Granted, I’m a little late on joining that bandwagon, as the game hit shelves on September 30, 2011. It was, to me, one of those titles where I kept thinking “yeah, yeah … I’ll get to it.” What with Gears of War 3, Battlefield 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Need for Speed: The Run, Batman: Arkham City, et al, I kept pushing it to the back burner. I mean, with the blitz of great games hitting the market in the back half of 2011, can you blame me?

Speaking of blitzes, the lure of the playoffs and impending Super Bowl then had me pick up a copy of Madden NFL 12. A decent enough game, mind you, but nothing that sunk its teeth into me.

Then, I finally ordered a copy of FIFA 12 (after debating a bit on that title versus Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer 12).

Wow.

Bear in mind it’s been several years since I played a Euro football game (and I mean several years, as in on the original XBOX with a “Duke” controller). But FIFA 12 has me hooked (at least, right now) just as hard as MW3, and I’ve prestiged there twice already in multiplayer. There is just so freaking much to do. From exhibition matches with any of, like, the thousand teams in the game, to online head-to-head “friendlies,” to creating a pro player and making a career to managing a team through a franchise to playing live seasons online and (finally) the FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT). I’m almost lost even at the menu there’s so much to do and see.

Now, EA can tout all they want about how they’re “going green” and saving the planet by not printing a manual in their games anymore. Rubbish, I say. They aren’t charging less for the game and passing the savings along. They are squeezing more profit margins, pure and simple. And after several years away from sports games as a whole, I am in dire damn need of a manual (or a decent strategy guide there Prima or Brady … I’m looking at you) to better find my way around the menus for one, and the pitch for another. I’m certain, still after playing the game for a few weeks, that there are whole features or modes I don’t even know about or haven’t tried. And, the in-game manual found in the menus is (to me) sparse.

But maybe I’m at a loss for a manual just because I’m so joyously overwhelmed by the magnitude of the game. I’ve read several online articles about this new collision engine and the new tactical defending system. Both seem like good innovations compared to what was in game previously, but that’s only in a theoretical sense to me since I didn’t play the title for the last five years. I’ve not even delved more than my toes into the seasons or franchises (online or off). My real time sink so far has been FUT.

FUT is like crack. It wraps up all the gameplay goodness of the game, and adds in this diabolical trading card mechanic to the mix (buy or trade or auction player cards, manager cards, etc to build a team/squad and play with them online). Even just collecting the cards and building squads is devilishly fun.

To say the interface is slick is an understatement. It’s so slick that, in fact, a newcomer like myself sees it like a parade of Ferraris going 90mph past you – yes, I saw something and it caught my eye and looked awesome but I didn’t get a long look at … ohh, there’s another one. Get my point?

Normally the sheen of a new game wears off in a few hours so you can get down to brass tacks and plow headlong into the game. I’ve put a number of days (outside FUT) into the thing and still feel like I can’t see past the wow-factor to get to the game proper. Now, that’s not a bad thing in the slightest. But I won’t call this a “review” in any sense because I feel like I’m still playing with the damn bubble wrap and haven’t even gotten into the package yet.

Or, maybe it’s because FUT is so blamed intoxicating that I can’t tear myself away from it to explore the rest of the game!

When I tell someone I will do something, I do it. I am a man of my word. When I tell someone I won’t do something, I don’t do it. I am a man of my word. When I tell someone I will “be there” at a certain time, I am there at that time. I am a man of my word.

See a trend here?

When a company tells me something, they are making a “promise.” They are entering an oral (or, in the electronic age and websites with information galore, a written) contract. I am paying you hard-earned money, and I expect you to deliver on your promises in return. You have my money, don’t you? Yes. Now deliver.

UPS states (or rather, paid some ad firm a grotesque sum of money to engineer) their new slogan is “We <3 logistics.”

Bull.

You don’t know the first thing about logistics. I’m now of the opinion you couldn’t find water if you fell out of a boat in a rainstorm. You tell me you “<3 logistics” and that you will deliver a package on a certain day (but no clue of the time).

FedEx can manage to find my residence. The United States Postal Service has been successful in locating me for the past six consecutive years. But you, in all your supposed love of logistics, can’t seem to get it right and deliver a package when you tell me you will (and when I pay you to do so). Let’s look at today’s shining example:

Their site has, as of 8:22 PM, “updated” to state the new expected delivery of tomorrow. But, they claim it’s still “on time.” Right. By the “end of the day” to me means prior to my son’s bedtime. And this  day, not just any day this week.

Still not convinced that UPS needs a crash course in logistics? Fine. Let’s take a look at a shipment from October of last year:

An “exception?” Seriously? I’d submit that a 1,046 mile mistake is more than an “exception.” Google Maps claims that’s an average 18 hours and 20-some minutes of continuous drive time. I’ll let your mind conjure the appropriate explicatives to correctly label the situation. So, UPS, if you “<3 logistics” then Y U NO USE THEM? I love logistics. Supply lines, data, streaming of information, keeping my peas out of my mashed potatoes and gravy, all that jazz. This, my dear readers, ain’t logistics. It is the lack thereof.

UPS is welcome to contact me for lessons in logistics. I believe my five-year old son can schedule a time to teach you.

Even in the game (when things are pretty hectic), I watched it unfold in disbelief (I had to move my gun to the side just to watch it all … I was sure my teammate was going to eventually get the kill). Also, this clip showcases the sound of a headshot very well. So spend the next 20 seconds with this clip and learn yourself a little something. Learn to look around. Look up, look down, and for the love of Pete look at your mini-map. Learn not to do it wrong.

And yes, I slowed the video down considerably in making it in an effort to make it easier to watch. The gameplay was about 2x the speed you see here.

On a side note, the Theater mode on MW3 is still crazy ghetto when trying to create vids … the times and view angles never seem to match up and it’s very frustrating. Please fix, IW.

One of my favorite current commentators is IGN’s bobbya1984 – Bobby Amos. He has some mad skills, he does it right, and his commentary is pretty funny. I thoroughly enjoy watching his shows, as he gives prime examples of how people do it wrong in MW3.

For example, take a gander at the below clip that I bookmarked at a particularly insightful (and humorous) point:

You can follow him on Twitter, or subscribe to his YouTube channel.

The gorilla in the room, however, is the fledgling studio Beachhead Studios and it’s little bastard child ELITE. Launch day for MW3 multi-player was fairly smooth. ELITE launch was Charlie Foxtrot. It was broken for the first week. It was crippled for the next two weeks. And, it’s still crippled a month later. Let’s look at the highlights of the current situation:

• PC version still doesn’t exist
• Mobile app version still doesn’t exist
• Theater is broken for the most part, with users not seeing their uploaded videos or (worse) seeing them uploaded to another user’s account (especially on YouTube)
• Facebook integration and logins are sketchy
• Accounts are often scrambled after logins, where two different users are directed to the same ELITE account
• Founder status is a joke

The Founder status was supposed to be something “special,” or at least, something more than marketing hype. It was something for those that took the blind leap of faith, that were willing to endure the fiasco and pledge support from the beginning.

Activision, in their infinite wisdom, keep extending the “deadline” to sign up for Founder status. That tells me two things: 1) Activision didn’t have nearly the numbers of Premium sign ups they anticipated, and 2) Activision doesn’t care one iota about those that already signed up (and forked over $49.99 US for a year). By extending the “deadline” (twice, now), they are diluting the very essence of being a Founder. Can those that show up to the party after more than a month really be considered part of a group that “founded” anything? Seems to me as though they get the privileges without the risks of a new endeavor.

ELITE TV content is lacking, to say the least. And speaking of content, let’s bring up the issue of expectations when making promises. No, I’m not talking about promises of something actually working from Day One (or, Day Thirty-One). DLC. When you state ‘give me your money, and I’ll give you monthly DLC in return,’ you make a commitment. Forza 4 delivered it for their Season Pass holders. Same with Gears of War 3. MW3? No – they seem to believe they are ‘exempt.’ They will deliver monthly DLC starting in 2012. Maybe.

We’re still waiting for the delivered promises of launch. This is what happens when you hire a brand new firm with no previous history of success for a massive project like Call of Duty. Beachhead has skilled employees … at least, they were skilled in their previous endeavors with previous employers. But as a studio, Beachhead Studio, they have not done anything before ELITE. And with this performance, I’d be hard-pressed to see them land future gigs.

Color me jaded: I’m not seeing my money’s worth from the ELITE nonsense. It looked good on paper, but implementation has been sour. And being a “Founder” means little to nothing.

Bear in mind this post will deal solely with the single player campaign. I say “campaign” and not Story Mode for a specific reason. To me, a Story Mode is supposed to … well, tell a story. Battlefield 3 told something. I’m still not sure what, and I’m looking at it from the back end after the fact. At first, I thought perhaps the story was slow to start itself. Then, I thought maybe I was having a difficult time understanding the story due to the fact I kept having to repeat the same grueling checkpoint over and over due to cheap AI and poor level/game design.

The story ended up being incongruent, even with itself. I was forced to do things (***SPOILER ALERT***) like shoot an American soldier and commanding officer (as an American soldier) and have no idea why. Was it to create tension? To draw attention to some drama unfolding in real world politics? The world (or, at least I) may never know. All it did was draw out confusion in me. After all was said and done, the only things I remember were that there were some bombs, some went missing, they were going to be detonated, I finally found them. Truly, game-of-the-year potential of masterfully plot crafting there. <./sarcasm>

And let’s delve a little further into this notion of poor level/game design: All I have to do is point to the level Night Shift. Great song by the Commodores, shoddy design by DICE. Objectives that were clear as tar-infused mud, and they opted for the “increased AI difficulty” by merely making the entire level pitch-freaking-black and hyper-accurate tangos located 400 klicks away with the Hubble Telescope mounted to their rifles. Yeah, great fun that was. Have no idea where I’m supposed to go, or what to do when I get there, and I’m getting capped every 1.3 seconds by a single pixel. Of course, the grand checkpoint that reloads me every time after a minute-long wait spawns me right in the open after the enemy spawns have all been realized. Die, rinse, repeat. Yay.

Further, I understand the game has an ESRB rating of Mature. But, am I playing a video game or watching Scarface? Let’s talk about bombs – and not the nuclear variety. I heard so many instances of the f-bomb in the first 30 minutes of gameplay that I felt like I needed to wash my mouth out with soap. Seriously, are DICE suggesting that all military forces are so devoid of honor or even self-restraint that they cannot speak without using a constant stream of explicatives occasionally interrupted with a subject or verb? For shame.

I’ve already discussed at length the sharp pains of deja vu from Battlefield 3 to Black Ops. The point here is that I lost my initial positive impressions from the single player experience of Battlefield 3. And, I mean lost completely. Next go-round, DICE should focus exclusively on the multiplayer aspects of the game and leave the campaign to another design team. Or, forgo the whole enchilada together. Either would have been a better route than what we have now in-hand.

After the merciless beating endured to finish this campaign, I would tell people to buy Battlefield 3 only for the multiplayer portion of the game. If you do not enjoy multiplayer, or play it rarely, then save your money and pass on this title. Thankfully, the multiplayer aspect is a different beast altogether (and much better, too).

Agree? Too harsh? Think this game was the best or worst since DOOM? Let us know in the comments!

Children are subjects I find to be increasingly easy to photograph, especially if you just stand back and let them be themselves. Children, after the initial interest in your gear or what you’re doing, quickly ignore you and move on to the next item of attention. These are the moments I love to capture.

One of the difficulties, however, is when parents or family members tell them to stop what they’re doing and look at the camera. As a photographer and a father, I am torn there. I can certainly appreciate the need for a child to listen and obey. Lord knows I work on that with my own son. And I can also truly appreciate the genuine interest of the parents for their children to be cooperative subjects, as well as their desire to get “that perfect shot.”

What I’ve found with my own son is that my definition of “perfect” has changed drastically (and for the better, I think, from his help). To me, a perfect photo is no longer that well-balanced and posed shot, with all eyes bright and looking into the camera and all details Photoshopped correctly. Rather, I now think the perfect shot is one that captures the essence of who they are, doing exactly what they normally do: being that wonderful little gift from God (flaws, boo-boos, occasional disobedience and all).

EXIF data

Canon 5D Mark ii body, Canon EF 70-200mm L  f/4.0 IS USM lens

Exposure: 1/2500 second

Exposure bias: -2/3 EV

Aperture: f/4.0

ISO: 100

Focal length: 121mm

Aperture Priority exposure mode, Auto white balance mode

Strobist data: none

Intel is knowledge, and knowledge is power.

How many times did you die in a previous match and not even know where your killer was until you watched the killcam? (You do watch the killcams, right? They assist in showing where snipers camp and if someone is using an aimbot …) If it’s more than a few, then your situational awareness needs some help. Granted, we all get caught with our pants down from time to time. Players are finding better and better places to hide and snipe. But you should see your killer more often than not, and know when you’re going down before the screen goes red.

RADAR isn’t just a palindrome

I glance at my radar at least once every two to three seconds in a game, but more like once a second. It’s the single-best thing you can use to become a better player, factoring out perks or weapons that fit your play style. I constantly use the radar to guide where I’m going, where I’m not, and when I can safely reload.

Yeah, I hear that all the time but no one tells me HOW to best use a radar…

That’s why you’re here. We aren’t afraid to share our secrets. In normal gameplay, enemies pop up for a few seconds when they fire (unless they’re using silencers, the tricky bastards). When I hear any gunfire, I immediately glance at the radar to see where the firefight is and how many people seem to be involved. If there is a gaggle of red dots and one green triangle (a team mate), then I proceed with extreme caution (if at all — sometimes the better part of valor is caution). Those are the times grenades and claymores come in very handy.

If I see a green triangle disappear, I know a team mate bit the bullet and that enemy is likely reloading from the fight. Go in for the kill if you’re close enough! If the red dot is in between myself and the green triangle that disappeared (meaning, I’m probably coming up behind the enemy), then I definitely go in with a vengeance.

Also, if I’m not hearing a lot of gunfire (or any), then I avoid where my team mates are showing up. That shows me already where the enemy isn’t, so I need to be where they are. This is very useful on the smaller maps of the games.

Particularly to newer players, the radar acts like a guide to where the routes are, assisting in moving around an unfamiliar map.

Things get a whole lot more useful when you (or an intelligent team mate) fires off a spy plane or UAV. This pulses with locations of all enemies every second or so, with the exception of those carrying perks that hide them (Ghost or Cold-Blooded in Black Ops and MW2, respectively). You can see where enemies are bunched up, where the lone soldiers are (sometimes an easier kill), and even more importantly the movement patterns and traffic. Knowing how many of an enemy are in an area, and which way they are going, really helps you set up for a firefight.

You can best judge then if you need to high-tail it out of there, if you need to run/jump around a corner to take a lone enemy down by surprise, or if you need to set up just in line of a corner in a prone position and get ready to empty a few clips as they barrel around a corner. This is all afforded from watching the radar for a second or two when a spy plane/UAV is up. Better still, the game always gives you an audio cue when someone launches the spy plane/UAV. Learn to listen for that audio cue, and you will make the most of the time given for all that great intel via radar!

Hearing is believing

As mentioned above, audio cues are important for knowing when to really pay attention to the spy plane/UAV that a team mate just launched. Gunfire is another audio cue for glancing at the radar. But above those, we can really improve our gameplay by strapping on some headphones and learning to listen.

Footsteps are the deathknell for the enemy. Play with Ninja Pro in Black Ops for a while, and your own team mates stomping around you makes you nervous. It’s amazing how loud people can be running in Black Ops and MW2. And online, most people sprint everywhere they go. Granted, enemies with the Ninja perk can’t be found this way, but not everyone carries this perk (as can be found from all the noise online).

Every time someone reloads, they say so in their native tongue in game with Black Ops. If you’re playing the Americans and you hear someone around the corner in Spanish, there’s a really good chance you can get a jump on someone in the middle of a reload for an easy kill by seizing the chance. Likewise, if you’re on Castro’s bench and you hear someone distinctly proclaim “Cover me, I’m reloading!” then jump on them!!!

In the end

Granted, in the end these techniques of using sounds and the radar require a certain amount of practice (like all skills of the games). But the good news is that these skills aren’t dependent on your avatar’s level, don’t go away when you prestige, and will transfer well to every online FPS game out there (MoH and BF:BC2 use very similar radars). Play for just one solid night’s session with the intention of using the radar a LOT and listening to everything (even if they mean dying more than usual as you get used to the mechanics). You’ll see an improvement in just that one night.

If not, there’s always the hardcore modes with no radar and HUD

Happy hunting!

CQB

The CQB loadout (Close Quarters Battle) is designed for engagements on small maps or where there are numerous buildings. The effectiveness of this kit is solely in the close to medium range. Think of this as the complete opposite of a sniper kit.

In close engagements, firefights are decided within a second or two. Much of the success of a CQB player is reaction time. This loadout uses several elements to assist the player’s reaction time as well as hinder that of your opponent.

Primary Weapon: AK74u with the Rapid Fire attachment

Secondary Weapon: CZ75 with the Full Auto upgrade

Lethal: Semtex Grenades

Tactical: Concussion Grenades

Equipment: Tactical Insertion

Perk 1: Scavenger

Perk 2: Steady Aim

Perk 3: Ninja

As you can see, the weapon of choice is the AK74u, which is a fantastic weapon in Black Ops. The Rapid Fire attachment allows the player just enough of an edge to win most engagements where both players open fire at the same time. While many players would opt for either the Dual Mag (or perhaps a Sleight of Hand perk) to make reloads less frequent or quicker, we take the approach of the CZ75 pistol with automatic fire. Switching to the pistol is faster than reloading, and can finish off an opponent or take down his buddy coming to help.

***Black Ops playtip***

After killing an opponent, never EVER immediately reload. Leave the half-empty clip in for a few seconds or switch to your pistol if you are dangerously low. Getting in this habit will keep you alive longer and garner more kills. The reason for this is that often there will be an opposing team player coming up behind your dead opponent, or someone close by saw your blip on the radar from firing (or heard the encounter), and is coming to try to finish off a potentially wounded player for an easy kill.

Going back to the CQB loadout, the Semtex was chosen instead of regular frag grenades as you want to better control where they land in close quarters. Semtex won’t bounce or end up somewhere you don’t want it. Concussion grenades, and the Ninja perk, work to put the opposition in a disadvantage by eliminating their potential map control of respawns and not hearing you run/walk.

The Steady Aim perk also looks to give you a slight speed advantage as you are better equipped to accurately fire from the hip, especially with the added recoil of the AK74u with Rapid Fire. Some players will opt to ditch the Steady Aim and go for Warlord (especially when Warlord Pro is unlocked) and put both Rapid Fire and a Vertical Grip on the AK74u. Either choice is acceptable, as it will assist to eliminate the need to go ADS (Aiming Down the Sights) in a firefight. Many times we have killed an opponent (with Rapid Fire) when they saw us and tried to go ADS. They couldn’t get off one shot in the time we fired from the hip.

This kit is played best to its strengths. If you see an opponent running off at medium range, do not even engage them for fear of giving away your position. You simply won’t get the kill at medium range with this loadout (unless you toss a Semtex well). Remember to switch to your pistol and make good use of the Combat Knife when needed. Stay mobile with this loadout, but don’t run around wildly.

Try out this kit and tell us what you think in the comments.

We have both Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3 in hand. These are good times to be a gamer, for sure.

While I won’t do a full review of either title here, I will make a few points. The Battlefield 3 campaign is obviously set to follow the Call of Duty mechanics. And, I mean obviously. Load times between chapters are disguised by a FMV of a soldier reminiscing and retelling events where … whoa – I just got dropped in to a level playing what story he started telling. This seems vaguely familiar. Oh, and here I am in a jet figher (or, is it a Blackbird?) bombing targets on the ground. This seems not-so-vaguely familiar. And wait, here’s a slow-motion setpiece of action where I must press a screen-cued button a la Dragons Lair.

Okay, seriously EA? Did you make a punch-list of everything that happened in Black Ops and decide to include all those elements in hopes of creating a similar end result? If you’re a big-rig truck, don’t try racing motorcycles around the Suzuka Circuit in Japan … stick to hauling freight. In other words, do what you do well and not copy the neighbors. With that gripe off my chest, I can say the campaign is fun for what time you get from it. These days, no one remotely expects a FPS story to take 20-30 hours. The difficulty in the story mode is certainly there, even on Normal, albeit sometimes fabricated (cheap, cross-map shots from someone that was able to target my exposed pinky toe, anyone? Or, are they simply getting us prepped for multiplayer?).

Activision, Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer, et al aren’t without their bruises either, though. Seriously folks, this is 2011. Infinite enemy spawn points need to die. They are SO 1990. I might be able to understand this in Gears of War, where Locust pop out of the ground Mario-style. But for 43,218 Soviets to come running out of a storage trailer the size of a Ford Windstar at regular intervals … my suspension of disbelief gets a little ruffled here.

The good points: both had their moments of “Oh SNAP.” Both kept me wanting to play well after sensible people had long been asleep. Call of Duty still looks decent enough with its aging engine, and Battlefield looks absurdly good with the High Def graphics installed on the hard drive (both speaking of the XBOX 360 versions). And both had me say “alright, now let’s take this train online.”

And that’s where both games really start to shine, as well as separate themselves. Each delves a little further down the dark paths that make them so different and so good. BF3 still has that wide-open, cerebral, total team mentality feel. MW3 has that visceral, frantic, live and die by the gun craziness. They are night and day, with the only commonality of using a gun and pointing it at others the way fire and ice have the universality of simply occupying the same universe.

And, I love them both.

The great thing here is that I can spend a few hours online playing one, and then switch to the other and get a completely different “fix” for my gaming addictions. One cleanses the palette of the other. They are peanut butter and jelly to my gaming sandwich, if you will.

I know so many people focus so heavily on one is better than the other, or that douchebags play one but not the other, blah blah blah. To me, they compliment each other and feed different parts of my gaming joy. And really, is anyone so spoiled they can have too many great games?

Not I, dear reader. Not I.