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May 15, 2013

Valve launches 'Steam Trading Cards' in beta

Shacknews - Steve Watts

What do you do when your platform already sells and launches video games? Make the platform itself a video game, naturally. Valve announced the beta launch of "Steam Trading Cards" today. The collectible meta-game lets you upgrade your Steam profile by playing games and collecting and trading their associated (virtual) cards.

The trading card system earns you cards for playing supported games, along with collecting and trading. Once you earn enough, you can craft a game badge, which can be used to earn rewards like profile backgrounds, emoticons, and Steam coupons. This also adds a leveling mechanic to your badges, in which you can earn XP to earn rewards like extra friends list slots and profile showcases. Joining the Trading Cards group will put you in a queue to get into the beta, and Valve will be allowing people into it in waves.

So far, the beta supports Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, Don't Starve, Half-Life 2, Portal 2, and Team Fortress 2. Valve promises it will expand to more games in the coming months. You can check out the FAQ for more details.

Apr 30, 2013

Half-Life 2 mod Minerva re-released on Steam as Director's Cut

Shacknews - John Keefer

It's been about six years since the Minerva mod for Half-Life 2 was released, but after some cajoling from co-workers at Valve, developer Adam Foster has given it a new coat of paint and is releasing it on Steam as a Director's Cut.

"It's taken long enough, but via lots of nagging and prompting from fellow Valve employees I've finally got round to getting MINERVA, the Half-Life 2 mod which got me a job at Valve, up on to Steam," Foster said in an email to Shacknews. "It was originally released in late 2007 to pretty much universal acclaim, but now there's about to be a super-fancy Director's Cut edition with tweaked visuals, bug fixes, better puzzles and all kinds of subtle improvements. Nothing hugely new, just old stuff tidied and polished for this re-release."

The mod, which is still free, tasks you with uncovering the mystery of an underground Combine facility while being fed information via text by a female character named Minerva. To play, you will need Half-Life 2: Episode One installed.

Apr 25, 2013

The Best Guns in PC Gaming

PC Gamer

Apr 22, 2013

CS:GO sleight of hand: watch this incredible flashbang fake-out

PC Gamer

Opportunities for misdirection maneuvers are less common in multiplayer shooters, so I'm compelled to highlight this absurdly creative flashbang feint I spotted on the ESEA YouTube channel from last weekend's ESEA S13 LAN in Dallas.

The setup: two teams whittle each other down to a one-on-one scenario around bomb site A on de_dust2. Watch how Swag (Team Dynamic) handles KennyS (VERYGAMES) after the bomb plant.

Mar 22, 2013

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive update adds cs_militia, reworks hostage rescue system

PC Gamer

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive cs_militia hostage

Valve has sent out a patch for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive that focuses on tweaking Hostage Rescue rules for stronger balance and to entice players away from the long-favored Bomb Defusal. Most notably, CTs have now adopted the tactical doctrine of draping hostages across their shoulders like a squishy scarf, and only a single rescue is needed to secure a win for the good guys.

You'll need to interact with a hostage for a lengthy four seconds to get him to hop on for a ride, and a new "rescue kit" shortens pickup time to a single second by presumably wowing hostages with attractively padded and comfortable-looking shoulder guards to rest on. Taking a note of influence from community-made maps such as cs_motel, hostage spawns are now randomized per match.

Valve is also continuing to stock GO's maps with updated versions of classic Counter-Strike levels, with cs_militia being the latest addition. It's structured similarly to cs_assault, where Ts benefit from an entrenched interior location to bunker in while CTs attempt rescue through multiple points of entry.

Defusing bombs got a small but significant change as well: turning too far away from a bomb while defusing it will cancel the process, a jump in risk and exposure for CTs trying for the win while Ts yet linger to guard the bomb. They could sure use one of those hostage-capes for extra protection.

Oh, and the rumored Support Pass for a community map rotation on official servers isn't happening. Valve even pokes fun at earlier reports of the pass with a new data string, "CSGO_Ticket_CommunitySeasonOneSpring2013_Leak," and its single-word description: "lol." Oh, Valve. Don't ever change.

See the rest of the patch notes over on Steam.

Mar 21, 2013

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive patch data hints at custom map Support Pass

PC Gamer

The CS community took out their knives and eagerly sprinted forward to the hundreds of user-made maps filling Global Offensive's Workshop since last month. We've got a nice stack of them running on our own server, and Valve is evidently looking to copy that setup on its own servers. Data-divers of reddit have found mention of a "Support Pass" in the next patch for players to purchase and access a pool of community maps soon to join the official server rotation.

A list of new data strings found in the patch mentions a "Community Support Pass Season One" to "grant access to Season One's featured community maps on official servers." The proceeds are distributed evenly to map contributors in what's likely an incentive to encourage an increasingly large selection of maps to feature.

The data doesn't mention a price, but Valve has a similar system in place with Team Fortress 2's co-op Mann vs. Machine mode, where players access multi-map sessions by purchasing $0.99 tickets. Assuming GO's passes carry a similar cost, it should result in a relatively simple way to jump into high-quality custom battles for little effort. The patch is expected to hit this week, so we'll have a clearer understanding of Valve's plans soon enough.

Mar 20, 2013

Counter-Strike: Source Update Released

Product Update - Valve

An update to Counter-Strike: Source has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Counter-Strike: Source. The major changes include:

Disabled Java for the in-game web browser
Added a new ConVar sb_filter_incompatible_versions. This will default to true and hide servers on the Internet tab that are running incompatible versions.
Fixed a client crash related to the audio system
Fixed a client crash related to rendering models
Fixed a client crash related to audio in the web browser
Fixed servers crashing with the error message "Overflow error writing string table baseline"
Fixed a missing material when setting mat_viewportscale to anything other than 1
Fixed a missing material when changing the value of mat_color_projection
Fixed a material system client crash for the Linux version
Fixed windowed mode under certain window managers for the Linux version
Updated controller support for the Linux version
Improved performance for the Linux version

Mar 19, 2013

Team Fortress 2, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch Updates Released

Product Update - Valve

Updates to Team Fortress 2, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Source Engine Changes (TF2, DoD:S, HL2:DM)

Disabled Java for the in-game web browser

Team Fortress 2

Added support for running VR mode on the Oculus Rift
Fixed a server crash related to game stats
Fixed custom paint not showing in the tool tip when you mouse-over an item in your backpack
Fixed the Spy not holding sappers correctly in third person
Fixed a bug where sentries would not rotate to face their target under some circumstances
Fixed a scoreboard bug where domination count was reduced by 2 when a dominated player left the server
Fixed the Fists of Steel not reducing damage from ranged weapons that use energy rings
Fixed the death notice icon for the Eureka Effect
Fixed the Neon Annihilator sometimes floating in the world after death
Fixes for strange parts:
- The Big Earner can no longer accept Long-Distance Kills strange parts
- The Festive Grenade Launcher can now accept Critical Kills strange parts
- The Neon Annihilator can now accept Sappers Destroyed strange parts
Removed some description text from the Manmelter that incorrectly stated its projectiles could not be deflected
Updated the Blind Justice so it can be equipped with other misc-slot items on the Demoman's face
Updated the backpack image for the Upgrade to Premium Gift item
Updated Mann Vs. Machine
- Fixed the boss health bar sometimes disappearing
- Fixed the uber Medics in Wave 4 of the Broken Parts mission charging at the incorrect rate
Updated the localization files

Mar 15, 2013

Headshot Hello Kitty in CS:GO’s de_dolls

PC Gamer

Counter-Strike Global Offensive de_dolls_csgo

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has a lot of custom maps. Seriously, browse its Steam Workshop page and see for yourself. We've talked about some of our favorites (all of which appear in our CS:GO sessions on our server), but a classic map layout we've yet to see a worthy update for is de_rats' bomb-defusal play in an oversized kitchen. DJ PC820 and TastySlopsicle's de_dolls_csgo is perhaps the best spiritual iteration we've spotted yet.

Instead of a kitchen, de_dolls_csgo takes us into a heavily pink bedroom which I assume is the property of a little girl, but the power of pink is genderless. Just like in rats, the jumbo furniture provides multiple nooks and alcoves for plinking across the map, including a doll house with furniture and a duct passage for moving around without exposing yourself to the AWPer's paradise of the main bedroom floor.

The map supports both classic and deathmatch play as well as bots for offline practice. You can easily download it by hitting the green "subscribe" button on its Workshop page.

Mar 14, 2013

Gabe Newell: Valve’s business increased by 50 percent last year

PC Gamer

Valve boss Gabe Newell stepped up to the stage during last week's BAFTA awards to receive the prestigious Academy Fellowship for his contributions to gaming. Presumably momentarily distracted by accepting a trophy modeled after a smirking face, a bewhiskered Newell fielded some interview questions over the normally airtight subject of Valve's business performance that hinted at the monumental scale of the studio's prosperity.

Newell chalked up Valve's successes largely to user-generated content on open platforms such as Steam Workshop before sharing some jaw-dropping numbers. "There's sort of an insatiable demand for gaming right now," Newell said. "I think our business has grown by about 50 percent on the back of opportunities created by having these open platforms.

"And just so people understand how big this sort of scale is getting, we were generating 3.5 terabits per second during the last Dota 2 update," he added. "That's about 2 percent of all the mobile- and land-based Internet activity."

Wait, what? We're not exactly sure what Newell meant when he dropped that bombshell of data info, apart from maybe claiming responsibility for all those times my connection speeds chugged while browsing these past few months. Still, it seems entirely plausible—Dota 2 has a lot of players, and the MOBA recently took the crown for the highest concurrent user amount of any Steam game ever. If any Steam game can feasibly take a bite out of the entire Internet, Dota 2 holds the best chance.

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