Portal 2 Soundtrack Released

It's here. And it's awesome.

"Bolstered by recent breakthroughs in the field of jazz smoothing, Aperture announced today the first of three downloadable aural stimulus packages." So says the Portal 2 team as VALVe released the first volume of Portal 2: Songs To Test By. The first in a three-part OST, this album comes with 22 instrumental pieces of musical excellence. As a person who has been hunting for the soundtrack back when I first heard bits of it in Portal 2's announcement trailer, I can confidently say this is one of the best soundtracks I have heard, up there with Bioshock 2's Sounds From the Lighthouse.

Anyway, pick up a free copy of the entire album on the Portal 2 music site here. The site also has sections from selected tracks that are usable as ringtones for your phone. I personally like the Science Is Fun ringtone.

World of Tanks Major Update v0.6.4 Released

World of Tanks -- Free to Play Panzer MMO

So another major update has been released for World of Tanks, including a few new premium tanks and self propelled guns, two new maps, reworking of some gun hitboxes, major reworking of the tread immoblization system, matchmaking re-balance for the Tier 9 mediums, and other nifty bugfixes and features. Here's a list of the major changes:

• Added new vehicles: premium heavy Lowe and KV-5, KV-13 and Pz38NA, tier 8 SPGs: Object 261, GW-E serie, T-92.
• Readjusted visibility parameters of all vehicles while standing still and on the move.
• Introduced detailed damage mechanics for tracks. Reworked durability of tracks and repair time for all vehicles.
• Increased match-making value for tier 9 medium tanks.
• Reworked vehicle movement system – sticking at vertical surfaces and map borders is nearly eliminated. Reduced chance of getting stuck in terrain objects.
• Changed damage mechanics for tracks. You can damage tracks if you hit the leading or the rearmost wheel of the tank. It will be much more difficult to detrack it by hitting middle part of the tank.
• Added the possibility of dismounting non-demountable equipment (Rammer, Coated Optics and other) for 10 gold.
• Added the automated ban system for teamkillers.
• Added new maps: Mountain Pass and Steppes.
• Corrected a lot of mistakes connected with objects’ disposition, passing ability, getting stuck on most of the maps.
• Fixed a lot of rendering errors, increased the efficiency of advanced dynamic shadows.

Not convinced? Have a screenshot of the new Pz38NA:

Looks pretty awesome, right?

Check out World of Tanks here, download/update your clients here, and check out the patch notes here.

Modern Warfare 3 Plot Mostly Leaked

Yep, another one.

So I read on Kotaku recently that they had for the most part received an overview of the new Call of Duty game scheduled for release this November. It's a continuation of the shenanigans started way back in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and continued in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Some interesting spoilers include the destruction of the USS Intrepid during the Russian invasion of New York City, and huge terrorist attacks launching all across the globe, sponsored by Makarov and the Russian Ultranationalists.

Well, good to see Activision totally going "Well, this story is absolutely ridiculous, so lets just go overboard with this!" with this third installment in the surprisingly popular franchise.

In other news, I still miss United Offensive. It's still the best CoD.

Adventures in Plants vs. Zombies

My "Zombatar".

So recently Steam put out a -66% sale on the popular Plants vs. Zombies as their "Midweek Madness" promotional. Being a person that wouldn't usually purchase or play this particular game, I figured that the low low price of  $2.50 (and the Genuine TF2 hats that came with this Midweek Madness) was reasonable enough for me. So, I put a five dollar bill in my Steam Wallet and purchased the game.

PvZ is one of those "defense" styled games in which the player is given control of a portion of land and told to defend it using a variety of static defenses. In this case, a horde of Zombies have surrounded your house and you must use your collection of house plants and lawnmowers to survive.

I can see why my brother had fallen in love with the game a couple of years ago, the controls and interface is simple and the gameplay is addicting. It's a good time waster when a person is bored and needs something to pass the time. I'll probably play more of it over the summer break.

NPH Leak Aftermath - Major DCI Suspensions

Duelists Convocation International - DCI

I talked recently about the spoiling of New Phyrexia, and it appears that Wizards of the Coast has acted swiftly in regards to the incident. Along with releasing a full official visual spoiler, on Thursday Wizards released a press statement announcing the fact that NPH was indeed leaked well in advance and that they had found out who did it. In the press statement, Wizards stated:

We have received confessions from both Guillaume Matignon and Guillaume Wafo-Tapa describing what happened and apologizing for their actions. Two other players—Martial Moreau and David Gauthier—have also been identified as being involved.

Whoa. That's huge. Four people, 2 of them major MTG pros, had access to the "Godbook" in which every single card is listed with mana costs and oracle text (card rule text). This book is not even given to WoTC employees, and rarely leaves the locked doors of Magic's Research and Development offices.

The internet backlash was huge, not that they got banned, or that the set was spoiled. It was because pro players were given important metagame information that would obviously be used to their advantage when deckbuilding. In Magic, knowledge is power and these guys certainly had that power.

Not that that matters, though. In the same article, Wizards announced:

Unfortunately when we learn of things that harm the integrity of the game and of the Magic community, Wizards cannot stand by without action. Guillaume Matignon has been suspended from the DCI for three years. Guillaume Wafo-Tapa, Martial Moreau, and David Gauthier have been suspended from the DCI until October 2012.

Well folks, there you have it.

Some more reading, if you're interested:
[Gathering Magic]
[WoTC Press Release/DCI Banned Announcement]
[Channel/Fireball]

PSN Network Taken Down, Pirates Blamed

Failure? You Decide!

Guys, guys. I think Sony is mad.

Just putting that out there. Y'know, since they've completely failed with the PS3-related DRM/anti copy protection earlier in the year (root keys found in firmware) and now this.

Seriously, Sony. The PS2 was awesome. Now you just herp and derp all over yourself with this.

Stop that. Stop being bad.

The Grand Compleation

It's been spoiled. Early.

I recently watched the new Magic Show episode in which Evan Erwin spoke about how New Phyrexia (NPH) had been prematurely spoiled to the point where the usual spoiler season has been ruined for the set. I had taken a gander over at the spoiler collection site and had indeed seen that all 175 cards in the summer set had been leaked.

Now, I had heard that the entire set had been spoiled earlier in the week, and was very excited over being able to see the new cards (Especially the new Praetors. They are crazy good.). I was overjoyed that Wizards would even do something this cool like spoil the set this early. Then I found out (from watching that episode of the Magic Show) that it was actually a third party leak, and that there was supposed to be a complete spoiler season, with those informative articles and things that always pop up prior to a release. Those things aren't going to be much use now that the set is spoiled.

And another thing that I didn't realize until watching that Magic Show episode: with an almost an entire MONTH passing between now and NPH's release on May 14, Spikes and Johnnies from across the globe will have already broken all the breakable cards in time to build the new Tier I standard decks on Day 1. Wizard's carefully planned spoiler season where they break down the new card mechanics over the next few weeks is ignored, because what's the point? The set's out, basically. All the people need are the physical cards in their hand to replace their proxied NPH cards. It's madness.

Shame on the person who did this. Shame.

Now, I'll be looking through the set and posting some opinions on cards (with mockup, courtesy of my copy of Magic Set Editor) at another time.