The rumours and leaks had been circulating around the googlemachine for many a moon, and I for one was excited.

Excited enough to get up at the ungodly hour of 9am in order to be sufficiently awake for the 10am AET Playstation 2013 reveal.

If nothing else, I thought, with the live streaming, it should allow Sony to demonstrate the worth of this Gaikai thing that they squandered several hundred million on.

Though there were a few hiccups, pauses and slowdowns in the stream, I managed to get it playing in high res on both my laptop and PS3, and caught most of the show, save for about 10 minutes when everything went down.

I was impressed with the tech – with a significant caveat regarding the functionality, though more on that later.

There was a lot of management speak, hyperbole and weasel word powered obfuscation.

The event opened with a pleasant enough video that made the audacious claim that Sony were going to reinvent reality. It had some amusing moments and was easy enough to digest.

It took a while for Andrew Hughes, reading from an autocue, to reveal that the system would indeed be called the PS4, and he stumbled a couple of times prior to that announcement, referring to “Playstation” as an all encompassing brand, a franchise.

This hinted at the possibility that the name Playstation will become a term that will refer to the broad consumer entertainment strategy that Sony have planned.

The epicentre may be the PS4, however expect a central hub called “Playstation” from which all else shall spring.

Most excellently, the PS4 will have 8GB of RAM, eight processors and a dedicated GPU – it will be a powerful system indeed, capable of many teraflops.

I have always wondered what a teraflop is, and always get this image in my mind of Mr Frosbury pioneering his flop:

Apparently the thing will boot instantly and have the ability to communicate with a wide range of devices (phones, tablets etc).

It will ship with a stereoscopic camera and the Dualshock 4 – more on that below.

It will have the ability to potentially stream all Playstation games ever released via the ubiquitous and unpleasant “cloud”.

The first interesting speaker was Mark Cerny, a chap who cut his teeth on the Atari 2600 and developed Marble Madness.

Marble Madness was released in the arcade and I had the pleasure of playing it on the C64.

If you want to get a sense of just who this new Chief System Architect of the PS4 is, it is well worth reading about the game here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marble_Madness

He has some definite credibility, and is a fantastic appointment.

He spoke at length about the system, though sadly dropped a bit of management wankspeak, talking about how Sony had listened to gamers, knew that gamers desired more interactivity, personalisation and the like (which scared me), and then revealed the game he was directing, an exclusive called “Knack”.

Knack looks simply amazing, like an interactive Pixar movie. Check it out below:

He also revealed the Dualshock 4, a device which is pretty close to resembling the rumours.

The device has a touch pad, “more responsive trigger buttons”, a light bar, an options button, a “share” button, and puzzlingly, a headphone jack.

The share button allows you to interact socially with other gamers by sending screenshots, videos of gameplay or requesting their assistance in a difficult part of a game.

Up next was some self important clown from Gaikai, no doubt only there because the executives at Sony wanted to ensure some kind of stock price bounce.

This fellow then went on to explicitly detail some very powerful reasons *not* to purchase a PS4.

To paraphrase him, the PS4 will “know” who you are, what you like, what you dislike, how you play a game, who your friends are, what movies you watch, what music you listen to… and it will share it all with Facebook and Ustream.

The PS4 will become one of the most powerful data mining tools known to man.

It will analyse every moment you spend on the console and share it with the world, giving Sony and Facebook invaluable data with which to target you, profile you and make a shitload more money from you and your data.

This is a very bad thing, a massive negative in my books, though it is something that we have allowed to happen by our laziness and desire for instant gratification.

This alone places a massive question mark next to the console in my opinion.

One would hope that one can opt out of this kind of invasion of privacy, however one wonders if doing so may in some way hamper one’s experience of the console.

Despite the massive potential the console showed during the two and a half hour event, this feature alone will make me consider not purchasing it.

On to some of the games.

Killzone Shadowfall was demonstrated, allegedly in real time, and it looked magnificent, see for yourself:

The next demonstration was one for the motor heads.

A very impressive looking game called Drive Club.

I had been hoping that the racer that they unveiled would be another iteration of WipEout or Motorstorm, though Drive Club looks pretty impressive.

The exec talking about it was very excitable and has apparently been planning the game for 10 years.

Watch his preso here:

Some really nice looking aesthetics.

Up next, from memory, was Infamous – Second Son, another exclusive.

Without a hint of realising the irony of what he was saying, Nate Fox strolled out onto the stage and unleashed a ranting diatribe about how police were arseholes and everything that we do in modern society was monitored and tracked.

He mustn’t have listened to the bit before about Sony and Facebook wanting to track your every move.

He then unveiled the trailer for the next instalment of Infamous:

The streams went down after that for about 10 minutes, and I caught the end of what looks like an exciting RPG from Capcom called “Deep Down” – working title:

Up next was Watch Dogs.

Now this looks somewhat epic.

Again, the irony was not lost on me as the game takes place in a world in which everyone has relinquished their personal privacy in favour of the convenience of instant gratification.

This allows a central hub to know who you are, what you do, what you owe, what you are worth and whether or not you are likely to have a penchant for raping clowns.

A scary thought indeed, though for mine, it looks like the absolute pick of the launch titles.

Check it out here:

From there, we learned, courtesy of Activition, that Bungie were coming back to Sony and were releasing an open world FPS called Destiny.

What this means for Xbox devotees is open to guesswork, though it looks like Sony may have pulled off a massive coup here.

The developers spoke about what they wanted to do “after Halo”, so one wonders if this will indeed be a PS4 exclusive and what will happen with the Flagship title for the Xbox.

Not much was revealed, but the video is below:

Sadly, the console itself wasn’t revealed, perhaps they will do that at E3.

My overall feelings about Sony’s new piece of hardware?

They are mixed.

Whilst the technology looks capable of achieving some amazing things, and will certainly produce the capacity for some immersive games, the likes of which we have never before seen, nor even imagined; I don’t like the direction that Sony is going in with this whole “social” aspect of the platform.

Personally, I don’t want to be able to be contacted 24×7 on my phone, my tablet or my computer to be told what a friend is up to in their gaming world – I’d prefer they call me and rant about it, or discuss it over a few beers.

I don’t care what games my friends have just purchased, nor do I want to be informed about it – and I certainly don’t want my friends to be subjected to my choices.

I don’t want my information, preferences, playing style, likes and dislikes to be profiled and shared.

I don’t want my personal information to be mined for profit.

I just want to play the games that I want to play, when I want to play them, with whom I choose to play them with.

“Social” has ruined the internet, and now it looks set to ruin gaming.

I sincerely hope that they give us the option to disable it without penalty.

The games will, no doubt, be brilliant, but at what cost?

I for one, am not sold on the system as yet and will await more details about the cloud functionality, the data mining and the personal information required to use the thing before I start getting waxing lyrical about it.

That said, the Quantric Dreams tech demo was very impressive:

No doubt more will be heard in the coming weeks, but it will take a lot to sell this monstrosity of a data collection tool to me than pretty graphics and great tech.

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The DLC transports players to a the realm of Oolacile DeLorean style, flashing them back to the past. There are a number of new locations, weapons, items and most importantly, bosses for gamers to seek out. The bosses are listed below for your convenience.

Sanctuary Guardian

Artorias the Abysswalker

Black Dragon Kalameet

Manus, Father of the Abyss

The Artorias Of The Abyss DLC can be purchased from the PS Store for $19.95AUD.

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After the long drive from Wollongong we arrived at the Motor show and collected our tickets. As it turns out the tickets also gave us free reign at the show and served as a ticket to the show itself. We slowly strolled through the halls looking at what each car company had to offer (and being lucky enough to sit in the Lamborghini Aventador!!) before finally getting to the Forza Horizon stand.

The stand was easy to pick out with their flash colours and their seamlessly never ending supply of female models. After a quick scout of the event I was asked to try the game out. Eight of us were racing each other on a track with both bitumen and dirt, showcasing the impressive physics of the game. We were given Lamborghinis to race each other with. After each of us was familiar with the game and the car, we were racing for real – with the winner taking home an Xbox system with the game with some enticing bubbles.

Two heats, top three in each battle to the death where the winner takes all. I was lucky enough to win the first heat I played in, meaning I was automatically in the finals. The finals were approaching and everyone was getting nervous with their game faces on. The top 3 from each of the heats were entered into the final and two lucky people from each heat were also given a chance at the final.

The final started as everybody’s tactic seemed fairly transparent – fun and dirty. The first 200 metres of the race I was first before getting plowed into the side railing. This is where it all fell apart where places second to eighth were bumping and grinding, showing how the physics of the game closely mimics that of real life. For three laps there was a struggle for second place as first place was miles ahead and that’s how the game ended, but no one seemed to mind, the atmosphere and the game were incredible and being at the event with the limitless models were a win in itself.

The winner was bombarded with photographers as the girls surrounded him and he was given the trophy and the prize.

The winner of the final.

Aside from this, the day was a great success and Microsoft showed off one of their newest games which is definitely in the running for game of the year. The physics, game play and addictives scream fun and competition and is a very strong simulator to that of real life racing.

Forza Horizon launches on the 23rd of October in Australia and is an Xbox 360 exclusive and is a must buy for each and every racing fan. The special edition collectors edition of this game can only be bought from EB games or JBHIFI in limited supply. You can view the games official website here or alternatively check out the trailer posted above.

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Cleveland Cavaliers (arzbar)

1: LeBron James (SF), 2: Nene (C), 3: Mike Conley (PG), 4: Marcus Thornton (SG), 5: Carl Landry (PF)

Washington Wizards (funk99)

1: Kevin Durant (SF), 2: Tyreke Evans (SG), 3: Andrew Bogut (C), 4: Nate Robinson (PG), 5: Derrick Favors (PF)

Milwaukee Bucks (chalibre)

1: Kobe Bryant (SG), 2: Brandon Jennings (PG), 3: Luis Scola (PF), 4: Trevor Ariza (SF), 5: Samuel Dalembert (C)

Portland Trail Blazers (Zach_Novak)

1: Dwight Howard (C), 2: Iman Shumpert (PG), 3: Caron Butler (SF), 4: Jason Richardson (SG), 5: Ersan Ilyasova (PF)

Golden State Warriors (Eliskus)

1: Derrick Rose (PG), 2: Vince Carter (SG), 3: Greg Monroe (C), 4: Jeff Green (SF), 5: Andray Blatche (PF)

Miami Heat (chexolena)

1: Chris Paul (PG), 2: Kevin Martin (SG), 3: Roy Hibbert (C), 4: Stephen Jackson (SF), 5: Kenyon Martin (PF)

Sacramento Kings (Tigerz_x)

1: Dwyane Wade (SG), 2: David Lee (PF), 3: Jason Kidd (PG), 4: Jermaine O’Neal (C), 5: Kawhi Leonard (SF)

New Orleans Hornets (iTRiiPeN)

1: Russell Westbrook (PG), 2: Marcin Gortat (C), 3: Wilson Chandler (SF), 4: DeMar Derozan (SG), 5: Thaddeus Young (PF)

Brooklyn Nets (Hiphopupotamus)

1: Deron Williams (PG), 2: Brandon Roy (SG), 3: Anthony Davis (C), 4: Kris Humphries (PF), 5: Tayshaun Prince (SF)

Toronto Raptors (frenchayy)

1: Carmelo Anthony (SF), 2: Brook Lopez (C), 3: Ray Allen (SG), 4: Taj Gibson (PF), 5: Devin Harris (PG)

Oklahoma City Thunder (marc7555)

1: Kevin Love (PF), 2: Chauncey Billups (PG), 3: Jamal Crawford (SG), 4: Greg Oden (C), 5: Terrence Williams (SF)

Denver Nuggets (paddlesizagun)

1: Andre Iguodala (SG), 2: Paul Milsap (PF), 3: Nicolas Batum (SF), 4: Kemba Walker (PG), 5: Ian Mahinmi (C)

Phoenix Suns (dewsnap)

1: Tim Duncan (C), 2: Gerald Wallace (SF), 3: Arron Afflalo (SG), 4: Antawn Jamison (PF), 5: Goran Dragic (PG)

Atlanta Hawks (AzanPride)

1: Pau Gasol (PF), 2: Kyle Lowry (PG), 3: Avery Bradley (SG), 4: Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (SF), 5: Spencer Hawes (C)

New York Knicks (CTR)

1: Steve Nash (PG), 2: Al Horford (C), 3: Paul George (SG), 4: Evan Turner (SF), 5: Elton Brand (PF)

Orlando Magic (Soulfrit)

1: Rajon Rondo (PG), 2: Serge Ibaka (PF), 3: Michael Beasley (SF), 4: Anderson Varejao (C), 5: Nick Young (SG)

San Antonio Spurs (vnsstc)

1: Manu Ginobili (SG), 2: Chris Bosh (PF), 3: Jarrett Jack (PG), 4: Kendrick Perkins (C), 5: Danilo Gallinari (SF)

Philadelphia 76ers (JOAD101)

1: Rudy Gay (SF), 2: Jrue Holiday (PG), 3: Emeka Okafor (C), 4: Rip Hamilton (SG), 5: Glen Davis (PF)

Indiana Pacers (vlastanovak)

1: Monta Ellis (SG), 2: Paul Pierce (SF), 3: Tyson Chandler (C), 4: David West (PF), 5: Jose Calderon (PG)

Los Angeles Lakers (frauenski)

1: LaMarcus Aldridge (PF), 2: DeMarcus Cousins (C), 3: Jeremy Lin (PG), 4: Ben Gordon (SG), 5: Richard Jefferson (SF)

Dallas Mavericks (PagieHD)

1: Blake Griffin (PF), 2: Ty Lawson (PG), 3: OJ Mayo (SG), 4: Nikola Pekovic (C), 5: Shane Battier (SF)

Houston Rockets (benjos86)

1: Andrew Bynum (C), 2: James Harden (SG), 3: Carlos Boozer (PF), 4: Aaron Brooks (PG), 5: Andrei Kirilenko (SF)

Charlotte Bobcats (ADM-PHOENIX)

1: Tony Parker (PG), 2: Kevin Garnett (PF), 3: Chris Kaman (C), 4: Shawn Marion (SF), 5: Klay Thompson (SG)

Minnesota Timberwolves (Brettles67)

1: Al Jefferson (C), 2: Luol Deng (SF), 3: Ricky Rubio (PG), 4: JR Smith (SG), 5: Brandon Bass (PF)

Chicago Bulls (bucket8)

1: Joe Johnson (SG), 2: Zach Randolph (PF), 3: Mo Williams (PG), 4: Marcus Camby (C), 5: Jared Dudley (SF)

Memphis Grizzlies (that_black_guy)

1: Amar’e Stoudemire (PF), 2: Steph Curry (PG), 3: Louis Williams (SG), 4: DeAndre Jordan (C), 5: Hedo Turkoglu (SF)

Los Angeles Clippers (natures_organics)

1: Eric Gordon (SG), 2: Marc Gasol (C), 3: Gilbert Arenas (PG), 4: Kenneth Faried (PF), 5: Al-Farouq Aminu (SF)

Boston Celtics (gangster343)

1: Dirk Nowitzki (PF), 2: John Wall (PG), 3: Rodney Stuckey (SG), 4: Grant Hill (SF), 5: Mehmet Okur (C)

Utah Jazz (flynoob135)

1: Danny Granger (SF), 2: Joakim Noah (C), 3: Jason Terry (SG), 4: Andrea Bargnani (C), 5: Darren Collison (PG)

Detroit Pistons (OR1G1NAL_SNYPA)

1: Josh Smith (PF), 2: Kyrie Irving (PG), 3: Wes Matthews (SG), 4: JaVale McGee (C), 5: Dorell Wright (SF)

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Call of Duty® Elite now offers players the ability to connect, compete and improve like never before. Call of Duty Elite features for the blockbuster game Call of Duty®: Black Ops II, which launches worldwide on November 13, 2012, will be free. Call of Duty Elite for Call of Duty: Black Ops II will include a host of new and improved features, including both Player and Clan HQ, Zombies support, Call of Duty Elite TV, social sharing and notifications, and more!

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The first aspect of BO2 to be revealed was the single player experience. As the name of the game would suggest, the storyline somewhat continues on from Call of Duty: Black Ops, with the return of some familiar characters. This time, however, the game is set in 2025 and contains futuristic technology to match the advanced time period. The antagonist is a shifty South American leader named Menendez, who, despite having a loyal following of over one billion twitter followers, is a thoroughly nasty chap. The storyline revolves around how the threat of Menendez is dealt with. To illustrate this, we were played a run-through of the first single player level: “Monsoon”.

It begins with a harrowing experience hanging from the side of a cliff, with the protagonist clutching on to rocks with high-tech gloves. This part is more about timing the press of buttons correctly, to allow the characters to progress down the cliff to a safe platform, than relying on sharpshooting. The futuristic technology then continues, with the protagonist’s posse jumping off the cliff and soaring to the next checkpoint in squirrel suits.

While this may seem a bit passive, don’t fear that the action will revolve entirely around soaring serenely through the skies – shortly after landing the action begins. Cloaked enemies can be seen deploying, and after receiving attack orders you must disable their equipment with an EMP grenade. This is when all hell breaks loose. Firefights begin to rage, and do not cease until the end of the level. Along the way equipment must be destroyed, and enemies must be killed.

It’s hard to say how tough the AI will be this time around, as it appeared that the developer had been playing on easy mode. At least you’d hope so, as he did the typical developer’s route through the battlefield of walking through the middle of the map, ignoring all cover, and still survived easily. All in all, the single player looked solid and should be enjoyable, unless you find some of the implausible technology just a little too farfetched.

Multiplayer

Finally we came to part of the game that the vast majority of people buy CoD games for: multiplayer. BO2 is typical of the CoD series, whereby aspects from previous games are incorporated into the new game along with new developments. It continues the trend from Modern Warfare 2 onwards, with a huge amount of customisation and choices available to players.

A returning feature of recent CoD games is the Callsign, which is a player card that is displayed to other players during lobbies and in matches. If you can cast your mind back to the first Black Ops, you may remember the ability to customise your own Callsign by creating emblems. This returns in BO2, only on steroids this time. Far more customizations are available, and there are 32 layers to play with. Transparency within layers is also now supported. The speaker proudly noted that this allows the creativity of players to be displayed to others in the game, through amazingly good or humorously bad emblem creations. When he said this I couldn’t help but laugh, remembering back to the many shapes and sizes of penis emblems that I encountered in Black Ops.

Custom classes return, with a huge amount of customisation and a nifty new way of determining just what equipment you can have. The way they do this is through a “Pick 10” method, where you can pick 10 customisations to have. These can be through extra perks, or you can trade perks for extra gun attachments, or extra tactical grenades, and so on. This might prove to be really annoying if abused, but hopefully this doesn’t happen. There are many guns to choose from like usual, and many attachments, so class choice will be crucial to success.

To display your trendy Callsign and utilise your classes, you need to obviously search for a game mode to play in. All the old favourites return in BO2, including (but not limited to) Team Deathmatch, Kill Confirmed, Domination, Search and Destroy, and a new mode called Hardpoint. In Hardpoint, teams must fight for a contested point on a map and defend it in a “King of the Hill”-type scenario. You gain points for controlling the contested zone, and whichever team has the most points when time runs out is the winner.

Pointstreaks return, with kills and/or objective completions racking up points to provide the player with many different support options. You can choose to utilise the UAV (an old favourite), or a Hunter Killer Drone (using this has a movement like throwing a paper plane), or even a Lightning Strike (which zaps players with electricity). And yes, the attack dogs do return.

Challenges return in a big way. There are over 1000 challenges to be completed this time, and one way they are used is to unlock camouflages for guns. There are basic camos like usual, and then for completing difficult and more advanced gun challenges you can unlock even better camos. These include ones like the fancy new carbon fiber camo. Additionally, it was revealed that there are special hidden camos, but no more was said about them. Mysterious. All of these camos aren’t just restricted to normal guns; they also cover things like RPGs and throwing knives. Reticles in gun sights can also be changed once again. There are all of the reticle customizations you’ve experiences in the past, as well as some new joke reticles, such as a moustache-shaped one that was based on the Activision lighting director Steve.

The Prestige system has been overhauled. There are 10 Prestiges, and each one contains 55 levels. The difference this time is that prestiging does not reset challenges or related aspects of the game. Treyarch does not want Prestiging to be a burden; instead they want it to be a natural progression of the game. Once again you unlock Prestige Tokens, which can be spent to buy a variety of upgrades for that particular Prestige. There is also a mystery as to what occurs once you finish all Prestige levels – the developer mentioned that you attain some kind of “Master Prestige” status, and receive a new Prestige Symbol, but he would not show it to us.

Judging on past games, there will probably be at least one overpowered weapon, but for the competitive side of things they can once again be removed by predefined class restrictions. The whole competitive gaming side has been embraced, with the implementation of a new way of spectating teams and a “Codcasting” system. A shoutcaster in the lobby can spectate either team while doing their thing, and their view can display a map showing the positions of all players, or focus on an individual player, or have a picture in picture view. This last view is the most intriguing. The gameplay is displayed to one side, and on the other is a list of players and their stats, for example their current kill streak or death streak. This will no doubt improve shoutcasting of BO2 games and lead to much better coverage of ladder battles.

Theater mode has been overhauled, and is much better. In the first Black Ops, theater mode was nifty and a bit of fun, but by and large it wasn’t very versatile. This time you can include twice the number of clips from a match (20 instead of 10), meaning much more of the feel of a match can be captured. You can then merge these into one clip, and continue adding more scenes from a match. Neat! You are now also able to watch the first-person view from any character in a match, a feature that was sorely lacking in the first Black Ops. Furthermore, there is now the ability to create a highlights reel from a match with the touch of one button. Yep, one button. The game intuitively selects short clips detailing impressive feats from a match and combines them into a highlights reel. Just how effective this will be at selecting good moments remains to be widely tested, but the sample they showed us was pretty impressive.

Like the first Black Ops, multiplayer is not restricted to pure human vs. human warfare. Making a return is combat training, which this time is more integrated to the “Core” (main) multiplayer experience. Combat Training is divided into three modes. The first mode (as you progress from level 1 to 10) is an easy way to become familiar with the game, and, if I gathered correctly, the experience from this counts towards your normal multiplayer leveling. The next two modes are basically increasingly difficult training against bots. The second mode provides experience, but the third does not. A new feature of Combat Training this time is the ability to play in a party, with your group of humans playing a group of bots. This allows you to practice strats and whatnot, and if you are missing core players you can replace them with bots. I think there was more new info about Combat Training, but the amount of new info has overloaded my brain.

Wager matches return, but now they are referred to as “Party Games”. Woo. Apart from the name change they didn’t seem TOO different to the way they were on previous CoD titles, so I won’t go into them in-depth.

The final thing I will mention from the presentation is the Zombies mode. It seems to incorporate much more strategy this time, with a progression through many environments relying on wise decisions. You can choose to travel between locations on some kind of magical bus after achieving certain goals, or you can walk instead. Both options have pros and cons. A new addition is the ability to play a different form of Zombies, which has two human teams both fighting zombies while competing to win. Last man standing wins. The humans cannot attack each other, but they can somehow encourage the zombies to attack the oppose team more frequently. The overhauled Zombies mode seems immersive, detailed and fun.

Phew! That was a lot of info to recall. Time now for the fun part: playing the game.

Gameplay Impressions

After the lengthy presentation ended, we all stood up eager to finally get our hands on the game. In an orderly ritual-like procession we descended the stairs, taking in the surrounding sights of the EB Expo exhibitions. The scale of the expo was the most impressive part; with ornate stalls sprawling way into the distance of the dome. We were directed straight to the large BO2 section, which was big enough to look more like an apartment than a stall. Outside the entrance were large tubs of refreshments… including beer this time! Praise to the CoD Gods for really looking after us.

Inside the BO2 apartment were rows and rows of desks adorned with Xboxes plugged into amazingly clear LG IPS TVs. They also provided Turtle Beach headsets for every player. Whilst dismayed by the abundance of Xboxes and lack of PS3s, the three of us still settled down into our spots ready for a solid thrashing of the game. Based on seating arrangements we were slotted into teams, and so the stage was set for us to do 6A proud. And boy did we fail.

First up was a TDM-style game where four teams of three players competed to attain the highest score. We got off to a bad start, with me running in circles looking at the sky because the controls were pretty messed up. Once I managed to disable look inversion things appeared a bit brighter, but the Xbox controller was still a big change from the trusty DualShock 3. The map (Turbine) was quite large and based in a canyon with a plane crash in the centre. I quite liked the layout of it, but I got the feeling that it would be more suited to pub stomping than competitive gaming.

Muri, Lui and I ran around in circles trying to get kills, and it was actually pretty fun. I tried out a variety of guns, and they seemed relatively balanced, although it’s hard to tell when you’re barely getting any kills! The default assault rifle seemed pretty handy. It had the Target Finder attachment, which highlights enemies when they enter the field-of-view. Despite how it sounds, I don’t think this attachment will be game breaking. Sub machine guns tended to be the weapons of choice for many players, and they proved to be very effective.

The second game mode we played was the new one, Hardpoint. The map was named Cargo, and featured a lot of close-combat fighting. Right from the beginning the pressure was on me, as for some unknown reason the guy filling the Codcasting slot had decided to spectate me. Every move I made was broadcasted onto a big screen on the wall. I tried to be a hero and jumped off a shipping container while spraying my SMG, but I was quickly shot down. I came back well, going on an 8 kill streak while capping the Hardpoint, but when I glanced at the big screen the Codcaster had already moved on. Bugger.

I have mixed feelings about the Hardpoint game mode. Like other modes, winning a Hardpoint match definitely requires strategy, however it can also quickly degenerate into an eternally frustrating nadefest. The presence of a whole team within an enclosed area tends to produce that effect. I also experienced the first effects of spawn trapping, as I spawned and got instantly killed five times in a row in the same spot before I could even shoot a bullet. Gun damage also seemed a bit inconsistent at times, which is never a good thing. Overall, I still enjoyed the map and game mode, and I can see competitive potential if a bit of tweaking to game settings is done.

The third mode was domination on Yemen. This is another close-quarters map with many tight alleyways. Objectives changed hands pretty often, and most people generally tried to capture them. There were only a few people that still insisted on camping in windowsills watching an alleyway, but a quick kamikaze run with an RPG sorted them out. A key point that I noticed was that there was a good balance in the weapons used. In the past SMGs have tended to end up dominating, but assault rifles and shotguns were also effective. And no the shotguns didn’t have ridiculous range. The only frustrating thing, and this was the case in multiple maps, was the Dragonfire pointstreak reward. The little bastards buzz around and kill people with ease, and although they only have light armour, they generally kill people so fast that it’s difficult to shoot them down. I think this map will be decent for smaller teams, such as 4v4.

The next mode we played was Team Deathmatch on Aftermath, which is a very large map representing a ruined section of downtown Los Angeles. Despite its large size, there aren’t many areas with a clear line of sight, thus necessitating teams to push forward for anything to happen. It was on this map in particular that I noticed just how overpowered the MP7 can be on this game. I was using it with a silencer and another attachment, possibly extended mags or front grip, and it was very effective at small, medium and (sometimes) long range. Once again it will be a gun to look out for.

Another point I took out of this was the strength of the Stealth Helicopter pointstreak. As soon as someone activated it, life as a soldier became very difficult. If you spent even a small amount of time in the open it was likely that you would fall victim to its strength. I think this was the catalyst for me to start semi-raging for the first time in the night, which is never a good sign. On the plus side, if you managed to find cover it wasn’t too difficult to shoot down – it only took a couple of clips from my assault rifle. These points are trivial for competitive gaming, however, as I doubt that overpowered pointstreak rewards or any pointstreak rewards for that matter, will be left in.

The final game we played was Capture the Flag on Turbine. I’ve already described this map, so I won’t go into detail again, but it did seem well suited to the CTF game mode. There are multiple routes to take to reach the flags, each of which will need to be guarded with well-practiced strategies in order to win. I tried out the Ballista sniper rifle, and it proved to be very useful for one-shot kills. I did migrate back to the MP7 though, and it was dominant once more. We worked together as a team, and I genuinely had fun. That has been rare for me in the past couple of CoD games. I did witness once again that the Hunter Killer Drone pointstreak reward was pretty useless, so I wouldn’t bother using it when the game is released.

Extra Information

At the end of the CTF map our time had come to the end. Muri, Lui and I claimed our rewards for attending: a stainless steel USB on a chain that looks like a dogtag, and a BO2 t-shirt that I’ll wear if I feel like outing myself as a nerd some day soon. We exited the BO2 apartment, and the lack of prompt security attention led us to explore the vacant expo. The huge amount of stalls competing for attention led to some interesting exhibits.

We went to the PlayStation exhibit to see what was on offer, and right in front of us was a glass cabinet full of PlayStationey goodness. Muri couldn’t help himself and jiggled the door, and lo and behold it opened. In front of our eyes was a vast array of merchandise, including the brand new slim PS3, but, being the good citizens we are, we walked off empty-handed.

Nearby was a life-size replica of the bus from the new Zombies mode in BO2. It was complete with very realistic blood spread on the tiles nearby and a zombie struggling to escape from under the bus.

Another stall contained a large variety of merchandise, so naturally we couldn’t resist taking a peek. In particular, a large replica gun took Muri’s fancy.

Not to be outdone at inappropriately touching merchandise, I had to pose nearby with a large prop that resembled a war hammer. It was actually a lot heavier than it looks, so I was terrified that I might break it. All in the name of 6A!

That was as far as we got to go exploring the expo before security found us and promptly escorted us to the exits. We had a good run though, and we held onto our clearance passes in case we feel like trying to talk our way in again on the weekend. With a cursory glance at our fellow nerdy attendees leaving the building, we got to reminisce on the night that had been.

My overall thoughts were that the game feels very polished, and Treyarch should be commended for the amount of effort they have put in to try and create a game at a standard they believe to be best for all players. From the impassioned speeches that we listened to it seems like they genuinely enjoy what they do and have a great passion for gaming. Sure, the lucrative monetary reward is a big incentive, but to have a passion hiding in the background is always good. Public matches may end up being an orgy of pointstreak rewards like in recent titles, which, although occasionally fun, is usually just plain frustrating.

The game also seems to have enough scope for tweaking of rulesets and game settings to allow it to succeed competitively. Although my experience on Modern Warfare 3 was very limited (I couldn’t stand the game), the maps on BO2 already seem better. They are larger and hold potential for good strategies to be developed. Overpowered guns are always an issue, but from my limited experience it seems like the only one to really watch out for is the MP7. There seems to be balance within each class of gun, and also between classes of guns, thereby allowing balance to be achieved.

To conclude this article, I must thank Activision for hosting this event. The night was run very professionally, and the provision of plenty of food and drinks (including beer!) was great. Overall we all had fun, and nothing too negative came out of the game. However, a crucial point to remember is that I was playing only on Xbox, and at a LAN-setup, so lag was not a factor. Recent PS3 CoD titles have been very shonky Xbox ports that suffer from significant framerate issues, and online gaming is always influenced by Internet quality. My experiences therefore may not be indicative of what the majority of you will experience upon launch, but I hope they will still provide some insight into what is to come.

Happy gaming.

- Mr_X

The post Exclusive: Black Ops 2 Hands-On Multiplayer Event (Part 2) appeared first on SIXAXIS Gaming.

A few weeks ago our glorious leader vlastanovak received an email inviting a couple of members of SIXAXIS Gaming (6A) to attend an invite-only Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (BO2) event. The event was proposed to be a chance for gamers representing different websites/organizations to firstly meet for a full run-down on all the features of BO2 straight from the Activision-horse’s mouth, and secondly get our sweaty, nerdy little hands on some multiplayer goodness. Since BO2 is arguably the biggest game release this year, one may have expected competition for tickets within 6A staff to be particularly savage. Surprisingly, however, it wasn’t, probably due to the fact that many staff are not from the Sydney region, and those that ARE locals are unfortunately overwhelmingly socially awkward. After a quick check of availability, I bravely volunteered to contest the transport through Sydney’s harsh Inner West and attend the event, along with my trusty sidekick Muri. Muri didn’t trust that we could defend ourselves alone, so he brought along his cousin Lui for the long drive from Wollongong. Typical.

The Calm Before the Storm

After a few travel issues caused by Sydney’s fantastic public transport, I eventually made it to Sydney Olympic Park on time. Muri was already there with Lui, but he had somehow managed to park almost in another suburb. After trolling me on the phone pretending to be the drugged-up shirtless guy walking towards me, I finally rendezvoused with mah man Muri. As an avid miscer, his first comment was naturally about my superior height genetics. The walk also had obviously taken its toll on him, because by the time I arrived he had already consumed three chicken and cheese burgers plus four other burgers from the nearby McDonald’s establishment. Not even joking. We then found our way to the expo entrance, and presented ourselves to the waiting security guard. I nodded to the big fella with the confident air of a man on a mission, and Muri tentatively inquired about what we had to do to get in. The conversation went something like this.

“Hey, uhh, we have these tickets, so where do we go?”

“What are the tickets for? Are you here for the VIP event?”

“I dunno, we just want to play Black Ops 2…”

Unfortunately he had no idea what we were talking about, and frankly seemed a bit suspicious, so he sent us outside to wait with some other plebians that were gathering. Being from 6A we naturally felt too sophisticated to mill around with just anyone, so we went and sat down on a wall at the edge of a garden until Muri was too scared of bats and/or spiders to remain there. By this time the event was about to begin, so we headed back over to the main entrance.

In our email correspondence before the event, the contact that plied us with information was named Tegan. We scanned with our accurate gamer-eyes to try and find someone who resembled a gamer girl. We located one and began to hone in, until she started calling out for people to grab their passes and head into the WiiU VIP early access event. The mention of a WiiU event raised fears within our waters. Had some type of horrible mistake been made? Were we actually going to spend two hours virtually stroking some Nintendogs, rather than maiming terrorists?

Alas, these fears were short-lived, when a man named Tegan began calling out for those attending the BO2 event to come forward. It was a bittersweet moment, as we were pleased to finally be receiving our passes, but also disappointed that our dreams of seducing Tegan the gamer girl with our 360 no-scopes had faded into naught.

Since we were running late, Tegan gave us any old staff passes to gain entry to the event. We thus had to assume new identities for the evening, which I believe we achieved with aplomb. Muri was a Media Representative from Activision, I was a staff member named Naren Hassoon, and Muri’s cousin was now named Stephen. We were now ready to begin the festivities.

Nibblies and News

Food was awaiting us upstairs: mini hamburgers (with well-peppered angus), spring rolls, meat pies and more. There was also a bountiful supply of soft drinks, but alas, no beer.

We scanned the room to see if there were any other familiar gamers. I saw a few people that I recognised from a photo on CyberGamer, yet I was too intimidated by their e-Sports t-shirts to approach them and have a chat. I did say a quick hello to GipD, who runs the ACL Lan events, and she was quite friendly. Gamers are generally a pleasant bunch. Muri attested that one other girl there was certainly lost, and had somehow mistakenly joined the BO2 event on her way to a Victoria’s Secret show. There were also a few guys carrying around cameras that Muri and his cousin recognised as YouTube personalities.

The view from a stealth shot with no flash. If you squint you can see the poor lost girl.

Nevertheless, after a short while of well-intentioned stalking, we stocked up our pockets with cans of Mother and entered the nearby presentation room to begin learning about BO2.

The room was set out like a typical conference, so I felt like I was a proper media personality, rather than just a casual gamer. Two super-thin Samsung TVs displayed the familiar BO2 cover art, and rows of chairs were neatly aligned. After a short introduction, a man took to the stage to begin talking us through all aspects of the game – its history, its development, what they hope BO2 to achieve. He was a confident, charming man from Santa Monica, decked out in a dashing pink shirt, and he was clearly proud of how Treyarch and Activision have gone about developing BO2. Below is my artist’s impression of the situation.

Note: not to scale.

The post Exclusive: Black Ops 2 Hands-On Multiplayer Event (Part 1) appeared first on SIXAXIS Gaming.

Age: 20

PSN I.D: frenchayy

Other gamer tags: fr3nchh, Mick_Duncher

Current clan: $erialz Snapback Krew, wDS

Favourite game?

Would have to be cod4, essentially the only game I’m playing to this day. Although I love myself a good fantasy, notable mentions also go to League of Legends, SC2 and Monday Night Combat.

15 minutes of fame?

In terms of ps3 fame it’s basically continuous, I’m more of a myth though. In real life I think I won some competition for being a cute baby, which although I can’t remember, I can’t argue with.

What’s your favourite movie?

french goes movie at respawn

What’s your favourite artist/song?

Fuark, changes every day essentially, right now I’m feeling some Be Somebody by Thousand Foot Krutch, but I listen to just about anything.

Who is your idol?

Tom Rockliff, gorgeous, gorgeous man.

What’s your philosophy on gaming?

If you beat me you’re probably cheating.

The post July Gamer of the Month: frenchayy appeared first on SIXAXIS Gaming.

Clan Tag: eVo

Founded By: Suren__

Date Founded: Early 2010

Leaders: Suren__

Website: http://evolutiongaming.freeforum.bz/

So what is the story behind the formation of eVo?

Originally named WoTS we decided to take on the old roots of eVo run by a current member Khanho back from the end of W@W and start of MW2 and form what is currently now known as eVolution.

What were the first few months like?

Quite difficult trying to locate new talent as i was not familiar with competitive gaming nor what to look for in a member. Words of advice from friends helped me find my feet.

How would you describe the members at eVo?

Greatest bunch of guys. Love to have fun and know when to be serious. I call them all good mates.

If you had to name the greatest moment for eVo, what would it be?

Umm, We have made a couple of W@W GF here on 6A so I’d have to say they would be our greatest moments so far.

What would you say is the most embarrassing moment for eVo?

Hmm I’m honestly not too sure. I’ll have to get back to you on that.

If you had to name the star player in eVo, who would it be?

Well back in the early days id say it was Pichoch or Flashreaper. Now we all play our part when needed.

Does eVo have any a specific team that they pull out all the stops to beat, and what are your thoughts on them?

Not really. We try our best in any match we play and treat each match as a very tough match.

Finally where do you see eVo as a team in the coming seasons?

Well I think with the new additions we have made to our group I see us doing very well. Everyone is itching to get some game time in and show everyone what we can do.

The post June Clan of the Month: eVolution appeared first on SIXAXIS Gaming.

Age: 17, 18 in November.

PSN I.D: exKaLiBRe

Current clan: None.

Favourite game?

Fuark, there are heaps of games I love to play and that are my favourite, but the games you truly love are the ones you play again and again reaching a new satisfaction every time you play it. For instance my ties go way back to my early days of PC gaming, Wolfenstein Multiplayer, Rollercoaster Tycoon (Only the original), Railroad Tycoon 3 & Quake 3 Multiplayer. The classics. But, my favourite game ever-ever-ever would have to be Pokemon Red. It’s a timeless. Another game though I have recently picked up playing is League of Legends, but yeah there are many games I enjoy playing! Just not COD, fggts.

15 minutes of fame?

Well I haven’t really been on TV or anything but at school one day i feinted and rolled down a staircase of about 15 stairs. Was a fun experience really, ever since then though no one has ever really let it down.

What’s your favourite movie?

Anything with Denzel Washington in it, but I definitely like those puzzle films – Sherlock Holmes esque. Films these days are getting so boring, but however there is a huge potential for independent filmmakers if another one of these Hollywood films goes bust in the box office which is exciting for people studying film at the moment with jobs opening up everywhere.

What’s your favourite artist/song?

Aussie Hip-hop if there was a genre to pick from. But, I listen to almost everything. However here are 2 current songs though that I’m into at the moment:

Soliloquy – Envy

vimeo.com/41669684

Seth Sentry – Simple Game

But I am anticipating the release of some band’s albums such as The Amity Affliction and A Day to Remember.

Who is your idol?

It would be probably my father. He is a big inspiration for me in many ways. Really appreciate his company and everything he has taught me.

What’s your philosophy on gaming?

People who still think COD is the best game and people who still play COD everyday, GTFO. Play within reason and play for fun and your own enjoyment. Don’t make it your life, unless you can make a substantial profit from it.

Cheers,

Kali.

The post June Gamer of the Month: exKaLiBRe appeared first on SIXAXIS Gaming.