Left4Dead Surprise Update
wob - Wednesday, September 30, 2009
This mornings update adds the campaign ‘Crash Course’ and 10 new achievements to go along with it. We’re within a month or so of Left4Dead 2′s release, so I can only guess this is fantastic marketing on Valves part to renew interest in the the franchise before the new game hits.
The other updates in this morning patch were to the matchmaking system (faster, better, stronger) and making Versus mode random drops identical between teams.
Now if only I’d stayed up til 3am I could have already had a go at it..
Flash Game Friday – The Legend of Garry
wob - Friday, September 18, 2009
This weeks Flash Game is The Legend of Garry. A physics puzzler that will look pretty familiar to most people. Class Tetris style blocks with an added twist – your stacks have to balance.
Jump in and let us know how you go!
Left 4 Dead 2 err.. Left 4 Dead by the OFLC
Frozen Hell - Thursday, September 17, 2009
So the big news doing the rounds today, is the classification, or rather lack of classification handed down for Left 4 Dead 2 this morning. The Australian Classification Board has Refused Classification of Valve’s upcoming second zombie shooting adventure – Left 4 Dead 2.
The Classification web site has limited details on their web site about the game being Refused Classification, with no reasons stated for it being refused, but its probably easy to guess it will be related to the graphical intensity associated with killing zombies which represent a "human-like" figure. Obviously Left 4 Dead made it into Australia without issue, but one of the changes in the sequel is going to include usage of various melee weaponry (e.g. like the chainsaw pictured above), so this is probably what partly has the game falling afoul of the Classification Review Board.
So where to from here? The likely process is that Electronic Arts in conjunction with Valve will appeal and/or make changes to address the concerns that prevented the game being classified.
I have no doubt that we’ll get Left 4 Dead 2 classified in Australia eventually, but it’ll be interesting to see what has to be done to get it an MA15+ rating.
Flash Game Friday: There is only one level
stuck_fox - Friday, September 4, 2009
Looking for something to do on an otherwise boring Friday whilst waiting for the weekend to finally arrive? Well maybe our section Flash Game Friday has something for you.
The game is to guide a little blue elephant to the end of the level. By right, it should be simple – after all, there is only one level.
Or is there? We’ll let you find out for yourself.
Meanwhile, everyone who took the moral high road will soon be finding a new hat in their inventory. We’ve also significantly increased the chance of finding any of the existing hats.
We realize there is a high level of demand for items, and we’re still working on systems to allow you to find them in new ways (via Trading, and crafting duplicates into desired items). However, we need to draw the line at running external applications."
It’s great to see that Valve are continuing to be so active in their TF2 community, and I think most will agree that using an external app to cheat is pretty lame. To be honest, Valve are being pretty lenient by just removing the items, as I have no doubt that many other dev’s would simply ban accounts.
God of War Collection: Coming to PS3 this Holiday Season!
admin - Thursday, September 3, 2009
"Thanks to your feedback, we are excited to announce the God of War Collection for this Holiday Season. Now fans and newcomers to the series can experience the epic journey of God of War and God of War II in 720p HD form. Both titles have been remastered with anti-aliased graphics, running at 60 frames per second for a smooth gameplay experience, only on the PS3 system. Additionally, the Blu-ray Disc compilation will bring the PlayStation Network (PSN) trophy support to the franchise for the very first time."
"We are excited today to announce God of War Collection," said Scott Rohde, vice president, Worldwide Studios America. "Our fans spoke and we listened; thanks to our partnership with Bluepoint Games, fans and newcomers to the series can experience the epic God of War and God of War II saga in stunning 720p on PS3. This Blu-ray Disc compilation brings Kratos to PS3 even earlier than expected."
This will be a chance for those who missed out on the original God of War experience, to take it home on blu-ray and play it in it’s new and improved form prior to the launch of God of War III in March next year. Sounds great if you ask me, Well done Sony!
Final Fantasy XIV to have cross-platform interactivity?
admin - Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Mr. Sundi explained that in the past, the problem with cross-platform interactivity is that it can cause conflicts and issues with online identities; however he confirmed that the team is currently looking into implementing a name/surname system into the title which will allow players on alternate systems with the same identity to have a dual-name.
On an alternative note, according to zoknowsgaming.com, the Playstation 3 version of Final Fantasy XIV has been confirmed to have full keyboard and mouse support. This will make Final Fantasy XIV the second full-scale Playstation 3 game to implement such a feature.
OnLive: The end of gaming as we know it?
admin - Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Rudd has promised Fibre to the Home to 96% of Australia within 8 years, and that is exactly what a service like OnLive needs to be successful. What will happen with the service if it launches now, are the same issue that PC gamers already face. Except instead of hardware limitations, it will be connection limitations that will prevent you from playing the games you want.
It is because of these limitations that Consoles have become, and continue to be so successful. It’s because purchasing the one console gives you the ability to play everything you want, without an upgrade for an entire generation of gaming.
OnLive will grow over time, thanks to the impressive line-up of developers/publishers that have already agreed to back the system; However due to its limitations, don’t expect it to take over the gaming industry anytime soon. You can expect both the PC and console platforms to continue thriving for many years to come.
The question then becomes, when the support and data connection the system requires can finally be met, will this lead to the end of gaming as we have come to know and love?
Windows 7: The new Performance OS?
admin - Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Overall the article concludes that Windows 7 should be up to the task of taking over as the long awaited "Performance OS". The greatest difference between the systems came with the use of multiple graphics cards. With NVIDIA SLI or ATI CrossFire there were several games that both Windows Vista, and especially Windows XP got owned pretty badly on.
Nordichardware.com reported that the performance speedups are even more dramatic when you scale from one to two cards running SLI. Windows 7 64-bit ran a whopping 21% faster than Windows XP x86 at 1600×1200 at 19% faster at 1920×1200. Windows 7 was faster than Vista too. SLI performance was 9% greater with Windows 7 when comparing the 64-bit operating systems at 1600×1200 and 5% at 1920×1200.
It definitely looks like Windows 7 is turning out to be a stable gaming operating system, those of you who are currently running a multi-GPU system should definitely look into upgrading to get the most out of your hardware.
For those who are interested in seeing the results, you can find them here.
