Now that are friends down under will be getting a version of this game we can all enjoy the news of this new game play mode, i can already see mad amounts of DLC for this style of play so get ready.
L4D2 promises to set a new benchmark for co-operative action games and become one of 2009's marquee titles, adding melee combat to enable deeper co-operative gameplay, with items such as a chainsaw, frying pan, axe, baseball bat, and more.
Introducing the AI Director 2.0, L4D's dynamic gameplay is taken to the next level by giving the Director the ability to procedurally change weather effects, world objects, and pathways in addition to tailoring the enemy population, effects, and sounds to match the players' performance. The result is a unique game session custom fitted to provide a satisfying and uniquely challenging experience each time the game is played.
Scavenge mode challenges players to compete in round-based games of up to 8 players (Survivors vs. Infected). The Survivors must battle both the Infected and the clock as they collect gas cans to refuel a generator located in each map. Every can the Survivors pour into the generator scores their team a point and adds time to the clock.
On defense, the Infected team plays as the boss Infected (including the new Spitter, Jockey, and Charger). They must keep the Survivors from fueling the generator by attacking them, destroying the gas cans, or running out the clock. During a round, each team gets an opportunity to play both sides, with the round going to whichever team successfully delivers the most cans.
In addition to the new campaign and boss monster L4D2 also includes "Mudmen," the "uncommon common" exclusive to the Swamp Fever campaign, and a few more of the 20-plus new items coming in the full product (cricket bat, AK47, and grenade launcher).
Featuring new Survivors, boss zombies, weapons, and items, Left 4 Dead 2 offers a much larger game than the original with more co-operative campaigns, more Versus campaigns, and maps for Survival mode available at launch.
Gamerzines.com has dropped there latest issue containing a huge pile of info on Bungis plans and hopes for the future, so if you are a HALO fan check it out or you could even download the full zine from the link at the bottom of this post.
With total sales in excess of 27 million units, the Halo video game franchise is understandably at the forefront of Microsoft's ongoing plan, as confirmed by Frank O'Connor, creative director for 343 Industries, a division of Microsoft that handles all things Halo. Speaking with USA Today, O'Conner was candid in his admission that "we do have a plan that goes out at least six years... Eventually, it will become very apparent that there is a plan for the way the canon all ties together and the way the comic books and the novels all tie together."
And by 'canon' O'Conner's not talking about The Covenant's heavy weaponry, but rather the slew of books, comics, films, videos, action figures, and, er, video games that will make up the Halo entertainment universe in the years to come.
Kicking off next month comes the publication of Halo: Evolutions from Tor Books - a collection of Halo stories from Eric Nylund, Tobias Buckell, Robert McLees and Karen Traviss. Further down the literary line there's a Halo Trilogy planned from Greg Bear with the first instalment set to reach bookshelves next year. O'Conner explains: "It is set in the Forerunner part of the canon, which is literally a prehistoric civilization that spans the galaxy and is responsible for all the mysterious artefacts in the Halo universe".
Also on a literary tip comes the continuation of the Halo series of comics. Marvel Comics' Halo: Helljumper is half way through a five-issue series, while another series, Halo: Blood Line comes out on December 23rd.
2010 will then see Halo come to your TV screens by way of the Halo Waypoint channel on Xbox Live, which will host all sorts of Halo goodness including video, audio, podcasts and screenshots. First up for video comes Halo Legends , a collection of seven shorts from five of Japan's leading anim studios.
More ambitious projects such as the much-touted Halo movie release are still a possibility but are currently on hold. Originally lined up for Peter 'Lord of the Rings' Jackson, O'Conner is now a little circumspect: "We're being very careful to pick the right time and the right partner".
Back to the actual game though, and the next instalment of Halo should see Bungie's Halo: Reach hitting your Xbox 360 this time next year. O'Conner explains that it's "a chronological prequel (to Halo 1), but it is not a prequel in the directions the Star Wars prequels were to the (original) movies. It will cover events in and around the planet Reach." And as for Master Chief... "I think that (his) fate, Cortana's fate and the identity of that giant, dark planet at the ending (on the game's hardest skill level) - that's a spoiler - are probably big mysteries that would be irritating if they were just cliff-hangers."
The sequel to a popular video game has been modified so it can be sold in Australia.
Left 4 Dead 2 has been given an MA 15+ rating after it was refused classification in September.
According to the classification board report, the modified version removes considerable amounts of gore from gameplay.
“The board notes that the game no longer contains depictions of decapitation, dismemberment, wound detail or piles of dead bodies lying about the environment,” the report said.
“No wound detail is shown and the implicitly dead bodies and blood splatter disappear as they touch the ground.”
The report confirmed that melee weapons, such as “axes, crowbars and chainsaws” were still in the game.
Electronic Arts also submitted the original version of the game to the Classifications Review Board, which is scheduled for consideration on October 22, 2009.
The original version of the game was refused classification because it contained "realistic, frenetic and unrelenting violence".
Distributor Electronic Arts spokesperson Cameron Jenkins said the company still hoped the original version of the game would receive a classification:
“We are waiting until we get the results back from the resubmitted full version, just in case it gets classified after working with the OFLC, we would much prefer to release that one,” he said.
According to gaming blog Kotaku, Valve submitted the modified version to ensure the game could be released in November and that Australians would receive a free update to the edited version if the original game was classified.
Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford has said that including easy Achievements can increase a big game's sales by up to 40,000, in an interview in the new issue of OXM.
Apparently blatant scorewhores, like OXM's Jipped, are an important enough demographic to be worth catering for.
"The Achievement hunter, who's going to make purchase decisions around the Achievements per minute to ratio - he's probably buying ten to twenty titles a year, or at least playing that many," Pitchford told OXM. "He's playing a lot. So he's a very frequent customer, and you want to be in that pile. That's just business."
Enough business to justify fiddling with the Achievements? Yes, apparently, because it's barely any more work than you'd do already.
"The time it takes is minimal," we were told, "because you're designing Achievements anyway, and you can probably affect your sales by something like 10 and 40 thousand units. If you're talking about a triple-A game selling between 1 and 2.5 million units. You're talking tens of thousands of units of impact there."
"Unfortunately most people in the industry don't think through it that much. You have designers designing achievements, and they're the worst."
A survey has been sent to Xbox 360 owners that provides some interesting insights to Microsoft's ventures into the casual gaming space.
The first part of the survey is the most standard, asking people about their favorite game shows and board games, including Balderdash and Taboo, as well as what they like best about 1 Vs. 100. One interesting aspect of that section is that there may be a paid version of 1 Vs. 100 that will offer better prizes.
The latter part of the survey, however, is extremely intriguing, and an indication that Microsoft may be venturing into a PlayStation Home-like space in which Avatars can congregate and play retro games on classic coin-op cabinets. They queried applicants what name would fit the space best – "Game Room", "RetroCade", "AvatArcade", "RetroGame", "Classics LIVE", and so forth.
Of course, with all the Atari festooning, maybe its a classic Atari compilation game that allows online parties.
This weeks "Xbox 360 Games on Demand" are ready for download. Call of Duty 3 and Rainbow Six Vegas 2 are now available from the Xbox Live Marketplace.
Call Of Duty 3 Price: Check pricing for your region Availability: All Xbox LIVE regions except Japan Dash Text: (Online Interactions Not Rated by the ESRB) Download the manual for this game by locating the game on https://marketplace.xbox.com and selecting “See Game Manual". Follow the Allies on the Normandy Breakthrough campaign as they push inland to liberate Paris and take the first step on the path to Berlin. Through a seamless narrative that delivers the rush of unrelenting battle and breathtaking action, players assume the roles of four ordinary Allied soldiers—American, British, Canadian and Polish—and are thrust onto an authentic, living battlefield for an unprecedented variety of combat. Experience advanced high-definition graphics, detailed character animations, and explosive on-screen action, delivering the most immersive and cinematically intense war experience ever.
Rainbow Six Vegas 2 Price: Check pricing for your region Availability: All Xbox LIVE regions Dash Text: (Online Interactions Not Rated by the ESRB) Download the manual for this game by locating the game on https://marketplace.xbox.com and selecting “See Game Manual". The sequel to the award-winning next-generation first-person shooter returns to Sin City. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is your last chance to rescue Vegas from an escalating terrorist siege that will force you into heart-pounding action from beginning to end. The best are back and this time winner takes all.
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Apparently blatant scorewhores, like OXM's Jipped, are an important enough demographic to be worth catering for.
