Category: News

Valve Announces The Dota 2 International 2012 Championship, Taking Place At PAX Prime

May 11th, 2012 · By Vic · 0 Comments

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!

Rock, Paper, Shotgun Interviews Carlos Montero, Lead Developer of Black Mesa: Source

May 9th, 2012 · By Vic · 14 Comments

It seems like everything even remotely Half-Life related is ultimately doomed to spend some time in some manner of development hell, limbo or purgatory. No one knows this better than the modders still hard at work on Black Mesa: Source, a remake/reimagining of the original Half-Life, built on the modern-day Source engine, and in the works since late 2004. It’s a colossal endeavor for a team of maybe two dozen amateur developers. With no actual budget, their only resource is time, and they have had a lot of it.

Now, Rock, Paper, Shotgun have managed to ”crowbar the answers” out of Carlos “cman2k” Montero, project lead of BM:S, in an insightful and well-done two-part interview. Let’s take a look at part 1, after the jump.

Portal 2′s Perpetual Testing Initiative DLC Is Finally Here!

May 8th, 2012 · By Vic · 13 Comments

At last, Portal 2′s second DLC release, the Perpetual Testing Initiative, has been released to all owners of Portal 2 for free! Featuring a brand new easy-to-use “Puzzle Maker” toolkit for creating your own test chambers, alongside integration with the Steam Workshop, allowing near-instant uploading, rating, sharing, downloading and playing custom levels; and a new side-story featuring Cave Johnson – you absolutely cannot miss this thing. If all goes well, Portal 2 should be downloading and installing the new DLC update as you’re reading this article. In addition, Portal 2′s Steam Workshop section is now live.

If your Portal 2 has not updated yet, and is showing no signs of doing so, consider simply starting up the game/restarting Steam/verifying your game cache; or in some cases, uninstalling Portal 2 (but don’t worry, the Steam Cloud will restore everything). Keep in mind that it is a sizeable update, with an average size of 815 MB.

While you wait for the download to finish, check out the redesigned official Portal 2 website, and consider reading Cave Johnson’s rant about building more test chambers, as well as Valve’s simple guide on setting up your own test chamber in the new Puzzle Maker. You might also be interested in reading my impressions of the Perpetual Testing Initiative itself, which you’ll find in our review. Once all that’s done… get testing!

Steamcast Podcast Is Coming To An End, Final Episode To Be Recorded Live In 14 Hours [UPDATE]

May 7th, 2012 · By Vic · 10 Comments

[UPDATE: The recording is now long over, and Steamcast has come to an end. Final episodes have yet to be released in downloadable MP3 form, so stay tuned!]

After almost 3 years of activity, the Steamcast podcast is closing its doors. Later today, they will be recording their last episode ever – Episode #99. Set to be recorded live in 14 hours (at precisely 12AM, midnight GMT), it will be a 3-hour special during which they’ll be discussing Steamcast itself, telling stories about its creation, its development and its life. They will be inviting listeners to call in live, come onto the show, and talk with the 3 hosts: Sam, Brad and Saurabh.

In addition, they’ll be giving out free games during the live recording, including a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive beta key. In order to win these, you’ll need to be tuned in to the live stream, as well as be present in the Steamcast Steam Community group’s chatroom while they are recording.

While I won’t be able to make it for the first hour or so, I will almost certainly be present for the rest of the episode, and I might even call in live to chat with the hosts, as well as any other listeners. For more information, check out their announcement.

CS:GO Beta Updated, SDK Is Released To All Beta Players

May 6th, 2012 · By Vic · 6 Comments

As usual, Valve released their weekly update for the CS: Global Offensive update just this past Friday. Alongside the release of yet another batch of beta invites sent to survey applicants, Valve has made the CS:GO beta SDK publically available for all those in the CS:GO beta. If you’re interested in CS:GO level design, they recommend that you join the CS:GO SDK mailing list. Later on, Steam Workshop integration will be added (just like Portal 2 and its Perpetual Testing Initiative), so that all players can view, rate, upload and download maps. The level editor itself is, of course, Hammer 4.1, so not much has changed. That said, it does feature all the new entities that you’ll be needing for your CS:GO level design needs, including the new isometric shadow-mapping system, which is actually surprisingly easy to set up and use.

The game update itself features some slight changes to weapon accuracy and recoil which have been well received by most players, as well as some game optimization. In addition, SE versions of the DE_Nuke and DE_Inferno maps have been added to the game, providing competitive players with levels stripped of all props and superfluous visual effects. There have also been changes on the audio design front, such as raising the volume of firing sounds; increasing the distance at which firing sounds fade out; and removing all DSP from footsteps and firing sounds for improved sound directionality. However, Global Offensive’s audio still needs quite a bit of work, and I’d recommend replacing or heavily modifying certain firing sounds (the M4, P2000, P250, SCAR-20 and SSG08, in particular). Overall, this is a strong update that improves the game even further. Check out the blog post for more info.

“Fresh Meat!”

May 4th, 2012 · By Vic · 9 Comments

Today we’re pleased to announce that we have brought in two new writers: Crash-Override, a veteran writer and Source level designer; and Mimaz, co-host of the Steamcast podcast, former regular on the Steam Forums, and a fine writer. They won’t be doing news – instead, they’ll be doing some lovely original editorial content, which I think you guys are going to love.

That said, Crash and Mimaz’s arrival is unrelated to the call for writers that we did last September. Speaking of which - that call for writers was a huge success after all, and we’ll be bringing the 7 new staff writers we accepted from that soon, probably around summer time.

As a matter of fact, Mimaz’s first article will be released tomorrow, and it will be the first in a series of in-depth pieces that we’ve dubbed “The Half-Life Dissertation“. I think you guys will enjoy it!

Vic’s Thoughts On: The Portal 2′s Perpetual Testing Initiative DLC; Or Why Portal 2′s Future Is Looking Very Bright

May 2nd, 2012 · By Vic · 27 Comments

As you may or may not know, I wasn’t exactly pleased with Portal 2′s first DLC outing – “Peer Review“. While the Challenge Mode added much-needed replay value to the game, it really should have been in the game from launch. The only other bit of content in there, the new ”Art Therapy” co-op course, was rather disappointing, with poor writing and plot, as well as some meager and poorly balanced gameplay offerings.

I don’t subscribe to the school of thought that all free DLC is automatically good – you have to draw the line somewhere. And solid feedback will help make future releases better. For instance, the poor reactions to L4D1′s underwhelming ”Crash Course” almost certainly helped Valve build better L4D DLC in the form of L4D2′s “The Passing” (although later on they did let us down again with “The Sacrifice“). So we needn’t be afraid to voice our opinions.

But enough about all that. Here we are, with Portal 2′s second, and perhaps final DLC release almost upon us. The Perpetual Testing Initiative promises to turn Portal 2 into a never-ending house of pure science, providing it with enough replayability and content to feed 5 full-priced Call of Duty games. But does it fulfill that promise?

Oh My God, Someone Is Making An Animated Portal Movie

April 30th, 2012 · By Vic · 7 Comments

Since Portal 2′s release in April of last year, we’ve seen the release of a number of terrific fan-films: the poignant and clever “Outside Aperture“; the intriguing but lovely “Portal: No Escape“; and of course, the hilarious “Aperture: A Triumph of Science“. They serve as testaments to the community’s dedication, and appreciation for the world that Valve has so masterfully crafted. But every once in a while, one of those amazing projects comes around that’s just so promising, you can’t help but just be stunned. And this is one of them!