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Hi, and welcome to the ValveTime news.
Each week, we’ll bring you the biggest talking points regarding Valve and the community.
This episode is a particularly special one,
as it’s been exactly two years since the series debuted on March 24th 2012!
Oh, how far we’ve come...
You might have noticed we also released an episode last year on the same day for the first anniversary,
but we just didn’t realize it at the time, and it was a total coincidence.
Anyway, we’ll be celebrating the occasion with a large game giveaway
at the end of this episode, so stay tuned for that.
And now, the news:
As we mentioned on the last episode,
San Francisco played host to the Game Developers Conference earlier this week,
and Valve were in attendance.
During the event, Valve allowed developers and attendees to test the new prototype of the Steam Controller,
a model currently being referred to as “Dog,”
named after Half-Life 2’s fan-favorite robotic companion.
The Dog prototypes being shown were all created using 3D printers within Valve
and were put together by hand only a few days before the convention began.
Various video interviews and previews from the event highlighted the changes
between this current version and the previous “Chell” model,
which we all know as the now-scrapped prototype with the large, central touchscreen.
In an interview with Tested.com,
Valve’s Scott Dalton discussed various new changes introduced to the Dog prototype,
including the inclusion of analogue triggers instead of the previously available digital ones,
and the lighter form factor boasted by the new design.
Scott also discussed the one-to-one nature of the trackpads and how they are
supposedly superior to thumbsticks available on conventional controllers.
However, reactions to the new design and the Steam Controller in general were mixed.
IGN’s Scott Lowe released an article discussing how he approves
of the new ABXY button layout over the older Chell variant,
while PC Gamer’s Evan Lahti felt certain buttons were too distant to comfortably reach with larger hands.
At the current time, most of the criticism being fired at the controller
can largely be tied to a lack of experience, with Evan describing how,
We really can’t comment on the design of the controller for ourselves
as we still have yet to get our hands on one.
Hint hint, Valve... (I can’t believe we really have to do this again this week.)
As an unfinished prototype, we imagine the controller will continue to change and develop
prior to the main release alongside the first batch of Steam Machines later this year.
Links to all of the videos and articles we just mentioned are available in the video description
alongside helpful links to everything else we’re talking about this week.
While visiting San Francisco for GDC,
Valve employees also headed to the Castro Theatre on Tuesday
for the live premiere of the “Free to Play” Dota 2 documentary.
The premiere was opened by The GD Studio founder James Harding,
who also featured as the main presenter for last year’s International 3 tournament.
Dendi and Fear, two of the players highlighted in the documentary,
were also in attendance alongside various Valve employees associated with the creation of the film.
Following a showing of the documentary, Dendi, Fear, and the Valve employees
took part in a 30 minute question and answer session hosted by Harding himself,
which, typically, somehow managed to also feature a Half-Life 3 joke.
The following day, the documentary was publicly released onto Steam and YouTube via the Valve channel.
Shortly before the release, the “Free to Play Pack” was made available in the Dota 2 store
for the rather modest price of £10.79 in the UK and $17.99 in the US.
As we’ve previously mentioned here on the show,
the pack features three cosmetic item sets for various heroes
and a number of ‘Free to Play’-themed items such as a courier, HUD, and some wards.
Following the release of the film, the premiere and the Q&A session were shown on Twitch.TV for the first time,
which you may want to check out if you’re looking to learn more about the film and its creation.
Not wanting to feel left out of the action, we thought it would be interesting to make a ValveTime review
of the documentary to share our thoughts and opinions on Valve’s first feature length film.
If you haven’t had a chance to check out our review for yourself,
be sure to click the annotation link provided on screen at the end of this episode
to learn more about what we think of the documentary.
Later in the week, the Dota 2 development team released a new blog post to the game’s website
to discuss various changes they have recently made to limit the possibility
of receiving duplicate items while opening chests.
The blog post, shown here, notes how players can no longer receive the same item multiple times
by opening the same treasure chest until all of the items within it have been found at least once.
Chests now also provide a chance to receive bonus rewards,
allowing the player to find more than one item within a given chest set.
The post highlights how all previously released treasure chests now boast this new anti-duplicate feature,
providing what Valve call the perfect opportunity to “take another look at what they have to offer.”
Valve are also highlighting the new system with the release of a pair of new chests
known as the “Radiant Arms” and the “Dire Arms,”
both of which award the player with full cosmetic item sets rather than individual items.
Now, at the start of this episode, we promised you an anniversary giveaway, so let’s get on with it!
To thank everyone for supporting us over the past two years since this series first aired,
we’re going to be giving away 12 different games, 1 to each randomly selected individual.
5 of the games we will be giving away were kindly donated by friend of ValveTime Xelu,
to whom we’re very grateful!
For this particular giveaway, we’ll be giving out a single copy of
Mirror’s Edge, Mark of the Ninja, Bastion, Brutal Legend, Crysis 2,
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Surgeon Simulator 2013, Trine 2, and Dead Space.
You might have noticed we only mentioned 9 games,
and that’s because three of the promised dozen are keys for the Dead Island: Epidemic closed beta
which is currently underway on Steam.
But how do you go about winning one of these fine Steam games?
Well, simply leave a comment below letting us know which ValveTime video series is your favorite,
or which episode of a certain series you particularly enjoy more than the others.
Explanations for your choices are also good to hear!
We’ll randomly select participants and reveal the winners on next week’s Round-Up episode,
so be sure to stay tuned for that.
After we reveal the winners, each individual will be contacted
to find out what they have won and how they can claim their prize.
Good luck to everyone who plans to participate, and thanks for supporting us these past two years!
And that brings us to the end of another week of Valve news.
Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter,
to rate our Dota 2 pack positively over on the Steam Workshop,
and to visit ValveTime.net to sign up on our community forums to get involved.
Stay tuned in the coming weeks, as we’re currently preparing to air an all-new video series here on YouTube,
so be sure to subscribe to catch it the moment the pilot episode is released.
As always, thanks for watching and sticking with us.
Bye for now.