There have been some incredible deals ever since Steam’s Summer Camp sale kicked off two days ago, to be sure, but today’s round of deals is a pretty big step above.

On sale is Team Meat’s sadistic, charming and addictive platformer Super Meat Boy for $7.49; Vigil Games’ post-apocalyptic action-adventure title Darksiders for a ridiculous $4.99; and EA DICE’s Battlefield: Bad Company 2 for an equally ridiculous $5, just to name a few.

There’s plenty more good deals to be had, including the entire Half-Life collection for only $9.99, so boot up your Steam client or head over to this link to see what else is up for grabs.

Steam’s Summer Camp sale: Day 3 is a post from: The Inquisitr

Hollywood can’t make a videogame-based movie that’s worth a crap, and now a bunch of amateur filmmakers with a fraction of the budget have really shown up the big studios who produce bloated turds like this.

This is a trailer for Beyond Black Mesa, a fan-made short film based on the brilliant Half-Life games, and holy crap it’s good – the perfect example of how canny camerawork and shrewd use of audio can produce great results.

It might look like many other action films of the last decade, but there are plenty of little nods to the Half-Life universe here: the luminous-tailed grenades, the Strider, and various sound effects ripped from the games.

Incidentally, the same guys did this lightsaber fight a couple of years ago: also worth checking out.

[Via YouTube]

[VIDEO] Fan-made Half Life trailer will blow your socks off is a post from: The Inquisitr

Empire magazine is traditionally a film publication, but this month decided to list the 50 greatest videogame characters ever. Fair enough, I guess. And no, the winner isn’t in the picture above.

Instead, the mag opted for one of several videogame heroes who are also mute. Valve’s very own Gordon Freeman, the entirely silent hero of the sublime Half-Life series, is Empire‘s ultimate videogame character. While my own choice for top spot is at #12, I’d say Gordon’s a worthy winner.

Just behind the crowbar-wielding theoretical physicist is – of course – Mario, and again it’s hard to argue. From there, the list’s compilers make some impressively unpredictable choices, with characters from System Shock (which, shamefully, I never tried) and Planescape: Torment (which I have played, and it’s bleedin’ ace) in third and fourth.

You can start your tour of the top 50 here, though if you can’t be arsed clicking through fifty pages, here’s the top ten:

1. Gordon Freeman (Half-Life series)
2. Mario (Mario series)
3. Shodan (System Shock series)
4. The Nameless One (Planescape: Torment)
5. Lara Croft (Tomb Raider)
6. Link (Zelda series)
7. Guybrush Threepwood (Monkey Island series)
8. Master Chief (Halo series)
9. The Lemmings (Lemmings series)
10. Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII)

[Empire, via VG247]

Empire names 50 greatest videogame characters is a post from: The Inquisitr

Earlier this month, Valve launched the Steam download service on Mac. There was much rejoicing, and all the free Portal you could stuff your stupid face with.

Tomorrow, another solid gold Valve classic arrives on Steam for Mac: Half-Life 2. It may be creaking somewhat in the visuals department, but this 2004 (2004!) shooter is still more atmospheric and sophisticated than many of its modern rivals.

No word on price yet, or if we’re getting Half-Life 2: Episode One or Episode Two, but if you’re a Mac devotee who’s not yet sampled this fantastic game, I urge you to do so tomorrow.

One other thing I can’t let go unmentioned: to accompany this announcement, Valve designed a trailer parodying Apple’s now iconic ’1984′ Macintosh campaign. Valve’s advert and the original commercial it mimics are below:

[Via press release]

Half-Life 2 hitting Macs tomorrow, via Steam is a post from: The Inquisitr

Last month, Valve confirmed that its hugely successful Steam downloadable games service would be coming to Macs. That’s pretty big news, especially if you’re a Mac gamer who’s spent years enviously eyeing up the PC’s superior line-up.

The service was supposed to kick off in April, but to everybody’s amazement, Valve has delayed something. Fortunately, we’re not talking Half-Life 2: Episode Three-style delays here: instead, the public release of Steam for the Mac will launch on May 12.

What games will Steam on Mac launch with? Valve’s not saying, though we do know that Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal and the Half-Life series will appear at some point.

On a related note, if you played through Portal and didn’t love it more than your own firstborn, then congratulations, you are officially a drooling simpleton of the highest order.

Actually, sorry, that isn’t related at all. But my god, it needed saying.

See also: Valve’s ‘Steam on Mac’ teaser adverts

Steam for Mac delayed until May 12 is a post from: The Inquisitr

After a slew of suspicious adverts appeared last week, Valve has confirmed its not-exactly-top-secret plot to bring its Steam game platform to Macs.

Starting from this April, several of Valve’s games will be available on the Apple platform, including Counter-Strike, the Half-Life series, Left 4 Dead 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2. Future games will make it as well, including Portal 2 later this year.

Neatly enough, with a feature called “Steam Play,” players will be able to buy a game on either Windows or Mac, and play it on the other – so if you’ve already bought one of Valve’s games on a Windows machine, you effectively own it on Mac. Say what you like about Valve, but they treat their customers pretty well. And there’s more Windows/Mac crossover:

“Furthermore, Mac and Windows players will be part of the same multiplayer universe, sharing servers, lobbies, and so forth. We fully support a heterogeneous mix of servers and clients. The first Mac Steam client will be the new generation currently in beta testing on Windows.”

Exciting times for Mac owners, and this is looking a little less true all the time:

[Via press release]

Valve bringing Steam game store to Macs is a post from: The Inquisitr

Half Life developer Valve and the PS3 have had their ups and downs. And by “their ups and downs,” I mean “only downs.” The PS3′s version of The Orange Box fell some way below Valve’s usual impeccable standards, and Valve head Gabe Newell had this to say about the console in 2007:

“The PS3 is a total disaster on so many levels.”

But hey, that was 2007. Surely Valve and Sony’s console have talked through their differences by now, suggests GameTrailers TV host Geoff Keighley in this interview (at 19:22). Water under the bridge and all that? Well, Gabe?

GEOFF KEIGHLEY: “Are you guys working on PS3 now, trying to understand it, trying to get better at it?”
GABE NEWELL: “Uh, no. Not in any real way.”

Buuuurn.

On the plus side, Newell did apologise to PS3 owners, and admitted that they could have “legitimate beefs” with the developer. Sadly, it looks like PS3 owners may be waiting a while for their own version of Left 4 Dead, or … anything from Valve, really. Talking of which, the interview I linked above contains snippets of footage from both Left 4 Dead 2 and new downloadable content for the original title.

[Via GameTrailers]

Valve on PlayStation 3: “Meh” is a post from: The Inquisitr

If you’ve just thought WTF in the same way as I did when I read the report, there’s some semblance of sanity behind the move and Google isn’t interested (well we think) in developing computer games; Valve also offers Steam, a content distribution service described by the Inquirer as “amazing.”

Wikipedia describes the service as follows:

Steam is a successful digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer and communications platform developed by Valve Corporation. It is used to distribute and manage (sometimes exclusively) a wide range of games entirely over the internet, stretching from one-man independent efforts to some of the world’s most popular. Steam is set apart from its peers in terms of functionality primarily by its residency in the system tray, and the desktop tasks that the client software performs, which will be detailed in the article, to make use of that position.

As of 2008-09-11, over 440 games are available on Steam, and as of 2008-02-07, there are over 15 million active user accounts.

Google Games, or Google content distribution? makes sense when you consider Google’s current strategy of trying to be everything to everyone everywhere. Still, can you imagine how ugly Half-Life 3 will look once the Google engineers get involved

Google may have acquired Half-Live creator Valve is a post from: The Inquisitr