http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/kotaku.com.png http://kotaku.com/tag/source http://kotaku.com/tag/source Now that Team Fortress 2 is free, you no longer have to purchase a game to get the Source Software Development Kit—it too, is free. Happy modding! [Rock Paper Shotgun] More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5817240&view=rss&microfeed=true

Could Valve's future games finally come to a Nintendo platform? Thanks to the Wii U, a system that appears at least as powerful as an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, it sounds like that's a very real possibility. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5814620&view=rss&microfeed=true

In 2008, Dan Pinchbeck of the University of Portsmouth created an interactive "ghost story" titled Dear Esther using Valve's Source Engine, and its associated Half Life 2 art assets. The game achieved enormous critical success, and established a devoted cult following. Now the title is set to receive a substantial makeover with the help of Indie Fund, and is due to enjoy a commercial release later this year. Indie Fund is an alternative funding option for independent game developers, founded by a roster of indie vets that includes Jonathan Blow and Kellee Santiago. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5807825&view=rss&microfeed=true

Valve is opening up Portal 2 to the community today with the beta release of the game's authoring tools—the same tools Valve uses—a chance for you to get cracking on new maps, puzzles and more. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5800623&view=rss&microfeed=true

Should you lack Kuma War II, which on Saturday published a free episode recreating the raid on Osama bin Laden's final hiding spot, you may also download a free map of the Abottabad complex created with Counter Strike: Source More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5799756&view=rss&microfeed=true

The intentionally, unabashedly offensive School Shooter: North American Tour 2012, designed to be "the most realistic student slaughtering modification ever made," has lost support from its former host. ModDB, original host of the Half-Life 2 mod—and hundreds of other mods—has pulled School Shooter from its site. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5785053&view=rss&microfeed=true

You know what World War II games need more of? Dinosaurs. Specifically, Nazi dinosaurs, the kind one can send into multiplayer battles, huge cannons strapped to their cold-blooded endothermic backs! We'll do so with Dino D-Day, the long in the making multiplayer mod for Valve's Source engine. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5782755&view=rss&microfeed=true

What kind of video game would proudly promote the option to wield Columbine shooter Eric Harris' TEC-9 and Virgina Tech killer Seung-Hui Cho's akimbo pistols while embarking on a murderous rampage? The unashamed School Shooter: North American Tour 2012, a new game mod "dedicated to being the best school shooting experience an angsty little shit could ever experience." More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5772830&view=rss&microfeed=true

Garry Newman has one of PC gaming's better-known first names — and one of its best grassroots success stories. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5676077&view=rss&microfeed=true

"Is Black Mesa the ultimate Half Life mod?" That's the question Atomic MPC asked after going hands-on with a near-final build of the eagerly anticipated Half Life Black Mesa mod. I'm so jealous. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5626525&view=rss&microfeed=true

The Alien Swarm Unreal Tournament 2004 mod becomes a full, Source-powered four-player co-op tactics game, available for free on Steam this Monday, courtesy of the nice folks at Valve. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5589233&view=rss&microfeed=true

Valve has released a new, still-in-beta version of the wildly popular online shooter Counter-Strike: Source, adding in new achievements, "domination and revenge" systems and other improvements that don't muck with the game's core experience. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5536413&view=rss&microfeed=true

Welcome to my third annual post on new media for the Half-Life fan-created remake Black Mesa (formerly known as Black Mesa: Source). It doesn't appear to be any closer to release than it was when I wrote about it in 2006 and 2007, but the new screen shots, released on the original game's ten year anniversary, are worth a peek. According to official Black Mesa word, the mod no longer requires Counter-Strike: Source, as the project has moved to The Orange Box version of Valve's Source engine. Any Source-based game will let you play Black Mesa, should it ever be released. That means the new media may show off the "advanced particle effects, jigglebones, cinematic physics, combined maps, self-shadowing bump maps, dynamic shadows, and [...] Procedural Terrain Displacement" courtesy of the new engine. If not, the new trailer promised in the days to come hopefully will. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you next year! More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5093811&view=rss&microfeed=true Although you might expect music based games like Guitar Hero to appeal to visually impaired gamers, they do tend to rely on on-screen cues which makes following a tune difficult/impossible. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5092565&view=rss&microfeed=true The G-Man from Half-Life series has long been one of the spookiest figures in gaming for me. His mysterious motives and menacing disposition were the cause of many a nightmare while I was playing through the first game. Welcome to my new nightmare. Byron Mallett was screwing around with implementing some motion capture data in Source when something went horribly, horribly wrong. I'm not sure if this alleviates my fear of the G-Man or raises it to an all new level. Either way, thanks for sharing Byron! More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=387130&view=rss&microfeed=true

Don't be jealous of the Germans. We can all have some fresh Source engine content to play, now that the Zombie Panic Source mod has gone live. The Half-Life 2 modification brings zombie versus human gameplay to Source earlier than Turtle Rock Studios' own Left 4 Dead will, but it probably won't, as a free product, arrive with the same amount of polish. The premise is fairly simple—a team of humans must fend off a zombie invasion, with one player taking the role of zombie virus carrier, adding to his or her zombie horde by taking out the opposing team. Each faction has its own quirks and abilities, naturally, to make the whole affair (hopefully) balanced and replayable. Regardless of the spitshine on this one, more zombie games are never, ever a bad thing. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=339770&view=rss&microfeed=true

The latest edition of the Source software developers kit adds support for the three most recent releases from Valve in Portal, Team Fortress 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode Two. You may know them collectively better as The Orange Box. That means we should be on the receiving end of a slew of new Portal and Team Fortress 2 user created maps courtesy of the Hammer World Editor and fabulous machinima nearing the levels of Valve's internally created TF2 character class clips courtesy of the Faceposer tool. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=320188&view=rss&microfeed=true

It may not have the complex geometry capabilities or, say, ability to actually shoot at things of something like the Unreal Engine 3.0 or Source platform, but this tech demo for a 3D first person engine built in Flash Player 10—codenamed "Astro"—using Papervision3D is pretty impressive. I fully expect Quake to be ported to Flash within the week. Any longer and I'll have no faith in Earth's programming geeks. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=308273&view=rss&microfeed=true

PC Gamer has the first gameplay video of Turtle Rock Studios' Left 4 Dead, the four-player co-op survival horror game built on Valve's Source engine. Their video podcast shows the editorial team taking on some Valve staffers in a humans versus infected match. The first-person team shooter looks like a more frenzied take on the Resident Evil: Outbreak series or, if you prefer, Counter-Strike with zombies. Left 4 Dead looks to add some interesting elements to the genre—like the ability to rescue your fallen teammates—and looks extremely intense. Like surfing down a lava flow from a pack of rabid lava wolves while "Doing The Dew" intense. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=275907&view=rss&microfeed=true

The best thing about Garry's Mod is that you can do almost anything, like gory copyright infringement without the legal penaly. Plus it allows you to fulfill your long-running fantasy of finally shutting up that loudmouth sonofabitch Luigi with a Steyr TMP. Alice finds all the good stuff on the internet. Michael McWhertor More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=249755&view=rss&microfeed=true Part iPod advertising aesthetics, part Stomp, part Garry's Mod showcase, this clip from Mighty Crane Films is a gun-popping, Strider-killing tour de force that everyone and their mother just sent in. Must see YouTube fodder. Thanks to our tipsters (and their moms) for the flood of goodness. Michael McWhertor More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=239887&view=rss&microfeed=true This is the very definition of tease. No gameplay, no characters, just a look at the gorgeous remade environments from the first Half-Life. A higher res version of the teaser is available at the official Black Mesa Source web site. Michael McWhertor More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=231748&view=rss&microfeed=true

Starting next week, you can expect your Steam client to look and operate a little different. Here are the new features those of you still playing Counter-Strike and Half-Life 2 should be looking forward to. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=226544&view=rss&microfeed=true

After suffering a last minute delay, the beta version of Goldeneye Source has been released. A remake of the classic Nintendo 64 shooter built from the ground up to take advantage of Valve's Source engine, Goldeneye Source is available for download from the official site (or any of its many mirrors). More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=224544&view=rss&microfeed=true

Looks like Black Mesa, the fan created Half-Life remake, isn't dead after all. In a site update posted yesterday, the team discussed the progress and the difficulties getting Black Mesa out the door. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=217837&view=rss&microfeed=true

It's been a hard wait since the excellent Dark Messiah of Might and Magic demo debuted a few months ago, but Valve has announced that starting tomorrow, the full game will officially be available through download today. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=209980&view=rss&microfeed=true The hit boxes in Counterstrike: Source used to be so bad, it was almost metaphysical. A wireframe doppelganger constantly leading your steps by over a couple of feet, not matching up in anyway to the steps of your character. They've since been fixed substantially, but it's still amazing to watch how something could ever have been this broken in just the most popular deathmatch game out there. I recommend hitting mute, by the way. Simpering rock ballad ahoy! Florian Eckhardt More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=208662&view=rss&microfeed=true

Well, it certainly makes sense they'd optimize it with Half-Life 2 coming to the 360, but from Valve now comes official word that the Source engine has been optimized for licensing for the Xbox 360: More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=208051&view=rss&microfeed=true

Over at Computer and Video Games they've posted up and interview with Valve's Kim Swift and Doug Lombardi on the upcoming Episode Two in-house mod, Portal. It's a pretty interesting read, documenting the jump from a small group of students giving a look to Gabe Newell of a proof-of-concept to being flung into the world of some of the best game designers on the planet. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=207856&view=rss&microfeed=true Prowling about on GooTube this morning for Portal stuff, I found this great gameplay video that — unlike the others I've seen — doesn't seem to take place at the Superdome in full riot. You can clearly hear the sound and the robotic announcer's voice, parroting the words of the mighty Erik Wolpaw: More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=206434&view=rss&microfeed=true Valve has announced that their upcoming Counter-Strike worldwide dynamic pricing system will start testing soon, but when we can expect this to hit the masses is still an unknown. From the Valve weekly update: More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=206028&view=rss&microfeed=true

Those who wish to avoid as much as possible of the inevitable Steam congestion when Dark Messiage of Might and Magic is released later this month should be aware that the game is available for pre-order and pre-load now: More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=205757&view=rss&microfeed=true

According to the latest CNN Money story on Episodic Gaming, in the next Half-Life 2 episode, someone dies! More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=204825&view=rss&microfeed=true

Valve has balls. To poke the Counter-Strike hornet's nest is a dangerous thing. With the recent change to the radar system, it doesn't seem like Valve is scared of tweaking the gameplay. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=202847&view=rss&microfeed=true

It's been a couple of weeks since I've asked you guys to peer into the murky haze of the near future and tell me about the games you were playing. Sorry about that; I was lazy. Also, not playing any games. Leipzig bled them out of me. Great, another Italian stereotype leaping upon a monstrous anthropomorphic. Is that a giant crab I see? Kill me. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=199426&view=rss&microfeed=true

Valve, you don't need to go viral to interest me in Portal. You had me at reaching down, fiddling with my junk, then saying "Hello." But now, you've given us Aperture Science. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=199015&view=rss&microfeed=true This is the Team Fortress 2 trailer that Valve showed at Leipzig yesterday. What I am experiencing is a far more welcome boner than the SOCOM 3 one. Florian Eckhardt More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=196303&view=rss&microfeed=true

Yes, I still play Counter-Strike. A lot. Some folks may have moved on, to games like Battlefield 2, or regressed, to games like Halo 2, but I'm still stuck in the year 2002. I still get a rush when I'm the last living CT, aware that two dozen pre-teens are closely watching my performance, ready to let loose a bilious stream of homophobic and racial epithets should I fail to defuse the bomb. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=193823&view=rss&microfeed=true

That Dark Messiah of Might And/Or Magic demo we mentioned last week was released with great fanfare yesterday. Partly because it's a swell demo featuring a beautiful graphics engine, some extremely fun gameplay and the ratio perfection of chocolate-to-peanut-butter in how much RPG Arkane swirled into its FPS. But more largely because the 30 minute demo is an astonishing 1.4 gigs. That last sentence should be followed by a slurry of exclamation points and perhaps the muffled internal pop of your heart exploding. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=193007&view=rss&microfeed=true Although I personally wouldn't want to bust in on them in a Men's Room stall at this year's Pax, GayGamer is one of my favorite blogs. They have a really good eye for finding interesting game related things. And in their latest post, they managed to scratch my perpetual itch for goofy dancing G-Man videos, accompanied by zany tunes. Yes, that is Tiny Tim! Florian Eckhardt More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=192474&view=rss&microfeed=true