Dec 29, 2010
Dec 28, 2010
Kinect: not Kinetic
So this is where gaming is headed. Auto-aim was just the beginning. Before long, all games will play themselves.
Dec 26, 2010
Someone on the internet is wrong!
That someone -- calling himself "Tyler Cameron, Contributor" -- has a editorial up on GamerNode entitled: "What Call of Duty Can Learn From Battlefield's Better Multiplayer." His argument in summary form:
1. The creators of the CoD franchise have failed to introduce anything innovative since CoD4.
2. The Battlefield series has larger maps, which "allows players of any skill level to enjoy the game."
3. BC2 promotes team play, while CoD does not.
4. BC2's sound design is better.
5. Destruction 2.0 is a more than a novelty; it's a game-changer.
6. BC2 is more balanced and less exploitable.
7. BC2 has enjoyed better and longer post-release support.
Argument #1 is true as far as the core gameplay goes.
Argument #2 is false to the extent that it implies that the CoD series requires a greater degree of skill to play effectively. To the contrary, the latter's perks and killstreaks amount to a rather potent handicapping system that allows those who cannot run-and-gun to join the slaughter. That CoD has smaller maps just means that camping is a more viable tactic.
Argument #3 is true, but that doesn't mean CoD discourages teamwork. Although CoD players do have a tendency to go all Rambo on pubs, the only prerequisites for organized murder are a few friends and a decent VOIP.
Argument #4 is very, very true.
Argument #5 is roughly half-true. BC2's dynamic battlefields certainly do offer tactical options that CoD lacks. To say, however, that Destruction 2.0 ensures "no battle ever plays out the same way" is just naked hyperbole. A game's environment doesn't dictate the outcome of a round, the players do that. And by-and-large, players are predictable creatures.
Argument #6 would have been more defensible if the author hadn't said this:
Argument #7 requires three responses: (1) CoD4 had mod tools, which means the sheer amount of community content dwarfed anything a developer could hope to do post-release; (2) the abrupt ending of MW2's post-release support probably had something to do with the implosion of the developer; and (3) saying that DICE released a total of seven map packs is just naked fanboyism. Adding game modes to existing maps is not a "map pack" no matter how EA/DICE spins it.
Even if he were to shore up his reasoning, Cameron's thesis has little merit. I'm a fan of both Bad Company 2 and Call of Duty (with the emphatic exception of MW2). I've played both, not because of their similarities, but because of the pronounced differences between them. When I want to play BC2, I play BC2 ... I don't argue that CoD should become something other than it is.
1. The creators of the CoD franchise have failed to introduce anything innovative since CoD4.
2. The Battlefield series has larger maps, which "allows players of any skill level to enjoy the game."
3. BC2 promotes team play, while CoD does not.
4. BC2's sound design is better.
5. Destruction 2.0 is a more than a novelty; it's a game-changer.
6. BC2 is more balanced and less exploitable.
7. BC2 has enjoyed better and longer post-release support.
Argument #1 is true as far as the core gameplay goes.
Argument #2 is false to the extent that it implies that the CoD series requires a greater degree of skill to play effectively. To the contrary, the latter's perks and killstreaks amount to a rather potent handicapping system that allows those who cannot run-and-gun to join the slaughter. That CoD has smaller maps just means that camping is a more viable tactic.
Argument #3 is true, but that doesn't mean CoD discourages teamwork. Although CoD players do have a tendency to go all Rambo on pubs, the only prerequisites for organized murder are a few friends and a decent VOIP.
Argument #4 is very, very true.
Argument #5 is roughly half-true. BC2's dynamic battlefields certainly do offer tactical options that CoD lacks. To say, however, that Destruction 2.0 ensures "no battle ever plays out the same way" is just naked hyperbole. A game's environment doesn't dictate the outcome of a round, the players do that. And by-and-large, players are predictable creatures.
Argument #6 would have been more defensible if the author hadn't said this:
Snipers also can't dominate a match in BFBC2, which seems to be a frustrating problem in CoD. High-powered sniper rifles in BFBC2 are bolt-action rifles, meaning they must be reloaded after each shot, and players must take into account their target's distance, because the bullet will arch downward if it travels far enough. The slow rate of fire and the precision required to effectively use these weapons assure that they can't be used to completely humiliate and frustrate other players.BC2's players coined the term "bush wookie" as an invective for one of the main sources of exasperation with the game. A handful of said wookies can lock down a choke point indefinitely on defense, and can be useless KDR whores on offense. DICE acknowledged the issue and tried to address it (without much success). Competent sniping in CoD, on the other hand, is much more of a virtuoso niche. Between the massive scope sway, the laser accuracy of the non-sniper weapons, and short sight-lines, snipers are much less common in CoD than in BC2.
Argument #7 requires three responses: (1) CoD4 had mod tools, which means the sheer amount of community content dwarfed anything a developer could hope to do post-release; (2) the abrupt ending of MW2's post-release support probably had something to do with the implosion of the developer; and (3) saying that DICE released a total of seven map packs is just naked fanboyism. Adding game modes to existing maps is not a "map pack" no matter how EA/DICE spins it.
Even if he were to shore up his reasoning, Cameron's thesis has little merit. I'm a fan of both Bad Company 2 and Call of Duty (with the emphatic exception of MW2). I've played both, not because of their similarities, but because of the pronounced differences between them. When I want to play BC2, I play BC2 ... I don't argue that CoD should become something other than it is.
Dec 23, 2010
Dec 20, 2010
Induced apathy: cover mechanics in video games
Over on Gamers With Jobs, Rob Zacny posted an article that offers some well-deserved reprobation of that one dopey artifice that afflicts most third-person shooters: the cover system. His focus is on Mass Effect 2, but his criticisms are readily applicable to most other games in the genre. Here's the money quote:
I'd take Rob's criticisms a step further. By the very nature of the perspective, third-person shooters are always going to suffer from these mechanical contrivances, and they're always going to be less immersive than their first-person counterparts. The detachment between player and avatar turns combat sequences into micro-RTS experiences that force gamers into the role of puppet-master. In Mass Effect, you're never going to be in Commander Shepherd's head; you only get to be the camera floating several feet away.
In a third-person game, you're never allowed the personal (albeit simulated) experience of recoil, or of getting shot, or of getting whacked with a crowbar. That Krogan isn't getting uncomfortably close to you, it's getting close to him. That mercenary isn't lobbing blobs of deadly energetic shit at you, she's lobbing them at him. There's no need to wonder what the enemy is doing while you're cowering behind a chest-high wall, waiting for your health to regenerate, because your line of sight isn't limited to what the avatar can see from his perch.
I realize that a large part of what I've said here is a statement of my own preferences, but I suspect it goes a long way toward explaining the dominance of the FPS among the genres. For my money, the third-person perspective is a lazy way to instantiate combat, and a developer touting a game's cover system as some kind of innovation is a dead giveaway that the shooting is going to suck. There will always be a ceiling to the quality of combat in any TPS, and that limitation-by-design will always be a source of annoyance to players that want to love a game completely.
At the heart of every shooter lies a dreary reality: you drop the cursor over a target and push a button until it dies. Good shooters never let you see this to clearly, or feel like it's that simple. They force players to concentrate on other tasks. They emphasize tactics and maneuvers, or weapon characteristics. They introduce enemies designed to counter standard tactics. They change the terrain to handicap some styles of play and promote others. They keep the player from relying exclusively on the same bag of tricks.Many of Zacny's observations apply equally well to some first-person shooters: games that generally lack a scripted cover mechanic (I'm thinking in particular of the SP portion of Black Ops). An endless stream of enemies popping out from behind crates at regular intervals is a poor excuse for AI no matter what game you're playing. The problems he outlines, however, are almost universally endemic to third-person shooters. That's not to say they're inherently bad games -- Mass Effect 2 is still absolutely worth playing, for example -- but predictable, repetitive combat is the bane of any shooter.
Too often, cover excludes these techniques and actually emphasizes the repetitive, mechanical task of point-and-click combat. By its very nature, cover roots combatants in place, so movement becomes a secondary concern. Environments tend to be similar and repetitive, because they have to make room for the large, broken spaces that cover demands. Worse, these spaces telegraph not only that a fight is about to occur, but often the way in which it will occur. Not that it's hard to predict, because cover also creates exposed dead-ground between the fighting positions where nobody can survive. So fights consistently occur at medium range. This in turn makes most weapons interchangeable. Sniper rifles and shotguns become decorative accessories on a character model. They are relegated to carefully controlled situations, like the inevitable sniper sequence.
I'd take Rob's criticisms a step further. By the very nature of the perspective, third-person shooters are always going to suffer from these mechanical contrivances, and they're always going to be less immersive than their first-person counterparts. The detachment between player and avatar turns combat sequences into micro-RTS experiences that force gamers into the role of puppet-master. In Mass Effect, you're never going to be in Commander Shepherd's head; you only get to be the camera floating several feet away.
In a third-person game, you're never allowed the personal (albeit simulated) experience of recoil, or of getting shot, or of getting whacked with a crowbar. That Krogan isn't getting uncomfortably close to you, it's getting close to him. That mercenary isn't lobbing blobs of deadly energetic shit at you, she's lobbing them at him. There's no need to wonder what the enemy is doing while you're cowering behind a chest-high wall, waiting for your health to regenerate, because your line of sight isn't limited to what the avatar can see from his perch.
I realize that a large part of what I've said here is a statement of my own preferences, but I suspect it goes a long way toward explaining the dominance of the FPS among the genres. For my money, the third-person perspective is a lazy way to instantiate combat, and a developer touting a game's cover system as some kind of innovation is a dead giveaway that the shooting is going to suck. There will always be a ceiling to the quality of combat in any TPS, and that limitation-by-design will always be a source of annoyance to players that want to love a game completely.
Gamasutra's Top 5 PC Games of 2010
The full article is here.
The (predictable) Winners:
5. Stalker: Call of Pripyat
4. Amnesia: The Dark Descent
3. Mass Effect 2
2. Civilization V
1. StarCraft II
Honorable Mentions:
ArmA 2
Supreme Commander 2
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Fallout: New Vegas
RUSE
Super Meat Boy
Bejeweled 3
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
DeathSpank
The (predictable) Winners:
5. Stalker: Call of Pripyat
4. Amnesia: The Dark Descent
3. Mass Effect 2
2. Civilization V
1. StarCraft II
Honorable Mentions:
ArmA 2
Supreme Commander 2
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Fallout: New Vegas
RUSE
Super Meat Boy
Bejeweled 3
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
DeathSpank
Dec 19, 2010
Black Ops "First Strike" DLC
Treyarch's Dan Bunting dished the news to Major Nelson (podcast):
Multiplayer maps:
Zombies map:
The Xbox guys get it first, on 2-1-2011. No word yet on a release date or pricing for the PC.
Multiplayer maps:
- Berlin Wall ("Checkpoint Charlie," between East and West Berlin)
- Discovery (Antarctic research station)
- Kowloon (rainy roof top map, apparently adapted the single-player version)
- Stadium (a hockey rink in Northeastern US)
Zombies map:
- Ascension
The Xbox guys get it first, on 2-1-2011. No word yet on a release date or pricing for the PC.
Dec 18, 2010
Source Engine (+TF2) updates
From Steam News:
Updates to Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
SOURCE ENGINE CHANGES (CS:S, DoD:S, TF2, HL2:DM)
+ Improved sv_pure:
+ Materials / Models / Sounds / Animations are more comprehensively protected.
+ Switched from CRC to MD5 hashes for stronger per-file validation.
+ Fixed some issues between custom files and server whitelists over level changes.
+ Added HL2:MP to the list of dedicated server games when starting a server via the Tools tab in the Library
TEAM FORTRESS 2
+ Added Medieval Mode, a game mode where players are restricted to using olde weapons.
'Your Eternal Reward' changes:
+ Spies can now change their disguise weapon via 'lastdiguise' while using 'Your Eternal Reward'
+ Already-disguised 'Your Eternal Reward' Spies are no longer forced to switch to displaying the melee weapon when they make a kill
+ Spies no longer play speech lines when making a kill with 'Your Eternal Reward'
+ Sentries no longer track 'Your Eternal Reward' Spies after they backstab someone
'Natascha' changes:
+ Spin-up time increased.
+ Slowdown-on-hit effect is reduced over distance.
New equipment:
+ Added 'The Medi-eval Medic', 'The Hibernating Bear', and 'The Expert's Ordnance' item sets.
+ Added new weapons: 'The Claidheamohmor', 'The Back Scratcher', 'The Boston Basher', 'The Fists of Steel', 'The Amputator', 'The Crusader's Crossbow', 'The Ullapool Caber', 'The Loch-n-Load', 'The Buffalo Steak Sandvich', 'The Brass Beast', 'The Warrior's Spirit', 'The Candy Cane', and 'The Jag'.
+ Added 20 new hats.
Other changes:
+ Added a prototype item testing map, and associated functionality, for contributors to test their work.
+ Spies can now see TargetID's of players and objects regardless of their own disguise status.
+ Fixed some speech lines continuing after the speaker changes class
+ The Spy 'Sap Auteur' achievement now increments in cases where the Spy was the assister in the building destruction.
+ Fixed the arrow burning effect getting stuck on if you changed class in a respawn room with your arrow lit.
+ Fixed a Flamethrower bug that allowed players to rapidly fake the Pyro's airblast effect.
+ Throwing the Jarate or Milk now returns you to your previous weapon, instead of your Primary.
+ Added leaderboard to track duel wins.
+ Added ability for players to donate money directly to the creators of their favorite community maps.
+ Increased backpack size by 100 slots.
Further details in an upcoming blog post.
Bulletstorm developer diary: lots of foul language
They're trying a little too hard, but I appreciate the effort:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5570f7HnX0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5570f7HnX0
Dec 17, 2010
AMD Catalyst 10.12a Hotfix
AMD has released a hotfix for its Catalyst driver (10.12a) for Windows 7. This driver provides support for Radeon HD 6900 series cards and support for 5x1 AMD Eyefinity display set-ups.
Dec 16, 2010
L.A. Noire tech demo
Lots of game developers - particularly a few notable AAA houses that ran out of ideas years ago - build large swaths of their games around some techno-novelty. In most cases, the novelty becomes a crutch that the designers hope will carry the vacuous remainder of the content. With the application of sufficiently aggressive marketing, the crutch approach often succeeds, as the console generation is easily distracted by shiny things.
L.A. Noire has taken an existing techno-novelty and refined it right out of the Uncanny Valley. So from a technological standpoint, it's pretty impressive. I hope they nail the plot and the characterization as thoroughly as they have the mo-cap:
Portal 2 co-op trailer
In the first Portal, you needed one person capable of logical thought. In Portal 2, two people are required, but only one needs to think logically. So in practice, the one additional, substantive requirement to play Portal 2 will be some form of VOIP.
Dec 15, 2010
Black Ops 12-15-10 patch notes
*Note that the "shader warming" (pre-cache) fix has to be applied manually - i.e. set to "yes" - in the graphics options menu. Major changes are listed in bold.
From Steam News:
Updates to Call of Duty: Black Ops have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS
+ Improved threading performance on computers with only 2 cores.
+ Additional performance optimizations
+ Added an option to pre-cache all shaders during load time. This fixes hitching related to shader compiling on some video cards when viewing an area of the map for the first time.
+ Fixed random freezes in certain computer configurations.
+ Allow Team Change on Ranked servers when it does not unbalance teams (this is a server admin option).
+ Allow Team Change grace period at start of match (server admin option).
+ Added 4 more reserved slots (server admin option)
+ Added /connect
+ Improved quickmatch results (server side change)
+ Fix for watching films through Combat Record
+ Fixed compassSpectatorsSeeEnemies exploit
+ Fixed 3rd person fov exploit
+ Fix for infinite supply drop exploit.
+ Fixed crosshair flickering when stereo is active.
+ Various spawn improvements
+ Various sound improvements
+ Fix for Zombies – Teammate shadows not displayed properly.
+ Fix for radar not staying on in One in the Chamber when it should.
+ In a Domination match, the Position Secured medal is no longer delayed.
+ 'Hardened: Equipment Shot' Challenge can now be completed by destroying a 'Camera Spike'.
+ Fix for choppy final killcam in dedicated servers.
+ Various map glitches fixed.
+ Weekly and Monthly leaderboards will now track all kills, deaths and assists properly (All Time leaderboards were not affected by this)
+ Added mixed hardcore playlist
+ Added mixed barebones playlist
+ Added 12 player versions of all playlists
RCON
+ Reduced timeout values. Connect (or failure to connect is faster).
+ Added all white-listed dvars for Ranked and Unranked. Admins have rcon access to ALL available dvars.
+ Added Settings and Console tabs for Ranked servers.
+ Fixes a bug where the “Server” tab doesn’t update values when connecting to a new server.
+ Added version number to the title bar.
+ Fixed a bug where UI state didn’t persist after switching to another server.
+ Added “disconnect” button.
+ Fixed map “set” to not use admindvar.
+ Changed all dvars which could be possibly float, to float. Mostly these are time-type dvars.
+ Fixed bug where entering a value of zero for Message Duration would cause a unhandled exception error
+ Truncated all message fields to 140 chars
From Steam News:
Updates to Call of Duty: Black Ops have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS
+ Improved threading performance on computers with only 2 cores.
+ Additional performance optimizations
+ Added an option to pre-cache all shaders during load time. This fixes hitching related to shader compiling on some video cards when viewing an area of the map for the first time.
+ Fixed random freezes in certain computer configurations.
+ Allow Team Change on Ranked servers when it does not unbalance teams (this is a server admin option).
+ Allow Team Change grace period at start of match (server admin option).
+ Added 4 more reserved slots (server admin option)
+ Added /connect
+ Improved quickmatch results (server side change)
+ Fix for watching films through Combat Record
+ Fixed compassSpectatorsSeeEnemies exploit
+ Fixed 3rd person fov exploit
+ Fix for infinite supply drop exploit.
+ Fixed crosshair flickering when stereo is active.
+ Various spawn improvements
+ Various sound improvements
+ Fix for Zombies – Teammate shadows not displayed properly.
+ Fix for radar not staying on in One in the Chamber when it should.
+ In a Domination match, the Position Secured medal is no longer delayed.
+ 'Hardened: Equipment Shot' Challenge can now be completed by destroying a 'Camera Spike'.
+ Fix for choppy final killcam in dedicated servers.
+ Various map glitches fixed.
+ Weekly and Monthly leaderboards will now track all kills, deaths and assists properly (All Time leaderboards were not affected by this)
+ Added mixed hardcore playlist
+ Added mixed barebones playlist
+ Added 12 player versions of all playlists
RCON
+ Reduced timeout values. Connect (or failure to connect is faster).
+ Added all white-listed dvars for Ranked and Unranked. Admins have rcon access to ALL available dvars.
+ Added Settings and Console tabs for Ranked servers.
+ Fixes a bug where the “Server” tab doesn’t update values when connecting to a new server.
+ Added version number to the title bar.
+ Fixed a bug where UI state didn’t persist after switching to another server.
+ Added “disconnect” button.
+ Fixed map “set” to not use admindvar.
+ Changed all dvars which could be possibly float, to float. Mostly these are time-type dvars.
+ Fixed bug where entering a value of zero for Message Duration would cause a unhandled exception error
+ Truncated all message fields to 140 chars
You do not own the games you buy
"Myth" confirmed: what you're buying is a revocable license to play the game.
Almost two years ago, IUN reported that a federal judge had ruled that using a particular third-party "bot" software in World of Warcraft was a violation of the game's End User License Agreement. That meant - at the time - that the violators' licenses to use Blizzard's software were insta-revoked, and they were therefore committing copyright infringement by continuing to play the game.
Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision upholding the lower court's determination that a software EULA can indeed designate purchasers as a licensees, and deny them any right of ownership. The appellate court did, however, reject the theory that the specific EULA violation (i.e. using the bot) constituted copyright infringement. It held instead that using the bot was a breach of contract, rather than an "unlawful reproduction or distribution" that would have triggered copyright protections.
The distinction is important, because "[a] copyright owner who grants a nonexclusive, limited license ordinarily waives the right to sue licensees for copyright infringement, and it may sue only for breach of contract." It's also important because the damages the defendants will have to pay on a breach of contract theory are much less than what they would have had to pay if they were found liable on a copyright claim.
Dec 14, 2010
Killing Floor Twisted Christmas
The Tripwire KF forums have the dope:
- Runs for the holiday season from December 14th to January 4th
- Free for everyone that owns Killing Floor – auto downloaded through Steam
- All new level – Santa’s Evil Lair
- All creatures in game replaced with Christmas themed monsters including the Gingerfast and the Nutpound
- More than double the achievement count with over 130 total achievements
- 13 new Christmas achievements
- Unlockable “Baddest Santa” playable character
- Red or blue Pyro from Team Fortress 2 playable character available to anyone that owns both Team Fortress 2 and Killing Floor
- Mr. Foster’s trademark gas mask and business tie as equipable items for the Pyro in Team Fortress 2 for anyone that owns or purchases Killing Floor before the end of the event
- All new difficulty level beyond suicidal – Hell on Earth
- Balance improvements
I can't find any details on the balance improvements. All-in-all, it's a hilarious update, and it's nice to have so much new content (most of it free). It probably won't keep you playing for more than a few rounds, but more than anything, this update has me looking forward to KF2.
Dec 13, 2010
Homefront SP trailer
Maybe it's just the video quality, but the graphics are looking a bit dated. Have a look for yourselves.
Whatever ... there's going to be a SDK. That's enough to hold my interest.
Whatever ... there's going to be a SDK. That's enough to hold my interest.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution extended trailer
It's going to be a beautiful game, but Squeenix makes me nervous.
Blog update
The image hosting site for some of the blog's background images went down, so I decided to update the template again. I went for a cleaner look with the new layout, but the new banner is just a placeholder until I come up with something better.
I've replaced the old "Recent Comments" box with something that doesn't run through the RSS feed, so the comments should update automatically now. There's also a Google Talk box beneath the blog archive on the right, so you can flame other members right from the main page.
Dec 12, 2010
Dec 11, 2010
Dec 10, 2010
PBBans drops Medal of Honor support
PBBans provides a streaming service to its Master Ban Index (MBI) that allows PunkBuster's core anti-cheat software to function more effectively. When a server isn't streaming to the MBI, PB simply issues a temporary ban - typically for two minutes - that allows the cheater to reconnect to the server once the ban has expired. Server admins have to edit their ban lists manually, but doing things that way is obviously inefficient for a number of reasons, particularly as every PB-enabled server has its own ban list that isn't shared between servers.
On November 30, PBBans announced that they will no longer support MoH, as the retail server providers (EA's "trusted GSP's") have declined to provide any meaningful assistance in solving the persistent streaming problems that have cropped-up in the last three or four months. As EA/DICE have kept a tight lid on their dedicated server files, PBBans cannot debug the streaming process and resolve the issue. (Note that this issue does not affect Bad Company 2.)
Mikael Kalms at DICE has posted on the relevant thread on the PBBans forums, saying that "DICE is committed to getting PB to function properly in MOH. You will see at least one server update specifically to address the current issues with servers that randomly stop streaming." That would be nice, but the fact that they allowed the problem to fester - to the point that an essential partner in ensuring the integrity of their multiplayer component just gave up on them - is the larger problem.
When your game's server browser results look like this, you can't afford to give hackers all but free reign over what's left of your player population.
On a side note, PunkBuster integration seems to get worse with every generation of games. Although detection has improved, the admin tools haven't advanced sufficiently, and developers just aren't putting the necessary effort into supporting it. PB is an all-volunteer effort, and for that reason it's hard to criticize it for not being cutting-edge. But with so many games moving to Steamworks/VAC, it's only a matter of time before PB loses its account with EA and folds altogether.
That will be a sad day for all of us who've relied on them to hold the line for so long.
Dec 9, 2010
Dec 6, 2010
Red Orchestra 2 mod tech demo
Tripwire's Red Orchestra: Heroes of Stalingrad won't be released until Q2 2011 at the earliest, but they've already released mod tools to a select few. The video below is from Pop Smoke's "In-Country: Viet Nam" mod, showing off their dynamic foliage and some weapon models. It's pretty impressive stuff, particularly since (almost) nobody knew that the Unreal 3 Engine was capable of this sort of thing.
I'll have much more to say about HOS at a later date, but for now, you really have to watch this:
CoD: BO ... patch-in-progress
From Treyarch's Black Ops forums:
(Emphasis supplied.) With all the changes to the maps, expect this to be a huge download.
Hey PC gamers:
We are listening to you and we’ve been busy working on updates based on feedback from the community. We have already deployed a number of updates, and there will be many more to come. Stay tuned right here for all the latest info.
IN PROGRESS
• Added an option to create shaders during load time. This fixes hitching when viewing a new area of the map for the first time on some video cards.
• Incomplete server browser results.
• Improvements to Quickmatch results (with better ping and reduced lag).
• /connect
• /reconnect
• Improved threading performance on computers with only 2 cores.
• Fixed random freezes in certain computer configurations.
• Increased reserved slots to 9.
• Improvements to the spawn system to resolve an issue where negative spawn influencers from specific game events were not always being deleted after the danger had cleared – in some matches, this was causing good spawns to be erroneously flagged by the game as bad spawns, which in turn forced actual bad spawns to get selected later in the match
• Weekly and Monthly leaderboards will now track all kills, deaths and assists properly (All Time leaderboards were not affected by this)
• Prevention of killstreak selection getting disabled in Combat Training under rare conditions
• Array: Added collision to prevent players from partially clipping into a tree
• Launch: Added collision to prevent players from strafe jumping onto an invisible ledge at the base of the rocket near B3
• Summit: Added collision to prevent players from jumping to a location outside of the map boundary when in Custom Games where player speed is maxed out
• Havana: Added collision to prevent players from jumping onto an invisible ledge above a doorway at C2
• Nuketown: Adjusted a spawn point that would spawn players on top of a mannequin’s head when that mannequin was randomly spawned in that location
• Launch: User could access a small platform outside of the intended play space below the rocket gantry by jumping to a very specific location; now blocked from access
• Launch: User could access a small area inside geometry at vents near Dom flag A by going prone and moving around in a very specific location; now blocked from access
• Some users reported that weapon attachment challenges were not resetting after prestige; now all are guaranteed to clear as soon as selecting the prestige option
• Radar sweep when there are only 2 players left in One in the Chamber will stop functioning if the 2 players have multiple lives when the sweep starts
• Villa: User can clip into rock at west edge of grid zone B2 and see through to the other side
• Crisis: User can clip into LVT between grid zone A3 and B3 and see through to the other side
• User can get an infinite number of 'Sam Turret', 'Care Package' and 'Sentry Gun' killstreaks (commonly referred to as the “care package glitch”)
(Emphasis supplied.) With all the changes to the maps, expect this to be a huge download.
Not exactly game related
But since I haven't had a chance to say hey to everyone in a while I thought I'd post a status and a "hey look at me" note.
My surgery seems to have gone well. I'm in a little less pain now, but it's a different pain, so that's good because it means it should fade. I spend 23 hours a day in bed and walk the other hour. I did get out yesterday and ride in our local parade, but instead of driving myself I had one of my employees drive my truck and I rode in the passenger seat and tossed candy - The whole driving experience is still not fun.
So, while lying in bed bored, between rounds of Minecraft (the only game I have on my work laptop, which runs Linux by the way,) and connecting to the work VPN to keep up with projects, I taught myself Java and learned to develop Android applications. I now have two in the Android Marketplace; a free mileage log and a low cost utility to download ebooks from a Calibre server.
I'm now working on a combination bedside clock and all-day ring controller that will stop your phone from ringing under certain conditions (like blocked caller-id) or override a silent SMS ringer if the sender puts in an exclamation mark or is on a specific list or something. Still in the early stages. Any Android users in IT()E who know how to use ADB and might want to beta test? I've still got another couple week of bed rest, so no doubt I'll have a test version by the end of the week.
My surgery seems to have gone well. I'm in a little less pain now, but it's a different pain, so that's good because it means it should fade. I spend 23 hours a day in bed and walk the other hour. I did get out yesterday and ride in our local parade, but instead of driving myself I had one of my employees drive my truck and I rode in the passenger seat and tossed candy - The whole driving experience is still not fun.
So, while lying in bed bored, between rounds of Minecraft (the only game I have on my work laptop, which runs Linux by the way,) and connecting to the work VPN to keep up with projects, I taught myself Java and learned to develop Android applications. I now have two in the Android Marketplace; a free mileage log and a low cost utility to download ebooks from a Calibre server.
I'm now working on a combination bedside clock and all-day ring controller that will stop your phone from ringing under certain conditions (like blocked caller-id) or override a silent SMS ringer if the sender puts in an exclamation mark or is on a specific list or something. Still in the early stages. Any Android users in IT()E who know how to use ADB and might want to beta test? I've still got another couple week of bed rest, so no doubt I'll have a test version by the end of the week.
Nov 30, 2010
Nov 25, 2010
Nov 9, 2010
CoD: Lag Ops
The newest Call of Duty is fun when it's working well. Damage and recoil are about right with most of the weapons, the maps are surprisingly good, rank progression moves at a breezy pace, and I have yet to find a server overrun with noob-tubers.
That's the good news. The bad news is that there are network problems that are leading to massive lag spikes, especially when two players get close to each other. Thanks to some quick maintenance, the spikes now only happen intermittently, and you can go for a couple of hours without seeing one. These are temporary, jury-rigged fixes thus far, however, and they had to break the server browser in the process.
That's the good news. The bad news is that there are network problems that are leading to massive lag spikes, especially when two players get close to each other. Thanks to some quick maintenance, the spikes now only happen intermittently, and you can go for a couple of hours without seeing one. These are temporary, jury-rigged fixes thus far, however, and they had to break the server browser in the process.
From the gameservers.com forums:
Due to huge volume of traffic that is occurring on the back-end systems, a temporary fix was put into place to randomly limit the amount of servers that are listed on the browser. This is a temporary fix and we will provide an update once it has been fixed.A poster on Steam's Black Ops forum had this to say:
It seems that the issues plaguing PC Multiplayer are two fold.-Then, there's this, from Bash and Slash:
First of all, poor CPU management is causing bottlenecks, especially with what seems to be thread context switching. This causes the system to hang intermentently as data is switched between the cores of your CPU.
Next is poor management of the netcode. The netcode must be shared with the game engine in such a way that when the CPU hangs, no data is being transmitted to or received from the server, causing packets to timeout in both directions and LOADS of redundant data being transferred between all players.
So fixing the lag on your computer should help to alleviate the load for everybody else on the server and give all around better game play.
To help yourself and your fellow players, open your MP config file, which is located here:Issue is with the sv_maxrate, currently on all servers it is set to 5000 (because of consoles I would assume) it should be set to around 25000 for PC.
Therefore most pc users are finding a poor online expierience.
I have been on with gameservers all day and their tech team.
We tested the different rate on our server as a fix (via the tech team) and guess what, absolutely perfect.
Our server has actually just been changed back, of course they can't edit the servers, They have submitted a request to whitelist the command sv_maxrate for all users to activision to be able to edit to what they desire. (They didn't want to set all servers to it by default because they believe people will have bandwidth issues).
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\call of duty black ops\players\config_mp.cfg
And edit the following settings to the values provided:
seta cl_maxpackets "100"
seta snaps "30"
seta rate "25000"
r_glow_allowed "0"
That should help a bit.
Nov 3, 2010
Black Ops preload
If you've pre-ordered Call of Duty: Black Ops from Steam, you can download the game files right now (8,038.3 MB). Do it soon, because the servers are going to get slammed over the next six days.
The game unlocks at 11:00 AM on November 9.
EA: yeah, MoH kinda sucks
From Eurogamer:
And yet, they have the balls to charge for the DLC.EA's admitted Danger Close and DICE's recently released Medal of Honor reboot "didn't meet our quality expectations".
However, the gargantuan game maker denied the Afghanistan shooter was a failure, and promised gamers next time it'll make "something they appreciate more".
"I'm not going to comment on the sales because EA has an earnings report going out and we will unveil sales in that meeting," Patrick Soderlund, the executive in charge of EA's driving and shooting games, told Eurogamer.
"What I can say is the game didn't meet our quality expectations. In order to be successful in that space, we're going to have to have a game that is really, really strong.
Oct 25, 2010
Oct 24, 2010
Retail copy of CoD:BO stolen
From Hooked Gamers:
Today in Alabama a thief took off from a local printing press with a copy of the upcoming game Call of Duty: Black Ops. The game, which is due to be released on november 9th, is currently set to be the biggest entertainment launch in history, outgrossing even Modern Warfare 2.
The alleged thief sold several of the copies of the game to associates... one of which who was a member of an underground hacking forum. The purchaser, who goes by the name of 'Ungodly Leaker' posted a thread on this forum showing the disc in his hands and making a few comments about the game. Ungodly Leaker had previously leaked Halo: Reach far ahead of its release and it is assumed intending to do the same with Black Ops.
Oct 22, 2010
COD: Black Ops Edition Jeep
Coming to a Jeep dealer near you:
http://www.destructoid.com/-2011-jeep-wrangler-call-of-duty-black-ops-edition
Oct 17, 2010
Oct 15, 2010
Medal of Honor MP impressions (redux)
My general impressions, briefly:
1. I see the game's simplicity as its greatest strength. 15 ranks per class with an unlock at each level allows for advancement without any sense of grind.
2. The weapons and attachments are "balanced" in the sense that no one has an equipment advantage at close to medium range. Long range is a different story for obvious reasons.
3. "Skill" in this game is all about putting yourself in a position to see your opponent before he sees you, full stop. Everything else is luck (90%) and reflexes (10%).
3.A. On larger maps, a moderately skilled sniper can hold down a choke point indefinitely.
4. Map quality (layout; not aesthetics) is all over the place. Clipping and collision are seriously problematic, especially in smaller maps. Long sight-lines on some maps (see 3.A.) favor the defenders heavily.
5. The game becomes more fun as you learn the maps, but longevity is doubtful. Without several more maps, CoD:BLOPS will kill MoH before the New Year.
Oct 12, 2010
MoH multiplayer review
DEFERRED.
The server browser isn't working, and when I used the "matchmake" option, it dropped me into an empty server.
Way to go, EA.
UPDATE: I've discovered that if you edit your browser filters, you'll get listings. You just can't leave all the fields at their default settings.
UPDATE: I've discovered that if you edit your browser filters, you'll get listings. You just can't leave all the fields at their default settings.
Oct 11, 2010
Monday Music XIV
Elbow - One Day Like This
Hollerado - Americanarama ("Human 8-bit Video")
I'm Shipping Up To Boston - Dropkick Murphys
Hollerado - Americanarama ("Human 8-bit Video")
I'm Shipping Up To Boston - Dropkick Murphys
Oct 9, 2010
Oct 8, 2010
Firefall developer commentary
I guess they're calling it a free-to-play, MMO shooter. I'm calling it "Borderlands and Fallout 3 go to Family Court."
Oct 5, 2010
Medal of Honor: open beta impressions
I've only played the beta for about an hour and a half, so take this with a grain of salt:
On the one hand, I've been waiting for a game like this. I can dispense with all the customization BS and just get down to killing virtual people. The HUD isn't cluttered with superfluous nonsense, the unlock system is focused mostly on sensible weapon attachments, and the class system doesn't try to force you into a particular role to the extent BC2's did. Also, I think DICE did a better job syncing up the movements of the crosshair and the mouse since the first beta, which improves the feel a bit. It may just be that the "weapon movement" is faster now -- I'm not sure -- but it definitely felt easier to track a moving target this time around.
On the other hand, the collision detection between avatar and terrain still leaves a lot to be desired. I'm still getting stuck on shit that's just a few centimeters high. Movement overall still feels kinda chunky, especially since you can't strafe while you're sprinting. It's like you're a robot that was engineered with no ball joints: you just get a single axis of rotation for all your moving parts (that's called a cylindrical joint, BTW).
Kunar Base is a pretty fun map. If you make use of the flanking routes and check your corners, you'll end up with a very respectable KDR. I like CQC maps myself, so if that's your preference, MoH has one thing that BC2 was sorely missing. That's where the game feels more like CoD4.
Shahikot Mountains probably would have been fun if it wasn't infested with snipers. It needs more cover, but you get dropped so easily and so often by people you can't see that I'm not sure more cover would matter. Combat mission is basically BC2's Rush Mode in tighter quarters, which means that the attacking team is going to get choked into scope more often. I expect that gametype is going to be intolerable in pubs. Since we're only getting eight maps on release, that could prove very limiting.
Overall, MoH is a merely competent game. The little things DICE could have done to improve the core combat mechanics -- lean, prone, ball joints, first-person spectate, etc. -- could have made this a proper "old school" infantry game, for those that prefer fighting over character advancement. As-is, I can play it, but I won't love it the way I did United Offensive.
Oct 3, 2010
Oct 2, 2010
Good one
What a Real Woman Does
A real woman is a man's best friend.
She will never stand him up & never let him down.
She will reassure him when he feels insecure; comfort him after a bad day.
She will inspire him to do things he never thought he could do; to live w/out fear or regret.
She will enable him to express his deepest emotions & give in to his most intimate desires.
She will make sure he always feels as tho he's the most handsome man in the room, will enable him to be the most confident, sexy, seductive, and invincible.
No, wait ... Sorry ... I'm thinking of beer.
That's what beer does.
Never mind.
Sep 25, 2010
IUN caption contest
Come up with a caption for this picture. The winner will receive a handjob from IT()E Plucky.
Sep 17, 2010
CoD:BO in the Crosshairs
This Saturday (September 18) at 3:00 p.m. EST, the BASH and SLASH "Crosshairs" webcast will feature a discussion on the current direction of the Call of Duty series, and Black Ops in particular. The bulk of the conversation will focus on ranked vs. unranked servers, and the future of user-created content (i.e. maps and mods). If you're at all interested in CoD:BO, you should have a listen.
For those of you that don't know, bashandslash.com is a CoD community hub that focuses on competitive gaming. The Crosshairs hosts are Jock Yitch, the founder of BASH, Sam Reese ("iBleedv20") of omnilinkit.com, and Sam Babbit ("{PST}*Joker"), the owner of mycallofduty.com and the creator of the eXtreme mod. These guys broke the story that became a shit storm over MW2 and IWnet, and they're all highly respected throughout the "oldschool" CoD player community.
For those of you that don't know, bashandslash.com is a CoD community hub that focuses on competitive gaming. The Crosshairs hosts are Jock Yitch, the founder of BASH, Sam Reese ("iBleedv20") of omnilinkit.com, and Sam Babbit ("{PST}*Joker"), the owner of mycallofduty.com and the creator of the eXtreme mod. These guys broke the story that became a shit storm over MW2 and IWnet, and they're all highly respected throughout the "oldschool" CoD player community.
Sep 16, 2010
Know irony
If you’re looking for your first job in games, it’s worth thinking very carefully about your future employer. Do you want to work on jaded, derivative titles that receive scathing reviews and go straight to the bargain bin? Do you want to work large amounts of unpaid overtime because your project is underfunded and poorly managed? Do you want to work on codebases that are messy and poorly-designed because there’s never time to do things properly? Do you want to live in fear of your company’s financial security?
It’s sad that these and other games industry horror stories are more frequent than they should be, but it’s not like that here. We only work on original, ambitious projects: our first title, Crackdown, was a number-one hit, winning critical acclaim and multiple awards, and our best is yet to come, beginning with our first online game, APB. And while making games is great fun, we take our work seriously. We pride ourselves on our unusually sensible, sustainable and professional development practices, resulting in smoothly-run projects and far less overtime than is normal for many game developers. We’re passionate about engineering and crafting our games to the highest of standards. We cultivate an open working environment where ideas are valued on their own merits, no matter whose they are. The growth of our company and size of our projects allows us to provide a wide range of opportunities. And the investment we’ve raised puts us in a strong financial position with security and creative control over our projects.
That's a quote from the graduate recruitment section on the Realtime Worlds website.
And here's the news: Realtime Worlds is no more. They went into administration (meaning they declared bankruptcy) six weeks after releasing All Points Bulletin: a game that took five years to develop into one of the biggest suckfest MMO's ever spawned. The forums are shut down, the servers are about to shut down, 200 people are out of a job, and every player that sank money into the game is shit out of luck.
Sep 13, 2010
CoD: BO "FAQ"
Treyarch Community Manager JD_2020 posted this on the Black Ops forums. While it's not everything we want, it's pretty damned close.
Quote:
After Call of Duty: World at War, we set out 3 goals for our next PC title:
1] PC gets every single game feature that the consoles get, but in a way that makes sense for PC.
2] PC gets even more features – the ones that PC gamers want like dedicated servers and more customization.
3] Keep it fun. Protect the integrity of the title through design and post-launch support.
Keep that in mind as you read through the decisions outlined below in our FAQ.
Full feature support: Confirmed
Ranked Servers: earn XP and currency. Wager Servers: gamble your currency. Customizable Unranked Servers. Combat Training against practice dummies. Theater. Create-a-Class "2.0." Contracts. Emblem editor. Everything the consoles get. Implemented in a way that makes sense for PC (*cough* no lobbies *cough*).
PC Features: Confirmed
Dedicated Servers. New Server Browser. Dev console. /record. Customizable game modes, perks, killstreaks, classes, and higher player counts on unranked servers. Map rotation. RCon. Kick & Ban. MOTD. In-game custom Server Banners. And more.
Mod Tools: Confirmed
We will release mod tools sometime post-launch. We need to finish the game first. Then we will make sure any urgent issues are handled. Then we will begin work on tools. The extent of the mod tools package will not be known until this time.
Sep 12, 2010
COD: Black Ops
Some interesting new features for COD: Black Ops. Personally they sound very frustrating - the entire upgrade system for COD4 was crap in my opinion.
Redirector was down...
I have no idea for how long, but the itoeunited.net redirecting server has been down. Sometimes the virtual machine it runs on just locks up - I've never figured out why. Unfortunately it was still responding to pings, so my monitoring software didn't tell me, and the DNS server is replicated elsewhere, so the secondary DNS server was still feeding the IP's correctly.
Yeah, I know - it's all serious geek speek. But here's the important part:
It's back up now.
Yeah, I know - it's all serious geek speek. But here's the important part:
It's back up now.
Sep 11, 2010
Playing For Change
Probably the best version of this song I've ever heard. Click the title to check out their site. If you like music, you'll be there a while. ;-)
Stand By Me
Four years ago while walking down the street in Santa Monica, CA the Playing For Change crew heard Roger Ridley singing “Stand By Me” from a block away. His voice, soul and passion set us on a journey around the world to add other musicians to his performance.
This song transformed Playing For Change from a small group of individuals into a global movement for peace and understanding.
This track features over 35 musicians collaborating from all over the world; they may have never met in person, but in this case, the music does the talking.
Aug 31, 2010
TF2 Bandwidth Usage
For having 20 players in at one point, we only peaked at 1.5 Mbit outbound, a lot less than I expected. I don't know for sure if that's due to a QOS cap that kicked in at 1.5 or not, but even so, you can see the average was closer to 1 Mbit of traffic.Inbound traffic hovered around 0.5 Mbit while gaming, but spiked to 8.2 Mbit when I was installing TF2 :-)
Goodbye, ATI
From Bloomberg Businessweek:
Advanced Micro Devices on Monday said it will remove the ATI name from its products by the end of the year, killing a brand name synonymous with graphics enthusiasts for 25 years.
AMD offers a range of graphics products under the ATI brand, including the Radeon, FirePro and Eyefinity offerings. The chip designer will instead attach the name AMD to those products by the end of the year, said Drew Erskine, an AMD spokesman.
The change in brand name won't affect the company's graphics product offerings or plans, Erskine said.
Aug 28, 2010
University of Florida Starcraft Class
http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/university-of-florida-introduces-starcraft-class-28-08-2010/
Those who enroll in the class are expected to use what they learned in a business practice or when the Zerg come tearing across the solar system bent on mankind’s destruction.
Those who enroll in the class are expected to use what they learned in a business practice or when the Zerg come tearing across the solar system bent on mankind’s destruction.
Aug 27, 2010
Hide Your Wife!
You'll be happy to know that Antoine Dodson is "Riding YouTube Out Of The 'Hood'".
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129381037
Hey, a guy'll take a break anywhere he can get one, right? So hide yer wife! Hide yer kids! Hide yer husband!
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129381037
Hey, a guy'll take a break anywhere he can get one, right? So hide yer wife! Hide yer kids! Hide yer husband!
Aug 26, 2010
CS:Source Server (#2)
Okay, so here's what I've done to the CS:Source server:
Administration tools are installed. Bind a key to sm_admin and a menu will pop up when you hit it. If you don't have some level of admin and think you should, I need your steam ID and can set that up. At the very least an ITOE member should be able to kick and change maps.
Weapon restrictions automatically restricts the AWP (one-shot kill scoped rifle.) Once the noobs like Messiah are used to the game, we can always unrestrict it.
Other temporary weapon restrictions are available from the admin menu.
A bomb timer was installed for the noobs ;-) It will announce with a voice and text at 30 seconds and count down to explosion.
A team auto-balancer is installed. It is supposed to balance the teams based on size and skill and will also restrict joining a team with more players. This may need some tweaking after we get rolling with it.
If someone gets out of control on the server there's admin punishments available like setting them on fire, etc.
Fast downloads are enabled through a server on an entirely different Internet connection and everything is compressed for fast downloads.
Map rotation should work now. Cross your fingers.
I've very carefully not installed anything that would impact the actual gameplay or balance except for weapon restrictions.
Administration tools are installed. Bind a key to sm_admin and a menu will pop up when you hit it. If you don't have some level of admin and think you should, I need your steam ID and can set that up. At the very least an ITOE member should be able to kick and change maps.
Weapon restrictions automatically restricts the AWP (one-shot kill scoped rifle.) Once the noobs like Messiah are used to the game, we can always unrestrict it.
Other temporary weapon restrictions are available from the admin menu.
A bomb timer was installed for the noobs ;-) It will announce with a voice and text at 30 seconds and count down to explosion.
A team auto-balancer is installed. It is supposed to balance the teams based on size and skill and will also restrict joining a team with more players. This may need some tweaking after we get rolling with it.
If someone gets out of control on the server there's admin punishments available like setting them on fire, etc.
Fast downloads are enabled through a server on an entirely different Internet connection and everything is compressed for fast downloads.
Map rotation should work now. Cross your fingers.
I've very carefully not installed anything that would impact the actual gameplay or balance except for weapon restrictions.
Aug 25, 2010
CS: Source in Linux
I run a dual-monitor Ubuntu 10.04 system for work. It actually has two dual-port nVidia cards in it, but I'm only using the 9800 GT right now.
I used a utility called PlayOnLinux to install steam and tweak my WINE (Wine Is Not an Emulator - it emulates Windows programs for Linux. Yeah go figure on the name, that's geeks for ya!)
Installing steam and CS:Source was easy enough. Tweaking it to work since I have two monitors was a challenge. If you only run one monitor, none of this would be necessary.
First, I had to tweak my Xorg file to make sure it knew what to do when a Windows program asks for full screen. It was as easy as changing one line in the xorg.conf file from:
Option "metamodes" "DFP-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, DFP-1: nvidia-auto-select +1920+0"
to:
Option "metamodes" "DFP-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, DFP-1: nvidia-auto-select +1920+0; DFP-0: 1920x1080 +0+0"
Notice it has two pairs of setups now - one for dual-head, and one following the semi-colon for full screen that only uses one monitor.
Next, I tweaked my launch options for CounterStrike to the following:
-fullscreen -width 1920 -height 1080 -heapsize 1048576
Again, due to the dual-head issues, things went slightly strange before forcing it to 1920x1080. The heapsize option lets it take advantage of all the extra RAM I have to improve performance, but I'm not sure it actually did anything for me.
Everything runs just fine - I get around 100fps with moderate detail. I've tried several video options but I do seem to be able to see light sources through the walls. Here's a screenshot from de_nuke while connected to Dizzle's server:
Aug 24, 2010
Brink developer diary
Splash Damage is making a lot of promises that I'd love to see them deliver on, but I just don't see how their execution is going to live up to their ambition. Such is the nature of the hype-machine:
Good news for CoD: Black Ops
As reported at ArsTechnica and elsewhere, the game will have a dev console, dedicated servers, and mod tools (in some form, at least).
It should have been a given, but this is still a welcome reversal of the "creeping consolization" that has plagued PC gaming for the last few years. Valve gets it, Id (mostly) gets it, and it seems that Treyarch gets it, too. Good on them.
The Humanities include a study of Portal
From 1UP:
[full article]In what is perhaps a first, a videogame has become required reading for all students at a higher education facility. Michael Abbott, editor of The Brainy Gamer and a teacher at Wabash College has revealed that Portal is to be a core text of a new course called "Enduring Questions" that all students at the college are required to take.
A freshman course to be held during the spring semester, Enduring Questions is "devoted to engaging students with fundamental questions of humanity from multiple perspectives and fostering a sense of community. Each section of the course includes a small group (approximately 15) of students who consider together classic and contemporary works from multiple disciplines. In so doing, students confront what it means to be human and how we understand ourselves, our relationships, and our world."
Scientists Find Zombie in 48 Mil Year Old Fossil
Yep, the zombie apocalypse has been going on for 48 million years!
Aug 23, 2010
Aug 20, 2010
7 Scientific Reasons a Zombie Outbreak Would Fail
My guess is the author never met the tank or patriarch.
From cracked.com:
Love it though: "Now consider the poor zombie. It lacks every single advantage that has kept humanity from being eaten to extinction. It wanders around in the open, it can't use weapons, it can't think or use strategy. It doesn't even have the sense of self preservation to run and hide when it's in danger. And, it's made entirely out of food."
Aug 9, 2010
CoD: Black Ops MP teaser
First impressions:
The Call of Duty engine is still strong. We're seeing moderate quality console footage here, so if Treyarch continues to leverage the fatter balls of PC hardware, Black Ops should look noticeably better than Medal of Honor: Tier 1 on our platform.
Sound remains Treyarch's core competency. After the initial alpha-quality presentation, Treyarch patched the hell out of the sound system in World at War, improving it by orders of magnitude. They've revamped the whole thing this time around, and even with YouTube's crap audio, you can hear the difference.
The HUD is too goddamned busy. There's so much bling on the screen, it's like watching CNN in the early 90's. Which leads me to my next point:
It looks like Treyarch is intent on importing a lot of the balance issues from MW2. More killstreak shit. It seems that we're destined to continue down the road towards ever-more arcadey shooters, and old farts like me don't like it. Hopefully, Treyarch will include a more minimalist option. You know, where the game is about the game, and not gaming the f**king ranking system.
There is a "record" feature. This was already confirmed via Twitter (I think), but it's nice to see Treyarch throwing the competitive guys a bone. Especially since it looks like more than a bare-bones system.
Aug 7, 2010
Tired of constantly fighting with the Smoker? Has the Bloat's acid spray hit you one too many times? Maybe you just have a breakdown in communication. Run out to Spencer's and pick one of these up today. Made like a children's book complete with the sound chips - just push the buttons on the book to listen. Almost as good as Berlitz:
Aug 3, 2010
TF2 Dance
One of the best animations from TF2 I've seen. Check out the rest of this guys work on youtube. Eventually, he'll piece them all together.
Aug 2, 2010
More grins
As we noted here almost a year ago, the now-defunct Swedish developer GRIN made three shitty games in a row, and consequently rolled over and died. A few stragglers formed Outbreak Studios before the body of their former employer got cold, and it seems that the new development house is still (ostensibly) a going concern. Outbreak's claim to fame so far is that its founder developed the network engine for a handful of games, though he apparently did all that a long time ago.
Today, a few remaining GRIN-ites announced the formation of Whiteout Studios, which according to Blue's News already has a game under development using Crytek's Cry Engine 3. That's a hell of an expensive license, and it's somewhat remarkable that a team with Whiteout's track record managed to grab the start-up money it needed.
We won't see the game for a while, but it's never too early to say "caveat emptor."
ZOMG! A PC-only game tops the charts
No existing console controller has enough buttons - and no existing console gamer has enough thumbs - for StarCraft II. And yet, that game currently sits atop the UK multi-format sales charts. It's the first PC-only title to do that in recent memory, and the charts don't even include digital distribution sales figures.
Don't expect a slew of PC-first titles until some later stage of human evolution, but this is great news nevertheless. The Personal Computer remains a viable format, and while the death of consoles is nowhere on the horizon, somebody out there can tell the difference between a Lexus and an El Camino.
Jul 28, 2010
L4D2: a sensible update
The change-log, via Steam News:
Addons
+ Client's custom HUDs will be reloaded when changing between Official and Non-official servers.
GamePlay
+ Bullets that first pass through an infected character before striking a Survivor are now ignored as friendly fire.
+ Fix for survivors speaking The Passing Finale lines in other campaigns.
Versus
+ Charger now receives 300 points for any Survivor that is insta-killed.
+ Charger now receives 100 points for any Survivor that is insta-incapped by a charge.
+ Any infected that causes a Survivor to stumble into a "ledge hang" situation will receive 50 points.
Tank
+ Tanks go into a stasis when they spawn and leave stasis when the human player takes over.
+ Tanks in stasis are invisible but still show a glow to the infected team.
+ Tanks do not attack when they are in stasis.
+ Tanks in stasis cannot be set on fire or damaged.
SDK Tools
+ Fixed crash whenever a VMT was loaded in L4D2 tools mode.
Jul 26, 2010
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