Prepare yourselves, ye who purchase The Orange Box, for you may just purchase your next gaming addiction. How do I know this? Because I spent two hours playing the Team Fortress 2 beta last night, even after I initially said to myself, “Man, I should really get to bed.” Thank God for coffee. Yes, Team Fortress 2 is really that much fun and that easy to jump into. I never really played the first Team Fortress, so I can’t really say how it stacks up. But trust me when I say that this game will be a joy for any fan of online first-person shooters. Read the full article »

It was a long wait, with many of us staying up until the wee-hours Sunday night only to be disappointed, but the Team Fortress 2 beta has finally gone live. If you’ve pre-ordered The Orange Box for PC through  Steam, you can install the beta now and get playing – I’ve already spent around an hour with it, and it looks and plays awesome. And for those of you who waited, you can still pre-order and get in on this glorious beta, so get on Steam and get playing!

Be sure to come back and let us know what you think. It’s been nearly a decade since Team Fortress Classic was released, so how does TF2 and all of its cartoony-graphics stack up against TFC?

In a recent Steam website update, Valve gave thanks to those who helped in testing prior to the recent Steam Community launch earlier this week. Valve also had this to say:

Not long ago (in geologic time), we announced the sequel to Team Fortress. We’re thrilled to finally be just days away from unveiling Team Fortress 2. Starting this Monday, September 17, those who pre-purchase the Orange Box on Steam or swing by a licensed Valve Cyber Cafe can play the beta version of Team Fortress 2.

Many of you have asked for a way to track your stats while playing TF2. Rest assured that no gib will be forgotten: starting Monday, your Steam Community profile will include a detailed breakdown of your TF2 player statistics.

It really has been ages since TF2 was announced (almost 8+ years). If you look hard enough, you can find some old video clips and screenshots of what Valve originally planned TF2 to look like. It is almost lame by today’s standards. In retrospect, I’m glad they waited.

Also, it looks like TF2 will soon be joining Halo 3 (and others) in the ranks of web-based player tracking. Cool stuff.

Via Steam

If you’ve been burning to play Team Fortress 2, pre-purchasing the Orange Box on Steam is for you. And it’s actually cheaper if you buy it now, too.

Steam announced that there are a number of perks to pre-purchasing the Orange Box on Steam, the first and foremost that you’ll be able to play Team Fortress 2 starting on September 17th. Those who have been waiting years to play this game will finally be able to dive in and catch some frags.

Also, one word: Peggle. If you haven’t played this game, this will fill the void in your life. It comes free with the pre-purchase, and it is one of the more clever, addicting and awesome creations ever to grace your screen.

via Steam

DaKing240, who has prominently been known as “that dude that finds all the achievements,” has done it again, this time scraping together the achievements for the upcoming The Orange Box. And it’s a record-breaking list, if I’m not mistaken, as the game will launch with 99 achievements. They still only add up to a Gamerscore of 1000, but that’s more achievements than any other game has. But, to be fair, The Orange Box is like three and two half games in one, so it should be able to bend the rules.

Achievements are the one factor that had me on the fence over which version of The Orange Box to pick up. The PS3’s non-FPS-friendly controller (to me, at least) and delay eliminates it from contention, and it looks like achievements and Xbox Live are overshadowing the PC version.

Hell, for the value, I might as well pick up both versions.

via DaKing240.com

While I speculated yesterday that the reasoning behind the few week delay on The Orange Box for PlayStation 3 might have due to difficulty porting the game to PS3, it turns out that’s not the case. Valve’s marketing director, Doug Lombardi, said it’s simply due to the fact that the EA team handling the port is located in the UK, and the geographic hurdle is what’s holding up production.

Lombardi told Eurogamer, “We weren’t going to hold up PC and 360 for PS3,” and that the PS3 version should ship “around two or three weeks later.” Fair enough.

The Orange Box hits Xbox 360 and PC on October 9.

The concept of a Valve game being delayed will no doubt be shocking, and jar you such that you don’t know what to believe anymore. The PlayStation 3 version of the upcoming The Orange Box, which contains Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2 Episodes One and Two, Team Fortress 2 and Portal (I can’t get over what a bargain that is), has been delayed by “a couple weeks.” The PC and Xbox 360 versions of the package are still set for release on October 9; the ports are being handled by EA, which has had some trouble with PlayStation 3 development – see this year’s Madden’s framerate.

No specific reason was cited for the delay, but from the sound of the extraordinarily vague “couple weeks” delay, PS3 owners should still be able to get their hands on the game before the holidays.via Joystiq

Reports are coming in that Outerlight has confirmed they are working on a sequel to their popular multiplayer game, The Ship. The original game casts players as passengers aboard various cruise ships in the 1930’s. Your task is to hunt and kill a specific target, while avoiding your own assassin. All the while, you also have to keep track of your own Sims-inspired needs, such as food, water, and bathroom breaks (which can provide an opportunity for you to kill or be killed). Each ship comes stocked with various death-dealing instruments, from guns to swords to mannequin arms, not to mention a variety of disguises to throw off your hunter. The Ship was originally conceived and released as a Half-Life 2 mod, but eventually was updated and released commercially. It’s PC-only, but the sequel will also appear on the Xbox 360.

If you’ve never played The Ship before, believe me when I say it is well worth the $20 price tag. Some people may find the action a little slow-paced, but once you learn the ropes, it really is unlike any other game out there.

Via CVG

Samsung will once again be hosting World Cyber Games (WCG), the world’s premiere gaming tournament as well as the Malaysian WCG Championship 2007. Halls 2 & 3 of the Mid Valley Exhibition Centre, Kuala Lumpur will host WCG on September 8 and 9, 2007 where gamers will compete in these six games:

• FIFA Soccer 2007
• Half Life : Counter Strike
• Need For Speed : Carbon
• Command & Conquer 3 : Tiberium Wars
• Starcraft : Brood War
• Warcraft III : Frozen Throne

Samsung is not only sponsoring the tournament, it’s offering exclusive prizes and free gifts to both contestants and spectators at its booth. Exclusive Samsung WCG 2007 offers include a special pre-order offer for the new Samsung U3 MP3 player, a Samsung monitor promotion, and discounted mobile phones.

Gamers that can’t make it to Malaysia for the tournament to visit the Samsung booth can sign up at the Samsung WCG 2007 microsite for an exclusive gift. Click on the “Visit Our Samsung WCG 2007 Booth” link get to signed up.

via Tech ARP

Maybe exclusivity isn’t such a good thing sometimes. Microsoft may in fact learn a hard lesson if developers don’t start picking up on DirectX 10.

In a recent interview with Heise Online, Gabe Newell, President of Valve Software, said, “Microsoft made a terrible mistake releasing DirectX 10 for Vista only and excluding Windows XP.”

According to stats on Steam, only half of the users have a DirectX 10 compatible graphics card. Developers are definitely paying attention to factors like this when developing their games, because only a fraction of the games out there actually utilize DX10 in noticeable ways. In fact, the two different versions of Half-Life 2 Orange Box, one DX10 compatible and one not, are for all intents and purposes the same.

Gamers may find themselves searching for incentives and finding very few to jump on board with Vista. Did Microsoft try to push too hard for a market share this time?

All signs point to yes.

via Heise Online