1 vs. 100 Beta

So I finally got to play the 1 vs. 100 Beta tonight. I played for the entire two hour long show. Overall, I like it.

It's a little confusing at first. There were over 100,000 people playing and at first I thought I was in the Mob. But I was actually in the Crowd (which is where most people play).

In the Crowd, you can have a party of four or the game will assign you into a party of four total. This way you have a little competition within your group and it's not too overwhelming.

I actually found most of the questions pretty easy, sometimes ridiculously so. I never got to be the One or the Mob tonight, but I hear it's based on weekly stats of how much you play, your response time and percent of correct answers. Playing the Extended Play shows during the week is supposed to help increase your chance of being the One or the Mob. It seemed to me that the One was usually in the Mob right before being chosen.

For the most part, only the One or the Mob can actually win prizes(although no prizes are being awarded during the Beta(even though it looks like they are because they need to test all that stuff too)). The Crowd plays for fun and prestige.

Once Beta is over, there are supposed to be restrictions - you can only be the One once per season, you can only be in the Mob once per episode.

If you are in the Mob, you get eliminated when you answer a question incorrectly. You still answer until the end of the game but you are ineligible for any prizes.

As the One, your prizes increase for every ten Mob members eliminated. You can then at certain points choose to walk away with your prize(microsoft points) or keep playing. If you answer a question wrong, the prize gets split amongst all remaining Mob members.

The top three players in the whole game (Crowd and Mob) also get prizes.

This game is free to play for all Xbox Live Gold Members.

Call of Duty: World at War Beta

I haven't been gaming much lately. I've been really busy in my personal and professional life(hence the lack of updates on the site). The other weekend I actually played LEGO Indiana Jones most of the weekend. I was cleaning out my e-mail the other day and what did I find? A beta code for Call of Duty: World at War.

I participated a lot in the Call of Duty 4 site and beta so I must have gotten the beta code through that. I did sign up on the World at War site when it first started, but I haven't been active at all on the site so the beta code was a bit of a surprise.

The beta clocks in at a little under 900 MB. It is a lot like Call of Duty 4. It has Perks, Classes, Challenges and Levels. The beta right now caps players at Level 11 and it doesn't take too long to reach that level.

A few things are different. Of course, first of all, the series has returned to World War II so the weapons are a little older(reloading seems to take longer). The four different armies are Russian, Germany, Japan and the US.

There are also vehicles in this game. I don't know what all are available, but I have driven a tank around. Another interesting change is dogs! Get enough kills in a row without dying and you can unleash the hounds upon the enemy. Attack dogs will run around for a minute, attacking the enemy. You can kill the dogs, but these dogs tend to swarm and can do some good damage. When I unleashed a pack today, they killed three enemies during their minute long rampage.

Play Red Faction: Guerilla Beta... for a Price

THQ is currently holding a Red Faction: Guerilla beta for the Xbox 360. However, there is a catch. You must be a Gold Xbox Live member and a member of FilePlanet or IGN Insider.

I went to FilePlanet and activated a month's membership for $6.95. I was able to get an activation key and download the beta with no problem after filling out the questionaire. But be warned that there are supposed to be a limited amount of slots in the beta.

Red Faction: Guerilla is being developed by Volition and takes place on Mars 50 years after the first Red Faction. There are two factions, the re-established Red Faction and the oppressive Earth Defense Force. The single player campaign will have the player helping the Red Faction fight against the EDF. The game will be released for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC in fiscal 2009.

The beta is around 640 MB in size and is only limited Multiplayer of the game.

There is no tutorial for the beta so in the beginning, you'll have to deal with some trial and error and ask your teammates any questions.

The most common game is usually a type of territories. There are three "territories" that your team can control. There is a machine on each of these territories when a team has control of it. You must destroy any enemy machines there and then build your own. You get a point every second or two per machine(maximum one per territory). The first team to 400 points wins.

Your starting equipment varies from game to game, but I think you always start with at least an assault rifle, a sledgehammer and a repair gun thing. There are also modules around that give you a backpack which gives you special abilities.

The Concussion power knocks enemies off their feet(good to then go in and smash their face with your sledgehammer as they're getting up). The Rhino power lets you tear through barriers(and enemies). The Fleetfoot power lets you run really fast. The Firepower power allows you to increase your damage.

Every once in a while in the beta you play a simple team deathmatch, but so far I've only seen one map.

APB Full Public Beta Coming Soon

Kotaku has an article about Real Time Worlds moving into the Alpha stage of APB - the online MMO sandbox game. Mario Rizzo, Business Development Manager, also added that there will be a "full public beta of APB." Their beta release of Crackdown proved to be a smart move as it showed doubtful gamers that it was an awesome game. Hopefully the beta test will be conducted on all platforms, Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

PS3 Home Open Beta Delayed

PS3's open beta for Home has been delayed again. The release date is not supposed to change, but the open beta has been pushed back to "fall." But Sony is expanding their closed beta this summer to include more people.

CoD 4 Beta Coming to an End

All good things must come to an end... like the Call of Duty 4 beta. The last day of the beta will be September 30th when most people will already be busy with Halo 3. But it's not all bad news from Infinity Ward.

Before the beta ends, the level cap will be increased from rank 16 to rank 25. This level cap increase will take place September 28th.

With the new ranks, players will be able to experience a few new perks like Martyrdom(you drop a live grenade whenever you get killed. Good against stabbers), Sleight of Hand(you reload your gun faster) and Claymore x2.

At the higher levels, players will also have access to three new weapons: the G3 assault rifle, the M60E4 machine gun and the Dragunov sniper rifle.

Call of Duty 4 Beta Cap Raising

Starting tomorrow at 10 am PST/1 pm EST, you will be able to raise up to Rank 16 in the Call of Duty 4 Beta. I know that most people capped out at 11 a while ago and it's becoming rare to see anyone lower than Rank 11.

The new higher ranks will unlock more perks and weapons for beta testers to enjoy. The perks Clan Tag and Bomb Squad will now be accessible as well as new weapons like the Mini-Uzi and the Colt .45.

Infinity Ward plans on upping the cap a few more times during the beta to test more of the perks and guns. I think Matyrdom is unlocked at Rank 17! That's where you drop a live grenade every time you are killed. Not very good against snipers, but for those pesky stabbers...

COD4 Beta Signup Crashes Official Site

Infinity Ward's web company assured them that the website was ready for the beta applications today at noon. Unfortunately, it reportedly crashed soon after noon justlike it did when the beta was originally announced at E3.

Those lucky enough to see the website are saying that all the tokens to participate in the beta were gone within eight minutes. But because of the massive rush to the website and the crash, Infinity Ward has reopened the beta registration.

They have thrown out the "first come, first serve" approach they were trying. Members now have until August 28th at 7 pm to register for the beta. After that, they will randomly pick people to participate in the beta and let them know within 72 hours.

The official website Charlie Oscar Delta is currently back up but moving a little sluggishly. It's probably being pegged a lot so be patient.

The beta clocks in at about a gig.

Microsoft E3 Press Conference Highlights

Okay, Microsoft's press conference has come and gone. It clocked in at around 80-90 minutes with plenty of speakers and video along with some live gameplay by developers. This is my list of the highs (and lows).

The Highs

Release Dates

Some were newly announced, others simply maintained.

* Bioshock - August 2007
* PGR 4 - September 2007
* Assassin's Creed - November 2007
* Mass Effect now has an official release month - November 2007.
* 2 GTA IV episodes - Out by Spring 2008

New Releases

* Scene It the DVD/board game will be coming exclusively to Xbox 360. The game will include four unique Scene It controllers to play the game.
* Viva Pinata: Party Animals(Xbox 360)
* Resident Evil 5 (Xbox 360)
* Viva Pinata (PC)
* Gears of War (PC) - Will include some extra content and editor

Betas

Call of Duty 4 will have a public multiplayer beta exclusively on the Xbox 360.

Xbox Live

Xbox Live membership has reached 7 million users. Membership has been increasing at a rate of almost one per eight seconds. Microsoft expects there to be 10 million users by E3 next year(if there is an E3). I don't know if these numbers are just active accounts or if they include banned and cancelled accounts.

The Lows

Price Cut

Nope. Microsoft says screw the rumors and screw Sony's PS3 price drop. Nobody ever talked about the Xbox 360 price, and it appears to be staying the same.

New Halo 3 360

There is a new version of the Xbox 360 being released at the same time and in honor of Halo 3. It's green with gold plating(instead of the normal chrome). It's controller and accessories are also green. And while they didn't give any specs on it during the conference, it turns out that the one interesting thing about its specs are that while it has a 20 GB harddrive, it has HDMI connectors.

Crowd Reaction

Other than a few hoots and hollers, the crowd reaction was very minimal. Which is to be expected from a crowd of actual journalists. It's a low because the crowd's minimal reaction seemed to throw the speakers off. I think they had gotten used to E3 press conferences of the past where a majority of the crowd would be gamers and not real journalists.

Call of Duty 4 Beta and Impressions

At Microsoft's E3 Press Conference tonight, the developers of Call of Duty 4 announced an upcoming public multiplayer beta for the Xbox 360. The official website for the beta is http://www.charlieoscardelta.com.

Now the beta and even the signup for the beta is not open yet. I would suggest creating an account at the Charlie Oscar Delta website so you can have quick access to any information they put out about the beta. I would also bet that you need an account to register for the beta.

While I was at the site, I looked around, and I have to say that I have been underestimating Call of Duty 4. It looks amazing. I hadn't paid much attention to it before because it's a wartime FPS, and I figured they are all pretty much the same.

But I didn't predict one of the coolest features I've seen implemented in a FPS in a long time: Perks.

So far they have only revealed three perks, and it looks like perks may only exist in multiplayer. But even if that's true, I'm still very excited about them.



The first perk is Last Stand. See the guy in the picture above, laying next to a chopper with a pistol in his hand? That's Last Stand. When you would normally be dead, you instead fall on your back and pull out your pistol. You cannot move from this position but can fire off pistol shots as you slowly bleed out. Anyone shooting you again will also kill you. And if you don't want to waste time laying around the battlefield, you can also take the "Coward's way out" and kill yourself. This perk allows you to get a last chance to kill someone. I imagine it can be a surprise when the guy you just shot down starts shooting you with a pistol. It's what the Germans would do sometimes in Call of Duty 2.

The next perk is Deep Impact. In COD 4, some guns and bullets will penetrate certain materials such as thin walls, ceilings, floors, etc. The perk of Deep Impact allows your bullets to go further through cover than they normally would. This can mean that your enemy believes he is safe behind a wall, but with your Deep Impact perk, you are still able to kill him without ever seeing him.

The third revealed perk is Double Tap. This allows you to shoot faster than normal with every gun. Obviously, the more bullets that hit an enemy, the faster he dies. Of course, you can also run out of ammo quicker, but you take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have the Double Tap.

It appears that there will be default "classes" in COD4 multiplayer that will already have perks, but you can choose your own perk to suit your playing style better. I think this will make playing much more enjoyable and unpredictable to everyone involved.

Good job, infinity ward. And I'll see you at the beta.

Quake Wars Beta Open to Public

Enemy Territority: Quake Wars is currently in beta testing. After winning a lot of awards in 2006 and 2007, the game is almost ready for release(most heavily speculated as an August release).

Fileplanet has gotten their hands on 60,000 beta keys and are giving them away, half to subscribers and half to us normal folk. They were supposed to start giving away the non-subscriber keys at 10 am PST today, but doesn't look like they've started it yet. All the screens still say "Subscribers Only" and won't let me go any further.

This is another multiplayer only games where players choose a side: Global Defense Force(GDF) or the Strogg Army(aliens). Each player then picks a class and joins the battle. Then there are multiple missions which help each side win their campaign against the other players.

Honestly, the graphics look amazing. So amazing that my computer will probably not be able to handle it.

The beta is PC only, but the game is scheduled to release on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Home Beta Starts

I'm not sure if Jeff Kazbek or Chuck got the invite from Sony, but Sony's Home beta kicked off today. Regardless of which system you support or have allegiance with, Home seems like a very promising UI for interacting with other players and getting into game lobbies. If you haven't seen the Home demo, then check out the video below. Sony says more invites will go out soon enough so more people can test.

Play LOTR MMO now

The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar will be released April 24th. However, the beta is now open to everyone.

Simply go here and click on "Join the World Tour!" It is almost a 4 GB download, not to mention the time to install and then update it after installing it so it will take you a little bit to get, but I downloaded it today and it's pretty fun.

I'm playing a Dwarf Champion, almost level 5 now. The open beta is mostly a server stress test since all major bugs have mostly been worked out. Also, it's a bit of marketing because if you like the game and pre-order it before it is released, you can keep your beta character in the official game.

Halo 3 XBox Live Cards

EBGames.com is selling Xbox Live Gold Cards with the Halo 3 logo on them. The weird thing is that they won't be available till April 27th. Rumors are already flying that this may be the Halo 3 Beta release date. Nothing on the Bungie boards except that the new Bungie site will be going live this week and that the Halo 3 Legendary boxset will be limited in numbers. April 27th is definitely within the Spring release time frame. Let's just hope it's that soon.

Play S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Now

I stumbled across a multiplayer beta of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. for the PC over at WorthPlaying. It's around 500 MB. Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to work. It keeps crashing on me, but some of you might have better luck.

The beta's in Russian. There's a patch to change the menu into English, but when you're installing the beta, it's all in Russian. ... Maybe I installed it wrong since I can't read the buttons...

No Split Screen for Shadowrun

It may be the first actual use of the cross platform system, but it has been confirmed that there will be no Split Screen for Shadowrun. That's pretty disappointing. Especially for a multiplayer only game.

The developers said they really wanted Split Screen capabilities and did a lot of work on it, but they basically ran out of time.

This makes me sad. Just as sad as the fact that they haven't invited me to the beta yet. I signed up on the first day of the beta selection and have played every Shadowrun game made. Please, let me in!