A fancy e-mail just arrived in my inbox, which is 94 percent full right now, saying that the PC version of Call of Duty: Black Ops is now available for pre-order on Steam. Hilariously, they’re charging $59.99 for the game, which may be acceptable if you’re gaming on a PS3 or 360, but is patently ridiculous on the PC. Have to pay for that non-existent PC license fee, I see? No, this isn’t merely a… → Read More
Bethesda released Fallout: New Vegas for the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC yesterday. The reviews fill me with great hope, particularly Canard PC’s take. (Canard PC was one of the few publications to note that Fallout 3 was, in fact, a hot mess, at least from the perspective of presenting a well-written game.) But there’s one problem with the game, specifically as it relates to the Steam version: it’s… → Read More
Lest any of you doubt the raw power of Steam, the latest numbers should, um, erase that doubt. Yes, that’ll do. Valve says that Steam has seen 178 percent new account growth in the past year and more than 200 percent growth in sales. There’s now more than 30 million Steam accounts out there, and I just used mine to pre-order Fallout: New Vegas. → Read More
A certain video game that once upon a time featured the Taliban has leaked. I only bring this up because this prompted me to check Steam to see how much they want for the game: oh, right, $59.99. But then I also noticed this: last year’s FPS—that’s first-person sensation—Modern Warfare 2 is on sale right now on Steam. → Read More
Good news for Mac gamers: Left 4 Dead 2 is coming tomorrow. If you already own it for the PC, you will own it on the Mac. If you don’t own it yet, go buy it. Steam is including all of the previously released DLC as well, so you won’t miss out on any of the L4D2 gaming goodness. See the press release after the jump. → Read More
Oh, how annoying. Direct 2 Drive, the IGN-owned Steam-like digital distribution service, will be the exclusive home of the Digital Collector’s Edition of Fallout: New Vegas. Why do I, the average gamer, have to have an Excel spreadsheet open just to determine which store has what content? → Read More
Looks like we won’t be playing Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition on the PC anytime soon. (Meh: we’re all busy playing Civilization V and F1 2010.) Capcom blames piracy, as always. → Read More
Well there you have it: digital sales have outpaced physical sales. For PC games, that is. According to the all-seeing, all-knowing NPD Group, there were 11.7 million digital sales of PC games during the first half of 2010. That compares to 8.2 million physical sales. Clearly Steam and others like it are on the right track. → Read More
Time for some weekend FPS goodness. Steam is running a sale on S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadows of Chernobyl, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat. Best part, it’s $9.99. How can you pass up a deal like that? → Read More
This week being QuakeCon and all, Steam has set up a special deal on all of the current Id and Bethesda games. If you bought these separately, the over all value on the software in the package would be over $300. In light of QuakeCon though, Valve is selling the whole package for $69.99. Just to hit a few highlights from the list, you get Wolfenstein 3D, Ultimate Doom, everything related to Quake… → Read More
Imagine my surprise earlier this week when I found “Medal of Honor Beta” in my Steam Library What?! I didn’t pre-order the game (seriously, $60 for a PC game? No thank you.) so something was “up,” as the kids say in 1988. But then Matt Burns, angel that he is, did a little bit of sleuthing. Turns out that anyone who bought Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has access to the beta. Lucky me! → Read More
Note: A reader sent us this interesting take on Steam and DRM, but requested to stay anonymous due to the nature of the article. We of course obliged.
Up until a few weeks ago, the last PC game I purchased and didn’t pirate was Team Fortress 2 via the digital download service, Steam. The last PC game I purchased in a retail box was Half Life 2. Yet like many, I’ve still managed to play every PC… → Read More
Friendly reminder: Steam has a killer summertime sale going on right now, and it runs through July 4. → Read More
Just a heads-up to let you Mac users out there that Counter-Strike: Source, “the number one online action game in the world,” is now available on Steam for Mac. → Read More
Remember back when anti-mac fanboys use to say that “the Mac doesn’t have gaming, it’s not 1337”. Then Apple entered the gaming world as a noob, and now look, OS X is running Steam. → Read More
It’s so appropriate yet sad that Alyx is tasked with announcing the six-year old Half-Life 2′s Mac launch. But really there’s no shame in playing the some-what old Half-Life 2 even today. It’s one of the games that we agreed with in PC Gamer’s top games of all time list. But it’s yet another sign that the Mac gaming scene still has a long way to go. → Read More
Got an e-mail from the good folks at Steam a few moments ago detailing a new feature y’all might be interested in. I mean, the only thing anyone is going to care about today is Google TV, but I’ll do what I can to distract you from that for a moment. The deal is that Prima Guides are now available for use in-game. You know, via that shift+tab overlay thing. → Read More
Steam is finally available on OS X. That’s awesome. But the platform still has a ways to go before a Mac is a viable gaming alternative to a PC. One look at Steam’s Featured PC Games and Featured Mac Games will tell you that. → Read More
Good news for Mac and PC gamers, Steam is making Portal free! Admittedly it’s for a limited time, but it’ll give you the chance to try one of the most popular titles that Valve has ever come out with. And this deal is not a lie. → Read More
So yeah, you can download OS X’s Steam client right now, and play Team Fortress 2 (or Portal) right now with a quick little workaround. Nice, eh? Real gaming on Macs. Amazing. [Steam via Geekosystem via Gizmodo → Read More
Well this is interesting. A person far cleverer than any of us here decided, on a whim, to look at the main executable of the Steam version of Max Payne 2 in a text editor. Because that’s what you do, you know? Anyhow, a funny little thing appears: the ASCII logo of famed release group (now defunct) Myth. In other words, it sure does look like Rockstar uploaded a cracked (PIRATED OMG OMG OMG)… → Read More
Whoa, just got some more Steam for Mac details to share with y’all. It comes out tomorrow, as you well know, but did you know thatPortal will be the first game available for the Mac platform? Well now you do! → Read More
We were discussing in the chat room a little while ago how fantastically awesome it would be to be able to rent games from Steam. Allow me to explain. → Read More
Quick note, friends. One of the better Steam weekend deals in recent memory is live right now. It’s Civilization IV and all of its expansion packs for $10. That’s pretty much ridiculous any way you look at it. (Oh, and Modern Warfare 2 multi-player is free this weekend, if you’re into “that.”) → Read More
2K Games announced that Civ V AKA MY FAVORITE GAME OMG OGMG IWILL BUY! will be sold via Steam, including a “deluxe” edition with the Babylon civ, videos, and a sountrack. Folks who pre-order will get the Mesopotamia map pack for free. → Read More
I get the feeling that there’s a whole team of people at Valve whose job is to just do “like, what if” stuff, or “you know, while we’re at it” stuff. Like, “what if” we just made an awesome comic book to send out gratis to users? Or “what if” we made a Mac version just because, and “while we’re at it” just keep on… → Read More
Whoa whoa whoa. Valve has officially announced Steam for Mac‘s release date: May 12. So says an e-mail straight from Valve HQ. Feel free to freak out. → Read More
So the new Steam UI just went live today, and soon we may be seeing that Mac version everybody’s been chattering about. I’m looking forward to it, and hoping the 9400M in my MacBook Pro will be able to handle Portal 2. Other, more practical people are putting together comprehensive “all we know” lists about the program, widely anticipated (in vain) as savior of gaming on the Mac. I don’t know, I’m… → Read More
Just a handy reminder to all you PC gamers out there that Valve has fully released the new Steam Client UI update. → Read More
Curse you Steam store, and all your weekend deals. I’m weak before your offers of gaming goodness, and my list of games in the new Steam client grows ever larger. It’s particularly bad when you offer games like Left 4 Dead 2 for $20. Don’t tell my wife, I just clicked on that buy button. → Read More
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