call of duty • QSF5

23 Aug 2015

Checkpoint: Host Migration Edition

by No_Style | posted in: Editorials & Features | 0

The Call of Duty: Black Ops III multiplayer beta started up earlier this week and, to my surprise, I am enjoying it. I enjoy the slower pace compared to Advanced Warfare which was a bit too frenetic for my liking. I enjoyed using the suit powers in Advanced Warfare but in the end, people were too quick and mobile for my liking. Black Ops III retained the pace of Black Ops II but added a tiny bit of vertical jump boosts, power sliding and wall running. When it all clicks, it feels great.

Unfortunately it doesn’t always click from a networking standpoint. I couldn’t find a single solid match last night; every single one was a lag filled stuttering mess. It’s been happening for a couple of days and for a while, I thought it was my problem. I rigged my connection to “NAT Open” but that didn’t help whatsoever. Then I gave up and played Rocket League which didn’t have a single connection problem.

Peer to peer connections are inconsistent and it’s disappointing that a major franchise like Call of Duty continues to rely on it. I understand why Activision would opt not to use it but come on, spend a little money and provide a consistent experience for your players. Especially when your competition is doing just that.

It is a beta and it’s very possible that the final build will operate smooth as silk but there’s always a hint of host advantage in a peer to peer setup. It’s also not ideal to have to wait for a game to migrate to another player because the host dropped out.

I feel like I’ve been harping on this point for years now.

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Other than the above, I’ve been chipping away at The Witcher 3. Good times. I don’t know if I’ll wrap it up before The Phantom Pain arrives though. I don’t see an end it sight.

9 Jun 2015

Announcements Ahoy, Mon Capitan

by No_Style | posted in: Game News, News, Technology News | 0

OS X El Capitan

This year’s OS X release isn’t going to be the overhaul like Yosemite was. El Capitan will offer fixes, refinements and other nice but not so sexy changes.

I welcome it. I welcome features like Expose side-by-side so I can stop using BetterTouchTool for the sole purpose of including Windows Snap.

I look forward to Metal, Apple’s low-level API, improving rendering performance across the board. I don’t play graphically intensive games on my MacBook Air but hopefully this gives the user base fewer reasons to switch over to Windows just to play games.

I’m hoping OS X El Capitan breathes new life into my MacBook Air like Mavericks did with its power optimizations.

iOS 9

Unsurprisingly, iOS 9 looks to follow El Capitan’s lead and focus on refinements and improvements to performance, battery life, security and usability.

I use Siri regularly for sports and weather updates. On occasion, I ask her to figure out the name of a song or some trivia but her accuracy remains so suspect that I tend to stick to the basic inquiries. Apple promises to address accuracy and capabilties but I’ll believe it when I see it. The day, I don’t feel the need to launch Google Search for reliable voice inquiries is the day I’ll consider Siri a dependable digital assistant.

Apple continues its trend of adopting popular ideas into its own apps and gently pushing out competition. Notes and News apps were their latest efforts. They gave Notes additional word processing capabilities for simple note taking and News (rebranded Newsstand) is now a Flipboard clone.

My favorite iOS device isn’t the iPhone. It’s the iPad and Apple finally gave it some love with the addition of multi-tasking and a new shortcut bar that sits on-top of the keyboard. Fortunately, I have an iPad Air 2 which supports the new multi-tasking functionality. But if I was an iPad Air user, I’d feel a little miffed knowing that a key feature like multi-tasking won’t be making back to mine. I understand the limitations (the Air 2 has 2GB of RAM) but not everyone will.

And the Rest

WatchOS 2 is coming as well and I know exactly one person who’s excited by that announcement. The native app support is a step in the right direction. I’m curious what developers will come up with in that space. I doubt they can make the thing appealing to me though.

Apple Music is now a thing. If the likes of Spotify, Rdio and other music streaming services aren’t to your liking, maybe give Apple Music a try? They’ve hired humans to make a 24/7 radio station a reality. No idea how that radio station will fare Apple promises it’ll be better than having algorithms select the music.

I didn’t know what to expect from Apple Music but it wasn’t whatever they announced. Jimmy Iovine started by pointing out all the streaming services available and how it’s fragmented. I thought that was going to a segue into a Wallet (they renamed Passbook) or News app amalgamation app but for music. That would have been a logistical nightmare but that would have been nice.

Pre-E3 Announcements Continues

1TB Xbox One Console will take over at $399.99 USD
New Xbox One controller revision features wireless updates, 3.5mm audio jack & minor refinements. Costs $64.99 USD
Xbox One wireless adapter for Windows will be available in autumn. Will cost $24.99 USD
Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst will see the light of day in Q1 2016
Halo 5: Guardians will have 20 maps at launch & 15 free maps by June 2016
Dark Souls 3 will be available in early 2016
Marshawn Lynch will be in Call of Duty: Black Ops III
Call of Duty lives for another year on PlayStation 3 & Xbox 360

Thought of the Day

As soon as I saw what 2015’s OS X release was called El Capitan, I thought of Q and Captain Picard.

26 Apr 2015

Checkpoint: Betting on Black Edition

by No_Style | posted in: Editorials & Features | 0

I guess those early leaks forced Activision’s hand because Call of Duty: Black Ops III was announced earlier today. I liked Treyarch’s Black Ops’ series quite a bit. Treyarch always seemed to be willing to go the extra mile to create something different in both the campaign and multiplayer halves of the game.

IGN have the exclusive preview but here are some high level notables:

Exclusive to PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC
4-player co-op (2 player offline) for the campaign
There are 9 fixed classes called Specialists with specific powers and weapons.
Zombies mode will have XP progression
Multiplayer movement is more refined with wall running and power slides
There will be a beta

A beta? That’s the first beta since Modern Warfare. Pre-ordering will be the key to access.

I’m looking forward to this. I enjoyed what I played of Advanced Warfare but it never stuck with me. I’m hoping Black Ops III will be different. At the very least, the co-op and campaign modes should keep me satisfied.

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Speaking of movement, there have been a lot of wall running and rail grinding as I make my way through Sunset Overdrive. inFamous: Second Son may be superior on a technical level but I love the aesthetic that Insomniac Games employed. It’s such a fun style that compliments the gameplay mechanics so well.

20 Jan 2015

Game of the Year 2014 Day 1 of 3

by No_Style | posted in: Editorials & Features | 0

I didn’t think I’d play enough good games to form a top 10 this year. Part of it was due to me being cheap and waiting for games to drop to the price point I was willing to pay. The other being the fact that I chose some less than stellar titles earlier this year. However, with a bit of luck, some sales and good decisions, I found ten titles that worth listing.

But first some other awards!

The 2014 Game I Wish I Bought & Played in 2014

Winner: Wolfenstein: The New Order

I saw it for $30 but decided to wait and it never fell in price. I’m a fan of Return to Castle Wolfenstein and a fan of many of the ex-Starbreeze members who founded MachineGames. Those guys made the excellent Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. I heard nothing but positive impressions about it and if I weren’t such a cheap ass, it may have made it onto my top 10. But alas, it’ll have to settle for this consolation prize.

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