Mac Version of Portal 2 Confirmed March 8, 2010

In an unlikely turn of events, Game Informer has has announced Valve is developing a Mac version of Portal 2.  Valve has been a Windows only development house for the majority of their history.  In fact their PC roots are so deep, they were not even for doing console ports of their games, a lot of their early console versions of the original Half-Life were done by outside companies.

However now that Mac versions of Steam have practically been confirmed, a Mac version of Portal 2 seems to be a logical choice.  It seems likely that since Valve is supporting Mac through Steam, more of their future games will be cross platform.

Gabe Newell, the owner of Valve, was a former Microsoft employee before starting Valve Software.

Apple iPad (WiFi) Release April 3rd! March 5, 2010

For people who know me, know that I never go anywhere without my iPhone 3g.  This thing has been the perfect device that I’ve needed for the last fifteen years.  It’s small enough to fit in my pocket, and gives me constant connection to the internet when I’m not home.  It’s also the only thing that makes family reunions bearable.

Apple will be releasing it’s “next big thing”* and logical successor the iPad on April 3rd, 2010.  The iPad will be able to run all iPhone and iPod Touch applications, but features no calling ability or camera.  It also has a larger, higher resolution screen (at 1024×768), a faster processor, and will support WiFi.

It also will have full support for iTunes for organizing your audio and video files.

Preorders for the WiFi version of iPad will start March 11th, a 3g version (which does not have calling ability) will be released later in April.

*next big thing not guranteed

Portal 2 To Have Co-op Play March 5, 2010

Gamestop has already put up a product page for Portal 2, indicating that there will be an Xbox360 and PC version, but also that there will be singleplayer and multiplayer cooperative play.

I do remember shortly after Portal was released, an interview with the Portal team had hinted that Portal 2 would feature cooperative play.  Gamestop could be running with that same interview in mind, or they could have inside information from Valve.

Portal 2 Announced! March 5, 2010

Valve has officially announced a sequel to their 2007 game Portal, released as a part of The Orange Box.

The press release itself appears to be a coded message, with specific letters underlined.  This could be a furthering of the Portal ARG that has been going on this past week.

Portal won many awards in 2007, and was considered to be one of the only games of that year that Zero Punctuation had nothing to say about, which is considered to be the highest honor that could be awarded to a game.

Portal 2 is expected for a holiday release 2010.

Quakecon 2010 Announced! March 5, 2010

Shacknews has reported that one of the longest running fan friendly gaming conventions will be from August 12th to August 15th this year.  According to teases from last year, Rage and Doom 4, two games that haven’t been reported on in a while,  are expected to make appearances at the show.

There was some concern since id Software is no longer operating independantly if this convention would continue.  Quakecon originally was entirely fan created, but at some point id took it over and for some years it’s rivaled E3 with the announcments that’s come out of it.  It has continued to be a mecca for id fans for years, and from the looks of it, that will continue.

Unfortunatly I have never been to a Quakecon before.  It seems a common occurance that all major gaming conventions would happen anywhere but wherever I lived.  If I do get to go to this year’s Quakecon I will be sure to report on everything I see.

Playstation Store Updated, Heavy Rain Codes Still Not Working March 5, 2010

Well looks like those who chose to preorder Heavy Rain will have to wait for their free DLC episode just a little longer.

In the US retailers such as Amazon.com and GameStop offered customers who preordered the highly anticipated PS3 game Heavy Rain a code for the game’s first downloadable episode.  The episode, called “The Taxidermist” was announced to be downlodable on the day of the game’s release.  However, before the game’s release date several retailers announced there would be a short delay in the content until the fourth of March.  Codes were bundled with the game when people picked their Preorders up from GameStop but weren’t working at launch.  It was expected that the codes would go live around the time Amazon planned to email codes to their customers, some time on the fourth.

Amazon did email their codes as promised.  Several users on the Heavy Rain US forum have confirmed that.  The weekly Playstation Store has updated within the last few minutes (Sony only updates their store content on Thursdays).  However none of the codes either through GameStop or Amazon will work yet.  A Sony forum member said he called Sony to inquire, where he was told the content was on their servers, but the codes needed some time to be fully authorized, which could take a day.

Sony has not officially commented on if the DLC content has been delayed again.

UPDATE:  The codes are reportedly working now at around 10:30PM EST.

Halo Reach Multiplayer Trailer March 4, 2010

Bungie has released the first official trailer for Halo Reach showcasing the game’s multiplayer.  While Halo has always had great single player storylines, their multiplayer has been what has given their games incredible longitivity.  New features present in the trailer which have never been seen before in a Halo game include a playable jetpack!  There also appears to be multiplayer gametypes similar to Halo 3 ODST’s incredible Firefight mode.

gameXcess is going to have access to the Halo Reach MP Beta Test starting May 3rd at the latest, and we will be more than happy to provide all the coverage we can!  Until then enjoy this trailer.

Steam Mac Versions Likely, Portal ARG Still Alive March 4, 2010

Valve is currently beta testing a new GUI for Steam with several of its users.  Many have been suprised when looking into the beta’s code that the Internet Explorer framework which has been present in almost all versions of Steam has been removed in favor of its own web browser.  But more than that it would free the Steam GUI from being Windows exclusive and allow the possiblity of a Mac version.  Valve has since released very iconic promotional images to various websites including Kotaku and Macworld with references to previously released Valve games including Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, Portal and Left 4 Dead 2 in very apple-esque images such as the TF2 Demoman using an iPod and Alyx, the female lead of Half-Life 2, replacing the main character in the iconic 1984 Mac announcement commercial.

Yesterday, in a very interesting turn of events, Valve released the second patch to Portal 2 in two years.  The previous patch, done three days ago, added a very obscurely referenced achievement, which lead to a puzzle people have been closely following for days.  Many working on the puzzle are convinced this ARG (Alternate-Reality Game) is to promote a sequel to Portal.  The recent Portal update actually changed the ending to Portal, showing that instead of being freed from the Company, several automated robots offscreen pulled the Protagonist away against her will.  Valve called it in the patch notes “Valuable Asset Retrieval”.

Portal 2 has not yet been announced nor has a Mac Version of Steam, although both are more likely to be announced within the next coming days.  If they are announced you can be sure to get the full announcement here.

Mirrors Edge iPhone coming in April March 4, 2010

2008 was a huge year in video games, espessially sequels, but there were a lot of original games that were also released that year that might’ve gotten overlooked by the mainstream media.  One of those games was Mirror’s Edge for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.  I was able to play through the game on PS3 several months ago and I thought it was a great game indeed.

So of course my interest was peaked when at the beginning of December 2009, EA Mobile announced Mirror’s Edge for the iPhone and released an announcement trailer that came followed with a too good to be true January 2010 release date.  It was.  In early January EA quietly announced (and only IGN.com’s wireless site picked it up) that the game had been delayed and would not see a release that month so further content could be added to the game.  I of course didn’t find this until shortly towards the end of January when I started losing hope the game would see a release that month. 

After the delay announcement for two more months EA Mobile would be silent about the game’s progress until yesterday when press releases started coming out again.  Currently only the press has seen the latest version of the game, and they are currently bound to silence, but they did announce a new release date.  April.

Mirror’s Edge was a great overlooked gem of a game.  iPhone owners, I’ll keep you informed of news on this one.

Here’s a trailer that was released with the game’s announcment back in December.  This was released when the game was on track for January release so the trailer’s content might not be a tell of what the final game looks like, but it’s interesting never the less.  The iPhone really impresses graphicswise.