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Arma III – DayZ Mod “A Matter of When”

by James Lara

June 15, 2012 2:31 pm in News

Since the launch of DayZ Mod, Arma 2 sales have skyrocketed by nearly 500%, proving to be quite a success. RockPaperShotgun had the opportunity to interview Dean Hall, creator of the DayZ Mod, where he revealed some details concerning Arma 3 and the modding community.

When asked about his plans to bring DayZ to Arma 3, he replied, “personally I want to see it develop almost as its own entity. And so, given the amount of sales it’s made, it’s really just a question of when. And the cool thing about ARMA III is that so many new features come with it that’ll be really good for DayZ.”

Another thing that Hall talked about was the overall modding community and how it has had a huge impact of how successful a title is. He says, “if you can cross off a few specific problems, then mods are a really fantastic way of dealing with your product. Like, I’d tried to pitch this concept to other studios before, and people just weren’t interested in it…So modding allows you to do this kind of exploration.” With the sales success of DayZ, Hall hopes that this will be noticed and that for companies like ID Software, it would send a “really stronge message.”

Arma III is set to push and improve upon Arma 2. The game is backed up with a whole new lighting system along with improved animations and new mechanics. A DayZ mod definitely sounds like something that would benefit from the new improvements. What do you think Arma players? Is DayZ something you’d like in Arma 3?

Tags: Arma 2 Arma 3 Day Z Featured id Software

James Lara

A gamer at heart, James has been working for MP1st for the last decade to do exactly what he loves, writing about video games and having fun doing it. Growing up in the 90's gaming has been in his DNA since the days of NES. One day he hopes to develop his own game.

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Medal of Honor: Warfighter Multiplayer Premiers at DreamHack 2012

by David Veselka

1:09 pm in News

Medal of Honor: Warfighter’s multiplayer will be premiering at this summer’s DreamHack in Jönköping, Sweden.

“Electronic Arts with upcoming shooter Medal of Honor: Warfighter chooses DreamHack Summer 2012 as the first public showcase of 8v8 Multiplayer,” according to the official DreamHack website.

For those who may not be aware, DreamHack is the world’s largest digital festival which happens to hold the Guinness World Record for hosting the world’s largest LAN party. The festival revolves around “everything you can do with computers, Internet and digital entertainment and culture.” A big focus of the festival is also on the Esports scene, making it a welcoming home to competitive games like first-person shooters, racing games and fighting games. Additionally, the event organizes “a lot of large tournaments and compos,” including Expos “with company’s like MSI, ASUS, Telia, Intel, Blizzard and many of the Swedish universities to name a few.”

Attendees at this year’s DreamHack, June 16 – 19, will be able to play Medal of Honor: Warfighter multiplayer on “high-end Gaming PCs equipped with NVIDIA GeForce GTX graphics which are outfitted with keyboard / mouse kits from SteelSeries.” Speaking of which, attendees will also be able to compete for prizes from both Nvidia and SteelSeries in daily competitions by simply signing up at Lmartinez@ea.com with your name, age, email, telephone number and the day in which you wish to compete.

Visit the official site for more details!

E3 2012 – Medal of Honor: Warfighter Creative Director on 10v10, 6v6 and Hardcore Game Modes, More on Score Chains

Tags: Danger Close DreamHack Featured Warfighter

David Veselka

Musician, Gamer, Geek. Subscriber

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Battlefield 3 Second Double XP Weekend Now Live

by David Veselka

11:49 am in News

Seemingly a day ahead of schedule, the Double XP switch has been flipped on for Battlefield 3 players across all platforms.

Our initial reports indicated a start time of early Saturday (tomorrow) morning, June 16th, but you won’t see us complaining. So, it’s time to get to know those Close Quarters map a little better if you’re a BF3 Premium member. Grab your SPAS-12 and get to work! Remember, you’ll see a 2x score multiplayer at the end of each round after receiving your in-game rewards.

Also, make sure to check out our Battlefield 3: Close Quarters DLC review!

Tags: Battlefield 3 Double XP Featured

David Veselka

Musician, Gamer, Geek. Subscriber

Home > Features

Battlefield 3: Close Quarters DLC Review

by Shawn Kegarise

11:44 am in Features

With the brand new Battlefield 3: Close Quarters DLC finally releasing to all Premium members on each platform, I finally got to sink a few days into the infantry-based, CQC-themed expansion. Close Quarters boasts 4 new tightly compacted maps, 10 new weapons, 10 new assignments and a brand new HD destruction feature that literally rips these maps to shreds.

Prior to Close Quarters releasing, we only saw gameplay footage on two of the four maps, Donya Fortress and Ziba Tower. The game mode included in these features was Conquest Domination. DICE kept the other two maps and other game modes guarded until the Playstation 3 release last week. The entire Close Quarters expansions consists of maps: Ziba Tower, Donya Fortress, Operation 925 and Scrapmetal. The ten new weapons include two for each of the four main classes, as well as two extra weapons that can be used as any class. Those weapons are the AUG A3, SCAR-L, L86A2, LSAT, ACW-R, MTAR-21, M417, JNG-90, SPAS-12 and M5K. I will get into an in-depth review of each of these weapons a little later in the review.

In Conquest Domination, two teams are pitched against each other in a battle to capture the three main objective points, represented by flags A, B and C. The first team that bleeds the opposing team to zero tickets will emerge victorious. You do this by killing the enemies, and capping and holding as many flags as you can for a longer duration than the opposing team. Gun Master, extremely similar to Counter Strike’s Gun Game, pits you in a race to level up the fastest through 16 weapons. Each of the new Close Quarters weapons makes an appearance in Gun Master, except the M5K. You start out battling it out with basic pistols, then you graduate to the shotguns and then onto the Assault Rifles and Light Machine Guns. You finish off with the Sniper rifles, the ever-so-difficult LVG grenade launcher that doesn’t detonate on impact and, finally, you complete this ladder by getting a knife kill. Beware though, getting knifed yourself while climbing the weapons ladder will demote you back down a level. Gun Master, to me, is a mode that every Battlefield player should play. Not only does it give you experience with each type of weapon, but it makes you adapt to it’s play style as well. Overall, this mode could make you a better Battlefield player. The last new game mode is Close Quarters TDM, which is the same thing as the old TDM mode, but limited to 16 total players, so nothing too exciting there.

Ziba Tower is one of the smallest Battlefield maps ever created. Located in the middle of Tehran, Iran, Ziba Tower is a beautiful looking map. There’s plenty of open staircases to enable you to get throughout the map and Ziba Tower preaches vertical gameplay more than any of the other maps included in this expansion. The platforms overlook a courtyard area, including a bar and a small indoor swimming pool. Falling off of the side of this map will net you a secret achievement, and personally speaking, Ziba Tower is one of my favorite maps out of all of the Battlefield maps to date. It caters to the role of close quarters combat extremely well.

Operation 925 is by far the biggest map in this expansion pack. Also located in Tehran, Iran, Operation 925 sports different levels of play, ranging from the bottom parking garage all the way up to the cafeteria which harbors an over-looking balcony. Gun Master on this map may take you a bit to complete because of how large this map is. If you’re looking for a fun Conquest Domination match then play here. There’s plenty of office and cubical space that exhibit how beautiful the HD destruction feature can be. Ripping apart an office building has never been so much fun.

Scrapmetal is a decent-sized map. Scrapmetal’s theme is an abandoned factory that features multiple levels, including rooftops and sky bridges that separate the flags in Conquest Domination. This map sports a pretty dull color pallet, but also shows off absolutely beautiful lighting. The sun rays shine through the windows in a beautiful way that makes you really appreciate what the Frostbite 2 engine is capable of. I’ve actually committed suicide on accident a few times by falling off the sky bridge, and I noticed there’s a train that passes underneath the C flag. Scrapmetal as a whole is a good map. It preaches vertical gameplay like Ziba Tower does with it’s different levels.

Donya Fortress is an old fortress that now looks like a modern palace. It has turns everywhere you look, which causes hectic and chaotic action between close quarters weapons. There’s not as much vertical gameplay here based from the games I’ve played. Players tend to stick to the outer hallway routes rather than cutting through the courtyard area. There is an underground area that harbors the B flag. When there is action here, you’re lucky to make it out alive based on how tightly compacted this area is. Seeing the HD destruction by blowing away the wooden railing found throughout this map is a thing of beauty. You got to see gameplay of this map from one of the gameplay videos that Battlefield teased on YouTube.

On to the weapons. I’ll start off with the two Assault class weapons, the AUG A3 and SCAR-L. The AUG A3 supports 700 rounds per minute (RPM). Firing this weapon you’ll notice the recoil is very easy to manage, and the reload speed of this weapon is similar to that of the AN-94, a base weapon. The SCAR-L is very similar to it’s SCAR-H counterpart in the Engineer class, boasting similar reload speeds, accuracy and recoil.

The Engineer class holds the best weapons in the entire expansion, one of them being the ACW-R. Everything about this gun is perfect. Very little weapon recoil, 850 RPM, a quick reload speed and an average magazine size of 27 makes this weapon extremely deadly. The MTAR-21 boasts a faster rounds per minute count at 900. You will need to be smart when using the MTAR-21 due to it’s fast RPM. The reload speed here is rather quick, like the ACW-R, but much better in close quarters combat.

The L86A2 is the big daddy version of Back To Karkand’s Assault kit version, the L85A2. Basically similar in attributes, the L86A2 sports a small mag size for the average Support class weapon, rocking 750 RPM as well as being more suited towards medium ranged combat. The LSAT is the more traditional Support weapon, holding a 100 bullet mag with a slow RPM of 650. This weapon is also better suited for medium ranged combat.

If you thought semi-auto Snipers were a pain in the butt before, wait until you play against someone with the M417. The M417 is essentially a battle rifle, hosting a large mag size for a sniper at 21, it can be deadly at any range. This to me, is by far the best semi-auto Sniper available in Battlefield 3, especially when you can control it’s crazy recoil when firing from the hip. The JNG-90 is a bolt action sniper with a smaller mag size at 11. This weapon is like most of the other bolt actions in the game and is better suited with the Straight Pull Bolt attachment for quicker aimed shooting.

The assignments needed to obtain these weapons are much easier to complete this time around in comparison to the Back To Karkand assignments. The hardest one you’ll have trouble with is the ‘My Own Terminator’ assignment that asks you to get a kill with an EOD bot, which isn’t even difficult to a lot of people. The rest can be completed by simply playing the game as it will come over time. Various goals for these assignments include 15 grenade kills, 10 knife takedowns, 10 C4 kills, 10 T-UGS assists and other objective-based goals.

4.5 / 5

Overall, if I had to grade the Close Quarters map pack, it would get an A from me, or a 4.5/5 rating. What’s stopping this expansion from getting the full A+ from me is Operation 925. Sure, the map is a lot of fun, but for a close quarters map, it’s way too big. Playing a Gun Master battle here will take you longer than 30 minutes in many cases. Outside of that small nitpick of mine, this expansion is a ton of fun and a huge welcome to the Battlefield frenzy. If you aren’t already a Premium subscriber, or you were on the fence about getting this expansion, don’t be so hesitant. As a whole, Close Quarters does what it’s sole purpose was intended to do: Pit you in crazy, frantic and explosive close quarters combat. I recommend that every single Battlefield player, regardless of your play style, try this expansion out for yourself.

Are you a Premium member? What are your thoughts about Close Quarters? Let us know in the comment section below! As always, stay tuned to MP1st for all of your Battlefield multiplayer news.

Tags: Battlefield 3 Close Quarters DICE Featured

Shawn Kegarise

Hailing from beautiful Pittsburgh PA, Shawn has spent most of his 25 years playing video games. The original Killzone on PlayStation 2 captured his love for competitive multiplayer experiences and has thrived on that ever since. Now I live, breathe and eat multiplayer madness with the guys and gals of Lucky Strike. Subscriber

Home > News

Rumor – Neversoft Working On A Call of Duty Title

by James Lara

12:53 am in News

Update: The home page of the Neversoft website (below) states, “we have molded our team into a crack squad of eager developers ready to push the First Person Action genre in support of Activision’s Call of Duty Franchise,” confirming that a Call of Duty title is, indeed, in the works. The question still remains, will it be the Black Ops II Vita version announced for a holiday release, or the rumored Wii U version?

Original Story: Last year, it was rumored that Neversoft would be working on a brand new title. At the time, the only details available were that it would be a first-person action shooter and have some form of multiplayer attached to it. Now, it seems that their next project may be yet another Call of Duty title.

Upon visiting Neversoft’s career page, you’ll notice that there is, indeed, a Call of Duty logo towards the bottom (image below). It’s possible that this could have been an error, though it seems to be a rather odd one.

Neversoft is known for their work on both the Tony Hawk and the Guitar Hero series. So, what do you guys think; are they the ones behind the PS Vita version? Maybe they are collaborating with Sledgehammer Games?

Via: NeoGaf.

Tags: Call of Duty Featured NeverSoft

James Lara

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Dust 514 – Top Load-out Might Cost Up to $0.24 Per Death, Completely Optional

by James Lara

June 14, 2012 5:38 pm in News

CCP vice president of Art, Morgan Godat sat down with Eurogamer to discuss Dust 514 real life currency economy.

For every death that occurs in Dust 514, someone loses their gear. Meaning that if you earned yourself a high end weapon and died, you’ll lose that weapon forever until you purchase it again.

“There’s a thing about Dust, which is every time you die, you lose your items, so we’re talking about relatively small amounts of money. You can buy 100 copies of this gun, you can buy 100 copies of this suit of armour. We’ve got to make sure we’re pricing things at the right level, because if you die [you lose these things].”

“We’re still tuning prices – the costs will change according to the feedback we get on the beta – but I believe when I calculated it last, at its most high-end – if you assume that somebody came in and had to buy, with real-world money, the best gear for a serious throw down – it was like a 24-cent thing,” estimated Godat.

This is one of the many reasons why Dust 514 is having such an extensive beta, as CCP needs to figure out whether or not the current pricing of gear is correct. He goes to say that players in the closed beta are currently buying items with real world currency or “Aurum”, which will all be refunded by the end of the beta.

For some this may be news to rage about, however it should be known that this game only offers that as an alternative source of currency. The game does come packed with it’s own currency known as “ISK”. These can be earned by completing jobs and other tasks. Ideally, you’ll be able to earn enough points to buy thousands of gear worth many lives. Between both real life currency and ISK, there is absolutely no unfair advantage over one another, as explained on the official site.

Eve players will also be able to fund Dust 514 players for their operations. This is something that the CCP wants to do, since if you think about it every death means something is lost. It’s not like in Call of Duty or Battlefield where you’ll be able to respawn with everything intact. A death is a death and a respawn is a completely new body. With the help of Eve players, this can help shape the war as mass amount of ISK currency is flown into the game.

Morgan Godat added,”We absolutely want Eve players funding the wars for the Dust players. We want an Eve player to go to their friend, who’s a first-person shooter fan, and say, ‘Here’s 50 billion ISK, I’m going to fund your army – you go find people.”

Learn about Dust 514’s beta through here.

Tags: CCP Dust 514 Featured Loadout PS3

James Lara

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Battlefield 3: Close Quarters Easter Eggs

by David Veselka

3:38 pm in News

Update: Added another Op. 925 Easter Egg sent in by Rubén Santana.

Battlefield 3: Close Quarters is now available to all Battlefield 3 Premium members and, as it was the case with the previously released Back to Karkand expansion pack, Close Quarters is riddled with a few interesting Easter Eggs.

Our friend in the Polish Battlefield 3 Community, Colonel Ramirez, has put together this video index of some of the Easter Eggs you may or may not have yet spotted in Close Quarters:

Ziba Tower – Care for some “Frostbite 2” or “1942” wine?

[youtube id=”_xXXr3gF16M” width=”600″ height=”350″]

Operation 925 – Random DICE Logos and Paska… whatever that means.

You might, however, be interested to know that “Paska” in Finnish translates to “sh*t”. Go figure!

[youtube id=”3965pm1w2Nw” width=”600″ height=”350″]

Operation 925 – Over 9000.

This is just too good.

[youtube id=”EexC608K0kc” width=”600″ height=”350″]

Donya Fortress – Jets, Planes and the Mass Effect 3 Normandy SR-2 space ship.

[youtube id=”-ypeWdcg9qk” width=”600″ height=”350″]

Donya Fortress – Level Designer Portrait.

At first, we weren’t sure who the guy in this portrait was, but according to Battlefield 3 lead designer Alan Kertz, “It’s a self portrait of one of our level artists, if he was Persian.”

[youtube id=”8Ypdt8BIrh4″ width=”600″ height=”350″]

Colonel Ramirez reached out to DICE lead designer Gustav Halling on Twitter, who responded, “I don’t know them all but I know you missed one on Donya fortress.” We also have yet to find any on the map Scrap Metal, so there could potentially be some hidden goodies there as well.

We’re going to leave it to you guys to figure out any more! Let us know your finds comments below!

Tags: 1942 Battlefield 3 Close Quarters DICE Easter Eggs Featured Frostbite 2

David Veselka

Musician, Gamer, Geek. Subscriber

Home > News

MW3 Double XP Event Now Live for All Platforms, PS3 Also Gets Double Weapon XP

by MP1st

3:16 pm in News

Infinity Ward’s Mark Rubin has announced that Modern Warfare 3 players across all platforms can look forward to another Double XP event starting now.

“Double XP should be up on all platforms now. MOTD will be updated soon,” said Rubin on his Twitter account.

PS3 users, who just recently received their Elite content drops, can also look forward to “double weapon XP on top of double normal XP,” according to Ruben. “So that’s double weapon XP on top of double normal xp for PS3. And then Double XP for every other platform,” he clarified once more.

This event will most likely end Monday, June 18.

Xbox 360 players, don’t forget about your new Elite content drops arriving this June 19th.

Thanks, Micheal, for the tip!

Tags: Double XP Featured Modern Warfare 3 PC PS3 Xbox 360

MP1st

MP1st Staff

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Battlefield 3: Armored Kill HD E3 Footage

by David Veselka

1:07 pm in Videos

Lead designer at DICE, Niklas Fegraeus, takes Battlefield 3 fans through some Armored Kill footage shown off at this year’s E3.

Machinima’s Mr. Sark asks Fegraeus a few questions about upcoming Battlefield 3 DLC in this E3 interview. While much of the content of this interview has already been covered here on MP1st, the spectacular Armored Kill footage, which starts at 2:26 in, is definitely worth a look.

Update: Upon further review, this footage looks similar to what was shown in the EA Origin Q&A footage earlier, but is of much higher quality.

[youtube id=”2w62E5wRQLw” width=”600″ height=”350″]

Battlefield 3: Armored Kill – All Console Maps Will Have 5 Flags, No Urban Maps, More on the AC-130

Tags: Armored Kill Battlefield 3 DICE Featured

David Veselka

Musician, Gamer, Geek. Subscriber

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Epic New God of War: Ascension Multiplayer Gameplay Trailer

by Fahed Jaradat

12:42 pm in Videos

Santa Monica Studio has unleashed a new trailer for the multiplayer component in God of War: Ascension.

[youtube id=”endWWrSmaEA” width=”600″ height=”350″]

God of War: Ascension will be released exclusively for PS3 on March 12th, 2013.

Thanks, Gematsu

Tags: Featured Gameplay Trailer God of War: Ascension Multiplayer

Fahed Jaradat

Senior Editor and Co-Founder. Multiplayer runs in my blood. Don't believe me? Ask for a sample! Subscriber

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New Modern Warfare 3 Elite Drops Now Live on PS3, Collection 2 Up For Pre-Order

by Fahed Jaradat

11:14 am in News

As promised, Infinity Ward has released the latest Modern Warfare 3 Elite drops for PS3 premium members. In addition to the free Face Off maps, Elite drops 9 through 12 are now available to download for paid Elite subscribers.

Free to Public: Face Off Maps – Erosion and Aground (Available today for paid Elite members, tomorrow June 15th for everyone)
Elite Drop 9: Multiplayer Map – Oasis
Elite Drop 10: Spec Ops Mission – Kill Switch
Elite Drop 11: Spec Ops Mission – Iron Clad
Elite Drop 12: Face Off Maps – Getaway and Lookout

Also, Content Collection 2 is now available to pre-order on the PSN store for $14.99. An exclusive free theme is awarded for pre-ordering the DLC bundle starting today through Wednesday, June 20th. This implies that the collection will go on sale next week on Thursday, June 21st. Collection 2 packs in all the paid DLC listed above along with multiplayer maps, Sanctuary and Foundation.

In case you missed it, patch 1.15 went live on PS3 yesterday.

Tags: Face Off Featured Infinity Ward Modern Warfare 3 Oasis PS3

Fahed Jaradat

Senior Editor and Co-Founder. Multiplayer runs in my blood. Don't believe me? Ask for a sample! Subscriber

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Why Modern Warfare 3 Can’t Do Weapon DLC Like Battlefield 3

by Fahed Jaradat

12:31 am in News

A couple of weeks ago, Infinity Ward took to Facebook asking for feedback on whether a double weapon XP event would interest Modern Warfare 3 players. Shortly after, the first double weapon XP event was announced.

The interesting thing about the Facebook tease was the image Infinity Ward picked to go along with the message. The image includes the AK-74u, as you can see below, from Modern Warfare 3’s single player.

This prompted many fans, including our forums, to predict that the weapon would be making its way to MW3’s multiplayer. Also, let’s not forget, former creative strategist Robert Bowling did tease about weapons DLC in January and March.

Infinity Ward’s Executive Producer Mark Rubin, who’s been rather chatty lately, clarified that the AK-74u will not become available in Modern Warfare 3’s multiplayer. It was a “rumor that started when Tina Palacios posted a pic of all the weapons from MW3,” Rubin confirmed via Twitter.

As for the lack of weapon DLC in general, Mark Rubin explained that “the main issue is RAM. All of the weapons, characters, models, textures, and geo have to live in RAM. There is only 512 [MB] on the consoles. The problem then is adding weapons adds memory, and there isn’t much or any left.”

This led fans to wonder why Modern Warfare isn’t able to do weapon DLC when DICE’s Battlefield 3 has seen 20 weapons released in DLC form thus far. Rubin stated, “[it] just means their [Battlefield’s] maps, character models, weapon models, etc are smaller. We both have the exact same amount of available RAM.”

“It’s not size of the map. It’s texture space, unique models etc. So more/larger textures on small map = more mem[ory] than fewer/smaller textures on a larger map,” Rubin clarified to Twitter user, Weston Kaszer.

“Not everyone wants new weapons. But for those that do. I’d rather not put it in DLC. I’d rather give them away for free,” Mark Rubin assured.

With all that being said, Rubin left the door open a crack for weapon DLC when he stated, “I would love to [introduce new weapons]. Seriously. I’m going to be review the roadmap for MW3 during the next few weeks. We’ll look into it. I just didn’t want to set unreasonably expectations for anyone. I’m trying to be as upfront and honest as I can.”

“I don’t think we can do Gun DLC, but I want to look at the possibility but I don’t have high hopes for it.” He added, “I would love to do Gun DLC, and we will look at what it would take, but I think the tech issues are too high. We’ll see,” he concluded.

If the folks at Infinity Ward manage to find a way around the RAM issues, what guns would you like to see added to Modern Warfare 3?

Tags: Battlefield 3 Featured Gun DLC Infinity Ward Mark Rubin Modern Warfare 3 Weapon DLC

Fahed Jaradat

Senior Editor and Co-Founder. Multiplayer runs in my blood. Don't believe me? Ask for a sample! Subscriber

Home > News

Rockstar to Banish Max Payne 3 Cheaters to the “Cheaters Pool”

by James Lara

June 13, 2012 10:57 pm in News

Tired of playing with cheaters in multiplayer games? Well, so are the guys over at Rockstar Games.

In a recent blog post, Rockstar has revealed how they are dealing with online cheaters. Their goal is to separate those who cheat from the legit users by placing them in a quarantined lobbies known as the “Cheaters Pool”, where they’ll be able to play only with other cheaters. Though it is possible to exit the cheater pool, a second offense will result in an “indefinite banishment”. As for those hacked leaderboard spots, Rockstar has said that they will be removed.

If you do happen to encounter a cheater online, then you may contact the following email to report them:

maxpayne3.banhammer@rockstargames.com

Be sure to include the following details if possible.

Platform (PC, PS3 or Xbox 360)
Cheater’s Gamertag / ID
Description of the violation
If possible, please include concrete evidence, such as a video or a screenshot

Tags: Cheater Pool Cheaters Featured Max Payne 3

James Lara

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Ghost Recon: Future Soldier Update Process Explained

by Fahed Jaradat

3:16 pm in News

Ubisoft and Red Storm have shed some light on how they plan on supporting the recently released Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. The team behind GRFS “continues to work hard, improving the game experience, supporting the title and listening to the feedback,” states Ubisoft on the game’s official blog.

Here are the types of updates Future Soldiers can expect from Red Storm:

Game Updates

Cloud Update: these include mostly balance fixes and tweaks, although sometimes bug fixes are included. These do not require any effort on a user’s part; they are transparent and happen in the background. We released several Cloud Updates during the Beta and we will release several in the future, including the next one in a few days.
Title Update: these include bug fixes and feature updates; items that are either too large for cloud updates or require additional modifications to the game. You are automatically prompted to install these when launching the game. The first update was made available on launch day following the Beta, and we’re working to prep a new title update for distribution soon.

DLC: these include new content, for example maps and game types. These are the largest updates and require a user to manually trigger the download. Remember, DLC pack Arctic Strike releases next month.

Infrastructure Updates

We have already and are continuing to make updates to the server infrastructure, both on software and hardware. Most, if not all, of these changes are transparent to the end user.

The PC version of Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is set to release on June 26th in North America (29th in UK, 28th in rest of Europe).

Tags: Featured Ghost Recon Future Soldier Red Storm Ubisoft Updates

Fahed Jaradat

Senior Editor and Co-Founder. Multiplayer runs in my blood. Don't believe me? Ask for a sample! Subscriber

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Modern Warfare 3 PS3 Patch 1.15 Now Live, Five New Prestige Levels and More

by Fahed Jaradat

2:30 pm in News

Update: (June 14th, 1:00 am EST) Matchmaking issues that were discussed in the comments below seem to have been ironed out.

Original Story: One day ahead of schedule, Infinity Ward has released patch 1.15 for Modern Warfare 3 on PS3. The patch is now available to download in Europe, MP1st reader Courtroom reports. The patch is being rolled out at the moment, so it may not be available in all territories.

The mandatory title update weighs in at 29 MB, and packs in the following additions and tweaks:

Competition Mode added to System Link (you can learn more on that here)
400 new ranks included in 5 new prestige levels
Dead Man’s Hand reduce explosive radius
Dragunov rebalance
Fixed DS/SRP issue with Specialist class
Blast Shield Buff in hardcore modes
Fixed an issue where some “Defense” kills were not incrementing on the leaderboard
Fix for rapid fire glitch
Increased damage reduction for Blast Shield in Hardcore modes
Fix for Kill Confirmed, update the player score before updating the team score

Tomorrow, new DLC drops will be released for PS3 premium Elite members. On June 15th, all PS3 players will be able to download free Face Off maps, Erosion and Aground.

Tags: Featured Modern Warfare 3 Patch 1.15 PS3

Fahed Jaradat

Senior Editor and Co-Founder. Multiplayer runs in my blood. Don't believe me? Ask for a sample! Subscriber

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Dust 514 E3 Details, Summer Beta Date, PS Home Beta Giveaway

by James Lara

2:01 pm in News

CCP announced some brand new details at this year’s E3 concerning their upcoming free-to-play FPS, Dust 514.

For those who own a PSVita, you’ll be glad to know that a companion app called DUST 514: Neocom will be releasing along side Dust: 514. This app will allow you to customize your load-outs, weapons, gear, characters, vehicles, and additionally allow you to access the marketplace to make purchases. Some social aspects such as an in-game mailing system or friends list are also being added to the app.

[youtube id=”tASM8P6c16c” width=”600″ height=”350″]

The second thing that CCP announced was the official date of the first of the many summer beta events. Starting on June 29th, players will be able to participate in a weekend long beta test. Participants will be selected randomly, and a reminder for those who haven’t registered for the bet, a you can do so by signing up here, or by visiting Playstation Home.

In addition to those who sign up, the first 10,000 PS Home users to visit the Dust 514 space will be getting a beta key. Make sure to speak to the recruiter for full details. It’s unknown if all PS Home keys are all gone, but it’s worth a shot visiting the Home space.

Dust 514 is set to release later this year, exclusively on the Playstation 3. And yes, I know I’m late to the party with this news.

Updated: Yes there are still beta keys according to the Playstation Blog. Once you have watched all five videos, and complete one game of Slay (don’t have to win), the beta code will appear at on of the video Kiosk near the recruiter. The beta weighs about 1500 MB.

Source: The official Dust 514 website
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Tags: Beta Dust 514 Featured

James Lara

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New Modern Warfare 3 Xbox 360 Elite Drops and Patch Set to Release on June 19th

by Fahed Jaradat

1:38 pm in News

Infinity Ward’s Executive Producer Mark Rubin has revealed that Xbox 360 users will receive the next batch of Elite drops on June 19th along with a new patch.

Modern Warfare 3’s Elite premium drops will release for Xbox 360 on June 19th. However, all we know right now is to expect one map, one spec-ops mission, and one classified drop. “Details on the content will be posted on June 18th,” announced Rubin on Twitter.

The next Xbox 360 title update, , presumably patch 1.16, is also set to release on June 19th. In addition to the competition mode announced recently, Rubin noted “the Dragunov is getting a buff and DMH [Dead Man’s Hand] is getting a nerf.”

In case you’re wondering why the Elite content will be detailed only a day ahead of release, Rubin stated, “It’s just PR/Marketing not wanting to cross messages. For instance the PS3 message this week.” You can learn more about PS3’s June content through here.

Tags: Elite Featured Modern Warfare 3 MW3 Patch 1.16

Fahed Jaradat

Senior Editor and Co-Founder. Multiplayer runs in my blood. Don't believe me? Ask for a sample! Subscriber

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EA Set To Refund Australian Battlefield 3 Premium Members After False Advertising

by David Veselka

1:02 am in News

The recent release of Battlefield 3 Premium across the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC has not come without it’s share of controversy.

It was recently reported that Australian Battlefield 3 Premium members were forced to pay above the advertised price tag in order to enjoy the benefits BF3 Premium has to offer. Originally advertised at a cost of AU$49.99, Australian PlayStation 3 users were, instead, charged AU$79.95 while Xbox 360 owners were charged 4,000 Microsoft points, an equivalent of AU$66.00.

After numerous complaints submitted to the Battlelog forums, Aussie-Gamer has recently learned that EA was finally forced to drop the price of the PlayStation 3 version of BF3 Premium to a more reasonable price of AU$64.95. However, this puts Xbox 360 users at the slight disadvantage of having to to pay an extra a dollar and five cents, on top of their AU$79.95 subscription to Xbox Live. PC users are the only group who have been charged the advertised AU$49.99, which is still currently being advertised on Battlefield 3’s official website.

In all, PlayStation 3 BF3 Premium users will be refunded AU$14.99, the difference of the cost, according to EA community manager Ian Tornay as he spoke to Aussie-Gamer.

AUS & NZ PS3 fans can now buy ‪BF3 Premium‬ for AUD 64.95 / NZD 79.95. If you already bought, Sony will be refunding difference.

We expect to hear further from EA on this matter in the near future.

Tags: Battlefield 3 EA Featured Premium

David Veselka

Musician, Gamer, Geek. Subscriber

Home > News

Starhawk 1.02 Balance Patch Now Live

by James Lara

June 12, 2012 7:39 pm in News

Today, Lightbox Interactive released the first balancing patch for its third person build and battle title, Starhawk. The patch is aimed to fix many issues such as weapon respawns and damage.

The following items have been tweaked:

Hawk Homing Missile now harder to dodge
LR3 Sniper Rifle no-longer damages the OX Tank
Bruiser Skill damage to buildings reduced
Home-Base spawn regions have been increase on ALL maps
Re-Enabled kick player feature for game hosts
Reduced Flak Cannon rate of fire
Significantly Reduced Flak Cannon damage vs Hawks
Increased Flak Cannon pick-up respawn delay
Increased Grenade pick-up respawn delay
Reduced Grenade pick-up ammo from 3 grenades to 1 grenade
FIXED team roster imbalance for Rifter team in ZONES
Rift Barrels now only respawn once per round in Co-Op

Notes as listed on the official Starhawk Blog:

Hawk Homing Missile:

In the last game balance update we made a significant improvement to the combat effectiveness of the homing missile which was something that our player community was really wanting — but we feel we didn’t go far enough! So this update makes the Homing Missile approximately 50% harder to dodge.

What this really means to our hard-core Hawk pilots is that you’re now filling up your evasion bar at a slower rate when you’re dodging. You still need a full evasion bar to dodge a Homing Missile but it will be harder to achieve a full evasion bar. This also resulted in us scaling the evasion required for the Swarm Laser accordingly so that it still requires the same amount of evasion “effort” to dodge as it did prior to this update.

Home-Base Spawn Region:

We have been aggressively tracking “base-ravaging” as an issue that we’ll always continue to try and reduce. To help achieve this goal, we have increased the amount of “spawn-able” area for your home-base in both Capture the Flag and Team Deathmatch.

The reason for doing this is to help provide players that are respawning into their home base with more options and distance between any attacking enemy players. This now makes it more difficult for an attacking force to keep a team pinned in their home-base due to the increased surface area the attackers need to cover to induce”base-ravaging”.

Bruiser Skill:

When players had the Bruiser Skill activated, they were simply tearing down the structures way too quickly. To help fix this we have reduced the amount of damage the melee attack does versus structures when the Bruiser Skill is equipped. For example, previous it required only 3 strikes to destroy a structure and now it requires 5. Please note that the small auto-turrets still only take a single strike to destroy. A further adjustment was made so that with Large Turrets (Beam & Flak) now require 3 strikes when the Bruiser Skill is equipped.

Hawk Flak Cannon:

This weapon was very over-powered and our fans agreed. This update includes a significant set of changes to the weapon’s attributes. It rate-of-fire was reduced by 250ms and the damage it deals against Hawks has been cut more than in half. The respawn delay for the Flak Cannon pick-up was also increased from 30 seconds to 60 seconds.

These are some pretty massive changes but based on player feedback, our own internal review and play-testing *AND* our combat analytics, a massive change was warranted.

Troop Grenade:

There were some really degenerate situations occurring where players could essentially be come “grenade-turret” by staying in a bunker and continually throwing grenades — never running out of them because the pick-up respawned so quickly. This drove us to change the number of grenades you get per ammo pick-up from 3 down to 1 as well as increase the respawn delay of the pick-up from 1 second to 5 seconds.

The Light Box Interactive team is also looking into a potential issue with the “Swarm Lasers” where the scrub factors are not working, unexpectadly caused by the update to the Homing Missile. In other words, the LBI team is working dilligently and fast to address. We will keep you posted on a hot fix. We are fully aware!

Tags: Featured LightBox Interactive Patch 1.02 Starhawk