cod4 posts

With the conclusion of this year's G-Phoria comes the announcement of the G-Phoria 2008 winners. Not many PC titles are represented, as 2007 appeared to be quite the year for console gaming. Still, many winners, such as "Most Original" Portal, weren't console exclusive, so could be seen as just as much a victory for PC gamers as console owners.

Given its longevity in an era where most gamers want the next big them, Call of Duty 4's awards in the "Best Shooter" and "Best Multiplayer Game" categories are testaments to the appeal of modern warfare. More humorous is the dubious honor of "Game Most Deserving of an Uwe Boll Movie," which was awarded to Turok.

The full list of G-Phoria winners can be found by visiting the official G-Phoria website.

At the young, impressionable, and stupid age of 13, I remember being influenced by Nintendo's horrid Play it Loud television commercials. The sight of gamers like myself rocking out while playing Mortal Kombat II, Super Mario World, Star Fox, Super Street Fighter II and other popular titles at full volume looked totally fun, a guaranteed way to increase the immersion factor of my favorite Super NES games and rebel against the serious, studious parents who, according to Nintendo, wanted to limit my precious gaming time.

Those of you who, like me, attempted to play "it" as loudly as possible most likely recall that the commercials were all hype -- loud, painful, and unrewarding. While pleasant at lower volumes, the sound on the SNES, while not as grating as the underwater gurgling emitted by the Sega Genesis, were muffled, crackly, and distorted at medium to high levels. Even worse, playing it loud didn't exactly sit well with parents. Sure, the commercials showed authority figures staring in disbelief at their wild teenage gamer children, but they forgot to show the part where those crazy kids got grounded for playing games at ridiculous volumes.

Quality sound systems have come into their own since then, with many snazzy setups readily affordable and worth every penny due to the theater-like atmosphere they provide. Couple that with the fact that this generation of games is actually meant to be played at a higher volume than five or six, and it's easy to understand why many gamers value their sound systems above pricey graphics cards.

The Phillips amBX system is more than just a quality audio experience. Equipped with speakers, lights, fans, and a wrist pad offering a more dynamic level of force feedback, amBX is deservedly being billed as a total immersion system, one that won't just bring pleasure to your ears, but to every part of your being involved in the gaming experience.

Several screens from Treyarch's Call of Duty 5 have found their way to the internet by a few German websites. This NeoGAF thread has them all in one place for your viewing ease. The screens give us our first glimpse of the World War II Pacific Theater setting in all of its jungle-y glory. While the WWII setting is a bit of a letdown after CoD4's much-appreciated move to the modern era, the Pacific Theater is at least a little interesting. We have a feeling that guys hacking around with machetes will be an ongoing theme in CoD5. Oh and don't forget the samurai swords, there's even a screen showing off some possible melee action.

One other thing we can easily derive from the screenshots is that there's going to be a big, nasty flamethrower featured in the game. Whether or not players will actually get to use the flame-gushing weapon is of course unknown. We only hope that for the sake of everyone involved there is some flamethrowing action coming our way.

[via ars technica]

To those Mac users waiting diligently for a great first-person shooter that isn't Marathon, you'll have to wait a little longer. Call of Duty 4's Mac port has been pushed from it's original release date to Q3 2008. Thankfully, this isn't much of a move for the release date, and Mac users will soon be able to kill terrorists as morally questionable SAS thugs (you know, just like real life). There's no word on whether the bonus maps (pictured above) will make it into the port, be available for download, or neither.

[Via Evil Avatar]