Saturday, June 30, 2012

Upcoming for MW3 (Info as of July 1st)

I see some people are getting here from looking for July's content drop (see here), but this post is just a general update.

Here are a few things you can look forward to over the remainder of MW3's life-span:

A patch for lag is coming.

- A patch for spawns is coming.

- A weapon balance pass has now been implemented (video).

- Terminal is coming July 17 for Elite premium and July 18 for all other Xbox players for free.  Considering the release dates for the free Face Off maps my guess is that PS3 players will get Terminal August 16th and 17th.  PC is anyone's guess.

- Face Off maps will get alternative game modes each weekend.

- The DLC calendar was just updated and it probably now shows the final DLC count: 12 maps, 8 missions, 5 Face Off maps, and 1 game mode (Chaos Mode).

Also, I think it's safe to assume that the patches for lag and spawns are as much for MW3 as they are for IW's next game.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Mark Rubin Tweets #47

Two things stuck out in my most recent browse through Mark Rubin's twitter feed, the first one is that they are looking at getting other game types going on the Face Off maps:




The other is that PC players may be getting Face Off maps this week:


Friday, June 15, 2012

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

MW3 Will Not Get Gun DLC

I browsed through Mark Rubin's tweets again and Mark doesn't say it explicitly, but it's in between the lines so to speak. On top of what I already posted I found the following:

https://twitter.com/IWMarkRubin/status/213072658168954880

https://twitter.com/IWMarkRubin/status/213088460137963520

https://twitter.com/IWMarkRubin/status/213088710751813632

https://twitter.com/IWMarkRubin/status/213037988559589376

https://twitter.com/IWMarkRubin/status/213039945709924352

https://twitter.com/IWMarkRubin/status/213039658865668096

https://twitter.com/IWMarkRubin/status/213054923674361860

https://twitter.com/IWMarkRubin/status/213054923674361860

https://twitter.com/IWMarkRubin/status/212715043199008768

https://twitter.com/IWMarkRubin/status/212715284920934401

https://twitter.com/IWMarkRubin/status/212716238584020992

https://twitter.com/IWMarkRubin/status/212716616515981313

https://twitter.com/IWMarkRubin/status/212717568463605763

https://twitter.com/IWMarkRubin/status/212731163264028673

https://twitter.com/IWMarkRubin/status/213027187383746563

There are too many to do the thing where I make an image of the tweet and post the image as well.  Suffice it to say that gun DLC won't happen in MW3.

Survival Mode Strategies: Mission



I played Mission a couple of times back when the game first came out but ignored it since then.  I had gotten to 24 which was good enough for the Unstoppable title/achievement, and put me at 20,000 or so on the leaderboards.  Today I thought I'd kill some time and gave it another shot.  I didn't come up with a strategy per se, but here are a couple of spots I found useful:


For normal waves the raised platform in the top right is a pretty good spot.  You have some cover, the enemies bunch up mostly along the fat yellow line, and if you are using a delta or riot shield squad they will rappel down right there and stay pretty much along the red line.

For helicopter waves:


Jump onto the air support box, then onto the pile of cement bags next to it and the helicopters won't be able to shoot at you.  The enemies that come up along the green line are easy to kill, however the enemies that come up along the yellow line are more difficult.  They have some cover and are harder to see, but it's still a pretty decent spot for the early waves.

For juggernaut waves there's no strategy, just run loops and thin out the enemies, and take out the juggernauts at your leisure.

I got up to wave 33 putting me in the top 600 on the leaderboards which really surprised me.  Give it a try or two and you'll be able to get a decent rank on this map.

Mission is a Tier 2 map.
Helicopter waves: 6, 15, 24, 30, 36
Juggernaut waves: 9, 12, 18, 21, 27, 33, 39

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

More Mark Rubin Tweets

I also added these tweets to the original Mark Rubin post because I don't know where they are most likely to be seen:

AK-74u:



Rust and Shipment:


So Rust, Shipment and the AK-74u are not planned, and Rust and Shipment are not in development (which takes over 2 weeks anyway) which means the soonest Rust and Shipment will get here is July, but that's only if they haven' planned July's DLC yet which is very unlikely.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Pitch Meeting for MW3


I know of a humor columnist who writes about these types of pitch meetings for movies. Here's the pitch meeting for New Year's Eve he wrote.
Here's my take on one of these meeting for MW3
Developer 1: Hey everyone, I appreciate you coming to the meeting.
Dev 2: You're the guy who came up with Final Stand! Of course we'll come to your meeting. Everything you say is gold!
Dev 3: Pure gold!
Dev 4: 40 carat gold!
Dev 1: Thanks guys. So, I feel like the support strike package lacks a little pizzazz, know what I mean?
Dev 3: It lacks pizzazz and it lacks oomph.
Dev 2: What other ways are there to support your team?
Dev 4: Ammo drops?
Dev 3: A support care package?
Dev 1: Umm, those sound ok, but they don't have the glamour I'm looking for.
Dev 2: A beer drop!
Dev 3: Slurpees!
Dev 4: A mani-pedi!
Dev 1: How about this, You know how the Assault strike package has the air strike? Let's give the support package something similar except it covers about 10 times more of the map.
Dev 2: Brilliant!
Dev 3: Amazing!
Dev 4: That's why you get paid the big bucks.
Dev 1: So it's settled then. Let's get that coded into the game. Who's ready for tomorrow's release?
-End scene-

Despite liking MW3 quite a bit there are a few things that bug me a bit.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Mark Rubin Twitter Update

I was browsing through Mark Rubin's twitter account and he answered a lot of questions in the last 3 days.  Here are some things I found:
(edit:  I decided to put a link to his twitter account in the heading of the blog because he's always answering questions.)

A patch for lag is coming:






Regarding gun DLC:



Regarding small maps for all playlists (e.g. Dome):



What is required to bring an old map into a new game:




The status of Rust and Shipment:




Added June 12th:



Added June 13th:


Saturday, June 9, 2012

The Right Infected Recipe

I've played Infected quite a bit and I've watched a number of private match Infected recipes online and here's how it should be on average maps (medium to large maps, 18 person games):

- Survivors get anything they want
- 1st infected gets a handgun with limited ammo
- When there are between 2 and about 5 people infected they get throwing knives and tac inserts
- When there are more than about 5 infected they have nothing but a tactical insert

Thursday, June 7, 2012

MW3 Kill Switch Easter Egg

If you pick up an AK47 with a red dot sight you'll notice it's not the MW3/CoD4 RDS, it's the MW2 RDS:



Black Ice had a UMP45 with this type of RDS on it as well.

Another tidbit from Kill Switch that I learned from the behind-the-scenes video on the Elite website is that it is based on the Russian coastal city of Vladivostok.  There is a bridge there which while under construction suffered a massive fire:





You can see the similarities to the bridge in the mission:






Monday, June 4, 2012

MW3 August DLC for Xbox

Release date:  August 7

August DLC for PS3 info - Release date: August 16 (PS3 general and PC will get Terminal August 17th)

The calendar says:



I was so sure they would use the Kill Switch and Arctic Recon maps again for these two missions, but I was wrong.  They have two entirely new missions, Special Delivery and Light 'Em Up.  Official info has been released with a couple of screenshots:

Light 'Em Up (from the campaign mission Stronghold)



Special Delivery (another map not from the campaign)



This is a screenshot from Gamecheat13, not officially released.




UPDATE: Gamecheat13 put video up of Light 'Em Up, one of the spec ops missions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7E0C_jR3W4

OFFICIAL UPDATE:   Activision has let out the info on the rest of the DLC season.  They are re-organizing the last few drops into two content collections:

Content Collection #3:
Chaos Pack will consist of four Special Ops missions, 3 Face Off maps, and the new Survival Chaos mode, up for general purchase August 9th.

Missions:
  • Arctic Recon
  • Vertigo
  • Special Delivery
  • Light 'Em Up
Face Off maps:
  • Vortex
  • U-Turn
  • Intersection
Special Ops Chaos Mode delivers a frenetic form of combat that demands players to outlast waves of enemies, while chaining kills on maps littered in power-ups to achieve the highest possible score:
  • Resistance
  • Village
  • Underground
  • Dome
Great picture for Chaos mode:



Content Collection #4:
Final Assault is a classic map pack and will consist of five multiplayer maps up for general purchase September 6th.
  • Off Shore
  • Decommission
  • Parish
  • Gulch
  • Boardwalk

Saturday, June 2, 2012

MW3 Likely Updates

Just in case you haven't heard the news already, here it is from CharliIntel, and here it is from MP1st.
Good thing I included both Shipment and Rust on my map size comparison page.



Shipment is the only map that will  make 1v1 anywhere close to interesting.  I've tried Rust, Killhouse and all 4 Face Off maps in 1v1 and none have been satisfying.  2v2 though should be great on Shipment and Rust.

Also, if Shipment and Rust are made available, they will almost certainly be free to all players.

My guess is that the non-map updates will come with the DLC next week, and Shipment and Rust probably won't get here till July's DLC does (and it will be packaged with Collection 3).

Infinity Ward has really upped the ante with DLC this year.  So far:

Free to all:
- Dropzone
- Infected
- FFA Gunplay (OIC, AoN, Gun Game)
- 2 Face Off maps
- Face Off (1v1, 2v2, 3v3)

Paid:
- 7 multiplayer maps
- 4 spec ops missions
- 2 Face Off maps

UPDATE:
Mark Rubin on Twitter clarified that the facebook post was strictly a wish list they had gathered from players.  Rust and Shipment are very unlikely to be in June's DLC drop.