So. This morning's massive Steam update brought with it some interesting bits and pieces. Sure, there was plenty of new stuff for Team Fortress 2, but what's really interesting is the subtle mention of the Novint Falcon.

According to what I'm reading, the Novint Falcon is "an entirely new type of interface for PC gaming" - that is, it's a tiny robot, which enables high-fidelity three-dimensional touch elements to be added into games, so you can actually feel the game. We've got a video to show off how it all works, if you're curious.

Today, we have a special treat for you - a couple of treats, actually. Firstly, there's an update out now through Steam which tweaks not just one game, but four, bringing with it fixes for Team Fortress 2, Half-Life Episode One, Half-Life Episode Two, and Portal! (Admittedly, most of the changes are for TF2, but the other games do get a look-in.)

Before you can grab that though, you'll have to make sure your Steam client is up to date, because there's a new update out for that one, too.

Last year, when The Orange Box launched, a highly addictive game by the name of Peggle Extreme was included. The casual puzzler tore hardcore gammers away from the like of Portal, Team Fortress 2 and even Half-Life 2: Episode 2. Today, the good folk at Valve have just informed us that that the PopCap Games have finished putting the final touches on Peggle Nights, which is now available on Steam.

Introducing 60 new levels and challenges, Peggle Nights extends the Peggle franchise with a number of new features, while (presumably) retaining what gamers loved in the first game.

Getting back to another familiar topic, Valve have also announced today that their upcoming zombie-survival co-op action title, Left 4 Dead will be shown off at a number of different locations all over the world in the coming months.

More accurately: "almost all over the world, but definitely not Australia".
However, if you happen to be heading to Leipzig Games Convention in Germany, Festival du Jeu Video in France, or PC Gamer Showdown in the UK, you'll have a chance to check out the PC version - while the Xbox 360 version will be debuted at the upcoming Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle, USA. At all events, members of the development team will be hanging around, showing off their project, explaining things and giving away free stuff!

Reviews have been attacking The Warp Pipe from all directions this week, but I'm sure by the time you're sitting down to read this, I'm taking a much needed break. It hasn't really been a very interesting week in the world of video games - we're lucky that those big Xbox 360 leaks hit the wire on Tuesday, or the industry would have been about as exciting as a 24 hour Today Tonight marathon.

This week we're going to take a look at some of the more impressive Xbox 360 Achievements, revisit Bethesda's Terminator: Future Shock and finish up with another new section called Removing the Rose Tint.

Wake up, Orange Box-ers! There's a Steam update out this morning that's got your name all over it.

Not only is there an update to the client itself (fixing some graphical issues and an incorrect report bug), but tweaks for Team Fortress 2 (tidying up some HUD issues for mods, a handful of crashes and a nasty exploit), Portal and Half-Life 2: Episode Two as well (both getting a new advanced video option and some improved particle rendering)! Better get downloadin'!

I know that some of you are a little cranky about the fact that you were expected to buy The Orange Box in its entirety, when maybe you were only after one of the three games. If only you'd had a way of paying for games online, and downloading your purchases! If only the games had been released separately, so you could pick and choose!

Well, finally, your requests have been answered, and Team Fortress 2, Portal and the Half-Life 2 Episode Pack will be available as stand-alone titles, in-store from April 11th worldwide.

It seems that not a day goes by without some reference to Steam, and, true to form, today is no exception. Don't worry, you don't need to restart your clients just yet, you don't have to wonder which game's getting an update today, and there's nothing for you to download.

Instead, I'd like you to please congratulate the team at Valve, whose late-2007 multi-platform, multi-game release, The Orange Box has picked up more than 100 individual first place awards, comprised of more than 50 "Game of the Year" medals, and a similar number of craft awards for special achievements in the field.

Nobody can deny that music is an integral part of any game experience. This is especially the case in Audiosurf, an innovative new title from Dylan Fitterer. If you ever wanted to "ride the music", you'd better snap up a copy of the game when it goes on sale on Friday, via Steam.

For a mere US$9.95, not only can you get a copy of the game, but it's also bundled with the complete soundtrack to The Orange Box, meaning you can surf your way through "Still Alive" and other tracks from Half-Life 2: Episode Two and Team Fortress 2.

The 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards have just been held - and, suprise surprise, Call of Duty 4, BioShock and the contents of The Orange Box (Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Team Fortress 2 and Portal) all won big in Las Vegas.

Two major industry icons were also honoured by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences in recognition of the amazing contribution they've had on the industry: Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment is the eleventh member of the AIAS Hall of Fame, while Ken Kutaragi, former CEO and president of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc was presented with the coveted Lifetime Achievement Award.

Valve today announced that Steam has now surpassed 15 million accounts. This follows what has been a decent string of titles recently released onto the platform for distribution, including Bioshock, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and of Course all the goodness of the Orange Box, including Team Fortress 2, Portal, and Half Life 2: Episode Two.

What will you remember 2007 for, in terms of gaming?

We asked some of the game admins and network staff to find out their thoughts, but I'll give you a quick recap first:
Australia got the PS3 in a bit of an anti-climactic launch, bringing with it a bit of resistance, as well as a stormy racer. We got a new Command & Conquer, another episode of Half-Life 2, a final Halo and didn't get the latest Grand Theft Auto. The world was thrown into "what-if?" with a little game from Massive, a motley crew of cartoons finally arrived, making up Team Fortress 2, and the Call of Duty was heard on a more modern battlefield. Ingame physics were turned on their head and flipped inside-out with Valve's puzzling Portal, our favourite four-fingered family arrived on almost every console known to man, first-person shooters got genetically-engineered, and the world was overrun by pocket monsters, both handheld and motion-sensitive. It's also been a big year for a little Italian plumber, who not only took over the soccer field, he also had a party or two and even headed into space, as well as turning somewhat more two-dimensional. Blizzard released their first MMO expansion, announced their second, revealed that 9 million people played World of Warcraft, took the covers off of StarCraft II, and still managed to keep tight-lipped on their new project.

The Games Network has done a whole bunch of work behind the scenes, making things a lot nicer and easier to work with, even if it looks pretty much the same. One of the major changes would be the upgrade to our file mirror, which now boasts 10 terabytes of space, so there's plenty of room for games, demos, screenshots, videos and patches. We also upgraded our staff, getting a whole new person to work for us, as well as a handful of new newsbots to bring you updates and good stories.

As a team, we tended to stay pretty close to home this year (other than sending representatives to eGames in Melbourne, GO3 in Perth, and BlizzCon in LA!), but we took the time to recognise the local guys with a big meetup for our Adelaide members, volunteers and gamers on the Australia Day long weekend last year. We had a whole pub to ourselves!

Overall, we must be doing something right, as every month, it seems we get bigger and bigger, with more visits, downloads and members! ...and, of course, you guys are the most important thing. Thanks for all your support, whether you're a regular visitor, someone who pops in from time to time, or just someone who keeps an eye out for interesting files in our library.

Bring on 2008 - but first, read on to find out what the admins, staff and volunteers have to say about 2007!

Short and simple Steam news to start the morning: there's a brand new tiny Source Engine update, and a legendary Amiga classic gets a reworking with the new release of Speedball 2 - Tournament.

The first one fixes a bug in Half-Life 2: Episode Two, an issue with SourceTV, surround sound in Vista, and removes jittery demo playback; and the second brings the sports spectacle of the future to your PC via Steam!

For those of you that like looking at pretty graphs and lots of interesting statistics Valve has a nice surprise for you. Stats, and lots of them, for their latest title HL2:Episode Two.

There are stats here for just about everything related to the game. Average completion time, total time played, even average number of deaths per level, complete with funky maps showing exactly where too!

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?

There is something very interesting in the charts this week. Well, a couple of interesting things. Firstly - the impact that Steam has on PC gamers is undeniable, with the Xbox 360 version of the Orange Box coming in six places higher than its PC counterpart, despite many more PC gamers owning the franchise.

Secondly, I'd like to congratulate Pokémon Pearl, for finally beating that pesky Diamond version in the DS charts. Well done!

Anyway. The rest of us are still being ruled over by a Master Chief, while the PC world is squishing itself into a box the colour of citrus. Wii like to party with a plumber, PS3 prefers football, PS2 has been crashed, and DS gamers are still hangin' out with Link and his timepiece.

Huge ep this week, as we attempt to fit in not only the avalanche of pre-Christmas titles, but also the big picture stories that make GG special, so expect nothing less than 27 mins of crazyface content, Tuesday night on ABC2 @ 8:30pm, Thursday night on ABC2 @ 10:30pm, Friday night on ABC around midnight, and on our website, www.abc.net.au/goodgame.

This week sees:
Reviews! The Orange Box (HL2:Ep2, Portal and TF2) as well as Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
History of the RTS Genre!
A look at "Serious Games"!
...and more Quarter-Circle A!

With only a matter of mere hours between us and the opening of The Orange Box, it seems fitting that we should have one more in the Team Fortress 2 introduction series of videos.

If you'd like to Meet the Demoman, he's finally here.
He's black, he's Scottish, and he drinks far too much for someone who hangs out with that many explosives. A truly worthy member of Team Fortress.

(Edited to add new update information!)

Another day, another Team Fortress 2 update.

They're still working on ironing out those bugs before the official release of the full version of the game, which I can now confirm will happen with the other portions of The Orange Box (ie: Half-Life 2: Episode Two and Portal), via Steam "just after midnight" US Pacific time on October 10th. Translating that to an Adelaide timezone, you're looking at some time around 4:30pm, Wednesday afternoon.

Till then, restart your client and you're set for another few days' gaming!

If you've been keeping an eye on Steam over the past few days, you'd have noticed a little flurry of activity.

The contents of The Orange Box are slowly filtering their way onto computers around the globe, with pre-loads starting for both Portal and Half-Life 2: Episode Two (you're all playing the Team Fortress 2 beta already, right?).

The official opening of the box will happen next Wednesday, October 10th - not long to go now!

Another week's gone by already and it's time for a new episode of Good Game!
It's screening on ABC2 tonight at 8:30, as well as being downloadable from their website, which is free for Internode customers!

This week, they're looking at SKATE, Super Paper Mario, the Australian qualifiers for the World Cyber Games, and new presenter Lux takes a look at the psychology behind online avatars.

We've also got the second half of our chat with Junglist, about the Australian gaming industry, competitive gaming industry and what games he's looking forward to.

Good Game returns to our screens tonight - ABC2, 8:30pm - and then again on Thursday... and again on Friday night, this time on the "real" ABC!

I had a chat with Junglist the other day, about books and fishing and the new series, and he's also filled me in with some preview information for tonight's episode.

They're promising an action-packed show, full of Halo 3 and Heavenly Sword, as well as a discussion on Are games art?.

Valve would like you to meet the Engineer.

If that one video isn't enough for you two to get properly acquainted, then you'd be advised to get over to Steam and pre-purchase your copy of The Orange Box. Not only will you save 10% off the regular price (if you order before October 10th), but you will be able to continue your relationship with exclusive access to the Team Fortress 2 beta, starting September 17th.

Recent news about the Orange Box (that's Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Team Fortress 2 and Portal, all in one handy package) suggests that the PC and Xbox 360 versions of the games are all on track... but that the PS3 copy will be a touch delayed.

To distract you from that, we've got three new TF2 screens for you, and word that, later this week, the Engineer will be the third character to introduce himself from the game (joining the Heavy and the Soldier in a series of videos). Valve also promise that they've got "a pretty big announcement" for you, coming Tuesday.

Electronic Arts are big. They're too big for just one venue, so they've spread their E3 appearance over two. If you happen to be in Los Angeles, pop along to the Le Merigot Hotel as well as the Barker Hangar, to check out some of these titles in person.

If you're stuck somewhere other than LA, never fear, I've got all the EA titles on display in one handy-dandy (-long) document, complete with screens, information and videos. Mmm. Just sit back and pretend you're there.

So. The second webcast for my E3 2007 experience was the Microsoft E3 Press Conference, from Santa Monica High School. It was a lengthy presentation and full of all sorts of interesting information - so I'm breaking it up into bitesize pieces for easy digestion. I'm nice like that.

Anyway - if you'd tuned in to the live stream yesterday, you would have been treated to Peter Moore, head of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business division playing Rock Band on stage with some of the developers from Harmonix. It was, perhaps, the worst version of Main Offender (originally by The Hives) that I have ever seen. You should perhaps be grateful that you missed it.

In other news, though, all of the games shown as part of the conference will be available (at least in North America) by the end of the year.

When I make the statement that "Orange is the new Black", I am:
a: Terribly unoriginal
b: Not very fashion conscious
c: Referring to the new packaging for Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Team Fortress 2 and Portal
d: All of the above.

If you guessed d: All of the above, then you're right! You get a cookie - and a brand new, shiny website!
Simply point your browser at orange.half-life2.com to see the just-launched site for The Orange Box.

...the wait's almost over. Valve have mentioned, in a recent interview, the magic date for their upcoming Orange Box release.

Yep kids - save your pennies for October 9, 2007. All platforms will receive shiny copies of Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Team Fortress 2 and Portal. Valve is managing the PC and X360 releases, while they've handed the PS3 copies over to EA for safekeeping.

This date nestles the games happily between Halo 3's late September and GTA:IV's mid-October releases, at the beginning of what's looking to be a pretty hectic US holiday season.

Valve, through Steam, are going to offer ATI customers a little bit of a bonus. Gamers who have ATI graphics cards installed will be able to download some stuff for free. From the time you read this news item if you have an ATI graphics card installed on your computer you will be able to download Half Life 2: Lost Coast and Half Life 2: Deathmatch for nix.

There's been a slight change in Valve's new release plans: While everything's on track to be released in the Australian spring, The Black Box is no more. The bundle was originally to contain Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal and Team Fortress 2 - and has now been scrapped. If you're after a copy of the games, you'll now have to put your name down for The Orange Box, which also throws the original Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode 1 into the mix.

For the latest views of the contents of the box, check out the Half-Life 2: Episode Two 3 Games 1 Box Trailer, featuring footage of all three games.

A lazy Sunday afternoon brings with it news from Steam.

Firstly - they're "working hard" on Half-Life 2: Episode Two, which is always good to hear. We've got some concept art of key areas to share with you.
Secondly - there's a bunch of new old games they've just released, from Sid Meier's Railroads! to X-Com: Terror from the Deep and UFO: Afterlight, to The Longest Journey and its sequel.

I know we've all been hanging out for the amazingness that will be Half-Life 2: Episode Two, being released with Portal and Team Fortress 2, so I take great delight in sharing with you a fair pile of new screenshots from all three.

No real news to accompany them (gee, you ask a lot), but plenty of pics for everything other than Portal, who gets a measly two. Ah well, can't win 'em all, I guess.

Just a reminder, you can pick up these three games in The Black Box, when it's released later this year, or if you don't already have the back-story, The Orange Box also has Half-Life 2 and HL2: Episode One.

Over at Valve Software they have been very busy well....playing games. They just announced that Half-Life 2: Episode Two is being actively playtested and they decided to let us in on a new vehicle that the testers have been getting a buzz out of.

The new Vehicle a post apocalyptic dismantled muscle car looks like something straight out of a Mad Max film, and although we dont have much info on it we do have three bits of artwork.

Hot on the heels of last week's announcement that we won't be seeing Team Fortress 2 (or Portal, or that little Half-Life 2: Episode Two game) until the end of the year, Valve are just teasing us with the notification that TF2 is "really moving along" in its development.

As more information comes to hand, they promise to share it with us - I imagine most of it will be along the lines of "Nyer nyer, we've played it and you haven't!" ...but some of it might be like the illustration we've got today, which is currently being used as the game's start-up screen.

Do you want the good news or the bad news first?

Good news is that Half-Life 2: Episode Two has been renamed and repackaged, and the final, official announcement of just what you'll get with the game has been announced (hello, Portal, Team Fortress 2).

Bad news? You'll have to wait until the end of the year to get it.