Team Fortress 2 Beta Live
Posted by Mike Fahey at 11:35 PM on September 18, 2007
Things got a little tense last night while I was in my recuperative unconscious state regarding the Team Fortress 2 beta, which was set to go live for preorder peoples yesterday but as of midnight Eastern time hadn't. My tips email reads like an episodic volcanic eruption, stemmed at the very last minute as the game went live and playable at 11:30 or so Pacific time, thus fulfilling the September 17th prophecy. Oddly enough I had to go to the Steam forums to figure this out, as our helpful tipsters completely forgot to tell me that the problem had been solved, far too busy enjoying the game to drop us a line. I see how it is. We're only friends when you are angry, and that's okay. I'll take what I can get.









The latest update to the Smash Bros. Dojo! delivers details on the online multiplayer portion of the game and dammit, friend codes are still in effect. Every day I wake up and rush to the PC hoping to read an announcement about them going away, and every morning I die a little inside. Brawl players will be able to link up with their friends via impersonal strings of random numbers to battle it out online, complete with personalised, pre-entered messages mapped to the D-pad for taunting purposes. You can also opt to play random strangers, but without the personalised messages to keep the child predators at bay. Stats aren't kept for battles with strangers either, so you get all the fun of beating up random people with none of the joy of taunting, or indeed any proof that the match ever happened at all. Joy! Visit the Dojo yourself for more details and pretty pictures, and remember, "If you think of your opponent as a simple scarecrow, any psychological barriers may melt away."
While chatting with Tetsuya Mizuguchi, we touched on a variety of things. Things that matter. Like new Rez, more Ulala and Al Gore. What would be better than Rez remake? A Rez sequel. Miz didn't explicitly mention a totally new Rez, but did hint at his interest in doing a Rez sequel. So, why start off with the HD port?
Nothing says Halloween like Lumines. Or Christmas. Or summer vacation. On October 17th, Q Entertainment will be releasing a "Rockin' Holiday Pack" of 20 new Lumines Live! skins for Challenge Mode. Usual Q cohorts like Keiichi Sugiyama (Rez, Area 1) and H Ueda (Every Extend Extra Extreme) collaborated for this upcoming pack. Snowflakes and autumn leaves — so festive!




So, Every Extend Extra Extreme is coming to Xbox Live Arcade this October. But XBLA isn't the only game in town! When asked whether Every Extend Extra Extreme would be coming to Sony's PlayStation Network, Q Entertainment's Tetsuya Mizuguchi said:

Today's a hot day in Tokyo. Not burning hot, sticky hot. Not pleasant. Still, a good day nonetheless! Why? Kotaku Heavy Industries just got back from a visit to Mizuguchi's Q Entertainment, where we did a whole bunch of stuff. Like drink coffee as black as the very depths of Crecente's soul. And play Rez HD. And check out the new Every Extend Extra, as well as a new Lumines "Holiday Pack". Good times! Here's pictures.
It was a quick trip from our hotel to Q Entertainment where we had an early morning appointment with Mr. Rez himself, Tetsuya Mizuguchi. We discussed quite a few subjects that my esteemed colleagues will be filling you in on later, but I'm going to concentrate on Rez as, much to my delight, I was given the honor of being the first person outside of the Q offices to actually play it.
Man do I feel bad for Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb right now. Seems he was all set for his flight to Tokyo to attend TGS when he discovered his passport was missing. No passport equals no Tokyo, and as anyone who has ever tried can attest, getting a replacement passport on short notice is no easy task. Thankfully both TriXie and VideoMonkey will be there to cover the event for Xbox.com, but Larry will be heading back to Seattle tomorrow to spend the week catching up on work. 
Being a bit of a toy collector myself, I used to subscribe to ToyFare because it was an excellent bathroom reading material. Then one day they realised I had never actually paid for my subscription, which is why the folks over at bits, bytes, pixels and sprites caught this highly detailed NECA figure of Altair from Assassin's Creed. It's due out in November to coincide with the game's release, and will most likely end up a one-shot. Assassin's just don't lend themselves well to plucky, action-figure friendly sidekicks. 



It seems sort of odd to me to have a video game cross-promotion that encourages you to injest the friends and loved ones of the game's protagonist, but that's exactly what Konami and Nestle Waters North America are doing with the "Green With Envy" campaign, which pairs up young Dewy the water droplet with Aquapod Natural Spring Water for kids. A nationwide contest and sweepstakes is being launched that could net health-conscious families an 'eco-adventure' to Costa Rica and copies of the game itself. Behind the sweepstakes is a multi-million dollar print, internet, radio, television, and in-store advertising campaign to help deliver a health message to children and of course, sell video games. Dewy art is appearing as we speak on bottles of Poland Spring, Deer Park, Zephyrhills, Ozarka and Ice Mountain
In all honestly, calling E For All's announced 2008 show dates a conflict with PAX 08 is like calling getting poked in the eye with a sharp stick a conflict with free candy. Obviously people are going to pick one over the other, and in E For All's situation it truly is a case of move it or lose it. It's like they are trying to perfect some kind of twisted game expo that no one wants to go to. They're afraid a few people might show up this year, and they've decided to fix all of that by scheduling the event opposite PAX next year. The point I am trying to make is Penny Arcade's Robert Khoo is a lot more diplomatic than I am. FiringSquad recently interviewed Khoo about the whole messy situation. 
Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder is a PC adventure horror game coming out next month from Lighthouse Interactive. It's inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft, which means it will either be amazingly chilling and disturbing or they'll go overboard and it will come across as just plain goofy. You tread a thin line when you draw inspiration from Cthulu's daddy. The story involves you investigating the death of a rich man who was involved with the occult, which leads you on a harrowing journey into the depths of horror that lurk within the human psyche. Head on over to 






Kotakuite Jason sends in this picture of his friend, who is just begging to have a tiny guy shimmy his way up his body to plunge a sword into his abdomen. The gods of irony are watching your friend's weak point tattoo very closely Jason.
Koei knows war, so it comes as no surprise that they're going all out to bring you the very best that one of the longest wars in history has to offer in the upcoming Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War. Sure, they could have just included your standard calvary units amongst the archer and spearmen units showcased in the screenshot gallery below, but that would be too plain. Instead, Koei has unleashed war elephants! How do you stop a war elephant? You don't sir, unless you're an elf who can't spell elephant, and unless I am mistaken the elves died out way before the 100 Years' War. Pay attention in history class kids and you too can have stunningly accurate discussions of historical warfare just like mine.
Pirates of the Burning Sea has become the official video game of International Talk Like A Pirate Day (September 19th), and to celebrate they are raiding the coastline of Seattle, causing a right ruckus in the streets, and hanging about the Seattle Aquarium looking swarthy and unkempt. Local Seattle pirate group SeaFair Pirates will be on hand, offering tours of the waterfront on their pirate ship, and you'll get a chance to meet the devs and get some hands-on time with Pirates of the Burning Sea. There'll even be an appearance by Talk Like A Pirate originators John "Ol' Chumbucket" Baur and Mark "Cap'n Slappy" Summers, commemorating the game's official pirate status. You can hit the jump for more details, though I would suggest
Several members of the Nintendo NSider forums have mailed us today to inform us that the popular community forums have been closed. Members seeking to continue discussions today are being greeted by the following message:
Someone really needs to tell the people in East Asian countries to stop gaming before they die. Maybe a free latte policy for the 100 or so patrons who fled the cybercafé in Guangzhou this weekend after witnessing the death of the 30 year-old man who had been gaming for three days straight. Watching a person die from lack of common sense always makes me thirsty.
On the left you will see Rufus. Rufus didn't want a replica Spartan helmet, so you might have him to thank if you run out to the store real quick and still find a preorder available for the Halo 3 Legendary Edition here in the states. A Microsoft spokesman told GamesIndustry.biz that while there are still quantities left for preorder, they are on course to be completely sold out by launch day next week. They've already sold out in the UK, so don't wait until they start showing up on eBay complete with pictures of very relieved felines. And don't worry about Rufus there. I'm dressing him up like Pinhead from Hellraiser as soon as I find my tiny hammer.
The World Cyber Games National Final is over, and as the smoke clears and paramedics carry the battered bodies of the fallen from the fetid field of war, twenty-two figures stand silhouetted in the bright Universal Orlando Resort spotlights, ready to represent our country in the coming battle. Men like Need for Speed: Carbon Champion Kamram Siddiqui from Orlando Florida, and Dead or Alive 4 Champ Carl White from Toledo Ohio. Those two and twenty more bravely listed in the press release below will take to the battlefield on last time at the World Cyber Games 2007 Grand Final in Seattle Washington October 4-7, testing their mettle against 700 gamers from 75 countries for a chance at gold medals, cash, and prizes... but that matters not. Nay, these fine men and possibly women fight for America, ladies and gentlemen. For our freedom and glory. Okay, my hyperbole gland just burst. Hit up the press release while I hunt for a band-aid.
When the Earth's most powerful spaceship is invaded by pirates and a weapon system powerful enough to annihilate an entire planet is compromised, only one man can shut down the weapon arming terminals before it's too late. That man is Cale 'Trigger' Mollens. His haircut cries emo but the goatee and snarl ooze badass. In Dusk2Dawn Interactive's new FPS Lockdown, you'll play Cale as he works his way through 21 levels of fast-paced action while receiving help and advice from your fellow crew members. The game's twist? One of the crew members might be a traitor, so as the storyline unfolds you'll have to figure out who you can and cannot trust. An interesting concept if done well. Let's hope the writers for Lockdown are better than the character designers. The PC game should be hitting the UK either late this year or early the next, with other territories following after.
Scott A. Steinberg has been marketing the hell out of the electronic entertainment sector for over 20 years, having worked with Sega, Roxio, Liquid Audio, Eidos, and Crystal Dynamics. Now he's leaving his current VP of marketing position at Sega to jump onboard the Sony Computer Entertainment America train as the Vice President of Product Marketing, a newly created position responsible for all PlayStation marketing in North America. Steinberg will report directly to Marketing and PSN senior VP Peter Dille, who had lovely things to say about him.
What's a warranty when your Wii could be this freaking pretty? Talismoon has released their Evolve series of replacement cases for the Wii, and my great love of shiny things throbbing as I flip through the gallery below. Judging from the look the cases they fall into the "easy unless you're stupid" category of system mods, even including a fully-assembled front panel so you don't have to fiddle with buttons falling out all over the place. The $US 39.99 Evolve cases come in eight delicious flavors: Abyss Blade, Black Katana, Blue Bushido, Green Tanto, Pink Geisha, Red Ronin (of course), Silver Shuriken, and Stealth Assassin. I'm trying to figure out what their theme is, but for the life of me it keeps escaping me. All I know is my Wii warranty is up in two months, and I'm a sucker for a chrome finish. Hit up the
You got to hand it to Larry Hryb. Even while he is sitting in the Orlando airport waiting for a plane to the Tokyo Game Show, he still has time to let us know that Sega has slapped 691MB of pure racing fury up on Xbox Live for your demoing enjoyment. Sega Rally takes the Sega Rally series into the next-generation (or current gen, if you're counting), with deformable terrain, and smashable scenery to careen wildly into in one of over 30 vehicles. The single player demo is available everywhere Xbox 360's are sold except for Asia, though that might be redundant.
After eleven successful years in China with their Shanghai studios, Ubisoft today announces the creation of Ubisoft Chengdu. Having long been an established centre for the electronics and IT industry, the city boasts upwards of 35,000 programming graduates a year, more than enough to bolster the new studio's ranks from the beginning 10 team members to its goal of 200 over the next year.
The man you see to the left there is a man serious as a heart-attack about his Yoshi's Story. Sure, some may swear by Yoshi's Island, or the puzzle-tastic Yoshi's Cookie, but Story is where it's at. I won't be buying it, as I obviously have it, but snagging the N64 game for 1000 points is highly recommended. Joining Yoshi this week are Genesis launch title Super Thunder Blade (800 points), and World Class Baseball for the TurboGrafx16 (600 points), neither of which hold a candle to a chorus of singing, multi-colored Yoshi's on a quest through a stitched-together land to save the Super Happy Tree.
The company behind the Colin McRae series of rally car video games remembers the racing legend.