Battlefield 3 is an amazing game. It really is. Graphics on PC are to die for, gameplay is solid, hit registration is the best it’s ever been for the series and the vehicles are awesome.

That said, I still spend 20x more time playing Starcraft 2 than I do BF3.

But why is that? Well, I love eSports and no other game rules that arena than SC2. I think I’ve watched more SC2 eSports coverage in the past year than any other sport in my entire life combined. I believe it’s this love of watching the game that entices me to play it more.

I really wished Battlefield 3 had support for competitive play but even with a million plus tournament announced a long time ago, the game still lacks the basics to get that going. I guess that also makes me want to punish the game for this omission by not playing it as much. But I guess I’m only hurting it (and myself) that way.

In any regards, these are the facts and hopefully long term competitive gaming will come to BF3 but since it is but an afterthought, it will never ever touch Starcraft 2′s popularity on that front, and that’s sad.

Ok, maybe not what Battlefield 3 should be but mainly what “I” hope it will be. Of course, everybody has their own idea of what they want to see. Here’s mine.

PC focused game
I want Dice to concentrate and attempt to make this the de-facto FPS on the PC, period. No other worries or concerns. You already have Medal of Honor and Bad Company doing well on the consoles but reigning supreme over PC would yield you many supporters.

Multiplayer only game
No singleplayer would keep Dice focused on the important part and provide more resources to create a more solid multiplayer experience.

Competitive gaming support
Blizzard “gets it” and is supporting competitive play in a big way with Starcraft 2 (lack of LAN aside). Features like recording and playback, spectator modes (and that includes a 1st perspective view, something Dice has never been able to do!) and broadcasting abilities ala HLTV are just some of the key elements. Of course, more solid anti-cheating is also key.

Multiple map sizes
Just like in Battlefield 2, multiple map sizes allows everybody from 64 player+ freaks to small map infantry lovers to be happy. It also allows pubbing on big maps while allowing 5v5 infantry matches and 8v8 or 12v12 regular clan matches.

Planes and proper anti-air
Planes in Battlefield 2 were so powerful and Dice couldn’t invent a proper counter so we haven’t seen them again since. A part of me do miss them, but only if properly balanced.

Prone
‘Nuff said

Modern Warfare
While many would love going back to the WW2 era, I don’t, but that’s just me.

Other than that, I’m usually not that picky and trust Dice’s ability to create amazing games. I’m simply looking forward to it but feel the expectation is so high, some parts of me will surely be disappointed.

There sure has been a lot of fuss on the tubes regarding this announcement by Infinity Ward that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for the PC will not have dedicated servers. A petition started online has recently topped 100,000 entries begging IW to reconsider their stance.

Today, FourZeroTwo posted on his blog “why IWNET is an improvement“. That particular post prompted me to write my views in this blog since 140 characters isn’t enough to properly answer to this post. I’ll quote FourZeroTwo inlined and respond point by point.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is actually the biggest investment Infinity Ward has ever made into the PC version of our games. It’s also the most feature-rich PC version we’ve ever made.

I for one is glad to hear about that. I’m just hoping most of this effort hasn’t solely been directed at IWNET.

IWNET takes the benefits of dedicated servers and allows them to be utilized and accessed by every player, out of the box, while removing the barrier to entry for players unaware of how to maintain a server on their own.

Well, you kind of have to read between the lines on this one. “takes the benefits” isn’t the same thing as saying that “there will be”. There are two possibilities. 1) There are no dedicated servers and one of the players is the host or 2) There are dedicated servers under the hood but you don’t have to run them. The best example of the 2nd case is Bad Company on the consoles. Dice provides dedicated servers for the matches while the only way to get on them is through matchmaking. I somehow suspect this is not the case here and that we are dealing with option number 1.

…it will automatically find you a game with the best performance, ping, and preferences based on your location and individual connection as well as matching you with players of your same SKILL.

Notice how SKILL is capitalized. While I appreciate the option of being matched with people of my own skill, I’d rather select who I want to play with in many cases.

It will put you in the game that will give you the smoothest gameplay possible without you having to manually find a server with the best ping.

Well, that’s the “smoothest gameplay possible” using listen servers. The “smoothest gameplay possible” would indeed be provided by a dedicated server. Plus, couldn’t such a feature exist even in the presence of dedicated servers?

Then you can start a Private Match (which is essentially like running your own private server) where you have complete control over the rules…

It is not “essentially” like running your own server. You are the host and your server’s performance basically sucks (for others). You do not have ‘complete’ control over the rules since mods aren’t allowed. You are in control of the rules which IW has deemed acceptable to modify. In CoD4 competition, the mods even removed things like flying paper or made the suitcase invisible to the player while defusing or planting. I somehow doubt every customization the competitive community can think of will be offered. Personally, I’m more adaptable to a game but then again, I don’t play competitively anymore. Also, something tells me that all this tweeking will have to be done over and over again, every night before starting to do matches or scrims. The host happens to leave or join another clan’s ‘party’ for a scrim and it’s back to square one. I didn’t like having to re-customize my soldier in Battlefield 2142 over and over again. I can just imagine tweeking entire match sessions this way.

The biggest benefit of using IWnet by far is the fact that you don’t have to worry about joining a server full of aim-bots, wallhacks, or cheaters.

Something tells me that IWNET won’t solve any of the above.

All in all, IWNET adds a load of new features that the PC version of our games have never had before and allows us an infrastructure to continue to update and improve on the game post-launch.

While I appreciate the in-game friends feature as a new feature, that doesn’t mean that it is therefore ok to remove dedicated servers. World In Conflict, a game I consider as exemplary with regards to PC support had in-game friends list, in-game clan support, the ability to put your own logo on your units, an internal ladder and clan matchmaking service, broadcasters tools, movie making tools, map making tools, in-game patching and map downloading and I might forget some other nice things. I was so sad WiC didn’t catch on more than it did simply for the fact that the PC support the game provided was simply extraordinary. Even World At War has in-game friends and the ability to easily join them in play. Maybe simply re-using Treyarch’s system would have been more than enough.

There are other key reasons why dedicated servers are better for the community. Servers are the primary way clans recruit new members. Visitors become regulars of certain servers they know they have low pings on. They get to know the people on that server and eventually start engaging them. None of that is possible here. If you happen to like someone you might never see him again in the next match and thus no bond is formed unless you invite them as friends out of the blue.

Dedicated servers also level the playing field for competition. No one player has an advantage over the others. The server doesn’t ‘pause’ and switch hosts if a player drops because of a bad connection or loss of power due to a thunderstorm. Other key features required to sustain competition still seem missing in action. Will there be demo recording? Spectator mode for broadcasters? How about the ability to do something like CoDTV? Certainly that won’t be possible now.

We are not stupid and know exactly why this was done this way. First, in an attempt to curb piracy. However, I can safely tell you that MW2 will be the most pirated piece of software this side of Windows mostly driven by this lack of dedicated server fiasco.

Second, to charge for downloadable content. PC gamers have had the pleasure of enjoying the Call of Duty map packs for free and I’m sure IW/Activision simply want to start charging for them. And with the lack of support for mods, they can rest assured that people will be hungry for new content when they release those map packs since they will now be the sole providers of new content.

Third, by associating the game with Steam in a mandatory fashion, they have ensured that owners of the game (even those that buy the game at retail in a box) won’t be able to re-sell the game. I have ALWAYS paid for all my games. I might not do the same thing for other types of content but for games I’ve always found the price to be worth what I get in exchange. $25 for a music album with 2 good songs or $35 for the blu-ray version of a 14 year old movie don’t meet that criteria. In some rare cases where a game only has a short singleplayer campaign with no multiplayer, I’ve simply withheld buying the game until the price comes down. I’m still waiting for Mirror’s Edge to reach $10 to buy it on the PS3.

I must admit now I’ll have to plan to do the same with Modern Warfare 2. Oh well, bring on Bad Company 2! Dice are my boys and I love the Battlefield series. It’s comforting to know this mess won’t happen there.

I have to admit, I really do miss Battlefield. My best gaming hours were spent on the Battlefield 1942 demo and the Battlefield Vietnam mod “Point of Existence”. I’ve had greats amount of joy and frustration playing competitively in Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 2142. And while since 2142 we’ve had Bad Company and 1943, it just isn’t the same on the consoles.

So what does that mean? Well, for starters, my gaming time is spent aimlessly going from game to game, platform to platform. From God of War, Rachet and Clank, Burnout and Resistance on the PSP to Star Defense, Monkey Island, Need for Speed and Flight Control on the iPhone. Steam also got some of my money with Plants vs Zombies, Defense Grid, Assassin’s Creed and Unreal Tournament 3. That’s just to name a fraction of them. The PS3 also takes some of my gaming time and while all of the above are awesome, I still feel a bit of a void inside.

You see, I’m a one-game gamer waiting for that one-game. Call of Duty 4 was the closest I got to adopting a new game and for a long while, it was. I just love the feel of the combat in it but the game just doesn’t require teamwork. “Aim-bot like” skilled players dominate all. Battlefield demands teamwork to be enjoyed and I love that. My main wish in life is for Battlefield 3 to have the same “feel” of infantry combat as Call of Duty does. I.e. bullets land where you shoot and while I admire things like crouching for better accuracy, being shot by a single bullet by someone you just emptied an entire clip into just isn’t fun anymore. Dice, you need to clean that up. Really. And please, for the love of God, support the competitive scene. Provide spectator slots (at a minimum if there’s no BFTV) so that broadcasters can do their job. Provide first perspective demos that can’t be tampered with. We aren’t asking for much.

While I wait for Battlefield 3 to come out, I do have Battlefield 2142 to rely on in my times of nostalgia. The infantry gameplay is the best of any Battlefield in the series and is my favorite of them all. For those other times, while waiting for that one-game, there will be a few others to pass the time with in the future months including Bad Company 2, Starcraft 2, NHL 10….

For the iPhone users out there, all 2 of you reading this blog… ok, I meant for me, I installed a plug-in that changes the look of the blog on iPhone.

Kinda cool. Must admit, WordPress is amazing me right now. One button in-admin panel upgrades, iPhone app, easy plug-in system, etc. It has really grown over the years.

On the gaming front, I was considering buying Madden 10 but after playing the demo, I realized that I don’t like football like I used to. Makes me sad a bit.

Saw the trailer for Wolfenstein and wasn’t impressed. That’s it for now cause I really need a Bluetooth keyboard.

I just installed the WordPress app for the iPhone and I must say “very nice!”. Granted, typing on the iPhone isn’t the best but being able to post when being stuck somewhere is rather interesting. Hum, I’ll have to look into small portable bluetooth keyboards.

BTW, as you might have guessed, I wrote this post using my iPhone. Later!