So the first day proper and we begin with the two big boys.
Sony‘s big push is 3D and Move so let’s have some specifics
- Gran Turismo 5 coming out in November. This year.
- Killzone 3 in 3D in early 2011.
- Playstation Plus is a US$50 annual fee in order to get free demos, a free game each month, DLC and auto-patching
- Twisted Metal coming to PS3 in 2011. Announced by the Jaffemesiter.
- inFamous 2 appears as a 2011 title.
- Some exclusive PS3 content for moth Mafia II and Assassin’s Breed Brotherhood. PS3 also has a MP beta for the latter.
- Portal 3 coming to PS3. Steamcloud integration for auto patching. Apparently it’s the best console version. Announced by Valve head Gabe Newell- who’s not been shy about calling the PS3 some interesting names.
- Dead Space 2 special ed comes with Move version of Dead Space Extraction
- Medal of Honor reboot on PS3 comes with Medal of Honor Frontline remake in HD.
- Move games just as much clones of popular Wii franchises as most of the MS Kinect games shown.
- Sly Cooper Collection in 3D and a new 3D Motorstorm. 3D in lots of third party games.
- Heroes on the Move is a move title with sony mascots such as Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter in a title together.
- Sorcery looks to be harry potter/ zelda with the move as a wand
- Move controller $50, Navigator $30.
- more PSP and PSN games. no PSP hardware update…yet
- no price cuts… yet
Nintendo
- The 3DS was announced. It’s black and blue, offers 3D games and movies without glasses, an analog slide pad controller, motion sensing and gyroscope, 2 cameras to take 3D pics, DSI compatibility and it’s launch games will be Kid Icarus 3DS. No word on actual tech specs other than the 3.5″ screens, or price or release date (Tokyo Game Show, perhaps?)
- The new Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword shown for the first time. Updated slightly from the look of Twilight Princess (that was simultaneously a Gamecube title, though this is the Wii, remember), though lighter in tone. Uses Motion Plus.
- Epic Mickey put in an appearance and looks like one to watch.
- Wii Party is coing out here and seems a curious mix of what would happen if Wii Play was actually designed as a full game.
- Donkey Kong Country Return, a 2D side scroller from Retro Studios (the First Person Metroids)
- Kirby is also back as a 2D platformer on Wii, with an interest fabric texture look.
- Mario Sports Mix comes out in 2011, a blend of arcade sports action. Think Smash Bros with basketball and football.
- Updated Goldeneye for the Wii
- no price cuts
Activision
- DJ Hero 2 will appear in October so that scratchers and DJ wannabe can wear one headphone like any truly cool person who’s deaf in one ear.
- Tony Hawk Shred- Uses the same controller as Ride so here’s a first example of good money after bad. Like developing an N64 game in 2003.
- Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock will feature Bohemian Rhapsody and 50 other songs I don’t give a rats ass about.
- True Crime: Hong Kong is back, presumably without original developers Luxoflux- recently closed due to reasons best known to Activision
- Goldeneye for Wii- with Daniel Craig’s visage
- and a little game called Call of Duty Black Ops from Treyarch. Funny how people will be more stoked about a Treyarch game than IW’s take on the series.
Microsoft’s showing was a mixed bag this year (UPDATED WITH PICS AND MORE GAMES)
- So Project Natal is going to be called the Kinect. And the lineup is about as predictable as the Move. Oh dear. There’s a move enabled Forza, a Wii Sport Clone, a Wii Sports Resort clone, a Just Dance clone, a Wii Fit clone. It’s coming out in November (no pricing yet). Avatar racer Joyride is now a Kinect game.
- Star Wars and Disney titles for Kinect as well
- But the 360 has gotten a slimmer redesign with in built 802n wifi (at last) but no price cut. It’s available in stores this week in the US (Europe in July). It’s black and edgy like the cross between a sword and a marker pen.
- Halo Reach and Fable III are the 1st Party games for the gamers from MGS.
- Metal Gear Rising showed us fruit slicing skills.
- ESPN sports streaming
- Gears of War shown. 4 player co-op demoed
- New Crytek 360 only action title Kingdoms
- CoD Black Ops trailer- 360 getting all map packs first for next three CoD games.
EA probably had a line-up more in tune with what people who read blogs like this actually want.
- Need for Speed Hot Pursuit! from Criterion
- Dead Space 2
- Medal of Honor MP Beta starting soon
- Bad Company 2 Vietnam expansion
- EA MMA, EA Active 2, Tiger Woods, Madden, etc
- Sims 3 on consoles
- Crysis 2 will support 3D on consoles. PC?
- Bulletstorm details (coming Feb 2011)
Ubisoft also held a press conference with that dude from unfunny show Community. He was marginally better in this.
- Driver: San Francisco
- A cross between laser tag and a video game and a goody press conference that is more embarassing than MS’s rather goofy show.
- Ghost Recon Future Soldier looks like Modern Warfare with robots. It looks great.
- More Rabbids
- Rayman reboot. Looks greatacular. DD game
- Child of Eden is Rez with motion control
- Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood coming mid November
- Shaun White, a snowboarder, has a skateboarding game
- Innergy. Jesus Christ
- Mania Planet. Make your own Shootmania, Trackmania and Questmania
- Michael Jackson’s corpse being given another outing
So while we rambled in the last podcast and even the next one about our E3 predictions, let’s look to what we know is coming down the pipe. We’re focusing mainly on sequels as they are usually fairly easy to guess. There will likely be one or two new IP’s announced but they are almost impossible to predict. Price cuts for hardware can happen and there’s a strong possibility of new hardware of some description being shown…
Sony
Finally possessed of the ability to remove the foot from their mouth, Sony has a multi-pronged attack this year. There’s the motion controlled Move and expect a big 3D push in general and smart money is a PSP2 announcement. Games-wise we might hope for a Gran Turismo 5 actually coming out. It could happen. No, seriously. And of course, Little Big Planet 2, which is already known, just waiting for people to spend six months recreating levels you could already play. One day I might actually pop in the original and check out the level Lisvender sent me. Since two year gaps seem to be the respectable minimum to pump out sequels quickly without it looking like that’s what you’re doing, look back to what Sony released in 2008 and you might see what’s coming out this year. Hands up who would be shocked at a Resistance 3? Also, hands up who would not be surprised if there wasn’t a Resistance 3? Word on the street is Twisted Metal is coming to PS3, and with less mystery thanks to various announcements and magazine articles we should see some details regarding inFamous 2, Killzone 3 and the next SOCOM. Of course, a new IP is also possible, and might be needed as every one of Sony’s current in-house franchises is more or less accounted for. An Uncharted 3 for 2011 seems a safe bet, but whether it will be an E3 announcement or not remains to be seen. Maybe even a Heavy Rain 2 follow up from Quantic Dream (more of a GDC type reveal but you never know.)
Nintendo
Well, a Nintendo 3DS may or may not be shown. Nintendo announced its existence but didn’t elaborate, perhaps saving something up for an E3 unveiling or even just wanting to spoil the potential PSP2 announcement. And of course, the biggest joke ever perpetuated on Gaming- the Vitality Sensor, will be detailed- Nintendo have been promising to explain soon how this will make games better. With two Mario games in a year, it’s likely that we won’t see a new Mario game for the Wii just yet, but as a launch title for the 3DS, a system rumoured to be as powerful as a Gamecube, a Mario game (would you be surprised if it was Mario Sunshine in 3D) as a launch title is a no brainer. The only title that’s been mentioned as a possible launch title is a 3DS Animal Crossing. As for the DS, expect Nintendo to throw out the odd bone or two before casting it aside like Dick Whitman’s identity.
As for the Wii, also rumoured to be as powerful as a Gamecube, odds are we will see another Zelda title this year. The reveal will be a maturer looking Link before TGS shows us a game where you play as a foetus in a green hat. Announced at the very least, the next Zelda may follow Miyamoto’s plans to simplify gameplay to just a button press and clamping a butterfly clip to you nipple. We already now about Team Ninja’s Metroid Other M game from last year, but there’s still Pikmin, Kid Icarus, Kirby, Starfox, Pilotwings, Nintendogs and many other second string franchises ripe for rebirth/exploitation. And what’s to stop Nintendo from releasing follow-ups to Pokemon, Animal Crossing, Smash Brothers and Mario Kart? Sure, we’ll get Wii Music, Wii Fit 3, Wii-Sports Bar and Wii-Hearbeat monitor but the cost of us getting the cool stuff is the not as cool stuff. I’ll bet we don’t see any major push from third parties on Wii (at least, titles that aren’t both Wii and PS Move).
There’s always chance of a Wii HD, but I’d put less money on that I would on a one-legged horse.
Microsoft
Well, there’s Natal or whatever it’s going to be called. This will dominate MS’s offerings like nothing else at the show. Expect lots of games where people are waving their arms around like ravers, pretending they’re in Minority Report or looking like they are being jolted with 30 000 volts of direct current. We may even see the fabled Xbox 360 Slim, but don’t expect an announcement unless MS are ready to ship it to stores. There are no reports of 360 shortages, so it’s safe to say this won’t happen until later in the year, if at all.
We know there will be lots of talk of Halo Reach, Gears of War III and Fable III. What else? I’d put money on Rare concerned with Natal software, and rumors of another Perfect Dark game have surfaced. We’ve just had a Forza release perhaps so will we hear something of the first internally developed versions of Project Gotham Racing? Crackdown 2 is said to have a demo released during E3. Hold all my calls!
We’ll maybe some some announcement of a formerly PS3 exclusive coming to 360 as well or some poor timed DLC deal that costs a bajillion dollars.
Activision will be showing Call of Duty Black Ops, Guitar Hero 6 Warriors of Rock, DJ Hero 2 and other things we need like Hole in the Head. A Tony Hawk game is a possibility but don’t be horrendously surprised if its not A) not a skateboarding game
B) Embarrasing
C) Lame
D) All of the above.
Of course there will be Blizzard’s Starcraft 2- part 1 push and a WoW expansion to pimp.
Electronic Arts will have it’s slate of sports titles as usual and the anticipated Medal of Honor reboot. Rock Band 3 details are also likely to be divulged if that’s your bag, baby. A new Battlefield game- always a strong possibility, especially in the wake of BC2‘s success- but we’ve also been told to expect Respawn’s (ex-Infinity Ward) first title so expect EA’s stand to be FPS central. If I were a betting man, Respawn’s first game would be going up against IW’s next CoD game, due next year. A Mirror’s Edge 2 or a Dante’s Inferno sequel are outside possibilities, maybe even Army of Three and a Dead Space sequel may also appear. Criterion have been quiet of late so we’ll surely see something from them this E3 (a) Black 2 b) new Burnout c) Need For Speed d) something new) and maybe we’ll hear about what Bioware is up to apart from The Old Republic. We might even see id’s Rage.
Rock Star- A GTA V tease would not be unexpected, even if the game itself is a way off. Expect Rock Star to heavily push Max Payne 3 (pushed so heavily it might be delayed) and also LA Noire and Agent. A Midnight Club sequel or a new game in the Bully or Manhunt franchise are also possible. Or even something new
2K Games- Take 2′s other label also has a lot to interest gamers. Expect Mafia II, Civilization V, Spec Ops and maybe some X-Com details. With the success of Borderlands, it would not be unreasonable to assume some info on a sequel. Possibly some Bioshock 3 teasing.
THQ- We’re sure sequels to the following are in various states of development: Saint’s Row 3, Dawn of War, Red Faction: Guerrilla (now set underground, as in the original game). There’s also their Red Dawn-esque title Homefront, from Kaos Studios- many of whom worked at DICE and before that created the Desert Combat mode for BF1942. So guess what type of game that will be. There’ll likely be some news on De Blob 2, Warhammer and new versions of WWE and UFC games which will please some people.
Square Enix- Expect the next Final Fantasy release to be touted as well as FFXIV- the MMO for PC and PSX due this year. There will also be some more JRPGs that look the same as FF but for whatever reason don’t grab JRPG fans in the same way. SE are no longer just makers of games we make fun of, they also have Batman AA 2 on their books. A new Hitman game seems likely and we already know about the downloadable Lara Croft game. There won’t be a Just Cause 3 in the short term since Avalanche seem to be working on a licensed title (apart from Toy Story 3).
Ubisoft- There’s the quicky follow-up to Assassin’s Creed II in Brotherhood- which despite loving ACII, Ubi’s rep for quality quicky follow-ups is horrendous. We know a Ghost Recon Future Soldier is coming next year and there’s a strong chance of followups to Endwar, HAWK and Far Cry 3- Far Q. We suspect a Driver game from Ubi is incoming but no mention of a Rainbow 6 game has been made in a while so an announcement there could be a welcome surprise. A quick and dirty Splinter Cell sequel may show up. There’s likely to be more Shaun White Snowboarding but not likely to see much I Am Alive (rumoured to be in trouble) or Beyond Good and Evil 2 (which may be dead).
Capcom-A no-brainer will be the pimping of Dead Rising 2. What’s a string possibility will be a motion controlled version of RE5. There’s a chance of more Devil May Cry and if we wanted to be uncharitable we could say Super Duper Street Fighter IV EX Turbo II Alpha Plus. Cam’s off to pre-order his now.
Konami- We already know about Metal Gear Rising- an action game starring Raiden (lemme guess- a Devil May Cry/ Ninja Gaiden/ Bayonetta mix?) and the next Castlevania adventure but other than that they’re keeping mum.
Bethesda- Fallout New Vegas and Brink are likely to be the stars. id may decided to tease one of their franchises like Doom, Quake or Wolfenstein, but I wouldn’t expect much whilst they concentrate on Rage (published by EA)
Valve- could be up to something with their announcement that Portal 2 is coming in 2011 now. Half Life Episode Three is the reason episodic content hasn’t taken off. I think we can safely say a Left 4 Dead 3 isn’t going to happen. But Valve love to surprise us so who knows- New Counterstrike? Day of Defeat 2? Team Fortress 3?
There’s going to be a lot more. Next week will be interesting. Stay tuned to the next podcast for results from our time-travel experiments into the future…
Sony’s new PS3 motion controller has been named Sony Move. Coming later in the year either as part of a PS3 bundle, with the Playstation Eye camera or on it’s own, the Move is turns your PS3 into a Wii HD.
Here are some pictures of what you can do with the controller. (updated with new pics)
The Move comes in four flavors
The Move is refreshing
Sheer Driving Pleasure
Formidable!
“Would you like 1:1 with that, sir?”
The Move will exterminate the competition
Microsoft will be countering Sony Move with it’s own concept, codenamed Natal. When released, Natal will be able to transmit goatse images across the net with a 100ms lag between the spread and you receiving the images. Your gag reflex kicking in is even faster.
World of Warcraft is now five years old. That’s a long time to go without a shower, guys. Or sex. Or beating a game. Try GameFAQs.
It’s a pretty big achievement in gaming. EA can’t keep a Madden server running for more than a few years. Of course Counter Striker has been going long but the percentages of CS players who even paid for their copy of HL has been pretty slim. WoW has made more money for Activision Blizzard than Chinese workers buried under a dam.
The figures are staggering. Since November 2004 the following has happened:
- Valve- who released Half Life 2 around the same time have moved to episodic content. At the time of writing, HL2: Episodes 1 and 2 have been released. Episode 3 will be out eventually.
- A black man rules the world and he’s not the final boss in a Capcom videogame.
- MS released Windows Vista, Windows Vista, Office 2007 and the Xbox 360
- Nintendo regained market leadership in home consoles and Sony’s console is in third place worldwide (at least for now)
- Digital Delivery went from being a joke in a proctologist’s examination room to a reality in videogames.
- Wil Wright released Spore.
- Lair, Too Human, Dragon Age were released
- Warhammer Online, Hellgate London, Age of Conan have all been and gone.
- Battlefield games went from 1942 to Vietnam, to the present, then the future, the free to play and then back to 1943
- Call of Duty went from being a more casual gamer oriented PC only title to one of the biggest selling console game series
- You can download Beatles songs to play in a videogame.
- Star Wars is now a real cartoon without any actors involved
- Activision is the most hated company in videogames and the largest.
- Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon went from being realistic hardcore PC franchises into big selling console action title
Congrats to Blizzard and to all the millions of gold farmers who have prospered as a result.
The PC master race is up in arms with Infinity Ward over certain specs of the PC version of Modern Warfare 2. These basically bring the PC in-line with the console versions in terms of networking much to the consternation of the tweak everything crowd.
So if you run the PC version you now have:
a maximum multiplayer game of 9 on 9 (same as 360 and PS3)
no ability to lean in MP (same as 360 and PS3)
having to connect to a master server to authenticate (same as 360 and PS3)
no dedicated servers, but peer to peer networking (same as 360 and PS3)
matchmaking rather than server browser (same as 360 and PS3)
I am not rabidly going to rant about these changes, but by the same token I am not particularly pleased. The thing that made me buy the PC versions of WaW and CoD4 was the fact the P2P networking of the 360 versions was just not up to scratch compared to Halo 3. There was almost always a very noticeable lag between firing a weapon and the hit being registered on the 360 version of both CoD games. Yes, Valve’s p2p code is far worse but there was one reason why I was looking forward to the PC version. Also, where I live, we have pretty low internet quotas from ISP’s mitigated by the fact that if I play on servers hosted by my ISP- that is ‘free’ bandwidth. So, poo.
On the other hand, there seem to be many issues with CoD games of people ‘hacking’ the game. Though most calls of hacking are against people using ordinary in-game perk combos that the 1337 players are apparently above using (unless they’re losing). Oh dear. So you will connect to IWnet and then the matchmaking will begin. This is what I dread most as the thing that made WaW particularly bad in this regard was the fact that I would end up playing in games with a host who was in another country, leading to a frustrating time playing a game I knew could be good with good pings.
Some developers will see the reaction and make concessions. IW seem loathe to do this based on the time it has taken them to patch their games in the past. Do I think there’s a chance there will be something in the future? Yes and no. After all, PC players made such a small proportion of the overall CoD4 and WaW population that I think IW may just ignore them. Thing is, the thing that I used to love about CoD1 and CoD2 was that the ‘hardcore’ PC players stayed away from the game in favour of CS, Unreal and Battlefield, meaning it was pretty easy to get into. CoD4 becoming a hardcore as well as mainstream hit kinda killed the fun for anyone not in a clan.
John Carmack has also hinted at Rage not supported dedicated servers as well. DICE, however are using this as a wedge to drive PC players to Bad Company 2, which is not a bad thing since for everyone since BC was a really great game and would be great on PC.
So do you listen to your player base or do you use your extraordinary power to enforce your will? Let’s see how this plays out this week when the game is released
So 9/9/09 has rolled around- the 10th anniversary of the Sega Dreamcast launch in the US. Today, as many Sega fans have been insisting would happen on this date, Sega quietly has released the Sega Dreamcast 2.
The big launch title of course is a Sonic game. Sega have listened to what the fans wanted and so in this game, Sonic runs very slowly in a 3D environment. In this new HD game Sonic has a dark secret- when he drinks a special elixir, he turns into Mr Hyde and goes on a rampage killing Cream in the prologue. The rest of the game features Sonic hunting for Mr Hyde in order to bring him to justice. Other levels feature Sonic wielding weapons such as swords and guns, just like the fans have been clamoring for all these years.
Sega’s Hype Machine kicked into full swing with hundreds of dollars of advertising spending for the big launch. Here you can see the crowds lining up underneath Sega’s subtle advertising billboards in the heart of Tokyo’s entertainment district.
Elsewhere in Tokyo, crowds outside electronics stores not clutching PS3 Slims under their arms were hard to come by. We spoke to a Sega Spokesperson who reassured us: “We have much experience of launching consoles. After recent blockbuster titles such as Dragon Quest IX and Monster Hunter on the Wii, Japan’s gamers are sated and have good games for many hours. When they tire of those good experiences, Sega is ready with titles to fill the gaps in the marketplace with Altered Beast and Virtua Mahjong.”
Sega fans rolling across the street to purchase a Dreamcast 2 with back in title “Chris Thorndyke’s Mansion.”
Sega plans a brilliant marketing strategy for its US and European launches of the Dreamcast 2. Sega will launch the system in one country per month, starting with Trinidad and Tobago, New Zealand, Finland, North Korea, Tonga, The Falkland Islands, Zaire, etc, until they get around to the United States launch and EU coming around January 2014. Price will be $699 with Sega explaining “our GD Rom2 is just that much better than BluRay.” The Dreamcast 2 will not however play Blu Ray movies, DVD movies or music CD’s but it will come with a built-in infra red internet requiring line-of-sight reception from Sega’s headquarters in Japan.
Dreamcast 2 has already been cancelled.
Some choice news stories from around the gaming world digested and spat out.
-Future, publishers of Edge and other assorted gaming magazines, have decided to run a subscription based WoW only magazine. Finally, WoW players will be able to put away the chamber pot underneath their chair and be able to experience WoW from the comfort of their toilet. The magazine won’t be available at traditional news retail outlets but will instead be sent directly to WoW player’s homes. This is not down to the death of print gaming mags, but to the reluctance of WoW players to leave the game behind for longer than it takes to make a sandwich and get a soda.
The magazine will be delivered first to the home of the subscriber, and then delivered to the player by the spouse or mother of the WoW player. We’re guessing it’s more likely to be the latter.
-Sony have announced the PS3 Slim and a $299 US price (or $360 Australian Dollars). In local news, the PS3 will be AU$499. The PSP Go will be $450. Oddly enough, sodomy is also around $450.
-Activision’s CEO, Mr Robert Kotick took a break from rape, pillage and looting to say that consumers would rather have sequels than new games. In between breathing fire on orphan cats, Mr Kotick also stated how women like diamonds and men love blow-jobs. Activision are rumoured to working on a game that combines both. It will require expensive hardware and have a long line of QA applicants.
-Rock Band Beatles is coming very soon and has apparently had input from Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. So now people under the age of 40 can be confused by the “Paul is Dead’ meme. “Dude, I though John and George were, er, nevermind.”
Ever since people started buying expensive tsotske’s with free games like GTA bundled with it, publishers have been putting out limited editions of their big games. From Stranglehold being bundled with Hard Boiled to Halo 3 bringing feline cranial protection to the masses, it’s a trend that continues unabated. Infinity Ward have just announced their Modern Warfare 2 Super Platinum Elite Exclusive bundle that comes complete with night vision goggles, an art book and some other items of a collectible nature.
Of course, MW2 is expected to be the big hit this year, but what of the other Special Editions coming out? How do they top IW’s offering?
Splinter Cell Conviction is a another highly anticipated game coming out later this year. Sam Fisher our erstwhile hero, goes to prison. Ubisoft have put together a fantastic package for this game.
For $89.99, you get:
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction game
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction game slick
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction 8-page instruction manual
A piece of white paper with the words “Tom Clancy’s” printed on one side
Tom Clancy’s Soap
Not to be outdone, EA and Harmonix’s big game this year is Beatles Rock Band. Now while the instrument bundle is priced higher than the equivalent Rock Band bundle, the special edition take this to a whole new level.
Rock Band Beatles: Too Soon Edition features:
Rock Band Beatles Game
Rock Band Beatles memorial photo of the late John Lennon
Rock Band Beatles urn with “filling.” (May contain traces of Genius. We can therefore guarantee no McCartney)
And lastly, Activision, these days the most altruistic of publishers, are releasing a new Tony Hawk game alongwith a unique skateboard controller.
The Ride package includes:
Tony Hawk Ride game
Tony Hawk Ride controller
A letter from Activision
A roll of bills to cover purchase, storage and disposal costs.
The recent E3 show revealed the existence of several games to be released later in 2009. One of these was the sequel to 2008′s smash hit PC/ Xbox 360 shooter, Left 4 Dead.
Rather than fans of the original jumping for joy at the prospect of a full-blown sequel (these are Valve fans- they’re used to a more deliberate timeline for releases), the many fans of L4D are in fact running a petition to focus their anger on what they see is Valve’s ditching of L4D1 so soon after release.
There are two ways you can look at this…
The first way is how the fans are seeing this. LFD is not even cold in its undead grave, with only a few minor DLC releases and here’s Valve trotting a full (priced) sequel in a year. It means they’re either pulling an EA/Activision and moving to yearly updates to franchises- which rarely has an upside to quality whilst at the same time inducing gamer fatigue faster- and going from the altruistic company that many PC gamers imagine Valve to be into another money hungry company.
It took 10 years to go from Team Fortress to TF2. In 2009, we are still waiting for HL2: Episode 3 (more than 18 months after episode 2). TF2 is still getting updates (free ones) two years after release). Hell, even Day of Defeat is still getting updates alongside TF2. So people feel Valve will abandon the free stuff and long term support of their titles.
The other beef is the splitting of the community between those playing L4D and LFD2. One thing online games need in order to thrive is a lot of people. Its what makes TF2 memes more recognisable than Quake Wars: Enemy Territory. Well, if you split the L4D community between those playing the sequel and those playing the original- they will have less people to play with. The problem with that argument is L4D is not a game that requires a lot of people to play, and in a smaller, more dedicated gaming community, you’re more likely to find people more serious gamers, better games, etc. Did TF2 players start a petition of the original L4D pilfering their player base?
The other way you can look at this is : COOL! More LFD! Yippee!
If it were an Activision title, I would be worried about the quality. I still have enough trust in Valve that L4D2 will be worth the price.
Read C1.com’s review of Left 4 Dead
Focus Test for L4D
