Mar 22, 2011
Midweek Madness - 75% off Batman: Arkham Asylum™ GOTY Edition
Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition - Valve
Save 75% on the critically acclaimed Batman: Arkham Asylum in this remastered GOTY Edition featuring 4 extra Challenge Maps.

Face off against Gotham’s greatest villains including The Joker, HARLEY QUINN, POISON IVY and KILLER CROC and return order to Arkham Asylum.

Offer ends this Thursday at 4pm PDT.

Mar 22, 2011
New Release - Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
Assassin’s Creed® Brotherhood - Valve
Assassin’s Creed® Brotherhood is now available world-wide on Steam!

Live and breathe as Ezio, a legendary Master Assassin, in his enduring struggle against the powerful Templar Order. Now with an entire Brotherhood who will rally to your side, journey into Rome, the center of power, greed and corruption, to strike at the heart of the enemy.

And for the first time, test your skills against other players from around the world in multiplayer matches. Choose from a wide range of unique characters, each with their own signature weapons and assassination techniques.

It's time to join the Brotherhood.

Mar 22, 2011
Now We're Talking! Steam Voice with SILK
Steam Blog - Valve
Steam's voice chat system now leverages the SILK audio codec, developed and used by Skype, makers of the world's most popular voice communication service. The SILK codec provides a significant quality improvement over Steam's previous voice technology, at the cost of some increase in bandwidth usage. Steam Voice used to require 15 kbps of bandwidth, whereas SILK is a dynamic bit rate protocol which varies in its use of bandwidth between 8 and 30 kbps, depending on the range of data in the voice signal and current network conditions.

As of today's Steam client update, voice chat using SILK is available to all users of Steam. To start using Steam chat with SILK, simply click the 'Start Voice Chat' button within a friend or group chat on Steam. You can access chat from both the friends list at the desktop, or while in game using Steam’s in-game overlay. You'll find voice chat connectivity and reliability have also been improved with this release.

Steam chat with SILK is now also automatically available for all games that take advantage of the Steamworks Voice API. Valve's own Portal 2, set to release in mid-April, uses this newly updated system to enable voice chat in its cooperative gameplay mode.
Mar 22, 2011
Steam client update released
Client Update - Valve
A Steam client update is now available. To apply the update, click the File menu inside of Steam and then select "Check for Steam Client Updates...". The specific changes include:

Steam
  • Changed Steam Voice chat to use the SILK voice codec
  • Fixed Mac OSX overlay occasionally disappearing after 10+ minutes in game
  • In game overlay for Mac OSX now handles cursor visibility better; specifically in the Sam & Max series.
  • Fixed Mac OSX overlay responding correctly when window is reactivated by mouse click.
  • Maximizing the Windows client should no longer prevent the user from accessing an auto-hidden taskbar
  • The overlay will now automatically return to the game when accepting a friend invite
  • Improved voice ducking prevention
  • Fixed position of game invites in the chat dialog
  • Improved handling of last modified times for cloud files.
Mar 22, 2011
New Release - Crysis 2
Crysis 2 - Valve
Crysis 2 is now available on Steam in North America and will become available world-wide very soon (please see the Crysis 2 store page for release times).

It’s 2023, terrifying alien invaders stalk the New York City streets. Only you can prevail, wielding the supersoldier enhancements of the Nanosuit 2. BE STRONG. BE FAST. BE INVISIBLE. BE THE WEAPON.

Mar 21, 2011
Pre-Purchase Now: HOARD
HOARD - Valve
Pre-Purchase HOARD on Steam and save 25%!

In HOARD, the dragon is in charge. Scare villages, Burn castles, and Kidnap princesses to earn the biggest pile of gold and best the competition!

Additionally, pick-up the Four-pack now at 10% off and get three friends in on the action!

Mar 21, 2011
Team Fortress 2 Update Released
Team Fortress 2 - 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
  • Updated honor-bound weapons so they can be holstered within a second of touching a supply cabinet
  • Updated the Blighted Beak with creator submitted fixes
    • Fixed a clipping problem
    • Made it paintable
  • Updated the Hero's Hachimaki to be tradeable
Mar 21, 2011
Pre-Purchase Now: Red Faction®: Armageddon™
Red Faction®: Armageddon™ - Valve
Pre-Purchase Red Faction®: Armageddon™ and receive a copy of Red Faction Guerrilla! Already own Red Faction Guerrilla? Give it to a friend!

Red Faction®: Armageddon™ expands on the critically acclaimed, best-selling franchise with new, groundbreaking challenges.

Half a century after the Red Faction resistance and their Marauder allies freed Mars from the brutal Earth Defense Force, harmony on Mars is again threatened. Tricked into re-opening a mysterious shaft in an old Marauder temple, a long-dormant evil is unleashes on Mars. The battle has begun and you are humanity’s last hope for survival.

Mar 21, 2011
Call of Duty: Black Ops First Strike - Pre-purchase and save 10%!
Call of Duty®: Black Ops - Valve
Pre-purchase Call of Duty: Black Ops First Strike DLC before March 25th 10am PDT and and save 10%!


First Strike contains 5 incredibly diverse maps spanning the globe; featuring 4 new multiplayer maps and a new Zombie experience.

“Berlin Wall” features combat on both sides of the imposing wall; "Discovery" is a desolate, frozen German outpost in Antarctica; in "Kowloon", battle in the rain along the rooftops of a towering Chinese sprawl; "Stadium" is an intense locale with a pro hockey arena backdrop; and in "Ascension", fight zombies in a Soviet launch facility.

Mar 21, 2011
Magicka Update Released
Magicka - Valve
Changelist(1.3.5.6)-21th March
• Another safety has been added to prevent gamer crash on startup.
• Fixed item stuck in air when detached from death characters.
• Decreased camera shake to one third of its original strength.
• Fixed incorrect trailing glyph in menu leaderboards.
• Fixed campaign chapter transition crash issue.
• Game should no longer appear to be modded unless it is actually modded.

Known issues
• Beta testers of Vietnam will not be able to play challenges with regular players, regular players will also crash if beta tester tries to host using Vietnam content and regular players join.
• Network uplink bandwidth, while improved, can be demanding.
• Steam attempts to install XNA framework every time game is launched or rare occasion.
• Characters can in rare cases fall through the level collision mesh, this is due to lag or poor framerate. Many general network improvements and general optimization will reduce this risk.
• The game may appear to be stuttering even though framerate is good.

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