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Steam for Mac adds Half-Life 2 with cross-platform Steam Cloud support
The Mac Steam release list is a bit thin in terms of quantity this week, but the additions are pretty substantial. As promised, Half-Life 2 is now available for Mac and -- as we dearly, dearly hoped -- Episode One and Episode Two are also available. All three Half-Life 2 games feature cross-platform Steam Cloud support, meaning that players' games are saved on Steam's servers and can be opened from any computer, PC or Mac. Additionally, Half-Life 2 and Episode One have been updated with over 40 new achievements. All three titles are currently 30 percent off: HL2 for 7 bucks; and Eps. 1 & 2 for $5.59 apiece. The complete Orange Box collection (with cross-platform Steam Cloud support across all games) is also currently discounted ($21), with the Team Fortress 2 for Mac release promised soon. Finally, EVE Online: Tyrannis will launch for both PC and Mac later today, making it Steam's first game to launch simultaneously on both platforms.
Steam UI update beta now live; Half-Life 2 achievements spotted
Click image to take a tour of the new Steam. Active Steam users will likely find the first half of this post to be a bit on the old hat side, but we soldier on: Valve's flipped the switch on a new and improved beta version of Steam. If you've already got a Steam account, you can download the new version by hitting up this page. The beta adds all kinds of nifty stuff, like accessible lists of what games your friends have downloaded (along with their personal stats for each title) and some new ways for you to sort and organize game libraries. There's also cross-game achievement tracking -- and Valve's finally done away with Internet Explorer rendering, swapping it out for the friendlier open-source WebKit engine. But, that's not all! Our sister site Big Download was cruising around the new achievements interface and noticed that Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One now have achievements listed under them. As you know, Half-Life 2 released right around the time achievements were finalized, so it never arrived on Steam with them. Sadly, there's no news other than the icons -- which look a lot like those found in the Orange Box on Xbox 360. We'll be sure to keep you posted. %Gallery-86401% Source - Half-Life 2 achievements spotted Source - Steam beta update news
Portal only open four hours
Kim Swift, Valve's level designer stated that Portal clocks in at around four hours to complete. As a standalone retail game, that would be quite disturbing, but given that it's accompanied by four other titles in the Half Life 2: Orange, we're a little more forgiving. Still, the game promises to be a bit of a mind-frack, though Swift promises that the difficulty curve isn't going to be overwhelming as the game teaches you to "think in portals". So, are you going to put into the better part of an afternoon into this when you pick up Orange later this year, or are you going to stick with Half Life 2 and its episodes with a side of Team Fortress 2?
Half-Life 2 confirmed for Xbox 360, PS3
Speaking at EA's annual summer press event, Valve's Gabe Newell revealed that Half-Life 2 would be headed to the Xbox 360 and PS3, bolstered with extra content and presumably, plenty of opportunities to kill people with high velocity toilets. The full console package will be comprised of Half-Life 2, Episode One, Episode Two, Team Fortress 2 (it still exists!) and an entirely new title, Portal. According to Gamespot, Team Fortress 2 now sports a cartoonish art style and a 60's spy feel akin to that of Monolith's No One Lives Forever -- certainly a description you'd never expect to be about a game from Valve. The developer is also trying new things with Portal, which incorporates a rather imaginative gun and encourages you to blast Prey-like portals into floors and walls for all manner of object shifting, puzzle solving hijinx. The console versions of Half-Life 2 (along with all the extra goodies) are expected to launch alongside the PC game's second episodic expansion. Barring unforeseen code thefts and other delays, that means they'll be out by the end of the year. [Thanks Easy_G and icemorebutts!] Previously: Internet survey lists Half-Life 2 for Xbox 360
Half-Life 2: Episodes Two and Three confirmed
As we wait patiently for next week's release of Half-Life 2: Episode One, Valve has confirmed that Episode Two will ship by the end of the year, and will be the subject of a sneak peek included with the first expansion. Meanwhile, Episode Three is already in development and has been confirmed for a late 2007 release. How many of you have purchased SiN Episodes: Emergence, or BioWare's Neverwinter Nights premium modules? What other franchises would you like to see deliver episodic content? See also: HL2: Episode One site is up, with plot details, Half-Life 2 storyline cheat sheet
