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“The X Report” Episode 3 Now Live – Australian eSports Recap

Bryce Wilson — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 11:00:51 +0000

Looking for a dose of eSports action in a handy video format hosted by a couple of the coolest guys in the Australian eSports community? Well look no further!

‘EXC355UM‘ over at the GamerHold has released the third episode of his now weekly show “The X Report” and we’ve got it below for you to check out.

Covering all the happenings in the Australian eSports scene with a mix of humor and laughs in between, The X Report keeps you up to date and in the know.

Special guest and community figure “PyroZeroX” co-hosts this episode and does a great job!

Make sure to leave them some feedback in the comments below.

Marvel Massacre: MvC3 Tournament to be Held in Melbourne

Bryce Wilson — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 13:27:54 +0000

Marvel v Capcom 3 is fresh off the cab rank and the first Melbourne based tournament is approaching rapidly… In two days actually!

The awesome guys over at Shadowloo and Couch Warriors have organised a fully fledged competitive tournament at the John Curtin Hotel in Carlton, Melbourne. Both THQ and Madman Entertainment will be supplying prizes for the winners including shirts, DVD’s, Blu-Ray’s and comic books.

If you’re interested in attending amongst some of Melbourne’s finest fighting game players, the details are below;

When: Sunday, Februrary 27th – 1:00PM Station
Where: 29 Lygon Street, Carlton Victoria 3053
Entry Fee: $5 Per Person, covers venue fee and tournament
Tournament Format: Best of 3 games,
Prizes: Shirts, Comics, DVD’s, Blu-Ray’s and possibly more.
Rules: Damage set to Medium, 99 second timer.

I’ll be attending the event, so if you’re there, say hello!

Image Source: [BossLogic]

Team Fortress 2 Community Creators Recieve Royalties To The Tune of Over $45,000

Sam Naylor — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 19:22:43 +0000

Valve have revealed that the community members who contributed weapons to be used in the game have been given royalties from the sale of said items in the new in-game store.

At the end of September Valve unveiled the new Team Fortress 2 in-game store, which sells hats, weapons and other content. The community-contributed items were put up for sale as well as Valve-created weapons, and it has transpired that some of these content creators have been treated to sales of over $45,000.

“Today [the content creators] received checks for the first two weeks of sales, with royalties ranging from $39,000 to $47,000 per person,” said Valve in an official statement. “Funds from sales of community members’ items were to be deposited directly into their PayPal accounts. However, within days, the revenue that their items generated exceeded PayPal’s cap on the maximum deposit size. While Valve made alternate payment arrangements for the others, two of the community members flew to Seattle to receive their first checks directly.”

“At a time when content creators are struggling with changing markets and evolving technologies, the Steam community is sending a clear message with these checks,” says Gabe Newell. “Platforms that enable this kind of peer-to-peer exchange of virtual goods and services are going to be enthusiastically received. They create an inherently greater efficiency in connecting creators and consumers.”

All I can say is, I regret not bothering to learn how to model weapons in TF2.

Team Fortress 2 Propaganda Contest Runners Up Revealed

Sam Naylor — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:21:41 +0000

Valve have today revealed the runners-up for last year’s TF2 propaganda contest, and they are officially brilliant. There are plenty of entries to look through, most in very high resolution, and all highly enjoyable.

Hit the link to see them. I think the TF2 community have really outdone themselves here. A lot of effort has gone into most of these, and it shows. Keep fighting the good fight, by the way. Play Demoman.

Team Fortress 2 Community Contributions Announced

Sam Naylor — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:21:50 +0000

Valve have unveiled that they will be accepting contributions of custom items and avatars from the community. If you’ve got any modeling skill or creative talent, you can create an item and submit it to Valve for them to look over. If it meets standards, it’s in the game for everybody.

Head to the site to see what it’s all about. Looks fantastic to me, in part due to the fact that there will be some amazing hats and items put out by the community, but mostly due to the fact that people might stop complaining about their favourite hat not being in the game. Actually, what am I thinking? People will always complain. The Internet has proven that no matter how much good stuff people have, they still love to complain about it.

Congratulations to our GoG.com Contest Winners

Sam Naylor — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:34:05 +0000

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!

Valve’s Chet Faliszek Says 360 Community “Head and Shoulders Above” PS3

Chad Lakkis — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:02:40 +0000

Valve continues to show their love for the “it only does everything” PlayStation 3 console. The latest show of support comes from a CVG interview with Valve’s writer extraordinaire, Chet Faliszek.

“In hooking up with your friends and the community aspects, I think the Xbox 360 is head and shoulders above the PS3 … it’s all about playing with your friends.”

Apparently the PS3 isn’t friendly enough for Valve. Chet digs the knife deeper by telling gamers that they shouldn’t not buy Left 4 Dead 2 with the hope that it will eventually come out for the PlayStation 3.

“… it’s not going to [come out for the PS3] … It’s coming out on the PC and 360. It’s going to be exclusive for that.”

I think it’s safe to say that there is no love lost between Sony and Valve. What do you think of Valve’s open dismissal of the Sony next-gen console?

Lady makes Left 4 Dead plush toy

Sam Naylor — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:01:41 +0000

Kotaku reader Trevor H’s girlfriend has made him this pretty good Smoker (from Left 4 Dead) plush toy, as part of her mission to create toys “for every wicked Valve game that comes out.” Reportedly she’s also made a plush headcrab.

A headcrab, eh? I bet it’s nowhere near as awesome as the one our very own Giant Lenin made. It’s got gore and everything, and proves inarguably that Ripten has awesome readers. Hit the jump or click the link to the forum post to see it.

Remember, if you post something awesome on the forums, you might get on the front page, too!

Oh yeah, we have forums!

Sam Naylor — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 09:51:08 +0000

In case you’re new to the site, or just a little forgetful, I’d like to remind everyone that Ripten does actually have forums. Unfortunately, we’ve had trouble with people trying to advertise their products for free (Spammers) in the past. However, I’ve made sure that the forums are completely free of spam, but alas, that meant losing a lot of old threads and posts, as well as users. If you registered after the 30th of August 2008, your account has been deleted. I sincerely apologise for this, as well as for the loss of all the threads, but it was necessary to clean up the damn place. I urge you to sign up again and get the forums going again- they’re a bit bare at the moment, but start some threads, make some posts, and have a good time.

Before you sign up for a new account, though, take a look here. Because of spammers, I’m going to be approving your accounts manually for now, so email me (sam[at]ripten[dot]com) with the info in that post and I’ll approve you within a day.

We’re also looking for community moderators. If you wish to become a moderator, let me know (email, comment, post on forums) and if you’re a pretty cool guy then I’ll make you an all-powerful and respected mod. As a mod, you’ll help us clean out spammers, so we’ll be able to have open registration again, and keep the forums in tip-top condition. Remember, the more people that sign up and socialise, the better the community. The better the community, the better the site!

PS3 Bioshock to Get Post Release Graphics Patch

Chad Lakkis — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:10:53 +0000

If you have been following our coverage of fan reaction to 2K’s PS3 Bioshock demo, then you are well aware of some gamers voicing complaints about a pixelated Daddy and unsatisfactory graphics (although I frankly find it a bit much), and you are also aware that 2K has responded to the collective cries for help.

Well, a few hours ago they responded again. This time, the post by 2K community manager, Elizabeth Tobey, promises a patch for the game. Anticipating that the public would want to know the exact release date of the patch, Tobey proactively stated:

I do know this will not be until after the game’s launch, and I will update you with details on that date as I receive them.

Tobey adds that a complete list of fixes has yet to be finalized, but assures the community that the texture/pixelation and white bar issues are definitely on the list.

Hit the jump to read her full statement.

UPDATE (October 14):

Hey guys,

I have good news from the dev team about a patch for BioShock PS3! They have been working on a patch to address the concerns some of you on the forum have talked about. As work is in progress I do not have a definite date for when this patch will be released as it needs to be tested and clear certification with Sony before it is scheduled and released. I do know this will not be until after the game’s launch, and I will update you with details on that date as I receive them.

I’ll be releasing the entire patch list when it’s all finalized, but for now I’m sure you’ll be happy to see that these two fixes are included:

Big Daddy Bouncer and Elite Bouncer Textures Appeared Pixelated
Fix for an issue where large blocky pixels would show up whenever viewing the Bouncer and Elite Bouncer variants of the Big Daddy.

White Bars
Fix for an issue where white/discolored bars would show up at the right and bottom sides of the screen during the plane crash / water scene at the beginning of the game.

I’m sure many of you are eager to see what Big Daddy looks like after this fix, so here are two screenshots of him in his patched glory!

Source: forums.2kgames.com

BioWare’s Community Tops 4 Million Registered Users – Lich King Not Impressed

Wade Larson — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 21:09:58 +0000

Here’s your useless factoid of the day: BioWare’s online community has out paced the nation of Puerto Rico for population.

According to EA, BioWare’s parent company, the number of registered users on BioWare’s community site has hit the 4 million mark, with an estimated 38,000 new accounts being created every month.

BioWare, makers of such titles as Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire and Mass Effect, has more than their share of top-notch titles to draw in such a number of fans. But, it helps to remember that not all registered accounts are active, nor are they limited to one person per account. So, while the numbers may say 4 million, the number of actual people is probably a bit lower.

Still, it’s an impressive number, and a hard-earned and well deserved milestone.

Chris Satchell Talks XNA Community, Security and Distribution

John Kershaw — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 21:14:32 +0000

Chris Satchell, head of XNA, has given a few more tantalizing details of what to expect from Microsoft’s community-driven game development tools, as well a few more details on how the community will be used to self-moderate the games produced. He also talks about what his hopes are for the service, so read on for more.

With around a quarter-million strong user base already, there are sure to be plenty of games produced for people to play. The trick is to make sure that only the best gets brought to the top. In an interview with games industry magasine Develop, Satchell talks about how user generated content made using XNA (which stands for “XNA’s Not Acronymed”) will translate to the Xbox Live Community Games to be downloaded and played on any Xbox 360.

Referring to the bold step of giving the community the power of moderation, Satchell said that “we don’t want to be the arbiters of what’s good and bad content, we want to put the power in the hands of the community and ask them to just be truthful about what’s in their game so that people can make an informed decision.” Adding that there will be strict guidelines in place to prevent abuse of the feedback systems.

To further secure the relativity open platform from malicious code, Satchell reiterated the fact that each game will run inside a sandbox, meaning it wont have access to anything outside of what it is allowed.

Once your game has been peer-reviewed and deemed worthwhile, it will be possible for it to be distributed via a subsection of the Xbox Live Marketplace. As Satchell discusses in the interview however, it has not yet been decided if you will have to pay for this privilege. He also pointed out that if your game is a success, it will be relativity straightforward to re-compile the game as a full blown Xbox Live Arcade title and distribute it accordingly.

For more information on the XNA Creators Club and to download the XNA Game Studio visit the official XNA site here.

Read the full interview with Develop here: Part 1, Part 2.