McPhee

Short version; Punkbuster is a pain in the ass that hates half of the software on your system and uses it as an excuse to kick you. EA are cheap and should have just stumped up the extra cash for Steamworks (i.e. Valve's Steam software). I know I'd have happily paid an extra fiver for VAC instead of Punkbuster and a server browser that isn't incredibly slow. However, they have done a pretty good job overall. It's the first new multi-platform PC shooter I've played in ages that actually feels like a PC game, no console port here. Got it for nostalgia really, brings back memories of Battlefield 2 (and to a lesser extent 1942, it's a very different game from 1942). Unlike Battlefield 2 though, I'm owning at this Came top 3 in every game for the past hour! The M60 rocks! :awesome:

This. Game. Rocks. Feels a lot like Battlefield goes Call of Duty, and it passes on both accounts. Struggling to get people to buy it, a lot of people are being dismissive, saying "It's not going to be better than MW2 so I won't bother." but personally I think BC2 is far and beyond better. Ironically I get killed less by vehicles in BC2 than I did in MW2 BTW, don't know if it's available in the console version, but in the PC version there's a sound setting called "War Tapes". It'll blow yer mind!

Got mine this morning. Installed my new CPU, went to boot my rig... nothing Managed to botch up a solution and played a bit of single player. Awesome. It's got character Multiplayer tomorrows after work methinks.

Yeah, it's the PC version. Limited Edition for £24.99 at Game. I had a £1 voucher for there too so works out a really good price.

Ordered my copy today. Hopefully it comes on Friday, but if not then I'm not too fussed. It's still a lot cheaper than buying in town (£24 instead of £40).

Do we have a "not funny, but actually totally awesome!" videos thread? If not;

I hope it does make it out. I never really got the fuss. Band of Brothers is OK, but a video game tackling similar issues is trivialising war? I guess it stems from some people still misunderstanding games as child's play.

From what I've been reading elsewhere that isn't quite the whole story. Call of Duty is licensed by Activision from Infinity Ward as part of the contractual agreement between the two companies. Jason West and Vince Zampella got sacked because they were talking to other game publishers about moving Infinity Ward and the Call of Duty franchise when the contract expires in October. By sacking them and hiring favourable replacements Activision will be able to keep Infinity Ward and the Call of Duty franchise. I can't see this being the end of things to be honest. If the above is true I'd expect huge staff walk-outs over the next few weeks and they'll likely set up a new studio (with or without the CoD franchise). If it emerges to be true though I will be boycotting all Activision games from now on. Shouldn't be too hard, the only game they have coming out that actually interests me is Starcraft 2 and that's going to be shit anyway (*cries*).

I love Valve (more than companion cube?) What a barmy way to announce a new game lol

If it handles different I'm definitely interested. The first Bad Company just felt wrong somehow, like you were playing with toy soldiers rather than real ones (or something like that). Hmm... but to get it on 360 or PC? Looks like the PC community is going mad for it!

Is this looking better than the first Bad Company then? I played the 1st for a bit but it seemed a bit poo. As a result I kinda dismissed BC2. Are we talking more like Battlefield 2 or more like Bad Company/Heroes?

PvZ is probably my favourite iPhone game to date. Pure awesome! Played the PC demo a while back but I never got around to actually buying it.

Hit the nail on the head. I've given up now. I just use defensive armies and try for victory through technological/financial supremacy on the rare occasion that I play it any more.

"New combat system" has me intrigued. I picked up CivIV recently and that's the bit that put me off. I'm used to Total War and Civ seems so random and (at times) unfair by comparison.

Got the same problem as you Rain. Some days I can't even stream YouTube, I have to let the video load first! I'm eagerly awaiting LTE or WiMAX, it seems like BT have no interest in solving my speed issues so hopefully Vodafone/Orange/O2 will.

Windows Mobile always had the problem where software developers were having to cover up to a dozen different display resolutions and countless different hardware set-ups. It made developing for the whole community awkward and you would regularly see programs only made for specific devices, hardware set-ups or resolutions. The same problem can be seen with Android. Before the release of the Droid and Android 2.0 there was one handset that had real issues with Market software, the HTC Tattoo. It was running a QVGA display, and very few bits of Android software supported that resolution at the time (I don't know if the situation has changed). Looking ahead it won't be the end of Android's problems. There's software heading to the market that won't run on the older devices (even if they get the 2.0 or 2.1 updates) because of hardware incompatibility and manufacturers are continuing to use whatever resolutions/hardware set-ups they feel like. Both Microsoft and Nokia have suffered from this problem in the past. Nokia chose to fracture the Symbian Foundation and keep their own devices separate from everyone else's (almost killing Symbian off in the process). Microsoft's solution is to spec Windows Phones themselves from now on, meaning that outside of cosmetics and branding there will only be a few different models of Windows Phone. I'm wondering what Google's solution will be? Android is a great OS but I do think Google have a lot of work to do and they really need to get a move on. They've pretty much had free reign this past year, with Nokia and Microsoft temporarily out of the picture, Palm struggling to shift handsets and Apple releasing a bit of a lacklustre update in the 3GS. By the time 2010 ticks by though they really need to have Android sorted out. They need to add incentives for developers to build applications for it and remove the current crappy (from the developer's point of view) T&Cs. They need a proper media experience, including some form of syncing software. And most of all they need to polish the OS and make it look snazzy. Android 2.1 seems to have taken steps in the right direction, it's all a matter of time (and how long it takes them to sort it out).

Well, Microsoft have lifted the lid on their new mobile OS. Windows Mobile is dead and it's been replaced by Windows Phone. Details here; http://gizmodo.com/5471805/windows-phone-7-series-everything-is-different-now Or the short version; the Zune HD's interface on a mobile phone. Strong integration of Windows Live (People, Mail, Messenger, Photos), Xbox Live (Games, messaging, Achievements/Gamerscore), Bing (Search, Maps, Phone Search), Zune (Music, Video, Marketplace, Pandora!) and Facebook. New version of Office Mobile (with over the air syncing of files). They're working closely with hardware manufacturers and carriers to try and tie the whole thing up in to one neat package instead of the mess that was Windows Mobile (and to an extent is Google Android). See it in motion; http://www.windowsphone7series.com/ There's more to come, Microsoft has said as much. This was just a quick overview of the OS and the sort of capabilities the phone will have. So far, if they get some good hardware on board I'd be happy to buy a "Windows Phone". It's what I expected them to do, but more critically what I wanted them to do. I'm sure Apple will match the stuff seen here as closely as possible with iPhone OS 4.0, but they don't have Xbox Live or Office which to me are the really big selling features. As a side note, that blue they're using on the Start screen is eurgh The green and orange look much better!

HTC have the Nexus One and Bravo due out over here in the next couple of months. Both run similar hardware to the HD2. There's quite a list of handsets coming before the summer. I'd at least wait a couple of days until Mobile World Congress is over as there's quite a few handset unveilings taking place for Q1 and Q2 this year.

Were you happy with the performance of your old card? If so it wouldn't cost a lot to replace it with something equivalent. Otherwise, Nolan's suggestions are a good bet.

The demo is a bit crap anyway so you're not missing much. Got good expectations for the game, despite the limitations I had some good games this evening! The demo needs a tutorial and Team Deathmatch though, in it's current state it's likely to turn more people off than it draws in. The learning curve is quite high so Deathmatch was a really stupid choice of mode for the demo...

Three do some pretty strong deals. Their coverage is supposedly better than O2's too (based on Ofcom's findings, though that was just coverage with no mention of speed or the quality of coverage). Difficult to say really. You'd likely get better coverage and a faster connection from Vodafone or Orange but neither network will be as cheap as your O2 deal or Three's tariffs. Oh, and a last thing. I've noticed a lot of PAYG mobile BB tariffs have the credit expiring after 30 days. That'd be the decider for me, sounds like a right crappy situation.

Nope. The iPad uses a new type of SIM...

Downloading the PC demo now. Will do the 360 one while I'm at work tomorrow. Cannot wait! Hearing it's pretty darn good from various people

I'd actually agree with most of that, except for a few things. Movies-wise the aspect ratio and codec support on many other devices are better. And for web-browsing they really need to give Safari Mobile the ability to load multiple tabs at once. Winds me up on the iPhone that I can't read one page while another loads. Also (from one of your earlier posts) the price ain't gonna be £350. The US price is $499 before tax. Once VAT, import duty, shipping and other costs are taken in to account I'd bet on £450. Still a good price for those who can afford it, but it's hardly an essential enough product to warrant the cost. On a slightly unrelated note; I could kill Apple for their iBook pricing. Publishers are rebelling against Amazon already and making moves to increase prices. It sucks. Maybe. It'd seem like a bit of a waste of money on Apple's part though. Most devices tend to have an empty space inside where the 3G module would go.

It'll be possible. "All" someone has to do is rewrite OS X for the ARM instruction set and bypass all of Apple's security features.