Golden Gun multiplayer mode for Golden Eye 007 Wii is quickly becoming my favorite to play.  The matches are always fast paced with few people camping.  Most of the time it turns into a brawl for the golden gun with bodies piling up everywhere at the gun’s location.

Favorite maps to play Golden Gun

Archives – probably my favorite multiplayer map for Golden Eye period. This map is small with many hallways and stairs that become killing grounds with shotguns.  These matches are fast-paced and exciting.  You never know when someone is going to pop around the corner and you have to have quick reflexes for when they do.  Sometimes you can only get off one shotgun shot before the other person picks you off with their shotgun.  Since the map is close quarters the power of the golden gun is greatly diminished against shotguns.

Outpost – I like all the buildings and places you can hide although sometimes people will camp in this map which becomes pretty annoying especially if they are a good sniper.  Most of the camping spots have two entrances making it pretty easy find them and

Industrial – this map is a little more open than Outpost, but it has a cool underground area that is awesome to have the golden gun in.  When I play this map after I get the golden gun I will usually head for the underground area or the train.  If you camp in the train it can be hard to hold onto the gun.  Most of the players will immediately figure out you are camping the train and head for you.  You can also be easily sniped if you linger too long in the trains doorways.

I was looking through many of my old Call of Duty 4 videos that I never got around to uploading to youtube, and I came across my first seven kill streak video.  If you kill seven players without dying you can summon a helicopter that will mow down the enemy for a couple of minutes unless it is shot down by an RPG.

Video Description:

Team Deathmatch

Primary weapons: AK-47 silenced followed by M249 SAW, I picked up from one of my kills.

Map: Bog

I like attaching a silencer to my gun once I have it unlocked.  It allows me to get off a few more shots before my enemy locates me.  Since my aim isn’t always the greatest this is a huge advantage for me.   I remember getting anxious after my fourth kill, I think I had only reached five in a row a few times before this.   When I did get my fifth kill by the bus, I felt for sure I was going to die;  I had very low health, my clip was empty and I needed to reload, and there was an enemy behind me that was shooting at me.  Luckily I ran for cover, and my teammates intercepted him.  I was able to pick up sixth and seventh with a well placed airstrike.

Although it doesn’t show it, a short while later my helicopter was shot down without registering any kills.

I am happy to say that the Wii U was shown at this years Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Unfortunately they only showed two game-play demos; one is where the player holds the tablet controller and tries to elude the other players who are looking at the TV screen and using traditional Wii controllers. This demo was already on shown at last years E3. A new demo showed two players with regular Wii controllers trying to shooting down a third player who was flying a space ship. The space ship player was using the new tablet controller.

They did not say what the price would be nor did they give a firm release date. But they did say it will launch this year sometime between June and December. That is a very large gap, but I am confident it will come out close to the holiday season. The holidays have been the typical time period when home consoles were first sold the last few generations.

I can’t wait to hear more about the Wii U, what will it’s online multiplayer structure be like? Will it be subscription based like Xbox Live or will Nintendo retain the use of friend codes? I hope they do away with friend codes and adopt a more PC multiplayer experience where players host games and anyone can join. It will be interesting to see how the developers will use the tablet to enhance games and game-play.

The graphics look amazing for the Zelda HD demo. If you haven’t seen it already head over to youtube and do a search.

The future looks bright for all the Nintendo and video gaming fans out there. If the Wii U is a smash success I wonder if Sony and Microsoft will end up copying the tablet like they did with the motion controls.

I was browsing one of my favorite gaming sites when I came across an article about Major League Gaming gaining viewership in the 18 – 24 male age group. You can read the entire article at gamespot.

One shocking quote from the article, “Today, the MLG announced that more than 3.5 million people tuned in online or turned out in person to view the 2011 Pro Circuit season over its eight-month, six-event run. Those viewership figures are a record for the e-sports industry, the organization said. What’s more, the MLG’s reach among the 18-24 male demographic is larger than that of a number of cable TV networks.” The cable TV networks that they beat includes; Comedy Central, TBS, FX, and MTV.

I’m pretty surprised that they beat the number of viewers for Comedy Central, which has a pretty high male viewership especially with shows like Tosh.O and South Park. I don’t know many 18-24 men that watch MTV anymore, since most of their shows seem slanted towards the female audience.

From the article it appears that Starcraft 2 is the main draw for both players and viewers, but there is a strong following for Call of Duty games and other first person shooters. I know a lot of people like to watch Youtube videos (me one of them) of matches.

I think this is great news overall, it seems like pro-gaming is continuing to gain steam, authority, and validity. I’m sure this news will drive more players to try their hand at it. Especially with the tournament prizes seem to increase with each passing season. One million dollars was awarded during 2011, and I’m sure it might even be close to double that if not next year then the following.

I was over at my parent’s house on November 8th for dinner, and I saw that my brother bought Modern Warfare 3 for the Xbox 360. Apparently he purchased it at a midnight release the night before. After we ate, I sat down and watched him play a few matches.

He played with the M16, I didn’t see which perks he was using, and only he played Hardcore Team Deathmatch mode. He seemed to do okay, with a 1:1 kills to death ratio. I think he would have had a better ratio if he knew the maps. Many times he got caught out in the open, because he didn’t know the map yet.

I’ve read that there are more ways to get point streaks, which is a rename of kill streaks. You can increase your point streak by completing map objectives, capturing areas, in addition to eliminating players. This sounds like a good addition to the game’s multiplayer formula.

I don’t see why millions of people are buying this game every year. Especially when my brother is using the same gun in almost every version. He used the M16 in MW2, Black Ops, and MW3. It seems to me that he is playing the same game with different maps, perks, and point streak bonuses. All of these can be easily added or modified via small downloadable content.

I’m not a fan of the yearly release of a video game franchise. I hated Madden for releasing a game every year even if there wasn’t that much of a difference, and this seems to be the case with Call of Duty. I must admit though that Activision the publisher is making a huge profit off the Call of Duty series, and maybe the majority of gamers do like a yearly release.