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Far Cry 3 And The Stranger In A Strange Land Independent Games Festival finalist Audiosurf is coming to Steam. Wait! Don’t scroll away yet. Audiosurf is actually pretty cool, taking your existing music and generating race tracks and puzzle layouts for an intense rhythmic-puzzle-racer. It’s kind of like F-Zero meets Klax meets Phase, if that helps. It also happens to be the one first Steam-bound titles to take advantage of the recently announced Steamworks, which means it will come packed with those delicious achievements. But wait… there’s more.
If you snatch up Audiosurf, which comes in under ten bucks, you’ll also get a copy of The Orange Box‘s official soundtrack. Can your PC even handle this much value?!
Audiosurf [Steam]
First a thing about the name: I didn’t pick it. I think it’s hilarious, but I’d never name an award after myself, it’s obnoxious… and quite funny. Which is what I think the Rocky was going for. There are quite a few closet smart-arses over there. :)
So my annual pick for best video game ran in the Rocky Mountain News today and I picked Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare as the overall winner. The game beat out The Orange Box, Bioshock, Super Mario Galaxy and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.
Here’s why I decided to pick a war-time first-person shooter sequel over the splendor of a dystopian society, amazing character interaction of Uncharted and innovative design of Galaxy and Orange Box:
Loose dates and details have dripped out of Valve on the two new Team Fortress 2 maps—one of which is a Badlands remake—we learned about last month, according to report from Shacknews, as has more info on changes to the Medic class. As fans of the team-based FPS may be aware, the healer is the first to get a slew of achievements. What we didn’t know before was that Valve is apparently planning what Shacknews calls “a significant gameplay tweak for the class.” Hopefully, that means more than an ammo count for the syringe gun, but we’ll try to calm ourselves before we get too excited.
New TF2 Maps, Achievements and ‘Large Scale’ Gameplay Shift Within 2 Months [Shacknews]
I’ve made fun of NPR more than my fair share, but Heather Chaplin recently did an interesting piece regarding the “games that got away.” About 7 minutes of radio gives credit to three incredible games we’ve seen this year: Portal, Everyday Shooter, and Desktop Tower Defense.
It’s worth listening to just to hear Jonathan Mak call Everyday Shooter a “celebration of geometric sexuality.” And, of course, I don’t know that any Kotaku readers have overlooked any of these three games—but in case you have, yeah, it’s time to check them out. I just wish that the radio piece said a little less about GLaDOS, since her evolution of character is one of the most fascinating and surprising (yet gloriously inevitable) elements of Portal. Still, hopefully well-written stories like this on NPR help these games sink into the mainstream consciousness as much as they have our own.
newVideoPlayer("KotakuKristmasKard2_gawker.flv", 475, 376); Hmm…maybe we overdid it with the whole “K” for “Kotaku” theme, but we’ve put together a special holiday ecard just for our readers. Why? Clearly the internet is short of obnoxious electronic entertainment. And when Valve agreed to lend us the background of a certain very popular song from Portal, we just couldn’t help ourselves…
So from the entire Kotaku staff, happy holidays and merry whatever you celebrate. And to Valve, thank-you…and we’re very, very sorry.
Voices in order of butchery: Michael Fahey, Mark Wilson, Brian Crecente, Brian Crecente, Luke Plunkett. Lyrics by Fahey, Crecente and Wilson Video by Mark Wilson
If you didn’t find anything for the PC gamer on your list in our holiday gift guide, you may want to turn to Valve’s super duper Steam sale. Everything in the virtual store is between 10% and 50% off, including The Orange Box which is temporarily at the low, low price of $US 37.45. Other bargains? The id Super Pack, which contains 22 titles for $US 52.45. Think of the value!
Since Steam now supports gift giving, it’s going to be the easiest way to add a last minute Christmas gift that’s guaranteed to ship on time.
While I’d normally be content to shun “machinima”, following Valve’s impressively witty introductions to Heavy Weapons Guy and The Soldier, I now long for a Valve-produced feature on the characters of Team Fortress 2. Say, why not a Saturday morning cartoon? Based on the bar-raising intro to the game’s Engineer, seen above, it’s starting to become less of a request and more of a demand. Valve, I beg of you, at the very least include each of these cinematic mini-masterpieces on the game disc.
Valve just announced that the “pretty big announcement” the company teased in its weekly update is the early availability of the multiplayer shooter that’s sexier than Britney Spears’ VMA jigglefest—Team Fortress 2, natch—for The Orange Box pre-purchasers. PC gamers will not only save five bucks by pre-purchasing the Half-Life 2 mega bundle via Steam, they’ll also get access to the TF2 beta starting next Monday, nearly a month ahead of its commercial release date. The cherry crowning that delicious Valve brand of whipped topping is the tossing in of PopCap Games’ Peggle Extreme, a pachinko-esque arcade shooter.
Can you physically and mentally withstand this much value? If you need a moment to let the monstrous savings sink in, the press release will probably aid you in your quest.
We told you yesterday that Valve’s Orange Box would see a delay on the PS3 platform. But Valve wants to make sure everyone knows that’s it’s not the hardware, oh no. It’s a commuting thing. While PC and Xbox 360 work is done by the core team in the states, the PS3 version is handled by an EA UK group. And that’s like, thousands of kilometres away. Maybe tens of thousands. Maybe millions. No one knows for sure. So it takes longer. Especially when all communication is transfered by letters being transported by boats. Old ones. With sails. And masts. And poop decks.
That’s why Orange Box PS3 is going to come out a few weeks late. Now you know.
Valve explains PS3 Orange Box delay [eurogamer][image]
Remember that nasty rumour that the PLAYSTATION 3 version of Valve’s ultimate Half-Life 2 collection would arrive later than the rest? Consider it rumour no more. Gamespot has confirmed with Valve’s own Doug Lombardi that the PS3 SKU of The Orange Box will ship “a couple of weeks” after the PC and Xbox 360 versions. As Gamespot points out, retailer Gamestop currently offers up a November 13th release date for the collection that contains Half-Life 2, Team Fortress and Portal. While not solid confirmation, that’s over a month after the October 9th ship date for the other versions.
Anyone that is not currently shocked by this revelation, please raise your hands. PS3 owners sick of seeing games delayed, please extend your middle fingers and direct toward the appropriate parties.
PS3 Orange Box trailing 360, PC versions [Gamespot]
