_FFC_
The wait is almost over...PC release date for Bad Company 2 is Tuesday!
While I realize that some of you aren't yet at the hardware level for this game, I hope to receive my copy by next weekend (pre-ordered first week of this year). The PC beta ended on the 25th but I played it enough to see the potential of this game as "the" replacement for our beloved, but maligned, COD series. Not that anyone should rush out and buy it right away. It'll take time and experience for the game to mature. Right now it's still unclear how clans can play BC2 privately...so far the only mentioned method is by using "select" GSPs (game service providers) as your host. But I fully expect for there to either be a dedicated server release down the road, or for the gaming community to figure out an alternative...maybe via VPN as has been done lots for other games using Hamachi or similar free software.
Speaking of GSPs, our current one (NFO), is one of those select few and we can pre-order an 8 player server for $15/mo. right now...normally $20/mo. Probably too early for most of you to decide but figured I'd toss that out there.
I still have not and won't be buying MW2 or any other COD release. We've been bent over one time too many by Activision. Seems that others agree for various reasons.
Regarding COD...the Vietnam Mod 1.1 patch is out but there are still a few loose ends being tied up there. I don't see any point in tackling the server upgrade until those are ironed out, probably in a 1.2 release. Be different if we were heavily playing World at War but that's still infrequent; L4D gets a lot more of our attention these days. I know Semp will be out for probably another week as he finishes up his chemo treatments...best of luck Semp, get well soon buddy...K3 is awaiting!
As for Left 4 Dead, that's still working out well for our reduced player attendance. If once in awhile we have more than 4 show-up we can switch to COD or maybe try the "Versus" mode. So don't be shy if you see the L4D server full....jump on in on Ventrilo and we'll accommodate!
Hopefully we can try out that "Dead Before Dawn" campaign today...it's massive (2.7GB uncompressed) but I've played thru the first map and it seems very professionally done. However, it'll be a race to get to the second map before the "bombing run" takes us all out. Oddly, when it was just me and the bots there was no such pressure...maybe the game AI adjusts.
That's it for now....
Mamba, out
