Change You Cannot Believe In: GTA V Pulled By Target and Kmart

So, this just happened. A petition on Change.org has successfully convinced Target and Kmart to pull Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V) off their shelves on the grounds that the game promotes sexual violence against women. This annoys me on a number of levels, which I shall neatly outline in a variety of dot points later on, but on a whole, the petition itself pisses me off because this is a wonderful example of how factual inaccuracy, media coverage and sheer utter ignorance results in a moral panic towards a medium that already has enough criticism levelled at it from within and without.

While Target and Kmart have every right to pull GTA from their shelves and people have the right to complain and take action against what they perceive to be a potential threat and/or dangerous to the social fabric, I detest the fact that the success of this petition rests on faulty claims and clearly being used to further a particular agenda. An agenda criticising the portrayal of violence against women, a proposition that I do not disagree with but nonetheless is misguided in this instance.

Firstly, I shall pick apart the petition and point out exactly what is factually inaccurate about the claims made and hence undermine the entire premise of the petition.

• The authors claim that GTA V "that encourages players to murder women for entertainment. The incentive is to commit sexual violence against women, then abuse or kill them to proceed or get 'health' points."
• First of all, the game incentivises you to commit crime in general. It does not differentiate between violence against men or women, allowing the player to indiscriminately attack and potentially kill both men and women in various ways.
• Second of all, there is no mechanic allowing the commission of sexual violence against women. I will concede that you can abuse women by choosing to punch them but at the same time, you can abuse men by choosing to punch them, so I'm not sure what the issue is here.
• Third of all, there is literally no point in the game where hurting a woman will forward the game's narrative and there is absolutely no way to get health points from killing women, let alone anyone. On the contrary, attacking a woman (or a man) will almost always get the attention of the police who will bear down upon you as a force of almighty vengeance, which actually harms your health, not helps it.
• The authors also claim that "after various sex acts, players are given options to kill women by punching her unconscious, killing with a machete, bat or guns to get their money returned."
• Yes, but you're given the exact same options to deal with any non-player character in the game.
• Also, you can't punch anyone unconscious. Typically punching an NPC results in death.
• The author clearly has never played the game because machetes are not present in GTA V at any point. A knife, yes. A golf club, yes. A police baton, yes. A machete, no.
• "This misogynistic GTA 5 literally makes a game of bashing, killing and horrific violence against women. It also links sexual arousal and violence."
• Again, the game lets you kill any NPC regardless or race, gender, body size, body weight, body shape, religion so, I wouldn't call it misogynistic.
• I'm not sure what she means by the linkage between sexual arousal and violence. A further explanation would help.
• Games like this are grooming yet another generation of boys to tolerate violence against women. It is fuelling the epidemic of violence experienced by so many girls and women in Australia - and globally.
• Oh good, another person in the camp of every gamer gamer is an idiot who cannot differentiate between reality and a video game world. Yes there are people who cannot tell the difference but they are in the minority.
• Also, the same could be said of violent books, television and movies, why not get rid of those as well?
• Gamers are not all boys either. A lot of them are men. And a lot more of them are women, for crying out loud.

Secondly, I should point out that the authors highlight the fact that they themselves have encountered sexual violence in their past. If this is true, I am honestly sorry for them but it does not justify this false crusade based on strawmen and factual inaccuracies. While the game may glamorise the criminal life and allow many depraved acts of violence, it should be noted that the game is also a work of satire. It often pokes fun at the player for committing violence with wanton abandon and punishes the player for excessive violence through a vigilant police force. 

Thirdly, I'll cover why the results of the petition are disappointing.

• People actually genuinely believe that the game is misogynistic and promotes violence against women now. If you don't believe me, read the comments in news stories about it or why people signed the petition on Change.org. This further delegitimises and adds to the already weighty opposition to video games as an entertainment medium.
• We, as in gamers, fought for an R-rating in Australia for so long for the reason that we do want to play games with mature themes but recognise that they should not be accessible by minors. That is the point of an R-rating. By simply pulling the game off the shelf, this undoes years of work to provide gamers the freedom to make their own choices while trying to protect minors. 
• This is not a victory for Target and Kmart as responsible corporate entities. It simply removes a form of revenue for them and redirects business to other companies. It's not as if the game cannot be bought anymore. People can just go elsewhere to get it.

A Guide to Battlefield 4: Solo PTFO

Hello readers, welcome to the second installment of "A Guide to Battlefield 4" where I will be outlining some basic solo tactics to help you better PTFO. So if you want to stay alive on the Battlefield, I suggest you pay attention, soldier.

Stick Together, Team!
This one should be a no-brainer. Battlefield is a team-based game, so, remember to stick by your team. More importantly, stick with your squad because everything you do to support them will net you additional points. If separate from your squad, try and get back to them or at the very least, back up your team. By working together, you can capture objectives faster and have additional firepower when faced with the enemy. Plus, you can get ammo, health, revives and repairs if your team/squad knows what they're doing.

Target Spotted
Always remember to spam the spot button when you see an enemy and they aren't shooting at you. If you can manage to spot while shooting or being shot at, even better! Spotting gives a massive advantage not just to you but your team because the pesky enemy has a floating dorito over his head and appears on the minimap. This gives you and your team the tactical advantage of knowing where the enemy is and having them sighted in for friendly artillery (either the M142 rocket truck or the M224 mortar).

Hey! I Need a Ride!
Chances are, if you've played Battlefield 4 enough, you've heard the above phrase. Try to stop for your team or squad when you're in a vehicle to give them a ride to the next objective because it's just the nice thing to do. I'm sure you've spent a lot of time hoofing it if you've played many a Battlefield game where you just wish there were a vehicle so you could just get where you want to go, so, do the nice thing and offer people a ride. Of course, common sense should also dictate that you don't stop in the middle of a firefight and offer a ride, make sure it's clear and safe for you to stop and pick up passengers.

How to Defibrillate Correctly
Did you know that you can charge up the defib paddles before reviving someone to give them full health? It takes some experience to know when the paddles fully charge up but don't just do a quick tap revive when you have time, because your revivee will need to recover their health from a measly 20 points meaning they have a significant disadvantage if they get shot. If you do go through with a low health revive, at least throw down a health pack or health bag to accelerate their healing. Also, for the love of Battlefield, check your surroundings before you revive. No one likes a Rambo revive. Don't just revive people just because you can, it's a waste of their life and a waste of your life when you revive someone when there are enemies still around shooting at you. Consider the situation and act accordingly.

Recon 101
While I think that people can play the game however they want, don't be that guy camping halfway across the god-damned map contributing nothing to the team. If you want to be a sniper, fine, but at least spot some enemies, lay down some suppressing fire, deploy a SOFLAM or designate vehicles with the PLD. Don't just lie there thinking about the next headshot, it's just selfish. Alternately, be an aggressive recon, equip a DMR or shotgun or carbine and run around pew-pewing people and dropping motion sensors everywhere.

The Wolf Among Us (Episode 1: Faith) Review

Hello readers, it's been a while since I did a review but that's because I haven't really bought or played anything really review-worthy is current months until the January PSN sale rolled around and I picked up a season pass for The Wolf Among Us because it was cheap and I've been told many times that Telltale Games' The Walking Dead was one of the best games ever.

Like The Walking Dead, Telltale has created another choice-driven point-and-click adventure game based on pre-existing material for The Wolf Among Us, specifically, the Fables comic book series written by Bill Willingham and published by DC Comics Vertigo imprint. The story takes place in the Fables universe some time after an unspecified event that forces various characters from famous fairy tales and stories, collectively referred to as "Fables", from their original homeland to New York City where they've set up a sanctuary in the form of Fabletown, a second home to the Fables that is hidden from the "mundane" world by various forms of magic. You play as Sheriff Bigby Wolf, formerly known as the Big Bad Wolf from Little Red Riding Hood as well as the Three Little Pigs, tasked with protecting the Fables and investigating any crimes related to the Fabletown community. Equally feared and hated by the Fable population, Bigby is nevertheless a competent detective trying to do his best as sheriff.  The first thing you notice when the game starts playing is the crisp and gorgeous art design. Although the graphics are a little inconsistent especially when it comes to the environment with some areas detailed gorgeously while others look a little lacklustre, the game has a beautiful comic book look and feel to it. The character design is especially outstanding although the characters seem to share very little aesthetic similarity with their comic book counterparts. Particularly Bigby, who is a lot less ferocious and bestial than his comic book appearance. Snow White is also very different from what she looks like in the comics with the key distinction being she looks less weary and bitter at the world. Understandable as The Wolf Among Us takes place before the comics. Perhaps the events of the game contribute to her future world-weariness and cynicism.  Gameplay-wise, The Wolf Among Us is more akin to a point-and-click adventure with the odd quick-time event than a real fully interactive game. I'm not necessarily saying that's a bad thing, it's just how the game works. And at least from my point of view, it's pretty effective. It gives you some degree of choice in how you respond to people and that has consequences in the future as highlighted by the notifications saying something along the lines of "She'll remember that" or "Toad noticed what you said". The game is fascinating, particularly the premise, but my main issue is that choices don't have full weight, at least in the short term. I ran through the game a few times choosing different verbal responses and sometimes even choosing not to say anything and the outcome was almost always the same. I get that the game is ramping up to the finale like a television series but it feels really linear and forcing you down a chosen path. There is of course nothing inherently wrong with that aside from the fact that the game is sold on the basis of choice and to me, it feels like choice is an illusion.  In other words, the game is pretty interesting and has me sold on the next episode but I'm wary of whether Telltale will be able to deliver the impact that my fellow gamers have told me they were able to achieve in The Walking Dead. Furthermore, the interesting premise is what keeps this game interesting for me and the credit should partially be given to Bill Willingham, who created Fables which is something I definitely recommend people start reading. In conclusion, give this game a play but perhaps temper expectations until the final episode, I suspect it might not deliver the impact that people expect but that's just me.

A Guide to Battlefield 4: PTFO Basics

If you've played Battlefield for more than an hour, you'll probably have heard or see the term "PTFO" get thrown around. For those who are terrible at using the internet to search for the meaning of this term or those who just like hanging around this terrible excuse for a blog, today's your lucky day because I will be breaking down what it means to PTFO in Battlefield 4 (or any Battlefield game, really).

Defining PTFO
"PTFO" stands for Play the F**king Objective as some of you will no doubt have learned. The "F" in "PTFO" arises from the frustration many veteran players have with noobs or lone wolf players who apparently bought the game under the impression that getting kills is much more important than taking the objective and helping your team. If you want to make sick montages with your long-range sniper kills or maintain a super-high K/D ratio, please play Domination, Team Deathmatch or Squad Deathmatch because those three game modes emphasise killing the enemy above all else. If you want to play Conquest, Rush, Obliteration or Defuse, then please contribute by playing the objective.

Learn to Play, Mother Truckers: How to PTFO
If you take "PTFO" literally, you'd think that all it means is to capture flags in Conquest, arm/defuse MCOMs in Rush and make a mad dash for the bomb in Obliteration. While this is what you should be doing in the first place, that's not what "PTFO" is all about. Playing the objective is all well and good but you have to make sure that you're playing the objective right. Don't just throw yourself blindly at an objective, value your life because it might make the difference between winning and losing during those hard-fought and ridiculously close matches.

For example, there's no point capturing an objective in Conquest if you know you can't hold it. You'd be wasting time better suited to defending an objective you can hold. Alternately, there's no point assaulting a heavily-defended objective because you'll just be wasting tickets and giving the enemy team some free kills. Ah, but what about if you are an attacker on Rush, you may ask. Well, don't just throw yourself at the objective. Watch the enemy, determine if there are any weak points in their defence and flank like your life depends on it because it very often does. If it looks like they have an impregnable defence, then send up some armour or send in the EOD bots. Where there's a will, there's a way.

At the end of the day, to PTFO means to contribute to the team towards victory. As long as you're doing something for the team, that's PTFO and you'll be considered a valuable member of the community. If you don't, that's fine but know that you'll probably one day find a torrent of swear words headed your way. I don't like telling people how to play but this is a team-oriented game, so, put aside your lone wolf tendencies and help your team out.

Video Game Time Machine: Arkham Asylum

Hello readers, new series again. This time with a twist. It's a new series about older video games. When I say old, I mean anything from classics like Pong to more recent classics like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, depending on what older game I decide to go back to. This time we're looking at Batman: Arkham Asylum from 2009, which although seems like a fairly short time ago, is nearly a whopping five years.

When Arkham Asylum first hit the shelves, I must admit I was rather sceptical about the quality of the game and felt that perhaps it was an attempt by the video games industry to latch on to the successes of both Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008). It wasn't until later that I realised Arkham Asylum was made by Rocksteady Studios, who made one of my favourite games on the PS2, Urban Chaos: Riot Response and was penned by Paul Dini, one of my favourite writers from Batman: The Animated Series and various DC comics as well as the creator of one Dr. Harleen Quinzel, better known as Joker's moll, Harley Quinn.

I think my favourite part of the game is the brilliant plot and backstory-rich setting of Arkham Asylum with a fantastic cast that combines staple Batman characters with new interesting characters who I can easily see transitioning into the comics. While the game seems to primarily target Batman and DC Comics fans, it toes an extremely fine line that welcomes people new to the Batman/DC universe, sometimes crossing a little too far into the fan section with the near encyclopaedic knowledge of the DC Universe needed to solve the Riddler's riddles legitimately but the gameplay, plot, voice acting, visuals and level design is enough to win over the casual gamer.

Going back in Arkham Asylum, I was a little startled by the contrast between the cinematics and gameplay graphics with the gameplay graphics having aged very well while the cinematics look a little lacklustre, almost too the point of quite extreme screen-tearing on a LED TV. Being a veteran of Arkham City, the combat system feels a little clunky with movement and fighting being less smooth than City but ultimately still feeling quite satisfying. Detective Mode is also useable at all times because the imaging has less contrast than in City and feels a little like a cheat some times because I can see hidden enemies, voiding the potential jumpscares written into the game. The riddles are a lot harder in Asylum if you're not a Batman or DC Comics fan because they often refer a lot to some less obvious Batman lore. As an avid Batman comics reader, it was mostly easy but it's a little unfair to some less avid comic book readers.

Overall, Arkham Asylum holds up very well in contrast to its successors and is one of those games you can just slap on and start playing again without feeling lost or feeling like your skills have seriously atrophied.

A Guide to Battlefield 4: Game Modes

Having recently purchased Battlefield 4 and seeing as many people will have hopped on to the Battlefield bandwagon for the first time or from other franchises, I thought I'd write up a series of articles covering everything from game modes to maps to weapons to classes etc. written from the perspective of a Battlefield veteran. This week, we'll be visiting game modes where I'll break down the different types of game modes and my overall strategy for each.

Conquest

The classic Battlefield game mode involves capturing and holding a majority of flags to bleed the enemy team's tickets where both sides usually have 400 tickets each. Typically there are 3 to 5 flags depending on the map with the centre flag being the most contested by both sides. Vehicles are extremely important in Conquest as they provide much needed force multipliers in tough situations and maps are often so large that walking will be an absolute pain, especially when snipers are out in force. 

The best way to approach Conquest as a new player is to explore the map as much as you can. Two things will guarantee victory in Conquest, a good team and map knowledge. Having a good team is sort of a 50/50 gamble every time you join a server unless you have 11 other friends to play with you on the same team so learning the map is a must if you want to win. Most importantly, find flank routes and look out for heavily populated enemy areas. You want to avoid heavily populated enemy areas or alternately, bombard them with the mortar or the M142 HIMARS on the map Zavod 311. Flanking is key especially when the enemy has most of the objectives locked down. An effective squad who knows how to flank can take objectives while the team is being held down by the enemy at spawn. Or at the very least break out of the spawn and do some damage to the enemy from behind.

Team Deathmatch

Classic first-person shooter fare. No vehicles and relatively small versions of the existing maps make for exciting close-range firefights. Map knowledge will be a huge help but the only real way to win is with the best weapons and fast reflexes. Unless you're a fantastic sniper or know the map inside out, a carbine or quick-firing assault rifle is recommended for Team Deathmatch. 

There's not much advice to give about Team Deathmatch, it's a relatively simple mode with no real objective or strategy behind it except to kill the enemy.

Obliteration

This brand-spanking new game mode to Battlefield involves a bomb that spawns somewhere in between the two sides and three objectives you must detonate within 20 minutes. The winning team is the one that manages to detonate all three before the 20 minutes elapses or to have more detonated objectives than the other team. Furthermore, the person carrying the bomb is a giant target for everybody, so, it's not a job for the faint-hearted Obliteration is an extremely fun mode and really provides some pulse-pounding action particularly when you are the bomb carrier.

For Obliteration, the only real way to win is to have a really good team that knows how to work together. Always cover the bomb carrier and for the love of God, provide transport for the poor bugger with the target on his back. Also, keep your distance from the blast site because once it detonates it will take out most people near it and even the odd unlucky vehicle that strays too close. Vehicles are a must to carry the bomb carrier to his/her target and to cover the location from enemies attempting to defuse the bomb. Avoid main roads when driving because there will almost always be M15 anti-tank mines or M2 SLAMs on the ground. The helicopter, either transport or scout, is the best bet for delivering the bomb carrier because they're way faster than anything on the ground and really only susceptible to portable anti-air and mobile anti-air.

Rush

A more recent but extremely popular addition to Battlefield involves a set of M-COMs in every base which the defenders must prevent the attackers from detonating. The attackers get 75 tickets only and to win they must detonate the first set of M-COMs to move on to the next set and so on until the final set. The number of M-COMs depends on the map and range from 6 to 10 but will always involve a set of two at each base, no more, no less.

Unfortunately, DICE has tweaked Rush to provide a massive advantage to Defenders on almost every map particularly for the first two M-COMs with perhaps the exception of Golmud Railway and Flood Zone. For defenders, just dig in and take out the swarms of attackers coming at you. Don't forget to watch for snipers as well. If you have a half-decent team, you should be able to win pretty easily as defenders. Most maps have M-COMs in easily defensible positions provided your team isn't too stupid and too aggressive to guard the objectives. For attackers, it's really down to how effective the enemy team is on most maps because there's no real set way to break enemy defences. Having a good team helps but even then the map advantage afforded to defenders is insane. On the bright side, you'll get a go as the defending team so you'll probably get a victory at some point.

Squad Deathmatch

A slight twist on the staple in all first-person shooters, Squad Deathmatch features four 5-man squads duking it out for ultimate victory. Teamwork is crucial because you have less players backing you up and each member of the squad has to pull their own weight because you will effectively be fighting 15 other players with 4 players backing you up.

I wouldn't recommend playing this with randoms. Find some friends or you will be utterly demolished. Aside from having friends to play with, perhaps have a mic to communicate with randoms?

Domination

It's like Conquest without the vehicles on a much smaller scale. Three flags in fairly close proximity with 300 tickets on both sides means that killing is the main means to victory although capturing flags will help bleed the enemy tickets dry. Also it's 20 players on all platforms rather than the typical 24 players or 64 players in other game modes.

Capturing flags is quite important but again the main attraction here is close-quarters fighting particularly around the flag. There's very little time to relax as this is a ridiculously fast-paced game mode with action around every corner. Speed and reflexes are key although having some map knowledge will put you in good stead. Controlling the roofs on Siege of Shanghai and Zavod 311 is a must because you can move to any flag on the map with relative ease and you get a height advantage and positional advantage over the enemy.

Defuse

Basically Search and Destroy for Battlefield. One side arms objectives, the other side defends them. One life then spectator mode if you get killed until the end of the round.

Not sure if there's any tips for this other than sticking together and making sure to stick to whatever cover you can find that isn't destructible.

The Return: Back in Action

Hello everybody, I know it's been one hell of a hiatus but real life did significantly get in the way for all four of us, even though the whole point of getting four contributors is to ensure a steady stream of content. Well, you know, things go wrong, real life gets in the way and all that jazz. I'm happy to let any of you loyal readers know that we're not abandoning this project though, or at least, I'm not abandoning this project any time soon. I've got some content on the way and we're working on something that hopefully works out some time in early 2014.

365 Days Later

Hey everyone, it's been a good solid year and I'm quite happy with how far this little project has come. Thank you so much for sticking with us (for those that have) and welcome to our tiny little speck of the internet (for those who are new to the blog) which I hope we'll maintain for the years to come. We're still lacking a proper dialogue between us and you but I understand it's a little daunting to comment on a stranger's blog. If you do want to say something though, please feel free, be it criticism or praise or suggestions or anything really, unless you want to spam us with spam sites, then, please don't come back.

Anyway, one year in and we're still going quite strong. We're working on a couple of things aside from writing here and we'll be happy to reveal them to you when the time comes. Hopefully, the major thing will be being able to transition from the blog to our own proper website where hopefully, we can create a fun and vibrant community, a little corner of the internet you can call your virtual home, like PlayStation Home except not terrible. Again, thank you to anyone who has stuck with us for however long you've stuck with us and we look forward to hearing from you.

The Last of Us: Hunter or Hunted? Part 1

Freshly fallen snow lines the streets of the deserted Lakeside town, crunching beneath their boots as they move towards the buildings towards the centre of what had once been some sort of resort. The four scavengers move cautiously but quickly, worried that reports of Fireflies encroaching further and further into their territory might mean a hard fight for what would probably turn out be a measly amount of supplies. Wordlessly, the Hunters split up and take up positions that allows them to maximise coverage of the snow-laden resort.

Climbing to the roof of a low-slung cottage, the man with the sniper rifle scans the area thoroughly, looking out for the garish yellow uniforms of the Fireflies. Seeing no signs of life, he signals the others that the town is all-clear. The other three peel from cover and move in a V formation towards their first target, a large lonely cottage separated from the rest of the little lakeside commune. From his perch, the sniper continues to scan the area, determining that the reports must have been wrong or that the Fireflies had given up and gone home. Dropping noiselessly to the snow-covered ground, he makes his way into the house he was previously standing on top off through a conveniently-open window. Once inside, he searches for supplies and after meticulous searching of the small cottage, finds nothing of interest or utility. Worried that he's been away from the others for too long, he makes for the window to catch a glimpse or even establish contact with them.

As he approaches the window, he hears a shot ring out in the distance and all hell breaks loose. He hears the retort of gunfire from the house where he last saw his fellow Hunters. Snatching frantically at his sniper rifle, he dives to cover below the window and prays that nobody has seen him yet. Cautiously, he peeks through the window, scanning the area for targets. On the far side of the town, he sees a glint that can only be from a rifle scope and gingerly, he lifts the rifle to the window and peers through his own scope. From the magnified image of his scope, the Hunter manages sees a Firefly behind the glint with another Firefly probably acting as a spotter next to him. Breathing in, he lines up the shot and gently squeezes the trigger. The rifle adds a loud retort to the symphony of gunfire erupting across the idyllic whitewashed town as the man holding it attempts to bring the weapon back to bear for another short. One eye still glued to the scope, he sees the head of one of the Fireflies releasing a pink mist into the crisp winter air and satisfied with the result of his marksmanship, moves the weapon ever so gently to target the second Firefly.

Cannily, the other Firefly has dropped behind cover and grabbed his fallen compatriot's weapon. Moving frantically towards better cover, he scrambles across the snow with a rifle in one hand and a pistol in another, shooting wildly with the pistol out of sheer panic. The sniper takes a breath and leads the shot, slowly putting pressure on the trigger, waiting for the perfect moment to fire. The Firefly trips and the man with the sniper rifle pulls the trigger. Almost instantaneously, the round enters the Firefly's leg, causing him to shout in pain and fall even deeper into the snow. Cursing, the sniper works the bolt and loads another round into the chamber of his trusty weapon, sending another shot towards the fallen Firefly. Another one down and an unknown number to go. Peeling away from the window, the sniper moves cautiously towards the door, scanning the area ahead of him with his revolver in hand. With the area seemingly clear, he moves quickly towards the house his comrades are holed up, attracting the attention of the other Fireflies in the area. With a fusillade of shots whizzing past him, the Hunter increases his pace and dives through a window to escape the blizzard of lead headed his way. Grunting, the sniper gets back on his feet and moves further into the house, following the sound of gunfire coming from within the house. In the living room, he comes across his allies, two still up and one writhing in pain on the floor. As he approaches his compatriots, a nail bomb sails through one of the windows and detonates, killing his friends and sending various bits of shrapnel into his arms and legs.

to be continued

Pokemon X and Y : Preview Part 2

Hey fellow Poke-nerds.  I have seen new footage of the game and I have also found a pretty swell video made by MunchingOrange which pretty much shows some of the other things I have explained in my previous post as well as some other points.  Just watch the video below and I'll give my take on each topics to the best of my interests.



The New Pokemon- Yea, I have to agree. When playing a new Pokemon game, one definitely looks forward to seeing and catching all the new Pokemon Game Freak has thought up. The new typing (Fairy), like I mentioned in my previous post will add a well needed paradigm shift to a game that has remained arguably the same since Gen 2. While some people seem to be disappointed with the design of some the Pokemon, I am sitting on the fence with this one ( I neither hate or love them). I will just have to see the new generation of the Pokemon as a whole before placing my decision to whether this generation of Pokemon are aesthetically pleasing or butt ugly.

Mega Evolution - I have already touched on this topic in the my previous post so I won't ramble much about it here. What I will say though, is that after some reflection, the Mega Evolution seems to greatly resemble the Digimon formula of evolving ( Pokemon Black and White actually had a very Digimon-esque evolution style with the fusion of Zekrom or Reshiram with Kyurem). I may be wrong but that is the vibe I seem to be getting from the footage I'm seeing.

Customizing Characters - Not too much of a fan of this aspect. Then again this is coming from a person who cannot get past the the character customization screen in Skyrim. While it is a great incentive for gamers to be able to customizing his or her character to their own unique taste, I will not be dabbling much into this feature. I'd rather a Plain Jane than a Lady Gaga any day of the week. Skin colour and clothing accessories will be among the things players can change about their Pokemon trainer avatar. Somehow I wouldn't be surprised if fashion shows would be included in the game :P.

The Feel/ Layout of the Game - Beautifully done, however I must say it reminds of Digimon once again. Ever played Digimon World 1 and Digimon World 3. It looks and sounds pretty similar, which has gotten me a bit worried. While I do understand that the game is a reboot for the series, I guess I have gotten used to the feel of the old games. Once again, I hope to be proven wrong as I extrapolating data from recorded footage.

X and Y seems to be the most hyped Pokemon game in a long time. In fact I drifted out of the Pokemon franchise after Ruby and Sapphire. In my humble opinion, none of the Pokemon games has ever come close to topping the 2nd generation (Gold and Silver). However, I do hope X and Y will set the record straight and remind of my childhood bliss once again.

This has been Alex Plum reminding you that Pokemon X and Y is only days away. Carpe Diem Poke-nerds :).

Medal of Honor: Warfighter - A Retrospective

My, how time has passed. It's almost a year since I started writing on the interwebz and it's been a fairly rough ride. Getting content on isn't easy and getting people to read this stuff wasn't any easier. Hell, I'm still not sure if anyone actually reads this stuff other than the bots and spam-machines that occasionally drop by. As some of you may know, I started this whole project because I was disappointed in the state of video game "journalism", with the impetus being the disastrous reviews of a game I thought received a lot of undeserved criticism, Medal of Honor: Warfighter. As I predicted when the game came out, the negative reviews would lead to some pretty severe consequences. Thanks to the poor reviews the game received, the sales tanked and EA yanked the Medal of Honor series out of rotation for an indefinite period, marking the end of what I felt was the series that really launched a great era of first-person shooters. Furthermore, a majority of the development team was let go following the closure of Danger Close with some lucky enough to be transferred to the newly-created DICE Los Angeles, an off-shoot of the Swedish studio responsible for Battlefield and Mirror's Edge.

This infuriates me to no end because the Danger Close team were not a bad team of developers and they did not put out a shoddy game. They put out a decent game that unfortunately had to take the hit for the modern military shooter subgenre. Sure, the first-person shooter genre is flooded with military shooters but that did not make it fair for Warfighter to take all the criticism that could've rightly gone to Modern Warfare 3, released the year before and was seriously a re-hash of the previous games in the Call of Duty series. At the end of the day, because a few "journalists" decided to trash a game as an example rather than because it was a poor game, a lot of people lost their jobs and a great series has been put on ice, perhaps even killed off. Look, I'm sure there are a lot of detractors out there who would disagree with me, saying that reviewers were right for calling the game a buggy, unfinished piece of trash. To those people, I say they're entitled to their opinion but they should recognise that at the end of the day, it is an opinion. Sure, Warfighter had its fair share of bugs but what game doesn't? In addition to that, I can think of a few examples of games with fairly massive flaws that got ignored because the reviewers like the game so much (e.g. Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Skyrim, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops for the first week or so on the PS3 etc.). I don't know about you but that seems like a huge double-standard to me. The point is, all the reviews for Warfighter were just opinions. Understandably, the general consensus that the game was bad would turn any sane person away from purchasing the game but unfortunately, reviewers aren't always right.

I've always recognised that reviews are opinions and they should be taken with a grain of salt, but the problem is, most people don't see it that way. I'm not going to claim that reviewers should receive all the blame for Warfighter's dismal sales but if you read the comments or are even remotely tuned in to the internet at large, many people basically decided not to pick up the game because of the poor reviews it got. Fair enough, people want to spend their money wisely and a poorly-rated game across the board seems like a pretty risky purchase. I get that. The problem is, reviewers are stating opinions as fact and people actually believe that. Not that I blame them. Reviewers or video game "journalists" have been trying to convince people that they are actual journalists for a long time. There are definitely a few actual journalists in the field but unfortunately, their work isn't as popular or widespread as their more populist tabloid-y counterparts who work for the major gaming networks. These people are not journalists just because they are paid to report on gaming news. They are basically glorified bloggers with fancy job titles. Now don't get me wrong, not everyone in the business of reporting gaming-related news is a pretentious or elitist snob. On the contrary, I'm sure a lot of the people in the business are passionate and dedicated writers trying to improve their craft. The problem is, they work in an industry that keeps trying to convince itself that it is a serious business that people should take seriously. This isn't a negative thing. As an Arts student, I completely understand the need to justify your choices and your work because people don't take you seriously. My problem is that these people fail to fulfil the basic requirements needed to be a journalist. Many cannot spell properly and have terrible grammar and even worse prose making it somewhat difficult for me to take them seriously as journalists. Furthermore, there is a disturbing lack of ethics particularly when certain sites advertise the games they are supposed to be impartially reviewing and receive special gifts or trips from companies publishing said games. On the subject of impartiality, there lies the biggest problem I have with video game "journalists". They seem to have none although they try to portray themselves as experts reporting facts to the public. If they really are professionals who are reporting facts then they shouldn't be accepting special press trips or gifts from publishers. Even if they have the utmost integrity, it is completely unacceptable for a journalist to be getting preferential treatment. And on the flipside, journalists should thus not throw a hissy fit because they failed to get a copy of a game early from a publisher especially one that is notorious for not handing out early copies. This was the case with Warfighter when reviewers flat-out accused EA for withholding early copies because it was an unfinished product that they didn't want the public to see. Or perhaps it was because EA is wary of reviewers who give their competitors higher scores because they get showered with special events, previews and gifts way in advance of the game being released.

Back on the subject of Warfighter, the reviewers/"journalists" demonstrated an epic misunderstanding of what their job involves by nitpicking on small things rather than focusing on the whole package. As a fan of the game, I'm more than willing to admit that Warfighter had its shortcomings but it was a genuinely decent game. It had problems and there were some things it got wrong but there were so many things that it did get right that none of the reviewers noticed or bothered to point out. First of all, the graphics were, on the whole, excellent. Sure it's not up to the same level as Battlefield 3 even though both games use the same engine but you have to give Danger Close some props, this was the first time they were working with the Frostbite engine and they managed to get quite a lot out of it with so little experience working with it. Furthermore, the game had a nice degree of realism to it with realistic weapons, gear and equipment and if the advertising is to be believed, even fairly realistic recounting of real-life events. I mean, come on, they even bothered to actually put in and animate the fire-mode selector so that it actually moves to the correct position when selecting various fire modes! I think the problem in this respect was that the realism was in the details rather than the big picture. The way the weapons were handled, the camouflage used, the types of gloves the operators wore, the weapons and equipment they used as well as the realistic dialogue were all things I noticed because I'm an avid military enthusiast. I'm not suggesting that all the reviewers should have known this but with realism being the major marketing point used by EA, it probably would've paid off if they did their research and see if the claims of realism were right. Keeping on the theme of realism and details, the developers definitely put a lot of work into the weapons and attachments, allowing a vast array of customisation that actually affects the performance of the weapon based on whatever accessories were equipped unlike another big-name competitor where the balance is so fine-tuned that attachments barely do anything and occasionally aren't even modelled correctly (Long Barrel, anyone?). Furthermore, the sound design was brilliant with some of the best audio I've heard in a game since Battlefield 3 or ARMA II with the guns actually sounding like guns, the suppressors actually working like suppressors rather than magic silencers and the various sounds made when a bullet hit various surfaces.

I suppose Warfighter's downfall can be partly attributed to their focus on the nitty-gritty and putting the devil in the details while failing to account for how people might perceive the big picture. At the same time, these people reviewing it are supposed to be and often call themselves professionals. If this were the case, they would've done their research and actually tried their best to present an impartial case when reviewing any game. If they keep reviewing games as they do now though, that's perfectly fine but it'd be nice if they acknowledged that their reviews are simply opinion and not fact as they lead people to believe and people do actually sometimes believe, a misunderstanding that I find is still prevalent. On the specific subject of the Warfighter reviews, I was extremely disappointed by most of the reviewers who had a need to trash the game because they didn't get an early copy (only a smattering raised this point) or because they were burned out by the genre (a majority of reviewers). If they wanted to express their disappointment with the military shooter genre, then write a god-damn opinion piece on why the market is saturated with military shooters and how much of a disaster it is, not attack a fairly decent game because you want to make an example. The absolute best part is, when Black Ops II came out, apparently everyone got over their disillusionment with the modern military shooter and praised an old game with a few small tweaks sold as revolutionary and innovative.

In short, I have two main points:

1. Reviewers should try and act with some semblance of impartiality if they want to present themselves as experts in the field that offer recommendations and advice, if not, stop pretending like they are more qualified than anyone else and mention that their reviews are merely opinion, not fact.
2. Cut Warfighter some slack. It got a bad rap because of an unfortunate series of events which led to it taking the fall for the modern military first-person shooter as well as some poor reviewing on the part of a majority of the major sites. Gamespot, in my opinion was the only major site that gave a fair score, the rest sort of gave scores that don't seem to match the descriptions of their scoring system. I mean, a score in the 30s or 40s would mean some pretty serious problems and somehow, Skyrim for PS3 which had A LOT of issues, including freezing and massive lag, but was nonetheless a good game got scores in the 80s and 90s.

Goodbye, Mr. Clancy

If you haven't heard, Mr. Tom Clancy, the best-selling author of classic thrillers like Rainbow Six, Patriot Games, Red Storm Rising and countless other fantastic books as well as the name behind a smorgasbord of successful video game series published by Ubisoft, has passed away. This is not an obituary, for I do not have the words nor the right to speak of the man. Rather, this is an expression of gratitude, one that celebrates his legacy and the effect that this great writer has had on me personally.

In short, I would like to thank Tom Clancy for moulding a large part of my childhood through his seminal works featuring his classic hero, Jack Ryan, as well as numerous other books including but not limited to Red Storm Rising and Rainbow Six. He inspired me to do my own writing, which will never be as good as his and probably never make the light of day (trust me, it's better that way) but nonetheless, his words were an inspiration and his stories a well for a young boy's imagination. Furthermore, his detailed examination into the worlds of espionage and military activity helped to develop my passion for both military history and the colourful world of spies and lies.

No discussion of Tom Clancy would be complete, of course, without mentioning his work in the gaming industry. While the Tom Clancy brand might have little to do with the man in recent years, we can thank Tom Clancy for bringing us the characters and series we've grown to love. His initial contribution was of course through the founding of Red Storm Entertainment, the original creators of Rainbow Six and currently still active as a subsidiary of Ubisoft. Through Red Storm, the Tom Clancy universe in video games was born. Although his contribution to Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, H.A.W.X, EndWar and now The Division is unclear, the fact remains that none of these games would've happened without the man himself and his initial jump through his ownership of Red Storm.

Ultimately, all I have to say to Mr. Clancy is thank you for everything and may you rest in peace.

Pokemon X and Y : A Preview

Pokemon X and Y is finally gonna be released to the masses in the coming month. After months of waiting and toiling, the 6th generation of the pocket monsters will be before us. One of the top grossing series in video gaming history, the formula of the game has arguably remained the same for the duration of the franchise. However X and Y offers a massive paradigm shift in terms of gameplay and visuals.

1. Finally a 3-D Pokemon Game
We aren't going to be counting the the home console versions cause we hardcore fans only stay with the main series. With the advent of the technology over the odd 1 or 2 years, the integration of the 3-D visuals was definitely on the cards this time around. While, I am not super hyped on this  aspect of the game, it is  still a noteworthy inclusion that is definitely something to look out for. Just don't play too long or your eyes might go wonky.


2. A New Pokemon Type
We haven't had a new Pokemon type since Gen 2's steel and it is about time Nintendo did something to counter the massively imbalanced Dragon-types. The new Fairy-type adds a new spice to the main game and has caused huge repercussions in the meta-game competitors. For you squares are unfamiliar to the meta-game, that is the the domain where people battle competitively. Under those circumstances, the typing of your Pokemon, the nature, the hold items, etc. become highly scrutinized as people truly battle to become the 'Pokemon Master". The new typing will help stir things up a bit as the competitive scene has become stale due to the platitude teams most people keep putting out.


3. Transport
Ahh the bicycle. I loved it so, the quirky tune it made when you got on it and the fact you could travel substantially faster than the feet dragging walk you had. Now Pokemon is going to follow a route the haven't taken since Gen 1 and introduce new modes of transport. Now you can use roller skates and make like an X Games participant as you shred around the region. Did I also mention that you could ride on your Pokemon, more specifically a Pokemon called Gogoat. Great, I guess we'll hear from PETA soon regarding cyber animal cruelty.


4. Mega Pokemon
The Pokemon series has been well known for its evolutionary system. No, we are not talking about redundant creationists yakking about how Pokemon defiles God's holy scripture and is the work of Satan. We are talking bout the maximum evolutionary cycles of 3 stages per Pokemon line. Now Nintendo has gone and done the unthinkable and introduced the Mega Evolutions. Pokemon powerhouses such as Charizard and Garchomp are among the pseudo-legendaries involved in the Mega Evolutions. Again, this is gonna cause hella mayhem in the main game and the meta-game.


12th October 2013. Mark your calenders  fellow geeks. We ain't gonna be leaving our 3DSes for weeks when the shit hits the fan. This is Alex Plum reminding you to catch em' all.

Battlefield 4 Exclusive Beta (PS3) First Impressions

Hello readers, I'm currently downloading the Exclusive Beta for PS3 as I write this and will be updating this blog post with my experience with the game as I go along. As far as I can tell, the beta will feature the map Siege of Shanghai, demoed at E3 earlier in the year to spectacular reception (mainly because of the awesome destructible skyscraper). I'm really excited because I also took part in the Battlefield 3 beta two years ago and that was a blast even though it was Metro 24 hours straight for about a week. Check back every few minutes as I update this blog post with my impressions of the game as quickly as I can.

Update 1: Just finished playing my first match, overall, I'm extremely satisfied. Battlefield 4 is a beautiful game, no doubt about that. Despite the texture pop-ins and occasional glitches with graphical fidelity, this thing is quite the looker. Gameplay-wise, it's classic Battlefield with the exception of the controls which have been changed quite a lot. Also, I saw the skyscraper come down during the course of the Conquest match. It was beautiful.

Update 2: The controls are a little hard to wrap my head around because I'm so used to the Battlefield 3 controls but other than that, so far so good. The gameplay is solid teamplay, vehicles are still fairly integral and gunplay is just fantastic. My only criticism so far is that Siege of Shanghai is a little big for 24 players, it's a bit hard to come across enemies unless you're already engaged or near an objective.

Update 3: There's an interesting glitch whereby the textures disappear after the skyscraper has been destroyed, making it look like the textureless pre-alpha build shown on YouTube by a bunch of Battlefield YouTubers. Also, the 5-man squad doesn't quite work because of the 12 vs. 12 limit on PS3. There's always a squad of 2 players in the end, a bit of a problem. Man, it is difficult to fly a scout helicopter now. The controls are really weird and hard to control, it has the ability to become extremely accurate and intuitive but having just jumped in, the new control scheme for helicopters feels weird. I hope they provide Battlefield 3 controls in the full game.

Update 4: Tried one match of Domination, didn't quite enjoy it. Too fast-paced and reflex-based for my liking. I'm the slow tactical type. It's an interesting combination of objective-based gameplay with what appears to be a team deathmatch driven philosophy in the sense that it's a micro-version of Conquest so that you are always in the action at any given moment.

Update 5: After a couple more matches, I noticed some interesting changes from the last game. Firstly, when you reload, your ammo count drops based on how many rounds were left in the last magazine. That's a pretty awesome feature since it adds to a bit of realism. I'm a bit annoyed that you don't keep the magazine, instead you toss it out but I suppose from a balancing perspective, it makes sense. As well as that, there are distance markers for where your squaddies are, which is a great little innovation. Additionally, the commorose is back! Or it's finally arrived on consoles. For those of you unfamiliar with the commorose, it's basically a menu where you can select some commands/requests such as "Need Ammo" or "Need Health" or "Need Transport" or "Attack/Defend". Very cool. Battle pick-ups are also present in the map and I had the opportunity to test out the Milkor MGL, the M82A3 and the HVM Starstreak. These are very interesting and in the right hands, can change the course of the battle. The M82A3 is a joy/nightmare depending if you're on the giving end or the receiving end because it's a one-hit kill superweapon with a range-finger attached.

That's it for my first impressions of the Battlefield 4 Beta. I'll write a more comprehensive article once I've stress-tested the crap out of the beta and gotten Bernt Toast and Brancake's opinions on the beta when they can finally join during the open beta because the suckers didn't buy Medal of Honor: Warfighter or pre-order Battlefield 4.

The Last of Us, Again

3 months ago, I paved through The Last of Us on both Normal and Hard difficulties. I loved every second of it. Without spoiling too much, I found myself crying and having to put down the controller from shock on at least one occasion by the end of my first playthrough.

I moved onto its engaging Multiplayer mode a few weeks later, when Renegade Sandwich and Brancake had received their copies. We desperately combed battlefields to feed the needs of our crumbling virtual clans. It wouldn't last though. We eventually got too busy, or too frustrated at the Multiplayer load times. Following the untimely demise of Renegade Sandwich's PS3, we basically left The Last of Us for other prospects.

Because The Last of Us is one of my most cherished gaming experiences, I suggested it to many of my friends. One of them was hesitant, so I offered to let him test it out at my place before his (totally inevitable) purchase. Watching him play the game again made me want to jump back in (not at the moment of course; that would make me a terrible host). Despite my attempts to convince him to bring it home, he left it my place.

Playing The Last of Us again obviously became quite tempting. So I'm stepping into Joel's shoes once more, but this time on Survivor difficulty. I tried it once, but the absence of a Listening Mode (Joel's ability to gauge enemy presence in the environment) made it hard for me to imagine how to survive for very long. Now that I'm a little older and a little bolder, maybe I can survive the hordes of Infected and Hunters and beat the game again.

I think I'm ready. Wish me luck!

Bernt Toast is an author at The Ops Centre. He is up to date on The Legend of Korra, and his futile attempts to firebend are amusing to watch.

Editor's Note: Unfortunately, due to the difficult nature of Survivor mode, Bernt Toast was killed in action. As a result, he will no longer be reporting from the field.

Weapons of Battlefield 3: DAO-12

Welcome back, readers, to another Weapons Of, still in the Frostbitten locales of Battlefield 3. Having mastered the PDW-R quite quickly and quite easily because of its all-round awesomeness, I thought I'd change it up a little by trying to master a shotgun. Since I've already mastered the Remington 870MCS, the M1014 and the Saiga 12K, the DAO-12 seemed like the perfect candidate for some field-testing.

Background:
The DAO-12, or Armsel Striker as it is called in real-life, is a rather unique South African weapon that has combined the power and ammunition of a shotgun with the rotating mechanism found in revolvers. Chambered in the extremely popular 12-gauge shotgun shell, the Striker typically has a 12-round revolving cylinder feeding it ammunition, except in the more compact models which only have a 7-round revolving cylinder. Due to its rather unique design, the Striker requires shells to be loaded into each cylinder individually and has a strange clockwork mechanism to wind the drum. While the weapon is extremely interesting, it does seem to come across as a rather cumbersome and ineffective weapon.

(source: Wikipedia)

Statistics:

• Ammo capacity = 8 rounds (standard), 12 rounds (extended magazine)
• Damage:
• Buckshot = Maximum of 18 decreasing in a linear pattern to a minimum of 6 from 25 metres onwards 
• Flechette = Maximum of 12.5 decreasing to a minimum of 8.4 from 30 metres onwards 
• Frag = Maximum of 20 decreasing to a minimum of 5 from 40 metres onwards 
• Slug = Maximum of 75 decreasing to a minimum of 37.5 from 50 metres onwards
• Rate of fire = 220 RPM (180 RPM when using frag rounds)
• Bullet velocity:
• Buckshot = 300 m/s
• Flechette = 450 m/s
• Frag = 150 m/s
• Slug = 300 m/s
• Reload times = 0.69 seconds mid-mag, 2.30 seconds from empty

(source: Symthic)

Weapon Assessment

This is actually a pretty solid weapon. I'll admit I was quite surprised at how decently it performed when I started using it because it's not a weapon you often see in the hands of many players. In terms of damage output, the DAO-12 can deal out a ton of punishment and hold its own with the other shotguns because of its 8-round revolver-style drum magazine, making it the shotgun with the highest ammo capacity in the game, tied with the MK3A1 which is a significantly worse weapon than the DAO-12. Personally, I found the DAO-12 quite versatile, depending on what ammunition and attachments you decide to use, the shotgun can perform various roles, from close-quarters devastator to accurate long-range powerhouse.

Recommended Attachments

• Iron Sights
• Extended Magazine 
• Buckshot

For a down-and-dirty fight in the trenches, the iron sights serve well for the kind of range where you'll be engaging your enemies while the extended magazine gives you a whopping 12 rounds of 12-gauge goodness to spread around. Buckshot provides a large spread, allowing you to potentially damage and kill multiple enemies in quick succession.

• IRNV 
• Flash Suppressor
• Slug

For anything other than a close-up battle, this is the kit to go with. The IRNV may seem like a strange choice considering the epic nerfing it has endured following accusations of it being too overpowered, but it's excellent for spotting hard to see targets, particularly in dark areas although it gets difficult at range. If you keep watching the screen and paying attention, however, you should be able to spot most enemies when they are hiding or blending in with the environment. The flash suppressor helps you to reduce recoil, allowing you to fire quick follow-up shots in order to dispatch of your opponent as quickly and cleanly as possible. Finally, the slugs give immense firepower and range at very little cost and as such, should be used at all times except with the situations reported earlier. 

Alex Plum Teaches You How to Survive College Part 2

Here is the second installation of the Alex Plum Teaches You How to Survive College. Without much delay, let us dive into the article

6. Missing home?

Are you missing your family ? Perhaps you are missing your friends from back where you came from? Just skype with em, and make it a weekly thing which you can set a certain time where you can chat relatively face to face with everyone you love and cherish. Alternatively, you could also set up a routine you could do by yourself (or with your new friends in college) where you go do something which you commonly did back home. Routines help you focus your mind and not think too much about the people back home you love.

7. Study to learn, love what you learn

I might be young, but I am certainly not inexperienced. I have taken many intern jobs post pre-university years and I have resorted to the process of elimination to find my passion. In school I used to often wake up groggy, cursing the school day that appeared before me. I like many of my kind feel school to be chipping away at my precious time, the only way to remedy this is to find something you truly love learning, and learn to do it well. That it is, the secret to happiness and success; doing what you love.

8. Only assholes party away their parents money

Do i seriously need to tell you this? Do I really have to tell you not to get pissdrunk and drain away at your parents hard earned cash. Colleges are freaking huge investments, even to afford paying the tuition fees many families make huge sacrifices in personal time and pleasure to make sure they can send their offspring to tertiary level education in the hopes that their children will have a better life. All I'm saying is; be frugal and save where you can save. You don't have to live like a pauper but set a financial goal and keep track of your spending ( There are tons of such apps on Google Play/ Apple Store). All that money you helped save may come in handy on a rainy day.

9. Have fun, you are still young but balance is key

With that said, by all means go out once in a while. Have fun and live free after all college is a time where you learn about life. Rather than being a rancorous person, enjoy yourself at the appropriate times and make friendships that last. Yes, it is a big, bad world out there but with family and friends we will persevere and make it all work. While corporate jobs and desk careers may await you in the near future, know that you should work hard and play harder to keep a level head. It may sound contradicting to my earlier points but balance in college is something that has to be worked out individually.



College is a chapter in our lives where we supposedly learn to transition into working society. This is Alex Plum, praying that you guys out there may blossom into wonderful adults but still hold firm to your inner child. Until then, remember to eat three square meals a day and cut down on your red meat :).

Weapons of Battlefield 3: PDW-R

Hello fictional readers! Welcome back to another instalment of Weapons Of, again in the brown backgrounds and blue-tint combat zones of Battlefield 3. Today, I'll be covering a brilliant weapon, the PDW-R. Just an update on the RPK-74M, I managed to successfully master the rather difficult and inconsistent LMG, scoring five service stars and a mastery dog tag in the process. Now, on to more pleasant weaponry with the PDW-R.

Background:
The Magpul Personal Defense Rifle (PDR), called the PDW-R in-game, is a personal defense weapon (PDW) currently in development at Magpul Industries. Chambered in 5.56x45mm NATO, the PDR is an interesting PDW because it doesn't use a proprietary rifle round, although this could be due to the fact that Magpul doesn't actually have a proprietary round, unlike Heckler and Koch's MP7 which uses 4.6x30mm round or Fabrique National's P90 which is chambered in 5.7x28mm. The sleek, futuristic ultra-compact bullpup is a traditional PDW at heart though, aiming to bring immense firepower and range to its wielder in a small, manoeuvrable frame. With its ergonomic design, compatibility with standard STANAG magazines and ultra-compact frame, the PDR is definitely in a class of its own when it comes to PDW design.

(source: Wikipedia)

Statistics:

• Ammo capacity = 20 rounds (standard, +1 in the chamber during mid-mag reloads), 30 rounds (extended magazine, +1 in the chamber)
• Damage = 25 maximum dropping in a linear pattern to 14.3 minimum at 50 metres onwards
• Rate of fire = 750 RPM
• Bullet velocity = 430 m/s
• Reload times = 2.50 mid-mag, 3.40 empty

(source: Symthic)

Weapon Assessment:

This is one hell of a weapon. I don't know what it is about this gun but I've been doing fantastically well with the PDW-R scoring lots of kills with only a few deaths in return. The low recoil is remarkable, the amount of firepower you get is ridiculous and the fire rate is just perfect. Excellent in close quarters and medium-range combat, I'd recommend this weapon for most standard engagements in Rush, Conquest, TDM, SQDM or whatever game mode tickles your fancy. Although I dislike the playstyle, I found the PDW-R well-suited to running-and-gunning, it has fantastic hipfire accuracy and the reload times are really forgiving, making it well-suited for the soldier looking to race through the battlefield. The only issue I found with this weapon was that I kept running out of ammo because I kept killing so many people, even though I had squad ammo on as a specialisation.

Recommended Attachments:

• EoTech Holographic Sight 
• Laser Sight
• Extended Magazine

While the iron sights for the weapon are fairly good and since the weapon's effective range tends towards close-quarters battle, I would recommend going with the EoTech from an aesthetic perspective, as it lends itself well to the futuristic look and feel of the weapon as well as giving the player a slight zoom when aiming down sights when compared to iron sights. The PKA-S would provide the same function but unlike the EoTech, it takes up a fair amount of screen room and really detracts from the player's peripheral vision. The laser sight is to help with hipfire accuracy when you come across an enemy quite suddenly and have no time to aim down sight, a common occurrence because this weapon really lends itself well to moving quickly around the map, taking out targets on the way to the objective, or as an objective in TDM and SQDM. For the last attachment, the extended magazine is a must to balance out the weapon's fairly high rate of fire, allowing you to engage more targets without reloading constantly, which you will be doing if you stick with the standard 20-round magazine.

Alex Plum Teaches You How to Survive College Part 1

For those of you who know, there comes a time in life (providing if you are academically and financially equipped) when you are booted of to college or what we call in these parts, university. So pack your bags up and say a prayer with your family and friends cause you are gonna be gone for the next few years. However. please do not fret readers, as I am going to reveal the holy grail of the what and hows of surviving the period of life we call tertiary education. ( If you are a lucky bastard who gets to live at home and go to college, stop reading now)

1. Food is f**king expensive

Ahh food, one of 5 constituent necessities in life. 3 times a day if you have a normal appetite and a routine you will most likely follow for the rest of your miserly life. While you might have been fattened up by the ever-so-succulent home cooked meals you enjoyed in your house, I'm afraid college grub will grant any freshman a rude awakening. Chances are food in college is gonna suck real bad and it's gonna be hella expensive too. Let me explain, at home your mom cooks with love; no ingredient shortcuts and (relatively) no expense spared to provide you with a healthy and nutritious palate. In college, these people serving you food have profit margins to make and they sure aren't gonna be cooking with love for you. This is where I strongly advise to learn one of life's most pertinent skills, cooking (It will help you in college and it will help you when you have arguments with your wife). Raw food products will definitely be a whole lot more cheaper than the ready made meals in the canteens. (People who can cook also have a selective advantage when courting the opposite sex)

Here's a good place to start learning cheap ways to cook- Broke Eats
 2. Do your laundry

Clothes make the man/woman, or so they say. Just a week in college I guarantee that a mountain of used clothes will start to form in your laundry basket. The stench of dry sweat becomes unbearable; you look into your wardrobe and you are out of clean underwear. It isn't a pretty picture but it is truth. Henceforth, you would be best off organizing yourself by setting a day or two in a week when you will spend 15 minutes to do your laundry. This allows you to be efficient with your routine as well as guaranteeing clean clothes. It doesn't take too much to do laundry just some detergent, fabric softener (optional) and a washing machine.

 A good video to familiarize yourself to the rigors of laundry

3. What to bring

From experience, the most important things to brings are the most obvious culprits such as clothes (not too many though), sanitary goods, stationery, writing materials, some books, laptop, etc. While most colleges give a list of suggested items, it is advisable to ask seniors who are already in college on what to bring as they can provide you with information that took them time to learn. I for one would definitely look into bringing pots, cutlery, a rice cooker and an induction cooker. A refrigerator for fruits and eggs would also rank highly on my list. As a rule of thumb you do not really want to be bringing too much stuff ( as the rooms you will be living in will not be as large or grandiose as the ones you have at home ) so as not to clutter up your living space.

She knows what I'm talking about

4. Do your assignments the day you get 'em

Procrastination, the biggest sin of modern man. "Got something to do? It can wait until I finish this game/ movie/ comic." Get your butt in motion. You are in college now, you are supposed to know what is best for you and how to act like an adult. The best trick I learnt was to finish your assignments as fast as you get them, that way I don't have to worry about them and I do not give myself the chance to procrastinate. Do not let your deadbeat classmates convince you otherwise; do not let them coerce you into wasting your time when you could be finishing up your work. Post-assignmentsn though, you can waste how much time you want without feeling the guilt.

5. Romance can take a back seat

Every cliched Hollywood product has fucked up our generation, creating misconception after misconception and disillusioning the youth into thinking what they see in the movies and television dramas are the ideal ways to live our lives. Take that manure out of your head and listen up. College is not a time for you to party like a wild animal and wake up hung over next to a person you can't remember. College is a time where you spend looking for yourself and your true calling, you really do not need a relationship weighing you down. As a student, you can barely support yourself let alone another person. It may seem hard with all the peer pressure around you, but it is definitely something that is worth it in the end ( no heart-aches and break-ups to deal with around exam times).


This is Alex Plum with another article with the hope that this may serve you well in your own college life. I apologize for the lack of updates on my other articles, but life has gotten me pressed down like thumbtack on a soft board. Stay tuned for the 2nd part to my article and I hope you enjoy the weekend.

Weapons of Battlefield 3: RPK-74M

Welcome readers, if you exist outside my imagination, to a new series covering the various firearms that appear in various video games, mostly providing recommendations regarding the best ways of using them, particularly in the fast-paced world of modern multiplayer video games. Today we'll be covering the RPK-74M since I'm trying to get the Mastery Dog Tag for it in Battlefield 3. Hopefully, if I can scrounge up funds, I can buy a DVR and editing software to make some videos that complement the text.

Let's start with some background then move on to some basic statistics and numbers (yay, numbers!) before I give my recommended loadout. Before you go out and try my recommendation then come back screaming because it doesn't work, let me remind you I am in no way an expert or the best Battlefield player in the world. I'm an enthusiast and I recommend the loadout that works out the best for me, it might not suit your particular style of play but as an average player, I reckon it should fit most people just fine.

Background:
The RPK-74M was a product of modernisation in the Russian army during the 1970s, transitioning from the big and beefy 7.62x39mm to the relatively small 5.45x39mm, the same cartridge used in the AK-74M. This modernisation and tendency towards smaller cartridges was reflected at the same time in the rest of the world with China moving from the 7.62x39mm round towards the 5.8x42mm DBP87 round and the West moving from the 7.62x51mm NATO round towards the 5.56x45mm NATO round. In terms of design, the RPK-74M is basically an AK-74M with a longer and heavier barrel, a bipod, raised front sight as well as a special 45-round box magazine, although it can also accept the normal 30-round AK74 magazines, for better performance during sustained fire.

(source: Wikipedia)

Statistics:

• Ammo capacity = 45 rounds (+1 in the chamber when doing a mid-magazine reload)
• Damage = Maximum of 25 dropping in a linear pattern to a minimum of 18.4 from 50 metres onwards
• Fire rate = 700 RPM (rounds per minute)
• Bullet velocity = 600 m/s (metres/second)
• Reload times = 3.00 seconds with at least one round in the chamber, 4.00 seconds from empty

(source: Symthic)

Weapon Assessment:
I'm not particularly fond of the RPK as a light machine gun because it has a small magazine capacity in comparison to other weapons in the same class save the M27 IAR, meaning it has less suppressive capabilities than say the M249 or PKP Pecheneg. However, if you think of it as an assault rifle with a higher magazine capacity and utilise it in this manner, there is quite a lot to like about this gun. First of all, the recoil is relatively low, in comparison to other weapons in its class which makes this a prime candidate for accurate fire. While the comparatively small magazine might seem like a disadvantage, if you aim and use small bursts to increase your accuracy, then this becomes a potent mid-range weapon. Sustained fire isn't too bad but the problem is that you have to keep reloading unless you have extended magazines but even then, I wouldn't recommend using it like a proper LMG, you'll eat up all your ammo and waste valuable time reloading. Running and gunning with the RPK isn't a particularly good idea because the hip fire spread is all over the place and it's a little slow to bring to bear. What you want to do is move cover to cover and firing only when stationary rather than when in motion.

Recommended Attachments:

• Kobra Red Dot Sight
• Bipod
• Flash Suppressor

The Kobra RDS is probably your best choice for optics because the sight itself is relatively unintrusive and gives a much better sightline than iron sights. Compared to the other sights, this takes up the least room which means you get a clearer view of your peripherals. The bipod is excellent for when you need accurate sustained fire while remaining stationary and more useful than the foregrip which helps manage side-to-side recoil but is ultimately pointless since the side-to-side recoil is very manageable and gives you a penalty when aiming down sight. The flash suppressor provides a reduction in vertical recoil and helps mask your weapon's flash when firing, allowing you to stay visually hidden from your enemies, provided you have good cover.