The Team Fortress 2: Gold Rush Update is now available, free to owners of Team Fortress 2 via Steam. The Gold Rush Update introduces the new Gold Rush map and Payload gameplay style, the first set of unlockable weapons, and a new set of achievements for the Medic.

In other TF2 news, a worldwide Team Fortress 2 Free Weekend will begin Friday at noon PDT, and will include access to the new content released today in the TF2: Gold Rush Update. Using the functionality made available through Steam and Steamworks, all of the files needed to join the Free Weekend are available for pre-loading now.

The Free Weekend is open to players around the world, and there is no obligation to purchase to participate; all that is needed is a Steam account to join.

To start pre-loading everything you need to play on Friday and learn more about Team Fortress 2, please visit www.steamgames.com/goldrush

Anyone else getting this? I'll be buying it on launch day (April 29th). GTA III revolutionized what I thought a game could be. I can't wait to explore GTA IV.

What say you?

Gears associate producer Tanya Jessen told Shacknews.com that there are no plans for a GoW2 demo. She says that such a fast release of a sequel that this caliber means that they won't have time for the demo.

Will this end up hurting GoW2 sales?

Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3 both had successful demos or beta tests before the launch of those games. Both of those games sold millions of copies on launch and today are the most played games on XBOX Live.

Of course, Gears of War 1 didn't have a demo and it is the #5 most played game on XBOX Live; two years after release.

Will GoW adopters give up that game for the sequel without a demo?

General Info
Who: THX - Up to 34 people can comfortably fit
What: Halo 1 LAN
When: Saturday, June 7, 2008: Be There At 11AM
Where: Rayne's House outside of Huntsville, Alabama - PM Mintz for directions if you do not have them already.
Why: It's been a while since the last LAN. It's time to fire it up again. Keep your thumbs warm. Bring your controller. Yes, most of this is just copy-pasted from the last JuLAN.

It's out. The new downable content for Halo 3 costs 800 MS points and comes with 3 new maps, a legendary theme, and gamerpic.

The Legendary Map Pack blends old and new. Ghost Town’s asymmetrical mix of confined spaces and long lines of fire makes for frenetic games. Avalanche re-imagines the original Halo classic, Sidewinder, with new features, tweaked vehicles and massive outdoor spaces. Significant changes bring big improvements to the map, yet its contours and cliffs should provide a welcome sense of familiarity. Blackout, on the other hand, is the purest remake to date – all time favorite Lockout gets a graphical overhaul, but retains its challenging mix of ramps, platforms, tunnels and hallways. There are no refunds for this item.

We previously talked about this here: http://hushedcasket.com/node/2837

A foreign distributer has leaked the trailer to the upcoming animated film from George Lucas. The video was removed from YouTube, but I found it on a back channel:

http://tubemall.net/undeletube.php?v=ePdRjB-JkOE

Looks great if you ask me.

The Halo 3 website and IRIS ARG are up for webby awards.
Go to http://pv.webbyawards.com to check out the sites and Vote for the HALO work.

Halo 3 "Iris" Alternate Reality Game is under the Integrated Campaigns category.

Halo3.com/Believe is up for the Best Use of Video or Moving Image

Or you can just look up HALO in the drop down menu in the top right of the site.

RvB is making a new machinima series based in Halo 3's Valhalla.  Unlike the Blood Gulch Chronicles, this new series appears to be dramatic. 

See the promo video: http://www.roosterteeth.com/viewEntry.php?id=653

In the latest Bungie Weekly Update they revealed a new camera feature called Forge Filters.  This filters allow mapmakers assign image filters to certain areas of the map.  These filters can be experienced by gamers in real-time during multiplayer. 

This means that you can venture to a certain part of the map and all of sudden be playing in Black-and-White mode, or Sepia mode, or Pen and Ink mode.  The filters are Forge objects so I guess there will be a limited number of these to go in each map.

This will add an interesting twist to custom maps and gameplay in Halo 3.  It could be interesting to see what happens when you can't see what color the other team is.

Nova mode

Old Timey mode

Pen and Ink mode

Comcast is launching an “extreme high-speed” internet package in Minneapolis. Speeds will be 50Mbps down and capped at 5Mbps up. It will cost $150. 8Mbps/1Mbps customers will see their new upload capacity bumped up to 2Mbps.

Comcast is beginning to roll out its DOCSIS 3.0 standard which will allow for, among other things, faster internet connections.

Comcast estimates that 20% of its customers will have the blazing fast connection by the end of the year. All Comcast customers should have the option to get this package by mid-2010.

Comcast has recently said that they want to offer 100Mbps connections in the future. The DOCSIS 3.0 standard is capable of 160Mbps.

America is one of the most well connected countries in the world.  However, like our railroad system, our IT infrastructure is now archaic.  Fast internet connections like the one Comcast is rolling out are common in other countries. 

The new plan will certainly make internet TV a more practical reality. I think the availability of fat pipes will cause internet-based TV to become more popular. I think it will also cause Comcast to filter traffic and eventually lead to more video advertising on the internet.

I don’t have a landline any more as I’ve got VOIP and cellphones. I didn't want VOIP 4 or 5 years ago because I didn’t want to give up the bandwidth for the service. With more bandwidth, I can allow more services and devices in my home to connect to the net without seeing a derogation of service.

Maybe I could have a dedicated VoD device; perhaps some kind of uber Slingbox serving HD content to who knows where. 

I think the availability of more bandwidth will also cause creative game development houses to think outside the box. They’ll be able to build more interactive environments. We can see games with 64, 128, and thousands of gamers playing at the same time.  We can see more digital downloads and we'll see the optical disc drive become less relevant.  I mean, who's got a 3.5" floppy drive on their computer any more?

Remember, that just because you’ve got a lot of bandwidth doesn’t mean that you’ve got a good connection for gaming. Ping times and latency are very important to gamers, especially first-person shooters. What good is it to have more bandwidth if it takes a second for your data to travel from your home to an XBOX server?  That's several frames on your screen.  By then, you'll be dead.

Imagine playing Halo 3 in enormous maps with hundreds of people.

Imagine playing CoD4 with a hundred gamers separated into squads; each squad taking orders from a leader and a commander. (Wait, I think that was called Battlefield 2 for the PC).

With more bandwidth to utilize, networking engineers can include more game data and may be able to account for inefficient netcode.  Halo PC!