Call of Duty: World at War will be coming out in about a week. You can visit the official site here. I have both the PC and Xbox 360 betas, and since there are a lot of games coming out this holiday season, I feel like I should give my impressions on how good I think the game will be so you don’t have to waste your hard earned money.

First off, I also played the CoD 4 beta, so have a little insight on how close the beta is to the release version of the game. Also, I have no doubt in my mind that the campaign for CoD WaW will be remarkable, but if you’re interested in the multiplayer, there are some things you might find interesting.

Lets start out with the graphics. The graphics engine in CoD WaW and CoD 4 are…the same. I would say from playing the beta that CoD WaW does look a bit more polished, but no milestones were achieved in this department. At times I felt like I was playing a CoD 4 mod, much like how Day of Defeat Source is a mod of Counter Strike Source.

Graphics aren’t necessarily the most important thing in a game. To me, gameplay is much more important. After playing both the PC beta and Xbox 360 beta, I feel that the game is much more suited for the PC. I say this because there is a lack of variety in the weapon category. I don’t mean that in a sense of weapon models, but what they are capable of. To me, it seems like there is several short range and long range weapons that work wonderfully, but no good mid ranged weaponry. In CoD WaW, the mid ranged weapons are the rifles, which have limited ammunition, and if you couple that with lag and controller joysticks, it can be quite challenging to kill someone on the Xbox. When I was playing the Xbox beta, I felt more comfortable using a Thomson with an ACOG scope. I didn’t have this problem on the PC though because it is much easier to aim with a mouse and keyboard.

Also, the perks from CoD 4 have been carried over into the new CoD, and also more perks have been added such as the “Toss back” perk. This perk allows you to pick up a thrown grenade and reset the timer so you can toss it back without getting blown to smithereens. Although I still hate killing someone, then sprinting into a grenade because of their martyrdom, I think they did a good job. Another thing they did was replace the 7 kill streak bonus, instead of a helicopter you get a pack of rabid dogs! Some people think they are overpowered, but I feel like it was a nice touch. It’s always fun seeing one of your dogs lunge for the neck of an opposing soldier.

Overall I think that I like the CoD 4 multiplayer more than CoD WaW. I am a fan of modern warfare, not the over-used genre of WWII. So if you’re thinking about getting this game on release, maybe you should rent it first to make sure it’s what you’re looking for. Hope this helps!

Guitar Hero Drum Fix

In the words of a Lemming… YIPPEE!!!

Hey, this is James’ friend, Pat.  I’m one of the many angry people that purchased this game soon after it’s release.  Well, I should say that I WAS one of the angry people because I have figured out how to fix the drum pads.  If it’s your cymbals that aren’t working then you’re more than likely screwed (unless you plugged it in wrong) because I didn’t have a problem with the cymbals at all.  If your cymbals aren’t working, here are a few things you can try:

- Make sure they’re plugged into the correct jack.  If they’re not, turn off the set, plug them in accordingly, then turn it back on.
- Try switching the cymbals to see if either works in the other jack.  This will let you see if it’s the port or the cymbal itself that isn’t working.
- If you’re adventurous you could even open it up and see if there are any wiring problems.

Speaking of wiring problems, I guarantee this is 90% of people’s problems with the drum pads themselves (not the cymbal).  I’d classify myself as an adventurous person, so I actually unscrewed the back of the drum set and took a look inside (I figured it couldn’t hurt and I actually own two metal Dance Dance Revolution pads and had to rewire them a few times. So this adventure wasn’t totally without experience).  The first thing I noticed was that they used some sort of silicone glue to attach the wires to the sensor.  It became obvious to me that this was clearly interfering with the drum’s reception so here’s what I did (I encourage people to try this too, although I AM NOT AT FAULT if you screw yours up):

1. Unscrew the back of the drum set and SLOWLY remove the back piece.
2. Use some sort of sharp tool to remove the glue from the sensor. (I used a small knife)
3. Clean off the glue if you want, but there are two parts to the 3 sensors.  There is the inside circle and the outer ring. (Make sure you remember which wire goes to which, because you have to reattach it to the same one of your set wont work.)
4. Strip down the wire a little bit so that there is more of the wire for the sensor to read.
5. Use electrical tape to tape down each wire to the appropriate part of the sensor. (While doing this, it is good to connect it to the Xbox to see if the drums are working properly. You’d hate to screw everything back in and find out something didn’t work right.)
6. Finally, be careful that you reattached everything properly and then screw everything back in.
7. Connect your controller and drum away!

I promise you that this worked for me.  This is definitely much better than sending it back in and waiting 2-3 weeks for them to fix it and ship it back.  If you think about it the wiring problem makes A LOT of sense.  I’m sure they didn’t think this would happen and they weren’t careful when gluing each wire to the sensor.  Yes, this is a small project that we SHOULDN’T have to do, but it’s definitely worth it.

I will answer questions if people have any, just leave a comment and I will check them and answer to the best of my knowledge.

Guitar Hero World Tour drum set

Me and my friend Pat waited until 12:14am for the midnight release of Guitar Hero: World Tour for the Xbox 360. There were only two (2) Xbox 360 band sets available, and we were able to get one!! After speeding home, we set up the drums and were ready to play.

Immediately, Pat noticed that the red drum on the set was not responsive. If it did respond at all, it was delayed. At first I thought he just didn’t have any rythm, then it was my turn on the drums. I was experiencing the same problems! Well, it turns out that there really is a defect with the drums, and we are not the only ones who are experiencing the problem.

So if you bought the game, or are planning on buying, SAVE THE RECIEPT!!! If you’re having any other problems you can visit Activision customer support. Thanks for reading.