First-Person Shooters

By Alex Osborn, IGN 

Call of Duty: Black Ops III released today across an array of different platforms, and it looks like PC gamers are getting the short end of the stick.

Many who picked up the game for Windows are having major issues with Treyarch’s new shooter, citing unacceptably low frame rates and in some instances an inability to play the game entirely.

Polygon notes that users have taken to the official Call of Duty forums as well as Steam’s Community forums to level their complaints, with several claiming the “game doesn’t even start.”

Treyarch is aware of the issues and has suggested players edit one of the game’s INI files. “There have been reports of certain i5 CPUs having performance issues causing very low frame rates – We are still working on the final solution for this issue, but we have had reports that changing WorkerThreads = 4 to WorkerThreads = 2 in your config.ini file can help.”

The wait is over: Black Ops is back! After months of anticipation, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 is available now around the world. With an all-new campaign that can be played solo or in four-player co-op, the 1940s film noir zombies experience, Shadows of Evil, and massive new multiplayer features, like a new momentum-based, chained movement system and the introduction of Specialists—Black Ops 3 is the biggest, most ambitious Blacks Ops game to-date.

Of course, in true Black Ops fashion, there’s so much more for fans to discover and experience—whether it’s exploring the data vaults of the Safe House in campaign, uncovering the heavily-rumored Nightmares mode, or gaining access to the new Dead Ops arcade*. Those that pre-ordered Black Ops 3 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC also get instant access to the reimagined fan-favorite multiplayer map, Nuk3town, as a bonus map. And for zombies fans, there’s The Giant, the next chapter in the classic Black Ops zombies story that’s included with Black Ops 3 Collector’s Editions and for Season Pass owners.

But there’s even more to come—Black Ops 3 will help usher in a new era of Call of Duty eSports with the inaugural season of the Call of Duty World League, which kicks off this January.

More game info available at the Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 official website.

Full review coming within 48 hours of launch.

By Brian Albert, IGN

With alternate histories and crazy weapons, Treyarch’s Black Ops games have always been Call of Duty’s oddballs. After killing mind-wolves with a swarm of nano-bees in the new campaign, I’m happy to say Black Ops 3 not only continues that trend, but smartly embraces its sci-fi oddities more than ever before.

Read on…

All Profits from Limited Edition Merchandise Will Support the Call of Duty Endowment’s Work to Connect Veterans with Quality Employment

Activision Blizzard have announced merchandising partnerships with Costco Wholesale Corporation and GameStop Corp. to support the Call of Duty Endowment’s nationwide work to help veterans find high-quality careers after military service. Costco will sell exclusive, limited edition dog tags packaged with the highly-anticipated Call of Duty: Black Ops III in its U.S. stores, and GameStop will offer an exclusive limited edition Call of Duty: Black Ops III challenge coin—sold separately from the game—in its stores. These unique items will be available on November 6, 2015, in conjunction with the Call of Duty: Black Ops III launch. All profits from sales of the dog tags and challenge coins will go towards the Call of Duty Endowment‘s support for organizations that prepare veterans to reenter the job market.

This Smart News Release features images of the dog tags and challenge coin. View the full release here.

Source: techPowerUp!

This year’s installment to the Call of Duty franchise, Black Ops III, has just hit stores, and is predictably flying off shelves. As with every ceremonial annual release, Black Ops III raises the visual presentation standards for the franchise. There is, however, one hitch with the way the game deals with system memory amounts as high as 12 GB and video memory amounts as high as 8 GB. This hitch could possibly be the reason behind the stuttering issues many users are reporting.

In our first play-through of the game with its highest possible settings on our personal gaming machines – equipped with a 2560 x 1600 pixels display, Core i7 “Haswell” quad-core CPU, 12 GB of RAM, a GeForce GTX 980 Ti graphics card, NVIDIA’s latest Black Ops III Game Ready driver 385.87, and Windows 7 64-bit to top it all off, we noticed that the game was running out of memory. Taking a peek at Task Manager revealed that in “Ultra” settings (and 2560 x 1600 resolution), the game was maxing out memory usage within our 12 GB, not counting the 1.5-2 GB used up by the OS and essential lightweight tasks (such as antivirus).

Read more…

Bohemia Interactive today deployed a brand new video guide for their tactical military shooter Arma 3. While previous episodes in the official Community Guide series focused on the attack, this new episode explores the basic principles of mounting an effective and efficient defense – making it a must-watch for everyone with an interest in tactical gameplay.

In the video, Andrew Gluck (better known as Dslyecxi, leader of the Arma community group Shack Tactical) examines the most essential planning considerations for a solid defense, such as understanding the terrain, defining areas of responsibility, and identifying potential force multipliers. In addition, the video describes what vehicles and weapons are most suitable for defending a location. To increase your odds of surviving in battle, Dslyecxi concludes the video by discussing individual actions, such as positioning and communications, and knowing when it’s time to retreat.

Previous episodes in the Arma 3 Community Guide video series covered topics such as infantry combat, multiplayer teamwork, helicopters, sniper- and launcher teams, combined arms warfare, air assaults, guerrilla warfare, ground vehicle crew, machine gun teams, and the Arma 3 Zeus DLC. The complete Community Guide playlist is available on Arma 3’s YouTube Channel.

Get more game info at the official Arma 3 website.

Gets Steam Greenlight on the same day!

Today Campfire Games is excited to announce that War of Rights has been approved on Steam Greenlight along with reaching 50% funding for their Kickstarter campaign for this American Civil War FPS game.

“This has been a remarkable day for us! Thanks to our fans and backers we have managed to get approved on Steam Greenlight, on the same day we achieved 50% funding!” said Emil Alexander Hansen, co-founder and technical artist at Campfire Games. “We’re very happy with the way the campaign has gone and very hopeful that we can achieve our funding and bring this game to life.”

The team at Campfire Games is also thrilled about the Collector’s Edition Box Set for War of Rights being offered at the Kickstarter campaign that will include several items such as a physical copy of the game, a soundtrack CD, a poster signed by the team, Private, NCO and Officer papers for either side of the conflict, a War of Rights mouse pad and even a bullet from the American Civil War packed in a paper cartridge!

War of Rights is a multiplayer game set around the tumultuous period of the American Civil War, during the Maryland Campaign of September 1862. Campfire Games is devoted to presenting the gruesome and glorious elements of the period, while maintaining the highest level of historical accuracy and realism as possible thanks to the wonders of CRYENGINE.

Visit the War of Rights – Kickstarter page for more game information, screenshots, and video.

Director Wayne McClammy Helms Call of Duty Trailer Featuring Cara Delevingne, Michael B. Jordan and Marshawn Lynch

Black Ops is back! With only a few days to go until what Nielsen dubbed the “most anticipated multiplatform holiday game” of the year releases worldwide, Call of Duty: Black Ops III’s live-action trailer has hit the airwaves. Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc., kicked its creative and marketing campaign into high gear yesterday in the U.S. during Sunday’s football games with the release of the new trailer helmed by director Wayne McClammy and featuring Michael B. Jordan (Creed, Fantastic Four, Fruitvale Station), Cara Delevingne (Suicide Squad, Paper Towns, Valerian) and Marshawn Lynch (Seattle Seahawks). The intense 1:40 high-action piece is titled “Seize Glory.”

Call of Duty: Black Ops III Launches Worldwide November 6th.

More game info available at the Call of Duty: Black Ops III official website.

Source: Blue’s News

The Battlefield 4 Battlelog has word that the promised Community Operations update is now available for Battlefield 4 along with the fall update for the first-person shooter sequel. This post offers the fall update patch notes, which are far more extensive than most game manuals these days. Here’s word:

It’s time to harvest the fruits of your labor. The Community Map Project led to the creation of the Operation Outbreak map, and it’s rolling out worldwide today with Battlefield 4 Community Operations. Grab the free* DLC from the Origin My Games tab or the PlayStation PS Store or Xbox Marketplace.

The Battlefield 4 Fall Update is available today as well. Check out the Fall Update notes here!

Operation Outbreak has you fighting in the jungle over a Medical Clinic, Temple, Ghost Town, Logging Camp, and Palm Oil Plantation – all of which were created based on feedback and suggestions from the Battlefield 4 community. You helped build the map, and now it’s time for you to blast it apart.

Check out the Battlefield 4 Community Operations gameplay trailer here.

NEW VIDEO LOOKS AT PERFORMANCE CAPTURE BRINGING CHARACTERS TO LIFE

The fourth – and penultimate – entry in the Just Cause 3 Dev Diary series takes a look at the story and missions driving Just Cause 3’ s explosive action.

In Just Cause 3, Rico Rodriguez returns to his homeland – the Mediterranean island of Medici. Far from the paradise it might appear on the surface, Medici is ruled by the dictator General Di Ravello, who uses the island’s resources to further his plans of world domination. Thankfully, Rico is no stranger to removing tyrannous dictators from power, and takes charge of the rebellion.

“Our missions are an excuse for you to try cool things,” explains Francesco Antolini, Principal Designer at Avalanche Studios. “…we’ve kept the same philosophy from the rest of the game which leaves the player free to experiment and reach their goals however they prefer.”

As well as highlighting the story and events leading up to the start of the game, the video takes a look at characters and the technologies behind them. In the video, there’s a fantastic insight into performance capture and the camera tech Avalanche Studios has used in bringing Just Cause 3’s cast to life.

Watch the ‘Episode 4 – Story & Missions’ dev diary here.

More game information available at the Just Cause 3 website.