I’m back from Las Vegas and most importantly the Call of Duty 4 National Champsionships that were held there this past weekend as part of the MLG National Finals. While I was there I met with up team FeaR (seen above) who took home the title as the best Call of Duty 4 players in the country. I watched over their shoulders as they shut out EnvyUs three games straight in some of the most impressive COD4 skills I’ve ever seen.

I caught up with (Robert) FeaR Assass1n, Kevin (FeaR Choppy), Joey (FeaR Moho), and John (FeaR PacMan) just after their win, before they scored their giant check, to congratulate them and talk about flying them out to the Infinity Ward studios at some point in the future.

While team FeaR came out as the best, 2nd place EnvyUs, 3rd place Head Trauma, and 4th place TBRE (seen below) were still some of the best Call of Duty 4 players I’ve witnessed. The fucking speed of some of these guys was incredible.

While sheer speed and skill will get you far, it definitely won’t get you the National Champion title which takes a lot more than just the ability to get quick headshots. The most impressive part of watching professional teams play is the level of communication they use (keeping the mics clear of useless information) and relaying the location of every enemy, what weapon they’re using, and any other useful information as they see it.

Overall the entire event was impressive, and a great debut for Call of Duty 4’s first live national champsionships. It was great to meet up with the MLG staff, and I have plans to meet up with them more formally once we get back to the studio and talk about how we can make Call of Duty 4 and it’s professional players a more prominent role in future seasons / tournaments.

Congrats again to FeaR on taking home the cash and title. Expect to hear from me once I get back to the studio.

In addition to those competiting in the tournament, I met up with several of our community members to talk “shop” and discuss Call of Duty 4, Infinity Ward, and get some of their direct feedback on what we can continue to improve on in the future (in terms of game development and a CRM point of view). I had lunch with Chase (Th3 Wiz4rd) and Brett (Th3 VerDict) on Saturday as well met with DpG Witness (when he wasn’t coaching teams). It was great to meet you guys and learn the meaning of “Jugger-twatting”.

The MTV Game Awards is this weekend in Berlin, Germany and we’ve been invited to attend thanks to our nominaton for the “Let’s Play Together Award” for Best Multiplayer Game. Regretfully, we won’t be able to make it out to Berlin for the live show, but we’ll be recording a little video tomorrow morning to show our appreciation and thanks to all of our German players who voted and supported the game in the awards, just in case. So if you’re part of our German game community, be sure to check the show this weekend, more info here www.mtvgameawards.de.  

My Fallout 3 character. (Feral Mask + Chinese Spy Uniform)

Over 60 hours of gameplay later, and I’ve finally finished Fallout 3 this weekend; Holy hell was that an amazing game. You can definitely beat it in half that time, but I savored the gameplay, and completed every main and side quest before beating the main story line - as well as maxing out my character at the level 20 cap. I love the amount of detail and thought that went into every aspect of this game. Bethesda did a great job of really immersing you in their world and I’m kind of depressed it’s over. I still need to find a few bobbleheads and do a few random achievements, but for the most part it’s over, and I’m gonna miss it. 

Although, thankfully I can get back to living a productive life now that it’s over, not to mention focus on finishing up Gears of War 2 (on the last level) and Mirrors Edge (on Chapter 6).

Hopefully I can finish them both up before Friday, because my entire weekend is being spent in Vegas. I’ll be flying in to attend the first ever LIVE tournament for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare at the MLG’s National Championships. There will be over $340,000 in cash prizing up for grabs overall this weekend - which will promptly be blown on hookers and blow immediately following the event. So be sure to drop me a line if you’re in Vegas or competing in the tournament. I’ll be held up at the Hard Rock where the event is taking place, so stop by and say hey. We can get together and gamble our life savings away in a horrible drunken rage. 

Treyarch’s Call of Duty: World At War hit today, so if you haven’t already picked it up, GO GET IT NOW! If I haven’t stressed it enough, Zombies are awesome. What’s even better than run of the mill everyday zombies? Nazi Zombies!

I’m going to spend most of today powering through the 4-player co-op single player in order to unlock the Nazi Zombie mode at the end. So who’s with me?

I wasn’t kidding when I said this is one of the most awesome things about World At War.

If you’re not familiar with what the hell I’m talking about - Nazi Zombies is a bonus mode after you beat the single player campaign. Essentially, it’s you  (and 3 other co-op buddies) defending an abandoned house. Every window / door is boarded up at the start and there are weapons lining the walls around the house.

Each weapon costs money, once you own a weapon, you can go to it’s place on the wall to replenish ammo (for a cost). To get the money to buy the weapons / ammo, just kill zombies. Bonus points for headshots! Every once in a while a zombie will drop a power-up (Instant Kill, Double Points, etc.) and even one that allows you to explode all zombies on screen at once (save that till you need it) which lasts for a set duration. 

The zombies will come in waves, so you have to work as a team to cover all the windows and doors, and most importantly work on rebuilding the barricades the zombies tear down in their attempt to get in. Once you hit wave 10 and over, fuck the windows, just find a secure location to defend from because your ass is going to be swarming with the nazi undead. It’s awesome.

Once you get $1000 though you can unlock more portions of the house which gives you access to even more weapons. Move a couch to access the upstairs, knock open a door to get to the basement, etc. Once you’re in the basement, you’ll have access to a random weapon box. Essentially everytime you open the box you’re entering a lottery for a random weapon. Could be a shitty pistol, or a bad ass flamethrower (which is only available in the box, not on the wall) as well as a few “special” weapons that you’ll definitely want to shoot for. 

It’s all about working together to cover and secure the windows, going for headshots, reviving your teammates when they go down into last stand, and calling out zombie positions so you can defend a certain area of the house. The highest we got in-house before it went retail was about Lvl 20, so that’s what I’m aiming for. 

So if you’re down for some co-op zombie action in World At War then hit me up, send me a message and I’ll try to add you to my friends list. 

I’m currently 32 hours into Fallout 3 and I’m STILL fully addicted to it. Now that says something about a game. What is really blowing me away about the game is the fact that I can come into the studio today and start talking about it, and everyone I talk to has completely different stories about what happened in their game. Despite us doing the same quests. The reason being, and what makes the game so unique, is every quest has multiple ways it can be solved - in many ways changing the entire course of events for that and other quests. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I won’t go into great detail, but I’m really loving this game right now.

Other than that, Gears 2 has finally arrived. I’m making my way through Single Player co-op now, and have already completed all 50 levels of Horde Mode. They have definitely brought a lot of cool new features to the table with Gears 2, especially on the UI front with their in-game friendslist via the LB button. Completely independent from the Guide system and it works beautifully. They also did an amazing job with their Achievements; making me feel like I’m ALWAYS getting rewarded for what I do. The pacing of achievements if perfect, even when I’m not getting achievements, their in-game achievement progress tracker is always reminding me that I’m working towards a big one. I love that shit! It’s the kind of stuff that pushes you to keep playing (besides the awesome gameplay). For example, I’m in horde mode, and it’s getting hellish. There’s locust coming out of the wood work and every locust I drop is a potential chance to get that sweet sweet reminder that I just hit my 400th / 500th kill. Good stuff.

So whats everyone else addicted to at the moment. It has to be something, because there are WAYYYY too many amazing games coming out at the same time. Mirrors Edge tomorrow, then Left 4 Dead, and Call of Duty: World at War. I feel sorry for our loved ones.

If I see one more Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare google alert come through my inbox, that ends up being a COD:WaW article that is only showing up because YOU referenced Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare more times than you mention World At War….

Especially when you’re pulling shit out of your ass. Come on man, interview about your game. Not OURS! Call of Duty: World at War can stand on it’s own merits, leave ours out of it. Like this gem of a quote from today’s article on CVG…

“In the previous Call of Dutys it might take three or four shots from a bolt action rifle,” he explained. “We made sure that a single shot centre mass would kill that opponent because that’s the expectation of the player.”

WTF are you talking about?! “in previous Call of Dutys blah blah blah”. First of all, you didn’t work on “previous Call of Dutys”, so don’t talk as if you’re down with how / why things were designed the way they were. Second, you’re completely fucking wrong.

Bolt Action rifles are one hit kills in every Call of Duty we (Infinity Ward) made!!

I won’t compare it to World at War’s Bolt Actions, I can’t speak to that because I don’t work there. Just like you don’t work here, so please stop talking about our games.

A rule of thumb I like to use is…. when promoting your game. Promote YOUR game. Don’t compare it to another game, or reference what OTHER games did in the past, pitch YOUR game. I mean, you have lots of cool things you could talk about… like Nazi Zombies….

Can you guys please stop interviewing this guy, talk to someone who actually works on the Dev Team at Treyarch and knows what the fuck they’re talking about. Not Senior Super Douche Noah Heller from Activision - who apparently has never played the game and doesn’t even work at the developer.

Alright, I’m done ranting… but I can’t take another google alert of garbage coming through my inbox with bullshit quotes from this guy.

Friday went by pretty quick today. It kicked off with our standard weekly Leads meeting, where all dept. leads sit down and talk about what’s happening in their individual deprtments; but once that was wrapped, I headed to the lobby to meet up with this years World Series MVP and Phillies pitcher, Cole Hamels. Seen above (on the right) with one of our resident baseball fanboys and animators, Chance Glasco (left).

For being the most highly sought after player in league right now, after securing the MVP award at the World Series recently, he’s an extremely down to earth guy and a most importantly a huge gamer as attested to by his wife who confirmed he’ll disappear for days only to reappear fully bearded from a week of uninterrupted gaming. A life style I can relate to.

Although, from talking to Cole, it seems those game-a-thons are few and far between, especially when preparing for the World Series. He said gaming during the season is typically reserved for the early hours of the morning after games, when him and fellow team mates jump on. So if you’re playing between 11pm - 2:30 am and hear an abnormal amount of baseball talk, then you know why.

We gave him a tour around the studio while he was here, and it was especially interesting when we were showing off some of our Motion Capture. Cole started talking about how he’s done it before, but not for a game. He uses Motion Capture to record and analyze his pitching form, so that they can determine how to further improve his pitching and prevent injuries.

It was a good visit. It’s always nice to meet fans of the game, especially if were fans of theirs. Cole admitted he’s not alone in his COD4 addiction, saying he typically parties up after games with fellow team mates like Adam Eaton or teams they’re facing that day like the legendary Ken Griffey Jr. 

Just goes to show, you never know who you’re going up against when you log on. 

Call of Duty 4 will be making it’s First Live Circuit Appearance at the 2008 National Championships in Las Vegas in two weeks (November 21st - 23rd) at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. Several of us here at Infinity Ward, including myself, will be flying over to Vegas to celebrate and support our community members competing in the event.

Check out what MLG had to say about the event:

Call of Duty 4, MLG’s first Online Pro Circuit title, will be featured as a live competition at the November 21-23 MLG 2008 National Championships. Throughout the 2008 Season, Call of Duty 4 teams battled it out through the course of three Online Pro Circuit Competitions. Come Vegas though, the teams will meet face-to-face for the first time this season as they do battle for some serious cash and the title of 2008 National Champion. 

The Top 8 Call of Duty 4 teams will compete in a double-elimination bracket in Vegas. Six teams have automatically qualified for the National Championships by finishing in the Top 2 in any of the three Online Pro Circuit Competitions. The other two teams have been determined by cumulative ranking points. These teams will play using a closed-circuit internet connection, ensuring the highest match quality possible. 

MLG will be providing editorial coverage of the Call of Duty 4 National Championships all weekend long, so be sure to tune in and see who will win the first Call of Duty 4 National Championship. Be sure to check out the prizes, rules, and schedule below, and remember that Vegas is open to all spectators. Best of all, spectatorship is completely free, so don’t miss out on the most intense Call of Duty 4 action of the year! 

I’ve booked a suite at the Hard Rock (where the event is taking place) so I don’t miss a single part of the action. If you are competing or going to be in Vegas during the event, be sure to drop me a line and let’s meet up. Especially if you’re competing and I don’t know about it, because we need to hook you up with some IW / COD4 swag to represent at the event.  Good luck to all of our teams competing for some cold hard cash. 

I don’t care who you vote for.

I don’t care which propositions you vote on.

Democratic, Republican, Independent, or None of the Above.

Vote.

Tomorrow (Nov. 4th) is Election Day here in the United States, which means we’ll all be taking a bit of time out of our day to go down to our local polling stations and provide our feedback and cast our opinion on who and how our country should be ran. In addition to voting and casting our opinion on important propositions in our individual states.

I understand that’s it’s easy to be cynical about politics and regardless if you feel neither of the major parties deserves your vote, still go to the polls to vote on important issues and propositions on the ballot.

While the Presidential candidate is obviously the most important decision at the polls, there are countless propositions you can give your opinion on. Whether you care about advocacy for the homeless, early childhood education, equal rights, or any other issue affecting our nation. It’s important that all of us give our feedback and opinion. 

Don’t know where to vote? Visit http://maps.google.com/vote

To locate your nearest polling station. Polls open at 7 AM tomorrow morning and close at 8 PM. 

The 26th Annual Golden Joystick Awards were held in London this past weekend, and I was stoked to get the call that we had won Four awards during the ceremony this year.  Included in those four was the Ultimate Game of the Year award as well as three other GOTY awards included below:

Nuts All-Nighter Multiplayer Game of the Year
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Infinity Ward

PC Game of the Year (Sponsored by The United Kingdom e-sport Association)
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Infinity Ward

Games Radar Online Game of the Year
Call of Duty 4 - Infinity Ward

Virgin Media Ultimate Game of the Year
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Infinity Ward

What made the awards even more humbling was the fact that they were voted on and the winners determined by over 850,000 gamers; which personally are the most rewarding accolades to get.

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who took the time to vote in the awards and honor us with these, we really do appreciate every recognition we get.  Thank you!

“Tony Stark Chris Lai was able to build this in a cave the IT dept! With a box of scraps!” Well, I’m sorry. He’s not Tony Stark…. that’s just Chris… from IT, soo…

So what are you guys doing  / playing this weekend? I kicked mine off by taking (and loling) at the picture above just before the IW Halloween party. Other than that, most of my weekend has been focused on knocking out some playtime on the shitload of games that have been coming out recently in prep for the ones coming out over the courseof the next 3 weeks.  My gaming backlog hasn’t been this long in a really long time. With LittleBigPlanet, Fable II, Fallout 3, Gears 2, LittleBigPlanet, CoD: WaW and all these other awesome games coming out back to back it’s like monsoon of awesome gaming just after a drought.

I Broke The Portals :sadface:

Started off by downloading and replaying through Portal on the Xbox Live Arcade via Portal: Still Alive. It’s essentially a stand-alone Portal with some 14 bonus “Advanced Maps” and some extra bugs for you to enjoy:

Towards the end of the game, I sent a rocket through to blow open the pipe, and just for kicks decided to try and send a rocket through the vent I was suppose to crawl out of. Instead - The entire pipe went crazy and filled the room with several hundred cubes bouncing all around.

Room filling with cubes…frame rate slowing…Xbox…Freezing…and FROZE.

Other than that, it was fun to replay through Portal again and ended up finding a Rat Man’s Den that I never saw before while seeking out the Rat Den achievement. Still can’t figure out how I’m suppose to get myself stuck in a test chamber so GLaDos has to help me out for the “Trapped Like A Rat Achievement”… anyone got that one?

Fable II Money Doesn’t Buy Happiness

The rest of the weekend was mostly spent obsessively playing Fable II (till 5 AM last night). I’ll admit, I was on the fence on whether I’d get sucked into Fable, but it’s great. A really nice break from the avalanche of shooters I’m use to playing all the time.

When I turned it on I was greeted by a big +$1,563 pop-up over my character (kind of like when you get XP in COD4), and just like getting XP in COD4, it’s a damn good feeling. Essentially, you can buy stalls / shops in town while playing. Since you own the shops, you get income from their sales every five minutes, and the best part, that counts even when you’re not playing the game. So after taking a break for a day, you get greeted ony our return with a nice chunk of change. After telling one of the guys at the studio how awesome that is (it’s always fun to be rewarded as a player), I got a hunch… that hunch led to an experiment, which lead to an exploit, which allows to get unlimited gold. BE FOREWARNED though! With great power, comes great responsibility, and I do not recommend using it… and here’s why.

It’s fun to get XP, it’s fun to get gold. When you don’t need XP or gold anymore, the fun value drops…. FAST. With that said, just be warned that I don’t advise using this because it takes away part of the fun of the game (finding / getting gold), but if there’s a sweet weapon you really have to have right now and only need a little bit, then this might be for you.

Essentially, the “get paid while not playing” mechanic was awesome, so I wanted to tinker around with it and see how it works. So I bought up a few stalls (didn’t have a lot of cash so only got 3 or 4). Saved my game, and returned to the Dashboard. Once you do that, disconnect the internet connection from your Xbox 360 and scroll on over to Console Settings > Clock > Change Time And Date. Now for testing purposes, I just put it to the furthest date possible (12/31/2025). Accepted, and loaded up Fable II again.

Loading….Loading… Loading… the anticipation was palpable.

Then there it was…. the glorious +$53,957! I’m RICH!

… but wait… just a few thousand more and I can afford to buy the Blacksmith… which mean discounts on all the weapons… And then just a few more after that and I can buy the book store… and this rifle.

It’s gets you. The hunger for more. Next thing you know you’re turning off and on your Xbox to switch the date back and forth like an addict at Crackapalooza. DON’T DO IT. I’m telling you. DON’T DO IT. The fun will be ruined.

I did it.

A few more times. Till I was getting nearly $300,000 each time, but I saw the errors of my ways. I was no longer excited when I found a chest in the wild containing a measly $300 gold, and I missed that feeling. So I gave it away. Made the people love me! Well…. at least one Beggar on the way out of Brownstone loves me now, as he’s nearly a million gold richer as well as some donated to the Temple of Light (which donating to them is a quest, so might as well do it).

The moral of the story, Money doesn’t buy happiness. Finding it does.

NAZI ZOMBIES!!

Call of Duty: World At War has FINALLY announced their Nazi Zombie mode, although the video they premiered and description of it on GametrailersTV doesn’t NEARLY do the mode justice.

I’ve been biting my tongue on this ever since I found it it hidden at the end of the World At War campaign and it is awesome. I don’t want to over hype it, because I’m a bit biased… not because its COD, but because:

1) I love Zombies.

2) I love shooting zombies in their head.

3) Like any real man, I’ve been planning my zombie apocalypse plan since I was 9.

I WILL be playing this mode more than the entire campaign. 4-Player zombie co-op, held up in a house, fighting off the Nazi undead, working cooperatively to use the money (from killing zombies of course) to buy new weapons, ammo, open passages, move furniture, and block windows? YES! YES! YES! and YES! Okay… that’s all I’m going to say on the matter. No more WaW talk from me.

Gears of War 2 Hype Train - in FULL FORCE!

I’m not going to lie. I’m extremely hyped for Gears of War 2 and on Friday that hype went into full force when I “found” a Gears of War 2 Cogtagg (pictured above in the hands of one awesome “12 inch tall Marcus Fenix”).

Epic has been doing a pretty cool viral marketing campaign of hiding actual, physical, massive, heavy ass, COG tags around major cities from Los Angeles to Syndey Australia and giving out subtle hints to fans in those areas as to where to look. Once found, a code on the COG tag leads you to their website where you can unlock an asset. I was able to snag one on Friday and it’s just as glorious as it looks.

The next month is going to be one hell of a month for gaming. I hope a get quite a bit of Fable II done before Fallout 3 hits, but I’m not going to have anytime between Fallout 3 and Gears 2. This is the year of the sequels and they’re hitting hard. Anyone else feel overwhelmed? (in a good way)

So what games are you guys looking forward to?

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