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Valve and JJ Abrams' Bad Robot made 'Team Fortress 2' football
Back when Valve and JJ Abrams' Bad Robot production company announced a partnership involving games and film projects it came as a complete surprise. That theme continues with the duo's first collaboration: a mode for Team Fortress 2 combining soccer, hockey and basketball dubbed "PASS Time." It's only in beta as of now (a concept that Bad Robot found immensely intriguing, apparently) though. The official game description is as follows: "RED and BLU face off in an epic battle to score more goals than their opponents. Coordinated passing, aerial shots, interceptions, team-based formations and plays, defensive lines and the like make for strategically chaotic play."
Valve Source Filmmaker makes a movie out of any Source game, now you're directing with Portals (video)
Creating machinima with a video game engine usually requires accepting one of two truths: either that it will require a lot of fudging or that it will have all the sophistication of playing with action figures. Valve Software isn't very happy with that dichotomy, which is why it's posting its very own movie-making tool, Source Filmmaker, as a public beta. Any game that runs on the Source engine, whether it's Left 4 Dead 2, Portal 2 or another in the family, can have gameplay run-throughs edited and dissected right down to custom facial expressions. As Valve expounds in the video after the break, throwing a gaming-grade PC at the task gives directors the advantage of seeing exactly how any changes will look in the final scene; there's no rough wireframes or pre-rendering here. Budding Francis Ford Coppolas can sign up for an invitation to the Filmmaker beta at the project page. If you'd just like to see how far someone can go with the end results, we've also included the latest Team Fortress 2 character profile video, Meet the Pyro, after the jump.
Valve makes Team Fortress 2 free-to-play
In case you missed it last night, Valve has turned its excellent team-based shooter Team Fortress 2 into an entirely free-to-play experience, so even if you haven't picked up the game yet, you can head over to Steam right now and download and play it completely free, forever. The game was one of the biggest titles Valve brought over when Steam was made compatible with the Mac, so it's 100% OS X seaworthy -- just install Steam and you're good to get the game. Valve says it will be monetizing the title through the purchase of in-game items, but they're all cosmetic or conveniences at this point, so you only need to pay if you want to wear a fancy hat or don't want to wait to build up an item. In short, Team Fortress 2 is a great game that now anyone can download and play for free. That's reason to celebrate this weekend, so jump on in, and I'll be the Medic right behind you.
Steam arrives for the Mac with 57 games in tow, all your PC using friends are really happy for you
Thanks to Valve, Mac users can finally claim to own a "gaming rig" without resorting to Boot Camp or causing PC gamers to burst into laughter. Sure, you're still going to be better off cost-for-pixel-crunching with a mid-range PC desktop than anything Apple offers, but for a MacBook Pro user looking to get in a few frags during lunch, the arrival of Steam for Mac is probably the best news they've heard this year -- and luckily that Source engine isn't too hard on older hardware. Mostly the same crop of games that were available to beta testers are available in the final product, with Portal and Team Fortress 2 standing atop the heap (Portal's even free for a limited time!), while Half-Life and Left 4 Dead remain notably absent. Check out Joystiq if you want a full breakdown of the games, including a few of the highlights, we have... um, some stuff to do. You know, boring work stuff. You probably wouldn't be interested. Hit that source link for the download. Update: We're not seeing Team Fortress 2, and we're not getting an option for picking up the Mac version of Civ IV, even though it's a "Steam Play" title. The free Portal download isn't working either, but at least we're relatively certain that it will at some point.
Team Fortress gameplay video emerges
After several videos detailing the characters and style of Team Fortress 2, GameVideos has finally uncovered some actual gameplay footage. It is, in short, chaos, and a more wonderful chaos we could not imagine. Throughout the video, we get to see the soldier, medic, spy, sniper, and engineer in action. The game looks to be pretty much non-stop action, with plenty of opponents to go around. In perhaps the most intriguing moment of the video, the camera pulls out to a third person perspective as the engineer laughs at the poor soul he just bludgeoned to death. It doesn't look as though this has any more value than simply rubbing in your kill and pissing off your opponent. Then again, how much more value do you need?
Video: design philosophy of Team Fortress 2
We are all about Team Fortress 2 here at X3F. While we certainly look forward to the classic gameplay, there can be no doubt that its luscious visual style is a big draw. The above video from Gamersyde shows off just how much work goes into all the environments and characters of Team Fortress 2. The team at Valve drew their inspiration from commercial drawings of the early 20th century. Hell, they even mention the work of Hayao Miyazaki as an influence. One of the overall goals of the design process was to make every character unique and easy to identify at a distance. With this in mind, the team set about creating unique color schemes and silhouettes for each character. There are also lots of technical elements discussed in the video. We're not really sure what a Phong highlight is, but if it makes Team Fortress 2 this pretty, we really don't care.[Thanks, DjDATZ]
Valve not charging for downloadable content
Despite the rise of micro-transactions and pay-per-download content in the PC and console worlds, Valve recently announce it has no intention of charging for downloadables in games such as Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2. Designer Robin Walker explains their logic that gives Valve a big gold star in our book: "You buy the product, you get the content ... We make more money because more people buy it, not because we try and nickel-and-dime the same customers." Micro-transactions were innocent at first, but when we had to pay for horse armor in Oblivion and tutorials in Madden, the line had to be drawn. Kudos to Valve for a step in the "don't make the customers angry" (i.e. "right") direction.
Team Fortress 2 gets cheeky
One part The Incredibles, one part Sony's crazy European bathtub ad, the new Team Fortress 2 trailer gets cheeky with "The Heavy." Although we are looking forward to continuing the Half-Life 2 story with the Black and Orange Box this fall, it feels like Portal and Team Fortress 2 is starting to grab our attention a lot more. Although, all that Half-Life 2 goodness in the Orange Box for those who've never played should be hard to resist. The comic-style first-person shooter of Team Fortress 2 might help grab some XBL players who aren't into the ultra-serious, super-hardcore, lifestyle that Halo 3 online will be. Team Fortress 2 could very well shape up to be the "other" multiplayer shooter for the Xbox 360 and some great multiplayer action for PS3 owners.[Via Xbox360Fanboy]
Half-Life 2 is black, orange, and priced
Valve has released some pricing details on their upcoming Half-Life 2 sets, affectionately dubbed Orange and Black. The packages and prices are as follows: Black, for PC only, is $39.99 and includes only Episode Two, Team Fortress 2, and Portal. Orange, for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 is $59.99 and includes all of the above plus Half-Life 2 and Episode One. With a set like Half-Life 2: Orange being one of the few titles out there we feel merit a $60 price tag, we're eagerly anticipating the sets' release. Now if Valve would finally release them!
Half-Life 2 console pack blushes orange
Why call it Half-Life 2: Episode Two when it just has so much more to offer? The latest issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly confirms that the upcoming PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 editions of Half-Life 2 have been renamed to Half-Life 2: Orange. No, really.Valve has come up with an entire world of alien life forms, postmodern physics and government conspiracies and the best title they could come up with is a color? We guess it's better than Half-Life 2: Head Crab-tacular Edition.HL2:O includes the original Half-Life 2, Episodes One and Two, Team Fortress, and Portal. We think you can make a better title, so let's hear your suggestions.
HL2: Episode Two delayed until Summer 2007
Speaking to CVG, Valve's Doug Lombardi confirmed that Half-Life 2: Episode Two -- which includes Portal and Team Fortress 2 -- has been pushed back from early 2007 to Summer 2007. As the title was already expected to miss the holiday season, it shouldn't be too much of a financial burden for Valve to hold off and fine tune the titles.Seeing Portal delayed is a bummer, but Team Fortress 2 has been in development since 1999; to see a game so close to escaping the vaporware stigma is agonizing.
Video Valve: HL2: Ep 2, Portal & Team Fortress 2
Here's a long clip from the 1Up Show featuring awesome footage of Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2. Is this the best value in triple A gaming or what?
Half-Life 2 gets a few episode boosts on PS3
Near the end of 2006 we can expect a lovely port of the more than lovely Half-Life 2 to the XBox 360 and the Playstation 3. But, we don't just get the great game, we also get the great two "episodes" also being released separately for the PC. The episodes are basically extensions to the story, sometimes explaining unclear parts of the main story. Oh, and they're insanely fun.PC players won't feel too bad about the consoles getting the two episodes included with their copy of the game. At the same time it's released on consoles, PC gamers will have two other games to choose from: Team Fortress 2 and Portal. Still, would a console gamer be able to handle all that awesome in one package? Spacing it out on the PC may have been necessary to save our lives.
