New COD4 Playlists May Be Delayed

Infinity Ward has been hard at work on four new playlists for Call of Duty 4. They were hoping to release them upon the masses this weekend, but some critical bugs are possibly pushing their release back a bit. No concrete release date has yet been set.

The new playlists are:

- Bare-bones Team Deathmatch - Team Deathmatch with no perks and no rewards. Just you and your skills.

- Hardcore FFA - Free-for-all with increased damage, no HUD and no health regen.

- Hardcore HQ - HQ with increased damage, no HUD and friendly fire is on.

- Multi-bomb Search and Destroy - Every attacking team member has a bomb so anyone (or everyone) can plant the bomb.

Halo 3 Maintains Number One on Live

For the second week in a row, Halo 3 has maintained its number one rank on Xbox Live. In fact, very few of the top ten changed positions from last week.

The top ten for the week beginning July 21st are:

1. Halo 3
2. Call of Duty 4
3. GTA IV
4. Gears of War
5. Guitar Hero III
6. Rock Band
7. Battlefield: Bad Company
8. Too Human Demo
9. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2
10. NCAA Football 09

Gamers must be loving that new and free Cold Storage map!

Halo 3 Back on Top

Last week, Halo 3 retook its crown on Xbox Live from Call of Duty 4. Call of Duty 4 has been ruling the Xbox Live usage stats pretty much since release. It remains to be seen if this is a fluke or if Halo 3 is back to stay.

I'll tell you who's to blame for this. Me. Yep. We had a LAN party and played Halo 3 online for like 15 hours or so at the house with a bunch of gamers.

Actually, I felt like the number of players playing the various games were a lot lower than last time I'd played online(which had been quite a while). Maybe a lot of people were logging on for the Double XP of Griffball for the weekend...

XYBA Podcast Ep 17

Andy, Eric, Jeff, and Josh are back with the last XYBA Video Game Podcast of 2007. We discuss games we played on holiday and games we got for Christmas. Good times.

00:00 - Intros
00:35 - Games We're Playing :|: Geometry Wars: Galaxies, Gundam, Viva Pinata: Party Animals, Uncharted: Drakes Fortune, SceneIt, Call of Duty 4, Half Life 2, Guitar Hero III, Tenchu Z, Transformers, Contra 4, New York Times Cross Word Puzzles, The Simpsons Game, Rock Band,
50:57 - Gaming News
1:02:30 - What We Are Looking Forward to For Gaming in 2008
1:34:38 - Rantz :|: Jeff goes off on Sony and their firmware restrictions

Download XYBA Podcast Ep 17

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.

A Look at CoD 4 Achievements

The list of Call of Duty 4 achievements have been released. I like to look at the lists in order to see if there's anything unusual. Just a quick scan because I don't want to spoil anything in the actual game. But I found the CoD 4 achievement list very interesting.

After playing the beta for weeks, I expected a lot of multiplayer achievements. Maybe achieving a certain rank or number of kills... Possibly killing so many people with Last Stand or shooting down so many enemy helicopters... The possibility for achievements in the multiplayer portion of the game alone are astounding.

So imagine my surprise when I looked through the achievements and counted how many seem to be multiplayer... zero.

That's right. It looks like all 37 achievements are achieved in the single player campaign alone. Which normally I would like because I do much better on the single player achievements than the multiplayer, but it just seems weird since multiplayer is such a big part of CoD 4. I guess this will cut down on players boosting with other people(Josh...).

Call of Duty 4 Countdown

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...

XYBA Podcast Ep 12

Episode 12 is out and is full of video gaming goodness. We have 2 special guest, Santana and Marco, and Eric makes a return. This is a longy, but goody. Goody's a word.

00:00 - Intro music by Grant
00:18 - Introductions :|: Andy, Josh, Eric, with Guest Santana and Marco
01:10 - Games we're playing :|: Bioshock (Eric beat it), Call of Duty 4 Beta, Skate Demo, Metroid Prime 3, Animal Crossing, Metal Gear 1 & 2, Final Fantasy Tactics, Hitman 2, and GTA San Andreas
15:54 - Bioshock talk :|: It's Awesome
24:39 - Gaming News :|: PS3 sales up 200%, Games Gone Gold, Joust the movie, Haze only on PS3, and more and Halo 3
41:00 - We discover that Marco is Italian
44:05 - Roundtable Discusson :|: Pregrame Hype and does it hurt a game or help a game
48:32 - We get back on the pregame discussion topic
52:55 - We talk about Metroid here
57:00 - Games we're looking forward to :|: Jam Sessions Bundle Pack, Mass Effect, Metal Gear 4, Little Big Planet, Skate, Team Fortress 2, Halo 3, Fallout 3, Splinter Cell, Call of Duty 4, and GTA IV
1:10:37 - Rants :|: Marco goes off on Sqaure about Final Fantasy, Josh hates crappy search tools on forums
1:16:30 - Shoutouts

Download XYBA Podcast Ep 12

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.

Call of Duty 4 Perks

Over at Charlie Oscar Delta, there's a new mission that lets members tell infinity ward which perks they are most excited about. But with these questions, it looks like they have revealed all of the perks, even ones they haven't done little special videos and reports on yet.

First off, the question talks about three different numbered categories. This leads me to believe that players will be able to pick three perks, but it can only be one from each category.

Category 1 seems to deal with your character's explosives. There's Bomb Squad which allows you to find enemy explosives. With the name Bomb Squad, I'd hope you can also disarm the explosives after you find them.

There's also C4 x2 which will give your character two C4 packs you can remote detonate. There's also Claymore x2 which will give you two trip mines. RPG-7 x2 gives you a rocket launcher with 3 rockets. And finally, Special Grenades x3 will give you three special grenades but no smoke grenades.

Category 2 will affect your character in battle. Juggernaut gives you increased health. Sleight of Hand gives you faster reloading. Sonic Boom makes your explosions do more damage while Stopping Power increases your bullet damage. And finally, the UAV Jammer makes you undetectable on enemy radar.

Most of Category 3 affects your character physically, sometimes allowing special moves. Deep Impact makes your bullets penetrate barriers further. If you want to sprint for longer distances, Extreme Conditioning is for you. Last Stand allows you to pull out your pistol and fire it from the ground before you bleed out(you can always kill yourself to respawn faster if there's nobody to shoot near you when on the ground). Martyrdom is like Last Stand but without the work. If you have Martyrdom, you will drop a live grenade when you get killed. Steady Aim will increase your hip-fire accuracy. And finally, making less noise while moving is possible with Dead Silence.

Microsoft's Perfect Storm is Brewing

At E3, Microsoft promoted a "Perfect Storm" of games for the holiday season. I was looking through some release dates(one of which was added today) and it looks like November will be one of the "stormiest" months of the year.

Now, on one hand, it's fantastic. A lot of games I want to play are coming out. But on the other hand, where will I get the time or money to play them all? I understand that Microsoft wants to make a big holiday splash, but why can't they spread them out some so I'm not going through these droughts? Also, a number of these games are multi-platform so it's also a big storm for other platforms as well.

Here are the November releases I'm looking forward to. Time to start dancing on street corners again to make some extra cash.

Army of Two finally had a release date of November 15th slapped on it today. This game was made to play in co-op mode as you play one of two mercenaries out there fighting wars for money. Their use of customizable weapons and agro should make this shooter pretty fun.

Assassin's Creed is due out sometime in November. The exact date has not been announced yet. This game allows you to take the role of an assassin in Jerusalem in the year 1191 during the Third Crusade. Expect a lot of stealth, hand-to-hand combat and jumping off of stuff.

Call of Duty 4:Modern Warfare may be out November 5th, but that date hasn't been locked down yet. Take on the role of a US or British soldier to fight some rogue factions in the modern era.

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men should be out mid-November. And the game's already been optioned to be made into a movie. In the game, you get to play a "flawed" mercenary and team up with a psychopath to shoot lots of people.

Mass Effect is also due sometime in November. The epic sci-fi RPG has been a long time in the making and highly anticipated. Pick one of six classes and lead your squad on the exploration and defense of the galaxy.

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames should be out the first half of November. They made this one co-op so that should increase the fun exponentially.

Rock Band should be out around November 20th. A chance to pay $200 and rock out on guitar, bass, drums or even sing. Let's get the band back together!

Splinter Cell: Conviction is due out November 16th(although there is a foreign rumor about a delay on the nets today). Play Sam Fisher as you never have before, out in the open without all your fancy tech and sneaking around.

Help Pick the Box Art for Call of Duty 4

Ever wondered why some gaming studio put out the ugliest box art you've ever seen on a game you were looking forward to? Well, here's your chance to help decide what art should be on the game box. Over at Infinity Ward's Charlie Oscar Delta website, they have different versions of box art for Call of Duty 4, and they would like your input on which one you'd like best or any changes you'd like.

You need to be a member of the site to see and comment on the pictures. There are five versions currently up, labelled Alpha through Echo. They are all fairly similar with a main modern soldier and then some soldiers and vehicles in the background. They vary mostly in positioning of the soldiers and the title.

    
While all of the box art shown is Xbox 360 box art, helping pick the box art will still have the same effect for PS3 and PC users.

And while you're at Charlie Oscar Delta, you can also check out the fourth perk that's been revealed: Sleight of Hand. It allows you to reload your gun faster which is always helpful, especially if you like using a SAW.

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.

What's COD Without WWII?

The answer is Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare. Check out the new video trailer to see for yourself that what Andy wants Andy gets. Was the Splinter Cell nightvision sound always a part of the Call of Duty franchise?