The inquirer is reporting that Google is set to buy Valve very soon.

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/09/17/google-valve

The aquisition is likely because they want to capatilize on the excellent Steam platform and use its technology to develop its own stable content distribution platform. They certainly have enough money to make the aquisition happen but I fear for Valve as they have never been tied to any large company before and it could be messy regarding retail distribution of their games.

Also who knows what google might do to Valve? If they owned them they could enforce certain things like deadlines for games e.t.c. which is not the valve way of working.

The first real gameplay footage of OFP2 has been shown at the Liepzig GC2008.





Impressions:

Good:
The graphics are nice, much better than Arma and what I have seen of Arma2 as well. It looks like they were playing the console version as well so the PC version will probably be even better.

AI sounds very advanced which is promising, the AI in OFP1 was already very good so this bodes well.

Bad:
No freelook, one of the best features of OFP1 was the freeaim which made you feel like you were properly holding the gun. I am disapointed they decided to get rid of it.

No action shown in the video. Only some dudes milling around.

4 player co-op. This is bullshit, OFP1 handled 64 player co-op out of the box and this number went to over 100 with mods and addons. Arma supports even more. 4 people is not even a complete squad of men. I would have liked to see at least 64 player co-op and 100 player multiplayer for some epic PVP battles. Instead we are limited to 4 player co-op with 32 player multiplayer (2 and 16 for consoles), this isn't COD4, OFP deserves more players :(.

The year is 2001, FFX had just come out,everyone was excited by the imminent release of MGS2 and console hype was at an all-time high due to the imminent release of the gamecube and xbox. A little known, low budget developer has just released a new PC game (in Europe only) with underwhelming graphics, an unintuitive UI and a multitude of potentially game-ending bugs. The game was called Operation Flashpoint: Cold war crisis and was universally lauded as being one of the most innovative and unique gaming experiences around and would carry on to win a multitude of awards.



So what made the game so good that reviews could simply gloss over the mutiple problems that plauged the game at launch? Firstly the scope of the game was simply unheard of at the time, the player could drive tanks, planes, helicopters, shoot tens of weapons, command armies of soldiers and vehicles all across 3 huge islands based on islands found in real life. The game was also shockingly realistic down to the fact it (usually) took 1 single bullet to die and death could come from hundreds of metres away (or even kilometers away if we are talking artillery and the likes).

Tanks were to be feared as infantrymen, you couldn't run without getting tired affecting accuracy and you were expected to be able to hit targets 100s of metres away taking into account factors as bullet drop and time to target. The island may have been your sandbox but you were as vunerable as anyone else in the game. There is one mission in the single player campaign that truelly bought the strengths of the game together to create one of the greatest missions in any game I have ever played.


The setup

Your soldier is resting at base when a command from Hq comes over the radio. Your mission is to take part in a huge offensive to take the town of Montignac from Soviet hands, your squad will be supported by some light armour and air support in the form of some UH-60 blackhawk helicopters.



As you reach a hill overlooking the town your squad disembarks and opens fire on the Russians below taking out a fair number of them, they pose little threat to the combined might of the small army sent to capture the town. The squad leader orders the men to advance and eventually you reach the town wiping out the remaining Russians as they attempt to flee. The mission was easy, too easy.




Suddenly a command comes over the radio, everyone is to retreat immediately and without hesitation. At this point no-one knows what is going on, your squad leader orders everyone to leg it back to the transports.

The US forces are ordered back to base but as your transport is driving away from the town it is ambushed by Russians using the forest as cover. Everyone disembarks and it is total chaos as one by one the US soldiers are taken out by the elite Russian forces all around them. Everyone starts legging it to the forest where hopefully you can escape the massacre. A command comes over the radio: a Blackhawk helicopter is en-route to pick up survivors and transport them to safety!



As the Blackhawk approaches the soldiers the soldiers are all relieved but suddenly a Hind d attack helicopter comes out of nowhere and takes out the blackhawk (whats a Hind D doing in the forest?). Your last hope of rescue is gone and the remaining soldiers flee further into the forest. The Hind D cuts them all down with its gatling gun as they run for their lives. Night is approaching, you are saved by the darkness but you are the only one left. Your mission begins now.

The moment:

You start in the forest as the sun is just coming up, it is early in the morning and you are all alone in enemy territory surrounded by the bodies of your former teamates with only a map, a compass and your trusty M16 to back you up. After exploring a bit around your starting area you will hear a long range radio message telling all survivors to regroup at a co-ordinate on the map quite along way (it would take a couple of hours walking probably).



From there it is up to you how to get there using any means neccesary. I started by moving up to the edge of the forest where I spotted a 4 man patrol about a hundred metres ahead of me. I proceeded to do battle with them taking cover inbetween the trees in the forest. Unfortunately the gunfire drew the attention of a BMP tank which was nearby which moved towards my location to investigate. I hid amongst the bodies of the soldiers I had killed and fortunately the BMP ignored me and went its way.




Taking a look at my map I noticed a small town in the vicinity. When I arrived the town was largely unguarded, I managed to sneak around without being spotted and I noticed a small civilian car on one of the roads. I promptly jacked the car and started going my way when a Russian guard noticed the noise i was making and opened fire. luckily The car shielded me from most of the bullets and he only managed to wound me in the arm as I drove away. Unluckily the noise drew the attention of the BMP from before which had just returned to the town after checking out the forest.



It proceeded to chase me for a while down the road to no avail as I managed to lose it with my expert driving skills. I left the town behind thinking I was in the clear with the BMP staring at me from the outskirts of the town (the driver of it was probably waving his fist in the air shouting obscenities in Russian). I wasn't however as the Russians had called in backup in the form of an attack helicopter. I noticed this all too late and I was stuck in the open facing off against a Hind with only my puny Eastern European car to protect my soft flesh.

It opened fire with the machinegun as I futiley attempted to outrun it. The hind managed to completed total the driving mechanism of the car and I decided that being in the car was probably not in my best interest at the time. Luckily there was a forest very close by which I could probably lose the helicopter in. I proceeded to sprint with all my speed away from the bad helicopter and once again found myself in a forest by myself. Or so I thought. The missions ends and I find myself surrounded by Russians, around me are the bodies of many Americans presumably they were gunned down as they tried to get to the extraction point by the Russians waiting in the forest. Luckily THE RESISTANCE will come and save the day but that is another mission for another day....



A video of someone completing the mission, appears to be on 2x speed or maybe even more:


The impact:

This mission was truly something else. In all the missions before hand you were held by the hand on what to do by your leader and you had the other US forces backing you up. Infact in alot of the missions you didn't even have to fire a single shot to win them, just stay alive. This mission turns the game on its head and gives you a taster of what is to come in terms of difficulty and gameplay.

Another thing that struck me was the number of ways that the mission could be completed. Some people managed to retrieve a LAW missle from one of the dead US soldiers in the forest and take out the BMP. Others managed to avoid detection altogether by using the cover effectively. Some people even avoided the mission altogether by failing the inital assault on Montignac in the previous mission and retreating much earlier therefore reaching the base before the Russians had time to prepare their ambush.

The mission is packed full of pure adrenaline as you attempt to take on overwhelming odds and escape from impossible odds and pure terror as you attempt to sneak past the Russians patrolling the map. it doesn't help that you are only allowed 1 save for the entire mission. It truly pins home the truth that you are just another soldier in the huge war. No heroics, no bullet soaking super soldier, just you trying to survive in the brutal one shot one kill world that is Operation Flashpoint.


note. The pictures are not from the mission, I don't have the game installed at the moment.
note2. If you are thinking of getting Operation Flashpoint don't get the Xbox version, it sucks.
note3. Arma was a disapointment :(

Well this is what I make of E3 2008:



Conferences:

Microsoft

Would have been pretty impressive if it hadn't all been revealed by intellisponse weeks before the show. Obviously the big (and probably only truly interesting announcement) was FFXIII, but that was later downsized when they announced its still ps3 exclusive in Japan and you realized it would ship on like 10 disks. I also did notice quite alot of copying the competitors:

Lips --- Singstar
Dashboard --- Apple
Avatars --- Mii
Movie game --- Eyetoy
Sceneit --- Buzz
FFXIII --- FFXIII

top points for effort though.

Sony

They basically rehashed everything shown before, spent way too long on PSP and PS2 (no one cares any more ) and too little time on PS3. Killzone 2 looks cool, that massive war game looks cool (but can they really pull it off?). Sony pretty much played it safe, everyone knew GOW3 was coming already.

Nintendo

Booooorrrriing. Madworld looks pretty cool though.

Expo:

Mostly just a shitstorm of trailers and other things but here are the things that caught my eye:

1) How damn! Mirror's edge looks awesome. I am worried that it could get repetitive (AC anyone?) or that it be overly linear though.

2) Left 4 dead, do want.

3) Tyrannids? Dawn of War 2?? FUCK YES.

4)On the fence with fallout 3, the style and graphics look good but I don't look the stilted way it handles combat.

5) Gears of War 2 looks awesome, I especially like the new 2v2v2v2 deathmatch mode.

6) RA3, Empire of the rising sun = tranformers robots in disguise?

7) Fat Princess game looks awesome as well.

8) Dead Space looks... well it looks like game of the year material.

Overall this E3 has been alright, the big 3 have sort of played it safe, nothing big (apart from FF) has been announced which leads me to wonder why MS didn't announce the bungie game (stupid marketing people). Here's hoping that E3 next year will be bigger and better.

ALSO

Best trailer of E3???




What do you do if you don't have any footage of your game but you need a trailer?

Answer: Try and use your epic video editing skills and music to try and diguise the fact your trailers consists of a handful of static images for a full 4 minutes.

Also wtf is up with the people with the random people with gasmasks? This trailer is so bad its good.



Finally...

Contest update:

Nearly finished, just the awards bit to be done which will take place in the next few days according to the GCA. It looks close. I have decided to give away a game soundtrack. You can choose from:

MGS2
shadow of the colossus
MGS 20th anniversary
Zelda
Final fantasy

A bit vague but more details to come after it finishes. Also some clarification:

Bootbabes were STILL banned despite nyko having some (I guess the $5000 fine they paid was nothing compared to the money it cost them for the boothbabe...)

GeOW 2 co-op is 5 players confirmed, not 4 players.

FFXIII shown does count despite it being in the Sony category.

If you havent played yet you can still play!!!

To play:
http://www.destructoid.com/blogs/jkh13/e3-the-game-contest--95108.phtml

Read the rules carefully before choosing your choices, have fun!




The Microsoft presser has finished and that means some of the choices have turned out to be correct. Here are the ones that are correct:

Dashboard redesign - 100pt
Microsoft mii-like avatars - 50pt
Final Fantasy 13 shows up in some form -100pt
Valve shows more than Left 4 dead - 50pt
Fallout 3 playable -100pt

Incorrect:

Motion control game announced with peripheral - 100pt
- Banjo Kazooie 3 -100pt
Killer instinct 3 - 100pt
J Allard returns - 200pt
Bill gates cameo appearence - 150pt
4-player co-op GeOW 2 - 50pt (5-player co-op)
New 360 hardware (not new sku, redesign) - 200pt
- Bluray addon/new hardware - 100pt
3rd Xbox announced
Peter Moore returns to Microsoft

reposted as I forgot to put contest in the title, if you already put your choices down you don't have to put them down again.



Introduction:

Okay, this is a game about E3, basically you choose what predictions you think will come true during E3 2008 and the person who is most accurate wins.

The rules:

1. A person may select 1 choice from each category below and also 4 additional choices from any category.

2. Some choices allow you to gain extra points for a more accurate prediction. If you choose to do this and lose you will gain no points for that choice. This option does not take up an extra choice.

3. After an announcement has been made you may not select that choice so it is advised that you choose as early as possible. Since this is very close to the MS press conference, you may have 5 additional choices instead of 4 if you choose after it has finished.

4. You MUST post your choices in this blog in the comments section.

Prizes:

Depends how many people enter, will probably be a copy of the MGS4 soundtrack/some microsoft points e.t.c. but if less than 15 people enter their will be no prize.

Choices:

Microsoft



1) New Halo announced - 50pt
- Bungie developed - 50pt
- 2 new Halo games announced - 50pt
- 3 new Halo games - 100pt

2) Resident Evil 5 Xbox 360 timed exclusive - 300pt

3) Metal gear online released seperately on Xbox 360 - 250pt

4) Motion control game announced with peripheral - 100pt
- Banjo Kazooie 3 -100pt

5) Killer instinct 3 - 100pt

6) J Allard returns - 200pt

7) Bill gates cameo appearence - 150pt

8) Dashboard redesign - 100pt

9) MGS4 for Xbox 360 - 400pt

10) New mechassault/warrior game - 250pt

11) Microsoft mii-like avatars - 50pt

12) Something related to Alan wake - 50pt
- Demoed in some form - 150pt

13) Gears of war 2 wins game of the show - 100pt

14) 4-player co-op GeOW 2 - 50pt

15) GeOW 2 playable at show - 50pt

16) New 360 hardware (not new sku, redesign) - 200pt
- Bluray addon/new hardware - 100pt


Playstation 3



1) Resistance 2 playable at show - 50pt

2) killzone 2 playable at show - 50pt

3) Little big planet release date announced - 50pt

4) PSP2 announced - 150pt

5) PSP redesign - 150pt

6) New psp colors - 50pt

7) Stopping production on UMD disks - 250pt

8) PS3 pricecut - 200pt

9) new controller - 100pt
- splits into 2 bits - 100pt

10) Ps2 games on PSN - 50pt

11) Brand new Metal gear game for PS3 announced - 250pt

12) Metal gear game for PSP announced - 100pt

13) Ken kutagari cameo appearence - 200pt

14) Killzone 2 game of the show - 100pt

15) Resistance 2 game of the show - 100pt

16) Final Fantasy 13 shows up in some form -100pt
- Playable at show - 300pt

17) Resident evil 5 PS3 timed exclusive - 300pt

18) Ps3 slim - 250pt

19) GOW 3 - 50pt

20) Tekken 6 gameplay shown - 100pt

Nintendo



1) Wii redesign - 150pt

2) DS redesign - 100pt

3) DS2 announced - 200pt

4) Pikmin sequel announced - 50pt
- playable - 50pt

5) New zelda game for wii - 150pt

6) New wii balance board game - 50pt

7) Nintendo revives Kid Icarus - 100pt
- developed by Factor 5 - 100pt

8) Rockband 2 for wii - 50pt

9) Starfox game announced - 100pt

10) 1st party Storage device solution - 100pt

11) Carnival games shown during the Nintendo conference - 50pt

12) Madworld playable - 100pt

13) Nintendo shows no games for the hardcore during conference - 50pt

14) New animal crossing - 50pt
- Its an MMO - 150pt

Others:

1) Call of duty 5 playable - 50pt
- Turns out to be epic phail (confirmed)

2) Fallout 3 playable - 100pt

3) Fallout 3 game of the show - 150pt

4) Major game site reports someone tries to play endwar with voice control on the showfloor - 150pt

5) Proper crysis sequel announced - 150pt

6) New Infinity ward game announced - 100pt
- Sci-fi shooter - 100pt

7) Valve shows more than Left 4 dead - 50pt
- Portal 2 - 100pt
- Counter-strike 2 - 200pt
- Hl2: Ep3 - 150pt

8) Blizzard decide to show up in some form - 50pt

9) ID demo Rage - 100pt

10) Duke Nukem forever shows up - 50pt
- playable - 100pt
- Release date announced - 100pt

11) Wolfenstein game playable - 100pt

12) Doom 4 reveal - 100pt

13) Bungie announces game for platform other than the xbox - 100pt

14) Battlefield 3 shown in some form - 100pt
- PC exclusive - 100pt

15) EA buys a new company - 150pt

16) Bioshock 2 shown in some form - 50pt

17) Aliens game shown - 50pt
- playable - 100pt

18) Tecmo announce new DOA/Ninja gaiden game - 200pt

19) Ex-team ninja members form new developement studio - 150pt
- announce a game - 150pt

20) DirectX 11 shown - 100pt

21) F.E.A.R 2 shown - 100pt

22) Something goes horribly wrong at one of the big 3 conferences - 100pt

23) Square enix show a new game - 50pt

24) Halo 3 PC - 150pt

Batshit insane - all worth 350pt

1) Halo on PS3

2) 3rd Xbox announced

3) E3 called off due to unforseen circumstances

4) Sega announce new console

5) Peter Moore returns to Microsoft

6) Kaz Harai and Reggie face off in an epic rap battle

7) Boothbabes no longer banned

8) Sony exit the console war

9) E3 turns out to be a hoax and actually the whole thing is a massive flash rave.

Bonus points:

All 9 correct - 200pt

8 correct - 150pt

7 correct - 100pt

6 correct - 50pt