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This Week’s News: Team Fortress 2

Published
by
Andy
on August 25th, 2008
in Updates
. 1 Comment

It’s probably escaped nobody’s attention that this week has finally seen the release of the Heavy Update for Team Fortress 2. With so many people at Valve working on Steam and related projects, it’s no wonder that the Steam community has got such a cracker of an update for one of it’s most popular games!

The full list of updates can be seen below the break (the initial update has also seen two additional additional patches, also listed), but the key points are described in more depth at the Heavy Update portal site.

To summarise these key points, the update includes:

All in all, this is an awesome update!

And… if you’re an Xbox 360 player, do not fret - all updates are coming to you “later this year“.

The full list of updates, changes and bug-fixes is after the break.

Continue reading ‘This Week’s News: Team Fortress 2′

This Week’s News: Releases

Published
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Andy
on August 25th, 2008
in Releases
. 0 Comments

So, all I can say is that this week, we’ve been slack. It’s been my birthday, and John’s just got a new job, so we’ve been celebrating a little, and blogging a little less. We’re sorry.

But, now we’re back, with a vengeance!

This week has seen a number of new releases:

Pacific Storm: Allies

The long-awaited sequel to Pacific Storm; Pacific Storm: Allies expands upon the success of the internationally acclaimed original to deliver an unforgettable mix of real-time strategy and blistering arcade combat, recreating World War II’s most heated battles.

Pacific Storm: Allies is available for $9.99 or $15.99 along with it’s predecessor, Pacific Storm. Check out the trailer, here.

FlatOut & FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage

FlatOut Ultimate Carnage lifts destruction racing to a whole new level of bone-breaking slaughter. FlatOut Ultimate Carnage is arcade destruction racing at its best and most extreme with real world physics, three different game modes and offering players a wide variety of online and offline multiplayer options.

With a metascore of 78, if you’re into racing games, this is definitely one worth checking out. The pack is available now for $49.99, and you can check out the trailer here.

Tank Universal

Tank Universal creates a huge virtual ‘Tron-like’ world where you take part in immense 3D tank battles involving scores of units both friendly and not so friendly in wide open levels!

I’ll be honest, the trailer for this didn’t blow me away, however there is now a demo available so it just may be worth checking out, especially for the low price of $9.99. If you like the movie Tron, why not check it out?

Heavy Update introduces Badwater Basin

Published
by
Andy
on August 15th, 2008
in News
. 0 Comments

The Heavy Update Site has released news of the next part of the pack - the new map Badwater Basin.

From the site:

Badwater Basin is a Payload map focusing on more open spaces and less chokepoints than Gold Rush.

So far so good!

Unlike Gold Rush, where the track is split into three separate stages, Badwater Basin uses a single large stage with several checkpoints. As a result, the Blue team is highly encouraged to push the cart hard after beating their way through the Red defensive line.

Sounds like a hell of a lot of fun!

Head over to the site to see some pictures in anticipation of actually getting to play it. This pack is shaping up to be a cracker!

Sega add three games to Steam

Published
by
Andy
on August 15th, 2008
in Releases
. 1 Comment

Today saw the release of three new games on Steam. Sega have released Space Siege, The Incredible Hulk, and Beijing 2008 for all of us Steam users.

With Metacritic Scores of 35 (Incredible Hulk) and 57 (Space Siege), and Beijing 2008 yet to be rated, these games don’t look like they’re anything to write home about, but if you’re interested in playing them, you can check out the trailers at the links above, and buy them for $49.99 a piece.

Bionic Commando swings away from Steam

Published
by
Andy
on August 15th, 2008
in News
. 0 Comments

A notable omission from Steam this morning was the fact the the anticipated Bionic Commando Re-armed has not appeared.

While it was supposed to be on Steam, Christian Svensson, a Capcom employee, has said on their official forums that Capcom and Valve have “been unable to reach mutually agreeable terms”. He doesn’t go into detail about this, but does say that Capcom “continue to have a good relationship with Valve and future Capcom titles we expect to be carried on Steam”.

For me, this is a little worrying - what terms couldn’t they agree on for this one game that other games will be alright? It doesn’t seem to bode well - whatever may be said in front of the curtain.

I guess the only way we will find out is by letting time work it’s magic…

Oh, and while it’s kind of irrelevant to the point I’m making, after playing the demo on Xbox Live Arcade last night, I personally don’t think we’re missing out on that much, although it still doesn’t change the fact that we should have the option.

Unreal Tournament 3 and Team Fortress Update News

Published
by
Andy
on August 14th, 2008
in News and Updates
. 1 Comment

An update has been released for Unreal Tournament 3. The update makes the following changes:

  • Fixed overlay mesh showing up on hidden sniper rifle when un-zoomed
  • Added motion blur menu option for PC (defaults to off)
  • Fixed zero extent collision bug in octree code (finding nodes in Z axis)
  • LOD Hysteresis / LOD Decision making bug fix
  • Fixed default mesh not having proper LOD settings
  • Fixed rare darkwalker physics crash
  • Added player name list to server browser

If you’re still playing this, and not Team Fortress 2 then these could be interesting*. If however you’re a Team Fortress 2 player, there is some more news for you!

Following on from yesterday’s update, the Heavy portal site has released information on the first new weapon and all of the achievements that will be available for the class.

The weapon is the K.G.B (or Killing Gloves of Boxing) which will give the Heavy “five seconds of guaranteed critical hits”. This can be used to “to punch and kill further enemies, extending the boost time” or to “switch to another weapon and use the boost to take out an enemy at range”. Either way, sounds like a lot of fun to me!

As for the achievements, no news has been released on what to do to get them, however you can see them all, as well as download the icon pack at the official portal site.

* Please note, I am aware that Team Fortress 2 and Unreal Tournament are significantly different games, however I wanted some way to link the two items and this was the best way I could think of. Sue me ;)

Pro Cycling Manager - Le Tour De France 2008

Published
by
Andy
on August 14th, 2008
in Releases
. 0 Comments

Today’s new release  Pro Cycling Manager - Le Tour De France 2008.

Not much to say about this one… it’s a Simulation, and it seems that it’s a bit like Championship Manager for the cycling world. From the site:

With over 180 races, 65 official teams and 1,600 cyclists available, you’ll get to play the role of general manager and will have to handle all aspects of a professional team’s season. Manage well and build the most competitive team!

It’s available now, for $49.99, and if you need more persuading, perhaps the trailer can help you decide.

Valve announce Heavy Pack coming ’shortly’

Published
by
Andy
on August 12th, 2008
in News
. 2 Comments

Valve have just posted on the official Team Fortress 2 blog that the much anticipated Heavy update will be coming shortly.

To count down to the release, valve have launched a special Heavy ‘portal‘ which will showcase some of the key features of the pack in small bite size chunks.

According to the blog:

Throughout the rest of the week [they'll] be giving you the details on [everything in the pack], and if all goes well, you’ll have your hands on it shortly afterwards

First up on the heavy update site is the community map they are releasing - cp_steel.

For information on this and everything else in the pack, make sure you keep checking the official blog!

This is going to be fun :)

Want mods? Get them on Steam!

Published
by
Andy
on August 11th, 2008
in News
. 0 Comments

A new dawn has come on Steam, with four Half-life 2 mods being given access to the Steamworks SDK. The scoop comes from Steam Review who quote the Synergy Mod’s site (a co-op mod for HL2) as saying that they:

will be releasing Synergy and future updates through Steam! Valve Software has allowed us to do so by giving us access to the Steamworks SDK.

We are honored to be one of the four first selected mods to be given this opportunity. We will certainly put this to good use!

For you players, this means that you will see Achievements and Stats coming to Synergy in later updates. (Not to mention the automatic updates, provided by Steam.)

This really is great news for Steam users. While initially we are only getting 4 of the numerous mod’s out there, there are a number of benefits to this system. There is now much more incentive for modders, since they will be able to distribute their mods far more quickly, easily and to a greater number of people. On top of this, it means that us players will get more mods and that means more gameplay time, for free!

Just to add a little dampener, this doesn’t necessarily mean that these mods will be appearning in the Steam store, however I think it isn’t an unreasonable jump. Still, automatic updates of mods, achievements and stats from these differing types of game is a definite bonus! I for one look forward to seeing many more mods coming to light over the next few months! :)

Valve’s views on Instant Respawn in TF2

Published
by
Andy
on August 10th, 2008
in Editorials
. 2 Comments

I recently came across this article which details an e-mail conversation with Robin Walker, one of the main dev’s on Team Fortress 2.

In it Robin states that he disapproves of instant respawn and that they cause things to be “heavily weighted towards the defenders in maps like Dustbowl & Goldrush.”

I take Robin’s point, that all the maps were designed with re-spawn waves in mind, but for me it doesn’t answer the key question - why did they do this? Why not just design the maps initially around an instant respawn? Robin says they put them in for a “variety of positive reasons” but never states what these are.

Personally, I don’t go looking for instant respawn servers, but when I stumble across one, I’m a very happy bunny! I don’t tend to sit down for hugely long play sessions, so being able to get back into the action as quickly as possible is a huge bonus to me. Who knows, perhaps they’ll take this into consideration when creating the new environments? Probably not, but if there is one thing that we do know, Valve tend to listen to their players. What are your views on this matter?

P.S. If you’re wondering where the awesome picture above came from, it’s the winning entry from this photoshop contest over on Facepuch Studios forum.