Steam News - August 17, 2007

[DigiQ8]

Next week Valve will be in Germany to show Episode 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2, also they will debut the second installment in Team Fortress 2 character movies the Soldier.[br]

We'll be in Germany next week showcasing Episode 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2 at the Leipzig Games Convention, one of the biggest annual games events in the world. At the show, we'll debut the second installment in our Team Fortress 2 character movies: you've been introduced to the Heavy Weapons Guy, now get ready to meet the Soldier. We'll post the movie on Steam soon.[br]
Thousands of computer graphics pros migrated to the annual SIGGRAPH convention last week, where artist-in-residence Jason Mitchell gave a presentation on TF2's unique art style. If you're interested in the technical or artistic choices that go into game development, watch the movie (.wmv, 75MB) that Jason showed during his talk. If you're not afraid of formulas and technical-speak, you can even read the white paper, "Illustrative Rendering in Team Fortress 2." (pdf)[br]
As you know, BioShock will be available on Steam next Tuesday in the US, next Friday in Europe. You can beat the stampede to nab the game by pre-loading it today. At 1pm PST, the game will automatically activate and the rest of your life will fall by the wayside. Based on early reviews, we're as excited as the rest of the global gaming community to play it.

[br]

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[br]Mark your calenders 23-26 Aug for Leipzig Games Convention.

 

[Beastmonkey2]

SWEET! can't wait for this one.

 

[bigexplosions]

Oh snap! A new character movie? **** yes!

Also I would go to Leipzig for the convention but it's way too far away. :'(

 

[Asuka]

Oh man i cant ****ing wait for this!

 

[Planetary]

Cool! Are they gonna do them all?

 

[riles]

Nice screens. Can't wait to see the awesome video. When can we start preloading TF2!?

 

[UseAbuse]

saweeeet.

 

[Robinhood_01]

Interesting choice for a character video. I would have thought the soldier was the blandest character in the game with the others making much better characters for a video.

 

[Adabiviak]

Their 5-oclock shadow is pretty funny.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

Doug Lombardi also sent me this picture regarding the upcoming video.

Can't wait!

 

[Rapstah]

The Soldier is German, then.

 

[soulslicer]

SIGGRAPH. was that in Singapore? when was it?

 

[TheSock]

Love it! Hopefully they continue with the great caricatures for the character movies.

 

[V-Man339]

V-Man on the choice of the soldier video

I've been waiting forever for this.
I would think they'd choose someone else other than the soldier to be in the video. Oh well, so long as they're making more videos.

 

[Quiss]

Forgive my ignorance, but I thought that grenades had been removed from TF2 ( barring the Demoman's launcher )?

Are there smoke grenades, and if not, what is the Soldier holding in the screenshot attached the article below?

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Team-Fortress-2-Screenshot-Soldiers-Love-Grenades-5865.html

 

[Gorgon]

Great news.

the style of this game is really unique

 

[TwwIX]

Yay!
I hope they do this with every class in the game.

 

[bigdeezy23]

I'm guessing he has an east coast accent, like New York or Boston

 

[Darkside55]

Forgive my ignorance, but I thought that grenades had been removed from TF2 ( barring the Demoman's launcher )?

Are there smoke grenades, and if not, what is the Soldier holding in the screenshot attached the article below?

You're correct; there are no more grenades. It's a big tease that sollies have them modeled onto their uniform when they can't use them, considering how integral they were to their arsenal. That's one of the things that bums me about TF2; the soldier's going to have to be played wildly different without nades.

Also,

I would have thought the soldier was the blandest character in the game with the others making much better characters for a video.

I would think they'd choose someone else other than the soldier to be in the video.

the soldier is the BEST CHARACTER IN THE GAME. Bland NOTHIN'. This is the video I've been waiting for; it makes sense for them to kick off the rest of the videos with the soldier. I'm guessing the only reason they didn't start off with the soldier is because the heavy is hilarious and has a good personality for a "get to know the classes" video.

But everybody knows the soldier's the most valuable member of the team in TFC. I'll argue that with anybody. Any takers? He deserves the next video. After him should be scout.

 

[Dabs]

Forget the TF2 video, the exciting news in all of this is that Bioshock looks set to be the game that finally topples HL2 as being the best FPS ever made. And possibly my new favourite game ever, behind Deus Ex, if it's as good as they say. Can't wait until Friday.

 

[Sheepo]

I get kinda worried that they'll run out of time before TF2 comes out to do all the videos, given they made 2 between like 3 months, but knowing Valve I think they have almost all of them made and we'll probably have 'em all before the ninth

Also I'm quite glad it's soldier, he is very pivotal to TF no matter how terrible I am playing as him. He also seems like he could have a very distinct personality, and, if he's german... so bad ass.

Oh, no more TABLE! (random movie quote)

Forget the TF2 video, the exciting news in all of this is that Bioshock looks set to be the game that finally topples HL2 as being the best FPS ever made. And possibly my new favourite game ever, behind Deus Ex, if it's as good as they say. Can't wait until Friday.

:|

 

[FriedchikenCamo]

Well, if they can skip the usual WWII military stereotypes in exchange for some unique humor, the video should be a blast.

Hopefully our plot predictions for the clip should be wrong in favor for something different.

 

[riles]

Forget the TF2 video, the exciting news in all of this is that Bioshock looks set to be the game that finally topples HL2 as being the best FPS ever made. And possibly my new favourite game ever, behind Deus Ex, if it's as good as they say. Can't wait until Friday.

Good input. I like how you focused on the topic at hand.

 

[Kadayi]

Forget the TF2 video, the exciting news in all of this is that Bioshock looks set to be the game that finally topples HL2 as being the best FPS ever made. And possibly my new favourite game ever, behind Deus Ex, if it's as good as they say. Can't wait until Friday.

Played the 360 Demo...visually lovely, but it is clearly constrained by the needs of the controller in terms of interaction. I'd put it up there with Prey as a game, some nice features and graphics, but lacking some of the nuances that make HL2 such a complete experience.

 

[Dabs]

Good input. I like how you focused on the topic at hand.

Sorry for expressing an opinion.

Actually, no I'm not. I'm not sure if you're being stupid or not but the Steam news clearly mentions Bioshock in the third paragraph. That was the bit I wanted to comment on. There's no need to get so defensive about someone expressing an interest in a game that didn't come out of Valve. I'm sure they themselves would be more than happy to admit Bioshock raises the bar HL2 set if that turns out to indeed be the case.

 

[wlodi]

I hope the games will be playable at GC, that would be great, I can't wait to be there anyway. The new trailer is going to be great, I guess. Previous one was hilarious, I wonder who will be the voice of the Soldier?

By the way, I can't wait for Bioshock as well. I played a bit of the promo-only game on x360 in a special event here, it's completely awesome, too bad I didn't have more time to test it. Imho, it will be better for PCs, but maybe it's just me, I think that gamepads don't go along with FPS games. There's so much going on in Bioshock.. it simply needs a mouse

 

[The Monkey]

Awesome video, I didn't know Heavy Weapons Guy was Russian.

Who was the first character to be featured and why can't I find it on Steam?

 

[delusional]

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY5qJHZCz2I[/YOUTUBE]
voila