CROSSHAIRS 8 Friendly Devs ?
August 9th, 2010 — crosshairs

On this week’s CROSSHAIRS we talk about

1. The new generation of community managers and communicators from Treyarch , Dice and Infinity Ward along with
their, seemingly, new focus on community involvement.

2. The latest beta of the Galactic Star Wars Mod from Blackmonkeys and it’s appreciation by the community along with it
being noticed by 402 the community Manager from Infinity Ward.

3. California’s attempted crackdown on video game violence

And as usual our Community Keyhole segment


Listen Here

CROSSHAIRS 7 Treyarch’s Striptease
August 3rd, 2010 — crosshairs

On this week’s CROSSHAIRS we discuss

The latest confirms by pcdev and jd_2020 and what they might mean for COD Black Ops.

Confirms such as

* prone
* demo recording
* scroll wheel
* KB and Mouse plus controller

Avatar movement in past and present games and where has the quality gone.

And this week we also bring a new German flavor to the show by introducing NOCHES, the community’s crack international reporter.

And much more.

where's that edit button? lol

MW2 has the avatar movment you mentioned, but they in turn miss the point on so many other issues that
it's hardly worth mentioning anymore.

Anyway, I really liked this editorial. So much so I copied and posted it for my own clan to read (after a bit of
grammar and punctuation checking) :o)

Hope you don't mind.

Nice piece iBleed and so true.

by ibleedv20
Omnilinkit


The other day I had the occasion to reinstall Call of Duty World at War.

Some friends and I were discussing upcoming game releases and included it as a comparison

to the latest offerings in FPSs.

It had been quite some time since I had played the game....And

Maybe it was the also fact that I was missing the Call of Duty series that led me to install it.

Either way I got my 7 patches applied and I took it for a spin.

I was pleased to see the browsers still populated and the community mods running

I am going to say straight away....when I jumped into MP I was a bit shocked and very very happy I had done the installation.

You see I spend so much time talking about games and playing the latest releases,well...it is easy to forget.

Easy to forget past releases even, a game like World at War which I played almost exclusively for a year.

Fist let me say that I have this curious condition where song lyrics almost alway come to mind when I experience something impactfull in life.

Yeah I know don't worry...it's fairly common and has to do more with memories and the brain using context to accompany experiences.

My line for the day was: Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone.

Of course that's a line from the Jonie Mitchell song Big Yellow Taxi.

Mitchell's premise for the song lies in the fact that during a trip to Hawaii she was disappointed to see large swathes of asphalt parking lots from her hotel window.

Asphalt in contrast to the gorgeous view of the pristine beaches and the mountains in the background.

Thus the next line

They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot.

And that's just what popped into my head as I realized how good World at War's avatar movement is compared to BFBC2 and the MOH beta.

Now at the time there were many complaints about CODWAW as we were all comparing it to COD4.

And one of the major complaints was the clunky avatar movement.

And I wonder now if those complaints weren't too harsh.

certainly games change from release to release and certainly when competing developers such as IW and Treyarch are releasing games of the same series.

And I wonder as I re-explore this game how many of these differences are just a reflection of the studios themselves.

Now as we are a couple of FPS releases down the road from major titles such as MW2,BFBC2 and the MOH beta I am also wondering something else.

Have these developers lost something in the translation from the creative process to the end product released to the consumer.

IMO none of those games comes close to the quality of the most basic element that a FPS must have to be eminently playable.

And that thing is a well developed avatar that responds accurately to input thus allowing for a quality playing experience.

Everything and I mean everything must be built around this most basic element of gameplay.

As is apparent in MW2 BFBC2 and The new MOH beta.

Either this has been forgotten and thrown aside.

Or the developers are not even playing past iterations of FPSs as the create their games.

And I have to ask whether the importance of building upon what has been a success in the industry is a moot point as games get released that seem to have no refinement.

A game such as BC2 where avatar movement virtually eliminates any quality close quarters combat.

IMO it's that bad.

Most curious in and of itself is EA's desire to clone the COD series in the MOH beta.

Yet this most important element is a lackluster effort at best.

You see I believe something is being lost...or forgotten as more FPS games get released.

And the something that is being lost is also something that is written into the DNA of every hardcore FPS gamer.

The ability to appreciate the lost art of correct avatar movement.

As we near the release of COD Black Ops I find it very interesting to wonder whether Treyarch itself has still got the touch to create that basic magic.

They did it last and now they have the chance to teach the other developers some old tricks that should never be forgotten.

And maybe they can remind those gamers who have settled for less or even forgotten what great avatar movement can do for the overall quality of the game.

Another line in the Jonie Mitchell song Big Yellow Taxi goes like this

They took all the trees
Put 'em in a tree museum
And they charged the people
A dollar and a half just to see 'em

I hope the finer qualities of game development haven't gone the way of the DoDo bird and we don't look back 5 years from now and feel shocked that we are buying trash at twice the price.

CROSSHAIRS 5
July 16th, 2010 — crosshairs

Amongst the topics today:

* Where is Treyarch getting community input from for CoD:BO?
* Should Treyarch provide Mod Tools for CoD:BO?
* Given how our hardcore community bashes the developers of the games we play, why would the devs help us out with communication? Have we dug our own grave with them?
* Activision’s idea of working with Dell and HP to build TV-ready gaming boxes and thus provide a subscription-based business model for the home TV.
* Ranking systems and modded servers…can they mix?
* Topics from the listeners of CROSSHAIRS.
* SP vs MP, time for divorce court?
* Sniper Ghost Warrior reviews

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Listen to another episode of The Crosshairs Live Call In talk Show featured on Bashandslash.com. We cover the MOH Beta and other good topics.

Hey you get it!! Of course we still should be descriminative gamers and play the best games we can. This also should no preclude the inclusion of great indie games that give us all the classical features of PC MP gaming from the past. Lets wish ourselves luck and play some games.
See you on the battlfield

I think you may be on to something here. I certainly found day 1 of the MoH beta frustrating to say the least.
Not all of the features I wanted in a game are there and so I was not enjoying it.

2nd day was better. I had come to accept that it was not there and like you say, went there to "enjoy the game".
That is exactly what I did and whilst there are issues - this is a beta after all - I found myself getting into this
game in a big way.

Understand this:
My online gaming background started back in the 90's with Illusions Softworks "Hidden & Dangerous 2".
Illusion has since been sold at least once and parts of the team I believe are today working for 2K games.
I digress.

The game experience that time; I was totally new to online gaming where you could actually chat to other players
and I was blown away by this fact. Some guy is sitting in Seattle, another in Sao Paulo and me, then in London, UK
chatting away whilst playing the same game at the same time. Granted, there were lag issues but these were managable
with simply adjusting your aim accordingly. It was this game that first introduced me to FPS that occupies I'd say 99%
of my gaming time.

This game had prone, crouch AND lean! Since those days, all other games (subconsiously or not) are measured in some
way against this. I tell you, I played this game to death and back again. 24/7 the experience was just amazing.
Then one fine day, someone pointed me in the direction of a new game just released, namely Battlefield 2.
Again, the experience in this upgrade was simply mindblowing! So much faster, so many more players, such great sound
effects and graphic effects I was again hooked.

Throughout this game I must admit that the lack of lean was bothering me but this not really reduce my enjoyment of the game.
It was just a different game. Nothing more, nothing less. I played it for what it was and loved it. The dedicated servers were
a new thing too and I soon learned to appreciate the difference in game experience and enjoyment when ping/lag was reduced
or minimized and it seemed we were all more or less equal on the battlefield.

Then one fine sunny day, whilst surfing the net I found a clip showing off Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
My first impression? WTF? MUST HAVE! This game had it all! Lean, dedicated servers, perks, loads of players online and fast,
fun gameplay and maps that supported this gamestyle. Several game ways to play it too: FFA, S&D, Dom, TDM and not to mention
the free-flowing feel the avatars in CoD4. From H&D2 and BF2's days of - in hindsight - quite restrictive gameplay i.e. only one way
to play the game, this CoD4 seemed to me at least to be the very pinnacle of modern, FPS, online gaming.

I still remember the H&D2 and BF2 days with fondness, but more these days for the community I played them with.
The games have been surpassed many times over since then.

So, having reached this maximum enjoyment in gaming terms, I find it hard to climb back down again.
From a commercial point of view it is quite clear that those happy days are gone.
Lean appears to have vanished and even a simple thing like dedicated server files seems to be a struggle for developers to make.
However, looking around on the various gamesites, forums and facebook pages, it appears that I have grown old.
There are people out there that are not looking for anything more than a new perk, a new weapon and some massive sound effects
to go with it.

So I rant and rave. Why? Well, your post just pointed that out to me. I have forgotten to have fun and will only do so on my own
terms...totally ignoring what others might think and certainly not at all interested in what the game developers had in mind.
I want "my game" back. I don't care what it is as long as it is "mine" in play and feel.

Have I become a dinosaur or a demagogue? I think you're right there.

I'm gonna go back to Medal of Honor and try it again with a new mindset...just have some bloody fun and see where it goes from there.

See you around mate.

V.