Four Survivors, five big monsters, countless Infected, this is Left 4 Dead, the upcoming game from Turtle Rock studios, the latest addition to the Valve family. Left 4 Dead is destined to be the ultimate in cooperative survival first person shooters. Combining some of the best gaming elements ever to grace the PC, Left 4 Dead is a game destined to change the face of PC gaming as we know it. [Read More...]

I love Steam, I really do. I think it is a great thing for Valve, for all the people using it to sell their games, for all 15 million users and it is a great thing for the PC. Back in December last year I wrote an article ‘Steampunked.’ What you will read now is a totally new revamped version of that article. This goes into more depth in some areas and hopefully is a better read. [Read More...]

Steam is changing the gaming world. That is what I think, and I think it is doing it for the better. Since it first came into being with the release of Counter Strike 1.4 it has gone through legal proceedings, long periods of downtime and major facelifts. But that is history, I want to talk about how Steam is going to, and is changing the gaming world. [Read More...]

So the Beta for Team Fortress 2 (TF2) has finally been made available to all of those who pre-order the Orange Box via Steam. Any by finally I do mean finally as for those of us in the UK at least we had to wait until the early hours of Tuesday, the day after the Beta was meant to be unlocked. However this is a Valve game and as such we should all be used to this by now, and I think the wait was worth it. [Read More...]

WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS. Oh and by the way, Alyx turns out to be Gordon's mother. [Read More...]

As we get further and further into this digital age, I have to wonder, how far will it go? With the increase in popularity of internet shopping and downloading music albums from places like 'iTunes' and 'Napster' it makes you think whether or not there'll be a requirement for normal shops one day or if we'll all turn digital. So far the above mentioned systems are proving really popular with internet users, I being one of them and from here I can only assume the natural progression will be towards digital content delivery. [Read More...]

Valve, Steam, Source all words that trigger a frenzy of mixed emotions into my head; delays, lawsuits, stolen source code, Counter-Strike, and most importantly - fun. Whether it is negative or positive it seems Valve and its Half-Life franchise can't avoid getting itself on the front pages of the gaming press. [Read More...]

‘The source engine gives us capabilities in four main areas, believable and realistic human beings, graphics that were previously impossible outside a Hollywood movie studio, an integrated material and physics system that create an unprecedented level of interactivity, and artificial intelligence that welds all of these things together into an experience gamers have never had before’

Gabe Newell, Valve Software E3 2003

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Just over five years ago a PC-CD ROM title appeared on store shelves entitled “Half-Life”. It was an instant hit, gaining rave reviews and being toted by over 50 publications as being “Game of the Year 1998”. I bought the game in early 1999, I’d never really been into PC gaming, and the only other first person shooter I’d ever played was GoldenEye 007 on the Nintendo 64. I played it and was absolutely blown away. In fact so were the 10 million other players that have enjoyed the franchise since 1998, including Half-Life’s single player expansions, Counter-Strike, Day of Defeat, Condition Zero and Team Fortress Classic. [Read More...]

And there it was. Not just one-hundred plus megabytes of code anymore, but the real deal. The alpha. Sitting on a FTP somewhere out in Cali ready to be downloaded and abused by every fan on the planet. Five users at a time no doubt, but you get the idea. It was just there. The cigarette to a nicotine deprived smoker, the misty beer to a late night alcoholic, the lolly-pop to a sweet tooth. The source of our addiction. (No pun intended) It was Half Life 2. The game we all had been anticipating, right there, waiting to be ganked. Literally. Talk about temptation though right?. The first playable form of our beloved Valve crafted master piece was out and about gradually spreading itself to all corners of the internet. Mostly dark and troubled corners, barely passed by the average at home user, but there none the less. [Read More...]

Is there religion in Half-life, and will you join the flock? [Read More...]