Wizard's Blog

Image from WikipediaWell the Call of Duty 4: Variety Map Pack may well be out, but at the moment that's about as much use to me as a tampon.

I don't know whether the map pack has caused a sudden rush onto Xbox Live or whether it's just a coincidence, but for whatever reason I'm getting all sorts of errors trying to download the map pack. 8015000a - very descriptive error message, thanks Microsoft.

The Xbox Live status page says the following, so I guess it's not just me:

Xbox LIVE users may experience issues with purchasing marketplace items, account recovery and account management.

We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

I guess Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 won't start gathering dust tonight after all.

Image via Wikipedia

The Call of Duty 4: Variety Map Pack is apparently out today!

I think I've played Call of Duty 4 more than any other game on the Xbox 360. I can't believe I've been playing the original maps for five months, no wonder I'm bored of them...

The new maps are:

• Creek - a war damaged village in the woods
• Broadcast - a TV station with office and parking lot areas
• Chinatown - part of a city in the fog
• Killhouse - a warehouse filled with building mock-ups used for training

I can't wait to get home and try the news maps out! Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 might start collecting dust starting tonight...

Here's a funny thing - they ran a community map-making competition recently. The announcement showed up on the Xbox version of the game. I went to their website to see how to enter the contest, and it said that to use the map-making tools you needed the PC version of the game. So for me to enter the competition I need to buy two copies of the game? Unlikely.

Image via Wikipedia

So last week my pre-order of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 finally arrived.

You may have noticed that the title of this post is Rainbow Six Vegas 1.1 and not Rainbow Six Vegas 2. There is a good reason for this.

You might think, from its name, that this game is a sequel to Rainbow Six Vegas. It is not. It is the same game engine with some new content. Yes, that's right, just like a patch or an expansion pack, not like a sequel.

The graphics and AI are (unfortunately) unimproved, and there are still some bugs from the original Vegas that haven't been fixed(!)

The physics are the same as ever - when it works it's fantastic, but sometimes you'll shoot someone and they'll go flying up in the air as if an invisible Graboid had them. Takes you right out of the game.

The map design has actually worsened - I get the impression this is their B team as far as map design goes. For example the Murdertown map is an unfinished housing development. Fair enough, except that everything is made out of flat, rectangular pieces of plywood. It looks nothing like reality and everything like little Johnny's first time around the block with a map editor.

Presumably because of the success of Call of Duty 4, they've added sprinting and bullet penetration. The bullet penetration doesn't feel right. In Call of Duty you see someone run behind some cover and you let loose at it. They see bullets coming through the cover and then you get them. In Vegas 2 you see someone run behind some cover, you let loose at it, and... it doesn't go through. Basically things have got to be very thin. I thought bullets were tougher than that - they must be making plywood out of Kevlar these days. I did have a cool moment when a terrorist was hiding behind a bamboo divider in the Chinese casino - my IR goggles saw him through the thin cover and my bullets made it through to get him.

The sprinting is nice in as much as it alleviates the my legs are broken feeling I always have when I play a Rainbow Six game, but they've just thrown away one of the basic tenets of their franchise - realism - just to be like a successful competitor. Shame.

The one massive improvement over v1 is the A.C.E.S. system.

My conclusion concurs with the consensus - if you liked the first game, you'll probably like this one because it's the same thing. But you might feel a bit ripped off.

Amazon logo

Good news since my last post complaining about Amazon pre-orders.

I sent them an email explaining the situation and why I was unhappy about it. Within a couple hours they replied saying that there was indeed a problem with the time estimates and the game should ship by the 21st to arrive by the 24th. Not ideal, as it would mean that I still don't get to play the game over the weekend, but what's a boy to do.

Then a couple hours after that, I got a notification that it had shipped - on the 19th! To arrive by the 21st! Before the weekend! Hooray!

I don't know whether my email had anything to do with getting it shipped sooner or not, but I'm mollified. Until next time.

First of all let me say that I love Amazon.com. They have unbeatable prices, a good quality service and an almost unlimited inventory. They get pretty much all of my spending on non-essentials.

However. Whenever I try to pre-order the latest game I get burned. Case in point - I pre-ordered Rainbow Six Vegas 2. It came out on the 18th, so with 2nd day delivery I should have got it on the 20th. Instead, I get an email from them saying it won't arrive until the 25th or 26th. The product page says it's in stock and if I order it how I could have it by the 20th. WTF? The order page also says "We are preparing these items for shipment and this portion of your order cannot be canceled or changed." so I can't cancel the order and buy it in a real life shop. Thanks.

Although this has happened to me the last several times I've pre-ordered a game through them, I still did it this time because of the Amazon Prime free shipping and because I had a gift card from my Amazon.com Rewards Visa card. Somehow it doesn't seem worth it.