The Steam Deck is a neat piece of kit, but it's not perfect. Slowly but surely, Valve has been iterating on its hardware and software since its 2022 inception, yet there's lots more to be done. The Deck's battery, for example, is seemingl?y about to? receive a Battery Charge Limit.

Battery Charge Limit is one of the more important and forward-looking tec??hniques that help keep modern mobile devices' batteries healthy for long periods. Though it may be surprising to hear that the Steam Deck didn't have this in place already, the good news is that Valve didn't just leave all those poor lithium-ion units to the mercy of Linux/SteamOS, as it has supported battery passthrough from day one. You didn't do anything wrong if you kept your Deck plugged into a charger basically 24/7, in other words. At the same time, the fact that a charge limit is coming should make it even easier to trust your Deck's battery as it ages.

Your Steam Deck's battery might stay healthy for longer, if Valve implements the Battery Charge Limit feature

As surprising as it may be, the Steam Deck does?n't actually have a proper charge limiter in place, and Valve is only just now looking into implementing the feature via a future SteamOS update. The Battery Charge Limit, as it is usually known in mobile phone parlance, makes it so that a given device does not continue to charge past 80% of its total battery charge. This is important because modern lithium-ion batteries degrade over time and thus lose capacity. Keeping them in an optimum charge range (i.e between 20 and 80%) reduces the degradation rate first and foremost, but implementing Battery Charge Limit also adds an additional 20% of extra charge overhead that can be used and drawn upon as capacity is lost over long periods of time. The end result is a healthier battery as the device using it ages, which is obviously a boon for?? the Steam Deck.

There's no ETA for when Battery Cha?rge Limit might be released, but everything points to it being in active development at this time. SteamOS 3.7, perhaps?

One of the r/SteamDeck's resident Linux wizards, NoFly3972, pointed out that you can already force the f??eature on by running the following Sudo command:

Obviously, you're implementing this tweak at your own risk, but this is a verified one that many Deck users have been relying on for years now. Alternatively, you may wish to install the delightful Power Tools Decky plugin and toggle th??e "Battery Charge" tweak. Load?s of options at your disposal, then, though I certainly understand if you'd prefer to wait for the official feature from Valve itself.

Whatever the case, there's no reason to wor??ry about using your Steam Deck's battery in the interim. However, outliers do exist, as always, the battery passthrough f?eature I mentioned before is a big help by default. If you, too, often play on the Deck while plugged into the wall, battery passthrough makes it so that the Deck stops using the battery after it's been fully charged. Instead, it uses the charger for power directly, while the battery is almost entirely left out of the picture. It will only resume charging after dropping to 90%, which usually takes a long while.

The post The Steam Deck is about to get a standard charging feature that it’s sorely been missing appeared first on Destructoid.

The tale of Half-Life and its impact on the first-person shooter genre is something that will undoubtedly live on forever. It's often considered one of the greatest video games of all time, up there with the likes of GoldenEye 007 on Nintendo 64, the original Doom, and Halo 3.

And thanks to the modding community, I get to keep talking about the game. In this instance, there's an upcoming mod that should appeal to fans of Cyberpunk 2077 or Deus Ex. Created by user Guild of Inventors over on ModDB, The Last Goodbye fully converts Half-Life into a neo-noir game with a Dick Tracy lean.

I'll let the creator enli?ghten you as to what it's about:

In the shadowy fairy tale metropolis of Prava, the gun-for-hire Lucille - better known on the streets as The Banshee - takes a job from enigmatic entrepreneur Ark McLean. Her target: Bullseye, the deadliest gangster in town. On her travels through the criminal underworld, she meets all mann?er of friends and foes, with plenty of act??ion and intrigue along the way.

Tee-hee! I said "Dick"

In case you don't know, Dick Tracy is a fictional detective from an old ?comic strip and movie, featuring ?strong noir vibes.

While The Last Goodbye is not out yet �and there's no current release date �the above video gives a nice roundup of how development is going. We get to see t?he current build of it in action, which includes some story elements and voice acting.

As of December 2024, Guild of Inventors says the mod is in a "solid late beta stage of development." It's technically playable, but "certainly not complete." I'm heartily impressed with how it looks so far. You can sort of tell that it will play and possibly feel a bit like Half-Life �it being made in the Gold Source engine �but with this unique take on Valve's classi??c FPS.

Look, it's pretty simple. If you like the look of this one, you'd do well to keep an eye on it. I, for one, am always taken in by the efforts of the modding community. Gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling in my tummy space. Anyway, if you want to keep up with progress on The last Goodbye, you can check out the developer's Twitter/X, Bluesky, or YouTube channel.

The post ??Half-Life g??oes noir in this mod that will see you take on the criminal underworld appeared first on Destructoid.

After eight years in development, a huge mod for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has been blocked from a Steam release by Valve at the fi?nal hurdle.

The mod, Classic Offensive, says it has "the goal of bringing back the community aspects and aesthetics of CS," suggesting the game had become too focused on skins. Essentially, it wants to become the ultimate nostalgia trip back to Counter-Strike 1.6, using the newer visuals of CS:GO.

Classic Offensive mod blocked from Steam release

Classic Offensive made it through the now-retired Steam Greenlight system back in 2017, offering hope that it would eventually be able to release a free modification to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on Steam.

With the release build submitted to Steamworks for review back in October, the team behind the mod received no response over the holiday season, delaying plans to launch on December 25, 2024. Now, in a statement on X, the Classic Offensive team has confirmed that the mod's app has been retire??d "without any reason explained" after eight years of development.

The retirement of the Classic Offensive app essentially kills its chances of being released on Steam, even after making "some requested legal changes due to the usage of Valve's IP." According to the creator, "The project has been sticking to the guidelines on how to releas??e a mod on Steam," and the team has "followed the requirements and recommendations to the letter."

The Classic Offensive pr??oject has received no communication from Valve since late 20?20, and at no point was it directed to stop work on the project. It's described as "an?? even worse form of Cease and Desist," with the?? team feeling "required to tell any modding team related to Valve projects to reconsider what they're doing if their sole way of releasing is through Steam."

After eight years, their frustration is completely understandable, and the aim is to "try to get in contact with Valve employees... to try to get things moving?? in the right direction." Whether it can be resolved fully remains to be seen.

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Though Nvidia's GeForce Now has always had a caveat or two in place, it's hard to argue against its value proposition. This comprehensive game streaming service has always been rather janky on the Steam Deck, however, which made it less-than-ideal on the Valve handheld. That's all changing, though??.

Amidst a dizzying array of announcements made at CES 2025, Nvidia has also published a blog on its upcoming GeForce Now application for the Steam Deck. Up until now, the impromptu "solution" has been to simply install Google Chrome onto the Deck and run GeForce Now that way. This, however, was not only janky but also rather limiting as users couldn't leverage GeForce Now's HDR features or go for frame-rates higher than 60. The new native? Steam Deck app should solve all of these problems and then some.

Get GeForce Now with full functionality on the Steam Deck... soon

Slated to release sometime later this year, the native Steam Deck GeForce Now application is going to give users the full array of boons available on regular Windows PCs. This means HDR10/SDR10 color grading, 1440P/120 FPS and 4K/60 FPS streaming setups, and the usual assortment of features you get on a high-tier RTX graphics card. The specifics will, naturally, depend on the particular ??subscription tier you might purchase for GeForce Now.

GeForce Now is particularly important for the Steam Deck because it's a fast and reliable streaming service that can massively expand your handheld's longevity and improve its performance. This is highly reliant on your Internet speed and latency, of course, but if you've got that sorted out, GeForce ?Now lets you play cutting-edge AAAs fully maxed-out on the Deck. That's not something the dev?ice can achieve natively, so it's definitely worth considering for some users.

Notably, you can use GeForce Now without spending a dime. It's just that free access locks you into basic, lower-end host PCs with long queue times and a maximum ?hour-long session time. There are two premium alternatives, Performance and Ultimate, which massively expand the service's feature set to up to 22 euros per month. That might sound like a steep recurring purchase, but it may well be the best way to play on the Steam Deck if you've got excellent home Internet.

Nvidia has already clarified that both DOOM: The Dark Ages and Avowed will be available to play on GeForce Now on day one, and the Steam Deck is unlikely to be able to ru??n them natively. Something worth considering, perhaps, if you're in the market for such an app.

One might argue that relying on GeForce Now reduces the Steam Deck to a far simpler use case that cheaper devices could handle just as well, but I see it as an expansion of its feature-set, instead. Just note that monthly playtime caps are a thing, so you're going to want to have some games installed on your St?eam Deck regardless of how good the ?value proposition might be, for your specific use case.

The post GeForce Now is offici?ally coming to the Steam Deck appeared first on Destructoid.

Mods are hardly new for Left 4 Dead 2, but since Valve has added full Steam Workshop support, it's easier than ever to find and install user-created con?tent. It's as easy as locating a pro?mising-looking mod within Steam and clicking the "subscribe" button.

There are now so many games with Workshop support you can basically turn anything into an unrecognizable fiasco waiting to happen, and thankfully, Left 4 Dead 2 is no exception.

If, like me, you're burned out on the vanilla experience, here are the best Left 4 Dead 2 mods that you can find, install with the click of a button, and enjoy on the Steam Workshop?? right now.

The best Left 4 Dead 2 mods

Back to School

It's not as bad as the title suggests, I promise. This mod doesn't just add a new map or quality-of-life features: It adds an entirely new campaign for you to p?lay through, including six new maps that are available for both Campaign mode and Versus mode.

If you're in the mood for more Left 4 Dead 2, but you don't feel like pl??aying the original campaign again, this is the mod for you.

Survivors: Velociraptors

I would simply type out the word again in all caps, but Hamza's beaten me to the punch. While there are a number of nice replacement models for the survivors (Borderlands 2, Portal 2, etc.), this is the stand-out for its solid execution and original subject matter. And it's true: Who wouldn't want to play as a dinosaur fighting against the undead menace at least once? Scratch that �who wouldn't want to play as a talking dinosaur? Because they to??tally retain the original voices, and it's pretty funny.

Common infected: Deathcraft Zombies

You might be skeptical of this choice, as I was before installing it. Minecraft has gotten out of control these past couple of years; I've seen multiple (yes, multiple) children wearing a Creeper hoodie on the same day, and it's not like I was searching for them on a scavenger hunt. Regardless of the overabundance of Minecraft merch, the game's blocky undead fit in shockingly well with Left 4 Dead 2's realistic art style. T?hey're so much fun to shoot, too! Don't k??nock it until you've seen this mod in action.

Tank: Stay Puft

While the last recommendation needed a bit of explanation, this one certainly does not. I wouldn't go so far as to say the Tank is frightening in its original Valve-sanctioned form, but he's certainly not a pleasant sight to see (or hear) in the game. We don't look forward to his arrival, I think we can all agree. But what if we did? What if the Tank was pudgy and non-threatening? What i—oh, good. You're already downlo??ading the mod. Carry on.

AI: Improved Bots (Advanced)

Frankly, there are times when I don't want to play ?games with other human beings, even if they are designed with such interaction in mind. That's where this mod comes in �it attempts to make the AI-controlled survivors behave more like we would. (Or "should," I should say.) The bots sti?ll aren't perfect, but this is well worth grabbing.

Common infected: Xenomorphs

Admittedly, this won't look as good as you might hope it would in-game, but screw it. Replacing the common infected with Xenomorphs is equal parts terrifying and awesome. Now all the creator needs to do is add the iconic de??ath screech and we'd be set.

Music: Benny Hill Witch and Tank

This one goes particularly well with the Stay Puft replacement for the Tank, adding to the overall goofiness of that mod. The classic music really sets the mood when you're gu?nning down marshmallow men, and as for the Witch, well �you should probably still stay away from the Wit??ch.

Survival map: Panic in Pallet Town

Ever since the first generation of Pokémon, I've always wanted to see Game Freak's handheld adventures expanded into full 3D worlds that could be fully explored. Hell, I'm still waiting for that to happen on a meaningful level. This mod wonderfully recreates Pallet Town, inside and out, for use in survival? mode. I'd say it's still worth checking out, even if you just want to do a quick tour rather than actually, you know, try to survive the undead apocalypse.

Map: Left 4 Mario

Ever wanted to fight off the ravenous hordes in the Mario-verse? Well, thanks to this mod, you can! Fight throu??gh zombies in the wonderful world of Mario, complete with fantastic textures and even ?those um... green tunnel things.

If yo??u enjoyed Mario as a kid, you'll find the textures very well done and weirdly nostalgic, even though Mario never had to fight any undead.

Campaign: Urban Flight

Yet another campaign mod worth playing, Urban Flight takes you through four maps as you attempt to flee the city during t?he zombie apocalypse. It's an interesting playthrough that will leave you wanting more, but four maps are all you get for now.

It's a very well-designed mod and a fun play �definitely worth picking up if you'd like to jump back into Left 4 Dead 2 with a great mod.

Campaign: Day Break

Okay, last campaign, I swear, but I do enjoy these an awful lot! Day Break is another great mod where a group of survivors is trying to space San Fransisco before the military bombs the city, flattening it and our survivors. It's up to you to lead them to safety while, of course, dealing with the hordes of undead th??at roam the city.

This mod brings five new maps that were playtested for the Co-op, Survival, Versus, and Scavenge game modes, so it gives you a bunch of variety and an interesting new apocalypse scenario to play through. Is it a little cliche? Yeah, but who cares �it gives us another chance to play Left 4 Dead 2.

Effects: Cinematic Lighting Effects

This awesome little mod doesn't do much at all. No crazy new skins, and no large new maps. Instead, you simply get better lighting. This seems to affect most (if not all) ??lights in the game, and the effects are noticeable in the least.

??It's a small quality-of-life i?mprovement, but these small ones add up to create an overall fresh experience in the game.

Weapon: Lucille Mod

If you're a fan of The Walking Dead, you may remember Negan. You've probably heard of him even if you didn't watch the series, but arguably t?he more infamous villain is Lucille, Negan's barbwire baseball bat.

We??ll, if you want to bash some zombie heads in with Lucille, you can do just that with this mod. ?Just spare any main characters along the way, won't you? I won't say more on that. No spoilers here.

Skins: Extended Items Skin Pack

Last, but not least... well, maybe. If you're sick of the same old items over and over again, this little mod will come to your rescue. This skin pack introduces tons of new skins for items and throwables in Left 4 Dead 2. This doesn't change their effects, only how they look.??

The same creators, Manacat and Sir Wololo, have two other mods available: a Melee skin pack and a Firearms skin pack??, in case you'd like to totally overhaul skins in t?he game. And that's about it.

These were the mods that made the top of my list. What about you? What mods do you believe everyone needs to download, whether featured in the Workshop or otherwise, to get the most out of Left 4 Dead 2?

The post Left 4 Dead 2 mods: The best of the best appeared first on Destructoid.

The Steam Deck! It sure is n??eat, isn't it? But what about a potential Steam Deck 2? If you haven't yet splurged on an upgraded OLED model, a hot-off-the-press announcement coming from V??ideoCardz suggests a new Steam Deck revision might be coming soon. Heck, maybe even a Steam Deck 2.

More specifically, VideoCardz has just pushed out a series of articles announcing and/or discussing cutting-edge AMD tech and hardware, citing the company itself as its primary source. This tracks with VideoCardz' established track record, where it's often the earliest source for hardware announcements and similar items. Amidst news about the Radeon RX 9070 and its exclusive FSR4 upscaling tech, VideoCardz has also announced the AMD Ryzen Z2 chip trio, which will supposedly?? be available on a Valve device of so??me sort.

Is Steam Deck 2 already coming?

This announcement could mean a few different things for the Z2?? Extreme APU, in a practical se??nse:

• Steam Deck 2 is coming
• Steam Deck revision (of some sort) with Z2 Extreme is coming
• Valve's about to announce some new Deck-adjacent hardware (a home box, VR headset, etc.)

Obviously, we've got no way of telling which of these options Z2 might suggest, but the hardware's performance envelope might help. As per the announcement, there will be three variants of the new APU: Z2 Extreme, Z2, and Z2 Go. Z2 Go, for one, is going to be a Lenovo Legion Go S exclusive, and it? serves as the budget option of the lineup. This leaves Z2 Extreme and Z2 as the possible options for the new Steam Deck, and I'm not convinced we're looking at an actual Steam Deck 2 just yet.

As per VideoCardz' article, Z2 is supposed to be roughly equivalent to the existing Ryzen 7 8840U APU, which features the Radeon 780M graphics processor. A fully-powered 780M is a smidge faster than Nvidia GTX 1650, which doesn't sound like the kind of generational performance leap Valve is waiting? for.

Steam Deck 2 is definitely being developed, but the device's designer, Lawrence Yang, has been clear about what it needs: "We’re not going to do a bump every year," he said in an interview with Reviews.org Australia. "So we? really do want to wait for a generational leap in compute witho??ut sacrificing battery life before we ship the real second generation of Steam Deck. But it is something that we’re excited about and we’re working on."

Now, Z2 Extreme is?? going to be faster than the regular Z2, but it's not clear by how much. And given that Yang's interview was published in October of 2024, I find it hard to believe he'd make these claims if Valve was mere months away from announcing the Steam Deck 2. That's without going into the nitty-gritty of Z2 Extreme's efficacy at super-low wattages that the Deck's current APU excels at.

That being said, AMD's new Z2 chips are definitely making their way into some type of Valve hardware. A Steam Deck Pro that would be more focused on delivering higher-grade AAA gaming at the cost of a higher power draw seems like an obvious candidate. More informatio?n on Z2 and Valve's handling of it is bound to drop soon, so stay tuned.

Update: No, a new Z2 Steam Deck revision isn't being developed

It did not take long at all for Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais to dispel information coming from AMD and VideoCardz. Griffais has stated in no uncertain terms that there will be no Steam Dec??k running on the Z2 or Z2 Extreme chips at all. His guess is that AMD was trying to say that these chips are supposed to be used on products such as the Steam Deck, though it cer?tainly sounded more concrete than that.

My guess remains that Valve is going to leverage Z2 in some way, shape, or form. Be that the long-rumored Deckard headset or the hypothetical return of the Steam Machines, we just don't know. Wi?th that, you can rest easy if you recently purchased an OLED model!

The post AMD suggests a Steam Deck revision might be co?ming soon appeared first on Destructoid.

Happy New Year, everyone! And what better way to start off 2025 than by?? once again hyping you?? all up for something that might never happen?

Mike Shapiro, the voice actor best known for his tantalizing portrayal of the G-Man, one of the e??eriest and most mysterious presences in gaming, just tweeted something, well, tantalizing and eerie.

Long tweet short, Shapiro is clearly not speaking as himself, but rather as ?the G-Man, and he mentions of "unexpected surprises".

"Half-Life 3 confirmed" is one of the most frustratingly timeless memes in the history of the Internet. By now, we’re all champions at straw-grasping when it comes to believing in Half-Life 3. Whenever someone sneakily snaps a picture of Gabe Newell's breakfast, we can instantly come up with measured explanations as to why his choice of three fried eggs means Half-Life 3 isn't just cooking but actually straight-up ready for a surprise Steam release on that very day.

But this time, we just had Mike Shapiro, known for his very cryptic G-Man, who was very obviously talking about the future of Half-Life. Shapiro, who hadn't tweeted since 202??0, also tagged Va??lve, Halflife, and the GMan in his mysterious tweet about this... future.

Sure �if Valve's handling of their greatest profiting off of their game models is of any indication �you could make the case that current-day Valve has simply achieved unbelievable levels of corporate l????aid-backness and is fine with anyone creating false hype about the IP. Or maybe Shapiro was just drunkenly celebrating the end of the year in a way that would make Gordon Freeman's greatest tormentor proud. Still, this feels like something else.

Though rumors were aplenty, I most seriously doubt Valve would use the Game Awards to present Half-Life 3 to the world. It’s way more likely that the company would go for an in-house presentation and?? there is no better way to kickstart the hype machine than to have the voice actor known for his work as the most mysterious character saying some viral-worthy things online.

Like, yeah, it might be nothing, but combined with the Half-life 2 soft remaster we've seen for the game's 20th birthday celebration, and with Valve’s newfound will to get back to making games, it's hard not to see this as something.

You can now play Half-Life 2's greatly impro??ved 20th-anniversary revamp on Ste?am.

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By now, we've all grown accustomed to apps and websites giving us a brief overview of how we've been using their services across the year, and Steam is no different. Just like how Spotify Wrapped gives you a breakdown of how many mushy Phil Collins songs you've listened to throughout the year (just me?), Ste??am Replay 2024 tells you y??our gaming habits over the past 12 months.

When you next log in, you'll get to access your summary, which �as described in a recent post �is "fun-filled, fact-filled, friend-filled." In no way does i?t make me judge myself. Nope. Not a bit.

You probably don't need me to go over exactly what you can expect ????to find in Replay, but these end-of-year digests can provide an interesting insight into what kind of games you play and/or what kind of gamer Steam sees you as. Your mileage will vary, obviously.

How many games did you play in 2024?

I was in two minds about whether or not to share mine with you all. There'?s nothing really embarrassing about it. And now that I've said that, I feel I've inadvertently implicated myself and the only way to clear my name is to link to? my Steam Replay.

Actually, no. Still not doing it. However, what I did find interesting about my summary is how Supermarket Simulator is wedged right between Phasmophobia and 7 Days to Die. The first two are not surprising, but I didn't think I'd playe??d the latter that much this year. Clearly, Steam says otherwise.

I'm also not surprised to see that horror dominates my playing habits. This has been typical with me over the three y?ears Steam Replay has been running. I also see that survival, classic, and?? FPS form a big part of my preferences. Yep, yep. These all check out, too. But as you can see, absolutely nothing there that would make someone raise their eyebrows at me. Just good old violence and horror.

The post Steam Replay?? 2024 recaps your ??year in gaming �how does yours look? appeared first on Destructoid.

Valve's Steam Deck is easily the most popular modern PC gaming handheld, and that's for good reason. Sure, it's not the most performant of the bunch, but it's got excellent?? software and community, and?? a relatively low asking price. The latter is now better still, with refurbished OLED Steam Decks.

That's right: whereas Valve's official Deck refurbishment program only stocked the original LCD Steam Deck models, it has now been expanded to support the superior OLED models as well. This is an entirely new development that wasn't previously announced in any meaningful capacity, but calling this move welcome would be a severe understatement. The price drop on refurbished models is steep, and if you're in the market for a Steam Deck, I genuinely believe there's no reason to purchas??e an LCD model off of Valve any longer.

Get a Steam Deck OLED on the cheap via the official Valve refurbishment program

As per Valve's latest announcement, you can now purchas??e a refurbished Steam Deck OLED directly off of Steam without any need for third-party suppliers/retrofitters. Th?is offer is only valid for US, Canada, UK, and European Union markets, but it's a phenomenal deal regardless.

All Steam Deck models available via Valve's official refurbishment hug page come with a special "Valve Certified Refurbished" tag that means you're getting a working unit no matter what. "Each Certified Refurbished Steam Deck has been thoroughly tested to the same high standards as our retail units," says Valve. "Every device goes through a complete factory reset, software update, and an extensive examination involving over 100 tests at one of Valve's facilities. Among the tests are all controller inputs, the audio system, the screen, and the internals. Battery health is also assessed to ens??ure proper functionality and longevity."

Now, the obvious caveat is that VCR Steam Decks "may have minor cosmetic ??blemishes," but Valve guarantees a "reliable, high-quality gaming experience," at a lower cost.

And this is where the crucial kicker lies: the cost is substantially lower. The factory-new 512 GB OLED Steam Deck will set you back a substantial 569,00â‚?in the EU, for example, whereas the same VCR model will only cost 459,00â‚? That's right, we're looking at a drop of over 100 euro per unit. The 1 TB OLED Steam Deck, on the other hand, costs 679,00â‚?facto?ry-new, while the refurbished model comes in at a lovely 549,00â‚? Talk about savings!

And if you're worr??ied about losing out on goodies that you get with a brand-spanking-new Steam Deck, don't be. Every single Valve Certifi??ed Refurbished device comes with:

• A full one-year warranty package (equivalent to that of a factory-new Steam Deck)
• A refurbished power supply that's been fully tested, but may have cosmetic blemishes.
• The usual carrying case and quick-start guide package.

It's an excellent deal, in other words. You only have to be okay with getting a potentially slightly scuffed Deck, though I'd like to point out that this doesn't seem to be a huge concern. Users have reported getting devices that look essent?ially brand new, so you should b??e good to go, too.

One thing worth pointing out is that refurbished LCD Steam Decks are fully out of stock as it stands, and it'll be curious to see if they do get re-stocked in the?? end. Remember: only the 256 GB LCD model is now sold, with the rest of the spectrum covered by t??he higher-grade OLED Decks.

The post Refurbished Steam Deck OLED models are now available (in selec??t?? regions) appeared first on Destructoid.

Being a major one-stop digital storefront for many-a-PC gamer, Steam has dominated the market for around 20 years. It is a convenient place to purchase and play? games online, and it's easy to see why this is, but all the sales and dis??count events that occur throughout the year make it even more alluring.

While we've just had the Autumn Sale, Steam is by no ??means done for 2024. With the closing w??eeks of the year now upon us, we still have one more event to go: the Steam Winter sale. But when is it happening, exactly?

Well, you still have some time to prepare as, according to a post from Steam that lists all the events of 2024, the Winter Sale will begin on December 19 and end on January 2, 2025. There's also a countdown clock on SteamDB, which shows that �at the time of writing �it'll officially begin in just over ?10 days and four hours, with it scheduled to kick off at 18:00.

Winter may be cold, but Steam could be in hot water

As always with these things, we can't be sure what games will actually be discounted until closer to the date (or on the date itself). For the Winter Sale 2023, Steam saw such titles as Mortal Kombat 1, Dave the Diver, Red Dead Redemption 2, Elden Ring, and even Starfield get??? prices slashed temporarily, with some games having as much as 80% off.

Of course, it's not all bells that are jingly. Steam's owner and developer Valve is currently embroiled in a?n antitrust lawsuit. The suit was recently granted a "class action" status, with the file claiming that the 30% commission the company takes on games sold via its platform (compared to Epic Games Store's 12%) is "anti-competitive."

Having said that, we gamers needn't worry ourselves too much about that right now. We're getting closer to the Steam Winter Sale 2024 and, with that, the closing moments of what has b?een a pretty bleak year for the industry. Go out with a smile and? more games in your library, I guess.

The post When is the Steam Winter 2024 sale? appeared first on Destructoid.

While I'm not about to propose the tank-like CRT screens of yesteryear are better than modern-day OLED displays, I do think there's merit in how phosphors, specifically, render pixels. That's why I was thrilled to discover someone's created a set?? of CRT-style overlays for the Steam Deck.

While CRT shaders have existed in some form or another for a while now as part of the ever-popular ReShade injector, getting them to render correctly is a wholly different can of worms. Some of them are also quite the performance hogs, and it's no surprise that they don't work great on low-resolution displays. The Steam Deck's humble 1200x800 screen hasn't worked well with the ones I tried. Now, however, Reddit user Traditional-Ad1708 has taken it upon themselves to ??fine-tune a number of CRT-style shaders specifically for the Steam Deck. The results are downright glorious if you're nostalgic about the late '90s and the early aughts.

Inject CRT effects into your Steam Deck gaming today

Traditional-Ad1708's custom CRT shaders ire not going to be for everyone. Firstly, if you're unfamiliar with CRT-style displays and why they're of particular interest even for modern gaming, don't expect to get much out of this pack. I recommend looking into Digital Foundry's coverage of the matter, but otherwise, CRT ?visuals are an acquired taste.

Due to the rather archaic nature of CRT displays (electron beams, phosphors in place of pixels, etc.), old-school pixelated graphics mesh together in a way that's extremely difficult to ac??hieve on LCD and OLED displays with raw pixels. I'm being extremely reductive about this entire shindig here, but that's the gist of it and why many of us are keen on them. Well, that and a whole lot of nostalgia about old-school gaming.

As the redditor featured above explains, "I tried one of these shaders with Dead Space 2008 recently, and the effect is transformative. The image seems so much more cohesive, and the strange quirks of CRT-like images (t??oo complex to go into here) just manage to sell an?? 'illusion' of a very detailed image."

The bundle of shaders they provided includes about half-a-dozen different choices that will suit different needs and use cases. If you're watching YouTube videos on your Deck at a low bit rate, for exam?ple, t?his may be a way to deal with compression-blocking artifacts and excessive color-banding. Neat!

Getting these to work is no problem at all if you've got the Decky? Plugin Loader running on your device. Once you'v??e got that sorted out, just look for the ReShadeck plugin and install it. Then, download Traditional-Ad1708's shader pack and unpack it into \deck.local\shared\gamescope\Reshade\shaders. You'll need to sort that out via the Deck's Desktop Mode, but as soon as the files are copied over, you can switch back into Game Mode and toggle them o?n to your heart's content.

Note that using these comes with a performance drop, making them less-than-stellar for games that push the Deck to its limits. Yet, for games suc??h as Moonlighter and V?ampire Survivors, or for late-gen emulation, it works phenomenally well, and I cannot recommend it enough.

The post There’s a fancy CRT-style overlay bundle available for your Steam Deck appeared first on Destructoid.

For its glorious 20th anniversary celebration, Half-Life 2 finally go?t baked-in mod support. Though the classic - and now refi?ned - version of the classic remains an all-timer, there are some mods out there that improve or change the experience in unforeseen and amazing ways. Let's have a look at the best of them.

Entropy: Zero 2

Remember how the original Half-Life had expansions where you got to play with someone other than Gordon Freeman, and it still rocked? We got none of that with Half-Life 2, by the official means, that is. If you want to step into the shoes of a completely different character in that world, then consider giving Entropy: Zero 2 a shot. This time you play ??not as a the hero, but?? as an especially nasty member of the Combine.

Zero 2 is so good it has its very own mods.

Swelter

If you're looking for another mod that could play as one of the different POV expansions Half-Life 2 never got, Swelter is another great pick. This time you play not as Gordon Freeman, but as a regular resistance fighter. Swelter follows a?? movie's three-act formula, and is also as fun as a good Hollywood ?blockbuster should be. There's no shortage of fun combat and, best of all, it never overstays its welcome.

Research and Development

And if you're one of those who got into Half-Life because you liked the idea of finally getting to play as a scientist, only to learn that this scientist was also all about guns, then maybe this is the mod for you. Research and Development doesn't sell itself as something that it is not, and has players actually investigating the intricacies of the Half-Life 2 world. It's a completely different game from Half-Life 2, though an equally interesting take on its world. Creator mbortolino describes it as a "a point’n’click adventure in an FPS engine.", and that was more than enough to get me hyped.

Silent Hill: Alchemilla

If you've read pretty much anything I've ever written, you'll likely understand that I love Silent Hill. If you're into Half-Life 2 and Silent Hill, I assure you Alchemilla is quite the hidden gem to add to your collection??.

It's just unbelievable to see how the closest thing we got to an amazing modern-looking Silent Hill Remake was made by a bunch of fans, but you can go chec?k for y?ourself.

While it doesn't feature the highs of the greatest games in the series, it's better than any non-Team Silent title in the franchise, and makes great use of the FPS POV that helped make P.T. the unforgettable experience that it is.

Jabroni Brawl: Episode 3

While I love Team Fortress 2, and Counter-Strike 2 I can't help but feel sad that Half-Life 2: Deathmatch didn't catch the love I believe it deserved. To solve that, Team Jabroni came up with a mod that combines all the fun present in the original Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, adds more, and gives you hundreds of fantastic maps to mess around in. Jabroni Brawl shows just how fun HL2 can be.

And, well, if you fail to find the fun in any of it, at least enjoy having something even tangentially connected to Half-Life featuring a "3" in its name.

Minerva

If you're one of those who, like me, somehow finds the environments of Half-Life 2 to be surprisingly soothing, then Minerva might prove a great experience for you.

Though it was released way back in '07, Minerva's great attention to detail and big emphasis on ambiance and environmental storytelling makes its original campaign one of the most immersive experiences in the Half-Life extended family.

Nightmare House 2

Half-Life 2 lends itself really well to the horror genre, who would have known. Nightmare House 2 tells an original story that sounds a lot like the plot of the original Silent Hill, but, unlike Alchemilla, is its very own thing.

Though it uses Half-Life 2 and Silent Hill as its most likely inspirations, Nightmare House 2 has a very unique??, almost mesmerizing, look. There's something about this one that just feels very nostalgic to me, even though it was made at a time long before ?games were chasing that high.

Black Mesa

This one is a no-brainer. After the release of Half-Life 2, Valve released Half-Life: Source, a remake of the original game in the source engine. Though it had a few cool elements, the whole thing proved the very rare letdown in Valve's catalog. To make things right, a bunch of fans got together to create Black Mesa, a full conversion of the original game in Half-Life. The result is so unfathomably good that even Valve proudly displays Black Mesa as part of the Half-Life family in its series sales. If you've never played Half-Life and want to have your first go at the series through a modernized environment, then you should seriously consider Black Mesa.

The Stanley Parable

Yes, though you likely know it as a hugely unlikely hit nowadays, The Stanley Parable began its life as a Half-Life 2 mod. The final game is definitely better, ?but we'd be doing ?the community a disservice if we were to snub this one.

In a world full of ambitious mods, The Stanley Parable dared to just tell the story of an office worker who decides to �or doesn't �go out of his way. The result is a beautiful homage to Valve's out of the box way of thinki?ng, as well as one of the funniest open-ended games ever made.

Garry's Mod

Garry's Mod is, in essence, a mod that opens the floodgates of Half-Life 2 content?? and invites you to create whatever you can with the many pieces.

On top of providing a fantastic sandbox, Garry's Mod also hosts a myriad of free games created in its sandbox, and many of them a??re just as fun as any really fun trending game that you'd have to pay full price for.

There's a case to be made about Garry's Mod being not just the best Half-Life mod, but the best mod, period. Oh, yeah, it's also the main reason why we got Skibidi Toilet, whether that counts as good or bad.

The post The 10 best?? Half-Life 2 mods you need to try r??ight now appeared first on Destructoid.

Thanks to Steam dominating the PC gaming market, Valve is one of the biggest companies in the industry. However, it's not all sales and discounts, as an ongoing case filed against?? Gabe Newe?ll and his team has had a recent update.

According to court documents seen by Gamesindustry.biz, an antitr?ust lawsuit brought against Valve and its Steam client has now been granted a "class action" status. This takes the case to a new level, which could see any com??pany that uses the gaming client to sell products join the dispute.

The original lawsuit was filed in 2021 by two developers: Wolfire Games in April and Dark Catt Studios in July. Now, according to the report, the lawsuit will "apply to any developers, publ??ishers or individuals who paid a commission to Valve in connection with a game sale."

What's the dispute about?

Anyone who's a frequent gamer knows ?that Steam is almost the final word in providing a digital storefront for anyone who prefers gaming on PC. This has been the way for years. However, with such power? over the market, a price is paid. Quite literally.

Currently, Valve takes a commission on any game that's sold through its client to the tune of 30%. The antitrust lawsuit filed in 2021 argues that this is an "anti-competitive" strategy, particularly as Steam is the market leader in PC gamin??g, with some 75%?? of PC games being sold via the service.

Many studios may agree that �as noted by Wolfire �this commission is "an extraordinarily high cut." If the case goes ahead, it seems that any developer and publisher who has dealt with Valve since January 28, 2017, may be able to get in??volved.

This is also not the first time the company behind Steam has come under fire. Back in June, Valve was getting sued for ?"rigging the market" in the UK by "overcharging" on its prices.

One of the arguments for the case being brought forward by Wolfire and Dark Catt is Steam's "Price Parity Provision," which prevents other clients �such ??as Epic Games Store �from offering a bett??er price than what's listed on Steam.

The lawsuits filed by?? both developers are being consolidated into one case. At the time of writing, Valve has not issued an official statement??.

The post Antitrust lawsuit filed against Valve in 2021 is being taken up a no??t??ch appeared first on Destructoid.

The Steam Autumn Sale 2024 has arrived, predictably slashing prices on countless games while giving non-Steam Deck owners a chance?? at one for a lower cost. It's the biggest Steam sale until the next one, which shouldn't be too far away.

Re??gardless, there's plenty to browse until the Winter Sale rumbles on in like an oncoming avalanche. For those who ??have been holding off on buying some of the top games of 2024, now's the best time to check that wishlist. Well, if you can. As expected, the Steam Store is struggling a bit today as folks log in to see what's been discounted.

Checking my wishlist, I might finally have the excuse to pick up RoboCop: Rogue City, which has been sitting pretty on my list for about a year. It's at a whopping 60% off for the sale.

Autumn 2024 marks a new Steam Sale and Steam Award nominations

The Steam Autumn Sale 2024 starts today and rolls until December 4 at 10 am Pacific. For those who don't feel like looking at a calendar, that means you have a week to figure out if you want to grab the RPG epic Metaphor: ReFantazio at 25% off (hint: you probably do). That's about how much time you have to check out the Steam Deck, which is also on sale. You can pick up the 512GB version for 25% off.

There are plenty of other 2024 hits on sale starting today. Another Crab's Treasure is a Soulslike indie gem starring a crab trying to get his shell back �it's 34% off today. One of the year's best games is Helldivers 2 (I'm biased), nominated for four awards at The Game Awards 2024. You can learn what the buzz is about and spread some sweet liberty after picking it up for 20% off.

Speaking of best games, starting today, you can nominate your favorite games of 2024 for the annual Steam Awards. While it might not be as loud as The Game Awards, it's at least a bit less obnoxious, with far fewer ad breaks. Check it out and vote by clicking here.

The post Steam Autumn Sale ??2024 kicks off with big discounts on g?ames and Steam Deck hardware appeared first on Destructoid.

Part-hero shooter and part-MOBA, Deadlock i??s the talk of the town in both genres at the moment. At th?is current stage, Valve's new game remains in early development, with very little set in stone right now.

Is Deadlock free to play?

Yes, Deadlock is free t?o play. Howev??er, you can't simply download the game on Steam at this early stage of development.

Initially, the only way to play Deadlock was to be invited by Valve. This led to an awkward stage where Deadlock was simultaneously one of the most-played games on Steam and not ye??t officially announc?ed.

Now, you can play Deadlock by receiving an invite from a friend who already has the game. If you're not sure, check the game's Steam store page, where you can see which of your friends have access to Deadlock. Drop them a message for an invite!

Will Deadlock stay free to play?

Looking at Valve's track record over the years, it's highly likely that Deadlock will remain free to play upon its full release.

In the multiplayer space, Valve has transitioned to a free-to-play model in games like Team Fortress 2, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike 2. It has been extremely successful for the studio, with all three remaining extremely popular on Steam. There is no reason to believe that Deadlock will deviate from this.

Does Deadlock have microtransactions?

Right now, Deadlock does not have any microtransactions. But we all saw the success of hats in Team Fortress 2. We all know how popular weapon skins are in Counter-Strike 2. And most of Dota 2's Heroes have purchasable cosmetic skins, too.

It's a familiar business model for Valve. In the long run, I certainly wouldn't bet against Deadlock having cosmetic microtransactions, especially give??n the variety of Heroes available in the game.

If it does happen, it likely won't be for a while, though. On Deadlock's store page, Valve admits that the game has "lots of temporary art" at the moment, so it would be a surprise?? to see any cosmetic microtransactions up for sale any time soon.

The post Is Deadlock free to play? appeared first on Destructoid.

Portal 2 seems like? a lifetime ago, now. It released all the way back in 2011 and was the last (and just the second) time Valve took us on a jour??ney through its puzzle-based game with the sardonic robot antagonist. It's a shame we never got a third entry, as it feels like there's still so much to explore. Still, we can always make what we have look shinier.

As noted by DSO Gaming, you can now play Portal 2 via Nvidia's RTX Remix software, which gives the game full Path and Ray Tracing features. To put it simply (because I don't understand how the tech works myself), it boosts the lighting and overall visuals, making you go "ooh, shiny," th?rough?out.

You can download the mod �which was created by user xoxor4d �from GitHib. However, it should be noted that this is still a work in progress. The description on the download page says RTX Remix was "never intended to support Portal? 2." As such, you may encounter one or two bugs or a few crashes, so do bear that in mind before you install it.

Remixing the classics

Here are the features for the RTX Remix compati?bility mod of the g?ame:

• Most things are rendered using the fixed-function pipeline.
• Remix friendly culling and the ability to manually override culling per visleaf.
• Per map loading of remix config files to set remix variables.
• Spawning of unique anchor meshes.

As you can see from the video above, Portal 2 looks pretty striking. To be fair, even though it's been 13 years since it was released, the vanilla experience still hol?ds up, but if you can get it running through Nvidia's toolkit, you'll definitely notice the vi??sual differences.

Nvidia launched the beta of RTX Remix at the start of this year. Since then, modders have been using it to inject a bit of Ray Tracing goodness into some classic games, including The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind, GTA: Vice City, Half-Life 2, Tomb Raider, and even the original Unreal.

We also got an official release of an RTX Remix version of the first Portal back in 2022, which look?e??d stunning. However, it was notable for requiring a much beefier system to run when compared to the standard game.

According to the Steam page, it even r?ecommends a GeForce RTX 4080 graphics card and 32GB of RAM if you want to play it on "Ultra" settings. Maybe that's one of the reasons it has a revi?ew score of "Mixed."

The post Portal 2 looks mighty tasty indeed with RTX Remix appeared first on Destructoid.

Greg Coomer is a renowned video game and hardware developer who worked on multiple projects, from Half-Life and Portal to the Steam Deck. Needless to s??ay, he h??as been an extremely important figure for Valve, but it seems that he left the company a few months ago.

Valve fans on Reddit recently discovered that Coomer's personal LinkedIn account has been changed and that it now lists his job at Valve ?as finalized, spanning from 1997 up to 2024, which amounts to 27 years in total. What's especially intriguing is that he stopped working at Valve in January, but he apparently just updated the profile a few days ago. So far, Coomer hasn't said anything on the matter.

Fans immediately began speculating about his departure, with many claiming that Microsoft "poached" him in order to have him help with the development of the company's upcoming Xbox handheld system, a theory that is mainly based on the fact that Coomer used to work for Microsoft before joining Valve. However, one of his acquaintances has come out and said that he is "reti?ring from gaming altogether" and tha??t he "gracefully exited" Valve.

Half-Life, the Steam Deck, and Valve wouldn't be the same without Greg Coomer

Regardless of the reason behind his departure, there's no denying that this is a great loss for Valve, as Coomer's tenure at the company was as extensive as it was important. After all, he literally helped give Valve its name, and he even worked on Prospero, one of the first projects that it unfortunately had to cancel. In a 2019 Reddit AMA, other developers revealed that Coomer still frequently talks about Prospero, so it definitely was a big deal for him.

Fortunately, Coomer also worked on every single Half-Life title as a game designer and/or art director, from the iconic first game and the excellent Half-Life 2, all the way to the recent Half-Life: Alyx. Fans of the series remember him fondly for two big reasons: His last name appears in one of the scientist's lockers in Half-Life 1 and his face was one of several that designers used as a reference for Gordon Freeman's model, according to the book Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar.

But Half-Life is not the only important game in Coomer's career, since he also worked in the development of most of Valve's great hits, like Counter-Strike, Portal, Portal 2, Left 4 Dead, and more. Lastly, he also worked on the development of the company's handheld system, the Steam Deck, and played a significant role in its marketing, giving interviews to news outlets and sharing information about the device on his personal social media accounts. After making such a huge impact on the? video ga?me industry, Greg Coomer deserves some rest.

The post Legenda??ry developer who worked on Half-Life and the Steam Deck has left Valve after 27 years appeared first on Destructoid.

Back in �3, Valve hit the unsuspecting E3 audience with what I believe remains the greatest presentation in the history of video games. Yes, the '03 E3 also featured the magnificent Halo 2 presentation, but I am talking about the gameplay and tech reveal of Half-Life 2.

If you know wha??t I’m talking about, you’re likely getting goosebumps right now. If you don’t, that’s fine �you’re still in time to get blown away by this marvel.

And, if you don't have the 20 minutes needed to witness some of the most revolutionary
gameplay reveals ever, then I only ask you to focus on the very first seconds of the presen??tation above.

It begins by showing the G-Man’s model from the original Half-Life, which gets someone in the audience to blurt, “he looks like hell.�The poor fool fell to one of the classic blunders, as the video swaps the G-Man’s original model for the one that would be used in Half-Life 2.

?At that time, the G-Man wasn’t the spookiest entity in gaming just because his model featured the most lifelike looks in the biz, but also because of what made him work. Behind those alienating blue eyes, there was the most complex facial animation system?? ever put into a game.

Though the model’s graphics don’t remain as visually impressive in this day, the facial expressions of the characters in Half-Life 2 do remain a thing of beauty. That would be the highlight of any presentation, but the remaining 19 minutes of the presentation is a crescendo of never-before-seen gameplay topping never-before-seen gameplay. Even those fake E3 presentations of the PS3 era that tried to pass incredible pre-rendered cut??scenes as actual g??ameplay had little on this.

With what had been shown alone, you could already expect Half-Life 2 to immediately earn a barrage of Game Of The Year awards by the time of its intended release date. But, the history of Half-Life 2's development ended up proving as eve??ntful as the game itself??.

In a completely unexpected turn of events �by early '00s standards, at least �a hacker got his hands on Half-Life 2's source code and laid the still unfinished game bare for everyone to see. Valve went dark on the game for a year to come back with something even cooler than the coolest thing in the world t?hey'd previously shown to us.

It was one hell of a tall order, but they more than cleared the task when they finally released Half-Life 2 on November 16, 2024. The f?inal product was even better than everyone had anticipated, much better than it needed to b?e to make everyone forget about the delay.

I mean it wholeheartedly when I recommend you go play Half-Life 2 today, whether you're a fan or a newcomer, as it still features one of the best single-player campaigns in the history of gaming. Half-Life 2: Deathmatch is pretty damn fun as well.

Half-Life 2 expands far beyond the game itself, as with it, we got the Source engine. It graced us with beloved titles such as Portal 2, Team Fortress 2, Garry's Mod, and Counter-Strike: Source. If none of that means anything to you, that's probably because you're too young to remember, so I'll just point out that Half-Life 2 is also responsible for Skibidi Toilet.

What's next for Half-Life 2?

The future of this classic looks bright, as Valve has just announced a bunch of awesome updates to preserve the game and commemorate it's anniversary.

From today on, you'll be able to experience the original Half-Life 2 campaign with? improved graphics, fixes for very resilient bugs, developer commentary, in-game Steam workshop support, and in-game recording.

And, if you're a true fan, you can finally watch the first pre-beta test footage of what Half-Life 2 would come to be.

Absolutely worth waiting over 20 years ??for, right?

You can now play Half-Life 2 in its original and still glorious format through Steam, and if that's somehow not good enough, you'll soon be able to experience it in RTX mode as well.

The post Half-Life 2 is now 20 years old appeared first on Destructoid.

In November 2019, Agents were introduced to Counter-Strike as part of the Operation Shattered Web update. These Agents are essentially character skins, which can be purchased from the Steam Community Market. Each brings its own unique aesthetic to the server, and much like Counter-Strike 2 weapon skins, offers a new way to customize your inventory.

Some hardcore players swear off the use of Agents. They can give a free competitive advantage to the opponent, as they make it easier to identify players. Still, they remain very popular among the Counter-Strike 2 community.

Counter-Strike 2 T-Side Agents Tier List

Agents are available on both the T and CT sides in Counter-Strike 2. There are 65 in total, with 35 terrorist and 30 counter-terrorist CS2 Agents, so there's plenty to rank here.

We're starting off with the T-side CS2 Agents. In my opinion, this is where the strongest designs are found. The price tags?? can reflect this,?? with some T-side Agents costing as much as $160 on the Steam Community Market.

These rankings are based purely on aesthetics. Counter-Strike 2 isn't (and hop??efully will?? never be) pay-to-win, so that's the only real thing there is to rank these skins on.

S Tier

• Bloody Darryl The Strapped
• Elite Trapper Solman
• Number K
• Rezan The Ready
• Sir Bloody Miami Darryl
• Sir Bloody Loudmouth Darryl

A Tier

• Getaway Sally
• 'Medium Rare' Crasswater
• Rezan The Redshirt
• Safecracker Voltzmann
• Sir Bloody Darryl Royale
• Sir Bloody Silent Darryl
• Sir Bloody Skullhead Darryl
• Slingshot
• 'The Doctor' Romanov

B Tier

• Arno The Overgrown
• Blackwolf
• Crasswater The Forgotten
• Dragomir
• Dragomir (Footsoldier)
• Enforcer
• Jungle Rebel
• Street Soldier
• Soldier
• The Elite Mr. Muhlik
• Vypa Sista of the Revolution

C Tier

• Col. Mangos Dabisi
• Default
• Ground Rebel
• Little Kev
• Maximus
• Osiris
• Prof. Shahmat
• Trapper
• Trapper Aggressor

Counter-Strike 2 CT-Side Agents Tier List

Moving on to Counter-Strike 2's CT-side Agents, we see fewer placings in the S and A Tiers. Again, these are based on looks, and many of the CT Agents in CS2 are just slight variations o?f one another. This means more Agents are placed in the B and C Tiers.

This doesn't mean you should completely write off these agents. Appearance is subjective??, right?

S Tier

• Chem-Haz Capitaine
• Special Agent Ava

A Tier

• 'Blueberries' Buckshot
• Chef d'Escadron Rouchard
• Cmdr. Mae 'Dead Cold' Jamison
• Lieutenant Rex Krikey
• Officer Jacques Beltram
• Primeiro Tenente

B Tier

• 1st Lieutenant Farlow
• 3rd Commando Company
• Bio-Haz Specialist
• Chem-Haz Specialist
• Cmdr. Davida 'Goggles' Fernandez
• Cmdr. Frank 'Wet Sox' Baroud
• John 'Van Healen' Kask
• Lieutenant 'Tree Hugger' Farlow
• Markus Delrow (HRT)
• Operator (SWAT)
• Seal Team 6 Soldier
• Sous-Lieutenant Medic

C Tier

• Aspirant
• B Squadron Officer
• Buckshot
• D Squadron Officer (NZ)
• Default
• Lt. Commander Ricksaw
• Michael Syfers (Sniper)
• Sergeant Bombson
• 'Two Times' McCoy (Cavalry)
• 'Two Times' McCoy (USAF)

The post Coun???ter-Strike 2 Agents Tier List: All CS2 Agents, ranked appeared first on Destructoid.

As part of the festivities surrounding the announcement of the limited-edition white Steam Deck OLED, a number of Steam Deck developers from Valve have ??agreed to an interview discussing the device's success. According to their comments, some recent releases have become particu?larly popular on the Deck.

In the interview hosted on Automaton Media, Valve's designer Lawrence Yang and programmer Pierre-Loup Griffais discussed the state of the Deck and some of its biggest successes. Of course, the crux of the matter was the fancy new Steam Deck model. On that topic, Yang said "If we see similar interest, we would definitely be interested in looking into other color variations in the future," wh?ich is good news for collectors. More interesting for the rest of us is the fact that "there are many games that have an outsized Steam Deck audience," as Yang puts it.

Certain games enjoy an 'outsized Steam Deck audience', which is great news for Valve

According to Yang, "Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, UFO 50, The Plucky Squire, Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMix, and Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, are just a few examples of the games where Steam Deck players represent 10-20% of all playtime on Steam in the past month." These games all lend themselves particularly well to the Deck's pick-up-?and-play mantra: sidescrollers, survival titles, roguelikes, and RPGs all perform great on Valve's gaming handheld, after all. Yet, to hear that Steam Deck players make up to 20% of the total playtime of some of these games on Steam is impressive regardless.

Valve hasn't given out any hard data on how many Steam Decks have been sold so far. We do know, however, that sales have been going strong from day one. Some have even double-dipped after the OLED model was announced, which massively boosts Valve's bottom line.

Further, Yang has also stated that even though they didn't have complete stats ready to reference for the Automaton interview, "over 95% of the [newly submitted] titles tested were Playable or Verified" on Steam in the recent weeks.? This shows that not only has the Deck entrenched itself as an important new way of experiencing PC gaming, but that the developers have outright embraced it as well.

It's not all hunky-dory, of course. Arguably the biggest problem with the Steam Deck as of today is also its biggest boon: Linux. While Linux is rather performant, customizable, and flexible in the grand scheme of things, developers have recently begun removing support for it due to excessive cheating.

Valve keeps track of these happenings, of course, and Pierre-Loup Griffais has chimed in on that specifically: "We have been mon?itoring the trend of games requiring kernel-level access for their anti-cheat technologies and not supporting Steam Deck as a result," he said. "We are extremely aware of the critical need for countermeasures against cheating in online games, but are also considering options carefully. Some of the approaches popular now in the industry might present problematic trade-offs for th??e end-user in the longer term."

No easy solution, in other words. As Yang explained in a prior comment, Valve has done the work to establish a cheat integration baseline with EAC, for example, but that's still a far cry from being the one-size-fits-all solution the Steam Deck? needs. In the interim, we'll just have to wait and see how things pan out and, perhaps, keep our competitive gaming needs relegated to old-school desktop PCs.

The post Valve goes into detail on whi??ch recent games have huge Steam Deck audiences appeared first on Destructoid.

While some might've seen this one coming, the fact that Valve just announced a phenomenally clean white Steam Deck OLED still comes as a surprise to many of?? us. That's right: we now know that there's a white Steam Deck OLED coming very soon, and it will be available worldwide.

Or, at least as worldwide as?? t??he other Steam Deck models have been. Whereas last year's limited-edition translucent black Steam Deck OLED was only available in the territories of the US and Canada, the white model will be available across the board. If you can buy a Deck, you can buy ?the fancy pearly one, in other words.

Better yet, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong fans will be able to purchase it as well via Komodo. The white model will effectively be the same as any other top-of-the-line OLED Deck, as per Valve's latest blog, but the??re's a tiny little catch to keep in mind, too: you won't have much time to snag one.

Steam Deck OLED white launches on November 18, 2024

Coming in at $679 USD (which is only $20 more than the regular 1TB OLED model), t??he white Steam Deck OLED isn't a permanent addition to Valve's device roster. Instead, it's a limited edition in much the same way the smoky translucent model was.

The device will be available for purchase on November 18, 2024, at 15:00 PST. The sole exception is Aust??ralia, where fan??s down under will have the option to buy it on November 19, 10:00 AEDT.

The catch, naturally, lies in the "limited edition" bit. Valve hasn't b??een shy about the fact that the white Steam Deck OLED will be only available in limited quantities. As per the company, there's "stock allocated proportionally across each region. This means separate availability for US, CA, UK, EU, AU, and the? Komodo regions."

There won't be any g?aming of the system, either: brand-new Steam accounts will not have the option to? purchase this device. Instead, there's a short list of admittedly very sensible requirements to fill out beforehand. Your Steam account needs to be:

• In good standing (i.e. no VAC bans, etc.).
• Made fully active (made a purchase on Steam) before November 2024.

Further, there's a hard cap in place as well: you can only purchase one white Steam Deck OLED per a veri?fied and active Steam account. Solid measures to prevent excessive scalping, overall, though they may be ??perceived as a bit of a pain in some cases.

If you're ea??ger to get your hands on this ceramic-looking model, be on the ready: "As this is a limited edition release, we will not be making more of this particular design. Once we are sold out, we will be sold out," says Valve. The bit that adds even more value to this package is that the white OLED model will be bundled with unique white carrying cases and a white microfiber cleaning cloth, as opposed to the usual black variants.

And speaking of ceramic, if you don't have almost $700 extra dollars to splurge on the fancy white OLED Deck, you may wish to give your device a new coat of paint instead. Literally! You can now coat your Stea??m Deck in automotive-grade ceramic nano-coating to add a bit of sheen and fanciness to it. It's just under $20, too, so it's a tad easier to splurge on that.

The post Valve announces a fancy white Steam Deck OLED, but there’s a catch appeared first on Destructoid.

Are you tired of me talking about Half-Life mods yet? Good. I actually have no idea how you responded, as this was written in the past. I'm essentially time-t??raveling right now. Hmmm...bes??t not to think about that concept.

Anyway, Valve's 1998 shooter not only set new heights for what was possible in the FPS genre, but it remains steadfast in the limelight thanks to a dedicated modding community. For this installment of "How Long Can I Keep Harping On About Half-Life," I present a mod which is set in the Aliens universe.

Yes, that's "Aliens" with an "s." As noted by DSO Gaming, Team Lambda has just released the first episode of Solitary Echoes; a single-player campaign t??hat pits you against the iconic Xenomorph creatures and is set on LV-513.

Hopefully, it won't be game over, man, game over

The team behind the mod says they are both "extremely proud and to be honest also a little scared" about the release of the first episode. The description on ModDB says they've "worked on this for one and a half years now," and "hitting that uploa??d button" has given them the heebie-jeebies.

The images alone really put me into the mindset of this being an Aliens game, with its familiar set pieces, while the above video will easily make you forget this was made in Half-Life. In fact, I'd go so far as to say this almost looks like it could be an Alien vs. Predator game. The report from DSO says the 3D models used in Solitary Echoes may well have come from AvP2.

There doesn't appear to be any mention of when the next episode will release, or how many there will be in total. Suffice it to say, this is definitely one to check out if you like a horror-based first-person shooter set in a James Cameron-esque universe. I realize that could describe pretty much any Alien video game, but it's worth repeating that this was all done in the original Half-Life engine. Impressive, says I.

The post This Half-Life mod combines Valve’s iconic FPS with the Aliens universe appeared first on Destructoid.

Wild and wacky Steam Deck customizations come part and parcel with the platform, ??but is there such a thing as taking things too far? According to PWRUP, a company in the business of selling handheld customization products that just released a ceramic coating kit, there's no such thing.

Full disclosure: PWRUP has been fairly honest in disclosing that its post on the biggest Steam Deck subreddit was a promotion. You can find it below, along?side an impromptu Q&A ?from the creator of this curious product. The most important question by far, though, is the "why" of it all. According to PWRUP, coating your Steam Deck in ceramic should make it more resistant to scratches and regular wear and tear and easier to clean. Not bad, right? There are real reviews of the product available, though, and that's the really interesting bit.

PWRUP's ceramic coating kit is now available, makes your devices neat and shiny

PWRUP's aptly named "Ceramic Kit" is priced at â‚?8,95, and there's no secret sauce to the product. As explained in Retro Dodo's review, this is the same type of coating used to protect modern automotive paint. It's pretty much just an invisible protective film about two microns thin that will prevent minuscule scuffs and scratches on your device in much the sam?e way as it would on your car. This is about as far from a must-have as it gets, I will say, though the value proposition may well be there for some.

As per Retro Dodo's review, the application of the nano-coat is straightforward, if somewhat fiddly, and the end result is an immaculate-looking device. The reviewer?? does say that they'll revisit the article with an update "in a few weeks" to discuss whether the coating is holding up, but aside from that, they appear to have been quite happy with it.

As per PWRUP, a single â‚?8,95 ceramic kit comes with enough coating liquid to cover 5-10 devices. You also get two pairs of nitrile gloves, an applicator cloth, two microfibers, and a cleaning pad. The package just about covers the entirety of the use case, in other words, so I've got no doubt there will be an audience for the kit. Time will tell whether ??it's a fancy gimmick or something genuinely useful for a? gaming handheld.

The post You can now coat your? Steam Deck in?? ceramic, but why would you? appeared first on Destructoid.

Back in October, Counter-Strike 2 released its weapon charms update. This release brought tiny sausage men to the world of CS2, giving players a new way to customize their in-game weapons. Skins an?d stickers were old news - this was the era of the weapon charms.

So far, 33 CS2 weapon charms have been released so far, separated into two different categories: Missing Link and Small Arms. We're taking a look at both collections, putting them into Tier Lists to see which ones you should be taking a look at adding to your inve??????????????????????????n??tory.

Counter-Strike 2 Missing Link charms Tier List

Missing Link Counter-Strike 2 charms are the previously mentioned "tiny sausage men." All of these weapon charms share the same shape - small sausage bodies, with adorable arms and legs pointing off of them. Each charm has a unique design, mostly originating from things directly from CS2. Things like Lil' Ava, based on the Special Agent Ava skin, or Lil' Monster, which is a direct homage to the CS2 map, Overpass.

Alongside our Tier List for the Missing Link Counter-Strike 2 weapon charms, we've also included a guide price for each. They all have rarities, just like any other collectible CS2 item, so this means the price is different, ??too. These prices are based on recent Steam transactions for all the weapon charms.

S Tier

• Chicken Lil' ($3)
• Hot Wurst ($25)
• Lil' Whiskers ($3.40)

A Tier

• Lil' Monster ($8)
• Lil' SAS ($1.10)
• That's Bananas ($2.40)

B Tier

• Big Kev ($0.75)
• Diamond Dog ($15.50)
• Hot Howl ($42)
• Lil' Ava ($0.60)
• Lil' Sandy ($2.25)
• Lil' Teacup ($4)

C Tier

• Diner Dog ($7)
• Hot Sauce ($0.80)
• Lil' Crass ($0.70)
• Lil' Squatch ($1.50)
• Pinch O' Salt ($0.75)

Remember, because CS2 weapon charms are still pretty new, the prices are still in flux. The market is still determining where their final value will land, so it could be a while before we know exactly how much each one will set you back. Still, it's good to have a ballpark figure at the moment for the minimu??m you can expect to pay.

It's also worth mentioning that ??each charm has a unique pattern between 1 and 100,000. This determines the color of the charm - some are worth more than oth??ers in specific colors.

Counter-Strike 2 Small Arms charms Tier List

In addition to the Missing Link collection, there are also the Small Arms Counter-Strike 2 charms. These charms are made to resemble various CS2 weapons, many of which feature an artistic twist. These are my favorite - there's something very meta about sticking an AK-47 charm on an AK in-gam??e.

S Tier

• Baby Karat CT ($28)
• Baby Karat T ($55)
• Die-cast AK ($6.50)

A Tier

• Baby's AK ($0.75)
• POP Art ($1.80)
• Semi-Precious ($23)
• Titeenium AWP ($7.75)

B Tier

• Hot Hands ($1.55)
• Lil' Squirt ($8.15)
• Pocket AWP ($0.45)
• Stitch-Loaded ($0.25)
• Whittle Knife ($0.55)

C Tier

• Backsplash ($0.25)
• Disco MAC ($1.40)
• Glamour Shot ($2.15)
• Lil' Cap Gun ($0.25)

The post Counter-Strike 2 weapon charms? Tier List: All CS2 char??ms, ranked appeared first on Destructoid.

In what is a surprisingly short turnover for a big new feature, Valve has just pushed Steam Game Recording out of beta. Game R?ecording was released in beta form in late June, offering a comprehensive set of in-game capture tools, and now you can give i?t a shot in stable.

Steam Game Recording is a one-stop-shop for ?the recording of gameplay?? footage. Though it's obviously not nearly as powerful as dedicated videography applications, such as Adobe Premiere, Game Recording has proven to be more than good enough for snap-shot video ca??pture and subsequent publication. It's also extremely lightweight and user-friendly, while the same cannot necessarily be said about mainstream video editing alternatives. Most notably, Game Recording received a bevy of user-suggested upgrades during its beta stint, making it even more useful than the original June version.

Give Steam Game Recording a shot, now that it's available in full

As per Valve's recent announcement, Steam Game Recording is now running as a built-in feature of the st??able build of Steam proper. Compared to its earlier June build, Game Recording now also comes with all of the following improvements:

• Game-specific recording settings.
• Quick capture hotkey options.
• Ability to tweak export settings.
• Session View functionality, allowing users to easily access and view previous footage in the Recordings & Screenshots media manager (full support for game tags and metadata included).

Mostly quality-of-life goodies, to be sure, but Game Recording was a fairly powerful baseline video capture t?ool right off the bat. Besides, taking on user feedback is always a good idea.

For those who haven't yet had the chance to try Game Recording, it's a background capture tool that doesn't rear its head unless y??ou pull it up. It comes with a reasonably streamlined editor allowing users to cut, save, and lightly tweak specific portions of gameplay. Sharing video??s, too, is made easy and straightforward. Honestly, even if you're totally unfamiliar with video software, figuring out Steam Game Recording is easy as pie.

Now, something to keep in mind is that some users have reported substantial performance drops ??while using Game Recording, though those don't appear to be universal. Even on the Steam Deck, it seems to work just fine unless you're pushing the device very hard. As with most other Valve software solutions, though, I expect improvements to continue pouring in for the foreseeable future.

The post Steam Game Recording is? now up and running, out of beta appeared first on Destructoid.

Let's play a game. Let's see how long we can talk about Half-Life without bringing up the elusive third entry yet to emerge. Wait. Damn, we've already lost. How long was that? Anyway, yes, despite continued hopes that Valve may still make a third installment in its iconic FPS series, we're still not there.

So why bother with HL3 when we have Half-Life at home? More specifically, we have mods. And even though Halloween is now over (just), we can still get our spook on with this download from ModDB user ScriptedSnark.

This one may actually spark a bit of nostalgia in some �especially those with an interest in indie horror games �as it reimagines Slender: The Eight Pages in the original Half-Life engine, GoldSrc. From the images alone, it does look to be a faithful take on the cult Slender game, which, by the way, is more than ?12 years old at this point.

What even is time?!

I remember The Eight Pages quite fondly. Though short, it very much left an impression on people who dared to open up the .exe file. If ??you're not familiar with the game, it came to prominence around the time the whole Slenderman "mythos" started to take off.

The game itself placed you in a wooded area in the middle of the night, with naught but a flashli?ght to help you see your way through. The object was to collect eight pages that have been scattered around the area, stapled onto a tree, for example.

The twist was that each one you picked up would ramp up the scares. The creepy Sle??nderman would begin to emerge, teleporting closer to your location to try and capture you. The music would thump, your heartbeat would race faster, and, for some of us, collecting just a few pages was enough to close down the application.

It's nice to see Slenderman �despite him no longer being the horror darling of the internet �coming back via Half-Life's engine. However, it remains to be seen whether the mod gives you a crowbar f??or you?? to slap the ghoulish creature silly.

The post Remember Slenderman? He’s back. In Half-Life form appeared first on Destructoid.

There aren't many games that mix heavy-handed literature with first-person shooting. BioShock is one example that springs to mind. Not so much Half-Life 2, but someone is in the midst of creating a mod for Valve's iconi?c FPS that seems to ta?ke cues from the classics.

ModDB user GRÆMAMËTH is currently working on "Goethe's Last Laugh," a full-conversion modification for Half-Life 2 that, from the images alone, looks wonderfully bizarre. Oh, hell. I don't think I could do it justice, so here's what the creator has to say?? about the project (after you've checked out the footage below, of course):

In the abstract, it’s a w?orking class power fantasy about addiction and revolut?ion...

Take control of Jackson Ian Faust, a 300 year old, self destructive, misanthropic vampire, and investigate the many unusual phenomenon of Gondolas city, a fictional civilization set on the sinking monste??r isl??and of Duciano.

No mention of a Mephistopheles-inspired gravity gun

It's still in development at the moment, with no release date yet. However, you can keep an eye on progress from the ModDB page linked above, or follow it on Itch.io. This? one definitely seems too good to miss out on, especially with its proposed themes.

Now, I've never read Faust, so I can't say how certain this Half-Life 2 mod will match up with the original text. But I do know that it must have inspired the project, given that it's titled after the play's author, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and has you play a?s someone literally c?alled Faust.

It's also where we get the term "Faustian" from, to refer to any kind of deal or barter that leads ??to dire consequences. I'm hoping there'll be some of that in GRÆMAMËTH's mod. If not, at least we get to play as a cynical vampire that's three centuries old. That's always dope. Do people say "dope" these days?

The post Bizarre Half-Life 2 mod lets you control a ‘300-year-old, self-destructive, misanthropic vampire’ appeared first on Destructoid.

Folks, it's finally happening. The long-awaited SteamOS 3.6 build for the Steam Deck is now out and about on the 'Stable' download pipeline, and it introduces some hugely important new boons?. Battery, performance, and stability improvements are all included, with lots more to account for on the LCD Deck.

Sure, we've been getting a minor OS update for the Steam Deck here and there, but virtually none of those hold a candle to the gargantuan bundle of upgrades that is SteamOS 3.6. Now, to be perfectly fair, many of those are backend improvements that aren't all too flashy. They are very much necessary and very welcome, however, especially if you're usi??ng the LCD Steam Deck, which now gets to enjoy some of the OLED Deck's battery optimizations for improved uptime.

SteamOS 3.6.19 Stable is available for download and has become a must-have for LCD devices

If you're interested in the nitty-gritty of your device's operation, I highly recommend going through Valve's full changelog over on Steam. If not, however, here are the most important highli??ghts of the SteamO?S 3.6.19 build:

• Updated Linux Kernel to V6.5 (improved hardware compatibility, system performance, security, and stability).
• Updated Desktop Mode to KDE Plasma build 5.27.10.
• Mesa 24.1 GPU driver build (performance improvements).
• Improved Steam UI responsiveness.
• Improved performance and stability in situations of higher memory pressure.
• Mura compensation improvements.
• Improved Steam Deck LCD battery life by up to 10% in light load operation.
• Added overclocking controls to the LCD Deck.
• Added Windows Bluetooth driver for the Steam Deck OLED.
• It is now possible to set the SD card as the default boot device.
• Substantially improved Bluetooth pairing setup for certain devices.
• Various external display support improvements.
• Improved SD card reliability and SanDisk detection operations.
• Resolved an OLED 3.5 build memory leak.

This is just scratching the surface of the full patch details, and I'm reasonably sure this is one of the biggest operating systems we've yet received for the Steam Deck. Possibly the biggest, actually. Combine this with the variety of unofficial improvements that the community's been working on in the background, specifically in the areas of game compatibility and third-party launcher support, and you've got a winner.

The big question that remains is whether the? full release of the SteamOS for third-party devices is at all close to happening. Valve did say a while back tha?t SteamOS would eventually be available as a free download for anyone to peruse at their own disposal. This official availability hasn't been brought up yet, though options such as BazziteOS do exist for those who just can't wait for Valve to make up its mind on this front.

Curiously, the patch notes for this specific update specifically introduce suppor?t for ROG Ally inputs, as well as a number of other third-party controller devices. Could this be a sign that SteamOS might soon release as an actual alternative to Windows? I wouldn't hold my breath just yet, but you never know.

The post SteamOS 3.6 is out in stable now, featuring massive performance and stabili??ty updates appeared first on Destructoid.

Valve is finally putting all possible doubt regarding Steam game ownership to rest by explicitly stating ??its users are getting a license to play the games they pay for on Steam.

Once you add a game to your Steam shopping cart, you will now be able to read the message, "A purchase of a digital product grants a license for the product on Steam". Below the message, users will find a link to access the entire subscriber agreement. Long s??tory short: we don't really own the games we pay for on the platform �regardless of them tending to cost as much as physical copies would.

Actual ownership of Steam games has always been a controversial issue. Those in the know have always expressed distaste at not really acquiring the games they pay for. The others have s??pent who knows how many hard-earned dollars blissfully unaware they're merely acquiring access to Stea?m's property.

What does not really "owning games on Steam" mean?

Ultimately, it means Valve �in an extreme case, I'd hope �can bar your a??ccess to any game (even you have it installed) should the compan?y find a justification deemed reasonable enough by the company itself.

While the exact reason for Steam's newfound openness isn't known, it's likely coming about as a premeditated response to California's upcoming 2025 law regarding transparency of rights ownership.

GOG naturally used Steam's updated transparency notice to fire back. Steam's rival storefront quickly tweeted that the digital products you buy on GOG will provide you offline installers. GOG then made a very strong and practical point by stating that not even a zombie outbreak tha??t would cut off your Int?ernet service could keep you away from your GOG games.

It's great that you get to keep GOG's games so long as you have a functioning PC, and pretty ironic that Steam might force you to fight off against a horde of IRL zombies should you really want to re-experience Left 4 Dead 2. Still, it's important to remind you that even GOG's storefront is also just selling you?? licenses. The main difference here is that once you get the game, GOG cannot ever take it f?rom you, whereas that's always a possibility with Steam.

The post Steam reminds players they don’t own the games they “buy” on the platform appeared first on Destructoid.