Drydock – Much has been written about the beauty of Seran culture, but people often forget the backbone of industry upon which it all relies. This shipyard stands full of undelivered goods and the necessary tools of a society’s infrastructure. Its most prominent landmark is the rotting husk of a cargo ship that will forever stand in Drydock.

Gridlock – This ashen street was once a bustling tourist destination known for its quaint inns and waterfront cafés. Even the water is gone now, replaced by the burnt shell of a crater that stands as a testament to the loss of Seran humanity.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Hotel – Small island resorts such as this one catered to the opulent tastes of vacationing Serans. But as the Lambent infection spreads across the globe, tides are shifting to flood once popular beaches, and fierce winds batter and push at the walls of humanity’s creations.

Mercy – This area was once a bustling town square filled with people, but it never recovered from the UIR mortar shellings of the Pendulum Wars. Emergence soon followed, and the already heartbroken residents were shown no mercy by Locust forces, leading to an almost immediate evacuation. This large and open central square is surrounded on all sides by sheltered passageways and buildings.  A raised dais yields powerful weaponry and a view of virtually everything within range, but the power located there must be hard-earned and well-protected to provide any lasting advantage.

Old Town – Several remote areas of Sera managed to stave off the impact of Emergence for quite some time. Island towns such as this one were able to sustain themselves with small farms and a steady bounty from the ocean.  But all good things must come to an end, and eventually they could hide no more. This is an excellent map for team-based play, with multiple areas that are well-suited to both attack and defense scenarios. A well-executed plan will often reap great rewards, and an enemy caught unaware can be flushed into a trap like a chicken free of its coop.

Overpass – As the Lambent infection spreads across Sera, the planet is quite literally falling apart. And as the substrata beneath this forgotten overpass begin to disintegrate, the entire city block is collapsing along with it, sliding into a vast underground cavern. Head for the high ground or you just might slide along with it. Battles in this highly dynamic map often focus around the elevated Overpass, where teams can hole up and take advantage of the protected position and emplaced weaponry located there.  But gaining the high ground can also be a trap, as the team left below will most assuredly use mortars and orbital lasers to regain their lost footing.

Sandbar – This observation post once had a commanding view of the distant horizon. Never threatened, it was thought to be impenetrable due to its unpredictable coastline and the constant shifting of sandbars along the shallow water of the coastline. And it never did fall, it was simply abandoned when humanity fled from a threat that nobody could ever see coming.

Thrashball – This stadium was once home to a different sort of national hero, one who fought for honour and glory, instead of scrambling for survival.  The invigorating roar of the crowd has been replaced by the melancholy moaning of wind in the empty stadium seats. Stadium matches are no longer restricted to the playing field, and the team that controls the concession stands earns a great advantage. The scoreboard still keeps track of every point earned, but its frayed support cables also make it a precarious trap for anyone foolish enough to run underneath it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Trenches – The Locust have begun to carve mines and tunnels into the rocks of the Seran Deadlands, eking out any existence that resembles the underground passages of the Hollow they once called home. But this harsh environment is as relentless an d unforgiving as any enemy they’ve ever had to face. The Locust Trenches are small and tight, with clean lines of sight across virtually the entire battlefield. The central hill leads to a fortified bunker with a strategically important vantage point. Once taken, it is rarely surrendered, unless opposing forces can manage to sneak up under the cover of a passing sandstorm that leaves everyone blind for a short while.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Making Gears 3: Dedicated Execution” shows off a few things, besides the ones the developers talk about, that seem new to GoW.  The first few scenes of the game show a bayonet on the lancer being used to stab and kill Locust.  I noticed a scene where a Locust kills a COG and they erupt in a black cloud.  I’m not really sure what that is, but I like it.   Midway through the clip we see a scripted scene between a Locust and  Cog where they have a chainsaw battle that ends when their gunfire hits the large block above them causing it to drop on both of them.  At first, I wasn’t convinced that it was an interactive environment, but a little bit later we see an actual match that shows the block from another angle dropping.  Though it still could be a timed event like the acid mist in GoW 2.  Did you catch the playable female character?  Compared to Marcus Fenix, she looks like a twig. (Though doesn’t everybody look like a twig next to that beef stick?)

Then the devs talk about Team Deathmatch.  Has there really been no team deathmatch before?  They’re putting their “spin” on it by adding in tickets for lives that count down to the end of the enemy team.  Something that has been done in other games and is something that I feel doesn’t really qualifies as team deathmatch.  Alas, we shall have to wait until beta to see how that plays out.  Looks like they’re also finally able to track kills across the maps.  I only hope that they release the heat maps much like Bungie has done for Halo.

All in all, I am excited for the beta on April 25th.  Hope to see you all there!

Finally I can tell you (because they keep putting it out in press releases) how this combines parts of several Battlefield games into one unique system.  It contains the map styles of Battlefield 2, the weapons of Bad Company 2, the experience and coin system of Battlefield Hereos and to me it feels like the playing style of Battlefield: 1943.  Can you say “Mashup?”

If you’re not already enticed enough to join my medic Puzuzu and Mike’s engineer DrNate, then take a look at this trailer and then head over to http://battlefield.play4free.com.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

After watching it, I wonder if you’ll have the ability to choose which wire to pull.  I was surprised to see mouse icons appearing during the fighting cut-scene, which of course would be some quick-time elements that could keep the player engaged.  Back out onto the street, fighting continues at a rapid heart thumping pace that makes me, a grown man, cringe.  I certainly wouldn’t want to be a real soldier as I suspect that at this point in the game I will die many, many times.  Not only am I in love with the graphics, but the sounds are so real, they are unreal.  I can’t wait for this title nor the 12 minute reveal on April 17th.

Click here to view the embedded video.

[via Neatorama]

Click here to view the embedded video.

Take heed from the video above and realize a few things.  Hudson is not a major FPS developer and  paintball is not the only game in the title, but can be found alongside tennis, boxing, archery, beach volleyball, dodge ball, kendo, mogul skiing, snowboard cross and even figure skating.  Therefore it is not the focus of Hudson’s developing skills nor is this likely the final version.  Also, the Kinect is un-familiar technology for most people just trying it out and does have its own unique learning curve.

That said, how about some screenshots from DECA Sports freedom?  OK!

Most photo and video editing software packages now take advantage of multiple CPU cores and the unbeatable floating-point crunching abilities of the latest GPUs on the market. With that in mind, this is what I put together, all for less than $1,000:

AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban 2.8GHz Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDT55TFBGRBOX
[$199.99 plus a $10 Instant Rebate - Newegg]

AMD packed six cores into their latest Phenom II chip, which should give you plenty of CPU power to play with.  I could have gone with a slightly faster model that boasts a 3.2Ghz clock speed, but this processor could easily be overclocked to match.  There is no reason to pay more money for something that you can easily get for free.

ASUS M4N98TD EVO AM3 NVIDIA nForce 980a SLI ATX AMD Motherboard
[$139.99 - Newegg]

If you are serious about power, you’re going to need a board like this.  It can handle both the hexa-core CPU and the potential overclocking that you may be considering.  It is also SLI-ready so you can beef up operations in the graphics department a little further down the road at a nominal cost. Asus is a solid brand with a great reputation, so this motherboard choice was a no-brainer.

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9Q-8GBR
[$189.99 - Newegg]

Will all the processing you’ll be doing, I figured it would be best to just start off with 8GB of memory.  However, building on a budget has its trade-offs. To save a bit of money, I opted for a kit with four 2GB memory chips rather than a kit with two 4GB DIMMs. In the end, you get the same amount of memory, but there is no room left for any expansion as all four memory slots are already occupied.

ZOTAC ZT-40402-10P GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
[$229.99 - Newegg]

Here I have selected a Fermi-based NVIDIA card, which was actually a suggestion from Jared.  I couldn’t quite decide which card would be the best as there are several packing 1GB of memory, all all based on the same chipset.  For whatever reason, ZOTAC has embedded a faster shader unit, and I figure we might as well have it in our computer if it doesn’t cost any more than the competition.  A second card can be grabbed further down the road if you feel the need to go the SLI route.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
[$89.99 - Newegg]

This seems to be a great choice for hard drive space right now.  It has a reasonable spindle speed of 7200 RPMs, whereas some other “Green” units have slowed their spin rate down to 5400 RPMs. The drive has a good sized cache and a max transfer rate of 3.0Gb/s that works with our board.  With this drive, it should be quite some time before you will need to add more storage to house your collection of videos and photos.

OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ600MXSP 600W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC
[$69.99 plus a $30.00 Instant Rebate - Newegg]

This PSU should pump out enough power to keep the system stable, and it also has enough modular connectors for all of our various components. It is 80+ Certified, and it boasts two +12v rails which will come in handy if you choose to connect a second video card down the road.

LITE-ON CD/DVD Burner – Bulk Black SATA Model iHAS124-04 – OEM
[$19.99 - Newegg]

This is just a dirt cheap DVD writer made by a reputable manufacturer.

GIGABYTE gz-ph2a3 Black SGCC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
[$14.99 plus a $25.00 Instant Rebate - Newegg]

Last and least, this case probably is not the finest choice for air flow or looks.  However, it does the job and it beats building a case from Popsicle sticks and Elmer’s glue.



The total cost comes to $954.92 before shipping

Newegg is pretty reasonable when it comes to shipping, so depending on your location you will likely pay less than $20 to get all the components delivered to your door via UPS ground.