The Tuesday Cap is a new regular column capping of and commenting on game news for the past week.

Well another week and another game show, this week saw the start of the Call of Duty XP Event. That’s right, an entire event focused on a single game (or game series). Love it or hate it, there’s no question Activision’s sacred cow has become a cultural mainstay.

In less important news my copy of Deus Ex finally arrived. The mid year game drought is officially over. Hurrah!

The Big News

Call… of… DUUUUUUTYYYYY

Over 6000 people attended the Call of Duty XP Event, the first, and possibly not last, such event for the mega franchise. For a game that fails at all the things people keep saying games need, innovation, developed characters, compelling storyline, unique gameplay, Call of Duty continues to rule the roost.

Attendee’s paid $150 (all of which went to the Call of Duty Endowment, a charity established to assist veterans transitioning into other careers after service) each for the chance to play Modern Warfare 3 early and get an insider look at call of Duty Elite, the new subscription service online hub for the game series.

Among the many announcements at the show was the unveil of an exclusive Modern Warfare 3 skinned Xbox 360 S with two controllers sold separately. As with previous special release Xbox 360’s the console will have unique disc tray and start up sounds and will retail with several tokens for exclusive DLC. And, obviously, a copy of MW3.

That guy on the left really hates dumpsters

There’s also a little more information on the Elite service. For a start it’s going to be $50 a year (that’s US price, we’ll know soon if Australian players get as hosed as we usually do), but that cost includes a years worth of DLC, so all map packs and expansions for that year are free. Plus all the other stuff like heat maps, strategies, short films, stats tracking, clan tracking and all those nice things.

The fact this is all for just one game is crazy, and it's not even a launch party

As a comparison it’s basically wrapping up the take it or leave it elements that a game like Halo provides, short films, stats, strategies, with a guaranteed purchase of all the DLC map packs. If you were pretty confident that you’re the type of CoD fan who intends to download all the map packs on day one, then for $50 the Elite membership works out to be a pretty good deal. Users will also be able to access a mobile app that will allow them to, among other things, create class layouts that save back to their profile.

Santas elves are going to have bleeding fingers this year after assembling millions of these

Or, if you’re really a CoD nutter you could lay down $150 for the Call of Duty Hardened Edition which includes a years subscription to Elite. Along with that you also get some other DLC stuff, including an exclusive avatar skin, a 100 page field manual and a nice shiny box. That way you can try the Elite service for a year and get some other cool bits and pieces, basically for free.

Stats and heat maps and other things used by people who kill me a lot

It looks like Activision have thought long term about how they want to tether people to the franchise to avoid the same kind of burnout that Guitar Hero suffered. Services like Elite will really promote the idea of community among players and draw people, who might not have been interested before, into groups and clans.

A very special, special edition

I was pretty disappointed with Black Ops, but Modern Warfare 3 looks like it could be pretty fun. Early word out of the show seems to indicate there isn’t a noticeable leap from MW2 to MW3 on first impression but hopefully the complete package shows they’ve made a few steps forward with the series.

In Remembrance News

Sadly Bill Kunkel passed away on 4 September at the ripe old age of 61. Don’t be concerned if you don’t recognise the name, I didn’t either. But Bill Kunkel is the co-grand daddy of games journalism. He and partner Arnie Katz published Arcade Alley, the first newsstand column of gaming, in a video magazine way back in 1978. He was also a professional musician, worked on several games, wrote comics for DC, Marvel and Harvey and worked as a Professional Wrestling journalist and radio show host. He has the resume I dream of having.

What could be pinned down as his greatest contribution to video games would be the publication of Electronic Games Magazine from 1981 to 1995 where he worked as Executive EditorHe’s had an incredible career and continued to write and work on TV shows, comics, movies and games right up until his death. There’s a great bio of his numerous projects and achievements here http://www.cgexpo.com/bios/bkunkel.htm

There's also a really good interview here with Bill from 2005 at Gamasutra http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=7481

Cool News

Now this is a cool idea that way more games need to get behind. Upcoming Zombie holiday sim Dead Island will have an app available on iTunes with maps for every location in the game. The app will also point out useful item locations and objectives.

Metagame details using smart phones and tablet computers is definitely something more games should take advantage off. It’s something people have been doing for years informally, balancing laptops on our knee while scrolling through gamefaqs articles and play guides, but something games haven’t really capitalised on. Warcraft has been using its Mobile Armoury for about a year and that works like a dream for players. It’s a wonder titles like Deus Ex don’t take advantage of something similar.

The map app doesn’t actually connect to your game directly, but provides quick, on hand information to enhance the game. Obviously some people won’t want their exploration element to be spoiled, but many people will find this an invaluable tool.

The bad side, it costs $2.99. But hey, still cheaper than a CoD map pack.

Stupid News

Germany, home of freaky public S&M fountains like the one above, has recently reclassified a game previously banned in the country due to receiving a USK 16+, marking it as damaging for children, the same classification porn receives in Germany (as long as it's not a statue or a fountain at any rate). The title, or titles, is Doom and Doom II. That’s right, the populace of Germany can now legally start playing a game that you probably played last when Will Smith was an annoying sitcom star.

Under German law classifications can be appealed after 10 years. Bethesda Softworks who own ID and their game franchises were reportedly ‘delighted’ by the news and expect to sell copies of Doom and Doom II in Germany very soon. Other words they probably through around were 'surprised', 'gobsmacked' and 'totally spun out', with the odd, 'What? I have doom on my phone'.

Next time you get angry about an OFLC decision just consider how much worse it could be.

Pictured, the corruption of the innocent

Hilarious News

In other 'games as pornography' news and hot of the US media presses comes a story of second hand game purchasing and tragedy. A mother in Georgia, specifically the town of (trust me it’ll be even funnier in a moment) Cumming, has vowed to never buy another second hand game again after discovered a crude, hand drawn picture of a penis in the inside of the box of a copy of Mario and Sonic Winter Olympics for the Wii.

The local news actually did a live interview with the distraught hand ringing mother who stated that buying second hand games was now too big a risk for her and she would spend the few dollars extra for a new game to avoid it happening in the future.

The whole thing begs dozens of questions, don’t Gamestop staff open boxes to check there’s even a game in it before they resell it? Was she sure it was a penis? (it might have been a really badly drawn duck) As the US spirals into financial disaster and war rages in Afghanistan, the Georgia TV news decided their lead story would be a hand drawn dick in a game box? Really?

If I hadn’t read the actual news article myself I’d assume it was a prank article. But no, it’s real. Expect the number of hand drawn wangs in second hand game boxes to increase at this news.

Just look at that, a potential smorgasbord of hand drawn pornography