Hasta La Gadget!

Just in case you’ve forgotten (and you’d be forgiven, given the packed fall video game schedule), XCOM: Enemy Unknown is launching tomorrow, October 9. Even better is that it’s available for pre-load on Steam right now, so if you’ve already purchased it, you can load the game on your rig early and be ready to play right when the clock strikes midnight. What’s more exciting than that?

How about this: pre-ordering the game through Steam nets you some very attractive pre-order bonuses. The first bonus is the Elite Soldier Pack, which doesn’t seem to be more than a set of skins for your foot soldiers. The second bonus is a pack of three XCOM-themed items for use in Team Fortress 2, which is nice if not unexpected considering that you’re pre-ordering through Steam. While those two packs aren’t much to write home about, the third bonus is – a free copy of Civilization V which, despite what a handful of very loud dissenters say, is a really good game.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown is something of a response to the fan outcry over XCOM, which is an incoming tactical FPS reboot of the series. XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a tactical turn-based strategy game, much more similar to the XCOM games of years past, and it’s safe to say that fan enthusiasm is running high. There appears to be good reason for that excitement too, as early reviews of the game are excellent. XCOM: Enemy Unknown currently boasts a 91 out of 100 on Metacritic, so if you want a game that stays true to the franchise, it looks like Enemy Unknown is it.

As for the other upcoming XCOM game, it still doesn’t have a release date. XCOM has been in development since 2006, and though 2K was showing it off back in 2010, it’s been delayed numerous times. If you want to play a brand new XCOM title, it looks like XCOM: Enemy Unknown is your only choice for the time being, though we doubt many die-hard series fans will be complaining about that.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown available for pre-load on Steam is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Valve, it would seem, is on a roll lately. Not only did it launch non-game software on Steam today, but it recently announced that the Left 4 Dead franchise has topped 12 million sales. An impressive feat, to be sure, especially considering just how crowded the FPS genre is at the moment. Zombie games aren’t exactly a rare thing these days either, but depending on who you ask, Left 4 Dead does the zombie apocalypse best.

The news comes from Valve’s Chet Faliszek, who shared the sales figures in a recent interview with VG247. According to Faliszek, Left 4 Dead was a success because Valve didn’t hype the game before launch, instead allowing players check it out themselves pre-release and letting the gameplay speak for itself. “Telling people a game is great will sell one extra copy,” he said. “Letting people play the game–Left 4 Dead is a good example–is much better.

“All of our pre-release stuff is designed to just let people play it,” Faliszek continued. “We just let the game speak for itself because the Internet has made this thing where, you can’t pull the wool over people’s eyes any more. They’re going to know you’re hyping. But when a game does really well at pre-release, they’re going to know that you’re not just talking a bunch of PR crap. I mean, the Left 4 Dead series has now sold over 12 million copies.”

The same could be said of all of Valve’s games. Though Valve does do a considerable amount of advertising for its own games – Portal 2 comes to mind – Valve typically lets fans hype its games for it. Sure, Valve likes to talk about what its doing to improve on previous iterations or the genre in general, but for the most part, it seems that the studio stays away from “bragging.”

Valve also supports its games for a really long time after release, with Left 4 Dead 2 being the shining example of that. The game was released way back in 2009, but Valve was still supporting it with new DLC campaigns into this year. Left 4 Dead fans have a reason to celebrate with this news as well, since 12 million sales for the franchise means we can probably count on Left 4 Dead 3 at some point in the future. Stay tuned.

Left 4 Dead franchise reaches 12 million sales is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

During August this year, it was reported that Valve was gearing up to break itself free from a games-only orientation and had revealed plans of launching software titles on Steam. It was stated that the popular digital distribution company would launch these non-games apps in the month of September. However, after a brief delay, these titles are finally making their way onto Steam.

The company has finally started rolling out software on its platform. The initial launch includes only a handful of software but Valve is will be expanding the list in the coming days. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Doom 4 discovered on Steam content database thanks to dataminers, Valve’s Steam Big Picture Goes Live,

Doom 4 will be “done when it’s done”, according to id Software’s John Carmack, but hopefully we will be able to get snippets of the game in the meantime and that’s what we’re assuming dataminers have been attempting. According to PCGamesN, dataminers have discovered that Doom 4 has appeared on Steam’s content database as part of both test and community listings which means that Valve is using Steam to distribute and test the game internally. This will hopefully appease gamers who might be worried that Doom 4 could be on the backburner, but with this datamined information, we guess it can be taken as an indication that the game is indeed progressing, hopefully as planned. Not much else is known about the game so far but we will be keeping our eyes peeled, so if Doom 4 is an FPS you’re been dying to play, check back with us at a later date where we will have more information for now (hopefully!).

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Valve’s Steam Big Picture Goes Live, Valve Big Picture mode beta launched,

Well that was quick. We’ve only know that Valve is working on a version of Steam for Linux for a few months, but now it seems that the studio is ready to put that incoming version to the test. Valve will be putting Steam for Linux through and internal beta sometime next week, and then later on in October, it will invite a group of people to participate in a small private beta.

When we say “small” we mean it too. Valve will only be inviting 1,000 people to take part in this private beta, explaining in a Valve Linux blog post that the beta will involve Steam, one Steam game, and support for Ubuntu 12.04 and later. It appears that Steam for Linux is still in the early stages of development, at least relatively, as Valve says that the beta won’t feature Big Picture Mode or any additional Steam games.

Valve didn’t say what that one Steam game featured in this incoming external beta is, but we have a feeling it’s Left 4 Dead 2. Valve has been using that game to test out Steam for Linux internally, so it makes sense that the studio would want to use it in the beta. Valve says that a beta sign up form will be coming soon, but didn’t give an specific date for its release.

Valve also recommends that those who are new to Linux sit this beta out and instead sign up for a future beta. If you’re an existing Linux users, however, Valve wants you, saying that this beta will be a good opportunity to see how far the studio has come in porting Steam to Linux. We’ll have more details about this upcoming Steam for Linux private beta soon, so keep it here to SlashGear.

Steam for Linux beta kicks off in October is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.