The GameShadow Blog

With the anticipated Half Life 2 Update Mod recently released, Half Life talk has surfaced again. In particular, whether a new Half Life title would be announced or even released this year. Valve are quiet on this, they are working on something, but it’s unlikely we’ll see anything in 2010, be it Half Life 2: [...]

For the first time, Valve’s Doug Lombardi has mentioned the possibility of the publisher / developer’s sale. Valve’s “happy to have that conversation,” he told Gamasutra. “By the same token, the company’s doing pretty well, and we’re really happy with what we’re doing,” he added. “So we’ll see. I mean, anything is possible.” He went [...]

It’s that time again: when Valve showers us with gifts in a way few other developers are prepared to do. Today’s update is centred around the Pyro, where the last one was aimed at the Medic, and will see 35 new Pyro achievements, three new unlockable weapons, a new alt fire for the flamethrower, the [...]

Kotaku has a SPOILER RIDDEN story on an ad they’ve noticed from Valve looking for a voice actor for the next Portal game. Voice work’s due to start in a month, which is altogether rather soon – despite the game not being due until 2009. I’ve not read that Kotaky story myself, just in case [...]

After a wait of suitably Valve-like proportions, the first major update for Team Fortress 2 went live today. The update includes a new map type – Goldrush – and three achievement-based unlocks for the medic class – one for each weapon. I could tell you all about it, or wax on about the gameplay implications, [...]

Doug Lobardi has told Eurogamer that there’s to be no more Portal until 2009, in Valve’s usual quest for brilliance. “In typical Valve tradition, it won’t be Portal with different colours,” he said. “I think that when you hit something like that, you have two choices: you can quickly replicate it and stick it out [...]

It’s in the works, and Episode Three in addition to more Portal will be on the way. Counter-Strike 2, sadly, will not feature, presumably because it’s a lot further off. Then again, I suppose we should wait and see how much slippage we see before making that call. On the subject of Episode 3, Gabe [...]

Valve’s Doug Lombardi: “With Counter-Strike 2, there’s a big question between, do we go start over from scratch and build a whole new game, do we do something that looks more like Team Fortress 2 that is rooted in the old game but has a ton of new stuff, or do we just sort of [...]

TF2 today receives its first new map since launch (if you don’t count the recent CTF version of Well). Badlands is a remake of the classic TF map, and accompanies the usual range of tweaks and fixes. A large overhaul is planned for release in the coming month, introducing unlockable weapons as achievement rewards, and [...]

Valve has launched a new, free suite of software tools based around the Steam network to help ease the burden of developing and publishing PC games. “Developers and publishers are spending more and more time and money cobbling together all the tools and backend systems needed to build and launch a successful title in today’s [...]

Having previously stated they had no intention of coming under the Valve banner any time soon, Turtle Rock Studios has been acquired by Valve. Another one bites the dust? Well, let’s be honest, probably not. Though acquisition rarely seems to pre-empt a burst of innovation, I feel in this case we need not fear. Favouritism? [...]

I’ll never cease to be impressed with the community following Portal has garnered in the short time since its release. User-made maps were always a given, but the wealth of goodwill and talent that’s seen plush companion cubes, Half-Life 2 mods and cut-out paper models rise in its wake is fantastic to be a part [...]

Yes, I go on about Portal quite a lot. That’s because it’s ace. It’s not taken long for the first really decent community-developed map to appear for Portal, even if it is developed by a designer at Bethesda. The map itself is difficult. Really difficult. Which serves a good purpose, given that Portal itself was fairly [...]

I read a review today in a magazine I usually trust to be reasonably critical. It was a review of The Orange Box which placed Episode 2 as the headlining game. Is it just me, or is Episode 2 the real black sheep of The Orange Box? Portal is contender for game of the year, [...]

Portal Papercraft – take it home with you!