Jefftown

More BF:BC

I find that you need to be proactive about teamwork in BF:BC and you get good squads.

I'm often the first person to use voice in my squad, but within 3 minutes two others are using VO as well . Intel like "incoming from river right" work very well in the linear gold crate gametype and you don't need to use or ever own a mic to benefit.

Last night was very similar to what I describe above. I was experimenting with the Genghis Khan tactic of mining a road, running up and blasting rockets at armor, then fleeing into the mines. 4 out of 5 times the tank just busts right into them. This time I had a friendly APC semi-supporting me, who was completely outclassed by this battle tank I was trying to trick. I told the guy over voice to back up instead of trying to paper cut him to death, and damn if he didn't reverse. The t-whatever comes over the hill, fireballs, getting me 30 points. For the first time in the game, the guy in the APC uses his mic, saying "Dumbass".

Now we "e-friends". Once you start winning, teamwork increases dramatically.

Battlefield: Bad Company

I absolutely ADORE being able to clear trees with mounted weapons to increase the length and width of my firing lines. Not only does it make those weapons seem hellaciously powerful, I can finally "dig in" into a location, develop it to my advantage and then exploit it for a win.

The urban version of it, being able to blow holes in houses, is also incredibly satisfying and tactically addicting. It looks great, every assault rifle I pickup has a grenade launcher so it can be a staple of my assault vocabulary, and I have yet to be caught on the wreckage geometry or not been able to jump through a hole I've blasted. It feels very polished.

I'm only a few hours into the campaign, but I'm completely in love with BFBC’s smashmouth firepower.

Warhammer Online

I was super impressed, but I've been playing GW games for 20 years so seeing a Dark Elf Black Ark at scale was a dream come true :-).

The public quests blew me away. They bring all the cool narrative stuff from WOW dungeons and raids to the surface, enabling casual players to see some epic stuff. One of the first ones was kill all these High Elves soldiers while these two dragons are duking it out up on these towering spires. As you complete the objectives, the High Elf dragon kills it's opponent and flies down to wade into the fight itself. After you take it down, everyone who contributed something to the battle gets ranked, and then get's to draw from this loot crate for their reward. For me it successfully captured a Warhammer battle experience, which is a pretty amazing accomplishment.

I also enjoyed that there's a story for the player, unlocked as they work through the quests. Chapter 1 is the newbie zone, which after you accomplish all the quests, you "win" the battle. You're lead to the next zone, at which Chapter 2 opens up with associated quests and narratives. Brought a lot of structure to my experience.

One feature that will interfere with my enjoyment of WOW from here on out was finding groups. If you want to group up, you bring up a single screen that lists all the folks in groups, how many slots are open, and what type of quests they want to do. Pick up groups in WOW are such a pain, with nobody using the LFG panel, forcing you to get antiquated and spam a channel (i.e. "LF 2M for Botanica"). In Warhammer Online it's all UI, and you can find a group doing exactly what you want to do in about .5 seconds.

I'm hyper biased, so if you don't know who Malekith is your mileage may vary. But for me, this is the first game I've ever pre-ordered. Ever.