When on the server, bring down the big console and type in the following two commands: \sv_iwdNames and \sv_iwds

The first command will list the files currently used, you should find z_srv_epam102 among the first ones. The second command will list some kind of checksum for each file, in the same order the first command gave you the file names, so you can match them up.

You need to find the checksum number for ePAM, which for version 1.02 should be 669768107.

If you see a different number there, then the file has been modified.

You should probably take a screenshot of it along with a screenshot of \pb_plist and from the scoreboard in order to see the server IP and the players too, so there can be no doubt of foul play.
It might also be a good idea from competition organisers to specify which mods/maps are allowed on a server (with what checksum), so cheaters can’t find loopholes, like putting their malicious code in a different mod file.

You can download v1.02 from here:

ePAM102 Final

It also occurred to me that whenever I was searching with the built-in Google search, it always showed me as not logged in, despite many attempts to do so. As a result, I never had the +1 next to my search results on google.hu.

I tried to delete just my Google cookies, then all my cookies with no avail. Looking at my cookie settings I noticed that my Firefox was not accepting third party cookies.
I thought this might be problematic when logging in at google.com and using google.hu so I checked the checkbox to allow the 3rd party cookies and voila!

Not only does google.hu stay logged in with the +1 visible, I can also +1 without any problems.

The current components of my PC: ASUS P6T Deluxe, 3GB DDR3 ram, Intel i7 920, AMD HD5850 and Windows 7 Pro x64. The vga’s catalyst driver at the time of writing is 10.12.

The problem: Whenever I tried to load the game, it crashed with the well known SoF2MP.exe stopped working message. I tried to google if anyone had encountered these issues, but couldn’t find a solution. I gathered as much that it was somehow the fault of my vga driver. Specifically the atioglxx.dll which can be found in the system32 folder.

I’m not a fan of rolling back to older vga drivers, so I searched for atioglxx.dll with google hoping I would find an older version. By some miracle the 2nd hit was that specific dll rarred in. Then I placed this dll into the game’s root folder (where the exe’s are). I don’t exactly know which month’s driver this dll belonged to, but the last modification time says September 2010. It doesn’t really matter, it works.

If you have a similar setup, download this and do as described above. Bare in mind that I’m not responsible if you mess up your system, but this is just copying a file in a folder, if you manage to mess that up then I don’t think anyone can help you And if it doesn’t work, then I’m sorry for getting your hopes up with this post.

So who is excited about MoH? Probably not as many people EA would want. Why? Because there is absolutely nothing original about it. The modern warfare era ended in 2007 when the last excellent game shipped under the name Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Ever since, the devs were serving us the same mashed potato every 4-6 months. The same M16, the same Colt, the same grenades, UAVs, airstrikes, w/e.

The multiplayer will be based on the Frostbite engine which is the heart of Battlefield: Bad Company 2, while the singleplayer will be Unreal Engine 3 material. That is just confusing to me. What financial decision could justify separate engines for a game, because I’m sure no developer in their right mind would make its live harder for no reason. Also I didn’t keep up with BC2 updates, but I’m pretty sure there were no new maps introduced for the game, just stock ones were made available in other gametypes and that tallied up to 10 maps total, which is very slim. Now I imagine that will be the same with MoH, you get the one map in the beta that everyone will be bored with and won’t play in retail for weeks and 3 others which will also get boring very fast.
The advantage that MoH might have is the possibility of more gametypes and that it’s mainly infantry based.

Teamwork is a must, we all know that. But when your team consists of a bunch of twats who believe that they are the reincarnations of Vasily Zaytsev and all they need is a sniper rifle to win the match, then you would like the option to be able to complete objectives lone hero style, like you were able to do in CoD games and CS. There’s nothing more depressing then you click on “Deploy on the front” and you spawn behind a bunch of snipers camping 5 meters from the base. You would like to shout their heads off, but then you’re the douche bag for telling them they are doing something wrong.

I have no idea what these cunts enjoy in an objective based gametype. If you are one of these fuckers, please consider playing some random deathmatch or team deathmatch were your presence matters fuck all, because you are destroying the game for those who would like to progress further than the first objective. This will result in your targets to quit playing the game and you will have nothing left to shoot at, because the other team will also consist of fucking campers who also won’t move an inch from behind cover. Then you will also quit and blame the devs or EA that they made a shit game that you payed good money for.

The open beta went live on Oct 4th, had some connectivity issues but it looks like they managed to sort things out. Nice game, works fine, but I still don’t see what the big hook is that people are supposed to get mad about and rush out to buy it. Truth be told, I’m not sure why I pre-ordered it back in June. I must be a beta addict. Damn you EA!

Turns out it doesn’t work with everything, you need a genuine HTML page (and not .aspx) in the solution and then you get the Browse with option if you right-click it. From there, you can just set Internet Explorer as the default and it should work fine.

Changelog from the readme:

– Changes since 1.01

• Added “Call time-out” to the Quick Chat menu so now any player can call time-outs. To see this change the mod has to be downloaded by the player
• Players can still call time-outs without downloading the mod with “\openscriptmenu call timeout”
• Time-out usage can be seen while in time-out
• Added halftime auto-resume
• Changed some on-screen messages from global to local to avoid spamming the screen with them
• Fixed the round ending bug
• Removed pam_timeout command
• Removed scoreboard from the time-out screen due to game limitations

You can download the mod from here: ePAM102 Final

Hope ESL doesn’t steal it and put it up on their ladders as PAMD like they did with 1.01. I would’ve gladly helped them out if they had just asked, but no. At least the guy in charge was kind enough to acknowledge that they failed to give credits. I’m still waiting for them to correct this, wonder if it will ever happen.

Update:

You probably want to read this too to detect fake mods.

My first try was the Turtle Beach PX21 which looked pretty cool, but you probably learned by now, looks can be deceiving. When I hooked it up to my system it immediately started a constant hiss. Tried a variety of things but it wouldn’t go away, so eventually I took it back to the store. After reading the interwebz I concluded that some people have this and some people don’t (or they are just deaf). Anyhow, I don’t recommend this particular headset for anyone.

Then I kept looking and came across Sharkoon’s X-Tatic Digital headset. It was 1.5x the price of the PX21, but I was determined. I read a lot of reviews and forums to make sure this won’t backfire on me and thankfully it didn’t.

If you are also considering to buy this baby there are a few things to take into account. If you never owned a headset such as this before, be aware that there are tons of cables involved. If you like to keep your place nice and tidy, the amount of cables will probably upset you, especially if your TV is on the wall like mine and not on a stand (less places to hide the cables).

Using the mic on the PS3 will cost you a USB slot. This may not be an issue, but e.g. if someone plays DJ Hero and Street Fighter with a fight stick actively, it might get old swapping the stuff out, since most PS3′s only have 2 USB slots. The mic is detachable, but it’s relatively small so you’ll need to keep an eye on it not to lose it. Also, it plugs into the bottom of the ear cup, so you’ll need to be a bit careful when it’s attached and you are putting down the headphones.

The phones too need to be connected to the power supply, but there’s no way to toggle the power so when you are done playing, you’ll need to unplug, otherwise it will be glowing all night. The ear cups are comfortable, but there’s only a very thin fabric on the inside and a few times the hard part of my ear made contact with the hard plastic and it wasn’t a good feeling. It’s nothing severe, but you should definitely try them out if you can before you pay as your ears are different from mine.

I tried to use it with my PC too, but as it turns out my crappy Creative Xtreme Audio doesn’t support 5.1 via optical out and I didn’t care to bother with the jacks.

A few nice reads if you want to dig deeper:

• TweakTown review
• TrustedReviews review
• AVForums topic

If you don’t know what the fuss is about, you should know that ~20 years ago, adventure games were the games everyone was playing. Monkey Island was one of its kind, with clever puzzles, witty humour and of course pirates. You can imagine what kind of visuals went with a game back then, so in order to bring the experience to today’s audience, some improvements had to be made.
All the art was re-done to make it as good looking as it is, and voice acting was also added because we all know nobody actually reads today.

I must admit, I haven’t played a lot with the first two Monkey Islands, cos I was about 12 and didn’t speak any English. The franchise only started at the third game for me. Last year when the first special edition was released I was hoping they would do the same with the sequel, so I didn’t buy it then. Instead, I dived into Tales of Monkey Island by Telltale Games. And here we are today, my patience has payed off and I can get the bundle.

Wonder if they’ll remake The Curse of Monkey Island. I still have the game on my shelf and it still works (with ScummVM).

Anyhow, I started reading the Steam forums to see the feedback. I saw someone posting that he came across some cheaters. I was sceptical at first, thought he was just simply bad at the game or someone found a bug, but a cheat, certainly impossible. Then I started seeing screenshots of cheats and I was shocked. Seriously, someone took the time to make a full-featured cheat for a beta?

To all of you out there that got here googling for a cheat for the beta, I would like to thank you for finding a whole new level to ruin the game for others. How is this different you ask? Well you are hurting the game even before it’s launched. By doing your filthy thing for whatever reason you might have, people are cancelling their pre-orders. If you check the Steam forum, you will even find a how-to on getting a refund on the game and I never thought I’d see Steam give refunds. But here we are, thanks to you.

And why does it matter? You might think, “who cares, they will just put out an anti-cheat for the beta too”. Oh no my friend, this shit will not fly. No company will spend money or resources to protect a beta from you cheating scum. What will happen is they will notice that people, who would normally die to get early access to anything, give feedback and even tolerate the shortcomings of a beta, are now faced with cheaters and turning away from the product before it’s even released. What the company will do is they will never release a beta for the PC ever again, because it’s simply bad business for them.
We are living in a world where a PC game is a luxury, we can’t really afford to piss off publishers if we wanna get our shitty console ports from a few games to enjoy on our platform.

Of course we can live without betas or demos, but smart people usually like to try before they buy. Also, the beta allows the gamers to give feedback to the developer, and a bug found and reported during a beta is much more likely to get fixed in the final version, than a bug found after the release, since by then 90% of the coders get assigned to different projects.

I still have a full day till I can try the beta myself, but I’m already scared of what I’ll might find. I never really bothered to wonder why cheaters cheat, but I seriously have no clue what joy does someone get out of aimbotting in a wonky beta. The game is broken to begin with for crying out loud!

I would just like to play matches at my own pace, but it’s very often that the game puts me with someone who’s way above my skill level. I can tell you that it’s no fun to get owned by people who memorized 2 strings and keep doing it, but I lack the knowledge how to counter them or start an assault of my own if I manage to break free.

Oh well, maybe Marvel vs Capcom 3 will be my game.

*Update*

Actually, I managed to win a tournament on my 2nd try against some 3k guy who was using Crimson Viper. He was probably pissed after losing to a noob like me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eVU6Q4uU0M