Battlefield 4 DLC pays homage to Titan mode

Via Gamespot:

The original mode featured two teams whose sole objective was to destroy the opposing team's warship, named a Titan. According to the official announcement, the new Carrier Assault mode in Battlefield 4 serves as a "re-imagining" of the Titan mode in Battlefield 2142.

Interesting. Not sure I'll still be playing BF4 at that point but we'll see. Since Battlefield 3 and up to this point in Battlefield 4 on Xbox One, I haven't really been all that thrilled with the expansion maps and new game modes and typically revert back to playing the original maps. I stay in the expansions long enough to complete the associated assignments.

Because I'm the grumpy old man in the stained wife beater t-shirt sitting on his porch yelling at you goddamned kids to stay off the goddamned lawn.

Holy God Almighty, They Updated Battlefield 4 Commander Mode And Now The Commander Is An All Powerful Godhead That - If Unchecked - Will Mercilessly Rain Cruise Missiles On Your Sorry Ass

Commander Mode just became God Mode in Battlefield 4.

Last night on Flood Zone I got killed by cruise missiles twice in a very short span and I wasn't even up on the rooftops. As a matter of fact, the second time I was in the water just outside of Charlie. Butthurt, I jumped into the commander chair.

I quickly found that they made a few big changes:

1. Cruise missiles regenerate more quickly than before

2. When the opposing commander launches a cruise missile, you used to be able to see the path and target on the map. No more. Now you see which side of the map the missile is inbound from with a direction arrow next to the cruise missile icon. The target is no longer marked which means you have to guess where it's going to land

3. You can still knock down cruise missiles with an EMP drone but you pretty much have to deploy your EMP drone right over the target. 

4. When the cruise missile enters the EMP cloud, it begins taking damage. The only way to knock it down with EMP is if the cruise missile enters the EMP cloud and descends within the EMP cloud. If the cruise missile enters and exits the EMP cloud, it'll take damage but not be destroyed

5. The EMP drone seems to be more powerful, blinding your view of both your and your opponent's players in the EMP cloud

6. The network hack tool is still there but seems to take longer to regenerate

7. It seems like the network hack isn't guaranteed to work all the time, as it did before. There were times when I was knocked offline right away and there were other times where I was given a warning that the other commander was trying to hack my firewall, but nothing ever happened

The long and the short of it is they've made the commander much more of a factor on maps that are (probably not coincidentally) typically dominated by rooftop snipers. Good luck running your rooftop sniper rackets with an enemy commander online. The commander vs. commander gameplay is far more dynamic and very tense. I tell you what though... you really need someone running commander if there's another commander dropping telephone poles on your ass. It's high-time you jump into the driver's seat...

I'm a Giant Sucker and Just Pre-Ordered The Titanfall Limited Edition Version With The Giant Light Up Robot on Amazon.com Even Though I Said I Wouldn't and Now My Wife Will Kill Me.

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I'm taking a huge gamble that an EA release will be worth playing at launch and that the game will live up to the hype. And that my wife won't actually murder me in my sleep by bashing me over the head with that giant titan statue.

Please don't tell my wife.

Update:

Last night, it being Valentine's Day eve and all, and having just spent $250 on what may be the most expensive hunk of shit that I've ever purchased, I couldn't take it anymore and fessed up to my wife regarding my raging asshattery. I accidentally approached it in such a way that didn't mention how much I spent and when she didn't ask, I didn't say anything, but couldn't get that I-Think-I-Just-Shit-My-Pants look off my face.

There was a pause. She studied my face and pondered my silence.

"$500?"

"NONONONONO! I'd never spend that much on something silly like this. Half that. $250."

And then I went on to say that I'd have paid at least $60 for the game anyway, and this comes with a bigass statue and a limited edition book of concept art and a poster and so on and by the time I finished, I'd even managed to convince myself that I'd gotten a good deal.

I do still feel weird about it though. By doing this nutty preorder of this fancy overpriced limited edition version of the game, I've all but guaranteed that the game is going to suck. It's a whole karma-fate deal going on here and I fear I've blown it for everyone.

These Wonderful Battlefield 4 Commander Mode Assignments

I always make a point to crank through assignments in Battlefield as quickly as I can, especially those with a weapon unlock as a reward. Getting them out of the way early saves me the trouble of slogging through old assignments to get to the new assignments to unlock new weapons. Sure, at some point they might offer paid unlocks for all weapons in Battlefield 4 but who likes to wait? Or pay?

Anyway, these awful Commander Mode Assignments in Battlefield 4. Here's my take on getting through each one with your sanity intact.

By My Command (Bronze)

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The tricky part with this one is earning the 10 Commander Leadership Ribbons. To earn a single Commander Leadership Ribbon you'll need to have someone accept your order ten times within a round.

You, sir, are going to need a friend. Have your friend start a new squad so they're the squad leader. Then have them spawn in and get comfortable. Start issuing orders to your buddy's squad and make sure they accept them each time. It's really the only sane way to get these lousy Commander Leadership Ribbons.

Without a friend, you'll find yourself issuing orders to the random squad leaders on your team in the match. Instead of doing you a solid and accepting your orders, they'll go through the trouble of calling up the Comms Rose to decline your order, which blows my mind.

On the flipside, if you find yourself in the squad leader's seat and your commander issues you an order, go ahead and do the poor bastard a favor and accept it. You don't have to carry out the order but keep in mind that if you do, you'll get bonus points. And loads of good Battlefield karma.

Tin Foil Hat (Silver)

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This is probably the easiest of the commander assignments to pull off. 

Simply drop into any map and make sure you've always got drones in the air and you're running vehicle or infantry scans whenever they become available.

The ten Commander Surveillance Ribbons are a little tricky as you need to earn ten scan bonuses as commander in a round. The easy way is to drop into Operation Locker as commander and simply keep a drone up around the flag at C. Anyone you've spotted that your team kills counts gives you a scan bonus.

We'll Meet Again (Sliver)

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Seems easy on the surface as all you gotta do is launch 100 cruise missiles. The hard part is you gotta launch 100 cruise missiles, which means your team has to hold on to whatever flag gives you cruise missiles.

The trick to this one is to play commander on Flood Zone. It's a relatively small map and the flag that gives you access to cruise missiles is C on the Xbox One, right in the middle of the action. It's likely that your team will capture this flag because it's the focus of the map.

If your team loses the flag, you're welcome to issue orders to take it but remember that whenever you're issuing orders to folks that you don't know, your mileage will certainly vary.

The easy part of this assignment are the early warnings. Simply find a quiet place on the map and spam out 50 quick early warnings.

Offensive Commander (Gold)

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You're going to want to head back to Flood Zone for those cruise missile kills, and here's why. Flood Zone is a relatively small map, which means the flight time for those cruise missiles will be shortest here. 

Next, you're gonna want to keep an eye on those rooftops for snipers.

Just after you launch your cruise missile at a pile of rooftop snipers, send in a supply drop on the exact spot where your cruise missile will land. While those snipers are reloading off your ammo drop, they won't notice the incoming cruise missile and you'll likely score a multi-kill. You'll be giggling like a jackass the first time you pull this move off... actually you'll giggle every time you pull this move off.

Designating 10 HVT's is a piece of cake, you just need to keep an eye out for them.

As for deploying 50 gunships? I had the best success on Lancang Dam. It's a little bit tricky because ideally you'll want your team to hold the island control point (C on Xbox One). You'll also need someone to shoot down the gunship soon after you launch it so that you can get a bunch of gunship deploys in a single match. The track of the gunship on Lancang takes it directly over the enemy spawn where there's always some jackass camping in the AA LAV spamming active radar missiles at aircraft.

One Other Insanely Helpful Commander Mode Tip

You probably already know that you can knock down the opposing commander's inbound cruise missiles by taking the opposing commander offline. You can also knock down an incoming cruise missile by popping an EMP drone over the target. When the cruise missile hits your EMP, it's toast.

Most commanders have no idea about this one and it may take them a few zapped cruise missiles to catch on.

One Bonus Commander Mode Tip

If you're going after your cruise missile launches or gunship deploys and your team isn't following your orders to take the relevant control points... just bail on the lazy bastards. Find yourself a different server. Honestly, life is short and playing in Commander Mode isn't the best Battlefield experience so throw your quit stat caution to the wind and head for greener pastures.

No Army Can Stop The Battlefield 4 Train

Via Kotaku, a damned funny article with video and animated gif of just about every vehicle on Golmud trying to stop the train engine:

Done streaming for today :) SUBSCRIBE: http://tinyurl.com/BADGERPLS TWITTER: https://twitter.com/DARUSSIANBADGER FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/TheRussianBa... T-SHIRTS: US: ...

Full Story Here:

http://kotaku.com/no-army-can-stop-the-battlefield-4-train-1520532218