Valve has just announced that the PlayStation 3 version of the game will feature cross-platform multiplayer (with your mates on Steam PC/Mac), and even Steam Cloud (all your save games are stored on their servers so you never lose them). This is what Gabe Newell meant when the PS3 will be the only console with the full SteamWorks experience.
But wait… there’s more… you get the Steam version of Portal 2 as well. So that means that with the PS3 version of the game, you get the Windows and Mac OS versions along with it. You can play the PS3 version, and then pick up where you left off on the PC/Mac, and back again. Brilliant!
This is coming from a company that has publically dismissed the PS3 as a gaming platform in the past. I guess a little sweet talking and some leniency of the platform developer allowed for everyone to benefit in the end.
No word on whether the Xbox 360 version would come with a Steam version, however it certainly won’t support Steam cloud or cross-platform multiplayer due to the restrictions on that platform.
If you hadn’t heard, Facebook has finally let the cat out of the bag and announced Facebook Email Messaging, their solution to communicating with friends.
It seriously sounds like a great package, everyone gets an email address (if they want one), and people can send messages to you as emails, chats, texts… whatever. And then you can access them via… whatever. None of that “Well, you can contact them here, but you can usually get them better via here” guff (we all have friends like that), it’s a simple one-size-fits-all solution.
I don’t know about you, but most of the emails I receive are from Facebook – my friends message me primarily on Facebook, why? Probably because typing my name is easier than typing my email address (although, my name is my email, so whatever). Chats are largely done via Facebook chat, and the connected crowd can’t stay away from Facebook too long on their iPhones. I also rather ask people if they’re on Facebook, I can attempt to remember a name when I’m at a computer again… just not an email (despite being the easiest way to find someone on it, go figure). Spam? What spam? Well, we’ve already made a whitelist of people and companies that we want to communicate with us. A lot easier to manage than a blacklist (which a lot of people complain about with Facebook Applications).
The only question I have is: how open is it going to be? I guess we’ll have to wait for the beta to start, which you can sign up to here. I’m curious as to how it’s going to roll, the sub-25 year old group (or at least the sub-21 group) already communicate en masse on Facebook, what’s email other than a notification system for Facebook?
It has been a little over two weeks since I’ve returned back to New Zealand since I went away for a whole month to the UK and Europe. I’m still coming down.
I had a brilliant time, met many awesome people, and have so many stories to tell. None of which I’ll probably pass on here, but those who know me personally would’ve heard a few by now.
There were heaps of highlights, the #1 being my sky dive at Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland. It was my first ever, and not many people can say that their first was: in Switzerland; over the Swiss Alps; and out of a helicopter. Seeing Big Ben and London Bridge for myself; likewise for the Eiffel Tower; the ruins in Rome; the cocktails that were mostly just alcohol in Italy; discovering that no matter how small the town is there’s always a party in Austria; sleeping in a castle for a night in Germany; and learning that Heineken tastes better straight from the factory in Amsterdam. Among other things.
For those who are friends with me on Facebook, I’m slowly uploading photos, I recently bumped into the upload limit from Picasa (70, ugh).
For those who aren’t a slide show will inevitably appear here at some point.