Last Night We Repeatedly Battled a Malevolent Force and Lost Again and Again and Again.

Here's where I started the night with Local. I came in part way through and went 26-5. Just total stud mode, thinking this is going to be an amazing night.

Here's where I started the night with Local. I came in part way through and went 26-5. Just total stud mode, thinking this is going to be an amazing night.

Local disappears and it's just myself and Moelman and we get crushed. Here's where the malevolent force descends upon us and never lets us go. Alpha and Bravo were on lockdown from a coordinated defensive effort by the opposite team. It was a comple…

Local disappears and it's just myself and Moelman and we get crushed. Here's where the malevolent force descends upon us and never lets us go. Alpha and Bravo were on lockdown from a coordinated defensive effort by the opposite team. It was a complete instant death no-go zone. If I spawned there, I fled and died. Unbelievable.

Let's bail on that server and jump back in on the same map. Different verse, same as the first. My butt? Hurt.

Let's bail on that server and jump back in on the same map. Different verse, same as the first. My butt? Hurt.

Alpha, Bravo, Charlie? Locked down and this was on another different server. Moelman and myself blamed each other for picking the server but this time around it was totally my fault.

Alpha, Bravo, Charlie? Locked down and this was on another different server. Moelman and myself blamed each other for picking the server but this time around it was totally my fault.

Time for smartass Moelman to pick a server. Nice pick, asshole. The beatings will continue until morale improves.

Time for smartass Moelman to pick a server. Nice pick, asshole. The beatings will continue until morale improves.

Another nice pick. We did a hair better but it was still a complete butt-whipping. That was enough for me, lol.

Another nice pick. We did a hair better but it was still a complete butt-whipping. That was enough for me, lol.

The xBox One Majorly Let Us Down Last Night

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Last night was great, was up with Valor and ObiWan, cranking away on tough competition when Local sent us a party invite. See, typically when we've got a party going, folks that want to join later won't have the option to "Join Party" for whatever reason and only see the option to "Invite to Party". When one of us gets the invite, we send the latecomer an invite and they join our party and all is well.

But not last night. I got Local's message and sent him an invite and he never joined. He sent me a few more invites and I sent my counter invites but no luck.

ObiWan left and only Valor and I were in the party so I told Valor to leave our party and try to join Local on one of his invites but when he hit the accept invite button, nothing happened. I told Valor I'd bail on our party and send him an invite once I'd joined Local, and off I went.

I left my party and tried accepting one of Local's invites and... nothing happened. I tried again, no joy. I sent Local an invite to my party and when he hit the join button, nothing happened. Great. We tried a bunch more times with no luck.

I went back to my friends list and looked at Valor's profile and he had the "Join Party" option active, so I hit the button and popped right into his party. When Local tried the same thing, nothing happened.

Here's my theory. I think when our party originally started earlier in the night, all was well. Something happened somewhere that messed up the system and wouldn't allow folks to join on invites or in any other way. I think since our party started before whatever happened and was held open by Valor, we may have been one of a few remaining parties in the xBox One universe.

In any event, that whole thing sucked. BF4 without parties and chat is a nightmare.

There's a patch that's supposed to be coming out for the xBox One very soon that's supposed to overhaul the whole party/chat scheme and I hunch some server side update took place to accommodate those changes and that change broke the current scheme.

From my point of view, no chat, no battlefield.

For What It's Worth: We Now Have A Platoon - [MALH] My Aunt Lucys House

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It's a little complicated to join as we have to be friends on battlelog. You can hit me up on battlelog as KaiserVonGrauer and we'll get you figured out from there. We're mostly dads who, when not playing Battlefield 4 on the Xbox One, sit in our front lawn on alley-found furniture wearing stained ripped tee-shirts, yelling at the local kids to stay off our lawn.

The Battlefield 4 class-action lawsuit went nowhere

Via Gamespot:

The class-action lawsuit against Electronic Arts concerning Battlefield 4 has amounted to nothing at all. Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP--the legal team behind the high-profile Enron lawsuit--commenced the legal action in the middle of December, but the case required a lead plaintiff (someone materially harmed by the company's sales performance) to come forward within 60 days for the case to become an actual class-action lawsuit.

That never happened.

Nothing that has anything to do with Battlefield 4 works right...

Battlefield 4 Platoons Going Into Early Access

Via Gameinformer:

After quashing the idea that they would make a return for the sequel, DICE has some good news for fans. Platoons are coming back, and early access applications are open. In order to be considered for the trial group, you need to respond in this thread with your Battlelog/Origin name. If you have a pre-existing platoon, your chances for being selected will be improved.

Am I crazy for not remembering this from Battlefield 3?  

Battlefield 4 Xbox 360 crash fixed, PC crash being investigated

Via Polygon:

DICE rolled out another update patch for Battlefield 4 on Xbox 360 today and said they are looking into a crashing issue with Windows PC version, according toBattlelog.

"We are working on a fix for an issue on PC that causes the game to freeze, resulting in a sound loop," reads a banner at the top of the site. "We will share more information once available."

Full story here.

It seems to me like every patch causes more problems, a one step forward, two steps back sort of thing.

Malloman Says Titanfall is The Shit; Local Says Titanfall Blows. KaiserVonGrauer Cancels Limited Edition Preorder, Disconnects Kinect and Urinates On It

It's really weird because Malloman tends to be negative and skeptical and Local tends to be more positive about things than anyone I know, so, good on you guys for effing up my worldview.

But anyway, it seems we're officially at loggerheads so I'm gonna wait and see on this one. No point in forming an opinion on something I haven't played but I'll err on the side of cautious skepticism whenever EA is involved.

I will say though I was given great pause when I read Titanfall was, "Like Call of Duty on Steroids."

Update: I'd never urinate on something on the family room floor, no sense in pissing where you game. I do hate that thing and look at it askance from time to time.

Bioshock Studio Irrational Games Is Shutting Down

Via Kotaku:

Irrational Games, the studio that makes BioShock, is shutting down. BioShock creator Ken Levine said today that he plans to move on to smaller, narrative-heavy games that will be released digitally.P

Levine, who ran Irrational, announced the news on the Irrational Games website today, noting that he'll be starting "a smaller, more entrepreneurial endeavor at Take-Two" and laying off all but 15 people.

From every end, a new beginning.

Xbox One Update Live This Morning

Only ~350mb or so. For something that needs as much work as the Xbox One, I'm doubtful there's much in here worth getting excited about... We'll see. 

Update from Polygon: 

According to Xbox support, the latest version of the Xbox One system software adds the following new features:

  • Update to My Game & Apps to allow sorting of games and application lists, and separate queue lists for games, applications and installs
  • Ability to delete game and application save data
  • Improved installation and DLC management
  • Addition of the controller battery power indicator
  • Improved UI for accessing friends, achievements, messages, and party chat
  • Game DVR app to be included in the Xbox OneGuide as an app channel
  • Update to the boot progress indicators for system update
  • Improve consistency of UX for update & install progress
  • Separate game, application, and install queue lists
  • Addition of USB keyboard support

The update also includes a handful of stability and performance-related changes:

  • Improved NAT detection
  • Network Troubleshooter improvements
  • Blu-ray quality improvements
  • Significant performance and stability improvements

Microsoft also confirmed earlier this week that the update makes some slight changes to the Xbox One's thumbstick sensitivity.

Update 2 from Major Nelson: 

Tip: Once you get the update, you can press the Xbox button to see the battery indicator on screen in the lower right next to the clock.

Also here are some notes about what is in this release:

  • Ability to delete game and application save data
  • Improved installation and DLC management
  • Improved UI for accessing friends, achievements, messages, and party chat
  • Game DVR app to be included in the Xbox OneGuide as an app channel
  • Update to the boot progress indicators for system update
  • Improve consistency of UX for update & install progress
  • Separate game, application, and install queue lists
  • Addition of USB keyboard support
  • Improved NAT detection
  • Network Troubleshooter improvements
  • Blu-ray quality improvements
  • Significant performance and stability improvements

 

Titanfall beta only runs at 792p, Xbox One fails to deliver 1080p for major release

Via Extremetech:

The beta is confirmed to be running natively at 792p, and it seems unlikely that the final version of the game will be capable of running natively at 1080p on Microsoft’s console.

Respawn Entertainment’s Abbie Heppe recently confirmed the beta’s oddball native resolution, and the reactions have been mixed. On one hand, this is good news. Rumors were spreading that Titanfall could end up running at 720p, so this is a step up. On the other hand, the dream of running at 1080p on the Xbox One seems dead at this point. Even with the 53Mhz GPU bump and additional power gained by disabling the Kinect’s video features, a make-or-break game like Titanfall still can’t achieve 1080p.

"Next Gen" isn't living up to the hype.

Titanfall Beta Servers Down

Via Slashgear:

This afternoon servers are in short supply for the Titanfall Beta, owing to a bug rather than to a final limitation for the game. According to Respawn Entertainment developerJon Shiring, Microsoft is both aware of the bug and is working on a fix right this minute. You'll encounter this situation in gameplay when you see the message "no servers found."

The bug is not limited to the Xbox One as, again confirmed by Shiring, "all servers on all platforms are on Microsoft's Azure platform." While we do not have an ETA for when the issue will be fixed, it does seem as though it's not a complete break-down: some users appear to still be able to jump in on games.

That was from 2/14. I'm not surprised. Same old song.

PS4 Nearly Doubles Xbox One Sales For January

Via Forbes:

The NPD numbers for January are in, and the PS4 appears to be steaming right ahead in 2014. Sony's console led US hardware sales for the month, “nearly doubling” the closest next gen competitor, according to a Q&A on the company’s site.  It’s especially impressive considering the fact that units are nearly impossible to find in stores, making it hard to tell how many PS4′s would have been sold were they readily available.

I chose to stick with the Xbox because I wanted to continue having the same experience gaming with the friends that I'd met on the Xbox 360 and there was a consensus in our group that we'd stick with Microsoft.

What kills me is that all the issues around the Xbox One launch killed the experience that my friends and I enjoyed on the Xbox 360: Broken chat, stability issues, slow response times. Add that into the botched Battlefield 4 launch (EA and DICE should be horsewhipped) and... what a fucking mess.

Honestly, I'm wondering if I made a mistake sticking with Xbox. I can't tell if things would have been any better on the PS4. I'd have probably have had different issued had I switched and I'd have still had to deal with the Battlefield 4 issues, so I'm thinking I was damned either way.

Must be great knowing your customers feel damned.