Gamecenter custom servers

[gobeavs]

I'm a Gamespot Complete member, and they now are having a "Sneak Peek" of their new Gamecenter service for us....and one of the coolest features of this service is the custom servers.

I can create a RANKED server using Gamecenter's servers and bandwidth, but I can choose the settings - maps to be played, how many rounds per map, map size, location of the server (only East and West USA for now), etc. Plus, I think I have admin on the server. w00t! Anyway, it is still in effectively a beta phase, so there are things to work out; but hopefully I can test all this out tomarrow, it sorta sounds too good to be true...:D

It will cost money when Gamecenter actually launches, but this could be a relatively cheap alternative to having our own server (plus this is ranked).

EDIT: Bah...hate to plug this thing any more, but they deserve it...great technical support! I was hanging out in the BF2 chat room and someone had a problem with the custom server, and one of the "big wigs" popped out of nowhere and answered it...then proceeded to answer questions from others in the chat...oh well, at this point I'm really enamored.

[gobeavs]

Ok...good stuff. Just tried it out...a summary:

-I do have admin, and can just give the password out to whoever wants/needs it so whoever wants to can have admin here.
-Server stays open till it empties, so as long as someone is in it it will stay on.
-I didn't give the server much load, but it had decent pings.
-I can name it however I want...and it should show up in the server listings. I also control what maps are in the rotation.

The one thing is that the recent patch made it so the game doesn't start till 10 people are in. Although hopefully if we have a couple of 5ACG'ers, since it is ranked it should fill up decently quickly.

I can start one of these anytime, so if we get a group together we can have our own custom server whenever we want (for now..until the sneek peek runs out and if I don't buy it).

[CPangracs]

Extreme Coolness!