World at War, Tango Down Reviews, More!

    By a quirk of scheduling, I worked 10AM to 10:30PM last night. I had a class to go to in the morning, and management had those of us attending just continue our work day from there. I was pretty damn tired at the end. I slept poorly, and I hope to go back to sleep once the blog update chores are done.

    I'm still a bit obsessed, if that's the word, with Blacklight: Tango Down. I noticed that Major Nelson's Xbox Live activity update, had Blacklight: Tango Down as the number one Arcade title for the week of 5 July. It's not everyone's cup of tea. I've read some complaints about the ice skatey feel of the shooter. I'm pretty sure that's a an Unreal engine issue. All the flavors of Unreal Tournament I've played have had that gliding feeling, instead of simulated running. When I played UT 1998, I typically played that with the speed setting at 150 percent. Anything lower seemed a bit too slow to me in those days. You could turn weapon bob off, and I usually did.
    My initial impression of Tango Down is based less on direct experience than a desire to see an underdog shooter do well. Not very rational, but it's the way I feel. In the main blog are three review links to check out.
    Speaking of underdog shooters, what about that box art for Call of Duty: Black Ops? Not exactly unexpected, but nice. Look:

    Not bad. It's one of the most recognized images of Black Ops so far, and it doesn't push the VietNam angle too hard, which might turn some people off. But it's not WWII, either, which might also be a negative. Speaking of negatives, no word yet on the rumor that some form of zombie mode will be available in Black Ops. I guess folks were hoping that, in addition to the box art reveal, some news would be forthcoming about VC undead or something. In any case, the CoD vids today are World at War flavor, with a BAR vid from Dunkus and a rare PC hardcore TDM match from Tiffmiester. Moving on...

Uploaded 13 July 2010 by MrDunkus

• Call of Duty: Black Ops box art revealed.  Ooooooohh!
• Better-late-than-never-bandwagon: Direct2Drive starts selling Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - despite its using Steam.
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 'Resurgence' DLC review: Perez Start. 
• Major Nelson: Modern Warfare 2 tops Xbox Live activity for week of 5 July; Halo 2 and World at War place and show, respectively.
• New Activision Publishing CEO: 'We Need To Correct' Hardcore Reputation. Good luck with that.
• Pachter: Call of Duty should charge online. Because that will really help repair the franchise's reputation with 'hardcore' gamers.

• Blacklight: Tango Down reviews: Cnet.; iStockAnalyst; Gaming Union. 
• Blacklight: Tango Down will not get DLC; sequel inbound.
• Blacklight: Tango Down not released in Australia - not submitted for review by Ignition to Oz rating board.
• Battlefield: Bad Company 2 'Onslaught' DLC may find its way to PC. 
• Sniper: Ghost Warrior review: Bit-Tech. 
• New season of This Spartan Life coming to Halo Waypoint.
• Sega scraps support for Alien vs. Predators on consoles. Game over, man! Game over!!
• Persona 3 Portable review by Koku Gamer.
• Xbox 360 Slim noise test. Is it really 'whisper quiet'?
• Walmart bundles Kinect, game, and $30 gift card.
• Kinect games come in purple boxes. Yes, because flailing around in front of your TV isn't the ghey enough.
• Why trying to make a 'blockbuster' game may be a bad idea.
• Blues News: Pachter's Podium: 'I thought Alan Wake would be a blockbuster'. 

• BP claims Gulf oil leak has been stopped. Hope it's true.
• Is gravity real? A scientist takes on Newton. Good luck with that.
• NASA not prioritizing Muslim 'feel good' PR mission.
• Not exactly surprising: Toyota 'sudden acceleration syndrome' is driver error.
• Court rules FCC cannot crack down on broadcaster for F-bomb. Ernie Anastos cleared to continue farking chickens. 
• Massachusetts tries to limit internet 'indecency'. Won't someone think of the children?
• On the heels of the story about its dubious accounting practices with recording artists comes this delicious factoid: The RIAA spent $16 million to collect $391k in penalties against file sharers. ROFL! 
• Netflix's surprisingly most rented movies of all time.