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The Scariest Thing You’ll See All Week: Caesary Trailer

Da Mad Dok — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:52:23 +0000

This trailer defies expectations… and explanations… and….

When it's flaunting the ability to log in in seconds, there's a probably with your game. Especially when the trailer then shows a loooonnnnggg loading screen.

Portal 2 E3 Demo, In It’s Glorious Entirety

Da Mad Dok — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 05:38:11 +0000

Yes, you may have heard that the Portal 2 E3 demo was split into three parts and was being slowly, stealthily distributed across the Internet. And usually, in two different posts. But, because I am lazy, I have only one post for all three trailers. And some said being lazy was a bad thing.

Wait, there's gonna be seven? Grumble grumble grumble…

Introducing Wheatly, the most adorable inaminate object since… well, since the Companion Cube. Which is still in it. The battle is on.

Introducing Excursion Funnels, for all your excursion needs.

And the humble old Faith Plates.

It’s the Lazarcatpocalypse!

Da Mad Dok — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 01:02:11 +0000

Today, I have coined a new word: lazarcat. And lazarcatpocalypse, an apocalypse involving one or more lazarcats.

Of course, all this talk about lazarcats came about because of the Team Fortress 2 map achievement_all_v4, which is, as it's name implies, an achievement grinding map. In fact, there were three versions of the map before this one. So what makes it special?

Like I said, the Lazarcatpocalypse. A giant cat picture pops out of the ground and starts shooting lazars at anyone and everyone. Oh, and there's a second cat. And swarms of bees. And… something in the water.

Also, it's not killable. PC Gamer and F7Lans tried to take on the beast with special community rockets with high damage and faster shooting. And… nothing.

See? It really is unkillable.

So who could have brought this monstrosity unto the world, and how did they do it? It wasn't Valve. In fact, Robin Walker, Creator of Magical Team-based Soviet Sandvich-Eating Simulator Team Fortress 2, says that "We would dearly love to be able to claim that as our work, but once again the community shows it’s much smarter than we are. We were in tears in the office here when we watched the first video. I’m hoping the creator makes him/herself known so we can award them with a community item." Members of Facepunch decompiled the map, found cool stuff, shared with world. Yep.

Guess What? PC Is Important to BioWare, Too

Da Mad Dok — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 23:19:29 +0000

Earlier this morning, CVG posted that BioWare had told them that PC is still very much important to their company. They also stated PC was the best place for their upcoming MMO, The Old Republic.

Every two or three years we hear the announcement of fantasy being dead, PC gaming being dead and RPGs being dead. And yet, all of the biggest games that ever come out – that set the records – are nearly always PC games, and a lot of them are fantasy games. The biggest game in the world is a fantasy, PC, RPG MMO. We all know the drawbacks of PC. We all scream at our boxes and try to make stuff work. But at the same time, the interface is made for games. The mouse/keyboard interface allows so much less restriction [than console].There was not a question when we started Old Republic – or any of our games, for that matter – [what the lead format would be]. There's a reason the lead SKU for Dragon Age was [PC] as well. When we're developing an RPG, it's a natural place to be.

Awww!

Is Medal of Honor Worth It?

Da Mad Dok — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 01:56:54 +0000

Generally, I'm pretty stingy. I don't like to get games on their first day or pre-order them, unless it's a game I know I'll like (for example, Battlefield: Bad Company 2) or a game where the pre-order benefits are THAT good (for example, BioShock 2, which offered the entire BioShock 1 for free when pre-ordered). So, I'm not entirely sure if I want to get Medal of Honor. I'm kind of worried, actually. In a way, I wish the beta was open, so that I could see if it was my type of game. The fact that the multiplayer is made by DICE is encouraging, but from what I've read, it looks like the multiplayer isn't worth my $60 alone. Which is where my worries come in. I'm afraid I won't get my money's worth from the single-player campaign, which is made by EA LA. It looks good, but there have been other times where a good-looking game turned out terrible (read: Daikatana, Too Human). And so I wait.

Posted via email from Shotguns R Us

Guess What? PC Is Kind Of Important, Says Kotick

Da Mad Dok — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 00:23:34 +0000

Gamasutra has just reported that Bobby Kotick, Fearless Leader of Activision, said that "probably 70 percent of our operating profit comes from non-console-based video games", which means PC games. And iPhone games. But iPhone games can't make up 70% of a publisher's revenue, right? Of course not. So what PC games could possibly be that successful?

Oh. Right.

Posted via email from Headset Necessary

Indie Time: N9KS

Da Mad Dok — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 06:17:14 +0000

Today for ye olde Indie Time we have a new game developed by the lovely-titled Tiger Justice!. The primary developer is a composer (!) by the name of Jack Menhorn, who has worked on game music before and wanted to learn the UDK to integrate music in it. On the way, he learned to actually develop for it, and as such started a nice little puzzle-platformer based on music. The main concept is that, at certain points, the path splits, and you must choose which way to go based on your hearing. There are certain keywords, like "dentists", to guide you into picking the right sound. It's an intriguing idea, but the game does have some problems. Namely, it's far too simple. You jump along the path, and every so often have to pick between two too-obvious sounds. Still, as an experiment, it's wonderful, and I hope more is coming soon.

I've embedded a video below from the Headset Necessary YouTube (just created). The video shows a simple playthrough of the first level and part of the second. It's poor quality, but it does show off the main ideas quite well. Have a headset handy (as always, of course).

Posted via email from Headset Necessary

Battle.net’s New Terms of Service Have One Funny Thing…

Da Mad Dok — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 18:00:24 +0000

Force Majeure.

Blizzard shall not be liable for any delay or failure to perform resulting from causes outside the reasonable control of Blizzard, including without limitation any failure to perform hereunder due to unforeseen circumstances or cause beyond Blizzard's control such as acts of God, war, terrorism, riots, embargoes, acts of civil or military authorities, fire, floods, accidents, strikes, or shortages of transportation facilities, fuel, energy, labor or materials.

Yes, acts of God can interrupt your StarCraft II game.

Posted via email from Shotguns R Us

Why Does GoogleTV Exist Again?

Da Mad Dok — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 05:39:45 +0000

Call me a skeptic, but I believe that GoogleTV is unnecessary and ultimately will fail. Sorry.

It's not that I hate Google and Google-branded products. I love 'em. It's not that I think the web can't be brought o the TV: Yahoo! TV Widgets proves that wrong. But for some reason, I have a feeling that GoogleTV won't succeed. Think about it: what is the benefit to bringing Google Chrome to a TV? Besides culling lawsuits (remember when Microsoft took fire for packaging IE in everything–good times, eh?), it doesn't seem to have a real use. It's great to be able to find YouTube videos on a big screen, if the GoogleTV box is actually powerful enough to display them in full 1080p. Note the sarcasm. YouTube is great because it lets you find a bunch of random videos that only take a few minutes to watch, then return to whatever else you were doing. Wait, that sounds perfect for a computer. Well, maybe that's why YouTube is a website, not a TV channel. And believe me, Hulu and it's backing companies will find a way to get out of GoogleTV.

Now, I must admit, I am impressed by the search functions: it's something every TV should have built in. I just can't help but be skeptical by the new, closed-in system they're building, just so I can get web videos on the big screen.

Posted via email from Shotguns R Us

Untitled

Da Mad Dok — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 10:20:25 +0000

just hit level 10 on thesixtyone! – http://ping.fm/sFwRJ

via Ping.fm

Posted via web from AndroidDanger