VALVE Marketing executive, Doug Lombardi, has announced that there will be no new Half Life episode for this upcoming E3.  Instead, he mentioned that the corporation will be focusing on the new release of Left 4 Dead.

He has promised to make a playable demo available of E3 however.  A moajor dev for VALVE, Gabe Newell, has stated that Left 4 Dead will be a co-op FPS along the lines of Counter-Strike.

keep you eyes peeled for more info on this new game.

Sony has announced their newest firmware release v2.36.  And the only change they had to talk about was: “System stability during use of some PLAYSTATION®3 format software has been improved.” 

The Fan Pack includes an Update for the game and DLC (downloadable content). The first thing that may come to mind is: “Is this free?” Yes it is, including the DLC. This pack will be available via Xbox Live Marketplace, PlayStation Network and ubi.com in July 2008.

*** Update Features ***

New Ranks
An additional 99 Elite Ranks have been added for bragging rights. For those of you who are already Elite, you may have noticed that your XP continued to accumulate while playing. Once you have the update, your XP will automatically be applied towards the new Elite ranks, so it is possible that you have already ranked up multiple times past Elite.

New A.C.E.S.
A total of 100 A.C.E.S. are available for each category: Marksman, CQB and Assault. Each A.C.E.S. level past 20 will reward you with 5000 XP that applies to your rank. For players who have already reached A.C.E.S. 20 and continued to collect A.C.E.S. points, you will be happy to know that the update will automatically advance you to the level you have earned. For example, if you have enough A.C.E.S. points to reach Marksman 25, you will automatically be at Marksman 25 and earn 25000 (5000 x 5) towards your next Rank.

Grenade Indicator
When you are within the damage radius of a Frag or Incendiary grenade, an indicator will appear on-screen telling you which direction it is. The indicator can show multiple grenades at once.

Weapons & Gadgets Balancing
Here are a couple of notes about Weapons and Gadgets:
• Explosion delay of the incendiary grenade has been increased
• Detonation speed of the C4 has been slightly increased
• Increased the damage of Sniper Rifles at long range
• Increased the base accuracy of the Light Machine Guns
• Adjusted the rate of fire for some of the Assault Rifles, Shotguns and an SMG
• Sped up the time it takes to zoom in & out with weapons, making it more responsive

To better clarify: the zoom for all firearms have been significantly sped-up and you can now fire DURING the zoom transition.

Respawns in Team Deathmatch – Host Option
An added host option has been added for Random Respawns. Random Respawns OFF will play like the classic Versus style where each team spawns in their designated Alpha or Bravo base. Random Respawns ON will have your players spawn randomly throughout the map after they die the first time.

Voice Chat – Host Option
Added as a host option for Player Match & System Link, players now have the option to talk to their team mates while dead.

Score in Deathmatch
Displayed on the bottom left of the HUD in Deathmatch, players can now see their score along with the top opponent’s score.

Team Leader – Spawn Change
Players now respawn next to the leader by default, unless players specifically choose to spawn back at the base.

Show Dead Players in Lobby
Players who no longer have lives remaining will now have a skull icon displayed next to their name in the pause menu.

Terrorist Hunt Spawning
Terrorists will no longer spawn right in front of you or behind you, or in a room you just cleared.

* * * * *

High Stakes Setting
High Stakes is a host option for every Versus mode that really pushes tactical gameplay to the next level. Here’s a detailed description of High Stakes:

Limited HUD (High Stakes)
The Radar is disabled. Enemies will not be visible on the Tactical Map (back button on 360/select button on PS3). Grenade indicator is disabled.

Health System (High Stakes)
Health regen is disabled. If you are shot and close to death, you’ll enter a visual state of critical health (screen turns monochromatic).

Cover System (High Stakes)
The cover system as been changed in High-Stakes mode to encourage players to peek instead of pop-n-shoot. The camera has been moved so your character cannot look past their cover unless they expose themselves around a corner.

Weapons & Gadgets (High Stakes)
Aim Assistance has been completely disabled. Bullet spread has also been increased when not zoomed-in (you will notice your crosshair indicators are much wider when not in zoom). Realistically, a person holding a gun would have better aim when zoomed-in than when he’s walking around. This encourages players to really take aim instead of run-n-gun. Also remember that the zoom time has been sped-up and you can now fire WHILE you zoom in and out. Players now have less ammunition (1 for each gadget you choose and less clips for your guns) so you really need to play conservatively and rely on precision use of ammo.

Kill Camera & Friendly Fire (High Stakes)
Kill Camera is always disabled and Friendly fire is always enabled.

*** DLC ***

THREE FREE MAPS
There are three maps included in the free DLC: Murdertown – Dark, CQB Training – Dark and best of all the much-requested fan favourite Calypso Casino! The three map layouts have not been changed. The re-lit “Dark maps” have a very eerie atmosphere, and may require players to use night vision to spot enemies. Calypso Casino returns with updated lighting and textures. The three maps are playable in all Versus modes and Terrorist Hunt.

source: http://rainbowsixgame.us.ubi.com

As promised, the 1.50 kernel is out for fat users and a -2 update is out as well to fix some bugs.

The EZ-Installer I put together can also be downloaded here.

It's finally here! Dark Alex and the rest of Team M33 have been popping in and out lately with their messages about creating a new custom firmware. While their previous release had CFW 3.90, the release of the official 4.01 FW prompted them to follow suit with one of their very own.

In comes CFW 4.01 M33 with the following changes:

• Bug fix: vshmenu didn't let change camera mode due to camera_plugin using select button. Fixed, now vsh menu will not be loaded when using the camera.
• Recovery can now be translated, See how below. Translation to spanish is autoincluded.
• Updated the M33 SDK with a new function and sample, and released the psp-packer tool to compress prx's and PBP's in the ~PSP format.
• The folder of 4.01 and higher homebrew will be GAME4.XX so it won't need change on update.

Make sure you take a look at the readme for installation procedures and other notes form Dark AleX and Team M33. The team also notes that the 1.50 kernel add-on will be released in a few hours, so make sure you check back on that. In the mean time, update your CFW!

 via {pspupdates}

Wiibrew Pack Generator Online!

                        Wiibrew Pack Generator!    

Ulti has released a new version of his game, Missile Command, adding sound effects and background music.

Hey, it's missile command time! This uses the excellent libwiisprite for graphics and Sndlib BETA 1.0 for sound. The background music is Epoq – Lepidoptera, available for free from the Kahvi Collective. The sound effects were made by me spitting on my microphone.

Current Version

0.4a – Added background music and sound effects (contact me on IRC if you think you can do a better job with the sound effects)

Changelog

0.3a – Added split missiles, missiles now have trajectory lines

0.2a – Added silo health and ammo, marginally better sprites

0.1a – Initial release

Via [ WiiBrew ]

This would probably qualify as "old news", but with the recent release of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, I figured I'd refresh this leak of sorts regarding the next band to get Activition's exclusive treatment.  Plus, being a big Metallica fan myself, I kinda felt obligated…

 An Activision filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission contains confirmation that the company is planning to release a Metallica version of the massively popular Guitar Hero game in early 2009, ending months of speculation about which band would be featured next.

Gaming sites are already abuzz with the news, but it was actually uncovered by a somewhat unlikely character: Edward Woo, a securities analyst for Wedbush Morgan Securities. The sentence he unearthed reads, "In fiscal 2009, we plan to publish Guitar Hero: On Tour for the NDS; Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, Guitar Hero: Metallica, and Guitar Hero IV across multiple platforms."

The Aerosmith version of the game had already been announced, but this is marks the first time Activision has confirmed — however unintentionally — that Metallica will be the next band to receive the full-on Guitar Hero treatment.

Metallica's blazing riffs make them a natural fit for the game, and the group has shown a newfound willingness to leverage the internet. Hetfield, Ulrich and co. launched a Mission: Metallica site to reach out to fans and draw them in with free pre-release audio clips and in-studio video footage.

However, Mission: Metallica faced a major backlash from fans who called its effort "too little too late" and said they would buy the next Metallica album just in order to share it online.

Some fans of the band came to its defense; they may have to do so again if Guitar Hero: Metallica elicits a similar reaction when it's released (before the end of March 2009, according to the filing).

If I were Lars Ulrich, I'd tell Activision to add a tongue-in-cheek mission to Guitar Hero: Metallica in which the band slowly progresses from fighting the internet to realizing that it represents a way forward. Maybe at the end of the mission, the band could release a videogame similar to this one.

One way or the other, Metallica (and, by extension, Activision), need to address the continuing PR problem that began when Ulrich rode the elevator to Napster's headquarters with those printouts of Metallica-sharing Napster users.

A friend of mine was in that elevator at the time, and he said the mood was pretty tense; maybe it's time for Metallica to exorcise the Napster demon by acknowledging the problem, poking a bit of fun at itself and dissolving that tension once and for all.

Via [ WIRED ]