speculation posts

If you were quick on the draw with today's new UI update to Steam, you may have noticed something strange. In the new interface for browsing games, it now shows you the achievements a game can have in the information pane, as well as information on achievements you have earned. This is cool, and in the case of Half-Life 2 and Episode 1, it actually showed achievements specific to those games that were not there before.

Is this indicative of an update to the original Half-Life 2 and Episode 1? Achievements on the Steam network were finalized around the time Episode 2 released, so the original two Half-Life 2 games didn't have achievements built in (although they did have achievements in the Xbox 360 versions). Either way, for a brief while, Half-Life 2 displayed 33 potential achievements and Episode 1 displayed 13 potential achievements. They had icons not used in Episode 2 or any other Valve game on Steam, which indicates that the achievements were legitimate, even if you couldn't earn them. We've emailed Valve for comment on the potential new achievements.

DICE and EA's Mirror's Edge trailer debuted a week ago, and wowed the gaming community with its immersive first-person perspective, interesting visual style, and Assassin's Creed-esque free-running, city-scaling gameplay. During your first viewing, you'll probably come to believe the game has the makings of a cult hit, and maybe more.

But there are a lot of things you might not notice on your first viewing. That's why GameTrailers put together an excellent HD analysis video. It's packed with observations of hints about the gameplay, the graphics engine, and the setting, and it's all brilliantly edited to match the game's ultra-classy visual je ne sais quoi.

Did you notice the dynamic depth of field effects? How about the police cars circling the buildings Faith is scaling? Or her shoes' obscure Indonesian brand? All that in more in the video.

[Via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

A while ago, it was announced that Prototype's co-op mode was axed, much to my dismay. However, Ansell has good news for those who love to romp around with a buddy in an open-world setting.

Speaking to Eurogamer, Ansell expressed the desire to explore multiplayer in the future. "We had some pretty cool ideas about multiplayer and we can't wait to start exploring that stuff. We're hoping the game sells really well so we can explore it further," he said.

This is speculation at this point, but there are three potential things this could mean. Multiplayer might be released in a patch, an expansion that adds multiplayer to the game might come out after release, or a sequel that implements what the original could not might be in the works if the game sells well.

Personally? I think it'll be a patch. Companies are still adding massive content to games with new patches, if the excellent Team Fortress 2 patch is any indication.. But as was said, this is all wild speculation. So what do you think?