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Mass Effect price dropped to $10 on Steam this weekend

by Griffin McElroy { Nov 7th 2009 at 11:30AM }

Were you one of the seven people on the planet who managed to resist Mass Effect's "possible alien nudity" siren call? Prepare for your steely resolve to buckle: The game's only $9.99 this weekend on Steam. Despite any qualms we may have had with the game's completely broken inventory system, or the frequent appearance of three-toed sloth-powered elevators, we find it hard not to suggest dropping a Hammy to add this to your collection.

It might even help you decide whether you want to drop six Hammies on the upcoming sequel. Or a Grant and a Hammy, we guess, though that sounds like Denny's menu item. (Great, now we want some Denny's. Thanks for nothing, Valve!)

Modern Warfare 2 refused by digital distribution retailers; Steamworks to blame

by JC Fletcher { Nov 6th 2009 at 9:22AM }

PC gamers aren't the only ones angry about the way Modern Warfare 2 is shaping up. PC retailers, starting with IGN's Direct2Drive download service, have made the bold move to leave piles of money on the table by refusing to sell it. It's not in protest of the dedicated server issue or the multiplayer cap, but rather the fact that the game relies on Steamworks for updates, saving and Achievements; and Direct2Drive isn't thrilled about selling a game that requires the bundling of a competitor's product.

"At Direct2Drive," the statement on what would be the Modern Warfare 2 product page reads, "we believe strongly that when you buy a game from us, you shouldn't be forced to install and run a 3rd party software client to be able to play the game you purchased." The site offers an Amazon link to purchase the game, and a $5 coupon for other Activision titles on Direct2Drive.

Impulse and GamersGate won't be offering the Modern Warfare 2 either. Impulse tells VE3D that "the most obvious issue is the forced inclusion of a competitor's store that blocks us from carrying the game."

[Via Gamasutra]

Torchlight to explore retail shelves in January

by David Hinkle { Nov 5th 2009 at 8:30PM }

Torchlight, the action-RPG from Runic Games, is available right now via the game's official site or Steam. However, early next year, the game will also be available at brick-and-mortar shops, Joystiq sister site Big Download confirms. The news comes from Runic Games' head of PR, who says that a boxed version will hack and slash its way to retail shelves sometime in early January.

Currently, Torchlight is only compatible with Windows, but the team is hard at work getting it ready for Macs and is also preparing the game's first patch and mod tools. If you fancy yourself a fan of the Diablo series and have Steam, then give the demo a chance -- Torchlight was created in part by Diablo and Diablo II co-designers Max and Erich Schaefer, after all.

Gallery: Torchlight

COD4 on the cheap on Steam this weekend

by Richard Mitchell { Oct 30th 2009 at 4:40PM }

Just in time to wring a few more sales out of Call of Duty 4 before Modern Warfare 2 hits the market, Steam is marking the game down to $23.99 through Monday. We're told that's a 40-percent savings, which we're also told is rather considerable. What we know, however, is that Call of Duty 4 is an excellent electronic game cartridge, and it's easily worth the scratch. And seriously, at this point, there are approximately only twelve people that haven't played it.

So, we'd just like to congratulate Steam in advance for the $287.88 it will rake in this weekend.

Team Fortress 2 knocked to $2.49 ... for the next two hours [update: it's over]

by Richard Mitchell { Oct 29th 2009 at 3:35PM }

Update: The sale is over. We hope you managed to grab TF2 -- for yourself or a friend -- while the getting was good.

Original: Actually, it's less than two hours now, so what are you waiting for? It's two dollars and fifty cents! It's usually twenty whole dollars. Go buy it. Now. Go!

If you grab it now (or if you already have it), you can enjoy the first annual Team Fortress Haunted Halloween Special, which will bring new haunted maps, exploding pumpkins and update-specific Steam Achievements. We'd write more, but that would only waste more time. Time you could spend buying Team Fortress 2.

[Via TF2 Official Blog]

Oh, hey -- Painkiller: Resurrection released

by David Hinkle { Oct 29th 2009 at 1:00AM }

So here we were, thinking about how odd it was that a demo for Painkiller: Resurrection stealthily released onto the intertron last week after hearing nothing about the game for, oh, like six months, when all of a sudden we noticed that the full game is also now available. In fact, the release was so secretive, even the game's official site doesn't know you can't pre-order it anymore.

You can grab it for yourself on Steam for $29.99 right now or if you want to save $10 -- and don't mind a disc case taking up space on your shelf -- you can grab it for $19.99 from Amazon.

Torchlight demo released on Steam for frugal fantasy fans

by Griffin McElroy { Oct 28th 2009 at 11:20PM }

Your money is precious, like a precious, precious flower, made out of a precious crystal of some sort. We understand your hesitance to drop a wad of cash -- or in this case, a lone $20 bill -- on unfamiliar IP. Fortunately, so does Runic Games, developer of the recently released top-down RPG Torchlight.

The studio has answered the call of the "try it before you buy it" contingency and added a demo for the game to Steam. It's there right now, and it's free, and it has Diablo-ish sensibilities. If that's as enticing to you as we think it is, you can click right here and make it your own.

Left 4 Dead 2 getting Avatar rewards

by David Hinkle { Oct 28th 2009 at 4:02PM }

Over on the Steam forums, there was some hullabaloo earlier about potential Avatar awards for the Xbox 360 version of L4D2, all stemming from uncompressed files found on a dedicated server for the PC demo. Well, we're glad to inform you that Valve has confirmed Avatar awards will be included with the game (via G4) and that there will be a total of nine different Avatar rewards, six of which we currently know about.

These awards will run the gamut from a med kit backpack to a frying pan prop right down to Rochelle's Depeche Mode shirt you see above. And, unlike some other Avatar awards, you won't need to max out Gamerscore to get 'em; L4D2 Avatar awards unlock after you've completed more manageable tasks, such as winning ten games of Versus or killing 10,000 infected.

If you want to see some of the items in the flesh, head past the break for a virtual tour courtesy of G4.

Continued →

Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl at $5 on Steam until Monday

by Xav de Matos { Oct 27th 2009 at 11:00PM }

The highly under-appreciated shooter S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl is on sale for the low price of $5 on Valve's Steam platform until Monday. Developed by Ukrainian-based GSC Game World, the 2007 shooter takes place in an alternate reality where a second nuclear disaster takes place in at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine.

Normally priced at $19.99, Shadow of Chernobyl is a steal at $5; however, as solid as the FPS is, it also includes numerous video game storyline cliches like an amnesiac protagonist and flesh-hunting mutants. Where are all the games with flesh-hunting amnesiac mutants, right?

[Thanks, Dave]

L4D2 pre-order demo MIA on Steam

by Richard Mitchell { Oct 27th 2009 at 5:57PM }

We knew that the pre-loadable Left 4 Dead 2 demo on Steam would send withering waves of madness through the world's populace, but we never considered what would happen if the demo failed to materialize on the promised date. Steam users have been reporting that the demo is still unavailable, and Steam's own events page -- pictured above -- notes that it won't be available until early tomorrow.

The delay seems to only affect Steam users at the moment, as the Xbox version of the demo is currently available on Xbox Live Marketplace for those that have the redemption code. We've contacted Valve regarding the delay and will update this post as soon as we have more information.

Aussie Steam users get low-violence Borderlands by accident, fix incoming

by Alexander Sliwinski { Oct 27th 2009 at 4:00PM }

Oops! Australia has become so synonymous with censorship that even distributors are starting to get confused. Despite the unedited version of Borderlands passing the OFLC's ratings board successfully, it turns out that a "low-violence" version was accidentally uploaded for Aussies on Steam.

2K Games Australia is apparently working on getting the correct version onto Steam before the game launches in a few days. This does not affect the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game, which will be presented in what can only be described as "full violence" mode. Now, with luck, Australia will have the exact opposite problem with Left 4 Dead 2's launch.

[Via Big Download]

A world of data from the World of Goo birthday sale

by JC Fletcher { Oct 26th 2009 at 5:30PM }

Following the completion of the World of Goo birthday sale, 2D Boy gathered up all the statistics it had from the "pay what you want" sale and connected them all into a big pile of interconnected info blobs. After the last stat update, when the developer revealed that many people were buying the game for one cent, something magical happened! The average price went up by a noticeable amount.

Linux users were, on average, more generous with their purchase prices (maybe they offset the money they don't spend on operating systems?), and Swiss buyers were the most "generous," according to a metric that compares average purchase price to a country's per-capita GDP. The most generous individual? One "Stuart", who handed over $150 for a copy of World of Goo!

Meanwhile, the average purchase price for the WiiWare version was $15 -- because the sale didn't apply to that version.

PC Modern Warfare 2 gets Steamworks, Steam Cloud, Steam Achievements

by Randy Nelson { Oct 23rd 2009 at 6:15PM }

It'll likely be of no consolation for PC players irked by Infinity Ward's decision to forgo dedicated servers for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to learn that the game will connect to Steam's servers for automatic updates. Nor will the fact that, as a result of IW and Valve's team-up, MW2 will include 50 Steam Achievements to unlock, or that it will use the new Steam Cloud functionality so they can access their full profile and settings no matter what PC they're playing on.

Let's face it -- they're just too steamed.

If you're still planning to break the picket line and buy the PC version of MW2 (be careful, scab!), you'd probably like to know that the game is now available for pre-order via Steam. It's a lot safer than going anywhere near a real store given the number of people who sternly oppose your purchase.

GameStop details three-point plan for digital distro future

by David Hinkle { Oct 22nd 2009 at 10:00PM }

GameStop doesn't really have to worry about digital distribution devices like the PSP Go right now -- in the Go's case, it's because there's pretty much nothing on it -- but, in the future, the company may need to consider adapting to a less physical media-dependent market. Though some say that day won't come until 2017 (others say digital distribution will endanger the company), Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian recently attended an analyst-only GameStop meeting at the NYSE (via IndustryGamers) where the company actually detailed its plans to prepare for the rise of ~~the machines~~ digital distribution.

GameStop's three main goals to adapt included increasing in-store sales of point cards for online purchases, expanding its digital distribution of PC and casual titles via its website and making a strategic investment in the space or acquiring an online entity specializing in digital distribution. The first two are pretty cut and dry, but that last item really gives one food for thought.

There are certainly a plethora of online distributors that GameStop could own; Steam, Greenhouse, Impulse, GoG and Direct2Drive are all established and popular digital distribution services, though we think GameStop may have some trouble should it pursue Steam or Direct2Drive -- which are owned by Valve and IGN (News Corp.), respectively. And, hey, if GameStop decides to purchase any one of these and doesn't like it, there's always the option to trade it back in for ... ah, forget it.

Spare some coin, get Assassin's Creed for $5 on Steam 'til Thursday

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Oct 21st 2009 at 6:20PM }

How does it feel to have your wicked nature unfurled for all to see? Please, before you head off to the Steam website and take advantage of a temporary, 75 percent discount off Ubisoft's open-world bump-off sim, spare a moment's thought -- and some coin -- for those less fortunate than you.

Before you purchase Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut Edition (now with more missions, etc.!), why not stop by that poor chap on the street corner and send $5 his way? Think of it not only as a magnanimous gesture, but as an act of contrition -- because you just paid the same amount to repeatedly stab people like him as they constantly harass you because you're just trying to follow this guy and you don't have any money anyway and why won't they just stop bothering you man this is so annoying no means no don't you get it.

[Thanks, Astroblack]