Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

HL2's Alyx as Playable Character, MMOG Updates, Women in Games Survey

Posted by Zonk on from the bet-you-can't-have-just-one-bit-of-news dept.

A good week for MMOG gamers, as Star Wars Galaxies Patch 13.0 goes into effect, revamping the Galactic Civil War and making way for the Combat Upgrade. World of Warcraft players, likewise, should be happy to learn about future game developments in upcoming patches. There are a lot of folks in that last category, as Blizzard stated this week that they've sold more than 800,000 copies of WoW, making Warcraft the largest U.S. based MMOG. If you're interested in learning more about MMOG stats, SirBruce's mmogchart.com has recently been updated with new information. Speaking of learning, registration will begin soon for the academically inclined Games+Learning+Society conference to be held in Madison, Wisconsin. If the concept intrigues you there are only 200 passes to go around, so you'd best sign up early. Gamespot's weekly Rumor Control article certainly intrigues, and this week states that Half-Life 2's Alyx is likely to be a playable character in an upcoming expansion to the hit game. A female protagonist would be a nice change of pace. Women in games in general are a good thing, and GameGirlAdvance has a lengthy survey for women gamers and women in the games industry to fill out.

7 of 66 comments (clear)

  1. geez.. by gl4ss · · Score: 3, Interesting

    now rumor control turns into rumor spread.

    ""Despite the rumors, Valve has not announced any plans for a Half-Life 2 expansion." That said, given that the shooter was the top-selling PC game of 2004 and Valve has already expanded it with a Deathmatch mode, it's likely only a matter of time before it gets an expansion. And given the appearance of an "Alyx Gun" in the game's development kit and game developers' propensity for foxy female leads, Alyx would be a very plausible protagonist indeed."

    so.. they got information stating otherwise but they still say that it's probably true, and that you'll probably play alyx.

    which doesn't matter you know. with the style of hl2 the character won't speak and only place where you might get a look at her is the mirrors. so if you think alyx is sexy you'd better hope that she's NOT the main character.

    --
    world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    1. Re:geez.. by game+kid · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The worst part is that Gordon Freeman isn't even reflected in mirrors (though it's probably by-design; they wanted to give the illusion that you, not some skinny guy with glasse--oh wait, it was me). I too doubt she'll be easy to see in a expansion, but then I doubt they'll make any Alyx expansion for months, if not years.

      Side note: I checked Steam for the first time in a while...

      Along with the two new maps, there are a number of fixes to the bots in Counter-Strike, an enhancement to the radar to display your current location in the map, and a fix for Half-Life 2: Deathmatch where players are disguising themselves as headcrabs, filing cabinets, and other invalid models.

      God that must have been hilarious, trying to toss toilets (and votes) at a file cabinet to make them stop. I do think the engine and games are far too open in terms of allowing these things.

      --
      You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
    2. Re:geez.. by Ford+Prefect · · Score: 3, Interesting

      God that must have been hilarious, trying to toss toilets (and votes) at a file cabinet to make them stop. I do think the engine and games are far too open in terms of allowing these things.

      To prove that I know far too much about Half-Life mapping - there's a monster_furniture entity for the original's single-player game. You get to see it crush a headcrab, in the guise of a filing cabinet... ;-)

      But I wouldn't take the presence of anything in a game's data files as indicative of that content as being functional or due for completion. Half-Life: Source, for example, has a few too many datafiles in it, including skins for a female scientist and numerous extra enemies, as well as a working model of Gordon Freeman as the hyper-beardy, ultra-low-polygon 'doctor.mdl'.

      I've no idea which existing character any expansion pack for HL2 might follow, if any. But poking around the entrails of game datafiles is unlikely to reveal anything much, even if it is the infamous 'Alyxgun', capable of morphing from handgun to SMG to sniper rifle...

      --
      Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
  2. The SWG changes look nice by hsoft · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The galactic war new system looks nice, might be a good reason to give it another chance. Can any SWG player tell me if the galactic war is actually fun? The last time I played, I didn't feel like I was in the middle of a galatic war *at all*. Did it change?

    --
    perception is reality
    1. Re:The SWG changes look nice by luigi22_ · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well, it really feels more like a war is going, as opposed to a gang jumping on top of a single guy every now and then.

      If you don't mind people farming factional NPCs to their heart's content, then you'll be fine.

      I suggest you wait a few more months before coming back, as that's when the REALLY big patches will be coming in.

      --
      On /., first you get the karma, then you get the power, then you get the women.
  3. Re:Valve says they don't have plans for that... by JWhiton · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I don't remember how long the span of time was between Half-Life and its first expansion, Opposing Force, but I remember that they contracted another company, Gearbox, to do it. They could conceivably do the same thing with this expansion - give another company the engine and let them focus entirely on content while Valve does whatever other projects it wants to. This could lead to a quicker turn-around for any expansion, as the contracting company would only have to focus on making content and not on whatever other stuff Valve is doing.

  4. When will we get new figures... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's nice to see the new figures on World of Warcraft bump it out of the traditional MMORPG chart and into the "truely massive" chart. Now I can finally put those Final Fuckfest XI whiners in their place when they try and claim it as "most popular MMORPG" using that chart. Well, except I can't, because it's been bumped off the chart...

    I really appreciate the work SirBruce does on that chart. I've gone looking for figures and the gaming companies make it damned hard to figure out unless they're actively on top. Square-Penix (I swear that was a typo, but it's too good to fix) hasn't updated the figures for almost eight months now. It's really weird, since they had a new release in a new area since then, you'd think they'd be trumpetting new players - but no. I'm wondering how many accounts they lost - I'll bet it's enough to drop them even further down the list.

    If Final Fuckfest XI manages to drop below EverQuest, I'm going to laugh SO hard. SOE may suck, but they're nothing compared to the massive suckage that is Square's customer disservice. If you go away for three months, POOF! Kiss your characters good buy. Not even SOE is dumb enough to pull that shit. (Then there's the "1 char to an account" crap that SOE won't do but Square got away with.)

    It really was saddening to see FFXI be the "number 1" US MMORPG. I'm really glad to see it finally get its come-uppance from the far, far superior World of Warcraft. It managed to hit double the number of FFXI peak subscribers in three months. Congrats, Blizzard!