Valve has a pretty good track record when it comes to releasing hard hitting titles. Not only is their Half-Life franchise regarded as one of the greatest FPS franchises of all time but it has spanned countless other titles powered by the Source engine such as Counter-Strike and later, Portal.

First released back in 2007 Portal tasks players with finding their way through various puzzles using nothing more than a portal gun. If you’re not familiar with this device you can shoot one portal, which serves as an entry way, and then another which serves as the exit. Quite obviously, you can then walk through the entrance and appear at the exit wherever you may have placed it. If you haven’t check the game out you should definitely do so.

Alternatively, you can skip over the first title entirely and just pick up Portal 2 which is expected to hit store shelves on April 18th. In fact, Valve has just announced today that the game is available for pre-order from various retailers including their Steam digital distribution outlet. As a little freebie, if you pre-order the game through Steam you will be given a $5 discount dropping the game to $45. Not bad..

via steam

I don’t know about you guys but the game that really got me into first person shooters was the original Counter-Strike. At the time, there was no Steam so you actually had to go into a store and buy the game. Crazy, I know. Now a days, the game has evolved and Counter-Strike: Source is the latest version. Sure, it may not have exactly the same feel as 1.6 but it is a good game that any diehard FPS fan should check out if they haven’t already.

As a matter of fact, now is the perfect time to check out the game as Valve has just announced that it will be part of this weekends Steam Weekend Deal dropping the price down to just $5.

I mean come on, $5 for such a great game, do you really have any reason not to buy it?

via steam

Buzz has been circulating the internet regardling seemingly leaked details for the PSP’s latest iteration, the PSP-4000.

Apparently, Eurogamer has spoken to an anonymous development source “close to Sony” that has given the following details.

The PSP-4000 will have a sliding screen, similar to that of the PSP-3000, there will be no UMD drive and certain games only utilizing the shoulder buttons will be playable when the screen is slid closed.

What do you think? Is this source to be believed? Let’s just hope it resembles the picture above which has been around for way too long now.

Valve has recently announced the release of a new patch for the PC versions of both Team Fortress 2 and Day of Defeat: Source.

It’s not much, but it’s still good to know. Just restart your Steam client, download the patch, wait for it to install, and you’re good to go!

Patch list below:

Team Fortress 2

• Sticky bombs now get a reduced close range damage ramp up (like Rocket Launcher & Syringe Gun)
  • Ultimately reduces damage done by sticky bombs to enemies <512 units from the Demoman
• Moved the unlockable system over to the new item backend:
  • Added a warning dialog to the loadout screen telling clients when the server they’re on could not get their loadout
• Made “tf_damage_disablespread” a replicated convar, so clients can see the value of it on the server they’re connected to
• Renamed “mp_stalemate_at_timelimit” to “mp_match_end_at_timelimit”, to better explain its function now that stalemate is optional
• Fixed muzzle flashes & shell ejections still playing when viewmodels are hidden
• Server tags can now be used to include or exclude servers from the list

Team Fortress 2 and Day of Defeat: Source

• Protected several more commands from client exploitation

Read (Steam)

Besides revealing sales figures for their own games, it has been revealed that Garry’s Mod has sold 312,541 copies on Steam. This has undoubtedly brought much financial happiness to creator Garry Newman, who must have gotten over $3.12 million from the sales.

“GMod hasn’t just given me financial stability,” wrote Newman on his blog. “It’s also made me a lot more experienced in c++. I learned how game engines are meant to work. I got to fly to Valve HQ.”

The Source-powered mod allows gamers to take models from various games into an open sandbox and play with them accordingly. It is usually used for forum lulz, but also has serious uses. The mod requires at least one Source-engine powered game to be installed.