Warfighter Promo Night at EA's Dungeon Headquarters Sydney.

So Its overdue. I dont give a fuck.

THE GAME

Start --> 10 Points

Its good. I won't say its 'great' because it's still in alpha, but it's still worth playing thus far. It's seemingly most notable and intriguing system is the Buddy 'FireTeam' system. A system loosely named after actual fireteams that have 'more' than 2 members(-1), but they are game designers and not military tacticians, so I digress. The fundamental gameplay is as you would expect from a modern FPS, the lights are bright, the foliage is easy to hide behind, and the graphics are so sharp it's obviously NOT real life(-1). You can jump, crouch, prone, strafe, turn and die with relative ease, and having all your mapped keys in the right place (the RIGHT HAND ZONE) is very intuitive, and frankly something you don't see enough of these days(+2). You actually have 'health' in this game, and while that is usually an automatic +5 to my rating system, it's negated by the fact that it regenerates so quickly that you might as well have 8v8 where everyone chose Wolverine as thier player(-3 [not -5 as per usual, just for including health bars])..The 'classes' system is also quite nice, giving each squad member a more specific duty, and forcing you to perform it, or watch the while team bitch at you for sucking. However, the classes are are generally the same thing, with a few minor modifications. You either do slightly more damage, move a little faster, take less damage, or get more support. It feels a little more like they are just a gimmick, as opposed to actually making players choose wisely depending on what the team needs. It becomes more about focus fire and less about tactics in the end(-5). It ends up being a win/lose system, in some cases it works great with a diverse team who can follow orders and work well together. It's also a flawed, terrible, horrible idea because inevitably groups will form that ALL choose the same class, cant work together and hate each other for losing when nobody else captured the objecting while I was off winning the fucking war by number alone you damn fools..
While I do really like the look of the game, that's also one of its major drawbacks. They put it on the failboat Frostbite 2 engine(-4). Its 'pretty'.. and that's all. It looks good, it runs smoothly, but honestly, the FB2 engine is just no good for mechanics, its why BF3 didnt do as well against MW3, and I also just hate it because it isn't the mother of all current engines (Havok2). The game is also totally unoriginal(-5). Not far back was a game called "Wolfenstein - Enemy Territory" which was the exact same game. There we're 'classes' too, although W:ET did it far better with classes being very 'specific' with certain map objectives only achievable by certain classes, forcing a team to work together or lose, not simply to shoot their way to victory as in MoH:WF. Also, MORE FUCKING ANANOGRAMAMS!

CoD[1/2/3/WaW]:MW(1/2/3) MoH:(AA/RS/PA/EA/WF) GoW(1/2/3) {{not to be confused with the other title, GoW(1/2/3)}} BF[1942]-[2142{NS}]-[BC{1/2}](1/2/3)

IS ANYONE ELSE FUCKING TIRED OF THIS?!

It's a shameful time when they spew out these damn copies of no discernible difference in the multitudes when the TRULY awe-inspiring and stroke of genius games get swept under the rug with little to no attention after a few months, despite STILL being better games to this day (FEAR 1/3, Painkiller, BulletStorm, Crysis 1/2, Commander Keen ect.)
Where was I? Oh right.

-5.

The game is still in it's alpha so (sadly) I wont be tearing apart the nitty gritty mechanics. Yes I had a CTD, yes I got stuck in the floor trying to melee someone, yes there were a few invisible walls we tried to climb (and failed). But while these would be massive point losses for any new release, its still in ALPHA. Not even a Beta yet, so it's quirks are more endearing than actually annoying. (+2). All in all, it was fun to play for a few hours, I mean, murdering people always is, but while I generally lose interest in games that suck, this one held me for the time I played it(+2). I think in future with good strategy, the buddy FireTeam system will be a very powerful and fun tool in the hands of the player.(+1)

End -->  [ -7 / 10 ]

Not bad, I was expecting much worse, around the -15 to -20 mark, but it did considerably well.

THE EVENT

Start --> 10 Points
The event itself was actually well put together, the computers were all set up and ready to go and the room was decorated in the right theme(+1). However right off the bat there were an 'unknown' number of guests appearing, so the hosts themselves were alternatively missing for the first part of the night, waiting for people to arrive(-2). The night kicked off well enough, with an awesome intro video from the game dev's. Which was directly followed by a warning of 'dont all pick this class because its overpowered', which immediately, everyone will pick, and also ruined some of the 'trial and error' that goes into playing a game for the first time, which is part of the fun, now denied(-2). There was some amusing fiddling about between the demo movie and the CD player for the changing of audio to music, but the music chosen was perfect for the atmosphere(+1). The area chosen however was somewhat small compared to the amount of people who showed up, so we have a small, dark, cramped room without enough seating,  filled with sweaty gamer men, and nothing but violence for entertainment..(-2). There was a well thought out resource of refreshment in the way of beer, which was also well chosen(+1). Two kinds of beer, both easily enjoyable and generally popular, went down well with the feel of the room. After the first game, one or two people swapped out for new players, but the result was the same. The Red team winning the second round aswell, some idiot picked up the brilliant idea of "Winner Plays On". This moron obviously was never the last kid picked for sport at school, and for simply allowing it to continue I have to say -3. (Hint: Rotate "ALL" the players, so the lesser-skilled players get a chance to pair up with the higher-skilled players to see what its like to win and have a really good support player with you, not just get your ass handed to you repeatedly. It makes you loathe a game, despite how fun it is)

Another noteworthy problem I discovered was that, in a game where the FOCUS was about TEAMWORK between players (even in pairs), the gaming headsets we had did NOT have a mic on them. You either had sound and no intel from your buddy FireTeam partner, or you could hear him, and have NO sound (headphones off).This is an oversight that I thought was huge. It was the FIRST thing I noticed before I even sat down to play. "Play a team based game that requires co-ordination and tactics, and a close communication between you and your buddy FireTeam Partner.. just don't speak to each other".

sigh.

-3

Not too long after the beer came out, so did the food. And I say this very rarely, but they ordered just the right amount of food. Everyone was fed and nobody complained about not having enough. As hosts, they definitely prepared well for the reception of guests. Of course, after playing a few rounds, we all wanted to interact, so most of us got up and wandered about, talking to others of what we did/did not like, the graphics, and even at one point, G.I. Joe. Our hosts were surprisingly active during this time, happy to answer questions, get involved with the people and really just converse on a gamer level. In a company as big as EA (that I have personal issue with myself for ignoring fans and being money-hungry ass-hats), Jiggsy and Pidgeo really stepped up, and we got to see how they are in fact, genuinely involved in the community. Christ now I sound like a kiss-ass. +3.

End -- >  [ 4 / 10 ]

Jiggsy and Pidgeo put on a really good night, as they always do. I'm also noticing an odd trend with those two.. most events I go to are in the -4 to -8 range, but the last two EA events I went to diddn't break 0.. Meh, give it time and we'll see.
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We are, right now at this very moment, living the dream of a man who taught us more than we deserved, and asked nothing in return but that we all act together as one to better the world in which he loved so dearly.  <3 Carl Sagan.