The Cake is a Lie !

If you haven’t gotten your hands on a copy of the Orange Box from Valve yet, Go do it right now if for nothing else the new game Portal. Admittedly the only reason I bought it was for Portal. The 50 dollar price tag is a small price to pay considering you get Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 1, Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Team Fortress 2, and of Course Portal. Alright back to portal because I’ve only really only played a bit of all the other games. Portal for all of those who don’t know is a new game using the source engine. The Game is fairly simple as in you get a Portal gun that allows you to create entrance and exit portals on walls in your environment. You use this Gun to Solve Increasingly harder puzzles given to you by a mysterious robotic voice. That’s it! It may seem fairly boring from my description, but believe me its far from it, I basically sat down once I got it and played thought it in one sitting. The game actually has a story and retains the creepy feel of the Half-Life series making it seem almost as a side story of Half-Life. The downside to the game is the length, its not that long, but other than that it’s a near perfect game.

nickhaw

Breaking: Battlefield 3 Leaked Info

October 9th, 2007 by James Hyde

A tipster sent us PDF document which looked like an outline of features for Battlefield 3. The three page document is apparently prepared for investors which should get it by December of this year. It details basic features of BF3, and are as listed:

• Release in late 2008
• Powered by “Frostbite DX”
• Set in year modern day (just like BF2, ed.)
• Will ship with 8 maps, each supporting up to 40-players per team
• Two playable factions, NATO and MEC (Middle Eastern Coalition)
• Same “ticket-based” gameplay style as before
• Maps are mostly urban, based in Middle East
• Squads and Commanders are present, introduced are “Battalions” which consist of three to four squads.
• Five playable classes; Sniper, Assault, Engineer, Medic and Support
• Will feature 48 different vehicles (24 for each faction)
• Will feature 34 different weapons (17 for each faction) and another 22 unlocks (for both factions), in total 56 different weapons.
• Other unlocks include different types of ammunition, body armor, helmets, camouflage and accessories.
• Possible public beta in “Summer 2008″
• Online stats tracking, awards and “real world ranks”
• “Soldier” feature, looks like MMO-styled characters and avatars
• Ranked servers will be available for resellers weeks before the game ships (for testing, apparently, ed.)
• In-game replay and recording feature
• VoIP, friends list, in-game IM-client and “extensive clan support”
• Built-in auto software updater (no more patches!, ed.)
• Widows Vista and OS X (no XP?!, ed.)
• Announcement and teaser trailer in January 2008.

A map is mentioned by name, called “Baghdad Burning”, and appears to be a massive urban map, similar to BF2’s very popular “Strike at Karkand”. The game is powered by “Frotbite DX”, currently the Frostbite engine is used in Battlefiled: Bad Company on PS3 and Xbox 360. The “DX” could refer to DirectX (10?), a PC version of the Frostbite engine.

Please note that none of this is confirmed, we’ve emailed a few people from EA and DICE (Battlefield developers) and will update the article as soon as we know more. Also note that we cannot, for obvious (legal) reasons, release the PDF document. Stay tuned for more info.

[Update 1] A few wanted to know if the document mentions in-game advertising, it does not, but wouldn’t be surprising, considering BF2142 had in-game advertising.

[Update 2] EA responded to the rumor with a “no comment” statement. Still waiting for a reply from DICE (which will probably be the same).

[Update 3] For clarification, the document doesn’t say that XP is not supported, it only lists Vista and OS X.

[Update 4] Further investigation reveals that EA DICE owns the domain “battlefield3.com” (not so important, since it was registered in 2004, so was battlefield4.com etc.). Still no reply from DICE. Stay tuned for further updates.

Source - http://www.digitalbattle.com/2007/10/09/breaking-battlefield-3-leaked-info/

More Music

Rilo Kiley - Under the Blacklight

I just picked up a copy of Rilo Kiley’s new album Under the Blacklight and it’s an excellent addition to the group’s already excellent discography. This album is a bit of a departure for Rilo Kiley and there folky feel. Same Jenny Lewis just a new twist on the instrumentals, the album incorporates a lot of catchy synth beats. Everything Jenny Lewis Does is excellent and this album is no exception. Now all we need is a second Postal Service CD.

nickhaw

IT'S A TRAP!!

Nap Time

I took a two and a half hour nap today, as I am apt to on a Monday afternoon, and I had a crazy dream. Right before, I was doing some reading for class, and I was listening to Axis Bold as Love, by the great Jimi Hendrix. As I descended to tiredness, I added Pink Floyd's Animals album to the winamp playlist, and I laid down to sleep. During nap time, I dreamt that Pink Floyd had a concert at the Norva, and somehow, I procured tickets the day of it. I missed half the concert, because for some reason, I drove for five minutes, but was in Richmond. Now, I assume that the Pink Floyd influence came from the music I was listening to, but my lament was that they were playing only Dark Side of the Moon songs, which made no sense, since I was listening to Animals. After a while, I dreamt about aliens, thanks to the intro "EXP" on the Hendrix album. This is all really random for me, because I usually never dream either.

-Davey