Thursday Morning Video: Very Early Half-Life Footage

While I was playing through Portal again, the internet ablaze with Valve rumors, I recalled e-mailing John Guthrie, who used to run a popular site called Quake Command way back featuring the Quake mods he and his friend had made. There was an update one day that said he and his friend had been offered jobs by a company called Valve and that they were putting Quake Command on hold, which bummed me out, and I sent the e-mail asking if they'd ever go back to it. The response I received was "Maybe, if this Half-Life thing doesn't pan out."
Incredibly, their personal page on Valve's site still exists, along with the very rough, early footage of Half-Life I remember looking at before all the magazines started going nuts with coverage. Also here's the first bit of real promotional material I remember seeing. It's probably a good thing it got pushed back another year after that.



-K.

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Still Alive (Updated)

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.

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Thursday Morning Video: Spy & Pyro

Oh dear, I haven't been updating much lately, I should do something about that.


-K.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Thursday Morning Video: Division 9 - Gameplay Trailer

Still struggling with my desktop as it appears the memory I was using previously will not function correctly with my new motherboard, so now I've had to throw even more money down this large pit. One of my hard drives failed completely and I'm still seeing what I can pull from the rubble. If I choose to get a replacement for that drive, which I'm not sure I will, the only piece of equipment that hasn't failed will be my processor. Fingers crossed.
Anyway, here's a video of an unfinished and abandoned game that was being developed by Irrational. This appears to be little more than a mod for SWAT 4, which Irrational developed, that I guess functioned as a proof-of-concept, but the idea of a tactical zombie shoot is still intriguing, though many seem to be suffering from zombie fatigue as of late. Enjoy.


-K.

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Thursday Morning Video: QI - Stephen Fry Puts Alan in His Place

My desktop is kaput again, now it's deciding not to read any of my hard drives, making it impossible to boot. I've ordered a new motherboard, which is probably the first thing I should have done, but was hoping to avoid that. I wish my computer problems could be solved simply by feeding money directly into it. Anyway, here's a clip from an episode of QI:


-K.

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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.

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Thursday Morning Video: Billy Mays Attacks Garry's Mod

I got a new video card for my desktop, which did not alleviate the random crashing problems I've been having, but I can still play games. I started playing the PC version of The Saboteur, Pandemic's final title (The news broke that EA was laying almost everybody off and assimilating the few who remained before the game was released), and so far my early take on it is don't play The Saboteur.
Anyway, here's your video for this morning, I'm not sure how you'll take it.


-K.

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