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Hi, and welcome to the ValveTime news.
Each week, we'll bring you the biggest talking points regarding Valve Software and the community.
Now, the news:
While we've recently heard a lot of positive news out of Valve regarding their upcoming hardware developments,
we also received some particularly negative news regarding the projects earlier this week.
On Wednesday of this week, Jeri Ellsworth,
a major member of Valve's hardware research and development team,
announced that she had been fired from the company for a currently unknown reason.
We soon learned that some of her colleagues had also left Valve,
including Ed Owen, Bay Raitt, Olivier Nallet, and 9 others, all of which are listed on-screen now.
While we don't normally talk about staff changes on the show,
we felt it was important to mention these particular developments
as the departure of such major names from the company
can only really mean that something has internally changed at Valve regarding unannounced projects.
While nobody at this point is sure why so many major layoffs would happen at once,
Gabe did release a statement on Wednesday to quell any fears from the community.
"We don't usually talk about personnel matters for a number of reasons.
There seems to be an unusual amount of speculation about some recent changes here,
so I thought I'd take the unusual step of addressing them.
No, we aren't canceling any projects.
No, we aren't changing any priorities or projects we've been discussing.
No, this isn't about Steam or Linux or hardware or [insert game name here].
We're not going to discuss why anyone in particular is or isn't working here."
At current, we can only confirm the departure of the 13 individuals,
and we'll keep you posted if we learn any new information.
Of course, we wish every one of them good luck and best wishes in the future.
Now, onto some positive news.
This week's Dota 2 update has introduced a new hero Tusk,
a strength melee initiator capable of quite literally snowballing out of control given enough farm.
His ultimate, "Walrus Punch," allows Tusk to deal massive critical damage to a target
equal to 3 or 4 times his original damage.
The punch also briefly throws the hero into the air,
causing a 4 second 40% slowdown upon landing on the ground.
A number of neutral creep also received major texture and model overhauls,
providing them with significantly higher quality skins as a result.
Crystal Maiden, Lion, Mirana, and Outworld Devourer all received new cosmetic item sets this week,
which arrived alongside a pair of new hero themed wards.
The update also included a variety of changes to behind-the-scenes files relevant to unreleased features
including the upcoming tutorial mode and heroes Skywrath Mage and Bristlebog.
You can read about all these changes in Cyborgmatt's full changelog analysis over on his blog,
a link to which is provided in the video description, as always.
Linux hit it big this week after Valve released the Steam for Linux client.
Team Fortress 2 also received an update earlier this week
which provided the game with support for the Linux operating system.
A Steam sale, dubbed the "Steam for Linux Celebration Sale," also arrived parallel to the updates
which will run for one week from Thursday the 14th of February 2013
until the 21st of February at 10am Pacific Standard Time.
Over 50 Linux titles are currently on sale,
with reductions ranging from 50% all the way up to around 80% for selected titles.
Remember that almost every game currently on sale is also available
on Apple's OS X and Microsoft's Windows operating systems,
meaning that even people not running Linux can still take part.
Team Fortress 2's update also saw the release of a new "Tux" Linux Penguin,
which is available as a limited edition cosmetic item
currently being given to anyone who plays TF2 on Linux from now until March 1st, 2013.
Last week we told you about the talk at DICE 2013 between J.J. Abrams and Gabe Newell,
which was entitled "Storytelling Across Platforms."
Well, an edited video of the discussion was uploaded to YouTube earlier this week
and is currently available to watch via the on-screen annotation currently shown.
We just thought we'd give you a heads up, since we're so nice like that.
Oh, and while you're listening, be sure to check out ValveTime TalkTime Episode 3,
in which we discuss what we think about Abrams and Newell's planned partnership and where it could lead.
A video link to the episode is available on screen now and at the end of this round-up.
Left 4 Dead 2 is poised to receive yet another major update to its community tools.
The Extended Mutation System was added to the Beta Program earlier this week
which features as a new toolset dedicated to providing mod authors
with the possibilities to create original and deep custom experiences for campaigns and maps
which were previously impossible due to program limitations.
Beta participants can experiment with the new system now by checking out a few Valve-made examples
which are included with the update.
While the EMS is currently in closed beta, Valve have assured the community that it will be available
to the public after the program has accomplished this set of three main goals.
We'll keep you posted when we learn more.
During last week's ValveTime NewsTime TriviaTime, we asked you for the names of the three main gels
available for gameplay purposes in Portal 2.
The three correct gel names are Repulsion, Propulsion, and Conversation,
all of which serve a different purpose in Portal 2's campaign.
We promised we'd give bonus points to the first person to mention the name of the final cut gel,
which was available in Tag: The Power of Paint but not the final game.
Congratulations to Yayed1234, who was the first to mention that the final gel was known as "Adhesion Gel,"
which allowed players to walk on walls and ceilings.
The gel was cut from the game for being too disorientating for players
while not adding complexity to the puzzles.
Files for the mechanic can still be found in the Portal 2 source files,
thus allowing modders to activate the gel with the right mods, as seen in this video.
Now, we'll move over to the Half-Life series for this week's question.
In what manner did Eli Vance lose his leg prior to Half-Life 2, according to the behind-the-scenes lore?
Bonus points go to the first person to mention the reason why he apparently lost his leg and who else was involved.
As usual, we'll reveal the answers on next week's show.
Good luck.
And that'll do it for another week of Valve news.
Stay tuned for more videos, news, and reviews coming soon.
Bye for now.