Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Let's talk turkey

Too many games to play right now. No mapping. No blogging. Must be time for another playlist!

Left 4 Dead 2

My experience with the demo was just the tip of the iceberg. L4D2 takes away all of the 'cheapness' of the first game (corner/closet camping) and forces players to experience L4D the way it was meant to be played. The new infected and crescendo events are game changing. You better get your head right, because what works in L4D will get you killed fast in this game. A whole new approach is required to be successful.

Valve didn't just 'fix' the basic gameplay and call it a day. The new levels set a higher standard in level design. Of course the visuals look stunning, but the atmosphere is like nothing you have experienced before: The constant bombings by the military in The Parish. The interactive games in the Dark Carnival. Opening the elevator doors to discover the whole floor is engulfed in an inferno, an inferno that you must traverse to safety in Dead Center's first level. Coming out of the safe house in Hard Rain to discover the rain has turned into a full-on thunderstorm. Then when you're out in the open the real storm hits.

After decapitating an infected with a fire axe you may never want to pick up a pistol again.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Infinity Ward has mastered the single player FPS experience. Great gameplay, interesting storyline, and stunning visuals abound. Too bad it's over in 5 hrs.

Dragon Age

I really liked this game from the word go. A few hours into it and I'm starting to get antsy. My party wipes nearly every battle, and the frustration is starting to catch up and overwhelm my enjoyment of the game. Only through carefully planning my battles am I able to make it through unscathed. By "carefully planning" I mean hitting the pause button every 2 seconds of play to issue commands. It's getting old fast and I worry that the party members and skills I chose are the reason for my joy being held prisoner. I'm not so far into the game that a restart isn't out of the question, but my fear is that I'll not want to play the game again after doing so.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving and I hope to have some mapping updates for you after the holiday!

V out.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Tour de force

Work has progressed at a good pace on my Left 4 Dead campaign project. The first level is fully blocked in now and merely awaits a few fixes - some major and others minor - and should be on deck for some real testing soon.

I started my first WIP (work in progress) thread on a public forum this week. I've exposed my work before, but baring my work to the critical eye of a much larger electorate than what I enjoy at this url is another beast altogether. Fortunately, my skill tree has many points invested in the moderator proficiency at the heretofore linked site and am not against annointing someone's captious brow with a healthy does of ban should the situation require it.

Kidding aside, if you are at all interested in the virtuous hobby of level design as it pertains to L4D, I strongly encourage you to register at the site linked above. Knowledgeable chaps, good feedback, and a strong desire by most to help out new recruits to our venerable field a good mapping website makes.

I've come to realize over the past few days my mind has subconsciously boycotted any further play of Borderlands. The continued lack of PC support after the consoles were patched within a week is annoying at best, infuriating at worst. The announcement of DLC for the console owners (in the form of zombies! no less) with nary a word whispered for the PC is equally egregious. There are other games more worthy of my time investment at this time of the year.

In stark comparison Dragon Age was obviously designed for the PC and is a tour de force of solid story and excellent gameplay. If only for the reason it lets me say things like 'tour de force' - and mean it- does Dragon Age deserve my love and commitment. If you even remotely like RPGs, give it a look.

Friday, October 30, 2009

My playlist

I gave myself this week off from mapping and blogging. Between new game releases, pumpkin carving, and my 5th wedding anniversary creative endeavors weren't something I wanted to make time for. Since I don't have anything to update on the campaign, I'll give you some details on the games I'm playing instead.

Left 4 Dead


As anyone who reads this blog knows I'm a huge fan of anything Valve does. Nearly a year after it's release and I still can't get enough L4D. With a good group of team players, even losing becomes fun. The game still has it's share of griefers, but if you haven't made some decent friends while playing this game you're doing it wrong.

The new Crash Course campaign hit very recently and I'm really digging it. Releasing it with only 2 levels vs. the customary 5 will lead the haters to believe it's something quickly slapped together. No doubt they'll sermonize it's to keep us from crying wolf regarding L4D's supposed lack of support in the face of L4D2's imminent emergence. While playable in co-op, the strength of Crash Course rests in versus mode. One of the biggest gripes about versus previously was the length of time it takes to complete: no less than 2 hours in most cases. CC solves that issue making the game more accessible for folks without enough free time.

I'm 25 hours away from hitting 500 hours of total play time in L4D. Over a year, that averages out to around 45 min/per day spent killing infected. I've spent a little over a dime a day for this particular piece of entertainment. Money well spent.

Borderlands

I pre-ordered this a while back completely on a whim. Already being a fan of Fallout, Diablo 2, and FPS games in general made it easy to say 'yes' to Borderlands. I can honestly say I wouldn't have pre-ordered were it not for Steam. Making impulse buying decisions from my office chair is something I'm going to have to resist in the future, but I'm very pleased with this one. After all, $33.75 (bought in a 4-pack with some clan mates) is a great price for a brand-new release.

I won't talk up this game quite as much as L4D or L4D2. There are some glaring problems the developer should address immediately. Allow me to just hit the highlights:
  • In co-op, voice chat is always on. No option to toggle off. Playing with heavy breathers is not recommended.
  • The menus are extremely clunky and unintuitive. PageUp and PageDown?!? Are you serious? Good luck equipping the weapon you want on the first try.
  • Loot drops are free-for-all. Better play this with friends.
  • Steam is not integrated. You don't use your friend list, no invites, no 'join game' options. In it's place? Gamespy.
  • No trade system in place. You have to just drop your shit on the ground. Again, play this with friends.
  • Items you can't pick up (ammo/health when you are already at max) still glow like you could.

Despite these annoyances, the game is fantastic. If you like any combination of the games I mentioned 2 paragraphs above, you owe it to yourself to give this game a look. It's hard to put a point on any one thing that makes the game so good. The loot-hunting addiction I had with Diablo 2 is here in full force: weapons, grenades, shields can come with unique traits and stats. Finding a new unique item is always a thrill. The environments are great to look at, the art design is executed well. The core FPS gameplay is solid too. I guess if I had to point at one thing, it would be the co-op. Single player is good, but playing with friends is great. On par with L4D's co-op campaign experience which is high praise coming from a Valve boy like myself.

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

This is an older game I finally got time to try. I keep putting it down out of frustrations brought on by some very poor design choices: cut-scenes are not skippable, no save anywhere function, vague puzzles. I keep coming back to it because of one superior design choice: incredible atmosphere. The game is very scary and that's enough to make me muddle through. I shouldn't have to download a developer's save file to get past a game-breaking bug. I shouldn't...but I did anyway. Too bad this game didn't have more time spent on it in development. I can't recommend it for everyone.

Left 4 Dead 2 demo

Take everything I love about Left 4 Dead and double it. It doesn't do much to change the tried and true formula: kill zombies on your way to the next safe-room (versus mode is not available in the demo). What it does change is how the game is played. Even on normal it doesn't allow survivors to hole up in a corner and take on the hordes. With the new special infected and new panic events, the game forces you out in the open and makes teamwork even more crucial than before.

I won't say much more about it - the demo is very short - but L4D2 is something you have to experience in order to fully appreciate what Valve has done to build on L4D.

Torchlight demo

Take everything you liked about Diablo 2. Mix in beautiful graphics that can be viewed at a reasonable resoltion. Finally, add a dog companion who can take your extra loot back to town and sell it for you. Instant awesome.

I should mention my wife got me Dragon Age: Origins for an anniversary gift. It releases next week. God willing, I'll be able to put it down long enough to get some level design work accomplished and update this blog.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Making the transition

My apologies for not getting a blog entry up Wednesday. Truth be told, there wasn't much to report on the progress of my level. I spent far more of my free time checking out custom maps to see what other authors have done as opposed to building my own. Gotta scout the competition every now and again, right?

Got back on track Thursday. The decision I mentioned Monday to decrease the campaign into 2 maps necessitated the need for some changes to the level design. First, I needed to make the map a bit lengthier. Second, I didn't want to use the design from our 5 level campaign. I had been using it this entire time, but - truth be told - I had deviated enough from the orginal layout so that this is not as big a deal as it could have been (would not have cared much for rebuilding what I had already done).

Here are a few updated images of my progress:

1.) Updated image of the view from spawn area. Notice the small bus yard building is now visible from here as opposed to the open area previously occupied by a house.


2.) Added a light by the service entrance and changed the door model up. Keep needing to remind myself most areas would have boarded up their homes, businesses, etc...


3.) Closer view of the bus yard (rear-view). Changed the fence texture to chain-link. New route goes over the dumpster instead of through the fence as before. This area may be too open. Need to make sure infected players have decent attack areas. Trying to keep this in mind as I build. Balancing the infected's needs with the survivor's is key to making this level fun.


4.) This is just over the dumpster, still behind the bus yard. This route leads to a backyard and transitions to a residential area.


5.) We transition back to a commerical area here. Look at the fence and you can see this area goes uphill. Ignore the humvees tire clipping the sidewalk. Path leads through covered alleyway. Probably need another light or two in this area.


6.) Wanted to get a good screen of the area behind the spawn. I want to link this map with the end of Crash Course and the start of Death Toll. I have some cool ideas on how to link the finale to Death Toll. Can't wait to share them with you in a future update.


7.) This is as far as I've gotten. The area on the other side of the fence is where the covered alley from pic 5 leads to. Yes, you will be climbing that fire escape. :)

Hope this update was worth the wait. Keep in mind: Borderlands AND the Left 4 Dead 2 demo hits next week. Can't promise I'll have anything to report. :3

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

No mistake.


The child is my son.

Monday, October 19, 2009

A small blog.

No updates or screenshots today. It was a busy weekend that, unfortunately, didn't afford much time to get any mapping done. I have put a lot of thought into how best to handle the line between commercial and residential structures. I've come up with a few ideas on how best to blur the line between these two areas and feel like I'm getting a better grasp on how to present a place as a real place. Also, I've decided to make this a 2 map campaign in the same vein as Valve's recent Crash Course. It will take place between the end of Crash Course and the start of Death Toll.

Should have more for you on Wednesday.

V out.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Building buildings



Unfortunately no in-game shots today. I took Thursday off from mapping, but got quite a bit accomplished today. I replaced all of the copy and paste houses from Valve's map with placeholder buildings of my own. Also got a couple of buildings placed. You may notice the open field is no longer present next to the apartments. I decided there was a great deal visible in this space and came up with a bus yard to keep the engine from rendering too much. This area is obviously a dividing line between commercial and residential zones and I'm trying to make it fit without seeming to be too jarring of a transition.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Going out of doors...

I kept my word and pulled myself away from the spawn area after a week's effort. Really could have spent more time on it, but the rest of the level desperately needs some TLC. Was able to work my way forward in the level a good bit. Trying to leave myself spots where I could extend the level or shorten it if need be depending on how testing goes. Hoping to have the first test for this level by the end of the month. No promises, but I would like to keep my present pace if possible.

The only screens I have for you today are in-editor. Not far enough along to start compiling without seeing a large amount of developer textures, but I may have a few in-game shots for you by Friday. Without further ado:


(Yes, those houses are copied and pasted direct from Death Toll. No, I'm not using them for anything more than a placeholder.)

Took my level work outdoors yesterday. Walked around an older part of Knoxville to snap some reference images, looking specifically for places that could pass for abandoned warehouses and alleyways. Came away with some good pics and definitely got what I came for. Thinking about visiting the riverside area for some more ideas (the level I am working on contains an area close to the ocean and has a dock).




All in all, I feel the level is progressing nicely. This is the furthest along I've ever come on a project and my confidence in being able to actually see it through to the end is higher than it's ever been.

Van out.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

More images...



Finally solved the issue I had getting fire to work in-game. It took having a fog_controller entity present and hitting the right flag options on env_fire. You may notice I changed the spawn a little further...the rescue vehicle is no longer wrecked. I got to thinking I needed something behind the survivors to block off the level. While I enjoyed the idea of having the survivors wreck to start the level, it gradually occurred to me they couldn't drive through whatever I put behind them. I can't exactly have an open road back there. Maybe I can come up with a way for it to make sense later, but I think that's all the tinkering I'll do for now with the spawn area.

The next images you see will be of the entire level and I'm really excited to connect this part with the rest of it all. I'm working hard to make the level tell a story to the player about what happened before they came along. Forcing myself to consider the landscape I am creating as a place that could exist in the real world (sans zombies) has stepped my work up a notch. Let me know what you think of what I am doing. Would love to hear your opinions and ideas!

V out.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Work continues...

First, a small image dump:





Got a lot more work done on the reworked spawn area. Having trouble getting fire to function properly. I'm missing a step somewhere and can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I spent too much time trying to solve this problem or would have been able to get much more done on this. Despite the delay today, I'm very pleased with how my work is progressing. Looking forward to connecting this up with the rest of the map and getting back to work on the campaign as a whole.


Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Working on the spawn 'room'.

On a whim I cracked open the Left 4 Dead campaign me and some friends had been working on. After playing Crash Course I really started thinking about how the campaigns can link to one another and a thought occurred to me: the first level of a campaign always has an open spawn area. None of the spawn locations are enclosed. Ours was...

Not anymore! Be aware this is only a view from the level editor program and is very much a work in progress.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Prevarications

By now it's safe to assume none of you believe a damn thing I say. Making a gaming blog he says. Gonna create a Left 4 Dead campaign he claims. It's not news to me. I know I'm full of crap. See, my problem is spending more time playing games than making/writing about them. Being a gamer is somehow written into my DNA. It's not my fault. Really.

On that note, I finally managed to pull myself away from Lord of the Rings Online for a break. I rediscovered Team Fortress 2 and of course the new content for L4D has me killing zombies again every night. Also, as weird as it sounds I played and finished Jak and Daxter for the PS2. Not sure how it happened, but it was a very enjoyable game all the same. Additionally, I'm pretty deep into Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker and just wrapped up Crysis.

I managed to find time to sketch out a TF2 map and am pretty happy with how it is turning out. It's for the new King-of-the-Hill gametype and looks to be something I can actually finish.

Have a look (click to enlarge):




This doesn't mean the L4D campaign is shelved by any means. It's just been hard to stay motivated to work on it while not playing the game for such a long while. Now that I'm back to playing nightly and with L4D2 just around the corner, I'm sure my work on it will pick up.

You believe me, right?

Monday, August 10, 2009

Not goodbye.

It has become increasingly easy to ration a larger portion of my gaming time to The Lord of the Rings Online. By "larger" what I really mean to say is "the entire". I never reckoned to think I would ever install an MMO, let alone play one to the exclusion of all other games! It happened though. Bit by bit, LotRO has surpassed Left 4 Dead and become my game of choice.

The idea of paying a monthly fee no longer rankles as it once did. At $9.99/month LotRO is obviously one of the better bargains in the MMO-verse, but I would happily pay more. Much more.


I should note that this will be the last blog from me for awhile. The future of Vanderblog is up in the air right now. A friend and I are looking to start a gaming blog of our own and it is likely I won't have time for this blog (even more likely that any material I would normally write about in Vanderblog will end up in the new blog anyway).

I'll post a link and more info when it becomes available.

Van out!

p.s. check out the Batman Arkham Asylum demo (yes, it's on Steam). Good stuff.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Episode 2.5

Matt Bortolino has made me realize just how much I really am pining for Half-Life 2: Episode 3. Research and Development is a new mod for HL:E2 that prompts the player to remember just how damned cool the physics can be in the Source Engine. Those of us wondering wtf is taking Valve so long to get Episode 3 out the door would do well to give this free mod a look.

R and D treats you to many different play styles all while never having the character pick up a gun. You might think it no fun to play through a HL2 mod without a gun, but you might be wrong. Each level and each puzzle is clever and thought provoking without being too hard (well, most of them aren't). Enemies still abound, and you have to dispose of them in order to progress, but the design of the game is such that you shall never miss the gun that you don't have.

The enviroments are well crafted and very nice to look at. Everything about the production of this free mod is so well done you will swear it of Valvian origins. It all culminates in a boss battle that makes me grin to think about even now, and not in a funny way either. More like a Holy-Crap-I-Can't-Believe-This-Is-So-Much-Fun grin. I won't spoil it for you, just play it and you'll understand why this will soon be the best single player HL2 mod you've ever played.

Still having a blast playing Lord of the Rings Online. Unable to choose between the Hunter or Minstrel class for main character, so I'll just play them both for now thank you.

Van out

*Edit* Holy crap!


Saturday, July 4, 2009

At the press of a button...

Lord of the Rings Online has gotten it's hooks in me. Puttering around in the starter town before, pretending to play the game, I barely eclipsed the 12 hour mark in total playtime. Now, with over 50 hours banked, I am a new man about town in Bree Land.

Crafting isn't something I ever tried before. Or increasing my reputation. Or earning titles. Or accomplishing deeds. Now, it's difficult to imagine the game without these things. Since learning how to play the game...I find I actually enjoy the game much more than before. Combine this with a new $9.99/month subscription plan and you have a game I will be playing for a long time to come.

Work continues on the Left 4 Dead campaign at a tortoise's pace. Despite our best efforts though, we're nearly ready for a playtest of the first level. Our creative braintrust will be put to the test in an effort to make this campaign the creepiest one available from the community.

I'm playing LotRO and L4D with equal enthusiasm right now. I'm also on the lookout for a genuinely scary game right now. I snatched up the Penumbra trilogy when it was on sale via Steam. I installed Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. Still haven't found anything that grabbed me the way Dead Space did. I still plan to play these games through to completion, but does anyone have a recommendation?



The lightsabers they have nowadays are kickass. The blade extends at the press of a button. I cannot find anything cooler than this simple concept.


Parting shots:
- I hit 400 hours played in L4D.
- There is NOTHING on tv right now.
- Valve's new format for installing custom campaigns in L4D is brilliant.
- poison ivy can grow in your backyard.
- Dam It! is the best custom campaign played thus far.

Van out.

Friday, June 19, 2009

A new enemy lurks...

In the murky pre-dawn hours of Thursday morning an affliction was set loose upon my back. Upon awakening I discover previously simple movements have become painful and agonizingly slow. In one fell swoop I am reduced to tank-like efficiency: my head no longer comfortably pivots on my neck, turning my body as a whole is now necessary in order to glance at my periphery. Like a reject from an early Resident Evil game, I stumbled out of bed and headlong into my new dreary existence.

I, like many gamers who have come before me, do not practice good posture. Slouch all day in an office chair at work. Slouch most of the night before bed in an office chair at home. I am become the slouch...and it is my back whom now must pay the terrible toll.

Like any gamer worth his weight in Mountain Dew, I sought better 'gear' to equip myself with to facilitate my quest to slay my enemies. I asked for - and received - a better office chair as my Father's Day gift. Now properly equipped, I seek to do battle with my sad posture of the day previous. The battle will be glorious, but victory is not assured.

If I do not return...tell my family I love them.

V out.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

The most fun you can have in 5 minutes


I played a fun little browser game over the weekend called Little Wheel. You take the role of a small robot tasked by the fates to restore power to his robot world. Using only the left-click button you navigate your robotic-self through clever puzzles which bring you closer to your final goal.

The game lasts all of 10 minutes - if that - but you 'll find yourself wishing it lasted longer. The cartoon graphics are very well done and the physics is very believable: cable cars sway, construction cranes swing obstacles around, objects - yourself included - crash about the environments realistically.

This is the most fun I've ever had with a free browser game. Check it out when a spare moment presents itself. I highly recommend it.

You can find it at this link: http://fastgames.com/littlewheel.html

- Vander out

Monday, June 15, 2009

Rolling on the River

I finally made the upgrade to Windows 7 last week. Feeling lazy, I didn't do a fresh install, opting instead to simply upgrade Vista. Installing my new OS was painless - I've installed games which gave me more grief. Now that I've had a chance to tool around and plumb it's depths, I really like what 7 has to offer. The Windows bar at the bottom now automatically groups all windows from the same program into one button. Don't have something highlighted? It doesn't show on your screen, the OS now conveniently hides it. Icons in the system tray now are accessed by one measly arrow button that displays them all. The desktop now looks much more streamlined and cleaner, free of the clutter present in previous iterations.


It looks pretty, but how does it perform? Glad you asked. Bye bye Mr. Bluescreen Crash everytime I reboot. Adios to Left 4 Dead freezing my entire system, forcing a hard reboot, once a week. So long to programs refusing to close even when using Task Manager. Every problem I had with Vista has ceased to be a problem. A shame this couldn't have been all part of a service pack for Vista. At the very least, it's nice to be able to use it for free until this time next year.

I know, I should probably be mad...this after all is what Vista should have been all along. I should be mad since I've basically been a paying participant in a Microsoft beta test. Oddly, I'm fine with that. Call me a sucker if you like, but I understood a long time ago this hobby would have it's share of headaches. It's not like I have another option anyway. What am I gonna do? Get a Mac?!

Hit me again Ike.

V out

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Great Expectations


I purchased Left 4 Dead under no false pretense. There is a simple mathematical formula involved for me whenever Valve releases a new title: New Valve game = me buy. It really is that simple. I purchase everything they make. Period. There are very few companies that possess my loyalty in the same way Valve does. Gabe Newell's announcement of support akin to what we have for Team Fortress 2 played no role in my purchasing decision (see above formula). I will admit to initially feeling a little miffed by the quick announcement of L4D2. Not for the reasons you may think though: I was really hoping for some word on Half-Life 2: Episode 3.

Many are crying wolf on the lack of DLC promised by Gabe. I can understand this to a point, but history bears remembrance in this instance: The Survival Pack came out right about the same time the GoldRush update hit TF2 in relation to it's release. Sure, a new campaign would have been great. I'll be the first to say I was a bit crestfallen when there was no new campaign to be seen in the Survival Pack. My dismay quickly passed for 2 reasons: I now had 2 more campaigns to play through in Versus mode. Considering the mileage I gleaned from No Mercy and Blood Harvest, Dead Air and Death Toll should cover me adequately for a long while.

Not everyone liked the Survival Pack as much as me. Conversely, not everyone cared for the Goldrush Update either. Different strokes and all of that. The important thing to take from this is that Valve is supporting L4D no different from TF2 at this point in it's life cycle. Valve has spent the last 7 months working on L4D2. During this time we got regular gameplay patches and the Survival Pack for L4D. If the support falls off for L4D, I'll be the first to call them on the carpet. For now, they are right on track with their previous effort. Let's give them an opportunity to not keep their word before blasting them for creating a sequel.

*whew*

Speaking of L4D, Valve also made it clear any maps made with the new Authoring Tools will work in L4D2. Those were good words to hear since work continued on our campaign this week. Most of the first level is blocked in and I'm in the process of shaping out the level beyond simple blocks. Our resident blueprint creator handed me a layout for a crucial interior portion of the design this week. This will consume most of my time for the next few evenings and I'm really excited to see how it turns out in-game. Howsabout a screenshot you say? Here's an in-editor look at the level layout thus far:



After 2 crashes in last night's L4d scrimmage and the inability to play Knights of the Old Republic without some annoying finaglework on my part....I think it's time to put Vista out to pasture. By "out to pasture" I mean "take it off life support and let it die". I had fancied going back to XP, but I hear good things about Windows 7. The Release Candidate is available to anyone who wants it and I've yet to hear a bad thing be said against it. Looks like Vista was just a beta test.


Parting shots:

- Jericho is still enjoyable 4 episodes into Season 1.
- Nightshift was an incredible collection of short stories, complete with mini-sequel to 'Salem's Lot, my favorite King novel so far.
- I still haven't canceled my LotRO subscription.
- I ordered Volume 1-4 of the Walking Dead, can't wait to dive into those.
- My son has a habit of deleting save files. Goodbye progress on Yoshi's Island!

V out.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Simple is good.



I finished up Mirror's Edge today. First PC game on my backlog to hit the completed list since Dead Space earlier this year. I felt like I should have been finishing Bioshock at first, but that notion quickly passed. Bioshock had it's turn to capture my attention, and I'm sure I'll come back to play it again someday soon. ME is a beautiful game. Everything is clean and angular. No dust, dirt, or grime mucks up this game's environs. Most buildings you come across are composed of only a single color inside. The design choice turns out to be very solid. You don't take the time to sniff out the details most other games provide. The game wants you to be moving at all times, having a prettied up bit of scenery to distract is only going to get the player killed. It saves breathtaking rooftop views and other wow-details for when the action slows down. ME uses the minimalist approach works very well while still managing to be aesthetically pleasing. Especially when you consider this is the UnReal Engine at work.

The game controls are remarkably intuitive and only one or 2 input keys are required during most levels. Despite this simplicity, the game never got dull or repetitive for me. Leaping from rooftop to rooftop, vaulting over fences, and otherwise weaving my way through obstacles was fun. Sprinkle in a few cops or a helicopter trying to pace you and it becomes a hellishly good time. Combat is mostly unnecessary, dodging cops is all too easy, but you will need to scrap with them from time to time. You can KO them with a flurry of punches and kicks or wait until their weapon flashes red and take them out in one artful disarming maneuver.

A brief break was had from my nightly Left 4 Dead play. I took the time and worked on our L4D campaign. My efforts were spent first reacquainting myself with the toolset and learning the news odds and ends introduced in the Authoring Tools Beta. Building began in earnest this week on the first level. We have a workable layout in place that will no doubt be changed, but enough for the basic building blocks to start being set down. I'm excited to be working on it and should have some decent screenshots to show off in a week or two.

I'm still not able to put Stephen King down. I've managed to read The Green Mile, The Stand, Thinner, 'Salem's Lot, and Rose Madder within the last 2 weeks or so. Despite this, I have also managed to keep reading The Lord of the Rings off and on and have made a sizable dent in it's pages. While I'm on the subject, DelRey Books has released a free e-book novella set in the current Star Wars continuity. It deals heavily with the Sith and heck, you can't beat free. Download the PDF here.

As a parting shot, I want to mention the television series Jericho. The entire series is available for instant viewing on Netflix. I caught the pilot episode and was really impressed by it. Gonna try to catch another episode or two before my wife gets home from shopping.

V out.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Dual Wielding


I've been a PC gamer for a long time. Don't get me wrong, I harbor no dislike of console games…I just heart my PC games too much. But a change has occurred. It happened innocently enough. I mentioned in an earlier blog entry my son was captivated by my brief play of Shenmue and God of War. I theorize he sees it as a cartoon of sorts. Taking my cue from his sudden interest, I began playing games that I had subconsciously stockpiled over the last 5 years for some long-forgotten purpose that is only now coming to the fore. I have now experienced a console gaming renaissance in the last month. Like an early, troglodytic man I have at long last left my cavern and discovered there is more outside waiting to be found. For this I blame my 2 year old son. If not for him, I would be content to keep playing PC games in my stuffy office. Now, God of War has at long last hit the ‘completed’ pile of my collection. Super Mario Galaxy is the latest to fall, though I am likely to play it more from time to time in my effort to collect the stars I missed on my first time through the game. Of course, this is all in addition to my nightly Left for Dead excursions. Thanks to my son, I have achieved some sort of gaming zen balance in my life for the first time. Good job kid.

We had our first brainstorm session this weekend for planning out our custom L4D campaign. One of our idea men wasn’t present, but we managed to hammer out a reasonable outline of the campaign. We roped in a sound man and even a writer to script our voice work. A lot of work and exciting times lay ahead. I’ve also been downloading some user-made campaigns here and there…to see what the competition is up to. There are some pretty well-done maps out there, but also maps that contain pitfalls I want to avoid. Item placement, pacing, flow, all of these are things that can significantly add to an experience if done right and outright hamper it if done wrong. A lot of time will go into this project. I want to make sure we get it as right as it can be.


If only making L4D campaigns was my real job. *sigh*

I have managed to find myself playing 4 different games on Nintendo systems: Wind Waker on Gamecube, Zack & Wiki on Wii, Final Fantasy 1 on Gameboy Advance, and Yoshi’s Island. Don’t ask me how that happened, or how I’m keeping up with them all. Somehow I’m managing it. I can’t get back into Bioshock for some reason…I think I allowed too much time to pass and am now at the crucial point where I’ve lost the rhythm of the game. If I pick it up and can’t remember the controls…may as well set it aside and play something else. I hope to come back to it soon, I fear the Bioshock 2 media coming out is going to spoil the ending for me despite my best efforts to prevent.

Two great things came to an end for me this last week: the fifth season of Lost and my first read-thru of Stephen King’s The Stand. Both are masterfully told stories. I can only hope to tell as compelling a tale one day. Speaking of which, I am slowly putting together material for a short story I’ve had on my mind for awhile. I should have details in a future blog. For now I’ll simply say that it has zombies. And a boat.

V out.

Friday, May 8, 2009

I am Vander the White

**It has been over a month since my last blog. A decision to take some time away from writing was made, and to be fair I’m not at all certain why. I just knew that I needed a break. After a bit of prompting from good friends I now make my return to you Faithful Reader. Somehow my cohorts had mistaken the scribbling on this page for entertaining reading. It is because of their stroking of my ego I am writing this now. To this I owe them my gratitude, they helped me to remember the reasons I enjoy writing.**

If you troubled yourself to read my last effort on this page, you might have (incorrectly) assumed the Author had been whiling away his time learning to program a new iPhone app. If you indeed believed this, your vote of confidence is appreciated. However, nothing could be further from the truth it pains me to say. Not only have I not begun developing the next hot iPhone app, the Team Fortress 2 mapping project I was involved in has been cancelled. Be not alarmed Faithful Reader. Do not mourn the loss. It needed to die. One of us should have caught it sooner, but it finally occurred to us we were designing a map for a game neither of us really played. If you were looking forward to the map, I apologize. It will be finished one day. It would be to your health if you didn’t hold your breath waiting.

With this turn of events, we are now free to pursue our Left 4 Dead campaign! Valve has not yet released the L4D SDK update with the tools needed to properly develop. Our hope is that the design phase will encompass much of our early project time giving plenty of time for the update to be unleashed. For now, we have a basic concept of what we want to accomplish. Our main goal is to design and create an enjoyable, original campaign in versus and cooperative play modes.

While on the subject of user-generated content, I’ve been following the development of a new campaign: Dead Before Dawn. In development since 2005, this was intended to be part of a now defunct mod project involving our friends the undead. The release of L4D killed the mod, but this level lives on. DBD is inspired by the 2004 movie remake of Dawn of the Dead. Great pains have been taken to recreate locales from the film, most notably The Crossroads Mall. My brother is a huge fan of zombie flicks, playing through this level with him will be a great pleasure indeed. There have been no updates or news about it since January, though I would wager it merely awaits the promised SDK update. Here are a couple of videos for your enjoyment. The first is an early fly-thru before the L4D conversion and the next is the latest trailer edited to include scenes from the movie.



It’s good to be back. Somehow in my literary hibernation I had forgotten how much of an outlet it can be to put pen to paper (yes, I really do hack these out on a notepad before typing anything) and allow my thoughts to take me where they will. If you notice any changes in my writing it is entirely due to outside influence: I have begun my annual read of Tolkien's The Lord of The Rings once more and have also been introduced to the works of Stephen King. If I can but emulate their talents in a small part I will consider it a major victory in my quest to become a competent writer. This marks the first time in months I am reading a book where the word ‘force’ is not capitalized. A man cannot live on Star Wars fiction alone I suppose, though I have managed to subsist on it far longer than most.

If you like what you read here, please let me know in the comments. Conversely, if you dislike my efforts or have a criticisms to offer I am always eager to know what you are thinking, Faithful Reader.

Until next time, may the Force be with you.

Vander out.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Avoiding brainless endeavor

Creating iPhone apps is apparently all the rage now with budding game developers. It's super cheap to develop for and the mechanism to deliver your app to the marketplace is already in place. Apple pockets 30% of every sale, but the rest goes straight to the dev's pockets. When you consider that most iPhone apps can be created by a team of 1 or 2 devs, the possibilities of making money start to dazzle the eyes. Having said that, what am I doing making multiplayer FPS maps that pay a big goose egg for my efforts? Good question. Good question indeed.

Despite pouring 17 hours of my last 7 days into Left 4 Dead, I managed to get a good bit of work done on our TF2 mapping project. I'm about halfway through the main base, just blocking it in. Nothing fancy. No details. Concentrating solely on gameplay. I'm hoping for rain/snow/sleet/take-your-pick later this week so I can just spend all of my Friday finishing up this stage of construction.

In a rare move on my part, I set the mouse and keyboard aside Sunday and cracked open my copy of God of War for the PS2. It felt odd at first to clutch a gamepad, but much like riding a bike it is a skill not readily forgotten. I played off an on most of the day Sunday. By no means a classic, the game is still a very enjoyable button masher. It makes up for this by throwing in a massive variety of maneuvers to perform. And by variety, I mean ripping a medusa's fucking head off. It's oddly cathartic. This and clever puzzles keep the whole affair from descending into brainless endeavor.

Van out.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

In loving memory


I'm not ashamed to say that Left 4 Dead has consumed 90% of my free time this week. Bioshock, has become neglected, still setting on the ivory pedestal I placed it upon this time last week. Shenmue, Command & Conquer 3, and Age of Empires 3 are simply cadavers heaped in a pile. Waiting to be burned. Casualties of the zombie apocalypse. Our Hunter's Lounge server activity reads like a regular heartbeat on an EKG monitor.

Amazing that a game with only two maps can become such a powerful force of attraction. Yes, I know campaign mode has 4 maps. Can I play as infected in these maps? No? Then they dont exist.

I believe multiplayer FPS gamers tend to gravitate towards certain maps at the exclusion of others. For my clan, it was de_dust2 and cs_office in Counter Strike: Source. Much of our time in Team Fortress 2 was spent in cp_dustbowl or pl_goldrush. L4D has only 2 maps, these 2 maps just happen to be on par with a dust2 or a goldrush. Valve can take all the time they want in making those other campaigns playable in versus mode. I'm in no hurry.


Oh yeah, work progresses on our TF2 mapping project. It's not dead.


It's not living either.


Dun Dun DUNNNNNNNN.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Milestones are fun


We hit upon our first milestone in our TF2 mapping project. The layout and design phase is completed and construction has begun in earnest. I spent a goodly amount of time on Sunday getting things blocked in for our intel room, trying to work on the scale. It's amazing how quickly the building process goes with a layout and design document to reference. Turns out the intel room is the first part I designed. It is neat to see how I progressed in my design process from this room to my final design which was the middle ground between bases (pictured above). At this rate, we should be in an early alpha testing phase soon. The building phase should go much faster than the previous one. For those keeping track, we took a month to complete our design portion of the map. Truth be told, it probably could have been finished in about a week by a dedicated mapper. Fortunately, we are not dedicated. This is a side hobby, second to our main hobby: killing zombies in Left 4 Dead. I'm happy with our pace so far and to be fair, this is the most progress I've made on any project. There is no danger of the burnout point being hit as has been the case with all my previous mappign endeavors.

Valve finally announced a release date for the new content for L4D: April 21st. Though not mentioned with this press release, they promised long ago that the L4D SDK update would come along with the new content. I'm really looking forward to brainstorming and designing our L4D campaign.

While on the subject of Valve's updates. I've had a chance to digest the changes recently made in Valve's last update. Specifically, the addition of a fatigue meter to survivor's melee attacks. I've long been a proponent of anything that promotes more tactical gameplay. Reducing the number of flailing elbows goes a long way towards achieving that end.

Speaking on milestones, our L4D teams have come together and made the decision to be more competitive. Up to this point we have been very inconsistent with our play and execution. If we suit action to our words, I'm excited to see what sort of impact we can make on the competitive scene.

V out.

Friday, March 27, 2009

With no remorse

I had Wed/Thurs off this week and with it came the best laid plans to get some things done around the house. Hardly. Mass quantities of free time were given to Bioshock instead of chores. Having made this statement in a space where my wife can readily access it and throttle me in my sleep if the fancy strikes her...I still oddly harbor no regrets. The only guilt I have is that I had not experienced this masterpiece of game design sooner rather than later.

As you can likely guess, I progressed beyond my elderly antagonist mentioned in Wednesday's blog entry. Knee deep into the belly of the beast, I am thoroughly enjoying every step of the journey. Such care has obviously been given to the level design and execution of said design. The atmosphere is nigh-breathable. A man could make a meal of it. Often, I simply explore and take in the scenery. Then it happens. The faint sounds of voices in the distance. The closer I approach, it becomes apparent it's a one-sided conversation: the ravings of a madman. It is for this reason I enjoy Bioshock's combat so much. You are given the opportunity to plan your attacks out. The game cannot make it as a run-n-gun shooter. The designer have found a way to freak you out with the demented chatter of the insane, while at the same time warning you of danger and urging you to take stock and prepare. The same applies to Big Daddy and Little Sisters. The screen will shake with the titan's footsteps, you will hear his booming growl accompanied by her deranged prattle. Better yet: he doesn't attack unless you give him a reason to. So confident in his ability, he very nearly dares you to approach his charge. He doesn't need to prepare for you...and that may be the scariest thing of all.

My wife has discovered Facebook. With it comes the very real possibilty of setting up my old PC and a wireless network. I was subsequently dragged along to join the ranks of Facebookers in a gesture of support for my wife's new hobby. I say that as if it were an inconvenience. That is hardly the case. Facebook is much like a Twitter with too many options for my taste. In any event, my significant other has now started spending more and more time on the PC than in time's past. This has encouraged me to start playing console games a wee bit more. I cracked open a copy of Shenmue for Dreamcast I obtained from Goozex on a whim and booted up my DC for the first time in many moons. The controls took a bit of getting used to, but my first impressions were very good. Oddly enough, my son was absolutely enthralled by the game. It looks like I will continue playing if only for his viewing pleasure.

The new Star Wars series began this week: Fate of the Jedi. The first book, Outcast, came in the mail Tuesday. Very excited to dive into a new story arc after I wrap up my second read through of Millenium Falcon (last novel in the timeline prior to this series).