Steam

Steam to release it’s own console like PC

by

With BIG PICTURE getting good reception. Valve will be making their own console style PC. 😀

“Well certainly our hardware will be a very controlled environment,” he said. “If you want more flexibility, you can always buy a more general purpose PC. For people who want a more turnkey solution, that’s what some people are really gonna want for their living room.

It’s like a console but minus the walled garden. 😀

Steam has metroized their forums.

by

Most of you know that I like Steam/Valve quite a bit. Still, I have no problem pointing out something I don’t care for. For awhile now with the new Steam interface it was known that you could start your own group forum discussions for your own groups, and Steam even had their own set of forums that were like the old forums, only accessible via Steam though. Well, with the latest updates Steam has made you can say goodbye to the SPUF you know and love.

For the steam browser this is a good interface, for the regular browser this is counter intuitive. I hope enough people complain about this to bring back the original forums. Unlike other companies, Valve actually listens to people. And if enough people feel the way I feel they may be able to sort something out.

Edited for teh grammarz.

Valve making a new game engine perhaps?

by

Taken from here.

Gabe Newell: We’ve been working on Valve’s new engine stuff for a while, we’re probably just [incomprehensible, subtitled as: “waiting for a game to roll it out with”]

Fan: Is it going to be more than just an extension to Source? Is it an entirely new engine?

Gabe Newell: Yeah!

Hmmmmmm… Episode 3 anyone? 😛

Steam to have closed beta in October for their Linux platform.

by

If you like the idea of gaming under linux you may want to consider reading this article.

Things have been going well. We will be having an internal beta starting next week, and a private external beta for 1,000 users sometime in October.

The private external beta will include:

Steam
One Valve game
Support for Ubuntu 12.04 and above

It will not yet include:

Big Picture mode
Additional Valve games

For existing Linux users, the external private beta is a good release for seeing where we are in running our games on Linux. We will be using a sign up page for the external beta. Information about the sign up will be announced in a future post.

For those new to Linux, we recommend waiting for a subsequent release where more features are implemented along with improvements to the user install experience.

I’m more of a fedora distro kinda person, but I’d still be willing to hunker down and give Ubuntu a shot. With the rise of Windows 8 this will most definitely be a step in the right direction on Valve’s part.

Killing Floor makes it to Steam Workshop

by

Yep, now people can submit their mods via steam for download. If you don’t know what Killing Floor is it’s basically the British version of Left 4 Dead (with other features), and you can have up to 6 people in your squad. The game is made by Tripwire interactive and it runs on the unreal engine.

To celebrate Killing Floor becoming part of Steam Workshop, Steam is having a sale on the game.

Steam’s Big Picture Mode: Aka AntiMetro

by

In case you haven’t heard (and you probably have) steam has a “big picture mode” for people using TV’s to game on.

So far it’s been very easy to understand. Unlike metro, it isn’t shoved in your face upon launch. Also the interface is pretty straight forward even for a beta. You can even type to your friends using a controller!

Not something I would use everyday (I game on a regular large monitor) but still a very nice option.

Communication just became easier.

by

With the new Steam community having been rolled out. I have decided to polish up the SNews usergroup a bit with some forums. Each show will get their own section, official authors will get their own section. We even have one for the community called Community Contributions. Details can be found in this thread.

As stated in the thread this IS a public group, anyone can join and post contributions.