Valve has confirmed details on its first downloadable content coming for Portal 2 “this summer”.

The new DLC will be available on all platforms(PS3, PC, 360 and Mac). Currently code named Portal 2 DLC #1, it will bring new chambers, leaderboards, a new challenge mode for single and multiplayer modes, “and more”. That already sounds like plenty, but we’ll take more if you’re offering, Valve.

And guess how much that lot will be. Free! The best kind of price.

Every Valve game starts by showing their famous logo of the bald guy with a valve in his head. But where did this logo originate from, well Valve have explained all.

One Redditor recently wrote Valver Ray Ueno about the bald guy in the Valve logo and got this response:

I worked with Gabe and team to develop the “guy in the logo” back when we first named the company, Valve (circa 1995/6), and needed to develop the visual brand vocabulary to go along with it.

Interesting that you should ask about the bald guy. Back then, the casting agencies we were using to find models only had “supermodel”-type talent. We kept requesting “heavy-set”, “normal” models, and they kept sending us “beautiful”, “thin”, “perfect” headshots to review.

So, we finally asked them to just go out on the street and pull “everyday Joes” who were more “interesting”, “common”, and for the bald guy, “kinda big, heavy-set, and bald”.

They went out to the streets of Seattle’s Broadway district, took tons of polaroids of the types of folks we were looking for, and brought the shots back to us. We selected the bald guy from the batches of “off-the-street” polaroids—he was literally pulled out of a coffee shop or book store!

A few days later, we brought him into studio and shot the image you now see at the beginning of our games. We also shot a 2nd image of a different guy with a valve in his eye using the same process (you might remember him as well—attached below). The two comprised the “Open your mind. Open your eyes.” concept for our initial brand, respectively.

It’s been very long since we did that work, so we don’t know who the models were. And the fact that they weren’t professional models, would make it very difficult to find them—if not impossible for the bald guy (not facing camera).

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood has been nominated for seven GAME British Academy Video Game Awards.

Along with Call of Duty: Black Ops, Brotherhood is up for Action, Artistic Achievement, Multiplayer, Technical Innovation and Use of Audio awards. Assasin’s Creed is also nominated for Best Game and Gameplay, with Black Ops also in the Story category.

That puts Black Ops at six nominations, the same as Sony’s Heavy Rain, which is eligible for Artistic Achievement, Best Game, Gameplay, Original Music, Story and Technical Innovation. continue to read »

Treyarch has released the first few Call of Duty: Black Ops First Strike screenshots showing the Stadium map from the upcoming DLC.

As you can see the map is based in a disused hockey stadium, which Treyarch describes as “A mid-sized map designed for close-quarters mayhem, teams must fight tooth and nail in a maze of tight corners and deadly vantage points.”

THQ has released today the UK packshots for the upcoming game Homefront.

A little thing to note is that they feature THQ’s new mordernised logo. Homefront will be released during march and will be availiable on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

Here are the shots:

THQ has released a new batch of screenshots for its upcoming shooter, Homefront.

The title’s developer, Kaos, has adopted a clever new ‘Battle Points’ system, whereby you accrue credits for kills and recon achievements.

There’s also a new game mode: Battle Commander, whereby individual players are tasked with specific missions that best benefit their team.

What do you get when you cross a premium gaming PC brand with a top accessories manufacturer? A freaking sweet mouse, that’s what.

Like most Alienware products, the TactX mouse impresses from the outset. The fact that you can put your hand over that little alien head makes any gamer happy. I’ve been using the mouse ,along with the matching keyboard, for a month now and it hasn’t taken me long to fall in love with it.

The mouse’s appearance is one of it’s biggest selling points. Its imposing, heavy, black design with the lights (we’ll get to those later) are what made the mouse catch my eye in the first place. However for me, the its not just about appearances, the sheer feel of it in your hand communicates meticulous attention to detail, ergonomics and comfort. The mouse in fact weighs a great deal, yet it glides across any surface with ease.

The mouse also features a braided cord made from  a nylon material, as opposed to the tradition rubber,to provide better flexibility. The buttons click with an effortless responce that simultaneously provides a wonderful sense of tactile feedback. Litterally everything is easy to access and comfortable to use, making gaming with it nothing short of pleasure.

When it comes to comfort the only thing that wasn’t completely perfect was the mouse wheel’s click. A fair bit of effort is required to press the button, unlike the effortlessness of the other buttons. However this should not put you off the mouse its not a big deal and, well, at least your index finger is getting a workout.

Another feature is the accuracy. There’s a 5000 DPI laser that is able to pick up even the slightest movement with the greatest of precision. The general behavior of the mouse, as well as the functions of its various buttons, can be tweaked via the included Alienware customization software and then toggled with a press of the “Profile” button on the bottom. Meanwhile, the scroll wheel, which typically clicks via divots at regular rotational intervals (as with most mice), can be adjusted via a second button on the bottom of the mouse (“Dual Mode Scroll”) which instantaneously removes all friction from its movement. Press it again and you’re back to normal.

One of the reasons the mouse itself glides so smoothly, in spite of its considerable weight, is the large size of the Teflon pads on the bottom. These pads occupy probably 20% of the entire bottom of the mouse, and the difference is immediately obvious. It isn’t a light movement, but it doesn’t take much to get it going. For lack of a better explanation, the large Teflon pads simply provide a highly frictionless gliding experience so that you don’t tire as quickly from the use of the mouse. This is wonderful while playing your favorite FPS or doing some heavy video editing.

Above your thumb on the left you will find two buttons for standard back/forward operations within any application, though, as with everything else, they can be customized to your liking. The pressure required to activate these buttons is perfectly tuned—again, as with nearly everything else. Two more buttons on the top of the mouse below the left-click button can be used to adjust the sensitivity of the mouse on-the-fly. It’s an extremely useful addition, especially for gamers or those who will be switching between specialized applications on a regular basis.

Finally, the included software (also usable with the TactX keyboard—not reviewed here), is intuitive and flexible. You can customize the lighting of the mouse with 20 different colors, and, as with the Alienware laptops and desktops, associate certain colors with system events, such as  the receipt of an email.

Whether you’re gaming, editing photos and video, or even just surfing the ‘net, the TactX mouse is undoubtedly the best peripheral for the job. Though it comes at a premium price, there is nothing about this product which does live up to that adjective. Everything about the product is meticulously tuned—weight, movement, ergonomics, tactile feedback, appearance.

Truly, this is one versatile product. There is literally almost nothing wrong with it.

Valve has just released some fresh info about the PS3 version of the upcoming Portal sequal. Portal 2 will be the first console game to appear on Steam, and it will feature cross platform play in multiplayer games, cloud-based storage for saves games, and cross platform chat. Both cross platform features include the PS3 and PC/Mac.

Another cool feature Valve are implementing is that if you buy the PS3 version of the game you can then go on to unlock a Steam Play (both PC and Mac) copy of the game for free simply by linking your Steam and PSN Accounts.

Valve president Gabe Newell said this about the PS3 version of Portal 2:

“We made a promise to gamers at E3 that Portal 2 for the PlayStation 3 would be the best console version of the product. Working together with Sony we have identified a set of features we believe are very compelling to gamers. We hope to expand upon the foundation being laid in Portal 2 with more Steam features and functionality in DLC and future content releases.”

“We designed the Portal 2 PS3 experience to be very straightforward for gamers,” said Josh Weier, project lead on Portal 2 at Valve. “PS3 gamers will be able to simply drop the Blu-Ray disc in the PS3, link to their Steam account from inside the game, and all their Steam friends (on PC and Mac) will be visible and accessible for chat and game invites.”

This just another example of Valve respecting its players and they are respecting their player’s needs and wants. Portal 2 is set for release in April this year.

DKTronics70 has previously released the RealityIV Mod for Gran Theft Auto IV and we’ve always been fairly impressed but the new 6.1 version has astounded us. The quality that can now be achieved in game with mod is very impressive and now you can download and try it out yourself. This could be a sign of what the next GTA might look like. The download is in the description the YouTube video.

The following video shows some new scenes from the mod that  look incredible. Have fun!

GLaDOS’s  ‘Still Alive’ endgame song is counted as one of the geekiest / greatest contributions to the gaming music scene ever. Now the musician responsible for its composition, Jonathan Coulton, has confirmed that he is currently writting a new song for Portal 2, provided that he too is still alive and this is not a lie…

The New York City musician confirmed yesterday his involvement in Valve’s sequel through a tweet: “Closing the doors. If this plane goes down, the Portal 2 song goes with it. It is in my pocket…”

Coulton was dabbling in geek culture well before his famous Portal track, and has released numerous CDs and downloadable tracks since. His full discography and calendar of upcoming performances can be found at his personal site. This new Portal song will debut with Portal 2 on April 21st.