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The pace at which events have unfolded within the Euro-zone in recent months has been remarkable. In a matter of weeks the chatter in investment markets turned to the idea that governments might fail to pay, in full or in part, on their debt (what’s known as sovereign default) Though we flagged the long-term threat of sovereign default in late 2009 and highlighted the pickle faced by the Greeks in February, few expected the swiftness of reaction. That the Greek situation threatened to turn into a global crisis in just a matter of weeks merely re-emphasises how nervous and fickle the capital markets remain. The latest €750bn support package announced on Monday from the EU & IMF has probably done enough, for now, to calm nerves but the worry remains that this is not a storm in a teacup but the portent of further eruptions across the globe
To understand why this has become such a pressing issue you need to head back into the teeth of the “credit crisis” some 12-18 months ago. Fundamentally, if you look through all the noise and tumult, one key thing happened: the liabilities from over-leveraged and over-indebted consumer and corporate balance sheets were transferred to governments. This happened in several ways – governments bailed out ailing financial institutions or underwrote corporate debt, governments bought debt when others shunned it, and they wrote cheques to consumers, via tax credits and similar mechanisms. The end result, though, was that the total amount of debt in the world did not actually shrink, despite the pain involved. The boil was not lanced at all, as there is significantly more debt in the world today than there was 2 years ago. Too much debt was the cause of the problem in the first place; the debt remains, but the liabilities simply shifted from “weaker” balance sheets onto stronger balance sheets – this time those of governments.
In so doing a number of governments took very material gambles and they risked having their bluff called. For example, countries such as Ireland guaranteed their banking system but, in so doing, took on potential liabilities of 3x the size of their economy – a promise they clearly couldn’t keep. Because they were in the Eurozone, they rather got away with it. Iceland took even more of a gamble and guaranteed liabilities of 5x their GDP. Their bluff was called by the markets and, as a result, their banking system partially defaulted and debts remain unpaid to this day. But in broad terms, the markets looked over the abyss and pulled back. For some time the crisis abated. In retrospect, the lesson to be learned from that chapter was that where there was a “run” on a bank, it was more about access to liquidity than about solvency per se. Worries about long-term solvency might have been the catalyst for investors to focus on a bank; but it was that bank’s lack of access to liquidity that caused a collapse. Indeed, the Bank of England analysis of the Northern Rock collapse concluded that if a bank has access to only 14 days’ liquidity it will survive. Yet, such events were self-fulfilling prophesies once confidence was eroded.By early 2010 a broad based economic recovery was well underway but certain areas of the capital markets were, once again, becoming tense. The trigger for this was the realisation that some governments, most notably Greece, had been economical with the truth when describing the shape of their public finances. Not only were governments facing record deficits as they took on the liabilities of their consumers and companies, but the resolve to address their chasm of debt was lacking. Indeed the Greeks seemed unable to exactly quantify how much they really owed everyone. As it happens, Greece is by no means the worst offender of any sovereign nation in the world. Its total debt, whilst whopping, is lower than many other nations, even within Europe, and, whilst it has a projected and current annual deficit of eye-watering proportions, it’s arguably in better shape than the UK, Ireland or Italy. The reason why the markets alighted upon it is because everyone lost confidence in the reliability of the data being published as various, possibly underhand “off balance sheet” transactions through Goldman Sachs were unearthed. In the process, it became clear that the Greek position was worse than generally understood but, most importantly, contained massive discrepancies and unknowns. Confidence evaporated and Greek government bonds plummeted. Yields on Greek debt soared to the highest of any government in world, even higher than the generally accepted basket-cases. Echoes of the banking crisis of 18 months ago were everywhere. As worries began to extend to the debt markets of Spain and Portugal, the ECB and IMF have been forced to act. The governments of the EU have, finally, been decisive in their actions, having previously seemed to bicker. In so doing they will engender confidence, create liquidity and, for now, the crisis is averted once again; it is time to refocus back on the global recovery for a period.As we have observed before, this is a normal recovery in an abnormal cycle. Look past the storm clouds over southern Europe and all around you are the signs that this recovery is progressing nicely into a self-sustaining phase of growing consumer confidence and business investment. No longer is it solely about massive stimuli and inventory rebuild. Now, the employment situation is steadily improving, the consumer in the US is alive and kicking and Asian economies are growing so strongly that the risk for that region is of tightening measures to avoid overheating and attendant inflationary pressures. This improvement is reflected in corporate profits that are consistently exceeding expectations and, most significantly, the growth in profits is derived primarily from improved earnings rather than cost cutting. Indeed the present recovery is becoming much stronger than usually seen at this phase of the cycle, albeit from a much lower base.This creates the policy conundrum for the central banks. The financial system remains fragile and flighty. Capital quickly bolts and central banks must do their utmost to ensure that risk aversion does not materially reassert itself. We think that the authorities can, and will, be successful, but only by keeping interest rates at extraordinarily low levels. Yet recovery is gaining traction and they know that they are playing with fire by keeping the stimulus taps wide open, even if they have no choice at present. Whilst Asian and some emerging economies have the ability to tighten policy to control nascent inflationary pressures, the same luxury is not afforded to the West. That can only store up inflationary problems for the future but, for now, the sun is out and investors are well advised to make hay
However, let’s not forget that the package introduced in Europe addresses only liquidity on an immediate basis, not solvency. Unprecedented spending cuts and tax rises are required to stave off disaster. And lest anyone feel that such matters are confined to southern Europe, they would be well advised to note that George Osborne, the new Conservative chancellor in the UK, described UK public finances as “a work of fiction”.What’s going on here is that the second phase in the debt crisis is now unfolding: having shifted liabilities from weak consumers & corporations to sovereigns, debt liabilities are now being shifted from weak sovereigns to strong sovereigns. Some of this is about confidence, and this week’s package addresses this element head-on. But in the long term it is about fundamentals rather than confidence and there is a creeping realism amongst investors. It seems unlikely that governments have sufficient resolve to make the gouging cuts in spending needed or that interest rates can remain low enough for long enough in the face of burgeoning government debt, the risk of default and worries over inflation. In the longer term, the problem is simply that too much debt in the world remains. At some stage some of it must be destroyed, whether by inflation, devaluation or default. The problems for Greece may be averted but the spectre of a wider problem remains. The euro has tumbled to its lowest level in 18 months and might be entering a period of sustained weakness, analysts believe, on fears of years of weak economic growth as austerity measures across the continent bite. Spain and Portugal both announced austerity packages this week, which were likely to act as a drage on economic expansion in the 16-Nation Block.
There are two notable war games coming out this year, and they both have the number threeafter their names. We're finally able to talk about the Modern Warfare 3 content Activision showed the press at its pre-E3 event, and our enthusiasm for the game is rather muted. The thing is, the trailer for Battlefield 3arguably makes the game seem like more of the same, and we've been much more enthusiastic about that game in our coverage.
Why is that? This is the first time you'll catch me using this word myself, but it's bias. That bias is based on tastes, not to mention a platform preference many of you may share: my love for the PC as a gaming platform.
STFU >:-( O:)
\m/ \m/ \m/ . . .
How the games are shown !
EA and DICE go out of their way to stress that the lead platform for Battlefield 3 is the PC, and in fact the player count will be higher on the PC than it is on the console version of the game. The PC version of the game is also the one shown to the press. Battlefield 3 is the first game in years that had me checking out hardware reviews in order to upgrade my computer before its release. :'( :' ( It looks that good, and it has been a while since a publisher has felt comfortable showing the press a version of a game that can be described as aspirational. If you have a godlike system at home, theFrostbite 2 engine is going to take advantage of it.
In contrast, Modern Warfare 3 doesn't have a lead platform, (kanjooos ) !! although we all know that Activision barely cares about the PC versions of its games. We certainly won't be getting dedicated servers, DLC will likely go straight to the Xbox 360 after Microsoft opens its wallet, and that's that. When it comes to the house that Kotick built, the platform importance, then PS3, and then way down at the bottom is the PC. This makes sense from an economic position, and while I understand that it's the job of the company to make money, as a PC gamer, that attitude hurts my battered soul. soab !! :/ :X
'Gang'Bang alice MP (lol) :
While we don't have many details on the Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer yet, Activision is a conservative company that doesn't like to monkey around with a successful formula. The teams are going to be small, the game is going to be ultra-competitive, and things are going to rapidly devolve into min-maxing teenagers who will call you an ethnic slur if you don't have one of the agreed-upon loadouts for the best destruction. When I play Black Ops these days I feel like I'm punishing myself.With players that already know where to go and what to do, the game often feels like players picking between a limited number of already-effective strategies. It's just not my thing, and I know many of you feel the same way.
We already know that while the console version ofBattlefield 3will be limited to 24 players, the PC version will support servers with up to 64 players. That's not a small skirmish anymore, that's a war. And since we're playingwar games, this is the way it should be. The squad mechanics will return fromBad Company 2, although likely with some updates. If you stick with your friends and support each other by picking the right classes, you'll go far. This is not a game for lone wolves.
Best Comparison !! :D 3:)
Heck, I'mnot even that good at Bad Company 2. One of my favorite ways to play is to use cover effectively and heal teammates as a medic. The gameplay is slightly slower, more deliberate, and the more distinct classes combined with vehicular support mean that Bad Company 2 is a game that's much more friendly to new players, with many more roles to play in the fight. I've seen new playerstry Black Ops and quickly grow discouraged, especially with the aggressive nature of the community. Bad Company 2 is much more welcoming, and teamwork isn't a plus, it's expected.
Yes, I'm talking about games that exist now, not the two sequels that are the subject of this article, but I would be shocked if both games don't offer similar online play to their predecessors with the addition of a graphical update and a few tweaks.
That's the other reason Battlefield 3 has my attention: I can see what the engine is doing. The environments will feature massive destruction, and the animation of the soldiers is almost uncanny. It's immediately noticeable from a graphical perspective, and the physics updates will impact the game. Watching the Modern Warfare 3 presentation left me squinting as I tried to see what's new in the engine. Where are the big updates? We may see them later, but that's something you need to put front and center when you show a game for the first time.
"My Toungue" :D 3:)
So again, many of these things are personal taste. I enjoy gaming on the PC, I enjoy a more team-based, strategy-oriented experience with vehicles and distinct roles that all feel different to play, and dedicated servers with high player counts are attractive. One of these war games will deliver what I like in action games, and the other is Modern Warfare 3.
and I use it to describe it as "Orgasmic" :D :P ;) !!
BF 3 . . . i ll put it as Heavy Dosage:/ :/ :)
It's unlikely that EA will ever outsell Activision in this area, but popularity doesn't equal quality. I'll have both the games obviously but a couple of weeks later,. i ll be interested in only one of the game and might be playing even on my Exams !! :D
Some might say that the war was over before it truly began. The extraordinary sparring between Electronic Arts and Activision, encompassing developers and executives alike, may well have made for good copy for us journalist types, but where it matters - with the gamers - the results look rather one-sided. Preliminary sales data points to just one winner in the great Battlefield 3/Modern Warfare 3 kerfuffle: Activision has clearly emerged triumphant with what it is describing as the biggest launch in the history of the entire entertainment business.
Perhaps EA will be examining its week-one sales and thinking that Battlefield 3's performance should have been better, bearing in mind the gargantuan marketing spend put behind the product. From a UK perspective, BF3 sold less than half as many copies as FIFA 12 managed in the same time period, and is way behind the total amassed by Call of Duty: Black Ops' own week one sales. The extent of Modern Warfare 3's sales has yet to be fully ascertained, but the evidence seems to point to an even greater level of success than last year's game.
But to what extent was this even a valid contest in the first place? In his Modern Warfare 3 review, Eurogamer's Dan Whitehead astutely remarks that "comparisons to Battlefield 3 are expected, but played back-to-back, also fairly futile. Where multiplayer is concerned, the two are far more different than their surface similarities would suggest."
Perhaps the truth is that in creating this phony war, Electronic Arts has managed to utilise the Activision brand and marketing in selling a different style of first-person shooter - which may well have been the plan all along. According to sources, BF3 has managed to double week-one sales of last year's Medal of Honor and has sold more than all previous Battlefield games combined in the same time period. That's pretty good going, not to mention an excellent platform for future titles in the series.
The main contenders for this year's top first-person shooter, shown in their Xbox 360 incarnations. Modern Warfare 3 (left) iterates on the existing, established Infinity Ward engine while Battlefield 3 innovates technologically in a number of ways with the new Frostbite 2 architecture.
After all, it's worth remembering that Call of Duty didn't become a console phenomenon overnight - it took four years, four games and a new console generation before the series really ignited. Electronic Arts and DICE know this and have almost certainly planned for it. Our contention is that the war between these two heavyweights in the FPS genre isn't over at all - in fact the battle has only just begun - and gaming technology defines the conflict.
The gameplay offered up by 2007's epoch-making Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is intimately connected to the phenomenal technology at its core. The combination of state-of-the-art visuals married up to 60Hz gameplay produced a game that not only looked fantastic but also felt quite unlike anything else: it was arcade-like in its look and its controller response.. Infinity Ward and fellow COD studio Treyarch have spent the last four years building and iterating upon this base formula.
With input lag measured at 50ms - or three frames - Modern Warfare 3 simply feels so much more crisp and responsive than any other first-person shooter we've played on the current-generation consoles. Somehow it even seems to be faster than other titles in the COD stable, as previously we've measured MW3's predecessors at anything between 66ms to 83ms latency. As swift and responsive as MW3 is, though, we should expect frame-rate drops to take a toll on that superlative level of response. However, where it matters most - in multiplayer - console frame-rates remain high, preserving that all-important feedback.
As the video demonstrates, Battlefield 3 on console - running at 30FPS - clearly has a deficit in response in comparison with Modern Warfare 3. Our latency measurement of 116ms might not sound too fantastic (it's over twice the response time of its competitor) LOL , PITY !! but it is roughly ballpark within a frame or two with a whole host of other console shooters. For reference, 116ms is the same as Killzone 3 and 16ms faster than Epic's Bulletstorm.
However, Call of Duty's unique strength is also in a sense its greatest weakness. The notion of processing gameplay and rendering a whole new frame in less than16.66ms means that key aspects of the tech are highly unlikely to improve radically during this console generation.
Particles, lighting and effects work in general have improved significantly compared to Modern Warfare 2, and the introduction of a new, context-driven audio system makes MW3 sound a lot better than its predecessors.
Changes made for Modern Warfare 3 are impressive though - if clearly incremental in nature. The gap in performance level between Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 has beenaddressed to a certain extent, audio has significantly improved via a system of contextualised sound effects processing, similar in concept to (if not quite as effective as) the "HDR" audio instigated by DICE in its earlier Frostbite work. Lighting and particle effects work has seen some improvement, although the room for improvement here can only go so far owing to the tight rendering budget.
DICE's approach on console is remarkably different.While dropping down to 30 frames per second obviously impacts input lag, doubling the available rendering time opens up a whole new world of possibilities.The tile-based deferred rendering setup allows for lighting that is in a completely different league to what the IW engine is capable of on Modern Warfare 3, so hundreds of light sources can be rendered simultaneously - point lights, lens flare, emissive particles and muzzle flashes are all genuinely dynamic light-sources.
Similarly, while Call of Duty still allows for different materials to offer varying levels of resistance to bullet impacts, and renders decals on top of the environment detail to signify damage, DICE's destruction system actually allows for cover to be incrementally chipped away by incoming gunfire, and for entire structures to collapse, giving a more realistic, visceral experience - not to mention opening up new gameplay strategies. On a more macro level, DICE's engine also allows for more players and larger terrain, in turn opening up the ability to use a range of vehicles.
Battlefield 3's superb lighting model, high-quality textures and materials, plus its state-of-the-art destruction model and expansive enviroments make it a very different game to Modern Warfare 3. It runs at half the frame-rate of the Activision title, but the extra rendering time has been put to good use.
In a sense, Modern Warfare 3 plays like the ultimate iteration of a gameplay formula that first found its feet with Quake 3 Arena, while BF3 offers up a full-on Battlefield experience - visually the console versions may be cut-down, but every element of the core feature-set is there. Each game has its own strengths and weaknesses, essentially boiling down to a higher frame-rate and controller response against bigger maps, more players, and a higher level of fidelity in graphics and sound.
Clearly though, there are many points of similarity between the two single-player campaigns and it is here that the games are ripe for comparison. DICE chose to highlight the potential of the new Frostbite 2 technology here with a range of beautifully lit levels, showpiece destructive cut-scenes and a small clutch of the type of expansive terrains that are commonplace in the multiplayer game.
However, much of the campaign is based on the same type of linear, script-driven corridor-style gameplay that Call of Duty pioneered and of which its development studios are the masters, with BF3 simply not at the races. DICE also carbon-copied the COD concept of shifting across different locations by swapping between characters - though in this case the protagonists aren't really fleshed out at all and we don't care about their stories, making their eventual fates seem somewhat meaningless.
The net result is that up until the later stages, the design of BF3 feels very much like a COD game, but with the ultra-fast response swapped out for higher-detail characters, effects and lighting - and a whole lot less action. In what must surely be an almighty coincidence, there are also a number of shared locales and situations we've pulled out here from our previous Face-Off captures.
Put side by side like this, just in these few clips we can see a remarkable difference.Modern Warfare 3won't just collapse a building on you, it'll precede it with a colossal explosion first and then send a burnt-out car flying past your face for good measure. It won't dispatch a bunch of police cars and a van to take you down, it'll helicopter in a bunch of troops and have them rappel down to earth to get to you. Perhaps the biggest difference between the Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3 single-player campaigns is simply that Activision's adventure is just far more of an exciting place to be - their pacing and scripting work is on a whole different level. It's a game that is ram-packed with action and over-the-top effects, with no time whatsoever to catch your breath.
The video also serves to demonstrate just how much of an impact the 60 frames per second update makes to the overall presentation. In each of these clips we could reel off a substantial range of technological advantages offered up by the talented DICE tech team: the deferred shading, the filmic tonemapping, volumetric smoke, the advanced pixel shader work, the state-of-the-art animation... the list of new rendering tech is virtually endless. But Modern Warfare 3 rarely drops frames and there's never, ever any screen-tear. Combine that with the way the game feels in your hands and it's not difficult to understand why the Call of Duty series has evolved into the consummate console shooter.
So if the first fracas between the Battlefield and Call of Duty franchises has resulted in such an overwhelming sales victory for the Activision franchise, what evidence is there to suggest that the battle is far from over? What's to stop the same situation repeating for years to come?
Battlefield 3 on PC offers us a glimpse of how the next generation of console shooters may look. The level of investment EA has put into DICE's Frostbite 2 engine wouldn't be sustained just from sales to high-end PC enthusiasts - this is an engine built for the future.
The answer is simple: run Battlefield 3 on any reasonably powerful PC on high settings, and something wonderful happens. Not only are the visuals drastically improved, but you can play at 60 frames per second too, with no tearing. Try out Modern Warfare 3 on PC after a few rounds of Battlefield 3 in all its DirectX 11 splendour and you'll realise that the underlying Infinity Ward technology is of an age that is swiftly drawing to a close. Pared-back lighting, effects work and low-resolution textures made for machines based on vintage 2005 technology just won't cut the mustard - especially when scaled up to 1080p and beyond.
Today's high-spec PC is tomorrow's games console, and the smart money says we're just two years away from the arrival of a DirectX 11-powered next-generation Xbox. EA and DICE's investment in Frostbite 2's more high-end technology isn't just for hardcore PC enthusiasts - it is laying the groundwork for the mainstream games of tomorrow. Even more exciting is the fact that Battlefield 3 is just its first game on the new engine, so by the time the new consoles arrive, Frostbite 2 will be even better than it is now. Certainly, despite the undoubted majesty of Battlefield 3 on PC, there are still improvements that we'd really like to see. For example, input lag, even on a high-end PC, wasn't hugely improved over what we saw on Xbox 360, unless we disabled v-sync and ran the game well in excess of 60FPS (with all the tearing that inevitably ensues).
If the BF3/MW3 conflict tells us anything it's that we're dealing with developers and publishers with two very different agendas: the IW' guys studios clearly have theirfocus on the present day, while DICE is looking to the . Frostbite 2works well on current-gen consoles, but it's built to challenge for the next-gen. How will Activision's IW 5.0 collection of talented COD-focused studios respond? Now that's the battle we're really looking forward to witnessing.
biblio: ( the tech info was complied., rest r ma experiece) O:)
By early 2010 a broad based economic recovery was well underway but certain areas of the capital markets were, once again, becoming tense. The trigger for this was the realisation that some governments, most notably Greece, had been economical with the truth when describing the shape of their public finances. Not only were governments facing record deficits as they took on the liabilities of their consumers and companies, but the resolve to address their chasm of debt was lacking. Indeed the Greeks seemed unable to exactly quantify how much they really owed everyone. As it happens, Greece is by no means the worst offender of any sovereign nation in the world. Its total debt, whilst whopping, is lower than many other nations, even within Europe, and, whilst it has a projected and current annual deficit of eye-watering proportions, it’s arguably in better shape than the UK, Ireland or Italy. The reason why the markets alighted upon it is because everyone lost confidence in the reliability of the data being published as various, possibly underhand “off balance sheet” transactions through Goldman Sachs were unearthed. In the process, it became clear that the Greek position was worse than generally understood but, most importantly, contained massive discrepancies and unknowns. Confidence evaporated and Greek government bonds plummeted. Yields on Greek debt soared to the highest of any government in world, even higher than the generally accepted basket-cases. Echoes of the banking crisis of 18 months ago were everywhere. As worries began to extend to the debt markets of Spain and Portugal, the ECB and IMF have been forced to act. The governments of the EU have, finally, been decisive in their actions, having previously seemed to bicker. In so doing they will engender confidence, create liquidity and, for now, the crisis is averted once again; it is time to refocus back on the global recovery for a period.As we have observed before, this is a normal recovery in an abnormal cycle. Look past the storm clouds over southern Europe and all around you are the signs that this recovery is progressing nicely into a self-sustaining phase of growing consumer confidence and business investment. No longer is it solely about massive stimuli and inventory rebuild. Now, the employment situation is steadily improving, the consumer in the US is alive and kicking and Asian economies are growing so strongly that the risk for that region is of tightening measures to avoid overheating and attendant inflationary pressures. This improvement is reflected in corporate profits that are consistently exceeding expectations and, most significantly, the growth in profits is derived primarily from improved earnings rather than cost cutting. Indeed the present recovery is becoming much stronger than usually seen at this phase of the cycle, albeit from a much lower base.This creates the policy conundrum for the central banks. The financial system remains fragile and flighty. Capital quickly bolts and central banks must do their utmost to ensure that risk aversion does not materially reassert itself. We think that the authorities can, and will, be successful, but only by keeping interest rates at extraordinarily low levels. Yet recovery is gaining traction and they know that they are playing with fire by keeping the stimulus taps wide open, even if they have no choice at present. Whilst Asian and some emerging economies have the ability to tighten policy to control nascent inflationary pressures, the same luxury is not afforded to the West. That can only store up inflationary problems for the future but, for now, the sun is out and investors are well advised to make hay
