Thoughts on COD Elite
Call of Duty Elite, Leader board Tracking
Activision today announced a subscription based service which will compliment the Call of Duty series called Call of Duty Elite. No price has been confirmed but Activision are saying it will be similar to video streaming services like Netfix in the US which costs $7.99 (about €5.50) a month. For your money you get all the DLC as it’s released as well as access to a huge stat tracking system which goes into the tiniest of details with stat infused maps and iPhone and iPad compatibility.
There seems to be a genel uproar on the internet today but here’s my thoughts on it. I don’t like it.
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Priorities
Mark Wahlberg to play Nathan Drake in upcoming Uncharted movie
According the the Empire Magazine website, Mark Wahlberg has been cast as the plucky anti anti-hero in the celluloid version of the popular video game series Uncharted. Now at first this seems like terrible, terrible news. Vietnam flashbacks to the universally slated Max Payne film come to mind (I was on a flight flying over Vietnam when I saw it*) but reading more into the situation actually provides a healthy dose of relief. It is to be helmed by the almost-a-genius David O. Russell whose directing (and writing) credits include the respectable wartime drama/comedy Three Kings and the brilliant ”I can’t believe more people haven’t seen it” I Heart Huckabees both of which Wahlberg gives a pretty exceptional performance in.
Continue →Perfecting Just Cause 2
If you read my review or listened to last week’s podcast then you’ve probably figured I quite like Just Cause 2. But the sandbox on steroids has flaws, mainly to do with annoying little things that could easily be fixed and thanks to some clever PC mods already have been. I figured I’d write something in the hope that my ideas will be stolen and implemented everywhere. I’m also not the first to think of some of these, Chris Livingston and Tom Francis have also written their thoughts.
Lately I’ve been playing the PC version with a load of mods installed most of which can be found at www.justcause2mods.com. So I’ll start with the stuff that can actually be changed by these:
The Unbreakable Rope
Half Life has the Gravity Gun just as Just Cause 2 has the grappling hook. Amongst it’s many fine features is the ability to tether things together. People to trucks, planes to cars, bikes to windmills, that sort of thing. Trouble is the rope snaps if too much force is put on it, this is not fun. If I want to grapple an ice cream truck to a passenger airliner then damn it I should be able to and thankfully can with the excellent BOLO patch (or the BOLOLOLOLOL patch, as my head pronounces it.)
Many Unbreakable Ropes
Whats more fun than tying an ice-cream van to a plane? Tying two ice-cream vans to a plane… and ice cream men to the van. Also possible with the BOLO patch are multiple ropes. This one isn’t perfect, the aiming reticule breaks a bit and the game feels a bit glitchy when it’s turned on but for the most part it works. It removes the ability to undo ropes which means you can’t drop things from the helicopters like you can normally.
Faster Vehicle Spawn
Some genius decided that whenever Rico wants a vehicle air lifted to him he must watch two cutscenes and scroll through an annoying menu system every single time. This is stupid.
Thats about it for what I’ve managed to get from the mods that’s worth being fully implemented. there’s plenty more fun ones, such as the 3 kilometre long grappling hook but these are really just fun cheats rather than gameplay improvements. Here’s a couple of things I’d like to see:
Take the Wheel!
One of Just Cause 2′s best features is the vehicle combat. But it’s not enough! First of all jumping onto the roof of your car is great but control is lost too easily. In one of the very first missions an AI companion drives while you stand on the roof, this means you can zip from car to car and always have a safe spot to jump back to. I’d suggest a combination of these. Occasionally Rico drives with friendly passengers, whenever he jumps on the roof he should shout something along the lines of “Take the Wheel!” Rico can now focus on the combat and not have to worry about the car smacking into a forest, he can resume control of the car at any moment leaving his companion free to fire out the window. If needed Rico can hijack another vehicle and split, creating a decoy. He then has a certain amount of time to catch up with his passenger if they need to be kept alive.
Instant Black Market
Removing those cut scenes is not enough! Vehicles and weapons should instantly parachute down when Rico calls them in. On PC they should be binded to keys, removing the menus altogether. Custom drops can be created and binded allowing Rico to drop vehicles containing weapons. If Rico is driving, his jet can be called in on auto-pilot to hover above the car, he can then smoothly transition between the two. If Rico is escaping from enemies then this could be balanced by putting a timer on the spawns. Once called in Rico must stay alive for thirty seconds or so before the jet arrives and he can escape. Also once vehicles and weapons are unlocked they should cost nothing to spawn. The ridiculous cost of some vehicles means you can only rarely use them when its far more fun to have them all the time.
Destructible Trees or No Trees at All
Trees look pretty, but they get in the way. The best place to be in Just Cause 2 is the desert because it has very few trees or big rocks meaning off road driving fun is an option. In the desert you can get far more creative, especially in the driving off cliffs area of things. Everywhere else vehicles are useless off road because they simple can’t be driven through forests. Some trees can be knocked over but most can’t, this should be the other way around. Off road handling could be better too, even in the lovely empty desert it’s way too easy to over-steer.
Red Faction Style Destruction
A few months ago Chris and I said that more games must now use Red Faction’s amazing destructible building physic. Seeing as how to progress in Just Cause 2 you need to blow stuff up, its the perfect game to implement this system. Thanks to it’s size the whole “what if the player blows his way out of the game world?” problem isn’t even an issue.
The Mouse and Left Stick are for looking and aiming, not moving
When skydiving for some silly reason looking with the mouse rotates Rico, sending him off course from where you want to go. This denies us from some spectacular views of one of the prettiest games ever made. If we don’t need to aim something then let us look around. We’re allowed to do it in planes so why not while sky diving? Also on the subject of skydiving Rico should be able to fly forwards a bit more than he can, a hell of a lot more base jumps could then be pulled off.
And finally:
JETPACK!!!
All games need jet packs.
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