If I told you that a team somewhere was working on a new way to display graphics with unlimited detail on even the most limited hardware, you’d think I was crazy. Right? Actually, wrong. This will blow your mind. Hit the jump and let’s commence the mind blowing.

Okay, imagine a piece of software so revolutionary that it could make the Wii a thousand times more graphically impressive than the PS3. Software. This is the kind of claim that the Unlimited Detail team is making. If you’ve got eight minutes, watch this video. It really helps to see the imagery with this.

So, yes. Point cloud data. Sounds great in theory, but how on earth could computers render billions of of points like that? According to the video, it’s kind of like applying a Google search to billions of websites. If your screen resolution is 1600 by 1200, like mine, then you only need that many points to be shown at one time. Makes sense to me. Now, something that’s very important to note when watching this video: the people who did the art for it are not artists. They are programmers. Think of potential. This is a tech demo.

If you’d like to see more about Unlimited Detail, there’s a video that there doesn’t seem to be an embeddable version of on their website: scroll down to the “comparison” video.

So, is this The Next Big Thing? Or just a crazy idea that will never work out? Will nVidia or ATI take over this project, or will it suffer in obscurity? Talk to me in the comments, and don’t forget to use our new StumbleUpon buttons at the top of every post!

At long last, we have a complete list. Super Street Fighter IV will be bumping the character count from 25 up to 35, and here’s the mysterious Mr. 35 himself: Hakan.

Not much is known about Hakan. He keeps himself very slippery, and uses that to seemingly phenomenal effect in his fights. These two videos contain everything there currently is to know:

I’m really looking forward to finding more out about this guy. How about you? Any theories? Thoughts? Let’s hear them in the comments! And if you like this post, don’t forget to use the StumbleUpon button up at the top of this post!

…actually, it has been for eight days now. TAGJ’s very own form, The Astringent Gaming Community, is right here! Or you can just click “Forums” at the top of this very page! We have sections dedicated to BlazBlue, Guilty Gear, Monster Hunter, Starcraft, Starcraft II, Super Smash Brothers, Super Street Fighter IV, and Team Fortress 2 already.

Got a group or clan, but want more people to play with? Just start a thread!

If you play a game we don’t currently have support for, just ask for it!

We’re doing this so everyone can have more fun, so hop on over to the forum and get to posting! The community is small, but we’re all having a great time so far. We look forward to meeting you!

I’ve been wanting to write an article for some time now about why I have such enormous respect for Valve. It’s more the quality of their games. More than the fact that Steam is in my startup folder. Valve is recognizable as a force of good in the universe. So let’s discuss, shall we?

First, I”ll clarify a few things for those of you not in the know. Valve Corporation is the business entity associated with names such as Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress, the Source Engine, Steam, and Steamworks. The first thing you’ll notice is that not all of those are games. Electronic Arts, which is not a force of good, has published, as of my writing this, 563 games. EA wants all of your money. Sure, they’ll also give money to development studios, as long as all of that money goes to making EA more money. Steam, the online distribution service created by Valve, currently offers 944 games. Valve has been publisher for a very, very tiny fraction of those. Every game Valve touches turns to gold. EA is notorious for making games worse but still selling lots of copies because they spend infinite dollars on advertising.

Think of it like this. There are two bus stops right next to each other. One is for the Valve bus and the other is for the EA bus. The Valve bus is free to use, except for a few seats at the front which are kept in perfect condition, which you can pay a little bit to ride in. The other seats aren’t low quality by any means, but some have noticeable flaws. The decor of the bus is simple and clean, and there’s always lots of social activity on the bus.

The EA bus, on the other hand, isn’t free. You pay to get on the bus, you have to pay more based on which seat you select, you have to pay to talk to the person next to you, and there’s even a foot rest–if you pay extra. The seats are pleasing to the eye, but cheaply made. Comfortable for a short trip, but almost none of them have any staying value. They’ll be replaced in a few weeks anyway. It’s not that cost-effective, but just think of how much the bus makes! The really nice seats are leftover from when another company owned this bus, but you can’t sit there, as they’re sectioned off for removal. The bus looks amazing, though. It’s covered in all sorts of decoration scientifically proven to be pleasing to the eye. At the same time, though, it’s also covered in advertisements. Advertisements for other, better seats than the one you’re in. Advertisements for the foot rest feature. Before you know it, you feel bad for not having a foot rest. You don’t really need it. You’re not uncomfortable. But the advertising is just so good!

This article isn’t about how much I detest EA, though. It’s about why Valve is marvelous. It’s worth noting that I adore the games Valve has made. Other games really have nothing on the Half-Life franchise. Team-based, class-based first person shooters? Seriously, Team Fortress 2 is all you need. But hey, other companies have made some really good games too. Nintendo, anyone? But even Nintendo has some greed issues. Re-releasing the same handheld with very slight modifications over and over is practically a Nintendo hallmark, after all.

Despite the controversy over Left 4 Dead 2’s release so soon after the first Left 4 Dead, you can’t really argue with The Orange Box. That’s six games for the price of an expansion pack. Six. It’s not like they couldn’t charge more for it, either. Many people would happily pay $80 for that package of games. Instead, they ask for a measly $30. And let’s not forget when Team Fortress 2 was on sale for $2.50. Next time you see EA selling one of their best-selling games for less than the price of a cup of coffee, let me know.

Valve doesn’t even advertise their own games on Steam more than anyone else’s. If I look at Steam right now, I see ads for the Hitman series, the Deus Ex series, Bioshock 2, Modern Warfare 2, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Dawn of War II, Aliens vs. Predator, Torchlight, DiRT 2, Star Trek Online, and so on. As a matter of fact, the only reason I see a single Valve game on the main page at all is because I have a lot of friends that play Team Fortress 2.

Steam is a free public service, in an industry choked by greed. I call that pretty noble.  I identify with this struggle because The Astringent Gaming Journal was founded to fight the same fight. We don’t give games positive reviews because people pay us to. We translate our experiences, as best we can, to text. We often review older games, because we think that people shouldn’t discount any game just because of its age or its “sucky graphics”. We’re trying to help gamers who appreciate gaming to do just that. Valve has been standing resolute against the winds of change for some time now, an ever-present representative of gaming as art instead of business.

And now, because it’s the right thing to do, they’re bringing that glorious sense of freedom to Mac users. So, Valve: let this post serve as an huge “Thank you!” from a handful of gamers who understand and appreciate what you’re doing. You continue to make computer gaming better.

What about you, readers? What do you think? Let’s discuss this! Oh, and don’t forget to please use the StumbleUpon button at the top of this post, so more people will get a chance to read it.

This is huge news for computer gaming! Over the last few years, quite an enormous number of people have made the transition over to Mac. I’m all about PC, but Mac is certainly a viable platform. That is, unless you’re a gamer. With the release of Portal 2, it looks like that dynamic will shift considerably. Read on for all the juicy details!

The full release is as follows:

Valve to Deliver Steam & Source on the Mac

MARCH 8, 2010, 11:15 AM – VALVE – PRESS RELEASE

Leading Gaming Service Expands to Mac Platform

Valve announced today it will bring Steam, Valve’s gaming service, and Source, Valve’s gaming engine, to the Mac.

Steam and Valve’s library of games including Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series will be available in April.

“As we transition from entertainment as a product to entertainment as a service, customers and developers need open, high-quality Internet clients,” said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. “The Mac is a great platform for entertainment services.”

“Our Steam partners, who are delivering over a thousand games to 25 million Steam clients, are very excited about adding support for the Mac,” said Jason Holtman, Director of Business Development at Valve. “Steamworks for the Mac supports all of the Steamworks APIs, and we have added a new feature, called Steam Play, which allows customers who purchase the product for the Mac or Windows to play on the other platform free of charge. For example, Steam Play, in combination with the Steam Cloud, allows a gamer playing on their work PC to go home and pick up playing the same game at the same point on their home Mac. We expect most developers and publishers to take advantage of Steam Play.”

“We looked at a variety of methods to get our games onto the Mac and in the end decided to go with native versions rather than emulation,” said John Cook, Director of Steam Development. “The inclusion of WebKit into Steam, and of OpenGL into Source gives us a lot of flexibility in how we move these technologies forward. We are treating the Mac as a tier-1 platform so all of our future games will release simultaneously on Windows, Mac, and the Xbox 360. Updates for the Mac will be available simultaneously with the Windows updates. Furthermore, Mac and Windows players will be part of the same multiplayer universe, sharing servers, lobbies, and so forth. We fully support a heterogeneous mix of servers and clients. The first Mac Steam client will be the new generation currently in beta testing on Windows.”

Portal 2 will be Valve’s first simultaneous release for Mac and Windows. “Checking in code produces a PC build and Mac build at the same time, automatically, so the two platforms are perfectly in lock-step,” said Josh Weier, Portal 2 Project Lead. “We’re always playing a native version on the Mac right alongside the PC. This makes it very easy for us and for anyone using Source to do game development for the Mac.”

Support for the Mac in Source and Steamworks is available to third parties immediately. Interested developers should contact Jason Holtman at jasonh@valvesoftware.com.

That’s right! Buy a game on a Mac, play it on your PC! Very, very commendable work here by Valve. I look forward to playing Team Fortress 2 with our Macintosh-using brethren! What do you think, everyone?

It feel so soon, but here we are already at the second Monday of March! It was really difficult to select games for this month, since I’ve almost exclusively been playing the Starcraft II beta. Anyway: I”ll be reviewing Aliens vs. Predator, Shattered Horizon, and the demo for Supreme Commander 2. Let’s kick this pig!

Aliens vs. Predator

The new Aliens vs. Predator feels like it exists wholly to prove a point: that the Alien and Predator franchises are still awesome, and when they work together to make a game, the product of that is also still awesome. And, well, that’s true. The three relatively short campaigns are all very well done, very enjoyable, and very classic. If you haven’t played the old Aliens vs. Predator games, do yourself a favor and make some time for that soon. Multiplayer in this new installment is fun, but you have to be careful not to take it too seriously. This isn’t Starcraft: The FPS, even though the races are very similar, so don’t expect a balanced, competitive atmosphere. Hop online, fight some people, and just bask in the brutality. It’s a unique experience, but it sadly doesn’t last that long.

Very positive meh.

Shattered Horizon

Three grenade types, two teams, and only one gun. Put it in space, make it drop-dead gorgeous, and there you go. Enemies can come from literally any direction, and they’re all just as fragile as you are. See, in space, it’s easy to die. Your suit has thrusters on it so you can go any direction you want. In fact, you only show up on radar if you’re using your thrusters. You drift around, die a lot, find out that ice grenades are basically smoke grenades and EMP grenades shut off enemies’ suits, and get frustrated by techniques you don’t yet understand. Keep playing, however, and you’ll come to love this game for its brutal equality and unclouded purpose.

Love.

Supreme Commander 2 demo

I didn’t want to do a demo for this, but as I said, I’ve been basically only been playing the Starcraft II beta. The original Supreme Commander is a game I really respect. The “strategic zoom” allows you to examine anything from the details on trees to the entire 81 by 81 kilometer playing field. It tread new ground for the RTS genre, and it made even matches that lasted four or more hours worth it. My friends and I can tell stories about Supreme Commander matches in much the same way that other people can tell stories about their weekend going clubbing. Supreme Commander 2 seems to be more of the same. The demo only allows access to a little bit of the single player campaign, and the first one wasn’t really a game I played for the single player.What I can say is this: the new tech structure (research points carrying you along tech trees instead of upgrading each individual land/air/naval factory) works really well, the enormous new array of units is awesome, and the game seems to be less taxing on my system than the first game. I wish the demo was longer and showed off the other factions, (you really only get a feel for the UEF) but it still feels like Supreme Commander, and that’s a very, very good thing.

Love.

Thanks for reading everyone, and if you like this post, be sure to use our StumbleUpon button now found at the top of every post! And as always, we love comments!

Hello again! It’s the first Saturday of March so that means another round of Indie games! Today I have some quick reviews for: Eversion, The Company of Myself, and Tower of Heaven! (Have fun Serge, it’s a platforming Haven!) So sit back, enjoy, as I take you from a manic depressant, to a game that will make you jump out of your skin. (DAMN HANDS!)

The Company of Myself:

Made by 2DArray (Eli Piilonen), a small flash designer, comes his first, and so far only, game The Company of Myself. This is the first game I’ve reviewed that is only in Flash form, but it is still fun never-the-less. In The Company of Myself you play as a lone, solitary person who has a fascination with three things; himself, green boxes, and a girl (he is a man after all). This game has a very unique story. It’s all about a man who finds himself more productive alone rather than with other people. It sounds like it would just be a very depressing game…well it is actually, I almost teared up at the end because this simple game is just so immersive. However it does lead to some very interesting gameplay. Your only asset is yourself as you solve the various puzzles. At times you will need to jump on yourself or stand on top of yourself as you carry you to the door. It’s all very interesting and the gameplay even changes for a bit halfway through when they introduce more story. Well I enjoyed this game and I wanted to share it with all of you.

Tower of Heaven:

This game is made by a small company Askiisoft who develops indie games and takes pride in doing so. So far this is their only game but by the looks of their art section they are working on a second. Tower of Heaven is a puzzle platformer with the unique twist of Commandments. You play a big-headed adventurer who comes to the tower in order to find the ultimate wisdom it contains. When he gets there he finds a bored god who only wants to hinder his progress by making outlandish laws. So it’s your basic platformer (jump to that platform, avoid the giant sawblades) but in this game you have a time limit and rules which get crazier the higher up you go. My favorite law is “Thou shall not walk left.” Yeah, have fun with that. And keep in mind that just because you complete a level the laws go away. No  every one of them is carried over to the next level in addition to that level’s law. You will die…a lot…I don’t think I have finished the game without getting at least 100 deaths. There are also two secrets that you can find, but you won’t have time to look for them when you are dodging the worst thing in that game…butterflies…I kid you not, after this game you will want to rip apart any butterfly who crosses your path. Oh did I mention that you will get very frustrated  in this game? You’ll know what I’m talking about when you get to THAT level…

Eversion:

From Zaratustra Productions comes the cutest, most terrifying game I think I’ve ever played….It’s a basic platformer with a terrible secret….The main goal is to collect the Gems in the level, but that’s actually completely optional. You have a score based on number of Gems and enemies (seen above) that you stomp on. Well that is also optional…the goal of this game is to get through it without pissing yourself out of fear. You heard me right. This…Game…Is…SCARY…. Not that jump-out-and-scare-you type of scare (except for the hands (DAMN HANDS!!!!)) but more of the what-the-f$%k-is-going-on type of scare. I mean just look at that screenshot. SCARY!  Hell, this game comes with a warning label…”NOT INDICATED FOR CHILDREN OR THOSE OF A NERVOUS DISPOSITION.” Still don’t believe me? Well then you will just have to try it out.

Want to get these games? Take this:

The Company of Myself

Tower of Heaven (on the Games tab)

Eversion (right under the picture)

Well that is it for this Indiesplosion! If you play any or all of these games let me know in the comments or I’ll gladly have a full conversation about who died less in Tower of Heaven in our new forums. Or if you really like it hit the fancy new Stumble button at the top, every click helps promote the site! Well it’s been fun bringing you all these  great games, I hope to see you next time.

In response to my post about Jesse Schell’s DICE 2010 speech, Brad writes:

This man has set off something that I had been thinking about for a while. What next for video games? I mean they are pretty as hell these days and the good ones can immerse you more than an epic poem made into a mediocre god of war knock-off ever could.

No amount of advertising in the world could have sold me on that game when I saw Dante almost exactly mimicking movements of our red paint doused and bone dusted anti-hero Kratos. But you know what? I still found my way into the game. I still needed to see it. I needed to feel what some of the reviewers felt when they received these objects that totally sold them into the fold of the Divine Comedy. The advertising for that game set up a massive event for the release.

Now imagine if the same amount of passion was put into EVERYTHING. Jesse Schell may have put some views into a dramatic array of point systems, but ill be damned if he didn’t drive home some of the fundamental points of the human mind and how it works. We are competitive. To the very freaking core. We subconsciously want to be the best at everything. It does not matter if that thing you are competing for is the worlds best card shuffler. You want to look for the perfect bridge with each shuffle. You can show your friends. You can be BETTER than your friends. And you laugh but if you could you would.

And if you are able to find a way as an educator or for the sake of the conversation the Advertising Executive could unlock the most basic of urges then they will sell billions and billions of units of whatever the advertiser is advertising from toothpaste to work and studious achievement. I believe that What Mr. Schell is saying very close to true. And that is both fantastic and fucking terrifying. It screams digital communism and Rings true to something Mr. George Orwell may have published. But from the perspective of Mr. Schell it has a chance to encourage human beings to be more than bottom scrapers of the universe who wont even get up to eat unless there are double incentives.

This is just me. I would love to talk about it. I will be posting this exact post in the forums. If you wanna talk lets break in the message boards and chat it up.

Really nice commentary on a number of things, especially the competitive nature of humans. Good read! Only one more for this first week, as most comments have been super short. This one is from Serge, on Mr. Origami’s celebratory 11,111 Cave Story review (with soundtrack!):

The Cave Story Gods have been appeased…

It made me smile. After all, who doesn’t love Cave Story?

So a special thanks goes out to Brad, Serge, and everyone else who has commented this week. Showing us your writing talent through comments is a great way to get noticed as a potential journalistic asset to the TAGJ team, so: want to be featured next week? Start writing some awesome comments!

DISCLAIMER: Any and all comments featured in posts appearing on The Astringent Gaming Journal do not necessarily reflect the opinions of TAGJ or its staff. “Speak Up!” posts are intended to highlight the community.

That guy up there? Jesse Schell. He’s got some pretty important things to say. The gaming world is abuzz with talk of this speech.  It’s quite long, but I cannot recommend enough that you take time out of your “busy” schedule to watch it. Watch with friends if you need to. Just pay attention. Let’s talk when you’re finished, okay?

Oh, and if you’ve been waiting for the right post to make some really long, really insightful comments about, this might just be what you’ve been looking for.

So, talk to me about this. Let’s have a good old fashioned discussion. Do you think this guy is a visionary, or just plain crazy? Will we ever have days like the hypothetical one Schell describes towards the end of the video, or will something similar to the current state of affairs perpetuate itself forever? I beseech you: let’s talk.

***UPDATE*** MAR 5th 1:33:08 PM These Images come from a program given by the old BBS pass/user combo plus a new pass/user combo found by the underlined text in the Steam News. It seems like it is over for now.

http://portalwiki.net/index.php/APF_Images

***UPDATE*** MAR 5th 11:50:32 AM Looks like it is all for Portal 2!
http://gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2010/03/05/april-cover-revealed.aspx***ALERT*** THE ARG IS NOT OVER YET!!! http://store.steampowered.com/news/3559/ LETTERS ARE UNDERLINED…THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE IN AN UPDATE NEWS!!!!

***UPDATE*** 5:15:38 PM CONFIRMED BY ME they have changed the game ending, play for yourself or watch this to see the change:

http://www.xfire.com/video/2393cf/

***UPDATE*** 4:33:49 PM Portal has been updated once again.

Portal Update Released

March 3, 2010, 2:24 pm – Valve – Product Update

Updates to Portal have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted.

Portal

Added valuable asset retrieval

***UPDATE*** 1:31:30 AM:http://i.imgur.com/Vu8U9.gif These were received from a login on a server found via the in-game radio transmissions. They were cleaned up and colored for clarity. The ARG seems to be stopped here, waiting for more images to come in.

***UPDATE*** 9:50:25 PM We are definitely dealing with an ARG

Ok this is in response to a recent Portal update which contained the update:

Changed radio transmission frequency to comply with federal and state spectrum management regulations

The source can be found here.

MUCH debate on the issue has sprung up including this Steam forum post which contains the entire archive of theories and what is known so far in a mere 308+ pages. So far it seems there is a new Achievement available which involves collecting the radios hidden in each level and most likely in the final area after the Party Submission Position. There are 26 to collect in order to receive credit for the achievement which so far no one has managed to get (source). Each time a piece of the Achievement is unlock thee radio plays a new sound file, some of which are decoded in the forum thread. This is quickly turning into one of the biggest conspiracies that Valve has ever had, even headed towards ARG properties. Possible speculation is that it has something to do with Portal 2 or maybe the much anticipated Half-Life 2 Episode 3. We will try and keep you informed as new developments come up  (and as I finish reading the forum).