TehRawt

Keeping Promises

2012-02-13T06:08:00.000-08:00

Paste from console, Counterstrike Source.

Tenacity : hahah
TheTopMostDog (Music) : STEAM_0:1:36935572
TheTopMostDog (Music) : oh look the IDs match
TheTopMostDog (Music) : so like
TheTopMostDog (Music) : you know when i promised to ban you instantly when i found you in my server
TheTopMostDog (Music) : funny thing is
[The dude I was talking to left the server]
TheTopMostDog (Music) : ahaha
Tenacity : you talking to me?
TheTopMostDog (Music) : AHAHA
TheTopMostDog (Music) : he left
Tenacity : ahahhah
Tenacity : thanks dude.. the guy was a dick
TheTopMostDog (Music) : yeah i know
TheTopMostDog (Music) : i have a list from the past 3 months
TheTopMostDog (Music) : of people i promised to ban from my server should i ever get one
[On mic, sarcastically: "Oh mate, your own server, so pro"]
TheTopMostDog (Music) : actually its not lol
TheTopMostDog (Music) : i just made him leave by pretending it was
[On mic, "He was leaving to join another server anyway"]
TheTopMostDog (Music) : lol funny that
[Guy on mic mentioned something about him being on skype with the guy I was talking to earlier]
TheTopMostDog (Music) : oh so youre his friend?
[Guy on mic keeps talking shit]
[SM] TheTopMostDog (Music): Banned player "*[ß]ulletz*" for 360000 minutes (reason: cause it actually is my server).
Tenacity : AHAHHAHA
TheTopMostDog (Music): yea, i lol'd hard
Tenacity : good job

Yeah, that works out as something like an 8 month ban. gg.

Things that make me love to hate Battlefield 3

2012-01-25T20:35:00.000-08:00

Battlelog has technical issues every second page I go to.

My eyes are dirty while playing the game.

My eyes are dirty DURING CUTSCENES!

It is somehow possible to time out from SINGLEPLAYER.

People who haven't even logged in on battlelog in the past two months are still rated highest SPM players in the platoon, when, according to other members' individual stats pages, they are not the top player in the platoon at all.

I'm hoping to show you how bad the 7x scope is, lets see how long this takes just to get in a server.

Oh, server list has forgotten my filters.. AGAIN.

Yeah, um, this is new; I've not seen this one before.

Whenever you try and play the game, this origin window comes into focus (up to 2 minutes after clicking launch), and if you happen to be typing when it pops up, you'll likely press spacebar which presses cancel by default. Why the hell this comes into focus, or even exists, is beyond me.

Okay, finally. See the pixelation on the chevrons?
For comparison, this is a screenshot of the SV98's scope from Bad Company 2.

The same animations when dying, when climbing over things, over and over. Knifing is the only thing that deviates.

Now, this is only stuff that I could show you with screenshots. On top of this, there are endless lag issues such as crosskilling and driving into phantom walls, weapon inaccuracies (they don't hit where they are aiming), server crashes, punkbuster disconnects, and one of my personal favourites (who to blame, DICE or nVidia, I'm not yet sure), crashes that are prevented by UNDERCLOCKING my $300+ graphics card.

I hear Modern Warfare 3 RU keys are around the $20 mark on g2play.net, and you can easily change the language you wish to use via properties in the right click menu on Steam. Can't say I'm not tempted, but CS:S is adequately entertaining, of late.

I don't even

2012-01-11T05:52:00.000-08:00

Bad decision or not, I simply had to post this log from Counterstrike Source console.

Stainless Steel : !voteban
Stainless Steel voted to ban TheTopMostDog
Votes required 1/6
TheTopMostDog : why?
Stainless Steel : spawn killing
TheTopMostDog : hes afk
Stainless Steel : so?
TheTopMostDog : ..
TheTopMostDog : youre an idiot
Stainless Steel : you were still spawn camping
TheTopMostDog : well tell him to fucking move
TheTopMostDog : and stop being a tosser
1nf3rn0b3ast killed DeanKat with m4a1.
Please visit the server forums @ www.shotzonfire.com
Tommy killed 1nf3rn0b3ast with usp.
TheTopMostDog killed Stainless Steel with usp.
[Rank]: TheTopMostDog (1110) got 1 points for killing Stainless Steel (868).
[Rank]: TheTopMostDog (1111) got 1 point for Headshot.
*DEAD* Stainless Steel : and what exactly is a tosser?
TheTopMostDog : ..

Evolve

2012-01-05T09:46:00.000-08:00

Evolve is this neat new gamer's IM program that has barely over eight thousand members. I highly recommend you check it out over at www.EvolveHQ.com.

The remainder of this post is a backup of my feedback forum post on their website. I simply give my opinions and feedback on features present or missing in order to improve my future experience on the program.

Toasts and sound events optional per protocol
Expand on the lil checkboxes for notifications, allow users to disable toasts from facebook, for example. Ultimately, allow users to limit pop-up toasts and sound events to Evolve account changes on your contact list, and not external protocols.

Options to group/ungroup multiple accounts under the same network
You have "group contacts by IM network", expand upon this by allowing "group contacts by account". Ie "blah@gmail.com" on MSN and "blah@hotmail.com" also on MSN, but separate on the friends list.

Account/Protocol that's being used on the current chat tab
When you've got a heap of conversations open, it can be confusing. Having the account you're using to send messages TO them displayed somewhere on that tab, would be handy. As well as the actual account name (not just nickname/alias) of the person you're talking to. Ie, "blah@hotmail.com on MSN".
- Real life example: I referred my friend, 5 minutes later I saw him sign on (toast). I proceeded to talk to him about Evolve for ten minutes before he said "wait, I don't have it installed yet". He had signed in on another IM and I just saw the toast and clicked it, assuming that he'd completed the referral I sent him. (Yes, I know I would have seen him on my friends list if I bothered to look.)

Chat tab close button modification - partial credit to Neillithan
Crosses to close chat tabs only appear on the currently active tab. Neillithan suggested only one cross for the entire window, and that controls the currently focused tab, but why not just do it like Firefox 8.0?

Window snapping
10px window edge snapping, somewhat self-explanatory.

"Last message receieved on "
"Last message received" takes up way too much room, it reserves almost 3 text lines. I would personally prefer it below the text field (where you type), but that's just preference. Either that or an option to completely remove it, we do have timestamps afterall. (Perhaps only show "last message received on " when the message was received on a different date to present?)

Party chat dedicated window
Party chat windows are bung when they're in the same frame as a standard chat window. I prefer my chat windows small, which as you're about to see, makes party chat windows impossible to use. If "party members" was displayed attached to the side of the standard chat window, it wouldn't resize the chat area in the window. A good example would be to make it not too dissimilar to the tutorial message I believe I saw when I first installed Evolve. Alternatively, the ability to completely remove the party chat from the chat box would be handy, so you can have it a different size to the other chat windows, remember its own size, position, and such.

Video capture hotkey - Already discussed with mamu; will be implemented soon.
Needs a checkbox to enable/disable the media record shortcut, so you can avoid accidentally pressing it.

Systray double-click behaviour
Double-click toggle of friends list is good, but I'd rather it bring the list to focus when I double-click the systray, even when the friends list is still open on my taskbar.

Auto-away time
Simple number field added to "auto-away" to allow us to customize after how long your status is automatically set to away; I prefer it to set to away after one minute of inactivity, so that people don't spend the next ten minutes asking me why I'm not talking.

Alternate protocol feature support
This one's a doozy. Being able to call my friends on xfire using Evolve or webcamming to my MSN contacts would be a unique feature, and a selling point for a number of my friends who are still refusing to give Evolve a shot.

Mobile app
An interesting idea for those of us with smart phones; being able to log on and chat with our Evolve friends, and eventually even friends on accounts that are supported by Evolve. Down the road even farther, when taking the above point into consideration, Evolve could become the primary means of mobile social communication, especially if it could tap into your phone's voip and cam capabilities.

Furthering alternative protocol support
I've seen other programs tap into the Steampowered friends chat, Evolve could do it too. What about Skype (maybe with their support) and possibly IRC, too?

--Likely more to come in the future--

Supreme Commander Forged Alliance is on Steam

2011-12-24T19:14:00.000-08:00

And here is the stuff you need to know to make the most of it.

The following was linked to me by Agret, who originally wrote it.
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3051145/Forged%20Alliance%20Links.txt)

In short:

1. Install FAForeverLobby
FAForeverLobby.msi
2. Install the FAForever Steam Files.
FAFSteam.msi

3. Create an account on FAForever 
 Start Menu
  -> Programs
   -> Forged Alliance Forever - Lobby 
    -> Forged Alliance Forever - Lobby.exe

If you have any issues logging in after creating an account,
just restart the program. If register pops up after you have
registered, close out of it and the login form should come up.


OPTIONAL Map Packs: -But recommended for FAF play.
(1.23 GB)  Unknown Map Pack (02-12-2011.rar)
(41.85 MB) FA Ladder Maps (FA_Ladder_Maps.rar)
(21.28 MB) Sting Map Pack (Sting Map Pack.rar)

Download the above map packs and extract directly to:
 My Documents 
  > My Games 
   > Gas Powered Games 
    > Supreme Commander Forged Alliance 
     > Maps

Using the FAFLobby, you can filter Official and Custom maps, so don't be worried about a spam map list.

Worth noting, I don't personally use the FAF service (the public server browser part); I think I actually had trouble getting it working (as I do with most networking stuff), so I just went back to using Hamachi and playing with just my mates on LAN, which works fine; the only thing you do differently is run the new exe in the following dir: [...]steam\steamapps\common\supreme commander forged alliance\binFAF, which is the custom lobby exe, meaning you get all the advanced AI and settings options when hosting a game.

Apparently the dude who made the new AI did such a good job that he now works for Gas Powered Games, w00t. The new lobby and maps are handy to have, and doing any of this guide does not interfere with your actual steam install; the mods are in the folder mentioned above. Enjoy!

Kilo One

2011-11-18T23:25:00.000-08:00

http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf3/platoon/2832655240989678359/

The hopes of K1 is to develop serious, pro-level squads available on request for scrims or platoon matches in Australia. We will train together and against one another in private and public servers in order to hone our skills in Battlefield 3 to a level where we will be in high demand. We will also hopefully represent ourselves in squad matches such as sqrush and sqdeathmatch.

Each squad will be the responsibility of its squad leader, and any invites or kicks will be the decision of that squad leader. In-house training may be offered or required to join squads, at the discretion of that squad's leader.

You can request to have your own K1 squad, and I'll list it here with you as its leader. I do, however, reserve the right to ask you to take your squad elsewhere for any excuse I deem reasonable.

Battlefield 3 OPEN BETA

2011-09-29T09:43:00.000-07:00

So I heard you like Battlefield betas?

The Battlefield 3 OPEN Beta is of a few hours ago, live. I thought I'd write this to get you scrubs into the beta in the simplest fashion possible.

1. Download and install the Origin client.
Login with your primary EA account or make a new one.
NOTE WELL: Your username is your in-game name.
http://static.cdn.ea.com/ebisu/u/f/OriginSetup.exe

2. Once you have your Origin account sorted out, go here and click "get it now".
I've not done this personally, so I can only go by what others have told me, which is you need to login on this site and do this step which leads to the game being activated on your account.
http://store.origin.com/store/eaapac/en_AU/html/originweb/play4free/pbPage.play-free-games-en_AU

3. After activating the game on your account, you should be able to download the game via the Origin client. (Try looking in the "My Games" tab.)

4. OPTIONAL: Once you have the game downloading, you'll have to fill in 4GB worth of time, so now's a good chance to get the latest beta drivers for your nVidia GPU:
NOTE WELL: The direct link is for the 64bit, English versions of Win7 or Vista.
ALSO NOTE: These are BETA drivers and may cause some issues down the track; make sure you are well aware that you can rollback your drivers should you run into any issues.
http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/285.38/285.38-desktop-win7-winvista-64bit-english-beta.exe

---------------------------------------------------

A'ight, now to get Steam overlay working in-game, so you can take screenshots and spam your mates and whatnot:

You're going to want to know your way around Steam a little, save me explaining too much (I wanna go play, damnit).

Go to "activate a non-Steam game on Steam" and choose Origin. You then want to close Origin and reload it VIA your Steam games list. (NOTE: As long as Origin is running, you will appear as in-game to all your Steam contacts. To rectify this, just close origin and reopen it via Windows start menu.) Once you have Origin running, you can then screenshot (F12) and use the Steam overlay (Shift+Tab) while in game. Also, before starting a game, I'm told you have to go into the Origin settings and DISABLE its in-game so that it doesn't clash with Steam's one.

And I think that's everything... At least that I can think of for now. Happy gaming?

Battlefield 3 BETA

2011-09-28T11:36:00.001-07:00

http://steamcommunity.com/id/thetopmostdog/screenshots/?tab=public

Choose Battlefield 3 BETA from the "Game:" dropdown box.
Uploading screenshots daily.

Portal 2

2011-07-24T07:11:00.000-07:00

Well, I don't get my order until Monday (the keyboard and mouse), but I occupied myself by playing through the Portal 2 singleplayer, which was quite enjoyable, actually. Enough so that I figured I should write a little piece on it..

Firstly, I've heard that people think it doesn't compare to the first, to which I must disagree. I did find a large portion of the tests took only one attempt to solve, as they were quite linear (seemingly no two ways to solve it, meaning it was obvious how to from the get go) and I only died a handful of times during the entire campaign; most of which just to imperfect leaps of faith or experimenting to see where a jump-pad would land me.

However, I think it serves as a neat sequel with a fair story and some pretty amusing voice acting if you take the time to listen to it. If anything, I think this game contained story elements that should have existed in the first, but no one knew how successful it was going to be, let alone the potential of a sequel. That said, I'd play through Portal 3 if they ever decided to go for it (and I would insist that they do). Spoilers aside, I don't personally see how they could set up a sequel with the way this game played out, but they did it with the first when I thought the same thing, there. And they did it well, at that.

As it's been said, there's plenty of eyecandy; a few sections of the game which are primarily focused on eyecandy, actually. The only thing I have to pick on during these segments is the too-convenient setup for portal play, and even though we're making our way around damaged and destroyed areas, it's not clear how people would get around without a portal gun.. But yes, a fair story and some time consuming puzzles, Portal 2 was worth the 30 bucks I snatched it up for while it was on sale (and I'm talking about for the singleplayer, alone). I'll hit up coop when Lexdog has a computer to play through it with me, as I promised her I would.

Keyboard and Mouse

2011-07-21T01:21:00.000-07:00

New keyboard and mouse ordered. Hopefully get them tomorrow. Can't wait.

Das Model S Ultimate Silent

Uses Brown switches which are perfect for gaming, imo. Plain and simple, I don't need any fancy lighting or extra buttons (which I wont be able to reach while hardcore gaming anyway). Maybe when the next batch of mechanical gaming keyboards come out, I'll look at something with a little more gamer's bling, but ultimately, I think that stuff is unnecessary; I leave the macros for my more accessible mouse.

Saitek Cyborg R.A.T. 7

I've heard it can feel flimsy, but with this level of customization, I'm not surprised; the entire mouse is based on hinges and removable panels. Apparently the macro system is astounding, which is what sold me on this mouse.

EDIT:

Okay, well the mouse is back in the cupboard. My G9 is just too good compare to this. It does have some nice software features, I'll give it that, but when it comes to the important hardware aspect, the button placement is far from comfortable to use on a mouse this size (the G9 is known for being small, but this one is even smaller). I wrote them an email saying that their mouse is sh*t (hyperbole), and they promptly responded asking where they can help. The support guy even offered to talk to the software dev team to try and improve the macro support and customizability of the buttons, so that's a 10/10 for support, at least. I can see myself using this mouse in the future as I'll never get around to selling it, and my G9 is slowly wearing out (it currently has no rubber left on it and some of the buttons are getting touchy, including the LMB).

The keyboard, the ultimate DAS. Well, it's good; I'm still using it now (Christmas 2011), but I found out about wasd keyboards a few days after writing this post. If you're looking at getting a new keyboard I highly recommend you look at this site at least once.
>>http://www.wasdkeyboards.com/

Zombified

2011-07-19T10:46:00.000-07:00

I finally get a skype call at 3am from my mates who are (finally) online and ready for some games (after I texted them at 8pm asking where the hell they were). So anyway, me and my sleeping pattern decide it's appropriate timing to get out of bed and whoop some zombie butt on black ops until daybreak. But wait, what's this? It's 3:40 and everyone's offline. Two rounds later, they're all too tired to fight back the horde of endless nazi zombies and have gone to bed. Wow, after I slept all day to fill in the time until you bastards got online, and you're leaving already? I think I need friends that have similar priorities to me. That's just the life of a hardcore gamer, I guess.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

2011-01-11T08:03:00.000-08:00

I've clocked about 3 hours of bonechilling gameplay over the last two days. Three hours in two days? I have quit the game entirely 4 times, paused it tens of times and complained to way to many people to ever be able to cover up the fact that this game makes me want to cower in the corner of my very dark room.

I think it's official: this is the most terrifying game I have ever played. It's not just about the scares, though; it's the suspence, the anxiety that you quickly develop.. And in the most desperate of times, the keyboard mashing to attempt to jump on a crate, just so your feet aren't in the murky water.

Frictional Games, a five man, indie gamedevelopment company from Sweden, whom have previously relesed the infamous "Penumbra" series have, last year, gone and made a game that I whole-heartedly recommend to you (see bottom for demo link). Amnesia: The Dark Descent is one of those unique experiences that really has to be played, no amount of anything will prepare you for what you have to deal with when playing this game, assuming you are willing to let yourself be immersed, that is. (Why bother if you aren't?)

Gameplay diversity may be limited, but it all adds to the immersiveness. The lack of options when you're cornered in the dark is half the reason this game effects me the way it does. By the time you're a good ten or twenty minutes into it, you'll start to empathise with the character, being startled by the slightest noise, confused by the story, your character's lack of memory; not knowing where you are or what is going on, and as your character slowly loses his sanity in the most dire of times, you find yourself losing your control over the game; I was stuck at a point where all I had to do was break open a door; even the most simple of problems proved confusing for me while I was under the stress of expecting something to jump out from every corner. As for the underlying story, I can't help but want to play the game more and more. If not for my adverse reaction to the 3am spooks that I must revert to every time I choose to pause the game to escape its reality, I'd probably be playing it right now. Then again, my fatigue probably isn't helping at all. However, I do insist you attempt the game in the dark of night; it only adds to the value of your purchase.. Trust me.

Speaking of which, Amnesia: The Dark Descent is cheap. You can get the game for US$20 or under, depending on whether steam is having one of its ass-kickery sales or not. But still, for the full price, it's an experience I've not received from anything in a long, long time, let alone to the extent that Amnesia does it, and, in my opinion, it's well worth the money. If you don't have the cash to spare, at the very least go and download the demo (link below) and see how long you last before you find yourself in my shoes.

Oh, and I best point out that this game is very much so for mature audiences only.. If you've peeked at this game for more than thirty seconds, you already know why.

Anyway, try the demo, get the game. I hope you get out of it what I have, post comments if you do.

>>Amnesia Demo

Medal of Honor 2010

2010-05-28T17:48:00.000-07:00

There has been released a teaser trailer for the upcoming Medal of Honor game. This trailer, "Leave a message" has really hooked me; you should definitely check it out. This game looks like it could well be another epic SP experience, on par with the latest blockbuster storylines, such as Infinity Ward's CoD4: Modern Warfare and MW2.
>>http://www.medalofhonor.com/
Will be looking into a hardware upgrade or a new beastie entirely for the next batch of games, including the infamous Brink, which I should get around to posting about.

Call of Duty 2010

2010-05-28T17:35:00.001-07:00

UK video games retailer, GAME, has been said to have confirmed the title will be set "in locations such as Cuba, Vietnam, and the Arctic." However, the title is NOT Call of Duty: Vietnam, as had been rumoured; Black Ops is the name given to this new CoD game, now rumoured to have had both dedicated servers and mod support. Will keep my fingers crossed.
>>http://www.callofduty.com/blackops

Reports, Call of Duty: Vietnam Confirmed?

2010-04-29T22:25:00.000-07:00

"Silicon Valley blog VentureBeat claims to have learned title of suspected Treyarch installment in series, long rumored to be set in Southeast Asian conflict."
>>http://au.gamespot.com/news/6260595.html

Lay in Wait

2010-03-23T01:32:00.001-07:00

As the war rages on throughout the valley, there is a little, obscure hut with billowing smoke, off to the side by a little freshwater stream. The Russian recon advances to his objective. He has travelled many miles to get to this point. He is poised. With steady hands, the scout sniper readies his plastic explosive. His time has come.

He sprints the last stretch, resembling a cheetah having acquired it's prey. Through the thick, white smoke he plows, eventually setting sights on the crate. Pressing his C4 onto its surface, and equipping the remote detonator, he is satisfied; his squad is gone, he is alone.. But, he will succeed. ...Or so he thinks.

Magicpotato and I, TheTopMostDog, come pouncing unto the unsuspecting specialist, knifes gleaming in the dim, smoke smothered light. Our mission is simple; as a last line of defense, we are to stop short the actions of all those who oppose us. With a swift swipe, the remote detonator falls to the floor. He has failed. His squad died in vain. His time has been wasted. How could he have known it would end like this?

I salvage what I can from the corpse. "More dope!" I proclaim.
I look over to see Magicpotato's already outstretched hand, "Well, what are you waiting for? This smoke will clear if we don't keep this up." is his response.
"Oh, ho! We can't have that, now can we?" I roll us both another.

I close the door and mend a broken window with the plastic explosive before joining Magicpotato at the chairs in the corner of the room. "Now, this is the way war is meant to be played" we agree as we sit and continue to play our hand of cards. Faintly, we lay in wait for our next unfortunate victim of war.

New Steam UI (BETA)

2010-02-23T22:48:00.000-08:00

So, there's a new Steam user interface in beta at the moment. Looks completely different, and in saying that is quite annoying to use if you're unwilling to change, like me.

There are a few good points about it like the change from Internet Explorer to WebKit (safari), but I'm gonna have to cut this short because all I wanna do is play Fallout 3, but steam is totally frozen up. I can't even get to the settings menu, let alone revert it to the old UI before it locks up. Haha, I guess that's why we call it beta?

But yes, do check it out; news post: http://store.steampowered.com/news/3501/.

...Now, where do I submit my feedback?

My letter to the public

2010-01-06T08:10:00.000-08:00

Dear Aussie gamers,

Just because you've beaten me all week doesn't mean that I cannot turn the tables and kick your tail on the weekend. It's honestly what I do; I have days where I'm shit and I have days where I'm pretty good. In fact, most days I either play for some fun or just something to do. There are also days where I truly play competitively.. Rarely do I have superb days, but if you do happen to witness one, suck it up and deal with the fact that you just got your ass handed to you by a legitimate player, because I do not hack.

Thanks for the headshots (I'm enjoying my gold plated guns),
~TheTopMostDog

Celebrating five years of Firefox!

2009-11-23T09:22:00.000-08:00

Firefox has served me since my good old Pentium 4, and has seen me play games from Battlefield Vietnam and Aliens vs Predator 2 to F.E.A.R. and Battlefield 2, to Crysis, CoD4 and Fallout 3. Firefox has always been the browser of choice for me, and has downloaded patches for all these games, be it at my home computer or at TAFE to my iPod with Firefox Portable.

I have never had a problem with it and even today, it's still saving me from downloading viruses from random websites; "This web site at has been reported as an attack site and has been blocked based on your security preferences". Just another line of defense between the internet's maliciousness and my precious gaming computer.

The addons are endless, nowadays. If you feel you want a scrollbar for your endless row of tabs? Or how about an internet usage meter that shows you how much you have left before you're capped? Firefox addons have almost anything you can think of to help you customize your experience while surfing the web.

If you've never used Firefox as your web browser, I suggest you look no further for your next candidate. Give it a shot, it can't hurt! You can always uninstall and go back to your preferred browser, be it IE or Chrome or any of the other randoms out there, but trust me, you'll be mad if you do!

Big Cat's MW2 Review (Singleplayer)

2009-11-23T08:22:00.000-08:00

This review was originally written by Big Cat, who posted it on the Infinity Ward (MW2 PC) forums. All credits for this writing-piece go to him.

All questions or comments in response to the review itself should be made on the original thread, here. Any other, general comments, may be made in the comment section attached to this post.

Please note that this is currently unedited and may contain things such as spoilers related to the campaign of said game. I am not the author of this content so if you have any problems with how this reads prior to my editing, I suggest you take it up with Big Cat (see link above).

SINGLE PLAYER REVIEW

Hey all, back again. Finished with the single-player version of MW2 a little while back, and so now im going to write my thoughts on it. If anyone has any questions or wants something clarified, feel free to comment. Alrighty then, lets get started. I'll try to keep the spoilers to a minimum, for thsoe who havent seen/played the campaign yet.

THE STORY
Well, im not gonna lie. pretty unbelievable. It's really hard to explain without revealing too much of the content, but its pretty out there. If you analyze the story from a detached perspective, it seems extremely far-fetched. There some invading going on, some fighting in places where there probably wouldnt be... it's a very different feel from MW1. Ill get into this later. The overall story is very ENTERTAINING and provides for some very interesting settings to play in, but it isnt plausible. Now, i played the entire campaign mode in two sittings..it was overall a very cinematic and engaging experience. The game makes you feel like you are in an epic war movie. It even lasted about the length of one or two(around 5 hours). The game flows smoothly from one location to the next, and explains what happens in between well.

GAMEPLAY
Fun, as always. Plenty of different locales, objectives, and roles to fill. The players character switches every mission, as in MW1, and the brief cut-scenes in between gameplay help fill in the gaps in the story. The main problem i had with the campaign in Mw2 this time around was how SOLD-OUT it felt. Instead of playing an average grunt in the Marine Force Recon or part of an SAS squad, the player is a member of (and often doing the most work) an elite, special super top secret task force designed to basically save the world when shit goes down. I mean come on. For example, on one mission, the player must literally take out HUNDREDS of enemies BY HIMSELF. The two other team-mates youre with die. Really, IW? Atleast MW1 had some semblance of realism. Another example would be when you breach doors in a mission where the player needs to save some hostages. Oh, lets just have time slow down for little when the door gets blown off so i can shoot 10 hostiles in the room before they can even turn around.
Things like this seemed ridiculous to me, and ruined the entire tactical and realistic aspect for me. In MW1 when you breached a door you would go in with normal time, and if you got shot then too bad. IW simply seemed like they were trying to hard to make this an amazing, immersive experience. It's overdone.

CAMPAIGN OVERALL
It can be fun. It's a very short experience, but there are definitely some epic moments in it that i thoroughly enjoyed. The true selling point of this game is certainly the multiplayer, but the campaign has its moments and delivers a memorable experience.

SPEC OPS
This shit was fun. Plenty of different missions, a large variety of different objectives, and soem two-player ones too. Short, fun to play on recruit, challenging to play on veteran, fast levels of intense action or objective based gameplay. This, like the campaign, doesnt last long however. Most of the missions are very short, and once they are all beaten there's no real incentive to go back to it. Still a very fun experience while it lasted.

MY THOUGHTS OVERALL
Average, again. I wouldnt say it was as fun as MW1. Sure, there are some cool locations and things you get to do, as well as some epic moments in the story. and when i say epic i mean epic. Especially if youre an American playing this game, i think youll appreciate the scenery in some of the levels more. EPIC. The game, however, is a short and unrealistic experience. Definitely catered more towards the casual, console crowd this time around. I give the single-player portion of this game a 7.5/10.

Sorry for the vagueness of the review, it's hard to explain the aspects of the game without revealing spoilers. IF anyone would like a review with spoilers included, let me know. Also, sorry for the briefness of the review, ive been busy lately. Again, if anyone needs anything cleared up or a more in-depth description of anything, feel free to leave a comment and ill answer.

Big Cat
If you wanna play, hit me up on steam.

Big Cat's MW2 Review (Multiplayer)

2009-11-13T10:19:00.000-08:00

...

'Sup guys? So this is my thoughts on the multiplayer of Modern Warfare 2, so far, just my two cents. Flame me if you want, I'm just giving my observations. Hopefully it'll provide some information for you. This review will only focus on the multiplayer portion of the game as that is all I have played so far. I will include my thoughts on the singleplayer later. [This will likely be a new post on this blog -ed]

INSTALLATION
I installed my game on Steam and had to wait until last night to play it when it came out. The installation process for me was very smooth; I pre-ordered and pre-loaded the game before release date, so on the night it released I just had to quickly install a 4mb file and click on the icon to play.

Overall the installation process was very easy for me to go through. I know some people have been having problems with the retail CD's, so I would suggest buying it over steam if you have a good internet connection.

STARTING THE GAME
After I clicked on the icon, the usual small steam window popped up and did its "first time checks". This took around two minutes to complete. Not too bad.

Then the game screen popped up. Here's where I ran into some trouble; the main menu for me appeared, but it was like it was a jpeg and didn't allow me to move my mouse or anything. It was strange because the background music was playing but it was just like there was an image of the main menu frozen in front of me.

So, freaking out a little, I closed and re-opened the game. This time, the game opened up and I had the same screen that didn't allow me to control my mouse or anything. Still flippin' shit, I decided to wait it out and see if it was possibly a loading screen or something else that I didn't know about. My patience paid off and I was eventually greeted by the REAL main menu with a functional mouse.

Since then, I've figured it out its apparently my computer's way of saying that the game is loading; it stays on the so-called image screen for a while and then goes to the real menu, which I'm fine with.

FINDING A MULTIPLAYER GAME
I was pretty excited at this point. Oh, dang - I'm about to play the most anticipated game of the year and possibly the decade! Y'know, I was drooling all over myself and making gutteral noises within my mouth and all that.

So I quickly bumped up the graphics settings in the options menu then clicked 'find a game'. I'm greeted with a screen that shows the list of playlists available. (Now, the following got me really pissed off!) Theres a little box that pops up, and says this:

Fetching Playlists....
Retrieved Profile Cmplete.
Connected to IWNet Complete.
.........................(Cancel)

Naturally, I'm like, "Oh, okay.. It'll take around 5 seconds to 'fetch' these playlists. I mean, its just a list of game modes right?" Wrong! Ten minutes later, I'm still sitting waiting for this fucking playlist thing to load. Finally it does: it says, "playlist data cannot be retrieved, most recent will be loaded" followed by all the playlists appearing. I was then like, "Cool! Of course, you couldn't have done that in the first place..". [Haha! -ed]

Anyways, to be fair, this could have been attributed to the large amounts of people coming online at the time, considering that it was just after the steam release, but I'll never know for sure. Since then the playlist loading has been lightning fast. Maybe it was just a first-time-run thing, too - I dunno. Not really that big of a deal, since everything is good now.

Moving along, once the playlists had loaded, everything was hunky dory. You click on a playlist, and as long as it is reasonably playable [clarification needed] you get joined into a game in less than 2 seconds. Normally, once I've got the game running, I can be joined into a game and playing in 20 seconds tops, including loading time, which isn't too bad, I would think.

THE GAMEPLAY and Lag
Mmmkay, so this is the part that everyones pissed about. The lag..Honestly, I don't have that much of a problem with it. I'd say around 80% of the time I'm getting good, green, four bar connections when I join a server. This may be due to my location (Southern California; lots of gamers here). But yeah, it's pretty good most of the time and it's like I'm playing CoD4 with a 70ms ping.

Now, the other 20%: It can be annoying if you dip below a 3 bar connection strength; your hits wont register fast and other players with better connections can kill you much more easily. Normally my plan of action if I hit 2-bars-or-less-server is to leave and find another server, which take around 15 seconds, usually, so it's not really a major inconvenience.

Overall I'd say that the whole IW.Net/no dedicated servers thing can be annoying, but it's not really that big of a deal once you get playing. Clan members can still party up and play together. The only other problem I see with it so far is how you're taking a chance with the map selection and the people you're playing with. In a nutshell, it's the randomness when you join a game that's the most annoying.
....Of course if you're pro like me, it doesn't matter what map or games you're playing with! *cough*

Max-Player Cap and 'Big-Ass Maps'
Honestly, I can both agree and disagree with people who are dissing the maximum-player cap (9v9). Some maps are perfect for small engagements: back in the day when I played CoD4, I most often played hardcore-only with only a small number of people, usually 20-man servers, so this may just be a preference, but I'm happy on most of the maps with the amount of players supported. Although, if there were larger player numbers in a game at once, the frequency of choppers, airstrikes and AC130's would just be ridiculous. Not to mention that care packages would probably be falling out of the sky, raining down on peoples' heads! --Funny story! In one game I was playing, I spawned and immediately started sprinting out towards the enemy, then BOOM! A giant, green box drops on my head from the sky. Dead.-- So if there were, say, 64 people in a game at one time, it would just be madness, in my opinion. [Madness?... This is Sparta! Well, at least, the PC boycott community likes to think we are. -ed]

However, a problem I do have is that IW has designed some big-ass maps, this time around. You've got bigger maps than were in CoD4 and smaller amounts of people playing on them (i.e. Derailed, Wasteland- which I understand is sort of a sniping/nostalgia-CoD2 map, but still, I mean it when I say BIG). It's not fun having to run around for the majority of the time trying to find people.

Weapons
The weapons are fun. Lots of new ones to suit peoples' varying play-styles. One thing I'm kind of peeved about is the lack of recoil: I can shoot someone across some maps with an m4/red dot. It's pretty easy. Some guns do have some kick to them, but a lot of assault rifles and sub-machine guns unfortunately, do not.

OVERALL
If I had to say, I'd give the multiplayer portion of the game a 7.5-8.5/10. Definitely not a potential game-of-the-year product anymore. I think if they implemented some of the changes the community wants, Modern Warfare 2 could shape up to be quite an amazing game in the future. Right now, it most definitely doesn't measure up to the groundbreaking advances in gaming made by its precursor. It feels like a true sequel, making expansions on the original while retaining the same gameplay feel, features and an improvement on graphics, albeit minute, still an improvement. If you liked CoD4, you will probably find Modern Warfare 2 an enjoyable experience at least. Buy it, rent it - don't buy it - whatever, it's your choice. I personally like the game and think it is of passable quality. Currently, I enjoy playing the game multiplayer and the hardcore mode is as fun as ever for this CoD4 hardcore mode fan.

~Big Cat

Remember; any questions to the author should be asked on the original thread, here.

All rights reserved by Big Cat. Edited by TheTopMostDog.

When will I be buying Modern Warfare 2?

2009-11-12T03:50:00.001-08:00

I WILL be buying Modern Warfare 2 when I can justify the price for an average singleplayer story and a halfassed multiplayer mode. If dedicated servers are back by then, cool; if not, so be it. I can justify this because if I aim my expectations low enough and my critique high enough, I'll end up being somewhat happy with the game when I finally do get it.

From what I've heard, I wouldn't suggest anyone should go rushing out to buy it on the basis of dedicated server inclusion alone, regardless of connection improvements. This is NOT CoD4, and no amount of dedicated servers will change that fact. Keep that in mind if they ever do announce the patching in of any of our requested features (except perhaps mods, lol).

Perspective of an onlooking Aussie gamer

2009-11-11T18:44:00.000-08:00

This entire post is taken from a thread that I started on the Infinity Ward forums on Thu Nov 12, 2009 1:42 pm.

I wrote this up while chatting to three guys over Xfire's built in group-chat VOIP. This was one of their first experiences on Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer together and I thought it would be a good idea to document my opinion after witnessing their experience.

You may say "The game is great, I've not experienced ANY lag", and I've read it before.. But I've been sitting here doing IP lookups and pinging servers that some of my friends are playing on and 9/10 servers (no joke) are located in US with pings of over 150 and sometimes as high as 350 to myself, who lives right next to the exchange and is used to pings of 20-50 in CoD4's dedicated servers, namely Internode/games.on.net.

IF you live in the united states, please take a moment to spare a thought to the people who are being automatically connected to your country because of the faulty matchmaking system which connects players to the location that has the majority of players online at any given time (obviously, mathematically, these are the odds). And so far, most often than not, America..

This game is probably swell over there with your epic internets where you cant tell the difference between a neighbour and someone across the country (especially those who aren't pros wouldnt be able to differentiate without numeric ping as proof). Here, in Australia, WE DO NOT ALL HAVE FAT PIPES OR FIBRE OPTIC CONNECTIONS. Household connections do not get good pings to other countries, let alone do they all handle well such fast reactions as is required for most FPS games to date. For some, this is so even to local servers!

I am sitting here on Xfire VOIP with people from my state, listening to their "WTF"s and "NEW SERVER" pleas.. We then find ourselves discussing what we can call these p2p networks which have replaced our beloved dedicateds, because we do not feel they are worthy of being called our 'servers'.

Even when they try to stay unbiased by pointing out the good things in the game [Excuse me, "Omg, fucking massive ping again!" --wardog, lol], trying to convince me that they're not bashing the game and, I assume, hoping that sometime I shall get it so they have another Aussie to play with, and one more chance at a local connection.

"It's not complete shite, you just have to be patient.."
"You shouldn't have to jump between servers in order to play together!"

Don't even think about clans, I just witnessed the three of them flailing about for 5 minutes just trying to get into a server that they could ALL be on. How the hell is that a good thing? It should not be difficult to play with your friends, let alone other randoms from your own country who have the potential to be your next best gaming friend. This is pathetic!

To be blatantly honest, the best experience they seem to have had was when they abused every foreigner to the point that only Australians were left in the 'group', which then resulted in an Aussie server.. But that only lasted half a round.

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