Save and Quit - After multiple countdowns, bouts of rage, crises of faith, and nervous breakdowns, Valve’s Portal 2 alternate reality game ended on April 18 with the release of Portal 2 ahead of the scheduled April 19 release date. The alternate reality game, or ARG, consisted of hints and codes for gamers to crack and finished off with a cleverly designed scenario in which players had to help GLaDOS, the antagonist of the Portal series, get enough CPUs to release Portal 2 early. By playing the indie games from the Potato Sack (Protip: try inserting a few choice letters into the word “Potato” and see what you get), players filled up bars on the GLaDOS@Home website, and in doing so gave GLaDOS the extra oomph she needed to get Portal 2 out the door before it was officially supposed to be available to the masses.
Half-Life and Portal writer Erik Wolpaw has detailed how his team has been using Generative AI for research and development at Valve.
Valve has responded to New York Attorney General Letitia James' lawsuit against the firm, stating it does not believe that lootboxes in its Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and Team Fortress 2 games unlawfully encourage minors to gamble, adding it was "disappointed" to see the action go ahead despite efforts to "educate" the NYAG about virtual items since "early 2023."
