Map: Hangar 18

This map is based around an aircraft Hangar that houses a Blackbird Stealth Jet. There are plenty of routes around and through the hangar itself, and also a couple of decent Sniping spots. If you do plan to snipe on this map, just be aware that the sniper spots on this map are very obvious as there is basically one at each corner of the map usually in two story buildings or in one case, on a radar dish platform. The map is very easy to find your way around and after a game or two, you should have no issues finding the enemy. A favorite spot of mine, is on the set of crates that are directly in front of the Blackbird. Once you are on top of the crates, you have good visibility to the approaches, as well as decent cover.

Call of Duty: Black Ops – Annihilation Maps – Hangar 18

Map: Silo

This Map is based around a set of Missile Silos. It may remind you a bit of the Launch map as it has a similar feel at times. It also reminds me of the Quarry map in MW2 as it has some similar structures and layout. This map has plenty of close combat and a large number of routes through the battlefield. One thing to keep lookout for on this map is structures that you can use to climb over fences and walls. There many of them and they provide great shortcuts when trying to move around the map to flank or cut off an enemy escape.

Call of Duty: Black Ops – Annihilation Maps – Silo

Map: Drive In

Drive In is a fun map to play on. There are some wide open areas in the middle with the expected Sniping areas to either end of it. On one end there is a large Movie Screen with a whole in the center. There is a platform behind it to allow you to snipe from this spot. On the other end is a two story building with windows overlooking the central area as well. There are plenty of paths around the sides for flanking and close quarters combat as well. Overall this is a very solid map. Similar to Hangar 18, you may want to be careful when sniping as the sniping areas are pretty obvious and you tend to catch a lot of fire when trying to use them.

Call of Duty: Black Ops – Annihilation Maps – Drive In

Map: Hazard

For those who have been complaining that Black Ops is not a friendly game for Snipers, you finally have a map that gives you enough room and open space to really practice those headshot skills. Hazard is a map that surrounds a golf course. The lawn of the course itself is long and has good site lines. At the beginning of the match, each team starts at one end of the course. Right away quick snipers can pop a couple shots and get their team an early score. There are also plenty of places to take cover as well and not just in buildings, there are sand traps and hills on the course that can be used for effective sniper cover. Be careful though, there are plenty of side paths on the map to provide flanking opportunities for those who do not prefer playing as a sniper. One of the things I love about this map is that it allows you to snipe all you want, while not forcing you to play as a sniper. You can play this map any way you want and still have fun. While Sniping is a viable option in this map, it is not overpowered or forced, so those not playing as snipers will not feel that they are at a disadvantage.

Call of Duty: Black Ops – Annihilation Maps – Hazard

Overall I have to say this is my favorite DLC for Black Ops. The maps themselves felt familiar and new at the same time. After just a few games I felt more comfortable on these maps than I do on any of the preview DLC packs for this game. The maps are very polished and provide you the freedom to play to your own style. I have to say that the team at Treyarch have done an amazing job on this DLC. If you are only going to buy one map pack, or were disappointed with the past DLC for Black Ops, this is the Map Pack to buy in my opinion. Head and shoulders above the other maps that have been released for this game.

Catch you on the battlefield…

I have been a Raptr user for a long time, since the companies initial beta. Long enough to have seen all the changes they have made to the platform. Lately, Raptr has gone through a lot of changes. Instead of simply a messenger product that allows you to chat across games, it is now also expanding as a social aggregation platform for gamers. Not only allowing you to interact with your friends across various platforms, but also as an aggregator to bring together gaming news that is actually personalized for you.

Since it’s creation, Raptr has allowed a lot of communication and interaction between gamers even when they are on separate platforms, overcoming some of the dividing walls that used to separate us as gamers. For example, I can now use one messenger client to chat with not only friends on Raptr, but also friends logged into Xbox live, Games for Windows Live, PSN, Steam, Facebook, MSN/Live Messenger, ICQ, etc… all from one client, and they can reply to me from their particular in-game client without having to have Raptr at all. On top of this, due to Raptr’s ability to cross the platform boundaries, it is able as a platform, to analyze your gaming habits. It can see the games you play on all platforms and get a better picture of your preferred gaming genre’s etc…

Now many of you may be familiar with gaming news aggregators like N4G, etc… but what really sets Raptrs News Feed apart from the competition, is that it shows you news based on your gaming habits. It looks at some of the following info:

• What games you play.
• How long/how much you have played them.
• How long it has been since you played a game.
• What new games have been added to your library.
• What your friends are playing.
• What Articles or Posts you have voted on, etc…

What it is really doing, is looking at what you do as a gamer, and personalizing the news feed to your particular tastes. There really isn’t another platform out there that can do this quite as well. The fact that Raptr has access to your gaming across Xbox 360, PS3 and multiple PC platforms and Games, means it truly does have the means to provide you with the news that you are most likely to be interested in.

What is also nice, is that those who are running sites, or writing articles and reviews, can also share links to their own sites/articles that can be picked up and shared out automatically to gamers who may be interested in your article based on their gaming habits. It really is looking like Raptr is leading the way in bringing together both the gaming community and the content that is of most interest to them. You can also share links to articles that you liked and those will be added to your friends news feed. You can also vote on items in the news feed similar to Digg or Reddit and that will help the article appear higher up in the news feed. Your friends activities can also be shared in the feed similar to how facebook status updates work.

Here is a summary of some of the News Feeds features:

• Story Submission and voting similar to Digg or Reddit
• Activity Feed and Comments functionality similar to Facebook
• Intelligence around what games you play & platforms you like via Raptr Tracking
• All wrapped into one place and personalized based on your gaming habits.

I am excited to see what comes next. I would love for the consoles to get a Raptr client as well, so I can chat with my friends that are playing on PS3 while I am playing on my Xbox 360… the possibilities seem endless as to what this type of social gaming platform can do.

For those who haven’t used Raptr, you can check them out here: http://www.Raptr.com

If you are on Raptr, feel free to send me a friend request: http://www.Raptr.com/SideWinder

And for a preview of what you can see on the newsfeed, here is a look at my current news feed, which has topics based on what I have been playing recently:

Official Xbox.com Stream: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/Community/E3 

Stream for those on Mobile Devices: http://bit.ly/khPY9i

Or Here:

http://www.studiosevent.com/newscenter/?id=msfte3&width=512&height=288&social=false

This weeks events include Call of Duty: Black Ops, Halo: Reach and Starcraft 2.

Earlier this month, I got a rare chance to meet with some of the team members working on the upcoming PC game, Age of Empires Online. On hand were Danan Davis (Executive Producer), Dave Luehmann (General Manager) and Ian Vogel (Design Lead) to talk about what sets AOE online apart not only from its predecessors but also from other games in the RTS genre. We also got a chance to see some new features and details that were revealed for the first time. So sit back and follow along as we take a look at what is being described as the biggest and most accessible Age of Empires Game yet! In part 1, we will look at the business model being put into place for this first free to play entry in the “Age” franchise…

Business Model – To Pay or Not to Pay…

Free to Play. These are words you hear more and more these days in relation to Computer Games. Danan Davis gave us the run down how the business model for Age of Empires Online is going to work. To download and play AOE Online is completely free. You get the full package, all civilizations, full campaign, community features and online persistent capital city of your very own for each civilization. You also get access to the full compliment of Games for Windows – LIVE services including achievements. While the bulk of the game is completely free, there is a business model being worked on for premium content for the game as well.

“We are not looking to nickel and dime gamers.” – Danan Davis (Executive Producer)

The business model for AOE Online is not what most of you are expecting. Usually when we talk about free to play games lately, we start seeing terms like Micro-Transactions… For Age of Empires Online, the team is sticking to a more Xbox/Games for Windows – LIVE style of premium content system. So there will be additions or “Content Packs” that you can purchase for the game. The Age of Empires team has some very specific goals for how they want the premium content to work and how the business model for the game will be structured:

• No Nickel and Diming players
• No Micro-Transactions
• No Monthly Fees
• You Pay only for what you want
• Premium Content Should enhance the gameplay experience, not unbalance it
• Free Players should still get the “Full Game” experience

One of the big items that the team wants to make sure of, is that the content that can be purchased does not make those playing the game for free feel that they are not getting the full Age of Empires Online experience. So here is what gamers get with the “Free to Play” experience:

• Full Campaign
• Access to play all Civilizations
• Able to reach Max level as all civilizations
• All civilization campaign quests
• Full Civilization Tech Trees (Minus Star Techs)
• Capital Cities for Each Civilization
• Hundreds of Hours of Gameplay
• Co-Op Campaign Missions (90% of the campaign is Co-Oppable)
• Online Random PVP (Via Mercenary Halls)
• Multiplayer Chat
• Gear (Up to Green – Uncommon Gear)
• Inventory Space (Limited amount for each civilization)
• Crafting (Limited)
• Workshops (Limited)

This is not the final list of course and items can always change between now and launch. On the other side of the coin is the paid or Premium content. While not everything is set in stone yet, there are currently plans for three types of premium content packs that can be purchased for a price.

• Premium Civilization Upgrades
• Boosters (Content Packs, New Modes, etc…)
• Vanity Packs (Visual Item Shops for your Capital City)

The different types of premium packs are not dependent on each other so you will not run into a situation where you have to have bought pack A in order to use Pack B. Out of these three, the one that has the most impact on the game so far is the Civilization Upgrades. Civilization upgrades will be available for each civilization in the game (still unknown how many civilizations will ship with the game). The upgrades are not required, and must be purchased on a per civilization basis. For example, when the game ships, at least two civilizations will be included, the Greeks and the Egyptians. You get full access to both civs for free in the game, but if you purchase the premium upgrade for one of them you get the following benefits:

• Inventory Storage (Unlimited)
• Crafting (Unlimited)
• Workshops (Unlimited)
• Full Tech Tree including Star Techs
• Gear (access to Blue/Rare and Purple/Epic Gear)
• PVP (Multiplayer Arena and City War Council)

”No matter how many civilizations ship with the game, or get added afterwards, they will all be free to play.” – Dave Luehmann

Some of these differences deserve some clarification. Without the premium upgrade, you will have full access to each civilization still. And as the team continues to build on the game, all civilizations will always be free. Currently it is unknown how many civilizations will ship with the game, but all of them and any that get added after the game ships will be free. You will have full access to the tech tree for each civ, but there are special technologies referred to as “star techs” that are the last level available in the tech trees, that are only open if you have the premium upgrade. Another item that changes significantly between paid and free is your access to special gear for your troops. In the free to play model, you can find all kinds of gear during quests or as quest rewards. There are generally three tiers of gear that can be found, Green/Uncommon, Blue/Rare and Purple/Epic. Similar to a lot of role playing games, you want the best equipment on your troops. In the free to play system, you can find all three types of gear, however, you can only equip up to Green/Uncommon gear on your troops. You can still store any Rare or Epic gear that you find, and trade it to other players, etc… but you cannot equip it. This can make a big difference when it comes to multiplayer matches. Any gear you equip your troops with in your capital city, carries over into PVP. The differences in the different tiers of gear are not meant to be game breaking and solid strategy will still be the order of the day to win, but in those close evenly matched battles, having a slight armor or damage advantage on your troops over your opponent may be the deciding factor… Again, nothing game breaking or anything like that, but it is always good to have some advantage. When you purchase a civilization upgrade, it applies to only the civilization that you bought it for. You don’t have to buy the upgrades, and if you do, you can get it just for the civilization that you want use the most. This allows you to buy the upgrades for the civilizations where you will actually take advantage of it, and for those you do not use as much, or don’t plan on using in multiplayer, you don’t have to spend money on them.

Multiplayer is another area where the Premium Upgrades can really change the experience a bit. In the free to play model, you get access to PVP (Player Vs. Player) through the mercenary hall. The mercenary hall will allow you to join a random multiplayer game. You have no control over who you play against, or what map, etc… you play on. You get what you get… If you spring for the Premium Civilization Upgrade, you get two more options for multiplayer. The first is the Arena which allows you to put together multiplayer matches choosing things like Map, challenging other players, etc… More like a ranked match lobby system you might find in other RTS style games. The other option is the War Council. As you visit different cities in the game world, some of them will have war councils. These councils will have challenges for you to complete, and these challenges take the form of multiplayer PVP matches. These are a little different than the standard PVP matches in that they are like quests in some ways. For completing the challenge successfully, you will be rewarded just as you would for completing a quest. The idea here is that there will be rare and epic loot that can only be gotten by completing these challenges. The challenges will be different depending on what city and civilization you are currently in. Also all players will have full access to playing the campaign missions in Co-Op mode. So even if you have no interest in the competitive side of multiplayer, you will still have plenty of options for playing with your friends online for free. The team is working to make sure that as much of the campaign as possible works in Co-Op.

That is what is known currently about the business model and of course, as usual, the game has not yet shipped, so anything can change in the mean time. On a related note, the game will ship this year 2011! Make sure to check back soon for the next part in this series where I will cover Gameplay, Design and Community features for Age of Empires Online.

Since the Release of Call of Duty: Black Ops, I have found myself spending many hours playing wager matches. These are very different than your normal game types. You have strict rules and limited weapons. Also, you don’t get any experience, the only thing you get from a wager match, is COD points, that can be used to purchase gear for your player. None of which can actually be used in Wager Matches!

There are four types of Wager Matches and they all have their own unique twist. In a wager match only the top 3 players get any points. To play, Each player has to ‘Buy In’ to get into the match. Depending on the playlist you choose, it is anywhere from 10 cod points to 10,000 COD points. The person in first place gets 3x their buy in amount, and the second and third place players get a bit less, everyone below the top three slots gets nothing. So for example, in a High Roller match on the Xbox 360, each player buys in with 10,000 CoD points, and the person who finishes in first place, wins 30,000 CoD points, Second place gets 18,000 and third gets 12,000. If two players tie for the same spot, they split the winnings for that spot. So if two players tie for 3rd place, they each get 6,000 CoD points, half of the 12,000 for third place.

Lets look at the four types of games and get a bit of strategy for each one.

One in the Chamber:

This game mode starts each player with a pistol that has only a single bullet, and 3 lives. All pistol shots are instant kills if they hit. If you get a kill you get another bullet. If you miss your shot with the pistol, your only option is to use a melee attack and try to knife someone. If you stab someone, you also get another bullet. So try to stab other players when possible as you can get more than one bullet this way.

One in the Chamber – Wager Match – On Nuketown

Camping really does not help you in One in the Chamber (or any of the wager match types) since you need kills to win. You can easily be the last man standing and still not win because someone who is already dead has more kills than you. If you wait till the end of the match to come out of hiding and there is only one other player left, chances are at best you can get one or two points depending on how many times the other player has died. This mode will also make you a very good knife fighter in CoD.

Sticks and Stones:

This is by far, one of my favorite modes in Call of Duty: Black Ops. The premise is fairly simple, each player has a crossbow, a ballistic knife and a tomahawk. You have unlimited lives, you play until the time runs out. At the end of the match, the player with the highest points wins. Now note that I did not say the highest kills. Kills get you points, but you can also be bankrupted and lose all your points. So can realistically have more kills than anyone in the match and still come in last place. This really lives up to the whole gambling theme. Getting kills with the crossbow and ballistic knife give you more points than getting melee kills. Getting a kill with the tomahawk bankrupts the person that was killed. This leads to some really intense moments towards the end of the match where you spend as much time trying to avoid being hit by tomahawks as you do trying to get kills.

Sticks and Stones – Wager Match – On Villa

Make sure that when you play this game mode you pay special attention to the mini-map/UAV in the upper left corner of your screen. Spy plane is always on during Sticks and Stones but it is a bit delayed, so the spots on your maps are where the enemy was a few seconds ago. Also look for the gold dot on the mini-map, it is the person currently in first place. This becomes more important towards the end of the match when you are trying to figure out who to bankrupt with your tomahawk. Also remember to always pick your tomahawk back up after you throw it. It can be a life saver, or be the difference between being in the money and out of it. As with the other game modes, camping does not help, especially the mini-map/radar is always on.

Sharpshooter:

Sharpshooter is a very straight forward gametype. The game starts and a random weapon is selected. Every player in the round uses the same weapon. Every 30-45 seconds, the weapons randomly change to another weapon. Everytime the weapon changes, all players switch to the new weapon. Not only are default weapons used, but there will also be attachments added to each weapon randomly as well, all players may end up with an M16 with ACOG scope, or Dual Shotguns… you never know until the switch happens. The round ends when time is up. The player with the highest score wins. Unlike other Wage Matches, you cannot bankrupt or otherwise take away points from any other players, this is straight up Free For All style with randomly switching weapons.

Sharpshooter – Wager Match – On Cracked

The main thing you need to do in this game type is to make sure you take advantage of the times when you get a gun that you are good with. If you are hiding because you have a gun that you are not good with, then you get a good one, you better make the most of it. Remember that everyone else has the same gun, so racking up as many kills as possible is your whole goal! The players with the most kills win. There really isn’t much else to say about it.

Gun Game:

Gun Game is another favorite of mine. In this mode, all players start with the revolver (Python Pistol I believe), and each time you get a kill with your gun, you get a new gun. The guns are always the same, and there are 20 of them that you have to get kills with to win. The first player to get a kill with all 20 guns wins the round. Getting killed by a melee (knife) attack will demote you back to the previous gun so don’t let anyone get close to you.

Gun Game – Wager Match – On Grid

When playing gun game you really need to be aware of your surroundings. When you get a kill, it will switch out your weapons which takes a second or two. So you need to make sure you are not out in the wide open or in front of another player when it switches your weapon as you are helpless for a few seconds. This mode will make you good with all the weapon types. My roughest part of gun game is when I get to the sniper rifles. Most of the fighting in gun game is up close, so finding a good spot to snipe, or trying to quick scope are you only options most of the time. The other key to success in Gun Game is to get past the initial guns as fast as you can. You start with the revolver, then get the dual pistols. If you don’t get a kill and get past the initial pistol pretty quickly, the other players will all have much better guns than you and you will get left behind very fast. Fighting a bunch of players with submachine guns with the revolver can be a very hard spot to come back from. The last two weapons in gun game are the Crossbow and Ballistic Knife respectively. So if you see anyone that has either of these weapons, knife them to demote them since they are about to win.

General Strategy:

Always Pay Attention to the mini Map, especially towards the end of the game, look for the player that shows up as a gold dot on the map. If you are playing a game mode that allows you to demote or bankrupt other players, always try to do this to the player that shows as the gold dot. Also remember that if you are in first place, you need to be aware other players will start to target you, so you may need to play a bit of cat and mouse, especially in sticks and stones where you can go from first to last just be getting hit with a tomahawk.

Practice, Practice, Practice… Each Wager Match type has specific weapons that are used, get good with them.

That about covers it for today. Coming up next on the blog, CoD: Black Ops Class guides and other Game Mode Strategies.

In Part One we covered the basics of multiplayer in Medal of Honor including an overview of the classes, leveling and combat actions. For part two we are going to take a look at the actual game modes, as we well as some things you need to watch out for that will hopefully be fixed soon. Some updates and DLC have been released since the last article was written, I have included information below on the new game modes: Clean Sweep and Hot Zone.

Modes/GameTypes:

The gameplay is definitely targeted more at the Modern Warfare Crowd as it is faster paced than BFBC2. There are four main game types, Combat Mission, Sector Control, Team Assault and Objective Raid. Each mode also has a hardcore version which limits the amount of HUD info you get and increases the damage you take from getting hit.

Combat Mission:

Combat Mission is an Attack and Defend scenario gametype. One team has to accomplish a series of objectives, plant bombs, take over anti aircraft turrets, etc… and the other team has to stop them. The attacking team is fighting not only against the defenders, but also against the clock as well as a limited number of respawns. So it does not do you any good to sit back and snipe the whole time when you are attacking. Your team needs to get up to the objective, take it and move on to the next. That is not to say you shouldn’t have any snipers though. The defenders will definitely have snipers, so you need a few on defense to pick off the enemy snipers, and also to pick off any defenders that are camping the objective. There are 5 objectives to complete, they must be done in order, and you must complete all of them to win as the attackers.

For the defenders your job is simple. Stop the attackers. PERIOD. You have time and unlimited respawns on your side. You should split your team evenly between those defending the objective directly (Special Ops and Rifleman) and those who are covering it from a distance (Snipers). The Snipers here can really make a difference, but if you have nobody guarding the actual objective, you are going to lose fast. Pay attention to the ticker at the lower left hand corner of your screen, it will show you how many lives the attacking team has left.

Objective Raid:

Objective Raid is a short and fast version of Battlefield Bad Company 2’s Rush Mode. There are two objectives that one team must attack (alpha and bravo). The other team must defend and hold them off for five minutes. The game is meant to be fast and hectic. There really is not much more than that to it. One team attacks, the other defends, rinse, repeat…

In this game type, if you are defending the objectives, you can take the same strategy that works for combat mission. Split your team between up close defenders and snipers. For the attacking team however, you benefit more by having everyone rush the objectives. The game is fast and the maps are not that big so sitting back and sniping is not going to help your team get the two objectives.

Team Assault:

Team Assault is Medal of Honor’s take on Team Deathmatch. Each team’s goal is to reach a certain score. Now the difference over most Team Deathmatch style games is that your score is not just your kills. You get bonus points for offensive and defensive actions and these will also contribute to your teams score.

This actually is a good thing because it means that teamwork actually pays off here as opposed to straight kill statistics. This encourages more tactical work and less kill stealing by your teammates.

Sector Control:

Sector Control is a capture and hold game type. There are usually 3 flags on the map, and your team gets points for every second you hold a flag. The more flags your team holds, the more points you get.

It is very much what you might expect if you have played similar game types in MW2 or BFBC2. You want to keep moving constantly in this game type if you are playing rifleman or special ops, you should always be looking for the next flag to capture. If you are playing as a sniper find a spot that gives you good visibility to the routes the enemies will take to reach your flags.

Clean Sweep:

Clean Sweep is a new elimination style mode where each team simply tries to kill the other first. The difference between this and Team Assault is that you do not get to respawn. Each player has one life, so there is a last man standing feeling to this mode. Also, you do not get combat actions/kill streaks/score chains in this mode! This eliminates one of my biggest issues with this game, spawn killing. I will talk more about this in the next section, but for now, lets just say, Clean Sweep is my new favorite game type in Medal of Honor. It is also FREE DLC for anyone who has an online PASS. The Pass comes with a new game, or if you bought the game used you can buy the pass for $10 from EA.

The rounds are set to 4 minutes in this mode and the first team to win two rounds wins. As there are no combat actions in this mode, you cannot rack up the same type of points you do in other modes. This means that clean sweep is also not for those trying to rank up quickly. It is all about the gameplay. If you want to rank up play sector control or combat mission to get the most points. Clean sweep is short, fast and completely awesome. It has given me renewed faith in this game. This game mode also includes two new maps (Khyber Caves and Bagram Hangar) that are both much smaller than the original maps that shipped with Medal of Honor. The smaller maps really suit this style of play better. Also included are redesigned versions of Diwagal Camp and Kabul City Ruins.

Hot Zone:

Hot Zone is a king of the hill game mode. Both teams battle to control an area of the map and the team that holds it the longest wins. Unlike Sector Control there is only one area to fight over, this forces conflict in a central area of the map. So you always know exactly where the action is.

While this mode is fun since it tends to be a mad fight for the hill, it still does not quite grab me like Clean Sweep does. This game mode introduces two new maps (Hindukush Pass and Korengal Outpost) as well as redesigned versions of Shahikot Valley and Helmand Valley multiplayer maps. This DLC costs $10.

The Good, The Bad, The Broken…

So I have to say I “Like” Medal of Honor. But there are definitely some things that need to be changed. Especially if they want this game to exist to gamers once Call of Duty Black Ops ships. Let’s break it down:

What I liked:

Overall I like this games multiplayer. The included modes, while limited, where still fun. The Score chains really do give you much more freedom than you got with MW2’s kill streaks. You get more of them, and at each one, you have the option to choose an offensive or defensive score chain. This really adds to the level of strategy and allows you to choose the best option based on the situation at hand rather than picking what kill streaks you want before the match begins. The gameplay controls very well and feels like a cross between the control tightness of Battlefield Bad Company 2 and the faster paced action of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

• Controls like Battlefield Bad Company 2, Plays more Like Call of Duty.
• MoH Score Chains/Combat Actions have much more strategic usage than MW2 kill streaks.
• Encourages Teamwork as opposed to Lone Wolf gameplay.
• The Controls are Tight and Responsive.
• The Maps are well designed.
• The included Game Modes are fun.

What I didn’t like:

There are some things about the game that boggle my mind. I know that it is supposed to represent a more realistic scenario than MW2, but the limited amount of options you have for customizing your character and weapon options really makes it less enjoyable than it could have been. With only 15 levels per class, and realistically only about 3 extra weapons to unlock per class, you run out of options pretty quickly and the thrill of leveling to unlock that next piece is over way to quickly. Hopefully this is something that they can add on to in DLC. At level 8 you become a Tier 1 Recruit, at that point your skin for your character gets changed. There is no options, just the before level 8 skin, and the after level 8 skin. You cannot change between them even. One thing that I was glad to see, is that the games very limited set of maps is already being updated with new maps via DLC, this is not the BFBC2 version of “New” maps, but real maps that were not already in the game.

• Very limited Customization options.
• Only 15 Levels Per Class.
• Limited Weapon Selection.
• Automatic character Skin changes at level 8. No options for each class outside of promotional offers.
• Limited Number of Maps (This is already being addressed via DLC).
• Limited Number of Game modes, the game ships with 4 game modes (This is also being addressed via DLC).

What needs to be fixed:

There are a few issues in this game that were present in the Beta that have still not been addressed in the final version. Two of the biggest ones are Spawn Killing and Bullet Lag. During a match your spawn point will change periodically but you whole team spawns close together. Enemies can easily figure out where you team is spawning and pretty easily drop mortars on your spawn. They get a few of you and they automatically get enough points to get their next score chain and drop rockets your spawn. This continues until your spawn point changes and until the enemy figures out where the next one is. It really kills a game when you are constantly spawning into mortars and rockets and can’t even take 2 steps once you spawn before you are dead. Even if you manage to survive, chances are the enemy is camped ready to kill you as you exit the spawn area. This needs to be fixed, either the spawn areas need to be outside of the normal gameplay area, or you need to have a spawn system like BFBC2 where you can spawn on any teammate.

Another biggy is the bullet lag. This seems to be seen differently by different players. For me it shows up as I kill someone, and then duck behind a corner, then 2 seconds later, their bullets hit me and I die. Really odd since they are already dead, and there is no longer line of site to where they were before they died. Some players have described it as bullets bending around corners. This is frustrating for two reasons, if I kill you, your bullets shouldn’t be just hanging around waiting to hit me a few seconds later and bullets should NOT be bending around corners, this is not the game for the movie WANTED.

Conclusion:

Overall I really do enjoy the multiplayer modes in Medal of Honor. Especially the Team Assault, Combat Mission and Clean Sweep Modes. If the above two issues can be fixed, and new maps and character customization options are added this game will be very nice. But you really can’t get around the 800 pound gorilla in the room. Even if they fix the issues with this game, it may still not have what is needed to overcome the imminent release of Call of Duty: Black Ops. Especially as Black Ops shows a real focus on Character Customization. The drive to keep playing just a little more to get the next unlocked weapon or title, or customization really helps to keep people playing your game, even when they have gotten tired of some of the game modes and maps. Add to that the fact that CoD will have many more multiplayer modes than Medal of Honor and a larger selection of maps, and the story for MoH seems pretty grim.

I would recommend Medal of Honor to anyone who is sick of Modern Warfare 2, and liked Battlefield Bad Company 2. If you are a big MW2 fan, you will most likely be waiting for Black Ops instead.

I have been playing a lot of Medal of Honor lately on both the PC and the 360. The multiplayer portion of the game was made by the folks over at DICE who also did the multiplayer for one of our other favorites, Battlefield Bad Company 2. The game shows similar graphics and attention to detail (in the multiplayer) as you would find in BFBC2. I played both betas for this game and had some definite concerns about a few things. And for the most part, the final version of the game is a huge leap above where the betas were, though they still have not addressed a few of my main issues with the game. I will get to those in part 2. First, lets take a look at the multiplayer options.

Multiplayer:

In multiplayer you get to choose between three different classes, each class ranks up separately. To unlock new weapons or attachments for each class you need to play and level up each one independently. Leveling them up gives you new primary weapons and attachments. Unlike BFBC2 and MW2, you do not get to choose your secondary weapon. All classes have a pistol as their secondary which you cannot change. Each class also has a third weapon, this is usually something completely unique to the class and will be covered below as I go through each class. You cannot change your third weapon either though some of your choices will actually remove your third weapon (See the Rifleman section below). Also note that depending on which side you are on in a match (Coalition or OpFor), you will have different weapons. And the weapons do NOT have the same stats. So you will want to look at what weapons you have for each class as a Coalition Soldier and as a member of the opposing force (OpFor).

As you level your primary weapons will get upgraded and new attachments will be available, you have 3 slots on your primary weapon that can be changed. These are the Barrel slot, the Sight and the Ammo Type. For the barrel type you usually are able to get a suppresser or range finder. One will make you quiet and hide your muzzle flash, the other will add range to sniper rifles. For the sight, you get iron sights, red dot sights and scopes. For the ammo slot you can get extra mags, or open tip ammo. The open tip ammo increases damage but loses a bit of accuracy. Besides just unlocking more items for these slots, you also get to unlock more weapons, so you will have a variety of sniper rifles, AR’s, sub machine guns and shotguns, etc… to choose from once you have leveled up each class enough. Another change is that unlike BFBC2 and MW2, there is almost no recoil to most weapons. Sure if you hold down the trigger your sights will slowly start to travel upward, but it is slight enough that you can easily counter it with some slight downward aiming while firing. It makes for a lot of very accurate gun fighting.

Another feature most likely inspired by the kill streaks in Modern Warfare is the Offensive and Defensive actions. In the lower right hand corner of your screen you will see right above your ammo count, a number that starts out as 0/50 that is telling you that you are 0 points toward your first action which will be awarded to you at 50 points. This resets every time you die. In MW2 you had to get a certain number of kills without dying, in MoH, you need to get a certain amount of points, whether they are from kills, flag captures, etc… does not matter. Get 50 points without dying and you now have access to your first action. You get two choices at each level. When you hit that first 50 points you can either use your offensive action (mortar strike) or a defensive action (UAV). Offensive actions can rack you up a lot of points if you get multiple kills with them, so there is a chance they will get you up to the next level for your next kill streak.. er action. Defensive actions give you a set amount of points, but benefit your whole team. While I do not remember all the actions and levels off the top of my head, here are some of them I have used so far:

Offensive/Defensive actions:

Mortar Strike/UAV

Missile Strike/Ammo Refill

Hellfire Rocket (Guided Missile)/Flack Jackets

Air Support/FMJ Ammo

I may be a bit off on some of those, I am just going off the top of my head with them. But you get the idea, at each level (based on points without dying) you get an offensive and defensive option. Remember that the offensive actions require line of site and are best used if you can locate a group of enemies. Otherwise, just go with the defensive option and give your whole team a boost. A team with Flack Jackets and FMJ Ammo is going to get a lot more kills than your rocket attack…

Classes:

There are three classes to choose from in Medal of Honor Multiplayer. They are Rifleman, Special Ops and Sniper.

Rifleman:

The Rifleman is the standard grunt. In MoH the rifleman uses your standard assault rifles M16, AK, etc… equipped with an under barrel mounted grenade launcher of course. You get a pistol as your sidearm and the grenade launcher on your AR is your third weapon. In a move that really confused me at first, the rifleman also comes with a smoke grenade as opposed to a frag grenade like the other two classes. When I first started playing this really threw me off as I assumed the sniper class would have the smoke grenade. While it still does not make sense to me why they put it on the rifleman, it does give you some extra options for support when playing the rifleman. The smoke grenades in MoH are actually very good at what they do. Need to create some cover for your team to move, or hide from some enemy snipers? The Smoke grenade is your best friend, and really gives the rifleman more than just the front line attack role.

As you rank up you will be able to unlock Suppressors, Extra Mags, and many different types of sights for your weapon. My favorite sight so far is the combat scope. It is better than the red dot but not quite as far seeing as the base sniper scopes. It is perfect for medium to long distance battles. Another item that the rifleman unlocks once you reach around level  4 or 5 is the light machine gun. Think Medic weapons from BFBC2. This gives you some nice cover fire capabilities since you can lay down some serious suppression fire with this thing. If you really want to do some good support action for your team, load yourself out with the Light Machine Gun and use it in conjunction with your smoke grenade. You can use your LMG to lay down suppressing fire to keep the enemy in cover and your smoke grenade will give your team the cover they need to move into position or flank the enemy. One thing to note however, is that when you use the Light Machine Guns, you lose access to your grenade launcher. So there is a bit of a trade off. If you want your grenade launcher, you will have to stick to the standard assault rifles.

Special Ops:

The Special Ops class is more of a close in combat fighter. Your weapons are usually better in the shorter range, though you do have a nice long range option as well. Your primary weapons are SMG’s for the most part. Though as you rank up you will also unlock some shotgun options. Your secondary weapon is of course the pistol. Your third weapon however is where you get some long distance possibilities. You get a rocket launcher, as your third weapon. It has nice long distance accuracy, and enough of a blast radius to get you a couple kills when used right. Where the rifleman is more a medium range fighter, the weapons you get with the Special Ops (outside of the rocket launcher) are more geared for close up fighting so you will find your self most often on the front lines or flanking the enemy to get up close and personal while your rifleman keeps them distracted with suppressing fire and smoke.

Similar to the Rifleman, as you rank up you will unlock pretty much the same attachments for your weapons. Again, my personal favorite is the combat scope, but with the Special Ops I pair it with the Suppressor and the Open Tip ammo. The Suppressor will lower your damage and range, but also hide your muzzle flash so you can stay close to the enemy longer. The Combat scope adds a bit of range and accuracy to make up for the drop in range you get with the suppressor and the loss of accuracy you get from using the open tip ammo. The Open tip ammo makes up for the drop in damage from using the suppressor. So they work very well together when you plan on being up close and personal with the enemy. Once you unlock the shotguns you do have some more close in weapons options, and the shotguns will have an option for 12 gauge shells as opposed to open tip ammo. It has better distance than I expected, though not the same as the godly distance some of the shotguns in BFBC2 have.

Sniper:

The sniper class is just what the name says. It is not the recon class from BFBC2, your main goal is to stay WAY back and pick off the enemy from afar. Your primary weapons are Sniper Rifles and Battle Rifles. The BR’s are just less distance and faster firing than the sniper rifles. Your secondary weapon is again the trusty pistol, and your third is C4 explosives. The sniper class in MoH is VERY straight forward. Sit back, and SNIPE. Don’t stay in the same spot for long though, even though the enemy can’t spot you out like they can in BFBC2, they do get mortar and rocket strikes pretty regularly in this game so your camp ground will not last long. Do not stay right behind your rifleman and special ops buddies because that is where the enemy snipers are going to be looking, try to stay off to the side in an area that is not seeing as much action so you can safely take your time to pick off the enemy snipers that are hopefully focused on the rest of your team.

As you rank up as a Sniper you will unlock more powerful sniper rifles and battle rifles. You will also unlock higher powered scopes and a range finder that will increase your range and accuracy with your sniper rifles. You will get access to the open tip ammo as well, which does drop accuracy a bit, but the range finder and high powered scope options will pretty much erase that for you, so you can get the benefit of the damage boost without losing much accuracy or range. One very important thing to note about sniping in Medal of Honor, there is NO bullet drop! NONE! So aim for the head. Don’t aim above it or you will just give them a chance to shoot back.

Leveling Up:

To advance your classes levels in Medal of Honor you need to get points. The main things to remember is that you not only get points for your direct kills, you get points for assists and Offensive/Defensive actions as well. You will also get bonuses based on how you kill someone in the game. A kill is normally worth 10 points. A headshot will give you a 5 point bonus bringing the total to 15 points for the kill. If the kill was on someone that is level 8 or above, you get 5 bonus points for a Tier 1 kill. You also get bonuses for defensive (defending an objective while killing someone), savior (killed an enemy who was shooting a teammate) and revenge (killed an enemy who just killed a teammate) kills. So you have some easy ways of increasing the amount of points you get for kills.

The other piece to note are rewards. Similar to BFBC2 you have medals and ribbons. Medals are usually a one time thing, you meet certain criteria (for example get 100 kills as a rifleman) and you will get a medal. Medals will give you points as well which will figure into your score and experience at the end of the match. Ribbons are similar but they are repeatable. For example, there is a ribbon for getting 8 headshot kills in a round. There is a ribbon for killing the same enemy 4 times in a round, these can be gotten multiple times per match. Each one adds bonuses to your score. So look at your stats and see what ribbons and medals are available and for the ribbons, try to get as many as you can each match. Paying attention and making sure you are completing ribbons and medals whenever possible will help you rank up much faster than just random killing. Also, make sure to take advantage of your offensive and defensive actions as you don’t get points for holding on to them. If you haven’t used them at the end of the round, those are points you wasted.

That wraps it up for part 1 of my Medal of Honor First Impressions. Part 2 covers the GameTypes/Modes of MoH multiplayer as well as items that need to be tweaked or fixed that you need to watch out for.

Now to continue with some of the other changes that are coming to Gears of War 3’s multiplayer game modes. In Part One we covered some of the new game modes ( Team Deathmatch and Capture the Leader) as well as the introduction of Dedicated servers to the Gears franchise. Now it’s time to take a look at some of the other new additions.

Chick’s Kick Ass – The Ladies Enter the Battlefield

In both Gears of War 1 and 2, there were female characters in the story, but none that were actually playable or who took an active role in combat. For Gears of War 3 this changes. For the first time in a Gears game, the ladies strap on their gear and and spit some lead with Delta Squad!

It was always odd to me that there were no women in Gears of War that were playable. I have heard the arguments that nobody wants to see a woman get shot or chainsawed or Gibbed… but look at the other games that Epic has made their name on, Unreal Tournament has plenty of female characters that are playable. And Unreal has just as many gibs as gears, though without the chainsaws. So the introduction of ladies into the mix should hopefully liven things up a bit. One of the biggest complaints my wife had when we went through the campaigns for Gears of War 1 and 2 was that she could not play as a female warrior. She also had the same feelings about Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. It is something she has noted in more recent shooters. In the past it wasn’t as big of an issue, back when we played quake 3 she never had any lack of options on female skins to choose for her character.

Anyway, the ladies are here for Gears 3 and hopefully we will see some more female gamers as well (though the mentality and voice chat from other players will still be a detriment). For Gears of War 3, Anya is now a playable character and it looks as if Queen Myrrah of the Locust horde will also be playable. I have seen screenshots of other females, but have not gotten any good info on them yet, so from the looks of it there will be multiple options available if you prefer to step onto the battlefield as the fairer sex.

Do you See what I See? – The new HUD enhancements

Another addition to Gears 3 will be the enhanced HUD(Heads Up Display). In the previous titles hitting the left shoulder button would give you the locations of your teammates. For Gears of War 3, it has been upgraded and you will see different things depending on what game mode you are in and what your role is. For example, in the new Capture the Leader mode, the leader gets to see not only the location of there team, but also the location of the other team and their leader. This means that you now have much more reason to listen to your leader in than you did in Gears 2’s Guarding mode. If you don’t pay attention to what you leader says, you will lose the advantage. The team who’s leader spends the time with their HUD up to see what the other team is doing, will have an great advantage, but only if they communicate and listen to their leader. The other team has the same tools, so the advantage really goes to the team that uses them the best.

Other enhancements to the HUD also allow players to see the spawn locations of the weapons across the map. No more coming to a map for the first time and not knowing where any of the weapons are. Hit that shoulder button and pop up your HUD and find out where the weapons are. This also makes it a bit easier to strategize as a team (if you communicate well) by directing your team towards the weapons spawns and giving you all visible landmarks to navigate with.

And my favorite, the ability to mark out enemies locations on the battlefield! Put your cross-hairs over an enemy and hit the designated button (Y button?) and you will mark that enemy for your whole team to see their location for a few seconds. Similar to how you can mark enemies in Battlefield Bad Company 2.

When I dip, You Dip, We Dip – Changes to Movement

There are some definite changes coming to the way players move and some of the maneuvers that they can pull off in game. One of my favorites is the ability to pick up an enemy as a meat shield, then stick a grenade to them and kick them back toward their buddies! I can already working on some nice lines to say to enemy players as I kick them back to their team rigged to blow. Like maybe… “No, You’re the bomb!” or, “Here, Hold this!”. Thank you Epic for giving me even more context to talk trash to the enemy team!

Another nice addition to your move list is the ability to kick an opponent as you jump/mantle over obstacles. If you and an enemy are both taking cover on opposite sides of low wall, instead of playing the lets pop up and see who’s shotgun wins game, you can now mantle over the wall and in mid-jump, kick the opponent away from the wall. This will knock them back and make them stumble for a second, so if you are quick, you can get an attack in before they recover.

Something that was in the original Gears but seemed to have gotten tweaked and then thrown away, was the ability to get yourself back up on your feet after you have been downed by hitting the “A” button rapidly. In execution mode in Gears 2, it didn’t matter how fast you hit the button, you still could not get up until the timer expired (usually anywhere from 10 to 20 seconds). In Gears 3, you can now tap it rapidly to get yourself back up more quickly. Not sure if this will be exclusive to game modes that use variations of the Execution rule set or not. But since you can still crawl while you are down, it benefits you to tap that “A” button so you can get behind cover and hopefully revive yourself.

FINISH HIM! Gears 3 will also see an expanded assortment of Finishing moves. Every Gun in the Game will have a unique execution that can be performed, as well as still having the non-weapon specific finishing moves. So in addition to ripping off someone’s arm and beating them to death, you will have many more fun ways to finish a fight based on what weapon you are currently holding.

Pimp my Gears – Character Customization Comes to Gears 3

One area where other games have started to really get players involved, is in customizing your character, their weapons, etc… Gears of War 3 will bring a similar system to the table. For the third installment, Epic has taken a slightly different route with Experience points then they did in Gears 2. Instead of just getting experience to get higher levels, you will now be able to use your experience points to unlock new goodies in Gears of War 3! There will be many options including new player skins (Coles Thrashball uniform for example) and new weapon skins (Camo patterns, etc…). Other items you can unlock will be the execution moves. So all those fancy new finishing moves are not available from the start, some of them have to be earned. Also rumored are unlockable mutators! If you ever played Unreal Tournament, you will know what I am talking about. Gears has always been one of the only Unreal Engine game put out by Epic that did not take advantage of the mutator system. Want to add extra bounce to your step by lowering gravity? Want to have characters run twice as fast? These are all things that can be done in other Unreal engine powered games. From the sounds of it, the mutator system will be coming to Gears 3 in some form. No idea if it will be as varied as it is in Unreal, I would assume the mutators have to remain grounded in the game system. For example, while low gravity makes sense in a game like Unreal Tournament where you do a lot of jumping, there really is no jumping in Gears, so that particular mutator would not make much sense. Also (similar to Modern Warfare 2) you will be able to unlock titles for your character by completing challenges.

To support this new use of experience points, you will also be able to complete challenges to get experience point rewards. So far to me this sound similar to Modern Warfare 2. As you complete challenges you will get rewarded with extra experience point bonuses. So it benefits you to try to complete challenges so you can more quickly build up enough points for the next item you are trying to unlock. Also (similar to Modern Warfare 2) you will be able to unlock titles for your character by completing challenges. Say for example sticking grenades to 100 players, etc… No direct info yet on what the actual titles or challenges will be. But stay tuned.

OMG! H4X0rz – Noobs get buffed in Gears of War 3

Another new feature revealed recently is the fact that noobs will actually get a bit of a boost when starting out in Gears 3’s multiplayer modes. Well not exactly starting out… if you do badly enough when you first start playing in Gears 3 multiplayer, you will get a ONE TIME, temporary boost to your health and damage. Your Damage will supposedly be equivalent to active reload damage. This is not permanent and not something you can exploit as it is a one time boost. If you get killed repeatedly in your first couple games, you will get the boost. Once the boost has been activated, each kill you get afterwards will drop the damage and health boost down a bit until you are back down to standard damage and health. At this point the boost deactivates and never comes back. It is mainly just a way to get the new players a bit of a cushion in order to get the feel of how gears works instead of getting PWNed and taking the game back to the store before they can get the feel of it.

Well that wraps up part 2 of the series. Looks like we have a long wait till we get to swap lead in Gears 3, but based on what I am seeing so far, the wait will be well worth it!

So Marcus and the boys of Delta Squad have been around the battlefield a couple of times now. You know the maps, you know the modes, but what’s next? Gears of War 3 brings a lot of changes to the series. Some of the changes are new innovations, some are borrowed from other popular games and some are long overdue features that the fans have been begging for since the first game in the series hit Xbox LIVE.

Gears of War 3 will release next fall. The delay is giving the team at Epic a chance to add some extra polish and features to the game as well as allowing for a public beta, which is a first for the Gears of War series. There are some definite changes coming to Gears of War, many of which should really get the fans excited. In the meantime let’s take a look at some of the announced features that have been flagged for the next installment:

1. Die Host Shotty, DIE! – Dedicated Servers

This has been a LONG time coming. After years of begging, pleading, demanding and flaming, the fans are finally getting dedicated servers for Gears of War 3 Multiplayer. For those who have not played the previous Gears games, one of the major issues with multiplayer match making in Gears of War has always been how hosting is handled. Previous Gears titles used peer to peer matchmaking where one player was chosen as the host of the game and the other players all connected to that player. This caused all kinds of issues based on the hosts connection type and speed. Outside of the built in issue this caused, there were also those who took advantage of this system implementing fun things like “lag switches” to mess with the matchmaking and ensure they got not only host, but that everyone else in the match was lagging to the point where they could put up no real competition. Even in games where everyone had a good connection the Host always had the advantage. This was evident especially if you ever ran up against the host while they were wielding a Shotgun! The term Host Shotty will forever live on in infamy…

The addition of Dedicated Servers to the game should be a HUGE bonus for those who want to play competitively, as the battlefield will now be more level. Users can connect to games that run on servers to which they have a good connection. It is unknown yet if there will be a server browser, or if the game will assign you to a server once you have picked a game mode. According to the latest issue of OXM, the team at Epic is also currently testing the dedicated server infrastructure with Gears of War 2, so for those of you still playing Gears 2, you may notice some improvements as we get closer to the release of Gears of War 3.

2. Two Teams Enter, One Team Leaves -Team Deathmatch

Gears of war has always had it’s own multiplayer game modes that did not directly fit into the box of modes used in most multiplayer shooters. As opposed to Deathmatch, Free for All and Capture the flag, we had game modes like Warzone, Execution and Guardian. Epic has always put their own spin on the multiplayer options for Gears of War, but the players have always wanted to have some of the standard deathmatch modes as well. Games where the only goal is get in there an kill as many players as possible with respawns and all!

In Gears of War 3, Epic has gone back to the drawing board and not only introduced some new game modes, but also eliminated or consolidated modes that were not as popular or that were too similar to other modes. Team Deathmatch has been added to the list of Multiplayer modes. True to Epic’s legacy, it still has it’s own twist to the classic deathmatch formula.

In Team Deathmatch two teams battle to kill each other first. The twist here is that while you can respawn after being killed, your team shares a pool of respawns. Each team has 15 respawns (this number may change before release). Whenever a player on your team gets killed, they will use up one of your respawns. Once you team has no more respawns remaining, it is basically a last man standing scenario with the last player left alive scoring the win for their team. This game mode looks to have borrowed some of the rules from both Warzone and Guardian modes from Gears of War 2.

3. You got your Guardian in my Submission – Capture the Leader

Another new mode coming to Gears 3 looks to be a hybrid of Guardian and Submission. Capture the Leader (not known if this is the final official name of this mode) is a game type that puts two teams against each other in an attempt to capture the other teams leader. Each team will have one player chosen as the leader, but instead of killing the leader as you would in Guardian mode from Gears 2, you have to capture the enemy teams leader and hold them for a set amount of time to win. This is where it is similar to the Submission mode from Gears 2. The leader is your “meatflag”, you have to down the enemy leader and then have one of your players grab them as a meatshield. Hold the enemy leader long enough and your team wins. So Submission and Guardian mode are both going bye-bye, but Capture the Leader looks like a much more exciting take on both of those modes.

In order to make assist your leader in commanding the troops, each team’s leader will be able to see where all the players in the game are using their HUD. So you better listen to your leader as they will be able to tell you where the enemy is approaching from and where their leader is currently located. Communication will be a necessity and teamwork will be the key to success. Talk about a great way to really make your leader useful. And give the other players a reason to actually follow orders.

Next…

So that is it for part one. The second article will go over some of the other new features. here is a sneak peak at what part two has coming your way soon:

• Chicks Kick Ass! – The Ladies Enter the Battlefield
• Do you See what I See? – The new HUD enhancements
• When I dip, You Dip, We Dip – Changes to Movement
• Pimp my Gears – Character Customization Comes to Gears 3