Category: Portal

Valve Games Now Available On GameStop’s “Impulse” Digital Distribution Platform

Valve Games Now Available On GameStop’s “Impulse” Digital Distribution Platform

The world of digital distribution business is a wild one indeed. You know… “Dog Eat Dog”, and all that good stuff. And all that dog food s**t is starting to affect the brick-and-mortar game industry as well. Which is why in March of 2011, GameStop acquired Impulse, a digital distribution platform previously operated by Stardock. And now, Impulse is doing pretty well for itself, and in certain departments, it performs far better than Steam. But I can assure you I’m totally not talking about pricing. Steam is doing really well with pricing - I mean, who could ever say that Steam pricing sucks; and that Impulse has pricing which is… well, better? It’s ludicrous!

But I digress: there’s loads of digital distribution platforms. Some have come and gone, some are still alive after years in the business, and others have just been born. Which is why it’s so surprising that Impulse has just entered an interesting business arrangement with Valve. For the first time ever, Valve games can be purchased on a digital distribution service that’s not Steam. Read on!

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PlanetPhillip News: HalloweenVille Released, CrossbowVille Nearing End, And More

PlanetPhillip News: HalloweenVille Released, CrossbowVille Nearing End, And More

Some more updates from PlanetPhillip. Even in the New Year, Phillip is still doing some tremendous work over at good old PP.

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Combine OverWiki Goes Independent, Leaves Wikia… Forever

Combine OverWiki Goes Independent, Leaves Wikia… Forever

On the 12th of February, 2006, the Combine OverWiki (then known simply as the “Half-Life Wiki”), was born. At first, it may have seemed like just another one of the many Half-Life wikis. But slowly, it began to grow, and by 2009, it had become the Internet’s foremost Half-Life wiki. And in 2012, it finally left Wikia. Rejoice!

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John Patrick Lowrie Talks About The 2011 VGA’s, Also States That: “Ellen And I Haven’t Heard Anything About A New Half-Life”

John Patrick Lowrie Talks About The 2011 VGA’s, Also States That: “Ellen And I Haven’t Heard Anything About A New Half-Life”

John Patrick Lowrie and Ellen McLain are so close to Valve and have voiced so many of their greatest characters, it’s easy to simply consider them employees. This year was particularly great for Ellen McLain, whose voice work for GLaDOS in Portal 2 brought her near-universal acclaim and praise. Sadly, John Patrick Lowrie will have to wait until 2015, when he voices Odessa Cubbage’s son in Half-Life 4.

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Post-VGA 2011 News Report

Post-VGA 2011 News Report

So, the 2011 Spike TV Video Game Awards have concluded. And, as you can tell from the lack of an article, Half-Life 3 or whatever kooky name we might have for it has NOT been announced. You can come out of your bomb shelters now, you can put down your Half-Life copies. Nothing’s gone down. But that won’t stop us from talking about all the awards Valve won, and the awesome short they made!

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Combine OverWiki Needs Your Help!

Combine OverWiki Needs Your Help!

A long time ago, some guy looked at Wikipedia and went “I wish we could have this for Stargate”. And thus, the fan wiki was born. Focusing on one topic, and one topic only, these wikis are essentially online encyclopedias for… well, whatever you want. Obviously, this is perfect for a video game with an universe as rich as Half-Life’s. In fact, there’s been lots of Half-Life wikis in the past. Some have died off, some are still alive. But the most successful one is, by far, the Combine OverWiki, which is currently hosted on Wikia.

Unfortunately, Wikia is not very good for… well, pretty much anything, I suppose. Advertisements, forced skin changes that break wikis, and so on, and so forth. Many fan wikis have moved to other locations, such as the Official Team Fortress Wiki, and some have simply avoided Wikia outright, such as the new Portal Wiki. And now it’s the OverWiki’s turn to get the hell out of there. But not so fast – they could use your help!

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Podcast 17 To Interview John Patrick Lowrie And Ellen McLain This Saturday (Today)

Podcast 17 To Interview John Patrick Lowrie And Ellen McLain This Saturday (Today)

Between the two of them, John Patrick Lowrie and Ellen McLain have voiced most of Valve’s most beloved and well-known characters. Could you imagine Portal without the voice of GLaDOS? Or HL2 without the voice of the downtrodden citizens and rebels? I sure can’t. But sometimes, hearing their voices isn’t enough. We need to find out the way they tick. And what better way to do it than a live audio interview?

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News Roundup #61

News Roundup #61

Sorry for the lack of activity around here! I’ve been really busy lately, and since I’m probably the last of the mohicans around here, it’s had a nasty effect on the site. I’m working on ways to ensure this doesn’t really happen again, and you’ll be hearing about that very shortly. Let’s just say it involves putting more people into our lovely, imaginary offices.

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