New Team Fortress 2 info and Launch Date set-ish

IGN recently got some juicy bits and pieces of info about Team Fortress 2 (TF2) from an interview of several Valve employees.

What is interesting about TF2 is that it seems like Valve is trying to create a very fine tuned and definite experience as opposed to most, if not all, other multiplayer games out there. To that end classes have been and are being revamped significantly, an interesting dynamic of paper scissor rock is being set up where, for instance, pyro kills scout in closed space, scout kills pyro in open space favoring gameplay.

Maps are specific, each is tied to one and only one game mode because variations between them can cause unfavorable gameplay that has not been fine tuned to the minutest of details as Valve really wants to do hence does not go with the rest of TF2's spirit.

Downloadable content has been confirmed, more maps and 'stuff like that' will be on the way after the initial shipment of six maps in TF2. The newer downloadable maps may also contribute to the ongoing storyline behind TF2.

Wait what? Storyline? Thats what Charlie Brown said.

Development is 'technically done' on the Xbox 360 and PC, Electronic Arts UK is working on the Playstation 3 port, networking is still being implemented but "[pause] it's rending and running the games and whatnot". Both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 versions will be ports of the PC, just to clarify, there is no simultaneous Xbox 360/PC development, everything goes on the PC first, the consoles second.

For those of you fearing that EA will call the shots here hence ruin TF2 you can put your minds at ease, Robin Walker of Valve says clearly that "EA is our retail distributor, they're not our publisher, they don't make any of those kinds of decisions". Big sigh and relief. Right now the only thing that can apparently delay the launch of this game is quality, with bucket loads of spit and some polish released it will be.

A simultaneous Septermber-ish release date has been set.

Splinter Cell Double Agent - Xbox 360/Playstation 3 Comparison Shots

Scroll down to find out which side is on which platform













The right hand side is Xbox 360, left hand side is Playstation 3, but you probably already knew that, didn't ya?

The key difference between the two platforms seems to be in the lighting, amazing how much of a difference a little bit of dynamic lighting will affect the visual quality of a game.

GT: HD Has Force Feedback

With the recent update to GT: HD which brings it up to version 1.2 support has been added for force feedback with Logitech's Driving Force, Driving Force Pro and Driving Force EX.

It looks like Polyphony Digital really knows what players want, a top ten ranking list has also been added and if this continues we should be seeing a 'Gotham TV' like feature in the near future.

GT: HD is a weird devil, it's a tech demo but at the same time it could possibly be what GT5 will look like, no telling though, the addition of other vehicles, AI and more complex physics spread over an entire track may kill off the graphics that are shown in the demo. Either way, GT: HD looks great.

Colin McRae DiRT In-Game Trailer

I'll wait until the HD trailer before I make the call of whether or not the in-game footage reached the target render, but I can say for sure it is darn close, if a bit better, or a bit worse. The best thing about DiRT is that it obviously is a next gen game, you know for sure it's next gen when the driver has all five fingers.

If I were SCE and I Had a Time Machine

Sony has made heaps of PR related mistakes over the Playstation 3, just one after another, it also made a massive mistake with the Playstation 3's marketting and SKU's.

The problem with Sony was its own arrogance, it had to have the bigger hard drive and it had to have the Blu-Ray player built in, it had to have its games on Blu-Ray and it had to not have rumble. It had to focus on 'cutting edge' entertainment and forget about the fun factor it had to as such set its goals up way too high only to disappoint severely.

Sony, or to put more specifically, SCE, made a few key PR and marketting blunders that tarnished the Playstation 3's strengths and exemplified its weaknesses.

Here are a list of things that I'd change if I had a time machine, both from a PR standpoint and marketing one.

E3: Both Nintendo and Microsoft opened up show casing games, the key to selling consoles, the unfortunate Playstation 3 audience had to sit through an extremely long monologue about how great the Playstation 2 is from a pink shirt wearing Kaz Hirai. This was the start of the terrible press conference that would seal Sony's fate up until the announcement of Playstation Home months later.

Price: I'm not going to say something as dumb as 'too expensive', but Sony could have done two things about the price. First, it should have cut off the two sku's and settled for the 20 gigabyte Playstation 3 with HDMI 1.3 as its only unit. By doing so the 60 gigabytes specialness becomes null and void, the only. Furthermore during E3 the price should have been aggressively justified, not just Kaz muttering 'yeah it's a big investment', an investment for what? Spell it out Kaz, it's a big investment but you get a Blu-Ray player, upgradeable hard drive and free online play, even if you didn't want the Blu-Ray player the free online play would have been worth it on its own. Also the advantages of online play on the Playstation network should have been spelled out, dedicated servers being the big seller (no P2P ala Xbox Live), something like 'and unlike our competitors, we will provide a more robust and solid online experience via the use of dedicated servers instead of peer to peer networking'.

Games: What made those early pre-rendered trailers of games like Killzone or Motorstorm so exciting was not the fact they were on the Playstaiton 3 but that they looked genuinely exciting. This is what gets peoples attention, to this day nobody cares on what system they are playing on, even after years of market dominance the Playstation brand does not hold its own. This isn't fashion accessories or Stephen King novels, this is gaming and despite the fanboys by and large the generel consumer is interested in getting entertainment and getting it cheap from wherever. So focus on games, no more monologues from Kaz Hirai at E3, change it with another spectacular trailer, maybe of Metal Gear Solid or Final Fantasy 13, or heck, how about another pre-rendered Killzone trailer, who gives a damn?

Ken Kutaragi: Cut him from PR duties, no interviews, no word with the outside world, when that man claimed people should take out extra jobs to be able to afford the Playstation 3 he should have been bound and gagged, preferably sent to sleep with the fishes. Nothing is worse than that particular brand of arrogance, it turns people away in disgust, it's worse negative PR than if a competitor just nicked your biggest exclusive franchise.

SIXAXIS: Cut the crap, put in rumble, stfu.

RSX is a Washout

From early screenshot comparisons of games such as Ridge Racer 6/7 and now with Elders Scrolls: Oblivion the apparent difference is the washed out look of the Playstation 3 versions. Of course this can be good or bad depending on your personal taste and the games it is used in.

Games focusing in and around urban-esque environments such as Half-Life or Ghost Recon would look better with the washed out (i.e. stale) look, other games such as Fable or White Knight Story may look more appealing with brighter colours. In both instances it is all about the atmosphere the developers are trying to create.

The washed out rendering of RSX was first seen and simultaneously made infamous with the Ridge Racer 6/7 comparisons,


The most obvious example of RSX' washed out rendering that also happens to be the most spectacular display of what will probably become the main graphical difference between the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 is present in Armored Core 4. The game is a clear example of how personal preference will divide peoples opinions on which version looks better.

These screenshots were taken from the GameTrailers HD Comparison Video of Armored Core 4,