Post your BLOPS emblem

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.

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.-

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.

Then, there's this, from Bash and Slash:

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).

To help yourself and your fellow players, open your MP config file, which is located here:

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.

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:

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.

And yet, they have the balls to charge for the DLC.

CoD:BO gameplay

In before the copyright take-down:

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.

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

Black Ops now available for preorder

Details here.  The link also has the minimum system requirements.

Happy Rob Bowling Day

It happened a year ago today.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, click here.

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.