Black Ops 01-21-11 patch notes

The patch has been deployed, but it's more limited than previously reported. 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

• MP Audio stuttering on certain systems.

• Playercards sometimes not showing properly.

• Added three Private Match Server Settings: Team Change, Team-Up Period, and Keep Balanced Teams.

• Added Alternate Color Scheme for accessibility: Settings / Multiplayer / Player Name Indicator.

• Changed Team-Up Period countdown interval to 10 seconds.

• Combat Training sessions are no longer counted in Server Browser Unranked tab.

• Friends on your team will now show as blue on your minimap.

• Prevention of various exploits.

• Objective markers localized for all languages.

• Various stability improvements

Call of Duty: Black Ops Rcon Tool

• Recognize new "invalid password" server response

Bring your B game

We just talked about Brink (video just below this post).  Bulletstorm is on the way.  And now, from the developer that didn't bring you Six Days in Fallujah, here's Breach:

A few things to ponder:

1. The intro: an homage to Counterstrike, or a clumsy attempt at subliminal messaging?

2. Look at the wall at the beginning of the "Sonic Imager" segment.  Tessellation is good. Destroying the illusion by having two tessellated surfaces meet at a right angle is bad.

3. Switching between third- and first-person perspectives is not going to work well.  Trust me on this.

4. The character/avatar animations are not good. Watch the trailer again: you'll see it.

5. The game is set for release on Steam on January 26.

Brink 'A Choir of Guns' Trailer

The "symphony of slaughter" thing has been done (and done better) before, but it's nice to see some more of Brink:

Upcoming Black Ops patch notes

Via BashAndSlash, the list of updates and fixes:

IN PROGRESS

(Last Updated 1/12/11)

• MP Audio stuttering on certain systems.

• Playercards sometimes not showing properly.

• Added three Private Match Server Settings: Team Change, Team-Up Period, and Keep Balanced Teams.

• Added Alternate Color Scheme for accessibility: Settings / Multiplayer / Player Name Indicator.

• Changed Team-Up Period countdown interval to 10 seconds.

• Combat Training sessions are no longer counted in Server Browser Unranked tab.

• Friends on your team will now show as blue on your minimap.

• Prevention of various exploits.

• Objective markers localized for all languages.

• SP Audio stuttering on certain systems.

• Addition of new contracts.

• Addition of the “Dolly Cam” editing mode in Theater.

• If a player cancels an invite to a Wager Match, then attempts to join another server, they will join the server from the declined invite.

• Issue where the incorrect perks would appear when spectating another player under certain conditions.

• Addition of round start explosive delay to China Lake grenade launcher to give it the same "spawn toob" protection as other explosives.

• Ensure reticle purchases are reset on prestige in all circumstances.

• Contracts should reset on prestige.

• Prevention of Valkyrie rocket exploding upon release under rare conditions.

• Prevention of Gunship and Chopper Gunner failing to give player full control under rare conditions.

• Prevention of an issue where a player will get teleported outside the map boundaries under very specific conditions.

• Limit the ability to re-roll supply drops using Hardline Pro to Care Packages only, no other killstreak drops.

• Increased headshot multipliers for sniper rifles. Sniper rifles with suppressors equipped will now always be ensured one-shot kill headshots.

• Added a render delay to the red diamond player indicators that appear when controlling the Gunship, Valkyrie Rocket and Chopper Gunner. When a player first spawns, this will not appear for a period of time.

• Additional minor reductions in knife lunge.

Black Ops "First Strike" DLC preview

Snipers should be happy.  No word yet on when this gets released for the PC.

Kinect for Left4Dead 2

Here's a guy who's hacked a MS Kinect to play L4D2

Obvious hacker is obvious

To the guy in this video:

Eat a bag of sh*t.

FEAR 3 delayed

An admin on the FearFans forums announced a few days ago that the game's launch date has been pushed back to May 2011, as Day 1 Studios' devs "look to deliver the best possible game for [their] fans."

He also promises that the game will be worth the wait.

I stopped caring the moment I saw the "F.3.A.R." logo.  For the record, I'm predicting a metascore below 80 no matter how much time they take.  I'll bet the first commenter willing to take the action the game of his choice if I'm wrong.

Xbox 360 vs. PS3

Via Kotaku:

A thread appeared on the GameTrailers forums asking a simple (/smirk) question:

I am torn between getting a PS3 OR an XBOX 360. I like fps games and play a lot online, but the rpg anime games never really entertained me. I would normally go with 360, but PS3 has some interesting games like resistance 3 and killzone 3 that look really cool. So what do I need from you? tell me what you believe I should buy and why.

At that point, the internets attacked (click image to enlarge):

Now there is a rather important addendum.  After all the console groupies on Kotaku decried the unbridled "PC master-racism" on GT, one intrepid commenter dished the real story:  "For the love of god, edit this article explaining that a moderator edited the posts and closed the topic for the rampant console fanboyism found on GT that invaded that topic."

I call them "console tards" for a reason.

Should have bought a console

Seems I'm missing out on all the fun.