Jonathan Mak's one man show Everyday Shooter is now available to PC gamers via Steam. Like the PlayStation 3 version, it's a mere $9.99 USD—actually $8.99 in its debut week on Valve's digital distribution platform—a bargain for such a fabulous little, Independent Game Festival award winning experience like this. Also exciting? A revamped Steam web site that makes it easier to peruse the ever increasing catalog. Hooray!

Everyday Shooter [Steam Games]

Audiosurf Update Adds New Awesome

Dylan Fitterer's Audiosurf—which joined Steam in February—has been on the receiving end of a batch of new features, the kind that makes your ten dollar purchase of the music riding racer that much more of a value and is the very definition of marketing via software version updates. Audiosurf has added new Last.fm support for "audioscrobbling", the ability to use the game as a music visualizer and mod support. A press release is pretty upbeat about the whole thing, but the list of new features should bring Audiosurfers back for another go.

Aussie University *Really* Loves Portal

Valve might make some of the best games for grown-ups around, but that doesn't mean they're a one-trick pony. Speaking with CVG, Doug Lombardi has said that they're actually interested in making games for kids as well:

There's a lot of people at Valve who are parents and would love to make a game for kids.

We all play the Wii a lot and we think that the proper way for Valve to approach the Wii would be to make something cool designed specifically for it.

Valve Would "Love" To Micro-Transaction You

If we ever get a game that fits that, we'd love to do that. I'd love to have a game that we gave away saying 'however much you want to invest in this, this is yours'.

Valve Asked Microsoft To Build Steam (Microsoft Said "No, Thanks")

You know, we went around to Yahoo, Microsoft...and anybody who seemed like a likely candidate to build something like Steam.

Valve has just released the latest update to the PC version of Team Fortress 2, adding the new gameplay mode known as Payload—which is playable on the new map Gold Rush—plus three new weapons for the Medic and 36 new Medic-specific achievements. Steam users can get the update now.

If you're not currently a TF2 devotee, you can enjoy a free weekend starting Friday at noon PDT. Valve has crafted a handy Gold Rush update specific page, with details on the three dozen Medic achievements.

Team Fortress 2 Goldrush Update [Valve]

Microsoft Rejected Portal For XBLA

I'd love to sell Portal on Xbox live. [But] the platform holders aren't doing that right now. There's a size limit and all kinds of other things.

Do We Need Boutique Developers?

Michael Abbott has another little thought provoking post over at the Brainy Gamer on whether or not we need 'boutique' developers — just like the heavies of the film industry have divisions that deal in 'boutique' titles:

Portal is a boutique studio project. Valve could have made it bigger, longer, and splashier and unveiled it as their NEXT BIG IP. Or they could have simply bought the team and plowed all those great ideas into the next edition of Half-Life. Instead, they made a game that was just the size it needed to be with just the amount of attention it required.

We need more boutique developers. I believe there is a vital market for such games and an enthusiastic community of gamers hungry for such experiences. Not every game requires a 3-year $100 million development and marketing effort. And there's something to be said for allowing gamers to discover a game and push it forward ourselves. This was a big part of Portal's success, in my view, packed as it was into The Orange Box with much bigger and more recognizable titles.

I'd venture a 'yes, that would be nice'; the question is, would more studios be willing to follow the Orange Box path?

Do we need boutique developers? [The Brainy Gamer]

In typical Valve tradition, it won't be Portal with different colours. I think that when you hit something like that, you have two choices: you can quickly replicate it and stick it out there - do the opportunistic thing and cash in on it; or you can do the crazy thing like we did after Half-Life was so successful and go off and try and say, 'Okay, that was revolutionary, so its successor has to be equally as revolutionary.

Valve had a nice little gathering of souls last night at Blondie's Bar and No Grill here in SF to show of the new Team Fortress 2 map, Goldrush. If you are reading this, you are probably a big Team Fortress 2 fan, so I'll skip explanations of the game and dive right into the details.

First of all, I loved the look of it. The name certainly describes what the map was like, looking like something out of Disney's Big Thunder Mountain railroad ride. Lots of wooden structures, water towers and mine car tracks. But the map isn't just a new area, it also features a new gameplay type called Payload. Basically how it works is this: the map has three separate areas and players are split into offensive and defensive teams. The goal of the offensive team is to push a mine cart loaded with explosives through the map, capturing the defensive team's bases as they go. The cart moves faster depending on how many people are surrounding it and leaving it unattended will cause it to start rolling back towards the beginning again. The other team of course, tries to stop the payload from reaching it's goal.

The map wasn't the only thing going however. We were also privy to the new item system that will be instituted with the next update. This also ties in with the thirty six new achievements for the Medic class. By gathering some or all of the new achievements, you can gain three new unique items. One third of the achievements will net you The Blutauger, a new syringe gun. This weapon does not give critical damage, but instead sucks health from the enemy on impact. Earn two thirds of the achievements and you will get The Critzcrieg, a new medigun that will rapid fire critical rockets. Getting all the achievements will see you receiving The Ubersaw which takes melee combat damage and converts it into Ubercharge. Four direct hits with it will charge up whatever Medigun your Medic has currently equipped.

Team Fortress fans are going to have a field day with this new map and if you want to get all those new weapons (and I know you do) take a gander at all 36 achievements after the jump!

Is there more to the design of Portal's end-game boss GlaDOS than previously thought? Game-ism weighs in with its own spoiler-filled theory on why the loopy and sentient computer puts protagonist Chell through such an intense series of tasks in order to ultimately reach her; that is, to kill her, freeing her from her literal and figurative bondage as Aperture Science's maniacal mainframe. It's a fascinating hypothesis that's worth a look, if not only for the sadomasochistic fan-art that accompanies it.

Given Valve's propensity for abstracting the typical storytelling structure out of the game experience, it wouldn't surprise us one bit if GlaDOS were conditioning Chell as a sort of suicide machine. Thoughts?

Still Alive? She's Free. [Game-Ism]

Only North America Gets Ubisoft Games On Steam

It's their call. We offer worldwide coverage, and we're happy to offer the products to as many customers as the publisher/developer desires.

Ubisoft Joins The Steam Family

Valve and Ubisoft have buddied up to (eventually) bring over forty Ubisoft titles to the 15 million strong Steam masses. Well, not the entire 15 million, as the Ubi offerings are limited to those in the United States and Canada, despite the publisher's French origins. Sorry, the rest of the world!

The debut week deals aren't really anything to blog from the mountaintops about, but if you were dreading leaving the confines of your house to secure the PC version of Assassin's Creed you can now rest easy. Press release proof of the agreement is after this.

No this isn't an early April Fool's joke. Harmonix, MTV Games and Valve have teamed up to release Portal endsong Still Alive on Rock Band tomorrow for free. That's free for the Xbox 360 and free for the Playstation 3.

"While the cake may be a lie, the free download of "Still Alive" is confirmed truth," said Greg LoPiccolo, VP of product development at Harmonix. "'Still Alive' is an awesome song that brings together great gaming and great music. We've teamed up with Valve to deliver a free download of "Still Alive" as a "thank you" to our fans for their incredible support."

"Rock Band has lit the industry on fire by opening a new market for cooperative musical gaming," said Doug Lombardi, VP of marketing at Valve. "We're delighted Harmonix has selected the track for inclusion in the growing library of tracks available for this phenomenal title."

With the suspicious timing I actually emailed the publisher's back just to make sure they weren't pulling a fast one, but they say it's 100 percent true.

Can't wait to play it again.

Portal-Themed DS Is Case Of Wrong System, Right Idea