The full story goes like this:

Alien Swarm was originally a mod for Unreal Tournament 2004, released by volunteer group Black Cat Games in 2004, to critical acclaim within the mod community. Then they announced they would be working on Alien Swarm: Infested, built on the Source Engine, instead of Unreal. After a while, they stopped updating. The reason, we now know, was because the core team behind the mod got hired by Valve.

The guys have been working on the Left 4 Dead games, as well as Portal 2, but in between they have been working on the Source version of Alien Swarm. The game will now be released under the Valve brand, and they will also release the entire codebase for the game, serving as an example for developers how to integrate Steamworks into their own titles.

Valve has always had a history for saying, “Hey, you guys made a cool game, come make a cool game for us!” They hired the team behind Narbacular Drop and turned it into Portal, and have also hired fellow their fellow Digipen alumni that made Tag: The Power of Paint and used the paint technology within the upcoming Portal 2. Like Alien Swarm, they have also snatched up entire mod or game teams, only to release the product themselves, as was the case with Counter-Strike, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead and Day of Defeat.

Valve: Doing Whatever The Hell They Want Since 1996.

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It’s summer, meaning it’s time for sales! Steam sales, that is. Valve has announced a massive “Perils of Summer” sale, which starts today, lasting all the way through July 4th.

Whole collections of games are getting their prices slashed down, which means you can get hundereds of games for a mere fraction of their full price. There will also be one-day-only sales, with certain games being 90% off. That is a hell of a deal.

Here’s a short list to give you a taste of what you can get:

- All Ubisoft games 33% off

- All Codemasters games 66% off

- All Atari games 66% off-

- The 2K Complete Pack 75% off

- THQ’s Complete Pack 50% off

- id Super Pack 50% off

Trine is on a special sale for $4, today only, so go get it. It is a great deal!

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Mac users, have you been making full use of Steam, that wonderful, wonderful program that Valve created?

If you haven’t, why not start off by downloading Counter Strike: Source, the #1 online action game. In the world! You’ll get achievements, cross platform-play, player stats tracking your skills, kills and deaths, and much, much more! For two days only, starting today, the title is on sale on Steam.

“The #1 online action game in the world, Counter-Strike: Source (CSS) has just received a major update and is now available for the Mac. CSS is a SteamPlay title, so if you own it on the PC – you own it on the Mac”

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Microsoft:

Molyneux: Microsoft spent a lot of time on Kinect during their conference, possibly to the determent of other titles. The one who seemed to get shafted the most from my perspective was Peter Molyneux. He did appear on stage, and gave us his regular lines about the future, but then he only showed a trailer of Fable III, before he disappeared.  I don’t know about you, but I would like to have seen some gameplay of it. Molyneux promised Kinect integration for the title as well, but this has not yet appeared. Molyneux also showed off Milo last year for what was then known as Project Natal, but we saw nothing of the British little bugger this year. Turns out, Milo actually was at E3, but he was only shown to celebrities, but not to the press. He will be shown off in July instead.

Pricing: Microsoft also never said anything about pricing for Kinect, but retailers are putting their pre-orders at the rumored 149$. Microsoft have since said the price is speculative, and that they will announce the price at GamesCom.

Nintendo:

Nintendo spent a lot of time revealing things that had been promised previously, such as The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and that Retro Studios had actually been working on a new Donkey Kong title. They also impressed with the reveal of the 3DS. Still, they left some gaping holes.

Vitality Sensor: Remember this thing? No? Neither does Nintendo, apparently. The peripheral, that was supposed to measure your heart-rate, was shown of by Iwata last year, but this year it was nowhere in sight. Turns out, Nintendo has wised up about their E3 line-ups. Iwata said to an analyst that they realized that with all these retro titles, they figured E3 wasn’t the right place to showcase it. Smart move Nintendo, you’re learning from last year’s errors.

Pikmin: Miyamoto first said that he was making this game two years ago, at E3 2008. Since then we have heard almost nothing about the title, building a steady buzz with all the Pikmin fans, a group that seems to grow every time Nintendo doesn’t say anything about the title. It wasn’t shown this year either, but after being confronted about it several times, Miyamoto confirmed the game is still being worked on by a small team.

Cammie: Just kidding, nobody misses Cammie.

Sony:

Sony also had a strong press conference this year, showing a wide array of titles, with much less sales and pie chart talk than previous years. They also spent a lot of time on 3D, something I’m not very excited for, but might entice others. Nevertheless, here’s what Sony neglected:

The Last Guardian: this is a big one. Last year, Sony showed off an incredible cinematic trailer for the next game by the creators of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. Even with no gameplay, it made it to many gamers’ list as the most anticipated game from E309. This year, it’s nowhere to be found. I can understand that if it’s not far enough in development, that Sony doesn’t want to over-expose/over-hype the game (That’s a dangerous place to be in, just ask Valve about Episode 3). But even if that is the case, it’s still a shame, because I, like most gamers, am really excited about the title, and would have loved to see some more of it. Sony hints at the game being shown of at another event, likely TGS.

Gran Turismo 5: No wait, my bad, they totally showed this. They even gave it a release date! Let’s consider this entry a celebration that GT5 didn’t actually get delayed, pushed back, hidden, or ignored. Granted, they still have several months to make sure that it gets delayed again.

That’s it for the hardware guys! Now, let’s see what’s missing from the rest of publishers:

Beyond Good & Evil 2: Another highly anticipated released that was announced and teased last year, only to never be acknowledged again. Instead, Ubisoft spent their time on a breathing game, and laser tag. At least they announced a new Rayman, a game that would certainly have made the list had it not been shown. And it has Michel Ancel, the creator of both Rayman and BG&E working on it.

EA Partners: While the EA conference was packed full of big titles, for me the most exciting thing the company is doing right now is in the EA partners program. While Respawn obviously is way to young a studio to have anything to show, neither Shank nor Deathspank were shown at the conference, only at  the show floor. We also know they have a deal with Suda 51, but no word on this game either.

Valve: Ok, I have to include this. I was really dissapointed when Valve canceled their press conference, and even though the PS3 reveal was very nice, I would have loved to have seen a whole event exclusively dedicated to Valve, even if it was Portal 2 only. It would mean a big step for PC gaming into the more mainstream side of things.

2k & Activision: This one is more of a question. Why do these two large publishers, one who is bigger than both EA and Ubisoft, not have their own press conferences? With the advent of internet streaming, the focus for gamers when E3 rolls around seems to be primarily the press conferences, rather than the game previews. Both are on the show floor, but I feel their games could possibly benefit from a dedicated event, though that would make the E3 schedule even more crazy. 2K has Civ V, XCOM, Mafia II, Spec-Ops, and their sports games, and they could even team with Take Two-owned Rockstar. And I must admit, while I would probably hate most things Activision would want to promote in that way, it would still be interesting to see their take on it. Oh, and speaking of 2K…

Irrational’s new game: What is it? I want to see it. Apparently Ken Levine and team has been working on this since Bioshock was released, but we have heard nothing of the title. Hopefully we’ll hear something soon, but it certainly wasn’t at E3.

Ok, that’s all I could think of that was missing. Do you have anything else you really wanted to see at E3? Post it in the comments! Lastly, here are some bonus lists:

Games at E3 that has the same title as a previous game in the same franchise:

• Mortal Kombat
• XCOM
• Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
• Twisted Metal

Press conferences Hideo Kojima appeared at:

• Microsoft
• Nintendo

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Today has been another exciting day at E3 2010. Today we saw Nintendo and Sony, rivals for over a decade, show off their newest creations. Needless to say, the announcements today were utterly mindblowing, and we even got a special surprise thrown in from Valve!

Before you continue, be sure to take a look at yesterday’s overview for Day One of the expo. And now, on to E3 2010 Day Two! Keep on reading for all of the big announcements from Nintendo and Sony, as well as trailers and gameplay footage straight from LA!

Kicking things off this morning was Nintendo, who, in typical Nintendo fashion, started in overdrive and just kept on going full speed ahead. What most will consider to have been Nintendo’s most important announcement of the year are details on the new Zelda title.

Now, a couple days ago, we had some rumors about the Zelda title that I was pretty sure were true.  Turns out that not all of them are accurate. First off, the official title for the new Zelda game is The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Even though Nintendo had some technical difficulties during the demonstration (which, reportedly, caused Miyamoto to get very upset), the presentation was a huge success. The game features 1:1 sword handling controls, meaning that however you swing your Wiimote reflects perfectly with Link’s sword. Some new items have been shown off like a whip, a flying beetle (which looks like it might be a modification to your Hookshot), as well as some changes to items we’ve already known. Graphically, the game is cel-shaded like Wind Waker, but the character design seems to follow the path of Twilight Princess. It’s a very interesting look for the game, which seems to combine both the elements of the colorful cel-shading and the grittiness of a darker battlefield.

Needless to say, I could go on and on about Skyward Sword, but I think I should just let the trailer do the talking.

A few other games that Nintendo talked about today include one that I’ve been very excited about, Metroid: Other M. Ever since last year’s E3 where we saw some gameplay and some very impressive cutscenes, I’ve been nothing but stoked about Team Ninja’s latest collaboration with Nintendo. Metroid: Other M seems to be taking the Metroid series in a new direction, with some amazing storytelling unlike what we’ve seen in past games. It looks like Samus is going to be working a lot more closely with other people in this mission, and we should get to learn a bit more about her past.

As for the gameplay, this looks like it may be one of the most dynamic games we’ve ever seen. You’ll go from side-scrolling action to over-the-shoulder running and gunning. You’ve also got your first-person controls that we’re used to from Retro Studios’ Metroid Prime series.

Speaking of Retro Studios, we managed to get a confirmation on another rumor we reported to you yesterday. We have confirmation that Retro Studios is developing Donkey Kong Country Returns. Judging from the trailer for the new Donkey Kong game, it looks like we’re going to see some classic DK gaming. Now, considering that the original Donkey Kong Country was a pretty outstanding game back on the SNES (considered to be one of the most graphically impressive games out of the SNES’ entire, immense library of games), Retro Studios definitely has a lot on their plate. The gameplay, however, looks incredibly smooth. From what we can tell, anybody who’s ever played a Donkey Kong Country game will be able to pick this game right up and jam.

But Nintendo is STILL not done reviving classic series. We’ve even got a new Kirby game coming out, titled Kirby’s Epic Yarn. And I gotta say, this looks like it may be the cutest game I have ever seen. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some blood and guts in gaming. But the level and character design in this game is simply adorable. Don’t take my word for it, though, take a gander at the trailer. We see a very interesting theme with this title. It seems that somehow Kirby has managed to find himself in a world comprised of cloths and textiles. This may seem strange at first, but I think Nintendo really managed to pull this off. Some interesting elements we got to see are pulling on stray threads to reveal hidden areas in the game, or even going under pieces of cloth to access hidden areas. The trailer doesn’t show off a whole lot of what we’re used to in Kirby games, however. For instance, it doesn’t look like Kirby sucks up any enemies at all. Instead, he lassos them with a piece of yarn and then throws them around. We’re not sure what we’re going to see as far as ability stealing, but we’re definitely going to keep a close eye on this game.

Some other new Wii titles that didn’t get as much attention include FlingSmash, Mario Sports Mix, Pokepark Wii Pikachu’s Adventure (I really hope this is a working title), Samurai Warriors 3, and Wii Party.

But, Nintendo didn’t sit around all day talking about the Wii. We also got to learn of a few new DS titles, as well.

The DS title that I’m most excited about is Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. That’s right, it’s finally here. The sequel to what is considered to be the most graphically impressive game on the Gameboy Advance. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn features a new 3D style of gameplay that is otherwise new to the series, but still manages to keep its reputation at being one of the most amazing-looking games on the platform. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn seems to be bringing back some old characters, as well as a handful of new warriors.

Some other DS titles announced include Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies, Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, Mario VS Donkey Kong: Mini-land Mayhem!, and Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs.

If you think after all of these announcements that Nintendo has officially stolen the show, then you’d be correct. However, it doesn’t end here. Nintendo also confirmed some additional details about the Nintendo 3DS, the successor to the Nintendo DS.

We don’t know a whole lot about the hardware just yet. We know that it comes equipped with THREE cameras; one on front and two on the back. The two cameras on the back will be used for taking 3D photographs. We also know that we’ll still have two screens, and they will be able to display 3D graphics without the use of special glasses. This is a seriously important advancement in the world of 3D gaming, which Sony is also touching on (more on Sony’s 3D gaming later in this article).

Now, you may be wondering, how many developers are going to be creating games for this new technology? How about… Everyone. Take a look at the full list of launch titles for the Nintendo 3DS. Take a good look at that list. That is over seventy launch titles for the Nintendo 3DS. This. Is. Huge.

One of the most impressive 3DS titles we saw was Kid Icarus: Uprising. The trailer for this game looks amazing, and it looks like this game will be full of action coming at you from all angels. I mean angles.

After Nintendo’s amazing performance, I wasn’t sure how Sony would be able to hold their own. I mean, after all, Nintendo announced nearly a hundred new titles, including a new, groundbreaking console.

But, Sony managed to impress us all, and even surprised us.

Sony spent a good bit of time showing off Move, Sony’s new motion-control system. The controllers are wand-shaped pieces of equipment with a big, glowing orb on the top. At first, I thought that this glowing orb was a static color, so that the console could detect one player from another, since we previously saw these glowing in separate colors. Today, we learned that the controllers can actually change colors at will, depending on events in the game.

Sony showed off this feature quite well in a demonstration of Sorcery, which totally blew my mind. When the demo first started, I thought we were looking at some sort of Harry Potter clone, but I was slapped in the face with awesomeness when I saw what this game offers. You have full 1:1 motion with your character’s magic wand, and with a flick of your wrist, you’re able to send magic flying out of your wand in any direction you choose. It looks like it’s pretty accurate, and allows you to fire off magic bolts in any six-axis direction very naturally. The speaker showcased the ability to just flick the wand in the direction of a hanging cage and knock it down in one shot. I was truly impressed by this.

Sorcery also showed off the color-changing aspect of the Move’s controller. The color of the controller’s orb will reflect certain on-screen events, such as magic potions changing color, or the type of magic spell you’ve equipped to your wand. While a seemingly minor aesthetic element, this is just one of those small touches that makes a world of difference.

Take a look at the demo and see for yourself.

Later on during Sony’s event, the Aperture Science Computer-Aided Enrichment Center’s favorite Aperture Science supercomputer decided to drop by and give us a special message. In mid-sentence, the Sony speaker is cut off by GLaDOS, with a special surprise announcement on behalf of the Aperture Science Computer-Aided Enrichment Center. After a three second countdown, GLaDOS deployed the surprise in the form of Gabe Newell, CEO of Valve Corporation. Gabe Newell gave us a quick confirmation of Portal 2, the latest portal training simulator developed by Aperture Science.

Unsurprisingly, Gabe also announced a planned surprise, which caught everybody by surprise, which was surprisingly surprising, and surprisingly not Half-Life 2: Episode 3.

Instead, Gabe told us that Portal 2 is going to be available for both PC (and Mac) users, but it will also be available on the PS3, and will feature Steamworks, which will incorporate your Steam data with the game. Also available will be extra DLC in the future.

Gabe didn’t talk much about it, but Portal 2 will also feature a co-op campaign mode, which is actually going to be non-cannon to the main storyline. It will be in the same “reality” of Portal 2, but the events in the multiplayer campaign will not be directly related to events that we are already familiar with.

Speaking of the co-op campaign, Portal 2 promises to be a MUCH bigger challenge than before. Each player will have their own set of two portals that they can independently control, but they can both use. New gameplay elements, such as more moving environments and new surface textures will allow for a much more dynamic experience.

It is also rumored that Portal 2 will be running on a new engine.

Obviously, I’m going to be going on more and more about Portal in the future, but for now, let’s take a look at the high-res trailer, which Valve released. This is the best quality trailer for Portal 2 that you will be able to find on YouTube right now, as well:

Sony also announced Infamous 2, showed off some more footage from Killzone 3 and Crysis 2, and a pretty extensive look at Dead Space 2, which looks amazing so far.

Sony spent a lot of time showing off the Move controller, and the uses for it. It’s definitely going to give the Wii and Kinect a run for their money, with very minimal input lag (something that Kinect needs to work on) and some amazingly precise sensors to determine exactly where you’re holding the controller, and how you’re holding it.

That’s all we’ve got for now! Today’s been an incredibly busy day with more updates than anybody would have ever expected. Stay tuned to The Gaming Vault for more up-to-the-minute information from E3 2010!

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Portal 2 has officially been announced for the PlayStation 3. This announcement came courtesy of a very nervous looking Gabe Newell during Sony’s E3 press conference.

“PlayStation 3 is the most open platform of all the current generation consoles and has worked extremely hard to make the platform the most desirable for consumers and developers.

As such, we are delighted to announce Portal 2 for the PlayStation 3 and believe the Steamworks support included will make it the best console version of the game,” Newell stated in a press release.

A quick launch trailer was also shown, which you can find below. It looks like the player and GLAdOS will be teaming up to fight whatever’s taken over the Aperture Science facility.

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Steam, your favorite source for digital distribution of the latest PC (and now Mac!) video games is hosting a special sale this week on EA titles.

We found a screenshot highlighting the sales for each day of this week. Each day from June 14 to June 21, 2010, Steam will have a special deal on certain EA titles.  You’ll have to check each day for the specific details, but we do have the following screenshots showing what games will be available for each day.

(Click for full-size)

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You know that frustration? You know the one. You are an Engineer. Going along your business, putting up a Sentry. And an undercover Spy comes along and SAPS THE SHIT OUT OF IT.

Well, if you’re a Mac user, you’ll be able to share the experience starting tomorrow, since Mac’s Steam will be getting this glorious multiplayer game.

A post on the Team Fortress blog reads as such:

“Big things are happening RIGHT NOW at Valve. Things involving cultivated tree-fruit. BIG things. Things that rhyme with ‘grapple.’ Things that rhyme with ‘Speem Gortress zmavailable on the Babac.”

If you’re good at rhyming, you should be able to decipher that no problem. If you’re not, then Godspeed.

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Fook me, that was fast. Valve confirmed today that their upcoming E3 surprise will be “Portal 2 themed”, which means we can all stop wondering.

This confirmation came at the same time as a presser revealed that the game would be delayed. How sad. The reason? The same as always, to make the game better.

“Representatives from both companies acknowledged that public safety concerns factored into the decision. They went on to say that even though Portal 2 will arrive slightly later than planned, all life on earth won’t instantaneously stop as every molecule in your body explodes at the speed of light, which is what would happen should a rip ever appear in the fabric of Valve Time.

“Also, the game will be even better.

“To ask questions about how close we all came to dying, or to ask futile questions about the previously announced E3 ***PORTAL-2-THEMED-FOR-GOD’S SAKE*** surprise…”

That’s it! Hopefully a trailer or a level will be revealed at E3.

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While we all love Valve, the games they make, and the things they add to said games, we’re still waiting for them to wrap up the Half-Life series. And another nail in Half-Life 2: Episode 3′s coffin has just been pounded in.

After Valve’s E3 event was canceled last week, speculation began on what Valve’s “surprise” might be. But according to fansite Halflife2.net, Valve boss Gabe Newell sent out a PM to a staff writer to simply say “it isn’t Ep 3″.

There was also a supposed teaser image leaked online last week, which Newell quickly stamped as “fake“. Speculation may continue on what the surprise might be.

My guess is a full on Half-Life 3, since the end of the saga has to be so epic it can’t be contained in a single episodic video game.

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Valve has sent out a press release, cancelling the planed reveal of Portal 2 at their E3 press conference, and will apparently replace it with a “surprise”.

At least when Valve brings sad news, they do it in style. Read the fantastic press release after the break.

Dear Subject Name Here,

Aperture Science is pleased to inform you that we have partnered with Valve to announce the gala CANCELLATION of the June 14 Portal 2 event at the Regal Theater. The event will be replaced by a surprise. And even though the cancellation of the event certainly counts as a surprise, we are pleased to further announce that the cancellation of the event is not THE surprise. However, per International treaties regarding the definition of the word “surprise”, of which both Aperture Science and Valve are signatories, the time, date and content of the actual surprise will only become available as you experience the surprise.

If you’d like to ask fruitless questions about the E3 Portal 2 surprise or, more fruitfully, schedule an appointment to attend a Portal 2 screening at the Valve booth during E3, please contact Valve’s Special Envoy to Surprises, Doug Lombardi.

Thank you for [RECORD SCRATCH!!!]

PS: The surprising record scratch is also not the surprise.

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Several days ago, we reported that Portal is now available on Steam for free, in celebration of Valve’s successful port of the game (as well as many others) to the Mac platform.

Turns out that news travels fast on this new, exciting platform called the “internet”, and since the game was released for free, it has been downloaded over 1.5 million times.

Currently, Valve hasn’t released any data as to how many of these are Mac or PC users, but they did announce that about 11% of Steam purchases since Steam for Mac was released have been by Mac users.

This is huge news for Mac gamers. Especially considering the fact that “Mac gamers” pretty much didn’t exist until a week ago.

Supposedly, Portal runs just as fine on a Mac as it does on a PC. In fact, the PC version crashes about 500% more frequently than the Mac version. I haven’t been able to test this (my Mac at work won’t run the game at all, but that’s probably because I’m using a low-end machine), but the stability of the Mac OS X platform really pays off for gaming, it would seem. It really is a wonder why nobody would ever develop for the Mac platform earlier.

Remember, Portal is still free for both Mac and PC users until May 24th. Even if you don’t have a computer capable of playing Portal, at the very least add it to your Steam account so that it’ll be there when you get an upgrade!

Thank you for participating in this Gaming Vault computer-aided enrichment news post.

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Mac users, you are now officially kind of viable as a gaming demographic. Valve has officially released the steam client for Mac, with base support for a fair amount of games. Be on the look-out for the Steam Play icon, which means you can buy the title once, then play it on both your Mac and PC, and it will keep your progress saved.

To start people off, Valve has decided to offer up Portal for free, for both PC and Mac users. That’s right, one of the most popular, critically acclaimed titles of the last decade is yours at the press of a button, until May 24th. You literally have no excuse to not download it if you haven’t played it yet. (I’m looking at you, Jens Erik.)

If you’re looking for something else, I heartily recommend Torchlight, a great game based on the formula of the Diablo games (and by the developers of the first two). It’s very laptop friendly, so if you are looking for something to play on your MacBook, this is a great choice.

Updating this post because Valve has released an amazing promo video for this offer. Your eyes need to consume this:

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Poor engineer. With the Sniper vs. Spy update, and the WAR update bringing weapons to both the Demoman and Soldier, he has been left all alone. Luckily, that’s about to change.

Valve has released a teaser trailer of the Engineer in his workshop, building something and cackling for himself, and then Valve promising that “It’s your turn”. Watch it embedded after the jump.

I’m not much of an engineer player myself, partially because I get bored sitting around baby-sitting. However, the new weapons always seem to encourage an additional play-style, so hopefully this will make it a more attractive class for me and anyone else who have been neglecting him.

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Time for a couple of Valve news items! First up, in celebration of their 119th update of TF2, They made it a large one. Not only is there a new map (cp_freight) and a new community item (Crit-a-Cola, for the Scout), they are also giving out medals to every player, based on how long you have been playing. If you first played at launch, or within three months of it, you get the gold medal. If you played after that, but within the first year, you get silver. If you played it anytime after that, you get a bronze medal. Combine these with the growing number of hats, then we’re beginning to see a large amount of customization in-game.

Why are they celebrating the 119th update specifically? Well they were getting ready to celebrate the 100th update, but thanks to Valve Time, They released 18 more updates while preparing for it.

It’s kind of amazing how Valve has continued to pour their time and efforts into this game, which is nearing 3 years of age, and they’re still tweaking and adding things, all for free. After the jump, the full write-up of the changes, a friggin’ sweet Heavy figure, and a (hopefully) final date for Steam for Mac.

In order to celebrate the grandness of the 119th update, Valve announced that the statue company IP Factory will make a limited edition statue of the Heavy, in both RED and BLU colors. I really wish I had some excess money, because I mean, look at this thing:

You can head over to Gaming Heads to get your pre-order in for your 12-inch plastic Russian on Monday.

Valve had previously said that Steam for Mac would be available in April. In true Valve fashion, they have come out at the last possible second and said it will come out on May 12th. Hopefully they will stick to that, but I have my doubts…

Finally, here are the full TF2 patch notes. Note that the Pyro has gotten a massive revamp. They have greatly reduced the direct damage and after-burn time of the regular flamethrower, and instead lowered the cooldown and requirements for the airblast. This means that you now need to spend a lot less time running up to people and burn them into a crisp (the much discussed W+M1 tactic), and you will instead have to focus on setting people on fire, bumping them around with the airblast, and use the shotgun or axetinguisher a lot more. It’s also a lot easier to reflect projectiles now, and they now turn into mini-crits, so you should be doing that anyways. The Backburner, conversely, has gotten a damage INCREASE, making it the best weapon for flanking an enemy and burning him. So the two different Pyro’s now have VERY different roles, front-line crowd-controller, and almost spy-ish damage dealer.

The other changes are a lot more minor, but still significant. The Heavy has a wind-up speed and turn speed increase, making it slightly harder for classes to outmaneuver him. The bump from charging someone with the Charging Targe as a Demomanis way up, and it increases with every head you have collected. The Huntsman arrows of the Sniper can now be set on fire by a Pyro at any time, and they have slightly altered the way the Scout’s Bonk recharges.

Also note that the medals were rolled out, but everybody had gotten the wrong ones, so they are temporarily gone until Valve fixes them.

April 28, 2010

• Added new community map cp_freight
• Added missing physics models for several items
• Added jiggle bones to the Sam & Max items, and The Buff Banner
• Added Crit-a-Cola

Dedicated Server

• Linux optimizations.
• Fixed Linux servers not relisting correctly after a master server restart
• Fixed a case where servers could have “ghost” players consuming player slots

Engine

• Marked the “snd_show” convar as a cheat

Gameplay Changes

• Pyro changes
  • Flamethrower direct damage reduced 20%.
  • Burn duration reduced (10 -> 6 seconds).
  • Airblast re-fire delay reduced by 25%.
  • Airblast ammo usage reduced by 20%.
  • All reflected rockets/grenades/arrows now mini-crit.
  • Airblasting enemies into environmental deaths now awards the death credit to the Pyro.
• Heavy changes
  • Minigun spin-up/down time reduced by 25%
  • Minigun firing movement speed increased to just under half-normal (from 80 to 110).
  • Throwing a sandvich to a teammate now earns a full bonus point (was half a point).
• Bonk! changes
  • Post-use movement penalty removed.
  • Now has a re-use cooldown time, like The Sandman.
• The Chargin’ Target changes
  • Direct charge hit now does 50 damage + 10 per head (up to 5 heads).
  • Capped the turn rate from +left and +right while charging.
• The Huntsman changes
  • Removed restriction that arrows need to be aimed before they can be lit by a Pyro.
  • Bow can now be lowered without losing the lit arrow.
  • Changed bow so you can start charging it while you’re jumping, but you can’t fire until you’re on the ground.
  • Fixed bug where flame effect would get stuck on if you change weapons with a lit arrow.
• Backpack changes
  • Moved Crafting button out to the root class/backpack selection panel.
  • Dragging and dropping items in your backpack now makes appropriate sounds.
• Bot changes
  • Bots don’t retreat to gather health as readily if they are in combat.
  • Bots no longer retreat when moving to block a point capture.
  • Bots should now equip an appropriate combat weapon and fight while moving to collect health.
  • Bots who are roaming the map and hunting now chase down their victims, following them around corners.
  • Bots That fire projectiles (ie: rockets/grenades/etc) don’t hold down their fire button for a minimum time. This was causing Soldier bots to fire rockets into nearby walls as they strafed, killing themselves.
  • Soldiers bots now switch to their shotgun after firing all four rockets when engaging an enemy.
  • Added a few more bot names from community suggestions.
  • Fixed a behavior loop with Engineer metal gathering.
• The Sandman change
  • Added a slight speed reduction to stunned players.
• Community requests
  • Added ConVars log_verbose_enable and log_verbose_interval to report player positions in the server log at regular intervals
    • log_verbose_enable default: 0
    • log_verbose_interval default: 3 secs
  • “Last-weapon” initialization on respawn now sets itself to be the melee weapon if you don’t have a selectable secondary weapon (like The Razorback).

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an case where The Gunboats didn’t apply their damage reduction properly.
• The amount count in the HUD now flashes red when you’re low on ammo.
• Extinguishing a burning teammate now earns a full bonus point (was half a point).
• Fixed a permanent overheal exploit involving dispensers.
• Fixed a bug in spectator mode where the user aborted out of freezecam, setup a spec mode (like IN_EYE), and would then have the setting stomped after the freezecam timer expired.
• Fixed bug with disguised spy sometimes seeing his own name in the disguise status HUD.
• Fixed a client crash that could result from players with arrows embedded in them.
• Fixed items that can be worn by any class having the wrong model when worn by a disguised Spy.
• Added missing map prefixes to server browser game types.
• Killing yourself with your own sentry no longer increments the sentry’s kill counter.
• Fixed dropped hats sometimes having the wrong team color.
• Fixed crit-boosted players not getting critical hits if their weapon has custom no-crit behavior.
• Fixed the achievement dialog taking a long time to pop up, and completed achievements now sort to the bottom of the list.
• Fixed Spies disguised as Medics hearing the autocaller sound.

April 29, 2010

• Added new items to commemorate our 119th (or so) update.
• Fixed several issues with the Source SDK
• Scout’s “Retire the Runner” achievement updated to be
  • “Kill a Scout while they are under the effect of Crit-a-Cola.”
• Added a 20% damage bonus to The Backburner
• Fixed the Flare Gun’s afterburn duration being lowered by the Flamethrower’s duration reduction
• Fixed the teleporter exit using the wrong particle effect
• Fixed HUD damage indicators not appearing
• Fixed Teleporters not reverting to level 1 when their other side is destroyed
• Fixed receiving damage not causing view-kicks on players
• Fixed Engineers & Spies being able to circumvent build restrictions
• Fixed Server Browser not saving filter settings properly
• Fixed a client crash in the targetID on clients running custom HUDs

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