Updates to Serious Sam HD: Second Encounter have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
Added automatic reconfiguration of menu and HUD on extra wide screens (e.g. ATI Eyefinity).
Fixed "FlagThief" achievement not being awarded.
Fixed "HeavyWeightChampion" achievement taking much more time to achieve when playing on a server with higher framerate (like dedicated servers).
Players now drop chainsaw and sniper weapons in deathmatch (and other versus modes).
Added workaround for occasional crash inside XAudio2 sound interface when using 5.1 speaker config.
Renamed demos would refuse to play back with a "version mismatch" error. Renaming now properly adjusts the demo info.
Fixed glitching in game overlay menu that happened if scrollbars appeared.
Fixed wrong output of player names containing characters '<' and '>'.
Updated string input to make it usable via controller. Previously, it was possible to activate the input menu via controller but then player had to use keyboad/mouse for exit.
Updates to Monkey Island™ 2 Special Edition: LeChuck’s Revenge™ have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
Adjusted timing delays for certain puzzles
Fixed missing music in Dinky Jungle
Fixed music synching issue with the Bone Dance sequence
Fixed various music cross-fading issues
Addressed Cursor issues when using an XBox360 controller
Added intro and outro credits sequences to the Classic version
Worms™ Reloaded is now available for Pre-purchase, with bonuses including a 10% discount, 24 hours early access to the game, and exclusive in-game items to enhance your chosen team.
From humble beginnings, the original Worms™ titles took PC gaming to new levels of popularity and mass appeal. Selling in excess of 25 million copies over its 15 year lifespan, Worms™ has taken its wholly unique brand of addictive gameplay, hilarious humour and wild weaponry across almost every console possible, and on Thursday 26th August 2010 it will be returning to the format that made it most successful; the personal computer.
“Worms Reloaded has been a labour of love for the team given the legacy of 2D PC Worms™ titles such as Worms 2, Worms Armageddon etc. It has been almost 10 years since the last 2D game was released on personal computers”, said Martyn Brown, iconic figure in the world of Worms™ and Business Development Director at Team17. “In bringing Worms Reloaded to PC, we’ve reintroduced so much of what gamers loved about the good old days, and it’s fitting that it is also the first Worms game we’ve self-published since the early games. We are very much looking forward to supporting the game through the community on Steam as well as our own Facebook page.”
Indeed, while the most celebrated features of the series are present and correct, Worms™ Reloaded also sports a large amount of new additions to almost every facet of the gameplay experience. Over 60 single-player missions (including new Warzone Campaign and Bodycount Mode), a fully featured landscape creator, 45+ plus weapons spanning the entire Worms™ series and a huge currency based customization system - all wrapped up in HD quality visuals - means that Worms™ Reloaded will be a highly enjoyable experience, whether playing alone or with friends. ...
This afternoon Corey Peters suddenly yelped and jumped out of his chair claiming that a Creeper had gotten into the new training map he was working on and that it was blocking his ability to get any work done. This was followed a few minutes later by Jon Lippincott claiming he couldn't finish up his code because he had run out of Iron Ore. Even as I write this I can hear Dave Riller telling a story about how he beat a sheep to death with his bare hands to make a new set of pants and a woolly hat.
It seems, dear friends, that our development team has succumbed to Minecraft addiction.
Minecraft is an amazing little (read: freaking huge) world building sandbox game by Markus Persson, aka Notch...the very same Notch that developed Left4kDead a couple years ago. In Minecraft you carve out your own little empire in the wild, building just about whatever you want while the natural world tries to slaughter you every nightfall. The game's box-like representation of reality is cute and definitely charming...until a horde of cute box-like skeletons rip your cute little box-like arms from your cute little box-like body in a spray of cute little box-like blood and gore.
Apparently we aren't the only ones to fall prey to the lures of Minecraft. A number of you in The Community have also discovered the game and, as we have come to expect, you immediately went out and imported it into our game, Team Fortress 2.
Check out this Payload Race map developed by some Minecraft fans:
The image above is from our friends at the IP Factory. This Friday they are releasing their Left 4 Dead 2 range of strictly limited high end collectibles. First up is the Tank. Pre-orders go live Friday July 30th.
Today’s update covers quite a few subjects so we thought we should touch on a few of them.
When we did our blog poll on rage quitting we mentioned we would be working on some of the underlying issues. Left 4 Dead 2 doesn’t have a more rage or less rage button – well not directly?
We checked some stats, did some testing, checked more stats, and did more testing. We have many more changes we are working on, some ideas failed, some were exploitable, and some were just bad ideas. What we are releasing today is not the sum of our answer to the problem but simply some of the updates that are ready to ship. More are coming.
While we were testing other changes with the Charger, we were bothered that doing the right thing did not give you the best score. New players were often confused by this lack of feedback, so we fixed that.
Charger now receives 300 points for any Survivor that is insta-killed.
Charger now receives 100 points for any Survivor that is insta-incapped by a charge.
Any infected that causes a Survivor to stumble into a "ledge hang" situation will receive 50 points.
Friendly fire is never fun, especially when it really isn’t friendly fire. So in both Versus and Co-op we wanted to remove those times when you receive a friendly...
Updates to Stargate: Resistance have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
Patch Notes 1.1.13.4
Newness:
Introducing gametype King of the Hill! Engage in frenetic battle to maintain control of the Temple on Amarna.
Earth-SGC now fully supports the Team Deathmatch gametype in addition to Conquest.
New Interactive Launcher! The new game launcher delivers patch notes, news, maintenance announcements and more. Its skinnable interface allow players to create their own unique looks.
Objective screens now display information specific to the gametype you are playing.
Performance improvements to graphical materials.
Characters:
Ambient lighting has been adjusted for better visuals, mostly noticeable on the Soldier BDUs.
The unlockable animating Jaffa helmet now has audio to accompany the animation.
Piramess:
Performance enhancements on the Piramess map.
Enhanced environmental ambiance on Piramess.
Some piles of snow will now react to gun fire; shoot the ground to see some flurries!
Security:
Enhanced security around login information.
UI:
The System Lords icon has been updated
Bug Fixes:
SGC Icons will now show up for the Conquest gametype upon login.
Network issues while logging in to servers have been resolved.
A stats display bug which was rarely causing equipment lockout has been addressed.
Quarantine: A plague has wiped out the peaceful Gorillas of Monkeytown. Alpha Titus is looking for clones to uncover the origins of the lethal disease while the Techs and Vistas try to clean up the area and prevent the plague from transitioning from simian to human.
Quarantine adds all new missions, with an instance for level 30, 40 and 50 and a repeatable town event with new item rewards
Vehicle Color Customization: Want to give your wasteland wheels that true personal touch? Using the garage manager and paint kits that are crafted or found in the expansive wilds of Fallen Earth, you can create your own signature color combination. All vehicles can be painted with the exception of Promotional Vehicles.
Minor Respec: Unspend 5 AP to adjust your character's stats and skills. These special Recombinant Injectors are available on level-appropriate Mutagenics merchants throughout the Province.
PvP Flagging: It's now possible to flag for PvP combat anywhere you want in the world of Fallen Earth!
New Extended Tutorial: After completing the main tutorial, players arriving in their starter towns will discover a new action-driven series of missions that serve as an extended tutorial. You'll be thrown right into the fight against deadly bandits and thugs threatening the LifeNet regen pods. Through the course of the mission series, you'll learn some useful skills and earn your first horse!
Clan Wars: Added a new effect called Clan Wars Immunity for when players are killed during a Clan War. This effect is visible to players, removable, and only lasts 3 minutes. When a player is killed three times in a row, they become an invalid Clan War target until it expires or the player removes the effect by right-clicking on it.
World PvP Flag: Now players are able to flag for PvP anywhere in the wasteland. Enable this by typing /pvp in the...
For centuries Europe has been dominated by the church and nobility. On the shoulders of ordinary people the servants of god and the noble families justified their power and wealth. This was the incontrovertible, divine world order. A truly dark era?
In the 14th Century the world order is beginning to transform itself. Due to trade and commerce an increasing middle class obtains more and more power and wealth. Entire towns purchase their freedom and more privileges from the nobility. Reading and writing is no longer the domain of the nobility and the clergy and the invention of printing information may eventually be spread everywhere. This is the beginning of the renaissance...
Trainz Simulator 2010: Engineers Edition of (TS2010) includes everything you need to build and operate your own dream railroad. You can build a fun layout in minutes, faithfully recreate a steam railroad from days gone by or develop a fully fledged 100+ mile prototypical route; the choice is yours.
Play as two of gaming's most disturbing and realistic criminals; Lynch – a self medicated psychopath - and Kane - a disillusioned and desperate ex-mercenary, in a gritty and brutal crime shooter from IO Interactive.
Mutation Week 14: Healthpackalypse!, What else are you playing?, Pick Your Mutation, extra updates.
Healthpackalypse!
No health in this versus game.
Grind down the Survivors and don’t worry about them bouncing back. With no Health kits in Versus, their permanent health is on a one way ride to zero.
What else are you playing?
Last week we asked, what else are you playing? On the Left 4 Dead 2 team, our own poll winners are Modern Warfare 2 and Team Fortress 2. Red Dead Redemption would have won a few weeks ago.
With None of these Winning the PC poll and coming in second on the Xbox, what else are you playing? Let us know in the forums or on Facebook.
Here are your votes by platform.
PC
27% None Of These
25% Team Fortress 2
16% Modern Warfare 2
11% Bad Company 2
11% Counter-Strike Source
7% GTA 4
2% Empire Total War
2% Football Manager 2010
Xbox 360
32% Modern Warfare 2
16% None Of These
13% Halo 3
12% Red Dead Redemption
8% Gears of War 2
7% Bad Company 2
5% GTA 4
5% Crackdown 2
2% FIFA 2010
Pick Your Mutation?
It's time to pick your favorite Mutation! Vote for next week's Encore Mutation.
To vote enter the game, view the in-game blog, and...
Updates to Mount&Blade: Warband have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
Content Additions:
NEW! By community demand Duel mode is being introduced into multi-player. You can now partake in 1 on 1 protected duels.
NEW! Server setting to disallow ranged weapons, get rid of pesky archers with one click!
NEW! Two new horse armors have been added for Steppe and Sarranid factions.
Gameplay:
Bow accuracy has been rebalanced, higher tier bows are even better, with low tiers being slightly more inaccurate.
AI Bots in multi-player have been changed to be more difficult in dedicated servers.
Economy balance is somewhat tied to campaign difficulty setting.
Minor Khergit troop stat changes.
Knock down chances have been reduced.
Fixes:
AI is no longer able to hit allied horses in single player.
A minor bug in the spy meeting quest has been fixed.
Links to finished quests will no longer appear in other notes.
Several new and useful operations have been added for modders.
Some shield banners have been fixed for multi-player.
Updates to Global Agenda have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
Version 1.35 represents the second phase of major new features and content being added to Global Agenda as part of the "Sandstorm" expansion. The release introduces the Sonoran Desert Open Zone, 10-person Defense Raids, Consumable Weapons, and much more. Sandstorm is free to all players that have purchased Global Agenda. All players are reminded that Global Agenda now requires NO MONTHLY FEES and the full content of the game is available without a subscription. Major Highlights
SONORAN DESERT ZONE: Players may step outside Dome City into the Sonoran Desert Open PvE zone. Designed primarily for those between Levels 5 and 15, players within the Zone may accept missions from NPC's in order to progress a story-arc, learn more about the neighboring Desert Dweller and Recursive Colony factions, and earn loot and experience. Note that players must visit Dalton Bancroft inside Dome City (and run the Bancroft missions) before they can enter the Sonoran Desert Zone.
10-PERSON DEFENSE RAIDS: Facilities around Dome City are key targets of the Recursive Colony faction. When the Recursive Colony attacks, alarms sound within Dome City and the RAIDS mission type will become activated on your MISSION screen. Join the Raid queue solo, or as a pre-made team of up to 10 players, to be matched into a ten-person defense team and transported to an area that needs to be defended. Note that these missions are designed to be difficult and are available only to players Level 30+.
NEW SONORAN DESERT SPECIAL-OPS MISSIONS: New co-op PvE instances have been introduced for characters between Levels 5 and 19. These missions are accessed thru the MISSION screen (Hotkey = "M") under Team/Medium...
Updates to Eufloria have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. To celebrate the update Eufloria is 50% off until 7/29.
The major changes include:
- Added Achievements. - Added Community Map Pack 1. - Added directory support for Custom Maps. - Added speed records on level selection. - Lua: Added user interaction Lua calls OnAsteroidSelected(ID), OnMouseLeftClicked(x,y) and OnMouseRightClicked(x,y). - Lua: Added drawing text from script. - Lua: GetNumAsteroids() - returns number of asteroids in play. - Lua: RevealAll() - reveals all asteroids. - Lua: Asteroid naming (asteroid.Name = ""). - Lua: Planting flowers from script (flower:Plant, flower:PlantOnRandomTree, flower:PlantOnRandom###Tree). - Lua: Camera location and zoom query from script (GetCameraX, GetCameraY, GetCameraZoom). - Lua: Get trees on asteroid from script (asteroid:GetRandomTree, asteroid:GetRandom###Tree). - Fixed adding and removing asteroids at run time. - Fixed planting on moving asteroids. - Fixed enemy laser mines travel distance violation (thanks Maarten). - Fixed crash bug when enemy AI has no asteroids (thanks Mihhaelo). - Fixed loading music restarting as the game enters main menu. - Fixed invisible mines/flowers from Lua setup bug. - Fixed long root crash.
DIMENSITY is now available on Steam, and to commemorate its release, the game will be offered at a 10% off until July 28th, 2010.
DIMENSITY is an immersive, intensely paced role-playing / action game with unique 3D fantasy setting., A venture through hostile lands and fight numerous enemies in a world thorn by war. Be part of plots defending the crown, fighting for the freedom of your people or taking side paths discovering treasures and facing ancient fearsome foes.
For thirty years the borderlands of the Firbolgs are thorn by war. The Kingdom of Dumnoni is trying to advance deep in the Forbolg’s territory. While their efforts are unsuccessful the Firbolgs themselves cannot drive the human armies back. Finally King Obrynn II decides to personally lead his men into battle. Gathering the best men of Kingdom of Dumnoni he tries to crush the Firbolgs once and forever. But the tides of fate are not easy to foresee?
This DLC pack consists of three new multiplayer maps: The two-player map Battle of Tanholm, the four-player map Tempest Taiga, and the three-player map Fiery Chasm.
All PC versions leverage leading services for gamers around the world. Pre-purchasers receive original Mafia® now.
Valve and 2K Games today announced an agreement to power all PC versions of the highly anticipated Mafia® II with a host of Steamworks features. All Mafia II players will enjoy the benefits of the Steamworks features included in all PC versions, such as auto-updating, Steam Achievements, Statistics, downloadable content, and more.
Customers who pre-order the standard or Digital Deluxe Edition of Mafia II through select digital retailers, including Steam, will be given a free digital copy of the award-winning original Mafia® game that they can access and play now.
"Using Steamworks to power Mafia II has been a great benefit for 2K Games and our development team," said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. "It's meant that we can spend more time creating content and a great experience for our customers because we know that Steam and Steamworks are enabling these important features within the game."
"Mafia II is joining Sid Meier's Civilization® V as the next title to use Steamworks from 2K Games," said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. "Our focus for Steam is on building services that create value for our customers and for creators, and Mafia II, with its all-new game engine and inclusion of Steamworks, is a great example of that."
Mafia II is rated M for Mature by the ESRB and will be available in North America on August 24, 2010 and internationally beginning August 27, 2010. For more information visit www.steamgames.com.
2K Games is a division of 2K, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO).
Episode 4: Beyond the Alley of the Dolls is now available and has been added to The Devil's Playhouse season pass!
5 Great Episodes, 1 Awesome Price! Get your season pass now if you haven't already and wield psychic powers against fearsome foes in the epic comedy saga over 5 monthly episodes. Gaming's greatest dog and rabbit sleuths Sam & Max seek the power’s ancient secrets, as manic Max gains shape shifting, teleportation, mind reading and future vision abilities for battling these foes.
The saga plays out in a surreal 5 month-long symphony of mayhem that gets deeper and more twisted with each episode.
Now you can enjoy all the excitement of SimCity 4 on Steam!
Get SimCity 4 and SimCity 4 Rush Hour in one convenient package. Create, grow, and breathe life into your ideal urban environment. Fight disasters both realistic and fantastic. Govern your own virtual metropolis as you see fit.
MotorM4X: Offroad Extreme is now available on Steam. To celebrate the game is 30% off until July 27th.
Feel the freedom!
Alpine woods and meadows. Hot, rocky desert. Ice-covered Alaska. This are the environments where you will race. MOTORM4X: Offroad Extreme brings the races to a completely new level. The player is free to choose their route to destination, and the off-road vehicles with four wheel drives allow for a wild race on the bumpiest roads.
For one week all titles from Paradox Interactive will be 50% off on Steam! Experience amazing worlds with franchises like Hearts of Iron, Mount & Blade, Majesty, Europa Universalis, Lead and Gold and many more. Click here to view the complete list of Paradox titles.
Fallen Earth, LLC announced today the availability of Fallen Earth Steam achievements as well as a new and exclusive in-game item for players who purchase via Steam - a gun appropriately titled the Steam Cleaner.
Beginning today, players who purchase Fallen Earth: Blood Sports via Steam before July 27th will receive the exclusive Steam Cleaner to help clear out the wasteland and aid in survival. When you really need to take out those “stains” this Level Four Pistol provides 18 Ballistic to do the trick.
Additionally, Steam account holders can now enjoy earning over 500 Fallen Earth achievements towards their account, as well as in game.
Players can pick up their digital copy of Fallen Earth?with an exclusive Steam Cleaner?today at Steam and begin earning bragging rights for their feats!
Rhythm Zone is now available on Steam and 10% off until July 27th.
Rhythm Zone is the future of real music gaming. Pick any song from your music library and experience the exciting falling-note beat-matching gameplay set to surreal background visuals. Rhythm Zone supports USB-based plug and play controllers.
Regardless of your taste in music, you can play your favorite songs. Rhythm Zone supports a wide variety of file types and will identify most common songs against our database.
Razor2: Hidden Skies, a vertical scrolling shooter, is now available on Steam! The game has the style of successful classic arcade shooter while utilizing the latest technology to create great visuals and effects.
Razor2 has easy, yet deep gameplay that challenges your skills with hundreds of enemies and bullets. The soundtrack features classic, orchestrated music composed especially for the game. Includes ten achievements and support for worldwide leaderboards.
Available free of charge, the game thrusts players into an epic bug hunt featuring a unique blend of co-op play and squad-level tactics. Along with the game get the complete code base for Alien Swarm that features updates to the Source engine as well as the SDK.
Alien Swarm is a game and Source SDK release from a group of talented designers at Valve who were hired from the Mod community.
You can now enjoy all five of the Fallout 3 Game add-on packs! Create a character of your choosing and descend into an awe-inspiring, post-apocalyptic world where every minute is a fight for survival.
Tidalis from Arcen Games is now available on Steam! Don't miss out on the launch week special 10% discount which is only good through July 23rd.
Tidalis is a block-based puzzle game with casual appeal, hardcore depth, and an addictive new "streams" mechanic. The game is brimming over with riffs and variants on that core mechanic with 20 game modes, dozens of special blocks and items, and 115 levels in the adventure mode alone.
Two years ago Valve hired the talented team behind the popular top down co-op mod Alien Swarm. Since then they have been busy working on the Left 4 Dead Series, and now Portal 2. However, we never forgot about Alien Swarm and the team has spent a lot of time bringing the game to Source in between their contributions to the other Valve projects.
On Monday, July 19th Alien Swarm is going to be released for free via Steam.
In addition to the game, Valve will also release the complete code base for Alien Swarm. This includes updates to the Source engine SDK and full Steamworks integration. If you’ve ever thought about developing a mod on the Source engine with Steamworks, this release provides more insight and examples for using Steamworks in game production.
Mutation Week 13: Hard Eight, What is your favorite Melee Weapon?, What else are you playing?
Hard Eight
Double the specials, quadruple the fun!
Face eight Special Infected at one time, this is double the standard number! And if that wasn’t trouble enough, we also increase the spawning frequency so it is raining Specials.
What is your favorite Melee Weapon?
Last week we asked, what is your favorite Melee Weapon? I see I am not alone being a Katana man. It is interesting to see that Xbox 360 users prefer the Chainsaw that much over PC users. Is it all about the controller and that rumble?
Here are the votes by platform.
Xbox 360
34% Katana (Sword)
17% Chainsaw
12% Machete
10% Fire Axe
7% Baseball Bat
6% Golf Club
3% Frying Pan
3% Electric Guitar
3% Crowbar
3% Cricket Bat
1% Tonfa (police baton)
PC
44% Katana (Sword)
12% Machete
11% Fire Axe
9% Chainsaw
5% Baseball Bat
4% Golf Club
3% Frying Pan
3% Electric Guitar
3% Crowbar
2% Cricket Bat
2% Tonfa (police baton)
What else are you playing?
Besides of course playing L4D2, what are you playing the most?
To vote enter the game, view the in-game blog, and click to vote.
It's a fantastic opportunity for everyone involved: you get a chance to show us how much better at detailing maps than we are, and our (ex) art team gets a chance to find new jobs at companies that still need their kind!
The classic shooter Chaser from JoWood/Dreamcatcher is now available on Steam.
Mars, 2044. The UN establishes MARSCORP (Martian Security and Economics Committee) under the leadership of Samuel Longwood. In the years that follow, the UN gradually loses control of MARSCORP, mainly due to the non-transparent licence policy of its director. Longwood uses his autonomous status to create vassal relations between the corporations and MARSCORP. The unshakable power position of MARSCORP is supported by the companies and thus they acquire additional rights and licenses. Longwood and his consortium become extremely wealthy from this arrangement. However, dissenting voices in MARSCORP begin to challenge Samuel Longwood's authoritarian policy. They demand his dismissal as director and a complete redistribution of the mining rights.
Updates to Counter-Strike: Source, Team Fortress 2 and Day of Defeat: Source have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
Engine
Tuned thread initialization to improve performance on CPUs with more than four cores
Counter-Strike: Source
Fixed leftover shadows when ragdoll physics are disabled
Added stats gathering to track client and server performance
Added instrumentation to help debug network issues
Steam's opt-in hardware survey has been providing valuable data to the gaming industry for several years now, for gamers looking to upgrade their systems, game designers striving to target their customer base, and PC manufacturers anticipating gaming system adoption rates and trends. However so far it's been limited to just hardware components, which everyone knows is just one part of a gaming system.
So in today's Steam Client Beta release we're extending the survey to include installed software - Any programs listed within Windows' Programs and Features control panel (OS X coming soon) are reported alongside the hardware information Steam collects and reports online.
The new software component of our survey helps us understand what else our customers are using their PCs to do, and as a result, what features we can deliver or leverage to make Steam and our games better. PC users, developers and manufacturers will no doubt also find this information useful, so we plan to publish these results and trends over time. The first set of software survey results will be published among Steam stats at the end of the month.
As always, this survey is both optional and anonymous, with none of the collected data being associated with your Steam account. Survey selection is random; you'll know you're part of the Survey because Steam will ask if you want to take part.
Voodoo Dice is now available on Steam. Roll the dice in a mystical world filled with exploration, puzzle-solving, and adventure! Mixing action based and puzzle mechanics in a 3D world, Voodoo Dice is an innovative, challenging puzzler that plays with your mind to lead you to solve puzzles in unique and interesting ways.
Do you own Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on Steam? If so, you now have access to the Medal of Honor beta! Download it from your games library and jump into the fast and furious multiplayer action created by DICE and prove that you are Tier 1! Click here to install the Medal of Honor beta now.
After our usual delay, we're proud to announce we've finished the utterly impossible task of selecting the winners of the Polycount Contest. These five lucky individuals will soon receive the unbridled adoration of the TF2 community when we release their packs in an update. Unluckily for them, we're also going to attach gameplay attributes (probably of a game destroying nature) to these items, sullying their perfect work with our clumsy attempts at game design. Anyway, enough mucking about, head over and see who won!
Winners:
The Gasman (pyro)
Tank Buster (Soldier)
Special Delivery (Scout)
Croc-o-style (Sniper)
Saharan Spy (Spy)
In other good news, the chaps over at CEVO dropped us a line to say that registration for the CEVO TF2 Season 6 tournament has just opened up. With three skill divisions, it's a great place to play some competitive TF2 matches, even for relative beginners. They're trying to convince those of us in the Valve TF2 team to play in the Amateur division as well, which would be possible if we ever figured out how to curb our usual desire to cheat...
Join the R.U.S.E.™ Free Preview Weekend now and play a sizeable slice of the multiplayer, featuring new maps never played before. Play with 2 to 8 players, with any team or free-for-all combination, and with any of the 6 factions available in the final game.
During the Free Weekend, you can also play battles against the medium or hard AI for the first time. Select which nation your opposing AI will play and check out the strengths of each faction. Good luck defeating the hard AI!
Click here to play now for free (Requires free Steam desktop application to play. Visit www.steamgames.com/about to install Steam now.)
Free Preview Weekend ends July 18th at 1pm Pacific time.
Future Wars is now available on Steam and 20% off until July 22nd.
Battle it out on the proving grounds and get ready for Future Wars.
Similar to classic titles such as Advance Wars and Battle Isle, the game takes strategy gaming away from the micro-management overkill that it has become and using simple, proven rock-paper-scissors principles, reopens the genre to everyone.
Updates to Moonbase Alpha have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
FIXED - Astronauts can "attach" next to the rover or command center when high latency is present.
FIXED - Rover is sometimes invisible when remotely controlled when high latency is present.
FIXED - Erratic behavior of rover when attached to hose.
Multiple optimizations to program code for singleplayer and multiplayer gameplay.
The action multiplayer and co-op game Blacklight: Tango Down is now available via Steam in North America and most of Europe.
Make your stand across seven game modes with 12 different maps in intense online battles supporting up to 16 players. Or fight through four intense Black Ops missions co-operatively or alone; all the while gaining experience, collecting stats, and unlocking items.
Updates to Sniper: Ghost Warrior have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
AI
Fixed interactions of camouflage system with plants (the player will be less vulnerable to enemy sight when hidden in vegetation)
Adjusted AI alertness and seeing (e.g. the player will be less vulnerable to enemy sight at long distances)
Tweaked influence of the players posture and movement speed on being spotted by the enemies
Tweaked AI reactions, better behavior in combat situations
Removed over 95% of the static AI scripts during stealth actions and replaced with the improved stealth system
Multiplayer
Fixed multiplayer statistics
Adjusted duration of breath-holding
Fixed minor multiplayer maps geometry issues
Optimizations and Stability
Fixed possible random crashes on multi processor systems
Fixed minor stability problems on several hardware configurations
Building on the overwhelming successes of the first two games, Disciples III: Renaissance introduces a host of new features as well as the compelling gameplay that made the previous titles so popular.
Plus, buy Disciples III on Steam and get three Steam-Exclusive additional maps for single player and hot seat mode as well as over 50 Steam Achievements to unlock.
Disciples III - Renaissance will also be available in North America starting on July 16th.
Ubisoft's upcoming Real Time Strategy game, R.U.S.E.™ is hosting a Free Preview Weekend. Pre-load the game now and be ready to play when the free weekend starts Thursday, July 15th at 11am Pacific Time.
The Free Preview Weekend of R.U.S.E. will let you play a sizeable slice of the multiplayer, featuring new maps never played before. Play with 2 to 8 players, with any team or free-for-all combination, and with any of the 6 factions available in the final game.
During the Free Weekend, you can also play battles against the medium or hard AI for the first time. Select which nation your opposing AI will play and check out the strengths of each faction. Good luck defeating the hard AI!
Now you can enjoy Day of Defeat: Source, the WWII mulitplayer classic from Valve, on your Mac! Assume the role of infantry, sniper or machine-gunner classes and experience the intense online action set in Europe during WWII.
Eschalon Book II is now available on Steam and 10% off the first week.
Return to the world of Eschalon in the sequel to 2007's award-winning RPG. The blight of war now threatens all of Eschalon and the only hope for peace lies in the secret of your past. Don't miss this second chapter in the epic Eschalon trilogy given "5 Stars" by RPGWatch and called "immensely appealing" by The Huffington Post.
4 Elements is now available on Steam and 10% off the first week.
The ancient kingdom is in trouble! The magic of the four elements that kept it running for centuries has been corrupted by evil powers and the altars no longer yield the energy of life. It is up to you to unlock the 4 ancient books of magic and collect 16 mysterious cards that will help you restore the kingdom to life. An adorable little fairy will be your aide in this perilous journey as you encounter elementals, dragons, knights, and various magic creatures. Using a mix of classic addictive game play ideas but taking them to a new level with innovative twists, explosive bonuses, spectacular visual effects, and fascinating storyline in amazing animation, this game is a load of fun.
DCS: Black Shark is a simulation of the Russian Ka-50 attack helicopter and is the first simulation module of the Digital Combat Simulator series by The Fighter Collection and Eagle Dynamics.
DCS: Black Shark can be played as the most realistic combat helicopter simulation ever created for the PC with authentic flight dynamics and systems modeling. Black Shark may also be played as a console-style arcade game for the casual gamer.
A detailed and accurate 330,000 sq km depiction of the western Caucasus region serves as the battlefield and includes a broad array of eastern and western air, land and sea units.
Powerful and easy to use Mission and Campaign Editors are provided to allow creation of user-created missions and campaigns. Non-linear campaigns are provided with unlimited replay-ability. Multiplayer game play is provided to include both cooperative play using the Ka-50 data link and head-to-head. Multiplayer supports up to 16 players.
Four Swordsmen of the Apocalypse, What is your favorite finale? What is your favorite Melee Weapon?
Four Swordsmen of the Apocalypse
Four Swords against plenty of apocalypse!
Armed with only swords the survivors face near continuous streams of Special Infected ready to be sliced and diced.
What is your favorite finale?
Last week we asked, what is your favorite finale? The answer is in and The Parish: Bridge and Dark Carnival: Concert are the winners. In parenthesis is the ranking and percentage the overall campaign had in our favorite campaign poll.
Here are the votes by platform.
Xbox 360
40% Dark Carnival: Concert (1/33%)
26% The Parish: Bridge (3/17%)
11% The Passing: Port (2/21%)
9% Swamp Fever: Plantation (6/5%)
7% Dead Center: Atrium (5/12%)
7% Hard Rain: Escape (4/13%)
PC
32% Dark Carnival: Concert (1/27%)
32% The Parish: Bridge (2/21%)
10% The Passing: Port (5/15%)
10% Dead Center: Atrium (3/16%)
9% Swamp Fever: Plantation (3/16%)
7% Hard Rain: Escape (6/5%)
What is your favorite melee weapon?
This week’s mutation limits you to the sword, but if you could pick any melee weapon which one is your favorite?
To vote enter the game, view the in-game blog, and click to vote.
Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
Team Fortress 2
Fixed missing class descriptions on the class menu blackboard.
Fixed a server crash related to carrying buildings.
Updates to Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source and Day of Defeat: Source have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
Engine
Fixed client crash related flashlight usage.
Fixed several issues related to alt-tabbing (invisible players, etc).
Team Fortress 2
Added The Frontier Justice.
Added The Wrangler.
Added The Gunslinger.
Added The Southern Hospitality.
Added 35 Engineer achievements.
Engineers can now pickup & move their buildings.
Added Engineer main menu music.
Added 4 new maps:
Thunder Mountain, a 3 stage Payload map.
Hightower, a Payload Race map.
Upward, a Payload map.
ColdFront, a community built Capture Point map.
Item tuning:
The Sandvich now uses a cooldown timer, instead of the health pack recharge mechanic.
The Gunboats now reduce self-damage by 60% (was 75%)
The Tribalman's Shiv bleed duration reduced to 6 second (was 8), and its damage penalty increased to 50% (was 35%).
Added better feedback sound for Pyros on when their flamethrower is doing damage.
Say you have two things: a perfectly good hand, and a brilliant inventor for a grandfather. One day you stumble across a blueprint for an amazing-as-hell robot hand meant to replace an arm-stump. Wait, you have three things: the hand, the grandfather, and a saw.
The final day of the Engineer Update unveils the Gunslinger, a mechanical stump-mounted monstrosity; "Thunder Mountain", the most awesomely named of our Valve-created Payload Maps.
A long time ago the Saxons came to Britannia as ruthless mercenaries, but they became the devoted warriors of Christianity, united under the rule of King Raedwald.
When Arthur, the son of Uther Pendragon pulled his cursed sword from the stone, the dark age of wizardry and pagan monstrosities returned. These are grave times for Britannia and only the devoted and the faithful can stop this madness.
Call the proud Saxons to Norfolk! Recruit armies and knights and prove that King Raedwald is the real Once and Future King!
Quick: Name someone whose body of work is a testament to the indomitability of the human spirit; whose strength and moral guidance informs your every decision; and who starred in one of the Police Academy movies.
Okay, and who isn't Steve Gutenberg.
Or the guy who fooled crooks into thinking he was a police car by making police car noises. Okay, now go!
Did you guess Hightower? Oh thank God, because that's what we called our new Payload map, and it is way too late to change it to Sweetchuck. Even though, now that we think about it, that's a much better name that you should seriously consider just calling it anyhow. Way to name maps, Brandon.
Also: wrenches! Hey, everybody remember those? Because Day Three of the Engineer Update has a whole new batch of them—plus a community-made surprise.
Now you can join the world of Puzzle Agent and test yourself with brainteasers at every turn: mazes, logic puzzles, riddles, and more.
Created with indie comic artist Graham Annable's unique narrative and visual sensibilities, delivered with the distinctive Telltale storytelling style, Puzzle Agent is sure to challenge, thrill and engage in more ways than you can shake a cryptogram at!
Expanding on the highly successful The Secret of Monkey Island™: Special Edition in just about every way, fans will now experience new unique special edition features and interact with the world of Monkey Island like never before.
Updates to Counter-Strike: Source and Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
Counter-Strike: Source
Fixed incorrect stat collection by forcing all dedicated servers to update to the new version.
Team Fortress 2
Fixed a Mac client crash that occurs when joining a server
Everyone loves remote control toys. But the problem with most of them is, unless you manage to remote control one directly down someone's throat, they're pretty useless as weapons. But what if we were to tell you that we fixed that obvious design flaw?
Day Two of the Engineer Update brings the engineering faithful The Wrangler, the remote sentry gun controller; "Upward", an all-new, Valve-designed Payload Map; and 25 shiny, super-rare wrenches from our quickly-dwindling supply.
Note: To ensure everyone gets the chance to pull the lever, we've increased the weekly item drop limit for this week only. So if you thought you'd hit your item cap, think again!
Turba provides a gameplay experience unlike any you have encountered before. Load in music from your PC and combo blocks to your favorite tunes in this unique new twist on the "match-3" style game!
The blocks on the game board generate and move to the beat of the song you choose. Clear blocks in time with the beat and make expert combos to maximize your score while you compete in online leaderboards for any and every song you play.
NASA has once again landed on the lunar surface with the goal of colonization, research, and further exploration. Shortly after the return to the Moon, NASA has established a small outpost on the south pole of the moon called Moonbase Alpha. Utilizing solar energy and regolith processing, the moonbase has become self-sufficient and plans for further expansion are underway.
The best-selling first-person action game of all time gets even bigger with more epic new multiplayer content! The Modern Warfare 2 Resurgence Pack delivers five incredible new multiplayer maps. Take the action to exciting new locations, then battle across legendary landscapes from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
If you already have Steam installed you can click here to install or play. If you don't have Steam, you can download it here.
Those of you who spent the weekend Tokyo drift-racing your way to a rap battle—or whatever it is people do when they go outside on the weekend—probably feel pretty good about yourselves right now. At the end of the day, though, what do you have to show for it? Vague memories of changing lanes. Twenty-five of the people who wisely chose to stay home and craft items, on the other hand, now have shiny new ultra-rare golden wrenches that they can keep. For a weekend? No. For a lifetime. Eat it, drift-racers. Eat all of it.
Luckily for you wrenchless unfortunates, there's still time to get one. A further 75 golden wrenches can be found through crafting all this week*. We'll also be teasing Engie's new weapons (the first of which, the revenge-critting Frontier Justice,, is currently on display)—with all of this culminating in the long-awaited Engineer Update this Thursday!
*Note that we've disabled the Smelt Reclaimed Metal & Smelt Refined Metal recipes. They'll work again once the Engineer Update goes live.
In the mildest cases, mosquito bites result in an itchy bump which eventually disappears if not obsessively scratched. In the worst cases, mosquito bites result in - you guessed it - death. Given the circumstances, it is a wonder modern housing still include doors and operable windows as standard features.
For more ideas on how to have a safe and enjoyable summer go to www.steamgames.com.
Besides the Versus Survival Mutation update today, last night the following updates were applied to the Xbox 360 version.
Versus Changes
? Added a 25 point scoring penalty for using a Defibrillator.
? Scaled dynamic Defibrillators based on map length with a maximum of 1 per map.
? Removed dynamic Pill conversion to First Aid Kits.
? Removed Explosive Ammunition.
? Increased Jockey damage per second.
? Removed Jockey’s damage delay.
? Car Alarms will now trigger anytime a Special Infected pushes/pulls/rams a Survivor into an alarm car. This change only affects game modes with human-controlled Zombies .
? Special Infected bots spawn within 10 seconds of the Survivors leaving the safe room.
Survivor Bot Changes
? Improved SurvivorBot’s ability to support players who stop moving to fight infected.
? Improved SurvivorBot’s ability to support players in tight spaces.
? Changed Survivorbot item hunting behavior.
? SurvivorBots now stay closer to human players in all game modes.
? Fixed Survivorbot navigation issue in The Passing: Riverbank.
? Fixed bug where a SurvivorBot could become catatonic when attempting to save another Survivor from a Smoker.
? Fixed condition where SurvivorBots would not enter the saferoom.
Other Changes
? Increased self-inflicted friendly fire damage from the Grenade Launcher.
? Fixed bug where the M60 would reset its ammo if dropped in certain situations.
? Shortened spawn times for human Special Infected when the Infected team isn’t full. The time difference is added to the timer of the next bot in line to spawn.
? Fixed AI tanks sometimes not getting assigned to human players.
July 2, 2010 - If you are reading this - congratulations! You have survived farther into summer than most and have taken to heart our cautionary tales about the dangers of summer activities. As if good health wasn't reward enough you have until 10 am PST Monday, July 5 to stay safe, stay inside, and save big on today's top releases, classic titles, and publisher catalogs at www.steamgames.com.
Sadly, not everyone has heeded our warnings over this first week of summer, to those who have recklessly fallen, been crushed, or stung (and the care givers reading this to you now), we hope for your speedy recovery - but would also like to point out that we told you so.
Sasquatch (a.k.a. Bigfoot) sightings have been recorded in wilderness areas around the world. Those who have encountered Bigfoot and survived have described the ape-like forest dweller as "non-confrontational" and "business-like". Because reliable statistics on death and dismemberment as a result of surprise encounters are not publicly available, it is recommended that you avoid potential Bigfoot habitat, especially during the summer mating season.
For more ideas on how to have a safe and happy summer go to www.steamgames.com.
Versus Survival, Do You Play on More Than One Platrform?, Favorite Finale, Play with Devs.
Versus Survival
Can you survive against your friends?
The first Survivor team sets the time. The second team tries to beat it. Then the first team tries to beat the second team's time. Then the second team tries to beat the first team's time. And then the... you get the idea. Rounds keep switching until someone fails to beat the previous time.
Do you play on more than one platform? Last week we asked, do you own L4D1 or 2 on the Xbox 360 and PC. 30% of you do play on both the PC and Xbox 360. Xbox 360 users voted 57% No, 33% Yes and 10% Don’t Know. PC users voted 62% No, 29% Yes and 8% Don’t Know.
The Don’t Know votes scare us.
What is your favorite finale?
We previously asked your favorite campaign, but do you like the finales the same?
To vote enter the game, view the in-game blog, and click to vote.
Game with Devs!
Play with Devs games this Friday. We might even be forming Valve teams to take on your team! Look for us all this weekend using steam names - L4D2_DEV_1, L4D2_DEV_2, L4D2_DEV_3, L4D2_DEV_4, L4D2_DEV_5. All valid dev accounts are members of the Valve...
Since our announcement of Team Fortress 2 on the Mac, we've received literally thousands of emails from over seven people, curious as to how the Apple comic shown in the update fits into the ongoing TF saga. Did Saxton Hale really buy the Apple company? Can Heavy's gun actually shoot email bullets now? Who was that mysterious figure? And why were Valve's lawyers so insistent that he remain mysterious?
Some good questions. Good enough, anyway, that when we angrily confronted our writers with them, they got that look animals get when they're walking across a road in the middle of the night, headlights appear, and they realize they're about to lose their jobs. Following a frantic search through the internet for fancy excuse words, they came up with an answer.
Apparently the Apple comic was non-canon. Think of it like a "commercial". Then imagine yourself removing the quote marks around "commercial", because it was a commercial. "Ah, now I get it," you're saying. Just in case you're lying, here's another example: Say Team Fortress was Hercules. Our class updates would be all of those times that Hercules fought gorgons or suplexed an evil king into a mountain. The Apple update would be like the time Hercules enjoyed a jalapeño popper platter at Applebees.
Since this announcement creates a canon-shaped void in the lives of TF2's biggest story fans—our writers—we let them "imagineer" (their words) an epic Engineer story spanning three generations.
The item system in Team Fortress 2 generates a ton of data. Up to this point we've provided access to this data through some hacked-together scripts that, frankly, were old and creaky before they went live. Ah, but now...
Pow! Shiny new web APIs that are officially supported. (Find out how to use them here.) This new system comes with a few new features:
Output can now be provided as JSON, XML, or VDF (Key Values)
The current item schema is available as an API call, so you don't have to dig items_game.txt out of a patched client
It is much easier for us to add new APIs with the new system, so it should happen more often
For now, the old system will continue to run, and all applications built on it will continue to work. A word of warning, though: At some point down the road we will turn it off. So if you're using it, please give the new Steam Web APIs a try.
If you were thinking that a stroll in the park would be a safe and enjoyable thing to do on a nice Summer day - you would be wrong. Have you never heard of killer bees? www.steamgames.com.
FIGHT THE PAST TO SAVE THE FUTURE. STOP THE SINGULARITY.
Learn the truth behind a massive cover-up of the catastrophic SINGULARITY, an event that fractured time and threatens the world as we know it. Armed with powerful, advanced weaponry and the experimental Time Manipulation Device, fight enemies from the past, the present, and abominations caught somewhere in between.
Do you hear that? That ominous, otherworldly silence? That's what we in the game biz call the calm before a storm. And keep listening... do you hear that distant rumble? We call that thunder. It happens during a storm whenever it's not quiet.
All of these portents can only mean one thing: Something big is happening. The fact that everybody else on the team keeps telling me that it's only weather, and that weather can't talk to you, tells me they're all in on it. (And possibly not human? More on this later.)
Perhaps it's the upcoming Polycount Pack update making the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and the Australia-shaped hair on my back matte itself back down, since it means we'll be shipping the best of the amazing Polycount Contest entries. Be glad you're not one of us, forced to order that list of magnificent items into some kind of hierarchy. Maybe we'll just announce they've all won first place.
Or maybe it's the release of the Official TF2 Wiki that's made weather choose me as its emissary on Earth. Developed by the administrators of the unofficial TF2 wiki, it's a perfect place to find out everything you ever wanted to know about TF2, but were too afraid to type into Google. Head over there and see if you can help them out. If you're a useful enough contributor, the weather might talk to you too. It might even point out which of the people on your team aren't real humans. Then we could compare notes.
Or maybe, just maybe, it's something else entirely.
Updates to Iron Grip: Warlord have been released. These updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
Iron Grip: Warlord
Resolved DRM issues
Added CD Key associated with the users' accounts. This allows the user to play on different computers without problems.
Iron Grip: Warlord - Demo
Created separate demo build to reduce file size on disk
