Hasta La Gadget!

Valve’s Steam gaming platform has a plethora of games to choose from, and with so many to choose from, how do you know which game is good and worth your money? Of course one could also go online and search for reviews, but wouldn’t it be more convenient if it were all in one place? Well that’s what Valve is looking to do as they have announced the launch of Steam Reviews. This review system is currently in beta and it works almost similar to how app store reviews work for iTunes and Google Play, where gamers can leave their review on the game itself so that when gamers browse the games, they will be able to read the reviews right there and then.

Reviews can only be written by gamers who own the game and have launched it via the Steam platform, meaning that if you did not get the game through Steam, you would not be able to write a review for the game, which we guess is fair since this would basically open up the reviews to trolls and those looking to bash or promote a game unnecessarily, as opposed to providing gamers with a fair assessment of the game. The reviews can also be voted by gamers as to whether a particular review was helpful or not, just like how Amazon’s reviews work as well. Steam Reviews will not be replacing the Recommendation system either, but will instead be rolled into the feature together. For more info head on over to Valve’s website.

Steam Reviews Beta Goes Live original content from Ubergizmo.

The world’s premier hat simulator spreads its death and destruction to the chessboard. NECA’s WizKids will be releasing a Team Fortress 2 chess set by the end of the year. Never above mocking itself, Valve allowed WizKids to turn the game’s classes into disembodied heads, with the chess pieces worn as hats.

The hats are not just for show either. According to WizKids’ press release, the set will let you play a modified game of chess. That’s because the pieces – i.e. the hats – are interchangeable, so you can assign a different class to a particular piece at the start of every game. But while you’re playing, “players can claim various hats from other pieces and assume the movement characteristics of pieces captured, adding an element of variation and challenge to the standard game of chess.” Sadly the hats don’t seem to be stackable.

The Team Fortress 2 chess set should be available from ThinkGeek and the Valve store before the year ends, though it probably won’t be free to play.

[via Wizkids & NECA via Reddit]

Back in March, Valve’s Joe Ludwig mentioned how important the company believes virtual reality tech is but ultimately left us hanging, unable to be more detailed without a firm plan on what it might eventually ship. Next year the blanks will be filled in, as Valve has scheduled two very relevant sessions during its Developer Days conference: What VR Could, Should, and Almost Certainly Will Be within Two Years, and Virtual Reality and Steam. Better yet, the descriptions reveal that it will have a prototype of what stunning experience it thinks “affordable” VR hardware will be capable of soon, and the software it’s working on including “the Steam Overlay in VR, Steam store changes for VR, and our VR plan for Steamworks.”

The Oculus Rift has already done a lot to spark our imaginations and given a platform for developers to test out their VR ideas, but putting the power of Steam behind this tech could push it where next-gen consoles haven’t. After the departure of the castAR team, we’re very interested to see what Valve will do, and its developer days seem like our first opportunity to find out. The two day conference happens January 15th and 16th but it’s only open to developers — if you pop open the registration page anyway we won’t blame you.

Filed under: Gaming, HD

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Source: Steam

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