Boo! I hope that didn’t completely scare you, what with Halloween coming up and all the ghosts that totally aren’t fictional and monsters that totally exist coming out to haunt us. To celebrate this rather pointless special time of year, Valve have announced that Team Fortress 2 will be having a spooky update weekend.

The update will add five achievements to unlock some new ghostly hats, a new King of the Hill map (Harvest, a Halloween-themed map with a roaming ghost that will scare players stiff) and Pumpkin-bombs. It also seems that dead players will be able to interact in some way with the living. Not sure if this is restricted to this one map, but either way it sounds brilliant. The special runs October 29th-November 3rd.

Update: The game is also super cheap from now until 2:00pm PDT; go buy it!

In celebration of a new batch of DLC for the game, Killing Floor is free to play for all Steam users for this weekend. If you decide to buy the game, it’s also 25% off. In case you don’t know what the game is about, I suggest you mentally combine Left 4 Dead, Horde mode from Gears of War, and the SAS voice acting from Call of Duty 4.
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This may be the best trailer for a videogame I’ve ever seen. Hell, it might be the best trailer I’ve ever seen. Valve are getting great at making these short films; the characters shine through even with two minutes of screen time, and it makes me want the game even more. If this isn’t the purpose of a trailer, I don’t know what is.

It’s supposedly “leaked”, but I’m not buying that. Valve are careful about this stuff. It’s most likely been put out as leaked to get more press. I don’t know why, because I could watch this thing over and over again happily. It’s worth a post, leaked or not. Now excuse me while I go and enthuse a bit more over there.

The remake of LucasArts’ classic adventure game The Secret of Monkey Island has been bumped down to just £3.49/$5 on Steam today, in honour of International Talk Like a Pirate Day, which is coming up on the Nineteenth. That’s what I like to call a good deal which you should probably take advantage of.

I bought the game on release (hindsight is 20/20), and I can confirm that this is a quality remake, and the art, while perhaps not perfect for everyone, is very high quality and the voice acting is absolutely fine. You can switch at any time to the classic style, too. I heartily recommend this, ye land lubbers and all that.

Shacknews reports that LucasArts will be re-releasing their classic Jedi Knight/Dark Forces series on Steam and Direct2Drive on Wednesday. The release will include all of the games in the series, even the expansion pack Mysteries of the Sith. This follows from their recent re-release of Knights of the Old Republic on Steam, as well as the re-vamped Monkey Island franchise.

Direct2Drive are also having a celebration of 5 years of not-bad service by having a pretty good sale. Everything is $5/£5 in the sale, which includes Bioshock and Saints Row 2 at the time of writing. The games will change soon though, so keep checking back for the best deal.

What you see above is the new special infected, The Spitter. You are forgiven for looking away, as it’s one of the strangest things I’ve seen come out of Valve’s art studio. the gallery below shows some new features of the game off, including some new weapons, the new types of zombie, and generally just the bleak looking swamp level. I can;t wait to get my hands on this game, if only just to shoot the monstrosity that is The Spitter right in the face with a shotgun.
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Shacknews reports that Tripwire’s co-op survival horror game Killing Floor will be receiving a free update ’soon’, followed by some paid content after that. The free content includes a new level (foundry) and some new weapons, the Katana and the AK-47.

the paid content will include “four new playable characters including a Horzine foundry worker and a soldier in prototype Horzine body armor.” I don’t own Killing Floor, but as soon as it goes on sale, I’ll definitely give it a go. It looks like a more frantic and over the top version of Left 4 Dead’s Survival mode, which can only be good in my book.

In this preview of Left 4 Dead 2, some brand new details about the game have been revealed, including some new infected types and more details about the Swamp level. First of all, the level-specific infected, known as ‘common-uncommons’, for the swamp have been revealed. We already knew about the ones with fire-proof suits on, but the swamp level has ‘mud men’, who run quickly on all fours through the swamp, making them difficult to spot.

A new special infected is the ‘Spitter’, who provides a more long-range option for the infected. He spits out an attack (unspecified at this point, probably gob) that damages those who stand in it. The attck isn#t fantastically powerful but can hinder a team who stay in the area of effect too long. Finally, the preview mentions adrenaline and ammo packs (which replace pills and first aid kits). The adrenaline packs allow you to run past zombies without them slowing you down, as well as removing restrictions on your melee attack. Sounds good to me, although removing health packs seems a little odd. I trust Valve, though. They know what they’re doing.

Valve have updated Left 4 Dead today with a patch that adds a lobby browser to the game. This is an important addition to the game; not only does it mean we are able to make our own decisions about where we want to play, but it means that the inevitably great community maps are much more widely available.

Instead of having to go to a map site, downloading a map, and hoping that someone else has done the same, one can simply browse the lobbies for a map they would like, and download it in-game. Hooray for custom maps, and hooray for no longer being treated like children!

As you can see in the (brilliant) above image, Valve have revealed a certain sports bat will be featured in Left 4 Dead 2. Yes, the cricket bat, likely a homage to the fantastic zombie film Shaun of the Dead, will be available for use. Perhaps I should be berated for posting something that is probably a little trivial and not newsworthy- that was my initial reaction.

However, by doing this post, I am able to simultaneously post a picture of a zombie being smacked by a cricket bat by a man in a hat with the English flag on it, and praise a brilliant British film. This is the first time I’ve ever felt patriotic, and it’s all thanks to zombies.
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Sure, I posted about Empire: Total War yesterday. This is important enough to warrant another post, though: the game is now 50% off (as is the Special Forces Edition) on Steam. If you like strategy games and don’t own this game, your “it’s too expensive” excuse is now void- this weekend.

Remember, those of us who already own the game are still being treated this weekend: the huge patch includes a load of free units and, perhaps best of all, frame rate optimisations. If there was one thing wrong with Empire, it was the nasty frame rate on grassy maps. Nothing game-breaking, but noticeable- at least on my machine.

True to their word, Valve are going to release a Left 4 Dead update next week, focused mainly on the community maps that have been created, and pushing for more to be made in the coming months. The update includes a much better matchmaking system, support for community maps, the full, non-beta SDK release, and obviously support for new maps, models, and textures (via an “add-ons” section).

This is an important update for PC fans of Left 4 Dead, since we’ll be getting a whole load more maps made by the community. Going on the support for TF2, there’ll be a lot of great maps, both well designed and ridiculously silly. I urge everyone with the skills to make a L4D map to do it!

A huge Empire: Total War update is heading to players on Monday, Shacknews reports. Update 1.3 will include processor optimisations for a better frame rate, 14 brand new units, balance changes, and a host of bugfixes. In short, this is a huge update which has free stuff included, and you should be very happy if you’re a Total War fan. Hit the jump for the patch notes.
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Yes, it’s propaganda to get you to join the armed forces. However, a free game is a free game, and the perfect price tag makes it worth mentioning at least. America’s Army 3 is out now on Steam, free to all. The game features Steam achievements and Steam Cloud support, meaning your keyboard setup will remain across all of your computers. I’ve not had a chance to play it yet, but like I said, a free game is a free game, so I’ll likely at least try it out. If anyone has played it, let us know how you feel in the comments.

Valve, being the classy gentlemen (and ladies) that they all are, have responded to the concerns of the Left 4 Dead 2 boycott group that popped up following the game’s announcement. Read more…

On June 1st, a group was formed on Steam with the purpose of boycotting the upcoming sequel Left 4 Dead 2. That group has reached 18,500 members. Read more…

Yes, it’s real. It was an April fool’s joke, and now it’s real. Snipers will be throwing jars of piss around. Jarate, when it spills on an opponent, grants 35% less damage resistance (they die faster) and, in the case of the Spy, shorts out the cloak. Jarate can be washed off with water, and it can be used on team-mates to put out any fires that may be happening in, on, or around them. The Sniper achievement titles have also been announced, and you can find them after the jump.

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Today’s update brings us the Ambassador, the replacement for the Spy’s Revolver. The Magnum-inspired gun features an engraving of the victim’s mother on the barrel, as well as the accuracy of a sniper rifle. Such a powerful weapon, though, is hindered by a cooldown between shots. Even so, it is probably one of the most aesthetically pleasing weapons yet. I’m willing to bet it’ll sound suitably epic, too.

Today, Meet the Spy was released! Oh, it was leaked, wasn’t it? Never mind. The true video is finally out: the HD version. It’s glorious. Also today is the list of the achievements for the Spy’s unlocks (which you can see after the jump). One that is noteworthy is the “Valve corporate achievement”: “Fail to understand what ‘Private’ means on YouTube. Needless to say, it’s been achieved.

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Valve’s Youtube channel leaked the ‘Meet the Spy’ video earlier today and, because this is the internet, it was instantly re-uploaded by another user. Here it is for you to enjoy (make sure you choose HD)- and enjoy you shall. I reckon this is the best ‘Meet the…’ yet; we get to see so much more of the personalities of the characters and their relationships with each other. There’s not much more to say, really. Just watch the video.