1961

You don’t ever need to go into the store part for these free VIP updates - just try and play a multiplayer game and it will offer them to you.

Yesterday early evening UK time you could only choose to play on the original 4 maps (none of the VIP ones) but if you chose “Any” it would make use of the full set. However it was kicking people back to the menu a fair bit. Then EA appeared to sort their end out and it was fine for the latter half of the evening. I didn’t check whether you could specify a map from the full range by that point but it certainly let us play on them.

1962

Thanks, I just checked and I can now access all the maps from the quick play menu. So that should keep me going until Vietnam. Speaking of which, will the four (or five) maps be available in all the game modes? I don’t think I’ll get it if there’s only one or two conquest maps.

1963

Eye for an eye, motherfucker

1964

That’s a lot fire. Can’t wait.

1965

Yeah, that looks hot. I’m guessing the overall lack of scopes will make combat more “intimate” which I think will make it more visceral. I’m excited!

1966

1967

That’s a weak looking flame.

1968

That’s a weak looking flame.

I imagine it will be just as useless as in Black Ops all said and done though.

1969

So my son and I bought BF: Bad Company 2 for his 360 over the weekend. Then we tried to play multiplayer online.

What a complete clusterfuck.

Even though I already had an EA Online account (thank you Dragon Age), it wouldn’t allow us to access multiplayer online features because it said our permissions were not valid. So I spent over an hour fiddling with Xbox Live accounts thinking that was the problem. No dice.

Then I spent another 30 minutes trying to associate my EA Online account with the primary Xbox Live account on the 360. Also no dice. After 90+ minutes total of frustration I gave up and emailed EA Support.

The answer I received: “You will need to login to Xbox Live, go to the marketplace, download an EA game demo, and register/play it. Once that is done, you should be able to link your Xbox Live account with the existing EA Online account you have.”

My response: “I just spent 90+ minutes of my valuable time trying to get multiplayer to work in an EA game I spent money on. You are telling me I now have to go through the process of connecting to marketplace, downloading a demo for a game in which I have no interest, register and play that game, then come back to the EA website and attempt to link my Xbox and EA Online accounts again. Does this not seem ridiculous to anyone at EA? No other publishers make me jump through these hoops to get multiplayer, which is an important feature of a game for which I have paid for, to work, it just magically works when I connect to Xbox Live, JUST LIKE IT’S SUPPOSED TO.”

I mean seriously, this is just stupid. Thanks for nothing EA. I think I’ll buy any future EA games for our 360 used so at least I’m not paying full price to spend two hours doing tech support.

1970

This is why I stick to PC games, where multiplayer “just works”.

1971

I think it’s hilarious that customer support knew to go for the demo solution. That’s brutal. You think they’d solve that by now if it’s a known problem in CS.

1972

Wow, you have to have an EA Online account to play MP on XBOX?

[I]Seriously?

[/I]I don’t know that I’ve ever played a multiplayer game on Xbox LIVE that required more than your LIVE account.

1973

Most EA games require their own account link. Even the singleplayer games like Mass Effect 2 and Dragon’s Age.

1974

Well I figured/knew that’s how it was on PC.
Guess my ignorance stems from not owning any EA games for current gen consoles.

I’m still surprised Microsoft would even allow such a barrier to seamless online play…

1975

Negatory. I’m sure I’ve never created an account for ME2 or Dragon Age on 360. It’s optional. I don’t remember creating an EA account for BF:BC2 either. Are we certain you have to? I may have created a dummy one like 12345@xyz.com. But I’m sure I didn’t create for for the Bioware games.

1976

The singleplayer games aren’t mandatory, unless you want to use any DLC. As for BF:BC2, are you only playing SP? If you play MP you must have an account linked.

1977

I was playing some BFBC2 tonight and tried to jump on the mumble server, but I was told I lacked permissions to talk or type. What’s up with that?

1978

haha. There was an influx of unknown people using the server, and the preferred method of dealing with them was, apparently, to prevent unregistered users from talking or typing. PM anti-bunny, assuming he doesn’t see this and reply.

1979

It appears that he is, uh, not accepting PMs at this time.

1980

Well, I’ll point him toward this thread tomorrow evening, provided he hasn’t found it on his own.