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© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with One comment on 07/06/2010.
Posted in: Featured, News, Video Tags: Team Fortress 2, Valve

R.I.P. Bill

Now that I’ve taken a few days to morn the loss of one of the best characters to ever bless a game with his presence, it’s time to discuss the tragedy (or should I say conspiracy?) of Left 4 Dead 2′s The Passing.  If you didn’t already know, I’m here to tell you that Bill does not make it.  If this is news to you and I’m spoiling it for you, then I apologize.  However, I’m only discussing this openly because I’m assuming that all the people that really cared to know have fired up the game by now and discovered this as I did, and I think many of us are just plain mad at Valve.  If you aren’t, you should be.



Why Bill?
In trying to make sense of this I keep asking myself, “Why Bill damnit?”.  It just makes no sense to pick Bill as the guy who bites it.  Sure, he was famous for quotes like “I’m gettin too old for this s#%t”, but Bill really had no quit in him.  He was a grizzled old vet, and he was just the kind of guy you want with you when the zombie apocalypse starts.

Think about it.  The world implodes in a zombie apocalypse.   You are struggling to stay alive and get to somewhere safe.  Who do you want with you the most?  You want the guy who is already wearing his military issue gear for Christ’s sake.  Bill is ALREADY prepared for war, and experienced from fighting in the jungles of Vietnam. He might be crazy, but in a zombie apocalypse you need a little crazy with you to make it.  I don’t want the whiny office worker in a shirt and tie.  I don’t want the questionably gay biker looking guy with me.   I might want Zoe if we have to propagate our species again, but damnit there’s still no one better to have with me than Bill.  We can’t win this without Bill people.  We have been robbed of hope, the zombies will surely take us now.

The Conspiracy
I’m calling Valve out now.  A large company is surely pressured to make “politically correct” choices nowadays, and this is one of them.  Here’s why it had to be Bill.  If you kill Louis, the African American community gets offended.  Sure, kill off the black guy like every other white movie ever made.  Too cliche, so Louis lives to continue politely whining to zombies.  If you kill Zoe, the feminists and gamer chicks come out of the woodworks in protest.  Cries of sexism will rain on Valve HQ.  Zoe lives, and we keep our female audience in tact.  If you kill Francis, either the biker gangs light your building on fire or the LBGT community pickets in front of your facility.  Neither is an appealing option, and Francis lives to parade through zombieville.  That leaves Bill.

Perhaps it’s our fault.  Who cries now that Bill is gone?  Who cares if a half-crazy old guy dies?  Just another disturbed Vietnam vet buried in Arlington right?  Wrong.  Some of us care.  Some of us are just as pissed off as I am that Valve chose Bill to die:

Time to Take a Stand
It’s time the old guys stand up and made some noise too.  It’s time we picket Valve HQ to defend those that defend us, the Bills of the world.  Sure we may need to take some pills and a med pack to be able to picket for hours, but someone needs to do it.  This travesty cannot be tolerated.  Bill has to have died for something, and we need to be heard.

R.I.P. Bill, you’ll be missed.

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 7 comments on 04/25/2010.
Posted in: Featured, Funny, Opinion, Video Tags: Left 4 Dead 2, Valve

Play The Passing on April 22nd

Valve updated the official LFD2 blog with the latest news on The Passing.  It will land in 2 days time and be free to PC owners.  Xbox players will have to cough up 560 MS points to enjoy it.  Not only does it introduce a golf club melee weapon, an M60 firearm and a new class of zombie (the fallen survivor), but we’ll also get a new series of weekly game mode events called “Mutations”:

These week-long runs of new gameplay modes range from “Realism Versus” mode to “Chainsaw Massacre,” which gives all players chainsaws with an unlimited supply of gasoline. There are over 20 Mutations planned, each playable on all L4D2 Campaigns. Mutations are exclusively available to owners of “The Passing” DLC.

On Launch day you can play with Valve employees (PC 11am-5pm PDT, Xbox 7pm-11pm PDT) if you add one of the accounts below to your friends lists:

On PC:
L4D2_DEV_1, L4D2_DEV_2, L4D2_DEV_3, L4D2_DEV_4, L4D2_DEV_5, L4D2_DEV_6, L4D2_DEV_7, L4D2_DEV8, L4D2_DEV_9, L4D2_DEV_10

On the Xbox 360:
L4D2 DEV 1, L4D2 DEV 2, L4D2 DEV 3, L4D2 DEV 4, L4D2 DEV 5, L4D2 DEV 6, L4D2 DEV 7, L4D2 DEV 8, L4D2 DEV 9, L4D2 DEV 10

Time to dust off the zombie killing skills.  Add Stimulus Package to your steam friends list to find me

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with One comment on 04/20/2010.
Posted in: Featured, News Tags: Left 4 Dead 2, Valve

Next Week: The Passing happens

Valve just posted an update to the official LFD2 blog announcing that The Passing will hit next week, so we’ll finally get to find out which survivor from the original cast didn’t make it.  The article doesn’t mention a specific day other than to say “next week”, but at least it is a 7 to 10 day window to expect that The Passing will be available.  We’ll also get a few new weapons and other goodies that come with this addition, so it will be a welcomed change to the game.

Additionally, the article mentions that 2 of the Midnight Riders songs are coming to Rock Band. Might be cool if you have both games, as the Midnight Riders definitely rock.

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with No comments on 04/16/2010.
Posted in: Featured, News Tags: Left 4 Dead 2, Valve

Many of us have noticed that Steam recently released a new beta client, complete with all kinds of cool new UI improvements and other assorted bells and whistles. In reading the beta release notes recently I noticed something interesting. One of the line items in those notes was that Valve has replaced the in game web browser’s rendering engine with WebKit instead of IE. Since Steam runs on Windows only, it makes perfect sense that it would be easy to just use IE, so their motivation to make this change seemed curious to me.

What if you wanted Steam to run on a machine that wasn’t Windows based? You would need to remove all dependencies on Windows, which includes the in game browswer using IE. Changing to WebKit during this beta release is a tell tale sign of portability I tell you! This was my theory. In making my rounds around the interwebs today I came across some very interesting articles that pretty much validated my thinking, and I went from theorizing to placing my bets on this inevitability. *Update: Others have reported seeing OS X buttons in the graphics folder of the Steam install, so I’d bet the farm that this is no rumor but a definite thing that will happen.

Valve has begun cirulating some very curious pictures (here, here, and here) that incorporate gaming, computers, and knock-offs of Apple marketing. The lads at RPS and other spots across the interwebs have already concluded what is slowly becoming obvious: Steam is coming to the Mac. Even if it is just Steam’s own games that are made available to Mac owners, this is huge news. It opens the door to Macs being just as viable for gaming as PC’s are, and that is great news, even if you don’t own a Mac.

~br3ntbr0

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 3 comments on 03/03/2010.
Posted in: Analysis, Featured, News Tags: Mac, Steam, Valve

1.  PVP and PVE balance

Dismiss one play style or the other at your own peril.  There is a reason that games like Call of Duty have single player campaigns, and World of Warcraft has battlegrounds.  Both styles of game play provide a good mix of experiences for the player, and draw a wider range of gamers to a given title.  Having both in an online game seems just about mandatory for today’s games.

2. Apprentice/Sidekick System

For games with level based progression, this is vital.  This has more to do with traditional MMORPG style games than anything, but with a max level will ultimately have an end game to suit that level of player and probably some alternate method of progression to go with it.  For new players that come into a game where the player base is already mature, a sidekick/apprentice system is a godsend.  While you might still be largely left to toil away at your questing and mob killing anyway, you don’t always have to be left out of the fun your higher level friends are having.These systems aren’t perfect, but still very needed.  Even if your level and statistics are bumped up to your friend’s level, your gear or available skills are usually still that of the lowbie that you actually are.  In the end, you are usually a weaker version of those who are actually at the level you’ve been brought up to be.  There’s no developer that has pulled this off flawlessly (yet) but it is much better than not having the option to run that higher level content at all.

3.  Single Realm/World

While it is naive to think that these types of games are actually only supported by a single physical server, some games only offer one world/realm/shard selection.  They do this with with a complex configuration of servers, and it usually necessitates heavy use of instancing.  While some game developers pull it off better than others, there’s no mistaking that dealing with a bunch of instances or “zoning” is a headache for some players.

8. Integrated Voice chat, anti-cheat ware, update management, digital distribution, social networking and game play recording

These are all awesome features by themselves.  I’ve bundled them together here because there are already a few platforms out there that bring every single one of these to the table already.  Every game needs something to help manage player profiles, provide matchmaking capabilities (where applicable), manage their games, and to help players find and play with friends.  I can provide no better example of this than Valve’s Steam.  Blizzard plans to roll out a similar tool with their revamped Battle.net, and Xfire seems to be moving in this direction as well.  Having one place to log in and manage your games, your profile, groups you belong to (and much more) just brings so much value to the gaming experience that it is a must.

You also need tools to fight cheaters.  Blizzard has the controversial Warden.  Valve has VAC.  Others use Punkbuster, Hackshield, Gameguard or something similar.  Every online game needs a security measure built in, otherwise the cheating/hacking twirps of the world will begin running rampant in game.  Wall hacks, teleporting, speed hacks, currency and item duplication exploits are all things that will very quickly send the game into ruination if left unchecked.  Having the game’s launcher or other game management platform (think Steam) manage updates and patches to the game are also so very useful that they should be key parts of the game upon release, especially if you need to quickly distribute a patch to fix an exploit.

Recording game play from within the game is not a tried and true feature for online games.  However, the explosion of video sites and game related videos posted to them makes this something I’d personally like to see every online game provide.  New games like APB are setting themselves apart by adding the capability to record moments of the game and seamlessly add them to YouTube.  How cool is it to catch your guild downing a boss or capping that critical capture point for bragging rights?  Screenshots don’t do justice to the action in most games.

You need a platform to build and supply these services.  Basically, you need Steam or something like it associated with your game.  Not only are many MMO’s sold via Steam, but some new ones are Steam Powered, meaning the game itself is integrated with Steam’s features and benefit from all the platform brings to the table.

9. Game Integrated Web Site and Services and Apps

This probably has alot to do with the item above, as a full platform of tools like Steam would help with this, but not fully.  Features that should be offered like realm transfer (hopefully not necessary, see the single realm/shard paragraphs above), faction transfer, character customization change, name change, and other associated services should be available.  Character, guild, and item look ups should available along with zone, quest, skill/spell abilities, and bestiary.  See everquest2players.com and wowarmory.com for wonderful examples of how to extend an MMO to the web.  Consider a mobile phone app out there too, as Fallen Earth and World of Warcraft have done.

10. Variety of subscription/payment options

Last but certainly not least, flexible payment options are needed. Many people are tired of being tethered to a $15.00 a month subscription fee, as it may limit their ability to play multiple games.  Others like buffet style pricing and don’t want to feel “nickle-and-dimed” by item shops and constant sales pitches.  Modern games need to be flexible enough to provide both, lowering the barrier to entry to everyone yet still proving the stability of established subscription games.  I can find no better example of this than Dungeons and Dragons Online.

Do you agree or disagree with these items?  What features do you want to see in your games?

- br3ntbr0

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 6 comments on 01/26/2010.
Posted in: Featured, Opinion Tags: All Points Bulletin, BioWare, Blizzard, Cataclysm, Global Agenda, Modern Warfare 2, Steam, Valve, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft

In a previous blogging life I’ve ranted and raved about Valve’s digital distribution platform Steam. I truly think this is one of the best things to happen to gamers since…well, ever…and I’ve come up with 5 reasons why I think Steam should be every PC gamer’s best friend. Now, I realize this may come across as a bit of promotion for Valve and looks alot like what they’ve already said about Steam, but trust me I’m not paid by anyone. I’m just here to say that it is my opinion that Valve is right. Steam does the things they say it can do, and it does them well. Here are 5 reasons I think they are right, and why Steam is a critical tool in The Gamer’s Toolbox:

Deals, Deals, Deals!
I think there are few places that you can find an entire studio’s games bundled in to a 20 dollar sale price other than on Steam. 5 dollar MMO’s, half price sales, free weekends and all other kinds of great gaming deals are to be had on Steam. This alone is enough reason for most people to love Steam, since Valve’s digital distribution platform allows for quick and easy impulse buying. Steam allows game developers to lower their prices since their overhead for getting the game to you is much lower than creating boxes for store shelves.

Patches, DLC and VAC
Steam powered games get patched easily since the updates and patches to them can happen in the background while you are playing another game, or simply away from your machine. Patches occur very often and keep you game up to date as developers squash bugs, fight exploiters and improve their games. Speaking of exploiters, what is VAC you ask? It’s short for Valve Anti-Cheat, and comes built into Steam to prevent cheating in Steam powered games. Personally, I like that it’s there and that it is another tool that developers can use to try to catch hackers, cheaters and aim-botters. It doesn’t always work, but having it there is better than having to rely on yet another tool to try and handle game security. Sadly there aren’t a whole lot of non-Valve games using VAC, and you’ll have to hope that whatever game you just purchased has something on it in lieu of VAC.

Convenience and Ease of Use
In 5 minutes (after downloading) you can be playing a new game and you never had to get out of your chair. If you buy a new machine, no worries as your games can get still be accessed on that new rig. You can set your machine to download all of your games to your new computer as your games are tied to your Steam account, not your PC. Migrating your games to a new machine is made substantially easier with Steam. If you are thinking about upgrading to the newest version of Windows, just go for it (if your games are Steam powered) as it will be pretty straightforward to get back in the gaming action. After years of development, Steam works very well and is unobtrusive to most gamer’s play experience.

In Game Tools and Social Networking
Steam also has some very nice features built into the platform. With Steam you get friend lists and notifications, groups, voice chat, chat rooms and in-game web browsing. When you launch a game, your friends can know what you are playing, and if applicable, join you in that game. You can create groups and invite people to those groups. You can schedule events for the groups, like “Team Fortress 2 Friday Fragfest” and invite everyone in the group. While it would be great to see some integration with other social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Xfire, Raptr and the like, Steam has some great tools in it’s own right.

The iTunes Effect
iTunes changed the way that people buy and manage their music. People do not purchase entire CD’s the way they used to, all packaged up on store shelves. Apple single-handedly destroyed the music distribution methods of old with iTunes and the iTunes store. Valve is on its way to fundamentally changing how gamers buy and manage their games as well, since Steam’s digital distribution platform brings so much to the table. It is a great way for game developers to bring their games to market and make a higher percentage of profit on each sale, all the while leveraging all the tools that Steam brings to the table, should they choose. Potential conflicts of interest aside, Steam is a great tool for the entire gaming community.

Am I just a Valve fanboy, or do you like Steam as well? Why or why not?

Happy New Year.

~br3ntbr0

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 11 comments on 12/31/2009.
Posted in: Analysis, Featured, Impressions, Opinion, Reviews Tags: Steam, Valve

Demo for all!
In a previous post I showed you The Parish campaign from the Left 4 Dead 2 demo.  There I did some play-by-play game play in the demo and highlighted some of the new game play dynamics. The 3 new infected and “uncommon” common infected bring in a few new wrinkles to getting to the safe house alive.  The New Orleans themed map during the daytime is cool, especially for this Louisiana native.  The new weapons and items also mix things up nicely, and it all adds up to make for one great sequel.   Before I continue blabbering on further there is some good news: that demo is now live for everyone.  Go and try it out if you have any interest in having your turn at trying to survive Valve’s 2nd zombie apocalypse.  You can also play the demo as infected if you are up for some hackery.

Also available is some game play video from G4tv.com about the alternate game styles, which I’ve embedded below for your enjoyment. L4D2 brings more than the co-op campaign mode. There’s versus mode, where 4 players play the survivors and 4 play the special infected zombies. There’s survival mode, where 4 players try to survive as long as possible against wave after wave of zombie hordes and special infected. In addition, L4D2 brings in a few new game play modes:

Realism Mode:
Realism mode is basically EXTREME OMG BEYOND HARD mode. If you die, that’s it your are dead. There is no respawning in a closet somewhere that your teammates can rescue you. You can only get a dead player back if you have the new defibrillator item. Character outlines are off, so you won’t be able to look for those green outlines surrounding your teammates when you get separated. It seems like this will be a very challenging game type, and I look forward to trying it. Check out the video on realism mode below:

Scavenge Mode:
Scavenge mode looks to be like Versus mode, but with a twist. You’ll have 4 special infected players versus 4 survivor players, but this time the objective isn’t just for the survivors to make it to the end of the map. In scavenge mode, the survivors must find gas cans scattered across the map get them to the generator. Adding cans buys more time, and the team that scores the most cans (teams alternate between playing survivors and infected) wins. Check out another great video on scavenge mode below:

The apocalypse begins (again) on November 17th.

~br3ntbr0

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with One comment on 11/05/2009.
Posted in: Commentary, Misc, News, Video Tags: Left 4 Dead 2, Valve

Kill All Sons-A-Bitches
The title above isn’t just an excuse to be crass, but a quote directly from the opening cinematic by Southern boy Ellis from Left 4 Dead 2.  A few days ago Valve released the long anticipated PC demo for their upcoming sequel to the original Left 4 Dead.  Yours truly pre-ordered L4D2, so I was in the group of people that gets to play the demo early.  The demo is a short two stage campaign called The Parish, and has these survivors starting at a boat dock after being dropped off by a local fisherman.  From there, you have to blast and smash your way through New Orlean’s Jackson Square to a safe house near Interstate 10.  I’m here to tell you that I enjoyed every minute of my play time, so much so that I captured a whole gigamountain of video and took the time to give you the play by play.  Check out the 3 part video series below, where I get by with a little help from my friends and complete the campaign on expert mode:

The Devil Is In The Details
Left 4 Dead 2 is identical to its predecessor at is core. There is a zombie apocalypse, and you must kill hordes of zombies and special infected to get somewhere that you can be rescued.  Where it sets itself apart is the way it expands on L4D’s winning formula. The 3 additional special infected, along with zombies armored in riot gear, bring a whole new level of game play to the table. The new weapons are just different enough to make you want to go out of your way to look for them. The Magnum is (overpowered?) a godsend if you become incapacitated and are firing at zombies raining down on you. The defibrillator and the adrenaline shot also mix things up nicely, and the new characters have a certain charm that just makes you want to like them. The details like jukeboxes that play songs (and spawn horde if a special song plays) just add flavor to the already great feel of the game.

I say all this just based on a short demo campaign. I have not yet encountered zombies in hazmat suits, or many of the other unique infected that I’ve read about. I have not yet had the joy of firing the grenade launcher, or seen any of the new game play modes that exist outside of the demo. There is much, much more to be experienced with Left 4 Dead 2, far beyond what can be enjoyed in this short demo. Whether you are an old Left 4 Dead zombie slayer like me, or you are new to Valve’s zombie apocalypse survival game, there’s alot to like with this game.  My first impressions were all good except for the hitching, which can be seen multiple times in the video.  Regardless, I still recommend this game as a must buy.  November is a crowded month for gaming, but you should really consider L4D2 if its not already on your radar.

-br3ntbr0

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 2 comments on 11/01/2009.
Posted in: Commentary, Featured, Video Tags: Left 4 Dead 2, Play By Play, Valve

2009 has been quite a year for gaming. September gave MMO gamers plenty to digest as quite a few noteworthy titles launched. Many players were getting their hero on in Champions Online, dealing with the apocalypse in Fallen Earth, and sprouting their wings in Aion. All of this activity has been keeping gamers occupied well past the free month of game play that most of these games offer.

Normally, this would mean a full gaming plate for the community.  However, November promises to be a month with some solid titles coming out as well, arguably with a better line up than September brought us.  Not only will FE, CO and Aion be getting patched or expanded, but several other established games like WoW, WAR, DDO, etc are seeing plenty of activity. November still promises to bring some new games to the forefront that could make the end of the year very enjoyable.

Consider me booked for the rest of the year:

Borderlands
One type of game play I’m growing very fond of lately is coop team play. 4 team coop games like Left 4 Dead have consumed me. I’ve been playing the Crash Cource DLC for Left 4 Dead alot recently, so I began to pay closer attention to Borderlands. Its an RPGish shooter with 4 person coop team play. This formula has worked well for Valve, and I am interersted in seeing how Borderlands executes this style of game as well. I probably won’t purchase it right away, (damn this budget to hell!) but will definitely be keeping a close eye on the title.

Left 4 Dead 2
Speaking of Left 4 Dead, L4D2 is launching in November. Holy crapola I’m gonna be all over this one! I’ve never had a more fun – yet intense – experience as Valve delivered to me in Left 4 Dead. If they improve on the first game even a little, this is a sure fire bet for game of the year and likely to be a big reason that I won’t see too much of the aforementioned Borderlands. Chainsaw melee weapons to fight a horde of zombies? Hell yeah.

Dragon Age Origins
I’m on the fence with this one. On one hand, I’m desperate to play a BioWare game as a precursor to SWTOR so that I can get a first hand experience of how BioWare will deliver good story and experience. On the other hand, it has some RTS-like game play in regard to micromanaging npc group mates and I’m not sure how much I will like that. It will likely be worth the 50ish bucks to find out, because the video I’ve seen on it has been very interesting and the character creator was fun to play with.

Additionally, I discovered that I was able to save my created characters via BioWare’s new social network.  Great, yet another social network to deal with.  I think that my thoughts on this inundation of social networking has been well stated by others, so just know that I agree with them. To make the point further, look at all the networks ITG is in on the contact page for an example of social network overload.

Ok enough grumbling about social networks…for now. Back to the games. Even if I “only” play 1 or 2 of these games, I’ll have my grubby little paws so full of gaming goodness that I’ll be as happy as a kid in a candy store. Its likely that WoW will release the Icecrown expansion then too, and between these games and woW/CO/DDO I just won’t have enough time in the day to play them all as much as I’d want.

So whaddya’ think, November games > September games for this year?

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 4 comments on 10/16/2009.
Posted in: Opinion Tags: BioWare, Borderlands, Dragon Age: Origins, Gearbox, Left 4 Dead 2, Valve