Video Games: PC, PSP, PS3, xBox, and Wii Gaming News

The biggest video game launch ever, selling 5 million units within 24 hours of release, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 isn’t as good as the hype. As a big fan of COD4: Modern Warfare on the PC, I was biased towards the game before I ever unwrapped it. However, I have big problems with the short, unsatisfying single-player campaign and the lousy multiplayer support on the PC. The $10 increase in price from $50 to $60 for the PC version also does little to assuage my dissatisfaction.

There’s a large section of the MW2 Wikipedia entry which details criticism of the PC version, which I would rather cite than rewrite:

Criticism has arisen of changes made to the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 including the lack of dedicated servers, latency issues of the listen server-only IWNET, lack of console commands, lack of support for matches larger than 18 players, and inability to vote towards kicking or banning cheating players immediately. Ars Techinca writer Ben Kuchera wrote, “At launch, this will be one of the most locked-down, inflexible, and gamer-unfriendly [games] ever created.”

This is immediately evident in the Amazon reviews for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which are hovering just above 1-star. Reviewers complain about the tiny multiplayer matches (9v9 tops), the fact that Steam is required (no resale value), horrible multiplayer latency, and poorly planned out single-player campaign. The official steam forums are ablaze with outrage over the bad multiplayer, especially. Still, the game has peaked at over 95,000 concurrent players multiplayer (according to steam stats).

MetaCritic gives the game a 89% rating, but actual humans have knocked that down to a miserable 16%. On other platforms the spread is narrower–after all, this is a console game, ported for the PC. Infinityward, perhaps trying to emulate the design decisions between multiplayer in Left4Dead, screwed up on their tried-and-true FPS multiplayer scheme. On the console your bad lag, join-in-the-middle, and 9v9 matches might be OK, but on the PC we like big maps, lots of players, and dedicated servers with low latency.

We’re PC gamers. We want a long, immersive single-player campaign. We want a good storyline. We don’t want to be babied with chicken-screens for the “good parts” of the game. We don’t want to be pandered to with juvenile “shock screens.” And, we get tired of being shot in the head and dumped to die in every mission.

If you enjoyed The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind or Oblivion, you might be one in a short list of people who want to travel back in time and experience a free download of The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall. Here’s a screenshot of the original cover, and a couple screens from the game:

The minimum requirements are for a DOS-age machine. In fact, you probably need to run the game in an emulator:

486DX2/66 MHZ, DOS 6.0, 8MB RAM, 50MB HD Space, 256-color VGA graphics card, Mouse, Soundcard (Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster 16, AWE 32, Pro Audio Spectrum, Ensoniq Soundscape, Gravis Ultrasound).

For some background, check out Wikipedia: The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall:

The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall is a first-person computer role-playing game (CRPG) for MS-DOS, developed by Bethesda Softworks and released in 1996. It is a sequel to the CRPG The Elder Scrolls: Arena and the second installment in The Elder Scrolls series. On July 9, 2009, it was made available for download on the Elder Scrolls website.

Battle.net has launched an electronic games distribution system to rival competitor Valve’s Steam platform. If you head over to Battle.net and sign up for an account, you’ll find a gorgeous online registry for storing your games and serial numbers:

If you click on one of your games, you are presented with the CD key and download options to download the game for Windows or the Mac:

Currently, the Battle.net game management platform supports World of Warcraft accounts and StarCraft, StarCraft Battle Chest, StarCraft Anthology, Warcraft III, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, Warcraft Battle Chest, Diablo II, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, and the Diablo II Battle Chest.

I don’t see a way to purchase games directly from Blizzard, but it’s obvious next step. Once you can buy Blizzard games online at the Blizzard Store and have them automatically populated into your Battle.net account for download, I’ll be happy. For now, Battle.net provides a nice backup system in case you lose or damage the game discs. No more mailing for replacements!

It’s been a while since we’ve posted on Dota (or anything for that matter), so it seems like an appropriate time to catch up.  Dota 6.58 ushered in some deep revisions to items and heros alike.  Dirge and Storm Spirit have been completely reworked, and key items like the basher, blade mail, and heart have also undergone substantial alterations.  Several new commands have been added, notably “-mines” so that techies can now count how many mines he has laid, and “-switch” so that games that are plagued by leavers can be balanced.

Although the “-switch” command is a useful tool (since there are so many leavers), it creates the wrong incentive.  People that are prone to leave a game have even less reason to stay because they know that others will compensate for their actions.

Dota 6.58b, like most “b” versions, suffices to correct a plethora of bugs in the latest version.  The changelog is as follows:

* Fixed a rare bug introduced last version with Nevermore’s ultimate
* Fixed a bug with Cranium Basher
* Fixed a suicide bug with Heartstopper
* Fixed a bug with Overload
* Various tooltip fixes
* Fixed some rare glitches that could cause some abilities to malfunction
* Fixed various -switch related bugs
* Switch now works if all but one player votes for it, instead of requiring 100%
* Fixed truesight on The Frozen Throne
* Decreased Undying’s model size a bit
* Fixed conflicts between Viper Strike and Venomous Gale
* Fixed Soul Rip targetting problems on Tombstone
* Fixed -mo/-ro in -gameinfo
* Fixed a bug when picking up invisibility rune while under the Phase effect from Phase Boots
* Fixed -mr failing to be recognized as a gamemode
* Fixed Rapier damage values when being carried by a non-owning player

It’s official! Our favorite (read: most hated) anti-gaming, anti-happiness attorney Jack Thompson has been disbarred in Florida. That means he can no longer practice his frivolous brand of lawsuits in the state, a big win for your right to play whatever video game you want.

John Bruce Thompson
Disbarred Not Eligible to practice in Florida
ID Number: - 231665
Address: 5721 Riviera Dr, Coral Gables, Florida 331462750, United States
Phone: 305.6664366
E-Mail: amendmentone@comcast.net
County: Miami-Dade
Circuit: 11
Admitted: 05/31/1977

You can read the official document on the Florida Bar’s website. You may also want to consult the Wikipedia entry for Jack Thompson (attorney), which highlights his failed career as a right-wing hack:

Thompson came to national prominence in the controversy over 2 Live Crew’s As Nasty As They Wanna Be album. On January 1, 1990, he wrote to Martinez and Reno asking them to investigate whether the album violated Florida obscenity laws. Although the state prosecutor declined to proceed with an investigation, Thompson pushed local officials in various parts of the state to block sales of the album, along with N.W.A’s Straight Outta Compton.

Goodbye Jack, we won’t miss your attacks on our rights to freedom.