After longstanding rumors that Half-Life and Team Fortress developer Valve were in the process of developing their own console/gaming rig were debunked finally, the “Steam-Box” is finally available for preorder. Rumors began after Valve was said to be involved with the Xi3 hardware developer.

It was clarified today on an article on IGN.com from a Valve spokesperson, “Valve began some exploratory work with Xi3 last year, but currently has no involvement in any product of theirs.” But luckily for Xi3, the reputation and possibility of Valve entering the hardware market carried over to their Piston console which has been referred to up until its recent reveal as the “Steam-Box”.

Earlier in the week, I praised Far Cry 3 for the living world it presented to players. Now, only a few days later they have ticked me off in a way I only recently suspected from Capcom. The other day on XBox.com, I saw Far Cry 3 had new DLC and thought to myself, “Great. More Far Cry 3 to play and it’s only ten bucks.”

Six more missions, more rare animals to hunt, multiplayer unlocks and the previously unreleased retail bonuses from The Monkey Business Pack, The Lost Expeditions, The Warrior Pack, and The Predator Pack. But then I look over and see the file size. 108 kb. While I know there are some coding tricks out there to compress file sizes, but a 108 kb isn’t enough to load new missions and rare animal character models. But it is just big enough to unlock content currently on the game disc…

This has been a personal pet peeve of mine since DLC began supporting on disc unlocks. If it’s on a disc, that means it was completed before the game was sent to print. In my mind, the price I paid for the game disc should include all of that content on said disc. There aren’t extra man hours being created to produce new content after the game was completed which is why most people pay for additional DLC like map packs in Halo or Call of Duty. It is literally players just being given a key to unlock what is on the physical media they already have in their possession.

Since we started covering games, we have always had an eye on THQ and its franchises. From the WWE and UFC fighting games to fantasy adventures like Darksiders and sci-fi worlds of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine to even the modern day gone wrong Saints Row, THQ has been a huge part of gaming for the better part of the past twenty years. Unfortunately, this past week THQ was forced to declare bankruptcy in hopes of somehow finding a way to save the jobs of as many employees as possible and keep their games in progress still alive.

There are a few options to what could happen to THQ. First, it could be bought out by another company and have its portfolio absorbed into the new company including licenses. Another option would be the company dissolves and its assets including studios are auctioned off. If either were to happen, it is possible that we would see some of the THQ franchises picked up by other studios and studios picked up by other publishers. But the question then begins, what would the good combinations be for publishers and studios as well as studios and franchises.

There are many different schools of thought as to how gaming should be presented. Some people like epic, long storylines. Others prefer bite sized casual experiences. Still others will combine the two and let a story be handled through a series of smaller episodic experiences. Telling a story across multiple games isn’t something new.

It began in the earliest days of sequels where players would pick up with the lead character after the events of the original in a new title. But many of these games weren’t created with the intentions of being long form stories. They were just stories taking place in the same universe of one that happened to be a commercial success. It wasn’t until more recently that games specifically began being created to tell a story across multiple releases. This would lead to the advent of episodic gaming.

The advantages of episodic gaming extend to both the developer and the consumer because of the nature of the format. First and foremost for the consumer is the reduced risk associated with purchasing a new game. For the most part, episodic games are cheaper than full retail releases so if a player purchases the first episode of a game and doesn’t enjoy it, they only spent money on the first episode instead of the entire season. Some developers and publishers will actually even allow players the first episode for free to reign people in. This tactic was used by XBox’s Live Market Place on Fable 2 and is going to be in effect this month for PlayStation Plus subscribers with the first two episodes of Telltale’s The Walking Dead.

When most gamers here the phrase “Free-to-play,” heads are usually shaken and faces are definitely palmed. Once in a great while, however, there comes a free-to-play game that is that actually is free to play. Blacklight: Retribution is one of the few games that not only costs you nothing to enjoy, but is also damn fun to play in the process – and now, it’s as easy as downloading it from the Steam store (for FREE).

From Andy Kipling, Executive Producer at Zombie Studios:

“We couldn’t be more excited with the upcoming release of Blacklight: Retribution on Steam. With millions of active users daily, Steam has become the premiere digital distribution service around the world. As the Free-to-Play market grows, we continue to explore new methods for our fans to play our games, and bringing Blacklight: Retribution to Steam was a no brainer. Working with Valve to bring Blacklight: Retribution to Steam was extremely easy. We added support for Steam Achievement and Stats to Blacklight: Retribution, and a number of in-game items especially for Steam users.”