Dear Battlefield, "Я не говорю по русскому"

Alright, I know I still haven’t fixed this damn blog’s artwork. Any time I actually have the time lately, I’ve been playing Battlefield: Bad Company 2. A few of us pooled in at work and got our own server, you can find it as “JSG Clan Server” if you want to play with us. It used to be called, “Jet Set Games Clan Server” but the way we are kicking and banning cheaters, we figured we shouldn’t be so open about who we are.

But cheaters though, that is the thing. I found out that when I’m not playing on a server where a bunch of the guys on the other team are using aimbots and wall hacks, I’m actually not bad at the game. I pretty much always rank above 50% and often am right up top. I’ve also come to accept that the medic is overpowered and that is the class to play to rank up.

But I didn’t come here to whine about how cheaters are taking over the servers in Battlefield and that Punkbuster has failed. Instead, I decided to make a little post about voice localization in these types of games. Battlefield, to continue with that game as an example, has excellent background audio. Not only is there the voices of your teammates when they do something, but there is low level background radio chatter as well. It really helps set the mood. These games areset up as the U.S. forces verses some other nationality and at times in multiplayer, you take turns being the attacker and defender so you play both as the U.S. forces and as somebody else.. If you are playing the other nationality, you have the option of playing their voice audio in their original language or localized. I like playing the original language in these cases because, like I said, it really helps set the mood.

The problem is I don’t speak Russian or whatever nationality I’m playing and I need to understand what is being said. The game expects you to play a lot and start to recognize what phrases are associated with what gameplay element, but that takes a long time and isn’t really all that fun. Though, I always find it funny to hear things that aren’t there in the foreign phrases. I could have sworn one of the clips in Battlefield 2 was, “The cost of a sniper, is less than I thought.” Another in Battlefield: Bad Company 2, which I think is a “Ha, I got you message” in Russian, sounds like he’s saying, “Where’s Wolfgang Sally!?”

When you set the voice audio to play in English for the foreign forces, it just plays the U.S. forces audio. But what I would rather see is every language done in the original language and in English with an appropriate accent. I can pretend I am speaking Russian if the radio chatter is in English with a Russian accent. I also think it would be fun to have a nonsense/gibberish English version for the U.S. Forces, so I can play another nationality’s forces and NOT understand what the U.S. forces are saying.

That is my two cents, though I’d pay a quarter if they could figure out a way to remember my localization settings between games. Dice makes some good games, but they really need to work on their user interface.

P.S. I am hoping that if I post more I'll be more motivated to fix the artwork.

Today is pretty much Teh Fail

I just wasted some time screwing around with the blog's HTML again to see if I could figure out where to put in a separate background image for the post area, so that I can use the background I have on my Twitter page. The post area would need it's own more text friendly background so you could still read it. I have had several people tell me how easy this would be to do, and even go so far as to say they would show me, but as of yet none of these promises has panned out.

I'm supposed to be writing some more background information on various units and things in Highborn, but my tummy is a tab bit upset and it's hard to get into the right frame of mind for that kind of humor.

I am also trying to write my developer diary, same problem.

Since I don't have much else to blather about at the moment, I though I would mention how I am obviously wrong about a few very popular games.

First, the God of War series. Been trying to play all three, and although there are some parts I like, I have some big issues with them. I don't like the special button sequence moves to defeat bosses. There I am fighting away, and suddenly this big, ugly interface thing pops up on screen telling me what to do with one of the controls. It violently pulls me out of the game. It doesn't help that half the time, I find I have to change my grip on the controller in order to mash the button or flip the joystick fast enough for it to register. But like I said in the introduction, I am must be in the wrong because so many other people LOVE these games.

Secondly, I started playing Mass Effect 2. I think it's okay, but I am not so overly wowed by it as lots and lots of other people are. I just don't think the level of story in these games are as great as they are made out to be. Don't get me wrong, it isn't bad, it is just people are raving about how deep the story is and the choices you make, yadda yadda. But I find them irritating. For example, right away at the begging of the game Miranda(?) (if you should know anything about me, you should know I can't remember names seconds after I learn them) shoots the guy she claims was a traitor and was trying to kill her. I have a dialog option that expresses that I'm a bit concerned with her just walking in and shooting the guy without letting him say his piece, try to deny it, or anything. She gives some half-assed explanation and after that I'm supposed to be all peachy about it. Sorry, I just don't roll over like that. I've been taught that in the Criminal Justice system, the people are represented by three separate yet equally important groups. The police, who investigate crime, the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders and the Goddamn Batman! (I think you can see why I've kinda given up writing humorous back-story for today.)

But anyway, people love the game so I just have to admit I'm wrong.

I got another game. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 for the PC. I just can't play it at the moment. I doesn't recognize my Logitech G9 mouse clicks in the game. It recognizes them in the menus, just not when I am actually playing. I go up to the first two enemies in solo play, I'm supposed to take out the guy on the left. I click my mouse and nothing happens. I go into the menu, make sure my mouse keybinds are correct. Reset LMB to Fire/Use. It takes the Left Mouse Button Click there, but when I go back into the game nothing happens when press the button. Granted I could just set the commands to out of the way keyboard keys and remap the mouse buttons to those, but I am writing this instead.

I guess I should actually go home and change. Have a birthday party to go to. Will try life again tomorrow.

BTW, I washed my car again. Expect rain or another intense wind storm.