Saturday, 5 November 2011

10:38

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Dedicated Servers for Modern Warfare 3

Cynics are saying that it was only a matter of time before Activision capitalized on the thousands of Call of Duty online players.

Cynics were right, but that doesn’t mean that Activision hasn’t entirely stepped up its game to make it worthy of an extra $50 a year from fans. COD fans will still be able to play exactly as they had before, whether it was over the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live or their computer. If they buried their head under the sand and didn’t read anything about the game, life would go on normally. However, taking advantage of the free web portal means they could get access to enough content to keep their experience fresh for another eight years.

Improve:

Call of Duty has become such an establishment in the gaming industry that it’s intimidating for newcomers to pick it up. The Improve section will help new players acclimate to the fast-paced multiplayer version of the game. In a culture that doesn’t exactly cater to players having positive attitudes about new players being on their team, Improve could be the key to getting those noobs progressing up the skill levels.

Connect:

Everything is social these days. If a service isn’t offering you a way to connect with your friends, it’s going to fall behind the pack. Elite is Activision’s answer to the new social paradigm. You can friend your actual friends and online acquaintances and see their achievements. Actually, even if you don’t friend someone you can see their stats.

Connect also lets players create clans, groups of players that will level and compete together, as well as earn bonuses just for being in one if you’re a paid subscriber. If that’s not enough of a social element for them, they can also join different groups denoted by a hashtag and compete to be the best.

Essentially, the Connect portion is just facilitating what has already been happening among friends and extending it to acquaintances, strangers and people with similar interests.

Compete:
The compete feature is the most intriguing for competitive players. Activision will be sponsoring smaller competitions for in-game badges and larger tournaments with prizes as large as an iPad 2 or even a Jeep. The tournaments will be closely monitored by Activision staffers to watch out for cheating and to moderate in general.
The challenges will range from individual ‘Lone Wolf’ competitions to multi-player and clan tournaments. Players can keep track of what’s coming up through the provided calendar and work toward goals with their friends. What is already a massively addictive game is going to have a stronger draw with deadlines and dates for trophies and prizes.
COD isn’t new to competitions. It’s one of few games played professionally in North America, and one of the only FPS games. The new set-up will likely bring more interest into the pro-gaming experience since it will essentially give players an idea of what it’s like to compete for prizes without a dedicated server, endless practices and an organized team.
Elite Pro Only
With most of the features listed being free, a question of what pro members receive becomes pretty pertinent to the discussion. There are some fringe benefits to it, like an enhanced HD experience and access to premium clans and groups. While that’s nice, it’s not going to sway anyone to pay $50 a year on its own.

Luckily, Activision is a smart company with solid product ideas. They’re including DLC every month with a paid subscription. Paid subscribers are essentially getting all the maps from the bundled packages spread out month by month for free instead of paying for them in chunks. With Activision promising new content that frequently, it’s going to be worth a regular COD player’s time and money to sign up for Elite Pro. Casual users won’t miss the added maps, but hardcore fans will save themselves some serious cash throughout the year.

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10:36

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Modern Warfare 3: Are you ready?

Without any doubt Modern Warfare 3 will be the best selling game in 2011 and will likely continue to sell strongly in 2012. I was fortunate enough to spend some time talking with Robert Bowling, one of the lead developers of Modern Warfare at Infinity Ward.

Robert spoke enthusiastically about some of the new things players can expect such as a vastly changed ranking system that will keep the interest of players who “Max Rank” or “Full Prestige” such as the ability to unlock Double XP, Double Weapon XP or even select one favorite item which you can choose to keep throughout the entire game.

For those who have completed all prestige levels in Call of Duty BlackOps and become bored don't fret because Modern Warfare 3 will have a token which will let you reset and start from the beginning.

One thing to consider is MW3 will come with all the classic Multiplayer modes while also introducing two new modes called “Kill and Confirm” and “Team Defender”.

Kill and Confirm mode is a team effort based mode which will reward players who work as a team while not benefiting lone wolfs.

"Players will collect dog tags to confirm a kill which means they have to be engaged in team work versus sitting back and collecting kills" said Bowling.

Team Defender is essentially a “Mobile “Domination” mode where you capture the flag and continue to move with it and play almost a TDM style match while trying to continue to move with the flag.

Robert Bowling indicated he continues to love the Scar although he is enjoying the ACR 6.8 and says he likes the Resistance map in MW3 which is themed after the streets of Paris but notes that "after launch my favorite map may change as I encounter more players versus the other developers he has been playing against and learned their moves".

In addition to all of the above new stuff in Multiplayer it is also essential to note that Modern Warfare 3 has vastly expanded its single player offerings in its sequel to Modern Warfare 2 and has also brought in excellent voice talents such as William Fichtner and Timothy Olyphant.

I personally look forward to doing a full write-up of Modern Warfare 3 shortly after launch.

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10:36

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Modern Warfare 3 Live-Action Trailer Debuting November 6th, Teasers Released

Activision is cooking up something beautiful for Modern Warfare 3 in the form of a live-action trailer for the game. By the looks of these two teaser trailers, it looks like this could be a pretty amazing trailer.

The teasers are embedded below but we want to offer fair warning -- when they say 'teaser', they mean teaser. All told, we get less than ten seconds of actual footage, but it's more than enough to get us incredibly excited for the full reveal.

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10:34

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Activision Won't Ban Early Modern Warfare 3 Players

"We have no interest in banning legitimate copies in these last few days."

Activision has announced that they don't plan to ban players with early legitimate copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Earlier today, Xbox Live's Director of Policy and Enforcement Stephen Tolouse tweeted that players with early copies may face consequences, but Activision has now put those fears to rest.

"We value and appreciate the community's support. We have no interest in banning legitimate copies in these last few days," Activision told Joystiq. "We just ask for everyone to wait for Tuesday when everybody can play the game together."

The company issued the statement in response to a leak of early copies that have been surfacing on eBay. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will officially release on November 8th.

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10:30

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Friday, 4 November 2011

15:06

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If you've ever wanted to know, how can I make dubstep, then this article will inform you about a new software program that is allowing people just like you to make their very own dubstep beats with ease. Actually, you can make dubstep and pretty much any other kind of electronic music that you want and the best part is you don't need to take a bunch of expensive music courses or spend a small fortune on high-end gear just to get your feet wet to see if you have what it takes.

What you sometimes find online when you are looking to make dubstep beats (or any music for that matter) is that if you want to make good sounding dubstep you need to have all kinds of music production knowledge, and expensive equipment to go with it! Well that is where this revolutionary beat making software solves your problems as it has a highly featured 10 pad beat maker, 4 octave keyboard, thousands of high quality sounds and more that you can choose from to make dubstep and any style of electronic music that you like.

Plus, you can easily import additional dubstep sound kits to add even more functionality to this already feature packed software! Most of all though, if you're new to making dubstep beats this top-notch beat maker software is perfect for beginners and people that are wanting to create the same quality dubstep music they hear their favorite DJ's play. You even get a set of video tutorials that will show you step by step how to get up and running fast!

Even if you are experienced with making dubstep beats and have a nicely equipped recording studio you can still use DubTurbo beat maker software as an extension to the amount of dubstep sounds you can produce. Crank out hardcore wobble bass, razor sharp synths and atmospheric effects in no time! To make dubstep you need a beat making progrwm that uses premium sound files. Since the sounds used in Dubturbo beat maker software have been professionally mastered in a recording studio your latest dubstep creation can sound just the same as you would hear your favorite DJ's make and once you finish your first dubstep beat you can easily burn it on to a CD or share it via the web!

So if you are new to making dubstep or any other type of electronic music, this cutting edge software is a great way to get started! Best of all the cost is very affordable and the software is packed with tons of features! I encourage you to click the link below and see
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A Dubstep artist obviously can't recreate his music live on the spot while performing since all of their music is made and recorded directly on the computer. Instead of being able to play their music live, all Dubstep artists must learn to DJ if they wish to perform shows. This is where Dubstep mixes come in to play. A Dubstep mix is a compilation of music similar to the music of the artist that makes the mix. By meshing the intro of one song to an interlude of another, these DJ's are able to mix from one song to another with their own special take. The Dj will often use effects to chop, screw, and (by any other means) change the song to make it their own unique song and catch the audience off guard by having a different drop than initially expected.

Some of the most intense parts of Dubstep come from mixes because they spend so much time developing a mood and feeling. The changes will only become that much more dramatic. Dubstep mixes are excellent for fans just entering the dubstep world. These set lists can be anywhere from fifteen minutes to two hours long and will bring you new Dubstep from all sides of the Dubstep spectrum. For those of you who haven't heard a Dubstep mix yet, I strongly advise listening to the Gworm demo, Excision Shambalah 2010, and the Rusko Essential mix. These are some of the best compilations of Dubstep songs available today.

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