Counter Strike: Global Offensive confirmed for Summer launch!

Earlier this week at Microsoft's showcase event, Counter Strike: Global Offensive developer has confirmed that the highly anticipated CS:GO is set to launch this Summer for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. Hurray! Now for the bad news, cross-platform play is dropped from CS:GO. So many things could be explored with cross-platform play, and it would have been one of the first FPS games to support it, but it probably would just take too much time, work and effort, even for Valve developers.

I'm not too bothered about not getting any cross-platform love from the developers, since I am, and will be playing anything on the PC. However, it would still be really cool to be able to play with other peoples who are on their consoles, and to see how the game-play will turn out. I guess this is kind of a good thing since the developers would be able to focus more on the development for each platform.

Sign up for the beta for CS:GO here! 

Image source: http://www.evilsourcegaming.com/2012/02/csgo-beta-opening-up-to-more-players-today/

Valve's "Steam Box" gaming console

Valve is rumored to be developing their own console, currently known as "Steam Box". Steam Box is developed with the idea of a low-cost and micro-sized PC that would be able to play all of Steam's games. The baseline specs of Steam Box is reported to be a Intel Core i7 CPU, 8GB RAM, and an Nvidia GPU, which would run pretty much any PC games in high quality.

Maybe for once, I might consider getting a console. I mean heck, a console with specs better than what my PC currently have? Shut up and take my money! It's great to see Valve venturing into consoles, and not just sticking to the PC platform. Although Valve has not confirmed any of the reports yet, they should be making announcements in the near future. 

Image source: http://www.slashgear.com/valve-announces-15-million-steam-subscribers-0810151/

BioShock Infinite Release Date!

BioShock fans rejoice! 2K Games has recently announced the release date for BioShock Infinite. It is set to be released on 16th October in the U.S. for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360, and 19th October for the international release. BioShock Infinite is one of the most anticipated titles of 2012, and it will be set in an alternate steam-punk universe in 1912, USA.

This title is quite a different feel from the previous BioShock titles which are set in the underwater metropolic, Rapture. With the floating sky-cities, I am sure that BioShock Infinite will be a promising title. I look forward to playing this game on the PC when it is released. 

Image source: http://www.joystiq.com/2010/08/12/bioshock-infinite-preview/

Valve merchandise!

Toy company, NECA will be selling Valve merchandise to shops this summer! There will be various toys from the different Valve titles such as:

• Team Fortress 2
• Half Life
• Left 4 Dead 2
• Portal

Oh yes, there will be a life-sized Portal gun on sale for $130. Expensive? A little, but having a Portal gun hung up on your wall is definitely worth it. I would definitely be buying some of the action figures. Although  I'm not much of a toy collector, but if a company sells action figures of my favorite video games, my money is theirs.

Image source: http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/02/24/team-fortress-2-action-figures-and-life-sized-portal-gun-hitting-shops-this-summer/

Counter Strike: Global Offensive joining up the beta wagon

Joining the closed beta wagon today is CS:GO. Much like the DOTA 2 closed beta, all you have to do is fill in a survey and you could stand a chance getting into the beta. Once you get into the beta, you will of course receive beta keys to gift to your friends on Steam. They will be making their first selection from the survey next week, it will make up of 1.6 players, CS:S players, and players who have played neither.

To stand a chance to get into the beta, all you need to do is enter this into any Windows Explorer or browser address bar and it will open the survey through Steam for you: steam://takesurvey/2/

Image source: http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/12/valve-announces-counter-strike-global-operations-playable-at-pax/

Realm of the Mad God on Steam now!

You may have heard of or even played Realm of the Mad God on your browser before, but now it's going on to Steam for free! It is a co-op MMO bullet hell 2D shooter where you can basically team up automatically with players nearby and kill monsters and bosses together. There are 13 different classes that you can progressively unlock and play, each with its own unique stats and abilities.

My suggestion? Download it now! It's free, it's fun, and it will consume your soul. With a likely increase of player base, you can expect more content to be added to the game in the near future. Get it on Steam here.

Image source: http://www.tigsource.com/2012/02/18/coming-to-steam-realm-of-the-mad-god/

Message from Gabe to Steam Community

Welp, it seems that the hackers from before might have taken a copy of a backup file about Steam transactions between 2004 and 2008. The article mentioned that the file contained usernames, emails, encrypted billing addresses and credit card information, but it did not include Steam passwords.

If you're on Steam, it's probably a good idea to change your password right about now.
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Blizzard versus Valve - Clash of the DOTA trademark

Blizzard is appealing against Valve for the DOTA trademark, and this case has already gone to the courts. Dota 2 is being developed by Valve has already been in beta for quite a while now, and Blizzard has only recently decided to fight for the trademark. I think this whole deal is kind of stupid. Does the name of the game really matter? It could be called something entirely different and the Dota lovers like myself would still play it and love it anyway.

In my opinion, I think that Blizzard is the bad guy here. All these years when the original Dota was free, Blizzard wouldn't have given a rat's ass to anyone who would apply for the trademark. Now that Valve has made Dota into a franchise, Blizzard wants the trademark all to themselves. I understand that the original Dota mod was built and made on Blizzard's Warcraft III engine, but it's Blizzard's fault for not applying for the trademark earlier. What I think is going on is the work of Activision, they've already screwed up games with so much potential, and now they're trying to do it with Blizzard's games.

I'm just gonna hope that this fight for the DOTA trademark wouldn't affect either one of the Dota games. I honestly would still play it even if it's called something else like "Super Fun Time Party of the Ancients". It would suck to see game development being shut down due to something this redundant, why can't game companies just get along?

Image source: http://kotaku.com/5883938/blizzard-and-valve-go-to-war-over-dota-name