MW3 Major Updates Eminent

More MW3 updates are due to be released for Modern Warfare 3 - Xbox 360 users and PS3 users will be receiving their July DLC drops, Xbox gets the MW2 Terminal Map Pack for free, and updates that Mark Rubin from Infinity Ward has revealed.

Mark Rubin has already confirmed that an update has gone live for some consoles. Here is what he said:

MW3 Update:
Lag Comp (Xbox & PS3) – TDM has some settings that replicate to an extent MW2 lag comp settings. More to be done here. Moving to all playlists soon. Probably sometime next week barring any issues. PC is still being worked on as well but is a different code path.

Matchmaking (Xbox) – Domination has a new matchmaking schema. It no longer uses Hilbert regions but rather country code based on your IP. Improvements to that coming in upcoming patch. But if you have been matchmaking a lot with people from other countries please try this out and see if it is better.

Spawning (All) – Faceoff maps have had more spawn points added and a slight tweak to the logic. Should reduce the amount of spawn trapping. But the maps are small so spawning will always feel dangerous. Part of the fun of the mode. A full re-write on spawn logic is in the works but will be some time before it is ready.

DLC – Terminal is out for everyone on Xbox. I’ll be able to announce the date for Ps3 and PC sometime soon pending PR approval. Probably next week or so. Yes Terminal will be free for everyone just as it is on Xbox.

PS3 DLC Issues – Some of the issues with PS3 DLC have been resolved. There are still isolated cases of people losing their Elite Subscription (me included) and also of some DLC content that seems to be either unplayable or un-downloadable. We are still working with Sony on those issues. Hit up @candyslexia for possible solutions for DLC issues.

Weapon Balance – We have started our pass on weapons here at the studio and are testing out some changes. We are just hitting ARs and SMGs at first. Our current philosophy on this right now is not to nerf but rather to buff those weapons that are under-performing. Not sure yet on the eta of when these changes will go live.

Playlist Updates – I don’t have any info yet on Playlist updates just yet. Hoping to get to that soon.

Mark Rubin also discussed the possibility of a Terminal 24/7 playlist and said that they are, "Looking into the possibility. Just figuring out best timing." 

Infinity Ward developer Ghandi has been posting on their forums updates about their attempts to fix lag compensation, to make it better for the host and the players. 

Generally there have been mixed results. More people are reporting an improvement in TDM than a degradation. In GW it’s a wash. We have three settings in test internally with additional instrumentation code added that we began significant testing on under various simulated lag, NAT, packet loss and jitter and ISP conditions. We are looking at each and measuring which is provides the most accurate results. This will be pushed live soon.

It'll be a few days before the update goes live for the playlists. He also mentioned that the new Face Off spawn challenge is expected to "go live soon."


Are you guys ready to get the new updates? I'm a PS3 user, and I honestly cannot wait to get my hands on Terminal, it was my favorite map in MW2. Are you guys expecting more free DLC from Infinity Ward, or knowing them, do you think this is the first, and the last?


Source

Black Ops 2 Reveal Trailer Date Possibly Announced

David Vonderhaar recently tweeted that the Black Ops 2 multiplayer trailer will be released in 7 or 8 weeks (August 14th - August 15th as of the time he wrote and published the tweet). He didn't mention anything about Black Ops 2, but it's obvious from the tweet that he is talking about it.

"So many good questions but inaccurate answers," Is pretty obvious if you break it down. What's one thing everyone does before a game releases? Ask questions that no one else has answers to except the game developers. Vonderhaar is saying most of the answers people have been receiving for questions are highly inaccurate and that the REAL answers will be revealed in 8 weeks, when the multiplayer trailer is revealed.

This is really exciting for CoD fans, as from what we have seen so far, Black Ops 2 will not be an ordinary Call of Duty. 

He also tweeted, "I will single handily make your timeline bleed in agony and drown in facts. Might want to find the unfollow button. Just in case." If you're looking for some more Black Ops 2 news, follow @DavidVonderhaar on Twitter.

So guys, who's excited to see what Treyarch is bringing us this time? Are you looking for humorous killstreaks like the RC-XD, or are you looking for a whole new multiplayer experience?

Rockstar Gives Updates about GTA V

Rockstar Games finally released a couple of answers for us regarding the highly anticipated GTA V's game development.

“What is going on with GTA V?”
We are very busy working on the game! Everything is going well, but the game is a huge project. We should have more information and some new assets for you soon.


“Why don’t you give us more news?”
As we have said before, we have often had long gaps between asset releases on previous games and will continue to do so in the future. We are sorry if you find this frustrating, but please understand, we don’t do this because we ‘don’t care about our fans’ ‘don’t respect our fans’             ‘hate GTA fans etc’ – precisely the opposite! We do it because we want to make sure we only release 100% correct information, and because we want to keep plenty back for the actual game release so there are still lots of surprises when you play it. The only things we care about are that you enjoy the experience of actually playing the game and that we release accurate information. We just have not been in a position to show more of the game than the trailer and will not be for a while yet. We did, however, manage to sneak a quick screenshot out for you… it’s not much, but we thought it was pretty fun.


“One thing we’ll say definitively though is – there is absolutely no ‘beta’ test for the game. If you see ads or solicitations to join a beta program, beware as this could be a dodgy online phishing scam,” said Rockstar. Unfortunate, but it's a sneaky marketing scheme that makes us, the fans, want it even more. 


Judging from the screenshots, it doesn't look much different than GTA IV, but these are just screenshots, and the game is still in development. Hopefully more pictures will be released, but in HD. 

Apple Patents Interchangeable Camera Lense on an iPhone

The smartphone is one of those inventions that has completely changed our world. One of the most important things it probably does, is portable camera functionalities that can fit right into your pocket.

Apple recentley filed for something that most of us probably didn't expect. As you can see from the diagram, with this invention, an iPhone user would be able to remvoe the back panel of the device and replace the camera lenses. The patent also depicts that there is a possibility of the panel having dual lenses in opposite corners.

Are we looking at a possible new iPhone 5 feature? It would be nice, but for those of us who aren't photographers, these features wouldn't do much. And let's be a little realistic, smartphone cameras still have a few years before they will be able to replace professional cameras.

There is no possible way of saying whether or not this this could be an iPhone 5 feature, or if Apple patented this so its competitors wouldn't be able to use a similar idea. Almost every single Android phone, as far as I know, has a removable back-panel. What if Apple did this so that 3rd market Android vendors (HTC, Samsung, etc.) wouldn't be able to sell replaceable backings to protect the camera lens on the back of their smartphones?

What do you guys think? Did Apple do this for a possible iPhone 5 feature, or so they can have another excuse to sue competitiors?

Source

Leaked iPhone 5 Information!

Apple, for all we know, is working on its next generation smartphone, which is most likely going to be known as the "iPhone 5".

According to an article published by DigiTimes, the quad-core iPhone 5 is expected to be launched sometime during the scond half of 2012, which is what a lot of people have been estimating to be the release date of this much-awaited phone. 

What do you think, will the iPhone 5 make you as excited as when the first iPhone was released 5 years ago in 2007, or will Apple pull another 4S?

Source

Sony Buys Cloud Gaming Service "Gaikai" for $380 Million

Sony recently bought Gaikai, a cloud gaming service, which leads to a lot of speculation. Here are some quotes from both sides of the deal.

“By combining Gaikai’s resources including its technological strength and engineering talent with SCE’s extensive game platform knowledge and experience, SCE will provide users with unparalleled cloud entertainment experiences,” said Andrew House, President and Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. “SCE will deliver a world-class cloud-streaming service that allows users to instantly enjoy a broad array of content ranging from immersive core games with rich graphics to casual content anytime, anywhere on a variety of internet-connected devices.”


“SCE has built an incredible brand with PlayStation and has earned the respect of countless millions of gamers worldwide,” said David Perry, CEO of Gaikai Inc., “We’re honored to be able to help SCE rapidly harness the power of the interactive cloud and to continue to grow their ecosystem, to empower developers with new capabilities, to dramatically improve the reach of exciting content and to bring breathtaking new experiences to users worldwide.”


This is a HUGE step for Sony. It opens up a giant window of opportunity for them. They could allow purchases of cloud-based games (kind of like OnLive) for the rumored PlayStation 4, which can be big! For users with a decent internet connection, cloud gaming could be wonderful. No need to go to the store, no need for a big HDD either. 


It could also have to do with Sony's smart TVs. Maybe we'll be able to purchase PlayStation 1, 2, and 3 games!


Good move Sony, maybe with the rest of your budget you can help the American government recover from debt.


Source

Activison Announces Free-to-Play

Call of Duty for free!? Not for everyone...

Activision and Tencent (a Chinese game publisher) have teamed up to make a Call of Duty game for China. Unfortunatley, this will be a PC game only, since consoles are banned in China. Oh, the irony. The game will be completely free for customers, with other add-ons that can be purchased as an option to expand  and enhance the gaming experience.

"We're really enthusiastic about China as a market opportunity," said Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick.

"It's unique content developed for the Chinese audience, developed for the Chinese model and a brand new game."

Although the game is completely free, Activision is still going to be able to make it's money. They will have a little in-game store that will let users pruchase perk upgrades and weapon upgrades. The game will feature maps from Call of Duty 4 as well as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. No word has been released about whether or not Modern Warfare 3 or Black Ops maps will be available as DLC. This is a great step for Activision to make its name popular.

Martin Lau, which is Tencent's current president, said, "We are thrilled to work with the world's premiere game developer and publisher to bring this much-awaited title to Chinese game players. We believe Call of Duty Online will attract tens of millions loyal fans in China, and our game platform and operational expertise to run massive multi-player online games can provide strong support to deliver the immersive and highly interactive game experience to game players in China."

There is no word on the release date or whether or not it will be available outside of China. When going to this website users can see the Call of Duty Online website officially setup, in Chinese. You can watch the trailer below.

Source

New MW3 Patch 1.17 Explained

Let's just get this out of the way to save the questions. If a hotfix or patch comes out for major videogame titles, you can expect an article on it here within a few hours of it coming out, even though I only post Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. I want this to be one of the first websites you check if you see you need to download a patch to see what's new.

So a new patch was released this morning, July 5, 2012, for the PlayStation 3, around 31 MB in size for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. PS3 users, myself included, have been having a really hard time finding matches in MW3. This patch makes an effort to make matchmaking quicker. I've been noticing this, and I originally though it was my internet, until I tried Max Payne 3 multiplayer and realized I could connect to a match just fine. I have 6 MBPS down, and I live in a major city (it's one of the few that you see on a U.S. map while watching the Weather Channel), so it didn't make sense to me that I couldn't find a match with less than 100 MS ping.

Some notes released by Infinity Ward included:

• Added more telemetry for matchmaking and made some adjustments on region weighting

This one means that Terminal is definitely coming for MW3, and that Infinity Ward isn't good with secrets.

• Fix for Terminal missing message incorrectly being displayed in Private Match

PC and Xbox 360 are due to receive the same updates that improve matchmaking, as well as improving lag compensation. I think most of us can agree that this needs to be completely changed to the way it was before MW3. It's nice to think about those who don't have the best internet in the world, but come on, it's frustrating for those of us who do have somewhat decent internet. Google "Lag Compensation Memes" and you'll get around 8 million results.

It also fixes issues with "hacked classes". Now I've seen and been into modded lobbies, but only the classes were modded. You didn't get infections, or any of the annoying crap you see in CoD 4 and World at War. It also didn't harm anyone, because it was only in private match. If it doesn't harm anyone, it's only for the fun, it doesn't ruin public matches where people are more serious about the game, so why remove it?

• Fixed an issue (introduced inadvertently Tuesday as part of a hot-fix hacker prevention measure) where only the first attachment would register on a player’s secondary in-game when using Overkill Pro.

If you had to give Infinity Ward a report card in terms of keeping the game up to date, fixing bugs, and DLC, what would you give them and why?

Source

Welcome to Gaming Buffalo!

Let's make the first post short and sweet. I love to write, and I love videogames. So I will be writing about the latest gaming news and giving opinions on them. My readers can feel free to leave their own opinions in the comments. I will be posting every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday!