Nowadays for PC gamers everything seems to be IW new “hate” against us. So I’m writing something to sum up how I feel about this bad joke from a developer I used to respect. Since most of the people over here don’t care, maybe because they all play games on consoles anyway, Im going to send this straight to IW (since Activision is probably getting too much hate mail anyway).

Dear IW.

Quoting:
[i]“All I can say is that we changed it to make it a better and easier experience. Also, not all of the names on that list are legit," said Infinity Ward, when talking about the MW2 server petition and downplaying the significance of its 178,000 signatures.
"402 signed it 4 times I heard," adds IW's Mackey McAndlish, while also revealing that, "Games cap out at 9v9. The software has great latency tolerance."[/i]

A logical explanation of course, capped to 9v9 while you can get up to 32 players on a TF2 match or whatever other FPS on PC with a dedicated server... An easier experience? Of course, because a list of server with a couple of filters like ping, number of players and type of game is SOOO CONFUSING that even my grandma wouldn’t know what to do with it… so much clicks can disturb anyone (that was sarcasm btw, I’m just pointing this out because from all the stupid decisions you have made who can really say if you got it). I mean, matchmaking is O.K. but what about… you know, the freedom to choose something?

A real shame that a developer that was so friendly with PC on COD4 had turned 180 degrees towards stupidity if you ask anyone who knows or cares dear developer. Because the support of COD4 for the PC was quite awesome. Is very sad to see all the support COD4 was getting for the PC and now... nothing. Matchmaking, 60usd price tag and no dedicated servers.

And what is sadder is that you would have sell more on the PC platform. I bought COD4 last year because of the MP over STEAM guys, and I’m from Latin America, 50usd for me is a lot of money. Don’t call me a pirate because I do PC gaming, I know more people with an xbox right here that doesn’t own a single official copy while I have a huge list of games on STEAM that I bought… all their 360´s are cracked. So what is up with that? They still play on Xbox live and they still pirate all the games. And at the end of the day a company says “buh, pirates on PC´s”, and that’s it for the PC port? Way to go with the logic there!

I know that you as a developer don’t seem to count that much PC gaming (as every other gaming journalist nowadays it seems). Mouse flu or something? Afraid of video cards maybe? Too much freedom to play as you like? Is Modern Warfare 2 a virus that will spread like Ebola if you don’t have it contained in a boring environment?

I don’t know the real argument of IW and you master “Activision”, for such dumb and stupid moves on the PC side, but they all suck, no matter if it is pirates or because they want to deliver "better MP" (lets call it "stupid MP"). I have nothing against matchmaking, but a list of dedicated servers with a couple of filters is nothing a user can’t handle... so, come on, just say the word "money" and "screw pc gaming" and call it a day IW. Really don’t treat us like retarded kids. Because that is the most infuriating thing of all the issue.

I know that PC gamer here don’t count that much, but still, let’s face it, this is a "screw you" for every customer that has supported the series on the PC platform that saw the game born. I know the reason behind it is money, and that is O.K. too since I like money. [b]But thinking that dumbing down a version of a game for the sake of anti-piracy and convenience is going to make you do more money with that version is so stupid that I’m going to make you see the error doing the most logical thing:

I’m going to pirate the game and not even play it at all.... I’m going to give away free pirate copies on the streets, send them by mail to Africa in TB med shipments, I will even send a pirated copy to Valve HQ for them to see how retarded and stupid your decisions regarding PC gaming are.
And then I’m going to sh** on a good copy, a legit copy, put it on a box with a camera and make it deliver to you IW.[/b]

And I’m going to stop there.... only after uploading the video to YouTube because Im just another internet troll.
So beware of boxes being deliver to your offices.

Nowadays for PC gamers everything seems to be IW new “hate” against us. So I’m writing something to sum up how I feel about this bad joke from a developer I used to respect. Since most of the people over here don’t care, maybe because they all play games on consoles anyway, Im going to send this straight to IW (since Activision is probably getting too much hate mail anyway).

Dear IW.

Quoting:

[i] “All I can say is that we changed it to make it a better and easier experience. Also, not all of the names on that list are legit," said Infinity Ward, when talking about the MW2 server petition and downplaying the significance of its 178,000 signatures.
"402 signed it 4 times I heard," adds IW's Mackey McAndlish, while also revealing that, "Games cap out at 9v9. The software has great latency tolerance." [/i]

A logical explanation of course, capped to 9v9 while you can get up to 32 players on a TF2 match or whatever other FPS on PC with a dedicated server... An easier experience? Of course, because a list of server with a couple of filters like ping, number of players and type of game is SOOO CONFUSING that even my grandma wouldn’t know what to do with it… so much clicks can disturb anyone (that was sarcasm btw, I’m just pointing this out because from all the stupid decisions you have made who can really say if you got it). I mean, matchmaking is O.K. but what about… you know, the freedom to choose something?

A real shame that a developer that was so friendly with PC on COD4 had turned 180 degrees towards stupidity if you ask anyone who knows or cares dear developer. Because the support of COD4 for the PC was quite awesome. Is very sad to see all the support COD4 was getting for the PC and now... nothing. Matchmaking, 60usd price tag and no dedicated servers.

And what is sadder is that you would have sell more on the PC platform. I bought COD4 last year because of the MP over STEAM guys, and I’m from Latin America, 50usd for me is a lot of money. Don’t call me a pirate because I do PC gaming, I know more people with an xbox right here that doesn’t own a single official copy while I have a huge list of games on STEAM that I bought… all their 360´s are cracked. So what is up with that? They still play on Xbox live and they still pirate all the games. And at the end of the day a company says “buh, pirates on PC´s”, and that’s it for the PC port? Way to go with the logic there!

I know that you as a developer don’t seem to count that much PC gaming (as every other gaming journalist nowadays it seems). Mouse flu or something? Afraid of video cards maybe? Too much freedom to play as you like? Is Modern Warfare 2 a virus that will spread like Ebola if you don’t have it contained in a boring environment?

I don’t know the real argument of IW and you master “Activision”, for such dumb and stupid moves on the PC side, but they all suck, no matter if it is pirates or because they want to deliver "better MP" (lets call it "stupid MP"). I have nothing against matchmaking, but a list of dedicated servers with a couple of filters is nothing a user can’t handle... so, come on, just say the word "money" and "screw pc gaming" and call it a day IW. Really don’t treat us like retarded kids. Because that is the most infuriating thing of all the issue.

I know that PC gamer here don’t count that much, but still, let’s face it, this is a "screw you" for every customer that has supported the series on the PC platform that saw the game born. I know the reason behind it is money, and that is O.K. too since I like money. But thinking that dumbing down a version of a game for the sake of anti-piracy and convenience is going to make you do more money with that version is so stupid that I’m going to make you see the error doing the most logical thing:

[b]I’m going to pirate the game and not even play it at all.... I’m going to give away free pirate copies on the streets, send them by mail to Africa in TB med shipments, I will even send a pirated copy to Valve HQ for them to see how retarded and stupid your decisions regarding PC gaming are.
And then I’m going to sh** on a good copy, a legit copy, put it on a box with a camera and make it deliver to you IW. [/b]

And I’m going to stop there.... only after uploading the video to YouTube because Im just another internet troll.
So beware of boxes being deliver to your offices.

I´m not a big blogger around here, I know that, you know that and I don’t have a lot of friends… sniff.
But let´s talk about some great game that got me into spending some time writing this. If you are anywhere near to this game you should at least give it a try.



The first Operation Flashpoint was too much for my taste, I got to acknowledge that I got into a point in the game were the level of difficulty was too steep for me to handle so I dropped it; checkpoints were too far apart, I wanted to have fun and not keep a trial an error formula. Let’s remember that this is supposed to be a war simulator, and Operation Flashpoint was perhaps one of the first of its class (don’t forget the first Rainbow Six, that did a very good job too).

So I had high hopes for ArmA2 for example that is also war simulators that come out for the PC not too long ago. The main issue with that game was that it felt like a game with a lot of work needed to be done, very buggy, at least the single player experience was incredible buggy, and I felt like a beta tester. I had to leave ArmA2 to be finished by their own developer (they have released a lot of patches since then, I will go and try it again in a few months).


Lets just say that ArmA2 looked good.

So ArmA2 was a bit of a disappointment. No worries, Operation Flashpoint 2 (or Dragon Raising if you want to call it that way), is out now and is a great war simulator. Graphically is not nearly as impressive as the engine the guys from ArmA2 had there (you have to give them that one), but is more easy to control your squad, to keep track on what the hell is going on and to finish the objectives. And also it seems more polished, from the single player experience at least you don’t have such a buggy ride. On the other hand the AI is not fantastic, is pretty good, but you will see enemies and allies doing stupid things. They usually know how to get to cover, but I have run into some weird situations already.




The story is pretty standard, China needs an island that has oil and that belongs to Russia. USA jumps in and you are that guy with a squad that will follow your orders. So far with me the experience is to secure some strategic points (three missions over a total of 20), but I don’t know how it will play out in the end.

The island is big, very big. You can do whatever you want but that will probably get you killed. Anyway you will find vehicles for moving around and giving the mission a nice twist. That’s the part that I love, you can mess around a mission and it will play out different every time. Call some artillery or mortar strike when you can and watch the fireworks. Capture a jeep with your squad and use it so you don’t have to walk so much.


You may not see them but they are there.

Besides some things that I have read about the AI I can tell you that dying can be frustrating. The title has not lost that trial and error of the first one. Interesting isn’t it? Checkpoints seem to be well placed, but on the other hand you may have to walk five minutes because you died in a sticky situation. Just try to avoid doing the same thing again and that should be ok.
You won’t always see the enemy, but for that at least you have something to tell you were they are and you should thank your squad members for that. 100 meters is also a long distance, you will even have to rise that crosshair a bit since actual munitions drops in the distance.

I hope that they release some SDK so the community can start working on custom missions. In the original Operation Flashpoint the multiplayer was a lot of fun because some friend could work on a custom mission for us to play.

Source.


It is hard to explain the Venezuelan government and their brainwashed voters (most of them), if you look at the history of President Chavez you won’t see anything you like (that is if you like democracy), but he become President just years after a failed military coup. Still years later they voted for him and now he remains in power; that’s democracy in Latin America at its best.

I’m from a small country named Uruguay, is small, only three million people or something. And most of the people around here think good things about a gorilla that likes to beat his wife from time to time. We can spend a lot of time talking shit about President Chavez, quite a hypocrite a guy that spends thousands of dollars in the best suits and shoes and is a communist at the same time; I can only imagine then that being a communist nowadays is to go with the fashion. But you can tell the level of ignorance/desperation of the people in Latin America to follow a dictator like the god of oil he is, then you can imagine that a move to ban videogames is nothing worth a headline. Just another act against freedom and what is an act against freedom if it is for the common good?

In 2007 I wrote at radiolevelup.com that President Chavez was very angry because a videogame called Mercenaries was taking place in Venezuela. Some other member of the blog was very offended by my calling Chavez an “idiot”, I left the blog because I would not compromise my view of things just because someone else thought different.

So right now the idea of the law is to ban the sale of violent videogames. I will tell you what will happen, he is going to sign the law and then he is going to have an orgasm on his TV show explaining how evil and capitalist (and therefore if something is capitalist is evil), videogames are. If you watch his TV program you will see a lot of people wearing red that will applaud him, but that’s no surprise since they always applaud everything he says.

What a brave new world: a Dictator that has his own TV show; he bans everything that he dislikes such as violent videogames (Imperialist videogames!!), a lot of red shirted idiots applaud him... he is so charismatic when he waves the ban-hammer! Almost as charismatic as when he is verbally attacking other countries. On the other side no one dares to move because this is just another item in a long list of things you have to tolerate from a guy that is sitting over oil.

So, by now you probably finished playing Tales of Monkey Island Launch of The Screaming Narwhal (yeah I wont by typing that again), if you are a fan of the Monkey Island series.
I have to say right now that I played the first Monkey Island (which is now available), back in the day when I was young… I remember that game and I have very good memories about playing it with a friend of mine, my brother and even my uncle (we used to share the “how to” of the games over the phone back in that day (no internet).

So I tried to make the first episode last… but it will give you about four or six hours of play time. Of course you will have to wait another 30 days for the second episode and at least this time around you wont be waiting years for a continuation in the story (yeah Valve, I’m looking at you), you know that TellTale will be releasing the five episodes on a monthly basis, so you can… you know, play other games in the meantime that are awesome too. And if you are feeling nostalgic and cant wait, just grab for 5usd games like “The Dig” and “Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis” on STEAM. I want to play Fate of Atlantis again, I will probably get it since is only 5usd and it runs without any problems on win xp. A special edition just like they did on Monkey Island would be nice…

But what do I think about this Monkey Island episode?
I like it, a lot. I mean, I like the idea that an adventure game is not frustrating to the point of “I will just head to the walkthrough here because I can’t figure this one out”. The puzzles are not that hard, but even then not that easy. One thing that used to frustrate me most about the old LucasArts adventure games were the fact that logic wasn’t a main factor on the puzzles; they used to were complicated solutions and too many factors at the same time. Just give the SCUMM system a look; you can have a lot of interactions on a single scene only with a handful of items.

Graphically they kept the Monkey Island style… I would have liked that they were a little bit more “sophisticated”… I don’t know, maybe that’s not the word but is how I feel.
The humor is there, of course it helps a lot if you have played the previous Monkey Island games, but on the story side there is nothing very big you will miss because of that.

Episode 1 is fun in the dialogues, easy on the requirements and still looks good. Maybe a little short but not too long for a single episode of pirate fun. And I get to play Wallace and Gromit for the 35usd deal they got going on there… it seems to be a very good game if you have some knowledge of Wallace and Gromit.

This reminds me. If you go to STEAM “top sellers” the first episode of Tales Of Monkey Island was there on top (now is Monkey Island SE)… and I can bet that those represent a LOT of sales. A friend of mine once said that the adventure genre was dead, he said it at the time TellTale was starting, he also said that they would fail because it was a dead genre… I think we can say that all the people who thought that now stand corrected.

I was rather disappointed when I heard the news earlier today that Blizzard won’t be supporting Starcraft 2 for LAN (local area network). If you told me this a year ago I would tell that you were mean and a bad person. Hell, “disappointed”… I was in shock when I read the statement from someone there who says something like “anyway everyone uses the internet today”.

Reality is that Blizzard seems to be afraid of pirates, and by trying to avoid piracy of a well established franchise is actually going to ruin the multiplayer experience I have come to growth up with and love. So many memories of Starcraft on LAN´s...
You see, I have little idea of how well is going to work Battle.net for the LAN… IF and only IF there is any LAN support at all. But I’m pretty sure that is not going to be very straightforward… I have been in lanparties that have 150 people playing, and one thing was not available, internet (well you can always have a 3G modem).

Let’s say that to play LAN on Starcraft 2 you only need Battle.net for account validation and then the server is on the LAN and not on the Blizzard server. That would be the best case scenario, once all players are gone in the “activation” the actual server is set up on a local machine in the LAN.

How does this helps fight piracy? It annoys the user anyway; pirates will get a workaround this… Hell, we know there will be a pirate version of Starcraft 2 for playing on LAN if Blizzard doesn’t support it and still the one who get screwed is the costumer who paid for the game.

Besides we are talking about Starcraft here; you will get 10 millions copies sold in the first month and that is if you are unlucky.

So yeah, I went and signed an online petition (I know, I know…), but Blizzard needs to pull its head from their arse on this one. I won’t say anything about Diablo 3 colors because that’s a creative decision I’m not in a position to judge.
But to deny the sequel of a game that is what it is because of LAN support of it? It’s a crime and it annoys me.