Microsoft's Conference AfterParty and Call of Duty 4

In the wake of yesterday's Microsoft conference, there are further details and updates on what was discussed. Moore dropped the statistic that there are 7 million users on Xbox Live, and mentioned an August 24th release date for the Elite SKU in Canada and Europe. Call of Duty 4 seemed to be the most popular game of the event, with the single-player demo going over very well and news of a multiplayer Beta coming soon raising the eyebrows of FPS gamers. There was, of course, a party afterwards; Dean Takahashi gives us a sense of the event, while Kotaku has some beer-fueled comments from Peter Moore and Shane Kim. N'Gai Croal has the final word, with a point-by-point breakdown of the event.

Nintendo conference happening *right now*

[Anonymous Coward]

Live text feed:

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=79 482 [eurogamer.net]

Major news:
Smash Bros Dec 3rd in US
Mario Kart Wii confirmed
Zapper lightgun-style addon

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[Reapman]

Ya wtf, it's been available for awhile up here. And not just "import" stores, i'm talking big box stores like Best Buy and Futureshop.

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[xhrit]

>All anyone is talking about is the 360's hardware defects, the billion dollars Microsoft is having to spend repairing 360's, and the new disc scratching lawsuit. No, that is just what the people on slashdot are talking about. Everyone else is a rabid M$ fanboi talking about how halo is still teh best gaem evr.

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[xhrit]

Remind me to use the preview button next time.

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[ShaggyIan]

Must. . . resist. . . crap:

Hey, use the preview button next time.

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[fistfullast33l]

Halo 3 has really turned out to be complete dud.

Halo 2 was a complete dud as well. The only reason Halo gained any promenence in the gaming community was because it was the only title that made the Xbox relevant. If Halo was a PC only game, it would have probably died a slow death. Compared to Half Life, Halo was a rip off.

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[Blakey Rat]

In what way is Halo 2 a rip-off of Half-Life?

If anything, it's a rip-off of Bungie's second FPS, Marathon-- which had the compelling story, multiplayer and modding features of Half-Life before Half-Life 1 even existed. I wouldn't say Valve "ripped-off" Bungie when making Half-Life, but there's obviously influence there and there's no doubt that Marathon is a vastly under-rated title.

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[Eponymous Crowbar]

Halo 2 is derivative of many other FPS titles and lags behind PC gameplay in many ways. It also sets the standard for console-based FPS games. That's really all there is to say....

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[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, I didn't know people fought with M16s and AK47s in WWII
All those History Channel specials must be Nazi propaganda!

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[Osty]

What is wrong with these people? Aren't they bored with the WW2 FPS setting yet? How stoned do you have to be to be like "WHOA ANOTHER ONE, AWESOME!".

Yes, yes they are. That's why CoD4 will now be set in modern times (thus the "Modern Warfare" subtitle). Your reading comprehension rocks!

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[jonnythan]

COD2 has a massive online following and remains the only FPS I've played consistently.

The COD games are really, really excellent. They may not be your thing, but a lot of people really love them.

There was a quote in the article about making COD4 deeper and more sophisticated, which really excites me.

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[Niomosy]

What the alternative? EA screwed up with BF 2142 and they're royally pissing off the BF2 community with their stats server outage that, after a month, still isn't fully functioning and is missing gobs of data for players.

This from the same group that released a patch that screwed up all Special Forces nighttime maps (fire the TOW on the Humvee, crash).

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[the_crowing]

Aren't they bored with the WW2 FPS setting yet?

Call of Duty 4 is not a WW2 shooter. It going to be game based on modern combat.

check it out:http://xbox360.ign.com/objects/902/902590.html [ign.com]

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[Is0m0rph]

Did you happen to notice COD4: MODERN WARFARE is not set in WW2 but in MODERN times. I guess not before you decided to flame eh?

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[CRiMSON]

Nice reply... Too bad you didn't ready the FA, or even check a game site. CoD4 is modern combat.

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[ShaggyIan]

Just wanted to say that I'm glad I was toiling through the AC's on this one.

Your responses have been quite amusing. I hope that is some genuine irony/sarcasm I read in this one.

Amazing how they all think they're the first one to point it out, isn't it?

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[nomadic]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So instead of the 50th WW2 FPS, it's the 50th modern warfare FPS. Big deal. I remember when FPSes used to be a varied group; what are the chances of us getting another Thief, or Deus Ex, or Heretic?

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[antime]

Where is Microsoft's answer to:
Killzone
...
Honestly did they really think anyone would be fooled with the tired old trying to pass off cut scenes as real game play bullshit?

Hoho!

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[ShaggyIan]

Sucks if you don't care enough to spend that kind of money on a PS3.

There. Fixed that for you. I'll even subtitle it with: and replacing a perfectly good HD set that lacks the right ports. All for some games that make you go, "Eh".

Some day I'll understand why people assume those without PS3's are poor.

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[LKM]

Yes, where is Microsoft's answer to Sony's answer to Halo!

Xbox Live "subscribers"...

[Yvan256]

If that includes people with silver accounts, let's not kid ourselves...

I, for one, only have a silver account so I can play Final Fantasy XI. It requires an Xbox Live account for some reason even though Square has their own servers for FF XI. There's no such external account required for the Windows and Playstation 2 versions.

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[Cerberus911]

I'm sure the three people who played FFXI have a huge effect on that number.