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Google to Buy Valve? WTF?

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.

Papercraft D0g from Half-Life 2 looks Awesome

There’s papercraft, and then there’s awesome papercraft. 4chan user (yes, 4CHAN USER) chamoo232 made a truly remarkable papercraft version of the fun mechanical contraption from Half-Life 2 that kicks ass: D0g.

Just look at the goddamn attention to detail. D0g looks exactly as he did in the Source engine. chamoo232 took 50 hours out of two weeks to finish this project. I know that I sure as hell can’t do that in 50 hours. This guy’s got talent.

It’s also a great break form the norm to create a papercraft version of a character as visually complex as D0g. I mean, everyone else is doing the goddamn Weighted Companion Cube from Portal. The guy is a full 12″ tall, and is currently occupied by a paper rollermine. It looks pretty awesome as well, but nowhere near as awesome as that D0g!

Check out more photos over here at the 4chan board. Don’t worry, this isn’t /b/, so it’s perfectly safe. For now. Meanwhile, here’s the image in the preview above:

No Half-Life 2: Episode Three at E3!

Yesterday was a time to be excited when news hit the Internet that a slew of titles will be appearing at E3 that demand excitement. Among these was Half-Life 2: Episode Three, perhaps the most-delayed of all the Half-Life 2 titles. Valve wants to release a Half-Life 2 episode every year, and going by the record, I don’t think they’re going to make it this year either, thanks to this news.

News just in that Doug Lombardi, the marketing director confirmed that Half-Life 2: Episode Three will not be appearing at this year’s E3. According to him, the inclusion of the game’s title in several E3 lists, such as E3.net was a “misprint”. Well, we’re glad that got of the way fast. No point in waiting all the way till E3 and then asking Valve “Where the hell is the episode you promised?” only to feel Valve’s look of confusion and rage.

But E3 or not, I think it’s about time Valve dishes out some info on Episode Three, like at least when they plan to release it, or whether they even have started work on it! What is surprising is that Valve’s plate is currently clean with only one title in the works, Left 4 Dead (which was the result of Valve’s acquisition of Turtle Rock Studios). Left 4 Dead is scheduled to release in November this year. Maybe we’ll get a teaser trailer with it? Maybe we’ll have some news by then? We can only hope.

Valve: PC Gaming is where all the action is

We’ve had all sorts of articles going on lately about how PC gaming is “dying”. Valve doesn’t think so. At a press event in Bellevue, Washington, Valve held steadfastly to their love of the PC and declared it as a robust and relevant gaming system. Gabe Newell went so far as to say that “[the] PC is where all the action is, and there’s a perception problem”.

It seems that Valve is placing emphasis on Steam and other online software distribution methods, and with good reason. Citing figures, Newell said that DFC Intelligence data showing that PC online sales have been on an increase since 2001, while retail sales comparatively flat. Valve also expects online sales to overtake retail very soon.

An interesting statement he makes is,

“We don’t really have a champion of the PC platform. If you write a story about the Xbox 360, there’s just an army of people who are going to descend on you to make that picture look as polished and rosy as possible. Same things for the other consoles – but there’s no equivalent on the PC, and the people who are traditionally driving these messages, like Microsoft or Intel or Apple are, for various reasons, not very effective champions.”

As we say from Valve’s latest announcement of Steam Cloud, Valve has been pretty aggressive on establishing the PC as the best video game platform out there. It’s time they got some support!

Steam Cloud: save your savegames online forever!

Valve continues to impress with every one of its announcements! We heard of Steamworks a few months ago, which has made professional video game publishing within everyone’s free hands. Now Valve announces Steam Cloud, a revolutionary service that will allow you to store savegames and configuration files online; that is, forever.

Hit the jump to read more and become darn excited!

Continue reading “Steam Cloud: save your savegames online forever!”

Doug Lombardi confirms more Portal

Hungry for more cake? Valve says it’s ready for more servings! Talking to Eurogamer, Valve’s Doug Lombardi confirmed rather vaguely that there will be more Portal, although of course, he said nothing more about that.

If you remember, we also talked to Doug Lombardi previously, and managed to extract the fact that there will be more Half-Life after Episode Three. Doug also says that he loves Eurogamer, which has sent the StuffWeLike spiralling into a depression.

Still, I bet you want more on the news itself. Hit the jump and find out!

Continue reading “Doug Lombardi confirms more Portal”