Left 4 Dead 2 vs. Team Fortress 2
I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone ported the maps between these two games. We’ve already had plenty of examples of this in the past, such as the western front being transported to the deserts as de_dust became a Day of Defeat favourite. However, this port differs slightly in actually making use of the mechanics of Badwater Basin’s payload rules, having the survivors attempt to fuel the cart to its destination, under attack from the zombie hordes. Not quite sure the mood got carried over though!
Files available for download here.
Red Army Company of Heroes Mini-League #1
A common sight on my screen
After a splash of preparation, the first Red Army Company of Heroes Mini-League finally got underway last night, with three games in mixed teams on Ecliptic Fields.
Schlennsen and Unkraut vs. Chez and Fox
Getting the season off to a start with same-language partners was probably a good move; playing teams we hadn’t touched in several months, less so. The scores pretty much say it all, although there were moments when we felt to be putting up at least some resistance! Perhaps the most worrying point was when, several minutes into the match, Fox re-discovered how to construct buildings.
Final score: 500 – 49
Chez and Fox vs. Schlennsen and Unkraut
Not put out by our first loss, we swapped sides, this time playing perhaps our most comfortable side, the Allies. Things started better than last time, Fox setting up a respectable nut for the opponents to crack their troops against, Unkraut and myself playing a real game of yo-yos over the battlefield on the opposite flank. Unfortunately for us, Schlennsen found a gap in the defenses and moved in behind Fox’s position. Some depressingly inaccurate mortar fire couldn’t hold off the assault, and in the end the game ended even more drastically for us than the first! A last ditch attempt made sure we didn’t end up with a complete whitewash.
Final score: 12 – 500
Chez and Unkraut vs. Fox and Schlennsen
Exhausting our encounters for the season, it was time to mix the teams up a bit. This game was certainly much closer than the previous two, with the reduction in communication in no way hampering the level of play. Unkraut and myself took an early lead, despite losing one flank of the field completely to Schlennsen’s troops, whilst a real stalemate situation developed on the other flank as Fox and myself played tennis with the points. A few successful assaults by Fox and Schlennsen, however, sealed the deal, as Unkraut and myself ended up forced back to base to lick our wounds, whilst the other two had enough spare resources to call in a pair of Panthers apiece. The resulting blitzkrieg saw the first annihilation of the league so far.
Final score: 356 – 500
More information on sign-ups and any future leagues can be found on our forums, whilst matches results, details and demos can all be found on the under construction league site.
Dark Side of the Moon: For the 8-bit generation
In keeping with the random retroness that appears on this site occasionally, here’s a special little post celebrating the release of Pink Floyd’s classic Dark Side of the Moon… in all-new 8-bit glory! You can find the rest of the album re-written for NES here.
Company of Heroes by Fives
The first in a one-game series of reviews for this site, stripping Company of Heroes down into five of the best and worst facets of its character. Inspired by this year’s release of the Eastern Front mod, which finally brought the Red Army into the game (Ура!) and by our forthcoming mini-league. Enjoy!
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Steam evolution
I'm a surprise...
As I have mentioned elsewhere, Steam has come a long way since its initial release, but there’s still swathes of potential to be unlocked if only the development team would make some steps in the right direction. So I’ll get ready to eat a couple of my words when I say that there are some very welcome changes being worked on under the hood.
If anyone’s been brave enough to try it, there’s a new beta UI* that was released a wee while ago, which promises various enhancements to the current look, as well as swapping out the IE-powered browser for a Webkit model (same engine powering Safari and Chrome). Aside from being faster, more standards compliant and generally more up-to-date, the browser engine is safely cross-platform. Along with some files hidden away in the new UI, and some leaked adverts and whatnot, the latest information is that Valve plan to port Steam to Mac OS X to be released some time this year, and that the upcoming Portal 2 will indeed be playable on Mac.
Some pretty decent news all round, in my opinion. There are already a number of titles on Steam that could potentially be played natively on Mac, if the service had supported it on release, and this news can only have a positive impact on the number of games sold and released for the system. And presumably if Portal 2 is released successfully, Valve may make it their policy to release games for both systems in future, just as id once did for ‘coding practise.’ Now the question remains, just how long will we have to wait before Linux compatible binaries are released?
*Quick word of warning, when I tried the new UI my fonts disappeared and I had to re-download some games that somehow went missing.