It looks as though Valve are working on a proper follow up to the Source Engine they've been gradually improving over the course of the last decade. Valve Time have pulled numerous references to a "next-gen 'Source 2'" engine along with various "Source 2 tools" icons from the guts of the Source Film Maker.

Valve have previously played down the need for an entirely new version of Source, and have concentrated instead on updating the original version to keep up with modern engine tech. That's worked quite nicely so far, but if these references are correct, a more significant step up is on the way. Here are a few of the pulled strings referring to Source 2.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
def setEngine( self, version=ENGINE.SOURCE ):
'''
Set the engine version for the project, i.e. 'Source 2'
------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Line 1387:
'''Return an str with the current engine version.
If key doesn't doesn't exist, assume 'Source', otherwise invalid -- assume next-gen 'Source 2'.'''
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Exciting stuff. But it wouldn't be a post about Valve and the future without somebody saying something about Half-Life 2: Episode Three. Is the reason that it's taken so long that it's being built in a more advanced engine that will explode our minds when it's finally released? I have no idea. Here are the icons that Valve Time discovered. Look at that high fidelity hammer. Oooo.

http://youtu.be/YQRKlQox-OQ

Mod-homages and remakes are a favorite template of PC gaming's terrific species of tireless gnomes. Black Mesa: Source. Star Trek in Homeworld 2. MechWarrior in Crysis. Star Wars in like, everything.

GoldenEye: Source is one of the best of this group. It shows incredible reverence for its ("Don't say it, don't say it...") source material (ugh) while implementing choice changes that respectfully modernize a classic multiplayer FPS. GE:S' trouble, unfortunately, has been a sparse population. The devs have solved this by adding bot support alongside some other improvements in version 4.2. Here they are:


BOTS - full featured running on Python AI
Team radar colors and standardized blip colors
Loading screen images with tips
Overhead Team icons
Full-screen help display for advanced scenarios
Brand new character selection screen
Recoded Capture The Key focusing on teamplay
New Ourumov model
Gamemode customizable weaponset selections
Create server menu for easier LAN and single play
Python enhanced for custom scripting
Over 50 music tracks from 3 talented artists
Overhauled Runway, Caverns, Facility, Backzone and classic maps

 

Click to download GoldenEye: Source's latest version.

"Well, there's piss and milk."

"And the water. Water makes you wet too."

That's the kind of office discussion Team Fortress 2's Triad Pack encourages. It's all thanks to the Pyro's new melee weapon, The Neon Annihilator, which gives 100% crits towards wet players. In theory, this means Pyros can set people alight, then whack them for a crit as they douse themselves to survive the burning. Or you could keep an eye out for players covered in piss and/or milk and target them.

The pack also includes the Heavy's Huo Long Heatmaker. It's a monstrous gun that pumps out a ring of flames at the cost of ammo, resulting in a cool-looking anti-spy tool. The flying guillotine is a secondary weapon for the Scout which (predictably) causes players to bleed heath points. The Spy also gets a new toy: the Red-Tape recorder is a unique sapper which reverses enemy building construction, playing the animations backwards before the deployable packs itself into a toolbox. Spies love that kind of thing. Engineers don't.

There are also a few cosmetic items included: a gold chain that's worm outside your shirt, a sexy tattoo, silly glasses and a crash helmet.

All of the above items are also available in the Team Fortress 2 shop for real money, as well as for players who pre-order Sleeping Dogs.

What's your favourite Team Fortress 2 item so far? I spent 3:49 on this taunt. I regret nothing.

Remember the Slender Man game we mentioned a couple of weeks back? It's a terrifying indie horror based on the spooky Something Awful monster. You had to wander through a dark forest with a pale torch hunting for messages while trying not to look directly at the creature. It's scary as hell.

GOOD NEWS EVERYBODY, a different team are creating a version of Slender Man in Valve's Source engine. Fittingly, it's called Slender Source, and this one will let you avoid a horrifying death with friends. Yaay!

It's a work-in-progress deal at the moment, but the bare bones are in place. Here's the challenge: "Players must work together to collect a certain amount of creepy dolls all while trying to avoid the abomination that is the Slenderman. The kick? No weapons."

Sadly, nobody has ever invited me into the woods to collect creepy dolls before, but if they did I'm pretty sure I'd say "hell yes BRING THE SCARES," which probably makes me that guy who dies horribly at the start of every horror movie. Thankfully, games like Slender Man, Slender: Source, Hide and SCP Containment Breach give us the chance to experience those scares without, y'know, the dismemberment. You can keep an eye on how the Half-Life 2 mod is progressing over on ModDB. Here's an early screenshot showing the wooded environment, which is one of two planned for release. The other will be set in an abandoned hospital.



And here's the trailer for the other Slender Man game, to give you a taste of the Slender Man vibe:



Are there any other horror games/mods that you've enjoyed? Let us know, we need some new ideas to test on work experience applicants.

Way back in December 2009, when this humble intern was an even humbler college sophomore with no job who was sinking scores of hours into Dragon Age: Origins, we reported on a guy who goes by DemonStrate beating Portal in a touch over 10 minutes. While that seemed astounding at the time, the record has since been smashed to pieces by SourceRuns, demolishing GLaDOS in just 8:31. That's a good minute and a half faster than DemonStrate, and 53 seconds faster than their own previous record-breaking run. See the video for yourself below.



"To be SDA legal we have done our run without using scripts/cheats/hacks for any portion of the run," the speed demons posted on YouTube. "This run first started after the discovery of a new glitch, which snowballed into a whirlwind of discoveries of new tricks, skips, and glitches. We started running chambers in April, took a brief hiatus, and then resumed work in late June. The bulk of the run was completed in about 2 weeks time."

For the benefit of children, TF2 Mixup invited me to play a few rounds of Team Fortress 2 with some Important Internet Individuals. The roster: Notch (Soldier), Freddie Wong (Sniper), Robin Walker (Demo), our pal Brian Brushwood from Scam School (Heavy), and more. The first round of three, on cp_gorge, is watchable below. Any ad money generated from the video is being donated; and hey, you can still donate yourself.



At last, I realize my small dream to help children by plunging a switchblade wrapped in Christmas lights into others. I told you I'd make something of myself, mom.

The Leap is a new motion controller that tracks the movements of your hands and fingers to a super-fine degree of accuracy. It takes the form of a USB dongle that sits in front of your keyboard, looking up at your hands and doing techno-magic to pinpoint their position in 3D space.

CVG have highlighted a trailer showing the tech in action, and it's pretty impressive. It shows a number of quick demo clips including one that involves playing Angry Birds with a pair of chopsticks, and another showing the player taking out some Combine soldiers in Half-Life 2 with a finger gun. On the Leap site its creators claim that it'll be "more accurate than a mouse, as reliable as a keyboard and more sensitive than a touchscreen." Watch and judge for yourself with this video.

Leap looks set to arrive around December, but it's available to pre-purchase now for $70. If you'd like to get your hands on the SDK, they're taking submissions on the developers page of the site.

This is a picture of a panel that, on Friday, will be bolted onto the Japanese HTV-3 resupply craft and hurled into space. The craft will ferry supplies to the International Space Station and launch a little bit of Portal 2 into the cosmos. A post on the Portal 2 blog spotted by VG247 mentions that an anonymous NASA tech managed to burn the tiny picture of Wheatley space core onto one of the craft's panels. "Please note that when we mentioned an "anonymous tech at NASA" we weren't kidding: NASA in no way officially endorses secretly laser-engraving characters from Portal onto their spacecraft," say Valve.

On which note, if you happen to be a NASA engineer with access to a laser-engraving machine, and you just happen to accidentally burn the PCG logo onto a panel and then send it into space then I'd like to say that we'd absolutely keep it a secret, and definitely wouldn't post it everywhere on the site and then look at it and burst out cheering every day forever. JUST SAYING.

Now, because space is brilliant, here's a video that Tom spotted over the weekend made up of pictures snapped from the International Space Station in low Earth orbit. Prepare to have the tingly awe receptors in your frontal lobe tickled ... NOW.

View from the ISS at Night from Knate Myers on Vimeo.

Update: Thanks to those who have pointed out that it's the space core. The Internet Error Police will be here shortly to perform a routine disintegration. My last request is for someone to laser-etch "I should have written SPACE COOOORE" onto my tombstone, and then fire it into space.

Hero Academy, Robot Entertainment's tactical, turn-based team battle game is coming to Steam on August 8th, and it's bringing some PC gaming all-stars with it. The entire Team Fortress 2 crew we know and love (and sometimes hate...I'm looking at you, Spy) will be playable. Read on to see how they fit into Hero Academy, and check out the TF2 hats you can get by playing it.

From the press release:

Team Bonus: Relentless Action - Stomping enemies grants an action point.

Spy – A cloaked unit who cannot be targeted at range. The Spy deals massive damage when attacking an enemy from behind.
Scout – A fast-moving recon hero; Players gain an AP when deploying the Scout. The Scout automatically hops backwards when hit by an opponent.
Sniper – The Sniper can target enemies anywhere in his row. At the end of your turn, the Sniper crouches. If he remains unscathed until your next turn, the Sniper gains increased power on his next shot.
Medic – The Medic heals and revives allies; He can link to a full-health ally to increase their power.
Engineer – A defensive hero with a basic ranged attack. The Engineer can upgrade allies' weapons.
Heavy – The Heavy does AOE attack at range. Every successive attack deals more damage as his minigun spins up.
Pyro - He does full damage to two enemies in a row; The Pyro’s attack can hit cloaked Spies.
Demoman – The Demoman lobs grenades that do AOE damage. He does bonus damage when attacking crystals.
Soldier – The Soldier is a ranged hero. He uses powerful rockets to knock enemy units back.

And here's a look at the new, Hero Academy-inspired headwear for TF2:

Remember the prototype for a Portal 2 Lego set that we mentioned a few weeks back? It was submitted on Lego Cuusoo, a site that hosts idea pitches for future commercial sets. If an idea gains enough followers it's forwarded to a "review stage" where giant Lego men poke it to see if the idea's viable, and then gradually rotate a huge, C shaped fist to deliver a clumsy thumbs-up or thumbs-down on the project.

Portal Lego has now reached that stage! Will it succeed? Who knows. It's impossible to know what's going on behind those fixed ever-smiling faces. It's out of our hands now, but we can still look at pictures of the prototypes, which are probably the cutest thing on the internet right now. Take a look.

UPDATE: Rabbit Island is in fact the cutest thing on the internet right now, but Portal Lego takes a close second place.