There are online petitions and online boycotts against Infinity Ward’s latest title Call of Duty: Modern Warefare 2.   The big issue at hand? :  You won’t be able to run your own private game servers.

Not that bad, right?  Not if you take into account the masses who thrive for custom mods, like maps or custom game additions like the ones which took off with Call of Duty 4.  What’s so wrong without having to deal with the monthly cost for your own server?  Centralized gaming offered from Infinity Ward.  Why so bad?  We’ll have to see how reliable the online playability is.  How long will these servers be online for?  How many server upgrades / maintenance’s will gamers have to face?  Stop and think about it, it could get horrible pretty quickly.  Nothing like trying to plan a private clan scrim and Infinity Ward’s doing maintenance.

Infinity Ward head Jason West has been recently quoted laughing “We thought maybe it would be cool if the fans could play the game”.  “We’re just prioritizing the player experience above the modders and the tuners”, he added.  Prioritizing the player experience above the modders and tuners, really?  It seems quite obvious that Infinity Ward is centralizing the opportunity for taking the online multiplayer gaming in house.  For what?  Why?  Because running private servers makes playing a selected Call of Duty release longer?  There are plenty of Call of Duty 2 servers still out there, is this the problem?  Is this what’s killing Infinity Ward’s profits?  It’s possible to generate a slue of conclusions.

What happened to the good days of a vast online gaming community which regularly boasted custom modifications to suit their own personal gaming needs?  The times where, setting up your own custom server to heighten difficulty levels or make it more entertaining.  We now live in a current system of centralized gaming.  Perfect example is the XBOX Live subscriptions, which currently goes for $49 a year, and has rumors of raising to $100 a year.

It’s hard to believe that Infinity Ward would truly mean making the outcome of the online gaming ‘better’ doing this.  More like a throttled regime.  One would think of the possible final outcomes of doing this, such as will they cancel the modern warefare 2 servers, so that you the consumer will buy their next release later on?  What would stop them?  Private servers would.

I was greatly excited to see a full game offered in my xbox arcade marketplace that sparked my interest and for the first time, I really did feel like I got my money’s worth.  Lest everyone not forget that I’m usually an avid PC gamer and solely keyboard and mouse, I did quite well for my first xbox FPS.  Of course I at first got lividly pissed off at functioning a controller however I could not forget that I am in fact a gigantic Battlefield series fan.

It wasn’t that bad.  Really it honestly wasn’t.

I knew I needed a FPS to introduce me into the FPS console market as who doesn’t love gaming with their buddies while lounging in their living room, on a couch?  In full 1080p?  I jumped when I saw the game was being offered for 1200 Microsoft points, but thought it  was a little bit of a scam as Microsoft will only let you get 1200 points by purchasing $25 worth (much more than what the game’s worth, which I believe converts to $15).  Nevertheless I was impressed, or at least in the beginning.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my casual gaming experience.  Furthermore I love a gaming experience that encourages leveling, different levels to play on and vehicles to reap your own WWII havoc.  I’m not going to lie though I felt  a little gipped with almost all of the above, and then some.

The good:

First off, the game whacks you with killer graphics of course.  From my playing experiences thus far I’m yet to notice any sort of FPS drops.  The game being developed on the same engine as that of Dice’s previous Battlefield release, Bad company.

For the shear excitement of running and gunning this game wins for sure.  I was thrilled in my first experience, gaming with a couple of buddies of mine, hopping into a jeep.  Best of all, they really nailed a nice WWII plane cockpit.  Though the controls to fly these planes isn’t the greatest (reversed joystick controls by default with altitude), I know that eventually the learning of how to effectively control those suckers will undoubtedly improve in time.

Leveling up your rank as well doesn’t take a vast amount of time.  In a good sitting I was leveling up each round, whilst actively running around and killing the most people I possibly could.  The environment elements were a nice touch.  The fact you can blow palm trees in pieces like how the people advertising Crysis for the first time could.  Generally, the game has some pretty decent physics.

The bad:

While the experience wasn’t all that bad I found there could be many improvements.  Some things I could easily see right off the bat would be (obviously) more maps.  I understand a marketing approach of releasing more maps in the (hopefully) near future, but lets be serious here.  This seriously gave me the general thought that they just kind of released the game to release it.  I (and I know many other gamers) want variety when they game with friends.  Minus the fact that the maps are generally small, at least give us some other places to battle in.

Other critiques would be improving some of the interesting things I see whilst being a sniper when I want to take it easy.  I’ve seen everything from floating opponents across the map, to seeing tanks through mountains and hills.  It’s pretty easy to cheat doing things like that I suppose, nevertheless annoying if the opponent is you attempting to hide behind a tree.

There was some latency issues when I first started with the game.  I thought that should be mentioned, though they did have mentions of server related issues (as at the first initial release of the game, it crippled servers and they needed to expand).

The ugly:

Nothing like leveling up for absolutely (pretty much) no reason.  You get a different badge logo, sure, but weapons?  No.  I find this extremely ridiculous especially like Infinityward’s most recent Call of duty World at war’s ability to level up and gain access to a larger arsenal.

Currently they’re still having horrible server issues.  It will consistently always take me multiple attempts to find an online game that apparently doesn’t go “Unavailable” like it indicates all the time.  This will eventually be aided overtime after their server expansion, of course.

The conclusion:

This being my first FPS for a console I do safely say that I think this was an excellent purchase.  It’s cheap (1200 Microsoft points as indicated above) and will definitely fill your world war two running and gunning hunger for sure.  There are some improvements to make, and I hope that the developers of Battlefield 1943 hopefully address some of the above issues.  Worth the price!

Screenshots:

[View with PicLens]

Carmack: Blu-ray is advantageous for RAGE and Doom 4

From gamesindustry.biz

John Carmack has been discussing the advantages and disadvantages of PlayStation 3 versus Xbox 360 development, stating that while games don’t require as much compression on Blu-ray, less “sweat equity” has been expended into his studio’s Xbox 360 projects.

Upcoming id title Doom 4 will “almost certainly” come on three discs, Carmack told GameInformer in an interview, as reported by VG247, although the studio is working on compression methods that will enable RAGE to ship on just two, since the nature of the game doesn’t suit more than that.

“We would love to set the thing up where it filled one Blu-ray disc versus three DVDs, which is about the right mix, but the game just…we can’t cut it into a third like that,” said Carmack.

“We can cut it into two pieces. We’ve got two large wastelands on there. We just couldn’t make an arbitrary cut.”

He doesn’t foresee the same being a problem for Doom 4, however.

Click here to read the full article.

It’s been a while since I’ve considered doing a blog.  Mostly for the reasons of it causing me further writer’s block than I already have, I’ve decided to jump ship.

I’ve finally decided to get into the blogging realm for two obvious reasons.  First, you just need to this day in age, second I do have much I think I could share on certain topics, gadgets, applications, what have you.  I’m a gigantic gadget head to begin with so it’s my nature to already have a bunch of preferences, opinions on things already about what irks me greatest whilst trying to simplify my technological issues.  This may be twittering about stuff or something just as simple as checking my bank account information.  I’ve dealt already with a slue of gadget related drama that has stacked so high already in my skull it’s already spilling out into this blog.

I find it best however to get opinions and feedback on the standpoints I have on issues or topics.  Personally I find this a gigantic valuable asset into understanding both sides of the argument coming from an actual person who may differ in opinion.  Never the less I hold my thoughts with an eager mind that blogging will release my inner ambitions to tap into my journalistic hobby.  Remember this going forward, I’m not a journalist though I do love writing.

This blog will allow me to obviously also vent on issues that I would otherwise couldn’t vent about in a typical news article.  I have expectations that this blog is portrayed as a direct quote from myself rather than a third person review of something like that of the normal FPSHQ website.  This of course isn’t necessarily a bad thing however I do want this blog and the main website to differ greatly on how content is portrayed.  Thus, I will take every ounce of my efforts to make my blog posts as interesting as my dull mind could possibly write something.  Hopefully pick up a few tips along the way as well.

I’ve decided on the name “Scope” both for the FPS related nature but also the real meaning of the word when talking about something in definition.  Thus combining both definitions to have the outcome to seem “Zeroing in on a certain topic / issue” , “Looking at the fine details at hand”.

I think this could be a whole great deal of fun.  Like stated though I definitely want to get in touch with the community and get some awesome debates going on topics.

It’s back to development for me.  Much still to do, not a ton of time.  I hope you check back!

Ever since John Carmack at idSoftware released his first attempt of a Wolf3d retro mobile remake, the fans couldn’t have enough.  Now we stand at a completely different era of mobile gaming since the legendary god father of gaming has stepping into the mobile market.  Be forewarned : the outcome thus far is absolutely stunning.

Being a idSoftware fan since my single digit years I can easily say that idSoftware has become part of my life.  Gunning through grunts and imps through the entire Doom series has made me many fond childhood memories.  Dispite there most recent fan scare of ZeniMax Media taking the reins, never-the-less they seem to be doing quite well in the mobile market thus far.  After rumors of idSoftware hiring a dedicated mobile gaming development team was proven true, with their most recent mobile game: Doom Resurrection for iPhone has proven a great success.

Averaging so far 4.5+ starts out of 5, the game is an absolute blast.  Though some people are a little disgruntled about the fact that you cannot really move around (it’s a scripted camera moving, you’re just firing the guns) it proves to be an excellent ‘port’.  The greatest part about it is, you can crawl into bed and still play and get scared.  You don’t have to worry about lugging your over entire desktop PC with you.

Without further ado, direct quote from the Doom Resurrection web landing page:

Immerse yourself in the first person experience that takes your iPhone or iPod Touch beyond previously imagined limits.

Introducing DOOM Resurrection, a brand new, technologically advanced, heart-pounding chapter in the legendary DOOM Saga brought to you by id Software and Escalation Studios!

• Revolutionary control scheme, breathtaking visuals, and intense story
• Advanced graphics engine designed from the ground up to take full advantage of the power found in Apple’s mobile devices
• Wield an arsenal of heavy-hitting weapons to defeat a variety of hideous monsters and bosses
• Innovative controls for fast-paced and accessible first-person action

An all-new chapter of the DOOM saga that new players and long-time DOOM fans can enjoy