James

Lets get ready to rumble!!!!

Dibs on the Japanese (whenever they are implemented).

If you haven’t heard. Everquest 2 will be rolling out a new free-to-play service called: “Everquest 2 Extended” or EQ2X for short. Here is a simple view of what is included with the various memberships. Here is the basic information about how the service will work, there is a FAQ here, and the forums here.

What I do want to know is why they named it, “extended” if its actually less than the original game. I guess it could be because it extending the game for free to the masses? Tony and I have dabbled in EQ2 for while and it was a good time however, with all of the games in the marketplace at this point I wonder if EQ2x will have enough draw on new/old players to bring them back to Norrath.

What do you think?

I’ll let the Team Fortress 2(TF2) team describe the update themselves.

“So: how is the War update different from our other class updates?

In many ways, it’s not. Like any other class update, the War update will reveal three new weapons each for the Demoman and Soldier throughout the week, as well as some maps, achievements, and surprises, right up until the day of release, when everything we’ve been teasing goes live.”

The best thing about the TF2 developers is that are continuing to release FREE, that’s right, FREE updates. All but 3 of the classes in the game have been updated with new weapons/items, the Soldier, Demoman, and the Engineer. The updates have generally been one class vs another class and both have received their updated weapons.

The War Update is no different in that its all about the Soldier and the Demoman fighting each other. Each class will get at least 3 new weapons, but both classes are fighting through the week for one last weapon that goes to the class with the most kills of the other. So for example; the soldiers have killed 4,666,558 demomen so far and the demomen have killed 4,441,214 soldiers. As of December 14th @ 9:42 PST.

The cool thing about this whole update is that it really has changed peoples attitudes towards the classes. Some of those on “team soldier” and playing as a medic will only heal a soldier and let the demomen die in order to help the soldier win and get the fourth weapon, and vice-versa for the demomen.

The developers of TF2 definitely know what they are doing with this update. They even made a comic of the characters involved in the WAR! update, putting the acquisition of the weapons into art. The demoman has already received 2 of his 3 weapons updates which have been revealed to be The Eyelander and The Chargin’ Targe.

The casualty updates are going to be daily and from now until the end of the week there will be the reveal of what the soldier weapons are and the remaining demoman weapon. Oh, and I can’t forget the coveted 4th weapon which is causing this whole thing in the first place.

Who’ll get it in the end?

Its up to you the player to decide!!!

So get out there and kill kill kill you maggots!

I almost forgot! They are also doing a propaganda contest too! Whoever can create the best propaganda poster for either side will get a one-of-a-kind in-game item with their name on it. Very cool. Second and Third prize winners get something in-game as well, just not as cool as the first prize winner. 25 runner-ups will get the “MANN CO PRIZE PACKAGE, which isn�t one-of-a-kind but is nonetheless free.”

This is the kind of stuff that I like to see a developer doing for their game, update the game for free and in doing so feeding their rabid/devout fans.

/raises hand

Guilty as charged.

[Update: THE SOLDIERS WIN!!!!!!! The secret 7th weapon turned out to be “Gunboats” which are shoes that allow for less damage to be received when doing a rocket jump. I enjoyed the update, but I don’t know if I’ve ever had so much anxiety and impatience in waiting for an update to a game. Thanks Valve!]

I haven’t heard much about Dark Void to be honest with you. I know what it looks like, another 3rd person shooter with a gimmick(the jetpack). When I saw this walkthrough of aerial combat while surfing the gametrailers.com page my interest in the game went up a little bit. The video didn’t show too much in terms of gameplay but, what it did show I liked! The animation is fluid and makes me think that I’m watching a cutscene at some points. It also reminded me of an awesome movie I saw as a kid in 1991, “The Rocketeer”. Not sure how many of you have seen this epic masterpiece, but the trailer of the film will give you a little insight into what the movie was like. Movies have come a long way.

I loved that outfit and the jetpack though, so this game gets bonus points already for reminding me of the rocketeer. Finally I can play a game that has the same feeling that the movie gave me except this time around I’ll be doing the flying.

A posted comment on the aerial walkthrough’s video:
CaptainCalvin
Posted 1-8-2009 3:46pm [quote] It’s as if some brilliant scientist blended iron man, gears of war, and mass effect into one delicious milkshake! and then turned it into a game!!!

oh man, i can’t wait to see how this turns out![quote]

That sounds about right to me.

Having great animation isn’t going to make a game great by itself though, which makes me interested in seeing how the story is played out. The story so far from what I can gather is that you are Will and you crash land a plane in a jungle at the far corner of the globe somewhere and end up in the “Void”. This is an alternate dimension where the “Watchers” an alien race that look like robots want to take over the Earth, and the “Survivors” humans who are stuck in the void that want to get back home to Earth. The interesting part to the story is that Nikola Tesla was somehow transported into the void through one of his experiments and is there now trying to reverse-engineer the aliens advanced technology to use against them. Hence, the jetpack.

Sounds like a decent setup for a sci-fi action game to me. The release date was pushed back to January 12, 2010 for the PC and PS3.
(If the game turns out to be good my fingers crossed for a 360 version to follow shortly thereafter)