Counter Strike: Global Offensive PAX 2011 Debut Trailer!

It's truly amazing to see how far we've come from the original Counter Strike to this day. In 1999 it was only a mod, then a year later it became a retail game. Next thing you know Condition Zero and Source pop up, showing how successful Counter Strike has become. Now here comes what should be incredible, Counter Strike: Global Offensive. Who knows how amazing the graphics will be, the new modes, matchmaking, and overall game play itself. While you can still play old maps, there's going to be tons of new maps as well. Another great feature of it all is cross-platforming. While this has failed in the past, it's slowly becoming a new big thing all around. Being a fan of the games myself, I'm completely looking forward to seeing what this has to show. Could definitely say it has it's memorable moments:

The Gary Hudston Project (Portal 2 Engagement)

With the various World of Warcraft and Halo proposals among others, comes Portal 2! The person who created the levels is known as Doogiehoogie and Ellen Mclain herself contributed to The Gardy Hudston Project as the one and only GladoS. Watch the video and be amazed! And yes, she did indeed say yes, how could she not?

Counter Strike Global Offensive INCOMING!

Earlier today there were rumors going around such as on ESEA or over on Kotaku among other major sites. With all the rumors going on about testers tweeting or it being suspected that Valve had a press conference confirming the release of a new Counter Strike. Well lets just say, the sequel rumors are true!

Valve confirmed Counter Strike Global Offensive and added it to Steam! CS: GO as it's being called is coming to the PS3, Xbox 360, and the lovely PC and Mac. This is definitely going to be interesting, hit up the link, there's going to be new game modes, game play, maps, and even matchmaking. So things are going to get competitive without a doubt!

It'll be playable at Pax Prime in Seattle coming up in two weeks, as well as the Eurogamer Expo in late September. The release is expected early 2012. It might not be Half Life's Episode 3, but it's definitely nice to see Valve's doing something. I'm sure it'll be a ton of fun, especially with the matchmaking aspect.

"Counter-Strike took the gaming industry by surprise when the unlikely MOD became the most played online PC action game in the world almost immediately after its release in August 1999," said Doug Lombardi at Valve

Terraria Patch 1.0.6 Notes and Overview!

NPC Additions

• New Enemy : Spike Ball (An Immortal Enemy.)
• New Enemy : Blazing Wheel (An Immortal Enemy.)
• New Enemy : Dungeon Slime (Contains Golden Keys)
• New Enemy : Goblin Scout

NPC Changes

• Hornets in the Underground Jungle now shoot stingers. These stingers have a 1 in 3 chance of poisoning their target for 10 seconds.
• Cursed Skulls now now have a chance to apply the Cursed debuff.
• Bats, Harpy and Demon AI has been improved to prevent wall hugging.
• Slimes when in water will now turn around when they have no where to go.
• Man Eaters and Snatchers now have less HP, and are drawn above tiles rather than behind.
• Lava Slimes no longer spawn lava when killed.
• Meteor Heads now move much slower but do a lot more damage.
• Bone Serpents now have a new death sound, and their hit-box has been re-calibrated.
• NPC’s furniture requirements have changed to work with new items.NPCs now requires one "comfort object" (Chair, Throne, Bench, Bed, Toilet) and one "flat surface furniture" (Table, Dresser, Workbench, Tub, Bookcase) for a room to be complete before they will make it their home.
• Thorns are now destroyed after you touch them and receive damage.

NPC Bug Fixes

• EoW is no longer "defeated" when he flees.
• Npcs that are far from home and try to turn to return home will no longer twitch left and right when stuck.
• Hornets are correctly now unable to enter water.
• Vultures should no longer ‘float’ if the sand they are perched on falls from beneath them.
• Items

Item Additions

• New Item : Shadow Key
• New Item : Golden Key
• New Item : Shadow Chest (These require the Shadow Key)
• New Item : Obsidian Background Walls
• New item : Mud Background Walls
• New Item : Jungle Spore (Replaces Jungle Rose in former crafting uses.)
• New Item : Tattered Cloth
• New Item : Battle Standard (Allows for manual starting of the Goblin Invasion)
• New Item : Piano
• New Item : Loom (Crafting Station, Now required for crafting most clothes from silk.)
• New Item : Bench
• New item : Dresser
• New Item : Bathtub
• New Item : Red Banner
• New Item : Green Banner
• New Item : Blue Banner
• New Item : Yellow Banner
• New Item : Lamp Post
• New Item : Tiki Torch
• New Item : Barrel
• New Item : Chinese Lantern
• New Item : Cooking Pot
• New Item : Safe (A separate private storage from the Piggy Bank.)
• New Item : Skull Lantern
• New Item : Trash Can
• New Item : Candelabra
• New Item : Pink Jar
• New Item : Mug
• New Item : Beer Keg
• New Item : Beer
• New Item : Bookcase
• New Item : Throne
• New Item : Bowl
• New Item : Bowl of Soup
• New Item : Toilet
• New Item : Grandfather Clock
• New Item : Statue

Item Changes

• Wooden Tables, Doors and Workbenches now have improved looking graphics.
• Glow sticks price reduced. And are now a bit brighter.
• Coins now leave a sparkle trail while moving.
• Jungle Rose is now a rarer drop and no longer used to craft.
• Grappling Hooks can no longer be spam shot, you must now wait until your previous shot lands or returns before you can throw another.
• Suspicious Looking Eyes will now sometimes be found in chests.
• Flamelash, Sunfury, and Flower of Fire are no longer dropped, they are now found in shadow chests in the underworld.
• Ash and Mud no longer fall due to gravity.
• Hellstone no longer produces light and is more rare.
• Hellstone now spawns lava when it is mined, but only in the underworld.
• Cacti no longer cause knock-back making running through a desert less of a hassle.
• Potions now offer less HP on use, and their cool-down is now a minute.
• Placing background walls is more simple, as 1 block holes are automatically filled in.
• Flails now have a different mechanic. You can ‘spin’ them by pressing left and right fast over and over after they have been thrown while holding down the mouse button.
• ALL placed background walls are now considered ‘house walls’. (Yes even Dirt and Dungeon walls.)
• Two of the same type of accessories may no longer be equipped at once.
• Fish Bowl’s recipe has been changed to require Bottled Water, rather than just an empty Bottle.
• Armors are now more ‘Class Type’ specific and their stats have been set accordingly.
• Meteor Armor - Buffs Magic Damage and Set Bonus : Space Gun 0 Mana Cost.
• Molten Armor - Set Bonus : Melee Damage
• Shadow Armor - Buffs Melee Attack Speed and Set Bonus : Movement Speed.
• Necro Armor - Buffs ranged damage and Set Bonus : Reduces Ammo Consumption.
• Jungle Armor - Buffs Max Mana, Magic Crit Chance and Set Bonus : Reduced Mana Usage.
• Several Magic Items and Weapons have been rebalanced. Including but not limited to...
• Fire of Flower now does more damage, and costs more mana.
• Band of Star Power now adds 20 mana to your maximum, and no longer adds mana regeneration.
• Orb of Light now moves slower and is now listed as a buff that you can remove if you so desire and also know its remaining duration.
• Magic missile is now quicker and is ‘launched’ when you release the mouse button, rather than disappearing.
• Flamelash is ‘launched’ when you release the mouse button, rather than disappearing.
• Meteor Armor and Molten Armors no longer glow.
• Starfury now does a bit more damage, requires more mana, and now works underground. If a star is spawned inside a wall, it will be able to travel until it reaches open space and then becomes ‘solid’ colliding with the next wall it hits.
• The Mini-shark now has a 33% chance that shooting the weapon will not take ammo. So it does not consume as much ammo to use.
• Flintlock Pistols and Muskets are now a bit stronger.

Item Bug Fixes

• Bottled water can no longer be crafted by standing near lava.
• Night Owl Potion now works correctly.
• Piggy Banks should no longer float when the ground beneath the table it is on is removed from beneath them.
• Melee speed increase items are now calculated correctly.
• Cacti no longer destroy blocks as they grow.

Game Interface

• There is now an option to disable pickup text.
• New Hot-key for grappling hooks. (Defaults to E)
• Hot-bar Slots now show their Hot-key number.
• The Mana Bar is now Blue, and text for gaining health is now green.
• Interface Boxes are now colored differently. Inventory is Blue, Equip is Green, Craft is Purple, Shops are Brown, Piggy Banks and Safes are Pink.
• Hot-keys for Mana and Healing Potions now work correctly with Rejuvenation potions.
• Right clicking on an accessory or a piece of armor in your inventory will auto-equip it.
• Newly obtained items will now be placed starting in the bottom right of your inventory rather than the previous top left.
• There is now a Trash Can slot in the inventory. Placing an item here will destroy it. However the item will be saved in memory until another item is destroyed, allowing you to retrieve it if you wish. Holding Shift and Clicking and Item will move it to your trashcan.
• When at a chest or piggy bank, there is now an option to loot all. This will take all items inside the chest/bank if there is room, If not it will take all items starting from top left. There is also a Quick Stack option for the reverse effect. If the chest you are viewing has items stored in it that you are also carrying, this option will stack those items into the chest combining stored and carried stacks.
• When at a chest or piggy bank, there is now an option to Deposit all. This will take all items not in your hot bars and starting from the bottom right slot, place each item that will fit into the chest or bank. It will stop when space runs out.
• It is no longer possible to drop items through the spaces between boxes in the inventory
• Some Tools now give you an idea in their tool-tip of what they can mine. Example - "Can mine Meteorite".
• There are now four ammo slots. Ammo may be placed here to de-clutter your inventory. Weapons will take ammo from these slots first, and will then take from any in the inventory after they are empty.
• Hot-Bar slots that have a ranged weapon on them will show the current used ammo count on them.
• There is now a toggle in your inventory, that when clicked, will LOCK your hot-bar and not allow you to change your currently used hot-bar item by clicking it with the mouse, only the 1 - 9 hot -keys and mouse-wheel will scroll them at that point.
• Hotkeys can now be used to change selected item when the inventory is open.
• Shops now sell items back to you. Holding Shift and Clicking and Item while at a shop will quick-sell it.
• You can now quickly clear and cancel your chat message by hitting escape.

Misc

Gameplay

• New Feature : Critical Hits. There is now a small chance you will do more damage to an enemy
• New Feature : Damage Types. Damage is now separated into Melee, Ranged and Magic damages. These will be used going forward for a few different systems, such as buffs, de-buffs. Items will list what kind of damage they do in their tool-tip so you know what will be effected by what buff.
• Players now heal automatically when ‘not in combat’. You are flagged as in combat when you are damaged by anything. The longer you have spent after getting hurt will increase your hp regen speed slightly.
• Mana now recharges on its own when you are not casting. Slowly if you are moving, and fast if you stand still.

Character Creation

• Added 19 new hairstyles.
• There is now an option for ‘Male/Female’, this is used to change the characters voice. This way, any hairstyle can be used for either gender.
• When choosing your hairstyle, you may now right click to cycle through the hair selections backwards.
• There are now 3 difficulty modes that are set when creating a character.
• Softcore - Drop coins on death, keep max hp and mana values.
• Mediumcore - Drop all items on death, keep max hp and mana values.
• Hardcore - Drops all Items and deletes your character on death, requiring you to start a new character. On death you will become a ghost that can not interact with the world until you log out.

Game Text

• Corrected some spelling errors and also the placement of ‘%’ in some potion tool-tips.
• Added several new randomized game 'subtitle captions'.
• ‘Misc’ in Character Creation color selection, has been renamed "Shoes".

Music and Sound

• New Music : Corruption.
• There are new sounds for the following actions/events
• Talking to an NPC
• Mana Becoming Full (also shows a purple sparkle on player)
• Using Water Bolt, Flamelash, and Flower of Fire
• Starting to Drow
• Some sounds have a randomizing pitch change (like sword swinging), to make them have more variance.
• Performance
• Optimized "Finding Tile Frames", so worlds should load faster

World Gen

• More Gems spawn in the jungle.
• Hell Houses now spawn differently. A worlds Hell Houses can rarely spawn as all obsidian, and they can now get really tall.
• Underground Jungles now have a Mud Background
• Dungeons should no longer spawn in the ocean.
• Deserts now spawn slightly further away from spawn.
• Dungeons now spawn with more spikes and less lighting.
• Underworld Ash is now filled with more lava pockets, making mining Hellstone more of a challenge.
• Some items no longer spawn in Dungeon, these were meant for non-dungeon areas.

Saints Row the Third Freefalling Trailer

Just saw this over on Game Informer, my god, fricken amazing. I'm only three minutes in and I already love it. I loved when Gat took the knife wound but still smashed his head into the air plane window. Knowing Gat from what he experienced in the second, I wasn't surprised, but amazing work. This already looks like it'll be another badass game for me to play and enjoy like crazy. The plot looks like it'll be interesting for sure. Once the trailer started I was like, no way Gat is going to die, something has to happen. Like maybe the plane tilted or well, what just happened. This video definitely counters the whole silly concept of the game. Considering the trailers and game play seen before this, I'm sure you saw the silly clothing and certain cars. But while it has a creative and silly side of the game, it's also a badass game with a sick plot. Watch the video, I've gotta finish up the rest, looks like it'll be amazing. I'll keep you guys updated, maybe pop a video explaining everything in detail. I'm sure there's one around here.

*Edit* Just finished watching it, I'm disappointed, but I also have gotta say that is one hell of a trailer. Definitely going to be happy when that comes out for a few days =P Loved when he flew threw the plane, totally epic.

Tickets For MineCon For Sale!

Supposedly Notch announced last week he would be joining the familiar events such as BlizzCon and Call of Duty: XP. Just a brief announcement at the time, but now as you can see it's all happening soon in Las Vegas, NV, November 18th - 19th! It'll be at the Mandalay Bay Hotel.

Tickets are being sold for Minecon on their website for $99.00 if you buy your ticket before September 30th, so buy it before it jumps to $139.00 there on out. Looks like you can probably buy tickets on site as well, but well that's for $139.00. Just a heads up.

While it's too late to get into the first 500, it's been said that the first 500 to buy their tickets will be entered to win the Ultimate Fan Experience featured below!

This special package includes: 

• your hotel stay during MineCon (for the nights of November 17,18, and 19th) 
• VIP seating to Keynotes and Classes 
• A meal with Team Mojang 

Winner will be randomly drawn from list of first 500 registrants. You must be 18 years old or older to win.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Special Ops Trailer!

This is trailer is focused for the PC apparently. Personally I wouldn't notice much of a difference, you may. This looks like the survival I've been heard about coming in. Maybe they'll have this instead of Nazi Zombies or both, who knows. But it definitely looks interesting, like a survival where you can earn money killing people, and then spend it on new weapons and equipment to help you fend off wave after wave of enemies just like you. I'm sure you can play it coop probably split screen with a friend or play online as if it's like the Operations mode featured in Black Ops.

Move Ape Escape Gameplay!

 Mecha Tag Rally

Amusement Park

Rage Uprising Trailer

Diablo 3 - Beta Gameplay

Borderlands 2? Yes

It's been reported through Eurogamer that a Borderlands 2 is likely to be under way! It's been said before by the Gearbox boss; Randy Pitchford, that they had every intention of revisited the Borderlands franchise in the future at some point. Especially after how successful it did at launch and to this day. For several months Borderlands 2 has been a mere rumor, but now it's been confirmed. Soon a public announcement will be made by 2K Games revealing the details, so make sure to keep an eye on that if you're interested. I know I can't wait for it personally. Loved the first without a doubt. 


"So you can see that we supported the game like mad with lots of great DLC and you can imagine that we're going to want to do a lot of things with Borderlands in the future." - Take Two

Unlimited Detail Real-Time Rendering

A lot of people have been raving about the above video. You'll notice that the group Euclideon has discovered ways to make huge breakthroughs in gaming graphics since the past year when they disappeared after revealing a little bit of information. They've figured out ways to make technology as realistic as real life itself. They built a polygon converter themselves and converted them into 64 atoms per cubic inch shown at 2:40 or so in the video by showing grains of dirt. Euclideon has found ways to recreate the world to the extreme in a video game. As the current games aren't exactly able to run so advanced graphics, not many companies are probably looking into something like this. Although Euclideon is jumping into the future and showing us what technology we may eventually have in our video games. Basically making everything real and not just a sprite or a simple texture. You'll notice in the video they've imported actual objects in the world such as rocks and scanned them into the game. Euclideon states that these graphics are about give or take, 100,000 times better than what we're currently seeing. Months from now their developing kit will be provided to Game Developers for use apparently. It's amazing where technology has come.

Humble Indie Bundle 3 - Pay Your Price!

SeaNanners Livestreaming Some Minecraft!