playlists

(fyi: Cpt Hammer is my PartnerNET gamertag, not my secret XBL account)

Just got finished jumping into some of QA’s playtests of the new gametypes. While they’re ensuring there are no bugs to be found, I wanted to jump in and test out how fun the playlists were. Hardcore HQ is a lot of fun because it’s a lot more fast paced than normal and HQ’s are falling a lot faster. Not a lot of waiting around in this gametype. Not to mention it’s a lot more tactical when you’re not just spamming the HQ with nades. I think I’ll be playing the Hardcore Ricochet version of Hardcore HQ a lot. 

We played several games of Second Chance Search and Destroy, which essentially just adds 1 respawn per player. A small addition, but makes a big difference in the tactics you use. Plus, it wasn’t as frustrating to be taken out early in the round because you get a second chance to do some damage. No more dying early and waiting around the entire match. The only problem I can foresee with it is the occassional spawn kill if someone gets past your defenses and gets in a position to kill your second wave of respawns before you get him out. Other than that I actually prefer Second Chance over standard Search and Destroy. I found myself missing the second life when we were playing standard. There were a few UI (user interface) bugs, but those can be taken care of really easily, just need to shorten the name of the gametype. 

Still on the fence with Sudden Death Sabotage, what do you guys think of that. It essentially just turns into Team Elimination because no one has any respawns, so everyone starts camping and never goes for the bomb. In a way, I like that, because it’s a sneaky way to get Team Elimination into the game with an extra twist, but on the other hand the rounds end really quickly. I’m worried this one might not make the cut, but we’ll see how the rest of testing goes this week.

Hardcore Ricochet is the answer to my prayers. Team Killing is non-existent and you no longer have to say “my bad” to a team mate you accidently blow to hell with a badly placed grenade. If you fuck up, you’re the only one hurting for it. Not to mention you never have to worry about having a team mate shoot an RPG into the ground at the start and killing everyone in Hardcore Search and Destroy. That alone makes this entire playlist worth it to me. 

Things are looking good. I’m still working hard on that upcoming Xbox Live promotion I told you about. Getting some final thoughts from our Art Driector on the Ads I designed for it, and securing the rest of the details. 

On a more personal note, I finally got my automatic office defense system online and operating… 

… and by that, I mean big ass NERF cannon; Which I have mounted on a mobile defensive position (aka office chair) for maximum effeniency. This battery-operated, belt fed, automatic rapid-fire dart cannon is exactly what I needed to the turn the tide of the war in my favor. You see, there’s been ongoing skirmishes with the radicals in IT for quite some time now…. around the time they covered my Master Chief in Peanut Butter while I was out of town for GDC.

Dare’s a war a’comin… pik yer side!  

It was awesome putting together this bad boy late last night after work. I felt like I was 8 years old again, sitting on the floor with one of our producers assembling and test firing it. Some toys you’re never too old to get a kick out of. If the day ever comes I think other wise, kill me…. preferrably death by NERFing. 

As you know, We’ve been playing around with a lot of different playlist variations for the last several weeks and we’ve got quite a few cool mash-ups and gametype tweaks in the wings. It’s no secret that adding new playlists (or anything to multiplayer) takes a long time. There is a lot of careful planning and consideration that goes into anything new we add to the overall gameplay experience of the game, and nothing is added unless we’re completely convinced it will add to the overall experience. So as you can imagine, we play the hell out of any new addition we even consider before we consider it “good to go”.

That said.

The good news is, we have a few playlists that can be implemented via a playlist update (no patch required) and a few that we’re determining now if they can be added; the bad news is a few of them that can only be implemented via a patch. We’re still in talks to see if a small patch is feasible within our current production schedule, so I’ll let you know as that’s determined.

Remember though, nothing is final until it’s actually released. I don’t want you guys to be disappointed if something doesn’t pass QA, but to give you an idea of what we’re currently testing and where we stand with each playlist:

Hardcore Headquarters - No Patch Required

Testing is completed for Hardcore HQ. This playlist has standard HQ rules w/ Hardcore Settings. Limited HUD, Increased Bullet Damage, and Friendly Fire Enabled.

Hardcore Ricochet Playlist - Currently Testing

We’re currently testing this playlist now to see if a patch will be required for it or not. We should know soon. This is the No Teamkilling playlist. Any damage a teamkiller attempts to do to their team mates is reflected onto themselves only. Therefore, if they attempt to shoot an RPG into the ground at the beginning of the match; the only person who will die, is the Teamkiller. This eliminates the fear of being shot in the back by some asshole, but still encourages players to play tactically and not throw random nades, because if you accidentally hit a teammate, you’re only going to end up killing yourself and they’ll go unharmed. No Teamkilling, No Random Nades. This playlist will include the variant for Hardcore Teamdeathmatch, Hardcore Search and Destroy, and Hardcore HQ.

Sudden Death Sabotage - Currently Testing

Sabotage with no respawns. Fast-paced and intense Sabotage. No more hiding with the bomb until time runs out for sudden death. Increased XP per kills to encourage Team Deathmatch mentality. Defend your objective, while attempting to secure the bomb and plant on theirs. Once you’re dead, you’re dead. No second chances. We’re currently testing to see if this can be implemented without a patch.

Second Chance Search and Destroy - Currently Testing

Search and Destroy with 1 respawn each. This completely revamps your Search and Destroy tactics. No longer will lucky frag or well-placed claymore end your chance of victory. Each player has 1 respawn, creating longer more thoughout attack / defend strategies. Eliminate enemy players, and cut off their reinforcements while you defuse.

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If all these get past Quality Assurance (Test) with zero bugs, then we’ll be able to implement these four new playlists rather quickly (once QA and Localization is finished). In addition, we plan on adding Killhouse to more playlists and adjusting the amount of XP you get in certain playlists. (i.e. double XP in hardcore and new playlists).

Hit the jump for the playlists we’d like to do, but would require some code work to implement.

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Nothing ruins a game of Hardcore Search and Destroy or Hardcore Team Deathmatch faster than an excessive team killer being a douche. So, all this talk of new playlists we’ve been doing around the studio recently (with the help of my raw hatred of team killers) got me to thinking about some Hardcore playlists variations we could possibly introduce when we do the playlist update.

What do you guys think of having the option of playing your favorite Hardcore playlists standard (HC S&D, HC TDM) in addition to Hardcore (Friendly Fire Disabled). Essentailly, standard Hardcore rules with limited hud, increased weapon damage, etc. minus the dread of team killers?

I mention it, because I think it’d be a nice option to have once we introduce Hardcore HQ and give those who love Hardcore but hate team killers a haven for some honest hardcore gameplay. So what’s the verdict? Would you like the option to play Hardcore Standard and Hardcore (No Friendly Fire)?

Note the word, option. Meaning, you can still play the way it is now (with friend fire on) or have an additional option to play without friend fire. I’m not proposing change all of Hardcore. I’m saying give an option for Hardcore lite in addition to the normal hardcore playlists there already are.

Thanks to everyone who helped play test the new playlists last weekend, as well as everyone else who volunteered to help! I received an overwhelming amount of messages, emails, and other friend invites over the past week from the community offering to help out! THANK YOU and I’m sorry we couldn’t include everyone, but the good news is the tests went great (helped us find a few bugs with the new settings) as well as come to final decisions.

That said, we’ve already begun the process to add the new playlists to the game. Don’t get your hopes up just yet, as there is currently no ETA on when you can expect to see them go LIVE, but as soon as I know when you can expect them, I’ll let you know. I’ve walked you through the process we’re going through now at the end of this post. It’s not a long process, but still a process nonetheless.

Hit the jump for a full breakdown of the playlists we’ll be adding, as well as the process involved in adding new playlists to the game.

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Thanks to everyone who commented, sent in emails, or contacted me via other means; including the epic presentation I received via the mail this morning containing an entire breakdown of a new game mode complete with a full-size fold out poster (thanks Ian!!).

I received a lot of great suggestions and feedback regarding new playlists you guys would like to see, and this weekend I’m going to be hosting a series of private matches in Call of Duty 4 to test them out. So if you haven’t already, be sure to drop me a message on Xbox Live / PSN as I’ll be cleaning off room on my friends list and inviting anyone interested to help out this weekend.

Some of the gametypes we’re going to test out this weekend are:

Bare-bones Team Deathmatch

No more excuses. No more blaming Martyrdom or Juggernaut for your lack of skills and kills. Bare Bones Team Deathmatch eliminates the excuses and takes it back to basics with standard Team Deathmatch with no perks, no kill streak rewards. Just you, your skill, and your weapons.

Hardcore HQ

Hardcore HQ requires a lot more than just spamming the HQ position with nades and running in guns blazing. Hardcore HQ encourages more tactical gameplay and communication to win with increased damage, no HUD elements, and friendly fire on.

Multi-bomb Search and Destroy

Multi-bomb Search and Destroy starts every member of the attacking team with a bomb. So everyone has the opportunity to plant if they’re good enough.

Hardcore FFA

Even faster paced Free For Alls, where every bullet counts and playing smart is key for a solid k/d ratio. Standard Free for All rules, with Hardcore mode enabled for extra damage, no HUD, and no health re-gen.

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That’s the plan for this weekend. I’ll be setting up private rooms all weekend long and inviting everyone online and interested into the lobby to test them out. If we all like them, then come Monday when I get back to the studio, we’re going to work on adding them as new playlists.

If all goes well, I’d like to make this a weekly weekend event with you guys, where we log on every Saturday to try out new stuff you guys come up with, what we like stays, what we don’t goes! So log on this weekend to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, send me a friend request or a message letting me know you want to play, and let’s get some games going testing these out. See you online this weekend!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM8cz-RYy2s]

I spent most of my time, this past extended weekend, playing Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare multiplayer with a lot of you from the community. The cool thing is, like most games that have been out for a while, the community starts creating their “own versions” of gametypes or completely making up new ones that they play in Private Match. So I spent a good deal of my time online this weekend in private matches with several readers of this blog, playing some community made gametypes. Such as one of our games of “Michael Myers” that one of the players in the game apparently recorded last night that can be found above.

If you’re not familiar with the Mike Myer’s gametype, it essentially boils down to hide and seek. Hit the jump for a full description of how to play it, but that’s not the point of this post.

The point is. Talk of new playlists has sprung up again here at the studio, and I’m pushing to get another playlist update for the game, hopefully adding some gametypes or revamped playlists. This weekend really got me thinking about what we can do. Essentially anything you can make up in Private Match (by tweaking settings / rules) can be used as a new playlists / gametype. Something as making more hardcore gametypes hardcore, or something more complex like a completely new mode.

That said, I’m looking for a group of people who’d be interested in getting together for some private matches and trying out some community made gametypes, or throwing in ideas for rule sets / settings that could make for some interesting gameplay. We obviously have some ideas already of what we’ve like to do, but I’m interested in playing all the community Gametypes that you guys have already come up with and seeing how fun they are. I’ve played Zombie (that’s a given), and quite a few other, but if you have any cool gametype you and your friends have come up with in COD4, let me know. Let’s play it.

Drop me a message online and I’ll make some room on my friends list, and we’ll get games going this week / weekend to try some of them out, or leave your gametype ideas / suggestions / rules in the comments!

For how to play “Mike Myers” or “Manhunt” as well as a summary of how our games went this weekend, hit the jump.

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Heads up, that the new DLC maps from the Variety Map Pack are now integrated throughout the other playlists, in addition we’ve removed the Variety Map Pack exclusive playlists and heavily seeded the new maps in exisiting ones. Which means you have a higher chance of playing new maps in exisiting playlists. With that change, also came the end of Double XP.

So what was the average rank you guys ranked up during double XP? Anyone do any entire prestige during it?

Hey Everyone –

As you know, the Variety Map Pack for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare went up on Xbox Live at 6:30 AM this morning. I wanted to give you the details on how it all works for now and how it’s all going to work in a couple of days.

Once you’ve downloaded the maps you’ll notice two new playlists:

Variety Team Deathmatch

Variety Team Objective

These two playlists will only contain the new map packs on the Team Deathmatch and Objective gametypes, and is currently the only place you can play the new maps. Players on these two new playlists may be able to grab some extra XP this first weekend, so keep your eye on it closely.

DON’T WORRY THOUGH, I already know what you’re thinking…”but I want to play all the gametypes on the new maps!”… and you will; because over the upcoming days the new maps will also be added to all other playlists and gametypes. This will allow people to get some gametype on the new maps right out the gate and get familiar with them on the more popular gametypes without dividing the community in half. Over the next few days as more and more people download the maps and join in, the maps will start showing up in the map rotation for all playlists.

So in short:

New Maps are in the Variety playlists.

In the upcoming days the new maps are going to be added to the rotation of all the playlists.

Let me know if you guys have any questions or problems, meanwhile ENJOY THE MAPS and I’ll see you online!

The weekly battle for the “Most Played Game on Xbox Live” continues this week with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare still holding the #1 spot for 4 weeks straight and managing to keep Halo 3 from retaking the throne. I had a chance to talk with quite a few of the Bungie guys at GDC this past week, mostly at the Microsoft party, and I could tell that neither one of us were going to slip off the top of the charts without a fight.

With the release of our Feature patch and DLC coming closer and closer every day, and plenty of new playlist ideas being thrown around for Call of Duty 4 multiplayer I know we can keep the fight going for a long long time. I love these weekly number checks because it provides a great opportunity to give you guys a weekly update on how things are going here at the studio with those updates, so with that said…

I got word that the Xbox 360 Feature patch could be ‘very very close’, I can’t tell you exactly when because they haven’t passed on that information but apparently certification went fantastic and I was given the Green light to take care of some things that I have to do before it goes live to you guys, which means good things. I’m not going to get any hopes up, but I hope to be seeing some new Kill Cams by the weekend if we’re lucky. Don’t hold me to that though, but I have a good feeling about it.

The Ps3 Feature Patch has officially made it’s way off to Sony and has been going through the certification process, this one should be a rather quick turnaround hopefully so I’m not expecting too much delay on this at all. I will keep you updated as much as I can on it’s progress.

Hit the jump for DLC talk…

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This week we’re seeing the result of Round 2 for the fight up the Xbox Live charts for the prestigious “King of Xbox Live” spot and according to Xbox’s Major Nelson, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has once again taken the #1 spot of the most played game on Xbox Live for the week of 1/28 away from Halo 3.

This battle for the #1 spot has been causing a surge of “Call of Duty 4 vs Halo 3″ articles and forum debates, and I don’t think the question is necessarily as easy as “which game is better”, because that’s all just opinions. Both amazing games, the question I have is who will stay on top, and do I think we can stay on top?

So can we stay on top? Yes.

Why do I think that? Well…

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