In the last few days Robert Bowling at last came out from underneath Europe, assumingly in some sort of underground Reichstag bunker that filters his ability to respond to queries for all sides regarding the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 to confirm on several fronts a shopping list of PC-related queries.
So, here's the shopping list for what is now being called by some "Black Sunday" -
Modern Warfare 2 will not be using a client-server relationship with a populated server list based off a master server for it's multiplayer handling. Instead, Infinity Ward has built a matchmaking system that shotguns on Steam, dubbed IWNet. So instead of your usual relationship between gamers and GSPs/ISPSs, you will now be running all multiplayer entirely through ad-hoc networks, mastered through IWnet.
There is no plans for dedicated servers. Period. You can already see where this is going.
IWNet will be using Steam for Anti-cheat protection (which is good, because punkbuster sucked), Matchmaking which will essentially lock you into games with similarly ranked players(presumably to prevent griefing).
Servers will be able to be privatised and password protected with some degree of customisation.
In a two-parts Modding for MW2 and custom content is out for the meanwhile, and so is competitive gaming.
Now, before I go on a tirade about why I won't be putting money down for this game EVEN more than I was before, I'd jsut like to also put on the balance that there are positives to matchmaking. For example, it's great for playing with a bunch of friends you already know without all that setting up business. What it's not great for is all the reasons this is making PC gamers worldwide angry (Amazon is reporting losing 2000 PC pre-orders in the 24 hours since this broke).
Let's start off with the bottom end first-
Competitive Gaming. yes, I hate the snot-nosed arse pounders, but whatever chance of competitive leagueshad of starting for this game has now essentially slimmed. Particularly without dedicated server support, setting up CG events will be somewhat stymied by forcing the hosters to have X amount of individual dedicated machines running the game WITH THE MACHINES ACTUALLY IN THE GAME will be troublesome. Yeah you can pretty much kissthat goodbye. Scrims and stuff probably will be less affected, but the real hardcore stff for MW2, probably gone. Enjoy that
Custom Content. Robert Bowling said that there's no information on a Mod dev kit as of yet, and was reluctant to confirm yes or no. However, the silence leaves two things up in the air - whether there will BE custom content support at all, and if nothing is said between now and immediate post launch the likelihood of it being so decreasing.
Onwards- Bandwidth.
Bandwidth is going to be a real deal-breaker for a system that ONLY supports ad-hoc matchmaking. Do I even need to say it? Home ISP connections are by and large quite small and will severly limit the performance of the game, as well as the largest reasonable server capacity. This is of course assuming that the pipe is completely open and not being shared with other suers (which it rarely is).
Latency.
I do not know of ONE ad-hoc system that has reliably correlated latency users. There is always an outliers. There's been no word from IW whether there will be localised or even continentalised IWnet servers, so I do not hold high hopes for the system, as the further you get from the central server, generally the less accurate latency matching you will get... and if the matchmaking has to come from the US... We're on the other side of the world here in Australia, it's going to be attrocious (it already is through Xbox Live according to some people).
Now, I'm a big fan of dedicated servers. They're there like public arenas. They don't move around, and generally are designed to cope with internet traffic. They're ideal in the PC world, because you can just open a game, go to your favourite server, and jump straight in.
I'm also not opposed to matchmaking, as I've mentioned briefly before. However, matchmaking is far from the ideal solution for PC gaming. In fact, relying on it solely is detrimental to the multiplayer experience. The above two key logistical issues are a start. No dedicated servers means that you may potentially be stuck in high latency games just because whoever started the game decided he'd open up a torrent in the background(or his housemate, whatever). Dedicated sservers give a baseline reliability and connectivity for a game, and without them, large-scale multiplayer games aren't possible.They ease the burden on machines with low specs or slow internet to keep the game running smooth, and as such make the game enjoyable for everyone.
Point is, yeah, have matchmaking, but keep Dedicated Support. It works great for Left4Dead, which in my books is doing matchmaking more or less ON the nail.
Further food for thought- This matchmaking system is cutting into the running of an actual 3rd tier business - Game Service Providers (people who run and rent servers as a means of profit). This will no doubt cause them some headaches. THE number one game of this year (so says the media), and THEY are going to have a hard time trying to be part of it. It's not like L4D or even Blizzard's battlenet, where they actually HOST games even though there is a matchmaking system, this is completely designed to run around them.
MY biggest concern is this is a continuation of a worrying trend that would circumvent PCs are a viable gaming platform (for major publishing companies outside Valve... Indy pubs and devs will ALWAYS run stronger on PC).. to what end?
So to summarise-
• IWnet servers will host multiplayer
• DLC will be a charged item for PC
• No dedicated servers
• Matchmaking system used to play with similarly ranked players
• VAC instead of PB
• Semi-capable password servers
• Semi-capable ad-hoc servers
• Competitive play is dead
• MW2 mods would not be possible
• Steam integration - (how far not mentioned)
• Potential bandwidth and latency nightmare
• The beginning of the end- HAS IW shot themselves in the foot?
Hold your receipts people.
Further Reading/listening-
http://bashandslash.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=746&Itemid=69
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2009/10/new-modern-warfare-matchmaking-service-will-definitely-reshape-pc-community/#more-362322
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
Priorities
Okay so I'm going to do a hard sell here, and I'm going to ask you only one thing coming out of this - Do not under any circumstance purchase Modern Warfare 2.
Why, you may ask?
Allow me to elaborate in words of the queens english.
Argument the First- Bobby Kotick == prick.
I'm not sure how in the loop you are, but surely may have heard of this man who goes by the name of Bobby Kotick. He runs Activision these days, previously owning a boxing firm of some sort I believe. Anyhoo, past irregardless for the moment, he rose to power in Activision in a bloodless coup of stockholders sometime in the last 18 months.
In the last few months, he's been making a lot of negative noise. A WHOLE lot of it, in fact. Most of it is harmless stuff regarding his displeasure with the PS3 as a platform, bla bla bla too expensive, usual gripes. However, Early in September he make a pretty bizzare conference presentation to the Deutsche Bank Securities Group, which all in all has me incensed. To paraphrase and take all the good bits, addressing as I go.
"expect many of our products to be playable independent of a console,"
When asked about an untethered Guitar Hero. In principle, this isn't such a bad idea, however it's at best anther console which you'll have to fork out for, and at worst those stupid throw-away 8-in-1 LCD Gamin-and-watch-style deals ( You know, whole package games complete with hardware... except these'd have to be running stuff that can at least do pixel shaders, so they'd be expensive as shit, or using OnLive). Either way, it's trying to split your market away from everyone else's, which is probably not going to work in this case.
There was a section where he talked about how his friends in movies were quick to point out the bad mouth control and animation in COD:World at War (No shit, they syncing in that game was pretty bad).The executive said game makers just haven't reached a point yet where the mouth movement and facial animation of game characters is good enough to establish a compelling emotional attachment from the player. In many different ways this is untrue. There are plenty of games where emotional attachment to ingame characters or objects, and they didn't even need mouths to prompt it(Portal), and even when there are mouths involved, there are plenty of games out there that have excellent mouth animation and posing(Half-life2 for starters), just none of them I can think of were Activision games. OH, COD4 had some great mouth animation when they were scripted sequence closets.
".... And I think the goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks that we brought in to Activision 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games."
Argument the Second - Better games coming out if you're into semi-realistic FPSes, and don't care about the story.
You heard me correctly- there ARE better games out there coming out if you're not counting the Singleplayer experience. Say hello to Battlefield Bad Company 2 - a game that on many levels supercedes MW2.
For a start, let's have a look at the base multiplayer- It's Built off the Bad Company MP model, which in itself is built off Battlefield2, which is built of etc etc. The concept and the classes are all well defined and work. The gameplay modes work reasonably well, and the whole package just works. You'll find yourself a home in this game no matter what kind of player you are.
The Graphics- well, they're both pretty good, but the fact that BFBC2 scale to MUCH larger maps and gamplay, and I'm a personal fan of BC's animation style and effects over MW2's.As a package, they feel jsut that better composed and contiguous regardless of the situation (MW and MW2 have notable problems with player models and explosion effects). BC2 does actually kick MW2's arse for accurate models though. Sorry IW, not even complete remodels that you've done can save you from the blasphemous rear sights.
Sound Effects- No goddamn competion the BC2 has the better sound effects. Proper doppler, AWESOME sound Environmental feedback (reverb indoors, long fallof for outdoors sounds), none of this premix crap(1:1 what's on battlefield to what you're hearing), Best Explosion sounds in a game ever, and most realistic weapon sounds you'll ever hear too.
Gimmicks. Killstreaks? Deathstreaks? Fuck that. Destructible buildings. Fully destructible landscapes. How bout some of that? Fuck yeah. Why would you want anything more?
Seriously-
BFBC2-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQq6NQhXg1Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRlBI6FgMOs
MW2-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4PMRFkx07g&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdPn_6PddLQ
Argument the third - Better games coming out if you're into unrealistic FPSes, and do care about the story.
Contrarywise to the above ,there are also better NON-realistic shooter coming out with more inventive stories than MW2.
Borderlands- it's really worthy of it's own blog spruik, but I'll summarise-
Millions of guns, procedurally generated
semi-procedurally created lifeforms.
Set in a futuristic wasteland on another planet
Interesting characters
Great art style
drop in/out coop
Actual character progression and growth as you play
Think Diablo on FPS steroid
Has a tank chracter that can slam cars
Has a robot in it, which is like Gir on cigarettes.
It's got it's own style,which is more than can be said of MW/Mw2's rip-off-every-movie-we-can-before-the-end-credits style.
Argument the fourth - Deagle Brand Deagles- NOW WITH DUAL WIELD.
I mean in theory I hate Dual Wield. In a game that tries for authenticism, it sticks out like a goddamn sore thumb. Deagles. I Hate deagles for the same reasons. Noone uses them for combat, except hollywood. They have no place in a theatre of war. Combining the Two? FUCK THAT SHIT, IW. FUCK IT WITH A BRICK. You know this is what ALL people who use akimbo are going ot use, and you know that the'll be gold ones, and it will be the epitomy of Fucked up.
You only need to see how much people can own with them in COD4 to see exactly how fucked up it will be with DOUBLE THE DEAGLE.
Argument the fifth - 12 year olds, spawn rape, all that shit
All that went on in COD4 probably returns in CODMW2. This, compounded with overcrowded servers are why you wanna stay the fuck away from CODMW2 until at least like this time next year. Trust me, you'll thank me later.
Argument the sixth - Fuck this shit.
Yeah, pretty much. You're spending AU$100 on a game, that's riddiculous. Remember when games were AU$49.95? considering the length of the game, the enjoyment rate for your dollar is pretty thin these days. Unless you buy like scribblenauts or LittleBigPlanet, or something with a ModKit, anything to give it legs, you are getting a very finite value outa the game. Choose very wisely. MW2's campaign is short, Spec ops mode is 2-player-only and finite to an extent, and the comptetitive MP is just plain spammy. Buy Borderlands instead, you'll get at least 4 times the amount of fun outa it, I promise.
So there we go, I hope this at least makes you think twice about buying IW's next game.
I'm Toadie, I say things so you don't have to.
Why, you may ask?
Allow me to elaborate in words of the queens english.
Argument the First- Bobby Kotick == prick.
I'm not sure how in the loop you are, but surely may have heard of this man who goes by the name of Bobby Kotick. He runs Activision these days, previously owning a boxing firm of some sort I believe. Anyhoo, past irregardless for the moment, he rose to power in Activision in a bloodless coup of stockholders sometime in the last 18 months.
In the last few months, he's been making a lot of negative noise. A WHOLE lot of it, in fact. Most of it is harmless stuff regarding his displeasure with the PS3 as a platform, bla bla bla too expensive, usual gripes. However, Early in September he make a pretty bizzare conference presentation to the Deutsche Bank Securities Group, which all in all has me incensed. To paraphrase and take all the good bits, addressing as I go.
"expect many of our products to be playable independent of a console,"
When asked about an untethered Guitar Hero. In principle, this isn't such a bad idea, however it's at best anther console which you'll have to fork out for, and at worst those stupid throw-away 8-in-1 LCD Gamin-and-watch-style deals ( You know, whole package games complete with hardware... except these'd have to be running stuff that can at least do pixel shaders, so they'd be expensive as shit, or using OnLive). Either way, it's trying to split your market away from everyone else's, which is probably not going to work in this case.
There was a section where he talked about how his friends in movies were quick to point out the bad mouth control and animation in COD:World at War (No shit, they syncing in that game was pretty bad).The executive said game makers just haven't reached a point yet where the mouth movement and facial animation of game characters is good enough to establish a compelling emotional attachment from the player. In many different ways this is untrue. There are plenty of games where emotional attachment to ingame characters or objects, and they didn't even need mouths to prompt it(Portal), and even when there are mouths involved, there are plenty of games out there that have excellent mouth animation and posing(Half-life2 for starters), just none of them I can think of were Activision games. OH, COD4 had some great mouth animation when they were scripted sequence closets.
".... And I think the goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks that we brought in to Activision 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games."
"I think we definitely have been able to instill the culture, the skepticism and pessimism and fear that you should have in an economy like we are in today. And so, while generally people talk about the recession, we are pretty good at keeping people focused on the deep depression."
"...You have studio heads who five years ago didn't know the difference between a balance sheet and a bed sheet who are now arguing allocations in our CFO's office pretty regularly,"
So essentially, he's sapping the fun out of making games, and turning it into the packaging industry. Great. As if we needed it. Admittedly, yes being fiscally responsible is pretty important, if you're ruling a bank, and I suppose you've still gotta worry bout th bottom line at Activision, but it shouldn't be DRIVING how you make your product. THAT, is bad game managment. If you're instilling pessimism and fear into your Developers, and making sure they're not enjoying themselves, you can bet your eggbasket that the games they make are noty going to be fun. It's really a symptomatic problem of some publishing deals (ie, game to movie tie-ins), but he's pretty plainly stated there he's got no intention of letting Developers enjoy making games, so don't expect me to buy anything from him. Seriously, I'm on Activision boycott now, and unlike my failed Vegas 2 one, I can actually achieve this quite successfully.
Argument the Second - Better games coming out if you're into semi-realistic FPSes, and don't care about the story.
You heard me correctly- there ARE better games out there coming out if you're not counting the Singleplayer experience. Say hello to Battlefield Bad Company 2 - a game that on many levels supercedes MW2.
For a start, let's have a look at the base multiplayer- It's Built off the Bad Company MP model, which in itself is built off Battlefield2, which is built of etc etc. The concept and the classes are all well defined and work. The gameplay modes work reasonably well, and the whole package just works. You'll find yourself a home in this game no matter what kind of player you are.
The Graphics- well, they're both pretty good, but the fact that BFBC2 scale to MUCH larger maps and gamplay, and I'm a personal fan of BC's animation style and effects over MW2's.As a package, they feel jsut that better composed and contiguous regardless of the situation (MW and MW2 have notable problems with player models and explosion effects). BC2 does actually kick MW2's arse for accurate models though. Sorry IW, not even complete remodels that you've done can save you from the blasphemous rear sights.
Sound Effects- No goddamn competion the BC2 has the better sound effects. Proper doppler, AWESOME sound Environmental feedback (reverb indoors, long fallof for outdoors sounds), none of this premix crap(1:1 what's on battlefield to what you're hearing), Best Explosion sounds in a game ever, and most realistic weapon sounds you'll ever hear too.
Gimmicks. Killstreaks? Deathstreaks? Fuck that. Destructible buildings. Fully destructible landscapes. How bout some of that? Fuck yeah. Why would you want anything more?
Seriously-
BFBC2-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQq6NQhXg1Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRlBI6FgMOs
MW2-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4PMRFkx07g&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdPn_6PddLQ
Argument the third - Better games coming out if you're into unrealistic FPSes, and do care about the story.
Contrarywise to the above ,there are also better NON-realistic shooter coming out with more inventive stories than MW2.
Borderlands- it's really worthy of it's own blog spruik, but I'll summarise-
Millions of guns, procedurally generated
semi-procedurally created lifeforms.
Set in a futuristic wasteland on another planet
Interesting characters
Great art style
drop in/out coop
Actual character progression and growth as you play
Think Diablo on FPS steroid
Has a tank chracter that can slam cars
Has a robot in it, which is like Gir on cigarettes.
It's got it's own style,which is more than can be said of MW/Mw2's rip-off-every-movie-we-can-before-the-end-credits style.
Argument the fourth - Deagle Brand Deagles- NOW WITH DUAL WIELD.
I mean in theory I hate Dual Wield. In a game that tries for authenticism, it sticks out like a goddamn sore thumb. Deagles. I Hate deagles for the same reasons. Noone uses them for combat, except hollywood. They have no place in a theatre of war. Combining the Two? FUCK THAT SHIT, IW. FUCK IT WITH A BRICK. You know this is what ALL people who use akimbo are going ot use, and you know that the'll be gold ones, and it will be the epitomy of Fucked up.
You only need to see how much people can own with them in COD4 to see exactly how fucked up it will be with DOUBLE THE DEAGLE.
Argument the fifth - 12 year olds, spawn rape, all that shit
All that went on in COD4 probably returns in CODMW2. This, compounded with overcrowded servers are why you wanna stay the fuck away from CODMW2 until at least like this time next year. Trust me, you'll thank me later.
Argument the sixth - Fuck this shit.
Yeah, pretty much. You're spending AU$100 on a game, that's riddiculous. Remember when games were AU$49.95? considering the length of the game, the enjoyment rate for your dollar is pretty thin these days. Unless you buy like scribblenauts or LittleBigPlanet, or something with a ModKit, anything to give it legs, you are getting a very finite value outa the game. Choose very wisely. MW2's campaign is short, Spec ops mode is 2-player-only and finite to an extent, and the comptetitive MP is just plain spammy. Buy Borderlands instead, you'll get at least 4 times the amount of fun outa it, I promise.
So there we go, I hope this at least makes you think twice about buying IW's next game.
I'm Toadie, I say things so you don't have to.
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