Ahhh...Battlefield Vietnam...

[MinionZombie]

Decided to go somewhat "old school" (yes, 2004 ) and re-installed an old favourite - BFV. Played the sh*t outta this game back at uni - although never online, I keep my gaming rig (which is also where I do my editing and important stuff) strictly offline - any stuff that's downloaded has already been filtered through my laptop you see. Anyway, it's a damn fun game, and to be honest I was let down with BF2. The selection of maps in BF2 was definately not as good as BFV (and seemingly less of them?), but one of the main things was the aiming and damage of weapons in BF2 - BFV weapons were much more damaging and accurate - plus you could have the LAW and the M60 together. Tried updating BF2, but the game wouldn't work after attempting the patch install . Music wise too - BFV has that classic Vietnam era selection, so you can re-live your favourite 'Nam movies. You've got the M16, oh yes...and I don't know, but the enemies seem a little larger - or maybe just easier to hit (due to better accuracy and damage) in BFV than they do in BF2. I'll check out BF2142, but I ain't buyin' that sh*t after the letdown that was BF2 (it was still damn good when it was good, but it just wasn't up to BFV-level snuff)...I think I might install BF1942 again, it's been years since I played that, but I remember the weapons being a bit crap - especially the Thompson machine gun (which had the accuracy of throwing air at a needle's eye, and a hideously bad sound effect) - but just for an old school fix. Okay, bit of a Battlefield in general rant, but *meh*, big whoop, wanna fight about it?

[LouCipherr]

Yes! Actually, I loooove BF:V almost as much as the original, but the original BF1942 was my favorite - that is until they patched it 100 times and made the planes indestructable (which, of course, was stupid considering the planes were the most devistating piece of armor in the game). BF:V kicks ass - I still play it on occassion, and love the hell out of it. The simple fact that I can hop in a vehicle and listen to CCR's "Fortunate Son" while running over the enemy makes it all worthwhile. I feel like I'm really in the 'era' MZ - did you ever check out the BF1942 mod for BF:V? Where they took a few of the BF1942 maps and put them on the BF:V engine? Pretty wicked. LC

[MinionZombie]

Nah I never did get around to checking that out, I was rather lazy getting BF mods ... were there any new BFV maps put out? The 'urban' ones (like Quang Tri) are my favourites, shame they are NVA rather than American soldiers, you can only put up with "moochi loochi" and "bay-dhow-cham" or whatever else for so long. Gotta be a Yank jeep though, the "gook" jeeps (jooks? ) are sluggish lil buggers aren't they? Also - helicopters/planes - MUCH easier to control in BFV than in BF2, where it's just impossible for some bizarre reason... Get into many close spots where you find yourself switching to the pistol when in the midst of reloading your M60 and a clutch of guys come over the hill? Damn I've been in some tight spots on that game. Pinned down by stolen tanks, running dry on ammo and no way out, all I was missing was "Adagio For Strings". Likewise had many close calls in BF2, perhaps moreso as you don't have ammo/health boxes but medics and ammo guys instead, screaming "running dry, NEED ammo" over and over, but never being backed up is quite cool - as are the airstrikes when you're pickin' off enemies from a rooftop.

[LouCipherr]

yeah, BFV can get pretty hairy, but y'know, one good thing about BF2 is that it forces people to 'team play' - not like BFV online, which is filled with spawnkillers and people who will kill their own just to get a chance to fly a helicopter 20 feet then wreck it. The BFV mod for BF1942 is right on BFV's official website - worth the d/l 'cause it adds some BF1942 maps, but with the BFV engine (which = more lush environment). Pretty nifty. Oh yeah, i've been caught with my pants down so-to-speak on many a BFV map - never seemed to happen that much in the original BF1942, but in this one, yes. The gook booby-traps are pretty neat though - punji sticks? OUCH!

[MinionZombie]

I like shooting out the stick holding up the spiked logs, using them against the enemy who put them there , I've never really come across the pungi sticks before, but I never venture into ground that might carry them. A couple of times I have ... and I've grazed myself on razorwire sometimes, took me a while to figure that one out. Yeah, that's one reason I don't play online (aside from keeping my gaming machine strictly offline like I said), the n00bs and the nob-ends who act like dicks...might go and check out that 1942 mod when I get my laptop down to do some surfing/downloading tomorrow.

[LouCipherr]

Yeah, it's pretty fun that BF1942 mod, and it's an "official" mod done by Dice for BFV. Did you ever play the original BF1942? I have that and the expansion pack, "The Road to Rome" which is pretty cool, but I never dove in and bought that "Secret Weapons of WWII" expansion pack though. Dunno why, BF is one of my favorite games to this day. What I dislike the most about Battlefield 2 is that there is no single-player co-op game. I wanna play the game with a friend and the rest of the players are computer players ('cause I get sick of the idiot spawnkillers and schmucks online) but nooooooooooo, BF is stricly Multiplayer (MP) online, or not at all. Kinda irritating. In BF1942, dj and I would hop in a map on the same team with 28 computer players on our team and 30 on the opposing team so it was split evenly, 30/30.. We'd rush Omaha beach probably 3 times a night and just stomp ass..

[MinionZombie]

Sounds like you guys were having a blast. Aye, I've got BF1942 and played it a shedload back in early 2004. BFV refined a lot of issues like weapon strength, accuracy and feel, which I really liked. Like I said, BF2 reversed some of that, which was a shame. I just play the maps with the computer AI "bots", which can be FRIGGIN' moronic sometimes it drives me to distraction, the number of times I'm half way to an enemy base when the one I JUST liberated is under threat, *argh*! Will get around to that '42 mod for 'Nam sometime soon...it was weird playing the Desert maps on that game for some reason, even though the likes of COD2 have them, but it was kinda weird cos that's where my Grandad fought in WW2, one of these days I must go through the pics with my Mum (but finding an appropriate time is tricky, and to be honest since my Gran died last year - Grandad died in 1993 - we're not quite "ready" to do so, but I look forward to seeing the photos). I never got a chance to really know my Grandad (the Grandad on the other side died long before I was born), so - although he probably would have been like a lot of veterans with not wanting to relive it all, and with me being young and unaware of WW2 basically - I never got to hear any war stories or see the pics he took out in places like Africa and the Middle East... Anyway, back to BF games, yeah, it was kinda strange playing the desert levels in #42, cos I suddenly realised - wait a minute - I'm playing a videogame version of the sort of stuff my Grandad was fighting in...hmmm...

[LouCipherr]

Anyway, back to BF games, yeah, it was kinda strange playing the desert levels in #42, cos I suddenly realised - wait a minute - I'm playing a videogame version of the sort of stuff my Grandad was fighting in...hmmm... Yeah, that is kinda strange, isn't it? We're playing a "war" in video game format. Kinda creepy when you put it in that context. The "AI" bots are fun to play against, but how many times in BF1942 did you run up to an enemy, get right in their face and they just stare off into the distance? I walk right up to 'em, put a pitsol to their head and >POW< MZ, you and Dj and I are due for a BF1942 game dontcha think?

[MinionZombie]

Wish I could, but with the geography of the house I can't get the internet in my room (where my gaming computer is), as well as the fact I keep that machine strictly offline. I'd load '42 onto my laptop, but it can't run it..., maybe when my family get a new family desktop (the current one is on it's way out slowly methinks) - then I could go nuts with the online gaming, it sure would be fun to all team up against the baddy AI and whoop arse. Same for BFV.

[LouCipherr]

Yeah, that's one I have to get Dj into is BFV. He has 1942, but not Vietnam. Are you actually able to control the helicopters in BFV? Man, I've never had a good time with those things - I can usually get 'em off the ground and in the general area I want it, but landing... that's a whole diffetent story. I'll usually just bail and parachute to my destination. Well, when you get hooked up, us three have to get jacked up on some HPotD and play an all-nighter. y'know MZ, I'm starting to think you and I are the only FPS game players on here. Damn console addicts! LC

[MinionZombie]

Tell me about it, the purity that is WSAD + Mouse is being killed off by all these consolers and their damn young-kid analogue sticks (ever try sniping with those? Forget about it...). Now, back at Uni we played a shedload of Halo 2 multiplayer (I was awesome at it and was the top player in our house, muahahahaaaaa! I've got m4d 5ki11z boyeeeee). Yeh the choppers in BFV aren't too bad to control, far far faaaaarrrr better than in BF2, where it's nigh-on-impossible (same for all other aerial craft in BF2). Planes are tricky in BFV, but I find them pointless beyond a means of quick transportation. Choppers I hop in to get somewhere quick (and pretend I'm in Apocalypse Now ), when I started playing BFV again recently I was piss poor at flying them, but after a couple of accidental crashes I got the hang of it again - and aye, I just bail out near my destination and grin when the chopper plummets to the ground (with or without an AI bot inside who didn't pay attention to my "bail out!" order and decided to try and rescue the chopper from the dive I put it in). Actually, I was playing the La Drang Valley map the other day and hopped aboard the Chinook, piloted by a bot, and damn ... his skills were terrible. He ended up rocking the chopper back and forth at extreme angles until he damn near flipped it over backwards ... then he crashed into a hill after I'd bailed out. Yeah blates, when my folks finally spring for a new pootah I'm gettin' my ass online to play some games.

[LouCipherr]

Planes I don't find difficult to fly 'cause I have a Logitech Winman 3D flight stick (which stomps ass I might add, esp. because of the 'twist' rudder control) but when it comes to helis, i'm a friggin' horrible pilot! I kinda do the Apocalypse Now thing too (screaming "IF I SAY IT'S SAFE TO SURF THIS BEACH, IT'S SAFE TO SURF THIS BEACH!" ) and just fly to where I need to and bail. Oh, and the AI is HORRIBLE at flyinging in BFV - I've watched the bots fly helis in circles until they crash, fly straight into things, etc. Comical to watch when it's the other team crashing, but heartbreaking and frustrating when it's your teams AI doing the horrible flying. ...and ditto about playing a FPS on a console. I can't understand why they would even bother with designing a FPS on a console. I watched a friend of mine playing "Hitman: Contracts" the other day trying to snipe people using analog sticks - it was comical to watch!! He couldn't get a bead on anyone to save his life! If I had my mouse and keyboard, he would've been dead inside of 2 seconds..

[MinionZombie]

Ah Hitman: Contracts - LOVE that game, Blood Money was also friggin' awesome - and yep, the perils of analogue stick sniping , piss poor showing is standard. Playing Halo 2 on Xbox back at uni I'd stick to rocket launchers and the machine gun - and the sword (mainly) - while the second best player in the house (who is the major Delta Force 2 nut) insisted on sniping as much as possible - handy when he was on your double-team, but annoying when he was on a roll with it. I tried sniping and it was hideously bad, if I'd been on a mouse for that I'd have slain big style, my mouse operated sniping is killer... 3rd person shooters/actioners - another style of game that requires a mouse and keyboard, the prospect of doing Splinter Cell on a console is beyond me, and you get better resolutions on PC ... or at least did, but still can if you've got the muscle to back up 1280x1024 (and beyond) resolutions.

[LouCipherr]

My son plays Splinter Cell on his Xbox, although I have no friggin' idea how it does it. Were you ever into any other FPS games like Quake, Doom, Unreal Tournament, etc? Y'know I used to hate FPS games until a friend of mine got me to play BF1942 and from there it was all over. I picked up Quake 4, DOom 3, Unreal Tournament 2k4, and it's been no looking back ever since.

[MinionZombie]

Are you kidding me ... I'm an epic fan of FPS gaming. Ones that spring to mind that I've played and/or own: Doom series (have Doom 3 and the Resurrection of Evil add-on) Painkiller Half Life 1 and 2 (and Episode One so far) FarCry (if you ain't played it, get it, soooo pretty) SWAT 4 (EXCELLENT game, you'll forever want to open your front door with C4 only after this great game) Quake 1 and 4 (played some of 2, have 3 but never really played it) Outlaws (old school Lucas Arts western game) Redneck Rampage and Redneck Rampage: Rides Again Battlefield: 1942 ... Battlefield: Vietnam ... Battlefield 2 I've got STALKER on pre-order (and have had since late 2004!) and there's a few more that I forget... OOH! Medal of Honor: Allied Assault ... and ... Pacific Assault Call of Duty, Call of Duty: United Offensive, Call of Duty 2 Brothers In Arms: Road To Hill 30 Unreal Tournament 2003 Halo Yeah, I'm very much into FPS gaming. I play the odd driving game (like Carmageddon or Colin McRae Rally - Project Gotham Racing, when I get the chance - as well as the likes of Need For Speed Underground 1 & 2), also have been known to play Tony Hawk's Underground 2, also "do" 3rd peson action games - Splinter Cell series (sadly I cancelled the pre-order for Double Agent when I saw the requirements ), Max Payne 1 & 2, the GTA games as well of course. And a puzzle/adventure game also - Grim Fandango (excellent old school Lucas Arts game). Yeah FPS shooters are my favourite, then 3rd person actioners. I re-installed BF1942 last night too, was playing it till past 1am. Trouble with going backwards in a franchise is missing the improvements that have been made, but it's fun to go back and re-live my end of 2003/early 2004 gaming vibe ... I held that damned Windmill as long as I could with litte-to-no backup from anyone, but sadly I was forced to retreat...