ROHOS: a question of FOV

The gates to Red Orchestra: Heroes of Stalingrad have been thrown wide. That means you can download it from Steam right now, people. Many players reported that the beta performed much better after the most recent (September 8) patch, so we can hope that the full game will be in fair working order this evening. 

Do note, however, that Tripwire has rolled-back support for horizontal fields of view ("hFOV") other than 75 degrees for the release build. That does not mean you won't be able to set your own hFOV, but it does mean you might have problems if you choose to tinker with that particular setting.  Note also that the 75 hFOV applies only to 4:3 aspect ratio monitors.  On a 16:9 setup, the view angle equates to somewhere between 85 and 91. Eyefinity users should be able to get 120 degrees or better.

Tripwire's Ramm-Jaeger explained the decision on the dev's official forums:

I'll reiterate and expand on what Yoshiro said. The ability to adjust the FOV between 70-90, as well as the ability to set different FOV zoom for ironsights were features that were added very late in the dev. Mostly I did it as a personal favor to Zetsumei, and I stayed late one nite and worked til almost 2 in the morning one evening to get those features added into the game (unplanned and unscheduled features). Both of the features ended up causing a lot of bugs. We spent a LOT of time trying to fix the bugs (too much time to be honest) and decided to pull official support for these last minute features.  

The game was developed for 5 years with a default FOV of 70 (on a 4:3 monitor, which is actually 80+ FOV on a widescreen monitor, which is pretty close to the FOV of Ostfront). After testing with 90 we discovered it caused a lot MORE clipping issues (yes there are a few remaining clipping issues at 70 degrees, but they are FAR worse at 90). They were bad enough we felt we couldn't officially support them for shipping, and there wasn't time to fix bugs in an unplanned feature. The ability to set an FOV up to 90 will likely return post release after we fix the clipping issues with it. It will also include an "are you sure you want to do this, you may get bad performance" warning when you set your FOV that high.  

Regarding the weapon zoom settings, those don't have any exploitative benefits, but they also don't work 100%. So we took them out of the settings menu, but left the functionality in game. So those of you that still want to use them, feel free to set them up in your ini, they will still work. But because of the issues with them, we can't officially support them right now. And as this was an unplanned feature, we didn't have time to fix ALL of the bugs with them. Essentially, if your monitor is set to certain resolutions (5:4 for example) it could still cause your aim to get off. Now those of you that are willing to take the risk, feel free to edit the inis. In the future we'll likely fix the remaining bugs with the system, and add the settings back to the menu.  

In summary, these were last minute features that I BUSTED MY REAR to try and get it. They just didn't quite make the cut for tommorow, but will be back in the future.

Enjoy.

The cascade continues

Ed. note: this post is a follow-up to "The Space Barbie Failure Cascade," published on this blog on June 25.

Not three months ago, the looming specter of "pay-to-win" mechanics provoked a player riot in Eve Online. The Council of Stellar Management (CSM) flew to CCP's headquarters in Iceland, ultimately receiving assurances from the developer that so-called "gold ammo" would never find its way into the MMO. The most visible result of the conference was this video, which CCP apparently hoped would bring an end to the Incarna scandal.

Of course, it didn't. Eve's player base continues to shrink, and it seems Incarna has the dubious distinction of being the first Eve expansion to fail to increase the game's "Peak Concurrent Users" even temporarily.

Now begins the anti-CCP public relations blitz over the developer's neglect of its flagship game. It started in earnest with a long diatribe* by Alexander Gianturco (a.k.a. "The Mittani") on Kugutsumen.com, and continues with this Eurogamer interview with the same. Gianturco is the Chairman of the CSM, and a leader of Goonswarm, arguably the most powerful alliance in Eve. Love him or hate him, the man has real influence.

* Readers interested only in the subject matter of this post may want to skip to the section entitled "The CSM, PCUs and FiS Neglect" (FiS = Flying in Space).

A couple of choice quotes from the diatribe:

In other areas, particularly upper management, the company seems hell-bent on running Eve Online into the ground to try to make a reality out of the foolish business decisions they made during the Icelandic banking bubble. In 2006 they acquired White Wolf and promised to develop a World of Darkness MMO; similarly, they committed to developing a FPS that will somehow link to EVE out of Shanghai. Then the bubble popped, and everyone began to ask tough questions about the notorious overconfidence of Icelandic males. One of these projects at a time seems reasonable; developing both of them simultaneously is 'Fearless' and 'Innovative' using Hilmar's favorite buzzwords. Elsewhere we call it groupthink-fueled folly [...] 

What we see here is the impact of the neglect of what CCP now calls "Flying in Space", what you and I call "Eve Online". Usually after an expansion there is a surge of players who join the game; these create peaks and valleys in PCU (Peak Concurrent User) numbers as people kick the tires on the new content and then either stick around or leave. Incarna, which has taken a tremendous amount of development and marketing resources from FiS, essentially had no impact.  

Read that again. No impact. Millions of dollars and months of development, into a toilet. Meanwhile we suffer a backhanded Sanctum nerf and have had no new FiS content besides Incursions since the introduction of Wormholes.

In the Eurogamer interview, Gianturco says his views are "100 per cent representative of the Council members."

Incarna still isn't finished, and the CSM thinks that and the general absence of new content in Eve is due to declining resource allocation in favor of Dust and World of Darkness. That's a tough pill to swallow when you're a player forking over a monthly subscription fee.

Eve Online's idiosyncrasies don't end at its emergent gameplay and unitary economy. It has given birth to an omnipresent and somewhat peculiar politics as well. CCP has never been able to control the latter, and I'm betting that their "media strategy" is going to be humbled before that of the CSM.

It will be fun to watch.

Dead Island: early reviews

Ed. note: PC reviews for Dead Island are hard to come by. All the words that follow are about the console versions. The game is due for release tomorrow (June 6).

Start with Dan Whitehead's review on Eurogamer. Of all the reviews in this post, his is the most informative.  The conclusion:

I didn't encounter anything game-breaking in the 26 and a bit hours it took to complete the story solo, or during my forays into co-op play, but it would still be all too tempting to fill this review with complaints about the flaky game engine, the weird floating objects and distracting animation spasms, and annoying glitches like inactive quest points, inconsistent navigation markers and the general air of a scrappy half-finished game. All that stuff is in here, and can easily dominate the experience. 

I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the experience though. Dead Island is a deeply flawed game, but it's also clearly a low-budget game and one that has interesting ideas, often under-served by the bargain-basement code. Finding the diamonds in the rough demands a lot of patience, and enough investment in the base joys of zombie slaughter to tolerate the laundry list of flaws. 

I suspect this will be one of those games that will be justifiably mocked by the majority for its many flaws but embraced by a forgiving minority, and passionately defended for its underdog status. Neither response will be entirely wrong. Much like gnawing on human flesh, Dead Island's clumsy horror-action role-player is the definition of an acquired taste.

IGN has the only video review I could find (GameTrailers has one posted, but it wasn't working at press time). IGN's reviews are generally garbage -- and Greg Miller's is no exception -- but you will get to see some of the texture pop-in everyone's talking about. Note that you have to have a YouTube account to watch it, due the age restriction.

GamesTM has a short review with one worthwhile quote:

Aspects of Fallout 3, Resident Evil, Far Cry 2, Borderlands (and many more) litter its design, in ways that would reduce a whack-by-whack review down to a comparative shopping list of features. But even still, it somehow still manages to moan with its own zombified voice, with a system of exploration, quest accumulation and bespoke weapon upgrading that somehow combines well with the simple act of driving over a procession of the undead in a van so heavily decked out in armour that you can barely see out the front window. Furthermore, Techland ramps its character levelling almost perfectly, as feeble weapons give way to heavier duty, home-tooled monstrosities, and the spreading mutation introduces new types of zombie and even more powerful versions of the blade fodder you’ve already encountered. At its best – say, taking three zombies’ heads off with a single swing of the arm – it’s a hugely empowering experience.

Justin McElroy at Joystiq offers a mostly negative review. A few of his caveats deserve consideration:

* The game encourages you to throw weapons, but doing so risks accidentally tossing your prize into an area you can't retrieve it or under a pile of bodies where it's similarly inaccessible. Plus, when you're on the run from too many zombies to handle, throwing a weapon is basically saying goodbye to it forever. Another whole system that should be fun, but isn't. 

* [Y]ou'll almost always use disintegrating melee weapons and the only way to stay ahead of the curve of weapon loss and degradation is by being thorough with your looting. Entering pretty much any room in the game presents you with 10 to 15 areas to search, usually yielding a bit of wire, deodorant (or some other random trinket) or a couple of bucks. When you do find a weapon -- since your inventory will almost always be full -- you'll have to meticulously compare it to every other weapon in your possession. When entering any room is marked by rifling through seven trash cans and comparing the durability stats between two hammers, pacing is ... a problem. Oh, and did I mention the searchables replenish themselves, so you get to frequently repeat this banal dance? Whee! 

* Your occasional AI partners are beyond stupid, thinking nothing of walking into a Molotov cocktail fire, for example. At least twice I had to restart because an AI guide had lost his pathing and couldn't complete the mission. In another instance, my partner wanted us to run from the zombies, only she wasn't running fast enough to outpace them, so we just kept getting eaten.

Jim Sterling has a helpful analysis at Destructoid, which features this study in contradiction:

Ultimately, this is a Techland game that looks just like a Techland game. The glitches, the low quality graphics, and the bizarre gameplay issues that are hampered by broken animation and temperamental collission detection scream of a game that needed at least a few more months of development. To say Dead Island is rough is to be diplomatic. It is, in many ways, a severely broken mess.  

Yet ... it's a fun broken mess, at its most ultimate conclusion. So much about Dead Island doesn't work, but its ambitious concept is so earnestly presented and its loot-heavy character progression so addictive, that it somehow manages to get away with a laundry list of problems that ought not to be forgiven. I hate Dead Island, yet I adore it at the same time. Its combat irritates the shit out of me, yet I created a knife that has a 75% chance of making heads explode with one stab! Co-op is obnoxiously restrictive, yet I can't help jumping into games because taking out zombies in groups is so cool. Its story is inane and pointless, yet I found a bonus enemy in the jungle with a hockey mask -- called Jason -- who had a secret chainsaw in his cabin. Dead Island is the kind of game that mercilessly punches you in the gut with one hand and gives you a slice of birthday cake with the other. 

And of course, there's a day one patch, with an enormous changelog.

RO2 beta update

September 2 changelog, from Ramm-Jaeger on Tripwire's forums:

We're going to be rolling an update to the beta out shortly. Here is the changelog for your perusal: 

- Turned on Speedhack detection and added a system to allow server admins to decide what to do with a player when they are detected using a speedhack (kick, session ban, or permanent ban).  

- Fixed PreStartDuration not working properly which caused the round to start prematurely after a map change.  

- Fixed getting stuck with a zoomed FOV when using grenades 

- Added ability to turn off anti-aliasing 

- Fixed floating meshes when a player dies 

- Fixed destructibles not updating their shadows when destroyed 

- Fixed DOF inside tanks 

- The ranked server system is now operational 

- Player progression stats are now saving and loading 

- Unranked servers are now showing up as unranked in the browser 

- Realism modes are hooked up and functional 

- Killing a tank now gives extra points based on the number of players in the tank 

- New map list: Gumrak, Grain Elevator, Barracks, Red October Factory 

- Team balance changes. Commanders and top scoring players no longer get team swapped on death. The role select menu will not appear immediately to make it more obvious that you have died. Also, fixed a bug where an axis soldier could spawn on the allied team or vice versa. 

- Fixed some HUD icons sticking around on the screen 

- Fixed Countdown ending with time still on the clock 

- Fixed automatically firing your weapon sometimes when respawning 

- Fixed some issues with scoring in Firefight and prevented running out of reinforcements in this game type 

- F10 will now cancel a pending server connection properly when stuck on a loading screen 

Oops, missed one thing: 

- Fixed the Welcome Screen editor in webadmin making the welcome screen text invisible in game

Enter the Scumbags

Yes, Red Orchestra 2 is an Unreal Engine game, and yes, that means working hack prototypes are already out there. But no, this does not portend disaster (as it did with Homefront).

Tripwire's Ramm-Jaeger posted on the official forums earlier today to assure everyone that they're not only on it, but that they planned for it:

So I'll start this post with my usual - calm down, step back, take a deep breath. See, don't you feel better already?  

So I've seen a lot of buzz and panic about cheats starting to appear in the beta. First I would say this - don't panic. This is to be expected, and has been planned for. We've prepared for this and knew it would happen all along.  

Anti-Cheat - This is exactly why we've got the dual anti-cheats of VAC and PB. VAC as you all know uses a delayed banning system, while PB detects and kicks on the spot. Between these two RO2 will be one of the best well protected games at launch. Right now Punkbuster hasn't been enabled yet, and will be coming online during the course of the beta.  

So what about the cheats that "fall through the cracks" so to speak. This is where two very powerful additional tools come into play: PBBans and Server Admins! 

PBBans - PBBans has a system which allows streaming of a master ban list. As cheats are caught through PunkBuster violations, screenshots or demos, they are added to the Master Ban Index (MBi). So admins catching someone cheating on their servers can submit screenshots or video to PBBans and get the cheater banned. In this way, even cheaters using cheats that "fall through the cracks" will find themselves banned.  

Server Admins - an active server admin is a powerful tool against cheating. "But other games have active server admins, and they got overrun with cheaters" you might say. The difference is, Tripwire are giving the server admins the tools they need to combat the cheaters such as Punkbuster and PBBans. So unlike many other recently released games, RO2's server admins hands will not be tied when it comes to cheaters, and they have some weapons at their disposal to combat them.  

An active dev team - another very important tool in combating cheats is an active dev team. Many recent games have come out and been overrun by cheats while the dev team did little or nothing. As we have done in the past, Tripwire will be leaning forward on this and extremely active in combating cheats. An example of this is some cheating that we started noticing yesterday which is known as "speed-hacking". Later today, just 24 hours later, we should be releasing an update that combats this type of hacking.  

You - the final important component of this is YOU, the player and fan. If you have any information on any new or existing hacks for the game, private message the information Yoshiro or one of the moderators on this forum. DO NOT post the information in the open. You all can help be our eyes and ears to combat this issue.  

So in conclusion I ask you all to be calm and work with us to help combat hacking. Hacking and hackers are an ever moving target, and very difficult to eliminate completely. But together with you the fans and all of the weapons at our disposal we will marginalize and reduce hacking in RO2 to the point where it is barely a factor. Likewise we will do everything in our power to frustrate the efforts of hack makers and hackers to the point where they find it is not worth the effort.

Twilight Zone

Did I wake up in the Twilight Zone today? I was reading the Battlefield3Blog and noticed the banner ad at the top of the page.

Yes, ladies, that's an advert for a Fingerhut credit account, where today's top offer is 25% off T-Fal cookware. Don't forget to order some diapers and bras while you're at it.

Terraria

Steam knows what you play. It knows what you want to play that's similar. In fact, based on the fact I play Left4Dead2 it suggests.... Terraria. Because it's a FPS. Wait, because it's in 3D! Wait, because it uses the Source engine. Well crap, WTF?

From Dust, to distrust

You may read the whole article: War on PC gamers continues: Ubisoft misled on From Dust DRM

... or you may satisfy yourself with the money quote:

The game was scheduled to be released alongside its console counterpart, but it was delayed at the last moment, with Ubisoft promising that it would not require an Internet connection to play after an initial activation. The game was finally released and... guess what? Ubisoft lied. The original forum post has been edited with the new information, the company is stone-walling fans and the press who ask for comment, and no one is happy. Oh, and the port is absolutely terrible.

And of course, the game has already been cracked. The pirates get a better deal than the paying customers, once again.

Dearest Ubisoft: I will always cherish the initial misconceptions I had about you.

f*ck

This, folks, is why you don't pre-order.

As originally reported at bf3blog.com, the console versions of BF3 will feature an in-game server browser, while the PC version will not. You read that correctly.

DICE has confirmed that PC players will have to connect to servers through a separate application called Battlelog. DICE's Alan Kurtz (@Demize99) has tweeted his recommendation that, instead of Alt+Tabbing to access Battlelog, you should restart the game. Because it loads so quickly.

You just cannot make this shit up.

UPDATE:  according to Eurogamer, Mr. Kurtz has said that Battlelog is the whole main menu for BF3. But it's still a separate application. And it's not Origin, so that's three separate applications to log in, pick a server, and play.

SHADES OF UBISOFT UPDATE: if Battlelog is the main menu, and it is web dependent (as it appears to be a website + browser plugin), will you be able to play the single player if you don't have web access?

PEANUT GALLERY UPDATE: several commenters on the aforementioned Eurogamer article, and on this RPS post, seem to love the new system.

BF3 pre-order packages

Editor's note:  we do not recommend pre-ordering any game, even though we've made that mistake many, many times.

From ea.com:

There are a number of pre-order offers for Battlefield 3 available now or soon to be available. Some countries have already announced their offers, while others will follow. Your best bet is to check in regularly with your favourite retailer/digital download service.

By the beginning of August, you should be able to find all of these items where they are supposed to be available. Here is what they all are and how to get them.

BREAKDOWN OF PRE-ORDER INCENTIVES FOR BATTLEFIELD 3

Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand

What it is: An entire themed expansion pack the size of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam.

Where to get: You will be eligible to download this expansion pack (once it is released) if you pre-order Battlefield 3: Limited Edition at any retailer all over the world.

Available: Release date of Back to Karkand TBC. This expansion pack is not on the disc and is not available day one.

Value: At no extra charge with every pre-order of Battlefield 3: Limited Edition. You will be able to buy it separately if you don't pre-order (date and price TBC).

More info: In this blog post. More to come.

Physical Warfare Pack

What it is: A set of three time-based exclusive items and one early weapon unlock for Battlefield 3.

Where to get: At select retailers all over the world when you pre-order Battlefield 3: Limited Edition.

Available: Day 1 if you pre-order. If you do not pre-order, you will get access to this content at no extra charge at a later date.

Value: At no extra charge with your pre-order at select retailers.

More info: In this blog post.

SPECACT Kit Upgrade

What it is: A set of 8 multiplayer skins, one for each class and side in Battlefield 3.

Where to get: At select retailers all over the world when you pre-order Battlefield 3: Limited Edition.

Available: Day 1.

Value: At no extra charge with your pre-order at select retailers.

Dog Tag Pack

What it is: A set of 5 unique in-game dog tags to choose from. Dog tags in Battlefield 3 serve as your in-game signature, displayed on screen every time you defeat an enemy. You can also claim the dog tag of your enemies via skillful stealth knife takedowns. This pre-order exclusive pack gives you 5 unique dog tag designs to complement the standard range in the game.

Where to get: At select retailers all over the world when you pre-order Battlefield 3: Limited Edition.

Available: Day 1.

Value: At no extra charge with your pre-order at select retailers.

Avatar Battlefield 3 Gear

What it is: Battlefield 3 gear for your Xbox 360 avatar.

Where to get: At select retailers all over the world when you pre-order Battlefield 3: Limited Edition.

Available: Day 1.

Value: At no extra charge with your pre-order at select retailers.

Shotgun and Beret for Battlefield Play4Free

What it is: An 870S shotgun and a beret for in-game use in our play-for-free title Battlefield Play4Free.

Where to get: By pre-ordering Battlefield 3: Limited Edition on Origin.

Available: Day 1.

Value: At no extra charge with your pre-order on Origin.

More info: In this blog post.