If it was April 1st, i totally wouldn’t believe it, but The Inquirer (via Edge Magazine - who are usually pretty close with their advanced reporting), are saying that Google are about to acquire Valve…

There isn’t too much info about this at the moment, but it seems that the main reason they want to snap it up is because of Steam - and you can see why! With it being the best digital distribution platform around, why wouldn’t Google want a slice.

I’m a big fan of Google and Valve, so this could be a partnership that really works - lets just hope that the big men don’t try and stick their feet in too much!

Huge news. The first games from Electronic Arts to hit Steam will be from the Crysis series. Last years Crysis and the forthcoming Crysis Warhead will be available from the 17th September in North America and the 18th worldwide. Priced at $49.99 and $29.99 respectively and also available as part of the Crysis Complete Pack for $79.98 (no saving). This can be prepurchased right now. We will have more details on this surprising development as we get them.

Videogamer.com have the scoop,

Newell said: “We will be releasing demos for both the Xbox and for the PC. I don’t know what the date is for release on that, though. I think it’s going to contain the first part of one of the campaigns. I think it’ll probably be Hospital but I’m not sure. That’s a decision that Doug Lombardi is making.”

Given Valve’s track record I would be very surprised if this hit before the game ships, not that we have much to worry about as L4D has looked outstanding so far.

• “Games for Windows – LIVE Dashboard”
• “Games for Windows – LIVE Portal”
• “Games for Windows – LIVE Marketplace”
• “Games for Windows – LIVE Guide”
• “Games for Windows – LIVE Client”

Hrrghyyppp….sorry I was just sick in my mouth. You see they are doing a POLL over at Gamerscore Blog to find out which one people prefer. Even as acronyms they are dumb. These people have no shame, they have become a parody of themselves.

Two Steam Client Updates - just a few of bug fixes here, and a change to a new store website:

• Updated the Steam client to use our new store website
• Updated the fallback URL for content-server banner ads
• Fixed empty login dialog at startup
• Fixed offline mode sometimes not working
• Added Czech and Hungarian language option
• Optimized where clients get the list of available applications and subscriptions
• Under-the-hood Steamworks API improvements for future titles
• Changed desktop .ico files and games list .tga files to be downloaded on demand, instead of being a blocking download during startup
• Fixed serverbrowser not refreshing the internet list the first time it was displayed if it was right on startup
• Fixed hardware survey not always saving that you said you did not want to participate
• Fixed IMs from popping up while in-game
• Fixed the bug that removes one character per line of copied text when pasting into a chat text entry
• Fixed a crash on shutdown in some Source engine games
• Fixed some bad text in Polish in the Friends list

Gumboy Tournament Update - update for Gumboy Tournament

• Added support for Polish and German languages
• Gamepad button for menu able to set in controller settings. (game forum visitor’s wish)
• Improved network game communication
• Fixed possible crashes
• Gumboy Tournament Server available (player can create own server for internet play)

Audiosurf Update - 6 new achievements added (can never have enough of them, especially seeing as I’ve already got most of the others!)

• Brutus: Dethrone a friend from a global scoreboard
• Ambush: Beat a friend’s score less than 15 min. after they earn it
• Olympian: Earn triple a gold medal requirement. 2 min minimum
• Bauer: Collect a match of 24 blocks
• Ninjutsu: Stealth and collect every color block. 3 min minimum
• Bizarro: Fill all columns within 15 seconds. No greys. No matches

Garry’s Mod Update - a tiny weeny one here!

• Fixed [a previous] update breaking Faceposer/Fingerposer/Wiremod

The all time classic X-Com games are now up on Steam. Previously only Terror of the Deep was available but today sees the addition of UFO Defense, Interceptor, Enforcer and even Apocalypse. They can be had for $4.99 each or $13.49 for the entire collection (after 11th September it will be $14.99).

Please note that I have heard mixed results on Vista compatibility for these games so take caution if you are unsure (send us a tip if you have tried). Sounds like a job for the Good Old Games guys.

• Fixed prop list breaking if too many categories
• Fixed long pause when selecting material tool
• Fixed ‘achievement_earned’ server crash exploit
• Fixed ‘hammer_update_entity’ server crash exploit
• Added missing ‘fov_desired’ convar
• Removed sv_soundemitter_filecheck
• Removed sv_findsoundname

GTR Evolution is available now for $29.99 or as part of the GTR Evolution Complete pack (GTRE and RACE 07) for $44.99.

There’s a fair bit of information regarding Left 4 Dead floating around at the moment, not surprising really since it’s that time of the year for PAX, and the release of the game is approaching faster and faster! In fact, while we previously reported that the release had been pushed back to Nov 20th, this has been edited slightly by Valve’s own Doug Lombardi. The game will in fact be launched on November 18th in the US, but November 21st in Europe. So, while it’s bad news for us Europeans, it’s good news for our American Readers. Where have I heard that before?!

In other news, we have some information regarding potential updates. According to DigitalBattle.net:

Details on the downloadable content for Left 4 Dead have been revealed by its writer Chet Faliszek. [He notes that] Valve plans to add new scenarios to the game’s initial four, as well as new bosses and weapons. A flamethrower is also hinted at.

While the news is aimed at Xbox 360 players as regards to DLC, I’m sure that this is also relevant to the Steam version of the game and is therefore worth posting.

Finally, Kotaku writes that Left 4 Dead is to be entirely cutscene free. This isn’t really a massive surprise to me, since pretty much the entire of the Half-life 2 games have been cutscene free (apart from a re-cap at the start of Episode 2), and it seems that Left 4 Dead will follow in it’s wake, with a brief cutscene at the start and that’ll be it.

Since I’m personally not a fan of cutscenes, this is great news. I like to get into the game as quickly as possible, since my play times aren’t all that frequent or long, and it looks like Left 4 Dead will allow me to do that

I’m getting more exited about this game as the days go on, and we’ll be sure to bring you any more news on it as it happens.