Category: Other Source

Dota 2 beats Skyrim’s record for most concurrent players on Steam. Again.

March 10th, 2013 · By MrFreemanBBQ · 15 Comments

Hello there readers of LambdaGeneration! My name is Vyacheslav ‘MrFreemanBBQ‘ Konchits. I’m Russian, and I am a new writer at LambdaGeneration. I came here from the Russian Social Network ‘VKontakte’ a.k.a. VK where I am the lead writer and founder of the Steam VK public page. I will be covering mainly Steam related news but also general gaming industry news that is related to Valve.

Anyway, today Dota 2, one of the most popular Valve games, has just set a new record for the number of concurrent players, namely — 326,072 people. This is a huge milestone for both the game and for Valve themselves! Here is a graph showing overtime playerbase statistics for both the Dota 2 beta and the previous record-holder, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Gabe Newell On Valve’s “SOB”: “‘Stars of Blood’ Was An Internal Project That Never Saw The Light of Day”

November 12th, 2012 · By Vic · 17 Comments

Let it forever be known that the best way to get interesting information out of Gabe Newell is to buy him a hat on his birthday, surround him with fans, and ask daring questions like never before! After all, you saw how it helped us find out about Valve’s upcoming next-gen game engine!

But what if it can also help us find out more about Valve’s fabled space-centric game, known only as “SOB”? As you can tell from the title above… yes, it can! Read on.

Perfect World Teams Up With Valve To Distribute And Operate Dota 2 In Mainland China

October 21st, 2012 · By Vic · 5 Comments

Oh, Dota 2. Even though half the people I know are feverishly playing around within your invitational beta, you still hold a great deal of mystery for me. That’s because you currently have no tutorials, and no instructor system. Now, don’t get me wrong here. Believe it or not, I almost beat Super Meat Boy… once. And I’ve covered wars, you know! But… you have oh so many menus, and oh so many buttons.

But even though you haven’t actually been released yet, you’re a very big deal. And according to the title up there, you’re now on the road to becoming a way bigger deal!

Steam Greenlights Second Set Of 20 Community-Supported Games (Including A Source Mod Or Two)

October 16th, 2012 · By Vic · 10 Comments

Back in my day, you had to work hard to get yourself a video game! But these days, you whippersnappers… oh. Yes, apparently, you have to work to get games off Steam Greenlight, and onto Steam itself. Even if for the average Steam user, it’s as simple as clicking the big “Yes” button, for the project starters and supporters, it’s an undeniably complex and perhaps difficult process. But today, it seems to have paid off for 20 lucky Greenlight projects, which have been approved for official distribution on the Steam store. And surprisingly, there are a couple of Source-based projects nestled in there!

Podcast 17′s Let’s Play of Black Mesa: Source

September 18th, 2012 · By Vic · 16 Comments

Things have been a little quiet here – and I am sorry for that! Rest assured that I have been doing far more than simply playing Black Mesa during this time – together with my colleagues Mimaz and David, I am working on both an in-depth essay/review of BM:S, as well as a comprehensive video comparison between the original Half-Life and Black Mesa. And as Gabe Newell once said, these things take time (on a related note, work continues on that review of CS:GO, despite all the more important stuff getting in the way).

However, I won’t leave you guys hanging in the interim. As a matter of fact, I’d recommend you check out Podcast 17′s Let’s Play series of Black Mesa, on YouTube. While I am a part of the podcast staff, I haven’t participated in its creation, but I’ve got to say that it’s probably one of the best Let’s Plays of BM that I’ve seen thus far, since release. William has been a part of this community for a very long time, and is very much a Half-Life historian of sorts – and so, his commentary is constructive, positive, insightful and most importantly, very entertaining. He also demonstrates a lot of unique dialogue and environmental detail that I hadn’t actually picked up on.

Oh, and yes – as he had promised to do when Black Mesa is released, William is actually going to eat part of his beard, and he will do so on the next live episode: #206. I won’t be eating any of my facial hair – no, I’m saving that for when Gunman Chronicles 2 gets released. That’s a bet I can never possibly lose… unless someone at Valve somehow has a grudge on me. But apparently, they do visit once in a while, so let’s hope I’ve not sealed my doom (or rather, the doom of my facial hair) just now.

But if you’re looking for something to tide you over until I tell you all about our thoughts on the mod, then I highly recommend you read CVG’s review, Eurogamer’s, as well as BeefJack’s. They are all quite well-written, balanced, and insightful. And again, rest assured that our review is also on the way, and should drop relatively soon (yes, really)!

Black Mesa: Source; Cry of Fear; No More Room in Hell; Have All Been Community Greenlit For Steam Distribution

September 11th, 2012 · By Vic · 19 Comments

Praise be to the Steam business development team, for they have blessed us all with some of the greatest news I’ve heard all year: among the first 10 games to pass through the Steam Greenlight crowd-sourced selection system are three amazing total conversion mods based on Valve’s games. The mods in question, which will soon be released officially on the Steam Store as free downloads are:

Cry of Fear, an incredible survival horror experience built on the GoldSource engine.
No More Room in Hell, an excellent co-op zombie survival game built on Source.
And, of course, the long-awaited Black Mesa: Source, an incredible reimagining of Valve’s first ever: Half-Life 1.

The most important thing worth mentioning here is that none of these games had gotten past the 50% voting mark, let alone the 100%. Black Mesa was on 49%; NMRIH was on 30%; while Cry of Fear was at 15%.

So what does this mean? Well, it means that my concerns, doubts, and worries, which I previously expressed in our article regarding Greenlight’s reveal, have all been shattered. And that’s actually great.

It’s really, really great to finally see Valve fully embracing their own modding community yet again, just as they used to in the old days (I was starting to get worried, quite frankly). Furthermore, simply having such great experiences available freely on the Steam Store is just amazing in itself, and I’m really happy all the hard work these dedicated modders have poured into their creations has finally paid off.

As a sinister, sociopathic artificial intelligence once said: it’s hard to overstate my satisfaction. Whoever made this decision is a saint on Earth, and should get their own country. Then again, they work at Valve, and that’s kind of a reward in and of itself.

In any case, this holy trinity, along with the other 7 greenlit games, will be moved to the Greenlit section of Steam Greenlight, where they will stay until they are officially released on the Steam Store, as free downloads (although some of the other 7 greenlits will obviously be paid games). Some of them are still months away from release, while others will be released very soon.

As we all know, Black Mesa is now only 3 days away from release, so let’s hope it will launch directly onto Steam. Both CoF and NMRIH have already been released previously, so hopefully it won’t take too long for them to reach the Store as well.

All 10 greenlit projects were in the top 11 most-rated projects on Greenlight (mysteriously, Slender: Source, which was the second most-rated project, has not been greenlit as of yet). And just in case you’re curious, the other 7 greenlit games are:

Valve’s Virtual Reality Goggles Revealed; And Big Picture Mode Public Beta To Start Later Today

September 10th, 2012 · By Vic · 17 Comments

Slow news week? Not anymore, my friends, for we have been spared. Read on!

Less Than 2 Days Left For The Insurgency 2 Kickstarter!

September 6th, 2012 · By Vic · 11 Comments

Once upon a time, when the Source modsphere was a lot more active than it is today, a small team of modders created Insurgency, a hyper-realistic, super-tactical, and mega-something Source mod that put you in the combat boots of either a U.S. Marine, or an Iraqi insurgency fighter, smack dab in the middle of the Second Gulf War.

Then the dev team kind of fell apart, and then post-launch support abruptly came to a complete end. And these days, Insurgency isn’t quite as lively as it used to be – but it’s still just as fun as ever. Maybe that’s what original Insurgency founder Jeremy Blum was thinking when he decided it was time to start developing Insurgency 2.

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