Call of Duty 5 (CoD5) : World at War (WaW) – First impressions from Beta

Posted on October 29, 2008 by UKDarkstar

So it’s here at last. Some 18 days after the beta for the XBOX was released we finally get the PC version. Not that it was simple to obtain. You had to be signed up at callofduty.com to get a code. Then the download was released to FilePlanet (needs a subscription to get fast and advert free downloads). Then there was some cock-up with that and FilePlanet released another file, then you had to wait until your beta activation code was released at callofduty.com. Easy eh ?

Well it’s been out less than 24 hours and I’ve spent a bit of time on it (ranked up to Corporal – level 7). I’ve had a play on some different gametypes, tried the 3 different maps (Makin, Roundhouse and Castle) and also had a look around some clan sites to see what the general “take” is.

Just a little background on some bits before the review.

Infinity Ward produced CoD4 Modern Warfare with a new game engine and it was generally well received. Activision, who own the franchise, have this policy of alternating software houses to produce each new version to CoD5 fell to Treyarch who had done the well received Call of Duty: United Offensive (CoDUO) and the not-so-well-received Call of Duty 3 (which was console only). Most hardened CoD players were looking forward to the release of CoD5 by Treyarch as it was hoped there would be a return to old-style CoD gameplay and feel overall. The game engine though is the same as that used by CoD4.

Well CoD5:WaW returns us to the WWII scenario though based in the Pacific Basin. The beta maps are Makin (sort of jungle/swamp on edge of some water), Castle (Japanese Pagoda type setting) and Roundhouse (ruined city around a train yard). In general, my view was that the maps recaptured something of the CoD2 feel though this may have been due more to the WWII setting than anything to do with design or gameplay.

Some PC gamer requests have been dealt with (you can now add a Clan tag) but many of the items that have been requested since CoD4 came out still appear to be lacking (no colours for in-game names). Irritatingly, it seems as if the PC version is trying to be converted to a console type game. Your player name must be unique on the worlwide master servers (which will undoubtedly irritate many CoD Clans) and they have added a setting to easily add friends ( a console type feature when most PC gamers will probably use things like Xfire). The server browser for the beta did, however, seem fast, well populated and allow for some decent filtering options.

As with any new release, wheter beta or full, there have been the usual complaints about installing not working, graphics not looking good, jerky movement etc. All I can say is that, apart from having to re-install DirectX 9.0c (specifically) the game plays fine on my Xp Pro, 8800gtx, quad core system. It runs smoothly and the graphics (to me) seem as comparable as with CoD4. The sound is a little disappointing and grenades definitely seem to sound muffled.

 In terms of gameplay we have all the usual gametypes – team deathmatch, deathmatch, capture the flag, search and destroy etc. Vehicles are back (as per CoDUO) so you can drive around in tanks and there are also attacks by dogs. I’m not sure I like having to repeatedly shoot an animal in-game and listen to the yelping (but then I am an animal lover having had my own Labrador and several cats).

Comments I have seen are varied and are probably 50% for it and 50% against it. However, the most pertinent comment seems to be that it does, unfortunately, feel like a WWII mod for CoD4. Whether the full release can overcome this and give it it’s own true identity remains to be seen. Long-term CoD players may well respond well to the change back to WWII whilst the console type players will probably just run with it for a while and move on to whatever the next great new release happens to be.

For it to have longevity on the PC it remains to be seen what will happen about things like the release of mod tools, mapping tools and how these additions can be added to the game. After the fiasco of CoD4 in terms of how easy it was to add custom maps and mods, PC gamers will be looking for something a bit more like previous CoD incarnations in this respect. The folder structure of the beta on your hard drive alludes to this but we will have to see when the full game is released.

The game release is scheduled for mid November (11th or 14th depending on where you read it) and Treyarch have already said they will not be making any alterations to the beta. That seems to imply that patches will be released quite quickly once the game goes on sale and we can only hope also that files for Linux based servers are also available sooner than with CoD4 (which took around 3 weeks).

 So after all this, will I buy it and play it ?

Yes, as I love the Call of Duty series. I’ll probably play it more than CoD4 as I prefer the WWII setting.

Will I ever still play CoD, CoDUO and CoD2 – you bet ! I don’t want or need the frilly ranks/perks of the more modern games and still think there is something to be said for the older versions – but then if you gave me the original Space Invaders to play I’d be happy too !

Posted in Call of Duty 5 | 1 Comment

INX Games Manifesto

Posted on October 6, 2008 by John

And we are now well into the next generation of video games. But while the graphics have changed, and the loading times have decreased, and the finances and time required to make games has skyrocketed a lot of corners are still being cut.

I recently tried to play Flatout Ultimate Carnage with a friend. I’d been telling him about this slicker, grittier version of Burnout and we were both looking forward to it. Oh, wait, no splitscreen multiplayer.

That’s right. A game that does XBox Live multiplayer to the nth degree (8 players) doesn’t allow a couple of buddies to kill some time on the one console. So we ended up playing Burnout: Revenge instead.

As a result of my disappointment at this, and the desperately cut-down Unreal Tournament 3 (which was in many peoples’ opinion, steps backward in gameplay from Unreal Tournament 2004), and many other instances of glaring omissions that I’ve seen in games lately, I’ve drafted the following manifesto for games to be considered “next-gen” in what actually matters: the gameplay and usability.

Gameplay:

1) Games which offer “Deathmatch”, “Team Deathmatch”, “Capture the Flag”, and “Last Man Standing” game modes have to include other game modes as well to offer a variety of gameplay – too many games are offering these four as the bare minimum. Other popular ones include Assault, Conquest, Assassination, and Mutation (UT 2004).

2) Flexibility in multiplayer. These may include (the following are examples, not specifics) an optional regenerate health setting, an friendly fire setting (including friendly fire modifiers such as 50% of damage), an optional penalty for winning players, etc.

3) Games must offer an offline Instant Action mode. Too many gamers don’t have online access either temporarily or permanently to not allow this. S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl, one of my favourite games of recent times, has this problem.

4) Games that include blood should include a “no blood” feature, regardless of age rating.

5) Missions in story or campaign driven game modes shouldn’t be simply “walk from A to B then back to A”, even if this is disguised as “fetch x for y”.

Interface and accessibility:

6) Plenty of gamers are deaf or play with the sound off. All in-game speech must have subtitles.

7) All subtitles and onscreen text must be clearly legible on Standard Definition televisions, widescreen or otherwise. This includes making sure that the text is on screen for long enough! A lot of people found Dead Rising’s missions difficult to complete to play well because mission critical instructions were given in unreadable text.

8 ) Loading screens should have something interesting for the player to watch, read, or do, as well as clearly showing the relative amount left to load.

Multiplayer:

9) Games that offer online multiplayer have to provide it in such a way that an inexperienced and spoilt child can set it up without a tantrum.

10) Console games that allow network multiplayer modes must allow splitscreen multiplayer modes to either the same amount or the maximum amount offered by the console.

Are you getting annoyed with next-gen games not being up to par? Anything you think should be added to the manifesto?

- John

john@inx-gaming CO UK

Posted in John, Random thoughts | Leave a comment

Jack Thompson Disbarred: “Now the Fun Begins”

Posted on September 27, 2008 by John

The inevitable has happened.

Jack Thompson has been permanently disbarred. He’s got 30 days to get his affairs in order, and then he’s out. Oh, and he’s also got a fine of over $43,000.

The Florida Supreme Court supported the accusations against Jack Thompson including that he:

* Made false statements of material fact to courts and repeatedly violated a court order
* Communicated the subject of representation directly with clients of opposing counsel
* Engaged in prohibited ex parte communications
* Publicized and sent hundreds of pages of vitriolic and disparaging missives, letters, faxes, and press releases, to the affected individuals
* Targeted an individual who was not involved with respondent in any way, merely due to “the position [the individual] holds in state and national politics”
* Falsely, recklessly, and publicly accused a judge as being amenable to the “fixing” of cases
* Sent courts inappropriate and offensive sexual materials
* Falsely and publicly accused various attorneys and their clients of engaging in a conspiracy/enterprise involving “the criminal distribution of sexual materials to minors” and attempted to get prosecuting authorities to charge these attorneys and their clients for racketeering and extortion
* Harassed the former client of an attorney in an effort to get the client to use its influence to persuade the attorney to withdraw a defamation suit filed by the attorney against respondent
* Retaliated against attorneys who filed Bar complaints against him for his unethical conduct by asserting to their clients, government officials, politicians, the media, female lawyers in their law firm, employees, personal friends, acquaintances, and their wives, that the attorneys were criminal pornographers who objectify women.

[source: gamepolitics.com]

His response was his standard threat: he sent an email to www.gamepolitics.com entitled “Now the fun begins”. I remember a similar scenario when he threatened to “deconstruct the Florida Bar”.

For a timeline of Jack Thompson’s demise click here.

- JForce

Posted in John, Random thoughts | 3 Comments

TNA iMPACT stands up to a brutal clothesline…

Posted on September 22, 2008 by John

TNA iMPACT! (x360)

A wrestling game may seem like a strange choice. Cancel that, a wrestling game must seem like a strange choice: they’re traditionally very slow and robotic, difficult to handle, and very repetitive. They also don’t stand up to the same level of scrutiny in terms of variety and depth of gameplay that the Tekken and DoA legions demand.

TNA iMPACT! by Midway games has breathed new life into the genre and has changed my opinion of wrestling games for the better, although I’m not entirely sure why. The same combinations of buttons lead to the same moves that almost all wrestlers have in common, and after the first match you will have heard all of the commentry that the game has to offer. The handling is fairly intuitive (and very quick to learn) but still feels robotic in places, and there’s still no strategy other than to chip away at the enemy’s health bar and then try to pin him, regardless of the wrestler that you’re using and the wrestler that you’re fighting. The lack of strategy can be observed by watching the AI: sometimes they’ll block a punch, sometimes they won’t. Sometimes they’ll reverse a hold that you’ve put them in, and other times they won’t.

Given how little they could get away with it’s impressive to see the lengths that Midway have gone to polish the game. They clearly tried to make this game the best ever wrestling game and leave it in a position to hold the title for a while: there’s a story mode with an actually interesting and well-written story, with lots of colourful characters and good cutscenes. There’s a create your own player mode, and there’s four player multiplayer at one console. New characters, new moves for the create a player mode, and new arenas can all be unlocked (for the fans of collectibles). This isn’t a game for the hardcore beat ‘em up genre fans, in the same way that WWF isn’t for hardcore martial arts fans. This is a game for people who want a shallow but fun way to kill a weekend with a friend, or who enjoy the showmanship style of fighting. TNA iMPACT! is to DoA what Earth Defence Force 2017 is to Gears of War: simpler, brighter, but much easier to pick up and play. It’s also more addictive than any of them.

john@inx-gaming.co.uk
Laying the smackdown since 2007

Posted in Game Reviews, John | 1 Comment

Cheap as chips game servers

Posted on September 17, 2008 by Olly

If a bloke with too much of the old fake sun tan and with more gold than a Swiss vault, tried to sell you a cheap as chips game server, you’d wonder whether it’s hosted on an antique server. Never mind hosted from an amiga, you’d expect the gameserver to be powered by a Spectrum. Or maybe a BBC micro? Any suggestions for a worse case scenario? Antique-host. Now there’s a business idea!

So it does amaze me the amount of people that are obsessed with the word ‘cheap’. We as a nation, and as individual consumers, are obsessed with it. Where it’s arguably valid is when you are shopping around for the best price on a product. As an avid amateur mucisian and wannabe rock-star, I recently treated myself to a Microkorg, which I must say is a rather cool little synthesiser. Apparantly the lead singer of the Killers uses one. How cool!

Narrowing down the best

What was the first thing I did? I went onto Google shopping. And then you guessed it, I sorted by price. So here sits the biggest hypocrite writing this post like an old woman. Now, the average price was around £250, and I had tabbed in Firefox around a dozen possible companies to order from. I wasn’t going to pay £275 for it, when I could get it for £250 or less. So out went those companies charging an arm and a leg. Windows closed.

I was then left with around half a dozen sites. And after that I started doing a little homework. I asked the following questions

  • Do they have a full contact address listed?
  • Can I get hold of them easily if there’s a problem?
  • Does their website look nice, or is it a horrible template. Something a Turner Prize wannabe has shat on my monitor?
  • Do they have what I want in stock?

And from that I was left with three websites.

Choosing the winner

I then contacted all three by phone. Two of them didn’t answer. Funny enough, I was left with the one I liked at the beginning. It was a bit more expensive, but firstly they really knew their stuff, and secondly they were going to put my keyboard straight in the post after I ordered. Which they did, to their credit.

So why didn’t I go for the very cheapest one?

Pricing is a very thin line. If you price too high, you don’t get any customers. If you price too low, while you’ll get the hordes of customers, you don’t make enough money to sustain growth and offer a good service. I chose the one that was going to be least hassle. I wanted my synth for the weekend. I didn’t want to be let down. I wanted to be able to get hold of the company I’d paid £250 to if there was a problem. For the £5 extra I paid over the cheapest one, it was completely worth it.

The relevance to gaming servers

Very simple. The same people that wouldn’t listen to this advice, will have stopped reading this post after the second line.

It amazes me how people will choose a game server provider, a couple of quid less over INX-Gaming (and other reputable hosts) even though:

  • No contact details are on their site
  • The grammatical and spelling errors, are quite frankly embarrasing. Stinking of kiddie-host
  • They only appear to host a couple of game servers
  • Yet they lie, and promise 24/7 support
  • Because they get something free they don’t actually need

My dad taught me something when I was younger. When buying something, think, what profit that provider is making? Can they sustain service at that pricing?

I’m well aware that INX aren’t any longer the ‘cheapest’ (we were once!). But I can tell you that the pricing is based on sustaining top support, and excellent server quality.

If a competitor drops their prices to compete with us, something has to give somewhere.

If we halved our prices we’d double our bills for:

  • bandwidth
  • rack space
  • power
  • hardware
  • networking equipment

And with that, twice as much as support. And at the end of it, we’re making the same “profit”. But we’re not.

It’s not my job to tell people what to charge, but we have been around coming up to 6 years now, and we’ve not gone bust like so many with silly pricing.

While some game server hosts might want to charge 75p a slot, we know their support sucks. We know they aren’t making the profit. We know it’s not sustainable.

So we’ll be sticking to our guns, and we’ll stick to offering the superior service we do. And really, at the end of the day, all for another 25p. Even Mars Bars cost more than that now!

-Olly

Posted in Random thoughts | 4 Comments

Fortress Forever 2.1 hotfix released

Posted on September 15, 2008 by Olly

Last night a new patch for Fortress Forever 2.1 was released. Nothing major seems to have been released. Just a few hot fixes for bugs.

Quoting from the official forums:

”

The regular server packages are being made right now and will be released within a couple of hours (or sooner if possible), but any of you linux server admins can definitely get a head start if you want.

The differences between the *_WindowsServer.zip files, and the generic *_Server.zip and .tar.gz files will be 3 files:

bin/server_i486.so
maps/ff_dropdown.lua
maps/includes/base_ad.lua

”

We’ve updated all our system game server files, so all you need do to issue the update is reboot your game server, and the update gaming server files should be updated automatically.

Should you have any problems, please contact support.

Posted in Fortress Forever news | Leave a comment

5 ways to avoid being ripped off by a gameserver provider

Posted on September 9, 2008 by Olly

Bit of an odd blog post, I’m sure you’ll agree. However all I’ve heard this week are new customers on Live Sales Chat or by email, sharing their gameserver provider woes. And I really feel for them.

Those customers that hadn’t heard of us took some convicing we weren’t like some unscrupulous gameserver hosts. Sad really, that after nearly 6 years in business.

The BBC would have a field day. Never mind Rogue Traders. How about Rogue Gameserver Hosts? Unfortunately there are too many!

So even if you don’t rent your gameservers with INX, and you look for another host, I hope these five things to check that will help you avoid being scammed.

1. How long has the host been in business?

Don’t get me wrong, there are many gameserver companies that have only been around for years that are far worse than those only 6 months. However, with a game server company that hasn’t been around long, you’ll struggle to find reviews, so it’s very difficult to know just how good they are. Also, consider a large percentage of businesses fail in the first 6 months. Everyone starts a game server provider believing they will be the next big thing. They’ll offer MSN support and their personal mobile. Wow! But it’s not scaleable. One person cannot continue to look after gameservers if the company is to grow. We’ve always seen it as the biggest failing point for any gameserver host.

2. How easy is it to contact the server host?

We believe any company whether it be game server host or Florist, should be easily contactable. And they should state clearly, their opening hours. That’s what we do. We’re honest about it. And at the time of writing we don’t offer 24/7 support, so we don’t lie about it. Beware, lots do. A host that gives you his / her msn sounds fantastic. But what if he / she is taken ill.

Can you see an address to write to on their website? Any company failing to list an address is breaking distance selling regulations. It seems to be the norm, rather than the exception new hosts do this. Do you really trust a company that breaks such clear trading rules?

3. What’s their Eglish loike?

Ho ho :)

Seriously, can you trust a gameserver host to look after your clan / communities servers, if there are hordes of spelling mistakes on their front page? It doesn’t take five minutes to spell-check a page. Loads of grammatical and spelling errors, for me, suggest someone that can’t be bothered. How bothered will they be when your servers are down through no fault of your own?

4. Who’s shizzle are they reselling?

I’ve written about this on our about page. No doubt some gameserver hosters are going to be calling me a range of colourful names ranging from dispstick to…er…can’t print that on here ;)

No doubt they won’t agree with me, because they are resellers of resellers of resellers.

Check the about page for a full explanation. But in short, too many middle men, nothing gets done. A simple server reboot can take take days. Do you really want to wait that long?

5. Have they got a clue?

My next blog post will be on how easy it is to setup a game server provider. It’s very easy. :)

But doing it right, is another thing. I could setup a Chiropodist clinic if I wanted.

I’d get Daddy to give me a loan, I’d get myself a shop…buy all my equipment and wait for the customers to flock in. Ok, without thinking about marketing and advertising I’d not get many customers. But before long, there would be one mug walk in.

Eesha, INX company secretary calls me Propellar Arms. It’s not because I can fly. I believe it’s a lovely reference to my nimble hands. So trust me, you would not want me near your feet with a razor blade.

Similarly with game server companies, it’s so easy to setup. But when it comes to knowing the games, the operating system, the mods. It’s not something you can buy. It’s taken us 5 years + to get where we are knowledge wise.

While what I’ve written is perhaps lighthearted, it should be taken seriously.

When one big name GSP went bust last summer, so many customers were left hundreds, even thousands of pounds out of pocket. With no refunds. Clans died as a result.

I hope my modest nuggets of game server hosting wisdom help you avoid being ripped off.

- Olly :)

Posted in Game Servers | 2 Comments

Cod 4 weekend no, no!

Posted on September 2, 2008 by Olly

Many of you may have wondered why settling down with a beer this weekend, that when you went to join your favourite Call of Duty 4 server, you were being foiled!

INX-Gaming Call of Duty 4  server owners reported a variety of issues error messages ranging from INVALID CD KEY, to finding their achievements and perks history profile….being wiped and corrupted. EEK!

I learnt via the Call of Duty 4 Linux mailing list that this was due to routing issues. Others claimed it may have been a man in the middle attack.

Either way we’re not sure. But coupled with America’s Labour Day, and a long weekend, this issue raged on from Friday through to Monday.

Personally, I am discusted. A whole weekend without playing on Call of Duty 4 servers. I actually had to go out and socialise!

- Olly

Posted in Call of Duty 4 News | Leave a comment

TF2 update – 27/09/2008

Posted on August 27, 2008 by Olly

In case you missed it, early this morning there was an update for Team Fortress 2 servers:

A new required update for Team Fortress 2 has been released.  Please run
hldsupdatetool to receive it.  The specific changes include:

- Fixed a bug that prevented the correct Arena stats from being uploaded

Jason

Posted in Team Fortess 2 News | Leave a comment

Counter Strike and users.ini

Posted on August 26, 2008 by Olly

Just a very small update for Counter Strike 1.6 customers.

We’ve added in the file users.ini so you can edit this direct, and save different versions on our file editor.

Users.ini is the file used by AMXXmod to set admins, and admin permissions for managing Counter Strike game servers.

Posted in Counterstrike news | Leave a comment