This Call Of Duty: Ghosts Cut Scene Is Copied From Modern Warfare 2 [VIDEO]

Call of Duty has come under scrutiny in recent years, with critics quick to point out that each new version is merely a rehash of the previous, and that Infinity Ward / Activision is simply milking what has certainly become something of a cash cow, and the $1 billion made in 24-hours is there to prove it. But now, as YouTube user satantribal has pointed out, there may be a great deal of truth in this claim, since it looks as though the same cut-scene from Modern Warfare 2 has been reused with the all-new Call of Duty: Ghosts. A side-by-side video clip from both titles has been thrown together by the YouTuber that you can check out below, although it’d be a little cruel on some if we didn’t throw in a customary spoiler alert.

As you will see in the following 18-second snippet (spoiler alert by the way), it’s almost a frame-by-frame carbon copy of the MW2 scene, and although it’s only a minor cut-and-paste, only but underlines the notion that CoD is becoming a tired annual touch-up of the same game.

Call of Duty: Ghosts was only released yesterday, November 5th, and while plenty of gamers turned out for the many thousands of special midnight openings of retail outlets worldwide, it remains to be seen whether fans of the franchise are as captivated as they’ve seemed to be these past few years. When more numbers are published in the coming days, apart from the ones published today, we’ll surely find out for certain, whether or not the game will live up to the developers’ hype or not and will cement itself as a true record breaker.

The title’s cause will be greatly helped by the fact that it is among the launch titles for the next-gen consoles – something GTA 5 is not – and as many gaming fans hold off purchasing new titles for current generation machines, we could see a spike in CoD: Ghosts sales this holiday season.

Whatever the case may be, there’s increasing argument that CoD is becoming a little too samey, and the clip below seems to underline this notion. Check it out, and be sure to leave your own thoughts and opinions on the matter by dropping a comment via the usual channels!

Google Play Newsstand Goes Live For Android, Coming Soon To iOS [VIDEO]

Apple’s iOS Newsstand app has been around since iOS 5, and ever since, there has been much rumor and speculation pertaining Google’s alternative effort. During the past couple of weeks, reports have increased considerably, with a general feeling that a release would be imminent. Today, the time has come for the app to make its official debut over at the Play Store, and naturally, it also signals the demise of the now obsolete Play Magazines and Currents apps. Details, as ever, can be found after the break.

Google has been making moves over the past couple of years to tie similar services into unified apps, and now, Newsstand allows Android users to check out the latest news publications, find magazines on a myriad of topics, check online feeds and so on.

With a generally simple, clean interface, it’s easy enough to use, and if you’re an avid follower of news and current affairs, it’s one download you’ll want to be making. All of the currently available publications within the Play Store, including the likes of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, can be accessed in a convenient manner, and with bookmarking also available for reading at a later date, you can really streamline your content to suit you.

Unfortunately, it appears that the bookmarking feature doesn’t also apply to segments of magazines, but hopefully, in time, this feature will be made available.

If you have the Play Magazines app installed, you can get Newsstand right now by simply updating, and if you don’t simply fire up the Play Store app, search for Newsstand, and voila, or just hit the download link below. Same applies for the Currents app.

Sure this app is by no means the most exciting export from the search giant in recent times, but it is long overdue, and although this only the first draft of Magazines’ new life as Newsstand, it’s a pretty solid starting point. Also, the official Newsstand app will be making its way to iOS very soon. It makes us wonder if Apple will even approve the app considering the title of the app itself.

If you’ve used Flipboard before, you will notice elements of the popular magazine app in this, but while there’ll be the usual debate on companies copying each other, the fact that Google has based the app upon well-made, pre-existing services is definitely good for users.

Microsoft’s Scroogled Merchandise Is Now Available To Buy, In Case You Want It

Microsoft’s “Scroogled” campaign, a series of ads that takes on Google’s products and services regarding policies and privacy, has been running for around a year now, and today, the company has taken things up a notch or two by making Scroogled memorabilia available over at the the Microsoft Store. Ranging from mugs to items of clothing bearing the Scroogled mantra, it seems that the software maker’s smear campaign is far from over, and if you happen to be an advocate of the movement, now you can even have yourself a (lousy) t-shirt.

Opinion has been divided as to whether Scroogled has had much of an effect not only on raising awareness about privacy issues, but helping Microsoft to clinch some of Google’s market share in the process. Search, for example, is one area in which the Windows maker has sought to gain, and in pointing out some of the Big G’s inconsistencies with some of its policies and such, Microsoft’s own Bing has continued to post record market share. Guess the Scroogled campaign – which, by the way, Microsoft is reported to have spent at least seven figures on – is working, right?

Well, not exactly. Microsoft’s gains in the field of search appear to have been at the expense of others (mainly Yahoo), since Google has actually been making some small, but still noteworthy gains of its own. Similarly, Scroogled has pointed ad nauseam at Google’s, or specifically Gmail’s scanning of all correspondence for the purpose of ads, but has this seen a flurry of users on Gmail pack their bags and head off to Outlook.com? The jury on this one, is most certainly out.

As regular readers may know I installed each and every iOS 7 beta on my iPhone. As if that wasn’t stressful enough, I also posted my thoughts on each new beta here at Redmond Pieand while the iOS 7 betas have obviously come to a close, that doesn’t mean that our beta adventure is over. Earlier today Apple made iOS 7.1 beta 1 available to testers. As a tester of various beta releases of apps, that includes me.

It’s pretty late and I’ve been using beta 1 for a few hours now. I’ve not had any issues so far, but then it’s only been around a handsome amount of minutes since the update finished so it’s not really been a good test of stability. Still, a few hours worth of stability is better than ten minutes of crashes, so we should be thankful for small mercies here I think.

As for things that I have noticed off the bat, it’s pretty safe to say that iOS 7.1 beta 1 is faster than its previous incarnations. As was the case with each new version of 7.x, iOS 7.1 appears to have had the time it takes for animations to complete tweaked. This is particularly noticeable when invoking the Control Center panel, which now flies upwards with a distinctly springy feel. Closing out of apps and multitasking feels faster now too, again due to what I perceive to be a collection of shortened animations and transitions. I’ve not timed anything and this is all far from scientific, but to coin a Mac phrase that has become something of a meme, iOS 7.1 certainly feels ‘snappier.’

More tangible changes are the new Yahoo! and flickr logos here and there.

(iOS 7.0.4 on left vs iOS 7.1 beta 1 on right)

The Camera app now has an Auto HDR mode that, if I’m honest, I don’t really understand yet, and is something which you’ll only find on the iPhone 5s. Did I mention it’s only been a few hours?

Fans of the black keyboard will be pleased to hear that a new accessibility option means that the white version can now be eschewed in favor of its black alternative throughout iOS.

Other accessibility enhancements allow extra contrast to be applied to things like folders and the dock, too. ‘Reduce Transparency’ and ‘Darken Colors’ are the two new option added underSettings > Accessibility > Increase Contrast

You can now upload all the burst shots right to your Photo Stream, something which iOS 7.0.4 doesn’t let you do, or any iteration of iOS 7 for that matter. And again, this is an iPhone 5s specific feature.

Also, if you pull down Notification Center, you’ll notice when you don’t have notifications or missed notifications, you’ll see right-at-your-face text in the middle of the screen informing you what you don’t have… notifications.

Remember the tweaked ‘Reduce Motion’ animations added in iOS 7.0.3?, well when turned on, those new fade animations now apply to Multitasking animation too starting from iOS 7.1.

All in all, I’d take iOS 7.1 just for the smoother and quicker animations. It’s still super early days for iOS 7.1 though, and with the beta not expiring until January we’ve got plenty of time to get to know it unless Apple starts pushing new betas – or the final release – before then. With beta 1 we’ve got a good start, and with numerous bug fixes beneath the hood we should be in for a good update this time around.

 

Thanks To RandomPie