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Bridging the gap between the PC and console – and by extension, between the mouse and the controller – is no easy task. There’s a reason it’s never been done; a reason that despite all these years and all these innovations nobody has come up with a suitable control scheme that allows the best of both worlds. As Valve’s own marketing video muses, “For too long, players have had to choose between the precision of a mouse and the familiarity of a controller.”

Note: I’ve updated this article a bit based on some more hours with the Steam Controller. Major changes are noted, others are just in there.

The official release of Valve’s first venture into hardware doesn’t happen until November, but those consumer whores among us are already testing out the Steam Controller and Steam Link thanks to the power of pre-orders we’d completely forgotten about until FedEx sent a nastygram to our email saying “answer your door, ya feckin’ shut-in.”

My mind is in twain. Part of me wants to say “Well, we saw that coming.” Another part of me wants to say “Holy mudcrabs!”

Valve has been teasing three big announcements for a while now, and they’re all expected this week. The first? SteamOS, which is (almost) exactly what it sounds like. And the whole earth trembled.

“Good day, sir. Say, that’s a fine hat you’re wearing.” “Indeed.” “Would you mind if I tried it on?” “Beg your pardon, I daresay you’re a madman, sir. You? Try on my hat? What would the lawman think?!” “By my best estimation, good sir, the lawman would hum a gay tune, tip his own headpiece, and go about his business. Why, didn’t you hear? Today’s the day the proposed law of Wearing Another Gentleman’s Hat has graduated …

There’s something bothering me about Guild Wars 2 and it’s a stumbling block many game developers trip over, and one which is undoubtedly a very expensive problem to rectify…

The third Aperture Investment Opportunity has just launched on the official Portal 2 website. It doesn’t spoil anything. It’s purely for fun. It will make you laugh. Who doesn’t like to laugh? Enjoy! Email the author of this post at lewisb@tap-repeatedly.com  

The second Aperture Investment Opportunity launched a couple of days ago on the official Portal 2 website, and boy is it funny.  For anyone concerned that it might spoil the game, I assure you that these marketing videos contain no in game footage but are purely for fun, using the duo Atlas and P-Body to great effect.  I’m surprised Valve have managed to trump the last, but this one in parcitular did have me smiling from ear to …

I’m surprised one of my fellow writers wasn’t on this like a tramp around chips yesterday and yet in the eyes of the internet, I guess it might now be considered old news being only one day old.  Still, I’ve just watched it again for the sheer joy of it and I’m sure there are plenty out there who haven’t seen it yet. Voiced by J.K Simmons of Juno fame (amongst many others), Valve really have nailed the …

With over 300 hours invested, I’ve lost patience with Team Fortress 2.  As a team based, class based shooter, its original focus was that of a competitive but organised multiplayer experience, which required cooperation between you and team mates in order to be successful.  The result of its mutations and gradual evolution over many years however, is that Team Fortress 2 is distinctly lacking two key elements: team-work and organisation.

I should have been posting this bite-sized news yesterday, but I’ve been feeling under the weather lately (I blame Steerpike and his relentless beatings). So I’m posting it now, instead. Forbes Magazine in February’s issue have revealed that Steam controls up to 70% of the $4 billion market for downloaded PC games, with a staggering 200% year-over-year growth.  Although Valve have never revealed their turnover or profit margins, its fair to say that their profit will undoubtedly …

Sometimes, when you create something and don’t get all dicky when other people want to build on your work, nice things happen. Consider Beyond Black Mesa, an 11-minute fan short set in the world of Valve’s Half-Life 2, using characters from it. You see a lot of this stuff from fans, like the Purchase Brothers’ Escape From City-17, and the still-hopefully-in-development Black Mesa Source. The common thread among all of this is that Valve has …

Most people agree that Microsoft’s original Games for Windows Live initiative was a bust: pushy, buggy, intel-grabby, hard to navigate, intrusive. It demanded information people didn’t want to give, it often simply didn’t work, and it seemed like a very sad attempt to glue online console functionality to the rip-roaring freedom of a PC. It did not go over well. Well, next month they’re relaunching it – the online store side, for the most part …

If you haven’t been following the latest news from the Team Fortress 2 (TF2) blog, you might not be aware of Valve’s latest venture into micro-transactions. Coinciding with the release of the Steam Wallet, Valve have finally released the Poly Count community winners into the game (also known as ‘The Man-conomy update’).  These item sets (alongside every other weapon and hat in the game) can now be purchased, while wearing full item sets grants the …

A few weeks ago I finally decided to buy the Alien Breed: Impact double pack for myself and a friend. For those of you who aren’t aware, Alien Breed: Impact is the PC version of Alien Breed: Evolution which in turn is a reboot of a classic franchise by Team17 originating on the Commodore Amiga in 1991. The main reason I purchased Impact was simply because of one thing: Alien Swarm. Actually make that two …

Valve has a history of slurping up talent from the fan/mod community – Adam Foster, creator of MINERVA, now gets his paychecks from Valve. So does the team that created the popular Warcraft 3 mod Defense of the Ancients, a game I never really got into. Also scribe Erik Wolpaw. And we’d be remiss not to mention the jewel in their recruitment crown, the DigiPen Institute student team that created Narbacular Drop, a senior project …