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19 CommentsValve unveils Steam Trading Cards for players to earn and trade for rewards
By Dave Tach on May 15, 2013 05.15.13
Valve unveiled a beta program for Steam Trading Cards today, which users can earn, trade and cash in for rewards, according to a press release from the company. Participating players will earn game-specific trading cards and turn them in for rewards like game badges, profile backgrounds, emoticons, coupons and more through the Steam Trading Cards program. "Up to half" a game's card set will be available from playing the game. The other half is "earned through your collecting prowess." Players who "craft" their cards into game badges, which appear on user profiles, can also "level up" their badges by collecting the set of cards again. Games supporting the Steam Trading Cards at its beta launch include Don't Starve, Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Team Fortress 2, Portal 2...
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14 CommentsHalf-Life 2 gets official support for Oculus Rift VR headset
By Michael McWhertor on May 09, 2013 05.09.13
Valve added support for the Oculus Rift VR headset to its landmark first-person shooter Half-Life 2 in the latest update to the game that also added support for SteamPipe, Steam's new content distribution system. Joe Ludwig, the Valve programmer who lead development of Oculus Rift support for Team Fortress 2, announced the feature on the Oculus developer forums. The virtual reality option for Half-Life 2 is included in the game's opt-in beta version, and Ludwig says it should ship "to everybody in a few weeks." "This port is a bit more raw than TF2 was when it shipped," Ludwig explained, "so we would appreciate hearing about any bugs you find. Just like in TF2 this mode is experimental, so we really want to hear what you think." Ludwig reports a few known issues, including problems...
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8 CommentsHalf-Life 2 mod Minerva comes to Steam for free
By Emily Gera on Apr 30, 2013 04.30.13
The Adam Foster-developed Half-Life 2 mod Minerva is coming to Steam later today following its initial release in 2007, Eurogamer reports. The updated game will feature a number of bug fixes, visual tweaks, improved puzzles, in addition to a few other improvements in time for its Steam release. The mod will require Half-Life 2: Episode One to play; however, Minerva will be made available for free beyond that initial necessity. Minerva refers to the mod's unseen narrator who guides the player as they explore a mysterious underground Combine facility. The game will become available on Steam in late morning west coast time.
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10 CommentsSkyrim modded with Oculus Rift support
By Jenna Pitcher on Apr 22, 2013 04.22.13
YouTube user "Chris Gallizzi" successfully modded Skyrim with Oculus Rift support using Vireio Perception Driver, according to a video posted on YouTube. The two-minute video demonstrates one-on-one sword combat and traversing the snowy environment on horseback. "It takes some adjusting depending on your sight..." said "Chris Gallizzi" in response to a commenter's question if the technology really does cover users natural FOV. He went on to say that he was near sighted "so i had to adjust the FOV from 100 to 110 to make everything seem correct [sic]." Vireio Perception includes support for games such as Half-Life 2, Left 4 Dead and Mirror's Edge. Last week, virtual reality specialists, Virtuix, released a video of someone playing Team Fortress 2 with an Oculus Rift and a Virtuix...
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32 CommentsGabe Newell on Valve's past, gaming's present and Steam's future
By Griffin McElroy on Feb 01, 2013 02.01.13
Despite the fact that Windows was in 30 million homes, and was performing much better than Microsoft had assumed, it was still being outsold by a much smaller piece of software, from a much smaller company: id Software's Doom. "Somehow, the largest software company in the world was being out distributed by a 12-person company in Mesquite, Texas," Newell said. "There was no conception, there was no model for how this made any sense. How could they possibly have done this, right? It took years to build up enough distribution strength to go from number seven to number six in the word processing category, much less to come out of nowhere with a product that would be on more desktops than the most important product that Microsoft had." When Newell and collaborator Mike Harrington decided...
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3 CommentsHalf-Life's Gravity Gun recreated as a toy, will be available for purchase in spring
By Alexa Ray Corriea on Dec 18, 2012 12.18.12
Toy making company Neca Online's recreation of Half-Life 2's Gravity Gun will be available for purchase in the spring, the company announced today on its official blog. Designed primarily for the handling of hazardous materials and heavy lifting, this item from Gordon Freeman's trademark arsenal, formally known as the Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator, will soon be available for everyday use or decorating shelf space. The gun is also a 1:1 scale and lights up, a faithful real-life replica of one of Half-Life 2's more useful weapons. Quantities will be limited, with pre-orders beginning soon. The Gun can be seen in person on display at the 2013 New York Toy Fair on Feb. 9. Take look at the real deal below.
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3 CommentsDear Esther artist teases new 'Stalker-like' project
By Emily Gera on Oct 24, 2012 10.24.12
Dear Esther Artist Robert Briscoe is working on a new "Stalker-like" project, he announced during an interview on podcast Unlimited Hyperbole. Briscoe, who also previously worked as an environment designer on Mirror's Edge, states he will be developing the project alone, creating "something entirely of my own creation." "Dear Esther was a great project," he says. "[But] this time around? I've always had this idea in my head of this sort of open-world, Stalker-like game without weapons. With a horror aspect to it. I've never had the opportunity to it because the scope of it is so huge...I can't even believe I'm contemplating doing it! It's so unreal...but this is the whole thing with me: I want to see if it's possible for just one person to make a game on a scale that's probably never...
'The Stanley Parable: HD Remix' is searching for Greenlight
By Dave Tach on Sep 13, 2012 09.13.12
The Stanley Parable: HD Remix, a Half-Life 2 mod that dabbles in insanity and may or may not be about something, has entered Steam Greenlight looking for votes. "The game is an experiment in video game storytelling, or the point of it might be that there's actually no story at all, or maybe the point is that there's no game. It's about choice and freedom, possibly, but actually it might be about something else," reads the game's description on Greenlight. "You will make a decision that means nothing, you will walk a path that goes nowhere, and if you REEEEEEEEALLY look hard enough, none of it will make sense." You can take a narrative trip through the game's screenshots and check out a trailer for The Stanley Parable: HD Remix below.
'Natural Selection 2' shows how RTS + FPS = dinosaurs and exosuits
By Dave Tach on Aug 30, 2012 08.30.12
Charlie Cleveland created the first Natural Selection because he was unhappy. The long hours and creative frustrations he endured at a Boston-based developer left him unfulfilled, so in his spare time he began to program and design a mod for Half-Life 2, inspired by mods like "Gloom" that had shown him that modding had potential to create something unique and atmospheric. As he worked on Empire Earth, Stainless Steel Studios' 2001 real-time strategy game, he began to notice a divergence in tastes. While his friends wanted to play Quake, he wanted to play Starcraft. Their differences were irreconcilable in retail games, so he decided to use his modding skills to change that. "I love real-time strategy games," Cleveland told Polygon. "But a lot of my friends only love shooters. "I love...
Why Plastic Piranha's 'Rekoil' is a perfect fit for Steam Greenlight
By Samit Sarkar on Aug 29, 2012 08.29.12
Rekoil, a multiplayer first-person shooter, made a splash at E3, and developer Plastic Piranha felt that the positive buzz would be enough to get the game noticed. The studio was right — Valve came calling, giving Plastic Piranha the hope that Rekoil would be sold on Steam. But Valve had a slightly different idea. According to Kevin Dent, a business-development executive working to bring Rekoil to market, Valve requested that Plastic Piranha go through Steam Greenlight, its upcoming community-driven system for picking games to be distributed on Steam. "We were kinda perturbed initially," Dent told Polygon in a phone interview, saying that Plastic Piranha viewed the request as an indictment of Rekoil's quality, as if Valve didn't think it was good enough to make it onto Steam through...
