Valve gave us the greatest value in gaming with last year’s Orange Box — where the entire Half-Life 2 saga, so far, made an appearance — including the short and sweet Portal. Maybe a little too short as a mod was released today that will let you play through a “prelude” of the cake-filled story.

As the site states, Portal: Prelude is an “unofficial prequel,” and has been nine months in the making. Unfortunately, only PC gamers get to have fun with this fan-made extension to the game and can download it here.

written by Carlos Macias \\ tags: Box, mods, orange, PC, Portal, prelude, Valve

[UPDATE! Valve's Doug Lombardi has told Kotaku, 1Up and MTV that this is just a rumor and "a bit of fiction"]

The Inquirer has “well placed sources” telling them that Google, yes, Google, are going to be owning Valve any moment now.

Valve’s Gabe Newell have expressed possibilities for Valve to be acquired before, so this really comes as no surprise. The surprise would be that it is actually Google. The main reason would be, of course; Steam.

In just a few years Steam has become the most prominent digital distribution service on the PC. Many have their own alternative, like Stardock’s Impulse and EA’s own digital distribution platform EA Downloader, but Steam have somehow managed to become something more. Building up a strong community around it seems to have been the key success, and with the announcement of Steam Clouds, this digital distribution platform is only going to get more popular.

We will see this week if the rumors are true, but we wouldn’t be surprised if they were. Stay tuned for more updates!

written by Jesper Sellerberg \\ tags: digital distribution, Gabe Newell, Google, Steam, Valve

The Championship Gaming Series (CGS), the only sanctioned worldwide professional gaming league, opened free registration for the inaugural CGS Pro-Am Division, greatly expanding the opportunity for aspiring professional gamers to take on the CGS pros. I can’t even count how many people I know who claim they are just as good as the pros, but they always have some excuse. Now it’s time for the bitchassness to end because the CGS is giving all of us a chance to show what we’re made of.

Full Press Release with registration follows:

LOS ANGELES – August 12, 2008 –

Championship Gaming SeriesTM (CGS), the only worldwide professional gaming league, opened free registration for the inaugural CGS Pro-Am Division, greatly expanding the opportunity for aspiring professional gamers to take on the CGS pros and see if they have what it takes to compete alongside the best of CGS, perhaps winning some cold hard cash in the process.

First announced earlier this summer, amateur and professional gamers from North America will have the chance to showcase their talent against CGS’ most elite gaming stars for a share of a prize purse totaling US$40,000 during the Pro-Am division’s inaugural season.

The CGS Pro-Am division features one official PC league title – Valve’s Counter-Strike®: Source® (CS:S), along with two other popular Valve games, Counter-Strike®: 1.6 and Team Fortress 2 (TF2). CS:S, CS 1.6 and TF2 represent three of the most popular and successful eSports PC titles of all time and now gamers throughout North America can step up to prove they have what it takes to challenge the CGS pros.

Xbox 360 gamers will also have a chance to compete against CGS stars on Xbox LIVE via the league’s official Xbox titles, Tecmo’s Dead or Alive® 4 and Forza Motorsport® 2 from Microsoft Game Studios, as well as on other popular Xbox 360 games that will be featured in upcoming Xbox LIVE matches. Competitions will take place every other Friday featuring CGS pros, kicking off this Friday, August 15, when Xbox LIVE gamers from around the globe can take on Dallas Venom players Michelle “Phoenix” Pleet and Manny “Master” Rodriguez in DOA4. For more info, visit http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/calendar/playthepros/2008/0815-dallasvenom.htm

PC gamers interested in testing their skills against the pros should register at http://pro-am.thecgs.com/ now through September 3, 2008. The first season of the Pro-Am Division kicks off September 10.

written by Will Snizek \\ tags: August, CGS, Championship, Chance, Dallas, Division, gaming, League, Live, LOS ANGELES, Manny, Michelle, North America, opportunity, Phoenix, Registration, Season, time, US, Valve, worldwide, Xbox

Team Fortress will always hold dear to my heart, but Valve’s Team Fortress 2 has me cracking up. This video is just an example of how, not only the game’s engine has changed but it’s writers too.

Via Steam

written by Juan Perez \\ tags: engine, example, Fortress, game, Heart, Meet, Meet the sniper, Sniper, Sniper video, Steam, Team, Team Fortress 2 video, Team Fortress video, TF2, TF2 Meet the sniper, TF2 Video, Trailer, Trash, Valve, Via, video