Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto has been quoted by Nintendo Power recently, saying that not everything needs to be 3D in the games industry. The creator of Mario and Zelda, two franchises that have had success in both dimensions, says:

“I don’t think everything needs to be 3D, or that just because we’re seeing more 2D games now, that everything’s going to shift back to 2D. Instead, I think that what’s going on is that people are realizing the benefits of a 3D game, and at the same time, remembering what the benefits of 2D games were.

When going 2D, you need the courage to not be so attached to visual appearance of the games and to really pursue the gameplay experience.”

I find myself worrying about Miyamoto’s recent obsession with fitness and self-help using the Wii, but it’s quotes like this that restore my faith in him. Think about all of the times a game has been put onto the DS (or PSP, for that matter) in 3D, where it could have been in 2D and played a hundred times better. Some games work in 3D, like Mario Kart, but honestly the best experiences I’ve had on those platforms are all 2D. Get the gameplay down, and I’m sold on the game. If it happens to look great, that’s a plus.

Oh, and just a note to DS and PSP developers: 2D looks so much better than 3D on those platforms. Think about it: the late-era SNES games looked crisp and sharp compared to the early PS1 and N64 3D polygonal messes.

If you bought Left 4 Dead 2 on the PC, you might be pleased to hear that some modders have figured out a way to import all of the maps from Left 4 Dead into Left 4 Dead 2, playable with the new infected, new survivors, and the baseball bat. It’s a complex process compared to most mods, and it suffers from a few major problems at the time of writing, unfortunately.

The only new weapon that works is the bat, most of the campaigns crash on certain events, and some of the switches don’t work. If you can get past this, however, you’ve got 5 new expertly designed maps to play around with. I’m expecting that at some point someone (possibly even Valve) will create working versions of all of these maps for Left 4 Dead 2, so for now my advice is to keep your game files safe, and admire the work from a distance. I just hope that they patch in Francis as a playable character. I miss him terribly.

One day, far into the future, gaming blogs will stop reporting on the PC version of Modern Warfare 2. This is not that day. The PC version has been split open by ‘hackers’ (a term I hate using, as I am not in an ’80s movie) to reveal some hidden game modes, outlined below.

The first gametype – “gtnw” – is Global Thermonuclear War. To play, simply capture the objective: a nuclear bomb. When captured, the bomb detonates…
The second gametype – “oneflag” – is One Flag CTF. To play, capture the flag in the middle and bring it back to your base.
The third gametype – “vip” – is VIP. To play, defend the VIP. Or, if you’re on the other team, kill the VIP.

This was found in a now-deleted post on the Infinity Ward forums, and in the word of the person who posted it, “It seems we have finally identified the DLC that Activision/IW wanted to pimp to us. It has been right in the game all along.” This seems likely from a company like Activision, so don’t ignore this guy completely.

If this is all true, this Modern Warfare 2 PC situation is going to get more out of hand by the day. In a week’s time they’ll have found that we’ll be seeing downloadable costume packs for our soldiers, so we can buy DJ Hero T-Shirts for our avatars and our MW2 characters.

Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games, like Mario and Sonic and the Olympic Games before it, combines the plethora of sports associated with the events with the somewhat madcap world of Nintendo and SEGA mascots. This provides a welcome relief from the charmless sports games that are often released around these major sporting events; the vibrant and less-than-serious world of Mario and Sonic certainly adds something to the sports game formula, but does it work as a game in its own right?

I’d like to start by emphasising that Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games looks great. As a Wii game, it’s up there with Super Mario Galaxy, and as a DS game it competes with the likes of Mario Kart DS. I was impressed as well with the frame rate during the high-speed events like the Luge and the Bob-sleigh; it was never anything less than smooth, even with two players on screen at once. Of course, being a Mario and Sonic game, despite the abundance of white snow the game remains very colourful and enjoyable to look at.

The game has an abundance of events to play, which in video-game terms could probably be described more at ‘mini-games’. The game plays very similarly to Mario and Sonic and the Olympic Games- for those who have not played that, it feels similar to something like Wii Sports/ Resort, with many more games to choose from. Obviously they are all events themed around the Winter Olympics- Skiing, Snowboarding, Bob-sleigh, Curling, Ice-Skating, and Hockey all have their pace in the game, with Skiiing being the most common, with all the types you can imagine. Fans of the Winter Olympics will doubtless be satisfied with the amount of games available.

Alongside real-world events are crazy “Dream” events, which combine sports with, well, Mario Kart. Most of the Dream Events are races with power-ups (shells, stars, banana skins, and even Chaos Emeralds), and are actually a lot of fun. I found myself thinking that with a lot more track variety this could be the subject of its own game- then I realised that it was already out, and called Mario Kart Wii (or Mario Kart DS for those of us who prefer).

The games all have their own control scheme, and most suit the game well enough, but I couldn’t help but feel that most of the motion control elements just didn’t feel fun enough. For most games, you have to waggle to move and tilt to steer, which can get irritating for people who want to accelerate around corners and the like. The waggle controls started to become more and more irritating as I played more and more of the game, realising that very few of the games quite manage to feel intuitive. The ones that do tend to be closer to Wii Sports style games- for example, the Curling controls similarly to Wii Bowling, and as such is good fun to play.

On the DS, the controls mostly revolve around dragging the stylus to move, which meant that a lot of the time I couldn’t see for my hand. However, I was pleased to find that some events, such as the Snowboarding, use the buttons and not a tacked-on stylus control scheme. Thus, these games feel much more at home on the DS. Generally I think the DS game controls better than the Wii version, unless you have particularly big hands.

Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games is without a doubt best enjoyed in multiplayer. The large number of events and Mario and Sonic elements give it a Mario Party-like feel. There is a ‘party games’ section, but I found these games to be drawn out too much. You have to play events competitively, but then you are required to play another mini-game to cash in on your victories, which takes away some of the gratification of winning a good game of Curling. The multiplayer is certainly the best part about the Wii version when played on a event-by-event basis.

The DS version is more of a single-player experience, due to the nature of the platform. This isn’t necessarily to the game’s detriment; it’s still a jolly good sports game, and on the DS it’s one of the best games I’ve played in quite a while. That sounds like high praise, but unfortunately the DS has been a little stagnant this quarter. Still, I think he game is a very solid title.

Although I must admit I only had a brief encounter with Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, I feel that Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games has a lot more to offer. The Wii and DS versions are very good-looking, have a lot of mini-games to play, and the Wii version is a blast with friends. My recommendation is that if you are expecting to be playing with buddies, get the Wii version. If you’re looking for a good set of single-player challenges, get the DS version. Although the games have control issues in some areas and a lot of useless features (I don’t really see the point in a Snowboard customisation shop), they are certainly at least worth a look if you’re interested.

As you can see in the above video, The video has been removed by Activision due to copyright laws, however the video would have given you visual evidence that someone has already managed to create an Aimbot and wall-hack for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. It’s pretty obvious that dedicated servers are not the cause of hackers, but simply online multiplayer. The fact that these idiots can operate on IWNet is even worse than them being on dedicated servers; there’s no way to kick or ban them from the game. This of course means that if a cheater gets into your game, it’s not going to be very fun.

My advice: get Modern Warfare 2 on the consoles, if you even get it at all. The PC version just isn’t looking very rosy at the moment.

You may remember that we ran a contest last week to promote the release of two new (well, old) Majesco titles on GoG.com. We received around 40 entries, but unfortunately we only have 15 codes to give away. This of course means that we had to choose between you, bringing our collective heart here at Ripten close to breaking point when we realised that we’d have to let 25 of you down.

The winners are as follows:

shindakun, CJAwesome KieranD, gene26, Maxdoggy, darth_careful, lotr-sam0711, DavidGX, Ralackk, Toyoch, Vestin, nickreaume, JamesGecko, catshade, and jandeilson.

You will be sent your codes via the email addresses you used to register with Ripten. Thank you for entering, and congratulations! Good luck next time to all who didn’t win!

The BBC reports that MP Tom Watson has begun a Facebook group in response to politicians’ comments about the civilian scene in Modern Warfare 2. Kieth Vaz, one of the UK’s most vocal anti video-game politicians, is quoted as being “shocked” by the scene in Modern Warfare 2, in a brilliant case of missing the point completely and blatant ignorance of the context. Contrastingly Watson asks gamers in the UK “Are you sick of UK newspapers and (my fellow) politicians beating up on gaming? So am I. The truth is, UK gamers need their own pressure group. I want to help you start one up.”

I think this is great for gamers in the UK. For too long the anti-gaming protesters have been a vocal minority, and we need someone in a position to argue with them to represent our stance. Watson is also quoted by the BBC to have a good understanding of the industry: “Everything that comes out of Parliament in relation to video games is relentlessly negative. There are thousands of people employed in this industry, there are 26 million people playing games. We should have a much more balanced view of the industry, indeed we should be supporting them through difficult times.”

Although Watson is “repulsed” by the content in question in Modern Warfare 2, he points out that “similar material is in both books and films, and he believes that as long as there is a classification system which is well policed, there is not really an issue here.” This is an admirable stance, which promotes freedom of expression in the media, something which as Internet users, we should protect as much as possible. I’m still a little in shock that we seem to have a sensible politician, but I’m sure he’ll be fired by the Prime Minister soon because his views don’t support government policy. Then everything will be okay again!

After my hands-on with the game at the MCM Expo a few weeks ago and a lot of time spent in the pre-release demo, I feel I’ve got enough experience to let you, our dear readers, know how I feel about the game. You may remember last year I did a similar thing with the original game, and I seem to have really rather enjoyed it. I felt that since I did one last year, I should run through some of my impressions of Left 4 Dead 2.

Can the sequel live up to the original? To answer that question, here are some words that I have typed on my computer which you will read.

As with last year, I only played the 360 version for a small amount of time, but again I felt very hindered by the controller. My tactics from playing Left 4 Dead 1 over the whole year on the PC just wouldn’t transition into the 360 version I played, like the ability to get headshots or aim for gas cans easily. I realise that with practice one can get better at this with a controller (and in fact I prefer playing Resident Evil 5 on the PC with a controller over the mouse and keyboard) but while playing I couldn’t enjoy the new aspects of Left 4 Dead 2 without a feeling in the back of my mind that this wasn’t even capturing some of the things that made Left 4 Dead so great. It didn’t feel as satisfying to kill the infected without the ability to pop their heads open or perform actions that require a swift aim.

That said, I don’t have a problem with this version and it must be pointed out that this is my experience, and not necessarily that of anyone else. The new weapons, especially the melee types, were the thing that caught my eye the most (and as such I spent a good portion of time hitting zombies with a frying pan). After only having access to about 6 weapons for a whole year, the new shotguns and assault rifles were very welcome, and all of the weapons feel just as they should- substantial. The Uzi-style guns and the pistols are always in danger of feeling weak in shooters but here they all feel just right.

Once I had a chance to play the PC demo, I was able to take a closer look at the new special infected. The Spitter, which shoots gunk at you from a distance which covers the floor and blocks off that area for a little while, can be very effective at breaking up the group. If you huddle in a corner and the Spitter gets you, you are going to have to get away from that corner sharpish. The Jockey is another hazard to teams that split up; he can ride a player wherever he feels like, which is usually into a molotov fire spill or spitter goo. Obviously this isn’t very healthy and he can cause adverse side-effects (i.e. death) if not rapidly removed. Similarly the charger can smash through a group of survivors and grab one, incapacitating him like a Hunter would. All of the new specials have a specific use and they should make versus mode even more fun that it was already.

The demo, however, doesn’t show much in terms of new environments. The newest things about the level on show are the daytime setting and the finale where one must get to a button to turn it off instead of just waiting around for a door to open. This makes it a bit more hectic, with the players being forced to make a move instead of just waiting it out. It does end up being a bit easy, however, even on harder difficulty levels. I think this may be because the demo shows off a lot of weapons and new items, which you are given quite a lot of. This makes taking down the horde a little easier than in a full-length campaign, since you can afford to take more risks and just spray all of your ammo away at them. At the moment Left 4 Dead 2 is looking like it has everything that was missing from Left 4 Dead 1, and I feel it certainly justifies a new game. The new survivors are great, too (especially Nick). I highly recommend you try the demo, which is out now on Steam and Xbox 360.

Good Old Games, the best place for nostalgia-loving PC gamers, announced the arrival of some brand new old games to their ever-growing catalogue this week; Majesco Entertainment’s Advent Rising and the highly acclaimed Psychonauts. To celebrate, we’re giving 15 Ripten readers the chance to win the game of their choice from GoG.com’s archive of over 160 classic PC games.

All you have to do is register for a free account here at Ripten and post a comment in the comments section below. Let us know which game you’d like from the library of games at GoG.com and a brief explanation why.

It really is that simple, folks! Just remember, you can’t win if you don’t register for an account here at Ripten. We’ll pick the winners on Monday, November 9, so you’ve got plenty of time to think of a game you’d like to add to your collection. All winners will be contacted through the email they used when registering.

Update: The competition is now closed. Thanks to all who entered! Here is the post outlining the winners!

You might recall that many PC fans of Call of Duty (specifically Modern Warfare) got very upset when Infinity Ward announced that they were not going to support dedicated servers for Modern Warfare 2. As something that is a core part of the PC gaming experience, a petition was signed by many people requesting that the decision be reversed. Although Infinity Ward declined, DICE, the developers of the excellent Battlefield series, soon announced that their next game, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, would definitely have support for dedicated servers.

In thanks for this, a fan of PC gaming has sent the money he would have spent on Modern Warfare 2 to DICE and requested that the money be spent on the features he desires- because he couldn’t send them a cake, he decided this would do. I should mention that I think this is a great way to show your support for a developer, but I’d recommend that you don’t do this unless you’re rich or really, really like dedicated servers.

Boo! I hope that didn’t completely scare you, what with Halloween coming up and all the ghosts that totally aren’t fictional and monsters that totally exist coming out to haunt us. To celebrate this rather pointless special time of year, Valve have announced that Team Fortress 2 will be having a spooky update weekend.

The update will add five achievements to unlock some new ghostly hats, a new King of the Hill map (Harvest, a Halloween-themed map with a roaming ghost that will scare players stiff) and Pumpkin-bombs. It also seems that dead players will be able to interact in some way with the living. Not sure if this is restricted to this one map, but either way it sounds brilliant. The special runs October 29th-November 3rd.

Update: The game is also super cheap from now until 2:00pm PDT; go buy it!

The above video is the first in a series of video developer diaries for SEGA’s upcoming Bayonetta. The video discusses the concepts of Bayonetta’s character and enemy design, and the decision to create a world of angels for Bayonetta to fight through. Like almost every dev diary before it, it’s got a lot of insights and a lot of game footage, so if you’re looking forward to Bayonetta it should be of interest.

I’m still on the fence about Bayonetta, for some reason. When I played it it felt like it wasn’t something I would want to play, but everything SEGA has been putting out to advertise it makes it look really quite good. I guess I’ll just have to make my decision when someone isn’t waiting for a turn behind me.

Before I begin: Spoilers.

I tried not to put anything in the title to spoil anything for anyone who wants to pop their MW2 cherry on their own Xbox, PS3, or PC. Don’t read on if you’re in this category. This appears to be footage of a level in the game that has the player take control of a terrorist and massacre civilians in an airport. Not hostile ones, either- they seem very helpless.

This will obviously cause a lot of outcry about the game, probably even from the mainstream media. However, this is completely without context at the moment, and I urge you not to get up in arms about it. Done correctly this could be an excellent statement about terrorism (or something along those lines; like I said, we’ve no context at this point). Being offended by something like this without knowing fully what it is about is for Fox news, not for gamers. There is a fine line, however- if it goes wrong and the context and statement isn’t clear enough, this could be a disaster. Obviously, the game will get huge amounts of press either way, and will sell a billion zillion copies.

The PlayStation Blog have announced that the full HD re-releases of God of War and God of War II on a single Blu-ray disc will be coming out on November 17. They’ve also released a list of Trophies, which can be seen after the jump.

I think they’re a bit rubbish, to be brutally honest. I think Trophies and Achievements are better when they’re used to point out silly things you can do in the games, or used to reward those who have completely mastered the game. There’s a little of this in these ones but not nearly enough; most of them look like they’re just for stuff you’re highly likely to do when just playing through the games.

Still, I’m looking forward to the release, since I haven’t played the games yet and I’m told they are great.

GOD OF WAR

Bronze

• 1.21 Gigawatts – Acquire Poseidon’s Rage
• Rocking Out – Acquire Medusa’s Gaze
• Bolt Action – Acquire Zeus’ Fury
• Sword Man – Acquire Blade of Artemis
• Soul Search – Acquire Army of Hades
• Matador – Win the first Minotaur fight
• Scape Goat – Win the first Satyr fight
• Roll Over … and Die – Win the first Cerberus fight
• Don’t They Ever Shut Up! – Defeat the Desert Sirens
• Beat a Dead Horse – Complete the Centaur sacrifice to Hades
• Kickboxer – Complete the Spike Room Box Puzzle
• Rockin’ the Boat – Complete the Sex Mini-Game
• Don’t Leave Her Hanging – Rescue the Oracle with 10 seconds to spare
• Get the Ball Rolling – Complete the Challenge of Atlas
• Totally Baked – Complete the Human sacrifice
• Splash – Kiss the Nyad
• Get Me a Beer Kid – Free yourself from the depths of Hades
• Zero Health = Bronze Trophy – Open a Health Chest when your health meter is already full
• Hitman – Get a 100 Hits Combo
• Getting My Ass Kicked – Die enough times to get offered Easy Mode

Silver

• Kratos’ Marble Collection – Collect all the Gorgon Eyes
• Stick it in Your Cap! – Collect all the Phoenix Feathers
• It’s the HUGE One – Retrieve the Captain’s Key
• Take the Bull by the Horns – Defeat Pandora’s Guardian
• God Killer – Kill Ares
• Head Hunter – Obtain the head of the Architect’s wife
• The Power to Kill a God – Retrieve Pandora’s Box
• Hitman 2 – Get a 200 Hits Combo
• Legend of the Twins – Watch the ‘Birth of the Beast’ Treasure
• Seeing Red – Max out all Weapons and Magic

Gold

• Prepare to be a God – Beat the Game on any Difficulty
• You Got the Touch! – Climb the Spiked Column in Hades without taking damage
• I’ll Take the Physical Challenge – Complete the Challenge of the Gods
• Speed of Jason McDonald – Beat the game in under 5 hours on any Difficulty
• Key to Success – Collect all of the Muse Keys

Platinum

• Trophy of Zeus – Unlock all God of War Trophies

GOD OF WAR II

Bronze

• Breaking Wind – Acquire Typhon’s Bane
• Big, Tuff, Buff and Rough – Acquire Rage of the Titans
• Blue Balls – Acquire Cronos’ Rage
• Shiner – Acquire the Golden Fleece
• Rock their World – Acquire the Head of Euryale
• Learning to Fly – Acquire the Icarus Wings
• Shaky Ground – Acquire Atlas Quake
• Death from Above 2009 – Defeat the Dark Rider for the first time
• Resurrection – Climb from the pit of Hades
• Rock Hard – Defeat the Titan Minotaur inside Atlas
• Pick’n on the Little Guy – Win the battle outside of the Palace of the Fates
• Watcha Got on the Hot Plate? – Solve the riddle of the Fire Phoenix Statue
• Whip it Good – Whip the Steeds of Time
• Lift with Your Knees – Topple the Temple in the Bog of the Forgotten
• Swinger – Cross the collapsing Grapple Bridge
• Stoner – Stone and Shatter 30 Enemies
• Super Sized – Get a 500 Hits Combo
• Hitting Your Stride – Power up any item

Silver

• Eye Can’t Believe it – Collect all the Gorgon Eyes
• Go Make a Pillow! – Collect all the Phoenix Feathers
• Eye Sore – Collect 20 Cyclops Eyes
• Boss Batch 1 – Kill the Colossus of Rhodes, the Dark Rider, and Theseus
• Boss Batch 2 – Kill the Barbarian King, Euryale, and Perseus
• Boss Batch 3 – Kill the Kraken and all three Sisters of Fate
• Daddy Issues – Defeat Zeus
• Rise and SHINE – Awaken the Phoenix
• Spread ‘Em – Open the wings of the Temple of the Fates
• Shine King – Open the door to the Temple of Euryale
• Blowin’ Your Wad – Max out all Weapons and Magic

Gold

• The End Begins – Beat the Game on any Difficulty
• Feel the Urn – Collect and use at least 2 Urns of Power
• Bleeding Thumbs – Beat the Challenge of the Titans
• 15 Min Fight Scene – Battle your way to the Loom Chamber in under 10 minutes
• You Know the Germans Make Good Stuff… – Collect all Uber Chests

Platinum

• Trophy of Gaia – Unlock all God of War II Trophies

Nintendo have announced via the above children’s television show video that a brand new side-scrolling Excitebike game will be coming to WiiWare. As you can see, it’s pretty much an updated version of the original- it also includes a track editor and even WiFi play. I’m kind of surprised at my reaction to this, as I’m usually quite cynical about these things- I think it looks pretty cool.

I loved Excitebike when I was younger. I don’t know why; perhaps it was just that it had a good sense of speed and timing the jumps and angles could be quite entertaining. It doesn’t really capture my attention the way it did then any more, but this new one looks decent. Maybe it was just that the presenters reverted me to a younger state of mind with their patronising banter.

Via Gamezine.

Last time I went to the the London Expo, I was quite disappointed with the lack of proper gaming content. This year, however, I was pleasantly surprised. Tekken 6, Borderlands, Bayonetta, and even Left 4 Dead 2 were all playable at the show- which of course meant that I played them as much as I could.

Obviously I wouldn’t be writing this if I wasn’t going to tell you about them, so don’t worry about that. You could read my impressions and watch a video of the games at the same time and pretend that you’re me. This is clearly something that you want to do, so hit the jump to read on.

I’ll spare the details about the show itself, as it rarely changes in atmosphere. Essentially, the show is a gathering of the internet. People dress as memes, animé characters, game characters, or wear sarcastic t-shirts in what I consider to be the seasonal ‘dance of the nerds’. I would have said it was like a mating ritual but we all know that no mating would ever take place. Anyway, now that I’m done insulting everyone who went, probably including myself, I’ll move on to the games.

When I arrived I headed straight for the Borderlands booth- despite the fact that the game has already been released on consoles, I’d never played it before that and was (and am, at the time of writing) waiting for the PC release. As an RPG it’s not ideal for booth play, but I was very impressed. Even though I wasn’t used to using a 360 pad for first-person shooters, I found myself playing for over an hour. Yeah, I was that guy, hogging the booth. I’m sorry, everyone who stood behind me waiting for me to finish.

Luckily the game was running in two-player co-op and there were plenty of other 360s around running the game. I found that playing the game this way was great for showing it off; due to the nature of the game you’re encouraged to talk about what’s going on with your co-op partner and share weapons with them. It’s a great way of making you emotionally involved in the game- and clearly it worked, since I was playing for so long without realising. I’m looking forward to playing the PC version.

I moved on to play Bayonetta, which was a perfectly serviceable brawler which already has a demo out that you can download and try out yourself. If you really want my opinion, I’ll just say that I got a bit bored of it after a little while of fighting the same enemies over and over. The game looks great, though. There’s a lot of detail in the environments and the boss battles are quite epic. Not Shadow of the Colossus epic, just a little bit epic.

I also played Tekken 6, which is every Tekken with slightly better graphics and more characters. I played as Paul (who was good in Tekken 3, the only one I played) and got beat up by someone playing as Law. I don’t think I could go back to Tekken after Street Fighter 4. I just don’t like the 3D mechanic. So my summary of Tekken 6 is this: It’s a Tekken game. What did you expect?

After wandering around a bit (and briefly watching the Avatar game in 3D, which hurt my eyes slightly) I threw away my instinct to avoid boredom and queued up for 45 minutes to play Left 4 Dead 2. It was being played in the same vault as Dead Space was last time (it even had pictures of Issac on the walls inside), on four 360s. They weren’t even connected together, it was just single-player. This combined with the fact that I find playing Valve games with a controller to be utterly awful meant that my opinion of the game went down a lot to just “this is brilliant.”

Despite not being able to aim because of the controller, I found it to be a very enjoyable experience. Cutting zombies in half with a machete is highly unlikely to get old any time soon. The demo comes out soon, so I’ll be doing a full preview in the future. I realise I’m being a big PC elitist when it comes to the controller but I honestly found the burst-fire rifle to be fairly useless as I couldn’t reliably pull off headshots with it. Anyway, I’ll save that for the preview.

That’s about it, I’m afraid. The MCM expo is never huge for games, although this year, as I’ve said, I was impressed with the turnout. Next weekend, however, is the Eurogamer Expo, which I’m also attending. That expo is completely focused on games, and so I’ll hopefully have a bit more to say about that. So, to summarise the MCM Expo 2009, here is a haiku. The use of haiku represents the underlying internet and Japanophile culture present at the Expo.

The dance of the nerds
Has Left 4 Dead 2 this year
It was good, I think

In celebration of a new batch of DLC for the game, Killing Floor is free to play for all Steam users for this weekend. If you decide to buy the game, it’s also 25% off. In case you don’t know what the game is about, I suggest you mentally combine Left 4 Dead, Horde mode from Gears of War, and the SAS voice acting from Call of Duty 4.

I’ve just been playing the game for the first time, and I must say it’s rather enjoyable. The guns feel powerful and the melee weapons are a blast to use. It’s quite challenging, too; plenty of monsters swarm in on you from all sides, which can get pretty chaotic. It looks awful, though, and the movement is a little clunky. Also, all the maps are incredibly dark, but with harsh light sources- I got annoyed at looking into a light and blinding myself constantly.

Still, despite the apparent lack of polish, I had a good time. I’ll most likely be going back and playing some more. I suggest that anyone who can run the game does so; the worst that can happen is that you don’t like it. It’s free, after all.

This may be the best trailer for a videogame I’ve ever seen. Hell, it might be the best trailer I’ve ever seen. Valve are getting great at making these short films; the characters shine through even with two minutes of screen time, and it makes me want the game even more. If this isn’t the purpose of a trailer, I don’t know what is.

It’s supposedly “leaked”, but I’m not buying that. Valve are careful about this stuff. It’s most likely been put out as leaked to get more press. I don’t know why, because I could watch this thing over and over again happily. It’s worth a post, leaked or not. Now excuse me while I go and enthuse a bit more over there.