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Some of Valve's most popular games are now available for purchase and download via Gamestop's Impulse PC digital download service. This is very rare as Valve has never allowed any of their titles to be published by other digital retailers. These titles include Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Portal 2, The Orange Box, and Half-Life Complete. Despite these titles being available on Impulse, users will still need to register the games through Valve's Steam service in order to play them. With Impulse...
Amazon has started another Buy 1 get 1 40% off sale. Over 500 select games on the Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3, PSP and Xbox 360. Some of the better games include Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten, Final Fantasy XIII, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, Mario Kart 7, ICO/SOTC collection, The Oregon Trail: 40th Anniversary Edition, NBA 2K12, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, The King of Fighters XIII, Dragon Age Origins: Ultimate Edition, and Mass Effect 2. Goozernation...
"EB Expo 2011 may be gone and part of history, but we at OXCGN have still got a few morsels to contribute about the event.
Unlike more professional events such as E3 and Gamescom, EB Expo was quite laid back and encouraged cosplay.
Characters from Halo to Ghostbusters were on the scene, and OXCGN tried to capture as many as possible.
If anything, marvel at the sheer amount of effort these people went through to get these costumes usable!"
"There’s quite a lot of details that have gone into the new Mann Co. Store update, all of which are addressed in their lengthy FAQ. A few points to take home are the following: for starters, players can continue to play TF2 and earn and craft items like they always have been, without seeing any difference at all, and Valve will continue to hand out free updates."
GameZone's Dave Snell discusses what it takes to for games to "stand the test of time." In the article, LittleBigPlanet, Half-Life 2, The Orange Box, and Chrono Trigger are written about.
"When it comes to games, this generation of home consoles hasn't seen nearly as many exclusive as systems in the past did. But both Sony and Microsoft have done quite well at securing a few great exclusives each. And of course we're running down the sexiest female characters to appear in those titles. We did a list of the top five sexiest female characters to appear in Playstation 3 exclusives last week and we have to show the same respect to the women of the Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 made it pre..."
All Age Gaming's John Elliott brings us the 4th developer profile. This fortnight he looks at Left 4 Dead 2 developer VALVE. See inside for a look into the famous first person shooter developer and creator of the Steam software.
I could not help by feel a sense of overwhelming satisfaction. It was seriously hard to state. This kind of publicity can only be good. I mean, who else thinks that this song is a classic in gaming? I doubt that anyone within the choir is actually old enough, or (gaming) experienced enough to have played or even understood Portal, but either way; they should feel mighty proud of themselves in having participated. I might have jumped at a chance to join a choir just to sing that song, and I ha...
It's pretty clear at this point: Steam is coming to Mac OS X. Valve sent out a number of suggestive images to large Mac and gaming sites today, that show a variety of Valve game properties done in unmistakable "Apple style"
A hilarious spoof on Team Fortress 2, starring the Spy and Pyro. There are some seriously random and wacky cameos from a bunch of gaming characters throughout! The ending is a shocker.
"For a limited time, you'll get three Xbox 360 Platinum Hits for the price of two. Offer valid February 7, 2010 through February 13, 2010, or while supplies last, when shipped and sold by Amazon.com. Limit one free Platinum Hit per household. To qualify, check out with three of the Xbox 360 Platinum Hits listed below in your cart. The price of the third qualifying Platinum Hit of equal or lesser value will be discounted during check out."
The war ended yesterday at noon PST and the winner was revealed: the Soldier is the lucky class to receive the extra weapon. Indeed, they've killed 6 406 065 Demomen for a loss of 6 372 979 of their own.
So here come the Gunboats, boots that are reducing rocket jump damage...
For that last day, Valve revealed two new maps: CP_Gorge and CTF_Doublecross. CP_Gorge is an attack/defense map with only two points, for a more nervous gameplay and CTF_Doublecross has two brigdes with plenty ways...
Valve revealed the last weapons for Demoman and Soldier as their achievements. But first, let's look into the casualties of the war: Soldiers are still ahead but for only 14 000 less deads. Demomen are closing the gap but we still don't know who will win.
The Demoman will receive the Scottish Resistance, a new sticky bomb launcher, that will let you explode the group of bombs you want by looking at them. It's also destroying enemies bombs but it's having less power when it comes to airburs...
After the Demoman yesterday, it's time for the Soldier to get an insight on the weapons he'll be receiving the 17th December. It's not really surprising to see a new rocket launcher, called the Direct Hit, as unlockable.
The rockets coming from it have less blast radius damage but the destructive force for a direct hit is higher without forgetting an increased speed for reaching the target. And if you're hitting on a target who is in the air, you're guaranteed to do a mini-crit.
The dai...
It's time to motivate Demomen for Valve. Indeed, they're still loosing the war by having more deads (200 000) than Soldiers. So, they've revealed our favorite bomber's background and new weapons.
Valve continued their comic with the Demoman accepting the challenge when seeing the proposed weapons. And we can ask yourself if Valve loves Moms. After Scout's mom, meet Demoman's mom!
But the most important thing here are the Eyelander, an haunted sword that kills and gives health and speed,...
Valve is offering to the players to make their own items with a new feature in the player's backpack. Remember all the duplicate weapons, sandwichs or even hats that you're not using and that are taking some space in your inventory? Now, you can get rid of them with the Crafting.
You can create your own item (well, at least, what Valve will let you do it with it) by combining what you're judging as useless. Not every try will be rewarded with a new useful item, though. Valve wants you to f...
The amazing dual class update from Team Fortress 2 brings Demoman and Soldier updates to the table, but with an unusual twist: Players will decide who gets a secret weapon by playing their favorite class this week.
A new Team Fortress comic seen at the Teamfortress.com blog reveals that the administrator (the female announcer in the game) is unhappy to discover that Red Demoman and Blu Soldier have become...friends?
Over the long history of video games, many great characters have been created. In this article we look at what we think are the 12 most popular video game characters. Enjoy!
Celebrating the 360's fourth anniversary IGN takes a look at the top 25 games on the console including some new and old releases over the years. The list is comprised of a wide variety of genres and features XBLA games for those looking for something on a budget. 360 owners can see what they've missed out on and put on their list for the holiday season.
Valve continues to show their character and sense of humor by releasing holiday cards featuring the different classes of Team Fortress 2 in funny situations, such as the Pyro melting a snowman, the Sniper giving the Scout a sweater with a target embroidered on it, and other silliness.
""This is the first in hopefully a series of articles, where each time we take a look at all the games in a particular series and talk about what the developer, the community & our own opinion is on whether its story and events in them are considered canonical within the series.
This time we tackle the Half-Life series.""
Gabe Newell has stated many times that he has absolutely no intention of bringing Valve games to the PS3. Although he still stands by his decision to not develop for the PS3, it seems he is sorry for the treatment of PS3 owners. Here is exactly what Gabe said:
“If you look at the customers that I feel we’ve done the worst job at taking care of is the people who bought our product on the PS3 - Orange Box on PS3. Those are the people who I have trouble saying anything to other than ‘Yeah, I’...
A great episode of The Bender awaits you. James will be buying a new system soon (he has had both a PS3 and Xbox 360, both have broke on him in the past). I ended up trying to show James the benefits of the Xbox 360, while Perry attempts to do the same for the PS3, and Allison swoops into talk about the Wii, but ends up saying pros/cons of the 360 and PS3. Plus we cover game news and the such. Enjoy!
Listen live/stream through iTunes or download the mp3 here.
Valve's Doug Lombardi says that their latest PS3 game production have been inferior to the original releases. They said they won't develop a new game until they have the ability to form a PS3 team that would be able to make the same type of products for the PS3 and PS2 that works the same as their games in 360 and PC.
"The PC and the 360 are just more straightforward. We can focus on what we want to do, which is make game experiences, instead of sweating bullets over obscure architectural decisions they make with their platform. [...] I didn’t come into this business in the 90s because of some technical fetish. I came in because I wanted to give people experiences that made them have fun."
"Gaming has a lot of "dirty words", and one I'd like to highlight today is "exclusive", a term personally I haven't seen explored from an editorial standpoint. In this Special, I'll go into the ups and downs of exclusives, non-exclusives, why anyone cares, and why developers go one way or another.
Even the most latent of gamers is probably aware of what "exclusive" refers to, but just in case, here's an explanation: due to a variety of reasons, a developer and publisher decide together thei..."
The TF2 official blog announced that the next class to be updated would be the Sniper. A lot of players could have thought to an April's Fool as the blog showed an image of the Sniper with a new weapon the 1st April. Apparently, it wasn't. No release date is given.
The developers are also updating the game on XBOX360, mainly for giving what the PC gamers have: the new achievements and unlockables. A technical problem was at the origin of the fact that the XBOX360 wasn't updating. The devel...
A very funny and beyond awesome L4D parody, although somewhat bloody. The Left 4 Dead survivors shown in a hilarical comedy sketch where they try to get to the saferoom. However everything that can go wrong apparently goes wrong in this gaming session! With some weird twists, as well.
Visit the source to watch the video!
"Portal: Still Alive will be released on XboxLIVE! Arcade this Wednesday, and is effectively a re-release of the original title. The title hopes to catch the attention of those who neglected to pick-up The Orange Box last year, while still attempting to please the fans with fourteen new Challenge Maps; some of which have been created by Valves online community. In addition, there are also six new advanced Test Chamber Maps included.
None of the new Maps represent..."
A Portal mod that was basically kept in the dark for months is finally coming to the surface. Said to release sometime towards the end of September, Portal: Prelude promises to tell the back story of Apature Science - and showcase the events leading up to the rise of GlaDOS.
Portal: Prelude will feature "8 chapters, 19 test chambers, 48 challenges, 6 advanced maps" plus a brand new plot complete with dialogue.
Best of all - it will be free.
The granddaddy of online class based shooters - Valve's widely popular Team Fortress 2 - has bugs here and there as well as things that could be improved, much like any other game. Valve has been trying to release all of the new Team Fortress 2 updates to the game's console counterparts free of charge -- something Microsoft doesn't think should be released for free. Valve's Gabe Newell states the console side of online gaming is getting in the way of them providing updates for TF2 on a daily ...
"The second/final video has the complete storyline I was aiming for and even a little surprise at the end of the credits. I also used some nicer camera angles and effects like camera shake, panning, zooming and rolling.
"
"Having some fun with the awesome Meet the Engineer video made by Valve Software. Team fortress 2 really lends itself well to spoof and comedy videos. And with a little bit of cut n'pasting one can create a nice video..."
"#24: skate
#23: Heavenly Sword
#22: MLB 08: The Show
#21: Battlefield: Bad Company
#20: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2
#19: Rock Band
#18: Burnout Paradise
#17: Ninja Gaiden Sigma
#16: PixelJunk Monsters
#15: Everyday Shooter
#14: Gran Turismo 5: Prologue
#13: Warhawk
#12: Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection Online
#11: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Game of the Year Edition
#10: Super Stardust HD
#9: Assassin's Creed
#8: Resistance: Fall of Man
#7: MotorStorm
#6: The Orange Box
..."
I have to say I am quite impressed with this build. Someone took a lot of time and effort into creating a non-functioning sentry gun model based off of TF2, in LEGOs.
Props to the builder/designer.
The article, written by EndSights.com's Aram Kuredjian, argues that gamers are unduly and unfairly attacking EA because of their sports franchises, pointing out the great games they have published in recent years like Rock Band, Orange Box, and upcoming games like Spore, Sims 3, and Dragon Age: Origins.
From baseball bat killing sprees in Team Fortress 2 to railgun domination in Quake III: Arena, WeGame counts down the top ten best frag filled videos from some of the most skilled gamers around the world. I wouldn't hit the respawn button while these guys are about!
"Next time you're on a multiplayer server, you might want to ask everyone who's a Canadian, and then ask who among them are dudes. Because according to a Microsoft survey, every fifth one of them (in the long run) has gamed in the nude, and might be doing so now.
Microsoft commissioned a pretty serious poll up in the Great White North, asking Canadians all sorts of questions that sound like a Cosmo bedside astrologer survey, if "game" is used as a euphemism for "sex." Do you game at work? (..."
"Valve marketing boss Doug Lombardi said that the next installment in the Half-Life franchise would not be showing up at E3 2008, shooting down rumors that began circulating the Internet yesterday.
But, he said that a "playable Left 4 Dead will be on display in a Valve-hosted suite."
Half-Life 2: Episode 2 launched relatively recently (October 2007), but the franchise's loyal fanbase is already ready for more.
In the absence of Episode 3, Left 4 Dead will be Valve's focus at E3. The g..."
A funny take on Winnie the Pooh and friends - in a Team Fortress 2 match against each other. Defend the honey, that's what Tiggers do best! Watch your childhood just slip away slowly.
As most of you probably know a petition for the PS3 version of The Oranage Box has been doing its rounds, asking for EA to release a patch fixing the large amount of bugs and glitches in the bundle. However a EA employee John D has said that EA will never release a patch since they did not engineer the game and its Valve's responsibility to fix the problems. So it appears the whole petition has been for nothing.
"In his former life as a tracker of dangerous game in the unforgiving Australian outback, the Sniper would spend months by himself. Prolonged isolation taught him a valuable lesson: You don't have to rely on other people if you never miss."
"Details given to us last night about Valve's rumored casting of the sequel (or prequel) to its Orange Box hit Portal hinted at a big role for Aperture Science's founder Cave Johnson. The potentially spoiler-iffic painted portrait and brief bio of the possible Portal 2 antagonist led us to believe that the sequel may take place prior to the original. Maybe not, based on some rumored dialogue that a source passed on.
Warning: It's all spoiler territory from here on...
The script samples w..."
Videogamer.com has the list of the ten worst PS3 ports ever, and why they don't like the games. The games were probably good on the other consoles, but just didn't live up to video gaming standards on the PS3 versions.
Here is the list of games.
10. F.E.A.R.
9. Splinter Cell - Double Agent
8. Sonic the Hedgehog
7. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
6. Madden 08
5. Quake Wars
4. Tony Hawk's Project 8
3. Orange Box
2. Lost Planet
1. PES 2008
A lot of people have been berating Haze, it seems everyone has a problem with the PS3 exclusive shooter, it has bad graphics, the reflections aren't perfect, the debris disappear too fast. Well to all the naysayers out there I say 4 single words
Famistu gives Haze 34/40
So the bland shooter gets the equivalent of a 9/10, Famitsu gave this very same score to Valve's gaming bundle Orange Box, so maybe you should give Haze a second chance?
Portal is one of breakthrough titles that came in 2007, combined in The Orange Box with other epic games like Half Life 2. Though people would look forward to a "Portal 2", Valve says they're going to take their time to bring out a quality game just like the first one instead of rushing through saying "Okay, that was revolutionary, so its successor has to be equally as revolutionary".
Mike Seedon has written a petition against EA's horrible service for the Playstation 3 version of The Orange Box. It contains many issues that the Xbox 360 and PC versions of the game do not have. Among the complaints are:
-EA support lacking PS3 knowledge
-Glitches in the game
-The 128MB patch being useless, creating only more problems
-No PS3 Orange Box forum on EA forums
-Sudden Death randomly starting
-Constant server crashes
-Many issues the 360 and PC versions lack
And much ...
Whith TF2 still as popular as ever and to continue with features to keep players coming back for more, Valve has released details on the first class to get their set of extended abilities; The Medic.
The Blutsaugher
Players who earn one third out of the 36 new medic achievements will be given a new syringe gun. The new gun is named 'The Blutsaugher'. This new weapon does not give out crit hits but instead will suck health from enemies when hit. This will be useful when low on health or wh...
It's time for another random Portal article. 2 days ago we had an in-depth look at Portal and now Kotaku has something new from SakuraCon 2008... A cosplayer who dressed up as a humanoid GLaDOS (cake and all) and spent the whole day speaking in GLaDOS's monotone robotic voice. She's either really dedicated or completely crazy!
View Video Here
As previously reported, Portal's theme song, "Still Alive", is coming to Rock Band. The song releases for the Xbox 360 tomorrow, April 1st, and for the PS3 on April 17th. It will be free.
Go to the source for a video of Jonathan Coulton (writer of the song) playing Still Alive on Rock Band.
"As part of the Love is in the Air event in World of Warcraft, Weighted Companion Cubes from Portal (if you didnt already know that I will incinerate you) have been seen in such locations as Stormwind and Undercity."
"During yesterday's Electronic Arts' Q3 2008 fiscal year earnings call, which produced confirmation of Rock Band on Wii and revealed delays of Mercenaries 2: World in Flames and Battlefield: Bad Company, the company also mentioned that the new titles included in Valve's The Orange Box will soon be sold as separate releases.
"We are unbundling Orange Box and releasing separate PC SKUs, Half Life 2: Episode Two, Portal and Team Fortress [2]," said Warren Jenson, chief financial officer and ex..."
What's this? More random Portal videos? It looks like fans can't get enough of that kooky puzzle game, so GameSetWatch has compiled a list of their ten favorite covers of the Portal theme song, Still Alive.
Keep your eyes out for the acoustic version, played by Jonathan Coulton - the composer of the song itself.
Go to source for more videos.
"The following is a sample of the game deals in the store:
* Red Orchestra: 50% off, $9.95 total
* BioShock: 25% off, $37.45 total
* Call of Duty 4: 10% off, $44.95 total
* The Orange Box: 25% off, $37.45 total"
"
The five-games-in-one Orange Box goes head to head with itself in this next-gen console comparison.
"Before getting into Maxims top-ten selection, it is worth bearing in mind that its expertise and coverage in the world of gaming is marginal when compared to the print space it reserves for scantily clad female celebrities. Indeed, while you probably wouldnt rely on FHM for movie reviews over the likes of Empire or Premiere, you shouldnt place too much stock in Maxim when it comes to gaming especially if its sitting next to Edge Magazine on the shelf."
GamingShogun responds to the Top Ten Video Games of 2007, recently compiled by TIME. They end up disagreeing with several parts of the list and offer up alternatives.
The Top 10 According to TIME:
* Halo 3
* The Orange Box (although that is technically MANY games)
* Rock Band
* Super Mario Galaxy
* BioShock
* Call of Duty 4
* Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
* Mass Effect
* Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation
* God of War 2
The PS3 version of the Orange Box, the compilation of Half Life 2 and episode one and two of its episodic content, as well as Portal and Team Fortress 2 will be released on the 11th of December. Just over one week from now. Will the frame rate truly be as bad as the reviewers say? Or will this box set usher in a new era of console gaming? Only time will tell
During a recent preview the PS3 version of the Orange Box was given quite a bashing by 1UP, the framerate for Half Life 2 in particular was a recurring point. IGN and Gamespy however have a slighlty different view. While they admit there are problems they say that the issues are rather small and pale in comparison to the rest of the game. Gamespy even say that the issues don't even present themselves until Episode 2. So the question really is who do you believe
While PC and 360 owners already have their hands on "The Orange Box", PS3 owners have had to wait for a delayed December release. But even with a longer wait, it doesn't seem like it was worth it.
Why?
Apparently Half-Life 2 is suffering from some "technical issues", the biggest problem being the framerates that can sometimes be so slow that, instead of cruising easily through a scene on a fast-paced vehicle at 30 frames a second, you'll be forced to watch your character struggle at a pai...
Well, October NPD numbers are out, after the fiasco that was later righted. Many thanks to the NPD Group and sonycowboy at NeoGAF for reporting and the actual numbers.
It's a standard four-week tracking period this month, from October 7 to November 5.
Without further ado:
Hardware Sales:
Wii 519K
Nintendo DS 458K
Xbox 360 366K
PSP 286K
PlayStation 2 184K
PlayStation 3 121K
Software Sales (Top 10 SKUs):
01. 360 HALO 3 * MICROSOFT (CORP) 433.8K - Release: 09/25/07
02. 360 GU...
There is no comparison to the hype between the Orange Box and Halo 3. Everyone knew that Halo 3 was upon us. We all saw the Halo 3 commercials on TV, all the news reports, blog posts. But on the back burner with not as much advertising was Valve's Orange Box.
Next Gen have come up with some sales positions for sales in the US. You might have expected Halo 3 to be at the top at that list but with Valve giving a 20% price cut to the Orange Box sales have sprung it ahead to take the #1 spot f...
Ever fancied getting your hands on the developers of Counter Strike, Half Life and the new Team Fortress 2? Now is your chance to do so. Valve is celebrating the release of the Orange Box this Friday for the Xbox 360 and would like you to be part of it. So if you have the game on your wanted list to purchase & have a Live Gold membership then add the following Gamer Tags:
"Valve's reputation as a top tier developer began when Half-Life released in 1998 and was cemented in 2004 when they released the spectacular sequel. Now, they're bringing that magic back with The Orange Box. As we've said in countless previews, this is one of the best deals we've ever seen in gaming, especially for those people that have yet to play Half-Life 2 at all. With Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2 Episode One, and Half-Life 2 Episode Two, players can take the entire Half-Life 2 journey up to..."
As we start trekking towards the holiday season, multitudes of games are on their way out, some looking for a place inside a console or someone's lucky game shelf. Some others are looking for a place inside a closet, only to magically reappear under a Christmas tree.
Notable games this week:
Bleach: The Blade of Fate (DS)
Bleach: Shattered Blade (Wii)
Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast (Wii)
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (PSP)
Folklore (PS3)
The Orange Box (360, PC)
Touch Det...
Six months ago, I looked at three titles that were promising us Episodic content and I was not thrilled with the results. Six months later, I decided to follow up on those three franchises to see where they were at now. And I was a bit disappointed. We are still waiting for one, one has left the building and one succeeded in its original promise.
So many great-looking titles coming to the PC, and so little time to decide which to spend your money on. IGN is here to help, as they show us their top ten list for PC gamers:
10. Unreal Tournament 3
9. Universe at War: Earth Assault
8. The Witcher
7. Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance
6. Half-Life 2: Orange Box
5. Crysis
4. Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
3. World in Confict
2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
1. BioShock
The debut E3 Business & Media Summit is at an end. The show's feedback quality has been mixed, but the flow of trailers has been top notch from start to finish... so much so that GamerSquad is sick to very stomach from feasting on all the upcoming goodies. Join us now in our finale of Trailer Park offerings in Vol. 08 of the E3 Trailer Park Blowout.
"Boogie, the first all singing, all dancing karaoke title for the Wii, will be released on August 7. The game will ship with a microphone attachment and will feature new versions of music made famous by The Jackson 5, Kool & The Gang, M.C. Hammer, The Village People, Cyndi Lauper and Britney Spears.
Valve previously promised Half-Life 2 would receive "frequent" episodic updates, but this release date ensures that over 15 months will pass between the release of Episode One and Two."
![Box shot of The Orange Box [Europe]](http://i.neoseeker.com/boxshots/R2FtZXMvWGJveF8zNjAvQWN0aW9uL1Nob290ZXI=/the_orange_box_frontcover_small_XOaKBFqofuFf1Qi.jpg)