Since release, we've received a ton of feedback and feature requests from the Alien Swarm community. The most requested additions are more variety and greater difficulty.

With that in mind, we've added "Onslaught" mode, which introduces an AI Director that dynamically generates swarms of aliens based on several factors, such as the squad's stress level. Onslaught works with any difficulty setting and ensures no mission plays the same way twice.

Speaking of difficulty, we've also added a "Brutal" difficulty level for those of you who told us "Insane" wasn't insane enough. How brutal is Brutal? Nobody on the Alien Swarm team has managed to complete a mission on it.

If for some crazy reason Brutal is still too easy for you, there's now a "Hardcore Friendly Fire" toggle. When enabled, friendly fire deals full damage immediately, flamethrowers set teammates on fire much faster, and turrets will hurt you if get caught in their crossfire. HCFF truly tests your team’s ability to work as a elite squad. Coordinating movement and firing lines become an even more integral part of the game.

Finally, to reward the most dedicated players, we've added 3 new IAF Promotion Ranks: Platinum Star, Osmium Star, and the coveted Iridium Medallion.

Valve Welcomes paysafecard to Steam

Valve today announced that Steam, a leading worldwide platform for PC and Mac games, has added paysafecard to its collection of payment options for customers in many European countries. In celebration, customers who spend 20€ / ₤20 on Steam using paysafecard will receive a free copy of Portal™, the ground-breaking title that earned over 40 Game of the Year Awards, when they shop before August 25th.

Supported countries include: Austria, Belgium, The Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and The United Kingdom.

The addition of paysafecard makes it easier than ever to purchase and play any of the 1,200-plus games available via Steam from leading publishers and developers around the world.

For more information about this promotional offer, please visit www.steamgames.com/paysafecard.

About paysafecard group
The paysafecard group, founded in 2000 in Austria and Germany, operate in 25 countries worldwide with offices in Vienna, London, Bern and Buenos Aires. With their successful online prepaid vouchers, the group have established themselves as Europe’s leading provider for prepaid payment solutions. In 2009 the group won awards for being the ‘Leading Prepaid Organisation’ and the ‘Best Prepaid Company outside USA.’ For more information, please visit www.paysafecard.com.

All PC versions leverage leading services for gamers around the world.
Pre-purchasers receive original Mafia® now.

Valve and 2K Games today announced an agreement to power all PC versions of the highly anticipated Mafia® II with a host of Steamworks features. All Mafia II players will enjoy the benefits of the Steamworks features included in all PC versions, such as auto-updating, Steam Achievements, Statistics, downloadable content, and more.

Customers who pre-order the standard or Digital Deluxe Edition of Mafia II through select digital retailers, including Steam, will be given a free digital copy of the award-winning original Mafia® game that they can access and play now.

"Using Steamworks to power Mafia II has been a great benefit for 2K Games and our development team," said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. "It's meant that we can spend more time creating content and a great experience for our customers because we know that Steam and Steamworks are enabling these important features within the game."

"Mafia II is joining Sid Meier's Civilization® V as the next title to use Steamworks from 2K Games," said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. "Our focus for Steam is on building services that create value for our customers and for creators, and Mafia II, with its all-new game engine and inclusion of Steamworks, is a great example of that."

Mafia II is rated M for Mature by the ESRB and will be available in North America on August 24, 2010 and internationally beginning August 27, 2010. For more information visit www.steamgames.com.

2K Games is a division of 2K, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO).

About 2K
Founded in 2005, 2K develops and publishes interactive entertainment software games for the console, PC, and handheld gaming systems through its three divisions: 2K Games, 2K Sports, and 2K Play. 2K publishes titles in today's most popular gaming genres, including first-person shooters, action, role-playing, real-time strategy, sports, casual, and family entertainment. The 2K label has some of the most talented development studios in the world today, including Firaxis Games, Visual Concepts, Irrational Games, 2K Marin, 2K Australia, 2K Czech, Cat Daddy Games, and 2K China. In just a few short years, 2K launched the 2007 Game of the Year - BioShock®; continued the award-winning Sid Meier's Civilization® series; delivered the #1 rated and #1 selling basketball franchise with NBA® 2K10*; and broke new ground in the family entertainment market with its multi-million unit selling hit Carnival Games. 2K is headquartered in Novato, California and is a wholly owned label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO). For more information, please visit www.2K.com.

* According to 2009-2010 GameRankings.com and The NPD Group

About Steam
The leading online platform for PC games and digital entertainment, Steam delivers new releases and online services to over 25 million PC and Mac users around the world. For more information, please visit www.steamgames.com.

About Valve
Valve is an entertainment software and technology company founded in 1996 and based in Bellevue, Washington. For more information, please visit www.valvesoftware.com.

Half-Life 2 Games Deliver Cross Platform Cloud Support

May 26, 2010 - The third round of Steam for the Mac launch titles are available now. This week's collection includes the Half-Life 2 (HL2) series of games (Half-Life 2, Episode One, and Episode Two) and Eve Online: Tyrannis.

Representing Steam's first day-and-date release for the Mac and PC, EVE Online: Tyrannis will be available to gamers later today,

The Half-Life 2 titles available now feature cross-platform support for Steam Cloud, allowing players to save their game progress on one computer, then seamlessly resume from that save point on another computer (Mac or PC).

In addition, HL2 and Episode One have been updated to include over 40 new Steam Achievements, which are available to all owners of these titles. The HL2 games also support Steam Play, enabling customers to purchase a game once and play it on all Steam supported platforms.

To celebrate the launch of the Half-Life 2 games, the titles are available for 30% off their regular price (for a limited time).

For more information on Steam, please visit www.steamgames.com.

Cross-Platform Multiplayer Titles Available Now

May 19, 2010 - The second round of Steam for the Mac launch titles are available now. This week's collection features a dozen games headlined by the first cross-platform multiplayer games offered via Steam.

This first set of titles that allow for PC vs. Mac cross-platform gaming include the co-op zombie hit Killing Floor, Altitude, and Madballs in Babo: Invasion.

"We were thrilled when we learned that Steam was coming to the Mac platform and started working on a native Mac version of Killing Floor immediately," said John Gibson, President of Tripwire Interactive, creators of Killing Floor. "Steam's advanced multiplayer support on both the PC and Mac has enabled us to bring Killing Floor to a whole new audience on the Mac and introduce them to the existing PC player community."

To celebrate the launch of these titles, Killing Floor will be offered at 33% off its regular price (for a limited time). An Altitude Free Weekend promotion is available now on Steam, and those who wish to purchase the game and play beyond the weekend may pick it up at 50% off its regular price. And Madballs in Babo: Invasion is also available at 50% off its regular price.

More single player games are also available today including Sam and Max: The Devils Playhouse Episode 2, Hearts of Iron 3, and more. Click here to see all Mac titles new to Steam.

An additional collection of Mac titles will launch next week via Steam.

For more information on Steam, please visit www.steamgames.com.

Available immediately, Valve has launched an extensive update to Counter-Strike: Source, now in beta.

The update includes a host of new features and functionality developed in collaboration with Hidden Path Studios. These include 144 new achievements, a new domination and revenge system, player stats, and more.

This beta will run for a limited time, and once complete, the update will be deployed to all Counter-Strike: Source owners for free via Steam.

Server admins may download the dedicated server files via the HLDSUpdateTool using "-game cssbeta" in the command line.

Roll Out Begins Weds, May 12

May 11, 2010 - Valve announced that Steam will launch on the Mac platform this Wednesday, May 12.

On subsequent Wednesdays, additional collections of Mac titles will become available, each designed to highlight specific functionalities of Steam on the Mac.

The first collection of Mac titles will demonstrate "Steam Play," which allows customers to purchase a game once and play it on all Steam supported platforms.

Portal, in addition to supporting Steam Play, will be the first of Valve's Source engine based games available on the Mac. Native OS/X support for the Source engine is also available immediately to licensees for use in their games.

Among the initial titles available on Wednesday will be Runic Games' critically acclaimed Torchlight. "We're very excited to be bringing Torchlight to the Mac," said Max Schaefer, co-founder of Runic Games. "Having Steam for the Mac solves so many problems for us as a developer. We look forward to our future games coming out on the Mac as well."

In addition to bringing the online functionality of Steam to the Mac, Valve will also make its Steamworks suite of publishing and development tools available on the Mac platform. These include product key authentication, copy protection, auto-updating, social networking, matchmaking, anti-cheat technology, and more. The features and services available in Steamworks are offered free of charge and may be used for both electronic and tangible versions of games.

For more information on Steam, please visit www.steamgames.com.

Beginning this Thursday, April 8, gamers around the world can play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer free of charge during a special Free Weekend promotion on Steam. The definitive online experience, Modern Warfare 2 returns with a host of new perks and enhancements. Those who wish to enjoy every moment of the Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer Free Weekend may pre-load Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer now. There is no obligation to participate.

Leading Gaming Service Expands to Mac Platform

Valve announced today it will bring Steam, Valve's gaming service, and Source, Valve's gaming engine, to the Mac.

Steam and Valve's library of games including Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series will be available in April.

"As we transition from entertainment as a product to entertainment as a service, customers and developers need open, high-quality Internet clients," said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. "The Mac is a great platform for entertainment services."

"Our Steam partners, who are delivering over a thousand games to 25 million Steam clients, are very excited about adding support for the Mac," said Jason Holtman, Director of Business Development at Valve. "Steamworks for the Mac supports all of the Steamworks APIs, and we have added a new feature, called Steam Play, which allows customers who purchase the product for the Mac or Windows to play on the other platform free of charge. For example, Steam Play, in combination with the Steam Cloud, allows a gamer playing on their work PC to go home and pick up playing the same game at the same point on their home Mac. We expect most developers and publishers to take advantage of Steam Play."

"We looked at a variety of methods to get our games onto the Mac and in the end decided to go with native versions rather than emulation," said John Cook, Director of Steam Development. "The inclusion of WebKit into Steam, and of OpenGL into Source gives us a lot of flexibility in how we move these technologies forward. We are treating the Mac as a tier-1 platform so all of our future games will release simultaneously on Windows, Mac, and the Xbox 360. Updates for the Mac will be available simultaneously with the Windows updates. Furthermore, Mac and Windows players will be part of the same multiplayer universe, sharing servers, lobbies, and so forth. We fully support a heterogeneous mix of servers and clients. The first Mac Steam client will be the new generation currently in beta testing on Windows."

Portal 2 will be Valve's first simultaneous release for Mac and Windows. "Checking in code produces a PC build and Mac build at the same time, automatically, so the two platforms are perfectly in lock-step," said Josh Weier, Portal 2 Project Lead. "We're always playing a native version on the Mac right alongside the PC. This makes it very easy for us and for anyone using Source to do game development for the Mac."

Support for the Mac in Source and Steamworks is available to third parties immediately. Interested developers should contact Jason Holtman at jasonh@valvesoftware.com.

Valve announced today it will bring Steam, Valve's gaming service, and Source, Valve's gaming engine, to the Mac.

Steam and Valve's library of games including Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series will be available in April.

"As we transition from entertainment as a product to entertainment as a service, customers and developers need open, high-quality Internet clients," said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. "The Mac is a great platform for entertainment services."

"Our Steam partners, who are delivering over a thousand games to 25 million Steam clients, are very excited about adding support for the Mac," said Jason Holtman, Director of Business Development at Valve. "Steamworks for the Mac supports all of the Steamworks APIs, and we have added a new feature, called Steam Play, which allows customers who purchase the product for the Mac or Windows to play on the other platform free of charge. For example, Steam Play, in combination with the Steam Cloud, allows a gamer playing on their work PC to go home and pick up playing the same game at the same point on their home Mac. We expect most developers and publishers to take advantage of Steam Play."

"We looked at a variety of methods to get our games onto the Mac and in the end decided to go with native versions rather than emulation," said John Cook, Director of Steam Development. "The inclusion of WebKit into Steam, and of OpenGL into Source gives us a lot of flexibility in how we move these technologies forward. We are treating the Mac as a tier-1 platform so all of our future games will release simultaneously on Windows, Mac, and the Xbox 360. Updates for the Mac will be available simultaneously with the Windows updates. Furthermore, Mac and Windows players will be part of the same multiplayer universe, sharing servers, lobbies, and so forth. We fully support a heterogeneous mix of servers and clients. The first Mac Steam client will be the new generation currently in beta testing on Windows."

Portal 2 will be Valve's first simultaneous release for Mac and Windows. "Checking in code produces a PC build and Mac build at the same time, automatically, so the two platforms are perfectly in lock-step," said Josh Weier, Portal 2 Project Lead. "We're always playing a native version on the Mac right alongside the PC. This makes it very easy for us and for anyone using Source to do game development for the Mac."


Support for the Mac in Source and Steamworks is available to third parties immediately. Interested developers should contact Jason Holtman at jasonh@valvesoftware.com.