Portal 2's map creator was only released a few days ago, but it's already being deemed a success based on early results. Players have created more than 35,000 maps, and, those have been downloaded more than 1.3 million times, Valve announced yesterday.

Read more: Portal 2 for $7, Skyrim for $40 »

As promised, Portal 2's "Perpetual Testing Initiative" DLC is now available for everyone that owns the game on Steam. This is a "simplified puzzle maker" that allows players to create, share, and play homemade Portal 2 puzzles via Steam Workshop.

Within an hour of release, there are nearly a hundred maps already created--and that number is likely to increase exponentially.

Read more: Game on sale for 66 percent off »

Portal 2 gets a new DLC puzzle creator, called the Perpetual Testing Initiative, for free next week. We'll look at it closer then. Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami is going back to the survival horror genre, after bowing out at RE4. His new game is codenamed Zwei. And finally, NBA Baller Beats is unveiled as a Kinect game where you do the dribbling. Put it all together for a great edition of Shacknews Daily.

Check out today's episode of Shacknews Daily.

Watch: Shacknews Daily: April 26, 2012 »

Were this high school, the idea of a "Perpetual Testing Initiative" would not be met with open arms--even if it were free. However, when Valve announces said program for Portal 2, people get excited.

The next DLC for Portal 2 will be available on PC and Mac on May 8th, the company has announced.

Read more: No support for co-op at launch »

Portal 2 started off as a very different game: one without Chell, GLaDOS, or even portals. Speaking at Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Valve writers Chet Faliszek and Erik Wolpaw talked about the many concepts they had to throw away before they crafted the game that ended up being one of the best games of 2011.

For example, what's that above? It's a rare look at the game's canned competitive multiplayer mode. "While it's fun for about two seconds to drop portals under people and things like that," Wolpaw explained. "It quickly just devolves into pure chaos."

Read more: Other lost concepts »

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences held its Interactive Achievement Awards at DICE last night, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim took home the Game of the Year prize, among four other awards. The game also won RPG of the year, and outstanding achievements for story, gameplay engineering, and gameplay direction.

Read more: The full list of winners »

With Portal, Valve took the mechanic of shooting--something we're very familiar with--and used it in a whole new fashion. Using a gun that opened portals, Valve created a geometry-based puzzle game, the object of which was to use the openings to navigate increasingly challenging test chambers. With that starting point established, Portal 2 hits the ground running.

Portal 2 tricks you into thinking you'd never leave the unfriendly confines of the Aperture Science labs. Then the game blossoms, blowing down the very walls needed for its portals and opens up into a fantastic adventure. Breaking out of the test chambers feels liberating, answering the question: "what could I do with this portal gun in the world outside a test chamber?"

Read more: Why Portal 2 made our 'Top Five' »

The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences released its list of nominees for this years Interactive Achievement Awards. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception leads with a dozen nominations, and shares a Game of the Year nod with Portal 2, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Batman: Arkham City, and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

Read more: Uncharted 2 still holds nomination record »

The 12th annual Game Developers Choice Awards nominees were announced today, providing nods to some of last year's greatest games. Three studios shared a tie for the most nominations: Bethesda for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Valve for Portal 2, and newcomer Supergiant Games for Bastion. Skyrim and Portal 2 received five nominations each, while Bastion received four and the studio itself was nominated for Best Debut.

Read more: Game of the Year nominees »

Oh, you thought that the industry had finally escaped the grasp of the Spike TV Video Game Awards? Not quite. Here are a few of the "acceptance speeches" that couldn't make it into the program--not because Spike TV decided to ignore most of the winners, but because these digitally rendered characters didn't win.

The Joker won the award for "Best Character," but here are the potential speeches you would've heard had Portal 2's Wheatley or Uncharted 3's Nathan Drake had won.

Watch: Character acceptance speeches »

It didn't take long for Valve to confirm the rumor we reported of an easy to use level creator coming to Portal 2. The new tool will be part of what the press release terms a "major update" planned for release early next year. With it, users will be able to create both single-player and co-op test chambers for Portal 2 and share them with the community. In addition to playing these new levels, gamers will be able to rate them with a single click, implying some sort of simple community rating system will exist for filtering the newly minted levels. Judging from the two screens below, it looks like making Portal 2 levels will be a much easier, perhaps even drag-and-drop, endeavor. Getting up to speed with, as Valve puts it, "thinking with portals," still presents plenty of challenge.

Look: First two screens of Portal 2 editor »

Valve has hosted Portal 2 map contests in the past, but those tools are more advanced and best suited to the modding community. Now the company is reportedly experimenting with an easier tool set that will be more inviting to aspiring level creators.

Read more: Plus, a new level browser »

To celebrate today's launch of free downloadable content for Portal 2, Valve has slashed the price of the puzzle title for a limited time on Steam.

Starting now and running until Thursday afternoon, a single digital copy of Portal 2 is priced at $14.99 (50% off).

Read more: Bundle packs discounted too »

In typical Valve fashion, their next release is coming a bit later than expected. Portal 2's long-promised free DLC will be available on October 4th on PC, Mac, PS3, and Xbox 360. The "Peer Review" DLC will be automatically downloaded via Steam on PC and Mac, and will be available on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network for console players.

Read more: What's included »

Steam's snazzy new trading feature has come out of public testing and officially launched. It lets Steam users swap games for hats, hats for guns, or any combination thereof through a snazzy and secure interface.

Read more: Added to Steamworks »