F.E.A.R. 2 MP - R.I.P.

I was tooling around the F.E.A.R. 2 PC community forums earlier, just to see what the PC fanbase thinks of the game. It seems the majority are not happy with the multiplayer side of the game. Then I found this post from one of Monolith's community managers:

Server Files and Anti-Cheat are not going to be included in the patch that we are currently working on. The contents of the current patch are located in this announcement

Once we have finished working on this patch, we will re-evaluate what will be included in further patches.

Best,

Yurei

No dedicated server files? I suppose some people might not mind uploading all 12 GB of the game to their server box, but I doubt many people will find that to be a satisfactory option. No anti-cheat? That will kill any MP game in the cradle.

Jumpgate Evolution trailer

It's an MMO, but the differences between JE and other MMO's like WoW and Guild Wars go way beyond setting:

Steven Colbert dials up the net, 1997-style

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

1997 Flashback

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Another "critical vulnerability" in Adobe's Flash

Less than a week after security researchers warned of a vulnerability in two Adobe programs that could allow hackers to compromise a PC comes yet another critical exploit that could hijack your desktop.

This time, attackers have targeted Adobe's Flash animation software. According to iDefense Labs, remote exploitation of the vulnerability in the Flash player could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code with full user privileges. That means anything you could do with your PC, the attacker could, too.

"To exploit this vulnerability, a targeted user must load a malicious Shockwave Flash file created by an attacker," iDefense Labs said. "An attacker typically accomplishes this via social engineering or injecting content into a compromised, trusted site."

Note: you can watch the videos on this site. Just don't download any of them for now.
FULL ARTICLE ON YAHOO NEWS

iXBT Labs puts the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 to the test

For uber hardware freaks only: nine pages on the BFG Technologies GeForce GTX 280 OC 1 GB PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card. The testers' conclusion:

Even though GTX 295 hasn't demonstrated ultimate performance in certain tests, it's apparently a king of 3D graphics, the fastest graphics card these days.

Our tests have also proved that the technology of uniting two GPUs by means of drivers or other software has lots of underlying potential problems. For example, we added a number of new tests, and it immediately turned out that [the Radeon] HD 4870 X2 had problems with CrossFire, when it just wouldn't work in a new game. Fortunately, NVIDIA has been doing better in this respect so far. There are still some problems (SLI does not work in our special version of RightMark 2.0, but it's partially our fault). However, NVIDIA programmers have apparently overdid it in one test, having added optimizations for GTX 295 and forgotten to do so for other products. As a result, GTX 295 outperforms even GTX 280 SLI -- this just cannot be true. :)

Another warning for those willing to get the most powerful solution: be ready that your dual-GPU card won't be lightning-fast in a new game just because its driver does not support this game yet. We hope that programmers from NVIDIA and AMD will promptly add support for all new games into their drivers.

NVIDIA GTX 295 gets our Original Design award[.]

Intel Core i7 X58 motherboards tested and compared

From techamok.com:

In terms of overclockability, we have two obvious winners: the Asus Rampage II Extreme and the Gigabyte X58-Extreme, both motherboards targeting the high-end enthusiast market. However, the reason why they're in the lead is because of the excellent BCLK overclocking results, which are, as already explained on the BCLK overclocking page, biased by the memory/cpu/voltage combination. As said before, nearly all boards (except for the Intel DX58SO) are capable of running 220MHz BCLK with the right cpu/memory/voltages: you can check the different overclocking forums for examples. If we take this into account and recalculate the scores using 220MHz BCLK for both DFI and Foxconn motherboard, we get the following results: DFI: 9905, Foxconn: 9931. That would make those two the best overclocking motherboards.

Quake Live: open beta first impressions

This article from bigdownload.com offers some useful details if you haven't played the game yet, but this bit of info is probably this most useful at this point:

We knew that there would be a great deal of interest in playing a browser based free version of id's 1999 multiplayer shooter Quake III Arena, However it appears that id wasn't expecting the sheer number of users trying to sign in at one time. On Thursday morning we logged into the site and were put into a virtual queue of over 20,000 other players. We waited for over an hour before we were actually able to begin playing.

Of course the only solution to such an issue is ultimately time; time for the initial surge of players to die down to a more reasonable level and time for id to get more servers online. Indeed this morning we signed on and there was a queue line of "only" 5,000 or so players ahead of us. Our wait time was around 20 minutes or so. That's still way to [sic] long to sit around and do nothing but we think id will cut that wait time down even more once they get a handle on how much traffic to expect.

Mod Watch: two for the Source Engine

I came across a couple of interesting mods that will get you some more mileage out of two older Source Engine games.

The first, "Eye of the Storm - Episode I," is a single-player mod for Half-Life 2. From the (I think, Czechoslovakian) creators:

First episode offers over 30 minutes of game time as well as the option to replay with developer commentary turned on, offering insight into some of the issues encountered and design decisions made during development. There are also some bonus maps which add another 20-30 minutes of game time to the mod.

You will also notice some new textures, new models, English dialogue and a replacement for the crowbar. A complete list of the development team is also now available here.

There's also a video:


The second mod is for Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines, dubbed the "Companion Mod" or CompMod for short. The description:

VTMB CompMod enhances Vampires: The Masquerade Bloodlines by allowing you to recruit other NPCs to join your party and travel with you throughout the game. Other enhancements include:

* Ability to possess your traveling companions and use their special abilities from afar (if desired).
* Ability to embrace select human companions later in the game.
* Place party members around your haven in an assortment of animated poses
* Tell party members to change outfits.
* Supports installable outfit packs.
* Access to secondary traveling inventory through companion dialog.
* Over 250 dialog responses were crafted from existing audio to support new transition conversations with companions.
* Access to secondary traveling inventory through companion dialog.

Check out their website for more details. They also have a video:

It's not a seXbox!

Microsoft takes a stand against those damned dirty lesbians:

The gamer, identified as Teresa, listed her sexual orientation on her [Xbox Live] profile, and says that she began to receive threats and ridicule from other gamers while playing online. After filing her own complaint to Microsoft over the harassment she received, Microsoft promptly banned her gamertag accusing her of violating its terms [of service] by listing her sexual orientation and expressing it while using its service.

...

Whether someone’s sexual orientation can offend another in such a manner that the user should be banned under this contract clause is an interesting question. However, considering the relative cutthroat nature of Xbox Live in general, coupled with the fact that Microsoft released a game last year that contained a lesbian love scene, you have to wonder just how double sided Microsoft’s position is on this issue.

Any minute now, all the little mongoloid teenagers that put "I like da gurlz" in their profiles will have their accounts banned. Aaaany minute now ...

FULL ARTICLE AT GAMESLAW.NET

UPDATE: Microsoft apologizes, and promises to reevaluate the policy:

"It is true that as a matter of policy, the expression of relationship preference in Gamertag profiles and tags is not allowed across the board, whether that's heterosexual or other," Stephen Toulouse, program manager for policy and enforcement on Xbox Live, told MTV News in a phone interview. "But as we saw when we ran into an issue with this [last year,] we started looking into that policy."

He acknowledged that the current policy could use improving: "It's inelegant. And it's inelegant because the text-box field is freeform."

Operation Flashpoint 2: "tactical interview"

The boys at Game Trailers interviewed some British guy at some kind of games conference, and he dished (a little) about the range of tactical options you'll get to sink your teeth into with OF2 (among a few other interesting bits).



The "sandbox world" ethic is slowly becoming the gold standard for first-person shooters, and that's good news for the "replayability" return on your $50 investment.

Think of Grand Theft Auto, Crysis, Far Cry 2, and Fallout 3, and compare those games to Call of Duty: World at War or F.E.A.R. 2. Corridor shooters that disguise themselves well - see: the Half-Life series - will always have their place. But the current generation of games has given us enough options that the words "tightly scripted experience" in a game review should be met with skepticism.

Single-player games can and should be judged by the number of hours played per dollar spent. That formula works for multi-player games, too, of course, but the ratio is far more important when it's just you versus the AI.

UPDATE: Jason Ocampo over at IGN has a "hands-on" preview that provides some tantalizing details on the game. Definitely worth a read.

Zero Punctuation reviews F.E.A.R. 2

I played the demo because it was free. I haven't played the full game, because it's not.

TF2 update ... and the game for ten bucks

Not satisfied with going live with the Scout update and other, non-Scout enhancements (details below), Valve have slashed the price of Team Fortress 2 by 50% through Friday. They've also announced the order of the Scout's upgrades, which was determined by a community vote.

I can say this without reservation: TF2 will be the best $10 you've ever spent on an online multiplayer first-person shooter. If you don't have it already, fire up your Steam client immediately, if not sooner.

Via Steam News:

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

New features

* Added The Force-A-Nature, The Sandman, and Bonk!
* Added 35 new Scout achievements
* Added crit boosted on/off sound effects
* Added new sounds for upgraded teleporters
* Added new sound for a fully charged medic dying
* Add bonus points section to scores
o Scouts earn a bonus point for killing Medics who are actively healing a target
* Added several new speech concepts, mostly hooked up to new Scout lines
* Added new "Remember last weapon between lives" option to the Multiplayer Advanced dialog
* Spies can now control which weapon the enemy team sees them holding. Hitting the "last disguise" key while disguised updates the disguise to show the Spy's currently held weapon
* Added several new Arena mode announcer speech events.
* Added "First Blood" to Arena mode
* Removed 2x item respawn times in arena
* Changed backstab handling to fix facestabs
* Spies disguised as enemy team can now see player IDs for enemies


New maps

* Added community maps: cp_egypt, arena_watchtower, and cp_junction
* Updated cp_fastlane with Arttu's new version


Mapmaker requests

* Added new input for forward speed modifier to FuncTrainTrain
* Added TeleportToPathTrack input to func_tracktrain


Bugfixes

* Fixed a bug where players would sometimes gib from non-gib damage kills
* Fixed stat screen showing an entry for a class called "map."
* Fixed item model panels not using team skins


- Fixed obscure bug where spectators were able to carry the flag

Quake Live open beta

Quake Live is a free-to-play, browser-based FPS derived from the multiplayer side of 1999's Quake III Arena. The open beta began yesterday, which you can sign up for here.

Those of us who are refugees from Call of Duty: United Offensive will remember the "feel" of the Quake-style control system, which was one of the things that, in retrospect, made UO the best game in the CoD series.

Slow day

Sorry about the dearth of posts today. I've been all over the damned internet looking for something interesting to talk about, but the interesting parts of the gaming industry have apparently taken the day off. So, I've been forced to fill the hours with Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout and Grey Goose.

Here's to our readers ... all 52 of you, in all seven countries.

Monday Scout update: BOOMSTICK

Any outdoorsman will tell you the most frustrating part of hunting is when a deer simply FALLS DOWN when shot, and doesn't FLY BACKWARD into the forest. Those days are over. Anything this baby hits better PACK A LAUNCH, 'cause it's going for a ride.

Read the brochure, and get some.

Don't trash your Mass Effect 1 saved games

From the Wired games blog:

Planning on buying Mass Effect 2? BioWare wants you to make sure not to delete the saved games from the original, though the firm's representatives aren't very forthcoming on the reason.

Amidst a forum post on BioWare's site discussing the seeming demise of ME's protagonist, BioWare's community coordinator Chris Priestly chimed in with the decidedly cryptic: "We are not yet discussing the details of the game. However, as Jack said, don't delete your Mass Effect 1 saves yet."

FULL ARTICLE

Windows 7 will be "great for games"

Microsoft's VP of the Interactive Entertainment Business for the EMEA region, Chris Lewis, has told GamesIndustry.biz that the corporation's next major PC operating system, Windows 7, will be a positive step over and above Vista with respect to gaming.

"Windows 7 will be great for games, undoubtedly," he said. "It's all good news - it's even more robust, it's quicker relatively, and the early testing cycles are proving very promising overall.

"I think it'll be nothing but good news for PC gamers, but we'll have more to say on that later on this year," he added.

FULL ARTICLE AT GAMESINDUSTRY.BIZ

Latest TF2 Scout update teases next unlockable weapon

The Friday update shows two maps - one new (cp_egypt) and one reconstructed (cp_fastlane) - and hints at the unlockable upgrade to the Scout's scattergun:

A Dustbowl-style control point map, Egypt is visually striking, full of great combat spaces, and features some really interesting uses of vertical space. Classes with the ability to ascend rapidly (Soldiers, Demomen, and Scouts using the new scattergun unlockable ) have lots of options for traversing the arenas. In addition, the ruins provide Engineers with a large number of potential sentrygun locations.

The new weapon is apparently called the "Force-A-Nature," which, from the achievements descriptions, looks like it will have enough recoil to propel the Scout through the air in much the same way as Soldiers and Demomen use their own weapons.

I love playing as a Scout, but I'm not terribly good at it. Maybe this unlock will finally motivate me to retire the Pyro.

Pfft. Who am I kidding? I love doing this:

California violent video games law unconstitutional

Via gameslaw.net:

Today, the Ninth Circuit affirmed a federal District Court’s ruling that California’s statute restricting the sale of violent video games to minors was unconstitutional.

You can find the opinion of the court here.
Here is the contested statute.

Despite the state’s best efforts, the court did not accept their proposition that violence be treated as obscenity for the purpose of restricting the access of minors. Simply put, violent video games are not obscene because they do not appeal to the prurient (sexual) interest. Therefore, violent video games are not in any category of unprotected speech...

This is likely to go to the Supreme Court. Stay tuned.

Singularity trailer

Raven Software, the developer of Quake 4, gives us a look at their next game. Is it just me, or does the weapon in the video look almost exactly like the AK-74U (with the reflex site) from CoD4?