If you like video games, then I’m pretty sure you like “PAYDAY: The Heist” – even if you don’t know it yet. Released last year by Overkill Games, it’s a cooperative shooter that places you, along with 3 other friends, in a number of action-packed scenarios that all have one thing in common: killing officers of the law; and acquiring liquid capital. It was mostly an under-the-radar hit and the community can be really lame, but it’s definitely worth buying.

And apparently, we’ll be needing to get really acquainted with it in the near future. Read on!

I have nothing but good things to say regarding thechineseroom’s “Dear Esther“. Which is why I’m so happy that, after just three months since its release (and following the very recent release of its Mac port), it has sold 100,000 copies over Steam. It may not sound like much, but for an alternative game (and a PC-exclusive to boot), it’s actually pretty impressive.

Next up, thechineseroom will be tackling two distinct game projects: Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs, a title that speaks for itself; and Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture, an open-world spiritual successor to Dear Esther built on CryEngine 3. They’ll be parting ways with Dear Esther’s lead level designer, Robert Briscoe, which is a huge shame, but I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of his work in the foreseeable future. That said, I’m still keeping my fingers crossed for a remake of Korsakovia. Hey, maybe even Conscientious Objector.

Okay, maybe not.

Not so long ago in February, NECA announced that it would be creating an officially licensed, life-sized replica of the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. The problem was that it’d be limited to a single 5000-replica run – so as you can imagine, when they actually went on sale in April, they sold out everywhere in a matter of hours. This is actually a pretty big problem, because of the basic principles of the video game merchandise market – if there’s inherent marquee value in creating merchandise for the “game with the lemons, the british robot and the space ball”; you had best be ready to sell, and sell good.

Which is probably why NECA have decided to give it another try – they’ll be designing replicas of the Co-op Portal Devices, and for starters, they’ll be tackling P-Body’s orange-red portal gun, which will be similarly limited to only 5000 units, and priced at $140. Pre-orders for it just commenced earlier today, which means you’d best hurry if you want to reserve your replica of the “white gun that shoots holes, now with red stripes“. Me? I’m saving up for the replica crowbars and grav guns, thank you very much. Those are going to be expensive as hell, I’ll tell you that.

That said, I can’t help but contest the value in such a business approach – doing three distinct portal gun product runs. Not only are most people fonder of the standard Portal Device… but just think of the thousands of dollars NECA would be saving by not using that orange/blue paint for the co-op stripes. And that would have left them with a 15000-replica run of the classic portal gun; as most people remember it, and as most people love it. Problem solved, Valve and NECA – I am now accepting royalties.

[UPDATE: It’s going on right now! Tune in here, and join the Steam chat here!

Some of you might know that, during my spare time, I co-host the tubular Podcast 17. Today, in approximately 3 hours and 20 minutes (4PM PST/7PM EST/0AM GMT; check out the Steam Group announcement for exact scheduling in your area), we’ll be interviewing the one and only Mevious, one of the world’s top Portal level designers (creator of Portal Pro and Rexaura), and currently the Employee of the Moment on Portal 2’s Perpetual Testing Initiative, over at the Steam Workshop. 

Stay tuned to P17’s TwitchTV, as well as P17’s Steam Group, for more info.

After hidden code within a Steam beta client release indicated that the so-called Steam Wallet Vouchers were about to see the light of day, and after a report from Kotaku gave us our first glimpse at these wondrous cards, many were curious regarding the possibility of GameStop actually stocking pre-paid Steam Wallet cards.

Well, you need speculate no longer, for GameStop have at last announced the distribution of Steam Wallet voucher cards in GameStop stores all across the United States.

The special Steam Card webpage provides very few details on the vouchers. But maybe details aren’t really needed. You simply buy them, and then use the enclosed keycode to fill up your Steam Wallet (on your PC, of course) with lovely monies. Apparently there will be a $20 card, as well as a $50 card, and they will presumably cost as much as the Steam Wallet dollars offered within. Hopefully this will spice up the Steam trading economy. More details over at Joystiq.

[UPDATE: The application has been brought back online and, apparently, all malware is gone. Good riddance! You can now safely install and read Final Hours of Portal 2.]

Geoff Keighley’s “The Final Hours of Portal 2” is an interactive digital story that chronicles the development of Portal 2, from its inception in late 2007 to its release in early 2011. It’s a follow-up to Geoff’s previous “The Final Hours” articles, which he created as part of GameSpot’s “Behind the Games” series. The first one he ever wrote was “The Final Hours of Half-Life“, and if I’m not mistaken, the last one was “The Final Hours of Half-Life 2“.

Despite being a terrible PC port, having been originally designed for the iOS, it remains an insightful and very well-done interactive article of sorts; and I’m hoping Valve will bring Geoff back in for a possible “The Final Hours of Half-Life 3” (more recently, he actually did “The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3“). But wait a minute – what’s this?

In more than slightly late news on our part, the fine folks at Rock, Paper, Shotgun have posted up part 2 of their interview with Carlos “cman2k” Montero of the Black Mesa: Source devteam. And, yes, there is a bit of new BM:S media – but just a little bit! Read on.

Last year, it was revealed that Blizzard had filed a notice of opposition against Valve with regards to the Dota trademarks. For a couple of months, the situation remained uncertain, but Blizzard have just announced that an agreement has been reached by both parties. According to this settlement, Valve will be allowed to use the Dota trademarks commercially, while Blizzard will maintain non-commercial use of the Dota trademarks. A win-win… mostly. Interestingly, as part of this agreement, Blizzard will change the name of their upcoming Action RTS game, from “Blizzard DOTA” to “Blizzard All-Stars“, a title which they say “ultimately better reflects the design of our game”.

Apparently, both Valve and Blizzard will have no further comment on the terms of the settlement beyond this press release, which is, ultimately, understandable. Good to hear that two awesome development studios (with a great focus on the PC community to boot) remain bros after all. After all, you know what they say: bros before… trademark disputes. Or at least I think that’s how it went.

[UPDATE: In their article on their subject, Joystiq intriguingly noted that Dota 2 is set to release… in 2013. Not sure if it’s legitimate or just a typo, but it is worth bringing up. Credit to Smash of ValveTime for the discovery.]

Released barely two days ago, Portal 2’s latest DLC offering, the Perpetual Testing Initiative has turned out to be a pretty massive success, as heralded by a press release from Valve in which they announced some of the PeTI service’s early statistics. Apparently, over 35,000 custom puzzle levels have already been created and published over the Steam Workshop. In total, the Portal 2 playerbase have already consumed over 1.3 million test chamber downloads.

In celebration, Valve is holding a Weekend Workshop sale on the Steam Store, during which Portal 2 will remain at its Midweek Madness discount of 66% off (about 6 dollars/5 euros), Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim will be 33% off, and within Team Fortress 2’s in-game Mann Co Store, many of the officially released, community-created Steam Workshop items will be available for 50% off their regular price. Now that’s science for you. Quick, go buy things!

And if you haven’t had enough science within the PeTI, then allow me to provide you with some of my recommendations: CaretCaret’s “12 Angry Tests” series, which contains some of the greatest level design, puzzle gameplay and bizarre humor I have ever experienced; Jaxe’s excellent “Decay” mini-series, sporting some incredible level design, built for intermediate to skilled Portal players; Motanum’s A La Tag series, with unique and innovatie gameplay strongly focused on gel gameplay; and the Podcast 17 Community Chamber collection, encompassing all puzzle levels created by my brothers in arms and colleagues: the Podcast 17 community members.

Last year, Dota 2’s world debut came to us through “The International“, the first ever Dota 2 tournament. It put 16 of the world’s most elite Dota teams up against each other, competing for a grand prize of $1 million dollars. It was a huge success, especially for the championship’s winners, team Na’Vi of Ukraine. There definitely was some crazy Mortal Kombat-type stuff: in fact, Shang Tsung himself drained the bandwidth out of the championship’s LAN, resulting in some wacky lagging issues for both spectators and players alike. Don’t get me wrong – it was a great tournament, but hopefully Valve has learned from the mistakes they made in both streaming and organization.

Well, they’d better have, for this year, the International is coming back, this time taking place at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Washington; smack-dab in the middle of PAX Prime. An interesting choice, sure – but I’d say Germany was a far more accessible location for the eponymous international Dota fanbase. Still, it’ll make for added exposure, which is a good thing.

The 2012 International will be held during the last weekend of August: from the 31st of August to the 2nd of September. No details yet on how many millions of dollars the grand prize will contain – maybe it’ll be more this year. There will be 16 teams, just like last year, although we don’t know the full roster yet. The defending champions, Team Na’Vi of Ukraine; and this year’s newcomers: Team DK of China, are both the first teams to have been invited so far, although we’ll surely hear more about the other 14 teams soon.

Valve have already set up a teaser webpage for the championship, just like they did last year. Be sure to stay tuned to the official Dota 2 blog for more info on the event!