Tag: valve (Page 3 of 6)

How’s Portal 2 treating you?

April 20, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

I know I don’t write much about games other than League of Legends or Minecraft, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t on my radar. I kept up with the development of Portal 2 for a while, but once I heard about the length of the game I lost interest. A pair of six hour campaigns is hardly enough to get me to spend $50 on a new game.

There are, of course, custom maps, and I’m curious to see how quickly custom map development will take off. I really loved the first Portal, and I can imagine how fun it would be to keep up with the best custom maps from the community. That’s something I’m willing to pass on for the time being, though. Portal really strikes me as a $20 game that will end up being supported by the community.

Did you snag Valve’s latest on release day? How’s it treating you? Find any cake?

Editorial, PC

cake is a lie portal portal 2 portal 2 release valve valve portal game valve software

Valve making a DotA clone?

August 7, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

Some of you may recognize the name Jon St. John. Yeah, he has a badass name in real life, but he’s also done voice acting for one well-known and incredibly delayed badass: Duke Nukem. Well, Jon St. John has a new project, and one that could be of interest to LoL players. He’s doing voice acting for Valve’s version of DotA.

I don’t really have any details, and frankly, the DotA moniker comes from JSJ, not from Valve. What we do know is that Valve hired IceFrog (the mind behind DotA (along with Zileas)) to make something to please DotA fans. Jon St. John posted to his Twitter account this weekend that he has been doing voice work for DotA at Valve Software. I’m not sure why he would call out the name of the game without hearing it from Valve, and if they didn’t give him the go ahead, you can bet he wouldn’t be talking about it.

This doesn’t necessarily mean a whole lot for the LoL community, but it could be bad news for any HoN fans out there. I’ve played a bit of HoN and been completely unimpressed, so it’s not like the name DotA will kill a game like LoL. It could kill HoN, though, especially with the kind of money Valve has. What could be a problem for LoL is just that – the money.

Valve could very easily sweep in on LoL territory with more bank, more developers, but more importantly, more support. With better server uptime and the bankroll to back a quicker development cycle, Valve could make a dent in the LoL player base. That’s not to say Valve will do that, just that it could with the resources it has. Valve was notoriously slow with some of the TF2 developments, though, even if TF2 has a massive player base. Let’s also not forget that IceFrog did work on HoN, and we can all see how well that’s going.

In short, I think it’s totally possible that Valve is working up a DotA clone and it has the potential to make a bit of a stink for the big players in the MOBA world. There are so many variables, though, that Valve has a long way to go before

league of legends, News

dota hon icefrog league league of legends lol valve

Gabe Newell says the future of gaming is biometrics

March 15, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

At this year’s GDC, Gabe Newell was honored for being a pioneer in the field of gaming. That’s an indisputable title for a guy at the helm of one of the most successful development houses of all time. Valve is responsible for classics like Half-Life and modern marvels Portal and Team Fortress 2. Kotaku caught up with Gabe after his presentation to find out what he thought about Pokémon, what it means to be a pioneer, and how he sees the future of gaming.

“One of the things we’ve found is we’ve been doing some research into biometrics. We have a criminal psychologist on staff now. We’re finding that the impact of what we do – the emotional component of it – can be improved pretty dramatically by measuring people’s arousal states. By looking at how their pupils are dilated, by tracking where their gaze is, you know, doing skin galvanic response. Rather than having an experience that’s supposed to work for everybody, you can design, you can react to how the player is feeling, which is what’s driving those biometric measures.”

While it’s a little weird to think of a criminal psychologist as the appropriate individual to study us gamers, it’s also kinda cool to think of these tailored experiences coming soon. He goes on to talk about the changes to CPU architecture and how that will affect games, but the really interesting stuff was in the biometrics. I am curious, though, if Newell means we’ll see tools for measuring biometrics at the player level, giving developers the chance to custom tailor each individual experience, not just tailored to the gaming demographic. Maybe there is a point to the Wii Vitality Sensor after all.

Source: Kotaku

Reviews

biometrics emotional engagement emotional experience gabe newell human response pathology physical response physiology psychology valve

Portal 2 will release on Mac

March 7, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

As if the news of Steam coming to Macs weren’t enough, fanboys can rejoice today for more great news from Valve. As the latest issue of Game Informer confirms, Portal 2 is coming and it’s coming to Macs.

The PAL Game Network has scans of the cover story from Game Informer, which shows the basic info about the game – developer, release window, platforms, etc. There isn’t much more information, other than the fact that the game will be incredible. If you haven’t played the original Portal just go buy the Orange Box. It’s easily one of the most enjoyable games I’ve ever played, no lie (the cake on the other hand…). And it all started as a trial.

Luckily for us, Portal 2 will be a full-length game, set to release this fall.

Development, News

apple gaming game informer mac mac gaming macintosh portal portal 2 valve

Portal gets an update

March 5, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

Portal caught an update on Steam earlier this week, giving the game an extended ending and teasing some details from the previously announced sequel. Well, it wasn’t officially announced but it was definitely confirmed.

Hidden in the update were all sorts of little clues, the type that keep forum rats busy slaving over cryptic messages to find ASCII art. A lot of the “clues” were actually little jokes from the series, but some of the messages led to ASCII images and several messages from the founder of Aperture, Cave Johnson.

The Steam forums are burning the midnight oil to figure out the meaning behind the messages. I’ll give you a hint, guys – Valve will tell us more soon. Until then you’re going to be looking at a bunch of ambiguous clues pretending you can make sense of them.