Tis the season to spread good cheer and overall shenanigans. Here is a happy holidays greeting from our friends at Valve and a funny one that at. Check it out and be sure to drink before noon this holiday season because if you ain’t first, you’re last.
Time Magazine might be the most recognizable magazine in our country and maybe the world. They have covered some of the most turbulent times in history and now has taken a stab at video games. Jesus tapdancing Christ. Here is the list. I will save you the annoyance of clicking through.
Halo 3
Half Life 2: The Orange Box
Rock Band
Super Mario Galaxy
Bioshock
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass
Mass Effect
Ace Combat 6
God of War 2
What the fuck? I understand that PS2 is last gen, but you better have a huge set of balls to rate God of War 2 lower than Ace Combat 6. Somehow the DS version of Zelda beat out the wii version? Metroid was not even mentioned. Bioshock rated lower than Rock Band? Rock Band is fun but you cannot even begin to compare to the two. Halo 3 sold hundreds of millions of copies but that does not make it the game of the year, ironically, winning no major awards at the VGA’s. Half Life 2, hey, great port, but number 2? Also notice, not one PS3 exclusive title made it. A chimpanzee could have picked these games out of his ass in a better order.
Let me start by saying that I have been waiting for this game for what I consider to be far too long. I had only played HL2 VERY briefly but, of course, fell in love with it. I suppose I could have bought it for my computer at home. But to be completely honest I’m not all that crazy about keyboard controls (everyone tells me I’ll get used to them-piss off-I won’t). It has been almost four years since the PC release. I’m sure by now there are a handful of people that have lost interest in Valve’s epic creation. Those people are morons. Let me tell you why.
Oh, and make sure you’re comfy. Having five games on one disk can make for an extended review.
If you haven’t picked up the Orange Box yet, here is a taste of Portal. Not only do you get Half Life and Team Fortress, both powerhouses in their own right, but you also get Portal which is good fun as well.
EA sent over some new screens for Team Fortress 2, shipping in The Orange Box. This looks to be one of the best multiplayer titles of the year, up there with Halo 3, CoD4, and Warhawk.
Gabe Newell threw down the gauntlet and banned his employees from playing BioShock on either PC or Xbox 360. Not forever mind you, but only until Half-Life 2 Episode Two and the Orange Box are done and shipping, which is scheduled for mid October.
“We had to ban Bioshock from our offices,” Valve boss Gabe Newell told us. “Nobody gets to play it until Orange Box is done - that’s our reward to ourselves as a company; everyone gets a copy of Bioshock.”
At least everyone will get a free copy from Mr. Newell. I know I wouldn’t be able to wait until mid October for BioShock.
That rhyme was not intentional by the way. Damn it. Anyway, yahoogames reports that the UK will start a service at the UK based website, tournament.com that allows players to pay a small entrance fee in order to win various amounts of money. The entrance fees range from free for practice and $10 for buy in. The only game that is available now is Counter Strike and Half Life 2. The rationale behind this is simple:
“Gambling rewards a player based purely on luck, while Tournament.com is a service that rewards players based on their skill. They’re two very different models.”
We’re confident that [our anti-cheating software] is some of the best out there and we use a combination of different anti-cheating software developed by third parties in conjunction with our internally developed Tournament Anti-Cheat, also known as TAC.”To supplement our security, we also have admins who continuously monitor in-game play, making sure that everyone is playing fair.”
This seems to be the equivalent to the online poker craze that swept the nation a few years ago, although far more in depth. I see the only flaw being this. Sometimes luck is a good thing. There are no doubt some awesome players who will keep piling up the wins and laughing with your money. I hope the ranking system will take this into account.
IGN today released some new screenshots for the Xbox 360 version of Half-Life 2 (specifically the Orange Box, since these are of the main game).
I have to say, these look no better than the original Xbox version. I just fired up the game on my PC and it looks much better, and I haven’t upgraded any of my PC components in over 3 years. I’m imagining the PS3 version will look just as bad.
Someone at Valve better put their foot down on this and get some people working a little harder, or this is going to be a major disappointment for them.
With all the hype surround Halo 3, it’s almost easy to forget that Half-Life 2 and it’s spin-off games are coming for the Xbox 360 and PS3 later this year.
Here’s a trailer showing the contents of the Black Box, which includes Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Team Fortress, and Portal. Personally, I’m going for the Orange Box which also includes the full Half-Life 2 and Episode 1.
We're like Spaceballs... we're making Loot Ninja everything. Coming soon we'll have hats, shirts, hoodies, possibly banana hammocks if one Editor has his way...
Check out the shirt prototypes here and the hats here
That rhyme was not intentional by the way. Damn it. Anyway, 
