Valve, developer and publisher behind game franchises like Half-Life, Portal and Team Fortress, has announced a new feature for Steam users: Trading Cards, a new service that rewards you for playing games on Steam. It’s like achievements, but more… card-y.

Officially launching in beta form today, Steam Trading Cards allows you to earn and trade cards within certain games that unlock rewards like badges, profile backgrounds, emoticons, store coupons and other aesthetic accessories for your account.

The current list of supported titles in the beta include Don’t Starve, Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Team Fortress 2, Portal 2 and Half-Life 2, but Valve anticipates that the service will “expand over the coming months to include many more titles.”

You can learn more about the STC beta by visiting the official Steam page. Oh, and I guess you can start earning cards too today if you like. BET YOU CAN’T GET MORE BADGES THAN ME, SUCKERS!

Just don’t look at my achievement score. It’s not indicative of my clearly superior ability to attain Steam Trading Cards.

For a while now, I’ve been eagerly awaiting the release of 2K Games and Firaxis’ XCOM: Enemy Unknown on the Mac—not because I have a Mac, but because one of my best buddies does, and I wanted him to get in on the action so we could do some multiplayer. But, as it turns out, XCOM for Mac is out—and it’s not on Steam, the platform I was hoping would be able to unite our computers in harmonious multiplayer action.

The news comes courtesy of a post on GameInformer from yesterday, which points out that the studio that handled the Mac port, Feral Interactive, seems to avoid making games available on Steam entirely. Previous Mac ports, like Deus Ex: Human Revolution and ports of the recent Arkham series have all eschewed Steam in favor of being downloadable directly from Feral’s site. Why is that? I don’t know. But I’m bummed out about it.

Anyway, the game’s out on the Mac, so if you don’t have a PC and you haven’t played XCOM: Enemy Unknown yet, now’s the time to get going on it, you dummy.

[Via GameInformer]

Irrational and 2K Games’ latest critical and commercial hit, BioShock Infinite, is set to have some kind of DLC soon. We know this because there’s a season pass available for purchase—but what we don’t know is what the DLC will be like, how much of it there will be, or when, exactly, it’ll show up.

But there’s one thing we DO know (probably): there will be ten achievements you can earn from it. Steam has posted ten placeholder achievement spots for achievements in the DLC, so at the very least, we’ve got that going for us. Ten achievements…how much content do you think that signifies? Maybe four hours of play? Something to think about.

So there you go: DLC achievements. Now, if only we knew…like…anything else about it. Sigh.

[Steam via VG247]

To provide a market for what’s becoming a common trend in PC development, and to prevent any painful misunderstandings, Steam has added a dedicated portal for “Early Access” games. Basically, they’re pulling all the paid alpha / beta business into one place and legitimizing the practice.

Not to imply the practice is illegitimate at all, it’s just all codified now.

Some big names are in the initial slate of Early Access titles: Arma III, Gnomoria, Kerbal Space Program, StarForge, and Prison Architect are currently available to buy and play. The store pages also spell out exactly what your early purchase includes when the game is eventually done for reals.

Also there’s a game called Drunken Robot Pornography. That’s just fantastic.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, whatever it takes to get great games funded and delivered is fine by me. I guess organ trafficking is probably not OK. Regardless, this is a great way for indie developers to tune their games and get some operating capital.

Like other Steam games, Early Access titles will support automatic updates and community features like guides, screenshots, forums, etc.

PC gaming, y’all.

FEZ, the independent game by Phil Fish at Polytron that took years to release on XBLA, will be headed for the PC on Steam on May 1, Joystiq reports. The news comes by way of the game’s new Steam page, which lists the May 1 release date, but no price as of yet. Chances are it’ll cost about ten or fifteen bucks, which is a great price considering how epic and huge the game is.

We’d heard that Polytron was planning on bringing FEZ to more platforms, and Steam seems like a pretty logical choice to start with. One of the advantages of getting the game on Steam (if you have or haven’t gotten it on XBLA already), is that patching will probably be tons easier for the independent developer. Last year, the game hit a rough spot because of the difficulties in patching on Microsoft’s platform, and the costs associated with it. From what I understand, there are no such troubles when working with the Steam platform.

And, hey! How interesting is this? FEZ creator Phil Fish is conducting a Reddit AMA right now (as of 1 p.m. Eastern, Monday, March 18). Head over there and bother him about Japanese games and his tantrums and meltdowns in Indie Game: The Movie.

Via Joystiq

A post on Joystiq reports that Castlevania: Lords of Shadow has been seen lurking in the Steam registry, which may signify a forthcoming PC port of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 franchise reboot. The post notes that a sequel to Lords of Shadow has been confirmed for all three platforms, so a PC port of the original would make a certain amount of sense prior to its release.

Of course, the reputation of the new series of Castlevania games may not be quite as nice as it was with Lords of Shadow’s original release. A sequel (or side-story?) came out on the 3DS this month, and it didn’t garner the best reviews around. Will the sequel be a return to some kind of success? Or is this new version of the classic franchise already headed down the crapper?

Via Joystiq

Since Valve first implemented week-long sales on its digital distribution service, Steam, great games have gone on sale week after week for pretty ridiculous prices. If you’re a jovial enough consumer, you’ve been keeping up with all the latest deals and sharing them with the world.

And even if you haven’t been able to, we’ve got your back with this week’s deals. Starting today and running until March 18 at 10am PST, nine games are on sale on Steam upwards of 75% off.  All are listed below with their respective discounts:

• Arcania  – 75% off
• Cargo Commander – 66% off
• Frontline Tactics (DLC) – 75% off
• Endless Space – 50% off
• Left 4 Dead 2 – 75% off
• Jet Set Radio – 75% off
• Rochard – 75% off
• F1: 2012 – 66% off
• F1 Race Stars – 75% off

And if the game has been reviewed by us, I’ve linked to it as well in case you need a second opinion. Now, venture forth and save some dough!

[Source: Valve]

A new video by YouTube user ‘SkyrimTuner’ (how apt) shows off the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in what could be its most gorgeous form – with over 150 graphical PC mods running simultaneously.

While not all clips shown have all 150 mods applied, it’s evident that they still looks all sorts of fantastic with just a handful of them upping the visual ante. Most of these mods came courtesy of the RealVision ENB mod with settings notched up to maximum power, resulting in a beautifully-enhanced Tamriel.

There’s also a chick in a thong on-screen most of the time. Poor taste, SkyrimTuner! Everquest this is not.

[Source: YouTube via Polygon]

Bohemia Interactive’s ArmA 3 is coming exclusively to Valve’s Steam game platform, according to a post on Destructoid. The news comes by way of Bohemia’s blog, on which project lead Joris-Jan van ‘t Land explains why ArmA 3 is embracing that platform alone:

“Steam is the leading digital distribution platform for PC games. We have sold our games through Steam for a while now, and Valve has been a good partner. There may be other platforms that handle certain things in a way we or you would prefer, but they simply do not have the reach, support and status Steam does. Recent upgrades to Steamworks have made it an even more interesting option for us as developer and publisher. These include Delta-patching and more direct administration of our games without a middle-man. Had it not been for that, we would have been much more hesitant to make the decision.”

Going with just a Steam release will also make the job of finishing development on ArmA 3 that much easier, as the developer recounts problems Bohemia had in coping with the many different versions of ArmA 2. Add to that the many reasons that so many gamers and developers go with Steam—its stability and huge user-base, among others—and it’s the best choice for the new game’s launch.

Chances are if you’re reading this, it’s not really a big deal, because most if not all of our readers are big fans of Steam. In fact, I have yet to ever hear one person complain about Steam as a platform…a rarity in the world of video games. And while they’d certainly have the chance to make more money by hitting other platforms, focusing on the most popular one is probably a pretty wise move on the part of Bohemia.

Bohemia Interactive via Destructoid

After several months of testing and open beta access opportunities for customers, Valve has officially launched the Linux/Ubuntu version of its popular digital distribution service, Steam. In celebration, a ton of games are on sale on Steam for you to throw your hard-earned digital cash at — all of them, of course, Linux-supported.

All of these deals run until February 21 at 10am PST, so get on it!

Valve as a company has been ramping up its support for Linux quite heavily over the past year, with confirmations of the open source OS running on the company’s upcoming Steam Box hardware, not to mention generally supporting it as a viable platform for Steamworks. Unfortunately, many employees related to the hardware/Linux department of Valve have been recently let go from the company, and only a few words from Valve’s Gabe Newell have provided substantial insight.

Also of note, for all the Team Fortress 2 players out there (like myself), if you play TF2 on Linux sometime this month, you’ll receive an in-game Linux tuxedo penguin doll.

I’m not much of a Linux user, but that thing is 100% adorable. And thanks to Valve’s easy instructions for Ubuntu installation, you (along with me) can get Linux up and running in a jiffy.

Heck, once you try it… you might even like it.

[Source: Valve]

Double Fine’s metal music epic, Brutal Legend, is prepping for release on PC via Steam, the developer announced this morning. If you’re super excited (and want some digital bonuses) you can pre-order the game right now and get it for 25% off its launch price. It’s a wicked deal for a wicked good game.

“Adding a PC release to Brütal Legend‘s list of conquests risks raising the world’s ambient Metal saturation to dangerously high levels,” mentioned Double Fine President Tim Schafer, “which is why we’re conducting this closed beta test for pre-orders.”

That’s right – if you pre-order the game now, you’ll not only get access to the closed multiplayer beta of the game, but also two Team Fortress 2 items in the form of Eddie Rigg’s hair (hat) and his guitar, Clementine (prop).

They also made this announcement trailer, but we never give up a chance to feature a photoshop. Yeah, that picture is of my wicked sweet rig setup. Commence jealousy.

[Source: Steam]

Antichamber, the colorfully mind-bending first-person puzzler from indie dev Alexander Bruce, is slated for launch on Steam tomorrow, January 31. As is gaming tradition, a launch trailer has been, for lack of a better word, launched – all in an effort to get you interested.

Does it work?

If not, you can check out our interview with the game’s developer, as well as check out our thoughts on it here. Why? Because you should be interested! Look at it! It’s like if you gave a person on acid… well, slightly more acid!

Antichamber, the “MC Escher-like mindfuck” of a first-person puzzle game, has come to the end of its long and anticipation-generating four-year development cycle by its creator, Alexander Bruce. It will launch on Steam on January 31 for a to-be-announced-soon-enough price.

The game, which is heavily influenced by Escher and the consumption of substantial intakes of hallucinatory drugs, is focused on delivering an experience unlike most, with brain-twisting puzzles and trippy environments to explore and indulge in.

In an interview with Polygon, Bruce explained that Antichamber took as long as it did due to his development style with the game, in that it’s been a lot of “experimenting, failing and experimenting again, over and over until it eventually worked.”

Since it’s unveiling, Antichamber has gone on to take home a number of awards, including a slew of indie-appreciation titles like the 2012 Independent Games Festival Award for Technical Excellence, the Freeplay 2011 awards for Best Game and Best Design, as well as the winner of the 2011 PAX10 – that’s without mentioning that it was a finalist in the running at both IndieCade and DICE.

If you’re as interested in the game as I am, keep your steam overlay locked to Antichamber on January 31, where you’ll be able to throw money at it until you can’t feel your legs. Granted, that might be diabetes knocking at your door, but at least you’ll have the benefit of knowing early enough to get yourself to the hospital before it proceeds to taking over the rest of your body.

You’re welcome.

[Quote Source: Polygon]

Steam, Valve’s digital distribution platform for PC games and software, has officially launched the anticipated Steam Guides section of its service. Now, if you need tips, walkthroughs and guides of any sort, you might not have to leave Steam anymore to get them. User-made content, I choose you!

According to a press release Valve sent out this afternoon, Steam Guides will allow users the ability to create and share guides within the community, as well as upload images, screenshots and embed YouTube videos within them. No porn, please, folks. Unless it’s a walkthrough for Playboy: The Mansion, in which case I imagine that’s suitable to some degree.

Regardless, check out those Steam Guides now, lest the ghost of the still-very-much-alive Gabe Newell haunt you forever. But, hey, I hear he’s actually a pretty nice guy, so no sweat really. Come to think of it, I imagine that wouldn’t be so much a punishment as it would be a reward.

Alright, so if you want Gabe Newell to be your best friend for eternity, just ignore Steam Guides.

I’m first in line, back off, buddy.

Team Fortress 2 is known for its hats – usually for adding them, and doing so in abundance. However, today, Valve announced via its Team Fortress blog that some hats are being retired from the store – and they will never, ever return from said retirement state.

Some of these hats are classics. Some are more recent. And though they’ll all be removed from the store and any future drop crates you might attain, rest assured that any copies you currently own will remain unaffected. You’ll still be able to wear them, trade them, or grind them up to make other hats – you just won’t be able to find them in the store or in any crates you don’t already have in your possession from this point forward.

If an item below exists in a crate you’ve yet to unlock, you can still uncrate it – it just doesn’t have any chance of being above normal quality (as in being a special or unique level hat).

Removed items include:

• Batter’s Helmet
• Soldier’s Stash
• Pyro’s Beanie
• Demoman’s Fro
• Football Helmet
• Mining Light
• Prussian Pickelhaube
• Trophy Belt
• Fancy Fedora

There’s a full FAQ available on the TF blog, so be sure to head there if you carry any hat-related inquiries on your person. Now, if you’ll excuse me… I have some keys to buy and crates to uncrate.

[via Team Fortress blog]

Back in the not-so-ancient days of the Nintendo 64, many popular games like Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie and Conker’s Bad Fur Day had you spend most of your time collecting items. If those sort of games dance happily in your memory and you wish more games like those existed today, then the upcoming indie adventure game A Hat in Time might be right up your alley.

As can be seen in the gameplay video above, A Hat in Time draws obvious visual inspiration from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker by the handful. The story places you in the shoes of Hat Kid, a young girl traversing time through five different in-game worlds. The environment shown above is the first of these worlds, and puts off a compelling Super Mario Sunshine vibe. Hat Kid’s goal, simply, is to rewrite history and defeat Moustache Girl, her evil opponent.

Since she can both control time and sport some fantastic head ware, I imagine attaining this goal will be little of an issue.

Much like the “collectathons” of years gone by, A Hat in Time is focused on platforming and attaining items that, we assume, help in combat, world traversal, and puzzle-solving. Two items have already been detailed, in the form of the hookshot and propella, the latter being an umbrella that helps Hat Kid travel, and the former… well, also being a familiar tool that helps her travel.

The game is currently in the running for acceptance to Steam via Greenlight, a service that allows Steam users to freely vote on which independently-developed games get published on Valve’s digital distribution platform. It’s worked pretty well so far.

The game’s developer, Jonas Kaerlev of Denmark, hopes to have the game ready for release in Q4 of 2013 for PC. By his estimations, it’ll have about five hours of playable content and could be priced as low as $1. It depends, he says, “on what the publisher considers suitable,” however.

According to what some are theorizing, though, what’s being shown off in this video might be made up of assets stripped from 2008’s Sonic Unleashed. Then again, it’s Sonic Unleashed – so I’m not sure exactly how many would take notice.

[Source: Greenlight via Polygon]

A post on Joystiq from yesterday points to the Twitter account of Runic Games, the developer behind September’s Torchlight 2. Take it away, Twitter:

We had an amazing 2012, and proud to say that #Torchlight2 has sold over 1 million units! Thank you! Happy New Year’s Eve everyone :)

— Runic Games (@RunicGames) December 31, 2012

As the post also points out, the game’s on sale on Steam for $15 through this Saturday, so maybe it’ll hit two million before we know it! Or, you know, maybe not.

Have you played Torchlight 2? Thoughts? Our own Landon Robinson thought it was the bee’s knees.

Via Joystiq

Welcome to day ten of the Steam Holiday sale. Return to the guide for day one if you’re confused.

The sale runs from December 20 until January 5, and will be filled to the brim with sale-long deals as well as flash sales, catalog sales, and daily discounts on games big and small. Also, you can set up your wishlist to notify you through email or Steam mobile (iOS App) when the games of your choosing are on sale. You can even vote daily for what games you want on sale. Radical right?

We’ll have a post every single day of the sale to outline all the spectacular deals, so don’t miss it! Here’s today’s deals, painstakingly organized.

Today’s Flash Sales (will change):

• Transformers franchise  - 50-75% off
• Carpe Fulgar franchise – 75% off
• Sonic franchise – 50-75% off
• Portal & Portal 2 – $6.24
• Air Conflicts: Pacific Carriers – $14.99
• X Superbox – $9.99

Today’s Game Deals:

• Payday: The Heist – $9.99
• Chivalry: Medieval Warfare – $12.49

Today’s Franchise Deals:

• Bioshock franchise – 50% off
• The Witcher franchise – 60-75% off
• Galactic Civilizations franchise – 33% off
• The Elder Scrolls franchise – 33-40% off
• Grand Theft Auto franchise – 75% off

Publisher Pack Deals:

• Valve
• Sega
• Bethesda
• 2K Games
• THQ
• Square Enix/Eidos
• Ubisoft
• Indie Super Mega Pack

Today’s Community Discount Vote:

• Farming Simulator 2013 – 50% off
• Train Simulator 2013 – 66% off
• A-10C Warthog – 75% off

Don’t forget – yesterday’s deals are still going on for a short time!

Welcome to day nine of the Steam Holiday sale. Return to the guide for day one if you’re confused.

The sale runs from December 20 until January 5, and will be filled to the brim with sale-long deals as well as flash sales, catalog sales, and daily discounts on games big and small. Also, you can set up your wishlist to notify you through email or Steam mobile (iOS App) when the games of your choosing are on sale. You can even vote daily for what games you want on sale. Radical right?

We’ll have a post every single day of the sale to outline all the spectacular deals, so don’t miss it! Here’s today’s deals, painstakingly organized.

Today’s Flash Sales (will change):

• Saints Row: The Third: The Full Package – $7.49
• Miner Wars 2081 – $6.24
• Painkiller: Hell & Damnation – $9.99
• Stronghold 3: Gold – $7.50

Today’s Game Deals:

• Limbo – $2.49
• Just Cause 2 – $3.74
• Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion – $13.59

Today’s Franchise Deals:

• Left 4 Dead franchise -$7.49
• Prototype franchise – 50-75% off
• Assassin’s Creed franchise – 25-75% off
• Call of Duty franchise – 50% off
• Prince of Persia franchise – 75% off

Publisher Pack Deals:

• Valve
• Sega
• Bethesda
• 2K Games
• THQ
• Square Enix/Eidos
• Ubisoft
• Indie Super Mega Pack

Today’s Community Discount Vote:

• Batman: Arkham City GOTY – 75% off
• Darksiders II: Death Lives – 66% off
• Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition – 50% off

Don’t forget – yesterday’s deals are still going on for a short time!

Welcome to day three of the Steam Holiday sale. Return to the guide for day one if you’re confused.

The sale runs from December 20 until January 5, and will be filled to the brim with sale-long deals as well as flash sales, catalog sales, and daily discounts on games big and small. Also, you can set up your wishlist to notify you through email or Steam mobile (iOS App) when the games of your choosing are on sale. You can even vote daily for what games you want on sale. Radical right?

We’ll have a post every single day of the sale to outline all the spectacular deals, so don’t miss it! Here’s today’s deals, painstakingly organized.

Today’s Flash Sales (will change):

• CameraBag 2 – $5.09
• Fly’N – $4.99
• Lone Survivor - $3.29
• Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate Edition- $7.49
• Tower Wars – $4.99
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R bundle- $8.74
• The Walking Dead – $12.49

Today’s Game Deals:

• Chivalry: Medieval Warfare – $12.49
• Anno 2070 – $19.99
• Carrier Command Gaea Mission - $24.99
• Super Street Fighter Arcade Edition Complete Pack – $13.49
• Saints Row: The Third: The Full Package – $7.49

Today’s Franchise Deals:

• Portal franchise - 75% off

Publisher Pack Deals:

• Valve
• Sega
• Bethesda
• 2K Games
• THQ
• Square Enix/Eidos
• Ubisoft
• Indie Super Mega Pack

Today’s Community Discount Vote:

• Wargame: European Escalation – 75% off
• Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 – 50% off
• Bastion - 75% off

Don’t forget – yesterday’s deals are still going on for a short time!