Sorry guys, although this was applied, I missed adding the news post of a minor update for Cs Source servers:

Counter-Strike: Source has been updated.  This is not a required update, but it is recommended.  Please download it using hldsupdatetool.  The specific changes include:

- Fixed clients using reloadresponsesystems, sv_soundemitter_flush, sv_soundemitter_filecheck, sv_findsoundname, and sv_soundscape_printdebuginfo to lag/crash servers
- The -pidfile command line option now works for Windows dedicated servers

Jason

This seems a pretty significant update for TF2 servers…

A required update for Team Fortress 2 has been released.  Please run hldsupdatetool to receive the update.  The specific changes include:

New client features:
- Added view model FOV slider to advanced multiplayer options.
- Added a hide view model option to advanced multiplayer options.
- Added custom crosshair support.
- Added crosshair image, scale, and color settings to the Options->Multiplayer settings tab.
- Moved HUD minimal mode & Disable Spray options into the Advanced Multiplayer settings.
- Added “open_charinfo_direct” command that opens the loadout directly to the class you’re currently playing.
- Replaced the “Open Loadout” entry in the options->keys dialog with this new command. Rebind / reset your config to defaults to use it.

New server features:
- Added “tf_damage_disablespread” convar to disable the 25% damage spread on all damage.
- Added class limit support to tournament mode.
- Set the “tf_tournament_classlimit_X” convars to the max number of class X allowed.
- Added “tf_tournament_hide_domination_icons” convar, that allows a tournament mode server to force clients not to display domination icons over their nemeses.

Gameplay changes:
- Modified critical hit calculation. Overall, critical hit chance is now much more recent-performance based.
- Base chance is now 2% (was 5%).
- Bonus range based on damage done changed from 0%-15% to 0%-10%
- Damage range required for bonus changed from 0-1600 to 0-800.
- Reduced random damage spread applied to all player damage from +-25% to +-10%.
- Slight reduction (improvement) of the minigun’s spread.
- Increased flare direct hit damage from 20 to 30.
- Rewrote Natascha’s slowdown code to be more consistent.
- Sniper rifle now supports Crit Boost state like all other weapons (i.e. Kritzkrieg makes all shots critical hits).
- Stealthed spies are no longer able to pickup the intelligence. They must uncloak first.
- Increased soldier primary ammo count from 16 to 20.

Bugfixes:
- Added UTIL_IsCommandIssuedByServerAdmin() checks to several “physics_” CON_COMMAND scripts to prevent clients issuing the commands.
- Fixed bug in teleporter logic that allowed engineers to build teleporters with HUGE health values.
- Fixed matching teleporter not getting a health buff when the pair is upgraded (only the tele you were hitting got the health buff).
- Fixed Medic ÜberCharge percentage in minimal-HUD mode.
- Protected against an HLTV related server crash.

Note that we are still working on the client timeout and lag issues.

Jason

Opinion at INX towers is divided over which is better: the ground-breaking Call of Duty IV: Modern Warfare, a definite favourite among the Christmas line up of 2007, or Call of Duty V: World at War, another World War 2 shooter which followed hot on its heels.

With the web-rumour mill churning away about the possibility of a COD VI being developed by Infinity Ward (COD IV’s developers), it seems that Treyarch really had to be good to get COD V noticed, especially after the disappointing COD III. As a primarily single player purist I’ve completed both campaigns, and the truth is, they are surprisingly similar.

I ought to say at this point that most of this article won’t interest the 50% of COD 4 players who never even completed the campaign’s tutorial.

You could in fact be forgiven for thinking that COD 5 is just a reskinned COD 4. After all, they use the same game engine, the same control system, the same spawn-enemies-until-player-runs-to-an-arbitrary-point method of enemy supply, the same smoke grenades… And Treyarch can be forgiven for doing so, after all, if a formula works so well, why change it?

There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that, after COD III, the franchise needed a fresh angle. Too many games have had the same rehashed Normandy beach landings. Too many games have had the same trench style bunker attacking warfare. COD IV was a welcome relief from the tired European theatre of war, by taking us into a theoretical future and updating the weapons, tactics, and support to things that modern day gamers are familiar with hearing about in the news.

COD V went back to the Second World War, but took us (finally!) to a different theatre: to the savage Pacific theatre. These aren’t the “gung ho” American soldiers of COD IV, they’re conscripted teenagers, far from home and far from welcome. Their enemy are the aggressive and zealous Japanese soldiers who hide in trees, murder holes, and the dense jungle to ambush the invaders with vicious bayonet charges. As an American soldier you pilot gun turrets in aeroplanes, attack fortified positions, and support tank advances. The gameplay here is visceral and exciting. The Pacific theatre is an ideal setting for a balls-to-the-wall shooter, and Treyarch should be proud of finalling lifting us out of the trenches in such a perfect way.

COD V followed COD IV’s formula of switching between two countries’ soldiers. As well as the Americans, you play as a member of the Russian army on the march to Berlin. Sadly, these bits aren’t anything that we haven’t seen before. These parts are set in cities, corridors, and subway stations (other than when you drive a tank towards Berlin). And while the levels are impressive there are too many occasions when you have to progress to an arbitrary point, under exceptionally heay fire, while destroying wave after wave of the same enemy troops. However, the storyline is one of pride and sacrifice, and strikes the right balance. But it’s not new, unlike the Pacific Theatre levels. Those are nothing short of amazing. If more of the game had been set there, I would most likely be complaining that the game on the whole didn’t have enough variety. But I feel that more effort could have been put into the European part just to make it different to everything we’ve seen before.

The most remarkable level of the European theatre set is when you play as one of a pair of snipers attacking specific targets while evading capture. Sound familiar? Almost everything about this level was reminiscient of the Pripriyat level (”Ghillies in the Mist”) in COD 4. Except it was far more clear what you were meant to do, and how to do it. It was also far less tense, I rarely felt in real danger.

It would be possible to write a review that did a tit for tat analysis of which parts were better in which game and ignore the major point that the games are so similar that it’s pointless arguing about it: COD 5’s opening was far better (it got you straight into the action, rather than making you shoot targets), and it’s got flamethrowers, but COD 4 has better variety of levels, weaponry, and characterisation… but I won’t do that. I recommend both games. If I had to pick one of the two it’d probably be…

I’ll get back to you on that.

- John

You can get back to INX first! Either post in the comments below or cast your vote in our forums!

There has been a very minor update for Left 4 Dead servers.

Updates to Left 4 Dead have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

Left 4 Dead

• Fixed an exploit with melee where swapping weapons ignored the intended delay between swings.
• In Versus mode, the Tanks’ health now reflects the damage he takes from burning.
• Fixed an exploit related to the “joinclass” command

It’s rumoured on the grapevine that a Left 4 Dead server update is imminent. Rumour has it versus mode will be available on Dead Air and Death Toll. We’ll keep you posted if we hear anymore!

And the best news of all….hopefully we should be seeing new maps, because I think we’ve all exhausted the current ones to death!

Hi guys,

There was a Team Fortress 2 server update, I missed out on adding yesterday. It was of course automatically applied to servers:

A required update for Team Fortress 2 has been released.  Please run hldsupdatetool to receive the update.  The specific changes include:

- Fixed overheal particle effect showing up incorrectly on disguised or cloaked spies
- Changed the achievement tracker to only be available in Team Fortress 2
- Added new teleporter sounds for upgrade levels 2 and 3
- Fixed engineers being able to upgrade the bomb cart’s dispenser found in Payload levels
- Fixed bomb cart’s dispenser being solid to players and projectiles

Jason

One of the games that really has grabbed my interest over the past couple of months is Left 4 Dead. The dedicated game server environment introduced match making. Instead of the traditional method of searching steam lists for a Left 4 Dead dedicated server as a player, you can join a lobby, or you can choose to join directly to a Left 4 Dead server based on your settings. The problem is, there’s lots of people hosting the server locally, or in short running a Left 4 Dead dedicated server, on inferior hardware, and on their home connection.

We hate lag on Left 4 Dead servers

I thought lag on CSS was irritating. But on on a Left 4 Dead  dedicated server, it’s deadlier than a being attacked by a Hunter. Have you ever played on a L4D server where you can see that big RED dot next to your name, when you hit tab? That means crappy connection. It usually means someone is hosting the dedicated server from their home PC. Ouch.

With Call of Duty 4, it might ruin your perfect score. With Counterstrike Source, make you look a total noob. On Left 4 Dead, it gets you killed. I seem to find it always happens as horde rushes you. A 10 second lag while the Left 4 Dead dedicated server recovers, and then great…you come back and you are dead on the floor, with the miserable game music ringing in your ears.

Minimum requirements for a Left 4 Dead dedicated server

You really do need at least a Dual Core Xeon, or above to be running a Left 4 Dead game server. Nothing less if you don’t want to repeat the scenario above. For maximum requirements, we recommend:

Quad Core Xeon
At least 4GB RAM
100mbit+ connection

A full, 8 player versus Left 4 Dead dedicated server alone uses around 18% cpu on one core on a Quad Core, so you can imagine how it holds up on an inferior home PC, where don’t forget the owner is going to be playing (more CPU!) and they’ll have their usual array of programs open.

Incidently, I know of a company that hosts Left 4 Dead dedicated servers. Until next time

Hi guys,

An update has been released for Team Fortress 2 game servers:

A required update for Team Fortress 2 has been released.  Please run hldsupdatetool to receive the update.  The specific changes include:

- The Engineer’s teleporters can now be upgraded to level three. It will recharge faster the higher level it is
- The Engineer’s dispensers can now be upgraded to level three. It will give out metal and heal faster as it is upgraded
- Spies will be able to recharge their cloaking ability by picking up ammo off of the ground or from health cabinets
- Some changes to the second part of the first stage of Goldrush to give the attackers more of an advantage
- Any weapons that fire bullets (shotguns, sniper’s machine gun, heavy’s minigun, etc.) can now break apart the Demoman’s stickybombs
- The icon on the HUD for a person calling for Medic will now give more information to the medic (if the target is low on health, on fire, etc.)
- Added an achievement tracker that will allow people to choose specific achievements that they are trying to get
- There is now a custom icon for death messages when the player was killed from a critical hit
- Added a new particle effect for when a player enters the water
- Added smoke to the feet of a rocket jumping soldier
- Players will now have some particles swirling around them so other players can see when they are overhealed

Jason

Please reboot your server to apply the update automatically.

One of my friends gave me a video on my USB stick, and I popped it in my (now returned and repaired) XBox 360 to have a look at it. It was a Monday night and a warning message popped up telling me that in order to watch it I had to download an update.

I was aware of a massive new XBox Live update that night, and I thought I might as well go along with it so that I could watch the video. This is the update that allows you to copy games onto your hard disk.

I regretted it later obviously, when I had to watch an awful pseudo-artsy video of… something. I’m not entirely clear what it was trying to convey but it was pretentious. Here’s a youtube link. Whatever, I ignored my instincts and pressed on. Until I got to the “Choose an Avatar” screen.

No thanks. They all looked awful, cutesy and anorexic. I pressed the “B” button to go past it.

“Are you sure you don’t want to select an avatar?”

Yes, quite sure thanks, I want to watch my video.

Then I was taken to the new interface. Not only is the bottom two fifths of my background taken up with a horrible lime green… what is it supposed to be anyway? But in order to look at a friend on my list I have to scroll through every single friend I have. Wonderful. Microsoft have tried to take two aspects of their competitors’ work and have mashed them together and the effect is horrible. The whole interface is difficult, unintuitive, ugly, and just plain unnecessary. And the worst part is that it’s mandatory.

But at least I don’t have to choose an avatar, right?

Wrong! Last week Microsoft made it impossible to sign into XBox Live without selecting an avatar. Why?

Why do I need to have selected a cutesy and stupid looking avatar in order to play games online?

Why can I not select the interface that I preferred?

Why is this new attempt to appeal to younger players being forced on the older ones without them having a choice?

Who made this decision, and who thought that it was a good idea to force it on gamers who don’t want it?

- John

It’s just plain wrong.

Just Google, and you’ll see COD5 outsold Call of Duty 4, 2:1 in the first few weeks. That’s one hell of a headstart on gamers looking for COD5 servers. So why, when you search for UK game servers, are there just over 1800 Call of Duty 4 servers online (nearly 5,000 playing as I write this), and in comparison just over 700 COD5 servers, and half the amount of players online right now?

Also considering Call of Duty 4 gameservers have dropped off recently (as Call of Duty 5 WAW was released!) What does that tell you about COD5 servers? Or the lack of!

Please sir, let us run COD5 servers

It might suggest that some gaming clans wanting to run COD5 servers can’t, because it’s only available on Windows right now. A kind member on the linux COD mailing list recently published a tutorial on running COD5 on Linux, using a program called Wine. That’s great, but two problems with running servers through Wine:

• It’s not the most stable of solutions
• It increases CPU usage drastically

It’s not the answer. More worryingly, was after what was published - COD5 linux servers would be available, why are they not, over a month since the release of the game?

The problem is, no-one really knows. No-one knows when COD5 servers will be available to run on Linux. No-one knows whether it might be the 1.1 and upcoming 1.2 patches that are causing the delay. No-one knows!

We’ve ended up setting up a Windows platform to run Call of Duty 5 servers on. We didn’t want to, like the many clans and communities.

It just seems odd, because surely financially, more COD5 servers = more games sold. More money for the developers and publishers.

The server stats speak for themselves. I wonder if the developers will listen to the community for the release of Call of Duty 6? I don’t hold up much hope.