Archive for October, 2007

Paint the Skies Orange

Published at October 16, 2007 in Games. 0 Comments

Recently my favourite developer Valve Software released the third part of their epic Half-life 2 series; Half-life 2: Episode 2. This mini-sequel comes bundled with two other awesome games, Portal and Team Fortress 2.

Since I recently upgraded my computer and bought a ATI Radeon 2900XT video card, I received a copy of “The Black Box” free. This pack contained the three games, and a copy of Day of Defeat: Source. I am glad I didn’t buy that one now! On the day of release I had loaded it up on my laptop and was waiting with baited breath at my dad’s house for it to be released. After an hour of setback (I am not sure if that was valve’s side or my miscalculating of time zones) I was away.

I promptly finished both Portal and Episode 2, and they were excellent. From a gameplay perspective they have been refined to near perfection, and from a content perspective they both added depth into the already-immersive Half-life universe. These games are some of the greatest which I have seen come out of valve recently, and I hope they keep them coming. I am looking forward to Episode 3 and, especially Half-life 3. I hope production has already started, because I don’t want to wait another four years for that one!

As for Team Fortress, It is an awesome game, with an awesome multiplayer setting. Class-based games always have an excellent and immediate playability which takes minutes to understand. After deciding that my favourite classes are the Engineer and Heavy, with the Medic coming in a close third, there is not much which stops me on internet servers. I am awaiting my lan party this January to really test my skills, but that will come later.

One thing I did notice during my wait for the new games, is that Valve has removed it’s “Black Box” from all their stores, shops, and even removed any evidence of it from their website. After some digging around I found out that they were only selling the “Orange Box” for $50 american. This contained not only the three new games, but the original Half-life 2, and the first episode. For people like me who already own these games, they are offering “Vouchers” which you can then send to a friend who doesn’t have the games and they can use your serials. Seems like a waste of money to me… But hey, long live ATI! (Or should I say AMD? Nah…)

So for my latest blog entry, Thumbs up for Valve!!! You guys rule! Keep the games coming, and the twists twisty.

Andrew

Changes in the Wind

Published at October 9, 2007 in Games and Uni. 0 Comments

Well dudes and dudettes, after some long consideration (Yeah, I lay in bed thinking about it for a few minutes) I have decided that a blog just isn’t quite enough for my web presence, so I am going to move said blog to a new and more interesting place. Yes that’s right, a sub domain! But this won’t be happening for a while, so you can rest easy for a few more months. I will be making the move when I can finally get round to having a personal website / portfolio.

Over the summer break in between this year and next, I plan on working on my portfolio quite a lot, and making a fully sic (heh) website to go with it, and to show it off. This will of course be entirely developed for me, by me, and aim at the potential employer. As the games industry is a “show” industry, not a “tell” industry, it will showcase everything that I have taught myself, and hopefully some of the assessments I have done throughout my course. I will try and keep it up to date, and include some information about me and what not, but I guess that I will decide what exactly will be on it closer to the date. For now, I am going to start work on the assignments which I have due in a few weeks, and hope for the best.

I know my blog has sort of gone quiet, as well as my forums, but I plan on working on it all, eventually. You can be sure when I am making the games you ask your mum for, I will be updating it more regularly!

Andrew