Archive for the 'Editorials' Category

Left 4 Dead release date ‘announced’

Published
by
Andy
on May 25th, 2008
in Editorials
. 0 Comments

Left 4 Dead Logo

Shacknews recently met up with Doug Lombardi (Valve’s VP of Marketing) for a 2 part interview.

During this interesting insight into the world of Valve we learn about the predicted release date for the highly anticipated zombie romp Left 4 Dead, as well as possibilities for a demo weekend.

Doug says it is going to ship simoultaneously on

360 and PC worldwide in November.

He goes on to say in regards to the potential of a free launch weekend that they’ve been

kicking around a lot of ideas now and nothing’s final. [However] the free weekend has proven to be really, really powerful in terms of promoting sales on Steam, as well as on retail.

So it looks like there is a strong possibility that we will get to play Left 4 Dead for free before launch. Here’s to hoping!

In the same article, Mr Lombardi also laughs at reports that PC Gaming is dying and that

Steam has taken off and become this whole other business for us, [and because of this] Valve has never been in better shape

Looks like we’re writing about the right technology then!

For the full article, headover to Part One of the Shacknews interview here.

Ubisoft: Beyond Evil?

Published
by
Andy
on May 17th, 2008
in Editorials
. 5 Comments

Ubisoft: Beyond Evil?Ubisoft. They’re one of the biggest game publishers in the world, and their catalogue on Steam is growing. But what should be good news has been tainted by their decision to ignore Europe. We looked at the potential reasons for this previously, but something else has come up in the news in the last few days that has once again led me to questions Ubisoft’s sanity.

In recent days, Ubisoft have released Beyond Good & Evil on Steam (for those who can get it), and hot on the heels of this announcement, news of a sequel has started to hit the net. This is excellent news; Beyond Good and Evil was critically acclaimed and loved by everyone who played it. The trouble is, while development has started, Ubisoft are yet to greenlight the project, meaning that it may never see the light of day.

You see, the problem is (similar to another classic, Psychonauts) it didn’t seem to matter how good the game was, people just didn’t want to part with their cash. And if people aren’t going to buy the game, why spend money publishing it?

I’ll tell you why! Because since the games original release, many more people have had an opportunity to play the game, and even more people have now been given that opportunity through Steam. Not only that, but since 2003 games are much more popular with the mainstream population, and people are realising that games can (and should) have the levels of depth that Beyond Good & Evil has.

There is however another problem - without a worldwide release of the game on Steam, how can Ubisoft judge the demand for a sequel? All I can say is, let’s hope they don’t have to.

Ubisoft, you’re being evil to us Europeans - you’re not letting us play your games on Steam, please don’t add something else to this list - green light Beyond Good and Evil 2. If you don’t, then you’ll just be Beyond Evil.

History of PC Game Packaging

Published
by
Andy
on May 4th, 2008
in Editorials
. 0 Comments

1up.com has an interesting article about the history of PC game packaging. The article covers the history of the packaging from jiffy bags back in the 80’s through various different shapes and designs in the CD-ROM era of the 90’s. While at first glance this may seem to have nothing to do with our chosen subject, a deeper look will show you where they end up at; Steam.

The article is worth a read, if soley for the nostalgia, but one thing it does show is that Steam is already etching it’s place in the history of video games, even this early in its lifespan. Steam is the future of PC game distribution, and Steam Report is here to report its rise to domination.

Cheating rife in Team Fortress 2

Published
by
Andy
on April 30th, 2008
in Editorials
. 1 Comment

Sneaky CheatsMere hours after the Gold Rush update has been released for Team Fortress 2, PC Gamer is reporting that cheating is already on overload due to a (soon to be patched?) console hole in Team Fortress 2.

It seems that Valve left a console code enabled which allows you to unlock all the acheivements, and therefore unlock all the new weapons available to Medics. I’m not going to reveal the code here, as I don’t approve, however a quick google will find you the answer if you’re that way inclined.

I’m sure this will be patched soon, but remember, next time you get killed by an Ubersaw, instead of shouting obscenities at the screen, you may only need to shout one word… “CHEAT”

Steam was nearly a different monster…

Published
by
Andy
on April 30th, 2008
in Editorials and News
. 1 Comment

On a day of much Steam news (more to come…), we learn that our favorite platform for downloadable content was very nearly a totally different monster.

According to gamesindustry.biz Valve originally asked Microsoft and Yahoo (among others) to build their Steam platform for them.

They were rejected, and thank god. Anybody who has played a Games for Windows game that ’showcases’ Microsoft’s attempt to get acheivements and online multiplayer onto the PC will know that it’s not a patch on the platform that Valve has produced.

Valve’s VP of marketing Doug Lombardi had this to say:

“You know, we went around to Yahoo, Microsoft…and anybody who seemed like a likely candidate to build something like Steam,” he explained.

“We basically had our feature list that we wanted. We wanted auto-updating, we wanted better anti-piracy, better anti-cheat, and selling the games over the wire was something we came up with later.

“We went around to everybody and asked ‘Are you guys doing anything like this?’ And everyone was like ‘That’s a million miles in the future…We can’t help you.’”

All I can say is “Phew…”

Half-Life 2 available on Mac… sort of…

Published
by
Andy
on April 22nd, 2008
in Editorials
. 0 Comments

Following on form John’s post yesterday, I thought it was worth a mention of Crossover Games by Codeweavers. If you’re a Mac user and have a burning desire to play your favorite Steam games on your alternative platform, there is now a way!

Bit-tech have a great review of the software which is a customised Wine build designed to play Windows games on your Mac. It ‘officially’ supports both Half-life 2 and Team Fortress 2, and will also play a vast array of other games.

While it’s not quite perfect, and it’s not the official solution that we all hope Valve will produce at some point in the future, this is definately your best best so far if you’re looking to get these games up and running on your Mac right now.

Why Ubisoft Ignored Europe

Published
by
John
on April 2nd, 2008
in Editorials
. 2 Comments

It’s still not clear as to why Ubisoft have restricted their recent Steam push to only include the US and Canada. Following in the footsteps of Atari this now sets a worrying trend for Steam users outside of North America who had become used to receiving equal treatment when it came to releases and prices. My personal opinion is that this comes down to price. As Valve bill everything in dollars and the dollar is weak right now these publishers may think it’s more profitable for consumers in other territories to purchase the games in their local currency be it pounds, euros or whatever.

The question for Ubisoft is this, are the lost international sales on Steam going to be made up by more profitable retail sales overall? Assassin’s Creed hits Steam on the 9th of April in North America and will be on retail shelves in Europe on the 11th, we shall find out then.