Monday, November 28, 2011

My Website

I didn't realize that a post was required last week.  I thought that there was one due this week but not last, so I had them reversed.  Anyway, I figured I would post this week to make up for not posting last week.  This week, I wanted to post a link to my site and talk about it.  I have a description on my homepage, but I didn't think about the fact that nobody would be able to comment on it.  So, here's a link to my site: http://fs.finearts.utah.edu/~tbrimley/project1_site/.

My site is on the Bipolar disorder with a little bit of personal experience attached to it.  Give it a view and let me know what you think.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Modern Warfare 3's Success and Launch of Elite

Call of Duty:  Modern Warfare 3 has been officially announced as the biggest entertainment launch of all time, period.  It sold approximately 6.5 million copies within its first 24 hours of release, which involved $44 million in sells.  It's difficult to compare game sells to movie launches due to price of admission differences.  Games are normally released at $60 a piece, which is obviously a lot more than that of a movie ticket.  Still, Modern Warfare 3's success is difficult to match.  It's first week sell numbers will be insane and that doesn't even include the new Elite service, which costs an additional $50/year.  In short, Modern Warfare 3 has broken the record for fastest-selling game of all time for any system, and will probably break the record for best-selling of all time.

With that said, the launch of Elite was pretty much a total failure.  Their most optimistic impressions of how many people would join the service weren't enough to match that of how many signed up.  The servers became overloaded and Elite wasn't able to function.  It has since been fixed for me, but others are still facing issues.  It's almost been a week since Modern Warfare 3's launch, so it should be completely fixed relatively soon.  The good news of Elite not working properly is that now, everybody who signed up gets an additional month of Elite for free.  I talked about what Elite is in the last post, so there isn't that much to say.  I just wanted to touch on how bad the company messed up and how unprepared they were.  Still, this goes to show just how successful this Call of Duty launch has been.

To check out what Elite's all about, visit http://www.callofduty.com/elite.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Modern Warfare 3 - Buyer's Guide

As many of you know, Call of Duty:  Modern Warfare 3, probably this year's biggest launch, is being released this Tuesday (11/8/2011).  Now, I know a lot of dislike is aimed towards the Call of Duty series.  Most are saying that the series has finally reached a dead end and that there is no way that fresh ideas can come with a new release.  I can agree with part of this statement.  Sure, this Call of Duty will be very like the previous ones in the sense that it's more first-person shooting, ranking up in the same manner, and playing a single-player campaign that may come of as bland and unoriginal.  With that said, I have some information that may persuade you into seeing that it may be worth the money picking it up upon release.  Here's why MW3 may prove to be better than its predecessors:


New Modes:  A new mode that I'm looking forwards to is Kill Confirmed.  In this form of gameplay, the player will run around killing people all the same.  But instead of the experience being based off of actually only killing the enemy, now you will be forced to pick up a tag that they will drop after being killed to "confirm the kill".  If you don't do this, you won't gain experience points.  Also, if you kill a person and then somebody kills you, the kill you weren't able to confirm can be picked up by the teammate of the person you killed in which will result in not allowing you that kill.  I know this sounds confusing, but it's really understandable in video format while hard to explain in plain text.  With that said, here's a video showing how this new mode works:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=035qb_IHuZQ.

Also, there's a mode called Spec Ops.  Yes, I realize that this mode was seen in Modern Warfare 2, but now playing the missions will help you rank up.  It also comes with a survival mode, which should be pretty cool.  In this mode, a currency system will be used in which will allow you to purchase different weapons, airstrikes, armor, and more.  These are two modes that I'm definitely looking forward to.

Another thing to look forward is the new addition of Call of Duty Elite, a computer-integrated system for MW3.  This will allow you to go online and update your multilayer classes along with starting clans.  This will mean you can now set up tournaments through the web.  Also, signing up for tournaments will sometimes result in rewards (if you win them off course).  Call of Duty Elite will take the social aspect of gaming to the next level.  The down side of it:  Call of Duty Elite will cost an annual fee of $50.  The positive side of it:  If you purchase the hardened edition of the game, it will come with a one-year subscription of Elite, for $10 cheaper.  The regular game is $60 while the hardened edition is $100.  I'll let you do the math.  Also, a reason to upgrade to Elite is DLC-based.  Infinity Ward/Sledgehammer Games has promised to release 12 DLC packs, once every month.  This will include new multiplayer maps, spec ops maps, weapons skins, titles, etc.  How does this make Elite worth the purchase?  All the DLC packs will be free if you have an Elite subscription.  If you like extra content like I do, this will make Elite well worth the purchase.

One last thing I wanted to bring up is that an upgraded engine is being used, which will help improve the graphics of the game.  The graphics have always been top notch in Call of Duty games; now they will look even better.

So, what I'm trying to say is, pick up the game.  Call of Duty games always come with addictive multiplayer elements and compelling campaigns that will make the game well worth the price of admission.

For more information on Modern Warfare 3, visit http://www.callofduty.com/mw3