You already know that Half-Life 2 for Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC and OS X is excellent, but have you tried it on Linux? Well, yes, technically speaking, you couldn't actually play that version until this week when it launched on Steam for Linux, but our question stands! Yeah, that's what we thought. Now that that's straightened out, we might warn you about the beta nature of HL2's Linux launch. Like other Valve titles recently released to Steam for Linux, Half-Life 2 is merely a beta for now. Should you already own a copy for another platform, it'll show up in your Steam library as available for download like any other crossplatform game. Of course, you're probably too tied up with Half-Life 2's recently added Oculus Rift support on PC to think about a plain old keyboard/mouse experience. And hey, we can't blame you for that.

Interestingly, Valve's internal Steambox is powered by Steam's Linux version; it wouldn't be hard to imagine Valve scaling up its Linux game library ahead of the retail debut of various Steamboxes (or Steamboxen, if you will). That remains to be seen, of course, as Valve's made no official announcement regarding that project's availability.

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Via: OMG Ubuntu

Source: SteamDB

Clumsy wannabe sawbones: warm up your hammers and hatchets, because Surgeon Simulator has arrived on Steam. The infamous game challenges players to save patients' lives with an array of coarse tools and an apparent case of the DTs, and was prototyped in a mere 48 hours during the Global Game Jam back in January. After being greenlit by Steam, it'll be up for grabs later today at £6.99 (about $11) with extra features like a "fiendishly difficult ambulance mode" that brings extra quarts of gore, along with new operations like a kidney or brain transplant and a new soundtrack and visuals. There's a lineup of desperate patients -- they'd have to be -- waiting at the source link and the video after the break.

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Source: Bossa Studios

While the Alienware X51 has been slated by Valve as a currently available Steambox, consumers still have to get rid of that pesky Windows to install the Linux-driven platform. As we've seen with the Razer Edge, a Windows 8-powered gaming system just doesn't work well for living rooms because it still needs an interface that's not a game controller. Fortunately, that barrier is slowly evaporating as the Dell-owned commodity is now providing Ubuntu as an OS option for the X51, paving the way for easier Steambox modification in the future.

It'll come with Linux-friendly drivers from NVIDIA right out of the box, and you can of course install Steam for Linux on it from the get-go. As a reminder, the X51 is available in Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 models, and can be upgraded to 8GB of RAM with 1TB of storage, with either a NVIDIA GeForce GT645 or a GTX 660 card. Features include HDMI 1.4, eight USB ports (six are 2.0 while two are 3.0), digital 7.1 surround sound, on-board WiFi and gigabit Ethernet. Pricing for the base Ubuntu model is $599, which is about $100 less than its Windows counterpart.

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Source: Alienware, Dell Community Blog

Many gotta-have-it-first gamers are very familiar with public betas and other chances to try titles before they officially reach the servers -- but not on Steam, where the closed system has usually left people waiting for final builds. Valve doesn't want to leave customers on the sidelines, though, and is launching Steam Early Access to provide officially sanctioned peeks. The portal gives pre-release games the same automatic updates and community features as their finished counterparts, making it easy to squash bugs as they're discovered, take feedback and simply let testers focus on playing rather than patching. Early Access' initial roster is small: it focuses mostly on the ArmA III alpha as well as a swath of puzzle and RPG releases, so don't expect to preview all the latest blockbusters. However, it might still be a win for both nervous game creators and especially eager players.

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Source: Steam

While Xi3's Piston may only be a Steambox through its software optimization, that still leaves us with a milestone on our hands now that the system is available for pre-orders: it's the first Valve-blessed PC on sale. If you're willing to set aside just under $1,000 ($900 during SXSW), you can claim a Big Picture-friendly mini PC with an embedded, 3.2GHz version of AMD's quad-core A10 in addition to 8GB of RAM and a 128GB solid-state drive. There's no mention of the conventional spinning storage referenced at CES. Expansion is limited to larger-capacity SSDs, although that's not surprising when the entire computer is smaller than a GeForce GTX Titan. The real jolt will be the launch timing. Xi3 won't have Pistons shipping until around the holidays, which could leave some of us hunting for less-than-official (if considerably larger) substitutes for the full Steam experience.

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Via: Joystiq

Source: Xi3

One of ten new additions to come from Valve's Greenlight community platform, Surgeon Simulator 2013 was crafted in a mere 48 hours at Global Game Jam and puts you in the role of a clumsy surgeon, responsible for a patient who's unlikely to last the night. You should consult the video after the break to get an idea of the level of incompetence here, but let's just say your efforts are measured by Blood Level. You'll get access to scalpels, hammers and bone saws as you perform heart surgery and brain transplants -- in short, it's going to get messy. Other new additions include Anodyne, Distance, Receiver, and Huntsman: The Orphanage and all of 'em can be downloaded from Steam starting today.

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Via: Joystiq

Source: Steam (1), (2)

Ubuntu users who've been thirsty for the first stable release of Valve's Steam Client can officially consider themselves quenched. After months of rigorous beta testing, Newell's platform has finally arrived in the Software Center for download. You'll be even more enthused to know that it's currently packing 100 games, all of which are temporarily discounted 50- to 75-percent (until Feb. 21st, 1PM EST) to get the party started -- Team Fortress players also get a "Tux penguin". And with that, we'll steer you to the source link below to download it for yourself.

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Source: Canonical

There's nothing quite so crushing to the self-esteem of a gamer as a new 3DMark build: even a year-old flagship PC can feel like a clunker as it struggles to get a decent frame rate in Futuremark's visually intensive tests. It's time to get masochistic once again, as the Windows version of the 2013 3DMark release is at last available. The software's showcase benchmark is Fire Strike, for brag-worthy rigs with high-end DirectX 11 graphics; there's also a Cloud Gate test for mere mortal DX 10/11 PCs, and Ice Storm for older DX 9 hardware. 3DMark is waiting both as a stand-alone download and through Steam today, while those who take their gaming on the road will have to wait for the still-in-progress Android, iOS and Windows RT releases to make their tablets cry for mercy.

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Via: Steam

Source: Futuremark

Ultra High Definition TV and -- surprisingly -- gaming took the spotlight at this year's Consumer Electronics Show. Who'da thunk it? Certainly not me, Engadget's resident gaming dude. But here we are, with NVIDIA's first game console, Razer's modular PC rig, Valve's Steambox prototypes and Xi3's first example of third-party, Valve-backed Steambox hardware and, and ... maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's look back to January 3rd, before NVIDIA's press conference, before Razer's Project Fiona unveiling and before Valve surprised us with hardware prototypes. Those were simpler times -- times when Valve hadn't yet launched its multi-front attack on what we're still calling console gaming. It seemed unlikely that we'd see such a concerted effort to move PC games from the exclusionary world of desks and home offices into living rooms this early in the year. Yet, again, here we are.

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The Steamboxes are here! Well ... sort of. The prototypes for various Steambox designs are certainly here at CES 2013, and we just spent a grip of time acquainting our lenses very closely with them. The devices range in size and form factor, as well as origin -- several of the devices we saw originate from Valve internal, but inclusions like Alienware's X51 and Digital Storm's Bolt were also being held up as examples of the ongoing "Steam in your living room" initiative (note: all the controllers are off-the-shelf Logitech wireless devices, not prototypes). The idea here, as Valve hardware engineer Jeff Keyzer told us, was to show off a variety of form factors for living room-friendly designs. We'll have more from our meeting later today, but for now you can feast your eyes on the elegant prototypes -- as well as Xi3's Piston, and the aforementioned other two third-party PCs -- that we'll be sure to see more of as 2013 goes on.

Gallery: Eyes-on with Valve's Steam Box prototypes

Terrence O'Brien contributed to this report.

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When Valve hardware engineer Ben Krasnow gave a speech at a German technology conference back in December, he spoke to the much ballyhooed "Steambox" concept we've been hearing so much about in recent months (among other, vastly different subjects). Following that speech, a report on Golem.de (translated at the Neogaf gaming forums) posited that Krasnow indicated a reveal of said Steambox at this March's Game Developer's Conference, or perhaps at this June's E3 gaming trade show -- but Krasnow tells us he didn't say that exactly. "With regards to the Steambox news -- there has been a lot of things stated in the media which I didn't say. For example, it's true that we are working on getting Steam into the living room, and are planning for a hardware box, but we have no current plans to announce anything in 2013," Krasnow said in an email.

"The box might be linux-based, but it might not," he continued. "It's true that we are beta-testing Left for Dead 2 on Linux, and have also been public about Steam Big Picture Mode. We are also working on virtual and augmented reality hardware, and also have other hardware projects that have not been disclosed yet, but probably will be in 2013."

Valve also chimed in with a boilerplate statement, which explained the company's presence at this week's big consumer electronics show. "Yes, Valve will be at the show to meet with hardware and content developers in our booth space. Many PCs optimized for Steam and Big Picture will be shipping later this year. We are bringing some of these as well as some custom HW prototypes to our CES meetings." We saw one such example of a PC optimized for use with Steam's Big Picture Mode last night in Xi3's Piston modular PC -- the first of many of these setups we expect to see in 2013. Valve continued, "These custom prototypes are low-cost, high performance designs for the living room that also incorporate Steam and Big Picture. We will be sharing more information to the press and public in the coming months."

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You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

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Not "experienced" enough to qualify for Valve's first Steam for Linux beta? That's okay -- patience pays off. Poised as an early Christmas present, Valve has opened Steam's Linux beta to all users. The team is tweaking how it handles bug reports too, eschewing the existing forum-based system for a public GitHub repository -- though the Linux forums will remain open for community discussion. New and updating beta testers will be treated to a few minor fixes -- correcting excessive CPU usage from the client while running Team Fortress 2 and adding a few needed details to the Linux variant of Big Picture mode. With just under 40 games working on the Penguin-suited OS, Newell's Windows 8 alternative is starting to gain ground. It's going to be interesting to see where it goes.

[Thanks, Devon]

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Source: Steam Community

Linux for Steam might not be ready for mass consumption just yet, but we're now able to get an idea of what system requirements will be for some of the platform's games. Valve has updated select titles with Tux-friendly specifications. While some games don't appear to require a specific distro, Ubuntu appears to be the most supported thus far. If you plan on heading over to Steam's site to see if your setup cuts the mustard, double dippers be warned -- it seems that non-Linux machines will not display system requirements. We're guessing the masses will see something like the screengrab above as time marches on, though.

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Via: Slashdot, OMG! Ubuntu!

Source: Steam

Valve Software's celebrating the official launch of TV-based "Big Picture Mode" today, which enables Steam users to play PC games on their televisions with a user interface designed around the experience. As a result of the celebration, "over thirty" games are seeing prices slashed by as much as 75 percent through December 10th -- those games, as you might expect, are geared toward controller-based gamers. Should you wish to get in on the Big Picture phenomenon now that it's out of beta, all you've gotta do is sign into Steam with a PC or Mac connected to your television and click the "Enable Big Picture Mode" icon in the upper right hand corner. Not sure if it's for you? Take a gander at our hands-on from back in September to get an idea of how the service stacks up.

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GAME is certainly up for trying new things after getting a second chance at life, and today it becomes the first store in the UK to offer Steam Wallet Codes for purchase. You can buy £5, £10, £20 or £50's worth, and until December 7th, you can get a 33 percent bump in trade-in value, should you put the credit towards codes. Customers can also browse the entire Steam catalog on tablets dotted around the shop floor. While the vouchers will obviously make good gifts this holiday, and also appeal to those who don't want Steam knowing their card details, we're not sure how smart a move this is. We imagine there are still a few keyboard-and-mouse gamers out there who don't use Steam, but once GAME shows them the light, will they ever set foot in a physical game store again?

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Via: VideoGamer

Source: GAME (Twitter)

NVIDIA and Linux haven't always been the most welcoming of bedfellows, but Valve seems to be defrosting that relationship somewhat. The Half Life maker has helped NVIDIA to tweak its 600 series GeForce drivers to reduce games' loading times when used on Linus' operating system. The R310 drivers are said to double performance when using Steam for Linux, which opens for beta today, meaning that you can try and survive twice as many zombie apocalypses in Left 4 Dead than you could a week ago.

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Right on schedule (ahem), Valve has begun requesting applications for the first Steam for Linux beta test. There are only 1,000 spots available, but the company is looking for "experienced Linux users" only -- presumably, ones that will be better at debugging than spilling zombie brains. So, if you've got a rig running Ubuntu 12.04 or above and decent Linux knowledge, head to the source link to register your interest.

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Via: Joystiq

Source: Valve

Indie game makers have been lobbing titles over Gabe Newell's fence for a short while, but now his company is inviting everyone else to join in as well. Valve has widened Steam Greenlight's crowdsourced approval process to include non-gaming software, with the community voting the most popular and useful apps onto Steam's virtual shelves. We're thinking of submitting a program ourselves, that calculates the time required for three quantities of a decaying substance to fall to half their value, just so we can see everyone's faces when Half-Life Three appears on the list.

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Via: Joystiq

Source: Steam

The indie game world has undergone a metamorphosis over the past few years, transforming from an often overlooked niche into as much a staple of the game industry as once-every-year blockbusters like the Call of Duty series. It's that fast-rising side of gaming that PBS' Off Book has explored in a succinct documentary. As both developers and game journalists explain, the small and more flexible nature of indie teams lets them delve into game concepts, art and sound that major developers typically avoid -- you probably wouldn't get Bastion, Fez or Super Meat Boy out of a company focused mostly on hitting its quarterly revenue targets. Crowdfunding and internet distribution methods like Steam and Xbox Live Arcade have similarly removed many of the barriers that either kept these games from commercial success or forced uncomfortable deals with large publishers in the past. Accordingly, the indie sphere that PBS sees in 2012 is less about trying to become the next Activision or EA and more about experimentation and personal expression. If you've ever wanted an elegant summary of what makes Spelunky feel so special, the whole Off Book episode awaits after the break.

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Valve Software -- maker of the iconic Half-Life series and proprietor of digital storefront Steam -- today released Steam's first non-video game software (originally scheduled to launch in early September). ArtRage Studio Pro, CameraBag 2, GameMaker: Studio, 3D-Coat, 3DMark Vantage, and 3DMark 11 join Valve's own Source Filmmaker in the newly minted software section of the Steam store. All non-Valve software is PC-only for now -- we imagine Mac software will also show up at some point, but nothing's available just yet. Like Steam's games, software titles will receive streamlined updates via the Steam client, and consumers will enjoy similar discount offers to the games section -- the first such sale is already on, with launch day software getting a 10 percent discount until week's end. Bizarrely, the software titles also have Steam achievements. Finally, developers get rewarded for porting their games to Android by something other than crushing piracy!

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Next month, Valve is inviting 1,000 fortunate gamers to take part in the first external beta test of Steam for Linux. The trial includes the service itself and one game (which we're taking to be Left 4 Dead 2) that'll run on systems running Ubuntu 12.04 and above. Users won't get their hands on any other Valve titles, or Big Picture Mode, and the company is asking that only experienced Linux users get in touch -- novices are politely asked to wait for a subsequent release. It'll offer up details of how to sign up shortly, and given the love for the Valve's other products, we suspect it'll be a little oversubscribed.

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Via: VentureBeat

Source: Valve

Valve Software's hardware division is still in its infancy. Despite having existed for over a year, recruitment is still its primary concern -- "prototyping is almost secondary," longtime inventor/hacker/now Valve employee Jeri Ellsworth told us in an interview this week. As the team ramps up, production becomes more and more prolific, of course; Ellsworth lights up when she talks about the work her team is doing now. She gets verbose when asked about corporate culture at Valve, about how she's never worked at a company where risk and failure are so acceptable -- even encouraged. She's visibly excited about the prototypes she's creating at Valve's new prototyping facility, but manages to contain herself enough to not let slip exactly what her and her team are working on.

When asked what the team's immediate goals are, she obliquely states, "To make Steam games more fun to play in your living room." That's the team's one-year goal, at least. The challenge is making games that require a mouse and keyboard palatable to people who are used to a controller, or to people who just don't want to migrate PC controls to the comfort of their living room. Working in tandem with Steam's newly beta'd "Big Picture Mode," Ellsworth's team is creating a hardware solution to the control barriers found in many Steam games. She wouldn't give any hints as to what that solution is exactly, but she left no options off the table -- from Phantom Lapboard-esque solutions to hybrid controllers.

Regardless, it sounds like gamers will have a chance to give feedback on those designs, as Valve's hardware team is planning a beta for its various products. Ellsworth is hoping to have one for the team's first product in the coming year -- we'll of course know much more about the product by then, she says. Internal beta tests are already underway, and a variety of the team's prototypes are available in the office for other Valve employees to tool around with. The next step is getting prototypes into gamers hands -- she says Valve already has a production line for short runs, making a beta possible -- and iterating on design before launch. As for how the beta will be handled, she posits it'll be tied to Steam in some way, but no logistics are anywhere near nailed down.

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Been keeping up with Steam's Big Picture interface? Then you probably know it's already in beta. The 10-foot UI hopes to help Valve's content distribution portal get comfortable in front of your couch, offering gamers access to their favorite PC titles from a gamepad-friendly interface. We piped the beta out to our own living room to take a look, and weren't surprised to find a sleek attractive UI with a heap of polish. That said, we were glad we didn't leave our mouse and keyboard at the office.

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As rumored, Valve's bringing its digital distribution gaming portal to televisions today with Steam "Big Picture Mode." Kotaku confirms the news this morning that the TV-friendly version of Steam will launch "later today," alongside a slurry of screenshots and impressions. Beyond what we already know about the service -- it's the full Steam we already know and love, albeit with controller-based input -- a variety of new details abound. A built-in web browser, for one, and a new form of text input for controllers which seems to massively trump the usually QWERTY setup.

The entire store is apparently navigable via controller (though mouse and keyboard still work, if that's your kinda thing), and you can even prioritize games based on what's workable with a gamepad. Does this mean that the long-rumored "Steambox" is headed to living rooms soon? Not so fast, says Valve. "We really don't have a road map. And we think we're going to learn a tremendous amount through this first release." Big Picture Mode's beta is PC-only for now, but a Mac version is promised as coming "soon."

Update: Users can now opt-in to test the mode and download a beta version of Steam. Hit the second source link below to get started.

[Thanks, Yannick]

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Source: Kotaku, Steam