BASH

The topic for this week’s webcast, as the title implies, deals with Cyber Evolution (CEVO) and competitive gaming in CoD4. We called the webcast “CoD4 Cyberevolves” to describe the changes that IW’s Modern Warfare game has gone through. First starting out as an awesome SP game, then to a handsdown MP winner to now…a solid platform for competitive gamers to play on.

With us to discuss CoD4 and competitive gaming is someone that I feel is not only a great student of the game, he is one of the best at explaining its nuances. Former competitive player, CoD-advocate and writer and now match-caster for eRev TV, Ted “Sang” Ottey is on the program.

We discuss all aspects of CoD4 competition, with special attention to CEVO online gaming:

Where is CoD4 competitive gaming going?

Who is the best CoD4 player right now?

What are the greatest teams?

Where can you watch the games?

How can you get involved in competitive gaming?

Of course we spend a good deal of time talking about the Championship CoD4 game between Team Pandemic and The Evil Geniuses that took place the day before. Read more about Ted and get the show notes at BASHandSlash.com.

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She’s an accomplished artist, a loving wife and mother, and handles a sniper rifle like Simo Häyhä…here to talk to us about what it’s like to be a woman playing online FPS games is eXtremegamerz‘ {eXg} Black Widow.

Black Widow and I discuss the state of FPS gaming from a woman’s perspective. What is it like to mix it up with the guys online? Are men really better than women in CoD? Why are their very few female avatars in military FPS’s? Why are all men pigs? (…sorry, that’s my wife’s question….how’d she get on here?). The interview gives a fascinating perspective that is seldom heard by the average male gamer.

Big thanks to Black Widow for the awesome graphic!

And of course, as usual, thanks to DJ Skeebo for the great intro.

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Ladies and gentlemen, senhoras e senhores…today we are proud to have on one of the best FPS modders in South America. He has made some prodigious FPS mods in his career and has two going great guns right now both in the MoH world (H.E.R.) and in the CoD world he brings us Frontlines a campaign mod for CoD4.

We are honored to have Freddy Hajas from Rio de Janiero on today’s program.

Freddy talks to us about what it is like to game in Brazil. Many of our listeners living outside of North America and Europe will find that the problems are not unique to South America; that is, over-priced hardware and software (for their market) make gamers turn to cracked games and those who keep to the straight and narrow find empty servers.

Then we quickly switch from solving the world’s economic problems to Freddy’s great Frontlines mod for CoD4.

Freddy is a very enthusiastic FPS gamer and you can certainly hear it in the interview.

Read more about Frontlines on BASHandSlash.com. Join our boards and post comments on this and other webcasts.

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In this week’s episode, we discover the world of Call of Duty Tactical Gaming (TG). To help us understand what this gameplay is like, we asked Jazz, General of the the fabled [509th] Tactical Gaming clan to come on and give us the full scoop.

I will be the first to admit that, my first introduction to TG scared me away. There was a lot to absorb for a noobie like me and the speed of the game was much slower than I had been expecting.

It was only on the second attempt that I started to “get” this form of play - and now I have been hooked. Hopefully you will try it out, the benefits are many.

The slow play brings your imagination into the fray. In this game…being fragged counts for a lot as it is very difficult to recover positionally if you are eliminated: spawns are relatively a long way away in TG. For this reason you are on pins and needles all the time…so much so that play becomes exhilarating and yes…addictive.

Find out more at BASHandSlash.com where we have included our show notes on this episode.

Don’t forget to subscribe to BASH: at the right handside of the page you will see an iTunes icon for doing so.

And remember, you can always give us feedback on what you have heard and read on our BASHBoards.

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This week on BASH, we have the eSheriff of on-line FPS gaming on the program: Rob (RodeoBob), co-founder of the online anti-cheat service pbbans.com.

He has come on the program to tell us what pbbans.com is all about and to chat about all the great things his organization is doing.

Here are some of the questions we ask RodeoBob to answer:

What is PBBans and how did it start?

Why does the FPS community need PBBans?

What is the relationship between PBBans and EvenBalance? What is pbbans Master Ban Index? How does one get added to that Index? What are the minimum requirements? Does it always take a PB violation to get on the list?

A few weeks ago there was a DDoS attack on pbban’s website - what happened and what steps have been taken to prevent another outage?

Players and admins should listen to this program to get the inside scoop on the latest anti-cheat technology in online gaming.

Read the Show Notes for the program here.

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Back by popular demand, Jock again puts on his fake mustache and a wide-lapeled polyester suit and matching kerchief, to host the game show that everyone in the FPS world is talking about: Kill or be Killed.

The contestants on today’s show include:

Community leader, and BASH show regular, Matt Pruitt from planetcallofduty.com.

Sam, aka iBleedv20 from cod4world.com returns after his appearance on KoBK #1.

And Oliver - yes, it’s the infamous Taco! - from the 420th at fritzmods.com.

Can Matt and Sam handle the Taco? We will soon find out! Listen in as these contestants vie for Call of Duty trivia show supremacy on this episode of BASH. …and listeners, don’t forget to play along - get the questions in our show notes on BASHandSlash.com.

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This week on BASH, we have an integrated multi-media extravaganza that focuses on the online community we know as the “clan”. First off we have friend of the show, the forward-thinking Sam (aka iBleedv20) from Cod4world.com on the show to talk about his view on what makes good communities online.

Today, we discuss the clan - especially, as it pertains to CoD FPS gaming. Sam’s got some really great news for those out there that have started up a clan - but have nowhere to play. He is sponsoring a few clans and if you have the right requirements, he might sponsor yours!

Read this information for more: Clan Sponsoring at cod4world.com

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Jock achieves a career milestone in this episode of BASH. Listen as Jock dons a mustache and a wide-lapeled polyester suit to host the gameshow that is taking the FPS world by storm: Kill or be Killed.

The contestants on today’s show are:

The lovely senior staffer at mycallofduty.com, modder-extraordinaire, he is now supporting CoD2’s eXtreme+ mod and the versatile X4 for CoD4…taking the podium it’s: {PST}*Joker!

Also joining us this evening is the erudite, coding genius Garetjax from GaretsLab.com!

…and strapping on his quiz-show protective goggles and high-voltage buzzer is newcomer to BASH, Sam, aka ibleedv20 from cod4world.com!

Listen in as these contestants jockey for top spot in our version of a Call of Duty trivia show.

Get the questions in our show notes on BASHandSlash.com.

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Today we are bringing to you this special miniwebcast to celebrate the momentous announcement that we are opening the doors to our new BASHandSlash.com forums: The BASHBoards are here.

…and you can find them on our main portal site: bashandslash.com/boards

The BASHBoards are *the* place where you can discuss your views on Call of Duty and on gaming in general.

BASHandSlash.com’s emphasis has always been on the player and our boards are no different.

Some of the reasons to stop by include

- A desire play better. Get the inside scoop on strats and tactics and get the most out of games like CoD

- you can also ….meet like minded players in our community and share ideas

- for you creative types…sharing your creativity. Tell us what you’ve been up to … whether its a new website, script, mod a map or even a new forum avatar…let us know and display it on our boards

- and as we are the host of the CoD Hall of Fame, registered users are given the honor of choosing who gets in.

At the BASHBoards we criticize ideas NOT people…so feel free to come by and share your thoughts in an atmosphere free of flaming and bullying.

Listeners to the webcast know that I talk too much…so we are offering you the opportunity to talk back on:

The BASHBoards!

register know and start talking.

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Today we depart from the usual Call of Duty interview/round-table format to bring you a special 50th edition “flashback” episode.

Yes, that’s right…we here at BASH are celebrating our 50th episode.

To mark this special occasion we went through the archive and came up with the special moments that marked the first few shows we did - way back in late 2006/early 2007.

Not many people remember our gaffer/audio-engineer Yorgi Uzbek…who blew up our studios, or Anthony Scungile, a young NJ executive on the make. Did I say make? Wrong tense…Mr. Scungile was “made” - and I now call him “boss” as he owns the BASH empire.

Or how about our former intrepid crime reporter, Hillary Wojohowski (now Mrs. Scungile)?

Remember all our cast of characters by listening to the way we were - or weren’t - way back when…

And on behalf of the hundreds of BASH staffers that make this program the fragtacular hit it is in the CoD community, let me thank the special guests we have had on here, my current audio engineer, Skeebo and my director Chico.

Last but not least, a big thanks go out, of course, to you the listener! Without you, everything we do would be for naught.

Thanks for the support - and here’s hoping for those clean headshots.

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If you score even 25% on this Are You a Geek? test, and you play any of the Call of Duty games, you might be good at modding them.

So, if you think you would like to be a modder, but are daunted by the learning curve you will need to climb - then CoD Mod Skool might be the ticket for you!

{PST}*Joker and the folks at mycallofduty.com, want to promote modding in the CoD community. Specifically, they want to promote “OPEN” modding, where everyone communicates with each other and shares information.

To create this type of inter-community sharing of ideas, a few days ago, I got together with Joker, the senior support staff member of the extreme+ and X4 mod to discuss how we could attempt building a true community of modders here in the Call of Duty scene: one that learns together and shares information with each other.

What came of that conversation was CoD Mod Skool: an informal session of like minded modders who periodically talk to each other, ask questions and learn from each other.

In today’s episode of BASH we recorded the inaugural session of CoD Mod Skool, which took place on Sunday the 27th of January. The audio is raspy as the session took place on Team Speak…but it will give you the idea of what goes on.

Joining Joker are some of his mates: Gixxer, {ASP}SniperOne, Patmansan and DoomSlayer. Folks that joined us on CoD Mod Skool were from around North America and as far away as Europe and even Australia.

Future sessions will feature step by step explanations of .gsc files etc. Hopefully, you too will be in the audience! Bring us your questions and your ideas.

Come to bashandslash.com for future details on the timing of the next CoD Mod Skool!

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To mark the end of the first year of the BASH Webcast and to celebrate a hectic year in FPS gaming, we have invited Josh, the owner of codhq.com, to come on the program and talk to us about the year that was.

2007 brought, if not an end to Infinity Ward’s participation in World War II, at the very least: a ceasefire.

CoD4: Modern Warfare was released in late 2007 and it has taken the FPS gaming community by storm.

Was it a commercial success? A critical success? Josh and I talk about the relative merits of CoD4 and the other great 2007 shooters.

2007 was a watershed for us here at BASH. We not only launched this webcast, but we also unveiled our FPS-gaming portal site, BASHandSlash.com. We have had a great time bringing you this program and hope that we can continue to serve the community.

Speaking of watershed years, 2008 looks to be a corker for Josh. Listen to the program as we find out the great news about the direction his career in gaming will soon take.

Thank you all for listening and Happy New Year!

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At the stroke of midnight this New Year’s eve, the long wait for Call of Duty 4 Server Admins and players will be over. Two months after the release of CoD4: Modern Warfare, the folks behind the eXtreme+ mod, at mycallofduty.com , will release version 1.0 of the CoD4 mod:

Click on the picture to find out more about this webcast:

X4: Extreme Warfare

One of the senior staffers at mycallofduty.com, and BASH webcast regular, {PST}*Joker is on again this week to discuss this monumental mod.

Helping us get into the mood for the arrival of X4 is DJ-Skeebo who provides us with this episode’s intro music.

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This week on BASH, Jock invites Justin DeMara, aka prank`, Team Pandemic’s world-reknowned CoD sniper on the program.

prank`talks to us about his career as an FPS enthusiast, Team Pandemic pro-gamer and CoD Hall-of-Fame sniper.

Fresh off the heels of a convincing win over The Doctors (which feature ex-Team Pandemic player rob-wiz) in the Xfire CoD4 tournament, prank`talks to us about CoD4 strategy and tactics - especially as they concern the sniper class.

These are among some of the interesting topics discussed in this episode:

- What difficulties have snipers faced in CoD4? See companion article on this topic.

- What is it like to snipe in the post-patch v1.3 environment?

- What sniper rifle should you select for competitive play?

- What perks should the competitive sniper select?

- How are the various CoD4 tournament rule-sets evolving?

- Are the rulesets amongst the tournaments diverging or converging?

- Why hasn’t CoD had more of an impact in the competitive FPS scene?

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Another CoD modding great joins us on BASH this week. None other than BASHandSlash.com Call-of-Duty Hall of Fame modder: Bullet-worm.

Bullet-worm has come on the program to talk a little about himself, his gaming interests and especially about the new version of the competition mod for Call of Duty, PAM.

Initially begun by BASH webcast regular, Garetjax, the PAM mod has been spruced up by Bullet-worm and readied for Modern Combat.

If you are new to Call of Duty, find out what the Project Ares Mod (PAM) is all about and why you will need to know it, if you decide to play competitively.

This year, Bullet-worm was nominated to the CoD Hall of Fame for his work in CoD2; namely, for making the IW checksum workaround, without which we would have had to play CoD2 on very limited modded servers and very few maps.

He has continued modding in CoD4 and is providing the community with an updated PAM mod.

The interview was conducted only one day after Bullet-worm released the beta version to server admins. He had just done an all-nighter to get it finished and was nice enough to come on BASH to tell all of you what PAM is all about.

If you are a modder, scripter, competitive player …or just like scrimming in CoD4, listen to this interview!

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On the eve of the release of PAM4, the competition mod for PAM4, we thought it apropos to talk about competitive gaming and CoD4. This week, we are honored to have on two CoD community greats on the BASH webcast:

Nabore, Team Pandemic’s superstar CoD4 captain and strat caller and

the creator of PAM, Uber-modder, Garetjax.

Our topic?

The issue of competitive gaming in the Call of Duty 4 environment.

Is CoD4 suitable for tournament style gaming?

Tournament gamers are looking for tactical, purposeful gaming, can CoD4 deliver?

Can the game be used stock, as is, albeit with a PAM-like interface?

Do Chopper and airstrikes have any place in tournament play?

Is the sniper an endangered CoD4 species?

Listen and find out!

Don’t forget the show notes to all our webcasts are found on BASHandSlash.com

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