25 October 2009

Call of Duty & Gaming News, 25 October 2009

Storming Infinity Ward Headquarters



Sigs on the Modern Warfare 2 PC Dedicated Server Petition are at 154,000 as this update goes live.

I'm sure that IW has it rationalized: A more console-like interface on the PC might make it easier for the "casual" player to get into CoD: Modern Warfare 2. Since that's the way it's played on the consoles, it makes a twisted kind of sense. Put the player into a game where it's allegedly skill matched, so that you play against players of a comparable skill level -- just like Xbox Live. Of course, match-making doesn't frackin' work... But IW is pretending that it does.
BASHandSlash has a link to a YouTube mashup that summarizes the wants of the hardcore PC players, modders, and mappers. A user created the mashup by editing the BASHandSlash livecasts.

I guess Robert "Fourzerotwo" Bowling got tired of the incessant rude comments on his blog entry about the screwing over of PC players switch from dedicated servers to the IW-controlled peer-to-peer system, IWnet. He turned off the comments on the blog at page 119.

Interesting. Another DICE developer chimes in for dedicated servers.
Gamasutra has info on Modern Warfare 2 PC's integration of Steamworks. The comments on the story are interesting. Some folks are excited about getting the better gaming experience IW is promising. Others don't want to give up the flexibility and variety they experienced with CoD4 PC.
GiantBomb has a story on the Modern Warfare 2 PC's minimum specs. One of the items noticed earlier was that you'll never be host unless you have a minimum 2 gHz dual core CPU. I guess this isn't unexpected since the peer-to-peer system will be one player running a listen server. "Listen server refers to a situation in which the server typically runs in the same process as the game client, allowing a player to both host and participate in the game."  As PC players know, this makes for a lot of overhead and laggy games for everyone but the host who will have zero ping. He'll have a good game. You, OTOH, will have a semtex grenade sticking to your forehead.
IGN has an interview with IW dev Joel Emslie talking about the Modern Warfare 2 themed Xbox 360 Elite and the Prestige Edition NV goggles.
Some developers are trying to take advantage of IW's misstep on the PC front. Some DICE (Battlefield series games) devs have tweeted and posted in forums that their franchise is, ahem, dedicated to dedicated servers, Now, a Korean FPS dev has created a series of ads with "user comments" saying how great their experience is compared to still-in-the-womb Modern Warfare 2 PC.



Other Gaming Links:


Really good review of Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising pointing out the inherent pitfalls of single player level design.

How to improve your reaction time in FPSes from NextLevel Gamer.

GameSpot has its own Left for Dead 2 developer interview on the Hard Rain campaign.

Cooler Master Sniper PC case review... Great for your Modern Warfare 2 dedicated server... Oops! No, I guess you can't do that.

BigDownload has a Left 4 Dead 2 all-you-need-to-know article.


Shacknews has, well, news about this week's Best Buy "Buy 2 get 3rd free" promotion on all Xbox 360 and PS3 games.

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