The Steam Podcast

File Mirrors

• High Quality MP3 - SteamPodcast.com
• High Quality MP3 - Archive.org
• Low Quality MP3 - Archive.org
• OGG Vorbis - Archive.org

This week’s podcast features the following on-air personalities:

• Bob Somers - SteamPodcast.com
• Ramzy Bekheet - SteamPodcast.com

1337 C4T of Episode 12

This Week’s New Releases in 15 Seconds or Less
All scores are from GameSpot.

• Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 - Xbox 360 - 8.7/10
• GTA: Vice City Stories - PS2 - 7.2/10
• Titan Quest: Immortal Throne - PC
• Sonic and the Secret Rings - Wii - 7.6/10
• ArmA: Combat Operations - PC
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - DS
• Tony Hawk’s Project 8 - PSP
• Xiaolin Showdown - Xbox

The following news articles were discussed on the show:

Eurogamer Gives Thumbs Up to Left 4 Dead

Valve’s calling Left 4 Dead the next Counter-Strike, and according to Eurogamer it looks like they’re going to deliver. The AI is brilliant, giving you a unique and different experience every time you play the game. Check out the full article for more info.

Nintendo Formally Announces Wii Release Schedule for 2007

• April 9 - Super Paper Mario - Nintendo
• April - Prince of Persia Rival Swords - Ubisoft
• April - Bust-A-Move Bash - Majesco
• April - Bioncle Heroes - Eidos
• May 15 - Mortal Kombat: Armageddon - Midway
• May 29 - Mario Party 8 - Nintendo
• May - Tamagotchi Party On - Namco Bandai
• May - Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End - Disney Interactive
• May - Escape from Bug Island - Eidos
• May - Spider-Man The Movie 3 - Activision
• June 11 - Big Brain Academy - Nintendo
• June 25 - Pokemon Battle Revolution - Nintendo
• June - Cosmic Family - Ubisoft
• Spring - Heatseeker - Codemasters
• Q2 - Legend of the Dragon - American Game Factory
• Summer - Shrek the Third - Activision
• Summer - Transformers the Game - Activision

Valve Releases Black Mesa Parking Permit Kit

That’s right folks, you can now get your own official, Black Mesa parking permit, complete with individualized serial number. You also get two bumper stickers, one that says “Dog Is My Copilot”, the other is “WWGFD?” (what would Gordon Freeman do?).

The whole kit is only $9.95, but for $29.95 you can one of the rare parking permits numbered 1-100.

Gears of War 2 Is Official

In a speech from Cliff Bleszinski (Cliffy B) rumors of a Gears of War sequel were made official. Finally some concrete news for gamers, as last November a Microsoft marketing executive mentioned Microsoft and Epic would be exploring a Gears of War trilogy, although nothing was rock solid at the time.

CS 1.6 Beta with In-Game Advertisements Goes Live

You can participate in the new Counter-Strike 1.6 Beta with in-game advertisements by adding a short command line argument to your Steam shortcut. During the beta the only advertisements shown will be for Valve, but as the program comes out of beta more companies will be added.

Screenshots: 1, 2, 3

Spielberg Working on Wii Game with EA

EA and Steven Spielberg had recently announced a collaboration to publish three games with authoritative control from the directing superstar. No information on the actual nature of the games has been released as of yet, but we’ll keep you posted as time goes on.

This news bit is a continuation of an earlier story on EA and Spielberg announcing their collaboration.

Half-Life 2 Modding Book Coming This May

A new book by Tim Holt is coming out May 1st that details the process of mapping and modding for Half-Life 2. Here’s a quote from the book’s description:

The book shows, step-by-step, how to create new maps, textures, characters, 3D objects, weapons, audio effects, game action, and much more. Readers will learn how to start out by creating new maps and models and then learn basic techniques of coding to create useful mods. The second part of the book features more advanced techniques as readers learn how to expand their skills and develop more sophisticated models and 3D action. The book also covers other important areas of mod development including creating and managing a mod development team, working with fans, and using skills to develop a professional career in game development.

Playstation Home - First Look

CVG (www.ComputerAndVideoGames.com) has released an interesting article on “Playstation Home”. For those of you who don’t know About “Playstation Home”, it’s basically Sony’s version of Second Life. And for those of you who don’t know about Second Life, i’d advise you to check out Google.com.

At first glance Home looks a bit like a MMO-style chat room. Your own character in PlayStation Home can be customised at any time in an in-depth slider-based system not too dissimilar from Oblivions. This free service will allow users to create their own realistic avatars and furnish their own private spaces. Much like a giant social network, it allows players to chat and hang out and even return to respective spaces to listen to music or watch video. There will also be various channels for particular companies and a Hall of Fame where players can collect 3D trophies for their efforts in various PS3 games.

At first, when i heard “free service from Sony”, I really thought that it would suck, but the screenshots are looking seriously good. Go check it out.

Two New Crysis Videos From the GDC

Computers everywhere are committing suicide over the new Crysis videos from the Game Developer Conference. If you were impressed by the first tech demos, you should see these new ones. The nuclear explosion looks absolutely stunning and the sandbox editor looks amazing easy to use. Good luck running it on anything but the absolute latest, bleeding edge hardware, though.

Take 2 Interactive Being Taken Over

In some breaking news, the BBC is reporting that an investor takeover is in progress at Take 2 Interactive, the folks who brought us Grand Theft Auto III and the 2K Sports games.

How will this affect gamers? Anytime management changes at a major publisher, things could change, usually for the worse.

Could this mean the end of Grand Theft Auto?

Funny Videos

• Helicopter Clips Roter on Takeoff
• Mario Theme Composer Koji Kondo Plays Piano at GDC 2007

Wrap Up
Keep your fan mail, suggestions, and comments coming. The coolest email address on the net is still fans@steampodcast.com, and the coolest IRC channel is #steampodcast.

File Mirrors

• High Quality MP3 - SteamPodcast.com
• High Quality MP3 - Archive.org
• Low Quality MP3 - Archive.org
• OGG Vorbis - Archive.org

This week’s podcast features the following on-air personalities:

• Bob Somers - SteamPodcast.com
• Ramzy Bekheet - SteamPodcast.com

1337 C4T of Episode 11

This Week’s New Releases in 15 Seconds or Less
All scores are from GameSpot.

• Ghost Rider - PS2, PSP, GBA - 4/10
• Okami - PS2 - 9/10
• Battlestations: Midway - PC, Xbox 360 - 7.9/10
• TOCA Race Driver 3 Challenge - PSP
• MTX Mototrax - PSP - 7.6/10
• Ice Age2: The Meltdown - PC, PS2, Xbox, GC, DS, GBA, Wii - 7/10

The following news articles were discussed on the show:

Left For Dead - More Zombie-Slashing Fun!

IGN has a full preview of Left For Dead, a new zombie-based title from Turtlerock Studios, the same guys who brought you Counter-Strike: Condition Zero. So far your list of weaponry includes auto-shotguns, M16s, hunting rifles, dual pistols, pump shotguns, SMGs, Molotov cocktails, and pipe bombs. The zombie horde locations are completely randomized, so you’ll have to watch for new enemies every time you play. For all the juicy details, check out the full IGN article.

Slimmer PS3 On The Way

Sony’s already working on the next gen PS3, but rumor has it that the new PS3 will have a dramatically different design from its current incarnation, shedding loads of that initial baby fat for a nice svelte profile.

Nice… Tatoo… I Guess?

One of the forumites over the Steam User Forums posted a pic of his new Half-Life inspired tat. Ridiculously awesome or insanely stupid? We’ll let you make the final call on this one.

US company called Zink Imaging creates world’s first first ‘Inkless’ Printer

The company, a spin-off of Polaroid, says it will use the technology to make hand-held printers that can be integrated into mobile phones and digital cameras.

Zink paper is made from a white plastic sheet covered with micro-thin layers containing three types of colour-forming dye crystals – yellow on top, magenta in the middle and cyan on the bottom. The paper is initially colourless, looks and feels like ordinary white photograph paper and is not light sensitive.

Ridiculous Handheld Accessories

Who could forget all those must-have accessories for your portable gaming device? How great were those light magnifiers? What about those snake lights for your GBA? Break out our your Game Boy grips and PSP-to-TV adapters for this list of incredibly useless handheld accessories.

First look at Spider-Man 3

Not much I can say about this. Just watch it.

Gears of War Coming to the PC?

Mark Rein of Epic Games has hinted that they’re interested in releasing Gears of War for the PC. However, at the moment they still have an Xbox 360 exclusive deal, so while he says Epic would like to pursue it, they can’t right now.

Eventually we’ll get around to a PC version. I just don’t know when.

Wii Modchips Finally Surfacing

The first Wii modchips are now available for purchase, and I must say some of them are pretty impressive. My personal favorite so far is CycloWiz, which let’s you play Wii and Game Cube backups (that you have presumably dumped out from your original disks). CycloWiz also has support for Game Cube homebrew and import games and is completely invisible to the Wii system, making it theoretically impossible to disable with a Wii system update. As the icing on the cake, it’s ridiculously easy to install with a quick solder pad.

Bungie releases Halo 3 FAQ for Beta Testers

In preparation for the test that every gamer wants to take, Bungie has released a FAQ guide for the beta on its Web site. While not everything is out of the bag just yet, the FAQ does give gamers an idea of what to expect.

Bionic Eye Invented

The concept of how this thing works is really mind boggling. Without going too far into detail, this is how it works:

The user wears a pair of glasses that contain a miniature camera and that wirelessly transmits video to a cellphone-sized computer in the wearer’s pocket. This computer processes the image information and wirelessly transmits it to a tiny electronic receiver implanted in the wearer’s head.

And apparently, that electronic reciever in the users head is actually physically attached to the users eye… that’s pretty amazing.

Funny Videos

• Coke Bomb Prank in Action
• I’m Burnin For You

Wrap Up
Keep your fan mail, suggestions, and comments coming. The coolest email address on the net is still fans@steampodcast.com, and the coolest IRC channel is #steampodcast.

File Mirrors

• High Quality MP3 - SteamPodcast.com
• High Quality MP3 - Archive.org
• Low Quality MP3 - Archive.org
• OGG Vorbis - Archive.org

This week’s podcast features the following on-air personalities:

• Bob Somers - SteamPodcast.com
• Ramzy Bekheet - SteamPodcast.com
• Anand Capur - Arcnetworks

1337 C4T of Episode 10

This Week’s New Releases in 15 Seconds or Less

• Lost Planet: Extreme Condition - Xbox 360
  8.1 from GameSpot
• Prince of Persia Rival Swords - PSP

The following news articles were discussed on the show:

Valve Still Updates Half-Life 1?

It’s nice to see that Valve doesn’t ignore its older games. They fixed a bug where a large friends message would cause the game to exit.

E for All Expo Coming 2007

Quick update. The Macworld staff have confirmed that the E For All expo is a go. There are too many details to read here, so i suggest you all check out our shownotes if you’re interested. One interesting thing to mention though… Macworld have told the press that there are already 8 ’siginificant’ exhibitors confirmed to be on the showfloor when the E for all expo rolls around in October.

Valve Rolls Out New Updates

The updates we told you about last week were rolled out, and we’re definitely enjoying them. The new skins are slick, the guest passes work great, and the favorites feature is better than expected.

Terry Donovan Leaves Rockstar

For those of you who don’t know, Terry Donavan is the cofounder and managing director of Take-Two Interactive.

This is what Rockstar said when they were asked how the departure of Terry Donavan affected the company:

Rockstar is a very robust organization and has tremendous depth,” the representative said. “It has over 600 artists and developers, marketing people… Sam and Dan [Houser, also cofounders and producers of the Grand Theft Auto series] is the leadership now, along with Gary Dale. The roles have been filled.

Rumors About Guitar Hero: 1980s Edition

Rumors are flying around the Guitar Hero series, concerning both a new “1980’s” edition of the game and a port for the Xbox 360. We think both are a sure bet.

World of Warcraft: 8 Million Served

World of Warcraft proves even more popular, hitting the 8 million player milestone in a little more than 2 years after its release.

Hard to believe.

Microsoft Purchases Capcom?

While this rumor seems highly unlikely, the move makes a lot of sense from a business perspective.

Wii Tops New Console Launches

I know all you Wii lovers, and especially Bob will love this news bit.

Nintendo is currently topping the the console sales, beating both the XBOX360 and the PS3. Here are the numbers,

Nintendo Wii sells 1.1 million in 2006, versus 687,300 PS3s; both surpassing the 607,000 Xbox 360s sold in 2005; 1.1 million 360s sold in December.

South Park World of Warcraft Episode Becomes Reality

It seems that the latest WoW patch has an NPC that is — so far — unbeatable. Several raid groups have been formed to take out this character, and all have failed. Man, where’s the Sword of a Thousand Truths when you need it?

Game Industry Reaches $12.5 Billion In ‘06

When hardware, software, and accessories sales are combined, the total US gaming market for the year amounted to $12.5 billion, a 19 percent jump over 2005’s $10.5 billion, which was the previous highest grossing year in US gaming. December alone saw the industry bring in $3.7 billion, 27.8 percent more than the $2.9 billion it brought in for December 2005. The figures did not include sales of PC games, PC game subscriptions, or downloaded content.

The Pirate Bay Attempts to Buy Its Own Country To Escape Copyright Law

That’s right, the folks at The Pirate Bay are attempting to skirt around copyright law by purchasing their own country. Sealand is a micronation that’s its own bonafide country… and it’s up for sale. If you donate, The Pirate Bay will make you an official citizen.

Saints Row for the PS3?

Some of you XBOX360 players will be annoyed with this one. It seems the previously XBOX360 exclusive SAINTS ROW is now being listed as available for pre-order on the PS3 over at EB Games and GameStop. Very odd.

Big Thanks
Big thanks to Arcnetworks for providing us with a rockin’ server to host our post-recording online LAN party. If you’re in need of web hosting, be sure to check out Arcnetworks at www.arcnetworks.biz

Wrap Up
Keep your fan mail, suggestions, and comments coming. The coolest email address on the net is still fans@steampodcast.com, and the coolest IRC channel is #steampodcast.