Ghost Recon Alpha - making me want to buy the game

This is one awesome film, really makes me want to get the game right away.  But unfortunately, with Diablo 3 here, and new MW3 maps & modes.. I don't think I could squeeze in time for this.  I'll definitely pick it up later when the price drops, and probably will end up just getting it on PC.  We'll see....

Diablo 3 - First few minutes.

Since I actually have a job to goto, I couldn't stay up to play Diablo 3 right at 3am EST when the servers launched.  Although I already had the game preloaded a while ago, I figure its a game that I'm in no rush to play.  I've already waited this long, whats another few hours.

So this morning, I woke up, and had a few extra minutes to kill, so I started it up just to get it going.  I only had about 5 minutes before having to get on with my regular morning routine, so I only did the first two "quests", although they were mostly tutorial like quests.

Off the bat, the game feels familiar, just like the previous games, but with improved graphics.  You can see there's a lot more attention to detail with the map and the characters, but the core elements are still there to give the familiar feel.  Which is not a bad thing.  It is something that Blizzard seems to do well, don't mess with what works.  I'm sure the upgrades and changes to the game will feel more apparent once I get deeper into the game, and I'm looking forward to it!

I'll check back in later with more... 

Black Ops II - Multiplayer details - rumours & thoughts

The below has been posted from another site. 

My thoughts will be in italics... 

Game Modes

• Escort, a new game mode.
  •  Similar to Search and Destroy however a live player must be escorted to one of three areas (or two depending on the map) without being killed.
  • The match will have rounds, consisting of one life only. (Interesting, a less campy version of S&D - I'll reserve judgement till I actually play it)
• Drop Zone and Kill Confirmed will return (Good to hear, both are nice additions to the rotation)
• Team Defender and Infected will not return (too bad, they were interesting, but infected did lead to some boosting.  If they were faster on the banning of people, then it wouldn't be as bad)

Pointstreaks

• Will follow from Modern Warfare 3’s system (But will they stack? i.e. kills from a air strike counting towards your next reward?)
• Larger emphasis on objectives (nice to hear)
• A bomb plant is worth 2 points
• A neutral flag is worth 1, however an enemy flag is worth 2
• A flag assist capture is worth 1, a capture is worth 2 (Not bad, won't matter much in Domination for the way me and my friends play it, maybe they should make defends worth an extra point as well?)
• The Specialist Pointstreak has be modified
• 2 kills now gets you 1 perk
• The 4th kill gets you 2 more perks
• The 6th kill gets you 3 more perks
• The 8th Kill gets you 4 more perks
• You do not get every perk when you reach 8 kills (Interesting, Not sure how I feel about it, I rarely use it in MW3, and when I did, my play style would usually mean I'd die by around 6 kills anyways.. )
• Perks only become “Pro” when you have them Pro (Seems logical)
• RC XD will not return (yea, a laggy RC-XD was a bit annoying)
• Heat vision is a new Pointstreak reward. When you get the required points, you can activate this Pointstreak and your player pulls out a scope and attaches it to your weapon. (Interesting would like to know more.. like, can you toggle it? - i.e. remove it, does it affect ADS times?)
  •     This scopes main advantage is it’s ability to detect enemies through most walls. Note, the scope can only be attached to primaries not including shotguns  (does it overlap existing scopes/sights?)

Item Packages

• Requires 5 points
• Fall along side care packages and air drop traps.
• Features a list of package items only Including ammo, mini gun, grenade launcher, rocket launcher, and body armor (Interesting, makes it useful and not overpowered by giving a high point reward in it.. I like this idea.)

Prestiges

• There will be 15 prestiges
• There will be 50 ranks
• Every two prestiges there is a 5 rank increase
• The final prestige has 90 levels 

(Interesting, I like it progressively gets longer and longer - guess I'll have to wait till the next XP event to hear about other rewards and how the unlock progression works.  With extra levels, are there extra guns available to fill in the gap? or just more challenges?)

ELITE 2.0

• ELITE is being fully incorporated into Black Ops 2
• Combat record has been modified and re-named as ELITE Stats
• There will be a specific lobby for clan matches (new way of leveling clans) (Finally!, they can do this with the regular operation challenges as well IMO)
• Clan Tournaments can now be implemented

Removed

• No MOAB or Nuke (good riddance)
• No last stand (finally)
• No death streaks (finally)
• No flame thrower attachment (meh, I'm indifferent about this)

Map Design

•     Map design and size will be following Black Ops not Modern Warfare 3 (Hopefully more dynamic elements in the maps like in Black Ops - i.e. doors to open and close)

Sniper Rifles

•  Improved sniper rifle usage.
•  No aim assist for any sniper rifle.
•  Less sway

(This should reduce the amount of quick scoping, and it'll just be plain ol luck for no-scopers. Maybe they can address that even more if its still an issue.)

Customization

• No longer just perk 1 chooses the players appearance
• Appearance is a combination of all perks and type of Pointstreak being used.

(still no character customization - i.e. face/body etc, oh well.)

Hardcore

• Larger emphasis on hardcore than ever before
• No grenade launchers
• Only vehicle guided rocket launchers permitted
• Respawn timings decreased (for most modes)
• 1 bullet in the foot will no longer kill a person, a head or chest shot is usually required.
• A person will now bleed out if severely injured.

(Sounds good to me, I'll probably play more HC modes again)

Perk System 2.0

• The Perk Pro system has been upgraded
• There is now 2 options a perk can advance to.
• Both require different challenges to unlock
• Once the desired Pro version is unlocked, the player can select that as their “Perk Pro”.
• Once selected, the only way to choose the other option is by entering prestige mode.
• For example Perk slot 1 has the perk called Speed
  • Speed – Reduces the time taken to aim down the sight
    • Pro I – Swaps weapons faster
    • Pro II – Throws equipment faster

(So, does this mean at higher prestige, both pro effects are available - if unlocked? - either way, I like the added depth on this aspect of multiplayer.  Idealy, I would like more class slots too, like 15 or 20.) 

Combat Training

• Will be returning with vast improvements.
• Difficulty is no longer based on how long the bots take to start shooting.
• Bots now have an advance AI system
• Similar to the behavior seen in the MW3 Spec Ops survival

(It'll give this mode a bit more life, and help some new people get some practice.)

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Black Ops II - release trailer

Now set in the near future, based on the trailer and only watching it once as of right now, the single player story seems to be about some enemy taking control over the unmanned drones of the US military, and I would assume that you're fighting to take back control.

Its an interesting choice, and I know it leaves a few people hesitant on the actual game.  But here's the way I look at it.  The Call of Duty series has always been about hyper reality.  The tech they portray in the game is realistic, and its just the characters and events that are the fiction, so will we see really futuristic weapons like lasers and such?  No.  We'll see a lot more drones, since that is something the US military is actually expanding to now, but at the same time, you'll still be shooting bullets and rockets in the game (with the exception of zombies).

Also, given that this is just the single player preview, and I don't spend more than six to eight hours in the single player versus the hundreds/thousands of hours in multiplayer and zombie modes, this trailer doesn't change my mind about buying the game.  I'm just hoping Treyarch learns from what was wrong with MW3, and moves things forward.