Valve announced today that Half-Life: Blue Shift is now playable for anyone that owns the Half-Life Premier Pack, the Half-Life 2 Silver package, or the Half-Life 2 Gold package. Blue Shift is an expansion pack for the original Half-Life released a few years back, to no great success. This is merely the original, not a Source remake. As usual, restart your Steam client and let it download...

Valve announced it has signed Rag Doll Kung Fu, a project by Lionhead Studios Mark Healey, who previously worked on Black & White and Fable, to be distributed through Steam. Imagine having a Kung Fu Fight with string puppets, except you don't have to worry about getting the strings tangled up, and you don't have to have a kung fu fight. You control the characters on screen with the mouse - there are no pre-scripted animations in the game - it's all up to you. Create your own style, and can act out whatever you feel like, and of course, if you really feel like it, you can have a fight.

Valve's SteamPowered website has been updated with details regarding the latest update for Counter-Strike Source and Half-Life 2, mainly addressing a few mod issues and enabling low violence content. Read more for details, or just restart Steam for the effects to take place.

Valve's SteamPowered website has been updated with details regarding the latest update for the original Counter-Strike and Half-Life 1, mainly addressing a few exploits, several bug & crash fixes, and a few game tweaks. Read more for details, or just restart Steam for the effects to take place.

Valve lastest Steam Update has a few new screens from a reworked SAS model for Counter-Strike: Source, and also brings news about the release of DOD: Source, Lost Coast, and Aftermath, all are in the final phases of development and being polished for release. One of the new features in Lost Coast, which will be ready in a few weeks, is a commentary system, where you'll be able to hear first-hand some of the background on the features and choices in Lost Coast from the team responsible for building it.

Valve's SteamPowered website has been updated with details regarding the latest update for Counter-Strike Source, and the Source Engine, mainly addressing various bugs and explots. Read more for details, or just restart Steam for the effects to take place.

Valve lastest Steam Update has news about Day of Defeat Source and the upcoming Lost Coast release. Dod Source is currently being tested and is scheduled for release later this summer. Polishing work is being done right now on the player animations, as well as lighting work on the various maps. Current favorite features include the new grenade stun effect, and the ability to deploy the machine gun on any surface. In other news, HL2: Lost Coast (the upcoming free Half-Life 2 map for Half-Life 2 owners which showcases HDR rendering technology) is nearing completion and will be released soon on Steam. Valve promises extra, yet undisclosed, content with Lost Coast, but more info to come shortly ...

Valve's SteamPowered website has been updated with details regarding the latest update for Counter-Strike Source, which has now been optimized game to lower CPU usage... Just restart Steam for the effects to take place.

Valve's SteamPowered website has been updated with details regarding the latest update for Counter-Strike Source. Fixed model scale problem resulting in under-sized players, fixed model's feel sliding while running, and made the new Terrorist model leaner... Just restart Steam for the effects to take place.

Valve's SteamPowered website has been updated with details regarding the latest update for Counter-Strike Source and the Source Engine. As promised it includes the remakde cs_assault and a new terrorist model, but also new player animations, bug fixes, bot changes, and plenty more ... Just restart Steam for the effects to take place.

The newest PC Gamer issue has some rather interesting information about Ritual previously cancelled but recentle resurrected SIN 2. Ritual CEO Steve Nix revealed that they have been talking to Valve for several years now regarding to release periodic installments for SIN 2, every 3-4 months, starting winter 2005, but up until now they have not been able to find a publisher, so Valve's Steam delivery system would be very suitable (thanks Eurogamer).

Next week Valve plans to release the remade version of cs_assault to Counter-Strike: Source owners. If you don't currently own CS: Source, you can purchase it through Steam via any of the Half-Life 2 packages. Along with the release of cs_assault, a rebuilt version of the existing Terrorist model will be icluded, and over the course of next few months models for both teams will get updated. If you're a MOD developer, or just someone who likes to keep an eye on the MOD community, head on over to the Valve Developer Community launched earlier this week.

Originally planned as a section of the Highway 17 chapter of Half-Life 2, Lost Coast is a playable technology showcase that introduces High Dynamic Range lighting to the Source engine. Today Valve released some info and a small trailer showing off some of the improvements & effects you can expect in the downloadable addon. Read more for details and download links ...

The initial plan following the Half-Life 2 launch was to get a near direct port of the existing Day of Defeat up and running and release it to the community. After an initial test, Valve did not think the port was up to par and started to rework all of the content, hoping that people would be happier waiting for the product to ship while giving DoD the attention it deserved. Today they released the first screenshot from dod_flash, showing off what they have been working on.

Valve's SteamPowered website has been updated with details regarding yet another update for Source SDK, fixing a number of connection problems to the backend of VAC2 (Valve's anti-cheat technology for game servers). VAC2 currently only runs on servers in the beta group, but will be active for all servers very soon.. Just restart Steam for the effects to take place.

Valve announced today that it is content with the reception after recently releasing Counter-Strike: Source maps de_inferno and de_port, and on that note, give us a look at what's coming next. This week, Valve has released a couple of screenshots from the remake of the classic Counter-Strike map cs_assault, which is now set in downtown Chicago. Valve would also like to keep everyone abreast of the games the MOD community is working on, so here is a list of a few we're keeping our eye on: Plan of Attack, Pirates, Vikings, and Knights 2, Sven Co-Op 2, Sourceball, and Dystopia.

Valve's SteamPowered website has been updated with details regarding yet another update for Source SDK, mainly fixing various issues important for the mod community, adding source code for alternative player physics, sample skeleton, motionmapper and fixing a few things along the way. Just restart Steam for the effects to take place.

Valve's SteamPowered website has been updated with details regarding yet another update for Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, fixing various little bugs and gameplay tweaks. Just restart Steam for the effects to take place.

Valve's SteamPowered website has been updated with details regarding yet another update for its Counterstrike Source, fixing a hang bug and re-releasing changes from Thursday's update. The Source Engine and Steam also get a few fixes and tweaks. Just restart Steam for the effects to take place.

Valve announced today that it is planning on releasing de_port and de_inferno next week. Along with the two new maps, an updated version of the current CT model will be included. Valve will of course be present at the upcoming E3 expo where Half-Life 2 Xbox will be shown in the Xbox area of Microsoft’s booth. Meanwhile Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, the new single-player level created to introduce High-Dynamic Range (HDR) lighting to the Source engine, is slated to appear in the Games for Windows area at the show.

Valve has released a new Half-Life 2: Deathmatch map, dm_runoff, which is now available via Steam. If you have HL2:DM installed in your Steam games list, you will receive the new maps automatically. This release also includes a Source Engine update which moves default Steam port to 27009 (UDP) from 27030. Use -steamport to override this setting.

Valve released some information about future Steam updates for HL2 and CS Source. On Monday Valve will release a new Half-Life 2: Deathmatch map, dm_runoff, inspired by a Half-Life 1 favorite, Crossfire. They are also working on an all-new Counter-Strike map, de_port, and to make people familiar with the design intentions Valve has put up a page that outlines six different strategies to try once the map is available. The release of the new CSS map isnt for another few weeks, but will be accompagined by a redone de_inferno map.

Valve has released three new Half-Life 2: Deathmatch maps, which are now available via Steam. These maps were created by the three players who won our recent HL2:DM mapping contest. If you have HL2:DM installed in your Steam games list, you will receive the new maps automatically. This release also includes a Counter-Strike: Source update which fixes incorrect player names appearing in the scoreboard.

Valve's SteamPowered website has been updated with details regarding yet another update for its Counterstrike Source, enabling support for SourceTV, bug gixes, bot adjustments, and the Source Engine gets a few fixes and tweaks as well. Just restart steam for the effects to take place.

Valve's SteamPowered website has been updated with details regarding yet another update for Counter-Strike Source, and the the Source Engine. This update implements various fixes and gameplay adjustments for CS: S and corrects some engine issue, a sound pak file problem, and fixes a registry issue. Restart Steam for the changes to take effect. Read more for details ...