Mod-ern Warfare

Where do I begin on this subject? Infinity Ward was nice enough to grace us with this feature, allowing us to mod almost every detail of the game to fit our needs, a major boost for the game's future. Immediately the DAMN mod was implemented into competition, and I have to say it has worked out really well.

Also, PAM has just been released this week. I have not been able to test it yet, as I have had an off week with finals approaching. However, I heard it is still in the BETA stages and the bugs need to be worked out.

It is good to see that IW has given us the modwarfare feature. With our constant bickering throughout CoD 1 and 2 it seems as though they have finally listened to our outcries. I also have to commend IW for given us three patches in under a month. I think that's almost more patches than CoD2 had altogether. Keep it up IW!

XFIRE Tournament Completed

I am going to have to apologize for the lack of coverage on the xfire: first strike tournament. With school and no Hackett, it is hard to cover that many teams on a constant basis. However, the tournament seemed to be run smoothly, with only a few, minor speed bumps.

I do have to say though, the 4v4 style was one I completely disagreed with in the beginning. However, the new format worked rather nice once people got used to it. It was a big difference from 5v5, and it seemed as though anything could happen. Also, when you are competing for $6,000 computers, the 4v4 format is not something you are going to complain about for long.

Well, with the tournament over, it seems once again that Team Pandemic have become champions. You have to commend those guys, they had a great tournament. Also, big respect to the doctors! They came into the game while still playing the CEVO TF2 playoffs, going on to take an impressive second place. You really could not ask for more from a classy team like them. I expect big things from them in the future of Call of Duty 4.

Unified Ruleset?

First and foremost, this topic intrigued me. I logged onto the CAL forums one day to see the topic "unified ruleset = done". My first thoughts were "I didn’t realize we had people making the decision so soon". Then I came to realize that the unified ruleset was implemented mainly by the Europeans, one group in particular called MCE.

When I saw the people that took part in the meeting it astonished me that there were hardly any North American representatives. In fact, there were only 9 representatives out of around 50 people. This seemed like a slap in the face to the North American community, mainly because not too many people were informed of such a meeting. During the CoD24WSVG campaign, Europeans were constantly invited on the ventrilo meetings that took place and constantly gave their insight for the movement.

From what it seems North America and Europeans will play with different rule sets for the time being. However, if there is an international LAN in the near future, then a unified ruleset must be implemented - and with equal representation from both sides.

Final Words

Overall, I love this game! The 1.3 patch brought the scope element back into the picture which is a big bonus. Also, like I said before, IW have been addressing problems with the game more frequently. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that they keep up the good work!

Competition is at the highest I have ever seen it too. With almost 700+ people in cod4scrim (making it the 4th highest ranked channel on gamesurge), you can tell the game has taken off. We can only hope that the right decisions are made so that the game can last for the long run.

In closing, I have to say that it is great to see teams and players from other communities merging into the Call of Duty community. I hope that this game grabs even more players from other games as well.

Stay tuned for even more articles during the holidays. I finally have time now that my school semester is coming to an end. We are also anticipating the return of Kyle "Hackett" Feely to the GotFrag scene, he will be returning this month from his European excursion and will be back bringing you all the latest updates from the North American scene before you know it. "acog"