Oct 1, 2010

New Release - Empire & Napoleon Total War™ GOTY Edition

Product Release - Valve

Comprising the award winning Empire: Total War™ and its dramatic sequel Napoleon: Total War™, this Game of the Year Edition covers over a century of epic wars and revolutions that shaped the world today.

To further enhance your Total War experience, Game of the Year Edition also includes all DLCs released to date for both games! Please visit the game page for full details.

Oct 1, 2010

New Release - Trainz 2010: Settle and Carlisle

Trainz Settle and Carlisle - Valve

Trainz 2010: Settle and Carlisle is now available on Steam.

We take you to one of the most famous and scenic British main lines at the time of the transition from steam to diesel power. With 10 different types of locomotives and dozens of rolling stock items at your disposal you decide what train to drive. Sessions featuring Anglo-Scottish expresses, local stopping trains, fast freights, heavy mineral, slow pickup goods or trip workings offer a rich variety of services for your enjoyment.

Oct 1, 2010

Global Agenda Update Released

Global Agenda: Free Agent - Valve

An update to Global Agenda has been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted.
The major changes include:

Players with an active BOOSTER will be rewarded 2,000 tokens a day automatically at approximately Midnight GMT. Note that tokens will **NOT** be awarded if a player is at their WEEKLY or BANK limit on tokens (currently players are limited to earning no more than 50,000 tokens in a week and have a maximum bank size of 50,000 tokens). Players will not see the tokens until the first time after they relog following the token distribution time.
Pre-made teams joining Mercenary PvP queue must now contain either all Level 30+ players, or all players less than Level 30.
Players must now be in an agency for 7 days prior to the AvA end of season in order to receive the end-of-season reward.
Several client crash conditions have been fixed.
Possible fix for players launching onto another region's server even when the "Match on other Regions" flag is unchecked.
A bug in which items could be improperly unbound from your character has been fixed.
German profanity filter added.
Some bot spawns in the Moving Target map have been fixed. Commonwealth spiders will no longer take out their frustrations on the Dune Commander.
Modifications have been made to the AvA End of Season device rewards.
Hex 219 added to Region 2 of NA Sovereign zone.
Deleted some players "Single class top stats" achievements that were incorrectly awarded

Sep 30, 2010

Steam Wallet and in-game transactions are here!

Steam Blog - Valve

The Steam Wallet has officially been released along with the Team Fortress 2 Mann Co. Store, where players can now purchase items right within TF2.

With Steam Wallet, you can add value to your Steam account using any of the payment methods supported by Steam. Funds in your Steam Wallet may then be used to buy any item available in the Steam store on an in-game store. You can load up your Steam Wallet ahead of time, or wait until checkout. Also, different payment methods can be combined to make a single purchase.

Once you've added funds to your wallet, that money will be used by default for subsequent Steam store purchases. But if you'd prefer to reserve your wallet balance for in-game purchases of Mad Milk, Holy Mackerel and Bushwackas, no problem -- simply select another payment method during checkout. Your wallet funds will be there the next time you're ready to shop at Mann Co., or any other in-game store.

TF2's Mann Co. Store is the first of many upcoming Steamworks in-game stores where Steam Wallet funds can be spent. See the TF2 Mannconomy FAQ for any questions specific to that game. Otherwise, feel free to give the wallet a try for your next Steam purchase, and please let us know what you think.

Sep 30, 2010

Team Fortress 2 Update Released

Counter-Strike: Source - Valve

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Team Fortress 2

Added the Mann-conomy.
- Added 65 new items (hats, weapons, tools, minigames, gifts, crates).
- Added the Mann Co. Store & Catalog.
- Added Trading.
- Added Item customization.
Additional TF2 features
- Added new auto-team-scramble system:
  - Set mp_scrambleteams_auto to 1 (default) to automatically scramble the teams if the criteria is met
  - Set mp_scrambleteams_auto_windifference to set the number of round wins a team must lead by in order to trigger an auto scramble (default is 2)
- Updated how Spy disguise targets are selected to more randomly distribute the selections
- Fixed the FreezePanel background not using the correct color if you were killed by a player or building on your own team
- Server browser tweaks
  - It will now encourage you to add servers to Favorites or Blacklists after you have a good/bad experience on them.
  - The Server Browser now automatically closes after successfully connecting to a server (opt-out via the Options-Multiplayer->Advanced dialog)
Achievement tuning
- Demoman achievement "The Stickening" changed to 3 from 5.
- Heavy achievement "Krazy Ivan" changed to 50 from 100.
- Medic achievement "Consultation" changed to 3 from 5.
- Medic achievement "Peer Review" changed to 10 from 50.
- Medic achievement "Placebo Effect" changed to 2 from from 5.
- Medic achievement "FYI I am A Medic" changed to 1 from 5.
- Medic achievement "Family Practice" changed to 5 from 10.
- Soldier achievement "Geneva Contravention" changed to 3 from 5.
- Scout achievement "Strike Zone" now counts assists.
- Scout achievements "Fall Classic" and "Foul Territory" are fixed.

Engine (CS:S, DoD:S, TF2, HL2:DM)

Added sv_alltalk to the list of convars that are checked for the sv_tags list.
Fixed a model instance crash.
Removed engine ConVar "r_ForceRestore"

Other Games

Half-Life 2: Deathmatch
- Updated to run on the Orange Box engine with CS:S, DoD:S, and TF2

Sep 30, 2010

The Settlers 7 Update Released

The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom - Valve

Updates to The Settlers 7 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Version 1.10

Improvements

Players will now be informed if a player is lagging behind when loading a multiplayer session
Players who are not responding for more that 45 seconds can now be kicked by vote

Bug Fixes

Fixed a rare freeze when conquering a sector owned by another player or AI
Fixed a non upgradeable tower on “Battle for Tanholm”
Fixed a bug with a non reachable sector on “Grassland Mesa”
Fixed a savegame issue on the 1st campaign map
Fixed a bug with the game´s connection to Facebook
Fixed a rare bug where the new victory points “Pacifist” and “Ascetic” were not awarded correctly
Fixed a rare crash with corrupt savegames

Sep 28, 2010

Borderlands Update Released

Borderlands Game of the Year - Valve

Updates to Borderlands have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Adds DLC Support: Ensure Cross Compatibility between owners of ClapTrap’s New Robot Revolution content with those who do not own the New Revolution content.
Stops removing valid weapons and items: Some legitimately-obtained items and weapons were being inaccurately tagged as invalid or hacked, and were being deleted from players’ inventory. The patch ensures that only invalid weapons & items are deleted.