Since many a console tard will be saying “Who cares? Buy the game for 360.” – please let me explain the significance of this announcement.

Competitive Gaming and PC’s

True competitive gaming has always shined brightest on PC, and it always will. There are three main reasons for this. First, most major games released for PC come with tools allowing the end-user to modify the game however they wish, and distribute it to the game community. This is more than just something fun to do. Promod,  the most widely utilized mod for cod4, changes the game up to be more balanced for competitive play. It also adds other options not available in the standard game, such as being able to choose any weapon you need right from the start (very useful in tournaments), or allowing users to spectate during a match as a cameraman (useful for those wishing to broadcast live streams).

The second reason competitive gaming works best on the PC platform has to do with the level of customization that is simply not available on consoles. Rarely do two different PC gamers have the same computer set-up, which is half of the fun. Tweaking and upgrading your hardware to fit your play style, finding the right settings in-game to maximize your frames-per-second, adding some personality with binds; they all are part of an experience you can only enjoy on a PC. There is even an element of customization outside of the game. For example, some users like to use TeamSpeak or Ventrilo to communicate with their team during a match (a must for competitive play), the team leader will usually use IRC to locate a scrim for practice, and everyone usually stays in touch with each other using Xfire.

The last, but most definitely not least reason is dedicated servers. Dedicated servers allow teams a private place to practice, scrim, and compete that is under their complete control. This is important to have because:

• You will always have a low ping, password protected server to play in.
• You can control who uses the server and kick/ban users that need it.
• You can install whatever mod you need (such as the aforementioned promod, or any of the numerous training mods available).

At the bare minimum, dedicated servers are a must for competitive play.

Why IW Should Keep PC Gamers Happy

The competitive gaming market is more important than the suits at IW realize. Although it is true that PC sales only make 10% of their profits, there is so much more to it that that. Competitive gaming kept cod4 alive. There are just as many people playing the game today as there were when the game was released. Do you think people would still be playing the game if there were not gamers competing in tournaments, leagues, and LANs all over the world? Would people even be playing in those leagues if mods such as promod didn’t exist to balance the game? Or if matches could not be held on dedicated, private servers to ensure control? I don’t think so.

Although it is an irrelevant point to this argument, IW shouldn’t forget that PC gamers made the Call of Duty series what it is today. Back when the first title was released in 2003, it was only available for PC.

So Now What?

If IW does not turn their decision around, the competitive community will move on to a new title, and MW2 will stoop down to catering to casual gamers. Don’t get us wrong, we want MW2 to be a great game, and we want to be able to enjoy that game for years to come as we did with cod4. The best we can do for now is to make our disapproval known and hope for the best. I highly recommend signing this petition if you haven’t already. There have been several users in the IW Forums that have been expressing their disappointment as well. Every bit of recognition will help.

If the worst comes to pass, where will the competitive community turn? That’s a good question. The majority of us are looking into Call of Duty 5, due to Treyarch being very generous with supporting the game. Others are setting our sights on Battlefield: Bad Company 2 when it is released. Only time will tell…

BioWare announced the release date for Mass Effect 2 today, slating the much anticipated Action RPG for January 26th in the US, and January 29th for Europe. There will also be incentives for those who are willing to pre-order the game. According to the press release:

“In North America, pre-order bonuses* include special-ops armor and weaponry that are designed to boost Commander Shepard’s skills and abilities. At GameStop, Terminus Gear is available with pre-orders, which includes the powerful Terminus Assault Armor and the M-490 Blackstorm Heavy Weapon:

• The Terminus Armor is designed for use in extreme planetary conditions, increasing run speed and personal shields, and augmenting weapons with an additional magazine of reserve ammo.

• The M-490 Blackstorm Heavy Weapon generates a high-powered localized gravity well, accelerating particles to near-infinite mass, and ultimately expanding the selection of heavy weapons available to players when they gear up for combat missions in Mass Effect 2.

Players that pre-order Mass Effect 2 at other retail outlets in North America will receive the potent Inferno Armor, which is used by officers to monitor battlefield conditions by recognizing elevated heart rates, and regulates sub-systems with extreme efficiency to allow for greater response times – together these abilities translate in-game into a negotiation bonus for Commander Shepard and an increase in run speed and augmented damage from combat powers.”

Mass Effect 2 will be released for both the PC, and Xbox 360.

Valve has announced official release dates for the Left 4 Dead 2 demos. Demos is plural because different platforms get different dates, and dates is plural because certain people get the demo earlier than others. Here is a breakdown:

• Those who pre-ordered the game will have access to the demo on October 27th.
• PC gamers and Xbox Live Gold members will have access to the demo on November 3rd.
• Everyone else can download the demo on November 10th.

The beast of a demo will include gameplay from The Parish campaign, set in the New Orleans’ French Quarter. The demo includes local and online play for up to four people, and the 360 version will include split screen. The demo will reportedly also feature all of the new boss infected zombies, as well as the melee weapons found in the full version of the game.

Valve, you certainly know how to put together a demo.

[Via Kotaku]

Both EB Games and GameStop have confirmed that select stores will staying open for a midnight launch of Modern Warfare 2 (PC, Xbox 360, PS3). November 10th is the big day, a day many of us have been anticipating since that teaser was released by Infinity Ward back in March.

As fun as standing in lines are, we prefer to get our copy via Steam. Although there have not been any official announcements yet, if history is anything to go by, us PC gamers will be able to pre-order and pre-download the game, allowing us to play right at 12:01 AM.

Star Wars: The Old Republic, quite possible the single most anticipated MMORPG’s of our time, has opened its doors for registration. Bioware has stated they will pick a select few for a private beta, and gradually add more and more users as time goes on. As with all betas, they make no promise you will get in if you sign up. Before you can opt into the beta, you will need to first register as a community member.

You can begin the signup process here:
http://www.swtor.com/tester

Just a warning, the sign-up process is very buggy. Don’t be surprised if it takes you a few times to make it. In fact, it took us about an hour (ya, we really want to play this game!) The only supported browsers for the sign-up process are Internet Explorer, Safari, and Firefox, so don’t even try it if you are using anything else (we were using Chrome… it took us a few frustrating tries before we figured it out). Reason being, the process includes a Java application that checks your system specs.

[Via swtor.com]

Almost ten years since the last release, we finally have a new MechWarrior game on the horizon! Simply title MechWarrior, the new game plans to be a reboot of the series, as apposed to an actual sequel. The project is being headed by Jordan Weisman, original founder of the now disbanded FASA Corporation (the company that made the originals), and long time fan Russ Bullock of Piranha Games Bullock. Both Piranha games and Smith & tinker will be developing the game, with a scheduled release on the PC and Xbox 360. The game looks like it is running of the Unreal 3 engine (but we can’t confirm it), and if we are lucky, we may just get some planetary multiplayer! All of the footage above is using the in-game engine.

Even though Modern Warfare 2 (Call of Duty 6) has yet to make a major appearance (with the exception of a TV spot), Treyarch has already started working on Call of Duty 7. This was confirmed by Senior Editor David Kim’s LinkedIn profile:

“I am currently on my second title as a senior animator in the games industry with Activision / Treyarch on Call Of Duty 7. Previous to that I specialized as a previsualization artist for various productions.”

The game is expected to use the CoD6 engine, as World at War did with Call of Duty 4. There are even rumors of the game taking place in Vietnam, which isn’t hard to believe since that is one place the Call of Duty franchise has not visited.

The more of this information that is leaked, the more I think that the game is really gone for good… Anyway we came across a bunch of new Duke Nukem Forever info for you guys:

• 28 Hi-Res Screenshots
• The Complete Plot (it was about 60% done)
• The Design Document

It’s a shame, it was looking like a great game. Remember there is still the major press release by Apogee Software next week, so we may just here some good Duke Nukem Forever news.