SPOTLIGHT
- NEW SITE!Welcome to our newly designed
website created by our very own Yorick.
There's been a big reshuffle and lots of
new content added so check it all out!
Valve released a new update today for the Source SDK, this update includes the .vmf source files for many of the official TF2 maps. Here's the list below:
arena_lumberyard
arena_ravine
cp_badlands
cp_dustbowl
cp_granary
cp_gravelpit
ctf_2fort
pl_badwater
pl_goldrush
tc_hydro
According to a new post in the TF blog, this will give an example on how Valve creates maps and will give you an easier entry point by allowing you to alter or edit an existing map by providing existing maps to work with so you don't have to start from scratch.
For the experienced map makers, we hope this gives you a variety of examples of how we design and construct levels, the tools we use to finish the aesthetic/thematic elements, and some specific implementation solutions to performance and networking problems. We also hope that it'll reduce the amount of confusion around the game logic and entity setup required for the various TF game modes.
Valve is also planning to get more TF content source out in the SDK, so look for more maps & model sources in the future. The full change list after the break. [Read More...]
It appears that more Bethesda games are coming onto Steam, namely Call of Cthulu, Morrowind: Game of the Year Edition and Oblivion: Game of the Year Edition. Interestingly the games are not appearing on the Steam Store, though they are available in press accounts.
You can see the Steam news popup here and a thread on the SPUF forums here about this. Wait and see, but they should be available soon.
We don't see a great deal of high quality single player modifications for Half-life 2 but the newly release Curse Episodes mod oozes quality. Voted the Most Anticipated Mod for 2008 by ModDB, Curse episodes are set in an Egyptian themed world, fighting against enemies with really enjoyable melee combat.
The mod has plenty of action moments (including boss fights) and puzzles to solve. You can download Curse Episode 1 from a selection of mirrors at Moddb. You only require Half-life 2 to play this mod.
G4 had an interview with Gabe Newell to get the latest on everything Valve, Newell discusses Left 4 Dead 2, Left 4 Dead 1 DLC and Episode Three.
G4: So, I guess the big surprise or not so surprising - because it got leaked - is Left 4 Dead 2. Why did you guys decide to go back and fire off a sequel right away?
Gabe Newell: Well, there are a couple reasons for that. One was when we were shipping the game, a bunch of the people who were working on it had all the stuff that they wanted to do right away. It really grew out of the fact that we all played Left 4 Dead pretty religiously and so people said, “You know, we don’t really want to stop. There’s too much fun stuff to go and do here.”
And then there was this other issue was from a project management perspective, we were looking at different ways of thinking about scheduling. So Robin’s [ed: Robin Walker, Software Developer/Designer] been working on Team Fortress 2, and he’s become really good at turning two month long projects, and having everybody have a lot of fun and being able to do really good work. So, like the Spy update that just came out was on schedule and everybody knew exactly what they were going to get done and felt very productive.
G4: So, is it safe to say that you have like four different projects in development right now? So, you have Left 4 Dead 2, you have Team Fortress 2, I’m going to go out on a limb and say Portal 2 and then…Episode 3?
Newell: [laughs] Uh, I’m not going to talk about things that we…we’re talking about Left 4 Dead 2 and Episode 3. As far as I know, that’s all that we’re talking about publicly.
Doug Lombardi: We’re not talking about Episode 3 publicly. (smiles)
Newell: Oh well, I guess I’m not talking about Episode 3 publicly either. (laughs) So..what’s your question? Yes, we have a lot of stuff that’s going on. We have Steam. Steam’s a lot of work. We have these movie things that we make, they take a lot of work.
Newell also mentions that they have good reasons behind Episode Three's disappearance in E3 that he will not talk about..yet. Read the full interview here.
America's Army 3, delivers an authentic and entertaining Army experience by reflecting the training, technology, actions, and career advancement of a Soldier within an exciting free game experience and it's now available for preload on Steam.
Using the U3 Engine, America's Army promises to deliver stunningly realistic characters, environments, lighting effects, animations, and team-based experiences. In the game where Every Detail Counts.
AA3 is free and will be released on June 17, 2009.
Steam 'L4D2 Boycott' group claiming that "The announced content of Left 4 Dead 2 does not warrant a stand-alone, full-priced sequel and should instead become updates (free or otherwise) for Left 4 Dead," and more than 20,000 individuals (and growing at a fast rate) have signed a boycott against the game.
The negative response was expected by Valve so they decided to text prominent map makers minutes after its reveal to let them know that their work would not be affected negatively by the sequel.
"Looking back, was the Orange Box a ripoff?" He said, on initial complaints at having to "buy" Half-Life 2 again in the compilation. "Give us a fair shake on this, read more about it, find out about it, we've already let people play it [at E3]... After that, if you want to vent, post to the forums. We do read them, we read all the forums."
We have yet to see more of the sequel, Valve claims that the new content are simply too huge to put in an update.
Massive media update from the firearms source team, showing off all the hard work they've been up to. New models for their massive selection of guns, lots of new realistic and accurate military animations, new player models for the red team and a new map. The new media looks extremely good from a talented team which have shown excellent progression over the past few months.
Now available as a RSS feed, are the top 10 selling games on Steam for the current week. Never before has Steam provided any details on the best selling games bought via the Steam Store. The current top 5 titles are: Left 4 Dead, Killing Floor, Assassins Creed, Team Fortress 2 and UT3 Black. You can subscribe to this RSS feed here.
And because we all love the Steam special offers they can now all be found in one place on the Steam Store front page! A new tab 'Specials' has now been added.
An interesting article has been posted by our friends at Gamasutra about the ultimate fate of Turtle Rock Studios. You may remember that "Valve acquired Turtle Rock" in January 2008 to ultimately form Valve South, but things didn't quite pan out as expected:
After several members of the Valve South team -- which Lombardi described as only ever numbering "nine or 11 in total" -- moved up to Bellevue, the remaining staff were not enough to justify a fully-fledged studio.
At that scale, "the idea of having an office with a receptionist and all of that kind of goes out the window," Lombardi said. As far as Booth and his current team, "that group of people looks like the original Turtle Rock again, and I think they may even prefer to call themselves that," he added.
The article also mentions that this team is once again working on a new collaboration with Valve, but at this time they are not releasing any further details.
Doug Lombardi took some time out of his busy E3 schedule to talk to Rock, Paper, Shotgun about L4D2. This is just a small bit of what he says:
...we didn’t sit down and say, “We need to ship a sequel next for next Christmas, what features do we need?” That wasn’t the way it happened, that’s not the way Valve works. What did happen was, the team sat down and said, “We’ve got a bunch of ideas of stuff we want to do.”...So we put a lot of those things on the board and said, “What can we do quickly? What’s going to take more time? What’s the best way to get stuff out to customers?” And part of that plan ended up with L4D2, with things like changing the way the finales worked, introducing some new Survivors, giving new dialogue, telling more about the story, introducing new Specials. We said, “Wow, that makes for a nice sequel.”
Doug Lombardi and Chet Faliszek have talked at length with Shacknews about Left 4 Dead, but Lombardi did drop a hint about the Half-Life series:
Shack: Most of us were not expecting Left 4 Dead 2 to show up at E3. You guys had teased more information on Half-Life 2: Episode 3 earlier in the year. Should we expect more on that soon?
Doug Lombardi: [laughs] Don't have a new date. Since we missed the last time, I'm not gonna put out another one. I've said this before, but Freeman's not done with his adventure. Stay tuned for more.
There is also a whole load of information regarding Left 4 Dead 1 and Left 4 Dead 2, perhaps the best bit of info is that 4 v 4 matchmaking will be coming to Left 4 Dead 1 sometime this month. Doug also commented on the sequel nature of Left 4 Dead 2:
Shack: What price-point should we expect?
Doug Lombardi: This is a full sequel.
Shack: So full price?
Doug Lombardi: 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.
This is a really detailed interview, you can check it out here.
We are nearing the time till Valve's presentation begins (2pm PST, 10pm GMT) and our colleague Smash is on location at the Los Angeles Conference Centre, reporting back his findings. You can follow him through twitter right here - http://twitpic.com/6h3rt
Update 1: So far since arriving, smash has wandered into the 360 demo booth and found a playable Left 4 Dead 2 demo. Picture here.
Update 2: L4D2 playtest in valves room. not an expansion. pc and 360 nov 17. screen shots later at hl2.net. no ep3 at e3.
Disappointing news, no episode 3 at E3. So Episode 3 really is an ambitious project, there is still nothing to show for it!? I am surprised.
Lots of gameplay videos are now available from IGN from the new campaigns including Parish. We have also uploaded the L4D 2 E3 Trailer (HD version available) and added a L4D 2 info section on the site.
The rock paper shotgun podcast grills Chet Faliszek over all the new features behind L4D2, with Chet explaining why Valve have moved onto a sequel. L4D1 will still receive updates as L4D2 grows alongside. Download the podcast here.
Microsoft just announced in their E3 Press Conference, Left 4 Dead 2. Coming November 17th on PC and XBox 360
L4D2 promises to set a new benchmark for co-operative action games and become one of 2009's marquee titles.
The game will introduce AI Director 2.0 taking L4D's dynamic gameplay to the next level by giving the Director the ability to procedurally change weather effects, world objects, and pathways in addition to tailoring the enemy population, effects, and sounds to match the players' performance.
With the knowledge gained from creating the original, new technology, and a passionate team, L4D2 will set a new benchmark for cooperative action games.
The game will feature new Survivors, boss zombies, weapons, and melee combat with items such as a chainsaw, frying pan, axe, baseball bat, and more. Left 4 Dead 2 offers a much larger game than the original with more co-operative campaigns, more Versus campaigns, and maps for Survival mode available at launch.
Left 4 Dead 2 is targeted for release on Xbox 360 and the PC on November 17, 2009. Press-release after the break. [Read More...]
