Hasta La Gadget!

Some of you guys might be familiar with Korean gaming company, NCsoft, who published ArenaNet’s popular Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 MMORPG. Well according to a Korean publication, JoongAng, it seems that NCsoft and Nexon, another Korean gaming company behind popular MMO MapleStory, are pooling their resources together in what appears to be an attempt to acquire Valve. Given Valve’s Steam platform which appears to be a pretty lucrative business, along with Valve’s own games such as Half-Life, Team Fortress and the likes, who wouldn’t want in on that action, right?

According to the report, executives from both NCsoft and Nexon have met up in Hawaii as part of an annual summit, discussing the proposal before and after the event. So far NCsoft has told Polygon that there is no truth to the rumor, while Nexon has declined to comment, but what do you guys think? Could there be any truth to this rumor and how would you feel if Valve did sell themselves off to either company?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Half-Life 3 development rumored to be under way, could feature an open-world concept with RPG elements, Valve shows off their motion tracking Portal turret replica by Weta Workshop,

Anyone who follows video game news knows that there is never any shortage of Half-Life 3 rumors, but this one probably takes the cake as far as extravagant claims go. French gaming site Le Journal du Gamer (via International Business Times) has spoken to an anonymous source close to Valve who claims to have some surprising information on the development of Half-Life 3. According to this source, development on Half-Life 3 has been restarted several times, with Valve’s latest attempt at getting it right going in a completely different direction.

Apparently, Valve has decided to toss in some open world elements with Half-Life 3. Inspired by other games like Skyrim and Fallout, Half-Life 3 will feature NPCs that give the player quests to complete and a sandbox world to wander around in. No, we’re not kidding – this is what the latest rumor claims.

According to the source, the game won’t release until sometime after 2013, which suggests an early 2014 release date for Half-Life 3. That’s a little easier to believe, as are the whispers that claim Half-Life 3 is currently in development. We’re a little hesitant to believe that Half-Life 3 will come offering open world elements, however, as open world has never really been Valve’s style.

Who knows though? Perhaps Valve has truly decided that it’s time for a change. The studio has already mastered the linear FPS, so maybe the developers at Valve are looking for a new challenge and have decided that Half-Life 3 would be the perfect way to test out the idea of an open world. As hard as it is to believe, an open world Half-Life could be pretty cool, but we’re still not convinced that Valve has taken development in that direction. What do you think? Would you like to see an open world Half-Life game, or would you prefer it if Half-Life 3 was more like its predecessors in terms of gameplay?

Half-Life 3 has reportedly become an open world game is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
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If you’re a fan of Valve’s Portal game, then you’re probably familiar with some of the “characters” from the game, such as the Portal turret. Well it seems that the folks at Valve have managed to get their hands on what looks like a pretty good replica of the turret, but not only does it look good, it moves as well! This was put together by the folks at Weta Workshop and comes complete with flashing lights and a motion sensor that will track people in the room. Of course there aren’t any actual guns built into the turret, but it does playback gunfire sound and the flashing lights simulate the bullets being shot out. It’s pretty impressive and most definitely not a machine we’d want to come across dead in the night. Either way you can check out Valve’s unboxing of the Portal turret replica in the video above where you can also see it in action!

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Portal 2 Level Creator arriving on PC and Mac this May, Valve’s Portal clone for Android pulled over legal issues,

Last week Valve showed off an impressive Portal turret replica, but didn’t mention where the thing came from, or why. Now it’s posted another video of the original unboxing, and mentions that like its earlier TF2 turret, this is a Weta Workshop project complete with motion sensor for tracking. Those flashing lights appear to be just for show, but with both of those monoliths patrolling the lobby we’ll probably wait for an invitation before stopping by.

Filed under: Gaming, Robots

Valve’s full-scale Portal turret is another treat from Weta Workshop, check out the unboxing video originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Sep 2012 01:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Valve Software’s hardware division is still in its infancy. Despite having existed for over a year, recruitment is still its primary concern — “prototyping is almost secondary,” longtime inventor/hacker/now Valve employee Jeri Ellsworth told us in an interview this week. As the team ramps up, production becomes more and more prolific, of course; Ellsworth lights up when she talks about the work her team is doing now. She gets verbose when asked about corporate culture at Valve, about how she’s never worked at a company where risk and failure are so acceptable — even encouraged. She’s visibly excited about the prototypes she’s creating at Valve’s new prototyping facility, but manages to contain herself enough to not let slip exactly what her and her team are working on.

When asked what the team’s immediate goals are, she obliquely states, “To make Steam games more fun to play in your living room.” That’s the team’s one-year goal, at least. The challenge is making games that require a mouse and keyboard palatable to people who are used to a controller, or to people who just don’t want to migrate PC controls to the comfort of their living room. Working in tandem with Steam’s newly beta’d “Big Picture Mode,” Ellsworth’s team is creating a hardware solution to the control barriers found in many Steam games. She wouldn’t give any hints as to what that solution is exactly, but she left no options off the table — from Phantom Lapboard-esque solutions to hybrid controllers.

Regardless, it sounds like gamers will have a chance to give feedback on those designs, as Valve’s hardware team is planning a beta for its various products. Ellsworth is hoping to have one for the team’s first product in the coming year — we’ll of course know much more about the product by then, she says. Internal beta tests are already underway, and a variety of the team’s prototypes are available in the office for other Valve employees to tool around with. The next step is getting prototypes into gamers hands — she says Valve already has a production line for short runs, making a beta possible — and iterating on design before launch. As for how the beta will be handled, she posits it’ll be tied to Steam in some way, but no logistics are anywhere near nailed down.

Continue reading Valve’s first hardware beta starting by next year, wearable computing still far off

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming, Laptops

Valve’s first hardware beta starting by next year, wearable computing still far off originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Sep 2012 17:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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