Feel the power

Tuesday's a news day

□ The aforementioned Homefront patch is, at first blush, working quite well.  The sniper nerf is probably going to marginalize the M200+thermal optics+4x zoom sluts, but from what I've seen so far, you're still going to fall to the M110+3x zoom with roughly the same regularity.  The two semi-auto shots to center mass remain deadly, and those nifty thermal goggles are still an option.

It appears that the devs have stabilized the framerates a bit, which should make (some) people happy.  I for one, am relieved that they didn't tinker with the ACR.  It's still the best weapon in the game.

□ Crysis 2 also has a patch (1.2.0.0), which sports some minor fixes.  The anti-cheat measures are supposed to be improved, but give it a week.  

There's also a note to Steam users:  "Steam users will experience some prolonged loading times in this patch for which we apologise. We will update the Steam build in the next few days to resolve this issue."

□ The next Black Ops DLC has been announced prematurely.  The promotional graphic, viewable on VG247, shows a May 5 release date (edit:  this version of the poster has more character).  The new content will include four MP maps and one zombie map.  It's a safe bet this means the release of the mod tools will be pushed into June.

□ Battlefield Play 4 Free is now live.  It's not clear whether the micro-transaction system means that you'll have to buy kit to enjoy the game.

Expect some bugs.  Or many.

□ The PC Alliance has announced that the PC will again be the top gaming platform.  It's a nice thought, but I don't buy some of their arguments.

We can hope:

'The spotlight has absolutely shifted back to PC gaming,' said Matt Ployhar, PCGA president and Intel graphics planner. 'I don't believe this phenomenon is going to slow down. A good portion of the companies that are flush with cash right now are coming from abroad, which largely ties in with my postulation about globalization spilling over into the PC gaming ecosystem.'  

'Investment dollars are also shifting back largely in favour of PC gaming for a variety of reasons. Most of this is tied to the profitability margins largely favouring PC gaming for the game developers themselves. For example, 'free to play' and micro transactions, practically no secondary sales market, and the shift to digital distribution to name just a few.' 

□ Finally, there's a Morrowind mod out there that will blow your doors off:

I never played Morrowind, but I did run through Oblivion once.  I don't remember the latter having landscapes with that kind of artistry.

Homefront 1.0.3 patch is live

From homefront-game.com:

The latest patch is now available on Steam and will be downloaded the next time you start Homefront.

FEATURES

Ban list rework

·         We now store two separate ban lists on servers; a local ban list, and a global ban list. The local ban list is for bans that originate on the server (via kickbans, etc). The global ban list is for bans that are initiated by a trusted ban list authority. The ban lists store the date of ban, the name of the admin who initiated the ban, the reason for the ban, and a URL field for any relevant ban evidence (demos etc).

New Feature – DEMO URL

·         A DemoURL can now be specified in the server playlist, this is used to indicate the location of stored demo files to user’s in-game (see the multiplayer options screen). A good practice for server admins would be to share the demo folder via FTP, this would allow users to grab demos of games they starred in, and also (very importantly!) allow users and anti-cheat authorities to download evidence for cheat reporting. Incidentally, it is now possible to dump all users unique steamID's from both in-game, and in-demos to the console or text file (this will make reporting abusive players and enforcing bans incredibly easy).

GAME BALANCE

·         RPG's now deal additional damage to HMMWV's.

·         Lowered m200 and m110 sniper rifle damages. The only 1 shot possible is now headshots.

·         Flak jacket now has a lower BP cost, and a slight effectiveness buff.

·         Diablo damage adjusted.

·         Weapon is taken out of ADS and accuracy decreases when jumping.

OPTIMIZATIONS & FIXES

·         The Rhino drones weapon attachment was not being properly moved with the Rhino drone on dedicated servers, causing the rockets to fire incorrectly. This is now fixed.

·         We have added some animation optimizations for large player games.

·         Several UI related improvements were added for large player games.

·         Fixed scaling text zooming on Battle Commander when opening up the battle chat or squad UI.

·         Switched the buttons around on the load out rename confirmation dialog to better abide by conventions.

·         Improved SLI/CrossFireX support.

·         A few reported issues with WinXP 64 bit edition have been addressed.

·         Improved menu navigation with analogue controls.

GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS

·         User feedback for kicks and bans has been improved.

·         The intermission lobby now displays clan tags.

·         Text chat is now possible in the kill cam, spawn selection, and intermission lobby screens.

NEW SETTINGS & CONTROL OPTIONS

·         EnableD3D10/11 is now accessible via the system settings menu.

·         Mouse acceleration is now accessible via the controls menu.

·         Mouse smoothing is now accessible via the controls menu.