The Orange Box turned 10 years old this year, and by extension Portal celebrated its anniversary too. Sitting alongside continuations of well-loved games, the short puzzle adventure could have been quickly forgotten. Tacked on to bulk up the box. It was, however, a surprise hit, winning over players with its smart spatial puzzles and writing that fans continue to quote. And while I can list lines off with the best of them (don t even get me started on that cake), this classic s hold on my heart comes from a person who never speaks one.

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Frostivus ain’t what it used to be. This year s Christmas event for Dota 2 launched last Thursday, and it s the product of a community contest rather than Valve themselves. The winner, VicFrank, has eschewed the traditional format in favour of mini-games: each match consists of ten separate games that are pulled from a pool of 30. I ve thrown myself into the festivities, and had a surprising amount of fun.

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Two fiendish physics puzzlers come together today in Bridge Constructor Portal, challenging players to build bridges that shuttle vehicles through deadly labs with the help of Portal‘s teleportation portals and gels. And, of course, Ellen McLain returns to voice the dastardly AI GLaDOS and taunt us. I have enjoyed the recent resurgence of bridge-construction games, carefully balancing beams and lacing cables then watching it all go wrong, and I’m feeling about ready for one a little different. Observe: (more…)

Since 2016, players poking into data files from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive have found traces of a mysterious Survival Mode. Valve have never announced any such mode for their FPS and none of the traces in data files definitively confirm either what the mode is or that it’s definitely coming, but folks have enjoyed speculating. In a new video, the fan behind the Valve News Network pulls together traces of Survival mode, objects including crate beacons and sonar-scan grenades, and an island map to conclude that Valve are likely working on a Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds-style mode for CS:GO. I’m not convinced but was interested to see VNN lay out the argument. (more…)

The list of games I feel I’ve dearly missed by skipping most consoles isn’t long, and it grows shorter all the time as classics are ported to PC. The latest venerated console game to come our way is Okami, Clover Studio’s 2006 game about a sun goddess incarnated as a wolf to save the land from darkness with her magical ink brush, launched last night. Now named Okami HD, it’s not majorly rebuilt but it is a bit prettier and hey it’s on PC so good, great, wonderful.

Oh, and you’ll get a snazzy Dota 2 courier skin too. (more…)

Welcome to the Steam Charts. Here are the headlines. (more…)

Here s an odd fusion. Portal is being mixed with the Bridge Constructor series to create a spin-off game about making fragile bridges that transport forklifts from one side of the Aperture Science facility to the other. In Bridge Constructor Portal we’ll see GLaDOS, the robot marm of the passive aggressive puzzler, return to torment the player with what I presume will be a characteristically snide voiceover, provided by Ellen McLain. Here s a brief teaser. (more…)

Frostivus is coming, but it s not designed by the people you might expect. Frostivus is the Christmas event that Valve used to run for Dota 2 every year, though their last effort was way back in 2014. This year, Valve are turning to their modding community to revive the event in the form of a contest, with a $30,000 prize for the winner. I spoke to several participants about their games, and how they feel about doing what many would consider as spec work.

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The tail-end of Steam’s Autumnal sale sees a few old favourites lingering with the usual suspects in the charts this week. The discounts that got them here are all gone now, but it’s only a couple of weeks now before everything goes completely bonkers for the Winter Sale, and you can expect to see all the same names deeply discounted once more. (more…)

Hey ho, chart fans, let’s go. Statman John is indisposed today, and was last seen meandering along the seafront muttering “Plunkbat! They give me Plunkbat! I’ve a grand idea for a grand theft five five fi-diddly-fi fi whoopsadaisy down we go,” so I’m taking over for this week’s Steam charts. Seeing as he’s always griping about the charts being identical, I’m sure John will be infuriated to miss seeing how much Steam’s autumn sale changed things. Won’t you join for me a stroll down the hit parade? (more…)