Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Hands-On Preview: Back to Basics
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05.18.2018 13:00:13
While Call of Duty has been a staple of gaming for over a decade, the Black Ops series has proven so popular that it's nearly become a brand in itself. Treyarch has put together a solid reputation over its past several iterations of Activision's long-running franchise, but something about Black Ops 4 felt both contemporary and refreshingly familiar.
Shacknews had a chance to try out the Black Ops 4 multiplayer on Thursday and walked away with a few observations. The first of which is that this feels a lot like classic Call of Duty.
The first thing to note is that movement has returned to a sense of normalcy. While Black Ops III prided itself on frenetic movement, Black Ops 4 takes a step back by removing thrust jumping and wall running. There's still unlimited sprint to offer a sense of speed and locomotion, but removing a lot of the verticality makes multiplayer feel more reliant on close quarters action and on teamwork.
Specialists are back from Black Ops III, both new and old. Utilizing some of their abilities might be the one instance where wall running and thrust jumping were missed, because crazy jumping/wall running combos into a Specialist's special ability was one of the most fun elements of Black Ops III. That isn't to say that Specialists don't have their uses in Black Ops 4, because their abilities not only work to great benefit in this game, but also appear more acclimiated to team play. For example, there's Crash, one of Call of Duty's first dedicated medics, who can heal teammates or boost their health, while Recon can use his Vision Pulse to reveal foes on the minimap.
One other item to note is that automatic healing is out the window. Players must manually heal using stimpacks that are tied to the left shoulder button. This is one of the more welcome changes to the CoD formula, particularly for snipers that are playing from afar. There were several instances where I was firing from long distance. If I was discovered from afar and plunked in the chest, I could back off to safety and heal myself. Players are encouraged to think strategically about where and when they opt to heal, since these periods are one of the few instances where a player is completely defenseless.
Only four game modes were shown off on Thursday, three of them returning from classic Call of Duty games. Team Deathmatch, Domination, and Hardpoint are all back and just as frantic as ever. The newest game mode is Control, in which two teams battle in a best of five rounds to capture a pair of control points. Each team only has a limited number of lives, making it possible to win by simply outlasting the other squad. Each team is also given an extra push by the fact that an unsuccessful point capture does not reset the progress meter, making it more critical to contest the point. While I could appreciate the thought behind Control, it's definitely not for CoD novices, as they could quickly become liabilities by gobbling up the finite number of lives available. On top of that, this game mode lasted much longer than the others and has the potential to drag on. The best of five formula may prove to be too much in this instance.
Many other elements of Black Ops 4's multiplayer will feel familiar to series veterans. The Pick 10 system returns, allowing players to stack up on attachments or perks. Maps are appropriately labyrinthine, with some featuring underwater areas. Others feature central combat zones, like a dilapidated church in the middle of the Seaside map. And of course, there are the multitude of Scorestreak perks, like the attack chopper and the Hellstorm missile. There's nothing drastically different here and series fans should feel right at home.
There's much more to Black Ops 4, but Activision and Treyarch weren't quite ready to show off the game's Zombies mode or Blackout, the series' first stab at a Battle Royale mode. More information on those modes are more than likely coming soon.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is set to release on October 12 on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.
The 4 Most Disappointing Features Revealed for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
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05.18.2018 12:00:16 Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 had a lot of information revealed today during its live event. Everything from new weapons to impressive visuals but not everything was worth getting excited about. The new direction the series has taken left many shocked, and not in a good way. Here are the 4 most disappointing features confirmed for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is Familiar, Fast-Paced and Fluid Yet Feels Fresh | COGconnected
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05.18.2018 12:00:16 COGconnected: We attended the Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 reveal event and spent hours hands-on with the competitive multiplayer. We're digging the changes Treyarch's bringing to the franchise.
Tom Clancys The Division 2: Ubisoft Promises More Content at Launch and a Lot More Afterward
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05.18.2018 11:00:07 Ubisoft admits that the first The Division lacked content, and promises a lot of it at launch, and more coming in the following years.
Free Rental: God of War, Far Cry 5, More In The US
Posted:
05.18.2018 11:00:07
Here's a great deal for anyone who wants to try out a game for free. Between now and May 21, Redbox is offering a free one-day rental of any PS4 or Xbox One game you can find in stock. All you have to do is select the game you want right here and choose where you want to pick it up. Thanks to an automatic coupon, the one-day rental becomes free in your cart.
You have to pick up the game by 9 PM (local time) the day you reserve it. And if you don't return it by 9 PM the following evening, you'll be charged $3 for an extra day--and $3 for every day after that. Even so, this is a great deal if you want to play a game for a day, or try a game you think you might want to buy.
On Xbox One, you can rent newer games like Far Cry 5, Sea of Thieves, and Metal Gear Survive, alongside older games like Fallout 4 and Minecraft. Unfortunately, no Nintendo Switch games are available to rent through Redbox at the moment.
So hop over to the Redbox website and reserve the game of your choice now. Just make sure to do it soon, because the deal ends Monday.
Some links to supporting retailers are automatically made into affiliate links, and GameSpot may receive a small share of those sales.
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05.18.2018 11:00:07 FOX n FORESTS is a 16-bit style action platformer with RPG elements! Switch seasons on the fly and wield your crossbow to unveil the mystery of the 5th season.
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05.18.2018 09:00:16 One-of-a-kind breakdance battle game Floor Kids, featuring the legendary scratch DJ Kid Koala, has arrived on Steam. Explore the City to find new characters and locations and create a crew in your quest for breakdancing domination.
(TKC) BF3 - Fly Maps, fast vehicle spawn.. Noob Friendly!:25200
(TKC) RS2V - NFO Fast Server - Noobs Welcome!:7777
You can easily find any of our servers by using the "Server Status" tab. You can also find our servers at the bottom of our forums at: http://www.clan-tkc.com/phpBB or at GameTracker: http://www.gametracker.com/clan/thekillingcommitteeclan/. If you need any help finding our servers in-game, just come to our forums, post a topic and we'll try to help you out.
TKC servers are well run and every attempt is made to ensure a fun gaming environment. No racist or rude behavior is tolerated on any of our servers. TKC tries to have round the clock administration for it's servers but obviously sometimes a server will have no admin playing so if you witness any abuse for any game please attempt to report the offending players nickname, and if possible GUID here: "Server Vistors Complaint". Just give as many details as you can remember such as what the player was doing/saying. In addition cheating is not tolerated on our servers. We are protected by any of a number of different cheat tools at any given time including; VAC, steambans.com, pbbans.com, ggc-stream.com, metabans, pbscreens.com and punkbuster, depending on the game. If caught cheating your information will be submitted to the appropriate cheat tracker and you will be added to their database which will ban your Steam ID, PB GUID or EA GUID depending on the game and website.
When available we also offer ways for players, in-game, to contact admins to report bad behavior. These come in the form of game server plugins. Players will, if the server has the option available, have the option to report a player using, @report [player] [reason] or @admin [reason] to call an admin to the server. If an admin doesn't respond in a timely manner, please use the @report option so we can follow up on it later or use "Server Vistors Complaint" as mentioned above. If an admin is not available, we also try to give the players the opportunity to use @votekick [player] or @voteban [player] [reason]. This allows the guests to our server the ability to kick or temporarily ban a player who is breaking rules.
Profanity - Many of the games we play have very bad language, some don't, that should make a difference in how we enforce our rules. For that reason we are going to implement a new rule, which will seem strange at first, but there is reason behind it. Bad language will only be tolerated on Teamspeak channels for games where there is bad language in the game. In other words, since there is bad language in Bad Company 2, bad language will be acceptable in the Bad Company 2 Teamspeak channel and on the Bad Company 2 servers. On our Half-Life 2 DM Teamspeak channel and game server, bad language will not be allowed. Future games will also be handled in this manner. The reason, we do not want to exclude members with different beliefs. If I buy a game and one of the selling points for me was the fact that it did not have bad language, that should be respected. I do not want a father or grandfather having to explain bad language to their children or grandchildren because they heard profanity on a TKC Teamspeak channel they thought was free of such things.
How to deal with with Mic/Text spammers - No one wants to listen to a lot of unrelated chatter either on the game server, or Teamspeak. No one wants to see a lot of text spamming either. It's distracting to some, and in the case of Bad Company 2, causes lag problems when the text log gets too long. If someone is talking or typing too much, respectfully ask them to stop. If they continue, you may have to mute or kick them, and if they continue after that, a ban might be in order. When on Teamspeak, a certain amount of "visiting" is fine, but the gamers who want to communicate tactical information to others playing shouldn't have to constantly interrupt talk about the latest CPU, or talk of what's going on at school. If someone is talking too much and you don't feel like you want to address it, PM a clan leader and we can handle the situation.
Team Switching - In some games this is a big no-no and if you are admin for one of those games, ask the player to go back, if they don't and you have the ability, move them back manually. If you continue to have problems, kick/ban them. In other games, like Bad Company 2, team switching usually isn't as big a deal. Sometimes friends or clan members might want to play together, in that case, try to facilitate them and swap some people around. This will show you to be respectful of community and they will probably be very appreciative of your efforts. If there is a mass exodus of people from a bad team to a good team, you can mention in-game that people need to stop. If someone is ignoring you and continues to unbalance the teams, just kick them off the server. For a game like Half-Life 2, teams change after each round, so trying to put clan members together is just a waste of time, that is why team switching is considered bad.
Hacking/Cheating - This is the most overused excuse for kicking someone off of a server. Players are unjustly booted off servers all the time simply because they were too good. That is not fair. Do not base a decision on cheating on a single round, if it isn't really ridiculous score-wise, sometimes people just have great rounds. But if they continue to have an unbelievable K/D ratio, then you might need to ban them. Sometimes it might be necessary to ban someone just because they are killing the server. For me, this is the thing I hate to do the most. That person might be doing nothing wrong, other than being really good at a game. Try to put yourself in their shoes and only ban guys who are really obvious. I don't want to see anyone being banned for an aimbot because they went 29-0. I and many others have had a better score than that, it DOES happen. You have to consider how the person is playing the game. Are they playing as recon? Are they in the heli with a really good pilot? Sometimes, if you are unsure, it might be best to ask the opinion of a clan leader. Remember, visitors to our servers have the ability and a forum to complain about unjust behavior from our server admins. If someone complains about you, you want to know that you did everything by the book.
Soldier Names/Nicknames - We will not allow names that are offensive to anyone. I think we can all use our best judgement here, but if you are unsure, ask another admin what they think of the name and come to a consensus before taking action. Players using racist names should be perm banned immediately. It does no good talking to someone like that because they're only goal is to cause trouble.
Banter and Trash Talking - Now its okay to joke around, but if several players are going at it constantly on the mic or in chat just nicely ask them to stop. If it continues warn them again that if they don't stop they will be kicked, if for no other reason that mic/text spamming. If they ignore this warning then go ahead and kick them. A certain amount of this is fine as long as it's good natured, however sometimes this can lead to hard feelings so you have to use your best judgement of when something is going too far or things are starting to get out of hand.
Racist/intolerant behavior - This is a subject that we will show no mercy on. If someone is being a racist, and that means they are hating on blacks, whites, browns, yellows, whatever the case may be, they get perm banned. No warnings, no kicks, just ban them. We don't need that kind of intolerant behavior on our servers. I don't care if the person is joking, I don't care what his real intent was, if he's spewing hate speech, he's gone. This also applies to someone who is spewing hate speech against a group of people, like Muslims, Christians, agnostics, atheists whoever. We are a gaming clan. This is our hobby and it's supposed to be fun. Everyone who comes to a TKC server should be respected and able to play the game hassle free. Not everyone believes the same, and if someone can't get over it and comes to our server with an agenda that includes racist or intolerant speech, I expect you guys to bring the hammer down swiftly.
Metabans - We will use Metabans only for cheaters and will verify each ban using Cheat-O-Meter. This will ensure that we are not forcing our Metabans followers into banning players we have banned for breaking rules other than cheating. If we deem you are cheating and Cheat-O-Meter doesn't really indicate cheating and we can not find information about you or your clan tag, meaning there is no website or previous information on you as a player or clan that we can cross reference, we will ban you on our servers, but not Metabans. Clans must have a website that we can find and access to be considered legit, otherwise we will view your tags as hogwash and your suspect behavior will be deemed as cheating. Again, we will not add a ban that is not supported by Cheat-O-Meter to Metabans.
We want everyone to have the best time possible so do your best to maintain a good gaming atmosphere, then everyone can have a good time.
To join TKC you only have to read our "Code of Conduct" and then apply for membership by filling out an online application. After submitting your application you will become a "member candidate". You will be allowed to wear our tags but only as (tkc), all letters in lowercase. As you progress, as seen by our members, you will be advanced to (Tkc), then (TKc) and then finally (TKC). You will receive emails at each step with detailed instructions on what you need to do. To obtain your full membership and the right to wear the (TKC) tags, you will have to pass a vote by the TKC members. Only those members who have gotten to know you will vote. An 80% yes vote will be required for full admission. Please keep in mind that full membership takes 8 weeks.
For you to be accepted you will need to display good manners, sportsmanship, and the ability to follow our rules. This applies to all game server activitiy and forum participation. If you do not feel you can meet our requirements we respectfully ask that you not apply as we have many who want to join and we can not waste time on gamers who are not serious about membership.
So now you're a member of TKC congrats! It is important for you to note that membership in TKC is not a lifetime privilege. Only the clan founders Big Flem and Squidward have lifetime membership and can not be removed. Clan leaders expect it's members to participate in clan activites when they can, and to be an ACTIVE member in the clan. We consider active members to be members who regularly post on the forums, participate in clan activities when possible, and communicates and develops friendships inside the clan. We do NOT consider a member to be active if they only ever play on our servers and nothing more. The leaders of this clan work hard to organize events and if you can't support these activities, can't check and post on the forums at least once or twice a week, then you are not TKC material and eventually you will be kicked from the clan. If you do not think you can meet these requirements as a member of TKC, then please don't attempt to gain entry into the clan as you will only waste your time, and ours.
Beyond administration positions such as "Clan Leader", "Division Leader", etc, the answer is no. However we do have achievable military style ribbons and medals that can be won for various acts. You may see each members ribbon and medal "Display Case" by going to the "Members" tab and under each members profile clicking the "Awards" icon. Below is each award and how you obtain that award. Note that medals also have an associative ribbon:
Ribbons(Hover over information icon for description)
In the past TKC had too many admins on our servers and things got a little out of hand. We are not looking for any new admins, however if we feel you will make a good addition to that team we will ask you. Being a server admin is not fun and games. It requires you to WORK, and follow server administrator rules which are well defined once you become an admin. Our admins are forced to stop playing whatever game they might be playing, and work to secure and maintain server tranquility reguarly. If you are an admin that does not mean you will get to run willy nilly and ban, kick, and torture at will. Admins who do not follow our rules will be stripped of admin duties and power. In addition there are more requirements of admins such as, reguarly checking our server admins forum. Once you become an admin you will be given access to this forum and you must check and read it quite often. It is a way for admins to help one another by posting their thoughts on what is going on, who to watch closely, etc. Do not ask us constantly to be an admin, that is the surest way I know to never become an admin. Our leaders will identify the best candidates for admin duties if we think it necessary.
No. In order to have an official TKC server it must meet certain standards. In addition, we might not want a server for a particular game, and if you aren't an admin, then you shouldn't have admin authority on any server. Official TKC servers have to be setup as close to identical as possible. This means that the clan leaders must have all access to any of it's servers including the ability to restart that server, gain access via FTP and game panel. It means that the clan leaders can setup the server with it's normal settings and add the usual addons. In short, if you want to have your own server then that is fine, but don't try to name it "Boom Boom Room" or tie it in any way to TKC.
Clan TKC maintains several servers that are open to it's clan members and the public. In addition TKC has other expenses that require money. To pay the bills TKC relies on it's members and visitors to donate. Without these donations, TKC will cease to exist. Please consider donating money when you can. We do our best to use the money wisely, to invest in TKC, to invest in PC gaming.
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Medal of Honor
