BASH

We hadn’t tried out a live cast since December, but the release of the BFBC2 Beta prompted us to dust off our microphone and enter the breach yet one more time.

In the FPS world, frankly there really hasn’t been much going on. MW2 news has been slow to non-existent. MoH was announced, but we really know very little about it.

But finally, there’s something to talk about ….the BFBC2 Beta from DICE and EA.

So let’s see if this was the weekend to uninstall MW2. Was BFBC2 all that you thought it might be?

To help guide us through it we’ve brought on a couple of experts. They were on with me in the last cast we did: Competitive gamer and and casters in the BF world, from the UK we have:

Martin aka “nkm” and Paul, aka “ston3r”. from Team Rush, who ply their trade over at TeamRush. And from thecompanyhub.com we have John aka Jag-Five-O

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Will BFBC2 rescue the PC FPS community from the malaise it’s in after the MW2 fiasco or will it simply make things worse?

The goal we set for this cast was to determine whether DICE deserves some of the negative feedback they’ve recently received from the community or whether we truly are getting what they have been promising us all along.

Lack of a console, modding tools and private dedicated servers have made people questioning whether the PC hardcore community is an endangered species.

To help us resolve whether BFBC2 will be simply a MW2-style console port, or will it be a full-fledged PC game that will capture our attention for years is long-time Battlefield admin John aka Jag-Five-O from thecompanyhub.com and Battlefield competitive gamer and caster Martin aka “nkm” from TeamRush http://www.teamrusheu.com.

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We celebrate the BlackMonkeys.de Beta release of the Call of Duty 4 community mod Galactic Warfare by interviewing some of the mod team.

BlackMonkeys Chris (Xiao), Wern (Xfckup) and Mitch (Mitch Van Hayden) are on to talk about the story behind the already classic Tatooine beta map and of course the inspirational music that is found in the mod.

The original BASH casts used to feature a lot of music and on this special webcast, we hearken back to those days by bringing you many original tracks from Mitch, the awesome composer on the mod. Big thanks to Mitch for allowing us this exclusive musical release.

The Call of Duty community was given a great Christmas present this year by the German modding Group the BlackMonkeys. Working nearly around the clock for months, the BlackMonkeys have provided us with a total-conversion tour-de-force for CoD4. The Galactic Warfare mod is obviously an homage to Star Wars and is crafted with genius and love.

Wern, who was the lead on the Tatooine map, explains to us his inspiration for the map, the Easter-eggs and find out what major feature is still being worked on that wasn’t ready for the Beta.

As well, mix-master DJ Mitch, aka Mitch Van Hayden aka Rollercoaster is on to talk about the original music he came up with as a score for the mod. As well as the music, Mitch engineered most of the sound in the mod. As good as all the blasters sound in the game, it’s the music that really rocked my socks.

Mitch has had some success with his music on the net, we feature some of his original pre-GW tracks and of course we are exclusively airing of his best compositions in the mod.

Among the tracks we play in the ‘cast are:

1. The Galactic Warfare Anthem (Menu Theme)

2. Beta Launch Trailer Theme (Bonus Track)

3. Idle Anthem Part 1

4. Maniac Mansion Theme (Amok and featuring Mitch van Hayden)

5. Dying High (in a classical way)

and finally

6. Empire Win

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Eric “Snatcch” Brinkley from Team Zephyr is on the program to talk about his team’s trip to Tabaek, S. Korea in an attempt to wrestle away the A.V.A. Escort championship from the Japanese and the heavily favored home town heroes.

Eric is no stranger to us as a CoD4 competitor, but he is new to competitive A.V.A. play. In this program he tells us all about the Korean love-affair with eSports and also manages to tell us what playing A.V.A. (Alliance of Valiant Arms) is all about.

On to help engage Eric in discussion are John from eFragtv.com and Andy (aka The Impaler) Coons from Team Loaded at goloaded.com.

Here in North America, there’s a stark contrast when comparing our disinterest of eSport with the near fanaticism Koreans show. Could we here in the west ever get to the levels shown in the far east?

We talk about this and the direction of FPS eSports in the post-MW2 world on today’s special “competitive” cast.

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Today we have two seasoned gamers from the UK on to talk about competitive Battlefield: Martin aka “nkm” and Paul, aka “ston3r”.

Both are members of the UK based Battlefield 2 community called Team Rush.

Team Rush’s primary contributions to the Battlefield community amongst many others is RushTV, which is a community led and developed live broadcasting solution which broadcasts live matches in Battlefield 2 for the biggest online leagues and tournaments in Europe, like the Electronic Sports League, eSportsHeaven and Clanbase amongst others.

They typically approach the likes of HLTV viewing figures for individual matches (…even though they are casting BF2…a four year old “dead” game!).

They have been waiting expectantly for BFBC2 and are looking to support the modding community as soon as it releases.

Today they are on BASH to provide our community with information on the current Battlefield 2 game and tell us why they still play and broadcast it.

They also give us their views of what the game is like to play competitively.

BF2 has been plagued by some of the same issues competitive CoD has had to deal with and perhaps has faired even worse. For example, there is no first-person spectate mode in BF2 and its unknown whether BFBC2 will have it.

nkm (Nakam) has a nice post here on the official EA forums describing some of the issues plaguing the BF competitive community that he would like to see addressed in BC2.

My co-hosts Garetjax (codtv.tv) and ibleedv20 (omnilinkit.com) are on hand to help me quiz the my guests.

You can visit Team Rush at these links:

Website:- http://www.teamrusheu.com

RushTV On-Demand:- http://www.teamrusheu.com/rushtv/on-demand

UStream Media Partners:- http://www.ustream.tv/channel/TeamRush

ESL:- http://www.esl.eu/eu/bf2

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For most of us in the PC community Call of Duty World at War began on September 28th, 2008 with Treyarch delivering a MP Beta demo.  One year and two months later, we’ve received patch after patch, three free map sets, linux binaries, mod tools and CoDTV support.

The metrics are pretty impressive. For example, PC Patch v1.6 weighed in at 1.2 Gb and was probably one of the most thorough packages I have ever seen delivered by any developer post-release.

Patch 1.7, though not as large, was released just recently and continues to demonstrate Treyarch’s commitment and resolve to the PC community.  All these deliverables have been made without over-the-top hype that seem common in today’s gaming releases. CoD:WW support has been provided professionally and without unnecessary fanfare.

With us to celebrate CoD:WW’s first year (and BASH’s third anniversary) is our special guest, Josh aka JD_2020, community manager at Treyarch.

This is a very comprehensive interview with Josh and we get into his long history in the PC community and talk a little bit about how he started at Treyarch.

We review Treyarch’s strong commitment to the PC platform and discuss its rich history (remember its precursor…Gray Matter Interactive?) of innovation in the CoD franchise.

Of course we talk CoD:WW.

We look back on some of the early design decisions and find out why there’s a Zombie mode in the game.

We discuss who writes the plot for the single player and how the maps are created.

We find out whether Treyarch follows the PC modding scene and whether they scout the community for talent.

We also talk about CoDTV and we delay it a bit more by inviting Garetjax on the cast…come on Mike…stop reading this and get back to finishing the code!

Thanks to JD for an entertaining cast…and thanks to our co-hosts and our IRC chatroom for the great questions.

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On this episode we take a little time away from celebrating American Thanksgiving to give some thanks to our listeners. Today we invite you to be part of the show and ask questions!

So…in addition to my regular co-hosts, pst*joker, rudedog, garetjax, impaler and ibleedv20 we now also have *you*!

Special guest on the cast is Reaver from the Teknogods.com site to discuss his groups’ efforts to make MW2 dedicated servers.

Reaver talks to us about his MW2 Co-op loader and hints at what his colleague Smurfette, who’s leading the charge on the dedi-server reverse-engineering program, might be planning for us this coming Monday.

In addition to talking about dedi’s, we also talk a little bit about the efforts to incorporate some of the good points of MW2 into CoD4 and CoD:WW. Find out what Joker and his crew at mycallofduty.com are up to.

We also touch on CoD:WW’s v1.7 patch, the delay in the BFBC2 PC beta, the fact that CoD has sold over $3B worth of video games in franchise history and the upcoming Galactic Warfare mod for CoD4.

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The PS3 demo for Battlefield Bad Company 2 is out and it has gotten some very positive reviews from the console crowd.  We here in the PC community are still awaiting our chance to play the demo. Interestingly, it appears that the tentative December date for the beta has disappeared from EA’s BFBC2 site and official spokesman for the game have told me to wait for an update soon (fingers-crossed over here).

To get the PC community ready for Battlefield, we thought we would bring on Jag-Five-O from thecompanyhub.com, a Battlefield veteran of many years. We ask him to compare and contrast the Battlefield and Call of Duty series.

Our regular co-hosts, PST*Joker, Rudedog, Garetjax, iBleedv20 and Loaded|Impaler are also here and they share in the festivities.

Of course, we talk yet again about Modern Warfare 2.

Bleed is struggling with MW2 and Impaler may have changed his thoughts on the MP version of the game.

We explore what is good and what is bad with the game and we try to come up with positive solutions to fix the bad. We also look at the possibility of viruses/trojans being transmitted through the locally-hosted connections of IW.net.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends!. Enjoy your turkey…

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If you have ever read these words:

“…in a world of thoughtful and passionate gaming CEOs, Bobby Kotick stands alone. He doesn’t play video games, but he sure knows how to make money off people who do….Kotick doesn’t play his games, and it shows.”

…or these in regards to MW2’s SP:

“Am I glad I played the game? Yes. Can I see myself replaying it? Maybe not. It’s satisfying to step into the shoes of people who are so uncompromising, and the game is brilliant at creating the feeling of moral vacuum, but it’s not exactly a feeling that’s comfortable, or even fun. During many scenes, I found myself simply emptying clips into houses, knowing there could be innocents inside. Why not? I was trying to survive”.

How about these with respect to MW2’s multiplayer:

“Call of Duty came from the PC gaming scene, and it was there that it was popularized. ….it’s sad to see a game that has such a rich history on our favorite platform feel so neglected in its newest incarnation. The port of the single-player campaign is strong; the game looks, plays, and feels incredible on a capable gaming PC. The Special Ops missions are perfect if you’re in the mood for a teeny-tiny LAN party but the multiplayer offerings feel like Infinity Ward is trying to cram a round peg into a square hole.

It’s not what we’re used to, it’s not what we want, and the changes made to the online matchmaking set-up and lack of dedicated servers negatively change the online experience. It’s just that simple.”

…you probably know that they come from one of the best gaming writers around: Ben “Stasis7″ Kuchera from ArsTechnica.com (Opposable thumbs). Ben is the gaming editor at Ars Technica and is on with us to talk about Modern Warfare 2 and its impact on the PC landscape.

Also with us to talk about MW2 are: ibleedv20 from omnilinkit.com, Andy (the impaler) coons  from Loaded at goloaded.com, rudedog from fpsadmin.com and garetjax from codtv.tv. As well, our resident console expert mattks is here from weplaycod.net, @weplaycod.

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Today we depart from our usual format to present a BASH special edition. On BASH to talk to us about himself and his esports organization is the president of Team Pandemic: Chris Lemley.

We have had many current and former Team Pandemic superstars on this program, people such as Nabore, Rob-wiz, and Prank`, but we have never had the brain behind the winning teams. We set that wrong right on this cast.

Chris and I talk on a range of subjects in this interview. We cover some of the history of Pandemic, the rise and fall of CoD competitive gaming, MW2 and we even find time to talk a little bit about the new Korean micro-transaction shooter AVA.

We end our discussion talking about the new direction he wants to take his organization.

Chris is a good pragmatic businessman, a really entertaining speaker and a great advocate of esports and I cannot wait to have him back on this program.

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On today’s podcast we analyze the impact DICE producer Gordon Van Dyke’s words had on all of us PC gamers currently wandering the FPS desert looking for a game to play or mod. GvD gave a great accounting of himself and his new project: Battlefield BAD COMPANY 2 on BASH 126.

When we make the segue from BFBC2 to MW2, you can feel the mood around the round-table change. You can barely hear us from all the teeth gnashing and finger nail clawing.

This was yet another week of watching IW’s release of MW2 stumble towards the finish line.  And if you were a PC player it was yet a continuation of depressing stories.

Of course we take on the big MW2 news of the week, which was of course the Best Buy chat with the game’s devs.

We finish the cast with a positive. CoD:WW’s patch v1.7 is moving along and PC support seems to continue apace with the development of CoDTV.

On the podcast we have ibleedv20 from omnilinkit.com, josh peckler from planetmedalofhonor.com and planetcallofduty.com, rudedog from fpsadmin.com, garetjax from codtv as well as console expert mattks from weplaycod.net, @weplaycod and finally pst*joker  from mycallofduty.com.

The opinions expressed on this podcast are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect those of BASHandSlash.com. And now let the rancor and recriminations begin…wa waaaaa.

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BASH is pleased to present Battlefield Bad Company 2’s producer, coming to us all the way from the home office of Digital Illusions CE (DICE) in Stockholm Sweden, it is none other than the legendary Gordon Van Dyke.

Gordon is on BASH to talk to us about all the awesome tech going into his new baby, BFBC2.

This is a wide-ranging interview and we cover a lot of ground. With me to help cover that ground with Gordon (aka “Lex Luthor”) is BASH regular, Garetjax from codtv.tv.

Among the interesting personal facts that Gordon drops our way is that he was a former competitive player (hence the “Lex Luthor” tags), but get this…he was also a PC modder. And his mods are the reason he got to work at DICE. I’m sure his street cred with our community just shot straight up, huh?

Of course we asked about BFBC2 as well.

- We go into depth on the Frostbite gaming engine.

- We talk about the possibilities of modding the game.

- We talk about the potential for competitive BFBC2 play.

- We of course talk about the fact that BFBC2 will have dedicated servers.

- The PC beta is also discussed.

Thanks to all the folks who helped make this cast happen: Gordon at DICE, Matt Pruitt, Jino T. and Kelly E. at EA. Thanks guys.

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Though it should have been a runaway romp, the marketing of Modern Warfare 2, the sequel to the iconic CoD4, has been a muddy slog.

Activision, the game’s publisher and Infinity Ward, its developer have seen the game’s release troubled by an ever growing list of issues, many of their own making.

MW2’s ball-handlers have dropped their fair share of pig-skin in the last few months. Here are just the lowlights:

- Activision brass increase the price of MW2 during the deepest recession since the Great One, just because they can. This causes great resentment even amongst the game’s fanboys.

- The PC community forges a 170,000+ petition demanding the restitution of dedicated servers after it pieces together the dev’s plot to have their online experience replaced by a peer-to-peer system.

- PC pre-orders of the game drop, as does Activision stock, soon after the news of the lack of dedi servers hits the internet.

- IW devs single out hardcore CoD PC gamers as bad influences. They are effectively fired. Modders, competitive gamers and tuners go into anaphylactic shock.

- PC Modders revolt after they see that their creativity is harvested and used blatantly in some of MW2’s more appealing features, without so much as any recognition (never mind any monetary compensation).

- Console gamers get a hold of MW2 DVD’s and begin live-streaming SP missions over the internet. Hundred’s of spoiler alerts go unheeded as the game’s closely guarded secrets get spilled.

- Pirated MW2 console torrents are being seeded across the world, two weeks before the game is officially released. This finally dispels the myth that illegal PC downloads were the real problem.

- CNN ireporters call in to say that MW2 lets kids play terrorist characters. The alleged opening scenes of MW2 see the wholesale slaughter of civilians. Acid-tongued CNN readers suggest that the only terrorism is the cancellation of dedicated servers.

To discuss these and many other topics are:

Rudedog from fpsadmin.com

Garetjax from codtv.tv

Bleed from omnilinkit.com

and our guests:

Josh from planetmedalofhonor.com and planetcallofduty.com

console expert Mattks from weplaycod.blogspot.com

competitive player, Andy “The Impaler” Coons from Loaded (goloaded.com)

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BASH 123 detonated over the CoD community like an atomic blast.

It has been a week now and we have all had a chance to recover.

On this week’s BASH, we look forward into the future of Call of Duty. A future that might be missing the elements that brought us into this game in the first place.

Today’s webcast features a status update on Modern Warfare 2, with an emphasis on community reaction.

We also talk about the stinging rebuttal from MW2 developer, Infinity Ward.  Jason West’s reply was particularly strong and no doubt a stiff rebuke to the outcry from PC gamers.

We talk about the success of the online petition against IW and the wisdom of a server strike.

After what has happened, will you buy this game?

SERVER GIVEAWAY!

On to show PC community solidarity is, friend of the show, jimmycorps (jimmycorps.com) who will give away a dedicated 60-slot Linux server to a lucky BASH listener.

Trivia question: Besides PST*Joker, who’s the only other person to win on an episode of BASH’s quiz show “Kill or Be Killed”.

Kill or Be Killed Ep 2

Kill or Be Killed Ep 1

We have on PST*Joker, Bleed, Josh Peckler, Mattks and Ian Tannehill to talk things CoD.

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Rob Bowling, community manager at Infinity Ward was kind enough to join our panel on BASH today. He let us in on the news that IW was taking Modern Warfare in a new direction. The online game on PC has changed. Dedicated servers are out. IW.net is in.

This is a game changer and many of you may not be too happy. I for one will be willing to listen and try it out. It’s all I can do.

For the folks in our community that mod and map, the future does not look as bright as the past.

Thanks to Rob, PST*Joker from mycallofduty.com, Rudedog from fpsadmin.com, Garetjax from codtv.tv, Josh from Planetmedalofhonor.com, MatTks from @weplaycod (Twitter) and weplaycod.com, iBleedv20 at omnilinkit.com and the hordes in our chatroom and ventrilo.

I’m glad the day is over.

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A hectic week for MW2 news junkies. There was a great deal of information released about the game. It started last weekend with the release of the Infamy video and it continued with the GTTV special on MW2.

However, what should have been  a straightforward marketing bonanza for Activision and IW became anything but…in the PC community that is.  Activision/IW lost the marketing highground and their message was hijacked by rumors of a delay in the PC SKU.

That’s our topic for today’s cast and with me to discuss the issue, as well as to talk about other relevant MW2 tidbits are Rudedog from fpsadmin.com and Xiao from Blackmonkeys.de.

And in a historic first for the program, BASH introduces MaTtKs from Twitter’s WePlayCod and weplaycod.net. Matt, a staunch CoD console community member is on to bring his community’s viewpoint into the cast. Welcome Matt!

In addition, we talk about Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising. How has the release process gone for this new FPS shooter?

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We have tried for some time to get Ian Tannehill, head of game at CEVO, to come on and talk to us but something has always gotten in the way. Whether it was food poisoning (…pork’s not as easy to cook as you might think!), or structural fires (Ian’s a much-in-demand firefighter) something has always kept us from having him come on the show and share his insight.

Well on this week’s BASH, we had Ian get up early to talk to us about the exciting end to season four of the CEVO-P season.

In addition to CEVO’s CoD guru, we have John from efragtv.com.

John and his shoutcasters casted the final game, which saw Loaded go up against Team Pandemic for CoD4 bragging rights in North America. John brings us his thoughts on the championship game and on the season.

Along with Ian and John are my co-hosts.  PST*Joker from mycallofduty.com, Bleed from omnilinkit.com and Rudedog from fpsadmin.com are on to discuss the rest of the news in the CoD world for this week.

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Has Activision’s plans to monetize Call of Duty left the PC irrevocably behind the console in relevance? Does it matter? Can our community do anything about it?

On to talk about these and other topics are pst*Joker from mycallofduty.com, Bleed from omnilinkit.com, John from efragtv.com, Arseynimz from Gamestah.com and Chris from blackmonkeys.de

Topics from the show:

Germans get MW2 without censorship (see source) What’s new in MW2 this week (perky question)? Is Activision leaving the PC community behind? Is there any PC game worth buying? Community info for September

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Today we present BASH 119, recorded live in prime time last Sunday night.

On with us to talk about MW2 was Rudedog, from fpsadmin.com, fresh from his experience at the IW Community Event in Los Angeles. He takes us into the event and tells us what happened and what Modern Warfare 2 has in store for the PC community.

Are we in for a bumpy ride? Also with us today is Garetjax from codtv.tv who will tell us his progress on the CoD:WW CoDTV front.

CoD:WW v1.6 was released this week and we marvel at the logistics of producing the mammoth downloads available to us. Has Treyarch become the developer of choice for the PC community? It sure looks that way to us!

Co-hosting the program with Jock are PST*Joker from mycallofduty.com and Bleed from omnilinkit.com.

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Thanks to Rudedog from fpsadmin.com, you get a chance to sit in on tonight’s MW2 community event in Los Angeles!

Rudedog tweets and skypes us all the info going on behind the scenes at MW2’s first showing to the glitterati of the gaming community.

PST*Joker and Sanity are on hand to listen in.

Thanks to the hundreds that came and listened live!

This cast is the raw, unedited audio of the live cast we did tonight at the community event.

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