Dec 18, 2010

Source Engine (+TF2) updates



Updates to Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:


SOURCE ENGINE CHANGES (CS:S, DoD:S, TF2, HL2:DM)

+ Improved sv_pure:
+ Materials / Models / Sounds / Animations are more comprehensively protected.
+ Switched from CRC to MD5 hashes for stronger per-file validation.
+ Fixed some issues between custom files and server whitelists over level changes.
+ Added HL2:MP to the list of dedicated server games when starting a server via the Tools tab in the Library

TEAM FORTRESS 2

+ Added Medieval Mode, a game mode where players are restricted to using olde weapons.

'Your Eternal Reward' changes:

+ Spies can now change their disguise weapon via 'lastdiguise' while using 'Your Eternal Reward'
+ Already-disguised 'Your Eternal Reward' Spies are no longer forced to switch to displaying the melee weapon when they make a kill
+ Spies no longer play speech lines when making a kill with 'Your Eternal Reward'
+ Sentries no longer track 'Your Eternal Reward' Spies after they backstab someone

'Natascha' changes:

+ Spin-up time increased.
+ Slowdown-on-hit effect is reduced over distance.

New equipment:

+ Added 'The Medi-eval Medic', 'The Hibernating Bear', and 'The Expert's Ordnance' item sets.
+ Added new weapons: 'The Claidheamohmor', 'The Back Scratcher', 'The Boston Basher', 'The Fists of Steel', 'The Amputator', 'The Crusader's Crossbow', 'The Ullapool Caber', 'The Loch-n-Load', 'The Buffalo Steak Sandvich', 'The Brass Beast', 'The Warrior's Spirit', 'The Candy Cane', and 'The Jag'.
+ Added 20 new hats.

Other changes:

+ Added a prototype item testing map, and associated functionality, for contributors to test their work.
+ Spies can now see TargetID's of players and objects regardless of their own disguise status.
+ Fixed some speech lines continuing after the speaker changes class
+ The Spy 'Sap Auteur' achievement now increments in cases where the Spy was the assister in the building destruction.
+ Fixed the arrow burning effect getting stuck on if you changed class in a respawn room with your arrow lit.
+ Fixed a Flamethrower bug that allowed players to rapidly fake the Pyro's airblast effect.
+ Throwing the Jarate or Milk now returns you to your previous weapon, instead of your Primary.
+ Added leaderboard to track duel wins.
+ Added ability for players to donate money directly to the creators of their favorite community maps.
+ Increased backpack size by 100 slots.

Further details in an upcoming blog post.

Bulletstorm developer diary: lots of foul language

They're trying a little too hard, but I appreciate the effort:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5570f7HnX0

Dec 16, 2010

Video games and storytelling

As usual, Daniel Floyd leaves almost nothing unsaid:

L.A. Noire tech demo

Lots of game developers - particularly a few notable AAA houses that ran out of ideas years ago - build large swaths of their games around some techno-novelty.  In most cases, the novelty becomes a crutch that the designers hope will carry the vacuous remainder of the content.  With the application of sufficiently aggressive marketing, the crutch approach often succeeds, as the console generation is easily distracted by shiny things.

L.A. Noire has taken an existing techno-novelty and refined it right out of the Uncanny Valley.  So from a technological standpoint, it's pretty impressive.  I hope they nail the plot and the characterization as thoroughly as they have the mo-cap:

Portal 2 co-op trailer

In the first Portal, you needed one person capable of logical thought.  In Portal 2, two people are required, but only one needs to think logically.  So in practice, the one additional, substantive requirement to play Portal 2 will be some form of VOIP.

Dec 15, 2010

Black Ops 12-15-10 patch notes

*Note that the "shader warming" (pre-cache) fix has to be applied manually - i.e. set to "yes" - in the graphics options menu.  Major changes are listed in bold.

From Steam News:


Updates to Call of Duty: Black Ops have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS


+ Improved threading performance on computers with only 2 cores.

+ Additional performance optimizations

+ Added an option to pre-cache all shaders during load time. This fixes hitching related to shader compiling on some video cards when viewing an area of the map for the first time. 

+ Fixed random freezes in certain computer configurations. 

+ Allow Team Change on Ranked servers when it does not unbalance teams (this is a server admin option).

+ Allow Team Change grace period at start of match (server admin option).

+ Added 4 more reserved slots (server admin option)

+ Added /connect

+ Improved quickmatch results (server side change)

+ Fix for watching films through Combat Record

+ Fixed compassSpectatorsSeeEnemies exploit

+ Fixed 3rd person fov exploit

+ Fix for infinite supply drop exploit.

+ Fixed crosshair flickering when stereo is active.

+ Various spawn improvements

+ Various sound improvements

+ Fix for Zombies – Teammate shadows not displayed properly.

+ Fix for radar not staying on in One in the Chamber when it should.

+ In a Domination match, the Position Secured medal is no longer delayed.

+ 'Hardened: Equipment Shot' Challenge can now be completed by destroying a 'Camera Spike'.

+ Fix for choppy final killcam in dedicated servers.

+ Various map glitches fixed.

+ Weekly and Monthly leaderboards will now track all kills, deaths and assists properly (All Time leaderboards were not affected by this)

+ Added mixed hardcore playlist

+ Added mixed barebones playlist

+ Added 12 player versions of all playlists

RCON

+ Reduced timeout values. Connect (or failure to connect is faster).

+ Added all white-listed dvars for Ranked and Unranked. Admins have rcon access to ALL available dvars.

+ Added Settings and Console tabs for Ranked servers.

+ Fixes a bug where the “Server” tab doesn’t update values when connecting to a new server.

+ Added version number to the title bar.

+ Fixed a bug where UI state didn’t persist after switching to another server.

+ Added “disconnect” button.

+ Fixed map “set” to not use admindvar.

+ Changed all dvars which could be possibly float, to float. Mostly these are time-type dvars.

+ Fixed bug where entering a value of zero for Message Duration would cause a unhandled exception error

+ Truncated all message fields to 140 chars

You do not own the games you buy

"Myth" confirmed:  what you're buying is a revocable license to play the game.

Almost two years ago, IUN reported that a federal judge had ruled that using a particular third-party "bot" software in World of Warcraft was a violation of the game's End User License Agreement.  That meant - at the time - that the violators' licenses to use Blizzard's software were insta-revoked, and they were therefore committing copyright infringement by continuing to play the game.

Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision upholding the lower court's determination that a software EULA can indeed designate purchasers as a licensees, and deny them any right of ownership.  The appellate court did, however, reject the theory that the specific EULA violation (i.e. using the bot) constituted copyright infringement.  It held instead that using the bot was a breach of contract, rather than an "unlawful reproduction or distribution" that would have triggered copyright protections.  

The distinction is important, because "[a] copyright owner who grants a nonexclusive, limited license ordinarily waives the right to sue licensees for copyright infringement, and it may sue only for breach of contract."  It's also important because the damages the defendants will have to pay on a breach of contract theory are much less than what they would have had to pay if they were found liable on a copyright claim.

Dec 14, 2010

Killing Floor Twisted Christmas

The Tripwire KF forums have the dope:

  • Runs for the holiday season from December 14th to January 4th
  • Free for everyone that owns Killing Floor – auto downloaded through Steam
  • All new level – Santa’s Evil Lair
  • All creatures in game replaced with Christmas themed monsters including the Gingerfast and the Nutpound
  • More than double the achievement count with over 130 total achievements
  • 13 new Christmas achievements
  • Unlockable “Baddest Santa” playable character
  • Red or blue Pyro from Team Fortress 2 playable character available to anyone that owns both Team Fortress 2 and Killing Floor
  • Mr. Foster’s trademark gas mask and business tie as equipable items for the Pyro in Team Fortress 2 for anyone that owns or purchases Killing Floor before the end of the event
  • All new difficulty level beyond suicidal – Hell on Earth
  • Balance improvements

I can't find any details on the balance improvements.  All-in-all, it's a hilarious update, and it's nice to have so much new content (most of it free).  It probably won't keep you playing for more than a few rounds, but more than anything, this update has me looking forward to KF2.

Dec 13, 2010

Homefront SP trailer

Maybe it's just the video quality, but the graphics are looking a bit dated.  Have a look for yourselves.

Whatever ... there's going to be a SDK.  That's enough to hold my interest.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution extended trailer

It's going to be a beautiful game, but Squeenix makes me nervous.

Blog update

The image hosting site for some of the blog's background images went down, so I decided to update the template again.  I went for a cleaner look with the new layout, but the new banner is just a placeholder until I come up with something better.

I've replaced the old "Recent Comments" box with something that doesn't run through the RSS feed, so the comments should update automatically now.  There's also a Google Talk box beneath the blog archive on the right, so you can flame other members right from the main page.

Dec 12, 2010