You can now enjoy Victoria II on Steam, and if you purchase by Aug 20th you will also receive Victoria I Complete for free!

Guide your nation through expansion and colonization, to finally become a truly great power by the dawn of the 20th century.

Source Continue reading New Release – Victoria II →

Another exciting day at QuakeCon 2010 brings another exciting day of sales here on Steam!

Today offers 66% off all DOOM titles available on Steam. For the best deal, grab the DOOM Pack Complete.

Check out the QuakeCon Sale Page for all of today’s offers.

Source Continue reading QuakeCon 2010 Steam Sale Continues with DOOM →

Week 17: Iron Man, Diagnosing Mutations, Bill?

Iron Man

No respawns, no restarts, no ammo, all tension!

Did you vote the Mutations are too easy? Try this one on Expert. Realism rules are in effect. There are no respawns in the map. There is no ammo. If your team wipes, you need to restart the whole campaign.

Diagnosing the Mutations

If you don’t play a mutation why?

The numbers by platform:

PC

27% None Of these

22% Lack of Interest

22% Enjoy Traditional

10% Too Gimmicky

10% Too Easy

9% Too Hard

Xbox 360

41% None of These

21% Enjoy Traditional

17% Lack of Interest

8% Too Easy

7% Too Hard

6% Too Gimmicky

It was nice to see people trying Gib Fest last week. It not only had a high rate of people trying it, it kept a steady 20% of the player minutes for the week.

Bill?

If you played The Passing, you know that Bill dies. If you didn’t play The Passing, sorry for the spoiler. We will be explaining Bill’s death in an upcoming comic and DLC but what are your guesses to how he died?

1) Killed by a Tank

2) Killed by a Witch

3) Overrun by Zombies

4) Friendly Fire

5) Old Age

Next Week’s Mutation: Developer’s Choice!
Source Continue reading Week 17 →

Kick off the weekend by playing Booster Trooper for free! You can also save 50% purchasing a single copy or 4-pack this weekend.

Free weekend ends Sunday at 1pm (PST). 50% off sale ends Monday at 10am (PST).

Source Continue reading Free Weekend! – Booster Trooper →

2 Evil Eyes, Summer Sale, and Upcoming DLC.

We are starting a new feature for PC players this week. Bi-weekly community campaigns!

Every two weeks we are going to feature a new community campaign on our servers. We will feature one campaign at a time to make it is easier to find games. We’ll be keeping it featured for two weeks so people can familiarize themselves with the maps for competitive play.

We currently have 120 servers setup around the world with the first featured campaign – 2 Evil Eyes.

For PC users here is how you can join us playing 2 Evil Eyes:

Download Left 4 Dead 2 Add-on support in the tools tab of the Steam library.

Download the following campaign from our friends at L4Dmaps.com.

Double clicking the vpk should install it but you can also copy the vpk to \Steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead 2\left4dead2\addons Either way that is where the vpks need to end up.

Start up Left 4 Dead 2.

Choose to play online and any available game/lobby in your area will show up. Or you can create your own game and choose addons and select 2 Evil Eyes for the campaign.

Since we have the servers up, you can choose Official Dedicated for server type.

We’ll be looking for you online! Watch out for the rock! You’ll know what I mean when you play.

If you have any troubles or questions on playing community content please post in this thread.

Summer Sale

Don’t waste your time going to the mall for back to school clothes, replace your entire wardrobe with Left 4 Dead gear! The Valve Store has been updated and is running a sale on L4D/L4D2 merchandise through August 17.

Upcoming DLC

So what happened with the third DLC for Left 4 Dead? Is there any new DLC on the way for L4D2? Where is the Mac version? Where is the comic? All your questions are answered, and more, next Friday August 20th on Game Trailers TV. The show airs at 12:30am on Spike.

Source Continue reading Here’s Looking at You →

Burn Zombie Burn! is now available on Steam. To celebrate its launch, the game will be offered a 10% discount during launch week. Hurry, as offer ends on August 18th, 2010!

Welcome to the char-grilled world of Burn Zombie Burn, where the best type of undead is barbequed undead.

The goals are simple: keep Bruce alive, as he tries to keep Daisy alive, and get the highest score possible. Standing (well, ambling) in your way is a never ending horde of the rotting, stinking and stupid undead. Fortunately our mild-mannered hero Bruce can get hold of some tasty weaponry. Burn, batter, shoot, maim, blow up, mince, and obliterate as many zombies as possible before they make Bruce their dinner?

Flaming zombies are faster and more dangerous than regular uncooked zombies. But burning zombies drop better pickups and act as a score multiplier – light ‘em up, score big, and have fun.

Source Continue reading New Release – Burn Zombie Burn! →

Puzzle Quest 2 is now available for purchase.

Escape to a puzzle game fantasy world filled with amazing creatures, powerful weapons, and challenging minigames! Addicting Match 3 gameplay is blended seamlessly with immersive role playing in this sequel to the award-winning Puzzle Quest!

Jump right into the action and customize your character with any one of four classes, each with different skills and abilities. Gain experience and earn treasure as you progress through the adventure, unlocking new spells and harder Match 3 challenges!

Are you a brave enough hero to reclaim the once peaceful village of Verloren from the evil clutches of the demon Gorgon?

Source Continue reading New Release – Puzzle Quest 2 →

To commemorate launch of the FREE Sandstorm Expansion, Global Agenda is available at 25% off now through August 19th, 2010, 10AM Pacific Time.

Source Continue reading 25% off on Global Agenda with Sandstorm Expansion →

Global Agenda Version 1.36 has been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted.

Version 1.36 introduces significant modifications to the Agency-vs-Agency system, as well as a variety of cleanups and improvements to the previously released Sandstorm functionality.

Major Highlights

• Agency vs. Agency (AvA): Significant changes have been made to the Agency vs Agency gameplay to address player feedback. More information is below.
• Tokens: The daily limit on tokens has been increased from 2,000 to 6,000. The bank limit on tokens has been increased from 20,000 to 30,000.
• Consumables: Removed from PvP.
• Armor: Blue armor is now available for sale at the Mercenary vendor for tokens.
• PvP Matchmaking: Matchmaking on Mercenary PvP matches has been modified to ensure better class balance, both at start of match and when backfills occur.
• Raid Matchmaking: Raids now require at least one of each class. (Note: If you are making a pre-made team for a Raid, you must take this into account).
• Modifications: Unwanted mods may now be sold back to a vendor.
• Defense Raids: Team leaders may now not join the Raid queue if any member of their team is under Level 30. Raids now require at least one of each class on a team.
• Magmalance: Length of DoT has been reduced from 3s to 2s.
• Aftershock Launcher: Now increases Mechanical damage +25% (Previously it did not increase Mechanical damage, although the tooltip incorrectly read that it increased Mechanical damage +40%).
• Gammaburst Launcher: No longer does knockback. Reduces human target protections by 5% for 5 sec. It reduces mechanical protections by 20% for 5 sec.
• Hornet Drone: Health reduced by 25%. Damage reduced by 30%.
• Chat: All players are now limited on the rate at which they can add new entries into City, Looking for Group and Trade channels (previously limited only trial players). There are no restrictions for Local and Team chat channels. The Looking for Group and Trade channels are now defaulted to your All chat channel list.
• Personal Vandal Boost: Disabled in Open Zone.
• Map Cleanups: A large number of cleanups, bug fixes and map changes have been made to various levels in the game, especially the Sonoran Desert Open Zone, Special Ops PvE and Raid..
• Tooltips: A large number of tooltips have been improved.
• Login Screen: Updated to reflect the completion of Global Agenda: Sandstorm.

Server and Feature Availability

• The Global Agenda Servers are expected to be down on THURSDAY, AUGUST 12, 2010 from approximately 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM US Eastern (15:00 to 19:00 GMT) while the patch is deployed. These times may change. Follow GAServerStatus on Twitter for up-to-date server availability information.
• The first weekend AvA Zones will open on SATURDAY, AUGUST 14, 2010. The first weekday AvA Zones will open on MONDAY, AUGUST 16, 2010.

Agency vs Agency

• SEASON LENGTH: Seasons are now two weeks in duration.
• ZONE OPEN TIMES: For each major geographic region (Europe, North America, Pac-Rim), there will be one zone open on MONDAY through THURSDAY, and another zone open on SATURDAY and SUNDAY. Each zone will be open for 6 hours a day. For example, the “Weekday” North American zone will be open from 7:30 PM US Eastern to 1:30 AM US Eastern on Monday through Thursday. The European “Weekday” Zone will be open from 16:30 to 22:30 UK Time (17:30 to 23:30 CET) Monday through Thursday, with different zones open on Saturday/Sunday.
• HEX OPEN TIMES: Agencies will no longer choose when they are open for production (and thus for attack). Instead, each ZONE will be divided into six different segments. Each segment will be open for 1 hour of each zone open time. Segment 1 for the first hour, Segment 2 for the second hour, etc. By holding a hex in Segment 1 of the “Weekday” zone, you and everyone else will know that that hex will be open for production on Monday through Thursday during the first hour of your zone’s open time. Note that each segment will have a varying number of hexes in it, with the middle hours of each zone open time having more hexes open than the first and last hours. Maps will cluster rare resources to ensure some hexes are more valuable than others.
• REWARDS: XP and Credits will be rewarded under the same formula as Mercenary PvP. Players in a Strikeforce that successfully win an AvA mission will receive tokens for the win. The # of Tokens will be based on the level of facility that was attacked. (Tech III facilities will earn substantially more tokens for a victory than Tech 1 facilities, and hexes with no facility will not have a token reward). The way items are produced will remain the same as it is today (at least initially).
• WIN CONDITION: Agencies will still win based on Net Worth. Each Zone will have its own winners. (Meaning, there will be 6 sets of winners for each season — one for the Saturday/Sunday zone and one for Monday-Thursday zone in each of the 3 geographic regions). The Top 3 agencies in each zone will be rewarded. An Agency will be able to participate in multiple zones. However, they will only be allowed to have an HQ in one zone.
• ALLIANCES: Alliances are removed from the AvA gameplay. You can still form alliances and use alliance chat, but there is no other impact on AvA.
• BIDS: Bids remain blind, but you may now rebid every 15 seconds until bidding is closed.
• SOFT CAP ON PRODUCTION: Production declines as your agency owns more hexes. Most agencies will find that their production is maximized by staying between 9 and 15 hexes.
• LOCKDOWN TIMER: The lockdown time after a defensive victory has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. For Defense missions, the lockdown time has been reduced from 20 minutes to 2 minutes in the case of a defensive victory.

Source Continue reading Global Agenda v1.36 Update Released →

Can’t make it to Texas for QuakeCon this year? Or maybe you’re already there, playing in the largest LAN event in North America. Either way, you can take part in the partying and fun with four days of huge sales on id and Bethesda games on Steam. Come back each day for a different deal, or just go ahead and pick up the QuakeCon Pack for about 75% off all currently available id and Bethesda games.

The QuakeCon 2010 Steam Sale kicks off today with 66% off The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion® Game of the Year Edition. Also at 66% off is the The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion® Game of the Year Edition Deluxe, which includes Knights of the Nine and the Shivering Isles expansions plus Fighter’s Stronghold Expansion, Spell Tome Treasures, Vile Lair, Mehrune’s Razor and much more.

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for another great deal. Offers change at 9am Pacific Time.

Source Continue reading QuakeCon 2010 Steam Sale Starts Now →

Steam’s browser and chat windows are now grouped as tabs! You can manage multiple chats and web pages each in a single window in our latest Beta.

We’ve also been making some improvements to Steam’s browser performance and stability, with the biggest gains on the Mac in particular. Flash video playback is now faster and more stable here, and the browser now loads cached content quickly. The video below shows a before and after comparison of our store’s home page loading in the released Steam client and our latest Beta. The comparison is fair, in that both versions of the client had the same amount of time after start up to “settle,” and both had the page content in their local cache. What was once molasses is now a normal web page in a normal-speed web browser. Yay!

You can give these improvements a whirl in the latest Beta by visiting Steam client Settings or Preferences and opting into the Beta Update offered there. And as always, do share your feedback on the Steam Forums.

Source Continue reading Now in Beta: Tabbed chat and browser improvements →

Pre-purchase Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X.® 2 before launch and receive a FREE copy of Blazing Angels® 2!

Source Continue reading Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X.® 2 now available for Pre-Purchase with Bonus Offer →

Horrid Henry is now available on Steam.

Now Horrid Henry moves from the multi-million selling book series and massively successful TV show onto the PC!

Henry is a head-strong boy, constantly raging against the tyranny of adults and infuriating girls.

Henry has a range of special skills and equipment he can use during missions. His task is to dash around locations playing pranks on other characters while trying to avoid getting caught.

Source Continue reading Now Available – Horrid Henry →