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OK, looks like a lot of crap has gone down in the last 24 hours since we posted that the countdown timer for the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare beta will be going up this week. After details surfaced at the CoD4 website about registrations being “sorta” open for the beta at 5 PM, the Internet just exploded and the website, predictably, went down 60 seconds later. After putting up a maintenance page up and redirecting people to Activision.com, the traffic, unsurprisingly, blew up Activision web servers as well, and every news site that picked this up also obligingly went down with the whole crazy internet descending upon them like starving zombies.
With the official announcement going out that the beta registrations at the COD.com website would be delayed a bit longer, thanks to “logistical issues”, Microsoft certifications, the token handling systems, etc., IW’s very own fourzerotwo, (who you’ve seen in all the beta videos released so far) ran the first wave lotto of the beta invitations on his blog.
The idea, of course, was pretty simple. Simply fill out an email with all the required details, including the answers to the trivia questions and then send them back, hoping and praying that you get a token. The first batch of tokens have now started going out to people, and don’t worry, if you don’t get in now, there’s going to be a bunch of other ways to get in, including the big tickets at the official website later.
The beta is going to roll out in waves. Rather than just putting a million people in the beta and hope nothing goes wrong, we will ramp up the playercount over time.
As fourzerotwo mentioned, right now some friends/family are testing. The press will be joining in the next couple days — including those of you who make it into the first wave.
No worries if you aren’t in the very first wave (most won’t be), we should have a new wave of players every day or so as we ramp up.
And, oh, the answers to the CoD4 beta trivia questions that were asked in the first wave?
What is the current level cap for the beta: Currently it is at 11, but if you entered 20, it’s OK, considering that was the level cap that was previously announced.
What button do you press to activate your streak rewards (radar, airstrike, etc): Right on the d-pad
What button do you press to use your weapon attachments or explosives (m203, c4, etc): Left on the d-pad
Keep checking back here to get more news on the beta as and when it breaks. Toodle-oo!
Boy, do I love being right! After convincing people over and over again that they’d have to wait for the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare beta until the Leipzig Games Convention begins, word finally comes down from developers Infinity Ward that the long-awaited beta should be up and running this week.
After Xbox LIVE Marketplace temporaily leaked the beta a couple of days back, Infinity Ward announced on the CoD4 website that the countdown clock will go up later this week and added that the wait should be a pretty short one. For those that have been swimming in pools of their own drool waiting for just this announcement, keep checking back here for more details as and when they arrive. In the meantime, keep yourselves amused with the new Perks video, which shows off a lot of the “Vacant” map and how the user-created classes work. See you all in the game soon!
Looks like some people just can’t keep their mouths shut, and for once, we are glad they didn’t. With Activision yapping on about a Winter release date for their upcoming, photorealistic shooter Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, a senior brand manager slipped the news at a press event saying that the game would be available on November 5th for the US and on November 9th for Europe, with simultaneous launches for all three planned platforms: PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.
While we are still awaiting confirmation that the game will indeed ship on this date, it looks like this is the date they will be, pardon the pun, gunning for. With a multiplayer beta on it’s way, and a major showcasing at the upcoming Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany, it looks like the game is all set to climb to the top of the shooter charts this Holiday season, that is, depending on how the hundred and one other shooters releasing around that time, including Crysis, do.
So your Xbox Live Gold account just ran out as the Call of Duty 4 Beta announcement went up? No problem, if your luck holds out, you should easily be able to wrangle at least a month or two of free Xbox Live Gold service out of Microsoft, if you don’t mind a couple of small sacrifices.
(Since quite a handful of people mailed in asking about this option, please be reminded that this short little guide is only for those who aren’t aware of this option and how to use it, so please, spare me the searing flames. )
Before I begin, it’s only fair to warn you that this should work only if you have less than three profiles stored on your hard disk (Don’t be stupid enough to ask “What if I have just a memory card?” In that case, no CoD4 beta for you, dum-dum, considering you’d need to download the 1.7 GB beta first on to the hard disk first!) and you haven’t signed up to use those profiles via the Xbox 360. The way I’ve heard it, and seen it, this works best if you delete all those useless profiles that’s sitting around on the HDD, leaving just your main profile and then sign out of the Xbox Live service.
At the main menu, hit “Join Xbox Live” and then follow the prompts. When prompted to select the country in which you live, select “United States”. It shouldn’t really matter what country you select, as long as they have the Xbox Live service, but since the CoD4 beta is only for the United States (at least, as of now) it’s best to tell Xbox Live that you live in the Starry-Stripey Land. Go through the prompts, and try to enter an address that isn’t already tied in to an Xbox Live account and when prompted to select your Xbox Live membership level, select “Silver”. Once you are prompted to keep the Silver account, if you are eligible for it, you will be prompted with a message to try out the Xbox Live Gold service for a month. Accept the offer and try to enter a valid US address (For example, any street address, City: Boston, State: Massachusetts, Zip Code: 02163, Phone: 1617xxxxxxx) and finish the process and voila, you get one month of absolutely free Xbox Live Gold service. The obvious catch here is that you might only be able to pull this off once or twice before it stops showing you the “Free Xbox Live Gold trial” message and of course, you are being forced to create and use a new Xbox Live account, but if you don’t care too much about GamerScores and are looking to just create a free, disposable Xbox Live Gold account for the CoD4 beta, you should be all set with this method. Hope that helped. Enjoy!
No news on the beta still (Announcement / Details) and Infinity Ward has promised all those with their keisters parked at the CoD4 website that they will give us a big heads-up long before the beta is about to be released, and even put a monster countdown timer till sign up opens. So please, keep your panties on for now, we will let you know the instant the sign up announcements are made, as well as mirroring the countdown timer right here.
In the meantime, amuse yourself by checking out the latest Perk video, called Ghillie in the Mist, which shows off the UAV Jammer and Extreme Conditioning. More details straight from the overworked souls at IW:
We’re doing things completely different with this video. Instead of showing off one awesome perk, we’re showing off an entire Sniper class. This video is triple the length, showing off double the perks, and did I mention it’s all Ghillie action? In this video we’re showing off UAV Jammer and Extreme Conditioning, two perks which are great for snipers, but work in pretty much any scenario. We decided to make this video epic, to do that we played in Hardcore Mode, which explains why there’s no HUD on the screen, no Kill Cam, and increased weapon damage. We also decided to film in some 3rd person perspective. You’ll never play in 3rd person perspective, but when you’re spectating, you’ll be in 3rd person following people.
In the video, our Sniper is lurking through the overgrown brush (ever wondered why we call this map Overgrown?), where he makes contact with three enemy troops. After taking out their point man, the enemies call in an air strike on his position, which is when the Extreme Conditioning perk comes in handy; allowing him extended sprint to haul ass out of the area before the jets come in and devastate it. Once barely escaping the air strike, the Sniper utilizes the environment with his Ghillie suit and UAV Jammer to stay off enemy radar as they rush over to clear the area and look for any survivors.
The rest… speaks for itself.
In the end, UAV Jammer allows you to remain undetected on enemy radar, while Extreme Conditioning allows for extended sprinting time. As you can tell, pretty useful perks for just about any class.
Click the links below to download the video.
HD Flash Video (Requires Flash Player)
HD Quicktime
HD Windows Media
UPDATE: Call of Duty 4 Beta - First Wave Lotto Launched
Well, it’s finally happened. After days of speculation over when exactly Infinity Ward will be making an announcement on the Call of Duty 4 beta, they do so today, only to have a repeat of the E3 Microsoft presser on their hands - 10 minutes after the information goes up, the Call of Duty 4 website gives up the ghost under the heavy influx of trigger happy Xbox 360 gamers.
Being the awesome guys that we are, we save you the trip to their website and having to wait an eternity for the page to load at a spellblindingly fast speed of 389 bps. Here, then, are all released details of the beta, straight from the horse’s mouth. For those not patient enough to go through the whole thing below, here’s the gist of how you get your ass into the beta. Hit the jump for a whole lotta details.
UPDATE: If you are here looking for more information on the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Multiplayer Beta on the Xbox 360, visit this page for the latest information, including information on signing up for the beta and other related details.
Speaking to the masses at the Microsoft E3 Conference held some time back, Project Lead Jason West from Infinity Ward and Microsoft’s Peter Moore have confirmed over an extended demo that Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare will have an “exclusive multiplayer beta” for the Xbox 360 later this year.
The official website of the game, http://www.charlieoscardelta.com which was temporarily swamped as the news broke, is now open, but has scant information on the upcoming beta. And here I was thinking we’ll be able to pre-sign-up or something like that. Can’t wait for the beta to open up, as long it is not tied into the purchase of another game, a la Halo 3 and Crackdown. We will have more information as it becomes available. Until then, keep watching the HD trailer over and over again!
A public beta forum is up here for registered members of the site, along with a bunch of previously released videos. Hit the jump for the official word straight from the horse’s mouth.