Slow CoD news; Red Dead Redemption links

 Poor trigger discipline. But I forgive her. ;-)

    I've got an inexpensive hotel booked for next week, as I have to train for 5 days for the new job before starting on my regular shift. A serious stroke of luck (or the intervention of my former and now present manager) landed me on the same shift I'd enjoyed for so many years: Night One. I'll be working Sun-Tues and every other Saturday on a rotational basis. I always loved Wednesday morning after work; it was the best time of the week for me. I hope to duplicate that experience now in the new job, with the extra added bonus of going to Moroney's Hub for some cold ones on Wednesday night.
    On the gaming front, I came to the decision not to buy the Modern Warfare 2 map pack coming up June 3rd. I'm not playing Modern Warfare 2 lately; playing with less than 6 people is pretty infuriating. In MW2 it's virtually a guarantee of getting your ass kicked. Reibo feels the same way. Plus, with my new job and the travel requirements, I might not be in much condition to game in any case. 
    I went online briefly a couple of days ago, but that was only to play some Call of Duty: World at War single player. I replayed the Heart of the Reich and Downfall levels. Playing on Regular difficulty, those levels were amazingly more difficult solo than co-op. In fact, they were the usual Call of Duty drill: Sniper you can't see putting a bullet in your head; Nazi submachine gunner with super-accuracy; grenade delivered right into the crack of your ass by psychic enemies; and endlessly spawning enemies unless you tripped whatever action trigger was necessary to end the level.
    I'm hoping Call of Duty: Black Ops avoids that, but it's Call of Duty, and that means it'll be a crank to play solo.

Featured MW2 Video
Team Tactical on Bailout

Uploaded 17 May 2010 by WoodysGamertag

    Today's featured MW2 vid is a nice MW2 Team Tactical match on Bailout by Woody. After the CoD link jump is OpticNation's Top 5 killcams of the week, replete with no-scopes, quickscopes, and wallbangs. On to the CoD links:

• Puggal: Call of Duty: Black Ops weapons.
• PRNews: The Product Reviews News site wants to know what weapons you'd like to see in Call of Duty: Black Ops.

OpTicNation's Top 5 Killcams, Wk 6

Uploaded 19 May 2010 on MachinimaRespawn

    More Gaming Links:

• IGN: Top 10 Halo: Reach screenshots.
• BitBag/YouTube: To Jetpack or not to jetpack. 

Halo: Reach beta: Top 10 Fails, Ep. 1

Uploaded 8 May 2010 on Machinima

Halo: Reach beta: Top 10 Fails, Ep.2

Uploaded 12 May 2010 on Machinima

Red Dead Redemption Review

Uploaded 17 May 2010 on IGNEntertainment 

• Red Dead Redemption review round-up: GameTrailers; Edge Online; 1Up; IGN; GameSpy; GiantBomb Quick Look; Red Dead Redemption; GameSpot PS3 and Xbox 360; GameInformer.
• Shacknews: Rockstar Fixing Red Dead Redemption Invisibility Bugs.
• 1Up: Red Dead Redemption Super Guide (Xbox 360).
• Edge Online: New games hit Steam for the Mac.
• Big Download: Valve releases early Mac Steam stats; free Portal gets 1.5 million downloads. Including the awesome co-op Killing Floor.
• Kotaku: Why is Steam on Mac, anyway? Ch-ching!
• CVG: Ubisoft: 50% of games 3D by 2012.
• Co-Optimus: When co-op becomes a necessity - the changing face of single player.
• Kotaku: Rumor: Sir Richard Branson gets back into video games.
• GameInformer: CliffyB: In his own words.
• Shacknews: John Romero on Daikatana "Bitch" Advertisement.
• Joystiq: Celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back with Xbox Live avatar items.
• Kotaku: PAX East code thief faces arraignment.

Artist's conception of Justin D. May

in the pokey.

    Non-Gaming Links:

• Gizmodo: Bill Gates described iPad like device to Steve Jobs in 2007.
• DigitalTrends: In the Shadow of the iPad: Where Apple is succeeding where Microsoft fails.
• Washington Post: Smallpox vaccine may inhibit replication of HIV virus.
• Slashdot: The Design of Design by Fred Brooks, author of The Mythical Man Month.
• DukeNews: Duke University turning off its Usenet server.
• Kotaku: Home-made War Machine costume.

 Photo credit: Kotaku