iGame Radio

Data Jammers: FastForward has been released. Digital Eel’s data arcade game has initially been released for Windows, with a Mac version soon to follow.

In Data Jammers, you are an elite virtual commando named Data DOOD (stands for Digital Operative Optical Data). Your job is to defend the data stream by infiltrating the military industrial complex, Ouroboros, and destroy it. The game is set within continuously moving three dimensional retro wireframe driving tracks which are populated by numerous dangers, hazards, and boss guardians along the way.
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If you live in the Russian Federation and have been feeling a little lost love there from Valve, don’t worry. There’s some more lovin’ coming your way. Valve has teemed up with Xsolla, creators of the world’s largest payment network, to let you add value directly to your Steam Account Wallet via your local cash kiosk.
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In an attempt to expand Deliver2Mac, Virtual Programming has released an application for their digital download service.

Similar to how Valve’s Steam client works, the Deliver2Mac client app runs from your home computer and automatically detects Virtual Programming games. The preferences can be set to automatically start downloading updates for these games or to ask you before hand. You can purchase games through the app as well, and store them in a library similar to the way Steam operates. You can also peruse the site for trailers, demos, and game news.

Another really cool advantage is that all game manuals are available via the client app. Unfortunately, not every game has a manual…a problem that Virtual Programming is not always in control of fixing. But to sweeten the deal, Mark Hinton, CEO of Virtual Programming, says that there will be bundles and other special deals will be made available to customers only through the client. “The Deliver2Mac client is our customers’ personal game shopping assistant,” he stated.

After starting up the client, you can add your account from Deliver2Mac or start up an account if you don’t already have one. You can also choose to do shared storage of game info, or per user storage. We found the user interface to be clean and tidy, very easy to use, especially in comparison to the old Deliver2Mac website which was slower and often more difficult to find what you needed.

The system requirements call for: Mac OS X version 10.5.8, an Intel processor, and a broadband Internet connection. You can download the client app here.

Valve has opened the doors to trading in-game items and game gifts with the official launch of Steam Trading. Right now, gamers can trade items from Team Fortress 2, Portal 2, and Three Rings co-op adventure Spiral Knights.

Steam Trading started its life with a four week beta, during which time over 1 million items and game gifts were traded. Although at launch only three games are available to trade items from, Valve is working on getting more games from third parties in the coming months.

Here’s how it works: Any game you’ve purchased from the store as a gift, or received as an Extra Copy, can be traded to other users. They can be used to trade for other Gifts, or for items in Team Fortress 2, Portal 2, or Spiral Knights. Valve has also added a new checkout option to the Store when purchasing a gift so you can save it for trading or sending later, to support users who want to save games for trade fodder.

Contrary to what you might think, this doesn’t include used games. The Steam Trading FAQ specifies that only games that have been bought as a gift and never played can be traded. Once the Steam Gift is opened and added to your game library, you won’t be able to trade it again.

Valve is working on privacy settings right now, so your Steam Gift Inventory may not be visible to others. But the rest of your inventory will obey your preset privacy settings.

Support for Steam Trading has been added to the Steamworks SDK, so game developers can add Steam Trading directly into their games as well.

In the same Steam Client update that houses the Steam Trading, Valve also included a new Friends Tagging feature. You can right-click on any friend and select ‘Tag As…’ to choose a category for them. Friends can be tagged in multiple ways and will then show up several times in your friends list, once for each tag.

UPDATE: looks like Dota 2 is going to be pushed to sometime early next year, according to this Shacknews article.

The International, the first tournament of Dota 2 held at Gamescom, has resulted in a champion. Valve has announced that team “Na’Vi” from Ukraine took first place with the $1 million grand prize.

Over five days, this event was viewed by millions through live broadcasts and live audiences. The International featured the 16 best Dota teams in the world competing in the Dota 2 Championships through a group stage, double elimination playoff format over the course of Cologne’s five-day trade show. Teams represented countries from across the world, including Denmark, China, Russia, the Philippines, and Singapore.

In addition to the cash prizes awarded by Valve, Nvidia provided all the hardware for the event plus hardware prizes for the winning team. Valve has confirmed that it will be holding another International tournament next year, and is even discussing upcoming Dota 2 events during its beta phase.

Dota 2 is the stand-alone sequel that Valve is developing to the popular Warcraft III mod map Defense of the Ancients (popularly known as Dota). The game will tentatively be released for Windows and Mac later this year early next year.

Mobigames, in partnership with Two Tribes, is bringing their award-winning iOS game Edge to the Mac and Windows platforms.

This retro-styled platforming game with light puzzle elements allows players take direct control of a cube as it rolls around over forty block-based levels in search of colorful prisms and the fastest routes. Throughout the game’s levels, unique techniques – such as the balancing act called ‘EDGE time’ – are introduced to deepen the experience. To top it all off, EDGE will include all the content of the soon to be released iOS game, EDGE extended, as free post-launch DLC, albeit only for the Steam version.

This is the third Indie game to be redeveloped and taken to other platforms by Two Tribes, after Swords & Soldiers and Frenzic. Two Tribes promises custom bonus levels built by them will be included in the release. Edge will be coming to a Mac near you via Steam and the Mac App Store on August 11th. No price has been set as of this date.

If you listen closely, you might hear the weeping of Tim Langdell.

Riding the wave of free to play fever, Valve has decided they are not done yet. They announced that Team Fortress 2 has gone F2P…part of the “Über Update” released yesterday.

After 200 updates, this team co-op shooter released in 2007 will now sport a hybrid membership model. Anyone who downloads the game will be able to play for free. This includes access to every map in the game, but a limited amount of items, slots, trading rights, etc. Those who have or will spend any money at all on the game, whether it be having purchased the game (download or retail) or purchasing anything in the Mann Co store, are considered premium members. Premiums get access to the whole shebang.

In addition, current players who are converted to Premium members automatically will also get special Proof of Purchase hats to wear that will only be available those who purchase the retail version. Valve has also already implemented some measures to prevent F2Pers from using this method to cheat the game by creating multiple accounts. You can get more information in the TF2 FAQ.

Also included in the Über Update is the new Medic. Valve has released an animated short, “Meet the Medic,” to help the community become more familiar with this cleric-gone-fighter character.

TF2 is F2P for Windows and Mac players via Steam. For more information, visit the Team Fortress free to play site.

Editor’s Note: Our intern Ben Heindel is ending his time with us. But before he goes, we thought we’d post one of the articles that he wrote as a guest column. This is in response to the interview given by Gabe Newell of Valve Software, in which he stated that he was interested in employing a game system where payment was based more on how good players are to each other, rather than the value of the games themselves.

Would you want to pay more for not being fun to play with? Valve Software founder Gabe Newell, in an interview with Develop Online, talked about a concept for how to set up a new purchase system to reward kinder players with discounts and even free games, and hamper annoying players or griefers by forcing them to pay more or even make them pay to use other features of the game that are normally free. Really this sounds great but the chances for problems to crop up are quite numerous.

Would the execution of this system be worth it for Valve to implement it at this time? There are a few ways that this could be executed. It could be an automated process based on how quickly people leave after you showed up in the game or on your profile views or something along those lines. But any automated system can and will be abused after people do the number crunching and find out the conditions. Maybe Valve could go the route of a ranking or point system, allowing the players to decide who is good and who is bad with votes and such. But once again there is the same issue of abuse, but this time it is cranked up to 11 with an overall inability to save customers from being raided by the same trolls that they are trying to avoid.

Will Valve or other companies connected to Steam expect this plan to create a steady form of income compared to the current model? With the possibility of free games on a larger scale, smaller developers will see a falling out in income to support their projects. In the case of larger publishers, they probably won’t be very happy about having their games prices lowered for various people who just happen to be good in their little community. Also, if Valve starts increasing the charge for certain games then gamers will turn their money elsewhere instead of paying through Steam. There will also be the people who do get the benefits being the litmus test for who are Steam’s “best community members” which may make a wider slash in the community then the Marianas Trench. With the added power, some players may get very arrogant, turning them into less likable individuals…all the while, others will keep these players up there regardless of if they are still as likable as they were before for personal reasons. This may cause the general gamer population to look at these players as the kind of person the Steam community likes, making them avoid steam and move to another platform of distribution.

Another issue that could occur might come from personal attacks. There are many kinds of communities that may use this as an excuse to attack people that they don’t like. There is the side of communities that believe in very specific rules, whether its immature communities that think everybody are jerks to uptight communities that don’t believe in that whole “playing the game for fun” business. Then there are the individuals who take many games too seriously; attacking players en-masse would cause a massive chance of collateral damage of people who just want to have fun playing the game.

Overall this seems in the same vein as trying to keep everybody equal; in theory it sounds like a great idea but there will always be someone to make it a pipe dream, only looked upon with positive light by the top leaders and bright eyed teenagers who don’t look at the plan hard enough. At its worst Valve would be playing Teacher to everybody in its community; rewarding good kids and tattle tales with treats and gold stars and giving the bad kids and misunderstood kids time outs and making them stay in from recess. There are times when the conventions of industry need to be challenged, there are places where it requires major overhauls to get it into order. This is neither the time, nor the place, to try.

Valve has announced immediate support for Free to Play (F2P) games on Steam, launching five F2P games: Spiral Knights, Forsaken Worlds, Champions Online: Free for All, Global Agenda: Free Agent, and Alliance of Valiant Arms (AVA).

Starting last Wednesday and concluding Sunday, each of the five launch titles will offer exclusive in-game content to those who try the “F2P game of the day” on Steam. In game transactions in all of the titles will be supported by Steam’s micro-transaction backend system that is available to Steamworks partners and currently used in Valve’s Team Fortress 2.

“Free to Play games offer new game genres and game experiences for customers,” said Jason Holtman, director of business development at Valve, “while offering developers and publishers new revenue opportunities and the ability to reach customers in areas of the world where the traditional packaged goods model is less popular than F2P.”

Valve views this introduction as part of the constant evolution of Steam. Specific details on the F2P games of the day and their exclusive in-game content will be made available in the coming days.

Want to win an autographed guitar and Portal 2 swag? Like creating videos? Here’s your chance to satisfy both.

Valve Software and recording artist The National are sponsoring a contest. Starting today and running until midnight July 15th, the contest asks the community to make a music video for the song “Exile Vilify”, the Portal 2 piece that The National composed, using whatever visuals they choose.

Once aspiring video directors have completed their work, they may submit their videos on YouTube using the tag PORTAL2NATIONALEXILE. After the deadline, Valve, The National, and the community will select the winner who will win a prize package including a guitar autographed by The National plus a collection of Portal 2 merchandise.

For more information regarding the Portal 2 Music Video Contest, please visit thinkwithportals.com.