Valve Hints At Upcoming Steam For Mac Announcement

iMac Colored Gordon Freeman

Valve may finally begin supporting the Mac OS X. Recently, an update to Steam had files that hinted towards Mac support,but now the master minds behind Half-Life are finally beginning to have more straight forward hints about it.

Valve has released a series of images leading up to an upcoming announcement to be made, which gives some of the more recognizable video games in their arsenal an Apple paint over. Such as how Gordon Freeman of Half-Life was sporting an iMac colored HEV suit with an Apple logo that was partially covered by his crowbar. Team Fortress 2’s Heavy in iPod ad form, a pair of turrets from TF2 and Portal doing the “I’m a PC” commercial spin-off and Left 4 Dead’s Francis speaking of how he hates different.

All of this media being released seems to be leading towards the announcement of Steam being released for the Mac. Maybe Valve will add actual Mac OS X support for some of the Source engine games, says Kotaku. With the Mac being notorious for having little love or program support, this would be a welcome addition for gamers.

Valve has also been hinting towards something Portal related as well. Gabe Newell, the company founder, will be making an appearance at GDC next week, to accept the Game Developers Choice Awards “Pioneer Award” which may include an upcoming announcement.

Just recently, within a couple of hours, Valve sent another Steam for Mac image to Rock Paper Shotgun, a retro styled “Steam for the rest of us” ad as well MacWorld showing Alyx Vance, the Half-Life 2 co-star, referencing Apple’s “1984” commercial.

All of this promotion being done is in fairly good taste, and I am sure the gamers are loving every bit of it. Valve’s decision to bring Steam to the Mac is a great idea.

Left 4 Dead 2 Mods To Support Custom Special Infected

Left 4 Dead 2

Valve recently announced the delay of the Left 4 Dead 2 SDK, much to the dismay of the many modders out there in the L4D2 community waiting to get their hands on this development kit. However, news regarding the capabilities of this SDK has been released, which managed to alleviate some of the disappointment that they felt. This kit will support custom infected, survivors, weapons and more.

Custom models are supported and this has been confirmed by a group who managed to give it a test run. Special infected, survivors, weapons are all able to be customized now. The weapon functionality can also be altered, which means that you can have custom survivors, special and common infected and new weapons particularly formatted to your campaign. This is nearing the power given when giving you are aiming to do a total overhaul, or make a game based of another games engine. These capabilities will now require the modding community to raise the standard of what is to come, simply because they have less limitations put onto them.

This is certainly a great initiative taken by Valve and is sure to increase the appeal of the Left 4 Dead franchise even more now. In any event, you can count on the Left 4 Dead 2 mods becoming much more interesting.

Valve: Team Fortress 2 Update Without New Game Mode

Team Fortress 2

Valve recently updated Team Fortress 2, one of their prize first person shooter games, and fixed bugs as well as added new sound files for the games announcer. As well as newly referencing the friendship, betrayals and mercenaries. But to the dismay of many TF2 fans, there has been no added game mode.

While not every one has heard the Announcer’s new dialog in game, some Team Fortress 2 players have. Valve flatly says that the update is not related, nor was it intended to, to a new game type.  Robin Walker, apart of Valve, goes on to say that there is something planned for TF2, but it is not a new game mode. Understanding the new sound files requires you to figure out who is hearing them while playing the game, and who is not.

Sounds like a basic update to the game. I still hear some people crying for a soldier update in the game, just for the sake of having it, however. In any event, maybe if the desire for a new game mode in Team Fortress 2 is high enough, Valve may actually release it in an update.

All Points Bulletin Detailed

All Points Bulletin

For those of you who have been long time readers, it will be no surprise to you that I’m a big fan of All Points Bulletin. What’s not to like about it? It’s a game created by the man behind the Grand Theft Auto series. It has a great development team behind it, it will have a great release, I think.

APB is being hailed as the multiplayer Grand Theft Auto, and some even say that APB is how Grand Theft Auto 4 multiplayer should have originally been. Though the developers try to make a clear distinction between the two, you can see some similarities in gameplay, style and graphics.

APB will not be having a monthly paid service, though it will be making some use of a subscription based payment. Maybe yearly instead, but what ever it chooses, it will be a game to be remembered. 10,000 users per world, and 100 users per city. It will be an immense game of cops and robbers, while at time offering a moment for a deathmatch. People may say that it is bland, in that it is a deathmatch and cops and robbers game, but you should seriously expect more from the man behind the GTA series. With an extremely robust character customization system, as well as intense chases, physics, civilians and an intriguing level up system, you should not consider this anything close to bland.

Though not much has been revealed, what is confirmed is the sheer amount of fun and things you will be able to do. Enjoying a constant battle between criminals and cops, you can expect to see some interesting and cinematic moments in this game. Though it may not be as extremely indepth and well made as Grand Theft Auto 4, it will do what it was made to do extremely well. You most likely will not see any replicate people unless they’re modelled after a celebrity or well known figure. Just know, you should keep your eyes out for the release of APB when ever it is released, it’s one of the games I’m most enthusiastic about.

Call of Duty World at War Map Pack 3 on PC

Call of Duty World at War

Call of Duty World at War will be seeing it’s 3rd Map Pack on the PC some time next week.

The Map Pack 3 will be coming with the standard multiplayer settings such as Battery, Nazi Zombies, and Breach and Revolution. Best of all, for PC users, they get it for free, unlike us console users will have to actually pay for this. This will all be included in Patch 1.6.

Not only that, they expect a simultaneous release of the Mod Tools 1.4 package, as well as some exploit and issue fixes included. The patch will include the extra maps, all the fixes, and everything you’d need. You can visit the official website if you’re interested in full details for the Call of Duty World at War Map Pack 3.