GamingConviction.com

I’m not big on first-person shooters, or co-op games, but after playing the original Left For Dead, I was hooked. It was like beaming into every zombie movie made in the last thirty years and gutting it out, breathlessly, for thirty minutes. Each move you made impacted the other people with you just like every move they made impacted you. It was a co-operative environment in the truest sense of the term. If you managed to hook up with three other people that were pretty good, the game was on and you were on your way. Hook up with three other idiots, and well, you’re night was exasperating.

Left For Dead 2 was very anticipated in a quiet sort of way. I purchased it shortly before Christmas, hoping that it was every bit as fun as the original was. I even traded in the first game for the second, something I never do. Once I purchase a game, it stays in my library until the bitter end.

My first impression of Two was that it was slicker than the original, the frame rate cleaned up, the characters crisper, the settings far better rendered, the ‘infected’ faster and far more in your face. But, honestly, I felt that there was something missing, something that at first I couldn’t put my finger on. As I played on through several encounters online, following my friend GMMAN through level after level, I realized that I didn’t care about the characters around me, or the one I was playing. Two didn’t have that level of involvement that the first game had, almost as if in making the game better, it had lost that soul that had made the first game so much fun.

As I moved on through the game, I realized that Two was a bunch harder than the original of the series. There were more adversaries, and more things that went boom around you, all to pose more of a challenge to your and your co-players. Honestly, in that beefing up, was it necessary?

The game stays true to it’s roots, but if you’re like me, you’re going to want more. More of what? Well, more soul. It’s slick, fast, vicious and vivid, but as you slog it out with critters from the minds of George Romero and Stephen King, you’re almost wondering, “Why do I care?” Also, if you have the original Left For Dead, keep it. It’s one of those games that shouldn’t be traded in.

Entry for CodeofConviction.com Code 4 is now open. The code is 8212. Also, there is a new feed on RedScopeSecurity.com once you log in.

Earlier this month, yet another mysterious site popped up relating to SC: Conviction.  Over the last few weeks, if you’ve been following codeofconviction.com, you should have received a series of emails.  One of the earliest lead to a blog (titled “The Burrower”), and a reply from vcos52.  He provided an email address, which upon mailing, you receive an auto-reply to with a link to feedhack.net.

Feedhack.net is displaying the following video loop:

There is a phone number on the back of the guys jacket.  Some users have called it, and were connected to RedScope Security’s automated repair request system.  WARNING: IT IS AN INTERNATIONAL NUMBER.  CALLERS OUTSIDE THE UK WILL BE CHARGED A STEEP RATE.

During the Coste trailer, you see an image of a prisoner.  In the video, a code blinks across.  A quick search for the code takes you to a 45 second video of the prisoner.  During the video, he uses sign language to signal 6, 9, and 10.  Because of this, we believe code 4 may be 6910.  However, we won’t know until code 4 opens up for submission in the future.  We will keep you up to date.

The man who knew fisher, before he was a Splinter Cell:
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I was skeptical of online gaming when I purchased my Xbox 360 nearly a year ago. After all, I had gone it alone with the original Xbox and felt that me, myself and I alone in a room with diet pepsi and a bag of pork rinds was the pinnacle of fun. Man, was I wrong. There was a whole world out there that I had never realized was going on, the return of fun that was long missing from the malaise of the common internet experience the rest of the world was experiencing.

I started with Project Gotham Racing 4, an easy enough racing game to cut your teeth on, and found that the world was more competitive racing than anything else. After being away from serious gaming for a stretch, my skills were rusty, my trash talk mediocre… I was behind the curve and had some catching up to do. Always in “A” class and always racing the harcore tracks, I began to improve also began to notice the differences in play among the different nationalities represented.

The British, by far, were the Zen masters of trash talk and dirty racing; Their talents pertaining to smashing their opponents into the wall were the stuff of legend. Their accents giving their derision weight and punch… oh how I hated racing with the British lads. However, my own skills were much getting better because of it. I suppose that was cold comfort after being smashed into a wall by a bloke in a lightweight Ariel Atom… oh you bastard you!

I moved on, of course, did my time in the Grand Theft Auto IV realm, finding out that children have a far meaner streak than adults. Is it no wonder that Golding’s “Lord Of The Flies” hit a nerve. There is nothing so unsettling as hearing “BOOM! HEADSHOT, bitch!” come through your headset as a child dispatches you with ease. Needless to say that I did not last long in that world. I was just lacking that killer instinct needed.

Recently, I found a niche with Midnight Club: Los Angeles, a racing game put out by Rockstar. Granted, the game does have its highs and lows, most notably the superhuman AI, but the online play is where the game does truly shine. The game has its bugs, mostly when one is showing off and cycling through their cars while someone else is cycling through their cars. You’ll see their handle disappear from the playing list and you know that somewhere, an Xbox just locked up. Always gives me a little smile having gone through the same song and dance so many times before.

What’s really excellent about Midnight Club: LA is the socializing… If you want to race all night long, there are more than enough folks to take you up on it. If you just want to chill in a digital parking lot and talk about cars or whatever until the wee hours of the AM, well that’s cool too. This is why you got Xbox Live. That fact is what brings me back to the halcyon days of the internet; that comraderie of knowing that you were in on something the average weenie knew nothing about.

So, if you haven’t gotten this game yet, please do. Just don’t expect Forza 3… this is a cartoon, a caracature of the Fast & Furious lifestyle that allows anyone to be those guys for a couple of hours, complete with cheesy dialog and over the top cars.

Have fun. More to come.

In a press release earlier this week, Ubisoft confirmed that Assassin’s Creed 3 will be comming out in their 2010-11 fiscal year.  They continued to say that AC3 will be the first in the series to have an “online multiplayer mode”  As for a specific release date, and other specific details, we are still unsure at this time.

In a press release earlier this week, Activision proudly announced that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has officially surpassed $1 Billion in sales.  This is in part to $550 Million in 5 day sales according to Activision.  They also proudly boasted that the opening week sales of MW2 surpassed the opening week totals of the top movies released in the last few years, including Avatar, The Dark Knight, and several others.

Earlier this year, the Call of Duty franchise was declared to be one of the most valuable game franchises in history, both in financial value, and per-unit sales.
 

In the release, they stated that that Modern Warfare 2 has far surpassed even there highest expectations.  It is even reported that hundreds upon thousands turned out to midnight release parties, possibly setting a new world record.

New information has slowly been coming out about the co-op campaign in the long awaited 5^th installment of the Splinter Cell series.

The co-op campaign in SC: Conviction starts at the end of Splinter Cell: Double Agent, and fills in the gap all the way to the start of the single player campaign in Conviction. In the co-op campaign, you will play as one of two agents:  Archer, an American agent; or Kestrel, a Russian agent.  Mark and execute is a prominent feature in co-op, as it is in single player. For example, spies will be able to spread out.  Once can take the high route, and another can crouch silently in the shadows while the first spy marks targets for him to execute.  In addition, there will also be several new moves spies can use to escape trouble.  In several cases through the game, one of the spies may be grabbed by the enemy.  The captured spy will then be able to hit his captor, and duck, giving his partner a clear shot.  Some objectives will require teamwork as well.  Co-op is shaping up to be the high point of this game.

Unfortunately, most Splinter Cell fans will be disappointed that Spy vs. Merc has been removed.  The developers decided to do so, in favor of a more robust co-op experience.  However, the disappointment will soon fade once players begin to play Deniable Ops.  In this mode, there are four game modes: Hunter, Last Stand, Infiltration, and Face Off.

In the Hunter game mode, your primary objective is to eliminate the entire enemy force.  Infiltration is a stealth-focused mode, where you must bypass enemies and various security devices.  If you are spotted, the mission is over.  In Last Stand, your objective is to stay alive, and protect an objective from destruction.  Finally, the new Face Off is a head to head mode.  This mode is expected to be similar to the double agent missions in Splinter Cell: Double Agent where spies compete against other to complete their objectives.

Except for the removal of the famed spy vs. merc mode, Splinter Cell: Conviction is expected to be an all around good package.  The 6 mission co-op story mode, and the Deniable Ops” modes will definitely be worth playing when Splinter Cell: Conviction hits the streets on February 23, 2010. (Relase date changed to: April 2010…)

I’ve been an Xbox LIVE member for over 7 years now, and have paid $50/year every year to be so, since the original launch.  Back when Xbox LIVE started, especially in racing games, you saw logos of companies that regularly sponsored racing.  In some shooters, you occasionally saw a fictional advertisement.  This is becoming more prominent every day.

The other evening, I was playing Splinter Cell: Double Agent with my fellow staff members Matt and Evan.  I couldn’t help but noticing as we played on the Black Wing map, the advertisements for the Section 8 DVD.  I was shocked that there were actually current ads in the game, but the news section hadn’t been updated since 2006.

Later that night, I hopped over to play Midnight Club: LA with fellow ZoomerX.com columnist Scott.  I’d seen ads before in that game, but thought they were fictional.  I decided to do a Google search, and found that the ads in that game are indeed for a legitimate company.  I viewed their website, and later found out they were a clothing manufacturer in Los Angeles, California.  While viewing the website, I did find some racy pictures, and advertising that would definitely not be appropriate for minors, yet the link to the website is clearly displayed in an “E” rated game.

But when I backed out to my dashboard, and saw nearly a half-dozen panels that were advertisements for non-Xbox products, then I got concerned.  Advertising has been taking over the internet, especially as other advertising mediums such as TV and radio are falling out of popularity with the younger generations over the last few years.  Most websites have more ads than content now, however, when advertisements start spilling in to my games, that’s really crossing the line.

Every year, I pay Microsoft $50 to be an Xbox LIVE “Gold” member.  On top of that, I pay $60+ for games, and even more on downloadable content for my games.  I could understand the dashboard ads if I were a “silver” member, but not as a veteran paid-member.  Being forced to see these ads on my dashboard just makes me feel as if my money just isn’t good enough for “Microsoft.”  This is especially true when I see advertisements for products that aren’t even related to the Xbox, or Microsoft.  I pay to be a member of Xbox LIVE.  I paid my dues, but yet I am still treated like I’ve paid nothing.  I want to see my console’s information, and be able to navigate around the menus on my $400 console (not counting the 2 times I’ve been charged for repairs, or my memberships).

Advertisements are understandable in 1 vs. 100, seeing as that is a high-cost, high-maintenance game that we are getting for free.  But when I start seeing ads in games I’ve paid full price for, then I start to feel ripped off.  I bought a game to play the game, not see advertisements.  After looking closer at several other games, I’ve noticed ads in them, but only in the newer games.

Without some control to all this advertising every time we load our own music, pictures, or even games, we may have to watch a “sponsored message” first.  It shouldn’t come to this, but I feel that it may, with out even a little bit of control.  Let’s not let it come to this.

The long awaited 5th installment of the Splinter Cell series, Splinter Cell: Conviction, has been delayed again.  In a press release issued by Ubisoft earlier today, they said “Splinter Cell Conviction™ is now expected to hit the stores in April 2010.”

We are working to verify the new release date, seeing as there have been nearly a dozen changes in the release date.  We will keep you up to date on this.

You can read the full press release here.

[You saw this first on ZoomerX.com.  At the time of writing of this article, it was not located on any major gaming press websites.]