Hasta La Gadget!

We’re getting some pretty exciting news about Valve‘s hardware beta, and strangely enough that news is coming from 4chan. A group of fans from 4chan went to Valve’s offices to wish Gabe Newell a happy birthday (even giving him a home made Team Fortress 2 hat as a gift), and the head honcho was kind enough to hang out in the lobby and answer some questions. The video one 4chan member recorded lasts almost an hour, and though the whole thing is worth a watch, it’s Gabe’s discussion of the Valve hardware beta that we’re going to hone in on.

Apparently the hardware beta is already underway, and Valve has developed three different prototype controllers that are being tested at the moment. We’ve known about Valve’s foray into controllers for a while now, but this is the first we’ve heard of prototypes that are actually in testing. Valve’s development of controllers meshes nicely with the launch of the big picture mode beta, which boasts a special interface made for larger screens.

Of course, other controllers like the Xbox 360 gamepad work just fine when playing most Steam games, but it would be interesting what Valve can do when developing a controller with PC gaming in mind. Valve also has Steam in mind while developing these gamepads, so a Valve-branded controller could definitely be something worth picking up. Unfortunately, we don’t know anything about these controllers, so it’s hard to make any kind of call concerning whether or not they’ll be worth our time.

Still, we know they’re out there somewhere. Maybe this means that it won’t be very long before Valve starts talking about them more openly? If you’ve got some time, be sure to give the full video a watch – seeing a bunch of fans from 4chan pick Gabe Newell’s mind actually proves to be quite interesting.

[via Engadget]

Valve hardware beta already underway with three different contollers is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Remember that Steam for Linux beta we told you about a while back? It launched today, giving a selection of users a first glimpse at Steam running on Linux. The beta is limited-access, so users needed to sign up to get an invite. Even if you signed up, there’s still a pretty good chance you weren’t selected as a participant with this first round of invites – if that’s the case, then sit tight, because Valve will be sending out more invites to the beta soon.

Valve has been working on this beta for quite some time, testing it internally over and over again before finally letting some of its users in on the action. Team Fortress 2 comes included with the client download (it is free-to-play after all), but if you want to play some other games, you’ll be pleased to know that there are a total of 26 Linux games now available on Steam. Most of these titles are indie games, but there is one full-fledged retail game – Serious Sam 3: BFE – that sticks out from the bunch.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, most of the indie games that are available for Linux on Steam have been featured in the Humble Indie Bundle before – one of the big draws of the Humble Indie Bundle is that it supports Windows, Mac, and Linux. You’ve got titles like World of Goo, Space Pirates and Zombies, Dungeons of Dredmor, and Amnesia: The Dark Descent to pick from, so it sounds like it’s time to get to playing.

At the moment, the Steam for Linux beta is only compatible with Ubuntu 12.04 and above. Steam for Linux team member Frank Crockett says that Valve will eventually release Steam for more Linux distros, but since an “overwhelming majority” of applicants said they’re running Ubuntu, that’s the distro that got it first. The Steam for Linux beta also includes big picture mode, and Valve assures that at some point in the future, the beta will be open for all Steam members to try. Stay tuned.

[via Valve]

Steam for Linux beta launches with 26 games is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Counter-Strike is one of those classic FPS games that many of us grew up with, and if you’re like me, chances are you might have gotten your hands on the latest iteration of the game, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Well if you haven’t either because you didn’t know about it, or because you weren’t sure if it was the same game that you remembered from back in the day, you will be able to give the game a go this weekend. Valve has announced that they will be putting up Counter-Strike: Global Offensive for free this weekend and the offer is said to be running from now until Sunday 1PM. All you need to do is launch Steam (or download it if you haven’t), scroll down to the “free weekend” banner and you should be able to get your hands on the game then. So if you were wondering what to do this weekend, it looks like you might have your answer!

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Beta keys up for grabs by completing a survey, Beta Steam client for Linux to feature Portal, Team Fortress 2 and Serious Sam 3 BFE,

A few months ago it seems that Valve decided to start documenting their progress with their Linux port of Steam, the company’s gaming portal. We guess Valve decided that it’s about time that they started catering not just for Windows and Mac OS gamers, but for Linux users as well. Well the good news is that whatever port they’ve been working on, it seems to be ready for use, or at least in its beta format. This was confirmed via their website in which they are asking for Linux users interested in trying out Steam to sign up for the beta program. According to the description, “We’re looking for Linux gamers to install and test our new Steam for Linux client. We are primarily interested in experienced Linux users.” We’re not sure when the beta will be released or if beta testers will be under NDA (there’s a good chance they will be), but if you’re a Linux gamer or you have a Linux machine that you use from time to time and would like to see what Valve has got so far, head on over to their website for the details.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Gabe Newell thinks Windows 8 is a “catastrophe”, which might explain Steam for Linux, Valve documents Steam for Linux via new blog,

Indie game makers have been lobbing titles over Gabe Newell’s fence for a short while, but now his company is inviting everyone else to join in as well. Valve has widened Steam Greenlight’s crowdsourced approval process to include non-gaming software, with the community voting the most popular and useful apps onto Steam’s virtual shelves. We’re thinking of submitting a program ourselves, that calculates the time required for three quantities of a decaying substance to fall to half their value, just so we can see everyone’s faces when Half-Life Three appears on the list.

Filed under: Internet, Software

Steam Greenlight adds non-gaming category for your consideration originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Oct 2012 04:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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