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Steam Archive

Team Fortress 2 patch adds new Highlander mode

By
Chip Loan
Published: 02/04/2010Tags: , , ,

Valve released a patch yesterday to their cartoon-inspired shooter Team Fortress 2. Which isn’t anything exciting in itself, but buried in that patch was a new Highlander mode. In Highlander mode each team consists of nine players and each team can only have one of each class. It sounds like fun, a mode where team balancing is all but guaranteed.

Unfortunately there isn’t any mention of mass decapitations, but I’m willing to look passed that. I played a few rounds today and it’s a blast. Definitely worthy of your time.

For a full breakdown of what else was included in the latest patch hit the break.

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Steam sees 25% growth in ‘09

By
Chip Loan
Published: 02/01/2010Tags: , , ,

2009 was a huge year for the gaming industry. Games like Modern Warfare 2 shattered sales records and raked in profits never before seen. We are talking swimming in gold Uncle Scrooge like money. And if Steam’s user base growth is any indication then Valve is riding the success wave as well.

In 2009 the digital software distributor saw a 25 per cent growth from it’s user base in 2008. The service now has over 25 million registered users logging an average of 13 billion minutes of playing time a month.

Valve’s president Gabe Newell had this to say about their success:

“Steam turned five years old in March 2009. With the introduction of each new platform feature released over the years – such as the Steam Community, Steam Cloud, and Steamworks – we’ve seen corresponding growth in account numbers, concurrent player numbers and developer support for the platform. As such, we plan to continue to expand and grow the platform to better serve the developers supporting the open platform and millions of gamers logging in each day.”

With so many people ready to put the last nail in PC gaming’s coffin it’s good to see that Valve is doing everything they can to keep it relevant.

SOURCE: GamesIndustry

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Steam’s top ten games for January 17-23

By
Chip Loan
Published: 01/25/2010Tags: , , , , , ,

Steam has released it’s list of top selling games for the week of January 17-23. And pre-orders take four of the top five spots.

The biggest surprise is Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Limited Edition taking the number two spot. The pre-order was only available for two out of the seven days. I expect it to handily take the number one spot from Mass Effect 2 Digital Deluxe Edition’s pre-order. Mass Effect 2 will be out this Tuesday.

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Steam slashes prices again this weekend

By
Chip Loan
Published: 07/25/2009Tags: , , ,

This weekend Steam is dangling some pretty tempting deals to wiggle that money out of your wallet. But with games selling for 50 – 75% off can anyone really complain?

Here’s the games you’ll practically be stealing this weekend:

velvetassassin

Velvet Assassin – 50% off

Inspired by the fascinating story and unbreakable spirit of British secret agent Violette Szabo, players take control of Violette Summer, a beautiful World War II spy deep behind enemy lines with no support or official backing from the British Government. Intense stealth action game play with a startling real-time lighting system and surreal visuals combine to produce an incredible gaming experience. Through third person game play, sneak up on enemies and pull the pins from their belted grenades. Infiltrate a Gestapo prison and slip cyanide to your own men before the Germans make them talk. And slink through the shadows to finish off your unsuspecting enemies with a single, silent move. Through Violette’s fever dreams, experience what she experienced. Walk where she walked. And kill those she killed.

x3

X3: Terran Conflict – 50% off

It is the year 2938. The long wished-for encounter of the X Universe and the Earth holds both joy and sorrow for the people. Despite flourishing trade, the clash of the diverse races, cultures and life forms creates new tensions, mistrust and open conflict that need to be overcome! Experience the brilliant climax of the legendary X-Trilogy , and take your place in the history of the X Universe.

menofwar

Men of War – 75% off

Men of War is a stunning Real-Time Strategy game that takes place during the height of World War II. Intense battles span Europe and North Africa as gamers play as Soviet, Allied or German forces across 19 massive single-player missions. Both online multiplayer and single-player conflicts feature authentic vehicles and weapons of the era and brutal combat that will take players into the heart of the fight.

if you’ve been on the fence about trying any of these games out STeam just gave you a kick in the ass. The sale ends Sunday so make your mind up quick!

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Soldier takes over Team Fortress 2 blog

By
Chip Loan
Published: 07/17/2009Tags: , ,

tf2soldier

Yesterday fans of the popular shooter Team Fortress 2 got a surprise message from their favorite grunt the games official blog. The main message of his rant was to let us all know about the release of some new Team Fortress 2 avatars available for use on Steam. But was he hinting at anything else?

After the post made it’s debut the TF2 forums blew up with speculation. Was he hinting at something? After all there hasn’t been any new class updates since the Sniper and Spy got remixed…is the Soldier’s turn coming next?

Suspiciously he twice mentions hill defense. Are we maybe getting a new game mode? King of the Hill perhaps? Or are we all reading too much into the random rant? It’s all up in the air but the devs over at Valve always seem to hint at their next big TF2 update, only time will tell if that theory holds true this time as well.

Head to the official Team Fortress 2 Blog to read the post and draw your own conclusions.

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Steam special: Fallout 3 50% off all weekend!

By
Chip Loan
Published: 07/03/2009Tags: ,

For those poor souls who haven’t been fortunate enough to play Fallout 3 Steam just made it a whole lot cheaper for you to enjoy. For this weekend at least.

From now until Monday July 6th you can pick up the game for the thrift store price of $24.99. Cheaper than you can buy the game used for crying out loud. Head over to Steam now and order the game here. Just be prepared for it to hinder your social life for a few weeks. You’ll be spending a lot of time camped at your PC.

fallout-3-screenshot

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New Team Fortress 2 Source SDK released

By
Chip Loan
Published: 06/16/2009Tags: , , ,

Valve has released an update to the Team Fortress 2 Source SDK making it easier to create and edit new maps for the popular online game.

Included in the update were the .vmf source files for 10 of the maps: Lumberyard, Ravine, Badlands, Dustbowl, Granary, Gravelpit, 2Fort, Badwater, Goldrush, and Hydro.

Dave Riller of the official Team Fortress 2 blog says:

“For the beginner map makers out there, we hope this gives you an easier entry point by allowing you to alter or edit an existing map, as opposed to being forced to start from scratch. For example, you could start by fine-tuning cover in Goldrush, alter the layout of Granary, or tweak the amount of health and ammo in Gravelpit. Or maybe you just have a ton of ideas on how you think you could improve Hydro or 2Fort. We’d love to see what you come up with.

For the experienced map makers, we hope this gives you a variety of examples of how we design and construct levels, the tools we use to finish the aesthetic/thematic elements, and some specific implementation solutions to performance and networking problems. We also hope that it’ll reduce the amount of confusion around the game logic and entity setup required for the various TF game modes.”

tf2

The update makes it a lot easier to edit maps because you no longer have to start from scratch. Having a template to work with and editing from that should simplify things for first time map editors and help speed up the process for the pros. Hopefully this translates into a steady stream of some great original content for the Team Fortress 2 community to play around with.

The Valve team teased at future releases as well “Our plan is to get more of our TF content source out in the SDK, so look for more maps & model sources in the future.”

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America’s Army 3 available for pre-load on Steam

By
Chip Loan
Published: 06/10/2009Tags: , , ,

Those of you who aren’t too busy hating on Valve for their Left 4 Dead 2 announcement might want to take some time to pre-load America’s Army 3. Like the previous two America’s Army titles the game will be free to play.

America’s Army 3 is boasting some major improvements over it’s two predecessors. The ultra-realistic first person shooter was built from the ground up this time around, using the Unreal Engine 3 to do most of the heavy lifting.  And no more jumping. Gone are the days of hopping around corners like a Halo freak. Also the U.S. Army took a lot of time and effort to improve on the movement mechanics. Players will move more fluidly and have smoother transitions between crouching positions, prone positions and full on sprints.

Another new feature will be highly accurate ballistics properties. The Army painstakingly integrated all of it’s ballistic information into the game. So each bullet will have it’s own unique physical properties. Each shot will sound different depending on the bullet used, location of the shot and where the shot hits. Bullets will now be able to blast through some materials as well. You’ll have to be very careful where you choose to take cover. That wooden wall just won’t cut it anymore.

americas-army-3-16

Along with the increased realism with inanimate objects comes realistic character damage as well. No health regeneration here. If you take a bullet to the leg sprinting won’t be an option. Get hit in the arm and you can kiss your accuracy goodbye. And if wounds aren’t treated by medics you’ll find yourself taking a dirt nap. That’s as real as it gets.

More new features include integrated team chat (finally!), achievements, and a very robust stat tracking system. All recommendations they received from the game’s online community. Kudos to the developers at the U.S. Army for listening.

Oh and let’s not forget the 126-player online action!

America’s Army 3 won’t be released until June 17th, but make sure to pre-load it now and save yourself some time later.

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TF2 Sniper update gets archer on your ass

By
Chip Loan
Published: 05/13/2009Tags: , , , ,

Steam is finally rolling out the update for the Sniper Class in Team Fortress 2. And no you won’t be getting some new high-powered .50 caliber sniper rifle. Instead you’ll get “The Huntsman”, a vicious and I’m sure challenging to use longbow. As in medieval Europe longbow.

Sure popping off headshots with the sniper rifle is fun, but why not step your game up and start picking people off with the bow and arrow!? Those unlucky enough to be near a wall when they are shot will be pinned up against it for all to see. Your corpse will be hanging there like a wonderful piece of TF2 art.

Valve will be releasing further info on new Achievements, maps, and additional unlockable weapons in the next few days. Check back with us.

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Steam FINALLY has global achievements

By
Chip Loan
Published: 05/08/2009Tags: , ,

Steam has finally stepped up to the plate and released global achievements. Probably the one and only complaint I had about Steam is gone and I can now die a happy man.

Here’s Steam’s official breakdown of how it will work:

“Global gameplay stats are now available for games that have Steam Achievements, showing what percentage of players have unlocked each achievement within a game.”

Now you can compare yourself with players all over the world. This goes even a little deeper than Trophies or Acievements for the Xbox 360. Not only can you see who else has unlocked the same achievement as you, but you can compare that number to the global percentage. If you are part of the 1.6% of Steam users to unlock the “A Year to Remember” achievement in Team Fortress 2 than you’re the man. Respect.

Click the jump to see the full list of games that have Steam Achievements.

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Steam makes buying Left 4 Dead a bargain…again

By
Chip Loan
Published: 05/01/2009Tags: , , ,

We told you yesterday that Steam was insane enough to let you try Left 4 Dead for 24 hours at no charge. Well the fine people over at Valve forgot to take their medication again today because they are sweetening the deal even more. 

You can still play L4D for free today, but if you decide to buy it (and you will) it will only set you back $23.99. That’s 40% off for all you math geniuses.

Do yourself a favor and get the free trial if you are one of the 458 people on this Earth how haven’t played L4D yet. Happy zombie hunting!

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Left 4 Dead is FREE tomorrow on Steam

By
Chip Loan
Published: 04/30/2009Tags: ,

Hey Steam, has anyone told you lately how much we love you? Because we do. With your crazy weekend sales and your free trials of games, you just make us tingle in all the right places.

Starting at 12:01am tonight Steam will let you play Left 4 Dead for FREE. You’ll get twenty four hours of zombie killing fun and you don’t have to pay a dime. 

Save yourself some time and download / preload the game so you can start right away when the clock strikes 12:01am! You know I’ll be playing.

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$9.99 for The Orange Box = Steam is crazy

By
Chip Loan
Published: 04/25/2009Tags: , , , , , ,

 That’s right kiddos. Steam is nice enough to cut you some slack and give your wallet a well needed break. For the ridiculously low price of $9.99 you get Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2 Episode One, Half-Life 2 Episode Two, Team Fortress 2 and Portal.

The deal is only good for this weekend so you better get your ass in gear. $9.99 is a steal for anyone of those games on their own, but for all five games that’s just silly. They have other deals worth taking a look at as well. So head over to Steam  now and save some cash!

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Left 4 Dead update fixes boo-boos

By
Chip Loan
Published: 04/23/2009Tags: , , ,

 Valve has released an update on steam to fix some exploits in the new Survival Mode as well as some other goodies.

An update for the Xbox 360 version will come later.

Here’s a list of the updates:

  • Darkened the Lighthouse background movie and increased the contrast with the user interface elements
  • Chapter selection is now available when creating a Survival lobby
  • Single player coop now works correctly after playing Survival online
  • The correct game mode will be set when playing back a demo
  • Changed holdout server spew to be development only
  • Stats are no longer updated while viewing a demo
  • Correctly update the leaderboard based on the player’s personal time, not the team best time
  • Show the player’s best time in the scoreboard
  • Removed Survival exploits from The Terminal, Last Stand, The Crane, The Boathouse and The Warehouse
  • Fixed tanks sometimes not spawning after 15-20 minutes
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    Team Fortress 2 updates released

    By
    Chip Loan
    Published: 04/21/2009Tags: , , ,

     Steam has released some new updates for their cartoony and addicting shooter. I have to say I’m a little confused with some of the changes they have made. Here’s one of the changes that got us talking “Added the ability for players to permanently delete items from their inventory using the new Backpack menu. This does not reset achievements. Once an item has been deleted it can never be re-earned.” Ouch. You better be %100 sure you no longer want an item before you get rid of it or you’re screwed.

    Here’s the full list of changes and fixes from Steam:

    Game Changes

    • Reworked the character loadout screens to support future features
    • Added the ability for players to permanently delete items from their inventory using the new Backpack menu. This does not reset achievements. Once an item has been deleted it can never be re-earned
    • Added the ability for players to reset their player stats using the Reset Stats button on the Stats menu. This does not reset achievements
    • Added a “player_teleported” game event that is sent when a player is teleported
    • Updated cp_junction_final to score per-capture instead of per-round. This fixes the map not working correctly with Tournament mode and the stopwatch
    • Scouts now drop the flag if they’re carrying it when they start phasing

    Fixes

    • Fixed instances where Steam connection problems would cause some unlocked items to be unusable
    • Fixed the custom crosshair menu not clearing itself when “None” is selected for non-English clients
    • Fixed warning about not being able to execute skill1.cfg when starting the dedicated server
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