New survivors or fresh meat? With Left 4 Dead 2 shipping at a prospective date of Christmas ’09, it’s time to break out your posse, load your paranoia, and automatic-ify those shotguns to quell the zombie hordes once more. And sweet damn it’s about time! After all, the sheets of my bed were starting to dry up after my initial foray into Left 4 Dead territory – and when it comes to zombies, I like things wet.
Speaking of territory, it’s all brand new this time around, with Louisiana being the focus and swamps, crypts, and the French Quarter of New Orleans being the kill zones. Now, this is definitely a political move. The first one was designed when Bush was President, with an urban center sprawling with immorality, and the sequel has been designed while Obama’s been President and it’s going yokel Redneck Rampage style. In fact, one of the levels is actually a ranch in Crawford, Texas and features a new super-zombie: “Jeb.” Every so often Cheney shoots one of you in the head and some dude appears to shout, “Toasty!” Read the rest of this entry »
With the demise of 3D Realms this week, the future of Duke Nukem Forever is in doubt. 2K Games own the rights to DNF, but whether they will choose to actually finish development of the game is unknown. Thanks to some of the artists and designers who worked on the game we’re seeing the first real screenshots of the game, and today the first real video of this particular iteration of Duke Nukem Forever. Be warned: the video contains strong language, (rendered) nudity, and violence, of course.
From what I see the game looks fun, but it was nothing too revolutionary. Duke Nukem never really about pushing barriers, people liked it because it was always about blowing shit up and cracking one-liners. I just wonder if 3D Realms had been more forthcoming with screenshots and videos of the game, maybe public interest would not have waned the way it did—and maybe 2K Games would have kept funding the development. Changing the engine and technology the game was being developed on so many times didn’t help either. If only George Broussard weren’t so obsessed with Pogs, we might have been playing this game 5 years ago.
After years in development, it would seem that the world-famous vapourware game Duke Nukem Forever will remain just that. 3D Realms, the developer responsible for Duke Nukem Forever is yet another apparent victim of the recession. The studio announced today that it would be shutting down. 3D Realms found themselves in the situation of being forever in development and not publishing any games on a regular basis. If you’re a developer with this business model, you might want to reconsider the way you run your business.
2K Games still own the rights to Forever, so it would seem that Duke Nukem’s days with 3D Realms are numbered—a real shame since I was really looking forward to this game in 1997. 3D Realms, formerly known as Apogee Software, was responsible for developing many classic PC shareware titles, including Wolfenstein 3D, Commander Keen, and Rise of the Triad.
Way to go George Broussard! Todd Replogle is spinning in his grave.
Broken Steel, the third downloadable content pack for Bethesda Softworks immensely popular Fallout 3 will be released on May 5th. The nature of Fallout 3’s original ending, meant that players were not able to keep playing after the completion of the main quest, a fact that irked many. Bethesda recognized this shortcoming and as a result Broken Steel will continue the main storyline after ending of the game as the player and the Brotherhood of Steel seek to finish off the remnants of the Enclave once and for all. The Broken Steel DLC raises the level cap to 30 and will also feature new quests, characters, enemies, weapons and locations.
Beware: trailer may contain spoilers if you have not completed Fallout 3.
If the previous downloadable content for Fallout 3; The Pitt and Operation Anchorage, is any indication Broken Steel will be a lot of fun and add hours of gameplay.
What are you doing this weekend? If you don’t already own The Orange Box you’re going to be downloading and playing it—you no longer have any excuses. Valve Software’s online game distribution service Steam has priced The Orange Box listed at $9.99 for this weekend only. That’s right, you can own Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1, Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2 an $84.95 US value—for only $9.99!!!
Gabe Newell you magnificent bastard, this is an insane deal. You get easily some of the best games of the past decade for only ten bucks. Why are you still reading this?!
In this fourth podcast, Jeff tells us about the super important summer event that’s been keeping him busy (is it X-Men Origins: Wolverine?), Will explains how Fallout is like Metal Gear, and Lucas drinks from the precious “I ♥ Jim” mug. The dorks talk about new TV shows, bemoan the shallow ethnic diversity in superhero troupes, and debate the state of computer gaming. Prepare to be informed, amused, and offended.
Gametrailers.com has posted an exclusive first look at gameplay footage from BioShock 2. BioShock 2 is the sequel to 2K Games brilliant BioShock which hit consoles and PC in 2007. BioShock 2 sees the player return the underwater city of Rapture, but this time you aren’t alone. Soviet troops have stormed the undersea dystopia and are fighting the inhabitants of Rapture; as well as you, in an attempt to gain control of the genetic splicing technology, giving the USSR the upper hand in the Cold War. BioShock 2 hits the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC later this year.
Real-time strategy games are no stranger to the convention of time-travel. Hell, the entire Command & Conquer Red Alert series is based around the idea of parallel worlds created by time-travel. However, a new RTS game called Achron has taken this a step further. Instead of time-travel merely being a plot device, it’s actually an integral game mechanic. The developers at Hazardous Software have dubbed Achron a meta-time strategy game, allowing the player to control and play multiple time-lines simultaneously. Watch this developer walkthrough for a better explanation.
We discuss Achron briefly in our upcoming podcast. I said that I looked forward to creating some kind of insane paradox that will either crash the game or blow up my computer—god, I hope that’s possible. Achron has been talked about alot since being unveiled at the Game Developers Conference and I’m sure we’ll be talking about it quite a bit leading up to the release. The game is certainly an ambitious and original project, whether or not the game delivers in the end: only time will tell. (I couldn’t resist.) Achron been in development for several years and is due out some time in 2010.
Rockstar Games has announced that they are to release a third game in the Max Payne series later this winter. The so-far-subtitle-free Max Payne 3 is to take place several years after the events of Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, in a city other than New York. Max looks to be much older, bearded, but remains angry and violent.
This third game has been anticipated for a long time. Back in 2002, fans noticed that publisher Take-Two had registered the domain www.maxpayne3.com—well before the release of Max Payne 2. Though there have been a few hints in the years intervening, it wasn’t known whether the project was being developed and, if so, by whom.
Finnish developers Remedy, creators of the first two Max Payne titles, are not working on Max Payne 3; it is being developed by Rockstar Vancouver, best known for the controversial game Bully. Though other Rockstar teams have been responsible for porting previous Max Payne games to consoles, Max Payne 3 will be the first entirely developed by a Rockstar team.
The first Max Payne was released in 2001. It stood out for presenting its story in stylish, comic-book–style cutscenes, as well as having player-controlled bullet time effects. The sequel, released in 2003, built on the strengths of the first by improving the plot and polishing the presentation and acting.
Both games were critical successes, winning many Editors’ Choice awards. Despite strong acclaim, sales of Max Payne 2 were considered disappointing. Unlike the games on which it was based, the 2008 film adaptation of Max Payne was disparaged by critics, but sold very well, grossing over $85 million worldwide.
The first Max Payne games are available on Steam at 10 USD each, 15 USD bundled (roughly $13 and $18 Canadian). Max Payne 3 is likely to be released in time for the holidays, 2009.
id Software’s web-based first person shooter Quake Live entered the open beta stage of development last week. Quake Live, based on id’s popular 1999 shooter Quake III Arena is a free multiplayer browser based first person shooter.
For those of you wanting an nostalgic throwback to the world of PC gaming circa 1999(man, that makes me feel old), then give Quake Live a try. It plays exactly like Arena, but you can do it in the comfort of a browser tab. The game is still extremely fast and intense, and takes only a few minutes to install. Very addicting. Hell, I stopped for 30 minutes in the middle of typing the short blurb just to frag some fools. If you never played Quake III back in the day, now is your chance. Quake Live is free, so what are you waiting for?
A new teaser site for BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams, There’s Something in the Sea, has been making the rounds online. It features a few documents concerning the kidnapping of a little girl by a red-eyed monster. The site follows a teaser trailer that came on the disc of BioShock for the PlayStation 3.
Sea of Dreams is the first of what could be five sequels to 2007’s BioShock. The expectations of fans and of 2K, the game’s publisher, are quite high. BioShock is one of the most highly-rated PC and Xbox 360 games of recent years. It was praised for its immersive environments and intelligent gameplay, and was a commercial success. BioShock 2 is not being developed by 2K Boston and 2K Australia, who created the first BioShock, but by 2K Marin, a new studio seeded with staff from 2K Boston.
BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams is to be released for Windows, XBox 360, and PlayStation 3 in late 2009. Developer IG Fun is working on a version of BioShock for mobile devices that is also to be released later this year.
The 11th Annual Independent Games Festival has published their nominations for the Audience Award for best indie game of 2008. Conveniently located on the site are links to most of the indie games nominated for this years award. The IGF is set to coincide with this years Game Developers Conference later this month, so you have plenty of time to deliberate and decide which was the best indie game of 2008.
There are some truly great games amongst the nominees, I look forward to trying those that I haven’t played. Will it be the simple yet genius You Have To Burn The Rope or the mind-bending PixelJunk Eden? You decide!
Noticeably absent is a favourite of mine,Karoshi 2.0, the anti-Super Mario Bros.
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