The PC Centric Extravaganza 09.30.08
Posted by Chris Evans on 09.30.2008
Short and to the point this week in the PC Centric Extravaganza.
The PC Centric Extravaganza 30th September 2008
A very short column this week I am afraid. Due to some family reasons I was away for a couple of days, then there has been the whole getting ready to go back to university thing and of course work. If all things work out fine then we should be back to normal next week.
Latest on Battlefield 2 Patch
It has been a long while since I last talked about the next patch for the classic Battlefield 2. Well the latest word on the street is that the patch is still being worked on with an aim of a Winter release.
There has been a lot of discussions on the Battlefield forums regarding the Battlefield 2 Update 1.50, so this is to let you all know what's happening.
Update 1.50 is still in development, we have held back on releasing the update as we have become aware of and are taking preventative measures against 3rd party tools which have been severely affecting everyone's playing experience recently by crashing dedicated servers, clients as well as allowing account spoofing. We hope you understand our decision to delay the release to resolve these issues rather than releasing early with a need to update again.
We are looking to release this update by Winter of this year.
Nothing else at all, so a case of wait and see what it brings.
Left 4 Dead System Requirements
My good friend DigiQ8 has revealed the Left 4 Dead system requirements over on halflife2.net thanks to some sneaky e-mailing with Doug Lombardi. Here is the low-down:
- VIDEO: Direct X 9 compatible video card (Video card must be 256 MB or more and should be a DirectX 9-compatible with support for pixel shader 2.0)
- SOUND: Direct X9.0c compatible sound card
While the requirements have certainly gone up since the days of Team Fortress 2 and the rest of the Orange Box they don't seem too steep, a bit steeper than I would've thought, though I guess with all the new effects needed for L4D Valve had to make some adjustments somewhere. Anyway I know I am sorted, and for me that is all that matters.
Steam gets Mods
I have often thought, not seriously, but it has often come to mind that Steam does not make full use of potential. However it seems like this is about to change as it has been revealed that mods are making their way onto Steam. Soon mods such as Age of Chivalry, D.I.P.R.I.P., Insurgency, Synergy, and Zombie Panic will be available to download for free by any Steam users who own a Source based game.
These mods will make use of Steamworks and will receive automatic updates in much the same way as games do via Steam. This is really a great step forward for Steam, Valve and mod teams. I think one of the main reasons why I don't play many mods for Source games is the lack of Steam integration. Now this is changing I think mods will become a hell of a lot more popular.
Tally Ho!
Again my apologies for the short column, hope to get back to normal next week.
