Big Xbox 360 fanboy brownie points goes to developer Valve, not only for giving the 360 a superior version of the Orange Box, but because they openly diss the PS3. Now that's the kind of developer we love.
Chatting with CVG at a recent Left 4 Dead preview event, Valve's Doug Lombardi was blatantly honest about why they aren't planning a PS3 version of the game, saying that "we're not PS3 developers - we're doing PC and 360 like with Orange Box." Zing! Lombardi explained that "EA came to us and said 'wow, Orange box was an incredible project, can we do a PS3 version?'", so that's why a (craptacular) PS3 version was created without Valve's magic touch. Though, it's still possible we'll see Left 4 Dead on the PS3 if it becomes a huge hit on the 360 and PC, just don't expect Valve to be involved ... mwahahahaha!
GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that Valve's Orange Box hit Portal was rejected by Microsoft after Valve made an effort to get the title on the Xbox Live Arcade.
Valve's Doug Lombardi recently told GamesIndustry.biz that he'd "love to sell Portal on Xbox live" but that "the platform holders aren't doing that right now" because of "size limit and all kinds of other things." Because, if you recall, Microsoft has strict rules on XBLA games maxing out at 150MB in size. Though, Lombardi is optimistic about Portal hitting the XBLA, saying that "it always happens once it's been proven and I think it's been proven now on Steam, so I'm sure it'll migrate back to the consoles just like everything else does." Meh ...
So, there you have it, Microsoft crushed our Portal XBLA dreams. Those evil monkeys. Maybe the N+ guys were right about MS and their iron-fisted rule over the XBLA. Maybe?
Posted Apr 25th 2008 4:45PM by Dustin Burg Filed under: News
Sad news fellow Companion Cube lovers, Valve just confirmed that gamers won't be able to experience a second round of Portalfun anytime this year. The reason? They simply don't want to make it a rush job.
Speaking with Eurogamer, Valve's Doug Lombardi broke down their decision by saying that they don't want to "quickly replicate it [a Portal sequel] and stick it out there - do the opportunistic thing and cash in on it", and will instead be sticking to a formula where a Portal "successor has to be equally as revolutionary as the first." Lombardi went on to say that "you won't see a new Portal at retail this Christmas because of that. That's the trade off. People want more, but we don't want to give them more of the same right away because that would just be boring."
There you have it, no new Portal funnery this year. But we have a feeling a fully beefed out and revolutionary Aperture Science experience will be headed our way come 2009.
Just in case you were worried about not being able to grab the new "Still Alive"Rock Band downloadable content for free before it's promotional period (you procrastinating bum), you can rest easy now. Major Nelson just confirmed that Jonathan Coulton's "Still Alive" will forever be a free DLC download off the XBLM. That means future Rock Band purchasers will be able to get their GLaDOS fix for free, whenever they get around to downloading it. Applause to Microsoft, EA, Harmonix and Valve for working together to make this happen. Teamwork FTW!
We have super, fantastic, amazing, glorious, superb and geeky Rock Band news for you today. Hmxsean just announced tomorrow's Rock Band downloadable content (seeing that it wasn't announced last Friday) and folks, it's finally here. Revealed back during GDC, Portal's hit song "Still Alive" by Jonathan Coulton will be available for download tomorrow off the XBLM for (get this) 0 Microsoft points. Yes sir, they're offering the "Still Alive" Rock Band DLC for FREE! And even though it's April Fool's day tomorrow, we don't expect this announcement to be a fool. Because, if it were, Harmonix employees would have to fear for their lives. We just have to say it again, but this time in caps ... "STILL ALIVE" WILL BE A FREE ROCK BAND DOWNLOAD TOMORROW! W00T!
Also, just to fuel the fanboy fires, the rockers over on the Playstation 3 will have to wait a few weeks to get their "Still Alive" DLC fix. Mwahahaha, enjoy!
Posted Mar 4th 2008 10:45AM by Dustin Burg Filed under: News
More news on the Team Fortress 2 front as Valve busily plans the release of a new set of DLC and how they are planning on offering the content for free
Speaking with Eurogamer, Valve's VP of marketing Doug Lombardi mentioned that their development team is hard at work on new TF2 multiplayer maps for the 360 version and that their plan is to offer the content for free. Lombardi tells Eurogamer that "free is the way to go. The gamers play the game, they want to keep playing the game, so we've collected their fifty bucks at the start, and once they're in the park, they can ride any ride they want in the park. So, for us that's been the philosophy." And a DLC philosophy we whole-heartily agree with. But nothing is set in stone just yet as Microsoft has certain rules pertaining to free content and we all know how much Orange Box publisher EA loves to make a quick buck off of DLC. In a perfect world we would see TF2 DLC for free, but we have a feeling we're in for another Hidden Fronts disagreement either between Valve and Microsoft or between Valve and EA.
Yesterday, we mentioned that a new Team Fortress 2 title update was released via Xbox Live but that we were in the dark pertaining to any of the specifics. We went as far as to call out Valve on their lack of information support surrounding the Orange Box for consoles. But today, we eat our words. Valve developer Kerry hopped onto the Xbox.com forums to inform the masses about the TF2 update and tell us exactly what it fixes. We've posted Kerry's complete list of changes after the break as we're sure our fellow TF2 exploiters are ever so curious to know which exploits in their vast exploit arsenal are no longer effective. Anyway, check out the update list as we go on to officially retract out "evil Valve" comment that we made yesterday. We acknowledge that our name calling was a bit much, but we still stand behind our request at having some sort of Valve supported news hub for getting Orange Box updates. We still cool?
Update: We're now more informed about the changes that went into effect with this latest update. Check out all the details here.
Recently, Valve's magical Orange Box received a title update with its sole purpose being fixification of Team Fortress 2. Though, sadly, we don't know exactly what changes the update made seeing that Valve has no central news hub for Xbox 360 Orange Box owners. All we get are PC centric updates like this. Evil Valve. But we're guessing the update has something to do with changes that werementioned a few months back. We're also hearing from our oh so reliable X3F tipsters that the TF2 update adds the option for 14 player games, auto-balance management and other general class enhancements. Again, we can't be exactly sure what modifications were made seeing that Valve doesn't have a central news hub. Did we get that point across yet? Ahem, Valve, we need you to update us on things like this. Mmkay? And until they do, if while surfing the internets you spot a list or breakdown of what changes were put in place with the latest auto-update, please drop us a line. Thanks much.
Our Joystiq pals just posted a video of Jonathan Coulton's Friday night performance of (recently announced as Rock Band DLC) "Still Alive" at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall. Coulton brought a few folks on stage including tech guy Leo Laporte and Mahalo's Veronica Belmont to participate in the "Still Alive" performance. Their Rock Band skills are lukewarm at best, but we get the general idea and can't wait to sing to "Still Alive" from the comforts of our Rock Band setup at home. And in even more exciting news, Joystiq got a chance to chat with a few Harmonix employees who attended the concert and learned that currently (though subject to change) the "Still Alive" DLC single will be downloadable for $.99. For that price, no true Rock Band'er or Portal'er should be without GLaDOS' mega-hit.
Hey, it's Sunday and that means its time to surf the internets, open those newspapers and look for the best gaming deals this week. But we've already done the work for you, so please, allow us to share ...
This week, Best Buy has two decent offers, one being that you can get a free $10 gift card with the purchase of Turning Point: Fall of Liberty and the other being $10 off Call of Duty 4. Heading North to our Canadian Best Buy friends, not only can you grab Kameo for $15, but they're also offering BioShock for free with the purchase of an Xbox 360. And remember, Xbox 360 prices in Canada recently dropped (Pro: $349, Elite: $449 and Arcade: $279), so that's a very juicy offer. Next up, Circuit City. They've heavily discounted Lost Planet to $20, cut the price of Conflict: DO to $40 and have taken 20% off the price of BlackSite, Kane & Lynch, Turok, Halo 3 and BioShock dropping their price to $48 each. Finally, this week at Target stores, they're selling PGR4 for $30, Scene It? for $50 and The Orange Box or NFS: ProStreet for a cool $40.
That's all the deals we could spot this week, but feel free to share with your fellow fanboys any other offers you spot while out and about this week. Happy shopping and stay safe.
Posted Feb 21st 2008 6:40PM by Dustin Burg Filed under: News
Filed under news that'll make Portal fans squeal with joy, Rock Band's hmxsean just confirmed that the Portal hit "Still Alive" by GLaDOS will be releasing as Rock Band DLC in the near future. And that deserves a w00tacular! The news was revealed last night at Harmonix's GDC party where the man behind "Still Alive", Jonathan Coulton took the stage to make the announcement and play through the song with a few Harmonix developers. We guess this time the cake ended up not being a lie. Sweet.
Portal deservedly earned the respect of many gamers this year. One of the primary reasons for this is undoubtedly its dark sense of humor and excellent writing. One of the more brilliant ideas was to turn the game's turrets into actual characters. Spouting lines like "are you still there?" and "I don't hate you," the turrets provided an ample share of chuckles. Smooth Few Films has taken this idea and run with it, creating "Portal: a Day in the Life of a Turret," a short film about (you guessed it) Portal's turrets. Imagine two turrets shooting the breeze around the Aperture Science water cooler and you'll have a pretty good idea of what the film is about. Watch the (not safe for work) video after the break. Oh, and keep an eye out for a special appearance by the Weighted Companion Cube.
We knew some changes were headed to Team Fortress 2, namely to the Medic, but CVG is now reporting some of the planned changes for other classes as well. Specifically, we're talking about the Pyro and Soldier classes. So far, the only change announced for the Pyro has to do with scoring. Basically, Pyros will now be rewarded with points when they successfully light an enemy on fire. The idea, according to Valve's Robin Walker is to reward the player for foiling enemy plans even when doing so didn't necessarily end in their death. The Soldier class is due for an interesting change as well, as Walker notes that Valve "is focused on making Soldiers a little more careful firing their rockets at point blank targets." We're not exactly sure what that would entail, especially when factoring in rocket jumps, so we'll just have to wait and see. The changes should be rolling out within the next two months.
MTV's Multiplayer poses an interesting question: does Portalneed a sequel? Hailed by many as one of the best games of 2007, and hailed by some as the best game of 2007, Portal represented a truly unique and engaging experience rarely seen in the video game industry. As Multiplayer puts it, the game was satisfying; it didn't leave you wanting more. Of course, we all know that one-off gaming creations are less than common in video games, as the ultimate goal of publishers and developers is to create a game that can be turned into a successful franchise. The question is not whether or not Portalwill receive a sequel, but if it should.
Our answer: yes. Because GLaDOS is still alive, and she's got to go. But what do you think? That's what we want to know. As such, we've drummed up a poll asking that very questions. Submit your answer below and tell us why you picked it in the comments.
The (143rd) Annual We're Right Awards at Penny Arcade have been revealed for 2007, and Portal has swept them all this year. Landing "Best Soundtrack," "Best Writing," and "Best New Game Mechanic," it looks like Gabe and Tycho like Portal (they really, really like it!). Honestly, we think it's a pretty good pick ourselves, as we were in love with it for the half a dozen or so hours it took to complete. What's remarkable here is not that Portal "won," but that it was the only game mentioned at all. Definitely big praise from one of the internet's largest gaming sites.
Now, if you'll excuse us, we're working on our own awards for 2007.
Update: We're now more informed about the changes that went into effect with this latest update. Check out all the details 
