Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.>

Remember how recently Portal 2 [official site] came out? IT WAS FIVE YEARS AGO. Sorry about that. I have a suspicion those magic windows might be having unsuspected effects on time dilation.

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Fans Of Things Not Staying Exactly The Same All The Time will be glad to hear that the latest weekly Steam top ten is quite a changed one from the previous week. A new number one, surprise re-entries and a loosening of Ubisoft’s chokehold on the charts. … [visit site to read more]

Yup, I’m trying to make this a regular thing again. I know you’re very excited about that. Bit late this week as I wasn’t around for the first two days of it, but there is still MUCH TO LEARN from the top-ten best-sellers on Steam last week.

It’s a strong mix of independent and mega-gazillion blockbuster; though the overall shape of the chart isn’t hugely surprising, the number one winnah perhaps is. … [visit site to read more]

Half-Life and Portal movies are “in development”, according to JJ Abrams. The director told IGN that “We’ve got writers, and we’re working on both those stories. But nothing that would be an exciting update.” Which means clearly Abrams isn’t familiar with Half-Life fans, who can see excitement in a cloud shaped like Gordon Freeman’s face.

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The Shanghai Major will probably be remembered by Dota 2 [official site] fans as a master class in how not to run a tournament. But in the midst of the production omnishambles were some absolutely brilliant matches. Read on as we deliver you the highlights!

[Spoilers if you’ve not caught up, obv!]>

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A run-down of the previous week’s top-selling Steam titles is something I used to do regularly, but a combination of it tending to be fairly unchanging week-to-week and being a feckless human being who can’t stand to do the same thing for long meant I fell out the habit. These are changed times, though: with indiepocalypses here and flash sales there, the Steam charts are now wildly changeable, so I like to look in from time to time, like an old aunt raising a withered eyebrow at reports of what her nephews are up to at university. This week: a whole lot of Ubisoft, not a lot of XCOM and an unofficial Hunger Games (or an unofficial Running Man, if you prefer the awful classics). … [visit site to read more]

Where to start with the Shanghai Major right now? I’ve been trying to pull some thoughts together after the firings and the Reddit threads and the statement from Gabe Newell over the weekend but perhaps it’s better to just run through the basic timeline for the Major’s major Dota 2 [official site] drama and just explain what the heck is going on:

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If there s one thing professional Dota 2 [official site] isn t lacking (besides lengthy pauses at the start of every game) it s tournaments; it s rare for a week to pass without some hype-casted LAN, online contest or qualifier.

The one about to start in a gigantic spaceship-shaped building in China, however, is no ordinary tournament – it s the Shanghai Major. Here’s what you need to know:

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We’ve known for almost a year that Valve have been planning to add competitive matchmaking to Team Fortress 2 [official site] buuut well, I imagine Valve got distracted chasing a squirrel in the park or something. After many months of staring at the tree the squirrel vanished up, Valve have shook off their coating of snow and come back indoors to crack on with TF2’s competitive matchmaking. They don’t have too much to say about it yet, such as when it’ll properly launch, but closed testing is beginning within a week or so and you can sign up.

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I did spend a chunk of this morning gloating about how I was smashing Adam’s Devil Daggers times but, by and large, competitiveness is rare for me now. As I settle into my thirties, my days of jostling for frags are behind me, and I haven’t been passive-aggressive to Dota teamies in yonks. TELL THEM, PIP. Anyway. According to a recent report, this is common, and older folks seek competition in games less than younguns. It’s a flimsy report but a nice-conversation starter: how’s your competitiveness faring as you grow older?

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