OT: Civil War Reenactment

For those of you interested in real wars, I grabbed several shots of the Civil War reenactment of the "Battle of Lewisburg" today and posted them to Flickr:

Brink: "Parkour This" in 18 seconds

Brink patch here, free DLC coming

The following information comes from Splash Damage's Brink blog. 

The DLC

It's due in June and will include new maps (note the plural) and "new content." That content is rumored to include additional weapons.   

Patch notes

A new game update for the PC version of Brink is now available on Steam and we've got the changelog here for you. Thanks to the magic of Steam, you'll receive the update automatically the next time you log into your Steam client.

General:

• Fixed issues with custom ui_fov settings when playing as a client

• Added support for 2560x1440

• Slightly improved start up times

• Fixed crash when clicking in blank area on Training Videos menu

• Fixed memory leaks on shutdown

• Fixed Be More Objective leaderboards being incorrectly named

Graphics:

• Fixed "texture gridding" issues on certain graphics cards

• Fixed settings being incorrectly applied on the advanced video options screen

• Improved performance when using Ambient Occlusion

• Fixed halos not rendering correctly

AI Bots:

• Removed bot intelligence inhibitors for Freeplay games

• Adjusted bot behaviour in Campaign games to make teams more evenly matched

• Changed bots' objective priorities across all game modes

• Fixed issue with bot difficulty continually dropping

User Interface:

• Fixed poor server browser performance for users with a large number of items in their history

• Made server browser refreshes much more responsive

• Changed server browser to no longer group player counts by max players

• Added new pop-up text for server browser filters

• Fixed not being able to sort by favourites column

• Server browser now retrieves favourites correctly from Steam

• Fixed arrow keys not working when exiting out of a chat submenu

• Made it easier to select a default secondary weapon

• Disabled chat options in solo mode

Dedicated Servers:

• Can now use net_ip command to assign IPs to server instances

• Dedicated server binary can now be run as a service, which won't have a CSIDL_PERSONAL virtual folder

Art imitating life

From the Department of Damn That Was Fast:

FY_ABBOTOBAD Released for Counterstrike

From GameBannana:

Created by Fletch (May 7, 2011)

Based on Osama's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Map may be used as a base for a bomb or hostage map at a later stage. 3D skybox will also be added when/if I have time.

A quick update (May 9, 2011)

What alot of people don't seem to understand is that the only thing this map has in common with Osama is location. I can see how people would think it is in bad taste, but honestly if that's your opinion you may as well protest the whole game (as well as many others).

BRINK launch trailer

Brink ready for pre-load

The game unlocks on Monday, May 9.  (EDIT: it actually unlocks at midnight, so call it the 10th.)

First Person Spammers

BASHandSLASH.com has a great podcast up on the trend in first-person shooters away from the "classic" format where success depends primarily on actual skill.  You can listen to the cast here. 

Game developers seem to have discovered a previously untapped pool of customers: people who want to feel good about their performance without exerting themselves, and who want that gratification instantly. In tailoring the new generation of games to appeal to that demographic, developers like DICE, Infinity Ward, and Treyarch have taken the legs out from under the run-and-gunners that used to thrive in MP servers. It's a sad state of affairs, and one that's likely to outlast my interest in gaming.

So, have a listen. If you've ever bounced out of a game because you were sick of getting killed by a dozen things you couldn't have avoided, you'll identify with the thesis.

P.S.: I am not promoting the podcast just because my name is mentioned. Or because I'm quoted extensively. I am very humble - almost shy, actually - and I would never attempt to stroke my own ego on this blog.

Never.

Flaccid Effect?

When the news broke that Mass Effect 3 would be delayed several months, everyone was not surprised. Q4 of any year is Call of Duty season, and Q1 of the following year is when we all gather together to talk about how shitty the latest Call of Duty is. It follows that Q1 is a vastly better interval in which to release all non-Call of Duties. QED.

But then, there's this. John Riccitiello (the Big Boss Man at EA) had something mildly disturbing to say at an investor meeting:

One of the things that Ray Muzyuka and the team up in Edmonton have done is essentially step-by-step adjust the gameplay mechanics and some of the features that you'll see at E3 to put this in a genre equivalent to shooter-meets-RPG, and essentially address a much larger market opportunity than Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2 began to approach.

Immediately, it's fair to wonder whether Riccitiello knows Jack Shytte about Mass Effect, as it has always been a shooter/RPG hybrid. The two components varied in emphasis between the two games, but were obviously present in both.

So maybe Big Boss Man is just blowing smoke up the asses of his financial backers, suggesting the Mass Effect IP will innovate by doing what it has been doing all along. What's disturbing, though, is the last bit. Addressing "a much larger market opportunity" sounds a lot like "trying to appeal to a broader audience." And that sounds a lot like "we're deliberately engineering this thing to draw in the Call of Duty crowd."

Medal of Honor tried that. So did Crysis 2. Both were published by EA, just as Mass Effect 3 will be.

A billion dollars is a lot of money. 

Brink - Get SMART Series: Classes Gameplay

Ninja Cube

One of the most common complaints about Portal 2 is that there's only one way to solve any given puzzle.

Wrong.