News - Category 'PC'

Shameful copy & paste from Valve's e-mailed press release follows:



Valve and 2K Games today announced an agreement to power all PC versions of the highly anticipated Mafia® II with a host of Steamworks features. All Mafia II players will enjoy the benefits of the Steamworks features included in all PC versions, such as auto-updating, Steam Achievements, statistics, downloadable content, and more.

Customers who pre-order the standard or Digital Deluxe Edition of Mafia II through select digital retailers, including Steam, will be given a free digital copy of the award-winning original Mafia® game that they can access and play now.

"Using Steamworks to power Mafia II has been a great benefit for 2K Games and our development team," said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. "It's meant that we can spend more time creating content and a great experience for our customers because we know that Steam and Steamworks are enabling these important features within the game."

"Mafia II is joining Sid Meier's Civilization® V as the next title to use Steamworks from 2K Games," said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. "Our focus for Steam is on building services that create value for our customers and for creators, and Mafia II, with its all-new game engine and inclusion of Steamworks, is a great example of that."

Mafia II is rated M for Mature by the ESRB and will be available in North America on August 24, 2010 and internationally beginning August 27, 2010. For more information visit Steam Games.


And related news is that you'll need a super next gen NASA PC to run the game on uber PhysX/APEX settings:

MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP (SP2 or later) / Windows Vista / Windows 7
Processor: Pentium D 3Ghz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+ (Dual core) or higher
RAM: 1.5 GB
Video Card: nVidia GeForce 8600 / ATI HD2600 Pro or better
Hard Disc Space: 8 GB
Sound Card: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
Peripherals: Keyboard and mouse or Windows compatible gamepad

RECOMMENDED SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP (SP2 or later) / Windows Vista / Windows 7
Processor: 2.4 GHz Quad Core processor
RAM: 2 GB
Video Card: nVidia GeForce 9800 GTX / ATI Radeon HD 3870 or better
Hard Disc: 10 GB
Sound Card: 100% DirectX 9.0c compliant card
Peripherals: Keyboard and mouse or Windows compatible gamepad

PHSYX & APEX ENHANCEMENTS SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP (SP2 or later) / Windows Vista / Windows 7 Minimum Processor: 2.4 GHz Quad Core processor
Recommended Processor: 2.66 GHz Core i7-920 RAM: 2 GB
Video Cards and resolution: APEX medium settings

Minimum: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 (or better) for Graphics and a dedicated NVIDIA 9800GTX (or better) for PhysX
Recommended: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470 (or better)
Video Cards and resolution: APEX High settings

Minimum: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470 (or better) and a dedicated NVIDIA 9800GTX (or better) for PhysX
Recommended: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 for Graphics and a dedicated NVIDIA GTX 285 (or better) for PhysX NVIDIA GPU driver: 197.13 or later.
NVIDIA PhysX driver: 10.04.02_9.10.0522. Included and automatically installed with the game.

21 Jul : 11:17
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Valve send news of a limited Beta for their old school Source powered shooter, Counter-Strike.



Features new to the beta

■144 achievements added
■New lifetime player stats and summary screens
■New match player stats and summary screens
■New end of round display with MVP and interesting fact about a player
■Updated scoreboard with new icons, visual style, MVP stars, and avatar pictures
■New cinematic death camera
■New domination and revenge system
■Added avatar icons to voice chat, scoreboard, and end of round display
■Incorporated many source engine updates

Only available to those own already own CSS (I doubt there are many PC Gamers that don't).

Update via steam should prompt you, if not, head Here
11 May : 15:46
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Steam are currently having a few weekend deals, the one that stands out for me is the Codemasters Racing Pack. This is a bundle of racing games (Dirt1, 2, Toca 3, Fuel and Grid). You can buy the whole bundle at a 75% discount, which adds up to a ridiculously low price of £12.50 for the whole lot.

(Click to enlarge)

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Both Dirt games and Grid are worth the price alone!

Check out this loony deal at the Steam Store
30 Apr : 12:42
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Word from Valve is that their sleek, sexy and slick 2010 update for Steam is now available.



The 2010 Steam Client UI Update has released to all Steam users worldwide. This new version of Steam enhances the way users buy and play games, providing more info about the things that matter - getting games, playing them with friends, and staying current in the gaming world.

Changes and improvements include:

Major features:
Complete overhaul of Steam client UI design to improve discoverability of features and to better expose all the information related to games in your library
Complete overhaul of in-game overlay UI design to create a richer in-game experience exposing context sensitive information related to the game you are currently playing
New game details view, presenting a detailed view of all the information for a single game in your library
New grid view, presenting a graphical view of your game library
New news page in the store/client/overlay that aggregates Valve related news sites, official community groups, and third-party gaming news feeds
New downloads view in the client, making it easier to track your progress downloading new games or game updates
New Steam store design, including more integrated community features, improved recommendations, and improved video and screenshots viewing (and much more!)

Store details:
New Steam store/community integration — see what your friends have been buying and playing as you browse the store
Improved store layout, genre navigation, and genre pages, including more robust navigation per category
Added Wishlists for tracking what games you want, and to see what games your friends want
Improved game detail pages, including quick link to demos, inline display of higher resolution game trailers, improved screenshot browser, and improved game recommendations
New game-specific video page, containing all of a game's trailers in one place, now in higher resolution Flash format
Improved discoverability of sales and discounts, including prominent shortcuts and consistent store-wide visual presentation for price cuts
New quick-info tooltips on store home page and genre pages which allow users to read about games before navigating to detail pages
New search filtering options- search for packs or DLC, easier to use filters for searching by price and metascore, and sort by release date

Client feature details:
View of your most recently achieved achievements and likely next achievements in the client game details view and in the in-game overlay
View of friends currently playing a game as well as all friends who sometimes play a game in the per-game details view
View of related game news in the client game details view and in the in-game overlay
Clock in the in-game overlay (!)
User customizable categories assignable per-game
Tracking of last played time for games to show in the client library views
Sort your games by last date played
Library list view displays larger graphic, and a new column displaying a game's Steam Cloud state
New invites section in the friends list UI allowing you to accept or decline invites directly without going to your community control panel
Cloud support for many non-machine specific local settings such as favorite servers
Implemented new DirectWrite based font rendering for the client and in-game overlay on Windows 7 or Vista with both SP2 and the "Platform Update" installed. This offers improved pairwise kerning for text layout as well as better anti-aliasing of text on supported platforms.
Display of total played time in the client game details view and the in-game overlay
Type to jump support in the games list, grid, and game details views
Better Steam cloud conflict resolution support, with the ability for users to choose how to resolve conflicts between machines
Improved forward/backward navigation in the client UI, acting across various different view types (e.g., games list, to community, back to games list)
New style and layout system for Steam's VGUI UI toolkit, enabling much more complicated flowing layouts. Skins will need major overhauls to be compatible with the new client, but will also have much more power and flexibility available to them via the new .style and .layout files used in the new VGUI code.

Backup/restore wizard
Community: all official game avatars in one place, linked from your edit profile page
New outer glow effect supported when rendering text in VGUI
Support for alpha blending of gradients and text in VGUI
Support for many new layout and placement commands in VGUI
Support for native drop shadow effect on primary Steam windows on Vista and Windows 7
Support for Windows 7 snapping and shaking mouse commands
Added per-game disable in game properties dialog for the in-game overlay
Added most recently used games launch actions to tray icon in addition to Win7 jumplist
Improved maximize support for Steam dialogs and added maximize icon to top level windows
New sound effects for many notifications/actions
Added auto-recovery of the in-game overlay so it will restart and resume functioning if the process crashes while a game is running


There are tons of other features and fixes not listed here. For more information, and to install Steam, visit here
26 Apr : 13:05
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Former Killing Floor developer Sir Alex Quick and his trusty team of brave marine divers have launched the website for their 'Aquatic Stealth' game, Depth.


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Depth is an Indie game being developed with Epic's recently released UDK toolset. Depth is dubbed as an "Aquatic Stealth" game. Two teams of players square off, in a totally underwater level with very different objectives.

Check out the website here


23 Apr : 11:52
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Sporting a new server browser (which hopefully no longer sucks balls) and a slew other other fixes, tweaks and achievements, DICE's destruct-em-up military shootah is now on it's 7th update:

•MP – New Server browser
•MP – Added 15 second spawn timer for Conquest/Rush gamemodes at the start of round to prevent high end machines getting the upper hand before other machines load in.
•MP – Crash fixes relating to ALT+TAB at different times throughout the game
•MP – Hang fix when trying to connect to a full server multiple times
•MP – Deletion of soldiers now possible through the account pages in game
•MP – Removed screen flash during loading
•MP – Added support for colour blind players
•MP – Fixed crashes relating to faulty server banners
•MP – Servers closing during connection no longer cause the client to hang
•MP – Auto team swap reflects correctly in the scoreboard
•MP – Fixed scoreboards when switching teams before spawning
•MP – Rush scoreboards fixed
•MP – Veteran ranks no longer display as “12”
•MP – Isla Innocentes MCOM building fixed where knifing the fence would destroy the building
•MP – Logout/Login button correctly reflects the player status
•MP – Added minimum number of players needed to start a round
•MP – Isla Inocentes welcome message on the loading screen now fits the text box area
•MP – Reduced the brightness in Russian vehicles
•MP – Medic gadgets now display correctly if the defib is not unlocked
•MP – Server filter options are remembered
•MP – Punkbuster filter now works as intended
•MP – Scroll bar no longer overlays the Join Server button in the friends list panel
•MP – CANCEL server refresh is implemented
•MP – Zooming in on a friendly using the SAIGA no longer causes the crosshair to disappear
•MP – The chat no longer displays the incorrect player name when appearing
•MP – FoV switches to the default value of 55 when entering vehicles to prevent graphical glitches caused by wider FoV settings. The custom FoV returns when exiting vehicles.
•MP – FoV no longer causes the UAV station to rotate
•MP – Fix to correctly display the unlock progression at the end of round
•MP – Chat functionality will no longer freeze after writing a partial message at the end of round
•MP – One account can no longer connect to the same server multiple times
•MP – Squad Death Match is correctly named during loading
•MP – Server browser no longer gets a bad FPS when filtering Conquest
•MP – Server info banners correctly clear between displays
•MP – Setting display settings which the system hardware can not handle no longer makes the game unusable
•MP – Correct camera collision for vehicles' heavy machine gun
•MP – Game no longer crashes if the player sends a message in the loading screen
•MP – Trying to join a full server no longer causes the game to hang on Please Wait message
•MP – Most server filter options are remembered it doesn't remember the setting in dropdowns
•MP – Kit/gadget loadout saved between sessions
•SP – Fixed crashes when patching and trying to resume a campaign (there is now a message that you need to re-play the latest mission from the beginning)
•SP – Fixed a crash after the “Upriver” mission end cinematic
•SP – Supply create at “Resupply at Flynn’s create” objective now supplies weapon ammo
•SP – Hang fix when reaching the objective “Destroy Enemy Zu23”
•SP – Fixed hang after “Storm Cockpit” objective
•SP – Changed melee attack raycast to be detailed
•SP – Game no longer crashes when transitioning between SP_03B to SP_04A when installed in Polish
•SP – Game no longer crashes when killed by the first two enemies in the trenches on SP_01 when installed in Italian
•SP – Updating to R7 will invalidate your single player save game. If you update you will need to play your last mission from the start. If you do not update you will not be able to play multiplayer.

And here is the R10 server changelist:

•Punkbuster is required ON for ranked servers
•Ranked servers cannot be started with a password
•Autobalance message goes to text-chat instead of in the middle of the screen
•Added weapon balance tweaks to a number of weapons – we are eagerly awaiting feedback!


Here's a list of said weapon balance tweaks too:

As requested by the community, here is the exhaustive all inclusive changelist of all balance updates made in the R10 Server update and R7 patch for PC.

•Increased the base range of all Automatic and Semiautomatic weapons for more consistent close range combat.
•Slightly increased the damage of Semiautomatic rifles over long range for more consistent damage output.
•Increased the zoomed burst accuracy of LMGs and decreased LMG accuracy when moving to reduce LMG run and gun.
•Decreased the base damage of the M60 and XM8 LMGs to bring them in line with the other LMG damage values.
•Decreased the damage of the PKM over long range to balance it with other LMGs.
•Increased the base damage of the Type88 LMG to balance it with other LMGs.

•Slightly reduced the base damage of the M16 and G3 to balance the increased range.
•Slightly increased the damage of the AEK971, F2000, AN94, and AUG over long range to balance them with other Assault Rifles.

•Reduced the lethal blast range of the 40mm grenade and M2CG to highlight their role as a secondary weapon against infantry.
•Slightly Reduced the max range of the 40mm shotgun to balance it with other shotguns.
•Slightly increased the base damage of shotgun rounds and reduced their range to clarify ideal shotgun combat distance.

•Reduced the base damage of the PP2000 to balance the increased range.
•Increased the damage of the 9A91 over long range to balance its lower magazine size.

•Increased the damage and range of the M9, M93 pistols to make them more desirable as a secondary weapon.
•Increased the range of the MP443 pistol to make it more desirable as a secondary weapon.
•Increased the damage of the MP412 over long range to balance its low rate of fire.
•Slightly reduced the rate of fire of the M1911 pistol to balance it with other pistols.

•Increased the repair and overheat speeds of the Power Tool. Now overheats sooner but repairs the same amount before overheating.
•Increased the maximum number of Motion Sensors that can be carried from 2 to 3 and increased the speed which new sensors are acquired from ammo boxes.
•Significantly increased the speed of the Tracer Dart projectile to make it more effective against airborne targets.
•Increased the reload time of the Mortar Strike and reduced the damage it does to heavily armored vehicles.
•Decreased the range of Bolt Action Sniper and Pump Shotgun Slug rounds when using Magnum Ammo for better Kit Balance, especially in Hardcore.
•Slightly increased the Health of soldiers in Hardcore for better Kit Balance.

•Increased the benefit from the Medkit Heal+ specialization to make it more desirable as a Specialization.
•Decreased the benefit from Vehicle Reload Speed to balance it against other Vehicle Specializations.
•Slightly decreased the benefit from accuracy specializations to balance the changes to range and accuracy tweaks.

•Fixed a bug where the BMD3 would take extra damage to the front armor.
•Reduced the explosive damage from Attack Helicopter cannons.
•Increased the damage of AA guns against all targets. The AA gun should be much more effective against infantry on Port Valdez.

Updating my copy now. See you chumps on the Battlefield.
21 Apr : 11:53
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