R.U.S.E is a new real-time strategy game set in World War II, developed by Eugen Systems and published by Ubisoft. RUSE takes a unique view on how you view your units. Instead of just having a birds eye view, when zoomed out the battlefield resembles a map table with units displayed like poker chips in stacks. However, as you zoom in the units break apart until you can see the individual units. The scale and performance of the game engine is amazing. There is no lag while zooming in and out and the transitions between single units and large stacks of chips are smooth. The battlefields are very large, and it can seem that the pace of the game is slow when zoomed out, but zoomed in you can see the units are moving quickly – they just have a lot of ground to cover.

RUSE gets it’s name from from the Ruse cards that you can play. The Ruses modify a sector of the map to make your units move faster, camoflague you building, or make the enemy flee when they take damage. You receive a new Ruse card about every 2 minutes and Ruses can be stacked. You can only have 2 active ruses in each sector though. The ruses are:

• Blitz: Causes friendly units to move 50% faster.
• Fanaticism: Causes friendly units to not get routed, they will kill everything or die trying.
• Terror: Causes enemy units to flee faster. This Ruse can be countered by a Fanaticism ruse.
• Decoy Buildings: Will construct a decoy building somewhere in the sector.
• Decoy Units: Decoy units are created and sent to the sector marked. Can choose from any units, only tanks, or only planes.
• Spy Plan: Reveals all enemy units. Some units cannot attack unless a unit is revealed. Can be countered with Radio Silence.
• Decryption: Reveals enemy orders, either for units in sector or units ordered into sector.
• Radio Silence: Hides all friendly units. An enemy scout will still be able to identify units, so be sure to kill any recon units.
• Camouflage Net: Hides all friendly buildings. Units will not be able to attack them without recon.
• Reverse Intel: Light units will be shown as heavy and heavy units as light as long as they have not been scouted.

The Buildings

There are 6 unit-producing buildings in the game, along with 3 economy buildings and several different “bunker” units. At the start of the game you have your HQ building and need to build Supply Depots to bring in money. Depots cost $40 each and can only be built on existing supply dumps throughout the map. Another way to boost your economy are the $100 Administrative Buildings. These will provide you with $1 every 4 seconds, but are very easy to destroy. You can also build a Secondary HQ building. These do not make money on their own, but can speed up the deployment of supply depots and other buildings.

You can also create “bunker” units from your HQ building. These are static defenses against infantry, armor, or air. Each faction has different bunkers, ranging from the USA’s simple Machine Gun Position useul only againt a few infantry, to Germany’s Siegfried Blockhaus with a good anti-tank gun and flamethrower, to the USSR’s Heavy Artillery Position with two long range artillery guns.

Barracks

Barracks are where your infantry units are created. Depending on what nation you are, you can also build recon or ultra-light tanks. Barracks costs range from $10 for the USSR, to $30 for Germany and the UK. You can also upgrade your light infantry to heavy infantry except for France, whose heavy infantry are available immediately, but for $10 instead of $5.

Artillery & Anti-Air

Artillery and AA buildings range between $20 for the USSR to $45 for Germany and Italy. This building allows you build both towed and mobile Artillery and AA units, as well as assault gun units that can attack buildings and are great for attacking tank destroyers.

Armor

Armor bases cost from $20 for Italy to $30 for most other nations. Armor bases can deploy tanks as well as armored recon units. Armor units range from light tanks that work well against infantry to advanced or super heavy tanks that can take on almost anything.

Anti-Tank

AT bases are between $30 for UK and France to $45 for Germany. Most nations have 2 versions of towed AT and 2 mobile tank destroyer units. Towed units are great for hiding in woods and city squares to ambush units while tank destroyers work well as part of a combined arms approach with tanks and mobile AA units.

Airfield

Airfields build, research and house your Air Recon, Fighters, Fighter-Bombers, and Bombers, as well as your Airborne troops. Airfields range from $40 for the UK to $65 for France. The UK also has Paratroopers available without any research, which will cost other faction $25. Each airfield can house 8 planes. Air Recon units have little to no weapons but can identify enemy units. Fighters can only attack light troops and other planes. Fighter-Bombers can attack any unit, but need recon with them as they cannot attack units that have not been identified. Bombers can attack infantry and buildings, but will do almost no damage to armored units.

Prototype

Prototype Bases are where you will build the most technologically advanced units. These bases are very expensive – $100 for Germany to $140 for the USSR. The units available are generlly very powerful, including jumbo tanks and very long range artillery.

The Factions

There are six different factions in the game – United States, United Kingdom, France, USSR, Italy, and Germany. Each faction has their own strengths and weakness and tactics that work well with one nation can be a disaster with another.

United States

The USA is a very balanced faction, one that can hold it’s own in many different areas. They feature a high production speed, allowing them to build solid combined arms stacks. The USA HQ can build MG nests, AT bunkers, and an AA bunker.

United Kingdom

The UK is a very strong Air faction, with very good planes as well as paratroopers available without any extra research. The trade off is the weak tank units that are available.

France

France has very good defensive and support capabilties, and minimal research. France is well rounded except for their below average air units. The French have a very good Prototype armored recon, as well as cheap heavy tanks right away.

USSR

The USSR is a very good offensive faction, their defensive units are not the greatest but can pump out infantry and tanks. They have a cheap barracks and produce infantry almost instantly.

Italy

Italy has very fast and cheap units, but they are also weak. If you like to rush, they are the faction to do it with. As the game progresses though Italy does not stack up to other nations.

Germany

Germany has some of the best units in the game, but it comes at a price, both in terms of cost and research. Late game when Germany has a booming economy they can control the battlefield with their superior units. Germany also feature the onlu jet aircraft in the game, giving them a huge speed bonus, especially when combined with a Blitz Ruse.

Rating

Overall: This is already one of my favorite RTS games. It is extremely well polished having gone through a lengthy beta process and the dev team made a lot of changes from feedback. The game runs very well, and the graphics look good from being zoomed all the way in on a single unit to zoomed out and seeing the entire map. I did take a half star off for some minor things:
The single player campaign wasn’t that great, but I don’t know anyone who buys an RTS for the SP. It is basically a long tutorial for the MP aspect.
I wish there was a setting for starting money. I like to sit back and defend while slowly pushing out and gaining territory while building up my economy to build several large armies. With the money like it is now it takes too long to build up. It is fine for regular MP, 1v1, etc, I would just have liked an option even just for battles/private games.

Official Site | Buy on Steam

L4D is one of my favorite games, and it definitely needs more content, but I’m not sure I would pay $50 for what seems to be nothing more than an expansion pack at most. The thing that worries me the most is that this just might divide the L4D community if the sequel is not compatible with the original for online play. It’s also surprising that Valve would release this as a new game instead of updates like they have done with TF2, especially considering that TF2 sales increase after every update. TF2 has added 14 new maps, plus modified some for new game modes, 18 new weapons, new hats, and still more to come. Going off what has been revealed about L4D2 it just doesn’t seem to measure up.

Below is the press release from Valve announcing Left 4 Dead 2

June 1, 2009 – Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Half-Life and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2), the sequel to the best-selling and critically-acclaimed co-operative multiplayer thriller.

Coming exclusively to Xbox 360 and PC, L4D2 promises to set a new benchmark for co-operative action games and become one of 2009′s marquee titles.

“A large part of how Left 4 Dead became 2008′s top-selling new IP on Xbox 360 and the PC was the custom-tailored gameplay made possible by the AI Director,” said Gabe Newell, president and co-founder of Valve. “With the knowledge gained from creating the original, new technology, and a passionate team, L4D2 will set a new benchmark for cooperative action games.”

Set for release on November 17, the title adds melee combat to enable deeper co-operative gameplay, with items such as a chainsaw, frying pan, axe, baseball bat, and more.

Introducing the AI Director 2.0, L4D’s dynamic gameplay is taken to the next level by giving the Director the ability to procedurally change weather effects, world objects, and pathways in addition to tailoring the enemy population, effects, and sounds to match the players’ performance. The result is a unique game session custom fitted to provide a satisfying and uniquely challenging experience each time the game is played.

Featuring new Survivors, boss zombies, weapons, and items, Left 4 Dead 2 offers a much larger game than the original with more co-operative campaigns, more Versus campaigns, and maps for Survival mode available at launch.

Supported by a $10+ million marketing campaign, Left 4 Dead has sold over 2.5 million retail copies since it was released in November of 2008. Left 4 Dead 2 is targeted for release on Xbox 360 and the PC on November 17, 2009, and will be launched worldwide with a multi-million dollar marketing campaign across TV, Outdoor, and Online.

“Left 4 Dead was backed by our most aggressive advertising campaign to date, and resulted in a top 5 showing on two platforms during holiday 2008,” said Doug Lombardi, VP of marketing at Valve. “Left 4 Dead 2 is a larger game and will be supported with even more consumer and retail advertising programs than the original.”

Left 4 Dead 2 will be featured as the cover story on PC Gamer and Official Xbox Magazines this month.

Primary: Revolver

Secondary: Electro sapper

Melee: Knife

Contraptions: Disguise Kit / Cloaking Watch

He is a puzzle, wrapped in an enigma, shrouded in riddles, lovingly sprinkled with intrigue, express mailed to Mystery, Alaska, and LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU! but it is too late. You’re dead. For he is the Spy — globetrotting rogue, lady killer (metaphorically) and mankiller (for real).

Football Manager Live is a brand new game from Sports Interactive, the creators of the hugely popular Football Manager series. It is a combination of Fantasy Football, Auction sites, Social Networking and the Football Manager concept all rolled into one. Buy now for these great benefits…

• Create and manage YOUR very own football club
• YOU create your team name, colours, badge & home ground and YOU decide which players to sign.

• Choose your own dream team
• Take your pick from Sports Interactive’s world famous database of over 330,000 footballers, tailored to your part of the globe.

• Show the world how good you are
• Play against your mates or other managers from around the globe in a gameworld that’s LIVE and online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

• Choose from over 10 official associations
• Choose the league that suits both your play time and style and work your way to the top.

• Develop your club
• Use the innovative skill system to develop and improve your managerial style; unlock bonuses that will give you the edge.

• Exchange banter with other managers via the in-game chat facility
• Will their mind games affect you?

• Play the game your way
• The AI/Stand in manager takes control of your matches when you’re not online.

• Wheel and deal on the transfer market
• Buy, sell, loan and exchange players in the lively transfer market, or snap up some talent with the exciting new auction system.

• Create and run your own mini-leagues and cup competitions
• Take on the best or compete for bragging rights against your mates.

• Balance the books
• YOU have control over the financial running of your club. Will you sign your favourite superstar footballer or invest in a youth system for long term stability?

• Manage matches live
• If a game’s not going your way, change tactics on-the-fly from the virtual dugout. Will YOU take the glory?

This update might actually get me playing TF2 again. I haven’t played it in a while because it lost it’s fun after some of the updates, but I will have to try it out.

Any experienced sniper will tell you how irritating it is when your targets keep moving around. The question is how to stop these cheaters from wind-sprinting around like they own the place. And the answer is to pin them to a wall. How? With arrows!

“Now, hold on,” you might be thinking. “I’m strong, but no one could throw an arrow that hard.” Introducing the Huntsman longbow, which solves that age-old throwing problem.

“Now, hold on,” you keep saying. “Aren’t bows and arrows primitive and harmless?” Why don’t you ask the dinosaurs? Except you can’t, because the cavemen bow and arrowed them to death. One headshot from the Huntsman can mean an instant crit, in addition to a bolt-riddled corpse hanging from a wall that’s gruesome and funny.

And even if you don’t kill them, they’ll carry around a certain arrow-shaped something as a living testament to your awesome archery skills and their frankly unawesome dodging skills. Comes with 18 arrows and a one-second charge for full power shots.

Every competitive L4D player will be looking forward to this since CAL died. Since CAL stopped after Week 1 there has only been the Infected Cup, TWL, and GameBattles, so CEVO picking up L4D should give the game a boost, along with the upcoming update with Death Toll and Dead Air.

Read more for the full announcement from CEVO.

CEVO LLC (CYBER EVOLUTION) is excited to announce the CEVO Left 4 Dead Tournament, featuring prizes courtesy of CEVO (www.cevo.com).

“It is a pleasure to host our first Left 4 Dead event here at CEVO. Many of the staff have been playing the game religiously since its release and have had nothing but good things to say about the game.” said Charlie Plitt, CEO / President for CEVO LLC. “With the conclusion of this event, we will be looking to launch league based play with multiple divisions.”

The CEVO Left 4 Dead Tournament is a double-elimination online event for gamers in the Left 4 Dead community. The format of the tournament will be 4 vs. 4. Registration is open starting Thursday, April 16th until Thursday, May 14th with Round 1 matches beginning on Monday, May 18th.

Prize Distribution:

• 1st – OCZ PC2 8500 2G Pack, OCZ Vendeta CPU Coolers, Razer Goliathus Mouse Pads, and FREE Entry into ANY paid CEVO Event ($443.00 value)
• 2nd – FREE Entry into ANY paid CEVO Event ($80.00 value)
• 3rd – FREE Entry into ANY paid CEVO Event ($80.00 value)
• 4th – FREE Entry into ANY paid CEVO Event ($80.00 value)

Matches will be played twice per week on Monday and Thursday evenings. Teams will be permitted to dispute a maximum of two players per team. The CMN3 will be enabled for all matches.

Campaigns and Scoring:

Blood Harvest – Teams will play maps 1-5 and the team with the most points when finished will win the match.

No Mercy – Teams will play maps 1-5 and the team with the most points when finished will win the match.

General Rules and Configs:

The official CEVO L4D server configs will be released in the downloads section of our website. We’ll also be using an updated version of Smirnov’s Ready Up Mod. Both files will be available later this week.

• Friendly Fire: ON
• Format: 4 vs. 4.
• Matches will be played on Mondays and Thursdays.
• The CMN3 must be used for all matches.
• POV demos are required for all players, in all matches.
• Teams will play matches on their own private servers.
• ALL disputes must be filed within an hour of the conclusion of the match.

How To Register:

All players will need to a personal CEVO user account to participate in CEVO events. If you do not already have one, click “register now” under the CEVO Members section of the website and follow the instructions.

Team Captains:

The Team Captain or Manager is responsible for registering their team for the event. Captains who have already created a team for another CEVO Left 4 Dead event do not need to create a new team – you can simply join this event with your current team. To sign your current team up for this event, login to your personal user account then go to “teams”->”view my teams” (or click “Manage My Teams” on the main account page). Click on the “manage” link corresponding to your team and then click “Sign Team Up for a CEVO Event”.

If you are a Team Captain needing to create a team, login to your personal user account then go to “teams”->”create a team” (or click “Create a Team” on the main account page).

Once the team is created/registered for the event, each team member may join the roster by logging into their personal user account on the website and clicking “Join A Roster”.

Team Players:

In order to join a roster, your team captain must have already registered your team for this event. Once that is done, to join the roster, login to your personal user account and click “teams”->”Join a Roster” (or simply click “Join a Roster” on the main account page).

On the Join Roster page, choose this event from the drop-down menu, then type all or part of the team name and click “Find Team”. When the search finishes, click the “join” button corresponding to your team.

Feedback:

As this will be one of the first competitive Left 4 Dead events, we NEED your feedback. We would love to hear what you think of the format, rules, configs, class restrictions, etc…

After our first event is over we’ll sit down, and with the communities input, make any necessary changes to our current format and rule set.

###

CEVO would like to thank Layered Technologies (enterprise server solutions), NationVoice Communications (top quality ventrilo servers and service), and NuclearFallout Enterprises, Inc. (premium competition game servers) for their support of CEVO’s inaugural L4D Tournament.

Source: CEVO

Hello. My name is Jeremy Bennett, and I’m an artist at Valve. Most gamers only ever get to see the finished product of a game cover, so we thought some of you might find it interesting to hear the process that led to Left 4 Dead’s final art. As you’ll see, there were quite a few attempts along the way, all of them eventually abandoned.Our first designs focused on Bill, Louis, Francis and Zoey, the four lead characters that players would be guiding through Left 4 Dead’s post-apocalyptic zombie wasteland. Right away this presented problems.Typically, for a video game (or DVD or book) cover to be eye-catching, there’ll be a single prominent element front and center—our “hero” character, for example, with ancillary characters standing around in the background:

SUMMARY OF MAJOR FEATURES:

• Major enhancements to Server Browser
• Visual and menu flow overhaul for improved useability of user interface.
• Significant AI improvements, especially in vehicle gametypes.
• Client-side demo recording support
• Improved networking performance.
• Midgame map, game type, and mutator voting support
• Award system using Steam Achievements
• Improved mod support

Other Areas that will be updated:

• Improved Steam Integration
• Server Browser
• User Interface
• Vehicles
• Weapons
• Bot AI
• Demo Recording
• Networking
• Server Administration
• Engine
• Game
• Mod Support
• Level Specific
• Maplists
• Voting

View the full changelog

Valve, creators of best-selling entertainment products and advanced technologies, today announced the roll out of Steam Cloud, a set of services for Steam that stores application data online and allows user experiences to be consistent from any PC. Steam Cloud is a free extension to Steam, a leading a platform for PC games with over 15 million accounts worldwide.

Steam Cloud support will ship with Valve’s Left 4 Dead demo later this week and the full game on November 18. In this first release, the information stored and accessible through the Steam Cloud includes keyboard, mouse, and gamepad configurations, as well as multiplayer settings such as spraypaint images.

The Steam Cloud will “just work,” meaning any user changes to their game options will propagate to the Cloud by default. Upon logging into Steam from another PC, these settings will be brought down from the Cloud and automatically leveraged by the game. Any configuration changes on this second machine are then synced to the Cloud for future sessions.

Steam Cloud will be available to all publishers and developers using Steam, free of charge, and Valve will add Cloud support to its back catalog of Steam games. Cloud services are compatible with games purchased via Steam, at retail, and other digital outlets.

“For some time now, Steam has allowed gamers to log on from any computer in the world and access their applications. This also makes it easy to upgrade a PC without worrying about losing your games,” said Gabe Newell, president and co-founder of Valve. “Steam Cloud is a natural extension of the portability Steam affords gamers and developers, and we intend to expand its feature set as it is used in Left 4 Dead and other games coming to Steam.”