Halo 4 box art.
May 16, 12
There are no words for how unbelievably stunning this is.
Recent Posts
Error 37
May 15, 12
Blizzard have been hard at work launching Diablo III, and with that their Battle.net system has crashed. All night global Diablo III players have been trying to get access to their new game but can’t, as Blizzard’s usually-rock-solid service collapsed under the intense weight of expectation.
Blizzard have taken Battle.net offline to add more servers (and since brought it back), but many are still reporting the dreaded “error 37″.
This is all very saddening, but expected. Blizzard had mentioned this is likely last week in a blog post and they said that users should expect delays of up to 40 seconds just trying to login on launch night.
As the hours creep by it’s likely that everything is being ironed out. The sysadmin fixing this should probably be given a week off after the service restores to normality…
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Diablo III, who cares?
May 12, 12
An interesting point to bring up when talking about the imminent release of Diablo III is simply “why?”. Why should you care? Why is there so much hype around this thing?
Put simply, a lot. It’s hard to escape the release of a Blizzard game because these titles are so polished, so good and so pin-point perfect for their audience that they define, shape and sustain the future of that genre. Look at how StarCraft II brought about a resurgence in e-sports in a way no one could have expected, and look at how it made places like EA go back to the drawing board with C&C and the like. This is one reason why Diablo III is so important.
The question was posed on reddit and some significant replies lay bare the reasons why Diablo III will be a big deal.
For example…
The important factor is that Diablo games create a world where that powerful equipment is absolutely necessary. The enemies with immunities, one-hit kills, etc. make...
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BioShock delayed
May 09, 12
BioShock Infinite is one of my “must need” games for this year. It was that way last year, too. And now, thanks to a further delay to “make this game an even more exceptional FPS” (according to Ken Levine), it’ll be next year until we get our hands on this title. Moreover, the game will now no-longer be playable at GamesCom this summer in Germany!
When we announced the release date of BioShock Infinite in March, we felt pretty good about the timing. Since then, we’ve come to realize that some specific tweaks and improvements will make Infinite into something even more extraordinary. Therefore, to give our talented team the time they need, we’ve decided to move the game’s release to February 26, 2013. We wanted to let our loyal (and very patient!) fans know this as soon as possible.
I won’t kid you: BioShock Infinite is a very big game, and we’re doing things that no one has ever done in a first-person shooter. We had a similar experience with the original BioShock, which was delayed several months as our original ship date drew near. Why? Because the Big Daddies weren’t the Big Daddies...
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Black Mesa: Source
May 09, 12
Black Mesa was one of the dark horses of the mod scene. It wasn’t a mere mod for most people, myself included. This was the holy grail. A full remake of Half Life in the Source engine. Not the hap-hazard thrown-together effort by Valve, but fully updated, re-textured and re-coded for the modern era. The same bones with new clothes.
But years later, we’re still waiting. Gasping for the chance to play Half Life in glorious detail. This mod was a huge topic of conversation for so long, but recently it’s died down. No real media to speak of, no real news outside of “it’s still alive” from forum questions.
Thankfully, the journalistic heroes over on rockpapershotgun have investigated the mod and even interviewed the project lead to find out what the state of play is. Keep in mind, Duke Nukem forever has beaten Black Mesa: Source to release. That’s an astonishing thing to consider…
Note that the interview is a two-part affair, and this is only part one. The second part is tomorrow when we find out when, if e
full post...Portal 2 level editor
May 09, 12
Valve have released a new level editor for the plebs of the world who play Portal 2. I say plebs in the nicest way, of course. But it is nicer than “gamers”.
Undoubtedly a lot of these levels will not compare to the real deal, but community creativeness really does shine through sometimes (look at littlebigplanet). Who knows, some top notch map creationists could end up getting jobs in the Valve offices!
The editor itself is quite simple and the best comparison I’ve heard is that it looks and feels a lot like the house editor from The Sims. It’s very click-and-drag and is a long shot away from the complexity of Hammer, the big-daddy editor for Source game projects.
This editor comes in an update for PC and Mac users.
full post...PixelJunk sale
May 08, 12
To celebrate 10 years of PixelJunk & Q-Games, there is a huge blowout sale on PSN coming.
The PixelJunk series has been a huge success for us, so to celebrate Q’s 10th anniversary (and also PixelJunk’s fifth), for a limited time we are slashing the prices of Racers, Monsters, Eden, and Shooter to just ONE DOLLAR. Yes, you heard correctly! On top of this, we are also slashing the prices for PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe (PSP), PixelJunk Shooter 2 and PixelJunk SideScroller by HALF! You have no choice but to snap them all up the very moment the sale goes live tomorrow afternoon with the PlayStation Store update! Spread the word and let’s go PixelJunk crazy for a week! Actually, make that TWO weeks because after the sale, PixelJunk 4am will be launched (May 15th) and it is simply an incredibly unique experience.
Full details are available over on the playstation blog.
full post...COD: Black Ops 2
May 02, 12
The predictably epic trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is here.
What’s new? Vehicles. Lots of them… including horses.
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full post...Valve prepping an announcement?
May 01, 12
Let’s first put this out there: this “announcement” is based on speculation and timing. Valve don’t need E3 to make an announcement, but having Gabe be so active online and with interviews of late is a sure-fire indicator that something is happening. Soon.
A lot of it stems from this reddit post (note: a lot of the comments are joking). The long and short of it is that IGN posted a tweet, the DNS settings on the HL site changed and there’s a general air of expectation around a few key releases in future that could comprise a follow up to the Orange Box, namely DOTA2, a possible follow-up to Left4Dead2 and Counter-Strike: GO.
The passive nature of Valve PR means nothing is concrete, but that is always the case. If anything does crop up, I’ll be sure to note it here.
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