Steam will hold another 'Game Festival' to give indie titles exposure

Image: Steam

With conventions and gatherings like GDC and Indie Megabooth getting cancelled because of COVID-19 concerns, a lot of independent developers have lost a way to get their games showcased. Valve is hoping to help these developers out by hosting a spring edition of its Steam Game Festival. It offers indie developers a digital space to turn the spotlight on their games. Steam will feature over 40 games during the event starting March 18, Wednesday, and might last for 48 hours, like the last Game Festival held in December. Steam hasn't released the games and demos that will be available, but these will show up on the Steam store this Wednesday.

Source: Polygon

Google exec: Chrome OS to support Steam

Chrome OS might soon support Valve's Steam gaming platform, at least according to Kan Liu, the director of Project Management of Chrome OS. However, he didn't give any details about how this will work and when they will bring the feature to the public. 

Valve's Steam platform can be considered as the leader in the PC game streaming segment. But it is facing stiff competition from the likes of Epic. One way to get ahead of its competitors is being available where they aren't. With Valve's work with the Chrome OS team, then they will be the first in that space, outside of Google's Stadia game streaming service, that is. But Stadia is currently only available in select regions. 

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Valve releases free version of ‘Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’

If you’re still on the fence about whether you’re willing to spend US$14.99 (approx. CA$20) on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, you can get the game for free. This version of the game will let you compete offline against bots and or watch matches through GOTV, the games spectating client. It is available on Steam for Linux, Mac, and Windows. 

If you do decide to buy the game, this will get you “access to online content and features, including multiplayer gameplay, official matchmaking, in-game inventories, skill groups, XP, ranks, and other online features.” This new CS:GO update also brings with it Panorama user interface as the game’s default view and a tweaked user interface to improve support for low-end machines. 

Source: Polygon

Active Shooter simulator game on Steam is insensitive to victims of mass shootings

Updated on Tuesday, May 29, 2018 at 9:27PM by Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

It is May 2018 and there have already been 23 school shootings in American schools, that's one school shooting a week.

What's more alarming than the frequency of these shootings is the thought that these horrific acts are the new normal, that they are inevitable, and that they are bound to happen again.

This is why Active Shooter, a first-person simulator video game is a bad idea.

The game puts players in point of view of either an active shooter killing students and cops in a school or a SWAT operative, is a terrible and deeply insensitive idea. While the game's developers Revived Games and distributor Valve/ Steam can trivialize this as another first-person shooter, or a 'Dynamic SWAT simulator', it's clearly an expoitative and deeply insensitive game.

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