There are not many hours left so if you haven’t seen it yet this is almost a steal. The full Rockstar Games Collection is 50% off this weekend at just $29.99 U.S. You can get it via the Valve download service Steam which means while you don’t get a big box to put on your shelf there is the bonus of getting the games just as fast as your net connection. It’s quite a perk all this digital downloading from Steam as it even patches the games when required automatically so those who haven’t taken a look at the service should do so. The collection includes the GTA’s, Max Payne’s and Manhunt among others.

Be aware though this offer is doubtful to be available to those outside the US so bad luck for most of the world. It’s very unfair for those of US who are outside the US but on occasion we do get offers that our American counterparts don’t so there is some balance in the world.

Holy shit, did anything even remotely think of this? The Inquirer reports a breaking that Google may be buying Valve any second. And why this seemingly random move? Google most probably wants to acquire Steam, Valve’s trusty and super-successful content distribution service. So is Google taking it’s first step in the video game industry by bridging the Internet and video games?

There is no doubt that Steam is the greatest, most effective and most awesome content distribution ever. It looks like Google is interested in distributing content around. Owning Steam would definitely be profitable for Google, but it would only enforce peoples’ opinions that Google is turning into a Microsoft-ish monopoly with their webby hands over everything related to the Internet.

I personally think that the acquisition will still give Valve some space, a bit like the Activision-Blizzard merger, I’m thinking. But Google will definitely want Steam for itself. I just hope they don’t change the default theme to their boring white-blue nonsense, that just sucks.

The game that came out about this time last year and it’s upcoming expansion have been announced as available soon on Valve’s download service. Steam is popular, seriously so for anyone who has been into the Half-Life or Counter Strike titles for the last few years with other companies begging to be added to the buy and download service. Some of the best games ever made can be found on the service and it feels quite fitting that Crysis will be on there also as a graphical benchmark.

There is however one part of Crysis’ inclusion which won’t make it blend in with the other games on the service. There is a very slim chance of any patches being added to the game so it won’t be updated almost daily like Team Fortress 2. In some ways it’s a good thing as it will not mean constant downloads for those on bandwidth limits like the European users and a few in the US.

As a big guy we always wondered how our old friend in Valve’s Team Fortress 2 manages to keep in shape and it turns out to be a steady diet of sandviches.

As one of the big announcements to the heavy update for TF2 the sandvich is a health supply which when properly used can provide valuable emergency health. The only downside to this is you must stay in one place for a number of seconds making considerable noise while eating your sandvich. Just like a sitting duck indeed.

If you have Team Fortress 2 you can try out the sandvich right away by downloading the heavy update now.

This isn’t a news story but a why not. Considering the average World War 2 shooter idea has been done to death over the past decade with the Call of Duty, Brothers in Arms, Medal of Honor series and many more covering the same ground why not mix things up a little? Granted we have been getting for the last few years a number of alternate timeline versions of WW2 to play about with why not just join together Portal and the WW2 shooter format?

It’s not as crazy as it sounds. Imagine running down a beach being shoot at from a high cliff face by MG emplacements with dozens of your guys waiting behind in a support craft for you to get close enough to a fire on a nearby wall up there an portal exit. Then the action begins with all your men pouring out right behind the enemy taking them out in a stunning attack. It sound’s good when you think of it that way, so why not use the idea? After all wormhole combat was possible in Prey to a lesser degree.

For that matter why not a naval battle version where portals are turned into weapons allowing a giant one to be generated at the front of a battleship allowing the ship to pass to another location. Submarine games would be more interesting but there would have to be a few balancing conditions like a once per five minute usage to allow the generator to charge.

Then you have a racing title. While not as exciting how about adding the ability to call up a portal so you end up in the pit lane when your tyres are flat? It’s better than the current alternative in racing games where you have to drive at 5mph all the way round the lap to get there.

Strategy games and space simulations however already implement the portal initiative and have done so for quite some years. Traversing wormholes in space games is common and quick movement generators are also in some strategy titles. In this realisation perhaps we would not find portals all that shocking if used in other games genres. Food for thought.