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

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.

Comments

geez..

[gl4ss]

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.

Re:geez..

[game kid]

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.

Re:geez..

[Ford Prefect]

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...

Valve says they don't have plans for that...

[game kid]

...and judging from Half-Life 2's late, heavily-delayed release, even if they had plans it would take quite a while. I'm not holding my breath.

Welcome back Quickies!

[brejc8]

I think it's great to have a few quickies rather than one full thing (no phun intended).
It is much nicer to browse through 20 little interesting and concise nit bits than one big story.

bah

[nomadic]

A female protagonist would be a nice change of pace.

What are you talking about? Games frequently have female protagonists these days.

Re:bah

[Yosho]

Games frequently have female protagonists these days.

But when are we going to have one who's not a scantily clad, walking set of breasts?

Re:bah

[Anonymous Coward]

The majority of females leads will not be scantily clad walking sets of breasts when the majority of male leads aren't muscle bound walking death machines, that's when.

The SWG changes look nice

[hsoft]

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?

in other news EQ2 plans to add 'sidekicking'

[Harlockjds]

a la City of heroes. Side kicking (aka the ability to change one's level to play with friends that are at a lower or higher level) is one of the better invasions in City of heroes and I'm glad to see it is working it's way into other games (plus it will give eq2 players who power leveled to 50 the chance to go back and see what all they missed)

http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/mes sa ge?board.id=pround&message.id=1506

Expansion Pack

[Torgo's Pizza]

I eagerly await the "Plot" and "Story" expansion packs for Half-Life 2.