Well even if the Sun won’t shine, the Steam Charts can still spread brightness into our lives. By some manner of wondrous majjicks, this week’s chart doesn’t even include H1Z1, Fallout 4, nor The Witcher 3! I barely even know what to do with myself. I’m dizzy! Come, join the celebration. (more…)

Well, East me Enders and Pano my Rama: live Esports is coming to to the BBC this month. BBC Three (which is now online only) will broadcast the new Gfinity Elite League Series One, which means four hours of Rocket League, CS:GO and Street Fighter V on iPlayer every weekend for the next six weeks.

There’s a proper schedule and everything: Fridays at 9pm is for Street Fighter, which in a massive programming screw up clashes with Gardener’s World. Saturday nights from 9-11 is CS:GO (no Casualty for me then), and Rocket League is happening Sunday afternoon from 5. It’s all coming live from the Gfinity Arena in West London, with eight organisations taking part.

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Though Half-Life [official site] is almost nineteen years old and its sanctioned fan remake Black Mesa is nearing completion, Valve have launched a wee patch for their pretty okay or whatever vintage FPS. The patch fixes a few crashes and exploits, and hit other Half-Life engine games too, such as classic Counter-Strike. Given how much of modern PC games history connects to Half-Life and its mod scene, I’m glad Valve are still tinkering a little. Earlier this year, they finally got Half-Life an uncensored release in Germany too. … [visit site to read more]

As the Steam Summer Sale closes, here’s the last of the charts influenced by the discounts, before they return to being exactly the same as they were before the sale, and indeed during it.

So this week we’re going to dig into the history of these familiar names, revealing some secrets of their pasts that many may not already know. … [visit site to read more]

As we learnt last week, the Steam Summer Sale feels> like the sort of thing that should enliven the charts. Nothing can enliven the charts…

Apart from me! … [visit site to read more]

John has been writing these charts for just a few weeks and already he’s had to book a week off in order to recover. I am made of more sterling stuff, and while he’s gone it falls to me to share the details of which games sold the best last week on Steam.

… [visit site to read more]

Have you heard about Steam? It’s a sort of shop, but not a shop with a door and a roof and some shelves. It’s a “virtual shop”, a place where you can buy games that, incredibly, has no walls whatsoever! It’s entirely rendered digitally, using computers.

We’ve taken a look, and totted up the games people are buying the most often. … [visit site to read more]

Operation Hydra in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive [official site] has again rotated its special event mode, bringing in Weapons Expert. This mode, which is available free to all Counter-Strikers, lets players buy each weapon only once per match. It’s an interesting-sounding twist on modes like Gun Game, rewarding players for being skilled with all weapons rather than just a few favourites. … [visit site to read more]

Hello. I’ve had this brilliant new idea! Each week I shall tell you which are the top 10 selling games on the PC gaming outlet Steam. No, no, this is nothing like Alec’s idea that he had – he did it on a Tuesday>. This is entirely different. … [visit site to read more]

For thirty-eight long years, you people have looked to me to inform you which ten games sold best on Steam over the past week. That time is now at an end.

But evil never dies.

… [visit site to read more]