News

News News Tue, 18 Jun 2013 22:25:30 +0000 Tue, 18 Jun 2013 22:25:30 +0000 ValveTime.net | Valve News, Forums, Steam http://www.valvetime.net/forums/news.32/ Portal 2 Announcement ARG Detailed By Adam Foster
For those of you who weren't around for the Portal ARG, the original Portal was updated out of the blue on March 1st 2010 with a mystery message in the changelog which read, "Changed radio transmission frequency to comply with federal and state spectrum management regulations." Players soon discovered that a series of radios had been placed throughout Aperture Science's test chambers. When picked up and brought to certain parts of each level, the radios began to play morse code beeps and strange noises. Those noises turned out to in fact be encoded SSTV images, which players quickly began to unearth.

One of the twenty six "dinosaur" images discovered in the original Portal.

Some of these images contained a code, which eventually turned out to be the MD5 hash of a phone number for a landline. This landline happened to be plugged into an old modem hooked up to a PC in Adam Foster's kitchen. Dialling into this number via a terminal with a 56k modem gained access to a BBS which, when given the correct login, yielded several correspondences from Cave Johnson and screenshots or concept art of Portal 2 converted into ASCII images.

An ASCII-converted piece of concept art showing Atlas and P-Body.

After the images were found, Valve released another update to Portal 2 on March 3rd 2010, which altered and extended the game's original ending to foreshadow the opening events of Portal 2 and the Lab Rat comic, which takes place in the interlude between both games. The following ARG, dubbed the infamous "Potato ARG", began almost a month later, even without assistance from Foster, who was too busy working on Portal 2 itself. If you're looking for more information on the Potato ARG, you can read more about it here.

In the main section of Foster's article (which I stress you should read in full), he details the correct way to build an ARG that is fun to solve and allows people to participate. He outlines his core design rules, which included:

It must be clear that there is something to decode. In the case of the radios the morse code sounds were instantly recognisable which hinted at the noise in the other radio signals hiding something too.

Similarly to the first, it must be clear what the boundaries are between what is part of the game and what is not. Some players tried to track down the physical location of the phone number to see if that was part of the game. The number was unlisted so they were unable to, but if they had it may have caused a bit of a shock for Adamn when they showed up at his house.

It must be unambiguous when something has been solved. It would be very frustrating for players to think they had successfully found the correct message, only to later realise they had gotten it wrong and were spending their efforts on false leads. The SSTV images are very clearly correctly decoded when found, even if their purpose is initially mysterious.

Using real encoding methods makes it easier and more fun for the players to solve the puzzle (and easier to create as well) and easier and more educational for players who may not initially know the encoding method to learn it. How many of you didn't know about SSTV until this ARG?

Only a select few core enthusiasts will be the ones actually solving all your puzzles but others will want to feel like they are participating too. In the case of the Portal ARG this consisted of an update to Portal with a new feature (the radios) and a related achievement as well as an extended ending to the game.

Have bottlenecks that will control the pace of the game. The MD5 hash hiding the BBS phone number had to be brute forced. The game could not progress until this was solved, giving a natural downtime that let other players and followers catch up with what was happening and stopping the game from ending too soon.

The actual article goes into a lot more detail, so we highly recommend that you read the whole thing, which you can check out here.]]> Mon, 17 Jun 2013 23:20:10 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/portal-2-announcement-arg-detailed-by-adam-foster.243577/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/portal-2-announcement-arg-detailed-by-adam-foster.243577/ ríomhaire ríomhaire 4 [Updated] Valve Is Planning To Release Dota 2 This Summer Exclusive Update: Erik Johnson, senior project leader at Valve, was kind enough to respond to my inquiry about the validity of the author's claim in the PC Gamer article. Erik confirmed to us that the plan is indeed to release Dota 2 this summer! Click the image if you want to see my initial email.

Original Post: Dota 2 will be released prior to The International 3, according to the July 2013 issue of PC Gamer.

Dota 2 will be formally released later this summer, prior to the International tournament in August.

Also, Reddit user exitwarp, who happens to be the author of the article, reiterated that Erik Johnson told him Dota 2 would be released this summer and it would be "free for everyone." Always keep in mind, though, that valve time is unpredictable. The goal to release the game this summer could stall if they decide that it needs a few more weeks or months of extra polish, but we're confident that this is going to be a done deal.

The International 3 will be held August 7 - 11 in Seattle.

This information and image credit goes to /u/Kakkoister.

]]> Mon, 17 Jun 2013 22:27:51 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/updated-valve-is-planning-to-release-dota-2-this-summer.243565/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/updated-valve-is-planning-to-release-dota-2-this-summer.243565/ -smash- -smash- 14 Dota 2 Weekly Patch(es) - 14/06/13: Compendium Matchmaking + Quick Cast! week's Dota 2 patch has introduced the usual selection of gameplay bug fixes alongside some new UI additions and a pair of visual improvements for Brewmaster and Puck, who have both received higher quality models, which you can check out below. An update to the settings UI has introduced "Quick Cast", commonly referred to as "Smart Cast" by the community, which, when activated, will cause most magic abilities to immediately fire towards the player's mouse cursor, providing the option to streamline the casting process somewhat.

Puck and Brewmaster hare both looking great after their recent visit to Witch Doctor's plastic surgery clinic.

A series of audio improvements were also made, including the addition of distant tower destruction sounds, the introduction of new "Ownage" lines for the Axe, Juggernaut, Nature's Prophet, Storm Spirit and Pirate announcer packs, and sound effects for a brand new "Caution Ping" system. The new warning ping allows players to alert teammates to their impending doom by using "Ctrl + Alt + Right Click" to highlight an area, creating an "X" shaped icon in the game world and on the mini-map to warn of potential ganks, pushes, potentially dangerous areas and so on. A smaller Dota 2 patch earlier in the week introduced "Compendium Matchmaking", a new game mode accessible only by compendium owners, which allows players "re-write history" using the same professional game hero picks and lane setups found in a featured International 3 qualifier match. Featured matches will be updated on a weekly basis, so be sure to check it at least once a week by clicking the new option on the left hand side of the "Play" tab on the Dota 2 dashboard.

The new "Warning Ping" system in action!

New cosmetic item sets were included for Axe, Lina, Pudge, S keleton King and Sniper, while the recently released "Treasure of Incandescent Wax" chest was revealed to include a brand new Vengeful Spirit themed ward and a whole host of new cosmetic pieces for a wide number of heroes including Doom, Skywrath Mage, Necrolyte, Bristleback and many more. If you feel like you could use some new desktop wallpapers, you might be interested in checking out the new custom load screens which were added to several of the older HUD designs in this week’s update, including the Driftwood, Gear Tooth, Jungle Ruin and Menace skins, all of which appear as stylishly themed modifications of the original Dota logo. While Legion Commander is still strangely MIA at this point, unreleased hero Abaddon received a number of texture updates which, following the Dota 2 release window announcement earlier today, further hints that this upcoming Dire strength support will feature as the second of the two final heroes set to be released by Valve before the game's official release sometime between now and August 7th 2013. If you're looking for more information regarding this week's Dota 2 patch, you may want to head on over to Valve's official changelog, or maybe checking out CyborgMatt's full patch analysis is more your style. glhf!

Abaddon has received more asset updates ready for his upcoming introduction prior to the release of Dota 2 this summer.

]]> Sun, 16 Jun 2013 22:32:38 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/dota-2-weekly-patch-es-14-06-13-compendium-matchmaking-quick-cast.243566/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/dota-2-weekly-patch-es-14-06-13-compendium-matchmaking-quick-cast.243566/ Omnomnick Omnomnick 1 ValveTime Weekly News Round-Up - 16th June 2013 past week saw the reveal of Dota 2's release window, the introduction of the "de_mirage" map for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and the amount of money paid out to Team Fortress 2's content creators surpassed the $10m mark! Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel and to follow us on our Facebook, Google+ and Twitter pages to stay up to date with all the latest Valve news.

]]> Sun, 16 Jun 2013 17:10:44 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valvetime-weekly-news-round-up-16th-june-2013.243572/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valvetime-weekly-news-round-up-16th-june-2013.243572/ Omnomnick Omnomnick TF2 Community Contributions Pass $10m Milestone blog post announcement, over ten million dollars have been paid out to over 400 contributors and partners, with $250,000 of that total already paid out to the contributors of the recently released "Robotic Boogaloo" update, which was entirely community created.

Over $10m has been paid out to item creators who have submitted items via the Steam Workshop.

To celebrate this milestone, Valve have released a major update to the item submission tool, which now automatically tests submitted creations against a set of pre-defined standards in order to identify how game-ready the item is, and how the creator can improve it. A new "gold star" system has also been implemented to identify when items submitted through the new tool have been vetted. Valve concluded the blog post with a link to the updated Team Fortress 2 Workshop FAQ, which now features information about the submission system and the gold star tagging function. If you've ever wanted to create or submit your very own hat for Team Fortress 2, be sure to head on over to the Steam Workshop to find out more!]]> Sun, 16 Jun 2013 05:47:29 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/tf2-community-contributions-pass-10m-milestone.243561/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/tf2-community-contributions-pass-10m-milestone.243561/ Omnomnick Omnomnick 12 CS:GO Update Introduces "de_mirage" Map last week, Valve have released a reinvented version of the classic Counter-Strike map, "de_mirage", into Global Offensive in an update which shipped late last night. The new map, which previously appeared in both Counter-Strike 1.6 and Counter-Strike: Source, features all new visuals and a series of minor tweaks in order to improve the overall flow and readability of the map while maintaining the map's core layout, thus preserving the original gameplay fans have grown to love. According to an announcement blog post over on the Counter-Strike website, Mirage is available to play in all core gamemodes, which includes Casual, Competitive and Deathmatch.

The update has also introduced a new in-game sale for the Operation Payback pass, which allows access to a number of the community's highest quality custom maps on official low latency Valve servers. The pass, which was previously available for $5.99/£5, is now available for $0.99/£0.79 until Monday June 17th and be purchased by visiting the Operation Payback page on the Counter-Strike website, or via an icon on the CS:GO main menu.

If you'd like to learn more about the level design practices which were used to improve the map's visual theme and readability, head on over to last week's "The Mirage Process" blog post, for an in-depth insight into the development of Mirage. The update changelog is also available, as the patch is already live on the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive client, so what are you waiting for? Get out there and get fragging!]]> Thu, 13 Jun 2013 18:58:17 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/cs-go-update-introduces-de_mirage-map.243563/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/cs-go-update-introduces-de_mirage-map.243563/ Omnomnick Omnomnick 1 Further Half-Life 2: Episode 4 Images Found
We thought not much more info would materialise for the long cancelled Half-Life Episode 4 or Return to Ravenholm as it was also known. However, we've been sent more examples of content produced for the game by Arkane Studios.

It's interesting to see that Arkane intended to put their own stamp on Half-life with many of their own original assets. Work such as this also gives us some clues to where they intended to take the spin-off. If you're curious then check out our ValveTime Spotlight video as we dissect the images below!

[IMG]

View the full album below or for the avid Half-life fans, watch our full Spotlight Content Analysis video above.

View attachment 24210 View attachment 24211 View attachment 24206

View attachment 24208 View attachment 24209 View attachment 24212

]]> Tue, 11 Jun 2013 18:26:30 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/further-half-life-2-episode-4-images-found.243532/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/further-half-life-2-episode-4-images-found.243532/ Hectic Glenn Hectic Glenn 24 ValveTime Weekly News Round-Up - 9th June 2013 past week was relatively hectic in regards to the amount of news coming from Valve and their partners. Just this past week we've seen the arrival of eight new leaked screenshots from the cancelled Half-Life 2: Episode Four project, a number of major gameplay balance updates for Dota 2 and the announcement that classic Counter-Strike map "de_mirage" is set to return to the series in an update to Global Offensive set to be released sometime in the next week.

If you're looking to stay up to date with everything Valve, be sure to like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and subscribe to us on YouTube as our social networking sites are perfect for staying in the know while on the go. (That was not intentional, and I am truly sorry). ]]> Sun, 09 Jun 2013 22:07:39 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valvetime-weekly-news-round-up-9th-june-2013.243550/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valvetime-weekly-news-round-up-9th-june-2013.243550/ Omnomnick Omnomnick Dota 2 Weekly Patch(es) - 04/06/13: v6.78 Parity! This week's Dota 2 main update shipped a few days earlier than usual in order get the main client up to date with the recent v6.78 balance changes Icefrog released for the original Dota Warcraft III mod late last week. While the official parity changelogs are far too long extensive and detailed to discuss properly here, there were several major changes which we feel should be mentioned.

Aghanim's Scepter was amongst the most affected mechanics in the game. Equipping the item on Doom will now prevent his ultimate timer from counting down if he remains in 550 units of the hero, while Necrolyte's "Reaper Scythe" can now prevent any hero killed by the ability from buying back into the game for the duration of their death. Omniknight, Silencer and Ancient Apparition, a trio of heroes who previously did not receive a bonus from Aghanim’s Scepter, can now purchase the item to further improve their ultimates. Equipping the item on Omniknight provides his "Guardian Angel" ultimate with global range, applying the physical damage immunity and health regeneration increase to all allied heroes and buildings on the map, essentially providing a 7 second fortify at max level. The duration of Silencer's ultimate now extends for an extra second, and adds the current level of "Curse of the Silent" to all affected enemies, helping to dish out more damage during a team engagement. Finally, picking up the item on Ancient Apparition will increase the duration of his ultimate's frostbite damage to 17 seconds for all levels, making it all the more critical during long engagements. A series of other heroes received Aghanim's Scepter stat modifications including the damage output of Shadow Shaman's "Serpent Wards", the speed reduction aura of Crystal Maiden's "Freezing Field", the bonus attack range of Enchantress' "Impetus", and several others.

Other significant changes made in the update include the reworking of Medusa's "Stone Gaze", Huskar's "Berserker's Blood" and Skeleton King's "Critical Strike". The three spoiler sections below describe how the reworked mechanics function in detail.

Huskar's "Beserker's Blood"

Show Spoiler

Berserker's Blood:
----------------------
Huskar feels each of his wounds and channels the pain, increasing magic resistance and attack speed for each 7% missing health. First bonus starts at full health.

Magic Resistance: 4/5/6/7% magic resistance
Attack Speed: 8/12/16/20 per stack

Medusa's "Stone Gaze"

Show Spoiler

Stone Gaze:
----------------------
Any unit facing Medusa will have its attack, movement and turn rate reduced by 50% until the end of the spell. If you accumulate 2 seconds time (in total) facing Medusa, you will turn to stone.

Stoned units are disabled, have 100% magic resistance and take extra damage from physical attacks.

View Angle Spread: 85

Gaze Duration: 6 seconds.
Stone Duration: 3 seconds
Bonus Physical Damage: 30/40/50%

AOE: 1000
CD: 90
Manacost: 200
Note: Kills illusions instead of petrifying them

Skeleton King's "Critical Strike" (Now known as "Mortal Strike")

Show Spoiler

Mortal Strike:
----------------------
Has a passive and active component. Passively gives you a chance to land a critical strike. Can be cast to temporarily steal HP from a target enemy hero. When the active is used, the critical strike is temporarily disabled for the drain duration.

Passive Crit Damage: 1.25/1.75/2.25/2.75
Passive Crit Chance: 15%

HP Drain: 20% of Max (Not Lethal)
Drain duration: 7
Cast Range: 550
Manacost: 30
Cooldown: 25

Note: This doesn't affect max hp, just temporarily drains then returns it.

Other mechanic reworks include a tweaked drafting system for Captain's Mode, several changes to XP level requirements, limited access to wards, an added suicide mechanic for Bloodstone and a major buff to the Gem of True Sight, which now costs 150 more gold and can no longer be destroyed while on the ground. Cosmetic item sets appeared in the game files for Medusa and Sniper, only one of which is currently available. Several new extra world models for the currently unfinished second tutorial map were also included which we expect to see released alongside the new quest soon, given the number of assets introduced in previous updates over the past few months. For a closer look at these assets, be sure to head on over to CyborgMatt's patch analysis. If you're looking for a more in-depth explanation of all the balance tweaks included in all of this week's updates, check out the different changelogs, which can be found at the links listed below. As always, gl hf!

June 4th 2013 v6.78 Parity Patch
June 5th 2013 Bug Fixes + Mechanic Improvement Patches]]> Fri, 07 Jun 2013 17:01:29 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/dota-2-weekly-patch-es-04-06-13-v6-78-parity.243542/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/dota-2-weekly-patch-es-04-06-13-v6-78-parity.243542/ Omnomnick Omnomnick Valve Screening New Dota 2 Documentary "Free to Play" It would appear that Valve are gearing up to release their documentary film surrounding the world of Dota 2 and the lives of the gamers that play it. A new post from Kotaku's Jason Schreier indicates that Valve are in the process of screening the film to test audiences over the course of the next month. The article includes confirmation from Valve's own Doug Lombardi, who says that they will be "Beta testing" the documentary at this year's Dota 2 International in August.

The following trailer for the film "Free to Play" surfaced last year, just before the 2012 International event in August.

You may remember that Valve also released a 20-minute behind-the-scenes video back in November, focusing on last year's tournament. Lombardi was keen to note the difference between the earlier video and the new documentary: "That was a recap of last year’s event. The documentary is a different thing, and really looks more at the gamers than one specific tourney."]]> Fri, 07 Jun 2013 16:58:33 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valve-screening-new-dota-2-documentary-free-to-play.243538/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valve-screening-new-dota-2-documentary-free-to-play.243538/ Lobster Lobster 3 Welcome To ValveTime: An Introduction a brand new channel layout which allows content creators to develop trailers to advertise themselves and their productions to new and unsubscribed visitors! While we understand a lot of our site visitors have been with us for a while, we decided to display our new channel trailer here on the front page to help newer visitors get a better understanding of what ValveTime is all about!

If you like what you hear, and you'd like to stick with us, be sure to subscribe for more ValveTime videos coming soon. Or, if you're looking to get involved, don't forget to sign up to our forums to get chatting with the community!

]]> Wed, 05 Jun 2013 17:23:19 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/welcome-to-valvetime-an-introduction.243537/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/welcome-to-valvetime-an-introduction.243537/ Omnomnick Omnomnick References To Left 4 Dead 3 And Source 2 Found Steamworks SDK when he discovered references to a possible Left 4 Dead 3 game title hidden in the Steam database. While we already knew that Valve's next-gen engine, Source 2, has been in development for a while, this is the first reference we've seen to a possible third Left 4 Dead title. Before you start complaining about Valve focusing on the wrong series, the SteamDB page notes that this app hasn't been updated in months and shows no signs of active development. Valve are known to experiment a lot and it wouldn't be unusual for them to create and drop a project without any ever announcing anything, though it is worth noting that the user was banned for trying to access the app. However, it has been suggested that the user was actually banned for making too many requests to the Steamworks website when he was running through AppIDs.

The user also posts some information regarding Source 2, apparently from an unnamed former Valve employee's LinkedIn profile. The employee was involved in porting Left 4 Dead 2 to the Source 2 engine as a more "real" test case for the engine. Left 4 Dead 2 seems to be a popular testbed for Valve as it has also been used to test the Source for Linux.

We don't really know if any of this means anything substantial, but we'll keep you posted if any real evidence of development of Left 4 Dead 3 arises. If you'd like to read more, feel free to check out the relevant thread over on NeoGAF. We'll keep you posted should we learn more.]]> Tue, 04 Jun 2013 17:29:15 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/references-to-left-4-dead-3-and-source-2-found.243524/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/references-to-left-4-dead-3-and-source-2-found.243524/ ríomhaire ríomhaire 48 ValveTime Weekly News Round-Up - 2nd June 2013 This past week proved to be another relatively busy seven days for Valve. In the news this week, a reference to the possible existence of Left 4 Dead 3 was found in the Steamworks SDK, a Dota 2 patch introduced some additional spectator commands for in-game broadcasters, and the Steam Trading Card beta received several updates in the form of additional support for new game titles and improved badges for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Don't forget to subscribe to stay up to date with new ValveTime video content coming later this week, thanks for watching.

]]> Sun, 02 Jun 2013 20:35:01 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valvetime-weekly-news-round-up-2nd-june-2013.243527/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valvetime-weekly-news-round-up-2nd-june-2013.243527/ Omnomnick Omnomnick Dota 2 Weekly Patch(es) - 30/05/13: Spectating & Taunts main Dota 2 patch has introduced a series of new improvements for the in-game DotaTV spectator system including the arrival of new pop-up notifications for important item purchases and a broadcaster menu which allows commentators to create dynamic pop-ups for spectators which can show a variety of information including generic statistics, item pick-ups and other interesting talking points. In-game icons for heroes and items can also be used to provide data to spectators in a purely visual format. The feature supports the ability to send out queries and poll results to viewers in order to remove the unnecessary stream only overlays which featured heavily on the GD Studio and BTS streams during the International 3 qualifiers throughout May. Thanks StatmanBruno!

A secondary update was also released late last night, in which Valve have added a series of six brand new taunts for Anti-Mage, Crystal Maiden, Lina, Drow Ranger, Juggernaut and Pudge, all of which were promised as the reward for reaching fourth goal of the International Compendium, which was surpassed earlier this week. Compendium owners will receive the full taunt pack, plus any other rewards they may have missed, upon visiting their Dota backpack via the main menu.

If you've ever wanted to make your own Crystal Maiden snow angel, now you can!

A variety of cosmetic couriers were also introduced including Cyril the Syrmeleon, El Gato, Itsy and Shagbark. Cyril is awarded to purchasers of the Defense Season 4 Tournament ticket, while Shagbark and Itsy can both be purchased straight from the Dota 2 Store. El Gato is currently unavailable for whatever unknown reason. Three new alternate HUD skins were also introduced to the store including the Elder Bark, Furnace and Jungle Ruin. Upcoming hero Abaddon received a set of newly updated texture files this week, highlighting that Valve’s attention is once again shifting back to focus on releasing more heroes in order to have the game as ready as possible for the start of the International 3 tournament in August 2013. For more information regarding this update, we recommend checking out the official changelogs, which are available here and here, or reading CyborgMatt’s patch analysis over on his blog. Glhf!

Introducing Itsy: The world's cutest and most loyal arachnid!

]]> Sun, 02 Jun 2013 14:35:17 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/dota-2-weekly-patch-es-30-05-13-spectating-taunts.243523/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/dota-2-weekly-patch-es-30-05-13-spectating-taunts.243523/ Omnomnick Omnomnick 2 ValveTime Weekly News Round-Up - 26th May 2013 this past week, as they shipped an update for Dota 2, announced the "Overwatch" system for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and released a series of Left 4 Dead 2 patches in order to better highlight the upcoming Extended Mutation System. Stay tuned for more ValveTime videos, news and reviews coming soon, including a possible surprise which should arrive sometime within a week or two.

]]> Sun, 26 May 2013 15:34:56 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valvetime-weekly-news-round-up-26th-may-2013.243506/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valvetime-weekly-news-round-up-26th-may-2013.243506/ Omnomnick Omnomnick ValveTime Weekly News Round-Up - 20th May 2013 Trading Cards, Dota 2 received more compendium stretch goals and Team Fortress 2 recieved...more hats. Robotic hats. There was also a lot more news that you should check out in this week's ValveTime Weekly News Round-Up. Thanks for watching.

]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 22:29:44 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valvetime-weekly-news-round-up-20th-may-2013.243459/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valvetime-weekly-news-round-up-20th-may-2013.243459/ Omnomnick Omnomnick 4 Dota 2 Weekly Patch - 24/05/13: Items, Couriers & China week’s Dota 2 update continues the recent trend of extremely light patches which focus more on gameplay fixes and cosmetic items as opposed to introducing new features or heroes. This particular patch features some minor fixes for Elder Titan, a series of improvements to the UI and a major reduction to the game’s memory usage, which should help to improve the game’s performance for users with less powerful computers. A series of cosmetic item sets have been introduced for Beastmaster, Chaos Knight, Clinkz, Leshrac, Lycanthrope, Phantom Assassin, Razor, Rubick and Weaver. Three brand new cosmetic couriers have also been added to the game including Maximilian the Beetlebear, Yonex’s Rage, and Shagbark, which has been a community favourite courier for some time after being designed and developed by CyborgMatt, Anuxi and several other famous personalities. Yonex’s Rage, an Invictus Gaming themed courier, and CyborgMatt’s own Shagbark are both available from the Dota 2 drop system while Maximilian is rewarded as a purchase incentive to owners of the "Raidcall Dota 2 League Season 3 Pass".

Introducing Shagbark: Man's newest best friend.

A series of unearthed UI files hint at the upcoming release of a "Guild" system, which appears to function similarly to the team organisation feature, only in a less serious manner. A massive selection of new models for upcoming second tutorial map were also discovered in the game files, which appeared alongside the addition of an updated world map showing a total of three separate tutorials, two of which are brand new but cannot currently be accessed. A series of "Low Violence" alternative censored assets were also introduced for use in the recently released Chinese client. Strict censorship laws in China prevent violent content such as blood and gore from being shown, forcing Valve to make a series of cosmetic modifications to a number of heroes including Ancient Apparition, Bane, Clinkz, Doom, Huskar, Lich, Lifestealer, Night Stalker, Pudge, Pugna, Shadow Demon, Shadow Fiend, Skeleton King, Undying and Visage. A number of item and ability icons were also modified to remove violent content in order for the game to conform to the previously mentioned censorship laws, including changes for Queen of Pain, Warlock and the Morbid Mask. Fear not, however, as this 'Low Violence' feature will only affect the Chinese version of Dota 2. CyborgMatt has uploaded images of every affected hero and icon in his update analysis should you want to take a curious look at restrained Lifestealer, Robo-King, Shadow Crow or masked Doom. The officially released changelog can be found over on the Dota 2 Blog as always. glhf!

Pudge is looking healthier than ever after his recent surgery.

]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 22:10:44 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/dota-2-weekly-patch-24-05-13-items-couriers-china.243498/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/dota-2-weekly-patch-24-05-13-items-couriers-china.243498/ Omnomnick Omnomnick 2 CS:GO "Overwatch" Introduces Community Driven Policing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive named Overwatch. The idea is to recruit a group of "investigators" from the community in order to combat persistent cheating and other disruptive, in-game behaviour. Players are selected to become investigators based on a variety of criteria, including their win ratio in competitive games, the age of their steam account, the number of hours they have played, and their own record of behaviour.

Once chosen, community investigators will receive cases via a new "Overwatch" option on their menu screen. Each new case will consist of around 10 minutes of recorded footage featuring the suspected player in action, after which they will be asked to make a decision as to their accountability. If enough investigators agree that the accused player is guilty of an offence, then a suitable banning will be issued. Over time, each individual investigator will receive a score based on the number of cases they have judged, as well as the frequency that other Overwatch Investigators agree.

For now, the system is undergoing a limited beta test in order to ensure the fairness of the system and reveal any major problems with its conception. A full FAQ for the Overwatch initiative can be found here.]]> Thu, 23 May 2013 17:27:07 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/cs-go-overwatch-introduces-community-driven-policing.243488/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/cs-go-overwatch-introduces-community-driven-policing.243488/ Lobster Lobster 3 Dota 2 Weekly Patch - 17/05/13: Fixes, HUDs & Goals Dota 2 update shipped a little later than usual in order to avoid complications with the ongoing I nternational 3 Western Qualifier. The update includes a series of gameplay tweaks relating to Elder Titan and Ursa, while a few modifications related to memory management were made to help improve the game's performance. Lobby and tournament games now support up to 6 broadcast channels, which has been increased from the previous limit of 4, allowing even more commentators and language options to be available by spectators viewing online matches or replays. A new cosmetic item set was released for Queen of Pain as a reward for purchasers of the recently released "Premier League Season 5" ticket. This item set is unique however, as the appearance of the "Wicked Succubus Set" can be upgraded and improved based on the amount of tournament matches the owner has viewed. The three different levels and their cosmetic differences are shown in the below image.

A pair of new cosmetic HUDs, namely "The Powered Star" and "Stone Ruin", were also added as ticket purchase incentives for the "StarSeries Season VI" and the "Premiere League Season 5", respectively. These HUDs were included alongside a wide series of unreleased alternate HUDs, including the "International 2013 HUD" promised to all Compendium owners after the newly added Stretch Goal 3 was completed earlier this week. Additionally, a new announcer pack was also added to the game files, this time themed after the extremely popular community personality "Pyrion Flax", which has apparently been sitting in the Steam Workshop for many months. The announcer pack also features an accompanying 'Mega Kill' version for all you triple killers out there interested in hearing Pyrion Flax scream at you through your speakers in celebration. For more information on this week's Dota 2 update, head on over to the Dota 2 Wiki for the official changelog, or check out Cyborgmatt's blog for his full patch analysis.

]]> Mon, 20 May 2013 01:15:43 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/dota-2-weekly-patch-17-05-13-fixes-huds-goals.243455/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/dota-2-weekly-patch-17-05-13-fixes-huds-goals.243455/ Omnomnick Omnomnick 4 Jeri Ellsworth and Rick Johnson Reveal They Left Valve to Create Augmented Reality Technology we posted about a large number of staff departures from Valve that started off when Jeri Ellsworth tweeted about her leaving the company. The Verge have revealed Jeri's reason for leaving Valve: She and fellow ex-Valve employee Rick Johnson left to found their own company called Technical Illusions which aims to create augmented reality technology.

There was internal debate in Valve about whether to pursue augmented reality or virtual reality and the virtual reality supporters won out in the end. Jeri and Rick wanted to stay on the augmented reality project and so they left to create their own company. There are no hard feelings though and Gabe Newell had the Valve lawyers sign off all rights to Valve's augmented reality projects to the new company. Jeri said "I talked to Gabe, and he talked to the lawyers, and he's like, 'It's theirs, make it happen.'"

The technology itself is being called CastAR and it is quite different to the Google Glasses method of

View attachment 24177
Prototype CastAR glasses

augmented reality. A miniature projector is mounted on a pair of glasses which bounces an image off special retroreflecting panels. The panel also has infrared LEDs that a camera on the glasses can detect which the system uses to determine the user's position so that it can project the correct image as if the the user was moving in 3D space. An interesting aspect of the device is that multiple users can use the same screen to see different images as the light from each pair of glasses is reflected back at them.

More information, and a video showing CastAR in action, can be seen at the Verge.]]> Sun, 19 May 2013 17:22:38 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/jeri-ellsworth-and-rick-johnson-reveal-they-left-valve-to-create-augmented-reality-technology.243454/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/jeri-ellsworth-and-rick-johnson-reveal-they-left-valve-to-create-augmented-reality-technology.243454/ ríomhaire ríomhaire 8 Steam Trading Cards Officially Revealed speculation and rumour, Valve have officially announced the beta of Steam Trading Cards, a new feature that will allow players to earn and trade rewards using their games and Community Profile. Also included is a major cosmetic update for the Steam Community, offering players better ways to personalise the look and layout of their profile pages.

Players will be able to obtain the new Trading Cards in two ways. Firstly, by playing any of the participating games on Steam and secondly, by trading with other players in the Steam Community. Currently, the beta allows users to obtain cards using any of the games listed below, with more titles to follow in the coming months:

Once you have amassed a completed collection of cards, they can be combined to craft a badge specific to that game. These badges will be displayed on your profile page, including one "featured" badge displayed at the top of the page. Badges now also posses an XP value that contributes towards your profile level. Each new level offers certain perks, including increased friends list capacity and Profile Showcases, a new feature that allows you to highlight your favourite games, workshop items, or achievements on your profile page.

Crafting badges will also unlock their own randomised rewards, including coupons for the steam store which offer discounts on Games and DLC; new emoticons for use in your steam chats; and background art for your newly customisable profile page. All of these crafting rewards are tradable. However, they can only be used while you own them.

Profile pages in general have also seen a major update, with a greater emphasis on your personal playing habits and style. Along with customisable background art, information such as achievements, statistics, and community contributions have been organised into blocks which can be highlighted via the new Profile Showcase feature mentioned above.

Invites to the new beta are being released periodically, so be sure to sign up here if you wish to get early access to all the new features.]]> Sun, 19 May 2013 13:45:15 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/steam-trading-cards-officially-revealed.243441/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/steam-trading-cards-officially-revealed.243441/ Lobster Lobster 28 Team Fortress 2 Update "Robotic Boogaloo" Now Live nearly half a year without a major Team Fortress 2 update, Valve have announced "Robotic Boogaloo" - the most recent sizable patch for everyone's favourite war themed hat simulator. The update, which was announced on the Team Fortress blog alongside the release of a brand new short teaser trailer and comic, is being described as "the first entirely community-created update" and includes 57 brand new community developed cosmetic items, many of which are robot themed replicas of existing hats and miscellaneous items. Every element of the update was created by the community before being evaluated and accepted by Valve including the website pages, the teaser trailer, the comic, all artwork and all in-game models. The new items are all available from the RoboCrate, a robot themed crate the community have been collecting en masse since it was added by Valve in late April 2013.

The update website uses original community created artwork uploaded to the Steam Artwork section to highlight a series of individual items included with the patch. The update is now available, so head on over to Team Fortress 2 if you feel like checking it out. While you download the update, don't forget to watch the impressive update teaser traile r included on the main announcement page, which was created by community member "MrPopulus89".

]]> Sat, 18 May 2013 18:23:42 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/team-fortress-2-update-robotic-boogaloo-now-live.243450/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/team-fortress-2-update-robotic-boogaloo-now-live.243450/ Omnomnick Omnomnick 5 Six New Games Greenlit
Bleed - a 2D action platformer
Game Dev Tycoon - a game development simulator
Stardew Valley - a co-op "country-life RPG"
RIOT - a game about riots
Legends of Eisenwald - a medieval RPG-RTS
The Legend - a first person horror game that isn't about collecting notes

We'll keep you up to date on any more titles getting through the greenlight process.]]> Fri, 17 May 2013 14:29:08 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/six-new-games-greenlit.243445/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/six-new-games-greenlit.243445/ ríomhaire ríomhaire 7 Steam Community Profile Update Inbound - Rating Being Replaced With "Levels" Reddit users are reporting seeing new versions of the Steam Community profile pages on the Steam Community website and in the Steam client itself, possibly accidentally on Valve's part as all changes seem to have been since been reverted. These new profiles don't seem to be available to everyone but if you want to see them for yourself there's a handy album of screenshots available here. All profiles seem to be between level 0 and 10.

The new profile features a system that allows users to gain levels by earning XP like in an RPG. These seem to be earned mainly through completing Steam Badges. The Pillar of the Community Badge seems to also be updated with some new tasks that reveal new features for the Steam Community and give more insight into the Steam Community Trading Cards we revealed on Saturday.

Although it's still unclear how you are to get trading cards one of the badges reveals that if you collect a complete set of cards you can craft them into a "game badge" for your profile. Other virtual items to upgrade your profile with will also drop during trading card crafting including profile backgrounds and Steam chat emoticons. Both of these items are tradable.

One last feature shown is a "Featured Showcase" which seems to be a space to show off your favourite games, perhaps with the game badges mentioned above. Hopefully the new Community will be pushed out to everyone soon. I'll be trading a Potato Sack Badge for a Gogoat.]]> Wed, 15 May 2013 17:44:51 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/steam-community-profile-update-inbound-rating-being-replaced-with-levels.243440/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/steam-community-profile-update-inbound-rating-being-replaced-with-levels.243440/ ríomhaire ríomhaire 8 ValveTime Weekly News Round-Up - 13th May 2013 previous weeks, you'd better get yourself ready for this week's ValveTime Weekly News Round-Up! In the news this week, the International 3 tournament received several major updates while the SteamDB community unearthed something known as the "Steam Trading Card Beta". If you're interested in virtual reality and/or Linux, you'll want to check out Half-Life 2 as a set of updates earlier this week introduced beta support for Ubuntu and the Oculus Rift. Stay tuned for more ValveTime videos, news and reviews coming soon.

]]> Mon, 13 May 2013 20:33:21 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valvetime-weekly-news-round-up-13th-may-2013.243436/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valvetime-weekly-news-round-up-13th-may-2013.243436/ Omnomnick Omnomnick Gabe Newell To Participate In LinuxCon Keynote Line-Up LinuxCon and CloudOpen gathering in New Orleans. The event, taking place in September, will feature a variety of speakers and panels focusing on the future of open source software. Newell will be offering insight into Valve's growing support of the Linux platform and their reasoning for doing so.

Among the other speakers at the event is Eben Upton, co-creator of the Raspberry Pi, a heavily moddable single-board computer originally developed for teaching purposes in the UK. The computer has become extremely popular in the homebrew community, being used to create gadgets ranging from game emulators to 3D printers.

To tie this post up in a neat little bow: Adam Foster, Valve mapper and creator of Minerva: Metastasis, recently used the Raspberry Pi to build himself a time-delayed international radio tuner complete with retro casing.]]> Mon, 13 May 2013 20:12:15 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/gabe-newell-to-participate-in-linuxcon-keynote-line-up.243433/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/gabe-newell-to-participate-in-linuxcon-keynote-line-up.243433/ Lobster Lobster 3 "Steam Trading Card Beta Access" Found On Steam Servers Steam Trading Card Beta" which was added to Steam a few days ago. A banner image for the Beta was also found on the Steam servers and looks like this:

Unfortunately that's all the info we have on this. Is Valve building some kind of trading card game directly into Steam or will these cards represent something about your Steam account? Share your thoughts in the comments.]]> Sun, 12 May 2013 23:24:15 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/steam-trading-card-beta-access-found-on-steam-servers.243430/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/steam-trading-card-beta-access-found-on-steam-servers.243430/ ríomhaire ríomhaire 8 Half-Life 2 Update Brings Beta Linux and Oculus Rift Support Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Half-Life 2: Lost Coast and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch have all been updated with Linux support. With this Gordon Freeman's entire saga (to date) is now available on Windows, MacOS and Linux. With Portal having arrived on Linux last week and Left 4 Dead 2 at the end of April Valve are getting all their big titles ready for Linux for their upcoming SteamBox platform.

An update also included Oculus Rift support for Half-Life 2 as detailed on the official Oculus forums. All the settings from the Team Fortress 2 implementation of Rift are available plus two additional setting to adjust the position of Gordon's arms in the first person view "so the elbows are harder to see and it feels more attached to your body." Instructions on how to activate the VR beta can be found on PCGamingWiki.

Speaking of Half-Life 2 and the Oculus Rift, do you remember the Half-Life 2 VR mod we posted about a while back? The devs have been hard at work on it and have added Razer Hydra support. With this the player's hands can be fully tracked in 3D space with the Razer Hydra allowing for features like the ability to aim down the sights of the gun in a realistic fashion for aiming without slowing down movement or play, rather than the head-glued-gun method featured in many modern shooters, and also to use the crowbar by physically swinging it at those pesky headcrabs! See the latest video below:

]]> Sun, 12 May 2013 22:54:59 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/half-life-2-update-brings-beta-linux-and-oculus-rift-support.243426/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/half-life-2-update-brings-beta-linux-and-oculus-rift-support.243426/ ríomhaire ríomhaire 16 Dota 2 Weekly Patch - 09/05/13 + International 2013 News Recap week’s Dota 2 update, which was released late last night, included a few minor gameplay fixes and a brand new "Solo Matchmaking" option which allows players who have queued without a party to be given a fair match up by removing possibly unfair communication benefits available to teams comprised of grouped up individuals. While the contents of the update change log are particularly light this week, the patch itself also includes a new cosmetic item set for Tusk known as "The Arctic Hunter", which is now available from the Dota 2 store. A series of seven unreleased custom HUDs were also added to the game files including in-game displays which appeared to be themed after Magnus, Alchemist, Ancient Apparition, Nature’s Prophet and several others. Legion Commander and the second tutorial map both also received a series of in-game assets, hinting at the possibility of a major update arriving sometime soon which may include one or both of these major new features.

The Dota 2 competitive scene has also seen a number of key developments in the past week. Since we last reported on the International 3 tournament, Valve have revealed the entire team roster including the remaining 12 teams invited directly into the main event and the 16 teams set to compete in the pair of qualifiers set to take place very soon. Teams Orange.Neolution, Alliance, Fnatic, Team Liquid, Na’Vi, Team Zenith, Team Dignitas, Virtus.Pro, DK, LGD Gaming.Int, Invasion MUFC and TongFu all join 2012 reigning champions Invictus Gaming in the main tournament. The Western Qualifier, set to take place from May 13th until May 19th, will involve Absolute Legends, Evil Geniuses, mousesports, RoX.KIS, Empire, ICCup, Qpad Red Pandas and DD.Dota fighting it out for a place in the main event. A day later, on May 20th, First Departure, Neolution.Int, LGD Gaming, Vici Gaming, RattleSnake, Rising Stars, MiTH.Trust and Mineski will take place in the Eastern Qualifier, which will run for three days until May 23rd before continuing for another two days on May 28th 2013. It was also recently revealed that Dota 2 professional commentators TobiWan and Ayesee have both accepted invites from Valve to shoutcast the main International 3 tournament in August of this year, which will take place at the Benaroya Hall in Seattle.

While tickets for the main event have already sold out, those of you wanting to watch from home can view the tournament using the in-game DotaTV spectator system, which is being provided free of charge for the first time. The International Interactive Compendium, an e-book which can be purchased from the Dota 2 store, allows players to get directly involved with the tournament by predicting tournament statistics, voting for an All Star match and awards while competing with friends.

Every player who purchases the £6/$10 compendium will receive a brand new customisable Smeevil courier, which can be upgraded based on the amount of tournament games viewed. For every purchase, 25% of the total price will go towards increasing the total tournament prize pool, which has already risen by around $165’000 from the initial $1.6m amount. Valve has also set up a series of Stretch Goals which will provide the community with more rare items based on how high the prize pool rises. Stretch Goal 1 has already been reached, which provides compendium purchasers with a rare 125% battle bonus from now until the end of the tournament. Stay tuned to ValveTime for more Dota 2 news in the near future.

]]> Sat, 11 May 2013 15:58:22 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/dota-2-weekly-patch-09-05-13-international-2013-news-recap.243428/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/dota-2-weekly-patch-09-05-13-international-2013-news-recap.243428/ Omnomnick Omnomnick 6 Valve Live Chat with Greenlight Developers
Reaction to Greenlight since its launch in September has been mixed, with many developers expressing concern towards the functionality of the system as well as the concept as a whole. Many view the feature as a popularity contest, in which certain unfinished concepts gain massive support, while other, completed titles become lost in the crowd. This visibility problem was high on the agenda during the discussion, with some calling for a major shakeup in how the system sorts and displays individual projects, as well as how projects can recover from an initial spate of down-voting.

Valve responded by saying that limited resources are holding the system back from delivering titles at the rate they wish, leading to the recent decision to release greenlit titles as mini-batches in shorter intervals. They also repeated Gabe Newell's recent comments on making Steam an open platform, where greater power would be given to third party users and developers wishing to build their own communities around features like customised store fronts.

A thorough transcript of the discussion posted by Tom at Crunching Koalas, which highlights most of the major points discussed in the chat, can be found here.]]> Fri, 10 May 2013 17:10:29 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valve-live-chat-with-greenlight-developers.243427/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valve-live-chat-with-greenlight-developers.243427/ Lobster Lobster ValveTime Weekly News Round-Up - 6th May 2013 one for Portal and the other for Left 4 Dead 2. Elsewhere, Elder Titan was introduced into Dota 2 while an update Steam Greenlight introduced four new Greenlit titles to the service. Don't forget to check out all of our other media content from this past week, including ValveTime TalkTime Episode 4, our Minerva: Metastasis review and our spotlight preview of the mod.

If you're a fan of TalkTime, be sure to leave a question in the comments below as Episode 5 will hopefully be a Q&A session in which the ValveTime staff will cherry pick a few select topics submitted by the community! And if you're not a fan of TalkTime, what's wrong with you? Head on over to our most recent episode to find out what you've been missing!]]> Thu, 09 May 2013 05:10:21 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valvetime-weekly-news-round-up-6th-may-2013.243419/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valvetime-weekly-news-round-up-6th-may-2013.243419/ Omnomnick Omnomnick 4 ValveTime TalkTime - Episode 4: Half-Life Hopes fourth episode of ValveTime TalkTime, Glenn, Nick, James and John discuss what they would like to see Valve do for the next Half-Life game, and argue about what does or does not need to be done for the game to be considered a success. Don't forget to leave your questions in the comments below as TalkTime Episode 5 will be a question/answer session where the ValveTime staff will talk about what you submit!

Feel free to leave your feedback regarding what you think of this series! If you would like to see more, let us know! If not, tell us! Our series can only improve with your help.]]> Tue, 07 May 2013 14:37:47 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valvetime-talktime-episode-4-half-life-hopes.243414/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valvetime-talktime-episode-4-half-life-hopes.243414/ Omnomnick Omnomnick 16 ValveTime Review - Minerva Metastasis Mod Review original release, Minerva Metastasis has recently returned in the form of an updated "Director's Cut" edition which is available now on Steam as a free download. Is this classic mod capable of living up to the hype it received back in 2007? Find out in our ValveTime video review!

]]> Sun, 05 May 2013 03:11:40 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valvetime-review-minerva-metastasis-mod-review.243406/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valvetime-review-minerva-metastasis-mod-review.243406/ Omnomnick Omnomnick 8 Left 4 Dead 2 Beta now available - Linux Support included. last week the Left 4 Dead 2 Beta Client is now available to everyone that owns the game, bringing Linux Support to Left 4 Dead for the first time, continuing Valve's commitment to the platform alongside the Portal Beta reported yesterday.

The Beta also allows access to the Extended Mutation System, an SDK extension that allows the creation of complex gamemode alterations that were previously impossible with the existing toolset. The EMS tools have been available to modders for the last three months, meaning that players downloading the new client today should discover a collection of new mutations ready for testing on the Beta Workshop.

If you would like to take part in the Beta, simply find the "Left 4 Dead 2 Beta" in your Steam library and install it. Existing Mac and Windows users should be advised that the Beta Client will require a second copy of the game to be downloaded.

Also in today's Left 4 Dead Blog Update was the announcement that four custom campaigns have been selected for official server support: City 17, Diescraper, Back to School and Urban Flight will now be available to play on Valve servers. Players can find all four of these campaigns via the Steam Workshop.

]]> Sat, 04 May 2013 03:20:43 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/left-4-dead-2-beta-now-available-linux-support-included.243412/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/left-4-dead-2-beta-now-available-linux-support-included.243412/ Lobster Lobster Dota 2 Weekly Patch - 02/05/13: The Worldsmith Wakes! Dota 2 update arrived last night and introduced a brand new hero known as Elder Titan. Elder Titan, who acts as Valve's Dota 2 recreation of Tauren Chieftain, is regularly played as durable initiator capable of starting fights with the use of his "Echo Stomp" ability, which can temporarily knock out all enemy targets in a 475 radius for up to 5 seconds. His ultimate, named "Earth Splitter", allows Elder Titan to send out a massive 2400 long shock wave which explodes after a 3 second duration, the result of which causes all targets caught in the blast to lose 35% of their maximum health while being slowed for up to 50% for a 5 second period. Elder Titan is voiced by Jim French, who is well known for playing various characters in previous Valve titles including Bill in Left 4 Dead and Father Grigori in Half-Life 2.

New cosmetic item sets were also released for Alchemist, Centaur Warrunner, Keeper of the Light, Lina, Mirana, Phantom Assassin and Sand King. On the unreleased side of things, two new themed HUD were also found in the games files including the "Cold Depths" and the "Empower" skins, both of which appear as slightly alternated variants of the default rock HUD. With the International 3 qualifiers just around the corner, Valve has already included two new DotaTV League Passes for the respective East and West tournaments, which will presumably become available alongside the release of the main tournament tickets on May 7th at 10am pacific daylight time.

We'll be sure to keep you posted when the first of the qualifier tournaments begins on May 13th, so stay tuned for more Dota action in the near future. Until then, get out there and get stomping, gl hf!

]]> Sat, 04 May 2013 00:31:53 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/dota-2-weekly-patch-02-05-13-the-worldsmith-wakes.243411/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/dota-2-weekly-patch-02-05-13-the-worldsmith-wakes.243411/ Omnomnick Omnomnick Portal Linux Beta Now Available here.]]> Fri, 03 May 2013 18:23:43 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/portal-linux-beta-now-available.243407/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/portal-linux-beta-now-available.243407/ ríomhaire ríomhaire 1 Four More Titles Greenlit

Papers, Please, a "A Dystopian Document Thriller" where you play an immigration inspector for the glorious nation of Arstotzka.
Edge of Space, a space-themed 2D sandbox in the vein of Terraria
Venetica, an action adventure following a young woman named Scarlett who discovers she is the daughter of death itself
Substance Designer 3, software for texturing 3D models, aimed at game development

Substance Designer 3 and Venetica are already finished and available for purchase from other sources while Edge of Space and Papers, Please are in beta. The beta for Papers, Please is freely available and can be found here.]]> Thu, 02 May 2013 00:58:56 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/four-more-titles-greenlit.243405/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/four-more-titles-greenlit.243405/ ríomhaire ríomhaire 1 New Steam Client Beta Adds Downloading Rate Limiting new Steam client beta update adds an option to limit the rate at which games are downloaded. This should help with cases where Steam hogs a user's bandwidth and prevents them from using other internet services while downloading games with Steam. To opt into the beta look for the beta participation section in the Account tab of your Steam settings. Once you've downloaded the beta the limiter setting can be found in Settings -> Downloads and lets you set limits between 128 Kbps and 250 Mbps or no limit at all.]]> Wed, 01 May 2013 18:08:41 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/new-steam-client-beta-adds-downloading-rate-limiting.243385/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/new-steam-client-beta-adds-downloading-rate-limiting.243385/ ríomhaire ríomhaire 6 Adam Foster's Minerva Returns + Video [Update: Released!] Minerva officially appear on Steam. Adam Foster, the creator of Minerva, was hired by Valve shortly after releasing the mod to critical acclaim back in 2007.

With the help (and nagging) of his colleagues at Valve, Adam is re-releasing Minerva as a Director's Cut edition with "tweaked visuals, bug fixes, better puzzles and all kinds of subtle improvements. Nothing majorly new, just old stuff tidied and polished for this re-release."

Expect the usual single-player shooting and puzzles, a healthy dose of mystery and plenty of on-screen dialogue from the unseen Minerva, who guides (and insults) you on your journey through a vast Combine underground facility.

If you haven't played it before it's certainly up to Valve-quality in terms of the Half-life experience. We've been fortunate enough to get early access to the re-release, which you can find our thoughts on in our full video review!

UPDATE: Minerva is now live and available for all to play for free on Steam!]]> Tue, 30 Apr 2013 22:26:32 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/adam-fosters-minerva-returns-video-update-released.243403/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/adam-fosters-minerva-returns-video-update-released.243403/ Hectic Glenn Hectic Glenn 10 Adam Foster's Minerva Returns + Video [Update: Released!] Minerva officially appear on Steam. Adam Foster, the creator of Minerva, was hired by Valve shortly after releasing the mod to critical acclaim back in 2007.

With the help (and nagging) of his colleagues at Valve, Adam is re-releasing Minerva as a Director's Cut edition with "tweaked visuals, bug fixes, better puzzles and all kinds of subtle improvements. Nothing majorly new, just old stuff tidied and polished for this re-release."

Expect the usual single-player shooting and puzzles, a healthy dose of mystery and plenty of on-screen dialogue from the unseen Minerva, who guides (and insults) you on your journey through a vast Combine underground facility.