[Garry's Blog via Kotaku]

Portal or not, this case mod is pretty damn sweet.

[Engadget]

I was just reading through Stylization With A Purpose: The Illustrative World of Team Fortress 2, a PDF version of the slideshow that Valve gave at the recent GDC event, when I discovered something fantastic: we might just have some new weapons on the way!

Before any of my TF2 brethren call me out on this, let me just assure you, the core of the gameplay in TF2 was in classes not switching weapons and I really don’t see that changing. It seems rather than changing weapons the new ones appear be an upgrade to the weapons we already have. I’ll admit that it’s a guess on my part, but considering the graphic is for a new medigun, everything still looks pretty class specific to me.

In case you’re looking to track down the evidence first hand it’s on page 77, Where Do We Go From Here? They even mention that new weapons can ship faster than new game modes or new maps. Sweetness.

If you’ve ever listened to the bitcast, you’re intimately familiar with my love for Team Fortress 2. Chances are you’re also familiar with my console gamers lament. PC gamers scored some sweet maps a few weeks back, yet there has been no word on extra content for the 360 or PS3 — until now. From a brief interview by Eurogamer with Valve’s VP of Marketing, Doug Lombardi;

The maps will come to the console versions. There’s a bit of work that makes sense for us to bundle them up and release them as packs.

…Oh, for free, definitely, as much as we can. You know, we don’t have full say over that, but we have some say over how that works.

…for us, for free is the way to go. The gamers play the game, they want to keep playing the game, so we’ve collected their fifty bucks at the start, and once they’re in the park, they can ride any ride they want in the park. So, for us that’s been the philosophy.

So there you have it. Not only are we getting the content, but if it’s up to Valve we’ll be paying a big fat zero for it. And no, that doesn’t mean you’ll be paying me, smart ass. See you in Badlands!

[via EuroGamer]

By way of CVG, we learn from Xbox Official Magazine (salute) that the forthcoming online zombie-romp Left 4 Dead looks like a console exclusive to 360, splattering the hopes and dreams of PS3 action-horror fans all over the wall:

Apparently, this is the first time the Xbox 360 version has been shown to the press, which is being developed between Valve, PC dev Turtle Rock and newcomer Certain Affinity - who was responsible for the Halo 2 Blastacular map pack….

Unfortunately for PS3 owners, it looks like the multiplayer shooter’s sticking to Microsoft platforms for the time being. “The PC and 360 versions of Left 4 Dead will ship simultaneously, but there will be no PS3 edition,” says OXM (that’s the US one).

Quelle dommage. Looks like the 360 continues to have the zombie genre wrapped up, between this and Dead Rising. L4D features an interesting online PvP system of 4-8 players in which you change sides when bitten (sounds a bit like Kojima’s voiced idea for an MMO). And you know it’ll be polished since Valve just acquired the developer – the last time that happened, we got Portal.

4chan wallpaper trolling continues! 2 more 1600X1200 wallpapers for your computer using pleasure!

I love the understated vibe of these, it’s a joke only a fellow gamer is going to get, otherwise looks pretty legitimate. The research facilities may have blown up at the end of Half-Life and Portal, but the wallpaper lives on.

Click the image for the fullscreen version.

I seemed to have missed out on yesterday’s Gabe Newell Appreciation Day (seriously — 3 Valve posts back to back? Was somebody mainlining The Orange Box again?) so I thought I’d take the opportunity to be a day late and a dollar short and toss up this fantastic Portal faceplate, featuring none other than everybody’s favorite little square, the weighted companion cube.

It’s still up on eBay if anyone’s interested. Close up pick after the jump.

[via The Xbox Collector]

Continue Reading »