Speaking with Valve's Doug Lombardi earlier this week at E3, we got onto the topic of the upcoming Xbox Live Arcade version of Portal. I wanted to know what gamers could expect from the game and why Valve decided to tweak it for the XBLA release.

"It's about giving gamers more choices, more points of entry to get to the party, open more gates to the theme park as it were," he said. "It makes a lot of sense for us.

"The main idea is that this is Portal available as a download, and there is additional content as advanced challenges that will be available to you after you finish the critical path of the game."

But will we be seeing more of GlaDOS this time around, or perhaps an extended storyline?

"No," he said, breaking hearts everywhere. "That's for a game to be named later perhaps."

To check out our full interview with Lombardi and hear him pontificate on everything from Left 4 Dead Machinima to Steam as an archive for games hit up the link below.

Left 4 Dead May Get Machinima Maker Post Launch [Kotaku]

If there's one company that knows how to extend the life of a game, it's Valve. Case in point? The new Day of Defeat: Source update that just hit. Yeah, remember that game? The Palermo Update, as it's called, brings a slew of goodies that Team Fortress 2 players have been enjoying for a while now, including 51 new Steam Achievements, more detailed player stats and Steam Community features. Even more bonus? The new "Palermo" map and a new, post-kill freeze cam.

Personally, my favorite thing about the new update is that it reminds me that Day of Defeat: Source exists. It's like getting a free game! Again. More details at the official update page.

Day of Defeat: Source Palermo Update [Steam]

Steam Gets Gamecock, Steam Pun Avoided

Add one more member to the Steam crowd, as Gamecock Media is bringing its stable of titles to Valve's digital distribution network. The agreement kicks off with just Stronghold Crusader Extreme and Insecticide — Part 1, that is — but we're expecting a fruitful relationship between the publisher and network. We're lead to believe this by the press release which points out that Insecticide Part 2, Velvet Assassin, and Legendary will be coming later this year.

We also understand that Gamecock is "a welcome solution to the bloated and originality-starved video game industry." That's the press release talking again. We'll believe anything you say, press release! Command us!

"Blizzard Creates A New Iron Man Every Month"

Valve talk the talk and certainly walk the walk. It's the great deal, so when Valve exec Gabe Newell says that PC gaming isn't dead (it's not!) and that PCs have a significant platform advantage (they do!), you know the dude means it. Here Newell puts everything in perspective with a nod to developer Blizzard:

Essentially, [Blizzard is] creating a new Iron Man every month, in terms of the gross revenue they're generating as a studio. Any movie studio would be shouting about that from the rooftops... We think the number of connected PC gamers we are selling our products to dwarf the current generation of consoles put together... There are tremendous opportunities in figuring out how to reach out to those customers.

Via game site Eurogamer, which a nice meaty article up on PC gaming and Valve that's full of tasty tidbits of data and choice quotes. Read it.

Valve: Why the PC is the future [Eurogamer] [Pic]

EA had Valve and Turtle Rock's Left 4 Dead on hand at last week's EA3 event, a title it had just shown last month at the EA Games Spring Break get together. Crecente already handed in his largely comprehensive take on Left 4 Dead, but since this was my first go with the cooperative zombie killer, I thought I'd chime in. As a die hard fan of all things zombie, this was the title I was eying from across the room while waiting my turn on Skate It.

Playing the Steam version via local four-player set up, we ran through one of L4D's scenarios, likely the exact same one that EA showed last month. It involves a run through city streets and subway tunnels choked with undead (that's the fun undead, the sprinting, we-really-want-your-brains undead). The scenario ends in a dramatic helicopter rescue on a hospital rooftop and thousands upon thousands of bullet-ridden zombie corpses.

Getting there was all the fun.

Team Fortress 2 and Its Less Juvenile Environment

The Pyro isn't just getting three new weapons in tomorrow's Team Fortress 2 update pack. His main weapon is getting an upgrade that will completely blow you away. The standard flamethrower will now come with a spiffy new alt-fire mode that shoots a blast of compressed air, blowing away both opponents and incoming projectiles, meaning soldiers are about to get a taste of their own medicine in a very bad way.

On top of the main weapon tweaks, the Pyro is also getting the Axtinguisher, which we've already covered, The Flare Gun, teased in yesterday's Meet the Sniper vid, which allows you to set opponents ablaze from afar, and The Backburner, a flamethrower for the sneakier firebugs out there. While it lacks the compressed air feature, The Backburner guarantees critical hits from behind while granting the Pyro 50 more health.

Hit the link below for the full skinny on the Pyro update from Valve, including the two new maps and a full list of updated Pyro achievements!

The Pyro Update [Team Fortress 2 - Thanks David!]

Pyro fans will have cause to rejoice this Thursday as the perpetually muffled Team Fortress 2 is getting Medic-style treatment in the form of three new unlockable weapons—one of which will be the already announced "Axtinguisher"—and 35 new achievements. On top of that, two new user-created maps are being added to the official rotation. The cherry? A new "Meet The" video, this one focusing on the Sniper. That clip hits mid-day tomorrow.

For those still unconvinced by the magic that is TF2, another free weekend via Steam is just around the corner, kicking off Friday at 11 AM PDT. Huzzah!

TF2 Updates: May I Ax You A Question?

Team Fortress 2 To Add Achievements, Weapons To Pyro Next

According to a CVG report culled from the latest issue of PC Gamer magazine, the next Team Fortress 2 class to get Achievements and unlockable new weapons will be the flamethrower and axe-wielding Pyro. Like the Medic, it seems that the Pyro will get a few dozen class specific achievements and a load out of new gear. That's either good news if you're a Pyro fanatic or horrid news if you're not looking forward to seeing public games clogged with achievement-hungry Pyro noobs.

The unquestionably good news, however, is word from Valve that "Meet The Sniper" is due next in the series of expertly crafted class videos.

Pyro unlockables next for Team Fortress [CVG]

Valve on the 'Perception Problem' of PCs

Gamasutra has a nice wrap up of an event held at Valve's Washington offices; the topic was (surprise!) PC gaming. On the question of whether PCs are really lagging behind:

"Is there a crisis in [PC] gaming?" asked [Gabe] Newell, who led the first segment of the talk. "You know, 'Piracy killed my game,' 'Console numbers are huge,' 'People don't want to play their PCs in the living room' - all these stories get written over and over again, and our view is that it's exactly the opposite. PC is where all the action is, and there's a perception problem."

Also on the agenda was a discussion of piracy (and indicator of "unserved customers"), the worldwide PC market, and how Steam and Valve fit into this whole PC new order.

PC Has 'Perception Problem,' Piracy Reflects 'Unserved Customers' [Gamasutra]

Valve Announce Steamcloud, Sounds Great

Valve have today announced Steamcloud, a new element to their Steam service that will allow the company to store your user data online. What kind of data? Stuff like saved games. Keyboard configurations. Preferences. That kind of thing. So if you're playing on one PC and move to another (say, you're playing in a cafe, or buy a new PC), you can keep all that stuff. Pretty neat. Also announced were some extra services Valve have in store later down the line, like driver auto-updating, and a means for Steam to check your PC, check that game you want to buy then give you a fairly conclusive answer on whether you'll be able to play it or not. Bless you, Valve. Bless you.

Steamworks & Steamcloud - In Summary [Rock, Paper, Shotgun] [Pic]

More Ubisoft Games On Steam, 96% Of World's Population Still Can't Play Them

Jonathan Mak's one man show Everyday Shooter is now available to PC gamers via Steam. Like the PlayStation 3 version, it's a mere $9.99 USD—actually $8.99 in its debut week on Valve's digital distribution platform—a bargain for such a fabulous little, Independent Game Festival award winning experience like this. Also exciting? A revamped Steam web site that makes it easier to peruse the ever increasing catalog. Hooray!

Everyday Shooter [Steam Games]

Audiosurf Update Adds New Awesome

Dylan Fitterer's Audiosurf—which joined Steam in February—has been on the receiving end of a batch of new features, the kind that makes your ten dollar purchase of the music riding racer that much more of a value and is the very definition of marketing via software version updates. Audiosurf has added new Last.fm support for "audioscrobbling", the ability to use the game as a music visualizer and mod support. A press release is pretty upbeat about the whole thing, but the list of new features should bring Audiosurfers back for another go.