garrys-mod posts

Earlier today message board posts from players of the popular sandbox game Garry's Mod started popping up. The users said they were unable to play the game, stating that an error message told them that the game was "unable to shade polygon normals." It also put up a number at the end of the error message.

As it turned out, that was no ordinary error message. Garry's Mod creator Garry Newman put the error message in the game to find out who was pirating the title. And that number at the end? It's the user's Steam ID number. As Newman wrote on his Twitter page, "Having fun watching people complain." Those who saw the error and posted it up for all to see found that their access to the game was banned.

[Via Gamepron and VG247.com]

It was only a matter of time, we suppose, before someone figured out how to get the Xbox 360's Kinect motion controller camera to work with Garry's Mod. The popular Source Engine-based sandbox PC game/mod hybrid now has the Kinect treatment via a third party hack program.

This Kinect hack comes surprisingly from an engineer who works at the Yelp web site (yep, the site that's about displaying reviews of restaurants and the like). You can see the results in the trailer after the jump where he uses the Kinect controller to mainly kick around objects and even rag doll characters around. You can also download the actual code at the GitHub.com web site.

[Via Blue's News]

Some interesting game announcements today. New Sins of a Solar Empire game? New and weird expansion for Magicka? The new game from the Minecraft team? Yep, PC gaming is totally dead ... not.

• Steam has a new update for Garry's Mod that adds the Half-Life 1 Source models.
• People who own Team Fortress 2 and pre-ordered Homefront can get an exclusive in-game Team Fortress 2 hat.
• Speaking of Homefront, there's some more info on the PC specific features for the upcoming game.
• Want to make a cool gaming PC case mod? There's a new web series that shows you how.

After a slow week things are picking up on the news front. We wonder what will be revealed tomorrow?

• Steam owners can now pre-order the PC version of the Crysis 2 Limited Edition.
• Garry's Mod now supports the character models of Half-Life 1. Cool stuff.
• A new beta update for Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II Retribution has been released.
• Warren Spector, who helped create the original System Shock and the Deus Ex games, is writing a monthly Duck Tales comic book. This is not a joke.
• A live action fan video has been released that combines a zombie outbreak with, of all things, Minecraft.
• Listen to Duke Nukem do what he does best; one liners.

While there's been a lot of attention about the massive sales of Minecraft another indie sandbox game has been doing pretty darn well, thank you very much. It's Garry's Mod, the title from UK-based Garry Newman. Technically this "game" isn't stand alone since you need to have a Source Engine-based game installed to install and play Garry's Mod.

However the mod continues to sell well as posted by Newman himself in a recent blog post. Back in late October he admitted the game has sold over 770,000 copies since it was first released. In his new blog post Newman states that sales of the game went up by 30 percent in 2008 following the game's first full year of sales in 2007. In 2009 sales increased again by 31 percent and in 2010 sales went up yet again by 33 percent. Yes, that means that despite being available for four years sales of Garry's Mod have increased nearly 100 percent since it was first launched. Newman credits the game's massive community, the number of updates the game has received since launch, the evolving Source Engine features and of course Steam where Garry's Mod is an exclusive. As Newman states, "It's becoming the PC's appstore. Every PC Gamer has it installed. It has saved PC gaming."

Note to self: If we ever make PC game, make sure to have the same marketing plan as Minecraft does. It seems to work wonders for Notch and his development team:

• Steam has a small but important patch update today for Garry's Mod.
• Want to see how the lead character in Dead Space 2 would operate in our modern world? Here you go. Oh and it's the first of a series.
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution's art director tells us if there will be any vehicles in the game in this new video.
• The Child's Play charity has now officially generated over $1.4 million in donations with still a lot of time and campaigns to go.

How freaking amazing is it that that a bundle of five indie games can generate half a million dollars in just one day with a "pay what you want" business model? Yeah, that whole "PC gaming is dead" argument is toast.

• Steam updates are available today for Garry's Mod, Zen Bound 2, Nimbus and Clones.
• BioWare is holding a "12 Days of Christmas" contest where folks can win cool prizes like Mass Effect and Dragon Age-branded gaming PCs.
• The upcoming free-to-play MMO Faxion Online is now taking sign-ups for the game's closed beta test.
• Dead Space Aftermath, a new direct-to-DVD anime based on the Dead Space games, is due out on January 25. Here's a (rather bloody) trailer.
• Do you deliberately and habitually leave games in the middle of battle in League of Legends? Then get ready for the automated ban hammer to fall on you.

It was indeed a busy day for gaming news. The US Supreme Court justices seemed to take the California game law to task in the oral arguments. We will go ahead and predict that ... we will make another prediction on this case some other day.

• Steam has auto updates for a number of games including Warhamer 40,000 Dawn of War II, Team Fortress 2, Garry's Mod, and Left 4 Dead.
• Steam has also added the Interwar Spritepack for Victoria II for $1.99.
• GoG.com has added Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic to its list of DRM-free games.

Earlier today we reported that Minecraft had now sold over 500,000 units, an astonishing level for an independent game available only via download. It's anyone's guess on how long that rate of sales will last but we suspect its creator Markus Perrson would love the longevity of another acclaimed sandbox-based game, Garry's Mod.

The $10 Source Engine-based mod (it still requires another retail Source Engine-based game to work) is the creation of UK-based Garry Newman. It launched as a commercial product on Steam in late November 2006. On its two year anniversary, Newman revealed Garry's Mod had sold 312,541 copies. Kotaku, in a new feature about Garry's Mod today, got Newman to state that the game has now sold 770,628 units in its lifetime which means the rate of sales has actually increased since two years ago.

It's looking like Friday is going to be a busy day for PC gaming with the first day of BlizzCon. How many of you are lucky enough to be going?

• Champions Online's new free expansion pack Demonflame is now available for the MMO's subscribers.
• New bug patch updates are now available on Steam for Patrician IV, Garry's Mod, Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, and Railworks 2.
• Linden Lab's founder Philip Rosedale is stepping down as the company's interim CEO as the team behind Second Life looks for a permanent replacement.
• Dungeons and Dragons Online launched its latest update today with two new playable races, new quests and more.