Items tagged with STEAM
It seems there are simulator games for just about anything you can think of, such as Granny Simulator, Thief Simulator, and even a PC building simulator. Now, teams from Dovetail Games, Curve Digital, and Skyhook Games are bringing what could be the hottest simulator game this summer: Lawn Mowing Simulator. Later this year, players will be able to “enjoy the challenge and serenity of mowing the Great British countryside in a variety of modes, while ensuring cash flow of your empire remains as green as the blades you’re cutting,” according to developer Skyhook Games. New lawn care professionals will be able to visit the British countryside, large equestrian fields, castle grounds...
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Serious Sam 2 was released over 15 years ago, but this week, it receives a massive update for diehard fans. The developers even acknowledge that it has been “five billion years” since the game last received a “proper update,” and we’d imagine that those that still play the game (or have long relegated it to the digital recycle bin) weren’t expecting an update. Developer Croteam says that the new 2.90 Update brings niceties like dual-wielding weapons, an enemy multiplier, and a dozen new multiplayer maps (among other additions). One of the new weapons is the BeamGun, which is based on the Ghost Buster from the original Serious Sam concept and a flamethrower....
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Fair or not, Mac users are sometime a forgotten bunch when it comes to playing computer games, perhaps even more so now that Apple has embarked on a slow breakup with Intel. It wasn't always that way. Remember being afflicted with dysentery in Oregon Trail? Like Pepperidge Farm, Valve remembers, and it has made its Steam Link application available in the Mac App Store. "The Steam Link app allows you to play your Steam games across all your computers. Just pair an MFI or Steam controller to your Mac, connect to a computer running Steam on the same local network, and start playing your existing Steam games," the app's description states. This is one of the final destinations for Steam Link. While...
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Looking for a game to play this weekend? If you head over to Steam, you can claim Metro 2033, the popular post-apocalyptic title developed by 4A Games , for free and it is yours to keep until the world ends for real. That means you could play it this weekend, next weekend, the weekend after that, and...well, you get the point. Metro 2033 turns 11 years old this month, so it's not exactly a new game by any stretch of the imagination. However, it is still a fun title and worth checking out if you managed to miss it all this time. The PC release holds an 81 score on Metacritic, and "Very Positive" ratings (recent and overall) on Steam. Metro 2033 - Free on Steam for a limited time Usually when we...
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Last week, Apple attempted to drag Valve into the legal standoff with Epic Games by requesting a large quantity of data from the PC games creator and seller. While this request appeared out of place, the subpoena seems to have worked, as a judge has told Valve Corp. to hand over certain data from the request. During a Zoom court hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas S. Hixon ordered Valve to produce “aggregate historical sales, pricing and other data on 436 games sold on the virtual game store Steam,” according to Law360. This is significantly less than the original request for information on every Steam game dating back to 2015. Thankfully, the judge saw the flaws in this request...
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While the Fortnite battle continues, now internationally, Apple is attempting to gather ammunition for the courtroom showdown sometime in the future. A court filing from this week reports that Apple subpoenaed Valve Software in November 2020, "simply requesting" Valve’s revenues and the name, price, and availability of every product on Steam to show competition. That is one tall order, and it appears that Valve is not playing ball. In short, Apple believes data from Valve could bolster its legal position against Epic Games, and subsequently requested a plethora of data. According to the record [PDF], in “Request 2,” Apple wanted documents “sufficient” to show...
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It took less than two weeks for Valheim to notch over two million sales, after releasing to Steam's Early Access program. Just as impressively, if not more so, the unfinished survival game reached a peak concurrent player count of 360,000 over the weekend. It is one of the most played games on Steam right now, behind only Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. Those are some big time juggernauts to be mingling with on Steam, and in terms of peak concurrent users, it is fast approaching third place—at the time of this writing, the Steam Database portal shows Valheim peaking at 392,862 today, just slightly behind PUBG at 398,518. "Forget longboats, we...
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At this point, I will be working on my backlog of games in my Steam library for the next 450 years or so, because I have been conditioned (like Pavlov's dog) to stock up on titles every time there is a sale. And I am okay with the situation. If you are too, then here's a heads up you might appreciate—Steam's Lunar New Year Sale is likely kicking off later today. There has not been an official announcement, but if there is a trusted source for this kind of information, it is Twitter user Steam Database (@SteamDB). They actually gave the first advanced notice almost a full month ago, claiming the date and time were "leaked from an email to Steam partners." Plus the Chinese New Year is February...
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Valve has recently been in some hot water as the EU’s European Commission slapped the games company with a $1.9 million fine over “geo-blocking.” Now, some gamers are suing Valve in California over anti-competitive clauses in developer agreements. Valve and multiple other developers have been named defendants, alleging that the companies entered a competition-stifling contract with a “most favored nations” (MFN) clause. In this case, the MFN clause is an agreement where game developers arrive at a specific price of a game on the Steam platform, and then that price will remain the same on all other platforms. As the suit explains, “Because of this Most Favored...
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Have you ever tried to buy a game but found that it was not available in your region for some unknown reason? This may be due to a practice Valve’s game platform Steam does, called “geo-blocking.” This is done to lock out certain countries from getting a particular game or to manage pricing worldwide. The European Commission, the executive branch of the EU, took issue with the latter and has now fined the gaming company approximately $1.9 million. According to the European Commission website, “geo-blocking” is how a company “segment[s] markets along national borders and to increase profits to the detriment of foreign customers.” They claim that Valve,...
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Though it has been a rough and long year, 2020 is finally ending. Throughout the year, gamers have been distracted by many games, both new and old. Now, Steam is releasing its “Best of 2020” games based on gross revenue and player stats to show what gamers have enjoyed this year. Top Sellers Year to year, the top-selling list on Steam does not change too much, but there are some surprises this year. While it is unclear if the top games based on gross revenue are ranked in order, the number one spot here is PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG). Released in 2017, this game is one of the OG battle royale games from when the genre took off. Though the recent reviews are “mixed,”...
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While Epic Games is giving away 15 free games, Steam is having their annual Steam Winter Sale, where you can get a load of games at a decent discount. Should you get some extra Christmas (or Hanukkah) cash and you want to spend it, we have compiled some of the great gaming deals you can grab now through January 5th at 10 am PT. Halo: The Master Chief Collection Perhaps you feel nostalgic this holiday season or just want to follow the Halo storyline from start to finish. In either case, 343 Industries put together Halo: The Master Chief Collection late last year for gamers to enjoy. It includes six Halo games featuring a campaign with 67 missions across the series and online multiplayer fun. You...
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AMD versus Intel is sort of a David versus Goliath story, only these days, AMD has armed itself with more than just a slingshot. Zen is the real deal. That is abundantly clear by now, but lest anyone needs reminding, a peek at Steam's latest hardware survey results for November 2020 show how well AMD's processors are being received by gamers, as it continues to, uh, chip away at Intel's share. I can hear the groans at the pun, but bear with me. The point is, this is a different AMD versus Intel battle than in past years, before Zen came along. AMD for a long time was the also-ran, while Intel dominated the market with better performing CPUs at the high end. But now? The Ryzen 5000 series is an...
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As another season rolls around, so too does another Steam sale with deep discounts on games. If you do pick up some games, you can stock up on Steam points to decorate your profile for the season. However, let’s look at what Steam has to offer first, as there should be plenty of games for everyone. Shooters If you are looking to blast some bad guys or get into some mil-sim action, these are some of the top deals to get you going over the Tukey-day weekend and beyond. Far Cry 5 @ $11.99 (80% off) Doom Franchise Bundle @ $41.98 (72% off) Arma 3 And DLC Up To 75% Off Simulators Perhaps you just want to sit back and race a car, drive a truck, or build a PC. We get it, playing simulator games...
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When purchasing a game on Steam, customers have two hours to try it out and, if desired, request a refund. The policy is designed to protect gamers against being stuck with a game that does not run right on their hardware, or simply take a mulligan on a game they did not like. However, some customers have pointed out that two hours is simply not enough time to evaluate Microsoft Flight Simulator, and are asking Valve to extend the refund window. It's not necessarily that players want more time to fly the skies in Microsoft Flight Simulator before making a final decision, they just want to get in the game, period. So, what is the actual issue? it is the size of the in-game download that takes...
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One of the cooler looking PC games that has been teased in recent months is Horizon Zero Dawn, and it is currently up for pre-order on Steam and the Epic Games Store. The official launch date for the game has been confirmed for August 7. Horizon Zero Dawn was initially released as an exclusive on the PlayStation 4 game system, and with the PC Port launch date confirmation also came with a trailer that shows beautiful graphics and a bit of the gameplay. The trailer shows that the port will feature unlocked framerates, dynamic foliage, controller mapping, improved reflections, and benchmarking tools. PC gamers also get support for ultrawide resolutions and more. Horizon Zero Dawn Complete...
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Summer is here (the season officially kicked off on June 20), and with it comes Steam's annual Summer Sale with discounts on a whole bunch of games, including Borderlands 3 and Destiny 2. As an added incentive, Steam has opened up a new Points Shop where you can spend points that you earn from buying games. The Points Shop features dozens of Summer Sale souvenir options for you to collect, including new animated stickers and chat effects, profile backgrounds, mini-profile backgrounds, avatars, avatar frames, and more! Plus, discover hundreds of profile backgrounds and emoticons associated with your favorite games, now available in exchange for Steam Points," Steam explains. To get things started,...
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Apex Legends fans who also own a Nintendo Switch will love the news that developer Respawn dropped during a live stream event hosted by EA. This fall, Apex Legends will land on the Switch game console giving fans of the game their first real opportunity to play on a mobile device under ideal conditions. Some players have taken Apex Legends mobile using a smartphone and a cloud streaming service, but that method is less than ideal. As the game lands on the Nintendo console this fall, crossplay will also launch, allowing Apex players to compete against each other no matter what console they're on. Crossplay will enable players on the PS4, Xbox, PC, and Switch to compete against each other. Respawn...
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Real-time strategy video game fans who were around in the '90s may have fond memories of playing various Command & Conquer games. The titles were incredibly popular in their day and are still popular with retro gamers today. One of the more exciting things to be announced by EA was that iconic RTS games Command & Conquer Red Alert and Tiberian Dawn were being remastered. The Command & Conquer Remastered Collection is now available to purchase on Steam. The C&C Remastered collection includes Command & Conquer and Red Alert, both remastered in 4K by former Westwood Studios team members. The collection includes all three expansions, rebuilt multiplayer, a modernized UI, map editor,...
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Gamers all around the world were extremely excited when Half-Life: Alyx was announced. After many years, fans were able to get back into the Half-Life universe. The game has been updated recently to include Steam Workshop support along with a beta release of community development tools. One of the best things about the update for fans is that it brings a native version of the game for the Linux, and optional support for Vulkan on Windows. To enable Vulkan on Windows, go to the main menu, then Options > Performance > Advanced (gear icon) > Rendering API, and choosing Vulkan. While support for Linux is welcome, the big news is that the tools in the Steam Workshop update allow players to...
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Square Enix is helping gamers to stay occupied during these unique times by offering up free and discounted and titles as part of its "Stay Home and Play" campaign. It began with a couple of free games, those being Tomb Raider (2013) and Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris, which combined for 15 million downloads. Now it's offering a massive game bundle for pennies on the dollar. As part of this campaign, Square Enix said it would be "introducing Stay Home and Play Steam bundles offering deep discounts on great games" from its library, with all of the "proceeds benefiting Food Banks and other charities in North America and Europe." It's a stellar idea, and a way for gamers to continue practicing...
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Anyone who falls into the "if it's free, it's for me crowd" will want to hop over to Steam, the Microsoft Store or the PlayStation Store and grab this sweet retro reboot game for free, that usually sells for $12.99. The game is Pac-Man Championship Edition 2, and it launched in September 2016. The game is available for Xbox, PS4 gamers and PC gamers at no cost from today through May 10, according to the PlayStation Store. On Steam, the game doesn't have the best reviews, with recent reviews being mostly negative and overall reviews being mixed. That said, you really can't complain when a game is free, and anyone who remembers playing Pac-Man in the arcade back in the day should want to give this...
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