A new Half-Life mod replaces Gordon Freeman with Spyro the Dragon.

Developed by Magic Nipples (which might be the best band name I've never heard, incidentally), Year of the Dragon is now out in early access, complete with a playable demo to give you a taster.

"This current version of the mod is essentially a complete redo using a clean base with far better code going into it since I sort of know what I'm doing now," Magic said in the description of a teaser trailer that shows off the mod in action.

Read more…

UPDATE 26/10/18: All good things must come to an end, but it seems TF2008's end came particularly quickly, as the mod's newly-approved Steam page has now been removed.

According to an email screenshot shared on the mod's Discord server, it appears Valve has U-turned on its decision to launch the mod on Steam. The reason cited is the modder did not sufficiently prove they were creating "a mod of TF2 and not just repurposing leaked code". The email did not rule out the possibility of the mod returning once the modder had sufficiently demonstrated the code used was not leaked.

It seems modder XYK had other ideas, however, as the TF2008 Discord server has now been deleted. Well, sort of - it's called "Burger" and all the previous comments have been replaced with pictures of food. XYK left the server with a deeply unpleasant parting comment, while footage saved on YouTube shows the mod community go into meltdown following the news the server was to be deleted.

Read more…

The Counter-Strike pro who was caught cheating during a tournament has been banned from all esports for five years.

Nikhil "Forsaken" Kumawat was given the lengthy ban by the Esports Integrity Coalition (ESIC) after he was found using cheats during the recent Zowie eXtemesland tournament LAN finals in Shanghai.

In a video that went viral last week, Kumawat was seen trying to close the window in which the cheat file was housed as a tournament organiser checked his PC.

Read more…

A Counter-Strike pro was caught cheating mid-tournament - and he tried to delete his hack while an official checked his PC.

OpTic India player Nikhil "Forsaken" Kumawat was collared for using a cheat hack during a match against Vietnamese team Revolution at the Extremeland Zowie Asia tournament in Shanghai.

Following suspicious play, an official accessed his computer before physically preventing Forsaken from tampering with the program right in front of him.

Read more…

Don't expect to see esports in the Olympic Games any time soon. International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach believes the video games being played still promote violence and killing too much to be included.

"We cannot have in the Olympic programme a game which is promoting violence or discrimination," Bach told the Associated Press during the recent Asian Games - an event where esports were, for the first time, a feature, albeit as a demonstration sport only. "So-called killer games. They, from our point of view, are contradictory to the Olympic values and cannot therefore be accepted."

It's an arguably hypocritical stance given the long list of combat or weapon sports already in the Olympic Games: boxing, martial arts, fencing, shooting, archery and so on. Bach himself was even once an Olympic gold-medalist fencer.

Read more…

A free version of Valve's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is now available on Steam.

The free version was unveiled in CS:GO's patch notes (thanks, PC Gamer) earlier this week. Available for offline play only, you won't be able to take on your buddies or other players, but the freebie wants to help newbies get familiar with maps and loadouts before taking on online competitors.

As well as taking on AI opponents, you can also pick up tips from the pros by spectating matches via GOTV.

Read more…

Gabe Newell is the hallowed leader of one of gaming's most powerful companies, Valve, but we don't often see him. He's like some whispered-about deity at the top of a mystical tower.

Nor do we often see much humour from Valve. It's all serious Steam business these days and Dota 2 and Counter-Strike GO. But, hold your breath, here's a new Dota 2 video from Valve which does something about that.

The video features Gabe Newell recording voice lines - Mega-Kills Announcer lines - for Dota 2. He's in a recording booth and he's being prepped for what should be an easy hour's work. Except, he's awful - he's as wooden as a door and can't stop introducing himself before delivering the lines. Some lines he can't even say. His avoiding the word "three" - yes it's the Half-Life 3 meme in action - is a wonder to behold.

Read more…

On 5th August, five expert Dota 2 players sat down to play against a team of bots created by non-profit research lab OpenAI. They lost decisively. Just a few days from now that same team of bots, perhaps with the benefit of a few more weeks of training, will appear on stage at the biggest tournament in Dota 2 - The International - and play against a team of the world's best professional players. Winning there that would be a huge victory, a milestone for both AI and the games industry, and after seeing the bots' performance earlier this month it seems like the most likely outcome. You might be forgiven for feeling like this was the end of an era for game AI as we know it.

It all feels a bit sudden, too. At last year's International tournament OpenAI were a surprise appearance, turning up to show off their bot that could play 1v1 Mid - a simpler custom game mode for two players - and beat top professionals. It was an impressive display, but it also felt like the kind of game an AI would be naturally good at. It was simple, short, with very clear goals and a lot of emphasis on reaction time. The real challenge, everyone pointed out, would be playing the full game.

OpenAI's bots don't play the full game quite yet, but less than 12 months later they are surprisingly close, far closer than myself or many of my peers would have guessed they'd be this time last year. With a few notable game mechanics disabled, and only 18 of the 115 heroes available to play, the bots nevertheless exhibit precise calculation, aggressive fighting styles and an unstoppable sense of momentum. When they're not exhibiting superhuman skill, they're throwing out decade-old Dota 2 conventions and finding new ways to play heroes, distribute resources and take objectives.

Read more…

Overnight, Valve accidentally launched Steam.tv - what looks like a take on Twitch - early. The company pulled the website offline shortly after, but not before people got a chance to play around with it.

Cnet went hands-on with Steam.tv in the hour or so that it was online, and said it was showing The International - the big Dota 2 tournament that's going on right now.

Accessible via Steam.tv is the new Steam Chat friends list and group chats, Cnet reports, and you're able to watch videos with friends. There's voice chat, too.

Read more…

Despite being released over 10 years ago, Team Fortress 2 still boasts one of the biggest player bases on Steam. Today, the number of players peaked at 54,350 - placing the game at seventh on Steam's leaderboard of most-played games. And behind the player count, there is still a significant esports community organised by a series of leagues unaffiliated with Valve. TF2 players have run a small but passionate competitive community for several years.

Over the past few weeks, however, a darker side of the community has emerged. Several competitive players and community members have reported experiencing a culture of harassment and toxicity. The community members took to social media to reveal harrowing personal stories of racism, sexism, transphobia and sexual abuse. To make matters worse, some professional TF2 players have responded to the social media posts with insults and derogatory terms aimed at the victims. Since the reports of toxicity in the competitive scene emerged, other players have come forward with their own stories, and it seems the problem is pervasive. The affected branches of the TF2 community include the TF2 workshop, Steam comments and public matches in the game itself.

Although many of the competitive leagues have responded with statements, bans and policy changes, some have remained silent on the issue. Players have also reported the toxicity goes beyond the competitive sphere to almost all parts of the Team Fortress 2 community - so the question is, should Valve do more to discourage it?

Read more…