elephnat

Today marks the first step towards something larger for the future of elephnat. I’ve always wanted to grow elephnat from a tight JTV community into, hopefully, a larger gaming community. So far, we have a dedicated Minecraft and Battlefield 3 server and a Mumble voip server setup but I plan on adding a Left 4 Dead server soon. I may add more servers in the future depending on what’s popular or asked for so keep an eye out for future updates. If you haven’t already, sign up for the forums/steam group!

Well, it’s finally here. I was lucky enough to have two days of Battlefield 3 to myself, and, well unlucky enough to have my wisdom teeth pulled the day after release, but that’s not what this post is about. In short, BF3 is awesome. The core game feels pretty solid despite the horrible matchmaking/origin service. It kind of reminds me of when I made the transition into BF2 from BF1942. The graphics were a huge jump, sound design was exceptionally better, ranks and unlocks were introduced, and the game just felt like a huge multiplayer fun bag you could easily jump into.

The multiplayer is the heart of this game, as is any Battlefield game is and should be. The maps are laid out very well, nice to look at, and support huge battles between 64 players better than BF2 did. Actually, I prefer the 64 player servers in this game as opposed to BF2 where 32 felt just about right. The guns are modeled nicely and shoot in a realistic manner, without feeling too sim-like but have enough recoil to them to prevent holding down the trigger. The vehicles add extra punch to the maps but don’t feel overwhelmingly powerful. Also, combining assault with medic was actually a good decision, and each class still feels distinct and has a specific role.

With that said, the singleplayer campaign is also a blast. It’s similar to the shooting gallery that CoD has defined over the years, but in an awesome Frostbite environment with excellent sound design. The story so far centers around a couple missing nukes and takes you to different locales doing different types of fighting so it’s always throwing something new in your face. I’m not finished with it yet but I’ve enjoyed what I’ve played so far and will continue to stream the rest until completion.

All in all, I forgive your horrible matchmaking/server browser service, confusing squad support, and lack of VOIP within servers, DICE. Now hurry up and release that Back to Karkand DLC!

The Battlefield series has always held a special place in my heart. Up until Battlefield 1942 came out, I never thought online FPS games could get any bigger or better than Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat. Then I started to hear about BF ’42 circa 2002 and how there were different classes you could choose from, vehicles and planes you could pilot, and the huge, gorgeous maps that you played on. DICE did a good job making BF42 feel like a giant, action packed game. Now it’s 2011 and BF3 is less than 3 days away.

Plenty of time has passed since their last PC focused sequel, Battlefield 2, perhaps maybe too much time. I feel that many of the early Battlefield players stopped playing and/or caring after BF2. The Bad Company series came shortly after the Xbox 360 and PS3 were released, but even with the new destructible environments, the games still felt limited and tailored to a console environment (e.g. no prone, lack of large-pop servers, missing jets). In a market where FPS games seemed to have fallen back to tighter maps, easier shooting mechanics, and lack of vehicular combat, it’ll be interesting to see how well BF3 will be received. On the other hand, I’m sure that all of the Call of Duty players are starting to feel an itch to try something new by now. All I know is come Tuesday midnight, I will be blasting on sucka faces back on the streets of Karkand, it’s about damn time.

Yes folks, after a long hiatus we are finally back. Expect more to come!

It’s kind of weird how all these holiday releases have kinda snuck up on me. I have 4 games that I recently picked up and have not even come close to beating any of them. Part of this is due to work, being lazy, and the ever present guilt trip of not playing FFXIV to the max. I don’t even know where to start, but thanks to Steam’s awesome weekend sale, I picked up Batman: Arkham Asylum finally and have been playing mostly that. I don’t know, it’s hard for me to commit to one game lately but hopefully I’ll be able to knock at least some of these out before Christmas. Not so much a meaningful update, but an update nevertheless. As usual, you can catch me trudging through them on the JTV channel, until next time!