“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

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!

Not being a massive Modern Warfare fan myself (Despite pouring hundreds of hours into the title, as most of us have) I wanted to try and focus on the multiplayer improvements which IW have confirmed for MW3. This is an objective look at lessons they have learned and ways they will tackle previous issues.

Updating

First and many will argue the most important thing is the way they have decided to handle patching, instead of the complicated patching procedure of the past versions this time they have opted for a more on the fly patching system which is becoming more common with this type of high profile release. This type of patching will allow IW to handle weapon balancing, exploit fixes and small changes to be processed much quicker, without having to rely on larger patches which can take time to come through the pipeline, offering hackers and exploiters the chance to get the most out of the flavour of the month issues the game is facing at the time.

One of the big things we’ve changed is the ability to alter the game post-launch. That doesn’t sound like a cool feature, it sounds simple – it’s like ‘why can’t you just release patches?’ Well, games don’t work that way – you can patch some things, but for others, it’s a significant deal, patching is not broad enough to do everything in the game, so one behind-the-scenes feature allows us to update files, sometimes without even doing a full patch – we can just tweak things like weapon balance, which we could never do before. In the past, we’d put out a game and realise, ‘hmm, that’s weapon’s really over-powered’ but there was nothing we could do about it. With twenty million people playing the game, you learn more in the ten minutes after release than you do in months of pre-launch playtesting. So that tech feature was a big thing for us. – Mark Ruben (Executive producer for MW3)

Hacking/Cheating

Infinity Ward have also decided to take a more robust and active stance for catching exploiters and cheaters. Stating that they will actively watch the killboards and monitor players progression with plans to spot stars rising too quickly and “deal with them accordingly”. They promise that this instalment of Modern Warfare will be the most balanced multiplayer game they have released to date. MW2 was criticised post-release for the amount of exploits found by opportunist cheaters and the amount of time it for Infinity Ward to patch them, this will not be the case with MW3 according to Ruben.

Security was a big problem in previous games, so we’ve done a whole lot on that to create what we hope is a much more secure game. Part of that is learning from Treyarch’s work on Black Ops and being pro-active and aggressive on banning, watching the leader boards, looking for cheaters.

Proficiencies

Although there are many weapons in MW2 people tend to stick with a certain setup, a sort of default profile which you feel comfortable falling back on. MW3 will further encourage this by adding weapon proficiencies, these allow players to “specialize their weapons with new attributes”, and some are unique to certain weapon classes.

We want Modern Warfare 3 to be about the player, his gun, and his skill, not relying on air support to be a replacement for his ability to get kills.

Taking the M4A1 as an example:

• Kick – Reduced recoil when firing.
• Impact – Bullets carry more damage through material.
• Attachments – Two attachments can be added to a weapon.
• Focus – Reduced flinch when hit.
• Breath – Hold breath when aiming down the sights.
• Stability – Reduced weapon sway while aiming down the sights.

The list of attachments for the weapon will be equally comprehensive and include Red Dot Sight, Silencer, Grenade Launcher, ACOG Scope, Heartbeat Sensor, Hybrid Sight, Shotgun, Holographic Sight, Extended Magazines and Thermal. It has also been confirmed that a Dual Scope with both Close Range and Long Range optics will also be available for select weapons.

Dedicated servers

Nothing more to say here.. thank heavens.

FingerSports will be taking a more comprehensive look at all available details for MW3 within the next few days, including features, some footage and screenshots, come back for that one if you are getting tired of all the Battlefield 3 news floating around!

South African gaming retailer BT Games advertises a Collectors Edition of Mass Effect 3 that includes an “Online Multiplayer Pass.” This was posted on the Bioware forums with included image.

No comment from Bioware yet but it has been speculated for some time though that ME3 will include a multiplayer aspect of some kind.

THQ and Volition announced that the PC version of Saints Row: The Third is scheduled to release exactly when they said it would. Developed in-house at Volition in Champaign, IL and powered by Steam, Saints Row: The Third on PC is not scheduled to be delayed by any unforeseen development problems, shipping issues, inclement weather, or zombie apocalypse. As such, it remains on track for a November 15 release, exactly when we said it would.

A welcome combo breaker to what was becoming the norm.

There were a few delays but in the end Valve will deliver. You can also get your hands on the third instalment of the sound track “Songs To Test By” here

This follows news that the PC version of Batman: Arkham City will also be delayed post console release. Bit of a let down but just means more to play over the holiday season.

Full story here

Dead Island was released earlier this month on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC to generally positive critical reception despite claims of sexism and corrupted PC files. The game – which has sold 2 million units to date – also spawned a novel offshoot. Now, Deep Silver’s zombie universe will tell another story, but this one will be on the big screen.

Lionsgate today announced that it had optioned the rights from Deep Silver to create a film based on the Dead Island video game. The movie is in the very early stages of development, with no plot details yet revealed.

Full story here