It is done. Gnome Chompski has shot off to where gnome man has gone before. The little red-hatted fella started life as a bit of a joke in Half-Life 2: Episode Two. Players who carried the garden gnome all the way to the end of the game would be awarded with the achievement “Little Rocket Man” – a title old Chompski truly lived up to last night.

Gabe Newell partnered up with Weta Workshop and Rocket Lab to send a real-life Chompski into space, raising money for charity and even inspiring a couple of new Steam achievements in the process.

(more…)

While next year’s Awesome Games Done Quick won’t be held in-person, the charity speedrunning event is still going ahead, and it looks like it has some brilliant runs in store. AGDQ 2021’s game list was revealed over the weekend, and oooh January can’t come soon enough. From the new mythological roguelike Hades and charmingly difficult platformer Celeste, to old favourites like Half-Life and Left 4 Dead 2; there are some absolute belters in the lineup.

(more…)

Eight years after its last major content update, Left 4 Dead 2 has mutated all sorts of newness with The Last Stand. Made by fans but released officially by Valve, the huge free update has added a new mini-campaign based on the first game’s lighthouse Survival mode map, dozens of new maps for Survival and Scavenge modes, new weapons, and loads of wee tweaks and touches. With Valve saying as recently as this year that they’re not making L4D3, The Last Stand may be the co-op shooter’s last stand for quite some time.

(more…)

If you’re aching for some new things to do in Left 4 Dead 2, then I have some wonderful news. The game’s first official content update in eight years drops on September 24th bringing with it The Last Stand, a campaign based on the first game’s lighthouse Survival mode map.

Now, that would be pretty cool in itself, but this update is adding not one, but 20 new Survival arenas, four Scavenge arenas, 30 new achievements, loads of previously-unused voice lines, new melee weapons, animations and hundreds of bug fixes to top it all off.

(more…)

Left 4 Dead 2

will soon get a content update bringing an old favourite Left 4 Dead map to Valve’s co-op zombiethon. The Last Stand is a community-made update that’s being officially published by Valve, and fans of the original L4D might recognise its location from Survival Mode.

Catch the teaser trailer below for a short, sweeping view of a creepy lighthouse overlooking a cliffside.

(more…)

You know how it is. You think you’re into videogame soundtracks, then you go and hear someone perform ten of them on a Mongolian string instrument. I recently spent 20 minutes listening to a man do just that, and I think you should too.

Genius Jaavka is the man. The morin khuur is his instrument. Songs from Horizon Zero Dawn (coming to PC this summer), Mortal Kombat, Dota 2 and Fortnite are just some of the ones he treats us to. He’s really very good.

(more…)

Every game is better with friends, but some games are the most betterer of all. These are the best co-op games you can play on PC in 2020. Whether you want to survive against zombie hordes, fell giant monsters, or fling your physicsy forms across chasms, there’s a game for you below.

(more…)

Like a pesky head cold that never quite clears, Left 4 Dead 3 rumours returned to clog the internet airways again this week. After all, Valve are making games again. Between the surprise announcement of Half-Life: Alyx and another wave of leaked concept art for an infectious Left 4 Dead threequel, there was fleeting hope that the fantastic co-op shooter was, perhaps, ready to make its return.

But Valve’s gone and nipped down to the pharmacy for some quick pain relief. They’ve confirmed that Left 4 Dead 3 isn’t in the cards right now – and hasn’t been for some time.

(more…)

I love a spin-off. Angel? Great stuff! Count Duckula? The Better Call Saul of cartoons. Kourtney and Khlo Take Miami? Take me, I m yours! I could go on and on cutting-and-pasting from this Wikipedia page, but I ll get to the point. Games also have spin-offs. Often they ll be forgotten about. Sometimes they re even disowned. On a few occasions, they ll take on a life of their own and exist apart from the game that spawned them, never calling, never visiting, only sending a multipack Christmas card. Below are a few stories of surprising spin-offs. The 2D Half-Life 2, the Fortnite that failed, the single-player Counter-Strike that no-one asked for, and more.

(more…)

The best shooters endure. While other genres warp beyond recognition, there is something solid about the first-person shooter that makes it as dependable as a nice big AK-47. Maybe it s the gung-ho simplicity – look down a barrel and pull the trigger. It’s as fun to fire a double-barrelled shotgun from an early 90s FPS as the slick shotties of today. For that reason, this list runs the gamut from genre classics to those released in the last year. There’s bound to be something for you in this, our list of the best 50 FPS games on PC. Let s lock and/or load.

(more…)