As far as interviews go, not too much has gone unsaid about Left 4 Dead. However, there are times when a few undiscovered nuggets of goodness see the light of day. CVG had a chance to interview Valve's Chet Faliszek on the history of Left 4 Dead and how the game, as we know it, came to be.

Let's talk about the role of the boss Infected...

Faliszek: Well, that's changed greatly, especially since we split the game in two. Originally, the whole game was basically Versus mode, with people playing as boss infected. Originally we wanted the director to control everything, which meant that if you were a good infected player your reward was more time spent not playing, which wasn't a good reward. So with Versus split off we've been able to tweak things substantially.

I don't know if you noticed but the maps are slightly different for the Versus mode. The ammo room on the finale of No Mercy, for example, has more access, so it's harder to defend. In co-op mode these are just easier or harder parts of the map, but in Versus it becomes exploitable, so that's less fun and we have to deal with that. Now [with pure AI co-op campaign] we're also faced with how to do difficulty overall - how would you do it in TF2? It's down to who your opponents are. In Versus there are skills you learn and there are a lot more combinations of talents than you might think.

You end up having to be a much better survivor team, because player Infected get to be so inventive. Who you attack and how you attack them is a big deal. We put a lot of work into that.

Feel free to read more from Faliszek courtesy of CVG.

A huge update was released today for the Steam client.

• Added support for automatically launching a game after a retail install completes

This update is positively massive and may take you hours to download. With that said, you should probably restart your clients now to get the update process started.

Insomniac Games, the developers of Resistance 2, gave high praise for Sony's next big FPS, Killzone 2. The development studio said that Killzone 2 is "indeed awesome."

Here is James Stevenson, Insomniac's community manager, voicing his opinion on Killzone 2.

I did indeed beat KZ2 tonight and it is indeed awesome. I know there will be plenty of comments, opinions, accolades and nitpicks, but for me, the game was fun.

My favorite part of the game was when you get this certain weapon.

This praise goes hand in hand with the review score from the US Official PlayStation Magazine, which gave Killzone 2 a 5 out of 5.

Killzone 2 is set to be released on February 27 in North America.

Everybody loves playing with others who exploit and make a game completely annoying to play, right? Yeah, me neither. Perhaps it's a good thing that Epic is hard at work on a patch for Gears of War 2. This patch, among other things, will address a good deal of exploits that have cropped up in the game's multiplayer since its launch.

We’re fixing a whole bunch of online exploits. For example we’ve fixed the ability to wield an invisible shield, melee through some walls, gain infinite Lancer ammo and equip a shield and a two-handed weapon simultaneously plus many more.

We’re also making several small changes to improve the overall online gameplay experience. A few of the ones that might interest you are; increased penalties for quitting matches early, adding additional spawn protection against planted grenades and chainsaw attacks, and adding the ability to see the Submission flag carrier destination by using Tac/Com.

We know you folks love achievements so on the achievement side we’re adding achievement progress numbers to the War Journal, increasing the frequency of in-game Achievement progression notifications and adding some new Achievements for DLC.

We fixed the client side hit detection on the shotgun so that in a high-latency (i.e. “laggy”) match, the shotgun will be more reliable. We’ve also fixed another bug whereby shotgun and boomshot rounds could strike the ground when firing from the hip.

The update is said to be arriving at some point this month.

A patch that's set to be released in the middle of January will shake things up a bit for Halo 3's online experience. Playlist changes are in store and restrictions are to be removed on in-game voice chat.

Since Halo 3’s release, if a player were to join a Matchmaking playlist with a team size larger than four, he or she would have to push a button on the DPad to communicate directly to their team. After the January update, the PTT restriction is being increased to 6 players per team, meaning that players will not need to use the D-pad to communicate on any Matchmaking playlist but Social Big Team.

What does this mean for players? Well, for starters, it means communicating to teammates in 5v5 or 6v6 playlists will be trivial. However, this could mean an increase in bandwidth necessary for these larger format playlists, which means the potential for “laggy” games is increased. The best way to avoid lag in these games is to ensure that you are not constantly broadcasting to your teammates, and that your teammates are not constantly broadcasting to you. If you often play with strangers, be prepared to mute and report players that abuse their microphone.

A number of changes will be made in preparation for the Mythic map pack. That map pack is still slated to be released around the beginning of March to coincide with the release of Halo Wars.

Read all about these playlist changes, news of what maps will be removed from certain playlists, and more over at Bungie.net.

Last week we brought you news about an exclusive pre-order bonus from Gamestop if you pre-order Killzone 2.

At the time, it was unknown if the demo would still go public before the game's release on February 27. Sony has now made a statement that should clear up any confusion over the matter.

The demo will be available on the PSN after the game ships but only through GameStop until then.

Yes, the demo will be released publicly after the game is released. Hey, we said that any confusion would be cleared up. We didn't say that you wouldn't be upset about it all.

Xbox Live's Major Nelson released a list of the top played titles in 2008 for Xbox Live. On the Xbox 360, there were no real surprises as Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 took the top two spots respectively.

On the original Xbox, Halo 2 took the number one position. Coming as what might be a bit of a surprise was Counter-Strike at the number four position. The top 20 titles for both platforms can be found at Major Nelson or below this lovely block of text here.

Xbox 360 Titles

• 1 Halo 3
  
• 2 Call of Duty 4
  
• 3 GTA IV
  
• 4 Gears of War 2
  
• 5 Gears of War
  
• 6 CoD: World at War
  
• 7 Guitar Hero III
  
• 8 Battlefield: Bad Company Demo
  
• 9 Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Demo
  
• 10 Rock Band
  
• 11 Fable II
  
• 12 Mirror's Edge Demo
  
• 13 Madden NFL 09
  
• 14 BF: Bad Company
  
• 15 Rainbow Six Vegas 2
  
• 16 UNO
  
• 17 Castle Crashers
  
• 18 COD: World at War Multiplayer Beta
  
• 19 Forza Motorsport 2
  
• 20 Too Human - Demo

Hit the break for the top 20 original Xbox titles of 2008 and the most played Arcade games.

[ original xbox titles and live arcade titles (197 more words) ]

Original Xbox Titles

• 1 Halo 2
  
• 2 Fable
  
• 3 Star Wars: Battlfrnt 2
  
• 4 Counter-Strike
  
• 5 Fable: Lost Chapters
  
• 6 Doom 3
  
• 7 Conker: Live Reloaded
  
• 8 Splinter Cell Chaos
  
• 9 SW: KOTOR
  
• 10 SW: Republic Commando
  
• 11 Star Wars: Battlefront
  
• 12 Burnout 3
  
• 13 Guilty Gear XX #Reload
  
• 14 Gauntlet Seven Sorrows
  
• 15 Call of Duty 3
  
• 16 Ninja Gaiden Black
  
• 17 Crimson Skies
  
• 18 MechAssault 2
  
• 19 Call of Duty 2
  
• 20 Rainbow Six 3

Top Arcade Titles

• 1 Castle Crashers
  
• 2 Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2
  
• 3 Braid
  
• 4 A Kingdom for Keflings
  
• 5 UNO
  
• 6 Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
  
• 7 Fable II Pub Games
  
• 8 Duke Nukem 3D
  
• 9 Bionic Commando: Rearmed
  
• 10 Worms
  
• 11 SOULCALIBUR
  
• 12 Portal: Still Alive
  
• 13 DOOM
  
• 14 1942: Joint Strike
  
• 15 Bomberman Live
  
• 16 MEGA MAN 9
  
• 17 N+
  
• 18 Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3
  
• 19 Marble Blast Ultra
  
• 20 Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3

The Empires modification was just updated the other day to version 2.21. This small incremental patch fixes a few outstanding issues from the 2.20 patch released last month.

Players will need to have the 2.2 patch installed first before applying the 2.21 patch.


The complete list of changes can be found after the break.

• Added: Shells now eject from all weapons
  
• Added: Muzzleflashes now light up the area around them
  
• Added: Rudimentary stat tracking interface. Only records maps wins/losses for now.
  
• Added: emp_sv_stats_enabled cvar.
  
• Added: Customizable falloff for vehicle MGs.

[ click for more fixes (213 more words) ]

• Modified: Added more tickets to Canyon (prev: 200, now 300)
  
• Modified: emp_mvalley: Uses nice looking water
  
• Modified: Re-enabled the bump maps for BE building textures
  
• Modified: Joining a team with more players is not possible.
  
• Modified: Concussion grenades don't blind spectators.
  
• Modified: Entering a vehicle after throwing a sticky grenade at it no longer does damage to the vehicle
  
• Modified: Jeeps can now carry 4 plates of reactive armor.
  
• Modified: Infantry weapons have been slightly modified.
  
• Modified/Fixed: Canyon Optimizations, viscluster added, increased the size of hint brush covering skybox
  
• Fixed: Scoreboard text wasn't properly aligned.
  
• Fixed: emp_glycencity: Fixed vehicles clipping through short walls at the middle flag
  
• Fixed: Mines could be dropped in the commander interface
  
• Fixed: Sever skipping maps
  
• Fixed: Map brush wasn't properly unsticking people.
  
• Fixed: Commander could change team in command interface using jointeam.
  
• Fixed: Rifleman armor, 'dig in', and squad armor aura now affect damage received.
  
• Fixed: Repair station not repairing vehicle that has armor left.
  
• Fixed: Melee attacks were not lag compensated.
  
• Fixed: Possible fix to commander crash relating to physics
  
• Fixed: It is now possible to revive people who have killed themselves. It doesn't give a point.

PC Gamer, by way of CVG, has a new preview for ArmA 2.

Expect to see hostiles using building corners for cover and - this one's a biggy - using speculative suppression fire to support advancing comrades. As near-misses now cause weapon shake (more fear = more sway), such tactics can turn firefights.

Other reasons to be cheerful about ArmA 2? It's going to feature over 70 portable weapons ranging from civilian hunting rifles to MANPAD missiles, and 136 different vehicles including UAVs, fishing boats and bicycles. HALO parachute insertions are now possible. You can play through the entire branching campaign co-operatively. The old sound engine has been replaced, meaning vehicle signatures now consist of dozens of separate sounds.

ArmA 2 is certainly shaping up to be the next big thing in the world of realistic/tactical first-person shooters.

ArmA 2 is tentatively slated for release in the first quarter of 2009 for the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 system. Read more of the preview over at CVG.

2009 is just a couple of days old and already the development team for Neotokyo released new media to the public. In addition, they were featured yet again on ModDB's Developer Banter feature.

First up, the new media that was just released for the Neotokyo modification. The team shows off some of the maps, weapon models, and characters used in the mod.


There are more images after the break. Next up is the interview with the Neotokyo team as conducted by ModDB. This marks the second time the team has appeared on Developer Banter.

[ view the full image gallery (56 more words) ]

The Left 4 Dead blog team has once again updated their blog. This time, the team talks about how they made the darkness in the game stylish and really work to enhance the game's atmosphere.

Self-Shadowed Normal Mapping
Normal mapping is a graphics technique that lets game developers create the appearance of detail on surfaces without additional geometry. Normal mapping could, for example, make a brick wall appear to have depth without having to use a lot of geometry at the sake of performance.

Self-shadowed normal mapping takes this technique to the next level. Not only do the bricks look bumpy-they also cast shadows upon themselves, creating a better sense of realism. Using self-shadowed normal mapping had a dual benefit: It really helped the visuals pop in a game dominated by flashlights and darkness; and, after doing the code work, didn't end up sacrificing any more performance than regular normal mapping.

A lot of what was said in this blog update were things mentioned in the game's commentary nodes. Still though, it's worth a read if you haven't yet tried out the commentary feature yet.

Feel free to check out our coverage of part one.

The annual Mod of the Year Awards from ModDB have kicked off today! From now until January 16, users can nominate their favorite modifications to be considered during the voting process.

Nominations are open to every Indie title and Modification listed on ModDB. Nominating your favorite is as simple as visiting their ModDB profile page and clicking on the very prominent "VOTE FOR MOD" button on the summary page.

Previous years winners include such notables as Insurgency, Garry's Mod, Red Orchestra, and Natural Selection. Winners this year will receive a rather nice assortment of prizes in addition to the recognition.

Head on over to ModDB to begin the nomination process.

If you're a fan of comic books and Dead Space, you may want to head on over to Newsarama. They have a full digital copy of the first Dead Space comic book.


Dead Space #1 is available right now at Newsarama. It's free, and you usually can't go wrong at that price.

Metacritic has assembled their list of the best reviewed and worst reviewed titles of 2008. The list takes the top five games, and the worst title, for each current platform.

We'll share a small sample of the best (and worst) here. For the complete list, feel free to head on over to Metacritic.

Best PC

• 1. Fallout 3
  
• 2. Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor
  
• 3. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
  
• 4. Grand Theft Auto IV
  
• 5. World of Goo
  
  Dud of the Year
  
• Beauty Factory
  
  Best Xbox 360
  
• 1. Grand Theft Auto IV
  
• 2. Gears of War 2
  
• 3. Fallout 3
  
• 4. Braid
  
• 5. Rock Band 2
  
  Dud of the Year
  
• Jumper

[ more awesome lists (83 more words) ]

Best PS3

• 1. Grand Theft Auto IV
  
• 2. LittleBigPlanet
  
• 3. Bioshock
  
• 4. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
  
• 5. Rock Band 2
  
  Dud of the Year
  
• Vampire Rain: Altered Species
  
  Best PS2
  
• 1. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4
  
• 2. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES
  
• 3. MLB 08: The Show
  
• 4. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
  
• 5. FIFA Soccer 09
  
  Dud of the Year
  
• Women's Volleyball Championship

Feeling crafty? Love some zombies? Well, I have a great project for you! An outline has been released for a papercraft Tank from Left 4 Dead.


He just looks as cuddly as ever, doesn't he? Here is a direct link to the outline and instructions to create your very own Tank buddy.

The list of the top 10 most played games in 2008 includes a healthy mix of the new and the old. The Nielsen company set out to see just what gamers were playing in the year just passed.

These are not based on the number of units sold in the year, this is strictly showing the most played titles.

• 1. World of Warcraft - 671 (avg minutes played / week)
  
• 2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - 403
  
• 3. Halo: Combat Evolved - 295
  
• 4. The Sims - 213
  
• 5. The Sims 2 - 291
  
• 6. RuneScape - 451
  
• 7. Diablo II - 313
  
• 8. Team Fortress 2 - 371
  
• 9. Counter-Strike - 282
  
• 10. Counter-Strike: Source - 426

It's fantastic to see two different Counter-Strike titles still holding strong. This data was collected from January through October in 2008.

Additionally, the Nielsen Company made a list of the top consoles played in 2008. Feel free to hit the jump for the surprising results on this study.

[ which consoles kicked the most butt in '08 (40 more words) ]

• 1. PlayStation 2 - 31.7% (usage minutes)
  
• 2. Xbox 360 - 17.2%
  
• 3. Wii - 13.4%
  
• 4. Xbox - 9.7%
  
• 5. PlayStation 3 - 7.3%
  
• 6. GameCube - 4.6%
  
• 7. Other - 16.2%

The team behind PlanetPhillip and Podcast 17 are once again offering the gaming population a little treat to bring communities together. Their latest project is called the Valve Community.

Valve Community is a website dedicated to listing and promoting websites that cover games made by Valve Software. This site is not affiliated with them in any way, shape or form.

Players of one of Valve’s games often appreciate many of the others, and this site makes finding websites that cover your favourite games much easier than using a normal search engine.

Each entry, contains a medium sized screenshot, an objective description, direct link, a list of games it covers, the site’s features, the date the screenshots were taken, a coummunity rating and a full length screenshot.

All types of sites are welcome, including personal pages for modifications and mappers. The site is just starting up, so be sure and check back regularly to see new sites that have been added.

Another great year has past and the new year will be even better. I know I'm a little late with the post but I felt it would still be appropriate.

So continue drinking, ALT-TAB back into your CSS game, and continue to get pwned by those nubs!

Happy New Year!

A small update came out today for the currently ongoing Steam beta.

• Fixed javascript confirm() messageboxes not showing up in the client

Awesome. Check out the list of changes to date that have been made since the beta began back on December 12, 2008.

[ changes, nothing more than changes (211 more words) ]

12/12/2008

• Updated game overlay web browser to support generic web browsing, including web sites that use flash
  
• Fixed games list scrolling behavior with pageup/pagedown and mouse wheel
  
• Many back-end Steamworks changes in preparation for a Steamworks SDK update
  
  12/13/2008
  
• Fixed crash when launching Half-Life 2 64-bit
  
  12/15/2008
  
• Fixed a bug where the in-game overlay web browser could hang the overlay process
  
• Fixed GTA4 backups not restoring correctly
  
• Fixed several cases where matchmaking wouldn’t work in Left 4 Dead in using Café accounts
  
• Changed Friends to be enabled for Café accounts
  
• Removed ‘view invites’ dialog on startup, now clicking on a group/user invite toast will take you directly to the Community control page
  
• Fixed Javascript not always working in the in-game overlay web browser
  
• Fixed guest passes not showing immediately in games list
  
• Fixed case where a user would be told a guest pass had expired after they had bought the full game
  
  12/16/2008
  
• Fixed case of being switched out (alt-tabbed) when clicking on certain URLs in the in-game web broswer
  
  12/24/2008
  
• Improved Steam Windows Service restart logic in serveral places
  
  12/31/2008
  
• Fixed javascript confirm() messageboxes not showing up in the client

The recent poor performance for Take-Two Interactive's stock isn't the result of poor sales of Grand Theft Auto IV for the PC. It also isn't the fault of the poor economic conditions plaguing the world. No sir, the poor performance of Take-Two's stock is the direct result of God!

Jack Thompson (seriously, why are we still doing news on this insane moron?) says that God is the only reason why Take-Two Interactive's stock prices have gone down. GamePolitics and Jack Thompson went back and forth through e-mails to discuss the finer points of God's wrath.

Here, enjoy a few brief excerpts from the book of Crazy, versus 2-14.

From: Jack Thompson
Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2008 9:10 AM
To: Dennis McCauley
Subject: Re: Spin this, Strauss...

...If you had any understanding of the Bible and of God you would understand that persecution comes Christians' way, and we are blessed by it. There is no blessing for Zelnick, who is not a Christian, when he gets what he deserves...

He continues in another email...

(...)I have been persecuted for my faith, not because I did anything wrong, by those committed to evil. Glad to clear it up for you. And as it now stands, Mr. Zelnick's problems at Take-Two are minuscule [sic] compared to the eternity of punishment that is coming his way unless he repents and accepts Christ as I did 32 years ago this month. You might do well to read the Gospel of John yourself. Come to think of it, I'll write Strauss about all this and send you a copy...

It's hardly surprising to see that on top of being completely ignorant of violence in videogames, Jack Thompson is also intolerant of other person's beliefs and religious backgrounds. Kudos Thompson, you're an even bigger jackass than we all originally thought.

Read more of this over at GamePolitics.