HellForge

Valve FPS Flow Chart

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:40:12 -0500

A friend of mine, nfreader, has come up with an astonishingly neat flowchart of Valve’s first person shooters, dating back from the original Half-Life to their latest and greatest game, Left 4 Dead 2. Check it out! (Be sure to click it for the full size image)

Thanks Nick!

Dragon Age: Origins Announces Return to Ostagar DLC

no.spam@gameriot.com (thePinkBurns) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:24:57 -0500

Update: Return to Ostagar now appears on the English addon site, although with a less than spectacular description (yes, the Engrish was preferable!)

Your memories of the battle of Ostagar will haunt you for years to come. It laid waste to your order and claimed the lives of many great men and women, including the brash young King Cailan and your mentor, Duncan.
Now, there are rumors that a fellow survivor of the battle has escaped from captivity and is seeking the Grey Wardens' help. The time has come for the Grey Wardens to make their return to Ostagar and exact their revenge upon the darkspawn.
A return to the battlefields of Ostagar, now thick with darkspawn encamped amidst the snow
An opportunity to reclaim the lost arms and armor of a king
A second chance to add Dog to your party

At only $5 it seems like the trend of 1 hour of gameplay with a new sword and armour set will continue. Is that bad? No. But I certainly would prefer them to concentrate on bigger expansions!

Original Post:

"Evil" Chris Priestly teased yesterday on the official forums for Dragon Age: Origins that "If I were a Dragon Age fan, I'd be visiting the site tomorrow for something new and cool".

As it turns out the Evil one was correct (who wudda thunk it?) as the Czech version of the Dragon Age official site leads with the news article: Navrat Do Ostagaru.

Spotted by eagle-eyed (and presumably Czech) official forum user Netmars , and quickly (machine) translated by numerous forum members, the Czech site post roughly reads as (with the important bits highlighted, pricing at the bottom):

Studio BioWare ™ today announced the release of downloadable content (DLC), on return to Ostagaru for game Dragon Age ™: Sources in versions for video game and entertainment system, Xbox 360 ™, a computer entertainment system, PLAYSTATION ™ 3 and PC. DLC will be available before Christmas this year, both the European and North American market. In Returning to execute Ostagaru retaliates players act and make the long trip back to Ostagaru, where they will search for powerful weapons and armor king Cailana. Ostagar is a place that has witnessed the darkest episodes in the history of Gray guards and players' task is now to regain lost honor and reveal the secrets of the fallen king Fereldenu.

"The phenomenal start selling Dragon Age: Sources're very proud and we are now the honor to inform all fans of the game that they soon will be able to download new game content," said Ray Muzyka, BioWare co-founder and general manager of EA titles for the group RPG MMO. "Back in the DLC package Ostagaru is a fine example of the relentless efforts of studio BioWare players constantly provide new and fresh experiences that enrich the comprehensive and exceptionally high and positively evaluated the story."

Return to Ostagaru is another thread in the BioWare studio dense web of story Dragon Age: Sources. Players take it issued the new expedition, which lead back to the fateful battle in Ostagaru, where they were guardians of Gray almost one killed. Here reveal top secret background of political intentions of the king and Cailana penetrate behind enemy lines to have visited the place, which many thought ended in the dustbin of history.

Return to Ostagaru will be available at a price 135, - CZK PlayStation ™ Store, 400 points BioWare on PC and 400 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360 DLC will be released before Christmas this year in versions for Xbox 360 and PlayStation ™ 3 and PC platform. Degree Dragon Age: Sources has a 18 + PEGI rating.

For more information about Dragon Age: Sources visit www.dragonage.com.

Activision: Modern Warfare 2 Isn't Banned In Russia

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:04:03 -0500

Last week, I relayed a report from Russian gaming website GotPS3 about Modern Warfare 2’s recall from shelves due to a possible ban. News of the report got around and ended up on pretty much every gaming website with an interest in Modern Warfare 2 coverage.

Today, Activision contacted VG247 to deny these claims, citing the report the console versions had been recalled as “erroneous”. The company’s official statement claims that [the company] has only released a PC version of the game in Russia, which went on sale on Tuesday, Nov. 10,” with no mention of any console version.

Regardless of the status of the console versions, the statement made no mention of whether the PC version is censored.

I would say mea culpa if the report is indeed erroneous, either partially or in its entirety. Given the breakneck pace of news on the internet, it isn't possible to verify every detail of a report.

Michael Atkinson Sends An Australian Gamer A Six Page Reply For Vetoing R18 Classification

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:05:34 -0500

I am Michael Atkinson's look of disapproval.

An Australian gamer wrote a letter to Attorney General Michael Atkinson on his decision to veto the R18 classification for violent video games in Australia, whose response consisted of an elaborate six-page document with his reasoning and justification of keeping these games effectively banned from the adult public.

The six-page response is a goldmine of ignorance. Take for instance the following two paragraphs from the 2nd page, which I’ve highlighted to show the depth of Atkinson’s unrivaled arrogance as a law-maker:

“However, it is important you do not confuse the classification rating of a game with the game’s sophistication, or the challenge or interest to the player. I understand the Wii console has been phenomenally successful for Nintendo and that system provides many games to challenge and develop skill, physically and intellectually, without depraved sex, gore and cruelty. Depending on tastes and interests, adult gamers will find something challenging to play in all of the categories of games now available. It does not follow that a game is more interesting to an adult simply because it contains extreme violence, explicit sexual material or highly offensive language. Indeed, with all the effort and money that goes into game development, coupled with the effects and graphics now available, there is no need to introduce these extreme elements. I am baffled and worried about why proponents of R18+ games are putting up their legs and saying ‘Give us more cruel sex and extreme violence!’

“Some of the kinds of games that I expect would be available on the Australian market under R18+ classification include Blitz the League, an American football game where illegal performance enhancing drugs can be dispensed by the gamer to the football players and fake urine samples can be used so players avoid positive drug tests. Another is Narc – as in narcotics – which allows a gamer to choose that his game character take illegal drugs, including heroin, speed, L.S.D. , marijuana and ecstasy. The gamer can have his character take ecstasy so it is immune to attack and the character can escape. Further, when given speed, the character can run faster and catch opponents. These are all activities that are illegal for individuals in the real world so why ask governments to give people the right to do them virtually?”

Given the logic exercised by Atkinson in this instance, the same argument could be leveled against both films and books, so why should games be treated any differently? Society’s perception that games are “made for children” is a likely reason for Atkinson’s views.

Atkinson, who invokes the biased studies of Professor Craig Anderson, who is in all regards a poor researcher with no credibility recites the mantra that “the repeated act of killing a computer-generated person or creature desensitizes them to violence.”

He ends his letter with a dismissive statement to say that he will be running for re-election in 2010 in the district of Croydon. “I would welcome advocates of R18+ computer games testing public acceptance of my policy by standing a candidate against me in that general election. I think you will find this issue has little traction with my constituents who are more concerned with real-life issues than home entertainment in imaginary worlds.”

Source: reddit

MMO Basics: Presentation

no.spam@gameriot.com (EeriePanda) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 02:28:41 -0500

Unlike my previous article on Persistence, Presentation is fairly straight forward topic; it is composed of two parts.

Display
Input

Display is simply taking the data that was marshalled to the client and showing it in a format that the user can interpret. Obviously for MUDs this is much easier than their graphical brethren because generally the client is only a simple Telnet client that shows any text that was sent to it. For the graphical clients generally they take the data which generally is unreadable by a human at this point and translate it to events to display on the client.

Example:

Simulation: The car labeled A has moved from point (0,0) to point (0,5).

Marshalling from simulation to presentation: Uses a byte (0-255) to send a move event follow by a reference to car A and its destination point.

Presentation: Move the image for car A to point (0,5) over a period of 0.2 seconds, rotate it to face the direction it moved, and play a sound of a car engine.

The simple action of the simulation moving a car from one point to another triggers multiple events in Presentation in order to translate the act to something a human can interpret and expects.

The Input part of the Display takes the users input and has it marshalled as data to the simulation. For MUDs this is just taking the text entered and sending it back to the server; however for graphical clients this can be way more complex. Like MUDs, graphical client send data for actions taken by the player, however it is common to send "updates" of where the player is located and their facing in order to cut down the amount of actions being sent. This important because it means the clients are sending input that isn't directly from the player but rather from the client itself.

Example:

Presentation: Player moves from (0,0) to (0,2) and shoots at point (0,5). The player is shown as shooting on his screen.

Marshalling from presentation to simulation.

Simulation: The simulation receives the shoot event and executes code to see the result of it. On an update tick it recieves the players location and they they are moving. Checks their location to make sure it was feasible and checks for any result.

As you can imagine there are quite a few ways of handling how and when the data is sent and we will cover that in my next article on Marshalling.

MechWarrior 4 Release Delayed, Microsoft Blamed

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 02:11:00 -0500

Fans of the MechWarrior series will have to wait a little longer for the free release of MechWarrior 4 and its expansions because Smith & Tinker, the company that now owns the MechWarrior franchise, has yet to secure any actual permission from Microsoft to republish the games.

Now you might be wondering, “Why publicize and hype the free release of Mechwarrior 4 when you don’t even have the permission to do so?” and my answer to you is going to be somewhere along the lines of an implied facepalm and disbelief. You would think that they would have actually thought to secure the game before publicizing it.

This week, MekTek posted an update on their official website to declare that “the release is ready” and offered a clarification that Microsoft was holding back the game’s release because the Smith & Tinker company was still in negotiations with Microsoft. They mentioned optimistically that meetings are scheduled for later this month and that they believe “it will only take 1-2 more days before permission is granted” after the meetings take place.

We’ll see if their promise ever materializes.

Source: MekTek

Extensive Impressions of Dragon Age: Origins

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 14:14:24 -0500

After several days of dedicating my time to Dragon Age: Origins, my progress through the game has slowed down considerably, simply because I need time to digest what I’ve played of the game, just as I would a good fantasy novel. While it's nice to be able to sit down and complete huge chunks of it at a time, I do not wish to exhaust the entirety of the game’s content all at once.

It may sound a bit silly, especially when the length and depth of the game are taken into consideration. The replay value alone will keep me coming back for a long time, so I really ought to finish it this weekend, if it is at all possible for me to do so.

I have spent, thus far, 92 hours within the game across multiple characters, two of which I retired before trying on my third character – one whom I’m satisfied with. Call it a habit, but I’ve never been able to complete an RPG with a character that I wasn’t completely satisfied with in the initial play-through. I’m sure that my subsequent adventures in Ferelden will be a lot less arduous, if you could consider the choices that you have to make as your character throughout the game as challenging as the game’s tactical battles – which I do. I’d also spend much less time reading the Codex as I go along in my future forays into Dragon Age.

Most of my impressions of the game have been positive. This may not mean much, but Dragon Age exceeded my expectations for it as a successor to the Baldur’s Gate series. Having played it as much as I have, I would say that Dragon Age has not only managed to surpass my expectations but it has also managed to push the envelope for the RPG genre as a whole. Should the inevitable comparison be made between Fallout and Dragon Age, the latter would win by a great margin in my opinion.

Perhaps my opinion is colored by my enjoyment of BioWare games, and perhaps my expectations have been greatly reduced over years of weak RPGs that paid scant attention to character choices, but Dragon Age is really in a league of its own.

In games like Baldur’s Gate and even Fallout, the dialogue system provided the player with nothing more than the illusion of choice – featuring multiple dialogue options that simply branched back into one or two original paths. This is not the case with Dragon Age, where even small dialogue options, such as your initial hesitation or eagerness may have a slight impact on the overall outcome.

To cite an example, a girl who asks you to look for her missing brother provides you with a sword that you can promise to return to her, or compensate her with gold after the completion of a certain objective. At that later point, you can either choose to take the sword, thus breaking the promise, or pay her some silvers as compensation for it. You can even choose how much you wish to pay her, ranging from the miserly to the over-generous. You can also opt to listen to her reasoning that you are more deserving of the sword than she, and accept it as a gift, without any penalty from your reputation with Morrigan, your party member. Or you could tell her that you wish to pay her for it, and then decide not to. Doing so will earn you both Morrigan's amusement, and disapproval from other party members like Wynne and Alistair.

In few other games has your interaction with your party members mattered as much. Planescape: Torment is, perhaps, the only other RPG with characters as well-defined and three dimensional, whose relationship with the player impacts the overall outcome of the game.

Indeed, it is quite refreshing to play a game wherein the player isn't penalized for not being a pushover, or labeled 'evil' for demanding recompense for her efforts. Why would anyone risk life and limb to be repaid in worthless gratitude? It's interesting to note that most characters will not even bother to reward you if you do not ask them for a reward, and not asking for a reward gets you very little benefit.

In any case, these have been but a fraction of my experiences with the game, with so much more yet to come (or so I am told). So it’s back to the game for now, as I endeavor to put an end to the Darkspawn at all costs.

If you have to choose a single game to play this holiday season, make it Dragon Age: Origins.

Modern Warfare 2 AMAZING Knife Throw

no.spam@gameriot.com (Mr.Pibbs) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:04:08 -0500

Watch till the end, that is crazy! The guy was lucky to not only pull that off, but be recording and it be the last kill of the game as well X_x

What do you guys think of MW2 so far?

Mass Effect 2 To Feature Martin Sheen?

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 11:29:26 -0500

BioWare is taking video games to new, cinematic heights with their RPG, Mass Effect 2. A newly released video on GameTrailers shows off the voice talent of the always excellent Martin Sheen (President Josiah Bartlett on The West Wing) as the so-called "Illusive Man" in the upcoming game. Possibly.

Gamer of the Week: He Hates Modern Warfare 2

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:27:14 -0500

Do you hate Modern Warfare 2? Do you have a grudge against Infinity Ward for their treatment of PC gamers? What ever the case, you have nothing on this boy. Carrying the tradition of Snail's old "Gamer of the Week" weekly video series, I've stumbled upon this little gem. Enjoy.

End of Eternity Looks Alright, Extended Trailer Released

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:17:27 -0500

Sega's released a new trailer for tri-Ace's upcoming Steampunk-themed JRPG, End of Eternity, and it looks like it could very easily rival Final Fantasy XIII in terms of art direction. End of Eternity features customizability rare in JRPGs, with visible changes to clothing and gear, party control options and weapon modification.

The gameplay shares some similarities with Sega's other title, Valkyrie Chronicles, which utilizes an Action Point system rather than a pure turn-based mode.

Check it out:

Dragon Age Bug: Alistair's Head Twists Off

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:29:27 -0500

Evoking the memory of a key scene in The Exorcist, Alistair's head decides simply to twist off in this very odd, yet strangely beautiful bug in Bioware's latest RPG.

I guess it's contagious.

Console Versions of Modern Warfare 2 Banned in Russia

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:55:33 -0500

UPDATE: This story is retracted as certain facts of the report within can't be verified outside of the Russian blog I referenced. The site which I referenced, GotPS3, does not cite any external sources and the content of the report is largely the result of speculation, not verifiable fact.

Every copy of the console version of Modern Warfare 2 has been recalled from stores in Russia due to the content of the “No Russian” mission, better known as the controversial airport massacre level. Likewise, Infinity Ward has released an official patch for the PC and Steam versions of Modern Warfare 2, entirely removing the mission from the game.

Pending validation from the Russian government, the censored console versions of the game are expected to be released within less than a month, with the mission removed.

The game’s content has raised the ire of the Russian gaming public as well as a number of politicians who object to its portrayal of Russia’s armed forces as terrorists who invade the United States and subsequently erect statues of dead terrorists in Washington D.C.

Russian gaming website GotPS3 voiced their anger over the game’s storyline, which they criticized as catering to a primarily American audience with total disregard towards other cultures, especially the Russians, whom the game depicts as terrorists.

As it is, Russian gamers who wish to play the game will have to choose from purchasing the gutted Steam version, ordering the US/EU version of Modern Warfare 2 from eBay, or waiting for an indefinite period of time for the censored version to be released, pending validation.

Thanks, Warrax, for providing a Russian source.

What Modern Warfare 2 Boycott?

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:57:52 -0500

A boycott in name alone is no boycott at all. It might as well be show a of support.

Now just imagine if animal rights activists supped at KFC after a long day of protesting the very company they despise. And you wonder why nobody takes online petitions seriously.

Go have a cry about it.

Source: Rock Paper Shotgun

Steam Weekend Deal: Overlord Complete Pack for $8.75

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:31:57 -0500

To commemorate the release of Overlord: Raising Hell on Steam, Valve is offering the entire franchise at a 75% discount with the Overlord Complete Pack flying at a super-affordable $8.75 USD.

I'm not huge on the whole Overlord series, but paying 9 dollars for the entire deal -- sequel, expansion and all -- is pretty much a steal.

Grab it here.

Torchlight Six Word Story Competition Winners!

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:47:47 -0500

I'd like to thank everyone for participating in the Torchlight Six Word Story contest. All submissions have been read and our two winners have been decided upon. I hope you've enjoyed contributing your stories to the contest as much as I've enjoyed reading them. Without further ado, here are our two winners:

Auctus, for his myriad of submissions, and for the one that won him the contest: "We discovered worlds made of pixels."

Lilithraevyn, for her story: "Empty bag; room for more loot!"

Congratulations! Your loot is in the mail.

Elevating games to an art: Publishers, stand up for your medium!

no.spam@gameriot.com (The Extremist) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:17:56 -0500

In his latest video entitled "Something Worth Fighting For: Video Games and Controversy," Daniel Floyd touches on something profound. He goes beyond all the "murder simulator," Hot Coffee, Modern Warfare 2 in DC, and Mass Effect "sex simulator" scandals and challenges everyone in the gaming industry to defend those projects that stand poised to push the medium from "making toys" to an artform at the cost causing discomfort and offence.

The game at the heart of his lecture/talk/presentation is Six Days in Fallujah, which we discussed at some length before when Konami pulled out of the game earlier this year.

Rather than providing a synopsis of an 8 minute video, I would just like to highlight a quote from James Portnow (previously from Activision, now running his own studio called Divide By Zero) as delivered by Floyd:

"This will take real courage from within our industry. It will take the bravery to face critique and the fortitude to weather outcry. It will ask that we expose ourselves to short-term financial risk and that we don't back down from early losses, firm in the knowledge that we are doing right. We will have to be steadfast under the scrutiny of the world and resolute when we're asked to justify ourselves in the court of public opinion.

It will ask that, for the moment, we give up ease. But if we can do this, we can do good, real good with our medium.

If we do this we can expand the industry and bring whole new genres within the purview of games. If we do this we can turn a greater profit while providing more meaningful experiences and reach audiences hitherto unthinkable. If we do this we can perhaps elevate some small portion of our labour to an art. But if we do this we will no longer be able to pretend as if what we do doesn't matter. If we do this we can never go back to the way it was before."

I posted this here because I wanted to discuss that quote but YouTube's commenting system sucks, and I'd much rather discuss it with Hellforge than with YouTube.

As someone who draws pictures is differentiated from artist, as an average novelist is to an author that creates literature; shall there be games that blur the line between entertainment and art as opposed to games that exist for entertainment alone? Is it possible? Is it worth it?

Dragon Age: Running Out Of Room? Bioware Releases Camp Storage Chest Add-On

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:41:36 -0500

Previously, players would have had to purchase the Warden’s Keep DLC to gain access to a storage chest that was available only at Soldier’s Peak.

Inundated by requests for a storage system in Dragon Age, Bioware designer Craig Graff has released a downloadable add-on for Dragon Age that spawns a storage chest at the party camp.

The designer writes that the chest only works in the party’s main camp, and some versions where combat or special cutscenes take place will not have access to the chest. Players should leave the camp and come back again if they do not see it present in the camp.

You can grab it here.

Activision Responsible For Modern Warfare 2 Delay, Not Steam

no.spam@gameriot.com (Idoliside) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:38:17 -0500

I'm getting quite a bit of heat reading some article and Steam forums about the Modern Warfare 2 Steam release debacle. Let me state this once: release dates have nothing to do with Valve/Steam!

Steam is merely a platform that publishers like Activision can use to publish their games and have some protection from piracy. It is up to the publisher to decide when the game is released.

Activision. Not Steam.

So all this hate branching towards the digital distribution service is quite unwarranted.

Now on the other hand, releasing a game in retail, which you then install and cannot play for two more days is very annoying. I can clearly see why some of the hate is going towards Steam for this.

PC World have published quite a informative article on how Steam is clearly to blame. It provides quite a few misconceptions on innacuracies that I would like to clear the air with.

"Yes, wait. Sadly, inexplicably, maddeningly, Valve's elected to exacerbate the Modern Warfare 2 launch kerfuffle by delaying availability of the online-bought Steam version until Thursday, November 12th"

That was Activision's decision, and Valve had previously stated that the game would unlock on the 12th. This is nothing new. Anyone who has done their research would know this.

"All courtesy Valve's digital rights management technology, which allows Valve to decide on its own demonstrably mercurial terms who gets to play, and when."

Very unneeded hate there. Valve have been excellent with Steam and it's DRM. They have never limited how many computers you can use it on or ever denied people playing a certain game once it has been released. Unlike other DRM products Valve acts more like a gaming portal than a restrctive device. Hell, they even have an Offline mode.

"You've probably read that Activision elected to slip Valve's Steamworks technology into both retail and digitally downloadable PC versions of Modern Warfare 2"

They didn't "slip" it in. It was clearly announced a few weeks back that this was going to happen. Very few complained then. There is no point in making this sound negative, as Steamworks offers many benefits, especially the VAC system which is the most secure anti-cheat services around compared to anything else out there.

"The breaking response on Steam's Modern Warfare 2 boards has so far been scathing."

Welcome to the Steam forums. These people are hardly a reliable source for unbiased reports. People use the forums to complain about one thing or another. Even if MW2 were released on time people would complain that it took too long to install. Move along.

"Unfortunately these issues seem to be setting Steam up to remain the backseat driver when it comes to PC gaming sales," wrote another."

This is a weak argument considering the fact that Steam is the most successful digital distributor, which has many deals with publishers and produces record profits for both itself and its partners. Again, this is a another reason not to trust Steam forum users for their "facts".

"Valve's not offering a "why" (yet--email inquiries dispatched per usual) but Kotaku speculates it might have something to do with capacity load"

Valve doesn't need to. Activision does. Stop confusing service platform with publisher. And blaming it on capacity load makes no sense when they have more servers setup for the launch of the Xbox/PS3 versions. If capacity load were the case they would have it setup in advance rather than push the release date out.

"Of course Steam's already come between for online pre-purchasers. What's the difference between Steam crashing repeatedly during the game's first couple days and not being able to play the game for another 48 hours?"

Are they implying that Steam frequently crashes? I for one have had very few crashes with it over it's lifetime. I believe the writer is trying to imply the problems Steam had in it's initial launch with Half Life 2 in 2004. Well here's hoping they have improved something over 5 years...

Lets take another look at something that WAS Valve's fault. The L4D2 early demo access WAS delayed well over a day. This WAS Valve's fault and people were seriously angry over this. Yet, somehow because MW2 has alot of publicity and the general habit is to poke at Steam lately website feel they need to contribute un-needed facts to cash in views and publicity.

Rant over.

Update: I've just been told that the Retail versions of MW2 install fine and runs fine. So all this commotion only applies to the Steam exclusive edition. The release date is ultimately Activision's decision. There is no explanation why they delayed the Steam version. Needless to say, all the Steam hate is unjustified as the blame lies solely with the game's publisher.

Gearbox’s Randy Pitchford Lashes Out At Valve

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:58:02 -0500

Never one to keep his thoughts to himself, Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford lashed out at Valve in an interview with the Official Playstation Magazine in the UK, according to blog AnalogHype, which transcribed the interview from text.

Perhaps hoping to build his cred with Sony, Pitchford took a swing at Valve’s Doug Lombardi for his negative comments about the Playstation 3, likening him to a “fanboy”.

Pitchford praised the Playstation 3, and stated that he didn’t know why Valve would criticize the platform in an equally sycophantic tone. “I think Valve...I don't know why they are doing that. It's weird. But yeah, the Playstation platform's really cool. It's different to others and it's certainly a challenge to be able to develop software for. But that's where the fun is, right?”

“Doug Lombardi had to take a swipe at the PS3 again, and I thought it was foolish. I read it the same way I read fanboys,” he added. “Like there's a guy who bought the Sony platform and he's a Sony guy, so he decides he's going to spend a certain percentage of his time bashing Microsoft. And there's a guy on Microsoft doing the same thing. Those guys are childish and narrow minded; it's the same kind of thing.”

Pitchford went on to explain his theory of an “underlying sleaziness” in Valve’s neglected treatment of the Playstation 3 release of The Orange Box.

“I'm actually kind of mad at Doug because with the Orange Box, he said the 360 and PC versions are the good ones and the PS3 version is like the stepchild because some other developer made it. Well you (Valve) don't really think that, because look what you've done on the PC side. You've supported that, you've added all this content to Team Fortress 2, and you've left us hanging. It's hard to accept that genuinely, because I know the business, I know you guys make half the money on the PS3 version because you've got other fingers in the pie, and other developers getting a cut. It benefits you if nobody buys that, and only buys the PC version, because you make the most money. There's this underlying sleaziness.”

It'll be interesting to see if Valve responds to his allegations.

Source: AnalogHype

GameStop Breaks Modern Warfare 2 Street Date On Purpose

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:09:25 -0500

Speaking to Kotaku, GameStop spokesman Chris Olivera confirmed that the broken street date for Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2, which is only slated for a November 10 release was a corporate decision and anything but an accident.

He wrote:

"This past weekend, GameStop made the decision to break street date and sell reserved copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in select markets where other retailers had broken street date.

Our decision followed many conversations with Activision and was an effort to protect our customer base."

Activision had earlier told the website that the company did not give GameStop any sort of permission to break the street date. The company also stated that it wouldn’t be penalizing customers who bought the game early to play it online.

The broken street date for Modern Warfare 2 follows a conscious trend by the retailer to get an edge over online retailers like Amazon and Steam. GameStop also released Borderlands, Demigod and the Fallout 3 DLCs earlier than they were supposed to.

It is doubtful that the retail chain will be penalized in any way for their “mistake” as publishers rely strongly upon them.

BioWare RPG Cliche Chart

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:55:08 -0500

Though their games are original, well-written and fun, I’ve always found similarities in BioWare RPGs – particular clichés unique to their games and even a few of Obsidian’s. Inspired by JackSlack’s “Bioware Trope Chart” [link], currently work-in-progress, I decided to make my own chart based on my experience with their games over the years.

Please note that the list I've created is rather tongue-in-cheek and takes none of the nuances of each game's narrative into proper account. Be sure to click the image for a larger version.

Update -- Bioware's Patrick Weekes responded to a post on the official Mass Effect forums with some comments on the chart:

So I'm supposed to believe someone is smart enough to do a big Excel spreadsheet with color coding and stuff but not smart enough to know about Campbellian archetypes?

Yeah, guys, every BioWare game has the same plot! See, things are kind of normal, and then things change and you have to go out and do stuff, and you go to crazy weird places! Aaaaaand so yeah, totally the same story.

That's asinine.

The core idea isn't that bad -- I sense that someone started out with a good concept, like "Hey, you go to four places a lot," and then they just decided to add some more filler rows to try to make a real zinger, except that when you actually read the cells, a lot of them are stretches.

In any event, the "intro, four planets, finale" structure is something we have used often for a few simple reasons:

1) It's easy. It's not as easy as making the player do everything in order, but you can generally just treat each area separately except for a few variables, which makes logic-testing and QA work a ton easier. What happens on Feros stays on Feros. BioWare knows how to make these games, make them solid and workable, and ship them -- and if need be, we can always cut areas, which sucks, but we can do it if need be. Some structures don't allow for that, which is why you end up with games where it's clear that the devs ran out of time or money at some point.

2) Players can understand it. In usability tests on one project, we learned that players with more than four things to do at a time in any given area will feel frustrated -- they get overwhelmed and have no idea what to do first and get the names mixed up. So you don't dump twenty small planets on the player all at once. You hit them with a few big things that they can understand: "Go to Feros." And then once they're there, they unlock several different things to do that don't compete with the rest of the universe, because right now you're on Feros. "Kill Varren." "Get Power Cells." "Turn on Water Valves." "Go to ExoGeni." (And we even cheat a bit by giving you missions, which are big and obvious, and assignments, which we tell you are less important.)

In testing out our missions for ME2, the single biggest lump of story feedback we've gotten has boiled down to Information Flow. When a mission feels clunky, nine times out of ten it's because we either told the player way too much all at once and expected the player to keep it all straight, or we didn't actually tell the player enough and so the player is kind of lost. Dividing up our game into four or five large worlds allows us to control information a bit better.

(And to be clear, that four-worlds-and-out thing is a simplification that ignores major critpath events and makes it sound like you only visit four big areas in KotOR, which flat-out isn't true.)

3) There's nothing wrong with it. It's a structure, like any other. Humorously snarking that our games have a beginning part that is streamlined and introduces you to the game, a middle that allows you the freedom to go to several places and have adventures, and then a tightly focused ending is like riffing on how romance novels generally start out with two people being attracted to each other but having emotional issues, then gradually building trust, then having a complication that splits them up, and then in the end they get together and are happy. People who create fiction in any form use a structure appropriate to that form. They do it because their audience understands and responds on an emotional level to that structure.

Why so serious, Patrick?

Dragon Age and Mass Effect are hands down two of the best games I've played this decade. And yes, I do admit that some of them are stretches. I just want to make it clear that this chart wasn't meant as criticism of the writing in the games.

The narrative structure is the same, yes, but the stories themselves are not. And yes, for everyone who's mentioned it -- I'm well aware of Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces.

Dragon Age: Origins Toolset Released

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:25:05 -0500

Bioware has officially launched the toolset for its new RPG, Dragon Age: Origins.

The Dragon Age Toolset, which comes in a 472mb-sized package, provides everything you need to create your own adventures in Dragon Age. The toolset is equipped with the same utilities and features that were used by the designers at Bioware to create all of the game’s content, including the main campaign. Additionally, the toolset includes several enhancements and is polished specifically for the benefit of end users.

Among creating your own add-ons to extend the length and life of the game’s official campaign, the Dragon Age Toolset will also allow you to tell stand-alone stories in the Dragon Age setting or a setting of your own creating. Users will be able to share resources with other modders or work on collaborative efforts via the Bioware Social Network.

The application also allows you to view how existing content in Dragon Age was designed and scripted, so the more ambitious modders among you may well be able to create a full game with the toolset.

The official description for the toolset is as follows:

The level editor supports both indoor and outdoor terrain, with complete control over the placement of structures and props. You can create a dungeon by piecing together large prefabricated tunnel pieces, or stack wooden mugs one by one on a tavern counter. Visual effects and lighting conditions can be combined to produce any mood.

Conversations, plots and scripting are tightly integrated; you can use simple plots and pre-defined triggers to handle most common aspects of adventuring or delve deeply into the game's inner workings to produce more specialized effects. Much of the functionality that in previous games would be hard-coded into the engine is instead handled by scripts that an experienced modder can easily override.

Also included is a dedicated cutscene editor with a wide variety of powerful cinematic capabilities. The cutscene editor is a movie-making toolset in its own right; it is quite capable of producing stand-alone works of machinima if one so desired. All of the in-game footage in Dragon Age was produced using it. Lip-syncing and facial animation is fully automated, making lifelike performances easy to accomplish.

Grab it here.

Update: If you are having problems installing the Toolset with your Steam version of Dragon Age: Origins, simply head over to the following thread.

Diablo III: Fixed Camera All The Way

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:49:36 -0500

The Diablo series and other games like it (Titan Quest, Mythos, Torchlight) were always confined to a fixed axonometric camera. With the exception of Mythos, which allowed for WASD controls, Diablo’s fixed view was always one of its greatest strengths as it allowed for the designers to map out locations, pace encounters and design set-piece boss battles based on the confines of the fixed perspective.

Blizzard representative Bashiok addressed the forum’s question regarding the fixed view in Diablo III.

It's a fixed camera. Back when we announced the game we had our dialogue interaction set up where the camera would zoom in, and you'd see the characters up close and they'd talk to each other in this zoomed in view. We threw that out a long time ago though just because it was too intrusive, it stopped the game, pulled you out of the action, and just felt like too much. There was also a point where we zoomed in on the character in one of the videos to show some attack animations and item switches better, but that's not a feature of the game.

The camera doesn't zoom or tilt or rotate, it's a fixed camera.

It's kind of fun to watch people that have never played a Diablo game before, or it's been a long time. They immediately go for the WASD keys, and when those do nothing they then try holding down the right mouse button to rotate the camera. Sometimes by accident they're reminded it's click to move.

It's just not a control scheme and camera angle that are used a lot these days, there's maybe been a handful of games in the past five years that qualify as isometric arpg's? So anyway, props to all those games and the developers keeping the style alive. We're continuing the tradition, proudly, because we feel it's the best way to present a sequel in the Diablo franchise.

Online Retailers Boycott Modern Warfare 2

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:28:06 -0500

Due to the requirement of Valve’s Steamworks in the PC version of Modern Warfare 2, online retailers like Direct 2 Drive, Impulse and GamersGate are refusing to carry the Infinity Ward title on their lists.

Speaking to Kotaku, a Direct2Drive representative said, “We don’t believe games should force the user to install a Trojan Horse.”

Infinity Ward is using Steamworks to handle everything from installation to save-game management and DRM, similar to Valve’s own games.

Direct2Drive also told the website they told publishers that they would stop selling any games that came coupled with Steamworks, such as Dawn of War II and Empire: Total War, two games which came out earlier this year and that they would only pick the titles up if they were ‘decoupled’ from Steam.

The "Trojan Horse" remark is ironic coming from Direct2Drive, the same company which used an invisible rootkit to handle DRM for products from their store. As an end-user, you'd be better off hedging your bets with Steam's lesser evil.

John Carmack: No Dedicated Servers for Rage

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:21:58 -0500

id Software’s John Carmack dropped a bombshell today when he announced that the company’s upcoming game and next-generation FPS, Rage, would have no plans to support dedicated servers.

In the wake of Modern Warfare 2’s omission of dedicated servers on the PC, Variety asked id Software co-founder and video game god John Carmack the company had any plans to follow suit with their upcoming game. Carmack’s replied: “It’s not cast in stone yet, but at this point no, we don’t think we will have dedicated servers.”

While id Software has yet to announce what system they plan on using for Rage, I would strongly speculate that it’ll be something along the lines of Infinity Ward’s locally hosted listen servers via a system similar to Infinity Ward's IWNet.

Still speaking to the magazine, Carmack stated he believed that dedicated servers were “something of a remnant” of the early days of PC gaming and that he realizes that affinity many PC gamers have with such systems. He says that he is glad that Rage will not be leading the charge, and simply following in step of the many new and upcoming titles that have no plans to support dedicated servers.

“The great thing is we won’t have to be a pioneer on that,” he says. “We’ll see how it works out for everyone else.”

On that note, it sounds like id Software's decision to omit dedicated servers from Rage will depend entirely on the success and feedback of IWNet in the PC version of Modern Warfare 2. Should it be poorly received, id Software might reconsider their decision.

Carmack's comments about Rage may seem strange and even a little disappointing, especially given his past support for the PC and modding community in general. id Software and Splash Damage were very quick to confirm that dedicated server support would be present in the upcoming id Tech 4-driven FPS, Brink, so we can only speculate on their decision.

Source: Variety

Mass Effect 2 Collector's Edition Announced

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:55:18 -0500

As most of us hack, slash and burn our way through Dragon Age, Mass Effect 2 looms on the horizon. I can almost detect a BioWare plot to keep us permanently indoors and out of sleep during the winter months with their time-devouring role playing games.

Ever eager to cater to the whims and demands of the more ardent collectors among us, BioWare has announced the Mass Effect 2 Collector’s Edition. It includes:

A tin case
48-page hardcover art book
Issue 1 of Mass Effect Redemption, the official comic book
Bonus DVD with “making of” footage (as is Bioware tradition)
Exclusive in-game weapons and armor

The collector’s edition will carry a price of $69.99 and $59.99 on the Xbox 360 and PC respectively. Both regular and special editions of Mass Effect 2 are slated for release on 26th January, 2010 (29th in Europe).

The exclusive in-game armor can be seen below:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Launch Trailer

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:20:24 -0500

Infinity Ward has released the launch trailer for Modern Warfare 2 and it looks better than anything they've released thus far. It is, in a word, awesome.

Recent unfortunate controversies aside, Modern Warfare 2's single player campaign is definitely shaping up to deliver the excellent experience that Infinity Ward is best known for.

China Orders World of Warcraft To Cease Operations

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:39:15 -0500

An agency of the Chinese Government has ordered NetEase to immediately suspend its operations of World of Warcraft in China, after the company supposedly violated regulations created by China’s General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) with regards to the Burning Crusade expansion pack.

The government body posted a statement on its website forbidding NetEase from collecting revenue from paying users and to disallow new account registrations.

The news comes in the wake of the government’s attempts to exercise tighter control over content in online gaming. As recently as October, the government banned foreign investment into the online gaming industry which is expected to grow 30-50 percent this year up to US$4 billion.

Analyst Adam Krejcik was quoted by Reuters as saying that the government’s move to clamp down on the game was not surprising, as NetEase had launched the game on September 19th without proper approval from the regulatory agency.

He went on to further state that the present situation reflected a regulatory turf battle between the GAPP and the ministry, which had approved the game for release.

“These guys are essentially stuck in the middle of this power struggle,” Krejcik said of NetEase.

NetEase spokesperson Kristen McNally could not say if NetEase would be complying with the GAPP suspension. The GAPP followed up by saying that it would be evaluating whether to impose fines on the company for not going along with its orders.

It’s only a matter of time before the Chinese press gives the government initiative to control online gaming content a flashy name like “Golden Sparrow Youth Guardian”.

Source: Reuters

Adam Sessler Calls Out Infinity Ward For Homophobic Slur

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:11:14 -0500

G4TV host and game journalist Adam Sessler has spoken up in his latest episode of Sessler’s Soapbox about Infinity Ward’s “Grenade Spamming” viral video that referenced a homophobic slur.

Sessler makes it very clear that he’s not a fan of hate speech and goes on to lament the issue, especially in its rampant use on Xbox Live and PSN.

Video Game - E3 2009 - Sessler's Soapbox

As for anyone defending the use of the word by claiming that it isn’t being used in a hateful context: I will echo Sessler’s words and say that it’s only a very comfortable position that one can take when the person defending its use is gay.