Valve

A lot of us are stuck at home right now, which means that a lot of us are using the internet both for work and for entertainment. That, in turn, can cause bandwidth problems for local ISPs, and we've seen a number of companies roll out new measures to help alleviate the load. Today, Valve has announced measures to help save on bandwidth when it comes to Steam, as well as alerting users to measures they can take on their own.

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After a few months of waiting, Half-Life: Alyx launched on Monday. As the first Half-Life game in more than a decade, there was a lot of anticipation following this release, and it looks like the title is off to strong start. Half-Life: Alyx has received its first post-launch update, but don't expect a massive changelog detailing a litany of additions and fixes.

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There's a new VR headset in town - and it might arrive right on time. Here in the late Winter of 2020, we're all stuck inside on quarantine, avoiding COVID-19, and it might just be the perfect time for VR to catch hold of the masses. Not that VR device makers have been trying to make that happen for half a decade or anything... but still. Per the sneaky release today, this is the new standard for VR.

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Half-Life: Alyx is not Half-Life 3, but it is a new Half-Life game. It is a new game from Valve, and it is out and available to play today. Users will find the game released as of the posting of this article. In other words - if you're reading this, there's a brand new Half-Life game available to play via Steam right this minute.

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Despite our very global world, it's sometimes too easy to take for granted that time isn't the same across the world. When companies announce dates, they often neglect to add additional information like timezones and presume everyone is on the same page as them. Worse, they don't even mention what time something may take place, which is especially true for product launches. Fortunately, Valve is giving everyone detailed information so they can prepare their alarms and the VR headsets, presuming they already have one.

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Although Valve has actually been involved in the virtual reality market for a long time, it has mostly been via its collaboration with HTC's VIVE system. Last year it finally got its hands dirty with the Index, which may be one of the more expensive PC VR systems aimed at regular consumers. Despite the initially slow sales, the Index quickly sold off last January thanks to the Half-Life: Alyx announcement. The good news is that it's coming back next week. The bad news is that it probably won't last long.

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Video game development is often portrayed both as some fantastic journey as well as a prolonged nightmare, the latter due to cramming to meet hard target dates, long development periods, and even delays. And that's when there's a company funding the development. For fan-made, mostly voluntary game development, things can take far, far longer than initially envisioned. Fortunately for hardcore Half-Life fans, the wait is finally over and one of the most popular remakes of the game will be hitting Steam next week.

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As the release of Half-Life: Alyx quickly approaches, Valve has been having a difficult time keeping the Index VR headset in stock. The Index has been consistently sold out in many regions around the world, and unfortunately, it doesn't look like things are going to get much better. While Valve does plan to restock the Index before the release of Half-Life: Alyx next month, it's definitely tempering expectations when it comes to how many headsets it'll have on hand to sell.

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A list of top marketplace-centric companies was released today. It's called the A16Z Marketplace 100, and it ranks the top 100 companies that are marketplace startups and/or non-public companies. On top of this list are four titans - all four of them relatively new companies - followed by a fifth... Valve. The top four companies on this list account for a whopping 76 percent of consumer spend. That's a dominance we don't often see in any industry... unless we're talking about the smartphone market, of course.

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If you are any sort of gamer, chances are you have amassed more games than you can ever play within a given amount of time. In addition to actually remembering which games you own, you also have the seemingly insurmountable task of deciding which one to play next. When you're organic brain can't decide for you, maybe an artificial one can help, which is where Steam's latest experiment called "Play Next" can come in handy to suggest which games you should, well, play next.

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Half-Life is one of those games that many gamers talk about, most often very fondly, but very few new gamers today see. That's mostly because, despite the cult following, the game has not seen any new release in more than a decade. That will be changing next month when the sequel-prequel-spinoff Half-Life: Alyx is finally released on Steam. It could be the start of the franchise's revival if the game truly takes off, which is going to be tricky considering it's exclusive to PC-based VR systems only.

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Valve has announced an important new Counter-Strike: Global Offensive feature that will make the game more enjoyable for some players. Going forward, players who are deemed abusive by other players will eventually be muted by default, preventing them from directing their abuse at others. The players will be given a warning and a chance to prevent the penalty before it happens, however.

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