We’ve known for some time now that Steam is growing in importance as a means of delivering PC games content, and the latest Steam figures for 2009 seem to bear that out. Valve announced that over 25 million people have Steam accounts, with 10 million of those users also having Steam Community profiles. Overall the service saw a 25 per cent rise in users from the previous year, and the figures for concurrent users are equally impressive-peaking at 2.5 million. Average ...

Following last weeks official revelation of a brand new Scavenge mode for Left 4 Dead 2, it appears more big news,  this time a touch more unofficially, has slipped out on Valves upcoming survival horror co-op shooter. It seems that a Taiwanese site has somehow managed to get hold of the two old zombie movie style posters naming the final two as yet to be revealed campaigns in Left 4 Dead 2. According ...

Valve have just announced a fourth game mode for Left 4 Dead 2,  their much anticipated multiplayer zombie shooter. Called Scavenge, the new mode is a sort of ‘Capture the Flag’ variant that pits two teams, up to four Survivors and four Infected, against each other in a battle over fuel the Survivors need to escape. The Survivors must battle both the Infected and the clock collecting gas cans to refuel a generator located in each map. Every can the Survivors ...

It may have incurred the wrath of 20,000 gamers, but the announcement of a follow-up to Valve’s survival horror co-op title Left 4 Dead has nevertheless got us excited. We sit down with writer and project lead, Chet Faliszek…

Valve has recently confirmed that a new downloadable campaign called 'Crash Course' will arrive in September for Left 4 Dead. While it will launch simultaneously for Xbox Live and Steam users, fans of Microsoft's console will have to pay for the new add-on, while users of Valves own PC digital distribution service, Steam, will be able to download it for free. According to Valve, Crash Course bridges the gap between the end of the  'No Mercy' campaign and the start of 'Death Toll', further ...

Fans of the decade always say the eighties will never die, but whether that’s true or not usually depends on your musical tastes. Thanks to Valve through, it looks like one of the longest surviving groups of the eighties, Depeche Mode, could be alive and well amongst the undead horde in Left 4 Dead 2. In a rather odd licensing twist,  the eighties synth super group have ...

They say similar passions lead to a convergence of ideas and Valve has, up until the growing Left 4 Dead 2 boycott, traditionally had a very close relationship with its fans. So it’s slightly ironic, but not entirely surprising, that earlier this year one of them,  who now also happens to be part of the vocal L4D2 boycott group, came up with ...

Not content  with the continued success of its original zombie-fest, Valve today announced Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2) is to be released later this year for PC and Xbox 360. The sequel to one of the best-selling and addictive co-op shooters of recent times promises to set a new benchmark for the genre and Valve believe it will become one of 2009’s ‘marquee titles’. “A large part of how Left 4 Dead became 2008’s top-selling new IP on Xbox 360 and ...

Not content  with the continued success of its original zombie-fest, Valve today announced Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2) is to be released later this year for PC and Xbox 360. The sequel to one of the best-selling and addictive co-op shooters of recent times promises to set a new benchmark for the genre and Valve believe it will become one of 2009's 'marquee titles'. "A large part of how Left 4 Dead became 2008's top-selling new IP on Xbox 360 ...

Okay - so this is bracingly close to being NSFW, so I'll not divulge any details (for fear of another blog reprimand),  suffice to say that Left 4 Head is a zombie porn parody of Valve's Left 4 Dead that sticks remakably close to the actual game in every second of its 12 minutes. You can read the thoroughly entertaining review that I wouldn't dare post myself, on Kif's Blog. It does raise the question though, "Why?!" in my mind. And simultaneously "Why not?" There are endless porn parodies based ...

Valve Software have today revealed that the first batch of DLC for Left 4 Dead entitled L4D: Survival Pack is going to be free. The pack, due in Spring, promises a new game mode called Survival and will also add the popular Death Toll and Dead Air campaigns to Versus Mode among other things. Valve also plans to release a new 'Critic's Choice' box copy version of the full game including the DLC around the same time. EA will take care of publishing. Check out our Left 4 Dead review ...

A sequel to Valve's Portal has been announced – but not by Valve. Portal Prelude comes from a three-man dev team that have been working on an unofficial prequel to The Orange Box hit since January. It's a bigger game that harks back to a pre-GlaDOS era, it's coming very soon (end of September/October time) and best of all, it's completely free! All you need to play it is Steam and the original Portal game. Check it out here.

The Novint Falcon is a novel user interface that functions as a mouse, but with the added bonus of 3D functionality and force feedback. Using three motorized arms connected to a ball held in player’s hands, the Falcon has been fighting players for the last year in the States, picking up gusto as a viable gaming peripheral. Things are picking up steam too, since Valve will now support the Falcon with a healthy selection of its games, including The Orange Box, Counter-Strike: Source, the Half-Life 2 series, Team Fortress ...