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Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will have dedicated PC servers
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will feature ranked dedicated PC servers, according to Treyarch's tech director.In a brief tweet (even for tweeting standards), Cesar Stastny of Treyarch wrote: "Confirmed: Ranked Dedicated Servers for #BlackOps2."The Call of Duty series has gone back and forth on the server issue, seemingly dependent on what developer in Activision's arsenal was in charge of the project. Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 2 was MIA on support, Black Ops by Treyarch brought it, then Modern Warfare 3 got waffly. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will engage retail on several platforms November 13.
EA: lack of official Battlefield 3 servers due to rentals
Battlefield 3 players recently noticed that all of DICE's official servers for the game appeared to be unavailable, and they wondered: What's up with that? What's up with that, EA says, is that the game was too popular. DICE runs a number of official servers, but those servers can also be rented by players, and if too many players rent official servers, they can appear to be unavailable. But EA and DICE say they want what's best for players, so DICE will keep an eye on the policy, and "will reserve a percentage of servers for players who prefer to connect through DICE-hosted servers."The publisher hopes that will answer player concerns. And if not ... free XP? Starting tomorrow through Sunday, Battlefield 3 is hosting another double XP weekend for all ranked servers and matches, with players earning twice as much experience as usual. This special weekend isn't a direct response to the server concerns, but hey, free points are free points.
Modern Warfare 3's dedicated PC servers are unranked, unlocks controlled by admin
Modern Warfare 3's dedicated PC servers will be unranked and admins will have complete control over what's unlocked, Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling said in a PC FAQ. Public PC servers will be ranked and feature a standard unlock system, while consoles will strictly use P2P, with no option for dedicated servers, ranked, unranked or with randomly assigned unicorn mounts. That's right -- no unicorns. Bowling defended the decision on his Twitter, saying the admin control of dedicated PC servers will be "Nothing like COD4. That's why we built in all the new backend control / security, so we don't have that problem again." Bowling also said that no one on PC is forced to play P2P servers; it all depends on what you want to get out of the game: "Public is about progression, private is about control."
Gears of War 3 multiplayer preview: Dedicated to the fans
When Gears of War 2 launched, its mutliplayer community quickly singled out two distinct issues: the nerfed shotgun and a mess of glitches, including a host exploit that was allowing unscrupulous players to gain an unfair advantage. Epic would eventually address these issues through title updates, but one serious problem remained: all of those damn cheaters. These ne'er-do-wells plagued the community until the bottom fell out, leaving only a dedicated core group of players. You won't find too many folks playing much Gears 2 these days. For Gears of Wars 3 multiplayer, Epic is adding dedicated servers, the community's most requested feature, which design director Cliff Bleszinski describes as "the best way" to combat cheating. %Gallery-117484%
Breach patch claims to reduce lag on PC
Atomic Games announced a patch for the PC version of its downloadable shooter, Breach, designed to ameliorate lag issues. Along with "many" fixes for the lag problems, the patch corrects a number of bugs, including errors found in Sole Survivor and Retrieval games. Find the full patch notes after the break to find out if your favorite bug has been addressed. The new patch allows players to run Dedicated Server matches without having the Steam client running (see more info on dedicated servers here), and also adds user-configurable ports for the dedicated server function.
Homefront dev explains the importance of dedicated servers
Following the wildly negative reaction to Modern Warfare 2's lack of dedicated servers on PC, one of the marketing bullet points for THQ's FPS Homefront has been its promise of such dedicated servers -- not only on PC, but on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, as well. But how important are they? "You have to think about your constraints when you're making a game," Homefront senior designer Brian Holinka, of developer Kaos Studios, explained to us at a recent press event for the game. "If we host a server on a console, all of a sudden, that console is both server and it's playing the game. That really lowers everything: player count, the number of vehicles, everything. Dedicated servers allow us to offload all that work and basically all the client has to worry about is running the game." Through dedicated servers, Homefront will support a chaotic 16-versus-16 online mode, where every player can summon a vehicle at will. "It means everything is bigger -- there's more players, more vehicles, more targets, more airstrikes," Holinka hyped. "It really helps us offload a lot of work," he reiterated about the servers, "and now our scope is a lot bigger." But can you really call a 32-player match "a lot," when a game like MAG has littered the virtual battlefield with 256 players? We asked Holinka why Kaos wasn't using the dedicated servers to expand the number of players per match even further, and he reminded us that "we had more in Frontlines," the studio's previous game. Apparently, the team tested out larger battles for Homefront, but "it just didn't work," Holinka said. "We just found it wasn't fun. It just plays better at 32." "If you played a level with 50 or 60 people in there," the developer found, "every time you turn around, you'd get shot."
Breach release date broached: January 26
Breach -- the game one guy breached the law to get an early copy of -- has finally been dated for release on Wednesday, January 26 by developer Atomic Games, which will self-publish the title. The date applies to the "worldwide" availability of both the XBLA and PC versions of the multiplayer shooter, breaching initial plans to stagger the releases starting this past summer. The PC version -- available in boxed-copy format or as a download -- will retail for $20, while the XBLA game has been set at $15 (1200 points). The premium PC edition will indeed be backed by a little more oomph, featuring Nvidia PhysX tech (i.e., "larger explosions"), a "higher performance" Hardcore Mode ("to play the way operatives train") and dedicated servers. Breach the break [STOP THAT - Ed.] for some new gameplay footage.
Digital Extremes developing PC version of Homefront
THQ is showing off the PC version of Homefront for the first time at Gamescom this week, thanks to the efforts of Digital Extremes. The publisher announced that Digital Extremes, best known for Pariah, Dark Sector and for assisting on BioShock 2, is developing the PC release. According to THQ executive producer Frank De Lise, DI won't simply be dropping Kaos Studios' North Korean invasion-themed FPS onto PC. "We're building on the great game that Kaos Studios is making and enhancing it with specific PC relevant features," De Lise said, listing dedicated servers and clan support specifically. "We believe the core PC first-person-shooter fan will really appreciate these features, which are becoming increasingly rare." Who could that statement be directed at?
Call of Duty: Black Ops to feature dedicated PC servers
In a recent interview with UK gaming mag PC Zone, Treyarch head Mark Lamia announced that Call of Duty: Black Ops -- unlike the last Call of Duty game on PC -- will feature dedicated servers for PC players. "I think dedicated servers are excellent. I don't see any reason not to see them unless ... well, I just don't see any reason not to," Lamia responded when asked about Black Ops' PC iteration, reports CVG. Covering his bases (and likely not trying to insult Infinity Ward's reasoning behind not supporting dedicated servers), Lamia added, "We do work very hard to reconcile the desire to manipulate and modify those dedicated servers with offering them the persistent experience and benefits that the console system provides ... so people can run dedicated servers and also participate in the communal experience the console players get to have, given they're all on first-party servers." And with that, it would seem that Treyarch will give us a chance to officially leap through the air while raining an unlimited supply of explosives on the ground below us when the game arrives this November. Hooray?
Command & Conquer 4 won't have LAN support or dedicated servers
Based on the precedent set by your reaction to similar news for StarCraft 2 and Modern Warfare 2, we're guessing you're not going to like the information Command & Conquer 4 lead designer Sam Bass recently shared with Destructoid. According to him, the FMV-filled strategy title won't provide any LAN or dedicated server support to its players. These two features were apparently struck from the game in favor of a server-based character progression system. Bass explained "if you go to another machine -- friend's house, Internet café -- whatever, you can login with your profile and all the stuff you've unlocked is accessible to you there. It all lives on a server so you can't really do dedicated servers with that." He also explained that the game's online networking is "a lot more solid," so you won't be left completely high and dry, as far as multiplayer skirmishes are concerned. Still, we're worried about the future of the LAN-friendly strategy game, which appears to be turning into an endangered species. We've contacted Bono to see if he'd lend his musical support to a charity concert event. %Gallery-67669%
No dedicated servers or LAN play for BioShock 2
Over on The Cult of Rapture, 2K Marin has posted a Q&A on BioShock 2 multiplayer. First of all, on all platforms, the game doesn't have distinct ranked and unranked multiplayer options. All public matches, including those played with friends, will be ranked and posted to leaderboards. Meanwhile, private, invite-only matches will not post to leaderboards. The game will also keep friends on the same teams and employs a matchmaking system to find opponents of similar skill levels. Also, the game does not include an option to kick troublesome players. 2K Marin suggests that players report any cheaters and griefers, quit and find a different match. And now for the big one: BioShock 2 does not support dedicated servers or LAN play on any platform. According to 2K Marin, the development schedule didn't allow enough time to create a solid multiplayer component and implement dedicated servers and LAN play. The site reads, "We chose to spend the time we had creating a solid game foundation and unfortunately that did not include LAN play or dedicated servers." So there you have it.
DICE explains Battlefield Bad Company 2 dedicated server rentals
One of the many volleys in DICE's Battlefield Bad Company 2 marketing campaign meant to sway Modern Warfare 2 loyalists towards its upcoming shooter was the promise of dedicated servers for PC players. That said, when the Swedish game development house recently announced a rental service for those interested in using said dedicated servers, some folks were less than thrilled. According to producer Gordon Van Dyke in an interview with Eurogamer, the reasoning doesn't have to do with profits so much as protecting "the game's integrity on PC." Van Dyke also indicates that DICE's "authorized hosts" have already been chosen worldwide, though he notes that the studio "will see where the game goes and support it post-launch." At very least, PC gamers will get a chance to find out if the rental fee is worth it when the game goes into PC beta on January 28. %Gallery-43916%