Suffering from a little COD-fatigue this week, so I figured I’d rekindle Game Over on my vintage-gaming themed channel, RetroAhoy. Planning on doing these in weekly instalments, and I have to say I do enjoy producing them – they’re a good excuse to revisit old favourites.

Lemmings was one of the first games I had for the Amiga (courtesy of the Cartoon Classics A500+ bundle). Much fun had replaying it this week.

Almost forgot to blog this one, but here it is, for the sake of completeness.

I think the pilot episode of Time To Kill went rather well. TTK is a detailed exposition into the gameplay mechanics of MW3, and in the first episode I cover one of the core aspects of any multiplayer shooters: damage.

And the bonus footage (at a whopping 23 minutes). I discuss some of my future channel plans in this one.

So there’s been much in the way of misinformation, rumour and hearsay floating about with regard to the ‘Weapon Guide Express’ videos posted – and then later, unceremoniously un-posted – to my YouTube channel.

Much of the discussion seems to be fueled by hatred for Activision, and apparent disgust at the paid-for content on Elite. Seems even the smallest excuse will ignite this tired debate.

Anyway, I still don’t have a satisfactory answer for the removal. At this juncture I remain unsure of whether I’ve infringed upon any part of my contract with Activision. There exists an agreement between Machinima and Activision made on my behalf – but I’ve not had the pleasure of reading the finer details of any such document.

In any case, even without a contractual infringement it’s difficult to rail against such a judgment when posting gameplay content – technically Activision retain rights to all their game footage, so ultimately hold a trump card.

So, as for the future of Weapon Guide Express – it’s unlikely that the videos will be reinstated in their current form. I’d dearly love to produce a per-weapon series for YouTube to complement the paid-for Elite weapon guides, but this is dependent on finding a format that won’t chafe relations with Activision.

Such is business. Life goes on.

For the record, Weapon Guide Express was designed to be a complement to the Elite weapon guides, not a competitor – they were approached as an entirely separate production in a new format, with new scripts, new graphics, gameplay etc. The Elite vids were originally pitched at a length of around 5-6 minutes apiece, but after feedback cycles were truncated to a neater 3 minute format, closer to the Express video’s 90 second runtime.

As far a similarities are concerned, it’s tough to recant the same statistics for the same weapons without going over similar ground, despite efforts to differentiate.

In any case, I’m going to keep doing what I do – produce gaming-related video content. I’ll leave everyone else to squabble over the details. More videos to follow on XboxAhoy, as soon as I’m able.

Late Friday saw a request from Activision for the removal of Weapon Guide Express. It was complied with on my behalf by Machinima.

At this point I’m still not 100% sure on reasoning – unfortunately being the weekend I won’t have an update until Monday. Could be misunderstanding or other contractual issue.

Updates to follow as I’m able.

The Soviet powerhouse returns, as seen in COD4, MW2, and Black Ops – perhaps the most ubiquitous assault rifle in the world. Its in-game representation is as fearsome as ever – boasting high damage and heavy recoil.