ST. LOUIS, April 29 (UPI) — Jonathan Lucroy smacked a go-ahead, two-run double in the sixth inning Sunday and Milwaukee survived a late challenge to best St. Louis 3-2.

Trailing 1-0 in the sixth, the Brewers scored three times to take the lead.

Carlos Gomez hit a lead-off single, went to second on a fielder’s choice and scored one out later on an Aramis Ramirez single, forging a 1-1 tie.

Following Corey Hart‘s single, Lucroy blasted a 2-0 pitch from Jamie Garcia (2-1) off the top of the left field wall, scoring a pair of runs.

Zack Greinke (3-1) earned the win with six innings of one-run ball, overcoming four walks.

John Axford nailed down the save in the ninth when the Cardinals’ Tyler was thrown out at home on a broken play to end the game as the Brewers avoided a three-game sweep.

Garcia ended up yielding three runs on nine hits over seven frames, walking one and striking out six.

Rafael Furcal had two hits and an RBI for National League Central-leading Cardinals.

MINNEAPOLIS, April 25, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – RazorSync, the leading mobile field service software provider for small and independent business owners, recently deployed a major version release of its field service application. Our easy-to-use expanded software now features enhanced customer details, field worker time tracking, and vastly expanded service items features which helps users easily schedule, dispatch, and communicate service business activities via the web or their mobile device.

With enhanced customer details, RazorSync users now have a complete Customer Relationship Management system that supports multiple service addresses, contacts, notes, attachments and service forms.  These enhancements are ideal for customers that service multiple sites and customer contacts but want to track activity under each location. Multiple price levels for service items, additional service item description fields, or taxable service items have also been enhanced so customers can assign tiered pricing, custom pricing or discounts and promotions instantly from their mobile device. 

Whether it’s time tracking of mobile workers, auto-calculated travel, or service time the improved Time Tracking features in v3.5 make it easy for business owners  to manage and dispatch field employees for efficient allocation of employee resources.

“These improvements are the direct result of feedback from our small business customers and are aligned with our mission of creating low cost, more highly efficient tools which empower our customers to improve their customer service and field employee communications,” says Christopher Rywelski, vice president of product marketing for RazorSync.

Pricing and Availability

RazorSync v3.5 is available for immediate use and is available at $19.95 per user per month. A Free 30-Day Trial version is available with all features enabled and any work performed in the trial edition can be used in the full web and mobile editions.

About RazorSync

RazorSync, LLC is a Minneapolis, MN based company that provides mobile field service software to small and independent business owners. RazorSync is a powerful, easy to use, and low-cost mobile-to-cloud (MOCLO) field service application. Instantly access, schedule, dispatch, and communicate field service business activities to customers and field employees via the web or smart device. For more information on RazorSync, please call +1 877 675 4395 or visit www.razorsync.com.

Contact: Star Bazella
Director of Marketing
Phone: +1 612 486 5411
sbazella@razorsync.com

Battlefield 3′s upcoming Close Quarters DLC has been revealed with the Donya Fortress map video from DICE.

Donya Fortress shows the new upcoming BF3 mode Conquest Domination which represents how DIC has moved “the battlefield indoors to present relentless infantry action with unprecedented HD Destruction.”

Conquest Domination is described as “basically a clever mix of the tactical Conquest mode and the instant action gameplay approach in Close Quarters, tailored to the tight level design and frantic close quarters combat.”

Check out the trailer above for more and look out for more on Close Quarters later today.

More Battlefield 3 on NowGamer:

• Battlefield 3 Interview: Patrick Bach On BF3, DLC Patching Issues
• Battlefield 3 Studio DICE Developing New IP
• Battlefield 5 On Google Glass – YouTube Video Of The Day
• Battlefield 3: DICE Launches Battlelog Mobile App For iPhone, iPad
  

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ATLANTA — The Atlanta Braves displayed patience against Kevin Correia Sunday afternoon, and it worked.

They took advantage of the five walks Correia issued and defeated the Pirates, 4-3, at Turner Field.

Correia (1-1) did not make it out of the fifth inning. He allowed three runs, two earned, on four hits in 4 1/3 innings and did not strike out a batter while throwing 53 of his 101 pitches for strikes. The Braves scored their first three runs with the help of two hits and two errors in addition to the walks.

Correia had walked three batters combined in his first 18 innings this season and had pitched six innings in each of his three starts.

Martin Prado hit a solo home run in the seventh inning. Craig Kimbrel got his eighth save.

Jose Tabata had three hits and two RBIs, and Garrett Jones, Neil Walker and Pedro Alvarez all doubled.

The Pirates got six hits against starter Tim Hudson (1-0), who made his first start of the season after rehabilitating from offseason back surgery, but could not do much once he left the game. They stranded 10 runners on base and went 1 for 13 with runners in scoring position.

Tabata knocked in two runs in the second. Alvarez and Michael McKenry singled, and Correia advanced them with a sacrifice bunt. Alex Presley walked to load the bases for Tabata, whose single to right field scored Alvarez and McKenry to put the Pirates ahead, 2-0.

The Braves loaded the bases in the third without a hit, thanks to two errors and a walk. Andrew McCutchen dropped Hudson’s fly ball, Michael Bourn walked and Martin Prado reached on a ground ball that Alvarez couldn’t handle. Freddie Freeman flied out to center to score Hudson, and the Braves made the score 2-1.

Tyler Pastornicky tied the score in the fourth. Dan Uggla walked, went to second on a grounder and scored on Pastornicky’s double, making the score 2-2.

Correia walked himself into trouble in the fifth. Bourn led off with a single, but Correia walked Martin Prado and Brian McCann to load the bases. A walk to Uggla scored Bourn, giving the Braves a 3-2 lead, and manager Clint Hurdle removed Correia for Brad Lincoln.

Lincoln struck out Chipper Jones looking and forced Jason Heyward to ground out, and exited the inning without allowing further damage.

Prado made the lead 4-2 in the seventh when he hit the first pitch Lincoln threw in the inning into the seats in center field for his second home run of the season.

Tabata doubled in the ninth and scored from third when a wild pitch got away from McCann. Replays appeared to show that the ball hit Garrett Jones in the foot, but the run stood.

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DICE has been praised for its groundbreaking new engine, Frostbite 2, due to its capabilities. Its technical prowess has already been showcased in Battlefield 3, as well as Need for Speed: The Run, but how will the engine make a transition to the next-generation of consoles?

Asked whether he foresees considerable improvement in both visuals and AI created by Frostbite 2 upon next-generation arriving, executive producer Patrick Bach told Eurogamer: “Yes and no. Yes because we will have a better understanding of our own technology. Knowing your tools would make it better. But then, if you look at the game we have, even on the current generation we’re thinking about how we can make things better.”

“But then on top of that, it all depends on how much CPU, how much memory, how much GPU do you get extra?” continued Bach. “You’re competing now with the high end PC, where you have a lot of power. When we released the first imagery on PC for Battlefield 3, people were like, oh my god, is this possible?”

“If the consoles don’t take a big step beyond that, if it’s on par with PC, PC will still be the bar of how pretty something can look. How do you make sure you create one game for all the platforms that is scaleable, so you don’t have to rebuild the game?” he said. “Here’s a game with one AI, but here’s the same game with a completely new AI because we couldn’t do that on the other one. It’s all about managing risk and focusing on scaleability and finding the right balance. It’s hard to answer if you don’t have the specs for the consoles.”

DICE’s main current focus, meanwhile, is still geared towards Battlefield 3, which they claim still has 12-18 months of value to offer players. Their bold statement will be sparked by the imminent release of expansion pack Close Quarters in June. That will be followed by both Armored Kill in Q3 and End Game during Q4.

This June legions of Battlefield fans, quite frankly, won’t be surprised in the least with the release of Battlefield 3: Close Quarters. The DLC title says it all. And the trailer released several weeks ago reveals everything you need to know.

But a lack of surprise doesn’t mean you won’t love it. (And, hey, we’ve got a new trailer to look at.)

Ditching the large-scale, vehicle-trodden landscapes filled with tanks and jeeps and jet planes and helicopters thrashing about dusty roads and sunny skies, developer DICE has decided to make everything, shall we say, intimate. In Close Quarters—due in June for PC and Xbox 360 for $14.99, with PS3 players it one week earlier—they’ll experience a popcorn festival of tightly-knit maps designed for face stabs, shotguns blasts to the chest, and obliterating missile strikes in narrow corridors.

In short, it’s a powder keg of claustrophobic fun.

During EA’s event held in San Francisco, Ca. last week (where Crysis 3 was also demoed), I sat down and played several dozen games on the PlayStation 3 and experienced a different kind of Battlefield; one that made me shout, talk crap to my opponents, and laugh. (Normally, I just shout and talk crap.)

The laughter was due to the power of the first unlockable weapon, the shotgun. Once I held it in my virtual hands, I ran screaming across the map, blasting the heck out of everything that moved. The result was hilarious and rewarding. Inside the myriad hallways, the shotgun blew opponents backward, decisively, to their death; the sound was powerful and ear-splitting. The physical impact was very satisfying. I admit, the first few folks playing weren’t very good, but after weeks of going online and finding just how talented ordinary players are, the pleasure was all mine.

EA revealed the first Close Quarters map in March, a skyscraper level called Zeba Towers. That map focuses on a mixture of outdoor skyscraper environments, with close knit hallways and lobbies. I played the second revealed map, Donya Fortress. And for this map, EA revealed the new gameplay mode, Conquest Domination, which is essentially a micro-scale, accelerated version of Conquest. The goal is for one team to hold three key points for the longest time. Because the maps are smaller, the time it takes to secure a flag and the play period are both shorter, condensing the experience. It’s worth noting that the flag points are always in the same places.

There are immediate similarities between the Zeba Towers and Donya Fortress, including the fact that they literally contain close quarters. Both levels feature vertical design and the dozens of interlocking rooms play a part in the experience. Apart, these elements don’t seem terribly exciting, but together they create a densely-packed, highly-concentrated feel.

The differences are slight but discernible. Donya Fortress is a Southern-style military establishment. Large water fountains key the centerpieces of the white, stone courtyards. Third-story balconies offer a small amount of protection from opposing second-story walkways, and both look down on additional ground-level courts and gardens. The open nature here forces players not only to be aware of activity from the front and sides but also from above. And for some unknown reason that doesn’t really matter, blown-out tunnels run underground, providing additional paths through which to move.

But, really, the first thing you’ll find yourself doing is literally running—everywhere. The game’s close-knit nature immediately makes you feel like Han Solo sprinting through the Death Star chasing a bunch of Storm Troopers while screaming at the top of your lungs. You’ll hear your boots clomping through the environment, but you’ll also hear the reverberation of everyone else’s, too. Everyone else in the game—that’s 15 others—is also sprinting.

The audio effects are an interesting element all their own. The sounds of airplanes and helicopters flying by comprise a kind of occasional white noise, but what really intensifies the game is the constant, heavy sounds of shelling. While there are 10 new weapons offered in this DLC, from the MTAR, SPAZ 12, and LSAT to name a few, it’s the C4 and missile launchers that create the unrelenting cacophony of blasts.

The “Destruction HD” feature—EA’s marketing term for the already-available destructible environment—means that everyone can tear the place to pieces. This map sounded like a war was going on in someone’s living room.

When the level was full of players, the walls were exploding left and right, and sizable chunks of plaster bits and glass would fly across my face. The wall structures—the heavy beams and framework—remained in place, but everything else turns to powder. In the same way that Infinity Ward upped the level of audio production and quality in the Call of Duty series, DICE has ramped up the sound production here, but compounds the intensity by being indoors.

And so, when one gets into a killing spree, an uninterrupted rhythm of successful kills, the otherwise distracting chaos of echoing footsteps and death screams and exploding walls feels strangely serene, even soothing. Wow, taken out of context, I guess that sounds pretty messed up. But in context all of the game’s elements—the pace, sound, and intensity—it can come together just short of genius.

DICE has reflected on Battlefield 3 following its release last year in October. The developer believes the positive fan reception and sales figures solidified the success the shooter has experienced thus far.

“On a high level it went way better than we expected, if you look at the sales and how many people who are actually spending time in the game and apparently having fun with it. Of course there were a lot of problems,” executive producer Patrick Bach told Eurogamer. “It’s a very complicated game, both when it comes to a tech perspective and from all the different bits and pieces of the actual product.”

“Of course, three months before shipping, I would have loved to have said, f*** it, let’s ship it six months later. But you can’t do that when you’re that close. I don’t like developers who push their dates. It feels a bit like, come on, I want your game. You promised it. And now you’re saying it’s not ready. It’s like, you don’t decide when it’s ready. I decide when it’s ready. So I want to stick to what I promised and deliver something.”

“What we tried to do was make sure the game was good enough when we shipped it, and then post launch we have been updating it quite a bit, and also releasing these expansion packs, which also fix stuff in the game,” he continued. “There is definitely stuff I want to do better, but then again that’s why I always try to make things better. I’m never content with what we’re building. I always seek room for improvement, which is the core of how we work at DICE. We always want to do better and more and push the boundaries.”

“So am I happy? Absolutely. Am I satisfied? No. Absolutely not. I think we can do much better. We can push this even further,” concluded Bach.

To continue the positive momentum Battlefield 3 has been experiencing, the developer is aiming to instill another 12-18 months of value within the shooter. This year alone will see the release of three fully-fledged expansions starting with Close Quarters this June, Armored Kill in the fall followed by End Game towards the end of the year. The former was recently showcased in a gameplay trailer.