The lazy guys of the TF2 team have started a Hat Describing "Contest" which basically involves coming up with a short 50-75 word or less description for a hat from Team Fortress 2. The quotation marks are there since it's not really a contest in the sense of winning a prize, but I do suppose getting your description chosen to be included in-game is itself a pretty big honor.
Anyways, any of you writers out there can have some fun with this. I probably won't throw in my own entry as I'm currently busy trying to patch up an error in the Timeline someone was kind enough to point out, though I was kind of tempted to try to come up with a Bill's Hat description mentioning the Timeline's reference to how it relates to Half-Life.
References
http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=4245&p=1
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
The Sacrifice Announced
Left 4 Dead
As announced by Valve on Gametrailers TV and expanded on in an interview with PCGamer, a Mac port of Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 is coming on October 5th along with the next update to Left 4 Dead: a new campaign The Sacrifice, which will reveal the events leading up to the Left 4 Dead 2 campaign The Passing. Somewhat surprisingly, Left 4 Dead 2 is getting the same campaign plus a port of the Left 4 Dead campaign No Mercy. Also coming is a 190 digital comic, and will supposedly begin releasing parts of it next month.
The justification for releasing The Sacrifice in Left 4 Dead 2, as provided by Chet Faliszek, is that they didn't want to force Left 4 Dead 2 players to buy Left 4 Dead to know what happened before The Passing. They actually don't want people to buy their game. I find it almost funny.
I can see a few slight problems with their logic. Any player who owns Left 4 Dead 2 and does not own Left 4 Dead one does not know or care about the four Pennsylvanian survivors of Left 4 Dead and therefore have no reason to care about their origins in The Passing. The ones who do care are the ones who have played the four Pennsylvanian survivors, the owners of Left 4 Dead. Furthermore, if one wants to use the logic of knowing what happens before The Passing without buying Left 4 Dead, one could easily turn it around to argue for a Left 4 Dead version of The Passing so that Left 4 Dead owners can know what happens after The Sacrifice without having to buy Left 4 Dead 2, and somehow I highly doubt Chet and company would ever consider bringing The Passing to Left 4 Dead.
In the end, I guess that this means that The Sacrifice won't be saving Left 4 Dead, as many Left 4 Dead fans had hoped, as there remains no real incentive for Left 4 Dead 2 owners to get Left 4 Dead as well. Putting all that aside, I suppose this is still good news, and there are hints that more stuff will continue to come down the line.
Portal 2
On a lighter note, a short teaser trailer of Portal 2's co-op mode was released in the same episode of Gametrailers TV, along with a few more words about the Playstation 3 version of Portal 2.
References
http://www.gametrailers.com/episode/gametrailers-tv/101&ch=4&sd=0?ep=101&ch=4&sd=0
http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/08/21/interview-valve-on-their-new-left-4-dead-dlc/
As announced by Valve on Gametrailers TV and expanded on in an interview with PCGamer, a Mac port of Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 is coming on October 5th along with the next update to Left 4 Dead: a new campaign The Sacrifice, which will reveal the events leading up to the Left 4 Dead 2 campaign The Passing. Somewhat surprisingly, Left 4 Dead 2 is getting the same campaign plus a port of the Left 4 Dead campaign No Mercy. Also coming is a 190 digital comic, and will supposedly begin releasing parts of it next month.
The justification for releasing The Sacrifice in Left 4 Dead 2, as provided by Chet Faliszek, is that they didn't want to force Left 4 Dead 2 players to buy Left 4 Dead to know what happened before The Passing. They actually don't want people to buy their game. I find it almost funny.
I can see a few slight problems with their logic. Any player who owns Left 4 Dead 2 and does not own Left 4 Dead one does not know or care about the four Pennsylvanian survivors of Left 4 Dead and therefore have no reason to care about their origins in The Passing. The ones who do care are the ones who have played the four Pennsylvanian survivors, the owners of Left 4 Dead. Furthermore, if one wants to use the logic of knowing what happens before The Passing without buying Left 4 Dead, one could easily turn it around to argue for a Left 4 Dead version of The Passing so that Left 4 Dead owners can know what happens after The Sacrifice without having to buy Left 4 Dead 2, and somehow I highly doubt Chet and company would ever consider bringing The Passing to Left 4 Dead.
In the end, I guess that this means that The Sacrifice won't be saving Left 4 Dead, as many Left 4 Dead fans had hoped, as there remains no real incentive for Left 4 Dead 2 owners to get Left 4 Dead as well. Putting all that aside, I suppose this is still good news, and there are hints that more stuff will continue to come down the line.
Portal 2
On a lighter note, a short teaser trailer of Portal 2's co-op mode was released in the same episode of Gametrailers TV, along with a few more words about the Playstation 3 version of Portal 2.
References
http://www.gametrailers.com/episode/gametrailers-tv/101&ch=4&sd=0?ep=101&ch=4&sd=0
http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/08/21/interview-valve-on-their-new-left-4-dead-dlc/
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Portal 2 Coming February 9
Portal 2
Some new footage of Portal 2 was released at Gamescom 2010, featuring all sorts of cool things like dynamic shadows and a new voice actor for Wheatley.
A new release date has been given: February 9, 2011, though of course there are always the possibility of more delays down the road. From the footage though, it does look like the game is coming along nicely. While I am looking forward to it, I'm also hoping that it won't be as problematic to fit in Timeline as the Left 4 Dead series was.
Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike: Source and Day of Defeat: Source
In less exciting news, a Source engine update rolled out for the main Source multiplayer games, along with a few more bug fixes and balance improvements for TF2 and CS:S.
Timeline Update
-Fixed a few grammatical errors
-Added more relevant links
-Added and improved entries relating to Aperture Science
References
http://kotaku.com/5615741/portal-2-out-in-february
http://store.steampowered.com/news/4210/
Some new footage of Portal 2 was released at Gamescom 2010, featuring all sorts of cool things like dynamic shadows and a new voice actor for Wheatley.
A new release date has been given: February 9, 2011, though of course there are always the possibility of more delays down the road. From the footage though, it does look like the game is coming along nicely. While I am looking forward to it, I'm also hoping that it won't be as problematic to fit in Timeline as the Left 4 Dead series was.
Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike: Source and Day of Defeat: Source
In less exciting news, a Source engine update rolled out for the main Source multiplayer games, along with a few more bug fixes and balance improvements for TF2 and CS:S.
Timeline Update
-Fixed a few grammatical errors
-Added more relevant links
-Added and improved entries relating to Aperture Science
References
http://kotaku.com/5615741/portal-2-out-in-february
http://store.steampowered.com/news/4210/
Friday, August 13, 2010
L4D2 Update: Week 17
The latest Mutation is Iron Man, which basically uses Realism rules, no respawns, no ammunition piles, and no restarting by chapters. Personally, I don't have much of an interest in this Mutation, and it's really frustrating to make it to the final chapter of a campaign only to be forced to start an entire new campaign due to a single mistake, but I suppose some really good players might enjoy the extra challenge and danger.
In the meantime, they seem to enjoy teasing the upcoming L4D comic and update. I suppose I should be looking forward to all this, but I still feel a bit cynical about this whole situation. It often feels like the L4D team is trying a bit too hard to emulate the success of TF2. Back in 2008, there were announcements that the L4D team planned to update the game in a similar pattern to TF2, only more frequently. Now there's going to be a L4D comic, after TF2 used comics to promote the WAR! Update and The Engineer Update to great effect.
References
http://l4d.com/blog/post.php?id=4197
In the meantime, they seem to enjoy teasing the upcoming L4D comic and update. I suppose I should be looking forward to all this, but I still feel a bit cynical about this whole situation. It often feels like the L4D team is trying a bit too hard to emulate the success of TF2. Back in 2008, there were announcements that the L4D team planned to update the game in a similar pattern to TF2, only more frequently. Now there's going to be a L4D comic, after TF2 used comics to promote the WAR! Update and The Engineer Update to great effect.
References
http://l4d.com/blog/post.php?id=4197
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Promises of New Updates
Both Team Fortress 2 and the Left 4 Dead series have received a few promises of future update in the past few days.
Team Fortress 2
Yesterday, PC Gamer revealed that Robin Walker and the rest of the TF2 team hopes to release an update next month that will finally bring the promised item trading, a new gamemode, and a bunch of new items, probably from the Polycount contest a few weeks ago. Perhaps most interesting of all, Robin Walker basically admits that he and the rest of the team didn't put that much time into designing the previous community-made item such as the Crit-a-Cola, using attributes they hoped would work and have only a small gameplay effect, while also trying to err on the side of being underpowered. I suppose this would explain why most of the previous community-made items have been hats and melee weapons.
Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead 2 is having another feature similar to Mutations, by hosting well-made community campaigns on official Valve servers on a bi-weekly schedule. Much like the Tank changes, this is also a pretty old idea. I guess the usual saying is "better late than never."
Chet Faliszek of Valve also claims that information on the promised content pack for L4D will finally be released on August 20th. I suppose the usual saying is "better late than never," but given the current state of the L4D community, I'm not so sure.
References
http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/08/11/next-tf2-update-adds-trading-new-game-mode/
http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=4173&p=1
http://l4d.com/blog/post.php?id=4194
Team Fortress 2
Yesterday, PC Gamer revealed that Robin Walker and the rest of the TF2 team hopes to release an update next month that will finally bring the promised item trading, a new gamemode, and a bunch of new items, probably from the Polycount contest a few weeks ago. Perhaps most interesting of all, Robin Walker basically admits that he and the rest of the team didn't put that much time into designing the previous community-made item such as the Crit-a-Cola, using attributes they hoped would work and have only a small gameplay effect, while also trying to err on the side of being underpowered. I suppose this would explain why most of the previous community-made items have been hats and melee weapons.
Left 4 Dead
Left 4 Dead 2 is having another feature similar to Mutations, by hosting well-made community campaigns on official Valve servers on a bi-weekly schedule. Much like the Tank changes, this is also a pretty old idea. I guess the usual saying is "better late than never."
Chet Faliszek of Valve also claims that information on the promised content pack for L4D will finally be released on August 20th. I suppose the usual saying is "better late than never," but given the current state of the L4D community, I'm not so sure.
References
http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/08/11/next-tf2-update-adds-trading-new-game-mode/
http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=4173&p=1
http://l4d.com/blog/post.php?id=4194
Monday, August 9, 2010
Friday, August 6, 2010
L4D2 Update: Week 16
Left 4 Dead 2
The new mutation Gib Fest is out. There's not much to say about it except that it'll probably make the "TIL IT GOES CLICK" achievement easier to get (kill 25 infected with the M60 without letting go of the trigger). Indeed, most of the mutations aren't that interesting except that they often make certain achievements easier to get for a while.
Other
Alien Swarm, Counter-Strike: Source, and Garry's Mod have seen a few updates and fixes over the last week. A large update for Team Fortress 2 for the polycount contest should be coming in the future, so there's that too look forward to. In the meantime, I'm working on the next part of the TF2 class update retrospective.
References
http://l4d.com/blog/post.php?id=4165
The new mutation Gib Fest is out. There's not much to say about it except that it'll probably make the "TIL IT GOES CLICK" achievement easier to get (kill 25 infected with the M60 without letting go of the trigger). Indeed, most of the mutations aren't that interesting except that they often make certain achievements easier to get for a while.
Other
Alien Swarm, Counter-Strike: Source, and Garry's Mod have seen a few updates and fixes over the last week. A large update for Team Fortress 2 for the polycount contest should be coming in the future, so there's that too look forward to. In the meantime, I'm working on the next part of the TF2 class update retrospective.
References
http://l4d.com/blog/post.php?id=4165
Monday, August 2, 2010
TF2 Retrospective Part 1: The Gold Rush Update
The TF2 retrospective series is meant to recount the major updates to Team Fortress 2 in order to help newer players understand how much has changed over the years. They will provide some background context and explanations about the environment in which the updates were released and estimations on what the general response was to each update. Think of it as a very loose and informal "history."
Friday, July 30, 2010
L4D2 Update: Week 15
Left 4 Dead 2
It's Friday, which means another new Mutation for Left 4 Dead 2. It's sort of weird doing this "newsblog" thing when we're almost done with the planned 16 Mutations that came with The Passing DLC, but I might as well start now. (Speaking of which, I do kind of feel bad about starting this after the Engineer Update finished the TF2 class updates. I may do a retrospective on all the major TF2 updates later.)
The layout is a little confusing on the Left 4 Dead blog, as it opens with the Four Swordsmen picture, so for a moment I was in disbelief wondering how it won after seeing so many people on the Steam forums complain about it. It turns out that the XBox360 community and the PC community voted up different mutations. Four Swordsmen won on the Xbox360 and Versus Survival won on the PC.
I didn't mention the previous update back on Wednesday, but I might as well acknowledge it now. It changed the point systems for the Infected in L4D2 and improved the friendly fire system and the Tank spawn system. Honestly, the point system changes seem nice, but I don't think it'll really change much about how people play. I've never seen anybody really care about their points as an Infected, as the only thing points really do is increase your chances of becoming the Tank when it spawns.
As for the Tank changes...why don't they apply to Left 4 Dead? These Tank spawn changes have been something the Left 4 Dead community has been asking for since 2008, and now that they're finally happening in 2010, they're only being applied to Left 4 Dead 2? I mean, I sort of understand that the guys at Valve may want to ignore Left 4 Dead's existence, but it's still pretty insulting to all the L4D fans. Then again, considering that many of the additions in L4D2 such as the Bile bomb and the Charger bare a startling resemblance to ideas for L4D DLC suggested by people on the L4D forums, the Left 4 Dead fans may already be used to these kinds of things.
Tank statue
As mentioned in the Left 4 Dead blog, Gaming Heads released their Tank statue, the first of their L4D line. If you didn't know, Gaming Heads manufactures collectibles, and they've got a deal with Valve. They seem to only be just starting up, as the only products I can find on their site are statues of the Heavy from TF2 and the aforementioned Tank.
Their products also seem to be only for the real hardcore, considering the statues are really high-quality and really expensive. The Tank statues costs about $300, and the Heavy statues cost about $250, and both have "exclusive" versions that's also more expensive.
References:
http://l4d.com/blog/post.php?id=4139
http://l4d.com/blog/post.php?id=4125
https://www.gamingheads.com/index.php?option=com_myphp&Itemid=3&product=85
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1383508
It's Friday, which means another new Mutation for Left 4 Dead 2. It's sort of weird doing this "newsblog" thing when we're almost done with the planned 16 Mutations that came with The Passing DLC, but I might as well start now. (Speaking of which, I do kind of feel bad about starting this after the Engineer Update finished the TF2 class updates. I may do a retrospective on all the major TF2 updates later.)
The layout is a little confusing on the Left 4 Dead blog, as it opens with the Four Swordsmen picture, so for a moment I was in disbelief wondering how it won after seeing so many people on the Steam forums complain about it. It turns out that the XBox360 community and the PC community voted up different mutations. Four Swordsmen won on the Xbox360 and Versus Survival won on the PC.
I didn't mention the previous update back on Wednesday, but I might as well acknowledge it now. It changed the point systems for the Infected in L4D2 and improved the friendly fire system and the Tank spawn system. Honestly, the point system changes seem nice, but I don't think it'll really change much about how people play. I've never seen anybody really care about their points as an Infected, as the only thing points really do is increase your chances of becoming the Tank when it spawns.
As for the Tank changes...why don't they apply to Left 4 Dead? These Tank spawn changes have been something the Left 4 Dead community has been asking for since 2008, and now that they're finally happening in 2010, they're only being applied to Left 4 Dead 2? I mean, I sort of understand that the guys at Valve may want to ignore Left 4 Dead's existence, but it's still pretty insulting to all the L4D fans. Then again, considering that many of the additions in L4D2 such as the Bile bomb and the Charger bare a startling resemblance to ideas for L4D DLC suggested by people on the L4D forums, the Left 4 Dead fans may already be used to these kinds of things.
Tank statue
As mentioned in the Left 4 Dead blog, Gaming Heads released their Tank statue, the first of their L4D line. If you didn't know, Gaming Heads manufactures collectibles, and they've got a deal with Valve. They seem to only be just starting up, as the only products I can find on their site are statues of the Heavy from TF2 and the aforementioned Tank.
Their products also seem to be only for the real hardcore, considering the statues are really high-quality and really expensive. The Tank statues costs about $300, and the Heavy statues cost about $250, and both have "exclusive" versions that's also more expensive.
References:
http://l4d.com/blog/post.php?id=4139
http://l4d.com/blog/post.php?id=4125
https://www.gamingheads.com/index.php?option=com_myphp&Itemid=3&product=85
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1383508
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Picture Version of Timeline
Here is picture version 1.0 of the timeline. It doesn't contain as much detail as the text-only timeline, but it looks prettier and gives a better sense of scale about how much time passed between events
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Miscellaneous Theories Added
-Added a new section of Miscellaneous Theories based entirely on speculation and therefore can't fit into the main timeline. Current version has two entries "Ellen McLain" and "Appeasement."
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Additional Information Update
Added Additional Information focused on describing the main series in further detail and also providing additional speculation on how each series relates to the main overall Valve Universe. So far only Team Fortress, Half-Life, and Portal are available. Other series will be added later.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
The Valve Complete Saga Launched
A loose timeline connecting the different games in The Valve Complete Pack has been released. Later updates will improve the timeline and add more information, especially as future games are added to The Valve Complete Pack.
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