Category Archives: Steam Powered

The Highlander Mix-Up Match is HERE!

Just a quick heads up: our exhibition match with pros and pubbers is going to begin shortly. If we’re being honest, we’re 10% excited, 90% terrified. You should also be terrified, because our usual MO is to take notes of everything that happens during a match, then make changes to the game in bitter, small-minded retaliation. If Dave Riller can’t kill someone because they’re hiding behind a wall? Guess what? That wall’s toast in tomorrow’s patch. And if I get killed by too many Scouts, then there’ll be no more Scouts, in any game, ever. Double jumps will be a fond memory in your grandad’s head. Trust us on this. We have connections at Nintendo. Mario will develop a sudden desire to wear lead weighted boots.

Head over to the ETF2L page to see how you can watch the fun.
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Pre-Load R.U.S.E. Now

The upcoming real-time strategy game R.U.S.E. is now available for pre-load for customers that have pre-purchased. Just double-click the game in your Steam client to begin pre-loading.

For customers that have not yet bought their copy of R.U.S.E., this week is the last chance to get the 2 bonus maps that come with that pre-purchase option.

While you’re waiting for R.U.S.E. to release, you can hone your ruse skills in the R.U.S.E. single-player demo.


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Save Me Some Sugar ? This won?t take long

The Midnight Riders need your help. We haven’t seen the Riders for a long time. We were hoping they could help us with the official release of “Save Me Some Sugar” for the upcoming DLC for Left 4 Dead 1 & 2 “The Sacrifice”.

This is the first time Left 4 Dead 1 players will get to listen to the Midnight Riders while they slay zombies. To celebrate this momentous occasion, we wanted to release on YouTube their full music video for the song. This was the very first Music Video the Riders ever made “for the MTV”.

Sadly the video was lost and the Riders aren’t helping us find it. The only thing we have left behind from the band is one of Dusty’s guitars signed by the band. Dusty was not one to accept the charity of others so he had left this with management to be sold for bail money.

This leaves us with the guitar, the song, but no video.

Here’s where you can help. Make a music video for “Save Me Some Sugar” and post it on YouTube.com with the tag L4DMNRSAVESUGAR. The best video will win the guitar signed by the MNRs and a gift pack from Valve. We will wait until October 1st 2010 to judge the winning entry, so take your time.

Should you make it live action? Use game assets? Show the Riders? Well the band would have wanted this contest to have no rules. So you choose what’s in the video – THERE ARE NO STINKING RULES*!

Visit the official contest page for a wav of the song and the Midnight Rider’s Logo.

You can use this thread to promote your video.

*For actual boring legal rules written by people who don’t rock, please visit the official contest page here.

The link to the forum thread is here
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=16820898
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Magic: The Gathering – Expansion 2 Now Available

The second expansion for Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers is now available via Steam.

Take on Magic’s ancient vampire Planeswalker Sorin Markov, one of the new opponents featured in the second Duels of the Planeswalkers expansion. Plus, three new playable decks; three new unlockable cards for each of the eleven previously released decks, three new achievements, five new puzzling challenges, and host migration for multiplayer. Put your spell-slinging skills to the test and defeat the new single-player campaign to unlock Nicol Bolas’s “Eons of Evil” Planeswalker deck!

If you’re just getting started, check out the Duels of the Planeswalkers – Complete Pack which includes the base game, both expansions, and 22 decks for one low price.


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Tidalis Updated

An update for Tidalis has been released:

Notes From The Producer: August 18th, 2010

This official release includes a lot of new stuff for players to enjoy, a lot of it suggested by fans. It adds the new VS – Race multiplayer ruleset for use against the AI or against other players, as well as a new Boarded Up block type. It has a lot more flexibility in what fullscreen resolutions players can use, even if their graphics card/OS doesn’t report a resolution that they want to use as being supported. There is also a revamped sound subsystem that lets the game load faster, play multiple copies of the same sound effect at once (which sounds much better), and which avoids some issues on OSX.

Also included are 12 new Brainteaser levels created by players, a new visual block style created by a player, and updated stream graphics that look a bit fancier. Music tracks also now fade in when starting, which is a noticeable aural improvement. Aside from the above, this release has a number of bugfixes and other, more minor player-suggested tweaks.

All in all, an exciting first bit of free DLC, both with Arcen-created content and community-created content. Enjoy!

–Christopher M. Park

Beta Updates Cumulatively Included In This Official Release

* August 5th, 2010: 1.004 Beta (AI-Related Bugfixes)

* August 4th, 2010: 1.003 Beta (VS Race, Boarded Up Blocks, Experimental Sound Subsystem)

* July 27, 2010: 1.002 Beta (Bugfixes)

* July 26, 2010: 1.001 Beta (Guided Tour Improvements, Fullscreen Resolution Additions)

New & Updated Levels

  • A new folder has been added to the Brainteasers section of the game, with a “Community-Created Brainteasers” folder. The goal here is for us to over time package a good selection of the community-created brainteasers into the main game itself; not all players know to look for custom puzzles on our forums, and since the puzzle files are tiny it is easy for us to package them right into the game for everyone to enjoy.
    • This first version includes 12 player-created puzzles: 3 by Ixiohm, 2 by jkefka, 2 by PLivesey, 2 by RCIX, 1 by The 9th Sage, 2 by triggerman602. Special thanks to all of them for taking the time to submit such great puzzles!

New & Updated Art/Music/Sound

  • Music tracks now fade in when they are first loaded, to provide less jarring transitions between fast-paced and relaxing tracks and vice-versa.
    • Thanks to RCIX for suggesting.
  • A new player-created block skin has been added to the game: eRe4s3rs Glow Blocks. Special thanks to Hans-Martin Portmann for creating these!
  • The stream graphics have been improved with extra glow effects that makes them look more modern.
    • Thanks to Hans-Martin Portmann for suggesting.

Misc

  • Post-level screen now no longer reports an achievement that had already been achieved globally (but may have just been achieved for that particular adventure).
    • Thanks to kout for pointing out that the previous behavior was confusing.

  • The loss objectives panel now includes a note about the move limit for levels with a move limit. This is already shown on the screen in the form of the “moves remaining” counter, but now it’s more obvious and consistent with other loss conditions.

Bugfixes

  • Fixed bug where Cutscene Index and Adventure Stats buttons would show through onto the main menu after playing an adventure level.
    • Thanks to Balthier for reporting.

  • Enter And Escape now function as confirm or cancel (respectively) when a confirm dialog is being shown. Previously Enter would open the chat box instead, which was problematic on several counts.
    • Thanks to SmileyFace for pointing out the problem.
  • Fixed bug where AI thought it could do a direction-redirect through an inverter or energizer.
    • Thanks to Ogtacular for reporting.

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New Release – Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days Multiplayer DLC

Three new DLC Packs have been released for Kane & Lynch 2 today.

The Doggie Bag Pack – Take on new heists and unlock new Achievements with two never before seen maps and five exclusive weapons for Multiplayer and Arcade modes. Dockyard and High Rise maps, plus the Radio Tower map provide new opportunity to increase your wealth. And with the inclusion of five new weapons, including the DD 33, KL Viper, RTS, SMi 69, and the TOQ Model Four S the odds are in your favor of pulling off a successful heist.

Alliance Weapon Pack – Increase your weapons arsenal with seven powerful new weapons for all Multiplayer modes and Arcade mode. A mix of handguns, shotguns and assault rifles the new weapons include: Doretta Silenced, Steele 870, TOQ SBR, Kaliningrad 47, PAC 10 silenced, N 77P Silenced, TOQ Elite.

Multiplayer Masks Pack – Conceal your identity and avoid revenge attacks with 8 costume masks stolen from a Chinese gift shop, for all Multiplayer modes and Arcade mode. You never want to be identified, especially if you are a traitor!


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Counter-Strike: Source and Team Fortress 2 Updates Released

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

Source Engine Changes (CS:S, DoD:S, TF2)

  • Fixed a case where servers would lock-up while writing .dmp files

Counter-Strike: Source

  • Fixed some minor smoke grenade bugs

Team Fortress 2

  • Fixed a bug in the Steamworks internal stats reporting

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Pre-Purchase Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale Now and Save 10%

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Valve and Carpe Fulgur LLC today announced an agreement to distribute the PC game Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale by independent gaming group EasyGameStation on Valve’s Steam service.

Recettear was first released in Japan in December 2007 by EasyGameStation at the 73th Comiket convention. Carpe Fulgur has provided a top-class localization of this shop-simulator-slash-RPG title, and has distribution rights for the game outside Japan.

Recettear is the story of an item shop, the girl who lives in it, and the fairy who turned her life upside down. Recette Lemongrass finds herself in charge of an item shop built into her house, in order to pay back a loan her father took and then skipped out on – and Tear, her newfound fairy “companion”, won’t take no for an answer! As Recette, you have to decide how you’ll get your stock – either through playing the markets in town or going out into the wild with an adventuring friend and thrashing beasts until they give up the goodies – how much to sell things for, what the shop should look like, and how to best go about getting the money Tear needs to pay off the loan. If you can’t come up with the money… well, hope you like living in a cardboard box.

“We are happy – almost to the point of delirium, really – to be on Steam,” said Andrew Dice, Project Director for Recettear at Carpe Fulgur. “This is the first time an independently-made game from Japan has appeared on the Steam service. This will allow the game to reach an audience of millions that otherwise would’ve been closed to it, and we have high hopes that Steam users will enjoy the game for the unique gem that it is.”

Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale is currently available for pre-purchase on Steam with a 10% discount and will be available to play on September 10th, 2010.

ABOUT CARPE FULGUR LLC: Carpe Fulgur LLC was founded by Andrew Dice and Robin Light-Williams. They envisioned a localization group that could bring deserving works of interactive entertainment – independently-made or otherwise – from Japan to America while using the fruits of modern technology to collaborate as closely as possible with the original content creators, in order to create English-language versions of works that read naturally in English but were still as close as possible to the visions of the original creators. The two need not be mutually exclusive – that rests at the heart of Carpe Fulgur’s philosophy.

ABOUT EASYGAMESTATION: EasyGameStation is an unincorporated independent game creation group founded in 2002. Beginning as a simple hobbyist group which created works derived from existing IP, “EGS” released their first completely original title, Chantelise, on the world in 2006. Ever since then, EGS has been known for the high quality of their releases in independent gaming circles in Japan.

ABOUT STEAM: The leading online platform for PC games and digital entertainment, Steam delivers new releases and online services to over 25 million users around the world. For more information, please visit www.steamgames.com.
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New Release – Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse Episode 5

Episode 5: The City That Dares Not Sleep, the season grand finale, is now available and has been added to The Devil’s Playhouse season pass!

5 Great Episodes, 1 Awesome Price! Grab your season pass now if you haven’t already and wield psychic powers against fearsome foes in the epic comedy saga over 5 episodes. Gaming’s greatest dog and rabbit sleuths Sam & Max seek the power’s ancient secrets, as manic Max gains shape shifting, teleportation, mind reading and future vision abilities for battling these foes.


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New Release – ARMA II: British Armed Forces DLC

British Armed Forces DLC has now been deployed on Steam providing a surge in support of the ongoing coalition deployment in Takistan.

Next in the line-up of military simulators, ARMA II: British Armed Forces (BAF) – a huge downloadable add-on for the recently released ARMA II: Operation Arrowhead – deploys today and delivers a new campaign, numerous single missions and a brand new faction and environment, expanding upon the already epic collection offered up by ARMA II’s ”MilSim” sandbox.

BAF provides an opportunity to explore the beautiful country of Takistan in even more depth, and offers the chance to hop across the border to Karzeghistan in the Shapur e-Dalanper region – a brand new area included as bonus content. A small, strategically important area, Shapur consists of pockets of densely developed settlements and industrial complexes within its regional boundaries, located just on the Karzeghi side of Takistan’s volatile borderlands.

Unprecedented freedom of movement, action and tactics, together with hundreds of unique models and epic sandbox-style maps, create the most authentic military simulation game available in the world today: war without the training wheels – available as a download now!


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The Guild II: Renaissance Update Released

Updates to The Guild II: Renaissance have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted.

The Guild II: Renaissance

  • Description of Monasteries on Novaesium broken
  • AI didn’t use new professions (has been tweaked a bit)
  • Possibility of war tweaked
  • War fixed (Inventory-bug, War-only-once-bug)
  • Dynasties shouldn’t die so early now
  • Amount of workshops displayed at the new-title-pergament counted also fields and meadows
  • Wrong icon for the kontor fixed
  • Forced marriage now only works for non-dynasty-members (you were able marry the whole dynasty of your enemies in MP)
  • Capturing mines now is no longer a good way to make money
  • You could save debts in your strongbox
  • Graveyard AI shouldn’t curse buildings that much now
  • Information window of beggars deactivated
  • Children were not controllable after adding to party
  • Bribe should now work properly
  • Warehous upgrades fixed
  • Miller produces more and faster now
  • Privilegue “lower office level” (or so) now disappears when the char gets a higher title
  • Trials now work properly incl. penalties
  • AI also charges other characters now
  • Scaffolds of warehouse corrected
  • Completely overhauled the market
  • Crash when music changes fixed
  • New multiplayer lobby form
  • Banker now works longer
  • Dyes were not produceable
  • Text errors
  • Map errors
  • Fishes now have animated nifs again
  • In Cologne there were two similar chappels
  • New sellicon
  • Soundlocator on Novaesium map corrected
  • Added missing resources on some maps
  • Workingtime for banker increased to 12 hours
  • kontor hat a bad rendering icon
  • Graveyard has been smoking out of the roof
  • City lamps fixed
  • Battle behaviour fixed: Allies don’t flee anymore
  • It could occur that a thug was not attackable after he started to attack a building
  • Attacking a building now should work properly
  • Boobytrap now need resources
  • Tirades are now sellable
  • It was possible that the market was flooded with raw materials. This should not happen anymore
  • Worker don’t disappear anymore or get stuck in woods or rivers
  • There should be no spinning carts anymore
  • The donkey lost his ability to teleport
  • AI-production of raw materials reworked (also has an influence on production of high tier products)
  • AI now builds meadows and fields
  • Stock purchase warrants nerfed
  • Stock order fixed
  • now you get what you’ve ordered
  • Binge fixed
  • Diplomats now leave your estate also if you canceled the measure
  • AI now should buy titles more often
  • Prices for titles lowered a bit
  • Juggler now gets for work
  • Possible fix for the blackscreen issue activated
  • Smuggling-measure reworked
  • AI now shouldn’t get any offices anymore without the appropriate title
  • Stone rotaries work properly now
  • Several causes for OoS messages fixed
  • Mouse icon for the Travell-measure added
  • Measure “Upgrade residence” can’t be clicked during upgrade anymore
  • You can see what profession your candidate is before you start the courtship (the profession is shown in the character screen)
  • Medicus treatment reworked
  • Higher titles now need a specific fame level
  • War on the Hansa map was buggy
  • Added mills and orchards on some old maps
  • Cost for thugs and bodyguards increased so their equipment can’t be sold anymore with profit
  • If you died in war your husband/wife was not able to choose another partner
  • Guild elders don’t disappear after some time now
  • Orphands don’t get older now and they also need some sleep
  • The measures for buying an engagement ring or adopting an orphand sometimes stopped
  • Fixed a bug which prevented the player from choosing another town than “Hall” when playing on the map of Kufstein
  • Allied characters don’t flee anymore if they see you doing something illegal, they’ll help you now
  • Many small bugs…

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Now Available – Shrek Forever After?

The #1 animated franchise of all time is back with Shrek Forever After™ The Game and is now available for purchase on Steam.

Team up with your friends and family in the ultimate Shrek® Game, based on Dreamworks Animation’s final Shrek movie. Play as Shrek, Fiona, Donkey, and Puss In Boots to out-smart, out-fight, and out-play that crafty Rumpelstiltskin!


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