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Valve Rejects Team Fortress 2 Map, Fans Release It Anyway
It’s always a shame to see hard work go to waste. After nearly 40 versions from a pair of dedicated fans, Valve scrapped CP_Snowplow from Team Fortress 2‘s “End of the Line” update. There’s a silver lining to this dark cloud, though: you can still play the map. Right now. This video from ValveTime outlines…
By Nathan Grayson Published January 7, 2015 -
I Like That Dragon Age: Inquisition Doesn’t Respect My Time
Dragon Age: Inquisition is enormous. In addition to a great main story, it has a lot of filler-y side quests that slurp up time like it’s drowning in delicious alfredo sauce. Patricia’s not super intothem, and Patrick went so far as to say the game disrespected his time. Me, though? I love the side quests.…
By Nathan Grayson Published January 7, 2015 -
Not Even Honest Trailers Can Keep Up With Kingdom Hearts‘ Story
The latest Honest Game Trailer focuses on gaming’s favorite high-speed collision of universes, Kingdom Hearts. As with most Honest Trailers, the Disney-Square Enix mash-up comes out a pile of twisted metal (and cartoon duck bills). But the trailer also raises a good question: where’s our Pixar world? In addition to making that extremely legitimate complaint,…
By Nathan Grayson Published January 6, 2015 -
Game Recreates Entire Galaxy, 1,000 Players Determined To Explore It
Some people play gigantic space game Elite: Dangerous to lead humble, (relatively) ordinary space lives. They do missions, make deliveries, and decorate their cockpits with silly little bobbleheads. Then there’s The Great Expedition. The First Great Expedition began with a single goal: to collectively explore all of Elite: Dangerous‘ 400 billion star systems—or at least,…
By Nathan Grayson Published January 6, 2015 -
The Guns That Never Made It Into Halo
You’ve never used these guns or played these levels in any Halo game, and odds are, you never will. The latest Did You Know Gaming video delves into darkest, strangest portions of Halo‘s history, the most interesting of which center around cut content from the master and chief of alien-blasting’s earliest iterations. The original Halo…
By Nathan Grayson Published January 5, 2015 -
Fallout Rap Is, Somehow, Pretty Great
You’ll never look at Fallout 3‘s Wazer Wifle the same way again. I say that largely because you’ll immediately get this song’s insidiously catchy chorus stuck in your head, pinging off your cranial walls like so many wazer— er, laser blasts. It loops perfectly, infinitely, like a GIF turned into a song. At this rate,…
By Nathan Grayson Published January 5, 2015 -
A Paper Mario Fan Remake Five Years In The Making
We live in the age of remakes, some more necessary than others. Even Nintendo’s gotten in on the action with games like Zelda: Wind Waker Wii U. But in the background of all that, a fan’s been rebuilding the original Paper Mario for almost half a decade. The New Paper Mario project aims to replace…
By Nathan Grayson Published January 5, 2015 -
Nathan’s Top Ten Games Of 2014
Did I do this right? I’m not sure if I did this right. 2014 was an amazing year for games. 2014 was the worst year for games in recorded history. I don’t think there’s been a more polarizing time for video games and those who play them in, er, ever. Busted, hunk-of-scrap big-budget releases are…
By Nathan Grayson Published December 24, 2014 -
You Can Control This Guy’s Real-Life Christmas Tree From Minecraft
This is incredibly cool. Also, given the Internet’s proclivity for dousing good intentions in gasoline and setting them on the troll-iest of fires, a little bit crazy. Ryan Carter has wired his real-life Christmas tree to sync up one-to-one with his elaborate Minecraft holiday setup. Using a series of switches and a ton of redstone,…
By Nathan Grayson Published December 24, 2014 -
A Game Where You Can Snuggle Snowmen
Anyone can build a snowman. A good snowman, though? That requires ice-cold nerves, high-level spatial reasoning, and a dash of love—or so A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build claims. Oh, and look at that: there are hugs! I bring this upcoming Steam game to your attention largely because it’s one of the most quietly…
By Nathan Grayson Published December 23, 2014 -
A Ton Of Cheaters Just Got Banned From Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has a cheating problem. It can be infuriating to come up against rule-breakers and code-busters in regular matches, but there’s a silver lining here: Valve is doing its damndest to fight back. If you go on any major Counter-Strike board right now, you’ll notice a trend: thread upon thread upon thread either…
By Nathan Grayson Published December 23, 2014 -
A Team Fortress 2 Fan Film Nearly As Good As Valve’s
I always figured heists and car chases were more the domain of games like Grand Theft Auto, but this slick video makes a pretty convincing argument that they’d be unfathomably rad in Team Fortress 2, er, too. “Red Zone” is a machinima film by Dunkle, an extremely talented wielder of the Source Filmmaker’s arcane magicks.…
By Nathan Grayson Published December 23, 2014 -
Team Fortress 2 Gets Grappling Hooks For Christmas
Team Fortress 2‘s End of the Line update—while paired with a really fun film—was anemic, to say the least. After so much hype ended in such a trainwreck, many feared Valve might’ve been signaling its intention to put Team Fortress 2 out to pasture, or at least ease off on making new stuff for it.…
By Nathan Grayson Published December 22, 2014 -
Guy Turns Grand Theft Auto Into Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater
It’s been a while since I was really into a skateboard game, but I have to say, the idea of Grand Theft Auto‘s massive world as the mother of all skateboard parks hits me right into the Tony-Hawk-shaped portion of my nostalgia. JulioNIB is doing that which not even Rockstar dared attempt: teaching grouchy old…
By Nathan Grayson Published December 22, 2014 -
I Wish This Was BioShock Infinite‘s Story
In case you forgot, Valve’s Source Filmmaker is an extremely powerful tool for turning games into movies. Sometimes we get things like the fantastic Team Fortress 2 End of the Line short. Other times we get sheer, unbridled madness. These videos starring BioShock‘s Booker DeWitt are the latter. This series from Grubbo uses character models…
By Nathan Grayson Published December 22, 2014 -
Of Course Someone Made Notch’s $70 Million Mansion In Minecraft
Minecraft creator and ex-Mojang head Markus “Notch” Persson has a new house. He spent upwards of $70 million on it, and there is a candy room. Of course there is a candy room. You will probably never have anything that nice, nor will I. But hey, we can still stroll through it in—yep—Minecraft Dan Bovey…
By Nathan Grayson Published December 19, 2014 -
A Game That Creates Weird Alien Art Galleries
Are games art? That question is old, tired, washed up and on its last day before retirement. The answer is yes, obviously. Now, can games create art—stuff to hang on a wall—with human hands entirely out of the picture? There’s something to think about. Secret Habitat is a free game that procedurally generates massive acid…
By Nathan Grayson Published December 19, 2014 -
The Most Random Game Of Fallout
If nothing else, I have to admire this Fallout: New Vegas player for his persistence. He’s making every choice by rolling D20 dice. New Vegas is a huge game with countless dialogue options. That’s, um—let me see, carry the several thousand—a megafuckton of real-life dice rolls. BetaRayBen has a simple objective: use D20 dice (as…
By Nathan Grayson Published December 18, 2014 -
Steam Shooter Copies Real War, Declares Truce For Christmas
Well this is just heartwarming. Verdun, a multiplayer World War I shooter currently in Early Access on Steam, has declared a Christmas truce from December 18-25. You will still be able to duke it out in The War That Didn’t Really Succeed In Ending All Wars if you wish, but developers M2H and Blackmill have…
By Nathan Grayson Published December 18, 2014 -
You Can’t Gift Steam Games Wherever You Want Anymore
Region-locking, the act of making games non-functional if used outside particular parts of the world, is not an uncommon thing in games. It is, however, a big deal for Steam—especially the PC gaming service’s trading/gifting market. With widespread region locks now in place, change seems inevitable. Recently Steam users and developers began to discover that…
By Nathan Grayson Published December 17, 2014
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