It may only be a teaser trailer but the fact that CoD: Modern Warfare 2 is coming out in November is as good of news as there is. Especially since in the teaser you hear civilians getting stomped on, so I am guessing terrorism is going to be the name of the game and spray n’ praying will be my religion. Check out the teaser now! Read more »

Hey, guess what I did last night?

Alright, let the shock settle in before reading any further. Yeah that’s right, Filefront is shutting down and you have four days to download whatever from it’s huge array of storage space. Here is the reason for the sudden closure..

Dear FileFront User:

We regret to inform you that due to the current economic conditions we are forced to indefinitely suspend the FileFront site operations on March 30, 2009. If you have uploaded files, images or posted blogs, or if you would like to download some of your favorite files, please take this opportunity to download them before March 30th when the site will be suspended.

We would like to give a warm thank you to all of you who have been part of the FileFront communities we have built together. Your support has had a meaningful impact for all of us here at FileFront. Again, we want to give you a sincere “thank you” for your support over the years and wish you all the very best.

Keep gaming alive,

FileFront Management and Team.

Contact_us@filefront.com

Sucks! I remember using Filefront when it just began a long time ago. Quiet, nine so years ago is a long time in internet terms ok? Seriously though, Filefront was the source for all QWTF stuff, hell any FPS stuff. They did have a dedicated folder/section for QWTF maps, sadly the entire thing is gone. I searched the site in hopes of finding old QWTF maps so Ticknest could resume his QWTF recording project. Damn you economy!! Let’s all have a moment of silence for Filefront on the 30th.

Rick Astley has had enough of his internet fame and has filed copyright notices on all popular youtube RickRoll links. C’mon man his career was long gone and I’m sure the fad made  him more money than anyone else. Well either way all of the videos are muted now and I’m not so sure it is a bad thing. He had a PR statement up regarding his reasons for doing this but it is being slammed right now so I have it mirrored here.

Tough choice today folks. You’re only allowed to pick one to look at.

So what’s it going to be? The hottest Lara Crofts or the fugliest Lara Crofts?

I remember when clay animation first hit the scene and people were impressed with this new medium. But then green screening became all the rage and you didn’t hear much about it anymore. People kept it alive and contintued to move stop animation into a new frontier. Check out the Youtube game B-Boy Joker to see what I mean. While it still isn’t on par with glitzy effects if people have something they can be creative in then you’ll eventually see something special. Here’s a few other videos to wet your appetite and then after the jump check out the very impressive Iron Man vs. Bruce Lee. Read more »

It has been a while since I just slammed out a blog post… lets change that.

So the news of the day is OnLive. A company that has been developing this product for 7 years and keeping it under tight wraps until today. Paving the way by already having Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Warner Bros., Take-Two, Eidos, and Atari on board. Soon to be all over the tech sites tomorrow as “the end of pc/console gaming”. Tech journalists love to think that some half assed “cloud computing” idea is going to change the way everyone does things forever. Remember those articles about Chrome replacing Windows? Google Docs replacing Office? Riiight.

So anyway, on paper, awesome idea. Playing PC games in HD with a service fee or getting the console experience with only a little gizmo and internet needed? On that big ol’ HDTV everyone has or even on a PC with as little processing power as a netbook? Nice. In reality, this thing is not going to make it. I’m calling it right now. Here is why.

This isn’t streaming content so you can’t just say “Hey you can watch TV in HD why can’t you stream games in HD?”. This is interactive content over the internet. I’ve remotely controlled PCs with every kind of remote control software from as far away as across the apartment to across the continent. Nothing has ever been quick enough to even consider gaming with, its frustrating enough working remotely just typing into the command prompt. So anyway, semi-related remote terminal experience aside, the initial specs on OnLive are 1.5 mbits for standard definition and 5 for HD (720p). Oh god did you hear that too?

The majority of the customer base here is not going to have connection speeds for HD from their modem let alone their router. The average family I imagine buying this gizmo for their kid or themselves are all probably working wireless on a network they don’t know how to configure. All they know is they have the internet and that fat friend of Jimmy’s set it up. If it breaks it better be around a holiday so they can guilt one of those youngins in the family over to come fix it. Imagine these familys having an adequate enough network getting 5 mbits wireless? That’s a long shot. Oh throw in shared living spaces like apartments and condos (aka shared wireless ranges), now its impossible.  So HD is out for the majority of the customer base who I see wanting this thing. Is it even possible over connections like DSL? Unless playing the latest PC games in horrible res is some fad I’ve missed this won’t go over well.

Don’t tell me for a second PC nerds are wanting this either. Most PC nerds love their hardware and getting a new rig. Most PC nerds hate DRM and pirate their games anyway. So PC nerds are out. I hear it now “But warning, I’m a PC Nerd I could have a netbook and save a gajillion dollars selling my PC and play all the dopest games with OnLive!”. Listen you could already do that, just game on a console, but that is what makes most a PC nerd. They haven’t done that yet.

Who does that leave to enjoy this thing? Say somehow this service works amazing. To the point where the lag of playing a game is the same as your average first person shooter firing lag. Which it won’t be because that would be ignoring the fact that now the rendering is no longer local, getting compressed/encoded, transmitted, decoded. Oh and dropping input, that’s not a common symptom of light terminals either. So say it all works amazing, where is the market share? Who is this for? FIOS subscribers with tech savvy parents. That is about all I can think of.

The bandwidth needs of this thing need to come way down to have a shot at succeeding. I know with the ISP I’m using now and the standard $30 internet package the ISP offers (that everyone I know in the area except me has) would fill its bandwidth quota in about 15 hours of gaming. Good luck with that.

Seacrest Out!

Starcraft II beta? Ok, we don’t have any details about it yet other than Battle.net is now revamped and will ‘steam’ all your Blizzard games into one launcher. But the jist of it is if you go and make your account and ensure you denote you want to receive beta invites. It’s going to be random so there’s no guarantee you’ll get in or even when their beta will begin but from the last demo of the game it looked pretty complete. Kamen mentioned he loaded every Blizzard game he had onto the new Battle.net in case they decide to prioritize to hardcore Blizzard players and while it’s most likely a pipe dream he’ll be the one laughing if he gets in the beta and the rest of us don’t. Here’s the original article.

The first MMO for the iPhone looks…really lame.

Call of Duty is the top FPS franchise going right now. It’s not even debatable, be it console or PC the last two iterations have been two of the best full package FPS’s of all time. With the singleplayer having some of the best missions you’ll ever attempt and the multiplayer having a ton of game modes, customizability and progression makes it unbeatable. The other stand out feature is the controls on console versions. 90% of all FPS titles on console have a horrible grasp on delivering a comparable to PC style of control but CoD has managed to do that. When playing Killzone, FC2 or TF2 on a console you will always feel like you could have better command of the controls. So yes, if you own either a 360 or a PS3 you should own either CoD 4 or World at War as it will be the best game in your collection.

World at War just released a new map pack just in time as the default maps were starting to get a bit tiresome. 4 maps in total are included. The best of the bunch is Nightfire, a dark huge map set in Berlin as it burns. Tons of buildings to camp in and lots of ambush points. The next is Knee Deep, a jungle compound that’s the largest of the 3 multi maps. Station is a great sniper map with long corridors and some of the best sniper lofts out there. All 3 are quite large and can be played in Hardcore and DM and Search & Destroy modes. There’s also a new zombie map I haven’t tried, if co-op is your thing you will love the Zombie mode. There’s rumors of a map editor coming in one of the next Treyarch packs. And don’t forget the next (real) CoD, Modern Warfare 2, should be out near the end of this year.

You’d think, the last thing I’d expect to see on this site is some gymnastics.

But there it is and it’s awesome. Read more »

Awwwh, did you get some blood in your sand 50 Cent? I bet The Escapist knows why.

Read more »

I haven’t really gotten on board with YouTube Doubler yet but I bet people have created some real beauties. Someone in IRC posted one I found quite amusing as the syncing of the music track and the animated short movie really sets a new tone to it all. If you’ve found some great ones like the one you’re about to see let us know in the forums or in IRC. Read more »

In all my years of internet depravity there’s a few things you see you wish you hadn’t. I don’t mean shit like 2 Girls, 1 Cup or goatse.cx variants, that kind of shock value may be mentally scarring but doesn’t kill braincells at the rate the following video will. You’ve been warned (SFW). Read more »