More DayZ

   Well I have been keeping an eye on this mod and figured I would post some more about it as anyone who is currently playing knows it is still in the alpha stage. You play in Chernarus which is a 225 km2 map and when you first spawn on the coast keep the coast to your right to go north. If you feel like it you can always do a Google search for Charnarus map but if you do this make sure you take the name of your spawn point down so you can find your self quicker on the map. Make sure you are visiting the forums daily as updates are released frequently. Forums are another good place to try and find friendly players or maybe a group that you can regularly play with.
   Sense I last posted they changed you starting with a revolver to starting with the makarov pistol which is a 9x18 mm and from what I have seen they should bring back the revolvers as starting weapon.  I have watched several videos of people being chased by the hoard and just trying to out run them. You should actually run into a building because zombies have to walk in them and I have also seen zombies stopping and walking on bridges. While I have not played the game yet I have heard the key bindings can be daunting so I would recommend studying them before playing unless you don't mind learning as you go. If you ever need to have a blood transfusion you cannot perform it on your self so you will have to make friends with someone. Eating will restore 200 blood and eating cooked meat will restore 800 blood. Watch you're blood if it goes below 3000 you will start passing out periodically so if you are lucky at that point someone will give you a blood pack they have. Be careful moving at night as some players may have found a pair of night vision goggles. Some servers do show names of players so some times while playing you may see a name pop up even if you don't see the player. I will keep posting more info as I become more familiar with the mod.

DayZ survival

   Today I found out about an amazing mod called DayZ mod that is a modification of Arma 2 and you can download it at http://www.dayzmod.com/. This mod is a zombie survival mod that is both a fun and complex game play type. This mod required you to have ARMA 2 Arma 2: operation arrow head and if you want to have high rez character models you will also need Arma 2:PMC. When first spawning you will get the name of the location where you are but you do not start with a map or a compass. However when you first start you will have 2 baked bean cans, 1 water bottle, 1 pain killer, 2 bandages, revolver, ammo for revolver, back pack, morphine and 1 road flair.
   Because you can acquire different items throughout the time spend in game your character is saved and you can play that character on any of the servers. You need to be very careful when encountering other players and zombies because once you die your character is gone and all your items so you will have to start with a new character. You have the one road flair when you start and you can find other lights but remember that when you use lights at night they attract zombies and other players that may kill or rob you. When coming into a town you may announce your self as friendly but do this at your own discretion the other players may not be friendly. Players that have killed to many other players in game will have the ksk outfit so you may better identify them.
   In this mod you do need to eat food and drink water or you will die you can refill your water bottle and can search structures for food or you can take game but you need the correct tools to get their meat.
When you do manage to find a map and compass your position will not be shown on that map but with some work you should be able to find your location on it. This mod is set in real time based on the location of the server so depending on how much time you spend you may see the rise or set of the sun. Zombies in this mod have a heighten sense of hearing and smell so you may have to avoid them or just sneak past. A really big down point to this mod is that when you are looking at a player it dose not display their name so you wont always know who you are talking with. The mod is a alpha right now and hopefully dose not die but I do plan on dedicating some time to it as it looks really good. Right now I have not played the mod but once I get my pay check I will be purchasing Arma 2 so I can get started and I plan on posting updates about this mod.

My Fenix lights

   Ok I have discussed a little about being prepared while heading out doors during and now I am going to talk a little about some flashlight options that you may consider. Currently I have from Fenix the tk11R2 and the ta21 and both do work well out doors. The ta21 has a mas lumens of 225 with 12 different light settings on a revolving switch. Both of the lights are impact resistant and are ipx-8 waterproof standard. The ta21 on its lowest setting of 4 lumen will last for 170 hours and on the max of 225 will last only 1.5 hours. Both of these lights run on 2 CR123 batteries or 1 18650 li-ion battery the ta21 weighs 168 grams without the batteries and the tk11 weights 120 grams without the batteries. The tkllr2 general mode of 64 lumens will run for 10 hours and the turbo mode of 240 lumens will run for 1.5 hours. The cr123 batteries can be expensive if you purchase them one at a time but if you purchase them in a bulk pack from surefire they are much cheaper or you could purchase a rechargeable  18650 li-ion. If you plan on doing some camping in the woods I would recommend packing a flashlight or two and plenty of batteries. There are plenty of different brands of flashlights and what you chose to use is up to you so make sure you do some research when purchasing a flashlight.

Virtual horror

   Well I have started keeping up with the resident evil series as of late and am felling more disappointed by it lately. I honestly didn't know what to think when I read that cap com had no intention to make a return to the old school style of play. The cause behind this is profit, cap com wish to gain the cod market but while resident evil will not be returning to survival horror there is some good news. Shinji Mikami has recently announced project ZWEI which he will be the executive director and will be fully involved in the development. The genera of this game will be survival horror and Mikami states that "while big game companies make huge sales, we don't want to become a studio that loses sight of what is truly interesting or worthwhile." The one image released is nothing confirmed for in game just a tone setter. I personally cannot wait for this to be released but hope that it is not rushed in any way. I will post any updates I find as they are released. http://tangogameworks.com/project/index_en.html

Lucid Doom

   Well I have been keeping up with my lucid dreaming and I have been having more success after waking up in the morning and going back to bed. My latest lucid dream was sort of frightening but fortunately I have some control of what is happening. I was suddenly in a big room with a small station on the wall where I could purchase ammunition for a mini gun. There was one imp from the game doom3 and I was able to take him out really quickly that part of the dream did not freak me out but the next enemy made it worse. With out warning two huge hell knights started walking into the room and I was frantically purchasing as much ammo as I could and the thing that made me panic was when I started getting hit. I was killed and strangely re spawned but I still thought it was all real. The dream ended quickly before I had the chance to kill both the hell knights. I like having lucid dreams but feeling fear from some lucid dreams is not always cool. I will keep making updates when I have something else worth posting about but for now I will end this here.

Battle squad play

  So I finally joined a platoon in bf3 and have been sending and receiving friend requests and was very excited to play but when playing with them. We started playing on a hardcore server and I was immediately disappointed with the fact that I could only spawn on the squad leader. If you choose to use the battle log communication everyone has to be in you friends list so they can join a party to communicate. Even without voice communication  my self and squad mates have been successful in moving from point to point and capturing and holding flags. I would usually be the person that would setup behind cover and watch for enemy's as my squad mates would run from point to point. In doing this my squad was very successful in keeping all but two flags in our possession.
   While re capturing a flag a squad mate and my self were faced with enemy armor coming to the flag to try and stop us from taking it back. My squad mate distracted the armor by hitting it with an rpg and I snuck up and placed my c4 and destroyed the armor and the one person that was in the armor. Players on the opposite team started changing their tactics of just running and gunning when they realized that could not beat our playing style. The enemy team started playing really smart and had their LAV set up at G over looking E on karkand and were able to take back E. Even though the enemy team started using good tactics it was to far into the round and my squad was just playing to well for the other team to handle and we won by several hundred tickets.
   So my point behind this post is to show just how well tactics can work and not even heavily practiced tactics. I saved my squad mates and team mates by setting up and giving cover while they were moving in the open that most of my 30 kills of the round were defending team mates. So if you choose to use the battle log communication you have to create a party or join a party in the com center and then you can change settings near the bottom of the com center. The downside to battle log communication is that the people have to be in you friends list and I cannot just alt tab out to add someone to my list because if I do that my game starts lagging really bad and eventually crashes. So ultimately this post is supposed to tell you just how well tactics can work although not everyone wants to play this way some may but might think it wont work up against a bunch of people running around. But no matter how you play just try to have fun while playing.

Battle dedication

   The battlefield can bring pride glory and fame from a close few or from many. Scrims and tournaments are the foundation for many players and teams in the Battlefield 3 community. The road to success is not easy by any means and even the best of teams can be defeated. So I want to talk a little about what I have seen in successful teams. The biggest is well established communication on what ever software it is decided to use. Teams that do really well usually have different strategies they will chose to use for a particular team they are playing against and what map they may be on. Code names for different areas or specific points on the map so all players will be able to communicate the location of the enemy to team mates. Dedicate certain days and times for practicing all strats and work on communication things like coordination of movement and improving accuracy timing of executing tactics. Practicing different ways of defending objectives up close if able to hold positions or from distance as well as from armor and air. The entire team should be aware of how their team mates are doing and any issues should be addressed. I cannot stress how important having every one on the same page is so that everyone will know where they need to go and what they need to do. Over and over again my friend and I have died because we both had different names for parts of the map and locations. So good luck with selecting and training and playing with your team mates and as you should always try to have fun.