The Mac OS version of Valve's digital distribution platform Steam will be released on May 12, the company confirmed today.

No other details on the launch were given--the announcement was a brief two sentences--though it will presumably debut alongside the native Mac versions of Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal and the Half-Life series originally slated to launch with the Mac client in April 2010. Read more »

After some heavy-handed hints, Valve today confirmed that it will be bringing its previously Windows-only digital distribution platform Steam to the Mac in April 2010.

Said the company: "Steam and Valve's library of games including Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series will be available in April." Read more »

While countless mods have offered 'jailbreak' modes over the years, the new release of The Orange Box mod Jailbreak: Source presents it in a very unconventional way--pitting robots against dinosaurs. The 400MB download of Version 0.6 can be found over on FileShack.

Jailbreak revolves around capturing enemy robots/dinosaurs by killing them while fighting to break out your own imprisoned comrades, who can also try to escape through hazardous routes filled with wacky traps. Read more »

Video games have already covered hypothetical Nazis dabblings in the occult but how would World War 2 have played out were Hitler fascinated with something far, far older? Download the 438MB Half-Life 2 mod Dino D-Day from FileShack to find out.

Dino D-Day is described as a "prototype" for a planned commercial release on Steam in 2010 so it's not quite fleshed out yet but there are indeed Nazi dinosaurs to hunt. Read more »

The idea of replacing a game's sound effects with human vocal reproduction isn't entirely new, and has often been done to varying degrees of success. Enter the "All Sounds Replaced with My Voice" mod for Half-Life 2.

Noticed by the chaps over at RockPaperShotgun, the mod--created by modder Trase--replaces 1327 sound effects in Half-Life 2 with the author's vocal interpretation of the original booms and splats. It's funny, and also a little fascinating. Read more »

After announcing an agreement nearly one year ago today, Valve has updated its Orange Box games--Team Fortress 2, Half-Life 2, and Portal--to support Novint's Falcon three-dimensional controller. Left 4 Dead, Counter-Strike: Source and Day of Defeat will also soon receive similar updates.

The $150 Novint Falcon (shown left with optional pistol grip) was released in 2006. The three-dimensional "haptic" device is operated by a small spherical grip connected to three robotic arms. Read more »

A technically impressive recreation of Half-Life 2's City 17 marks the first entry to "Escape from City 17," a new series of webisodes that combines live-action footage with Half-Life 2 assets and other digital effects.

The series is directed by brothers David and Ian Purchase. Their website's down, but check out their YouTube page for more info. Read more »

Beloved developer Valve has released lifetime retail sales figures for some of its more popular games, including the Half-Life and Counter-Strike series, revealing that the studio has sold over 32.8 million games since the 1998 release of the first Half-Life.

Sales from Valve's digital distribution client are not factored in, with the figures only accounting for worldwide retail sales. With Half-Life 2, Valve began simultaneously releasing all of its PC games at retail and via Steam. The numbers were originally printed in the November issue of Game Informer, then republished by Gamasutra. Read more »

Back in 2004, a small team began crafting a mod that would recreate Valve's first Half-Life with the latest in graphical bells and whistles. Come 2008, it's still in development, and the Black Mesa team has produced a trailer of its work.

GLaDOS Speaks is an IGN interview with Ellen McLain, who is asked about her voicework as the Overwatch in Half-Life 2, the announcer in Team Fortress 2 and GLaDOS in Portal.

There's a Q&A with Valve's Erik Wolpaw on Rock, Paper, Shotgun, asking the writer about his work at Double Fine and now Valve.

IGN has the latest Portal preview, offering impressions of the game launching next week as part of the Orange Box.

bit-tech.net has been updated with a Portal preview, going hands-on with the first person puzzler which will be included with The Orange Box.

If Action Trip's Gabe Newell interview wasn't good enough, there's also one with Valve's head honcho on Eurogamer. The interview covers Episode Two, Three, Team Fortress 2, DirectX 10, Steam use, and the current console systems.

Action Trip has been updated with a Gabe Newell Q&A which was conducted during this year's Games Convention. Topics include Steam, episodic content, the game industry and the Source Engine.