Heatwave continues with north-west set to be hot spot

The north-west of England and the western fringes of Scotland look set to be the warmest parts of the country on Saturday as the heatwave continues.

Temperatures could hit 30C (86F) along the west of Great Britain, but cooler and cloudier weather is expected on much of the east coast.

Emergency services have issued a range of warnings, including calls for people to avoid sunburn and prevent fires.

Next week temperatures could get up to the mid-30s, BBC Weather predicted.

In England the Met Office has issued level three heatwave warnings – meaning health services should take action to protect “high-risk” groups such as the elderly and young children – for the North West, the East Midlands and the South West.

Level two “alert and readiness” warnings have been issued for the Yorkshire and the Humber, the East Midlands, the South East and London.

Health services in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – which all had their hottest day of the year on Friday – are not part of the Met Office heatwave warning system, but public health bodies have urged people to take care in the hot weather.

Assassin’s Creed III is Ubisoft’s most pre-ordered game ever

More than double the pre-orders achieved by previous record-holder Assassin’s Creed Revelations.
Assassins Creed III is the most pre-ordered game in Ubisoft’s history, the publisher announced today.
Global pre-orders for Assassin’s Creed III have already more than double the figure achieved by last year’s Assassin’s Creed Revelations, which held Ubisoft’s previous pre-order record.

Assassin’s Creed III will be available on October 31 on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, November 23 on PC and during the launch window for the Wii U.

First Dishonored DLC has a wave based arena battle

Bethesda has announced Dishonored DLC.

Dishonored: Dunwall City Trials releases in December for £3.99 / €4.99 or 400 Microsoft Points simultaneously on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
It includes 10 challenge maps each with 10 distinct trials designed to test your combat, stealth and mobility skills. These trials include an arena battle against waves of enemy AI, drop assassinations and a race against the clock. There are new achievements and trophies and a global online leaderboard.
That’s the first DLC. The second and third add-ons will launch in 2013 simultaneously on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, and each features a story-driven campaign.
Daud, the leader of a group of supernatural assassins known as ‘The Whalers’, is at the centre of the second DLC, due early spring 2013. Expect new Dunwall locales and Daud’s own set of weapons, powers and gadgets. Bethesda described it as a “story-driven” campaign. How you play and the choices you make impact the final outcome, it said.

Brilliant news as this is my GOTY upto yet and even though i rented it i shall be grabbing it in the near future.

Medal of Honor single-player campaign “can range from 5-15 hours”

EA this week pulled from its own website its claim that Medal of Honor: Warfighter’s single-player campaign is 10 hours long.
As late as Tuesday 23rd October 2012, the day the game launched in the US, EA.com’s Medal of Honor: Warfighter FAQ claimed the single-player was “roughly 10 hours”.
Here’s what the FAQ said:
“Approximately how long is the single player campaign?”
“The single-player campaign will consist of roughly 10 hours of action ripped straight from the headlines and missions of Tier 1 Operators from around the globe with 12 full-missions each taking place in a different “hotspot” of the world.”

So 5 hours on easy mode hmmm.

Spec Ops – Amazing.

Not had time to update my blog but ill be doing reviews of Dishonoured and Spec Ops soon along with a few film reviews.
In the mean time let me just say what a fantastic game Spec Ops is,i was blown away by the story and ending.

Port Vale vs Burton Albion 23/10/12

Brilliant point for the lads and now 7 unbeaten.

VTID.

More Pics from Spec Ops

Resident Evil 4 HD – £7.49 @ XBox Live Marketplace and more ‘Shocktober’ deals.

Go to deal links to Resident Evil 4 HD, other content on sale listed below

Links and sale prices to be added once the discounts are live

Games on Demand:
Dead Rising 2 – now £10.00
Ghostbusters – now £11.99

Arcade Games:
Alan Wake’s American Nightmare – was 1200 MSP now 600 MSP
Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime – was 800 MSP now 400 MSP
Adventures of Shuggy – was 800 MSP now 400 MSP
Bloody Good Time – was 800 MSP now 400 MSP

Warfighter will struggle to move 2 million globally

EA’s Medal of Honor: Warfighter could be a major flop when compared to early sales estimations for the FPS sequel, Cowen and Company analyst Doug Creutz has said (via GamesIndustry).
“Since late July we have been cautious about EA’s ability to reach management’s FY13 guidance due to our view that Medal of Honor: Warfighter appears likely to be a major disappointment,” stated Creutz.
“While we believe Street expectations for MoH:W sales have moderated significantly, likely down to the 3-4MM unit range, we are concerned that those expectations may still be too high. Based on our read of pre-release tracking data, we think the game might struggle to sell through 2MM units worldwide,” said Creutz
He continued: “With only a week before a murderer’s row of AAA titles begins to come out (Assassin’s Creed III on October 30; Halo 4 on November 6; Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 on November 13), we think MoH:W has a very short window to capture sales, and a dearth of reviews is unlikely to help. The decision to make early review copies unavailable does not suggest to us that the company has a high degree of confidence in the quality of the game.”

Warfighter Day One Patch Highlights Ridiculous Launch Issues.

Somehow, Medal Of Honor: Warfighter has passed both Sony and Microsoft certification with a huge number of bugs and glitches. To combat this, EA will be releasing a Day One patch (already available in the States, while reviews still haven’t been published… danger?) that fixes what can only be described as an truly embarrassing shedload of issues.

So, basically, be sure to download it. We’ve got the hefty changelog below.

New Features:
Now able to add friends and join parties while in-game.
Can invite others to your platoon or apply to join a platoon while in-game.
General Tweaks and Fixes

Multiplayer Gameplay
Removed initial delay to Spec Ops Signal Scan charging.
Snipers in Recon stance will no longer be visible to enemy RQ7/RQ11 UAVs.
Increased the accuracy of server-side aiming prediction.
Fixed an issue with “Fall Back” spawning to improve its behavior.
Fixed spawn type changing to Buddy Spawn automatically when it is not supposed to.
Call in a Blackhawk for the losing team if they are getting dominated in Sector Control.

Single-Player Gameplay
Added tutorial text to first sniper encounter to help teach player about bullet drop.
Fixed an issue where the default difficulty was set to Easy instead of Normal.
Fixed an issue where controls would become unresponsive under certain conditions.
Fixed an issue with one of the in-game cinematics.
Improved single player stability and fixed progression stoppers.

Matchmaking, Parties, and Platoons
Smoothed out the matchmaking flow between successful matchmaking and joining the player to the game.
Players can no longer join an invitation only party without being invited.
Fixed issues with joining single players together into Fireteams.
Fixed an issue where Veteran platoon members could not reach Elite status.
Platoon ownership is now automatically transferred to the most senior member/GM of the platoon when the current leader leaves the platoon.
Fixed an issue where a member that is removed from a platoon becomes its leader.
Fixed an issue where players could not rejoin the same platoon matchmaking server after playing a game on that server.
If a player leaves one platoon and joins another, their platoon card now properly reflects that change.
Fixed an issue where the platoon patch would not show up for other members if one member leaves the platoon.
Fixed another issue where the platoon patch would no longer show up under certain circumstances.
Sending a platoon invite when both players are in-game now works properly.

Weapons
Fixed “no scope” shooting. Players were getting immediate ADS accuracy without having to wait for the scope to come all the way up. Was very exploitable for snipers.
Sped up the bolt action on the CS5, since it was longer than the TAC300.
Fixed issue with gap between where the LTLM can’t fire and where it indicates the target is too close.
Reduced the damage/range of the Demolition’s SMGs (Scar PDW, HK 416c, Suchka), as they were overpowered.
Made switching between primary and secondary weapons much more responsive.
Fixed an issue where a grenade would not be thrown the next time if the user switches to their weapon while cooking a grenade.
Player will now switch back to their secondary weapon if that is the weapon in use when throwing their last grenade.
Fixed an issue where aiming was pushing the player away from the wall they were standing next to.
Fixed clearance check for placing the Radar Jammer.
Fixed auto-ADS not working when peek-and-leaning while prone.
Implemented pre-streaming for weapons to reduce the time from spawn to ready-to-fire to be 0 seconds in most cases. Down from around 2 seconds prior to this fix.

Navigation
Made the start button responsive as soon as the player enters the first menu screen.
Simplified the way players navigate and select in the My Gun and Class Select menus.
Fixed the way the UI handles scrolling, including speed and correct scroll bar position.
Cleaned up a number of other small navigation quirks and issues.

User Experience
Servers in the Server Browser are now sorted based on ping, giving priority to servers closest to the player.
Filtering servers by name now works properly.
Fixed an issue where changes in My Gun and My Soldier were not being retained when joining a game via the Quick Match or Matchmaking options in the MP Lobby.
Optimized the login flow into Multiplayer.
Updated the MP Lobby to include a shortcut to creating a Party.
Quick Match button in the MP Lobby is now contextual, and will change to Platoon Matchmaking if you are in a Platoon Party.
Fixed the Server Browser filter to properly sort for games that have 6+ open slots.
Fixed a 20 second hang during the Online Pass flow.
We now keep the queuing message open as long as the player is still queuing.
Clean up notification numbers when a new item is viewed.
Various other flow and user experience optimizations.

Visual Polish
We now turn off the HUD when we start to show the outro scoreboard.
Fixed display of text in disabled dropdowns.
Fixed some subtitle lines being cut off.
Removed hints and tips from the loading screens that were no longer valid.
Fixed the Player Banners to display the correct rank icon and number.
Fixed placement of auto-save icon on CRT TVs.
Fixed HUD elements not showing in certain cases.
Fixed animations in the post-match screens as they show the player’s progression.
Fixed the timer not displaying in the post-match screens.
Fixed player name tags not showing up in-game in Home Run.
Icons are now scaled on the sniper’s mini-map when they are using the bipod.
Updated the art used in the Player Banner.
Fixed some camera issues on level entry.
Fixed the demolitions class mask display in certain situations.
Fixed an issue that would cause some images not to display properly.
Various other alignment, corruption, overlap and visual improvements and fixes.

Misc Fixes
Fixed an issue where the Battlelog social hub introduction was showing every time you opened the Battlelog social hub.
VOIP team channel no longer includes players from the other team.
Round cycling no longer changes VOIP settings for the players
Fixed an issue with VOIP in the Home Run game mode.
Fixed an issue where Double XP was not being awarded to players who had both logged on to medalofhonor.com and who had played on a multiplayer server.
Fixed an issue where the Global Warfighter medal was not being awarded after players had completed a tour with each class.
Fixed muffled firing sounds when scope is zoomed in.
Localization fixes, in both audio and text.
Additional Fixes Made on PC and PS3

Multiplayer Gameplay
Improved the camera for the Apache.
Improved the aiming of the rockets in the Apache.
Improved Blackhawk functionality in Novi Grad Warzone.
Fixed a bug in the rules for pre-round in Combat Mission.
Fixed a couple of out of bounds issues in Sarajevo Stadium.
Fixed an out of bounds issue in Basilan Aftermath.
Fixed a bad spawn point in Team Deathmatch in Somalia Stronghold.
(PS3 – Japan) Fixed an issue that prevented 17-year old users from playing online.

Visual Polish
Fixed an issue where support action icons were overlapping each other.
Kill messages should now better match timing within gameplay.
Improved readability of kill messages.
Fixed visual effects issue in Tungawan Jungle.
Fixed mini-map issue in Shogore Valley.
Improved visual fidelity of some of the flag images.
Smoothed transitions between screens in the Mulitplayer menus.
Fixed a visual glitch when adjusting the brightness in the Options menu.
Fixed a bug where the News in the MP Lobby was not showing up.

Misc Fixes
Removed Quit Game from the Top Navigation Bar in the in-game pause menu and placed it under “Last Resort” in the Respawn Menu.
Fixed a case of an explosion not playing the correct audio.
Various audio mix updates.
(PS3 – Japan) Various stability fixes.
Fixed functionality and list updates for Favorite and Recent servers.
Players with chat restrictions are no longer allowed to create their own platoon.
Platoon names and tags are now restricted to no more than 3 numerals each.
(PS3 – Japan) Fixed two issues related to platoon names and chat-restricted accounts.
Fixed an issue with invites specific to PS3 and PC where the player would get stuck on a black screen.
Various stability and performance improvements.
(PS3 – Japan) Fixed an issue related to save file size calculation.

Additional Fixes Made on Xbox 360
Improved the handling of memory cards and saved profiles.
Improved handling of parties and Fireteam designations in Platoon matches.
Fixed an issue related to progression loss if the user removes the storage device.
Fixed an issue where a player’s class was changing without their input.
Fixed an issue where, under certain circumstances, brand new players were forced to play with a placeholder weapon in multiplayer until their first death.
Stability improvements.