Down to the Last Save

Just a short update on my obsession with Left 4 Dead brings a Left 4 Dead television spot.

This is an awesome shor tvideo that goes to show that Valve is spending their 10 million on advertising really nicely. This is only one of the two that are out there for the moment, so I hope I can catch the other soon. Video is from That Video Game Blog and to quote them:

The spot uses scenes from the game’s intro sequence, which we will be able to see in its full glory on Nov. 8. It then runs down the greatest checklist ever created: zombies, co-op, apocalypse. Is anyone not extremely excited for this game?

So keep your eyes peeled for the other Left 4 Dead Television Ads!

It seems that a lot of consumers aren’t happy about developers trying to crack down on used game sales. As I mentioned earlier about developers using one time codes to create extra “incentive” for buying new, it seems that Techdirt has some more info as well. As Techdirt points out that because of the backlash from consumers, Epic is going to offer vouchers for in game items.

On one hand, I think it is a better route than trying to get laws passed to crack down on used video game sales, it really doesn’t help either. All Epic will be doing is trying to sell infinite goods, not scarce goods. I agree with Techdirt that this route will just diminish the actual value of any game, because many people ( myself included) often realize that I can turn around and sell a used video game to a friend for close to what I paid. So I get to recoup some of my limited means, and my friend gets a deal as well. Techdirt also makes this comment, and I couldn’t put it any better:

Second, when the focus is on charging for infinite goods (or only promising them to those who buy first hand copies), the incentives get risky. Suddenly, gaming companies are put in a position of choosing what “virtual” items are allowed in the game for first hand buyers vs. second hand buyers, and that leads them to make bad decisions in locking up important aspects of a game, frustrating potential buyers.

So they should focus on the services that they offer for the game ( which will better suit them in the long run anyways) as opposed to try and lock out used video game sales. Either way, their game does get out there, but if they try to lock out those used video game sales, they just end up frightening potential buyers away.

Other than Little Big Planet has been delayed, you should be concerned about another anouncement that Sony made. They sent out a email that states “If you do not agree with the revised Terms of Service and User Agreement, please contact Customer Service to terminate your account(s). Otherwise, your or your Sub Account’s continued use of your PLAYSTATION(R)Network accounts means you agree to the changes,”, Now you might say, thats not too bad, but you should be worried.

This is exactly why you should be worried, because Sony also has the right to keep records of anything you say or do online, or to simply listen in.

“SCEA reserves the right to monitor and record any online activity and communication throughout PSN and you give SCEA your express consent to monitor and record your activities, Any data collected in this way, including the content of your communications, the time and location of your activities, your Online ID and IP address and other related information may be used by us to enforce this Agreement or protect the interests of SCEA, its users, or licensors.”  So basically, don’t talk about how you are going pirate a game, or what custom firmware you are running on your PSP (which I do).

This new and “improved” Terms of Service for Playstation 3 comes with this little gem in regards to the restrictive DRM in their video store:

You bear all risk of loss for completing the download of any content and for any loss of content you have downloaded, including any loss due to a file corruption or hard drive crash.You are solely responsible for the storage and safekeeping of your content,” the agreement warns. “SCEA is not responsible for providing you with replacement copies for any reason.”

To begin with, I am pretty anti DRM and would never purchase a video that had it (or i didn’t have the abillity to remove it myself), but this is beyond stupid. Not only can you NOT re-download your movies, it is all up to you to have a backup as well because you have agreed that Sony doesn’t have to help you get your stuff back. I love you to Sony!

So the other Big Brother change in the Playstation 3 terms of service is about user created content. Again here is the exact spot from the Playstation terms of service:

“To the extent permitted by law, You authorize and license SCEA a royalty free and perpetual right to use, distribute, copy, modify, display, and publish your User Material for any reason without any restrictions or payments to you or any third parties. You further agree that SCEA may sublicense its rights to any third party, including its affiliates and subsidiaries. You hereby waive all claims, including any moral rights, against SCEA, its affiliates and subsidiaries for SCEA or any other third party’s use of User Material to the extent permitted by applicable law.”

So say you make any custom content in Little Big Planet or the new Guitar Hero: World Tour, it no longer is yours; Sony can distribute it and use it for whatever they want without contacting you.

Now the interesting part will bee seen if any of this gets used against a gamer, and mostly these terms of service are just there to cover the companie’s butt in case of emergency.

For more info on the restrictive Digital Rights Management on the PS3 video store, you can goto Ars here

Left 4 Dead is a four person co-op survival horror game that is slated for release November 18, 2008. What is neat about Left 4 Dead is that it pits four human playable or AI controlled survivors of an apocalyptic pandemic against hordes of aggressive “Infected” (think Zombies). The Survivors’ goal is to help each other make it through various scenarios to safety. The Infected are controlled by an AI that dynamically balances difficulty and mood depending on the players’ progress and situation. In an alternate game mode, human players can control up to four mutated Boss Infected with special abilities and cooperate to stop the Survivor players. Left 4 Dead uses a special A.I. called the “Director”–that instead of using spawn points– takes into consideration the player’s skill, position, health, etc to appropriately place zombies, how cool is that?! I also like the idea that 4 competing players can take control of some of the infected and try and take down the survivors

I looooove zombie based games and I am really looking forward to Left 4 Dead for the PC ( it will also be available on the XboX360). It seems that I am not the only one that is salivating for some survival horror as the Left 4 Dead pre orders are exceeding those of the much anticipated Orange Box.

According to Doug Lombardi via
Game Daily

“With just over four weeks until launch, Left 4 Dead is showing every sign of topping The Orange Box on both the PC and Xbox 360, at retail as well as on Steam,” said Doug Lombardi, VP of marketing at Valve. “Our pre-sell numbers at retail have jumped to over 65% greater than Orange Box at the same proximity to launch, and we’re seeing tremendous enthusiasm for the product in what promises to be another great year for gaming on both platforms.”

Another reason that Left 4 Dead pre orders are soo high is the fact that any pre order automatically gets $5 off. So that means that the $50 dollar PC gave is now $45 ( and $55 for the 360 version). Personally, I will be definitely picking this up for my PC (If my wife is reading this… HINT HINT). You can pick it up via Steam ( for the PC) or the boxed version. Plus it comes out on the 360. I cannot WAIT for a demo soon!

You can find more info about Left 4 Dead at www.l4d.com

Portal Prelude seemed it would be such an awesome mod for Portal, but this review from Irish Taxi Drive from the Something Awful forums sums it up for me:

Portal: Prelude is a mappack that takes place before the events of Portal, and attempts to explain Aperture Science pre-GLaDOS. To effectively understand how much of an impact Prelude should have, imagine it as a long distance runner. At the start, it trips over its own shoelaces, and falls face first in the mud. Instead of giving up, it continues to stumble around, seemingly randomly, but still manages to reach the finish line.

The problems with Prelude can be attributed at the start to the storyline. As with most Portal mappacks, you wake up in an enclosed container while someone explains you the rules. In contrast to other mappacks which use the excellent GLaDOS voice, Prelude replaces her with two lifeless text to speech dummies reading translated french. The dialogue is incredibly heavy and manages to even ruin many jokes that made the original Portal great. This could have easily been solved by recruiting someone who spoke english to the development team. The announcer’s themselves do not add anything at all to the storyline and insist on holding your hand through an already incredibly linear game. There are two examples where the game hijacks your view to show you sequences, when letting the player look around would have been more effective. The story itself is nothing to write home about. In fact it reads like a 13 year old’s cool idea of what Aperture Science should have been, right down to the random “fuck”s placed in the dialogue.

Unfortunately, to beat on a dying horse, the level design is less than stellar. To quote a friend, “Specifically, a Portal puzzle should be like a good riddle: when the answer is known, it should seem obvious. Almost none of his are like this.” Every puzzle included with Portal: Prelude contains no innovative elements; the difficulty stems from taking existing concepts from Portal and layering them on top of each other until they form an tangled mess reminiscent of Christmas lights in July. The only new elements were taken directly from the excellent Portal Flash Pack levels. Speaking of elements, throughout the entire game the level designers each decided certain elements would work a different way. In one level a particle field will disintegrate a cube, yet in another it will not.

Do you like hidden turrets? Then you’ll love Portal: Prelude. Nearly every blind corner hides two or three turrets, which require superhuman reflexes to survive. There is even a spot where you must take out 4 turrets within an enclosed room to continue.

For specific examples of terrible level design, Test 9 and 13 come to mind. Test 9’s opening portal jump consists of looping through portals four or five times to gain enough height to clear the glass wall. Once you reach the other side and turn towards you came from, a portal able wall appears on the ceiling, and curiously appears/disappears depending upon the side of the room you’re on. Test 13 contains a dead end, a death knell in level design. To be fair, this happens in the original portal, but only when you have access to one portal. Several puzzles can be broken entirely using level geometry and models. An entire test can be skipped due to clever portal placement. Several instances of terrible brushwork can be seen in addition to the previous problems, nodraw textures pop up in quite a few detail areas, and where the author was too lazy to create a small section of brush for the floor of a doorway.

The final boss fight also leaves much to be desired. The charm of the original GLaDOS fight in Portal is that they taught the concepts to you earlier within the tests with the companion cube incineration and the rocket turrets. This new GLaDOS fight contains elements that have never been presented before and provide a very big frustration for the player, dying several times to invisible trigger kills.

Another iffy section of the mappack is the use of licensed materials. A quick check through the sound directory shows some CC licenses linked, but nothing for Chemical Brothers or The Scorpions. The mappack also re-distributes quite a few Valve assets, which I doubt they will be happy about.

In the end, Prelude promises big and ends up failing to deliver. The idea is sound, but the execution is very flawed. The problem with the flaws is that playtesting SHOULD HAVE CAUGHT THEM. One has to wonder if this mappack was even playtested at all.

Rating: 3 out of 10.

It could have been soo much better, but it is so much NOT like portal ( in the sense of how you go about solving the puzzles). In Portal Prelude you have to use physics bugs (that dont always happen) to complete some challanges.I found myself very frustrated at times trying to complete the challenges. The dialogue was pretty bad, but I do give him credit, english wasn’t his first language.

If you want a really good example of a truly awesome map pack, go grab the Portal Flash Map Pack .

As I mentioned in my previous post about Portal Prelude, I am eagerly awaiting it.

I am just a little bit late on this ( I blame schoolwork), but the awesome looking Portal Prelude is out! You can go here and can grab the client.

There are a mutlitude of ways to grab it (I did Bit Torrent and I am currently seeding like a mofo at 60 mb/s to help spread the word). The installer weighs in at around 775 mb. My download went really quick, so you shouldnt have any problem getting ahold of it.

I might toss it up onto my server so I can just serve it straight to you, but it looks like they have quite the options for downloading Portal Prelude.

Anyways, I will throw out an review on Portal Prelude once I get it installed and get to play around with it.