The Steam Podcast

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This week’s podcast features the following on-air personalities:

• Bob Somers - SteamPodcast.com
• Ramzy Bekheet - SteamPodcast.com

1337 C4T of Episode 12

This Week’s New Releases in 15 Seconds or Less
All scores are from GameSpot.

• Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 - Xbox 360 - 8.7/10
• GTA: Vice City Stories - PS2 - 7.2/10
• Titan Quest: Immortal Throne - PC
• Sonic and the Secret Rings - Wii - 7.6/10
• ArmA: Combat Operations - PC
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - DS
• Tony Hawk’s Project 8 - PSP
• Xiaolin Showdown - Xbox

The following news articles were discussed on the show:

Eurogamer Gives Thumbs Up to Left 4 Dead

Valve’s calling Left 4 Dead the next Counter-Strike, and according to Eurogamer it looks like they’re going to deliver. The AI is brilliant, giving you a unique and different experience every time you play the game. Check out the full article for more info.

Nintendo Formally Announces Wii Release Schedule for 2007

• April 9 - Super Paper Mario - Nintendo
• April - Prince of Persia Rival Swords - Ubisoft
• April - Bust-A-Move Bash - Majesco
• April - Bioncle Heroes - Eidos
• May 15 - Mortal Kombat: Armageddon - Midway
• May 29 - Mario Party 8 - Nintendo
• May - Tamagotchi Party On - Namco Bandai
• May - Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End - Disney Interactive
• May - Escape from Bug Island - Eidos
• May - Spider-Man The Movie 3 - Activision
• June 11 - Big Brain Academy - Nintendo
• June 25 - Pokemon Battle Revolution - Nintendo
• June - Cosmic Family - Ubisoft
• Spring - Heatseeker - Codemasters
• Q2 - Legend of the Dragon - American Game Factory
• Summer - Shrek the Third - Activision
• Summer - Transformers the Game - Activision

Valve Releases Black Mesa Parking Permit Kit

That’s right folks, you can now get your own official, Black Mesa parking permit, complete with individualized serial number. You also get two bumper stickers, one that says “Dog Is My Copilot”, the other is “WWGFD?” (what would Gordon Freeman do?).

The whole kit is only $9.95, but for $29.95 you can one of the rare parking permits numbered 1-100.

Gears of War 2 Is Official

In a speech from Cliff Bleszinski (Cliffy B) rumors of a Gears of War sequel were made official. Finally some concrete news for gamers, as last November a Microsoft marketing executive mentioned Microsoft and Epic would be exploring a Gears of War trilogy, although nothing was rock solid at the time.

CS 1.6 Beta with In-Game Advertisements Goes Live

You can participate in the new Counter-Strike 1.6 Beta with in-game advertisements by adding a short command line argument to your Steam shortcut. During the beta the only advertisements shown will be for Valve, but as the program comes out of beta more companies will be added.

Screenshots: 1, 2, 3

Spielberg Working on Wii Game with EA

EA and Steven Spielberg had recently announced a collaboration to publish three games with authoritative control from the directing superstar. No information on the actual nature of the games has been released as of yet, but we’ll keep you posted as time goes on.

This news bit is a continuation of an earlier story on EA and Spielberg announcing their collaboration.

Half-Life 2 Modding Book Coming This May

A new book by Tim Holt is coming out May 1st that details the process of mapping and modding for Half-Life 2. Here’s a quote from the book’s description:

The book shows, step-by-step, how to create new maps, textures, characters, 3D objects, weapons, audio effects, game action, and much more. Readers will learn how to start out by creating new maps and models and then learn basic techniques of coding to create useful mods. The second part of the book features more advanced techniques as readers learn how to expand their skills and develop more sophisticated models and 3D action. The book also covers other important areas of mod development including creating and managing a mod development team, working with fans, and using skills to develop a professional career in game development.

Playstation Home - First Look

CVG (www.ComputerAndVideoGames.com) has released an interesting article on “Playstation Home”. For those of you who don’t know About “Playstation Home”, it’s basically Sony’s version of Second Life. And for those of you who don’t know about Second Life, i’d advise you to check out Google.com.

At first glance Home looks a bit like a MMO-style chat room. Your own character in PlayStation Home can be customised at any time in an in-depth slider-based system not too dissimilar from Oblivions. This free service will allow users to create their own realistic avatars and furnish their own private spaces. Much like a giant social network, it allows players to chat and hang out and even return to respective spaces to listen to music or watch video. There will also be various channels for particular companies and a Hall of Fame where players can collect 3D trophies for their efforts in various PS3 games.

At first, when i heard “free service from Sony”, I really thought that it would suck, but the screenshots are looking seriously good. Go check it out.

Two New Crysis Videos From the GDC

Computers everywhere are committing suicide over the new Crysis videos from the Game Developer Conference. If you were impressed by the first tech demos, you should see these new ones. The nuclear explosion looks absolutely stunning and the sandbox editor looks amazing easy to use. Good luck running it on anything but the absolute latest, bleeding edge hardware, though.

Take 2 Interactive Being Taken Over

In some breaking news, the BBC is reporting that an investor takeover is in progress at Take 2 Interactive, the folks who brought us Grand Theft Auto III and the 2K Sports games.

How will this affect gamers? Anytime management changes at a major publisher, things could change, usually for the worse.

Could this mean the end of Grand Theft Auto?

Funny Videos

• Helicopter Clips Roter on Takeoff
• Mario Theme Composer Koji Kondo Plays Piano at GDC 2007

Wrap Up
Keep your fan mail, suggestions, and comments coming. The coolest email address on the net is still fans@steampodcast.com, and the coolest IRC channel is #steampodcast.

    

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 11th, 2007 at 6:04 am and is filed under Podcasts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.