Pattons Gaming Blog

Black ops Christmas wish list/dialogue to pcdev

2011-12-16T16:22:00.004Z

I would first like to say how impressed I have been with the level of support Treyarch have given black ops on pc and I hope they can continue this support as they develop the next call of duty also. I have compiled a number of request I and others in the black ops pc community have been asking about and I hope as much of these questions can be answered as is possible.

- Call of Duty Elite - Would it be possible to get a release date (or if this is not possible an estimate) of when cod elite will release for black ops and mw3 on pc, and which features will the pc version see and which will not be included (we know that it will be scaled down from the console version of elite). Will these features be different for black ops than mw3.

- Black Ops Map Editor - I have asked the question before of whether a radiant editor will be released for pc, which I have been told is still viable. I believe that the effect that releasing this would have on map pack sales will be negligible however releasing these files would mean a huge amount to the cod mapping community and would I feel create more loyalty towards Treyarch for seeing through intentions of full mod support.

- Black Ops Single Player Dev Console - I would hope that a patch could address the single player not having the dev console that the multiplayer has. I feel that it badly needs it for customising variables in zombies in particular such as fov, binds, etc. Those that abuse the system could be locked down for online zombies.

- Black Ops Colour Pre Match - Simple request which I have heard a lot. Make the ready up screen colour as it can be annoying waiting for minutes playing in black and white. Red marker is enough to indicate ready up.

- Black Ops server rcon limitations - I have noticed after a recent patch that certain rcon commands such as rcon login are no longer possible through keyboard binds where they previously were. Other commands such as rcon say are working so I hope that this can be fixed.

- Black Ops Quick Weapon select binding - I would ask if you could find out how to bind selecting classes to keys. I assume that this is relatively simple as selecting in menu opens a function of some sort. This would make a big difference if it was made available to the competitive scene and it has been made available in call of duty 4 but the same techniques do not work in black ops.

- Black Ops in depth server browser - I have been asked to request some modifications to the server browser for more refined searching such as searching by servers with specific dlc’s running, (eg: dlc 1 on, dlc 2 off, dlc 3 on), searching by specific name, how popular the server is overall (over last month, since release..) maps included in rotation, etc.

- Black Ops 2 Pc Support - Overall I and most pc players have been very happy with black ops level of balance and support which appeals to all groups in the pc community (competitive, modder, casual, etc) and we appeal to Treyarch to keep the same level of support for their next call of duty title (don’t expect any naming here but I know its in the works). The pc community has taken to black ops much more favourably than mw3 as a result and we hope that this continues.

- ** UPDATE ** Inpermeable Walls - Please fix the impermeable walls where it should be allowed to shoot through in game such as balustrudes in levels such as hanoi, gris, etc. This is important as the tactical advantage is always given to those on the balcony due to this glitch. Brushes need to be cut out where needed.

- ** UPDATE ** Wager Match Servers - Please edit official wager match servers so that some servers do not run map pack levels. All servers are running map packs on the rotation and many players are kicked whenever the map changes over. This is not a problem in multiplayer as we can check on server info if a map runs dlc and many admins state if dlc if inclusive or not in server name. It would help if those wager match servers that run no map packs were titled accordingly to help players.
If you would like to add to this please leave a comment and I will edit the document. Thanks for reading and have a merry Christmas.

- ** UPDATE ** Lean Exploits - Some walls/objects can be seen through by players when leaning to give an advantage. I have screenshotted all known ones in stock mp maps and uploaded them into the following album (http://s870.photobucket.com/albums/ab268/carlosraynorris/Black%20Ops%20Fixes/). Recommend restricting players the capability of seeing snything when leaning in these places.

- ** UPDATE ** Multiplayer Ingame Binding - Please bring back the capability to bind functions to keys in game via the dev console as was possible in previous Call of Duty games so it can be done other than in the config file.

Battlefield Bad Company 2: Vietnam Review

2010-12-30T22:02:00.000Z

There has been much interest since Bad Company 2: Vietnam was announced this June. Even moreso when the price was announced to be only $15.00. This is the same price that Activision have been charging recently for their Call of Duty map packs, and there is no comparison. Bad Company 2: Vietnam offers players 4 brand new maps, new vehicles, new weapons, and a 2 hour soundtrack. A fifth map was unlocked by PC players when 69 million team actions (heal, revive, ammo, etc) were performed, and at the time of posting this, pc is the only platform to do so. This will hopefully make companies such as DICE and EA realise that the pc platform is still a major player and that they should market their products more towards the pc playerbase than they have been doing recently.
The maps have been very favourably recieved by the pc community much more than the hot zone dlc maps were received. Some maps are remasterd versions of maps from Battlefield Vietnam, such as Operation Hastings, the map pc players unlocked. The flamethrower is an interesting addition to the game also, and although all support actions return, they have been given an older theme (Syringe replaces defibrillator). For the price EA are asking for Vietnam, I would recommend for all pc players to get it (I actually picked it up for a very cheap €5.85 christmas day sale on EA store). Just be careful to only buy on steam if you have the game Bc2 on steam also.
My verdict: 9/10

Call of Duty: Black Ops Review

2010-12-30T17:54:00.000Z

For those interested, this review is from the perspective of a pc gamer, but I will still include all the general gaming caveats.

Cod Black Ops is the most hyped and most successful game to date, and has broken countless sales records, as well as many other records, so does it live up to the hype or is it another MW2 for pc gamers.

I will start with the single player as per my usual routine. The game brings you to many locations such as Cuba (Thanks to mapper Paulo88), Russia, Vietnam, The Artic, USA. The campaign is the standard 6-8 hours single player and should not pose much trouble to beat even on the hardest difficulty. As with Medal of Honor, the SP is very fun, however it feels like more of a modern warfare game than cold war era. Guns and technologies not available at the time are often included. There are plenty of easter eggs and secrets as is usual in Cod games, and it is well worth playing through at least once.

A secret top down secret game called Dead Ops Arcade can be accessed through the main menu in an interesting way. It is a good addition to the game and can provide a few hours entertainment if nothing else.

Of course the zombie mode returns to Black Ops, with 2 maps being featured in the stock game (1 new one will be added in the first mappack). 1 map featuring the political leaders of the time (Kennedy, Castro, Nixon, McNamarra) is unlocked after beating the SP. It uses the same format as WaW zombies and this is slightly disappointing in my eyes as Treyarch succeeded in innovating in all other aspects of the game. Simply put if you enjoyed WaW zombies, then you will enjoy this, and ergo if you didnt enjoy WaW zombies, you won't enjoy this.

Of course what all pc players have been interested is the multiplayer, and as of the time of this post, it is still not fully clear whether Treyarch have delivered. The usual larger seletion of maps and gametypes and game modes returns (including 4 wager betting type matches, some based on pc community made mods). However the whole xp ranking system has been scrapped and replaced by Cod points which is currency which the user buys items such as weapons, camos, etc with. Ranking and pretiging has remained however. Pc players are bitterly disappointed to know that there is no public server files and servers can only be rented from Gameservers.com. However Treyarch have made it more user friendly than Mw2 and a limited control dev. console exists, as well as Treyarchs promise to deliver Mod tools of some degree (recently reaffirmed). The important question will be whether this includes proper map tools, and as a result or vice versa, whether the map pack will cost money for pc. This is not known yet. However as a game, Treyarch have been trying hard to optimise the pc game post release (the game was poorly optimised on release), and it is now playable for the most part.
Sadly the AntiCheat used is not Punkbuster but VAC, however server admins control is the most important returning feature. For pc specific features, it is the best mainstream offering 2010 has to give, and it is fair to say that users are getting a lot of content for their money.
I would recommend purchasing this game if you have not done so already, as the promise for mod tools are enough to entice all but the absolute hardcore pc gamers.
My rating: 8/10

Medal of Honor Review

2010-12-30T00:44:00.000Z

Sorry for this much belated review for Medal of Honor which I had intended to write much earlier than now. I am also going to review Cod Black Ops and Bad Company 2 Vietnam and those posts will be up shortly.

I will start on Medal of Honors single player. Simply put it is too short. Gamers have wrongly accepted the short offering of sp experiences that the main companies have been offering in recent years, such as in all the recent Cod games, the last Moh, Bc2, etc.. and Moh is no differnet. However having said this, I still enjoyed this sp. EALA really did a good job of immersing the player in the Afghanistan environment, and it feels more real than Cod does. The gameplay is allright but not amazing. It does feel as if the devs were trying to mimic a Cod4 type gameplay style, but werent quite successful. The scripted events look very impressive such as when you are defending from the bottom of a hill, or when the player is thrown out of a helicopter. The cutscenes are also quite good. However the core game is way to easy and I got through it in a few hours in hardest difficulty. The player never runs out of ammo with teammates offering rounds. Another big problem is that is not always totally obvious what you have to do (I spent 20 minutes figuring out I had to suppress a enemy to trigger an event). The on rails helicopter sequence is also cool but has been done before. This is the main problem with Medal of Honors single player. It offers nothing unique as a game and is just another Modern Warfare single player game. Previous Moh games such as Allied Assault were great due to long missions on your own. No players will have trouble beating this game on any difficulty in one day. It is enjoyable but not long enough to justify its price tag. The Tier One mode which allows users to go through the SP again in timed settings with no checkpoints is a nice addition but doesn't have the lasting appeal that co-op in Cod has.

Medal of Honors multiplayer is nothing to write home about. It uses the Frostbite engine and so, feels like Battlefield. Just like the single player, DICE have tried to make the game compete with Modern Warfare with killstreaks, ranking, points and the like. The game misses out by not using destructible terrain as BC2 did, and gameplay wise, Black Ops is better for infantry combat, the market Moh is hoping to attract. The multiplayer also significantly suffers from a lack of maps and only gave players around 8 maps on release (2 extra maps were added to coincide with the Hote Zone DLC). Also these maps were restricted to certain gametypes similar to Battlefield, however BC2's maps are larger and more plentiful. For a game that tries to appeal to the Cod console audience, there is not as much time spent ranking up, and a severe lack of weapons to use. The fact that mod tools and public server files were not made available is another dissapointment, however this was expected. I would only recommend this game when on sale as the price does not completely justify the experience. However it is still an improvement on Airborne (which I replayed recently). 6/10.

Hope to get my Black Ops review and Bad Company 2 Vietnam review up very soon. As usual everything is just my opinion and no fallacies are intended.

Free Online Shooter Games

2010-08-16T21:33:00.001+01:00

I have not made a post in a while so I decided just now that I would write up one, as I download the latest update for Quake Live which gave me the idea for this post.

There are many free games on the internet these days that are great alternatives if you don't have enough money or interest in the latest cod,moh, bf game and so on. I will outline a few of them below.

The first free online game I got into was an modern fps shooter like Counter Strike called Crossfire. I'm sure some of you are familiar with this as there have been many ads for it on the net. It is a game that is similar to Counter Strike, if a bit easier to kill enemies. There are a good selection of maps in the game as well as weapons, however weapons have to be bought and you can only get 1 proper weapon before playing ages to unlock another, unless you open a few accounts. Things are made easier if you use real money to get better guns, skins, etc but we play free games for a reason.
If you like the modern shooter but don't like Crossfire you may be interested in Combat Arms or A.V.A, however I have not played either of these so I cannot say much about them.
One serious con about Crossfire is the amount of cheaters in the game. There is normally at least ne in every game you join and people kick others so often, often those that don't cheat.

A few websites:
http://crossfire.z8games.com/
http://combatarms.nexon.net/
http://combatarms.nexon.net/

Another good free fps online is Quake Live. This feels like a proper quality built game unlike most free games, and is almost the exact same as Quake III, or Quake IV in regards to graphics, weapons, gameplay, etc. Those who are used to Quake are at home here, however I normally end up getting owned on it. The game runs well and if you like these sorts of fps games, it is worth a download, and as it only recently came out of beta, it should be busy and running well.

http://www.quakelive.com/

The last game I am going to speak about isnt actually an fps but a 3rd person shooter. Battlefiled Heroes is like other Battlefield games in most other respects. Large maps, and vehicles gives it that feel, but a cartooney atmosphere and online purchases make it a bit different. I felt at home here and have toplisted many times, even against players with better weapons that "free" players cannot access. The game is fun and runs well in windowed mode. I strongly recommend downloading the game and giving it a go.

http://www.battlefieldheroes.com/en/

Fps Gaming in 2010

2010-07-02T14:54:00.000+01:00

A lot has happened in the world of fps since mw2 came out with no dedicated servers and mod tools. It seems that since then, dev. studios that have announced they will release dedi servers and tools have become very public about it, proclaiming that they are not like IW. This is obvious with examples such as Bad Comany 2 and Cod Black Ops:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFJU_vYQkFA
This never happened before Mw2 of course, as it was assumed that these features would always ship but since then, it seems that the industry is telling the hardcore pc fps community that these features are more of a privilege than a necessity for their pc games. They are right, but if they want to sell to the hardcore pc community then some features that appeal must be included. Bfbc2 did this by including dedi servers albeit private and only rentable from trusted game server providers this is something, and a whole lot better than what was given in mw2. Bad company 2 has proved a success on pc partly due to this showing that small things like this can make a difference. 16% of sales were on pc significantly larger than that of mw2 with less than 5%.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/37880/BFBC2-fastest-seller-of-2010
http://kotaku.com/5426474/report-modern-warfare-2-pc-us-retail-sales-about-170000-in-november

However mw2 still sold well on pc due to its popularity among the average casual pc gamer due to its popularity and simplicity.
Whether or not a game includes the features that members of the hardcore pc fps community lobby for, it will not make a difference, as its profitability will be based on its success on the consoles. This of course does not apply to pc only games such as Arma:II.
So at the end of the day, AAA games developing mod tools and putting in dedi servers is simply up to their personal interest in supporting the pc community and thr cost of implementation versus cost of listen servers + angry pc gamers. But it's all really peanuts in comparison to sales levels on the Xbox and Ps3.

Now that I have cleared that up its time for me to discuss the future in 2010 for the pc fps hardcore guys. I personally think that we do have a lot to look forward to this year in namely:

Call of Duty: Black Ops
Medal of Honor
Battlefield Bad Company 2
Battlefield Vietnam
Battlefield 1943
Crysis 2 and Indie titles.

Cod Bo has a lot of potential in my opinion for many reasons.
Firstly, the guys at Treyarch have a good base to start off on this game with the up to date and well patched World at War. It will probably be the same engine based off the trailers I have seen and since they have smoothed out most of the major problems with waw I would expect that black ops will have little problems on release unlike bad company 2.
Also they have already announced dedi servers, but have not yet said whether they are public or private. I personally suspect that they will be public as they have never done anything other than this and they can gather those unhappy with bc2 or moh.
As for mod tools, your guess is as good as mine as no indication has been made as to their existance but they may be there. Hard to tell at the moment.
I expect to see most of the crucial features of cod that will be needed for competetive pc play on black ops, and a great return to glory. But of course I could be wrong and you can hold it against me if I am.

Medal of Honor is another game that I expect to see running very well from release, partly due to the beta it has been running, which always helps identify problems, as well as the fact that it is running the Frostbite Engine which is used in Bad Company 2. DICE, the developers of Bc2, and Moh should be able to have the game running smoothly for release, something they are only managing to do with Bc2 now months after it's release.
However I would expect Moh to use the same server model as Bc2 because of this. Dedi servers have been confirmed but it's likely that they will be the exact same as Bc2 which is not bad, but won't be enough for most in the competetive community. Mod tools are also unlikely due to this. Lets not forget both games are developed by EA and they don't need to shift things after the success of Bc2.
A smooth running Bc2 type engine game could be fenominal but we will have to wait and see with Moh.

Most of the negatives of Bad Company 2 are explained above in the Moh post. It has been rejected by the competitive community due to the lack of important features such as:

Lack of spectator mode
/record missing
No Public dedi servers
Server lag, etc

As a game for the pc community Bad Company 2 is getting better with every patch, but it may be too little too late as many gamers have already abandoned the game due to the excessive problems. As a pub game for pc, it's great at the moment, but really not suited for competetive play.

Battlefield Vietnam, the recently announced expansion pack to Bc2, is due to be released this Winter should have all of the same features of Bc2, hopefully working properly upon release. The only major differences to be expected in this should be the setting, and weapons. Expect cold war era guns seen in Black Ops and jungle landscapes. As it is an expansion, there will probably only be about 4 maps like 1943, so its popularity will probably be based on how much EA charge for this. €20 should really be the max price people should have to pay for the expansion, unless an extra sp campaign is included unlike 1943. Watch this one as it could be a great game for the holiday season in 2010.

Battlefield 1943 has already been released on the consoles for over a year and one must wonder if it will ever be released on pc. DICE certainly have their hands full developing patches for Bad Company 2 as well as developing Medal of Honor, Battlefield Vietnam, Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 1943. Speculation is that the game will be released this Autumn or Winter, however many are sceptical. As a game it features 4 ww2 pacific maps, and should be cheap enough when released. Don't expect to see much features in the game beyond what Bc2 has however. After all, it's not a full game. Like Vietnam, could be a good pub game but both of these are likely to be passed out by the competitive guys, and the game could grow boring quickly with less than 10 weapons to choose from. There should be plenty of battlefield for gamers to choose from in late 2010.

Crysis 2 may not be as impossible to run on the latest systems as Crysis was, due to the fact that it is built also for the consoles and this means limitations will have to be made. However, there should still be plenty of eye candy and it will support 3d play as well, not sure how much pc gamers will catch on to that though. I would expect sub par gameplay as seen in the 1^st game however there are going to be mod tools and probably dedi servers, so if Crytek can up their game in regards to gameplay, this could make it more attractive to the pc community as a whole. I personally am very excited to see what hsppens with this game.

There are also a few indie titles to keep your eyes out for. Many of them only suit certain gamers but can be winners so those people. The expansion to Arma:II, operation arrowhead has just released, but is certainly not a game that would appeal to the typical cod gamer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjrvLhIZSvI&feature=related

Red Orchestra: Heroes of Stalingrad by Tripwire Interactive is another game to look out for releasing in late 2010. An expansion pack for it, "Rising Storm", has already been announced which will take place in the pacific, similar to Battlefield 1943.

Sniper: Ghost Warrior is another game that has recently been released and may be worth picking up if you can find it cheap.

In summary, late 2010 could be a busy period for the pc fps community and as we come closer to release dates it will be easier to identify which games will suit our community more than others, based on the decisions that the game developers make.

The Current State of MW2

2010-02-20T19:23:00.002Z

As we all know the use of IW.net in modern warfare 2 has severely damaged the reputation of Mw2, and IW among the pc community, especially those in the competetive community. To my recollection, only 1-2 proper mw2 tournaments have taken place since the games release, being sponsored by the publisher of the game Acivision.

However the loss of dedicated servers is not the only problem with the game and I have compiled a list of the games current problems that severely reduce its playability compared with other Call of duty games and other fps in general.

Lag issues. Lag is everywhere in this game. A single 10-15 minute game cannot be played without anoying lag problems. This exists both on pc with the lack of more reliable dedicated servers but on consoles as well. These issues might be more acceptable in a demo or beta (which mw2 did not provide), but having played many hours on the bfbc2 beta (on dedicated servers), I have encountered absolutely no lag issues, both on pc as well as on my ps3. IW cannot use the excuse of the peer to peer system as on console this has been what was used in cod4,cod5 too. Both of these games have better pings in game, especially 5. Killcams show how serious this issue is. Rarely do all hitmarkers reflect bullets actually hitting the enemy. This all needs to be fixed and although it would not be easy, I believe it would make a lot of gamers more interested in playing the game, such as myself.
Spawn logic. Spawn logic is so bad in this game. Especially with people runing around maps ridiculously fast a good system needed to be put in place and it has not been. Too often do you spawn in front or behind enemies within 3m granting easy kills and deaths. There are 2 solutions in my opinion. 1. fixed spawn points for each team would solve this with each team always spawning in a certain area. 2. spawn ptotection. Invunerability for a few seconds to allow people to get out of spawns without being spawnkilled works extremely well in older games and assumes that if the spawner shoots within the period of invunerabilty that the spawn protection goes. I think if IW do not sort out the current spawn issues in mw2 these 2 options would help a lot.
Kniving. Kniving has always been worse than the weapon bash in my opinion, but its a matter of opinion. Perks such as commando, and tactical knive has made the game knivecentric. People are capable of escaping ambushes and disadvantaged situations using the kniv in this way like never before. I have tested the tactical knive class and it's not hard to get a 10-15 kill streak. I think kniving in cod4 should have been the extent to how far melee should have gone.
Chopper Gunner. Its simply way too overpowered. Little or no effort is required to get massive killstreaks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqcxZGDqwJ4 . Compared to the AC130 which is also an 11 killstreak it is way too overpowered and simply needs to be fixed.
DLC. I think everyone has expressed complaints about paying €10 for 4 maps, ar something similar. People in the past would pay €20-€30 for an expansion pack on a game which would have some extra single player and multiplayer content and I think this is fair, but I just personally feel that its too little to pay for what is given these days. Just an opinion.

There are a lot of good factors in the game too such as interesting new weapons, good singleplayer, spec ops, etc, but as of now the mistakes made in developement outway the good things in the games and need to be patched in order to restore some of the restoration that IW had before the release of mw2.