The Matrix Lobby Scene A Capella

Team Fortress 2 is Free Forever

Valve announced that Team Fortress 2 is now Free To Play. There won't be a built in advertising model but there will be micro-transactions with real world money. However, instead of the incredible game changing perks you can buy in Battlefield Heroes or Battlefield Play4Free, the items should not provide a player with any advantage over the player that chooses not to buy them.

To celebrate their recent news, Valve has put out the following Meet The Medic video. Enjoy and go get yourself some Team Fortress 2!



Per the official FAQ, here are the differences between a free account and a premium account (premium accounts are automatically given to those that have ever spent money on or in the game in the past):

Backpack:
(FREE) 50 slots
(PREMIUM) 300 slots expandable to 1,000
Items:
(FREE) Standard
(PREMIUM) Standard, Rare, Cosmetic
Crafting:
(FREE) Limited blueprints
(PREMIUM) All blueprints
Trading:
(FREE) Receive items only
(PREMIUM) Full trading
Gifting:
(FREE) Can receive gifts
(PREMIUM) Can give and receive gifts

Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitarists

Broken down for your pleasure, here are Rolling Stone Magazine's 100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time:

100 Kim Thayil (Soundgarden)
99 Greg Ginn (Black Flag)
98 Leigh Stephens (Blue Cheer)
97 Robert Randolph
96 Angus Young (AC/DC)
95 Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine)
94 Bert Jansch
93 Fred "Sonic" Smith (MC5)
92 Wayne Kramer (MC5)
91 Robby Krieger (The Doors)
90 Glen Buxton (Alice Cooper)
89 D. Boon (Minutemen)
88 Dave Davies (Kinks)
87 Joan Jett (Runaways, Black-hearts)
86 Tommy Iommi (Black Sabbath)
85 Randy Rhoads (Ozzy Osbourne)
84 Eddie Cochran
83 Neil Young
82 David Gilmour (Pink Floyd)
81 Derek Trucks (Derek Trucks Band, Allman Brothers Band)
80 Robert Quine (Voidoids)
79 Cliff Gallup ((Gene Vincent's) Blue Caps)
78 Robbie Robertson (The Band)
77 Henry Vestine (Canned Heat)
76 Ali Farka Toure
75 Adam Jones (Tool)
74 Johnny Winter
73 Trey Anastasio (Phish)
72 Joni Mitchell
71 Lightnin' Hopkins
70 Eddie Van Halen (Van Halen)
69 Steve Howe (Yes)
68 Jerry Miller (Moby Grape)
67 Link Wray
66 Vernon Reid (Living Color)
65 Hubert Sumlin
64 Mick Ronson (David Bowie)
63 Danny Gatton
62 Zoot Horn Rollo (Captain Beefheart)
61 Ike Turner
60 Johnny Greenwood (Radiohead)
59 Ed O'Brien (Radiohead)
58 Dickey Betts (Allman Brothers Band, Dickey Betts & Great Southern)
57 Roy Buchanan
56 Tom Verlaine (Television)
55 Richie Blackmore (Deep Purple, Rainbow)
54 Jorma Kaukonen (Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna)
53 Mickey Baker
52 Lou Reed (Velvet Underground)
51 Paul Kossoff (Free)
50 Pete Townsend (The Who)
49 John McLaughlin (Mahavishnu Orchestra, among others...)
48 Joe Perry (Aerosmith)
47 T-Bon Walker
46 Les Paul
45 Frank Zappa (Mother's of Invention)
44 Scotty Moore (Elvis Pressley)
43 Eddie Hazel (Parliament Funkadelic)
42 Robert Fripp (King Crimson)
41 Clarence White (The Byrds, Kentucky Colonels)
40 John Fogerty (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
39 Brian May (Queen)
38 Peter Green (John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Fleetwood Mac)
37 Bo Diddley
36 Steve Cropper ((Stax Records house band) Booker T. and the MGs)
35 John Fahey
34 Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth)
33 Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth)
32 John Cippolina (Quicksilver Messenger Service, (Bay Area-based) Zero)
31 Dick Dale
30 Buddy Guy
29 Ron Asheton (The Stooges)
28 Stephen Stills (Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills & Nash (& Young))
27 Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits)
26 Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine)
25 Freddy King
24 The Edge (U2)
23 Warren Haynes (Allman Brothers Band, Gov't Mule)
22 Mike Bloomfield (Paul Butterfield Blues Band)
21 George Harrison (The Beatles)
20 James Burton
19 Richard Thompson (Fairport Convention)
18 John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
17 Jack White (The White Stripes)
16 Johnny Ramone (The Ramones)
15 Carlos Santana (Santana)
14 Jeff Beck (The Yardbirds)
13 Jerry Garcia (The Grateful Dead)
12 Kurt Cobain (Nirvana)
11 Kirk Hammett (Metallica)
10 Keith Richards (The Rolling Stones)
9 Jimmy Page (Led Zepplin)
8 Ry Cooder
7 Stevie Ray Vaughn
6 Chuck Berry
5 Robert Johnson
4 Eric Clapton (The Yardbirds, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Cream)
3 B.B. King
2 Duane Allman (Allman Brothers Band)
1 Jimi Hendrix

Is This The Oldest Battlefield Player?

Wacko Jacko is 66 years old, retired, loves to work on his garden and play around on his boat in his free time.

Oh, and he also loves kicking your ass in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on the PS3.

Star Wars: The Old Republic Intro Movie

Great Caesar's Ghost!  Even if you weren't interested in the soon to be released Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG developed by Bioware, you absolutely have to watch the intro movie.

Thailand Artist Makes Awesome Garbage Statues

Anchalee Saengtai from Thailand makes life sized (or nearly life sized) Transformer sculptures out of recycled car parts and garbage.  Check some of them out.

The Ripley's Believe It Or Not museums around the world will be getting some of them for display (San Antonio, Texas gets a Bumblebee, San Francisco, CA gets an Optimus Prime). 

Check out their official site for more but here are a couple of teasers:

EA Being Dicks About Battlefield 3's DLC and Release

Image courtesy of joystiq.com

At one point, EA was considered the Evil Empire of the Gaming World for buying up smaller developer houses (like Origin and Bioware) and running them into the ground and mistreating their employees enough for them to file a class action lawsuit. In the years since then, EA started to focus on making good games and paying their employees their fair share.

Then Activision became the Evil Empire of the Gaming World to the point where the CEO's name, Bobby Kotick, became synonymous with being a shit-eating douche-bag in most gaming circles. They fucked up and fucked over the Guitar Hero franchise and then went on to fuck with the Call of Duty franchise.

And now, EA has once again found itself crowned with the Corny Shit Crown of Command that comes with being Evil Empire of the Gaming World with their latest shenanigans involving the upcoming game Battlefield 3.  First of all, let me get a kind word out to DICE, the guys who are actually developing the game.  They are actually doing what they can (according to an insider) to keep EA from screwing their customers over; however, it's not DICE's call.

EA is releasing a pre-order only DLC package called Physical Warfare, which will include a couple of levels that you can only get if you pre-order the game including the very bonerific, fan favorite Strike at Karkand level from Battlefield 2 redone for this game as Back to Karkand.

Also, certain weapons and equipment won't be available to you as a player unless you pre-order the game. To drive the stake a bit further the selection of those weapons and equipment that you will get depends upon which store you pre-order from. Shitty move.

Some of the "exclusive items" include a flash suppressor for a sniper rifle and an anti-personnel flechette round to be used with the DAO-12 weapon. So, if I pre-order and you don't, I have a leg up on you already because you can't see my muzzle flash when I snipe you. Sucks, right?

This sort of piecemeal distribution of games sucks camel cock and is quite possibly the shittiest thing the gaming industry can force us as consumers to be a part of. But, we have a choice. As much as I hate to say it because the Battlefield franchise is very near and dear to my gaming heart, if this bugs you as much as it really should, please reconsider your pre-order and cancel it. There is an online boycott of Battlefield 3 until EA decides to change their tune and I have not only voiced my opinion but have gone ahead and cancelled my release-day-delivery pre-order. I haven't pre-ordered a game in a VERY LONG time but I was so excited about BF3 that I really wanted to get my hands on it on Day One. My pre-order will stay canceled until this gets sorted out. Will it work? It did when EA tried some similar bullshit with the first Bad Company release.

Almost forgot: want to know one last thing that sucks about how EA is handling Battlefield 3's release? They are pulling their support of Steam and have withdrawn all new games from the service, including BF3, in an attempt to force the EA consumer to use their proprietary pseudo-Steam service called Origin.

Wear that Corny Shit Crown of Command well, EA. It suits you.

UPDATE: General Manager of DICE, Karl Magnus Troedsson, has responded to the pitchfork carrying fervor that the Battlefield 3 release news has generated on the Battlefield Blog. May I just say: WHEW

So maybe this is stating the obvious, but all of us at DICE are here because of our passion for games and the passion to bring you the games we too love to play. I always knew our pre-order offers for Battlefield 3 would be open to misunderstandings. This post is an attempt by me to answer any questions you have.

I would like to start by clarifying that the Physical Warfare Pack is a time-based exclusive. If you do not pre-order Battlefield 3 at a retailer carrying the Physical Warfare Pack, don’t worry. We will unlock the contents of the Physical Warfare Pack for free to all Battlefield 3 players later this year.

The Physical Warfare Pack will be available as a pre-order bonus all over the globe. Right now, the UK is the only country where it has been announced, but stay tuned to get constant updates on where you can pick this up in your country. And remember, if you do not pre-order, you will still get access to this content at a later date, free of charge. If you do pre-order, you will get access to it from day one.

For Battlefield: Bad Company 2, many in the Battlefield community were very vocal about wanting additional, new maps to expand the multiplayer experience. With Battlefield 3, we want to make sure we can increase your library of maps quicker than we did for Battlefield: Bad Company 2. We also want to give you something special for pre-ordering, as pre-ordering is basically your way of saying you believe in DICE and Battlefield 3. When we announced that everybody who pre-orders Battlefield 3 would get an entire future expansion pack at no extra charge, I knew we had created a very generous pre-order offer.

Back to Karkand is a massive, themed expansion pack available a period of time after the base game, developed by a separate team here at DICE -- the same team that brought you Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam. If you played Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam, you have a pretty good idea about the scope and ambition of our expansion packs. This is so much more than just four remixed maps.

If you pre-order Battlefield 3, you will be able to play Back to Karkand at no extra charge as soon as it is released, but it is not day one DLC and it is not on the base game disc. We think it’s a sweet deal, and it’s available to everyone everywhere. If you do not pre-order Battlefield 3, you can still buy Back to Karkand separately and play it as soon as it is released, the very same date as anyone who pre-ordered. In other words, there is no segmentation of the community when we launch the base game.

There are more pre-order offers for Battlefield 3 out there, and in order to try and avoid any confusion we will return within the next couple of weeks to detail all of them as well.

As always, post any questions you have here, in our forums, on Facebook, or Twitter. We are listening and value your opinion.

Cheers,
Karl Magnus Troedsson
General Manager, DICE

Robin and Zelda Williams Do Ocarina of Time Commercial

True story: an avid game player, actor Robin Williams named his daughter Zelda after the princess in the Nintendo series Legend of Zelda. Here the two of them are in a commercial for the latest release of Ocarina of Time for the 3DS.

E3 2011: Assassin's Creed Revelations

Assassins's Creed: Revelations gameplay demo from E3 2011

E3 2011: Battlefield 3 Thunder Run Tank Gameplay Trailer

Battlefield 3: Thunder Run Tank Single Player Gameplay

This gives me such a boner. No, seriously. I've been hard for a day straight now since I first watched this.

E3 2011: Far Cry 3 Trailer

E3 2011 So Far....

IN GENERAL
Tomb Raider series reboot with young Lara Croft
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 announced
Remakes of Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 as well as Peace Walker (which is currently a PSP only game)
A new Silent Hill game is coming
Not sure how accurate this is: a Zone of the Enders collection redone in HD?! I hope this one is true!
Mass Effect 3 displayed
SSX series will be rebooted
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning announced - a game being worked on collaboratively by R.A. Salvatore and Todd McFarlane
Battlefield 3 - an orgy of awesomeness being displayed for all consoles including the upcoming new Nintendo WiiU
Assassin's Creed: Revelations announced
Far Cry 3 announced
Infamous 2 - possibility of user created content discussed
Bioshock Infinite announced

SONY
Uncharted 3 goodness revealed; a multiplayer demo will release at the end of June
Resistance 3 announced - also can be purchased as a bundle with the PS Move
Unsure on the details, but Bioshock 1 will be for free at some point on the PSN
Battlefield 3 for the PS3 will also come with BF1943
PlayStation Vita (their new handheld) announced

NINTENDO
New console called the WiiU announced - should be out in 2012 and will be capable of similar graphics abilities of the other current gen consoles; unusual controller device with a screen, camera, and mic built in will come standard; will be backwards compatible with all Wii controllers and games
Lots of the classic franchises have been promised for the new console (e.g., Zelda)
DICE announced that Battlefield 3 will also be available on the new Nintendo system

MICROSOFT
No new hardware to show so everything is discussed with Kinect at length
The original Halo Combat Evolved is going to be remade with the latest graphics
More Kinect integration
A new Halo trilogy will start with Halo 4 (yes, with a return of the Master Chief)
Other Kinect related bullshit
Minecraft coming to XBLA
And yet other Kinect crap
YouTube, Bing, and a few other services coming to Xbox360
Gears of War 3 will have Ice-T... wait, WHAT?
A new Fable game (YAY) that will be controlled via Kinect (BOO)

E3 2011: Uncharted 3 Trailer

Wow. 'nuff said.

Microsoft at E3: Please Stop With Effing Kinect!

Microsoft's presence at E3 the other day was pretty damned lackluster. Every chance they could, they were shilling either a new Kinect game or otherwise showing how Kinect can make shit better. *Yawn* The only time I've ever seen someone come up with a fantastic reason to buy the Kinect is displayed in the cartoon below.

Split Screen Multiplayer Done Right

Something that Sony has been working on and just announced at E3 the other day is the ability to play a multiplayer game on a single console, on the same TV, without split screen. So long as your TV is 3D capable, and the PS3 is already 3D capable, Sony plans to make it so that via polarized lenses, each player could be looking at their own action without seeing the other players' actions, on a full size screen. Genius! Except for one thing: this guy has already been doing it and here's how.

Alamo Drafthouse PSA

There's a small movie theater chain called Alamo Drafthouse. They have 11 theaters in Texas (Austin, Houston, and San Antonio) and one theater in Virginia. What sets these guys different from the Regal Cinemas and the Hoyts of the land is that you can buy beer, pizza, beer, awesome snacks, and more beer. Here's the thing: they won't take your shit. In other words, if you're yapping it up and annoying the guy sitting next to you, they will kick you out. If you're texting during the movie, they'll kick you out. I would absolutely love to give these guys a ton of my money if they would only open a theater local to me. I have encountered at least a dozen instances at my local Regal/Hoyts/etc theaters with bullshit customers who think they are watching the movie in their own living rooms, talking, commenting, using cell phones, and generally being ass nuggets.

One day, a girl gets kicked out of one of the Austin Alamo Drafthouses for texting during the movie. She calls the theater, complains, and now the theater is using it as a PSA. It's edited in their theaters but unedited online.

EDIT: AMAZING. This has gone from under 30,000 views when I first caught it to over 1.2 million. Insane! These guys deserve this sort of attention and I hope it helps them to rake in tons of dough. So, chances are that by now you've seen it.

Enjoy

Dead Island E3 2011 Video

You may remember Dead Island from the following two stories HERE and RIGHT OVER HERE

Here is the most recent trailer for the game from E3 2011



The preview trailer made it seem that the game would be offering something new but the latest word is that it's going to be a pretty standard zombie fighting game.

E3 2011 SSX Videos

Character reveal video for the upcoming SSX game from E3 2011



Gameplay video for SSX from E3 2011

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Gameplay Demo

Gameplay demo footage for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 from E3 2011

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception Syria Co-Op Trailer

Here's the official "Syria co-op" trailer for Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception from E3 2011

Tags: GameTrailers.com, E3 2011: Syria Co-Op Trailer, PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Halo 4 Trailer

Official Halo 4 Trailer from E3 2011

First Strike Battlefield 2142 Star Wars Mod

Here's some footage of the Death Star attack from the First Strike mod for Battlefield 2142



Here's the official website: LINKAGE

First Trailer For the Tomb Raider Franchise Reboot

I love Lara's new look (see LINKAGE for more info).

Grand Theft Auto Modding on the PC is Awesome!

You have to love the modding scene; especially when they go past the "cool" things we'd all like to see modded in a game and just go for ludicrous. Check out the following and pay special attention to the motorcycles and terminators endoskeletons and... whatever. Just watch.

Looney Tunes 3D Version of 2D Cartoon Done Right

I always shudder when I hear that there are movements to bring traditionally 2-dimensional cartoon characters into 3D. I don't mean the crappy 3D where you have to where glasses and you find yourself reaching out to grab stuff like an idiot; I mean 3D rendered computer animation as per The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, etc. The following video is an example of how it can be done just right. The action, direction, colors, lighting, and character design all still feel like the old 2D versions of the Coyote and Road Runner cartoons with a new wrapping. I can certainly get behind something like this.

EDIT: Warner Bros. is pulling the video as fast as it can go up. I tried another link but that went down PDQ. Just do a Google search for "Looney Tunes 3D Coyote Falls" and you should be able to find a quick clip here and there. The Vimeo link was awesome as it was in HD (the currently available YouTube copy is not and the video severely suffers for it). Oh, well.