It’s no surprise that Valve has already released a patch for Left 4 Dead 2 — the company is usually one of the developers that frequently updates their games. It’s no different with Left 4 Dead 2, which gets the following fixes:

* Fixed performance problem when rendering lots of decals, notably when fighting tanks with shotguns
* Fixed rcon response not working on Linux dedicated servers
* Fixed matchmaking problem matching into Advanced and Expert games
* Fix bug that would cause other specials to try to pummel a player a Charger disconnects or reconnects
* Fixed versus mode results panel being cut off in transition stats screen in non-english
* Found games: fixed non-player entries drawing the wrong type of icon in the selected item name label
* Game mode selector on main menu now takes keyboard input

Check out our Left 4 Dead 2 review as well.

If you’ve played through Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2 you’ll know that the campaign’s story line revolves largely around things that could realistically happen. Sure, it’s fun but imagine a few aliens running around and then you’d really have yourself a game.

While that may seem impossible to be in such a game, Modern Warfare 2 writer Jesse Stern let us know that such things were actually considered when Infinity Ward was thinking up the plot for the game. Below is a quote taken from a GamePro interview with Stern:

“In the beginning we talked about having things in Modern Warfare 2 like outbreaks, viruses, chemical warfare, and even outlandish things such as aliens and the living dead,”

OK, we can live without zombies in the campaign but Infinity Ward, can we please get a Taliban Zombie Spec Op mission?

Toys R Us has today released a press release letting us know that they will now begin accepting used console trade-ins much like competitor GameStop has been doing for some time now.

This program allows you to trade in everything from the Xbox 360 and Wii to the PS1 and Nintendo 64. Of course, you’re only going to be able to get yourself a gift card for the trade-in instead of cold hard cash but you win some you lose some, right?

Check out the press release after the break.

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Way of the Samurai has been one of the more interesting franchises this decade. The third installment in the series follows the same principle: you play a Samurai ancient Japan, during a time where different groups and clans are at war, and you don’t have alliance to any particular one of them. You’re free to do what you want, fight whoever you want. Despite the great premise and open ended gameplay, the series has suffered from various issues, ranging from controls to combat, and sadly, the third installment doesn’t improve much on those ends.

The gameplay can mostly be described as Grand Theft Auto in ancient Japan — at least to the extent that you play a character and have a number of possibilities, can pick and chose your fights. Way of the Samurai features a truly open ended gameplay, where the choices you take will lead you in different paths — in all, there are a possible 15 endings to the game. While the game is open ended, the game world is not large by any means. There are only half a dozen or so locations and towns, which can all be explored in a few hours. The sandbox style is a great feature, but when the sandbox is very small, it really becomes pointless. Which is very much the case with Samurai 3. Read the rest of the review

Whenever a game is released on the PC, piracy is always an issue, with a piracy rate of 90% according to some (for every game that’s sold, 9 are pirated). The PC edition of Modern Warfare 2 faced another possible hurdle: the boycott. However, as we showed earlier this month, it didn’t really work, as everyone is playing MW2 these days. Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling said that MW2 was its most successful PC game to date, saying:

“The PC version of Modern Warfare 2 has actually outsold the PC version of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in it’s first week. Essentially, all this percentage proves is that the console versions sold great, not that the PC version sold poorly”.

The percentage he’s talking about? 3%. The amount of PC sales accountable for the overall sales of Modern Warfare 2. Just 3%.

Those who purchased Modern Warfare 2 keys on grey-market, in other countries or as part of a discount group of keys which were sold to Internet Cafes, have now been banned from playing online, Valve revealed today. Valve’s BurtonJ says:

“If you purchased just a cd key for the game then you purchased from an illegitimate seller and the game has been revoked.”

He went on to say that users should try and get a refund for their keys and get a legitimate copy of the game. Perhaps through Steam.

There were rumors about a playable UAV in Battlefield Bad Company 2, as a replacement for artillery. It’s now a fact, as the video above shows, the UAV is playable, and includes weapons which can target units on the ground, in addition to spotting and providing visual cover.

If there ever was a title that captivated the essence of “milking the cow”, it’s probably the Nintendo SEGA fusion with Mario and Sonic — two of the most iconic game characters of all times. It’s especially bad considering the game itself isn’t original, but based on the “Olympics” brand, this time, Winter Olympics. So in essence, you got the same characters in a known environment. But is the game fun? Hard to say, which is exactly the point of this review.

The original Mario and Sonic at the Summer Olympic Games featured some known characters and a ton of mini games, some of which were quite fun, despite rather retarded controls at times. However, it was still fun and offered decent multiplayer gameplay for some folks in a living room, wiggling their remotes, and, as they’ll be happy to hear, the new game continues down the same path. This time though, it’s the Winter Olympics and it’s set in Vancouver in 2010. The range of mini games is impressive, a dozen of them, from skiing and showboarding, to hockey and bobsled. There’s even a curling game — which is quite a bit more fun that it seems (and definitely more fun that it appears in real life). Read the rest of the review

We always knew that Steam was a massive endeavor, continuously filling up the treasure chests in Valve’s basements. But we never really knew how big a chunk of the market it has, and now Stardock, one of its competitors, says that Steam has about a 70% of the digital distribution market share on the PC, which, as Kotaku points out, is about the same market share that Apple has in the digital music download sector.

This can only add to the criticism that Valve and Steam should be separated into different companies. But don’t count on that any time soon.

Sony’s Kaz “Riiidge Racer” Hirai said during a presentation yesterday that Sony expects the PlayStation Network for the PS3 and PSP to generate $500 million in revenues this fiscal year, but, he also added another thing, a far more disturbing picture…

Hirai mentioned that Sony was looking into “premium subscriptions” for the online service, much like Xbox Live Gold on the Xbox 360. The PS3′s bit selling point has always been that it’s free to play online, and that may change soon. Hirai is quoted by CVG saying,

“Especially in the online area, we are studying the possibility of introducing a subscription model, offering premium content and services, in addition to the current free services.”

Great. Just as we thought the PS3 was catching up to the Xbox 360.