Art for maggots

The brains behind TF2 have a little side-event going as part of the Soldier vs. Demo War and class update extravaganza. It's a propaganda contest, wherein you can submit a TF2-themed propaganda poster in the hope of winning fabulous prizes.  First Prize is a unique weapon that the winner can use in the game, with the winner's name emblazoned upon it.  This thread on the Steam forums has links to a large pile of submissions. This is my first entry:

And my second:

The New War: different than the Old War

Another update cycle has begun. The Soldier and the Demoman are the beneficiaries this time around, but Valve has added a twist. In addition to the standard three new weapons gifted to each class, one additional weapon is up for grabs. The secret seventh armament will be awarded to whichever of the two classes kills the other more during the War Update period, currently underway.

So does this mean we'll find a bevy of servers where everybody is one of the two at-war classes?  (Quite possibly, and it might even be fun.) What's the strategy? If you want the Soldier class to win, for example, do you simply try to pummel the Scottish cyclopes, or do you join as a Demoman and suck it up as hard as possible whenever a Soldier is around?  If people choose the second option, will the Spy be pissed at the fraudulent appropriation of his idiosyncrasies? Will Soldiers ignore opposing Soldiers? Same with the Demomen?

Looks like it's time to load up TF2 again.

The New Zombies: just like the Old Zombies

Is it worth 10 bucks?  IUN reviews "The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned":

TECHNICAL: It sucks when you have to hack an .ini file to skip a litany of "I Love Me" intro movies. It sucks harder when you realize that you've just paid $10 to put them all back. Bonus: all the old bugs are still there.

...Verdict: -$3.00

STORY: The intro sequence is pretty funny. The plot is as cliched and vacuous as you've come to expect with Borderlands. Still, it's nice to be doing something besides looking for the Vault, especially if you've found it three times already.

...Verdict: +$1.00

ENVIRONMENTS: Zombie Island adds some much-needed visual variety to Pandora. The level design overall is a bit more interesting, but there is one large kick in the balls: Old Haven was cut-and-pasted into the DLC (to become "Dead Haven").

...Verdict: +$2.00

CHARACTERS: Some nice, sometimes hilarious additions, but the standard zombies are the new bandits: they're everywhere, and variants are few. There is, however, a zombie that can puke on you, thus impairing your vision with its bile. It's not the Boomer though, no sir: this zombie is skinny, and the hurl is a darker green.

...Verdict: +$2.50

GAMEPLAY: In a stroke of creative genius, Gearbox has added crescendo events. (If you don't know what a crescendo event is, don't play L4D, because they're definitely not in there.) Also, we were promised "dozens" of additional quests.  I found 1.5 dozens.

...Verdict: +$0.00

ITEM DROPS: More!

...Verdict: +$1.50

* * *

OVERALL VERDICT: a total value of four American dollars. SKIP IT, unless you still just love the hell out of Borderlands.

Paging Dr. Ned

The first DLC package for Borderlands - entitled "The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned" - is now available via through most digital delivery services. For $10, you get 5 new areas to grind through "dozens" of new missions, and an expanded bestiary to murder.

Hopefully, the new content will provide for more than one night's excursion around the Island.  I'll let you know.

Have you seen this man?

We found the dog tied a 3.5 meter "multi-color finale" missile (professional grade fireworks), but the fugitive bastard was nowhere to be found.  If you see him, keep your distance, and call our hotline at 1-800-MASS-HOL.

Any reward we can scrape together will be sent through Pay Pal.

Monday Music XI - Back in Business

This week:  Jimi Hendrix, Magnet, Gemma Hayes, Nathan Lee, and Hanif Khan.

Watch

Say goodbye, Rochelle

The news from Kotaku is that the L4D2 SDK (release date unknown) will have additional functionality, allowing for a broader range of custom content.  In particular, modders will be able to inject user-created models for the survivors, the (un)common and special infected, and all the weapons.

I'm guessing the SDK will also allow you to import character models from other Source games, so expect to see Coach, Ellis, Nick, and Rochelle unceremoniously dumped in favor of Bill, Francis, Louis, and Zoey within weeks of the SDK's release.  And I'll give you dollars to donuts that Alyx Vance (one version or another) will make her way into the L4D universe before long.

Kotaku speculates:

What does this mean to you, the Left 4 Dead 2 PC player? Well, a whole lot more than just Nude Zoeys, I'd bet. Maybe nude jockey-Zoeys hybrids? It's a start.

Inevitably, it will be called the "Sit on My Face" mod.

Gamasutra's Top 5 PC Games of 2009

Yeah, it doesn't really mean anything, but here's the list anyway:

5. Torchlight (Runic Games)

4. Empire: Total War (The Creative Assembly)

3. Left 4 Dead 2 (Valve)

2. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II (Relic Entertainment)

1. Dragon Age: Origins (BioWare)

And then there's this encouraging thought:

Finally, it's worth pointing out the originality on display this year; of the 15 games highlighted here, more than half hail from newly-created properties. And take heart, PC fans: nearly all had PC as the lead development platform, with the majority exclusive.

More BC2 footage

One or two obvious bugs that need to be worked out, but it all still looks righteous.  Hopefully, we'll get a look at a different map soon (like the one below).

Watch

On the Brink

Splash Damage - the developer behind both "Enemy Territory" games - has released a series of videos (all below the fold) showcasing their next title, Brink, due in 2010. The new game retains the objective-completion focus of Wolfenstein and Quake Wars, but it appears that Brink places a greater emphasis on the straight FPS combat mechanics than its predecessors did. 

And those combat mechanics are looking pretty solid. Borrowing some of the distinctive choreography of Far Cry 2 and Mirror's Edge, players can sprint and slide into a crouch in order to get to cover, traverse under a low-hanging obstacle, or evade enemy fire. Additionally, mantling over and on top of objects in Brink is more visually satisfying, as you can actually see your limbs doing the things they'd realistically have to do. Both sets of animations are something of an evolutionary step for first-person shooters, most of which provide substantially the same visual feedback no matter how you're moving about.

Aliens vs. Predator banned in Oz

From Wired:

Australian censors have banned the forthcoming [Q2 2010] Aliens vs. Predator videogame and developer Rebellion Games’ CEO Jason Kingsley isn’t happy about it.

The developer “will not be releasing a sanitized or cut down version for territories where adults are not considered by their governments to be able to make their own entertainment choices,” said Kingsley in a scathing statement on Tuesday. The game will be released in February.

Australia’s Office of Film and Literature Classification is notoriously tough; sexually explicit art films like Salo and Ken Park met with ratings difficulties in the country.

But videogames have a particularly tough row to hoe in Australia because the restricted 18-and-up movie rating does not apply to them. If a game in Australia is deemed by the government to be inappropriate for children, it is “refused classification” — that’s doublespeak for “banned.”

The censors' report is available here (via gamearena.com).  Excerpt:

The game contains first-person perspective, close-up depictions of human characters being subjected to various types of violence, including explicit decapitation and dismemberment as well as locational damage such as stabbing through the chest, throat, mouth or eyes. Characters can be stabbed with a Predator's wrist blade or an Alien's tail in depictions reminiscent of impalement. The Predator collects "trophies" by explicitly ripping off human heads, their spinal columns dangling from severed necks. Heads can be twisted completely around in order to break a character's neck. Eyes can be stabbed through or gouged, leaving empty, bloodied eye sockets. It is noted that a player is able to combine manoeuvres together in quick succession, which further increases the impact; for example, a Predator can stab a character through both eyes with its wrist blade and then rip off their head, with a spinal column still attached. Extensive post mortem damage, including decapitation and dismemberment, is also possible.

Jason Kingsley's outrage seems a bit silly here. If L4D2's depictions of violence had to be so thoroughly nerfed to be granted classification, AvP's ban was entirely predictable. There is some irony here, however, in that the uber-violent AvP movie was not similarly banned. The OFLC does have an "R" rating for films; just not for video games.