It feels like only yesterday Infinity Ward was talking up the mysterious first Modern Warfare 2 downloadable map pa–oh, that totally was yesterday. Huh, that was quick! The marketing division has created an informative site about “mapathy,” an all-too-real medical condition affecting millions of gamers.
They say the cure is coming to Xbox LIVE on March 30, which would mean an April release for PlayStation 3 and PC since Microsoft acquired a full month of exclusivity for the add-on. The real question, at least in my mind, is whether or not we’ll see video/pictures of the maps during GDC.
Either way, the wait shouldn’t be too painful. As wrapped up in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 as I am, I wouldn’t mind getting back into Modern Warfare 2, if only to play new content from time to time.
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Tags: destructoid, feature, game, jordan-devore, maps, media, network, news, ps3, psp, video-game-news, video-games, wii
The prospect of free-to-play indie PC games being upgraded visually and in terms of features for digital distribution on consoles is something that excites me greatly. Super Meat Boy, Cave Story, and Spelunky are the three that immediately come to mind.
We recently got our first look at the shiny new Spelunky for Xbox LIVE Arcade: four screenshots, all viewable here. It’s difficult to say this, because I appreciate all the work Derek Yu is doing to HD-ify the game, but I absolutely adore his pixel artwork. So much so, that I dig the original look over the new style.
What do you think? Am I being unreasonable here or what? And yes, I realize there’s a little “work in progress” disclaimer attached to the images.
New screens for Spelunky XBLA released [Diverse's community blog]
Well, not officially, but we’ve already been to some GDC meetings today. The main show kicks off on Wednesday and it’s going to be a week of crazyness. And what better time than to introduce a new site skin and a new video site. Awesome all around!
Sonic the Hedgehog 4 will totally suck, the forums have a new administrator, we reviewed God of War III, we’re giving away a PlayStation 3, Steam is coming to Mac and more happened on 03/08/10.
GDC 2010:
GDC Rumor: PS3’s Wiimote getting a PS3 Nunchuk
Destructoid Originals:
Welcome to Destructoid’s new look!
Podtoid’s ‘everyone is at GDC’ episode records tonight
New releases: Final Fantasy XIII, Resi Evil 5: GE & more
Why Sonic the Hedgehog 4 will SUCK
Monday Mind Teasers: Closure
Community:
Community blogs of 03/08/10
Forum of the day: Hey kids, I’m your new new new administrator
Reviews:
God of War III
Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing
Contests:
Win a PlayStation 3 and God of War III!
You decide who we send to PAX East, all expenses paid!
News:
Nintendo downloads: Oh Max, your marker is so magic!
Collect Playboy in Mafia II, and why not?
UK Charts: Bad Company 2 smacks Heavy Rain into fourth
Ubisoft lied about DRM servers, admits they were attacked
Loads of Sonic 4: Episode 1 details hit
Black producers’ new game is Bodycount
PC gamers are Battlefield Bad Company 2’s biggest fans
These Fallout: New Vegas screens ar-OMG MUST SKIN GECKOS
Kid shoots herself with gun she thought was a Wiimote?
Steam confirmed for Mac, Valve games coming in April
Crackdown 2 getting video replays as DLC
If this list can’t make you scared of MMO’s, nothing can
Amazon has Mass Effect 2 for $20 off
Are the Bit.Trip guys suing the hell out of Anthony?
Modern Warfare 2 hits 25m players, DLC news this week
Media:
Get your face in Dead Space 2 for profit and glory
Visceral Games is holding a rad contest for Dead Space 2 that gives you a chance to come up with a hand-to-hand attack for Issac Clarke. From the sound of it, the gorier your attack is, the better. Anyway, ideas can be submitted in the form of video, art, or reliable old text.
The call for entries ends on March 26, and then the general public will get to vote on the ten finalists — as chosen by Visceral — throughout the month of April. Whoever wins this shindig will have their idea implemented; also, their face is totally getting put somewhere in Dead Space 2.
But enough from me — listen to the guys making the game for more specifics. And yeah, I kinda lied about the whole “profit” thing. Still, glory is a nice incentive.
Think of all the deliciousness you could buy with twenty bucks! Good for today only, Amazon has got both versions of Mass Effect 2 marked down in price. That’s $29.99 for the PC version, and $39.99 if you want to pillage the galaxy’s resources one planet at a time on your Xbox 360.
It’s crazy to think we’re only a few months in and already a decent amount of games have scored tens — Mass Effect 2, of course, led the way. This should make for an interesting game of the year debate, no? On the off chance that you haven’t gotten ME2 yet, do it up!
After months — no, years — of being told to play the original, I finally snapped. I figure I’ll return the favor by continuing to drone on about how, at the very least, you ought to play the sequel.
[Thanks, Bluestreak2]
You probably knew it was coming, but that doesn’t make this confirmation any less exciting. Valve went all out with an information dump today, saying more than just “Steam and Source are coming to Mac.”
For starters, there’s this new feature called Steam Play. Essentially, it’s the thing that lets you purchase games for PC and play them on your Mac (or vice versa) at no additional cost.
To make matters crazier, Steam Play — when the developer opts to include it — allows you to switch between Mac and PC versions of the same game without losing any progress; you can pick up exactly where you left off.
Expect to see all Valve games simultaneously launch on PC, Mac, and Xbox 360 — Portal 2 will be the first one to hit PC/Mac on the same day. Valve also says the two platforms will be connected through multiplayer, and all updates will hit simultaneously as well.
Finally, Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series will be available for Mac in April. See, I told you this was more than a simple confirmation!
These are the sort of funky game culture stories I like to read about late into the night. Someone has recreated one of the most memorable areas from BioShock, the level known as Arcadia, in Doom II using the SLADE map editor. The end result is pretty damn neat, if I do say so myself.
What makes the project even cooler is that this wasn’t just “someone,” it was actually BioShock (and BioShock 2) level designer Jean-Paul LeBreton — who better to design a minimalistic map than the guy who painstakingly created the modern-day one?
Better yet, you can even experience it for yourself. Over on LeBreton’s blog, he’s got the files ready for download.
Arcadia Demade [vector poem via Game Informer]
I’m not normally big into the WiiWare scene, but I’ll take a cue from Jonathan Holmes and make an exception for Gaijin Games’ Bit.Trip RUNNER. Y’all have my full attention now, gentlemen — this new trailer is out of control, and I love it.
A bunch of unexplainable things are happening on screen at once and of the parts I can actually make out, every last bit is gushing with style and utter weirdness. This is the stuff that brightens my day after reporting on the less-than-captivating aspects of this industry.
Confirmed: Bit.Trip RUNNER will make you smile.
I don’t know who the crazy cats at The Tech Game are or how they got a hold of what looks to be the first Modern Warfare 2 map pack. But they did, and Activision has proceeded to yank their original video of the “Stimulus Package” add-on, making us think it’s probably legit.
Luckily, at the time of writing, there was a backup video on Vimeo. The maps shown are Crash, Overgrown, Complex, Compact, and Storm. Infinity Ward really nailed a lot of the original maps in Call of Duty 4, so it makes sense that we would see a few of them resurface as downloadable content in Modern Warfare 2.
If you’re curious for pictures of the new maps, the aforementioned site (linked below) has a .rar packed with watermark-laden images. Last we heard, the DLC was still on for this spring, so it shouldn’t be much longer ’til we get the big (official) reveal.
Modern Warfare 2 Map pack ‘Stimulus Package’ Exclusive sneak peak [The Tech Game via Joystiq]
Today is Just Cause 2 demo day … this is a good thing! While the draw of ridiculous, genuinely over-the-top action is a serious one, prior to playing it I was more than a little worried about how everything would turn out mechanics-wise.
A couple of tidbits worth mentioning about the demo:
- You get 30 minutes to do whatever the heck you want and, as far as I can tell, there really aren’t any restrictions on where you can travel. This is how all open-world game demos should be.
- Free falling and then deploying your parachute at the last possible second is the greatest thing ever.
- Wait, I lied: the all-new grappling hook is.
- The presentation of it all is quite good, and my biggest concern, the character movement itself, is super smooth and feels about perfect.
Basically, you need to play this thing. Get it here on Steam, click this to queue up the Xbox 360 demo, or run (walking is overrated) to your PlayStation 3 and start the download using your hands like the rest of the world.
