Valve has acquired Turtle Rock Studios, the Orange County-based developer behind Left 4 Dead, a multiplayer coop that uses the Source engine.
The merger of the two companies extends Valve’s development team and provides the company with a new studio in southern California.
Valve and Turtle Rock aren’t exactly strangers since the two have collaborated on several projects, including a number of Counter-Strike: Source maps, Condition Zero, and the Xbox port of Counter-Strike.

Just when I decided to reinstall my old copy of Half-Life 2, news of an interesting mod pops up. Anyone ever heard of Zombie Panic? Notice that I’m a sucker for games related to ninjas, zombies, and samurai, so don’t be surprised when I start drooling over this new mod.
Zombie Panic is a multiplayer that pits humans versus zombies. The session begins with just one zombie (can’t an entire team choose to play as zombies?), but whenever a human is slain, he respawns as one of the undead. The human side wins when they wipe out the zombies.

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If the bad news about recent PC ports isn’t enough, then get ready for more. According to 1UP, the PS3 version of Half-Life 2: The Orange Box is having technical problems despite the supposed power that the console has under the hood.
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The most consistent issue seems to be Episode Two’s bad framerate, which bogs down during vehicular sections of the game. On the flipside, the PS3 version of Portal seems to be doing very well.
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Unfortunately, there were no details on Team Fortress 2. 1UP confessed to having server connection issues, so they were unable to spend time with …read more

That’s right–you can drive around huge open spaces with Eli Vance’s hot daughter. Wanna see how it looks? Of course you do. Watch the video below:

I’m just surprised how the gal manages to stay in the vehicle even without wearing a seatbelt.

The Orange Box may not be in your hands just yet, but while the vigil continues, Jeux-France revealed that Valve is already working on Episode Three. So when is it coming out? We have no idea.
Even if we did know, don’t take our word for it because if there’s one thing sure about Valve—aside from the quality of their games—it’s their delays.
*Cough* six years *cough*
Warning: If you’re trying to steer clear of spoilers, then read no further. If you think you can handle it, read what’s in store for Episode 3 after the jump.

You’ve played 3D shooters for the longest time. Your accomplished games are worth around 10 years of action from Unreal Tournament, all those Jedi Knight titles, F.E.A.R., Doom 3, No One Lives Forever 2, Halo 1 and 2, and Duke Nukem, among a few.

Sure, you may have felt a little sick when you played Half-Life 2, but who didn’t right?

If there’s one thing I really dislike about my short time spent playing Bioshock, it’s the motion sickness I get after playing the game for a couple of hours. It’s not as hurl-inducing as Half-Life 2 (which starts to …read more

Why, you ask? Aren’t developers supposed to play other companies’ games if they want to make good games of their own? Of course. Just ask any marquee developer, and they’ll tell you that they play other makers’ games.

But when your office is stuck in crunch time because your team is feverishly working on a couple of games that’s scheduled for release in a couple of months, then the decision to ban one of the best shooters ever made is beginning to make a lot of sense.

Valve big kahuna Gabe Newell told CVG that they had to ban Bioshock …read more

If you have a short attention span like I do, then I’m sure you fill up your hard drive with several games and play a different one daily. Of course, the games I play are subject to my current mood, plus other important factors like the alignment of the stars and existing geopolitical events.

My current favorite is Psi Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy. Yes, it got great reviews on the PlayStation 2, but I like the PC version better because I can use the keyboard and mouse for moving around. Psi Ops’ Havok 2 physics engine makes the game a …read more