Surviving BFBC2 Multiplayer – Part 4

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Read Part 3 here

In this part we’ll look at the in-game voice/mic communication and how to use them. This is aimed at effective communication with randoms, although it’s a good idea to utilise the principles when playing with your team.

Mic Comms

If you’re playing with friends speaking will probably be the communication method of choice (unless you don’t like your friends….) but most people will find themselves in a squad with random peeps from all over the world. Sometimes the people on your team may not be able to understand you, or your language. One thing that is very important to remember is that voice comms should come second to using the Spot function. An onscreen visual cue is much more helpful than babbling into the mic.

There are three things that are critical to effective voice communication:

– Keep the chat to a minimum
– Make sure your mic is only picking up YOUR voice
– Be concise and precise with the information

In the pre/post game lobby you can shoot the breeze as much as you like, but in game you need to be more picky about what you communicate – your funny cat story must take a back seat to what’s going on in game.

Due to the size and nature of the maps in BFBC2 it’s not always possible to have call outs for areas or locations. As such, unless there’s a very a prominent landmark it’s not going to benefit your squad if you report a sniper…..in some bushes…..somewhere. But if you can report a sniper, second floor, building overlooking bravo – then your squad have more to go on.

When playing with random people you need to use very obvious landmarks as most random players do not know callouts. In objective games the objectives are generally a good start followed by easily recognisable structures (for example, the lighthouse). In Squad Death Match games you’ll have to use terrain, or landmarks. Use the spot function whenever you can to ensure that if your voice alert doesn’t get noticed your team will have visual clues.

You should also get in the habit of calling out what you intend to do (but NOT a running commentary): “Flanking Bravo Left” or similar is all that’s necessary so that squad mates know where you’re going, can join you, or even advise you of any enemy they see in that area.

One thing that many people do not consider is letting someone know you are about to spawn on them. It has nothing to do with courtesy, but it does give fore-warning to the other player that there are suddenly going to be footsteps behind them. Notifying them also allows the other player to let you know if spawning on them is a good idea. If their position is being overrun then it’s probably not a good idea to appear in the middle of a hail of enemy M60 rounds…..

Vehicle comms are a very important aspect of squad communication. If your whole squad is in a vehicle then it’s a big juicy target for the other team. As such if you’re a gunner you need to tell the driver/pilot where you want him to go and also call out any threats – nothing fancy: Contact left, Contact Right will do – maybe a bit more info if there are multiple enemies or if they have RPGs or C4 or what not. If you’re the driver you should be listening to the gunners and either make their job easier, or take evasive action – either way communicate with the gunners what you’re going to do so they can adjust their fire accordingly.

And finally for this part….

Mic Abuse
Not necessarily people being abusive over the mic. Inappropriate mic use is what we’re about here. It’s important that your mic is set up properly so that it only picks up your voice and not the sound coming out of your speakers, the domestic abuse in the background, what you want on your sammich, or the baby on your lap (yeah, yeah, I know!). If your mic has a mute switch then use it when you are not speaking – although try to make sure that you use it the right way around so that your team hear your game specific chatter and not the bit that should be muted: “Sheesh this team are a bunch of dumbasses, they never get my callouts….*presses mute* =(okay guys contact bravo left…)= *unmute* Oh for the love of god! What a bunch of donkeys!….”

If you come across someone whose mic is causing you a headache ask them to sort it first (politely!) – but if they continue, don’t respond, or take a huff, press Start, go to the squad menu, select the player you want to mute and press the relevant button (Square on PS3, X on Xbox360). They will then have a little crossed out speaker icon next to their name.You can always unmute them later if you like.

Don’t forget, other players can mute you too. So if you are using the mic and no one appears to be listening then that may be the reason. That is why you should ALWAYS use the spot function.

That’s Part Four over. In Part Five we’ll be looking at levelling up.

Have I missed, misrepresented, or got something plain wrong? Let me know – use the comments.

Peas and loaves.

Find me on PSN – evaDlivE

Check out BackslashGaming.com for gaming news, views and reviews.

Clean Up Gaming with Ken

I’ve actually stopped writing the post I’d started in order to share this with you. I’d already broken off from that to do the long overdue dishes. Break off from the dishes (ugh….pots, always a chore, never a pleasure) for five minutes I thought I’d see what was happening on YouTube. There was new post from Ken Burton which I think is very important. I’m not going to introduce it, just have a look/listen:

Watched it? Rated it? If not, watch it before reading on.

Now, one thing that Ken was on about was what happens when someone gets on a game, gets abuse and basically sticks their console under the bed for a month. Seems a bit much doesn’t it? Well no, it’s not because it happened to me. And I wasn’t/am not a kid either.

So here’s my story:
Shortly after I got my Xbox360 I had Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (I think that’s what it was). Having come from the PC FPS background I wasn’t that keen to go into the console FPS world, but what the hell, one of my friends had the console and game and were loving it. So I had a go of the campaign mode and once I got used to the controls went into multiplayer – one of the team deathmatch type games.

As usual I joined part way through the game and straight away heard some guy from the South East of England abusing some person who was actually from Mexico, but that didn’t stop him from calling him a “Yankee”!? After a couple of minutes the Mexican guy had had enough and left, but the abuser was obviously so caught up in his own vitriol that he missed that part so I thought I’d inform him. This is basically what happened:
Douche: Oi Yankee! You’re very quiet Yankee. Not got anything to say for yourself Yankee?!
Me: He’s left
Douche: You what?
Me:The guy you were abusing has left, and he wasn’t American either…
Douche: Oh, you’re his bum chum are you? Is that it?
Me: Erm…no, I just thought you’d like to know….
So I was now the target of the abuse which mainly comprised of statements of how I live in the basement of my Mum’s house (very original), what I look like, well….just general douchery.

I played to the end of the round and then left, reported the player to Microsoft (not that they EVER do anything about such reports) and added him to the block list. But more importantly – I did not play online until Call of Duty 4 came out. And even then I was actually anxious about it – would it be the same, would it just be hatefilled arseholes yelling down their mics? It wasn’t I’m pleased to say. In the couple of months I played CoD4 I never got any abuse, but then, I never used a headset either (and still don’t to this day). In some ways I’m missing a major part of the online gaming experience, but on the other hand I don’t have the time, inclination or patience to deal with other people’s bad attitudes.

Perhaps if I ever get enough people on my friends list I will use a headset and join in some game chat, but for now, it’s not worth the hassle (especially as most people don’t seem to know how to use their mics anyway).

So there we are – Ken Burton, attempting to make a change to the gaming douchery that we all seem to accept, or at least tolerate. If you’re not a douche, then back his campaign. If you are a douche (you won’t have read this far anyway but….), I hope that one day you get everything you actually deserve and not what you think you deserve.

p.s. apparently Wings of Redemption has been less than complimentary to Ken Burton. I unsubscribed to WoR last week due to other douchey behaviour so it seems that he’s just trying to see how low he can go. Interestingly, OnlyUseMeBlade put up a video in which he gave tips on how to become a popular commentator on YouTube. His advice was basically, if you’re a douchebag in real life then it’ll come across and people won’t like you. Judging by the amount of “unsubbed” messages that are appearing on WoR’s channel his real character must now be showing through.

Peas and loaves.

Find me on PSN – evaDlivE

The Two Commandments

And so it was written, on the third day he descended from the mountain, and in his arms he carried two tablets. And on those tablets were the words of wisdom, the tenets by which all should live or be cast into the outer darkness where there is much weeping and gnashing of teeth. And he read from the tablets and it is written that these were his words: “Thou shalt not die, for to die gives the enemy team an easy victory. Therefore to die is to commit a sin against all that is holy and attract the wrath of all those who scream “NOOB!” into their mics with great vengeance and furious anger. And also thou shalt kill the enemy team, for the only way to victory is by the demise of the enemy team – unless you’re playing Domination in which case capture some flags you camping puke!”

The Two Commandments

Peas and loaves people.

Find me on PSN – evaDlivE

Mute All on MW2 – or: I’m a dumbass

Just a quicky.

In previous posts I’ve been posting about my annoyance regarding other users and their (ab)use of the mic. Well, I’ve recently discovered the proper cure (connecting a headset was my previous method). All I had to do was go to Options and put the Voice or Game Voice volume allllll the way down and Voila….problem solved.

/smacks forehead.

Find me on PSN – evaDlivE