Tech Olive

Telltale Games has announced a crossover of some well known game characters that comes in the form of a Texas Hold’em Poker game. Poker Night at the Inventory will take the likes of Penny Arcade‘s Tycho, Team Fortress 2‘s Heavy, Max from Sam and Max and Homestar Runner’s Strongbad. The game is set to release this Fall.

For the tiny sum of $4.95, you can pre-order the game from Telltale Games directly and get a 25%-off code good towards anything else in their store or you can get it from Steam and get an instant 10% off for pre-ordering. The choice is yours!

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Earlier today, it was announced that GameServers.com would be the exclusive hosting provider offering dedicated Call of Duty: Black Ops servers. Since then, we’ve worked tirelessly with the great guys at GameServers.com to make sure that Tech Olive gets its very own 18-slot Ranked Black Ops server right when the game releases.

As you may have guessed, this Black Ops server will fully be replacing our recently-revived CoD4 server, but this is all for the better. By doing this, we’ll have even more time to waste fragging our dedicated readers this November!

Having tested several Razer mouse pads now, we’ve found that for the most part, double-sided pads mostly serve as a gauging tool for gamers to see which style of pad they prefer for future purchases. After a few hours testing each surface of a double-sided pad, gamers will know what they’re most comfortable gaming surface is. Is the Vespula any different? Does it offer something that previous pads don’t? Let’s have a look.

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During Treyarch’s multiplayer reveal event last night, we were given a ton of details about new gameplay and structures in the multiplayer side of things that have left us with an even greater burning desire to play the game. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait as no beta was announced. While we all wait patiently for beta news, hit the break to see just what did happen at the press event.

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Offering the first large release of info on this project since it was announced earlier this year, Telltale Games posted some new details regarding their upcoming Back to the Future adventure game series. Concept art (above) and a promise of the series containing 5 “episodes” brings excitement for this project up to a peak for any fans of Telltale or the BTTF movies.

Telltale also announced that Bob Gale, the original screenplay writer of the film trilogy is actually working with Telltale’s team to give the games that authentic and familiar feel. Add that to Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox allowing their likenesses to be used and you’ve got one exciting series.

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During an interview in the UK publication of PC Gamer, Gabe Newell mentioned that Valve had three or more big surprises coming over the next 12 months. And, in typical Valve fashion, that was all the information we got. Let the speculation begin.

“”We have three pretty big surprises in the next 12 months at least. I can guarantee you people are going to be surprised at stuff we do. That isn’t going to stop any time soon. I’m just laughing because… people will be shocked again.” — Gabe Newell

Our hopes? Well, you remember Portal 2‘s delay back in June? Perhaps Valve delayed Portal 2 so they could pull another “The Orange Box” move by surprising gamers with a package deal of Half-Life 2: Episode 3 bundled with Portal 2 and a few Team Fortress 2 goodies perhaps? With our luck, all three of these surprises will turn out to be console-related and will mean nothing to PC gamers anyway. What are your expectations?

via [CVG]

To make the lefty gamers feel more at home here, we have an extra Razer DeathAdder Left-Hand Edition gaming mouse lying around that we will be giving away to one lucky reader! And if you haven’t already read our review, then you definitely should. To enter the giveaway, all you have to do is leave a comment in the original giveaway post and you’ll automatically be entered into a random drawing. Sound good? Good. Be sure to get your comment in by 11:59PM EST on Friday, September 3rd.

Some Basic Rules

- Only U.S. residents are able to enter. Sorry, foreigners.
- Only one comment will be counted per reader.
- Please don’t use multiple email addresses. We have evil robots that check.
- The winner will be randomly selected and then immediately notified via email for further action.

View the official rules here.

Microsoft announced today a new Xbox 360 Controller,which has a D-Pad that apparently doesn’t suck. Now, you’re probably wondering why we’re covering this bit of console news, but to explain, the Xbox 360 controller can also be used with a PC and we here at the Olive absolutely love that fact. There are simply some PC games that are just better with a gamepad.

Now, more about this new controller: It has a better D-pad that transforms. It can be the traditional “disc” that we all know and hate or with a small twist of the D-pad, it can turn into a “plus.” Other significant changes include the color of the ABXY buttons, which are now assortments of different shades of gray. The color of the new controller is a matte silver with black trim and black trigger and bumper buttons. The “dome” has a chrome finish rather than just a normal gray color (same with the D-pad), and the analog sticks are still concaved, but instead of the small dimples, the edges are raised slightly to avoid annoying thumb slip-off.

The controller will be available on November 9th. It will only be available as a Play-n-Charge kit bundle for $65. Hit up the break for another photo and a short video featuring Larry Hryb, Director of Programming for Xbox Live.

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In a new post on their official blog, Treyarch has announced that they’re hosting what sounds like an online press conference of sorts. Being called the “Black Ops Multiplayer Reveal Event,” Treyarch is asking fans to submit questions to the game’s Twitter or Facebook pages to be addressed during the reveal event. Unfortunately, the blog post doesn’t mention what time the press conference will be.

“Do you want to be a part of the Black Ops Multiplayer Reveal Event? We’ll be sharing a TON of great info with the press & community about Black Ops MP on September 1st, but we’d like to hear some of your burning MP-related questions. Simply ask your questions in the comments below, on our Facebook Page, or via @JD_2020 on Twitter. For the most commonly asked questions, we’ll be fielding them at the Multiplayer Event, and will promptly provide answers here on CallOfDuty.com/BlackOps – So ask away!”

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Back in my early days of gaming, I remember going to a friends house and catching glimpses of his older brother playing this top-down military strategy game that captivated me. I never learned of this game’s name, so I was tortured by this mystery for many years.

Fast-forward about 8 years and I stumble across that very same game on the internet. I was speechless and knew that I would have to put this game through the tests. Was it worth the wait? Could this game possibly have been as good as it looked all those years ago? Time to answer some questions.

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