News

News News Thu, 23 May 2013 00:34:58 +0000 Thu, 23 May 2013 00:34:58 +0000 ValveTime.net | Valve News, Forums, Steam http://www.valvetime.net/forums/news.32/ 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.

]]> Mon, 20 May 2013 11:36:00 +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 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

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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 ValveTime Weekly News Round-Up - 28th April 2013 International 3 Dota 2 tournament, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive received the first "Operation" community map pass and a variety of Steam updates introduced brand new features to the service. Stay tuned for the return of ValveTime TalkTime coming later this week! We promise this time.

]]> Sun, 28 Apr 2013 20:57:40 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valvetime-weekly-news-round-up-28th-april-2013.243401/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valvetime-weekly-news-round-up-28th-april-2013.243401/ Omnomnick Omnomnick Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Operation Payback Available through an in-game purchase for a limited-time discounted price of $2.99, or $5.99 after the offer expires.

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The seven maps that will be made available are: Museum, Downtown, Thunder, Favela, Motel, Seaside, and Library. After purchasing the update, players will be able to invite their friends to play on the seven new maps with them - even if they don't have the pass.

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It also comes with an upgradable challenge coin, which can be viewed alongside players' avatars. Players will begin at bronze and can battle their way to gold.

Operation Payback is the first in a series of limited-time updates aimed at giving a financial reward to some of CS:GO's most popular mapmakers. From the Counter-Strike blog:

We really wanted these maps to reach a wider audience, and also get the people making these amazing new gameplay experiences rewarded for their efforts... And remember: “Payback” is just the beginning. Future Operations will highlight all-new collections of popular maps. So stay tuned, keep mapmaking, and keep upvoting!

Source: Counter-Strike Blog

Please note: the Store page for CS:GO reads that there should be eight maps, while the Counter-Strike blog, the in-game map list, and the Operation Payback page state that there are seven. It would seem that Operation Payback was to contain one more map, Pool Day, but for unknown reasons they chose to exclude it. Pool Day is currently available in the Steam Workshop.]]> Sat, 27 Apr 2013 15:00:57 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/counter-strike-global-offensive-operation-payback-available.243395/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/counter-strike-global-offensive-operation-payback-available.243395/ TheBreakfast TheBreakfast 15 Greenlit MMO Heralds Arrival Of Steam Subscription Plans Subscription Plans will, for the first time, allow developers to offer users the ability to make regular payments without the need for a second, external account.

The news came alongside the release of the greenlit Fantasy MMO Darkfall: Unholy Wars, which will be the first release to make use of the new system. Valve also stated that "additional subscription-based games" will follow, and included a full FAQ on the Steam Support page.]]> Fri, 26 Apr 2013 22:28:45 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/greenlit-mmo-heralds-arrival-of-steam-subscription-plans.243390/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/greenlit-mmo-heralds-arrival-of-steam-subscription-plans.243390/ Lobster Lobster 1 Valve Announces International 3 Dota 2 Tournament "The International 3" for Dota 2, which is set to be hosted in Seattle in August 2013. Similarly to previous years, the International 3 will feature the top 16 Dota 2 teams from all corners of the globe in a massive tournament, all of whom are fighting to win a grand prize of $1,000,000.

The tournament was unveiled earlier today via an announcement page and accompanying post on the Dota 2 blog. While both of these sources are particularly light on information, Valve have promised that more teams and information will be revealed in the coming days. At time of writing, Chinese team Invictus Gaming are currently the only confirmed team to appear on the tournament page after having secured their place as the 2012 International 2 champions. The event, which is scheduled to take place between the 7th and 11th of August 2013, will be held at the Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Washington, which is the same venue used for last year's International 2 tournament. 12 of the remaining teams will be added to the tournament roster in the near future via invites from Valve while the last 3 team slots will be selected through a pair of qualifier tournaments set to take place in May. The winners of each tournament will receive a guaranteed space in the tournament and the runners up from both qualifiers must fight one another to determine which team will become the tournament's "Wild Card" team.

We can also confirm that Valve can officially use the number 3! As usual, stay tuned to ValveTime for all the latest news as we learn more.]]> Fri, 26 Apr 2013 20:01:46 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valve-announces-international-3-dota-2-tournament.243393/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valve-announces-international-3-dota-2-tournament.243393/ Omnomnick Omnomnick 5 Dota 2 Weekly Patch - 25/04/13: Couriers, Captains & Corrections Dota 2 update for this week went live late last night and, while it was a relatively light update in regards to amount of content, it still managed to introduce a wide variety of gameplay fixes and cosmetic items. New cosmetic item sets for Huskar, Meepo, Slardar were added to the Dota 2 store alongside four new couriers including the Llama Llama, Kupu the Metamorpher and the return of Porcine Princess Penelope and Nimble Ben, both of which were added to the game files several weeks ago. As we mentioned earlier this week, a Houndeye courier also appears to have made its way into the game files, so we're currently looking forward to seeing whether or not this new item happens to be an upcoming pre-order bonus for a certain game.

Friends for life: The unreleased Houndeye courier beside the newly released Llama Llama.

Drow Ranger and Tusk were both added to the tournament version of Captain's mode while Bristleback, Slark and Skywrath Mage were all implemented into the most recent variant. Slark, Invoker, Skywrath Mage, Troll Warlord and Tusk all received major gameplay fixes in order to rectify a set of issues which have arisen in recent weeks. Unreleased heroes Elder Titan and Legion Commander both received major updates to their existing content including the addition of comedy ability icons, updated hero portraits and improved textures, all of which provide a deeper preview of how the heroes may look and function once released. If you're looking for information, you might want to check out the official changelog over on the Dota 2 blog or, alternatively, you could head on over to Cyborgmatt's website to read his update analysis. Incase you missed it, be sure to read all about the recently revealed International 3 tournament, as more information is set to be revealed in the next few days.

Legion Commander's current alpha portrait image.

]]> Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:49:56 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/dota-2-weekly-patch-25-04-13-couriers-captains-corrections.243399/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/dota-2-weekly-patch-25-04-13-couriers-captains-corrections.243399/ Omnomnick Omnomnick Left 4 Dead 2 Beta Goes Public - Will Include Linux Support official Left 4 Dead Blog, Valve announced that the Beta Client for Left 4 Dead 2 will expand its availability to the entire community next week.

The Beta Client was introduced back in February with restricted access to mod makers wishing to help test the "Extended Mutation System" -- a scripting system that allows modders to create custom game modes with greater complexity than currently possible with the existing SDK. The public beta should allow all players to download and test these Mutations when it goes live.

In addition to the EMS, the Beta Client will also see testing of the upcoming Linux version of Left 4 Dead 2. Linux support for the game was first seen back in September 2012, when Eric Anholt demonstrated the game as an example of Source on Linux. The game will join Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike Source, and the GoldSRC era titles in Valve's Linux library.

]]> Fri, 26 Apr 2013 02:31:30 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/left-4-dead-2-beta-goes-public-will-include-linux-support.243394/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/left-4-dead-2-beta-goes-public-will-include-linux-support.243394/ Lobster Lobster UPDATE: Cry of Fear Delayed Over Pricing Confusion since been released on Steam as a free to download mod as originally planned. You can find it over on Steam at this cleverly placed link.

You may have noticed that promised release of the Half-Life 1 mod Cry of Fear on Steam didn't happen today. According to a post on the Cry of Fear Facebook page this is because Valve thought the team wanted to charge for it when they in fact wanted it to remain free. They're currently in discussions with Valve to resolve the issue and hope they will still be able to release it for free.]]> Thu, 25 Apr 2013 19:38:59 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/update-cry-of-fear-delayed-over-pricing-confusion.243389/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/update-cry-of-fear-delayed-over-pricing-confusion.243389/ ríomhaire ríomhaire 3 The Houndeye Returns [IMG]

The memorable Xenian sound dog from Half-life 1 has reappeared on Valve's horizon in the form of a courier for Dota 2. As with all couriers in Dota 2, the Houndeye has a walking and flying model, the latter of which does look a little ridiculous.

For those of you hoping this is a Half-life 3 pre-order bonus, you should be aware Half-life already has a tie-in to Dota 2 in the form of the Dr Kleiner Announcement Pack and Half-life is seemingly no closer than before! (Image: balladofwindfishes)]]> Thu, 25 Apr 2013 19:30:28 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/the-houndeye-returns.243387/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/the-houndeye-returns.243387/ Hectic Glenn Hectic Glenn 8 Half-Life 1 Horror Mod Gets Steam Release Cry of Fear will be released on Steam on the 24th April. Developed by Team Psykskallar, the mod is free and will not require the original Half-Life in order to play.

The game was released last year through the developer's official site and is a welcome contender alongside the popular Half-Life 2 mod Nightmare House 2. The perplexing narrative is supported by first person combat and unnatural happenings, with its fair share of jump scares. It joins the growing market for indie horror titles such as Slender and Amnesia:The Dark Descent.

Credit goes to PC Gamer]]> Wed, 24 Apr 2013 15:06:30 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/half-life-1-horror-mod-gets-steam-release.243384/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/half-life-1-horror-mod-gets-steam-release.243384/ Emily453 Emily453 3 ValveTime Weekly News Round-Up - 21st April 2013 news drought, we're back! Valve have returned from Hawaii and have already been busy. In the news this week, Skywrath Mage was added as a new hero in Dota 2, a Team Fortress 2 update introduced full body view models and 20 new Greenlit titles were added to Steam Greenlight. We imagine news will continue to pick up in the coming weeks, so stay tuned to ValveTime and our YouTube channel for all the latest talking points.

]]> Mon, 22 Apr 2013 18:09:05 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valvetime-weekly-news-round-up-21st-april-2013.243379/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valvetime-weekly-news-round-up-21st-april-2013.243379/ Omnomnick Omnomnick 3 Dota 2 Weekly Patch - 19/04/13: The Skywrath Mage scheduled two week holiday in Hawaii, Valve have finally returned to work and have introduced a new hero to Dota 2's roster. The new hero, known as Skywrath Mage, is a ranged intelligence nuker who specializes in dealing large amounts of damage to enemy players using abilities such as his late game scaling Arcane Bolt and his potentially devastating ultimate. His ultimate, Mystic Flare, allows Skywrath Mage to deal a massive 1200 damage nuke in a small 170 unit area of effect over a period of two seconds. The ultimate is particularly useful as it scales relative to the number of enemy heroes caught in the blast by evenly distributing the total damage, thus allowing Skywrath to deal 1200 damage to a single target, 600 damage to two targets, and so on.

As with other recent updates, improving the game's visual quality was at the forefront of this patch. The Smoke of Deceit received an in-game floor model while the Gem Of True Sight has been modified to include bright particle effects to help make the item more distinguishable after it has been dropped during a hectic team fight. Everyone's favourite cloaked assassin Riki received a major update which has dramatically improved the quality of the character's model and textures. Other visual improvements include the arrival of Bill and Ben, a new pair of shopkeepers, and brand new animations for Razor, Riki and Sniper. In an update post on the Dota 2 blog, Valve mentioned that they were overhauling the player report system in order to streamline bans and generally improve the player experience. This overhauled system includes the merging of the "Voice" and "Text" abuse categories and the limiting of bans to 4 per week, which has been dropped from the previous limit of 6.

An extremely wide selection of unreleased cosmetic items were also present in the update including items for Dazzle, Doom, Huskar, Faceless Void, Enchantress, Outworld Devourer, Omniknight, Necrolyte, Warlock and several others. In related news, unreleased heroes Elder Titan, Abaddon and Legion Commander all received major updates to their in-game files in the form of new textures, particle effects, portrait images, sounds and strings, so be sure to keep an eye out for their inclusion to the game in the near future. Finally, the upcoming second tutorial map also received a variety of currently unused assets including sets of models for a cave environment and unique animations for Sniper and Tidehunter. To learn more about this particular patch, head on over to the official changelog over on the Dota 2 blog or check out Cyborgmatt's full analysis over on his website.]]> Sat, 20 Apr 2013 10:07:21 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/dota-2-weekly-patch-19-04-13-the-skywrath-mage.243377/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/dota-2-weekly-patch-19-04-13-the-skywrath-mage.243377/ Omnomnick Omnomnick Steam Greenlight Introduces 20 New Greenlit Titles sixth official batch of Greenlit titles for Valve's Steam Greenlight has arrived. Valve were keen to stress that the new update, which features a total of 20 new titles, has brought the total number of Greenlit titles to just over 90. The update includes 18 new games and 2 new software titles including the recently revealed "Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures" and "GamePlan". The total list of Greenlit titles featured in today's update can be viewed below.

The latest software titles:

The latest games:

]]> Thu, 18 Apr 2013 08:53:17 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/steam-greenlight-introduces-20-new-greenlit-titles.243371/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/steam-greenlight-introduces-20-new-greenlit-titles.243371/ Omnomnick Omnomnick 3 ValveTime Weekly News Round-Up - 7th April 2013 on holiday in Hawaii this week, but that doesn't mean we were taking a break. What happened in the news this week then? Well, Source Filmmaker received Steam Workshop support, some SteamBox software appeared in a repository on the Steampowered.com website and Valve announced that a new set of Steam Greenlight titles would be Greenlit on April 17th! Last Monday was also April Fools day, so would you kindly go and read all about our 'hilarious' joke? It had everyone fooled. Well maybe not everyone, but we definitely fooled this guy.

]]> Tue, 09 Apr 2013 18:41:24 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valvetime-weekly-news-round-up-7th-april-2013.243353/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/valvetime-weekly-news-round-up-7th-april-2013.243353/ Omnomnick Omnomnick 2 Enhanced Steam Add-On Adds New Features to Steam Store in Firefox and Chrome Enhanced Steam adds a bunch of new features to the Steam store for free. While it can't be used with the Steam client itself it improves browsing experience on the Steam Store.

Features include:

Highlighting games you already own and games on your wishlist
More noticeably displays which games have third party DRM
Displays the lowest ever price a game has gone for in the past
Adds DLC categories to store pages
Displays the total amount you've spent on Steam (if you're anything like me you might not want to actually see that one)

And a bunch more. Head over to the official site to try it out.]]> Mon, 08 Apr 2013 15:39:51 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/enhanced-steam-add-on-adds-new-features-to-steam-store-in-firefox-and-chrome.243352/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/enhanced-steam-add-on-adds-new-features-to-steam-store-in-firefox-and-chrome.243352/ ríomhaire ríomhaire 5 Steam Box Software Drops Onto Package Repository hometest" has emerged on the Steampowered.com web server. The package contains experimental Nvidia video drivers, a Plymouth boot splash screen for Steam, some Valve wallpapers, and of course the Steam for Linux binaries that are already available to Linux users.

Phoronix expects that the Steam Box will use Ubuntu/Debian at the core of the OS, and it'll be accessible by the more enthusiastic users, underneath the Steam Big Picture application (Gabe Newell suggested a few months ago at CES that the Steam Box would be completely open & accessible). But it's also too early to rule out the possibility of a repackaged "Steam Linux" distro altogether.

Valve's willingness to continue keeping their software free and open could mean that we won't ever need to buy a Steam Box. If they wanted to, a user could install the "Steam Linux" software on any machine that's up to hardware specifications. Makes sense, as any PC is technically a "Steam Box" according to Valve.

Anyways, this isn't gigantic news, but things are moving along.]]> Thu, 04 Apr 2013 14:09:46 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/steam-box-software-drops-onto-package-repository.243341/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/steam-box-software-drops-onto-package-repository.243341/ -smash- -smash- 9 UPDATED: Valve Reportedly Showing "Nice Things" At GDC 2013

Sorry to burst everyone’s proverbial bubbles, but my meeting with Valve was held to discuss pre-order bonuses and marketing opportunities for Rise of the Triad as well as future Interceptor Entertainment and Apogee titles. Getting face time with the people we’re lucky enough to be working with at Valve is invaluable to a small developer like Interceptor, so naturally I’m very excited to share the upcoming news with our fans. Unfortunately for the Pixel Nation, that news has absolutely nothing to do with Half Life 3 or Source 2. Quite frankly, if I knew anything and had said anything about that, I’d likely already be dead.

It would appear as if the media have massively jumped the gun regarding this particular rumour, and in turn have managed to blow the tweets from Goldfarb and Oshry way out of proportion. While gaming news organisations (including ourselves) are most likely largely to blame for the initial development of the situation, we feel partial blame should also lie with Oshry and Goldfarb, who willingly exploited their industry positions to spread and further develop fake rumours, which is extremely unnecessary, unprofessional and unwelcome. However, we are pleased to see Dave Oshry attempt to clean up the situation by releasing his full official explanation to Pixel Enemy and ValveTime in order to replace his initially released Twitter statement.

Original: Pixel Enemy and several other gaming news sites are reporting that Twitter is now a legitimate news source. Jokes aside - yesterday, David Goldfarb, lead designer on Battlefield 3, and Interceptor Entertainment's David Oshry both posted messages to Twitter explaining their positive reactions to something shown at a behind-closed-doors meeting with Valve at GDC 2013. Valve had apparently given various game developers an early sneak peek at something currently unannounced. Hopefully these "Nice Things" help explain why it has been such a super slow news week for Valve so far.

]]> Thu, 04 Apr 2013 13:19:34 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/updated-valve-reportedly-showing-nice-things-at-gdc-2013.243324/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/updated-valve-reportedly-showing-nice-things-at-gdc-2013.243324/ Omnomnick Omnomnick 33 Source Filmmaker Receives Steam Workshop Support surprise post arrived on the SFM Blog yesterday afternoon. Yes, a legitimate post on April Fools Day - we're as surprised as you are! Users can now use the newly added Source Filmmaker section to upload and share models and sounds with the community, helping to make the process of finding and importing models into the SFM that little bit easier.

Models and sounds will be the first asset types the SFM Workshop supports. We chose models because model sharing has been one of the most-requested features to date, and we wanted to ensure that the filmmaking community has a single destination for all models compatible with the SFM.

The Source Filmmaker Steam Workshop section is growing fast, as around 100 individual sets have already been added including community created models and a wide variety of official game assets released by Valve. If you're interested in learning more, you can check out the official post over on the SFM blog, or head on over to the newly added Workshop section if you'd like to jump in and get involved.

]]> Wed, 03 Apr 2013 02:48:46 +0000 http://www.valvetime.net/threads/source-filmmaker-receives-steam-workshop-support.243340/ http://www.valvetime.net/threads/source-filmmaker-receives-steam-workshop-support.243340/ Omnomnick Omnomnick 4 Source Filmmaker Receives Steam Workshop Support surprise post arrived on the SFM Blog yesterday afternoon. Yes, a legitimate post on April Fools Day - we're as surprised as you are! Users can now use the newly added Source Filmmaker section to upload and share models and sounds with the community, helping to make the process of finding and importing models into the SFM that little bit easier.

Models and sounds will be the first asset types the SFM Workshop supports. We chose models because model sharing has been one of the most-requested features to date, and we wanted to ensure that the filmmaking community has a single destination for all models compatible with the SFM.