Peter H. Konig is a senior concept artist with over 25 years of experience in the entertainment industry. This includes over 30 films, and numerous high-profile games. In January of 2008, he began work at Valve, where he did artwork on Left 4 Dead 2, Portal 2, and Dota 2. He is also believed to have done some work for Valve’s mysterious new intellectual property: “SOB“. We don’t know much regarding SOB, although some possible footage of the game was leaked two months ago.

But as you can tell from the title, we’ve got some bad news for you today. We’ve just learned that Peter Konig appears to have departed from Valve. The resume found on his official site shows that Peter is currently working at Microsoft’s 343 Industries on Halo 4, and his LinkedIn profile reveals that he stopped working at Valve in January.

This is a huge shame, since Peter was one of Valve’s greatest artists, and was the visionary behind Valve’s most twisted creatures, as well as its most fascinating environments – most of which we haven’t even seen as of yet. Still, he’s not the first to leave Valve, nor will he be the last – although I do find it interesting that he’s the second veteran Valve dev linked to SOB, who’s left the company, in just a couple of months.

That said, I remain confident that SOB will remain on track, in whatever shape or form it may take in the future. Here’s hoping we hear more about it soon.

First off, we’d like to apologize for what happened with the previous Mini-Poll, which accidentally overstayed its welcome by one month. Believe it or not, we got so wrapped up in site work and external work (including the exam craze that many of us are currently embroiled in) that we more or less forgot about the poll completely. The good thing is we weren’t the only ones who did. So… surprise!

But we’ve now taken care of that, and we’ve got a new poll for you guys! Read on if you’re interested in advancing the cause of science by even more than two centuries. No mantis DNA included – we’ll leave that for our scientific journal mini-polls.

Valve have just announced that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, the latest installment in the long-running CS series, is set to be released on the 21st of August, in just two and a half months from now. It will only be available for release on Steam, the PlayStation Network, and XBox Live, and it will cost approximately $15 on all platforms.

In addition, Valve have stated that the game will be playable in both the Sony and Microsoft E3 booths, running an apparently all-new build that Valve have been working on for several weeks. Hopefully it’ll feature some impressive stuff – we’ll let you know what we dig up. Aside from that, the pricepoint they’ve decided on… is great. A high-profile release like Counter-Strike, costing just $15 on launch? That is exceptional, and that is the Valve that I know and love, doing what they do best.

But I’m not pleased about the relatively short release window. I think CS:GO could use a bit more time – but I suppose Valve knows best. Let’s just hope they stick to their guns and follow community feedback as well as they have already. The game is pretty damn fun as it is, so all sins are forgiven. Bring it on, Valve!

[Phillip has just added the Black Mesa Inbound post. Check it out!]

It’s been a looong while since I thoroughly replayed the entire Half-Life series. I’d imagine it’s been like that for most of the fanbase, which is a shame. Games like Half-Life 1 and 2 should not be exiled to the most distant corners of our memory, only being brought into the light along with a pair of rose-tinted spectacles, just as the planets align. The games themselves, as well as their complex backstories, extensive fan interpretations and theories, should always be at the forefront of the fan’s mind.

But it can be rather hard to do that, when one doesn’t even know how soon we can expect to hear if that peculiar case of the missing Half-Life threequel, has been resolved. Then again, we sometimes have to face the facts: it’s going to be a while until Valve deems the next installment in the Half-Life franchise fit to see the light of day. So why not make the most of that time? Why not ensure that you’ll be prepared for when the monitor flares with the light of that familiar yellow logo? Read on!

We already knew that Dota 2 will be a free-to-play release, yes. – but we never did get an official announcement. Well… it would appear that Valve have just provided us with that after all… and then some. Read on!

Many people see the Source engine as an antiquated relic. They compare it to other contemporary game engines, and they try to prove that, according to some subjective standards, it is somehow “uglier“. That’s an argument that will most likely never end (at least not until Valve reveals Source 2, or something).

I suppose the reason for this perceived outdatedness – in both graphical quality and technical features – is that, at the end of the day, it’s best to make sure that your game is able to impress as many people as possible, rather than trying to impress a scant few with unoptimized eye candy. Those scant few will eventually journey to other games in search of their next graphical fix anyway, so what’s the point?

So Valve’s approach makes a lot of sense, when you look at it from a strictly objective point of view. Besides, the Source engine has got a lot of horsepower in it yet, although much of it remains untapped. Some of this horsepower isn’t all about… well, speed. It’s also about achieving better… handling, so to speak. Just like the sort of horsepower I am about to introduce you to!

[UPDATE: The recording is over. Stay tuned to the P17 YouTube and/or the P17 website to download the recording of Episode #189.]

In July of 2010, Valve released Alien Swarm, a free-to-play, top-down co-operative action game. Previously known as “Alien Swarm: Infested“, it had been in development since 2005 (and was meant to be a follow-up to the original Alien Swarm, for Unreal Tournament 2004).

While it was an undeniably solid game, for Valve it might have represented an experiment in how modding works: “If we give the modders a free game and free tools, but offer little support, will they keep the game alive?”.

It was an interesting question, and one they have hopefully found an answer for. Make no mistake – Alien Swarm‘s community may be tiny, but it is extremely active. And what better proof of this than the mod I am about to show you?

Slightly late news, yes. But it’s something that, to my surprise, almost no one knew anything about: turns out that the 2007 multiplayer classic: INSURGENCY: Modern Infantry Combat (or INS for short), the hyper-realistic Source mod that put you in the combat boots of a U.S. Marine or Iraqi insurgent, caught in the middle of the Second Gulf War – is getting a sequel.

But let’s do a quick recap. Sadly, despite its initial success, and its official release directly on Steam; Insurgency’s intense difficulty, combined with tremendous turmoil within the mod team and, later on, a critical lack of support – all only meant one thing: that by its 2nd anniversary, Insurgency had literally begun bleeding players. But its community valiantly held its ground, and to this day, Insurgency’s most critical and insightful community blog remains open. The mod itself, however, does not.

And just like that, Insurgency was gone. But at last, it seems that it has returned to us – and in safe keeping to boot. Read on!

Yes, you read that title correctly. Hit the jump for all the juicy details.

Yet another… ever so slightly late update for the CS:GO beta – and what a lovely update indeed. All official maps have been updated with support for 15v15 play, although it would seem that actual in-game functionality for that is yet to come, as I haven’t encountered any servers with support for anything beyond 5v5 as of yet. Significant improvements have been made towards gunplay, spread and recoil patterns; and the general consensus is that Valve have now got the overall gun combat spot-on (some even say it’s currently better than 1.6’s gunplay, and I can’t blame them). And, as always, Valve have released new batches of CS:GO beta invites to all those who applied using the official beta survey. So if you’ve been invited, get playing – and if you find me in-game, do call me out!

Also, CS:GO’s controversial bullet tracers have also been extensively tuned for better playing experience, and that’s also an excellent change. In addition… for whatever reason, Valve have decided to add chickens to DE_Inferno. Coincidence… or vicious intent? Check out Marphy Black’s “Hostage-Strike“ to find out the grim truth. And for more not-so-grim truths, check out Cadred’s community-driven interview with Chet Faliszek. Do check out the update’s official blog post for more info.