Source

The Crossing: Fingers Crossed?

Martyn Zachary Leave a comment

As we reported back in May 2009, Arkane Studios’ unique-sounding Source engine game The Crossing had unfortunately been put on hold thanks to unforeseen financial complications. In July of the same year, however, we also learned that Arkane had been secretly aiding 2K Marin with the development of BioShock 2.

Yesterday, Zenimax Media announced, during the opening segment of QuakeCon 2010, their acquiring of Arkane Studios:

This is an exciting moment for Arkane. After 11 years of independent development, we couldn’t think of a better publishing partner,” said Colantonio. “We share so many creative values. Joining the ZeniMax family will allow us to grow stronger while staying true to the games we love.

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Alien Swarm

Martyn Zachary Leave a comment

More often than not, letting go is unfortunately the name of the game in the modding community. Most of us probably did just that in 2007, albeit begrudgingly, after Black Cat Games’ blog completely ceased to receive news updates on their forthcoming commercial game, Alien Swarm: Infested.

Though their previous project, the original Unreal Tournament 2004 mod version of the game (that you can still try out and play, by the way; its unrelenting difficulty level and gritty gameplay is something to behold), illustrated in the screenshots below, had laid down a steel-solid foundation for future games to build on, their PR unfortunately started mirroring Black Widow Games’ They Hunger: Lost Souls on the other side of the fence.

This is why I am all the more happy to report that more than three years later and completely out of the blue, Valve have just released Alien Swarm, a Source-based top-down co-op corridor shooter, completely free of charge.

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Counter-Strike: Source Beta

Martyn Zachary 1 Comment

Valve’s Quintin Doroquez has just released the following crucial information to all those clamouring for the forthcoming revised version of Counter-Strike:

Phase 1 of the Counter-Strike: Source beta has opened at cyber cafes that subscribe to the Valve Cyber Café Program. A full listing of those venues can be found here: http://www.steampowered.com/?area=cafe_directory
Later this month, the beta will be extended to owners of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and ATI\Half-Life 2 video card bundle owners. 1)http://store.steampowered.com/news/42/

Wait, wai-… wait a minute! Nearly got sucked into a bloody time warp there – that particular press bit’s actually way back from 2004. Believe it or not, after so many years of failed updates and broken netcode, Valve have honestly, really, truly scraped together a new batch of features to the game in conjunction with Hidden Path Studios. Broadly, here’s what the “limited beta” image above is about:

  • 144 achievements added
  • New lifetime player stats and summary screens
  • New match player stats and summary screens
  • New end of round display with MVP and interesting fact about a player
  • Updated scoreboard with new icons, visual style, MVP stars, and avatar pictures
  • New cinematic death camera
  • New domination and revenge system
  • Added avatar icons to voice chat, scoreboard, and end of round display
  • Incorporated many source engine updates

Before these changes are rolled over to the general population, you can sign up for the beta here. Steam is coughing and sputtering as is common with all major releases, so you might have to wait for your turn a bit.

Update: Whoops, the limited beta filled up already. That was quick.

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Portal 2 Official

Martyn Zachary Leave a comment

Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Left 4 Dead, Counter-Strike and Half-Life) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced Portal 2 for shipment this coming holiday season.

Portal 2 is the sequel to 2007’s Portal, which won 70 industry achievement awards 1)http://store.steampowered.com/news/3559/

Even if the game is now official, the Portal 2 ARG, nevertheless, is hardly over: In the press release above, the underlined letters form the word “drattmannh0nee”, which in turn can be used to log into the BBS, as user “drattman” and pass “h0nee”.

Man. And it comes with co-op.

Anyway, in other related news, GameInformer’s April issue will come with neat Portal 2 wraparound covers:

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