It initially started on the beta.  I had a few days of fun with the beta and suddenly one day it started crashing after getting partially through the map load screen…the screen would flash and then crash.  There was an error message but the brilliant minds at Treyarch didn’t think to allow the error to show over the game executable dialog so I have no idea what the message was, just showed an error dialog that couldn’t be viewed.  I played with settings and found that if I disabled Crossfire on my dual ATI Radeon 3870’s, and clicked on restore factory defaults (I didn’t change anything but did it anyway) it worked.

I had a working system.  I bought the Collectors Edition, had the same issue and did the same “fix” and was able to play the full game.  I started having horrible lag and issues in both multi-player and co-op.  I dropped the resolution down to 1680×1050 (from 1920×1200) and it seemed to help.

I removed my 3870’s and upgraded to a 4870 this past week along with a Corsair 750w PSU.  The problems all started over.  Constant crashes but this time I had no second card to disable to fix it.  I tried the restore factory defaults to no avail.  I attempted to find some resolution at the forums but alas the search on Callofduty.com (still) didn’t work… neat.

I uninstalled my X-Fi drivers, ATI drivers, the game.  I ran driver cleaner to remove all folders and directory references to both Creative and ATI.  I went through manually and removed a few others that I found based on some forums.  I reinstalled the ATI drivers, rebooted, reinstalled the X-Fi drivers, rebooted, updated the X-Fi drivers, rebooted.  I reinstalled DirectX 9c and rebooted.  I reinstalled the game and started to get a direct3ddevice9 error as soon as MP launched.  I was also getting an unhandled exception error on SP.

Search seemed to finally work after nearly a month on callofduty.com and I found a thread that about having .NET Framework 3.5 sp1 installed. I updated to this and reattempted.  Wow! Now I can launch the game and as soon as I connect to a server I get the direct3ddevice9 error.  I backed down to Radeon 8.9 drivers (from 8.11) and attempted another reinstall of DirectX 9c November release.  I actually got in a game and it seemed faster than ever before and things were looking up.

I attempted single player and it crashed with a black screen, no message.  I did the reset video and it loaded to the menu.  I changed video back to my normal settings, launched the game and no audio on the dialog with the opening scene (but audio worked on the intros).  I exited SP, restarted and got missing textures (like the head of the Japanese general and the private he’s burning with a cigar) and the audio still didn’t work.   Textures were all screwed even after starting.  I tried backing down graphics and back to the black screen on load.

Screw it, I’ll stick to MP I thought.  I launch MP, select a server, the map starts loading and I’m back to either the direct3ddevice error or I get an unhandled exception after I had hope that I could at least play MP.  The next time I launch, I get an error that CoDWaWmp.exe is not a valid Win32 application.

I reinstalled the game another time tonight.  I launched and got the same CoDWaWmp.exe is not a valid Win32 application error.  I applied the 1.1 patch since I hadn’t done that after installation but I still get the invalid Win32 app error.

What I really love is the people on callofduty.com that probably haven’t had an issue before and are completely clueless on computers other than what they’re told replying to threads calling people idiots because “it works fine for me”.  Since I’m reading that some people are running fine and suddenly get one of these issues (as I did with the beta), I look forward to seeing these same people eat their own words.

I guess my next step will be to update to the ATI 8.11 drivers again and retry.  If that doesn’t work I guess I could reinstall XP for ONE FREAKING GAME not working.  Everything I play works fine including Call of Duty 4.  I opened a ticket on Activision’s site and we’ll see how they respond.  They asked for a dxdiag log so we’ll see.  The most piss poor implementation of a game I’ve ever seen.

Check out the entire gallery.

I initially thought that I hadn’t done anything to warrant the concern but downloaded and installed a few spyware apps and Spywarefigher found an executable residing in my Program Files that looked like an MS patch that it reported as a trojan as well as a few tracking cookies.  I did the clean up and viola the crashes went away.  While it wasn’t a hard lesson learned, it was a lesson learned that running Virus protection is vital for the integrety of even gaming.

Thought I’d post that even if you think you’re privy to something like this, you may want to think again.  I’m still not sure what I did that allowed this to happen but I went ahead and installed AV even with the hit it takes on resources.

Most of the first person shooters have filters but it seems a mismash of what we would like to see.

The Battlefield servers have a good part of it with being able to set the minimum number of players and the max ping.  Beyond that, they fall short.  Why not have save these settings each time I enter the game?  Then again they can’t even keep straight what my last choices were on packs/load outs from match to match.

Unreal Tournament use to have some great filters and then they decided to use GameSpy.  They still have “decent” filters.

Quake Wars has a great range of specifications on theirs but again, where’s the limits as in BF (I’ve not played this in quite a few months, so I’ll have to check again).

Steam also does a decent job of filtering servers with their range but give me full range of the ping.  I’d rather game at about 125 or less ms, not 150 but 100 does return decent results in TF2.  The problem with Steam is that admins have found a work around to show their server as “almost full” to trick you in to an empty server.

Call of Duty 4 continues what has been the id configuration since who knows when. No real range on selecting other than Yes and No’s.  They also have the curious “full vs. quick” refresh.  I don’t really know what the difference is as it still refreshes all servers and at this count is 16k servers.  It doesn’t care that it’s Team Deathmatch or another mod.

I’d like to select (and SAVED match to mach, launch to launch):

• SELECTABLE Map
• SELECTABLE Number of “Real Players”
• SELECTABLE Ping
• Specific MOD ONLY refresh
• Bot Options (If applicable)
• Vehicles (If applicable)
• Team Kills
• Time Limit

Obviously there are some more that others would like but that’s my initial list.

At the end of the Ars article I was most amused with the comment:

“Without the ability to protect our work from piracy, developers across the entire game industry will eventually stop investing time and money in PC titles,” Gibeau stated.

As I had already pointed out that with the torrents available for all 3 titles it looks like PC titles are going to disappear.  I guess the conspiracy side of me makes me wonder if they’re just looking for an excuse to dump PC games.  After all EA has been outspoken in the past about how the console is really the only way to go with gaming.

I’m really not well versed in all the protection schemes but it seems to me that they are wasting money by continuing development of new methods.  I understand they have no intention of removing DRM but a quote from Vegas Vacation comes to mind…

“You don’t know when to quit, do ya Griswold?… Here’s an idea: Why don’t you give me half the money you were gonna bet, then we’ll go out back, I’ll kick you in the nuts, and we’ll call it a day”

I personally like the Valve method of installing the game and using their launcher.  If you want to protect your product, tie it to an account/email and whatever else you need for my registration.  I have no problem using this method and I’m not sure why other companies haven’t signed on to do this or maybe it’s just that no one has been able to implement it as well as Valve.  I was actually close to buying Warhead from Steam until I saw the same limited activation exists on Steam as does buying the game (and it was $7 more w/o media).  I’m not sure if it also includes SECUROM since I believe that is part of how it maintains it’s licensing.  Regardless I think there are ways to go about this without being intrusive on a user’s system.

Anyway, here’s the Lars comments…

There should be a nice YouTube video here but apparently the person that uploaded it decided to not allow external embedding so….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWqJgKz2KVA

Anyway, if you see it at Best Buy, AVOID IT.  It’s not worth it, especially if they mark it up to $40.  As for adding the tracks, it’s great to get to play through some of my favorites from the CD and I’m sure that with Guitar Hero World Tour it will be even nicer having the drums and full band going.

As for the CD, I love Death Magnetic!  As for the complaints about it hitting the wall, I don’t completely agree.  When ripped to MP3 I notice it but on the CD itself I don’t hear it even in my car which has a fairly high end system in it.  I think it covers a lot of the Metallica discography in terms of influence from previous discs.  I can hear Justice, The Black Album and a little of the Load/Reload mixed with the classic sound.  I’ll go into a more indepth review later (I always say that and never get back but I’ll try this time. ).  It’s been in my car since Sunday and about all I’ve listened to show what I think of it.  I’ve not listened to a disc like that in a long time.

So far this year we have Far Cry 2 scheduled for October and Crysis Warhead coming next Tuesday.  Call of Duty: World at War is coming complete with Kiefer Sutherland lending his voice with a November release but I’m not sure where this game really treads new ground.  I guess I’m happy to see another WWII installment but the Pacific theater doesn’t ever seem to be that popular in gaming.  The addition of bushido rules and the reinsertion of vehicles may work out.  Throw in Jack Bauer barking out orders and maybe it’s a more exciting release than I’m expecting.  Battlefield Heroes is suppose to hit as a free download in 2008 (using the branding power of the Battlefield series while using the cartoon look of Team Fortress 2) but as far as I know there’s no solid date and while the seeds of Battlefield 3 have been planted, it too hasn’t really been discussed by EA/DICE.

There’s a few others hitting as well such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky (which I have a disc of Shadow of Chernobyl laying around that I have been meaning to try), Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway, Legendary (Not real sure about this one…not big on mythological shooters), Huxley (on the Unreal 3 engine and in the making for several years),

We’re also closing in on another years end without our famed hero from 12 years ago, Duke Nukem, having nothing announced other than the few typical rumors.  Not to mention we’re 2 years now past the release of Prey from 3D Realms.  Of course you could have watched exclusive footage over the summer on the Xbox 360 but alas it would also cost 80 points to do so.  What the hell?  You have a game in the making for 12 years, I’d assume you’d want people to see the freakin’ thing.  As much as I loved 3D, I’m not paying anything to watch an exclusive video of what’s been vaporware.  Speaking more nicely of Duke, I am looking forward to playing Duke Nukem 3D on Xbox Live…has that hit yet?  I’ve not touched the Xbox for a looooong while and still have to finish Battlefield Bad Company and I’ve yet to open Madden 09.  My Xbox is hating me hard!!

Cry for the Pick-ups:



Other Mentions Available:

After some looking around, I found this article at Microsoft.com:

Method 3 is what I used to correct the issue.

Error message when you try to install Windows XP Service Pack 3: “Access is denied” or “Service Pack installation did not complete”

SYMPTOMS