It seems that Blizzard isn't the only one who drops the ban hammer, as Valve's new Anti-Cheat technology caught a few people cheating in Counter-Strike: Source and other games this week – over 10,000. VAC detects anyone using cheat software and permanently bans his or her Steam account. Valve expects to see a surge of forum posts laying blame squarely at the feet of "my little brother."

Valve announced it has signed an online distribution agreement with GSC World offering its RTS/RPG hybrid Heroes of Annihilated Empires on Steam later this month. HoAE challenges gamers to create a powerful leader and a dominant military force through battle, diplomacy and treachery in a rich fantasy world.

2K and Valve today announced an agreement to bring a collection of 2K PC games to Steam, starting with Civ III, Civ IV, Shattered Union and Sid Meier's Pirates.

Valve and casual game developer PopCap Games today announced an agreement to deliver PopCap's games via Steam.

Valve announced the development of future game releases for the Xbox 360, powered by a customized version of Source, the technology that powered Valve's Half-Life 2.

Valve and in-game advertising firm IGA Worldwide Inc. today announced an amicable resolution of differences regarding in-game advertising in Counter-Strike. This amicable resolution also absolves IGA's advertisers and IGA's advertising agencies from any liability.

Valve has changed the Half-Life 2: Aftermath name to Half-Life 2: Episode One, and will release content in a series of episodes according to GameSpot. Similar to Ritual's SiN Episodes, Valve will use its Steam content delivery to offer several episodes instead of full addons, according to Valve' Doug Lombardi. An estimated released date for Half-Life 2: Episode One was not revealed.

At Microsoft Tech-Ed Australia, Valve has named the upcoming Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition as the preferred development environment for hobbyist Windows developers creating modifications for Source, the engine on which Half-Life 2 is built. In addition, during Tech-Ed Australia, attendees will get to hear how Team Dystopia created its modification for Half-Life 2 with Visual C++.

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 and Vivendi today announced the settlement of a pending federal court lawsuit filed by Valve in August 2002. The parties have resolved their differences, and the settlement provides for the dismissal of all claims and counterclaims. VUG will cease distribution of retail packaged versions of Valve's games, including Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and Counter-Strike: Source, effective August 31, 2005, and notify distributors and cyber cafes that were licensed by VUG that only Valve is authorized to distribute Valve games to cyber cafés and grant cyber café licenses. All previous license agreements made by Vivendi are being terminated. Needless to say, settlement or not, this is a huge win for Valve.

Vavle announced that next week they will begin beta testing the new Valve Anti-Cheat system, and it will be logging cheating violations into our database to make sure it's ready for general release. If you have any cheats for multiplayer games installed on your computer, now would be a good time to uninstall and stop using them. When a cheat infraction is detected, the offender will be permanently banned from playing on secure servers. Valve has also released a small Steam update which Fixes a crash when turning on the budget panel in Counter-Strike: Source, and fixed exploit that would allow clients to spawn large numbers of temporary entities on clients, causing a crash. As usual, restarting Steam auto updates everything.

The official Counter-Strike Bot will be released for Counter-Strike: Source on Monday (January 17th). The Bot features enhanced abilities and will be available for all owners of Counter-Strike: Source. Also included in Monday's release is an updated version de_tides, rebuilt by Turtlerock Studios.

Busy evening for the people over at Valve as today it disabled more than 30,000 Steam accounts (a few weeks ago Valve already banned 20,000) which had been used to try to illegally gain access to Valve games without a valid purchase. A new Steam update has been released fixing some some stuttering issues with Half-Life 2 and also addressing missing models when running the Counterstrike Source Video Stress Test.

Well when Valve says SOON, they really mean it. As speculated earlier today, Valve had a little surprise for the community, and by posting a screenshot it was strongly hinted at that a Deathmatch multiplayer mode might be coming. A few hours later, it has arrived! Half-Life 2: Deathmatch is now available through the latest HL2 Steam update. By the same token, they also released the full HL2 SDK and announced a Half-Life 2: Deathmatch Map Making Contest.

Valve today announced the U.S. Federal District Court in Seattle, WA granted its motion for summary judgment on the matters of Cyber Café Rights and Contractual Limitation of Liability in its copyright infringement suit with Sierra/Vivendi Universal Games. Read more for details ...

Well it seems Valve is giving hackers a piece of their own cake as not only did they, supposebly, leak a fake, non-working HL2 version, but now they have also banned over 20,000 people from Steam for attempting to pirate Half-Life 2 with the CD-Key 5J52E-FVKXV-882FQ-YJXRQ-DOD98. The forum thread also has word that Valve is working on a securROM fix for owners of the CD and DVD editions of the game who are unable to play due to overzealous copy-protection (thanks VE3D).

Valve's Doug Lombarbi sends out notice that the 'Counter-Strike Source' Beta has commenced.

"Phase 1 of the Counter-Strike: Source beta has opened at cyber cafes that subscribe to the Valve Cyber Café Program. A full listing of those venues can be found here. Later this month, the beta will be extended to owners of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and ATIHalf-Life 2 video card bundle owners."

Valve has selected Japan-based Namco, Ltd. as its representative to distribute its already famous games, including Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and Day of Defeat, to the cyber cafe community in Japan. Namco is currently the only authorized cyber cafe reseller in Japan for Valve games.

Starting July 26th, the shutdown of the WON authentication servers will begin. This process will be completed on July 31st. This means players will no longer be able to access Internet features of Valve games, such as Counter-Strike 1.5, using the WON authentication servers. Users can continue using Valve games on the Steam service by downloading the Steam installer and setting up a Steam account. Counter-Strike 1.5 players will be upgraded to Counter-Strike 1.6 free of charge through Steam.

Valve Corporation today revealed a series of new games and features being added to the Valve Cybercafé Program over the coming months. Effective immediately, subscribers of the Valve Cybercafe Program will receive a free license to use Xbox versions of Valve's games in their cafés, up to the number of active cybercafe subscriptions held in the Valve Cybercafe Program.

Noticed on VPRO that Polygon Magazine has a quote from Valve's Gabe Newell that Half-Life might be delayed until 2005. "We've already spent millions into this project, and we're willing to spend as much as we need to make this the best first person experience ever. If that means delaying the game to 2005, we'll do it without any hesitation. If it means sinking another $20 million into the project, we can do it. Rest assured, if we delay the game, it'll be only to blow your socks off even more when it finally releases."

During the month of April 2004, Valve is extending a special offer to Cyber Cafes. During this time, a 12-month cyber café license for Valve's games is being offered at a savings of 33%. The license includes all of Valve's available Steam content, including Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress Classic, and more. Licensed Cyber Café's also receive product key protection, promotional materials, tournament licenses, and priority access to Valve support. This offer ends at 11:59 pm PST on April 30, 2004, is subject to change and is not available in every territory. For more information, please email cafe@valvesoftware.com.

Tempe-based Limelight Networks announced today that it has been selected by Valve, the leading entertainment software company responsible for critically acclaimed games such as Half-Life, to host its Steam platform servers and provide services for the distribution of its online content. The partnership provides gamers across the globe with fast, reliable and uninterrupted access -- via Limelight Networks' powerful delivery network -- to Valve's newest offerings and leading games, as well as offerings from others distributing their content via Steam.

Valve now also released the official Steam client and included the eagerly anticipated Counter-Strike 1.6, all in one package. I guess if Steam is a bit slow then you can just grab this standalone version and be on your merry way... Read more for download links ...