The Portcats- PORTAL 2
Talking about Portal 2
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Review: Left 4 Dead 2
Reviewed on PC. Also on Xbox 360. Developed and published by Valve.
Valve’s first annual sequel caused a ruckus when it was first announced in mid-2009, but here we are close to year after release and what happened? Left 4 Dead 2 is a good game but one that wasn’t perhaps the smash hit the original was (funny that).
Like its antecedent, Left 4 Dead 2 pits you as one of four survivors of the zombie apocalypse and it’s your job to stay alive until you reach the safehouse at the end of each level (or extraction). There are several campaigns, each with several chapters and you can start at any chapter. Billed as a co-op shooter, L4D2 can be played online with friends or on your own (how I played it).
L4D2, available on PC, 360 and astromech, manages to pull off a neat trick. It is almost exactly like the first game with only a few minor tweaks, so perhaps the angry L4D fans had a point in felling miffed. What it does add is the option of replacing your pistol with melée weapons such as baseball bats, guitars, golf clubs, swords, chainsaws and more. This alone makes the game worthy of your time, it is also the main reason the game was banned in Australia. Melée adds gore, and lots of it to the mix, but it’s so hectic you rarely notice what it is you’ve done unless you’re taking copious screenshots.
There are more options for thrown objects and health pickups than the first game. You can also collect vials of bile that you can throw to distract zombies, defibulators to kick start your heart. Whoa. Yeah. I found these less useful than the returning pipe bombs and molotovs. One actual gameplay enhancement are the objectives in some missions. No longer limited to getting to the safe house at the end of the level, now you have missions where you need to activate to deactivate machines, which are needed to progress, but might also attract the horde. A few missions ask you to collect gas cans to power up a motor of some description, and they crop up a few times, but every little enhancement goes some way toward making this a better game than the original.
There are a few new enemy types in the mix but they’re generally on par with what has returned. Overall, its not the enemies, but their placement thanks to Valve’s AI director. The game will give you breaks before ratcheting up the intensity. And each time you play through a level, the enemy placement will be different.
The presentation seems to have been. Improved, not that L4D was an ugly game, but now it’ even nicer. Dynamic music and sound effects set the scene for a survival horror experience that manages action and chills.
Overall though, Left 4 Dead 2 is not a must have. If you didn’t click with the first game, then there’s nothing here that will make the follow-up change your mind. If you did like the first, then I definitely recommend the sequel, and now that the game has popped up in the odd steam sale, you can at least know its possible to get it for not much more than an iPhone game.
Controller1.com rating 2/3
Review: PORTAL
Reviewed on Macintosh. Also on: PC, PS3, Xbox 360. Developed by Valve. Published by Valve (EA for consoles, EA co-developers of PS3)
original C1 review of Orange Box
So Portal. Although we briefly reviewed it long ago, it’s back, it’s on Mac for the first time, and it’s free on Mac or PC for a limited time (if you’re reading this and the date doesn’t rhyme with Bay two thousand and Len, it’s too late). How do you describe this phenomenon? Starting off as a HL2 mod before Valve released it as a full product and as part of The Orange Box in 2007, Portal is a first person puzzle game with more charisma than a cheerleader after a half a bottle of bourbon.
The protagonist is a girl called Chell, who remains voiceless, locked in an underground testing facility with only your wits, and eventually a strange gun that opens up holes in the wall. Think of those old Looney tunes cartoons where Daffy Duck moves a hole in the ground as if it was was a piece of cloth, or more recently, the short film with the magician and the rabbit that preceded Wall-E- that’s what the Portal gun does.
Your abilities in the game are rather limited. You can walk, crouch, jump and lift and that’s about it until you get the Portal Gun, which allows you to open up one end of a tunnel in the wall, the floor or the ceiling (though not every surface). Later on, you receive an enhancement that gives you control over the other end of the tunnel, but it’s a fairly simple move set. Of course, add momentum and the game opens up to a whole new level of fiendish puzzles, each more dastardly…
YOU BASTARDS, VALVE!
So the game itself is brilliant and two and a half years later is still fantastic. We have a sequel coming later this year which is a full priced game with multiplayer aspects to it. Huh? Doesn’t take like three hours to beat? I haven’t mentioned GlaDOS yet.
Chell may not speak but GlaDOS, the computer running the Aperture Science facility you find yourself in sure as shit has a story to tell (Aperture are a competitor to Half Life’s Black Mesa and are briefly glimpsed at the end of Half Life 2: Episode 2). GlaDOS is a rather typical computer offering you hints and tips in between challenges and occasionally during levels. But the hints and tips aren’t particularly reliable as you come to realise GlaDOS isn’t particularly trustworthy. GlaDOS turns a cool puzzle game into something special. The vocoded/autotuned voice augments a fantastic vocal performance. GlaDOS is almost the only voice heard in the game but you’d have to have a pretty cold heart not to crack a smile at the inanity of its statements.
The graphics were never flashy but there were clean and gave you a good sense of the environment inside of Aperture. The sound is simple and works fantastically. There’s very little music in Portal but it has its probably the most quote song lyric of any game. Still Alive is still considered one of the best pieces of game music ever written and I love it. So does Bob Dylan.
So how does it work on a Mac? Like a PC, only you change the mouse first. Yes, one button mouse jokes in 2010 are funny. They just aren’t particularly accurate. That said, any USB Logitech or MS mouse will be a better gaming mouse than a mighty or magic mouse. OK, I have a decent machine with a decent card, not something the entry level Apple computers have featured but hopefully Valve’s entry into this more or less untapped (apart from casual games and two year old ports) market will stimulate development in this area. A few teething problems (Valve have patched it twice in the few days I played this), but nothing worse than Windows. I am looking forward to finally playing Left 4 Dead 2 when it shows up in a few weeks, a game that should be a much better showcase.
Mac’s main ting hamstringing it isn’t the reduced spec of video cards, it’s the lack of Direct X- something most PC games are based around. Open GL fills in many of the holes but wit will take more development to see both systems on par. That said, if you already boot camp for the PC only stuff, Valve allows you to play the game on Mac or PC without charging any extra. Nice. And it only takes 3-4 hours to play. If you get bored there’s also the developer commentaries, plus you can import bonus maps and challenges- though I can’t say if these are the same as those on Portal- Still Alive expanded edition released on XBLA a while back.
Get in quick and grab it for less that it costs to buy a DVD-R.
Controller1.com rating 3/3 (or Free/Free)
The Top Games of 2009 According to this Site
Controller1.com’s top games of this past year.
Sleeper of the Year (aka The game that came out of nowhere, the one you expected to ignore but couldn’t because of the great word of mouth)
RED FACTION: GUERRILLA. Volition and THQ’s third RF game came out of nowhere to be one hell of a blast of supercharged entertainment. Sure, Volition misunderstood the difference between easy and insane. But the core mechanics of the game and the freedom you had to progress meant few stumbling blocks to gaming nirvana. I have no idea what the story was about so let’s assume it’s rather ordinary and skip to the good bits: blowing things up. I can’t name a game where destruction has been done better.
Runner Up: Borderlands
Overhyped Game of the Year (AKA The game that was expected to make coffee, bend time and rule all but in the end was a bit meh)
KILLZONE 2. Sony and Guerrilla Game’s follow up to the justifiably ignored Killzone was meant to be many things. Here’s what it was and wasn’t.
IT WAS: A decent FPS, put together well and looked beautiful.
IT WASN’T: a system seller, or a particularly great game.
Year of PS3 got off to a false start and was almost disqualified from the race with KZ2.
Runner up: Scribblenaughts
Most Disappointing Game (AKA Games with buzz and hope that just didn’t deliver)
Wolfenstein Coulda, should but didna. Wolfenstein squandered the hope that long term fans had for a worthwhile follow up to Return to Castle Wolfenstein. What they got was a good single player that seemed to need a teeny bit more polish and content and a terrrrrrrrrible multiplayer. Do you get this game? Do you like MP more than SP? Flip a coin.
Runner Up: Modern Warfare 2
MOST IMPROVED (AKA They fixed the shit in the first one that was busted)
Assassin’s Creed II. Oh Lord is it ever so much better than the first game. In every single way, this game is more fun than the original. The content is better organised so that the game is not “here are 10 things you can do, go do each of them 500 times.” The whole concept is still a bit silly and Kristen Bell’s character looks like she had a lip transplant from the original Kryten but overall any game that has Uncharted Guy doing voices is good.
Runner Up: Uncharted 2
BEST DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT: SHADOW COMPLEX
BF1943, GTA episodes and Trials were there but Shadow Complex was by far the best DL only game released in 2009. A Metroidvania that’s probably more palatable to a modern audience (since it has Uncharted Guy doing voices, of course), the game managed to astound, entertain, stir up controversy and offer a good few hours of gameplay.
Runner Up: Halo 3 ODST (no, not really, but it should have been)
Best Game Only on Wii: NEW SUPER MARIO BROTHERS WII
OK, so it was really only one of two Wii games I bought this year. But it was the one I didn’t sell (HotD: Overkill). It’s frustrating as all fuck, has a save system that’s as pointless as the one in Dead Rising and I’m not playing it right now. Why am I not playing this right now? I don’t know.
Best Game Only on PS3: UNCHARTED 2
Sony had two really good games this year. Uncharted 2 and Infamous. Infamous is blown out of the water by Uncharted 2. Uncharted 2 is the quintessential adventure game. Whereas the first game promised platforming but delivered a gears of War Clone, the sequel mixes things up so successfully that you never realise when the game is going to go from one style to another. yes, you know at least once per chapter there will be something you’re standing in collapsing around you leaving you hanging from one arm but that’s beside the point.
Best Game Only on Xbox 360: SHADOW COMPLEX The 360 almost had a gap year with the only big exclusives being Forza 3 (which a LOT of people love and recognise as the driving game of 2009 to play), Halo 3: ODST which really was just a bit too much recycling with such a short single player campaign.
Best Game Only on PC- this is the year 2009.
Best Game on Everything: Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. IW may have pissed off as many people as they please with MW2. There’s the story that eschews any semblance of realism for moments of turkey-slapping-a-sleeping-lion thrills, OTT Multiplayer perks and combos, poor matchmaking and the various PC issues that made the game into a must play for many into a meh for some.
Best Pissing Away Goodwill. TIE: Infinity Ward and Activision.
Infinity Ward for doing the dirty on PC gamers and Activision for driving Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero into the ground. Oh, and splitting Starcraft II into three different games.
Most Improved: Sony. They cut the PS3 price from hysterical to merely funny (after three years it’s finally at the PS2 launch price), released the Slim and released Uncharted and Infamous. It still takes way too long to download and install a patch and most people still spend more on Blu Ray than they do on PS3 games, and PS3 ports are still often slightly lagging behind 360 in terms of graphics but it’s basically where it should have been three years ago. Just in time for God of War III
Most Potential for 2010: Microsoft. Really, they sold the 360 well but didn’t release that many 1st party games so you’d think game over, but then you see they have Crackdown 2, Halo Reach and Alan Wake. And then there’s Natal.
Least Potential for 2010: Wii
So we have a vitality sensor as the big piece of hardware? Really? Few games still support Motion Plus. Few gamers care and the signs are than grandma doesn’t either.
Game of the Year: Uncharted 2. Are you at all surprised? Naughty Dog redeem themselves after the disasters that were the Jak and Daxter sequels. This is the only game this year that a non-gamer will sit and watch as if it were a movie and enjoy it.
Runner Up: Modern Warfare 2.
It was a pretty good year overall. The only disappointing part of the year was the end. While we had some cracking titles such as Uncharted 2, ODST, Left 3 Dead 2, Assassin’s Creed II, MW2 and Super Mario Wii it still felt like something was missing.Oh that’s right about 2 or 3 more must-haves in the lead up to Christmas that we wouldn’t get to play till 2010 anyway. Having them all come out in the first quarter of 2010 seems to have upset the natural balance.
Online Gaming Survival Guide
With the explosion of Multiplayer gaming these days, sometimes the old hands forget what it is like to be the new guy. So if you’re new to the world of online gaming, or have been away for a while, here’s what you need to know.
1. You are a n00b. Whatever you do, you are a n00b, even if you’ve been playing the game for years, you are a n00b. You are a n00b if you die a lot, a n00b if you win and a n00b and if you do anything that results in beating another player with a higher ranking fairly and squarely, you are a n00b.
See also nub, newb, noob, just got the game, huh?
2. You use hax. If you play the game using elements placed there for use by the developers of the game, you hax. If you use last stand, you are hax. If you use a scope on an AK47, you are hax. If you use anything at all other than hip firing a bolt action rifle, you are hax. See also get some skill, grow a dick, etc
3. You are cheating. If you use a rocket launcher against another player, or a grenade launcher, you are cheating. Even if they just used the same tactic against you, YOU my friend, are the cheat, you cheater. Mr Cheater C Cheaterton III (really you’re the IV, but you’re such a cheater).
4. You are gay. Even if you’re married with six kids and had more tail than everyone else in the game (which wouldn’t need to be all that much), you are gay. See also: gh3y, WoW
5. You are of colour, Mr Albino from Sweden
6. You are lagging. Even though you’re not. See glitching
7. You are glitching. Despite the fact that network communication iver the internet is quite a complicated and marvelous thing, you are the reason the connection is poor and that they are losing. See also lagging
8. You are camping. This means you have found a quiet spot to fire off a sniper rifle and that your opponents are too lazy to come around behind you to take you out.
9. Bullshit. Whenever someone thinks they are better than you and you kill them, it is obviously bullshit. See also: hax, n00b, lagging, glitching
10. You should develop an interest in the thoughts of 12 year old children. Otherwise you will fail to appreciate the rich social commentary that is only possible from players of this age. Children say the darnest things such as “fuck you, you black jew fag hax nub lagger.” It’s so cute. They think they’re people.
11. If the child in question is headset enabled, you are in for a treat. Not only will you get an aural Live Journal update, but you may also experience the joy that is the favourite music of this child either through an MP3 playing while the child plays, or if you’re really lucky, a live rendition of said child’s favourite song or songs (though it’s usually just the same song over and over again. Actually it’s usually only the first verse over and over).
12. Fuck IWNet. See also Fuck Kotick, Fuck Activision, Fuck Infinity Ward and Fuck Bowling up his Fat Pipe.
So there you have it. The reasons why I never plugged in my headset to my consoles or PC, the reasons to keep out of team chat and the reasons why single player games will never die.
DEMO MEMO: Left 4 Dead 2 (sanitised version)
So I live in Australia. It’s a nice place. It’s warm most of the year. The people are nice (mostly). We are a fairly laid back lot. We also have a very strong public ‘nanny’ streak running through society where people not only suggest how you should live but legislate that you do so. We also have a strong anti-authoritarian streak. Example: By law, we have cigarette packets that the health warnings covering most of the package and usually with charming photos of organs diseased by heavy smoking. So entrepreneurs sell ‘jacket-packets’ so that you don’t have to be reminded about what you’re doing to yourself. Gambling at poker machines (slot machines/ Fruit machines) is a national epidemic since state governments, craving the revenue, legalised their use in clubs (veteran’s clubs, sports clubs, etc). People leaving their children in a locked cars in the parking lot while they blow their welfare checks in the club made for big headlines so all advertisments for gambling establishments have “Gamble responsibly” written as a tag. We also have a left-wing government who want to impose a filter over all internet traffic to keep out the undesirable stuff. All of it.
Australia is one of the few places in the world where we have a unified ratings system. Everything, from movies, to DVD’s, to television programs, to videogames, is classified by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (which is funny because books don’t have ratings on them). G rating is for everyone. PG is Parental Guidance. M is for mature (think PG13 or T rating), MA15+ is for adults over 15 years of age (so most R rated movies form the US), R rating for harder material (really horrific movies, soft core porn, and funnily enough, old movies like the Godfather that were classified years before MA15+ was introduced more recently). And X which is hardcore porn and only available in-store or via mail order from stores in the Territories (there are six states and two territories which have some vague differences in how they are run).
Every country has a ratings stem and all of them have their ‘push-button’ issues which cause them to wield the banhammer. In the UK, there’s something in the laws between an 18 and an R based on the angle of the erection. Scandinavian countries banned the Empire Strikes Back back in 1980 because of the violence. The US network TV has restrictions that gimp it compared to cable shows, etc. In Australia, linking sex and violence will get you banned faster than a fanboy troll on NPD day. And anything real-world seems to get their goat up
For some reason, the R rating doesn’t extend to games. Fallout 3 was initially refused classification because your character could get positive benefits from taking Morphine. Change the name and voila- everyone’s cool again. GTAIII was released and the banned when the media hyped the fact you could have sex with a prostitute and then beat her up to get your money back and the game was promptly banned and pulled from the shelves. The same thing happened with GTA San Andreas after the Hot Coffee. Marc Ecko’s Getting Up is still banned because of the graffiti aspect (though Jet Grind Radio got through fine). And Dead Rising- a game where you could do some rather vile things to the Zombies, got through no problem. Silent Hill Homecoming and FEAR 2 were originally Refused Classification, but were resubmitted and passed. GTA IV was never Refused Classification, but Take 2, who have many run-ins with the OFLC over the years on GTA and Manhunt games, decided to go straight to gimping for their big 2008 title. But then the PC version was passed no problem so somewhere along the way the game was quietly patched to bring the game into line with the rest of the world. L4D2 was submitted three times. The original version was sumbitted, RC‘ed, appealed and RC‘ed again and then the gimped version passed.
So last night I played the gimped demo on 360. There are other places on the net where you can see the differences but basically, the minute you kill a zombie, they fade away. They don’t even hit the ground most of the time. If get a machete and slice at a zombie, they will have disappeared from view before you have even finished your swipe animation. The net result is the game isn’t just censored, it’s actually unplayable. I am not a gore hound, in fact gore actually turns me off faster than bald Britney cosplay. But the way Valve have toned down the game to get it through isn’t particularly inventive or worthy.
So that point of Australians working around the barrier comes into play. You can fairly easily hack the demo (on PC) so that the game is the same as most of the rest of the world. It’s fairly forgone conclusion that the full version will also be able to circumvent the gimping by some kind of space-magic fuelled de-gimpification process. At least on PC.
All I can say is, I hope the Aussie media can keep their hands off MW2. Oops, spoke too soon.
USELESS THING OF THE DAY: L4D2 Petition
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
iDoD
I don’t usually have much of an up-to-date PC gaming machine. Over the last few years, I’ve only really had a work PC that was semi recent. My latest work PC is a screamer with a 1GB videocard, that also thankfully restarts itself when some new games get busy and has firewalls blocking everything but WoW, CoD4 and Steam. So I’ve been playing Day of Defeat Source, which is a remake of the original DoD. I hear there’s another graphical revamp of DoD (though I’m not sure if its official or unofficial) in the works.
RETRO: DAY OF DEFEAT SOURCE
Reviewed on PC. Developed and published by Valve
The original Day of Defeat was a free WWII mod for Half Life and after Counterstrike was one of the few mods to be successful enough to be bought up by the makers of the originating game (as happened with Counterstrike and Left 4 Dead). In 2005, the game was ported with semi upgraded graphics to the Source Engine, though with only 4 maps at launch though others were added intermittently. At some point, spurned on by the success of Team Fortress 2, DoD: S received a mini makeover with a film grain effect and killcams straight out of TF2 (yes Call of Duty did them first but these are literally the same as TF2′s down to the sound effects and the ability to take screenshots). Now you have nemeses and can gain revenge on those who kill you too much.
The game is a really simple class-based game with two teams (one German, one American). Most maps are simple capture the flag deals, but with a very fast paced capturing system compared to the eternity it takes to capture a control point in a Battlefield game. Other maps involve demolishing enemy installations (tanks, anti aircraft guns, etc) but basically its a “shoot and respawn until the map runs out of time” game. There’s a simple, yet deep game here that’s been keeping a loyal band of people still playing in this PC shooter environment ruled by the trio of CoD4, TF2 and L4D. People use grenade launchers and there’s no nasty n00btube comments like there would be in CoD4.
It doesn’t hurt that the Source-engined version of this game is over four years old and will run on almost any PC still in circulation. On a modern machine it looks ok but you may be missing the graphical OMFG you get with Crysis. Call of Duty 1 and 2 were bigger sales successes yet I can’t find a game on my ISP’s servers. There’s that typical Valve feel to the way it works and sounds, with the nasty touch that when you lose a round, the winners have about 10-15 seconds where they can kill any enemies still alive with impunity. Ouch!
So here’s the question- why has there never been a sequel to this and why not a console port? CoD WaW’s success proves there’s still a large market for good shooters, even WWII ones. I guess the new Wolfenstein will just have that Nazi-hunting FPS market to itself this year.
Controller1.com Focus Test: Left 4 Dead
Clint plays L4D for the first time, Cam bitches about a new videogame for neither the first or last time while George *facepalms*
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