Bald Hound Frag® Blog

Battlefield 3: ‘Technical Challenges Involved’ in LAN Request

baldhoundfrag — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 02:54:55 +0000

REXBURG, Idaho—Publisher Electronic Arts (EA) in cooperation with video game developer EA Digital Illusions CE (DICE) will be releasing Battlefield 3 for three platforms on October 25, 2011. Technical challenges arise with LAN implementation, states DICE vice president.

A recent DICE interview reveals that local area network functionality “will not be in the game when [it ships],” said Vice President Karl-Magnus Troedsson.

Troedsson reiterated that there are technical and security challenges involved in adding such functionality to Battlefield 3.

Despite the challenges of the addition, DICE is “definitely considering it.”

Amazon aStore

baldhoundfrag — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 02:53:26 +0000

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho—Bald Hound Frag, LLC is currently working on implementation of an Amazon aStore for their website. Soon they will be offering hand picked games and products available for LAN gaming enthusiasts.

Livestream: Available at Internet Enabled Venues

baldhoundfrag — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 02:52:09 +0000

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho—Bald Hound Frag, LLC now has the ability to Livestream events during LAN parties when prospective venues have internet access. LAN party fans can enjoy events and engage participants online from baldhoundfrag.com/livestream.

“Livestream is the leading provider for real time event coverage. Our tools make it simple for anyone to broadcast live to the web and Livestream.com is the destination for the top live content from around the world.”

Many event organizers, including Bald Hound Frag, “use Livestream’s social broadcasting tools to engage and grow their audiences on the web, mobile devices and connected TVs.”

The company streams over one billion video minutes each month. In addition, out of 20 million of their community viewers, 50 thousand are watching live streams at any given moment.

Other LAN party communities also utilize Livestream’s technology to broadcast their events including: Geekanerd.com from Albany, Oregon and Teamnom.com from Rexburg, Idaho.

Operations for Livestream take place in two countries in three locataions – New York, Los Angeles and Bangalore. Their services are available in free advertise-supported and paid premium subscriptions.

Crysis 2 Release Date

baldhoundfrag — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 09:01:17 +0000

Crysis, a long-time benchmarking game for the computer platform, will be seeing its long-awaited sequel released in March 2011. For the first time, it will also make an appearance for the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles.

EA has stated a March 22nd release date for North America and a March 25th date for Europe. What’s more, Crysis will be the first big action game to be available in true stereoscopic 3D.

You can catch more Crysis 2 news at www.ea.com/games/crysis-2

Deus Ex Gameplay Trailer

baldhoundfrag — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 05:26:27 +0000

We’ve been waiting for this one. An official Deus Ex: Human Revolution gameplay trailer. Prepare to be amazed.

A Health Pack For Dead Games

baldhoundfrag — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 00:32:03 +0000

By Guest Writer: J. Jorgensen

Something that has been on my mind lately is an old game that I feel should be revived. Now, I’m sure there are lots of games out there that many of us feel should be either re-done or have a sequel, but one game sticks out in my mind and it’s a game I have not played for a long time. That game is Advent Rising. I feel that this game, despite its glitches, was ahead of the curve. Advent Rising was developed by GlyphX Games and published by Majesco. Unfortunately, the game’s retail performance fell short of expectations and the company canceled plans for future Advent Rising games, abandoning trilogy development plans.

The game held some of the coolest in-game experiences that even games to this day do not offer. The encounters that you faced against formidable enemies seemed to get more entertaining as you unlocked each new ability. The ever-increasing abilities of the player’s character are what made this game immersive and why so many people say it was a great game. I’m willing to bet that if a sequel was produced and the developers took the time to fix the glitches, it could out-sell Mass Effect. In my opinion, an Advent Rising sequel has the potential to dominate the gaming industry with the next-gen consoles given its popularity with stalwart fans.

Thank you for reading my blog entry. If you have a game that’s on your mind and you think it should be revived, I urge you to share your thoughts with me.

StarCraft 2 Woes

baldhoundfrag — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 23:36:00 +0000

It’s been over a decade, but we finally got what we wanted: StarCraft II. The new StarCraft is sleek and polished, given the attention to detail only Blizzard can provide. However, we feel it is worth mentioning some horrid flaws.

The game has no LAN mode. In an attempt to deter pirates, Blizzard has adopted DRM protection that forces players to sign into battle.net in order to play. This is required to play against the AI, locally, or other players both on networked PCs and on local servers. This is bad news for the many users who can no longer partake in the wonderful LAN sessions that popularized the franchise. Furthermore, cross-region play has been eliminated.

Also, it appears Blizzard is happy at only providing one third of the game. The campaign mode only features the Terrans story. Blizzard has announced they plan on releasing Protoss and Zerg follow-up campaigns in future editions of the game. Are we paying $60 for only a third of a game, or possibly $180 for the full experience?

E3 Impressions: Part II

baldhoundfrag — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:24:34 +0000

continued from E3 Impressions: Part I…

Gran Turismo 5

Freaking awesome. It sets the bar. Driving mechanics, everything. They’ve taken a long time, which pisses off gamers when they take a long time to release, but usually when they do that the creators take their time to make the game good. Doesn’t always work that way, like with Alpha Protocol which got pushed back 8 months but averaged maybe 6 out of 10. It sucked that they took such a long time but it’s cool that they are getting people that like any type of motorsport like rally and Nascar and those people are going to enjoy it. The rally is my favorite. Others might enjoy street racing. They are tapping into all markets. Haven’t heard about customization where Forza has had the edge when it comes to multiplayer, community where you are able to auction off your cars but your design. Damage is good, looks good, physics look good.

Fallout: New Vegas

Going to be awesome. The only change is new background. Same game, just different city. New content, which is fine for most people. You’ve got to keep that new content coming to keep gamers happy.

Need for Speed Hot Pursuit

It’s going to be a NFS game. Those fans will love it. don’t know too much about it.

Gears of War 3

It’s like when Halo 2 was out asking me what i thought about Halo 3. It’s cool that they are putting in new stuff, new aliens. New big giant aliens. They are trying to freshen up their game, seem not so repetitive. They added a female, so female gamers should be happy. It’s all about tapping into every single market you can. It’s what phones have been doing and it’s tapping into game. Trying to achieve that game that has something everyone wants. The game that everyone likes.

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty

They did awesome. All the ones that stuck with the original are going to love it and migrate. Great visuals. I think their main goal was to keep it the same, which is what they needed to do. Keep it the same, add new graphics and features modern computers are able to handle, and keep that feel the same. Even a lot of the structures look the same, just updated graphics. That’s what gamers want. Sometimes all you need to do is update graphics and fix glitches to make a good game better. Look at GoldenEye.

GoldenEye 007

It’s cool. But because it’s on the Wii it wont be as big as on maybe the other consoles; if they could bring it to Xbox and PlayStation that would be brilliant.

God of War: Ghost of Sparta

Creators behind it always do a great job. To put that game on the PSP was the best thing to happen to the PSP. Right now not everyone owns a mobile gaming device. Until their graphics and controls match a console they will not be as popular. But god of war is a good match for mobile devices. Good stuff going on in that game. Definitely lived up to what it’s supposed to be for handhelds.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Creators do well at sticking to the formula of what made the original great, ever since the N64.

Batman: Arkham Asylum 2

Going to be really good. They are going to focus outside the asylum. New sights. Asylum was the only really good superhero game to come to consoles. If they stick to formula they should be fine. Graphics look good once again.

Any other games out there that you find exciting or would like to recommend?

I’m actually excited for Blacklight: Tango Down. It’s an indie PC shooter. Only 15 bucks. Think of a futuristic Counter-Strike. Gameplay is smooth and for 15 dollars you can’t beat that. Steam is a great company and delivers. 15 dollars and you get huge customization and everything feels personal. Did I mention it’s just 15 dollars?

Most people agree Nintendo did really well at this year’s E3. What’s your take on the Wii and the direction Nintendo is headed?

A lot of gamers out there are older than before. They are used to playing on arcade machines. Because they grew up playing those simple games they will want to go back and play those simple games. Because it’s a game they played a long time ago and were a huge fan it is a given they have to play the new game. It seems like Nintendo taps into the classic gamers and the young gamers, but not whats in between. Which is the present, the hardcore. The Halo. That’s the in between. It’s a present game.

What about Microsoft and Sony?

MGS Rising, Deus Ex, and Kinect, Microsoft has a lot going on.

PlayStation was smart in adding their Plus service. A lot of people didn’t enjoy the PS live experience, but it was free. This might put PlayStation on a level playing field through more servers, updates, avatars, make a better community.

E3 Impressions: Part I

baldhoundfrag — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 21:49:12 +0000

Interview with in-house gamer freestyle18

So, what did you find most exciting at E3?

The main thing I’m excited about is Deus Ex. I think that is going to bring together what most people are looking for, especially MGS fans and Deus Ex fans. It’s going to incorporate aspects of both games. It’s going to combine. Probably one of the most underrated games out there.

Underrated? How so?

Well, I’m not saying people aren’t excited. But Halo, Gears of War, Gran Turismo, we’ve seen new iterations a lot more frequently. Deus Ex holds a special spot in a lot of gamers. It’s holds the spot of being one of the greatest games of all time. It’s finally getting a proper sequel from the developers and we should all be excited.

What did you think about the new peripherals being introduced by the big consoles?

I think the Move is going to be fun, it’s a lot like the Wii. It’s out to tap the market of casual gamers. Most hardcore gamers are probably not too enthused about the idea of moving as you play video games. But it will work for the family member that wants to stay at home and flip screen to screen while he or she watches Netflix. It’s a cool feature, but not a feature that will concern hardcore gamers. Hardcore gamers are going to buy the new Halo before the Kinect.

Until the Xbox Kinect and the move incorporate more social features like Facebook I don’t see it getting too big. People really enjoy the social features and i think the cameras could take advantage of the face to face talk.

The Kinect, those are strictly arcade, it’s going to be successful in the arcade marketplace, you know, maybe around the 15 dollar price. That is definitely where they are going to make the most money.

What do you wish you would have seen more of at E3?

Deus Ex.

Alright, now let’s talk about some of the upcoming games that were shown. Specifically, what do you think of Call of Duty: Black Ops and Medal of Honor?

Medal of Honor is going to be better. It’s made by EA. They have more manpower and experience. They pushed out great games these past few years and are expanding into new markets, like with their new MMA game. More people are going to stand behind CoD because it’s been out longer but they are going to be surprised by what EA is going to bring to the table.Regarding Medal of Honor, I have always been a huge franchise fan, played it ever since Xbox came out. EA has a lot of money and experience. Graphics look amazing. MoH is very story driven, the CoD multiplayer will be hard to beat. EA is going to have to pull out the stuff to beat CoD multiplayer. CoD is already pushing Black ops so it will be interesting to see who wins. It’s going to be interesting to see EA’s approach. EA will have to win CoD fans. We don’t know how hard the game will be or the pace, but they are going to have to separate themselves to make people want to play their game. EA creators said they are very focused on the character himself. They got a really good story behind it. They said it’s even somewhat true, historically correct. So that in itself is pretty cool.

Fable III

It’s going to be interesting. They definitely have interesting ideas but I feel they are going disappoint like with Fable II. I feel like they are throwing too much into the mix. Hard to say right now if it’s going to be good or not. I like the idea of being a king and how that works out. It’s something I’m going to have to wait to see. Fable II and Fable III will probably never be as good as Fable I. They are good games but not iconic and revolutionary like the first one. What people most want in the game is swords and big armor, and once guns got into play that got to be a little too much.

Assassins Creed: Brotherhood

Mostly the same as the other two. I’m excited for the possible multiplayer component. It’s going to be cool to see other assassins. It’s a great game already but if they add coop and multiplayer it would be even better. Great game as is, but it can get repetitive. Other games like GTA set the bar high for replay value and it’s hard to reach those standards.

…

Catch us in a few days for the second part to the interview

PS3 Laptop Mod!

baldhoundfrag — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:56:23 +0000

The guy who brought us the Xbox 360 case mod has done it again, this time with a PS3. Behold:

Ben Heck’s PS3 Slim Laptop is Monochromatic Cool