Like Captainface shouted in the shoutbox a couple of days ago, the biggest announcement in the past few days was Portal 2, hinted and slowly spoiled by valve in the last years and more frequently on the last weeks. No release dates have been announced so far but we’ll probably be playing it this holiday season. Lots of people are speculating if this could be sold with Half Life 2 :Episode 3 or will be Episode 3 itself but I think it’s a waste of time to day-dream on a plot where the last villain in the series was an AI addicted to cakes.

The second Valve-related news is the (likely) upcoming Steam support for Macs. The Orange box games have been made object of some Mac-inspired ads so it’s not difficult to guess what Valve is hinting.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light has also been announced recently. It’ll be a downloadable game for XBLA and PSN. The game has already been nicknamed Diablo Raider or Lara of Persia. Allow me to say that I knew that Square-Enix would have screwed up. You’ll get a couple of related comics in the next weeks. You can bet on this.

Before giving you the last sad news of this post, I’d like you to know that Super Street Fighter IV will have some extra content for the players that own Street Fighter 4 for the same platform. Hokuto no Ken costume for Abel. I called this first.

Some people complained that we didn’t get a new video of Metroid Other M at the Nintendo Media Summit this year. Well, it got released a few days after that and it’s full of cinematic. I wouldn’t even consider this game in my must-buy list after seeing this if the game wasn’t directed by Yoshio Sakamoto himself. Still, next time models and animations should be done by Epic Games because I just can’t stand plain reflective surfaces with no detail after the awesome work that Retro Studios did with Metroid Prime.

Yesterday, or today, morning (depending on where you live) the annual Nintendo Media Summit took place in San Francisco. It was about an hour of release dates, sale data, and trailers. I’ll just list the release dates as they are, considering that there isn’t much we can do about it except saving up.

March 22 – Cave Story Wii
March 28 – Nintendo DSi XL
April 20 – Monster Hunter Tri
May 3 – Picross 3D
May 18 – Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
May 23 – Super Mario Galaxy 2
June 7 – Sin & Punishment: Star Successor
June 27 – Metroid: Other M

All dates are for American release. No european releases yet but if I am right, we should get them a week after.

Enough talking. Here’s the new Super Mario Galaxy 2 trailer, full of drilling and licking. I know you were waiting for this.

I’m still unsure about Metroid: Other M. The gameplay looks fun but the graphics just don’t do justice to the job Retro Studios did with the Prime series. I’ve been re-playing Metroid Prime Trilogy in these days and looking at the new screenshots doesn’t give me neither the “adventure” nor the “loneliness” Metroid always had. We’ll see. We definitely need more gameplay previews.

I hope you’re having a good time on Mass Effect 2 and Bioshock 2. Considering my limited resources of money, I’ll be waiting for the first weekend deal on Steam for both of them, in the face of retailers that leave most games full-priced after years.

The latests news include the announcement of Sonic the Hedgehog 4, previously named Project Needlemouse. Smells like New Sonic The Hedgehog Wii.

Regarding the new comic, I though of 2 versions when I was planning it but in the end I decided to use just one of the two and finish the other one just for fun.

If you want to read it you’ll have to log in.

Unfortunately, the scout double crouch jump is fixed.  To me it looked very comical, much like Luigi’s waggling legs.

Other related notes include some news about mapping. The Swamp Theme created by some guys at TF2Maps is now complete. If you’re a mapper maybe you could give it a shot. I saw some nice models that could fit also in a harvest-like map.

Considering that I’m a complete n00b at 3d modelling(Bryce isn’t 3d modelling, not even remotely), I’ll probably never be able to make the items I though for The Engineer so I’ll draw them in a concept-art style explaining the hows and whys. Leaving modelling behind  I can look again at map-making. Expect some sketches in the next days.

I’m also re-playing Mass Effect, getting my save ready for the “import” button in Mass Effect 2. I’d also like to make a comic about it but I can’t find something funny enough. Maybe after Mass Effect 2, who knows.

Good news first: i was roaming in the supermarket yesterday pitying the average-man distribution they have when my eye fell inside a new bargain bin. Among the countless, unsold, copies of Supreme Commander and PES4 this was lying in anxious waiting of being picked up.

I bought it for €3,90. I already like the year 2010, really.

The bad news come now. I’m starting to wonder if it’s even worth to do anything objectionable. You can do your best for everything you do but it won’t ever be enough because there’s always someone better than you. Furthermore, critics never seem to appreciate original/revolutionary entries. I wrote this introduction to explain why I am  now posting my entries for the propaganda contest on TF2. Winners were announced on December 2009 but Valve never revealed the other 25 runner-ups. I wanted to show you my works after that be considering the may have forgotten…

The other reason I was complaining about critics is because I feel that it’ll be hard to see something nifty come out from the contribution page on the TF2 website. I already have ideas for 3 Engineer weapons and 1 hat but I can’t do anything with them because I can’t model in 3d at all and the contribution page doesn’t accept concept art. If I learn Maya or 3DMax in the near future I’ll probably make up a fake update with them. If you want a clue they’re named “The Stickmen”, “The Metal Jammer” and “The Tools of the Trade”.