Most info summarized from GameTrailer’s video
of the recent multiplayer presentation in LA.

>>Hey people! Now that the game has been released, the guys over at MW24/7 have done a good job of getting everything cataloged.

A single kill has a base score of 100 XP, so expect much higher numbers. The level cap will be 70. Prestige has been reworked and will be rewarded.

Callsign
MF2 features a much more customizable “identity” for the player, which will pop up for all to see if you achieve in-game feats, like killstreaks, objectives, or shooting down support elements. This pop-up info pane, or “callsign” will include your gamertag, and custom backgrounds along with a few other new features.

Your title, which defaults to your rank (starting at “FNG”, SSGt, etc.) is selectable and more novel ones will be unlocked depending on your play style. Appears very similar to Street Fighter IV’s profile tags.

Your emblem also defaults to your proper rank insignia, but can also be any number of avatar-like pictures, unlocked in similar ways to titles.

Killstreaks
Killstreaks are now customizable. It appears as though you can select 3 to be active at any time, unknown whether or not this number can increase. Ranking up will earn you unlock credits, which you can use to unlock your choice of killstreak rewards beyond the default 3. This list is not complete ~

3 Kills – UAV Shows enemies on minimap.
4 Kills – Care Package Airdrop random killstreak or ammo.
4 Kills – Counter UAV Temporarily disables enemy radar.
5 Kills – Sentry Gun Airdrop a placeable Sentry Gun.
5 Kills – Predator Missile Remote control missile.
6 Kills – Precision Airstrike Call in a directional airstrike.
7 Kills – Attack Helicopter Call in a support helicopter.
9 Kills – Pave Low Heavily armored assault helicopter.
11 Kills – AC130 Be the gunner of an AC130.

Perks
There are 3 re-done tiers of perks, as well as selectable death streak “rewards”. Perks can also be upgraded by completing certain challenges.

Tier 1
Marathon Unlimited Sprint?
Sleight of Hand
Scavenger Full resupply from dead enemies.
Bling 2 primary weapon attachments.
?

Tier 2
Stopping power
Lightweight Move faster
Hardline Killstreaks require 1 less kill
Cold Blooded Undectable by UAV, air support, sentries, and thermal.
?

Tier 3
Commando Increased melee distance
Steady Aim
Scrambler Scrambles enemy UAV?
?
?
?

Death Streak
Copy Cat Steal your killer’s class in killcam. (4 Deaths without a kill)
Painkiller Big health boost when you spawn. (3 Deaths without a kill)
?
?

Weapons

Assault Rifles
M4A1 Fully automatic all-purpose
FAMAS 3 round burst
SCAR-H Fully automatic all-purpose
TAR-21 Fully automatic all-purpose

Sub Machine Guns
UMP45
MP5K

Light Machine Guns
RPD

Sniper Rifles

Riot Shield

Attachments
Yes, that’s a shotgun attachment.

Grenade Launcher
Red Dot Site
Silencer
Shotgun
Heartbeat Sensor

Secondary Weapons
You now choose from a list of secondary weapon categories, not limited to handguns. Each have their own attachments, for some the ability to wield “Akimbo”.

Machine Pistols Like SMGs, but weaker, less range
PP2000, G18
Shotguns Can now utilize silencers
Spas 12,
Handguns For fast-swapping, lots of attachments
USP .45, .44 Magnum
Launchers Some can lock on to aerial targets
AT4, Thumper x2

Equipment
In place of your frag grenade selection, you can now choose from a varied list of uses for your right-bumper.

Frag
Semtex sticky
Throwing knife hell yeah
Tactical Insertion choose where to respawn
Blast Shield protection from explosives, sacrificing minimap

Special Grenade

Flash x2
Stun x2

10/16: Level cap raised from 11 to 24. Hardcore and Search and Destroy playlists added.

Perks
Most of CoD:4′s perks have returned, some renamed and some modified, along with a number of new ones.  A fourth tier of “Vehicle” perks has also been added.

Tier 1
Special Grenades x 3
Satchel Charge x 2 Functions like C4
M9A1 Bazooka x 2
Bomb Squad (Unlocked at lvl 16)
Bouncing Betty x 2 Land Mines (24)
Bandolier (40)
Primary Grenades x 2 (44)
M2 Flamethrower (65)

Tier 2
Stopping Power
Fireworks Higher explosive weapon damage.
Flak Jacket Reduces explosive damage.
Gas Mask Protects against Tabun Gas.
Juggernaut
Camouflage Radar Jammer (12)
Sleight of Hand (28)
Shades (32)
Double Tap (36)
Overkill (56)

Tier 3
Deep Impact
Extreme Conditioning
Steady Aim
Toss Back Resets fuse of picked up grenades.
Second Chance The new “Last Stand”, only this time you can be revived after being downed.
Martyrdom Yeah, it’s back. (20)
Fireproof (48)
Dead Silence (52)
Iron Lungs (60)
Reconnaissance (64)

Vehicle Perk
Water Cooler Decreases turret overheat.
Greased Bearings Increases turret rotation speed.
Ordnance Training Faster main-cannon reload. (12)
Leadfoot (28)
Coaxial Machine Gun (40)

Maps

Castle is a small, fast paced map very reminiscent of an Unreal Tournament arena. A good blend of indoor/outdoor combat, with hotspots for every class and an ironically peaceful Japanese tea-garden aesthetic.

Makin makes you feel like you’re going to get weird mosquito-borne illnesses. It’s a good map for close range combat, but with enough open space over water and from rickshaw to rickshaw for rifles too.

Roundhouse is a large, round Gears of War looking map peppered with trains and rubble, a few high sniping points, and multiple tanks.

Kill Streak Rewards
Apparently Treyarch did their homework and determined that UAVs, Jets, and Minigun-toting helicopters weren’t in wide use during WWII. The 3, 5, and 7 kill streak rewards have been modified accordingly. The Recon Plane functions identically to the UAV. Calling in Artillery is also similar to the airstrike, although it’s a more sustained, radial target area. Finnally, the helicopter has been replaced with calling in Attack Dogs. Believe it or not, man’s best friend has the capacity to be more lethal than that helicopter ever was. The dogs (at least 4 or 5, maybe more) start running from outside the map when called and will seek out, while barking, nearby enemies. They are a small fast target, so they’re hard to kill, even with a well timed melee. Although they do give you +3XP should you choose to defend yourself and envoke the wrath of PETA, you’ll usually die after the second maul. At the very least, the pack of dogs will get the entire opposing team firing their weapons, distracted and giving away positions.

Vehicles
The only vehicle available in the beta is a stubby little tank on Roundhouse. It’s a noticeably slow moving and slow reloading with room for two; driver/gunner and mounted gunner.
The vehicles look like they’ll be more tactical tools rather than an exercise in brute force this time around. Vehicles have armor that can be blown off to expose weak spots. The driver has a HUD that displays damage to various areas. This tank can take quite a beating if the opposing team doesn’t focus on where they’re hitting it. The cannon takes some practice to be effective with, but the mounted turret is vicious, although it overheats quickly and exposes it’s user.

Weapons, Unlocks and Challenges
All the challenges are back in the barracks, both Marksman (kills) and Expert (headshots) for most weapons. The expert challenges, which previously unlocked camo patterns, now only grant XP.

Bolt Action Rifles aren’t what they used to be… Even with power-enhancing perks, you’ll find yourself bested by a semi-auto in many situations. Springfield, Arisaka, Mosin-Nagant (21), Kar98k (41), PTRS-41 (57).

• Sniper Scope Increases accuracy and range.
• Bayonet Increases melee attack range.
• Rifle Grenade

Rifles Fire as fast as you can pull the trigger, and my choice for most of the levels in anything but rambo situations. SVT-40, Gewehr 43, M1 Garand (17), STG-44 (37), M1A1 Carbine (65)

• Flash Hider/Suppressor/Silencer
• Aperature Sight The low-tech alternative to your red-dot reflex site.
• Telescopic Sight Think ACOG
• Rifle Grenade

Submachine Guns Always useful with or without the steady-aim perk. Thompson, MP40, Type 100 (25), PPSh-41 (53)

• Suppressor
• Aperture Site
• Round Drum/Dual Magazines

Shotguns Have been nerfed. The range and damage on the one available is low, although it’s still a surprise one hit kill. M1897 Trench Gun, Double-Barreled Shotgun (29)

• Grip
• Bayonet

Machine Guns Both light and heavy MGs are dangerous/annoying when in the right hands. Type 99, BAR, DP-28 (13), MG42 (33), FG42 (45), Browning M1919 (61).

• Bipod
• Bayonet

Side Arms

• Colt M1911 Too slow for comfort.
• Nambu You got Nambu’d Betch!
• Walther P38 Sean Connery would be proud.
• Tokarev TT-33 (21)
• .357 Magnum (49)

Primary Grenade

• Frag “Anti-personnel device that destroys the target with a burst of flying shrapnel.”
• N 74 ST Sticky. Looks like a coconut. “Device designed as an anti-tank grenade. Beware, very dangerous.”
• Molotov Cocktail “Incendiary device that harms the target with a radius of fire.”

Special Grenade

• Smoke
• Tabun Gas Lasts for a few seconds after exploding and gives passers-by intense shell shock.
• Signal Flare (Like that bright thing in Halo 3)

Boot Camp contains many of the same novelty challenges, with a few extras including “Sticky Kill”, “Self Defense”, for shooting an attack dog, “Swan Dive” for falling into water, and “Bartender” for kills with the Molotov Cocktail.

Prestige Mode now unlocks extra custom class slots at certain intervals on top of your default 5, so you’ll have a total of 10 available after your 10th level of prestige. Meh.

Gametypes, Leaderboards, Parties!
The first 5 are available in the beta, the rest are as listed on the leaderboards.

• War New momentum system adds a multiplier to flag capturing speed.
• Capture The Flag
• Team Deathmatch
• Pick Up TDM (no parties)
• Free For All
• Sabotage
• Search and Destroy
• Domination
• Headquarters
• Hardcore TDM
• Hardcore FFA
• Hardcore Search and Destroy
• Hardcore War

Leaderboards can now be accessed filtering just your current group of players via the “Lobby Leaderboard”. It also lists time played in each specific gametype. You can create or join an existing squad during a match. This changes the member’s nametag and radar colors HUD colors, maybe more. You can also customize how overhead nametags appear; as the full Gamertag, an abbreviation, or just an emblem.

Afterthoughts
More than anything else, World at War captures a gritty realism never before seen in a war sim. Call of Duty has always been good at doing that, but this installment blows limbs off, literally. And that’s just the relatively non-immersive multiplayer. The eastern-theatre is a refreshing backdrop for the common WWII shooter, and the new environment, along with a potentially ground-breaking flamethrower and remarkable ambient audio goodness, should add enough unique changes to skin the greatness that was CoD4 with a whole new level of depth. CoD4 nailed the hybrid arcade arena/tactical gameplay with the Modern Warfare theme, and although it appears that WWII era weapons don’t fit in quite as well as their 21st century counterparts, Treyarch has tinkered with the gameplay just subtely enough that we’re all in for a treat of refinement. I’ll take my Pullitzer now. CoD:WW releases on November 11ish in North America. Something would have to go horribly wrong for the campaign to suck, but you could still pick it up for the multiplayer alone.

Hey, maybe I’m a sap for game review sites, but these journalists discuss undeniably good points, and bring up the flaws that subtly remove the incentive to invest time or money into playing Too Human.

Somewhere around mid-August was a difficult time for me. It was a time when, so help me, I was almost convinced to begin playing World of Warcraft. I had managed stayed away from MMORPGs for years, but at that point I had broken down enough to actually download the 10-day trial and create a combat-speced Undead Rogue. I was searching desperately for some reason not to pick up this RPG, some sort of alternative in which I wouldn’t find myself repetitively clicking, waiting for cooldowns, and clicking again.

Too Human looked like it could do it. The main draw of MMORPGs is the fact that you can showcase your avatar. The time and effort you put into a game is directly translated into the abilities and gear that your avatar wields in the virtual world. Great, I thought, Too Human and it’s thousands of customizable weapons and items can have the same appeal, while at the same time maintaining a richer, less point-and-click style of gameplay that would last for a long time. But what happened? Too Human decided to focus elsewhere, and didn’t give the elements that would have made it satisfying in this way enough attention.

Too Human makes you grind similar enemies in an attempt to deck out your “Baldur”. This would be fun if you could do it with more than one other person. Alone, or with a friend, you feel as though the effort you put into Too Human hits a dead end with your own personal satisfaction. Sure, you could film a blurry off-screen video of your epic level 50 character and put it on YouTube.. But rly. Too Human also ramps the level of enemies along with you. This means the challenge of combat stays roughly constant regardless of your gear or level, greatly devaluing the illusion of progress.

At the very least, Too Human could have utilized a system similar to WoW’s Armory, an online breakdown of a specific avatar’s stats and equipment to show off and mash-up with the world. But… nah.

Alright, so Too Human is going to suck up my time and never spit it out in any tangible way. I’ll just stick with another 5 months of Gamefly, and allow my time to be sucked with more variety and ever-changing multiplayer opportunities. But still, I need to get that RPG withdrawal out of my system…

Enter Castle Crashers, the Behemoth’s Alien Hominid-esque beat-em-up RPG sidescroller, available on the XBox Live Marketplace for $15.

Let us quickly peruse this comparison chart between Castle Crashers and Too Human.

Action RPG from Respected Developer	X	X
Epic Soundtrack	X	X
Character Attribute Customization	X	X
Repetitive Enemies	X	X
Good Graphics	X	X
Enemy Juggling	X	X
Multiplayer Co-Op	X	X
Lots of Items/Unlockables	X	X
Shit-Propelled Deer	X

These two action-RPGs are oddly similar, however, you’ll notice that even with the price difference out of the equation, Castle Crashers still has an edge on it’s first-party big brother. What Too Human has in firearms Castle Crashers makes up for with magic, and the Norse god’s battle cries are akin to a less adorable animal orb buff.

Castle Crashers is the ideal sort of arcade game, combining both the old-school simplicity of a true arcade cabinet, the witty writing and art expected from The Behemoth, and the lasting appeal and satisfaction of an accessible RPG that you can easily share with friends. And after all, who doesn’t want to ride on a shit-propelled deer? Regardless, Too Human is still a fine experience. Silicon Knights has planned a trilogy, and future installments will hopefully address what this first game lacks. Until then, I’ll be button mashing in 2D.

Although local multiplayer games on the PC are a dying art, there a still a few gems that can be found out there, for free. These are the 5 that I had the most fun maxing out my keyboard’s simultaneous-key press limit on with buddy’s when we had time to spare.

05. Battle Painters by JJSoft – DOWNLOAD

Here’s one you can play with your little sister and have a great love-return quotient. The concept is simple, you’ve got a set amount of time to paint more canvas than the other 1-4 players. The brush goes automatically, you just turn it left or right. Simple, but fast paced, competitive, and oddly tactical. There’s some sweet power-ups too.

04. Little Fighter 2 by Marti Wong & Starski Wong – DOWNLOAD

This is a very well put-together sidescroller that is still being updated. Lots of items, characters, and polished combat for 1-4 players. You can battle it out versus style or go on vs CPU campaign.

03. Super Mario War by 72DPIArmy – DOWNLOAD

This is what you get when you splice Super Mario Bros. with Super Smash Bros. Awesome little sprites and surprisingly smooth deathmatch game play make this a quick and casual bout you can play anytime, anywhere. Multiple levels, tons of popular sprited characters, and multiple game modes for 2-4 players. It’s also open source, and features plenty of user-made content.

02. Jetmen Revival by Crew42 – DOWNLOAD

The combat ready capture the flag version of Lunar Lander, Jetmen Revival provides some hardcore lasting competition for 2 players. The particle graphics fit the game like a glove and the gameplay coupled with a slew unlockable weapons and awards make this one last. It’s easy to create user-made ships, flags, and levels. The dev team is working on an online version, although it’s release may not come to light any time soon.

01. TRIUMPH! WAR 2099 by Darksun Games – DOWNLOAD

Considering how small everything is, TRIUMPH is able to simulate a battle of epic proportions. 1-4 friends can control the most adorably vicious squad commanders you’ve ever seen on a campaign to destroy an invasion of alien bugs. This addicting top-down shooter has a very simple yet functional line up of tactical squad control options with which to achieve your goal alongside your CPU army and friends. Each level has a distinct style and mission to accomplish as you very satisfingly slaughter waves of alien bugs with multiple weapons and power-ups.

Tuesday September 2, 2008 (PM)

8:00 Finish Vacuuming the Carpet
8:05 Begin playing “Hey There Delilah” on acoustic guitar. Real guitar is for losers though, so I stop promptly.
8:18 Key players start arriving.
8:21 XBox won’t connect to live. Accept the fact that our achievements won’t be time stamped. Morale low.
8:25 Play a few warm up songs.
8:29 All instruments set to HARD difficulty. This was discussed beforehand and determined to be possible while still maintaining player swappability.
8:30 Begin the Endless Setlist. Everyone gets a kick out of the pre-gig message.
8:32 I miss my first note. This is perhaps the second most unsatisfying note to miss other than the last one in “Won’t Get Fooled Again”.
9:00 Day 2 of Republican National Convention Ends.
9:04 Self-restraint goes out the window and even the guys have no fear going falsetto to hit the high-pitched bridge of “Creep”.
9:13 Pizza arrives. We have an employee in our midst so it’s all good with 50% off two large Peperonis with pan crust.
9:16 After trying to sing “Blood Doll” as angrily as possible to no avail, we realize that this setlist does indeed include the bonus indie songs, and in turn begin fearing the inevitable inclusion of “Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld”.
11:30 Half-way. We complete Suffragette City (after failing a few times).
11:35 Take shots of Endorush, an energy drink found at the local health-food store. After reading the warning label, you just have to drink some.
11:55 Banana Freefall has lost all 503,000 of it’s original fans. At least we can’t lose any more!

Wednesday September 3, 2008 (AM)

12:04 After perfect combo execution of most of “Dani California”, guitarist hits XBox guide button. Tension rises.
12:15 Our liter of generic-brand grape soda has lost all carbonation. It could now be considered, as Dave Chapelle would put it, “Grape Drink”.
1:30 People start leaving. We make fun of our younger friend who has to return to High School in the morning.
1:45 Jokes about the console overheating, although funny, are also profoundly unsettling at this point.
2:00 Talking and laughing ceases. This is no longer a party. This is a war of attrition.
2:13 Can’t handle “Next To You” on drums. Auxiliary bass pedaler deemed necessary.
2:30 Fingers begin hurting. Drummer cannot feel right shin. The only remaining girl has fallen asleep and we have to listen to a guy singer attempt the hardest songs on the list. Not cool.
2:39 Repetitively pound snare in attempt to survive the drum part of “Run to the Hills”.
2:45 Final and 58th song, “Won’t Get Fooled Again” begins.
2:52 Long interlude tricks less experienced Rock Banders into thinking we have finished. Problem resolved by yelling at them.
2:54 Final notes hit, everyone stands and roars.
2:55 Cool pyrotechnics. Achievements unlocked, gold legendary status granted.

All in all, somebody unlocked a city shirt. We got about $23,000 each, and gained 900 fans.

Yes, 900 fans.

But hey, it’s only a video game. I think.