Portal 2 Footage From Gamescom

This Portal 2 footage from the floor at Gamescom is absolutely stunning.  First things first, I'm so happy to see that there are a lot more mechanics being added.  Portal may have been worth the full price of a game, but it was not a full experience.  I can't wait to see the puzzles.

More importantly?  I can't wait to see the narrative!  It's been a while since Episode 2 came out and honestly, I need some Valve story telling.

Lastly, I'm going to need a new computer if I have any hopes of running the PC (or Mac) version of this game.  I'd hate to swallow my pride and buy a console version of any Valve games, but I know I'm not going to let that get in the way of play Portal 2 when it comes out next year in February.

What is a "Fallout 3?"

This is really late, but I hope there's some semblance of relevance left in what I wrote in response to an old (very old) Kotaku feature now.

Leigh Alexander has an interesting piece up on Kotaku about trying to explain video games to non-gamers. She certainly sets the bar high for herself in attempting to open the discussion with laymens-terms-Fallout-3, an arduous task that is sure to become a new olympic sport of words.

Anyways, Fallout 3 is obviously (/sarcasm) a First Person Shooter Role Playing Game with a morality and combat systems overlay set in a postapocalyptic Washington DC.

Wow, what mouthful. I'm beginning to think about Luke Plunkett's (also Kotaku) feature on attempting to define video games in more approachable genre terms. That description of Fallout 3 could sure benefit from a simpler label... say, Science Fiction? Perhaps this difficulty is, in fact, generated entirely by gamers themselves. Maybe we try to insulate ourselves in our genres in a weird sort of meta-delusional-escapism.

Despite these subconcious efforts, gamers are also constantly arguing that their medium is art and that it should be taken seriously. So what do you want then? As games mature and male themselves taken seriously through their content and interaction with the audience, they're ultimately going to have to do a good job of explaining themselves too. Until games can do it for themselves, gamers will have to get better at being the ambassadors.

I've got Portal back on track!

While my Portal on Mac experience was a little off the on the night of launch, I quickly found a work around on the Steam forums. I guess there's a problem with Portal and my version of the Mac OS X software.

Having squared that away, I thought I'd post this little ditty and remind everyone that Portal is free for Windows and Mac users until the 24th (?) of this month. There's absolutely no reason anyone shouldn't at least download the Steam software and get in on that free-Portal-goodness. Even if I didn't have a system that could run the game, I think I'd still hop on and make sure I got the game for free in case of an impending upgrade to my hardware.

The video embedded above is a great example of why I love Valve. Check it out for yourself and then go download Portal for God's sake! (That means you Jenna!)

Steam out today, Portal broken...

As any PLAY READ WRITE reader will know, I've been greatly anticipating the great leap Steam has made from PC to Mac. In fact, I've kind of been on hiatus from PLAY READ WRITE in order to focus on school and my internship (and whatever else life has thrown at me), while waiting for this release.

Even Valve is in on the celebration, declaring Portal free to anyone and everyone, Windows or Mac user, until May 24th. That is awfully generous of them. As on of the few games I actually want to play on Mac, Portal was a welcome substitution for day 1 Team Fortress 2 support on the Apple platform.

Unfortunately, my Portal is completely broken. My screen is awash with white and I can see nothing, much less properly place a portal. I certainly hope this will be fixed soon, but until then, you can see that I've added my thought on the Game Revolution Daily Manifesto blog(y type thing). Here's a link: http://www.gamerevolution.com/manifesto/view.php?id=1005

If you don't feel like commenting there, please do so here! All quips about my choice of platform are warmly welcomed.

OnLive Launches in June

GDC '10 was last week, and yet, the news is still rolling full steam (obviously I just haven't covered everything I'd like to write about). OnLive made a big splash last year and returned this year with a release date for the service: June 17th.

Some bare bones pricing has also been announced. The service itself will cost $15 a month. I guess this includes a lot of the community features, including: "instant-play free game demos; multiplayer across PC, Mac and TV platforms; massive spectating; viewing of Brag Clips video capture and posting; and cloud-saving of games you've purchased." This monthly cost does not include the rental or purchasing fees for any given game.

Wait, what? So the user pays $15 a month and then pays extra on top of that subscription for any games they'd like to play? That doesn't sound nearly as enticing as I once thought OnLive might have been. Obviously, even a streaming solution can't outrun the publisher's bottom line.

I just don't understand. If you want to use OnLive on your television, without hooking it up to your computer, you'll need some sort of set-top box. I'm guessing you'll be charged for that. Then the user will have to pay for a connection with the bandwith to even run the service. Afterwhich they'll add on $15 a month to even log on. Then depending on whether you want to play games or watch other people play games, you'll have to pay for those too.

Beyond that, how do you own anything on OnLive? Where does ownership fall in a subscription based model? If I "buy" a game to play over the streaming service, and then I cancel my subscription, how do I continue to play the game?

Thank God for Steam and Valve for bringing that platform to the Mac (hypothetically encouraging more developers to create Mac ports of PC games). That was a lot less concise than I was going for....

Thank God for Steam.

Cross Platform Multiplayer in Valve's Steam Play Option

Obviously opening up the Steam platform to Mac users is an attempt to make Steam a universal gaming platform. Steam Play is a big step towards that business model in a couple different ways.

Obviously the first step towards a universal platform is making one purchase on Windows equal one purchase on Mac. Valve is doing that. The next step is cross-platform multiplayer, universal multiplayer, if you will. Valve will have that too. At launch, Mac gamers will connect to the same servers PC gamers will connect to in order to play Team Fortress 2.

Obviously, many of Valve's titles rely heavily on multiplayer content and the community therein. Splintering that community would be a complete deservice to what has made games like Counter Strike: Source or Team Fortress 2. This is all great news for both Valve as a business and consumers and users of Valve's games and services.

I have a lot of respect for Valve, and that is because I feel like Valve has a lot of respect for me as a gamer and consumer. How does this differ from companies like Activision who have earned the contempt and derision of so many vocal Internet using gamers?

Well, obviously, Valve listens to their consumers, or at least emulates with them. Activision may know what consumers want, but controlling their products is clearly a lot more important to them. Corporations like Activision (and Ubisoft) could certainly learn something from Valve's model of DRM. Does anyone think of Steam as a form of DRM? In the beginning, with the launch of Half-Life 2, which was stolen out of their offices well before launch in the first place, consumers may have griped about the installation of Steam before getting to their new game, but now, Steam allows users to preload games they've preordered on the service so that they can play it the second it is available.

That's the trick, that's the way corporation and consumer can come together in understanding. Make the security, the DRM, a value, a bonus to the consumer, rather than a headache or irritation. Steam isn't exactly celebrated as good DRM, mostly because consumers don't really consider Steam as a form of DRM. Despite that, it is celebrated as a store front for a PC gamer's every need. Steam presents a community site, games store, application manager, DRM, sales tracker, and online profile all-in-one. Steam does so much for the consumer that what it does for the corporation is hardly the focus.

Now all of that is coming to the Mac. Steam Play presents a way for purchases to become universal, and not tied to one platform. Cross platform play will only serve to bolster the multiplayer communities of all games that choose to utilize the service. In a way, Valve alone is doing more for the gaming scene on the Mac than Apple has ever done.

What do I think? You need more? Valve is preparing, posturing for the day streaming game services like OnLive become more of a reality. When there are no hardware limitations, no platform limitations, and a massive revenue stream thanks to a subscription model based business and a ton of licensed games for consumers to try at any given time, Valve will have a hard time maintaining a strong value proposition.

Personally, I think I'll always be more interested in owning games, rather than licensing them, and Valve's consumerist ways are certain to build loyalty in me as a user of their Steam platform.

MMOs and I don't match

I've been posting a lot of stuff at gamerevolution.com for Star Trek Online. The Trek-themed MMO is one of the more hotly anticipated massively-multiplayer-online games. I've been curiously frequently, but never really interested or attracted to any specific MMO.

Obviously, there was a time when I wanted to play APB, All Points Bulletin, an MMO from the developers of Grand Theft Auto. Of course, after I had "been there done that," I lost all interest. It probably didn't help that I was playing the game in one of its earliest beta. That kind of state doesn't really promote a game in the best way, but the feeling I got still stood.

MMOs really rely on your ability to go out of your way and participate in a community, and the APB community was a fledgling pursuit some of the beta members were taking upon themselves. It was hard enough to play the game, why would I want to commit playing time to lurking the f0rums?

I guess I consider MMOs to be love-em-or-hate-em games, and I don't necessarily have hate for the genre, but I just won't ever see myself playing them.