The PC Centric Extravaganza 8.19.08

Posted by Chris Evans on 08.19.2008

Controversy creates cash as Bischoff once said. Controversy in this weeks column with a big piece on piracy, read on to find out more.

The PC Centric Extravaganza 19th August 2008

Welcome to another edition of the one, the only, yes it is The PC Centric Extravaganza! This week we have a whole heap of news, some hands-on gaming and some extended articles. Lets get down to business and kick off with what we currently know about the Heavy Update, the latest update for Team Fortress 2. It should be going live by the time you are reading this.

The Heavy Update

Some of you may have thought that the Pyro Update for Team Fortress 2 packed in a whole heap of new stuff. While that was true at the time, the Heavy Update is going to come along and change the way we view Team Fortress 2 updates for ever. The update is going to be so big that a new Heavy Update website had to be created to pack in all the news that has been drip fed to us over the past week.

The update will feature three unlockable weapons and thirty-five all new achievements for the Heavy. In addition you can expect to see a whole new game mode along with five maps for it to launch. Furthermore there will be a new Payload map which will have more open spaces than Goldrush, and if that is not enough the community map, cp_steel will also feature in the update. If you want the low-down on what I have currently seen about The Heavy Update then please, keep on reading.



These are the Killing Gloves of Boxing (KGB anyone) and are the first unlockable revealed for the Heavy. Upon killing someone with the KGB the Heavy will have five seconds of guaranteed critical hits. By using the crit-boost and the KGB the Heavy will be able to extend this killing feast. We just hope that the Heavy doesn't travel down to Georgia to deal some damage!

Tasteless jokes aside the list of the Heavy achievements has also been revealed right here for you all to peruse. Buried beneath the numerous Soviet references is this little gem:



This has been revealed to be earned by killing an enemy with a taunt. Fun times will be had by all.



That, yes that is Natascha, the Heavy's new friend, lets just hope that Sasha won't get too offended at finding a new beast in our Russian friend's arsenal. The low down on this new beast? As Valve describe it best this new unlockable will be used to persuade people like the Scout and Medic to face the Heavy "mano-a-tiny-itty-bitty-mano" by slowing them down, no more escape for them pesky flies. However Natascha is now a teeny bit weaker than Sasha, so don't expect to mow down as many of your foe as before.



Also due to arrive with the Heavy update is the new Payload map, Badwater Basin. The big difference between this new map and Gold Rush is the focus on wide open space and vertical combat. Also of note for the new map is that it is now one single large area split up by various checkpoints, much easier to gauge your progress than on the split up mayhem of Gold Rush.

Left 4 Dead on Tour

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, step right up for some breaking news, Left 4 Dead is going on tour. Starting with the Leipzig GDC next week the zombie-horror game will be playable to both public and press. The Penny Arcade Expo at the end of the month will see the worldwide debut of the Xbox 360 version of the game. Finally from the 26th September you will get to see Left 4 Dead in action at the Festival du Jeu in France and at the PC Gamer Showdown here in the UK.

"The shared experience of Left 4 Dead is unlike that of any other action game," said Gabe Newell, president and co-founder of Valve. "That's what we've experienced playing the game, and from showing the game to the press and our partners. It sounds cliché, but in many ways you have to play this one to truly appreciate what we're attempting. So, to give gamers a chance to sample this new type of experience first hand, we're taking Left 4 Dead on the road."

This is a great way to big up the excitement for the game, I just wish I was able to go to the PC Gamer Showdown. Damnation!

Codemasters on Development Costs

How much do you think the latest Codemasters games have cost to develop? A game like GRID you would have thought would cost at least £10 million. In fact GRID only cost about £6.8 million to make according to this MCV report.

According to Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens GRID is expected to make around £32 million in total, more than enough to recoup those development costs. With Operation Flashpoint 2 also expected to cost less than $20 million to make times ahead look good for Codemasters with their low-cost, high-gain approach to the industry.

In additional Codemasters news it has emerged (via RPS) that Overlord II is currently in development. A followup to the demonic minion mastering havoc ruling game from 2007 the new game, coming 2009 will feature new minion mechanics, bigger battles and the Roman Empire.

Bionic Commando not coming to Steam

It was thought that Bionic Commando Rearmed was going to be coming to Steam this week. However according to a post on the Capcom forums Capcom corporate officer Christian Svensson had this to say:

Actually, I do have some bad news on the Steam front. At the last minute, we've been unable to reach mutually agreeable terms with Valve on BCR, so they won't be carrying it (unfortunately you'll have to get it elsewhere). I won't get into the details but we do continue to have a good relationship with Valve and future Capcom titles we expect to be carried on Steam."

So while you will be able to get the game from places such as GamersGate and the Capcom E-Store you won't be able to get it on Steam. Which is another blow to Steam's reputation following the revelation yesterday about the Buy One Get One Free offer on the Brothers in Arms games not being available to people outside the US.

If you are worrying about the higher price for the game on the PC compared to how much it is going to cost on the consoles, well that thankfully has nothing to do with piracy. According to this Shacknews interview with Svensson (him again) tt is more to do with the fact that games like this generally cost more on the PC than on the consoles.

Does this mean that the Steam deal broke down because of the price? That would be unlikely as PopCap games available on the PC and the console networks generally cost more on Steam, based on the Shack interview. Could it be that Valve wanted the game to use Steamworks and Achievements? It is possible. Regardless, it doesn't seem like we will know the full story behind this, so why don't you just go off and buy the game from somewhere that isn't Steam.

Steam can BOGOF

For those of you not in the know, BOGOF stands for Buy One Get One Free, and while working in the retail industry it is a phrase that I am...well sick and tired of hearing at times. However upon hearing that BOGOF is coming to Steam I was delighted, then disappointed.

I was delighted to see that Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway was coming to Steam in September and as an added bonus and pre-orders via Steam would result in BOGOF being applied as Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 was going to be thrown in for free.

However dismay soon struck as I realised this was not going to be open to any non-US residents. It is that damn Ubisoft limiting the distribution of the game. Damn them to Hell's Highway.

PC Zone Issue 198

I have finally managed to get my hands on a copy of the latest issue of PC Zone, this is the first issue of the mag to appear since my internship there, and it is the first time anyone is able to see my name in print in a PC gaming magazine. If you manage to pick up a copy of the magazine you will see my review of The Political Machine 2008 (thanks for the help Log) and my review of Pro Cycling Manager Season 2008 - le Tour de France.

You also get to see a slightly strange picture of me in the 'Meet the Team' section...thanks for that one guys!

There should be some more of my work appearing in the next issue (out September 11th) but for now, check out the latest issue.

Football Manger Live – Beta Stuff

What is it that makes Football Manager Live one of the most promising games currently in development? Is it that fact that it is based on one of the most played sports in the world? Is it the fact that it is based on one of the best selling management games, here in the UK at least? It is these factors and the fact that this is exceptionally fun and addictive to play that, in my mind, makes this a potential World of Warcraft beater, thougha just in a different genre of game.

The whole thing has changed massively since I was in one of the first Beta worlds last year, while there are still bugs and issues when the servers are under stress, everything is much improved. I will give you an example, the biggest change to me is one which has a fundamental influence on how the game plays. That is the manager skills. When you create your first account in-game your manager skills are possibly the most important thing to focus on and get right.

Skills will determine the way you play the game, think of them as the classes and professions that you find in a standard MMO like World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings Online. You can chose to specialise in different areas of the game, things such as Coaching, Scouting and Tactics can be chosen. Some of these have passive benefits as the more Coaching skills you have the more likely your players are to develop their skills. Other skills such as those in the Tactics category determine the level of control you have over match tactics. In this way you will have to make the right choices as you go along to ensure you progress towards your chosen goal.

This is a pretty slick game as it is, the interaction between players really makes you feel welcome in the game. If you are new then simply asking for some help in the chat rooms will often result in a helpful answer. Don't expect the same favours when targeting a team's star player, they won't be so willing to give them up, especially when the in-game season is heating up.

The game seems nearly finished with just a few bugs left to iron out and further stress testing required. I am really looking forward to the final release, hopefully details on pricing will emerge soon.

A New Take on Piracy

I would just like to say in the precursor to this that I in no way support piracy in any form at all for any reasons. Secondly this can be seen as a bit of a follow up to Cliff Harris' (of Positech) piece called ‘Talking to Pirates.' Yes I am aware that many of the issues I raise here are only present because of piracy, but if you can look past that, then enjoy and .


Everyone is negative about piracy, especially when it comes to piracy on the PC. We have developers all over the place claiming that due to piracy they have had to spread into console development, that because of the potential lost sales on the PC they see no point in releasing games on it anymore. Others claim that in their efforts to combat piracy they are introducing ever tougher and more stringent methods of DRM. The way I see is that developers should stop looking at piracy like this, they should follow the example set by Cliffski (Cliff Harris) and attempt to communicate with pirates to see why they pirate.

They should then follow Cliffski again and change how they operate so as to encourage pirates to start purchasing their games again. I see many people comment that many of the EA Sports titles that appear on the PC are shoddy ports of the PS2 game, not a game that has been tailor made, or even ported with the PC audience in mind. If EA Sports were to realise that by making their PC versions of their games, well actually worth splashing hard earned cash out on then maybe the pirates will have done something good.

Perhaps this has already happened with regards to the EA Sports games, recently Peter Moore revealed that EA Sports titles were being reworked to take advantage of what the PC offers. It is possible that this abrupt change in philosophy by EA Sports occurred because they want to make their games good enough that some people may stop pirating their games, and instead buy them.

Cliffski revealed that following his exploration of the world of piracy that he was going to remove DRM from his games. I envisage a day when developers will cut away all forms of DRM and treat us like respectable human beings. Perhaps it will be due to people pirating games to get away from the DMR and those people who download no-CD-cracks that developers realise that this is damaging their reputation, and indeed sales. For this reason pirates and those people who crack DRM on games should be supported by us. If they continue as they are we will eventually come to a position where we can play games without fear of registering our games via text, email and phone before having to download the second half of the game before we can play, and can only play on one PC as we can only activate it once.

Perhaps too we will see games prices fall to equal levels worldwide and be in a position to buy any game, anywhere in the world we want. If companies like Ubisoft see people pirating their games more heavily in the UK than in the US they will realise that they should make their games available worldwide on Steam, and for a fair price to all. As such we should support these pirates so as to further provide evidence to these companies that by changing their actions they will create a world where people won't pirate due to the injustice of it all.

In closing then constant reader, piracy is something we should support as one day it will have positive benefits for us all. I fully expect companies to change the way they operate so as to give people a reason to buy their games, not provide us with second-rate turd that is so full of DRM we can't even play it, that is if we can even get it at a fair price in our own countries. Piracy will have a positive effect on the games industry, it is the only thing that will make companies sit up and listen to our rightful complaints.

Tally Ho!

And with that I am outta here! Will next week's column be as action packed? We shall wait and see….