c420.com

This is not a blog about MAG. This is not an attempt to recruit C420 members to come play MAG – even though I would love it if you did! (Rumor has it that AnubisIIGoW is picking up his copy this weekend.)

This is a blog about Zipper & the absolutely amazing job they did producing MAG. Zipper has knocked it out of the park. I cannot believe how much better the gameplay & interfaces of MAG are than the Slant 6 version of SOCOM. There is no comparison.

I never played SOCOM 1 or 2 from Zipper, but I’ve heard they were great. Obviously they created a huge following. I’m not going to whine about Slant 6 but I am going to compare.

Now, I know that SOCOM requires a different lobby system than MAG does. In MAG you cannot join a lobby & set up your opponents, switch sides, & play against your friends. You can only join a group of 8 friends and play with those 8 as teammates. Your opponents are always chosen for you.

Nonetheless, I hope & pray that Zipper can take what they’ve done with MAG & apply it to the next SOCOM (which they are already working on).

Imagine pressing a button on any of the menus (community, armory, friends list, stats, extras) and not having to wait for between 1 & 5 seconds while it pauses to load. The screen loads instantly!

Imagine being able to go into any home screen menu while you are still in the game lobby. You never have to ‘leave’ your party & you can still talk to them while you are playing with your other stuff.

Imagine playing 16 versus 16 on large maps (or even up to 256 in this case) with NO LAG. You never get shot after you’ve already killed someone. You never see people jumping around. Wow what a concept!

All Zipper needs to do is apply their top-notch technology & programming to the SOCOM concept. Personally I hope they scrap the existing lobby system that is in Confrontation, which is straight off the short bus. Australasia, I never want to see you again!

Instead just used the MAG basic concept & expand! Perhaps make the party system be able to hold 32 players instead of 8. Then make it closed mike. Then add an option for ‘closed’ (unranked) or ‘open’ (ranked) game type. Then launch! That’s it! The party leader selects the game type & the party is off!

Come on Zipper, I know you can do it  

G'day C420! It's yer old pal Cold here with a few updates. First off I wanted to let you all know that my attendance on the site has been sparse because I've been really busy being unemployed! Heh - actually I've been working on getting some clients from my old job, getting a new website up for my business, and getting ready to visit some family again. But that's not all! I've also been working on a new theme for the site. I showed it to IOU1 last Saturday, and let me tell ya folks, he likes it! I should have some screen shots of it up soon in the forums to see what you guys think. Here's some changes to the site so far:

(Update in the comment section)

Events have been taken off of the main page, as the content itself is rather empty and takes up a lot of white-space. I'd rather encourage other users to write blogs and create forum topics. If any of the leaders like it enough, we'll promote it to the main page!

I'm working on a new theme for the site. The one you're looking at now (with all the game titles and controllers on the sides) seems to break when viewing events or blogs if the content has a comment with an embedded signature. Not sure what all that web-tech mumbo-jumbo means? Neither do i! But what I do know, is that if you want something done right you have to code it yourself. So, I downloaded a "skeleton" theme and opted to design it how I saw fit. There's still a few minor bugs I need to iron out, but the usability far exceeds the old theme. If you want to test-drive it, send me an email (cold AT c420.com).

Lastly, our trusty email server "Spammy" has been acting up. I'm getting all of these bounced emails, which should be going to your email accounts (i.e. when SWR does his weekly "I forgot my password" form). I don't know why Spammy isn't sending out emails properly, but I will figure it out as soon as possible! As soon as I'm done with this ham sandwich and piece of cake! (The cake is a lie! LOLOLOLOL)

Bye!

Clark Kent, Peter Parker, Bruce Wayne … you know who they are. They’re “Super Heroes” – men who live amazing double lives, saving the planet in their spare time when they’re not at their regular jobs.

Reality check people – you’re not one of those guys. You don’t need 2, 3, or 8 identities on the Playstation Network.

Now, let me come clean: I do have 2 PSN IDs. Originally I was Zeppelin444. I always wanted to be 420 but it was taken when I started on the PSN. Then, when I started playing SOCOM: Confrontation, I created Zeppelin_420. The old Z444 name became dormant. Now, it’s used sparingly – only twice actually, to check out the other factions.

I’ve heard that the Italian faction has a cool gun, & I wondered if I should become more active with Z444, join the Italian faction, and be available to play on two C420 ladders. I know that some other C420 guys are already doing the double roster thing &/or want to.

Here’s the deal – don’t do it! Of course you can create as many IDs as you want to – I really don’t care about that. But when it comes to C420, you should just use one name. Bottom line: it’s too damn confusing! It slows down everyone else’s XMB by adding more & more friends names to our list. It slows down everyone else’s SOCOM friends list screen, which is already slow as shit.

I hereby pledge to use only 1 name within C420 and not send any requests to join multiple factions or have 2 names on your lists. I hope that the rest of us do the same. If I really get the itch to join Italy or Dutch or whatever, I’ll just switch the same name I have now.

Or I’ll just team-kill COLD and steal his gun at the beginning of every round.

There seems to be a rumor going around that Sony is going to begin charging for Playstation Network access beginning January 10.  Fortunately this is just that: a rumor.

You can read it yourself in the links I provide, but apparently Sony is planning on offering premium online services for a price.  I don't know what the price is, or what the premium content will be, and I don't think anyone really does.  Speculation runs rampant, but G4 TV correspondent Stephen Johnson quoted Sony president Kaz Hirai as saying:

"SCE will further increase sales by offering users new entertainment through the combination of hardware, software, peripheral and PlayStation Network. Especially in the on-line area, we are studying the possibility of introducing a subscription model, offering premium content and services, in addition to the current free services."

Read more: http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/700836/sony-dont-panic-playstation-network-not-going-pay-to-play.html#ixzz0aX5b8rVt

For now, though, a more present problem exists in messages stating "If you forward this message to 15 people," yada yada yada, something about being put on a list for free subscriptions.  You'd think people wouldn't be so gullible as to fall for this sort of thing, nevertheless it happens.  It's not the first chain letter I've had passed on through PSN messages, but it's certainly the most dangerous.

Please, people.  Do some research before passing on inflammatory and wrong messages.  It's called Google.  Use it.

For further reading:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091208134628AAyN3Hr

http://gizmodo.com/5411054/playstation-3s-psn-will-get-premium-level-pay-subscription-in-2010

I love the new maps.  Can I say that first?

Sure, I say I hate Nightstalker, but really, it's kinda cool not to be able to see fifteen feet in front of you.  The other guy has the same limitations you do.  Now, one thing I don't like is the map newbies sniping with thermals from waaaay across the map, but whatever, we'll make do.  As Anubis says, it's not the map.  I digress.

I think Slant 6 has really outdone the Confrontation maps.  They seem almost plain, after playing the Cold Front maps.  My favorite at this point has to be Uprising.  It seems like a combination of "That-one with-the-training-camp" (I'm not good with old map names), Citadel and Blackwoods.  It also seems to evoke a Call of Duty feel.  Anyway, I am really enjoying getting to know these maps, and I can't wait until we're all on there at the same time.

Are you as tired of the Slant 6 bashing as I am?

It seems like no one is every happy with what we get, and that's fine, people are free to criticize.  However, we don't have to pay a monthly fee like XBOX live, and honestly, this game is graphically superior to any other shooter I've played.  Now, I haven't played a lot of them, but the detail and smoothness seems to be far and above better than the other games out there.

I don't know why Zipper Interactive didn't get the license for the PS3 version, and I don't really care at the moment.  Could they have built a better game?  I don't really know.  One thing I do know, is they are standing at the plate with the bases loaded, and they're being pitched a softball.

What?

Imagine you're the guys at Zipper.  You're supposedly working on SOCOM 4 for the Playstation2.  You have the opportunity to scour the forums for every negative about Confrontation, figure out what the naysayers are screaming for, and give it to them.  People are already screaming for Slant 6 to be taken off the next-gen SOCOM team.  Imagine what it will be like if SOCOM 4 is released.

One thing people won't understand, is what if Zipper had made Confrontation?  Wouldn't there be the same critics, saying Zipper had lost their touch?  That they forgot what made all the other SOCOM games successful?  It's not a stretch, and if Slant 6 had made all the others, and Zipper was new to the project, people would be begging for Slant 6 to come back.  It's all a matter of who went first.

Hey guys! Coldie-cold here with a brand-new spankin' update.

We have two new things on the site. The first one is a movie list and an updated member list. All C420 members received a hand-picked avatar if they haven't already uploaded one. If you don't like it (:frown:) you are more than welcome to change it (yay, freedom!). You'll see that the member list isn't a simple horizontal list anymore - no no - now it's a fancy schmancy grid.

Thing number 2: We now have an event calendar. If you're unsure on when the next Socom war/tournament is or want to see if anyone is organizing an off-night get-together (like Burnout), you now have an organized way of doing it! If you're a C420 member you may create an event. It may not appear on the main page for non-leaders, but it should appear on the calendar.

Aside from that, I've been working around the clock to make sure the site is tightly wound and working right. Please, please, please let me know if something isn't working right. Oh, that reminds me, I got rid of the Private Message module and went with a straight up contact form for each user. It will notify you by email. If you want a messaging system to be integrated with the website, let me know. On our old forum system barely anyone used it anyways (I mean, christ, we all have phone numbers and email addresses anyways).

That is all for now! Bye!

-Cold

You read that correctly! Fire up your PS3 and download that update before you go to work! I'll see you guys when you get home! For all the update details, you can find them here.

UPDATE: I just downloaded and installed the patch. It was 658MB. Das'a lotta' megabytes! I tried logging on but their servers are unresponsive - probably due to servicing. This was confirmed on the Socom boards. Many people have downloaded the patch but can't get online. There's quite a few up as late as me! >:3

Hey guys! Nooby wrote the following in this thread:

"We have been challenged to a 4v4 tonight (12/1) at 8PM CST.  I sent a request to decline, but if the challenging team does not accept it then we war!  If any SAS can be on prior to clan night, your help would be appreciated!  It's only one game, shouldn't take too long and then we'll join everyone else for CN!  Thanks!"

The original roster for this is Noobie, Lead, Drizz, & Beast. You guys need to make it there by at least 7:45 to prepare. If possible, try to make it there sooner. If any of you cannot make it contact me or LOW, Automan, Iceman, Duc, Zep, & Noted.

In other news, I've tried to update all of your profiles to the best of my knowledge. If you want to change anything like Interests or Location, please do! See you all tonight! -C