RSS
 

Liam Fox

24 Aug

We’re under the heat once again.

This time around we’re getting hammered for our co-operation with Danger Close Games in making the new Medal of Honor game (we’re making the Multiplayer and DCG are making the Singleplayer).

I have grown quite accustomed to this by now, for I’ve always worked on games that have been quite a bit of controversy attached with them. What I wasn’t expecting though is the fact that Mr. Liam Fox (yes, the Liam “British Secretary of Defence” Fox) would be on us like a fat kid in a cotton candy stand at the carnival.

Apparently Fox has has “urged retailers to ban EA’s upcoming game, having expressed “anger and disgust” by its content.”.

One part of me wants to cry because of the ignorance that so many people seem to be carrying with them today (conservative or not). Another part of me kind of just wants to laugh at this whole situation for being so absurd. I’m not going to go in to any specifics or explain what I think and how I feel, because our EA Games Label president Frank Gibeau responded brilliantly and figuratively took the words out of my mouth.

You can read more about it here.

What do you think by the way? Should we be censored? Have we gone too far? What about Activision and Infinity Ward, did they go too far with their Airport scene?

 
 

Gettin’ there…

18 Aug

More Starcraft 2 games being played – finally starting to get my game together.

Obviously some 2v2 with J-Boy and then some 1v1 by myself both of which are starting to shape up.

I am starting to get the hang of various tactics depending on the size of levels as well as my makro and early- to late-game transition.

All in all, it’s starting to shape up and we’re climbing and learning at least.

As for now, it’s bedtime :)

gg all

 
 

Zerg rushed at work

18 Aug

I don’t know about you, but personally I’ve never been Zerg rushed at work before… Or well, I have but at least that was in the game…

Yesterday I played some Starcraft 2 with J-Boy as I said in my previous post, and he mentioned that Noken wanted to get in touch with me.

I figured he was just gonna start whining about servers or Xbox Live being down or something like that since he’s working on a new trailer, and my phone was dead anyway so I couldn’t be bothered with interrupting my game anyway.

I just got in to work and noticed this on the floor…

Zerglings rushing in to my base

I couldn’t but to start laughing at the little rush squad coming in – and then I realized these guys weren’t the rush but they were in fact the reinforcement!

Now THIS was the rush…

Main base under attack

They are taking out my mouse...

Help me Mr. Bubbles!

Help me Mr. Bubbles!

Monitors? And the lamp? Really?

Monitors? And the lamp? Really?

Monitor is about to give away...

Creeping overlord and monitor about to give away...

GG

GG

GG Noken… If Fnotte was part of this as well, GG to you too…

All I have to say is that I will get you back… And it’ll be oh-so-good! ;)

 
 

End it with a win

17 Aug

Just logged off Starcraft 2 and figured I wanted to end it with a win.

I played a handful of games with J-Boy but just didn’t feel like our wins were enough to end with, so I decided I’d wing it – one last game!

Saw that it was a Zerg at the loading screen and figured “He’ll go all in on a ling-rush” and indeed he did.

So of course I walled the ramp and got some Zealots out, but I didn’t get enough to entirely take out his lings (I should’ve gotten my Gate up earlier to focus on getting those Zeals out), now how did I deal with this? Counter him with Probes of course!

Managed to take out all but one that was just running around anyway and I had 1 Zeal follow him around while I pumped out new Zealots to guard my ramp and teched up my Void Rays (played on Scrap station, so air is quick and harrassment opportunities are tremendous).

Went in with that a bit hesitant only to discover he went for roaches.

See for yourself how it all happened here.

Either way – it was nice with a win to end the night, and to Nogal – GG!

 
No Comments

Posted in Games

 

COOKIES

16 Aug

As cookie monster would say “C is for Cookies! OM NOM NOM NOM!” – I can’t do more than completely agree with him.

I’ve had people ask about my muffins and cookies so I figured I’d get the recipe out there (hopefully I can translate the measures correctly).

Swedish “Kolakakor”

Cookiemonster approved!

  • 200 g of butter
  • 1,75 dl of sugar
  • 1,5 tbsp of vanillin sugar/vanilla extract?
  • 2 tsp of baking powder
  • 2 tbsp of light syrup
  • 5 dl (310 g) of flour

Make sure the butter’s kind of nice and mushy (basically get that stuff out of the fridge and let it be for a while to thaw).
Put it in a bowl or whatever along with the sugar and grab hold of an electric whisk.
Just mash it around until it’s come together nicely and isn’t all a bunch of big lumps.

Then add everything except the flour and kind of mush things around again with the whisk.
When this stops being lumpy, pour the flour in.

Once again, whisk the crap out of it until it’s a nice, big dough (should take a couple of minutes of whisking).

If it doesn’t become a piece of dough, add a liiiittle bit of water to it and start whisking again – then just mash that crap out on a tray and shove it in the oven on 175°C/347°F for about 15 minutes (I hate giving times, because it has so many dependencies – I just mainly peek in the oven to make sure it looks alright (goldish brown) and then it’s done).

When you take the tray out you have a couple of minutes (TOPS!) to cut this up in to smaller cookies.

Voila, you’ve actually baked, which is quite an accomplishment for being a geek (Yes, I’m allowed to say that because I’m a frikkin’ geek too!).

gl hf, happy baking!

 
No Comments

Posted in General

 

Clearing things out

13 Aug

So, there’s been a lot of talk here and there about a couple of things, and I just want to clear some stuff out.

Q. Any news on BF3? How is it? What’s it like? What’s it gonna be?

A. No, no, no! I will not comment on BF3, it’s that simple. We do love the support and we get the fact that people are pumped about this game which is great, but sorry to say it – but for now you’re all gonna have to sit back and be patient. We need to get time for ourselves to fully focus on the game, which is something even EA has gone out and told the press.

Q. What do you do now? Are you still on BC2?

A. I am still on the same project as I was 1½ years ago – Frostbite. I never was part of the BC2 core team. BC1 and Mirror’s Edge however, that’s a different story. Anyhow – I am as I said, still on the Frostbite team and it’s not looking like I’ll move off it anytime soon (at least not full time). My objective is basically to work in the editor and prototype weird things day in and day out. Stability checking it and coming up with improvements to existing features or completely new features that would ease work for designers and other content creators.

Q. Is that really you in the mast? What were you doing in that mast? How high is that mast?

A. For the people who don’t know what this is about, there’s been a picture circulating lately, featuring me high up in a mast on a yacht. And yes, that is me in the mast. I was doing repairs and final checkups before the Eurocard Gotland Runt regatta – we had to switch a couple of things in the mast as well as fit a new antenna up there for our VHF Radio. It’s 20 meters high from the deck of the boat, with another 2 or so meters from the deck to the water.

Preparations for Gotland Runt

 

How to mess up in Starcraft 2

10 Aug

So, as everyone else in the world I’ve spent way too much time in Starcraft already.

Working on my build orders still

I desperately need help with learning macro - gief halp!

<rant>

The only thing is, apart from almost everyone else in the world, I am on a steady losing streak, not because I don’t know how to play the game (well yes, that as well) but mostly because I panic.

I start off fairly strong with some good macro, a bunch of gates and a decent army that should take care of the game for me (I don’t like endgame finishes, I’d rather make it quick and painless).

So, I build up the army, I get attacked/attack and then what? Well, from what I can gather, production comes to a halt – I get tons of minerals and a decent amount of gas, but the problem is I just stop warping in units. Why? I don’t know.

I’ve been looking at my games and had a friend look at it, and we both find many flaws in it – but the biggest thing that we both find, is that as soon as I start pushing towards the enemy base (we’re talking base races here) I just stop building units even though they are just a click away (three actually, W + (S/E/Z) + MB1).

Why? I don’t know. Lack of experience? I think so…

So my plan now is for me to do as the famous Fatal1ty once said and just “practice, practice, practice”.

If anyone else has any good comments or would like to have a little peek at my stupidity in action, I’ll post my two most recent base races here.

Both of these I should’ve had – but I just panicked. Check out my ultra-fail in the Zerg game… Why didn’t I just get back to the base, sort out his units and then continue my search? I already knew he was screwed so why give him the game?

</rant>

 
 

The new PC

09 Aug

My new PC has been treating me really well so far and gaming has begun.

Seeing how I’ve just entered another “gaming period” I am focusing heavily on a couple of games. At this point it’s mainly Starcraft 2 and World of Warcraft.
I’ve also just reinstalled Bioshock again and intend to actually get through it this time around.

As well as some games from Steam that have been installed (Team Fortress 2 and BF:BC 2).

So far, so good!

Not only is it running really well even though making sure nothing overheats of overclocks, but it looks well regardless.

The only real issue with this is that my missus is starting to get annoyed by me staying up till 3 AM each night.

WoW screenshot #1

 
 

BF3 Beta Access with MOH Limited Edition

02 Aug

There are a lot of ways of announcing games and creating hype – one of which is cross-studio/-game trailer collaboration.

A couple of days ago EA Marketing decided to release the Linkin Park collaboration between EA and well… Linkin Park. Not only has EA been working with Linkin Park on this, but Danger Close has also worked a lot with DICE (DCG creating the Singleplayer Campaign and DICE creating the Multiplayer).

So if you get Medal of Honor: Limited Edition, not only will you get some fancy stuffs like weapons and the like, but you’ll also get access to the BF3 Beta.

More details here if you’re interested.

 
 

Bad Company 2 Frag Night with DICE

29 Jul

The DICE Frag Night was a success – for both community and DICE’ers.

We really had a good time, and it was the first time I’ve ever seen a full queue to the Official DICE Server (not saying I’m not happy though). I really hope you all enjoyed it, and if you have screenshots, movies or anything like that don’t forget to ping us on twitter so that we can post them and give you some more cred for being there.

Here are some photos taken from our session at least (sorry about the blur, I blame the 7 gin&tonics).

Stormonster at Dinner

Stormonster at Dinner

Skumgummi at Dinner

Skumgummi at Dinner

zh1nt0 at dinner

zh1nt0 at Dinner

Kalmalyzer at Dinner

Kalmalyzer at Dinner

Stormonster provides Bazajaytee with drinks

Stormonster provides Bazajaytee with drinks

Demize99 focusing on not getting stabbed

Demize99 focusing on not getting stabbed

Patrick Bach in discussions with Kalmalyzer at dinner

Patrick Bach in discussions with Kalmalyzer at dinner

More pictures are available here!