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The Joystiq Weekend: December 15 - 17, 2007
We had two people over the weekend send us pictures of real-life Portal occurrences - a blue portal and Glados, respectively. We want to remind people that the events of Portal were just dramatizations of real-life, and as such, no one should worry about anything out of the ordinary. Thank you and enjoy your cake. Check out the highlights for the weekend:JoystiqueryJapanese hardware sales, Dec. 3 - Dec. 9: Saturday morning shame editionJoystiq hands-on: echochrome (PSN)Joystiq hands-on: God of War: Chains of OlympusJoystiq hands-on: Patapon (PSP)PS Fanboy Week in Review: 12/9 - 12/16Metareview: Unreal Tournament III (PS3, PC)Weekly Webcomic Wrapup gets introspectiveNewsGuitar Hero III gets rock 'n' roll patchStreet Fighter III: Third Strike on GameTap Dec. 20Extended trailers for Final Fantasy XIII and XIII Versus on Japanese DVDPS2 version of Rock Band lacks online play, world tour modeScript for animated Castlevania film nearly completePSP God of War's boosted clock speed comparisonStrange Xbox 360 signal might affect wireless LANsSony CEO expects expansion in PS3 connectivity, PSNMake like Pelé with Wii Fit soccerNew games this week: NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams editionCybernator, Alien Storm, Monster Lair coming to Virtual Console todayCastle of Shikigami III shoots up Wii next springBBFC seeks to keep Manhunt 2 bannedTake-Two opens 2K Marin, former BioShock devs reportedly on staffPS3 firmware 2.10 coming tomorrow, features DivX supportCrisis Core coming to the U.S. March 25Resident Evil: Degeneration trailerThis Wednesday: Sensible World of Soccer, Tempest come to XBLANew Bionic Commando trailer whips it, whips it goodS.T.A.L.K.E.R. creators 'seriously considering' a MMOGTretton: 'Not appropriate' for publishers to suggest hardware price cutsHuxley returns from the abyss with videoRock Band devs answer for niggling problemsSex Worker Alliance: GTA normalizes violence against sex workersBioShock kindly receives AP's game of the year awardHalo 3 bought by 52% of US Xbox 360 ownersMercury Meltdown pub expands, promises new next-gen IPRumors & SpeculationRumor: Killzone 2 and LittleBigPlanet coming Fall 2008Culture & CommunityFSU student receives misdemeanor charges after making threats on Xbox Live A very Jenga-esque Crysis physics demonstrationWoW Insider interviews Ed Fries on avatar figurinesRock Band bar night in Manhattan tonightLooking back at the PlayStation 2 in 2007Just saw a wooden SNES
Portal bucks masculine first person shooter trends
If you're in the mood for an thought-provoking read this Sunday afternoon, you should check out a recent article on Games Radar which dissects Portal's "feminist critique of the FPS genre." The essay describes how the game purposefully avoids many of the masculine trends with which shooters are often imbued -- for instance, the game's use of an anti-sensational female protagonist, or the way the game dispatches the game's cuboid male lead.Spoiler alert: Unavoidably, the essay takes a Freudian look at the key gameplay mechanic of the game, comparing a portal to a vajayjay. If you'd like to preserve your innocent opinion of the game, you might actually want to steer clear of this particular article. Fortunately, we're firm believers in the "sometimes a banana is just a banana" school of thought, lest we be subject to disturbing imagery next time we go traipsing through the Aperture Science building.
PS3's Orange Box confirmed for US and Europe Dec. 11
December is looking to be a most excellent month for PlayStation 3 owners keen on shooting things from a first-person perspective, with both Unreal Tournament III (shipping December 10th) and The Orange Box stepping onto the platform, albeit a bit later than expected. An EA press release politely reminds us that the latter will be released on December 11th in both the US and Europe, with French and German versions following in 2008. In the unlikely case that you've not been exposed to Valve's Orange Box and currently envision it as a crate full of citrus fruit, allow us to point out that it contains Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Team Fortress 2 and Portal... too. One can only hope the tech people at EA used their 11th hour to rid the port of its alleged framerate issues.
Half-Life 2 Ep 2 demo makes the XBLM colorful
Wowzaz! We've just been blindsided by a new game demo on the XBLM this morning, we didn't even see it coming, but oddly enough we're loving it.Available for download off the Marketplace to nearly all Xbox Live members around the globe is a brand new, Thanksgiving surprise The Orange Box: Half-Life 2 Episode 2 demo from team Valve. The demo, which we expect to feature only HL2 EP2 fun and not any other Orange Box goods, will take up 732MB of hard drive space and will probably leave you wanting more Orange Box fun ... especially Portal. Speaking of which, we're overjoyed about today's surprise HL2, but where's the Portal demo? We want demand Portal and we want demand cake!
Europe can open the Orange Box in December
Are you European? Are you worried about not being able to get your hands on The Orange Box until 2008? If so, then fear not - VideoGamer.com have received word from Valve that the game will indeed be in stores in December. An exact date has yet to be given, but it will definitely be out this year There have been rumours and plenty of speculation that the bundle of five games (Half Life 2, Half Life 2: Episode One, Half Life 2: Episode 2, Team Fortress 2 and, most importantly, Portal) wouldn't be out in Europe-land until January at the earliest seeing as retailers have continued to push the date back for a number of months now. These fears can now, finally, be put to rest.
The Joystiq Weekend: October 13 - 15, 2007
Congratulations to Valve on finally getting some cake to eat. Perhaps it had miniature figurines of the Weighted Companion Cube and Big Daddy on top (getting married - okay, we're taking it too far now). Check out the highlights for this weekend:JoystiqueryJapanese hardware sales, Oct. 1 - Oct. 7: Best served cold editionJoystiq hands-on: Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (DS)Joystiq hands-on: Link's Crossbow Training (Wii)Joystiq hands-on: Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii/DS)Joystiq hands-on: Master of Illusion (DS)Last week in Warcraft: October 6th - Oct 12thPS Fanboy Week in Review: 10/8 - 10/14Second Life Insider Weekly RoundupToday's most horrific video: Final Fantasy Cosplay Lip-synchingToday's most vertigo-inducing video: Portal Lvl. 13 Time ChallengeWeekly Webcomic Wrapup: Stink-O Man editionNewsNew games this week: Tony Hawk's Proving Ground editionMetal Marines, Ninja Gaiden II, Gate of Thunder on Virtual ConsoleRock Band in bundle only until 2008Wii Intercooler blows hot airWright rocks the Enterprise in Spore videoXbox 360 Arcade unboxed (and still unannounced)Lil' Reggie digs Super Mario Galaxy in new trailerThis Wednesday: E4, Speedball II, and discounted LuminesWill Wright honored with BAFTA FellowshipNintendo market cap at $85bln, "almost double" Sony'sNintendo's Kaplan says 'Gamers were bored before Wii'PSN EULA update not affiliated with firmware upgradeMetal Gear Solid 4 has over 200 developersCall of Duty 4 playable at Gamestop this WednesdayKingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom dated ('08 for most)Capcom reveals Bionic Commando for PS3, Xbox 360, PCRumors & SpeculationRumor: 360's next big thing is Perfect Dark 2Pachter says Xbox 360 will beat Wii in SeptemberAnother analyst: Wii will beat the other things this holidayCulture & CommunityWii vs. Vii: Sincere flatteriiHaloid creator mashes up Final Fantasy and Dead or AliveSony unveils the chocolate PS3
X3F Achievements 101: The Way the World Ends
Welcome to another edition of the weekly Gamerscore whoring extravaganza, X3F Achievements 101. As usual, I'll discuss the latest in unlocking Achievements, or discuss any news that's especially pertinent to the Achievement obsessed. This week covers the painful to play, yet easy to complete Fuzion Frenzy 2, the near perfect list for Halo 3, and the just released Orange Box. All that and more is available after the break, so dive in.
Take a tour of the Team Fortress 2 maps
Alright, so we're beginning to understand the characters of Team Fortress 2, but what about their environment? In what sorts of places will we be wreaking havoc? A series of videos has been released giving a brief glimpse of each of Team Fortress 2's six maps: Hydro, Gravel Pit, Well, 2 Fort, Granary, and Dust Bowl. Unfortunately, all the videos are done in a grainy, almost black-and-white style that doesn't exactly mesh with YouTube. Hopefully we'll see some high resolution versions of these videos soon. Still, you can get an idea of the layout of each map and the game types available on them. We've embedded the rest of the videos after the break.
Joystiq hands-on: The Orange Box
Easily one of the best gaming values to come out in recent memory, Valve's The Orange Box packs a pretty strong punch in terms of content. We got our grubby little paws on it at EA, and while we know there are other games on this disc, we hard a hard time tearing ourselves away from Portal to play the others. However, once someone smacked us in the head with a crowbar, we moved on and got a piece of everything, culminating with a Team Fortress 2 fragfest.Seriously, if you're trapped on a desert island and can only take one upcoming title with you, The Orange Box wouldn't be a bad choice. You've got team games, a first person shooter (with sequels), and a really unique puzzle game. Where could you go wrong? Just make sure that island has internet access, because the press notes for Team Fortress 2 dropped a mega-bombshell of information* that hasn't been reported at all from E3. We aren't sure why. Ready for it? Here you go:* Internet connection required for online play. We're working on a confirmation on that one. Check out our impressions after the break.%Gallery-1634%
TF2 devs play cross-platform, but you won't
So, Shacknews posted a lengthy preview of Team Fortress 2. At first, everything was normal, no different than what we expected. Multiple classes, fun gametypes, cool maps, protestations that the Medic is fun to play: everything was copacetic. According to the review, Team Fortress 2 will not feature cross-platform play. That's all well and good, except Valve -- developer of the PC and Xbox 360 versions (EA UK is handling the PS3 version) -- "regularly play cross-platform multiplayer games." Why then, are we denied such pleasure? According to Valve's Doug Lombardi, it "introduces more problems than it is worth." He further notes that Valve would only implement cross-platform play in a title that was designed for it from the start.Ah well, looks like we'll have to be satisfied with fragging fellow 360 fanboys.[Via Joystiq]
Team Fortress 2 has a lot of class(es)
Game Informer recently got some hands on time with the upcoming Team Fortress 2, a new twist on a classic game, set to be included in the Half-Life 2 Orange Box along with Portal. Team Fortress 2 will include multiple player classes, ranging from the sneaky spy to the more-bullets-than-brains heavy weapons guy, and it looks like each class will actually play very differently. For instance, the Pryo, with his short range flame thrower, is perfect for tight quarters. The super speedy Scout, on the other hand, is the best choice for lightning fast recon and flag captures. Team Fortress 2 features several game types involving territorial control and, of course, capture the flag. On a slightly disappointing note, the game is set to ship with only 6 different maps. Also worth noting, only one map is set up for capture the flag at this point. Of course, this could change with the release of downloadable content, but it's still disappointing. All in all, the game looks like a great deal of fun. What's more, with so many character classes from which to choose, anyone should be able to find a niche that's actually fun to play (yes, even the Medic). Hit the "read" link to check out the full preview, including a breakdown of every character class and their respective loadouts.
Electronic Arts' GDC game lineup
Among other things, EA is bringing some pretty big guns to GDC in March. They'll be speaking about Sims on the Wii, seeking new IPs and other stuff. Aside from those, though, the following are listed as confirmed to show up: Crysis Hellgate: London Mercenaries 2: World in Flames The Orange Box (this has Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2 in it) Oh, did we mention? These won't be on the show floor. Seems they're only for super-secret, special people. Oh well. We're sure stuff will get leaked about them no matter who is or isn't allowed.
