Look at the top of the main page for the info on our Battlefield 2 server. For now we have the time limit on and bonus weapons locked, but that could change depending on how rebellious we are feeling. With BF2 is out in just a few days, we may hang tight within the limitations that EA/DICE (a.ka. Rat Bastards) would like us to accept.
By the way, if you are too lazy to scroll back to the top of the page the IP is: 67.18.226.34
Walking down the street today I saw that the band “Skamasutra” was going to be playing in my community at some point this summer.
Dont get me wrong, I really enjoy ska music most of the time, but is it some unwritten rule that all ska bands must at least consider having a name with the word “ska” in it somehow?
Why hasnt this trend carried over to other musical forms? Why arent country bands required to have the word “redneck” somewhere in it? or maybe just “red” or “cow” to make it simple for them. Emo bands and bands that have names that sound like novels would have to include the word “whine”, and all of these new bands that sound like they stepped right out of the seventies could include the word “crap”
Just think of how much easier it would be to identify a bands sound without hearing them at all. I would know right away that I didnt really want to hear “Whiny Day Real Estate” or “Alabama Rednecks” or “The Flaming Crap”.
Just a thought that occurred to me this afternoon.
If you found this internal discussion particularly moving (and I know you did), feel free to jump into the forums and leave some witty comments in the Random Music Thought thread.
Cant say that I understand what I am reading here, but DICE has closed their New York office (a.k.a. Trauma Studios – the creators of the DC mod for Battlefield 1942).
DICE Press Release:
Digital Illusions discontinues its operations in New York
Digital Illusions CE AB (publ) 2005-06-07
Digital Illusions have decided to discontinue the New York office, Trauma Studios. All of the twelve employees are offered employment at the head office in Stockholm.
Saw this on Planet Battlefield this morning….
A person named “Smig” has a number of custom made ojects and strutures for anyone doing mapping in the Battlefield Series, including Battlefield 2. All he asks is that you give credit to him if you use any of them in a map. Sounds like a good deal to me as these look to be impressively done.
See for yourself here
A community update came out yesterday discussing the ranked vs. unranked server “issue” that has been being debated by the community for some time.
This is part of what was said about the “Ranked Servers”
“Ranked servers will be where the hardcore bump heads and clash knives. All Ranked Servers will be configured to provide the definitive competitive Battlefield experience.”
“Ranked servers will be heavily administrated and have Punkbuster on. The integrity of the stats system is of paramount importance to EA (and of course to those participating in it) and so we will be monitoring things constantly. At the end of the day, Ranked servers will be a safe, regulated environment on which the most competitive players will be spending their time. If this environment doesn’t sound right for you, that’s great. That’s what Unranked servers are for.”
This is what EA had to say about unranked servers and where the article gets interesting:
Continue reading BF2 Community Update from EA & Rant from Sarge
The trailer for Quake IV is out and available at GameTrailers.com
There are three versions available. Low and High-definition trailers, and some gameplay footage from an MTV event. No release date for Quake IV has been announced at this time.
From the Battlegroup 42 Website:
Rejoin the war in Europe and the Pacific with Battlegroup42 for BF:1942! The Battlegroup42 team releases the next update to the original Battlegroup42 mod including 16 new maps, a readjustment of the Tiger, IS-2 and Panther-D to BG42 1.0 values, many numerous fixes to armor, AI, and weapons – including further adjustments to the AT weapons and map corrections and balancing of previous BG42 maps.
15 New Maps: The update includes 15 maps from the map makers at Clan MOB, including 9 never-seen-before maps, 2 modifications to classic BF maps, and Battlegroup42 adaptations of 4 maps from the EA Match Map Pack. (The EA Match Map Pack is required to play these last four maps. You can get the pack from EA.) Screenshots from these maps have been shared in earlier news postings, but in addition to screenshots already shown, there are some new ones from Operation U-Go, the last map added to the update.
Read more for the 1.2 change list. Continue reading Battlegroup 42 1.2 Update released for BF42
Ever throw away your manual for a game by mistake? Replacement Docs is an online archive of thousands of game manuals and instructions for just about every system out there.
Thanks to BoingBoing for the link.
In an update to the short interview that we did with the Forgotten Hope Mod team back in April, they made a big announcement today:
Flying in to the United Kingdom, Armin Ace visited an EA development studio together with several members from other mod teams for a two-day trip full of information, presentations and experiences. Right afterwards, many made a stop at Berlin to join the EA Community Event. News posters from the most known German community pages and developers from all sorts of mods reported in, as did our own news poster BUG$.
Battlefield 2 was no longer an unknown with only rumours and speculation to go on. Battlefield 2 became something tangible as we played the game and used the editor that will be at our disposal once the game is out. Finally we had a chance to see what BF2 is capable of, what it looks like, what it feels like, what tools we can use for modding. Finally we were able to compare BF1942 with BF2 and make an informed decision about porting the mod to the new engine. After this there is no longer a crossroad. The path has turned into a straight highway with only one direction to go: Battlefield 2
A nail in DICEs coffin or new era of great games?
” REDWOOD CITY, Calif. & STOCKHOLM, Sweden–(BUSINESS WIRE)–May 19, 2005–In the period following the close of the acceptance period for Electronic Arts EA Holding ABs (“EA”) offer to the shareholders of Digital Illusions CE AB (publ) (“DICE”) on January 20, 2005, 807,428 DICE shares have been sold to EA in the market.”
“EA now controls a total of 6,852,148 shares, representing 67.8% of the outstanding capital and votes in DICE. On a fully diluted basis, assuming EA exercises its warrant to purchase 2,327,602 additional shares priced at SEK 47.23, this corresponds to 73.8% of the outstanding capital and votes.”
Linked via Planet Battlefield
Download and Fly over 72 different Airplanes!
FREE Events and Prizes for all Prospective Aviators Begins May 20th 2005!
CARY, N.C.-May 11, 2005, – iEntertainment Network, (BB:IENT.pk), the award-winning developer of the World Famous WarBirds TotalSims series, announced that IENT will host a FREE WarBirds 2005 Weekend on May 20th through May 22nd 2005, where all new players can download the Worlds Greatest World War II Flight Simulator, WarBirds 2005, for FREE! Players can also play all TotalSims games online for 3 FREE Days! (Completely FREE, No Credit Card Required!)
On May 20th through May 22nd 2005, there will be massive free online gaming events (no credit card required) for three days in the iEntertainment Online Arenas. Continuous free play will begin at noon, Friday, May 20th. Special events include, T-Shirt Night on Friday where players can win tee shirts for killing various special players. On that Saturday at 3 PM EST, a Dawn of Aces (World War I Combat Flying) event will be held, Armored Assault (Tank Combat) Fight Night will also be held at 9 PM EST on Saturday. On Sunday, May 22nd, three exciting events will be held: the European Micro Campaign at 3 PM EST, the Ferrets Air Race Event will be held at 7 PM, and the Massive Historical Bomber and Fighter Event, the S3, will be held with hundreds of online players at 8:30 PM EST.
Continue reading Free Flight Simulation Game at www.TotalSims.com!
The Tofu Hut has posted what I do believe is the mother lode for anyone looking for blog sites about music and that feature MP3s. There is something there for everyone and more. Check it out, I know I am going to.
Thanks to BoingBoing for the link. They got if from this guy.
Put on your thinking caps for this one as it requires a bit of brain power. It seems as though IQ tests scores have been steadily rising during the last several decades in every industrialized country on earth. Are people getting smarter? Is our education system improved? Do kids study more? No! One researcher believes that life, and video games in particular, better prepares us for IQ tests now:
“Over the last 50 years, weve had to cope with an explosion of media, technologies, and interfaces, from the TV clicker to the World Wide Web. And every new form of visual media – interactive visual media in particular – poses an implicit challenge to our brains: We have to work through the logic of the new interface, follow clues, sense relationships. Perhaps unsurprisingly, these are the very skills that the Ravens tests measure – you survey a field of visual icons and look for unusual patterns.”
“The best example of brain-boosting media may be videogames. Mastering visual puzzles is the whole point of the exercise – whether its the spatial geometry of Tetris, the engineering riddles of Myst, or the urban mapping of Grand Theft Auto.”
You can read the entire (and very interesting) article in Issue 13.05 of Wired
Link found via BoingBoing as usual 🙂