The perpetual testing initiative was a clever slice of free post-launch DLC for ‘Portal 2’ released in 2012 with this cute aperture science video/octopus to go with it. In its least fanfare presented way, it is a level editor, aimed at allowing any user to quickly an intuitively create ‘Portal 2’ test chambers, publish them to the steam workshop system, and easily subscribe to others. Yes, Valve had previously released a full dev kit for Portal (and if you want to see an excellent community made mod then check out Portal Stories: Mel), but this was all about the normal person with that spark of “oh, this would be a really interesting level” about them, but not the time to invest in learning a complicated developer environment… in a roundabout way I’m trying to say that I’m their target audience. Continue reading “Rapidshare Science – Portal 2: Perpetual Testing Initiative”

…see the end of the post for the array of alternative titles I considered* …

I’ve started and scrapped different versions of this post many times; the one thing I can say for absolute certainty is that whilst I want to write a hardware review of Valve’s curious gizmo the ‘Steam Link’, it is inherently a dull thing to write about. I’m going to sidestep the default conclusion that I simply don’t possess the ‘blogging flair’ (or writing wizardry) to make a dry subject interesting for two reasons: firstly I’m not one to back away from a challenge, and secondly because the dullness of the ‘Steam Link’ is largely the result of it being such an ‘obvious’ piece of hardware for Valve to release.

Scene-Setting Preamble:

As 2015 drew to a close, we were finally granted permission to see the first publicly accessible iterations of the hardware side of Valve’s bid to capture our couch gaming hours in addition to our desk based ones. These hardware developments go hand in hand with the software side of things (also nominally a trio of ideas). The software consists of ‘Steam OS’, ‘Big Picture Mode’, and ‘In-Home Streaming’ whilst the hardware features ‘Steam Machines’, ‘The Steam Controller’, and ‘Steam Link’. This self-imposed literary wrestling match I’m currently involved in is largely the result of having received a Steam Link for Christmas as a gift from my partner (much better than Valve’s xmas gift to us of someone else’s account details), but maybe contextually it’s also appropriate to write about it at the start of 2016. Valve are savvy enough not to expect overnight miracles, but the uptake of these new features will no doubt be scrutinised at the end of the full year cycle and in this respect 2016 could be pivotal in the future direction of Valve’s brand of PC gaming.

Continue reading “Steam Link Hardware Review: Chain Drive Steam Engine”