Boo-hoooo, Portal 2 is too short. Well guess what, punks? Valve is releasing free DLC this summer, that's what. Just go ahead and ignore that '5 reasons to hate' article...
The first Portal 2 DLC will feature"new test chambers for players, leaderboards, challenge mode for single and multiplayer modes, and more,"and will be released free for all platforms. No specific release date has been set, but Valve says that the DLC is"in development"and targeted for this summer.
Close to a year ago Driver: San Francisco was just a rumored reinvention of the classic car series. People have been awaiting this reboot from new series publisher Ubisoft ever since, and at last Ubi not only detailed the game’s story in this new trailer, but finally gave a date for the title…
We’ll at long last get our hands on the wheel August 30 in the states, while our friends across the pond get it September 2. Will this reignite love for the crime and cars series, or has time passed this franchise by? I guess we know when we’ll find out.
Portal 2's turrets are so gosh darn charming, it's easy to forget that their main function is to straight up murder your ass with cold, remorseless efficiency. Sadly, it's this one small detail that makes them all but impossible to market in the real world, but one Canadian tinkerer has created the next best thing in an death-free, interactive turret plushie.
Named Trudi, the prototype toy was created by an amateur engineer named Jonathan M. Guberman with design and sewing assistance from Toronto artistLeigh Nunan. As demonstrated onGuberman's blog, Trudi is equipped with motion, lift and tilt sensors, giving it - sorry, 'her' - the ability to react to movements and the presence of others with authentic Portal quotes.
Want one? Tough. Though Guberman is forthcoming with the do-it-yourself assembly instructions, he has no current plans to market Trudi, writing,“As much as we’d love to make you one or sell you a kit, the last time I suggested doing something like that I was very quickly dissuaded. So, if anyone from Valve sees this and wants to talk about giving us permission, or at least turning a blind eye, please get in touch!”
In what will surely end in tragedy and/or blinding awesomeness, Guberman said a fellow engineer with the experimental design groupSite 3is working on a fully functional, life-sized Portal turret replica complete with moving parts, real sounds and the ability to fire projectiles. Harmless projectiles, of course.
The upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 'Escalation' DLC will feature a new mode called (and why hasn't this been used before?) 'Call of the Dead.' That muchwe knew, but now we have a trailer which reveals that - wait, what? - Danny Trejo? Sarah Michelle Gellar? Robert"Freddy Kreuger"Englund? Michael Rooker (Merle in AMC's The Walking Dead)? George Romero?! How many non-questions can we ask?! How you do this, Treyarch?
"This is Treyarch's tribute to the legendary George Romero, who truly defined the zombie genre and whose incredible work has been such an inspiration to our team."said Black Ops director Dave Anthony."It was an absolute honor to work with such an amazing and talented cast whose passion and energy brought their characters instantly to life. Fans are going to love this."
While the Romero throwback zombie theme isn't new, it's hard to get enough of, and
It's been a long wait for Hitman fans, but it looks like Hitman 5 may be announced soon. A European trademark filing for Hitman: Absolution under video games and software by Square Enix hints at the possible name of the game. Unless there are two Hitman games currently in development, Absolution is probably the subtitle for the next game in the series.
Hitman 5 was first hinted at in 2007, but the game wasn't confirmed to be in development until 2009. A Hitman-themed ARG on the IO forums ended with a teaser image for the game (see above). Between the filing and the ARG, it seems likely that we'll learn more about the game by E3 at the latest.
Source: Silicon Era
The findings come from a recent undercover shopper study conducted by the FTC which showed only 13% of minors were allowed to purchase M-rated content; that is, games the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) has classified as being suitable for players aged 17 and up. To put that in perspective, 33% of the secret shopping minors were granted access to R-rated movies, 38% were able to rent an R-rated DVD, and a whopping 68% successfully bought a music CD slapped with a parental advisory warning label.
"We are extremely pleased to see the Federal Trade Commission confirm not only that the video game industry continues to have the highest rate of enforcement at retail, but that it continues to climb higher than before,"said ESRB president Patricia Vance."The strong support that the ESRB ratings have enjoyed from retailers is crucial, underscoring their firm commitment to selling video games responsibly."
Of the retailers tested, Gamestop is reported to have performed the best, allowing only 8% of the minors access to the good stuff– er, M-rated games. Target and K-Mart followed closely behind at 9% and 10%, respectively.
Quick, someone call Fox News - they're totally going to want to run with this!
{Source:USA Today}
As hard as it is to believe, Duke Nukem Forever will be on store shelves in a matter of weeks. Soon the cigar-chomping, film-quoting tough guy will forcibly enter all our systems, as the age of Duke begins again, or at least that’s what his publisher hopes. Don’t believe it’s actually going to come out? Will this new extended and uncut version of DNF’s TV ad convince you?
A truncated version of this trailer will premier tonight on the season finale of show Archer on cable channel FX, but we got our hands on the complete version a little early. After such a long ride, it’s hard to believe that Duke is close to coming, so close that a publisher would actually pay for a televised commercial for it. It simply must be ready this time right? Right?
By the way, if you aren’t watching Archer you are stupid. It's seriously one of the funniest shows on TV with one of the best voice casts a cartoon has ever had. Just watch the below trailer to get a small taste:
Where were we? Oh right Duke. Yeah, that new trailer is pretty nice too.
Um… the end?
I love Max Payne (platonically), but I'm still not sure I love his new, old bald dude persona. Today, Rockstar released a new batch of screens from EDGE's cover story, and while bald Payne makes several appearances, so does a much more Payne-like Payne. Perhaps the game includes flashbacks, or just a significant amount of time progression. Or maybe bald Payne is his long-lost brother (one can hope). I should probably just read the EDGE feature, but until then,
Valve is a studio rich with secrets, but one of the longest enduring mysteries has been the identities of the two dudes with red hardware sticking out of their heads in the opening credits of every game. Thankfully, one fan saw fit to ask the developer straight up for an answer, and though the names remain lost to time, we now at least know how Valve found its mascots.
In response to an email inquiry from Reddit user vism, Valve's Ray Ueno said that he was part of the original 1995 team who developed the off-beat visuals, recalling:
"Interesting that you should ask about the bald guy. Back then, the casting agencies we were using to find models only had 'supermodel'-type talent. We kept requesting 'heavy-set', 'normal' models, and they kept sending us 'beautiful', 'thin', 'perfect' headshots to review. So, we finally asked them to just go out on the street and pull 'everyday Joes' who were more 'interesting', 'common', and for the bald guy, 'kinda big, heavy-set, and bald.'"
As Ueno remembers it, the search required Valve staffers to hit the streets of Seattle and take photos of the specific type of bald people they were after. Eventually, they found the perfect specimen and invited him to the studio to shoot the iconic image that now graces Valve's opening screen. Ueno noted the same process was used to put together the second shot of a guy with a valve protruding from his eye, rounding out the studio's 'Open Your Mind. Open Your Eyes' brand campaign.
Thinking back on the model's actual identities, Ueno admits,“It's been very long since we did that work, so we don't know who the models were. And the fact that they weren't professional models would make it very difficult to find them - if not impossible for the bald guy (not facing camera).”
We may never know specific names, but at least we have a spiffy piece of videogame history to tell over a few drinks.
{Source: Kotaku}
Here's some good news for those late to the tea party. Alice: Madness Returns will include a download code for a console port of the original American McGee's Alice. Released for the PC in 2000, the original Alice was a 3rd person action game with a heavy emphasis on platforming, and has built a substantial cult following over the years. Recently McGee has said that demand for the game has continued unabated for most of the past decade, even in Japan. The version included with Madness Returns will be the first console port of the game.
EA, which is publishing Madness Returns, has made next-gen ports of classic games a staple in their special editions and pre-order bonuses. Dead Space: Extraction, originally a Wii game, was included in the limited edition PS3 version of Dead Space 2, and 2001’s Medal of Honor: Frontline was included in the PS3 version of 2010's Medal of Honor. It's currently unclear if the original Alice will also be available as a downloadable game separate from Madness Returns.
Source: CVG
Telltale is unstoppable: Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, Walking Dead, and now, Law& Order. The company announced its partnership with NBC Universal and a new series of episodic adventure games based off of the newest Law& Order spinoff, Law& Order: Los Angeles.
Due out later this year, Telltale promises the game will include both investigation sections and courtroom scenes like the original TV show. The company'srecent track record with adaptations gives both adventure game fans and viewers of the TV show reason to be excited. Let’s just hope it turns out better than thelast TV show that Telltale adapted.
Source: Joystiq
That motherlode? Half-Life.
Yeah. Half-Life. Finally, blessedly, mercifully, after our years of frustration and faith, it looks like sweet, sweet Half-Life might be set for its next reveal. My feelings? Incandescent, explosive joy, obviously, and also a hint of smugness, because I called this one in an excitable semi-drunken tweet to Tyler Wilde the other night. What was my (non-booze-related) reasoning for that tweet, and what is the evidence backing up this latest potential development? Well...
First up, the latest edition of the unofficial Steamcast podcast featured an unexpected morse code message. The hosts claim to have had no knowledge of it previous of the podcast's release (Are they hoaxing? Are they in cahoots with Valve? Either is possible, but the optimistic side of me swings towards the latter), and a quick translation of the message revealed the following non-beepy human words:
"It’s not over. The others have been compromised"
More Aperture Science game-infestation to come? More revelations? A bigger, second wave of the ARG about to fire up?It's entirely possible. But there's something even better.
The Portal 2 ARG site has recieved a message from Valve, in the form of an Aperture Science internal memo:
Judging by the early buzz, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim's massive world seems like a natural home for an online multiplayer mode. But while Bethesda admits adding such a feature to the upcoming open world fantasy game is entirely possible, the studio is dead set against doing so, believing it would ultimately weaken the core single player experience.
"Certainly we could do multiplayer. Unquestionably. It's not a thing we're technically incapable of figuring out,” said Bethesda's marketing boss Pete Hines in an interview with Edge magazine, continuing,“But when we draw up the list of things we'd like to have cut or change in order to support that feature, what we end up with is unpalatable. It'd make a lesser version of the game. And there is no doubt on the dev side that that is the case."
Hines said he's opposed to including multiplayer functionality simply so Bethesda can say it is keeping up with online trends. Nonetheless, he understands the desire amongst fans to see the franchise expand beyond its single player trappings, noting,“It's not wrong or unreasonable for people to want to experience a game with their friends, or want to do things with folks online. There's nothing wrong with that at all. What we've tried to do is help people understand that in game development, it's all about trade-offs. One of our mantras here is that you can do anything - you just can't do everything.”
Arguments against the so-called act of 'shoe-horning' multiplayer modes into predominantly single player games have popped up a lot recently. In hisinterview with Edgelast week, Gearbox's Randy Pitchford took a dig at games like Dead Space 2 which, in his opinion, sacrificed the creative integrity of the product by implementing multiplayer modes simply to sell more units, explaining,“When you boil it down to that, you take the ability to make good decisions out of the picture. And the reason they do it is because they notice that the biggest blockbusters offer a little bit for every kind of consumer. You have people that want co-op and competitive, and players who want to immerse themselves in deep fiction. But the concept has to speak to that automatically; it can’t be forced. That’s the problem.”
Rocksteady has also said it will besticking to single playerfor its highly anticipated sequel, Batman: Arkham City, as spending any amount of time on a multiplayer component would take away from the studio's main focus.
"It might not be the fashionable choice, it might not get us an extra tick on the box, but we are convinced, and we hope that gamers will agree when they get to play the finished game, that we have made the right decision,"noted Rocksteady Game Director, Sefton Hill.
Bethesda's reluctance to hop on the multiplayer bandwagon is understandable, though adding the option to bring friends along for the adventure could be a natural evolution for the series rather than an 'extra tick on the box'. Or could it? Are you content to enjoy Skyrim alone, or would you like to see Bethesda branch out?
{Source:CVG}
One misconception about Canadians is that we spend our lives obsessing over hockey, guzzling superior beer and adding extra vowels to our words. This is simply not true– we do all that,
Rumors that the completion of the Portal 2 ARG would result in an early release of Portal 2 on Steam were half right. The game isn't available just yet, but after GLaDOS' countdown completed,a new page appearedwhich indicates that more Potato Sack players are needed to generate the"computing power required for launch."
Very clever, Valve. At least it's not as if contributing to the early launch is so bad, given that it involves playing some great indie titles, like Bit.Trip Beat, Audiosurf, and Super Meat Boy.
Treyarch has announced that it is readying the release of a Call of Duty: Black Ops PC mod tool kit for sometime this May, making good on its pre-release promise to give the non-console crowd the means by which to play god on the battelfield. Well, sort of.
The message wasrelayed in a tweetyesterday evening by 'pcdev', and was confirmed in a re-tweet by Treyarch's community managerJosh Olinearlier today. No details have yet been given as to what powers the mod tools will afford, but the studio indicated last year that it would not necessarily be a free-for-all creation kit, saying,"We do not know yet to what extent you will be able to mod the game. There are some purely technical issues related to engine and internal tool enhancements that do not easily fit the modtools paradigm."
Treyarch has been tinkering with the mod tool kit since the game's development, but put the release on the backburner to focus on polishing (read: bug fixing) the game itself.
The studio also recently announced Call of Duty: Black Ops' next map pack, Escalation, will bearriving for Xbox 360on May 3rd.
{Source:Eurogamer}
It’s gaming for a cause. The latest edition of The Humble Indie Bundle is on sale now. The new Humble Frozenbyte Bundle contains Trine, Shadowgrounds, and Shadowgrounds: Survivor. Buyers will also receive Jack the Claw and Splot. Both Jack the Claw and Splot are in development and will be made available once they are completed.
Above: The Humble Frozenbyte Bundle trailer
Above: You should donate at least one dollar. Anything less would be an insult. Also, this image pops up if you try to lowball the cause
The games are DRM free, work on Windows, Mac, or Linux, and proceeds go to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Child’s Play. Buyers can set their own price, and even determine how much money goes to developers and how much money goes to charity. While it’s possible to pay as little as a dollar for the bundle, the top contributor has paid $1,500. That donation comes from the game streaming service, OnLive. At the time of writing, the Humble Frozenbyte Bundle has raised a total of $419,062.30. Unfortunately, despite the likeable pay-what-you-want pricing scheme and feel good philosophy of the project, there were still those who chose to pirate the first Indie Bundle. For shame.
Valve (in conjunction with Aperture, of course), has released the final Portal 2"product"trailer. The new promotional spot introduces Aperture's one-of-a-kind"Long Fall Boot,"with a fantastic clip of Chell getting acrobatic with her new Moon Shoes. The clip is, as usual, narrated by Aperture founder Cave Johnson, voiced by J.K. Simmons.
Valve's redesign of Chell is more apparent than ever here - while she still acts as a vessel for the player, she seems to be expressing far more resolve than her original lab rat persona. More resolve, and more badassery. Next Tuesday can't come soon enough. Well, unless you messed with the earth's rotation to make it come sooner, because that'd probably end up killing us all. That would be too soon.
While $3 billion isn’t much in the grand scheme of the global economy, the payment structure of most virtual item farms is surprisingly equitable to the individual farmers. In a typical transaction cited by the study, over 95% of the cash reaches the country where farming is occurring; 45% of that reaches the individual farm and 23% of each dollar sold reaches the individual farmer who collected the item or gold. Compare that to the $70 billion-a-year coffee industry, which only sends back $5.5 billion annually to the countries that farm the beans, and an ever smaller amount reaching individual farms and farmers.
30% of the gold farming is being done by humans working in shifts and manually controlling a character, while 50% come from bots. Stolen and hacked accounts make up the remaining 20%. The study only takes into account the kinds of transactions done through third party suppliers and farmers, not micro-transactions built into games.
PopCap Games has created a label dedicated to producing bite-sized games with a little more teeth. Called 4th& Battery, the new division will give PopCap developers the freedom to tinker with edgier, more adult games which would otherwise sully PopCap Games' good name.
Revealed today, the studio will launch in fine fashion with a game about a homicidal flying horse who enjoys killing birds and pushing his friends into meat grinders, appropriately entitled Unpleasant Horse. Crank up the volume to get the most out of its trailer:
Above: Not Bejeweled
"4th& Battery is a pressure valve intended to keep our heads from exploding,"explained PopCap's executive VP of studios, Ed Allard.
"The PopCap brand has become closely associated with ultra-high quality, polish and attention to detail— which is a great thing. But our standard game development process is therefore long and involved, and doesn’t really accommodate all of the creativity pumping through our collective veins. 4th& Battery gives us a way to quickly try really strange or marginal ideas, and to give our designers a safe area to hone their chops."
That's understandable. After years of working on games like Zuma, Bookworm Adventures, and Peggle, one is bound to get an itch for a bit of the old ultra-violence; at least, more than somePlants vs Zombiescan provide. Understanding this, the higher-ups at PopCap Games will stay at arms length from 4th& Battery, allowing its staff free reign over their quirky pet projects without having to worry about things like production schedules, corporate visions or even if they will sell.
"It’s kind of the videogame equivalent of B-sides or short films,"explained Jason Kapalka, co-founder and Chief Creative Officer at PopCap, adding,"Expect weirdness."
4th& Battery will produce a handful of games per year for PC and iOS devices. Unpleasant Horse will be available in the App Store for free later this month.
{Source:4th& Battery}
GamesRadar’s beta key bonanza continues. This week, we have keys to get you into the closed beta for Gunshine.net, a surprisingly fun urban dungeon crawler. Don’t be too quick to dismiss this one. The browser based game offers a most acceptable RPG/action affair for those looking to kill some time.
Set in Dawnbreak City, a manmade island run by an evil mega corporation, Gunshine starts off a little slow with a prison break and series of simple quests that double as a tutorial. But as you keep picking up quests and start developing your character the game quickly picks up.
Gunshine may be more about gangs and guns on the island dystopia, but cleaning up the streets with your own brand of shotgun justice feels more like a cross between Diablo and Syndicate. Early quests are well designed with a surprising level of polish for a browser based game. It looks like there’s also nice mix of singleplayer quests and more challenging encounters that require you to team up with friends.
That being said, Gunshine will be a free-to-play game when it launches– and with that comes micro-transactions. It didn’t take more than a few hours in the beta to come across a treasure box promising rare items. The catch is that it would’ve cost us some Diamonds to open it– and filling your pockets with Diamonds will cost you some real money once the game goes live.
Above: Gunshine.net will work the social media angle with Facebook connect. Feel free to friend me (Tyler Nagata) on Facebook. You can hire my hunter to help you shoot stuff
Gunshine also seems to block off certain events and areas from players based on your character’s credibility stat, which can be raised by hiring NPC mercenaries, wearing special gear, or by using the game’s Facebook connect feature to get your friends playing and added to your in-game list of Gunshine gangsters who’ll vouch for you. If you’re friends are online, you can group up and tackle bosses and more difficult challenges in real time. Or, if your Facebook friends are offline, you can still invite their characters along for a fight and just let the AI simulate their play style.
It’s too soon to tell whether or not Gunshine’s micro-transactions will be a deal breaker. We also haven’t had much of a chance to check out Gunshine’s social media suaveness with its option to bring along bot versions of your Facebook friends. But it’s not too soon to try Gunshine.net right now for some free fun as you quest for XP and loot.
Above: A trailer for Gunshine.net
To its credit, Gunshine is also incredibly quick to set up. It doesn’t require a client download or any plug-ins and will pop up in a new browser window as soon as you start playing. So if you’re reading this, you’ll be all set to start playing in just a few minutes after you get your key. Speaking of which…
2. Head to our Gunshine.net closed beta key page to get your code.
3. Make a note of your code and follow the instructions to register for the game and download the client.
4. Enjoy!
Today, Gearbox released part one of a series of Duke Nukem Forever behind-the-scenes trailers meant to educate the world on the series' legacy, and the world definitely needs filling in. The Duke franchise was...
Game Informer's May cover has been revealed and, as expected, it's all Mass Effect 3. The issue will contain an exclusive 12-page feature on the series' grand finale, which, judging by the art, will be really, really grand...
Above: Shepard's got that"not gonna take shit"stance perfected. (Click the image for big)
"Commander Shepard has already saved the galaxy twice, but the final entry in the Mass Effect trilogy could be either the hero's last stand or finest hour. Earth is in jeopardy, entire civilizations are at risk, and we've got all the details. Our latest issue has 12 pages of exclusive info, screens, and art that no Mass Effect fan should miss,"reads Game Informer's post.
The May issue should arrive soon for subscribers, and GI promises additional online coverage throughout the month, which, if you
GamesRadar’s Web Designer Cheryll Del Rosario is a lot cooler than me. Last weekend, I organized my closet and took a really long nap. Trust me. It was ultra boring. Meanwhile, Cheryll was busy stomping through the streets of San Francisco’s Chinatown, kicking ass, drinking bubble tea, and looking amazing in her awesome Chun-Li outfit. Check out the highlights from her journey in our Super Cheryll Photo Tour!
Above: Photographs by Lydia Chen Photography
Above: Like I said, Cheryll is way cool. Follow her on Twitter (@_cheryll) for more fun updates!
Oh no. Portal 2 isn't even out yet, but we're already building up a new, bigger arsenal of inside jokes. Just wait until it releases on the 18th... we'll be hearing Cave Johnson quotes for the next five years, at least.
In the latest trailer, the Aperture founder, who is voiced by J.K. Simmons, introduces us to the new 'consumer version' of Aperture's turrets. We always wondered how they stored so many bullets...
Apple will release a DirectX 11-capable device in a few years, said Epic VP Mark Rein in an interview with trade magazine Develop. Rein also said that Unreal Engine on DX11 is a big enough technical leap to justify the cost of developing next generation consoles.
Rein's comments follow the unveiling of a new tech demo at the 2011 Game Developers Conference. The“Samaitan real-time demo” shows off the kinds of DX11eye candy developers can expect to produce with the updated Unreal Development Kit.“The DX11 demo itself, that's our love letter to hardware manufacturers. We're able to give people another road map. If companies are building new consoles - and, who knows, I mean Apple just released an iPad that's nine times the power of its predecessor,” said Rein.
Above: The Unreal Engine 3 Samaritan Real-Time Demo, which was first revealed at the 2011 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco
“If Apple continues on this scale, they'll have a device that can run this {points to Unreal Engine DX11 demo} in a couple of years. But, that demo we've shown is aimed at the game console makers. We're telling them that this is the big leap that we think justifies that new piece of hardware you're going to build, and we're telling them that this is what we need next-gen consoles to be capable of, because we can't build a more powerful PC than the one that's running the DX11 demo! {Laughs}” he continued.
Nearly all of the games inthe team's staggering listare the real deal -"dusty, smelly old cartridges,"as the site puts it. The event, by the way, is being organized by GR reader Kyle Owsen and four friends - he tipped us off to their marathon earlier this week, and how could we not promote something that both supports charity and features 26 Colecovision games?!
Aside from the joy of seeing classic games dug out of a box and given the love they deserve, and the happy feelings that come with donating to charity, the team will begiving away some of its retro gamecollection during the event. If you ever wanted your very own boxed copy of Star Strike, now's your chance!
Good luck guys!
Steam has dominated the digital distribution marketplace for several years now, and Impulse has been one of its most aggressive competitors. However, despite aggressive sales and a fair number of exclusives, they have trailed Steam alongside Games for Windows Marketplace and Direct2Drive.
The purchase comes alongside the acquisition of Spawn Labs, a company specializing in streaming technology. Judging by GameStop's description of Spawn Labs, it seems that it's also planning on taking on OnLive as well as Steam.“Once the Spawn Labs integration and testing on a new consumer interface is complete, users will have immediate access to a wide selection of high-definition video games on demand on any Internet-enabled device,” said the retailer in apress release.
Development delays following the game’s appearance at last year’s Tokyo Game Show called the future of the title into question. However, Capcom said as recently as February that the game was still in development.
The cancellation leaves series fans with few games to look forward to other than the 2.5D Korean-developed Mega Man Online.
