Tag: Valve

Half-Life 2: episode 3 is real and has a demo, although it doesn’t come from Valve

We’ve been waiting seventeen years for Episode 3 of Half-Life 2. This makes us suspect that it will never be released. Just like Half-Life 3, it’s a chimera. Valve is never going to develop it. As much as we would like to play it, their need for it to be superior to its predecessor has led them to a dead end. The expectations are too high. Disappointment is certain. And faced with the certainty of not being able to live up to it, it’s better to do nothing. Or so they think at Valve. Because the fans, surely not. Half-Life 2: Episode 3 […]

We have been waiting seventeen years for Episode 3 of Half-Life 2. This makes us suspect that it will never be released. Just like Half-Life 3, it is a chimera. Valve will never develop it. As much as we would like to play it, their need for it to be superior to its predecessor has led them to a dead end. Expectations are too high. Disappointment is certain. And faced with the certainty of not being able to live up to it, it’s better to do nothing. Or so they think at Valve. Because the fans, surely not.

Half-Life 2: episode 3 is called Project Borealis

Project Borealis is a fan project that aims to recreate what could have been Half-Life 2: Episode 3. Based on the synopsis published in 2017 by the writer Marc Laidlaw, it has been in development since that same year by a group of fans called Icebreaker Industries. Now this group has released Project Borealis: Prologue, which is, in their own words, “a condensed, standalone, playable experience that offers a glimpse and a preliminary feel of the final product.”

Using the Unreal Engine 5 engine, they aim to perfectly recreate the movement and mechanics of Half-Life 2, while creating a story that provides a satisfactory conclusion to the episodes initiated with Valve. Once again stepping into the shoes of Gordon Freeman to finally close this chapter of his adventure.

Although the possibility of Valve making Half-Life 2: Episode 3 seems remote, if not impossible, it doesn’t seem impossible for them to return to Half-Life in the future. This makes the effort of these fans more notable. Not when Valve’s CEO, Gabe Newell, confirmed in 2021 that the company is developing several video games and that they want to make efforts in developing more single-player video games after the success of Half-Life Alyx. The virtual reality game that acts as a spin-off of Half-Life 2.

If you are interested in Project Borealis: Prologue, you can download it for free from its Steam page. However, to play it, you will need to have a copy of Half-Life 2. Something we assume you have because if you’re interested, it’s because you’ve played Half-Life 2 and because, who doesn’t have Half-Life 2 in their Steam library in 2024?

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After a little more than a month of release, the creators of Half-Life 2 have kept their word and offer you the first playable demo of what is undoubtedly the game of the year on PC.

The new Valve game has not been announced yet… But it already has thousands of players on Steam

Valve, which released its last game in September of last year, hasn’t announced anything new. Yet, at the same time, thousands of people are playing their new game, ‘Deadlock,’ right now on Steam. How is this possible?

Pay attention to the strange paradox that is happening right now: Valve, which released its last game in September of last year (the relatively controversial ‘Counter-strike 2’), has not announced anything new. But, at the same time, thousands of people are playing their new game, ‘Deadlock’, right now on Steam. How is this possible?

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You have to love Valve

Although ‘Deadlock’ has not been officially announced, we have known about its existence for years thanks to various leaks and hacks. In fact, we even know that it was initially called ‘Neon prime’. The point is that on SteamDB it has been seen that the number of players in the game has been growing in recent months, going from tests to very large matches.

Up to 18,000 people have been playing at the same time on Steam. Or, in other words, it has become one of the top 65 games played of the day. And most people don’t even know it exists. The truth is that ‘Deadlock’ is using an invitation system through which players can give access to others, allowing them to talk about the game but without any videos or images.

So, when will the open beta be available for everyone? Some say it will be in September, but… Without a single trailer that proves the actual existence of the game? It’s strange, because there are already people making preference lists and even weapon and strategy guides. For a game that officially doesn’t exist. The year 2024 is definitely getting weirder and weirder.

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Is Valve working on a new Half Life? Everything seems to indicate it is

Finally, they’ve gotten their act together to resolve the cliffhanger from that episode 2. If things continue as they seem to be, it will only have taken 20 years to sort out the mess.

Half-Life fans usually don’t have reasons to be happy: the saga has been completely dead since 2007, when ‘Half-Life 2: Episode 2’ was released, and it was only revived in 2020… for a virtual reality game. Not that ‘Alyx’ was bad (quite the opposite), but it limited its player base a lot and had, as a result, very little social relevance. But, as they announced at the time, it was just the return to this world. And the best could be yet to come.

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Return to the place where you were happy

In the mid-2000s, Valve decided to press the “Pause” button on the development of ‘Half-Life 3’ and anything related to its universe (beyond ‘Portal’), but now it seems that they have finally gotten their act together to solve the cliffhanger from that episode 2. If things continue as they seem, it will have taken 20 years to solve the mess.

And it’s that game fans saw, on a voice actor’s website, something called ‘Project White Sands’, by Valve. Shortly after, he deleted it quickly, but it was already too late: it’s the codename for a game. That’s clear. What’s happening? White Sands is the name of a desert in New Mexico, the state where Black Mesa is located, in fiction. Too much of a coincidence?

But the thing goes on: Tyler McVicker, Valve’s expert leaker, has come across a project called HLX, which is supposedly ‘Project White Sands’, which is supposedly ‘Half-Life 3’, and for which models of some character and enemy files have been found that would attest to this. Of course, until Valve confirms or denies it, we won’t know exactly what’s going on in their offices. For now, all we can do is keep our fingers crossed.

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“Team Fortress 2” reminds us that it is still alive… but causing frustration among fans

¿Le tenéis ubicado? Pues preparaos para una montaña rusa de emociones, porque ha vuelto y tendremos una nueva aventura con sus personajes… en forma de Funko. Sí. En forma de Funko.

Hey, do you remember Team Fortress 2? Yes, the 2007 game that has been completely forgotten by Valve since 2016, when it received its last major update. The one that is adored by the public and critics around the world. Do you have it in mind? Well, get ready for a roller coaster of emotions, because it’s back and we will have a new adventure with its characters… in the form of Funko. Yes. In the form of Funko.

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Team Forgotten 2

If you don’t know what it’s all about, let me explain. On September 13th, ‘Funko Fusion’ will be released for all possible consoles. It’s a game where the popular brand of dolls with glassy eyes and soulless will have a mega-crossover with a bunch of licenses, such as ‘Back to the Future’, ‘Chucky’, ‘Jurassic Park’ or ‘The Mummy’. Well, in this amalgamation of intellectual properties, ‘Team Fortress 2’ has somehow appeared.

However, as DLC after the release of the base game and, as far as we know, free at least for Steam players. It will feature four characters (Heavy, Scout, Medic, and Engineer), making you miss the rest of the playable characters on one hand and think “Hey, at least they didn’t ruin them all”. Of course, no one says there can’t be a second character pack if this one does well enough.

The problem is not so much that Valve is making some extra dollars by selling its franchise below the price, but that the original game is completely broken nowadays, full of bots and outdated. After several player campaigns urging the producer to make changes, this has been their response: a DLC for a Funko game. If you are a fan, it must hurt.

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‘Team Fortress 2’ recuerda que sigue vivo… pero causando la desazón entre los fans

¿Le tenéis ubicado? Pues preparaos para una montaña rusa de emociones, porque ha vuelto y tendremos una nueva aventura con sus personajes… en forma de Funko. Sí. En forma de Funko.

Eh, ¿os acordáis de ‘Team Fortress 2’? Sí, el juego de 2007 que permanece completamente olvidado por Valve desde 2016, cuando recibió su última gran actualización. Ese que es adorado por pública y crítico alrededor del mundo. ¿Le tenéis ubicado? Pues preparaos para una montaña rusa de emociones, porque ha vuelto y tendremos una nueva aventura con sus personajes… en forma de Funko. Sí. En forma de Funko.

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Team Forgotten 2

Si no sabéis de qué va la cosa, dejad que os lo explique. El 13 de septiembre aparecerá, para todas las consolas posibles, ‘Funko Fusion’, el juego en el que la popular marca de muñecos con ojos vidriosos y sin alma hará un mega-crossover con un buen puñado de licencias, como ‘Regreso al futuro’, ‘Muñeco diabólico’, ‘Parque jurásico’ o ‘La momia’. Bien, pues en esta amalgama de propiedades intelectuales ha aparecido, de alguna manera, ‘Team Fortress 2’.

Eso sí, como DLC posterior al lanzamiento del juego base y, por lo que sabemos, gratuito al menos para los jugadores de Steam. En él habrá cuatro personajes (Heavy, Scout, Medic y Engineer), haciendo que por un lado eches de menos el resto de personajes jugables y por otro pienses “Eh, por lo menos no me han arruinado a todos”. Por supuesto, nadie dice que no pueda haber un segundo pack de personajes si este va lo suficientemente bien.

El problema no es tanto que Valve se saque unos dólares extra malvendiendo su franquicia, sino que el juego original está absolutamente roto a día de hoy, repleto de bots y desactualizado. Tras varias campañas de los jugadores instando a la productora a cambiar, esta ha sido su respuesta: un DLC para un juego de Funkos. Si eres fan, tiene que doler.

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Is Microsoft going to buy Valve? To everyone’s surprise… it’s very likely

The latest to make a move, according to rumors, is (once again) Microsoft, which after acquiring four Bethesda studios, has now gathered enough money to buy… Valve!

We are living in strange times in the entertainment industry. At the same time, it seems like all companies are on the verge of bankruptcy, with continuous layoffs… and they keep buying others as if there were no tomorrow, with monopolistic practices that cannot lead us to anything new. The latest to make a move, according to rumors, is (once again) Microsoft, which after leaving us without four Bethesda studios, has now gathered enough money to buy… Valve!

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Valve already with the nonsense

If this rumor were to become true, it would mean that Microsoft would also acquire Steam, in addition to the rights to ‘Half-life’, ‘Portal’, ‘Counter-Strike’ and the rest of the studio’s games. And it would be very, very dangerous for the industry. However, if the current rumor is true, Gabe Newell and his team would pocket 16 billion dollars.

Read that figure again. It is higher than the GDP of countries like Macedonia, Republic of Congo, Montenegro, or Madagascar. In fact, it is higher than that of 60 countries on the planet. Absolutely insane. On the other hand, although it is true that there was an attempted purchase in 2020, it seems that they have not officially mentioned it again. However, when there’s smoke, there’s usually fire.

However, the credibility of these rumors is rather limited: Valve would not sell itself for 16 billion dollars because, for starters, it does not seem to make much less profit annually. And, in addition, they would have constant litigation, as in the case of Activision, to ensure that Microsoft does not violate antitrust laws.

Ah, yes, and let’s not forget that Activision Blizzard was recently bought for 68.7 billion dollars, and the experience hasn’t been very good for Microsoft, so it’s likely that money is better off in their pockets. However, it’s not the first time they’ve made a last-minute attempt to make a profit. Only time will tell.

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Valve is making a new game… and it’s not Half Life 3

Valve’s new game has been leaked, and although it isn’t Half-Life 2, it looks as spectacular and fun as you’d expect from a Valve game.

No game is more desired than Half-Life 3. Few games have less potential to appear than Half-Life 3. Valve has been claiming for years that they would only work on it if they had ideas that would make it as revolutionary as the first and second, and that doesn’t seem to be happening. Something logical if we consider the impact that these two games had. Something that has not prevented them from working on other projects.

Because over the weekend, something unexpected happened: not only information was leaked, but also several screenshots of Valve’s new game. Which certainly is not Half-Life 3.

Named Deadlock, it is a game that we have known, at least, since 2018. In a video published last Saturday, May 18th, reporter Tyler McVicker, known for covering Valve topics, shared details about Deadlock. Including the fact that it is already being played by several people in a closed alpha outside of Valve. Something that means that, while it is not necessarily close, it is less far from its release than we thought.

Deadlock has been described as a mix of two previous Valve games, Dota 2 and Team Fortress 2. Including in the mix beloved indie games, such as Orcs Must Die, and competitive online games, such as Overwatch, Valorant, and Smite. This mix seems very unique, but the screenshots give us an idea of what the mix is like. With an aesthetic similar to Valorant, lanes like in Dota 2 and Smite, and classes similar to those in Overwatch. Although we can’t deny that we still don’t see where Orcs Must Die fits into all of this.

Something that is quite evident is that they have sought a tone closer to fantasy. With a steampunk setting and characters fighting in European-style cities, the game will have floating rails to quickly move through different points on the map, in the style of BioShock Infinite. Something that confirms the change of style. Not for nothing, Deadlock was going to have a futuristic style, inspired by Half-Life and Portal. But poor results with the test teams led them to try a different style.

As it is evident from its inspirations, and confirmed by McVicker, Valve aims for this to be a competitive game. A mix of shooter and MOBA that can fill a space within the competitive gaming that, after the death of Overwatch, is still to be filled.

Although we don’t have a date or official announcement for the game, it is expected that Valve will announce it in the near future if there are already these kinds of leaks. Meanwhile, it is worth remembering that Valve has been more active in their releases lately. Last September they released Counter-Strike 2, as a replacement for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, their 2012 game. And Gabe Newell himself said last 2021 that, thanks to the success of Half-Life: Alyx, they had gained a lot of momentum to develop new games. Something that gives us hope that we will soon see more of this Deadlock.

Do you miss ‘Portal’? There is a mod that wants to be that third part we never had

As time has passed, the need to return to Aperture Science has grown stronger, even if it’s in an unofficial capacity.

It has been 13 years since the release of ‘Portal 2’ and we have been waiting since then for Valve to surprise us with the announcement of the third part of GLaDOS’ adventures and that annoying girl who comes to ruin her experiments. However, more and more time has passed and we need to return, somehow, to Aperture Science… even if it’s unofficially.

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This was a triumph

Over the years there have been hundreds of tributes, versions, and mods of ‘Portal’, but perhaps none has ever had the impact of ‘Portal: Revolution’, which has already received over 2000 reviews on Steam since last Saturday with a large majority being positive. Set between the two games, it features over 40 new chambers and its developers have worked on it with the seriousness of a real third installment.

We have voice performances, a complete story, innovative gameplay (yes, even more than the sequel), and a duration between 8 and 10 hours. Not bad for a “simple” mod, for sure. In this case, GLaDOS remains dead and it is Wheatley and the rest of the robots who must desperately keep the laboratories open.

And the best part of it all? It’s absolutely and completely free. You won’t find many games that give you more for less. Put on your portal gun, grab your ever-present Companion Cube, and get ready to go back to the place where you promised you’d never return. If Valve doesn’t lift a finger, we’ll have to do it for them.

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Fortnite on the Steam Deck? Tim Sweeney says no, although there is a but.

“Fortnite on the Steam Deck? Tim Sweeney says no, but there’s a catch; although that catch doesn’t make much sense, and let’s break it down.”

Fortnite is one of the most popular games in the world and yet, it seems to be locked in its own ecosystem. Although it can be played on mobile devices, it is heavily restricted to appear on them. And while its home is on computers, it also seems to have many issues reaching outside of the Epic store itself. Although, no matter what the CEO of the company says, perhaps all of this is not always the fault of others.

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In an interview with The Verge, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney was asked why Fortnite was not coming to the Steam Deck. Especially considering that they had even gone to court to get their game to appear on mobile devices without any interference from Google. Sweeney’s response has been concise, but not clear: “if we only had a few more programmers… I wish they had tens of millions of users, at which point it would make sense to support it”. A spurious argument that, moreover, is as easy to dismantle as almost everything Sweeney says in the interview.

On one hand, it states that it is a human problem. They don’t have enough programmers. The reality is that, only during 2023, Epic has laid off 830 employees. Around 16% of its workforce. If they hadn’t laid them off, it doesn’t seem like not having enough programmers could be a problem.

On the other hand, he claims that the problem is the installed base of Steam Decks. While he does not give a clear answer to the question, which in itself shows that he is not interested in answering, what he wants to convey here is that Fortnite is not profitable on Steam Deck because it would be very expensive to develop. Which has already been proven to be a lie. First, because both Valve and Epic stated in November 2021 that Epic’s proprietary anti-cheat should be something easy to solve. Second, because even if they don’t want to release Fortnite on Steam, third-party applications allow you to install the Epic Games Launcher on the Steam Deck. Demonstrating that they don’t do it for other kinds of interests.

What are those interests? Tim Sweeney wants to be the Caesar instead of the Caesar. His problem is that he doesn’t want to publish his games on the competition’s store. Which is legitimate, but it makes it absurd, and deeply insulting, that he answers in that way. Because the answer is clear. Fortnite is not possible on Steam Deck because that would make Valve’s device more attractive, and that is something that Tim Sweeney, and his interest in replacing Steam with the Epic Games Store as the ultimate game store, cannot allow.

And sometimes, the most convoluted answers are the most revealing ones.

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Valve has asked players, please, not to sniff the Steam Deck gases

Valve has asked players to please not snort smokes from the Steam Deck, because it could very well end up affecting your health.

Look, we get it. There are things that smell too good. The ink of freshly bought books. Early morning bakeries. Well-tended gardens in spring. These are scents we chase after, ones we want to inhale whenever possible. Not just to revel in them but actively seek them out and make them our own. But sometimes, it’s inappropriate, if not dangerous. That’s why Valve had to step in and tell us, well, no, we shouldn’t be sniffing the gases from our Steam Deck.

This isn’t new. Since the Steam Deck came out, many people have commented on enjoying the scent emanating from the console’s vents. It’s something that’s made a lot of people actively and consciously sniff that scent, becoming a meme in itself among the user community. The aroma from the Steam Deck’s ventilation is so pleasant and unique that it’s tempting to sniff it. That’s why Valve had to come out and clarify, for the love of all that’s good, let’s not do that.

On December 12th, Reddit user Metapod100 shared a screenshot where they asked Steam support if it was safe to “inhale the gases from the extractor” of the device. Valve responded, with a somewhat resigned tone, stating that “like with all electronic devices, it’s generally not recommended to inhale the gases from your device’s extractor.” They added that “while there are no safety issues with normal use, direct inhalation of these gases should be avoided.”

Of course, Valve hasn’t outright forbidden it. Nor have they said you’ll die if you continue doing it. But it does seem advisable not to do so simply because, you know, we don’t know how it might affect your health. It’s a sound piece of advice from Valve, who might be a bit late in releasing incense with the scent of Steam Deck’s extraction system gases.

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