In little over a week, on the 8th of May, Valve will release the Perpetual Testing Initiative DLC, for Portal 2, or PeTI. Featuring a simple, yet versatile puzzle creator/editor toolkit that can interface with the advanced Hammer Editor, and integration with the Steam Workshop, allowing you to freely upload, rate, comment, and download anyone’s puzzle chambers – it may not be a new singleplayer test course or a set of advanced chambers, but it will give Portal 2 new life, and keep its community active for the foreseeable future.

A trailer for the PeTI was released yesterday, and while most of it is another hilarious Cave Johnson infographic short, it includes a sneak peek at the PeTI’s puzzle maker in action towards the end. Let’s take a look!

Week 12 of the CS:GO beta has brought yet another significant update, featuring a ton of excellent changes – improved recoil; improved movement; a SE version of DE_Aztec with all fog, particles and props completely removed for competitive play; assists added to the kill/death notification messages; and a whole bunch of changes to the maps themselves, including adjusted bloom and post-processing, as well as modified ambient sound content for improved playing experience.

And, of course, the CS:GO SDK has been released, but it is currently in very limited distribution, and only a few mapmakers currently have access to it. A shame, but hopefully we’ll all get to try it out in due time. As always, a new batch of beta invites has gone out to survey applicants – so check your Library! Overall, a terrific update – be sure to take a look at the official blog post and changelog.

I’m unbelievably proud of Valve – they could have released CS:GO in late 2011, as nothing more than a cheap, mediocre downloadable re-release. Instead, they are truly listening to player feedback and using it to build what may eventually become the greatest Counter-Strike game yet. And that’s what Valve is all about.