Some of the KILLER FEATURES of Miner Wars 2081:

• Voxel asteroids – over 8 kilometers in size!
• Fully destructible environments
• Over 300 space ships on a screen
• Build & Fight In Real-Time
• Create sectors, fortresses and space stations - Share your creations online
• Best works will get into the official campaign!
• Use Voxel hand to build and destroy voxel objects
• First person and third person camera
• Intuitive six degrees of freedom
• State of the art rendering technology
• Travel the whole Solar System
• Fully persistent world
• Harvest the Ore
• Tens of minerals and surfaces to Discover, Mine and Trade
• Epic story campaign in rich game universe
• Fanatical community supported by developers

PATCH NOTES

Selected improvements in the Nov 22 Battlefield 3 client-side update
A full list of changes is available on the Battlelog

•  General performance and loading time improvements
  
•  "Black Screen" fix for an issue occurring on some PC configurations
  
•  Stereo and rendering support for Nvidia and AMD graphics cards
  
•  Fixed several crashes that occurred when joining multiplayer and co-op sessions
  
•  Fixed a problem with high speed mouse movement (aka "negative mouse acceleration")
  
•  You should no longer be able to damage a friendly vehicle when sitting in an open position
  
•  Grenades now drop to ground if you get killed while attempting to throw it (dangerous in Hardcore mode!)
  
•  You should no longer spawn too close to enemies in TDM, SQDM, or Conquest
  
• A large number of damage and range tweaks on a number of weapons to fine-tune overall balance in the game
  
•  Added round duration and ticket summary at End of Round screen
  
• Fixed a problem regarding key bindings while playing
  
•  Significant changes to the Join Squad interface, detailed at the bottom of this post

Selected improvements in the Nov 22 Battlefield 3 PC server-side update

A full list of changes is available on the Battlelog

• EOD Bot exploit fix
  
• Several crash fixes
  
• Anti-stat padding measures taken, disallowing ranked servers to run obscure settings
  
• Improved team kill kick configuration
  
• Support for unranked servers. Unranked servers do not report players' scores to Battlelog, but server administrators can freely control all settings

Newly added Battlelog functionality – Share your stats

•  Ability to share your Profile and Stats pages to Facebook, Google+, and Twitter
  
• User Profile and Stats pages on Battlelog can now be accessed without being signed in to Battlelog if you know a user's URL
  
•  Single sign on from Battlelog to Origin. If you're not logged in to Origin and join a game server, Battlelog will automatically sign you in to Origin in the background and join the game server

Quick notes on Squad changes in the Nov 22 update

• Removed FIND ME A SQUAD option
  
• Allow players to join empty Squads alone, thus having 1/4 squad members
  
• Change order of options to LEAVE SQUAD, INV A FRIEND, SWITCH TEAM
  
• Disable Privacy flag when 1 man squad
  
• Reset Privacy flag from Private to Public when squad drops to 1 player
  
• All occupied Squads will now show up colored blue on the Squad Selection screen
  
• Players who choose not to join squads will also show up as Blue in the "Not in a Squad” line
  
• Squads that are currently empty will display as white -- if you wish to join an empty Squad, you can choose the first one marked with white text

I devoted some time this weekend to watching Uwe Boll's latest film, BloodRayne: The Third Reich. If I am recalling things correctly, the first BloodRayne game involved a lady Dhampir killing Nazis. It has taken Boll three abysmal BloodRayne movies to finally get around to pitting Rayne against Nazis. The only thing I really remember from that game is how Rayne could use a German soldier as a human shield while draining his blood at the same time. I had thought that Boll could at least include that in the movie, but he doesn't. There is one use of a human shield and she sucks one Nazi's blood, but these are two separate incidents. I'd imagine that bigger fans of the game would be even more disappointed by the film's lack of fealty to the source material, but Boll couldn't even include a proper house in House of the Dead, so I guess this is a step up from that.

Long story short, BloodRayne: The Third Reich is a terrible movie despite all the boobies. After viewing it, I had to do something remotely amusing, so I watched Hard Target. It's cheesy, but way more entertaining than Boll's film. If you'd like to read my full review of BloodRayne: The Third Reich, then click the link under this lovely video clip from Hard Target.

Map Balance

• Reduced Elite Riflemen and Assault roles on all maps.
• Fixed various spawn camping issues on all maps.
• Apartments
• Added additional allied spawn after capturing the first set of objectives
• Barracks
• Fixed an exploit that allowed you to get into a wall
• Fallen Fighters
• Added missing spawn on squad leader spawns to sewers and trenches
• Grain Elevator
• Added a spawn for the Allies that is on the 4th floor. This for when the allies are defending the Foothold
• Spartanovka
• Fixed a issues with spawn protection incorrectly showing up when one of the objectives was captured in the 16 player version. Also fixed an Allied spawn not working correctly on the 16 player version.

Performance/Stability

• Reduced the fps hitch during first spawn
• Improved the frame rate smoothing video setting to give more stable FPS
• Fixed memory spike when changing teams in the role selection menu
• Improved physics performance (removing another cause of hitching)
• Fixed a crash when device was lost

Other

• Fixed a wall exploit while leaning
• Satchel objectives can now be 'captured' by destroying the target
• Fixed getting kicked for idling if the server has set MaxIdleTime when reinforcements have run out, or when dead in countdown mode.
• Fixed momentary green scope texture when taking over a bot with a sniper scope.
• Fixed a bug where tank crew members would be invisible the first time they unhatch from the driver seat
• Tank geometry should no longer disappear after being killed as a tank crewman
• Several problems with the hero rank have been addressed (Enemy loadout weapons not showing up, losing hero status after death, UI refinements, etc...)
• Launching the game the first time will add a setting, HUDTipsLevel, to ROGame.ini. Changing this will reduce the amount of text tips that appear on the HUD (0
• All Tips, 1
• Moderate Tips, 2
• Few Tips). Looking for feedback and later on we may add it as a menu option.

The first investigation mission I undertook actually required the use of Google, not in the game but on the actual computer I was playing on. Real world knowledge that I sorely lacked was required. It’s at times like that, standing in front of a portrait and trying to figure out which historical painter’s style it’s mimicking, that I felt myself most absorbed. Even though I was tabbing out of the game to search the internet, I was in the game more than at any other time, because it’s whole philosophy is to blur the lines between the real world and The Secret World. They are one and the same and at that moment, they really were.

It’s not just the investigation missions that form short stories though. All of the quests, even those that mostly involve biffing zombies, have enough dialogue and character to form interesting narratives of their own. Killing zombies isn’t just a way to clear an area, it’s a way to learn about how their biology works, with a full report sent back to Templar HQ. There’s a purpose to everything.

Even taking a lunch break from the game proved enlightening – “rather than quitting, you might want to just go to the church. The zombies can’t follow you in there”, spaketh one of the devs. Sure enough, the angry undead disintegrated at the threshold and my budding Templar rested there in peace while I scoffed down a baguette. They can’t walk on holy ground, I thought to myself, but it was only later that I noticed the Illuminati symbols hidden in the stained glass. Questions, questions, questions.

It sounds fairly interesting. I haven't played an MMO in ages, however. Are any of you looking forward to this one?

The DICE team are hard at work supporting Battlefield 3. To date, we have implemented several server updates to improve stability and performance. Next week we are publishing a significant Battlefield 3 client update for the PC. Console patches take a bit longer due to the certification requirements for console content, but it will follow shortly after the PC update.

So what’s in the PC patch? You’ll see improved polish, stability, weapons balancing, squad control functionality, user interface enhancements, and several feature enhancements that address feedback the community has provided to date – plus we’re removing the so called “negative mouse acceleration” that some of you have experienced.

Edit: It was brought to my attention that the blog post was from the 18th. Which means the patch will come out this week.