• ---

  Steam Game Festival is Live with Hundreds of Demos

  • Created by: Shawn Zipay
  • Published: 06-16-2020, 03:18 PM
  • 2 comments

  Steam Game Festival is Live with Hundreds of Demos

  Featuring over 900 demos.
  
  You know what I got a ton of emails about today? Demos. A lot of demos. I mean there are a ton of demos that are now available today. I did not receive emails about all of the near 900 demos that are available as part of the Steam Game Festival, but it kind of feels like it at times.
  
  The Steam Game Festival: Summer Edition runs from today, June 16 through June 22 at 10AM (PT). It will feature over 900 playable demos throughout Steam. These demos...

  Go to post

• ---

  Half-Life: Alyx Workshop and Editor Tools - First Beta Released

  • Created by: Shawn Zipay
  • Published: 05-15-2020, 05:03 PM
  • 0 comments

  Half-Life: Alyx Workshop and Editor Tools - First Beta Released

  This release includes the new Hammer editor.
  
  The moment that many a mod maker and custom content creator have been waiting for is here. Half-Life: Alyx now has a beta release of Workshop content and Editor tools that anybody can make use of. This means that as of today, custom content built off of the Half-Life: Alyx version of Source can be created and shared with the world via the Steam Workshop.
  
  Creators can make everything from a new VR physics sandbox, their own Rube...

  Go to post

• ---

  Valve May Be Working on a Loyalty Rewards Program

  • Created by: Shawn Zipay
  • Published: 05-11-2020, 02:52 PM
  • 0 comments

  Valve May Be Working on a Loyalty Rewards Program

  It's time again for a rumor!
  
  According to a data miner and developer, Pavel Djundik over on Twitter, Valve may soon introduce some form of a loyalty rewards program through Steam. According to some information found while diving deep into the data mines, Steam has some sort of a currently new and unused point system. There is also a new reaction system that has shown up that will allow you to add a variety of reactions to user reviews.
  
  Some of the "rewards" that...

  Go to post

• ---

  Leaked Source Code for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Team Fortress 2 Resurfaces

  • Created by: Shawn Zipay
  • Published: 04-22-2020, 01:05 PM
  • 0 comments

  Leaked Source Code for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Team Fortress 2 Resurfaces

  Code is from a 2018 leak.
  
  Update (April 22, 2020 at 9:18PM ET): According to a statement issued to PC Gamer from Valve, the leaked code is only for CS:GO, but it does include "very old pieces of Team Fortress 2." Valve says that they will continue to investigate.
  
  Valve also says that after an initial review of the leaked code they "believe it to be a reposting of a limited CS:GO engine code depot released to partners in late 2017, and originally leaked in...

  Go to post

• ---

  Rick May, Voice of TF2's Soldier, Has Passed Away

  • Created by: Shawn Zipay
  • Published: 04-13-2020, 04:06 PM
  • 0 comments

  Rick May, Voice of TF2's Soldier, Has Passed Away

  You were good, son. Real good. Maybe even the best.
  
  ​​​In the late afternoon hours of April 13th, voice actor John Patrick Lowrie passed along word that his friend and colleague, Rick May, has passed away. The two voiced characters from Valve's Team Fortress 2. Lowrie voiced the Sniper while May was the voice of the Soldier.
  
  While Covid-19 may have been what ultimately took May's life, the actor did suffer from some unfortunate health issues in the preceding months....

  Go to post

• ---

  Stay Inside this Summer with The Steam Game Festival

  • Created by: Shawn Zipay
  • Published: 04-13-2020, 02:59 PM
  • 0 comments

  Stay Inside this Summer with The Steam Game Festival

  See and demo new games for free.
  
  This Summer, Valve is going to bring back The Steam Game Festival for everyone to enjoy from the comfort of their own homes. From June 9 through June 14, gamers from all over the world will get a chance to see new and upcoming releases. You will get opportunities to try out some hot new demos, read about new game announcements, and yes, even add these newly announced titles to your Steam Wishlists.
  
  This event is held in an effort to "shine...

  Go to post

• ---

  Review: Half-Life Alyx is VR at Its Finest

  • Created by: Shawn Zipay
  • Published: 04-06-2020, 05:00 PM
  • 3 comments

  Review: Half-Life Alyx is VR at Its Finest

  A watershed moment for VR gaming.
  
  In the past several days, I have gone back and forth on what I wanted to write for the Half-Life: Alyx review. I have gone through several revisions and at least two full rewrites now. It's not that I am at a loss for words. It's more that I just have too much that I want to say. I want to go on and on about how neat this sequence was or how refined this aspect was. The result of that review was just some rambling word salad that made for a poor reading...

  Go to post

• ---

  Valve Offers Suggestions on Reducing Steam Bandwidth

  • Created by: Shawn Zipay
  • Published: 03-30-2020, 06:45 PM
  • 0 comments

  Valve Offers Suggestions on Reducing Steam Bandwidth

  Budget that bandwidth during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  
  Everyone is at home. If not, they probably should be. 2020 has been crazy wild and it's still only March. One of the things people have been doing more of, is playing games. What else is there to do when you're under quarantine? Work? HA! Screw that!
  
  The problem with being at home all the time like this, is that the network in your home, country, or even globally can be impacted significantly. People have more time now...

  Go to post

• ---

  Mike Shapiro, Voice of Half-Life's G-Man, Seems to be Teasing Something

  • Created by: Shawn Zipay
  • Published: 03-27-2020, 07:16 PM
  • 4 comments

  Mike Shapiro, Voice of Half-Life's G-Man, Seems to be Teasing Something

  Shapiro hints that his next project is a "blast from the past."
  
  Though Valve has just released Half-Life: Alyx, it wasn't exactly the Half-Life game many fans of the series wanted. Sure, it's an absolutely fantastic game but it's not exactly Half-Life 3, you know? Though it took Valve almost 13 years to get any sort of a new Half-Life game released after Half-Life 2: Episode Two, there may actually be something else coming sooner than you may think.
  
  One day after...

  Go to post

• ---

  Valve Fully Expects Someone Will Mod VR Out of Half-Life: Alyx

  • Created by: Shawn Zipay
  • Published: 03-24-2020, 07:14 PM
  • 4 comments

  Valve Fully Expects Someone Will Mod VR Out of Half-Life: Alyx

  The question is: What will be lost in translation?
  
  Half-Life: Alyx was just released and with it has come a heap of praise from those with VR headsets along with a heap of complaints from those who are against the mere idea of virtual reality. If you are expecting Valve to release a official version of the game that strips out the VR aspect, you are most certainly barking up the wrong tree. Half-Life: Alyx was built around VR, not the other way around. To release a version of the game...

  Go to post

• ---

  Half-Life: Alyx is Now Available

  • Created by: Shawn Zipay
  • Published: 03-23-2020, 12:14 PM
  • 1 comment

  Half-Life: Alyx is Now Available

  A new Half-Life game is actually here!
  
  Wow, who could have seen this coming? We finally have a new Half-Life game being released! Valve has just flipped the switch for every VR owner on Steam and Half-Life: Alyx is now released. It's the first Half-Life game released in 13 years. Let that sink in for a little while as Alyx decrypts in the background.
  
  Half-Life: Alyx is available now on Steam for $59.99 (USD). I'm going to do something I don't normally do during the day:...

  Go to post

• ---

  Gabe Newell Talks Epic Games Store, Dislikes the 'Apple Model' of Business

  • Created by: Shawn Zipay
  • Published: 03-20-2020, 05:15 PM
  • 0 comments

  Gabe Newell Talks Epic Games Store, Dislikes the 'Apple Model' of Business

  👀
  
  Valve's Gabe Newell hasn't said too much about the new digital retailer on the market, otherwise known as the Epic Games Store. In an upcoming interview with Edge magazine's Alex Spencer (issue 334), Newell opened up about a number of hot button subjects such as Half-Life: Alyx, the future of VR, and how he views "competition" from the Epic Games Store.
  
  Spencer asked Newell whether or not the competition from the Epic Games Store has affected Valve's own...

  Go to post

• ---

  Steam Game Festival: Spring Edition Starts March 18

  • Created by: Shawn Zipay
  • Published: 03-17-2020, 06:45 PM
  • 0 comments

  Steam Game Festival: Spring Edition Starts March 18

  Get ready for a bunch of pre-release demos.
  
  As they did with the 2019 Game Awards in December, so again will Valve host a special Steam Game Festival. This one begins tomorrow, March 18. There will be over 40 titles featured and include a bunch of games that were unable to be showcased at events like the Indie MEGABOOTH, Day of the Devs, and The MIX during GDC.
  
  The event kicks off at 10AM (PT) on the 18th and ends on March 23 at 10AM (PT). Once the event is live, you will...

  Go to post

• ---

  Steam and CS:GO Break Concurrent User Records Yet Again

  • Created by: Shawn Zipay
  • Published: 03-15-2020, 03:46 PM
  • 0 comments

  Steam and CS:GO Break Concurrent User Records Yet Again

  Actually, they broke records twice this weekend.
  
  It seems like Valve isn't a fan of vinyl because they've been busy breaking records left and right this past month. In early February, we brought you word about how Counter-Strike: Global Offensive broke its old concurrent player record twice in the same weekend. Once the dust settled on the whirlwind weekend of February 8-9, 2020, the top number saw over 901,000 concurrent players enjoying CS:GO at one time. This had beaten a record...

  Go to post

• ---

  Valve Experimenting with New Steam News Hub

  • Created by: Shawn Zipay
  • Published: 03-05-2020, 06:55 PM
  • 1 comment

  Valve Experimenting with New Steam News Hub

  This the the 9th Steam Labs Experiment.
  
  Thus far, the Steam Labs Experiments have already proven to be quite the success for Valve. These experimental features add in or change some level of functionality within Steam. If they prove to be a success among testers, Valve will graduate these experiments to the big time and make them a new feature for everyone on Steam to enjoy.
  
  The latest experiment kicked off today. Steam Labs Experiment 009: The News Hub is now available....

  Go to post