If you’re a fan of documentaries, MOBAs, or Valve’s DotA 2, you might be interested to learn that after what seems like a pretty long tease and wait, Valve has officially released its Free To Play documentary.
For those hearing about it for the first time, Free To Play is basically a documentary covering DotA 2 and will follow three top DotA 2 professional gamers through their DotA 2: The International 3 journey, where viewers will be able to see what it might be like living life as a professional gamer. (more…)
Running through the halls of the Moscone center this week for GDC 2014 from session to session means it’s going to take something very special to grab our attention. As … Continue reading
It’s once again time to get up close and personal with Valve’s next-generation hardware for SteamOS, this time with directional buttons and XYAB buttons instead of a touchpad. While we … Continue reading
The team at Valve responsible for releasing the gaming documentary “Free to Play” aren’t making any attempt to pretend it was done for profit in and of itself. Instead, released … Continue reading
Valve has updated its Steam beta client (via Engadget), and the new software introduces an easier way to get at the company’s new virtual reality mode for its platform. Previously, access had to be gained via command line prompt, but now, there’s a new item added to the View menu that lets you switch to VR mode easily. You’ll only see it if SteamVR is also installed, and if the… Read More
There are many games available out there and many which has managed to capture our time, attention, as well as getting us to open up our wallets. That being said, how many of us actually bothers getting to the end of a game?
Sure there are many out there who do play games from the start to the end, but interesting statistics shared by Riot Games’ Narrative Lead Tom Abernathy and Microsoft Game Studios’ Design Lead Richard Rouse III during their speed at GDC has revealed that there are many gamers out there who don’t bother finishing games that they have started. (more…)
If you’re a regular Steam user, you may have noticed that this gaming network has been down a bit more often than usual as of late. Having seen issue just … Continue reading
When Valve unveiled its Steam Controller last year, I was quite skeptical about the value of its built-in touchscreen. It turns out many of Valve’s testers had the same opinion. This January, at the 2014 Steam Dev Days conference, the company announced that it was ditching the touchscreen for a more conventional button configuration.
In the video below, you’ll see Valve’s Eric Hope and John McCaskey talk about the evolution of the Steam Controller at Steam Dev Days. At around 23:35 into the video, Eric talks about the point when they realized that the touchscreen was not really that useful. See, Valve added a “ghost mode” that displayed an onscreen prompt showing you what part of the touchscreen you’re touching as soon as you touch it.
Ghost mode was a great feature. So great that Valve realized it rendered the controller’s screen – which Eric said was the most expensive part of the controller – pointless. Removing the touchscreen also allowed Valve to ditch the built-in rechargeable battery and switch to AA batteries, further driving the cost of the controller down.
Then at around 25:39 in the video Eric discusses why the ABXY corner buttons on the previous prototype also had to be scrapped. Valve labeled the face buttons A, B, X and Y to make them familiar to gamers, only to arrange the buttons in an unfamiliar layout. The result was a jarring experience for testers, who had a particularly hard time accepting the fact that the four ol’ buddies were split into two groups.
As Eric said in the video, the controller is still undergoing internal testing and is nowhere near its final form. They could bring the touchscreen back. They could also place the buttons a bit farther apart. You know what they say about people with big thumbs: they have trouble with cramped controllers.
When Valve announced SteamOS and Steam Machines, they also revealed the official Steam Controller which would be used to play games on the Steam Machine. It was a very unique design, somewhat controversial as it did away with traditional console controller buttons, D-pads, and analog sticks, but then again Steam Machines aren’t consoles, so they are meant to be played differently.
In fact Valve’s Eric Hope was quoted as saying, “We wanted to embody everything that made Steam and PC gaming in general great inside of a controller.” However further down the line Valve decided to make some changes to the controller and did away with the secondary display, and now it looks like Valve may have finalized the design, as you can see in the image above. (more…)
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There are many games available out there and many which has managed to capture our time, attention, as well as getting us to open up our wallets. That being said, how many of us actually bothers getting to the end of a game?
When Valve announced 
