What is an ODG Breakdown
We at ODG want to be clear that what we are intending to do here is NOT to pull things apart in order to make DICE or anyone else look bad. The intention is to rise to the challenge that DICE presents with the amount of realism they’re building in and return that challenge to those same developers as constructive feedback (and a little gentle good natured ribbing at times).
Off Duty Gamers is here to provide subject matter expertise, guidance and information in an area we enjoy and support. Part of our self imposed responsibility is to advocate and represent the military community and make sure that its depiction is as accurate as it can be out of respect to the men and women who wear or have worn the uniform. What may count as pointless nitpicking to some is no different than if you started a game and someone had their pants on backwards, its wrong, looks funny to those who know and hopefully can get addressed.
Forgiveness
Since this is clearly the same code/build that we saw in the
previous breakdown of the video and the
trailer there’s no reason for us to point out ground thats been covered. We found the same weapon ticks (rear sights, M249 saw ammo feeder on an M240 machine gun) as well as a few more collision (things poking through solid objects where they shouldn’t) issues. Those are sure to be buttoned up over the course of development so we’ll try to stick to unique items distinct to this video.
Now that you know what we’re doing… lets get started.
This Part of the Story
In Episode II ‘Good Effect On Target’ we pickup pretty much where
Episode I left off. We are continuing through single player campaign mode and you the player are working with your fire team of US Marines to find, fix and destroy an enemy sniper that has been identified working out of an adjacent hotel (apparently no pets but feel free to bring your .50 caliber boom stick and enjoy the view of sunny downtown Al Basra, Iraq). Our team bursts forth onto the neighboring rooftop looking to find the source of the sniper fire that took down one of your team. Yup, its payback time and someone’s going to check out of their room … PERMANENTLY
Compliments/Kudos
Nobody likes to hear nothing but “what’s wrong” with your work and here’s where the team at ODG agrees that we need to say that first and foremost we are still very impressed with the details, mechanics, sounds and sights. In particular here’s some highlights that we wanted to point out that gets our attention in the plus column.
- Noted that as the Marines exit the doorway onto the roof they look around and move quickly and deliberately, clearly watching for threats.
- Upon exit to the roof we see foot falls causing a little debris/dust up lending ‘weight’ to characters in the environment.
- NPCs stack on walls, press against cover and Lance Corporal Forgetful on the M240 machine gun (we’re calling him that because he seems to write his name all over everything like he’s worried he’ll forget) even does some nice button-hook manuevers to point to the rear of the team to provide rear watch/protection
- NPCs both peek AND lean around obstacles and cover
- NPCs crouch and move from cover to cover in a fluid movement that provides a solid illusion of real weight and urgency
- NPCs and even the character animations for low crawls looks much better here, we saw a little ‘gliding’ in the ductwork of the previous video but not here on the roof
- Excellent demonstrations of destruction and even sparks from incoming sniper fire impacting metal structures.
- Sounds are rich, feel natural and there is a lot of ambient noises like helo’s and such in the area which we feel enriches the immersion into the role.
- Character fires AT4 and DISPLACES! YES… standing in one spot too long in an area already known to have a sniper is hazardous, our guy moves left after the AT4 is fired!
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Hit the door, stay small and watch for threats
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Peek and lean to expose less of your body to the enemy
Military Inspection
Here’s the pieces and parts that we noted that are either debatable aspects in which we will gladly banter to clarify or things that should be addressed at some point before the games release (In Our Humble Opinions).
Equipment Issues
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M249 ammo box on an M240
Ammo box on 240: As
previously mentioned the M240 machine gun seems to have an M249 style ammo box seen early at 0:19 seconds into the video. We cannot locate any resources to indicate that the 240 has that capability or option. We noted it because it was clearer in this video than the last.
AT4: Prominently featured in this video is the AT4, after looking at it more than a few times we figure its too short for its standard 40″ length. We’ll need to toss this out and hope DICE can either confirm it for sure or fix it but it just doesnt look the proper length. We’ve also identified this as the CS variant of the M136 AT4 which means “Confined Space”. This version adds a handle which we initially wondered about (as far as we know, its not in active use with the US military and was developed in Sweden so we know where they got it) since normally you hold the strap. A strap mind you that disappears but whats more magical is that this teams AT4 CS’s are special.
1. Please note the back of our fireteam point man, he’s clearly got 1 AT4 slung over his back
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0:19 seconds into video, 1 AT4 shown
2. When it comes time for the players character to do some AT4 work fire team point man takes it off his back and rolls it to you (PS. these dont roll well the ends are octagons and as an active missle system, I wouldnt advise rolling one around) but hey wait, whats that on his back, another AT4.
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Two AT4?
3. Watch as fire team point man sends this thing over to you with the sight up (not going to roll well either that way) and apparently off safe but hey, thats fire team member 2 doing the Chuck Norris look through the gaping hole in the cover thing so rolling a seemingly active AT4 behind him is likely of little concern. By the way, the strap seems to be gone too now, that number 1 guy is quick, remind us not to play cards with him after the mission’s over.
4. RPG and AT4 are different weapons, but if you have a look at the instructions in the upper left you’ll see that your character is being told to “Pick up the RPG”. This is a quick fix and would be a QA thing but we’re here so we noted it.
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RPG? There is no RPG here!
5. Before we leave the AT4 know that this weapon is a ONE SHOT item. Average price is roughly $1,500 for ONE but they are disposable. Fire and then dump the tube. We hope this is just a screw up or some factoring for the character missing and needing to fire again (which we hope someone ELSE hands you an AT4) but as you can see, your character appears to go through a ‘reload’ and if you look carefully in the lower right, you see that your AT4 now has 1 round in it again.
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Reloading an AT4?
We’re giving DICE a pass on the amount of force that one of these things can put downrange largely because we love the destruction level that seems to be coming out of the frostbite 2 engine. Unless the USMC was sure that the hotel was clear of civilians they’d never authorize anything that might bring down a building with such potential for collateral damage.
Check out the AT4 CS and see and hear for yourself and you’ll realize that its effective but not nearly so impact impressive.
Procedure Issues
Moving, Moving, Going? In this audio bit the team all noted that when the fire team moves from cover to cover the intentions are all clear and directions given about spacing (as much as you can on a rooftop that is) but two things came up. One was that typically the man pulling rear guard is tapped by the next man to let him know that its his turn to to move in a moment.
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Team movement
We didnt see this tap and oddly while watching it we heard the machine gunner say GOING when the rest of the team said MOVING. Struck us as odd and we had a couple chuckles as we pictured someone saying “hold up, Lance Corporal Forgetful is pausing for a tactical urination”. It is light but its there so we isolated the audio for you.
Moving, Moving Going
Muzzle Awareness: Here’s a military pet peeve civilians have a tough time understanding. In the military and for most anyone who handles weapons, understanding where the ‘business end’ of any weapon in the vicinity is located is always good practice. We always assume that a trip or slip could result in an accidental weapon discharge so knowing that the weapon isnt pointed at you or your pals makes everyones day just a little brighter. The concept is simple and drilled into all of us during training. You do not point your weapon at anything you dont want to make dead. This includes friends and sensitive local equipment (put a round through the commanders radio and you’ll see where that gets you). Being aware of your muzzle is YOUR JOB. In this video we noted that our character really doesnt do such a hot job of that and in fact scans pretty liberally across the crew. Yup.. its a game but hey, we see it, we wince and we think of the beatdown that Lance Corporal Forgetful may dole out if he catches us pointing at him or his tattoo’d personal artwork.
** I wonder if he has his name on his tats!? **
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Hey! Point that at the bad guys!
Situational Awareness: This just means knowing where you are in relation to the space, men, cover and most importantly the THREATS around you. We’re not techically in a 3D space but it sure looks to us that the number 1 and number 2 man in our team go from cautious to downright Chuck Norris like in stoic not giving a crap about an active sniper. As your team works out to the corner of the roof number 1 takes a knee and number 2 parks himself right in a hole in the cover. Lets just say unless you were damn sure that sniper had no angle everyone would be behind SOMETHING confidently.
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Psst Thats a hole over there with a sniper on the other side!
Closing
Dont get us wrong here, it looks like we tore this up but DICE does more right than they do wrong and since none of this is in a game that is ready for the shelves we are confident that DICE developers will look at this as just a little extra QA material to clean up on the way to what appears to be moving forward into a game we at ODG absolutely cannot wait to get our hands on. In the meantime we’ll continue to report on the progress and offer any support and technical advising that DICE might be interested in.
Thanks for reading and remember that NONE of this is possible without the amazing men and women who put their lives on hold and risk it all to keep the citizens of their home country and the ones in which they have vowed to protect, safe. We owe them an immense debt and all they ask for is a simple thank you.