Valve News, Medal of Honor and Halo Reach

Some exciting news that has emerged this week regarding Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Medal of Honor and Halo: Reach.

Valve’s marketing director Doug Lombardi has announced plans for the first batch of Left 4 Dead 2 DLC which will collide with the 360 and PC on (American) Spring 2010. Said to contain a new campaign dubbed ‘The Passing’ it features Left 4 Dead 1’s original survivors meeting up with the cast from Left 4 Dead 2 in one big zombie slaughter game set in a small rural town of Georgia. Full co-op, scavenge, survival and versus compatibility will be included along with a brand new melee weapon, firearm and uncommon common infected. The exact pricing details for the DLC is to be decided but it is assumed to be free for the PC as an update and available as a download from the Xbox Live Marketplace... For a price. Aside from the DLC, for all those modders out there who have been living under a rock; the Left 4 Dead 2 Authoring tools has been seen undergoing a private beta test by several users in the steam community so expect seeing the full release sometime near the abridged future.

The ‘War’ Update is finally here for Team Fortress 2 that gives the Demoman and Soldier more gear and you the ability to craft weapons and hats from blueprints with all those spare items that have been littering your inventory. The new gear includes new shoes for the Soldier, a more defensive sticky bomb launcher, new achievements and even a SWORD AND SHIELD for the Demoman. Pay the TF2 Blog a visit for full details and be sure to check out the comics they have posted. Now the only class that’s left without an update is the engineer.

TF2 Blog War Update: http://www.teamfortress.com/war/part1/index.htm

Medal of Honor has a new game and trailer! It is now following in the footsteps of its Call of Duty predecessor by shifting from the war torn country sides of Europe to the conflict in the middle east. Looking like a Hollywood blockbuster movie; it is worth checking out the trailer via YouTube and might be of interest to all those folks who unnaturally get bored with Modern Warfare 2. Let’s just hope you don’t have to play as an undercover CIA agent.

Watch the Medal of Honor trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsOUMavabM4

In case you have missed it, Halo: Reach has a world premiere trailer that looks so ever sweet and showcases Spartan team Noble; the supposed main characters. It is a must-see for Halo fans and is one of the best trailers I’ve seen this year.

Watch the Halo: Reach Trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9ez7iNjoVg

Sorry for the late news.

Internet Censorship FTL?

The Federal Minister for Communications, Stephen Conroy recently announced that the government would go ahead with its controversial introduction of a mandatory internet filter for Australia.

I for one, believe that the internet speed in this country is pathetic at best, and we don't need to have a political point scoring filter being introduced to slow it down any further.
This filter is said to block 1 in 10 legitimate websites. The only other countries that censor the internet in the world are: China, Iran, Burma, Cuba, North Korea, Syria, Egypt, Vietnam, Tunisia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. That is not a list Australia should be added to. Furthermore I'm a little irritated that the government needs to tell us what we should and shouldn't be able to see, when we're all capable of putting a filter in place if we want one. On top of that, cyber crime devisions of the AFP would no doubt benefit much more from the money that would be spent on this filter.

If you're as pissed off/biased/internet loving as I am, head to this website; the GetUp Campaign is letting us e-mail Senator Conroy, so he can experience the power of people complaining over the internet (it's a beautiful thing, isn't it?).