Vanguard was an ambitious MMO by Sigil Games Online which started development in early 2002, the original distribution was to be handled by Microsoft for a planned release in 2006-2007, this however did not pan out as expected. Sigil and Microsoft had a creative fallout in 2006 and eventually Sigil bought the distribution rights back from Microsoft and partnered up with Sony Online Entertainment, this decision saw many already disgruntled SOE customers start to turn away from Vanguard before the game was even released.
Vanguard was eventually released in January 2007 under pressure from SOE and investors but was extremely unfinished and was suffering from lack of content and bugs by the hundreds. The initial reception of the game was very poor with the title winning Gamespy’s “Biggest Disappointment” award for 2007, Vanguard also won the awards in the categories for “Least Fun”, “Most Desolate” and “Lamest Launch” in the MMORPG.com MMOWTF Awards for the worst games of 2007.

The story so far:

• Late 2001 an excellent team of developers gets together, including many of the original Everquest devs, to make Vanguard.
• Development began in early 2002 and a publishing deal with Microsoft was announced in April 2002.
• The game’s title was announced on March 16, 2004, exactly five years after EverQuest was released
• In May 2006 Sigil reacquired the marketing rights to Vanguard from Microsoft and announced that Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) would become the co-publishers of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes.
• Beta Testing for the game began in-house in August 2005 and continued until January 23, 2007.
• The game officially launched worldwide on January 30th to lukewarm reviews and widespread criticism.
• On May 15, 2007, four months after the game’s release, Sony Online Entertainment announced they had acquired all assets of Sigil and retained much of the Vanguard development team to work for Sony and to continue developing Vanguard.
• Eurogamer website completed a 1-10 level test pitting Vanguard against Everquest 2 – they promptly decided to uninstall Everquest 2, stating Vanguard had come along very well during the bug fixing SOE had made.
• 2007-current, small amounts of dedicated development start to shape the game into something far more enjoyable.

Current state of the game:

Vanguard is very playable, my time testing the game was enjoyable and it seems to have many features larger MMO’s simply do not, the only thing missing is people.. It all seemed a little desolate with players spread far and wide in this large MMO world. In December 2009 the Vanguard team announced via the forums that larger ambitious targets and expansions would be put on hold to concentrate on further polishing the game and increasing the player base, this seems like the right thing to do and was well received by the MMO community.

I firmly believe that Vanguard will in the near future be a well polished and unique MMO to play.. The community is strong yet small and the forums are active with players asking whether it is time to return yet.

Dark and light

Dark and light was the self proclaimed “Biggest MMO you have ever seen” which was actually pretty bad news if you were one of the ever dwindling number of players still running around this shell of a game before the end. Marred by a disgustingly premature release, financial woes and court cases Dark and Light has had a long and painful trip to this list.

Development on Dark and Light started by NP Cube in 2002 and was followed by a drawn out beta period which seemed to be lacking direction, fans got impatient and started “demanding” results, this coupled with financial pressures lead to developer NP Cube and publisher Farlan Entertainment releasing the game prematurely.

At release large parts of the game where unfinished and there where massive bugs and server issues which caused untold damage to the future of the game, the problems involved repeated roll-backs in which entire guilds were disbanded as the data associating the players was not recorded correctly. The client also had compatibility issues with ATI cards, giving many ATI users unacceptably low frame rates.

The story:

• Development starts 2002
• Released 2006
• Late 2006 Pulisher Farlan Entertainment “acknowledges that the game was released prematurely due to pressure from its investors and from the gaming community.”
• April, 2007 VWORLD file a lawsuit against developer NPCube on the grounds of software and technology counterfeit, non-respect of the right to being credited and paternity, unfair competition and parasitism.
• NPCube then sue VWORLD before the Commercial Court of Clermont-Ferrand during September 2007 on the grounds of unfair competition and damage to NPCube’s reputation.
• March, 2008, NPCube is entirely dismissed of all its claims by the Commercial Court of Clermont-Ferrand, which ruled that the various failures encountered by NPCube were by no means imputable to VWORLD.
• NPCube is convicted and fined €50,000 in damages to VWORLD in the same case.
• Mid 2008 NPCube close their doors due to financial difficulties.

Current state of the game:

Dark and light was around early 2010 running a free to play model with a barely functioning website but has now closed its doors.

Star Wars Galaxies

Galaxies was a completely new and not yet been repeated concept for the MMO generation, a sandbox game which opened the doors for players with more imaginative background to create their own content. The original game, launched by Verant Interactive (Later to be acquired by SOE) and LucasArts Entertainment was something in its own league, it completely broke the MMO mould and continues to be one of the only games in this genre of sandbox MMO’s. With next to no questing and nothing instanced at all it was a massive open world where players had no one holding their hand through “progression”, the game also lacked a traditional levelling system in favour of skill masteries which could be switched around and mixed up as the player saw fit.

The game had flaws, lack of immediate content and countless early bugs caused frustrating gameplay, the servers did however start filling up rapidly from the massive pre-game community following. The end became clear when SOE announced sweeping gameplay changes in the form of a patch called the CU (Combat Upgrade), the community was barely consulted on these changes which many players felt took many core aspects of the game away, despite this things carried on. The end truly came when SOE launched another massive publish which completely changed nearly all aspects of the game, this was called the NGE (New Game Enhancements), this publish emptied the servers rapidly as the players lost faith in the developers.

The story so far:

Development starts in 2000
March 2000 IGN announce that SWG could be “ one of the biggest games of all times.”

Expansion: Jump to Lightspeed is announced in 2001, two years before the game is released

• Late 2001 the website is launched, this creates the biggest pre-release community buzz ever seen
• Announced release date is pushed back early 2003 as game is unfinished
• Game is released June 2003, The game was praised for its lush graphics, liberal use of the movie soundtracks, massive world size, character customization, creative creature ecology, complex skill system, player economy interdependencies and its sandbox approach. Some reviewers however criticised the complexity and lack of quests/missions.
• First Jedi unlocked November 2003
• SOE release the Combat Upgrade (CU) April 2005 Media outlets criticized the changes while subscription cancellations rose.
• Another major update called the “New Game Enhancements” (NGE) was implemented on 15 November 2005, kept secret from the players until 24 hours upon release this patch completely changed many key aspects of gameplay, this created huge demonstrations in game from the majority of players.
• In early 2006, unconfirmed reports showed that only 10,363 subscribers were playing on a particular Friday night.
• Twelve servers close in October 2009.

Current state of the game:

On June 24, 2011, SOE announced that Star Wars Galaxies will be shutting down. The date announced for this is December 15, 2011. According to the announcement, both LucasArts and SOE came to the agreement. “If you are an active subscriber in good standing as of September 15, 2011, then you can play for free for the final months”

Hellgate: London

Set in a post-apocalyptic London in the year 2038 Hellgate: London was set to be a completely unique entry to the MMO market, beginning original development by Flagship Studios in 2005 and with a development team originating from Blizzard entertainments Diablo devs it was to be well made as well, the reality however was far from the dream. The game was released in 2007 to a very luke-warm reception from critics and gamers alike, there was limited content and enough bugs to cause major issues for some gamers. The game also had a new payment system which allowed players to buy “lifetime” subscriptions for a fee, this lead to major disappointment at the end for players who took advantage of the service.

The story so far:

• October 31, 2007 – Hellgate: London is released in the USA on Halloween.
• January 21, 2008 – The first major content update ‘The Stonehenge Chronicles’ was scheduled for release but postponed.
• February 10, 2008 – In an IRC chat conference with Hellgate London developers, it was revealed that promised subscriber holiday event development would be halted.
• February 17, 2008 – The client function /who was disabled. It returned the present number of players online.
• March 26, 2008 – It was announced that Comerica Bank would provide game funding assistance, using Hellgate: London as collateral, for Flagship Studios so that they would not “rely upon a publisher’s investment” to support ongoing development of their games.
• February 1, 2009 – servers are officially shut down and Hellgate: London temporarily dies.
• Mid 2009 – HanbitSoft, distributors for Blizzard entertainment buy rights to Hellgate: London and begin development for release to the Asian market and planned release for the EU/US market.

Current state of the game:

At present Hellgate: London is not active in the EU or US but current owners HanbitSoft are planning a re-release with significant improvements and more content, I for one hope this works out because the premise for the game is very good. They will have to break through the sour barrier left behind from 2008 however, which will not be easy as gamers don’t generally forgive and forget.

We’ve just finished our first significant expansion of Dota 2 server capacity around the world, and that means it’s time to kick this thing up a notch. Starting this week, we’ll be handing out Dota 2 in increasing volumes. To celebrate, we’re releasing the first part of the official Dota 2 comic, Tales from the Secret Shop.

Once you have Dota 2 installed, keep an eye on this blog. We update the game every Thursday with extra heroes, features, and bug fixes, and we’ll cover interesting elements of those updates right here. We’ll also be giving you some more insight into the development of Dota 2 over the coming months, as we roll through the rest of Dota’s many heroes.

“They gave us a lot of feedback on things we should get in the game before we release it, otherwise we’re going to be getting a lot of bug reports or a lot of feedback and it would just be redundant,” said Valve’s Chet Faliszeck.

“The closed beta will gradually expand to include more and more players, until “by the end of it, everyone will be playing the game. It will be the released game that you’re playing and then at some point we’ll say, ‘OK we’re going to officially release it.’”

“We have no mandate from anybody of when we have to ship this. So we’re more than happy to just keep working on this until it’s ready to ship.”

Unfortunate for those of us with keys waiting to get started, but it is good to know they are listening to the competitive community all the same.

General Information:

• The game will be developed by Infinity Ward, co-developped by Sledgehammer Games and published by Activision
• The game will launch worldwide on November 8th, 2011 and will be available for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360
• MW3 will be, just like MW2, locked at 60 FPS meaning it will never go below (but can of course still go over)
• MW3 will run on an improved version of the MW2 engine
• Some of the engine’s improvements include : Streaming tech improvements to allow for levels of greater scales, subtle audio upgrades including situational awareness such as bullet wizzbys.
• Framerate and resolution will be the same on both consoles.
• Dive-to-prone is not returning.
• MW3 weapons have considerably larger recoil than weapons in MW2.
• When reloading an emptied pistol, the slide is pulled.
• MW3 will feature built-in support for color-blind gamers.

Campaign:

• MW3 is a direct sequel to MW2
• MW3 takes place during WWIII.
• Confirmed locations are New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Russia, Africa and the Himalayas
• Breaching doors is returning.
• There is no Co-op
• Confirmed characters : Derek “Frost” Westwood, “Sandman”, Marcus Burns, John “Soap” MacTavish, Nikolai, John Price, Sgt. Wallcroft and Vladimir Makarov
• Confirmed playable characters : Derek “Frost” Westwood and Marcusl Burns
• Known Campaign missions are : “Black Tuesday”, “Mind the Gap” and “Hunter Killer”.
• Known factions are : American “Delta Force”, British SAS, French GIGN and possibly American Navy SEALs
• Black Tuesday : This level is played by Delta Force operators. It takes place at the New York City Stock Exchange. The title is a reference to the Wall Street Crash of 1929. You basically fight your way to the NY Stock Exchange, and plant a Thermite Charge on some sort of satellite located on the roof. The level ends with an epic gunship battle where you take control of the minigun mounted on a Black Hawk. Click here to view full gameplay.
• Hunter Killer : In this level, the player takes control of Derek “Frost” Westwood, as he and his squad infiltrates a Russian submarine to launch the Russian missiles against their own fleet. After escaping the submarine, Frost hops in a Zodiac watercraft and escapes the area as it is being bombed and ends up landing in a friendly Chinook, taking them away from the killzone. Click here to view full gameplay.
• Mind the Gap : In this level, the player takes control of Michael Burns, an SAS Commando. This mission takes place during nighttime in London. The player approaches enemies using stealth. Not much is known about this level, except that it ends in an epic chase in the London tube system between an underground train and a car. Civilians are also killed during this level (This is the “ultra-violent” mission of the level that has been spoken of). The level’s title is a reference to the warning made to train passengers to make them aware of the gap between the ground and the actual train.

Voice cast:

• Tobey Maguire (Spider-Man) = The Grinch
• Christopher Melone (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) = The Sandman
• Christian Coulson (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) = Marcus Burns
• Roman Varshavsky (24, Call of Duty: Black Ops) = Vladimir Makarov
• Troy Baker (Batman: Arkham City, Mafia II) = Grunt

Spec Ops general overview:

• Spec Ops now has leaderboards, online matchmaking, progressive ranking and in-game currency
• Mission-based Spec Ops will return and will be similar the Spec Ops seen in MW2
• Spec Ops are playable solo, offline, split-screen, with a friend online or even with a stranger.
• Juggernauts are returning.
• Spec Ops can only include up to 2 players

Multiplayer:

• Call of Duty Elite service with some paid aspects to enhance the Multiplayer experience (see official trailer here)
• Call of Duty Elite Premium members will get DLC’s for free
• Weapon base damages will be increased to compensate the lack of Stopping Power
• Security is a top priority for IW
• Soundwhoring will not be overlooked
• Post-launch updates is a priority for IW
• Balancing explosives is a key design point
• A feature similar to Theater Mode from Black Ops will be available in MW3
• MW3 will build up from CoD4 and polish every aspect from MW2 that “has went too far”.
• Dedicated lobbies for Snipers are confirmed.
• MW3 will focus on gun on gun, and less on air support, knifing, etc.
• Playing the objective in MW3 will be more rewarding, thanks to tweaks done to the XP, Match Bonus, Challenges and more.
• There is no Stopping Power, Danger Close, Juggernaut, One Man Army, Commando, Last Stand or Tactical Nuke.
• The melee will be nerfed.
• Multiple new gamemodes are confirmed.
• It was hinted the classic Callsign system will return.
• Quick Scoping will be possible in MW3.
• The MW3 unlock system will be “unique”, and will not use currency.
• The killstreak system has been re-vamped.
• IW and SHG are looking for ways to improve the killcams (including things to make it more interesting)
• XBOX LIVE Party Chat will be available. It will exclude some gamemodes, however (i.e. Search & Destroy)
• A lot of work is being put into Private match.
• Invite System in private match can be made private for PS3 just like on XBOX
• It was confirmed there will be 3 DLC’s for MW3.

Prestige Shop:

Modern Warfare 3′s campaign and Spec Ops progression will play a role in multiplayer unlockables with the new MW3 Prestige Shop.

The Prestige Shop is not only for Prestiging… but it’s also complete the single player, complete the single player in Veteran, complete Spec Ops, or do something in Spec Ops

Whereas hitting the Prestige in past Call of Duty games saw unlocks like “Create a Class”, the prestige shop now offers much more selection by using a currency system to “buy what you want” and considers other game modes beside multiplayer.

The Prestige Shop is unlocked after Prestiging the very first time. Once you reach rank 80, you may totally reset your rank by Prestiging, but every time you Prestige in MW3, you are going to acquire 1 token which you can use to unlock Prestige Rewards. You can also save up your tokens once you Prestige, or spend them on any of the 8 Prestige Rewards.

Modern Warfare 3 Prestige Shop Rewards

• Extra Custom Class
• Double XP (2 hours)
• Double Weapon XP
• Regular Package
• Unlock Gear (take a gun with you to next Prestige)
• Hardened Package
• Veteran Package
• Reset all Stats

MW3 Killstreaks (Now, Strike Packages!)

There are 3 Seperate killstreak tiers, you have to choose which tier you want to choose you’re 3 killstreaks from, but if you choose the last tier, you just get exactly what it says.

Assault Tier Killstreaks:

• 4 Kills – Care Package
• 5 Kills – IMS – 3 or 4 placeable landmines that cannot be stunned or flashed
• 5 Kills – Predator Missile
• 5 Kills – Sentry Gun
• 6 Kills – Precision Airstrike
• 7 Kills – Attack Helicopter
• 7 Kills – Little Bird Flock – Mini Helicopters which patrol the map
• 9 Kills – Little Bird Guard – Big Helicopter that follows you from above and protects you
• 9 Kills – Mortar team – Mortar team but with 5 predator missiles – all go off at the same time in different places
• 10 Kills – Talcon – Mini Tank Robot
• 12 Kills – AC130 (We cheer!)
• 12 Kills – Pavelow
• 15 Kills – Juggernaught Suit – From spec Ops ( For anyone who says in the spec ops video he gets it at 14 kills, well thats because he has hardline on)
• 15 Kills – Osprey Gunner Cps – You control a chopper gunner that also drops an emergency airdrop for your team mates.

Support Tier Killstreaks:

• 4 Kills – UAV
• 5 Kills – Counter UAV
• 5 Kills – Ballistic Duffel – Drop Juggernaught perk for the whole team, not jugg suit
• 5 Kills – Airdrop Trap – Drops a hacked care package
• 8 Kills – Sam Turret
• 10 Kills – Remote [Missile] UAV – Target enemies with missiles
• 12 Kills – Advanced UAV – Blackbird
• 12 Kills – Remote Turret – Sentry Gun that you can control
• 12 Kills – Stealth Bomber
• 18 Kills – EMP
• 18 Kills – Juggernaught Recon Armour – Care Package Drop Armour
• 18 Kills – Escort Airdrop – Same as the Osprey Gunner but you dont control the gunner or chopper and Drops 5 care packages, one will be hacked

Specialist Tier Killstreaks:

(you have the opportunity to choose the perk each time)

• 2 Kills – You get 1 extra perk
• 4 Kills – Get another perk
• 6 Kills – Get another perk

Another thing is that the killstreaks will cycle through in the same life, so you dont have to die to reset your killstreaks and get your first killstreak again.

MW3 DeathStreaks

• Juiced [Lightweight] – 4 Deaths
• Martyrdom – 4 Deaths
• Final Stand – 4 Deaths
• Revenge (Last person that killed you is always visible on your mini map) – 5 Deaths
• Stopping power for one kill – 5 Deaths
• Dead Mans Hand (You run around with c4 in your hand (suicide bomber)) – 6 Deaths

MW3 Perks

‘+’ = With pro added

Tier 1

• Extreme Conditioning – Sprint longer distances + Climb obstacles faster
• Sleight Of Hand – Reload faster + Faster weapon swapping
• Scavanger – Reload ammo from bags + Spawn with more ammo
• Blind Eye – Undetectable from air support + Faster launcher lock on and extra damage to air support
• Recon – Explosive damage marks target on HUD + Bullet damage marks target on HUD

Tier 2

• Hardline – One less kill for Killstreak + Two assists count as a kill towards next killstreak (Like)
• Assassin – Immune to UAV, Motion Sensor, Thermal and Heartbeat Sensor + Immune to CUAV & EMP
• Overkill – Two primary weapons + Second primary can have 2 attachments
• Quickdraw – Faster aim down sights + Faster animation of using equipment and throwing grenade
• Blastshield – Flack Jacket (Immune to most explosives) + Immune to stuns and flashes

Tier 3

• Sitrep – Enemy equipment is visible + Enemy footsteps are more clear
• Dead Silence – Your footsteps are silent + No fall damage
• Stalker – Faster movement with ADS + Delay on claymores
• Marksman – ID target from range + Longer hold breath on scoped weapons
• Steady Aim – Increased hip fire accuracy + Faster aim down sight while sprinting

MW3 Pointstreaks

Rather than standard killstreaks for objective based games, pointstreaks will be rewarded to players who play the objective (i.e. capturing flags, defusing bombs etc.) and get kills to encourage players to play the objective rather than just get kills in objective based game types. The streaks will be awarded based on points that the payer has received.

——————Spoilers below this line!!——————–

The (rumoured) Modern Warfare 3 Story:

The United States under siege by Russian forces, ultranationalist Vladimir Makarov on the loose, Captain John “Soap” MacTavish and Captain John Price wounded and on the run with the Russian informant known as Nikolai.

Fleeing to a safehouse in Dharmasala, India, the three are attacked by Makarov’s men. In this firefight players take on the role of Yuri, a loyalist who works for Nikolai. Their safehouse compromised, the group flee the area in a helicopter.

The game then cuts to Manhattan where Russia is launching an attack on the city from a fleet of ships parked in the Hudson River. (It appears the famous U.S.S. Intrepid may be destroyed.) The U.S. calls in Delta Force to repel the attack. You take on the role of Frost, a Delta Force operative under the command of Sandman. Your goal is to take out a jamming tower on top of the New York Stock Exchange to open the area for a U.S. counterattack.

Following the mission, Delta flies out of the city on a Blackhawk, gunning down enemy choppers as they make their way to the harbor where they have to infiltrate and take down a Russian sub which is coordinating the attack.

As the New York missions wrap up the game jumps forward in time half a year, thrusting players into the role of a Russian agent tasked with protecting the president of Russia as he flies to sign a peace treaty with the U.S. The plane is attacked by hijackers mid-air who attempt to kidnap the president and his daughter. The daughter manages to escape. The president of Russia in hand, Makarov vows to prevent a peace treaty by getting the launch codes out of the president and launching an attack against the U.S.

The game then returns us to Price, Soap and Yuri, now in Africa in a search for Makarov. They meet with a local South African arms dealer who tells them about a shipment of chemical weapons that Makarov is trying to buy. The group make their way to Sierra Leone to secure the weapons from African militia.

Next, players take on the role of an SAS operative who is tasked with stopping a delivery of weapons of mass destruction at a London dockyard. A gun battle ensues, and the agents are chased through the London subway. The mission culminates with a series of unmarked trucks exploding in front of the house of Parliament, releasing a deadly chemical agent.
Several other European cities and military bases are hit by similar terrorist attacks backed by Russia, and the death toll rises to the tens of thousands. The series of chemical attacks opens the door for a Russian military blitz strikes across the continent.

Price discovers that the South African arms dealer who tipped them off about the chemical weapons deceived them and travels to Somalia to find the man and interrogate him. Through the arms dealer, Price discovers that Makarov’s right hand man, Volk, is hiding out in Paris.

The game’s attention next shifts to Hamburg, Germany where players take on the role of a U.S. tank gunner fighting to push back a Russian advance backed by armored divisions. As Hamburg falls, the game shifts us back to the story of Price and his crew. Now in Paris, players control Delta Force operative Frost who, with the help of the French special forces, leads an assault on Volk’s location in the underground catacombs of the city. Next, players take to the sky supporting Frost’s ground movements as a gunner in an AC-130.

After capturing and interrogating Volk, Frost learns that Makarov has a meeting in a Prague hotel. Players control Yuri as he and Soap slip into the Russian-controlled city and set-up an ambush for Makarov in a church bell tower. Makarov somehow catches wind of the trap and escapes. Soap, Yuri and Price then have to fight their way out of the city.

Yuri leads the team to one of Makarov’s headquarters in the Czech mountains and the group infiltrates the location, looking for clues. They discover that the ultranationlist has the president and is trying to get the codes out of him. Makarov has also discovered the location of the Russian president’s daughter. The group move out to Berlin to try and prevent her kidnapping. Playing as Frost, gamers must find the daughter and protect her, while making their way through war-torn Berlin. The daughter, however, is captured and flown away.

Frost next makes his way to the Kremlin where a task force of operatives attack and free the hostages, but Makarov manages to escape again.

The game’s final mission occurs in Dubai, where Yuri, Price and Sandman launch an assault on a heavily guarded hotel, eventually finding Makarov and, yes, finally killing him.

It also appears that the game may also include a post-credits level that features the burning of Washington, D. C. The stage seems set for a passing of the torch: from player-controlled members of Task Force 141 to the new characters from Delta Force.

This is a work in progress, if you find something old or wrong let us know in the comments and we will update accordingly.

Comments from n4g.com

The news comes from a recent datamine of diablo 3 which has appeared on MMO Champion. A famous WoW related website. The data suggests a Dota mode among other gametypes such as arena and co-operative.

This comes at the same time as the feature video showing “Blizzard Dota” which uses the SC2 Engine, which it has to be said does not take its-self too seriously.

These are obviously not to be confused with Valve’s Dota 2 which is currently in testing and due for release next year.

Data mine here

Two new heroes, new fountains and new creeps. An Update to shroud as well as remakes of vindicator and deadwood – These are all rumoured to be included in Heroes Of Newerth 3.0.

Gemini/Artemis skills description :
1) wave of fire and ice that slows and does dmg over time, something like jakiros spell in dota.
2) You split into two and jump 800 range, after a jump you do some dmg and stun. ( it looks like tundras axes )
3) passive that you will do another attack that will deal 25% of your dmg.
4) ulti splits you into two fire and ice dog. both dogs have 2 a allmost same spells. Blink with a stun and does some dmg. Both can do wave of fire and ice. Fire one does dmg over time and ice one slows and does some dmg.

Source here

General Information

Global Offensive was originally intended to simply be a port of CS:Source to consoles, the team worked on this initial idea for some time before deciding that there was potential for a full new game to be developed (And a market for it of course). It was then decided to develop this as a new title with console and PC support.

Development started in March 2010 and expected release is Q1 2011.

Beta Information

Testing is already under way and a closed beta will start this month (October), this will be made up of professional teams and communities on an invite only basis and to the people who received keys at various expo’s and events in the last few months. Testing phases will then be increased until eventually by the end of December this year the general public will have access to an open beta program.

Competitive vs Casual

Valve have decided to cater to both the competitive and casual players in different ways. Offering a Casual game mode which includes features such as:

• Infinate cash reserves
• Free Helmet and Armour
• New game modes

This will allow players to experience CS in all of its glory without worrying too much about earnings or strategy. New casual game modes include “Arsenal mode” – which is basically a direct port of the ever popular GunGame mod for previous versions, this will be divided in to two modes:

Arms Race – consists of the typical Gun Game match where you start with the low damage pistols and for each kill you do, you’ll earn a better weapon until you reach the knife.

Demolition mode – It is a mix of Arms Race but instead of being a deathmatch type of match, this mode is played on demolition maps.

While competitive players will have all of the current “standard” features such as:

• Earning money from wins/kills
• Buying and prioritizing equipment
• Strategizing to win

The Valve guys describe two of the goals for GO as lowering the skill floor—making it easier for newbies to have fun with game, hence the casual mode—and raising the skill ceiling—making meaningful, subtle changes to maps and mechanics that only pro-level players will notice and appreciate.

Matchmaking

Another interesting step in CS:GO is the inclusion of matchmaking, something that is new to the franchise. In the Competitive mode you’ll be able to play against someone with the same level without the need to leave the game. When you’re playing a matchmaking game it means your opponents have the same skill level you have, even if they are playing on the PS3 with a controller.

This development obviously has the potential to massively increase the competitive side of Counter Strike by simply making it more accessible to everyone willing to compete. This will also allow more casual players to step in to the competitive scene without having to take huge steps towards registering teams and signing up to leagues.

Equipment and Weapon changes

Some major changes are being made to traditional Counter Strike weapons we know all too well and some new additions will be making an impact. In an effort to have more diversity in competitive weapon choices there has been a lot of balancing across the board. Pistol damage has been reduced and Sub Machine Gun (SMG) damage has been increased to offer an alternative to the standard assault rifle combinations being used in previous versions. The defuse kit has been changed from a bought item to simply being issued to two random Counter-Terrorist members at the start of every round.

Here are the new additions:

Pistols

• TEC-9 (terrorists only)
• P2000 (replaces the USP)

Sniper Rifles

• SSG 08 (replaces the scout)
• SCAR-20

Assault Rifles

• SG 556 (replaces the Krieg 552)

Sub Machine Guns

• PP-Bizon (replaces the terrorists MP5)
• MP7 (replaces the counter-terrorists TMP)
• MP9 (replaces the counter-terrorists MP5)

Shotguns

• Nova
• MAG-7

Machine Guns

• Negev

Equipment

• Zeus x27 (Taser-like weapon)
• Decoy Grenade (Creates sounds to delude that there is someone shooting a weapon)
• Molotov Grenade (Creates a curtain of fire which does little damage for a few seconds)

Media

Screenshots here

Global Offensive Showmatch

Gamespot Interview (With gameplay included)

de_train Gameplay Video

The multiplayer beta for Battlefield 3 is scheduled to end in just three days, but that’s not stopping Swedish developer DICE from continuing to freshen the experience – at least for PC players.

Caspian Border offers 64 player mayhem, this map was not ported to the console versions as this is being done specifically to test large scale server stresses which only 64 players can achieve and only the PC version is capable of.

Get in your planes and tanks!