A couple of weeks ago I had an amazing round of Domination on Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, I went 64 and 0. This allowed me to get 25 unassisted kills, thus giving me a MOAB. Attached is the video of the match. I had to speed it up to allow the entire video to be created within COD’s video creation tools. Enjoy
Racial Slurs On Xbox Live
I wish Microsoft would police their services better than they do if they do at all. I am fed up with all the rampant racial slurs been flung around Xbox Live. You almost can’t walk into a match these days without some ignorant fool throwing out slurs based upon what he or she thinks your race or nationality is.
They only thing it would take to curb this behavior is to have Microsoft pay people to play online in random matches. When they find someone that is abusing the service with inappropriate racial comments they record the individual for their records and then ban him. When you ban him for the first offensive it would be for a week, when he is caught again it would be for a month and after that a permanent ban. Word would get out quickly amongst other players of people getting banned for inappropriate behavior and it would greatly curtail this behavior.
It is a shame to have kids that shouldn’t be playing mature games in the first place have to be subjected to this sort of language. They hear these statements and think it is funny or cool and start repeating it themselves.
I personally have had someone send me a picture through Xbox Live of himself in a KKK outfit. It took me about an hours worth of complaining through several supervisors to get them to do anything about it. They eventually banned the user after they took the time to look at the image that was sent to me.
Come on Microsoft step up to the plate and start policing your service. The one thing and the only thing I like about the PS3 is that you don’t here as much racial slurs as you do on the 360? I could never figure that one out. Anyone have any thoughts on that?
Party Chat Or Party Cheat?
I detest the ‘Party Chatting’ system in Xbox Live with a fervor! I could never understand why we really need party chat to begin with, life was fine before it. I guess I could see it were being for watching the same movie via Netflix streaming with your friends. What it has turned out to be though, is the best way for you and your friends to cheat. Why do I say this is primarily used for cheating? Let me give you an example: You and your friends are playing ‘Call of Duty: World At War’ you have dead silence and camouflage on, you sneak up and knife somebody on the opposing team. All of a sudden 10 seconds later a grenade comes bouncing in at your feet, it goes off and your dead. Now you didn’t give away your position nor did your opponent notify his teammates where he was before he died. What happened was that the entire opposing team is in party chat and the guy you just killed told his teammates exactly where you are from his grave. Now how fair is that and there is no way to prevent that from happening.
Now here is another example of why this sucks so much, your team has eliminated everyone on the other team except one or two players. Again you are using camouflage and dead silence, so you can’t be seen on radar nor heard. You find one of your opponents and you sneak up on him then all of a sudden he does a 180 a starts firing before the turn is even finished and your laying dead on the floor. How did he know you were behind him? Because one of his dead teammates is watching his back in essence giving him eyes in the back of his head. This is so rampant that players now jump into the lobby of a game and ask if anyone is in private chat. If no one answers guess what you back out.
Here is another annoying scenario, you and a couple of buddies jump on to play together but you don’t have enough to form a full squad. No problem you get teamed up with another couple of players randomly here is where it really sucks. They are in private chat with themselves. So you can’t talk to them, warn them or discuss any strategy. They are in their own little world and could care less about anything except themselves.
Why can’t Microsoft just disable ‘Party Chat’ for any online matchmaking games i.e. Call of Duty, Halo or any other FPS? These games have built in systems for team communications and nothing else is needed. So why do they let this run rampant? All it does is ruin the experience for those that would like to play and have a good time with their friends. Come on Microsoft get with the program you can’t be that dense or can you?
I detest the ‘Party Chatting’ system in Xbox Live with a fervor! I could never understand why we really need party chat to begin with, life was fine before it. I guess I could see it if it were being used for watching the same movie via Netflix streaming with your friends. What it has turned out to be though, is the best way for you and your friends to cheat. Why do I say this is primarily used for cheating? Let me give you an example: You and your friends are playing ‘Call of Duty: World At War’ you have dead silence and camouflage on, you sneak up and knife somebody on the opposing team. All of a sudden 10 seconds later a grenade comes bouncing in at your feet, it goes off and your dead. Now you didn’t give away your position nor did your opponent notify his teammates where he was before he died. What happened was that the entire opposing team is in party chat and the guy you just killed told his teammates exactly where you are from his grave. Now how fair is that and there is no way to prevent that from happening.
Now here is another example of why this sucks so much, your team has eliminated everyone on the other team except one or two players. Again you are using camouflage and dead silence, so you can’t be seen on radar nor heard. You find one of your opponents and you sneak up on him then all of a sudden he does a 180 and starts firing before the turn is even finished and your laying dead on the floor. How did he know you were behind him? Because one of his dead teammates is watching his back in essence giving him eyes in the back of his head. This is so rampant that players now jump into the lobby of a game and ask if anyone is in private chat. If no one answers guess what you back out.
Here is another annoying scenario, you and a couple of buddies jump on to play together but you don’t have enough to form a full squad. No problem you get teamed up with another couple of players randomly here is where it really sucks. They are in private chat with themselves. So you can’t talk to them, warn them or discuss any strategy. They are in their own little world and could care less about anything except themselves.
Why can’t Microsoft just disable ‘Party Chat’ for any online matchmaking games i.e. Call of Duty, Halo or any other FPS? These games have built in systems for team communications and nothing else is needed. So why do they let this run rampant? All it does is ruin the experience for those that would like to play and have a good time with their friends. Come on Microsoft get with the program you can’t be that dense or can you?
*Photo by: Matt Brett
Bad Catz
As many of you know I am an avid gamer. I have been trying to purchase a pair of Mad Catz Street Fighter IV Tournament Sticks ever since they were announced. I have the game but to play the game with stock controllers is not that fun and difficult. The controllers go for $149 but have not been in stock anywhere since they were released. If you look on eBay and some Amazon vendors everyone is marking these controllers up an additional $50. Well it would seem that now Mad Catz wants to make a little extra money as well. Now that Mad Catz has some controllers in stock they decided to get in on the action and fleece customers as well. They are forcing everyone that wants one of these controllers to buy a bundle. The bundle includes the game and a face plate. Well guess what I already have the game and I don’t want a faceplate. Keep in mind I need two of these one for myself and one for my wife or guest. Do I really need two games and two faceplates? NO! It’s a shame when even the manufacturer gets involved in this shady practice. Just thought I would let you know what they were doing.
UPDATE: My mistake the reaming is even worse. The bundle does not contain a game at all these are the items in the bundle:
Official Street Fighter™ IV Xbox 360 Tournament Edition FightStick™
Official Street Fighter™ IV Faceplate and Console Skinz
Official Street Fighter™ IV Vinyl Wall Scroll
Xbox 360 Controller Extension Cable
The Socom Woes
I am in a love hate relationship with Socom right now. I love the gameplay but I absolutely hate all the server problems they are having. Everyone’s consoles are locking up intermittently, people are being dropped out of rooms. My biggest gripe would have to be how hard it is to hook up with your friends online playing Socom. The online portion of the Playstation 3 has always been the biggest thing lacking. You get what you pay for, nothing I guess since it’s free.
I wish they would just cave in already and put together an online experience comparable to Xbox 360 and charge for it if they have to. Then they would have a very well rounded gaming system, until then they will always be plaing second fiddle to the 360.
That’s just my opinion I could be wrong, not!
Socom Rocks!
I started playing Socom: U.S. Navy Seals Confrontation a couple of days ago. I have to tell you this is the first title I have really enjoyed playing on the PS3. I was pretty bent out of shape with my PlayStation 3 just sitting there collecting dust ever since I purchased it at launch. I would play a game here and there but never really enjoyed the games, game play or the funky controller. I even prefer this over Call of Duty 4 my all time favorite title on the Xbox 360.
Vegas Baby, Vegas!
Finally, taking a long needed break. Heading out to Las Vegas with my wife this morning. Sitting at a bar at Newark Airport, getting my wife semi-drunk. She is not a good flier. I’ll keeping posting pictures while I am out in Vegas.
Xbox Live: "You Want What? That's funny!"
I purchased G.R.A.W 2 (Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2) for the Xbox 360 the day it was released. I have played it just about daily since buying it. This time around I decided I would only play ranked multiplayer matches. I never really did on the first version that came out for the 360. When you play ranked it keeps tracks of your wins and losses and your percentage between ranks goes up and down until you get to 100% percent and move up to the next rank.
The problem that I encountered is that two weeks ago I hit rank 5, however my percentage has remained at 0% towards the next level. No matter how many straight wins I get it doesn’t move past 0%. I posted my problem on Ubi’s forums, the maker of the game. I have not received a reply how to get around this problem. I did however get replies from individuals telling me they had the same problem. So I thought this might be more than a glitch I was having. I went to the Xbox Community Forums hosted by Microsoft and found there were more individuals having the same problem. I can only imagine there are a lot more people having the problem but not taking the time to post about it.
Continue reading “Xbox Live: "You Want What? That's funny!"”
Don't Count The PS3 Out Yet!
We’ll today I picked up my second game I felt worthy enough to play on a PS3, MotorStorm. I have always had a problem with the titles available for the PS3 and my biggest gripe was with the online playability of their titles. What I mean by that is that it is impossible to follow your friends around by what they are currently playing, unless you are playing the same title and have your friend listed in your buddy list for that particular game. Sony’s lack of a global friends list, as is available in Microsoft’s Xbox live is what has crippled the unit. I also thought this is what would put the final nail in Sony’s PS3s coffin.
A couple of days ago Kotaku broke a story regarding a rumor about Sony’s soon to be announced ‘Home’ service. The story soon had them him hot water with Sony, who eventuality blackballed the site. Sony reversed its stance shortly after the quite public and loud outcry for its strong arming of a news outlet. At today’s Game Developer Conference, Sony announced the ‘Home’ service. Below is the demo video of the service as well as a link to the Joystiq article describing the service and it’s availability. Continue reading “Don't Count The PS3 Out Yet!”
PS3 WTF?
What the hell was Sony thinking when they released the PS3? Did they really think they had a superior product compared to the Xbox 360? Remember last year when Kazuo Hirai, President/CEO of Sony made the comment that the Xbox 360 was actually Xbox 1.5? I guess in those terms the PS3 is actually Playstation 2.1. Here is a company that had an entire year to watch what its competition (Microsoft) was doing and doing right. Besides having the right mix of hardware for its console, Microsoft also had a beautiful well thought out interface (Blades). To top that off their way of building a community of gamers through its Live service is top notch. One place to interact with all your friends and online acquaintances. Through Live you can message, voice/video chat, see what all your buddies are playing and easily join them or send them an invite to a game you are playing. Network capability came after the PS2 was launched and always felt like an after thought to any online game that was written for it. Where as the 360 was built around the network capabilities of the unit. You would think that Sony would have figured out that this is what made the 360 what it is today. Either the designers/developers have never played with a 360 or just don’t get the online multiplayer community at all. Multiplayer online once again takes the back seat on the PS3. I was surprised to see how basic and archaic their online multiplayer interface was or better yet complete lack of it. What I mean is if I play with someone in one game and enjoy playing with him and add him to my buddy list it is only good for that one game title. I cannot find that user in another game title. Better yet from the main menu I can’t find any buddies what so ever. Get a clue already, I hope they are getting bashed in the head over this by other consumers enough for them to stand up and make the necessary modifications to their system to allow buddies to be seen in any game title as well as the main interface.