Quake Wars Goes Online, Learns Korean
Splash Damage have announced today that Korean developers Dragonfly are working on an online-only version of Quake Wars, called…Quake Wars Online.
It’s moving into beta as we converse, with 100,000 spots available, but since those spots are Korea-only, that information is presented only as information, not a recommendation.
Still, you’d expect the final game to be a little easier to sign up for, especially given the Western origins of the IP. In the meantime, feel free to blunder your way through the Korean site below, which has plenty of media for you to find randomly, all the while wishing Google Translator did as good a job with Korean as it does with French or Spanish.
TF2’s War Ends With New Item, New Maps
And just like that, the war is over. The Soldiers, victorious, the Demomen, less so. The saying decrees that the victors get the spoils, and since the Soldiers won, their spoils are on the way.
Spoils which come in the form of the final update to the game’s characters for the week. Since the Soldiers won, the Soldier gets a bonus new item, which is a pair of “Gunboats”, boots that when equipped greatly reduce the amount of damage absorbed from a rocket jump.
Everyone’s a winner today, though, with the week of war drawing to a close with a gift all players can enjoy: two new maps. The first is called Gorge, and is “an attack/defense map with only two control points, designed for quick rounds and fast, frantic play”. The second is called “Doublecross”, and is “a fast-paced map that promises a lot of turnaround, with fighting focused on the main bridge and plenty of ways to fall off of it (or cause others to)”.
Well, Excuuuuuse Me, Hulu!
The Legend of Zelda, that Friday special cartoon that ran on The Super Mario Bros. Super Show back in the late 80s, is now on Hulu for your trip down memory lane pleasure.
I feel kind of silly now, having bought the whole thing on DVD some years back. At the time I thought it would be a wonderful edition to my collection and that I’d get all the nostalgia mileage out of it that I did out of Jem and the Holograms on DVD.
Apparently, memory had blocked a few things out. Now, the DVD case just sits there covered in dust along with all the other DVDs in my collection I never watch anymore because they cause physical pain.
Thanks for the tip, Dan!
P.S. I didn’t notice this as a kid, but what is up with Zelda’s pants? It’s like primordial camel toe.
P.P.S. My favorite Zelda cartoon episode is actually the crossover episode they did with Captain N. Now there’s a box set I need to get.
The De-Evolution of Playstation Gaming Controllers
As the guys at Autour D’un Cafe pointed out, the Playstation controller has de-evolved over the years. There was a lot of inbreeding at first, but that changed after a night of heavy drinking.
As the story goes, the DualShock got it on with a ’60s era Baterang and the Gaming Gods retaliated—smiting their unholy spawn. This event cleared the slate, so to speak, and the evolutionary process started all over again. [Autour D'un Cafe via Geekologie]
Starship Patrol Brings More Tower Defense To DSiWare, Q-Games Style
The official Nintendo Europe web site has given us a better look at Q-Games next original DSiWare effort, the downloadable DSi game known as Starship Patrol over there, Starship Defense over here.
Like Q-Games’ PixelJunk Monsters, Starship Patrol is a classic tower defense style game, but with a focus on resource management, strategic weapons placement and a clean, unique visual style. From the same developer of Reflect Missile, Art Style: Digidrive and PixelJunk Shooter, Starship Patrol should be on your radar when it arrives in Europe next week.
It will then come to North America as Starship Defense on January 18. For screen shots and the official description, with defense spelled “defence,” click on.
Starship Patrol [Nintendo UK]
The Most Common Achievement And Trophy Names
Not all Xbox 360 Achievements or PlayStation 3 Trophies have unique names. Many, in fact, have the same name. Gaming site Giant Bomb figured out the most common ones.
The Giant Bomb guys put one of their engineers on the case, having him trawl through data collected by their website. The site tracks Achievements, Trophies and similar accolades that are available through the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and the PC’s Steam service. The team announced the most common names during a recent podcast, acknowledging a caveat: They would be double or triple-counting for some games that have the same Achievements in different editions or are on multiple platforms.
Here’s the list:
1) Untouchable — used in 55 games, according to the Giant Bomb guys. Including in: Aegis Wing, Altered Beast, Beijing 2008, Buzz Jr: Robo Jam, Call of Juarez, Conan, Contra, Defense Grid, Double Dragon, Dreamkiller, Facebreaker, F.E.A.R. 2, Hail To The Chimp and more…
2) Hero — used in 30 games
3) Veteran – used in 28 games
4) Survivor – used in 27 games
5) Treasure Hunter – used in 19 games
Other common ones include: Collector, Legend, Winning Streak, Sniper, Champion, Team Player, Death From Above, Sharpshooter, Collateral Damage, Pack Rat, Completionist, Exterminator, and Perfectionist
Note to developers: If you’re really having trouble figuring out unique names for Achievements, try reading more Kotaku for inspiration.
[PIC]
Put Mytheon’s Servers To The Test, Score A Beta Spot
True Games and Petroglyph are testing out the servers for their stone-based online strategy game Mytheon this Monday, with participants earning forum avatars, in-game items, and priority access to the upcoming closed beta test.
Mytheon is an online strategy game in which players collect and trade power stones containing troops and spells to use in battle against their opponents. It sounds a lot like EA’s BattleForge, only with rocks instead of cards and a strong focus on mythology. Want to try it early? Participating in next week’s stress test could be your best bet.
“We want our players to stress our servers and push our technology to its limits so we can really evaluate things in preparation for our official closed beta in January,” said Peter Cesario, Director of New Business and Product Development at True Games. “We invite you to tell your friends and family and really put our servers to the test. And, in return, you will get a first look at the game and a ton of cool exclusives.”
What kind of cool exclusives? For starters, participating in the stress test will score you an exclusive forum avatar, which doesn’t exactly fall into the category of cool. Once the game launches, however, they’ll be passing out in-game items to players who participate, so this is your chance to get in on the ground floor. That, and True Games warns of limited space for the closed beta test, so any leg up you can get on the crowd should come in handy.
Visit the Mytheon website to sign up for an account. The stress test will take place on Monday, December 21st, so join up and give those servers hell for Christmas.
Josh And Jill Will Flee Tricell In RE5’s Desperate Escape
Capcom has revealed new details on the second downloadable Resident Evil 5 episode, Desperate Escape, featuring Jill Valentine and BSAA Agent Josh Stone in a daring nighttime escape from the Tricell facility.
Desperate Escape, due out on March 3rd for the Xbox 360 and March 4th for the PlayStation 3, sees Jill Valentine, recently recovered from mind control and looking fine, escaping the Tricell facility with the help of Agent Josh Stone, who is also looking fine if you’re into that sort of thing. The pair must fight through hordes of biological weapons in order to make it to the final confrontation between Chris, Sheva, and Wesker.
The release coincides with the release of Costume Pack 2, which we showed you earlier. Josh Stone, along with Heavy Metal Chris and Business Suit Sheva will be playable in Mercenaries mode, leaving just three of the eight new characters still to be revealed.
And don’t forget, all of this DLC will be part of the Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition, due to be released on March 9th.
Aliens Vs. Predator Multiplayer Preview: Switching Bodies, Hunting
I played as an Alien, a Predator and a Marine last night in eight-player locally-linked Xbox 360 matches of Sega’s upcoming game. And it’s not like I panicked too many times.
The early-2010, Rebellion-developed AvP game may be a sequel, but it is the first game in the series that I’ve played. The three-way species conflict set in jungles and on temples and in amid Alien hives was new to me.
I came to the game with no innate ability to play either Alien, Predator or Marine. I assumed, wrongly, that I should avoid playing as a human Marine.
It turns out that playing as an Alien is hard. I learned this the way you learn a lot of tough lessons in multiplayer games: By virtually dying a lot. Aliens in AvP wield no weapons, of course. Their strengths are movement speed and the ability to scramble across any flat surface. With an Xbox 360 controller walks the walls and ceilings by holding down the controller’s right trigger and running across them. Ideally you’ll get yourself onto the ceiling, hanging over some sap Marines who walk beneath you. If you hold down the A button to jump to the floor, the skilled Alien player will then press X for a gruesome one-hit “trophy kill” or start tapping the controller’s shoulder buttons to perform melee swipes. That is ideal. A newcomer might — might — jump down from the ceiling and get shot up by some Marine machine guns.
So, a recommendation: If you play this game when it’s out in early 2010, try the Marine. I was one of them next, taking advantage of my gun-mounted movement sensor to tell me when friends and enemies were nearby. Having a machine gun instead of relying on my claws made me more comfortable. Controls are conventional, familiar to anyone who has played a shooter. Of course, you can’t smell/see the outlines of enemies through walls as a human, only as an Alien.
Before I could try the Predator in a deathmatch mode, we switched to some special modes. I tried two of them:
Infestation was a humans vs. Aliens mode. In this one we all started as humans, but one of us was randomly turned into an Alien a few seconds after the match started. As Marines, we needed to hunt this thing. But if it got one of us, the victim would re-spawn as an Alien. Eventually there would be a Last Man Standing, at which point a turret would spawn and that last human player could hope to get to it to win the match. Otherwise, the Aliens win and points are tallied.
Predator Hunt was a humans vs. Predator mode. We played this one on a map that featured a central pyramid-like structure, which skilled Predators can use to stand atop invisibly, while taking potshots at panicked Marines walking around below. Predator Hunt was a timed match that started with one player randomly selected as a Predator. A human player who kills the Predator becomes the Predator. I was the Predator oh-so-briefly (though I did try him later in single-player to get accustomed to the controls). I had a shoulder-mounted laser cannon, which I failed to use in multiplayer. I had wrist blades for melee. And I had the ability to both turn invisible and use thermal vision. That arsenal didn’t help me much on my first try as an intergalactic hunter. Sadly, I didn’t even figure out how to activate the long-distance jumping abilities of the Predator — nor its ability to throw its voice and create distractions — until I played single-player. Needless to say, despite my ability to kill the Predator once, I didn’t win the round.
So what does a lot of getting mauled teach you?
I was impressed with how distinct the three species felt from each other and how much this game in multiplayer feels like a hunt. In Infestation, I felt vulnerable while I played as a human and the Alien pack grew. Those of us who remained as Marines, for the moment, would spot the Aliens darting across walls and ceilings. As soon as I was an Alien, I felt empowered, racing through the map, slicing toward the meager remaining prey. In Predator Hunt, again, as humans, it felt, if not that we were weak, but that we were up against something fearsome. There’s a special panic you get when you know the enemy is on the tower above, standing there cloaked from your sight, choosing a target and probably seeing you coated in red, ready to be dropped.
The themes and style are good, as is the balance. The mechanics are tougher to speak about. I have to reserve judgment about the controls for now, though I was concerned that the Alien attacks must be on the shoulder buttons, the buttons I’m least comfortable pressing on an Xbox 360 controller. We can blame some of my Alien discomfort on the disorientation of walking on walls and ceilings during a deathmatch. But being the conventionally-controlled human was a smoother experience, and being the Predator felt like it simply required some experience with its unique arsenal to feel successfully in control.
Part of the Aliens Vs. Predator promotion involves promoting just how violent and gory these games are. Stealth kills do trigger gruesome deaths. For me, what I’ve liked most is this three-way balance between Alien, Predator and Marine. That may not be new for PC players, but with this game coming to consoles as well, it’ll be new to me and others. It’s a fun mix.
Aliens Vs. Predator Multiplayer Preview: Switching Bodies, Hunting
I played as an Alien, a Predator and a Marine last night in eight-player locally-linked Xbox 360 matches of Sega’s upcoming game. And it’s not like I panicked too many times.
The early-2010, Rebellion-developed AvP game may be a sequel, but it is the first game in the series that I’ve played. The three-way species conflict set in jungles and on temples and in amid Alien hives was new to me.
I came to the game with no innate ability to play either Alien, Predator or Marine. I assumed, wrongly, that I should avoid playing as a human Marine.
It turns out that playing as an Alien is hard. I learned this the way you learn a lot of tough lessons in multiplayer games: By virtually dying a lot. Aliens in AvP wield no weapons, of course. Their strengths are movement speed and the ability to scramble across any flat surface. With an Xbox 360 controller walks the walls and ceilings by holding down the controller’s right trigger and running across them. Ideally you’ll get yourself onto the ceiling, hanging over some sap Marines who walk beneath you. If you hold down the A button to jump to the floor, the skilled Alien player will then press X for a gruesome one-hit “trophy kill” or start tapping the controller’s shoulder buttons to perform melee swipes. That is ideal. A newcomer might — might — jump down from the ceiling and get shot up by some Marine machine guns.
So, a recommendation: If you play this game when it’s out in early 2010, try the Marine. I was one of them next, taking advantage of my gun-mounted movement sensor to tell me when friends and enemies were nearby. Having a machine gun instead of relying on my claws made me more comfortable. Controls are conventional, familiar to anyone who has played a shooter. Of course, you can’t smell/see the outlines of enemies through walls as a human, only as an Alien.
Before I could try the Predator in a deathmatch mode, we switched to some special modes. I tried two of them:
Infestation was a humans vs. Aliens mode. In this one we all started as humans, but one of us was randomly turned into an Alien a few seconds after the match started. As Marines, we needed to hunt this thing. But if it got one of us, the victim would re-spawn as an Alien. Eventually there would be a Last Man Standing, at which point a turret would spawn and that last human player could hope to get to it to win the match. Otherwise, the Aliens win and points are tallied.
Predator Hunt was a humans vs. Predator mode. We played this one on a map that featured a central pyramid-like structure, which skilled Predators can use to stand atop invisibly, while taking potshots at panicked Marines walking around below. Predator Hunt was a timed match that started with one player randomly selected as a Predator. A human player who kills the Predator becomes the Predator. I was the Predator oh-so-briefly (though I did try him later in single-player to get accustomed to the controls). I had a shoulder-mounted laser cannon, which I failed to use in multiplayer. I had wrist blades for melee. And I had the ability to both turn invisible and use thermal vision. That arsenal didn’t help me much on my first try as an intergalactic hunter. Sadly, I didn’t even figure out how to activate the long-distance jumping abilities of the Predator — nor its ability to throw its voice and create distractions — until I played single-player. Needless to say, despite my ability to kill the Predator once, I didn’t win the round.
So what does a lot of getting mauled teach you?
I was impressed with how distinct the three species felt from each other and how much this game in multiplayer feels like a hunt. In Infestation, I felt vulnerable while I played as a human and the Alien pack grew. Those of us who remained as Marines, for the moment, would spot the Aliens darting across walls and ceilings. As soon as I was an Alien, I felt empowered, racing through the map, slicing toward the meager remaining prey. In Predator Hunt, again, as humans, it felt, if not that we were weak, but that we were up against something fearsome. There’s a special panic you get when you know the enemy is on the tower above, standing there cloaked from your sight, choosing a target and probably seeing you coated in red, ready to be dropped.
The themes and style are good, as is the balance. The mechanics are tougher to speak about. I have to reserve judgment about the controls for now, though I was concerned that the Alien attacks must be on the shoulder buttons, the buttons I’m least comfortable pressing on an Xbox 360 controller. We can blame some of my Alien discomfort on the disorientation of walking on walls and ceilings during a deathmatch. But being the conventionally-controlled human was a smoother experience, and being the Predator felt like it simply required some experience with its unique arsenal to feel successfully in control.
Part of the Aliens Vs. Predator promotion involves promoting just how violent and gory these games are. Stealth kills do trigger gruesome deaths. For me, what I’ve liked most is this three-way balance between Alien, Predator and Marine. That may not be new for PC players, but with this game coming to consoles as well, it’ll be new to me and others. It’s a fun mix.
