My New Blog: www.alextaldren.com

I will no longer be updating this blog. I’ve moved all my content over to a new site with a registered domain name. If you’re linking to this, please update your bookmarks with the new address:

http://www.alextaldren.com

Here’s the new RSS to update feeds:

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Speaking of HL2 Mods: Natural Selection 2

It’s a slow Friday and I’m waiting for my brothers and friends to get online so we can play some NeoTokyo.  To help pass the time, I was going through my old HL2 mod bookmarked webpages and found myself on the official site of Dystopia.  While there I started watching a developer interview and heard something about Dystopia being moderately influenced/inspired by Natural Selection, one of the most acclaimed and ground-breaking HL1 mods ever.

So I thought, “Hey!  Aren’t they supposed to be making a sequel to it built on the Source engine?”  Yep.

It’s being developed by Unknownworlds Entertainment, which is a development company that has stayed… well, uknown. (I know, I know).  Nevertheless, they do appear to have some credentials outside of the modding community, including doing work on titles such as Titan Quest and Empire Earth.  Sure, not exactly critically acclaimed titles, but what does it matter–these guys made the original Natural Selection.

Here’s the teaser trailer:

Here’s what they claim about the trailer:

The hallway and alien footage shown in this movie was filmed entirely in-engine and showcases one of the playable classes – the “Onos”.

Excited?  You should be.  Not only was this just a good mod, it was one of the first games I ever played that succesfully merged all three major genres of PC gaming (RPG, FPS, RTS).  There is a catch…

This time it will cost you.  Apparently, someone thinks that the sequel is going to be worth a bit of your money.  About $20’s worth for your “Standard Edition,” which gets you the game and access to the beta, and $40’s worth for your “Special Edition,” which also includes everything the standard does, plus access to the alpha testing and special all-black marine armor.

Paying to test a game usually isn’t much fun, so the only benefit remaining for the “Special Edition,” is that black armor, but is it really worth the extra $20?  I mean… it is… all black… and black is cool… and I want to be cool. 

Whichever edition you purchase, you’re sure to participate in plenty of marine vs. alien action.

Natural Selection 2 is scheduled for FALL 09.

UPDATE:  Development clips for the nerdy.

My New Favorite: NeoTokyo

It’s been a while since I played ANY Half-Life 2 mods, but the recent release of NeoTokyo has managed to change that.  With ModDB.com community rating of 8.9 and being ranked within the Top 5 Popular Mods since its release, NeoTokyo has garned huge praise from both its hardcore fanbase and newcomers (like myself).

What is it though?  The developers describe simply:

…a first person shooter that aims to provide a visceral & realistic combat experience in a rich futuristic setting.

It certainly is as “realistic” as it can be without getting Tom Clancy-ish.  Movement is generally slow, jumping isn’t a way of dodging bullets, and the gameplay mechanics are simple, but varied.  Now, it does have a futuristic setting, so the “realism” aspect is something that is debatable.  If anything, the best way to describe what they mean by “realistic” is that you can run and jump like Quake, the game is slightly slower than Counter-Strike, and it requires a significant amount of teamwork (if you want to win most of the time).

I’ve been playing just about every night for the past week and a half.  I even got my brothers and friends to download the thing and give it a try.  NeoTokyo does remind me a lot of Dystopia, with its futuristic setting and its cyborg take on combat.  Nevertheless, they are both very, very different from one another.  Dystopia is, in my opinion, is a tad too complicated for public server gaming.  It is more suitable for actual team-based competition, which is fine because that is its focus.

NeoTokyo, on the other hand, is a little easier to grasp for newbies.  And, the mechancis are simple enough for a team of strangers to work together effectively.  And, of course, it has great potential for competitive play as well.

The game has a single game mode called Capture the Ghost.  The ghost, strangely enough, the top half of a female cyborg that is placed somewhere on the map.  Cleverly, where she spawns changes from round to round, so players must adapt the way they play each time, rather than just running for the center each time.  Both teams have a Retreival Zone, where they must escort the Ghost to capture it, thus winning the round. 

When a player picks up the Ghost, he automatically loses his primary weapon, making him vulnerable, and this is when his teammates must protect him.  The location of the Ghost can be seen by all the players on the map and is represented by a large flashing circle, which is green if your team has it, red if the opposing team has it, and gray if nobody has it.  Another interesting thing is that the player with the Ghost can switch from his pistol to the Ghost itself, allowing him to “use” it.  While using the Ghost, the player is able to see the location and distance of all enemy players within a close proximity of him, allowing him to give locations out to his teammates.

There are also three classes that you can choose from:  Recon, Assault, and Support.  Each class plays a little differently, and has access to different weapons and abilities.  Recons, for example, have infinite sprint, has the ability to do a “long jump,” get night vision, and a longer cloak.  Assault have limited sprint, thermal vision (which allows them to see cloaked players), a frag grenade, and access to some mid-sized rifles.  Support get no sprint, a large amount of armor, a smoke grenade, a vision that allows theme to see through things like smoke, and then access to power machine guns.

The classes would seem to create a Rock, Paper, Scissors dynamic of gameplay, but it isn’t that simple.  Each class, if played appropriately, has a chance at taking down the other two.  Of course, conditions may, and often do, vary.

In the current build, there are a few bugs that need to be worked out.  For example, while capturing the Ghost is the most absolute way to win a round, killing all the enemy players is an alternative.  However, sometimes the round still doesn’t end even if that happens, so players must wait until the Ghost is taken to the retrieval zone. 

NeoTokyo is a fun, well-polished HL2 mod that stands out.  It has simple, yet dynamic gameplay that can create some truly memorable and awesome moments.  Nothing beats being the last player alive, standing between your opponents and the retrieval zone.  This is a MUST DOWNLOAD for anyone who owns Half-Life 2, period.

Download NeoTokyo

My Response to Sessler’s Response to L4D 2 Critics

Via GamePolitics, I saw Adam Sessler’s response to the online petitioners of Left 4 Dead 2, Valve’s sequel to one of last year’s best games.  Head there to watch his response.

Here’s the GP excerpt of part of his response for the lazy:

We’re going down that path again – this shocking, amazing sense of entitlement that always manifests itself in the gaming community… Valve does not have a habit of screwing people and if there was ever a developer out there I would just kind of give them the benefit of the doubt…

They don’t owe you anything. It’s a business… Where were you brought up and in what environment where you hugged so overwhelmingly that you feel that you need to be served as the only person that needs to be considered when other people are making commercial properties? It really is a little bit on the naive side and slightly embarrassing… It’s kind of juvenile… The Internet, when it comes to games, can be such a nation of whiners…

I usually agree with Sessler… this is not one of those times.

Valve is a company, and like all companies they provide a product to the consumers.  When they announce a new product (like Left 4 Dead 2), it sparks talk among the consumers.  Sure, Valve doesn’t necessarily “owe” the fans anything.  Of course, completely ignoring your consumers tends to result in producing a poor product, which, in turn, leads to you ultimately going out of business because you aren’t selling anything.

Consumers have every right to complain or “whine” just as much as they have the right to NOT BUY YOUR GAME.  And, there is nothing more powerful than the consumer’s purchase power. 

Some petitioners believe they have been “sold out” by Valve.  I find this viewpoint to be extreme.  A company wouldn’t just sell out its consumer base, thus negatively affecting sales.  However, Valve did promise DLC for the original Left 4 Dead.  And, despite an extra game mode and added Versus Mode to a couple maps, there hasn’t been much. 

I don’t think that Valve would have to place all the new content from L4D 2 into a single, free DLC package.  In fact, I’d gladly pay for a hefty expansion pack instead.  Why they didn’t choose that route… I’m not sure.  Perhaps they are taking a page from the folks at Infinity Ward, who deliver a new Call of Duty game just about every year?

I’ve also seen a number of people in both camps throwing around the “freedom of speech” argument.  Look, regardless of how you feel about Left 4 Dead 2 or Valve, freedom of speech does not mean freedom from criticism.  Valve announced a new product, and as far as I’m concerned, there is nothing wrong with criticizing them for it.  Conversely, there is nothing wrong with vocally supporting them or criticizing the petitioners. 

What we are seeing unfold isn’t, as Sessler stated, “a nation of whiners,” but a free market system doing what it does best, promoting competition and improving the quality of consumer goods.

ArmA II Videos Show Impressive Scale

Some great videos of ArmA II the sequel to the popular and very realistic, tactical FPS.  Both videos will impress you, but in very different ways.  The first shows off a huge air superiority fight, full of great explosions and crashes.  The second lets you see a giant 1,000 vs. 1,000 battle from the perspective of a lonely soldier.

Games like Call of Duty deliver an action-packed and cinema-like experience to the player.  However, games like ArmA II deliver, while focusing more on the tactical aspects of shooters rather thant he action still manage to capture the excitement just as well.

I just hope my computer can run such things.

[Via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

PC Review: The Sims 3

It’s super late and I’m really tired, so there won’t be any additional thoughts on this review until I’ve had some sleep.  But, don’t let that stop you from reading my official review over at Cheat Code Central.

I’ll update this with more on the flipside.