Gabe Newell Confirms New Valve Engine

/v/ the infamous 4chan video games board, went to Valve headquarters for Gabe Newell’s birthday on November 3rd. Following some not so important stuff like a giant birthday card, a life sized TF2 crate, and Gabe Newell having to pay $2.50 to get the key for it, there followed a casual 52 minute Q and A session.

Skip to about 6:10 for the exchange between fans and Gabe Newell about the new Engine.

This doesn’t come as a surprise, as over the summer, people found reference to ‘Source 2’ in the Source Film Maker files, however it is nice to have official confirmation about a new game engine.

Speculation on the subreddit /r/games seems to think Half life 3 will be the debut game, as Half Life showed off Goldsrc, and Half Life 2 showed off Source.

-From the Room of Alex_N

Is Windows 8 Really What We Need?

With Windows 8 right around the corner, due out on October 26th, is Windows 8 really what we need? We have seen the new UI that forces at start up, and so far, it does not look very appealing. It looks like something you would use on your tablet, while drinking a cup of coffee and using your mac-book at Starbucks, because you’re a hipster douche who hangs out at Starbucks for the free WiFi.

Get yo’ tablet design out of my desktop

Now of course, you can use a more traditional Windows UI, but this new ‘metro’ UI will be what you see every time you boot your computer, and if you’re a good person, that’s at least once every 3 days. I can tell you, that I’m going to be throwing my computer out of my window if I have to see that every time I boot up.

With the new UI aside, lets talking about PC gaming on windows 8, shall we? As you may or may not know, I love me some video games, and I really love PC Gaming. But what’s going to happen to our beloved PC gaming on Windows 8? Well, Microsoft wants to embrace the PC gaming culture, as long as you do it the Microsoft way. This article drives that point home. There’s also been outcry from Gabe Newell of Valve, who goes as far as suggesting that we take to Linux for PC gaming. The CEO of Stardock, Brad Wardell points out three big problems with Windows 8, who says it’s “Schizophrenic” and “Obnoxious”. Blizzard, of Starcraft, Diablo, and Warcraft fame also does not like it, echoing what Gabe Newell said. Markus “Notch” Persson of Minecraft fame, voiced his concern in a reddit AMA about a month ago, stating that he worries if Windows 8 is locked down, then it will hurt Indie gaming in the future. If Gaben being worried wasn’t enough, then Notch being worried should be.

So what does Windows 8 hold in store for users? We’ll find out as more and more people get their hands on it, but only you can be your own Judge.

– From the Room of Alex_N

Is Arctic Combat a Counter Strike ripoff with some COD thrown in?

Outrage spreads around the web as Arctic Combat has been accused for stealing the famous Counter Strike map, de_dust2. This map has been in every Counter Strike game, including the newest one, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, often abbreviated as CS:GO. In terms of gameplay, many people say it is very similar to the newer Call of Duty games. Want to be your own judge? Watch this video from PCgamer.

Any Counter strike fan, hardcore or casual recognized the map right off the bat. Want to play it for yourself? Sign up for the beta, or look around, as everyone who gets a Beta key gets an extra five to give to friends. But I wouldn’t play the game, as it would fuel them to actually carry on with their thieving ways. So far Valve has done nothing in terms of legal action, but we wont be surprised if they do.

‘I Am Alive’ Coming To The PC On September 13th

The post apocalyptic survival game I am Alive by Ubisoft Shanghai and published by Ubisoft is coming out next month on the PC, five months after it’s debut on XBLA on April 7th. This doesn’t come as a surprise, as many Ubisoft games come out later on the PC compared to the console counterparts. This isn’t  due to a problem with developing for the different systems, as Windows and Xbox development are very similar, to the point where 4chan’s /v/ board got Skyrim DLC Dawnguard’s Xbox version that released 30 days earlier working on the PC.

So why does Ubisoft do this? Well, Ubisoft has been known to delay PC releases for most, if not all of their games, and recently in an interview the Ubisoft CEO  Yves Guillemot was quoted saying “On PC it’s only around five to seven per cent of the players who pay for F2P, but normally on PC it’s only about five to seven per cent who pay anyway, the rest is pirated. It’s around a 93-95 per cent piracy rate, so it ends up at about the same percentage”.

Now, PC pirating is nothing to joke about. PC games are much easier to pirate compared to console games, but still overall, the processes is painstaking to pirate a game for your PC. Gabe Newell (The god of the internet and also happens to be the CEO of Valve) once said that “The people who are telling you that Russians pirate everything are the people who wait six months to localize their product into Russia” and that “The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work, It’s by giving those people a service that’s better than what they’re receiving from the pirates”. Ubisoft tends to treat the PC market like it’s filled with thieving people, when Valve has proven the opposite.

So will Ubisoft stop their shenanigans of delaying PC ports, or shall it only get worse?

-From the Basement of Alex_N