Team Fortress 2 has gotten a new, community-created update. The "Robotic Boogaloo" is the first update entirely made by the community, and it features a plethora of new hats for your metal minions.
What do you do when your platform already sells and launches video games? Make the platform itself a video game, naturally. Valve announced the beta launch of "Steam Trading Cards" today. The collectible meta-game lets you upgrade your Steam profile by playing games and collecting and trading their associated (virtual) cards.
Steam's Greenlight program is meant to raise indie awareness by putting aspiring games up to a popular vote, but some developers feel it isn't doing enough to put the games in front of potential audiences. Valve hosted an online get-together to hear the thoughts of indie developers, some of whom were outspoken about improvements to the service.
Valve has a history of experimental hires, like when it brought on an economist to examine in-game economies. The company has now taken in Mike Ambinder, an experimental psychologist who is tasked with researching biofeedback.
Valve has offered a treat to Linux users with the release of a Left 4 Dead 2 beta. A Portal beta for Linux is also available, but Valve has been a bit mum on that release. If you own any of those three games, the betas should appear in your Steam library.
Flip 'em up Pinball FX 2 is kind-of sort-of on Windows already-ish, but exclusive to the Windows 8 marketplace so does it really count? Thankfully It'll finally score a multiwindows powerup on Friday, May 10, with a downloadable release through Steam.
As lovely as Steam is, it's a terrible shame that so many people apparently refuse to buy games not on Valve's digital distribution platform. Steam Greenlight has helped much-desired games get attention and onto Steam, but it's moved quite slowly until now. Valve yesterday approved another three Greenlight games for Steam, and says it plans to do smaller, more frequent batches going forward.
Steam announced support for subscription plans today, allowing publishers and players to use the revenue model through its service. The new model promises easy management of your subscription-based games, with Darkfall: Unholy Wars serving as the debut title to use the service.
Valve unveiled the latest batch of games to get the Steam Greenlight, including a few successful and unsuccessful Kickstarter veterans. Perhaps the most notable entrant is Dreamfall Chapters: The Longest Journey, coming from Dreamfall series creator Ragnar Tørnquist's new studio Red Thread Games.
Don't Starve, the resource-gathering adventure game from Mark of the Ninja developer Klei Entertainment, has set a date. The game will launch on Steam on April 24 for $15.
At his PAX East panel over the weekend, Dust: An Elysian Tail creator Dean Dodrill revealed that the game is heading to Steam sometime soon, and possibly as early as April. He says the Steam version will support numerous visual and control options, and will run at 1080p. It will still be published by Microsoft Game Studios.
With games continuously evolving after release, gamers have become accustomed to frequent title updates and patches. But, what if you could see a game evolve before it's ever officially "released"? That's what Steam plans on offering through its new "Early Access" library of games.
Through the new initiative, you'll be able to buy beta versions of games through Steam. Because the games are incomplete, you'll have the privilege of not only playing the games early, but you'll also "help test and report bugs." You may even have to pay extra to get said right.
Ever since Oculus Rift was unveiled, modders have been working on unofficially adding VR support to many PC games, including Valve's classic Half-Life 2. However, Valve has been experimenting with VR as well, and plans on launching an official "VR Mode" for its popular free-to-play shooter, Team Fortress 2.
It won't be much longer until a few lucky gamers will get a chance to try out an early version of the "Steam Box"--Valve's foray into TV-connected hardware. According to Valve head Gabe Newell, the company plans on "giving out some prototypes to customers to get their reactions in the next three to four months."
Assuming Valve Time doesn't strike, of course.
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