Tag Archives: valve

Portal-style TF2 map surfaces

TF2/Portal map

A modder by the name of Eugenio “Motanum” Roman has created a new map for Team Fortress 2. ‘Koth Aperture Science’ is based around Portal and the setting is the Aperture Science Labs familiar to any players of Valve’s classic puzzle-platformer of 2007.

The object of the game for the Red team is to defend GLaDOS’s room for 3 minutes, while the Blue team spawns outside in a helicopter with the objective of taking it over. ‘Koth Aperture Science’ took 3 months to complete and is now available on TF2 maps as a 34mb download.

From the modder:

Koth Aperture Science is the milestone the work of 3 months with the knowledge of 2 years in hammer! I believe it is the Good bye our precious Portal 1 deserve, a game to remember, in TF2.
In koth Aperture Science Red and Blu will fight for the Hand Held Portal Gun Technology. I know, it is too early to be canon for either TF2 or Portal (Even Half-Life) but I thought it was a neat cross over.
I’ve seen many people jump into making Portal 2 style maps, but as I mentioned, this map is a result of portal 2 hype, but nonetheless, an appreciation for Portal. Thus, this is my best work so far. I was very picky and I think I did a fair job, with many feature to celebrate the power of TF2 and the beauty of Portal.

Thanks, PC Gamer.

Jack Thompson threatens Gabe Newell and the “moral midgets”

Just when you thought Jack Thompson faded into the sunset of mediocrity, the disgraced and disbarred lawyer is up to his old shenanigans. The professional prude and anti-gaming advocate has his moral compass squarely aimed at Valve CEO Gabe Newell because of an upcoming Source Engine mod.

The mod in question is called ‘School Shooter’ where you play a disgruntled student set out to become the most imfamous of all the school shooters.

From the official website:

You decide to arm yourself with the exact same weapons as a previous school shooter such as; Eric Harris’ TEC-9, Dylan’s sawed-off shotgun, Seung-Hui Cho’s akimbo pistols, Nevada-Tan’s…box cutter? The possibilities are endless, you are free to do whatever you want. As long as it involves shooting people.

In a threatening and disparaging letter to the Valve front-man Thompson called on Newell to shut down what he calls the “Columbine massacre simulator”; he actually gave a time-line that has long since passed. What happens with Jack Thompson now only a well trained psychiatrist could predict. Thus far Gabe Newell has not commented on the matter publicly, and it’s doubtful that he will unless maybe pushed in an interview.

What we do know is that so far all Jack Thompson has achieved is to bring more publicity to a mod that a lot of people would never have heard of otherwise. He has made it known to a community interested in Hall-Life 2 mods that another one is coming soon, and garnered their interest. Well done, Sir.

Portal 2 TV ad hits YouTube

Taking eight weeks to put together Valve decided to make their own TV ad for Portal 2, instead of hiring an advertising agency to do it for them. According to Doug Lomabrdi the idea of handing the job over to an ad agency would be “close to worthless..”.

No one knows the product better than the folks who made it..

With the Portal 2 ad, we playtested it and were able to make changes during production. With an agency, those types of tests are too often left to a post-mortem – at which point, the value of those realisations is pretty close to worthless.

The United Kingdom can look forward to Portal 2 bus-ads and trainstation billboards to promote Valve’s upcoming sequel.

Portal 2 will be offering players more of the same puzzle-solving that made the first game so addictive, but also throwing in a co-op mode where 2 people can complete missions together; these will undoubtedly be more difficult.

The game will be hitting store shelves and download slots on the 19th of April (NA) and will be available on PC, Xbox, PS3 and the Mac. You can pre-order now from Amazon or Steam.

Valve’s Steam Guard out of beta

At a technology conference a few weeks back Valve’s Gabe Newell demonstrated the company’s new security feature for Steam, giving away his username and password to stress the effectiveness of Steam Guard. In an atttempt to address the number one security issue on Steam (account hijacking) Valve swung into gear with a new hardware based security feature they hope will lessen the number of Steam accounts being lost to hackers.

Today the anti-account hijacking Steam Guard is out of beta and available for anyone to use, should they wish to have an extra layer of security protecting their account. Let’s face it most people will have their (or someone else’s) credit card details saved on their Steam account so who can argue with something to help protect your account from outside intrusion.

How does Steam Guard work? When you first use it and verify your email address, a fingerprint is taken of your PC hardware and this is then tied to your Steam account. Any attempt after that to log-in from another PC and Steam will send a confirmation 5-digit code to your email to make sure it’s you who is trying to log-in. All you have to do is authorise another PC if you access Steam from multiple PCs. There is no limit on the number of computers that can be authorised. Even if you have a weak password, Steam Guard should keep all but the most determined hackers out.

If you haven’t tried it yet I would highly recommend doing so. I’ve been using it since the beta and haven’t run into any problems whatsoever. Extra security is a good thing, especially when it’s not too much of an inconvenience; with Steam Guard you’ll hardly even notice it’s there.

For more info visit the Steam Guard support page.

New TF2 flavoured movie trailer hits YouTube

A YouTube user and apparent graphics designer going by the name of TrueOneMoreUser has been treating Team Fortress 2 fans with re-imagined film trailers that include TF2 characters edited in.

The first was Law Abiding Engineer based on a trailer for 2009′s Law Abiding Citizen.

But his more recent effort thrills us with a TF2-tinged trailer for The Dark Knight, entitled The Demo Knight.

Gabe Newell so confident in Steam Guard, publicly announces his Steam password

Steam Guard, the new security feature in Steam that allows a user to tie their account to a hardware profile has just gone beta. After you first verify your email address, any attempt to login on another computer will require a seperate code that you will get via your email.

Steam Guard

If you wish to use Steam Guard all you need to do is login to your Steam account and open up the ‘Account’ tab, then choose to opt-in to the beta.

Gabe Newell has said that the biggest support issue they have at Valve is account phishing and hijacking. The Valve CEO is so confident in Steam Guard he has publicly revealed his own password and login details for Steam, enticing anyone to try login to his account.

Care to give it a shot?

username: gaben@valvesoftware.com
password: moolyftw

Valve announces Steam Guard, wants to use Sandy Bridge technology

Intel Inside Core_i7

Valve has plans to use Sandy Bridge’s Identity Protection Technology to help protect Steam user accounts from phishing and other scams. According to Gabe Newell their “number one support issue” is account phishing and hijacking.

Steam Guard is a service that allows PC users to restrict access to their Steam account based on their hardware profile. For example, a user would receive a messege in Steam if someone tried to log in on another system.

Valve’s Doug Lombardi sees technology like this having widespread adoption in the future:

If as a customer you are buying movies, music, games, or digital goods, you want to know that they are more secure than your physical goods.

Source.

Valve woos Portal fans at this year’s GDC

Portal 2

At this year’s Games Developers Conference, Valve showed off some new high-res screenshots of Portal 2.

The hotly anticipated sequal to 2007′s Portal is coming to PC, Xbox and PS3 on the 18th of next month. One thing is clear looking at these new screenshots, Valve’s Source engine still has plenty of life left in it.

Head on over to hlfallout and check out the screens.

Valve offer a 10% discount if you pre-order 1 copy of the game and 20% off if you purchase the 2-pack. Amazon are also taking pre-orders.

Steam updated, adds screen capture and improved voice chat

Steam

Valve updated the Steam client yesterday with quite a few new features and improvements. First off it’s now possible to take screenshots while in any game that uses the Steam Overlay. After pressing F12 you can upload screenshots to your Steam profile (or anywhere you like). Valve has allocated a generous 1Gb of data storage per user for screen captures alone.

One of the biggest improvements is a complete upgrade to the Steam voice chat. Take a look below at some of the changes made.

Voice quality improvements

Changed microphone voice input from 11 kHz to 16 kHz
Changed voice output from 8 kHz to 16 kHz
Fixed the settings-dialog microphone test to correctly re-init the calibration client if the active voice device changes
Reduced voice prefix buffer size from 200 to 100 ms, but increased trailing from 200 to 400 ms – reduces latency when transitioning from silence to active voice, but still should keep it from sounding like chat is cutting out mid-sentence
Increased thresholds for voice activity detection, making it less sensitive
Increased amount of gain applied to voice
Changed disconnect message when a friend ends a voice call to ‘ has ended the call’
Windows: Fixed microphone to reinitialize correctly if Windows signals that a device in the system has changed
Windows: Changed voice output device for Steam to be the default communication device

They’ve also beefed up password security by adding a password strength meter, and prompting users to change their password after a generic temp password is issued. For a list of all the changes head on over to the news post.

Gabe Newell wants to make Source SDK less “painful”

Gabe Newell

Gabe Newell recently said that Valve is spending a “tremendous amount of time” trying to improve their Source SDK. Describing using the software development kit as “painful”, Newell wants to assure modders and map makers alike that there will be big changes to the ageing SDK soon.

[It's] just way too hard to develop content right now, both for ourselves and for third-parties, so we’re going to make enormously easier and simplify that process a lot.

In fact Newell said they are probably spending more time on the SDK right now than anything else.

Oh yeah, we’re spending a tremendous amount of time on tools right now. So, our current tools are… very painful, so we probably are spending more time on tools development now than anything else and when we’re ready to ship those I think everybody’s life will get a lot better.

Valve’s Source engine, although seven years old has been responsible for some of the most engaging and memorable PC titles in the last few years; including Half-Life 2, Portal, Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead. And it will be the driving force behind Half-Life 2 Episode 3, whenever that is eventually released.

Half-Life 2: Episode Two for $1.99

75% off Half-Life 2 Episode 2

If you’ve been living under a rock for past 3 years and have not yet purchased and played Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Valve want to make it worth your while by offering the expansion to the legendary Half-Life 2 series with 75% off the regular price tag.

As part of the company’s mid-week madness sale you can now buy Episode 2 for a measly $1.99.

Episode Two was released back in October of 2007 to critical acclaim, and fans have been waiting with bated breath for the next iteration of the series ever since.

Head on over to the product page if you’re a late-bloomer.

Half-Life 2 hacker apologizes to Valve

Half-Life 2 Leak

It’s been over 7 years since the infamous Half-Life 2 beta appeared online. Back in 2003 a young hacker by the name of Axel Gembe made his way through lax security protocols to steal and distribute the game’s source code online. It was strewn about the internet and pretty much anyone that logged on to the world wide web could get their hands on it via torrent sites.

Well, all these years later the hacker responsible has finally apologized to Valve for what he did back in 2003. In an interview with Euro-Gamer Gembe made amends for hacking into Valve’s headquarters to get his hands on the hl2 code, and discusses at length about how he managed to pull off the job.

I am so very sorry for what I did to you. I never intended to cause you harm. If I could undo it, I would. It still makes me sad thinking about it. I would have loved to just stay and watch you do your thing, but in the end I screwed it up. You are my favorite developer, and I will always buy your games.

Read the full interview over on Euro-Gamer.

Gabe Newell goes back to high-school

Valve’s Gabe Newell recently outsourced his expertise to an unlikely audience. In this Youtube video Newell discusses the business of interactive entertainment with a bunch of high-school kids.

The Valve co-founder talks at length about how he started the company up with Mike Harrington after leaving Microsoft.

Unfortunately he didn’t hint at a release date for Half Life 2 Episode 3 or anything like that.

New Left 4 Dead 2 DLC promised from Valve

Left 4 Dead 2

Yearning for more DLC for Left 4 Dead 2? You’ll be pleased to here that Valve has taken a shine to a map that is currently in development by modder Matthew Lourdelet.

Lourdelet was the brains behind the classic 2 Evil eyes map, and is now hard at work on a new map called Cold Stream. Valve are so impressed with his new endeavour they are asking the L4D community to help iron out the bugs so the map can be made part of the next DLC.

He recently shared it with us and we love it so far but it isn’t done. We were tempted to have him quietly finish it with our help and release it as part of an upcoming DLC.

Tempted… but we decided against that. Instead, we think we have a better idea. We want you the community to be part of the process of taking his unfinished campaign and releasing it as DLC on the Xbox 360, PC and Mac.

Portal 2 up for pre-purchase on Steam

Portal 2

The sequel to 2007′s Portal will find its way to the shelves and download slots of fans on the 18th of April (US). However Valve are trying to offer an incentive to pre-purchasing the game now by offering a 10% discount. If you buy the Portal 2 pack you will get 20% off.

Amazon are also offering the game at the discounted price if you pre-order now.

25% of Steam users still on XP

Steam Hardware & Software Survey: December 2010

It’s been a few months since I last took a look at Valve’s PC hardware statistics. As I’m sure most of you already know, Valve periodically releases results of a hardware survey they conduct from within the Steam software. Information is gathered from a user’s machine – like which processor they use, how much system ram they have, hard drive space etc. It can be fun to see the demographic you yourself fit into in the overall hardware pallet. Let’s take a brief look December’s results.

Processors:

Intel vs AMD

Unsurprisingly Intel has a monopoly on processors, but you might be surprised at just how much. According to Valve’s December Hardware & Software Study, 72.37% of its users have Intel processors. This dwarfs AMD’s small footprint of a mere 27.63%.

Processor Cores

As more and more PCs are equipped with multi-core CPUs, let’s take a look at the percentages. Single-core processors make up 9.79% (down from 11.22% in October). Dual-core is still the dominant blend with a whopping 52.11% share (but that is down from 56.97%). Quad-cores are on the rise accounting for 35.90% (slightly up from 33.13 in October); with hex-core still in its infancy, only 0.74% are booting up their Steam-based machines with 6 processing cores. This is obviously bound to change with AMD’s low-cost Phenom II x6 processors.

Graphics Cards:

As with Intel, Nvidia also makes up a larger share of the pie with 59.11% of users having their GPUs, compared to AMD’s 32.98% market share (unchanged from October). Tragically 6.22 % still use on-board Intel graphics. Maybe we should take a moment’s pause to reflect on their pain. Why are they even using Steam? Although they may be slightly less fortunate if the new Sandy Bridge GPU can handle Portal 2.

Interestingly enough only 0.56% of users have 1.5Gb of Vram. It looks like Nvidia’s GTX 480 is not too popular among users of Steam.

System Ram:

Ram is not quite as important as it once was when it comes to gaming with 4-6 Gb being the mainstay for most avid gamers. 22.18% (down from 24.04%) are still on 2Gb, with 27.16% using 3Gb. 4Gb users are a slightly smaller bunch with 27.38% (up ever-so-slightly from 26.00%). Do you use more than 5Gb of ram? You’re in an illustrious club of 15.76%.

Operating systems:

It seems that Windows XP just won’t die. Microsoft has cut off the life-support machine, and many PC vendors have already stopped supporting the aging OS. But like a stubborn old man, XP fights on with 24.64% (down 0.85%). I should note that Windows 7 64-bit has surpassed XP with 35.09%. The use of Vista 32-bit remains steady at 13.53%.

Conclusion:

Has anything changed? Well, not a whole lot since October. Single and dual-core CPU usage is slightly down. Quad-core has made a fairly promising gain, although hex-core gaming clearly has along way to come.

XP is still not accepting death just yet. Although usage is down slightly, a staggering 24.64% still consider the aging OS to be where it’s at.

Windows 7 is on the rise, with a lot more people adopting the 64-bit variety to take advantage of all that RAM they invested in.

One 4 Nine gets thumbs up from official L4D2 blog

One 4 Nine

The mind-blowing awesomeness of Kev Edwards’ Left 4 Dead 2 map One 4 Nine has gotten thumbs up from the official LFD2 blog. For anyone yet to play the map, all I will say is it features elements from one of Stanley Kubrick’s best films and is on par with, if not better than any of the official maps in the game. Head on over and download it from L4D Maps.

The new featured campaign is Kev Edwards’ awesome One 4 Nine. What’s not to love? You have an Army base in the Nevada desert housing an ancient “alien tomb”. We have been digging Versus in this campaign but coop and survival modes are also available.

50% off Mass Effect 2, more Xmas deals from Valve

Steam Sale December 24th

Valve’s Xmas sale is in full swing. The December 20th to January 2nd price cuts are seeing the cost of poplar titles such as Mass Effect 2 reduced by 50%. There’s only 2 hours left in today’s sale, which also sees Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising down 85%.

Hurry on over before the clock runs out.

Related:
StarCraft II Demo Released

Valve, WETA and a genuine bona-fide level 1 sentry gun

The folks over at WETA Workshop have assembled together a real-life to-scale sentry gun from Team Fortress 2. This is a level-1 sentry, as built by the Texas Engineer in Valve’s classic online multiplayer platform. WETA are the crew responsible for the special effects in Lord of the Rings, District 9 and Avatar and have made Valve a boni-fide sentry to keep in their lobby.

Although the sentry gun doesn’t fire out real bullets, it does detect movement and backtracks making authentic Team Fortress 2 sounds.

Valve’s run for the gun, 40% off Poker Night at the Inventory

Be the envy of other Heavies with the Iron Curtain

Right now and for the next 48 hours you can snag Telltale Games’ Poker Night at the Inventory for $2.99 on Steam. Valve have knocked 40% off the standard price. Personally I can’t even play poker, but it’s looking like this is the only way to get the Iron Curtain mini-gun for the Heavy.

The Iron Curtain is a promotional mini-gun in Team Fortress 2. It’s identical to the standard mini-gun, but it is made in part from mahogany wood. It’s like a cross between Bender from the Futurama episode where he downgrades himself, and the default Heavy gun.

It is awarded to players of Poker Night at the Inventory for defeating the Heavy during a round in which he has bought in with the item instead of cash.

Anyway you’ll have to excuse me, I’m off to bone up on my poker lessons. The things I do for a new Team Fortress 2 weapon. *shakes fist at Valve*

Update: It only took me two hours of not knowing how to play poker, but somehow I defeated the Heavy and got my Iron Curtain. All kneel before wooden Sasha!

Valve announce Team Foretress 2 Beta

Heavy

Valve have released a new beta version of Team Fortress 2. In the same way they offer a beta version of Counter Strike Source, this gives players a chance to try out some of the new features, maps etc that will eventually make it to the finished version.

Basically this beta gives Valve more freedom to experiment with new features/tweaks “..without the risk of breaking the game.”

You don’t have to download the beta if you don’t want to but it’s available in your library if you should so chose.

Here are some of the initial changes:

Three Natascha variants:

-40% damage

-25% damage, -25% health

Spin-up/down time increased, slowdown-on-hit effect falls off over distance.

Map changes:

cp_granary: new entrance added into the RED and BLU mid ramp room.

cp_5gorge: 5 CP version of cp_gorge.

Misc balance changes:

Players being healed by a medic are immune to movement-impairing effects generated by hit-scan weapons.

More info and discussion over on the Steam forums.

Valve selling TF2, L4D, Portal t-shirts and merchandise

Sanvich t-shirt, you know you want it...

Valve have started a new store and are offering clothing, books, mugs, posters and lots more from their most popular games. Now you can have a coffee in style with your Aperture Laboratories mug, or why not show your disdain for zombies with a Left 4 Dead huddie. There are lots of items on sale right now; I’ve already picked up my Heavy and Bonk Atomic Punch t-shirts.

Now if only they had a European store, I could gorge on all things Valve and literally transform my wardrobe.

Head on over to the apparel section and check out some of the offers they have on.

Real-life Portal gun to be auctioned for charity

It’s a nerd’s dream come true. Imagine having the portal gun from the Aperture Science Lab of Valve’s classic puzzle-platformer. One man can make this possible if the price is right. 28 year-old graphic designer Harrison Krix has fashioned a real-life portal gun with his own hands.

The model is an absolute ringer for the in-game gun and will be auctioned off, with proceeds going to a children’s charity. The gun can even be switched between blue and orange modes, just like in the game. *drools*

Check out his blog.

Joe’s Adventures, new Mafia II DLC

Joe's finally gettin' some action

If you’re looking to spruce up your Mafia II experience, new DLC is available for download on Steam. In Joe’s Adventure, you finally discover who had Vito sent to prison. Also included in the expanded story are new cars, brand new attire, city quests and new locations.

The add-on costs $7.99. Head on over to the Steam Store page for more info.

Happy Birthday L4D2

Early Spitter concept

It’s hard to believe but yesterday saw the 1st anniversary for the release of Valve’s Left4Dead 2. The makers of the classic multiplayer Zombie shooter have been celebrating over the on the official blog, with pics of some early concept art. We are also promised “new stuff coming Friday..”.

If you haven’t yet played Left4Dead 1 or 2, you really owe it to yourself to see this work of art. If you like a good scare, and having some of the most fun there is to have online, it’s the best 20 bucks you ever spent.

Related:
Official Left4Dead 2 blog

Left4Dead Quadruple Charger Kill

It could be a fake, but in this video posted by You-tuber DaCakeIsASpy, the entire crew of Left4Dead are thrown from a skyscraper all at once from one Charger. It’s a bit hard to spot the charger, leaving me a little skeptical. It’s pretty funny nonetheless.

Games For Windows Live Marketplace is here, but are Valve worried?

Microsoft have launched Games For Windows Live Marketplace for the PC. This is basically their version of Steam where you can use your Windows Live credentials to log in and buy games. They already have 80 plus PC games ready to be downloaded, with more on the way.

Like Steam they also offer demo downloads and daily deals, although I can’t see too many people warming to this new system unless they’re Xbox folk and are new to PC games. There’s really no benefit that I can see to having this running on your PC along with Steam. Steam is pretty stable these days, after years or refining and offers great deals on PC games week in week out. Microsoft have a mountain to climb if they are thinking of enticing Steam users over.

Official website.

UK retailers fear Steam ‘monopoly’, threaten ban

Steam Valve have made a great service that’s easy and convenient to use (most of the time) and it’s no wonder gamers have flocked to it. So I can see why a set of UK retailers fear for their businesses and have threatened to ban games that integrate with the service from their stores.

MCV understands that key retailers will drop titles that integrate the popular Steam service as fears mount that the service has a ‘monopoly’ on the download market.

Some of the biggest PC games – such as Call of Duty and Fallout – use Steam. But retailers are concerned that selling games with the tech built-in pushes users towards only buying games via Valve going forward.

Retail threatens Steam ban

According to MCV, Steam accounts for a massive 80% of the digital download market, nearing the threshold for a monopoly in anyone’s language. More info here.

Valve offering Day of Defeat Source for $2.50

Have $2.50 to spare?

Today and tomorrow Valve are selling the classic online shooter, Day of Defeat Source for only $2.50 (2 euro 50 cents). If you’ve not experienced what has to be one of the best multiplayer shooters of the decade, you really owe it to yourself to “splash out” on this game. If you’re already a DoD addict and want to turn a friend onto the game, even in these trying times I’m sure they have 2 dollars to spare.

Day of Defeat Source uses Valve’s Source engine (as the name would imply), and although the game is 5 years old and showing its age a little, for this price it’s an absolute steal.

Sale Ends Thursday, November 11th, 4pm Pacific Time.

Check out the offer page.

Related:
Official website

Beyond Black Mesa coming soon

A bunch of Half Life fans strung together a small bit of cash and used it to finance a film inspired by the Half Life franchise. Beyond Black Mesa was filmed over the course of a few weekends by a bunch of dedicated Half Life fans and a shoe-string budget. The film is complete, and has been screened in film festivals across the U.S. over the last few weeks.

B.B.M. will be officially released very soon but in the meantime here’s a short trailer to whet your appetite.

More info on the crew and behind the scenes action can be found on the Beyond Black Mesa official website.