The NPD numbers are in for November, and as far as console sales go, Gears of War 2 dominated the chart with 1.5 million units sold and Call of Duty: World at War coming in a very close second with 1.4 million in sales (for the Xbox 360 version).

Shockingly enough, Nintendo’s Wii Music came in last in the top 10, and while that in itself does not surprise me, the fact that it is even in the top 10 is what I am curious over. I suppose that the company’s stellar ad campaign was what did it, along with unsuspecting parents rushing out to buy the game on Black Friday because all the stores in their area were out of Rock Band 2 and World Tour. They probably thought that their kids would like it just as well, by they will unfortunately find out the hard way come Christmas morning.

Top Ten Games

1. Gears of War 2 (Epic, Xbox 360) – 1.56 million
2. Call of Duty: World at War (Treyarch, Xbox 360) – 1.41 million
3. Wii Play (Nintendo, Wii) – 796,000
4. Wii Fit (Nintendo, Wii) – 697,000
5. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo, Wii) – 637,000
6. Call of Duty: World at War (Treyarch, PS3) – 597,000
7. Guitar Hero World Tour (Vicarious Visions, Wii) – 475,000
8. Left 4 Dead (Valve, Xbox 360) – 410,000
9. Resistance 2 (Insomniac, PS3) – 385,000
10. Wii Music (Nintendo, Wii) – 297,000

(Thanks VG247)

After a renewed start we had an interruption these last few weeks but rest assured Filefront is still hosting and promoting all the great user created and hosted content contributed to us. We return with a double length post highlighting some great mods and files for quite a few outstanding games including usual suspects like Half-Life 2, the Battlefield games and of course one of my favorite series “that I am really no good at yet still enjoy” – Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War

Highlights from this week’s column include mods for:

• Doom III – Wrathchild Act I (not ROE compatible), Revised Alphalabs
• Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – A Provost of the Nine Divines, More Nord Beards
• Battlefield 2 – Operation Peacekeeper, Allies Intent Extended
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R – Ballistics Mod
• Far Cry 2 – new maps: MP_Surf & Gold Rush

There are also links to other maps, mods and patches for many of your favorite PC modifiable games. Be sure to check it all out after the jump.

Read the full article »

Well, easy come, easy go, hackers. After the news of hacking in the Xbox 360 version of Left 4 Dead swept the internet, Valve apparently jumped right into finding a solution to the problem. Now they’ve announced the release of a server-side fix to stop the cheating from taking place. They also mentioned a similar title update in the next few days to prevent the same behavior in user-hosted servers and system link games.

So now you won’t have to worry about seeing a 12-story tall Francis in one of your games or having a literal pile of witches dropped on you. That is, until someone figures out a new way to cheat the system.

It’s been awhile since Yahtzee Croshaw tackled a game where he had almost nothing negative to say about it, but that was all before he picked up Left 4 Dead. He brings his usual wit to this review of the game, but all in all the worst he says about it is that it gets repetitive (which is true, though it still hasn’t gotten old to me). For that reason, I’d say this is probably the most positive review Valve could hope for. If you’re stumping a man who actively looks for minute flaws in all games, then you must be doing something right.

Unfortunately, the embed code The Escapist has for the review doesn’t seem to be posting right, so you’ll have to go here to watch it.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to matter just what online game you play: sooner or later, you’re going to encounter a hacker. When that happens, it’s usually the most frustrating thing you can imagine. Of course, if you weren’t the one getting ripped to shreds by a dozen enemies at once, it can be pretty entertaining to watch. The video above, for example, basically shows the myriad of different hacks you can use in the Xbox 360 version of Left 4 Dead, and they’re just plain fun to look at. Something about watching a hundred foot tall Francis stomping through the town followed by a literal pile of writhing zombies being set aflame just tickles the ol’ funnybone for me. Still if I were the one those zombies were being dumped on — as some Xbox Live players have reported — I might not find this as funny.

Valve has released a new patch for Left 4 Dead that should fix a few problems in the game. In all, the changes include:

• Finding a dedicated server when starting the game from a lobby is now faster and more reliable
• Versus mode is now locked to Normal difficulty
• Difficulty on a server is now locked to the one set by the lobby reservation
• Fixed lagouts/spikes after level transition
• Fixed directory issue with spray logs in some cases
• Fixed video settings not saving after closing video options dialog
• Corrected a boomer suicide exploit
• Several minor localization fixes
• Fixed disabling cheats incorrectly resetting data

Apparently, that “boomer suicide exploit” involved people binding a key so that they could instantly make themselves explode without being shot (luckily, you can still jump off a building and burst all over hapless survivors). I don’t know why they would have locked the difficulty to Normal in versus, but at least now we can get into a dedicates server faster.

Valve has always had pretty popular games, and if their recent release of sales figures over the past ten years are any indication of the company’ success, well then they will have nothing to worry about for a very long time. Well, that’s barring some unforeseen gaming or spending catastrophe like a Superman 64 or a very bad heroine addiction.

Here are the numbers reported to Game Informer, then posted on Gamasutra and broken down in a pretty list by VG247:

• Half-Life – 9.3 million
• Half-Life: Opposing Force – 1.1 million
• Half-Life: Blue Shift – 800,000
• Half-Life 2 – 6.5 million
• Half-Life 2: Episode One – 1.4 million
• The Orange Box – 3 million
• Counter-Strike – 4.2 million
• Counter-Strike: Condition Zero – 2.9 million
• Counter-Strike: Source – 2.1 million
• Counter-Strike (Xbox) – 1.5 million
• Left 4 Dead (projected) – 3.6 – 3.9 million

The figures add up to a total retail amount of  32.8 million and if you include the projected Left 4 Dead numbers, it increases to 36.4 – 36.7 million. These figures also do not include digital sales of their products through Steam, which Valve is currently keeping under wraps for some reason or another. Be that as it may, the numbers speak for themselves, and whether you are a Valve fan or not, they are nothing to sneeze at by any means.

Garry Newman has a lot to celebrate this holiday. It’s been two year since he offered his Half-Life 2 mod up on Valve’s Steam for just $9.99. Over 312,000 downloads later, Garry is thrilled that his passion could also make him a living. Do the math. That’s a lot of cash, no matter what his cut is. Garry sums the experience up on his blog.

“The popularity took me and Valve by surprise. As soon as it went on sale the steam servers were temporary knocked out, due to the demand. On the first day it sold 5,729 copies. Wowzer.

I kind of expected that it would sell a big number of copies for the first day, then sell very few after that. I was kind of wrong, because over the next 2 years it went on to sell 312,541 copies. Which has totally knocked my socks off.”

Garry’s Mod is not just an innovative mod its a great tool. Built on the Source Engine, this sandbox mod allows gamers to create their own levels and items for games. It can also be used place and pose ragdolls making it possible to create comics. For more details on Garry’s Mod and what you can do with it visit the Garry’s Mod website.

Most video game fans have not been happy with the recent DRM suddenly seeping its way into some of their favorite games (at least, if the outcry against games like Spore and Mass Effect are any indication). Since game developers tend to be fans as well, it’s not surprise really that even those in the industry are not pleased with the current direction that copyright protection is taking. Now Gabe Newell of Valve has expressed his disapproval with DRM in the form of an e-mail to gamer, Paul Reisinger. In the e-mail, Newell stated:

As far as DRM goes, most DRM strategies are just dumb. The goal should be to create greater value for customers through service value (make it easy for me to play my games whenever and wherever I want to), not by decreasing the value of a product (maybe I’ll be able to play my game and maybe I won’t).

We really really discourage other developers and publishes from using the broken DRM offerings, and in general there is a groundswell to abandon those approaches.

Maybe not the most eloquent argument ever, but he still gets his point across. Mostly though, it’s just nice to hear that some of the most respected names in gaming also think some of these DRM restrictions are just plain nuts.

Hey, you. Yeah, I’m talking to you. You think you can just sit around letting zombies wreak havoc all over Willamette? And if you’ve been zombified, you think you can just let survivors waltz in and out of their safe room without being incapacitated even once? That’s just not right.

Yes, it seems Valve has been using Steam to not only collect your PC specs but also monitor your achievement mongering. And the results show that people on the PC side of things just aren’t that big on collecting achievements, especially since there are two that not a single person has gotten at all. At least the stats show that most people are willing to help out their cohorts (unfortunately, they also show that most of you can’t “check your fire” very well either). Time to step up your zombie killing, people.