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

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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.

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

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.

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]

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.

If there is one thing I have believed since the time I first played an MMO, it is that story should not be the foundation of the genre. 

Now, before you start screaming about how story drives the progression of the game, let me clarify.  I’m not talking about story in the general sense.  Instead, I’m referring to story manufactured and presented by the developer of the MMO.  A story that has already been fabricated, that is already set in stone, regardless of whether there are 2, 10, or 100 optional paths, is a foolish way to deliver an MMO experience.  In fact, the only way such an idea could work is if the developer was able to create a truly unique and individualistic story for every player they have playing the game, which is an undeniable impossibility.

This year’s E3 has brought about a lot of news in the MMO genre.  There are a bunch of MMOFPSs (currently being heralded as Persistent World Shooters (PWS)) and an even larger number of traditional MMORPGs in development.  One of the most popular of these is Star Wars: The Old Republic, an MMORPG based being developed by Bioware, the creators of the widely successful single-player RPG, Knights of the Old Republic games.

This latest Ten Ton Hammer story features a video interview with the developers of The Old Repbulic MMORPG.  The interview discusses the topic of story-driven gameplay and the need to tell a great story.  It’s a lie.

Even if stories are varied by class or race, it still means that thousands of players will experience the exact same story.  I’ve always found that sharing a single plot line with thousands of people tends to really ruin it for me.  In the interview, one of the developers makes a comparison of a good story in an MMORPG to that of a good story in a comic book.  Frankly, I find the comparison a bit simplistic and skimpy on the facts.

Instead, imagine you’re reading the comic book with the great story.  Everything is great and you are compelled.  Suddenly, you’re in a room with 30 people, all reading outloud the same comic book.  Some might be at different spots in the story, but they’re all reading aloud.  Not only would it be distracting, but it would ruin the experience.

It’s the same thing with MMORPGs.  You might be at a certain spot in the story while others are just starting or further ahead.  Nevertheless, you’re forced down the same avenues while also bumping into each other along the way.  Say you’re next part of the story requires you to kill a special enemy.  You go to that area and someone else, slightly ahead of you, is already killing the enemy.  Then, you see the enemy die and have to wait for him to respawn.  The fact that you have to watch someone else complete that part of the story ahead of you is game-breaking.  How can your story be immersive and compelling if you’re watching it repeat over and over again?  Sure, the use of instances greatly reduces these types of occurrences, but then the world seems stagnant and boring, further reducing the immersion.

It doesn’t matter how you spell it out, developer-created stories just don’t work in MMOs.  Quests are finite, and when players run out of quests to complete (typically referred to as the “end game”) they get bored because the “story” has halted or stalled.  Then it’s the developer’s responsibility to create more quests to continue their story.  It’s just way too much for the developer to handle without having breaks in the story.  MMOs go months before additional quests are added, thus continuing the story.  If the book you were reading suddenly stopped on a certain page, and you had to wait 4 months before you could continue reading, would you enjoy it? 

What developers should be focusing on is creating MMO worlds that are truly dynamic and interesting.  Instead of planning conflict, just create the means for conflict to occur.  Instead of designating factions for players to opt-in to at the start, give them the tools to create their own factions.

MMOs need to be reshaped in the way they are developed.  Instead of building the world completely, including cities, quests, scripted story, just build the world and then give the players the tools and features they need to fill it up!  For example, let the players be the ones determining what’s important, where the big cities are built, and how the story developes.  EVE Online, despite my many problems with its boring combat and gameplay mechanics, gets this part right.  At most, MMOs should have  a premise, but then leave the story in the hands of the players.

Think about all the time wasted on creating quests and determining story arcs.  Why not let the players determine their own stories and conflicts?  MMOs are supposed to be ever-changing games that NEVER END, yet developer-created stories only stretch as far as they are developed, forcing players to continue through old story arcs until new ones are released, if ever.  Meanwhile, stories traditionally, and by nature, have a beginning and end, so unless they are constantly changing and progressing, they are in stark contrast with the very notion of the MMO.  Unless of course the players are the ones writing the story.

That’s right, according to GameJobs.com, a company in Omaha, Nebraska is seeking someone to fill their “Paper Shredder” position.

Amazingly, the position is listed as NOT entry-level.  Apparently, they are seeking paper shredders with at least 2 year’s experience.  No learning on the job here.

Here’s the job description:

Employment Status:
Part time of Full-time (35-40+ hours per week); Monday – Friday 9AM- 6PM

Requirements:
16 years old or older

$6.96 per hour

Skills:
We are looking for someone who is reliable, has good attendance, attention to detail, a team-player, and is willing to occasionally work on weekends.

Experience:
No experience required

Duties:
Looking for an easy job with a laid back environment (no dress code)? We are looking for someone to shred papers, light cleaning, handle various other filing duties throughout the day. Full time employment. Day hours.

Better hurry for this one.  I’ve already submitted my resume… and yeah, I’ve got five years experience and a Bachelor’s Degree in Paper..ology.

Yeah, why not?  Who says you can’t compose great works without those fancy programs that cost thousands of gold coins?

Leave it to gamers to compile some great songs and deliver them via the interwebby.  Now, some are done in the original Mario Paint, while others were composed in what’s called Mario Paint Composer, which is a freeware version downloadable for the PC.  I kind of prefer the regular Mario Paint versions because most of the Composer versions have downloaded sound sets that mimic real instruments.  While this certainly makes the Composer versions sound… more professional, it does diminish the song.  I think that part of the creativity and talent is figuring out the perfect combination of cat meows and dog barks that you need.

I picked out a few of my favorites:

Still Alive (Portal Theme)

Halo 3 – One Final Effort

Blink 182 – What’s My Age Again?

Final Fantasy 7 – Cosmo Canyon

The Office

Team Fortress 2 Theme

Zelda Overworld Theme

I thought this was extra hilarious and had to write a post on it. 

First, a little background on the clip.  It is a short ”outtake” video from an online show called There Will Be Brawl, which is defined as “a non-profit web series designed as a dark, dramatic parody of the popular Super Smash Bros. Brawl video game for the Nintendo Wii.”  It is live-action and features some very impressive costumes, but certainly amateur, and the writing can be a bit… off at times.  Nevertheless, for a project with almost no backing and a small cult following, it definitely impresses.

Anyway, some of the plot in the series is helped along by periodic “news stories” delivered by the television anchorman, Lakitu.  Mario fans should instantly recognize the name, while some of us more casual gamers may not.  He’s that guy with the glasses that floats on the cloud with the fishing pole. 

Enjoy!

You can watch episodes of There Will Be Brawl over at The Escapist.

Read my official review at Cheat Code Central or have a little read below.

Star Trek DAC is a lot of fun for 800 Microsoft Points.  I think that most people who were disappointed with the Battlestar Galactica game that played similar to DAC will find this much more satisfying.  Of course, it is still rather simplistic in design, which can be seen as either a positive or negative thing.  Most casual Star Trek fans won’t mind the lack of depth in DAC.  This is a game that revolves around combat… and that’s it.  Star Trek fans who expect a certain degree of depth aren’t going to find it here.

The game reminds me a lot of Cosmic Rift, the top-down, arcade-style, space shooter from Sony Online Entertainment,  just on a smaller scale.  And, this smaller scale is perhaps DAC’s main flaw.  It seems strange to me that an XBLA game, featuring good visuals, but not the sort that really stress a gamer’s console, should be able to support more than 12 players online.  Isn’t that kind of low?  I don’t know, maybe I’m just bias because I’m used to PC games accommodating three to four times that.

With four maps and three gametypes, Star Trek DAC has a decent amount of content and variety off the bat.  Pile on three different ship types that are balanced between the two factions (Federation and Romulan), and gamers should be able to find something to like.  Unfortunately, like most arcade-style games, Star Trek DAC isn’t really designed for long-term play.  There is a leaderboard feature and a statistics tracker, but these seem more like additional feature than attempts to extend the longevity of the game.

Star Trek DAC makes for a fun game, but it almost seems like it would be better suited as Nintendo DS or PSP title.  And, unless additions to the game are made via downloadable content, it probably won’t be something you’ll still be playing a few months from now.  This one is difficult to recommend, so instead, I’d say to grab the demo off Xbox Live! and see for yourself.

Warhammer Online isn’t the only MMO based on the Warhammer Universe, although it might be difficult to remember considering how limited the information on the War 40k MMO has been.  In fact, I was beginning to think it was just a lost cause.

However, I recently saw this job posting at Vigil Games, the developer for the Warhammer 40k MMO:

Senior Graphics Programmer (Warhammer 40K MMO)

Vigil Games is looking for highly capable Senior Graphics Programmer to help develop our MMO based on the Warhammer 40,000 IP. Interested applicants should be detail oriented, and have a passion for game development. A senior programmer is expected to be able to architect and implement new game systems as well as improve and maintain existing systems.

The job posting also makes reference to needing experience with both the PC and Xbox 360 platforms,  suggesting that the new War 40k MMO is being considered for a console launch as well.  Of course, there is no mention of needing PS3 development experience.  As if anyone really thought otherwise.

Interestingly, despite this tidbit of information, there still isn’t much out there on this game.  In fact, the official spot for it on Vigil’s website displays just a single image of concept artwork.  Nevertheless, Vigil does mention they’ll “be announcing more about the game in the months to come,” so we’ll just have to wait and see.

There certainly are a lot of MMOs in development right now, with very few on the cusp of release.  War 40k  interests me because I’m tired of the fantasy/medieval settings.  And, sadly, the science-fiction MMOs either have a ton of development flaws and die off (Tabula Rasa) or the gameplay mechanics just aren’t my style (EVE Online).

Here’s to hoping that games like Global Agenda, Huxley, Jumpgate: Evolution, Infinity Online, Star Trek Online, The Old Republic, and Warhammer 40K can turn the tide.  And, at the very least, maybe one or two actually end up being good games that I’ll play for more than a month.

What science-fiction MMOs are you looking forward to the most?  Or, are you still roped in by the fantasy setting?

This one snuck up on me, but I noticed it this morning while browsing Steam’s Valve Store.  It’s called Killing Floor, and it’s a 6-player coop, survival-horror game being developed and released by Tripwire Interactive, the folks that brought you Red Orchestra (they’ve been busy bees).

I’ve been playing a lot of Left 4 Dead lately, and this game (obviously!) reminds me of it.  I suppose the main question here is, can it be successful and fun when pitted against the already popular L4D?

Killing Floor’s gameplay does seem a little different.  The idea of being able to customize your character with different “Perks,” a page taken straight from the Call of Duty 4 chapter in game design, is interesting.

One thing I always feel that is lacking in Left 4 Dead is any persistence.  If we going to be forced to play as specific characters, at least let us customize ourselves with a range of abilities or “Perks” if you must.

And, if that isn’t possible, perhaps Valve could concentrate on delivering more than 4 characters to choose from.

Anyway, as for Killing Floor, another interesting thing about this game is that it originated as a mod for UT 2004.  Considering the game is only about $20, it might be worth looking into regardless of whether you think you’ll be back to L4D in a few days.

The survival-horror genre, which really seems more like a survival action genre, seems to be heating up in the industry.  Once the dust settles, however, it’ll just be a matter of picking the good from the bad.

Another month, another PC game reviewed.  This time I dove into the world of Paragon City in City of Heroes’ latest installment, Architect Edition.

Essentially, this latest update boasts one major addition, player-created missions.  NCSoft included a little content-creation tool called the Mission Architect System, which is basically a large combat simulator for the in-game world.  You can read the official review over at Cheat Code Central, if you’re into that sort of thing.

This update to City of Heroes is certianly a step in the right direction.  Hell, the game is over 5 years old as it is, and for a game competing with WoW, that’s pretty darn good.  On a more lofty note, however, why is it that all the player-created content systems in our MMOs shrouded under the guise of “simulations,” or “training exercises?”  I mean, sure, it’s great to be able to define your own content, but when that content doesn’t impact the actual game experience outside of that little box is was created for, what’s the point?  If what you’re working hard on creating doesn’t actually impact the in-game world… why bother?

I’m positive that there are a ton of technical issues involved with doing such a thing.  Trying to protect players from being interefered with by the content created by others is a tricky business.  And, in the case of City of Heroes, trying to accomplish this goal would be especially difficult given the age of the game and the engine it is built on.

Wouldn’t all fans of MMOs prefer that player-created content actually mean something in the game world?  Wouldn’t you love to craft truly unique items that others can use?  Wouldn’t you much prefer being able to choose a random spot in the game world to build a house or shop, rather than being forced to pick a plot of land in some instanced area set aside for such a thing?  How can a game world in an MMO truly grow, expand, and evolve, if the content being created by players is segregated?

The first FPS games I ever played like Goldeneye 64 had doors you could open and close in multiplayer matches.  In fact, the doors provided another level of strategy as players could shoot through them with certain types of weapons, block them from being opened with their bodies, or just hide remote mines on them.  Medal of Honor: Allied Assault had doors too, and they were even more crucial to strategy since players also relied heavily on sounds to kill the enemies.  Doors made specific opening and closing sounds, which would alert other players of movement.  Something as simple as knowing when to open or close a door and when not to could make the difference between being fragged and doing the fragging.  Anyway, the point is:  the doors mattered.

Flash forward years and years, and what we have now is a sudden and strange disappearance of doors in our mutliplayer FPS games.  The original Call of Duty didn’t even have doors or windows in the single-player component.  Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, incorporated doors in the single-player, but they were never openable or closeable by the player.  Instead, they were only used during cutscenes and only operated by NPCs.

Sure, the Call of Duty franchise is more likely to be aligned with the Action Shooter genre than it is with the Tactical Shooter.  Nevertheless, since when did things like doors become elements of Tactical Shooters only?  The Tom Clancy games are some of the only games that I’ve played lately that still incorporate doors into the multiplayer gameplay.

Aside from that, doesn’t it strike anyone as strange that you can walk around an entire town in any of the multiplayer Call of Duty games and not run into a single, openable door?  The only ones you’ll find look like they were spray painted into the side of a wall.

For me, it takes away a bit of the realism, which is a shame.  I get the whole Action Shooter thing, and realize that something like a lack of doors seems a little silly to mention.  On the other hand, I’m a little surprised more people haven’t thought about this more.  Then again, maybe they have.

Oh, and I just realized that Valve is a culprit of this as well.  Day of Defeat Source features absolutely no doors in it.  Yet, some of their other multiplayer games, like Left 4 Dead, do.  Why do developers sometimes choose to leave doors out of their games?  Is it a conscious decision on their part?  If so, why?

I’d like to see a petition to video game developers across the globe to reinstate the use of interactable doors in our mutliplayer FPS.  Who’s with me?