Left 4 Dead 2 - Valve
The Last Stand Community Update has been released!
Visit https://www.l4d.com/laststand/ for all of the details.

Summary of the more than 1000 changes across the entire game:

- Fixed an exploit that could lag or crash a server by spawning infinite pistols.
- Rate-limit commands to prevent client command DOS attacks against servers.
- Fixed the ability to bypass the damage filter on the gas station's rolling door by going idle.
- Fixed avoiding damage from the charger by toggling in/out of idle while being body slammed.
- Fixed clearing the boomer screenspace effect by taking a break.
- Fix griefing exploit where a survivor would fire the grenade launcher and then switch to spectator to skip the friendly-fire check
- Record the team of a vote caller at the time the vote is called, so if the caller disconnects the other players can still have their votes checked against the caller's team. Fixes team-based votes locking out new voters if the caller disconnects.
- Build a map load command on the server instead of directly executing the command that's received as part of the server reservation packet. Fixed potential server takeover exploit.
- Fixed SI ghosts playing jump landing sounds
- Prevent players from joining the survivor team as a character already occupied by a human player.
- Marked "voice_all_icons" (used for testing) as a cheat command. Clear the voice state whenever the value changes so voice bubbles don't stay visible when switching between cheat enabled/disabled games.
- Marked cl_survivor_light_* cvars as cheats.
- Made survivor_teammatefocus_* convars replicated, so they can still be used as a legitimate way to play but are forced to be consistent for all clients.
- Removed a three-second window where an infected player could force a faster transition from the observer state to the ghost state by pressing a key.
- Don't spam open/close door client commands while the door is in the process of opening or closing.

- Fixed spawn areas permanently excluded from spawn set when a survivor dies, idles, or changes character.
- Fixed mobs unable to spawn if survivors stand in specific areas during a finale.
- Always restore the default pain pills decay rate when the director resets.
- Fixed the L4D1 survivor gestures not playing on dedicated servers.
- Allow SI to destroy breakables in finale areas during survival and scavenge modes once the round begins.
- Fixed breakables sometimes failing to unblock the nav when they break.
- Don't stumble the charger if the charge attack starts while already in contact with the victim.
- Fixed L4D1 survivors not selecting their canonical preferred weapons when scavenging.
- Allow survivors to pick up ammo while fighting a tank or in close combat if they are less than 40% full.
- Bots will use pills only if health < 50
- Bots consider health to be critical at < 30 (was 40). This means real health must be < 5 before a bot will use first-aid over a full temp health buffer.
- Fixed a few cases where specials may choose to wait in an ambush position when the game mode says they should be assaulting the survivors
- If a chase path that's trying to lead the target fails, fall back to a non-leading path. Leading paths that run off a cliff aren't always handled properly and can cause the target to be treated as unreachable.
- Revised the logic for fitting both tank and witch spawn locations into the flow. Previously they would frequently collide and the witch would get culled; now they should always find some combination of spawn locations that fit the within the map constraints.
- Fixed the director's "arc value" not always handling campaigns shorter than five maps correctly.

- Allow competitive achievements (versus, scavenge) to also be earned in Versus Survival.
- Incapped survivors are counted as escaped if they're in the rescue vehicle.
- Enabled CS weapons for all players
- Viewmodels use the skin value of the world pickup model, same as gas cans.
- When a weapon is holstered, transfer the current skin to the addon model.
- Clear the viewmodel fire layer when performing a melee attack to fix the stuck helping hand bug.
- Fixed the mp5's melee shove canceling its reload animation.
- Turned on boomer gibs by default, except in low violence mode.
- Restored burn skins for infected
- Fixed witch kills getting recorded as common zombie kills in the stats.
- Increased "ammo_shotgun_max" from 56 to 72

- Removed "Single Player" option from the main menu carousel.
- Enabled the "Private Game" option in lobby permissions.
- Added a rematch vote to the end of versus survival matches.
- Fixed voice chat not working in lobbies.
- No vote cooldown in singleplayer modes
- Allow "Change all-talk" vote in versus survival mode.
- cl_downloadfilter defaults to "none"
- Fixed genericpanellist not drawing panels when they extended beyond both the top and bottom of the frame.
- Suppress warnings about func_orator not having a model

AND MORE
- Hundreds of fixes and tweaks to animations, models, dialog, map layouts and exploits.

Steam Input
- Added a Joystick style action that can receive console-style aim assist
- Fixed the “Turn Around” action
- Added a “Reset Camera” action for use with motion controls
- Rescaled mouse sensitivities so that the adjustment sliders in the configurator have more useful range
- Fix controller input on Orders/Response Quick Menu’s
- Fixed controllers not being able to skip to the end of the post-campaign stats scrawl

SCRIPTING AND MODDING

- CHANGES
- Run mapspawn_addon.nut for all active addons after the base version runs.
- Run scriptedmode_addon.nut and director_base_addon.nut for all active addons after the base version runs.
- Support for new population file overrides for the base game mode. So the load order is now "population.txt", "population_.txt", "population_.txt", which each script optionally overriding place definitions from the previous files.
- Any time the addon load order changes, both the director and the nav mesh immediately refresh their population data. Fixes campaigns using the wrong populations and errors from precaching the wrong models.
- Func_nav_attribute_region and point_nav_attribute_region will remove attributes if the spawn key "remove_attributes" is set to true.
- Allow scripts to force the witch bride spawn, regardless of the variant setting
- "InterceptChat" can return false to prevent sending the message to other clients.
- "DamageType" field of "ScriptAllowDamage" is now read/write, so it can be used to change the damage type.
- Fixed being unable to create subdirectories in /left4dead2/ems
- New game event "player_left_safe_area", called every time the first survivor leaves the start area regardless of map number, restarts, etc.
- Added the userid of the offending player to "triggered_car_alarm" game event.
- Fixed script funcs SetContext and SetContextNum not recognizing that a duration of zero means 'forever'. To avoid breaking existing scripts, the 'forever' parameter is now -1.
- Track convars set from script so they can be reverted when the session ends.
- New gender "police", can spawn & drop tonfas like the riot control commons, but doesn't have the protective gear.
- Added a new keyfield "weaponskin" to item and weapon spawners to set the skin of the spawned item or weapon. Supported by "weapon_item_spawn", "weapon_melee_spawn", "weapon_scavenge_item_spawn".
- Removed spurious parenthesis from "ToKVString" and "_tostring" script functions
- Director now calls into an optional script function "GetCustomScriptedStageProgress" during FINALE_CUSTOM_SCRIPTED stages. The function should return a value from 0-1 to indicate the completion percentage of the stage. The default time-based completion percentage is passed in as a parameter.
- Added weapon spawners and configurable spawner entries for CS weapons.


- NEW FUNCTIONS
CBaseEntity
GetMaxHealth
SetMaxHealth
GetModelName
SetModel( modelname )

CBaseAnimating
GetAttachmentBone, Get the named attachement's parent bone index
GetAttachmentOrigin, Get the attachment id's origin as vector
GetAttachmentAngles, Get the attachment id's angles as p,y,r vector
GetBoneOrigin, Get the bone id's origin vector
GetBoneAngles, Get the bone id's angles as a p,y,r vector
LookupActivity, Get the named activity index
LookupBone, Get the named bone index
LookupSequence, Looks up a sequence by sequence name or activity name
SetSequence, Set a sequence by id
ResetSequence, Reset a sequence by id. If the id is different than the current sequence, switch to the new sequence
GetSequence, Get the current sequence id
GetSequenceActivityName, Get the activity name for a sequence by id
GetSequenceName, Get a sequence name by id
GetSequenceDuration, Get a sequence duration by id
GetBodygroup, Get a bodygroup by id
GetBodygroupName, Get the bodygroup id's name
FindBodygroupByName, Find a bodygroup id by name
GetBodygroupPartName, Get name by group and part
SetBodygroup
GetModelScale
SetModelScale, (scale, change_duration) Changes a model's scale over time
SetPoseParameter, (id, value) Sets a pose parameter value

CBaseFlex
GetCurrentScene, Returns the instance of the oldest active scene entity (if any).
GetSceneByIndex, Returns the instance of the scene entity at the specified index.
PlayScene, Play the specified .vcd file.
LookupAttachment
IsSequenceFinished

CTerrorPlayer
DropItem, Make the player drop an item/weapon
SwitchToItem, Make the player switch to an item/weapon
SnapEyeAngles, Sets the view angles
GiveItemWithSkin( itemname, skin )

CTerrorWeapon
GetMaxClip1
GetMaxClip2
GetDefaultClip1
GetDefaultClip2
Clip1
Clip2
SetClip1
SetClip2
GiveDefaultAmmo
Reload

CDirector
GetGameModeBase
GetMapName
GetSurvivorSet

ResponseCriteria
GetValue, ( entity, criteriaName ) - returns a string
GetTable, ( entity, table ) - returns a table of all criteria
HasCriterion, ( entity, criteriaName ) - returns true if the criterion exists

CBaseTrigger
Disable
Enable
IsTouching, ( entity )

Global
DebugDrawBoxAngles, Draw a debug oriented box (cent, min, max, angles(p,y,r), vRgb, a, duration)
ClientPrint, Print a client message
PrecacheSound
EmitAmbientSoundOn, Play named ambient sound on an entity.
StopAmbientSoundOn, Stop named ambient sound on an entity.
GetSoundDuration, Returns float duration of the sound. Takes soundname and optional actormodelname.
SetFakeClientConVarValue, Sets a USERINFO client ConVar for a fakeclient
ScreenShake, Start a screenshake with the following parameters. vecCenter, flAmplitude, flFrequency, flDuration, flRadius, eCommand( SHAKE_START = 0, SHAKE_STOP = 1 ), bAirShake
ScreenFade, Start a screenfade with the following parameters. player, red, green, blue, alpha, flFadeTime, flFadeHold, flags
PrecacheModel
IsModelPrecached
IsSoundPrecached
IsDedicatedServer
GetListenServerHost
HasPlayerControlledZombies
"AllowFallenSurvivorItem", optionally reject items from spawning on the fallen survivor.
ShouldPlayBossMusic

- SCRIPT ENTITIES
"script_func_button" - spawn a func_button from script via extents.
"script_clip_vphysics" - structured the same as other script-based trigger entities.
"script_nav_attribute_region" - uses extents instead of brushes.

- RESPONSE RULES
- Added survivor criteria "InRescueVehicle", set to 1 when the vehicle has arrived and the survivor is inside.
- Added "NumberOfTeamAlive", "NumberOfTeamIncapacitated", and "NumberOfTeamDead" to the set of response rules global criteria.

- MISSION KEYS
- Added a mission key "allow_boss_mix" to the "versus_boss_spawning" block to bypass a restriction on having both a tank and a witch in the first and last maps of a campaign.
- Created variant keys to set a different character model
HunterVariant
SmokerVariant
BoomerVariant
BoometteVariant
SpitterVariant
JockeyVariant
ChargerVariant
WitchVariant
Dota 2 - Valve
- Fixed a bug with Wukong's Command against invisible heroes
Squad - Valve
Squad is Now Available on Steam!

Squad is a tactical FPS that provides authentic combat experiences through teamwork, constant communication, and gameplay. It bridges the large gap between arcade shooter and military simulation with 100 player battles, combined arms combat, base building, and a great integrated VoIP system
Steam News - Casscolors
Announcing a higher tier of Community Awards, new Points Shop features, and items available now on Steam.

New Community Awards help you show your appreciation with an even bigger tip to the recipient.

Use the Steam Points you earn by shopping on Steam to give the latest Awards:
  • Treasure (recipient gets 200 points)
  • Mad Scientist (for user-generated content) (recipient gets 100 points)
  • Mind Blown (recipient gets 400 points)
  • Golden Unicorn (recipient gets 800 points)
The recipient can in turn spend those points in the Steam Points Shop, or award a post to brighten someone else's day.



New Features
The Points Shop is enhanced with new features, including:
  • A new, tabbed selection window for sending chat emoticons, animated stickers, and chat effects
  • Points Shop item previews on participating games' store pages
  • A weekly email roll-up to Community Award recipients
  • A Steam profile avatar cropping tool, right in the avatar uploader
BTW: The Points Shop also represents a new way to get Trading Card items such as emoticons and profile backgrounds – you can now exchange points for them.

New Game-Themed Items
Also debuting in the Points Shop:

What's Hot in the Points Shop
The Debut Collection Golden Profile is the most popular item in the shop as of this writing. Grab it before September 22nd at 10am Pacific, when it will vanish from the shop to make way for a new golden profile headed to Steam.

Animated avatar frames and the Black Hole animated profile background are also favorites among the Community, while our most popular sticker is this little clucker from CS:GO!



Since the Steam Points Shop opened almost three months ago, more than 10 million people have exchanged Steam Points for game-themed items to animate their Steam presence and chat sessions.

Check out the thousands of Points Shop items available now, such as animated stickers and chat effects, profile backgrounds, mini-profile backgrounds, avatars, avatar frames, and Community Awards.
Stay Silent - Valve
Stay Silent is Now Available on Steam!

Stay Silent is a western-themed multiplayer online FPS game for VR. Step into a Wild West town in the aftermath of an alien incursion. Playing as either the Marauders or the Guardians, fight against stealthy opponents on silent nights using both traditional guns and powerful alien weapons!
Client Update - Valve
A new Steam client has been released and will be automatically downloaded.

Library
  • Fixed an issue where the game list is sometimes displayed much too wide.

Soundtracks
  • Fixed a display issue with some track names when users were running in Brazilian Portuguese, Latin American Spanish, or Simplified/Traditional Chinese.
Client Update - Valve
A new Steam client has been released and will be automatically downloaded. This update has been re-released with a fix for EA Play on August 30th.

General
  • Added support for EA Play
  • Fixed acquiring free DLC from Steam store using in-game overlay web browser
  • Fixed bug that could cause Steam to crash at shutdown time
  • Fixed runaway memory usage in steamwebhelper process when a corrupt proxy auto-config script is encountered
  • Fixed bug that could cause Steam to hang at shutdown time
  • Fixed game installation failing in certain cases when creating symbolic links
  • Fixed Steam client account button formatting incorrectly when Steam Wallet balance changes
  • Fixed a possible crash in Steam Overlay when taking screenshots in DOOM: Eternal
  • Fixed Download Region being forced to “Argentina” in certain circumstances
  • Fixed license issue with EA Play First Trial after full game has been purchased
  • Fixed Steam client window initially showing as translucent rectangle when opened on a secondary display set to a different DPI value than the primary display
  • Improved updating game content when disk space is low and another Steam library folder on a different disk is available
  • Improved handling of game launches from executables or other launchers. This fixes several issues including the game not receiving the Big Picture version of the overlay even if Big Picture is active

Library
  • Improved sorting for games with non-English titles
  • Added the ability to dismiss a Play Next library suggestion
  • Added Steam Points Shop link on supported games
  • Added ability to grant Community Awards to Activity and Community feed content
  • Stop displaying entries in a game's activity feed for friends that have been unfriended or blocked
  • Games with manuals will now include a link to the manual in the Additional Content section of their game details page

Soundtracks
  • Fixed an error where some tracks with localized Japanese names would show the international name instead of the localized name when running in Japanese
  • Fixed errors with the display format and ordering of tracks with metadata when using the built-in music player
  • Improved support for track, album, and artist metadata extraction from all supported audio formats

Steam Input
  • Fixed an issue where Switch Controllers could lock up in games that send rumble off commands each frame
  • Added an implementation of Jibb Smart’s Flick Stick. To use bind the right joystick to Flick Stick and the Gyro to Mouse.
  • Added Flick Stick template configurations for PS4 and Nintendo Switch controllers
  • Added support for using Flick Stick and Mouse Joystick modes with Steam Input API games

Linux
  • Fixed "Clear Download Cache" action having no effect
  • Fixed a regression with transparent visual selection for SteamOS overlays and on-screen keyboard causing invalid rendering on NVIDIA configurations
  • Fixed “STOP” button in the Library having no effect for non-Steamworks titles
  • Fixed localization placeholder string appearing on the game launch dialog during Vulkan shader processing
  • Fixed a bug where Vulkan shader processing could sometimes get stuck
  • Reduced Vulkan shader processing memory usage with the AMD radv driver
  • Updated fonts to fix vertical alignment
  • Steam runtime 0.20200720.0
  • pressure-vessel: bring host VDPAU and VA-API drivers into the container
  • pressure-vessel: Improve mechanisms for comparing runtime libraries with host
  • pressure-vessel: Choose a correct libgcc_s.so.1 and libxcb.so.1 for newer runtimes

Vulkan Shader Pre-Caching
  • Fixed processing progress indicator display on game launch
  • Now processes local source pipeline database on driver update

SteamVR
  • Added check to automatically set SteamVR as the default OpenXR runtime if it is installed and nothing else is already set as the OpenXR runtime.
  • Added check to automatically enable access to SteamVR from app containers (such as Chrome sandboxed processes and UWP apps.)

Steamworks SDK
  • Removed sending duplicate lobby game data to the Steam backend for newer Steamworks titles
Dota 2 - Valve
General
- Added three new playable heroes: Queen of Pain, Slark, and Templar Assassin
- Added a fifth ascension level: Apex Mage
- Added four new ascension modifiers: Glutton, Clumsy, Glimmer, Meteoric
- Bristleback now sells a variety of minor upgrade shards for the chosen heroes in the game
- The rate of earning Battle Points during the game has been increased

Aghanim's Trials
- The next Trial will be on the Grand Magus ascension level
Team Fortress 2 - Valve
An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include:

  • Fixed bsp-embedded models caching rules to allow for reloading the correct model when transitioning to a different map
  • Fixed a couple instances that were not correctly checking for anti-aliasing being disabled
  • Fixed the name of the Replica Titanium Tank 2020 medal
  • Updated The Flatliner to fix a problem when taunting
  • Updated the Hazard Headgear to fix a problem with the material
  • Updated the Crabe de Chapeau to add the smoke effect
  • Updated The Sophisticated Smoker
    • Fixed some clipping issues
    • Added the smoke effect
    • Updated the backpack image
  • Updated the Hypno-eyes

    • Added a style that was not included in the original release
    • Updated the equip_region
Steam News - AndrewL


July was a busy month for games launching on Steam, so we're presenting another exciting list of Top Releases. With this post, we'll be looking back at the top 20 products released in July, measured by revenue generated during the first two weeks following their release. As always, we will also be looking at the top 5 free-to-play releases, measured by their total unique player counts.

Controller or keyboard & mouse?

July's list features an impressive amount of games with added controller support. Of the Top Releases in July, an overwhelming 19 of them give players an alternative option to the traditional keyboard & mouse experience. Whether you're strapped in with an advanced force-feedback racing wheel for F1® 2020, or just plugging in your favorite console controller to relax on the couch with Destroy All Humans!, gone are the days of downloading added software or spending time configuring and calibrating your device. For players, it's pretty much as easy as making sure your favorite controller is charged up. For developers, it's become more and more important to consider Steam Input support as an avenue to reach a more diverse set of players. If you're the type of player who wants to delve into more games that support controllers, check out our Controller Friendly homepage for ideas.

Worldwide catalog

We've become accustomed to seeing a diverse representation of games and developers on each month's list, so it was no surprise to see that yet again in July, with games coming from nine different countries (check the list below for full country & developer details). No matter where players are plugged in, they are able to choose from games made all over the world. Developers have paid attention to that too, as most games now support a wide variety of localization options. July's Top Releases offered a huge amount of support in that regard, with games this month supporting an average of seven languages each. DEATH STRANDING takes the cake, with a whopping 20 supported languages, and 12 with full audio support.

New developer highlights

Finally, we'd like to highlight the 11 development teams who made this month's list with their first ever Steam release. Some of these developers have been making games for years on other teams or platforms, while some are making their first-ever game. Congrats and welcome to the following developers - we hope to see more amazing work from you in the future:  Catfood Studio, Cradle Games, Easy Day Studios Pty Ltd, Final Strike Games, KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS, Phobia Game Studio, Robot Squid, Spilt Milk Studios,
Thunkspace LLC, Veewo Games and 甘肃嘉元数字科技有限公司.

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July's Top Releases

Here's the list of July's top releases ordered by release date (we've organized this list on a sale page too):


F1® 2020
Codemasters (UK)


SWORD ART ONLINE Alicization Lycoris
AQURIA Co., Ltd. (Japan)


The Wind Road 紫塞秋风
甘肃嘉元数字科技有限公司 (China)


Rocket Arena
Final Strike Games (USA)


DEATH STRANDING
KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS (Japan)


雀魂麻將(MahjongSoul)
Catfood Studio (China)


Neon Abyss
Veewo Games (China)


STORY OF SEASONS: Friends of Mineral Town
Marvelous Inc. (Japan)


FAIRY TAIL
KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD. (Japan)


SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE
SUPERHOT Team (Poland)


STAR WARS™: The Old Republic™
BioWare (Canada)


5D Chess With Multiverse Time Travel
Conor Petersen & Thunkspace, LLC (USA)


CARRION
Phobia Game Studio (Poland)


Othercide
Lightbulb Crew (France)


Grounded
Obsidian Entertainment (USA)


Destroy All Humans!
Black Forest Games (Germany) & Pandemic Studios (USA)


Skater XL - The Ultimate Skateboarding Game
Easy Day Studios Pty Ltd (USA)


Blightbound
Ronimo Games (Netherlands)


Hellpoint
Cradle Games (Canada)


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July's Top Free Releases


Here are the Top 5 free-to-play titles from July, ranked by total unique player count:


STAR WARS™: The Old Republic™
BioWare (Canada)


Soda Dungeon 2
AN Productions & Poxpower (USA)


雀魂麻將(MahjongSoul)
Catfood Studio (China)


King of Crabs
Robot Squid & Spilt Milk Studios (UK)


Devolverland Expo
Flying Wild Hog (Poland)

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If you're curious about previous months, here are more Top Release lists:
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