So Valve has released this new game, available on Steam, called Alien Swarm. Its a four player cooperative top down shooter. It features eight characters who fit into four classes, and has quite a variety of weapons and accessories. The game play is really solid, the upper difficulties are challenging but not impossible, and the graphics are spectacular. But, the amazing thing about it is that the game is free. Its the sort of game I'd expect to pay at least $10-$20 for, but Valve's released it for free. As it stands, there is only one level that constitutes seven missions, but based on the user interface, it is likely that more will be coming. Not to mention that Valve has released mod tools for the game. Overall, the game is really good, and I highly recommend it.

Valve, in conjunction with Aperture Science, has announced that an ethics-review-panel-supervised release date restructuring process concerning the production of Portal 2 has determined that, in order to prevent a rip in Valve Time that would cause "all life on earth [to] instantaneously stop as every molecule in your body explodes at the speed of light," they have pushed back the release date of Portal 2 to 2011. While this saddens us gamers at the prospect of waiting, Valve has proven time and time again that it will be worth the wait. In the meantime, we have a super secret Portal 2-themed surprise to look forward to at e3.

Or at least, it would be, if it was true. The rumor that surfaced on the Internet recently, allegedly from Joss Whedon's official Facebook page, implying that Joss Whedon was talking with Gabe Newell about doing a Half-Life movie with Nathan Fillion as the lead is almost certainly false, as is the "official" Facebook page from which it was spawned. However, that doesn't mean that the idea isn't awesome. Joss Whedon, god among geeks for creating Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly, is probably the only person I would trust to truly pull off a Half-Life movie adaptation. Who knows, perhaps Joss Whedon will hear about the rumor and talk to Gabe Newell about making a Half-Life movie starring Nathan Fillion. Here's to hoping.

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Valve has kicked off their newest mutation, which features Gnome Chompsky, well known icon from the Guardin' Gnome achievement on Dark Carnival and the Little Rocket Man achievement in Half-Life 2: Episode Two. The mutation is much like the aforementioned achievements, namely the former, except for a few changes.

• The mutation allows the gnome to be carried through any campaign.
• The players start with the gnome at the beginning of the campaign.
• The infected will all focus on the gnome carrier.
• Carrying the gnome from start to finish is no longer optional: it is required to win.

The only thing that could make this task harder would be if Realism mode was enabled or if it was a Versus game type, I imagine. But, having thoroughly enjoyed getting the Guardin' Gnome achievement, I have no doubt that this game type will be a blast.

And did I mention it was free? That's right, to herald the arrival of Steam on the Mac, Valve has released Portal for the Mac as well, and has lowered the price of the game to $0.00 until May 24, not just for Mac users, but for everyone. If you haven't already purchased this amazing game, then you have no excuse now.

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So I finally have a computer that is capable of running on Left 4 Dead 2, so I thought I might expand upon an earlier review of it that I made, and what better time than with the release of the Passing? So, where to begin...

Let's start with level design. I have to admit that I'm more of a fan of the night maps. As I mentioned before, the use of lighting to guide the player was a key part of Left 4 Dead, and it is something that is somewhat lost in the day maps of Left 4 Dead 2. However, I do enjoy the slight variations to the map upon reset that make it so that the playthroughs aren't always the same. Once I got over the initial dizziness of the day maps, it wasn't too difficult to navigate, and being lost on a map generally only lasts until you've played through it once, which is more than I can say for a lot of other games.

Now, let's take a look at weapons. I like the new weapons, for the most part. My main gripe is that when a teammate is using a melee weapon, it becomes a lot harder for me to shoot zombies without hitting said teammate too, and one the harder difficulties, shooting a teammate can be the difference between getting through a match and getting wiped. That being said, the melee weapons bring an interesting new option into the game, as to whether you want to run with a ranged secondary or not. I'm a pistol guy myself, but not even I can pass up an opportunity to run with the chainsaw (even if I can't hear the subtle music cues and cries of the various special infected). I also like all the variation in the weapons now. We used to have two stock weapons, three upgraded weapons, and one sidearm. Now we have a myriad of melee sidearms as well as two or three pistols, something like four low tier weapons, and seven high tiered weapons, as well as two über weapons. I picked up a SCAR-L in a recent game and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a burst-fire weapon. Adds a bit of flavor to the otherwise shotgun-sniper-assault rifle categories that most weapons fall under. I also picked up the M60, and found it much to my liking, even if it has a limited ammunition capacity, overall. I'm a lot less prone to hurt my teammates with it than with the M79, for example. I should also note that I'm liking the Bile Bomb.

As for the special infected, I rather like them. A big problem that infected would run into in Versus in Left 4 Dead was that the Survivors had an easy time finding a corner to fight out crescendo events and panic events from. With the addition of the Charger and especially the Spitter, this is a lot harder to accomplish. The area denial ability of the Spitter is very effective when used correctly, and the Charger is a huge contender in Versus because of its ability to ram Survivors over edges to their instant deaths, much like the Tank could do in certain parts of Left 4 Dead. That aside, the Spitter, Charger, and Jockey all serve the higher purpose of causing disorganization amongst the Survivors and hopefully breaking them up, much like the Boomer and Smoker did in Left 4 Dead and still do.

And the game types. The game types! First, we have Realism, which is a very interesting twist on Campaign. It really forces the players to coordinate, though it can be a touch annoying to play online with people you don't know, since they seem less prone to cooperate and communicate than your friends might. Not to mention Scavenge, which is an interesting new game type similar to Versus, but centering around the collecting of gas cans similar to the finales of Dead Center and The Passing. But then, there's Mutation, which isn't just one, but a score of game types that cycle each week. So far, they've released Realism Versus (no explanation needed) and Bleedout (campaign but Survivors only have temporary health and there are no medkits on the map), but some of the things to look forward to include a Campaign game type where the players only get chainsaws with unlimited gas, a Campaign game type where players get an M60 and Desert Eagle, both with unlimited ammo, "Ultra Realism", Versus without health, a Scavenge game type where there is only one gas can at a time to collect, a Versus game type where three Survivors have to guard a Gnome-carrying VIP, and Versus Survival. With game types like these to look forward to, I can't imagine playing much else besides Left 4 Dead 2.

Now, as for The Passing, I really enjoyed the campaign. It was nice to see all of the original characters again, and I rather enjoy the alarm crescendo events of Left 4 Dead 2: it adds an interesting twist when I can't just bunker down for a crescendo event. On that note, I enjoy the gas can scavenging for the finale, though it's a bit annoying if you're playing it with NPCs, who refuse to be of any real use. The Passing felt, in a lot of ways, like Left 4 Dead, but with all the bells and whistles of Left 4 Dead 2, so anyone who misses the old style of level design should be happy with the new release. It was also nifty to see a Witch in a variant model: bridal Witch. Sometimes, you wonder why all of the people that mutated into Hunters happened to be wearing hoodies. Well, they haven't done much towards that, but an alternate model for the Witch is a start.

Anyway, overall, I'm really liking Left 4 Dead 2. I was hesitant, like many, at first - worried that Left 4 Dead 2 would just be an overpriced DLC for Left 4 Dead - but I really enjoy the new game, and understand Valve's decision to make it a separate game, as well.

Steam has released a new Steam Client update. This update totaly revamps the steam client. If you have not used the BETA, then you will have to take some time to learn your way around the new client. But overall it is very easy to learn.

 

The 2010 Steam client is now live! The overhaul changes many things about how information is organized on Steam, and makes it easier to do the most important things on the platform, like play games with friends. We wrote up an overview of what's new, so definitely check that out so that you don't miss anything. As we've mentioned, the beta testing went well - participants suggested valuable changes and reported lots of bugs for us to squash.

We're very interested in your thoughts on the new client, so please stop by the forums to tell us what you think.

P.S. This is the first post in the official Steam Blog. It's hard for us to believe we've never had a blog until now. Anyway, watch this space for thoughts from Steam central. Coming soon: Mac!

Escapist is having a big showdown called the March Mayhem: Developer's Showdown. The top 64 developers went head to head, and the people voted. Now, in the semi-finals, Valve finds itself faced up against Zynga. Now, I've never heard of them, probably because I don't frequent Facebook and MySpace, which is apparently what they dev for, so this should be an easy vote, but the finals will see Valve against either BioWare of Blizzard, so remember to show your support then, too.

Vote Here

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While Valve has yet to release an update for the Engineer class in Team Fortress 2, a fan has taken it upon himself to do several updates. Unfortunately, I can't access the site for full details, and Kotaku's article is extremely vague, but maybe you can check it out for yourselves. Also, the imbed link button stopped working, so I'm just going to leave some raw urls.

http://kotaku.com/5506096/erectin-a-fan+made-team-fortress-2-engineer-update

http://manno.com.br/Engineer/ (I can't access this site, for some reason; hope you all have better luck)