Reached the first Prestige in MW3. I had three Prestige tokens right off the bat from Prestiges attained in previous Call of Duty titles. I spent all three of them on gear unlocks (I plan to go through all 10 prestiges so I think it’s worth it). Here’s what those tokens went on, and why:
1. MP7 Sub Machine Gun. This gun is an absolute beast and by a long way my favourite. I used the token because it’s a level 74 weapon, and because the way MW3 plays a sub machine un is a good choice for my playstyle. It’s similar to the PP90 you see lots of people running around with but beats it by having a larger clip and (more importantly) a much quicker reload than the PP90. As standard it’s got a generous 40 round clip. My favourite setup for this weapon is a supressor and extended mags (takes you to a 60 round clip – enough to mow down three opponents without reloading easily). It does not appear to have any recoil whatsoever, and it’s not bad at longe range either. Because it’s a sub machine gun you run faster, and it pulls up quicker than an assault rifle.
2. Scavenger. I never liked Scavenger much in BLOPS, but in MW3 it’s fantastic. 2nd only to Sleight of Hand in Tier 1. It’s a level 39 unlock and I just can’t wait that long. Sleight of hand is unlocked right away at level one.
3. Portable Radar. This one unlocks at level 74. I love it because it has two features the BLOPS motion sensor didn’t. Number one, you can throw it (instead of just setting it down on the ground). This means you can toss it high up on obstacles where enemy players can’t reach it. Number two, it doesn’t only help you – your entire team get’s the benefit of it . I only run the Specialist Strike Package so I’m not calling in any UAVs. The Portable Radar is there as long as I stay alive and running Specialist is all about staying alive. I’m sacrificing my tactical grenades, but since Scavenger doesn’t replenish them I think the trade off is good. If anyone think this means I’m a camper forget it – I’m not.
I have to say this is without doubt the best Call of Duty yet. In particular the Kill Confirmed game mode & Specialist Package really add something to the game – by greatly reducing camping. I’ve seen lots of YouTubers complaining the game is too soft on weaker players. What I take that to mean is they are having difficulty getting games like they did in BLOPS running the 8-9-11 Killstreaks (Blackbird, Chopper Gunner & Dogs) so they could post 75 Kill games. I don’t miss that – most times I saw that in Black Ops it was some 15th Prestiger who’d basically camp their start flag in Domination off the bat to get their Kill Streaks. It just made the game frustrating for me as a below average player. The Specialist Packge is simply awesome. I never liked calling in killstreaks anyway, so now I get to run and gun full time without feeling like I’m playing with a disadvantge. Maybe I’ll call in my MOABs though.
Since most people always like to hear complaints about Call of Duty for some reason, as a footnote here are the aspects of MW3 I don’t like:
Scoreboards: Number of captures not displayed for Domination. This is insance – they should be there as tye are the objective – not kills.
Elite: BLOPS gave us all the stats we could want in game. MW3 seems to think I will pay more money for stats. I won’t.
Spawns: They really are crazy, but for every time an enemy spawns with me in their sight and kills me, I get one back. It doesn’t bother me too much. they’ve said it’ll improve in January.
Lag: I’ve heard people complain, but I used the option to switch off theatre mode and I don’t have any problems. I’ll be brutally frank here – when I read that the lag in Black Ops was attributable to theatre mode, an option for the small percentage of players who are also YouTubers my blood boiled. These people should just put up with running their PVR’s all the time if the alternative is a reduced enjoyment for everyone.
My favoutrite class setup:
- MP7 – dual attachments – supressor & extended mags.
- Skorpions – akimbo (thanks xcal)
- Frag Grenade
- Portable Radar
- Tier 1: Scavenger
- Tier 2: Hardline
- Tier3 : Steady Aim
- Specialist Package: Sleight of Hand, Stalker, Assasin
Note: if there was an option to have no death streak I would take it. I use Juiced as it seems the least lame.
I now have just the one spare Prestige Token – I’ll end up with 10 if I prestige all the way. I’ll spend 5 on extra custom classes, and 5 on double XP (when it’s double XP weekend – apparently that’ll mean quad XP).
This post is a retraction and clarification of some of the points made in my earlier post. After reading the multitude of comments (most it would seem made by Channel Islands residents) I thought I’d better strike through the inaccuracies in the original post, and set some clarification here.
The Channel Islands are NOT part of the UK.
The Channel Islands are NOT members of the EU.
And finally…the original post was not intended to be some kind of criticism of the Channel Islands or it’s fine people. It is intended as a criticism of outdated UK import duty law which has been manipulated by large corporations to gain a commercial advantage via tax avoidance.
I’m very sorry if this was not clear to readers of the original post.
Hey Treyarch/Infinity Ward.
I love it, but can’t help thinking it could be greater still if:
Ghost: needs weakening. If you don’t think it’s overpowered, check out how many players use it.
Lobbys: Can’t some level of skill based matchmaking come into it – based on KD?
Quitters: If a host quits, block them from joining a new lobby for 30 minutes. If a non-host quits, block them for 5 minutes. People should be encouraged to complete their games and it seems match bonus isn’t doing it (you’re not going to get much if you lose after all).
Knife: Two button action – switch then use. It’s not realistic to switch instantly from firing a weapon to stabbing and it’s annoying as hell.
Campers: How about some camper free game modes. Just have the game execute players who don’t move for long periods.
Noob tubes: nuff said.
Kill streaks: Can’t we have these in our classes? When I run into an entire team wearing Ghost, my spy plane loses it’s appeal.
Spawning: Not in someones’ sights please!
Options: In classes? Sometimes I switch and let someone else play on my account – it’s a big hassle to sign out, sign in & restart the game after all
Mute: Can I please just mute everyone by default. I’d prefer to specify who I want to hear, not who I don’t because most of the people playing are 8.
Ta.
My heartfelt thanks to Angela Jackman for her successful appeal against Head Teachers’ rights to impose a uniform policy.
As I’m sure everyone agrees, our schoolchildrens’ shocking performance when compared to other countries can, and will only ever improve if we successfully undermine the authority of the education system.
Social media sites such as FaceBook & Twitter are buzzing with speculation as to just who Manchester United’s “The CTB” mystery player actually is.
Manager Alex Ferguson broke his usual disdain for speaking to the media to say:
“I can’t reveal the identity of the CTB. All I can tell you is that Some Say he likes things shoved up his arse”.
“His identity needs to remain the closely guarded secret that it is.”
Think you know who the CTB is? Leave a comment. All comments will be published, apart from any that are correct of course.
Damn, still no Playstation Network. And the Internet awash with speculation and rants. Sony could, I would have though at the barest level Tweeted a little more than they have.
Since I can’t bring myself to comment on the (frankly) worthless news articles out there, here’s what I think to some of the common stuff I’m reading
1 “It’s Sony’s fault” or “Sony should’ve known better”
Rubbish really. Sony probably thought to themselves “we’re running a gaming network” and mot a bank. I wouldn’t expect this kind of attack either.
2 “The Playstation Network will/won’t be restored on X date”
I’m getting horribly fed up of all the total speculation on news sites regarding when exactly PSN services will resume. What is clear is no-one know, so news sources posting conjecture as fact is just a waste of everyones time.
3 “[Expletive deleted] you Sony, I’m buying an XBox”
For heavens sake, go ahead. While I’m on this, why on earth do so many sites allow profanity in comments? Or put that another way, why are standards so low on what are meant to be quality sites? And lastly…..
4 “Please login or register to leave a comment”
This is starting to drive me nuts. Take a look at your calendar, it’s 2011. I am NOT going through a big sign up process during which I provide your website with all my personal data. Let me sign in with Twitter, FaceBook or OpenID. I want to leave a comment, not begin some lifelong relationship with your website. So does everyone else.
I really would love to know when services wil be resumed as I’m itching to play, but I can wait. Presumably the problem is they have to marry all the old data (trophys, statistics, purchases etc etc) into the new one. Having said that, it can’t be THAT hard surely?
So we’re getting a referendum on a new voting system. I’d like to personally record my complete disgust that this is even happening. Have our politicians really not thought of anything more important than this? I’m going to be voting (against) because I have no desire to live in a country run by the Liberal Party, and as far as I’m able to determine that’s what this is all about – they’ve been harping on about it for about as long as they’ve been losing elections.
Here’s a thought. If the government want to have referendums, why not have some on topics people are actually interested in, such as:
- Should our soldiers be sent to die defending other countries?
- Can we get out of the mess that is the European Union?
- Should we even have signed Kyoto?
- Did we really even want the Olympics during a recession?
In all honesty, the voting system is so far down my list of priorities I would place more importance on whether a dancing dog wins Britains’ Got Talent. I’m mad as hornets!
The Ascension Map for Zombies on Call of Duty Black Ops has to be my favourite Zombie map to date. Here’s the strategy I play on it for mutiplyer (co-op) mode:
1. Finish the first couple of rounds FAST. None of this repairing as many windows as you can or counting how many bullets you put in each Zombie. The first 5 rounds are boring, so get them over with ASAP.
2. Open the TOP door as soon as possible – probably the end of round 1. Other players seem to want to keep it closed and I can’t for the life of me see why. Get it open early, grab the MP5K and get on with racking up the kills.
3. Get JuggerNog before opening the box or buying any weapons other than the MP5K. If I need to open all the doors to get to it because the other players won’t, I’ll do it. Be warned, and if you do play with me, take advantage – let me open the doors 
4. Keep the door BENEATH JuggerNog closed. It means the monkeys only attack from one direction.
5. Usually after JuggerNog I’ll run to the other side, buy the AK-74u.
6. I’ll then grab claymores which I’ll put around the JuggerNog machine to protect it. If I’m not near JuggerNog, I have a tendancy to put claymores down where the Zombies won’t set them off – sort of hiding them like a squirrel with nuts so I can pick them up later when I need them.
7. Rack up some kills, and rebuy ammo for the MP5K & AK-74u when needed.
8. NOW it’s time to open the box. You definately want the Ray Gun. In previous Zombie maps it wasn’t as important, but in Ascension it’s the tool of choice for those annoying monkeys. My ideal arsenal is, in order of importance:
- JuggerNog
- Ray Gun
- Claymores
- RPK
- Gersch Device
Side note: I don’t open the box if I have less than 4500 points. If for some reason I go down (it doesn’t happen often!) I’ll want to buy JuggerNog and an MP5K. Taking chances at the box past level 10 when you have no JuggerNog is dumb, and yes, it’s what most players seem to do.
I’ll Pack-A-Punch the RPK if I need the ammo. I’ll only Pack-A-Punch the Ray Gun in extreme circumstances as it doesn’t make a great deal of difference.
In a hectic multiplayer game. I don’t like to hang out with the other players in a group as I tend to trip over them. I’ll move on out into the map and take the Zombies head on. If a player goes down, whether I’m near him or not I’ll use my Gersch Devices to distract the Zombies so anyone near him has a chance to get him up.
Solo mode: One slight modification here. Keep the doors to Speed Cola & Stamina-Up closed. If you get these as random perks after a monkey round, you’ll get to keep them as the monkeys can’t attack the machines with the doors closed. Basically, doing this means no Pack-A-Punch, and might mean you can’t reach the box. That’s no biggy, just wait for a Fire Sale. Having permanent Speed Cola & Stamina Up is worth more than a Pack-A-Punched weapon. This makes it easier to get to round 20. Past round 20 you may as well open up those areas or you’ll get bored to death.
So far I’m up to round 35 on co-op. One of the problems with this game is…it takes a LONG time if you get a good game. Plan for an hour and a half to get past round 25. Plan on spending a great deal of time if you get past 30. I plan to take it to 40 with a friend of mine just because I know I can, but doubt I’ll go beyond that. I read getting to level 90 can take 24 hours – no way I’m doing that. YouTube video’s coming soon.
Oh, and my favourire character is Richtofen.
This morning I heard (again) Nick Ferrari complaining about the cost of the License Fee in the UK, and the poor use of it (in his opinion) by the BBC. Before I put forward any opinions, here’s some data on how much it costs to watch TV here in the UK. First up, the easy one:
Basically, the cheapest you can access any of these services. BBC is £11.88 per month, Virgin Media £12.50 and Sky £19. Clearly you still pay the License Fee if you opt for Virgin or Sky, but these are the rawest numbers.
However, that is not a real comparison. There’s a further cost to watching televsion on either Virgin or Sky as they will force you to watch advertisments. Please do not be naive enough to think of this as not a cost – if it were of no value Virgin would not have collected £140,500,000 and Sky £308,000,000 in advertising revenue for their financial years ending in 2009 were it not of benefit to the advertisers. Factoring this in (by dividing the advertising revenue by the number of subscribers, then adding that figure to the minimum subscription cost) makes the pie chart change rather dramatically:
The BBC still costs £11.88 per month, but now Virgin have shot up to £41.77 and Sky £41.46.
All the information in these figures from the official sources:
I agree the BBC should be held accountable for how they spend (our) money. I absolutely, however, under no circumstances support the abolition or privatisation of, nor the addition of advertising to the BBC. I watch BBC programmes because the quality is high, and I do not wish to watch advertisements. I also prefer my children to see less advertising. I’m displaying adverts on this blog, however, I am not charging you to access it. That seems fair enough to me, we both know where we stand.
Maybe I should also point out I am a Virgin Media customer as well as a BBC license fee payer. It always bothers me that Virgin don’t seem to actually produce any content, yet are more expensive than the BBC, and on top of that are more expensive again by subjecting me to advertising.
Finally, let’s consider some of the other factors that make the continued existence of the BBC important.
- You can still (if you can get the right TV) buy a black and white license at a cost of just £4.08 per month. This makes TV accessible to people on low incomes.
- Everyone, regardless of whether they pay the TV License Fee can listen to the BBC Radio services at zero cost, with no advertising.
- Over 75? You don’t have to pay the license fee at all.
Just like on the BBC site, feel free to “have your say”.
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Google made an algorythm change on or around the 2nd of December. Unfortunately, it seemed one of my sites got penalised quite heavily as traffic dropped to a mere quarter overnight. The algorythm change was pitched as a way of thwarting the black hat technique of actively pursuing negative reviews as a link building tactic. Strange that it would affect me, as to my knowledge there are no reviews anywhere on the web for my site.
Anyhows, I thought a reconsideration request might be in order so I worded a polite note to the Google team and sent it in on the 7th of December. The response was, I have to say, rapid. I got the confirmation they’d completed reviewing my site on the 13th. I’m pretty sure they have too, just check out what WMT has shown me today:
So far no sign of a return to ranking for important keywords though. All the traffic right now is still low, and all for pretty much useless (in other words non-converting) keywords & phrases. In particular, the sites’ domain name is it’s primary keyphrase. It was (rightly I think of course!) at number one for the phrase up until the 2nd and is currently down at 4th. There’s only really any organic clicks for first place, and even then it’s never even 10 a day. The keyphrase isn’t important to me in terms of clicks, but it’s a yardstick for how the site performs in the SERPs. I know when it’s back at number one for it’s primary keyphrase, I can expect the more important long tail traffic to return (that’s where the conversions are baby).
Will come back to this post once the rankings come back. Hope it’s soon.
Footnote: for reasons that would in all likelyhood baffle anyone, I’m not mentioning nor linking to the site in question (it’s certainly not my blog that you’re reading now).
