How the internet tried to rig the Steam Summer Adventure, and how Valve is trying to stop them

A few days ago, members of the Steam community schemed to rig the Steam Summer Adventure competition, a metagame running in parallel with Valve’s 12-day Summer Sale. Surprisingly, it wasn’t the sort of malicious plan you might expect, but a kind of cease-fire alliance meant to bring equal victory to everyone on Steam. As intended, Team Pink won Sunday. Blue won Monday. Purple will win next, if things go smoothly. On Wednesday, a Red victory is scheduled, then Green.

Is a small collective actually having this big of an influence on a Steam-wide, public competition? Valve has already amended the contest to encourage more competition. I took a look at the evidence and spoke to a few of the people caught up in the dark business of virtual trading card market-manipulation.

How Valve makes money from the metagame

First, a run-down of how the Steam Summer Adventure works if you’ve been blissfully unaware over the past week, buying and playing discounted PC games rather than being concerned with your gamified game client. Most of Steam’s seasonal sales have included a unique trading card set. Craft a full set of these seasonal cards, and you get something like a unique wallpaper or Steam chat emoticon or in-game reward for a few participating games. The 2014 Steam Summer Sale has its own special set of cards you can badge-ify, but with a twist: participating Steam users are randomly assigned to one of five teams during the sale: Red, Pink, Purple, Blue, or Green. Crafting a badge earns points for your team, and 30 members of the winning team get three free Steam games off their wishlists. Oh, and a few extra cards that they can use to keep crafting.

In review: buying games earns virtual cards which can be crafted into virtual badges which increase the rate at which you earn booster packs which contain cards which you can use to upgrade your badges. It’s a circular system designed to keep you inside the Steam client, either nickel and diming you to complete your incomplete set of cards or by selling the cards you’ve been given to encourage you to spend that money on a game.

A competition to see who can craft the most badges, of course, makes money directly for Valve and developers by creating more activity on the Steam Market. Valve takes a 5% cut of all transactions, and the developer of the corresponding game takes 10% (a minimum of $0.01 in both cases).

If I sold one of my Steam Summer Adventure cards for its current value, $0.25, Valve would take three pennies and I’d get $0.22. The Steam Market tells me that 91,650 copies of that card have been sold in the past 24 hours, meaning Valve’s profit of a single Summer Adventure card in a single day could be about $2,800. There are 10 of these cards, and another 10 “foil” variants, which run about $2 each.

The community’s plan

Bottom line: we celebrate Steam’s price cuts, but in the middle of the Summer Sale Valve has integrated a system that stimulates the Steam economy and nets them thousands of dollars a day from virtual, non-existent goods. Many cards and booster packs have risen in price throughout the sale; Dota 2 booster packs, for example, went from trading consistently at about $0.25 for the past month to hovering near $0.40 over the past six days.

The more trading volume and competition, the more the house wins. But a segment of the Steam community is wise to this. They know that a 12-day period when a five-dollar bill can get you our favorite PC game of all time isn’t the best time to be engaged in what’s essentially a spending war. So to discourage, or at least mitigate, frivolous trading card spending, some Redditors and Steam forum members have organized a coalition to take competition out of the equation. They’ve called themselves “Team White,” and they’ve proposed that each Steam team should win twice, on designated days, through June 28.

I spoke to one of the initial organizers behind the plan, Reddit user DayZ_slayer. “It’s not really a fun competition when the only real way to win is to spend a lot of cash,” the European 20-year-old told me. “If they did some kind of event that involved playing games it would be a lot more fun to compete, but they didn’t, so I figured we all may as well work as a group and give everyone a fair chance at winning some games.”

This seemed to arise naturally, according to DayZ_slayer: many of the teams who had organized individually were planning to compete harder on specific days, he told me, so suggesting that the colored teams take turns simply formalized that process. “I checked the Steam groups/subreddits for the teams and saw which days they were planning on winning, the first five days or so didn’t really clash. I made the list showing who should craft on what day and then posted it on all of the team’s subreddits under the name Operation EWT. A little later I made the thread on /r/gaming and some other guy posted it to /r/steam.”

I also spoke to Phil Lendon, a 16-year-old living in England who’s bought into the concept of Team White. “I first noticed the schedule on Reddit on /r/SteamTeamRed which then spread to /r/Steam and I thought it was a really good idea because here on Team Red we’re all about teamwork and communication.” When I asked Lendon how much he’s spent toward the contest, he told me that he’s “traded hundreds of pounds” to support Red on Wednesday. “Too much that it’s unhealthy,” he says.

Valve’s response

Up until today, the plan had gone smoothly. Each team won on its designated day. But today the plan is showing signs of falling apart. Valve, apparently unhappy with the lack of competition between teams, changed the contest to award second- and third-place prizes to the runners-up each day. Purple may still come away with first place, but at the outset of today it’s already a tight race between the colors. “The game has changed,” a post on the Purple team subreddit reads. “We need to let purple win but go for second,” a member of team Red comments. “What the heck guys? It’s purple’s day!” a Pink thread exclaims. Lendon, the Red team member I spoke to, wrote back to me this morning after he noticed Valve’s change to the competition. “It’s turned into a free-for-all, once I had heard of the news I knew it was going to go to hell. However, I believe, as many other Redditors do too, that the new rules for the competition were to prevent the rigging of the competition, as we saw yesterday when Pink one with over a million points above everyone else, Valve had to take action. However, I personally don’t believe the changes to the rules are even worth it, as people’s chances are even more reduces to win, as-if it wasn’t hard enough already to get a winning three games, it’ll be even harder for the 2nd place and 3rd place and not even worth the effort.”

It’s unclear whether this change will encourage competition enough to disrupt Reddit’s plan. On the surface, it seemed wild to me that a small percentage of people could be driving the massive point swings we saw in the initial four days. After all, there’s only a few hundred people each in these colored Steam groups, and just 140,000 on the Steam subreddit, most of whom probably aren’t aggressively participating.

But the Steam Market tells us that just a small number of tokens that steal 1,000 points from another team—the most valuable item for influencing the Adventure competition—are trading hands. In the past 24 hours, just 88 have been bought off the Steam Market at between $8 and $5 each, and about the same amount of 500-point tokens were sold in that period. Even if a single team were buying those tokens, it isn’t that much of a swing relative to the 1.2 million that the Blue team earned yesterday.

More likely, the organized non-competition pact by Reddit and the color-specific Steam communities created single, dominant leader, which not only discouraged the other “big spenders” who are engaged in this competition but probably discouraged some amount of casual crafters from chipping in too.

With the adjustment made by Valve, today will be an interesting test of the internet’s ability to dictate the outcome. Purple, who’s meant to win today, has a modest lead as I’m publishing this, but we’ll have to see if the Steam Trading Card Illuminati’s grand plan survives through the week.

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DICE CEO: “What is it that the people really liked about Bad Company?”

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was selected as the 2010 Shooter of the Year by PC Gamer UK. So why, four years later and despite insistence that it’s “still out there,” is there still no Bad Company 3? DICE chief Karl-Magnus Troedsson says he knows people want a sequel, the problem is that the studio can’t quite figure out exactly what people loved about the series.

It’s not that Troedsson and company think the Bad Company games were substandard by any measure; if anything, it’s the opposite. “Some people say they found the multiplayer controls faster and more direct,” he told Eurogamer. “Some people liked the single-player and the characters and the humor. People love different things about it. It’s starting to almost get to that place where, if we were to make a sequel to Bad Company, what would than even imply?”

“It’s scary to go back and try to remake an old fan favorite when actually no-one can really put their finger on what it is people love. Bringing back the characters and creating a great single-player out of that, sure, I can understand that,” he said. “But some people say this: the Bad Company 2 multiplayer is the best you’ve ever done. Okay, why is that? It’s hard for people to articulate what that is, which is actually hard for us. It would be hard to remake something like that.”

Here’s a thought: Start with interesting, not-too-serious characters, throw them into an interesting, slightly over-the-top and occasionally goofy story, and wrap it all up with plenty of guns, explosions and small-scale, class-based online combat. It might just work.

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Hello Games Not Ruling Out No Man’s Sky On Other Consoles

Hello Games and Sony surprised fans during E3 with the announcement that No Man’s Sky, the procedurally generated space exploration adventure, will be coming to PlayStation 4. Yesterday, the studio hinted that the title might blast off on other consoles.

The studio responded to a fan’s inquiry about an award No Man’s Sky received for best PlayStation exclusive at E3. The response directly references the PlayStation 4 version as a “console debut.”

.@eddieri0 'PlayStation Exclusive' was @gametrailers' phrase, not ours - No Man's Sky is having its console debut on PS4 :)

— Hello Games (@hellogames) June 24, 2014

While Hello Games isn’t discussing other platforms now, a representative suggested to us that once the PlayStation 4 version is finished, the studio could turn its attention to other formats. This isn’t a guarantee that it will happen, but it’s safe to say that No Man’s Sky isn’t necessarily a PlayStation exclusive for the life of the title. Hello Games will have the option to decide later to expand its horizons to PC and other consoles.

We went hands-on with No Man’s Sky at E3. You can read our impressions of everything we saw and played. 

[Source: Hello Games on Twitter]

Update: This story originally included mention that No Man's Sky is confirmed for PC. Hello Games has only confirmed the PlayStation 4 version at this time. We regret the error.

 

Our Take
Given Microsoft’s evidenced willingness to allow self-publishing on Xbox One even after release on other consoles, if No Man’s Sky performs well on PlayStation 4, a PC and/or Xbox One release seems logical. The title is ambitious and exciting, and we can’t wait to play it. If it lives up to its promise, getting it in front of as many people as possible is the best result for everyone.

Zelda Looks Chic With Sword And Bow In New Hyrule Warriors Trailer

We’re getting some great looks at Hyrule Warriors this week, with new trailers for Link with sword and fire rod and Impa. Now, Zelda joins the fray, with rapier and bow in hand and some pretty devastating attacks that make great use of both.

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As you can see, Zelda’s Musou attacks include nods to the Triforce and her skill with a bow. The Legend of Zelda-meets-Dynasty Warriors title will be out on September 26. For more, check out our hands-on impressions from E3, an interview with the team, and the title's E3 trailer.

Kerbal Space Program official mod brings the World Cup to space

We’re into the second stage of the World Cup now, meaning two more weeks of increasingly intense football. That’s “we” in the global sense. I don’t know how your country of origin performed, but England did not. If you’re in a similar position, there are options available to help survive such national disappointment. You could pick a better team to live vicariously through. Or you could download Kerbal Space Program’s official ‘Kerbin Cup’ mod. With it, you’re able to take your footballs and hide away in the most desolate reaches of space—away from the harsh reality of underperforming athletes.

“The Kerbin Cup pack contains Kerbal-sized and rocket-sized soccer balls with the physics to match, as well as the flags of all 32 World Cup participating countries,” explain SQUAD on the mod’s download page. “It’s both a small token of gratitude and a way to capture the excitement of one of the world’s biggest sporting events, but in the grand stage that only space can provide.”

This is the first ‘official’ mod for KSP, created by developers SQUAD. Of course, there are also plenty of unofficial mods out there. Find a round-up of the best right here.

Thanks, PCGamesN.

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AMD re-release their 5GHz FX processor with bonus watercooling

To try and counter all the excited enthusiast processor chat generated by Intel’s Devil’s Canyon CPUs AMD have decided to re-release their top-end FX-9590, but this time with a Cooler Master liquid chip-chiller in the box.

The FX-9590 is a straight CPU—none of that APU malarkey—so it’s not wasting package space on integrated graphics that gamers with discrete GPUs are never going to use. To that end it’s an eight-threaded design with four Piledriver modules and a base clock of 4.7GHz.

The big headline-grabber was the fact that under the right circumstances—thermals and power permitting—it’s be capable of turbo-ing the cores up to 5GHz automatically.

By bundling the FX-9590 with the Cooler Master Seidon 120 AMD is hoping that it will be able to guarantee that 5GHz clockspeed across the board. I spoke with AMD’s Iain Bristow earlier and he explained, “the intent is to make AMD’s highest performance desktop processors available even more easily to AMD enthusiasts who want to enjoy a quiet, great looking system.”

I wonder if those Intel brackets will be included with this version of the Seidon 120M.

The closed-loop Seidon 120 is a quality 120mm radiator water cooler—I use the 240mm version as the chip-chiller for my regular test bench—so it’s good to see that AMD have gone for a solid cooler for their bundle.

The new bundle will be available from July, with only a slight premium attached to account for the added cooler. I expect it to be available for around $360 / £250 when it does go on sale, which would be less than picking up the individual components.

What this says about AMD’s interest in the enthusiast CPU market is harder to work out. They won’t be drawn on whether we’ll see FX processors with the Steamroller architecture appearing on the desktop—with the only FX Steamroller chips being the mobile Kaveri APUs. With Intel making strides in the budget CPU space—a place AMD has traditionally offered the vest value—the processor side of AMD’s business is going to have to up its game.

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Oculus Calls Zenimax Lawsuit ‘Misleading' And 'Unjust’ In Court Filing

Last month, Bethesda Softworks and Id Software parent Zenimax filed suit against Oculus VR for misappropriation of intellectual property. Today, Oculus has filed its formal response with the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

In the filing, Oculus asserts that Zenimax is attempting to take advantage of Facebook’s bid to purchase Oculus for $2 billion. The deal, which has been cleared to be finalized will wrap up some time this summer.

Oculus fully rebuts Zenimax’s claims that any of the latter’s software is present in the Oculus Rift. “There is not a line of ZeniMax code or any of its technology in any Oculus VR product,” the filing reads. "Indeed, ZeniMax had never identified any ‘stolen’ code or technology in any Oculus VR product, although ZeniMax had the full source code for the Oculus VR software for over a year and a half (having received it directly from Oculus VR well before it was even released publicly), and could have analyzed it online anytime (at developer.oculusvr.com).”

The filing also includes a number of Rift prototype images dating back to November 2010. Oculus denies most of Zenimax’s allegations, including that Zenimax software and hardware was used to create a Rift development kit and that Oculus lacked the know-how to create a viable virtual reality headset without Zenimax assistance.

Oculus also claims that prior to this lawsuit, Zenimax did not raise concerns about infringement. Additionally, Oculus asserts that in lieu of investment, Zenimax “demanded” a stake in Oculus VR in exchange for publicity garnered from demonstrations by Id co-founder and former employee John Carmack as well as showcases of the Rift with Doom 3: BFG Edition running on it.

The filing accuses Zenimax of purposely attempting to destroy Oculus’ credibility with investors and gamers through the dissemination of false information. “ZeniMax’s conduct described above has been misleading, unconscientious, unjust, and marked by a want of good faith,” reads the filing.

Oculus has made it clear it will not back down from the suit. The company has requested a jury trial to settle the matter. You can read the entire filing here.

 

Our Take
This is going to be messy, as the courts will need to determine the viability of non-disclosure agreements, the role Carmack played in Oculus development while still at Id, and what (if any) Zenimax code exists within the Oculus Rift. This is headed for the courts unless one party backs down.

Killing Floor 2’s Zeds Look Pretty Gruesome

A new trailer for Killing Floor 2 shows off five different enemy types that will coming for tastiest parts. This is the first in a series of videos showing off Tripwire Interactive’s gruesome enemies.

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In the video, you’ll get a look at the grunt-like Clots, Slashers, spider-like Crawlers, gnawing Cysts, and the heavy duty Fleshpounds. Suffice it to say, there will be lots of things to kill (and they will all be trying to reciprocate).

Killing Floor 2 will be out this year for PC and SteamOS.

Another World Sneaks Onto Xbox One

Last week we reported on the 20th anniversary version of Another World headed to modern consoles. At the time, Sony had confirmed a June 25th release on PS4, PS3, and Vita, but the announced Xbox One version remained dateless. So, it comes as a bit of a surprise that Major Nelson revealed today that the game is now available on Microsoft’s new-gen console for $7.99.

Another World (previously known as Out Of This World) is a classic action/platformer originally released in 1991. Eric Chahi designed the original, which was praised for its surprising environments and cinematic cutscenes, pre-dating many of the more story-oriented adventures we play today. 

This new version of Another World is now almost certainly available on a platform you play, or will be soon. Previous releases on iOS, Android, and PC have been available for several months or years. Nintendo released Another World on 3DS and Wii U last week. And while Sony had previously announced that Another World would be available today on PS4, PS3, and Vita, the actual release seems to have been delayed, but should be still be on the way in the coming days days or weeks. 

[Source: Major Nelson]

 

Our Take
It's great to see this classic title headed to new systems, but it's unfortunate that the timing has not been better coordinated. This surprise release on Xbox One can't be helpful for marketing the game, and Sony hasn't done any better, since it announced a release date ahead of time, but failed to deliver the game today.  

Razer Announces Android TV-Powered Micro-Console

During Google’s I/O developer keynote today, Razer’s latest project was announced. The company, known for mice, headphones, keyboards, and ultra-thin laptops will be entering the Android micro-console market.

Android TV allows users to use their Android phones or newly announced wearables as remote controls to navigate television offerings. This includes streaming options, and voice search that brings up results including shows, cast, video clips, and more.

The new Android TV platform supports gaming, and Razer is entering the market at some point in the future, once the platform is widely available. There aren't any details yet, including information about specifications, control mechanisms, or other specifics. The company has committed to making the as yet unnamed device affordable, but a retail price will be coming later.

 

Our Take
I'm skeptical about micro-consoles, but I have had good experience with Razer devices. I'm curious to learn more, but until I have a sense of what kinds of content this will support, how much it costs, and if it interacts with other (non-Android devices, like a PC), I'm withholding my enthusiasm. 

Planetary Annihilation ‘Early Access’ is now available in bricks and mortar retail

Early Access as we understand it is still in its infancy, and developers are still experimenting with the format. Rarely a week goes by when the whole establishment isn’t questioned to some degree, whether it’s the amount we should be expected to pay for unfinished games, why the whole process is so darned confusing, or whether studios are obliged to complete their games at all. The latest controversy surrounds Kickstarter-funded RTS Planetary Annihilation, which has popped up at UK retail outlets in its Early Access state. The debate started on Reddit, which prompted Uber director Jan Mavor to comment on the move.

“At Uber we’ve been trying really hard to innovate on business models during the entire development of [Planetary Annihilation].” Mavor told Game Informer. “We had planned to do a retail release all along and the early access box came about as part of our experimental attitude. Since early access works so well, our partners at Nordic thought that it would be worth trying an early access retail edition and we agreed it was a cool idea.”

When asked why the studio opted to release the Early Access edition at retail, Mavor was blunt: “The real question is, why not? After all, they are getting the same game, just earlier. It’s a changing world and we hope to continue trying out new and innovative ways to make games.”

So there you have it. Planetary Annihilation was originally scheduled for a December release, which was later delayed. The project has attracted nearly $3 million in Kickstarter funding.

Here’s the Planetary Annihilation packshot:

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Road Not Taken Goes Off The Beaten Path In August

Spry Fox's roguelike-puzzle hybrid has a release date and humorous new trailer straight out of the 90's. The tailer tells the story of two kids bored with a first-person shooter who are saved by Road Not Taken.

Road Not Taken takes the classic spin of procedurally generated worlds and perma-death known to roguelikes and adds interesting puzzle components and narrative angles. In order to save the people from your town, you must navigate the woods using your powers and energy to solve puzzles. If you run out of energy, you die. The story will take place over a span of many years and promises to show your interactions with your fellow townsfolk change over time.

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Road Not Taken is set to release on PlayStation 4 on August 5 with Vita, Mac, and PC versions promised to come out soon. For more details, take a look at our in-depth preview for the game.

[Source: PlayStation Blog]

Video Games Made Better With Professional Wrestling Commentary

Video games are great, but aren’t they usually too subtle? Besides, everything is better when it's got a cheering crowd and excited commentary. YouTuber TheBlueOwlPlays took some of famed WWE commentator Jim Ross’ best outbursts and put them to a wide variety of video game moments. The results are often surprisingly fitting, and always hilarious.

Check out the two episodes below to hear Jim Ross’ thoughts on games like Dark Souls, Call of Duty, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil 4, Battlefield, Mario Kart, and more. 

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Keep an eye on TheBlueOwlPlays’ YouTube account, because part 3 is coming soon. For more celebrity-video game crossovers, here’s what happened when Conan went to E3. For more commentary over the top of gaming, check out Tim Schafer narrating a Grim Fandango playthrough (though Schafer isn’t usually quite as excited as good ol’ JR is.) 

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[Source:YouTube via Reddit]

Platinum Announces The Legend Of Korra Downloadable Title

Activision and Platinum Games are teaming up for a game based on Nickelodeon’s The Legend of Korra. The title is a martial arts action game, in which players can use all of the titular character’s avatar elemental abilities in combat.

The Platinum Games take on The Legend of Korra cartoon will be coming to Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PC this fall. The console versions will also feature 3-on-3 multiplayer. A strategy title is also in development for 3DS by Webfoot Technologies.

The story, which is being written by series writer Tim Hendrick, will take place between show’s second and third seasons. The third season will begin airing this Friday on Nickelodeon.

[Source: IGN]

 

Our Take
I’ve watched a bit of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and I’ve always meant to go back and finish. I’ve heard a lot of praise of The Legend of Korra, and this might be enough to motivate me to catch up.  

Developer Comments On Kickstarted Planetary Annihilation Being Sold At Retail As Early Access Title

Early access is moving beyond the world of digital download and Steam, and into the world of retail.

This post on reddit, highlighting the image below, has been gaining popularity this morning. It showcases the successfully Kickstarted title Planetary Annihilation being sold as an early access title in a box at retail. The game entered alpha and moved onto beta last year, and is currently in a gamma stage with a planned full release for later this year.

We reached out to developer Uber to ask about selling an early access game at retail. Jan Mavor, one of the directors for the game wrote in an e-mail to Game Informer, "At Uber we've been trying really hard to innovate on business models during the entire development of [Planetary Annihilation]." Mavor continued by writing, "We had planned to do a retail release all along and the early access box came about as part of our experimental attitude. Since early access works so well, our partners at Nordic thought that it would be worth trying an early access retail edition and we agreed it was a cool idea."

When asked why release an unfinished game at retail Mavor replied, "The real question is, why not? After all, they are getting the same game, just earlier. It's a changing world and we hope to continue trying out new and innovative ways to make games."

Planetary Annihilation was successfully funded in September 2012. Uber requested $900,000 to create Planetary Annihilation, but earned $2,229,344 more than doubling their initial funding goal. It's a real-time strategy title with much of the same DNA and development team as the Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander games. You can check out a trailer for the game below. For more on the game check out the official website.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

[Via: Reddit]

 

Our Take
It's certainly surprising and questionable to see an early access title available at retail, but I admire Uber's willingness to try something different. The real question here is, perhaps, not whether Planetary Annihilation should be sold at retail as an early access title, but rather, whether it should still be considered an early access title at all. The game has moved beyond alpha and beta and is in gamma, a stage Uber seemingly invented for the development of Planetary Annihilation. Typically, after the beta, a game is complete and ready to sold as a full product. When is a game truly released? Is it when the full game can be purchased and played in its entirety? Or is it simply when the developer declares the game complete? Like Mavor wrote in his e-mail, "It's a changing world."

Six Nintendo DS Games That Aren’t Games

Both the 3DS and Vita are home to more than just games thanks to their virtual download shops. The two handhelds took a cue from smart phones and recognized there is a market for more than just games on a miniature computer you can carry in your pocket.

Before the age of online stores for downloading games and apps on video game handhelds, however, Nintendo experimented with the idea of non-games on a gaming platform and released some interesting DS “games” with the full retail treatment.

Electoplankton
Created by popular Japanese artist Toshio Iwai, Electroplankton looks like a game, and even comes packaged in the same box as a game, but offers a much different experience. It’s a simplified music creation tool with a relaxing aesthetic. There are no levels, or even goals. Instead, players (or creators) manipulate elements of the screen to create music.

The game was hard to find when it released in North America in 2006, but Nintendo has since released it in piece-meal form on its eShop.

100 Classic Books
Released in 2010 not long after Amazon’s Kindle was beginning to prove that people didn’t mind reading books on something other than paper, 100 Classic Books is exactly as the title describes. The cartridge contained 100 classic books that could be read on your Nintendo DS. In a strange collaboration, the game was published by Nintendo and book publisher HarperCollins. You could even up the number past 100 by downloading books over Wi-Fi.

As a sidenote, this game is a very strong contender for our next Super Replay, so get ready.

Jam Sessions and Jam Sessions 2
The Jam Sessions series gave players (or perhaps creators would be more appropriate as it was for Electroplankton) the opportunity to emulate a guitar on their DS.  Holding down certain buttons would activate certain chords, and you would strum the touch-screen which displayed a virtual guitar string. You could also administer assorted effects like distortion or delay. The original did well enough to allow Ubisoft to release a sequel with Jam Sessions 2.

Art Academy
Art Academy has since become a franchise for Nintenendo with a Pokémon Art Academy game on the way, but it started on the DS in 2009 with simply titled Art Academy. With it, aspiring artists could learn assorted drawing and painting techniques using the touch screen as a canvas and their stylus as a paintbrush.

Nintendo DS Browser
Before the release of the iPhone in early 2007, which arguably popularized Internet on mobile devices, Nintendo tried its best to bring a web browser to its handheld with the release of the Nintendo DS Browser in Japan in 2006. It released in North America the summer of 2007. Sold as a cartridge and an extra piece placed in the Game Boy Advance slot on the DS, it used the handheld’s built-in Wi-Fi to give players a web browser. It didn’t work very well, unfortunately, and was discontinued shortly after its release.

KORG DS-10 and KORG DS-10 plus
Much like Electroplankton and Jam Sessions, the KORG “games” are music simulators, and they’re impressively diverse. We were so impressed with the KORG synthesizers for DS that we placed them on our best DS games of all time list. The series is still going, too, with a version already released for 3DS, and another planned for release in September. Of course, where they used to be offered in a box at retail, you can now find them on the 3DS eShop.

What do you think of these non-game games? Do you like them? Or are your handheld gaming devices used strictly for gaming?

ESL One Frankfurt: day two in review

Images courtesy of the official ESL Twitter account.

‘Timing’ has been the watchword of this entire tournament. It was a concern this morning, when another late start threatened to force the entire show to run long, with the last quarterfinal match – Na’Vi vs. EG – not starting until 10.30am. It was a concern when the arena’s internet connection went down and when Fnatic’s voice comms broke for twenty minutes. It was a concern in-game, too, as the strengths and weaknesses of today’s greedy, ult-centric metagame came down to who had power at the exact minute when it counted.

Timing problems caused a fair amount of heartache today, but I also got to see a terrific showcase of what the best Dota 2 teams can achieve when they’re moving to their own rhythm. In addition, the event itself held together despite the technical problems to deliver one of the best large-scale e-sports experiences that Europe has seen since TI1. Great casting and analysis and a hugely engaged crowd made Frankfurt a great place to spend a weekend – and I’m not just saying that because I’ve been surviving on beer, sausages and energy drinks since Saturday morning. Well, mostly. The point is: it’s gone midnight and I’ve got games to discuss, so let’s get into it. As ever, spoilers below.

Na’Vi vs. EG

Everyone was waiting to see how Na’Vi would do against the team that beat them 3-0 earlier in the week. EG stuck to a familiar set of heroes for game one, picking up Storm Spirit for mobility and control and matching him with Enigma and Tidehunter, giving them the teamfight ultimates that have defined this tournament. Na’Vi’s draft had echoes of Alliance in its focus on the pushing power of Funn1k’s Nature’s Prophet and got greedier from there, with a farming Faceless Void, mid Invoker, and support Doom. Puppey’s support Disruptor was effective but not such a hindrance to EG’s pushing and farming power that he could grant his team painless passage into the lategame.

All those tower kills gave EG a healthy advantage across the board, with zai’s Enigma in particular benefiting from having all of his major items – and more – by the twenty minute mark. Na’Vi’s draft was built for teamfights but EG gifted them no easy kills. The game felt close to a long time but chiefly due to Na’Vi’s ability to fight from a disadvantage – eventually, slowly, EG ground them down.

Game two seemed like a return to form for Na’Vi when Puppey’s Chen secured first blood with a jungle harpy (of all things). Plays like that – and virtuoso ganks in general – are why Na’Vi are so passionately loved, but they’ve been outdrafted an uncomfortable number of times lately and that’s what happened here. Funn1k attempted a Bulldog-style Nature’s Prophet again but struggled to be effective against a Storm Spirit and Tiny/Io combo that proved to be just as good at taking rax when nobody was looking. XBOCT played Anti-Mage but couldn’t win the farm war against Tiny, a hero who is perfectly happy to go toe-to-toe with AM in the late game. Without a Black King Bar, Na’Vi’s carry just couldn’t sustain a presence against substantial lockdown.

An unusual Elder Titan pickup by EG made it even more difficult for Na’Vi to survive when the game ran long, his Natural Order aura making delicate heroes even more vulnerable to EG’s fully operational Tiny/Io battlestation. After a long back-and-forth in the late game EG eventually claimed the advantage, taking the set 2-0 and sending Na’Vi home. I saw many slumped shoulders in yellow hoodies afterwards.

iG vs. Alliance

In the first match of the semis iG gave the world a demonstration of how you go about dismantling Alliance. Banning Io and Nature’s Prophet is part of it, but iG’s strategy went deeper than that. They solved the problem of Alliance’s current playstyle by refusing to fall into the obvious trap, which is committing everything to shutting down one of the Swedish team’s lanes. Alliance are as strong as they are because of their map control: force Bulldog to play at 20% efficiency and S4 and Loda will get 150% out of the rest of the map. Force all of Alliance’s lanes to operate at 70% efficiency, however, and they have a much harder time in the mid game.

iG did just that, with on point, persistently aggressive drafts that denied Alliance much needed map space. Ferrari_430′s supreme Ember Spirit was a constant nuisance, and excellent Nyx Assassin rotations by YYF in the first game shut down not only Alliance’s supports but S4′s midlane Batrider too. The Swedes proved that they were capable of pulling out plays from the back foot, but the Chinese team kept up a degree of pressure that denied Alliance any hope of retaking the map.

Game two acted as more evidence against Brewmaster as a competitive pick. Teams love him, and his potential impact can’t be denied, but that simple counter – press the attack when his ult is down – has caused problems for the teams that ran him throughout this tournament. I wouldn’t be surprised if his place in the current meta was reconsidered after this weekend. He’s great to watch, and dangerous in the right hands, but S4 looked like he was trapped in the hero in game two against iG. When Primal Split is on cooldown, he’s just not the same hero.

This match demonstrated just how versatile iG are. Their early game plays discounted the notion that yesterday’s steady push strats could be lazily categorised as ‘Chinese Dota’. They knew how to unsettle Mouz, just as they knew how to topple Alliance this afternoon. It’s a shame to see Alliance lose their recent momentum, but it has been very exciting to watch the return of a giant of the Asian scene.

The post ESL One Frankfurt: day two in review appeared first on PC Gamer.

Freeware Pick: Cat Sokoban (sylvie)

Cat Sokoban is a short puzzle game made by sylvie, creator of Cactus Block (one of Terry Cavanagh's favorite games of 2010). Your objective here is simple: push the cats around, one at a time, until all of the designated areas are occupied by felines to proceed to the next level.

But there's a problem. Cats do not enjoy being shoved around, and they can't sit still either while you're messing about. More often than not you'll encounter situations where you're just two steps away from completing a puzzle, when a kitten decides to shuffle off to another spot and refuses to budge until it has taken a quick nap.

Cat Sokoban is available to download now from Glorious Trainwrecks.

Win free keys for 1849, Ethan: Meteor Hunter, Valdis Story: Abyssal City

IndieGames and Interabang Entertainment bring you another awesome FreekeyFridays, which means another chance to win a set of free indie games. Freekeyfridays was created as a way to garner exposure for indies through giving away a mix of well-known indie games and up-and-coming titles.

This week's games are 1849, Ethan: Meteor Hunter, and Valdis Story Abyssal City. There are two ways to win this week.

Five sets of codes will be given for the raffle. Enter here:

Three sets of codes will be given for this Twitter contest (Follow @Freekeyfridays and #FKF46 with response to enter):

What game character would dominate the #worldcup and why/how?

The games to win:

1849 from SomaSim on Steam (Windows, Mac)


@somasim_games

Ethan: Meteor Hunter from Seaven Studio on Steam (Windows)

@SeavenStudio

Valdis Story Abyssal City from Endless Fluff on Desura (Windows)


@EndlessFluff

If you are an awesome dev and want your game to be a part of Freekeyfridays, sign up here.

Free iOS Pick: Super Digestion Moose (Alvar Pernroth)

Laxatives are a murderer, the majestic moose is our friend and if you own any kind of iOS device you must really give Super Digestion Moose a go. That's all you need to know for now.