Recently developer Infinity Ward announced that the PC version of the newest Call of Duty installment would not support traditional dedicated servers–instead favoring its own custom backbone for internet matchmaking. In no time flat, nerd rage ensued in the form of an internet petition demanding that dedicated server support be added to the game. As of this writing nearly 178,000 have typed in their digital John Hancock in the hopes that Infinity Ward might abandon their custom solution in favor of the archaic dedicated servers we have come to know and love. It’s much harder to abuse a system when not in control, and it seems many server admins are lamenting this revelation.

Infinity Ward held the announcement until gold masters were being shipped to manufacturing, knowing that the PC audience would be resistant to change and that the only way to get this over with would be a good old fashioned force feeding. Matchmaking over an Infinity Ward-supplied backbone is coming, whether you like it or not.

With all due respect, may we suggest that perhaps all 178,000 of our nerd friends are raging about the wrong thing, though? (more…)

What are you swinging at my head?

Now that Valve has finally unleashed the Left 4 Dead 2 demo, the Icrontic Steam group has been descending upon it in droves. I had a chance to play a round with some of the {IC} crew: Winfrey, Cola, and Sir Candle.

One thing that hasn’t changed a bit from L4D1 is “playing lobby.” We played lobby for a few minutes but quickly got the game launched.

The initial weapon loadout is relatively similar to the first game: a variety of SMG or a shotgun. Then you look to the left, and you see a frying pan. That’s when you know this is a whole different animal.

The rhythm of combat is similar to the first: horde, lull, horde, lull, with random occasional individual zombies coming at you before you can get too relaxed.

As we moved through the campaign, we all commented at various points that the game is noticeably more difficult, more wide open, and gives you many more ways to deal with clusterfucks.

The {IC} crew I played with were asked to give me their impressions on the demo. Is Left 4 Dead 2 worth the price of a new game? Is it more than just an expansion pack? (more…)

The pixelsmiths from Germany known as Crytek are at it again. Known for their groundbreaking game engine CryENGINE 2 and its accompanying tropical FPS game Crysis, they have just released the third incarnation of their engine. Dubbed CryENGINE 3 (who would have guessed?), the release once again puts Crytek at the forefront of real-time interactive computer graphics technology by enabling the newest available technologies on the PC platform and expanding the engine to the PS3 and Xbox 360 platforms.

Delicious Screen Space Ambient Occlusion

Arguably, the biggest addition to CryENGINE 3 is support for the console platforms. With Crysis, PC gamers got cocky because they had the greatest looking game of all time, and consoles couldn’t even come close. Console gamers whined for a host of reasons to refute that fact. CryENGINE 3 will be Crytek’s first attempt to cross the aisle with a major engine. PS3 and Xbox 360 gamers will have remarkably comparable graphics in games developed on CryEngine 3. Even better, developers will have access to Crytek’s famous ‘what you see is what you play’ editing environment known as CryENGINE 3 Sandbox editor. Creating lush, photo-realistic worlds on the console has never been easier. (more…)

Pandemic’s The Saboteur is just around the corner, with a December 4 retail launch in Europe and December 9 launch in the US. As members of “the core”, we got our hands on some new exclusive gameplay videos for your perusal. Be sure to see our other The Saboteur content, including our analysis of how The Saboteur breaks new ground using technology as a storytelling device, the E3 roundtable we attended, our hands-on demo, and our original fictional Resistance journals, which were inspired by our early access to the alpha builds of the game. We’re big fans of what Pandemic is doing with Sean Devlin, and getting our hands on it was enough to convert us. This is gonna be a big game.

Enough with le mumbo jumbo. On with the explosions.
(more…)

Max Payne. The mere mention of the title commands the resurrection of gaming memories that some would place in the ranks of “industry’s finest”. Max Payne, originally released in 2001, redefined the third person action genre, and singlehandedly introduced slow-motion ‘Bullet Time’ as a game mechanic. The game told a visceral story about a man with nothing to lose on the cold dark streets of New York City. It was one of the first games to truly get a grasp on film noir styling and present its story in a very dark and gritty way. The game was a ballet of gunfire, a graceful look into a brutal world. So much about it was revolutionary; the bullet dynamics, the graphic novel storytelling, the ballsy story. Elements like these firmly solidified the Max Payne series in the bedrock of gaming history.

Originally developed by Remedy, Max Payne and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne gathered critical acclaim. Max Payne 2, the series’ most recent release, came out six years ago. Remedy has been silent about when the planned trilogy would come to a conclusion, but as the studio continued to work on (and delay) its current project Alan Wake year after year, many began to wonder if we would see our dark noir hero return to our computer screens. Remedy ended up selling the rights to Rockstar Games, who announced that Max Payne 3 was in production back in March.

Very few details were released regarding Max Payne 3 outside of a couple of screenshots and an image showing an balding, grizzled old man with a beard and a thicker build with the logo below it. Max Payne was old, put on some weight, and looked like Carl from Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Stranger yet, he was no longer busting gang members in New York City, but rather he was running around the streets of São Paulo, Brazil. Payne fans were livid–this is not the Max Payne we knew! (more…)

Today marks the release of the Sony PSP Go, the smaller, UMD-less version of the classic PlayStation Portable. The controversial handheld is supposed to usher in the media-less era of handheld gaming, forgoing the expensive and inelegantly mechanical UMD drive and physical discs for the magic of digital content delivery.

While this is a good system for PC games, and even certain console titles, does it really make sense for handhelds? More specifically, does it make sense for a PSP?

The reviews are out, and it’s not looking good. It’s rare that we can report a device as being “universally panned”, but this one looks like it’s heading that way.

Engadget says, “The debut of the Go has been marred by some pretty downtrodden decisions on Sony’s part, most notably the $250 price tag, an utter lack of compatibility with any previous PSP accessories, and no UMD conversion program.”

ArsTechnica’s Ben Kuchera was brutally honest. He states, “The entire point of the PSP Go hinges on the wireless, digital aspect of the hardware, so why is that hardware so outdated? Why is downloading a game made to be as annoying as possible?” regarding a variety of issues with downloading games, including their awkward decision to stick with 802.11b wireless hardware (in a $250 device? really?). He goes on to say, “Ultimately, this is the rare case where an old product gives you more freedom, more features, and at a better price. Of course, an older PSP won’t have Bluetooth, and the screen won’t slide to hide the controls, but existing customers can cry themselves to sleep on piles of cheaper games if they become upset.” (more…)

With the horrible state of the economy today, people are endeavoring to save money in any way they can. In a clever move to take advantage of this, GamersGate, a site that offers video game purchases through digital downloads has started a new program by which both the site can get advertising, and customers can earn store credits.

The new service revolves around the use of a “GG Tag”, an affiliate link that can be placed on any site that uses HTML which leads to your profile on GamersGate. It shows what games you are playing, what games you have purchased, and so on. Then, if someone purchases a game while visiting the site through your GG Tag link, you get a percentage of credit back from it, which can be used for future game purchases on the site. (more…)

Dispenser-on-a-blimp

Either someone got their hands on some insider info, or this is an amazing fake reveal of  the first Engineer update.

Called “project 25″, or “The Mothership”, it’s basically a Dispenser taped to a blimp. While not releasing as much health and metal as a dispenser, it is mobile, and can be controlled by the Engie.

Be careful, though–if an enemy shoots it, it goes Kaboom.

They also show the community map CTF Mach 4.

At the bottom of the page is an allusion to day 2: Confidential.

The regular site at Teamfortress.com does not have the link to the Engineer update yet. As we get info, we’ll be sure to let you guys know.

Thanks to Shwaip for the find!

Update: Robin Walker emailed me to confirm that it is indeed fake. Of course, the “fake by sunwar” at the bottom cleanly answers that question as well.

The high-and-mighty Armchair Quarterbacks from the Steam forums are also having a field day, triumphantly declaring their superiority from their ivory towers and pointing out how obviously fake this is, and how I’m an idiot for posting/copypasting/being trolled.

The fake is so well done and so clever, that this is a newsworthy piece for several reasons, which I won’t bother to list. I will say this: One of my goals as Editor is to stimulate conversation, fun, and traffic. End of story? It worked.

Oh no! Boobess!

Pandemic’s upcoming tour-de-force, The Saboteur, has recently been granted an “M 17+” rating by the ESRB. This should come as no surprise, being that a large portion of the game is set in a brothel in 1940s, Nazi-occupied Paris.

Screenshots for the upcoming title were revealed recently, and they’re quite suggestive. This has caused a minor stir, but in our interactions with Pandemic, they have been up front about the mature nature of the game from the very beginning. There will be nudity, there will be gratuitous violence, and there will be revenge. (more…)

It seems to be a bad month for the integrity of game journalism.  One week ago we wrote about what an embargo date is, how they work in theory and what happens when they’re broken.  In that case nothing happened and sites that broke the embargo were essentially “rewarded” when the publisher lifted the embargo prematurely and legitimized the practice.  We didn’t like it then, because it screws other journalists and publications who choose to play fair and honor embargo dates.

Not more than a week later,  it is happening again. Microsoft specified that the embargo for the very popular Halo 3: ODST would be lifted on Saturday 20th at 12:01 AM EST.  If this sounds specific to you, that’s because it is–it gives every site a fair chance to publish at the same time and let readers evaluate who’s review is worth listening to before deciding whether or not to buy the game.

For Halo 3: ODST, the site GoGamingGiant published nearly twelve hours early.  While not the absolute first site to break the embargo, their review quickly got linked and picked up a major amount of traffic from the popular gaming aggregator News4Gamers. (more…)

One time, her and I were so close...

“I AM THE GOD QUEEN!,” I shouted gaily, my voice ringing across the green plains in front of me, echoing back to the mountains and beyond. I raised my hand in a fist, clenched triumphantly, claiming the land before me as my own, ready to explore all the hidden treasures it had to offer, when–

“Jackie, stop being ridiculous and heal the tank!,” my guild leader’s voice crackled from Ventrilo over my headset, pulling me back to the group. I quickly turned back towards our tank (another guild leader, no less) and popped off a few heals. One of our guild jokes was that I was the “God Queen of Norrath,” or as one guildie referred to me, “The Drag Queen of Norrath.” God Queen is actually where I got my current name from–the Gnome Queen. I used to sign onto the accounts of my friends occasionally and proclaim in guild chat that I had taken over their characters with my godly powers.

At that point in the game, which was Everquest 2, I was a 70 level character, and I had a great guild. I was a feisty little gnome druid, and as such, could find a group or raid whenever I wanted (healers were always in demand). I had decent gear, a large house in game, and I loved playing. That’s when I walked away from the game almost entirely… (more…)

Yesterday my roommate and partner in crime, Lincoln, busted out his Starcraft box (again). This time, however, he uses Windows 7 as his desktop OS.

He was dubious, and sure enough, the 11-year-old game didn’t work correctly. It did launch, but the colors were all whacked out and the graphics were glitched in random places, rendering the whole mess unplayable.

He tried the built-in Windows XP Virtual Machine, but that wouldn’t play it because the XP VM can’t change screen modes. Back to the drawing board.

After some searching and some experimentation, he came to the following three-step fix:

1. Right click the Starcraft icon -> Properties -> Compatibility tab
2. Check ALL the Settings, but do NOT check Compatibility Mode
3. When you are ready to play, right click your desktop and click “Screen Resolution”. Leave this window open. Now launch Starcraft!

For whatever reason, this admittedly odd fix solves the color issue. The most important bit: leave the Screen Res window open while you play and you’re golden.