It was a pretty big week for Valve. They introduced a bunch of new games to be available on Steam, updated that Team Fortress 2 game, and made a few decent-sized changes to the Source SDK.

Just in case you were too busy last week to pay attention, we've got a handy recap of all of those things here for you. Aw. Ain't we lovely?

Firstly - New Games.
The RPG Two Worlds is now available, for 20% off if you pick it up before Wednesday.

The world changed when Aziraal, the god of war, was slain in the huge battle long ago. The hordes of Orcs lost their divine leader and were forced to withdraw to the southern wastelands. Now, thousands of years later, the location of Aziraal's tomb is still unknown, well hidden by other gods who did not dare to entrust the secret to mere mortals. However, now, a fragile peace between the civilized races and the hordes is at stake. When the dwarven mining expedition discovered an ancient temple dedicated to an unnamed deity, a silent war begun, and it will soon ignite the fires that will lead to the holy crusade of the Orcs. However, the real danger lies somewhere else. A powerful force churns silently - weaving a secret plot of fear and destruction. In the end one of the Two Worlds will remain. If you want to know more, we've got a English demo for you to check out.

Also making its highly-anticipated way to the digital distribution platform is the new Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

War rages on in the fourth edition of Activision's acclaimed war game. For the first time in the series, Call of Duty moves away from WWII to the modern battlefield. Armed with an arsenal of advanced and powerful modern day firepower, players are transported to treacherous hotspots around the globe to take on a rogue enemy group threatening the world. As both a U.S Marine and British S.A.S. soldier fighting through an unfolding story full of twists and turns, players use sophisticated technology, superior firepower and coordinated land and air strikes on a battlefield where speed, accuracy and communication are essential to victory. The epic title also delivers an added depth of multiplayer action providing online fans an all-new community of persistence, addictive and customizable gameplay. We've got a demo for that one too, if you want to take a look.

Fans of futuristic shooters are in luck too, with the inclusion of Alpha Prime.

As a mining inspector the player is tasked with exploring an illegal asteroid mining base to investigate the disappearance of its inhabitants. However, more pressing is why the mining robots and other autonomous systems are trying to put an end to his inspecting, permanently. The story of this sci-fi FPS leads the player through several distinct environments - the inspector's spaceship, damaged by enemy fire from within the asteroid, technical facilities, laboratories, crew quarters, mining shafts and more. On his quest to discover the secret of the asteroid the player will fight not only the robots, but the station itself. Built around the Enforce2 engine, Alpha Prime is a first person action game with an emphasis on the single player experience. At its core is a Science Fiction story written by Czech Sci-fi author Ondrej Neff.

For something a bit more down-to-earth, wild-west shoot'em'up Call of Juarez has also made its way over.

Call of Juarez is a next gen epic adventure western themed FPP game. The game's unique plot is located in 19th century Wild West and its gameplay requires a combination of both intelligent stealth and pure reflex shooting. The player impersonates both Billy, a sneaking fugitive, and reverend Ray his uncompromising hunter, all in one game. Call of Juarez diversified gameplay exploits many original elements, some depending on the interactive environment that's based on realistic physics simulation. Fast paced revolver duels using historically accurate firearms, horseback riding and memorable locations together with top notch graphics and climatic soundtrack will immerse both casual and hardcore players in the attractive well known world of western movies.

We already filled you in on the TF2 update, so let's now take a look at the update to the Source SDK.

Basically, it's now been updated with content and tools for the Orange Box, allowing budding developers and designers to create their own custom game experiences for Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal and Team Fortress 2. This is all in addition to the functionality already in place for other Source-based games!

Included in the Source SDK are:

· The Hammer World Editor, which provides the capability of creating custom levels for Source engine-based games

· Valve's custom Faceposer tool that allows users to produce choreographed sequences in the Source engine

· A model viewer that allows artists to preview models and their animations quickly and easily

· Source code that allows mod makers to create their own game based on Half-Life 2 or Half-Life 2:Deathmatch

· All of the tools required to make build custom textures and models for Source engine games

That's not all though. The devs are still hard at work creating new development tools for future SDK updates, not to mention releasing source code that will allow you to create your own single- and multi-player mods, utilising the latest Source engine features.

This all means you can expect to see an influx of homebrew maps and content for the three new releases - to work on some of your own, grab the new content (simply restart your client if you haven't already), and when Steam re-loads, you'll find SDK is hiding under the "tools" tab!

Now... as if all that wasn't good enough, I have a little picture that should make some of you very happy.


(Click to enlarge)
...that's right! It's a plush Weighted Companion Cube, straight from Valve. Next to the large version you can see the little "fluffy-dice" version, just in case your rear-view mirror wanted some companions, too. The date on these is still "soon", meaning some lucky gamers may well receive these in their Christmas stockings!