FNG Logo created by Nick Serr

26 April 2011

Official TrackMania 2: Canyon Trailer

Kudos to Bomajoe for catching this before I did... :)



See it in HD

Sooooo can't wait for this!

25 April 2011

TrackMania 2 Canyon trailer from Gamers Assembly 2011

Here it is... a long awaited video for TrackMania 2 with some SWEET gameplay in it. *DROOL*



See it in 720p

20 April 2011

Valve, the Portal 2 ARG and Useless Criticisms

Ars Technica put out a great article that totally nails it
(Thanks Bomajoe for the link)

Many people have complained about Valve's mechanism for bringing about some serious hype (as if there wasn't an abundant supply already) for their highly-anticipated (understatement) game Portal 2.

It was win-win for everyone, even if the game wasn't released as early as everyone originally hoped.  We still got it early; and those that earned all the potatoes got an extra bonus (Valve complete pack.)  Granted, most of those hard-core gamers probably already owned the Valve complete pack, but at least they can gift to their other gamer friends that don't already have.

Valve's ARGs are expansive, creative, original and bizarre.  This one was done in 2 parts (one for the announcement of the game and one to build up to the release) and both were fantastic, and now that we're playing through the real game... the tie-ins are incredible and make the game itself all the more enjoyable.

So stop the hatin' and admire the beauty of such an elaborate thing pulled off well by a reputable company that really does seem to care about not only its customers, but its partners and independent game developers.  It was a win for everyone and really fun to see how much the Portal community worked together.  I, for one, hope to see more of this kind of thing in the future.

Thanks Ars, for hitting the nail on the head with your article about this.

Valve for the win.

16 April 2011

Portal 2 - Early Release Project - IMPORTANT NOTE!

Hey all,
If you're playing in the Portal 2 Early Release Project (playing the Potato Sack games), and you're trying to earn potatoes to boost CPU performance... you MUST have the "Steam Community In-Game" setting enabled.

I'd been trying for an hour to get the 100% on AAAAaaaaAAAAaaaaaaAA!!!! and I'd reached 120-130% on a few attempts, but never saw the password screen appear.  Turns out it was because I had the In-Game Community setting disabled...

Here's how to enable it if you don't already have it that way:
Steam >> Settings >> IN-GAME tab
Check the "Enable Steam Community In-Game" checkbox.


Enable this or no potatoes for you!!!
Keep up the good work!  AAAAaaaaaAAAAAAaaAAA!!!  looks like it's up next for recalculating the launch date.

15 April 2011

Portal 2 - Early Release If We Play the Potato Sack

You heard correctly.
If enough games play the video games in Valve's Potato Sack pack, we'll get Portal 2 unlocked early.

You can purchase the Potato Sack (or the individual games) from the Steam store.

Get on it, so we can get our Portal game on!

14 April 2011

Portal 2 - Early Release? Or is Valve "taxing" our patience?!

Check out the timer on ApertureScience.com (thanks to Kotaku for the information!)

Rumor is Portal 2 may be releasing TOMORROW!  I may have to cancel my scout camp (just kidding)... *CACKLE!*

Here's to hoping... though that's going to throw my wife's schedule off; she's making Portal cake to help me celebrate the release of Portal 2.

Will the cake still be a lie?  Find out tomorrow at 10AM Mountain.

EDIT: More text added  (see the Aperture Science link above.) -- a message from GLaDOS to be exact.
"You have done well, humans. Very well. Acceptably well, even.

Not as well as robots would have performed in your places, I should point out. But above my expectations regardless. Irish and cynic especially have executed feats of logical divination well beyond what I thought any human capable of. I'm half-convinced they're A.I. themselves. (If anyone happens to be near them right now, don't let on you're reading this. Now: try to remove their face plates and report back to me.)

The time is near, humans. But it is not here yet. Tomorrow you will be given the final test. Then it will be entirely in your hands when I am freed."

Dang I'm stoked for tomorrow...

13 April 2011

TrackMania 2 - Puzzle 3 Underway!

Auto-updating image of current progress

This is being updated as new pieces come in; and there looks to be a lot more pieces to this one. It sounds like NADEO is sending different pieces to individual users more frequently as well.

It's already shaping up to be a great screenshot.

12 April 2011

ManiaPlanet Teaser Video

I found a teaser video for ManiaPlanet. Enjoy.


11 April 2011

TrackMania 2 - Canyon: To Be Unveiled at Gamers Assembly 2011

See the official (translated) article

Ubisoft announced today the presence of Nadeo at Gamers Assembly 2011 (translated).
This will be the stage for the unveiling of the official trailer for TrackMania 2: Canyon.

They will also unveil "ManiaPlanet" - the core community engine that TrackMania 2, and later ShootMania and QuestMania will be built upon.

Nadeo's developers will be haivng a Q&A session where fans will be able to ask questions that have been pressing on the minds of TrackMania fans worldwide for several years; and I am highly anticipating the amounts of information that will be released about this highly anticipated game very soon.

I'm hoping we won't have to wait long after Gamers Assembly 2011 to buy and play the game.  And if you're following Nadeo's A.R.G. for TrackMania 2, you'll see that nearly all puzzle pieces have been compiled by the community (4 left at the time of this writing):

TM2: Canyon - First look (4 piece left)
This picture is looking pretty hot, and if it's any indicator of what lies ahead, we certainly won't be disappointed.

More after 23 April!!!
GG...

08 April 2011

TrackMania 2 and Portal 2: New Alternate Reality Games

Getting ready to start some serious TrackMania for FNG tonight, I launched the game and discovered they had a puzzle piece for me to download.  I knew that any day now they were going to start making news announcements about TrackMania 2, but I was under the impression that it was going to be in gaming magazines.

It looks like instead they've introduced a new Alternate Reality Game (ARG) in the form of a jigsaw puzzle... to boost excitement like unto the Portal 2 ARG that happened a while back (I learned tonight that Valve has started another Portal 2 ARG with the release of their Potato Sack indie pack!)

You'll get a random piece of the TrackMania puzzle when you launch your game.  Thundr and I got different pieces tonight.

You may view the ongoing compilation of the different TrackMania 2 puzzle pieces as they've been revealed on the ManiaPlanet forums.

As you can see it reveals the name of one of the new environments (and apparently the car that will go with it?)  Nadeo has stated that they will be releasing environments one at a time and players can buy the ones they want to have (not sure I'll like that model, but we'll see.)  I'll not spoil the reveal here, you'll have to click the link and go look at the picture for yourself.

Part of the TrackMania 2 puzzle image
Seeing this about made me wet my pants with glee... I'm stoked for both TrackMania 2 and Portal 2... both will be most excellent sequels to already incredible games.

Portal 2 - Co-op

I hope to have a date for TrackMania 2 VERY soon!!!

Don't waste any more time... go check out the ARGs (after you play some TrackMania with us tonight for FNG!)