Games-Freaks

Valve has been pretty good about Team Fortress 2 updates, with the Medic, Heavy and Pyro, with sensible upgrades that kept the game in balance. Unfortunately, with the Scout update, they’ve - to put this diplomatically - shit the bed in a big way. This is coming from someone who normally plays the Scout.

For one, I never really liked single class updates - it would cause a massive surge of people playing the class to earn the achievements and upgrades. With the Medic, it wasn’t as much of a problem - who doesn’t want medics on their team. The Heavy and Pyro were slow moving enough to avoid. But Scouts are a different animal.
Scouts are the only class that runs really fast, and can double jump. Their entire purpose is evasion, not combat. Bonk someone on the head and run. Shotgun when necessary. They were never meant as an offensive weapon. However, the upgrades they have take all the challenge out of the class, and make them annoying to play if you’re not a Pyro. It’s not surprising to see 4 or 5 Scouts on a team now, even those who have all the upgrades. With the double barreled shotgun, they can now stun people with the knockback. The  Sandman is even worse, immobilizing anyone for far too long.

Read the rest of EDITORIAL: Scout Update Has Ruined Team Fortress 2

This is the response I got from Gabe:

Sunday, August 31, 2008 1:43:19 PM
From: "Gabe Newell"

We need to do PS3 development in-house. It is going to take some time for us to spin up.

So this might be the hope we were looking for :)

Horray for PS3 players.

Labels: game, PS3, TF2, Valve

Source: kotaku | team-fortress-2-updates-coming-to-xbox-360-later-this-year.

It is nice to hear that our XBOX pals r getting a nice juicy update for Team Fortress 2. It means that PS3 should be next. right? I'm afraid only time will tell.

We PS3 owners who love TF2 still suffer from the Valve/EA bucket-passing situation & being totally ignored on the matter of fixing some major issues (lag, frame rates, unreliable servers) in addition to dreaming of receiving updates that are taking way too long to make it to PS3 not to mention the constant media put down to our demands.

God, pls. help us convince some decision maker @ Valve to give us those updates.

Labels: PS3, TF2, update, Valve, xbox

Following up on The Orange Box PS3: Open Letter from Petitioners, Aeropause.com just published a Mike Seedon’s open letter on the EA Orange Box PS3 thing which says:

Team Fortress 2..my all time favorite online game.

As many, when i saw that big fat VALVE logo on the box, i did not think twice before pulling out those 70 euros. The EA logo is displayed on the box too, but as a PUBLISHER. Well, at least that’s what the back of my artbox states. As an ex-PC gamer +being part of that generation that grew up with HL and all its mods+ and Valve supporter, not only do i know about Gabe’s experience at Microsoft, but i also did hear all Gabe had stated regarding systems he did not feel comfortable working with. And as you know. the PS3 is on that list.

I personally believe VALVE always had negative intentions regarding the PS3 port. Their one and only goal through it were to convince PS3 gamers that Sony’s Playstation3 was a failure; in other terms, a system that could not support an engine as old as the SOURCE engine. This of course would lead the PS3 customer to give up on Orange Box after a while, and then purchase it once again for the PC. (Of course, that would be applicable only to those having a pretty recent PC..but what about those who do not, like me? Well, that’s even more money spent by the PS3 customer)

Why doing so? Simply because that’s a double win for VALVE. And well, let’s be reasonable for a second: knowing that Gabe worked 13 years at Microsoft, i certainly don’t see any reason why he would do any effort to satisfy his rival’s consumers. Yes, i believe VALVE -along with EA- orchestrated the entire project. I’d like to add one thing, just to make things clearer to those discussing Orange Box 360: it really isn’t a golden port either. Yes, it is playable, and 360 gamers are receiving updates, but it still needs numerous fixes. As you should probably know, Gabe also hates the 360..Well, i guess Orange box appeared on the it simply due to the similarities between the 360 and the PC.

The Orange box is a handful of great games, but the PS3 customer had to be stuck with such a bad port. It’s not the PS3’s fault, it’s VALVE and EA’s. VALVE worked alongside EA, which happened to be the lowest bidder. Everyone familiar with the videogame market today is fully aware that EA’s role is simple: to make a quick buck. They are greedy, they purposely destroy competition or simply buy it, and they don’t care about who they hurt so long as they can make a profit. If Valve wanted its port to be a golden one, they would have handed the job to Sony’s first-party developers, such as the folks at Naughty Dog. We all know Sony expects the most from its first-party devs, so i’m certain they would never have refused the job. Well, i believe the total opposite actually…..it would have been one hell of a bonus.

Now regarding Valve’s personal interests, (i.e sales) we all know they don’t expect to gain much from the PS3 port. They do not care about the money they’ll make, since they’re more than satisfied with the PC sales. But if there is a gain, even a slight one, why not benefit from it? Indeed, investing in the PS3 costs a lot, but i mean why not spreading your product, in order to let even more people take part of this incredible experience.

Refusing to develop on other systems because they feel they’re a pain in the arse, personally that’s what i call laziness. Investing in the CELL is more than just pain, but when you do dedicate time and get familiar with the system, the final result will only be crystal. Just have a look at Metal Gear Solid 4…and well, let’s be honest here, MGS4 is only scratching the surface of what the PS3 can achieve. VALVE, i am aware you’re spending your time on Left 4 Dead and TF2 unlockables, but i’m certain you’d find plenty if you really wished it. There is always time.

People say we should give up fighting for a fix, and move on with “better” games. Unfortunately, that’s not me. It’ll never be. People say i’m stubborn, well that’s too bad. Whatever obstacle i have faced in my life, there isn’t one i didn’t give it all i could..and that certainly won’t change now. Giving up is the result of failure, which is exactly what VALVE in this case are trying to get the PS3 customer to achieve. My personal experiences in life have thought me that all you really need to keep walking and succeed are dedication, faith and truth.

I’ll end this by talking about the actual number of signatures in the petition. Let’s make this clear once and for all: I do not care about those +2500 signatures. Yes, i appreciate every one of them, however what the heck will a silly ONLINE petition do? What i care about is those +25000 people that visited my website over these past weeks. In other words, all that only matters to me is the number of people aware of the current situation. Through this, i’m certain i’ve changed the mind of many people..many as thousands of people..many as thousands of Orange Box copies not sold.

Labels: EA, Petition, ports, The Orange Box, Valve

First, a 1 sentence intro to those who don't know TF2. Team Fortress 2 is the best multiplayer first person shooter game in the market till today. Nugh said.

Now let's talk. The title says it all. WTF!

Valve has created a marvelously addictive game & released it for PC, as it always does, and xBox. Valve also contracted EA to port the game for PS3. Shortly after the game was released, bugs and issues were reported then fixed promptly by Valve for PC via a patch. xBox, then, received multiple game updates. However, EA did a great job in porting the game to PS3 that it actually ported all the bugs and issues too; and then some. Until today the game becomes near unplayable on PS3 due to the lack of support from Valve & EA.

While Valve & EA keep passing the bucket PS3 gamers will continue to suffer until Valve, I hope, decide to take charge of its product on this console.

Please help us get some support for TF2 on PS3 by the following:

1. Contact Valve to complain about the lag, glitches & frame rate issues in TF2.


2. Publish The Orange Box PS3: Open Letter from Petitioners in your blog or site


3. Sign the petition

It is a matter of respect to extend support for customers who paid money for a product. Don't you agree?

Labels: bugs, EA, game, issues, patch, PS3, TF2, The Orange Box, Valve, WTF

Gamer Double-J has written an open letter to the world, telling about his frustration against Valve/EA, and citing the numerous issues encountered in the PlayStation 3 version of The Orange Box.

Here is the letter: "Dear Madam or Sir,

I am writing to you today in the hopes you might be able to help myself and thousands of others with the problems we are experiencing with the PlayStation 3 version of Valve/Electronic Arts The Orange Box.

The problems concerning The Orange Box for the PS3 are two-fold. First, we are dealing with numerous bugs, glitches, and server issues that have rendered the game unplayable at times and have remained since the game was originally released in October 2007.

More troublesome is the fact that our many attempts to contact Valve and EA through traditional channels —telephone, e-mail, and regular post— have fallen upon deaf ears. In a complete disregard for the large community of gamers who are experiencing these issues, in attempting to seek answers, the consumer support divisions of each company have repeatedly rejected pleas for help.

To begin, allow me to elaborate on some of the issues. While both the PC and XBox 360 versions of the game have been updated several times since release, PS3 players only have received is a generic patch that allegedly fixed several problems; unfortunately, these fixes are more fiction than fact, and those that did work only scratched the surface of the numerous flaws that exist. Primarily, the problems are centered on Team Fortress 2, the online, team-based, first person shooter which is one of the five games inside of The Orange Box.

First, the PS3 version lacks the functionality of its PC and XBox 360 counterparts, as we do not have the ability to create and host private servers (making competitive clan-based gaming extremely difficult); there is no proper lobby system with which to organize players and set up games; the servers that we do have are constantly plagued by lag, making the game virtually unplayable..

Second (and more egregious) are the number of glitches and flaws that remain unpatched in the PS3 version of the game, which include: a glitch that causes the friends list to function improperly or not at all, making it impossible to find players in the game; VOIP/microphone issues where communication will sometimes stop in the middle of a match or, alternatively, some players will not be able to hear others, and vice versa; and in-game exploits that allow players to cheat and ruin ranked games.

Third, it is unclear and increasingly unlikely that PS3 users will ever receive the upgrades, maps and updates that have either already been released or are coming soon for the PC and XBox 360 versions. Neither Valve nor EA are willing to claim responsibility for providing this content. In the single-player games contained within The Orange Box, such as Portal and Half-Life: Episode 2, more general problems include frame rate dips that render the game unplayable in some situations, occasional freezes, and long load times (sometimes minutes long) that break up the pace and flow of the game.

As part of the larger PlayStation 3/The Orange Box community, we have made several attempts to contact both EA and Valve in order to get some sort of satisfaction regarding these issues. However, at every turn, we have been disappointed to find runarounds and lack of acknowledgment from both companies' customer support division. I think that it is important you understand that countless number of fill-in-the-blank e-mail replies we have received from both companies. I myself have called EA tech support more than a dozen times, only to have the tech tell me each time that I would receive a phone call from a senior level tech within 24 hours.

This has been going on since I began experiencing problems back in January, and I still have not heard my phone ring yet. Most of the responses from Valve or EA either shirk their responsibility and blame the other company or, in the case of EA, claim that the problems are on the users end and can be resolved by checking the The Orange Box-specific forums on EA's website.

The only trouble is that no such forum exists, and any posts made in other sections of EA's forums are deleted as off topic. In fact, by looking at EA's website, you would hardly know that The Orange Box was published by the company. Maybe that is an indicator of how sheepish they are when it comes to supporting a product they know is a lemon.

Beyond EA's shoddy performance, it is not entirely surprising that our claims have fallen on deaf ears from Valve as well; co-founder and managing director, Gabe Newell has stated in published interviews that the PlayStation 3 is "a waste of everybody's time" and a "total disaster on so many levels." If this is the sort of opinion embraced by the top level executives, it explains the delinquency of their companies but does not excuse them for putting out an inferior product and shameful customer "service".

As we users continue to play a flawed and faulty version of a game that has little light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to updates and patches, we can only hope that the power behind this letter, can spread the word on this issue and help to achieve some modicum of success in having our voices heard.

Our e-mails and phone calls have not worked, our complaints on both companies' forums have not worked, an official petition website listing all issues was created (over 21,000 visits to date), and even a petition signed over 2,200 times have all failed to light a fire under these companies and make them take responsibility for their products.

Thank you for taking the time to hear my concerns.
Please visit the official petition website at http://www.orangeboxpetition.com"

Labels: EA, Letter, Petition, PS3, TF2, The Orange Box, Valve