No New Games from Valve in 2010? Think Again: Alien Swarm Released for Free on Steam
No New Games from Valve in 2010? Think Again: Alien Swarm Released for Free on Steam
Posted 07/20/2010 at 1:16am
| by Nathan Grayson
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After Chell, GlaDOS, and the gang warped out of 2010, Valve’s release schedule would have actually been improved if the PC powerhouse announced Tumbleweeds and Cricket Chirps: The Game. At least it would have been something, as opposed for the heaping helping of nothing we’d resigned ourselves to. But as it turns out, the long, cold, Valve-less winter won’t be sold long, cold, and Valve-less after all. See, out of nowhere, Valve has released a game. It’s called Alien Swarm, and you might already know it from back when it was called, er, Alien Swarm.
“Two years ago Valve hired the talented team behind the popular top down co-op mod Alien Swarm. Since then they have been busy working on the Left 4 Dead Series, and now Portal 2. However, we never forgot about Alien Swarm and the team has spent a lot of time bringing the game to Source in between their contributions to the other Valve projects,” Valve said of the extraterrestrial that unexpectedly burst out of its chest.
The best part? It’s already out. Like, now. And it’s completely free, which makes it a gift, which is awkward, because we didn’t get Valve anything. Still though, grab it if you haven’t already. We haven’t spent an extensive amount of time with it, so we can’t recommend it one way or the other. But really, what do you have to lose?
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BuLLg0d
July 20, 2010 at 5:26pm
Playing this with my crew tomorrow night.... I messed with it single player a little bit... It appears it's going to be a tk fest which, is common with us... Looks great, not a game I would buy if it were for sale, but it is a great game. Valve FTW
noobstix
July 20, 2010 at 3:47pm
My brother, his friend, and I actually finished playing through this game pretty late at night (well we started kinda late at night anyways). This game really has to be played with 4 people as the 3 of us kinda struggled (and got disconnected constantly). It only takes about a few hours to finish it if you play with others. It's almost like they mixed games like Shadowgrounds and L4D together (with a bit of Alien Shooter) to create a short but fun game. If you're an achievement whore, there's over 60 achievements to get (mostly having to do with the types of kills or finishing levels on different difficulties).
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SEALBoy
July 20, 2010 at 7:31am
And if you complete a couple levels of Alien Swarm you get the Hat Trick achievement, which will give you an Alien hat in TF2.
igoka
July 20, 2010 at 6:11am
I don't understand why they give it for free ? Why not charge at least a buck ? The game looks cools and pretty challenging but I had a problem yesterday to join any server and my friends were offline . You have to play this game with your friends !!!!!
Furien
July 20, 2010 at 7:24am
Because Valve is much more "long term" focused than just about any other developer out there. Did you take note of how they're giving away the source code with this game too? Did you see the part about how this was originally a UT mod and they HIRED the team to work on other Valve games?
Valve is simply doing what they do best, developing their "farm team." Think about it. When you give away free games like this you create a very positive relationship with your fanbase. Some of those fans are aspiring game developers. Give them the right tools and the ability to see a good example of what can be done with them and next thing you know you've got the next Counter-Strike/Narbacular Drop (pre-cursor to Portal)/etc. Then you hire that thankful talent and they help you create the next CS:Source, Portal, etc.
Makes perfect sense to me.
Jelson
July 20, 2010 at 1:40pm
Now that's business savvy, but no surprise coming from Valve. after all, that's how TF and Portal came along.
What is the brain of the internet. What is the Master of the Web. What is the Essence of Digital Matter.
BuLLg0d
July 20, 2010 at 5:23pm
other mod teams bought up by Valve
1. Counterstrike (Definately)
2. Left 4 Dead (Or was that Turtle Rock Studios? I can't remember...) I just remember it wasn't a Valve project initially
3.Gunman Chronicles (Singleplayer mod turned retail courtesy of Valve) (Definately)
4. Natural Selection 2 (or is that source based being sold indie?)
5. "They Hunger 2" (Neil Manke mod turned retail, coming to pc in ?????) (might be indie)
1 & 32 I would bet the farm on, the others I can't remember clearly enough.
I have nothing bad to say about Valve other than Steam got kind of Buggy when they allowed the Crapple fold into the mix... As always though, they are updating Steam almost biweekly getting the kinks out....
Sonickid101
July 20, 2010 at 2:24pm
Most recently by the PCGamer podcast crew "Valve is arguably the best talent scouts in the industry."
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