Thoughts on Valve and their lessers

A number of recent occurrences have compelled me to share my views on the lovable Washington-based software giant and a company whose quality of service is almost a polar opposite.

Firstly and most urgently, the exciting announcement of Left 4 Dead downloadable content, due out in Spring, which will include a new game mode called Survival and add the two missing campaigns to Versus mode. All for free. And in relation to this, the increasingly warm feeling I have towards the honest and generous developer at a time when corporate corruption is rearing it's ugly head and revealing the faces of Bill Gates and co. Microsoft's Games For Windows LIVE software has been a compulsory feature in some of the finest recent games, including Fallout 3 and Grand Theft Auto IV, and so far it has done nothing but dampen the experience (see the 'Fallout 3 DLC' post). It has been improved recently with an interface change, but still falls woefully short and remains an annoyance rather than a useful tool. A million miles away from the efficiency and convenience of Valve's Steam software - Microsoft need to understand that what is OK for Xbox 360 plebeians is not OK for demanding PC gamers.

I also want to comment on my current enthusiasm for one of Valve's less glamorous products. The fantastic Day of Defeat: Source has been easily outdoing my other online staples in terms of playtime for the past few months. The intense, deeply satisfying combat is bolstered by the meaty-sounding weaponry, which is fiendishly difficult to handle thanks to the high recoil. New players find themselves spraying and praying, but those who put in the practice can acclimatise to the necessity of clinical burst fire. The maps are brilliantly designed, most of them delicately balanced and consisting of exciting battle zones. They look good too, the settings not as bleak and colourless as they could be in a World War 2 game. DOD: Source provides superb variation to Valve's other online offerings and can be picked up for measly £6 - possibly the best of that amount you'll ever spend.

Finally, a word on Team Fortress 2. News on the phenomenal shooter has been scarce for a while now, but there has been official word that the Scout will be the next class to get Valve's special treatment in the shape of new weapons and achievements. And you can feel safe in the knowledge that it won't cost 800 Microsoft points.