New World Interactive, the team behind Insurgency, has released info on new features for the game and some new screens. Insurgency, a first-person team-based shooter based on a popular total conversion for Half-Life 2 and originally displayed at PAX Prime last year, has been gaining momentum and was launched in an “Early Access” beta campaign at the beginning of this month. Anyone can join the “Early Access” campaign by going to the Insurgency site.
The new additions added to the game have been the result of community feedback, and include two new modes and expanded maps.
Seven more Mac titles greenlit by Steam.
Valve has announced the second wave of greenlit games from Steam Greenlight. Intended to be only 10 more games, they decided to release 20 because of the number and quality of games submitted, among other things.
Among those titles are 7 that will be available for the Mac when the games are finally released. The total is listed below, but they include the multi-legged sequel Octodad: The Dadliest Catch, the humorous Folk Tale, and atmospheric exploration game Dream.
In the coming months, the developers for these games will work with Valve to work on, polish, and/or market the game and plan for its launch. The amount of time that takes will depend on just how far the game is in development now. For example, Folk Tale is looking at a Winter 2013 release, whereas Postal 2 is looking at a release on October 22 of this year.
Games Greenlit this wave with Mac clients:
AirBuccaneers
Folk Tale
Interstellar Marines
Octodad: Dadliest Catch
POSTAL 2 COMPLETE
The Stanley Parable: HD Remix
Yogventures!
Seriously, you’d think that some people would learn that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and take rumors with a grain of salt. Like the latest one, where apparently Nexon and/or NCSoft are in deep negotiations or some such to purchase Valve. I’m not kidding, the rumor is everywhere.
So where did the rumor start? Well, the Korean site JoongAng seems to be the source. If you translate it, the site says that in Hawaii, while attending Nexon’s Developers Event, executives of Valve, Nexon, and NCSoft had a secret chat about purchasing Valve. The estimated price was rumored to be $893 million.
What is the validity to this rumor? Not much. Beyond the fact that Valve is currently estimated to be worth at least $2.5 Billion, Valve CEO and co-founder Gabe Newell is on record stating he’d rather disintegrate the company than sell it to someone else. Let’s also add in the fact that the anonymous tipper also seems to be saying that s/he wasn’t even present for the meeting, so can’t even comment on what was said between the three game companies’ executives, and that pretty much squashes the legitimacy of this rumor.
Chances are Valve was chatting up Nexon/NCSoft about work on the newest version of their Counter-Strike online game, which is specifically developed for the Asian market.
But, who knows. I mean, didn’t Nexon try purchasing EA just a few months ago? Yeah.
UPDATE:Valve designer Greg Coomer gave us a quick reply to our query regarding how long it will be until the Big Picture beta will include Mac gamers. Though he couldn’t provide an exact time for when it would happen, he did confirm that Mac users are a priority. “We don’t have a specific date planned yet,” Coomer said, “but Mac support is definitely a priority for us. We won’t leave Mac users behind for too long.”
Back in late August, Valve announced that they were finally bringing Big Picture from the idea phase to the reality phase. Today Valve announced that the beta of Big Picture is coming later today. However, only Windows gamers get to cash in on the Beta to start.
Big Picture allows you to take your gaming habit from your monitor to your television screen by providing a reformatted screen interface that you can access once you hook up your PC or Mac to a television set, usually with just a single HDMI cable. Valve says that access to the complete Steam store and the new Steam Community is included. In addition to your complete library of Steam games, your cloud files, Steam Workshop content, account information and preferences will be accessible automatically in the new mode, too.
The new interface has been formatted to support either keyboard and mouse input or most game controllers. Big Picture includes a new tool for typing called the Daisywheel. There’s not a lot of info about this feature yet, but from the images the Daisywheel does seem to make it easier to chat and surf using traditional game controllers.
Another cool feature is access to a web browser within the interface designed for televisions and game controllers. The web browser is accessible from anywhere within the Big Picture UI, even in the middle of playing a game on Steam, so you can check out walkthroughs, for example, when you get stuck in a tough spot.
The setup page does a good job of going through the various types of computers that you can hook up to your HDTV to use Big Picture. Most notably, Valve says that laptops with integrated graphics will probably NOT provide the kind of performance you’d want. So beware of earlier Macbook and Macbook Pros with integrated graphics in them.
Unfortunately for us Mac gamers, we’re going to have to wait a bit longer. The Big Picture beta site lists OSX as a Big Picture system requirement, but also states that the beta would be “Coming soon for Mac”. There’s no word from Valve on how soon that will be.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a go! The team-based shooter has been released for WindowsPC and the Mac just a few hours ago and will be launched for PSN and Xbox later tonight and tomorrow morning. CS: GO features new maps, characters, and weapons and delivers updated versions of the classic CS content (de_dust, etc.). In addition, CS: GO will introduce new gameplay modes, matchmaking, leader boards, and more.
CS: GO comes with a number of competitive leagues already running from months of beta testing, and several tournaments are already gearing up, including the ESWC and Go4CSGO. There’s also a lot of additional content, such as the Zombie mod, and Valve is working towards the release of the Map Workshop so map makers will be able to quickly share their ideas with the community.
Some in the community have complained that CS: GO is nothing more than the original game with a little extra content, and asked why an entirely new game hadn’t been released. Whereas there is some validity to this argument, a significant amount of work has been put into upgrading the artwork for the game, adding more weapons to use, and launching the game with a full community of players that you can jump into that have a long history behind them.
System requirements aren’t that steep either:
- MacOS X 10.6.6 or higher
- Intel Core Duo Processor (2GHz or better)
- 2GB RAM
- At least 7.6GB of Space
- ATI Radeon HD 2400 or better / NVidia 8600M or better video cards
You can download the game right now off of Steam for a mere $14.99.
Over a year ago, Valve revealed big-picture mode for the PC and Mac, which will allow you to take your gaming habit from your monitor to your television screen. Announced at the GDC, Valve gave few details, only that it would have full controller support for keyboard and mouse or any other input device you wanted to use.
On the podcast for GameTrailers TV released Friday, Valve bigwig Gabe Newell and designer Greg Coomer gave more details. The beta for big-picture mode will actually be launching in early September. “…you’ll be able to hop into a beta, click a button, and see Steam reformatted for your TV,” said Coomer.
Coomer also promised that all games will be available in big-picture mode, though perhaps the ones that will give the best experiences are the games that work well with a controller such as a gamepad.
