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Dota 2 First Blood update brings LAN support and GLaDOS
Valve will update its Dota 2 client with the First Blood patch on September 23, giving players new weapons, items, announcers and ways to play, while also balancing the game overall. The big highlights coming with First Blood are LAN support, a new Captain's Draft mode, a refined Armory browsing experience and a GLaDOS announcer voice. Captain's Draft will have two teams, each of which nominates a captain, take turns banning, picking and counter-picking heroes from a randomized pool of 24. The new Armory will let you filter items by attributes like quality, rarity and type. The Dota 2 store will also be receiving an update with First Blood, which includes new community-created content and a Portal Pack. The Portal Pack will include an Aperture Science-themed HUD skin, some "Wardcores" (wards made to look like Aperture Science cores) and the aforementioned GLaDOS announcer voice. Unfortunately, no cake was mentioned as part of the First Blood update. If anyone tells you there's going to be cake... well, you know by now.
Portal goes portable with homebrew DS game Aperture Science
Ever wish Portal was a little more portable? Well wish no longer - GBATemp forum-goers Smealum and Lobo are crafting Aperture Science, a homebrew Portal game that can be played on a Nintendo DS. You can download a playable build right off Smealum's website now, but keep in mind that Aperture Science isn't complete, and the game requires a flash cart to play it. The game's story centers on Doug Rattman, the Aperture scientist responsible for the infamous "The cake is a lie" scribbling, as well as the man who saved main protagonist Chell from death between the events of Portal and Portal 2. There's also a level editor, should you be feeling creative.
Valve experiments with players' sweat response, eye-tracking controls for future game design
Valve has a surprisingly varied staff roster. Mike Ambinder is the company's very own experimental psychologist and he's been outlining some of Valve's work with biofeedback technology, including eye-motion controls for Portal 2 and perspiration-based gaming adjustments on Left 4 Dead. Mentioning these developments at the NeuroGaming Conference last week, Ambinder notes that both are still at an experimental stage, but that "there is potential on both sides of the equation, both for using physiological signals to quantify an emotion [and] what you can do when you incorporate physiological signals into the gameplay itself." In Left 4 Dead, test subjects had their sweat monitored, with values assigned to how much they were responding to the action. This data was fed back into the game, where designers attempted to modify (and improve) the experience. In a test where players had four minutes to shoot 100 enemies, calmer participants would progress normally, but if they got nervous, the game would speed up and they would have less time to shoot. When it came to the eye-tracking iteration of Portal 2, the new controls apparently worked well, but also necessitated separating aiming and viewpoint to ensure it worked. With Valve already involving itself in wearable computing, it should make both notions easier to accomplish if it decides to bring either experiment to fans. Venture Beat managed to record Ambinder's opening address at the conference -- we've added it after the break.
DevJuice: Provisioning portal redesigned, allows deletion of some App IDs
We've been hearing from various delighted developers this weekend responding to Apple's redesigned provisioning portal. And yes, you can now delete many (not all) App IDs from the portal. The newer the ID, the more likely it seems to be that you'll be able to select it, configure its settings and click that all-too-welcome delete button. Did it work for you? Drop a note in the comments. Me? I've been happily weeding many apps out this weekend.
Poker Night at the Inventory 2 deals in GLaDOS, Claptrap, Ash Williams
Telltale Games' Poker Night at the Inventory 2 stars a table of quick-witted, quick-to-anger players from all of our favorite media forms: Claptrap from the Borderlands franchise, Sam from the Sam and Max game and graphic novels, Brock Samson from Adult Swim cartoon series The Venture Bros., and Ash Williams from cult horror film Army of Darkness. GLaDOS, main baddie of the Portal games, will be the dealer, so rest assured each hand will be extremely scientific.Poker Night at the Inventory 2 is "coming soon" to Steam for PC and Mac, alongside Xbox Live Marketplace and PSN, with more platforms to be announced. Check out the premiere trailer above. NeoGAF members dug into Telltale's "key party" tease last week and uncovered a lineup of screenshots, pictured below.%Gallery-184520%
OUYA shipping to Kickstarter backers on March 28th
OUYA announced this afternoon that its Android-powered game console is shipping to Kickstarter backers starting on March 28th. The company took to its Kickstarter page to announce the news, which says, "Parts are in the factory and assembly lines are buzzing." When the console starts arriving to folks who supported the Kickstarter campaign -- wherein the company raised just over $8.5 million dollars -- there'll be a lengthy list of launch games (around 500 last we heard) and more on the way. Alongside news of the console's launch date for backers comes word that Portal creator Kim Swift is developing a "brand new, exclusive title" for the console, and Papo & Yo dev studio Minority Media is also stepping up with a new game. Both Tripwire Interactive and nWay are also bringing games to the OUYA, with the former working on two games and the latter working on one (action-RPG ChronoBlade). If that weren't enough, Journey developer Kellee Santiago was announced as the newest high profile OUYA employee, wherein she'll "lead developer relations." Santiago has a short history of high impact in the game industry, having helped create thatgamecompany (developers of Flow, Flower, and Journey) as well as leading an excellent TED Talk. She also appeared in this Engadget Show. Beyond working to entice devs to OUYA, Santiago said on Twitter that she'll still be making games. "I will still be making stuff, too, keepin' it real, don't worry," she wrote. And that's to say nothing of the console's future; company CEO Julie Uhrman told us at DICE 2013 that the OUYA will see annual hardware refreshes, akin to mobile phones. We've yet to get our hands on the device, but we've heard good things from developers who got their early units back in December. Should you wish to hear even more about the OUYA ahead of its late March launch, Uhrman is joining Engadget on-stage for our first ever Expand event in a few weeks -- snag your tickets right here!
Newell: Valve looking to make Portal or Half-Life movie with J.J. Abrams
During today's DICE keynote conversation between movie director J.J. Abrams and Valve co-founder Gabe Newell, the latter noted a collaboration he's looking forward to making a reality if possible."We're going to try and figure out if we can make a Half-Life movie or a Portal movie together," said Gabe Newell.The two sparred on storytelling methods in movies and film, and used scenes from each other's work to illustrate how player agency can augment storytelling, and how films can use "forced" foreshadowing to set up later events. According to the creative pair, they wanted to pursue this dialogue more seriously, and now hope to collaborate on a film based in some way on Half-Life or Portal.There are no details available beyond this brief announcement, likely because the process is still in its early stages.
The Turret Anthem shows why Source Filmmaker is a good thing
Valve's Source Filmmaker allows ordinary people to create outstanding things. One of the most recent testaments to Source Filmmaker's brilliance is The Turret Anthem, a song and video put together by Zachariah Scott, composer Lars Erik Fjosne and sound designer JP Neufeld. Enjoy.
GM launches API framework to let developers put wheels on apps
So far we've gotten a look at some Siri / OnStar canoodling here at CES 2013, and iHeartRadio flaunted its new GM liaison yesterday. But the automaker wants to let all comers in on the MyLink action, so it's just announced a new developer portal, SDK and forum for would-be in-vehicle app creators. The site will allow apps to be coded and gain approval "in a secure and controlled manner" with a helping hand from GM, so that users can purchase and download apps directly to the vehicle's infotainment system. New programs could join the aforementioned CES debuts, along with the likes of TuneIn, Slacker and The Weather Channel, where the General sees a need for vehicle-appropriate categories like fuel efficiency and driver safety. Or you could just, you know, keep your eyes on the road. Check the PR after the break for more.
Del Toro got Valve's permission to use GlaDOS' voice in Pacific Rim
The presence of Ellen McLain's sultry, robotic trills in the Pacific Rim trailer above filled us with much, much joy when we first saw it last December, but we couldn't help but feel like director Guillermo del Toro wasn't being entirely original. Furthermore, we wondered how Valve would feel about such flagrant counterfeiting; we know it doesn't own Ellen McLain's voice or anything, but come on.None of that is actually an issue, as it turns out, since del Toro actually obtained permission from Valve to use GlaDOS' voice in the film, according to the Toronto Sun. "I wanted very much to have her, because I'm a big Portal fan," del Toro said. "But just as a wink. She's not cake-obsessed."McLain's vocal work in the actual film will be run through fewer GlaDOS-inducing voice filters in the final film, del Toro says, but he wanted her voice to be completely recognizable in the trailer. It's also worth noting that there's no actual crossover between Valve's Portal/Half Life universe and Pacific Rim's, even though Pacific Rim is a movie about universes crossing over.
Replica Portal gun signed by Valve and auctioned on Ebay for charity
The only thing better than donating to a worthy charity is donating to a worthy charity and getting a full-size replica Portal gun signed by the entire Valve team out of it. Warm fuzzies and a new toy.Valve signed a replica Portal gun for the Games Art and Music charity event in Florida, and now that the show is over, GAAM is auctioning it off on Ebay, with all of the funds benefiting Child's Play Charity. It's like helping two charities in one go.The Ebay auction started off strong, but because of some technical issues, it was reset and now needs to make up some ground to reach its previous peak. The auction ends tomorrow, December 28, at 10:37 a.m. PST. If you have a pure heart and an empty space on your mantel, this bidding war might be for you.
Unlike the cake, Portal on a TI calculator is not a lie (video)
People have been using scientific calculators as math class distractions for years, from gunning down Nazis in Wolfenstein to hunting demons in Doom. But our jaws dropped in amazement when we discovered that an enterprising fellow that goes by Builderboy from Omnimaga has ported over Portal to the humble number cruncher. Dubbed Portal Prelude, the monochrome game is built only for the TI-83 Plus and TI-84 Plus series of graphing calculators and was based on the Flash clone of the popular video game due to the two-dimensional nature of the platform. Sure, it's not as engaging as the genuine article, but seeing as it's the only portable version of the game we know of, we'll take it. Indeed, you can go ahead and download it right now if you have a compatible calculator. In the meantime, we're eagerly waiting to see how this could be rejiggered to take advantage of the color display of the TI-84+. You can take a peek at the demo video after the break.
Play Portal on a TI calculator with this handy download
Why would you need to figure out the cosine of a triangle when you can directly explore theoretical physics on the very same device, your TI calculator? That's right, you wouldn't. Download Portal for a TI calculator right here.
NYC Museum of Modern Art opens game collection with 14 classics, exhibiting in March 2013
Given the subject matter, this is usually where the author waxes philosophical about whether -- having been accepted by a major international museum -- games are indeed "art." We're gonna skip that needless exercise today and simply tell you that the New York City Museum of Modern Art is officiating its intake of 14 video game classics as the start of an ongoing gaming collection, set to go on display in March 2013 in the MoMA's Philip Johnson Architecture and Design Galleries -- the same galleries that house an original iPod and more. The games range from Buckner & Garcia inspiration Pac-Man to modern classic Portal, and even includes some lesser known gems (vib-ribbon, anyone?). The MoMA blog calls this initial selection just the "seedbed" for a chunkier collection of around 40 titles, all of which will be part of a "new category of artworks" at the iconic museum. Head below for the full first 14.
EVE Online coming to NYC's Museum of Modern Art
New York City's Museum of Modern Art is prepping a new video game exhibit for next year and has selected EVE Online to be one of the first 14 titles included. The sci-fi MMO will join the company of titles like Tetris, Portal, and The Sims starting in March 2013. While attendees will be able to play some of the titles in the gallery, Senior Curator Paola Antonelli said that the staff had to get creative with titles like EVE Online: "To convey their experience, we will work with players and designers to create guided tours of these alternate worlds so the visitor can begin to appreciate the extent and possibilities of the complex gameplay." Antonelli said that all of the selections were chosen "as outstanding examples of interaction design." The museum hopes to expand the exhibit to 40 titles in the near future.
Inflatable Portal 2 Personality Cores now available at ThinkGeek
ThinkGeek, purveyor of fine caffeinated gummy bears and assorted nerdicological sundries, has added inflatable Personality Cores to its already bustling assortment of officially licensed Portal 2 memorabilia.At $25 each, the spheres themselves measure about 12 inches in diameter and are made from "Non 7 phthalate PVC vinyl, CPSIA Standard," whatever that means. Test subjects can choose between "Wheatley" and "Spaaaaaaaaaace" color palettes, though neither sphere appears to be truly sentient and/or inherently evil either way. All we need now is an inflatable GlaDOS, and then maybe we won't have to be so alone at night.
TomTom unveils location based services, portal to help put developers on the map
Thanks to a certain fruit company and its cartographic woes, many folks are aware that TomTom provides mapping services to third-parties. Now the navigation company is offering cloud-based services like map display, routing, traffic and geocoding to all, alongside a developer portal with the tools to program them. That'll pit it against rivals like Nokia and Google in providing location data for fleet management, traffic planning or geolocation analysis apps, for instance. Naturally, there's a fee to be paid for all those goodies, but to get you hooked, the company's offering a 90 day free evaluation of its SDK and API. Need directions to the PR? Take the first left, then head after the break.
PSN Tuesday: Portal 2 In Motion, Toe Jam & Earl return
All of the Xbox owners out there are probably spending Election Night celebrating the arrival of Halo 4, but there's good news for you too, PS3 owners. The latest update to PSN brings digital versions of LittleBigPlanet Karting and Vanquish, as well as a digital version of Portal 2 with "In Motion" DLC, for use with the PlayStation Move accessory (as seen in the trailer above). When Vikings Attack and PID are now both available on the PSN store, as are both the original Toe Jam & Earl and the Panic on Funkotron sequel. Rygar hits as a PS2 classic, and Saint's Row 3 and Sleeping Dogs have digital bundles to download. PS Plus members have some new sales to choose from, and there are all kinds of new downloads and add-ons to find across the rest of the network. To see everything that's new on the PlayStation Store, hit up the PlayStation blog.
Miniature Portal gun replica now available at Think Geek
Think Geek now sells a somewhat downsized version of the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, which is good news for people that work in super cramped cubicles, as well as tiny baby children looking to perfectly accessorize a Halloween costume that was obviously their parents' idea.At $60, the bite-sized gun features accurately colored lighting effects, portal-specific sounds and articulating zero-point energy manipulator claws, just like the bigger, sold-out versions. It also includes a display stand, which will be helpful if you're the first type of person we mentioned above. At just 12-inches, however, its cosplay potential is limited to children, as a standard ASHPD measures 30-inches long.But hey, you know what they say: "It ain't the length of you Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, it's the momentum cancelling abilities of your Advanced Knee Replacements." Or something.
Your Portal gun isn't as cool as Hack-a-Day's Portal gun (which actually levitates a companion cube)
There you were, thinking your NECA-produced Portal gun replica was super neat all on its own. Well, okay -- it is -- but wouldn't it be even cooler if you could use it to make a baby companion cube levitate in mid-air with it? That question is exactly what lead to Hack a Day's creation of just such a device, as seen in the video below the break. By reappropriating a magnetic floating globe's parts and attaching said parts to both the gun and a homemade companion cube, Hack a Day were able to recreate at least part of the magic Chell experiences in her Aperture Science adventures. Of course, if you move the gun too much, the companion cube will fall out. Just think what that does to its psyche! You monster. [Image credit: Caleb Kraft, Hack a Day]
