My LvLcap crush

I've got such a crush on LvLcap. I watch a lot of BF3 youtubers and there are many funny, clever, entertaining people there. But LvLcap has this calm, soft voice that I could listen to forever and such an intelligent, humble demeanour. I just love his approach on things. He is analytical and focused whether it is a gun review or competitie gameplay, he never raises his voice or loses his temper. I just adore the man. I should say sorry deadie, but deadie loves him too, so he can't blame me. I somehow suspect he doesn't love LvLcaps voice quite the way I do, though...

Come closer, give me more

I am now a premium player. It cost me 500 SEK, but I am now a little more prime, a little more exclusive. Was it worth it? Yes. If you are going to get all the expansions, which I know I will, going premium will actually save you some money. Plus you get early access. So really it’s a no brainer. Will it give me more Battlefield? Yes. Very well, take my money, DICE.

And at the same time as I became a premium player and my menu guy started to glow like he just swallowed a radio active Jesus,  I also got access to Close Quarters. So I should have been happily skipping around the Ziba Tower wielding my pretty, new combat knife, but alas, this launch coincided with terrible job stress, concert tickets, the Prometheus premiere, a visit from mom etc and etc. So I haven’t played that much.

From the time I have spent in close quarters I can say this much: first time I spawned into the Donya Fortress I loved it. I spent the whole round just: “ilovethisilovethis”.  It’s tight, winding, full of little rooms and corners and corridors and holes in the ground and holes in the floors. And it flows. You never need to stop and you can flank everybody anywhere.  It gets a bit frantic, not what I’m used to, and it doesn’t really set the stage for tactical, careful gameplay. But it’s another flavor of battlefield, another side to its personality, and I find the tight, vertical gameplay incredibly entertaining. I just wish there were room for 24 players so you could seamlessly put it in a mixed map rotation, because I think it would be at its best as an upbeat release after a slower, dead serious Kharg Island or Firestorm.

And also, the maps are gorgeous. Just gorgeous.

I haven’t unlocked much of the weapons, but my first one was the AUG, which I’ve been interested in trying out since the trailer, and my god is it a great weapon! A bit slow for very close combat, but it’s crazy accurate, I mean crazy. Where you aim, it will hit. It has virtually no recoil. You can mag dump, it will not move. Plus, it’s a bullpup so it moves fast sideways even ADS. I will spend many hours cradling that baby. 

Social gaming

One thing I always liked about my illuminatia psn-handle was that illuminatia didn't have any psn-friends. Had. Battlefield has ruined that for me, Or, ruined...changed.

I never played to socialize. My gaming world has been private. My own personal adventures. When I found a secret cave in Zelda, it was there for only me. When I met my first zombie I was alone. And Valen Shadowbreath has never loved anyone but me. The only person I've really gamed with is deadie. And that was how we spent time together when we first met and lived in different cities - we played Dungeon Siege co-op online during the week, and took turns with the controller in FFXII on weekends. And I had no interest in playing more socially. I just did not understand what interacting with random strangers would have to offer me.
 

And along came Battlefield 3. Squad up! I was suddenly thrown into a situation where I had to communicate and co-operate with random people chosen for me by the game.I was hoorahed by strangers and friend requested by squad mates I kept alive on Tehran Highway. My friend list is growing and I am actually having fun. Today I played with a croatian guy - Vatreni007 has hoorahed me for weeks on Battlelog, so I played with him for a while. He seemed like an ok fellow, an it was interesting to play with him, since he chose different routes than the ones I usually take...
 

When you play like this, you know very little about each other. I don't know who you are, how you live, where you stand on politics or religion (unless your gamertag is JezusZaves99) - all I know is is if you can play, if you can cap a flag and hold it, if you try to help your team, if you are respectful. And that is enough. I suppose on a regular night I can play with construction workers, feminists, engineers, kindergarten teachers, red cross doctors, nazis, bakers, dyslectics, garden enthusiasts, rapists, cat lovers, social workers or terrorists (didn't Breivik play CoD?). And I can't know any of that.

I only know if you will throw me a med kit when I'm down to 5% health.

There is beauty in that. There is a strange hope for humanity in a game where we are shooting each other.

Donya Fortress. Sounds like a dream.

and looks amazing.

I'm getting confused about whether I should hope for a rainy summer now?