Crispy Gamer News

Downloadable content will be announced very soon for both the PC and Xbox 360 versions of Left 4 Dead, according to Valve’s Chet Faliszek, who spoke at length with the Kotaku crew during its recent holiday podcast. That new DLc will include the addition of the single player campaigns “Dead Air” and “Death Toll” to the Versus mode, the PC SDK for developing content for the PC version of the game and some additional undisclosed content.

Chet Faliszek, who started out running the wonderfully funny web site Old Man Murray, is responsible for retooling the stories for both Portal and Left 4 Dead, among other things. The way the story is told through audio cues, light dialogue and character interaction in Left 4 Dead is one of the primary reasons I chose it for our Game of the Year Awards. Sadly, it could not beat out the glory of Fallout 3, but the game is a monumental achievement in storytelling and multiplayer in my book.

Our favorite computer program, GLaDOS is still alive, and is coming to Xbox LIVE Arcade on Wednesday, Oct. 22 at around 9 a.m. GMT (2:00 a.m. PDT). Cake is waiting, the companion cube misses you and GlaDOS is most definitely “still alive.” You’ll be able to pick Portal: Still Alive up for a mere 1200 MS Points.

Check out a special message from GlaDOS, lifted from the GamerScore Blog, after the jump.

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If you’re growing tired of waiting for some official Portal, you may be interested in this mod, Portal Prelude, which gives players a story set prior to the events of the popular action adventure puzzle game from Valve. According to its developer, Portal Prelude is an unofficial prequel to the game Portal. that revolves around the pre-GlaDOS epoch before the entertaining AI was plugged in. During this timeframe, tests were monitored by real Aperture Science employees, who are apparently so lazy that they need to create A.I. so that don’t have to handle a number of mind-numbing work-related activities. What a bunch of slackers..

So can players expect to from Portal Prelude? Portal Prelude offers 8 new chapters, 19 test chambers, 48 challenges, 6 advanced maps, a brand new storyline and more than 400 lines of speech with English and French subtitles.

We are not sure whether Valve Software is flattered by this project or upset because someone outside the company is trying to write the back-story in the Portal universe, but Portal Prelude sure does sound like something worth downloading. Look for it to be released at the end of the month or early October..

Source: Official Site

The recipients of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences” 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards were announced this week, with BioShock, Call of Duty 4 and The Orange Box picking up four awards each. The annual awards for developers by developers also inducted Blizzard’’s Mike Morhaime into the Hall of Fame and gave a Lifetime Achievement Award to former Sony Computer Entertainment boss Ken Kutaragi.

Mike Morhaime, president, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment, was inducted as the 11th member of the prestigious AIAS Hall of Fame for helping to create some of the world’s most popular franchises, including Diablo, Warcraft, StarCraft and World of Warcraft. Ken Kutaragi, former president and CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., received the Lifetime Achievement Award for this year.

As for the games, Call of Duty 4 won Overall Game of the Year, Console Game of the Year, Action Game of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play; BioShock won Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction, Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design, Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition and Outstanding Achievement in Story Development; and The Orange Box won Outstanding Achievement in Game Design, Computer Game of the Year, Outstanding Character Performance, and Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering. The big list of all of this year’’s winners can be found below:

Overall Game of the Year: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Console Game of the Year: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Computer Game of the Year: The Orange Box
Outstanding Innovation in Gaming: Rock Band
Handheld Game of the Year: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Multiplayer Game of the Year: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Cellular Game of the Year: skate
Role-Playing Game of the Year: Mass Effect
Racing Game of the Year: MotorStorm
Outstanding Achievement in Game Design: The Orange Box: Portal
Adventure Game of the Year: Super Mario Galaxy
Sports Game of the Year: skate
Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year:Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
Action Game of the Year: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Family Game of the Year: Rock Band
Outstanding Achievement in Animation: Assassin’’s Creed
Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction: BioShock
Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering: Crysis
Outstanding Character Performance: The Orange Box: Portal (Ellen McLaw’’s voice work as GLADos)
Outstanding Achievement in Story Development: BioShock
Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering: The Orange Box: Portal
Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play:Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Downloadable Game of the Year: Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition: BioShock
Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack: Rock Band
Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design: BioShock

Congratulations to all of this year’s big winners.

Bethesda Softworks designer Daryl Brigner has created another map for the PC version of Portal called Ren_Test3. The first map, Ren_Test2 was very popular according to Bethesda; the original post about the map on Bethesda’’s blog has been the most popular post to date; and the map was featured on many blogs and inside the pages of PC Zone.

The new map is available here, along with a download featuring both maps in one package. There’’s also Step, Portal and Time challenges available for those that crave some extra fun. Details on how to install this new map can be found on Bethesda’’s Blog.

The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences issued a press release today revealing the nominees for the 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, with two games taking the lion’’s share of the nominations. The nominations for these peer-based awards have been dominated by two titles: BioShock (2K Games) and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision) by receiving over 10 nominations from its peers. Finalists in close lead with top nominations include The Orange Box (Electronic Arts and Valve Software), Rock Band (MTV Games) and Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo of America), all up for the Overall Game of the Year Award. Below is a partial list — the full list of categories and nominees can be found at the AIAS Web site:

Overall Game of the Year:
BioShock
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Rock Band
Super Mario Galaxy
The Orange Box

Computer Game of the Year:
BioShock
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Crysis
The Orange Box
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

Console Game of the Year:
BioShock
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Mass Effect
Rock Band
Super Mario Galaxy

Handheld Game of the Year:
Drawn to Life
Jeanne d’Arc
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Outstanding Innovation in Gaming:
Assassin’s Creed
BioShock
Rock Band
Super Mario Galaxy
The Orange Box

The awards ceremony will take place during The D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit 2008 on Feb. 7 at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas, with comedian Jay Mohr returning for his third year to host the award ceremony.