This can only add to the criticism that Valve and Steam should be separated into different companies. But don’t count on that any time soon.

It seems that Valve’s soon to be released Left 4 Dead 2 is gearing up for a successful launch as the developers have recently announced some interesting statistics.

In a statement to CVG, Chet Faliszek said that Left 4 Dead 2 was pre-ordered 4 times as many as the original game. He comments further:

“As we get closer to launch we see the reaction to the demo, people’s excitement, the boycott itself and how it’s changed… I think people are just excited now.”

Yes, people are certainly excited, especially with the recent launch of the demo and the game’s quickly approaching November 17th release date.

If you’re looking to pick up Modern Warfare 2 via Steam on November 10th, you may want to consider altenative options. The game’s Steam listing was updated with a release date of November 13th, 2009 as you can see above.

While there is a chance that this could be an error, there is also a chance that this may be true so you’ll have to be careful which method you use to purchsae the game if you want to get it on release.

As for the rest of us, we’ll still be able to get Modern Warfare 2 on November 10th.

Valve is hosting a Team Fortress Haunted Halloween special this weekend that will see things like haunted maps, pumpkins and new achievements. Even better, for those of you who don’t already have Team Fortress 2 you can pick it up now for just $2.49 but you better act fast as the deal is only running for a few more hours.

But honestly, it’s only 2 dollars and 49 cents which is a ridiculously good savings from its normal $20 price tag.

via teamfortress

For PC owners, it looks like they’ll have to wait until tomorrow, as there seems to be technical issues with pre-order users accessing their demo download. Anyways, what’s the point of a “demonstration” of a game if you already (pre)purchased it? The better part of the pre-order has always been the few exclusive weapons Valve provided.

(Update) It appears that PC owners who pre-ordered the game now have access to the demo as well. Happy zombie fragging!

A new Left 4 Dead 2 trailer has hit the webs that has reportedly been leaked. Exactly how it leaked, we don’t know, but the chances of Valve purposely leaking it to stir up hype sounds about right.

Anyways, check out the video, it doesn’t feature any game play but it does feature some nice cinematic action for your viewing pleasure.

Left 4 Dead 2 will be hitting store shelves for the PC and Xbox 360 on November 17th of this year.

It seems that a poll recently went down over at GameSpot that asked gamers who the All-Time Greatest Game Hero was. Well, it seems that Half-Life’s star Gordon Freeman won the poll with 55.8% of the votes.

To celebrate such a feat Valve is cutting 55.8% off the price of all Half-Life games this weekend as they continue with their weekly deals.

Haven’t played Half-Life 2 yet? Now’s your chance.

via steam

Buzz had been circulating for some time now that had us wondering if Modern Warfare 2 would be hitting store shelves for the PC on the same day as the Xbox 360 and PS3. The fact that major retailers such as GameStop briefly had the PC title listed with a November 24th release date didn’t exactly sooth our wounds.

Luckily Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling has let us know via Twitter that there will in fact be no delay and the PC version will be hitting store shelves on the same day as the console versions.

Furthermore, he also let us know that Modern Warfare 2 will be coming to Valve’s digital distribution service Steam, if that’s your kind of thing.

Make note that this ring is in addition to the Memory Band in-game item that all retailers will be giving out to pre-orders of Dragon Age: Origins.

BioWare’s Dragon Age: Origins will be out for the Xbox 360 and PC on November 3rd and for the PS3 on November 17th.

If you’ve been laying Left 4 Dead’s Crash Course campaign you may have noticed that you are unable to let survivors out of rescue doors in Versus mode. Today, Valve has announced that a new patch has been pushed out that will effectively fix this problem and let the zombie slaying madness continue.

Among other minor bug fixes, this patch also gives server owners the ability to designate a maximum ping for players on their server.

Read (Steam)

News regarding Left 4 Dead 2 has been circulating for some time now and still new details are emerging. The latest set of details lets us know of a previously unannounced game mode enittled ‘Realism’ mode.

1Up asked marketing VP over at Valve, Doug Lombardi, about the peculiar mode who said ‘Realism’ mode is for players who can play the game better than the testers can.

What exactly does this mean? Well, Kotaku hypothesizes that perhaps it is a kind of head shot only mode where you can only kill the zombies with a shot to the head. You know, like in the movies.

Read (1UP) via kotaku

If you’ve been following Left 4 Dead 2 you may know that the game was denied classification in Australia due to “living humans with a rabies-like virus” and “realistic, frenetic and unrelenting violence” which smells like a typical zombie shooter to me, right?

Well, Valve has submitted the paperwork to appeal this decision but just in case the appeal doesn’t work they have also submitted a second, toned down version of Left 4 Dead 2 that reportedly meets all of the requirements to get a MA15+ rating.

Valve hasn’t said what they have edited as they do not even want to release this toned down version but chances are, it’ll just be a hallow shell of a great game that could have been.

via thatvideogameblog

It was recently made known that the highly anticipated FPS Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising has been made available for digital purchase through Valve’s digital distribution platform Steam for $39.99.

Those of you who like to have a physical copy of the game can spend $20 more dollar for the Xbox 360 and PS3 version or just $39.99 for the physical PC version.

Don’t know much about Codemasters‘ Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising? Below is its description on Steam:

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising is a game about a fictitious conflict on one of the Sakhalin islands, a conflict that is in danger of erupting onto a global scale. The player takes the role of a US soldier, part of the allied force fighting against outnumbering Chinese forces vying for control of the island. The game centres on a campaign narrative that gives the player a variety of roles in the allied forces ranging from a Marine Infantry, tank commander, Special Forces and helicopter captain. The game has an incredible realistic depiction of war with careful attention to the detail of the weapons, equipment and tactics of the armed forces. The action is varied from intense fire fights through to slower pace tactical decision making on how to best tackle the mission objectives.

It was recently made known that Valve is preparing to launch a $25 million Left 4 Dead 2 advertisement campaign in hopes of hyping up the zombie FPS. To put this into comparison, Vavle spent about $10 million on the ad campaign for the original Left 4 Dead, so you can see they are a bit more serious about its sequel.

The decision to put such a heavy chunk of change into L4D2 most likely came about after it was made known that it was pre-ordered a tremendous amount more than the original.

Expensive ad campaign or not, you’re still not going to be able to get your hands on Left 4 Dead 2 until its November 17th release date for the Xbox 360 and PC.

via joystiq

Just as they had promised, Valve has released DLC for the original Left 4 Dead effectively soothing the woes of boycotters everywhere. The DLC in question is entitled Crash Course and is available now for both the Xbox 360 and PC with a price of 560 Microsoft points, for the 360, of course.

For those who don’t know, Crash Course includes an all new campaign available for the game’s single player, co-op, versus and survival modes.

If you noticed the DLC was priced at 800 Microsoft Points earlier today, it was a mistake, according to Major Nelson.

Valve has recently come forth to let us know of this weekend’s deal for their digital distribution platform Steam. This particular weekend deal focuses on F.E.A.R 2 as it effectively slashes the price of the standalone title along with its Reborn DLC pack by 50%.

This means that for this weekend only you will be able to pick up F.E.A.R 2 and the Reborn DLC pack for $24.99 and $4.99, respectively. Of course, you’re going to have to settle with having just a digital copy of the game and not a physical one but that’s just a small price to pay for such a great deal.

To remedy this console disadvantage, Valve has recently toyed with the idea of porting the popular Left 4 Dead 2 PC mods to the Xbox 360 version. In fact, one of the game’s developers, Yasser Mailaka, recently told OXM UK the following:

One of the things I’d like to do is allow these modules that are being released on the PC to somehow integrate with Microsoft’s system.

So, while these plans are no where near final it is definitely a possibility and is something we will most likely see soon after the game’s November 17th release.

According to Kotaku, one boy cotter by the name of Walking_Target has said that the game seemed well balanced and in no way felt like a rushed job. Additionally, he expressed high hopes for the game and has went on to say that he is confident that Valve will make a great game.

The way that it will work is if you are in a server with someone who pre-ordered the game, the entire server will have access to the baseball bat.

The weapon will be available on both the Xbox 360 and the PC. Left 4 Dead 2 will be arriving in North America on November 17th.

Featured in the above video is what looks to be an iPhone port of the popular Source-based puzzler, Portal. As you can see, the controls look a bit difficult to master but the same could be said for many other iPhone titles on the market.

While the above video may be fake, the iPhone (especially with the 3GS’ updated processor) could definitely handle the graphics rendering said video features.

I for one would love to give this game a go, let’s hope Valve makes note of this and considers an iPhone port.

via touchArcade