Aug 12, 2010
25% off on Global Agenda with Sandstorm Expansion
Global Agenda: Free Agent - Valve
To commemorate launch of the FREE Sandstorm Expansion, Global Agenda is available at 25% off now through August 19th, 2010, 10AM Pacific Time.

Aug 12, 2010
Global Agenda v1.36 Update Released
Global Agenda: Free Agent - Valve
Global Agenda Version 1.36 has been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted.

Version 1.36 introduces significant modifications to the Agency-vs-Agency system, as well as a variety of cleanups and improvements to the previously released Sandstorm functionality.

Major Highlights
  • Agency vs. Agency (AvA): Significant changes have been made to the Agency vs Agency gameplay to address player feedback. More information is below.
  • Tokens: The daily limit on tokens has been increased from 2,000 to 6,000. The bank limit on tokens has been increased from 20,000 to 30,000.
  • Consumables: Removed from PvP.
  • Armor: Blue armor is now available for sale at the Mercenary vendor for tokens.
  • PvP Matchmaking: Matchmaking on Mercenary PvP matches has been modified to ensure better class balance, both at start of match and when backfills occur.
  • Raid Matchmaking: Raids now require at least one of each class. (Note: If you are making a pre-made team for a Raid, you must take this into account).
  • Modifications: Unwanted mods may now be sold back to a vendor.
  • Defense Raids: Team leaders may now not join the Raid queue if any member of their team is under Level 30. Raids now require at least one of each class on a team.
  • Magmalance: Length of DoT has been reduced from 3s to 2s.
  • Aftershock Launcher: Now increases Mechanical damage +25% (Previously it did not increase Mechanical damage, although the tooltip incorrectly read that it increased Mechanical damage +40%).
  • Gammaburst Launcher: No longer does knockback. Reduces human target protections by 5% for 5 sec. It reduces mechanical protections by 20% for 5 sec.
  • Hornet Drone: Health reduced by 25%. Damage reduced by 30%.
  • Chat: All players are now limited on the rate at which they can add new entries into City, Looking for Group and Trade channels (previously limited only trial players). There are no restrictions for Local and Team chat channels. The Looking for Group and Trade channels are now defaulted to your All chat channel list.
  • Personal Vandal Boost: Disabled in Open Zone.
  • Map Cleanups: A large number of cleanups, bug fixes and map changes have been made to various levels in the game, especially the Sonoran Desert Open Zone, Special Ops PvE and Raid..
  • Tooltips: A large number of tooltips have been improved.
  • Login Screen: Updated to reflect the completion of Global Agenda: Sandstorm.
Server and Feature Availability
  • The Global Agenda Servers are expected to be down on THURSDAY, AUGUST 12, 2010 from approximately 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM US Eastern (15:00 to 19:00 GMT) while the patch is deployed. These times may change. Follow GAServerStatus on Twitter for up-to-date server availability information.
  • The first weekend AvA Zones will open on SATURDAY, AUGUST 14, 2010. The first weekday AvA Zones will open on MONDAY, AUGUST 16, 2010.
Agency vs Agency
  • SEASON LENGTH: Seasons are now two weeks in duration.
  • ZONE OPEN TIMES: For each major geographic region (Europe, North America, Pac-Rim), there will be one zone open on MONDAY through THURSDAY, and another zone open on SATURDAY and SUNDAY. Each zone will be open for 6 hours a day. For example, the "Weekday" North American zone will be open from 7:30 PM US Eastern to 1:30 AM US Eastern on Monday through Thursday. The European "Weekday" Zone will be open from 16:30 to 22:30 UK Time (17:30 to 23:30 CET) Monday through Thursday, with different zones open on Saturday/Sunday.
  • HEX OPEN TIMES: Agencies will no longer choose when they are open for production (and thus for attack). Instead, each ZONE will be divided into six different segments. Each segment will be open for 1 hour of each zone open time. Segment 1 for the first hour, Segment 2 for the second hour, etc. By holding a hex in Segment 1 of the "Weekday" zone, you and everyone else will know that that hex will be open for production on Monday through Thursday during the first hour of your zone's open time. Note that each segment will have a varying number of hexes in it, with the middle hours of each zone open time having more hexes open than the first and last hours. Maps will cluster rare resources to ensure some hexes are more valuable than others.
  • REWARDS: XP and Credits will be rewarded under the same formula as Mercenary PvP. Players in a Strikeforce that successfully win an AvA mission will receive tokens for the win. The # of Tokens will be based on the level of facility that was attacked. (Tech III facilities will earn substantially more tokens for a victory than Tech 1 facilities, and hexes with no facility will not have a token reward). The way items are produced will remain the same as it is today (at least initially).
  • WIN CONDITION: Agencies will still win based on Net Worth. Each Zone will have its own winners. (Meaning, there will be 6 sets of winners for each season -- one for the Saturday/Sunday zone and one for Monday-Thursday zone in each of the 3 geographic regions). The Top 3 agencies in each zone will be rewarded. An Agency will be able to participate in multiple zones. However, they will only be allowed to have an HQ in one zone.
  • ALLIANCES: Alliances are removed from the AvA gameplay. You can still form alliances and use alliance chat, but there is no other impact on AvA.
  • BIDS: Bids remain blind, but you may now rebid every 15 seconds until bidding is closed.
  • SOFT CAP ON PRODUCTION: Production declines as your agency owns more hexes. Most agencies will find that their production is maximized by staying between 9 and 15 hexes.
  • LOCKDOWN TIMER: The lockdown time after a defensive victory has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. For Defense missions, the lockdown time has been reduced from 20 minutes to 2 minutes in the case of a defensive victory.
Aug 12, 2010
QuakeCon 2010 Steam Sale Starts Now
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion® Game of the Year Edition (2009) - Valve
Can't make it to Texas for QuakeCon this year? Or maybe you're already there, playing in the largest LAN event in North America. Either way, you can take part in the partying and fun with four days of huge sales on id and Bethesda games on Steam. Come back each day for a different deal, or just go ahead and pick up the QuakeCon Pack for about 75% off all currently available id and Bethesda games.

The QuakeCon 2010 Steam Sale kicks off today with 66% off The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion® Game of the Year Edition. Also at 66% off is the The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion® Game of the Year Edition Deluxe, which includes Knights of the Nine and the Shivering Isles expansions plus Fighter's Stronghold Expansion, Spell Tome Treasures, Vile Lair, Mehrune's Razor and much more.

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for another great deal. Offers change at 9am Pacific Time.

Aug 11, 2010
Now in Beta: Tabbed chat and browser improvements
Steam Blog - Valve
Steam's browser and chat windows are now grouped as tabs! You can manage multiple chats and web pages each in a single window in our latest Beta.

We've also been making some improvements to Steam's browser performance and stability, with the biggest gains on the Mac in particular. Flash video playback is now faster and more stable here, and the browser now loads cached content quickly. The video below shows a before and after comparison of our store's home page loading in the released Steam client and our latest Beta. The comparison is fair, in that both versions of the client had the same amount of time after start up to "settle," and both had the page content in their local cache. What was once molasses is now a normal web page in a normal-speed web browser. Yay!

You can give these improvements a whirl in the latest Beta by visiting Steam client Settings or Preferences and opting into the Beta Update offered there. And as always, do share your feedback on the Steam Forums.



Aug 11, 2010
Counter-Strike: Source Beta Update Released
Product Update - Valve
Updates to Counter-Strike: Source Beta have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Counter-Strike: Source Beta
  • Fixed a bug where some video configuration could get reset by restarting the engine.
  • Fixed a case of uneven performance on multicore machines.
  • Reduced overlap in sound timing code.
  • Fixed a case where audio could skip.
  • Fixed materials compiled into the map not being loaded correctly if they're in the root materials folder.
  • Stats:
    • Fixed an issue that could cause loss of player stats if network connectivity was lost briefly, just after launching the game.
    • Fixed issue that caused the favorite weapon to display incorrectly on the stats summary page when a player achieves the most kills with a knife or grenade.
    • Made newly-earned achievements and stats immediately update in the achievements and stats panels instead of showing stale data.
  • Community Requests:
    • Added console variable sv_competitive_minspec that enforces the following restrictions on the client:
      • r_drawdetailprops 1
      • r_staticprop_lod (-1 to 3)
      • fps_max minimum 60 (or 0)
      • cl_detailfade minimum 400
      • cl_detaildist minimum 1200
      • cl_cmdrate minimum 60
      • cl_updaterate minimum 60
      • rate minimum 30,000

Our current plan is to update CSS on Mon, Aug 16.
Aug 11, 2010
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.® 2 now available for Pre-Purchase with Bonus Offer
Product Release - Valve
Pre-purchase Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.® 2 before launch and receive a FREE copy of Blazing Angels® 2!


Aug 11, 2010
Killing Floor Update Released
Killing Floor - Valve
Updates to Killing Floor have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Killing Floor
  • Fixed a number of exploits in core maps and code
  • Potential fix for performance issues on ATI graphics cards
  • Increased weapon array size for modders to add weapons to store
  • Added sample weapon and player character rigs to SDK
Aug 10, 2010
Now Available - Horrid Henry
Horrid Henry - Valve
Horrid Henry is now available on Steam.

Now Horrid Henry moves from the multi-million selling book series and massively successful TV show onto the PC!

Henry is a head-strong boy, constantly raging against the tyranny of adults and infuriating girls.

Henry has a range of special skills and equipment he can use during missions. His task is to dash around locations playing pranks on other characters while trying to avoid getting caught.

Aug 10, 2010
Plants vs. Zombies Game of the Year Edition Released
Plants vs. Zombies GOTY Edition - Valve
Plants vs. Zombies: GOTY Edition is now available with updated and expanded content including 20 new Steam Achievements, Steam Cloud support, and the interactive Zombatar™. Now with SteamPlay, Plants vs. Zombies can be played on either Mac or PC!

Aug 10, 2010
Moonbase Alpha Update Released
Moonbase Alpha - Valve
Updates to Moonbase Alpha have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
  • Fix for Player names with spaces not being able join password protected servers
  • Fix for Crash when audio bitrates higher than 48khz
  • Fix for Robot out of range static continues after level restart
  • Fix for Players kicked while in the command center leaving pawn behind
  • Fix for Blurred line at the bottom of the Main Menu Moon Cinematic
  • Fix for Steam servers showing more players than slots available
  • Fix for Servers getting stuck on "Cinematic in Progress"
  • Updated credits
...