IUN webcast - January 9, 2010

This week's topics: Bad Company 2, BioShock, Modern Warfare, motion controller for the PC, Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot, Metro 2033, and more.

Download link.

Name that game

Have a look at the video below the fold.  Then tell me what game - with it's totally original art style - it reminds you of:

(click me, beeyotch)

BC2 news

Gordon Van Dyke has posted some details about Bad Company 2 on the Battlefield blog. Regarding the beta:

• The PC beta will run from January 28 to February 25 on a 32-player map called Port Valdez.
• Pre-ordering might increase your chances of getting a beta key, but it seems nothing is set in stone.
• A Steam release of the beta is in the works, but there's no guarantee on that, either.

Regarding the full game:

• The anti-cheat will be Punkbuster. (PB streaming, however, is at the "we'll look into it" stage.)
  
• There will be no mod tools.
• The dedicated server will not be distributed publicly.

So the news isn't all good, and the last bullet in particular is cause for concern. It's not clear at this point whether people will be able to rent dedicated servers directly from EA/DICE (or an approved GSP), or there will just be "official" dedis. The mention of serverside control options is somewhat encouraging, but whether that translates into clan servers is anyone's guess.

Metro 2033 "story trailer"

Post-apocalyptic world. Good guys, bad guys, and mutants. Seems like we knew the story already.

Modern Warfare 3

After the success of MW2, I can't wait for MW3 to come out. Judging by this trailer it's gonna be better than MW2 if you can believe that's possible.

Let's hear it for realism.

(watch)

IW done with Modern Warfare series?

Citing unnamed sources, VG247 says Infinity Ward might hand off the inevitable Modern Warfare 3 to another developer:

Infinity Ward is not creating Modern Warfare 3, according to a VG247 source, and is instead working on something “completely new”.

The details come from US insiders.

Infinity Ward has [thus] far avoided the issue of its work after Modern Warfare 2, saying no decision had been made on further projects in the run up to the shooter’s launch last November.

“Right now we don’t have a clue what our next game is going to be, and we won’t know what it will be until we finish with Modern Warfare 2, which won’t be for a while,” studio frontman Rob Bowling told IGN UK last October.

MW2 DLC packs are scheduled to release this “spring” as a timed 360 exclusive.

It’s unclear where the third game will be made if IW really has gone AWOL from the series.

We were told by one dev source that a Canadian studio was handling it, but another pointed to newly-formed Sledgehammer Games, headed by ex-Visceral bosses Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey.

The joys of Garry's Mod

Windows 7 "god mode"

From Webtlk.com:

Windows 7 interface (and desktop) is rather clean and minimalist. Of course, you can find everything you need in the famous and well-known Control Panel. However this solution won’t allow you to see and easily use all those nested settings included in the main options. Did you know that you can become a God? Well, at least on Windows 7!

One of the less known options on Windows 7 is the God Mode feature. Basically, it lets you have every setting and option right in front of you, ready to be used without having to browse among different settings before getting what you are looking for. Here is how to enable it:

1. Right click on any bank space on your desktop.
2. Click new from the menu and create a New Folder.
3. Rename the folder as follow: GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}
4. DO NOT use this trick on Vista 64X  and Windows 7 64X. It will cause your Windows to crash! (read comments below)

This simple command will create a special shortcut to the God Mode option letting you access all Windows 7 functions via a handy GUI!

EDIT: GodMode also works on Windows Vista!

Your BFF, Tony

Most of the reviews for Tony Hawk's Ride - with it's gimmicky yet dysfunctional skateboard peripheral - can be paraphrased as follows: " is a piece of sh*t. "

But for the greatest skater dude of all time, grossing a whole $19.46 in royalty payments was too much to bear in solitude. In perhaps the greatest misery-loves-company moment of all time, Mr. Hawk has said that he will add anyone playing his game to his Xbox Live friends list.  That's right: you can become friends with a B-list celebrity, just by not enjoying yourself for a few rounds of whatever it is you're supposed to do (but can't) in Ride.

The last &#$@!* list:

The 99 best free games of 2009, courtesy of Gamasutra.

We're all better off

I've been talking to a few Call of Duty vets - guys I used to play with in my pre-IT( )E days - that bought MW2 despite their misgivings.  To a man, they've all either given up on it, or are on the verge of giving up on it, and the absence of dedicated servers is only a minor factor in their overall disgust with the game. As it turns out, the game that isn't balanced for lean really isn't balanced for any purpose at all.

The dominant complaint, and the primary source of frustration, is the Super Soldier perk setup.  Here it is: Perk 1 ("Marathon") gives the player unlimited sprint juice.  Perk 2 ("Lightweight") lets him move faster in general. Perk 3 ("Commando") increases the range of his melee attacks.  The combo produces a soldier that darts around like a maniac, slashing and stabbing everything in sight, and usually nets the user a K/D ratio of 5 to 1 or better.

And then there's the sheer retardation of the throwing knife, which this video aptly demonstrates. Dead on, one-hit kills ... on the move and at any distance ... versus  the need to land multiple hits with bullets that are best delivered whilst the shooter is slowed by aiming down the site. When the guy with the gun has an inherent disadvantage against the guy with the sharp object, mastering any of the 40+ mechanized weapons starts to feel a bit stupid.

So, it seems Infinity Ward did us a favor after all. By destroying the incentive to buy the game, we are spared the frustration of actually playing it.

Kudos to them.