portal-still-alive posts

The too short original puzzle shooter Portal from developer Valve had a lot of stuff packed into it; cool level design, humor, innovative gameplay and cake that was a lie. One of the big highlights was the song Still Alive from geek culture-based song writer Jonathan Coulton. Today Coulton confirmed that he is indeed doing similar duties for the game's sequel Portal 2.

He revealed his participation in, naturally, a post on his Twitter page while he was apparently about to go on a trip: "Closing the doors. If this plane goes down, the Portal 2 song goes with it. It is in my pocket..." He later "tweeted", "Good news, I did not crash. Christmas is saved." Indeed it is.

The Steam download site always has some kinds of special sales and/or pre-order offers. This weekend the PC game download site has put two of GSC Game World's S.T.A.L.K.E.R. first person shooter games on sale. The titles, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl and the most recent game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat, can be purchased together for just $9.99, a 75 percent savings, until Monday.

Steam also has Arcania: Gothic 4, available for pre-order. The fantasy RPG sequel from publisher JoWood will let people download and play the previous game in the series, Gothic 3, for free if they pay in advance for Gothic 4. Finally a number of European countries can now purchase games on Steam via the Paysafecard system. People who use the system to purchase either 20 pounds or 20 euros of games on Steam will be able to get a free game, Portal, from now until August 26.

It's been only a week since Valve launched the Mac version of its Steam game download client. Today Valve revealed a few tidbits of facts regarding the first week of the Mac port of Steam. They also announced that they will be gathering hardware data from Mac users for their regular monthly hardware survey. The first full survey results will be released next month.

In the meantime Valve has announced that since they made their puzzle shooter game Portal free it has racked up 1.5 million downloads so far. The Mac version of Portal is also one-fifth as likely to crash as its PC counterpart. Two thirds of Steam users on a Mac play their games on a laptop. And finally Mac downloads on Steam have already accounted for more than 11 percent of all Steam downloads.

PC gamers quickly stood up in anger when Microsoft announced that Portal would see an exclusive expansion-esque release on the Xbox Live Marketplace with the upcoming Portal: Still Alive arcade game. That anger subsided when we found out what was in the Arcade title. As we recently reported, Valve's Doug Lombardi confirmed that the Xbox Live Arcade release of Portal: Still Alive would be comprised of the maps found in the Portal: Flash Version Map Pack which has been on the PC since May. Haven't picked up the completely free maps yet? Download them now to add to your collection. For free. Did we mention the price? It's 0MS points, which by our calculations equals to about FREE.

Download the Portal: Flash Version Map Pack now! (it's free!)

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming in the last 24 hours.

	E308: Dark Void Impressions The first part of Dark Void plays out they way anyone would expect an action shooter would. There isn't much to help the game stand out without the benefit of an upgraded jet pack. Until then, the player moves through like most other shooters, picking up new and inventive weapons along with ammo while picking off waves of incoming soldiers along the way.
	E308: Damnation Impressions Going vertical is one of the more prominent themes of this year's E3, but before players fly around the Dark Void using a jet pack, they might be scaling the buildings of Damnation. Damnation takes place in an alternate history United States, where the industrial revolution took a radically different turn. The result is a 1900's America that looks both new and familiar at the same time.
	Left 4 Dead box art revealed Valve Software VP of marketing Doug Lombardi has released the official box art for developer Turtle Rock Studios' upcoming Left 4 Dead, a squad-based shooter that will pit humans in a fight for survival against legions of zombies. Though we find the box art to be stylish yet simple, snazzy yet unassuming, we find ourselves hesitant to award the art a thumbs-up.
	Portal: Still Alive already available on PC Keyboard-and-mousers up in arms over the recent announcement that Xbox Live Arcade would be receiving exclusive Portal content in the form of Portal: Still Alive need not fret: apparently the forthcoming bonus content has already been alive on the PC for quite some time.
	Frogster unveils strong MMO line-up Players looking for a variety of themes in the prolific MMO genre need not look further than Frogster, a PC game publisher with an emphasis on virtual worlds. Due out during the second half of 2008 are StoneAge 2, Runes of Magic, and The Chronicles of Spellborn, which should complement Frogster's existing portfolio of casual MMO titles.

Keyboard-and-mousers up in arms over the recent announcement that Xbox Live Arcade would be receiving exclusive Portal content in the form of Portal: Still Alive need not fret: apparently the forthcoming bonus content has already been alive on the PC for quite some time.

Valve Software's marketing VP Doug Lombardi explained to Gamasutra writer Chris Remo that the content from Portal: Still Alive has actually been lifted and revamped from Portal: The Flash Version MapPack. Portal: The Flash Version was created as a tribute to Valve's puzzle-shooter hybrid, and Flash Version MapPack is simply an extension of that tribute. Download the map pack and follow the instructions to assimilate the Flash game's maps into your copy of Portal.

"So if you're a PC Portal owner who, like me, was feeling excluded by Still Alive's bonus content, fear not: you get to play that content first, and for free," says Remo.