably huge and battles feel like they should small skirmishes are quick tense affairs but in the larger battles they become much more tactical as the bullets fly the battleground dynamically changes as tactical cover is destroyed and both you and the enemy jostle to keep safe from bullets and get the killing shot.

The Enemy AI isn't the best, it isn't bad it's just inconsistent. They will occasionally try to flank you but most of the time they are content to hide in cover and poke their head up too take pot shots at you, sometimes though they stand in the open, throw a grenade at you and then wait to be shot. Thankfully though most of the time they do pose a challenge and little problems in the AI become virtually unnoticeable as you spend your time just trying to stay alive.

I have only played through 4 or 5 levels so far but I have played a fairly wide assortment of different objectives and terrain, from storming enemy bases to defending a position and rescuing a VIP. I have fought in a desert, a jungle, a coastal bunker and even a snowy mountain. I even got the chance

The graphics are simply incredible looking. Gun play is tight and each weapon has its own unique feel and use, there is quite a selection of weapons available to use through the game and in order to unlock them you must first find them.

If you are buying this for the single player only I would definitely recommend it, though be advised there are quite a few online only achievements which you won't be able to get.

I already did an in depth look at the multiplayer here based on the beta, so I'll just post a link for that.

http://uk.gamespot.com/users/buft/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=m-100-25787978

The one thing I will say is that the maps that I have played today all of them are as good if not better than the port valdez level from the demo.

actually i'm going to post a more indepth look at the multiplayer including the maps tommorow because i just read my previous blog and it doesnt really cover everything.

Review coming soonish

Tonight's blog was supposed to be about Fallout 3 expansion pack The Pitt, I was all set got my guns and armour all nicely repaired, got some ammo together and set out from Megaton on my trek north to the place where the broadcast signal originates.

Along the way I came across several interesting places, now unfortunately one of those places was Bigtown, its a little settlement that has been having trouble with super mutants and raiders, most of the people that lived there had been kidnapped, I was tasked with rescuing the survivors from the nearby Police station but I figured I could just do that when I got back from Pittsburgh.

So off I went trekking through the wasteland once more only this time to stumble across a bunch of the aforementioned super mutants, a quick gun battle later and I was disgusted by what I found piles of human bodies and a few live ones in cages, I decided to head back too Bigtown and do that quest after all.

What followed was my favourite fallout 3 quest to date, a bunch of super mutants holed up inside a police station covered in mines, computer terminals with hilarious 911 prank calls recorded on them and one of the most exciting rescues I've ever been a part off.

So it ended up rather than going to The Pitt, I ended up wandering the wasteland discovering all sorts of interesting places, finding loot, schematics and then tinkering with the bits and pieces I had found trying to build some of the different weapons.

I had such a great time and remembered why I love RPGs, the loot and exploration was sadly missing from the recent mass effect 2 which didn't hinder the experience for me but fallout makes me hanker for its return in the final part of the trilogy.

Final part of this blog is the imminent release and subsequent purchase of Battlefield: bad company 2 which shall be hereby known by its acronym BF: BC2 or simply BC2.

It's out tomorrow morning and I will be picking it up on the 360. I plan to try out the single player in the morning but by afternoon/evening I will be undoubtedly on the multiplayer so if you fancy a few game send me an invite or a friend request.

Now for the audience participation part.

Do you have BF: BC2 and if so what do you think about the singleplayer/multiplayer?

In fallout 3 what was your favourite moment ?(don't worry about spoilers I pretty much know what happens at the end thanks to inconsiderate posting in the forums)

All the signs are ominous, the milk is out of date on the 9th March, the release date of final fantasy and my favourite chocolate bar in the work vending machine has been moved to E3 but in order to get too the fabled Crunch bar I would have to buy a Yorkie bar which I detest. I'm not a superstitious person but if I where I would be worried right about now.

Asides from the above there are a few things happening in my gaming world right now, as many of you will already know I'm playing a few games that I neglected the first time around, be it that their release conflicted with another game or simply a lack of interest. In a past blog I already looked at the unexpectedly entertaining Saint's Row 2 mediocre and the technically proficient but disappointing Smackdown vs. Raw 2009. Quick update on SvR 2009, if you recall my biggest complaint was that the career mode was uninteresting. It appears that SvR2010 resolves this problem by allowing your custom fighter to go through the road to Wrestlemania mode, if anyone has any thoughts about this year's edition let me know.

So the next game I decided to play was fallout 3, a bit of an explanation is required when this was initially released I absolutely loved it but unfortunately it became scratched and unplayable. Since then the team at Microsoft have introduced the ability to install games on your hard drive and though it was a long shot I gave it a try and it worked.

So too celebrate I started a new character, I'm going to role-play him as a lone gunslinger with a mysterious past who travels around the wasteland solving problems for the less privileged. I already got the duster and cowboy hat from the megaton quest. In truth though I have dressed him as a cowboy and geared towards endurance, small arms and explosives. Perks I have picked are gun nut, gunslinger and toughness.

I'm genuinely excited to be playing this again and happily I can now play operation anchorage which I had previously purchased as you read this the other DLC is also downloading so it's going to take a lot of hours for me to finish this one.

I actually did manage to complete Operation Anchorage today ,in short it takes around 2 hours to finish and in that time I managed to level from level 2-7 as the action is very much RPG light and action heavy. The best thing about the mission is that it gives you a nice bit of back story and a lot of nice rewards though they missed a trick when they took out all the looting and replaced it with ammo dispensers.

Overall I would say it's a 7/10 from me on this expansion and considering that this is considered the worst I can only assume the rest are made of pure win :P

Review in the next week or 2 if bad company and final fantasy don't get in the way, which they will.

my 100th blog too

Just a quick rant , so i woke up this morning excited at the prospect of getting my hands on battlefield bad company only too dscover its not released here until friday, what rubbish is this?

every single new prospective AAA title this year is coming out so much later in the uk its unreal, last year most titles got released the same day, now the trend seems too be that europe has too wait. Even european companies like Dice are getting in on the act.

ah well, rant over !

how do other europeans or australians feel about these delays?

Hey guys, just a brief little post here I put a new review up for Trials HD , you can find it here by clicking on the link http://uk.gamespot.com/xbox360/driving/trialshd/player_review.html?id=709827 check it out if you can , no pressure.

Just wanted to mention I also got a new emblem, which I'm super proud of because I worked so hard on trying to make my reviews better over the last few months and it feels like my work has paid off.

I got the next few days off work so that means Xbox Live will be seeing a lot more of me , again gamertag is Buft feel free to add me if you fancy some MW2.

And a big thanks to everyone that contributed to yesterdays blog, got some great feedback and came away with some great ideas. Also in thinking about the whole boss battle thing today I hit upon using ****c 2d characters such as using Pacman, Millipede/Centipede, space invaders as boss's and incorporating some of their game play in as attack patterns.

Some examples

A Pacman that rushes round the screen and is only vulnerable when he eats the pill.

Space invaders alien ship that moves around and every so often spawns an attack wave which the player must destroy before they can go after the ship again.

I just wondered what you guys thought of that idea.

Anyway thanks for reading.