CoD Snore… ZZzzzzz

Hey! Let’s all play Call of Duty 4! It’s soooooo awesome, it’s the most perfect game ever made…..

No it’s not, and no it wasn’t. When I was playing up until my 360 RROD’d (Red Ring of Death) the majority of people who played it and also posted on forums/YouTube spent their time complaining about pretty much everything – sort of like it is with Modern Warfare 2 now. Everything was given the suffix -noob. Juggernoob, martyrnoob, M16noob……okay the last one doesn’t really fit, but that’s how it was. Whatever weapon/perk you chose there was someone waiting to call you a “[insert whatever here]-noob”.

People complained that the game was “broken”……

Any of this sound familiar?

So now if you go on YouTube you find the very same people who spent the last days of CoD4 complaining about it now putting up video after video of…..CoD4. They’re all gushing about how great it is, and how crappy MW2 is.

Personally, I find it boring. Every video is the same. There is no variation in CoD4 – it is Ogga Ug Banga Whack Whack. All the weapons were equalised, all the killstreaks are the same…BOOOOOOOORING!

The most amusing “I love Cod4” video I’ve seen so far was when the commentator was lamenting about how powerful the assault rifles in MW2 are. How they are all you see in MW2 whereas in CoD4 you can use an assault rifle, an smg or a shotgun and do equally well with any of them……. Ogga….. Ug….. Banga….. Whack….. Whack……

In MW2 I use a variety of different weapons, but let’s be honest here: an assault rifle SHOULD be more powerful than an smg and have more range than both an smg or a shotgun. The clue is in the name.

CoD4 is the epitomy of nerfdom. If you’re thinking of complaining about something being overpowered, or unbalanced in any game STOP! Think……do you want to be playing a game that presents a challenge, or do you want to be playing Ogga Ug….. I mean CoD4? Before you put your indignant fingers to keyboard why not just trade in your obviously broken and unbalanced game and pick up a copy of CoD4?

It’s the perfect game apparently….

And while I’m posting about being bored by some people’s YouTube videos, here are a couple of other things that make me stop watching a video:

• Sniper rifle – especially if it is 1337 n05c0p3Zzzzz
• UMP45 – an ACTUAL overpowered gun that -surprise, surprise- no one complains about because it’s what all the cool kids use……
• complaining….. just plain old bitching about everything. If you don’t like a game – don’t play it. Problem solved.

And that concludes my rant.

Peas and loaves.

Want to know how to comment on or subscribe to this blog? Click here.

Find me on PSN – evaDlivE

The Skinny on Overgrown – FPS Kyle (MW2 Stimulus Pack)

I know that some of you didn’t play Call of Duty 4 which means that you’ll be at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to Crash and Overgrown in the Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Pack. Thankfully FPS Kyle has made a video detailing Overgrown – where to go, where not to go, good spots, bad spots, ugly spots.

It’s a very detailed video, if you haven’t seen the map properly before then you should definitely check the video out, and his channel. Here’s the vid (which is Call of Duty 4 footage NOT the Stimulus Pack Release):

In my experience of Overgrown, when you first play it you are going to get dead from pretty much everywhere until you get your bearings. Once I got a bit more experience on the map I used to enjoy clearing out the attic of Grandma’s house, stabbing the snipers in the Bad Sniper Corner, and hanging out in the library because I like to read.

Actually, the Library for me was a really good place to pick up the kills, not through camping but by being a sneaky fox. In CoD4 you got two claymores as compared to MW2’s one. This meant that you could claymore both sets of stairs straight off the bat. I’d then take up position in the windows to pick people off and keep a lookout. If a claymore went off I’d jump out the window and sprint around and up the stairs to get the unwanted visitor in the back – classy!

FPS Kyle mentions that he’s going to make a similar video for Crash, so looking forward to that. If you’re reading this – Thanks Kyle, your vid is appreciated 🙂

Peas and loaves

Find me on PSN – EvadLive

MW2 Stimulus Map Pack Controversy

Come March 30th Activision release the Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Map pack on the Xbox360 to combat “mapathy” (PS3 and PC a month later). It’s apparently going to cost 1200MS points and contain five maps (two from CoD4) and possibly some other graphical but useless content.

I don’t know how much 1200MS points are as I’m on PS3 and work in pounds, shillings and pence but it’s probably about £8 (USD$12) if the World at War map packs are anything to go by. **EDIT: from this blog I found that 1200MS points is £11.** Apparently, there is much resistance to the price, I’m not sure if it’s because there are two “old” maps or some other issue but you can get the general idea from this forum thread at codnation and this blog post at the Gaming Shed Blog – there are probably numerous other grumblings elsewhere, but these are two that came up straight away.

But the main issue with whether to buy the map pack or not is whether you want to play online or spend your time being kicked from games for not having the maps.

I didn’t get World at War until really late – Novemeber-ish 2009 – after all the map packs had been released and found online play virtually impossible. It would allow me to join a lobby…..tick tick tick down the time until game start and then – BOOT, you don’t have that map (well why let me join the lobby at all?!)!

With over 4 million players, I think that those who choose not to purchase the map pack are going to find themselves in a similar situation with no way of opting for non-map pack lobbies. Although non-map pack lobbies would resolve the issue, I get the feeling that those making the green off the game already know that, which is why it’s not going to happen (and is an issue that I’ll comment on in another post).

If you want to continue playing the game online then, realistically you’re going to have to stump up the £11. Personally I don’t think that is a vast sum of money – it’s just over £2 per map. Yes, even the “old” maps. When it comes down to it, the old maps are not going to be direct ports – they’ll be updated graphically, and probably with slight differences to suit the MW2 environments. At a time when many players are getting fed up of the same maps it will add some variety and will generally be welcomed.

The word on the street is that the new maps are:

• Bailout
• Storm
• Crash*
• Overgrown*
• Salvage

*CoD4 maps

Peas and loaves.

Find me on PSN – evaDlivE

Misplaced Code of Honour – I’m not cheap, I’m MLGpro!

I’ve noticed a trend in many YouTube Modern Warfare 2 commentators lately. The trend is like a self imposed Code of Honour. I’m all for being honourable and upstanding. But these codes of conduct are paradoxical. Essentially, if you use weapon x, attachment y and perk z then you are cheap. In the most recent video I watched – on Machinima no less – the YouTuber was going on about how cheap the grenade launcher is (I think he referred to it as a ‘noob-tube’). Obviously in this example the commentator must have been playing in a very non-cheap way. After all, it would make sense to validate your opinion about what is cheap, by not being cheap yourself. You’d think…..

So this guy is camping with an ACR and Commando Pro while attempting to lecture on ‘cheap’.

At the moment it’s trendy to post in the comments on YouTube that the grenade launcher attachment should take up a perk slot…….why? If you want that then you need to be playing CoD4 where the grenade launcher ATTACHMENT was not treated as an ATTACHMENT. Why should it take up a perk slot when none of the other attachments do? You get two grenade rounds with the launcher attachment – two! If you pair it up with One Man Army you not only lose a perk slot, but you also lose your secondary weapon…….is that not a reasonable trade off?

In reality, the grenade launcher is a fairly ineffective weapon. Two rounds, slow reload, limited accuracy. If someone is running around with the grenade launcher shouldn’t you put your artificial code of honour to one side and really smite them?

It’s not like you’re not having an 18th Century Duel, this is not Call of Duty: Pistols at Dawn – you’re there to defeat the other side. And you should want to do that as decisively as possible. If you choose to limit your loadout then the phrase “Death before dishonour” will be true for you many times over.

Ironically, being ‘cheap’ is a public game phenomenom. In the world of competitive gaming there is no such thing as cheap – the point is to win as quickly and decisively as possible. In a game where the core of it is shooting the enemy in the face, doing it as effectively as possible should be the norm. Zip to 4 minutes 20 seconds on this video for the lowdown:

I use some loadouts and tactics that even I consider to be cheap. But if they need to be used then so be it. If you’re stupid enough to fall for the same trick more than once then you only have yourself to blame:

So the next time you’re called “cheap”, don’t be hurt. Just remember that you’re not being cheap, you’re being MLG Pro!

Peas and loaves.

Find me on PSN – evaDlivE

Clean Up Gaming with Ken

I’ve actually stopped writing the post I’d started in order to share this with you. I’d already broken off from that to do the long overdue dishes. Break off from the dishes (ugh….pots, always a chore, never a pleasure) for five minutes I thought I’d see what was happening on YouTube. There was new post from Ken Burton which I think is very important. I’m not going to introduce it, just have a look/listen:

Watched it? Rated it? If not, watch it before reading on.

Now, one thing that Ken was on about was what happens when someone gets on a game, gets abuse and basically sticks their console under the bed for a month. Seems a bit much doesn’t it? Well no, it’s not because it happened to me. And I wasn’t/am not a kid either.

So here’s my story:
Shortly after I got my Xbox360 I had Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (I think that’s what it was). Having come from the PC FPS background I wasn’t that keen to go into the console FPS world, but what the hell, one of my friends had the console and game and were loving it. So I had a go of the campaign mode and once I got used to the controls went into multiplayer – one of the team deathmatch type games.

As usual I joined part way through the game and straight away heard some guy from the South East of England abusing some person who was actually from Mexico, but that didn’t stop him from calling him a “Yankee”!? After a couple of minutes the Mexican guy had had enough and left, but the abuser was obviously so caught up in his own vitriol that he missed that part so I thought I’d inform him. This is basically what happened:
Douche: Oi Yankee! You’re very quiet Yankee. Not got anything to say for yourself Yankee?!
Me: He’s left
Douche: You what?
Me:The guy you were abusing has left, and he wasn’t American either…
Douche: Oh, you’re his bum chum are you? Is that it?
Me: Erm…no, I just thought you’d like to know….
So I was now the target of the abuse which mainly comprised of statements of how I live in the basement of my Mum’s house (very original), what I look like, well….just general douchery.

I played to the end of the round and then left, reported the player to Microsoft (not that they EVER do anything about such reports) and added him to the block list. But more importantly – I did not play online until Call of Duty 4 came out. And even then I was actually anxious about it – would it be the same, would it just be hatefilled arseholes yelling down their mics? It wasn’t I’m pleased to say. In the couple of months I played CoD4 I never got any abuse, but then, I never used a headset either (and still don’t to this day). In some ways I’m missing a major part of the online gaming experience, but on the other hand I don’t have the time, inclination or patience to deal with other people’s bad attitudes.

Perhaps if I ever get enough people on my friends list I will use a headset and join in some game chat, but for now, it’s not worth the hassle (especially as most people don’t seem to know how to use their mics anyway).

So there we are – Ken Burton, attempting to make a change to the gaming douchery that we all seem to accept, or at least tolerate. If you’re not a douche, then back his campaign. If you are a douche (you won’t have read this far anyway but….), I hope that one day you get everything you actually deserve and not what you think you deserve.

p.s. apparently Wings of Redemption has been less than complimentary to Ken Burton. I unsubscribed to WoR last week due to other douchey behaviour so it seems that he’s just trying to see how low he can go. Interestingly, OnlyUseMeBlade put up a video in which he gave tips on how to become a popular commentator on YouTube. His advice was basically, if you’re a douchebag in real life then it’ll come across and people won’t like you. Judging by the amount of “unsubbed” messages that are appearing on WoR’s channel his real character must now be showing through.

Peas and loaves.

Find me on PSN – evaDlivE