Surprise! Valve unveils ‘Counter-Strike: Global Offensive”

Valve announced today that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is currently planned for release in early 2012 via PlayStation network, Xbox LIVE Arcade and Steam. The game will feature new maps, characters and weapons as well as updates of classic content. The game will also add new modes, matchmaking functions, leaderboards and more. “Counter-Strike took the gaming industry by surprise when the unlikely MOD became the most played online PC action game in the world almost immediately after its release in August 1999,” said Doug Lombard, VP of Marketing at Valve. “For the past 12 years, it has continued to be one of the most-played games in the world, headline competitive gaming tournaments and selling over 25 million units worldwide across the franchise. CS: GO promises to expand on CS’ award-winning gameplay and deliver it to gamers on the PC as well as the next gen consoles and the Mac.” The game

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‘Disney Universe’ adds classic character costumes

A Disney game has managed to fly completely over my head, it seems. In Disney Universe, set for release this fall on PS3, Wii, Xbox 360, PC and Mac, you play as…well, I don’t know what to call them. Perhaps “things that you dress up” is sufficient? Anyway, you dress up these things as Disney characters and explore six worlds from various Disney films (Pixar included). Your exploration is aided by characters like Alice, Mike, Sulley and Stitch. I’m not entirely sure what the point is, but the press release was pretty sure to note that this is the first time some characters and world have been united. I am not sure if Kingdom Hearts counts in this tally. If it does, I’ll switch that “first” to “third,” because you could totally summon some characters no matter where you were. So, ha? You can also team up with three of

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Your Sims can visit Hidden Springs this fall

It’s apparently not just all about expansions in the world of The Sims 3. That’s surprising enough, given that the series is usually really heavy on the huge expansion packs. This fall, you’ll be able to download a whole new world at The Sims Store using SimPoints — Hidden Springs. The area includes a hint of magic among the vacation locales, like a lake, spa and ski lodge. In addition to letting your Sims live the high life, a “deeper mystery” is available to uncover beneath the waters. I’m personally imagining some sort of Fountain of Youth scenario, but I suppose we’ll have to wait until this fall to find out.  

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‘Dragon Age II’ leaves its ‘Legacy’ July 26

BioWare announced the first downloadable content, “Legacy,” for Dragon Age II yesterday. In it, Hawke is charged with ending the attacks of a cartel that is seeking “the blood of the Hawke.” This involves actually leaving Kirkwall, which is something I’m sure you’ll be happy to do, given that you have to go over every inch of that city multiple times in the main game. So, where are you off to? A few new places, actually, including an “ancient Grey Warden prison.” From any point in the main Dragon Age II campaign, you’ll be able to discover the truth about the Hawke lineage…and as it goes, the truth isn’t always pretty. You’ll also fight new darkspawn, forge a new, powerful, class-specific weapon and face some sort of horror that isn’t the truth about your lineage. On July 26, the DLC will be available on PlayStation 3 ($9.99), PC, Mac (800

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‘Team Fortress 2′ is Valve’s first free-to-play game

Yeah, Portal‘s been on sale for $0 in the past, but as far as games sustained by microtransactions, Valve’s never had one. Until last night. Popular online shooter Team Fortress 2 is now basically sustained only through hats. You heard me right. Hats. Because so many people in that game’s community are hat fanatics (you can buy them), the money from that is now what sustains the game. You now get it for free on both PC and Mac. What’s really great is that people who make popular digital objects for the game (like hats) can still have their items put in the game’s store once they become popular — and they’ll still make a percentage of each transaction. This announcement comes as part of the largest update made to the game since its release in 2007 — the Über Update. For more information about the free-to-play development, visit http://www.teamfortress.com/freetoplay.

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Interview: Kirsten Forbes, COO Silicon Sisters

School 26 is a recently released game from the female development team Silicon Sisters. The game is currently available on iOS. We speak to their COO Kristen Forbes. Geek Woman: This is your first game can you tell our readers a little about your team? Are you all from Canada? Kristen Forbes: I’ve been working with creative teams for my entire career, and doing that in game development for something like 13 years, yet only twice have I been fortunate enough to be on a team with as good a dynamic as this one. Believe me when I say it’s not an easy thing to achieve – to gather a group of disparate individuals and have them function as a unified team in short order. It worked this time, in my opinion, because we had great diversity of talents, personalities and cultures – for every senior developer we also had

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PAX East 2011 – ‘Portal 2′ solo and an interview with Erik Wolpaw

I wanted to start this with a description of the footage we watched as part of our Portal 2 presentation. I’d go with the description if only because we weren’t supposed to record anything once we got in there (as far as I know), and I wasn’t about to incur Valve’s wrath. (I did deign to take the photo you see of the logo, mostly because I didn’t think that Valve would have a problem with that. We know what it looks like already.) But then I found out that other people dared to record it. Oh. So, here’s their video. It is exactly what we saw. (Remember to keep going past the video, though — there’s an interview down there, people!) However, I get it if you’re not the video-watching type. I really, really do. Especially when the video in question is, like, ten minutes long. So I guess

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Robots are slightly more reliable than humans in ‘Portal 2.’ Sorry.

The latest “investment opportunity” video for Portal 2 shows us just how untrustworthy humans are. We are such silly humans, pushing our friends off ledges into fire, right? The solution? Robots. Makes total sense. This video allows you to get an insightful look at the trust exercises that robots Atlas and P-Body had to undergo in order in order to be good co-op partners. (Hint: they’re a lot like human trust exercises.)

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Your voice is about to sound ‘SILK’-y smooth on Steam, and introducing Aperture Science Panels technology

Today, Valve announced that they’ll be adding the SILK audio codec to Steam’s voice chat. This is the same tech that makes your voice calls on Skype sound oh-so-good. (Assuming that your Internet is perfect, anyway.) Voice chat is available on the desktop as well as inside your games, in both one-on-one and group chat varieties. Valve have also released the first in a new series of Portal 2 “investment opportunity” videos, narrated by Cave Johnson (or, ya know, J.K. Simmons) and featuring everyone’s favorite co-op robots. This time, we cover panels. (Not crushers, but they sell those, too.) They’re the planks of tomorrow! “Portal 2 is the best documentary-style investment opportunity game we’ve ever contributed to,” said Gabe Newell, President of Valve, “and we’re confident that savvy investors will immediately see the value in these product demonstration videos.” As usual, it’s got the trademark Portal charm and hilarity. Watch

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Trailer for Anomaly: Warzone Earth

Here is a new game – play trailer of Anomaly: Warzone Earth. This one is reported to have turned tower defense formula upside down to create this cross platform tower offense game. The iOS version was just nominated as Most Innovative Game in the 2011 International Mobile Gaming Awards http://www.imgawards.com/, and the Mac/PC versions are promised to be just as innovative, fun and exhilarating. Anomaly: Warzone Earth is planned for release on PC, iPad and iPhone in early 2011. .

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