There are plenty of fan-made films based on videogame franchises, but few better than this pair based off the Half-Life universe. Above is a seven minute piece of awesome, Dan Trachtenberg’s Portal: No Escape. I’m a big fan of the Portal series and it’s great to see filmmakers creating such wonderful work based on that source material.

The second film is David and Ian Purchase’s Escape from City 17: Part 2, which I’ve been waiting for since 2009 when the first half blew me away. That awaits you after the break. Enjoy!

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Deploying Surprise in 3….2….1…

If you’ve yet to purchase a copy of Portal 2, Valve has sweetened the deal to make pulling the trigger that much easier. The company has dropped the price of the PC and Mac versions of the game to the attractive price of $30. For an additional fiver you can pick up a bundled copy with the original Portal, if you’re the only person on earth that hasn’t played it yet.

Not good enough for you? Well then, here are your test results: You are a horrible person.  Read more… »

Earlier today, Valve head honcho Gabe Newell spoke at the Games for Change conference. There, he announced that since its launch in April Portal 2 has managed to sell a paltry 3 million copies worldwide. He used the number as “evidence” that games can be both educational and commercially successful. Apparently, educators have used the game to explain incredibly difficult physics concepts such as “speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out.”

Anyway, who care’s about that education stuff? That’s only there to distract us from the pitiful fact that Portal 2 only managed to sell 3 million copies. That’s barely a million per month. Utterly pathetic. No wonder why we here at Gamer Limit gave Portal 2 the lowest score possible: 8 out of 10. What an utterly crap game. DJ Hero is a way better educational game because it’s about music, which is way more fun than smelly physics, which I somehow know even though I haven’t played it. Also, it has sold more copies, sort of. Take that Valve, Activision is still #1 — with a bullet — something portal guns can’t even shoot.

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Fearing a tepid reception as a full standalone title, Valve first released Portal with the Orange Box alongside a host of well-established titles at a bargain price. Little did they know that just few short years later that little three-hour long bonus game would be one of the most critically acclaimed and beloved titles in recent history.

Now that they’re back to deliver a full blown sequel, one large question is raised. Does Portal 2 live up to the original, or will we need cake and grief counseling at the conclusion of this review?

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Today marks the start of another Humble Indie Bundle, this time brought to you by the good folks over at Frozenbyte, a Finnish game studio.

In the past Gamer Limit has posted news items about the two previous Humble Indie Bundles, but in case you missed those let me break it down for you. Basically, you can pay what you want for (in this case) five indie games you may have missed otherwise. The cool thing is, you get to choose where you money goes. You can split it evenly among the developers and charities, give it all to charity, or send it all to the developer. The charities involved are Electronic Frontier Foundation and Child’s Play Charity. Read more… »

You guys all know what a big Valve fan boy I am, right? I mean, I’m currently drinking coffee out of my Black Mesa mug with a headcrab hat on in a room covered in Left 4 Dead posters. I love Valve.

Yesterday the developer released its newest TV commercial, this time its for their upcoming game Portal 2. As you can see above, the commercial features the two playable robots from the newly added co-op mode, Atlas and P-Body, as they learn about portals and the possibilities they open. Read more… »

Way back in June Valve co-founder and managing director Gabe Newell gave a little talk where he claimed that the PS3 version of Portal 2 would be the best console version, mainly due to the inclusion of Valve’s Steamworks technology. Despite this claim, Valve has been pretty tight-lipped about what exactly Steamworks on the PS3 would entails, that is until today.

According to Valve, Portal 2 on the PS3 will feature cross-platform multiplayer with both PC and Mac. On top of that, there will be cross-platform chat and cloud-based saved game storage. Also, when you buy the PS3 version of Portal 2, you’ll get a free SteamPlay version of the game for PC and Mac. Read more… »

You know I hate to admit it but every now and then Twitter comes in handy. Take today for instance: had I continued to resist signing up for Twitter (like I had for the longest time) I wouldn’t have known about Tripwire Interactive’s upcoming event for Killing Floor (one of my favorite games).

According to Tripwire’s tweet, the developer will be hosting a special Christmas themed event for its Horde Mode shooter. Dubbed “The Killing Floor Twisted Christmas” this special event will feature Christmas themed monsters, a new “Santa’s Evil Lair” map, thirteen new achievements and an unlockable “the Baddest Santa” character. Read more… »

Halloween is just a few days away and, of course,  Valve has release a game update to Team Fortress 2 celebrating this spooky season. Dubbed the “Second Annu-Hell Scream Fortress Hauntedead Halloween Special,” the update brings a whole slew of new content including a new map, masks, hats, special items, achievements, and an AI controlled Horseless Headless Horseman Boss.

All this new content revolves around the new map: CP_Mann Manor. This new attack/defend map features exploding pumpkins, spooky decorations, a randomly spawning Haunted Halloween Gift and the aforementioned Horseless Headless Horseman. Apparently, the Horseman will randomly spawn on control points to chase which ever player is closest. If the Horseman is tailing you, just melee an enemy player to pass off the curse. If you successfully defeat the Horseman, you will receive special “Unusual Haunted Metal Scrap” that allows you to craft the Halloween themed items. Read more… »

Today PC gaming super hero Valve released some details regarding the number of people who use its Steam service. Over the past 12 months, Steam has seen a 178% increase in users. This pushes the grand total of Steam gamers to over 30 million. Out of these 30 million, six million users log onto team each day.

Valve CEO Gabe Newell remarked about this years growth, saying: “Steam is on track to record the biggest year in its six year history. The year has marked major development advances to the platform with the introduction of support for Mac titles, the Steam Wallet and in-game item buying support, and more. We believe the growth in accounts, sales, and player numbers is completely tied to this work and we plan to continue to develop the platform to offer more marketing, sales, and design tools for developers and publishers of games and digital entertainment.” Read more… »

Who gets tired of shooting zombies?  No one, am I right?  Well to be honest zombie games are starting to become the new World War II setting of this generation in my opinion. Though  if you are still in need of extra zombie action then the best place still has to be the Left 4 Dead series of titles from the people’s developer, Valve.

Valve made us all aware recently that the new “The Sacrifice” DLC would be coming really soon.  Well they’ve gone and elaborated on “real soon”, turning it in to a firm date.  That being the 5th October.

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UPDATE: The comic has been released and can be found here.

Some of you may remember when I posted a little news item about Left 4 Dead getting a little back story courtesy of a four-part online graphic novel produced by Valve. Well, it just so happens that the first issue is scheduled to arrive today!

While it currently is not up on the Left 4 Dead blog just yet, Valve did post some pretty gnarly wallpapers based on the comic. As soon as the comic goes live, I’ll update this post with a link. Read more… »