By Jim Rossignol on October 21st, 2011 at 6:32 pm.
Infinity Ward have posted a heap of information regarding the PC version of Modern Warfare 3 over here. Highlights include some details on how the dedicated servers will work – “Dedicated Servers, allowing players to find and filter via an in-game server browser or set-up their own Dedicated Server for complete control, without being restricted by any 3rd party hosting requirements. If looking for a Dedicated Server to join, if you choose not to set up your own, you can filter and favorite by Ping, Map, Gametype, Hardcore Variants, Voice, Password, and many other options” (such as RCON) – and also graphics: “including enablingand disabling of new rendering features such as SSAO, you’ll also be able to modify DOF, Shadows, Anti-Aliasing, Texture Resolution and more.” It will have Steamworks integration, with VAC as the anti-cheat system, and will also support LAN play.
That is a lot of stuff!
21/10/2011 at 18:39 lijenstina says:
Explosions!
I f*cking hate PR shots.
21/10/2011 at 18:39 Teddy Leach says:
Boom.
21/10/2011 at 18:42 Sigh says:
Headshot.
21/10/2011 at 18:55 westyfield says:
Titjob.
21/10/2011 at 18:57 vader says:
Sniping’s a good job mate
21/10/2011 at 19:16 lijenstina says:
Nah it’s art. Sorry I meant fart.
21/10/2011 at 19:17 xavdeman says:
It may have explosions, but it won’t have…. RANKED DEDICATED SERVERS!
“Does Modern Warfare 3 on PC support an in-game Server Browser? Can you also use matchmaking?
Yes! In addition to the public matchmaking system for finding Ranked public games, you can use the in-game server browser to find and favorite unranked Dedicated Servers to join, which can be filtered by a number of options mentioned above.”
Also: no mod tools, 18 players max (even COD4 had more on PC!), and one new graphical effect (SSAO = Screen Space Ambient Occlusion) that is really GPU intensive but doesn’t improve the graphics all that much by itself.
21/10/2011 at 22:34 qinqinyiwu says:
Good place for a shopping spree, the best choice.
Welcome to our online store:
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21/10/2011 at 18:39 Teddy Leach says:
But will it have mouse support?
21/10/2011 at 18:45 Sigh says:
From Infinity Ward website:
21/10/2011 at 18:55 Simas says:
Aye, the “MW3: Mouse & keyboard” DLC ($9.95). Includes 3 shining animated pistol cursors.
21/10/2011 at 21:30 Barnaby says:
Lol Sigh. Nice.
But in all fairness to them they at least have one thing BF3 won’t have, which is 3rd party dedicated server support (unless I missed something). Considering where the franchise was regarding these things with BLOPs I’m actually kind of impressed to see them change their tune on these things. Ah right, I guess competition will do that.
Doesn’t change the fact that I’m hesitant to give my money to either, with the only real possibility of a purchase being BF3.
23/10/2011 at 09:41 Shodex says:
I hear mouse button and keyboard key support will be exclusive to Call of Duty ELITE subscribers. Regular players will be able to still use the revolutionary new Mental Control System. It’s said to have an input lag of only 39, 571, 200, 000 milliseconds.
21/10/2011 at 18:42 Shooop says:
“including enablingand disabling of new rendering features such as SSAO, you’ll also be able to modify DOF, Shadows, Anti-Aliasing, Texture Resolution and more.”.
Does anyone else miss the days when this was the norm for PC game video options so listing them as features was unnecessary?
Kudos for the public server files IW, but $60 is at least three times too much to ask for this game.
21/10/2011 at 19:03 DrGonzo says:
It is the norm for pc games isn’t it? At least the games I play have these settings. This press release is like Ford announcing that their new car does indeed have wheels. Now give us praise for giving you what should come as standard.
21/10/2011 at 19:10 TotalBiscuit says:
Yup, standard price for new triple-A releases, not particularly unusual. Played about 60 hours of Black Ops, definitely worth the money, MW3 probably will be as well. Much better game for going in solo and getting some frags than BF3 is.
21/10/2011 at 19:12 Shooop says:
@DrGozo:
That’s exactly what I’m saying. These things were standard for PC games, but now they’re being listed as extra features.
21/10/2011 at 19:26 subedii says:
@ TotalBiscuit: Well the “AAA” pricepoint thing creeping up to $60 is a little contentious you have to admit.
The reason that it’s usually been $10 cheaper PC-side for so long is simply because publishers don’t need to pay a platform holder fee. Now it’s getting to that pricepoint anyway.
In real terms that is a tonne of extra profit per unit sold. Even if I count in additional “PC specific” costs like additional testing and network architecture, I’m guessing that on a console/PC comparison of profits per unit, they’re still probably coming out way ahead there.
It’s been bugging me for a while now, the impression that we’re getting saddled with the extra cost “just because”. At the same time, I also wonder whether that ability to make more profit per unit (ESPECIALLY when you factor in digital distribution) is a major part of the reason that AAA titles are tending to see better representation and ports (in general, I’m not saying that’s necessarily the case here) PC-side than they did 5 years ago.
21/10/2011 at 19:43 Shooop says:
@subedii:
Some of it can be chalked up to inflation and people just not spending money like they used to. Combined with how it’s getting more and more expensive to make a big-name game complete with full professional voice acting, it does make sense.
Problem is the end product all too often isn’t worth it from our point of view because they forgot they were developing a video game all along.
21/10/2011 at 20:01 subedii says:
The problem being, if it was just a matter of rising costs, all versions should be increasing in price. And the PC version should still be cheaper, as it has been before, because the lack of a platform holder to pay hasn’t changed. And heck, even excluding that, DD sales still make much better profit margins than store sales to begin with, but that doesn’t stop publishers from setting the same RRP, even on their own systems (like Origin, which I can only imagine is going to give EA a SUPERB return per unit sold of BF3, much like Valve whenever they release a title on Steam).
21/10/2011 at 21:17 AlexTaldren says:
@TotalBiscuit: Sorry, but I have to disagree with you.
It’s just as easy to jump into a BF3 game solo and get some frags…I think Operation Metro on Rush proved that point rather well. Besides, is it the norm now to rate the quality of FPS games based on “getting some frags?” Personally, I prefer the entire experience over how many frags I get by the end.
21/10/2011 at 22:53 MrTambourineMan says:
@subedii – In Europe new pre-order for MW is about 70$ and in Australia 90$ just so you know you get it cheap.
@AlexTaldren – BFBC2 was IMO the best on-line shooter when all the things clicked (i.e. you had balanced teams) but many-a-times it was just a hair-pulling half an our per round if there was no cooperation. In COD you can go lone-wolf in BF you can’t it’s as easy as that.
21/10/2011 at 22:54 ascagnel says:
@subedii:
At the end of the day, the publisher probably looks at their balance sheets and realizes that the cost savings they get from not having to pay a platform holder for the PC version end up balancing out with having to support as many different hardware configurations as possible. Even though its easy to say “just put it out there and mark it as unsupported,” the market (meaning most players) don’t like that. It says that it didn’t get any TLC when it was in development, and that rather than trying to squash bugs, they’re letting the community sort it out on their own (which is bad in two ways: it leaves you, the buyer, with a shit game, and it means you won’t stick around to get any of the shiny, expensive, and super-high-margin DLC they’ll be releasing).
Add to this the “opportunity cost” of the PC version, even though its hard to quantify what the opportunity cost would be. Would the publisher be better served kicking that money towards more polish for the console versions or for doing a PC version, or maybe on a small downloadable title?
From the consumer side, is it bullshit? Yes. Totally.
Is it bullshit from the view of the guys with the money hats? Nah, just a balancing factor in an equation.
21/10/2011 at 18:44 int says:
Very nice.
21/10/2011 at 18:44 Radiant says:
Shoop you are a glorious troll.
Or a one note dickhead your pick guv.
21/10/2011 at 19:15 Shooop says:
Oh my, pointing out the obvious is now a criteria to be a troll or dickhead these days? I guess that makes 99% of the people I met at work today trolls and dickheads!
I believe I’ll pick “disgruntled former consumer” love.
What’ll you have? “E-penis obsessed angry teenager on the internet” or “easily offended consumer whore”?
21/10/2011 at 22:01 Radiant says:
I’m not your love. Pal.
21/10/2011 at 22:33 Eukatheude says:
I’m not your pal, bro.
22/10/2011 at 00:50 DK says:
I’m not your bro, mate.
22/10/2011 at 01:03 Shooop says:
Make your choice love.
E-penis obsessed angry teenager on the internet or easily offended consumer whore? I’m personally guessing the former.
And because I don’t want to be a killjoy:
I’m not your mate, guy.
23/10/2011 at 16:02 Xerian says:
I’m not your guy, sir.
24/10/2011 at 19:09 Dozer says:
Stop calling me ‘sir’. And where are the community moderators…
21/10/2011 at 18:45 Thoric says:
And we used to take those things for granted.
21/10/2011 at 18:46 SirKicksalot says:
The dedicated servers will be unranked, which means you don’t earn XP and unlock stuff.
21/10/2011 at 18:48 kikito says:
You make it sound like a bad thing.
21/10/2011 at 18:53 SirKicksalot says:
Have fun playing with the 5 starting weapons, I guess.
21/10/2011 at 19:09 subedii says:
The key point being: It means that, if true, all ranked games are going to be P2P still.
I’ve been hearing a lot of angsty rage about this so I don’t know how much truth there is to that. But if it is true, it is ridiculously disingenuous of them to try and push dedicated servers as a core feature of the game.
21/10/2011 at 19:15 db1331 says:
That’s what I heard somewhere else, too. Before then, I was still probably going to buy MW3 the first time it went on sale. No ranked dedi’s just killed what little interest I had in the game though. I guess I will buy Treyarch’s next game in November if BF3 is feeling stale.
21/10/2011 at 19:16 Skrying says:
Operators of dedicated servers will be able to change the settings, allowing for the guns to be unlocked for all players from the very start. Which is a huge plus, I’m not a fan of leveling systems in multiplayer FPS games personally.
21/10/2011 at 18:48 Jake says:
pictured: the paramilitary wing of the Wombles.
21/10/2011 at 18:57 Caddrel says:
Looks like Modern Warfare is slowly turning its sights to target the Battlefield franchise.
Maybe the two will headshot each other and developers will be able to work in peace.
21/10/2011 at 19:06 Kevin says:
Though Battlefield 3 is going to be the game that keeps me warm this winter, I’m glad that IW did away with all that pissing in the eyes of PC gamers, even if it meant doing away with just about everyone that mattered a year and a half ago.
21/10/2011 at 19:09 Xiyng says:
Wait, you mean they are doing everything right that Battlefield 3 is doing wrong? (Well, aside from forcing Steam as DRM but that’s not the point.)
Too bad I’m not interested in playing this myself…
21/10/2011 at 19:18 alundra says:
“Wait, you mean they are doing everything right that Battlefield 3 is doing wrong? ”
Yup, that’s what’s so wonderful about competition, people tend get of their lazy butts and aim for the top
22/10/2011 at 18:34 MisterT says:
They’re just adding to MW3 what modders added to MW2: this server files and such is just like alterIWnet
21/10/2011 at 19:44 n0way says:
I made an account just to express how truly moved I am by the fact that I’ll be able to adjust graphical settings in a PC GAME.. but, if above informations were released by R. Bowling, during last 3 days before premiere he will say something like;
“well, in the PC version we removed the entire options tab, as well as disabled dedicated servers, p2p connections and lan games. Mouse support and singleplayer will be patched 4 weeks post-launch.”
.. in a low-profile, ninja interview.
22/10/2011 at 19:00 rocketman71 says:
This. Because it’s not the first time.
21/10/2011 at 20:06 deadstoned says:
No ranked dedicated servers….. FFS IW
21/10/2011 at 21:47 Joshua says:
Apperently, dedicated servers allow server admins to bypass the ranking entirely and just allow everything for everyone. Which is cool I geuss.
21/10/2011 at 21:48 Joshua says:
“Only matchmaking to public games are Ranked (meaning, you have to rank up to unlock weapons to rank on the leaderboards), choosing to play on a Dedicated Server is UnRanked. Meaning unlocks are completely controlled by the Server Admin. They can choose to unlock everything or limit class restrictions to whatever they like to fully customize the experience. You do not have to rank up in Public games to have access to weapons in Dedicated Servers, you have complete control over what is unlocked for you in a Unranked Dedicated Server.”
21/10/2011 at 21:05 thatcity says:
support for lan?now THIS is good! not much AAA games have it..honor to them for this..also, can someone tell me if this VAC is efficient as an anti-cheat?
21/10/2011 at 22:11 Turbinator says:
Very effective, VAC is the leading anti-cheat system right now. That is leading in effectiveness, not leading in the most widely used. Which is sad.
22/10/2011 at 06:38 Kill_The_Drive says:
@Turbinator:
I beg to differ. SourceMod Anti-Cheat bans more people on our server than VAC does. I know, VAC isn’t instant but still it seems to do nothing.
22/10/2011 at 17:13 Shooop says:
Depends on your perspective.
VAC bans are very permanent, completely locking a cheater out of any VAC-enabled server for any game that uses the same engine.
But they work in waves – VAC first tags accounts and then waits for a period of time (days, weeks, even months) before all tagged accounts are banned.
And it’s all automated, which means a good chance of false positives.
Personally I think it’s crap for that last reason.
21/10/2011 at 22:31 clippa says:
Hmmm, it could have been far far worse I suppose :S
We’re going to be getting that horrible narrow console fov from mw2 again aren’t we? and it’ll be capped at 90fps. aaaaaaaaaand all dedicated servers will be unranked.
Ho-hum.
21/10/2011 at 23:49 Dowson says:
I’m actually pretty impressed, LAN support, being able to strip out the whole leveling up crap and just giving everyone everything, or banning overpowered or cookie cutter weapons.
I won’t buy it because I’m not interested in CoD, but I wish DICE could take a look at this stuff.
22/10/2011 at 01:07 Shooop says:
BF3 would rocket back onto my wish list if only it weren’t for the more sinister parts of Origin and no mods.
The things people could do with that engine…
22/10/2011 at 00:28 wazups2x says:
Another screw up from IW/Activision. Why in the world did they decide to make dedicated servers unranked only? Seriously, that’s just stupid. You can’t create great communities on an unranked server, no one plays on them!
I really do hate IW/Activison. They had a chance to make it right and they screw it up again!
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22/10/2011 at 08:04 bill says:
So this kind of reads as “look guys, we’re more PC than Battlefield now… and we don’t use that Origin thing – we use steam. You PC gamers all like steam right??!”
right?
22/10/2011 at 12:07 Chickenfeed says:
For once, the CoD vs. BF3 has came out with something good. Although an obvious jab at BF3 (Forcing users to jump through hoops in it’s ‘PC-led game’), it’s a good one. Healthy competition is good, but not when it comes down to name calling and whispering behind each others backs. Now all we need is BF3 to step it up again, and, eventually, game’s will be good again.
22/10/2011 at 12:30 aahhll says:
http://ppt.cc/ew(L
22/10/2011 at 14:12 Westcreek says:
Didnt Infinity Ward loose loads of developers, including the guys who originally made the game? How can there be a new CoD game out already?
22/10/2011 at 14:14 Jnx says:
Didn’t read anything about FoV there. Not buying any FPS/ 3rd person games until changeable FoV is confirmed.
22/10/2011 at 15:14 moggy006 says:
I still cant find anything talking about whether I can change my FOV or will be stuck with console blinders again. Anyone have any insight?
22/10/2011 at 17:07 clippa says:
Yeah, I’m assuming no mention of it means the same as the consoles again. framerate will no doubt be locked at 90fps again to keep the p2p running smoothly.
Surely field of view is the first thing you learn at game dev school :D It has to be idiocy rather than laziness because it takes all of 5 seconds to change or add a slider.
22/10/2011 at 16:05 Hogni Gylfason says:
“That is a lot of stuff!”
Seriously RPS? All those things were bog-standard in every single MP game 10 years ago. You didn’t use to lap up the marketing drivel.
23/10/2011 at 00:58 Shooop says:
I strongly suspect it’s mostly subtle, biting sarcasm.
22/10/2011 at 17:45 jay35 says:
I like how they won’t do anything right.
Dedicated servers but apparently not ranked.
Graphical options but probably still sticking you with a console-esque FOV.
At least if you can jump in a game and your stats actually save regardless of when you have to leave, that would be a leg up on BF3 which forces you to either complete the round or it takes away the stats you earned. But they probably won’t do that right either.
22/10/2011 at 19:18 hosndosn says:
Steamworks, no 3rd party hosting restrictions… aside from those “features” being a sad list of what was the unmentioned *default* on the PC 10 years ago… why does MW3 suddenly sound more PC friendly than BF3? EA is really shooting itself into the foot with a lot of their decisions. I’ll happily let the fanboys fight this out and watch from a distance… This reminds me of that turd sandwich episode from Southpark ( http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/104400/vote-or-die ).
24/10/2011 at 00:31 Shooop says:
why does MW3 suddenly sound more PC friendly than BF3?
When there’s blood in the ocean, the sharks gather. Remember MW2 vs BC2? Just about the same thing happened. It’s like the world’s worst merry-go-round.
23/10/2011 at 04:39 MultiVaC says:
No ranked dedicated servers at all? What the fuck? Any sense of good news about this just evaporated for me. For a second I was actually considering giving this game a chance, too.
24/10/2011 at 02:04 Hatsworth says:
You can disable the grinding? That’s actually great.
24/10/2011 at 08:09 Screamer says:
I’ll never buy a MW again until we have LAN back…..oh uhmmmm…. I’ll never buy it until it has ranked dedicated servers lol