Valve was going to ship The Orange Box in a white box before staff ‘destroyed’ the idea, and yes they saw you all doubting Portal before release: ‘You guys are gonna eat those words’

On October 10 2007 Valve released what is perhaps the greatest deal in gaming history: The Orange Box, a compendium of Half-Life 2 with both episodes, the long-awaited Team Fortress 2, and the unknown quantity Portal. OK, Half-Life 2 was a few years old by this point (Episode 2 was new), but every single game…

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Cities: Skylines 2 gets a new patch, but your city’s hotel owners aren’t going to be happy about it

Cities: Skylines 2 continues to lumber toward proper completion with another new patch fixing a handful of issues—including problems with custom climates, and an issue that was causing tool modes to disappear. Alas, your city’s hoteliers will remain unhappy, because their problems remain unsolved. The problem for your hospitality industry isn’t actually a lack of…

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I’m searching for Black Friday handheld gaming PC deals as the resident ‘guy who just won’t shut up about handheld gaming PCs’

Quick menu (Image credit: Valve, Asus, MSI) Jump straight to the deals you want…1. Quick links2. Handheld deals3. Accessory deals4. UK deals5. Live updates If you’re after a good deal on a handheld gaming PC, you’re in good company. These compact computers are all the rage right now, and for very good reason: we’ve finally…

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Even if Avowed does well, it doesn’t sound like we’ll get Pillars of Eternity 3, at least not from Josh Sawyer: ‘I am more interested in doing original IP’

Before Baldur’s Gate 3 appeared and consumed my entire world, Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire was the CRPG I pointed to as the best example of how a modern game in this venerable genre should look. It was deeply connected to the legacy of the Infinity Engine games, but boasted a setting that allowed Obsidian…

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