I thought it would be fun to share some advanced visitor statistics. I know It’s not exactly fun, but it amuses me for a while. All statistics are correct from December 1st. Behold the power of the interweb!

http://nomoregoatsoup.wordpress.com blog stats

• Total views: 1,090,246
• Busiest day: 4,719 — Sunday, March 30, 2008
• Views today: 1,231

Totals

• Posts: 78
• Comments: 1,291
• Categories: 48
• Tags: 10

Top Posts for all days ending 2009-12-01 (Summarized)

Title	Views
*UPDATED* Unofficial Audigy Series Softw	108,723
Sound Blaster Audigy series Vista Suppor	90,536
Audigy Series Vista Driver Pack 2	80,514
Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector XP/Vista Dr	73,318
Audigy Drivers	69,431
How To Fully Uninstall Creative Drivers	56,224
Playing DTS Audio Files In Windows Media	45,423
Fix Punkbuster On Windows 7 (Restriction	43,214
Getting Your X-Fi or Audigy’s Dolby and	36,969
FREE Creative ALchemy “Universal” 1.00.0	24,274
Audigy Series Vista Driver Pack	24,205
Creative MediaSource 5 Player/Organizer	23,021
X-Fi Vista Support Pack v2.15.0004 Drive	21,778
New Audigy Drivers XP Vista SBAX_PCDRV_L	21,342
Getting Better Windows 7/Vista Performan	20,807
Audigy Series Vista Driver – 9th May 200	18,360
SB Product Index	17,803
X-Fi Crystalizer for SB Audigy Series	13,312
Dolby Digital Live Pack – SB Audigy Seri	13,187
Working 5.1 Audigy Series Vista Drivers	10,932
X-Fi series Driver 2.18.0004 – 30th July	8,874
Audigy dts Support	8,614
Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector XP/Vista Dr	7,820
New Audigy Drivers 2.18.0011 For XP/Vist	7,789
Working 5.1 Dolby Digital Encoding Throu	7,635
WTF Is This?	7,446
Daniel Kawakami Says Goodbye	7,131
Official Audigy Beta Driver SBAX_PCDRVBE	6,634
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy series Dri	6,533
daniel_k’s Creative SB Audigy Series Sup	5,708
daniel_k’s SB Audigy Series Support Pack	4,954
Creative WaveStudio 7.10.24	4,633
RocketDock – Too Cool To Keep To Myself	4,221
Enable Windows Media Player Enhancements	4,114
daniel_k’s Vista Support Pack 3.1 + dts	4,114
Creative ALchemy 1.10.01 Available	3,686
Creative X-Fi / Audigy Speakers Resets T	3,582
Guru3D – Driver Sweeper v1.0 Final Relas	3,459
Daniel Kawakami Speaks On Wired	2,667
ALchemy 1.20.04 1st August 2008	2,472
Audigy Series and Dolby Digital Live. Wh	2,396
Creative MediaSource DVD-Audio Player 2.	2,057
Xpert Vision ATi HD 3850 PCI-E Graphics	1,945
atikmdag.exe Errors in Vista. What Is To	1,727
Dolby Digital Live For Audigy Hotfix (Wo	1,634
Half-Life 2 – Review From www.unreality.	1,605
Creative Hound daniel_k Again?	1,399
DTS Realtime Digital Encoding For Audigy	1,239
Getting EAX Audio Effects To Work In Win	1,090
RejZoR’s OpenAL Generic Fixer	1,048
Creative Open Source Incomplete Linux X-	948
Audigy Series Vista Drivers Coming!	931
Creative Labs Kill Third Party Developme	899
WTF is CMSS?	866
Nexus: The Jupiter Incident – Game Revie	821
Creative “Offer” ALchemy Refunds For Aud	795
l_dolby_digital_live_pack11	565
New Driver Sweeper – Version 1.5.5	506
Left 4 Dead – It scares me!	479
Street Fighter IV PC Release Date Announ	413
New Team Fortress 2 Update Sneak Peak.	400
Super Smash Bros. Brawl! European Releas	379
halflife2	372
More Creative Fun!	343
Creative Get Slaughtered On Cafepress	301
Old Game Reviews From Unreality.com	282
Wen Iz New Driver, NoMoreGoatSoup?	260
I Have Team Fortress 2 Wooohooo!!	228
Street Fighter IV Benchmark	194
Guild Wars: Eye Of The North Sneak Peek	167
s24844_pc_1	159
Finally did it	134
It’s Been A While…	125
Download Paul “Midas Touch” Taylor’s Mix	115
Moment of Silence -Review from www.unrea	88
Freakin’ Me Out	80
nexus_3	78
24885	60
Insane In The House Brain	56
half-life-2-20041121083841425	52
Tribes: Vengance – Review from www.Unrea	51
halflife_2	30
half-life_2_hdr_2770605	30
Police Brutality or Yob Culture?	29
Billy Hotdog (Mustard Mix)	26
Only 2 Weeks Until Guild Wars: Eye of th	25
55071884-nexus021	25
My Experiences With Virgin Media’s Appal	22
hl2_deathmatch	21
rhnicxvipe	21
New Midas Touch “Full Hit” Hip-Hop Mix	20
city17	13
halflife2_city17_trainstationsquare	10
nexus1	9
Vacancy	8
sg4wl_sf4_cover_o	7
CaptainHook (Hooks From Heaven) 80’s Ele	7
half_life_2_box	6
roflcopter	5

Current Country Totals (From 24 Aug 2009 to 24 Nov 2009)

There’s a lot of rumors flying around message boards across the internet that Episode 3 news is imminent. And while I hate to be debbie downer – it’s not. We’re not going to hear anything (at least not soon, as rumors would have you believe).

I’m greatly disturbed that a person running a fake twitter account posing as Gabe Newell (twitter.com/GabeNewell) is managing to fool so many people – for the record Gabe Newell does not have any twitter account at all. I was made aware of the fake Gabe yesterday, and have been wondering just why whoever the person behind the account is was keeping up the charade for so damn long. But then today there was a link posted to a supposed trailer for Episode 3. The link directs you to a website called rolenation.com where you are instructed to sign up to view the trailer, and a tiny little message also says “Valve, if you want to discuss buying this domain. E-Mail me at kuromeku@gmail.com”

So that is apparently what this is all about. Some peon driving traffic to his website by masquerading as a Valve staff member. Fail kuromeku, fail.

My only other puzzling thought is – why hasn’t Valve had this fake account yanked yet? It doesn’t serve any purpose but pissing people off even more when they get their hopes up and are let down.

Nothing to do but go back to the waiting game and hope we hear some (legitimate) news someday in the near future.

–Stephanie

First off I have to say that I am incredibly excited for the L4D2 to come out. I had tried playing the original, I sucked at it, and didn’t enjoy it at all. Then Dylan had me try the L4D2 Demo and it was like the video game Gods were shining down on me. I am officially converted!

So anyway – last night me, Dylan and two friends were playing the demo together. After playing a few rounds one of the guys says “hey, I’m going to play as special”

w-w-w-whaaat?

Turns out you can open the console and manually switch yourself to special infected by typing set_infected 1 (to switch back substitute a 0 for the 1).
It does cause the game to glitch out a bit – we ended up with between four to nine Coaches and a couple Rochelle’s, but we did get to test out the specials and they are very fun. The AI survivors are actually pretty smart too, even when all of us human players had turned to zombies it didn’t drastically change the difficulty of the game.

Here’s a video of gameplay from last night:

It’ll be interesting to see how teamplay changes based on what class you are – I definitely think that with some coordination and strategizing we could see some very powerful teams of infected.

Left 4 Dead 2 comes out November 17th and you can pre-order it now on Steam.

–Stephanie

What’s up everyone, I’m here on the verge of finishing Left 4 Dead 1.  I must say I haven’t had this much fun playing a FPS in a while.  So let’s just say I’m a bit strapped financially, and need some suggestions.  Alexis at GamingBits.com so far has me sold on Borderlands.

I need to add also that I am an RPG fanatic so the game seems like a must buy.  I also appreciate the fact that Gearbox Software made a fast paced title, unlike Fallout 3, which I can’t play for long periods of time.

Next on the platter is Assassin’s Creed 2.  I am a huge fan of the storyline, I completed part one, 3 times.  This version of the game looks and moves like heavy improvements were implemented.  Ubisoft seems to be adding a lot more RPG elements to the gameplay and varying the side missions.  Can you tell I like RPG games? LOL.

Last, unfortunately for me, is the title being released the same day as AC2; Left 4 Dead 2.  Part 1 has no storyline, which is kind of good, it let’s you create your own mythos mentally.  Valve Software did a great thing with this and luckily the gameplay is addictive enough to distract you from this omission.  The sequel actually looks like there will be more story elements, since this was implied by the trailer.

Replay value is a must along with diversity and enjoyability.  Multiplayer is not a major focus for me, so we might as well factor that into the equation also.  It’s unfortunate in these economic times, I am stuck with this decision.  Of course, I am sure my fellow gamers can help me out. Thanks in advance.

-Sha’ul

Tonight I’ll be sampling some good old vinyl, and piecing together a bouillabaisse (or paella) of sound.  Some dusty Vinyl, Ableton Live, the MPD 24 and occasional dabbling with Left 4 Dead, and tonight I’ll create some wildness.  I may drop another post later on some ol’ “editorial” shit like I’ve been doing before.

Take care.

-Sha’ul

We had a bit of a hands-on with Left 4 Dead 2 the other day. Well, this demo is pretty small, much like the last one. You play the campaign The Parish, first two chapters. You start of in the usual areas as L4D1, a table with weapons, health packs, and the new additions: the defibrillator and melee weapons! After playing it a few times, the generation of melee weapon seems to be random. Machete, guitar, and frying pan seem to be the typical spawn, but you have to give up a pistol to grab one.

I’m not going to go very deep into what the level looks like but I will say that it’s pretty. The basic infected look about the same, but now that you play in the day time, you get an even better look at them. It’s the same thing with the special infected. The daylight setting really is a good chance to see what everything looks like with the extra work put into the sequel. Many people were worried that the day setting would destroy the gameplay when it comes to the special infected because they would stick out too much, making the game too easy. Not true, they look just the same as they would in  L4D1.  Otherwise, the environment is nice; very scary and atmospheric.

A few tweaks have been given to the D-pad, including shock paddles. Yes, you can now choose to bring a teammate back from the dead with a defibrillator. Don’t worry, they are actually alive and not undead, so you will not have to concern yourself with shooting a fellow survivor. With the gain of the d-fib, you have to give up you beloved med kit, which may make you the savior of the squad, but also brings you that much closer to death. Hitting down on the D-pad injects a shot of adrenaline. Oh man, this stuff is the shit! As far as I can tell, it gives you a sudden boost of speed, making it easier to run past the hordes of zombies. Left on the D-Pad contains your pipe bombs, flaming Molotovs, and boomer bile in a vial, the newest addition to your throw-ables! It covers a lucky target in what the boomer typically covers you in, causing zombies to eat the target “alive.” Last, but not least is up, which sadly is still just a flashlight. Oh well, I was hoping for a win button right there.

Ok so now onto the guns!
Shotguns: 2 pumps (different strokes for different folks), 2 autos (the new one makes a bigger boom)

Assult rifles: M16 (same as always), SCAR (burst fire mode all the time, tons of DPS)

Submachine Guns: The same thing expect one goes tititititit and the other goes blamblamblamblam, plus a little smaller, so… not exactly the same thing, but you get the idea.

Sniper Rifles: Hunting Rifle (Same old thing), and a G3 maybe? Not sure, but it’s really loud and goes through things

Odd ends: Closed Captions is color coded. Bright colors too, making them easy to read. It’s freaking sweet. Other than that… I’m not sure, but by the time anyone reads this, you can probably download it yourself, so try it out. It’s f-cking fun and really? Welcome to Valve, people. It’s what they do.

The Half-Life universe has been on my mind lately, especially after seeing this ridiculously cool looking mod yesterday. So I’ve gone searching on deviantART.com for some more fan art, this time focusing on the Half-Life universe. Some of this stuff is awesome, some funny, and some is just plain weird. Enjoy!

jFury on deviantART

Click to view the full versions on deviantART

Francisgenois on deviantART

the-other-mike on deviantART


Ramr0t on deviantART

ChemicalAlia on deviantART

kingaby on deviantART

Feimi on deviantART

Wostok on deviantART

lunairetic on deviantART

Carsis on deviantART

FallenAngelSkyla on deviantART

Done any fan-art? Well friggin show us already!

–S

Welcome to part 2 of JOMG’s ASCIIpOrtal launch-day interview with programmer Joe Larson. We’ve still got lots of things to cover, including Slashdotting, level editing, ASCIIpOrtal Online & more…

(If you haven’t already read part 1, you’d better do that first.)

ASCIIpOrtal - just as disorientating as that other game.

Joe, the big “discovery” of ASCIIpOrtal came via a tweet from Erin Robinson on July 7…

The day after my birthday…

Well, it’s one birthday you won’t forget. Now, if JOMG readers don’t know Erin, could you tell us a bit about her, her games & how you discovered her?

I discovered her when she was featured on an episode of Bytejacker. She’s big in the adventure game community and produced the excellent game Nanobots among others. When she was featured on Bytejacker she was just starting to make money doing these games.

Oh, and speaking of Offworld, the editor helped with beta testing the Mac build and discovered the last bug I fixed… before the release of the game.

The Slashdot story that broke the server's back

Now, it’s time for a bit of “THIS IS YOUR LIFE”. (Cue the music) Joe’s friend Devin Watson was online when the Slashdot post (about ASCIIpOrtal) went up. I asked Devin about the events of that night…

Devin: I’ve been reading Slashdot since around 1999. During that time I had seen many a site fold under the heavy traffic load. When I saw the article on the main page I knew what was coming. Traffic would be low at that moment (as “America was asleep”) but in a few hours it would hit the roof.

Once he was awake and aware of what was going on we got on IRC and apologized for killing the RR server. The RR guys were really cool about the whole thing once we told them where all of the traffic was coming from. In-between spikes in traffic we managed to get into the system and turn caching on to help take some of the load off.

Devin, what else can you tell me about ASCIIpOrtal, or about Joe himself?

I remember when Joe first asked me about working on ASCIIpOrtal about a year ago. At the time I was writing a book and couldn’t help out on it, but I did find some time to make a small contribution to Cymon’s Games. When he explained ASCIIpOrtal to me, though, I grokked the concept. He has that ‘teacher gene’ in him.

Other ideas we tossed around were… more about what we’d like to see in Portal 2. Things that would really screw with player’s heads like using graviton beams to bend things around corners or through portals to trigger other things, variable-sized portals, time-delay closing/opening portals on enemies, and so on. The kind of things that would be either very difficult or impossible to represent in text but would perfect for 3D.

Thanks very much Devin.

A counting machine - on a usemade map

Now, back to you Joe. What was the nicest thing you read, that was written about the project?

Joe: Mostly I’m just overwhelmed by the response. I mean, I thought this was cool, and I was hoping that other people would like it. I think my favorite comment was Anthony on Bytejacker who wiped a tear from his eye as he said “He always said he’d make a text game work… I didn’t believe him.” Second favorite is you, Gabe. Even before you saw the portal mechanic in action you were impressed simply because of my use of the heart character as a companion cube. That’s vision.

Thanks Joe. Now, after the initial publicity, you had lots of people offering to be beta testers. Can you tell us about that?

That first 24 hours was pretty intense. I’ve kept about a dozen people in the loop at any given time. But I’ve dropped people if they were just mooching, because they wanted to play the game early. There were a lot of those. It was tempting to just do it all myself, but then there were a lot of things that I wouldn’t have found on my own. I just had to trust people and there were many disappointments, but then… there were many successes too.

Mad Lund's unofficial map editor

You were going to get people to make their own levels via “text files” but then Mads Lund made a level designer for the game. What impact has – and will – this have on the project?

I want to see lots of people making their own levels for this game. Easy levels, hard levels, funny levels, amazing levels. Some of the best innovations in the game didn’t come from me. But the thing is, I’ve only made levels using text files, I’m totally used to looking at the maps that way, and I’m probably the only one who is. My plan… was if ASCIIpOrtal took off after release I was going to make an updated version with a map editor built in. Hopefully, Mads’ editor will give that effort a jump start.

What are your plans in terms of user-made maps? Will there be some way to find/vote on/download the more popular creations?

That’s an excellent idea. At the moment it’ll just have to be feedback in the forums, but I think a system of storing levels online and voting on them would be an excellent idea for the future.

The map editor in action

Peter Nitch is making an online version of the game. How will it differ from the standard one?

Alchemy, Adobe’s way of turning C/C++ into a flash program, has some major bug related to strings that’s preventing the port from working. So the online version will have to wait for now. However, this gives me an opportunity to make the online version a big update. When I finally get ASCIIpOrtal online working, I may implement what you suggested with the finding/voting system, as well as a built in map editor. Maybe I’ll take a page from Fantastic Contraption and setup a pay model for special content. I’m still experimenting with ideas.

What's the collective noun for many companion cubes?

You’ve said you’re doing your best to make ASCIIpOrtal cross-platform compatible. What’s the latest regarding Linux & Mac builds?

Mac and Linux 64 builds are compiled and will be available for download. Linux 32 build… I need someone to provide me binaries, but it should be possible as-is.

You’re including the source code with your release. What is your thought behind this, and what do you hope becomes of it?

I want to have access to other people’s work so I can learn from it and make my own stuff, so it’d be ungrateful and wrong of me not to release my source code. Every time someone keeps their code a secret they limit the life of what they write. In 10 years when “whatever they have then” stops working with “whatever we’ve got now” that’s *IT* for your project. Think of the back library of great games that would be awesome to see running on modern systems and we can’t… because someone decided they didn’t want anyone to know “how they did what they did”. It’s a crying shame.

The closing screen - on a recent Youtube trailer

You’ve said previously that you wanted to make an “ASCII” game first, and a portal game second. Do you feel you’ve achieved that?

I pretty much feel I’m achieved everything I set out to do and way more. Well, except for making it small enough to be a type-in.

Let’s say the original Portal developers (& other Valve staffers) are reading this interview. What would you like to say to them?

Call me!

No, seriously, I’d say to the folks who made Narbacular Drop and Portal.. Great job… making something so awesome seem blatantly obvious and “why-didn’t-anyone-do-this-before”. And to the Valve folks… I’d say great work… spotting great talent and giving them health benefits. I assume working at Valve has health benefits, I don’t know.

The Borealis - concept art from the Half Life game series

Finally, you’re a fan of the Portal/Half Life universe, and I read recently your interesting prediction of what might be unveiled in Half Life: Episode 3. Could you please share it with us?

My theory goes like this. Chell, the person you’re playing in Portal, isn’t testing the portal gun at all. It’s complete and works pretty good. Maybe Chell is just a part of the machine, a clone that is produced and ran through a set of constantly changing test chambers, and her responses to the changes are monitored, recorded, sorted, and stored in GlaDOS’ AI components. Then the aggressive ones are plugged into combat androids so they can fight better.
When I played the map pack on the PC based on the flash version called TFV map pack they also seemed to think Chell was a clone and there was a bit where you load a bunch of AI units on the Borealis, so maybe I’m not the only one thinking along those lines. Maybe the Borealis has a whole portal wielding android army with passive aggressive voices to help fight back the combine.

Mostly – I just want to see the game come out. Been hanging on this cliff for a while now!

Joe, thanks so much – and good luck with your future projects.

Thanks for spotting this a mile away and being impressed with it.

ASCIIpOrtal is now available to download.

Valve announced tonight that they would be stripping all items from people using external applications to idle on Team Fortress 2 in order to farm items, namely the new hats that have been introduced.

The announcement has gained over 100 comments since being posted a little over 30 minutes ago. People have been coming out on both sides of the argument about this policy, but the general theme seems to be in support of the idlers. Speaking about idling versus playing, one Facebook user commented saying:

“What’s the difference? You sit and get a hat, you sit while clicking WASD (E and Q and w.e else you have mapped) and the left mouse button AND get a hat.”

Many players agree, citing that if Valve would make the items more readily dropped, or change the system to one where the extra hats and other items are available through achievements, the need for cheating would cease to exist. Some others say that fighting against the loophole of idling is a waste of time and that Valve should be using its manpower for more useful things like bug fixes and updates.

Personally I feel torn; on the one hand, cheaters are annoying, and generally I think if someone wants something they should earn it. But I also think it’s unwise for Valve to make the items available through random drops instead of achievements. I think the best resolution would be to wipe the cheaters items out, give everyone else the option to reset, and then change the item system to be achievement based.

What do you think?

–S

The other day, I decided I would email Gabe Newell (of Valve Software), and tell him that I appreciated Valve, and all the wonderful stuff they do. I also sent a few questions. This morning I get to work  and check my inbox, and bam! I see a message from Gabe (with a capital “G”, apparently) in there.

Anyway, here’s the questions and answers. As you can tell, Gabe is a busy guy, so his answers are pretty short. Also, I only put in a few easy questions, because I didn’t want to be too much of a nuisance.

Do you get a chance to play your own games very much? I know with all the work you do, you’ve got to stay pretty busy, but I’m sure you get to see a lot of the games, but do you ever get much time to toy with the final products?

Yes. Pretty much everyone at Valve plays our own games during the course of development (a couple of hundred hours to several thousand hours depending upon what else they have going on). We all test the updates as well. Valve doesn’t have a standalone test department.

Do you get much time to keep up with new games? Do you play many other modern shooters (Call of Duty series? Crysis? FEAR?)

Not so much lately. My spare entertainment cycles are spent over the last 6 months teaching myself to be a machinist.

(I’m positive this has been asked, but I’m curious…) I’ve heard you’re a big fan of WoW/MMO’s; how would you feel about making an MMO? Obviously you’ve pulled in a few RPG~ type elements to TF2 (the item drops, the backpack, class building); do you plan to continue meshing genre’s or could you see Valve stepping 100% toward a more traditional MMO? What kind of innovations do you think could make the world of MMO’s more immersive, fresh and fun?

A bunch of people at Valve would love to work on an MMO (and many have at previous jobs), but we don’t have the bandwidth to do enough for our existing games much less do something as distracting as a full blown MMO.

Obviously you have a lot of fans, many of which are interested in game development, so i’m sure you get a lot of “would you hire me?” messages; out of curiosity, how selective is Valve Software? It’s very obvious you hire only very skilled and experienced artists and programmers, but roughly how many applications do you receive regularly? I imagine it’s a large volume.

Kathy (CC’d) could give you the detailed numbers, but we get hundreds of resumes a week, and hire about once person a week (at least lately)

That’s all. There are more questions I’d like to ask, but I don’t want to bug the guy. He has got to get more emails than nearly anyone on the planet. Also, I know, pics or it didn’t happen; I’ll snap some when I get home maybe

ps: Call of Juarez: Bound In Blood is on the way for the game review. As for anime, I still need to do more Toaru Majutsu no Index. maybe this weekend.

Flower (Thatgamecompany, 2009)

Originally I was going to do a Sixth Sense style twist at the end of this.  You know, build everything up to a climax using clever dialogue and arguments, only to shatter the illusion right at the end.  But I’m a straight shooter, so I’ll just go ahead and say it up front. Innovation and Risk in the gaming industry are not the same thing.  While sometimes they can be used in the same sentence, and often compliment one another quite well, they definitely are not the same thing.

There are games that are risky business prospects for whatever reason; new IP, new developer, release window, going up against the newest Halo game (god I wish I could’ve stopped saying that when I “finished the fight…”); but not at all innovative.  There are also games that are innovative but not risky for the publisher – for example I would be surprised if the Last Guardian didn’t sell in excess of 1 million copies worldwide.

Some people point to right now in the games industry being at somewhat of a turning point. Last year we had Braid, World of Goo and Little Big Planet and this year we’ve got the behemoths of the gaming industry turning to smaller, more conceptual videogames; enter Epic games with Shadow Complex and the PSN masterpieces Noby Noby Boy and Flower.  Yeah, I can see where they’re coming from, there’s a whole lot of good stuff coming from the indie and small development houses. And you can spot the stuff a mile away.  It’s innovative, interesting, usually sports a cool aesthetic and moreover, is dead cheap.  But it’s not like Jesus has arrived for the first time and everyone is clambering to get a glimpse.

Mirror's Edge (DICE, 2008)

Now, Scorn me if you want, but I’ve seen all this before. And if you grew up here in sunny Australia, or over there in the miserable, dark, evil empire that is the UK, chances are you did too (no, I really love the UK, but as I write this the Ashes series is playing out, and it would simply be blasphemous if I didn’t take a shot at our ‘fierce’ cricketing rivals).  You see, we had this fascination with this company known as Commodore from the early eighties right through to the early to almost the mid nineties.  Its not that we didn’t love the Japanese for all their playing games in your living room on television madness; it’s just that there was something inherently cool about the ‘business machine’.  I could talk about the history of Commodore forever.  But I won’t, so consider this statement an abridged form of that discussion; the Commodore 64 was cool, yes, but the Amiga 500 was where it was at.

And for mine, it was the home of innovation for the best part of 10 years or so.  I’m not going to take away the shine from Nintendo’s salvation of the videogames industry; I mean if it wasn’t for good ol’ Ninty I might be writing about books right now.  And that’s no fun.  Tolstoy is a grumpy bastard.  But the Amiga was where a good number of genres we find on retail stores and on Steam took their first breath.  And if you think I’m being a sentimental git; like your grandfather trying to convince you that Frank Sinatra is better than My Chemical Romance (he’d be right), how’s this for a breeding ground for talent:  Peter Molyneux, David Jones.  Not ring a bell?  How about Populous, Fable, Lemmings or Grand Theft Auto? Chances are whatever you’re playing right now; it has some connection to the Amiga’s days of yore – and to continue the analogy, there was a whole lot of love making going on in the Commodore camp. And it was definitely a case of kiss and tell in these days as developers began to exploit the hardware and designed innovative games that broke the boundaries of game design at the time.  Add to this a very fertile demo scene and you’ve got yourself a hotbed of originality; for the mostpart.

“So what does this have to do with the here and now” I hear you impatient Generation after Y’s ask?  Well a hell of a damn lot actually.  The current flurry of triple-A titles appearing from indie developers on services like Steam, XBLA and PSN is entirely reminiscent of the scene surrounding the Amiga 500 almost 20 years ago.

Let’s move forward 20 years and look at 2008.  Mirror’s Edge, DICE’s brilliant first person runner was incredibly innovative in that we as gamers had never seen anything like it before.  It was in first person, but it wasn’t a shooter.  Not only this but it was a radical departure from any other control scheme I’ve ever seen, distilling it down to a small number of context sensitive inputs corresponding to simple actions such as ‘up’ or ‘down’.  Yes, they did include guns, maybe a move to put at ease the minds of red blooded gamers who have never seen a first person view without a weapon at the bottom of the screen, but all in all, Mirror’s Edge provided us with an experience that you could not find anywhere else.  Similarly, LittleBigPlanet from Media Molecule is the epitome of innovation and creativity thus far this generation; possibly even the biggest change up for the industry in the past five years or so, introducing a real community and incentive to produce good quality user generated content – an idea that outside of the PC community has not been seen.  And because of this, it was risky

Braid too was innovative, and that’s as far as the comparison holds…

Back in the day it was entirely plausible that the game that you were playing was made by two guys in a basement, while eating mum’s leftovers from last night and drinking scores of Coca Cola.  ‘Another World’ for example – you know that cult classic that everyone so fondly remembers for its beautiful animation and cinematic feel?  Yeah, well that game was programmed by one such dude named Eric Chahi over a two year timeframe.  The art, the music, the concept; all Chahi.  And all on the humble, but terribly powerful for its time Amiga 500.

Another World (Delphine Software, 1991)

INTERESTING FACT : For those of you old (and cool…) enough to remember Deluxe Paint, all the graphics for ANOTHER WORLD were done using this rather simple, yet deep drawing tool. Deluxe paint was developed by Electronic Arts.

While that type of scenario is not entirely absent nowadays, the more likely scenario nowadays is a small team, you know like staff numbers in the ten’s rather than the 100’s.  But even while Braid is an exception to the rule; with the game from start to finish being mostly developed and programmed by Jonathan Blow, it still costed in excess of  the relatively small amount of $200 000 to develop. So obviously the advances in technology has almost made it a prerequisite that the teams be larger than they were back in the day, with this growth in team size, and in turn budget there is an inherent problem in dipping your toes into the creativity gene pool. And yes, as with any other business or industry, the game industry has a right (and a need) to make profit…

You know the saying the bigger they are, the harder they fall?  Well that’s where the element of risk comes into it.  Because rather than a bit of spare time and the cost of the equipment being wasted on something that is innovative, unique and in turn possibly terrifying to the general populous, the stakes are higher.  Innovation is no doubt a catch-22.  If Ubisoft, EA or Microsoft Game studios (I’ll leave Activision out of this, there’s no risk in releasing the same game 25 times a year…) release a game that is new, creative, something unlike what the market has ever seen before and it doesn’t perform at retail, chances are there will be no sequel, or worse case the studio will be dissolved.  Clover studios at Capcom following the release of Okami is a prime example.  And there are a number of reasons that the games may not perform at retail- high price points, release clashes with the Halos of the world and of course, the current GFC.  Taking all this into account, if you were a developer, or more importantly a publisher, would you take a risk on something at the expense of your bottom line?  If you’re even thinking about it; here’s the answer :  Hell no.

Okami (Clover Studio, 2006)

Because of this underlying fear of underperformance of a title, innovation has become somewhat of a buzz word in the industry nowadays.  Moreover, it is a term that from my view is vastly overused by developers keen to drum up interest in their games. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying that none of the current generation of games aren’t innovative, but it’s not a pandemic running rampant through the industry at the moment (it may be different in the multiplayer space, but I am not really someone who indulges in XBL or PSN gaming).

So what should publishers and developers do?  Let me preface this by saying that I’m not in the gaming industry, and I don’t pretend to swing above my weight.  That’s not what I’m here to do.  What I’m trying to do is to get discussion going (please comment), and moreover hear everyone’s opinions on the issue.  But in my view there are a number of things that the industry could do to keep pushing forward.

1. Continue the current trend of large publishers and developers acquiring smaller studios;
2. Increase the prominence of digital distribution streams for more ‘niche’ titles; and
3. Change the way the more innovative and unique games are marketed and packaged (Portal is a good example)

The aim of this article isn’t to rant and rave like a disillusioned and bitter senior citizen.  For starters, I’m only 25 at this point. But secondly, I hold high hopes for the industry’s future.  2008 was a big year (arguably too big) and 2009 is setting itself up for a nice (again too big) flurry in Q4; followed by an even bigger flurry of titles in Q1 2010.  But if publishers are smart, these niche and indie titles that would otherwise get lost in the waves caused by this year’s Call of Duty title, could carve out a nice little place in the market on PSN, XBLA and Steam. Valve were definitely onto a good thing with releasing Portal in conjunction with Half Life 2 Episode 2 – so lets hope that the industry stands up and takes note.  And to all those that profess to enjoy these little gems that come around every now and then – go out and buy them.  Cause in the end we may be a part of the problem…

Games Industry, stand up and take notice.

So there you go, Old Gaulian waxes lyrical (again) about the plight of the gaming industry.  Agree?  Don’t agree?  Got more ideas?  We’d love to hear them!

Who is Gordon Freeman?

That is a surprisingly difficult question to answer. The elements of his character that can be said to be fixed, are insubstantial and provide little that is definitive. In reality there are a hundred thousand Gordon Freemans, a million. Each person who plays Half-Life has a subtly different interpretation of who Gordon Freeman is yet in each instance he is explicitly not the player; he may be of a different race, a different gender, or may simply have a different name. At the same time it cannot accurately be said that Gordon Freeman is a specific pre-authored character. He is in fact a composite entity who’s authorship is shared between two different individuals separated by a multitude of factors, not least time and physical location.

The precise nature of this shared authorship is unique to the interactive medium however there are some striking similarities to a type of authorship that has been occurring for decades in other media. Let me present another question.

Who is Batman?

I expect everybody reading this has an instant mental image of a specific character. Everybody’s mental depiction of Batman will share some key similarities but the precise nature of that character will be subtly different. Some will be more influenced by the recent work of Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale, others might go back further with a concept of Batman heavily based around the work of Tim Burton and Micheal Keaton, or that of Frank Miller, or Tim Sale and Jeph Leob. Over the years, hundreds of different artists have reinterpreted the character of Bruce Wayne and Batman through the lens of their own tastes and beliefs. Each of these is unique and yet all of them are still identifiably Batman.

Consider how this relates to the original question: Who is Gordon Freeman? There are some fixed elements of Freeman’s character, defined by Marc Laidlaw and Valve Software, the rest is constantly reinterpreted by each player through the lens of their own actions. In one instance Gordon Freeman is cold, methodical and precise, in another he is messy, aggressive and violent.

Much as each writer, or actor, brings their own style to the character of Batman, each player brings their own style to the character of Gordon Freeman.

The specific instance of Gordon Freeman each player experiences exists within the common ground constrained by the boundaries set down by the original creators and those imposed by the actions of the player.

This is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to shared authorship, but even in an otherwise linear game such as Half-Life there is a layer of player interpretation that makes every player’s experience uniquely theirs.

Valve Speaks out on Left 4 Dead 2 with OXCGN-pt 2

“C’mon, c’mon, trust us on this one!”

by Aaron Bertinetti – ©2009.

In Part 1 of my interview with Chet “Mr. Awesome” Faliszek, Writer on Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, we discussed why Valve was so keen on a quick sequel along with the smorgasbord of new features coming this November including weapons, items, enemies, maps, weather, characters, and of course the vastly enhanced AI Director 2.0. You can read all about it right here.

In Part 2, we explore what Valve thinks that people like the boycotters should be doing and why Valve’s confident they can convince them to change their minds. I also probe for hints about Left 4 Dead 2’s beginning, the characters, the storytelling, marketing, and why Valve are so confident about releasing a week after Modern Warfare 2!

There’s also some talk about beers, bets and keeping secret projects, well, secret!

• E3 Left 4 Dead 2 Official Trailer

Part 2 – “C’mon, c’mon, trust us on this one!”

OXCGN: Can you give any back story about the characters?

Chet Faliszek: Well we start off in Savannah, and it’s a world not touched by the zombie infection yet. It actually hits while you’re there, while you’re just starting the game.

OXCGN: So do you start with guns in your hand?

Chet Faliszek: Well [pause] we’re not going to give away all of that yet. But you start early on and the four characters all meet up together and you go from there. And the world’s changing as well as you’re doing this. Right, so Left 4 Dead 1, the cities are almost interchangeable, one’s on fire, one’s not, but they’re at the same state.

OXCGN: Do these characters know one another prior?

Chet Faliszek: No. They meet right there. We kind of have that arc and the characters actually have an arc they go through while you’re playing. And the world has an arc that it goes through as you’re playing as well and you get to see the change that happens.

OXCGN: So I assume you’re taking the same approach as the first one and also Portal, in regards to the storytelling as you’re playing?

Chet Faliszek: Yeah storytelling as you’re playing. It’s not all just graffiti, graffiti plays into it and everything else but also we’ve worked on how some of the characters interact, enhancing the talking and dialogue. I’m excited about it.

OXCGN: So am I!

[Laughs]

OXCGN: But that said the first game was surprisingly commercially successful, and I think it deserved that success, but considering it came out I think it was five days after Gears of War 2.

Chet Faliszek: Yeah.

OXCGN: Given that, I think Doug (Lombardi) gave an interview with EDGE the other day in which he was talking about the marketing campaign. Can you give any insight about that and how you’re going to get noticed a week after Modern Warfare 2?

Chet Faliszek: So one of the things is I think the marketing campaign had a good deal of help and it got people to come out. But also we just took it out everywhere and we let people play it and we’re doing that now right, we’re at E3 and we’re already playing it.

OXCGN: Five, six months out.

Chet Faliszek: Yeah and I look at the forums and it’s depending on which forum. If you’re looking at a 360 forum it’s 90% positive, 10% negative. If you’re looking at a PC forum, it depends on which one you’re looking at…

[Laughs]

Chet Faliszek: If you look at our Steam powered forums, yeah it’s a little rougher. But it’s like those people man, we’re going to take it around to some this year, so play the game and then come talk to me. So it’s kinda like when we had the update in Left 4 Dead 1 where we changed the melee and the fatigue, where people were writing in that they wanted their money back because it “was the worst change ever and we ruined the game for them”.

So Gabe (Newell) forwards me those emails and I respond “well here’s my Steam account, here’s my Live account, lets play. Lets play and lets talk about it.” Until one is like “Oh you know what, I reacted without really playing it, now that I’ve played it I don’t even notice it anymore. You’re right it’s not really a big change unless you’re kind of spamming away.” And I’m like “yeah we actually…”

OXCGN: We playtest this!

[Laughs]

Chet Faliszek: Yeah, we playtest the hell out of it. So it’s almost like I just want to yell “C’mon, c’mon trust us on this one!”

OXCGN: That’s right.

Chet Faliszek: Check it out, learn about it, play it if you get a chance to play it, and then come back to me and see if you’re still willing to say those things and lets talk about it. Because as a customer I think if someone just says “hey Left 4 Dead 2”, I’m going to have some reactions that are similar to them.

Right, I’m a fan of games, when games come out I’m critical and looking for changes as well so I can understand that, but equally I’m swayed and won over again and again, so they should check it out (first).

OXCGN: Final question. Can you give us any news or any hints about  anything else that might be coming from Valve?

Chet Faliszek: Ah sorry.

OXCGN: Sorry?

[Laughs]

Chet Faliszek: We kept the secret of Left 4 Dead 2 pretty held tight.

OXCGN: Yeah I thought you kept it pretty good.

Chet Faliszek: Yeah.

OXCGN: Although I actually won a bet when it turned up at the conference.

Chet Faliszek: Oh you did?

OXCGN: Yeah so I’ve got a case of beer waiting for me when I get home.

Chet Faliszek: So do you owe me beers? Do you owe me a beer? I think you owe me a beer!

OXCGN: Well if you want to have a beer, tell me where and when and I’ll go…

[Laughs]

OXCGN: As long as I get to play more of that [pointing to Left 4 Dead 2].

Chet Faliszek: Yeah okay, well we’ve kept a good secret and so we’re just keeping quiet on everything else. Sorry.

OXCGN: Fantastic. Thanks very much.

Chet Faliszek: Thank you sir!

Fin.

That’s the end of our Left 4 Dead 2 Interview. You can revisit the feature rich Part 1 here or keep an eye out for our Hands On Preview in the coming week. Special thanks to Chet Faliszek, Doug Lombardi and Katie Engel at Valve for their generous time during a crazy E3 2009.

© 2009 Aaron Bertinetti.

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OXCGN’s Left 4 Dead 2 Interview: “We want to fix that!”

by Aaron Bertinetti.

© 2009 Aaron Bertinetti.

During E3 2009, the overwhelming majority of gamers and press were shocked by Valve’s announcement of Left 4 Dead 2 so soon after the multiplayer hit of last year. Thankfully I’d fortuitously booked some time with Valve prior to E3 2009, after a bet with a mate over a case of beer.

Not only did I win a case a beer, but I also got some time to catch up with Valve behind the scenes to play some Left 4 Dead 2 in a private room (with Peter Molyneux no less!) and have a wide ranging chat about the rapidly developed sequel.

In part 1 of my two part interview with Chet “Mr. Awesome” Faliszek, Writer on Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, we talk about why Valve is bringing a sequel so soon after the first and what new features convinced the team that they could outdo last year’s hit just a year later and in spite of the inevitable complaints from parts of the community.

We also cover a bucket load of new features and upgrades coming in the sequel and how Valve just wants to KISS… keep it simple, stupid!

Read on and look out for a revealing and hint heavy Part 2 in two days.

Left 4 Dead 2: Valve’s Zombies killer returns with a vengeance.

done

Part 1 – “We want to fix that!”

OXCGN: Straight off, can you tell me why people should be interested in a sequel that’s coming a year after the first one?

Chet Faliszek: If they love the first game it’s just us doing more of that and even better… and just a ton more.  One of the things is that we play a lot of Left 4 Dead ourselves and we see things like corner stacking, or other stupid gameplay, and we want to fix that!

One of our mantras is the best way to play should be the funnest way to play.

OXCGN: Agreed.

Chet Faliszek: Right, so we’re making those kind of changes. It’s also, we’re talking about marrying the idea of storytelling in a multiplayer game. We’re taking it to the next level in this one. We meet these four just as the infection’s starting in Savannah and we go all the way through to New Orleans with them. And we know what’s going on with them right.

The other four are a little bit more disconnected and here they’re a little bit more connected. And we have that story going through everything.

We’ve got new creatures that you can play. There are five campaigns. You can play versus, co-op, survival and a whole new gameplay mode right out of the gate.

OXCGN: Do we know what that gameplay mode is yet?

Chet Faliszek: Ah… We’re not talking about that yet.

OXCGN: Okay…

Chet Faliszek: We’ve got it ready but we’re not talking about it. [Ed. Playing as the Director?]

We’ve got a chainsaw, we’ve got melee weapons, we’ve got all kinds of cool stuff. We’ve got tons of new weapons. New items like the incendiary ammo. You know there’s a ton of stuff. The Director can make it have storms come!

[Laughs]

OXCGN: Yeah the Director is amazing. Can you talk a little bit about the advances you’ve made with that, in terms of weather, etc?

Chet Faliszek: So like when we first said that the Director can control weather and it rains and it was like “oh yeah it rains, we played in rain in the last one”. But it’s these storms that come up that are claustrophobic and blinding and you’re left with just no idea what’s going on, it’s like being in the cornfields of Blood Harvest right, where it’s just this horribly scary event. You know they’re coming so you’re running to try and find a place to go hide to get ready for them.

We’ve got campaigns where it actually changes the map layout, [pointing to onscreen gameplay] so the next map in this campaign we go into a cemetery, which is classic New Orleans above ground cemetery, and it actually reroutes depending on how you’re doing.

It’s just we’re smarter about how we’re spawning the infected and which infected is deciding to spawn against you to kinda counter your play style. It’s a whole new level of that kind of interaction you already love taken further.

You know one of the things that we’re really aware of is that when you’re talking sequels, the first instinct is to complicate things.

OXCGN: And here you’re keeping it simple.

Chet Faliszek: Yeah, we didn’t really want to do that with Left 4 Dead. Because Left 4 Dead is all about not complicating it. Your friends can jump in, that’s never played before, sit next to you on the couch, split screen and just start playing. We wanted to keep that.

OXCGN: We’re a big fan of the fact that you’ve kept the split screen, because in this day and age it just doesn’t really turn up in many multiplayer games anymore. It’s all about Live.

Chet Faliszek: Yeah and so we wanted to have that you jump in and you go. And on top of that we just wanted to make it cooler for all those people who were playing that.

OXCGN: Cool. What brought on the melee weapons and incendiary ammo? Is there a mechanical reason behind that?

Chet Faliszek: Well first of all to release a zombie game without a chainsaw, you know we apologise…

[Laughs]

Chet Faliszek: …we fixed that right away.

The melee was something we always just talked about. I mean we talk about horror films, zombie films, zombie games, and Left 4 Dead all the time at work. So the team that got Left 4 Dead out the door was a group that had worked together at that point for, the whole team, like nine months and it had previously been worked on by other people. I worked on it for longer than that, but the core team was forty five people for nine months.

We shipped it and we all came back after a little break  and said “lets make more, lets do more, this is what I want to do, this is what I want to fix, this is my idea” and so we put it all up on the whiteboard and we realised that we all had this shared vision of this game we wanted to make and so this is what Left 4 Dead 2 is gonna be.

Fin.

Come back tomorrow for the sequel, Part 2 of our Left 4 Dead 2 Interview, where we answer the questions for the lovers, the haters and the undecided zombie killers out there. Special thanks to Chet Faliszek, Doug Lombardi and Katie Engel at Valve for their generous time during a crazy E3 2009.

© 2009 Aaron Bertinetti.

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To the dismay of many Half-Life fans, Half-Life 2: Episode 3 did not make an appearance at this year’s E3. In its place was the surprising announcement for Left 4 Dead 2, a sequel to the original that came out less than a year ago. Many Valve supporters were upset by this announcement, arguing that Left 4 Dead 2 should have been the downloadable content Valve promised for the first game. However, Doug Lombardi and Chet Faliszek of Valve clarified L4D2’s status as a full-blown sequel in an interview with ShackNews:

Yeah. At the end of the day, this is going to be a bigger game than Left 4 Dead. It’s five campaigns versus four, all five are playable in Versus mode, Survival mode out of the box, the new multiplayer game mode. Plus over 20 new weapons and items. It’s a full sequel.”

When I first saw the trailer, I wasn’t feeling as pessimistic as the other Valve fans. The idea of a Left 4 Dead game chronicling the story of four new survivors in New Orleans is a pretty cool premise to me. For me, it gives a greater universal feel to the Left 4 Dead games. It’s also important to mention that there are melee weapons in the sequel: axes, chainsaws, frying pans and more. Check out the trailer for yourself and see what you think.

One of the most exciting components for this sequel is the AI Director 2.0 that will have full control over weather effects. So while you may have noticed the sunny atmosphere in the trailer, all that will change to the AI director’s will when you’re in-game. I’m also excited about the prospect of a lot of new weapons and new special infected.

While I am disappointed that HL2: Episode 3 did not get shown at this year’s E3, I’m confident we’ll be hearing about the game sometime this summer. And we have to trust Valve on this, because while Valve’s development process is usually long and delay-ridden, their games always turn out to be the best in the market.

Here’s a Left 4 Dead 2 gameplay video to hold you for now:

It’s been 19 months since Valve Software released the jam-packed Orange Box, featuring Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2. Now that we’ve seen the release of Left 4 Dead and countless TF2 updates, I think it’s time that Valve opens their collective piehole about the next Half-Life game. It’s not even funny anymore. It’s been 19 months!

Yes, Valve released two concept art pieces for Half-Life 2: Episode 3. They are both great and compelling. Lets look at ‘em:

Those look pretty cool, but what else do we know about the game? NOTHING! NOTHING! Nothing besides what the end of Episode 2 implies.

Many of us Valve fans have been patiently and impatiently waiting for some information about the new game, but nothing else has come out besides the fact that Episode 3 will end the Half-Life 2 story-arc. E3 starts this week and Valve is going to make some presentations on Tuesday, so let us hope that they will spill the beans about the continuing adventures of our beloved silent scientist.

-smash- from HalfLife2.net will be meeting with Valve Software at the E3 on Tuesday at 2pm PST (5pm EST), and he has created a Twitter account to update on his findings about Valve’s latest projects, so be sure to follow him right here. Who knows… maybe we’ll hear about Portal 2 also! All I really want is some info on Episode 3 and possibly a release date (yeah right) and I’ll be golden.

I’m working on a proper follow up/continuation of narrative in games part 1 but for now here are a couple of examples of games that might prove problematic if considered as representative of traditional narrative forms.

iFluid – Indie games are always going to be the place to go if you want to look for innovation in both game play and narrative (see my review of Braid for example) and if you’re looking for a story that just wouldn’t work in any other medium the iFluid is suitable. It’s available on Valve’s digital download platform Steam, which also sells and supports other independent game companies, and it’s worth a look as it’s inexpensive but highly innovative and interesting. You play as a droplet of water, controlled using mouse and keyboard with the ability to double jump, pick up more droplets along the way to increase your health, and manipulate the various objects around a super sized kitchen in order to reach your goal. There’s no real story, you’re just a drop of water that is semi-sentient, trying to get from A to B whilst avoiding absorbent surfaces. On screen instructions prompt you towards your goal, and they break what can only be called the third wall of gaming by falling from the screen in front of your eyes onto the work surfaces over which you roll your water droplet.

Flower – Another Indie game, this time for the PS3, with even less traditional gaming structure than i-Fluid but arguably more innovation. Though I’ve not played it so I can’t comment on what the experience is really like, there are no menus and no on screen instructions, you just start play and let your instincts guide you. It’s been described as a ‘relaxed’ gaming experience but there is no question of its artistic quality, so whether this makes it more of an interactive work of art than a game is another area for debate.

The basic question in both of these cases is what function does narrative serve and in what way does the player contextualise their playing experience? The main problem most people have with talking about narrative in games is that in some cases it is an entirely arbitrary choice. A developer will have an idea for a game/game play element, build the game and then tack on a story at the end in order to contextualise the player’s actions. This is done in order to provide motivation for the player to keep playing the game and so that they have something to write on the back of the box. Both iFluid and Flower have interesting game play elements which are unique and need no narrative context, though both rely heavily on creating a spatial context and a gaming ‘world’ in which events take place. Flower sets itself up as a purely escapist work, using a dreary apartment room overlooking a grey city as a menu system and presenting each segment of game play as an imaginary, metaphorical escape made real. This is a game which doesn’t have a story but does have a message and a purpose, and it is in this way that games can be a medium of great power beyond a purely narrative level. Ineffable feelings can well up from deep emotional stores that you didn’t know you had, and the way in which reactions are triggered is something I’ll talk a bit more about next time.

This review was first published at www.fappin.com (www.unreality.com) in November 2004

• Genre: Science fiction first-person shooter
• Publisher: Sierra Entertainment
• Developer: http://www.valvesoftware.com/
• Release Date: November 16, 2004
• Homepage: http://orange.half-life2.com/

I feel I should start this review where the story began for me, November 1998; Valve Software released a landmark in gaming history. The title I’m talking about is obviously Half-Life. I saw it in a local retailer and thought it may be the kind of thing I’d like. I paid for it and went home to install and play. I soon found myself in the shoes of Gordon Freeman, a blameless scientist, working at The Black Mesa Research Facility. When a laboratory experiment goes disastrously wrong, scores of aliens and mutants are released into the area. As luck would have it, the Special Forces are deployed to alleviate the situation. Upon arrival it becomes apparent to me that no witnesses can survive, not even me. I was highly appreciative when Gordon took the only option available. He pulled out the shotgun.

Half Life proceeds to be accredited with over 50 “Game of The Year” awards. I cherished the game; the modifications and expansion packs seriously gave a sense of value and depth. Half-Life redefined the whole gaming community, inspiring an online revolution with it. Like a true hero, it seems Mr Freeman has returned to us in our time of need. Half-Life 2 has been in development for several years. The hype since its release was enormous. The few limited screenshots were drooled over by the gaming populace. Soon there were spectacularly beautiful videos and screenshots in abundance.

When November 16th 2004 finally arrived, grown men cried. At the start of the game will you find yourself on the train pulling in to City 17. It this point I was keenly checking out the windows at the fresh world before me. I also felt compelled to interact with the two civilian passengers. I don’t think I made a good impression, however. The train stopped and I stepped out into the station. Here I found those who liked me even less; The Combine. These militants are the brutal law enforcers of City 17. Clad in leather body armour and carrying stun batons to pacify the suffering civilians. Their police radios sound ultra realistic and you can hear them from quite some distance. On several occasions I picked up small objects and threw them at their heads. This made The Combine irritated and often led to a chase. On the occasion I was unfortunate enough to get caught, I received an unsympathetic thrashing that shook my screen aggressively. I decided to leave the constabulary and aggravated civilians instead. By the time I made it outside, I was by now clearly impressed with the lighting, design and overall smooth, interactive game play. The great outdoors was even more remarkable. I found City 17 to be in a distressing and insolvent situation. Ruined buildings and police roadblocks besieged the streets. Flying mechanised spy craft observed my every movement, blinding me with the bursts from their camera flash. High above a projection screen numbs the minds of the weary populace.

Not only did I think this game had admirable graphics, sound and game play, but I also found the actual ambience impressive too. As I progressed through the game, I was amazed at the rate of which the game play accelerated. Every time things began to get the slightest bit repetitive, something would change. When new weapons and vehicles appear, it certainly changes the plot to say the least. The puzzles got harder too. Not too difficult but hard enough to make you think every few minutes. The choice of maps Valve decided upon is wholeheartedly diverse. I enjoyed every map because they were always striking, practical and filled with masses of hostiles. From the toxic swamp to the city ruins, I was wholly impressed with everything.

I’ve heard a few people complain that the game was too short. The game does leave you feeling a little empty once you have completed it. The closest thing I can compare it to would be the end credits of a movie you just enjoyed watching. It was good, but it had to finish somewhere. This is where most games play their multiplayer card. I was a little disappointed that Half-Life 2 didn’t have a multiplayer option, but I can understand why it didn’t. The environments are beautiful without question, but strain even the highest specification machines. I’m certain that twenty players with shadows, flares and reflections in those environments would humble even the fastest PC. You also have to appreciate Half-Life2 does indeed ship with Counter Strike Source after all. Multiplayer has been rumoured, so we’ll have to be patient.

I’ve also seen people posting about technical problems with the game. You only have to glance at The Steam Forums to see masses of posts regarding errors. I found myself reading posts from individuals who where posting about crashes and hang-ups. Most that I could see weren’t even issues with the game, user errors and software issues mainly. I’ve had no technical issues whatsoever with the game, which pleases me greatly as I don’t own an ATI card. This, in turn brings me to the “Nvidia cards run on DirectX 8.1” complaint. I’m happy that Valve chose to do this myself. There’s not a great difference of image quality, but a sizable performance increase between the two. The game still runs smoother and looks nicer than most FPS that I play. This made plenty of gamers consider further hardware upgrades so close to Christmas, I’m certain.

To summarise, this game is obviously the best single player, first person shooter to date. The graphics, sound and game play are all fine examples of superior craftsmanship. Every microscopic object and detail has been thoroughly checked to ensure the authenticity is never compromised. A good example of the depth would be throwing paint pots at the mutants, which covers them with healthy amounts of Teflon white. The environments are littered with countless objects which are all interactive to some extent. When my ammunition depleted, I never hesitated to throw furniture at the hungry hordes.

I was continually excited by every split second of interactive game play. The path I was following rarely felt like the projected route to take. I unquestionably felt quite free and at ease to progress at the pace of my choosing. If there’s anyone out there who hasn’t bought it yet, I’d wonder what they were waiting for. The lifetime spent in development has matured Half-Life 2 to be the unequalled game that it has become.

I’d like to say an extra special thanks to Valve, who not only provided Half-Life 2, but also a full Steam account. You guys rock, and so do your games.

]]> http://nomoregoatsoup.wordpress.com/2009/04/01/new-team-fortress-update-sneak-peak/ Wed, 01 Apr 2009 22:43:21 +0000 nomoregoatsoup http://nomoregoatsoup.wordpress.com/2009/04/01/new-team-fortress-update-sneak-peak/

So there we have it. The first unlockable of the new class has been revealed. You really have to hand it to Valve. Well over a year later and they are still supplying their games with new material. Team Fortress 2 was finished when released, don’t misunderstand. They just keep thinking up so much cool stuff to add to  it.

I was guessing that soldier would get the next update, or spy. As if there weren’t enough snipers already…. I know my kid will love it though.

If I had to pick the best game developer, based on support -it would be Valve regardless.

This is my contribution to the Blogs Of The Round Table for March 2009. The topic this month is the concept of the author, and the role of authorship, in game design.

It’s not uncommon for games from a particular studio to share similar aspects, technologies used have their unique strengths, and artists and designer have their distinct style but occasionally something about a particular developer’s output transcends such aspects and they share a commonality over and beyond that inherently defined by technical limitation or individual style.

Blue Sky Productions, later Looking Glass Studios, was one such company. Founded in 1990 they had the curious misfortune of existing at simultaneously the perfect moment in video game history and twenty years too early.

Intellectual thought provoking games for engaged gamers, it’s possible to identify a unifying theme across every game developed over their eight year life span, even those that fell outside the first person-action-adventure hybrids they are commonly remembered for. A focus on player self expression and shared authorship through object rich environments governed by simulations. It was a philosophy embodied as much in the game designs themselves as the technology behind them. Sometimes that technology was on the cutting edge, as with Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, and sometimes it wasn’t but every feature was there to serve the design, nothing was wasted.

No two games released by Looking Glass Studios (With the exception of the Thief: The Dark Project rerelease Thief Gold and the sequel Thief II: The Metal Age) had the same project lead. Despite this the unique Looking Glass Studios identity can be felt in every title. The stamp of authorship is as clear as it is in any Hitchcock film, yet there is no single individual who stands out as the guiding influence across all titles. The author of the “Looking Glass Studios” game is not one person, it is a gestalt entity, formed by dozens of talented developers working towards a single goal.

When the Looking Glass finally shattered in on May 24th 2000 the shards scattered to the winds, each one reflecting some small aspects of what made Looking Glass Studios what is was. In the years that followed former employees would join virtually every major American game studio, from 2K Boston to Valve, from Bethesda to Vicarious Visions. Across dozens of titles elements of the Looking Glass philosophy can be witnessed, in some cases stronger than others.

Though there is an entire generation of gamers growing up having never heard of Looking Glass Studios, there is another generation for whom the name will always be remembered; gamers now in their mid twenties, thirties and beyond who have redirected their passion for games into a passion for game development. Developers inspired by the intelligence, maturity and creativity of that departed studio who are striving to recapture that self same spirit in their own work.

The gestalt “Looking Glass Studios” author lives on.

Please visit the Blog of the Round Table’s main hall for links to the rest of this month’s entries.

Eeeeeeeeer lomo de atún…

Les había comentado en una de las primeras entradas que era muy, muy fácil conseguir información sobre desarrollo de videojuegos en internet, y particularmente información relativa a la investigación científica en el área, leáse: artículos.

Como yo sé que no Uds. no recuerdan este blog una vez que lo cierran (de hecho no estoy seguro que alguien lo lea) vamos a hacer un ejemplo de tal forma que puedan recordar lo que necesitan hacer sin necesidad de buscar vínculos en esta entrada ¿ok?, así que repeat after me:

1. Coloquen las palabras claves: Biblioteca Alonso Gamero en Super Google, y el primer vínculo debería ser este.
2. Hagan click en Bases de Datos, debe llaverlos a este vínculo.
3. Luego hacen click sobre el vínculo ACM, y verán una hermosa caja de diálogo donde podrán leer “La solicitud solo está disponible desde una IP de la comunidad universitaria”… ¡JA!.

Asumo que ya saben que deben ir a cualquier computador de la UCV (en particular de la Facultad de Ciencias) para entrar a cualquier base de datos de las que vieron listadas. Si aún no saben lo que eso significa quiere decir que su interés por la investigación es nulo, pero para tratar de ser amable les puedo decir que acceder a las bases de datos es tener acceso a todo un inmenso repositorio de investigación que les permitirá actualizarse en el área de su preferencia. La base de datos de ACM es la que nos interesa y la UCV garantiza el acceso a ella en toda su extensión. La verdad es maravilloso para quienes tenemos educación científica, pero cualquier persona que quiera hacer algo novedoso en el área de videojuegos debería ojear la base de datos de ACM, de hecho puede contactarme, cuadrar un día para que visite la facultad, y revisar desde los artículos de Jim Blinn y Bui Tuong Phong, hasta las notas de los cursos dictados en SIGGRAPH el año pasado, y en caso de que sepan lo que quieren pueden escribirme a mi correo y yo podría hacer un esfuerzo por hacerles llegar lo que requieren. Tengan en cuenta que muchos de esos cursos están dirigidos a artistas, animadores e incluso diseñadores de videojuegos, así que yo creo que les pueden resultar útil.

Por otra parte, si les da un poco de ladillita ir a la facultad (sobre todo si vives en el interior, aunque creo que las universidades públicas tienen acceso a las mismas bases de datos, alguien que me confirme por favor), existen par de panas que se vuelan un poco eso del copirait y nos dan este par de regalos: 1 y 2. ¿Por qué no han demandado a esta pareja de asociales?, el truco consiste en decir que los vínculos que tienen llevan a versiones no revisadas de los artículos, las cuales no son las publicadas en los proceedings por lo tanto es de entera potestad de los autores compartirlo. ¿Hay algo de cierto en eso?, sí, bastante de hecho, he tenido la oportunidad de revisar muchos des los artículos una vez publicados o bajarlos de la base de datos de ACM y ciertamente difieren en detalles, pero las diferencias son relativas a la redacción por ejemplo y en nada cambian las conclusiones y métodos expuestos, aún así pueden encontrar muchos artículos desde las páginas que les acabo de dar donde agradecen a los jurados, así que no importa un cuerno, ACM SIGGRAPH y Eurographics no pueden hacer nada al respecto. Recomendaciones: revisen los artículos de todos los SIGGRAPH y Eurographics, SIGGRAPH Asia, Non-Photorealistic Rendering and Animation, Eurographics Sumposyum in Geometry Processing y IEEE/EG Simposyum on Interactive Ray Tracing, son los que más me gustan.

Algo que se pueden tripear es esto,  la página del grupo de investigación de Pixar Animation Studios, quienes publican todo (casi todo) lo que investigan. De pana es un tripeo, para el desarrollo de ANGiE estamos tomando en cuenta Harmonic Coordinates for Character Articulation, Ray Tracing for the Movie ‘Cars’ e Interactive Depth Of  Field, pero les sugiero que revisen High-Quality Rendering using Ray Tracing and Photon Mapping y RenderMan Theory and Practice (mi tesis tiene que ver con este artículo jejejejejejejejejeje). Por si fuera poco, los excelentísimos, excelsísimos, onmipresentes, omniscientes y todopoderosos chicos de Valve Software también les da por compartir su investigación, el vínculo es este. No hay epítetos suficientes para describir la emoción que siento cada vez que abro la página para ver los artículos en lugar de ponerme a terminar mi tesis. Artículos sin desperdicio (todos, pero acá los que considero mejores): Integrating Narrative and Design: a Portal Post-Morten, How to Go from PC to Cross Platform Development Without Killing Your Studio, Illustrative Rendering in Team Fortress 2 y Shading in Valve’s Source Engine.

Por último está GameDev, bueno no por último, estoy dejando por fuera un montón de cosas, pero pueden resultar muy específicas, además que estoy recopilando las que tiene que ver con arte y diseño de juegos, pero volviendo al punto GameDev es una de las más completas páginas sobre desarrollo de videojuegos, y su foro vale su peso en oro (o el peso de los administradores del foro al menos), muchos investigadores comparten sus artículos allí luego de ser aceptados en alguna conferencia, y las discusiones que se generan pueden ser muy buenas. La sección de artículos y tutoriales es genial, aunque no la he revisada completo (es más o menos como imposible) en particular los tutoriales de Matemática y Física resultan extremadamente útiles incluso para personas duchas en los temas que tocan. Hay vínculos que exponen muy mal sus temas, por ejemplo el artículo de NURBS es sencillamente malo (no me dan ganas ni siquiera de darles el vínculo), pero casos como ese son excepciones y el aporte que hace GameDev es invaluable. Un foro enteramente dedicado a arte para videojuegos es Game Artist Forum, el brazo para los videojuegos de CGSociety, lo cual ya dice bastante, hay competiciones mensuales, temas sobre todos los ámbitos en arte para videojuegos, para pichones de modelador 3D como es mí caso resulta de gran ayuda compartir opinión en ese foro.

Se me sale lo matemático al hablarles de referencias, pero como les dije estoy recopilando información acerca de arte y diseño que espero poder compartir más temprano que tarde. También notarán QUE DEBEN SABER INGLES, y con una pequeña corrección de Ciro (soy el más caradura) here we go again: YOU HAVE TO KNOW ENGLISH, IN FACT YOU HAVE TO THINK IN ENGLISH…not that far, but you have to, at least, read in English… I won’t say anything about it again, Do they speak English in What?, English! MOTHERFUCKER! DO YOU SPEAK IT?!

Cof, cof, cof, esteeeeeee, en fin: EEEEEEER LOMO DE ATUN… THE TUNA FISH BACK… THE TUNA, QUE TUNA, TUNA… I need coffe… definitivly

Actualización: los vínculos fueron reparados, ahora ya pueden verlos sin ningún problema.