Valve issued a patch to Portal last night that I had simply assumed was just another patch for all Source games that happens every so often, but later I came across a story detailing that the patch notes contained a single sentence reading "Changed radio transmission frequency to comply with federal and state spectrum management regulations." The patch also added an achievement titled "Transmission Received." Loading up the game you'll now find 26 radios scattered throughout the levels, when you pick one up and take it to a specific location the tune playing will change to a Morse code transmission. Clever people on the internet have already begun decoding the messages and finding strange images contained within the sound files. Possibly the most interesting development is that the hidden messages contain a phone number based in Kirkland, Washington, where Valve was founded, and connected to that number is an old school BBS, prompting for a GLaDOS login and password. Contained within the BBS are documents related to Aperture Science experiments and internal memos.
Current speculation is that this is all just a tease leading up to an official announcement of Valve's next game set in the Half-Life universe, likely Portal 2 or Episode 3, possibly both.
At the very least it's an excuse to play through Portal once again, this time with a funky new radio-finding minigame on top of it. Neat stuff, go Valve.
UPDATE: It appears Valve has released a second patch that very slightly alters the ending of the game, which you can view here if you don't wish to play through it again.
-K.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Still Alive (Updated)
Monday, February 8, 2010
Late Afternoon Video: Charlie Brooker's Gameswipe
I completely forgot about putting up a video last week mostly due to still being locked in a brutal knock-down, drag-out cage match with my white whale desktop, which spent the weekend BSODing whenever I gave it a glance it didn't care for. Apparently, after replacing almost all the hardware, a new problem arose and this time it was with Windows 7, meaning I had to once again burn my hard drive to the ground and start anew back with Vista. One of these days I hope to use my desktop for something other than a mechanical frustration inducer. Anyway, here's an amusing special on video games from British TV presenter Charlie Brooker:
-K.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Read This, Insect
This is quickly becoming a very interesting site. There is a new article over on Irrational Games' new site (Recently changing their name back after briefly being known as 2K Boston) in which Ken Levine reveals some behind-the-scenes tidbits about the production of System Shock 2, though the most fascinating thing I came away with is that the game was made in a short 11 months.
-K.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Catharsis
Spotted this over on Rock, Paper, Shotgun, a very interesting demonstration of a game created during this year's Global Game Jam. If you don't remember, Game Jams are where independent game developers gather and attempt to create games within a day or two, which explains the borrowed visuals, because the event is more about thinking up new gameplay ideas with proof-of-concept demonstrations. This game, titled GNILLEY, is almost entirely about screaming. I approve.
(Incidentally, this appears to be from the same fellow who created that small Zelda remake demo from a while back.)
-K.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Crazy Flipper Fingers
I've warmed up to The Saboteur considerably since Thursday, it just takes much too long to get going and it wasn't until it finally let me run free about Paris, and thus allowing me to throw Nazis off of very tall structures, that I started to enjoy it. I'll probably have more to say about it later.
Anyway, the point of this post is to talk about the latest indie PC game darling, VVVVVV, the first commercial release by Terry Cavanagh, designer of acclaimed Flash games I've never heard of. The game with the unpronounceable title is all about simplicity. The simple story is that you play a spaceship captain and your ship gets sucked into a different dimension. While abandoning ship the crew is scattered across this dimension, now you must save them. The graphics are very simple, clearly attempting to recreate an old Commodore 64 game. It controls like a simple platformer with one basic mechanic: you cannot jump, you can only flip. The game then finds new ways to change up how you use that mechanic, with each "level" requiring you to use your lone ability in a different way. I say "level" because after the introductory area, the game lets you loose in a large Metroid-esque hub world which you navigate to find the specific "levels" where your fellow crew members are trapped.
It is both a blast to play through and explore, the level design continually testing your abilities in new ways. I was eager to see the next challenge, what kind of variables would be in play and then have to figure out how to navigate the space. Then there are the brutally difficult areas, the kind where you die several dozen times and consider hurling your PC out the window. This area in particular I spent at least twenty minutes trying to clear, which was maddening, but the satisfaction of finally getting it right was palpable.
The music is the only part of the game I wouldn't describe as simple and you can tell how significant I feel it is because I started a new paragraph for it. I've never really been into the whole chiptune scene, but the music in VVVVVV is outstanding, perfectly complimenting the action while emulating the feel of an 8-bit classic. It is strong enough to stand on its own, which is why I'm glad it does.
The only problem I have with the game is the cost, I don't regret spending the money at all, but $15 seems a bit steep for something I cleared in under two hours. There are additional modes to unlock, like time trials and the insane-sounding "no death" mode, but you're still playing the same areas. If you don't mind spending the extra coin to support an indie developer, then by all means pick it up, otherwise you might want to wait and see if this pops up on Steam at a lower price point. At the very least, go take a look at the demo, because it's at least worth your attention.
-K.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
King's Bounty for Less Than a King's Bounty
Though I haven't really been able to crack the seal and get super deep into it, as I've stated more than a couple times, Steam has informed me that King's Bounty and the stand-alone expansion Armored Princess can be purchased together for the absolutely ridiculous price of $11.25, or you can pick up the former for a mere $4.99 and the latter for a slightly-less-mere-but-still-small $9.99 by themselves. I did play through the demo and enjoyed it quite a lot, and by all accounts if you like turn-based strategy games or, specifically, the Heroes of Might and Magic series, you should definitely check this out. This deal only extends through tomorrow, though, so act now!
-K.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Color of Money
Following in the footsteps of 2D Boy's pay-what-you-please sale of their indie hit World of Goo, the folks at Kloonigames have decided to do same thing to celebrate the first year anniversary of their award-winner puzzler Crayon Physics. Until January 15th, you can grab the game for whatever price you like, but if you only give them a penny you should also have to pay by getting punched in the stomach.
-K.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Letting Off Steam
Hey, look at that, I'm already posting again. I can't check it directly while I'm here at work because Steam is correlated with fun, but it appears that a few publishers have gone completely insane. For today only, on Steam, you can pick up Grand Theft Auto IV for $7.49 (The game has fairly high requirements and I've heard reports of shoddy performance, though I haven't had a problem with it myself), Mirror's Edge for five bones and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow for Chernobyl for a measly, a certifiable, a totally bonkers $1.99. Madness!
There are a few other deals that will extend to January 3rd, such as Braid for a mere two-fitty and the entire Jedi Knight collection for $6.50. But it looks like they may be shifting in new, more ridiculous 24-hour deals for the next few days, so keep your eyes peeled.
-K.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Duke Nukem ForNever
There's a pretty great read over at Wired detailing what led to the demise of Duke Nukem Forever, pulling no punches in placing the blame squarely on 3D Realms frontman George Broussard's shoulders.
-K.
Friday, December 18, 2009
The Price is Right
Got another newsletter from the noble stewards of the past at Good Old Games that, as a Christmas gift to their customers, they are giving away a two-pack of the original Tex Murphy games, Mean Streets and Martian Memorandum, at the low, low cost of no pennies. Better hurry, though, because their generous holiday spirit only extends until December 24th.
Yes, I know some of you are allergic to singing up for things, but Good Old Games is a completely free service (Until it comes time to actually pay for a game, of course), all titles function perfectly fine in XP or Vista, no mucking about with DOSBox, and the only e-mails you'll receive are ones alerting you to any new titles added or deals they've got going. There's no reason not to take advantage of this, unless you're simply a bad person.
-K.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
High Def Drifter
Yes, that's the best I could come up with.
There's always been dearth of Western-themed video games despite seeming rife for action-oriented titles. That isn't to say there aren't any at all, but there's a slow trickle of about one a year, and I wouldn't say any of them have achieved a classic status. Outlaws, the first-person shooter from LucasArts back when they weren't just exclusively focused on Star Wars, has always been the benchmark. I have fond memories of it, but I'd wager if I went back and played it now I might find it hasn't aged particularly well. The two Call of Juarez titles have been admirable, but ultimately mediocre stabs at the setting. The same could be said of the much more ambitious Gun, though its brief length and limited playing area for an open-world game worked against it. Now Rockstar is having a second go with Red Dead Redemption.
Red Dead Revolver was originally a Capcom title that they lost interest in developing, selling it to Rockstar who finished the game and was a respectable success. It was a mostly linear third-person shooter with some basic cover mechanics, but the fun combat, quick-draw showdowns, weapon upgrading and side missions made it a pretty enjoyable title, the main drawback being that difficulty curve ranged from challenging to murderous.
It was surprising, though, to have Rockstar announce a sequel, Red Dead Redemption, considering the original was released way back in 2004. And even though I don't have negative memories of Revolver, the early media didn't even make it a blip on my radar. But today Rockstar released what they say is the first in a series of video showing off the gameplay of Redemption, and now I'm probably looking forward to it more than anything else.
-K.
Friday, November 20, 2009
The Shadow (of the Colossus) Out of Time
There are certainly other things I could be talking about because I haven't done a regular post in a while but this story caught my eye. The PlayStation 2, the nearly decade-old system that originally launched in Japan in March 2000, is just now officially being rolled out by Sony in Brazil, for more than what a PS3 costs here. Madness.
-K.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Run for the Borderlands
It's no secret that I'm not the largest fan of Diablo, so when the phrase "It's basically Diablo with guns" started getting thrown around to describe Gearbox's Borderlands it's understandable I wasn't exactly chomping at the bit to get my hands on it. After spending a considerable amount of time with the game both on the PC and the 360 I can say that they're absolutely right, and it's great.
An over-the-top sci-fi action-RPG set on a distant planet in the future is not the kind of thing anyone expected from Gearbox, the studio that, while starting with an expansion to the original Half-Life, made a name for itself through their Brothers in Arms franchise, a series of semi-tactical super serious World War 2 games. The game takes place on Pandora, a desolate desert world rules by vicious creatures and murderous raiders, and you play one of four characters that are searching for "the vault," a mythical, hidden place filled with alien riches. The storyline is paper thin, you can get by without reading any of the quest text, and it doesn't really matter. The game isn't about presenting an epic world with a grand narrative, it is entirely focused on getting you to shoot guys and collect loot.
Borderlands is a shooter, first and foremost, sort of wrapped in a role-playing game candy shell. Sure, you gain experience and skill points, but everything about the RPG aspect is purely mathematical. There is no room for personal interpretation or expression; no dialogue trees, no moral choices, you simply accept quests and get on with the murder. You'll earn money and equipment for completing these tasks which you will use in turn to buy and sell more equipment. And there's a lot of it.
Their method of procedurally generating weapons and how the game goes about that process led to a fairly well publicized claim of the game having, effectively, over half a million guns. This does involve in the creation of many, many guns you will simply pick up only to sell, and guns that are almost exactly the same except for a couple point differences in accuracy or damage, but the allure of opening every weapon cache hoping to find some crazy revolver that fires shotgun shells that do acid damage is strong. But it's just neat to jump back into the game after playing it earlier, find a weapon cache you already opened before and have it give you something completely different, albeit not always useful.
It's just a fun game to play, using your most prized weapons to wade through groups of enemies, giving it that distinct Diablo feel, but different in giving you complete freedom in your movement and actions. Playing online, with up to three additional players, simply increases the amount of hostile creatures you face at any time, and while it usually makes the game more fun, playing it with friends mean you all need to leave your character untouched in the meantime, because having just one person a few levels higher means they can tear through most quests while you're struggling to keep up with their murderous pace. For the most part, though, it works, and there's nothing wrong with just going it solo.
It's a big game with a lot to do and a lot to find, with my main character only a little more than half way to the level cap after about 15 hours of play, and definitely worth giving a look.
-K.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Big Guns and Bigger Eyes
I recently obtained a Sony PlayStation 3 Home Computer Entertainment System, and the first thing I did the morning after I got it was pick up a copy of Valkyria Chronicles, which I mentioned way back around this time last year.
It's really good.
That is to say it's mechanically really good. How it combines turn-based strategy and light third-person action is a triumph, except it comes wrapped in a JRPG presentation that carries the overwrought narrative baggage expected from the genre. Every character suffers from verbal diarrhea, complete with the standard half-hearted diatribes on subjects like human nature and racism mashed with the somewhat inappropriate feeling cutesy humor, the kind which is very often punctuated with a "Tee hee!" by one of the female protagonists. The cut-scenes are entirely skippable, but I suffer from an affliction that requires me to view them, because while it might be virtually impossible, especially at this point, to get me emotionally invested into the storyline, I like to know what's going on and what led up to a particular mission. It does help that the game has a great look to it, if I were so bold I might even say gorgeous, the way everything is presented with a painterly, watercolor look.
The short of it is that I don't really care for the story or characters, but now that we've gotten that out of the way we can talk about what I do like. When you are mercifully allowed to participate in the game proper, it is essentially a gridless turn-based strategy game. At the start of your turn you are presented with a map of the battlefield and a set of Command Points with which to move your units, selecting a unit brings the game into a third-person mode in which you move them about and attack in real-time. While they do less damage than they would during your turn, enemies can still fire upon the units you are moving, so speed and use of cover is still a factor, giving it a more action-y feel. Once your unit is in "aim mode" they have all the time in the world to pick their shot and fire, with headshots obviously doing more damage but being harder to make. Your units can only fire once per use, but can be reused multiple times in a turn, though the distance they can move decreases significantly with each use.
While the most I've ever seen allowed in a mission is 9 units, you assemble a squad of 20 from a large roster of characters in different classes, each with their own special "potentials" which can be good or bad and are only activated under certain conditions (e.g. Works better alone, not as effective in urban environments, etc.) and other characters they prefer fighting with. The experience you earn is spent on leveling up unit types (Snipers, scouts, shocktroopers, etc.) rather than individuals, which is a great relief. The money you earn is spent upgrading and modifying each class type's equipment, and you'll pick up some enemy weapons along the way, further allowing you to customize your squad.
There's a lot to chew on here and I've been taking it pretty slow, but so far it's a game with a surprising amount of depth considering it's coming from Sega. Maybe it would need to have a different context (I keep thinking about shoehorning Team Fortress 2 into this style), but it really feels like the kind of game that would do better on the PC.
-K.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Space Asshole
I couldn't think of a funnier headline than the subject of the post itself. A couple weeks ago on the Idle Thumbs podcast they began talking about Red Faction: Guerrilla, with the PC version finally being released recently, and discussed the havoc you can wreak upon the innocent colonists, and what that turns the main character into. A few days ago Idle Thumbs host Chris Remo put together this little number, which I really enjoyed.
-K.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
I Hate Leaks
Looks like someone got ahold of the trailer for Left 4 Dead 2 and leaked it on to YouTube, or could be one of those "accidental" leaks that Valve seems to do from time to time. Sure, it might just be a cinematic, but it's pretty goddamn awesome, I especially love the twangy rendition of the theme at the beginning.
-K.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
World of Savings
I meant to post about this when it was originally announced, but I forgot about it, mostly because I already bought World of Goo almost a year ago (And still have yet to play it). Anyway, to celebrate the first anniversary of their critically-acclaimed indie puzzler, 2D Boy are running a sale where you decide how much you want to pay for their game. This can be as little as one penny or up to infinity megabucks, but you should probably select an amount in between. The sale has been a huge success so far so they decided to extend the deal until October 25th, which, even though their servers are being pounded at the moment, should be enough time for you to take advantage of it.
-K.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Inanimotion
Prop Hunt is a hide-and-seek mod for Team Fortress 2, where one team spawns as random objects and the other spawns as pyros trying to find them. It looks like goofy fun, I'll have to try this when I get home.
-K.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Thursday Morning Video: APB Podcast Episode 11: Reining Justice
I couldn't think of anything better to put up this morning, so I'll just share what I'm watching right now. APB is an upcoming MMO shooter from Realtime Worlds, the folks behind Crackdown, founded by David Jones, creator of Grand Theft Auto (And Lemmings, I just read, weird). Invites to the beta are supposedly being sent out within the next couple days and I'm hoping I make it in, I'm eager to try it out since they're claiming the way their dynamic matchmaking system works, on a per mission basis, that it is entirely possible to play the game solo. And that's precisely what I've been wanting out of a genre designed around social interactions.
-K.
Friday, October 2, 2009
IT WAS A SPACECRAFT!
Just got a heads-up from the fine folks over at Good Old Games that they're running a 30% off weekend deal all titles in the Tex Murphy series. I haven't played any of them probably since they came out, so I can't speak to how well they've aged, but I may pick up the Pandora Directive (easily the best of the series) again just to see how they hold up.
Even thought here is a substantial amount of FMV in the three later gamers, billing them as "interactive movies" was probably a misstep, because that particular phrase has not come to invoke positive thoughts. They are very much adventure games, with the majority of the gameplay having you roam around through fully-rendered environments in first-person.
But you'd never know that from the trailer:
-K.