It should come as no surprise to regular readers of Blast that I’m openly waiting with childish anticipation for Valve to even mention the words Half, Life and the number 3 in the same sentence, but they just don’t seem to be ready to spill the beans. When protests, mailings and sluething don’t work? What’s an anxious gamer to do? Well, apparently play the latest game in the series.

A group calling themselves “A Call for Communication” has organized a massive event, where over 30,000 people have pledged to sit down and play Half-Life 2 — all in an effort to get more communication from Valve. “We have decided to gain Valve’s attention by delivering a basic message: Your oldest and longest running fanbase would like better communication,” said one posting.

The event happens this Sunday from 11am-11:30Am PST. Now that’s my kind of protesting.

Valve is pretty well known for trolling its own fans, especially when it comes to the often rumored and long waited Half Life 3 or Half Life 2:Episode 3. Could this be the ultimate trolling?

Probably not.

Spotted on Reddit by Kotaku, this Onion Ring bears a design strikingly similar to the logo of Valve’s famed shooter. Is it some sort of sign that we’re finally getting Episode 3? Who knows, but I bet it’s delicious.

The message boards for Valve’s popular gaming portal Steam were reportedly hacked last night with multiple users claiming that the forums would redirect them to a website for the hacking group “Fknowned.”

Here’s where things get weird though, the group denies all involvement in the hack. So much so in fact that they have taken down their own site and denied any involvement in the incident.

It’s unlikely that any personal data was stolen in the hack. We’ll update you once we learn more.

A while back I joked that I was so eager for a new Half Life that I would take “Gordon Freeman’s Kart Racing Spectacular.” Turns out someone was listening.

Sega announced that Gordon Freeman will appear as a bonus character in their top down vehicle shooter Renegade Ops.Players will be able to take control of the Half Life 2 buggy to “unleashes the Ant Lions to aid the Renegade Ops as they fight their enemies.”

Rennegade Ops will be available on Steam on October 14.

Valve has made it very clear that they’re not ready to talk about the next installment of Half-Life, let along admit that it’s currently in development, but that doesn’t mean that studio head Gabe Newell isn’t above having fun with fans who e-mail him asking about the game, while stirring the pot in the meantime.

The story goes like this; a Reddit user reportedly sent a tongue-in-cheek e-mail containing the following Haiku to Newell:

Do you like haikus?
I like to write them sometimes…
Episode 3 soon?

And here’s Newell’s response:

Haikus are neato
They have a rigid structure
Episode 3 ships in

When? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WHEN? Newell you cheeky bastard you…

Right now, Steam, Valve’s online gaming and matchmaking service is only available on PC, Mac and PS3, but the service’s online support forums feature a spot for Xbox Support, sparking rumors that the service could soon be unveiled for Microsoft’s console.

Valve has been very open about the fact that they’d love to see the service on the console, in fact Valve’s Erik Johnson told website Computer and Video Games that “We think customers would like Steam on Xbox 360. We think, anyway. We’d love to try that.” the company has also been very open about the fact that it’s not up to them as to when or if the the service hits the console, as much of the content (patches, mods) conflict with a number of Xbox Live’s policies.

It’s important to note that though the Steam service is currently unavailable on Xbox, a number of Valve’s games are, and the listing is more than likely due to that fact.

Here’s your first look at next year’s Counter Strike: Global Offensive, the just revealed new update to one of the most prolific multiplayer franchises.

With all of the trash talk going on in the video game business lately, you’d expect the folks at Steam to be pretty pissed that EA won’t be offering their hugely anticipated shooter Battlefield 3 to the service in favor of their own client, Origin. You’ve apparently never met Gabe Newell.

Newell, head of Valve and Steam recently spoke to Develop Magazine regarding getting the publisher’s titles back on the service. “We have to show EA it’s a smart decision to have EA games on Steam, and we’re going to try to show them that,” he said.

Though Newell wasn’t clear on just how he was going to show EA, he was pretty confident that the two parties would be able to come to some kind of agreement. “I think at the end of the day we’re going to prove to Electronic Arts they have happier customers, a higher quality service, and will make more money if they have their titles on Steam. It’s our duty to demonstrate that to them. We don’t have a natural right to publish their games.”

Battlefield 3 launches October 25 on PS3, Xbox 360, PC and Origin.

Every year at this time, I get hopeful. Hopeful that Valve will use E3 to announce something, anything Half Life related. This year, they made things easier on me, announcing ahead of time that they won’t be at the show in an official capacity.

The announcement was made via an e-mail that went out to gaming press sites telling them that there’s no need to book an appointment to see the company because they simply won’t have anything to show. Fair enough.

I guess there’s always E3 2012.

The central question concerning Portal 2 is whether or not it could rise to meet the high bar that comes attached with every Valve game in addition to being the sequel of one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time. In many ways it not only meets but exceeds those expectations by blowing the scale of the first Portal out of the water and by incorporating several ingenious new gameplay mechanics that facilitate some of the most inventive 3D puzzles the industry has ever seen. While Valve’s sequel is not as perfect as the original due to a less captivating story and narrative delivery, it is still incredible in its own right.

Portal 2 begins with the player character, Chell, being woken up at some indeterminable point in the future by Wheatley, an AI core charged with managing the thousands of test subjects in stasis. Wheatley transports Chell’s stasis container through a maze of structures, crashing into other containers along the way and providing a nice opportunity to show off the geometry deformation that will be a graphical highlight throughout the game.  The entire sequence is a subtle, twisted nod to the tram opening of Valve’s first title, Half-Life.

After breaking through a final wall, Wheatley deposits Chell at her final destination which not so coincidentally happens to be the starting room of the first Portal. Only now, the Aperture Science facility has fallen into a state of disarray with dilapidated walls that have been overrun with fauna indicating that many years have passed since Chell destroyed GLaDOS. The first handful of rooms that Chell navigates serve a dual function of introducing new players to the mechanics of Portal while simultaneously playing up the nostalgia of veteran players for the original game.

For those that haven’t played the first Portal, the most basic way that the player moves through the world is by using the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device which is commonly referred to as the portal gun. The portal gun fires a blue portal with one button and an orangeportal with another. Entering through the blue portal will cause the player to exit through the orange portal and vice versa. Additionally, the speed at which objects enter one portal will be the speed at which they exit the other meaning that the player can “fling” themselves over long distances by jumping down a great height into a portal on the floor and then exiting through a portal on a wall. Manipulating portalplacement to solve puzzles was the fundamental gameplay of the original game and Portal 2 covers much of the same ground in the beginning.

Wheatley helps the player move through the facility’s test rooms and back halls while an emergency broadcast system offers hilarious commentary that replaces the auto-tuned taunting of GLaDOS (my favorite: “If the laws of physics have been abandoned in the future, God help me).

Speaking of the lovable villain from the first game, it should come as no surprise that she is reintroduced in all of her sarcastic, trash-talking glory early on. In the course of attempting to leave the Aperture Science facility, Chell and Wheatley inadvertently reactivate GLaDOS which leads to a sequence of testing as experienced in the original Portal. However, since GLaDOS has been deactivated for such a long time, no test chambers are prepared so the player is treated to an impressive display of visuals as GLaDOS constructs each one on the fly. These puzzles are very similar to those of the first game with a few additional mechanics thrown in to mix things up such as flight pads that propel Chell through the air, weighted cubes that can redirect lasers, and hard light bridges that can be used to span gaps or to protect the player from turret fire. While the new puzzles are enjoyable, there is an unavoidable feeling that sets in after the first few chapters of retreading familiar ground.

Just when it seems like Portal 2 will be nothing more than a slightly tweaked rehash of the original, Valve flips the script and kicks things into overdrive

Just when it seems like Portal 2 will be nothing more than a slightly tweaked rehash of the original, Valve flips the script and kicks things into overdrive. Without giving too much away, the situation changes quickly with a twist to the story –albeit one that is a bit too obvious– that sends the player off into previously unexplored areas of the Aperture Science facility. It is at this point that Portal 2 turns a corner and becomes a fantastic game in its own right with wild new mechanics, inventive puzzles, and an awe-inspiring scale to the level design.

Progressing through new parts of the Aperture Science facility introduces additional gameplay mechanics, most prominently in the form of three experimental gels the company developed. Each one has a unique property: blue repulsion gel makes objects bounce great distances in the opposite direction, red propulsion gel causes high-speed movement, and white portal-conduction gel allows placement of portals on any surface it covers. There are pumps that output the gels into test chambers and Chell must use her portal gun in combination with the gels to tackle a nice array of new challenges. Many puzzles require a combination of gels for mind-bending solutions and these are some of the finest tests that Valve has created across both games. Things get even more creative when the excursion funnels, tubes of light that push or pull objects, are factored in allowing players to distribute the gels throughout levels in new ways. Beyond being extremely clever in their implementation and forcing players to think in new directions, the gels are simply a lot of fun to use. Splattering the bright colors across surfaces speaks to the two year old in all of us and bouncing off floors and walls is so enjoyable it will draw a smile from even the most jaded gamers.

In addition to the ingenuity of the gameplay, the latter half of Portal 2 is so impressive because of the scale of the environments that the player must navigate, particularly their verticality. The new areas are massive, cavernous spaces that in many cases are several stories in height. To navigate through these locations requires the player to span great distances with portals or, when that is not an option, by flinging at incredible speed. These are all things that have been done before in the original but the increased scale amplifies the wow factor of these actions. Using a portal to maneuver through a small test chamber is neat; crossing a chasm the length of a football field by stepping through a window in the fabric of space is downright cool. The larger spaces more effectively convey the power of the tool the player has at her disposal.

That being said, there are some issues that arise with the larger areas that are not as prevalent in the smaller test chambers. In several instances, especially in very tall levels, the “correct” solution to arrive at the exit necessitates placing a portal in a specific location very high up that can be hard to spot. One particular chamber comes to mind in which I spent roughly 15 minutes trying various solutions because I hadn’t noticed a place for a portal that was hidden at the top of the room in a dark corner.

This last point brings up another issue with Portal 2 which is that the game feels much more linear with its solutions than its predecessor did. One of the fantastic things about Portal was that there were a myriad number of solutions to each test chamber. The tests in Portal 2don’t feel like they have as much leeway for thinking outside of the box especially when navigating the wide-open areas of the game. That is not to say that there aren’t multiple solutions to the puzzles but the feeling of the game overall is that the player is searching for the path the designers intended as opposed to the organic puzzle solving of the first game.

Visually, Portal 2 is a significant improvement over the simple graphics and sterile textures of the original game. The rendering of the enormous spaces and the animation of multitudes of moving parts as tests chambers are constructed and shifted about is, in a word, impressive. Moving through the back halls of the facility’s construction area is another highlight as the player is treated to various wonders such as the piece-by-piece assembly of a turret in a beautiful, automated ballet of technology. It is admirable how far Valve has been able to push the Source engine but, as good as Portal 2 looks compared to the original, it doesn’t quite measure up to its contemporaries in the first person genre. More specifically, the texturing in the game leaves a lot to be desired when considered alongside the visuals of games like Crysis 2 and Bulletstorm. While the fidelity may not be as high as those games, graphical problems were almost non-existent with the lone issue that comes to mind being some texture popping when splashing the same space with multiple colored gels.

In many ways, Portal 2 is a massive improvement over the first game but the story and narrative delivery fall disappointingly short of the original. Unlike Portal, which presented a premise and then gradually peeled away the layers of “reality” to reveal the true nature of the situation through subtle environmental cues, the sequel is a straightforward tale of escape. The twist that is thrown in near the halfway mark can be seen coming far in advance but the reasons for its occurrence don’t make much sense and it seems to exist only out of necessity to do something interesting with the plot. As the player moves through the new areas of the facility, she is presented with a lot of background information about Aperture Science, its founder Cave Johnson, the origins of GLaDOS, and the nature and evolution of the facility itself. This knowledge provides welcome revelations but filling in the back-story feels more like a corollary to the original game. It gives off the impression that Valve made the safe play of falling back on explanations to pre-existing questions rather than forging ahead with an engaging new story.

The chief complaint lobbied against the original Portal was that the game was too short (it could be finished in less than four hours) and gamers desperately clamored for more. Portal 2 avoids that pitfall by providing plenty of gameplay, roughly double that of the first, in an experience that feels just right in length. There’s almost always a feeling of ending too soon in a game that is this fun but when the conclusion came it felt like the right time, as if all the creative angles had been explored properly. While the game’s final challenge is uninspired and too easy, the ending that follows is superb. It is one of the most memorable in recent years and nicely wraps up a fantastic journey. Many great games have finished with a whimper because of a weak ending or bad cliffhanger –several of Valve’s previous efforts included—but, thankfully, that is not the case here.

Blast Factor: Portal 2 is, simply put, an amazing game. The new gameplay mechanics make for even more incredible puzzle solving; the sense of scale is astounding; and the twisted, dark sense of humor remains hilarious. It may not come quite as close to perfection as the original title because of weaker narrative delivery but it is still a must-play for anyone that enjoys videogames. Buy it without hesitation, play it, and then share it with friends who don’t play games so they can see what they’re missing out on.

Editor’s Note: Due to PSN outages, we were unable to properly review the cooperative play mode of Portal 2 which is a significant component of the game. As soon as the service is active, we will post our review of the co-op mode as well as comparisons between the console and PC versions of the game.

Portal 2 is available now for the PS3, Xbox 360, Mac and PC from Valve, a copy of the PS3 version of the  game was purchased for this review.

Rumors circulated this morning that a countdown clock at the website for Aperture Science, the in game company for Valve’s upcoming Portal sequel would mark the announcement that the game would be released early.

Errr….yes and no.

The good news is that you CAN help get Portal 2 out and the even better news is that all you have to do is play a ton of really awesome indie games to make it happen. Sticking with the theme of needing more computing power to unlock the game early, the AR game’s release is dependent on Steam users playing a series of indie games like Super Meat Boy, The Ball and Amnesia: The Dark Descent. As of this writing, the computer is planning on releasing Portal 2 in about 86 hours. Not soon enough! It’s an easy equation really, more people playing more of these games and Portal 2 comes out even sooner.

Half Life 2: Episode 2 was released on October 10 2007. That’s three years, four months and 11 days, or 1230 days ago as of this writing (but hey who’s counting). Apparently though, it’s still too early to talk about the long anticipated next game in the series, Half Life 2: Episode 3.

“Valve is still not prepared to talk about” Half-Life: Episode Three at the moment,” the series head writer Chet Falisek said in a recent interview with News.com.au before acting like the phone was getting bad reception.

How far off from the game are we? Who even knows. A new rumor though, suggests that the game may not even release in episodic form, but rather in retail box form. Either way, we just want the game now…please?

Source

You may remember a few weeks ago that Valve announced Portal would be free for roughly two weeks to coincide with the launch of Steam for Macs. Well, since that announcement the game has been downloaded over 1.5 million times proving unsurprisingly that people really love free shit.

The free offering of Portal is a huge boon for Mac fans who may not have had a chance to play the game on other platforms and now get it for nothing – and the rare PC gamer who has not played Portal. Portal is one of the coolest games I’ve ever played and it’s truly original in a way that I can hardly compare to any other game that I know of. It is a definite must-play and I don’t say that about many games anymore just because the market is so flooded. For me Portal falls into the category of real art because it takes the player on a fantastic visual and emotional journey that enlightens as it thoroughly entertains – and it does so with such a subtle brilliance that you might even tear up a little.

While you have to love Valve for doing this, it really is the best possible marketing tool for Portal 2. How better to stoke the fervor for a full-blown sequel to what was basically an experiment, than to let everyone they can in on the original experiment. Valve knows how good Portal is. They are smart enough to realize if they give you cake now, you will need the cake again on Dec 31 when Portal 2 is set to release.

Steam for Mac launched a couple days ago and while we remain disappointed  that it’s not called iSteam, there is good news.

Portal, the award-winning and mind-bending puzzle game from Valve, in celebration of Steam’s arrival for Steve Jobs’ computers, has gone free now until May 24.

But I’m guessing you already knew that. Here’s something (hopefully) new. Valve released this cute, little trailer for the game today and well, it does its job. Enjoy.

Yesterday, May 12, was the first day in the history of the world, Mac users could download Steam and enjoy the fruits of its gaming power.

The celebration continues today, as Valve announced it’s giving away copies of the fascinating puzzle game Portal now until May 24.

What lifts this announcement from good to great is that the freebie is being offered to both Mac and PC users.

If you haven’t played Portal yet, now is absolutely the time.

Portal is FREE!

Valve’s Team Fortress 2, one of the most avidly played PC titles, is one that’s been updated so many times over the course of its history, it’s hard to imagine the day-one version.

Even after 199 updates, Valve isn’t content with stopping and will update the Engineer class sometime very soon.

Recently, the sneaky folks at Valve unleashed an Engineer update teaser trailer. It features a grinning and laughing Engineer, fashioning something on his dark basement workbench.

Go ahead, speculate!

What’re you doing this Thursday? If you’re a fan of the hugely popular and overly grotesque shooter “Left 4 Dead 2,” you might want to call in sick, as Valve will release “The Passing” DLC for the game this Thursday.

The Passing

The downloadable content was supposed to arrive in late March, but a quick check of the calendar reveals that clearly didn’t happen. Better late than never, right?

The Passing comes to Xbox Live this Thursday, April 22 at 560 MS Points. It’s called “The Passing” for a reason. In it, you’ll meet up with original L4D characters and one of them, Louis, Zoey, Francis or Bill will die. Ready for the drama?

Prepare to believe the hype, as Valve’s chief Gabe Newell, speaking at GDC 2010, has said Portal 2 is Valve’s “best game ever.”

According to CVG, Newell said “pretty clear, just internally,” that Portal 2 is the best game the studio has ever made. That would put it above the Half-Life, Team Fortress and Left 4 Dead franchises.

It was also revealed earlier this week that the original Portal was merely a “test bed.”  And that the sequel is the full game and the real deal.

I thought the original was very unique and actually quite fun. Can’t wait for sequel.

Source: Computer and Video Games

In a not so surprising announcement, Valve today revealed its popular digital distribution service Steam is coming to Mac this April.

TF2 on Mac

That’s right, soon Left 4 Dead, Half-Life, Counter Strike, Team Fortress 2 and Portal will finally arrive for followers of Apple.

“As we transition from entertainment as a product to entertainment as a service, customers and developers need open, high-quality Internet clients,” said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. “The Mac is a great platform for entertainment services.”

The Mac version of Steam will mirror its Windows counterpart but will add a feature called “Steam Play.” This feature will allow anyone buying Valve games through Steam on Mac to play them on Windows Steam

“We looked at a variety of methods to get our games onto the Mac and in the end decided to go with native versions rather than emulation,” said John Cook, Director of Steam Development. “The inclusion of WebKit into Steam, and of OpenGL into Source gives us a lot of flexibility in how we move these technologies forward. We are treating the Mac as a tier-1 platform so all of our future games will release simultaneously on Windows, Mac, and the Xbox 360. Updates for the Mac will be available simultaneously with the Windows updates. Furthermore, Mac and Windows players will be part of the same multiplayer universe, sharing servers, lobbies, and so forth. We fully support a heterogeneous mix of servers and clients. The first Mac Steam client will be the new generation currently in beta testing on Windows.”

Portal 2 will be the first Valve title to launch on Mac and PC at the same time this Fall.

Any Mac gamers out there partying in the streets at this news?

Source: Kotaku

Valve, known for its excellence in games with guns, packed in a unique puzzle game by the name of Portal in 2007′s “The Orange Box.” After a week of teases, Valve made it official, as “Portal 2″ graces April’s GameInformer magazine cover.

The game is slated for a Holiday 2010 release date, so save up that gift money and prepare for more Chell and Cube.

Here’s the cover art for next month’s magazine.

April GI cover.

For more, check out the Portal 2 hub at Game Informer.

Ever wonder what the world of the fast-paced and cartoonish Team Fortress 2 would look like if it was a side-scroller?

Designer “Dylan Lonely” doesn’t just have a splendiferous name, he’s also a man with a promising career in games. He created this re-imagining of the popular Valve PC title and brings about the question, when can I play it?!

As you’d expect, the Scout is featured heavily in the side-scroller. He is the most nimble and agile of the cast, but the Heavy makes an appearance too, if for nothing more than to blast through a wall with his hand-held chaingun.

Source: Joystiq

Valve’s award winning and awe-inspiring unique puzzle game “Portal” recently got updated, changing the game’s ending to something quite dramatic and teasing.

As I’m not one to spoil things, and fans of the game would kill me, so go ahead and watch it!

It’s no secret Valve doesn’t develop for PlayStation 3, outside of the Orange Box of course.

Speaking with industry site Computer And Video Games, Valve said it didn’t put its “best foot forward” with the aforesaid game and is actively seeking to “get better” working with the system.

The Xbox 360 version of the Orange Box was very well received but the PS3 iteration, outsourced by Valve to Electronic Arts for development, was plagued with issue after issue.

Valve wants to make good though and Left 4 Dead writer Chet Faliszek says the studio won’t develop for the system until the team is ready to put out the best product.

“We thought that the Orange Box didn’t put our best foot forward with the PS3 community. We don’t want to do something like that again on the PS3. We want to give PS3 owners the best possible experience.

“Some of that will come from us learning and getting better. Before we can go onto the PS3 again, we want to make sure we’re better at developing for it.”

This news comes following Valve’s statement last week of its intent to develop for the system “down the road.”

Nothing too confrontational or controversial here. Glad to hear Valve won’t do PS3 until it can do it right.

Source: CVG

Steam is pretty much the best service for PC gamers, and if it wasn’t already great enough, Valve recently launched an open beta for a dynamically overhauled iteration of the beast.

The new iTunes feel

Valve’s calling it “A Brand New Steam” and it looks to be a generally more effective way to play your favorite games.

You can sign up to join the public beta right here and here’s what awaits you.

An expanded friends list, allowing you to keep better track of what your friends are up to, an aggregated news feed, a way to see your in-game achievements on the fly, and, for the true game enthusiast, the library has been updated allowing you to form categories like “games I should play with my girlfriend” or “games I shouldn’t tell my girlfriend about.”

Storefront.

On top of everything, the user interface just looks sleeker, and that’s nice.

Head on over to the “A Brand New Steam” page for full details on the revamp.

Game-maker Valve today expressed its discontent with the proliferation of shovelware citing “sh*tty party games” as the problem at hand with today’s motion-controlled market and said when Project Natal rolls out, gamers shouldn’t expect any gimmicky nonsense from the studio.

Valve’s Chet Faliszek said he doesn’t think mini-games need to exist anymore and noted the real excitement should lie within different ways to approach these new technologies, namely Microsoft’s motion-sensing tech, Project Natal.

“Hopefully we’ve gotten past the point of mini-games,” said Faliszek. “I’m sick of that [makes arm movement]. That’s not a game for me anymore. Let’s get some real interaction going. We have these technologies now that let us interact in different, really exciting ways. It’s developers’ jobs to do something with it. Impress me. Don’t just make sh*tty games I wouldn’t want to play if I had to use a joystick.”

Could we see a motion-enabled Left 4 Dead somewhere? Hell, that’d be cool, but I think Valve has a far grander scheme up its blood-encrusted sleeve.

Source: Destructoid

PlayStation 3 owners hankering for some Valve lovin’ will get it at one point or another in the coming years, as the company today expressed interest in developing for the system.

Valve’s Chet Faliszek said when it does happen, it’ll be a product of invested time and effort.

“Before we do anything on the PS3 we need to be able to support it in the right way, but we’ll look at it, and I’m sure down the road we’ll do it.”

Valve has said it doesn’t want to develop an inferior product for the system, kinda like that Orange Box port, so it’s very reassuring to hear when they do decide to develop for the PS3, it’ll be done well.

Source: Destructoid

Valve released a crippling statistic today. And it wasn’t how many Twinkies the entire staff eats during the development cycle of one of their games.

The number is a Left 4 Dead 2 zombie killcount, and it numbers in the billions. 28,981,249,043 to be exact.

That’s how many foaming-at-the-mouth undead gamers have slain since the game released late last year. Pretty impressive.

To put that mammoth figure in perspective though, consider these points of inspection from Valve.

• The entire population of the planet has been zombified and killed 4.26 times.
• With the average height of a zombie being 6 feet, if you stacked them end to end they would circle the globe 1,322 times.
• If you placed 28,981,249,043 rulers end to end, they would reach 28,981,249,043 feet in the sky.

Not to worry though because Valve has promised to make more.

Source: Left 4 Dead Blog

Valve, at today’s X10 event in San Francisco, unveiled “The Passing” as the first batch of downloadable content for the mighty Left 4 Dead 2 and talked about how it’ll relate to the original zombie apocalypse game.

The DLC releases in March and in it, players will meet up with Left 4 Dead 1 characters Francis, Bill, Zoey and Louis, where they’ll appear as non-playable characters.

Valve’s Chet Faliszek told mega-game blog Kotaku that “Left 4 Dead 2′s survivors will rendezvous with the original quartet later on in the campaign, and that they will aid Coach, Nick, Ellis and Rochelle in finishing the third map in the campaign.”

That’s all well and good, but here’s where it gets interesting.

About a month after “The Passing” releases, Valve will release a new campaign for Left 4 Dead 1, which will tell the tale of how Francis, Bill, Zoey and Louis came to meet up with the L4D2 squad in “The Passing.” This unnamed campaign will only be playable in the original Left 4 Dead, not the sequel.

Look for “The Passing” for PC and Xbox 360 in March and more information about the Left 4 Dead 1 DLC in the coming weeks.

Source: Kotaku

The community-loving development studio Valve today announced that its artwork team just isn’t cutting it, and wants you to try your hand at designing weapons, avatars, and items that could actually appear in the game.

It’s all part of the new “Contribute” site at Valve, which allows fans to design anything from hats to weapons to all sorts of environment pieces that, if Valve likes them enough, could make it into the game via an update for all to revel at.

You can check out the Contribute site right now where a gallery will soon be up to see what everyone else is working on and either praise or bash their work.

Team Fortress 2 “Contribute” Page

Now this is gaming news I really enjoy.

Valve today announced that AI-controlled bots are now available to play with in the stylized and very addicting first-person-shooter Team Fortress 2.

Now, the bots are in their beta phase, so they won’t be rocket jumping or performing other highly-skilled moves, and are only available for King of the Hill game mode, but still, this should be great news for those getting pwned online (me) and wanting to practice some first.

Follow these instruction, as provided by Valve, and you’ll be good to go. And feel free to read up on the original story, from Valve, right here.

- To add bots to your game, use the console command tf_bot_add. This will drop a random bot onto a random team (assuming there is a free player slot). The tf_bot_add command can also take up to three optional arguments: , , and , in any order. For example, tf_bot_add 10 will add 10 random bots to the game with auto-assigned teams. Typing tf_bot_add pyro blue will add a Pyro to the blue team. Entering tf_bot_add red 5 will add 5 random bots to the red team. The command tf_bot_add red 3 heavyweapons will add three heavies to the red team.

- In order to put specific bots on specific teams (for a bots-vs-humans game, for example), you may want to disable automatic team balancing. To do this, enter mp_autoteambalance 0 followed by mp_teams_unbalance_limit 0.

- To remove a bot, use the console command kick . To remove all of the bots in the game, use the command tf_bot_kick all.

What if I was to say you could meet up with Zombie-slayers Zoey, Louis, Francis and Bill from the original Left 4 Dead in Left 4 Dead 2? Is that something you’d be interested in?

That very happenstance is occurring next Spring when Valve releases L4D 2′s first batch of downloadable content.

The original killing crew returns!

The new episode, dubbed “The Passing,”set after the events of “Dead Center,” brings the old slaying crew back to join the new guys in their fight for zombie annihilation.

According to Valve’s press release, the episode is set in a small town in rural Georgia where the L4D1 veterans meet up with the new crowd.

“The Passing” is due out Spring 2010 and a price has yet to be determined.

Need something to do this weekend? Love Counter Strike and now have a rig that can handle its big brother Source?

If so, this is your weekend, as the Steam Weekend Deal, available today, is on Counter Strike: Source.

The game’s dropped from $19.99 to $4.99, making it an alluring option for any PC gamer who hasn’t experienced its frenzied and insanely addictive multiplayer action.

It’s not a new title, but it’s still one of the most actively played titles for PC and if I wasn’t such a Counter Strike purist I’d play it more often.

I only play Counter Strike 1.6. My rig can handle Source, but I just don’t like it. For $5 though, you should definitely consider.

Steam Weekend Deal: Counter Strike Source $5

So, remember that crazy, stupid uproar about Left 4 Dead 2, and how it’s release less than a year after the original was something to whine about?

Well, shove those tears back up your eye sockets, as Valve today announced that Left 4 Dead 2, a truly magnificent sequel, has sold over 2 million copies in just two weeks.

“Left 4 Dead 2 is off to a great start with strong support at retail and great reviews from the press,” said Doug Lombardi, VP of marketing at Valve. “Meanwhile the title has already been played by over 1 million Xbox LIVE Gold account holders, and news regarding L4D2 DLC 1 is coming very soon.”

Now, off to kill some zombies!

Some people like Halo.  Some people like Call of Duty.  Me?  When I’m ready to get together with a few of my closest friends and brutally gun things down, Left 4 Dead is my co-op game of choice.  There are many reasons for this: it’s easy to pick up and trade off controllers.  The campaigns are a good length.  Its goriness is offset by its goofiness.  Online play is a blast.  And every play-through feels completely different from the last.  Overall it’s an incredibly balanced, light-feeling game with those wry and witty details I’ve come to expect from Valve.

So of course, when Left 4 Dead 2 was released, not even a spinal chord injury could keep me from playing.  Much to my delight I found the gameplay mostly unchanged; you’re still controlling four immune survivors through five campaigns filled with Hannibal Lecter cosplayers.  The major changes are the new campaigns and an expanded library of weapons, medicines, ammunition, and enemies.

The South is a trendy setting, and luckily it jives well with the series sense of the absurd.  You’ll be fetching snacks for hillbillies in exchange for rocket launcher cover, driving through plate-glass windows in a stock car ala the Dukes of Hazard, mowing down killer clowns with your trusty banjo, and all-in-all enjoying a game that takes itself much less seriously than the average FPS.   From a carnival of death to a rainy swamp, the new environments are–frankly put–amazing.  They’re atmospheric and diverse, and are sure to provide hours of creepy delight.

The series displayed its flair for the cinematic in the Dead Air plane crash of the first release; moments like these are sprinkled throughout all campaigns, and my first play-through dropped my jaw more than once.  I never thought I could be so excited about fetch quests, but there are great strategic mini-missions that force you out of the “shoot everything that moves” mentality.  The levels are much less linear this time around, with multiple routes to the safe-house, adding another layer to strategy.  There are even moments where you benefit by breaking the cardinal rule of the Left 4 Dead Series: NEVER split up.

Multiple new weapons and items have been introduced to aid your zombie-killing efforts.  I’m very much a barbarian when it comes to weaponry: if it kills things, I’ll use it until it breaks or runs out of ammo, then I’ll just pick up whatever is closest.  Guns still fall into three categories: things that shoot a lot but hurt a little, things that shoot a little but hurt a lot, and sniper-type rifles.  Laser sights are fun add-ons, but they’re more flair than substance.  Incendiary rounds and Boomer Bile are best saved for big enemies, but as I stated, I’m a big fan of good-old-fashioned lead.  Defibrillators are an implausible but fantastic addition to your medical arsenal, allowing you to revive even long-dead party members.  Adrenaline, which will increase your speed, is only useful in very specific situations, and I find the pain pills to be a more practical inventory item.  While the expanded choices aren’t uniformly useful, they certainly increase your strategic capabilities.

Unfortunately, with increase in tactical abilities, the intelligence of your companions seems to plummet.  I remember fondly that I could count on Zoe to snipe the roof-top Smokers while I was busy spraying friendly shotgun fire onto Louis and Francis.    Man, those were the days!  Perhaps they gain competency when playing on easier modes, but on advance they felt a bit dopey, especially in the missions that required more action than just firing guns.

Of the new special infected, we have the Spitter, the Charger, and the Jockey.  I only really loved the idea of the Jockey, which will take control of you and steer you off of cliffs and into traps; the Spitter overlaps a bit too much with the Boomer for me, but perhaps he’ll grow on me.  The Charger, however, was a waste of programming.  It’s the annoying little brother of the pants-wettingly frightening Tank, and it fills no function that the Hunter doesn’t.

Perhaps the only disappointment I feel with this release is the loss of the feeling of simplicity and lightness that came with so few options.  You had health packs, pain pills, pipe bombs, molotov cocktails, and that’s was it!  Now with defibrillators, adrenaline, Boomer bile, laser sights, axes, crowbars, baseball bats, samurai swords, three more kinds of special infected, and multiple variants on common infected, the game has lost the simplicity that made its balance so apparent and so appealing.  Since it’s such an appealing party game, I regret that my more casual gamer friends may have difficulty keeping track of all these new toys.

I also detect a small downgrade in the intuitiveness of the game’s flow.  Music cues that both helped the gamer and enhanced their excitement have suddenly become as slow as the AI.  Character movement feel less vetted, and I found myself firing often at Nick, whose silhouette I found indistinguishable from the zombie masses.  Almost invisible features, such as auto-crouching to enter low spaces, has been done away with.  You know–small things that made the game faster, easier to learn, and gave you fewer scrambling-for-the-right-button moments.  I definitely feel some of the additions were superficial: padding added to justify the release of a new game rather than additional content for the first, especially when so many of the game elements are identical.

Blast Factor: Overall, I probably would’ve been happier with additional content for the first game, or a greater amount of time and thought put into balancing the sequel as well as its predecessor.  But despite some issues, this is still a great game, and I’m sure myself and my friends will be pouring as much time into this one as we did the last.  The new campaigns are the stars of the show, and they alone make this title well worth owning.

Left 4 Dead 2 is available on the Xbox 360 and the PC, and retails for $59.99 and $49.99 respectively. A copy of this game was purchased for the purposes of reviewing.

I know your type. You’re the kind of person who salivates over the thought of the flesh and blood of mindless undead hordes caking the walls of claustrophobic locations after you’ve pumped round after round of hot lead into their skulls.

You’re a Left 4 Dead gamer, aren’t you?

If so, you should be happy to know a demo for Valve’s zombie-slaughter sequel Left 4 Dead 2, hit Xbox Live today for all to enjoy prior to the game’s release in two weeks.

Try your hand, literally, at Left 4 Dead 2 today, and see if you can stomach the unholy carnage.

I raise my glass to you, Mr. Face-destroying-zombie-crippling-soldier!

Start your demo right now, even if you’re at school or work, through the Xbox Live Web Marketplace

Valve, makers of Team Fortress 2, invite gamers to the first annual Halloween spectacular in the cartoony world of the frenzied shooter with themed achievements, exploding pumpkins, scary costumes, and a new zombie map.

Beginning today and running through until Nov. 2, gamers can get their freak on in TF2 on a new KOTH map called Harvest, that Valve promises will kill you.

Additionally, frightening masks can be unlocked by earning some new Halloween-themed achievements including “Attack o’ Lantern” and the wonderfully named “Candy Coroner.”

How does a video game company keep fans interested in their game years after it released? Oh yeah, this is how!

Team Fortess 2- Halloween Special Event

With Valve’s Left 4 Dead 2 pegged for a Nov. 17 release, a little over a month from now, we get more ancy with each passing day without an official cinematic trailer.

Well, that void (sorta) ended today, as a leaked, and pre-rendered trailer for the game hit the web, namely, Youtube.

What do we see here? Parts of the “Dead Center” and “Hard Rain” campaigns, but also some of the game’s new weapons and enemies. It’s a great trailer to what looks to be an impressive game. Take a look.

Gabe Newell, head of Left 4 Dead, and Team Fortress 2 development team Valve, answered questions from Australian industry journalists today and among other things Newell said “[Valve] has lots of money.”

Newell also chatted it up about how he Valve sees “entertainment as a service” and that “Team Fortress is the benchmark and that’s the level we intend to bring all products to.”

He also spoke to just why he made the trek to Australia to see a modder’s Left 4 Dead campaign:

“We recognize that we really are part of this community. We talk about it a lot, that we’re not up here and the community’s down here, and the games snowflake in. We really are part of it. We look to that community to see what we should do. … It was pretty clear that this was one of those things that the community fell in love with the idea. They wanted us to come down here and meet with Joe and give him feedback. And in our experience, it’s been very bad idea when we get such a clear signal from pc gaming community, if we ignore it.”

Take a look at the full interview in this Youtube video and let us know what you think in the comments.

Valve today detailed pre-order goodies for the zombie-killing sequel Left 4 Dead 2. Early demo access, 10% off the game when it hits, and in-game premiums are yours, provided you throw money down.

Anyone pre-purchasing through Steam or other participating retailers can start playing October 27, when the early-demo period is said to begin, save 10% off the MSRP, and earn the American Baseball Bat, one of the game’s new melee weapons.

If you’re not yet sold on the sequel. Steam is also offering the original Left 4 Dead at 50% off, or $14.99, and that comes with all the new DLC, including Crash Course.

If you haven’t been following the Internet soap opera of Gabe Newell and the Australian Left 4 Dead modders, let’s get you caught up!

Weeks ago Valve, maker of Left 4 Dead, flew two founding members of a Left 4 Dead 2 boycott community group to Valve headquarters in Seattle for some up close and personal time with the zombie shooter in hopes of changing their minds.

That’s all great, but here’s where the fun starts. An Australian Left 4 Dead modder, Joe W-A-e also wanted to be flown to Seattle to show the development team his mod, and Newell jokingly responded saying he’d be boycotting the‚  mod and Joe was not flown to Valve HQ.

It gets better! Joe then decided to ask community members, through his website, to donate cash to fly Newell to Australia to try out his mod in the flesh. 48 hours later, the website, Fly Gabe Newell, generated over $3,000, which was more than enough to fly Newell and project manager Erik Johnson to the land down under. The two are currently packing for their trip to the land of the kangaroos next week.

Here’s the last twist, I swear. Newell and Johnson will be flying to Australia on their own dimes and will give the money to the Child’s Play charity. How nice!

Newell had this to say about the entire zany situation:

“The power of the gaming community and their ability to rally around a cause “" be it serious or fun in nature “" is amazing. In 2003, the community helped the FBI and European law enforcement officials find the people who stole the Half-Life 2 source code. This year, the community is putting me on a plane to the other side of the world to meet Joe W-A and see his MOD. It’s going to be a fun trip.”

We should be hearing more of this story next week, but for now, take comfort in the fact that the gaming community is capable of great deeds.